In response to Dragon2234 and PoppyRay9's comments about the previous chapter, no, Takei encountering Death after various near-death experiences will not become a running joke. As he's still in the process of getting stronger and stronger, it'll take something stronger and stronger still to knock him down, but even then I won't ham it up when he gets hurt really badly.
He isn't quite at the stage where Villain attacks in the vicinity become Annoyances instead of Crises, but now that he knows Mei & Momo, as well as the HPSC knowing he's in legit danger from Villains, we're getting closer to the point where we can bring in more R&C-type weapons.
Of course he is still 12 at this point, so, you know…
To LoamyCoffee, I'm flattered that you consider the Mon Squad (Daily Life with a Monster Girl) "the All Might for Asaka-shi"; it shows my hype for them really worked, though only Tio and Zombina are "meatheads" as Gran Torino would put it. Manako, Doppel, and even Kuroko are more surgical, closer to Sir Nighteye by that same metric. Similar to Shota Aizawa/Eraserhead, they're "Underground Heroes" who specialize in working alongside the police instead of acting as glory hogs like most of the C-Rank Heroes in One-Punch Man, who I can never help but stop making comparisons to in MHA.
The "I Give Up Guy" from the wake of Gigantomachia's rampage, is the quintessential definition of an OPM C-Rank Hero; though I suppose if Heroes are ranked similarly to Villains in the MHA world, that he would've been an "F-Rank Hero" instead. By OPM standards, only Gigantomachia and All for One would be considered "Threat Level: Dragon", capable of threatening "multiple cities". "Threat Level: Demon", capable of threatening "a single city", seems to be reserved for the High-End Nomu, though after that, there seems to be a surplus of "Threat Level: Tiger" and "Threat Level: Wolf" entities, capable of threatening "multiple people" and "a single individual" respectively.
And maybe I'm enjoying the Code Geass crossover with Counter:Side a bit too much and am going off on a tangent fueled by an IV Drip of commercial-grade Nostalgia… But in MHA, the way I see things, All for One, like Charles, wishes for "the past", a return to the ancient ways; All Might, like Schneizel, longs for "an eternal homeostasis" for the current state of things; only a select few like Ochako are like Lelouch in that they endeavor for "the future". Sure, everyone is kind of "along for the ride" once All Might retires, but very few seem to have given any sort of thought to what the world can, should, or even must become as it moves forward.
And maybe that's why I love MHA FanFic that really delve into these controversial issues so much~
As I myself greatly enjoyed Code Geass, especially when I got to crossover with it during Super Robot Wars 30, I hope that someday I can sneak some of the dialogue in during a philosophical debate. Because the one thing that "Isekai Protag-kuns" have over everyone else, even if they aren't particularly brilliant back home, is "perspective"; hence why my character has so much "Superhero Fatigue" to the point that someone like Gran Torino is viscerally shocked by it.
Tangent aside…
More-directly to PoppyRay9's comment about the Scorpion Flail… Challenge, accepted~
Of course, I also have a plan in mind for the TAIL, but that in of itself doesn't say much, though I figure my solution is more-inventive than was shown in Dragonball GT. I mean sure, the blacksmith tongs were funny… but only for about five minutes.
*AHA*
"Hitomi, seriously, you can let me go. I'm not gonna get aborted from time or anything…"
"Nu-uh! Not happening!" Hitomi sobbed as she held me like a vise, the paramedics in the ambulance driving us toward Okayado General Hospital chuckling in amusement or pained jealousy as the busty nurse with the hourglass figure continued to coddle me.
An enviable position to be sure, but that this moment was paid for in the suffering I inflicted upon this woman…
"So kid, you see anything weird while you weren't breathing?" the driver asked over his shoulder, said in such a way that he'd asked and received the aforementioned question and subsequent answer many times in his tenure as an ambulance driver.
"Nope. Not at all," I said rubbing Hitomi's back.
To preserve the integrity of what I witnessed after facing the Truck Villain, I chose to interpret my second run-in with Death as a hallucination brought on by stress as opposed to the Real McCoy.
That or like in Yuyu Hakusho there was "more than one" Grim Reaper and they were all in on the same jokes.
