Chapter 01
*BZZT*
*BZZT*
"Speak."
"Pro Hero Miruko?"
"One and only."
"This is Officer Sansa. We need your help."
"Gimme the address and I'll be there."
.
She's starting to wonder if it was a good idea to help the police with this. Don't get her wrong. She's a Hero through and through. She's one of the top five Heroes of all Japan so she's very capable. She also loves tackling challenges. New stuff she had never tried before? Give it to her and she'll nail it on the third try.
But night patrol? That's a whole different can of worms. She had a taste of it during her Vigilante days and it was tough. It almost discouraged her, thinking that it was what Heroes go through every day. No sane man would do this every single day without amiss. Thankfully, she learned pretty early that there are Limelight Heroes, which is what she was aiming for, and Underground Heroes.
Still, she was a high schooler back then. Maybe it's easier now, right? After all, she only needs to find one person. How hard can that be?
Curse her and her wishful thinking.
This is her third night in a row. She is nowhere near close in finding the suspect, the Villain she is tasked in hunting down. To make matters worse, she found absolutely zero clue today, she caught the wrong guy yesterday and she only found a sorry excuse of a clue the day before. Said clue was that the suspect was seen walking this road she is currently looking down on two months ago.
It's not going well.
That is until a new figure walks down the road. It's a person she had never seen before, never seen them on this road before. She gives the unknown person a scrutinizing look from her spot on the rooftop. The longer she scans, the deeper her frown goes. It's currently night so it's a little hard to see but…
That's him.
That's the suspect.
She feels her lips stretch into an eager grin. Fucking finally, she had been waiting for so long. She's so going to beat the living shit out of him for making her wait so long. She stands on the ledge of the rooftop, ready to divebomb on the fucker. Once she sees him within range, she jumps.
She lands right in front of him, startling him.
"Pro Hero Miruko?!" the suspect exclaims. "Why are you patrolling at night?!"
"To catch fucker like you."
She doesn't give him any room to retort. As soon as she finishes talking, she already launches herself towards him. She can see he tries to dodge but she is just too fast. She spins midair and slams her shin right on the side of his head, not enough for a killing blow but strong enough to incapacitate him. He flies back from the force before dropping onto the ground.
She hears him groaning, confirming he is still alive and conscious. She quickly takes out the Quirk suppressing cuff handed to her by the police. She walks over to his sprawling, writhing body from the pain and cuffs him up.
He's very lucky she is ordered to keep him alive and well for interrogation, or else she would've curb stomped him to death by this point. She heaves him up and carries him on her shoulder, not caring how roughly she handles him judging by the strained groans he's emitting.
.
"Pro Hero Miruko, reporting in for duty!" she exclaims as she bursts into the police station. A good number of the police officers there jump in their seats before relaxing, seeing that it's just her. She drops the suspect off from her shoulder, not giving a single fuck at her mishandlement.
"Miruko," she hears a foreign voice. Turning towards the source she finds two people walking towards her. One of them is Officer Sansa but she doesn't recognize the other guy, who's wearing a brown trench coat. "I am Detective Naomasa. I was leading this manhunt."
"Well I got the man you had been hunting," she tells him, kicking the shin of the body next to her, earning her a yelp. "Fucker didn't put up much of a fight. Then again, this is me we're talking about," she adds, grinning with self-satisfaction.
Detective Naomasa crouches down next to the lying suspect, turning around until his face is exposed. There is a satisfied smile on the detective's face.
"We finally got you, Cascada."
"What?"
"So dude's the guy?"
"Yes, she's the one."
"Oh. Sorry for using the wrong pronoun, bud."
"But I'm not-"
"Did she touch you?" Detective Naomasa asks as he turns towards her, ignoring the suspect who seems to have gained vigor to move.
"I have to carry her so it's inevitable," she answers, shrugging one shoulder. When the detective winces, she frowns. "What? What's wrong?"
"It's her Quirk," Officer Sansa answers her instead. She frowns at him. Despite being quite stoic, he looks a little hesitant to continue. "It is called EWT and… you are not going to like it."
"What?"
She watches as Detective Naomasa and Officer Sansa exchange silent looks. The detective suddenly glares while Officer Sansa doesn't show any visible expression. Detective Naomasa releases a sigh of defeat.
"...The first person you'll touch, you'll develop a crush on them."
…
"...Fucking what."
She… She can't believe her ears. Are these guys for real? They're not fucking with her right?
"Not just any crush, it's a high school crush."
"...What kind of a sick joke of a Quirk is this?"
"Worst part is that we don't know how long it will last. The data varies by a large margin."
"You're making a mistake, I'm not-"
"SHUT UP, ASSHOLE!"
.
"Fucking annoying Quirk. Stupid fucking annoying fucking Villain. What kind of a sociopath would come up with such a Quirk? Some godly being somewhere out there must be high for coming up with that sick joke, probably go "hehe this good for love fiction" or something dumb."
She must be careful starting today. She needs to avoid every single physical contact with any living being because she can't be not too cautious. She needs to avoid everyone like a plague, hopefully a pandemic would occur so everyone can stay at home and avoid contact with each other.
This means she is forced to wear something with long sleeves. A full coverall maybe? A full body suit like most Heroes wear? But she doesn't like those kinds of costumes. They don't grant her the freedom like the one she is wearing right now.
To be extra cautious, she decided to use the rooftops as she carefully makes her way home. That way, she will not bump into anyone. But it's night right now, and she doesn't do very well at night. She may have a bunny Quirk that enhances her vision but it does jackshit with this lowlight setting.
