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[Mission On The Move]
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…
Afternoon came, and both Takah and Jiro walked side by side—one of them slouching forward with an extremely tired face.
You can already guess who.
"Damnit, Takahashi…"
Taka tilted his head lazily toward her. "What?"
She snapped, "What do you mean what? You forced me to pierce solid concrete with my earlobes about one hundred times. That's what!"
"So?"
"You even dare ask?!"
He gave her a flat look. "It doesn't hurt much, does it?"
"...For some reason it doesn't…" She grabbed her head in frustration before snapping again. "BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT!"
Taka didn't answer—just stared with an unimpressed look.
"You didn't even explain anything! Why did you make me do it?! You're not seriously expecting me to use my earlobes as five-centimeter knives during the sports festival, are you?!"
"Depends."
She sent him a long, incredulous glare.
"On what?!"
"On what you'll be stabbing," Taka clarified. "You can stab people if you want, but that's not why I'm making you do that."
"Then?!"
Taka's hand moved to poke her temple, "Think about it while we finish training your quirk. Just know it's to cover what you were complaining about earlier."
As her head was helplessly tapped a few times, a vein popped on Jiro's forehead, before she batted his hand away, annoyed.
With that, Taka stuffed his hands in his pockets again, all while Jiro went back to musing over his words.
"Something I was complaining about?" she muttered, trying to recall.
The only thing she remembered saying was how unsure she felt about her future performance at the festival without her support gear giving her an offensive edge.
But what did using her earlobes like nails against hard concrete have to do with that? The only conclusion she could reach was that Taka was preparing her to use them as little knives.
'Actually, that's kind of cool…'
She sweatdropped, imagining herself unleashing a barrage of piercing attacks with her earlobes before standing with her arms crossed as her enemy collapsed dramatically to the grou—
'Argh, this guy's antics are rubbing off on me!' Jiro snapped out of her fantasy, scratching her hair in frustration.
Taka only rolled his eyes at her and looked forward again.
'There shouldn't be a problem with speeding this up… probably,' he mused, remembering the training all his classmates were supposed to get at the training camp after this semester ended, and the ultimate-move training that followed in the show a few chapters after said camp.
Jiro's ultimate move, in particular, involved stabbing her earlobes into the ground and sending sound through it to cause an earthquake-like effect.
He could have made her try that right away, but recalling the "quirk improvement" training she went through at the camp—relentlessly stabbing a mountain wall with her earlobes, he decided otherwise.
Since he had no idea whether that specific training was necessary for her to reach her ultimate move, he decided to make her replicate it.
This time, stabbing buildings instead of a mountain.
—All while, of course, healing her constantly so she wouldn't get too injured from the brutal exercise, and just slowly enough that she wouldn't realize she was being healed.
He wasn't sure if his healing was gonna speed up the training results, or if they were actually going to neutralize whatever gain there was. He hadn't had time to check whether his healing skill worked as a natural healer or if it just returned the body to an uninjured state, basically making all the point of training useless.
But this was the perfect chance to check.
Still, he was pretty sure that at some point during the past months, he had used the healing skill on himself after training with Seiji, and his stats had increased without problem.
He usually just didn't pay much mind to his gains from training. He just trained out of habit.
So Jiro's efforts today shouldn't be wasted... probably.
'Actually, if my healing speeds up the healing process... why don't I use the healing for training myself? With constant healing, I can probably speed up my strength growth…'
Taka blinked dumbfoundedly, wondering how it had taken him this long to reach that conclusion.
He had assumed he was already hitting his body's limit—given how his stat gains had slowed to a crawl a while ago—so he hadn't considered training as a real path for further growth.
But now that it crossed his mind, maybe he'd give it a try later when he got home—
"By the way…"
Jiro's voice snapped him out of his self-improvement scheming.
He glanced at her—only to see her giving him a sweatdropped stare.
".... Why are you helping me with the training? Don't you have training of your own to do for the Sports Festival?"
Taka raised an eyebrow, then slowly turned forward again, thinking it over.
He hummed quietly for a few seconds, like he was digging for the real answer somewhere deep inside.
Then, once he seemed to find it, he opened his mouth.
"… All Might asked me to help you guys prepare. So that's one reason... but if I'm being honest, it's because I wanna see you at your full potential."
Jiro blinked and came to a stop.
Taka stopped as well, turning to her with a slight smile.
"You've got a pretty good Quirk and a good head on your shoulders, so it'd be a shame if you wasted the opportunity… Plus, you're my friend."
Jiro blinked again, still processing his answer.
Taka continued anyway. "...And besides, being the only one strong is kind of boring. I wouldn't mind some competition."
A few moments of quiet passed, during which the two just stared at each other.
Then Jiro looked away, suddenly looking a little flustered.
"... What's with that? Are you dumb?"
Then she punched his arm.
—Only to immediately hiss, before grabbing her hand with a pained look.
"Why are you so tough?!"
"My bad."
Rubbing her fist, she sighed and lowered her hand.
Still, after a bit, a small smile tugged at her lips.
The walk stayed quiet for a few minutes, with both simply going over their own thoughts and observing the scenery of the descending sun in the distance.
