Chapter 111: Sad day
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There were six Nomus in the vicinity, Rumi had taken care of two, and Endeavour took care of another pair, from the rumours, a knight in a white armour had also taken out two of those gory creatures.
Things were fine until then, as there weren't any deaths at all. With two of the top 10 Heroes present here, that was to be expected.
Just when Rumi finished, she received a call from Neji.
They had shared numbers before leaving, in case they had to separate and meet up. She noticed midway through her battle that Neji indeed separated from her at one point, so she was expecting a call any moment.
"Hello?"
["Ru- Mirko, can you come here for a moment? I sent you the GPS coordinates in a message. Bring Endeavour too."]
That's all he said before cutting the call.
It was unlike him to sound so serious, so Rumi took this seriously.
'Has he encountered a villain that even he is having difficulties with?'
Rumi knew Neji was strong, stronger than herself if she counted his quirk. So if he had really come across such a villain, then…
Rumi turned to Endeavour who was stopping the fire around the burning city with his quirk.
"Oy!" She yelled. "There seems to be a strong villain… stronger than me around the corner of the city! Follow me!"
Endeavour was shocked as he widened his eyes at her, but she simply kicked the ground and went towards the spot Neji had marked on the map.
—★—
When they reached the... 'villain' though, a long silence fell on the alley they were standing.
"...Only Todoroki here is alive." Neji, who had his mask pulled down, said as he looked at an injured Todoroki, who was sitting against a wall unconsciously. "I felt like Endeavour would be able to take care of him, that's why I summoned him."
Endeavour briefly looked at his son, before observing the two dead bodies. "...Was it the Hero Killer?"
He had done his research on Stain, so he was familiar with his way of killing.
"Yes." Neji gave a nod.
"He escaped?" Endeavour asked. "Or was Todoroki lying here by himself by the time you reached there?"
"He escaped." Neji replied. "I reached here just before they could harm Todoroki. I attacked him with a beam of shockwave, but he vanished in thin air." Pointing at the crater on the ground, where his beam had hit, he continued.
"...They?" Rumi asked with a frown.
"I believe, unless my eyes had betrayed me, he escaped via a purple portal, which I think was made by the mist villain named Kurogiri, who partook in the attack of USJ."
Rumi silently looked over the dead bodies as she nodded. "I see… That's a possibility indeed. Those six monsters looked similar to the ones who attacked in USJ." She had seen its appearance from the news. "Meaning Stain is with the League of Villains."
After a while, as she observed Neji's face, she rubbed her neck. "Is this your first time encountering a death?"
She could guess how he must be feeling right now. 'If only I was a bit early'—that must be what he was thinking. She had encountered these situations a lot of times, but never at such an early age.
Neji gave a nod. "Yes. The guy on the silver plating armour is my classmate."
Rumi's eyes widened as she looked down on Ida's body. She could see the resemblance it had with the former Pro Hero Ingenium, but she didn't think it would be his little brother…
This also meant Neji must be going through a much more mental strain than she had initially expected.
Rumi wasn't good at these things, and she never cared to learn to be good. If it was anyone else, she would just ignore it and proceed with her job, but Neji was not anyone else.
"I–"
"It's fine." Neji interrupted as he shook his head, seeing her trying hard to console him. "I am fine… we should bring Todoroki to a hospital, instead. He seems to have bled a lot, too."
Rumi shut her mouth and gave a nod as Endeavour released a long sigh.
With heavy steps, he walked to Todoroki by Neji.
"Also,"
Stopping, Endeavour put a hand on Neji's shoulders.
"Thanks, Neji."
Then, he leaned over to pick Todoroki up.
—★—
After that, Rumi said she had had enough and led Neji back to their home.
They took a shower before Rumi went to the bedroom and Neji went to the living room.
She again tried to offer the bed to him, but he rejected once causing her to stop trying.
Neji then went to lay on the couch.
'At least it wasn't anyone I know much.'
Ida's death did strike him as a shock and he felt quite bad, but… Neji wouldn't blame Gamer's Mind on this matter, as he by himself truly didn't care if people he didn't love died.
So, instead of taking Ida's death as a source of sadness, he took it as a warning and experience.
If he wasn't strong enough—which he wasn't at all—his girls would be in Ida's spot as they get butchered by the invading gods.
He needs to make his move, and start his plan, as soon as possible.
Only grinding dungeons wouldn't work, he needed to, somehow, hunt powerful quirks. Quirks, that if awakened, could destroy countries in seconds.
Shigaraki's decay was one of them, Midoriya's quirk was one of them. Star and Stripes' quirk was even stronger than those two.
However, the strongest ones were only three, as far as he knew.
One for All, All for One, and Eri's Time Reversal quirk. He needed them. And he needed them asap. He must stop thinking there's time, as to not recreate Ida's situation.
Because he wanted to survive, along with the people he loved.
'I should be able to meet All for One after summer camp. If the system didn't lie about his interest in me, he will try to kidnap me too this time.'
Until then was the only time Neji had left in UA. He should spend every second until then to focus on other things—to go to the dungeon and fix Kimi, and obtain companions.
But most importantly… Izuku Midoriya needed to die.
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