Suki Kagaku [2]

I've always been pretty good at pulling all-nighters, but last night was incredibly boring! It was really just throwing a couple Pop-Off balls every few minutes before Flinging a few more and just… waiting. Of course, I had the internet to scroll, so it wasn't too unbearable, but jeez, I really need some new things to do if I plan on pulling another all-nighter like that.

It was around 10 am when I heard my mother moving around, and it was only then that I noticed a rather fatal flaw of my Quirk — the first one, that is.

My Pop-Off balls don't just vanish into thin air. They're physical objects, and as such, they proceeded to cover my entire door by the time my long night was over.

I can pull them off easily enough, but I just didn't know where to put them. Just putting them somewhere else would only momentarily solve the problem. I needed a space where they were completely out of the way, so they wouldn't be an inconvenience in the future.

A place where they wouldn't be an inconvenience….

Wait a second!

"Inventory!" The thought came to me, spilling out of my mouth. Just as I thought, a screen with plenty of sections appeared before me, and I grabbed several of the purple spheres, pushing them into the screen.

They appeared on the screen as if they were really there. One of the spots became filled, showing a purple orb with the number seven to its bottom right.

Awesome! It really works! It's a space only I can touch, super cool!

I snatched up all my Pop-Up Balls, which ended up being 213 in total. There was a secondary slot though, which held the Pop-Off Disks. There were only two of those in comparison.

All that hard work brought Pop-Off to level 34, which I was satisfied with. Even Fling leveled up, although it was only to level three.

Regardless, with my path cleared, I left my room and went to greet my mother, only to find a note on the table.

"Hey, honey! Sorry, I just got called away to the Naruhata District! I'll try to be back before dinner, be safe today!" I read the note, clicking my tongue.

It wasn't a horribly uncommon situation, with her being one of the somewhat well-known Pros around here. But… well, it couldn't be helped.

I wrote on the note that I would be going out to the library and got something quick to eat before leaving. Normally I'd just walk without a worry in the world, but I was a bit curious what the ten points in Dexterity actually did to my running speed.

So, I ran.

There weren't many people out, so I didn't have to worry much about running into anyone.

It wasn't much distance to traverse, so I got there in about ten minutes. I hadn't ever run to the library from my home anyway, so… maybe it wasn't the greatest idea. Still, I got there fairly quickly and that's all that mattered to me.

It was a guy at the receptionist front desk, unfortunately. Attractive librarians were a commodity for sure. Well, maybe it was good I didn't see any, maybe I'd be distracted by them if they were here.

I didn't know quite where to start with books about being gentlemanly, so I just started with the leftmost shelf and pulled off the leftmost book from the bottom level.

I glanced over it, reading the back of the book. It wasn't anything crazy, just a nonfiction book about All Might's career — for what was known to the public, anyway.

[Due to a special action of observing objects carefully, you have received a new skill!]

[Continuously observing objects has created the skill "Observe" to show information of the target!]

I stared at the screen for a moment before sighing and using the skill. And… wow, the information screen was pretty cool.

It basically summarized the main points of the book all on its own which — I have to admit — is pretty useful. Even if it only worked on the most mundane things around, quick information was always useful.

If all else failed, I could just use it and cheat my way through every test for the rest of this year!

Ahem, but with this new skill on my side, I went through the books one by one, Observing them one after another. The information wasn't anything crazy, but the skill was growing at a fairly decent rate.

I was still looking for a book about gentlemen when I stumbled upon an interesting book. At first it didn't look like anything crazy, but when I picked it up, an intriguing screen appeared.

[A Quest has been created!]

[Quest Objective Book Found!]

[Talk to Suki Kagaku about this book!]

Huh?

A Quest? Here? And at that, I'd found an objective item already. But… why?

All I did was touch this book, and it formed a Quest? Weird.

And furthermore, who the hell was Suki Kagaku?

I definitely haven't run into anyone with a last name like Kagaku, I'd remember such a bizarre last name.

But I could excuse the frilliness of my Quirk, I could excuse the suddenness of this Quest all for one reason: There was one keyword here, "woman."

Suki Kagaku was a woman, and I had an easy way to start a conversation with her! My goal was set, talk with Suki!

