[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 22 - Hero Killer (Patreon)

AN: new chapter out. Enjoy!

⁂⁂⁂

Chapter 22 - Hero Killer

Previous chapter

"I'm going after the Hero Killer. I'm hunting down this bastard once and for all. Are you coming with me?" Mirko said, her face filled with fury and determination.

Naruto replied immediately:

"Count me in!"

⁂

With his face buried in the back of Mirko's neck, Naruto held on for dear life. The landscape became a blur of lights, and the wind pressure was so powerful that he was struggling to breathe. Her speed felt even faster than when she kidnapped him from UA High's stadium - just staying conscious was difficult.

A few minutes later, her sprint dropped to a more manageable speed as the skyscrapers of Tokyo appeared in their sight.

"Hold on tight," Mirko warned him, and then her thigh muscles almost doubled in size before she jumped.

In the next moment, despite the load she was carrying on her back, the Rabbit Hero jumped so high that Naruto felt as if they were flying. Half a dozen more jumps like these, and eventually Mirko stopped on the roof of a low-rise building.

"Hop off," she said, and Naruto quickly let himself fall on the rooftop floor.

While he was gasping for air and trying to get a hold of himself, Mirko jumped off the building, and straight down into the alleyway.

"Goddamnit! They're not here!" he heard her yelling, and he stood up on his feet with difficulty before coming to the edge of the building.

As the building was less than 10 floors tall, Naruto could see perfectly what was below... ...and the sight made his face stiffen. Three bodies were lying in a pool of blood.

Making use of his fox quirk's dexterity, he jumped down from one window sill to another until he landed safely on the street.

"They're dead," she said, and, in her anger, she almost smashed her telephone against the concrete.

She had followed the GPS location she had gotten from the Hero Network App, and she had run as fast as she could, but she was too late. The Hero Killer escaped from her once again.

Had it been another boy or girl his age, they would have most likely retched at the gory sight in front of them. But thanks to the memories of his past life, Naruto managed to keep his composure as he looked at the carved-up and mutilated corpses on the ground.

"Iida-kun..." he muttered as he recognized one of the dead bodies.

His glasses and helmet lying not far away, the boy's eyes were still open, and his face twisted in an expression of rage and anguish even in death.

"You knew him?" Mirko asked.

"He was my classmate," Naruto said.

"I won't let him get away. Not this time," she said, clenching her fist so hard that the veins on her forearms bulged out. "The bodies are still warm. He couldn't have gotten far. Let's split out and search for him."

"Yes," he said quietly, his eyes unknowingly turning into the red slits of a fox.

But before he could jump away, Mirko grabbed him by the arm and said:

"Don't engage him; he's too dangerous. If you find him, send me your location. I will come to you in an instant."

"Okay."

⁂

Climbing on the rooftop of the building, Naruto started sprinting and jumping from one building to another in a manner reminiscent of how he used to do it in his past life as a shinobi.

'What are the chances I'll find the Hero Killer? Several minutes must have passed from when they died until the moment we arrived.'

In a city as big as this, it was too easy for one person to disappear. Searching for just one person in Tokyo was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

However, as he made a large leap over a wide boulevard, his sensitive hearing caught a faint sound of gunshots.

His face betraying his surprise, Naruto's three fox tails twitched abruptly, and his body's position changed in midair before he landed on a light pole. Just a second later, he flung himself in the direction from which the gunshots had come.

⁂ A few minutes earlier ⁂

"Fuck! We're too late!" a black-haired boy swore and punched the wall in frustration.

"Keep your calm, Sasuke. I told you before, no matter what, always keep your emotions in check," a young man said before turning towards the third member of their team and asking:

"Kiba, can you track him down?"

The boy in question flared his nostrils as he walked around the crime scene, searching for a smell different from that of the dead bodies lying in the pool of blood on the ground.

"I got his scent. Follow me!" Kiba said and broke into a sprint, the inhuman speed at which he was running stirring winds in his wake.

