Chapter 27 - Clues
Chapter 27 – Clues
After an exhausting round of questioning for Hu Tao, she finally succeeded.
They guided her to a room, and began to bombard her with questions, whilst she supressed her annoyance and answered each one patiently and accurately off the script/story Ainz gave her.
Although looks of doubt and disbelief occasionally appeared on the interviewer's face, somehow he still believed her.
(Most likely a lie detecting quirk. Thank god Medea gave this item to me.)
After reciting her back story, her quirk was then tested, then after another round of questioning which was actually part of the hero test, she eventually got her license.
"From now on, your quirk will be called [Pyro Staff] and you are now officially a pro-hero. Congratulations!"
(YES! Mission success...)
...
Because of all the talk, surprisingly it was Ciel who fell asleep, and her head rested on Rimuru's chest. Meanwhile, he was still watching the screen. Since he turned sleep off, he no longer had the need to sleep, so all his intention was focused on the story that was happening before his eyes.
(It's so interesting! Just like an anime...)
...
It was the first day of school, and the classroom was quite full.
Sitting at the back corner was Kurumi, as she was dressed in the school uniform. Her calm gaze spread across the room and measured everyone's strength and determined their behaviour.
Multiple people tried to approach her, and she politely responded but did not further continue the conversation, so they just left with nothing else to say.
(Quite an interesting assortment of people. Very curious quirks as well, but I fail to see how half of the class will become useful as heroes. And then there's Izuku Midoriya, a normal looking boy, curious how he has the residue of multiple souls inside him. Perhaps it's part of his quirk? I could just kill him now, but that would jeopardise the plan and be counter-effective, so I guess I'll just have to blend in and be a good student, at least until it is a suitable time...)
Her internal monologue was interrupted by a very sleep-deprived looking person, with black hair and a scarf around his neck.
He introduced himself as Aizawa, their homeroom teacher, and after reprimanding them about behaviour, they went for quirk testing.
(Once again I fail to understand why and how this would benefit us. Wouldn't it be better to just to battle and increase our strength? In a villain-ridden world, battles are more beneficial. Perhaps it is better to learn about how to deal with different types of villains rather than seeing how far you can throw a ball...)
Mocking the system, Kurumi was next in line to throw a ball. It had a detector to see how far they could throw it.
The previous student got infinity due to a gravity related quirk, which was quite impressive in Kurumi's eyes.
She picked the ball up, and channelled some of her control of time into it. Then she just dropped it onto the floor again.
The counter than beeped on Aizawa's device.
"Infinity."
"WHAT!"
"Huh?"
"But..."
"Silence." His voice overpowered everyone else's, "perhaps you didn't understand what happened. Kurumi's quirk over here is [Time Touch], you don't mind me explaining it do you?"
She shook her head, then Aizawa continued, "she is able to control the time of anything she touches to a certain extent. What she did just then was revert the time of the ball back to Uraraka's score."
Such a quirk... everyone's view of Kurumi changed, even a certain hot-headed boy. He looked at her with a competitive look.
The rest of the testing proceeded smoothly. She did not pay attention to the one named Izuku's idiocy when dealing with his quirk, and remained silent to one side and observed.
She came first overall, but she also didn't care. In this world, she adapted to a more silent student, to reduce any suspicion towards her. She didn't explain much and only talked when she needed to, to add onto the mystery surrounding her, hoping that word could get out and attract some big fish.
She soon found herself just about to go to mock trials.
What surprised her was the appearance of All Might. Although there were rumours, hearing and seeing were two different things.
(Number one hero... to be honest he is indeed strong. His physical strength should be way ahead of me, and his spirit is also very strong, but he has an injury... made from 5 years ago? Perhaps he fought and won but got injured in the process? Anyway, powerful he may be, against the natural laws of time, he is too defenceless. A shame, I thought it could be an interesting opponent.)
Everyone got their battle uniforms on and prepared for the mock battles.
Her battle uniform was basically her spirit form dress, but not made of such special materials and not nearly as powerful. This transformation was one of a spirit's greatest strengths.
She was on her own in a team, against another singular opponent called Todoroki. As another anti-social person, Kurumi could accurately deduce his behaviour and interests.
(Most likely to do with family...)
She was going to try and get an egg off him, whilst he defended like a villain and she a hero.
As All Might announced the start, a thin layer of ice spreaded to every inch of building.
The chilling frost was more than enough to incapacitate any other student, but Kurumi smiled in the face of predicament.
Her dress then glowed a faint red, before starting to walk forwards.
"Wait, she's not affect by the cold?" A curious girl with a pony tail said.
"That's so cool. Look at her dress as well. It's so beautiful!" Strangely enough, a set of floating clothes talked.
"That dress is probably the reason she is unaffected. Her quirk is [Time Touch] right? Maybe the dress helps her in the way that she is always activating her ability. So she is getting affected by the frost, but she is constantly reversing the time on her dress, which acts like a shield." A final conclusion was made by the ponytail.
She was indeed right. The dress Kurumi had was specially engineered by Ainz to support a little of her strength.
When the cold approached her, she was unbothered and unaffected.
Slowly but surely, she silently walked into the room that Todoroki was in, with the egg behind him.
(How foolish. To think that you would not run away with the egg after knowing your opponent solved all your tricks. A trump card perhaps...?)
Unfortunately, Kurumi ended the battle too quickly, so she didn't get to see anything special.