"God, I'm going to make some therapist somewhere very wealthy one day…"
"Don't worry, you're going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay," Hitomi said as she continued to rub my hair, holding me in such a way that half the boys in my class would be weeping blood out of envy.
*AHA*
"Amazing… Simply amazing…" the chrome domed doctor said pouring over my x-rays. "Not only did you survive getting hit by the equivalent of a delivery truck, but just recently you'd endured a drop from a four-story building. And yet even so, there's barely any damage to your endoskeleton."
"Would it help if I told you the other guy broke my fall before I bounced off his chest?"
For obvious reasons, I withheld the fact that moments before I got hit, I shot a .38 Special Caliber round into his snarling gullet.
"But even still, to be tackled through an up-to-code chain link fence…" another doctor with bristle brushes for his mustache and eyebrows pouring over images of my hands and ribcage said aloud.
"I'm always fascinated to see how MGH influences the development of Heteromorphs during puberty…" a nurse with deep V-shaped eyebrows hummed to herself as she poured over a file regarding all my previous incidents.
"Honestly, any doctor who ascribes to the 'Toe Joint Indicator' test is a quack living too close to a Hero Academy," the chrome domed doctor nodded.
"THANK YOU!" I cried exasperatedly, happy to find an adult in the medical field that was smarter than a herring sandwich. "So, any chance I can leave? I do have school tomorrow."
"Are you daft?" the bristle brush-faced doctor gawped. "You're constantly sustaining multiple injuries on a weekly basis, and yet you have no broken bones, cranial damage, or even contusions! Clearly our tests missed something crucial, so we're holding you for further testing until we find it!"
"A-And what if I'm actually fine…?!"
"Don't worry, that's impossible!"
Gluuuugh…
*BAM!*
"Wha- Momo?!" I gawped incredulously as the prim and proper 'Ojou-sama' I was attempting to conceal from my friends at Damoto stormed imperiously into the room.
"Do not worry, Takei-kun! I have brought with me the finest physician, dietician, cardiologist, dermatologist, hematologist, and neurologist the Yaoyorozu Conglomerate can afford!" the pretty brunette said with a cute blush on her face as she struck a pose, the doctors in attendance behind her reminding me of Super Sentai, if not the Ginyu Force, as they too struck poses in uniforms more-elaborate than what Okayado General had to offer.
"Takei, who's your friend and why can she afford her own doctors?" Kaori atop Naruki's shoulder inquired, they as well as Kageto and Yomi the first to arrive once word spread on social media.
"Hi. I'm here too," Mei hummed as she stuck her head in the doorway.
"Hello, Mei…" I sighed, realizing the cat was sufficiently out of the bag.
"Takei-kun, who are these girls?" Hitomi asked a little sourly as she once more wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Just some friends from out of town," I returned, patting her head reassuringly.
"One of whom can afford her own doctors…" Naruki himself hummed.
" . . . It's a long story."
"Not really."
"Mei, you are not helping."
And thus my wacky inventor and our equally-wacky "Ojou-sama" friends came to be known to my slightly-less-wacky middle school friends.
*AHA*
Meanwhile at the Hero Public Safety Commission…
"We had been given every assurance that Asaka's Heroes would be more than capable of keeping things well in hand while we loaned our expertise toward suppressing the latest Trigger epidemic. Care to explain why what occurred today was allowed to happen?" Kuroko demanded as her eyes bored a hole into the sleep-deprived HPSC worker situated before her.
"Smith-san, I assure you, we had no way of knowing that the blowback from your Agency's activities would reach home so soon," the HPSC worker, Mera Yokumiru, said as he rubbed at the bags under his eyes.
"And yet, we had not one but two Yakuza go after Tokei and try to get him into the back of a windowless van."
"They were disguised as police officers."
"And the keys in the blue one's pocket were for the windowless van around the corner. What's your point?"
"Just don't want any of the details getting lost in translation, is all," Yokumiru sighed tiredly. "Smith-san, I assure you, we intend to do everything we can to remedy the situation."
