Chapter 67: Adolescence - 21
"Math? The hell kind of Quirk is that?"
Ichiro looked confused, but before he could ask more, Isshun turned his head in a random direction, then shook it as if something annoying had happened.
"Before we continue this conversation..."
Isshun took out his phone and set it on the counter.
"What are you trying to show?"
Jiro looked skeptical, but contrary to his expectations, Isshun didn’t even bother turning it on, which made the next sudden noise all the more surprising.
BZZZST!
Static could be heard through the phone’s speaker, and similar noises came from the speakers on the streets, making the source of the disturbance obvious.
Then, the phone screen turned on, displaying a familiar girl’s face.
"Pop?!"
The two Hotta brothers yelled, drawing the attention of the rest of the people in the cafe.
"Pop’s back?!"
A group of five girls and four boys came up to the table where Isshun was discussing with the brothers and the praying mantis person.
’They seem pretty close to Pop☆Step.’
Isshun noted inwardly, observing the worried expressions on the group’s faces.
Ichiro was decisive, getting out of the seat to lower the shutters.
"Wait—who the hell are you?" The delinquent-looking cyclops knockoff belatedly noticed Isshun, who was holding up the phone screen.
Using his free hand to lower his hat to half cover his eyes, Isshun just returned the question with an eye smile.
"He’s just a customer," Jiro said a beat later.
"Oh..." Ichimoku Samazu, the boy who looked like a cyclops knockoff, paused before giving a bow. "Sorry about that, man."
Kirihito interjected. "The kid is suspicious, though."
"Hah?" The wolverine knockoff, who had been content just observing, stepped up with a scowl.
"Let’s not fight!" A blue-haired girl with a curled side ponytail on the right side of her face stepped in front of the wolverine kid.
"Yeah, Pop’s still out there!" Another girl who looked exactly like her, except that the ponytail was on the opposite side of the head, added, a face full of worry.
"...But isn’t the screen too small for all of us?" a girl wearing a helmet asked.
"I’ll bring over the tablet!" another girl wearing a helmet said.
Isshun simply watched the interactions with interest, as if they were all close in some way.
Putting his phone away after the tablet was brought over, he simply looked at the only part of the windows that wasn’t covered by shutters, the glass door.
To be honest, he wanted to see if he could reverse-engineer the bioengineered people.
Simply put, the problem with the cafe’s bioengineered staff was that they had been injected with too much of an outside drug.
Isshun didn’t know the name of the drug, but the composition of the drug was clear as day to someone like him, and the issue was that, because of the nature of the drug, it seemed to have mutated the Quirk Factor of these people.
These Mutant Quirk users didn’t seem to have been Mutant-Type from the beginning.
"Haah." He let out a soft sigh.
He’d love to reverse-engineer this, but he had no way to build trust for consent. He wasn’t crazy enough to knock them unconscious and then try it.
After all, seeing something that could validate years of study and still not being able to try was torture.
Personally, he didn’t plan to capture Pop☆Step and send her to the Police Force.
Mainly because even alternating between his neighborhood and Musutafu had gotten Nezu to do everything but say outright that he was Blink.
Nezu probably didn’t have complete proof, which was why he acted that way when he came over, but Isshun wasn’t about to hand him more circumstantial evidence.
Besides, he didn’t want to give any circumstantial evidence to unreliable people. At least with the rat, the odds of him blurting it out were extremely low.
’They’re probably close to Pop☆Step, no?’
All of their reactions practically pointed to that conclusion.
And judging from the news report on Pop☆Step after she was officially classified as a Villain, she didn’t seem to have been that bad before she turned into a terrorist.
While he wanted nothing more than to teleport Pop☆Step in front of him and see what was wrong...
Did he really have to expose his teleportation in front of twelve people?
Well... he technically didn’t have to.
He could go outside, move somewhere without cameras, teleport Pop☆Step to him for a diagnosis, fix her, and then bring her back to the cafe to get trust.
But bringing her back to the cafe would definitely get caught on camera. It also wouldn’t technically un-Villain her unless he added evidence that she was under the influence of something else...
