Conference Room

U.A High School

Anan, also known as the pro hero Thirteen, sighed quietly, once again wondering why she was even in this meeting. Sure, she was part of the school faculty, but her focus has always been on disaster relief training; she had no experience or interest in security for the School Sports Festival or in anything that would go on during it. She had already done her part by helping carve out the obstacle course weeks ago. She was just going to be an observer for the event itself; unless something major needed to be cleaned up, at which point she would be a glorified vacuum cleaner like every year before.

She closed her eyes and leaned back in her spare space suit, letting the conversation wash over her as her mind drifted back to the incident yesterday. That is what this meeting started off about after all, not about festival preparations. Most of her prior experiences were against low-level thugs at most; this was the first time she ever had to deal with a villain who was seriously trying to kill her and had a Quirk that could counter her own power.

I could have stopped most of them in their tracks if I hadn’t hesitated. Instead, I stayed back and let All Might and Eraser Head fight them while I ‘Protected’ the students. Sounds noble when I put it that way, but what did that accomplish? We all nearly died at the villain’s hands. If it wasn’t for that armoured man who snuck up behind the gaseous villain, we could have died.

This wasn’t the first, or even the tenth time she had gone over this in her mind since yesterday. She kept trying to reassure herself that she had kept her morals by not hurting anyone, but the phantom pains in her back from when her own Quirk was literally shredding her body, tore that argument apart. She hesitated to act, and when she finally did, she only reluctantly used a fraction of her power to try to deter the villain. She failed her students and colleagues. Dress it up all she wanted, she knew deep down that she was a coward.

Half of the previous discussion was about this unknown hero who rescued everyone from whatever fate the villains had planned for them. The police had no records of a hero who wore armour like that and carried a sword around, nor of one who seemed able to use multiple quirks. Though the police weren’t calling him a hero for rescuing them, but a vigilante for both his actions at the U.S.J. and at another incident earlier that day when he helped defeat another villain. He had refused to comply with another hero’s orders, then blinded her and escaped before she could take him into custody.

If someone had asked her two days ago, she would have agreed with that assessment of him. However, after the attack… her mind was conflicted, and she didn’t know what to think. 

I just wish I could have thanked him. 

“Thirteen? Are you okay?” Nezu asked, startling her out of her thoughts. Looking around, all eyes in the room were on her, leading her to believe that this wasn’t the first time he had said her name.

“Yes… Just lost in thought. What was the question?”

“It was just confirmation that you will be on standby for cleanup. We have several very powerful students in Class 1-A and 1-B this year that could cause a significant amount of devastation, so I predict your services will be needed.”

“Of course. Same as every year.”

“Very good. After the meeting, come see me in my office.” The rodent said, then added, “You as well, Eraser Head and All Might. Now for our…”

Anan turned him out again, already having guessed what he wanted to talk about. He was probably going to suggest that all three of them talk to that new counsellor, John Wayne, about the incident. When Hound Dog won on that lotto ticket a month ago and decided he was going to retire and open a dog park earlier than he originally planned, Nezu was ecstatic.

He had been wanting to hire an on-staff therapist for years now, but couldn’t get the government to pay for it. They had no issue with him paying for school equipment with his own wealth, but the government drew the line at allowing him to pay for school staff directly, citing it as a conflict of interest. 

She sighed. She didn’t know why, but when John had introduced himself to her, something felt… familiar. Like they had already met, though she had no memories of him. His voice, his… aura? Whatever it was, it was comforting, as if he were protecting her. She thought he might have been using a Quirk on her, so she threw her guards up when they briefly talked. She wasn’t looking forward to any one-on-one counselling with him, no matter how much she probably should talk with someone.

She allowed her mind to drift back to that Twilight Knight instead, and thought about what she would say to him if they ever met again. She idly dreamed about being swept off her feet by this knight and living happily ever after. Entertaining that childish fantasy was easier to do than confronting her own insecurities right now. 

That Evening

Jaku City

John grumbled as he stepped off the train, finally making it to Jaku City, albeit much later than planned. 

He had misread the number on the first train and ended up in Hosu City, where another agency he was supposed to visit was located. After luckily finding the hero named Manual while wandering the streets, he returned to the station to try again. 

This time, he had the correct train, but he misheard the stop announcement, so he ended up in yet another city and had to wait for yet another train to Jaku. He spent the time looking at housing online, and came to the conclusion that living anywhere near U.A. would be nearly impossible, unless he wanted to literally funnel ninety percent of his paycheque into rent. Or he lived in a sardine can.

I should look into the laws on buying land and get a low- or mid-tier housing gatcha. Or just ask to pitch a damn tent in the woods on U.A. campus… these numbers are insane.