"And while you and the other pencil pushers are spending the next six weeks dictating what color paperclips to use to hold the subcommittee requisition forms together, a twelve-year-old child is going to have to live in constant fear of when the next Villain attack will occur. Tokei had to kill a guy today. Right before he was tackled over the side of a building!" she said pounding her fist into the desk, the contents of her shoulder holster becoming visible. "Not to mention he almost croaked. Again. After having to kill a guy!"
"While we're hesitant to let him wander around with actual guns… we can't in clear conscience leave him undefended after so many incidents either," Yokumiru admitted as he stared down at Takehiko Tokei's casefile, which by this point was looking more like a paperback.
The incident with Dr. Shiga was of especial embarrassment to the HPSC, though he supposed they got what they paid for when they found a doctor willing to use his Quirk to carve up (and subsequently re-assemble) children for genetic research…
"Yeah, and speaking of which, he's going to need a replacement gun."
"That particular expense won't be billable to the HPSC, as that transaction was done under-the-table."
"Drat."
"Moving on before we get too sidetracked… As it stands, the HPSC is willing to make certain concessions to help assure his safety in the potential-"
"Probable."
"-potential," Yokumiru insisted if only for the sake of both propriety and plausible deniability, "absence of a Police and/or Hero response in relation to any Villain-related incidents directed toward your young ward… provided he agree to carry, on his person, at least one Hero Association-approved Support Item for non-lethal self-defense purposes."
"And what about when the sissy stuff doesn't work?" Kuroko asked raising a challenging eyebrow.
"Many Quirks are more-dangerous than conventional firearms, so assuming he continues to show the same respect for the tools he has at present, we're willing to leave the… particulars… up to your discretion. Short of hiring a Hero to guard him as if he were a foreign diplomat, this is the most-amenable response to the situation as dictated by HPSC guidelines."
"You mean because a dead twelve-year-old found in the woods somewhere with no pants on would be worse than a live one caught with a gun?"
"Yes, but I wanted to be tactful about it," the tired man deadpanned.
" . . . I think we can make this arrangement work," Kuroko hummed after a moment's contemplation, Yokumiru letting out a sigh as the proceedings were nearing their conclusion. "Of course, there's still the issue of Damoto Chugakko remaining largely undefended."
"Kill… meeee…" Youmiru said feeling another sleepless night in his future.
*AHA*
School for the next few days had been sort of awkward, given the trail of destruction from my quote/unquote "fight" resembled a WWII bombing run as much as it did a Villain rampage.
Tetsutetsu got a nice bit of fame for himself from his and Gordy's crazy combo, and though it hadn't been enough to knock the Villain down, that he'd even tried had people singing his praises. Unlike most of the do-nothings in town, I legitimately believed he could become an amazing Hero someday. Sure, he wasn't anywhere as strong as Colossus from the X-Men, but he probably could become that strong if he trained his ass off; maybe had an Awakening or two.
Knowing my shitty luck, if he continued to hang around me that might just be in the cards…
As soon as the Mon Squad found out what happened, apart from doubling-down on the search for the remaining stragglers of the Yakuza family that sent those guys once their tattoos were identified, we met up in GGO and hugged it out since it was still inconvenient to meet up in person.
The warmth my body felt in the VR might've been fake, but the warmth I carried back with me to the IRL was real.
Of course, as soon as soon as I made the mistake of saying such out loud, Elma broke down into tears and latched onto me like a limpet for around an hour. Sorahiko made a jab about me collecting girls "like Pokémon cards" once he found out the boy/girl ratio in my friendbase, and while I didn't appreciate that damn pinkie-waggling, I at least could admit I did have more female acquaintances than male…
Villain attacks in of themselves were nothing rare; they literally happened every day. However, that legit Villain-Villains came after me, a minor and a young ward while disguised as police officers, and that I'd managed to repel them in part while also surviving a four-story drop, had once again aroused the public's attention toward me. This of course only reignited interest in what the Mon Squad was doing, and reminded people of my incident with the Truck Villain and my "heroic sacrifice" toward one of my schoolmates.
It was a pain in the ass, having so much fame when I didn't really want it, but at least this time around I had the rights to my own image so I'd be getting a cut from the merchandising that apparently, Elma helped broker. Between the man-eating football, the mini-kaiju frog, the Truck Villain, and the Ogre Villain incidents, I probably had more merchandise with my likeness on it than the rest of my school put together.