Yeah, yeah, call me a simp. The point was that I had something! A lead, haha!

I clicked the screen and another one appeared before me, detailing information I had no idea where it got it from.

[New Sub-Quest!]

[Getting the Girl: Suki's Dilemma!]

[Sub-Quest of: Girl Finder]

[Suki Kagaku needs someone to talk to, and you've got the book to talk about. Give it a once-over and go talk to her!]

[Time Limit: 1 hour.]

[Completion Reward: 2000 EXP per Topic Spoken About, Increased closeness with Suki Kagaku, Suki Kagaku's Phone Number.]

Holy Hell.

2000 EXP per Topic.

I was pretty sure just under half of that was enough to get me to level three. That many experience points would boost me several more levels!

But hush, that was not even the most important part!

Increased Closeness with Suki Kagaku was a more riveting reward! I don't care about being strong, I care about girls liking me! And the third reward was even greater! A woman's personal phone number?!

I couldn't get that if I was on death's door, and now it was just sitting there, all for me?

Of course, that meant I needed to find Suki. But even that was easy after accepting the Quest.

My Map appeared — which was a feature I didn't even know existed beforehand — and it detailed the layout of the library. Suki was in one of the far corners, apparently on her own.

That was good. I knew where she was. I just needed to read this book and comprehend it before the time limit was up, which wasn't… horribly difficult.

However, something else stuck out to me. This Quest was a Sub-Quest of another Quest — wow, I really need a new word to use — I don't remember accepting. And yet, despite having no memory of accepting it, it clearly was an accepted Quest.

If that was the case, it should already be under an… accepted Quest log?

"Quest Screen?" I spoke quietly but received no response. I groaned quietly, looking to both sides. No one was around, so I let out an even larger sigh.

I said about half a dozen different words, trying to find the right one. It ended up just being, "Quests."

The screen had a list of Quests he already completed, which consisted of basically Quests to do chores. But it also had a list of Quests I was currently completing, like this one.

[Girl Finder]

[Women all around the city need help, and as such, may be potential love interests if you play your cards correctly.]

[Time Limit: None]

[Completion Reward: ?]

[Failure Penalty: ?]

Huh.

Clicking on the quest pulled up my Map, but instead of just the library, it was overlooking all Musutafu, Japan. Red dots were all over the place, some moving while others were still.

So, these were all girls I could help.

Y'know what, maybe I judged you, my favorite Quirk. You're more amazing than I once thought.

I couldn't help but sniffling. I was so proud of the Gamer; it really created a pathway for my dream. It was truly admirable.

I shook my head, snapping myself out of my stupor. The possibilities were amazing to think about, but there was something better than a mere possibility in this very library.

A phone number.

I needed to get myself figured out. Before anything else, I needed to read this book.

It was over the Applications of Quirks, and it was apparently a fairly well selling book among scientists and people who enjoyed researching Quirks. I actually vaguely remember one of my teacher's mentioning it, although I hadn't read it myself.

I took the book and sat down at a table.

Now, I'll be honest, I'm not much of a reader. It's not something I've found myself doing often in my life. However, when I'm motivated, very few things could stop me.

In thirty minutes, I finished the book. I took a second to breath and leaned back in my seat.

Okay, even with motivation, there's no way I would've read that fast. So that must also be a part of my increased Dexterity. Cool.

The book was okay, if a little bit boring. Overall, it just talked about the applications of Quirks and how the user's perception of a Quirk could limit or enhance it. Or at least, that's what I really pulled from it.

It actually gave me a few ideas of what I could be doing with Pop-Off. One of the main points brought up the states of matter that Quirks normally form, being either plasma or solids. If the creations were changed into different states of matter, like gaseous or liquid forms, could the creator control them?

Or even, could a person create the exact same thing as their normal Quirk produces, only in a different state?

That was one of the ideas the book's author contested.

Admittedly, it gave me ideas about Pop-Off. Now, I couldn't control the spheres after I threw them, but that wouldn't matter if one of my thoughts applied. After all, my Quirk was amazing for trapping people and letting me move around faster.

