NOVEL WEB Issue #15: Divide and Conquer
It was my fault! I… I left them by themselves while we were buying ice cream.
I tried to remain calm, but everything I saw was red. Even my breathing couldn’t help me relax as I stared at my clone go through the same emotions I went through when I first heard the news.
N-No, it was my fault. I-It was my idea to begin with!
Worst part was that I was close by when it happened. A quirk user gone rogue with purple skin, pinkish lips, hard skin. It wasn’t a big deal to defeat, but during the commotion someone kidnapped Emiko. And the only possible suspect was the bee user who I had been trying to catch for months.
Please Gurē, save Emiko.
“Wait! So all this time we have been talking to a clone?” was the only reply I got. My eyes met the irritated ones of PopStep, small droplets of tears were beginning to form from the border of her eyes. “I can’t believe this!”
“You can believe what you want. I’d often switch with a clone from time to time to take care of my business as a hero,” I responded as I hopped from where I was towards my clone.
“Calm yourself. We’re going to find her,” I told my clone as I noticed his fists shaking with anger. He looked back at me and nodded.
“How is that fair? Do you even trust us?”
“No. I don’t trust you,” I replied immediately while directing my gaze to PopStep who looked hurt by my words. “You all came to my life from out of nowhere expecting something from me, by becoming your disciple or your manager.”
“So… that’s your quirk then?” the old man grunted. It didn’t surprise me that he was the first one to believe me. “Doesn’t explain the flying.”
“I won’t explain any further until you explain yourself,” I said as I calmly walked towards the old man. “You have information on the bee user and so far I let it slide because you’ve cooperated with the investigation, but not anymore.”
“What makes you believe I’m going to spill the beans? Like I said, this doesn’t concern you kid,” the old man's eyes hardened as he stared me down. “It’s going to take a- Gah!”
My hand moved at high speed and closed around his neck stopping whatever the old man was about to say. His feet left the ground as he tried to break free from my grasp.
“I’ve been quite patient with the way you approach this issue,” I uttered as calmly as I could be. “But I haven’t seen any of the missing people in months. So unless you don’t give me a good reason, I’m killing the bee user the next time I see her.”
“G-Gurē?”
“S-She’s my daughter!” managed to exclaim the old man before punching my cheek to let him go. Instead his hand met my hardened skin making us both grunt in mild annoyance.
“So is Emiko to me, and now she’s missing,” I said, before sighing and letting him go.
No wonder he kept everything to himself. I was mad that it made sense for him to not involve us beyond what we already knew.
My fists tighten in response.
“What was your original plan? Search for her by yourself?” I said, watching him rub his sore throat.
“Cough, pretty much,” the man coughed, then popped the bones of his neck. “The lead I sent Soga to investigate was real, but it’s mostly intel gathering.”
“That lone wolf thing… we’re not going to do that. Manami’s going to search for her through the camera of the city while all of us search for the bee user individually,” I motioned while taking a long look at them. “We are also going to communicate from now on. I don’t care how small the lead is, I wanna know it.”
“Is that understood?”
The old man remained silent, his expression flat.
“W-What about me?” asked PopStep, making me blink.
Kazuho Haneyama sighed as she watched the person of her affection cook like nothing had happened in the past twenty four hours.
Due to fear of being approached by the bee user, It was decided, against her own wishes, that one of the clones would watch over her while the others continued the plan set by Gurē.
The original. That Gurē
‘Ugh, this is too confusing,’ she thought, watching the clone slice a cut of meat into small chunks then throw them into a pot full of vegetables and spices and water. ‘He acted so differently before, why is he so carefree now?’
“Anything in your mind Pop?” asked the white haired duplicate, making her frown. It almost felt like the clone barely knew anything about the operation. Wasn’t he there when Gurē revealed the news?
“Why are you so calm? Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, mad or something?” she asked as she adjusted herself in her seat.
The news shocked her greatly, anyone who heard about a child gone missing would have the same reaction as her, and she was just a bystander. Gurē was furious, and so was his clone, but why is this one so calm? What made him different?
“Oh,” the clone said as he blinked, then stopped stirring the stew he was currently making. “The boss told me to not concern myself with whatever is happening.”
