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***
It turned out that Hachisuka didn't infect all people with the same trigger. For example, the version of the trigger she injected into the junkie was high in steroids and peptide hormones, which is why he was so healthy. She did this to detect strong quirks, and in all the infected with interesting abilities, she collected blood into vials I found in her rucksack. I think those vials are needed by the very unknown villain who took Iwao's quirk. Unfortunately, I can't pinpoint his location, he's hiding in a place where there aren't any cameras, that is, far away from crowds, probably out of town, and all of Hachisuka's clients don't know anything about it, half of them are just addicts and the other half are idiots and resentful of society for rejecting them.
I had to take my mind off the investigation because something happened the other day. A vigilante killer has become active in the city again, a few days ago, there was an attack on the Tenchu Kai criminal gang office in Danto district, the attacker was able to slaughter the entire gang. Investigation showed that all of those killed had deep katana slashes in one way or another...and for some reason, the police decided that I was the one killing criminals around the city, because similar to the description: an unknown masked man with a katana appears, maims people, and just as suddenly disappears.
It's actually offensive, I'm considered a maniac, although I've never killed anyone...in this life for sure. But the police are lazy, they can't find the killer for so long, but I found him, literally in five minutes. He didn't have much of a code, because he was caught on camera changing into casual clothes in a back alley, and his face was also exposed.
Now, the vigilante killer's name is Chisome Akaguro, nicknamed 'Stendhal.' I think he chose the nickname in honour of Marie-Henri Bayle, a French writer, one of the founders of the psychological novel. In the press appeared under various pseudonyms, the most important works published under the name of Stendhal.
Outwardly, he does look something like me, in ammunition, with armbands, katana and mask.
His quirk, called 'Blood Clotting' according to his medical records, allows him to paralyse anyone whose blood he tastes with his tongue. The quirk has a duration of about eight minutes, but the duration is affected by blood type.
From the cameras, I found out that I met with Hachisuka several times, in different places, where she informed him of evil villains that needed to be punished. Basically, she manipulated Chisome using his unhealthy obsession with killing criminals. As I understand it, she pointed the finger at those who had some information about her, as well as those whose actions interfered with her boss, and to complete the task quickly, she often supplied him with the blood of her targets.
This Stendhal is obsessed with the idea of killing criminals in order to cleanse the world of the filth that inhabits our society...he's a psycho. Abnormal, with a messiah complex, he just enjoys killing people, but subconsciously covers it up with the desire to do something good. Here Stendhal thinks that he does not do anything bad, but on the contrary cleanses the world of evil, under the guise of a hero.
To be honest, I wouldn't have touched this madman, but because of him, I'm now considered a murderer, and moreover, he's a psycho...and if you give a good man to him and call him a villain, he won't even care who's good and who's bad, he'll just kill him.
I was about to punch him in the face when the problem solved itself. Stendhal had a conflict of interest with old man Castet... they met when Koichi was trying to save some thug from Stendhal, and then the old man came to the rescue and fought the ninja. At first Stendhal didn't want to fight him, saying they were doing a common cause, but Kastet said that Stendhal was just a psycho street killer and he was a tough fighter for justice.
During their confrontation, I noticed that Stendhal was using Issoku Itto no ma (One Step and One Strike), a Kendo technique that refers to both the basic and critical distance for a swing. It determines the ability to strike and kill an opponent, assessed by eyeballing. My grandfather once taught me this technique, but I found it ineffective, especially against fast opponents.
Kastet was not a convenient opponent for him, because Stendal had no blood, so he couldn't paralyse him. From the dialogues with Hachisuka I learned that his body had undergone modifications that made the psycho much stronger and faster than a human, but even so, Kastet was fast enough to move away to a safe distance and instantly close in so that his opponent didn't have enough space to strike. Here the old man came close, and broke his mask...and at the same time, his nose, with his fist.
Chisome was able to get up, wound Kastet with knives and immobilise him by licking his blood off the knives, but this crazy guy, it seems, after the blow went even more cuckoo, and having lost the will to fight further, went off in an unknown direction, leaving behind him bloodstains...and saying something about realisation of truth and heroes.
And all these actions I recorded on camera, and the tape was poisoned to the police station, so they would stop following me...more than usual.
***
It's been almost a year since these events, but I have yet to make any headway in finding the man taking the quirks. The only thing I've been able to find out is that Hachisuka wasn't working alone, but with a partner, and it wasn't Stendhal. Chisome was just a dog on a leash, but the true villain had yet to be revealed. There were several more attacks, but they weren't Trigger-pumped people, but genetically modified mutants, like the Hood I'd fought in underground fights, but not human-like at all. The police were able to catch most of the mutants, but some of them had become Aegilovians, and they were self-detonating, and I had to say, they exploded like a bomb. I've been through the police database, but there's not a lot of information there either. The police believe that behind all the events in Naruhat, is an unknown organisation called the Villain Factory. Also, an operation was recently conducted in Osaka to capture a suspect in the Naruhata case. Unfortunately, the operation was unsuccessful, the suspect had a speeding quirk suspiciously similar to the stolen quirk of old man Kastet, so he easily defeated the police squad and escaped. I was able to get his face on the cameras, but to no avail. This face is not listed in any database, in addition, the suspect has metamorphic abilities - the ability to change his appearance, including the face, and this makes the search even more difficult.
