The next day comes around, and it is Friday. The last day of our classmates' work studies. Toru calls me after my tasteless lunch as I am cuddling with Aya-chan, who is playing that village building game again. The moment I pick up the phone, Toru says, “Sekai, it’s terrible! Turn on the news!” I tell Aya-chan, “Save it real quick, Aya-chan. Toru says we need to turn on the news.” She saves her game, and then I change the channel.
We see a lot of people outside our apartment complex, along with news crews and heroes holding the crowds back. The newscaster looks back at the scene and says into her microphone, “The villain is currently waiting for the famous model Fumiaki to return to his home so he can blow it up using his bomb-making quirk. The villain stated that he made the bomb so that if it was moved, it would explode. He has threatened that if any heroes try to apprehend him, he will set off the bomb and blow the apartment complex to the ground, along with all the hostages still inside.”
The villain yells at the newscaster, “Come here, you bitch!” The newscaster sweats a cold sweat while the villain takes her microphone and pushes her down as she yelps. The cameraman keeps recording. But the shakiness of the video shows they are obviously terrified. The villain says in a forceful tone while spitting, “Fumiaki, I hate you with my entire being. Thanks to you, women won’t give me the time of day anymore. Yet, they hang off of you wherever you go. IT ISN’T FAIR! All I want is to have a woman who can have my children to carry on my name, and you have taken them all from me!”
He starts pacing back and forth, sweating profusely, and continues, “If you aren’t here at the top of the hour in 55 minutes, then I will blow up the building and everyone in it!” Aya-chan is pale. She looks frozen like she doesn’t know what to do. I don’t know what we should do either.
I call Principal Nezu and put it on speakerphone since he knows our identities, to ask for his advice, and he picks up, “I take it you are calling in regards to that news broadcast.” I responded full of worry, “Yes, sir. We don’t know what we should do. If we don’t go, then everyone, including our beloved chef, will die.” Principal Nezu responded, “I would very much love to keep you both out of harm's way; however, I am not sure we can do that in this case since your personas aren’t students at UA. Let me check whether Gang Orca is busy and whether he can assist, since he is also aware of your true identities. In the meantime, change into your disguises and prepare to use your quirks to meet me. I will keep you apprised of my efforts to get you back up. Remember, if you can’t avoid the blast, make sure you both use armament to protect yourselves at the top of the hour.”
I responded, “Will do, sir.” I ended the call, put my phone back in my pocket, and held her hand. “I’ll be by your side the entire time, Aya-chan. I refuse to let you face this alone.” She gently squeezes my hand while her face is still pale. She asks me, completely terrified, “What if everyone dies and it is my fault?” I grab her face and look at her in her beautiful, panicked purple eyes and tell her, “If the worst happens, it will be that villain’s fault, not yours. Do you understand me?” She awkwardly nods while I still hold her face as tears start falling from her eyes.
After we get changed, we get a call from Principal Nezu, and he says, “Children, I called Gang Orca, but he is off the coast on a surveillance mission and is too far away to make it on time. So, I will be coming as your backup myself, and I will be bringing Midnight with me. She is still unaware of your true identities, but her quirk should come in handy in subduing the villain.” I responded, “Ok.” He continued, “Meet us at the gates of UA as soon as you can.” I responded while gripping Aya-chan’s hand, “Yes, sir.”
Aya-chan asks me before we go, “Are you still unable to use your quirk with food?” I nod, and she says, “Then we will have to kiss to get there.” I nod, and we kiss as she takes us to 5D and I start awkwardly teleporting us. Since it is hard to see as we kiss, we are limited in how far we can teleport. We keep awkwardly teleporting to a remote area near the gates of UA where the principal is already there with a car and Miss Midnight. We transform into our personas, then emerge in the secluded area before emerging to meet them. The drive there was very quiet, and I held Fu-chan’s hand supportively the whole way. We got out a little ways away from the blockade and walked the rest of the way.
Some bystanders see us and gasp, and we put our fingers to our lips to keep them from freaking out, and they nod in understanding. A police officer here asks us, “Are you going inside the perimeter?” We nod, and I ask, “Did the villain say how many bombs he has in the building?” He shakes his head, and the bystanders are quietly giving Fu-chan their support. Fu-chan’s eyes start to water, and I can tell that their support is helping lift her spirits.
