For the first time, Shigure had been thrust into such a situation.
'She wants you. Not me.' Shigure knew he might be overreacting, but he couldn't let Keigo one-up him like this.
"He said that he would be busy with some people tonight and not to disturb him," Shigure said without any change in expression, despite knowing multiple ways his words could be interpreted.
"Is that so?" Her tone dipped, just enough to show the crack.
'It's patriotism, really. What if Japan loses him? Whatever is left of my meta-knowledge will also be nullified.' Shigure righteously gave himself a mental pat.
"Anyway, forget about the bird head. How about you give me an interview? Only 3. Quick ones." Shigure pointed 3 of his fingers up.
"Oh? I didn't know that you were an aspiring reporter."
"Not really. Always wanted to do it with pros." Shigure said, taking out his phone.
The questions were already prepared in his mind, with some suggestions from Ki. The phone was to give the pros the impression that he was referring to something for questions, so as to get blamed directly.
Blame the Internet.
"Very well. Shoot."
"Is your elegance a shield? If you dropped the mystique, would anyone still follow you?"
She smiled—controlled, graceful, unreadable. "What makes you think it's a shield and not a sword? Moreover, what kind of abstract question is that? Do you even understand the question?"
"Haaha, obviously." 'Freaking Ki...'
"You ever worry that your illusions might cause allies to hesitate in real combat?"
She responds like a diplomat: "Only those without vision confuse clarity with chaos."
'Your answers are the ones that feel abstract! This question wasn't even abstract.' At this point, Shigure realised that his opponent was not a jungle boy but a lady with decent experience in mitigating scandals like Normal Tuesday.
"How many times have you made someone hallucinate their death?"
A quiet pause. She says nothing at first. Then, "Enough to make men reconsider their sins." She smirked.
"I see." 'I don't see.'
She patted him on the shoulder, consoling him, "Jeez. Don't get so disappointed. If you want to get a reaction from somebody, then maybe try interviewing him."
"Kay." Shigure pouted. 'With five more questions, I'd have broken that mask.'
He headed towards the man Solaris pointed towards after waving at her.
The man was in a suit that screamed Cowboy vibes.
He wore a trench coat, which flared dramatically with every step. Across his chest is a metallic star-shaped emblem.
A sleek, high-tech cowboy hat crowned his look.
IMG[1]
[Sky Sheriff. Quirk: Air Marshal. Country: Freedom Nation. Hero Rank nationally: 22. He is...]
'Freedom Nation. Pfft-' Shigure almost broke his poker face.
"Hello, my name is Shigure. Can I please get an autograph from the ruler of the sky?" 'Money takes priority.'
"Hahaha. Indeed." The man agreed instantly, not even reacting to the name Shigure created for him on the spot.
As if such names are regular for him to hear.
"I am also interviewing multiple pros here with just 3 questions. Do you mind answering?"
"If it's only 3 questions, then it should be fine." Sky Sheriff didn't think much when he saw a kid interviewing him.
What's the worst that could happen?
"If the law demanded you let a villain walk to avoid collateral damage… would you still draw your gun?"
Jax scoffed first, then glared. Muttering something about justice not being a math equation.
"It depends on the situation." He finally spoke.
'Hehe. This is it. That nee-chan was so kind.' Shigure thought in glee. He finally found his dream target.
"Ever feel outdated—like a sheriff in a drone war?"
Vein on his temple pulses. He stammers a denial before launching into a tirade about honour.
Shigure tuned out on him. He prepared himself for the next question. The juicy one.
"You've made people deaf with your shockwaves. Is that justice, or just loud vengeance?"
He starts with "You got no clue what justice is, boy—" before almost decking Shigure.
Shigure dipped low—grinning as he dodged. "Yeah? But from what I read in news articles, almost 10 per cent of the people involved in your cases have suffered from that. Seeing this reaction, I think I am not wrong."
Shigure jumped back, dodging his swing. "You come here, brat. I'll show you real justice!"
'Woah, his temper could rival Bakugo's... Nah, Bakugo would win.'
"Can you even catch me?" Shigure bolted, the air marshal coming behind him.
'I will get you cancelled before this party ends.' Shigure's hand rose to mask his grin. He was already planning the downfall.