"Slow down, you idiot, we can't keep up with you!" Sasuke shouted after him, but Kiba laughed and said over his shoulder:

"Gehehe. First come, first served. All the contributions on this mission will be mine!"

"Kiba!" their leader yelled after him too. "The Hero Killer is too dangerous for you to engage him alone! The plan was for you and Sasuke to take him on together!"

"Relax, Kinoto-sensei. You've seen what Uzumaki Naruto was capable of, haven't you? I'm even better than that!" he boasted confidently, and then his running speed increased even further, leaving the other two in the dust.

⁂

"Tsuga!" the Hero Killer suddenly heard a very loud scream coming from behind, but his honed battle instincts allowed him to duck just in time to see a human drill whirring past him and crashing into the wall of a building.

"Who the hell are you?" Stain said as he unsheathed his sword.

"You don't need to know, you'll be dead soon anyway," Kiba said, and threw himself at the Hero Killer, slashing with his clawed hands like a savage beast, seemingly not caring about his own safety.

Sparks and a sound like that of metal clashing came out of their collision, and Stain's chipped blade deteriorated even further at the contact with the dog boy's claws.

But after getting through Kiba's initial outburst, Stain weaved like a boxer through two of his wild claw swings and slashed with his sword upwards.

It was only the feral instincts and agility of his Dog Quirk that allowed Kiba to just barely twist his body and evade Stain's slash by the skin of his teeth.

'How is he so strong?'

Kiba was confused. According to the intel his team had received, Stain did not have any physically enhancing abilities. Instead, all the signs pointed towards him having a Quirk that allowed him to paralyze or immobilize his targets.

'How is he dodging and parrying all my attacks?!' Kiba growled. The more that the fight was prolonged, the angrier and more frustrated he became.

In truth, Kiba's strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and instincts were far beyond those of Stain. On paper, his stats should have allowed him to defeat the Hero Killer handily. However, in real life, as long as the difference in stats was not exaggerated, fighting skill and combat experience were often more important. Stain had been fighting and killing Pro Heroes for many years now. He had killed 17 Pro Heroes and crippled another 24 to the point where they had to retire. His experience and combat skills were far beyond those of a 15-year-old boy who had only started training seriously a few months ago.

"Just drop dead! Tsuga!" Kiba screamed and unleashed his super move against the Hero Killer once again.

But his move was too telegraphed and straightforward - Stain easily predicted it and stepped out of his trajectory.

"You won't be able to run away from me!" Kiba shouted and was about to throw himself at Stain once more, but he suddenly lost all feeling in his limbs and collapsed on the floor as stiff as a board.

When Kiba used his super move against him, Stain not only dodged, but he also counterattacked by slashing at the back of the "human drill", nicking his calf. Due to the adrenaline coursing through his veins, Kiba momentarily did not register the pain.

"B-Bastard! What did you do to me?" the dog boy screamed at him. His entire body was paralyzed, the only thing he could do was talk.

"I don't go out of my way to kill children, but you're the one who sought me out and attempted to kill me. If you're willing to take someone's life, be prepared for the scenario where you could lose yours too," Stain said and approached him at a leisurely pace, the chipped blade of his katana dripping with Kiba's red blood.

Raising his sword high up, Stain held its handle with both hands as he stabbed down.

But, at the very last moment, a kick smashed into the side of the Hero Killer's face and threw him away, the tip of his sword missing Kiba's throat by mere inches.

"Look at what you did, moron! You ran ahead and nearly got yourself killed," Sasuke said while panting for air.

He had run at his top speed trying to catch up to Kiba in time. Unlike Kiba, who had a superhuman body, Sasuke's physical capabilities were only those of a fit but average boy his age.

"What happened to you anyway?" Sasuke asked as he unsheathed the tanto strapped on his back and took a defensive stance in front of Kiba to protect him. Unlike the Dog Boy, he didn't throw himself at the Hero Killer, opting instead to wait for their leader's arrival.

