24: Roses Full of Thorns.

Roses Full of Thorns.

The wind's sound was the only thing Felix and the woman heard for several seconds as both tried to comprehend the person in front of them. If the woman seems quite dubitative despite her warm appearance and behavior, this mask she wore to hide her true intention wasn't good enough for Felix to be tricked. He already lived with a woman similar to her in a lot of ways, his mother. This libertine of which he had already seen the photograph thanks to Mt. Lady shared physical and mental similarities with his unbearable and untraceable mother, such as the fact that she believed she was acting well enough to fool everyone around her.2

A rose full of thorns.

Despite the danger in which he could end up because of her, and possibly her husband afterward, he signed a contract to act as a spy to gather complete information on these people and maybe even find new clues about the underground world. Well, Felix guessed that the HSPC "recruited" Rappa for this too; after ten years in these dark places, the champion held a wealth of knowledge about everything regarding what they sought… at least the emerged part of it. But yeah, it's unlikely that this crazed beast knew or even talked with a woman like her, like a delicate flower whose petals would fall at the slightest gust of wind.

"And who the fuck are you?"

"What a way with words, young man." answered the lady with a sigh. "Lady Utsushimi. But you don't need my first name, right? We're in Japan, after all.~"

"Why does someone like you, the manager of this sports facility and doctor, do here in the middle of the night?"

"I was just waiting for Mr. Brave to give him a new invitation to my festival, but he refused again," she explained after another sigh, closing her eyelid. "So I waited for you instead, since I wanted to have a discussion, just you and~ me. No-thing mo-re.~"

"Yeah, what a way with words, indeed," he said, hiding his mistrust and hostility. "It's already 8 p.m, not a time and place where one would expect to come across someone like you. So what do you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to know you better, dear. Nothing much. You are an interesting soul if I can say. Would you be so kind as to give me a little bit of your time?" After Felix nodded despite the odd feeling that arose in him, the woman smiled warmly and put a hand on her hip. "Just follow me then; it's a bit chilly here. My office will be way better."

The young man controlled his body to be as relaxed as usual to avoid the slightest micro-expressions in front of Mrs. Utsushimi. Since she's the boss of this facility, it's wise to think that she might see this kind of thing; plus, women tend to be more empathic and instinctive than men; if this one was on the top of the food chain, it wasn't for nothing. It's better to take precautions than to pay for one's carelessness later.

The tall woman guided him through the building, but nothing caught his eyes; the typical corridors showed nothing strange, the elevator didn't seem to lead to any secret floors, and none of the people still in the offices appeared shady or foreign to the place. Just people so absorbed in their work that they would be willing to work 24h a day to earn only a few more yen. Just looking at them makes him think again of his dad. These people would probably miss much of their family ties, and when it all comes crashing down under their feet, they will blame everyone but themselves. This is what happens when people forget that happiness isn't only found in pleasing others thanks to one's hard work but also in finding pleasure in pleasing others. False altruism doesn't just ruin families; it ruins much more, way much more.

And from what Felix could understand, thanks to the information he got from Mr. Brave beforehand, Mr. Utsushimi loved his work as much as his wife. Probably like the men managing the accounting of their business. Destroying a couple is never nice to see, especially if they have kids; it would only bring back bad memories, but sacrifices are sometimes necessary.

—It's not like if they left me with a choice, I know what would have happened if I had not made this decision myself. Anyway, this woman has a relatively large office; if I could be alone here, I might be able to dig around. Maybe find some clues.

Her office was mundane, not that large nor that small, with a single poster of a music band on one of the walls, two storage cupboards on each side, and a simple wood desk with a ton of paperwork lying on it, reminding him of the chairwoman of the HSPC. A stool was the only thing she sat on to work in front of her computer, even though several chairs nested on top of each other lay in the corner of the room between some dusty binders and a wastebasket filled with cigarette butts.

She pushed a rolling chair from the back of one of the cupboards to give it to Felix and went to sit down before stretching and lit a cigarette, making sure to open the window first beforehand.

"Sorry, sweetheart, I hope it doesn't bother you, but I'm still fighting against my addiction to nicotine. It seems like it's a fight I can't win on my own."

"No cigarette would be here in this room if you truly wanted to stop smoking," answered Felix with a movement of the hand to push away the smoke. "Curing addiction isn't that hard when you know the right person."

