24 Toxic Girlfriend.

Mt. Lady, still in her hero costume, sat at a table in her agency, slumping into her chair while rubbing her temples as she read the report Felix had written. It was admittedly extensive, giving information about Haruo's behavior, physical condition, probable addiction to alcohol, Mrs. Utsushimi's seemingly strange eyes, the different contractors he exchanged with, and some of their names since he still had their business cards; it was easy.

However, it was missing some important points that he had left out on purpose, like the fact that Mrs. Utsushimi had offered to come to her house, that she seemed concerned over her husband's work, and that she might want something specific out of him. This was the kind of information he wanted to keep to himself as long as possible; after all, women were his forte, so he wanted to work his magic first.

"So you're telling me you learned almost nothing by going there despite the trouble I went through?"

"What do you mean: nothing?" retorted Felix, exasperated. "I did what I could with the orders and info given."

"It's not going to help our investigation, damn it!"

"Yu… Calm down." uttered a hero in a wood-like costume. "We have names, which is better than nothing. Maybe these businessmen will have some information to share."

"Of course not. It won't be enough! We're almost out of money, Shinji! How can we take care of my agency and pay our bills?! And our home loan is coming due…"

"Don't talk about that in front of someone else, geez!" grumbled the hero as he stepped away from his chair, looking at his phone.

If he had heard correctly, Mt. Lady had all the makings of a toxic girlfriend. The appearance, the attitude, the speech patterns, the relationship with her parents, and the fact that she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. It was amusing to watch how these people are utterly oblivious to how fortunate they are to have so much at their age. To lose her temper over money and become aggressive with the person she's dating.

—Yeah, she's quite the toxic masterpiece. Let's poke her!~

"It looks like marketing your ass on TV isn't enough anymore; maybe you should opt for an Only-Fans?" Felix suggested, staring at Mt. Lady while holding back a laugh.

"Shut up, you!" She snarled, sending the record written by Felix directly to his face with no success as he dodged it effortlessly.

"My work! The fuck are you doing, you retarded cunt?!" he blurted, seeing the dozens of documents from his file mixed in with the previous record he had sorted out himself scattered around the room.

"That'll teach you well, asshole."

"Whatever, I didn't expect anything more from a cum-dumpster."

"Hey! I can tolerate certain behavior, but you are out of line." Kamui Wood shouted, hitting the table with his fist to have Felix's attention. "Being part of our team does not give you the right to disrespect your superiors!"

"Oh my god, don't do that, don't hit the table. I almost shat my pants." Felix scoffed, looking at them both with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "I got flashbacks of my father. What would happen if you revived a childhood trauma dormant inside me? That wouldn't be too heroic."

Mt. Lady looked at Kamui Wood, who sighed without answering, as he always did in this kind of situation. Upon seeing that this meeting wouldn't meet her expectation, she got up from her chair and tidied up her files. She then frowned and uncrossed her arms before pointing at Felix with her index finger.

"You, the next time you talk to me like that, you know where you stand. I'm your superior, so act like it won't end like today."

"The thing you both fail to understand is that I'm not your stooge. You added me to your agency's helpers list, not as an employee or sidekick. In other words, I'm not a contractee since the only reason I work with you is that you blackmailed me. We made a fifty-fifty deal, remember?"

"You what?" Kamui Wood commented as he turned towards Mt. Lady.

"Oh? He didn't know?"

"You're just obviously lying," Mt. Lady lied blatantly.

"Do I have to explain to him what caused you to blackmail me, or do you do it yourse-"

"Just get out of here!" Mt. Lady shouted as her height began to fluctuate, just as if her quirk would activate at any moment, a vein on her forehead pulsating.

Her shout brought a lull in which neither hero spoke. Felix knew he had the cards in his hand, so he played with them. Because of what she had done to get him there and tried to manipulate him just as her mother had tried to do, complaining to the hierarchy or asking for help from someone close to her was going to be tough, and judging her vanity and pride, she likely wouldn't bow and admit defeat, stubbornly trying to show Felix that she would win.

