4 4. Bloodhound!

The next day, I packed my bag, and left for the pet shop in Shibuya.

I'd already inquired ahead of time about the availability of a german shepherd puppy, so by the time I got there, it was just a matter of filling out the relevant paperwork and the pup was mine.

It was beautiful little guy, 8 weeks old, with a light brown and very fluffy coat, patterned with dark wavy rings.

I put him in my sling bag as I made my way back to the shelter for lunch, and it peeked out curiously at it's surroundings.

A curious baby! I like it!

Petting it's little floofy head, it yipped happily, licking my hand.

"Hehehe! Stop that!" I cried, wiping it's spit on his own fur.

"What are you going to name him?" Rapt asked.

"I don't know yet. I'm thinking Doginator3000, or Mr.Woofles." I replied.

"You've got a horrible naming sense, Yukkun!" Rapt laughed.

"Really? And what would you name him, genius?" I snapped.

"Certainly not Doginator3000!" Soga interjected.

"Yeah. Why not go for something classic like Tommy or Hachi?" Rapt suggested.

"Nah!" I said, "Too bland. My pupper is going to be special. Very special!"

I booped it's nose playfully, as it stared cross-eyed at my finger.

"And his name has to stand out from the crowd!" I added.

"How about Kuribo?" Moyuru suggested.

The puppy yipped in response.

"Oh! You like that name? Do you like that name, you little teddy bear?" I cooed, raising him by the armpits.

It yipped happily again, and wiggled it's cute little tail in response.

"Alright then, Kuribo it is!" I said.

"That's a decent enough name." Rapt commented, "Aren't you glad you brought him here? Who knows what you might have named him if we weren't around?"

"Hey! I can come up with some great nam-" I protested, when suddenly, thud sounded out by the door.

Koichi stumbled in, bleeding through his arm.

"Pop, they took pop!" He cried, as he fell to the floor, panting.

"What happened?" Soga asked, rushing to his aid, pulling him back to his feet.

"He took her. Him and the bee girl. They took Pop*Step!" He cried, tearing up.

"I couldn't do anything!" Koichi choked, slamming his fist on the door in frustration.

"Hey! There were two of them. You couldn't have done anything!" Moyuru comforted.

"No, I-" Koichi started as I interrupted.

"Excuse my question, but uh...who's this 'Him' guy you're talking about?

If I have his book then maybe I can help you find out where they took her?" I asked.

"Yes! Right, your quirk. T-t-that's a great idea. Please, Yuji! Help me find her!" Koichi said grabbing me by the shoulders, and bowing deep.

"Yeah, of course!" I said, pushing him off, and patting his shoulder.

"You're both my friends too, after all! I would've helped even if you hadn't asked!"

Koichi wiped his tears, and looked around at the four of us, before he smiled.

"Thanks, guys!"

"Yeah, yeah, just tell me the guy's name!" I said, sidelining the emotional moment.

"It's Rokuro Nomura. And the bee girl is Kuin Hachisuka." Koichi said.

"The new manager?!" Rapt exclaimed.

"But he looked like such a decent guy!" Moyuru added.

"Apparently not." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes, as I pulled out shelf after shelf, before coming to a stop at his book.

"Number Six." I muttered, inaudibly.

"Let's see."

I flipped through the pages, until I came upon the location of an abandoned parking lot outside Naruhata.

"Found him. He in an abandoned lot, 44th street, leading onto Setagaya." I informed.

"Alright. Let's get you treated, then we leave." Soga said, dragging Koichi to the medbay.

"And Yuji, you can go home now. We'll deal with this ourselves. No need for a kid like you to get involved in vigilantism." He added.

"Oh come on, man! I can hold my own! Hell, I've beaten you guys three to one. If anything, you should stay here while I go rescue her!" I protested.

"That may be true, but I still won't allow it. Trust me Yuji, nothing good comes out of this. Being involved in vigilante acts, it could go on your permanent record! How will you get into UA if you're a criminal?" Soga scolded.

"And what sort of hero would I make if I abandoned my friends in their time of need?!" I shot back.

"Pfft!" Rapt snickered as Soga sighed in defeat.