"Eheheh~." Her laugh was far cuter than he thought, but her eyes became sharper, barely perceptible, but once again, his experience allowed him to detect that early in the conversation; some matters are better left unsaid. "The right person?~ And do-you-know, this right person?"

"I'm mainly thinking of the top pro-heroes or healer working for the main hospital." Felix lied after slouching in his seat to look at ease. "So, what do you want to talk about? I'm not really in a hurry, but I would like to go back to my home soon. I'm tired."

"No worry, no worry~. I could pay you a cab afterward." The woman sighed after putting her elbow on the table, taking a puff of smoke into her lungs. "Mr. Tremblay, right?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm not sure about why someone already well trained wanted to integrate the least experienced part of this facility, but now Mr. Brave is training you, so that's all good~." she lauded with a tender smile. "I must admit that you exceeded our expectations… I mean the expectations of the trainers, me and my husband. Where have you trained before? Because after some research just out of curiosity about your background, what I found about you was an absolute nothingness…" she explained with a pout. "To think that I was confident in my moderating capacities…"

"I've trained a lot back in the day, so after coming to Japan, with good muscle memory, my body was back to its previous state. I was training for MMA tournaments and the money I could make with it; I prefer mixing up martial arts, that's mainly why." Felix lied again, improvising a rational and plausible explanation while avoiding giving too much personal information. "It's like riding a bike; once you know how to ride, you don't have to relearn."

"Well, well.~ Excuse my perverse musings, but what you just said can have a plethora of meanings.~" she simpered with a look full of anticipation and challenge.

"Don't try me. You might be surprised."

"Eheheh~! I didn't expect this answer.~ Anyway, excuse me for going beyond the acceptable boundaries of professionalism. Now, for the real thing, I wanted to talk about… what is your quirk?"

Upon hearing this question, Felix instinctively activated his phone's geo-localization without looking at it; Mt. Lady would be the first and probably the only person capable of seeing that he sent some "hazard light" to keep her informed of his situation. Felix promised to the giant heroine that if he used this, it could only be if he thought that he was possibly in need of help or in a bad situation that needed surveillance. The last time he heard this question from a woman like her, it was the president of the HPSC. The issue here is that Mt. Lady never answered any calls or text messages after 7 p.m.

—Goddammit, women… making things difficult that easily. That's part of their charms, but for fuck sake...

Being honest? Being manipulative? Liar? Telling a mixture of truth and lies? In 90% of the cases, with women, everything will backfire, no matter what you say, how you say it, and with what tone you say it. Nothing serious as long as you understand feminine nature, but Felix himself got misled by this behavior in the past, which isn't so serious as long as you know how to control your feelings and not mix them with your arguments.

The most important thing here wasn't to risk deceiving Mrs. Utsushimi but to trick or even lure her husband into believing that Felix was on their side because he was probably the only one who knew all the intricacies of the black market, of the underworld, and all that goes with it.

"My quirk is a simple boost of speed and strength. I can do the same with others, with an aura that unleashed a bit more power of the people near me. I guess… that's it? I don't know how it works precisely. Still, I can be useful in a lot of ways." he explained, understanding that what he's doing was a risky bet, but for him, lying about the entirety of his quirk would only raise suspicions.

"You could be a pretty good sidekick for a lot of heroes then, even a hero on your own with Mr. Brave training, so why not?" she queried with another of her strange but genuine gracious smiles.

"Why not…?" Did she somehow hear the discussion between him and Mr. Brave? In this case, it's either the hero is working with them, or they use him as bait. At the same time, they may have set mini-microphones everywhere in the building...? Or maybe it was her quirk? That said, since she talked about his bones earlier, her quirk must have something to do with her eyes. This thought abruptly passed through Felix's mind, but he answered without waiting. "Being a coach or medic in a healthy body with a healthy mind seems way better to me. You don't need to wear fancy costumes and capes to be some kind of hero."

"So you want to be a hero but in another way than most people? How brave you are, sweetheart.~"

"I don't care about anything heroic. I only do what seems good to me…" Felix replied, more and more annoyed by her' sweetheart,' each of them only increasing his discomfort. "Could you please stop calling me by this annoying surname?"

