Shigure knew exactly what happened with his quirk.
He looked around and internally sighed when he saw the nearest camera far away.
With so many people walking, now surrounding the stopped truck, Shigure knew he wouldn't be implicated directly.
'Just in case, I will stick around a bit more.' Shigure looked at the scene of a fight between the truck driver and the man who almost got isekaid.
Shigure suddenly found his palm twitching. He put that hand in the pocket and took out— chocolate.
He watched the unfolding drama while munching on his bar.
'Red Velvet is the best.'
Shigure only left the scene when he realised he had run out of chocolate.
'Supermarket or barber?' Shigure made a split-second decision for his next destination and went for the former.
"Can't be without any chocolates, hehe~" A perverted smile appeared on Shigure's face, disappearing as soon as it appeared.
He turned his head left and right, checking if anybody witnessed him like this.
His eyes met a dog's eyes.
STARE
A boy and a dog stared at each other.
The dog made a weird expression and was the first to leave the area.
"Huh?"
---
"You sure about this, kid?" the cashier asked, eyeing the pile of sweets like it might bite her.
She was looking at the items he brought for the checkout.
"Yes, I was born sure." The boy sagely nodded.
A frown appeared on the lady's face.
She looked at the screen again to see if she was seeing things.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Item Quantity Price
Milk Chocolate[10000 Cal] 5 2500 Yen
Dark Chocolate [5000 Cal] 1 300 Yen
Red Velvet Cho...[100000 Cal] 10 50,000 Yen
...
Grand Total 119,368 Yen
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
'He doesn't even look like a rich kid, and what's with most of the items being chocolate? Is his quirk related to chocolates?'
"Kid, do you have your parents' permission?" Just as the words left the cashier's mouth, she immediately regretted them.
His shoulders dropped, eyes hidden behind his bangs—every line of his body spelling quiet defeat.
"I—I lost my par—parents." The boy's whole body trembled slightly.
"I am so—"
"They took it." Shigure cut off the lady.
"What?"
"They took away all the inheritance by giving my age as an excuse. They took my guardianship, and treated me poorly, said that they would give me a poor education and whatnot, and somehow take all the inheritance before I mature.
I told the authorities, but they bribed them." The boy clenched his teeth, vein popping on his fist, as he tightly held the bag.
"Who?" The cashier asked with a frown.
Who could treat a kid who didn't even look 10 like this? She was already unsatisfied with the current government, and her beliefs were strengthened as she looked at the boy.
"My relatives. To escape their control, I gave the independence exam, and by some luck, I passed and am currently living on a stipend. My quirk takes a lot of energy, so I need a lot of calories, the same thing my relatives took advantage of to find a loophole in the laws and not feed me properly."
The lady felt anger at his situation. It was not uncommon for greedy relatives to be like vultures.
She won't be surprised if those people were the ones who killed their parents in the first place. The boy might have been from a very rich family, seeing how the police were even bribed.
'I won't be surprised if this boy turns out to be a villain to fend for himself in the future when he can't cover his costs.'
"Heroes just know how to pose for cameras." He clenched his teeth. "They... they told me that they can't help me, being too much trouble for them to get in conflict with an influential figure.
Moreover, they said that such deeds have not much chance of media coverage, so they don't care."
A visibly disgusted expression appeared on the boy, mirroring that one of the lady.
"Heroes are all talk. Back in my time, it wasn't like this. If only people had one-tenth of All Might's values... our society is heading towards its doom." She shook her head.
"With what happened to me, I won't be surprised if some villain more powerful than All Might comes and puts an end to all this. Anyway, it was nice talking to you." Shigure took out his phone and scanned the QR code.
"Wait!" He tilted his head at the lady.
"Though I don't know how much you have suffered or will suffer, as a token of kindness to prove that kind people do exist, I will give you a 50 per cent off." The cashier said before typing in her computer.
She showed him the bill of 60,000 Yen.
"I—" Before Shigure could retort, the lady said, "The world might have been cruel to you until now, but don't lose hope. Good things do happen. Just like how it happened now. Life has its ups and downs. Whenever you feel down, remember that such ups might be very close."
Shigure's mouth closed, then opened before finally closing.
His body trembled again, as if barely holding back his tears.
"T—Thank You. I remember that for the rest of my life." Shigure bowed his head.
"It's fine." 'I hope he doesn't become a villain.'
Shigure paid the new bill and left the shop before thanking her again.
The cashier hummed, feeling good that she helped a kid and potentially stopped him from becoming a Villain.
'Tch. I was aiming for free. Guess 120k was pushing it... Still, worth it to observe her for a decent amount of time before approaching her. She was so gullible.' Shigure smirked as he headed towards the barber next.
'I wouldn't have been able to pull this off without my quirk. It gives me a lot of time to steady my emotions. I couldn't even count the many instances where I almost laughed if not for my quirk. Also, without it, I wouldn't have noticed that she disdains the current society. That was the main point that sealed the deal.'
Shigure hummed, feeling good about his bargaining skills.
---
"Shall we check this baby out?"
Shigure stood in his room, in front of a mirror.
He now had shorter hair, which didn't hide his eyes.
'Blink.'
He activated his quirk, an invisible bubble— only visible to Shigure- that started expanding from him as the centre.
"KYAAHH—what the fu—oh. It's me."
Shigure blinked at his reflection, eyes morphing into a clean white arrowhead.
It was the same as the forward button on a remote or a video player.
Realising that it was he only, Shigure let out a sigh.
'For a second, thought that some villain had come through my mirror or something. It was so surreal.'
Shigure brought his face close to the mirror, taking a closer look.
'Not gonna lie, looked creepy first, but it seems cool. If my eye is changing, will I get some crazy ocular powers? Or do I need to make some friends and kill them to get those?'
Shigure chuckled at his joke.
He backed off from the mirror, however, something caught his eye.
Shigure's eyes widened as he held a thick strand of white hair.
'Poliosis?'
He felt his heart beat rise at this.
'Calm down. It's just a strand. Probably due to my quirk. It would disappear when I deactivate my quirk.' Shigure deactivated his quirk and watched in shock as the white strand turned back to black.
He turned on his quirk again and saw the white hair returning.
He turned off again and saw the black.
He turned on and saw white.
Off. Black.
On. White.
Off—
"...Wait. What the hell am I doing?" Shigure broke himself out of the trance-like state.
He looked around the room, checking if anybody saw him like that.
"Anyway, this is just cosmetic. Plus, the white doesn't seem like drained off melanin, more like silvery-white or something. Looks cool."
He finally turned his attention to the effect of his awakened quirk.
He picked up a pen and tossed it towards his bed.
He saw the pen move normally until it exited the bubble.
After that, it slowed down considerably.
"Exactly what I thought," he muttered, watching the second hand tick like molasses.
One would have mistaken it for a broken clock.
Shigure watched it for a few seconds before seeing the visible change in its position.
'My quirk speeds up everything in this bubble compared to the outside world.... A time-related quirk.' Shigure inhaled sharply at the realisation.
This awakening changed everything he had planned to do in his entire life.
'I figured I'd become a hero someday. Maybe before thirty. If I still cared by then. However, tier 4 or not, this quirk is broken. With this... don't I have a fucking time chamber for myself?' A grin appeared on Shigure's face, realising that his quirk is a cheat.
He laughed. Loud and long and manic.
"With this..." He suddenly felt a wave of weakness creep into his entire body.
His eyes turned back to blue.
He slowly dragged himself towards the bag on his bed and took out a chocolate, devouring it quickly.
"My calorie needs just went ultra instinct... Damn it. I would be done with all this before tomorrow."
***
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