Chapter 37: Jodo Chenjie
"...Heroes don't kill?" he mumbled the words, then suddenly laughed out loud. "I really lost to you."
So that javelin throw earlier... the boy intentionally spared my life? And here I was, naively thinking he just had bad aim...
"What about the others? My comrades, are they alright?" he asked suddenly.
Yoshikage Kira glanced in their direction. A dozen or so people were lying on the ground, none of them able to stand. But he knew they had only fainted; none were in any mortal danger.
A steel pipe, at the end of the day, is just a blunt instrument. Although Kira had used Hamon to channel through it, preventing it from deforming under the force of the throw and thus increasing the power of its explosion, it was still quite difficult to actually kill someone with it. They had all just been knocked unconscious by the sudden blast.
"I can only say they're not dead. If you hadn't suddenly run, you would have been fine too."
Leaving him with those words, Kira walked over to the site of the explosion. Although he was confident in Killer Queen's abilities, he was still cautious. He checked to see if anyone was showing signs of waking up, ready to deliver another punch if needed. He would absolutely not give them a chance to turn the tables on him.
The man with the holes in his clothes felt the burning sensation in his body gradually fade. He had regained some strength. He stood up and slowly moved behind Kira.
"I advise you not to even think about sneak-attacking me. The moment you make a move, you'll explode from the inside just like that steel pipe, your organs spilling all over the floor."
Kira didn't turn around. He said this while he began to search the clothes of the fallen enemies, looking for anything that could identify them. To be able to gather so many people to work for him, the person behind this must be a powerful figure in the underworld.
He wasn't worried about the man behind him attacking. The moment Kira healed his injuries, he had turned the man's entire body into a bomb. If he made any dangerous moves, Kira would ensure he was reduced to nothing but ash.
Although he had just said that heroes don't kill, he wasn't like Batman, who insisted on sending every criminal to prison. Besides, he wasn't a hero yet. He certainly wouldn't be soft on someone who threatened him.
"No, I just wanted to say, we don't know anything. You don't have to keep looking," the man with the holes said with a wry smile. "I have no intention of fighting anymore. In the end, agreeing to attack U.A. was a huge mistake. I should be on stage with my underground band right now, as the lead singer and guitarist..."
"I'm not interested in hearing about that," Kira cut him off rudely. "Right now, you just need to tell me what you know, and what you've guessed."
So impatient. This is the first time I've ever opened up to anyone...
The man with the holes smiled helplessly and raised his hands in surrender. "A month ago, I met some thugs while buying drugs. They said there was something that would shock the whole country and asked if I wanted in. They said that after it was over, not only would my debts be cleared, but I'd also get a lot of money. I'd spent all my money on drugs, so I had no choice but to agree."
"A few days ago, he took me to an underground dance club. There were a lot of people there. I thought it was a party, but then some guy in a waiter's uniform released a cloud of mist that surrounded all of us. The next thing I knew, I was at U.A."
"Nothing else?"
Seeing the man shake his head candidly, Kira frowned in thought. If this plan was a month in the making, then who was their target?
Was it Endeavor's son, Shoto Todoroki?
No, the students had only just received their acceptance letters. The recommended admission spots were kept secret beforehand. Even he had only heard about it occasionally from Inasa. It was impossible for the enemy to know in advance.
Was it Thirteen or Shota Aizawa?
They were both Pro Heroes who often went out on patrol. If someone wanted to take them out, they just needed to find a suitable environment and lure them in. It would be easy enough.
What if the target wasn't the students or the teachers, but just an invasion of U.A. itself?
That didn't make sense either. If they had someone with a teleportation Quirk, they could have done this long ago. Back then, the school didn't have All Might and had far fewer defenses...
Then, although it was hard to believe, after eliminating all other possibilities, the one that remained, no matter how bizarre or absurd, had to be the truth.
"Your target is All Might, isn't it?" Kira looked up, his gaze heavy as he stared at the man with the ripped pants. "Your target is the Symbol of Peace—All Might."
Seeing the look of surprise on the man's face, he realized he was just a pawn who knew nothing.
Kira couldn't be bothered to waste any more energy on him, but he still offered a piece of advice. "The police will find out about the U.A. invasion sooner or later. The people who brought you here won't give you a way back. While no one's here yet, you still have a chance to leave."
With that, Kira turned and prepared to leave. If he wasn't mistaken, All Might was in great danger right now.
"Wait! My name is Jodo Chenjie! There's something I have to tell you," he called out to Kira's retreating back. "The man with the hand on his face... he's extremely dangerous!"
Kira paused for a moment, then continued walking without stopping.
Jodo Chenjie looked at the burning streets around him with a headache. He was told to leave, but how was he supposed to get out?
Preventing U.A. from receiving any news while also preventing the cannon fodder they brought in from escaping... the organizers of this event really played their cards well.
He saw the leader of his small group, a man with a sturdier build than most, showing signs of waking up. He walked over to him, took the walkie-talkie from his pocket, and smashed it on his head. Instantly, the man lost consciousness again and lay motionless on the ground.
Jodo Chenjie sighed, turned on the internal communication channel, and said, "The two brats who teleported to the fire zone have been captured. Our side has suffered no losses."
Hearing a faint word of praise from the other end, he silently ended the call. He pulled a bent cigarette from his pocket, sat back down at the entrance of the convenience store, and lit it with the flames from the sign, taking slow, intermittent drags.
"It probably won't do much good, but... I guess this counts as doing something heroic, right?"