It had some other theories about Quirks, but none of them immediately gave me any thoughts on improving my own abilities, so I mainly just brushed them aside.

But there were a few other major points, so I glanced over the book a little bit more before nodding to myself. I stored the book in my Inventory, making sure to give it one last once-over before starting to head over to Suki's location.

I still had around 25 minutes left on the timer, but I didn't want to risk it running out. Besides, just sitting around and twiddling my thumbs wasn't gonna get me any closer to meeting her.

As I got closer to where she was sitting, I peeked around a shelf, ignoring the look a passerby was giving me. And oh, my, God.

[Vice President of Faustian Inc.]

[Lv. 41]

[Suki Kagaku]

Suki was… I don't even know where to start.

Well, firstly, she was gorgeous. She had vibrant white hair, beautiful greyish, blue-colored eyes, and a face of features sharp enough to cut diamonds. She was wearing light makeup, but it was clear she was drop dead gorgeous either way.

And, to preserve some self-decency, I'll just say this: She was hot.

I mean, long legs, an athletic body, and she was well-off regarding her… upper body.

Of course, that was far from the only type of woman I liked, let's be realistic, but she was attractive.

It was honestly shocking I could do much more than just stare at her, but I felt myself calm down and continued to analyze the situation. How I did that, I had no idea. But it was more important that it happened.

Beyond how attractive she was, her level was actually quite bizarre. It was really high.

On average, most civilians were between level ten and twenty, so seeing that she was so much higher was really eye catching. Now, granted, I didn't know exactly how my Quirk was determining people's levels, but still, her level was high.

And her title was… I mean, pretty normal.

Most people's titles just had to do with what they did on a normal basis. Hers being based around Faustian Incorporated just meant she worked there. They were a pharmaceutical company, if I remember correctly. They were a smaller segment of a larger company, but I didn't care to remember that much about them.

I Observed her, just out of curiosity.

And whoo-wee, her stats were pretty normal where her physicals were in play, but her Intelligence and Wisdom were pretty fricking high. Like, nearly 70 on each of them. Compared to everyone else I'd been able to Observe, she was doubled, tripled on others. Even her Luck was pretty high, around 40.

However, I didn't really care about her stats.

I needed as much info as possible, for the sake of conversation. I couldn't just walk in willy-nilly, or I'll just look dumb.

Her Quirk was hidden, but that wasn't anything odd. I couldn't see anyone's Quirk right now, just because Observe was so low leveled.

I scrolled past her measurements — which I did note, looked about right — and stopped at her background. I let out a low hum as I read it.

[Background: Suki Kagaku works in a high position in Faustian Incorporated. She's been researching an important topic for several months but has recently hit a roadblock. Time is wearing her down, and she's beginning to worry about the future if she fails. However, it seems like she's fearing more than just her work….]

[Emotions: Anxiety, Fear, Anticipation]

So, she's been stressed lately. And I can sweep in and help her out.

Well, I've totally got this handled!

I took my phone out of my pocket and did a few extra precautions, searching Suki's name into the web and finding a few interviews with her in them. She normally wasn't the main interviewee, but she had enough clips that the internet scrounged together over the last several years.

I took a deep breath, kept my wits about me, and approached her table, book in hand.

She didn't look my way until I pulled out a chair and climbed on top of it, feeling… very pathetic while doing so.

When this was all over, step one on my conquest to getting girls was getting taller, because having to climb to get to chairs just isn't attractive.

Regardless, I got there smoothly enough and met Suki's confused eyes.

"Uh, hi, you're Suki Kagaku, right?" I asked, as if I didn't know. I figured it was kinder than just acting like I knew everything about her. "I'm a big fan of your work, I actually had a few questions about a Quirk application book I recently read. Would you be willing to have a conversation about it?"

Suki's eyes widened, before she nodded, a bright, joyous smile coming to her face. "Of course! I'd never deny the gift of knowledge to a young man like you. It's so nice to see more people interested in Quirks. And actually, I've had a few ideas I wanted to share, before I brought them to Johann's attention."

Johann was the person that was interviewed much more than Kagaku. He was the head of Faustian Inc., if I remember correctly.

I nodded, smiling.

So, now it's time to hit this right.