How stupidly complicated.
Essentially, if he wanted to build trust fast, he’d have to save Pop☆Step, have her situation reach a Pro Hero or Police Force member, and then prove he was the one who saved her.
"So..."
Isshun’s voice rang throughout the cafe, drawing everyone’s attention.
He lowered the white cat, still in his lap, to the ground, watching it slowly walk away, then looked up at the eyes fixed on him.
He raised a hand to his cap, then looked down at the small crowd.
"Does anyone fancy a deal?"
--<>--
"Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!"
Bee☆Pop’s singing could be heard through the hacked speakers, booming through the streets, while Bee☆Pop herself was hopping through the air, Pro Heroes hot on her trail.
Every moment, more buildings were getting blown up, and more and more Pro Heroes were closing in.
Yet, every time the Pro Heroes were close enough, another bee popped in, exploding right in front of them.
Thankfully, thanks to the MHA humans’ resilience, no one had been seriously injured yet.
But unfortunately for Bee☆Pop, there was a group of Pro Heroes who weren’t anything like the Pro Heroes chasing after her.
Or rather, there was one Pro Hero.
--<>--
On a rooftop, overseeing Central Naruhata.
"Tsukauchi... What the hell is that?"
"Huh?"
Mr. Worldwide, Tsukauchi Naomasa, turned around, face to face with the Number 2 Pro Hero.
The Flame Hero: Endeavor.
"Oh... you mean her song...?" Naomasa asked.
""Inferno"? That’s what she calls this garbage, yeah?"
BWOOSH!
The flames on Endeavor’s costumes burst with heat, blasting hot air all around him.
"Then how about I give her a taste of a real Inferno!!" His muscles tensed as he called to the communicator built into his costume.
"Burnin! Start the evacuation sirens!"
An affirmative came from the communicator, and soon after, sirens blared throughout Central Naruhata.
Yet, while Endeavor was waiting for the notification that everyone had evacuated the premises.
The world went silent.
The beeping of shaken cars.
The banging of Bee☆Pop’s song.
The booming of the exploding bees.
Even the sirens that had just activated.
Just stopped.
The only thing that could be heard on that rooftop was the breathing of its inhabitants.
For a few seconds, as if not registering what had just happened, Naomasa and Endeavor both paused before static from the communicator returned, and the sound went back to normal.
All the attention turned to the communicator in his hands, waiting for the next words.
"Bzz—Tsukauchi! Pop☆Step has disappeared! And—the damage done by her is gone!"
"WHAT?!" Endeavor bellowed, looking back at the location where the bomb bees had been wreaking havoc.
And where he originally saw smoke and clouds of debris, there were buildings that looked as if nothing had ever happened.
"Is there more info?!" Naomasa asked into the mic.
"Bzzt—and all of the bees have disappeared!"
"Do you know how it happened?!" Naomasa asked, trying to get more info.
"Bzzt—No one on site saw it happen! It was like we blinked and everything changed!"
’Like they blinked and everything changed?’
As a detective working for the Police Force, he knew most ongoing cases, and only one profile matched the description, however vague it was.
Musutafu and Tokyo Vigilante.
Maximum Threat Level Individual—Blink.
Activity Period: 3-4 years.
Number of Criminals/Villains Captured: 1983.
Crime Rate in Active Period: 0.03%.
A near-mythical being, about whom, even after three years of investigations, the progress on their identity was basically nonexistent, not only because there was barely any circumstantial evidence, but because there was no evidence at all.
Tsukauchi remembered Blink never left Musutafu or Tokyo, but here was undeniable proof.
The second instance after the Tokyo Sky Egg Incident.
No one else in the investigation files was listed as remotely capable of such a feat.
Endeavor, as hot-headed as he was, soon reached the same conclusion.
"Is it Blink?"
--<>--
A/N: AURA FARMING IS ACTION SO I DIDN’T LIE
Here’s the bonus Chapter.
And yall hit the ps goal so yay, bonus Chapter next week!
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