"You know what, Yuji? You're too smart for your own good!" He remarked.

"I learnt from the best!" I added, stroking his ego.

Soga just shook his head, as he bandaged Koichi's arm, before grabbing his keys.

"Fine. You can come. But stay back and work support. And most of all, don't get hurt." Soga warned, as we boarded his minivan.

Minutes later, we arrived at the parking lot as Soga parked the van one block over.

"We split in two, me and Koichi take the front, you guys take the back. We'll distract them, while you guys get Pop and run. Don't turn back. Just run, straight to the nearest police station. Explain the situation to them and get backup. Got it?"

We nodded as Koichi slid across the pavement straight at the front gate.

Instantly, a buzzing sound emanated from the building as a swarm of bees with what looked like mini spray canisters on the backs, exited from the second floor window, bomb diving at him.

I looked at Rapt as he pointed at the outer lot and shook my head.

"There's probably cameras there. We should go around the building to the right and climb over the back wall over there." I said, gesturing at the back gate of the compound.

"Okay. Let's go." He said, as we sneaked to the back wall, and Rapt climbed over, pulling me and Moyuru up.

Them with his fire, Moyuru melted the barbed wire, as we jumped down.

I looked around.

No cameras. Good.

"Moyuru, melt the lock and hinges on the door.

Rapt, climb to the second floor and take a peek." I said.

"No need to order us around kid. We're the professionals here. But yeah, I'll do it." Rapt replied, as Moyuru just nodded, melting the lock and pushing the door in.

Bawawam!

The metal door fell with a loud chatter, the sounds reverberating throughout the building.

Fuck!

"Damnit Moyuru!" I cursed at him, as he muttered an apology under his breath.

"She's coming!" Rapt said, leaping down, before pulling us both into the building.

"The closet!" He whispered, pointing at the supply closet, and shoved me in, before he and Moyuru jumped into the empty elevator shaft, ducking low.

Soon the bees buzzed in, scanning the room, as I could hear Pop's voice scream, there's two more of them.

An explosion rang out in the elevator shaft as bees rammed straight into my companions and then into each other.

A distinct smell spread throughout the room.

One I recognized from my training under Soga, when he taught me to make improvised explosives.

Nitroglycerin!

The test tube bees had nitroglycerin in their back canisters!

And now we were down two men.

Tch!

Looks like I'll have to pull through here!

As soon as the bees left for the first floor, I busted out, before summoning a hail of bookshelves nearly 30 feet above me, as Pop's grunts rang sweet music to my ears.

I don't have to aim if there's nothing left to aim at after all!

I just stuffed the second floor full of bookshelves, 2 meters high, made of a thick, reinforced hardwood.

Kuin Hachisuka, possessing Pop's body was now stuck between my tightly packed shelves. That should take care of her for now. As for her bees?

I walked over to a nearby emergency exit and pulled off a fire extinguisher.

It's go time baby!

I pulled out the pin, took a deep breath and blitzkrieged up the stairs, right through the swarm, spraying the foam wildly, as the bees crashed into one another, and exploded behind me, shaking me to the core.

Shit! That's gonna give me back pain for days!

Whoever thought walking away from explosions is cool, clearly hasn't tried it. Just the wind pressure is enough to bruise muscle!

I stumbled at the last step grabbing the rails on the stairs, as pain shot through my arms

Fuck!

Haaah! Haa! Hhaaaa!

I breathed heavy, as I scanned the room.

A few stragglers were all that was left of the bees.

That's suspicious.

In the manga, Kuin Hachisuka had enough bomb bees to level market street.

These were too few bees to be able to do that!

Then it hit me.

Of course she didn't have too many of them!

She had just possessed Pop*Step.

She probably didn't have the time to restock on them!

If that was indeed the case then, all that was left was to deal with Number Six, and I'd have prevented the Naruhata Blackout Raid arc completely!

With that revelation, I raced up the stairs, as a wall of bookshelves came into view.

I summoned a bookshelf, facing me, and climbed above the sea of shelves, before spotting her.

Pop was stuck at the other end of the room, squished like a marshmallow between three shelves and a wall.

I crawled over to her as she looked up at the noise.

