Chapter 02: Choice, Not Chance
Its choice, not chance that define our destiny
Hunter, Destiny 2
The morning after my conversation and small action in the hill outside the city of Musutafu went like a blur, the hospital deems me to be fit enough to return to my home, which is not my home. My home is the Last City, but for now I will take what I could get.
"Aren't you excited to be finally back at home Izuku?" my mother's voice brought me back to reality.
'I really need to stop daydreaming about the past'. I thought as both of us walk through the hall to the exit door.
"Yes mother" of course, I lied to her. In truth perhaps its better to simply vanish when I enter The Veil when chasing The Witness instead of being trapped in here.
I no longer wear the hospital gown of course, now I wear my regular green jacket with black shirt with and All Might picture and grey trousers. As we travel home a radio program piqued mother's attention.
"So, to today's breaking news, an unknown vigilante saved a little girl from a villain attack last night. The girl describes the vigilante as a tall person with an all-white outfit brandishing a gun."
"The girl, 15 years old Uraraka Ochako just went home form vacation with her family before a wolf villain blocked their jumped on top of their car and causing it to swerve and then crash against the electric pole. The wolf villain would surely devour her family of not for the white vigilante whom battling the wolf villain heroically"
Scoffs*
"The girl now safe in Musutafu General Hospital, only suffering minor injuries. Her parents however sustained several cracked ribs but other than that they are fine. Pro underground hero Eraserhead promised to look this white vigilante to bring to questioning"
"Now we have an exciting new about the first victory of the Hanshin Tigers against Yokohama Hawks……" I have lost interest
'So…. It seems now the public knows our little adventure last night Aria and we have a big target in the back of our head' I grumble to my ghost
'So it seems… but aren't you glad you intervened the villain last night?' she replied, and of course, I cannot say no. It been quite a while since I've done a hunt.
FLASHBACK
"Aria, could you deduce the source of the scream?" I asked to her. Go in without any information is a fatal mistake, one that have killed many guardians before.
"Of course, my beloved warlock I already pin point the source of the voice. Patching the data to your helmet now…" she replied and its true, a pin on my H.U.D display in my helmet indicates that the source of the voice is 700 meters away.
Should I go? Could this be a trap? There are so many missing variables in this operation, but then again… going in guns blazing have saved me in some mission and those tend to be so much fun. Well… fun as like killing numerous enemies so much so they become a mountain of corpses.
So, we commence the hunt, I quickly dash towards the source of the scream, my muscles tense waiting for any kind of confrontation, my eyes quickly scanning my surrounding, looking for any sign of an ambush.
It's not long until I arrived on a scene, a car flipped upside down, its window smashed open. The car is in such a severe state that I doubt anyone still alive, right now I'm still 30 meters from the car, I wished to quickly arrive on the crash site, but I sense something wrong…
As I approached the crash site, I got new information. Three to be exact, the first is that there are still two passengers stuck in the car, they are unconscious and bleeding, but still breathing. The second is that a girl with brown bob hair and pink sweater are slumped in the railing of the road, it seems she managed to escape after the car got turned upside-down. She looked scared, her breathing is erratic, and sweating quite a lot. There's a blood stain on her shoulder that soaked her left arm, but other than that she's okay
The last one is the presence of a bipedal wolf that stood over 2 meters tall. Its fur is as black as ink and eyes as red as blood… or Ferrari. It snarls upon the girl walking closer, closer and closer towards the helpless girl seemingly wanted to eat her.
It seems neither of them are aware that I'm still here, but since there's still 10 meter to cross and the light provided by the streetlight are not shining in the place where I stood, I'm still cloaked in the darkness of night. A perfect situation to end this quickly, whether this is an actual werewolf or just a person whose quirk gone out of control I don't care, I summon Last Word, aimed at its head and shot into the air, that seems to caught his attention.
"Leave her alone" my voice low and akin to a grumble "This is your only warning"
The wolf doesn't heed my warning and sprinted to me, I fan-fire two shot which supposed to hit had he not jumped into the air, I quicklyf hop back and fire off three more round unto the air but the wolf suddenly vanishes.
'Behind!' I my instinct told me and I quickly turn my body and there the wolf is, standing and suddenly jumping into me, I fire of three more rounds while dash to the left and reloaded a fresh new round.
"I should've change to shotgun!" I grumbled, for whatever the reason, the bullet, although struck the wolf in the shoulder blades, did not stop it and only serve to agitate it further. The wolf charged at me again, now slashing left, right and center, luckily Saint 14, Zavala, and other titan have trained me in melee combat. Saint's training regime is quite brutal, but the result spoke for itself, the wolf's slash doesn't have any coordination and although very powerful it took 3.5 seconds to follow-up.
The wolf swung a left punch at me which I grabbed his bicep so hard that he can't move it any further, and with my right hand punch his ribs so hard I might have cracked two of his ribs, followed by and uppercut that broke its jaw. He stumbled back, his hand holding his jaw.
But the wolf doesn't give up, it quickly regains his posture and tried to attack me again, jumped to me again and again which I simply evade by either pivot, a small sidestep or jumping.
