Mind Games - Chapter 31

Time seemed to speed up, even if each moment felt almost painfully slow.

I finally made time for Kirishima's dinner invitation, even if his mothers' ploy was painfully obvious the moment they were introduced to me. Admittedly, I had a bit of fun playing deliberately obtuse and making polite inquiries regarding their family, the house, and their occupations... even when they deliberately attempted to move the topic towards what they really wanted to know.

“We just wanted to make sure that Eijiro is in good hands, since you're teaching him so much.”

“That's right, Dear. A few of our son's friends have been... flaky. It seems like every time they drop by they've forgotten an urgent matter at home and can't stay.”

“Which isn't very becoming of young men who say they want to serve their community. Being mindful of your chores and practicing polite manners is very important.”

Eijiro had looked uncomfortable and slightly embarrassed through the entire affair.

Which was an enjoyable bonus.

For me, at least.

They were nice enough women, though, for all the fact they were obviously feeling out how I'd accept their son's crush on me. Which... I would need to turn Eijiro down, sadly. In addition to my... complicated circumstances and the powers I was connected to behind the scenes, the other boy just wasn't really my type.

It was close, though. Closer than I'd thought might happen.

It helped that Eijiro reminded me an adorable puppy begging for approval, I think. Especially since he retained a level of independence that Himiko simply wasn't capable of. In theory, I could pursue a romantic entanglement with Eijiro without a problem and... part of me wanted to, I'll admit it. The lives I remembered living, especially that of the Sidereal, had made me apathetic towards all but the worst debaucheries known to man or god and, even before that, it wasn't as though the thought of homosexuality bothered me.

But... I'd bound Himiko because she needed it.

Her new position offered an element of psychological stabilization that would have been nearly impossible to find in a relationship with someone else on this world. That's not to say she couldn't still go crazy if pushed, but it was decidedly unlikely as long as I paid even a modicum of attention.

I could justify binding Eijiro, but they would be, at their heart, excuses.

There was also the compensatory aspect to the relationship I had with Himiko. I'd offered her a choice of various templates which she was still mulling over. I knew, even before she insisted, that I didn't have to do that, but I also wanted Himiko to be as prepared as possible for the challenges that were coming up. Moreover, there were challenges that I couldn't know about as well.

There had to be, after all of the eavesdropping I'd done on Haneyama Kazuho.

Unfortunately for her, she'd opted to disregard my advice on a burner phone and simply keep using her civilian cell phone. Even if she'd decided to get one, though, I had little doubt she would have docked the two and transferred her contacts over anyway, so it wouldn't have been an inconvenience for my efforts, either way. It was just a mark of someone not taking her lifestyle choices with the weight and gravity they deserved.

To Kazuho, she probably saw herself as a street performer who dabbled in vigilantism to help her friends out.

To the criminals she fought? She'd put them in jail and destroyed their lives.

Even after her brush with death, torture, or worse, she'd still refused to take steps to prevent a recurrence.

And her friends…

“Aw, c'mon Chizome! Try it, try it! I just picked it up from this nice little restaurant a few blocks over! They even remembered us from when we helped them out with those punks the other day!”

“Togata, if you do not cease with your prattling, I will remove your tongue to force the issue.”

“Are you alright, Chizome? You're a little prickly tonight – well, more than usual.”

“I am merely meditating upon the corruption and lawlessness of our foes. Focus will help my blade strike true when we engage in battle this night.”

“Right-right! Well, you wouldn't want to fight on an empty stomach and I've seen your fridge. You need more than those nutrient packs, buddy.”

“...if I accept a plate of fried chicken, will you leave me to eat in peace?”

Funny thing about your phone being loaded with spyware?

It could let someone turn on the microphone anytime they wanted.

Or the tracking function, for that matter.

Combined with the fact that Kazuho had docked her phone to Mirio's computer for charging and to transfer a few video files of her concerts, and I knew pretty much all of their movements. I'd even indulged and created a classic 'murder board' complete with multi-colored string in The Apartment to track their every move across Tokyo.

Sadly, I only knew where Chizome's apartment was located. Kazuho had absolutely no interest in spending more time there than necessary, unlike Mirio's place, and hadn't even made an attempt to plug her phone in to share media or vigilante data. If pressed, I could make the trip myself while the three were otherwise involved and bug the older man's computer myself, but...

I was worried about the third member of their group.

'Stendhal.'

Akaguro Chizome.

Stain.

I hadn't recognized the name, not at first. I'd never been a huge fan of Vigilantes and was waiting for the animated series to come out before I made a judgment on whether or not to read the manga. Part of that was, admittedly, being a bit salty still over the ending of the main series and the rather lackluster solutions to a lot of structural and societal level issues depicted as problematic.

Yes, we fixed it. No, we're not going to show you how. Just take our word for it.

Personal gripes aside, though...

I'd looked up Chizome in The Company's systems, on the off-chance he was a Named Character and discovered him to be the civilian identity of the psychotic vigilante Stain.

Who, it appeared, had either not yet come into existence in this world, or simply did not exist at all. That made me feel... some kind of way, honestly. I'd been at least somewhat looking forward to punching Stain right in the absence-of-a-nose before breaking at least a few of his vertebrae and possibly his jaw just to be sure.

But... I suppose as long as Stain wasn't making himself my personal problem, I could let Chizome run around like the Red Hood wannabee he was stabbing criminals.

Especially since Mr. Sunshine, Togata Mirio himself, appeared to be riding herd on the psycho.

As a vigilante.

Which... said things, especially after the close look at his personal computer my spyware had gotten.

Admittedly, there had also been a wealth of information that I found both more relevant to my own investigations and substantially more useful. Still, I'd been able to construct a sizable data packet that was only missing a few valuable nuggets before I would hand it over to the authorities. Naturally, though, nothing I did could be simple or straightforward.

“Detective Nakamura?”

The man blinked, turning from where he was sitting contemplatively as he watched his children play. “I'm sorry, do I know you?”

“My hair was a shade of lavender that night,” I stated, lowering my sunglasses to give him a wink with eyes that were the same shade even as I pulled back my wig just a bit from where it was affixed to show a few stray strands.

He stiffened, like I'd electrocuted him, eyes going wide. “You're-!”

“A friend,” I stated, smiling as I put my glasses back on and leaning back, affecting a posture to lower my threat-rating in his eyes. I hadn't missed how he'd instinctively reached for a firearm he didn't have at the moment.

“R-right,” Nakamura nodded slowly. “I, um... is there-”

He cut himself off, trying to find a polite way to ask why I was here.

“I'm mainly just popping in for a welfare check, making sure things are okay after everything,” I nodded at his kids obliquely. “For both them and you. Just... think of this as a little followup to my investigation.”

The older man took a deep breath, nodding slowly. “It's... good. Better than the first few days. Kids stayed with their aunt – my sister – and I got blind-drunk with a buddy. That helped, strangely enough.”

“Alcohol consumption can dull the memory,” I nodded, then looked at him more directly. “Just make sure not to make it a habit. Children don't need parents that can't pull themselves out of the bottle.”

He shook his head viciously. “Don't worry about that. I went there once, after my wife died. Not going back.”

I hummed and nodded, giving him the benefit of the doubt. There wasn't all that much I could do without resorting to extremes, anyway. “Also, I wanted to ask if you'd consider doing me a favor. Nothing illegal or even on the fringe. Just handing over some evidence I'm gathering to a hero. They'll trust it more from a cop's hands than a vigilante's.”

Nakamura had agreed easily.

It was a cheap enough way to repay at least part of the debt neither of us discussed him actually owing. That was one of the double-edged swords of Japanese society, though. When someone had power over you, both sides understood it tacitly and didn't fight too hard as long as you kept things reasonable.

If Nakamura worked out, I could probably keep using him into the future as a contact for my vigilante ID into the future, as long as I kept in mind the boundaries of an honest police officer.

Even gratitude would only let me push him so far.

The preliminary documents had already been sent to the agency that needed them. I wasn't going to keep supplying the Endeavor Agency exclusively, after all. That would look at least a little suspicious and, despite being a nominally national agency, there were places where their coverage was... thin that I'd need to investigate in the near future.

I already had a number of rural sites picked out that I'd need to trek out to at some point, once I figured out a suitable and suitably convoluted excuse.

If Nakamura could feed me a recommendation or someone he knew, even if it was a friend-of-a-friend type relationship... well, it was better than nothing. I had a feeling I was going to be on my own for some of them and few things sucked more than wandering into a small town as an outsider and trying to get something invasive and productive done. Even if it was Japan and they tried to be polite about it, the isolated hill people absolutely despised any kind of outside authority coming in and disturbing the peace.

Even when that 'peace' involved mysterious disappearances and events that were frequently explained away as a woodlands-dwelling villain of some type.

Those were more comforting conclusions to come to, especially when you had pieces of the victim impaled on twenty different trees ten kilometers apart in a geographical configuration that overlaid with an Elder Sign.

That particular location was rather high on my 'Oh Shit' list at the moment, needless to say.

Hopefully I could arrange something for my UA internship or work study.

I paused in my ruminations, puling out my phone and making a note about the idea. Endeavor could probably be sold on some kind of inter-agency liaison deal that would give me some professional development outside of Tokyo. Seeing how rural heroes operated was useful experience, after all.

...and, of course, I'd had to keep up with Bootstrap and Buster's streaming gig all the while.

Because spare time was a thing that other people enjoyed.

At least that had been fairly interesting.

“Okay,” I skimmed the question. “Here's something from a subscriber. LevelUPHero46 – He? She? Hmm... I'm gonna' go with 'he' for this one. Still, if you care about pronouns or being identified correctly, add it to your account or write it in on the question.”

“Cause it ain't manly to be rude,” Buster chimed in crossing his arms. “Bein' polite, though? That's where it's at!”

“Easy there, cowboy,” I hummed, leaning back. “Okay, so our question is this... 'Can you be a hero with a weak quirk?'”

“Easy answer,” Buster laughed, slamming a fist into its opposite palm. “Of course you can! You just gotta' focus on where you're going, keep your eyes on the prize! If you're willing to sweat and bleed for your dream, nothing's impossible!”

“Alright, so you've had your optimistic shounen manga answer,” I waved Buster off, ignoring his faux-offended squawk. “Now I'll give you the pragmatic one. A lot of people like to say that there's no such thing as a weak quirk or a strong quirk and it's how much effort you put into developing your skills that counts. To a certain extent, I can get behind that answer. There's more than a bit of truth to it, even.”

“Buuu~uuut...” Buster called, drawing the word out unnecessarily.

“But,” I nodded, “there are some caveats. People with strong quirks will always have it easier than you. Macro-scale elemental quirks, especially versatile heteromorphs, quirks that are flexible in their application like enhanced strength or flight... all of these are easy A-Grade hero material.”

“You don't get to slack off, though, just because you got lucky with your quirk,” Buster stated, jabbing a finger at the camera.

“Truth. I can name a dozen B-List heroes who should be in the top fifty instead of where they are because they rely exclusively on their quirks and don't bother properly developing them on top of that. Hard work is necessary, no matter how strong your quirk is. Heroism isn't an easy career path and you shouldn't pursue it if you can't commit to it,” I explained patiently.

“So between someone with a weak quirk and a good work ethic or a person with a strong quirk who was lazy...” Buster prompted, looking at me questioningly.

I shrugged, throwing up my hands. “That's the other part of this discussion. Quirks are unique – or nearly so id you've inherited one of your parents' abilities. Even a weak quirk, if you can properly apply it to crisis incidents is invaluable. The downside to all of this is that I can't say every single 'weak' quirk can be trained to a level that heroes would be useful.”

“Maybe an example?” Buster asked, turning to me fully as I kept facing the camera.

“Okay, so you've got two people... the first has a...” I rolled a wrist, making a searching motion with one hand mid-air. “A plant-controlling quirk. Able to cause rapid growth, can be used to detain villains, strong and obvious applications for a hero career. This person is going to need a lot less training, and that means a lot less time, energy, and money to prepare them for a hero career. A properly-motivated individual will use that time to further hone their skills, develop supplemental training, and expand their knowledge, but they don't have to. If they choose not to, they can still be a hero, they'll just be a mediocre one.”

“And someone with a weak quirk?” Buster asked absently, staring at me contemplatively as he rubbed his chin.

“Our second person... can make their fingers longer, let's say,” I shrugged, distantly remembering someone from Izuku's middle school with that quirk. “This person doesn't just need quirk training. They need to find a martial art that plays to their strengths, they need to be inventive and creative regarding their quirk use, and they're probably still going to be the underdog in any fight they go into. This person would need to put in at least a hundred and fifty percent the effort that someone with a strong quirk would to the same place.”

