Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 269 SEARCH AND RESCUE

“At the last party I was able to get some information on the whole quirk doping thing,” Midnight admitted. 

“And I’m hearing about it now because…”

“Do you really need to ask?” She asked, giving me a side eye as she drove us through the city. 

“Oh right, Madix,” I said. It had been a while since that had happened for me. “What happened with her anyway?”

“She went back to the States,” Midnight said. “I’m really proud of you, you know. I’ve seen more than a few guys become her happy slaves.”

“I mean it was good, but that’s not really how I roll,” I said with a shrug. “There’s someone much more mature I had my eye on.” I gave her my most obvious look. 

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Midnight asked, squinting her eyes. 

“She’s into it,” I assured. 

“You’re 16. Sorry, I’m not into breaking the law,” she said. 

“So there’s a chance when I’m 18?” I asked, a wide smile on my face. 

She mumbled something under her breath then continued. “Anyway, I was told a local Yakuza was manufacturing and distributing the quirk doping drug. After review the Yakuza was in the territory of Nighteye. So I gave him the information and he decided to run with it.”

“And he gets all the glory?” I asked. 

“Weston, I am not an ‘on the news’ type of hero,” Midnight said. “I listen where these other people cannot. I get told a lot of bad stuff and keep my ear to the ground. If I hear anything then I let local heroes know. If something happens around me, then I step in. But that is rare. This is not a job we do for glory.”

“You know, I respect the hell out of you,” I said truthfully. 

“What?” She asked, distracted as she drove. 

“The other day I was asked if All Might was my favorite hero. I said no. You’re a much better hero in my eyes. Everyone knows him. They yell out his name when he passes. Cry for him when they need help. But you don’t do it for attention. You do it because it’s the right thing to do. I at least wanted you to know that I appreciate what you do.” She was quiet for a long while as she drove. I thought I saw some tears in her eye, but she wiped it away as she continued staring forward. 

“Whatever,” she mumbled. Taking a calming breath her voice cracked as she continued. “We are going to Bangkok,” she said. 

“Bangkok?!” I asked, that was news to me. 

“Yes, there was a large diamond heist here in Japan a few years back. Some of the diamonds stolen resurfaced there. Since only the rich and famous can afford them I will be posing as a prospective buyer. And trust me. I will need a bodyguard.”

“Great,” I said, having to change more plans. I had hoped we were staying closer. “And we will only be gone for 4 days?”

“Yes, we might have to go back if we don’t find anything.”

“What about my passport? I didn’t bring it.”

“Check the glovebox,” she said, a smile on her lips. 

I opened it to reveal an envelope. Inside were a few documents. One was a passport with my face on it, but not my real name. “Shin Togata?” I asked. 

“We can’t have Weston Watanabe flying with me,” she said. After some more details we arrived at the airport. I had expected a large international airport but it was a small private one. She parked and we were soon walking right out to the tarmac. 

“There are some perks working with me,” she said, pointing to a large private plane. “We don’t have to fly economy class.”

“Very nice,” I said. She walked forward talking to who I guessed was the pilot. I walked over to the plane and pretended to inspect it. When I was out of sight I created a shadow clone. Moving shadow chakra in front of me to hide my main body I disrobed from the suit and my clone dressed in it quickly. 

Putting on my hero costume I ran around and was soon out of sight. My clone would last for a while and could help her with whatever she needed. I couldn’t be gone for 4 days because I knew that big events were happening around me. And I had to train. 

Catching a cab the driver took me to my house. Not the house where my dad lived out in the country but the house I bought months ago. It was a 2 story with a small garage. Close to the school I hadn’t spent a bunch of time there. But it was for the future when things went to crap. 

After checking on everything to make sure nothing was out of place I got to the garage and jumped in my nice new car. It wasn’t anything too fancy. Muscle cars weren’t so much of a thing in Japan. A small economy, it was good enough for what I needed it for. 

Focusing on my target with my Search quirk I headed off to wherever the hell she was. Joining traffic I was quickly out of the city and off toward the outskirts of town. 

Once the concrete jungle turned into more greenery I felt her becoming closer. Jumping on roads that took me far away from her I regretted driving instead of running for the 10th time as I backtracked multiple times. 

Eventually I found my location, and to be honest it was a little much. The small building was painted bright pink and had the face of a cat over the front door. The entrance was the cat’s teeth and the main part of the building was a body. 

As I parked out front I noticed someone I hadn’t seen in a while. Throwing a ball against a wall the short kid with the red hat didn’t notice me until I was upon him. 

“Hey Khota,” I said. 

“Weston?!” He asked as he recognized me. A smile on his lips. 

“It’s me,” I said. 

“I heard they saved you from being kidnapped,” Khota said. 

“Oh that was more of a vacation. You really think someone could kidnap me?” I asked. He smiled wider. Some tears in his eyes as he shook his head. Like an unspoken agreement he didn’t say anything about my other persona. I was happy that he kept his promise. 

“How are you doing?” I asked. 