"Where did you come from?!" She asked, her eyes betraying fear.

"Yeah, you don't need to worry about that." I said, and pulled out my handy dandy taser, before jamming it into her exposed shoulder.

"N-no plea- Kyaaaaaaah!" She cried in pain, as I shocked her over and over until her eyes rolled over.

But just to be sure, I zapped her again.

This time she just twitched.

Hmmm...good enough.

I unsummoned the shelves and fell to the floor, catching Pop before she hit her head.

Laying her down, I took a another deep breath, and steeled my resolve.

"Youcandothisyoucandothisyoucandthis!" I muttered as I reached into her eye sockets, parting the gooey flaps of muscle fiber, and pulled out the real form of Kuin Hachisuka, the puffy little queen bee.

"Ew! Disgusting!" I cried, throwing her against the wall, as I wiped my hands on her skirt, before summoning a shelf on the queen, crushing her into a splotch on the floor.

One down, one to go!

Standing up, I walked over to the window, and spotted Koichi and Soga, down on the ground, as Rokuro pummeled their faces in.

Damnit! Can't these guy even distract him without dying?

I summoned as cascade of shelves outside the window, forming a makeshift staircase as I walked down from the second floor.

"Hey, dickbag!" I shouted, "Look up!"

Rokuro turned to see me, before he spotted the growing shadow below him.

Instantly, he vanished from the spot, as I unsummoned the falling shelf, right before it would have crushed Koichi to death.

Speeding over to me, in the shadow of the parking lot, he stretched out his hand, reaching for my neck, right in time to be crushed by another falling shelf, looney tunes style.

And just to be ectra sure, I dropped another couple dozen shelves on him, until his book of life read dead.

Just as planned. I knew he wouldn't spot the desk falling in the shadow of the lot.

It's a very human flaw.

Humans tend not to look up at the sky, unless they can spot the shadows of something above or hear the sound of an airplane or something, making it the ideal vector of attack for people smart enough to exploit this weakness in human perception.

Kneeling down, I scooped up his blood into an empty juice bottle, before walking over to the two and calling an ambulance with Soga's phone.

Once they were all taken to the hospital, I returned to the shelter with his van, and went straight to the medicine cabinet, picking out a syringe.

I sucked up the blood carefully, before tapping out the air bubbles from the injection.

Was I going to use this blood to gain Rokuro's quirk?

Hell to the fuck no!

Taking in the parasite cells had made Rokuro go cuckoo for cocopuffs or in his case, his "daddy" Knucleduster, to the point that he began to have schizophrenic hallucinations of O'Clock, like he was a fucking Jojo Stand.

No way was I taking that risk!

I like being smart and able to think clearly without a fucking force ghost looming over my shoulder 24/7, dishing out life advice.

No, this injection is for my cute little hunting puppy, so that he can grow up into a big, strong, Overhaul killing bloodhound.

After all, what does it matter if it's IQ drops by half?

It's a dog, it doesn't need smarts!

Now, of course, I can't have my puppy being possessed by the quirk memories of the villain I just killed, so I was going to clean that out.

And to that end, I summoned his book, and wrote in.

"With his death, the parasite cells dissipated his will, taking over what remained of Rokuro's body, and thus extinguishing his quirk memories."

No sooner had I put pen to paper, did the last vestiges of my energy drained, bringing my words to life.

The blood in the syringe twisted, before turning a dark shade of maroon, as compared to it's earlier lively red.

"Perfect!" I said out loud, before walking over to the couch, where the puppy was sleeping peacefully, curled up in a cute little furball.

I stroked his head gently for a moment, before pulling him up, and jamming the needle in his chest, as it whined in pain.

The puppy's muscles twisted and distorted as they reshaped his form into a sleeker, healthier one.

"Shush! Baby, it's going to be all right! It's for your own good, Kuribo!" I whispered into his ears, gently stroking his back and ears, comforting him.

Once the transformation finished, I'd have my hands on my very own bloddhound, and the hunt for my little shapeshifting canary would begin.

But for today, I downed a couple painkillers for my back, and retired on the couch, cradling the pup, singing him sweet lullabies till he fell asleep.