Chapter 192
(A/N: This chapter is brought to you, once again, by LRD Bonds. Enjoy.)
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After resting for a few hours, Izuku and Rumi made their way downstairs to find that Inko had left sticky notes for them on the door and sitting on the dining room table, informing them there was rice, rice noodles, curry, and ramen simmering in the kitchen. Rumi originally planned to return to her staff dorm room to feed her rabbits, but since Inko had made enough food to feed a large family, she stuck around to help Izuku put a dent in it while they watched the news.
"Man, are they seriously going with 'Hunters' as the name of people who enter the breaches? That's so lame..." remarked Rumi, lying with her legs propped on the sofa's armrest and using Izuku's lap as a pillow.
"Maybe. But it's pretty apt, all things considered..." replied Izuku, gently caressing Rumi's head and ears while absentmindedly combing his fingers through her long white hair. He had to be careful not to stimulate the tufts near the base of her ears, but even if he did 'inadvertently' flip her switch, he wasn't too concerned.
"Yeah, but it's redundant," argued Rumi, adding, "I mean, ordinary people shouldn't be allowed in the breaches, and we already have the World Hero Association. I get that Heroes have fallen out of favor the past few years, but rebranding to Hunters undercuts everything our predecessors busted their asses to achieve..."
"I get what you mean," said Izuku, nodding. "But I also see the reasoning behind the rebranding. When people think about their 'ideal' Hero, they imagine someone selfless, self-sacrificing, and full of righteousness. With the breaches being literal treasure troves, those who can't enter them will naturally envy those who can. Associating that sentiment with Heroes is a double-edged sword without a handle..."
"That's kind of my point," contended Rumi. "The reason the public has lost confidence in Heroes is because it's become a 'career.' Everyone wants to be rich and famous, but unless they have a powerful Quirk or are willing to sell themselves out, it's next to impossible to climb to the top."
Shifting her gaze from the TV to Izuku, Rumi appended, "Not that I'm in a position to judge others. The main reasons I became a Hero were to fight powerful opponents and beat the piss out of people without getting sent to jail. If others want to become Heroes to make money, it doesn't matter. So long as they do their job and save people, they deserve to be awarded for their efforts. That's just common sense."
"Mmm...I said something similar to Ochaco in the past..." revealed Izuku. "Before I entered the picture, her primary motivation for becoming a Hero was to support her parents. As for this whole Hunter business...I think it's a good thing. Most developed nations, especially the US and Japan, have become oversaturated with Heroes. If more people choose to register as Hunters, the title of Hero should regain a bit of its...exclusivity? Prestige?" Shaking his head, Izuku rubbed Rumi's forehead with his thumb as he softly appended, "It's difficult to put into words, but I've always thought it was absurd that the status and title of Hero was vested by a license and not conferred in acknowledgment of heroic deeds. If nothing else, Heroes should have a similar grading system to Villains. Then, even if someone is ranked low on the Hero Billboard Charts, you know they're the real deal if they have an A or S-Rank License...kind of like what South Korea is doing with their burgeoning Hunter's Association..."
"That's not a terrible idea..." muttered Rumi, closing her eyes and enjoying Izuku's touch. Because of her inactivity, her Rank was set to drop from No. 5 to No. 7, and that was mostly coasting off the popularity she had garnered over the past eight and a half years. Things were more extreme in the case of Ryuko, Shino, Tomoko, and Chatora. Because they had stopped putting on shows and holding public events, their joint-held position in the HBBC was set to drop from 32 to 2,318 despite them being incredibly capable and having a track record spanning over a decade. Not to mention their role in founding the Hero Union Affairs Office...
"Not that it matters much in our case..." mused Izuku. "At this point, we might as well be an independent organization working with the WHA and HPSC."
"I wonder where I rank in that...?" asked Rumi, opening her eyes halfway and staring at Izuku with a smile.
"Well, you know you'll always be my No. 1..." asserted Izuku, matching Rumi's smile with a smoldering look. The air immediately became thick with sexual tension, but as she didn't want to be accused of neglecting her pet rabbits, Rumi eventually closed her eyes and replied, "And don't you ever forget it..."
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In the wake of Rumi's departure, Izuku spent about an hour lazing about on the sofa, lurking in the group chat, and checking his messages. He had received quite a few during the two-week training camp, but since he had been 'indisposed' before then, he hadn't gone through them.
'I should really re-roll to boost my Luck...' thought Izuku, reading through the veritable novel of texts and images sent to him by Nejire. Most of the images were of her eating interesting foods and taking selfies with people who had unique appearances, but a few were tasteful nudes or photos of her wearing lingerie. Izuku was a little surprised to see she had cut her hair short, undoubtedly due to it constantly getting in the way when they made love, but that wasn't the reason it was contemplating using a re-roll.
According to Nejire's texts, Ryuko(Ryukyu) had been in low spirits for the past two weeks due to her ex refusing to take her back and not believing her when she said she didn't cheat on him. He even started dating a new girl to reinforce that things were over between them, so a few days prior, Ryuko had blown up Izuku's phone after getting wasted. Since then, she had been single-mindedly focused on closing breaches, so Nejire and the rest of the people at the Ryukyu Agency were worried.
Deciding to go ahead with redistributing his stats, Izuku took a moment to boost his Luck to 1000 before taking several minutes to deliberate how he should respond. [Golden Opportunity] was perfect in that regard because he could allow his imagination and mind to wander and then act when he stumbled upon a thought that gave the impression that things might work out.
Raising his brows and smiling wryly, Izuku trusted his instinct and typed, 'I don't need your apology. Just know that if we meet and you ask me to console you, I'll never let you go.'
Though he was long past the point where he should have started limiting the growth of his harem, Izuku couldn't just ignore a beauty in need of his care and attention. It took a considerable amount of willpower not to plow the sense out of Ryuko when he gave her a three-hour massage, so if she intended to use him as a springboard to rebound off of, he would 'bounce' her thoroughly and without remorse.
With such thoughts in mind, Izuku thought about checking in on Moe and potentially seeing what Mai(Uwabami), Emiru(Sirius), and Kaoruko(Bubble Girl) were up to. Instead, he found himself messaging Nezu, guided by an almost overwhelming notion that something 'favorable' might happen if he asked his Sensei how things were going with their recruitment.
Seeing through Izuku, Nezu responded by asking, 'Are you asking for any particular reason, or did you just finish re-speccing?'
'Sensei's perceptiveness knows no bounds...' replied Izuku, smiling wryly as he imagined Nezu grinning smugly from behind his desk. The last time he had seen Nezu, his Level had increased from 9 to 58. By now, it should be at least 70, so Nezu's Intelligence had skyrocketed from its initial base of 850+ to more than 1200 without allocating a single attribute point to it. He simply didn't need to.
'Instead of boring you with an explanation, I'm sending you a gift,' said Nezu, adding, 'I trust your instincts,' just as a knock sounded on Izuku's front door.
*tok* *tok* *tok*
'Seriously...?' Izuku asked himself, rising from the sofa and answering the door to find a petite girl with long pink-and-indigo hair fastened into a wild ponytail staring up at him with cold, seemingly emotionless purple eyes. He immediately recognized her, but because of her short stature, apparent age, and the fact she was wearing the winter uniform of a UA student, he couldn't help but confirm, "Kaina...?" while checking the girl's status.
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Name: [Kaina Tsutsumi]
Title: Unseen Death(Attributes have a chance of increasing each time you kill an enemy from more than 3km away.)
Quirk: Rifle
Bond Level: 46
Current Level: 75
Effective Level: 111
[Attributes]
Strength: 41
Agility: 64
Vitality: 514
Intelligence: 141
Dexterity: 261
Luck: 92
Free Attributes: 340
[Perks]
[Presence Concealment], [Predictive Tracking]
[Skills]
[Snipe], [Proximity Mine], [Sense Presence]
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Instead of responding in the affirmative, the impassive Kaina replied with a curt, "What's the mission?" in a cool monotone.
Recovering from his initial stupor, Izuku smiled wryly and asked, "First things first...are you hungry?"
"..."
Seeing Kaina stare at him in silence, Izuku stepped aside, gesturing toward the entrance to the living room as he added, "Come inside and eat. We'll talk while you do."
Closing her eyes and exhaling a faint sigh through her nose, Kaina made her way into the interior of Izuku's home and navigated to the kitchen on her own. Izuku followed behind her but stopped at the dining room, taking a seat and waiting for Kaina to return with a bowl of ramen in hand and a meat bun in her mouth, setting the former down and chewing the latter with a deadpan expression as she sat beside rather than across from him.
Waiting until Kaina was nearly finished with the meat bun, Izuku asked, "Have you been surveilling me since my return from the training camp...?"
Nodding in affirmation, Kaina finished off the meat bun and responded with a curt, "That's right," before picking up her chopsticks and going to town on her ramen, slurping loudly.
"You're starting to make me hungry," mused Izuku, following his words by rising to his feet, heading to the kitchen, and returning with an entire tray of meat buns. Then, for the better part of three minutes, he and Kaina ate in silence, disturbed when the latter finished slurping her broth and wiped her mouth with her right forearm. As she did so, a gun barrel sprang out of her elbow, but even when she aimed it directly at his face, Izuku remained calm and remarked, "That's pretty cool," before shoving another meat bun into his mouth.
"Hmmm..."
Retracting her gun, which was somehow considerably longer than her arm, Kaina remarked, "So, it's not that you're full of openings, but that you're confident you would be able to react, even if I pulled the trigger."
"Not really," replied Izuku, shrugging as he added, "It's more like I trust you and, more importantly, my Sensei. If there were a chance you would shoot me in the face or imperil the other students, you wouldn't be here."
"Why did you summon me...?" asked Kaina, seemingly finished with the previous discussion.
"How much did my Sensei tell you...?" countered Izuku.
Crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair, Kaina revealed, "He told me I could have my current sentence commuted and potentially receive a full pardon if I watched over this place and helped shore up the school's security. I asked him why he would trust me with such a responsibility, but his response was similar to yours. He said he didn't trust the person I had become, but the person I once was...the person you believed me to be."
Nodding in affirmation, Izuku smiled as he asserted, "Well, I'm glad you accepted his offer. I don't know the full story, but I know the Commission did an injustice to you. I only hope I can help you regain some of the trust you've lost in others. I might not be the best suited to the task, as you've undoubtedly witnessed for yourself, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to ensure this world has a future post the MWT Phenomenon..."
"That's something we can see eye to eye on," replied Kaina. Then, rising to her feet, she left Izuku speechless by undoing the fastener of her skirt, allowing it to fall to the ground around her ankles and revealing the purple panties she wore underneath her black stockings...
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(A/N: Well, that escalated quickly...)