Chapter 91: Chapter 91: Things will be complicated from now on.
Shortly after, All Might landed near Aizawa after checking on the students' condition. He then asked in a serious tone, while gazing into the distance with deep eyes at the black-haired boy who was now casually sitting atop the villain.
"Have you been able to communicate to ask for help? No. 13 sustained serious injuries, although the students are fine."
"Communications were blocked until a moment ago, but I managed to call for help now; assistance shouldn't be delayed." Aizawa commented grimly as he finished tying up the hand-crazed maniac, now unconscious.
"That's good..."
All Might nodded, somewhat relieved and somewhat bitter at the same time, since present there was possibly the best 'doctor' in the world. But he quickly shook his head to put those thoughts aside for the moment and commented in a dark tone.
"I can't believe they infiltrated UA..."
"Yes, we need to start a thorough investigation into this." Aizawa said solemnly, an equally grim expression on his face, but he quickly added seriously.
"I'll help Saito secure the villain."
"I'll join you." All Might commented casually, to which Aizawa nodded without giving it much importance.
After ensuring that the hand-crazed maniac was truly incapacitated, the pair of heroes walked over to where Kai was. Upon arrival, Aizawa commented in a serious tone while activating his Quirk, looking at the villain beneath the boy, causing his hair to rise into the air.
"Saito, let me secure the villain."
"Sure."
Without giving it much importance, Kai nodded casually and then got up from the portal guy; after all, the Alcatraz mark had already been set. So Aizawa proceeded to restrain the villain with his bandages, but just at that moment, a black mist lunged at him at high speed.
Immediately, Aizawa felt himself being pulled back rapidly, at the same time seeing a flying slash shoot towards the mist, which was sent flying at high speed through the air, only to then disappear into nothingness.
"Damn it, they escaped!"
Noticing that the hand-crazed maniac was no longer there, Aizawa commented with a grim expression, while All Might opened and closed his fist with a similar expression. After all, his hand had hit the back of his own head thanks to a strange black portal that appeared in front of him when he tried to grab the villain at the moment he saw the black mist envelop him.
"Isn't your Quirk supposed to disable other Quirks?" Kai asked in a serious tone while releasing Aizawa, who responded grimly as he removed his goggles.
"Yes, but I don't know what happened; somehow he managed to circumvent my Quirk."
"Well, at least we have the monster that Salem is playing with, and also the one All Might sent flying, although we'll have to find it first."
After a sigh, Kai commented while pointing at the enormous panther that was fiercely shaking the monster in its jaws. After all, the massive cat was really indignant because not only did it taste awful, but it no longer magically grew more flesh, which had previously really excited it to the point of being willing to ignore its horrible taste. Which was a thousand times worse than the premium meat it was given at home.
"And Salem, if you stop electrocuting it, it'll regenerate."
Then, Kai spoke to the enormous panther while rolling his eyes, imagining what was in its stupid head. Salem quickly stopped emitting electricity and released the Nomu, then held it down against the ground with one of its huge claws, while staring at it intently, waiting for the flesh to reappear.
"Kai-shonen, what exactly is your pet?"
Staring intently at Kai, All Might asked in a serious tone. After all, he had seen that 'cat' a couple of times, but never imagined it would have the power to easily defeat the monster that was causing him trouble, to which the blue-eyed young man responded casually.
"It's a normal cat, or well, it was, but a few years ago it somehow awakened a Quirk and became quite terrifying as you can see. That's why the principal let me bring it; it's like my assistance animal."
Although Aizawa looked surprised at the enormous panther that roared happily upon seeing the monster's flesh regrow, All Might, for his part, looked at Kai full of suspicion. After all, that electricity seemed too familiar; it was too much of a coincidence that both the master and the pet could do such similar things, to which the black-haired, blue-eyed boy just smiled amusedly without the slightest intention of explaining.
The reality behind Salem's impressive strength was somewhat complicated, as it was due to a combination of factors. First, the ability that the black cat's Accomplice developed turned out to be quite similar to Kai's [Lightning Mantle], although much weaker, since it could only use two aura categories: Enhancement and Transmutation.
