It broke.

It took me a long time but it finally broke.

My gaze drifted to all the broken pieces of the gourd on the ground that I’d been trying to brute force my way into breaking with my breathing alone. At this point in my life I could barely remember all the steps of the breathing training I had gone through, nor did I remember the next steps besides breaking bigger and bigger gourds. With each passing day it got harder to remember.

I breathed in, trying to regain some of the oxygen I lost from my training, then I breathed out, exhaling a great amount, it made a sound similar to a kettle with boiling water.

I stood up and threw what was remaining of the gourd to the ground, it was no longer needed. I made my way towards the towel I had hanging from a branch of a tree and cleaned some of the sweat that formed during my training.

It was a few hours before dawn, meaning it was time for me to clean up and make my way to the shelter. As I walked to my orchard so I could get more vegetables for cooking I stopped next to a few trees with holes in them.

Slowly I brought up my hand in the air and aimed at one of the trees, then I held my index finger under my thumb and at great speed I let it go.

Twunk!

A hole of the size of my finger appeared on the tree. It extended longer than my index finger, but didn’t go beyond that.

There wasn’t an actual reason for me to learn the ‘Flying Finger Pistol’ besides augmenting the speed of my fingers, accuracy and grip. But I felt there was something missing from the abilities of the ‘Six Powers’ after trying everything and failing to learn ‘Six King Gun’, a technique that would target organs and such. The only possible explanation for it to not work, would be that it didn’t work on this world.

It didn’t mean the technique couldn’t be replicated.

My hands formed into fists and I raced at high speeds to the same tree. Then I aligned both of my fists and stopped my momentum just as my fists touched the bark of the tree.

What followed was an explosion of dust and splinters as the tree in front of me gained a hole as big as both of my hands. The tree began to fall soon after..

There was a moment of silence in which I appreciated what my fists just did. I’d been training ever since he woke up and now my fists are strong enough to drive trees to splinters, punch holes in concrete and dent steel.

I shook my head as I walked through the orchid and began to collect some fruits and vegetables. Forgetting all about my nightly training in order to concentrate. I still had time to drop it by the shelter and do my daily run.

Once I finished I tied all together and made my way towards the rest of my clothes, passing a small shrine I had made for Emiko inside of a tree.

It had been a year since her death.

I sighed, before putting on a t-shirt then my hoodie.

The people at the shelter were getting more restless as time went on. They wanted to get out of the shelter so they could make money, or bring materials for development. But I couldn’t let them out, not with disappearances of people still ongoing, even if the numbers were dwindling.

I took one last look at my ‘home’ before I jumped in the air and started to descend the forest towards the shelter.

---

Shota Aizawa ate a burger in silence as he quietly saw the beginning of the event at Marukame department store. It had been a rough couple of months as a hero, with Smiley moving at faster and faster speeds leaving him with barely anything to do. It was like his quirk was developing as time moved on. Something to add to the file.

Talking about files….

An expression of regret flashed through his visage as he remembered the storage unit findings and how it led to nothing. People who disappeared and were later found in a pile of dead bodies. The mere thought of it made his stomach turn.

Regardless he took another bite of his burger, and downed it with a sip of his drink.

What’s more, the knowledge of the people missing was available to him before anyone else. But because of his pride he only delegated the information to the police as a possible lead with no thought whatsoever if it was possible, instead of taking it more seriously and sharing the information with his fellow heroes.

‘I wish I could have a smoke right now,’ he thought while grabbing a few fries.

Just as he was about to give another bite to his burger he heard the voice of his annoying friend, Nerumi.

“Aizawa? I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” she said as she put down her latte on the table.

“Just passing by for lunch, I’m on patrol.”

“In search of Smiley again, I’m sure,” Nerumi Kayama said as she took a seat next to him. She smiled at his annoyed expression. “You’re so predictable,”

“Tch, like you’re one to talk, weren’t you mad at him for calling you a smelly old woman?” Shota asked as he took another sip from his drink.

“Hmph, what does he know?” she said with a sour expression then taking a sip from her latte. She directed her gaze towards him. “And you promised to not say that out loud.”

“Whoops. I forgot.” Of course he hadn’t forgotten, he just enjoyed teasing her considering that was the only entertainment he had. “By the way, what brings you here, Kayama? Purposely coming to nonsense like this on your day off no less?”

“I happen to enjoy this kind of thing. Ah~ It's just so lovely” Nerumi exclaimed as she stood up from her chair and put her hands on her rosy cheeks. “When little fruits glisten like jewels for a brief moment in their lives.”

