THE CURSED GAMER

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Chapter 108: Internship (5)

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‘Moonfish, that must be the villain inside the hot spring.’

Neji thought while Rumi chewed on her lips, thinking of his proposal. “...That would make it seem like I am scared of that villain.”

Hearing her words, Neji was about to talk, but the Police officer intervened. “I am not sure who this is, but he seems like a young man from his voice. Your... sidekick, perhaps?” The officer sounded impressed. “I mean, if you have enough faith in him, and from your considerate expression I believe you do, then I don’t see any reason why you should risk yourself, Mirko.”

“Well…” Rumi scratched her chin. 

She had just told him he’s not supposed to hunt villains, and just save civilians—that only when necessary. Contradicting words that she spoke only an hour ago ain't exactly her style. Other than that, Ryukyu said it’s against the law for an intern to engage in a villain fight alone—it was fine as long as it was under the supervision of the Mentor, though. In other words, as long as the intern fights beside the Hero, but Rumi didn’t like the idea.

She had pushed herself far enough by accepting an Intern, but fighting together with him against a single opponent? No way.

At last, she sighed softly with a grin. “I’m gonna crush him, wait here.”

Saying so, she kicked the ground and leapt inside the building via a window.

Meanwhile,

"..." Neji sighed from his spot.

'Stubborn woman.'

—★—

Rumi's ears twitched in her try to make out the position of the villain.

It took a few seconds for her to do so before she started rushing again.

This might have been a one-story building, but it was very large inside. Rumi also had to make sure to suppress her footsteps. Like that, it took her almost a minute to find the room the villain was in, along with the three hostages.

It was in fact the room where the hot spring was located. 

A frown appeared on her face as she sneakily peeked inside by the door.

The three girls were sitting beside each other, shaking as they covered their private regions with their hands. They were bathing here, so they were naturally naked. What unsettled Rumi was the hollow-eyed bald man looming over the girls with his tongue out as saliva dripped down from his mouth onto the girls' bodies.

He had a walkie-talkie on his hand, too. From the symbol on it, she could tell it was thrown in by the police, so it didn't seem like he was contacting his friends.

"H-have you guys…" the villain spoke, his voice shaky. But it wasn't shaken out of fear, Rumi could tell. It was just his normal way of talking. "Cleared the road as I demanded?"

Rumi could easily listen to the words coming out of the walkie-talkie because of her super-hearing.

["Listen, Moonfish, don't do anything rash. We wouldn't hurt you. Just keep calm and walk out, everything will be fine-"]

"S-so you haven't made way for me." The villain interrupted the voice of the police officer that Rumi had just left outside. "Then guess a beautiful girl will be boiled today."

["Wait, no! Stop-"]

Moonfish, the villain, cut the call as he dropped the walkie-talking on the floor. Then his lips stretched to a sadistic smile at the girls.

"Hehe, beautiful soft flesh. I wonder how it'd taste after it's cooked…" he licked his lips. "Now, which one of you do I choose-"

"Luna Arc!"

Rumi's loud voice interrupted the villain's monologue as her leg went towards his chest in an arc. The villain's eyes sprung up in shock but he couldn't defend in time.

The attack came in contact with him as the noise of his ribs cracking sounded out before his body hit and broke the wall as he landed into another room.

Rumi didn't waste a second even as the girls yelled in fright. She rushed forward at the villain, away from the three girls' sight who didn't wait even a moment before running out, naked. 

Rumi on the other hand, was busy in her mind.

The villain didn't have his quirk turned on, and it'd be a bother if he got the chance to activate it.

However, because Rumi couldn't run at her top speed inside the cramped building, the villain was fast enough to make a move.

With a <Luna Fall> ready, Rumi was hovering over his body that was laid down on the ground. However, before she could land her kick, blades of elongated teeth jumped out of the villain's mouth at a brilliant speed.

Rumi was in the air, so she couldn't even dodge as six twisting curled blades rushed at her at a breakneck speed.

Two of them penetrated her thighs, two penetrated her biceps, and one penetrated her stomach. All of them entered from their own side and came out from the other. Finally, the last blade came rushing towards her forehead as Rumi stared at it with wide eyes.

The world slowed down for her. She noticed the crater on the villain's ribs that her kick had left. It was a miracle he was even alive, let alone conscious. If she had delayed a few seconds instead of rushing in immediately, he would have gone unconscious by himself.

'Shit.'

Heroes make mistakes every day, and so does Rumi. But from the looks of it, this certain mistake was going to cost her her life.

Then, time returned back to normal as she felt the blade tap into her forehead, but the moment before it could penetrate, a white gauntleted hand grabbed the blade in the middle as it burst into brilliant particles of dust in an explosion of blue water-like energy.

