Chapter 85: Fated Encounter
__________ POV Narration__________
Lady Nagant had been doing her best to go around unnoticed.
She went from a loved hero and a hopeful member of society to a fugitive over the course of working for the Hero Public Safety Commission.
The missions she did with them took a toll on her psyche, she simply couldn't look at her fans with a straight face. She could no longer smile as brightly as she could.
Especially when knowing the truth. She knew just how feeble their society was.
There was a thought at the back of her mind.
For the cogs and gears of their modern hero society, for all of the safety that it promised. The fate of many innocent people within that system was to be consumed by the system.
People that didn't conform to the usual standards. Those that were deemed as villains or terrorists. Heroes that would use their power to take advantage of others.
And, she had seen it first hand. The struggles would never be recorded in any books, never reported on by any media.
The people that were deemed to be a 'threat' to the Commission weren't always villains after all... They also chose to get rid of corrupt heroes. It was a practice that the Commission had employed for many years.
And she had been one of the people doing their dirty work for them. Taking orders, she closed an eye and accepted the commands she was given.
Eventually, her hopeful nature disappeared entirely, replaced by a depressed state of mind, as the bleakness of their Hero society started becoming more and more apparent with each mission she took on.
So many 'Heroes'... She had killed so many people, just to preserve the fragile image of their happy world.
All until she simply could no longer stomach it. She snapped when the previous chairman of the Commission had threatened her due to her unwillingness to carry out yet another mission.
After killing so many people, putting a bullet into the chairman's head was by no means difficult. Her escape from their HQ was a bit more difficult though.
The instant she shot the chairman, she jumped out the window behind him, which had shattered due to the bullet she had aimed at the man's head.
She managed to escape her pursuers eventually. She immediately ran away from her hometown, only collecting a few of her belongings and walking off from province to province.
She didn't truly have a fixed home. She just drifted around the country for a while.
Eventually, she also caught wind of Beru's situation. His life wasn't a story that she was unaccustomed to, his case was very high profile. Most Pro Heroes knew about him.
But that was the first time she had heard anything about his connection to the Public Safety Commission. She was quite confused at first, but then she realised that this story was likely an agreement that they had come to behind the scenes.
After all, if Beru worked for the Commission, she would've definitely been one of the people to know of that.
Still, the news somewhat saddened her. Yet another young man caught in the webs that the Commission had planted. He was promised a clean reputation, but she knew that the Commission wouldn't have given him a nice deal for that promise.
She had no way of knowing that a '17-year-old'(actually 40+) was devious enough to both understand his position and negotiate terms evenly with the Commission.
To her, Beru was just another victim of circumstance. Although an extremely powerful one.
Now, he became another worry for her. After all, she knew that the commission had no plans of letting her go. She knew that every step she took would prove dangerous to her if she was not careful.
She didn't even know if she was going to be captured alive or not. But she didn't like the idea of finding out.
She was currently spending her time in a remote village. She couldn't afford to be seen in any major city for fear of video surveillance, so only secluded places were suitable for travel to her.
She had heard of the weird series of heists that spurred up not long after Beru joined the Commission, but she didn't look too deeply into it.
Although she did come to the conclusion that the situation had some ties to the Commission after more information on the situation came up. Such as the fact that a single organisation is responsible for all of it, and their goals being hard to discern.
She was able to tell that it was an attempt to lure her out. Although she found said attempt quite laughable.
Currently, she was strolling around a small village. She was a bit away from the main road, as there was some festival currently happening in there.
She didn't really wish to come to face with anyone and run the risk of them recognizing her.
But she was quite unlucky today, for she ran into someone she didn't really expect to run into...
A random silhouette walking around the forest right by her side. A tall mutant quirked individual, covered in a black exoskeleton, leaving marks into the soft soil with his claws with every step he took.
This was no doubt Beru. The young man that had been part of the Commission for a month or two at that point.
Lady Nagant could only hope that Beru hadn't noticed her. Although, her hopes were shattered almost instantly... "Oh~ Someone else is here?~" The insectoid looked straight at her with curiosity.
