Having made it to City Q, I took a public bus and, getting off at the right stop, soon found myself outside the gym where Mizuki usually trained. The girl was sitting near the entrance, replenishing her water intake.
Glancing sideways and noticing my approach, she pulled away from her sports bottle and leaned back slightly with a promising smile.
"Yo! Birthday boy!"
"Hey." — smiling back, I walked over and dropped down beside her. "So... where's my gift?"
"Hey, hey. My memory's still fine, kid." — laughing, Mizuki playfully waggled her finger at me. "You specifically asked me not to get you anything... but..."
The girl's hands shot forward, wrapping firmly around my neck and pulling my face closer. Despite the initial forcefulness, right before the kiss itself Mizuki slowed slightly — as if giving me a choice. Of course I leaned in to meet her. Her lips touched mine softly, and I felt the world around us disappear.
A gentle yet achingly passionate kiss. The girl's lips were soft and warm. Without much deliberation, I leaned in again and pulled her closer. The heroine's body pressed firmly against mine, her full chest creating a very pleasant pressure... when our mouths finally parted a couple of minutes later, I opened my eyes to find Mizuki smiling as she ran her tongue across her lips.
"Happy birthday." — she managed with noticeable effort, shyly averting her gaze. "Good enough for a gift?"
"More than. The wait was definitely worth it." — nodding with a smirk, I got to my feet. "Grocery run?"
"Grocery run." — nodding in agreement, Mizuki jumped up after me and, wrapping an arm around my neck, pointed off into the distance. "Come on, this way. I found an amazing bakery recently — we'll pick you the best cake!"
Moving through the streets at a brisk pace, we first stopped at the bakery and ordered a fresh cake, then headed to a large supermarket on the edge of the city. Along the way Fubuki had texted me to say she was ready to join my birthday preparations and would wait for me at the store entrance. During our walk, Mizuki and I mostly talked about her plans for a full-fledged return to the hero world after a fairly long "sabbatical." Of course, throughout that time the girl had periodically dipped back into active work — but each time only briefly before retreating into training mode again. Which, it must be said, had clearly done her a great deal of good. Judging by the aura I sensed from her, Mizuki was now at roughly the same level of combat power I had been about two years ago. Meaning she was quite capable of climbing from her B-Class position not only to the very top of A-Class, but even into S — if only to one of the lower positions.
Surprisingly, I was able to test this impression very soon. Because about two minutes before we reached the store and met up with Fubuki, the speakers mounted on the tops of buildings began sounding an alarm:
"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! URGENT ALERT! WE REPEAT, URGENT ALERT! A GIANT BIRD HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN THE SKY ABOVE THE CITY! DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOMES! DEMON-LEVEL THREAT DECLARED! WE REPEAT..."
"Damn..." — having heard out the alert, Mizuki looked up. "Have you noticed? Lately the alarms have been going off more and more frequently..."
"That's how it is." — I gave an agreeing nod. "I get the feeling that... oh hell, there it is!"
The same moment I pointed toward the rapidly approaching dot high in the sky, that dot abruptly swelled in size, changed course sharply, and slammed into one of the multi-story buildings.
The giant bird, as it had been called in the alert, was indeed a bird — and most certainly giant. To be more precise, it was an enormous crow. The wingspan was quite comparable to the height of the high-rise building it had collided with. And there were at least twenty-five to thirty floors in that building...
Realizing the crow had obviously been attracted by something inside the building and that if no one hurried it would bring the structure down with ease, I shot forward.
Given that the monster was of Demon threat level — even accounting for its size — killing it posed no problem for me. The main difficulty was that the giant crow was perched at a height of at least fifteen floors, and if I simply attacked it from above, I would inevitably send its enormous carcass crashing down onto the defenseless houses and streets below. That risked unnecessary destruction and civilian casualties. Attacking from below, on the other hand, carried the risk that my actions would also finish off the building the creature had sunk its claws so firmly into...
"Garou!" — before I had time to devise a way to defeat the monster that could be called a flawless victory, Mizuki's voice rang out from somewhere above. "I'll knock the monster down! Catch it!"
Looking up with mild surprise, I spotted the owner of that wonderful voice. The girl was gliding through the air on something that resembled a surfboard — and given that the shape and coloring of this surf board bore a strong resemblance to the bandage Mizuki often wore on her face... though even that wasn't the most surprising thing. Having ridden the air currents high enough and positioned herself directly above the crow — which was busily trying to extract something from the building — my partner raised her hands to her voluminous hair and, pulling out all three of her hair ties, tossed one of them into the air. A moment later, two of the hair ties transformed into something resembling a badminton racket, while the last became a real tennis ball. The strike that followed sent a considerable shockwave through the air, and the launched projectile snapped one of the crow's wings — making it shriek in pain. Not stopping there, Mizuki leaped off the board she had been riding all this time and plunged straight down. Simultaneously, the fabric wristbands on her arms transformed into proper boxing gloves.
