"They call you Heretic Smasher."
"The what?" Shigure's eyes went wide, face draining of color.
"Pfft...Look at your face. How can a person be that expressive?"
Shigure ignored him and checked his phone.
Minutes later, Shigure slumped in defeat.
'This must be what Ki flagged as "low priority" yesterday. Should have listened to her...'
He stabbed at the food and ate furiously.
"It's just a temporary name. It can always change."
"Mhm." He hoped it would change.
'I will attack those websites that brought up this name in the first place.' Shigure promised himself.
Shigure ordered dessert. Again.
"So... you're really not arresting me?" Shigure finally addressed the elephant in the room.
"Why would I?"
"Well... I am breaking the law... Using quirk in a social area, and also for ... violence."
"Hmmm." Hawks rubbed his chin. "We would need evidence for that."
Shigure's lips twitched. "Aren't you a witness?"
"Nah. Didn't see a thing. Moreover, you can't trust human witnesses these days."
'You are fucking 19th ranked hero. Who won't believe you?' Shigure barely stopped himself from saying that.
"Well, we were having a chase throughout the entire city. Pretty sure that we were captured in one."
"You were in disguise." Hawks shrugged.
"You did capture me in the end."
"My target escaped when I was saving a drunk person from getting isekai'd"
Shigure's jaw dropped. "What about the cameras when you brought me to this cafe?" "I took a route where we weren't captured. Sky dominance." A smug look appeared on Hawk's face.
Shigure stared, speechless.
"Why are you doing this? What's in it for you?" He finally spoke.
"Hmm, now that's an interesting question. I wonder why." Hawks took another sip.
Shigure stared him in the eye. Hawks stared back, amused.
"Okay. Before your veins around your eyes start bulging, I will say it." Hawks lifted his arms in a surrender position.
"Hmph."
SLURP
Shigure took a big gulp of his Espresso.
Sleep be damned—he wasn't sleeping after tonight anyway.
"Well, you will be getting into a hero school, no? In around 2 to 3 years. Moreover, I heard the minimum age requirement for a provisional hero license would be dropped to 14 years. You could always try that. This would be a good experience."
SLURP
"Me unconvinced." Shigure shook his head.
"What is making you unconvinced?"
"Let's even assume that you could let a child experience vigilantism, which sounds plausible given you are one of the most influential people in the country currently.
What is suspicious is that you clearly know that I am insane, yet you are giving me this "privilege." Aren't you concerned about whether I will start killing people? Or even worse, become a villain or stay a vigilante. After all, most people prefer to stay like that rather than become heroes coz of many reasons," Shigure rattled off in one breath.
"Your lungs are really good. Well, don't worry. I would be monitoring you, so you won't be turning into a murderer anytime soon. Anyway, about your second question. I don't care." Hawks shrugged.
"Huh?"
"Hero, vigilante—I don't care. As long as you continue to help people, it doesn't matter."
Shigure blinked. "That's... weirdly idealistic."
"A practical one. Results speak for themselves." Hawks took out his phone and showed him.
"Since your "debut", the night crimes in Saitama have reduced by 10 per cent. That might not sound much, but it is crazy when we see that it was done in just a few weeks."
'Those websites are not that bad.' Shigure gave them a mental thumbs up.
"Oh... Cool." 'So does he not care about the villains—' "I will address that point now." Hawks put his phone back in his pocket.
'Did I say that out loud?'
"For criminals like that Ryu guy, I don't mind if you torture them or not as long as you don't break them completely. That's fine. Those guys don't have any rights anyway."
"The fuck?" Keigo's nonchalance caught Shigure off guard.
'Is this really one of the top heroes? Where is that deku kind of guy who would fight even for his enemies?'
"But, I hope you would refrain from doing it on petty thieves or similar criminals. They do have rights. Yeah, this might sound a bit harsh, but it's acceptable as long as it gives results."
Shigure wasn't expecting the future number three hero to say this when he woke up this morning.
'I guess he did a lot of grey work as Hero Association's dog. His outlook is bound to be different.'
"Okay?... Just give me the factors to make a decision on whether this person should be tortured or not. I don't trust my moral compass." Shigure uncertainly said.
