Chapter 04: The Easy Was Only Yesterday
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be a stronger man
-John F Kennedy-
It's already dark when I decided to returned to home, after fixed the roof and put the trio in the infirmary and cleaned up the debris which took two hours for me to finished everything and leave no mark on the ground. By the time I arrived on the subway station it's already 05.30 PM.
Unsurprisingly the subway station is fully packed with people came back from offices, and against my better judgement I decided to NOT using the subway and walked back home, it took considerably longer amount of time but it's an opportunity to avoid crowd, and I would take that opportunity even though I would be late for dinner, not like I needed it though.
And so, although it took quite a while to arrive at home, at the very least Aria can see the bustling city of Musutafu, the cars, the high-rise apartment, the bright advertisements of hero and heroines. A glimpse of light where humanity is not being threatened by Vexs, Fallens, Kells, Cabals and others, the age of normalcy before humanity started to space travel.
As we walked near a bookshop, I have an idea, an eureka moment. 'Don't you wish to see what the old world looked like Aria? You only knew what's left of it not what is it right now' I said to her, maybe she would find the pictures of mankind's achievements interesting
'Oh? Humanity's old stuff? I would like to!' she excitedly said
Thus, I decided to bought several world pictures and a global map and a candy bar for me, as I approached the cashier, several men, four to be exact, with sunglasses and mask made from handkerchief barge in, one of them aimed a shotgun at the terrified lady behind the cashier.
"Give me your money!" he shouted, while the other started threatening the other people, with their pistol and start shouting, demanding to give their money. Unfortunately, I don't have money except for the stuff I bought just before.
"Give me your money kid!" one of the thugs said aiming his gun at me
"I don't have any sir; can't you see that I'm just a high school student?" I replied, which he did not buy
"You're holding an atlas, globe map, and going to the cashier kid! You think I'm stupid?!" He yelled at me, which does little to calm my nerves that have been tensed since these four thugs came in and started shouting and demanding this and that.
Crash! *
A crashing sound broke my trance and I looked over to see a thug push down a lady and pointed his gun at her.
"I said give me your money!" he shouted
"N-No! I need it for my family!" the lady shouted back while clutching her purse as if her live depended on it. She looked desperate, her hair is a mess, she sweat so much and her eyes started to water, but there's a defiance in her voice, a desire to protect her family.
"Bitch!" the thug shouted back, grabbed her jacket, forcibly ripped her purse from her hand and push her so hard she hit the rack and stumbled over. As she lay there unconscious a small pool of blood formed behind her. She' must've hit the sharp edge of the rack meant to keep stuff in
"Alright that's it" I said, quickly grabbed the forearm of the thug in front of me and move it sideways, he tried to fire, but since I pushed it away the shot missed. Then I twist his wrist and he released the gun.
I quickly catch the gun that have fallen out of his hand, with my left hand, pull the thug in so that our position changed and quickly fire of three rounds of bullet
BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
Three bullet, three dead bodies, all of the died because of the headshot, I quickly tugged in the other thug that I'm holding with my right hand, looked at him, and shoot a bullet in his face…
BANG*
He went limp, the entire bookshop now deathly still, I quickly dropped the gun. And walked to the unconscious lady, I lift her head up and check the damage. She suffered some scratch, a puncture would and bruises. But other than that, she's fine, I took the handkerchief from the dead thugs to made a makeshift bandage.
After stopped the bleeding woman I walked to the cashier, stepped over the dead thug that still hold his shotgun. I told her:
"Call ambulance, the bleeding has stopped but there's still the threat of infection" with a low voice
"U-u- umm it- it- it's free si-sir…" the lady stuttered, which is understandable. It not every day you see a highschooler disarmed a man with weapon and use said weapon to kill his teammate with deadly precision, all under 40 seconds
After that I finally arrived at my home, its already 06.30 PM. My mother would be deathly worried about me, she's always like that, overprotective, caring, and too soft. But it's probably that the one that change is me, the event of the Red War, The Taken King, death of Cayde-6 and Lightfall have changed me so much.
