Date- 10th August Time - 11:00
'Somehow, I slept. Even after last night.' Shigure stretched his whole body.
It was sore due to the "exercise" he did with Hawks last night.
DING DONG
Shigure looked at the door. 'Should I or should I not?' As if the devil himself was whispering in his ears, temptation crept into his entire being.
"Nah. Not in the mood." He received the parcel normally this time.
He had ordered a device that could sharpen blades.
He took out a knife from nowhere and started to sharpen it.
Due to the loud noise of this activity, he failed to hear the knocking sounds, followed by a sliding sound.
Seconds passed. His brow creased.
'Why do I feel like somebody is looking at me?' Shigure turned his head back and looked at a man standing behind him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked with a vein popping on his forehead.
"I knocked, but you didn't respond." Hawks nonchalantly shrugged.
"Maybe next time, try to come from the door, not the balcony."
"I will try." He wouldn't.
'It hasn't even been 12 hours, yet he already got my information and my address. How troublesome.'
"Anyway, will you put that knife down?"
He blinked. The knife was pointed at Hawks.
He lowered the knife.
"So dangerous. Anyway, why do you have a combat knife in the first place?" Hawks asked.
"Self-defence." He didn't blink.
"A knife for self-defence?... You do know that various types of quirks exist which cannot be penetrated by knives."
'Didn't you act scared by this just moments ago?' Shigure rolled his eyes.
"It's for times when I cannot use my quirk. Doesn't need to work every time. Just once."
'Maybe I can kill All For One with a knife to demonstrate that point someday.' He almost laughed. Almost.
"Is that so?" Hawks looked unconvinced. "Never mind. I did know you were smart, but didn't expect you to be a revolutionary inventor."
Shigure rolled his eyes. "I was just lucky."
"I don't think luck can create a revolutionary method. From what I could understand after I made dumb it down, overall, you reduced the training time of LLMs by 30 per cent, which somehow is nuts."
"40 per cent, and technically it was important as it did decrease the amount of resources spent by a decent margin. The next one's the real game-changer."
"Oh? What are you working on? And when can we expect it to be released?"
"I am working on a new architecture. Before year-end. If I don't burn out first."
"I will look forward to it then." Hawks didn't ask further on the topic.
It was all technobabble to him.
"I don't think you came just to say you found my identity, did you?"
"Straight on point. Yup, I actually need you for a mission."
"Oh, a miss— A What? What? How? Why?" Shigure was caught off guard by his statement.
"Chill. We need to capture a drug ring, and some of the heroes will participate in it. It will happen in Saitama, so I thought you would be a good guide."
Shigure frowned. "That's a surface reason, no? What's the real reason?"
"It would be a good way for you to gain experience. I am also curious about how you would perform."
Shigure furrowed his eyebrows, thinking about the offer.
"Can I reject it?"
Hawks raised an eyebrow, surprised. "Well, yeah, you could. As I said, your need is as a guide, which technically is not needed as we already have information about their hideout, and keeping a person on standby to tell us about the city's layout is pretty easy. Though I didn't expect you to reject it."
"I was just asking. Didn't say no. Yet. Tell me the date and time."
'No way I'm missing that kind of chaos.'
"Oh..." Hawks took out his phone.
DING.
Shigure looked at the mail.
"I have sent you the details. It's on 13th August. Come at 22:00 at the location I sent you."
'13th August? What a coincidence.'
---
13th August, 22:06
"You are late." Keigo looked at Shigure with an unimpressed stare.
"Missed the train. Ran out of time." Shigure shrugged.
"Why did you miss the train?"
"Doesn't matter."
BEEP BEEP
Keigo wanted to ask another question, but his earpiece buzzed. He picked up the call.
After talking for a few seconds, he cut the call.
"Anyway, follow me. Others are already here." With that, Hawks started walking deeper into an alley.
"Others?" Shigure tilted his head, walking behind him.
"Yup, there are 3 more people involved in our mission."
"Neat." Shigure deadpanned.
They walked for around a minute before reaching their destination— an open rooftop, already alive with chaos.
A red-eyed man with his hair floating, staring at a green-haired lady, who was obnoxiously laughing.
"You know, if you frown any harder, your face might get stuck that way. You should smile."
"I would rather take my chances."
"Oh, come on! You know you love my company. Admit it, your day gets at least 10% brighter when I walk in. Now, be a good boy and deactivate your quirk."
"Bold assumption. I prefer silence to sonic warfare."
The green-haired lady grinned "You say that, but you always let me hang around. Maybe you're just too shy to admit you enjoy my jokes."
"Or maybe I just don't have the energy to argue."
"So cold!" She gasped. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood. You know, laughter is good for morale. You should try it sometime."
"We are on a mission, I think we need to put our guard up already." The man's red eyes reverted back, his hair now unfloating.
"I'm just tuning your nerves. Stress kills performance."
Shigure watched them. Loud. Messy. Real.
A few metres away from them stood a full-armoured person, his body stance screaming that he didn't know the other two.
"Woah, so many pro-heroes," Shigure muttered, catching the trio's attention. 'Goddamn. They're all real.'
"So, you are finally here." Emi said to Hawks, "This must be our last member..." She paused as she looked at Shigure's visor.
She then turned her head towards the armoured man. "Ingeium... is this your villigante brother? You do two alike." She laughed.
A pair of visors glared at her, causing her laughter to grow louder..
'My visor doesn't look as lame as that guy's.' Shigure clenched his jaws.
"You brought a kid with you?" Aizawa's voice was flat but unmistakably disapproving.
Emi snorted. "I told you. He looks like Ingenium's baby brother."
Shigure said nothing at first.
A tight beat passed.
Behind his visor, his eye twitched.
'Again with this shit.'
Hawks opened his mouth—
"I am a legal adult."
The mechanical voice cut in before anyone else could speak. Calm. Cold. Unshaken.
Aizawa paused. He looked Shigure up and down again, slower this time."Is that so?" His tone softened, if only slightly. "My apologies."
Emi raised an eyebrow, looking more curious now than mocking.
Hawks offered a wry smile.
'Technically correct,' he thought. 'But definitely not how they'd interpret it.'
"Anyway, we are tight on time, so let me first brief the mission again." Hawks quickly said, grabbed everyone's attention.
"Our mission is to capture a drug ring— a group where quirk-related drugs are sold."
Shigure's gaze sharpened. 'Is this prelude to Trigger, or is it trigger? Or is it going to be something else entirely?'
"Though there are multiple problematic ones, the one we will focus on in this mission is HP_420. It is a quirk-enhancing drug, which boosts your quirk in exchange for your lifespan."
'Shit. Repeat doses? That's worse.'
"The main gang present here consists of these members:
Tsuki, the leader. Her quirk is unknown.
Kenji. His quirk is making armour around his body. Though it's dangerously close to mutation types of quirk, so Eraser has to be careful." Hawks glanced at Aizawa. The snort said it all.
"I am not a one-trick pony. None of us is." Aizawa's eyes briefly paused over Shigure. His statement didn't mean him as the latter's abilities were still unknown to the group.
"Anyway, the next members are
Roshi, the guy who is good at various martial arts.
Sonic, that guy could release sound waves or something. Just look out for that.
Now, one question might pop that why these guys don't have villain names despite not being small fries. The reason is..." Shigure tuned out. Something was off.
"Hmm", Shigure tried to grab everyone's attention, but he failed as Hawks continued.
"Anoo..." He loudly said, finally grabbing their attention.
"This meeting place's location shouldn't be known to anybody else, right?"
"Indeed." Hawks nodded. "I even carefully got this province scouted, and this was the most ideal place."
He was standing near the rooftop's railing, similar to Shigure, but unlike him, he was completely facing the trio.
"Is that so?" Shigure tilted his head. He pointed down—low, angled, precise.
"Then what's that rocket, 30 meters out, headed for us?"
***
A/n: Here is today's chapter. Anyway, Wednesday and Thursday are my rest days. So, we will meet on Friday.
Don't miss me too much.
Now, here's the reason why I didn't release the chapter yesterday. (You may skip. In fact, even while writing this, I would suggest you skip.)
So...
You see...
I—
I—I
I got married yesterday!
"..."
*cat blush*
Last night...
My virginity...
Kyaaahhh~
... Just kidding.
I was kidding about the marriage part...
Anyway, today, I am going on a date.
A date with a chocolate-loving girl. 🍫🍫
I hope she appears...
Kyaaahhh~
Ahem!
Already got goosebumps while writing this.
Can't wait. Just have to edit chapters 19 and 20, and I am free.
Anyway, that was it.
Sayonara.
...
"Hawk Tuah!"
***
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