And as it turned out, Elma didn't only broker the merchandise for the Mon Squad; she actually designed and manufactured some of it herself.
Of course, given how Tohru had once been obsessed with making Kobayashi-san goods, including but not limited to paintings, figurines, and plushies, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I found a line of Takehiko Tokei/"Wild Tiger" T-Shirts and Figurines waiting for me after school let out.
It was embarrassing as hell finding my likeness being worn by my peers the following day, doubly-so when complete randos asked me to sign it, but thankfully Golden Week was coming up and I could take a week off and let things simmer down a bit.
*AHA*
"Stendhal. Thanks for meeting me on such short notice."
"Any time, Wild Tiger," my virtual blademaster replied. "So, what did you need to speak to me about?"
" . . . I killed a guy today."
"Yes. I'd heard."
"What… What does that make you think about me? I mean, objectively he was a bad guy, but I'm afraid this is going to follow me for my entire life and no-one'll ever let me forget it."
" . . . When there is evil in this world that justice cannot defeat, would you taint your hands with evil to defeat evil? Or would you remain steadfast and righteous even if it means surrendering to evil?"
"In either case, evil does not end," I replied, wondering if Stendhal had read Code Geass or if he just-so-happened to have pulled that quote from his ass. "The ideal situation would be to choose the option that prevents more evil."
"In which case, one side loses while the other wins," the red-clad blademasternodded. "If anyone gives you a hard time about what you did, tell them this. The only ones who should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed."
I kind of don't want to ask if he did read Code Geass or not, because it is really fucking awesome hearing someone say these lines "for real".
"You can't change the world with pretty words alone."
"And our crying for them won't bring the dead back to life."
Heh… Damn straight.
*AHA*
"I'll still never see the appeal of those Virt-Games," Sorahiko hummed as I came out for breakfast.
"Nobody calls it that…" I deadpanned as I took out the eggs and sausage.
" . . . If you want to talk about it-"
"What's to talk about? A bad guy came after me and I defended myself since Police and Heroes didn't show up until after-the-fact."
"It shouldn't have come to that; not for a child. That sort of thing just isn't fair."
"Like how Villain attacks and natural disasters are 'fair'?"
"I get what you're getting at. Heroes fight the idea of 'unfairness' every time we put on the cape."
"Don't forget the undies~"
"Nobody wears underwear on the outside of their pants anymore. At least not anyone with a lick of sense," Sorahiko muttered under his breath. "Anyway, if you don't want to be a Hero after all this, I understand-"
"Maybe this is self-aggrandizing," I interrupted, "but it felt really, really good being able to help someone without worry. And even if I'm only a Tactical or an Underground Hero, at least I'll be able to inject some human fucking decency into the occupation."
"Right… The other day, you said that All Might failed as a symbol."
"Well, what has he really done as the No.1 Hero aside from inspiring generations of lay-abouts who'll probably cut and run as soon as things stop being cushy and easy for them?"
"Not untrue…" the man replied, and by the look on his face, he was probably thinking back to the poor showing we received when he, Itsuka, Tetsutetsu and I went out on patrol. "Well, the world always could use more Heroes."
"Not so much 'more' as 'better', in my opinion."
"Also true," he admitted. " . . . I'm thinking of signing on to help secure your school."
"What brought this on?"
"This might've only been the first time a Villain came to the school, but it isn't the first time you've been singled out by one of the Mon Squad's prior busts," he began. "The Hero Net's sending out a call to help fortify Damoto, and while it's an easy job… it isn't exactly a glamorous one. Nowadays it's all about exposure; and playing 'babysitter' all day can hurt anyone's career unless they already have an established brand."
"I'm amazed there isn't a petition by concerned parents to pull me out of Damoto."
"Oh trust me, there definitely was, but your 'Dragon Auntie' nipped that right in the bud," he chuckled. "All she had to do was pull the 'race card', and suddenly it was all about that~"
"Because of course it was…"
"And also, it's kinda fitting for me to sign on. Did you know your Principal was a Yuuei alumni?"