“Harsh,” Buster replied, the grimace apparent in his voice.

“But honest,” I cautioned. “I don't want anyone to walk away from this discussion believing they can't be a hero, but I also want them to have reasonable expectations. My best advice is going to be to take a serious look at your quirk and its potential applications. Be creative. Think about the clips of heroes you've seen on herotube, consider how you could apply your quirk to solve those problems or at least help mitigate civilian casualties or property damage. If you can't do that...”

I sighed and shook my head.

“But there's also a bunch of things you can do to raise your chances,” Buster spoke up, bringing the energy back to full throttle. “There are emergency medical certifications, lifeguard training, and other types of licenses that even middle school students can get. That's a good way to test if you've got the temperament to be a hero, so here are some places that offer-”

We'd been doing a few more physical demonstrations here and there as well, though again my schedule had fought me tooth and nail to make enough time for further shenanigans.

Thankfully, it appeared as though the 'inside scoop' on Endeavor's Agency was garnering a significant amount of attention, more than enough to compensate for the awkward update schedule.

Well, that and the karaoke party we'd live-streamed.

Or, well, we'd live-streamed the audio of the event, given we had two 'guest stars' appearing with us.

“Okay-okay! This is Codename Pinkie here with Buster, Bootstrap, and... oooh, Blondie?”

“Hmm, that's cute so it works! Hehe!”

“Cute is justice, huh? I like that attitude! Anyway, I'm handling the intro today. So, like I said, I'm going by Codename Pinkie for this event! And I'm the coordinator 'cause I made the reservations!”

“Just to make things clear, this is Bootstrap waiting in the wings. Pinkie here decided she wanted to take over and run things. If she doesn't let us go eventually, I'll have to call in backup, though.”

“Hah! C'mon Bootstrap! It's just karaoke! Even I've done it once or twice! Oh, yeah... this is just audio, so um... Buster chiming in, too!”

“Hello internet people! This is, um-Blondie! Because that's my hair color! I'm here, too!”

“...they have no idea who you are, you know that, right?”

“I'm Bootstrap-kun's girlfriend!”

“Whoa... chat's totally exploding... dang, dude. How do we have this many thirsty-hey, wait, Pinkie and I aren't like that!”

“Oh, what are they saying about me and... wow, you guys are weirdos. Uh... no, not into stepping on people, sorry.”

“Don't respond, you'll just encourage them. Ugh, Buster and Pinkie are friends from school. She listens to the streams and heard about the karaoke, so she wanted to join in. That's the whole of it. I'd ask you not to be weird about it, but that's a futile gesture.”

“Hehe! I think they'd look cute together! Oooh... um, well... sorry chat-kuns? But, um... I only do stuff like that with Bootstrap-kun. Yup! We're just like that!”

“Aaaaaargh... you're just encouraging them on purpose now.”

“Hmm... maybe? It might be payback for being really un-cute that one time. My boyfriend was a big meanie so now I have to tease him or he won't learn his lesson!”

“Let's just... sing these stupid songs.”

“That's the spirit! Well, maybe at least. But, bro... you shouldn't be mean to your girl. Totally un-manly.”

“Keep in mind that I taught you everything you know when we get back to hand-to-hand practice, Buster. Push my buttons at your own risk.”

“Haha... I suddenly feel like I'm in danger...”

“Trust your intuition. Now, I'll start us off. As promised, a two hundred year old Disney song. Let's see… yeah, this one.  An underappreciated classic.”

~~~

First thing's first! Winner of the Awesome Tier poll is...

...a three-way tie.

Why do you people do this to me? I'll... pick one of them, I guess? Ugh, anyway, expect an extra-long chapter of something soon. Beyond that, I'll be putting up a chapter of the Marvel side of Industrious, too.

Mind Games! This is kind of an experimental chapter on my part. I realized that I was going to get incredibly bogged down in detailed stuff, so I decided to skip forward and do a few small interludes that got glued together to make a larger chapter. I'm not entirely happy with this one and might revise a bit, but... well. If I didn't do this, I'd easily spend another ten chapters before we got to the UA entrance exams. As it is now... it'll be a chapter or two at most.