Howdy folks, how's it going?
Not much to say this time around, other than this chapter fought me a bit. Writer's block can be a bitch sometimes.
Anyway, as always, shout out to Chaos Productions for his help.
And as always, I own neither BNHA nor WH 40K.
Now, enjoy.
/
Not long after, the two of them were down in the building's lobby, fully geared up and good to go. As she was swiftly realizing was gonna a trend when it came to the kid, Kaina had had no idea what to expect from his choice of apparel, but now that she had the opportunity to properly see it, she supposed it could be worse. Sure, it looked ramshackle, brutish, more fit for a low budget post-apocalyptic movie than hero work, but at least, far as she could tell, with the actually armored bits and the pockets within easy reach (no, she didn't understand how that worked any better than anyone else), the get up had been designed with function in mind rather than style, which in some ways was a plus. Far too many rookies had the tendency to go for the latter at the expense of the former…
"Alright, then... Mekboy," She addressed him, testing out the chosen moniker as mentioned in the paper work. It was, as first time choices went, again far from the worst, being simple, short and to the point. "Do you know why we're heading out now?"
"Uh, cuz dat'z wot heroes're supposed tah do?" The kid replied, clearly confused, and nope, still not looking directly at her. "And I'm learnin' tah be a hero?"
"Well, technically yes, but that wasn't quite what I meant." The heroine conceded, before clarifying. "I meant, think for a moment. Consider how heroes operate. Then see if you can answer my question."
"Hhhhhmmm," The boy hummed, a deep frown of concentration in his face, mumbling to himself, looking out into the darkening streets outside. "It be sunset… Most hero patrols be happenin' during dah day, where they'z mostly fer show, and den undahground heroes do their runs at noit, when dere's biggah oddz' a sumthin' happenin'… I'z guessing ya picked now as sum sorta com- a compro- a third choice? Might have sumthin' tah do with the area too?"
"Good guess, kid." Kaina replied with a slight smile. It looked like thinking took him some effort, but at least he did get there. "Yeah, it's too late for a daytime patrol, and too early for my usual runs on the night shift, but we're in Narushada. It's not the most reputable neighborhood, and at this time of day, odds are high there's gonna be trouble brewing already. It's not quite the normal experience for first timers, but it should teach you at least a bit of both ends of the spectrum. I normally would be going at this by navigating through the roofs and picking off problems from a distance, but tonight, we're going ground level, although we'll be sticking to the side alleys and avoiding the main roads." Then she gave him a serious look. "Now, as you are here to learn, I don't mind if you have questions, but if we do stumble into any situation, you are still just a trainee, so I expect you to listen to me, and do what I tell you to do. If you can't, then I'll be forced to reconsider this apprenticeship. Understood?"
"Yes, Boss." The boy replied, seemingly not bothered in the least by the stern warning. Kaina supposed it'd have to do.
"Alright, then. Let's move out."
/
True to Kaina's words, the main streets of Narushada, with bars and casinos and other more hidden, less than legal ventures, were quickly filling up with people seeking to partake after a hard day's work. Many people would often think, going by statistics as reported by the media, that it was a place with a relatively low rate of villain activity, and while that was technically true if you thought only in terms of open fights between heroes and villains, any hero who'd done their rounds here knew that it wasn't quite so simple. The definition of what people perceived as villainy and what actually constituted a crime did not always overlap, and if the former wasn't that frequent, the later had simple learned how to be more discrete. Needless to say, underground heroes were far more prevalent in these parts than those working the day shift, and the heroine had no doubt she wasn't the only one that'd be working tonight.
Also true to her words, it didn't take them too long at all to find signs of trouble.
"HELP! PLEASE, ANYONE!"
Not even 5 minutes into patrol, and already a panicked call for help. Must be some sort of record.
Immediately, Kaina grew serious, quietly signaling her charge to follow quietly. The cry had come from an alley adjacent to the side street they were in, at the back of a local restaurant. She knew the place, it had some good noodles.
Backing herself against the wall, signaling the kid to do the same, she took a quick peek around the corner.
"HELP!" A young, rainbow-haired woman, cried out, clearly terrified out of her mind, her back against the wall, in a desperate thug-of-war against a guy who was trying to take her purse.
"S-shut up, bitch!" The man, with no particularly abnormal, standout traits, hissed with a nervous glance around, before getting clearly fed up with her resistance, as he pulled a gun out of his pants, holding it threateningly in a way no self-respecting marksman would actually would. "Just shut up and give me the purse!"
Yeah, she had seen everything she needed to see here.
"Alright kid, stand back and watch this." She said, and going by how owlishly he blinked at that, it didn't escape the boy how relaxed she suddenly sounded. And then she just calmly stepped out into the alley and casually began approaching the scene.
"Alright, alright, break it up there, buddy, you're done." She called out, and immediately the victim and the thief turned her way, the former in hopeful surprise, the latter in shocked frustration.
