THUMP THUMP THUMP
Keigo's heart drummed at the sight.
He could hear the sound of a fight happening and instinctively pulled the curtains aside.
What he next encountered was a
hand.
A child's severed hand. Still. Unmoving.
On the floor.
Keigo felt his insides churning.
Blood slicked the hallway in cruel streaks of crimson.
Two of the people in black could be seen lying on the ground— unconscious.
His instincts took over before thought could catch up.
Keigo felt his mind had shut off.
In the hall, he saw that a fight was happening.
4 people gang up on a kid.
Shigure clung to his staff like a lifeline, wielding it with one trembling arm, fending off the 4 of them.
Unconsciously, Keigo analysed the scene in front of him.
Despite the crude way he held his staff—borderlining a noob, Keigo could use the various feints Shigure used while fighting.
Blood poured from Shigure's scalp, drowning half his face.
There was also a concerning amount of blood hiding his right eye from view.
That was the final trigger—Keigo launched into motion.
With a single thought, feathers shot forth—efficient and merciless. All 4 assassins were restrained.
Keigo internally marvelled at the fact that he didn't unconsciously kill them.
'What the fuck is happening?' Despite his thoughts, his hero instincts didn't betray him.
"I really thought... this was the end," Shigure muttered, collapsing on the ground.
Feathers assisted him in a soft landing, lying him on the floor.
"I can't believe you're still breathing." Keigo tried to smile, putting pressure on Shigure's shoulder to slow down the blood from flowing.
"Why isn't your quirk stopping the bleeding?!" Though Keigo asked in a calm voice, he was internally anything but calm.
He was freaking out.
At this rate, Shigure is going to die.
One of the feathers brought a chocolate bar from the fridge.
Shigure clutched it like a lifeline.
Blood soaked the chocolate bar—sweetness drowned in red, creating a less than appealing sight, yet to Shigure, it didn't matter.
CRUNCH CRUNCH
"I—I am unable to focus on my quirk." His hands trembled, holding the chocolate.
"Did they drug you or something?" Knowing that Shigure can't use his quirk, Keigo didn't hesitate. He soared—Shigure and the severed limb in his arms.
His destination—the nearest hospital.
His hand was still clutching the lump on his shoulder, trying to prevent the blood from flowing out.
"No. I think it's probably due to a concussion on my head. My half of the vision of my remaining eye is already gone. Everything's tinted blue… like dusk. I think I'll close my eyes a bit." Shigure muttered, his tone getting lower and lower.
"Don't fucking sleep on me!" Hawks shouted directly in Shigure's ear. 'Sleeping now would be a death sentence.' He glanced at the slump.
He noticed that the rate at which the blood flowed out was slow.
Shigure's quirk was instinctively trying to preserve his body.
"Talk to me! I don't care what—just stay awake!" Keigo tried to distract Shigure with conversation.
"Ah… my chocolate slipped away." Shigure blankly looked at his falling chocolate. "Do you think it will hit somebody on the head? Maybe dirty somebody's clothes, or maybe there's even a chance that it might kill somebody."
Keigo, who was initially going to ignore the dropping chocolate, now found himself sending a feather towards that chocolate.
Though at the speed Keigo was going, the chocolate would return to him only if he stopped, which would be at the hospital.
"Jeez. You really are a goody-two-shoes to the core. I sometimes wonder how a person like you can exist. Humans really are interest—keugh" Shigure spat out blood.
"Did you get internal injuries too?" Keigo frowned. He tried to increase his speed.
"Speaking of interesting, when my arm was cut off, I didn't feel as much pain as I expected initially. It was disappointing." Shigure grumbled.
"Really? Ever wondered if a chainsaw across your fingers hurts more?" Keigo said the first thing that came to his mind.
"I really want to try them, unfortunately, I value self-preservation," Shigure said, his eyes completely closing.
"Honestly, I sometimes feel doubtful about that. If not for me, you would already be dead. It's the second time, or was it the third time?"
"Nah. If you weren't there today, I might have awakened my quirk today."
"..."
Keigo found himself at a loss for words.
'Can't let the conversation die down.' Seeing how Shigure's line was at stake, Keigo spoke up.
"So—what's next for your quirk? Any ideas? I am curious. My quirk evolved in both multi-tasking aspects and a bit in spatial awareness."
Shigure didn't speak up for a few seconds. Hawks could hear his heartbeat in his ears.
THUMP THUMP THUMP
"Remote."
"Pardon?"
"My quirk is like a remote control. Y'know—fast forward, pause, rewind... that kinda deal."
Keigo was slightly taken aback.
Not at the remote analogy, but rather at the fact that Shigure of all people decided to give him free information.
'Has the sun risen from the west today?' Keigo glanced at the position of the sun.
'It seems normal. Though I wonder which direction is North.'
"Wasn't it called Blink or something?" Hawks remembered the quirky name on Shigure's file.
"Lame. It's a thing of the past. When my quirk was tier 5. It has evolved now. So new name."
'I don't think that's how things are usually.'
"Anyway, back to Remote. Who knows—you might even freeze time one day." Keigo said, his eyes brightening at the hospital in sight.
'Finally.'
"In the future. not in my immediate..." Shigure's voice got lower and lower before his mumbles stopped completely.
Keigo entered the hospital quickly, not caring about slamming the door open.
He had checked beforehand to make sure that no one would get hurt.
"IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" He yelled, bringing in Shigure.
As expected, the hospital staff quickly came and moved Shigure to the emergency room.
"Sir. I need you to fill out this form." A nurse guided Keigo towards the receptionist.
"This kind of injury is not normal. Are you his guardian? I would need you to give me the details about yourself and verify your identity. I would also need to call the cops to..." Keigo tuned out.
He could still feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Trying to escape from its confines. Adrenaline was still flowing in his blood.
He took a deep breath.
'Calm down.' In a few seconds, Keigo's heart slowed down till it became normal.
"Let me call my manager." Keigo interrupted her. His hand went into his pocket, but midway, he realised he wasn't carrying his phone with him.
'Right. I directly left the house without even drinking my coffee.'
Keigo was in so a hurry that he hadn't even taken the first dump of the day.
"Ma'am, can I borrow a phone? I need to call my manager." Keigo currently only remembers two people's phone numbers in his entire life.
His manager and his own.
"Sure." The receptionist narrowed her eyes, handing him the landline.
To her, the man looked a bit suspicious. He was in his sleepwear, and his hair was messy, probably due to flying.
'Is he a pro? Though he looks more like a newbie. Maybe due to the age.' For some reason, the receptionist felt that his appearance was familiar.
She also noticed that the man was getting a lot of eyes.
'He must be popular in this neighbourhood. Maybe a local celebrity, too. I need to look up some news a bit.'
The man handed her the phone, she took it.
"Hello?"
"Hello, ma'am. I am speaking from Hawks agency. I..." The receptionist's eyes widened.
Even if she was not catching up to most of the news, she knew who the watchman of Kyushu was.
The youngest hero to get into the top 10. The one who hasn't even reached 20 and yet is already Number 7 across the entire Japan.
She glanced at Keigo, who was walking back towards the emergency ward.
Keigo's manager, even before his work started, got dumped with work.
Such was the fate of the managers of top heroes.
They need to be available 24/7. Though generally due to this need, heroes keep multiple managers.
Keigo got multiple eyes on him, however, he ignored it.
He was not in the mood, and it seems his face was also showing it, as despite sitting outside the room for more than 20 minutes, no one approached him.
'What a mess.' He didn't have a phone to distract himself with from the thoughts on his mind.
A true disaster.
'Might as well run a few drills... distract myself.' He moved a bit of feathers discreetly until they exited the hospital.
He started moving those outside, each of them doing their own thing—tracking somebody, feeling the temperature, moving an object and many more.
It not only trained his multi-tasking, but also his spatial awareness of individual feathers.
"This is a heist! Get on the ground, now!" Suddenly, a burly man entered the hospital with a gun in his hand.
The gun looked futuristic, and some of the tech nerds could even guess that it might release a laser.
Keigo frowned, internally baffled. 'What's the security doing? Is this hospital even credible?' He internally decided to move Shigure out of here when his situation got stabilised.
What he didn't know was that the heroes generally patrol the area, so this situation had never arisen until now.
If he had known...
Despite the man's threatening appearance along with the gun, nobody reacted.
No screams. No following instructions. Nothing.
They just stared at him.
This shocked the thief.
In his entire life, he hadn't faced such a situation.
With his common sense skills, he noticed that people were glancing between and another person seated farthest from the entrance.
The man in sleepwear looked at him with a frown.
That's when the thief understood—he'd made a fatal miscalculation.
He fucked up.
***
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