“Better,” he admitted. “You saved Rag-“

“I didn’t save anyone,” I said quickly. “Let’s not talk about that.” I gave him a stern look and he nodded. He had seen me kill Muscular and change from the Villain Slayer into Weston. He had promised not to say anything, and so far he had kept his word. Since Muscular had killed his parents, I guessed Khota wanted the guy dead more than I had.

“School start up for you yet?” I asked. So I talked to him for a few minutes about this or that. Asking about his life. He really did seem like a different kid. Not as angry anymore. No more hating on heroes. 

I felt bad that it took getting revenge for him to feel that way. But I was preventing Batman’s from being made. Cheap knockoff Batman’s since no one had the Wayne’s money to blow. 

“Hey I was hoping to talk to Ragdoll. Is she in?” 

“Uh sure,” Khota said. He led me inside a side door and the interior was as bright as the exterior. Pinks, light blues, yellows, pinkish-purple, inside was painted a mix between an 8 year old girl’s dream bedroom and Barbie’s house. 

“What’s up Khota?” Mandalay asked. She was Khota’s guardian after his parents were killed. “Oh hi, Weston, right?”

“That’s right. I was hoping to talk to Ragdoll,” I said. 

“Ragdoll!” She yelled down the brightly colored children’s doctor’s office painted hallway. 

The green haired girl came running down the hall. In her cat gear she wore metal ears, a waist attachment for a tail and her dress. 

“What’s up?” She asked excitedly. One of her eyes had a red ring around it, making her appear a little mad. I hadn’t had much interaction with her at camp but I had met her. I had originally thought of meeting her as the Villain Slayer but I was worried she could tell who she was talking to with her quirk. 

“Hey, I’m Weston. I was at the summer camp a few weeks ago. I was hoping to talk to you about your quirk.”

“What about it?” She asked, almost playful as if we were going to the park afterward. 

“My quirk deals with energy. I’ve recently been able to feel certain energies and figured out they were people that I knew. I heard your quirk can identify people. I was hoping to ask how yours worked, to see if it was similar.”

“Oh sure,” she said, grabbing my hand. Pulling me to a large pillow that resembled a cat bed she laid down on one side while directing me to lay on the other. I did so reluctantly. 

“So my quirk is called Search,” she said without any prompting. “I can keep track of up to 100 people at any given time.”

“What do you have to do to be able to find them?”

“Usually just meeting them is good enough. Sometimes hearing them say their name, others after a handshake. When I close my eyes,” she said, closing her eyes. “I can feel them. Back in the day I had to think about them to get it to activate. Now I keep it active at all times. I can feel where people are. Know they’re safe and most anything.”

“So you can sense health of your targets?”

“Oh no, I wish. But if they die I can’t sense them anymore. It’s a sad day when I can’t feel someone any longer.”

“What’s the range?” 

“No idea. It grows. But the further away the more blurry it is. Like Aizawa. I know he’s in that general direction. And I’d guess somewhere between 40 to 100 miles away.”

“So you can judge distance?”

“Kind of,” she said, but didn’t elaborate. 

“Can you sense anything else? Like emotions?”

“I can sense weaknesses,” she said happily. “Like one time we were training and I knew that Mandalay was dehydrated. So I got her some water and she was super thankful.”

“Weaknesses?” I asked. “So if they’re needing something?”

“Kind of. That was a rare instance where I knew what someone needed. I can really feel…their wants and needs, maybe?” She asked. 

“So like I’ve been dehydrated before. I knew what it felt like. I was able to identify that. But then one time we were fighting this villain that was setting forest fires. I found him first and he did this long spiel about why he was a villain. Then he introduced himself and I could use my quirk on him. Somehow I instinctively knew that he was favoring his left side. I couldn’t see it. That wasn’t something I’d be able to notice. But from the quirk I could tell that he had hurt his right side. Turned out a big branch fell on him before I got there. He was pretty banged up.”

“Sorry, I’m not explaining it so good,” she said, losing some of her energy. 

“No, I think I understand,” I said. “If someone is going through something. If you know the feeling and what you felt like when you went through it. You can kind of relate? See a similarity between your own feelings at that time and their current feelings?”

“Maybe?” She asked. “Sorry, I don’t use that part of my quirk all that often.”

“It’s fine. Anything else you can tell with your power?” 

“I don’t think so. It’s really great to know where my friends are. But I’m usually at the back,” she admitted. 

“Oh one more thing,” I said. I used Zetsu to hide my Nen. This was the technique Hisoka had used to hide from my Haki. Keeping your lifeforce hidden inside of you. “Can you sense me with your quirk right now?”

She looked at me then frowned. “No, I can’t,” she said. “That’s weird. That’s never happened before. How’d you do that?”

“Just keeping energy in my body. Part of my quirk,” I assured. I was soon out the door and back off to the city to train. Back during the camping trip I’d been hitting on Pixiebob, but honestly after the drama with Madix I was hesitant to pursue anyone else. So I left that out in the open. 

Since my clone was traveling with Midnight to Bangkok. Another clone was off with the League of Villains. Another dressed as the Villain Slayer out and about in the city. And another researching more villains that had gotten away with murder. I had plenty of time to go and train. A big fight was coming up and I wanted to prepare.