Arthur POV
I walk off the train, my enhanced hearing is bombarded by the murmurs of the crowds, the whirring of the train, the hundreds of heartbeats in my vicinity. There are some cons to enhanced senses believe it or not. My grip tightens on the suitcase as I try to tune it out, it takes me a second, in that second I almost crush the handlebar of the suitcase.
I try not to think about it, instead settling on the agencies' offers from yesterday.
It had been a tough choice. I really couldn't choose between all of them. The offers had come flooding in after the Sports Festival, more than I'd ever expected.
I even got offers from all the top ten heroes except for two.
Endeavor and of course All Might himself.
The absence of Endeavor's offer didn't surprise me, it would have been nice to learn under number two, but I'm sure he had his own qualifications. As for All Might, since he was teaching at U.A., I'm sure he wasn't the one running his agency anymore.
I thought back to almost a year ago, when I had first met All Might in Nezu's office, that awkward meeting where I'd learned that he was going to have succesor, I smile, I still couldn't believe Midoriya was All Might's successor, not that I was 100% certain since I hadn't asked him, but I was as close to certain as a person can be.
Mirio had been in the meeting too, with his infectious smile, and who was the other guy? My memory clicked into place. Oh yeah, Sir Nighteye, with those severe features and that gaze that kind of reminded me of Aizawa-sensei. Maybe he was the one running the agency now. It'd make sense, he was All Might's former sidekick if I'm remembering right.
But in the end, I'd chosen Ryukyu. The ninth-ranked hero, someone Mina had admired, someone Nejire had spoken so highly of during our evening talks at U.A. A hero through and through. My kind of person.
"Arthur!!"
My thoughts get interrupted by a voice that cuts through the fact that I'm tuning almost everything out. My eyes focus as through the crowd a girl with blue periwinkle hair is waving at me. She's bouncing slightly on her boots, wearing a baggy shirt and jeans.
"Nejire," I say back as I wave hello from far away, before beginning to walk over to her, weaving through the crowd. Even without using my speed, my enhanced spatial awareness thankfully made it so I wouldn't bump into anyone.
Still not being able to use my quirk whenever I want isn't great, every instinct tells me to just burst forward, to cover the distance in a fraction of a second. But restraint. Always restraint. Finally we stand in front of each other. She is a little taller than I am, something she never fails to tease me about, so I have to look up to her.
"You're gonna love it in the Ryukyu agency, trust me!" Her words come out in an excited rush. "We have Yokohama all to ourselves. Well, there are a few other minor agencies scattered around, but they normally coordinate with us for major incidents, so yeah, we have the city to ourselves. Oh! And the agency building is amazing, it has the most advanced training facilities in Japan, they even rival U.A., and the view from the break room is incredible, you can see all the way to the harbor, and-"
I nod as she excitedly speaks, a small smile forming on my face. She seemingly can't stop, her mouth looks like it's trying to keep up with all the thoughts racing through her mind, words tumbling over each other in her enthusiasm. It's infectious, just like Mirio's own smile.
I still couldn't believe I hadn't met the third person from the Big 3.
"That's your hero suit right?" she says while looking at the suitcase at my side, her eyes quite literally sparkling, maybe a side effect of her quirk?
"It is," I answer back as we finally make it out of the train station, the morning sun warming my skin. It felt nice.
"Can I take a picture of you in your hero suit later? I'm sure the Round Table is gonna love it. They've been going crazy since your sports festival win. Gentle Love even wrote a whole speech!"
I nod again, the mention of my 'fan club' doesn't make me nervous anymore. Maybe it was because of how much Nejire showed me. Or the fact that the president of the club acted like two completely different people.
"Oh and about the Round Table, they all were very thankful for the autographs. Some of them even framed them! There's this one member who goes by 'ExcaliburShrine' who made this whole display case-"
Ok, that is a little creepy.
"There is no need for thanks, it was my pleasure," I interrupt gently, not really wanting to hear about shrines dedicated to my sword.
Nejire pulls out her hand toward the street, and almost immediately a taxi stops in front of us, as if summoned by her gesture. It is almost entirely black, well-maintained, with a small company logo on the side. She pulls the door open.
"Juniors first," she says with a wide smile.
I thank her and pop onto a seat, the leather creaking slightly under my weight as I slide to the far end. She sits down next to me, her knee briefly bumping against mine before she settles.
I see the driver through the rearview mirror, cataloging his features automatically. A man, balding, around his forties, hazel eyes with crinkles at the corners suggesting he smiles often, a well-groomed moustache covers his upper lip, round rimmed glasses, and a pot belly that almost touches the steering wheel. There's a photo on his dashboard. It's a photo of All Might, but with the man's face instead of All Might's.
A chuckle almost escapes my mouth, but I restrain myself. Yes, Nezu's teachings have done me well.
"Where to?" the driver asks, his voice carrying a friendly Yokohama accent. They almost always ended their sentences with 'right?'.
