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Chapter 9
The morning sun peeked lazily through the half-open blinds of Taylor's room, casting golden streaks across the floor and walls. The warm glow promised a peaceful start to the day.
Unfortunately for Taylor, peace was never on the agenda when one of your summoned capes was Ryomen Sukuna.
The tranquility of the moment shattered like glass.
"RISE AND SHINE, SUNSHINE! WHOOOOOOO!"
The voice thundered through the room like a war horn, jarring every molecule of air in Taylor's lungs and snapping her straight out of unconsciousness. She didn't so much wake up as she launched out of her bed like a startled cat, arms flailing wildly as she rolled off the mattress and hit the floor with a groan.
There was a very loud thud.
Then the sound of multiple voices groaning in pain.
"God damn it, Sukuna!" John's voice echoed from downstairs, muffled but clearly annoyed.
"Too loud!" Izuku's pained groan followed. "Way too loud!"
Even Alastor, who normally thrived in chaos, had static crackling from his staff like a busted radio.
"My dear boy," he hissed with a grimace, "was it truly necessary to announce the apocalypse this early?"
He got a middle finger for an answer.
Back to her, Taylor lay tangled in her blanket on the floor, groaning into the carpet. She cracked one eye open and glared up at the grinning King of Curses standing above her, arms crossed proudly like a man who had just completed a divine task.
Sukuna looked way too pleased with himself in her opinion.
"Morning, sunshine," he said with a sharp-toothed smirk. "Time for you to get your scrawny ass to shape! Also, your dad said goodbye and that he will be late for dinner."
Taylor groaned louder and flipped onto her back. "I'm going to kill you."
"Ha!" Sukuna cackled in delight, nudging her with his foot like a cat poking at a bug. "You can try! That'll make good training too!"
Footsteps padded next to her, followed by a gentler voice.
"You, okay?"
Izuku's concerned tone reached her ringing ears, green eyes wide. He crouched next to her, offering his hand with a kind smile.
"Anything broken?"
Taylor sighed and reached for his hand, letting him help her up. "Only my pride, my ribs, and maybe my ears."
"He means well... I think." Izuku chuckled sheepishly.
Behind them, Sukuna snorted. "I do mean well. Pain builds character!"
Taylor shot him a tired glare as she dusted herself off. "I have plenty of character, thanks."
Izuku gave her a supportive smile. "Come on, breakfast is downstairs. John's making pancakes and bacon."
Taylor blinked. "Wait, what? How?"
How is he in the kitchen? Wasn't it too far from her?
"I asked the same thing! And apparently, we can increase the distance we can be from you by brute forcing it! But it's like really hard and I'm not sure how John is doing so well with the strain your power is doing on him."
He showed her this by stepping away from her and out of the room, normally that was how far they could go before they got yanked back, but…
She could visibly see him strain while taking another large step away from her before he was pulled back with extreme force.
Thankfully, before he could crash into her window, Alastor caught him by the scruff of his neck.
"Like that!"
"You've been doing this all morning, my boy, don't you think you have enough?" Alastor asked, sounding genuinely tired, even his smile looked strained.
…How long were they up before her?
"How is he doing it?" She grumbled while rubbing her eyes.
From the kitchen, she heard John shout back an answer.
"I'm just that awesome! That's how! Breakfast is ready by the way!"
Sukuna groaned before shouting back. "It's training time, not fluffy carb time!"
"She's a growing girl! She'll burn it off!" Homelander's voice rang out. "And I didn't hear you complaining when you scarfed down twenty of my pancakes that were for everyone !"
"Well, now I am!" Sukuna shouted back. "I'd rather eat a curse's foot than taste your dry-ass flapjacks again!"
"Say that again and I'll personally decorate the walls with your smug ass face," came the immediate retort, tinged with amusement and just enough threat to be genuine.
Taylor groaned and dragged herself up onto her feet fully, rubbing at her face with both hands. She could hear Alastor sighing deeply while muttering something about a hotel.
"Bathroom," she muttered, zombie-walking out of her room, blanket still partially wrapped around one leg.
She passed Izuku, rubbing the back of his head as he carefully pried off Alastor's grip, sheepishly smiling at the overlord.
"Thank you for catching me," he said. "Didn't know I would bounce that hard."
The demon simply patted the boy on the head, much to his embarrassment, while Taylor stepped over a cursed shadow vine slithering its way down the hallway.
"Why is everything so chaotic? I literally just woke up…"
Not that she minded, she preferred this over the deafening silence and emptiness.
"Because I make life interesting!" Sukuna declared from behind her, now somehow lounging upside down on her hallway ceiling. "You're welcome~"
"Stop doing that," she muttered, then shut the bathroom door in his face.
