The red man clung to the building, his fingers straining to hold his whole weight.
His Instinct had led him to a high-rise building, with the familiar name of 'SynCorp' at the top.
The very place where it all started.
In hindsight it should've been obvious, the clinging to walls and shooting webs and stuff. He didn't care about that. The burglar however, had caught his attention.
It definitely had nothing to do with the skin-tight suit clinging on their body, showing their bountiful curves to the world.
It was a simple thing; show up, stop a crime, and blow off. Simple as that.
Then it turned out this girl was also trouble.
It was only a week ago, but the fight he had against the purple ninja in the building still shook him up; never before had he fought against someone as strong as him, even if it looked like they used tech to fight him.
And with his moves, he definitely is incredibly deadly outside the Powered Suit (at least he hoped what he wore was, looked too streamlined to be one).
The cat burglar was almost the same thing; her attacks actually hurt him, for all her slender and lithe figure could manage. And she was good, good at fighting, not unlike Purple Ninja Asshole.
An amateur like him couldn't stand a chance against someone with fighting experience, powers or no. And his Instinct wasn't working as he expected to, somehow.
He yawned, feeling the late-night fatigue settle in. He didn't take a can of coffee earlier, as he didn't want to be too reliant on the bitter yet satisfying beverage. Caffeine addiction isn't something he wanted to deal with, so he went off without it.
"Maybe one can should've been enough," Kamijoi mused. He peered over the streets below, the countless barbs in his fingers sticking him to the building behind.
He was hoping for some action to cool off from the massive failure that was 13 minutes ago.
The Instinct blaring in his head meant his wish was granted.
Kamijou swung as fast as went, feeling the adrenaline rush from these sorts of incredibly dangerous stunts performed mid-air.
He experimented a bit, while waiting for anything to do at night, doing some somersaults while swinging. It was a work in progress; even with Instinct guiding his aim and swinging he almost missed the timing a couple times, which had him collide into walls, garbage bins, billboards, and so on.
Maybe with some practice he'll get the hang of it, so for now he somersaulted sparingly in his swinging.
He heard Instinct blare in head again, this time louder than before; he must be close.
He landed on a three-story building, near an X-intersection between 1st Street and 3rd Avenue.
He watched as three figures ran away from the, he just now realized, jewelry store, with duffel bags slung across their shoulders. They then stopped and went across the street before getting into an alleyway at the other side.
Kamijou leapt from the building he perched from and swung towards one of the buildings the three hid into. He looked for an edge to peer on, and after finding one quickly looked over, and saw the three burglars quickly running through the alley.
'This is almost too easy,' Kamijou thought. He saw some old superhero comics where the main hero would go and stop things like this, the occasional battles against supervillains and world-ending events aside.
Kamijou had a soft spot for those sorts of stories, the kind of story where the hero would go on and help their community out with burglars, gangsters and whatnot. He found himself not liking the recent formula of "escalation" where the threats the hero/es face increase as the story goes on a different direction/the hero gets stronger than is needed for the story.
He preferred his stories to be stripped down tales, like the old Batman and Superman tales where the heroes fight gangsters and normal criminals, help out random people with their problems, and overall doing good things out of a general sense of decency.
Kamijou partially was inspired by how these old heroes conducted themselves, and based his own sense of ethics upon them. Maybe things didn't work out the way he intended it to do but he wasn't going to let it stop him, and with these newfound abilities he might as well go and do some good before getting arrested for vigilantism and those burglars are moving once more which made Kamijou get up from his introspection, stalking the trio as silently as possible.
The plan was to follow them to where their getaway vehicle was, and deal with them there, where there's less chances of any uninvolved bystander coming in at the most inopportune moment.
Moments pass of the Red Man's continued stalking of his prey, the three burglars beneath him. They were very cautious, making sure their actions weren't about to alert any of Anti-Skill or Judgement upon them. And there were no CCTV's around, lest they'd be dealt with by the Teleporter.
Kamijou figured there was someone who went and used the cameras to help out Kuroko with stuff like this. But with the lack of cameras here it was up to the Red Man here to stop them.