But that ability alone didn't make him so outrageously strong and fast. The final ingredient was that Salem was the only one to whom Kai had updated the Accomplice to add his most recent ability. Which Kai and Sage had taken almost a year to decipher, using practically 90% of their computational capacity and extensive tests on lab rats, which almost cost them their lives, although he eventually managed to save them.
The ability ended up being named [Vital Reactor], which gradually allowed adding a mutation to the genetic code similar to what One for All added to turn its user into practically a 'bioenergy reactor'. And although it was quite complicated to do at first and the final result was much weaker than that of One for All, the real benefit was immense.
First, the user's base Quirk power was greatly enhanced, as the greater amount of energy increased its capacity. Additionally, like All Might, they had super strength, super speed, enhanced reflexes, etc. But an unexpected surprise was that the abilities of the Accomplices were also enhanced, as they could feed on more energy, as was the case with Salem, whose strength increased several times with his version of [Lightning Mantle].
But although it had such good results in Salem and Kai had tested it with lab rats and himself for a good while, the blue-eyed boy had no intention of updating the others' Accomplices in the short term. Since it was too important and experimental a change, he hoped to gather much more data before doing so.
…
Shortly thereafter, the UA hero faculty squad rushed into the USJ, ready for battle. Among them was Nemuri, who had an expression full of rage as she looked around erratically, quickly finding Momo dressed in her armor, at which point she ran towards her at superhuman speed.
Although it was hard to say that the girls possessed super strength, the years of continuous massages from Kai and his specialized training methods had ended up improving the strength, skill, reflexes, and speed of everyone in the family to a superhuman level, even those who hardly trained like Yumiko and Keiko. Although in their case, it was hard to say if they were really superhuman or just very good.
"Are you okay, Momo?"
Visibly worried, Nemuri quickly asked the girl who was still wearing her full-body armor, who responded with a serious voice, befitting a heroine in training like herself, although a hint of enthusiasm could be glimpsed in her tone.
"I'm fine, Onee-chan. All Might, sensei, and Kai took care of the dangerous ones; we only dealt with the weak ones."
"That's a relief." Nemuri let out a sigh of relief, at which point Kai returned with Salem on his shoulder and commented in a joking tone.
"How sad, nobody worries about me anymore."
""Kai!""
Upon hearing his voice, Momo and Nemuri exclaimed excitedly, at which point Momo jumped to hug the blue-eyed young man, throwing her facade of a heroine in training out the window. Meanwhile, Nemuri bit her lips trying to restrain herself, as she didn't want to arouse suspicion from her colleagues or the other students; after all, she knew that if she hugged him, it would be very difficult to stop herself from doing something more.
…
After a while, the police and medical assistance arrived, who took all the villains into custody and helped No. 13, the only one seriously injured. All while All Might sent accusatory glances at Kai, who didn't lift a finger to help her and ignored him completely while lying in Momo's lap under a nearby tree, as she gently stroked the blue-eyed boy's hair.
"It's truly a shame that someone with so many wonderful abilities is so indifferent to people..." In a distant corner, All Might commented with a disappointed tone, to which the principal, who had arrived at the scene along with the other teachers, responded with a casual smile on his face.
"Well, it's true that he's not the most willing to save lives, but I think this case is a small victory."
"What do you mean, Principal?" All Might asked somewhat confused, to which the curious animal responded with a 'wicked' smile on his face.
"Well, today Kai-kun fought against the villains on his own and even saved Aizawa-san, so if you look at it from a certain perspective, he was the hero today, albeit in his own way."
"Although you may be right, Principal, I don't think those were Kai-shonen's intentions for doing what he did." All Might replied while looking off into the distance at his proud successor, who was talking with his good friend, Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi.
Although the boy hadn't played a major role in today's incident, All Might felt he couldn't have made a better decision in choosing him as his successor instead of someone like Kai. After all, his actions showed that his intentions were always in the right place, and combat ability was something they could work on in the future; the most important thing was the foundation.
"That's quite likely the case, but does that really matter now? The results were the best: no students were injured, and only one teacher was seriously hurt, but those injuries aren't life-threatening, and in a couple of months, she'll be back in service. Now imagine what could have happened if he hadn't been there. Although you might have eventually solved the case, how sure are you that no one would have been hurt in your current state?"
