'Right. Barely a few months wearing the hero badge. Still, for Hawks—the usually untouchable—to look like this...' Shigure frowned, eyes narrowing with calculation.
He couldn't blame Keigo, as he is clearly adept at rescue operations. It's just that nearly a city is now taken hostage, which is not a normal scenario.
"What exactly would that fix?" Shigure asked flatly.
Contrary to Keigo's internal conflict, Shigure also had a similar conflict.
'Poking him now might break something I can't fix.' He hadn't seen the liar without his usual facade.
He'd never seen Keigo this stripped down—no mask, no grin, just a man.
"That has a high possibility of saving the people here, given they are not mad. We are just sacrificing a few people to save millions." Despite being confused and shaken, Keigo still had some semblance of comprehension in his brain.
'Never mind. He would probably put up his facade again if I did that, and would be mostly on guard against me in the future. Let's use this chance to make him trust me. Would be useful when he least expects it.'
Shigure's fingers veiled the unnerving smile he didn't want seen.
"Yeah. Then let's talk in ifs. If they are not mad, and let's say they are morally good enough to take the heroes and kill them in exchange for civilians. Does that seem logical?"
"It's the best we—"
"Takami Keigo"
"Yes?" Keigo blinked.
"Do you know how many lives you will save if you lived today?" Shigure looked Keigo in the eye, the latter unable to say anything.
"Dying now would be stupidity dressed as sacrifice. I don't know the population of this city, but let's assume millions. I am sure you will save more people than this."
"But, that's unrealis—"
"Do you know how many people All Might has saved in his life?"
Keigo shut his mouth.
He finally saw what Shigure tried to say.
"Even then...This..." He still couldn't come to terms with the fact that so many people are going to die, with him being useless.
'Even in the Canon, didn't he become head of the Association or something? Moreover, his contribution to the war was quite significant. If he wasn't present...' Shigure didn't like to think about that possibility.
"What is making you hesitate?" Shigure folded his arms.
"I... I don't think a hero would do this."
Shigure snorted. "I see. I finally see the problem. What would happen if All Might were here instead of you? The time we took to talk with each other, not the dilated one in my domain, but the real world equivalent. He would not only take care of the bomb but also those villains in less than that time."
Hawks didn't say anything. Shigure was correct.
'Well, I am talking about Prime All Might. I don't know if he can do that feat in so little time while being injured.'
"You could try to strive to be a perfect hero. But you need to remember the reality now. You are not a perfect hero. You are just weak at the moment. And do you know what? The weak don't get the right to choose what they want." Shigure sighed—plans and instincts still at odds.
'I ended up doing the exact opposite I wanted to do.' Shigure internally sighed.
Hawks contemplated. He looked down again at the slowed-down people mourning.
He looked at the corpses—whatever was left of them.
He then looked up at the sky.
"I see. Indeed. I am weak. I can strive to be the ideal hero, but I am not the ideal hero. This was a wake-up call." Keigo finally spoke.
Shigure nodded, looking in the direction where the second bomb exploded.
"Regret won't help. Action will. Not many find themselves in a position to rescue an entire city."
"Indeed. But, that doesn't change the fact that I strive to be the perfect hero... no?" Keigo looked at Shigure with a lazy smile.
Something crawled up Shigure's spine. All the hair on his body stood up.
'What is this feeling?'
Shigure glanced at Keigo.
Something about Keigo was... wrong.
Something was freaking different.
But he didn't know what.
He looked at Keigo sending more feathers.
'He shouldn't be able to handle that ma—' Shigure's eyes widened in disbelief.
A storm of feathers, too many to count, moved like a nervous system.
Moreover, being in the Speed-Up domain, he could notice a key detail.
Spatial Awareness.
The current spatial awareness visible in the feathers was in a different league from that of the feathers a minute ago.
"Jeez. This is embarrassing. To get awakened due to the talk-no-jutsu. Seems like you talked me into Tier 1."
"..." Shigure speechlessly looked at him.
'This is ridiculous. This is FUCKING ridiculous.' Shigure didn't want to believe in what he was seeing.
'This shouldn't be possible. Not this fast.'
The main method of Shigure's training was first creating a domain of Speed UP, such that he was in dilated time and then increase the mastery of his quirk by disabling the effect of his quirk within his domain at specific areas—by messing with factors like intensity, area shape(without changing shape of his domain) and all that.
In his domain, only one effect could be present, so if he wants to train his quirk in a time-dilated world, he would need to come up with creative ways—like this.
Moreover, Tier 4 only had Speed Up. Slow Down came when he got to Tier 3.
He was born with a Tier 5 quirk, and it took him nearly half a century to jump from Tier 4 to Tier 3.
He has experienced nearly a century since his last awakening, yet he is nowhere near Tier 2.
Keigo? Prodigy born with Tier 3 quirk. Now Tier 1 before his twenties.
One needs to remember that it's pretty hard to master a higher-tier quirk. Awakening has higher chances of occurring when you are close to reaching the theoretical mastery limit of your current tier.
"You're looking at me like I'm haunted."
"Watching the universe play favourites." Shigure bitterly said.
'Is my current approach wrong? My first awakening was done in similar circumstances to Keigo's. Though that was more of a self-preservation...' Shigure gaped.
'Wait. Self-Preservation. Keigo's ego, who strives to be a perfect hero, took a hit in this situation. So... his awakening could be said to be one form of self-preservation. Generally, awakening happens during life and death scenarios, which is self-preservation of the body...'
"Awakening is directly tied to self-preservation of a person," Shigure mumbled.
Keigo tilted his head. "Isn't that common knowledge?"
"Self-preservation. I see. I just need to try to break myself again." He ignored him.
"I guess, now I finally have a chance to compete with the Top 20." Hawks gazed at the horizon.
And just like that, two changed men took to the skies.
---
One hour later.
"I am glad that they left us early," Keigo said, turning on the light.
"Yeah. It would have been annoying otherwise." Shigure turned on his laptop and connected his mouse and keyboard to it.
Apart from the first two bombs, with his newly awakened quirk, Keigo had taken care of all the bombs and the rescue operation.
"You're not gonna sleep?"
"Nah. Didn't I sleep in the afternoon? Plus, I'm somewhat of an insomniac." Shigure shrugged.
"I see. No wonder those eye bags." Hawks nodded, plopping himself on the couch.
They were currently in Shigure's room.
Click Click Click
Noises of keys and buttons being tapped filled the room.
"She's hot. Objectively." Shigure flinched, looking at his right side. Hawks stood there, intently looking at the screen.
"Yeah. She is a popular character. You might have seen her before." 'Seeing how familiar you are with brain rot, I won't be surprised if you know her.'
"Hmm." Keigo rubbed his chin. "Hmmmmmmmmm"
"Stop hmming", Shigure barked.
Keigo's eyes lit up. "I remember. Isn't this the Star Rail game or something? All games from the same company and similar names."
"Yeah. It's Genshin Impact."
"Right. I know that game." Hawks nodded, finally remembering.
"You know a lot about these things. Guess, number 19 hero is also not immune to this."
"Indeed. Anyway, what is her name?" Keigo pointed at the screen.
"Raiden Shogun."
"I think I have heard this name before. It's pretty popular."
"Yeah," Shigure muttered, getting back to using the keyboard and mouse.
Click Click Click
He expected the conversation to die there.
"Have you fapped to her?"
Click Cl—
"The what?" Shigure asked, baffled.
Keigo furrowed his eyebrows. "You don't know what fapping is?"
"I FUCKING KNOW THAT."
"Dude. Chill." Keigo took a few steps back due to the loudness.
"I am calm only." Shigure cleared his throat. "I meant what type of question is this to be asked of a boy who hasn't even gone through puberty yet?"
"Hmm, that does make sense. But." Hawks narrowed his eyes. "I sense a 'But' coming up."
"There are no 'But' s", Shigure barked.
"Let me rephrase my question, then. Have you seen inappropriate pictures or videos of this character?"
"N—No." Shigure realised his error and, in the next instant, shouted a definite "No."
However, seeing Keigo's grin, Shigure knew it was too late for him.
Legend says that Genshin Impact that day received a very popular hero in their user base and almost lost a very popular future hero.
---
Date- 22 October, Saitama.
"So you're Heretic Smasher? Didn't expect a brat under all that tin." The raven-haired woman licked her lips—slow, deliberate.
She was wearing a closely zipped jacket along with tracks. Looked around 20 years old.
Her foot was adorned with combat boots, and a little above, stockings were present, hiding her legs.
Her hand clamped around his throat—choking him.
Shigure stared—calm, unreadable. The same look he gave the weather.
"So..." Her face morphed into a grin. "You like seeing pain? Then you won't mind drowning in it, no? Bet you've imagined this. Now let's make it real."
Shigure only stared at her.
"Hehehe. Can't wait to see what's under that calm. Let's rip it off."
***
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