After a painstakingly slow 30 minutes, Kamijou finally followed them into their getaway car, a white-grey minivan with little features to its name. It looked like the type of car small businesses would use whenever to go around and transfer goods across blocks and districts. It helped that the van's size made it easy to shove it in an alleyway as wide as this.
They have been planning this heist for a while now, Kamijou assumed. It may not be correct he surmised, but the general feeling was there based on their methodical movements.
"Hey Komaba can we just take these masks off? They're making my stubble itch." One of the robbers said.
Kamijou drew closer, listening.
XxX
"No, we keep it on until we get back to base. We don't know how many cameras we've passed over the way here, and we definitely don't know if there are any on the way home, so no mask-offs."
"But it's gettin' itchy boss. Maybe a half-open? I promise to wear it back when I'm done."
"...Fine. Hanzou might take a while to start the car anyway."
Inside the van, Hattori Hanzou twisted the ignition, attempting several times to start it. Hanzou punched the steering wheel in anger, wincing in pain afterwards.
"What's going on over there? You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, this car won't fucking start for anything."
"Did you charge up the battery?"
"Yes, I did."
"Do we have any fuel in there?"
"Last time I checked," he looked at the fuel gauge, "more than enough for the journey home."
"Maybe I'll go and give it a try, maybe-"
"Komaba I got this under control. You and Hamazura just sit back and relax. Nothing a couple tries can't handle."
From Komaba's side Hamazura, the guy complaining about his mask, popped from the car window's side. "I can give it a try if you want. We're in a hurry man, I might be able to fix it."
Hanzou looked to Komaba for confirmation. The bigger man just shrugged in response. So with a heavy sigh, he exited the car, letting Hamazura fix the problem in the car.
Leaving him and Komaba outside the van.
"Man, it's so cold tonight. I feel like I'm gonna freeze my toes in here."
"It did rain a couple hours ago today, so that might be the cause," Komaba said, looking at a random puddle in the ground.
"Maybe," Hanzou sniffed. He could hear Hamazura inside, twisting the key over and over again, to no avail. "Hey Komaba?"
"Hmm?"
"You ever wonder why we're here?"
"Hell if I know. But then again, hell if anyone knows. That's the truth, ain't it? No one knows why they're here.
Think about it, we're born, we live, and then we die. Beginning, middle and end.
Sometimes it keeps me up at night, all these thoughts going around in my head. From time to time, I wake up at midnight and find myself staring at the wall for several hours.
Just, I don't know. It bothers me a bit."
"...Uh, I meant about, being here stuck in the cold night, waiting for the van to start. That's what I..."
"Oh. Uh, well... I thought it'd be better to put it here in case any Antsky or Judge would come over and check the van out."
"At this time of hour?"
"You recall the last time before Hamazura came in?"
"...Good point. Wonder what happened to Shuya?"
"Beats me," Komaba finished.
As the masked thieves continued their conversation, they fail to notice a certain red-clad vigilante land gently on top of the van.
"So anyway, what was all that? The, philosopical shit?"
"Oh uh, nothing. It was a miscommunication, is all. Nothing to talk about there."
"...You wanna talk more about it on the way home?"
"No. Not really. Actually... maybe some talking would be nice."
As the two robbers outside the van continued their conversation, a funny thing happened inside the van as Shiage Hamazura fiddled with the circuit board.
Cursing and mumbling under his breath, Hamazura took a yellow and blue wire to start the car. All that resulted was a spark which shocked his hand, causing him to jump up the seat and hit his head under the wheel.
"Motherfucker!" He slammed his fist into the piece of shit van, pissed off that he hasn't been able to make it run over 10 minutes.
"You okay in there? Need any help?"
"No no, I'm good," Hamazura assured them, reaching for his phone's flashlight. He turned off the car's light before going down again to wire the car.
As he fiddled the car's wiring again, he failed to notice the presence next to him.
"Rough night?"
Hamazura scoffed. "Like you wouldn't believe. I thought the light here in the van'd be enough but apparently I had to use the phone again for this."
"Man I know the feeling. Hey, I can hold that for you if you want."