"Third event... Boxing!"
This time I managed to catch the phrase Mizuki always shouted before launching her next attack. Diving into the crow from above, the girl with one precise right-hand punch wrenched it fully away from the building, then with a left uppercut took off half its skull.
The monster's enormous carcass began plummeting toward the ground — but I was already waiting for it. Having confirmed that Mizuki had jumped safely to the side, I leaped high myself and kicked the creature, distributing the force of the strike to send it back upward without splitting it apart. Now that the crow was no longer clinging to the building with its claws, this was fairly easy. Landing back down, I immediately leaped again and kicked the bird once more, sending it even higher. And finally on my third jump — when both the crow and I were well above even the tallest building — I hit it with everything I had, literally disintegrating it into pieces so small that even falling to the ground they could cause no more damage than ordinary rainfall.
Landing on the ground and using the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist technique to avoid leaving a massive crater, I looked around in search of my partner. I didn't have to look long — she was already walking toward me.
"An air surfboard, badminton, and boxing gloves. So many new techniques? That was amazing!" — I admitted with complete honesty.
"I'll say!" — the girl answered with an equally bright smile, then, coming closer, suddenly shoved me with her shoulder. "You forgot about me and ran off to handle everything alone." — she clarified a moment later. "I might be much weaker than you, but I'm not going to just stand there and watch while others fight!"
"Sorry." — smiling peaceably, I gave a calm nod. "I'm just too used to fighting alone. Completely forgot I could count on you... still, how do you do that?" — I nodded toward the air surfboard, which right before my eyes was reverting to the appearance of an ordinary bandage.
"I told you, I don't know. Honestly." — shrugging briefly, the girl stuck the bandage back on her face, then bent down to pick up the hair tie lying at her feet — the one that had recently been a terrifyingly dangerous tennis ball. "It just works. When I started training to become a better hero, I thought I'd be able to get stronger some other way, but it seems it's in my blood. Ahh..." — dramatically letting her hands drop, Mizuki sighed loudly. "If I'd had my medals and baton with me, I'd have shown you so much more!"
"Right..."
"I mean techniques I've mastered!" — noticing my equally theatrical serious expression, she added quickly, then, growing slightly flustered, smoothed her hair. "Well, we'll have plenty of time for that, won't we?..."
"Absolutely." — I assured her with a smirk, then suddenly noticed a figure rapidly approaching from behind her. "By the way, I don't think you two have met? This is Fubuki — my partner for climbing the hero rankings and my mentor in psychic abilities." — I introduced the girl who had walked up to us with quick steps.
"Oh! That's her — Hellish Blizzard from the top of A-Class!" — snapping to attention in her characteristic manner, Mizuki bowed to a slightly taken-aback Fubuki. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person!"
"Um, hello." — lost for roughly one second, Fubuki quickly composed herself, adjusted her hair with a light gesture, and reclaimed her usual, slightly pompous tone. "You're a heroine too? Sorry, I haven't been keeping up with the rankings below the A-Class top ten for a while..."
"Captain Mizuki, twentieth place B-Class!" — the red-haired girl towering a couple of heads above her interlocutor immediately reported. "Garou and I have already dealt with the monster the alert was about!"
"Let's not take credit for someone else's work!" — as always with her own agenda, Fubuki gave a sarcastic grunt and folded her arms across her substantial chest. "Admit it honestly — Garou handled everything, and you just stayed out of the way, so you decided you could count this victory for both of you? Well, let me tell you something, heroine..."
"I sometimes forget how rude you can be." — cutting her off before she could say even more pleasant things to the surprised Mizuki, I shook my head with a sigh. "First of all, Mizuki's abilities came in very handy, and she did the bulk of the work — I only helped eliminate the aftermath of the fight. Second, I wanted to introduce you to each other, so let me make up for that now. Fubuki, allow me to introduce Mizuki — she was my very first partner among all the heroes, I met her one day before you first showed up at my house. She's also someone who, despite her current low rank, will definitely claim her place in S-Class before long — and finally, most importantly, she's my girlfriend..."
By the time my monologue was over, Fubuki's face was genuinely painful to look at. And even Mizuki's slightly awkward laugh — clearly aimed at defusing the tension and showing everything was fine — only made it worse.
Yeah... I now belatedly realize that I probably should have told them about each other just a little bit earlier... but... I was so busy with all that training... I simply didn't have time for it!
I can only hope their introduction to Suiko — who is also invited to my birthday — goes at least somewhat more smoothly...