Die a Hero Chapter 3: The Paths we Choose (Patreon)

A/N: Don't forget to read chapter 2 directly below this post!

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“A hero examination?”

I looked up from my notes. Saitama had scavenged me a kneeling table like the one he had in his apartment. It wasn’t a desk, but at least I had somewhere to work on the bills, such as they were. Of course, Saitama and Genos forgot about the whole thing as soon as they gave me the money.

“Yes.” Genos nodded. “Sensei is not currently a registered hero, which is why many people assumed he was a villain. To rectify that, both of us intend to take the hero examination today and formally register with the Hero Association.”

“Hero Association, huh.” I leaned back, bracing my one hand against the floor. I noticed that Genos’s yellow on black eyes tracked my stump arm, though at least he had the courtesy not to say anything about it. “They’re the big leagues?”

“It seems so.” He folded his arms. “Though my databanks are far from comprehensive, it appears that most nonaffiliate groups fail before gaining any public traction. Heroism is a difficult business.”

That, or the Association played hardball. I frowned at the thought. “Surely the two of you are strong enough that things like ‘recognition’ don’t matter.”

“Yes.” Genos said, again. “However, additional funds and support, while superfluous for Sensei, would still be helpful for someone on my level.”

I felt the urge to scratch the back of my head. “I think you’re selling yourself a bit short, Genos.” I smiled. “Didn’t you threaten to blast me off the walkway when we first met? Doesn’t seem like you need help to take on ‘dangerous villains,’”

Genos coughed. I couldn’t help but wonder if those reactions were genuine or something he did to see more human. “Ah, that was very rude of me, please allow me to apologize again.”

I leaned forward, waving my hand. “I’m just teasing you.” I smiled at him a little wider. “Though the point still stands. It doesn’t feel like someone like you would need help any more than Saitama.”

“There is more in heaven and Earth, Horatio.” He began.

Shakespeare? “Than is dreamt of in your philosophy.” I didn’t even know that he existed in this reality. I guess the more things change…

Based on his expression, Genos was just as surprised as me. “I did not take you for a fan of classic literature.”

“Isn’t that my line?” I gave a wry laugh. “My mother was a literature professor. Of course I grew up with books like that.”

He gave a short bow. “My apologies, I have not truly studied the classics, but I have access to a wealth of information due to the operation that saved my life.”

I shrugged. “Knowing is half the battle, as they say.” I glanced off to the side. “If you’d like, I’d be happy to study them with you. Help you get back in touch with your human side.”

He opened his mouth to refuse, but I waved my hand back and forth in front of me. “I know you’re busy today and you have hero things to do, but I’d just thought—”

“I would be happy to.” Genos said.

I paused, before chuckling again. “I really made a fool out of myself, didn’t I.”

“It does not seem that way to me.” If he were any less earnest, I might have been offended. Instead, I had to hold back a smile. “Still, I thank you for the offer. I… do not understand the necessity, but the doctor also says I should pay more attention to my human side. Studying the great works of literature seems like an excellent place to start.”

Despite myself, I grinned. “It’s a date.”

Genos sputtered.

Quite literally at that, with a small plume of sparks and smoke coming from somewhere inside his chassis. “A… date?”

“Hm?” I pushed myself to my feet, suddenly feeling rather energetic. “It’s just a figure of speech.” I patted him on the shoulder and rested my hand against the smooth, hard planes of his chest. “I look forward to studying with you.”

“Ah… Yes, of course.” Genos bowed again. “Now if you’ll excuse me?”

“Go, go.” I waved my hand. “By the looks of it, I’ll have to head into City Y or even up to City R to find someone willing to work on this stuff in person.” I gave a sigh. “the calls are getting me nowhere.”

“If you’d like… I could take you there on my way to the association’s testing site.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Would Saitama be fine with that?”

This time Genos did smile. “Regardless of what I do, Sensei will always be held back by me. So, I should at the very least focus on his other teachings.”

I smiled back. “What a dedicated student. You’ll be a great hero, Genos. I can already tell.”

He blinked, taken aback.

I just laughed. “Come on, use that cybernetically enhanced brain of yours.” I waved to the remains of my right arm. “I didn’t get this from being just a bystander.”