Hamazura paused, glancing to his companion. Hamazura gave the phone to them, not noticing the man's red mask due to his head turned to the circuit breaker.
"Over here. Just make it steady. Okay that's good." Hamazura smiled as he went to work down town.
It took him a while, but with the good Samaritan's help he later heard the distinctive sound of the minivan ignition coming to life.
"Woohoo! We're in boys," he yelled outside. "We'll be outta here in no time!"
"Yes!"
"Fucking finally!"
"Hey man, thanks for the help there. We'd be toast if it weren't for you."
"Don't mention it," the red mask guy offered his hand. Hamazura accepted.
Hamazura was about to prepare the minivan, and perform the escape phase of their plan, when all of a sudden, reality struck the dyed blonde's mind with the force of a million exploding suns.
He quickly turned back to his side, and saw the red masked guy offer his phone back. Hamazura took the phone absent-mindedly.
He glanced back, to see them wave at him awkwardly.
"Yahallo."
Hamazura got out of the car as quickly as he could; stopping the others from getting inside.
He was propelled onto the nearby wall for his efforts.
XxX
Kamijou sighed as he stepped out the van, glancing over the frozen robbers, looking over their fallen companion in shock.
Currently covered in webbing, and attached to the wall, he looked to be struggling to get out.
"Don't bother. Spiders use that stuff to capture their prey, like flies and mosquitoes. The bigger ones, they take in mice, birds, lizards, other spiders.
If they can't break out of it what makes you think you can?"
The webbed burglar on the wall then stopped squirming, looking at him in terror. "Please don't eat me man."
"I'm more of a normal meal guy so no human meat for me. Count your blessings I haven't a craving for your ass yet," Kamijou replied as he turned away from the restrained burglar.
He ducked under a powerful straight hook aimed directly at his head, and replied with a kick at the bigger man's torso, sending them flying a few feet away from him.
He stood upright, looking at the big guy rub his arms, with his partner aiming what looked to be a gun at him.
"Really? You're gonna need a lot more than a peashooter like that to-" he was interrupted by a bullet whizzing past his head, rolling away to the side before somersaulting and firing a web ball to the gunman.
To his credit the gunman leaped to the side while responding by firing back at Kamijou. Instinct blared in his head as he leaped over the van evading and dodging each bullet.
He heard the gunman ask their partner if they're OK. Kamijou looked over at the other side of the van, seeing if the other guy was about to pop out from there.
Seeing that there wasn't anyone there he looked over, to see if the gunman was gonna shoot. Instinct wasn't blaring like crazy so he decided to take his chances. He strode over to the van's back, hoping to catch the two off-guard.
But Instinct warned Kamijou of an attack from above as the gorilla-like man from before descended upon Kamijou. He rolled out of the way, covering his face out of instinct as dust was kicked up from the impact.
Kamijou took a good look at his opponent; he had fought some big guys, but they were rather easy to deal with.
This one, however, made his Instincts blare like crazy; he was big. Bigger than all the other chumps back then.
2 meters tall. His face was covered by a black mask, giving off the impression of a medieval executioner than a burglar.
"Rotten luck." Kamijou craned his neck up, facing off against the silverback.
The gorilla struck first, rushing towards Kamijou. He pointed his hands towards the charging bull, ready to web them up in a cocoon.
His wrists only cried out in pain, his hands shaky.
Kamijou jumped out of the way as the large man swung his arms towards him. Hitting empty air the gorilla placed a leg forward to stop his charge, and turned to where Kamijou was, who struck them with a powerful punch to the side.
The large man only moved slightly from the punch, like one would when moving out of the way to let someone pass by you. "Your hits are powerful, but lacking intent. If you had fully struck me I'd no longer get up from the ground afterwards."
"There's more where that came from," Kamijou retorted. But the large man rose a hand.
"Think carefully for even a second. What good will someone like you do after defeating and restraining us? It'd be pointless to take this money back to the bank, considering they're insured for situations like this. And even if you took this back there will be no way for you to receive any monetary compensation from this, considering your status as a vigilante," the man said, with a voice at odds with their appearance.
"Do you think I do this stuff to get rich or get famous?