"I don't know. I think he cut my leg, and I was paralyzed after that," Kiba said through gnashed teeth.

"This has to be the worst day in the entire year. All of you, heroes, just keep popping up one after another!" Stain said, his voice filled with killing intent as he rubbed at his sore jaw. "No matter. Whether it's one or two kids, it's all the same."

The two tomoe in Sasuke's red eyes started spinning wildly as the Hero Killer lunged at him.

Kiba could only watch helplessly as his teammate fought all alone against Stain, inwardly filled with all sorts of mixed feelings. On one hand, he was relieved he didn't die and he was glad to see Sasuke was holding his own against the Hero Killer. But on the other hand, he was frustrated that he had lost so easily and that Sasuke was fighting better than him.

Unlike Kiba, who relied on his Dog Quirk's athleticism and fought with the simple plan of just overwhelming his opponent with a burst of savage attacks, Sasuke was calm and calculated, predicting and defending against every single one of Stain's moves. His quirk gave him the ability to predict someone's actions based on the subtle movements of their muscles, and he could also copy their moves and perform them perfectly after seeing them just once. In a show of fighting skills unusual for someone as young as him, Sasuke was more than holding his own against the older and much more experienced Stain - and he even started to slowly push him back.

Sparks came out as Stain's chipped katana clashed against Sasuke's blade, and the boy was forced to take a step back lest he got blown away by the physically stronger man. But he could not afford to get himself locked in a battle of strength with him, so he suddenly disengaged and jumped back. Taking out a hidden revolver strapped to his thigh, Sasuke fired all five shots in its chamber in quick succession.

"Shit!" Stain cursed and jumped to the side in desperation.

However, he had not been fast enough because he had not expected the sword-wielding kid to suddenly pull out a gun on him - especially with how stringent the gun laws were in Japan. Nevertheless, his dodging attempt had not been completely useless. Out of the five bullets Sasuke had fired at Stain's chest, only one found its mark, and it was in a non-vital area, in his right bicep.

Although Sasuke's revolver was now out of bullets, Stain did not have any illusions about his chances of winning. With a bullet in his right arm, he couldn't wield his katana properly anymore.

'And the dog kid is going to be released from paralysis soon too.'

Reaching that conclusion, Stain suddenly turned tail and broke into a run.

"Great job, Sasuke," their leader, who had been spectating the battle from the side, came out of his hiding place and said. "Kiba, we will be having some words when we go back to the base. For now, Sasuke, stay here with him and call an ambulance. I'll go after Stain myself."

Leaving those words behind, Kinoto broke into a run after the Hero Killer.

⁂

When Naruto arrived at the place where the gunshots had come from, he couldn't hide his surprise when he saw the appearance of the two boys lying down on the street - Kiba due to his paralysis and Sasuke due to exhaustion.

"Kiba?! Is that you?" Naruto asked.

Before regaining the memories of his previous life, Naruto and Kiba used to be best friends. But after Naruto enrolled at UA High, he lost all contact with him.

"Naruto?! What are you doing here?" Kiba asked, his voice showing that he was just as surprised as he was.

"I'm in the middle of my internship with Mirko, the Rabbit Hero. I heard some gunshots and came to see what happened."

"Tsk." Kiba clicked his tongue in annoyance. Of all people, Naruto was the last person he wanted to see while he was in such a pathetic state. "We just fought against the Hero Killer-"

"Our mission is supposed to be secret, you fucking idiot!" Sasuke suddenly cut him off and shouted.

If Naruto was surprised by Sasuke's unexpectedly vulgar way of speaking, he didn't show it.

"Hero Killer? Damn! Where is he now?"

Completely ignoring Sasuke's rebuke, Kiba answered Naruto's question honestly:

"He escaped through that alley at 9 o'clock. But don't bother chasing him down, our team leader went after him."

"Thanks a lot, Kiba," Naruto said, and his body appeared to become weightless as he started running upward on the wall, defying gravity for more than 10 meters before jumping out on the wall of the building opposite, thus climbing up on top of the building in a matter of seconds.

