NOVEL WEB Issue #21: Revelations
He missed the shot.
A bird flew by at high speed and messed up his aim.
After the investigation he had done and shared with the detective Eizo, an old acquaintance and partner of his days as a hero, he figured out the person behind the factory of villains would try to watch his experiment from a distance.
Using that information, he planned to use one of the abandoned buildings as a vantage point for sniping.
‘Missed his head, but that should slow him down for a few seconds,’ he thought as he tried to take aim again, only for his target to disappear.
!!
In just a blink of an eye his target was behind him, sliding against the floor with a crack of electricity.
“Hi there!”
“You’re a quick one, and it seems your Quirk has been tinkered with, huh?” he grunted as he lowered his gun a little but held it to his chest.
The man in front of him smiled, holding his bleeding left shoulder.
“You could say that, a little muscle training here and there, some endurance, it’s a work in progress.” His smile grew. “And the Quirk is called Overclock, a Quirk once held by the high speed hero O’Clock… I've been dying to meet you, master.”
“You’ve been in my sights for a while too. So, who are you?” Iwao Oguro said, slowly pointing his rifle to the man’s feet. “I know you’re the one who controls the remodeled villains, but besides that I don’t know a damn thing about you, no identity or history or name. Except that you managed to get your hands on Overclock after it was stolen from me.”
Small gusts of winds passed by as both of them stared into each other’s eyes.
“I’ve got plenty of questions, but let’s start with your name.”
“Eh? You’re that interested in me? I’m so honored!” the man in front of Oguro said as his smile widened. “The thing is that I’m just a nobody. They call me ‘Number 6’ but that’s just a number not a real name!”
His eyes began to obscure as his scar glowed with power.
“But if you really wanna know who I want to become? O’clock, there’s no other name for me, no sir!”
In hindsight, staying put in case something else happened was a mistake. I felt multiple eyes fall upon me, making me nervous. Not only was I in the vicinity of heroes, but also policemen, civilians and reporters. Though, thankfully, a lot of them were more preoccupied with All Might’s lack of presence than my own existence.
If everything came down to a fight I don’t know how it would end up, especially because I could smell the scent of All Might nearby, or at least what I think it was, considering it was behind a few boxes.
There’s no way All Might would hide at a time like this
Without much fanfare I made my way towards Ingenium and asked.
“Do you perhaps need any help?” There was this feeling of sincerity that I’ve never experienced before, like I was using my true identity for the first time. I felt vulnerable, I felt seen.
He blinked, not expecting me to approach him of all people. He shifted his gaze sideways towards the other heroes who were looking at us from the sidelines, ready to pounce should I move in a way they didn’t like.
His expression softened, before it turned serious.
“Yes, we need strong people to move rubble around and help the injured.”
“On it,” I said, making my way towards the rescue workers and lifting rubble the size of a person with no problem whatsoever, besides of course, getting my suit dirty in the process.
I followed the instructions of the man in charge of the operation of rubble removal, giving side glances from time to time to the heroes who were staring in my direction. I worked close to the hero Death Arms, who did his absolute best to ignore me as we passed by each other while holding onto concrete.
I guessed he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of working side by side with the guy that beat him a couple of times and stole his wallet, not that he had any proof of that last part ever happening.
My eyes made contact with the orange ones of a woman wearing a leotard, thigh highs, and bunny ears. She was looking at me with an expression of annoyance, like she wanted to jump right in and defeat me, but wasn’t able because it would create chaos around us and she didn’t want to deal with that.
Or at least that was my interpretation.
I could be wrong.
A chill ran down my spine as I felt the same sensation I felt when that green haired woman dressed as a cat was staring at me in my civilian clothes.
A glance to my side told me she was staring at me again.
What was her power to be able to put me on edge?
“Mr. Smiley, in good health I hope.” My eyes landed on the man known as Best Jeanist, who I referred to Janice out of spite considering he often ruins my suits whenever he tries to capture me. I felt his scent come close before he tried to speak to me, but I was still surprised by his voice. ”It is now the time for us to have a conversation.”
“I’m a little old to get the talk of the birds and the bees. Don’t you think so? Heh-Heh,” I joked, going back to my Smiley persona seamlessly.
“Indeed.” The hero said as he began to fix a fleck of his hair. “As amusing as your quips are Mr. Smiley, there’s something we need to discuss.”
“Oh? About what? You still owe me for the last suit you ruined. It was very expensive, y’know.”
“Quite. I’ll see if my agency can pay your suit once this matter is settled.”
That took me by surprise, but I schooled my features, even if he couldn’t see them.