“But-”
“Please don’t tell me what it was, It’s better to keep me in the dark,” he said, getting back to stirring while looking at her sporting a serene smile. “Besides, I get to enjoy the view for a little while longer.”
She blushed, but not because she liked him or anything like that.
“Wh… Why did you never tell me?” she felt her lips dry up slightly as all the dots in her head began to unite and made sense in her head.
“Tell you what?”
“That, that you’re Smiley.”
He paused for a few seconds, before he resumed his task.
“I don’t know why the original never did, but from my perspective; we might be complete strangers,” he said, making her frown. “You know my name, but did you ever tell me yours?”
She blushed again, this time out of shame. All this time she called him by his name and he only knew her by her stage name.
“M-My name is Kazuho Haneyama,” she replied, trying to amend for her lack of tact even though it was meaningless, considering the person in front of her was a clone after all.
The white haired boy nodded, then directed his piercing yellow eyes towards hers.
“What about likes and dislikes? Do you have a favorite food? What are your hopes for the future? We barely know each other,” he said before he took a sip of the stew and then he moved the pot away from the heat.
She opened her mouth to respond but immediately closed it. A look of frustration and pain flashed between her eyes.
“Don’t take it in a bad way. This is just me talking. I bet the other clone or the boss knows you much better than me,” the white haired teen told her while he began to clean the food stand. Once he finished he began to walk away, stopped, then monitored her to follow him.
“What makes you say that?” she said as soon as she catched up.
“It’s just a hunch.” he said as he directed her towards the roof of the warehouse.
“A hunch? You’re basing all of that on just a hunch?” she exclaimed, almost feeling the need to pull her fluffy pigtails
“Heh, yeah,” he laughed as they both plopped themselves on the same seat she used to take whenever she watched the old fart and Gurē train. The white haired boy looked at her directly in the eyes then his eyes roamed her entire body, from top to bottom. “I’m starting to see the appeal of having you around.”
“Pervert!” she screamed, raising a fist but she knew better to not actually hit him. Not after last time.
“I’m kidding!” Gurē said as he raised his hands in surrender while laughing slightly.
After that they both fell into silence. Kazuho stole small glances towards the white haired boy, expecting him to keep ogling her figure through her school uniform, but he was just looking at the clouds with a relaxed expression. It took her a few minutes to notice that she had been staring at him the whole time.
“Sorry about that… it’s just that I’ve spent so much of my time working as Smiley that I’ve forgotten to relax and enjoy myself… my real self.” His voice caught her by surprise, making her turn around and look away from him. “Ah, this must be really boring for you.”
His words resonated in her mind.
Real self?
“N-Not at all.”
They fell into another slightly awkward silence. This time, Kazuho decided to check her phone to distract herself. Earlier she received a notice about a job opportunity through her blog, but ever since the reveal of Gurē’s secret identity as Smiley she forgot all about it.
Earlier she felt extremely excited for the opportunity, but her self doubt would emerge and talk her down. Now she didn’t know what to do.
“Oh-hoh, what do you have there?” he asked as he peered over her shoulder.
“It-it's nothing! Stop staring over a lady's phone!”
In the end she ended up accepting the job once the white haired boy learned of the offer. The clone's job was to protect her at all times, Gurē never said they couldn't go out or continue her career as a pop idol. Especially with an opportunity like that.
It wasn't like the bee user was going to target her anytime soon.
Right?
No. Wrong again.
I thought as the scent of Emiko kept meshing with the thousands of smells across the streets as I stealthy moved between rooftops. Hundred types of different delicious foods, different types of people and animals, as well as the smell of corners, the skyscrapers, houses, signs and the like.
My feet blurred as I jumped and flew through the sky. I couldn't even enjoy the feeling of wind that was flowing through my body, my only thought was on finding my apprentice.
My ear caught the sounds of gunshots and crazy laughter down below.
Tsk.
A robbery.
Without stopping my momentum I kicked the sky thirty times in less than a second and I was right in front of the thieves. My hands moved in fluid motions and with quick taps on their chins, they began to drop to the ground. Normally I'd use rope and contain them, but I didn't have the time to waste in menial details, especially not when there were police cars approaching the scene.
So I jumped back into the air and resumed my search.