(Definitely family drama...)
Her insight was impressive.
...
Ainz and Medea continuously worked in the background, but to their disappointment no clues have yet to be found.
It was mainly Medea doing the searching, and she communicated with Ainz with a mental link they all established to keep everyone updated.
She went to many libraries and government official buildings around Japan but to no avail.
Ainz, in order to play the father role, had to meet some parents on some occasions and did the chores around the house. In other words, he was the house husband.
...
As soon as she got word of another case of criminals, she dashed towards the destination as quick as possible, and got there in no time. Swiftly dislocating their arms and legs, she saved a family and waved them off whilst waiting for the police to arrive.
But what was unexpected was for a massive muscular figure to appear instead of them.
(All Might...)
He was a towering giant much taller than Hu Tao, and his exaggerated muscles bulged under his shirt, which had blue and yellow patterns.
"HAHA! Young hero, it seems like we have met again!"
"We've met before?"
"Indeed, although I did not greet you. But never mind that, I have to thank you for taking care of the villains. You can leave them to me now!"
He held out his hand.
"Oh, uh no problem. It's now my job after all."
She then reached out her own hand and shook his. Although this seemed simple enough, it looked ridiculous, as All Might's hand was multiple times larger than Hu Tao's
She also secretly measured his strength.
(Hmm, he is definitely very strong. No wonder he is the number one hero. The me right now probably cannot match him, but if I don't hold back and use my full strength then, maybe...?)
Yes, she had additional weights on her hand and feet to train herself in this world, specially made by Medea. She also unequipped all her artifacts for this reason too.
(I wanna fight him...)
...
Time went by and a week has passed, and the school announced an excursion to the USJ. They described this as an all-purpose testing facility for heroes.
It was quite magnificent, and Kurumi had to give it to them that a lot of realistic scenarios were accurately replicated.
Then, an astronaut looking figure started to explain about heroes and villains.
"-remember. Our quirks are very strong yes, but we must only use it to protect. Take mine for example, I have the [Black Hole] quirk, but if used incorrectly, I can easily kill people. Use your power in moderation."
(Is it a he or she? Nevermind, they are actually making sense. Surprising.)
Kurumi smiled at this and walked into the building, but immediately sensed something wrong.
She had the power of time after all, which was the closest thing to space, so she sensed space braking in front of her and it indeed did.
And out came a crowd of people, followed by a mist-person, an abomination and another person with hands on his body.
"This is not part of the plan." Aizawa stated, "hey, take the kids outa here."
But he was still too slow, as multiple portals opened up around them, and everyone was separated.
Aizawa frowned in annoyance and focused on the battle ahead of him.
As Kurumi sank into the portal, when she was out of sight of everyone, she started to smile and thought: (Interesting...)
She then found herself atop a mountain looking down at the entire facility. Then, at least 20 people surrounded her, telling her to surrender.
Due to this being an unknown world, she didn't know the consequences of killing these people, so she held back but still fought them.
They came prepared however surprisingly enough, as if she was their sole target.
(Hey Kurumi, what's happening?) Before, she set up a mental communication link to relay information and plans going forward.
(Some annoying bugs are fighting me, but I don't know what they're after exactly. Although, some of their equipment are quite something, perhaps they are after me? Is this the 'big fish' you were talking about Ainz?)
(Perhaps, can you deal with the situation?)
(Obviously...)
(Then don't. I feel like the best way forward is to get captured and see where it leads you.)
(You make an interesting argument.) A smile crept onto her face, as she pretended to falter and misstep; someone then took advantage of this and managed to land a strike on her neck.
Her body then fell helplessly and all retaliation stopped, but her mind was still very awake.
(Idiots. If I didn't make a mistake before, why would I make one now? You're celebrating winning against a school girl? Where's your dignity? And you are lowering your guard too much, what if I suddenly sprung back to life and killed you?)
It seemed like it was her hobby to mock people.
Anyway, they talked into a device, before looking up in joy and a portal then opened beneath them.
Spreading her senses, she knew that her body was next to the hand-guy, and he looked at her with a victorious gaze.
"WAIT! KURUMI!!" Izuku saw this and was desperate.
Aizawa and the others that were present there were also horrified. Although she never talked much, she was still very polite and their classmate.
Seeing her being captured triggered the wrath inside Aizawa as he desperately tried to rescue her, but then the massive abomination of a creature blocked his way.
It also quite severely injured him, and blood began to cover the floor, but his eyes were still on Kurumi.
But then, a loud crash echoed across the building, as All Might arrived with a furious look on his face.
Before even speaking his signature line, he rushed forwards to grab Kurumi from the villains, but the creature blocked his way and started exchanging fists and blows to each other.
His expression became more angry as he punched the thing, but it was still to no use, and he could only watch on helplessly as Kurumi was transported into a portal, leaving only the hand-guy and the mist-guy there.
"AARRGGH" Absolutely raging, All Might became more and more careless in fighting, and was losing to the thing, but then he heard Izuku's voice.
Before he knew it, Izuku's arm helped block an incoming blow, but he broke his arm in the process.
This was the wake up call he needed, and he soon regained composure.
It was then that the hand-boy started laughing and introduced himself.
"HAHA! All Might! What a sight you are right now. Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Shigaraki, and this is Kurogiri. We're here for two things, Kurumi, and your death...."