"Yu… What is the meaning of this?"

"Nothing, nothing... I'll explain later. I just need a break now."

"Oh, so you choose the easy way out?"

"Mr. Tremblay… You likely don't know who her mother is, but I'm telling you this for your own good, stop provoking her; you'll create unnecessary problems for yourself."

"I don't think I have to worry about that."

"Tsk!" she grumbled, showing him her middle finger.

"By the way, Kamui Wood, if her parents didn't teach her proper manners, and neither do you, who will? I mean, I can but-"

"She asked you to leave!"

"Alright, alright," Felix sighed, scratching the back of his head with a genuine smile before picking up the file that was on the floor and placing it back on the table. "Sorry for the rumpus. I didn't think teasing her a bit would put her in that state." He fibbed. "We'll see each other soon, I suppose. Bye-bye!"

Taking his leave, Felix felt a faint rush of adrenaline, something rare for him outside of situations of immediate danger.

He was playing with fire.

Well aware of the reactions he was going to get from them, he had decided to come here anyway to report back and to taunt them hoping to perhaps find a vulnerability in one or the other. He may know who Mt. Lady's mother was, and vice versa, but it was perfectly possible that the last name she bore was a fake to protect her, so he was searching for something more. You find a loophole; you exploit it. Simple as that. In a way, just like Rumi or Recovery Girl were keys to unlock his liberty, Mt. Lady was another key, the biggest one, but a tricky one to hold. The difference is that he valued Rumi as a wifey and friend, and he valued Recovery Girl as a tutor. Mt. Lady, on the other hand, showed him nothing but bad blood.

He also wished Kamui Wood wouldn't be there for him to test [Oxytorgasm] on her, but it also wasn't bad to find out who he had in his cuck visor.

—Oh man… She's even more bitchy when she's next to her boyfriend. Girls like her end up being some really fucking good bitches. It's certainly more time-consuming to change them, but once changed, it makes the new relationship all the more special.

Daydreaming about the possible way he could alter her, his musings soon paused at the apparent notion that since she had a rough idea of his quirk, he would have to use some convoluted methods. He didn't have to worry about her ratting him out, but fierce as she was, she wouldn't let herself be touched easily. One of the only solutions he could think of was to gain her trust little by little, and there, indeed, it would take time. Not that he didn't like it, but rather that he was wary of the President's backlash if he wasn't quick enough.

The only other way he could think of, as of right now, was to find a way to develop more potent pheromones. However, it wasn't that easy.

Hormones and pheromones, even if alike, the both of them produced by glands; one is a chemical messenger that acts inside the body and gives true or false information to the receptive organs, allowing it to alter the person in varying ways. The other is a chemical secreted by exocrine glands—glands that secrete stuff outside the body, like saliva, sweat, or even semen—that act as hormones outside the body—either by floating in the air or sticking to surfaces—and affect people from a distance.

Following this logic, Felix can only give, take or change someone's hormones by touch—primarily thanks to the eccrine sweat glands, which are most concentrated in the hands, feet, and head—but it stopped there. It was strong enough to disarm most people in day-to-day life, but he wasn't willing to take this path. Weakness is not striving to improve.

These two things were yet so close, yet so far—a huge source of frustration for Felix. Thousands of years ago, the ancestor of mankind relied on pheromones to find and track each other, to make other animals or tribes avoid them, and even to reproduce. Still, now the gene was dormant, and he had no idea how to reawaken it.

The reason why Mirko and Bubble Girl had been affected by his meek pheromones was as simple as it gets. One had everything a rabbit has, even a keen sense of smell, and was easily influenced by pheromones. The second, thanks to her quirk that allowed her to create bubbles that contained a fragrance she had previously smelled, had an overdeveloped sense of smell.

—If only I had this fucking asset unlocked, I would be outta this jam way faster. I wonder if Mum found out something about that… Well, probably not. Oligarchs must surround her… That's how she climbed the ladder, always an adventurous woman. Perhaps she makes donations to some institutes focusing on quirk research just as she did back in the day, though…

It was rare, but he sank into the meanders of nostalgia. His childhood hadn't been all bad; there'd been some good times, and his mother had been loving, something not all children enjoyed, sadly. She'd flown back to the motherland when he was 14, letting only a letter, leaving him with his father. A betrayal. That's how he had perceived it back then. Reflecting on it, it was probably the trigger for him to become what he is today-

"Felix, I'm here, you know." addressed a girl with blue skin and yellow eyes inside a car a few meters away from him with its windows lowered. "Been waiting for you for a while now."

"Ah, yeah. Sorry about that," he sighed, turning to Kaoruko as he shook off the thing he had in mind.

"Come on, hop in." she invited him. "So, how did it go?"

"It was fun."

"Alright," she giggled, shaking her head. "So it didn't go very well, haha!"

"What do you mean?" he asked with a grin before giving her a slight elbow tap. "Everything always ends up well with me."

"Whatever you say, Mister." Bubble Girl chuckled, putting her hand on the steering wheel. "So, what was the address you told me you needed to go to?"

"74 Mihoyo street, Shizuoka Prefecture. It's near Shizuoka, so it should take about half an hour."

"Are you paying for the gas?" she taunted him, raising her eyebrows with a smile.

"If you jerk me off while driving, why not."

"Yeah, no, I'd rather not have a car crash. That said, if we swap places, why not."

"I can't drive. I don't have a driver's license."

"Ah! So there you go! You're not perfect!" Seeing him shaking his head in turn with a grin, she changed the subject to come back to the main topic. "So that's the address on this business card, right? On behalf of… Mei Hatsume. So she has Chinese parents…"

"Yeah, that's the girl we met a while back ago when we were shopping."

"The one who sold you pieces of junk?"

"Not pieces of junk, but yeah, it looked like it."

"You think she has new stuff?"

"I called her a few days ago; we made a deal."

"Oh, Sir want to be mysterious today, I see, I see. Well then, let's go; I'll find out by myself."

Childlike and cheeky was their chemistry. Felix hadn't thought about her becoming someone he would become so fond of her, whether romantically, sexually, or out of sheer need for her help. His time in jail should have toughened him to not seek help from others, but instead, he had matured emotionally and mentally. Using people, mainly women for whom he had a thing without seeking to understand them, had already led him to end up behind bars. Not the same mistake twice.

The route that brought them to where they wanted to go was through highways built on top of each other and supported by powerful magnets. Japan was the first nation to introduce this technology into their infrastructure, saving space and thus allowing them to create more housing in the face of overpopulation in the more populated areas. Unfortunately, this did not prevent the country from struggling to increase its fertility rate. In a sense, for Felix, this was nothing more than Darwin's law of natural selection. If people don't make an effort to meet someone and just go with the flow, waiting for love at first sight or staying in their room, then it's expected that it ends like this. The hikikomori, although less numerous than before, had been replaced by tribes of simp worshiping this or that hero or heroine. It wasn't any better.

However, it was up to these folks to realize their plight.

The Japanese government had implemented several measures to counteract this, but none were successful. The fact their population was less and less was a problem they were aware of, especially because of China, other Asian countries, and the United Nations of Africa. Bringing more people to their country would give them a numerical advantage over other large competing nations. Moreover, extremist groups began to appear everywhere, so they were afraid that Japan, after becoming the world's leading force following the downfall of the United States of America, caused by the collapse of the dollar itself in the wake of the war between the U.S. and Africa—supported by China—would become the prey, the El Dorado of those who seek to make new benefits.

Felix was proof of it. He was nothing more than a bargaining ship the Canadian government gave to the Japanese to make them accept to sign a non-aggression treaty should Japan become more aggressive towards other nations.

