"We're finally finished, Izuku. This beach looks much better than it did four months ago, and now it's perfect for your further training."
"It's just a pity you're leaving with your uncle, Iori. But I'm glad for the time we spent training and cleaning this beach together."
In a dirty, torn-on-one-side T-shirt and shorts, Midoriya smiled at me tiredly and slightly sadly. I smile back encouragingly.
"Don't be discouraged; we're not saying goodbye forever, and we'll keep in touch. Most importantly, don't quit your training. With your mind, you can achieve quite a lot."
"Don't worry about that. For the sake of my dream, I'll try three times—no, five times harder."
Midoriya cheered up and threw his arms up in excitement, though he quickly grew embarrassed by his actions. I could only laugh at that.
After saying goodbye to Midoriya, I walked along the embankment and began to recall the events of the past four months, especially that battle with the Sand Hero, who, as it turned out, is named Snatch. I had never been so close to failure. After all, if I were locked up in prison, escaping would become impossible for me. Despite my Quirk, they would find a way to hold me. Only an idiot would underestimate modern technology and the intelligence of people dealing with various villains.
And if I push aside my emotions at that moment, I acted in the best traditions of heroes following the motto of Spain that the whole world tactfully ignores: Plus Ultra. Plus Ultra. Beyond. Like a damn manga protagonist. In a dark and bloody plot. I am incredibly glad that I won and discovered new facets of my Quirk, but the way I achieved that victory pisses me off. In all my past battles and killings, I carefully prepared for the fight, analyzed the opponents, and developed a plan of action. And even if sometimes the battles were on the edge of defeat, I knew my strength would be enough for victory or escape. But here I had to simply apply all my strength with the hope that I would overpower the opponent. This incident showed my weakness to unexpected attacks from opponents unknown to me. This fact involuntarily increased my respect for heroes, who often face such situations from villains.
I fled from that police station almost with my heels glowing, fearing that I might "luck out" and run into some hero on the way back who could also "stun" me. Purely out of a sense of stubbornness and willpower, I carried this container of medications to the right place and collapsed into sleep for two days in my apartment. From the pains in my body, especially from the headache, I wanted to take my pistol and shoot myself. It felt as if I had wanted to clear that entire beach of trash in one night, and after getting dead drunk, decided to exchange blows with All Might. So I frankly didn't give a damn about the calls from Midoriya and Giran, blast him. Later I called Midoriya and said I was sick. It was more complicated with Giran. He really laid into me about that fight, calling me a "young talent" whom all the police officers and heroes of Japan are determined to meet. As it turned out, I quickly went from being a little-known villain to an A-class villain, just slightly short of an S-class. All that's left is to kill a couple of heroes, and a rank increase is guaranteed for me.
Only after my irritated response did he stop jeering and eating my brain with a small spoon. In addition to information about my father, I was able to bargain for money for this operation before the mission and after inspecting the station. Но информация о нем всё ещё оставалась для меня самым главным приоритетом. But information about him still remained my top priority. And it stunned me, although it was to be expected. I was ready for him to be in the USA, but not for him to have a new wife and a four-year-old daughter. Pushing my feelings aside, I continued to listen closely to the information. Omnipresent and his family currently lived in the city of Raleigh—the capital of the state of North Carolina, where All Might did his internship after UA and even named one of his strikes after it. The Space Hero had been very active there in the last year, which is how they were able to determine his place of residence.
Suppressing my desire to dash straight to the USA was difficult. Only common sense and an understanding of how it could end held me back. I needed to solidify my new capabilities with training and think over how I would get to Carolina. It became easier to keep my "Gaze" active and increase the sensation radius by another meter, but the headache after long use remained. I could also use "Choice" to deprive myself of weight because I made myself permeable to the whole Earth, so gravity couldn't affect me, and made myself permeable to air, which removed resistance as a factor, although I couldn't breathe. Но такое быстрое отключение и включение способности в бою было мне недоступно. But such rapid turning off and on of the ability in combat was unavailable to me. This allowed for such pirouettes, jumps, and dodges that would make many athletes and parkour enthusiasts envious. And as the icing on the cake—Rejection.
If Choice requires pulsations of Dark Matter with a corresponding mental command, passive enhancement works without my involvement, and Gaze is always active but I subconsciously ignore it and need to concentrate to use it, then Rejection is similar to Absorption. In Absorption, I simply try to release Dark Matter from the body and then it acts on its own, whereas in Rejection, it leaves my body in one distinct command with a clear mental intent to "reject" a specific thing. The further away the thing is, the weaker the effect. But what stops me from rejecting air toward a target? Nothing. Also, recoil from the impact can be maintained or removed. To simply toss myself into the air by rejecting the ground? Easy. This ability has huge offensive potential and no less energy cost. And all these months, along with physical training with Midoriya—who is sure my Quirk is a simple strength enhancement—I trained my Quirk in secluded places. Now I need more strength for my activities in criminal society, because besides heroes, villains might become interested in me, whom I didn't risk contacting before. That same A-class villain Muscular, notorious for killing heroes, could have crushed me in direct combat, ignoring injuries because of his Quirk, and upon meeting him, I could only run. Who would emerge as the winner from a fight between us now is unclear to me.
My flight to the USA is scheduled for in three days. A month ago, the broker contacted me and said he could help organize the flight on an official level, but in return, I must help a designated person with the transport and delivery of a certain item. Not being able to come up with a better option, I agreed to his proposal.
Stopping, I decided to take a better look at the reddening horizon. The crimson sunset with the sea shimmering with golden reflections brought a slight melancholy. And reminded me of blood. With a slight smile, I headed to the rented apartment. Walking under the rays of the setting sun, only one thought pounded in my head.
"I wonder how many more lives I must take for the sake of myself and my goals?"