For his part, Principal Nezu commented in a serious tone while looking at the blue-eyed young man. He preferred a thousand times to work with someone like Kai than with someone like All Might. After all, although those like All Might were a great asset on the side of good, the reality was that they were easy to manipulate, especially by villains. And there was only one almighty symbol of peace who could emerge unscathed from any situation; others weren't doing so well on that path.
Meanwhile, those who were like Kai were much more stable; as long as they were offered remuneration they found acceptable, they would accept the job and carry it out without being influenced by outsiders. And although he hadn't yet been able to determine how loyal the young man was to his word, at least so far the boy had shown that he had professional ethics.
After all, he had healed All Might without tricks and had brought him to his peak, just as he had promised. Even the first thing he did in his new workshop was accept a request from the academy for one of the third-year students, instead of starting to use it for his own purposes. And from the blueprints he had sent for approval, he was doing an impressive job, earning several praises from Power Loader.
"Well, it's hard to speculate about something that didn't happen, but it certainly would have been complicated for me. Those Nomus' Quirks seemed to have been specifically selected to deal with me; both had impressive strength and speed, and their combination at close and long range was too good. Additionally, they had super regeneration, and one could nullify my shockwaves." All Might explained with a grim expression, to which the principal couldn't help but ask with a similar expression.
"Do you think 'he' is behind this?"
"Most likely. The way the attack occurred, the monsters that seemed to have multiple Quirks, and more importantly, my instincts scream that it was him. This is very much his 'style'; I feel this was a kind of 'greeting' from him..." All Might replied with a grave and grim expression, to which the principal couldn't help but comment solemnly.
"So he's really not dead... things will be complicated from now on..."
In the end, the event was resolved without many more complications, although UA would close its doors for a day to conduct an internal investigation and make improvements to the security system. So Kai returned home in the company of Momo and Nemuri, without paying much more attention to the matter, his mind wandering on the best way to hunt the rats he had detected.
…
…
…
"You really were the hero today, Kai. I'm so proud!"
In the middle of the main room of the safe house, sitting next to Kai while hugging him intimately, Ryuko commented with a huge smile on her face, full of genuine happiness and pride. Shino, who was sitting on the other side of the blue-eyed boy, added with an expression full of fascination.
"Yes, you saved all the students with your actions. I really would have loved to see you."
"Fufufu, you should have just seen the expressions everyone had; that was the best part."
While straddling Kai's lap and hugging him tightly, burying her face in his neck, Nemuri commented with a small happy smile. After all, although it was true that Kai hadn't wanted to do anything for the injured No. 13, the fact that he had fought for the students' safety was a great first step. Besides, they also understood that revealing Kai's 'medical' abilities would bring endless problems, and No. 13's injuries weren't serious enough to warrant taking that risk.
"It wasn't that much; I just hit the portal guy, and in the end, he ended up escaping, although sooner or later, I'll find him." Kai said casually, not giving much importance to the matter.
"Darling, it might not have been much for you, but your actions meant a lot to others. Also, you shouldn't worry too much because the villain escaped; teleportation Quirks are so rare that even All Might couldn't prevent his escape." Ryuko commented in a more serious tone, to which Nemuri added as she pulled away a bit from Kai to look him in the eyes.
"Ryuko is right; teleportation Quirks are incredibly rare, to the point that no professional hero is known to have one, so it's a shame it has fallen into the hands of villains."
"Certainly, such an ability in the hands of heroes would greatly facilitate work in so many situations." Shino nodded while commenting with a bit of regret in her voice. At this point, Kai decided to change the conversation and commented with a smile.
"Well, putting that aside, we have a date this weekend, Shino. Where will we go?"
"Fufufu, that's right, what do you want to do, Shino?" Completely drawn to the topic, Nemuri quickly asked with a big smile while looking at Shino, to which Ryuko added in a cheerful tone.
"Yes, tell us, so I can think of something different for my turn."
"It will be a surprise; you'll find out later." Shino replied with a shy smile on her face, which made everyone present smile.