“Now as I was saying, the fact of the matter is-” his voice was interrupted by multiple chunks of meat moving at high speed towards the last beast they captured.
The beast began to grow and grow as it looked to the sky and growled.
I need to kill it before it explodes!
I raced towards it, but the beast stomach opened up and released multiple basketball sized winged bombers, flying to our direction.
All Might is not here.
And I need to take care of them.
As many as I can.
The world began to slow down as I inhaled. I positioned myself in the same place the beasts were aiming for. My hands became hard as steel.
Just as I moved I felt another presence rushing towards me and we both moved at the same time.
“Nebraska… Smash!” “Whirlwind Storm… Ten Vortex!”
All Might’s attack and mine became one and dealt with every single bomber in the vicinity. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding as I stood there, with my arms raised.
A bead of sweat ran down from my cheek.
I knew my attack would’ve dealt a lot of damage to the upcoming beasts, but there wasn’t a 100% chance it would have dealt with every single one of them.
I saw All Might from the corner of my eyes stand proud as he kept walking away from me. I dropped my arms and relaxed my stance.
My hands were shaking.
“...and that’s why I wanna be O’clock, master, I wanna live free. Who fucking cares about destroying buildings?“ The shadowed man said, “With this Quirk I can deal the first blow every time and beat anyone however I choose. That’s O’clock! That’s a real hero!”
“That’s not a real hero,” he commented, letting the crazy man in front of him talk.
It has been a minute since they began their conversation, giving him ample time for his trap to set, should his next shot miss his mark.
“... so I got a request. Please acknowledge me as your successor,” Oguro’s expression became one of confusion as he stared back at the lunatic in front of him.
Then he smiled.
“No can do. I don’t have a need for disciples.”
“Wh-... Ahh, I see, Hobo? Or perhaps that stuffy girl PopStep?” The man spoke, showing his bloodied hand. “Come on, master, they don’t even have the same respect for you as me.”
“Like I said, O’clock is no hero. And giving O’clock to some nutcase running around impersonating him… well you’re the worst kind of villain. Some scourge that needs to be eliminated” Iwao replied, bringing the rifle to his chest.
“Ah, so I’m a villain? Well that’s that” commented the shadowy figure as he scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish look. Then he laughed “So what’s the plan? Are you going to shoot me again? That failed already, unless you’re thinking ‘I can’t miss from this distance’, right?”
His smile became murderous.
“Try me then!”
He took the shot and missed again as the villain in front of him became a blur in front of his eyes.
Only for the villain to jump back with a startled expression.
That meant that his trap worked as intended.
A recorder that played his voice at hyper speed to deprive the villain of brain oxygen and lower the limit of the acceleration, one of the downsides of his quirk before it was stolen from him.
“You like that? Just like the recording said, the drain brain,” Iwao threw away his rifle and took a device from his trench coat's pocket. “You’re not going anywhere.”
He pressed the button.
The floor of the building collapsed.
All Might was gone again, and so was my nervousness.
Everyone was still celebrating even after All Might’s departure.
And there I was, standing awkwardly as I heard people praise our combined efforts to save them all from certain doom.
I didn’t feel like I was of any help though.
For the first time in a while I felt unneeded.
I blinked as multiple heroes began to make way towards me.
I took a step back.
Eraserhead, Janice, Bunny girl and a Dragon all came in close proximity. They all had serious expressions across their faces.
“What’s the matter? Came for autographs? Heh-Heh,” I joked as I prepared to leave.
The only black haired man from the group sighed in annoyance. Then gave a signal towards Janice.
“As I was saying before we were rudely interrupted,” the man in a denim vest said as he kept fixing his fleck of hair. “The fact of the matter is that even though you’re a wanted man, we appreciate the efforts you’ve made for the operation. If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t have made it in time.”
“Heh, Then what’s with the whole party you have for me? It’s not my birthday yet.”
“That said,” the hero continued. “We can’t let you go now that you’re in our sight. It would be irresponsible of us as heroes to let a criminal that has bested us for years leave the scene.”
If I was pissed I didn’t show it, but the small comment about me being a criminal rubbed me in the wrong way.
“So what? You’re going to put me behind bars after everything we went through? Don’t be a party pooper, Heh-Heh.”
“It pains me to do so, Mr. Smiley. So we’re giving you a choice. Come quietly so we can discuss your actions with poise and delicacy like a new denim jacket,” the hero said, striking a pose. I noticed that every single hero in front of me was ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
Before I could properly respond I heard an explosion not too far away from us.
