"...What? No, what the hell do you me—"
...
I hung up and blocked Hawks’ number.
As someone who wasn’t even an ally, I shouldn’t have been saying things like that. He’d only get worked up.
Now it was time to announce the test.
I turned off [Silence] and walked over to Midoriya and Rappa.
"Midoriya. Final exam."
Midoriya wiped away his tears and shouted with a determined look on his face, "Yes!! I won’t give up on any test!"
"Good. Then..."
"You, go beat a Villain one-on-one."
"...Huh?"
"I’ll provide the weapon."
Midoriya’s face went pale in an instant, cold sweat breaking out across his skin.
"It’s only been a month!? How am I supposed to fight a Villain?"
I frowned.
"I told you to only ask questions when I said you could.
Everything will be prepared by me, and I’ll handle the cleanup too. Just think about how you’re going to win."
"But..."
He still didn’t seem to understand reality.
He didn’t even know what kind of choice he’d made.
"Pick a weapon already. I’ll get you whatever I can."
"If you lose, it won’t be fun."
Midoriya lowered his head and thought for a long time before speaking.
"...A capture weapon."
I’d never heard of it before. Some kind of restraint cloth, maybe.
"I’ll prepare it for now, but why that?
I can get you other support items, even a stun gun."
Midoriya answered with a serious face that looked like it was full of thoughts.
As he kept talking, the tremor in his voice gradually faded.
"The more I train with Rappa, the more I feel like I can’t fight the way Heroes with Quirks do.
I looked up all kinds of materials and videos at home."
"Then I saw a Hero with a Quirk that erases other Quirks.
I kept analyzing the way he fought, using nothing but skill and physical ability."
"...And I think a weapon specialized for subduing and rescuing would be better for me than a gun or a sword."
His eyes didn’t waver.
He was saying that nonsense with complete sincerity.
Did he have some kind of confidence to lean on?
"I only clean up after you if you win."
"...Yes. I understand."
"I’ll call you with the time and place once everything’s ready.
Prepare thoroughly. Don’t disappoint me."
"Let’s go, Rappa."
I left after speaking to Midoriya one-sidedly, with Rappa following beside me.
When I got home, Hawks was waiting in front of the house.
He stared at me with a dumbfounded expression and said, "Seriously? Isn’t that a little much?
You had me running errands, and now you’re just going to what? Ask me to release a Villain?"
"You remembered that well. Lend me that Villain for a bit."
This time, I needed a lot of equipment.
"Contact the press again.
I’m going to run an article about a "hero candidate" who catches the Villain that’s about to escape this time."
Hawks clicked his tongue and sneered, "You told me to stop the article before, and now you’ve suddenly decided you want to be a Hero?"
"It’s not for me to catch him. It’s for the Hero I’m going to make."
Hawks’ expression went cold.
"...You’re going to make a Hero?"
I kept talking without caring.
"There’s no reason to keep talking. Didn’t you say you had a favor to ask too?
I’m the more valuable asset here, aren’t I? If you won’t help me, then I won’t help you either."
"...Yeah. I guess you would say that. You sound just like the people above me."
"I’m different. I don’t lie about lofty ideals or stability."
Hawks clicked his tongue again.
"Let’s stop bickering. Fine. To get to the point,
that filthy Villain was infected with [Quirk singularity]. So I need you to treat him."
"It looks like that Mimic guy was infected too, but I can’t find him right now."
Sure enough, for a low-level Villain, he had managed to take down several Heroes with ease.
"Fine. I’ll treat him, and then I’m taking him with me.
If you don’t lend him to me, I’ll just have to see how fast it spreads."
"Got it. Just don’t do anything weird, okay?
These days I’m running errands and writing reports; I’m going to work myself to death."
"Take that up with your boss. Lead the way."
Hawks led me to a place he called a secret Public Safety lab.
The filthy Villain was inside a huge experimental cylinder.
"All right, now treat him with [Overhaul]. I washed up yesterday, so I’ll be back in a bit. Haha."
When I opened the cylinder, the Villain twitched reflexively and tried to get out.
"[Overhaul]."
I touched the escaping Villain.
Filthy sludge splattered everywhere with wet, squelching sounds. I blocked it with my clones.
The sludge gathered little by little until it shrank down to a tiny size. The Villain passed out.
Hawks looked stunned.
"So it was real. Looks like he’s been treated, but
I should run a test to make sure the virus is gone too."
I grabbed a syringe and drew a sample of the Villain’s bodily fluids.
"Hey! Don’t touch that without permission!"
I tossed it to Hawks. He caught it in a panic.
"I’ve done this kind of thing so many times when I was a doctor that I’m sick of it.
I’ll come back for him later, so keep the Villain for me."
"And send that thing called a capture weapon to the address I texted you."
"What kind of doctor are you? Just take it if you want it.
Fine, do whatever you want. Why can’t Public Safety file a complaint with the labor office?"
Two weeks later, I took the sleeping Villain sealed inside the experimental cylinder, along with a camera and the "script."
I headed to the alley where we’d agreed to meet.
I’d already confirmed days ago that there were no CCTV cameras in the alley.
I opened the cylinder.
"Kyaaaah!!"
The Villain shrieked and sprang out in panic. He tried to run.
"[Strong Wings], [Hell Flame], [Super Regeneration]."
I summoned the clones I’d used when burning the Villain and raised the burning feathers into the air.
The Villain froze on the spot.
I aimed the feathers all over his body.
"If you don’t want to die, then fight the boy who’s coming here with everything you’ve got.
If you lose, I’ll burn you to death. Even if you tell anyone, I’ll track you down and kill you."
The Villain couldn’t even answer. He just nodded with that tiny blob of liquid that might have been his head or his neck.
I made sure the Villain understood the threat, then went up to the rooftop for the recording.
Midoriya arrived. He had [capture weapon] wrapped around his neck and was looking around nervously.
"...Tenma told me to come here."
I activated [Silence] and [Seal]. I created a sealed room for the perfect recording.
As planned, the filthy Villain appeared.
Midoriya’s face turned terrified. It looked like the trauma was still there.
"H-how are you here!"
Even in that situation, the Villain was drunk on cruelty and let out a nasty laugh.
"Heh, we’ve probably met before, right? Sorry about this, kid."
The Villain’s tentacles surged at Midoriya with a nauseating stench.
Midoriya sweated coldly, but his body moved nimbly as he dodged.
He counterattacked and sent the capture weapon flying. It slipped away like cloth sinking into a swamp.
Midoriya stared in shock and muttered as he yanked with all his strength, "Most physical attacks won’t work...! I can’t beat him with this capture weapon."
He kept dodging while circling around the Villain faster.
"Stop being such a pain in the ass!!"
The Villain spread sludge across the walls, sticking it on like lines to widen his territory.
The space Midoriya could dodge in kept shrinking.
Midoriya didn’t panic. He leaped.
"There."
He wrapped the capture weapon around a discarded bottle and pulled it in.
Then he sent the capture weapon flying toward the air conditioner bracket and the drainpipe, using them to climb the wall.
The Villain tracked Midoriya and sent his tentacles upward.
Crash!
Midoriya smashed the glass bottle.
Soaked in sweat, Midoriya shifted his gaze to the electrical wires.
For some reason, he hesitated.
"But... no. I have to do it."
Midoriya tried to cut the wires with the sharp edge of the broken bottle.
Maybe the wires were old. Maybe Midoriya cut them perfectly.
Whatever the reason, the wires burst with blue sparks and snapped apart with a crackle, scattering everywhere.
"...Got it!"
At the same time, tentacles sprang from the sludge trail.
"Ah!"
The tentacles suddenly dragged Midoriya toward the cliff edge.
He fell.
Just before his body dropped, Midoriya wrapped the capture weapon around the drainpipe and slowed his descent.
He reduced the impact with a proper landing, but given the height, it looked like injuries were unavoidable.
The injuries tipped the battle in the Villain’s favor.
The filthy Villain lunged at Midoriya.
He wrapped Midoriya’s arms and legs, leaving only the right arm free.
"Heh heh heh. Once it gets in your mouth, it’s over. Say ahhh."
The Villain forced Midoriya’s mouth open with his tentacles and tried to stuff the sludge inside to control him.
Midoriya’s eyes flashed.
"...Sorry!!"
With his right arm, Midoriya hurled the capture weapon with all his strength.
It didn’t hit the Villain.
The Villain saw that and laughed.
But something else was already wrapping around it as it fell.
Electric wires.
Midoriya tied the wires to the capture weapon and pulled until his knuckles turned red.
It dropped.
"Graaahhh...!"
The Villain let out a strange, trembling sound as the electricity hit him.
Blue sparks crackled over his body, along with tiny flames.
His tentacles and body size gradually shrank.
Within seconds, the Villain had been reduced to less than a fistful.
Five minutes passed.
Breathing hard as he gathered up the capture weapon, Midoriya turned toward me as if he was about to call someone.
"Tenma!! Was this Villain really something you did?"
I answered in a brazen tone, with no intention of hiding anything.
"First I’m hearing of it. Anyway, you passed the final exam. Go on."
Midoriya’s serious expression returned to his usual clueless one.
"Huh? You want me to go?"
I put the collapsed Villain back into the experimental cylinder and locked him away again.
"Yeah. Don’t make me say it twice. I’ll handle the cleanup.
You just take this and memorize it."
"What is this? A Quirkless interview...? It looks like some kind of Q&A."
For a coward, he sure asked a lot of questions.
I furrowed my brow and said firmly, almost threateningly, "It’s a script. Just memorize it. Everything, from the questions to the answers.
Don’t stammer like this time. I want it to come out mechanically. Understood?"
"Yes, sir! I’m going!"
Midoriya grabbed the capture weapon and ran off in a hurry.
"A Hero candidate single-handedly subdues an escaped Villain who had defeated Heroes.
That should be enough for a debut match."
+++++
Several days later, Saturday. Midoriya’s house.
Midoriya sat at his desk, analyzing something other than a Hero.
"Who exactly is Tenma? He’s definitely not an ordinary middle schooler.
...And obviously not an ordinary person either."
He had brought a Villain in as a sparring partner. He had sent a capture weapon that couldn’t be bought on the market as casually as a package.
"...What on earth is that Quirk capable of?"
He’d used Hawks’ Quirk, Endeavor’s Quirk, and plenty of others too.
More than anything else,
"Can I really become a Hero if I listen to Tenma...?"
Midoriya felt like his head was about to burst from thinking.
Even the calluses on his hands and the hardened strength in his body no longer felt like his own.
Fighting that Villain and subduing him with this body felt like a dream he’d had when he was exhausted.
At home, he had to wear oversized clothes because his mother would be too shocked otherwise.
The door suddenly opened.
"Izuku!! There are tons of reporters outside! They’re talking about a Villain, and a hero candidate, and I have no idea what any of it means!"
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