While they are helping lift her spirits, Miss Midnight asks the police officers, “Were they able to evacuate the building before they set up the blockade?” He shakes his head and says, “The villain said if people tried to escape, that he would detonate it early.” I grit my teeth as my eye start to water. Fu-chan heard the police officer, and she started crying. I hold her hand and tell her, “We will do everything to save Deonte and the others. I refuse to let them die like this.” She nods, and we hug as bystanders place their hands on our shoulders in a supportive, platonic gesture.
Principal Nezu pulls on Fu-chan’s pant leg adorably (as he normally does) and says, “Are you boys ready?” Fu-chan sheds a few tears as her black hair flitters in the breeze, “As ready as I am going to be, I guess.” Principal Nezu pulls Miss Midnight down so he could whisper in her ear, and she nods. The police let us through the barricade, and we approached our apartment complex, The Sunset Suites. I never let go of Fu-chan’s hand during this time at all, and I squeeze her hand gently to silently let her know that I am here for her.
The villain sees our approach, and he yells at Fu-chan, “Fumiaki! I will kill you and take all of the women you bewitched for myself.” Fu-chan checks on the newscaster first while giving the villain a finger to tell him to wait. Fu-chan asks her, “Are you alright?” She nods while holding her wrist, which seems broken from the fall from him pushing her. She pulls out a potion and sprays it on her wrist to ease the pain, and the villain yells again, “Stop ignoring me, playboy!”
Fu-chan turns to the villain and says, “I am just tending to this beautiful newscaster that you treated like garbage, you asshole.” He says, “Who fucking cares about that bitch?!” I smack my head, as does Fu-chan. She replies, “For someone who wants to have all of the women, you seriously don’t know how to treat them. They aren’t objects to be owned or controlled for your own pleasure. They are people.” The man yells belligerently, “Women are only good for taking care of the house and children! It is their fault for being so weak!”
Fu-chan squeezes my hand hard in frustration at his words, and I supportively squeeze back to let her know that she is doing well. She responds while still maintaining our distance from the villain, “If you think that women are weak and have no other purpose than to be glorified maids, then you know nothing of the strength of women. Miss Midnight here is my favorite all-time hero, and she is really strong. She can whip your ass every day of the week.” Miss Midnight pulls out her crop, and Fu-chan holds her other hand out (that isn’t holding mine) to have her stand down for now.
The villain laughs, “You said that she could whip my ass every day of the week, yet you prevent her from approaching me?! You are a fucking hypocrite!” Fu-chan responds, getting pissed off, “You said it yourself that if a hero tries to apprehend you, you would detonate the bomb! I am just listening to your own words, unless you have changed your tune!” The villain laughs maniacally, “So you were watching me?! The playboy star watched me?!” I roll my eyes at this fucking demented idiot.
He sees my reaction, and he yells at me, “What is your problem, twink?!” I smack my teeth, “Tsk. You need hella therapy.” He turns red as sweat grossly jumps off his skin as he yells, “Fumiaki! Come here!” I walk with her hand in hand, and he yells, “Just Fumiaki! I don’t want you, you fucking twink!” I snap back, “I won’t go anywhere without Fu-chan, psycho!” Principal Nezu and Miss Midnight also approach but keep a safe distance so they don’t appear to be trying to intervene. The villain says with venom as we approach cautiously, "Fine, then you can share Fumiaki's fate, you twink."
When we get to the psycho bomb villain, he spawns another bomb in his hands, and he says, “Now you are going to sit by and watch like a good boy as I blow your home to smithereens!” Fu-chan says desperately, “NO! We came as you asked! There are innocents trapped in that building!” The bomb villain laughs, “YES! That is the face I wanted to see on that annoyingly perfect face of yours!” The time is getting dangerously close to the top of the hour as he said, and the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. I eyeball that bomb he has, preparing for the moment I need to shield Fu-chan with my armament.
I must protect her at all costs.
