About ten minutes later, Bang and I were already walking through the streets of City Z below, heading toward the local branch of the Hero Association. Of course, going by car would have been much faster, but the old man loved walking, so I had to adapt and breathe the fresh air. Besides, in a certain sense, we were quite the vehicles ourselves...
"Still, I can't help but ask." — clasping his hands behind his back in his usual manner and leaning his body forward, apparently making every effort to look like nothing more than a weak and tired old man, Bang turned his head toward me. "Where did this sudden interest in heroism come from?"
"Actually, it isn't sudden at all, Teacher." — I calmly shook my head in response. "I've been thinking about this for a very long time. And not only because being a high-ranked hero means being wealthy, famous, and popular. I don't know if you've noticed, but my progress has slowed down considerably lately..."
"That's normal." — the old man smirked into his magnificent mustache. "Your skill growth was already abnormally high. Right now you've hit a plateau — work harder and sooner or later you'll push through it."
"You're most likely right." — I nodded in agreement. "But I'm afraid the problem is precisely that training further in the same way is nearly impossible for me. The other dojo students are too weak — sparring with them, I'm just marking time. With you, the situation is the exact opposite — you're too strong. In the end, I simply have no equal opponent, someone I wouldn't need to hold back against and who could at the same time serve as the step I need to push past with enough effort. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I'm afraid I do." — sighing, Bang thoughtfully scratched his cheek. "So you've decided that by becoming a hero, you can solve this problem?"
"That's one option." — I gave a brief smirk. "I also plan to tour various dojos to learn more about other fighting styles. And of course there's the Super Fight tournament — it's held every six months, have you heard of it?"
"I even won it once, to advertise my dojo." — touching his mustache again, Bang directed his thoughtful gaze somewhere into the distance. "Ah, youth — how much energy you have, Garou... Only please, when you start putting your plans into action, remember what I've taught you. Listen to your heart and always remember what you need this power for. A means, not an end... and don't forget to keep coming to the dojo. Otherwise the other students might get lazy without you!"
"Of course I'll keep coming." — giving a grunt, I nodded with the most serious face I could manage. "I still need to master the breathing technique and finally beat you, Teacher."
"Same impertinent brat as always." — the old man smirked and shook his head. "Just you wait — once I get my back sorted out..."
Carrying on our usual back-and-forth with the old man, we arrived at our destination fairly quickly. The Hero Association headquarters in City Z — where I lived and where Bang's dojo was also located — took the form of a tall, entirely black tower that rose above everything around it like a symbol of protection and resilience. At the very top, as far as I knew, was a helicopter pad along with equipment for uninterrupted communication with the other cities.
Inside, everything was expensive and grand as well, but the empty corridors held little interest for me. Equipped with special passes issued to us at the entrance, my teacher and I were free to move through the building without restriction — however, we had no intention of sightseeing and headed straight to one of the upper floors, where the local administrators held office. Since Bang had, for the first time in a couple of years, made use of the phone issued to him and called the Association earlier, they were already expecting me...
In the spacious hall I entered alone, a single chair awaited me, along with a group of people in business suits sitting opposite a large window — Association employees. Three men of varying ages and a young woman in glasses.
Also, the moment I crossed the threshold, I sensed that someone was watching me from above. These "sensory" abilities — which allowed me not only to anticipate an opponent's movements to some degree, but to sense any "presence" in general — had manifested in me relatively recently. So for now I couldn't rely on them to their full extent. In any case, it was most likely other Association employees up there behind the one-way ceiling — the non-public variety.
"Garou, correct? Pleased to meet you." — the fairly young dark-haired man spoke first. "Please, have a seat. We are the evaluation committee responsible for assessing and admitting new members to the ranks of our Association. As well as rank promotions and all the rest of the bureaucracy... you're familiar with the principles governing how heroes operate?"
"As much as any layperson could be." — sitting down in the chair, I leaned back slightly with one leg crossed over the other, then gave a calm nod. "There are four hero classes in total. C-Class, B-Class, A-Class, and of course S-Class. Within each group, heroes also have numbers reflecting their standing relative to others. Each hero's rank depends primarily on how actively they perform their work, as well as their personal strength... I imagine that's precisely what I'm here to demonstrate today?"
"No, we'll do without that today." — smirking, the older man leaned forward. Looking at him, I found myself thinking for some reason that he would fit perfectly in the role of a yakuza boss... "Since your candidacy was endorsed by Silver Fang himself — S-Class hero, rank 3 — we have no reason to doubt your physical capabilities..."