"Shit!" The man cursed, eyes wide in panic as he immediately let go of the purse, aiming the gun at the heroine with shaky hands. "Stay back! I'll-I'll shoot!"
"You won't." Nagant replied without even slowing down her steady approach.
"I will, I-I will shoot if you don't back off and let me take the money!" The man replied, his entire demeanour twitchy and erratic, his eyes bloodshot. A junkie desperate to get his next fix, if she had to guess.
"I'm telling you, it's not happening." She replied warningly, not breaking stride.
Her complete lack of concern over the situation clearly rattled the thief, who in his growing panic tried to make good on his threat.
Click.
…
…
…
"The safety's on." The heroine explained to a dumbstruck thief, frantically looking between her and the weapon in his hands, before desperately trying to correct the issue. "It's still on. That's the hammer. That is a good way to shoot a finger off. And now it's too late."
The thief looked up, to realize she had already crossed the distance between them, and before he could react, a punch knocked him out cold.
"Alright kid, you can come out now." She called back, before getting down on one knee to cuff the man. "You alright, miss?"
"Y-y-yeah." The woman replied shakily. Kaina had been at this long enough to see the fear-driven adrenaline giving way to a crashing relief. "Thank you so much…"
"You're welcome. Just doing my job here." She replied promptly, before reaching a finger to her ear. "Dispatch, Lady Nagant here. Just prevented an attempted robbery, perp's subdued. Send a police patrol to my location."
/
Some 30 minutes later, a couple of police cars had come along to pick up the perp and the girl, alongside a quick statement from the heroine. Then the duo found themselves one again alone in the back alleys of the ward.
"So, Mekboy, what did you make of all that?" Nagant took the opportunity to ask. The kid had done exactly what she had asked, but to be completely honest, with everything she had seen of him so far, she was kinda surprised he had done it so quietly.
"Well." Midoriya hesitated briefly, clearly trying to come up with the proper words. "I fink it wuz zoggin' awsome."
"Not what I meant, kid." The heroine replied patiently, amused despite herself. "Go through the whole thing in your head. Why do you think I acted the way I did?"
"…Cuz ya noticed dah git'z shootah had dah safety on?" The boy ventured. "Fings like dis iz why I wuldn't put any on me own shootahs if mah hadn't told me to."
…Well, that was a terrifying piece of information, but still.
"Yeah, that was the key detail. I wouldn't have gone in like that otherwise. That guy clearly had no idea what to do with a gun, probably had never handled one in his life before, but that would just make him that much more dangerous if not for whoever handled that thing before he did being more careful."
"But wot about quirks?" The boy pointed out. "Dah git had nothing tah immediately tell wot he culd do. He coulda been holdin' a track fer emergencies."
"A valid concern." Nagant conceded, pleasantly surprised that the kid had brought it up. "But honestly, if he had had a quirk worth using for this sort of situation, he probably wouldn't have been packing a gun in the first place. Villains and criminals tend to put quirks first even more than some heroes do, kid. They love to feel that power and be able to push others around with it. To the common thug, guns are for those with useless quirks or the sufficiently desperate quirkless, and given the quirk suppressant cuffs worked on him, he wasn't the latter. Besides, going by how jittery and uncoordinated he was acting, he was likely too addled to be a problem even if that wasn't the case."
"But ya still had othah ways tah go about it. Ya coulda shot dah thing off his handz, it'd be easy fer you'ze in a tight space like dat. Or at least ya coulda just sneaked up on him instead'a announcin' yerself like dat." The boy continued, frowning as he considered. "But ya wanted his attenshoon on ya… because den it wuldn't be on the girl?"
"There we go, kid, full marks." The heroine said with an approving smile. "Again, I wouldn't have done it this exact way if not for that tiny little detail, but still, desperate as he was, he could've tried hurting the girl, or make her a hostage, try to make a break for it while threatening her, stuff like that. I figured that if I kept his attention on me, addled as he was, he wouldn't have the time to think of anything that'd put her in further danger." She then gave him a long, expectant stare. "So, what have you learned from this little encounter?"
"Hhhhhmmmm… Pay attenshoon to every detail no matter how small, try tah get dah civilliuns outta harm's way, make sure my shootahs are always ready tah fire so baddies can't catch me off like dah git wuz?"
…Well, she supposed getting two of them right was not too bad.
"Eh, you're learning kid, we'll keep working on it." She replied encouragingly. "Now come on, night's still young, and we got some more patrolling to do before dinner. Noodles will be on me."
/
Nagant is kinda new to this whole teaching thing, so she's still trying to find the proper balance between teaching him how things are actually supposed to work on the field and not accidentally dropping him off the deep end. Fortunately for her, teaching by example is a pretty good approach to take.
We'll see how things develop next time.
Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.