“… I would never suggest that.” His eyes flicked back and forth from my arm to me. He opened his mouth to speak, but a knock on the door cut us off.

“Oi, Genos! Why are you taking so long in there?”

At once, he straightened, game face coming back on. “On my way, Sensei.” He half turned towards the door. “Shall we go, Miss Taylor?”

I sighed again, casting one last glance to the pile of papers on the table. Still, for real heroes, a little bit of housekeeping was the least I could do. Not that it would come close to balancing out the weight of my sins.

A hero exam, huh? Maybe doing things the right way wouldn’t be as bad, or as difficult, as I’d first assumed.

“Sure.” I pushed myself to my feet. “Let’s jet.”

Well, first I had to make sure my house didn’t fall down.

“Now that is a figure of speech that I fully comprehend.”

Genos opened the door and we both stepped out into the hall. Saitama blinked once at me, tilting his head sideways in a silent question.

“Sensei!” Genos stepped forward smartly. “Please go ahead without me. I will convey Miss Taylor safely to one of the other districts, so she can see about repairs. I will catch up with you at the testing site.”

Saitama blinked again, before a sly smirk formed on his face.

“Hey, Genos.”

“Yes, Sensei?”

Saitama gave a thumbs up. “Nice work!”

Genos did not move. I could practically see the gears churning in his head.

I leaned over against his shoulder, cupping a hand against my mouth. “He thinks you’re making a move on me.”

“I do not understand.” Genos turned towards me, blinking once at my sudden proximity. Geez, you’d think a cyborg this built out would have better… spatial awareness.

I shared a glance with Saitama, as we both struggled to hold in our laughter. “It’s… not important.” I shrugged. “Why don’t we just get a move on.”

Saitama leaned forward, thumbs up somehow—impossibly—growing bigger in my field of view. “You have my blessing!” Thanks, Saitama. I really needed that.

Genos just nodded. “This way please.” He moved towards the railing, while Saitama waved. “If you could climb onto my back, I’ll see about getting you to your destination. City R you said?”

I climbed up, wrapping my arm around his neck as his hands grabbed my legs. Thank god I’d switched out of my black villain dress for a pair of sensible pants. “City R would be the best. Anything closer probably won’t have the people.”

What went unsaid was that anything farther away probably wouldn’t bother sending anyone in the first place.

“I understand.” Genos clicked his heels against the ground once, the roar of rocket engines spooking up as we launched out into the open air.

And then we were flying.

I didn’t realize I was laughing until we’d already cleared the cordon of fencing around city Z. “Sorry.” I brought my giggles under control, but I couldn’t do anything about my grin.

Genos smiled as well.

It’d been too long since I’d been in the sky. People always said that flying was something that words could not describe. As someone who’d had the luck to fly more than once under my own power—quite literally in some cases—that was one statement I could wholeheartedly agree with. So, I’ll save the time and just say:

It was everything I remembered and more.

“You’re handling this very well.” Genos angled forward to pick up speed. “Most people are not so comfortable in the air.”

I shrugged, pressing myself against the warm metal of his back. The wind whipped past, sending my hair out in streamers behind me. “I’m not most people, I guess.”

Genos nodded. “That seems quite correct.”

I laughed. “You really know how to talk to a girl, Genos. Saitama should keep a better eye on you.”

“Sensei knows where I am most of the time, I imagine.”

Well, he probably could, if he cared to. But Saitama didn’t seem the type.

Genos treated the man like he was some sort of unconquerable deity. I’d seen people who behaved like that before, about Legend or Alexandria. I supposed it was good for him, to have a hero, and to meet them.

I hoped it turned out better for him in the long run than it had for me.

“Shall I drop you off here?”

“Hmm?” I glanced down. We were over a dense clump of buildings that looked like they belonged to businesses. “Yes, this looks fine, I’m sure I can find my way from here.”

With a twist in the air, Genos angled his thrusters downward and slowly lowered us to the sidewalk. The pedestrians parted, but seeing as they resumed their day after a few moments when Genos didn’t start firing off lasers indiscriminately and proclaiming the ascendancy of the machine race… well, let’s just say the Villains of this world really had no depth.