“Smiley was right, you really are some smelly old lady,”

“Don’t say that!”

Their conversation was interrupted however by the appearance of a man dressed in a trenchcoat and fedora hat.

“Eraserhead, sorry to keep you waiting.” Detective Tsukauchi, one of the few detectives from the force that arrived at the scene of the storage units. They met during their own investigations at the crime, but was one of the few that was relegated to the information of Smiley’s findings. “The test results on the corpse took longer than we anticipated.”

“Corpse?” Nerumi asked, alarmed.

“I’m sorry, that would be confidential information, forget I’ve said anything,” the detective said with a sheepish expression.

“Oh no, it’s me, Midnight. We’ve met before, detective Tsukauchi!” There was a look of realization on the face of the man as they both took each other's hand on a handshake.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you without your costume,” the detective said as all took a seat on the same table Aizawa was seated, drinking from his cup with disinterest.

Everything changed however when the detective began to bring up the findings from the forensics team that underwent the task of dissecting and examining the body of Teruo Unagisawa which was apprehended before but was found dead without his head in the second storage unit a year ago.

---

Once again I clicked my walkie talkie two times in a row, signifying that it wasn’t safe to call me. The shelter needed to address my clones, after all I had already agreed to be PopStep’s bodyguard, I owed her that much after the last few times I sent her alone or with a clone.

Our relationship was a little better than a year ago, I knew her name, her ambitions, her likes and dislikes. She was a simple girl with a dream she wanted to fulfill.

As I stayed there I admired her and the people she was interacting with. It seemed that they were integrating a band of three little girls to the team they had.

It all came crashing down though when one of the singers lecturing the three girls said that an important pro hero was coming. Turns out from what I could hear from my little corner as the singer and PopStep began to whisper with each other, Kazuho tried to get Captain Celebrity to come but was in the middle of a commercial.

I wondered if that weren’t the case he would’ve come to some small event like this.

It took me a while to notice but I felt the stare of Miu the singer and Pop who was looking at me with pleading eyes.

I hoped they weren’t thinking what I was thinking.

---

Aizawa ate another fry as he listened to the report of Tsukauchi with a tired but firm expression. It seemed there was more to it than what Smiley shared with him from that one time. Someone or possibly an organization was experimenting with quirk users and releasing the results onto the streets.

But for what purpose?

And how did it relate to the storage unit a few meters away from the one where they found the corpse?

“Annnd our break is over! It’s time to introduce the special guest of the evening!” Pop-something said as she returned back to the stage. Shota paid little attention to it but had an eye open just in case someone embarrassed themselves. “It’s Naruhata’s hero who shoots evil doers down! The Hood!”

“I told you to not call me that,” a teen of white hair quietly said as he entered the stage, wearing a hoodie with patches all across, a mask covering his mouth, baggy black pants and worn out shoes. He almost thought a homeless teen walked up to the stage.

“The Hood?” the detective asked as he took a small notepad from the front pocket of his trenchcoat and flashed through the pages. “It reminds me of one of those vigilantes of Naruhata… wait, no. The name I got is hooded hobo.”

“Oh! It’s the bodyguard of Pop!” Nerumi added.

Now that Aizawa thought about it, he had seen the teen before, hadn't he? Was he the real deal?

“Oh whatever. Since I was called on short notice I’ll do a special trick I’ve learned,” nobody was paying much attention, and the ones close on the stage were in total silence, all that enthusiasm, gone. “Look at the ball on my hand.”

Shota was about to move on and ate his food in silence, but then it happened. The teen threw it to the side, then he appeared just in time to catch it, then up, he appeared there to catch it and throw it again and repeated the process so much that it looked like there was more than one person throwing the ball on stage, gaining a few ‘Ohh’ and ‘Ahh’ from the crowd.

Aizawa blinked.

That speed, the use of rubber balls, those clothes, that hair…

He was the real deal.

Annoyed, he began to stand up, better stop the illegal use of quirk before anyone got any ideas. But his attempt was stopped by Nerumi who put a hand on his shoulder and sat him down.

“Hey, let them enjoy the show, then you can talk to him,” Midnight smiled as she took another look at the vigilante moving at high speeds.

“Tch, whatever.” he grumbled, sitting back down.

“As I was saying, we believe the body of Teruo or the next level villains were remodeled and heavily dosed with trigger before letting them go rampant. Essentially they were groomed to be villains.” the detective informed him. “It would take an organization for this kind of criminal activity.”

