Idol Hero | BNHA

Chapter 31

Aries had been right about Noriko feeling like she was made of ice when the training had finished. After nearly two and a half hours of the same limit training over, and over, and over again, Noriko felt numb from the cold. She was sure she had frostbite or something. When it came time for lunch, the hot food she was given warmed her insides and she dumped out the ice water she was given the second she saw it and asked for hot chocolate instead - and was slightly surprised when that request had been fulfilled.

After lunch, Noriko followed Aries around a bit more while she did some of her other daily tasks before she told Noriko it was time for a patrol. Noriko wasn't sure if she was excited about the patrol because it would be a cool chance to learn more about hero work, or if she was irritated she had to do more after being tortured for two and a half hours.

But Noriko found herself leaning closer to being excited about the patrol as she followed Aries outside the agency. The fresh Hosu air was refreshing after being trapped in the training room, even if it hadn't been very stuffy in there.

Noriko walked down the sidewalk beside Aries, the pair being stopped a few times when people came up to them asking for autographs and pictures. Noriko felt a little strange being the one taking the pictures for once instead of being in them, although she did get dragged into a few pictures by people who recognized her from the sports festival. 

"Hey Aries," Noriko started as they turned a corner. They were about 20 minutes into the patrol and nothing had happened. Noriko had sort of been expecting to have to stop a robbery or a random, wild villain, but nothing even remotely like that had happened.

Aries's attention was drawn away from the world around them and to Noriko, "Yes?"

"Does anything normally happen during patrols?" Noriko questioned, glancing from Aries to random groups of people around them. She smiled and waved to a little girl who was looking at them with excitement on her face before continuing, "Like, do you often have to stop muggings and stuff like that?"

"Oh yes, all the time. I'd say it's rare for me to have a completely uneventful patrol. It's actually quite annoying, but some people just need to do bad things just for the thrill of it. It rarely ends well for them, but they do it anyway." Aries said with a sigh. She lightly shook her head and went back to looking around the street. "If you're asking because you expect something to happen, just be patient. As much as I'd love for us to have an eventful patrol, I doubt that'll be the case."

As if on cue, there was the sound of an explosion followed by screams. Aries spun around to find the source of the noise, Noriko following suit and spotting some people running from a building that seemed to be on fire.

"There!" Noriko shouted, pointing toward the building that was just down the street.

"Come on!" Aries replied, before running toward the building and through the crowd of terrified people. Noriko followed close behind her and watched as Aries began shouting about the commotion to get the crowd of onlookers to listen to her before she turned to Noriko, "Do you think you can get up to those windows?"

"I think so," Noriko answered, glancing up at the building. Noriko wasn't quite sure what windows Aries was talking about, but she didn't bother asking as Aries continued.

"Good. I need you to get up to the top floors and open the windows so you can tell anyone you see to jump out of the building."

"Jump?!"

"I'll have a ton of cotton out for them to make a soft landing. It'll be like landing on a pillow, no one will be hurt." Aries explained with a bit of annoyance in her tone. Noriko guessed she'd done something like this before and thought it would be obvious to her that Aries would make a big cotton cushion for people to land on - which wasn't true in the slightest.

"If you can avoid entering the building and just make a pillar of ice to raise you up there, that would be good. I can't have you getting hurt too." Aries said. Noriko nodded and moved her gaze from the sheep hero to the top floor of the building. It only seemed to be four or five stories high and Noriko had never had trouble when it came to heights, but she still felt a bit of fear as she raised herself to the top floor with a pillar of ice.

Noriko ignored that bit of fear though as she approached the top floor and became level with one of the windows. She could see that there were people behind the window and they seemed to be struggling to open it. They noticed Noriko almost immediately and took a step back as she placed her hands on the window and froze it. The window iced over and shattered almost immediately after it was covered in ice.

"The heroes are here!" Noriko heard a lady shout from inside the building.

"We're saved!" A man shouted.

Noriko glanced around the room and noticed that there seemed to be a surprising amount of people gathered around the windows. The smoke smell was even stronger with the window open and everyone in the room was looking at her expectantly.

"Listen, I want all of you to make your way over to this window and step outside," Noriko started, her voice raised over the sound of the fire and quieting anyone who was still talking. She glanced down and saw that Aries had made her cotton cushion - which looked like a giant clump of pink cotton candy - like she said she would. "Aries made a huge cushion of cotton so you can jump down without being hurt."

Noriko then instructed everyone not to push and shove as people began to climb out of the window. It was a bit strange watching a bunch of regular people jumping off her pillar of ice and to the ground, even knowing that they were just jumping into a pillow of cotton.

Once Noriko was sure everyone on that floor was out of the building, she realized that the fire department and more pro heroes had arrived. She quickly spotted Aries among the chaos below her and saw her motion for Noriko to come back to the ground. Noriko did just that, the pillar slowly lowering until Noriko was standing in a puddle that was way too small for the amount of ice she had created.

"Excellent work. Having the top floor at least partially evacuated was helpful, and I think you got most people evacuated." Aries complimented. Pros were still carrying people out of the building, but the fire seemed to be mostly put out at that point and Aries was beginning to clear the cotton she had made with her quirk.

Noriko smiled, a sense of pride filling her. She had been able to help save real people's lives. She wasn't just improving people's moods and giving them some entertainment like she did with singing, she was actually saving their lives. It felt extremely rewarding, just as rewarding as hearing how her music helped people through tough times.

It didn't take much time for everything to be resolved. Noriko was approached by a few of the people she had helped out of the building and they thanked her for saving them before they were asked to go with the police to get their statements on what had happened. Aries had been told that the explosion had been due to some sort of malfunction that caused some electronic equipment to explode, Noriko listening quietly next to her as the police explained what they believed had happened.

After Aries exchanged a few words with the police, she turned to Noriko, "Everything here seems to be good, let's head out, we still have to finish our patrol."

"Ok."

Noriko trailed after Aries away from the scene and soon, they were finishing their patrol with no other incidents and back at the agency.