Chapter 26: Secret Bounty Hunter's Organization
Author: Geraint
(3rd Person's POV)
After All Might visited Ichika's school to address his bad behavior, he stopped at a café in his deflated form. At one of the tables, he spotted the old man in a butler suit, cleaning his monocle. All Might sat down at the table with him.
The waitress served All Might a cup of coffee.
"Hello, you must be Ichika's father, Yagi Toshinori. Nice to meet you. My name is Sebastian. You can call me Master. I've been working with Falcon for six years in a secret bounty hunter organization."
The old man took an elegant sip of his coffee.
"...Are you aware of my identity?"
"Of course, I know... but don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I swear that to Falcon."
All Might looked at him seriously.
"You know, what Ichika did this morning was awful! Why did you go along with his plan?!"
The old man's eyes grew sharp, and he glared at All Might.
"First of all... I want to tell you this... I also hate the Pro Heroes. Thanks to them, our secret bounty hunter organization was destroyed. Those bastards took advantage of Captain Falcon's disappearance and raided all of our bases. Some of our information brokers got caught, and the organization was forcibly dissolved. Many people who lost their only job had no choice but to join villain organizations because they were treated like wanted criminals. You call yourselves 'justice,' but those guys are no different from villains. We were just buying and selling information to others."
All Might suddenly remembered what Ichika had told him last night:
Heroes and Villains... huh? The two are more alike than you realize, All Might.
"Well, enough of that. Falcon gathered all the remaining members, including me, and formed a new group. We still gather information, but only for him. Just a month ago, he founded a music company, and he made us handle the process of publishing his own songs and music. All of them became big hits, and the company earned a lot of money... Now, you asked me why I went along with him... It's trust. Something you can't buy with money. He changed a lot of people's lives for the better. He is our CEO, regardless of whether he's right or wrong. We'll follow him until the end."
The old man explained proudly as he took another sip of his coffee.
All Might was surprised by everything Ichika had been doing without him noticing.
"But I understand you... As an adult and a father, you're worried about him. You may have already heard this, but when he was just 3 years old, he was already carrying the burden of saving his orphanage from bankruptcy. To survive, he learned to use his quirks early on and used them to earn money to support the orphanage. That was when he joined my organization and became a bounty hunter. The longer he stayed at the orphanage, the more orphaned children he met, and he heard their stories. Most of them were children who had been failed by these Pro Heroes, whose parents couldn't be saved. This made Ichika's trust in so-called Pro Heroes crumble. To him, they were nothing but incompetents."
All Might remained silent and listened to the story. That was all he could do.
"Even I lost my son and grandson in an accident caused by an intense battle between Heroes and Villains."
"I-I-I'm sorry..."
"No, it's okay. I've already realized that you guys are human, just like me, and you can't save everyone."
That hurt All Might deeply.
"Ichika might be a genius, but he's still a child. I beg you, please take care of him."
"Yes..."
"Don't worry. He's just too worried about Mirko, which made him do something crazy. As long as he still has sympathy and compassion, he'll never become a villain. Let him reflect on his actions. Anyway, thank you for listening to my stories."
"It's fine! It's fine!"
"Let me treat you to something since both of us are taking care of that kid."
"No, it's okay!"
All Might looked flustered.
(MC's POV)
After learning about Rumi's whereabouts, I realized that what I did this morning was pretty childish. I was so worried about Rumi that I came up with something stupid and vented my frustrations on the Pro Heroes on the road. The incompetence of the other Pro Heroes had already put more work on Rumi.
Just this month, Rumi's hero ranking shot up to the top seven, and she became the highest-ranked female Pro Hero in Japan. I was so proud of her, but I knew that the dangers she'd face would increase as a result.
I'll have to apologize to my homeroom teacher later for the trouble I caused.
Now, I'm reflecting on my actions from this morning, and before I knew it...
"Hm?"
I had already finished preparing the dishes for home economics class. It was a full-course meal from different countries.
Everyone in the class was amazed by my dishes.
(Img<<<)
No one wanted to group with me, so I made everything myself. It wasn't on Chef Bakugou's level yet, but I think it was good enough.
"Umm... Ichika-kun!"
The first one to approach me was Toru.
"Hm?"
"Can I have a taste of it? Just a little, please?"
"Sure, you can have some. I made a lot."
"What?!!"
Everyone was shocked, and I was confused by their reaction.
"Eh? Are you sure?" Toru asked again.
"Yeah, you can even call your friends if you want." I smiled at her.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, she froze in front of me, and I had no idea why.
...
"Hey, Toru! Are you okay?"
Before I knew it, everyone was panicking in the class, including the teacher.
"Everyone! Ichika is speaking to us!"
"The cold guy who never spoke with anyone has finally said something!"
"That smile!"
"Yeah, it's deadly."
Some of the girls had beet-red faces.
This made me even more confused.
"Ichika-kun finally went dere-dere!"
"Something is about to happen!"
The teacher didn't know what to do.
I glanced at Toru.
"Toru! Say something?"
"Ehh?!"
She looked flustered.
"No! I'm fine! I'm fine!"
"Everyone is acting weird."
"I think Ichika-kun is the one who's acting weird."
"Eh?"
I suddenly realized that my wariness had disappeared, and I didn't have to act cold toward others anymore.
After that, Toru invited everyone to eat the food I made, and they all loved it. The teacher cried when she tasted each dish I prepared and gave me the highest grade.
Our next class was self-study, and everyone was chatting and playing around the classroom. I decided to sleep on my table since I didn't get enough rest the night before.
Sitting next to me was Toru, who was chatting with her friends.
"Eh... Toru-chan? You're friends with Ichika-kun?"
"That's right!"
Toru sounded happy about it.
"How did you do it?"
"I asked him yesterday, then he agreed."
"That's all? No romantic encounter like on the TV shows I watch?"
"We're just friends!" Toru retorted.
"He might have the looks and be skilled in everything, but he's quirkless."
"Ssssh! He might hear you!"
"He's sleeping."
"He might be pretending."
"Uhmm..."
"What is it, Toru-chan?"
"Ichika-kun is not quirkless."
"What?!!"
It sounded like everyone in the classroom was surprised.
"What do you mean 'not quirkless'? He hasn't shown us his quirk or told us anything about it," one of our male classmates said.
"I mean, he has a quirk, and I confirmed it yesterday. Let me show you."
I sensed her slowly approaching me, trying to touch my right hand.
When her hand was near mine, I suddenly grabbed her arm.
"RAAWRR!!!"
"GYAAAAAH!!!"
Peeeeeww!
She screamed in surprise as her invisibility wore off and got nullified by my quirk.
Her expression was priceless.
"Gotcha!"
Everyone was astonished when they saw her real appearance without her invisibility.
(Img<<<)
Toru got angry and pounded me.
"Ichika-kun, you dummy!"
"Hahahahaha!"
I laughed hard as she got mad at me.
"Moo!!"
Our classmates were speechless.
(To be continued.)
(A/N: I'll fix my mistakes later.)