The Green Valley Twins

Untitled Part 71

One month later

﴾§ ﴿ ﴾ § ﴿ ﴾ § ﴿

Best Jeanist was right, of course. He didn't want to believe the blonde man but he decided that safety couldn't hurt. He chose to cross over roofs and taking the long route to his destination, hoping he was just being paranoid for listening to the fourth-ranked hero in japan. He arrived in the building, silently noting the silence of his comrades; he shouldn't have dismissed it. He went to his room, the room he was to report back to, the room his long-time partner was waiting for him in. He regretted taking the long route, he regretted adding that extra half-hour to his travel time. Their door was left open, a pet peeve of his partner, and there was blood and black smears on the floor that he could see through the partial opening. Beyond the door, a monster was waiting for him. At first he was caught off guard, he hadn't been prepared for anyone withstanding his attacks and it took him more time than he wanted to kill the behemoth.

"Neon? I'm coming in," the smooth voice of his guild pulled him back from his memories and he jerked to attention as the hospital door opened. Sitting beside the room window was a young girl, her hair was as pale as the summer sky and when she turned to look at him all he saw were mismatched eyes of pink and gold.

"Shai?" his question went unanswered and when he blinked he saw that those familiar eyes were replaced with lifeless emerald. His guild was talking, filling the air with empty words he couldn't hear as all he could do was stare at the face he thought he'd never see again.

"Rokuro-san, this is your charge," he glanced at the young man, then again at the young girl staring at them. "Her name is Izumi Niitobya. Her last guard failed his job so you're replacing him now. There is one other thing you should know about her though and that is no one else is supposed to know her nickname."

"Her nickname?" he questioned, looking at the man in confusion.

"Neon," the guild elaborated. "and before you ask, yes she is the same 'Neon' as the fourth-rank's apprentice." It took his brain a moment to catch up to what the guild was saying and then he was staring at the young girl with wide surprised eyes. he had heard that Best Jeanist had a mysterious apprentice, that their appearance happened about four years ago when some villains stole from a convenience store and she got caught in the crossfire. The fight was so bad that many heroes in question got hurt, eventually a young child named 'Neon' lost control of her own quirk and blue up two buildings. After that Best Jeanist took young Neon under his wing, however he refused to elaborate on his new student's skills. In fact he refused to call the child anything more then 'Neon' and if it weren't for key-eyewitnesses that day no one would even know Neon's gender. No even knows what Neon looks like, except for Best Jeanist and his few most trusted sidekicks.

"You're neon?" he questioned, "I thought you'd be younger."

"You're poisoned," the girl retorted blandly, making his brow twitch in irritation. "I thought my guardsman would be strong enough to protect me." She stated, turning to look at the guild; her young features have yet to move for the exception of her lips when she speaks.

"Please don't judge a book by its cover Niitobya-san," The man smiled patiently at her. "Your father knows what he's doing. He created the villain-rehabilitation program just for you after all." The girl blinked and turned away, staring out the window as if all her questions could be found there. "I'll leave you two to get acquainted then," the guild sighed as he took his leave quietly.

"...you knew I was poisoned with a look," he stared at the girl, wondering what she was thinking about. "How? Your quirk?" she didn't answer, the fingers of her right hand flexed as if she was going to grab something only to realize it wasn't where she left it. "The poison is in my collar. If it bothers you that much, just give me the key that removes the collar."

"I don't trust you."

"The feelings mutual."

"The little poison in your collar isn't the one that bothers me," she turned to look back at him, her brows knitted over her round green orbs. "It's the poison trying to fill your lungs with water. That one is annoying."

"...heh," he smiled, very nearly cracking under the weight of her lifeless eyes; eyes so much like his comrade. "No one else figured it out. That day that monster exposed me to some poison. My regeneration quirk can't combat it. Now I'm just like everyone else. One fatal hit I'm just as dead as everyone else in this world."

"You liked playing god?" She asked, one eyebrow raised. The first sign of any kind of emotion he's seen from her yet.

"Playing god would be the ones who performed genetic-experiments on me." He smirked at her, impressed that the information didn't seem to faze her—as if she already knew. Like she knew everything his body had been through, knew every hidden scar, knew every time an organ spasmed, knew every second the poison pinched at his lungs, knew every time the bombs in his flesh began bulging in search of an exit. "By the way, the program gave me a new name. Go ahead and call me 'Rokuro'."

"Rokuro?" she questioned, soft and gentle. "Roku for the number six and Kuro for son. Do you have a last name?"

"The black-market has always called me 'number six'. So the rehabilitation program used it as a foundation for my new name." he shrugged carelessly.

"then 'Shai' should've been very powerful," the girl observed. He jerked, staring down on her and waiting for what else she had to say. "after all, 'Shai' means 'gift'."

Alright, so I won't kill her today, Rokuro thought, staring dully at the girl.

"That wound will scar your face," the girl continued, ignoring whatever glare he had given her. "Do you want me to—"

"I don't care about it anymore," Rokuro scoffed. "it was a necessary injury to beat that monster."

"Any injury to any potential life-threatening location is not a necessary-injury," she retorted blandly. "What would you have done if the monster struck with more force then you were prepared to handle?"

"It was this strike that took my regenerative powers," Rokuro scoffed. "I was able to deflect most of it but that monster was coated in an enzyme that neglects regenerative quirks."

"...Your body has accompanied well to your foreign quirks," the girl tilted her head to the side. "if I remove the others to promote growth of your regenerative-quirk, it could do more damage than good." He was surprised, just for a little bit though, he couldn't let her know he was impressed with her observations. He had a feeling he needed to keep his cards close to his chest around her, otherwise he just might end up liking the strange blue-haired, green-eyed little girl.

"...I don't care anymore." He closed his eyes and leaned back on one foot, a smirk playing along his lips. "They say scars are character builders. My scar can prove to the other monsters that I survived them once before, so obviously I'll survive them again."

"You're strange," the girl retorted, then ever so slowly, her lips tilted in what he could almost make out to be a smile. "You're just like him. Cocky and proud."

Is she comparing me to her previous guard? He wondered if he should feel insulted with the comparison but the way she was smiling, her eyes clouded in memory, he decided her previous guard was an idiot for messing up on protecting her. that said, he could understand why Best Jeanist would take her on as an apprentice. her ability to deduce poisons and their purposes when even machines couldn't locate said poisons was... alarming to say the least but he didn't understand how this skill was what brought down two buildings. maybe she was one of those rare mixes who had two quirks instead of one. maybe she was genetically engineered like him.

Who knows?

One thing was for sure though: he was going to find out what it was like to be a 'good guy' for once.