162: Obstacles (2)

Chapter 162: Obstacles (2)

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It was midnight, making it 16 hours since Mirko has been running.

Around 8 hours ago, when she was preparing to go home after finishing today’s patrol, an unexpected villain attack happened. Strangely, it wasn’t a single villain, but it wasn’t a group either. Multiple individual villains were attacking different parts of the city.

Things weren’t looking good because she couldn’t contact the other heroes and even the police because of some sort of network blockage, and from the words of the few heroes she came across later, it seemed to be a country-wide problem.

Japan’s network was being jammed, and more shockingly, villains who should have been locked in Tartarus, along with ‘villains’ who were supposed to be civilians, were attacking all over the country.

Mirko was but a single hero, she couldn’t be everywhere. That worried her.

She tried her fastest to finish the villains in her primary city before moving to another, but even though it’s been 8 hours since then she has only cleared three cities.

“Huff… persistent bastards.” Mirko panted with a grin as she wiped sweat from her forehead, stepping on top of three limply laid down Nomus. “Looks like these brain monsters are the hardest opponents amongst the rampaging villains. Though their presence means the League is behind this attack. Kinda shocking.”

Shocking, but fun. This was tiring, first patrolling for 8 hours and then fighting for 8 hours straight. Even her adrenaline was coming off at this point. But still. There was a strange thrill behind all this.

Mirko jumped off the bodies, kicking off and slumping down on her butt on the ground as she decided to take a break.

“Thrilling or not, this situation is quite lame. Because of the network jam, I can’t contact Neji, I wanna know if he’s fine or not.” She wasn’t particularly worried about his safety. If she was fine with these villains, he would be finer. But there was still a strange ominous feeling to it…

‘Nah, he’s fine.’ Rumi yawned, stretching her hands and standing up. ‘He can’t not be fine. That brat’s too strong for his own good.’

She just hoped his other girls wouldn’t drag him down, as they are pretty weak… though Rumi was mostly guessing since she only saw that Momo girl in action. 

‘Still, I wanna meet him. It’s been a while since we talked outside texting.’ Rumi felt lonely because of that, and now this stinking situation meant they won’t be able to experience peace for a few months.

Shrugging, she jumped off, leaving the destroyed  street behind and going towards another city.

It was then, as she jumped off buildings from buildings, that red feathers started to rain down from the sky, making her frown.

“Stop showing off, come out!” she shouted, still running as she heard a soft laugh from above before she found a man in a yellow costume flying beside her.

“Looks like someone is having fun even in this situation.” the man in yellow said, smiling as his red wings flapped behind him. “Yo, been a while Mirko.”

“Hawks, don’t annoy me. Go away.” Rumi scoffed, kicking off, but unable to outrun the fastest hero of Japan, No.3 in the Hero Billboard, Pro Hero Hawks. “Tsk.”

“Hey, come on~ I am not here to annoy you. This is a serious situation.” Hawks said, laughing. “I am gathering the top heroes since we can’t gather by the usual means because of the network blockage. The blockage will probably be taken out in a few days, if not hours, but we gotta prepare for the worst-case scenario and gather together sooner than later.”

Rumi barely paid attention to him as she kept running.

“I already found Edge Shot in the city you're heading to. Do me a favour and stay in that city for a while, please?" Hawks said, which surprised Rumi since this guy wasn't the type to plead for things like this. "I will look for other top heroes in the meantime."

"Okay, but why?" Rumi asked, despite not wanting to talk to this man. "I didn't exactly face that much of a threat against the 56 villains I came across in the last 8 hours. I can only assume the same for others. Then ain't it better for us to move individually?"

"Yes, true, but you're misunderstanding. I am not trying to make a team. Just… gather there. We at least need to exchange thoughts on the current situation, you see." Hawks said before he flew a bit higher. "Also I will go and see All Might who should be around Musatafu. I don't plan to bring him here since that'd just waste his time, but he might have some idea about the current situation."

Hearing that, Rumi was interested. "Musatafu? That's where UA is right? I would like to go too."

"I don't think it's a good idea." Hawks chuckled. "You're fast, but I am faster. You'd just slow me down if you followed me."