The top of the hour came, and I tackled Fu-chan then immediately turned black with armament to shield her while the villain was confused and was yelling, “Why didn’t my bomb go off?! WHY?!!!” I am not sure what is happening, but Principal Nezu uses his dig quirk to make the villain sink into a hole in case the bomb in his hand goes off, while Miss Midnight stepped in to put him to sleep. She jumped into the hole to carry the also sleeping Principal Nezu out with care.
{Deonte’s POV}
Those kids didn’t come home the past few nights, and I am worried. They texted me about some villain attacks they survived, but didn’t go into details. I really want to make them food again. I love seeing Sekai’s face as she eats my food. She reminds me of me when I was younger. I can tell from looking at her eat that she knows what true hunger feels like. I often wondered where my next meal would come from, and people who have felt that way look a certain way when eating.
I stress-cook, making things that freeze well for the kids when they come back to their apartment, so they have quick meals at the ready. I got a little carried away, put the food in the storage containers on my cart, and started wheeling them to their apartment. As I am reaching to put the spare key they gave me in their door, Ryukyu comes out of her apartment looking like she is about to return to work.
Damn, she is so fine.
I bite my lip as I look at her, and I say in their native tongue that I have been practicing a lot, “Good afternoon, Ryukyu. You look marvelous today as always. Red is definitely your color.” She blushes and clears her throat in surprise at the compliment and replies, “Ahem. Thanks. I just had to change into my spare since I got my lunch on my other one. You look handsome as well. I really like the fade on your beard.” She asks while looking over the contents of the cart, “Are you taking the boys their meals again?” I sigh, “They aren’t doing too hot and are staying away from the apartments for a bit because of a villain attack a couple of days ago.” She gasps, “I didn’t hear anything in the news about that. I would have thought that would have been front-page news.”
I responded while taking the key temporarily out of the door, “They apparently didn’t release their identities during that incident, so nobody knows they were involved. I was wanting to put this food in their freezer so when they returned they had easy meals waiting for them.” She smiles a warm smile that makes my heart skip a beat and says, “That is really sweet of you. You must really love those boys.” I smirk softly, “Yeah, those boys really treat me well. I have never been paid so much to do so little.” She smiles, “I’ll let you go so yo-” An alarm starts blaring, and a voice over the apartment PA says, “Villain alert. Villain alert. Please stay safely inside your apartments while heroes respond.” The announcement repeats a few times, and I freeze, having not been involved in an incident with villains before.
She says while getting into hero mode, “Go inside the boys’ apartment and stay there while I go downstairs to respond to the threat.” I tell her while feeling a tad worried, “Be careful.” She smirks, “Always.” I go into the kids' apartment and place the storage containers I prepared in their freezer, trying to keep my cool. I finish quickly, then I turn on the TV and switch to the news to see if there is anything about what is happening here.
After a few minutes, they start reporting the story, but they don’t have any useful information that I don’t already have. There was some audio picked up by the villain suggesting that he was targeting the kids. It wasn’t until after an hour of being locked in here that the villain started to lose patience, and he started going off like a crazy motherfucker. So he is definitely after the kids, but they aren’t here. I hope that they don’t come here and stay away.
Just as I am thinking that, the crazy villain says he is going to blow up the building at the top of the hour. Shit. Knowing those kids, they will be coming here. According to that villain, these bombs can’t be moved or tampered with except by the villain. Though, with that said, I think I can use my quirk to change the structure of the bomb without moving it. But I have never done anything like that before. I have only used my quirk to quickly agitate egg whites and other culinary things that need molecular precision.
Before I can change my mind, I take the elevator down to the lobby where they said the bomb was. I see Ryukyu making sure that residents remain calm. She sees me and says, “I thought I told you to stay in the boys’ apartment.” I nervously say, “I think I can disarm it with my quirk.” Her demeanor changes, and she asks, “Tell me about your quirk.” I show her my gloved hand and tell her, “I can identify and change any structure's attributes with the touch of my hands. I mainly use it while cooking, but I should be able to use it to change the molecular structure of the explosive components.”