"Picar-sensei? No, I didn't have a clue."
"Well, he was. After he retired from the Business side of things, he became an educator to help with reforms. He could've just as easily set up shop right on Yuuei's doorstep… But maybe it's because of the way people treat one another there that he didn't put down stakes so close to an Academy."
"I have heard all the horror stories, yes."
"Nobody likes to talk about it, but it's basically an open secret at this point that the closer a middle school is to a Hero Academy, the higher the suicide rates are."
"Surprising absolutely no-one in this room," I huffed, recalling Kuroko's stories about how-poorly she was treated because she was Quirkless, whereas someone like Manako with a 'Junk Quirk' had a rather laid-back school life because not everyone with a pulse wanted to become a Hero.
Three guesses why that was; first two guesses don't count, and being Quirkless isn't an acceptable answer.
"It saddens me to see you so jaded… but it also makes me feel better for the future that there'll be at least one Hero out there with a lick of sense."
"I'll try to live up to your lofty expectations."
"Oh, by the way, your little reporter friend is waiting for you~" he grinned waggling a pinkie my way.
*AHA*
"Kizuki-san. I'm surprised to see you again," I hummed, meeting her in the lobby.
"What can I say? You make for good news~" the blue-skinned woman grinned, her green-and-black eyes glimmering with excitement.
"Well, at least it's someone I actually know," I said looking around her shoulder, some of the press hanging out at the gate in an attempt to catch me there. "So I take it you want another interview?"
"Yeah, but, let me treat you to a little something since it's more controversial than shooting a giant frog."
"Ugh. Tell me about it."
"So, what're you in the mood for?" she asked waving a credit card about. "Since there's a hot story here, whatever you want's a billable expense~"
*AHA*
Another good thing about having a Dragon for an auntie, apart from the warm snuggles that made you feel like the safest person on the planet, is that with a little [Perception Dampening] magic, I was able to slip out the back of the complex and escape notice to rendezvous with Chitose down the street. And I couldn't be sure if she was or wasn't using the more-powerful [Perception Blocking] magic to shadow us, but I figured the rumbling of a dragon-sized stomach would clue me in on if she was or wasn't there.
"So, first question," Chitose hummed as she sat across from me in a local high-end ramen joint, a digital recorder off to the side. "How'd you know they weren't real cops?"
"I don't want follow-up attackers catching wise, so I'll keep that little tidbit to myself," I said as I sampled the broth from my deluxe seafood ramen.
It was on Shoowaysha's tab, so I may as well.
"Ha hah! Fair enough! Fair enough!" she grinned, imbibing her miso with pork before getting to the next question on her list. "When they came at you, were you scared?"
"Oh, big time. But that just meant my reflexes were sharp. It's how I got that first shot off and only had to deal with one instead of two."
"Do you regret what you did to the second guy?"
"Windowless. Van."
"You don't know that's what they were going to do to you."
"You don't know that they weren't."
"Fair point," she admitted. "What-Ifs do make for good news articles~"
"Admittedly, it was Zombina's 'Origin Episode' that clued me in to how utterly disgusting people can be."
"Well, you aren't wrong…"
Forensic investigators were some of the few in the police force that could willfully use their Quirks in their line of work, and while sloppy criminals got caught more-often as a result-of, it also meant that in order to get around them, you had to be really clever, if not have the money to pay for someone to be "clever" for you.
*AHA*
"If you could pack a bigger sidearm, would you?"
"I'd pack a shotgun if I could, and after what happened, I might just be able to," Takei shrugged. "Because the way I see it, I was only being 'paranoid' if I was preparing for something that would never happen. That something did happen, means it wasn't paranoia. So hopefully, no-one will bitch at me for carrying a sidearm for self-defense."
"Well, this is the second time you got singled out by some guys the Mon Squad busted," Chitose hummed.
Of course, she wouldn't slander them for what had happened, that'd go against the entire point of the Meta Liberation Front. If they wanted people to be able to freely use their Quirks, they had to get past the idea that 'only Heroes' should be able to use their Quirks to fight Villains. Local Militias in the U.S. were fairly good at keeping Villains at bay because the last thing you wanted was an angry mob of home-owners willing to spill blood.
"Either way, I can see things going in two directions after this," Takei hummed as he ate his ramen. "I can either have firearms on me from now on and no-one tries to 'at me' again, or I can have them on me and meet whoever tries to jump me head-on. Either way, I still win."
"Though admittedly, your circumstances are a bit exceptional," Chitose hummed thoughtfully. "Some people are starting to call you a 'trouble magnet'."
"I'd argue that anyone in the industry is going to draw trouble to themselves."
"Also a good point," Chitose nodded. " . . . If I can get a little personal, I hear that the Mon Squad moved stakes to Naruhata."
"And?"
"Do you miss them?"
*AHA*
"Every morning, and every evening," I answered. "I miss them all the time, but I know that Naruhata needs them too, and if you love something…"
"You let them go?"
" . . . A great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. And you can focus on it, and try to force it. But the more that you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and hold still… Maybe. Just maybe, it'll come to you."
My favorite line in RoosterTeeth's Red vs Blue.
Ever.
Of all time.
And Chitose seemed to like it too, because it actually brought tears to her eyes.
"YOU'RE TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLLLLD!" she suddenly cried as she reached across the table and drew me in.
"U-UNHAND ME, WOMAN! YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE ME A COMPLEX~" I cried into her mature bosom.
"SO PUUUURE!"
*AHA*
"By the way, I notice you look a bit different since I last saw you~" Chitose hummed once our ramen bowls turned up empty and she stopped gushing over my cheesy 'Love Speech'.
If that gets turned into a T-Shirt I'm going to kill somebody.
Again.
"Oh? In what way?"
"Hey now, no need to be coy with me. I think you look real cool!" the curious woman grinned as she tugged at her own ears for emphasis, mine sympathetically flicking. "You going to re-brand your Quirk?"
"Probably," I shrugged. "My friends suggested I go with 'Monster Cat', but I don't lap up lamp oil so that's out."
"Well, what are you going to go with?"
"I was thinking… [Lombax]."
"What, like some kind of 'Lemur-Wombat'?"
"And just where would the 'X' have come from?" I deadpanned.
"Hm. Fair point," she replied. "Speaking of brands, people on social media are calling you the 'Villain Hunter'. Any comments about that?"
"Completely ridiculous; the Villains come to me, not the other way around. If anything, I'm a 'Villain Killer'."
"I see… I see… And do you view yourself as some kind of 'delinquent'?"
"If anything I'm an 'anti-delinquent'. Trouble finds me, I hardly have to go looking."
"Anti-Delinquent'… I like it~" Chitose grinned jotting that down. "One more question."
"Shoot."
"Do you want more ramen? Because I could go for more ramen."
"Hm. Yeah. I could eat."
*AHA*
Following another bowl of ramen punctuated by some light questioning, including but not limited to what I thought of the new line of Mon Squad Goods...
"You know, I'm surprised your guardians let you go out with a complete stranger," Chitose hummed once we left the ramen joint.
"You aren't a total stranger, and it isn't like you can make me do anything I don't want to."
"Oh yeah? What makes you think that~?"
"Kizuki, I don't need another grown woman shooting me 'bedroom eyes'."
"Wait, who else was shooting you-"
"Takehiko Tokei, I presume…" an elderly man half my size with lavender skin and three horns protruding from his forehead wearing a suit said as he approached us. "Your family has caused quite a bit of trouble for mine."
"Oh crap…" I muttered as the man depressed the trigger on the syringe already at his neck, his tongue blackening as he gigantified out of his diminutive suit and transformed into a massive purple-skinned colossus taller than the Blue Villain and wider than his red brother/lover/brother-lover-I-don't-judge.
Also, his whangdoodle was waving about for everyone on the street to see.
Not that it gigantified alongside him. Though whether or not that was from the Trigger, I didn't really care at the moment.
"Kizuki, get behind me…"
"No, you get behind me," Chitose said pushing me behind herself, shielding me like a mother would her own child. "Don't move, dirtball! I have a gun and I know how to use it!" she said whipping out her holdout pistol, a toy-like COP .357 Derringer, and pointed it right at his face
"HAH! AND WHAT DO YOU INTEND TO DO WITH THAT TEENY WEENY THING, OJOU-CHAN~?" the 'Purple Villain' chortled from a chest the size of a delivery van.
"THIS!"
*Pop*
*BOOOOM!*
"What the hell are you packing in those rounds?!" I gawped dumbfounded as the purplette's pea shooter struck the Villain with the force of a grenade launcher.
"RUN NOW! TALK LATER!" Chitose cried throwing me over her shoulder and running like hell, the Purple Villain yowling as he held his smoking genitals.
*AHA*
"You know, I'm starting to understand why you insist on going everywhere armed!" Chitose said as we (read: she) ran for our lives, the Purple Villain going on a rampage behind us.
Thankfully, while he was quite large, he was also slow and fumbling, and with something as impossible-to-miss as this going on in the middle of town in broad daylight, Police and/or Hero response would at the least be swift.
"THANK YOU!" I nodded gratefully as the woman came to a stop, took aim over her shoulder, and fired some kind of 'Grenade Round' into the Purple Villain's tertiary nipple (no shit) causing him to yowl in pain. "No, but seriously, how the hell are you causing that much damage and where can I get some?"
"My Quirk, [Landmine], lets me turn anything I touch into a bomb that I can detonate at will. A girl's gotta be able to defend herself after all~" the pretty woman grinned.
"Hey, it's better than winding up dead in the woods with no pants on," I shrugged, remaking how-similar this reporter's Quirk was to the Bomb-Bomb Fruit from One Piece.
She'd be real terrifying as a Villain…
"Sorry you got dragged into more of my horseshit."
"Are you kidding? This is great stuff!" the purplette grinned happily. "Controversy, love, suspense, danger! This is going to be way more than another fluff piece! They might actually change the laws thanks to this article!"
"I love where your enthusiasm's at, but please don't get ahead of yourself," I said as we rounded another corner. A moment later when the Purple Villain's hand gripped the side of the building to steady himself, Chitose fired off another shot, actually blowing off a fingernail. "Remind me not to get on your bad side, Kizuki-sama."
"Please, call me Chitose! We are running away from Villains together after all!"
"Villain, singular, but sure. Chitose's a cute name anyway!" I said fumbling for the Beretta I 'borrowed' from Kuroko's room.
"DON'T FEAR! WE'RE HERE!" a Hero Agency piled into a flatbed truck announced as they rounded the corner.
"They're all yours, boys!" I said as Chitose carried me around the corner.
And while it definitely looked like these D-Listers bit off more than they could chew, that was hardly my problem.
At least they were actually throwing themselves at the guy instead of running away like a Monty Python skit.
"Huh. I'm surprised they showed up so fast," my first-hand 'rescuer' hummed as we rounded another corner, breaking line of sight as the half-dozen Heroes tried to fight the last-subtle Yakuza in the history of all Yakuza.
Guess they weren't quite-as-extinct as Kuroko said they were…
"At least these guys aren't a complete waste of oxygen."
*AHA*
When Chitose's stamina started to flag, I was finally able to wriggle free from her shoulder and lead her away by the hand. It was twenty or so minutes since the sound of fighting behind us died down, and either the press squatting in front of my apartment building got bored and left, or someone called the cops to chase them off.
Either way, it seemed like we were able to avoid the worst of it, though I was sure Kuroyama would swing by to get my side of things.
But until that happened, I decided to see my reporter friend off.
We'd survived a Villain attack together, so it felt safe to consider her as such.
*AHA*
"Oh, before we part company, I forgot to ask," Chitose said before she climbed back into her car, which Takei had escorted her to. "Did you read that book I gave you?"
"Meta Liberation War? Yeah, but I'm in the process of re-reading it so I'll actually have an informed opinion of the subject matter."
"Well, what do you think of it so far? Strictly off-the-record."
"Honest opinion? That the guy planned to off himself after finishing it, probably gave him blinders to the glaring flaw in his ideology."
"Oh? A flaw?" Chitose hummed interestingly.