Why on earth would I be looking for this fiend who steals fads when the heroes and the police can do it? Because this villain is a danger to me, Grandpa and Kazuho, and that's a reason to find and deal with him. Right now, I'm not sure if I can defeat such a difficult opponent, but once I know his level of strength and weakness, I'll develop tactics to defeat him. It's not always the strongest who wins, but the smartest, and if strength and intelligence are in symbiosis, then victory is guaranteed.
- Hello, hello, Earth to Kazuho. - I waved my hand in front of the head of the girl who was sitting at my table at home and studying maths. Recently Pop asked me to help her with her studies, I naturally agreed, but the amount of memory she has such that after half an hour of study, from her head was already possible to light a cigarette.
- Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm a little tired. - She laid down on the floor and took the TV remote control, switched it on and looked at it, forgetting all about her studies.
- I take it you've run out of study time? Kazuho, you're breaking my stereotypes of innocent girls who study. - I took a can of soda from the table and took a sip.
- I'm not breaking anything, it's... I just wanted to watch the news, that's all. - Kazuho replied and switched to the news channel. - Oh it's that one, what was his name?
- Captain Celebrity. - I looked at the TV where they were showing this clown smiling at the camera.
Captain Selebrity, or Christopher Skyline, is a famous American superhero who recently moved to Japan because of multiple scandals related to his affairs with young girls, even though he has a pregnant wife. Selebrity is an extremely narcissistic person, just the kind of character that is more reminiscent of some film star. Honestly, he annoys me, okay if he was just a regular second-rate hero, but no. His 'Flight' quirk allows Christopher to use tactile telekinesis and use it to create a protective aerodynamic barrier, covering himself and whatever or whomever he touches. With the quirk, it is possible to create a pushing or holding force in any direction, making Skyline able to fly on his own and lift others surrounded by his aerodynamic barrier into the air. He was easily able to lift a cruise ship.
Anyway, as a lover of screwing up someone's life, I sent his wife an anonymous message that he had started his lefty trips again. Heh-heh-heh, that'll be a lesson to him, because recently he was just standing there waiting for the press with cameras, while the neighbourhood was being destroyed by a mutant that looked like Godzilla. Good thing I was there to disarm the rampage...and teach the narcissistic cretin a lesson, heh.
- Was there anything funny on the news? - Kazuho noticed my smile.
- Oh, no, there wasn't. I just can't get enough of your luscious arse in that short skirt.
It's true. The girl wore a short skirt today especially for me, even though she usually wears a knee-length skirt.
- R-really? I'm very glad that you n-liked it. - The cute girl was embarrassed and lifted up her skirt.
- Kazuho, the first time I met you, I didn't think you were a setakon. - I kept my gaze on her firm twins. Kazuho was already embarrassed, and my words made her colour like a beetroot. I've known her for almost a year now, and I've realised that she's a tsundere when it comes to dealing with people, but strangely enough, when I'm around her, her tsundere scale goes down to nothing, and she turns into a cute schoolgirl with glasses. It's the first time she's ever had sympathy from the opposite sex, except for her fans, and she likes it so much that she lets me kiss and grope her... which I'm going to do now.
I took the cutie in my arms and put her on the sofa and started licking her, touching her ass and not yet formed tits. We often repeat such things when she comes home, but we haven't gone any further, I and Poppy are still too young for that...although in Japan you can have sex from the age of thirteen, and I'm fourteen now, Kazuho will be sixteen soon, but I think I'll wait until my sixteenth birthday...or until I'm seduced by a teenage setakonschitsa.
After Poppy, tired and satisfied, fell asleep, I went down to the basement to finalise my new project.
I've been thinking about my powers recently, and I've come to the conclusion that, for all my strength, I lack, so to speak, versatility. My powers allow me to use photons, quanta of light, but they mix with magic to make it more malleable, but I'm still limited to firing lasers, plasma clots, and slashes.
I recently read about a scientist known by the pseudonym Daruma Ujiko, he published a theory that quirks, like human nature, tend to constantly evolve. That each successive generation of quirk possessors would be stronger than the last, and so it would continue until there was a quirk so strong that it could potentially destroy all life on the planet, and possibly even the planet itself.
This theory seems like the ravings of a lunatic to many, but I agree with these words. That's why I came up with the idea of building a machine that could spur the evolution of my Quirk, but it's only in the development stage, next to another project that's also in development.
I thought to build a reinforcing armour for myself, my hero clothes are okay, but they can't protect me from a stray attack. So far, I have managed to create an exoskeleton, but it is still practically 'naked', the only thing that has managed to more or less and has been tested is the arms for the exoskeleton. The legs are quite the opposite, they turned out to be too bulky, as if for a robot, so they will have to be redesigned.
It's a good thing all my research is sponsored by perfectly legitimate materials stolen from unscrupulous companies. There's still a problem with the power source, if I keep powering the armour, it's going to run out sooner or later, and freezing a dummy in the middle of a fight is not a good idea, it's a work for the future, now it's important to finish the armour and then deal with it.