Defective (MHA)

Leaving Akiko in the hospital, Taiko took out a pocket push-button phone given to him by Kyudai for communication. It only had three contacts: Sato, Sensei, and the "Crazy Dark Sorcerer," as he sometimes called Kyudai and the magic he did with people's bodies.

-Hey.

-I'm busy.

-You're always busy.

-I'll be there in the evening. I've got a lot of work. Taiko, I have a task for you. I think you asked about a part-time job. I need people's bodies, I'm ready to pay you for them. Alive or dead, better alive. Use Johnny's ability to transport them. - the old man ended the call.

-But there's something to do. - Taiko put on a balaclava and gloves. He was really lucky with this task, as if a mountain had fallen on his head at his will. It was already getting dark and he had a couple of hours before Kyudai returned. He went to a bad area on the outskirts of Jaku. This area is rarely visited by tourists because the main attractions of the city were the central tower of Detnerat and the financial district around the tower, so the authorities have forgotten about everything else that does not bring in money.

Now Taiko stood in the darkness in front of the house where the teenagers were hanging out. Where else would dealers or people who knew dealers live? Where there are drugs - there is money. Sneakers act as shoes, and a knife hung on his belt. Now he felt like a predator who must survive in this world by any means, even such petty and cruel ones.

- There really are a lot of them there. - Japanese music was playing throughout the street, it is difficult not to notice such a gathering. Taiko looked around and realized that there was no way into the building, except for the second floor on the back side by the window. He approached the two-story house closely. He stood against the wall, leaned his hands on the watercourse and began to climb onto the roof with his feet. Climbing a smooth metal pipe is much more difficult than climbing a tree, whose bark clung and rubbed against his palms and feet, but now he is stronger, more durable and resilient. If it weren't for the small metal fastening similar to a partition that attached the pipe to the house, he would never have been able to climb up because of the slippery metal.

Halfway up, someone heard a noise from the pipe and looked out of the window. Taiko held on with all his might, barely shifting to the side behind the pipe and ending up right under the ventilation, he avoided detection.

- It seemed so, probably.

- Forget it, will you be counting crows all evening? - the window closed.

- Yeah, they definitely won't let me inside like that. - The last chance to get into the house was to climb onto the ventilation, behind which was the window itself. The white box barely creaked when the guy climbed onto it, the sound was drowned out by loud music. Feeling that the ventilation was barely holding up, Taiko hurried to grab the edge of the window frame.

He finally found himself at the window. In a room where LED strips of different colors were flashing everywhere and there was no one. He opened the window and got inside, taking out a knife. Since there was no one in the room, Taiko carefully began to rummage through the nightstands. Now, having examined the room more carefully, Taiko saw posters of popular heroes of his time, in particular a beautiful girl in a vulgar outfit, whose heroic name was Midnight. Having rummaged through the nightstands, he managed to find a couple of bags of marijuana, a couple of thousand yen, condoms, which he had left on the bed.

Taiko barely heard someone coming up the stairs through the music. Not thinking of anything better, Taiko crawled under the bed, holding a knife in his hand. A couple ran into the room, kissing each other fiercely. They locked the door, Taiko cursed himself for forgetting about such a basic thing as a lock.

The couple began to have sex on the bed, under which Taiko was hiding. The sounds were indeed exciting, but Taiko wanted to interrupt their occupation as soon as possible. Carefully crawling out from under the creaking bed face up, for just a moment he saw the face of the girl receiving pleasure, and then boundless horror when she noticed black as fog eyes, whose face was in a mask, and a knife cutting her throat.

For another ten seconds, the guy shoved his penis into her, into the bleeding girl, unable to utter a word, and her sobs were interrupted by loud music. Only noticing her unusual behavior when she fell right on Taiko. The guy, seeing a pool of blood and her cut throat, started to run away, but Taiko hit him in the leg at the last moment, namely, he cut his Achilles tendon, which is why he fell and hit his head on the doorway.

-You shouldn't have gotten in my way. -Taiko checked the door and had definitely already closed it. -Sorry. -Taiko called "Crazy Dark Sorcerer".

-So how are things?

-Phew...let me catch my breath. - A heavy lump came to my throat.

-It's always like this for the first time. You'll get used to it later.

-This is, damn it, not cutting up the dead. I have two here, one is still alive.

-I'll activate Johnny now.

It looks like he'll have to wait almost all night, because the party doesn't stop dying down, but on the contrary, gains momentum. A couple of seconds later, a disgusting-smelling dark liquid appeared out of nowhere, taking first one body, then another, into the lab. Taiko took a glass of some kind of alcohol diluted with sweet water and went down through the window.

-Yes. - he took the old man's number again.

-Taiko, where are you?

-Already left home. The only traces are blood.

-Okay. You're probably wondering how much you'll get for both of these?

-Naturally, I'm not doing this for free.

-I won't give you a figure over the phone, but that's enough.

-Okay. How's Akiko?

-The girl, as always, misses you, but today she started getting to know others and became more sociable, that's what the nurses told me. - This news made Taiko happy, socialization is the only way to avoid social isolation. Even though she and Taiko are inseparable and always close, he is not the last person on the planet. He only wants the best for her, so that she goes to school like everyone else and makes friends, learns about the world and learns from her mistakes. You know, that simple life of teenagers.

- Did the guardianship services stop by?

- Yes.

- How did it go?

- Everything went smoothly.

- I didn't doubt your pretense, old man.

- They'll come tomorrow, but I'm afraid they need more compelling reasons for guardianship over Akiko than my doctorate. - Last time, the guardianship services didn't think much about Taiko's origins, so they completely trusted Kyudai, but now, they took the second guardianship more seriously.

- Oh, yes, about the house. I have a little plan, I want to renovate your old house. You don't mind if we live there, do you? - Taiko stood in front of the house, maybe he'll manage to find someone else. That way, Kyudai's work will go faster, Sensei will only be happy about it.

- So that's what you need the money for.

- Yes, there are still unpaid utility bills. There is no water or electricity.

- There's enough money for that. You worked hard today.

- Thank you. I'll grab one more person and come back. - Taiko ended the call, adjusting his mask. He was even ready to rob and kill people, just so that Akiko would not be taken away from him. He didn't like this occupation, it was dirty and low, but he saw no other choice, being born from the blood of a criminal element and raised from childhood by a mad scientist.

The only thing he needed was to take his fate into his own hands and use the opportunities given to him.