Rumi's eyes were wide before her intern pushed the same hand at the laying down villain before a golden beam left it.

The Gold Dragon's Breath lasted for a moment only as the teeth retracted back into the villain's mouth while he stared at the ceiling with blank eyes. 

Rumi's body dropped to the ground as well while her abdomen clenched on itself to stop the bleeding. This much is nothing. She would be fine-

Her thoughts came to an end as Neji's finger pushed at her neck.

—★—

"Where is Mirko?"

At the officer's question, Neji gave a reassuring nod. "The villain had an ally, an Illusion Quirk user, from what Mirko told me at the last moment. He was using it to stay invisible. Mirko noticed and heard the slight movements with her ears and ran after him via a window on the back. In other words, she's fine, don't worry."

The officer had a frown on his face. "I see. But back to the point, I can arrest you for disobeying me and rushing inside without permission. But fortunately, Mirko had by then defeated the villain already. Other than that… I liked your matches at the Sports Festival." He winked. 

 "But the next time you disobey the law, you won't see a way out!" Then his stern face returned. "Anyway, kid, we will be taking the villain to custody now. You should quickly follow your Mentor, you've got a lot to learn from watching her."

"Yeah, sure. Thanks." Neji waved his right hand, with his left grabbing on his mask, as the officer left. 

He was about to turn and leave too, before he heard a squeal from behind him.

"Um…" one of three hostage girls, who had by then worn their clothes, called out. "C-can you tell Mirko our thanks?"

Neji stared at her for a moment before smiling. "Will do, miss."

Then, he kicked off.

—★—

"Ah!"

Rumi was startled awake with a loud gasp as she sat up on the bed… her bed.

She took a few heavy breaths while looking around to confirm it was indeed her room, even though it was dark enough to not make out all the details. 

'It must be night, then.'

Then she touched her stomach.

Feeling nothing abnormal, she ran her hand down her back, her thigh, and her bicep. Nothing was wrong… there was no wound.

"A dream perhaps?"

A soft sigh left her as she chuckled to herself. Now she was even dreaming about her work. On top of that, such a vivid one.

With a yawn, Rumi shook her head off the nightmare. She was just about to get up before a frown appeared on her face. Just to… make sure, she grabbed her phone from beside the bed.

2 AM, that was the time. After a moment of starting at the time, she opened some social media apps.

Her frown deepened as sweats started to bubble up on her forehead. Her eyes went over the news, the headlines of yesterday that talked about her rescuing three high school girls from a psychopath villain.

"But…" her eyes shook. "How?

"Yawwwn…"

Rumi's body went into alert as she heard a yawn from beside her. 

She immediately turned-on the lamp beside the bed, lighting the room, as her frown deepened.

"Oh… you are up, hi."

Neji Hado, her intern, waved his hand as he laid beside her in his shorts, his chest wide open.

"What…" Rumi's face reddened, though she couldn't tell if it was from shame or anger. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh…" Neji blinked. "I was applying healing, you see. There was this one girl in middle school who said sleeping with me heals her wounds every time."

"..."

"Though it's only mental wounds, not physical ones. But that's enough, I believe." Neji said. "You weren't physically hurt, after all."

Rumi stopped staring at his chest and abdomen muscles before speaking, "What are you talking about? I clearly remember I was hurt, wounded severely even."

Neji shrugged. "Check the news again, this time read a bit deep in."

Rumi was doubtful, but she still picked her phone back and started to read as her eyes widened.

"The villain had an illusionist quirk user ally?" Everything clicked in her mind. "I… see. It makes sense now."

"Yeah. When I ran inside, the tooth villain was already unconscious.  But you were standing still in your spot, with a man in front of you coming closer with a knife in his hand." Neji spoke. "I shot a dragon's breath at him, but he noticed me and turned invisible again before running out of the building."

"What did you see in the illusion exactly, for you to be sweating so hard while sleeping?" Neji asked.

There were some gaps in Rumi's memories, but she believed that's to be expected when her mind was being affected by an Illusion Quirk user. Those types always played dirty with the brain, enough to disarrange some memories.

"It's nothing…" she smiled softly. "Just know I appreciate you saving my life."

Even though she only remembered being saved inside the illusion, he did the same in reality as well. 

Neji gave a smile. "Oh why, thank you-"

"Now get out of my room." Rumi interrupted him as Neji started to chuckle.

"Sure, sure."

He waved his hand and dropped to the ground before walking away while whistling.

Rumi stared at his back.

She could really get along with him…

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Author's note: Neji not giving Rumi the hostage thanks, and is instead having fun lying. Such a bastard.