Dynamite And A Laserbeam - Redux

Vol 1 - 3: Welcome to Musutafu - Part 3

[Original Chapter posted - January 11th, 2022]

[Revised Chapter posted - January 7th, 2023]

[Secondary Revision of the Chapter posted on June 11th, 2023]

[Third Revision of the chapter posted on December 18th, 2023]

Yoshihara exited the Love Hotel's elevator and entered the suite on the top floor, mentally exhausted after her day at school. It wasn't normal for her to be like that, but today was different. It had been far too eventful for her, what with meeting Midoriya and helping him out, if only briefly, with his bullying problem.

Said bully's name was apparently "Kacchan", but she knew that to be a nickname. No self-respecting parent in their right mind would name their kid "Kacchan" without the expectation that they would become a target for every bully on the known planet.

Maybe she could ask one of the other students at the school as to the true identity of "Kacchan", then she could speak to The Headmaster of Aldera about what had happened today.

Though, considering nothing had happened regarding his behaviour beforehand, it didn't exactly give her the confidence, nor the assurance that something would be done about it. Still, it was worth the effort to at least try something. If nothing was done, it would make the school look extremely bad.

That aside, Yoshihara took off her backpack and slung it next to the elevator before turning around. She noticed a sticky note on the side of the elevator doors which hadn't been there before when she had left this morning. She had an idea as to what it was going to be about, but just to sate her curiosity, she ripped it off of the red walls of the elevator entrance and scanned it over, huffing at its contents.

Effectively, the note had explained to Yoshihara that Kayama-san was going out with her friends at the bar she frequently visited. It said she would be home no later than midnight, but Yoshihara knew better. Chances were that she wouldn't be back till three in the morning, and by then, Yoshihara would have been dead asleep.

Frankly, it was a problem, but she couldn't exactly fault Kayama-san for going out as much as she did. Kayama-san wasn't a drunkard per se, but she did drink a lot. She blamed it on the stresses of being a Pro Hero and the responsibilities tied to it. Having to save people every day and still getting criticism for minor things that, in the grand scheme of things, hardly mattered must've been rough for her mental health.

If there was something that Yoshihara had dreaded when it came to her future as a Pro Hero, it was the constant nagging of the average citizen toward their public defenders. While it had died down as of late, she had read about horror stories of hero hopefuls quitting due to the amount of stress that came with the job or worse, some outright ending it all due to their failure to save lives.

It was an endemic strictly contained within Japan because in other countries it wasn't nearly as bad. The one place that she could even remotely compare it to was probably Germany. But when she considered that it had been Germany who had come up with the idea of how heroes were seen in today's society, it made far more sense for them to be more scrutinized than the heroes in Japan.

On a lighter note, Yoshihara didn't mind that Kayama-san was out and about. It at least gave her some time to be alone without her yapping her ear off about how work was dreadful, and how she was secretly looking forward to retiring sometime in the future. Although speaking of people talking about their days at work, she wondered how Sasaki-san had been doing.

The last time she had checked in on him was about a month ago, having called him after finding out his place of work and getting Sasaki-san's number. He had been surprised to know that she had remembered him, and after they caught up briefly, they talked about how things had been and where she was now living. In that respect, he was like a grandfather to her, even if they weren't related.