Wearing his Hero uniform, Luke arrived with Nyx at Rabbit Hero: Mirko's office.
They hadn't even walked in and already had a bad feeling about it.
Because Mirko's office was a gym she owned.
Luke had no choice, though.
The Divination had outright rejected all other options.
Even then, he had tried to earn an internship under another Pro Hero.
The thing was, the Pros who were eager to ignore Luke's disciplinary background, compared to his public popularity, feats, and, most importantly, Quirk, weren't high enough up the ladder to even linger anywhere close to the Shie Hassaikai or the Claws of Conformity.
Most of the Pro Heroes who were both strong and interested in him, while still willing to turn a blind eye to other things, weren't taking Interns this summer.
That left only a handful of Hero Agencies.
Almost all of them had already accepted students for Hero Work Studies.
The ones that remained weren't willing to accept an intern who had just faced a weeks-long suspension for hitting an upperclassman at his school, no matter how special he and his Quirk were.
These Hero Agencies included Endeavor's and Sir Nighteye's.
Luke had hoped he would at least make it to Sir Nighteye's Agency. But, surprisingly, Aina didn't even say a word in his favor this time. It seemed that, with Aina still pissed, Nyx's little joke of letting her calls go unanswered was turning out to be a grave mistake.
That left…
"Oi!" Luke's head snapped up, and he found Mirko's rabbit ears peeking out from a window. "Whatcha doing standing over there? Come on in!"
When Mirko's ears disappeared, Luke gulped.
"She's excited," Nyx noted. "Looks like a rabbit in heat…"
"Nyx!" Luke hissed. "Seriously?! Now?!"
Rubbing his face and slapping his cheeks, Luke entered the office.
It was exactly as he had imagined.
A vast space with lots of gym equipment and a little office in the corner.
"Up!" Mirko's voice echoed down from the upper floor.
Letting out a sigh, he walked up the stairs and found the massive hall devoid of any equipment, with a matted floor and walls, and scores of punching bags dangling from the ceiling from a steel structure that made it easy to move them around.
Mirko, wearing nothing but loose white trousers and a sports bra, walked up to him, her exposed skin bearing several scars.
When she neared him, Luke towered over her like a… tower.
"Eyes up, kid!" Mirko joked.
"Haha…" Nyx laughed.
Luke chuckled.
Mirko turned around and began walking away.
"So…" Luke followed, noticing the strange firmness of the mats. "… about that Internship."
"Can't do it," Mirko said, shaking her head. She stretched her arms and legs and cracked her neck before facing him. "Not a… proper Hero Agency. Only a Hero Agency registered with the Commission can accept Interns."
"That's not true," Luke countered. "Gran Torino and you accepted Izuku and me last time…"
Gran Torino was a retired Pro Hero without a Hero Agency as well.
In fact, he was even more retired now than before, and yet he had accepted Bakugo as an Intern.
So, Mirko's words made no sense.
Which meant…
Luke noticed the twitch at the corner of Mirko's mouth and scowled. "Are you messing with me again?" he asked. "I will be in serious trouble if I don't secure an Internship by this evening."
"Well, I am still not accepting an Intern…" the Pro said.
"Then why did you tell us to come and meet you?!" Nyx cawed.
Clicking his tongue, Luke turned around to barge out and find someone else, wondering why his Divination had pointed toward Mirko anyway.
However, just as he took his first step, the Pro called out from behind.
"I am accepting a Sidekick, though," Mirko said. "Interested?"
Luke turned around with a heavy frown on his face. "Not really," he said. "But, even if I were, I could not become a Sidekick without having a Provisional Hero License."
"Sure you can!" Mirko said, shrugging. "Isn't your stepsister… Snappy, right? Didn't she become that four-eyes' Sidekick without a License as well?"
"…" Luke's frown deepened.
Something was wrong.
What was Mirko getting at?
"Let's say I can become your Sidekick," Luke said, stepping forward. "It still wouldn't count as an Internship…"
"Sure it would!" Mirko cut him off. "It counted for Snappy, didn't it?"
And with that, Luke instantly realized where she was going with all this. "You…" he said, gulping, "… you did a background check on Aina just for this?!"
That wasn't like Mirko at all!
For her to know all this, it meant she had sat down at a desk, logged into the Commission's database, and searched for Nighteye's Agency and the information on the Sidekicks it employed before proceeding to open the file on Snapshot Hero: Snappy.
So much… work.
Mirko didn't do office work.
Luke looked at the Pro Hero and knew things had just become more serious than he had imagined them to be—or wanted them to be.
"You have always worked alone," Luke said. "Why are you so keen on accepting a Sidekick now?"
Mirko shrugged again. "I like ya!" she said. "Bastard… you should be grateful, no? The No. 5 Hero offering you a Sidekick job… Do you know how many would come crawling to be my Sidekick, including some Pros?!"
Yes.
Something was definitely wrong.
"You don't want him to be your Sidekick…" Nyx cawed, planting her shrewd eyes on the rabbit-in-heat. "You just want him to be your punching bag, don't you?"
Silence.
Mirko lost her smile. "Oi…" she said, looking at Luke and pointing toward Nyx. "… The crow is getting smarter."
Oh-oh… Luke grabbed Nyx as she hurled out curses so foul that Mirko's eyebrows shot up toward her long ears.
"Mother@#@2, let's do it!" Nyx cursed, spitting on the floor. "I will kick your ass, you fucking sex doll!!!"
"NYX!!!" Luke gaped at Nyx, his head slowly turning toward the Pro.
Instead of fuming in rage, Mirko was smiling from ear to ear.
So… that was wrong, Luke realized. She… goaded Nyx. She goaded a damn Magician!
"Nyx didn't mean—" he tried in vain to delay the inevitable.
Mirko, in return, slammed her fist into the palm of her other hand.
"Oh, it's on now…" the Rabbit Hero said, veins popping up on her thighs and forehead. "Do you know why I want a Sidekick… why I want you… It's because…
"… it's hard not to curse now and then—bitch!"