It wasn't until she suddenly seemed to remember something and snapped her head toward him that the silence between the two broke.
"By the way, Takahashi…"
"Hmm?"
"With everything that happened, I forgot to ask, but…" Her gaze sharpened, drilling straight into him. "What were those abilities back then when you fought that mutant villain?"
"..."
A brief silence followed again, a slightly uncomfortable one.
Taka almost shuddered from her piercing gaze, but managed to keep himself steady and follow the script he'd prepared.
So, after clearing his throat, he spoke.
"You mean the cutting and generating fire and electricity?"
Jiro nodded.
Taka nodded back, speaking from then on as if what he was explaining was but obvious. "The cutting is a new application I figured out for my telekinesis. By focusing all the telekinetic force into a really sharp point around an object, I can increase the sharpness and cut things with it as if I had an enormous knife surrounding it."
Jiro tilted her head, her brows furrowing as she struggled to decide whether that made sense or not.
Taka's eyes glinted with satisfaction upon seeing that reaction, so he immediately continued with the explanation to not give her any more time to think about it.
"As for the fire and electricity, that's just a different application. By using my telekinesis, I can accelerate particles and raise the temperature enough to create fire. As for the electricity… that one leans more to using polar telekinetic outputs to generate static… Very, uh, complicated stuff."
Jiro's expression tightened as she nodded, looking like she was still trying to piece it together.
After a bit more, however, she gave a more decisive nod, followed by what seemed like a reluctant sigh of giving up on trying to understand the logic behind something as bizarre as telekinesis.
'If that's how it is, I suppose it makes sens—'
"Phew…"
Her head snapped to him once she heard a seemingly relieved sigh come from his direction.
—Only to find Taka staring ahead with a stoic face.
After some more seconds of staring at him suspiciously, waiting for a slip-up of some kind, she shrugged and turned forward again.
'Must have been the wind.'
'Phew.' Another sigh came, this time mental, though. So Jiro didn't hear a thing.
A few minutes later, with Jiro still trying to guess the purpose behind her new imposed training, and Taka being as ambiguous with his words as always, they ended up splitting ways when she headed down into the subway, and Taka bid her farewell.
After that, Taka walked off on his own. But he didn't go straight home.
Instead, he stepped into an alleyway, pulled out a black fabric mask from his backpack, put it on, then shrugged off his upper uniform and swapped it for a hoodie that he had also been carrying.
In one moment, he had changed from Takahashi to the infamous Rockinesis.
'This costume is pretty damn simple.' He thought, pulling on the fabric of his hoodie and looking at it with an exasperated look.
It had been a long time since he had put on his vigilante costume. Now he realized just how boring it was.
But maybe there was charm in that.
'Still, I should change it, like this, I'm just a hooded guy with awesome powers.'
Having made that decision for the future Taka to follow it someday, Taka began floating upward—slowly, as he searched for something on his phone.
Once he was done tapping and scrolling, he stuffed his phone back into his pockets, and by then, he was already floating high above the ceilings of most buildings around him.
Some people lounging there, or hanging their clothes, shot him incredulous looks.
But he wasn't there to satisfy their curiosity.
—Swoooosh!—
Without letting anyone shout or say something, he shot forward like a bullet, aura cutting the air around him to reduce drag and noise as much as possible to not alert the people going on with their lives across the city, or any heroes.
Before long, he reached his destination, the ceiling of one of the tallest buildings in the city. He approached it with both hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets.
"Hmm?"
And up there—cape fluttering wildly in the wind, sun shining dramatically behind him—stood Gentle Criminal, carefully serving himself tea on a little plate and cup as he locked eyes with the arriving Taka—all while beside him stood La Brava, looking pretty excited.
Taka raised an eyebrow at the sight.
'That's pretty aurati—nevermind.'
His inner praise died instantly as a strong gust of wind blew the falling stream of tea sideways… and splashed it right onto Gentle's face.
Closing his eyes and resisting the urge to sigh, Taka slowly descended onto the rooftop.
Gentle was already wiping himself down with a rug La Brava had clearly prepared beforehand. By the time Taka approached, he was mostly clean again.
So, Gentle spread his arms wide, grandly and welcomingly. "Well, well, well… at last, the two greatest criminal minds of the internet meet to join forces. We are making history here, Rockinesis. History that will mark the world forever, etching our names into the minds of people for millennia to come."
"You're so cool, Gentle!"
Taka didn't bother reacting to the theatrics. He still wasn't convinced that teaming up with them was a good idea.
So he cut straight to the point.
"On the phone, you said you wanted to join me in my raid against the Hassaikai… but do you even know why I'm doing it in the first place?"
Gentle's exaggerated aura faltered as he realized the mood wasn't one for speeches. He took a sip of what little tea had actually made it into the cup and answered more sincerely.
"We assumed they were behind the attack on your school. Thus, making them a target for revenge. Is it that, perhaps? Is this the retribution for their transgre—"
"No."
Taka cut him off mid-sentence, and the villain's eyebrow rose in confusion.
"It's to rescue a kid being subjected to human experiments because of her Quirk," Taka said flatly, as if explaining something obvious. "Everything I'm doing is to rescue her."
