Chapter 13: Chapter 13 - Talking to the Bank Robbers
They didn't really want to patrol around New York; a city that its own inhabitant knew it would inevitably disappear from Earth god knows when. But Kyoka's excitement to do something heroic while they could was impossible to reject
The three of them strolled around the city wearing their Hero Costume with a belt that had the insignia of the Nagant Agency; a miniature sniper rifle, hanging on it.
"Look, there's a bank robbery there." Kenjiki pointed at a bank which was unusually empty in the middle of the day. "Do you want to handle it or pass?"
Kyoka tensed at the mention of a bank robbery, as something like this was almost extinct in Japan with how much All Might number one Hero deterred people from doing so in the first place.
But she was confused at the last sentence of his.
"You see that watch on her wrist? It's a device that informs nearby Heroes about a hold up like this, and because of the sheer amount of Heroes here." Kenjiki explained as he waited for her response. "They had to tell the other Heroes who wants to deal with it and prevents an incident where 100 Heroes showed up at the same time, causing the robber to directly suicide with the hostage. That happened once before."
In less than a day of being here, her first impression about this country had changed. All of this incident that was caused by the overabundance of Heroes was unheard for her.
To get used to this, she decided to say yes to his question while Nagant was long already informed the watch about it because she knew it would be like this.
Approaching their destination, they stopped Kyoka at a distance where she could at least watch how the hostage negotiation unfold.
"I'm Nagant from Nagant Agency, and I am here to make a deal for the hostages' safety." Nagant spoke using a loudspeaker that was given by the local police.
"Nagant?!" The robbers were instantly terrified upon hearing that name and instantly fled to a place that's not visible to naked eyes.
While all of the robbers were scrambling for a safe place so that they didn't get shot and burned by her, the one that assumed the leader position picked the telephone and spoke to her.
"I'm the leader! I'll promise for the hostages' safety as long as you don't shoot us." He spoke in a frantic voice, remembering what Nagant was known for by the criminals, Unseen Ash; whoever was grazed by her bullet would be burned leaving nothing but ash.
"I won't shoot you if you leave the building by the front door." Nagant shouted once again, causing the robbers to despair.
That sentence of hers was literally her telling them to hand themselves over.
But at the same time, if they didn't follow her words, they would either be burned to ash or die trying because they couldn't approach her.
"I'll surrender, don't kill us." The leader who was told to choose either die or jail hesitantly choose the latter before going out in orderly fashion for the police to arrest them.
Honestly they had another choice, that was slaughtering the hostages before killing themselves, but the sheer fear the name Nagant brought was beyond their brain could handle.
Meanwhile, Kyoka noticed how easily the Villains surrendered themselves when even All Might would at least have someone trying to fight him knowing that it was useless.
"What have you guys been doing for them to instantly surrender with just a word." Kyoka turned her attention to Nagant who had just come back.
"I've killed so many Villains that they associated my name with their death if they do something." Nagant nonchalantly said that, baffling Kyoka even more.
"You guys kill Villains here?"
"Yes, as long as you have a good excuse, you can kill just anyone." Kenjiki told her about a story of an eye-laser shooting Hero who killed a whole airplane full of passengers and went scott-free because no one knew what he did.
Kyoka had been silent the whole time he talked, because that story just now was infinitely far for the Good Heroes she had been hearing.
Once they're done dealing with the bank report and more, they continue their patrolling with Kyoka who noticed that the people commuting around the area seemingly don't care about the incident.
This was vastly different from in Japan where if anything would happen, a mass of bystanders would flock around the area with their presence being an additional burden for the Heroes.
At the end of the day, they went back to the Headquarters with Kyoka still contemplating on her own. While Kenjiki just sat beside her, knowing what was going through her.
A classic mental collision where a sheltered Human experienced the most raw experience the society around them had been preventing them to see.
(A/N: This came outta nowhere and idk why.)
"This is how Hero had been working, you're just seeing it in a different perspective." Kenjiki sloughed on the sofa while twiddling with her hair.
"Which one do you think is the correct one? A Hero society where image is the uppermost priority or a Hero society where the result is what matters?" Kyoka asked as she put her head on his shoulder.
"Which one do you think matters more? What are the people you're protecting think of you or how you protected them?" Kenjiki threw rhetoric back at her.
Kyoka was silent when she heard his question. While the former would most definitely be an important aspect of being a Hero, supports build motivation, but that's fragile support where once they knew you failed they won't forget.
Whereas the second one was something only selfless people do. Average people would usually give up when their efforts weren't recognized to be the one that saved them.
"There's no need to think too hard. Sure, Heroism is about saving people, but save yourself first. Being selfish isn't inherently bad." Kenjiki said while patting her head.
Hearing his words, Kyoka closed her eyes before going to sleep to recover the energy she had used to do mental gymnastics the whole day.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone