Chapter 22 - Eri

—Several Weeks Later, Cole POV—

After the run-in with the surveillance agent, all the monitoring they had on me stopped. This either meant they were backing down, which was very unlikely, or they took me as a serious threat and were using the resources to gather allies. For the time being the crime rate hadn't dropped sharply which meant they weren't ready to move yet. That said I still had the cameras all over the city keeping an eye out for anyone from the Meta Liberation Army, the Yakuza, and the League of Villains. If one of them made walked passed one of the cameras, I would know their exact location and could follow them accordingly.

While I waited for them to pop up, I spent time gathering Quirks in Japan while my grandfather and I toured the country garnering support to speed up the approval for the agency. Frankly, I wasn't happy about being used as a poster boy for the agency but this trip did get me access to quite a lot of Quirks and contacts around the country. In the end, we got our approval to move forward with the agency thanks to the politicians whose families I had saved earlier in the year.

With the green light given by the national and local governments, grandpa and I selected a construction company to design and build it for us. At my request, we ended up going with Ochaco's family for the job as I wanted to help out the little guy. They were having a rough go of it at the moment so landing our job helped them out a lot. She even baked me cookies as a thank you, much to Izuku's frustration.

'I wish he'd calm down, I am not interested in any of the students.', I thought currently sitting in a donut sign having a chocolate glazed donut, 'Mirko, Fuyumi, and the Pussycat women are much more up my alley than the students. Since I intend to find the remaining family I have elsewhere, anyone I date here would need to be willing to come with me.'

As I was finishing breakfast, I heard a disturbance coming from the roadway nearby. Glancing over to see what was going on, I saw a little girl running across the street in a hurry. Recognizing Eri immediately, I jumped up and started moving toward her. I had been looking for her whereabouts for a while as I figured she was probably with her grandfather by now. Even though the police had the under surveillance, they weren't really doing a good job since the Yakuza weren't a big threat anymore.

"Little girl come over here, please. It's dangerous running through traffic like that.", I called out to her.

Running over to me without hesitation, I could see the fear painted on her face. She was clearly running away from whoever was watching her, and was currently being chased by them.

"What's your name?", I inquired.

"Eri…", she replied nervously, "You are a Hero?"

"Yes I am, it's going to be alright now Eri.", I assured her as I patted her head.

Pointing her forehead with my right index finger, I used my abilities to adjust her powers. Using The Beast's power, which was handed over to Cole during the Evil Ending of Infamous 2, I was able to adjust powers/abilities as I saw fit. Changing her Quirk activation for humans, I made it so the target had to be willing to be rewound before she could actually use it on them. This would prevent accidental activation on people, and spare her from more trauma in the future.

"Is someone chasing you?", I asked as I picked her up.

"Yes…", she replied softly as she pointed down the alley she came down.

Seeing Chronostasis running out of the alleyway, he seemed to be in a hurry to locate her. Knowing what Overhaul did to anyone that lost track of her, the man probably wanted to resolve the issue before he found out and killed him. Looking around frantically for her, he froze when he saw her in my arms. Any killing intent he might have been letting off stopped the moment we locked eyes.

"Shit!", he shouted.

"Your damn right!", I remarked grabbing him by the face before he realized I had moved.

Slamming him into a brick wall, he attempted to use his Quirk on me but I used Erasure on him to negate it. Setting Eri down, I told her to cover her eyes because children didn't need to see this. Doing as I asked, she covered her eyes with her hands without a word.

"Now then, you going to tell me why you are chasing an injured child down an alleyway?", I questioned.

"!...I don't have anything to tell you!", he spat.

Slamming my left fist into his chest shattering his rib cage like glass. Digging my fingers into his skull, I demanded he tell me where they came from. Refusing to answer, I caught a glimpse of the location from his memories. Now that I knew where she came from, I no longer needed him. Stealing his Quirk from him, his mind became sluggish and he started to pass out. Zapping him with 500,000 volts of electricity, he snapped out of the state almost immediately.

"People that hurt children have a special place in my mind. It's a very dark place that you are going to see a glimpse of now.", I informed him with a sinister tone.

Letting go of his skull, I slammed my right fist straight into his face shattering his face and jaw. Following up with a left hook to the gut, I ruptured his stomach and then started chain punching the heck out of him aiming for pressure points that would cause him the most amount of pain. Screaming like a stuck pig, no one came to help him as the public saw Eri covered in cuts and bruises. I was happy that when given a choice between a villain and an abused child, the public seemed to value the child over them.