You gotta be as dumb as a 50-year old goldfish."
"What?"
"Enough talk, let's fight."
Kamijou made the first move, charging at the large man. His opponent responds with a straight to his face, that he evaded. The man's long limbs were a problem, and as tough as he was he didn't want to take a chance tanking one of the gorilla's blows.
Kamijou fired 2 jabs at the man's face, followed by a flurry of strikes and kicks from every angle.
Despite this the man held on, wanting to end this quickly. He felt a pause from the red vigilante, and threw another straight at him. Kamijou moved to the side, the punch passing by, and ducked several hooks and straights from his larger opponent.
Strength seemingly matching his own, and terribly agile for a man his size, the gorilla-like man pushed Kamijou back, aggressively leading offense against the enhanced misfortunate vigilante.
Yet Kamijou wasn't about to retreat here.
Kamijou without thinking, parried one of the large man's blows. Kamijou jumped back, watching the man shake his right arm.
He had waited for this, evaded all of his blows for him to wear down. Bigger bodies exhaust faster than small bodies, due to their size and weight requiring more calories to consume. Kamijou had his chance, he can stop them now.
Kamijou ducked out of the way, seeing to his side as one of the man's accomplices shoot at him with a gun. Kamijou had experience with guns before the bite, and Instinct worked perfectly in this situation.
"You okay boss? You don't look so hot there!"
"I'm fine, just get him outta that thing! I'll handle this! I don't want your attention be divided thanks to me."
"Alright, but just to warn you I'll go and jump in if you're having a hard time there OK?"
"Noted."
'Gotta account for his other friend behind him. And looking by the other guy I captured he's around half-done freeing him.' Kamijou thought.
His first attempt at stopping a robbery, and Kamijou found himself in trouble.
But a plan formed in his mind.
He pressed his palm to see if anything fired out, but the same throbbing pain from before was the only result. He figured he might have to do this the old-fashioned way.
Kamijou briefly looked around, not taking his eyes off the large man. They both were in a stand-off, the sounds of the knife cutting off the webbing the only noise within the alley.
Kamijou acted first, jumping to the side. He reached for an unopened can at the ground beside him.
The large man charged at Kamijou, head dropped and pointed towards the scrawny teen.
Kamijou evaded to the side, but winced in pain as the silverback struck him with a backhand to the left. But he held on to the can, and the force of the blow sent him away from the silverback, which was perfect for the vigilante as he used the momentum of his short flight and threw the can towards the silverback's accomplice quickly.
The bandanna-wearing boy glanced beside towards his direction and saw the can fly towards him, which made him duck under it, and fire to Kamijou's general direction.
Kamijou landed to the other side, and looked back seeing his opponent jump back from the sparks to the wall.
Kamijou thought, now was his chance, and leaped at the silverback.
A strike to the jaw.
Another to the solar plexus.
He ducked under a left hook, and replied with a right uppercut to the torso.
A right hook, and Kamijou blocked it, sending a three-straight combo to his stomach, then an elbow to his temple, before finishing up with a push kick.
Kamijou sighed, then leaned back as the wall beside him exploded, debris hitting his mask. He backflipped and evaded several more shots.
He continued evading as he drew closer to the bandana gunman, and ended as he kicked the guy's gun away from his hand.
He landed in front of the burglar, and swept his legs. The shock in the burglar's eyes didn't help him on cushioning his fall, and he struck his head on the hard concrete as he crashed to the ground, knocking him out instantly.
Kamijou pressed his palms again, this time capturing the last robber with webbing.
"Just in the nick of time," Kamijou said, webbing the nearly free burglar on the wall beside him.
After stringing the silverback up he called emergency services, leaving the three unconscious burglars in the alley.
XxX
Aiho Yomikawa stared at the three hoodlums gathered in front of her tonight.
A year ago they had hijacked a forklift, uprooted and stole an ATM machine.
"Hey there Miss. We really got to stop meeting like this," she looked up to see the bandana wearing burglar smiling rather sincerely at her, and to her peripheral the other two shaking their heads at his display.
She needed a drink.
XxX
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Sincerely,
Komigakuo.