Fubuki Pays a Visit

Mitarai Fubuki had always been a woman who settled scores.

She refused to believe that a Young Man she had never met would attack her out of nowhere for no reason, especially when he had fought as though his life depended on it.

Both the timing and the location showed that the attack had been planned well in advance.

So Fubuki began investigating.

She soon connected the incident to the superhero selection event held by Vought International.

When she signed up, she had provided detailed personal information. That might well have exposed her whereabouts.

The more Fubuki thought about it, the more suspicious the selection event itself seemed.

Rumors of Lamplighter's retirement had been circulating for months. Even then, the major media outlets had named Starlight as the likeliest candidate to replace him.

Vought International had hastily staged a massive selection contest, only to choose Starlight in the end.

If the result was the same either way, why had Vought International gone to all that trouble?

For publicity?

Vought International was already famous enough to have no need for it.

To win more public goodwill? That did not quite fit, either.

Sensing that something else was going on, Fubuki focused her attention on the selection process.

She paid a hefty sum to someone inside Vought International for a list of the fifty contestants who had advanced to the interview stage.

Fubuki had people investigate where those fifty contestants had gone afterward. They soon made a startling discovery.

More than a dozen of the fifty had vanished without a trace within a day or two of the contest's end.

Thinking back on her own experience, Fubuki saw one possible explanation.

Like her, they might have been ambushed by people with Psychic Powers.

The memory of that night's fight still sent a chill through her.

If her older sister had not arrived in time, there was no telling who would have won. Had Fubuki lost, she might have ended up like the people who had disappeared from the list.

All signs pointed to Vought International.

Only Vought International could mobilize that many people with Psychic Powers in such a short time.

And only Vought International had the contestants' detailed information.

Fubuki did not know why Vought International was targeting the people on the list. But now that she was a target herself, she could not sit back and wait. She needed a plan.

If she had survived her attacker, there might be other survivors.

Fubuki decided to find them. Only by joining forces could they hope to stand against a behemoth like Vought International.

She ruled out contestants who already belonged to Vought International, along with those whose movements did not match the timing of the attacks.

That left only a handful of names on the list.

Today was the supermarket's weekly discount day.

For once, Luke had splurged. He had gone to the supermarket early that morning, bought some ingredients, and planned to make hot pot.

Luke loved hot pot, but his main reason for spending so much today was to treat Starlight.

The night before, he had rescued her from a monster with a fish's head and a human body. Perhaps the fight had drained her, or perhaps she had been on edge for too long. As soon as it was over, she fell fast asleep in his arms.

Luke had given her the bedroom and made do in the living room for the night.

Knock, knock, knock.

Luke was absorbed in cooking the hot pot when someone suddenly knocked on the door.

With as few social connections as Luke had, visitors were rare.

Was the landlord here to collect the utilities again? Luke was sure he had already spoken to him about that.

Curious, Luke opened the door and froze.

For a moment, he wondered if he was dreaming.

Standing outside was Mitarai Fubuki, the very woman he had been hoping to find.

Seeing Baldy stare at her in a daze, Fubuki hesitated. "May I come in?"

Luke snapped out of it. He had no idea why Fubuki had come to visit, but letting an opportunity like this go to waste would be a crime.

Fubuki came in and sat down at the dining table.

The broth in the hot pot had come to a boil and was bubbling away.

Fubuki seemed in no hurry to explain why she was there. She spotted two oranges on the table, picked one up, and showed Luke how deftly she could peel it by hand.

Luke stared. This woman certainly made herself at home.

He had bought those two oranges at the supermarket that morning, gritting his teeth at the price. Fruit was ridiculously expensive these days.

He had meant to eat one himself and save the other for Starlight.

Luke had once seen an online poll asking whether people cut oranges with a knife or peeled them by hand. Seventy-three percent had chosen the knife.

Supposedly, people who peeled oranges by hand tended to be careless in their habits. Who would have thought that a woman as impeccably put together as Fubuki would be so good at it?

Fubuki finished peeling the orange, then stuffed the whole thing into her mouth.

Luke turned to stone.

That was a big orange. It had vanished so suddenly.

Then again, with her cheeks puffed out like that, she was actually kind of cute.

After eating the orange, Fubuki took a napkin from the table and wiped her mouth. Her cool, untouchable air returned.

"I came to ask you something," Fubuki said seriously.

"Did you enter the superhero selection contest a few days ago?"

Luke nodded, signaling for her to go on.

"Were you attacked by someone with Psychic Powers within a day or two after the contest ended?" The answer mattered enormously to Fubuki. She leaned forward and studied him intently.

With Fubuki's beautiful face suddenly so close and her eyes fixed on him, Luke felt his heart race.

"Attacked... I guess you could say that..." Luke stammered, glancing toward the balcony without meaning to.

Fubuki followed his gaze.

A water tank sat on the balcony. To her surprise, it was full of soaking kelp.

"What's that?" Fubuki asked.

"Kelp was on sale at the supermarket, so I bought extra," Luke explained.

He had no intention of telling her that one of the two people who had attacked him that day was soaking in the tank.

Fubuki was speechless. A sale hardly justified buying dozens of pounds of kelp.

The explanation was a stretch, but Fubuki chose to believe him.

The man in front of her did not exactly look bright.

Yet for all his foolish appearance, Fubuki knew his strength was not to be underestimated.

According to the information on the list, he and Starlight were the only two contestants to earn perfect scores on the physical fitness test.