—If it were up to me, I'd fertilize all the Japanese women, but it would be a lot of work. We're not in World's End Harem, after all.~

"We're at the right place... But what is this place?" asked Kaoruko, scratching her head while pursing her lips a bit.

"A private warehouse." he shrugged, slamming the car door before Kaoruko closed them. "She told me that it belonged to her parents, but since they hadn't used it for years since they changed profession, so she works in it."

"Isn't she a bit young to be, like, a super-creator, though?"

"She's already way ahead of most inventors. The microscope she gave me zooms right down to the molecule, and she made it with stuff salvaged from rubbish tips," he explained, entering the warehouse.

Dotted with all kinds of rubbish, but mainly metal and electronics, the entrance didn't look like much. There was some sort of ancient armor dating from the first heroes, which, piled up one on top of the other, looked like shapeless mounds of humanoid beings whose torso was the only thing that could be seen. Many screws, twisted nails, and bolts scattered the floor, making crunchy noises when they stepped on it. The main door was propped open with a cathode ray TV whose broken screen revealed a mechanism which, when someone passed by, caused an ultra-noisy alarm to be triggered, similar to the noise one might hear in a chowder factory.

"I almost had a fucking heart attack…!" Kaoruko tensed, holding her chest.

"...I didn't expect that either. She got me too."

Further down in the vast room filled with car wrecks, obsolete computers, shelves, and cabinets full of components, there was a long, wide workshop where hammers, mallets, circular saws, bolt cutters, and a whole lot of other odds and ends were lying around. Using the circular saw to cut steel bars, producing tons of noise and sparks, Mei went about her work with a pair of safety goggles and ear muffs.

"Hi, Mei." Felix started, waving at her to have her attention. "Hi…?" he called again, coming close. "Mei? …MEI?!"

Suddenly she raised her head, her goggles zooming in on one of his pockets before she finally leaped towards him with all her gear still on, full of grease, the circular saw still working in the background for a few seconds, the tip of one of her dreadlocks getting caught in it, cutting and pulling out some of her hair, but she paid no attention to it.

"I see you brought your wallet!!"

—Jesus… This girl…

"Hi, Mei."

"I believe I have what you described to me last time! I have plenty of spare parts too! What were you most interested in seeing first?! Microphones? Maybe the micro-cameras?! The spy pen?! I also put aside some methane and chlorine, as you wanted! 10,000 yen each! I even got access to other products that are normally not allowed to be sold to minors! Like the thing that creates toxic fumes, just as you talked about!! I also have enough to upgrade your microscope if you ever let me come to your house to change all the components! Oh, and also, I took the liberty of preparing a device that you might like! I also have-"

"Oh my freaking God, pleas-"

"I also prepared the bunsen burners, magnetic stirrer, distillation glassware kit, ultra-precise digital thermometer, pipette kit and universal cone, distiller, demineralizer, rotary evaporator, incubator, vacuum pump, electric autoclave, mini-centrifuge, and the thermostatic water bath!!!!" she yapped with almost no air in her lung at the end, breathing heavily.

"Are you done?"

"Huff… huff…"

"Seems like you're done." Felix sighed, scratching the back of his head as Mei removed her goggles, showing her yellow-orange crossed-shaped irises. "Don't people tell you that you are boisterous?"

"I'm sure they say that as a compliment, though," Mei replied, coming closer to Felix, trying to stick her face to his even if their height difference was a big one. "So, what do you want to see first? My prices are affordable... if you spend a lot of money, of course."

"...alright. I have almost ¥400,000; it should be enough, right?"

"..." Felix's question awakened something inside her, her eyes zooming even more onto his face. Soon enough, after an uneasy silence and sticking her boobs to him as she came even closer for an unknown reason, she almost started shouting. "Feel free to look at all my shelves and workbenches to see if any of my babies could make you spend more money!!"

—What the fuck… I don't mind her being touchy with me, but she's goddamn weird. That said, I wonder what she'd be like if I… You know... Should I try...?