My head whipped to the direction the sound came from.
“Did you hear that?” I asked as I stayed in place, my head still looking at the direction I believed the blast came from.
“Mr. Smiley, please. Don’t make the matter more difficult,” Janice said as he extended his hand and positioned in the same manner that he always does to constrict my movements with my own suit.
“I’m tired of this stupid talk! Let’s just get him!” the bunny girl said before she kicked the ground four times in a row, appearing a few steps away from me, leg raised.
“Mirko wait!”
I inhaled a great amount of air, and everything became still, even the hero who was about to kick my face in looked almost static. My feet met the ground fifty times in a row cracking the asphalt. As I kept my breath I kept repeating the process in the air until I was away from the scene.
I exhaled as I kept going until I found a building that looked like it blew up halfway. As I got closer I noticed that four of the previous floors were destroyed, likely by the explosion I heard.
I inhaled one more time with the intention of discerning any injured people still in the building. Only to freeze as the familiar scent rushed that to my nostrils.
That smell…
I knew that smell.
Immediately I jumped from where I was and dropped to the floor where I found two people there. One looking down at the other.
“Old man?”
He had him where he wanted.
The bomb worked perfectly making them free fall through four floors. Once down he didn’t let him time to accelerate and shot his limbs so his acceleration became useless. He deprived him of oxygen by creating a concussion by his foot when it met his face.
So as he held his shotgun up he noticed something.
“You got healing powers too? The wounds stopped bleeding. You’re a real pain in the ass” Iwao said as he took the arm of the shadowy figure and put it behind his back. “But once I tie you up, it won’t really matter.”
The man under him grinned.
Then Iwao Oguro noticed the skin of the arm began to bubble and slightly grow.
“Heh. You were so close, master.” the man said with a large grin as the arm kept bubbling and growing in size. “You should have gone for the head when you had the chance. Because I had a few bomber cells hitch a ride as parasites… turning my arm into a bomb!”
BOOM!
Number 6 - or maybe he should call himself O’clock II… no, Two O’clock - stared at the defeated form of his master with a shit eating grin.
He had done it.
He had defeated the previous O’clock and surpassed it.
He had proven he’s the superior of the two and now it was time to destroy the building and make his escape.
“Old man?”
Number 6’s eyes widened before he slowly turned around to see the smiling yellow face of the hero Smiley, standing a few steps away from him.
Two O'clock expression went from shocked to one of glee. This was the perfect opportunity to take care of not only one but two birds with one stone at once.
“Hello there. You must be Smiley〜” he sang, fully turning around, showcasing his covered arms with the bomber parasite cells. “I’ve heard so much about you!”
“Who are you?” the hero asked.
He was not going to give him the opportunity to strike first.
He raced with a crack of electricity fist raised.
“Goodbye Smiley〜!”
My hand shot forward and parried the upcoming attack at high speed. If it wasn’t for my previous training sessions with my clones, I don’t think I would’ve survived the attack.
Not because it was a strong punch.
But because it ignited and exploded a few inches away from my face, blowing parts of my mask and burning bits of my face and hair.
The eyes of the man in front of me widened and jumped away, a look of panic plastered around his face before contorting into one of amusement. He was dressed in a delivery man outfit, had plain features and his hair was tied into a ponytail.
My hand went directly to my eye.
My face was bleeding.
The man in front of me began to laugh with joy even inclining his face to the heavens as he held his gut.
“Hahahaha, I can’t believe it! Smiley was Hooded Hobo this entire time!” The man laughed, putting one of his hands on his face while trying to contain his laughter but failing at it. “No wonder master chose you as his disciple!”
I remained silent as I held onto my bleeding face, that hurt.
A lot.
“All this time I kept wondering, who was Hobo? Why is he so fast? It gave me chills!” the black haired man revealed, then he pointed at me. “Now I get it! You’re just like me! You have no identity! You’re a hero 24/7! This is rich!”
My eyes widened, letting my hand fall. I directed my gaze back to the man dressed as a delivery guy as he laughed again.
I stilled for a second, then I relaxed all my muscles, my expression hardened.
“Don’t compare me to yourself, we’re nothing alike.”
“Yeah… you could say that, you’re right,” the man said, rubbing the back of his neck. “After all, I'm more like master than you would ever be.”
I inhaled as soon as I saw a crack of electricity appear on the body of the man.
My feet met the ground as many times as I could manage and parried the fist coming my way as far away as possible, then I struck.
“King Gun,” I spoke, my two fists met the torso of the man with super speed. I felt his torso cave in, his ribs breaking in real time one after another, and his organs exploding on contact. He vomited blood before he was sent backwards by the force of my attack.
