Saturday Afternoon

Downtown Musutafu

John sighed as he roamed up and down the grocery store aisles, picking up his and Rumi’s food for the following week. He was still a bit grumpy from when he found out Japanese schools were still in on Saturdays, giving him only a single day off a week. His compensation package included several weeks of paid vacation, in addition to being off during the three school breaks, but that still left forty-some Saturdays he would be required to work.    

Hell, I had more time off in The Great Cleric than I do here in a modern civilisation. 

The week had gone by fairly quickly, with most of the other classes having fewer ‘colourful’ students to make things exciting. There was one student who stood out among all of them when she came into his office and started to look at his eyepatch, and seemed disappointed that it was just leather. She seriously got right in his face and started to poke the leather even before introducing herself, asking why he wasn’t using a prosthetic or augmentation.

John chuckled at that, remembering picking the pink-haired girl up by the shoulders and setting her down on the other chair. She seemed surprised, but didn’t stop running her mouth the entire time about what she could build for him instead. Finally, when their time was up, she bounced out of the chair and bowed to him, finally introducing herself as Mei Hatsume, class 1-H, an aspiring inventor. She promised she could make him an even better eyepatch, then jetted out of the room on a pair of rocket boots. He had said a grand total of six words to her.

All Might still hadn’t returned to the school full-time, though John did spy him once outside talking with Midoriya for a few minutes before disappearing. Anan had returned that morning but had avoided coming to see him, choosing to focus on repairing the U.S.J. facility. He just shrugged it off; he couldn’t force her to talk about her experience, so he just left the offer open to her to talk.

Overall, the attack seemed to be becoming old news, with everyone getting amped up for the Sports Festival next Saturday. It reminded John of the times his old high school would treat a championship football match, except this time it was the whole school involved, not just a select few students. He overheard some students say it was like the Olympics, except for Quirk users, and that it even had international viewership. His new memories didn’t have any recollection of it, but he wasn’t a sports nut, so it was plausible.   

A familiar voice broke him out of his contemplations. He looked up and saw Mt Lady in her hero suit, trying to reach some snack food on the top shelf. It was the last bag of whatever it was, and back against the wall. She seemed to be getting frustrated. She looked at him for a moment, glared in recognition, then walked away without saying anything. 

On a whim, he grabbed the item, some type of chocolates, and continued his shopping. A few minutes later, he heard her voice again, booming rather loudly. “What?!? They were just there, I swear. Look harder.”

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, it’s not up here.”

“Grrr… well, thanks for not-… thank you for trying.”

“You’re welcome. Can I help you find something else?”

“No… that’s fine. I’ll come back another day.”

She left the store then, looking rather crestfallen. John just shrugged, finished his shopping, then checked out. His train would be coming soon, and he was determined not to get lost again.

Walking towards the station, he saw Mt Lady leaning against the wall of a nearby alley, still looking pouty. He shifted his bags to one hand, rummaged around in one of them and pulled out the chocolates. She looked surprised when he pushed the bag into her hand.

“Here. I think you were looking for these.” He said, not stopping.

“What? Why?”

“You stopped yourself from snapping at that cashier when he couldn’t find what you wanted. Good girls get rewarded in my books.” He replied, not looking back. 

“Hun? Wait! Did you buy them on purpose!?!” She said, walking along with him.

“No, darling, I reached the back of the top shelf and bought them by accident. I’ll grab myself a healthier snack somewhere else; got to be careful at my age, else the pounds will sneak up on you.” 

“I swear, I’m going to-“

“Careful, you were doing so good. Don’t ruin the Lady image now. Hate to have to call you Mt Escort again, or did you prefer Mt Virgin?” 

“Argh! DO YOU HATE ME OR SOMETHING?!?”

He stopped then and looked down at the beautiful young woman. “If I hated you, I wouldn’t have given you the chocolates. I just want you to be a better person; you don’t need to act like a cheap whore, it makes you look ugly.”

“I’m not ugly! You are!”

“Am I? Maybe on the outside, darling, but I’m not the one who uses their body to try and get free shit from simps. Do better.” He replied, then started to walk away from the flustered hero. He was starting to regret his little prank now, or at least giving her those chocolates just because she seemed sad that they were gone. He put her out of his mind and continued to the station. He had a lot of training he wanted to do tonight, and a few castles he wanted to explore tomorrow.

He was in a functioning Japan, near where Tonokusu city was in High School of the Dead. A little over an hour on a train would get him to a couple of castles near that city, so he could do some research for his return to High School of the Dead, and have a bit of a break from school and training. Momo wasn’t the only one who needed to take some time off from thinking about how to help the students do better.

Unnoticed by John, Mt Lady was staring after him, snacks in hand, her emotions in turmoil. She wanted to smack the man for his audacity, but… There might be a sliver of truth to what he said.

She had hundreds of thousands of fans on her social media, thanking her for her work as a hero, but… There was a very large portion of them that were just fanboying over her looks. She played into her sexuality ever since she graduated from U.A. a few years ago, gaining further fame, but she was getting a bit older now, and it was feeling… hollow. She wanted to have a relationship, but she didn’t want to date someone who was worshipping her feet and said things like ‘Step on me, mommy’ in her social media comments.

She wanted someone who could treat her like… like she was a normal human being. Most of the other pro heroes at her level were already married, in relationships, or batted for the other team, leaving her with limited options. 

She looked down at the bag of chocolates in her hand, then back up at the man who was walking away, carrying an excessive amount of groceries. Despite her words, he had a certain aura about him that she found appealing. Tall, rugged, and looked dangerous despite just being a therapist of all things. And he treated her… 

“Bah, what am I thinking! Never, not in a million years!” She said to herself and turned the other way to resume her patrol, the bag of chocolates still clutched tightly to her chest.

