•Manipulation• [BNHA × Male!OC]

Chapter 180: NANANANA BATMANNN

"Wat waz dat?!" Hawks' phone read out.

"I just found a frayed spot!" Best Jeanist replied, turning the car around.

'Eh...? Like literally or-'

We sped through a side street when we came upon what looked to be a small shopping district.

Ahead, there was a large man with pink hair surrounded by lackies.

'A villain?'

"Fiber on! Fiber fire!" Best Jeanist yelled as cables shot out the front of the car.

"Woah! What is this? The Jean-mobile?" I laugh as we spin out of the way of the villain's attacks.

The cables wrapped around them and that was that.

Hawks and I remained in the car while Best Jeanist went out to handle the situation.

"Please excuse the flamboyant capture due to my current condition," Best Jeanist apologized while smoothing down his helmet hair.

The crowd, however, seemed overjoyed he had even been there to save them.

"Where are the heroes and police of this area?" he turned to ask a middle-aged man standing nearby.

"They're not coming," he responded bitterly, "the police have their hands full with the villains who escaped from prison. As for the heroes, they closed up office and left as soon as the public started criticizing them."

'Criticizing, huh?'

I hold back a bitter smile.

Ever since I'd woken up, and even before that, there were crowds of people protesting right outside the hospital. They blamed heroes, said they were incompetent, spat at them, wanted them gone.

I suppose they got their wish.

"I see, then I will send out some of my own sidekicks," Jeanist announced.

While he received cheers in response, there were very clearly quite a few unhappy faces.

"The public's distrust in heroes is getting worse," Hawks phone played.

"Yeah well," I sigh, leaning against the window, "that what they wanted right?"

The villain league, Dabi, they'd put together that video to break the faith people had in heroes. They'd even used an edited photo of Hawks killing-

I let out a long breath.

Perhaps it was Stockholm syndrome from being in the villain league all those months, but Twice had been good to me. He cared deeply for his friends, even if that care was aimed at the wrong kind of people.

'Wrong kind of people?'

Who was I to judge?

But still...

'I wish he could have lived.'

___________________________________________________________________________

"Which one is it?" Best Jeanist asked as we stepped out from the car.

"The one in the back," Hawks responded.

"There's something I need to check before I recover and return to the public eye."

He began walking in the direction of the building.

'A residential area?'

I glanced at the sponsorship plaques we walked past as we entered the housing estate.