"So you're saying you're stronger than him, huh?" Sasuke said snidely as he watched the fox boy's silhouette blur out of sight. "You're so full of shit, Kiba."

"Shut up, asshole! I was stronger than him in middle school! Besides, we haven't fought now so we don't know for sure who'd win," Kiba shouted, his face flushing in both annoyance and embarrassment at having been caught lacking.

"Whatever lets you sleep at night."

"Just wait until this paralysis is gone; I'll beat the crap out of you!" Kiba roared.

"Yeah, yeah, now be quiet. I've gotta call the ambulance to take your bleeding ass to the hospital."

"Fuck you!"

"I don't swing that way, dog boy. But I wouldn't mind if it was your dear elder sister who told me that haha!"

"SASUKEEE!"

⁂

Even as he ran after the Hero Killer, the last bits of conversation he caught between Kiba and Sasuke made him snort. Had he not been pressed for time, he would have liked to catch up with Kiba and become acquainted with this world's Sasuke. But pursuing the Hero Killer was far more important.

'What did Kiba get himself into? Sasuke said something about them being on a mission... Are they part of another Hero Course high school too? ... But freshmen shouldn't be sent out on missions without a Pro Hero to supervise them, and they would definitely not be sent after the Hero Killer. Not everyone is as crazy as Mirko to take kids with them when chasing down an unhinged killer...'

But he put those thoughts aside and took out his phone.

"I'm pursuing the Hero Killer now. I'm also sending you the location along with this voice message. As I'm speaking, Stain is in the middle of a fight with a black-haired man wearing a white mask and wielding two daggers."

Once he was done sending the voice message and his location, Naruto put his phone away and got closer to the battle. As Mirko had asked him to, he did not engage the Hero Killer and waited for her arrival. It was not that he was scared - based on what he could see from the ongoing battle between Stain and the masked man, Naruto was more than confident that he could beat the living daylights out of someone like Stain. But he wanted to listen to Mirko's orders. Therefore, unless the Hero Killer somehow turned the situation around and it looked like the masked person was going to die, he was not going to intervene.

Naruto didn't have to wait for long. Merely a few seconds later, a sonic boom made Naruto's fox ears flinch from pain, and all the windows of the cars and buildings in a radius of 60 feet cracked.

In the next moment, he was stunned as he watched how Mirko's whirlwind kick smashed into Stain's head with such force that he was decapitated, his skull blowing up like a watermelon in a shower of blood and gore.

"Holy shit!" Naruto muttered in shock.

Even the masked man was momentarily stunned. He had been in the middle of an unexpectedly tough battle against the Hero Killer when an extremely loud sound made him almost lose his sense of hearing. The next thing he knew, his enemy's head exploded in a shower of blood, splattering all over his mask and clothes.

The even more macabre sight was how, even after being decapitated, the Hero Killer's corpse continued standing straight on its feet, blood gushing out of its severed neck like a geyser.

⁂

Wiping away the blood from her face with the sleeve of the orange hoodie she had borrowed from Naruto, Mirko turned towards the masked individual who had been battling with the Hero Killer.

"I'm Mirko, the Rabbit Hero. Who are you?" she asked calmly, as if she had not brutally killed someone just moments ago.

Unexpectedly, the man's voice seemed just as steady and collected as hers when he replied.

"I'm with the Hero Public Safety Commission. I was tasked with chasing down and apprehending the Hero Killer," he said, showing her the badge attached to the inside of the chest area of his jacket.

Nevertheless, despite how calm the masked man seemed to be outward, to Mirko's extremely fine sense of hearing, it was as clear as day that his heart was drumming in his chest.

"I see," she said curtly before taking out her phone and calling the police.

But when she looked up from her phone, the masked man was nowhere to be seen, a faint cloud of black smoke was the only thing left in his place.

⁂

Later that evening, after dealing with all the legal procedures following the use of deadly force by a Pro Hero in the field, Mirko came into the waiting room at the police station where Naruto was waiting for her.