“Figured as much. If it’s an organization, the question would be what are they after? Perhaps people with quirks? The instant villains lose their senses and aren’t capable of criminal activities, while the next level villains we know little but going by what information you provided they’re prone to do the same as the instant villains,” Aizawa provided, taking one last bite from what was left of his burger. “Meaning, they’re just disposable pawns, there’s something missing.”

“That’s right Eraserhead, that’s why-” detective Tsukauchi said but the voice of the teen on stage cut him midway.

“Excuse me one second,” the teen on the stage said as soon as he stopped in the middle of the stage, looking at the sky. He took a rubber pellet from the frontal pocket of his hoodie and threw it at high speed into the sky.

Just as Aizawa was about to retaliate, the teen appeared on their table.

“Excuse me, coming through,” the teen apologized before jumping at great speeds towards the place he threw the pellet.

Aizawa then directed his eyes towards the teen’s destination, with the intention of shooting down his quirk, only to see him kick something or someone in the air.

A man of great size with large bat wings and a black tongue.

A next level villain.

“Thanks for the pass kid!” a voice was heard. Then the visage of Captain Celebrity appeared before all, delivering a punch towards the villain, he grabbed him and the vigilante in the middle of the air, before descending. “Thanks for serving as bait kid, for that I applaud you.”

“Say that one more time and see if your face remains the same,” the teen muttered, but Aizawa was able to hear it just fine.

“Ha ha ha,” the hero laughed as he descended, dropping both the villain and the teen on stage while directing his attention to the crowd. “Greetings ladies and gents! Who's your man?”

As people chanted Captain Celebrity’s name, Aizawa really wished he had a smoke right about then.

---

“But you told me you were going to accompany me this time!” Kazuho said as we both stayed at the entrance of the train station.

Pop managed to land the opportunity to participate in an ‘Idol Collaboration Show’ in Osaka. Normally I would’ve accompanied her myself, there was a possibility of hostile activities in that area after all, but I was also needed at the shelter and on the streets as Smiley.

“I’m sorry Pop, but I’m needed at the shelter today,” I informed her as I folded my arms and put my weight on one of the pillars of the station. “I’ve also been receiving signals through the walkie talkie all week, so I’ll remain here just to be sure.”

“But… but!” The pink haired girl tried to protest but I interrupted her before she could continue.

“Hey, don’t worry. You know that if anything goes wrong I’m a call away,” I said as I gave a signal to a familiar face that was making his way to us. “Besides, do you really think I’ll let you go all by yourself?”

“Who- wait, are you seriously sending a clone with me? Again?” Kazuho asked with an irritated expression.

My clone, who was dressed in civilian clothes, a t-shirt, worn out pants and the same shoes I was using, finally appeared on PopStep visage while sporting a strained smile.

I on the other hand was dressed in my hero costume, a hoodie, black pants, same worn out shoes and my mask covering my mouth.

“Bad time to show up?” he asked while scratching the back of his neck

“No, you got here just in time,” I replied, sending PopStep a look for her to keep quiet for a moment. She looked discouraged. “What took you so long?”

“While I was getting here there was a quirk user going rampant, I had to stop it.”

“Did you use my face or are you taking Smiley’s costume?”

“Nah, I just shot him down with rocks I found.”

I sighed. Then I directed my gaze towards the pop idol who looked like she grew a second head while listening to us.

“As I was saying. I’m sorry but I can’t go with you this time Pop,” I told the pink haired girl as I unfurled my hands and signaled them to start walking or they would lose their train. “But I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“Ugh! W-whatever, I don’t care. Come on Gurē,” Kazuho said, grasping my clone’s hand and walking slightly faster than me.

I saw them both go, a smile creeped out on my face which was hidden by my mask. I really wanted to accompany them, but I was needed elsewhere.

It was at that moment that Manami decided to call me through my new earpiece.

Gurē, there’s an emergency at the shopping district of Naruhata

“I’m on my way.”

---

“Right so once you finish cutting the onions, you rinse them with salt so they can be the source of saltiness in the stew,” I informed Jin as he followed my instructions to a T, even though he took way too long compared to my usual speed. Everyone else was at the shelter as me and Jin decided to cook a vegetable stew for them. “Yeah like that, now put it aside in a bowl and next should be the carrots, that’s it, don’t forget to peel them first.”

“Ok boss,” he quietly said as he went back to doing his tasks in complete silence.