A delayed explosion occurred once he was halfway away from me.
I grimaced as reality kicked in.
I killed someone in cold blood again.
With a sigh of resignation, I approached the body of the man who was facing up, a look of surprise still plastered around his face, both of his arms were gone, probably when he tried to detonate them on my face.
I was about to make my way towards the old man, until I heard something. It sounded like a heartbeat very close to me.
My gaze found the man under me just in time to see him raise a punch at high speeds towards my face.
I kicked the ground thirty times in less than a second getting away from another explosion.
He can regenerate.
Just like those beasts.
I stood up and looked at the man who was shakily doing the same, still sporting a grin after everything was said and done.
It was at that moment that I realized that the man in front of me was the one behind the bombing incident.
My fists tightened until they began to turn white.
“You’re the one behind the bombing,” I said, not an ounce of amusement in my voice.
“cough, cough… Guilty as charged,” the man rasped, standing up while cleaning his mouth with his regrowing limbs. “What gave it away? The bomber cells? Or the fact that I was close to the impact? Gee… I wonder.”
I felt enraged. But I schooled my expression again.
The man in front of me was as good as dead.
“Good to know, that means I don’t need to take it easy on you.”
“What says I’m going to stay here and take it?” The man said with a shit eating grin before starting to crack with electricity.
I inhaled again and ran towards him until I was behind him, his eyes widened in shock.
My hands flew at high speeds and struck his body as many times as I could, breaking bones in the process, then I kicked him away from me.
I raced until I was a few steps from him, then I exhaled.
An explosion of rubble and dust was heard as the man groaned, looking at me, scared.
“Get up.” I said, as I refined my breathing until it was perfectly in sync with my heartbeat. “Like hell I’m going to let you go, now that I know you were the one behind all of this… and from this distance, there’s no way I’m going to miss.”
He began to stand up and cracked with electricity again.
“Whirlwind Storm, Five,” I said as my hand took the form of a claw and moved at high speed towards the monster in front of me.
His body separated into multiple chunks of flesh and blood.
I observed half of the head fall and raised my foot.
Then I drove it down with all my strength.
A splash of gore and blood stained my suit.
I walked back to the other person on the floor. He was dressed in a trenchcoat, gray pants, combat boots and his face was covered by a black bandana that only covered the upper half.
“Are you ok, old man?” I asked once I was close enough. My expression became one of disappointment as I saw the state of the old man, who was lying in a bed of rubble, covered in blood. “I’m sorry for taking so long.”
The man grinned.
“Hnng… don’t worry yourself kid,” the man managed to say, trying to stand up but only to fall back. “Ungh, what’s important is that you saved me a lot of trouble and for that I thank you.”
“Don’t mention it old man,” I said, offering my hand for him to grab on. “Can you stand? Do you need help getting out of there?”
“Yeah, I can stand… barely,” the old man responded, taking my hand. “Just get me to one of the warehouses, I’ll lick my wounds there and lay low for a while.”
“No, I need to get you to a hospital quickly.” I decided as I saw the man wince once when he was in a standing position.
“No can do. We’re wanted men, aren’t we?” I put his arm over my shoulder and we began to slowly move through the rubble until we found the stairs. “They’re going to put cuffs on us the moment they see us.”
I didn’t know if he was referring to us as plural or to me.
After the recent events of today I would say that the latter would be correct.
“Your health is more important, old man.”
“What about your face, kid? People might recognize you now that your mask is almost gone,” the old man said, grunting as we began to descend through the stairs. During our descent I noticed there were explosives around us all over the building.
“Right now I don’t care about my secret identity,” I replied with a grunt of annoyance. After being called a criminal by heroes, it really grinded my gears. “I can get a new mask if push comes to shove.”
“How are you going to explain the blood in your suit?”
I sighed.
“Good point,” I said, shifting my hold again once I heard the man on my side groan. “Let’s see if Salt can be of any help.”
“My, how very disappointing you ended up to be, Number 6,” said an ominous voice of a man with no eyes who was connected to multiple tubes, one of them directly to his neck. “After all the effort we put into raising you. You died with a whimper, not being able to tap into your true potential.”
“Overclock turned out to be just a quick boost in speed, in the end nothing special about it, not being able to put a dent on a hero such as Smiley,” he continued. “What a waste.”
The man put his hand on his chin and began to rub it.
“But your end gave me such wonderful battle data on Smiley that I’ll let your failure slide,” he smiled. In front of him were multiple images of the smiling hero next to a few of a white haired one throwing projectiles at the so called ‘Instant Villains’. “Now this… what an interesting development.”