"But?..." — easily catching that intonation, I raised an eyebrow.
"But if we were to immediately place a student of one of our active heroes directly into S-Class, it could be poorly received." — the young woman in glasses spoke this time. "Not only the public, but our major sponsors as well might consider it nepotism — favoritism, in simpler terms."
"Given that I won't be taking the standard tests, there's some truth to that." — I gave a quiet grunt.
"What matters is how it will be perceived." — nodding calmly in response, the woman turned her head toward the men seated beside her. "And so, our proposal is as follows..."
"We will enroll you in the ranks of the heroes." — the youngest man took the floor again. "But only in B-Class. This way, you won't be required to meet a weekly work quota the way C-Class heroes are, and further rank advancement will depend entirely on your own merits. Also, if I understood Silver Fang's words correctly, you need the opportunity to work in a group. And as it happens, we have a recent and quite promising addition to B-Class. For a while, you could work as a pair."
"The old man takes too much upon himself sometimes." — shaking my head and involuntarily glancing at the door behind me, I nodded nonetheless. "Alright, as long as this hero isn't too much of a burden, they can tag along with me. But I have a question..."
"Yes?" — the man I had been speaking with, who had already begun filling out some papers, leaned slightly forward.
"If I'm in B-Class, that won't stop me from taking on strong monsters when they appear — or rather, when they inevitably do?"
"The Association has a threat level assessment department." — the woman answered me again. "Every monster that appears is assigned a rating based on an analysis of its destructive potential and the danger it poses to ordinary people and heroes. Wolf, Tiger, Demon, Dragon, and God. It is considered that eliminating a Wolf-level monster requires three C-Class heroes or one B-Class hero. And for a Tiger, for example — five B-Class heroes or one A-Class hero. However, these are merely our recommendations, based on statistics. Notifications about a monster's appearance are sent to all heroes in the vicinity, so if you wish to fight them, operators can warn you of the danger, but cannot prohibit you from acting."
"That's all I wanted to hear." — nodding with satisfaction, I rose to my feet. "So then. Where do I sign?..."
A few minutes later I was already walking out of the conference hall, having received official hero status and been entered into the Association's database as B-Class hero Garou, holding 96th place in the overall rankings.
"Your partner." — a belated voice called after me. "Rank 95 — Captain Mizuki!"
"Wasn't that the villain chunin from Naruto?" — closing the door behind me, I smirked to myself. "Whatever, doesn't matter — the main thing is she doesn't get in the way..."
Finding the elevator quickly, I descended to the first floor, into the building's lobby, which was quite lively. Association clerks hurried about everywhere, the reception desk was busy, and there was even security — a couple of heroes standing guard at the entrance. And in the left part of the room there were sofas for visitors. That was where I spotted Bang, who had been waiting for me. Only he wasn't alone. Standing next to him was a woman... a large woman.
Well, at least "large" was the first word that came to mind when I saw her. A very tall girl — tall even by men's standards — with red hair and a muscular yet devastatingly alluring body. Her long, full hair was tied up in a high ponytail. As for clothing, her body was covered by little more than a tight blue spandex top and equally blue fitted shorts with the letters MZK written on them. Plus a few ribbons and medals, though those did more to shape her image than to cover any additional portions of her lightly tanned skin.
Right now this undeniably stunning woman was chatting about something with the old man while simultaneously stretching — both arms raised and clasped behind her head...
"Teacher, I see you're not wasting any time." — walking closer, I called out to the old man lounging on the sofa. "You can congratulate me — today I became a hero. A B-Class one for now, but still."
"Starting from the top isn't the best idea — this will be good for you." — smiling, Bang rose to his feet and extended his hand toward the girl who hadn't stopped stretching. "Yes, perhaps I should introduce you. The best student of my dojo — Garou. And this young lady is Captain Mizuki — she also became a B-Class hero quite recently."
"Oh?" — turning my head, I met the gaze of the girl, who had finally stopped her exercises. "So rank ninety-five, Captain Mizuki — that's you? Hey. Looks like management has paired us up."
"Pleased to meet you!" — suddenly snapping to attention, Mizuki bowed to me. "I'll be glad to work with a student of my S-Class senior. I'm trying to combine hero work with an athletic career, so for now I can only offer track and field and wrestling. Please take care of me!"
"Sure." — a little taken aback by such forwardness, I gave the girl standing before me another careful look. "Take care of you, huh... that I can do..."