NOVEL WEB 9 – Proverbs 27:6
Proverbs 27:6
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
"Yaoyorozu Momo." Momo answered timidly.
"Momo, that's a rather cute name. Do you mind if I call you that?" James asked. She turned even redder than she already had. This was more social interaction than she had had in the last week put together and she was not prepared. Finally she managed to get out a nod.
"Great, then you can call me James." he said with a broad smile.
"Y-yes....J...James..." she managed to get out barely above a mumble.
"Momo, I think we're going to be great friends." he smiled at her.
"F..f..friends?!?" she responded. It seems he might have overloaded her there as it seems she needed a system reboot at the idea of making her first friend.
"Yeah, you seem like a cute and nice girl. Why wouldn't I want to be your friend? Or don't you want to be my friend?" he said feigning sadness at the end.
"No! I mean yes!" she said loudly in a fluster causing the classmates near us to turn to her in confusion. James started smiling again at her response. She was too easy. Just interacting with her and not being scared off by her social standing was already enough to build lots of rapport with her. She would be walking into his swamp following the enchanting ghostly Will-o'-the-wisps and not even realise she was stuck. Just the way he wanted it.
"Good, then since I'm new to the class please take care of me." he responded.
"Of course." she said timidly after noticing she had drawn everyone's attention to them with her outburst.
He was already fostering their own little intimate space of two by ignoring the useless fodder around them. They didn't matter and neither did the lessons as they were only just learning to read and write something he had been doing since he was 3. Sure it might not be English and one of the harder languages for a westerner to learn. However, it isn't that hard when it has your focus and you have an adult mind to guide your plastic child brain in learning. Now his brain had even been constantly optimised by his quirk so he would be able to get away with paying minimal attention to class and still pass with a perfect record all the way through the end of school.
The only thing he needed to worry about if avoiding her going from just completely dependent on him to full on Yandere. This would already have been a concern in a regular world. However he had to keep in mind he was in a world running on anime logic. A girl turning Yandere here was much more likely than in a regular world and he didn't want to foster a girl that would go around stabbing him or any other girls he might get close to and what he would be doing to her could easily turn her into one based on her starting point and their situation if he didn't handle it with care. This world already had one cute proto-Yandere that he was aware of no need for a second.
'Speaking of said proto-Yandere. Himiko Toga was another perfect target. If I saved her at the right time, right as she was breaking yet before being completely broken I could get himself another completely loyal girl.' he though to himself with a smile. He could of course do the same with guys, however given his looks and predilections why would he ever do that? If he went for the girls he would have any easier time and get more benefits so the answer was self evident.
Now you might say 'don't stick your dick in crazy.' and usually he would fully agree. However if you can perfectly recover from the stab wounds would you still say the same? Most of all when crazy can be so tempting?
The only other thing he could think of to do is saving Eri. He has no choice at intervening here. No way is he going to allow quirk erasing drugs and bullets to be developed. He would need to either kill her or free her before this potential was unearthed which should be in just a handful of years. Unlike Toga-chan he had no other intentions though. She was too young for his tastes. Well maybe way down the line, but she was 8 years younger than him and he isn't planning 20+ years into the future at least not for the moment. He wouldn't be able to interfere until her father was taken care of by Overhaul though he would have to do it shortly after before any real progress is made on the drug. He would also need to completely take care of the organisation, Overhaul and all the data related to the drug's development if he didn't want them to keep coming back.
It was getting close to break time so he decided to continue his conversation with Momo again now that the lesson was winding down.
"So Momo, what do you like to do?" he asked her to start the conversation again.
"Uhm....I want to be a hero so I practice a lot." she says shyly, she didn't have many other hobbies as she was mostly left alone at home. Her mom spent some time with her, but her father was never around. She had channeled most of her energy into her training her quirk.
"Oh! That's amazing. Me too. Why do you want to be a hero?" he smiles at her encouragingly.
"Because...well everyone loves heroes right?" she said without too much confidence, unknowing of how she was giving away her insecurities without even being aware of it. Well it isn't like it was hard to tell that her major motivation for wanting to be a hero was receiving the love she never got from her parents nor friends.
"Of course. I think you'll be a great hero." he told her confidently. She turned red once again not used to the "unadulterated" praise.