As I kept my breathing pattern I noticed how the scent of Emiko was all over the place, it felt like she disappeared and reappeared all over the city, it didn't make any sense at all.
…
My head immediately whipped to the side in the middle of the air.
Is that?
My feet touched the roof of a department store as I looked towards an apartment complex in the distance.
I was already in the air before I even noticed. The roof I was at cracked by the strength of my kick.
It took less than a few seconds, but I landed on the rail of the apartment on the third floor in front of a door with the number of three o' five.
Emiko isn't here.
In fact, the remains of her scent and possible trail were in the opposite direction.
But she was here.
The putrid smell only increased once I took another whiff from my nose. The off putting smell came from the other side of the door I was in front of. I was ninety nine percent sure of it.
The scent of the bee user lingered behind this door.
My fists tightened around the railing, deforming until it took form around my hand. My eyes narrowed and my frown deepened.
I exhaled silently as I took a step forward, my right hand left the railing and went directly for the doorknob and rotated it. It didn't surprise me that the door was in fact open.
What did surprise me, was finding the decomposed corpses of two adults, a man and a woman seated in front of a tv still on. My eyes were drawn to the splatters of dried blood on the floor and around the corpses.
My hand went towards my smiling mask as I stared mutely.
'So this is where she was staying at,' I thought while entering the place and observing the crime scene. No bees or any sign of the user either. It appeared she left the place in a hurry. 'How many other places are in the same state as this one…?'
I sighed as I took my walkie talkie and sent a click.
Better let the boss know.
I tried to calm myself as I passed by another big promotional digital sign of some 'Captain Celebrity' event promoting an indie local singer in both english and japanese. I jumped from building to building while maintaining my breathing pattern, in hopes to calm me down, but with almost little success.
Breathe in… Breathe out…
As I soared through the sky I could hear the clicking sound of the keyboard keys being pressed at high speed and the light breathing of Manami. It's been a few days and the only thing we've found so far were two corpses and routes that took us to complete dead ends.
Breathe in… Breathe out…
At the rate we were going, finding Emiko had become an impossible task. I hadn't slept in days.
Breathe in…
But there was a small highlight to this day so far.
Breathe out…
The keyboard smashing stopped and then Manami spoke:
*F-Five blocks ahead, b-boss. Close to the shopping district. She's dressed in a blue school uniform, no patch this time.*
We found her.
“Thank you, keep me updated,” I said through my brand new ear piece Manami bought for me, while listening to my clothes flap through the wind. I righted myself in the air so I could quietly land on one of the rooftops then jump to the other next to it.
*I-I can see you boss. She's moving northwest from your direction, she seems to be accompanied by a civilian.*
As soon as I landed I knew right away where she was. I memorized her scent by now, and as she walked by a sea of people I sneered. I could end her life right away, it would only take one projectile from this distance and all would be over. But that would lead to the colony escaping, growing and attacking who knows where and when.
The old man could piss me off sometimes but at least he was smart about it.
Bringing my hand to my ear piece and pressing it lightly I said.
“Manami, put me in line with the old man. Tell him we found her,” I said, admiring her features and how she smiled at the girl dressed in the same uniform as her.
'That kid,' Iwao thought once he received the news about the whereabouts of his daughter. 'Smiley, huh? So one of my theories was correct… their voices were too similar not to notice.'
His initial conjectures about the boy revolved around the relationship with the vigilante that night when he was 'caught' by the kid while drunk. Most of them were shots in the dark with no real connection at first, as he began to follow him for approach and then spent time with the boy he got the impression that Smiley might be related to the kid in some way.
Turns out his most wild idea of the kid being Smiley somehow, was correct.
Heh, figures.
Once the teen finished the transmission with the objective of taking down his little girl the same night, he stopped his search through his binoculars, changed to his civilian clothes and made his way towards one of the warehouses he decided against showing to the kid. Just in case an opportunity striked.
A smile warmed up towards his wrinkled face as he opened the warehouse and noticed the package he recently ordered from a shady source just to deal with his daughter's little tantrum.
His smile became feral as he noticed the contents were exactly as the ones he specified. His hand found its way to the handle of the device and turned it on.
Sparks flew as expected.