Hosu City

“Thanks again for your help.” The police officer said as a few other officers were loading the three villains into the back of a van.

“Ha! Well, they weren’t who I’m looking for, but I’m always up to stop a few villains.” Rumi replied, happy enough to help out the local heroes deal with some trash. She took off then, heading back out on patrol for a bit.

She wasn’t here in Hosu to stop some small timers like these idiots, but hunting for the Hero Killer, Stain. She and a few other of the top pro heroes had started to recognise the man’s patterns and were loosely working together to increase patrols in this city, expecting him to strike a couple more times before he moved on.

If she was honest with herself, the man wasn’t on her radar until earlier that week when he assaulted Thirteen, a hero known in Japan in her work for rescuing people from emergencies and natural disasters. Afterwards, Endevor had coordinated with several of the top ten heroes to increase patrols within Hosu in hopes of catching him in the act. 

The man had struck again, but they had managed to chase him off before he could kill the hero. They did get some information about him and his Quirk from the two survivors, which was more than they had before. He could lock you down if he got a taste of your blood, leaving you immobile and vulnerable to him. Because of that, she was now walking around in a slightly different outfit than she normally wore, thanks to what Thirteen had told them when she was rescued by this strange vigilante called the Twilight Knight. 

She was now covered head to toe in Kevlar armour, the dense fabric designed to be both flexible and able to turn all but the sharpest weapons. It wasn’t a perfect defence, but she was confident enough in her skills that she could go head-to-head with his villain now and take him down. There were very few people who were faster than this rabbit.

She jumped up the sides of a few buildings and gained the rooftops easily enough, and started to make her way across the city one more time before she called it a day. She wanted to get back home to see what John had made for supper. 

That was another interesting thing that had happened in her life recently, and was honestly making her happy to come back home at night. The man kept the place clean and tidy, the yard was maintained, and there was always food ready for her when she walked in the door. The only things he wanted were a place to sleep and some martial arts training, and he was relentless in improving himself. Training at all hours of the day, pushing himself to his limits, he was training just like she did, which made her happy. If he were only like fifteen or so, she would gladly have taken him on as a formal disciple.

Hah, it would be odd to have a disciple who was older than me. 

She jumped across a few more buildings, keeping an ear open for any strange sounds while continuing her thoughts on John. She found it strange that he hadn’t tried to make a move on her yet, like so many other men had tried, and found it both refreshing and a little insulting. Despite anime featuring tons of cute bunny girls, most men seemed to avoid them in real life. She knew she wasn’t some stunning beauty, but she was short and… cute in a muscular way. She just spoke her mind, and most men didn’t like that, and she wasn’t about to change for some idiot who couldn’t beat her in an arm wrestle, let alone a fight. 

That was her bar, the same thing she said to John when she offered to train him. Hit her once, you get a kiss; defeat her, and she will marry you. She refused to be with someone weaker than she was. She didn’t really care that much about looks, just passion to be the best. He could be shorter than her for all she cared, as long as he could win in unarmed combat against her. Oh, and not be some villain. It was a ridiculous standard, but she only wanted to ever have one man in her life, and would die alone if she had-

She paused, taking shelter by a nearby air conditioning unit. On a nearby roof, she could see three people standing around, talking about something. They were obscured by a purple mist, so she couldn’t see them very well, but her ears could hear them easily enough. 

“Hero Killer Stain, we have a proposal for you. If you step through the warp gate, we will bring you back to our hideout to talk.” A deep voice said, sounding almost ancient.

“Heh, a cloud of gas and another man in armour. Villains… villains! You’re the reason these would-be heroes are even failing at their one job. Why would I want to talk with your ilk?” Another voice said, this one clearly sounding unhinged.

She assumed it was Stain. She pulled out her phone and sent a signal to Endevor to close on her position, the number two hero having been on standby over the city in a helicopter. She preferred to work alone, but for Stain, she would make a special exception. Not to mention there were three of them.

“Please, be calm. Even if our end goals are not the same, I believe our interests are aligned; we both want to end the reign of these would-be heroes and carve a path toward a better future. Come, listen to our proposal. If you don’t like it, you will be free to leave.” The ancient voice said.

“Master, we have company coming.” Another voice said, sounding younger and very formal.

“So we do. Open the portal, Kurogiri. Stain, you can come with us, or remain here. If you choose to remain, be aware that you are about to have a battle on your hands you won’t be able to win.”

“I seem to be retreating more these days than not. How did they find us?” 

“I would assume it was Mirko who told them, the so-called rabbit hero is hiding on the building next to us. She doesn’t pose a threat to me, so I ignored her. You have about thirty seconds. Would you like to kill her before we go?”

What? How in the hell did he know I was here?

“Stain! You’re under arrest! If you and your friends come quietly, we won’t be forced to- Ack!” She jumped up and started to shout, but had to dodge to the side as a black ball of energy whizzed towards her.

“Twenty seconds now.”

“Let’s go. I’ll listen to what you have to say.”

“Get back here!” She shouted, jumping to the next roof. Endevor’s helicopter was approaching the building, the massive man hanging out the side of it, a fireball growing in his hands. A large jet of flames shot forth towards the trio, but was blocked by some sort of energy shield.

The three villains stepped through the gate, disappearing from the rooftop just as another, larger blast struck where they had been standing.

Rumi growled, punching one of her fist into her palm. She didn’t know who that villain was, but she would find out. She would show him exactly how much of a threat she really was.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep