[attr="class","likedo"]

And just like that the fighting was over. It wasn’t the toughest opponent she had fought. Nowhere near it in fact, and yet she was exhausted. Relieved that Jun hadn’t been more hurt and all that got triggered was her physical touch trauma. Sure, it wasn’t ideal, but given what they had been up against it could have gone so much worse. Maybe this was a wake up call to herself too. That her pregnancy really was slowing her down and she shouldn’t push herself so hard. At least not until after the little ones were born.

“Everythin’ turned out fine, Jun. We did it.” She smiled reassuringly. “Ah promise ya.” She sat directly opposite from Jun. So far only heroes had been targeted, that someone was even looking to involve students was disturbing and only made their situation more urgent. They needed to track down the culprit behind these bounties and put a lid on it before things got worse. “We’ve got the best heroes in Tokyo workin’ on it, Ah promise ya no one else will get hurt.” She grinned her fanged grin, “Ya did what ya had ta today. Ya stepped up when things got bad. Ah’m proud of ya.” Their day had still totally been ruined. “If yer hungry, Ah can cook up somethin’ fast back at the apartment. It’s no fancy cafe food, but it’s home.” She offered with a smile.

junsuina

Kazashi put all her trust in Jun, not out of desperation, but because she genuinely believed in her abilities and her talent. Perhaps more than she had ever let her know. Some heroes might view this attack back and deem that Apparel was in the wrong for handing this much responsibility to a student in her sophomore year, or that she should never have let it come to this in the first place. That was a fight for another day, and one she would gladly take up with the privileged idiots leading the Heroes Association.

She flinched as she felt a burning intensity course through the scarf-arm that was fitted with gems, biting down any groan or cry of pain. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t hurt that much either, not to Kazashi who had a shielding quirk and had been conditioned through years of training to not back down from pain. “Ya heard the woman! Get outta the way!!” Jun’s warning had come just in the nick of time, as the waiter or anyone else in the villain’s vicinity bolted before he could grab any hostages. She grinned a wicked one when Jun conjured up the turret, knowing that her trust hadn’t been misplaced, it never had.

“Hmpf. You think you can hit me from over there? You’re nothing but a UA lamb, you’re not even a rookie.” Remaining seated with his cup in hand, it became very clear that his arrogance became his downfall when Jun delivered perhaps the swiftest karma ever witnessed in all of Tokyo. With the shots slamming into the villain he was immediately thrown into the far end wall and the tumors soon withered and disappeared from Jun’s and Kazashi’s backs. Turning her arms back to normal, Kaz flashed her a grin and a thumbs up, her aversion to touch still on her mind. “Nice shot, Mood Ring! Ya said yer hurtin’ from yer recent incident but ta me ya look better than ever!”

The villain had been knocked out so clean Kaz could be fooled into thinking a pro did it! Soon enough, the police arrived on the scene and properly detained and took him away.

junsuina

''Smell what?'' She blinked her eyes. Kazashi happened to be gifted with uncanny eyesight and reflexes, but smell was outside of her wheelhouse. It wasn't until they arrived on the scene that she realized what was happening. What luck that Sora was here with his sense of smell, that probably saved them a couple of crucial seconds. She grinned as the villain called them C-List heroes. She didn't mind staying on the less known side, especially since she was married to a villain and all. Still, C-List? Hardly! She could do better than that. The guy probably didn't recognize Sora since he had only returned recently. What a fool, he didn't know what kind of power he was facing with his little zapper gun.

Kazashi probably could have intercepted the next attack against Sora, but she trusted him to be able to handle it on his own while the civilian she was guarding ran further down the street and escaped. She laughed when the villain's aim was thrown skywards. ''Ya sure know how ta make an entrance, Dericho!'' As she stood back up she nodded at Sora and turned her feet into roller skates. ''Yeah, Ah've fought much worse than this. Shout if ya need help with the civilians.'' She sped towards the villain, using her high reflexes to turn the parts of her that would be at risk of getting zapped into rubber coating just moments before she was struck. Soon enough she had gotten within range, turning her left arm into a scarf she extended her range as she latched onto the lightning gun device and started pulling on it, entering a contest of strength with the villain. ''Ah bet ya can't use that jetpack much longer, can ya?'' She grinned. ''Let go!'' He demanded, trying to pull his gun out of her grip. ''Ya tried ta shoot my friend an' Ah hella don't appreciate that, ya #@€$!!'' words she would never shout in the near future when she became a mother, but today this villain had hella deserved it! ''Y-Your horns!'' The man's face grew pale and Kazashi knew exactly why. Along with her eyes and sharp teeth, it was the only likeness she had to her villain father. ''That's the Crown of Blood!'' Frowning, Kazashi turned her other arm into a scarf, but the corresponding hand into a black boxing glove. ''That's all yer types ever see.'' She scoffed, before she began her merciless pummeling of the villain, beating him with ranged punches until he left go of the lightning gun so she could tie him down.

From inside the burning building Sora would be able to hear screams.