She sat down next to him, and for a few seconds, nobody said anything.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Mirko said after a while, her red eyes looking at his face searchingly.

"You did the right thing," Naruto said easily and shrugged.

"Was it not too much for your first day in the field?" she asked, her voice uncertain.

Truthfully, she had not planned on making her first pupil witness that side of her that early into their relationship. But she had been pursuing the Hero Killer for nearly a year, failing to catch him again and again, always ending up coming to the scene only to see people's carved-up bodies lying in a lake of blood on the ground.

"The Hero Killer just murdered my classmate, he deserved what he got and more. I would've done the same," he said, his hands clenched into fists.

He couldn't understand why would anyone kill a kid. What had Mineta Minoru and Teniya Iida done to deserve such a fate? Or what had Eri done to deserve being tortured by her own family? His heart was burning with anger at the injustice of it all.

But his train of thought was stopped when he felt Mirko ruffle his hair.

"You're a strange kid," she said. "The way I killed Stain wasn't-... it wasn't a pretty sight. Most people would go into shock from seeing something as extreme as that. Are you truly not rattled at all?"

"I'm fine," Naruto said and shrugged. "More importantly, are you okay? Aren't you going to get in trouble with the law?"

"Look at you, so cool and collected that you even have the leisure to worry about my well-being," she said teasingly. "Generally, Pro Heroes are discouraged from using lethal force against Villains. But it's not like it's completely forbidden to kill them. Hmm, wait, that sounded wrong," she said and put a hand on her chin as she tried to find a better explanation to not make him misunderstand.

"Pro Heroes need to apprehend Villains while trying their best to avoid killing or maiming them. However, even a fistfight between quirkless people could lead to someone's accidental death, all the more when there are quirks involved; accidents do happen sometimes. That said," she continued, "the use of lethal force is allowed against the villains in cases of self-defence or if the villains are directly putting someone's life in danger. For example, in a hostage situation, the Pro Heroes would not be prosecuted for using lethal force against the Villains in order to rescue to hostages. There are more clauses and laws for special situations, but you will learn more about them in school in your 2nd and 3rd years when you will be working full-time as a sidekick during the internship. As a rule of thumb, though, lethal force is a last resort."

As the two left the police station together, Naruto couldn't help asking once more just to make sure:

"So, killing Stain won't get you in trouble?"

"Not a chance. My bank account is even going to get a hefty sum of money soon, there was a huge bounty on Stain's head. The Hero Killer murdered 17 Heroes- no, it's 20 with the three victims from today - and crippled another 24. He was a vicious serial killer, someone too dangerous to be left alive. That masked man that you saw fighting against the Hero Killer was, in fact, tasked to kill Stain by the Hero Public Safety Commission themselves."

"The Hero Public Safety Commission? Weren't they just a bureaucratic organization that regulated the Hero Agencies on behalf of the government? Since when are they assassinating people?"

The Rabbit Hero let out a snort at his question.

"On the paper, yes. But the HPSC isn't as simple and harmless as the public thinks it is. I won't go into details, as there are ears everywhere around us," she said and gestured to all the passersby on the street. "But take this advice seriously: as much as possible, avoid interacting directly with them. Find a good Hero Agency and don't let yourself get entangled by the HPSC's schemes and machinations."

"I see," Naruto acknowledged. "Are we going back to Hiroshima now?"

She shook her head.

"We can't. You have an appointment tomorrow with a therapist."

"I have a what now?"

"It's standard procedure for all students participating in Hero Internships to be examined by a psychologist after witnessing someone's death for the first time in the field."

"But I told you I'm fine!" Naruto said in annoyance.

"Hey, don't argue with me!" she said and raised her hands as if to show it had nothing to do with her. "That's what the rules are. If you don't like them, take it to those old fogeys at the HPSC. Anyway, that is tomorrow. For now, I need to buy some clean clothes - all this blood attracts too much attention. We also need to get some dinner and find a hotel room for the night too."