Both villains flinched at the explanation. And for the first time, they really looked at him—saw the anger simmering behind his eyes.
"The complete destruction of the Shie Hassaikai, the ravaging of their base, the crushing of their members, and the humiliation of the Shie Hassaikai's leader, Chisaki…" Taka raised a fist, clenching it as raw crimson aura leaked from him like violent flame. "…it will all just be part of the process."
"...!"
Both villains instinctively stepped back as the air grew heavier around them.
But after a few seconds, the pressure eased just enough for them to breathe and focus again.
Taka let them settle, then stared straight at them, unblinking. "Knowing that… can you, as villains, truly tell me again that you'll help me in this operation?"
"..."
As the question landed, Gentle opened his mouth to speak, but after a second, he closed it again.
La Brava looked between her partner and Taka, confused by the change in moods.
But then, a low chuckle escaped Gentle.
"... A fearsome rival you are indeed, Rockinesis. La Brava has already briefed me on the Yakuza's business. To destroy such a massive, growing drug empire, filled with plenty of extraordinarily strong individuals, all just to save one kid… very gentlemanly indeed."
He took the last sip of what remained in the cup, handed both cup and plate to La Brava, and focused on Taka once more.
"Although I call myself a villain, my motto is to punish all that is not gentlemanly. If the Shie Hassaikai is indeed using a little girl to fuel their drug empire, then I am obligated to intervene!"
He pointed at Taka dramatically.
"So yes, Rockinesis. We will aid you in this rescue, even though we may be villains!"
"..."
Taka simply stared at him.
After enough silence passed, he snorted. "Alright."
He pulled two sheets of paper from his backpack, sending them floating toward the pair.
"There's all the information I've gathered so far."
On the papers were details even La Brava hadn't uncovered—notes on hidden, dangerous members of the organization that weren't available to find through digital sources and their quirk, a rough location of their main base, and lastly, a description of Chisaki's and the girl's Quirk. All coming straight from Taka's otherworldly memories as a source—something, of course, they had no way of knowing.
Both villains grew noticeably tense. Upon reading all its contents, the danger level of their target felt far more real now.
To be able to destroy people and then rearrange them with just a mere thought... that was enough to make them understand the sheer danger that Shizaki posed.
After giving them enough time to digest everything, Taka spoke again. "Unfortunately, while I have a rough guess, I still haven't pinpointed their exact location. You said your partner is skilled at gathering information, right?"
Gentle looked at La Brava, nodding proudly yet confusedly over the subject. "Yes, La Brava has immense expertise regarding digital stuff."
Hearing that, La Brava lifted her chin proudly and nodded. "I'm a pretty skilled hacker. Self-taught at that!"
Taka nodded. Her words might have inspired distrust in anyone else, given the rather untrustworthy extent to which the skills of someone self-taught could usually reach. But he knew just how skilled she actually was.
"Then, please find their exact location."
She skimmed the papers again and nodded with a bright smile. "Using all this that you gave me, I'll have their location in no time!"
Taka nodded with a grateful look—before narrowing his eyes.
"Once you do, we will start with the raid right away."
Then, he began floating up.
"You already have my number. Contact me if you need anything. I'll be going now."
Gentle panicked slightly and stepped forward. "Hold on, Rockinesis—given the strength of our opponent, won't we need a plan?"
Taka sent him a calm, collected look.
"Plans are for when your opponent has some kind of advantage that might inconvenience you."
He let the meaning settle.
"In this case, they don't."
With that as his final word, Taka shot upward, sending a gust strong enough to force both villains back a step.
As they watched his figure shrink into the distance, Gentle stroked his moustache thoughtfully.
"It seems we've gotten ourselves into something troublesome, La Brava."
"Will we be able to fight against such a force with just the three of us, Gentle?"
Gentle paused, recalling the footage from days ago—Rockinesis, or rather Taka, fighting at a level far beyond what he had ever previously shown against the mutant villain.
If he fought the Hassaikai like that…
"We will be fine, La Brava… Still, it seems we misjudged Rockinesis's personality."
"Hm? Why?"
Gentle smiled, shaking his head. "We assumed he was aiming for the Hassaikai for many reasons—popularity, retaliation, a show of power… But saving a girl? That possibility never even crossed our minds. Looking back at our first conversation with him, it seems he wasn't even planning to return as Rockinesis for it."
La Brava tilted her head. "Did we do something unnecessary, then?"
"He asked for our help, didn't he? If he did, then perhaps not."
With that, he turned from the distant sky where Taka had vanished, whipping his cape back dramatically.
"Let us go, La Brava. We have work to do."
"Yes, Gentle!"
Like that, the ceiling of the building was left empty.
And like that, the countdown to the Hassaikai's end began.
24 hours remaining.
...
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: How was the chapter? It was hard to read for some reason upon revisiting it, but I think that's just me, since sometimes my brain is in dum dum mode and finds it hard to read sentences smoothly, and they seem rather wonky to me.
I think it might have something to do with motivation—as in, I've just woken up, and I'm feeling lazy, not that I'm demotivated from writing. Actually, I'm feeling pretty great these days.)