''It's burning!''

''Help us!''

''Where's my mommy?!''

Sora Nakoma

''That's the biggest pain, isn't it? Tryin' ta find somethin' that works for ya an' doesn't hold yer quirk back.'' She smiled, there was a reason Kazashi had used so little gear over the years. She had become too reliant on just harnessing her quirk, if she added anything else into her rotation. ''Not yet anyway, who knows, it sounds like yer involved in somethin' big.''

''Chuck.'' She smiled, ''he's from America, actually, we were thinkin' of visitin' someday when work gets a little less busy.'' She didn't mention his last name, Kaz figured Sora could make that out when he saw her last name sometime, seeing as she took Chuck's when they married.

She wished that their conversation could have just remained lighthearted like this. Old friends catching up on years of lived experiences, but unfortunately they weren't in the business for wholesome conversations, or experiences. The Circus of Man, it frankly sounded like a disturbing operation. She remained silent as he spoke, taking in the details of the case, disturbed, her eyes soft with sympathy for those 'performers' that had already suffered at their hands. To hear that even personal friends of Sora's had suffered under their hand. The pain was unimaginable. She was about to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but hesitated when his smile returned. ''That's right, ya have a pretty strong sense of smell, don't ya?'' His powers coming in clutch once more! She remembered hearing tales about Sora from other students, how he had learned to use his quirk in a really versatile way.

''That's good ta hear, we need lots of brave young people ta answer the call.'' She thought back to the first time her and Jun met. A villain incident, what felt like a sea of blood around them as she helped rescue the young girl. Now, she too was studying at UAU to become a hero. ''Ah bet they were inspired by yer show of heroism.''

When Sora sniffed the air, he would notice something was off. Smoke, heavy smoke, fire. ''Aside from the Kaneko case?'' She shrugged, ''Ah don't know if ya remember, but my biological dad revealed himself back when we were in school, he was a villain, that Blood Devil, but he was ultimately defeated an' put in prison. Now what Ah'm dealin' with is mostly chasin' the remnants of his group an' tryin' ta locate the missin' Kaneko children. They're all my half siblings, after all...''

As they rounded a corner an explosion went off, a fire having broken out on one of the upper floors of a four story apartment building. Kaz only took notice now but once she did, she was quick to act. A villain was flying next to the fire, kept in the air by the jetpack on his back, while he held some kind of cannon in one of his hands. It fired in short spurts, leaving sparks of electricity. A device for shooting arcs of lightning, perhaps?

''Where do you think you're running off too? Get back here!'' The villain aimed his lightning gun at a terrified civilian who was running in the middle of the street. ''Dericho, we're up!'' She called out, but she was already blazing ahead, leaping in front of the arc of lightning that fired from the cannon, turning into a rubber boot just in time to absorb the attack. Turning back to her human form, she put her arms around the civilian. ''Yer safe now, the heroes are here.''

''Are you for real? Are they sending the C-List heroes out to stop me?'' Infuriated the villain quickly switched his attention to Sora as he aimed his cannon at him. ''Don't even recognize you young man, damn, do you even have a bounty on your head?'' With another press of the trigger an arc of lighting came right for Sora, attempting to zap him on the spot before he could help out.

Sora Nakoma

Jun was already hurt from a previous incident? It pained Kaz, even more so that she hadn't noticed. No, maybe she had just never thought to look for signs of it, or misread it as Jun simply being tired from the rigorous schedule UA put her through. ''How are ya feelin' now? If ya think it's too much, run an' call for backup.'' She was serious. If Jun was ready to risk it all, it would be foolish of Kaz to not ask for her help in this very sudden crisis, but endangering a bright student like her for no reason when her heart wasn't in it, that was something she couldn't do.

Each individual blow that hit Jun stung, but a lot less than one might expect when looking at the man. In fact, if she was sharp she might get the sense that his quirk wasn't about inflicting direct damage, but rather to get the tumors to manifest and let them deal the brunt of it. ''You're a hero student, are you not?'' Once he had gotten what he wanted and a sludgy tumor had been placed on Jun, the arms he had grown out of his own body retracted and he began to back off slowly. ''Do you think yourself safe behind the walls of your wretched school? The truth is that bounty on your head just makes you another payday to me. I'll become infamous taking the life of a hero student before she could become a full-fledged hero, and Apparel too in the process..'' He grinned, but the moment he looked over at Kazashi again a fist came sailing right into his face, causing him to fall through a coffee table.

''That's enough out of ya..'' She panted, having split one of her arms into five scarves and tied up her own tumor around her back. With one arm free she had been able to extend her range with another scarf arm and give the villain a good sucker punch, at least enough to make him back off of Jun. ''I-It's too late for you two, my power is already on you-'' He wiped some blood from his nose before turning to high tail it out of there. Rather than try to grab him, Kazashi turned her free into a raincoat and tried to wrap it around Jun to protect her from the punches from her own tumor clone. ''Are ya okay? Ah'm sorry Ah didn't realize ya were already hurt.''

junsuina