Chapter 21

In the west part of Lusaka

It was 11:30 pm in the night and Joseph Mvula was on a bus through the city. He wore a blue t-shirt, black sweatpants, black coat and white Jordans with a duffle bag beside him. He wasn't sure he did the right thing leaving his 9-year-old nephew home alone but Chimwemwe was a strong and very smart kid he was sure he could take care of himself.

He could have taken his car but his destination was in the shadier parts of town so he was cautious about bringing his car to those parts. After a little bit the bus came to a stop and Joseph got up from his seat getting out of the bus. He walked a good distance and arrived at a building and went to the back with two bouncers. One of them was holding a tablet.

"What do you need my man?" One of the bouncers asked.

"Yeah, I'm scheduled to fight here tonight." Joseph answered.

"Name?"

"Limbani." Joseph used an alias. The bouncer hummed and just checked the list on his tablet and found the name.

"Yeah you're in the clear." The bouncer opened the door and Joseph went in.

The insides of the building were shining with lights, loud music and a large number of people getting drunk off alcohol and getting high on drugs. In the centre was a large cage ring with two fighters trading brutally trading blows. This was an underground quirk fighting ring.

People come to these places to euther make some cash by either fighting themselves or making bets on fights or just for the thrill of fighting. Though the fights weren't very pretty as almost anything goes with people using their quirks anyway, they want and if not specifically said you could even kill your opponents.

"Hm really takes me back." Joseph mumbled as he walked to the bar.

"Hello honey, what can I get you?~" The slutty maid asked to joseph.

"Just a bottle of beer." Joseph ordered and not long after he was drinking a bottle of beer. He went to the changing room and put on some blue boxing shorts, fingerless boxing gloves and tied his breads in a pony-tail.

"WE HAVE A WINNER!" The announcer yelled and one of the men was on the floor with the other standing above.

The man was not just knocked out but extremely brutalised. His right arm was bent the wrong way, multiple ribs were broken, bloody chest, bloody and really beaten-up face.

The man who pulled off the victory didn't even have a scratch on him. He was around 23 years old, tall in height, really muscular physique, table cut with more hair kept at the top and dark eyes. He wore nothing but boxer shorts and fingerless fighting gloves.

"THAT'S THE FIFTH WIN FOR OUR NEW CHAMPION KING GAZAI!!" The announcer hype him up. "NOW THAT FOUR FIGHTERS ARE LEFT DOES ANYBODY ELSE WANT TO TAKE ON THE CHAMP!!"

Joseph noticed nobody else was going so he decided to make his move. He got up and walked up to the commentator table.

"I'd like a turn." He volunteered.

"Really what's your name?" The announcer asked.

"Limbani."

The Announcer checked the list and saw the name and nodded.

"WE HAVE A NEW CHALLENGER FOLKS! WILL HE KNOCK THE YOUNG KING OFF HIS THRONE OR WILL HE FALL INTO THE FATED TO ALSO FAIL!! GIVE IT UP FOR LIMBANI" The commentator introduced him as Joseph walked into the cage ring.

People began placing their bets and pretty much everyone betted on King Gaza. Joseph didn't mind this though as he was here for sport he was here for information.

"Good another one, hope you're not as boring as the last one." King Gaza got onto a boxing stance.

"Oh, believe me when I say Gaza it's hard for me to go down."

The bell rang and Gaza quickly went on the attack and began striking Joseph with jabs as fast as bullets and as Joseph intercepted them, he couldn't really block them all but he activated his quirk.

Gaza saw opponent was still not taking any damage so he decided to take it to the next level by increasing the speed of his punches. After the rapped fire of punches, he backs away with his fists smoking and Joseph still in a defensive stance.

"Not bad." He was complicated. "But it's my turn." He said as went forward for Gaza and through a fast left hook which the barley dodged but then Joseph went and gave him a powerful punch to the gut making him gasp for air.

He wasn't done though as delivered two powerful combos to both sides of his cheeks but before he could go for an uppercut Gaza threw a fast and fist at Joseph's face making him skid a little across the ring.

'Okay so he basically has a quirk that lets him hit a hell lot faster and the momentum in his hits gives him extra power. But at least he seems to have a cool down limit of it.' Joseph thought as he saw that the guy basically became champion solely on really having the fit strikes in fights or getting his opponents in the middle of his fast combos.

Gaza launched at Joseph ready to get his combo starting again but Joseph so the starter coming and quickly manoeuvred and caught it by the elbow and flipped him across the ring followed by a hard kick round kick to the chest sending him flying to the cage. Gaza coughed slightly and got up.

Gaza spit out some blood and tighten his fist. He ran fast and threw a left hook but it was much faster and lit on fire chasing Joseph off guard and the fist connected with his stomach making a sonic boom and strong wind shocking the crowd. Joseph was sent flying and hit the cage so hard that caused a dent to the area he crushed.

Gaza's left hand was in extreme pain right now but he was sure he beat that Limbani guy with that punch. He cursed that he couldn't get an extra dose of his secret sauce to make this fight easier.

"LOOK AT THAT FOLKS THE KING UNLEASHED A NEW ULTIMATE MOVE SENDING THE CHALLENGER FLYING HE COULD BE DOWN FOR THE COUNT WITH A HIT LIKE THAT!!" The commentator screamed.

Joseph got up from the floor holding his gut in slight pain. He admitted that when really got him he would even hurt his electrically hardened body.