"Rude~"
Ten minutes later, now washed up, dressed in some slightly-too-loose sweatpants and a hoodie (courtesy of Sukuna's insistence on "athletic mobility"), Taylor made her way downstairs.
The moment her foot touched the last step, a football-sized wad of cursed energy whizzed past her ear before disappearing harmlessly.
"What the fu—!?"
"Constant vigilance!" Sukuna laughed from the couch, already preparing to chuck another. "Gotta stay alert if you wanna be a hero pipsque- Plap -Hot! It BURNS!"
A sizzling pancake slapped against his face with freighting force that sent his head bending back.
"Do that again and I will break your skull with it," Homelander snapped, flipping another pancake high into the air with casual precision.
"How would you ev-" Izuku tried to ask from the side of the kitchen, chewing on a slice of apple, before he was cut off.
"I'll find a way."
Alastor just hummed in his usual tone from a chair in the corner, sipping something steaming from a red cup.
She glared at the pink-haired man, seeing him slurp up the pancake batter and form another ball of energy despite what John said.
"I really want to slap him… but I would probably just hurt my hand." That thought was going to go through her head a lot in the future.
Taylor dodged another ball of energy by sheer luck, yanked open the fridge, and grabbed a juice box.
"That is it!"
A blur moved past her.
"Wait! Wait!"
It's a good thing there were other people who could do that for her, She smiled while watching Sukuna get his rightly deserved karma.
Finally managing to sit down at the table, she breathed in the vaguely vanilla-scented aroma of John's so-called "pancakes."
She eyed them warily, they looked normal, thankfully.
She looked away from her plate, and a small smile slowly formed on her face.
Sukuna was getting choked out by John, and Izuku was talking with Alastor, who was humming while smiling at the fight between the sorcerer and hero.
For the first time all morning, Taylor finally felt like she had a second of calm.
She took a bite and hummed in delight; it was better than she expected!
Enjoying her breakfast and joining in on the conversation with Izuku and Alastor. She enjoyed the chaotic morning as it began to slowly calm down.
Calm enough for her to be awake enough to remember her powers.
She tapped her fingers on the table and mentally reached inward.
System: Online.
A faint blue light pulsed in her vision.
BOND LEVEL…
HOMELANDER / JOHN: 32 / 150
RYOMEN SUKUNA / KING OF CURSES: 30 / 150
ALASTOR / RADIO OVERLORD: 30 / 150
MIDORIYA IZUKU / DEKU: 40 / 150
She hummed while looking through the list.
"They increased? Why is Izuku so far ahead?" She mumbled while rubbing her head.
"Whatcha looking at?" Sukuna asked, suddenly right behind her.
"AHH!" She screamed with a jolt and threw her plate of pancakes at him, which he caught with disgusting ease before chowing down on them.
"Can you not?!" She glared at him while gasping her beating heart.
"You know the answer to that~"
"You can't just materialize whenever you want!"
Sukuna licked syrup off his fingers, a grin plastered across his face. "Oh, but I can! It's part of my charm."
"What charm?" John shot back while setting another plate for her.
The king of curses gasped his own heart, his expression utterly heartbroken.
Alastor chuckled from the corner. " He does have a certain... flair for drama. Not that it means you need to be scared of him."
"Easier said than done!" she retorted, rolling her eyes. She looked over at Izuku, who was still nibbling his apple. "Help me out here!"
He glanced up, looked at her and Sukuna, and shrugged with an endearing nervous smile, unsure of what to do or say.
"Well, pipsqueak? You going to answer me or are ya just gonna leave me hanging?"
Sighing, she nodded slowly, tapping her fingers on the table again.
"You guys remember the bond levels, right?"
Sukuna grinned. "Your little social stat screen? Yeah, we remember."
She ignored him and started to explain that their bond levels increased and told them their current levels.
Izuku leaned forward, clearly invested now. "Okay, so what you're saying is the levels went up… somehow? And you don't know why."
Taylor nodded, barely batting an eye when a shadow tendril took her juice box and opened it for her before handing it back to her.
"Exactly." She took a sip.
Sukuna leaned back on the couch, hands behind his head. "Maybe your system's finally catching up to my charm."
"You were literally screaming in her face this morning. If anything, your number should've gone down." John didn't even look over while taking the empty plates and started to do the dishes.
"She told us to wake her up bright and early for training! And me being the good minion I am, followed her orders to the T!" Sukuna smugly said, waving a fork for emphasis.
Taylor sighed, clearly regretting bringing this up.
"Okay, think," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Do you guys feel differently about me? Maybe that's why it increased?"
That was her best guess, because why else was their bond level so low? It would probably be at a hundred right off the bat if they were summoned by anybody else that wasn't her.
Her summoned capes looked at one another with raised brows, before all of them shook their heads, much to her surprise.
"Like I said before, princess~ My bond level should be the highest out of all three of these bozos!" The king of curses said confidently.
That got him a curious glance from John before it shifted to a glare for some reason.
"…You're joking right?" She asked him, heavily doubting him.
Why would his be the highest? Izuku made more sense to her tha-
Sukuna's entire demeanor shifted with the force of a thunderclap, transforming from goofy and carefree to intensely, unyieldingly serious.
The abruptness of the change hit everyone like a physical blow, leaving them reeling from the sudden shift.
"I'm being dead serious, Taylor. My bond level with you should be at the very least be maxed from the moment I stepped through the portal."
The air in the kitchen was thick, charged with something unamiable as Taylor stared at Sukuna, her mouth slightly agape.
She didn't know how to feel at that moment, it was too much for her to process.
The levity that had filled the room a second ago was gone, replaced by an awkward silence where even Alastor paused mid-sip, raising an eyebrow over the rim of his cup.
"M-Maxed?" she echoed, doubt tinting her voice. "How do you figure that?"
Then just as suddenly he returned back to his usual cocky and unserious self.
"Let's just say you remind me of my favorite Web novel character~"
That completely broke whatever seriousness that was in the air.
Taylor slowly blinked.
Izuku, Alastor, and John also slowly blinked.
"Are you saying, the reason why your bond level should be maxed, is because I remind you of some fictional character… from a web novel?"
The face she was making deserved to be put in the history books.
She shook her head in defeat and sighed, just when she thought he could be actually serious.
Sukuna waggled his fingers dismissively, grinning wide enough to show off his sharp canines.
"Not just 'some' fictional character! A legendary heroine with a knack for chaos and the will to never back down or turn back even when she really should! Hell, she's the person who inspired me to be the person I am today!"
Huh, when he put it that way.
That got a small smile from her with how passionate he was talking about a fictional character of all things. If he was comparing her to a character that inspired him that much, then maybe it wasn't that bad to be compared to them.
Izuku and Alastor also smiled, quietly listening.
John? John was groaning at where the conversation was going.
"How did she inspire you?" She asked him, wondering how someone like him could ever sit still long enough to read a book.
The smirk he gave her made her shiver, making her suddenly regret asking.
"She was this girl who viewed herself in the worst light possible, who doubted herself every step of the way, and always compared her pathetic self to others. She was dubbed the Queen of Escalation by fans, including me, known for turning the simplest situations into full-blown disasters. In a world where the stakes are as high as they come, she somehow always found a way to make it even worse. But despite all that, she did something no one else could, not even those whom she viewed as better than her."
His eyes gleaming with mischief, as if he was in on a joke she wasn't part of.
"I can only strive to be like her one day before I, too, earn the title as King of Escalation."
…
…
…
The silence was deafening.
John stopped washing dishes and turned briefly, disbelief etched across his face, his words barely audible. "That was the most meta bullshit I have ever seen, and it makes me physically ill."
Sukuna threw his head back, roaring with laughter, a sound that echoed throughout the house.
"Alright, does anyone actually have a serious guess? Because I need something to think about to shake off the urge to punch him in his stupid face." She turned away from the sorcerer and to the only person who at least seemed to take things seriously like she does.
"You can try pipsqueak!"
She was going to make him regret those words.
Izuku, having her eyes on him, snapped out of his thoughts and suddenly snapped his fingers, eyes lighting up. "Wait! What if it's you?"
Taylor stopped mid-sip of her juice, that was fast. "Me?"
Izuku nodded eagerly, already taking out his notebook. "What if the bond levels aren't about us bonding with you… But you bonding with us?"
There was a beat of silence.
Even Sukuna paused.
"That… actually makes sense," Taylor said slowly, brows knitting, bringing back the system again.
John walked up to them, wiping his hands with a rag. "So, it's basically tracking your feelings of us? Because ouch, thirty-two?"
Alastor chuckled, swirling his drink. "Be happy you're not on the same level as him , my good man."
They all knew who he was talking about.
Sukuna looked far too amused. "So, what you're telling us is… the stronger your feelings are for me, the higher my number goes?"
"Don't make it weird," She glared at him and his smug ass smile.
"Too lat- wait. Who did you say had forty?"
Taylor blushed, words stuttering out as everyone's eyes suddenly turned toward Izuku.
"…Huh?" he managed, half a piece of apple still in his mouth.
Sukuna's eyes lit up with an absolutely feral kind of delight, sitting up straighter as he leaned forward.