I wondered how much of that was just that the monsters of this world tended to be monsters, with misshapen bodies and twisted minds, and how much was the Hero Organization’s suppression of all other crime except for the sudden eruptions of violence for which there could be no prediction.

It was with that cheery thought that I waved Genos goodbye. “Good luck on the hero exam.”

“I do not think Sensei or I will need it.” Genos flexed his hands, sending out another wave of air pressure as he lifted up into the air. “But I will tell him you said so all the same.”

I chuckled, shaking my head as he blasted off.

He really was one of a kind wasn’t he.

“Wow... is he your boyfriend?”

I turned to the side, catching sight of a young woman gawking up at Genos as he flew through the sky.

“Boyfriend?” l laughed. “No, he’s just a friend, my next door neighbor actually.”

“I wish my neighbor was like that.”

“Well you might be in luck.” I smiled at her, as her gaze came back down to earth. “The apartment complex we’re both staying at might be open soon, there are just some renovations that need to happen first.”

Genos also told me that he’d take care of the legal ownership thing, which seemed like it was going to be a real hassle, but apparently this world had very different rules when it came to ownership in condemned districts.

In that case, possession was ten tenths of the law.

“I actually could use some help figuring out where to go, if you know where any construction firms are? I need to talk to some people.”

“Oh sure! There are quite a few down this street to the left.” She pointed happily. “Where’s the apartment complex, by the way?”

I could tell she was tempted, which only made her sudden change of heart all the more obvious when I told her, “City Z.”

“O-oh, really?” She took a step back, poking her fingers together nervously. Her eyes, I noticed, latched onto my missing arm. “That’s p-pretty far from where I work.”

I just smiled. “I understand. It’s a bit of a dangerous place. But Genos and the other hero who lives there are working to change that.” I shrugged. “In any case, first we need to get the place fixed up, so thanks for the help.”

The woman just gave a nervous little nod as I walked past her. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take very long to find someone willing to take a risk for a little profit. It’s not like I needed much, just an audit and maybe some people who were willing to cart in materials.

Of course, I thought with a frown, when it came to jobs like this, it was never that easy.

I was proven right several times over the next hour.

“City Z, are you out of your mind?”

A few people were put off by my own appearance.

“No way in hell, Lady! Now stop wasting my time.”

But no matter how much money I waved in the air…

“Hahaha! Wait, you weren’t joking.”

The Words ‘City Z’ made everyone laugh, or stare, or just kick me out of the offices all together. I combed through the entire industrial park before hearing:

“I’ll do it.”

“Oh, thank fuck!”

The sleazy looking man in front of me was the last on my list, after combing through every reputable looking company in City R. He blinked at me in surprise, but his easy smile came back a moment later.

“Yeah, see, I know how it is. Us… little guys have to stick together.”

I was less on board with his little ‘we’re the same you and I’ play, but I’d take what I could get. “So, when will you be able to get someone out there to audit?”

“Depends… depends…” He waved a hand nebulously. “We have a lot of work on our plate right now. Of course, pay up front and we’ll push you up the queue.”

I raised an eyebrow. “A lot of work. Right.” The building was empty, I’d counted six trucks for six parking spots in the back lot. “How about you give me a date, and then we can start talking about payment.”

He shrugged. “Sorry, but that’s not gonna fly with the boss, you know. We gotta have some form of investment before we send out people out to City Z, you know.”

I sighed, the hard sell right away, was it?

“What happened to needing to stick together?”

“Of course, of course!” He smiled, pushing himself up from his desk. Behind me, I felt two of the burly men by the door step forward as well. “You do your part, and we’ll do ours, you see?”

“And would that be before or after you wring me dry of every cent you can get your grubby little hands on.”

The man’s grin just grew wider. “Well if you want to skip to the good part...”

“Yes.” I waved my hand. A blast of force threw the two men behind me backwards. They fell to the ground with a dull thump and didn’t move.

Sleazebag stumbled backwards in surprise. “W-what did you do?!”

I just sighed again. “You’d think that people in this world would be more discerning about who they decided to threaten.”

