Something cold and salty dripped on Anan’s face, stirring her back to consciousness. A bit of it ran into her mouth, and she realized that it tasted like seawater.

When did I get to the ocean? Wait, I can barely move.

Her body felt great, relaxed even, like she was basking in the afterglow of a good lovemaking. She was confused about why she felt a great weight on top of her body, then remembered the villain’s attack, and subsequently, when TK covered her body as the ceiling was collapsing on top of them. She opened her eyes, blinking a few times as they adjusted to the golden glow covering her knight, who had saved her once again.

“Good, you’re awake. I was getting worried.” He said, looking down at her. She could see through his visor that he had only one eye, a steel-blue one that seemed to blaze with energy.

“TK. TK… Are you… an angel?” She said, marvelling at the golden aura around him before returning to his intense gaze.

“Hah, no, darling. I’m no angel.” He laughed, sounding amused at the thought. “Any chance you can use your Quirk to get us out of here? I think the load behind me is done shifting. I don’t have the power to activate this ability a fourth time. At least for now.”

“How long was I out?”

“Maybe five minutes. Hard to tell for sure. I would have started digging our way out of here, but we don’t have anywhere to stash the bricks. We don’t exactly have a lot of room here.” He said, and she looked around. They barely had enough room for the pair of them amid the rubble. She could just barely see over his shoulder that there was a steel girder on his back, pinning them together. It was a miracle they hadn’t been crushed. 

“Listen… I’m sorry.” She said, activating her Quirk, slowly drawing in the steel bar into her hand to free them.

“Sorry? Why?”

“That I didn’t act. My Quirk isn’t something I can target easily like a fist or a club. It’s more like a bomb. It doesn’t just hurt people, it kills. Indiscriminately. I don’t want the blood of others on my hands, even if they are villains. I just can’t do it.”

“I know.” He said gently as his golden glow faded, leaving them with just the dim blue light coming from his eye. “Well, this isn’t ideal. I can’t reach my phone to turn a light on.”

“Maybe I can get it?”

“No, it’s inside my jacket’s inner pocket. I’d need to deactivate my armour to get at it, and I’m not sure if it’s still holding any of this debris or not.”

 “Can you move your legs?”

“Yeah, I seem to be able to, though not much.”

“Then do it. I can’t safely tunnel out of here without seeing what I’m doing.” She said. She would probably be fine, but couldn’t guarantee his safety if she activated her Quirk with a significant amount of power from this position.

“…Fine.” He said, then suddenly the weight on top of her lessened for a moment. The rubble groaned and shifted, filling the gap where his armour had been a moment before, driving him into her body. “Ooph! Sorry.” 

“It’s fine. I can clear this. Don’t move.” She said, slowly moving her hand above him, destroying the material with as much care as she could.

“I’ll do my best.” He replied, his head resting on hers, their lips nearly touching. She could feel his strong arms around her, arms that had protected her from the collapse. Her chest was pushing against his, his hips pushing into hers. If it were any other situation, she would have thought of this as a lover’s embrace.

Oh god, don’t think about that now, Anan. This isn’t the time… is that his dick pressing against my belly? Oh, it’s been so long… Stop it, girl. You’re getting hysterical. You just had a brush with death and now, right in front of you, is the man that saved you yet again… and you haven’t been laid in years… Oh… he smells good…

She closed her eyes and continued working, slowly removing the loose debris, clearing some space above them. Painfully slowly, so she didn’t shift anything heavier on top of them. When he started to move away from her, she reflexively held him in place. “Don’t… Move.”

“Sorry. I just wanted to give you a little space.”

“If I were that worried about space, would I do this?” She said, then before she could stop herself, grabbed the back of his head with her free hand and pulled him in for a kiss. He seemed to fight her at first, then allowed her to kiss him. She pushed her tongue into his mouth, wanting more from her hero this time before they were rudely interrupted like last time. He didn’t seem enthusiastic, which made her angry for some reason. She broke the kiss, then looked into his eye.

