"Iron Man" Has Gone Missing

"You're going to Los Angeles?" Maria Hill asked.

As his personal Watcher, every move Kino made mattered. He was going to Los Angeles? She couldn't help but feel that something was off. Was he planning something again?

They had been together for over half a month, yet she still couldn't see through what Kino was thinking.

But she was certain that Kino was planning something.

And she would peel back that outer shell.

"Yeah." Kino smiled and turned back into the house.

What was he planning to do in Los Angeles?

Tch!

He was just planning to check out Hollywood.

After being in this world for over half a month, he had gradually come to understand its framework.

Well, the biggest thing was—lookalikes basically didn't exist.

And this parallel dimension carried a strong flavor of Earth from his previous life. Of course, it wasn't completely identical.

For example, Gal Gadot had still starred in "Wonder Woman," and Charlize Theron was still the main villain in Fast & Furious 8, but... Paul Walker was actually still alive. He hadn't died in the seventh film!

And Rogue had clearly appeared on the X-Men 1 timeline, yet Mystique didn't look like Rebecca Romijn. She looked like Big Cousin instead.

That made him extremely curious about what Captain America looked like. If he didn't look like the 2011 version of Chris Evans, but instead resembled that parody Captain America from 1990 or 1994, with cataract eyes and a tiny winged mask, Kino would probably cry.

So here came the question!

Since lookalikes didn't exist, then what would the Fantastic Four's Human Torch, Johnny, look like?

And would he even exist?

If he did exist and had Captain America's face, heh, now that would be interesting!

There was something else that had been bothering Kino. Yesterday, he had searched Google for the name "Anne Hathaway," but... there was no such person.

In his original world, she was a star, but on this Marvel Earth, she didn't exist. Perhaps she wasn't a celebrity and had never appeared online. The strange part was that all the movies she had acted in still existed. Batman existed too, but... she alone was missing.

Kino hadn't deliberately searched for her. He had merely stumbled across the movie Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, but strangely, the familiar Catwoman in it wasn't played by her.

It was another actress he didn't recognize.

So he Googled it and found that there was no name called "Anne Hathaway."

Perhaps in this parallel world, she was just an ordinary nobody?

After all, his original world didn't have S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, or anything like that.

There was no rush to go to Los Angeles. He could go when he got bored.

Maria Hill clearly had no intention of letting Kino off. She hurried after him. "Wait, what's going on with your money?"

Thump—

The latter gave an almost imperceptible shudder. After hiding it so carefully, he hadn't expected that it still hadn't escaped her notice.

His eyes rolled around. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Fine, then let me do the math for you." As she spoke, she somehow produced a calculator and began pressing its buttons. "You had a total of five hundred thousand. You spent four hundred thousand buying the house and furnishing it. Another fifty thousand went toward food, clothing, a high-end computer, and so on during this period. That means you had fifty thousand left. Adding Nydia Valen's assignment, that makes one hundred thousand in total."

After saying that, she set the calculator aside and looked at Kino with utmost seriousness.

"Galina Dubois's assignment hasn't been collected yet, so you only had a hundred thousand dollars in total. And you just gave all of it away in one go. You're really quite generous!"

"Uh—(￣~￣)ξ"

Maria Hill—I'm watching you~

"Fine, I admit it. When I took out that financial expert, Leland, I helped myself to a little something."

Unable to endure that cold stare any longer, Kino raised his hands in surrender.

Then he realized it. His bank balance had definitely been monitored. There was no denying it; S.H.I.E.L.D. had that capability.

That only made him more depressed.

"And... you want me to give it back? Hmph, dream on!"

He walked away without looking back.

--

Rogue was gone, and sure enough, the entire Odd Jobs Shop instantly felt much quieter. Thankfully, Raven, Big Cousin, had adapted to her secretary role quickly. In order to get her powers back, she would occasionally force a smile.

Though it was very deliberate, at least the place had a little life in it now.

Life was quite comfortable.

Galina Dubois didn't stay at the Odd Jobs Shop every day, though. She still loved being a model and would go out from time to time to shoot commercials. When the shoot was nearby, she could occasionally come back, but when it was too far away, they could only talk on the phone. Kino told her that shooting commercials was fine, but she couldn't do the revealing kind.

He remembered that in his previous life, she had posted plenty of half-covered short videos on Instagram.

Before he knew it, more than a month had passed.

Over that month, aside from accepting commissions to earn some pocket money, Kino had been further integrating his abilities. After the Phoenix Force awakened, quite a few of its abilities overlapped with his own.

For example, Observation Haki overlapped with the Phoenix Force's psychic abilities.

Its energy-absorption ability also slightly overlapped with the traits of the Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

And there were others...

The Phoenix Force had comprehensively improved and strengthened his other powers—the three Devil Fruits, Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and the three types of Haki, including Conqueror's Haki. Even the lost-level magic from Fairy Tail had improved to varying degrees.

He needed to become more familiar with this fusion.

Fortunately, the Phoenix Force had awakened because of the Phoenix-Phoenix Fruit, so mastering it wasn't particularly difficult for Kino.

Lying in bed, Kino felt somewhat depressed.

A month ago, he had lured Ice Moon Flower Snow, Xixi, but she still hadn't come looking for him.

"Could she have already gained perfect control over her cold-air ability?"

"That's impossible!"

"But during this time, there doesn't seem to have been any news of somewhere getting frozen over!"

"Could she really have mastered her mutation ability?"

"What a miscalculation!"

This little flower was about to be lost.

Aside from Xixi, Phoenix, Jean Grey, also hadn't secretly come to see him?

"Tsk, tsk!"

Kino had to admire Jean's willpower.

When he had appeared at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters that day and seen Jean, Kino had sensed where that Phoenix Force had come from.

It had come from Jean Grey.

She was no longer Phoenix. She had lost roughly ninety-nine percent of her Phoenix Force. Her psychic powers, energy absorption, and molecular control were gone, leaving only a weakened version of telekinesis.

Yet the ninety-nine percent of power that had transformed Kino into Phoenix's Child had, after all, come from her. The remaining one percent of Phoenix Force felt an intense closeness, affection, and even worship toward Kino.

It was like fish and water.

After all, in terms of rank, Kino was the king and Jean was one of his subjects. Subjects had to submit to their king.

He could sense the intense turmoil in Jean's heart.

On one side was Kino, drawing her in with magnetic force. On the other were her feelings for her boyfriend, Cyclops.

He had thought she would be unable to endure it after only a few days, but he hadn't expected her to hold out for more than a month!

Impressive!

Just as he was thinking, Maria Hill suddenly rushed upstairs in a panic, her expression tense and grave. "Tony Stark has gone missing!"

"What? 'Iron Man' has gone missing?"

Kino abruptly sat up, even forgetting that Hill had barged onto the third floor.

Was the Marvel Universe finally about to make its official entrance?