Chapter 37 - Progress

—Cole POV—

Walking over to the four of them, they gave me a hesitant look. Shaking my head at them, I reminded them that I was still the same person they knew. Placing my index finger on Ragdoll's head, I gave her Qurik back to her.

"Listen, I have only been keeping it a secret because if I told you from the start you'd have fled. All For One has really made it difficult for me to use my full array of powers since the public would associate me with him.", I told them, "My powers are similar but different from his. I can manipulate the bioelectric energy of people which is how I can take, give, copy, and destroy Quirks. Having copies of Quirks comes in handy in a pinch, and it has no ill effect on the person I copied it from."

"I guess that makes sense…so electricity is your original power?", Mandalay asked.

"One of them, yes.", I admitted, "I can use lightning, ice, napalm, smoke, light, video, and concrete powers as well. There is one other one, but I can't say that one in public."

Looking at me with confusion, I telepathically told them that it was an ability that I couldn't share because it was the most dangerous of all my abilities. Saying that I used a sliver of it to heal them, I asked them to please just trust that I knew what I was doing. Nodding their heads, they trusted me even though they had reservations about what it may be.

"Thank you, Cole!", Ragdoll shouted jumping up and giving me a big hug, "I thought I was going to lose a part of me forever."

"It's not a problem, please be careful in the future though. I don't want to see you that sad again.", I told her with a soft smile as I hugged her back, "The four of you are important people to me."

Seeing the three women smile bashfully, Tiger looked at me with concern. Telling me he didn't swing that way, I told him I didn't mean it that way in his case. Smacking him upside the head I let out a sigh.

"You are like a brother in arms dumbass…", I groaned, "I like women, not men."

"Phew…I was concerned there for a minute.", he laughed knowing what I meant.

Flipping him the middle finger, I looked back at the officers and returning Pro Heroes. Having given up the fight after watching All For One get pinned to the asphalt, the officers were just playing clean now with the villains. Walking towards me, Nezu had a concerned look on his face as did Togo.

"I understand why you had a need for secrecy now.", Nezu admitted.

"Yeah, now I understand how you have been getting your information. You copied Interface, didn't you?", Togo said following close behind Nezu.

"You know it, I have been gathering quite a lot of Quirks to use as needed. It makes things much easier when you can adapt to situations. For example…", I said forwarding details about the politicians and Hero Association turncoats to them, "I can get damning information on moles very easily. Now that All For One is gone, we have to quickly take down his organization. The doctor is still out there, he is the real threat because he is the one that was making the Nomu. I have the coordinates to his base now, but I don't know if the doctor ran once his backer died."

"We can back you up!", Mandalay assured me.

Asking several more Pros to come with us as backup, I opened a Warp Portal and headed to the base. Stepping into the underground facility that was All For One's base, the doctor was nowhere to be found. Finding several Nomu in the early stages of production, some of the Pros recognized the bodies of former friends and mentors floating in tanks.

"You have got to be shitting me…", Endeavor muttered looking at twenty tanks each with its own person inside.

"It's ridiculous we didn't find this sooner.", Present Mic said seeing one of his mentors being desecrated.

"How many more facilities did he have?", Cementoss asked out of curiosity.

"Just a storage facility near the hospital the doctor ran, I already dealt with the lab where he was making them originally.", I replied.

Taking the bodies out of the tanks, we handed them over to the police for proper burials. Gathering up everything we could find between the base and storage facility, we handed it over to Togo and the Hero Association.

—Several Weeks Later—

Armed with the information I had provided, Togo and the Tokyo Police Commissioner quickly had the politicians and officers that had been helping All For One arrested. Leading raids on their private residences, decades of cover-ups, and corruption were uncovered in a matter of hours. Given the scope of things, the police would be tied up for months as they scrutinized every scrap of paper they confiscated to send the criminals to prison for as long as possible.

While they were busy handling corrupt politicians and police officers, the Hero Association quietly made their traitors disappear. As a result of what was uncovered, many current low-ranking Heroes were terminated and had their licenses revoked. Many good Heroes that had been terminated previously were reinstated and given severance packages for wrongful termination. The timing of these changes was no doubt related to the public outcry after so many Heroes fled from Gigantomachia during his attack on Musutafu. Even with this appeasement, it would still be some time before the Hero Associate regained the public's trust again.

