Narukami's POV
"Narukami, did you hear me? My uncle is planning an Attack on the HQ! Why aren't you res-" the phone delivered its last words before dying at the hands of a bullet.
"Sora, your wings are fine, right?" The sound of the glass door shattering accompanied by the bullet sounds had made conversation
"Don't worry, I'll ask Castor to heal them for me, it's just a few bullet shots and some glass shards," Sora tried to assure me, although he ended up doing the opposite.
"Let us take care of this," Fumiko enounced before creating an invisible force-field as her ally, Haruto summoned his Adhesive Gun around his wrist and shouted, "Force-Shield, can you create an opening?"
The incoming array of bullets were reduced into a column along the border of the force-field; they looked like a queue to a closed store. The invaders stopped shooting, realizing that they were only wasting their ammo. A stream of despair appeared in the brown eyes of the leader, one that fired the bullet at me and initiated the attack.
It was the effect which the leader of the most successful team in the Late Fours (team #46) Mukei Fumiko, a.k.a Force-Shield.
"Yes." He fitted the gun into the tiny opening as he released his bio-adhesive through the net gun, creating the Epoxy Scaffold, a cage of strong, intangible glue, which was Haruto's signature move that rendered his enemies immobile.
Due to the impact of the Epoxy Scaffold, they were trapped like flies in the webs of the spider, Kumo Haruto, a.k.a Traffic Jam.
"I think I trapped about ten intruders, yes a perfect ten. The others escaped, though," Haruto muttered, while being content and discontent at his performance, at the same time.
"Thank you, guys. We are basically useless in these situations as we can't harm the Ordinary with our powers," I thanked them as Sora helped me to stand up straight on my feet.
"Useless? Huh? The correct word would be overpowered or too useful compared to these weaklings!" Violetta protested. "Let me handle this situation on my own and everything will be over in seconds."
"Vi, stop it, we can't harm Ordinary people. Do you want to get punished by the manager again?" Aether tried to convince her to step back, although he failed in the attempt. "Please," he begged with an expression that had never crossed his expressionless eyes before, while placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Shut up, you can't make me," she rejected his words, shaking off their hand as she produced lilac flames from her right hand and marched towards the force field. "Watch me, Kagura-san. Since you can't set apart amethyst from ordinary stones abandoned by the sea waves, I think I must teach you how to do so." Turning towards Fumiko, she continued, "Open the field."
"The heck, I can't. They will start firing once again," Fumiko retaliated.
"Who's they?" Ten of them were trapped in the web while the others had escaped. "Open it or else don't expect an apology from me if the flames target you, next."
"Chill Violetta, it's not that deep." Fumiko trembled as she deactivated the force-field.
Violetta walked down the trail towards the main door while carving a way through the glue with her flames, cautious enough to not free the people trapped within it. "Follow me if you want to. The way's open for you all."
"Damn, she's such a show-off," Haruto muttered. "I bet all her big talk is gonna end up in the waste waters."
"How about you keep your mouth shut and let Vi do her job?" Aether spoke. The tone was hostile enough to bring Haruto's talkative mouth to a standstill. He retraced the path which Violetta traversed before disappearing.
"Whoa...What the hell was that? I felt like I was being held at gunpoint. He really needs to chill out a bit," Haruto sighed.
"Come on, let's follow them," I put up the suggestion as everyone agreed to it, considering the fact that it was the only option left.
We squished through the narrow tunnel as we slowly reached the DMPEI plaza, which was a huge paved area with an eight-tiered fountain in the center from which roaring streams of water erupted like a hot spring at its core, as it slowly descended the tiers to collect at the reservoir.
However, the fountain wasn't the center of attraction.
It was Violetta and her friend, Aether and the fallen intruders, dozing on the paved terrain in front of the fountain, which stole the spotlight. They had their eyes bulging out of their sockets, fixed upon Violetta. It was like they had seen their worst nightmare.
"Hey, did you kill them or something? Are you tryna be a villain or something?" Fumiko questioned while she grabbed Violetta's arm.
"Shut up, you nitwit!" she erupted, releasing her arm from Fumiko's tight grasp. "I just paralyzed them. I can paralyze people with my flames without causing any physical harm," she revealed. "They were trying to enter through the seventh pathway. Fortunately, I stopped them before they could break it open."
"Woah I thought you were gonna end up being an all-talk-no-show," Haruto teased.
"Shut up, Jam-Jam-Boy," she reciprocated, flustered while Aether glared at me.
"Oh so, it was you that initiated that nickname?" Haruto placed his hands on his hips as he clenched his teeth and glared at her while she looked sideways towards Aether, to avoid eye-contact. All the heroes at the HQ had started calling him with the name: 'Jam-Jam-Boy' and he was desperately searching for the culprit who started the trend. "As payback, you can tell us more about your secret abilities and allow me to give you a nickname? Deal?"