"Hmm, this brings me to the root cause. You. Let's talk about it." Hawks clapped his hands. "Give me the mental profile you built of yourself. To help you, first, I need to understand you."
Shigure raised an eyebrow. "Bold of you to assume that I would let an unknown psychologist know me... this deeply."
"Hey, I am not going to give it to anybody else. I am going to check it out myself. A secret between two of us." Hawks pouted.
"Don't think you're qualified for that."
"I have the necessary licenses." Hawks showed the soft copy on his phone, which Shigure carefully examined.
"License means nothing without experience." Shigure shook his head.
"I have enough experience. I have even helped multiple pro heroes."
Shigure didn't believe him.
"Oh? Then would you mind answering some of my questions?"
---
Half an hour later.
"Okay, you certainly know more than I, but this doesn't mean you are an expert," Shigure admitted defeat.
"Well, so, will you give it now?"
"No. I don't trust you." Shigure shook his head.
The expertise excuse was just a deflection.
What Hawks was asking was basically who he was at a fundamental level. Normally, this is done by a psychologist with a patient over multiple sessions. That was also not as detailed as what Shigure had done.
'My self-awareness is good... Nah, I just had a lot of time to study myself.'
It's like letting someone read your core—no masks, no filters.
"Hmm, fair. Just let me know when you decide to trust me." Hawks didn't pursue him on the matter anymore. He knew that his request was a very personal one.
They drifted to safer topics— from the latest anime to the trending songs.
It was a staple conversation between otakus.
"By the way... back in the alley, I noticed something. You don't see people as people, do you? But rather as a source of entertainment. No?"
Silence stretched. Shigure tilted his head, a confused expression on his face.
"What do you mean?"
"Hmm, nothing. Just think of it as wild ramblings of an old man."
"Mhm"
'He's dangerous. For real.' For the first time since their meeting, Shigure looked at Hawks differently.
***
A/n- I think this is my first author note since starting this story. Anyway, Will try to keep it brief. Just read the bold italicised words if you don't wanna read the whole thing.
What do you think about Hawk's personality? I don't think I made him OOC, but that would be for you to judge, as after this, he will change. Shigure's existence would be making an impact on him. Not only him, but other characters too. Though how they would change is for you to find out.
The psychologist part was one that I created on my own as it did feel in alignment with Hawk's character, coz of his upbringing, his time as being trained to be Lady Nagant's successor and how he was able to infiltrate the League.
This will also allow the interaction between Hawks and Shigure to be interesting, as he has the highest chance to understand what Shigure exactly is.
Which brings us to the second part I want to address— Shigure.
I would be honest with you. I was pretty much clueless initially about how I wanted Shigure to be. I gave much thought to a normal person given the ability to have a time chamber.
Well... he would go insane, that's for sure. As much as I like reading those cultivation novels, I believe that it's quite ridiculous that those millennial-old cultivators are normally sane.
At least, my MC didn't have what it takes to remain completely normal.
Shigure has gone insane.
How? Well, you could already start seeing symptoms from ch4, but to clear it for you guys, Hawk's last statement was correct...mostly correct. That is also the reason for his Sadism, or his interactions with other people.
I won't comment much on it, but I need to clear up the sadism part in this fic. I think I went a bit too far with hitting balls again and again... It was pretty hard for me to write it, and I had to turn off the imagination part of my brain for a moment.
That's also the reason I added other elements(though I didn't describe them much) in the "beating" as... I think hitting a person on the balls repeatedly... is... Anyway, I will describe the torture in other ways too in the future.
The third thing is about the world. You have already seen this due to Ki's existence, yes, the world has more than robots. I kind of find it a plot hole in the original that they have combat robots, but not advanced AI.
Like, how are you expecting robots to operate on their own? Anyway, AI would be integrated in various workspaces, you would see that as you read the story, which brings me to the next point— Quirks vs Tech.
In the canon, tech has reached a point where a quirkless person could also be a hero. (Money)
This world would also reach that stage at some point, and seeing how it is more technologically advanced than the Cannon world, I introduced the concept of quirks having tiers to balance things out.
All quirks are not created equal.
Anyway, let's wrap this up here.
***
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