Kids irritated Shigure to his core.
Main reason? They were annoying.
Second? They made no damn sense.
That's why the orphanage nearly broke him—before his quirk first awakened.
Which is why talking to 12-year-old Momo felt like a setup for self-sabotage.
So yeah—having a legit conversation with her? Totally blindsided him.
Turns out she'd already finished high school solo and was gunning for degrees in:
Bachelor of Science in Chemistry
Material Science and Engineering
Chemical engineering
Pharmaceutical Sciences / Medicinal Chemistry
Biochemistry
'Did this happen in Canon or not? Though she did have some good knowledge in chemistry-related subjects at 15 due to the requirements of her quirk, this sounds a bit too much... right?' Shigure internally frowned, suspicious.
'Is it due to the slightly different setting of the world? Like many things are different from what I thought it was in Canon. Or is it due to my existence? My existence debuted around 3 years ago. Her mom was keeping an eye on me. So, it's not unreasonable to think that there were some changes.'
Shigure asked some questions of those subjects out of pure curiosity. He didn't have much knowledge about it.
'Though she isn't an expert yet, she is pretty knowledgeable.' Due to spending a lot of time teaching stuff as revision when learning about his own expertise fields and making countless projects, Shigure had gained the skill to recognise an expert in a given field.
He'd clocked experts before—Hawks, Hinami. She fit the mould.
Halfway in, food landed.
'Isn't it a bit too late if Hinami herself ordered?' Shigure narrowed his eyes.
Someone like her waiting this long? Sketchy.
The ultra-rich were a black box to Shigure. Keigo didn't reek of any richness.
"So, somebody tried to assassinate you?" Hinami asked.
"Yeah. Wild ride." 'Damn, the food is really worth the wait. Even the calories in it are scaled to make it a "normal" meal for me.' Even Shigure had to admit—it slapped.
"Assassination? Did you get hurt?" Momo asked. As the heir of the richest company in Japan, she had gone through multiple such attempts on her life.
"Yeah. Though the details might be a bit too gruesome to share..." Shigure looked at Hinami with uncertainty.
"It's fine. Momo might not look it, but she has quite experience in watching gore. In fact, her insensitivity worries me sometimes."
"MOM! I'm a legal adult, okay?! Whatever I watch is none of your business." Momo pouted.
"Haha. I am sorry, sweetie." Hinami patted Momo on the head, causing her pout to become more prominent.
"..." Shigure looked at the scene with a blank expression.
Inside? He cringed.
'Do I look like that whenever I say I am a legal adult? Oh god no. No wonder my predictions go wrong. I need to understand how people are perceiving me.'
"So?" He shoved the panic aside.
"Right. What was I saying? My injuries. I lost one eye, this arm was detached, got a concussion. Those were the highlights. I didn't bother to check my exact history for minor ones."
"..."
"... That must have been a horrific experience." Hinami frowned.
'It's like he is recalling a memory. It would have been believable if it were an old memory, but not even a week has passed since then. He's faking it—playing scared. I noticed this in the meeting before, but it seems there is more to Shigure than I thought there was.'
"How many assassins were there? Who were they? How did you survive?"
"6. Don't know. When they were restrained, they offed themselves. Hawks was the one who came on time and saved me."
Momo's eyes widened. "I think I have seen that before."
Shigure tilted his head, clearly confused.
"I think there's an organisation that is hiring such assassins. For them to commit suicide, it's the effect of a quirk, something like a contract. Momo was also targeted by a group of them. There were 6 people. Quite good coordination and complementary quirks."
"Oh, really? How did you deal with them?" He shot Momo a look.
'Didn't Keigo also say something about them being from an organisation? Was this mentioned in Canon or something? Though given how the world is, it's not that surprising.'
"I was with Mom. She dealt with them in one move." Momo said in a monotone. Though a hint of pride seeped through her tone.
"Oh. As expected from Lady Morphex. From what I assessed while I fought them, they all were tier 3 and professionally trained."
"You fought them?" Hinami asked, surprised.
'Hmm... How much should I say?... Let's go with that.' He stalled.
He wore Contacts with a domain trimmed to just his brain—Morphex wouldn't notice a thing.
He had his domain active since before he entered the house, so as not to alert her due to the quirk suddenly getting activated.
"Yeah. I took down 2 of them. The reason I almost died was due to an ambush while I was asleep, which caused me to lose an arm. I had to fight all 6 with one hand." He rubbed his neck, feigning sheepishness.
"Wow. With one hand? How exactly did you fight?" Momo asked for the details.
Shigure gave the details while filtering some information out.
'He was born with tier 5 quirk. I was going with the assumption that he awakened it to tier 4 by now, but it seems he has reached tier 3 or maybe even tier 2. That's not even considering his mindset.' Hinami quickly noticed this detail.
She didn't doubt Shigure lying, as from what she had observed and her own experience, she could say that most of what he said was true.
"What do you do in your free time?"
The conversation finally moved to a lighter topic.
"I mainly watch anime or play some games." Shigure dug into the ice cream.
"Games? Which ones do you play?" Momo asked. Her eyes glinted. Shigure instantly realised why.
"Nowadays, it's Genshin mainly. Though sometimes, I try some other games. What about you?"
"Well, I mainly play battle royales..."
Shigure was surprised that Momo played games. He didn't expect that from her. He briefly glanced at Hinami, who just shrugged.
"Are you thinking of me as one of those types of parents?"
"I never said anything. Didn't even think anything."
"Sure. I believe you. Though gaming is one of her main hobbies, she mainly participates in competitions." Hinami took a sip of red drink, which Shigure suspected to be wine.
"Competitions?" Shigure tilted his head.
"Well... It's kind of like esports. Solo esports."
"Oh." '... This really was a surprising conversation.'
---
Date- 27th January. Place- Saitama. Time: 18:03
Mask on, Shigure strolled through the streets.
He wasn't carrying any bags with him.
He suddenly tilted his head, and in the next instant
BOOOM
The wall on the opposite side broke. A man with a fancy outfit stood there. His whole body was vibrating, quite literally.
The man's eyes met Shigure's. The world suddenly paused.
They were in a remote location, and on the streets, only those two were present. No bystanders. No cameras.
Perfect place to commit a crime.
"Lucky me. A perfect hostage." The man grinned. His calves tensed, preparing to dash towards Shigure.
Suddenly, Shigure's eyes widened as he tilted his head. "Smasher?"
The man, who almost launched himself, staggered. He knew that name very well, even if it wasn't what the vigilante was called these days.
He quickly cocked his head in that direction only to see— Nothing.
'Was he lying or—'
THUMP
The man found his head hit by something hard from behind. The world grew darker, and he slumped on the ground.
'Speed Up.' Shigure had used that just after he had said those words to the man.
In the time man turned his head, he had closed the gap, brought out his rod and hit the man.
He then quickly put the rod back and returned to his original position.
He looked at his reflection in a nearby glass.
Indifferent expression.
He closed his eyes and then opened them again.
What stared at him wasn't an indifferent expression but— a terrified expression.
Even with the mask, anybody could tell that the child was terrified.
He looked away from the mirror.
That's when somebody finally arrived at the scene.
It was a cop.
He first looked at the down villain and then at Shigure.
He quickly put restraints on the villain before approaching the boy.
"Are you alright?"
"Y—yes. I almost thought I was going to d—die. Luckily, he came on time." The boy said, his entire body shaking.
"Who?"
"Infinity."
***
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