This is so fucking annoying.
She had been staying out so late for three fucking days. She was searching for the suspect from sunrise until sundown for three fucking days. She barely got any sleep for three fucking days. She had tried not to snap for three fucking days. She is absolutely exhausted. She is at the end of the line. She is very frustrated and infuriated. She is thoroughly unhappy. She has this goddamn fucking annoying Quirk to deal with.
Traversing through the rooftops is very hard, not only because she is not used to using such a route and the fact that it is very dark out, but she has been fighting with her inner turmoil that only keeps on growing.
On the other hand, at least she has a legitimate reason to blame, because she miscalculates one leap and her foot snags on a wire as she leaps from one building to one another to cross the gap. The sudden loss of momentum and change of gravity cause her breath to rush out of her lungs. She plummets to the ground fast as she stumbles through the air.
That was a rookie mistake of hers. No matter. Falling this height won't cause her any harm anyway.
But, before she could regain her balance, something wraps around her waist, pulling her attention to it. Before she can see what it is, gravity changes once more and she gets yanked in a different direction. She feels herself landing into something soft but sturdy and secure. The sudden rush of motions had caused her disoriented and she realizes she has her eyes closed. Once she feels everything is steady, she finally opens her eyes.
The first thing she sees is a sharp chin with a light stubble. Next is a pair of exhausted eyes looking down at her between black locks. But the feature that stands out the most is the ungodly amount of gray scarf wrapping around his neck and shoulders.
With just that feature alone, she knows who it is.
"What brings the number five Hero out at a time like this?"
She finds herself in the arms of the Underground Pro Hero: Eraserhead.
Of course she knows about him. She had heard his deeds, hidden from the world, even during her vigilante days. But unlike a certain birdbrain who still believes he is a myth, she knows he exists, that he is real.
In fact, unlike most people, she has been aware of him since she was in middle school. She had witnessed him making history. He was the unknown student who rose to the top spot of UA's Sports Festival, the first ever student in history who got transferred into the Heroics course.
The whole event was broadcasted to her class. His achievement was the talk for months. Words were going around that Hero agencies had scouted the other courses beside Heroics course. Her classmates, who before the event were pessimistic, were then motivated to aim for the top spot.
She remembers the admiration she had for him, for overcoming adversaries many either failed or too afraid to face, for proving people wrong, for being the strength of the overlooked.
And now, many years later, here she is, in his arms. He has grown from the twig that he was before into this beefy man.
His arms feel secure.
It is such a coincidence that she is in the arms of the person she admired a long while ago.
Or... maybe it is fate?
Then, she slowly starts to blush.
Fuck, the Quirk is already in effect.
Her eyes widen before they snap down.
His hand is on her upper arm, skin to skin, direct contact.
Oh fuck… The Quirk!
She leaps off from his arms and haphazardly lands on her feet with a sizeable distance away. She snaps around and faces Eraserhead, who looks unperturbed by her sudden and erratic hop. Facing him, she notices that a strand from his scarf is out towards her, mainly her midsection.
It is his scarf that is wrapping around her body, the one that pulled her towards him and… landed in his arms.
Before she could move a single muscle, the scarf suddenly unwinds itself from her midsection and returns towards Eraserhead, wrapping itself around his neck and disappearing into the abundance. The only movement the Underground Hero made is just shoving his hands in his pockets. Not once he had shown any indication of manipulating the scarf in any shape or form. It's as if it moved on its own.
…So cool…
She gasps before shaking her head vigorously and harshly slaps her cheeks in a desperate attempt to keep her head together.
"Are you feeling alright, Miruko?"
His deep voice stops her from harming herself. Her head snaps up towards him and she stares with wide bewildered eyes. She is very aware she might look like a crazy lunatic in his eyes but… there is not an ounce of repulsion in those deep black eyes. There is no judgment nor disgust.
She feels her cheeks heat up under those eyes.
He's genuinely asking her if she's feeling alright.
"Y-Yes! I-I'm fine!" she stutters out (like a schoolgirl). Eraserhead narrows his eyes, showing he doesn't believe her. It's amazing how a subtle gesture is enough to convey his words across. "I need to go now bye!"
She spins on her heel and immediately puts power into her legs, shooting her off that instant and not giving Eraserhead any chance of getting another word out. She doesn't care that she's crossing the streets now instead of the rooftops like before. She just wants to get away as fast as possible and get to her home as soon as possible. At times, she puts too much power in her legs, causing her to jump too high, even higher than a number of the low buildings.
When she arrives home at record time, she literally breaks the door handle in order to get the door open faster, and almost breaks the door itself for slamming close a little too hard. She presses her back against the now fragile door while her hands are pressing against the lower half of her face.
Then, she slowly slides down until she is sitting on the floor.
She can feel the ache that's beginning to throb throughout her entire legs after landing constantly at such great heights but she doesn't care. She can't find herself to care for the pain right now.
Because right now, her thoughts are filled by one and only Eraserhead.
Even through the gloves she can feel the heat from her cheeks.
Out of all people, why Eraserhead? Why was he there in the first place?
And why did he have to save her when she is capable of landing safely?
The thought of him rescuing her brings back the memory of being held in his arms and she felt so secure and grounded in them.
She curses silently before digging the heels of her palms into her eyes in an attempt to block that thought away, but her cheeks only redden even more and the thought made her bite her lips a little too hard.
Eraserhead…
Fuck, maybe it really is fate…
Hello, it's me again. It's been a while but I brought something with me.
Enjoy.