8 AM
John stepped out of his 20-minute hot shower and headed to his room to get ready for their hangout with Kaina.
He put on black pants and a black shirt that couldn't hide his physique, so he grabbed a black trench coat to cover up.
"Damn, I look cool. But it doesn't beat my vigilante outfit."
John muttered, studying his reflection in the mirror.
He was trying to recreate Sung Jin-Woo's all-black outfit from Pinterest, which he remembered from his past life.
It was close but there were two differences. One, he had Guts' body and two he is far more jacked than Jin-Woo's lean physique.
"Onii-chan, are you done? I want to meet your friend so we can eat together."
John heard Ai through the door and opened to see she was wearing blue pants, a white shirt, a pink jacket, and a cute bunny hairpin.
"I'm ready, Ai and what about you Rover?"
Rover barked. Ai climbed onto his back, telling John they were all set and three of them headed outside to meet Kaina.
..........
Meanwhile, Kaina Tsutsumi stood in front of a café, waiting.
She was dressed casually a grey long-sleeve sweater, black pants, and a beanie instead of her hero outfit.
She looked left and right, watching people pass by.
"What am I even doing? I'm not used to this."
Kaina muttered to herself. The Hero Public Safety Commission had been giving her more days off lately, with no assassination assignments in sight.
The reason? Their focus had shifted to taking down the violent vigilante Absalon. Unknowingly, he had been doing their job for them eliminating hidden threats before they could escalate.
But his actions weren't going unnoticed by the public, who occasionally caught glimpses of his work.
There was even merchandise of him now. People were buying it more than low-ranking hero merch, which had caused some heroes to lose money or resign.
The Commissioner had told Kaina she wouldn't be doing assassination work until Absalon was taken down.
After all, she had tried to kill him with her Quirk and failed, the HPSC feared Absalon might follow her and discover the Commission's secrets or worse, eliminate them all if he found out why Lady Nagant had tried to kill him.
Now she was here. With free time she didn't know what to do with and waiting for a man close to her age and his four-year-old sister that people believe to be her child because of their matching hair.
"Woof!"
A loud bark echoed through the street. Kaina looked up to see Ai riding happily on top of Rover, with John walking beside them in his fresh black outfit.
"Morning, Kaina. Did we make you wait?"
John said as Ai hopped off Rover and ran over to hug Kaina.
Kaina smiled and patted her head not knowing what else to do with this type of interaction.
"Good morning, John. I wasn't waiting long." Her gaze shifted to Rover, who was approaching Ai with his tail wagging. "I wasn't expecting you to bring him along."
"I didn't want to leave him at home alone. And Ai insisted we bring Rover."
He wasn't lying Rover was part of the family and it would have felt unfair to leave him behind.
When the three of them had first met Kaina, Rover hadn't shown any hostility toward her, as if he didn't sense any danger from her. Seeing him now happily approaching her put John at ease.
Rover looked through the café window at the food inside, his stomach letting out a loud growl.
"Let's order something before Rover go crazy and starts eating off other people's plates," John said.
"Okay," Kaina agreed.
They entered the café and asked for an outside table for four, since Rover couldn't go inside which is no big deal for everyone.
As they looked through the menus, John could feel people staring at them. He kind of regretted coming to hang out with Kaina, cause they looked like a family to random people's point of view.
He wasn't the only one feeling it asKaina kept pulling her beanie down to cover more of her purple hair, looking nervous.
John couldn't help but ask a question out of curiosity. He didn't really know much about her personal life since the series was vague.
"Is this the first time you gone out with someone like this?"
She looked away, but still answered.
"Yes. I've never done this kind of stuff before. I'm used to hero duties public appearances, saving the day, stopping villains
. But lately, I've been having a lot more free time because..." She stopped herself. "It doesn't matter."
She held back, not wanting to reveal the secret behind her free time. But John already knew about the HPSC's dark secrets from his past life. Still, it surprised him that she wasn't doing hero patrols.
'Is it because of my actions as a vigilante and the Hero Public Social Commission halting her secret job?'
He thought to himself not realizing most of the evil people he killed were Lady Nagant's future targets.
He decided to shrug it off. This wasn't affecting Lady Nagant negatively, unlike the original series. Perhaps she could continue being a pro hero as long as he continued to eliminate terrible people during his vigilante time.
A waiter with a goat head and legs arrived at their table.
"Are you ready to order?"
Ai was the first to speak.
"I want a vanilla milkshake and pancakes."
The waiter wrote it down and looked at Kaina.
"I'll have matcha and cheesecake."
John was next. He glanced at Rover, who was sitting on a chair next to them, staring at the waiter and drooling. The waiter started sweating having a feeling the dog wants to eat him.
"I'll have honey toast and coffee with sugar. And for this fella," John gestured at Rover, "he'll have every meat dish on the menu minus the greens, if you can."
The waiter nodded, wrote it down, and immediately hurried back inside the café.
Ai pulled out her Game Boy and started playing. John took a sketchbook from his pocket and flipped through pages of his drawings.
He stopped at a half-finished piece of Master Chief from Halo facing off against General Grievous from Star Wars.
John was only drawing to pass the time. He wanted to have fun creating art of different characters fighting each other. He wasn't planning to become a manga artist—the kind who mentally exhaust themselves writing and drawing just to make ends meet every month. He preferred to keep this as something enjoyable.
"You think Absalon could beat a pro hero like Endeavor?"
John stopped mid-stroke, hearing someone nearby mention him and Endeavour?
"Dude, what do you mean 'could Absalon beat Endeavour '? He'd get destroyed by him."
The other guy, wearing an All Might shirt, said.
"Come on, have you seen the internet? Absalon finds villains and destroys entire armies of them quick.
We even saw footage of him lifting a bulldozer with one hand and cutting an eight-meter-tall giant villain in half with a sword. I never see others do that type of brutality without exhaustion. "
The All Might shirt guy shrugged.
"Look, I don't believe that guy is much of a big shot. He probably pay those people who say they were saved by him like some hero and it could be staged."
John didn't like how he dismissed the people Absalon had saved thinking them as actors.
So he used telekinesis to untie and tangle the All Might shirt shoelaces. When the guy stood up to walk, he tripped and fell flat on his face getting a bloody nose.
'Dick.'
John thought, continuing his drawing, unaware that Kaina was looking at him as he did his sketch.
"Here are your drinks."
A waitress arrived, setting their orders on the table before heading back inside. Ai immediately grabbed hers and took a sip. Kaina followed suit, while John continued sketching.
"Onii-chan, are you working again?" Ai asked, noticing his focus on the sketchbook. "You said the big toy was done and promised I could play with it."
"I'm not working," John said, not looking up. "Just drawing for fun and you can't play with it alone I need to move it somewhere with more space than at home."
Kaina hearing this couldn't help but ask. "A toy that's too big for your house? How big is it?"
John opened his mouth to respond, but Ai beat him to it.
"Onii-chan's been working in the garage for a long time. It's the biggest toy I've ever seen bigger than All Might in person."
As Ai say this John didn't want Kaina hear much of his project could only thought of one word.
'Shit.'
End
..............
[Author's note: I was dealing with important stuff and felt too tired to write until later on. Im currently making next chapter called who pays the damage? Anyway I'm gonna go to bed now, later.]