Chapter 39 - Rabbit Hero Mirko

May 14, 2325 - Monday. 

Today is the day when the first year Hero Course students of UA High went to their respective heroes for internship. 

Usually, the pro heroes would arrange to meet them in their own agencies. However, Mirko was an exception. 

This Rabbit Hero, who doesn’t believe in the concept of teamwork, has no established agency nor city to patrol. Instead, the whole of Japan is her territory- coming and going wherever she wants, fighting whichever villain she encounters. 

Thus, as the sun peeked over the horizon and began to cast its golden blaze through the world, Hiro arrived at the location where Mirko was supposed to meet him. He came 30 minutes early, so he wasn’t surprised when he saw no traces of the rabbit hero.

“To set the meet-up in a place like this, I think I finally have an idea why she chose me.”

Hiro muttered. He was currently at the entrance of the Hinohara Tokyo Forest. Except for the few people who came to exercise, this place was practically deserted.

It was the perfect place for a fight.

Was that battle-junkie rabbit tempted to fight him when she saw his performance? It’s great if that's the case. He would be able to implement his plan even faster.

He sat on a bench under the shade of a tree and closed his eyes, concentrating on finding the correct gene composition as he waited. There were countless living cells of Mina and Momo stored in his body, so he could experiment any time he wanted.

30 minutes quickly passed.

From the direction of the nearby Tokyo City, a blurry white figure sprinted through the empty road, leapt into the air, and landed in front of the forest entrance.

The few people who were exercising looked over in surprise. Then, whispers of excitement ensued when they realized who it was.

Hiro opened his eyes. His gaze was filled with interest as he studied the pro hero he would intern under for the following week.

She had a healthy dark skin that seemed to come from being often under the sun. Her straight white hair reached her thighs, with bangs that are parted slightly to the right, extending down to her waist. 

While slender and curvaceous in frame, she also sports a lean, athletic, and well-defined build, especially in her arms and legs. Long white rabbit ears point upwards above her head, along with a small and white round tail, giving her an overall resemblance to an albino rabbit.

At this moment, her narrow red eyes with long, defined eyelashes swept through the surroundings. Her gaze met with Hiro’s…and a frown appeared on her face as she made a ‘come here’ gesture.

“Mirko-san, good morning.”

Hiro said with a gentle smile after he stood in front of the Rabbit Hero. Her head only reached his nose level, so he habitually looked down to meet her gaze. 

“Save all that useless polite talk for later. Now follow me. Let me see whether you’re worthy or should I kick your ass back to your school.”

She didn’t even wait for his response before she darted towards the forest.

“Huh. Wonder what’s got her feathers all ruffled up. Or should it be fur?”

Hiro mused, before his figure similarly vanished into the woods.

—

Rumi Usagiyama furrowed her eyebrows. She jumped on a branch, then proceeded to the next, and the next, uncaring whether the kid could follow. If he can’t, then that means he’d just be a drag.

To be honest, she was starting to doubt her judgement in choosing the white-haired teen as an intern. 

Her patrol during the Sports Festival was boring. The powerful villains hide during that period, watching the online stream to gain intel on their possible future foes.

It was because of this that she also tuned in on said festival. Watching kids fight tooth and nail against each other was more entertaining than just jumping around. 

She was one of the many people who had been eager to see an intense fight between Todoroki and Hiro. Therefore, when she saw just how one-sided the battle was, she cursed in disappointment. 

At the same time, however, Hiro’s real strength piqued her interest. Her instincts told her a battle against him would definitely be very satisfying. 

If he interned under her, she could fight him whenever she wants for a whole week.

Thus, she sent a draft letter on a whim to UA. Being chosen by him made her grin in anticipation. However, that sense of anticipation dissipated like snow on a boiling kettle as soon as she laid eyes on him. 

Her Quirk, Rabbit, allows her to do everything a rabbit can do but better. Among one of them is the animalistic instinct to sense someone’s level of threat towards herself. 

And when she met the brat, she only felt a sense of danger slightly stronger than those heroes in the top 100. 

For a 1st year student, that was commendable. But for her? The difference between that and some mooks was just an extra kick. 

Mirko inwardly groaned. She just wasted a whole week waiting in anticipation for nothing. Could she pass off the kid to other heroes? He’s the winner of the festival, so she doubted they’d reject him. Yeah, that’s a good plan.

She stepped on a branch, but didn’t continue to jump away. There were only sparse amounts of sunlight filtering through the leaves, signifying just how deep in the forest she already is.

The ears above her head twitched. When she heard no sounds of the brat catching up, she smirked. 

“Alright. He failed the assessment. Now I have a valid excuse to-“

“Please don’t arbitrarily fail me, Mirko-san. I’d become a laughingstock in class.”

Mirko’s fur stood on end as a joking voice reached her ears. She instinctively kicked at the direction of the sound, but found her foot stuck halfway as a hand calmly grabbed it.

“You-! When did you get here!?”

“What do you mean? I was following in your footsteps the whole time. You seemed preoccupied though, so I lowered my presence.”

“Lowered your…?”

Mirko’s eyes narrowed. She studied the boy, and found that he seemed even more non-threatening than before. In fact, his presence barely even triggered her danger instincts now.

“I see. You’re one of those annoying sneaky types.”

Mirko said as she jumped and took back her foot. The frown on her face was now gone, replaced by a widening smirk.

“Not really. I prefer direct combat more. Trying to remain under the radar in my early days just made me familiar with this ability.”

“It doesn’t matter. Next, we’ll begin the test to see whether you’re worthy to continue as my intern.”

She said, her hips briefly contracting, before her figure blurred.

“I thought following you here was already the start of the test? You even said you’d fail me since I couldn’t follow.”

Hiro said in a conversational tone. At the same time, his body leaned slightly to the side and evaded Mirko’s flying kick.

Mirko smashed her foot to the ground, stopping her momentum. Then, she turned and kicked at his biceps.

“That was just the preliminary test! The real one starts now!”

“What a willful hero. Then is this test the final one? Or would there be a post-test”

“Raggh! You’re too talkative! Just shut up and fight!”

Her foot successfully connected to his biceps. His upper body bent along with her kick, sending him flying-!

Mirko’s instincts and years of battle experience suddenly flared up at this moment. She reflexively jumped back, but it was still too late.

Hiro, who should have been sent hurtling away, had somehow stabilized his bent upper body with one foot, while the other hit her stomach. 

The force made her spit out a mouthful of saliva as her body flew backwards for a couple of meters.

“By the way, what are we testing this time? How long you can last against me?”

Just then, Hiro’s curious voice reached her ears. She looked up, ignoring the pain to glare at him. However, the sight before her made her pause.

There was nothing physically different about the boy- still with that annoying smile on his handsome face and all. However, the aura he exuded was currently different.

If before he was a housecat, then now, his figure had turned into a tiger.

Mirko’s fur stood on end. Her whole body was tense. At this moment, the danger she felt eclipsed any other moment before in her life. 

And that made her cackle in glee. 

“Don’t get too cocky, brat! We’re just getting started!”