"Sweetheart? Do you prefer sweetie? Or sugar?"

"None of that..."

"Ehehehe~."

They talked for a whole thirty minutes about his requirement to be more present in here, and maybe become a coach in martial arts, etc. Mrs. Utsushimi and her husband seemed way too interested in him to be a simple coincidence, one of them probably suspected him of something for some reason and desired him to act as they wished to discover what he was hiding from them. However, Felix worked enough on his second identity with Mt. Lady to be sure and serene that none of his factual information could leak after a simple search in public databases.

Nevertheless, it turned out that some aspects of his identity hadn't changed from one identity to the other, such as his first name and blood type—only details, but details that can attract the eye of someone seasoned.

Although he attempted to find out more about the quirks of the gym doctor and the organ dealer, he received no clues from the woman who controlled her speech with ease, trying to keep the subject at bay with gentleness and sweetness that was almost unnerving when you knew what was going on behind the curtain.

Was she an active participant in all of this? Or was she a victim of her husband? Did she enjoy it?

Nothing showed on her face except for the occasional faraway look, gazing up at the twilight sky of that early spring night. As if thinking about distant memories slowly fading in the corner of her psyche, giving birth to a melancholy that we all know, the melancholy of childhood.

Felix could detect and understand this gaze, but to understand the reason for its manifestation was another story, and he wouldn't risk exploring a minefield so early in his relationship with the woman he had to punish.

After deciding to leave because of the late hour, Mrs. Utsushimi invited him to eat at her house. Fortunately for him, his cover was still intact, and his memory was already more precise than a month before, allowing him to visually remember the symbols written on the post-it note stuck on the other end of the doctor's desk.

At this point, accepting the offer was the best solution; jumping into the lion's den was going to become one of his specialties after a while... It gave him the unpropitious impression of being the main character in a story that wasn't his.

But for the moment, Felix thought that taking risks was reasonable; no one would hurt him as long as no one agglomerated certainties; if someone tried something without being sure of anything, they would attract the attention of the police for no good reason. Too much of a gamble.

—Time to go, I guess. This is another bet, but may the luck be with me for this time. Maybe the house will contain more clues than her office.

Compared to all the vehicle he entered from time to time, Mrs. Utsushimi's car was by far the most luxurious he witnessed: a car with a rear aileron, convertible, high-quality leather; he could sense that just by the smell of it, and an engine roaring and braking effortlessly. More than 90.000$, it was the only thing she could be 100% honest about. Money didn't seem to be an issue for them. Yet, despite their car, and their large house appearing in a small suburban neighborhood, Felix received information and investigated enough with Mt. Lady to know well that they had many financial issues, but why? It remained a mystery.

After parking the car in her garage, she invited him to follow her and enter the house despite the late hours. Felix frowned for a mere second, feeling a little bit anxious. This one mistake got caught by Mrs. Utsushimi, but she only asked him if he was scared about her husband and how he would react to a young and handsome man accompanying her inside their house. She just giggled after seeing Felix's awkward reaction, who felt a mixture of fear and embarrassment as he understood that she wasn't as sharp as he thought all along...

—I hoped that the code written on her post-it would be the one opening the door of her house. But only a key or a digital fingerprint can do that… Guess I need to remember this code for a long time to find an actual use to it. Writing it somewhere may be unsafe. 0804CA161ILLU. 0804CA161ILLU.

The house's door opened as an odor of curry, turmeric, fried rice, and beef meat came to Felix's nostril. For once, he smelled something other than Rumi's bland carrots food and Kaoruko's failed dishes; he felt relieved that he could perhaps eat something tasty as a guest. Eating your own food is okay, but it doesn't taste the same. However-

—Who made the meal?

"Sup, Mom! You're kinda late, not gonna lie, we were going to start grub without you-" After seeing Felix, the enticing young lady in front of him raised her eyebrows and stiffened her juicy lips, emphasizing them even more. She looked like her mother, but much smaller and with shoulder-length tan hair and large brown eyes. As for her body, despite the apron she wore and her pajamas, all of her curves were outlined by it. Felix could see the similarity with her mother: her hips and her breasts. "Actually really sus to bring someone to our cribs at this hour y'know? But he's cute, so that's dope. Don't know about Pops, tho."

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