Blood Valkyrie (3)

003- Blood Valkyrie (3)

Now it is the turn of the incredibly powerful and charming Luphinus to provide some context for what the hell was going on.

Luphinus, best known to only a small group of people he trusted like Kakinomoto Yoshio, was currently in his small, not-so-small residence, he let the warm water run through his hand while he was washing the celery stalks. He would have to pay the sieve for the smaller vegetables, carrots, onions, mushrooms and broccoli and so on. He really wanted to meet Valkyrie that weekend.

Light red or light orange? He pondered while looking for the filter in his closet, he was never really being able to remember where he really put the damn thing every time he needed it. When Yoshio finally managed to convince the stubborn one to come out of hiding, he lazily decided that Valkyrie's hair matched the color of rust red rather than the stereotype of copper red. 'It would certainly match your personality ... if that is really making any sense ...' Yoshio thought.

Yoshio pulled a sharp knife from the kitchen block and examined the ingredients. He was making sauteed out of a simple desire to eat the products before they spoiled, rather than a sincere desire to eat them. He wouldn't make the same mistake the last time, when he had ordered some pizzas, and he thought the delivery guy hadn't recognized him and just after five minutes a crowd of people was at his door, he had moved to a location again in less than six hours after the "Pizza Incident" as he liked to call it.

Broccoli was the easiest to keep still, the zucchini was a little hard, but manageable, and the mushrooms were comically soft, just a little stubborn when he needed them to move.

They met in less than ideal circumstances. To be completely honest, he initially thought that she was some kind of terrorist, not a vigilante.

~ XxX ~

"Young man, what are you-"

"Get out of here now!" She demanded, trying to look menacing. He was not impressed, but he saw the timer slow down as it was connected to multiple wires and made the connection immediately. He then noticed the cutting pliers in his right hand. She was trying to disarm him. But she was really running out of time.

"Shit! Fuck! Fuck!" She murmured, looking at the timer. Looking around, she picked up a fire extinguisher and tossed it out the window, the closed window of the 30th floor office. The glass broke and she seemed almost surprised that her plan had worked.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. "Screw this!" She screamed, grabbed the bomb with some form of telekinesis and threw it out the window. Instead of falling to the ground, and on the civilians standing outside as if they were waiting for something, it floated in the air for a few seconds before it exploded in relative safety. They were the only two people remotely close to the blast zone, and their Telekinesis prevented the two from being ripped through the glass, the small crystals floating around them before falling.

"I will contact you later." She promised, with the explosion still ringing in her ears. She came out of the broken window and was out of sight.

~ XxX ~

Yoshio snorted at the memory of that night. He ran to the edge, convinced that he would have to reach it or witness a new red spot on the sidewalk, but no. Valkyrie had angled her fall to the right, so she dived into a pool near the roof. He should have learned then that Valkyrie always found a way to escape.

Looking down, the superhero realized that he had already cut most of the vegetables and switched to carrots. Yoshio had to be careful with them, they were very thin and had a tendency to move away when the knife was falling.

~ XxX ~

Valkyrie was completely calm in the back seat of the police car, her hands cuffed.

"Did you say you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes. I said I would contact you."

"You are literally in the back of a police car."

"Semantics. I'm here to tell you that you are also literally wrong about how you are conducting this investigation."

"Oh, say it."

"I do not believe that the arsonist has any political message or is affiliated with any particular group, he is only making it look like terrorist actions to keep the police and professional heroes confused."

"It is like saying that you are part of organized crime to divert attention from a parking ticket."

She shrugged. "I never said it was a good plan." Then the vigilante pursed her lips, scratching her ear with her right hand. "Although, one might argue that, with the police focusing on public security and anticipating political movements, where a group like 'such-and-such' would get it right, things like that, the more mundane motives would not be examined. And so the blurred arsonist the waters of research. "

This ... was making an almost disturbing sense. Then she told him about all the evidence she discovered, the little details that didn't match, and it made even more sense. "How did you find out?"

"There were a series of similar fires a few years ago, all signs were pointing to a serial arsonist maniac, but no one really investigated the case properly."

"This is a little negligent on their part."

"Well, the buildings were old and in a bit of a legal limbo. Obviously abandoned, but for some legal or other reason they couldn't be formally condemned and demolished."

He nodded. "So they were merely opportunistic?"

"Yes, but the lack of scrutiny makes him more daring. Now he is moving into office buildings." She pulled her lips together, an obvious habit of thinking and snapped her fingers over her face. It was then that Luphinus finally realized that she was no longer handcuffed.

"When did you manage to get rid of the handcuffs?"

"Magic."