"Um, yes. Well, are you all aware of Compound Marriages?" Violetta sat down on the circular bench along the circumference of the fountain, as Haruto and Fumiko grabbed the spots next to her. I, Sora and Aether decided to stand in front of him as we prepared our ears for a long conversation.
"Hey don't tell them about that. That's your private information," Aether obstructed as he gave Haruto a death glare, once again.
"Hey let us know your girlfriend's secrets as well," Haruto complained.
"W-What do you mean by that? W-We aren't a c-couple!!" Violetta squished his cheeks as she tried to make his cheeks redder than hers.
"Ouch, I am sorry. Now please free me, my Lord," Haruto squealed as she released his cheeks. "No but you should seriously become a couple. My shoujo heart is rooting for you two!"
"Stop it!" Aether ordered before looking away, to hide his flustered countenance.
"Okay, please ignore Haruto's antics and tell us more about your powers," Fumiko interrupted, unable to hold in her curiosity.
"Well, basically Compound Marriages are arranged marriages meant to enhance and amend people's powers and abilities. Basically, my mom and dad were forced to marry each other by my paternal grandfather in order to yield a child who had a mixture of both powers. And that child was me. The child of top #3 hero, Faye Jenkins and top #6 hero, Akatsuki Ito. I can access my father's paralysis powers through my flames, provided that they are dilute enough."
"Damn, your grandpops really played the chemist and tried to combine hydrogen plus oxygen to get water, except instead of water, he got this giant volcanic eruption," Haruto chuckled. "This is why chemistry should be banned from our syllabus."
"Shut up!"
"Are your parents on good terms with each other?" I asked as she responded with a negation.
"My mother wanted to marry someone else but she couldn't because of this bullshit marriage and thereby, she's very hostile to my dad, his family and even me."
"Um, same here, except that it's daddy issues in my household," I tried to comfort her by telling her she wasn't alone. "My dad used to pick quarrels with my mom almost every single day and unable to bear with everything, she divorced him and my father took away my dear brother along with him. Till this day, I can't forgive him for doing this to our family," I ranted.
"That's unfortunate," Violetta walked towards me as she placed her hand on my shoulder, it was a comforting pat, conveying the message, 'it will be alright, trust me.' "But kudos to you and your family on getting rid of that devil. Kudos for opening up to us. You can always talk to me about your worries, instead of bottling them up. You should speak a bit more as well, you know. Your voice is so cute that... I can keep listening to it all day long."
"Wait did she realize that she's not using thought bubbles? And, how's our dear Aether?" Haruto commented while noticing Aether who was very close to crush the pepsi can in his hand. "Hey, I think we should use Aether as our can-crusher from now on."
Sora sighed as he was tired of a these teenage issues. He had just ascended from the shackles of adolescence and as a newborn adult, he was well-versed with them. He messaged through his green irises to rip the misunderstanding from the roots and don't let it grow.
I sighed as I tried to dissipate the accumulating misunderstanding, "I am sorry but you are mistaken if you think I am into you. I just consider you as a good friend. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Um, that's unfortunate that you have such bad taste in women," she muttered. "So did you not learn anything from whatever I did just now? Are you still gonna continue loving someone who doesn't reciprocate your f-feelings? And she doesn't even have mommy or daddy issues like us..."
"Well, I did learn something today. That... You are way out of my league. I just see you as a friend and... you are one of my best friends, too. But at the end of the day, I can only see you as a friend. But there's one person, who sees you as their whole world, who's willing to stand up for you even if the whole world is against you, who's willing to give up everything just to see your smile. In front of them, I am nothing," I explained, looking at Aether.
"Oh my god, what the hell is this?!" The head nurse stormed into the scene as a look at the paralyzed intruders made her lose her peace of mind. "A-Are you all alright? You'll didn't kill them right?"
"No, I just immobilized them," Violetta reassured.
"Oh okay, that's a relief. Someone leaked out the coordinates of our HQ to the Kenta Conglomerate. Well, we will disclose the culprit as soon as we find them. If anyone is hurt, they can come with me and get treated."
Sora spoke, "I think I earned a shot or two on my wings. It would be fine without treatment, to be hone-"
Violetta fainted while I swiftly caught her.
A shocked expression appeared on Amnesia's face as she rushed towards us along with Aether.
Aether grabbed her away from my support as he exclaimed, "Oh my God, this is terrible. She's bleeding from her waist. I think it's a bullet shot. Oh God, why is she like this? Why didn't s-she tell us about the wound?" His breath had become irregular in order to pace with his escalating heart-beats.