---
The party had ended, and it was way past midnight. Hawks and Shigure were walking back towards the hotel.
"Why poke the cowboy?" Keigo broke the silence.
"It was too fun not to. It's not like he will get cancelled, will he?" Shigure barely restrained the grin on his face.
Keigo looked at him and sighed. "Obviously not. He is ranked 22 in his country. His PR team is very capable. The worst that could happen is a drop in popularity for at most a month. People will forget it by then."
"WHAT?" Shigure was baffled. Seeing Keigo's deadpan, Shigure cleared his throat, "Wait—that's it? A slap on the wrist?" He righteously asked.
"He is one of the top heroes, and despite his temper, he has reached this position. It's similar to how Endeavour has so many fans despite his aloof attitude. To be honest, if Endeavour started dealing with his fans more properly, he might have a chance to compete with All Might."
"But, that won't be Endeavour anymore... Though I guess, I get your point." Shigure frowned. All that chaos, and not even a dent?
"Anyway, how was the food? I liked it." Keigo changed the topic.
"It was good. Good variety. Did you drink wine?"
"No. You didn't sneakily drink it, right?" Keigo narrowed his eyes.
"Hmm, no. But that makes me wonder about a thing. Multiple heroes did drink wine. And by now, most of them should be drunk. If someone wanted to strike, now would be perfect," Shigure said.
Shigure felt it was all going a little too right.
"You are overthinking it. Chances are less for that to happen. Rel—"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Hawks flapped his wings, Shigure triggered Speed Up and brought both of them inside their domain.
Their destination—towards the sound.
Time strained. He ripped open a chocolate bar to refuel.
'I need to do the drop test of that phone in the future' Shigure thought, looking at the height they were flying.
He glanced at Keigo, who had the most serious expression Shigure had seen in a while.
'Let's see how pros work.'
They arrived at the area. A building. Half of it was annihilated.
The building was in a residential area. Shigure frowned at the corpses lying on the ground.
There were even corpses of kids and the elderly present, nothing left but ash and outlines.
Keigo didn't have any change in expression. Feathers split—some to wreckage, some to rooftops.
And others are going towards the other residential buildings, aiming to find any other bombs or evacuate the civilians.
At this time, a loud voice could be heard in the city.
"IF YOU WANT TO STOP THE BOMBING, THEN ALL HEROES SURRENDER AND COME TO THE CLOCK TOWER. IF YOU TRY TO DO ANYTHING FUNNY, THEN ALL THE 27 BOMBS WOULD BE DETONATED"
Hawks frowned, sending some feathers in that direction to get more information about their enemy.
"Twenty-seven bombs? Bluff—or nightmare?" Hawks thought, glancing at Shigure, who was looking at his pocketwatch.
Under the Speed Up domain, Keigo had more time to react to everything and control his feathers, enabling him to multitask more than his normal limit with techniques like context switching. [2]
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Keigo flinched. The second blast was proof.
"6 seconds. Won't be surprised if he has planted more bombs. We need to focus on finding the bombs and removing them." Shigure said in an urgent tone.
"But..." Keigo looked down at the scene below—Kids crying for their parents. Some people were already mourning.
"LOOK AT THESE HEROES! THEY PARTY ON YOUR TAXES—BUT WHO SAVES YOU NOW?"
Shigure's frown deepened. "He is inciting civilians. Most of the heroes are drunk. Falling into his trap is plausible."
'The security was probably more focused on the area where the party was held. Giving these guys a chance to plant bombs. Though I won't be surprised if they were planning this for a while now. If that's the case, then the organiser might also be in cahoots with them...' Connections formed fast and violently.
"What are you doing? We need to move." Shigure shook Keigo.
They were the only ones with a chance to defuse the remaining bombs due to Shigure's quirk.
"Say, what would happen if I met those criminals' demands and surrendered?"
Keigo met Shigure's eyes.
Shigure saw it.
A broken man.
***
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[1] On Discord.
[2] I found an easy explanation:
In simple terms, context switching is like a teacher pausing one student’s presentation, saving their spot, and letting another student present, then later returning to the first student to continue from where they stopped. This helps the computer manage many tasks smoothly without losing track of any of them