My Mortal Academia

Chapter 21: Katchin

The atmosphere in the cafe dampened immediately upon this news. Vanilla ran towards the other cats, who huddled together in response to this sudden change in mood. As everyone's faces looked stricken with gloom and anxiety, Goku Black glanced side to side, hoping to get a hint on some context. Finding everyone's faces too difficult to read, Black mustered the courage to ask what happened.

"So, who was Knuckleduster?" Black asked. "I understand that this area had a history with vigilantes. Was he one of them?"

"He was," Takobe replied. "A few years ago, we had this little vigilante group that consisted of this girl who could jump high, the Cruller who was the All Might wannabe with a really versatile air quirk who now works as a hero in America, and this really beefy quirkless dude who went by Knuckleduster. I'll spare a lot of the boring details in between but after the events of the Number 6 incident, Knuckleduster ended up being the main vigilante we had around here."

"Pop told me a lot about her stories with Koichi and the old man," Miu added on. "From what I got out of her, he was kind of a hard ass."

"Guess they kinda got the job done though," Kamayan added. Black noticed that the giant anthropomorphic mantis's claws wobbled upon hearing this news. "Nowadays, crime hasn't appeared much since apart from that whole – what did they call it — pseudo-nomus? Yeah, that pseudo-nomu's been the most major villain attack around here since that Number 6 fiasco."

"Like, I remembered the guy was this big hulk and whatnot," Ichiro added. "The guy was armed with nothing but brass knuckles and he'd whoop the asses of some of the biggest villains around here!"

"Crazy part is, the guy was quirkless too," Jiro said, noticing the Saiyan's puzzled expression at the sound of the vigilante being quirkless. "I know, right? Literally just some quirkless guy who's just really bulky but he actually managed to get the job done!"

Black absorbed all of this information. From what it sounds like, this 'Knuckleduster' vigilante he was just learning about was a legitimate asset to the safety of Naruhata. This senseless loss of life made the Saiyan's veins bulge out of his arm slightly.

"I remembered Aizawa told me about Stain's whole 'Fake Hero' ideology," Black said. "I remembered seeing the news of Ingenium's wounds against him and now this...what the hell is a 'Real Hero' to him?" His fists shook slightly, each word enunciated by a calm fury.

"Beats me," Ichiro replied. "But I've heard rumors that Stain was once a vigilante himself around these parts. Man, if only the Cruller was here to tell us the details..."

Takobe looked at his watch on one of his tentacular arms.

"Oh, Miu, it's getting really late!" the octopus man exclaimed. "We should board the next bus on Shindo Street or we're gonna wait for a lonnnnnnng while."

"Alright, fineeee," Miu replied. "And for the record, the sun's pretty much already out so it was pretty obvious it was late." Takobe chuckled at that comment. The two then walked out as Kamayan held the door open.

"Well, as usual, you're welcome back at any time!" Kamayan exclaimed.

"Hey, we won't be gone for too long now!" Takobe replied. "We'll be back!"

"Bye Goku!" Miu said, waving enthusiastically.

Black looked at the Endeavor dress up and make up kits that were sitting on a chair. Grabbing those cosmetics, he ran out the door and stood in front of Miu. The Saiyan ran so quickly that a table got knocked over just by the force of his running, startling the huddling kittens.

"Uh, wait, Miu," Black called out to her. "I really don't want any of these things. Like, what the hell are these?" In truth, he really did not want any of those things.