Gaza just looked in shire surprise and questioned what type of durability like quirk this man had.

Joseph cracked his neck and ran to Gaza who tried to defend himself with his non recharging right arm which Joseph easily grabbed and twisted it making an audio crack making Gaza scream in pain. He delivered three strong punches to the stomach and delivered a final right jab to the face making bounce across the ring and his mouth bleeding. The man was knocked out. Joseph thought Gaza would be a little tougher than that though he must have relied too much on his quirk making a glass canon.

The referee called the match as Gaza was completely knocked out, to the crowd's surprise.

"WE HAVE WINNER FOLKS!" The announcer yelled and the crowd cheered.

Later that night

Gaza was in the changing room wearing black pants, a blue hoodie and trainers. He looked at an inhaler in his hand.

"I thought this drug was supposed to supercharge my quirk and make me unbeatable in these cheap rings." He said frustrated at the money he lost today.

Joseph came into the changing room much to the dismay of Gaza.

"What do you want?" Gaza asked.

"Relax, I just want to ask you some questions." Joseph raised his hands.

"Sorry, I don't have anything." Gaza snared.

"Let me ask you, are you getting a little something about your little power booster?" Joseph smirked and Gaza looked at him in shock.

Next day at the Caçar house

Salem's pov

I woke up and went to the bathroom to get myself ready for the day. When I was in front of the mirror to brush my teeth, I noticed I black freckles on my face which was weird because I never had them yesterday but I had them in my past life so it didn't really matter.

I went to the dining room and fixed myself some cornflakes for breakfast. I noticed that uncle J was still not back from wherever he went off too last night. It really wasn't my business as he was a grown man and maybe he went to a club or a Takhar secret mission.

I was just sitting on the grass of the lawn with my digital clock in front of me and touched the top of it. I then began focusing my quirk to feel the electricity flowing in the clock. I was trying to see if I could control electrical devices.

As I was focusing, I wasn't able to fully get it down even though I got a good amount of it's layout down. I practised this for 5 hours but I wasn't a complete success. I was just about to try again when my phone started ringing. I saw the contact details and saw it was agogo.

"Hey ago." I greeted her.

"Hey cub, I 'm just checking up. Is everything going, okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, everything is going fine." I answered.

"That's good, nice to hear. So, are you packed properly for your visit tomorrow?" She asked.

"Um so and so." I answered nervously.

It was a thing we did whenever I had a long holiday, I would go stay at grandmother's place for about a week or two. I didn't do this last year due to the training that made her really upset.

"Well, you better get ready Chicky." She instructed.

"All right Agogo I'll see you tomorrow. Bye."

"Bye cub."

The call ended but not long after I saw Suiw sent me a picture of her wearing diamond coated boxing gloves. I sighed and rubbed my head and sent a message saying I'll be there. I remembered five days ago when she asked me to give her Ms. Shupiwa's address. She told me she didn't want to be a scared or a victim anymore and to be a future hero she had to know how to 'kick-butt' in her words.

I went inside to fix myself to eat but as I went to the door it suddenly opened making me jump backwards and shot my electricity.

"The fuck kid." Uncle J came in looking very annoyed.

"Shit Uncle J, I'm sorry man, I got surprised!" I frantically apologised.

"It's okay Chimzey I have a durability quirk remember." He waved it off and cursed on the couch.

"Wait, don't you actually need to activate it?"

"I do but electricity runs in the family so that little stunning attack you pulled didn't really do much to me even without my quirk active." He yawned. "What no plans today?"

"Nah not really, maybe I'll go see how my friend Matthew's doing."

"Alright don't get in too much trouble or those two crazy cats will maul." He said tiredly.

"Okay Uncle J." I waved.

"Wait, why do you have spots on your face like Minerva?" He opened his eyes and I just shrugged.

My phone then began ringing again and saw it was Novahiwa texting me. I started talking with her along with William or Will as he preferred, I call him and we became great friends. Nova was very carefree and loved parkour and spray painting with a bright quirk to fit her personality called neon battery. William was the calmer on of the two and loved music and Dj-ing and I guess him having a sound-based quirk called boom box makes sense.

Sometime later

I was passing by Matthew's neighbourhood on my way to his place. He currently didn't have a phone so I couldn't call him when I was coming over. I reached the Nguzu household and knocked on the door. It wasn't for Mrs. Nguzu himself to open the door. She looked surprised to see me.

"Chimwemwe why are you here alone where's Matthew." She asked frantically.

"What do you mean Mrs. N I actually came here to visit Matthew. What time did he leave for my place?" I asked her.

"He left around 4 hours ago." She told me.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, for the past 8 days he has been leaving the house very early saying he was going to and coming back around 4pm he also said the reason he's been coming back so late was because you've been helping him with hero train that's why he always comes back with scratches and wounds sometimes." She was starting to get frantic.

'The fuck.' I thought to myself as I was now starting to worry. "Mrs. N I haven't seen him since the holiday started and there has been no hero training from me involved." I told her.

"W-why would he lie to me then." She looked down in tears.

"I-I don't know Mrs. N but maybe you should ask him once he gets back." I told her and said my goodbyes and left.

I don't know if Matthew is training to become a hero but if he's coming back hurt and lying that he had been with me then something else must be going on. Well, I hope his mom can get to the bottom of what's happening to him.