“Is there something wrong?”

“It’s just- we shouldn’t.”

“Why? Am I that hideous that you can’t kiss me back? I know I’m a tomboy, but I clean up nice!”

“You’re beautiful-“

“Is it because I’m tall? You’re taller than me.”

“It’s none of that, Anan. I can’t do this. I’m in a relationship now, and it wouldn’t be fair to Ru- to her.” He said.

“No… It can’t be.” She said, then something snapped. She had nearly been killed three times, buried alive twice, and nearly kidnapped. She was only still here because of this man… this perfect man that she had been fantasizing about nearly every day. She couldn’t believe he was already taken. She started to hyperventilate. 

“It’s a recent development, but it wouldn’t be fair to either of you if I let these little trysts continue.” He replied calmly, like he hadn’t just destroyed this little dream she had built to cope with the repeated traumas. 

“No… no, no.” She said, her mind reeling as the stress of the last two weeks crashed into her.

She had thrown herself into her work during the days after the U.S.J. and avoided people. When she went out to help with the aftermath of a fire, she had been attacked by the Hero Killer. Surviving that, she locked herself away at home during the evenings for a few days, terrified of being targeted by that crazed man again. The first time she stepped out in the evening to watch a play, that questionable building fire and subsequent explosion happened. She hid away for another few days, then, when she left the safety of her home again to come here to play, she came under attack again.

This man… this man had saved her each time. If she were a more cynical person, she would almost think he had somehow staged this to get closer to her. Instead, just as she was about to throw herself at him, he shot her down. Logically, she knew that it made no sense; they didn’t know each other at all, but she didn’t care. Right now, her emotions were a wild roller coaster, and more than anything, she wanted to be with this man. 

“Anan, this is not the time. We need to get out of here.”

“You bought me that drink, didn’t you? You knew I was going to be playing tonight and came to see me?” She said, ignoring him.

“Yes, I bought you the drink. I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight. I was just trying to relax a bit. It’s been a busy two weeks, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down.”

“No… You came to see me… to rescue me. You’re always there to rescue me. I don’t even know who you are, but you have to know what that does to a woman. It’s like fate is pushing us together. I might call myself a hero, but you are my hero, my personal superhero. I want to be with you, TK. I want you to sweep me off my feet and carry me away. Don’t tell me that isn’t… don’t tell me it isn’t possible.”

“Anan! Focus!” He snapped, that blue glow in his eye flashing, lighting up that side of his face. “We are trapped in here, and there might be other survivors as well. We need to get free so we can help them. Anything else can wait!”

She studied him for a moment, his words not sinking in at first. He was an older man who looked vaguely familiar to her, though she wasn’t sure where she had met him before. Before she could think too deeply on it, his words clicked, bringing her spinning mind to a halt.

Oh my god! I’m an idiot! He is right, we have more important things to do right now!

“Damn it! Sorry, I’m just a little overwhelmed right now.” She said, then continued clearing the debris around them. She tried to ignore the dampness forming in the corner of her eyes, blaming it on the dripping water coming from somewhere above them.

John sighed in relief as Anan began to clear the debris again. He had Scouter activated, but her thoughts were all over the place, to the point that it was nearly impossible to get a clear idea of what she was thinking. She would hop from thinking about trying to get out, back to him rescuing her again, then off to something else. At a couple of points, she wanted him to take advantage of her while they were buried under the rubble of this building. 

She is even hornier now than I have been getting recently. This is definitely not the time for that. At least she didn’t seem to recognize me from U.A. I guess her avoiding interacting with me for the last couple of weeks worked out in my favour. 

When the rubble started to slam into his back during the collapse, his armour had held up nicely, though something slammed his helmet, which in turn struck her head and knocked her out. He activated his invulnerability again once its cooldown had ended, just as the rest of the building came down on them, protecting her body as best he could. He healed her afterwards, and just hoped she would wake up so she could dig them out. He activated it again a few minutes later as the beam above them shifted on the settling debris, pinning them together. 

For as often as I seem to be getting trapped in the dark, I should get Mei to make a flashlight for this eyepiece. 

After a few minutes of her destroying debris above them, he could finally break away from her enough to fetch his phone out of his pocket. He reactivated his armour, then turned on the light, illuminating their surroundings. Unlike the office building, the hotel was only a few stories, so he hoped she would be able to break them out of here quickly. TK needed to make tracks.

“You know, you could just show me who you are.” She said, speaking louder now that she was using even more of her power. The materials in front of her palm were being drawn in more quickly and destroyed. “I’m not going to tell anyone.”

“I’d rather not. The fewer people who know my secret, the better. I’ve broken too many of this country’s laws to want to be known by even more people.”

“Does she know?”

“What?”

“Your girlfriend… does she know what you do while wearing that armour?”

“She is aware. Of this, and other things.”

“I see.”

{What are you doing, Anan? Stop trying to poach another woman’s man. You hesitated and lost. Deal with it.}

John didn’t bother saying anything else as she opened up even more of her power. Light from the city started to flood into the small cave she had created as she broke through the outer layer. The sounds of sirens could be heard nearby, telling John that if they weren’t here already, they would be in a moment.  

“You’d better run then.” She said once she carved out a large enough hole for them to climb out of. She grabbed him by the arm as he tried to move past her. “I… I’m sorry for kissing you like that. I hope you two have a good life.”

“Thanks. I hope you find someone, Anan. You’re a wonderful woman, just put yourself out there more… and hopefully avoid any more of these villain shenanigans.” He replied, then climbed out of the hole. He turned to offer her a hand up, but she just shook her head.

“No, just go. I’m going to clear a path directly to the street from here. There might have been other people buried in the rubble nearby, and this should be as good a place to start as any.” 

“All right then. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

John climbed over the rubble and out to the street. There was already a cordon of police and fire department personnel, blocking both sides of the street.  With a shrug, John walked directly towards what looked to be the command point and the people in charge. A few people gave him a wary side eye, wondering who he was, but no one immediately stopped him.

“Hey! The hero Thirteen is going to need some help; she is coming out of that side of the rubble and thinks there might be other survivors near there. Oh, and she isn’t in her suit, so can someone get her a facemask or something to hide her face?” He said to an older-looking guy who seemed to be in charge. 

“Thirteen was buried in there and is already clearing things out? All right, thank you… Hey! You’re that vigilante they are calling the Twilight Knight! Get back here, you’re under arrest!” The man shouted as John passed.

He sprinted down an alleyway behind where their command post had been set up, a couple of cops in tow. He heard something ping off his armour, which he assumed was the tasers the cops had at their waist, but he didn’t slow down. He cycled wind magic and sprinted ahead, quickly outdistancing them. 

There seems to be so much insulation in this armour, I’m almost certain I could stick my finger in an electrical outlet, and I’d be fine… Though I’m not going to test that out. 

He considered breaking out his motorcycle, but chose instead to move out of sight down a side alley. He opened a random door with Dig, then closed it behind him and resealed it. He clicked his eye a few times to check for any cameras, and when he didn’t find one watching this darkened stairwell, he hid his armour and, after a moment’s thought, took off his jacket and wrapped his sword up. It might seem odd not to wear a shirt, but it would be easier to explain than carrying a sword around. 

After waiting for about ten minutes for the cops to move elsewhere, he left the building and started to make his way to the train station. He considered returning to the former hotel to help as John, but after a quick glance, there were already a dozen heroes churning through the wreckage on top of all the fire department. He would just get in the way.

Maybe I can find a clothing shop that is open at this time of night… or another art supply store. God, I hate having to sneak my weapon around like this. I don’t regret saving people tonight, but I think TK needs to disappear for a bit and just focus on my training. I haven’t been able to gain strength like this in any world I’ve been to so far, and getting caught would put a dampener on that. 

With that thought, John continued away from the collapsed building and headed back home.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep