Prep Time

Because of all the chaos, I could get out of Kashifu in a flash. No Pro-Heroes showed up to stop me, so it was honestly quite easy.

I changed out my faces and emerged as Minoru Mineta. The chaos of the new villains emerging made sure that there'd be no heroes who could waste time just searching the perimeters, so I had a straight shot to Manami's place.

I walked through the streets like an average civilian, tapping away at my Quirk's screen.

"Have you heard anything from Manami?" I asked, the question had been gnawing at the back of my mind for the last several minutes.

At first the question was answered by Gentle arriving, but now there was no such answer. She should've responded to our messages by now.

"I asked Whitey where she went, but he doesn't know either. He said she looked troubled and ran off. She told him that she had to check on Cauzuho, whoever that is," Dabi's message read.

Cauzuho? I don't believe I've ever met a Cauzuho before… wait!

"I think Manami and I have met her before," I messaged him before following up with another one. "If that's the case, I'll head over there before I go to Manami's place. You two should go to back and rest."

I walked down an alleyway and changed directions. I looked around, using my original eyesight to try and find any villains around. Upon not seeing anything, I continued forward.

It took me a little bit to get used to not having my mask equipped, with the seven new eyes, enhanced vision, and the ability to detect mana, not to mention the buffs the mask and cloak gave me, I really was at a disadvantage without it.

Something that I did notice was that I could still see mana for a short period of time after the mask was unequipped. I didn't know any specific times, but it was about three or four minutes that passed before I noted I couldn't see the mana swirling in the air anymore.

I thought it was pretty interesting to note but couldn't figure out why it'd be important. It may've just been a side-effect of the mask.

"Are you sure? If we come over there you can just heal us anyways. Wouldn't having backup be smart?" Dabi's message asked.

I feel like he made a really good point, but….

I pulled up the party menu, checking Manami's status.

The party menu was one of the many abilities my Quirk gave me that I'd pushed to the back of my mind. With all the chaos ensuing, it wasn't the first thing to pop up in my mind. Even if it did come up, I wouldn't have had the time to check it earlier.

Manami had a chunk of HP missing and she was currently unconscious.

My pace quickened as I quickly messaged Dabi, telling him of our ally's status. Because he couldn't bring up the screen, he hadn't known until I'd told him.

"We can't have both of you pulled into another fight while Manami's already in a dangerous situation. She's unconscious and her HP is pretty low, but she's not constantly losing large amounts of health. If there're Pro-Heroes around her, what we don't need is two villains who've been recorded by the news showing up," I messaged him.

A few seconds passed before I received Dabi's next message.

"What if she's been captured by villains? In a situation like that, wouldn't it be better for you to have a few teammates to rely on?"

"If she was captured, I think the villains are either with or against us. If they're with us, I may try to flex some of the clout that Giran got me to free her. If they're against us, they may be trying to use Manami as a hostage or a bargaining chip. They'd certainly feel more on-guard with more of us there, so it'd be better to go alone. I can choose to switch between Minoru and Meng on the fly, and I'll adapt the plan if I need to," I informed him.

"Can all we do just wait?" He asked, and I thought about it for a moment.

Just waiting around would probably be the smartest option, but that didn't mean it was the only option.

"If you both think you're up to it, you can go and stop the incidents with villains that Pro-Heroes haven't gotten to, it would be good. It'll be especially bad if you guys get caught, but if not, it'd be good for us if we can stop all the casualties around. We can't stop them all, and we have to face that, but we might as well save whoever we can," I told him, leaving my message at that, and closing the screen.

I didn't receive another message from him, so I turned my attention to my target, the Haneyama Bookstore.

-----

At first, I was walking, but that walk quickly morphed into a jog, then it twisted into an all-out sprint.

Gamer's Mind was supposed to let me think calmly and logically, but I could count a handful of times that it forced me to calm down and think logically. It was supposed to be passive, but it only really worked when I was overwhelmed.

I couldn't rely on my skill to protect me all the time.

The nervousness that was gnawing at the back of my mind couldn't ever overwhelm me, but that doesn't mean I wasn't heavily affected by it regardless. The nervousness urged me to move faster, and seeing no immediate downsides to it, I listened.

I ran fast, as fast as my unenhanced body could carry me.

In no time at all, I was within eyesight of the store.

The store front was destroyed.

A man with light blue hair stumbled about, his hands falling onto objects and those objects turning to dust from the point where he touched them.

"Seiryu, Seiryu, Seiryu…! How dare you humiliate me like that…! I'll kill you…. I'll kill you…!"

