Fubuki came for the Fubuki Group

His hero duties were over, and Z City had enjoyed another peaceful day.

With his hands in his pockets, Josen headed toward the nearby food street for a late-night meal.

Suddenly, his long-dormant Spider-Sense signaled that someone had locked onto him.

Josen kept walking and casually tilted his head. With a whoosh, a projectile shot past his ear like a bullet. Bang!

A dull impact sounded from the ground behind him. He extended his psychic power, and within his sensory field, a deep hole had appeared in the asphalt. At the bottom of the nearly half-meter-deep crater lay a heap of stone pulverized into dust. Wisps of smoke generated by high-speed friction drifted out of the hole and into the air.

In other words, what had attacked him was nothing more than a thumb-sized pebble.

Giving a little stone enough kinetic energy to punch through the road was certainly beyond an ordinary person's abilities.

Combined with the glimmering blue light that had just flashed through his perception, Josen already had a preliminary idea of who his attacker was.

First, he ruled out Tatsumaki, the Tornado of Terror. That green-haired little brat could be nasty at times and had no sense of restraint when she attacked. Killing a colleague was hardly something she was incapable of.

But if she had been the one attacking, the force would have been at least ten times greater.

If it wasn't Tatsumaki, yet the attacker possessed psychic power similar to hers, the answer was obvious.

Tatsumaki's younger sister, the psychic hero with a figure that could leave her older sister jealous for an entire year: Hellish Blizzard.

Having sorted that out, Josen instead found himself with three handsome question marks hovering over his head.

Weird. When did I ever offend her?

We've never even met!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-

A dense barrage of rushing sounds rang out. Within Josen's perception, countless rocks, molded by psychic power into arm-sized prisms, rained down from high above like cannon shells, all aimed straight at him!

"You just won't quit, will you!"

Azure psychic flames blazed. Holding the fingers of his right hand together like a blade, Josen slashed forward. A streak of azure psychic power formed a blade-like force field that sliced across the sky. The force-field blade intercepted every incoming stone shell, instantly crushing and deforming them. As the clashing psychic power exploded in midair, the rocks disintegrated into dust and drifted away like smoke.

"Come out, Hellish Blizzard." Josen's gaze fixed on a spot in the dark sky. "How long are you going to keep playing these boring little games? Attacking a fellow hero like me would look very bad on your record if I reported it to the Association."

"Just what I'd expect from the man I've set my sights on." A perfect figure outlined by a green dress slowly emerged from the darkness. Fubuki stared intently at Josen. "I acknowledge your strength. Join me, and I'll make you the deputy leader of the Fubuki Group, an absolute core member!"

"..." Josen was struck speechless. Only after a long while did he sigh. "Being pretty doesn't give you the right to do whatever you want, princess. I'm not interested in working under someone else. Also..."

"A word of advice: you're not going to recruit anyone this way. Goodbye."

With that, Josen turned to leave.

"Hmph. Of course I know how to recruit people normally." Fubuki snorted, her gaze sharp. "But you're the one who stood me up all day. Shouldn't you be apologizing?"

"When did I ever..."

Josen stopped, suddenly recalling what had happened in the office that morning.

"Well, our section chief isn't here!"

"Huh? Kyoko, is someone looking for me? What do you mean, I'm not here?"

"Hmph. Just a nuisance call."

"Oh, okay."

"So that's what happened."

Josen sucked his teeth. Sure enough, the subordinate acted, and the boss paid the price. Kyoko must have been itching for trouble lately, daring to keep something like that from him.

It looked like he'd have to find an opportunity to train her... no, give her a stern talking-to.

"Hmph. So you admit it? At least you have some sense of responsibility." Fubuki folded her arms across her chest, maintaining her usual superior air. "Then treat me to dinner as an apology."

Josen was about to argue when his far-superior senses picked up the slight trembling in Fubuki's legs beneath her aloof pose. At the same time, a strange, faint gurgling reached his ears.

Grrr... grrr...

The moon shone brightly in the sparsely starred night sky, and not a single pigeon had flown within miles.

The sound was coming from Fubuki's stomach, which was so flat it looked a little sunken.

Oh.

Josen understood immediately.

Look how hungry the poor girl is.

Has she gone all day without eating?

He briefly considered the scene of a certain furious green-haired little brat showing up at his door after Fubuki suffered from hunger.

To protect Z City from destruction, Josen decided to treat her.

"Fine. Come with me. I was going out for a late-night meal anyway."

Fubuki instinctively wanted to snap back, but her stomach had already begun cramping and couldn't take any more. She had no choice but to lower her head and obediently follow.

Half an hour later.

Bubble, bubble...

"Mmm... so... so gooood..."

At a roadside izakaya on the food street, Josen and Fubuki sat side by side at the counter.

Each had a small hot pot in front of them. Fubuki was eating the specialty sukiyaki, while Josen had ordered an extra-spicy Sichuan-style hot pot.

"You can't even handle spicy food, and you want to recruit me into this so-called Fubuki Group? Pathetic."

"What are you talking about? I just... just... I just don't want that spicy food ruining my skin!"

"Pathetic."

"Say that again?"

"Pathetic."

"What did you say? I'll take you on!"

For the first time in her life, Fubuki was being relentlessly mocked for not being able to eat spicy food. It was also the first time she'd encountered a male creature who treated her this way. Her mood, which the comfort of food had just soothed, spiraled into fury again.

Green psychic power gradually enveloped everything around them. Josen, the culprit, showed no fear whatsoever. Still shoveling down his food, he glanced sideways at her. "Hey, hey, hey. Don't start a fight in someone else's restaurant. If you break anything, it'll give the owner a real headache, right?"

The izakaya owner smiled at the two flirting young people, seemingly recalling his own youth. Kindness filled his deeply lined face. "Ah, Miss Psychic, as long as you're happy."

"Uh, all right."

Seeing the plates of carefully prepared ingredients before her, Fubuki immediately stood down.

"Then we'll settle this after we're done eating!"

"Come on, I'm paying. Haven't you ever heard that accepting someone's food means you should go easy on them?"

"Quit talking nonsense. This is your apology!"

Their lively meal didn't end until late into the night. Having gone hungry all day, Fubuki was thoroughly satisfied, and even Josen looked much more agreeable after treating her to dinner.

Even so, she hadn't forgotten her original purpose. She explained her ideals to Josen, along with the importance of forming a hero group.

"Josen, you're one of the heroes whose popularity has been rising fastest lately, but you need to understand that it's only temporary."

"The number of heroes registered with the Hero Association is still growing, but the Association's resources, or rather, the daily exposure available through its various channels, are always limited. If you keep working alone, sooner or later some newcomer will appear out of nowhere, take your place, and steal the public's attention."