~ XxX ~

They ended up catching the guy, of course, the police chief getting a little annoyed that a security guard had helped, but he generally reasoned that she was a threat low enough that they didn't have to worry about her for the time being. "Just leave it to the underground heroes." A co-worker of his had said. "She is young and impulsive, these guys sell out quickly without any support or allies to support them." But Valkyrie? Valkyrie did not stop.

Hero after hero had tried to catch or corner the "Blood Valkyrie", as it came to be called. All of them failed and ended up returning perplexed or, in many cases, indignant at their own results. Years of training in some of the best hero courses in the country, skill variations and diverse unique fighting styles, all of which are fought by a simple telekinetic in a leather jacket.

So Luphinus did what he was told and kept his hands off the subject. I left that to the street heroes.

Yoshio looked at the carrots and decided that he would just cut the smaller ones in half to save time. He was surprised when they continued to meet and he was even more perplexed when she seemed open to the idea of ​​even collaborating together. In his own experience, vigilantes were generally paranoid and suspicious of both the police and professional heroes, although he is almost certain that Zekri escaped from a maximum security asylum, the guy was a complete nutcase who kept talking about supernatural beings, angels, demons, animal girls with multiple tails, some kind of one-eyed sea snake that likes honey and finally some kind of prophecy of the return of some "Evil God of the Deep Abyss" fighting against what he called "Diabolos" known as "Flame" da Prata Infernal "and much more. But, no, she doesn't.

Valkyrie herself was somewhat enigmatic in her actions. Her methods were quite criminal by their very nature, assault, theft, break-in and then more break-in, but there was no doubt in Luphinus's mind that the watchman was trying to do what he thought was the right thing with the few resources she had available. She was usually the first to arrive at the scene to suggest calling the police and usually left evidence or tips to the competent authorities if she thought it was worth it. If things were a little different, Valkyrie would have been an excellent hero and a great partner.

"Partner?" Yoshio pondered. Is that what he thought of her? In order to maintain the ruse of a born hero and to maintain the creation of his dream, the Symbol of Peace, he resisted the idea of ​​having a companion.

Until now, he was completely focused on being a hero, wanting to become the Symbol of Peace that society needed. In fact, he realized a little while ago that he had no real close friends, but only professional, albeit friendly, acquaintances. Old classmates from Gran Rey with whom he occasionally joined patrols or large-scale jobs, detectives he worked with well, but no one he could just invite to watch a movie or have a cup of coffee and talk about their lives . He felt a sharp pain in his finger and he looked down to see the knife partially inserted in his thumb. "SHIT!" He exclaimed, stuffing his bloody finger into his mouth and running towards the bathroom.

Kakinomoto Yoshio was not naive, quite the contrary, as much as he loved his job, he was always exactly aware of how dangerous he really was. For every time he helped remove a cat from a tree or helped a stray child find his mother, there was an equal chance that he would chase armed robbers or face a villain with the right ability to overcome him, yes he was practically focused on strength and speed, he was proud of it, he trained, trained and trained to the limit and that was the result. He found the medical supplies without problems, stored in the medicine cabinet. He giant robots, fire eaters, mysterious creatures, any number of dangerous people out there, and regardless of the cost of getting what they wanted. After a few awkward attempts with electrical tape, he returned to the kitchen with his thumb bandaged.

He signed up for this job, knowing very well what I asked him for, or at least having a good idea. The lack of a personal life was really a small price to pay for the greatest continuous security of all. Valkyrie ... Some would say that maybe he kept her off the hook because she was the closest thing he had to a friend at the time, which in a way was kind of sad. Luphinus would always deny that if he really thought that Valkyrie posed a threat to law, order and security, it didn't matter how he really felt about her.

The main reason he was not involved in this issue was because Valkyrie was trying to do for the people of Hamura what he was trying to do for society as a whole. A point of hope. His actions revealed exactly how insufficient and patrolled the heroes in the neighborhood were, despite being just steps away from the Gran Rey Private Academy. But that was only the beginning. Malicious politicians, years of corruption, poor urban development planning and pure bad luck in management have smothered the neighborhood. Crime in general has simply become the easiest and most sustainable way to make a living in that area. Valkyrie's actions were beginning to attract attention, and even though it might be slow, consciousness would bring about changes.

But was that really a good reason to let this woman continue to run like Valkyrie? At the end of the day, he had no idea of ​​her training, if she did, or how much she really knew what she was getting into. But he couldn't just throw her in prison, not when it was obvious how much she was helping.

After washing the knife's own blood, he put it in the dishwasher, ready for another round anyway.

"Oh, you could look at that and think about it. It looks like I'm doing enough for two people. Maybe Valkyrie would like some?" Luphinus said, slowly raising his hand and thinking: "Is dinner with the watchman also considered" fraternization "or something else?"

-XxX-