Yeah, that's not a good sign.

A purple whip cracked through the sky and flew towards the fumbling man. Right before the whip met his skin, he reached up and attempted to grab the weapon. The whip was pulled back right before the man's hand could touch it.

"Another Pro-Hero…. Father will accept if I take your life instead!" The man rushed towards his opponent, but I couldn't quite catch who it was.

I ducked into an alleyway.

Whoever that guy was, he clearly wasn't a fan of Seiryu. It was possible that he was with a fourth party, but his light blue hair reminded me of the man Dabi was fighting once everything went down, so I'd plan like he was the second party rather than an unforeseen fourth party.

Because he didn't like Seiryu, he clearly had some sort of goal that he had to give up on. That's probably why he felt so humiliated.

So, going out as Seiryu seemed like the worse option. This villain would have a lot more personal feelings towards Seiryu versus Minoru Mineta. That could be good and bad….

If I needed some more info….

I expanded my Electricity senses as far as I could, trying to find any possible cameras around. Upon noticing nothing, I equipped Vasukak and looked towards the situation again.

With more eyes, clearer vision, and the ability to detect mana again, I clicked my tongue as I noted the current situation.

The light-blue haired man was named Tomura Shigaraki, and I couldn't see any of the information above his head. It certainly didn't make me feel any more confident in exposing myself as Seiryu if Tomura could just turn me inside out whenever he wanted to. Relying on levels wasn't the most accurate thing though, seeing that Dabi was able to trade blows with Tomura with limited damages to be seen after that.

Maybe that was just because Dabi was a monster though.

Tomura's opponent was a woman I'd learned a lot about over the years.

[Sadistic Consort of Divinity]

[Lv. ???]

[Nemuri Kayama]

Nemuri Kayama was currently the only person who I couldn't see her level, but I could still read her title. I couldn't read it once we'd met earlier, so it may be because….

I waited a few moments before―

[Quest completed!]

An Ultra Fight Begins!

Escape, subdue, or defeat the Pro-Heroes standing in your way and complete the rest of your mission!

[Time Limit: 30 Minutes.]

[Completion Reward: 350,000 EXP.]

[Failure Penalty: Death or Imprisonment.]

―The quest I'd completed finally appeared. I accepted the rewards to the quest, noting that it'd been quite late.

Was it delayed because the heroes were still searching for me, or was it something based on a set time limit that wasn't specified? There was the 30-minute time limit, but that was regarding failure, not victory.

I pushed the thoughts away. They weren't important right now. What was important was―

[You have leveled up!]

―How I was going to divvy up my stat points. With five points I could bring Strength or Vitality to 50, earning me a skill regarding either one of them. I could also bring Intelligence up to 55 or Wisdom up to 56.

I didn't even feel like acknowledging Luck.

The other option would be to put the points into Dexterity, allowing me to use Seiryu's penultimate technique.

But… could I really rely on a technique I knew nothing about to help me out here?

If I did that, yes, I'd be a little faster, but I'd also be in a pretty big deficit if it didn't really help me out.

Wouldn't that be the same as relying on luck? And I just wasn't the type to rely on luck.

What I needed to do here wasn't run away, but rather I needed to stand my ground.

In that case….

[Due to Vitality being raised to 50, you have received a new skill. Skill: Breaching Defenses.]

[Breaching Defenses (Passive) Lv. 1]

Every being who wishes to fight must breach past the restrictions placed on their bodies. Only then can they wish to fight those who wish to hurt them.

50% increase to Stamina Recovery rate.

10% increase in total Stamina amount.

10% increase in total HP amount.

20% decrease in damage received from physical attacks.

30% increase in Vitality related skill effects.

With some more HP and Stamina to fall back on, I had a slightly better chance of making it out of this situation alive.

And now that I was a level higher….

I looked back to Midnight's information.

[Sadistic Consort of Divinity]

[Lv. 79]

[Nemuri Kayama]

So I could see titles when I was a level lower than the 50-level cap? Weird.

I ignored the little intricacies of my Quirk and paid attention to the situation at hand. My hair began changing colors as I quickly equipped Ishikori.

The major difference between Minoru Mineta and Meng Zhang right now was that Minoru was a bystander while Meng was the middle of this conflict.

Midnight may feel like she needs to protect Minoru, but she'd certainly feel on-guard about Meng.

Well, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. I just didn't know which one of them disliked me more.

I dashed towards the two, making no effort to hide myself.