Nejire brightly smiles to the driver, leaning forward slightly. "Ryuku Agency, please."
"Ooh, the Dragon Hero's place! Okily dokily, should be about fifteen minutes this time of day, right?"
There it is.
With that we are off, the taxi pulling smoothly into traffic. The car falls into silence. I hear Nejire drum her fingers against her thigh, her legs wriggle in her seat, she seemingl has as little restraint as I do, it makes me smile.
I decide to look out of the window, watching the city pass by at what feels like a crawl. Buildings slide past at a pace that makes my teeth itch. Then I realize why, we're going so slow. God, so unbearably slow.
I could have made the trip a thousand times by now. This was one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy going outside in civilian mode.
I couldn't use my quirk freely, and had to constantly control myself, keep my reactions human, my speed normal. It was in one word, exhausting.
Every fiber of my being wanted to fall back into what it had always known. And while I was getting better at restraining myself, Nezu's lessons had helped immensely, I didn't want to risk hearing something wrong, instinctively intervening and throwing away all that Nezu had done to legitimize me.
But now, for this one week, I wouldn't need to control myself as much. When we made it to the agency, it would be almost like being a vigilante again, except legal.
I couldn't wait.
My enhanced hearing picks up a slight acceleration in Nejire's heartbeat, she's about to ask something. But before she can, the driver glances at us through the mirror and tries to make some conversation.
"So, Ryuku agency, right?" His tone is friendly. "You both look pretty young to be heroes, you're interning there, right? U.A. students, I'm guessing, right?"
"Yes we are," Nejire replies cheerfully. "Third year for me, first year for my friend here."
"Well then, you kids should definitely be careful," the driver's tone shifts, becoming more serious. "This Hero Killer, Stain, has been popping up a lot more often, right? Three heroes in the last month alone. He hasn't gone after interning students yet, thank god, but with psychos like that you never know, right?'"
Stain. I had heard that name a few times during my vigilante career, mainly from word of mouth. Not a lot of concrete information, but recently... I remember after the Sports Festival, I remember overhearing Midoriya talking to Iida, whose brother Ingenium had been attacked by the villain.
I look down at Avalon resting at my hip, a thought crystallizing in my head. I should ask Iida where his brother is hospitalized.
Now that I know Avalon can heal others, not just me, I could help. Ingenium was a good hero from everything I'd heard. And maybe while I'm at that hospital, I could heal a few other people too, I'm sure the doctors wouldn't mind, right?
A grin spreads across my face. I can't wait.
"Don't worry sir," Nejire replies as she smacks her chest confidently, jolting me from my thoughts. "We're plenty strong. Besides, Ryukyu's agency has one of the best safety records in Japan."
"Still, you be careful out there."
The car slows, then comes to a complete stop, the engine idling quietly. We've arrived.
"Your total is 490 yen," the driver says, already pulling out his card reader.
I bring out my wallet from my uniform jacket, feeling the stiff leather. Grabbing the debit card Nezu had given me, still weird to think I have money now, and paying my half. The machine beeps cheerfully. Nejire pays hers too.
"Good luck," the driver says.
"Thank you," both Nejire and I reply, bowing our heads politely, after which we open the doors and get out of the car.
The taxi drives off, leaving us on the pavement, standing in front of a huge building that stretches upward, it probably would be a good building to jump off of.
It's whole facade is polished brown stone, with dark tinted glass windows. Straight in the center, at least three stories tall, is a billboard with Ryukyu in her hero costume, her dragon features partially transformed, advertising her clothing line Dragoir.
How I knew said clothing line? Well for one, Nejire had mentioned it approximately forty-seven times in our conversations. For two, the words were written on said poster in gigantic silver letters that probably could have been seen for miles, much less my enhanced eyes.
"Impressive, right?" Nejire says, noticing my stare. "Wait until you see the inside."
We both begin to walk towards the entrance. The doors are massive, glass and chrome, and they open automatically with a soft hiss, revealing the interior.
But the first thing that I see first is not the impressive modern architecture or the awards displayed on the walls or the reception desk, or sidekicks, or even Ryukyu herself.
No, what I first is two balls of red. Eyes, bright and feral, eyes I recognize. The eyes widen as they land on me, recognition dawning on them, the next thing I see is a grin, as wild as the eyes.
Then-
BOOM!
A/N: Yep he has chosen the Ryukyu agency, there are a multitude of reasons but the main one is that Nejire couldn't stop glazing it to get Arthur to come, wait that sounds wrong. Either way, yeah Ryukyu is top 8 if I remember correctly she drops to ninth after All Might retires.
Also someone who has been gone for a long time has finally made her appearance and she's got an itch only Arthur can scratch, wait that sounds wrong too.
Why does everything sound so fucking lewd, fuck. Either way. I'm so close to getting done with extra chaps for Patreon. I think I'll start advertising tomorrow, so don't flame me.
That's pretty much it. Send those stones, cause we're lagging behind.
Author out.