My Mortal Academia

Chapter 19: Journey to the West

The sun shone brightly in Naruhata the day after the sports festival. It was usually a quiet area at six in the morning, with early morning traffic being uncongested. People on the streets could be seen preparing their businesses for the day, such as the owners of Hopper's Cafe.

Getting off at a nearby bus station, Kamayan the giant mantis walked towards his workplace, reminiscing his success. Years after it was founded, the cafe has become quite a popular place for people all across Japan. To the mantis, the cafe's opening was a liberating experience; he would no longer be shackled by the label of a 'villain' and would instead keep the reputation of an outstanding local business owner. This image of being a 'typical' business owner helped him reacclimate to society after the horrific process he underwent when becoming an Instant Villain.

This'll be just like any other day, Kamayan thought. Now that Goku's back, we should be able to operate just as well as we did before.

All expectations of a normal day would immediately be crushed when he saw the front door of his shop. Swarmed by hordes of people, the mantis felt dwarfed by the amount of onlookers in front of his shop.

"What could they be doing in there," the mantis wondered out loud. It was fairly unusual to see so many people out so early in the morning.

As he made his way towards the entrance, he was able to overhear some chatter from the bystanders outside the cafe that peaked his interest.

"Is this really where he works?"

"No way someone like him is just working here!"

"Man, I love this place!"

"Cats? Ugh."

The mantis exhaled, which turned much of the attention over on him. He glared down at a blue horned man, which startled him so much, he plopped down on the ground.

"Is that a villain?" the blue horned man asked.

Kamayan opened his mouth while the bystanders backed away, in anticipation of an attack.

"That's quite judgemental of you," he replied. "Just because I have what you may call an 'intimidating appearance' does not make me 'bad' or 'evil'. I am simply like many other people, happily making an honest living with this premise that gives me my entire livelihood."

"Wait, you work here too?" the man on the ground asked, feeling more shocked at the cafe's employee list.

The mantis took his keys out and opened the door, much to the surprise of the crowd.

"Anyway, is there a reason as to why there are so many people out at this hour?" he asked. "It's not like this cafe to have so many people out at once."

"Well, this is where Goku from the UA Sports Festival works, right?" a woman in front of the mantis asked. "We wanna see him."

The mantis was flabbergasted and was unsure how to respond to that.

"Well, you won't be able to see anyone if the shop isn't even opened yet," he said. "Now move! I need to set up."

As the crowd attempted to barrage him with questions, he quickly entered the cafe only to be greeted by loud sounds of frantic computer typing and voices of three familiar men.

"No, no," the voice of Jiro Hotta said with anxiety. "You're missing some spaces and you've made a bunch of typos. You gotta separate some of this with this big space bar! And you're kinda butchering the spelling here."

"What?" Black's voice asked. "But that's how I've been writing this entire time. Also, on my phone, I could just manually write whatever characters I want with little issue."