The fugitive just gulped, her eyes widened in worry. How exactly was she supposed to escape from this man?
He was far stronger than her, and they were basically in an open field where he didn't need to hold back at all.
The trees might as well not have been there.
She quickly brought her palm to her neck, sprouting a rifle out of her elbow and shooting Beru square in the chest. She didn't want to be caught, so she decided to be the one to act first.
Quite a lot of dust was raised when her shot connected. She coughed a bit as she looked at where Beru was supposed to be. She could only slightly see his unmoving silhouette.
"Well~ That was rude~," Beru said as he waved his hand once, creating a shockwave only powerful enough to disperse all of the dust around them, it also made Lady Nagant take two steps back.
She took another gulp of her own saliva as she saw that Beru was completely unharmed. He was looking at the bullet she had used curiously, he had caught it in between his fingers.
By now, dispair was somewhat etched into her features, and Beru finally noticed who he was looking at.
__________ POV Beru__________
I certainly wasn't expecting to meet Nagant all the way out here.
How exactly did I end up near a village in the middle of nowhere? Well, that's a bit difficult to explain.
I used my geographical skills to roam around in the air. But I ran into a bit of a complication.
I was forced to come down after almost crashing into a plane, then I almost crashed into a flock of birds.
I landed on the ground near that village, and I wanted to see what the deal with the festival was, so I started walking through the forest for a bit.
Well, I could've just warped there, I had already seen the village from up high. But it's really been a long time since I've walked through a forest, so I figured it wouldn't hurt.
I also ran into this woman out here. I thought she just got lost or something. But I guess she's actually just hiding in the area.
Lady Nagant has been a curiosity of mine ever since the Commission started talking about her to me.
You can't really help it, a huge organisation trying and failing to catch a single person for the better part of a year is really amusing.
I was also curious about her personality. They say she shot the previous chairman unprovoked, but then they go on to explain how she was actually a hero and a loyal member of the Commission.
So yeah, I don't really buy much of the story the Commission told me.
"You know you don't have to panic all that much right?" I decided to speak out since this lady looks stressed out to the point of collapse.
It's weird to have this effect on people. At this point, there isn't really any enemy of mine that acts any differently from her.
Well, maybe some villains cry in fear or something, but that's not any better.
Having people fear you is nice and all, but it's really tiring. It would be nice if she got over that fear so we can actually carry on a normal conversation.
"I can't really help it... It's been a good ride, but I guess they've finally found me..." She just sighed and looked at the ground for a bit. I guess she's given up after seeing that her bullets are ineffective...
"What are you on about?~" Does she think the Commission has found her or something?
Those guys were pretty far off from finding her. I think Oyama is currently trying her best to cook up another scheme to capture Lady Nagant. But it will take a while, she already has to clean up the entire heist incident...
"Well, you are working for them, right? The Commission? They are the only ones after me..." She said acting all sad and shit. Welp, guess telling her about my deal with the Commission doesn't really matter.
__________ POV Narration__________
"Nah~ I'm more of a private contractor~ I don't really care for their orders all that much~ I'm more interested in you really~" Lady Nagant raised an eyebrow in confusion at Beru's strange attitude.
"Now then~ My name is Beru~ Such a pleasure to finally meet you~ I've been quite curious about you ever since I've heard that you splattered the old Chairman's brain juices all over the walls~"
After seeing that she wasn't specifically comfortable with that topic, Beru quickly switched to some other topics. Like the oddity that was tax payments and how to avoid them, or the way child support worked in the united states.
The sided conversation left Lady Nagant quite flabbergasted. Beru kept talking on and on about random things.
At first, she was quite confused(obviously wtf?!) but she managed to at least calm down.
"Well... My name is Shiro Makoto... Although I'm sure you already knew that..." She finally managed to get a few words in. At this point, it was quite obvious that Beru had no interest in capturing her.
Beru instantly became an interesting thing in her eyes. 'How come he was able to escape their control? Or is he just lying?' She wanted to find out more about his situation.
The scene was set, the atmosphere was decent. All that was left to do, was to talk.
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