Chapter 8: Hanging Out

The rest of the week goes along without anything else exciting happening. Other than everyone talking about Water Hoses death of course.

Apparently the wife has decided to retire from heroing. Not only did she suffer a horribly traumatic experience, what with seeing her husband killed in front of her, but also her quirk is only really effective when partnered with someone who can generate water.

The government is giving her a pension, as well as paying out a hefty life insurance so she’ll be set for a good decade at the minimum.

But that’s all yesterday's news, literally. Now it’s Saturday and I’m on my way to pick up Himiko for a day out! Really though, other than karaoke I don’t have any concrete things planned today. It’s her day, after all, so she should get to decide what we do.

Once I reach the door to our hideout, I knock five times. Long, short, short, rapid, rapid, rapid. Our secret knock so she knows it’s me. 

I wait a few minutes and listen to footsteps rapidly moving closer, then the frantic unlocking of the door. It swings open and a young girl with shoulder length green hair that curls up on the ends glomps onto me with a happy shout.

“Catia!”

I pat her on the head while putting a bit of pressure on her shoulder to ask for some space. She does so, allowing me to take in her outfit. Though it’s pretty simple. It’s a black dress that splits into four long pieces at the wait, leaving her legs complete freedom. Though it is a bit risque. At least I can see she’s wearing underwear…

By contrast my own outfit would be considered conservative. I’m wearing plain jeans and a dark red shirt with an unzipped black jacket over it. Inside the hood of my jacket is the curled up form of one of my attack cats, just in case. I made sure to put extra power into this one, which cut down on my energy a bit, but if anything happens it’ll be worth it.

“So what’s the plan?” She asks.

“Well, I figured I’d let you decide. Though I was thinking that we could do some karaoke at some point.”

She taps a finger to her chin in thought. “Well, why don’t we go around the mall? I don’t know why, but doing that is always fun.”

“Sure.”

And so we go, unaware of the excitement to follow.

????????????

We spend some time at the mall window shopping the various stores. At a clothing store we try on a bunch of outfits, some ridiculous, some cute, and some we definitely aren’t old enough to buy yet.

Around lunch we decide to eat at the foodcourt, me having some pizza and Himiko having a hamburger and fries. I can’t help but chuckle at the maniacal grin she has while drowning her fries in ketchup.

“”Thanks for the food!”” We say in unison before digging in. While we eat I can’t help but comment.

“By the way, who exactly are we thanking for the food? The people who made it? The people who grew and/or raised it? Or some kind of ephemeral deity?” I’ve asked Paul and Pearl before of course, but they just gave me vague nonanswers.

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Himiko pauses with a fry halfway to her mouth and tilts her head. “Huh. I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I know a lot of people don’t say it, so I guess it’s just tradition?” She shrugs her shoulders before finishing the journey of fry to mouth and chewing on it happily.

“Huh.” Not commenting on it further we eat our food in silence. After we finish I stretch my arms up, my ears trembling as I do. Coming down from it, I ask her if there’s anything else she wants to do, or if she just wants to do karaoke.

“Nah, I’m good. Let’s do karaoke!” She pumps her arms excitedly and I smile.Then something crashes through the ceiling and lands a few tables down.

The two of us dive for cover behind one of the counters, peeking out while we wait for the dust to clear. Once it does we’re treated to the sight of a woman laying on the ground, groaning in pain. All around her is an abundance of hair, some of it even having been caught on the roof while still being attached to her.

From above drops a man covered in bandages from head to toe. You can’t see a single piece of exposed skin on him, even the area around his eyes without bandages is just a dark space you can’t see past.

“Foolish villain! Did you really think you could escape from a member of the Flaming Sidekickers?” He starts to walk towards the downed villain, but her eyes shoot open. With a snarl of rage the hair around her rises, and bursts towards the apparent hero.

He takes a calm step back, bandages floating away from him and getting in the way of the hair. However, instead of blocking it, the bandages are easily torn through. But instead of continuing on their course towards him they curve back the way they came, towards their owner.

Her face pales, and I can only guess that she tries to stop them since a few veer off course. But not enough as several lengths of hair slam into her torso. She flies back while coughing up blood, slamming into the counter of one of the food court places. She slumps, her hair falling to the floor around her. The hero approaches cautiously, wary of a surprise attack.

But he doesn’t have to worry as the villain has been rendered unconscious. With a proud puff of his chest he uses her own overly long hair to tie her up and calls for the police to pick her up.

Meanwhile Himiko and I come out from behind the counter. Himiko pouts. “Boo, not enough blood.”

I chuckle while placing my hand on her head and giving it a rub. “It’s not like this guy has any blades on him, what did you expect?”
She puffs out her cheeks, “I know, but she could have at least put up more of a fight. It wasn’t very exciting.”

I nod in agreement. “True, but at least no bystanders got hurt. That’s a point in the guy’s favor.” Indeed, even with people standing around to watch the fight there was no one who got caught in it. Even the food place she got thrown into is empty, the employees having left for their break.

I take her hand in mine. “Well, do you want to get back to our day?”

She smiles. “Yep! Karao- wait, what’s up with him?” She points at a boy around my age with messy green hair. Instead of cheering like everyone else, he’s instead scribbling furiously in a notebook. He’s also muttering to himself, giving off a kind of creepy vibe. But what catches my eye is the title on the notebook.

“Hero Analysis for the Future?” I question.

“His muttering is kind of creepy, isn’t it.” Himiko mentions to me. But apparently she spoke too loud because the boy looks up at us and flushes.

“I-I-I’m sorry!” He exclaims and bows his head. He turns to leave but I stop him.

“Hold on, what with the notebook?”

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