I closed my eyes and sighed, Jin was one of the few that took the news of Emiko’s death as bad as Daisuke. He blamed himself the same way I did. The only difference between us is that I had to ‘move on’ even if it cost me countless nights of sleep and training my body until I couldn’t move or think anymore.

I opened my eyes again, and began to guide Jin through the next few steps he needed to complete the stew.

It wasn’t quick but after a while we had the stew almost ready to serve, it only needed to simmer for a few minutes.

Ah, here goes nothing

But before I could say anything, Jin spoke.

“Boss? It’s been a while… right?” My friend said while stirring the stew with a wooden spoon. “So why do I still feel so sad?”

“Jin. I…” I began, but I didn't know how to quite respond. I could speak about how I managed to keep going through training, but that would shift the conversation to me instead of helping Jin to overcome his grief. “I don’t know Jin. I still feel sad, we all do.”

“I know boss, I just… I wish I had done something to stop it.” Jin replied, touching the place where his scar should be. “I wish I had the strength… if only I…”

I blinked as I finally caught what was bothering him.

“Jin, we talked about this. You don’t need to feel guilty for what happened,” it was my fault, I was too slow to stop it. But I couldn’t say that. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“But if I wasn’t afraid of it… I… she…”

It took me a few seconds but it dawned on me that Jin began to speak without contradicting himself.

“Your quirk has helped me a lot so far, having more clones would’ve helped me a lot before,” I said as I saw my friend stir the stew. “But, I’m not so sure now.”

A few discussions I had with PopStep came to mind, as did a few reports of my clones that made sense to them but they felt alien to me.

“What do you mean boss?”

“We- I mean, I was so focused on finding the bee user, that I would’ve used all the clones to search the area to find and trap her.” It didn’t do me any favors that I almost did just that. Had PopStep kept quiet that day, all of us would’ve been on the streets, leaving her defenseless. “There’s also the possibility that we would’ve found the corpse of Emiko much faster too.”

‘Man I would be the world's shittiest therapist,’ I thought with a grimace, watching Jin go back to cooking. He lowered his head in what I thought to be disappointment.

“Oh Jin, I’m so-'' Before I could apologize, a young adult in casual clothes and light armor slided in all fours and jumped to the wall next to the food stand.

“I’m the hero that sticks to the walls and makes kids laugh, ‘The Crawler’,” the ‘man’ said while looking at us with a dopey smile.

I resisted the urge to get there and kick the man in the balls for interrupting me.

“Man, I’m starving, is the food ready?” The guy continued as soon as he unstuck himself from the wall and made his way towards the stand.

Read the room asshole.

“Shut up, you’re bothering the customers,” I said while sporting an annoyed expression.

“Uh… what customers?” The young man questioned. He was right, of course, because there were no customers on sight, they wouldn’t be here for an hour or so.

“Exactly,” I answered, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a proper answer.

You’re annoying, go away.

“I don’t get it.”

Oh, whatever.

“Just… forget it.” Now that I looked at the man in front of me, I recognized some of his plain features, but most importantly his costume. Wasn’t this dude an agent of Ingenium? I haven’t seen him in so long that I forgot all about it. “Take a seat, the food is going to be ready in a minute.”

“Thanks!” he replied as he took a seat in front of us. Jin remained focused on his task.

I couldn’t even offer comfort to Jin because of this asshole’s presence. I sighed.

Once done with the stew I tasted it and gave my friend a thumbs up, who nodded and made his way to the shelter to inform everybody that the stew was ready.

Before the man in front of me could speak I served him a plate of stew. He looked to the plate then back to me with a dopey smile.

“Thanks for the food!” he said before digging in.

“This isn’t a charity Cruller, you’ll pay once you finish,” I informed him. I took the handles of the pot holding the stew and put it aside. I should start on the rice before everyone starts to fill the stand ready to eat.

“Actually my name hero name is-”

“Don’t care.”

“Yikes!” He said before going back to his food.

As I waited for the rice to cook and listened to my only ‘patron’, who pays for my food, eat, I wondered how to approach the issue of Emiko with Jin without involving his quirk. Even though I’d tried to tell him countless times that it wasn’t his fault, he would still blame himself for not being a ‘better uncle’ and be there for them.

It was funny. The similarities to how we view Emiko’s death are there, but how do I let someone know it wasn’t their fault when I can’t do the same?

“It’s not as good as before but the stew sure is good,” and there goes my line of thought.

“Ok, you finished, pay and go away. We poor folks need to eat too.” I said sporting an expression that promised a quick death if he said anything else.