"Tsk." Rumi scoffed. "Fine, I will wait in the city, but only for 12 hours. I will leave after that, make sure you gather everyone before that. Now fuck off."

Hawks laughed softly as he flew off, far faster than Rumi could reach no matter how much she tried.

'...Tsk.'

—★—

Hisashi left the crazy blonde in his right hand's care, though not before spending hours trying to break her himself.

But it didn't work. That girl was simply too out of her mind to break in a short period of time. Hisashi had trust in Madam Viper's abilities though. She can't only make lethal poison, she can make poison that hurts more than it does damage and with such poison, it would be easy to break the crazy girl.

Hisashi was sitting on his red throne again, waiting for his new most capable minion, someone who he sent out a while ago to hunt Neji's classmates.

He didn't have to wait much longer before a woman walked in through the door, her golden hair flowing behind her as she walked in the middle of the hall and threw a girl at Hisashi's feet.

Hisashi looked down on the girl on his feet, raising it and stomping on her head, controlling his strength to not shatter her skull right away.

"Itsuka Kendo, Class A-1." The blonde woman said in a monotone voice as she kneeled. "Vice President of the class, close to the president who was Neji's girlfriend. She's also amongst the close female friends Neji had."

"I see," Hisashi smirked. "Finally one of his female classmates. Good job, little dragon, you did well."

He got no reply, but he didn't mind. That's how it usually was when he first enslaved someone using his dragon mind control. This woman, Pro hero Ryukyu, will slowly regain emotions, though those emotions will be by then manipulated to be ultra loyal to him. But that process usually depends on the target's willpower, so Hisashi won't count on it. 

"Y-you…" came a hate-filled call from below Hisashi's feet, making him amused as he looked down at the ginger-haired girl's desperate face. "This won't end well. I don't know why you're doing all this… Why you're hunting us or why you're hurting us, but your evil will come to an end. The heroes will-"

"Ah, hero this and hero that." Hisashi interrupted her. "Kids these days. Do you have no idea what type of situation you're in?" He put a bit of strength in his foot, watching as the girl's face got pushed onto the floor and her eyes widened in pain. "I can kill you right now, without even breaking a sweat. But unfortunately for you, I am taking it slow because your friend has fortunately taken the easy way out of this world. Blame everything on him after you meet him in hell."

"Ke…euh!" Kendo tried to say something, but only blood and saliva spat out of her mouth as she jolted under his feet trying to free herself. She even used her quirk to push away his leg with her large hands, but it simply didn't work.

"Pathetic," Hisashi said. "Truly pathetic. You want to resist me with that basic quirk? Such vivid delusions."

Hisashi chuckled. Then he was about to pop her head right there but he noticed something interesting from his minion's side. That little dragon was shaking as if fighting his control over her body as if to save this child.

'Interesting. That's some great willpower she has. With that along with her quirk, she might actually become a proper dragon after awakening. It's fortuitous that I managed to obtain her as my minion early on.' Hisashi thought, smiling.

To test her limits, he opened his mouth. "Ryukyu? Is there anything wrong?"

She flinched, her trembling body stopping as her eyes went back to emotionless. "I- I am sorry, my lord. I don't know what happened, it was a weird feeling."

"That's fine. But don't do that again." Hisashi said, putting pressure on his feet again. Deliberately taking it slow to make it most painful for the girl under him.

But he was again interrupted before he could finish the job. This time it was a phone call that came in his new phone (provided by AFO) that could work even in this network jam.

Taking out the ringing phone from his pockets, he saw the caller's name and controlled his fury. 

'It's just Shigaraki.'

That was fine. Shigaraki, aka All for One, wouldn't call him to discuss vacation after all. It must be something important.

["Hisashi, I have news, but I am not sure if you'd like it or not."]

All for One's voice was grim as he spoke those words, making Hisashi frown.

"What's wrong?"

["Brace yourself. Neji Hado… is alive."]

"..."

Hisashi didn't know what he felt at the moment because, at the same time, he grinned in joy and stood up in anger. In the process, however, the girl's head simply burst under his feet, painting the already red carpet on the ground with a deeper red colour.

"That's interesting news." Hisashi, standing up from his throne, decided it was time for a bit more chaos.

He didn't know how that brat could have ever survived but this… 

This wasn't a bad development.

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