(I like my stories to be deep, but then if I write it too deep then it'd get boring. Hm...)
....
"I hate this so much..." Sukuna grumbled to himself, standing in the toilet of the Shinkansen. He had just eaten his seventh finger, one he received after the Sports Festival. He didn't eat it for one simple reason, he had forgotten about it. Well if you spent so much time hanging out with your girl, you tend to forget some things in life.
"Should've eaten it on the day I got it..." He grumbled to himself, taking out toothpaste and his toothbrush from his backpack, before he brushed his teeth. Just as he finished brushing, he heard desperate knocking.
"Oi! You've been in there for five minutes already! You want me to poop my pants or something?!"
....
Sukuna walked down the streets of Kyushu, texting Mina, updating her that he had arrived safe and sound. His destination was Hawks' Agency, which according the GPS, should be around the corner.
Turning the corner, he found himself witnessing a truly horrifying scene. In front of him was the number 3 Hero, Hawks, eating fried chicken at a random restaurant.
"Oh? You're here already? I was just on my lunch break." Hawks greeted him, his mouth full of chicken.
"Doesn't that count as you commiting cannibalism?" Sukuna commented as he approached.
"Haha. Very funny kid." Hawks rolled his eyes in annoyance, motioning for Sukuna to sit on the seat in front of him.
"You hungry? I'll put in on my tab, they make the best fried chicken here." Hawks offered, dipping another piece of chicken into some sauce. Sukuna held up a hand.
"I'll pass on the chicken, but I will have some yakitori and black coffee."
"You're a bit too young to be drinking black coffee." Hawks raised an eyebrow. Sukuna shrugged.
"My friend got me hooked on it." Sukuna replied, remembering the time when Momo treated the class and Aizawa to a cup of black coffee she personally brewed from a luxury brand of coffee beans, though coffee never tasted the same since then.
"And does it really matter what I drink? As long as I'm not consuming alcohol or any type of drug, it should be acceptable." Hawks raised his hands.
"Chill dude, just wanted to make some conversation." Hawks grinned before calling over the waiter, requesting the order Sukuna wanted.
"Oh and uh, two extra plates of fried chicken, one for me and him." Hawks added, the waiter nodded before rushing off, not wanting to keep the pro hero waiting.
"I told you I didn't want the chicken." Sukuna narrowed his eyes. Is this man really trying to test his patience this early?
"Well that's what your mouth said, but I have the free will to not believe it." Hawks' grin only became wider as he bit on another piece of the crispy fried chicken. Sukuna sighed, palming his face.
"So glad I'm only dealing with you for a week." He mumbled, to which Hawks laughed in response.
"That's what they all say, but they end up coming back." Sukuna just stared at him, his mouth slightly open, not believing those words just came out of the number 3 hero's mouth.
"Ew...."
"Oi! Not in that way dumbass!"
...
"Welcome to Hawks' Agency!" Hawks grinned as they exited the elevator, entering the spacious lobby. The agency is located on top of a white building, with it having multiple floors, and at the top of the highrise were several satellite dishes for certain purposes.
Sukuna looked to his left, noticing a row of floor-to-ceiling windows stretching across one wall, giving him a view of the city of Kyushu below. From this height, traffic to him, looked like circuitry, and the people looked like moving data points.
The lobby was extremely spacious, but it wasn't flashy like he thought it would be, just a bunch of sharp colors like grey and white. It wasn't chaotic at all, conversations stay low and the footsteps don't echo, heck even the air felt refreshing.
Sukuna watched as a shaky civilian stepped up to the reception desk, explaining a harassment case involving a minor villain group. The receptionist listened without visible panic, fingers moving across a transparent interface. A case file had already opened before the civilian's sentence ended.
Near the windows, a junior analyst scrolled through city-wide quirk incident reports projected midair. Patterns such as time clusters, repeat offenders, geographic hot spots were being mapped on the spot.
Sukuna looked around as he heard a sudden chime from a speaker, as two pros rushed past him, heading towards the elevator.
"That's just a signal to confirm a hero deployment." Hawks explained, guiding Sukuna to sit down on a low couch. From the corner of his eyes, he saw what seemed to be media representatives in the corner, doing what looked like rehearsing questions and taking not so sneaky glances at Hawks.
"Don't mind them." Hawks brought back Sukuna's attention. "This is the norm at pretty much every single agency. Once you have your own, I guarantee you'll get swarmed by them almost daily." He said with certainty.