A predatory smile slowly grew on his face.
“Let’s see you grow to the end, Smiley,” the man with no face said. “Maybe it’s time to put a few experiments to good use.”
His head moved slightly towards the other person in the room.
“Don’t you think so Kurogiri?”
I curled an eyebrow when Captain Celebrity of all people asked me to remain in the room while he asked everyone to step out so we could have a talk in private.
“Hey, please tell me you’re not one of those perverts who like young teens,” I smiled as I saw the guy squirm and sputter. “Joking aside, what do you want from me? It’s not like we talk very often.”
The hero coughed to his only good hand, then directed his gaze towards mine.
“That day, at the Sky Egg. I saw you change,” my eyes widened, I tried to retort, to say anything but my mouth felt dry. “It was brief, but I saw you put on your mask and jump after the guy who fell and later helped me.”
I licked my lips, then I shakily smiled.
“Are you sure you’re not confusing me with somebody else?” I asked, trying not to show my nervousness. “I recall I was backstage when the explosions happened.”
“You don’t have to lie to me, I didn’t call you here and make everyone get out just to out you,” his expression turned serious. He tried to change his position, wincing slightly, then his eyes met mine “I wanted to thank you for saving my life. So… thanks kid.”
“I know you want to keep your privacy. So your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell a soul,” the hero continued, a smile plastered all over his face while he gave me a thumbs up.
“If I was Smiley, and I’m not saying that I am. I would say, ‘You're welcome’, old man.”
“Hey, I’m not that old.”
My feet touched the asphalt.
My eyes went from my bundle of fish towards the warehouse, which was guarded by one of my clones from the inside.
I sighed, before I entered.
Most of the people in there were watching the tv, a reporter was retelling the events of the Sky Egg. It seemed that they didn’t cut me from the footage, even though most of the spotlight was put into Captain Celebrity and more importantly All Might.
I nodded to my clone who nodded back and exited the warehouse, not before taking a fish and a few vegetables to make a soup at the food stand.
Once I was close enough I saw Salt slowly make his way towards me. I shifted my gaze towards the spot where the old man knuckles was still laying around, sleeping in a makeshift bed with a blanket covering half of his body.
“Heya brat,” Salt said once he was a few steps away from me. “We saw you on TV.”
“Yeah, I looked pretty cool, didn’t I?”
“From what little we could see? Yeah I think you did.”
We stayed in silence, before I broke eye contact and made my way towards the freezer with the intention of storing everything I brought over from the forest.
Once done with my task I returned to where Salt was still standing, a tired smile was written all over his face.
“No dice today?” he asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
My eyes went down for a moment, recalling the latest developments and the talks I had with the old man while we made our way towards the shelter.
“Actually… call everyone over. I have something to say.”
“Hmph, if you plan to make a grocery list I want a beer spot,” the old man said, making his way to the people who were still staring at the TV or were watching us talk.
I sighed again in discomfort.
It had been a few days since the events of the Sky Egg incident. And I hoped everything went back to normal, but there wasn’t anything normal with my life.
That man, that man in a delivery guy suit, saying I was just like him. A hero 24/7 with no identity.
It hit something in me.
Was he right?
Did I have a real identity?
Was I just some hero and nothing else?
I was broken of my thoughts as I saw almost everyone in the shelter reunite around me. I could discern the teens now young adults Kon and Cream look at me with concern. Then my eyes found Daisuke, still holding strong after everything that happened.
I breathed in and out.
Then I spoke.
“I… I might have taken care of the person who was behind the disappearances of people around us,” I informed, watching their reactions, some of confusion and some of hope. “I’m… sorry for all the trouble I might have caused you.”
“Does that mean…?” I hear from someone in the crowd.
“With that said. You’re free to go and come as you please.”
A/N: How’s everyone’s doing today? How’s the weather? Cold? Hot? Tell me about it lol
I apologize for the long exposition straight from the manga, but it was something needed for the people who haven’t read Vigilantes or don’t plan to. If Gurē came down and killed Number 6 without people knowing who he was there’s going to be disappointment from the readers that don’t know what’s going on.
That said, now Gurē is in the sights of somebody more dangerous than Number 6, I wonder how that’s going to end up in the end.
And with that we finally close the Sky Egg arc. Truth be told, I wanted to finish this one in one chapter. My original intention was to do it all from Gurē’s perspective, but that would’ve cut most of Iwao Oguro scenes, which like I said, were important exposition for readers.