“Stay back!” He went for his gun. With a flex of will, it flew from his grip and into mine. I hummed, looking it over. Cocking it with my power was easy enough. And it was one of those compact models designed to be fired with one hand.

That was, of course, the extent to which I knew about guns.

“As for you.” I walked forward. I’d had a few days to relax and rest my power, so right now, I was running with a full tank. “Why don’t you take me to this ‘boss’ of yours. The big one.”

I pressed my fingers to his forehead, and the fight went out of him.

Really, I hated using this side of my power. It reminded me too much of being Khepri. But at least this time I knew people could resist, that they could beat me.

It just so happened that Sleazebag here had no willpower at all.

Instead of putting up any resistance, the man just turned, leading me deeper into the building at my mental command. He pressed a button hidden in an old antique clock, causing it to slide back to reveal a secret passage. I raised an eyebrow as he proceeded down the stairs.

What kind of mess was I about to walk into this time?

Still, in for a penny, in for a pound. I followed my thrall down the hidden basement.

Nothing legal ever happened in a hidden basement.

Unsurprisingly, there were a few dozen men down there. Most of them, big burly ‘think less, break more’ types, were scattered around the edges. In the middle, hunched over a table and under a single low ceiling lamp, were three men I immediately pegged as mob bosses.

They had the whole shebang: the cigars, the rolled-up sleeves, the ‘procured’ blueprints rolled out over the table in front of them. Really, they couldn’t have made it more obvious if they started talking about how one day, they’d approach me for a favor.

The one in the center, a big man with hams for fists and a matching handlebar mustache, glanced up as we walked into the room. “Saito? Who the fuck is this?”

I stepped forward, pushing Saito to the side. “Hello.” I smiled at the three men. “I’m here to request an auditor for my apartment building. If you could put your extracurricular activities on hold for a second, I’d be happy to get out of your hair.”

Mustache glanced back and forth between me and the man standing limply at my side. “Ice the bitch.”

I sighed. Always with the escalation.

The toughs around the room began to move.

But I was faster.

A single gunshot rang out, and mustache fell to the ground, blood leaking from his ear canals.

The room froze, not from the gunshot, but because it wasn’t my gun that had fired.

The second in charge, so named in my mind for having the second largest mustache, held out the literally smoking gun. Then, as the room stared in abject shock, his arm moved and pressed the barrel against his own head.

“Really, I just wanted someone to do a bit of renovation.” I lifted off the ground, floating forward to rest on the table in the center of the room. “But since you insist, I suppose I’ll take control of your organization instead.”

I gave a derisive once over to the scribbled lines on the blueprints next to my hip. “This stupid little scheme of yours would have failed anyway.”

Naturally, there wasn’t much more argument after that.

Later, I was dropped off back at the apartment complex by one of the company cars. The ‘Triple R Triad’ as they called themselves, were more than eager to hop to once I’d laid down the law. “Thank you for the lift, boys.”

“Of course, miss Taylor.” That was Saito. He wasn’t under my power anymore, but he knew who held his leash. “Shall I get started on the audit?”

“Focus on the essential things. Structural integrity, access. The interiors of various apartments we’ll tackle another day.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Miss Taylor.” I glanced up, just in time to see Genos land on the sidewalk beside me. Saito stiffened, but I waved him off.

“Genos!” I smiled. “How did the exam go?” The sun was already starting to set, so no surprise they’d made it back before me.

“Well. For me at least.” Genos nodded to himself. “I was granted S-rank hero status.”

I blinked. “Not bad, but… what about Saitama?”

Genos paused, eyes flicking over to the side. “Sensei had no references, so despite his power… they granted him C rank status.”

I placed my head in my hand. “Really? The lowest rank?”

“I am sure that after Sensei is given the chance to prove himself, he will rise quickly to a status more befitting of his ability.”

“Yeah.” I said. He clearly didn’t have any experience with how bureaucracy worked. “Let’s go with that.”

So much for being a hero.

Genos nodded. “We’re going out to eat after this, Sensei mentioned noodle buckets.”

I just shook my head. “I’d love to come, but…”

I had things I needed to get done sometime before the heat death of the universe.