"I never imagined it would be this... calm." Sukuna commented, looking around. There was just something deeply unsettling about a place that doesn't flex its strength. Hawks grinned at his words.
"Surprised right?" He grinned before looking at a mother and child, approaching him nervously.
"Thank you... For saving us the other day..." The mother began talking in a whisper, before her child held out a thank you card.
Hawks laughed a little, patting the child's head. "My pleasure, ma'am. But don't make it sound so dramatic, it's just what I do." He grinned reassuringly at them. The mother and child duo bowed at him once again before walking away, not wanting to disturb him.
"I saved them from a burning building last night." Hawks explained, glancing at him. "Some of my feathers got burned trying to evacuate the civilians, and their exit paths were blocked. At the time there weren't any available sidekicks, so I decided to just jump in myself and rescue them all. Almost got burned myself but hey, it's just another Tuesday for me." He continued, staring straight at Sukuna's crimson eyes.
"But I have to ask, what would you do if you were me in that situation?" He then questioned. Sukuna blinked, not rushing to answer.
"I'd first confirm the structural collapse risk. Obviously I'm not rushing inside like a dumbass if it's about to fall. Then I'd locate the civilian positions and create exit paths before extracting anyone."
"But what if there were no exit paths available and there's someone screaming for help?" The pro asked, smiling a little. Sukuna shrugged.
"If entering saves them, then I'd do it in a heartbeat. But if it risks creating more victims then I'd find another way, probably cooperating with other heroes with suitable Quirks or the firefighters." Sukuna answer almost robotically. Hawks nodded to himself, smiling fully.
"Well at least you don't treat heroism as a performance, I promise you, you're waayy better than most guys out there already." He praised. Sukuna shrugged.
"Thought it was just common sense."
"Nope." Hawks shook his head. "Common sense doesn't exist during pressured situations like that, humans are designed that way like it or not." Sukuna only grunted in response.
"You know why I asked that?" He continued casually.
"Do enlighten me."
"Most people answer 'I rush in and save everyone' and that's how heroes like them die early. What I've seen during the Sports Festival and the USJ incident shows me you can think clearly before acting. This means I don't have to constantly worry about you being a liability creating unnecessary problems for me. We don't do that crap in my agency." Hawks stood up motioning Sukuna to follow him.
"C'mon, let me give you a quick tour."
...
"Most people think agencies just punch villains and collect reports, but it's not." Hawks explained as they entered a certain room with a space dimmer than the lobby.
"70% of the job is actually information flow." He continued, pointing at a wall, containing large curved display walls showing Kyushu city split into layers.
There were crowd density heatmaps, quirk activity fluctuations, emergency calls, traffic movement, and hero response routes updating in near real time.
"Looks fun right? But one mishap can cost lives. These guys right here are the real reason why most heroes don't get into backlashes. They're the backbone of the agency, essentially." Hawks pointed at his team of operators and analysts, not even registering the hero's presence, too busy focusing on the monitors in front of them.
"Sector 17's traffic density is rising." One analyst said, tapping a floating display. "It's not unusual but the movement pattern is tight, coordinated almost." The projection wall flickered, showing a street intersection two kilometers away, the tiny dots on them represented pedestrians.
"Send two aerial scouts." Another analyst glanced at an operator who silently nodded, before tapping away on his keyboard.
"Don't fly directly over the crowd. People get nervous when they feel watched by something they can't identify." She reminded.
"Got it." The operator muttered. Hawks glanced at Sukuna who was silently watching the ongoing activity. The older man didn't say anything and just let him watch.
A few minutes later, the projection wall changes saturation, data streams moved faster, and tiny red highlights appeared and fadex across the city map.
"Aerial scouts confirmed a quirk disturbance in Sector 17." Someone spoke in a low voice.
"Population movement slowing by seven percent near the subway exit." Another operator replied without looking up from the console. Hawks narrowed his eyes a little, approaching the central display with his hands in his pockets.
Just then, a single dot on the projection wall turned crimson, then the system confirmed it with a soft double pulse.
"Villain confirmed." One operator said. Sukuna watched as the room surprisingly didn't erupt into noise, instead conversation flowed quicker.
"Lock the location. Don't broadcast public alert yet." Hawks muttered as the projection zoomed in once more, showing that the villain dot had shifted.
"They're moving towards the commercial district, sir." One operator reported. Hawks nodded before looking at Sukuna, the pink haired teen already standing near the room's exit.
"We'll continue the tour later kid, it's time for a practical test."
To be continued...