'She's going to pamper me so much, while crying, saying that its dangerous out there etc. etc.' I thought to myself.
And I was correct, when I said "I'm home" she quickly hugged me while crying, saying how worried she is and that I should not stayed outside for too long, especially after dark. I pay her no mind. Afterall I'm more than capable for defending myself and it's not like I'm alone out there, Aria is there with me, always watch my back, always support me whenever I needed
'Aww, I'm flattered my dearest guardian, to think that you hold me in such high regard. It makes me happy' she cheerfully replied
'I'm only stating the truth Aria, how many times a mission would fail if it not for you? How many times I would've died because of you? And who stayed by my side 24/7 after Cayde died? Who's the one that managed to calmed my anger after his death?' I spoke
I truly thankful for the Light, for she and I, a partner, a guardian and ghost, a companion for each other. I can feel her jumping up and down and spun her shell hearing my voice, and it made me happy too.
'Now, I'm off to bath please disconnect your sensor with me Aria' I said seriously, who wanted to take a bath while being seen anyway? Well, if someone out there likes it, I don't
'Aww,' she pouted and complained but nevertheless complied.
The dinner after bath is quite tense, Izumi still refuse to talked to me although I tried to made a conversation, she always replied with "None of your business" and "Not your problem". It honestly hurt for me to see my sister grew up hated his brother, but I cannot do anything to change that, I wish our relationship would return back when we are just a child, oblivious to the world. A good sibling, with no superiority and inferiority complex.
After dinner, I returned to my room, manifested Aria from my palm and started on my homework while Aria immerses herself in some pictures from the atlas that I bought from the bookstore.
"Wow, I have never known that man capable of build such a beautiful church" she said looking at the Cathedral of Sagrada Familia. "It's just so majestic, so beautiful…"
'What you're seeing there is the unfinished version of it. The architect Antoni Gaudi's design are so complex that even building it one hundred percent is impossible" I said while still working on my Japanese homework. "For now, that is" I added
"And this building looked funny to me, like a shell of a clam" she said looking at a large building with clam-like roof, the Sydney Opera House.
We exchanged some conversation; it was mostly Aria did the talking while I focused myself on my homework. Three-month coma apparently is not a justified reason for me to not doing my homework, so the teacher has been pressing me to "quickly catch up with the rest of the class" and that "your studies should be your first priority".
"Assholes, you thought that I was enjoying my three-month coma?" I grumbled while powered through a three-month worth of homework from various subjects ranging from Japanese, English, Math, Physics, Economy, Sociology, History, Hero Subject and many more.
It wasn't until 11 PM I managed to go through all of the damned homework, I packed all of it into my backpack and tiredly slammed my body to my bed. It was at this time I remember something, something crucial, something that could brought me to jail
"Hey Aria, did you erase the security record on the bookstore before?" I asked her
"Of course, my dearest guardian, however, even if I don't erase the camera, you still shown your face to the cashier and many other people…" as soon as she said that, my stomach dropped. "Furthermore, even if you wear the guardian mask, and using your distorted voice. They still have the fingerprint from the pistol you use to kill the thugs"
"Well, I saved the lady, I hope that they would look that as a good deed." I sighed. I got up from the bed equipped my outfit and kneeled in front of her
"I would like to apologize Aria…, I have turned on my oath to you" for us guardians' oath is not something that we took lightly, oath is binding, oath is eternal until you finished the task. For a guardian that broke his oath he would be shunned, and in worst cases, lightless and exiled, and my oath? It is the oath to not kill anyone, a promise, an oath.