She places her hand on my shoulder. “How confident are you?” I take a shaky breath. “Confident enough, but I will need some guidance since I have never done something like this before. If I tell you what the bomb is made out of, can you look it up and tell me the molecular structure of the molecule?” She nods and says, “Be careful not to move it, or it will detonate.” I nod, and as I approach this bomb, I tell myself in my inner monologue, “Nigga, what the hell were you thinking going into danger like this? You on that white people shit, Deonte.”
I remove my gloves, and I gently place my hands on the bomb. I use my quirk, and I tell Ryukyu in English, “I am so nervous that I forgot how to speak Japanese. Can you speak English?” She switches, “Yes.” I sigh in relief and tell her, “The bomb is made of hydrogen peroxide and flour. I know flour's molecular structure, so you don’t need to look that up… tsk, such a waste of an ingredient.” Flour is a complex compound that is mainly starch (C6H10O5), but it also contains some protein, water, and lipids. (Deonte speaking to the audience in his inner monologue, breaking the fourth wall, “If you are wondering how I know that, I did a lot of self-study since I didn’t really have proper schooling. A lot of information is available for free online.”) She says while I assume getting her phone out, “One moment…” I stay focused on this bomb as cold sweat drips from my forehead as I remain frozen like a statue. She responds, “Hydrogen peroxide’s molecular structure is H2O2.”
I chuckle nervously, not having to think too hard, “I think I got it. I can change that to water and oxygen. I know that would be safe, but I am starting to lose my nerve. I don’t know if I can do this.” Before she can respond, the front desk receptionist, Hidemi, comes running towards Ryukyu. “I finally got the building manager on the line. He was in a meeting at another building he manages and had his phone off.” Ryukyu puts her finger up to tell her one moment, “Deonte, you have so much experience using your quirk and I have tasted your hard work firsthand. You can do this, I believe in you.” I sigh nervously and respond, “That is very reassuring coming from an accomplished hero such as yourself.” She says, “We are counting on you, Deonte.”
Ryukyu turns to the fellow residents who are anxiously awaiting rescue, “Stay calm, everyone. I’m going to talk with the building manager now so he can guide me on how to turn off the alarm on the backdoor emergency exit. Once I turn off the emergency exit alarm, I want you to follow Hidemi here away from the building at a safe distance behind the police barricade." They all seem relieved that there is a way out. I start focusing on the molecular structure of hydrogen, and, like a surgeon delicately maneuvering a brain in brain surgery, I am being just as delicate. If I fuck up, that is it for me, Ryukyu, and anyone else still in this building. I can’t have a woman as dope as her die because of me.
I am sweating profusely as I focus on this task. I normally wouldn’t sweat like this (talk about gross if I were handling food), but the stress of the situation is eliciting this response. I have never had this much on the line while I used my quirk. I finished converting the H2O2 into water and air very close to the time when he said it was going to explode. I had to borrow an oxygen molecule from the flour to complete the O2, which in turn turned the flour into adipic acid, which is used in food and wouldn’t react negatively with water. I sigh, and my legs buckle from under me from the intense relief I feel. Ryukyu asks, “Were you able to disarm the bomb?” I nod, and she sighs in relief.
Ryukyu comes to me, and since I don’t see any of the other residents, I assume they made it out alright. She holds out her hand to help me up, and I gladly take it. She smirks at me and says, “You were a fabulous hero today, Deonte.” I tell her as I wipe the sweat from my brow with my free hand, “I couldn’t have done that without your support. If you weren’t here, I probably would have caused the whole building to explode by accident from not knowing what I was working with or would have given up from being terrified.” She smirks at me briefly as we watch the clock turn to 3 p.m., waiting to see the resolution of today’s incident. The bomb here may not have gone off, but there is still one out there with the kids.
We look at the TV screen here in the lobby showing everything live, and I see Hanzo shield Fumiaki with armament haki from the explosion that never came while Midnight puts the villain to sleep. The police take the explosive he had and carefully place it in a protective armored case specifically made for explosives. Relief flushes over me, and I look excitedly at Ryukyu and kiss her in the heat of the moment passionately. Once I realize I didn’t get her consent, I back away and apologize, “I am so sorry. I should have gotten your consent before that. I was just so relieved and it fel-” Before I could finish speaking, she kissed me again.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter