Chapter 363 - 8: I Can Fly, You Know

Chapter 363: Chapter 8: I Can Fly, You Know

The Hero Association branch—or more precisely, the facility used for hero registration and initial ranking tests—was the sort of place that always seemed to produce strange heroes.

"Someone at this level actually has the nerve to register as a hero?" A monster with a cabbage for a head wore an ugly scowl as he held up a rookie C-Class hero whose eyes had already rolled back.

Monsters bold enough to attack a Hero Association facility were so rare that you might see only a handful of them in an entire year.

"Stop! Justice Crash!"

Just as the monster prepared to slam the C-Class hero into the ground, someone dressed like a cyclist suddenly rushed in, pedaled hard, and rammed straight into the monster.

"Thank goodness, it’s Mumen Rider!"

"Who are you?"

The Cabbage Monster gently put down the C-Class hero in his hand and looked disdainfully at Mumen Rider, whose collision had not even made him shift his feet.

Reality was cruel. No matter how righteous his heart was, C-Class work itself was only meant for things like catching thieves. Some heroes might be seriously underrated when they first registered, but after remaining in C-Class for this long, Mumen Rider certainly could not be a match for most monsters... or rather, ninety percent of them.

A thin layer of sweat appeared on Mumen Rider’s forehead. All he could do now was hold this monster back until someone else ran inside the Association and called for help.

He knew that the one who could defeat this monster definitely would not be Mumen Rider.

Screech—bang!

"?"

Or rather... unlicensed driving?

A sedan that had appeared from nowhere, moving at a speed no normal driver could reach, smashed into the formerly arrogant Cabbage Monster and sent him flying more than ten meters before embedding him hard into the wall of a public restroom.

"You hit someone!" Zenko grabbed Yimi in shock and shook her violently.

"Congratulations to the Host for unlocking the achievement [I Don’t Trust Anyone Else to Drive; Only When I’m Driving Can I Sleep in Peace]. Reward: Portal Energy +5%."

"Meow, are we there?" Yimi rubbed her eyes as she climbed out, dismissing The World, which had been steering the car for her.

She had gotten sleepy halfway there.

Seeing her like this, Zenko’s hands trembled with lingering fright.

"..."

Mumen Rider picked up his bicycle and stared at the monster whose cabbage head had been smashed apart. Perhaps it was time to upgrade his equipment.

Now fully awake, Yimi ran toward the Hero Association branch.

The building was as large as a stadium because it needed facilities for testing applicants, even though most heroes still had to start from C-Class and work their way upward.

Yimi grabbed onto a counter taller than she was and tilted her head up at a forty-five-degree angle. "I want to be, a hero."

"Why don’t you come back when you’re older, okay, little one?" The young woman behind the counter kept smiling.

"Test her."

A shadow appeared behind Yimi. Fubuki had arrived at exactly the right moment, patted Yimi on the head from behind, and gave her an encouraging look.

Perhaps her little niece really was a genius. Driving through the traffic-clogged city center at high speed without slowing down and still avoiding an accident—or at least avoiding any accident that injured a person—definitely counted as a talent.

"Understood. Please fill in your information first."

Fubuki’s reputation carried enough weight that they could hardly refuse her. Even though she was only B-Class, she was extremely famous locally.

Fubuki patted Yimi’s head again and gave the advice every parent gave when a child took a test. "During the written exam, fill in the answer sheet completely. Try not to leave anything blank."

"Okay." Yimi nodded and confidently headed toward the exam room at the receptionist’s direction.

Then, during the written test, she used her pencil to color in every single box on the answer sheet. She even colored in the enclosed spaces inside the printed characters.

* * *

"Then they mailed me one that said, ’Failed.’"

Yimi gloomily swished her tail as she sat on a swing at the elementary school, sharing her unhappiness with her new friend.

In the end, she had still come back and obediently attended school.

Several days had passed since that exam. After all, the results were not released immediately.

During those days, she had been living at Fubuki’s home. Unless an emergency came up, Fubuki or another member of the Blizzard Group took her to and from school every day, and they also made Yimi call Fubuki "Aunt Fubuki."

Yimi still had no idea what the purpose of school was. It seemed like adults in every world wanted her to attend school, as if going to school were simply something humans had to do from the outset.

"How could you possibly pass?" Zenko sat a little farther away from her.

Because of this girl, Zenko had gotten a scolding from her brother when she went home.

But then, remembering that she was two grades above Yimi, Zenko stood up and faced her. "Aren’t you a girl? Why do you want such a violent job? We’re still little."

"I want to find, the strongest."

"The strongest?"

"Didn’t they say, Blast is the strongest?"

Zenko raised her eyebrows. "Everyone says Blast is the strongest, but I think A-Class Rank 1, Sweet Mask, is the strongest."

"Sweet Mask?" That was another name Yimi had never heard before.

"Number one in A-Class."

The moment she mentioned him, Zenko’s eyes lit up with starstruck excitement. "Don’t be fooled just because he’s only A-Class. In my eyes, he’s stronger than lots of S-Class heroes."

"Meow, meow." Yimi nodded.

She needed to keep an eye on this person too. If beating Blast did not complete the mission, she would beat him up as well.

"My brother is always saying the S-Class rankings make no sense. Sometimes he even deliberately shows off in front of me and says he’s the strongest."

"Meow, meow." Yimi kept nodding.

If beating Sweet Mask still did not complete the mission, she would go beat up Zenko’s brother too.

"Your aunt is here. Class is about to start, so I’m leaving." Zenko pointed at Fubuki arriving at the school gate, then turned and ran back toward her own class.

Once she spotted Yimi, Fubuki quickened her pace, walked over, and pinched Yimi’s cheek with a blank expression. "What bad thing did you do this time?"

School was not over yet, so naturally Fubuki was here because a teacher had called her in.

"I’m hungry!" Yimi unhappily knocked her hand away.

"What does that have to do with doing something bad?"

"I didn’t, do anything bad."

When you were hungry, you had to eat. That was common sense.

Yimi had merely wanted to make some food first, and she had even done it right on top of her own desk. Yet that teacher had actually scolded her while shouting, "No cooking during class!"

"..."

This child’s thought process was as strange as her mother’s.

Fubuki crouched down and took her little hand. "Behave and listen to your teachers at school, and when we get home Aunt Fubuki will teach you how to fly, okay?"

"I can fly." Yimi looked at Fubuki in confusion.

"You can fly already? Since when? Good children shouldn’t lie." Fubuki was shocked. She still remembered that this child had barely been able to control her psychic powers before.

Yimi’s feet lifted off the ground. "That day, when you two were fighting, I started learning how to fly."

The kitty had been carefully watching how they used psychic powers, though this kind of thing still depended heavily on practice.