"…." She analyzes me, inch by inch, while not moving I felt her gaze upon me, scrutinize me, checking my seriousness
"My beloved… I will be honest with you, my reason for you to not to kill the villains are not for their safety" she said to me
"Truth to be told, my beloved warlock, I care naught about the villain's wellbeing. I even wish that you could become their executioner as they are threat to humanity right now." She said with steeled resolve
"My reason is that I feared that your light became dim… my beloved warlock, that the darkness inside you grows again" she painfully spoke to me
"Again? What do you mean Aria?" I asked her clearly confused
"Darkness? But I felt okay, I mean, whenever I used my light its stays strong of not stronger than ever" I said
"That is the first symptom my dearest guardian… The stronger the light the stronger the darkness inside a guardian, until one day they slipped and started to fall into darkness. And once they started to fall its impossible to return, my beloved warlock"
"During the final event of the Red War, I sense that your light has gotten brighter and brighter, the changes seem small but for me it's quite clear that your light have changed its brighter" she spoke, her voice thick with the feeling of nostalgia of our journey during the Red War
"At first, I overjoyed with it, that my beloved warlock is stronger than anyone else bar Ikora, but then as you defeat, kill, and beat other gods, lords, burned the Dark Forest, and other journey. I started to realized that your growth is abnormal" she said with
"And one day when you slept, I decided to check your body, just incase of something actually wrong with your light. I also confused with what happened to you, it's when I sense within your light… lies a darkness" she spoke with fear… no not fear… terror.
"It's not just any darkness my beloved, it's new… I have never felt darkness so dark like that, it felt like the abyss, the emptiness of space. So thick yet easy to move, so heavy yet light at the same time, it's maddening my beloved, so maddening that even I trapped inside of it, my connection to the traveler gone, I cannot do anything" she shudders
"…." I said nothing as I hear her explanation, how I terrorize her, how I became her torment. And the darkness inside of me
"When Cayde died and you ran amok, I managed to stabilize you and brought you back to your senses. But when you asleep I saw in terror that the once small darkness has grown significantly. It's not eating the light, no, but for me it was like a massive wall, where no matter how much light you use to illuminate, the darkness won't go away. I was so scared by it that it almost broke me up"
"And as you kill, and kill, and kill the darkness grows but so too the light. The light also shone brighter and brighter. But I'm worried that your body won't be able to hold such massive power" She teared up in front of me
"Is that why you don't want me to kill?" I asked her
"Yes, you might ask why I told you this information, why not just kept in within the dark?" I wanted to say something but no voice came out
"Because I hoped with this information you would know why I told you to not to kill my beloved warlock… I want you to made a conscious decision not to kill, not just because you're bound by oath that you made to me"
"I… see…" I said, dismissing my white wolf oufit, back to my regular clothes
"Is there any way to regress the darkness?" I asked her
"No" she replied
Both of us are now silent, don't know what to do. I'm basically a ticking time bomb with no way to defuse and Aria stuck here with me… I felt tired, this is too much for me to bear, to think that darkness is within me is a shocking event.
"Would you hate me, Aria?" I asked her.
She slowly hovered into my face and with a soft voice she always uses to calm me down
"No, my dearest guardian. I would never blame this upon you" before she disappears from the real world, back to be a voice in my mind
That night I would sleep with a confused mind, weary hard, and tired body. What would befall upon me? What will happened to Aria? What would we be? So many questions floating in my mind, so many contingency plans being made, and one final question before I fell to a deep sleep
Am I the Final Shape?
The morning after that is like a dream to me, I woke up late, again, and Aria uses her foghorn sound, again. But at least I'm not late for breakfast, I greet my mother and Izumi before sat in the table for breakfast. Seeing that today is weekend I decided to take things slow. Perhaps meditate, a lot of meditation, I also need to spoke to Aria on what will happened to us, while I was making plan for what would I need to do today. Izumi decided to switch on the TV.
"Now breaking news, a small bookstore almost got robbed yesterday by four thugs, however a brave action by a highschooler prevented it"
That… that made my blood runs cold
"A bookstore called 'Muramasa Books and Office Equipment' just suffered an attempt of extortion and theft by four people yesterday on 06.15 PM. A witness recalled that four man wearing hoodies, sunglasses and mask from handkerchief barge in and one of the thugs pointed a shotgun at the cashier"
"While another thug tried to robbed a woman and pushed her down, something incredible happened gentlemen. The witness said that a highschooler with a green hair grabbed one of the thug's gun and shoot the other three with deadly precision, before finally killing the last thug"
"We have the record here gentlemen"
'WHAT?!, Aria you said that you wiped out the recording!' I called her, demanding explanation
'I did my dearest guardian!' she fired back at me. So, if Aria told me the truth, then how come the reporter have a record?
