Chapter 36: Hellstorm
[Alert! The host rejected Fubuki's invitation. Reward: 10 contribution points!]
That was the last straw for Fubuki. She snapped.
"Eyelashes! Mountain Ape! Teach him a lesson! Make sure he can't work as a hero ever again!"
She gave up on talking and went straight to action, barking the order without hesitation.
"Yes, ma'am!"
Eyelashes and Mountain Ape had already disliked Shinji for a while. The moment she gave the order, they sprang into motion. Mountain Ape charged in, fists like wrecking balls, while Eyelashes lunged with a pair of long, sharp tweezers, supposedly for eyelashes, but very clearly repurposed as weapons.
Despite their cosmetic appearance, Eyelashes' tweezers were designed to cut through steel. There was nothing delicate about them.
Shinji didn't respond. He just sighed. He had thought he'd been polite enough, but clearly, some people didn't understand anything short of force. Still, this wasn't a total loss. Beating up the second and third-ranked B-Class heroes might earn him some decent points.
He didn't dodge or brace. He just stood there, watching as a punch and a pair of tweezers closed in on his face.
In the next moment, both attacks passed straight through him.
"?!"
Eyelashes and Mountain Ape were stunned. For a second, it felt like they were hitting a ghost. Nothing connected. No resistance, no impact, just empty air.
Before they could react, Shinji grabbed the backs of their collars. With a lazy flick of the wrist, he tossed them both out of the building like sacks of trash.
His body was more than twenty times stronger than a normal person's, and with the added bonus of Hashirama Cells, flinging a couple of grown men was like beating a sack of puppies… that came out wrong.
"…?"
Fubuki's eyes went wide, her confident expression cracking. She hadn't expected Eyelashes and Mountain Ape to go down that easily. Shinji was just a rookie, ninth place in B-Class, nothing special on paper. So why did it look like they were completely outmatched?
"You two started it. Don't come cry now," Shinji said calmly, brushing imaginary dust from his shoulder.
"So you're getting in my way, too, now?"
Fubuki's tone turned ice cold. Instead of backing down, she stepped forward.
"?"
Shinji was honestly confused. Who was getting in whose way? From the beginning, it was the Blizzard Groupwho'd come after him.
But before he could speak, Fubuki raised her hand.
A wave of pressure surged through the air.
As one of the most powerful espers in the Hero Association, Fubuki had total control over psychokinesis. This time, she wasn't holding anything back.
The atmosphere around her twisted violently. Air currents howled as they whipped into a storm, lifting debris and broken pavement high into the air. Within seconds, the entire hundred-meter radius had turned into a whirling vortex of chaos and dust, centered entirely on her.
This was why she was called Blizzard of Hell. When she got serious, it looked like the gates of hell had been thrown wide open.
"Don't say I didn't warn you. You might want to tone it down a bit."
Shinji glanced at the storm of flying debris with a calm, almost bored look. Normally, Saitama would be next door gaming with Vaccine Man, and if things got too noisy, they'd probably barge in and complain. Still, that didn't seem to be a concern for Fubuki. She had no intention of holding back. In fact, she ramped things up even further.
"By the way, this ability doesn't work on me. Just letting you know so you don't waste your energy," Shinji added with what could almost be called a friendly tone.
He truly was trying to be considerate, but to Fubuki, it sounded completely like mockery.
"You're looking down on me?! You'll regret this!"
With the storm whipped to its absolute peak, Fubuki released it all in a single, focused burst.
"But worry not. I'll leave you alive! Hellstorm!"
The wind exploded outward at her command, roaring through the hallway and slamming toward Shinji like a battering ram made of swirling chaos.
As the force tore through the corridor, Fubuki was certain it had blasted him away. She didn't hesitate; she doubled down, tightening the raging winds and debris into a crushing vortex. Her power condensed into a violent spiral designed to tear through armor, skin, and bone. Inside that kind of maelstrom, there would be no air, no light, and no escape. Everything inside would be pulverized.
She hadn't wanted to go that far, but if he insisted on being defiant, then she had no choice.
Being the top-ranked B-Class hero wasn't just a title. It was her identity, her pride. Anyone who refused to submit wasn't just rude, they were a threat. And threats needed to be eliminated. No exceptions.
"Are you done playing around? This little game ends now."
The voice came from right behind her.
Shinji stood there, completely unharmed. Not a scratch on him, not even a wrinkle in his clothes. He might as well have just walked out of a quiet café instead of a hellish cyclone. With Kamui and Flying Thunder God in his arsenal, something like Fubuki's Hellstorm couldn't touch him even if she tried all day.
To him, this wasn't a deadly duel, it was child's play. Fubuki's fury, her grand declarations, her need to dominate the B-Class, it all felt like some overblown game of make-believe.
"?!"
Fubuki's eyes widened. Her body froze.
That voice… behind her?
She spun around fast, heart pounding, only to find him standing within arm's reach.
Way too close!!
Panic flared. She tried to leap back, to get distance, to reestablish control, but it was already too late.
In that instant, Shinji activated Kamui.
With her relatively fragile body, there was no way Fubuki could resist the gravitational pull of Kamui. Just as Shinji was about to send her into the Kamui dimension for a little time-out, an unexpected interruption dropped from the sky.
"Really? You chose now to show up...?"
Shinji immediately sensed the intruder. He'd already predicted that the Monster Association would send someone his way eventually, of course, it just had to be now.
There was no helping it.
He casually tossed Fubuki aside like she was luggage and shifted focus to the more pressing threat: the monster that had just arrived.
"…?"
Fubuki remained clueless about what had just happened. One second, she was facing Shinji's Kamui, and the next, she was thrown to the side like a sack of pillows.
Before she could process anything, a humanoid mantis crashed down from the sky and landed heavily beside both of them. The impact shook the ground, and Fubuki flinched hard, falling onto her butt in a helpless duck-sit.
[Alert! The host has exchanged for "Rasengan." Cost: 50 points. Remaining points: 370]
[Alert! Host has exchanged for "Physique +260." Cost: 260 points. Remaining points: 110]
[Alert! Host has exchanged for "Hashirama Cells x11." Cost: 110 points. Remaining points: 0]
Seeing the situation escalate, Shinji didn't waste a second. He dumped all his contribution points into upgrades, only ever spending them when he knew a fight was coming.
[Physique +260]
[Hashirama Cells +11]
[Current Physique: 478]
[Current Hashirama Cells: 20]
Just as the system notifications finished, one final alert popped up:
[Alert! Host has reached 20 Hashirama Cells. Reward unlocked: Wood Style – Wood Clone Jutsu!]
Shinji's eyes lit up slightly. As expected, hitting a certain threshold in Hashirama Cells unlocked new Wood Style techniques.
"Ahem! My name is-"
The mantis-like monster had just started its dramatic villain monologue when Shinji moved like a blur. With a lazy swing of his Crimson Night Blade, he cleanly lopped off the monster's head before it could say another word.
[Alert! The host has defeated the Tiger-level monster "Kamakyuri." Reward: 20 contribution points]
Twenty points, not bad. That meant the mantis had been on the stronger side for a Tiger-level threat. Unfortunately for it, it had the misfortune of picking Shinji as a target.
Kamakyuri's speech ended with a wet thud.
"That was… a monster…?" Fubuki mumbled, still seated awkwardly on the ground, her legs folded underneath her in a dazed, duck-like pose.
The hell just happened?!