Within the Meta Liberation Army, Destro's manifesto was treated as gospel, and his words were taken in the most-literal of terms. That someone as "liberated" in thought as Takei had come to some sort of conclusion, even as he re-read it, was of interest to her on a personal level, even if not on the professional.
"The guy went on about how using Quirks is a 'basic human right', but he also forgot about the basic human right of not having some jackass with an 'Earthquake Quirk' making everything fall off your fine China shelf. Or some other jackass with a 'Tidal Wave Quirk' blasting your just-dried laundry for shits and giggles. Or yet another jackass using a 'Shapeshifting Quirk' to make it look like you're committing adultery at the behest of a third party. And that's just off the top of my head," Takei replied. "What he's suggesting, if taken at its most-literal, is nothing more than a demolition derby. Like, if everyone had a car but ignored all traffic laws. The only ones who'd be having 'a good time' in that kind of world would be the people with the Monster Trucks, or the Armored Vehicles, or the Bomber Planes. People with minis or mopeds… Have you seen the Hindenburg footage?" he suddenly asked out of nowhere. "Just, absolutely breathtaking… until you realize everyone is completely screwed."
"Huh… Wow, that's… That's a really nuanced way of looking at things…" Chitose admitted, her ever-curious mind devouring his words and picturing those exacting cases of Quirk abuse.
As much as the idea of a world where Quirk users were free to use their meta-abilities appealed to her, to realize that she never thought what actually living in a world like that was like… made her feel really foolish. And she'd almost never considered what sort of revisions Destro himself might've made to his own ideology, had he chosen to live a little while longer instead of martyring himself…
The next generation truly was terrifying in its own right.
"I guess," he shrugged. "The version you gave me was one of the recent revisions, so maybe I'll get a different feel of it from a primary draft, from back before the before the editors got to it, but until then…" he said upturning his hands and shaking his head. "Until then, I'm of the opinion that as long as people are complete assholes to one another over every little thing… Look, things are hardly perfect now, but at least you can walk up the street to the convenience store and not worry about some asshole pulling down his pants and shooting lasers out of his-"
"O-Okay, okay, I get the picture. A very graphic picture."
"Look, even though this is off-the-record, I just want to stress the importance of critical thinking. What the Black Lily Advanced Materials Laboratory does, that's a step in the right direction! But that people still think what they do is 'controversial' even though no-one has a problem with donating blood or hair or sperm or plasma… Honestly, it feels like the world is run by five-year-olds most of the time. And I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I lived closer to a Hero Academy."
"I see…" Chitose hummed, nodding her head. "You've given me a lot to think about. Arigatou~" she said suddenly getting up and pressing her lips to his forehead, letting out a cute giggle as the pre-teen's face turned red up to his hair, ears flapping like wings as he retreated from her. "You grow up big and strong, you hear? Can't let those fangirls tear you apart before your cute Onee-sama can get a crack at you!" she called out playfully.
"I'm just gonna pretend you didn't say that!" Takei called out as she drove away.
"Like Pokémon cards~"
"Dammit, Torino, could you not!"
*AHA*
AN:
During the initial drafts for this chapter, Takei wasn't going to talk with Stendhal/Stain, hence why in the Fanmail Section I thought I'd have to wait a bit longer, but this chapter felt a little short, so I realized I could actually sneak in some of those favorite Code Geass quotes quite early~
Getting to write in Chitose using her [Landmine] Quirk (instead of Takei using ineffectual "conventional firearms") was also a ton of fun, and obviously her rounds are specially-modified to be able to handle her Quirk without her holdout pistol blowing up in her face. For obvious reasons she couldn't use the same [Chain Ring Curious Flattener] as she did during the "Meta Liberation Army Arc", even if she did have it 3-4 years prior to the Canon but I actually had way more fun with this than I expected~
Anywho, tell me what you think in the Review section and… Oh!
P.S.
If Kars from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency were to transmigrate into the My Hero Academia world through a Rift, how would he Scale in comparison to Japan's Heroes?
I tried posing an inquiry about him on Discord, but I don't have a wide enough fanbase on there that's also a fan of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure to be able to get an objective answer, so I'm unashamedly asking here.
Anywho, see you all next time!