“Hahaha, mean as ever,” he laughed as he fetched a few bills from his wallet and put them on the counter. “Oh, that reminds me, where’s the girl that hangs around with you?”

“PopStep?”

“Who’s PopStep?”

“Out!” I said, already tired of this guy’s presence.

“Ok, ok, I’m going, sorry,” he apologized as he slowly began to get in position to slide back on all fours.

Before he could move though, I inhaled great amounts of air and the world began to move at a slower pace until it looked almost frozen. I walked towards the young man and fetched his wallet, then hid it in my hoodie. I walked back to the stand and exhaled.

The world returned back to normal.

After years of practicing the breathing techniques it got to a point that my perception of time was beyond that of a normal human. It got to a point that I could ‘freeze’ time for a few seconds whenever I concentrated my breathing.

I saw the hero speed through the pavement none the wiser with a frown.

There are less and less heroes that travel with money in their pockets lately, better get everything I can before it’s too late.

I wonder what the reason for that might be.

---

Himiko Toga swiped another video of her current hyperfixation as she kept searching for more content to see. She calmly walked the streets aimlessly while watching videos of Smiley on her phone and humming a tune that had been stuck on her mind since the moment her friends had shared it with her.

Ever since she saw him, she had this urge, this hunger, to see him up close.

Was it infatuation? She didn’t know.

She needed to see him. There was something, like a primal calling, telling her to see him.

But she was always too late to the scene. She tried to follow leads from live video feeds of villains but by the time she arrived, Smiley was already gone. She tried to wait for him to appear once in one villain attack, but was stopped by a local hero.

So here she was, visiting his home turf with no real aim besides walking the streets and enjoying her day.

It was funny really, ever since she saw him covered in blood, there was this peace she found in herself. Like something clicked in the back of her mind.

Was that why she wanted to see him?

“GROAAAH!! I’M THE STRONGEST!” A voice was heard, breaking Himiko of her musings. She elevated her gaze from her phone just in time to see people running away from a bronze colored villain who was raising his fists in the air. “BRING ME SMILEY!!”

Without saying anything else, the villain started to throw cars in the air and punch concrete creating huge fist sized craters.

A smile creeped up on Himiko’s face as she saw the villain create chaos and mayhem to everyone’s horror. If there was a villain, there was a hero bound to stop him.

Meaning, Smiley would be here any moment now.

She clutched her phone and brought it to her chest as she looked at the sky without a care in the world. Her only goal being to catch a glimpse of the hero in action.

‘He’s coming I know he will,’ she thought, feeling her blood rushing to her cheeks.

She felt the tremors getting closer to her position, but she was adamant on staying in place. Not moving even though people began to run past her.

‘Ah,’ she thought as she shifted her gaze from one place to another. ‘He’s taking his time, I see, I see, hehe.’

It wasn’t long before her eyes landed on the villain which was a few steps away from her, who was running in her direction.

“IF SMILEY IS SO AFRAID OF ME, I’M TAKING A HOSTAGE!!” The bronze villain screamed, his hand open wide ready to take her.

She found herself looking forward to it. She flushed at the thought of being rescued by Smiley.

But before her fantasy could become a reality, Himiko finally heard his voice.

“Heh-Heh! Excuse me, coming through!” A familiar visage said as the man she was waiting to meet appeared in front of her and used the back of his hand to push the hand of the villain away. “Water Flow!”

“GRAAHHH!! SMILEY!!”

“That’s my name buddy, don’t wear it out. Iron… Smash!” the hero replied before he punched the villain at a speed she could barely follow. The bronze villain was blown away spitting blood over the hero’s face and clothes, while a few droplets landed on her cheek. “Now please, let’s leave the pretty ladies alone!”

Without saying another word Smile disappeared again and reappeared above the villain, fist raised.

“Iron Crash!” The head of the villain dropped significantly, but before it could reach the floor the hero appeared in front of him, arms already in motion. “Water Flow: 2nd Wave”

What followed was strike after strike after strike hitting every part of the body of the villain, which continued for twenty seconds straight before en finished it with two fists directly to the stomach.

“King Gun!” She watched in amazement as more blood left the mouth of the bronze villain who slid away from Smiley and dropped to the floor, defeated.

It was at that moment that people began to cheer, breaking her out of her trance.

She watched him deliver a joke before he began to wrap the villain in rope.

Her smile widened.

She finally saw him.

He was here.

She saw him fight.

He saved her

And as she touched the place where the small droplets of blood had landed on her face she wondered…

How Smiley would look with even more blood covering his body.