Beating him to a pulp for five minutes, I fried him with ten million volts of electricity. Pushing him over the edge, he briefly died from the attack but I jump-started his heart to keep him alive. Leaning forward I whispered something into his ear.

"Don't think you can just die to atone for what you have done. I want you to sit in prison unable to protect yourself from the criminals there. A guy like you won't last more than a week before your someone's bitch.", I whispered with an evil laugh, "It's the only human contact you will ever feel again, I can guarantee you that."

Feeling him shivering with fear, I toss him over my shoulder and picked up Eri. Telling her she could uncover her eyes now, she did so and asked for me to pick her back up. Happily doing so, I took us straight to the local police precinct and dropped Chronostasis on the floor. Seeing the mutilated man, the officer looked up to see a terrified child in my arms covered with bruises and cuts.

"Get this animal into a cell, and call an ambulance…tell them to take their time getting here.", the lieutenant at the front counter shouted, "Be careful with him, he's a dangerous villain…or rather was one."

Dragging his body to one of the open cells, the villains in holding saw what happened to Chronostasis. Looking at me through their tiny windows, I shot them a glare making sure they knew that could easily be them next time. Watching them back away from the windows, I nodded with approval as the holding area quieted down.

"Now then, do you know where the parents are of this young girl?", the lieutenant questioned.

Giving him the details of how I ran into her, I saw a flash of anger on his face. Hearing that an innocent child was being chased by a guy like him through the back streets probably infuriated him. Asking if she would need medical attention, I told him I could take care of that now.

Setting Eri down on the ground, I used Bio Pulse to quickly heal her injuries. Watching them disappear from her arms and legs, she looked at me and asked if I had used magic to heal her. Telling her it was something like that, I guessed that she hadn't been in captivity long so she still had some of her childlike nature left.

'And it will stay that way.', I thought patting her on the head, "Officer, I will take her back with me till her parents can be located. See as how he is with the Yakuza, they may come looking for her soon as well."

"Of course, I see no problem with that.", the lieutenant replied seeing Eri clinging to my pants.

Picking her up again, I took a copy of her Quirk without her knowing. Walking out of the precinct, I called grandpa to inform him of our new guest. Since I technically didn't own the home, I wanted him to okay it which I was certain he would. Explaining her situation to him, I asked if he was okay with her staying with us.

"Do you mind if she stays with us till I catch whoever was abusing her?", I asked him.

"I don't see a problem with that, just make sure you get permission from the local government first. Don't want them thinking you kidnapped a child or something like that.", he chuckled, "Make sure you pick out clothing and such for her too. We don't have anything here for kids after all."

Thanking him, I did as he suggested and went to see Nezu. Explaining the situation to him, I told him who was chasing her and what my concerns were. Asking if there was any way I could have her stay at my residence, for the time being, he looked over at Eri who was preoccupied with a cartoon on my phone. Understanding my concern, and knowing she'd likely get lost in the system otherwise, he made a few calls and got me permission to house her at my residence for now.

"You are sure that it was Chronostasis that was chasing her?", Nezu inquired with a curious look.

"Yes, I have seen his face on the wanted posters around town. As to why he wants Eri, I would have to assume she is someone important to the Yakuza.", I remarked.

"Agreed, it's just concerning they'd pursue a child. The Yakuza aren't known for kidnapping children, it goes against their code of honor.", Nezu stated.

"I think it has to do with her Quirk, she can rewind time on living entities.", I informed him.

Staring at me and then looking at her, he asked me how I knew this. Claiming that Chronostasis let it slip while I was beating him to a pulp, I said that was one of the big reasons for my request.

"Not only that, the system will just put a number on her and not treat her like a child. I'd rather her have somewhere warm and loving after what she has gone through.", I said patting her on the head again, "I have no doubt the Yakuza wanted to weaponize her. Rumor has it that they have been on the downturn with the rise of the Heroes. Using her to remove Heroes permanently would be invaluable for their profit and place in society. The fact they have sunk so low as to use an innocent child to make their dreams a reality infuriates me. Kids like Eri should only be worried about playing with their friends and learning their ABCs in school."

Now that Eri was under my protection, no one on this planet would hurt her anymore. She could have a normal life without any fear of someone coming to hurt her and could just be a child.