"We finally finished, Izuku. This beach looks so much better than it did four months ago. Now it is perfect for your future training."
"It is a shame you are moving away with your uncle, Ken. But I am grateful for all the time we spent training together and cleaning up this beach."
In a dirty, torn t-shirt and shorts, Midoriya smiled at me with a tired, slightly sad expression. I gave him an encouraging smile in return.
"Do not be sad. This is not goodbye forever. We will still keep in touch. Just do not stop training. With your intelligence, you can achieve a lot."
"Do not worry about that. For the sake of my dream, I will try three times harder. No, five times harder."
Midoriya perked up and raised his hands excitedly, only to quickly become embarrassed by his own actions. I could only laugh at that.
After saying goodbye to Midoriya, I walked along the shore and began to recall the events of the past four months, especially that fight with the sand hero who, as it turned out, was named Snatch.
I had never been so close to failure. If I had been locked up in prison, escaping would have been impossible for me. Despite my Quirk, they would have found a way to restrain me. Only an idiot would underestimate modern technology and the intelligence of people who deal with various villains daily.
And if I set aside my emotions at that moment, I had acted in the best traditions of heroes following the Spanish motto that the whole world tactfully ignores: "Plus Ultra." Beyond your limits. Go further... Like some kind of manga hero, except the story I was living in had a dark and bloody plot.
I was incredibly happy that I had won and discovered new facets of my Quirk, but I hated the way I had achieved that victory. In all my previous fights and killings, I had carefully prepared, analyzed my opponents, and developed a plan of action. Even when fights went to the edge of defeat, I knew my strength would be enough to win or escape. But that time, I had simply thrown all my power at my opponent, hoping to overpower him. That incident showed my weakness against unexpected attacks from unknown opponents.
That fact involuntarily increased my respect for heroes, who often face such situations from villains.
I fled from that police station practically with my heels flashing, afraid that I might get "lucky" enough to run into a hero on the way back who could also "stun" me. Purely out of stubbornness and willpower, I managed to deliver that container of drugs to the designated place. Then I collapsed in my apartment and slept for two whole days.
The pain in my body, especially the headache, made me want to take my gun and shoot myself. I felt like I had tried to clean that entire beach in one night, then gotten dead drunk and decided to trade blows with All Might. So I honestly did not care about the calls from Midoriya and Giran, ah damn him.
Later, I called Midoriya and told him I was sick. Things were more complicated with Giran. He really tore into me about that fight, calling me a "young talent" that all the police and heroes of Japan were eager to meet. As it turned out, I had quickly gone from a little known villain to an A class villain, just a step away from S class. I just needed to kill a couple more heroes, and the promotion was guaranteed.
Only after my irritated response did he stop his mockery and stop picking at my brain with a small spoon. Besides the information about my father, I had also managed to negotiate payment for the operation before the job and after scouting the station. But the information about him remained my highest priority.
And it stunned me, though I should have expected it. I was prepared for him to be in the United States, but not for him to have a new wife and a four year old daughter.
I pushed aside my feelings and continued to listen carefully to the information. Omnipresent and his family currently lived in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, where All Might had done his internship after U.A. and even named one of his moves after the city. The spatial hero had been very active there over the past year, which was how they had managed to pinpoint his location.
It was hard to suppress my desire to rush to the United States immediately. Only common sense and the understanding of how that could end stopped me. I needed to consolidate my new abilities through training and figure out how I was going to get to North Carolina.
My "Gaze" had become easier to keep active, and I had increased its range by another meter, though headaches from prolonged use remained. I had previously been able to use "Choice" to make myself weightless by making myself permeable to the Earth, so that gravity could not affect me, and to make myself permeable to air, removing air resistance, though I could not breathe. But quickly activating and deactivating that ability in combat had been beyond me. Now it allowed me to perform pirouettes and jumps that any athlete or parkour enthusiast would envy.
And as the cherry on top, "Rejection."
If "Choice" requires manipulating Dark Matter through its pulsation with a corresponding mental command, and passive enhancement works without my participation, and "Gaze" is always active but I subconsciously ignore it, requiring concentration to use, then "Rejection" is similar to "Absorption." When using "Absorption," I simply try to release Dark Matter from my body, and it acts on its own. With "Rejection," the Dark Matter leaves my body with a single clear command, a mental command to "reject" a specific thing. The farther the object, the weaker the effect. But what stops me from rejecting the air toward my target? Nothing. I can also keep or remove the recoil from the attack. Launching myself into the air by "rejecting" the ground? Easy.
This ability has enormous offensive potential and no less energy consumption. And throughout those months, along with physical training alongside Midoriya, who believed that my Quirk was simply passive enhancement, I had been training my Quirk in deserted places.
Now, to operate in the criminal underworld, I needed more power. Besides heroes, villains who had previously not dared to approach me might also take an interest. That same notorious A class villain who had killed heroes, Muscular, could crush me in direct combat, ignoring wounds thanks to his Quirk. If I had run into him back then, I could only run away. Who would win in a fight between us now was unclear.
My flight to the United States was scheduled for three days from now. A month ago, the broker had contacted me and said he could help arrange the flight officially, but in return, I had to help a designated person with the transportation and delivery of a certain "product." Not coming up with a better option, I agreed to his proposal.
I stopped and decided to take a closer look at the reddening horizon. The crimson sunset, with the sea shimmering with golden reflections, evoked a slight melancholy. It reminded me of blood. With a light smile, I headed toward my rented apartment. Walking under the rays of the setting sun, only one thought pulsed through my mind:
"How many more lives must I take for myself and for my goals?"