---

It has been two days since I saw Kazuho and my clone go to the event in Osaka. Since then I’d taken care of a few rampant quirk users who were and were not on trigger. It was a complete mess.

Especially now because trigger had so many more distributors compared to the one we encountered last year going by the words of the old man, who I have not seen in a while.

Ever since his daughter was released from the hospital I haven’t had the opportunity to talk directly with him. Sometimes I’d get his messages through Salt whenever I’m out of the shelter or get a direct call to my walkie talkie, but not in person. It made me wonder if he was keeping the whole hero thing from her daughter.

I closed my eyes and inhaled.

Not my problem. There were bigger things to care about.

Such as the quirk users I’ve dealt with so far.

There was something off lately. Quirk users who I’d had bouts with before would return stronger than ever. Of course, their upgrades didn’t amount to much of anything, considering I would still mop the floor with them, but the thing was that they were already on trigger before the second time I would beat them.

Was there a new drug I didn’t know about?

Were the distributors of trigger experimenting with new formulas for their ‘clients’?

Were the quirk users experimented on?

So many questions.

I opened my eyes and exhaled.

There was nothing I could do but wait and see. There were so many variants to this issue that It felt like I was barely grasping the tip of the iceberg.

I should probably bring up my findings with the old man the next time he calls me.

I blinked as far in the distance, I could hear a small rumbling sound.

They were getting close.

It took an extra fifteen minutes for the bullet train to finally stop. I inhaled again, I could smell the scent of Kazuho and my clone who left the train with a bunch of people who began to disperse in different directions.

PopStep stood up from the crowd, she looked tired. I guessed that the life of an idol wasn’t just fun and games as I thought.

I gave a signal to my clone who immediately spotted me and signaled the pink haired girl into my direction. Her face went from happiness to sadness to anger.

She began to stomp her way towards me until she was standing a step away from me.

Everything moved at snail pace as she raised her hand and decided she wanted to hit my left cheek. I relaxed all my muscles and moved my face in the same direction as soon as her palm made contact.

SMACK

“Ahhh! Oww!” She reeled back, holding her hand in pain. She directed her gaze from her hand which was beginning to redden to me. She glared.

“Uh… when you told me you were going to do that, I didn’t know you were serious about it,” my clone said from behind Kazuho, scratching his neck awkwardly. “If I knew, I would’ve talked you out of it, I’m sorry.”

“It’s… it’s fine. I wanted to do this,” Popstep muttered, still holding onto her hand and looking directly into my eyes.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked, completely lost. “What did I do?”

“Something wrong?!” she asked in return, her eyebrows knitting together. “I almost died!”

I blinked shocked, then directed my sight to my clone who looked sheepishly to the side.

“What happened?”

Before the pink haired idol could go on a tirade my clone put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. It was then that I learned what was going on from the words of my clone. There was a commotion at the event. While Popstep had a good time during the beginning of her presentation she later was put in a dangerous situation involving a bomb.

She decided to help a fellow idol with their presentation in a crab like suit, but it went haywire and began to cause chaos and mayhem. It would later detonate, but not before my clone got her out of her restraints and helped her escape in time. If it wasn’t for my clone she wouldn’t have been here.

“I could’ve died!” Kazuho repeated, tears beginning to fall from her cheeks. “Why did you send a clone instead of coming?”

I swallowed.

“But, wouldn’t everything be the same if I was there?” The words left my mouth before my brain could catch up to what I was saying.

The girl known as PopSte just stared at me with an angry look before looking down.

“I… you… ” she managed to say before dropping both of her hands. “Whatever.”

She made her way towards my clone and took his hand.

“Let’s go, Gurē” Kazuho muttered as she passed right next to me, my clone following her orders.

My eyes caught the pink haired girl looking back, before she turned her eyes to the road.

“But… I’m right here,” I said, feeling a weird sensation bubbling on my chest as I saw them go.

---

A/N: Hello! Hope you guys are doing well!

This chapter is kinda filler but it serves the purpose of exploring Gurē training progress and how he handles his relationships with his friends.

A year has passed since the end of the last arc, but I’m not done with Vigilantes’ arc just yet. For the people that have read Vigilantes, some of the dialog and scenes might feel the same, but they’re important so they lead to a confrontation against the main villain of the next arc. Until then please have some patience.

I joked last chapter that there was more angst in the future, the joke being that I was preparing a more lighthearted chapter, this one, but it turned out different from what I intended. I really hope people won’t tune out the story for this kind of development.

That’s it for this chapter author notes, hope to see you guys on the next installment.