A powerful taser of high voltage and a defibrillator at the same time.
With the help of the kid he would be one step closer to reuniting with his baby girl.
Don't worry Tamao… daddy's coming.
I sighed silently.
She took her damn time but she ended up all alone. The school girl that was pestering her went away after an hour, then she went to a café where she stayed for hours. Once done she took a route towards the less visited area of Naruhata. It almost felt wrong as I watched a highschool girl walk without a care in the world on the same street with druggies and alcoholics.
But I knew better. She was no normal highschooler.
I remained silent while I listened to Manami give my position away every five minutes to the others. I stood put as the girl took another turn. If memory didn't fail me, then she was on her way to the storage units at the edge of Naruhata.
My body moved and I was over the next building, watching her like a hawk. I could feel the scents of my clone dressed as my hero persona Smiley who landed on the next building over, and the old man who calmly tailed the brown haired girl from the shadows.
I extended my hand and gave two clicks through my walkie talkie, a low effort signal we thought to stop everyone's advances at a moment's notice. I decided to scan the area for possible interferences, then decided to listen to her as she began to speak while opening a storage unit.
“... -say if there's going to be surprise heroes involved… how about we bring a surprise villain as well?”
Just as those words left her mouth I gave the signal. And both me and my clone were behind her.
“Hu-?” she managed to say before my clone rushed her and brought her head to the pavement with little effort.
It was over in less than a second.
“Y-You again?!” she screamed while looking at my clone, then back to me.
“Trap her colony,” I calmly said, making her only eye to widen. The clone immediately followed my order and hardened his muscles. “We don't want any sudden surprises.”
She tried to swipe at my clone's throat, but before she could even get her hand half way, I used my foot to meet her wrist and drive it to the floor. My clone followed my lead and did the same with her other hand.
“Grhk!” she managed to let out as she struggled to get out of the hold. “Don't just stand there! Help me!”
Just as those words were uttered I noticed a shadow slowly began to grow until it towered over us. A huge muscled monster of many eyes and of aquatic nature met my eyes.
“P- P- P-” it tried to say as it began to struggle against its bindings, breaking them in the process.
“Kyaa ha ha!! What's it gonna be, hero?! Which is more important?!” she screamed maniacally at my clone specifically, my expression hardened as it reminded me of the time I let her escape.
I would have laughed at her attempt to tempt my clone into jumping into action, if not for the fact that I was tired. Tired of following this back and forth with this being, tired of days without sleeping, tired of finding no leads to Emiko.
I realized… I didn't give a shit about this monster.
As the monster started to groan and rush towards us, my leg blurred.
“Storm Leg,” I calmly muttered, watching impassively as the head of the monster fell from its shoulders. Blood sprayed us. The bee user's laughter died on her throat. ”Old man… end this so I can go back to my search.”
“You don't hold back when you're mad. I need to remember that,” the old man said, smiling while he slowly approached us holding a taser-like device in his right hand. “Glad you finally met my buddies, they can be a handful but I'm glad I've met them.”
Once he was behind my clone, he peered over his shoulder.
“You're coming home Tamao, whether you like it or not.”
“ARGHH!!” the girl cried as she tried to free herself with more vigor this time now that she saw the old man. “I'VE BEEN TRYING TO PUMP YOU FULL OF TRIGGER THIS ENTIRE TIME!! WHY THE HELL IS NOT WORKING?!”
“Iron Body,” my clone replied, blood covering a great portion of its mask. “All my muscles are hardened, your little bees are giving me tickles right as we speak..”
My eyes then landed on the old man. We had spent countless days together, even though my clone was the one that shared more time with him and PopStep than me. We sparred against each other and worked together as heroes. But just because I've trusted him with my real name and secret identity, it didn't mean I trusted him.
“You've done well, kid,” my expression just remained stoic as I kept my foot down on the girl's wrist. If the old man tried something funny then he would end up on the same fate as his 'daughter'. “But I need you to step aside. What I'm about to do with this baby… it's going to deal with the bee user, permanently.”
Is he going to kill her?
Then what was the point of containing her?
“Boss?” the clone questioned as he directed his attention towards me. It seemed that we had the same thought process.