"She's just like that. In order to impress people, she forgets to take care of her own self. I am not criticizing her. She needs to pay more attention to herself rather than what others think of herself," Fumiko conveyed. "She must have hurt herself while fighting those invaders."
"Quirky, come quick," Amnesia called the assistant robot as it came in with a stretcher within its arms. Aether laid her on it as the robot carried it to one of the wards in the HQ's hospital. "Don't worry, she'll be alright." She held a thumbs-up in the air. "Sora, you also come with me. Aether and K-Kagura-sama too."
We walked through the seventh pathway, which led directly to the Healing Sector, where Amnesia's office was situated.
There was Castor who was standing next to Violetta, trying to heal her with his cell-cloning technique. He appeared to be a bit jovial compared to his usual expressionless demeanor, as if he was experimenting something.
Something wasn't right about him... Or did he change?
"All done," he announced while taking off his power-restraining gloves.
"Treat Sora's wings as well," Amnesia ordered, while sitting down on the bench. "Aether, you can wait in the room until Violetta wakes up," she offered him a seat beside her, along with a can of apple juice.
"Done," Castor sighed. "Can I take a break now?"
"Yes dear. You sure can. You have worked really hard today. I am proud of-"
"Attention! Attention! Requesting Hero Gemini to report at the main office. Alert! Alert! Requesting Castor Diora to report at the office," the common speaker screeched.
"Oh God, what's happening this time? My poor boy can't even rest?!!" Amnesia complained, voicing Castor's inner monologues.
Castor silently obeyed the management's orders as Amnesia tagged him.
"Report to the office as immediately as you can."
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to you," Amnesia reassured Castor while they proceeded towards the main office together, before pausing a bit and turning behind, "Um, if you don't mind me...Can you come with us, Kagura??"
"Yes, I sure can...I don't know what kind of disaster is waiting for us in there? But wouldn't it be nicer if there were more people to face off the upcoming disaster?" I sighed, while I consoled her by giving her shoulder, a light gentle pat and her eyes, a wide smile.
"H-Haha, y-you are quite the funny guy." She flinched while covering her flushed cheeks with her long, white bangs.
Castor facepalmed before giving a 'you kinda messed up there' look.
Amnesia slightly whispered something to Castor and I was pretty sure that my name was a part of their short exchange. After all my Kagura-dar, can't possibly be wrong, right?
But what the hell was that? Did I see that right?... Something is totally out of place about those two...
As soon as Amnesia flung open the door that led to the main office, Shizuka-san erupted with rage, "Castor, can you explain what the hell were you thinking when you did this?" She presented the CCTV footage on her laptop while furrowing her eyebrows. If looks could kill, then those two would have died there.
And, I would have died a thousand times considering the fact that often screwed up a lot of my errands in the past and was a victim to that scary look.
Oh how much I wish I could be proficient at my job like Kiyoko and Castor, then I could have very well avoided all those looks and the numerous punishments and most importantly, the Villain Redemption Project.
The fact that an S-rank healer had also made a mistake slightly relieved my broken heart. Was I really a sadist like that pink-eyed Romeo said back then? I wonder what he is doing now? Anyways, why am I thinking about him now?
"Care to explain?" The boss questioned, while Castor's expression remained undeterred.
I moved forward to get a closer view only to let out a heavy gasp.
"What the hell, Castor? Don't tell me you were the one who let Tadashi escape, despite knowing about h-his condition... I didn't expect this at all from you! And you also leaked our coordinates to the invaders! I can't believe any of these? Are you even, Castor?"I lashed out.
"Haha, Castor? Who? That ain't me. He's standing behind you."
"This ain't no time to joke," the boss voiced out my thoughts before looking behind me. "What the hell?"
I looked behind to see Castor standing behind me staring at his feet.
"14.78 minutes." I turned behind once again, to see Amnesia standing at the place where Castor was standing at the time I shouted at him.
Damn, I can't believe I messed up again! This time, I shouted at my superior...
"Kagura Narukami, isn't it?" She asked while glancing at me. "Before blindly and unjustly accusing Castor for something he didn't do, without properly knowing about the truth, did you ever think that you were "somewhat responsible for this?"
"W-What do you mean?" My heart had started racing as a drop of sweat trickled down my face.
"If you hadn't brought that pink-eyed friend of yours. None of this shit would've happened."
"What the heck are you two talking about?" Madam Shizuka asked, bewildered and agitated. "What pink-eyed friend?"
"He will tell you about it."
"But he is not-"
Before I could form the words 'my friend', I was interrupted, "A bad guy, right? Don't try to justify your friend. You are just asking for expulsion at this point."
"But I was gonna say that-"
"No, ifs and buts! Aren't you ashamed of defending him at all? The fact that Tadashi is in danger and the attack on our HQ was because of That Damned Pink-Eyed Friend of Yours!"