Finally, he put too much power into one leap which I easily evade and summon my power, strand. As it latches into his body, I quickly pull him in and gave him a heavy sucker punch straight in the middle of his face
'Ow, this is why I don't like to go CQC' I thought as I cracking my finger, it seems the wolf is finally falling face first unconscious
'Only one job left to do' as I readied Last Word to his head
"Hold now my dearest guardian…" Aria's voice shocked me
"You cannot shoot him my beloved warlock, what if he's a civilian?" she asked me, and I honestly don't care
"Aria, I don't think that THAT thing is a civilian, I mean look at him! He's covered in blood, and preying on a helpless girl in the middle of the night!" For me it is obvious that he's a villain
"You have no proof for that conclusion my dearest guardian… Do not judge a book by its cover" of course… she would use this moment to lecture me about giving someone a second chance
"Why not just shoot him in the head? And just be done with it" I exasperatedly ask her, I genuinely tired after the fight
"Because my dearest guardian, doing so would against you purpose. To protect mankind and the innocent, to be the shield for the weak, to be the guiding light for the strong," she gave a reason I could not deny. Every guardian must make an oath to protect humanity, to be the shield for the weak, to defend the innocent, but….
"Well, that's what I'm doing here Aria, became the shield to protect the girl. By shooting the monster that threaten to harm her" I hoped that she would buy my reasoning
"Not like that my dearest guardian, I mean like a Titan protecting a small child. Look it this way say you shoot the monster and left what about the girl? What about the two passengers inside the car? You will only stratify your bloodlust and not fulfilling your oath!" Aria flew in front of my face and basically shouted at me
"Back in the Last City we have Titans, Hunters, and other Warlocks to took care of civilian, but now they are not here my dearest guardian. You! Must fulfill their role, you! Must be their shield, you! must be the protector of the innocent"
"……"
I exhale
"I'm not strong enough Aria, I pick my path because I could shut myself in the library, during our years fighting for the Lats City how many friends that I have huh?" aside Cayde, Ikora, Zavala, Osiris, Saint 14 I don't have any other friend.
"I know that you are afraid my beloved warlock, afraid that you will fail, afraid that you're too weak…" she closes the gap between our face
"But I'm here my dearest guardian. I will help you, I will guide you, I will offer my insight and knowledge. A support pillar for you and you alone"
"….."
she's right, after Cayde's death I become far too ruthless and I have lost what it meant to be a guardian, to be a protector, not to be a killing machine. I also feel sorry for her, as I sometimes forgot that she's still here.
She'll always with me, after all, our bond unbroken from the day we met till the day we died
"Thank you, Aria, my companion. For reminding me of who I am. A Guardian, and not a crazed gunman" I sincerely thanked her
"One is a job and the other's a mental sickness~" she jokingly replied, it seems that her humor hasn't changed at all.
I made my choice, to be a guardian, to be protector, to be the warrior the Traveler wanted me to be. The Champion of The Light. That night I made my choice, to be a guardian once more
FLASHBACK END
After our little adventure I decided to use strand to tie him up before hitting the wolf in his head with the side of my hand cannon, I thought that I heard a crack sound when I hit his stull. Hmm… whatever, after securing the wolf, I took the two passengers out form the crashed vehicle and left.
"We're here Izu, pack your thing up and let go" my mother's uppity voice brought me back to reality. To a place I once called "home", when I enter the living room, nothing much have change, but I only coma for three months not years and I saw my sister in her grey hoodie, white shirt and blue pants folded her arm and looked at me with disgust and hate
"So, you're finally here…" she sounded disappointed, not surprising her quirk granted her the ability to teleport small distance and attract thing within 10-meter radius, although, a bullet from Last Word, Ace of Spades, Izanagi's Burden, etc. etc. that struck her brain would still kill her.
"Hm… yes, unfortunately" I hummed. "I'm going to my room Izumi, if you need anything from me, you know where to find me" I replied with a tired voice
"Hmph, as if I need anything from a quirkless failure like you" she scoffed and at the same time insulted me
"….." I did not say anything as I walk to the second floor, but I still throw a side glance on her.
Creak*
The room stayed the same like I left three months ago, a normal bed, desk, a bookshelf filled with encyclopedia and hero comic, and many hero poster like All Might, Endeavour, Hawks, and others.
"So, this is your room, eh? My dearest guardian?" Aria manifested on my shoulder and flying around my room, scanning every hero-related stuff I had. "You know, if your room at the tower are this colorful, I might enjoy stay inside a lot more"
"Maybe…, but I'm planning to throw all of this away. Too many bad memories here, and since what I am right now is not what I was back then. Its better to just start with a blank state" I said while pulling several stupid posters from the wall.
"Hmm… a shame that I would never see that child-like side of yours~" she teases me as always.
By the time I done redecorated my room its already dark, I check the clock on the wall
'Hmm 6.30 PM…, I'm surprised that mother still haven't yell at. Me to come down for dinner. Is something wrong happening downstairs?' I ponder before go out of my room and checked the living room
I see Izumi laze around in the sofa, but I could not see where mother is.
"Izumi do you know where mother go?"
"She went to the bank two hours ago, saying something about insurance of extra money" her eye still locked to her console, but at least she did not belittle me, for now that is.
Well, she must be hungry since it's already 6.30 PM, so off I go to the kitchen preparing dinner. With only limit food I managed to prepare a ramen, the recipe quite similar with the spicy ramen shop that Cayde always talked about.
"Dinner, Izumi" I call my sister
"I'm not hungry, just leave it for me in the table" she replied.
'Hmm she's quite focused to the game she's playing right now, oh well if her ramen gone cold, it's her fault.' I went back to the kitchen and prepare one for mother when she came back from whenever she is.
And so, I went back upstairs into my room, preparing and prepare my mental for what will happen tomorrow
School….