Outside of the major cities, the costs plummeted significantly, to the point of almost being free, but his commuting time would be over an hour each way by train or several hours by driving. He would have-

“Stick ’em up, old timers! We want your money, not your life.” A voice said behind him. He blinked for a moment, at first thinking someone was talking to him, but he turned around and realised they were talking to someone else.

Two muscular men who had shark-shaped heads were holding up an old couple that had gotten off the train behind him. He looked around and cursed, seeing a security camera overlooking the area. He was lucky the last two times that there were no cameras when he armoured up, but he wasn’t quite ready to open that ball of wax.

He noticed a restroom nearby and darted inside. Well, he tried to, but when he went through the door, he crashed into what felt like a wall. A short wall. He landed on his ass and looked up at the pair of red eyes looking down at him, looking just as confused as he was.

“Did you confuse which washroom you were supposed to go to?” She asked, one of her long white rabbit ears cocked to the side, which reminded him of Nanaella when she was confused. Unlike Nanella, she had dark skin, long white hair, and was quite muscular. She was wearing a tight-fitting white leotard and purple thigh-high leather boots that had the toes cut off and a pair of rabbit feet sticking out. Her breasts were slightly smaller than Nanaella’s, though still easily a D cup, verging on E.

She is beauti- Why in the world am I so damn horny? Note, ask Alec to stop doing whatever the hell they’re doing to me when I get back to DEN.

“Villains.” He said, pointing over at the sharks.

“Say no more! Luna Rush!” She said confidently, then literally leapt from a standstill and crashed into the two shark villains. Throwing kick after kick into their sides, she sent them flying into the street, followed swiftly by the short rabbit woman who was almost as muscular as Bryn.

It only took her a few seconds before she had knocked them both unconscious. She took a moment to check with the two elderly people, then gave John a thumbs-up before picking up the villains and carrying them over her shoulders down the street, disappearing around the corner. The whole situation was over as fast as it began. 

Holy shit. I could barely follow her movements. That was like watching Brod fight. 

He grabbed his suitcase, then paused. He just missed his chance to hand off the paperwork to Mirko, not that she had a spare hand to carry it right now. With a sigh, he brought up the location of her dojo on his phone and started to make his way there. 

It was dark by the time John found the gate into the small compound listed as both Mirko’s dojo and residence. The gate was wide open, leading down a darkened path that looked somewhat ominous to him. He didn’t see any buzzer, so he just shrugged and walked in. 

After a couple of twists, the path opened up into the compound, which John took a moment to appreciate. There was a quaint little home built in the traditional Japanese style, with a small Koi pond surrounded by cherry trees. There was another structure to the side of the property, which he assumed was her dojo, as it was a bit larger than the house but had only windows higher up on the walls. He didn’t see a single electric light anywhere, making him feel like he had gone back in time a couple of hundred years. That was only spoiled by the muted noise of the city outside the gate. 

“Anyone home?” He spoke loudly, letting his voice carry. He didn’t get a reply, not that he was expecting to if she was still out on patrol or at least dropping those villains off with the police. 

Do I wait, or come back tomorrow? Bah, let’s give her thirty minutes or so. If it gets too late, I’ll just leave and come back in the morning.

Using the moonlight to guide his steps, he made his way over to the koi pond and sat down next to one of the cherry trees. He could see several fish swimming around, their scales shimmering in the moonlight. He watched them for a few minutes, the calming noise of the light breeze blowing through the tree above him relaxing him further. 

His eye started to close, exhaustion from the day of travelling finally catching up to him.

He started to drift off before snapping awake. “Nope! Not falling asleep! That’s the last thing I need to do right now.” He mumbled, standing up. 

“Luna Fall!” A familiar voice said, moments before something struck the back of his head, knocking him out cold.  

Rumi Usagiyama, also known as Mirko, the Rabbit Hero, pro hero rank number five, put her leg down after knocking out the trespasser on her property. She had arrived back home after transferring the two criminals to police custody, tired from a long day of patrolling the streets, to find someone dressed all in black hiding next to her koi pond.

The locals knew not to enter her place, so she assumed it was either a villain who had planned to ambush her or someone from the Underground Masquerade, looking to defeat her in an unsanctioned match. It wouldn’t have been the first time that happened since she retired from fighting in the ring to become a pro hero, though that happened less these days.

She rolled the man over, and the first thing she noticed was his eye patch and scarred face. He looked dangerous… and somewhat familiar. She snapped her fingers, recognising the man who ran into her earlier and fell.

“Hmm… well, you probably aren’t a villain, since you warned me of those two earlier, nor some challenger, since you didn’t fight me then. Just who are you, Mister?” She said to herself, then started to root around in his jacket. It didn’t take long to find his wallet, which had his U.A. ID in the front pocket. 

She stood up, looking at the ID, and then down at the man, who had a briefcase and a suitcase beside him, which she had missed before.

“Ah… crap. You might have just fucked up this one, Rumi.” 

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