"It turns out one of the witnesses managed to slip past the thugs unnoticed and managed to record the event from the outside. Here we will play it for you ladies and gentlemen"
'Fucker decided that he would make a video of hostage situation rather than call the police or heroes. No wondee why we raise the age of alcohol consumption' I scoffed
'I don't think that have any relation with this man's action my beloved warlock' Aria mocks me
"All right, that's it" I heard my voice from the television
BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
A small moment of silence…
BANG*
The TV depict my movement exactly like I done yesterday, move away the thug's forearm, twist his wrist, catch the falling pistol, change position with the thug behind me, three quick shots, pull the last thug's arm and shot him. And then I walked to the unconscious lady, checked her condition, made a makeshift bandage, to the cashier, and left.
"We managed to hold an interview with the witness that record the action. What do you think about the boy Mr Goro?"
"Well, he's certainly skilled I'll gave him that, his action is a little bit extreme but he did not harm any of the hostage. He even checked the unconscious lady and treated her wound. Some would call him villain, but I thought that he is the hero in this situation"
After the interview the scene change back to the reporter
"We also managed to interview the cashier worker on that night. What's your opinion on the boy Ms Ayami?"
"He certainly saved our live, although he killed four thugs, I thought that it is the consequence of their action, just like being jailed. Also, he saved the lady that treated harshly by the one of the thugs and even asked me to call the ambulance to make sure the survive. He's the hero on that day"
The living room are silent, Izumi's jaw dropped and her eyes wide open, both of mother's hand covered her gaping mouth, her eyes also wide open. She's so shocked that one second later she falls unconscious.
"Hm?" I lazily hummed, and saw her on the floor. I sighed, well, it's not everyday occurrence that your fifteen years old son who just woke up from a three-month long coma and no military training whatsoever, dispatched four thugs with military precision. I calmly stood up, princess carried her unto sofa and went for a glass of water.
"Hngh?" she finally regained her consciousness
"What happened? Am I passed out?"
"Yes mother, here drink this water. And clam. down" I gave her a glass of water and urged her to drink it
"I don't know that you could finally made yourself useful nii-san" Izumi said with a heavy sarcasm in her voice
"There are many things you don't know about me Izumi. We kept our own secret afterall" I replied to her mysteriously.
"Heh, now you acting like you are wiser, like you are smarter" she said with a smirk, which I pay no mind. But still, deep down I feel like she started to open up to me for whatever reason.
"Izuku, how could you do that?!" my mother, now fully conscious quickly get up and demand me to explain my action
"What do you expect me to do mother? Just stay there like an idiot? Not trying to help? You told me to help when others in need, I'm just doing what you've taught me" I replied
"But killing them?!" she's so shocked that her son, her 'little Izu' killed for man and doesn't look remorseful
"That's just lucky shot, I never intended to kill them" I replied, a lie obviously, more like a reflex when handling with weapon
KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*
The sound of door knocked paused our conversation, I get up and started to walked to the door, as I opened it, I was greeted by a tall man with a cream fedora hat, office white shirt, a blue tie, and a large cream-colored overcoat that covered his shirt and blue tie. He also wears a white glove, his eyes looking down at me, analyze my reaction.
"Hello young man, may I spoke with Izuku Midoriya?" he politely asked, apperently he wished to spoke with me.
"Sure, please come in..." I said allowed him, to enter the living room.
We both walked into the living room, I gave him a side glance analysing his posture, expression, and body language. He looked relaxed, for what reason? I have no idea. And in the living room mother and Izumi looked as both of us arrived in the sofa. I gave both of the a cold side glance, basically telling them 'This is not your fight, don't intervene'
"Please have a seat" I pulled a chair for him to sit, while I went back to the kitchen and quickly prepared us some tea. After five minutes, I came out of the kitchen and offer him a cup.
"Ahh thanks, so, I assume that you are Izuku Midoriya?" he asked
I nodded. "I assume this is about the scuffle yesterday. I also assume that you are not here to arrest me". I said while sat down to the chair and folded my arms
"Oh, that means you knew who I am?" he asked, one of his eyebrows went up. Certainly curious
"I know who you are Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, I know your lie detector quirk, I know that you work with precinct 53rd. I know that you despise how the police became corrupt, I know enough" that's all that I said
"TRUE" Naomasa's quirk rang inside his mind
"Oh? I guess im quite popular eh?"He replied
"No, it's just an information. And from where do I get that? Well, let's just say that I have a particularly tech savvy companion" I said while mentally winked to Aria.
She giggled
"TRUE" Naomasa heard his quirk activated again
"..." For a moment neither of us are talking, we only looked at each other, sizing them, planning our moves.
"So, I guess you are not here to apprehend me right detective?" I asked, mentally prepared myself in the worst-case scenario
"No, I'm not here to apprehend you the owner of store grumbled about his store being ransacked but he decided not to press charges. The cashier lady also decided not to press any charge. Also, the woman that you saved begged me to let you free as a thank you" he said calmly
I got up and went to get a water, while my face remains neutral, secretly I'm glad that I would not have a criminal record.
"How do you know that I'm not here to apprehend you by the way?" he asked
"One, you are here, alone without any police car, or police, to apprehend me. In Japan it's the obligation of any villainous activity to be apprehend by the police, so even if a villain gets beaten by a hero it is the police's job to apprehend him. And I don't see you bring any officer with you"
"Two you do not bring any handcuff, you might ask how do I know? How can I be sure about that? Although you wear an over coat to conceal your equipment, while we walked together, I do not hear any metallic sound, but how can I be so sure about that..."
"Well… I don't, I just hope that that my prediction is correct." I spoke,
"TRUE" Naomasa's quirk rang again in his head
"If you are not here to apprehend me, why are you here at all?" Now it is my turn to be curious, why would a detective come into my mother's house in a weekend.
"Let's say that I'm curious Midoriya-san, I wish to know what made you kill the four guys yesterday. You could have just wait until the robbers got away, but you decided to act" he paused emptying his cup of tea
"While it's unfortunately results in the death of four robbers, we could see that it's an accident. Because, there is no way a high school student able to shoot like that" he smiled at me
Huh? Did you not see what done? the shot is a pin point headshot for Traveler's sake! Well, maybe the light of the Traveler protect me by clouded their judgement or Traveler help me and every civilian if this country's police are this stupid. But at least they do not adopt the policy of shoot first asked question letter, or the policy of politely put your shank on the knife bin...
"So why you decided to help?" He asked at me still curious of my reply
"…" I did not say anything, for a while I closed my eyes while facing the ceiling. Thinking…, what should I do?
"I have no wish to be a villain if that's what you're asking me…" I clarified, finally opened my eyes "Harm and killing any innocent or civilian is not what I do. You forgot that I'm still a high school student for goodness's sake" I continued
"TRUE" Naomasa's quirk rang in his head
"As for what made me the decision of killing those guys, I don't know… An impulse? Perhaps? It just something within me snapped when I see the lady got pushed over." I told him.
"TRUE"
"I see" The detective finally spoke
"I also read some of your records Midoriya-san, I knew that you're quirkless, I knew that you're bullied. But if you need any counseling, I know a place where they do not discriminate quirkless people" he said while got up and started walked to the door
"I'm thankfuil for the help, but so far my companion managed to keep me stable no matter how depressed I am" I replied while also walked him to the door
"TRUE"
"Well, I'm thankful for your cooperation Midoriya-san, I hope when we meet again, we will be working together" he offer his hand for a handshake
"I hope so" I said, while shaking his hand
He started his car and drove away, while he's no longer here I still felt worry about what would the world brought to us, to me, Aria, Izumi and mother.
'great, now I have a detective that would monitor my action, classmates that without a doubt still hated my existence, the blasted heat of the summer that won't go away until September. And the worst of all, the revelation from Aria'
Sigh*
As I sigh, looked up to the blue sky...
"The easy day was only yesterday"