I could feel the eye of the girl beneath us move from Smiley to me, then sneer with a hateful expression.
I let out a sigh. I didn't want to trust the old man, but I really wanted this to be over with.
“Strike your daughter, we'll move at the last second.”
“Hmph, fine by me.” the old man said, a feral expression was plastered all over his face. Without a second of delay he brought the device to his face then directed it towards his daughter's chest at high speed.
We jumped to the side just as the taser-like device was about to strike her chest.
“DAMN YOU, YOU PIECES OF SH-!!” The girl's scream was interrupted as she was struck by the old man's tool. Her body convulsed then laid there while spasming every two seconds. “Ghkk! Shit… Ahh… Damn… You… ”
I began to circle the bee user as the old man started to explain about the purpose of the taser. I wondered if it was a bluff, but as the girl kept convulsing and later rolled her eye to the back of the head I knew the man to my side wasn’t bluffing at all.
“You’ve lost control, meaning… ” old man knuckles said, before a large swarm of bees fled the eye socket of the highschooler who gave a silent scream in response. “The swarm’s gonna abandon the dying hive on instinct.”
I paid attention as the old man explained the rest of the process, while he extracted the queen from the eye with a special type of tweezers. It seemed that the extra company made him more talkative than usual, considering his lack of response back when I needed it.
My expression soured once the queen was out. A maggot, as big as a brain, covered in blood. The old man immediately threw it away, and then took what appeared to be a gas can strapped to a bomb with tape.
“But don’t worry, I’m a nice guy, so I'm calling your swarm back to you,” once he said that, he threw the bomb towards the maggot on the ground. Gas began to fill the air, it smelled sweet. It dawned on me what was the point when the bees began to fly back towards the queen “With a nice pheromone cocktail… ”
Boom!
A big explosion engulfed the swarm, blowing them to smithereens.
“And a candlelight vigil to take care of it.”
“You can be a badass when you want to, old man,” my clone commented. I could hear the mirth in his voice. “Now you only need to apply that same energy to the streets.”
The old man didn’t pay attention to us after that. He took his mask away and used it to clean the eye socket of the girl, then opened a compartment from the taser he brought.
I watched as the man I’ve spent a great part of the last couple of months with, restarted the heart of a dead girl through the device on his hand and common cpr.
While my clone accompanied the old man to the hospital I stayed put next to the corpse of the giant monster I killed.
I exhaled.
I felt no regret or shame for what I did. I knew there was a better way to deal with the problem but I just couldn’t care less.
I inhaled.
Just as I was about to leave the scene the familiar scent of roses, grass, old cloth and blood rushed through my nose. My head whipped to my right. Ten store units away.
The pavement exploded as I kicked the ground fifty times in less than a second. I was in front of it.
A foreboding feeling rushed through my body.
I wanted to blow the door from its hinges, but the smell behind it only got stronger as I stood there. Something was telling me to not open the door, because I would not like what I would find behind it.
But I couldn’t just ignore it either.
Because, Emiko’s scent was coming from the other side.
My hands found their way into the store unit’s door and broke it open.
…
“Heh… ” I laughed as my eyes adjusted to the dark interior. Blood was splattered on every wall, corpses of adults and children were on the ground or against the walls of the storage unit. And in the middle of it was a hat Emiko used to wear, splattered on her own blood, she was nowhere on sight. “Heh Heheh… Hehehe Ha Haha HAHAHAHAH!!”
“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!” I screamed, tears ran through my cheeks as my fist found its way towards the ground cracking the pavement and my surroundings.
I took my cloth mask away and vomited.
A/N: I think people misunderstood what I meant regarding my past statement, maybe it’s because I didn't explain myself correctly, but I meant that I’m moving the plot along, but there’s still going to be scenes in which characters would sit and talk, because that’s how life works. I want character development, not only for Gurē, but for everybody in my fic.
Regarding this chapter, I hope it didn't feel rushed, in fact the arc ended just like I envisioned it to end. With some small additions. Hope the back and forth between characters and events ended up being satisfactory.
I wanted PopStep to get her moment in this chapter, but I felt it would be overshadowed by everything else, so next chapter we’re going to explore the aftermath of this chapter and PopStep’s big time, it’s going to be great :)