Now that the secrets of my abilities were out in the open, I had expected a mixed bag of responses from the public at large. In the days that followed I received requests from governments around the world asking me to come and remove their criminal organizations. It wasn't just the governments either, the people of those nations wanted me to give them the peace I was bringing to Japan. My brutal treatment of Gigantomachia and All For One had garnered me a new, unofficial name in the villain community…the Grim Reaper: Kessler. As that title spread like wildfire, dozens of criminal organizations fled Japan hoping to avoid a confrontation with me leaving mostly small-time criminals which could easily be handled by most Pro Heroes.

"I have been meaning to ask you, how's it feel to be the face of the Mutant Equality Act?", Rumi said as she cooked us dinner.

Due to the chaotic past few weeks, Rumi and I had to reschedule our dinner for this evening. Currently cooking our meal, we were making small talk to pass the time.

"I am happy to help them out, mutants don't get a fair shake as far as the public is concerned. Just because they don't look human doesn't mean they are monsters, the real monsters are those that can't coexist with them peacefully. No one is forcing them to be friends or casually talk with one another, if you don't like someone just stay away from them and go about your normal routine.", I stated, "I can't force people to be friendly with one another, all I can do is making them coexist enough to not actively try to harm each other."

"Fair enough, I understand what you mean. Growing up wasn't easy for me either, middle school boys are such horn dogs. Do you know how many of them tried to call me their Snow Bunny?", she spat with an irritated tone, "I fucked all of them up for insinuating that I am a cheap woman."

"I am surprised they had the balls to tell you that. I mean you were even muscular back then, and were in many different sports.", I stated reviewing her yearbook from back then.

"How do you know that…have you been spying on…", she started saying as she turned around, "Hey asshole, did you ask if you could rummage through my shit!?"

Giving her a playful shrug, I reminded her that she didn't say I couldn't either. Staring at me with an annoyed look, she told me to please put it back. Doing as she asked, I put it back and helped her plate the food. Taking a seat with her at the table we said a brief prayer of thanks for the food before digging in. Sampling a bite of her cooking, I was surprised to find that she was actually pretty good at cooking.

"Well…what do you think?", she asked me with a worried look.

"It tastes wonderful, it's got a lot of flavor and body to it. If I had a complaint, it would be the meat is a bit too overcooked for my taste but it still tastes good.", I remarked, "I will be honest though, I took you more for a vegetarian than a meat eater."

"I eat a balanced diet to maximize my energy and recovery from training.", she replied with a happy smile, "Foods with carrots are my preferred meals, but cooking a hotpot like this is also great too. So Cole, can I ask you a question?"

Telling her to ask me any questions she had, and she went straight for a big topic. I knew it had been coming for a while now based on our interactions, and her inviting me to dinner at her home. Watching her fidget around as she tried to collect herself, I gave her a mischievous grin.

"Are you wanting to date?", I said beating her to the punch.

Blinking several times, she cleared her throat and said that was what she wanted to ask. Telling me that she enjoyed spending time with me, she told me that she wanted to see where things went with us.

"I don't want to be rude, but you do know that Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, Ragdoll, and Endeavor's daughter Fuyumi are all also vying for my affections too, right?", I stated wanting to make things crystal clear to her.

"So I have been hearing…", she replied with a cramped expression, "Are you suggesting we share you, like your own personal harem?"

"Would you be opposed to it?", I asked her honestly.

Shaking her head, she said she wouldn't be opposed to it. Telling me that she'd prefer it over the alternative, I asked her what she meant by that.

"You may not be aware of it, but there are a lot of high-ranking Pros around the world that take many lovers while being married to only one woman. From what I have been reading, women usually raise the children on their own and receive money on the side from the men.", Rumi remarked showing me several documents she had been reading, "While I am not fond of sharing, I can make an exception so long as you accept responsibility for us and not just keep us on the side. Also…there would need to be a few concessions as well."

"What would those be?", I inquired.

"I'd like to move in together, I don't need your grandfather interfering with our private life. He seems like a nice guy, but I'd rather it be just us and Eri.", she admitted.

Understanding what she meant, I had been thinking the same thing for a while now. It was about time I moved out with Eri as soon she'd become my adopted daughter. Wanting to give her a lot more than what I could in our family mansion, I had been looking for a new home for a while now.

"I can live with that, what else?", I asked.

"We train together for at least an hour a day.", she told me with a grin.

Chuckling at her words, I said I knew she was going to ask that. Telling her I was fine with that, the two of us officially became a couple.