"Ohhh-ho! Well, well, well! Would you look at that? Looks like someone has a favorite!"
Taylor nearly choked on air. "What?! No, I don't!"
That did little to dissuade them from smirking at the two of them.
Alastor gave a low, mischievous chuckle. "Forty, you say? My, my. Quite the lead our dear boy has."
"Okay, first of all," Taylor said, holding up a finger like she was laying down a court ruling. "It's just… a number. It doesn't mean anything."
"Oh, but it does," Alastor said, leaning against the table with a teasing smirk. "The numbers don't lie, sweetheart. And yours says 'Izuku is my favorite, and I like him thiiiiisss much~'"
He spread out his arms just for emphasis.
Taylor blushed before angrily pulling up her bond levels again.
His level dropped by a single point.
Izuku turned bright red, frantically waving his hands. "W-Wait, no! That's not—!"
"Shhhhhh," Sukuna shushed the boy, his face overdramatically sad. "No need to rub it in, we already know your her favorite."
Izuku squeaked, the tips of his ears practically glowing.
"You did light up when he helped you off the floor this morning," Alastor added with a teasing lilt.
She did?!
Taylor groaned and buried her red face in her hands. "I'm done with all of you."
She got up from the table and made her way to the exit, all of them immediately following after her.
"Don't be like that, Taylor~ We were just teasing!"
The sun had fully risen now, casting a warm glow over the training field John had practically willed into existence in the abandoned lot near Taylor's home.
Grass had been cleared, a few mats had been laid down, and some homemade equipment had been cobbled together courtesy of Alastor's magic shenanigans.
Taylor stood awkwardly in the center of it all, arms to her side, hoodie zipped up to her chin despite the warm weather.
"All right," John said, cracking his knuckles and stepping forward, the self-proclaimed "drill sergeant" of the day. "If you're gonna be a hero, you need a foundation. Strength, Speed, and Endurance are the most important things to have when it comes to being a hero. And that all starts… with your body."
Sukuna and Alastor were off to the side, watching them with a rather bored look.
Izuku stepped up beside him, nodding. "He's right. You can have all the powers in the world, but if your body isn't up for the task, you're gonna get hurt or worse, get someone else hurt."
Taylor glanced between them, clearly bracing herself for whatever speech was coming next.
"So!" John clapped his hands and pointed at her, "Let's start with what you've got."
"…What?"
"Muscle-wise," he clarified. "We're gonna figure out where you're strong and where you need work."
Izuku nodded again, agreeing with his fellow hero.
Taylor, already turning pink, stiffened like a statue.
"Alright, don't be nervous, I'm just going to use my X-Ray vision real quick." He calmly said while his eyes slowly went from her legs to her head, completely focused. "Legs, undeveloped. Low fast-twitch response. Not surprising if you haven't done cardio."
The shame was building.
Then he moved up and tapped her side. "Core muscles, underdeveloped. Probably not strong enough to take a hit. Definitely not gonna help with balance."
A tap to her upper arm made her flinch. "Biceps… minimal. Shoulders… hmm. Low definition."
With each word, Taylor's face sank deeper into her hoodie like a turtle retreating into its shell. Her arms instinctively wrapped around her midsection as if to hide herself.
"I get it," she muttered, voice low and flat. "I'm pathetic."
She knew she was no Alexandira, but still… to be told straight to your face every flaw you had…
"No, no!" Izuku said quickly, his tone panicked. "That's not what he meant! It's just—It's just analysis to improve!"
But Taylor was already staring at the ground, cheeks burning with quiet humiliation. She tugged her sleeves down further, as if that might make her vanish.
John, releasing what he did, rubbed the back of his neck, blaming himself for his lack of tact. "I could've gone about that a bit better."
"No shit dumbass!" Sukuna smacked him on the head for good measure, followed by Alastor's own.
Izuku looked heartbroken, watching Taylor shrink into herself.
It brought back memories, bad ones.
"…Hey, Taylor?" he said gently. "Can I show you something?"
She didn't respond immediately, but she didn't walk away either. That was something.
Izuku pulled out his phone from his suit and started scrolling, looking for a photo.
He had a phone this whole time?
"When I first started training… I was exactly like you. I mean, maybe even worse."
Taylor looked up, skeptical.
Finding his words to be more than a little bit hard to believe.
"You? But you're—" Her eyes flicked to his arms and chest, while most of it was hidden by his suit, his muscles were still visible. "You…"
"Not always," he said with a smile, turning the screen toward her. "Here."
It was a picture of him taken by someone else, he was on the floor, crying, lanky body that looked like it could snap in the wind.
His ribs were visible, his limbs awkward, he looked more like a sleep-deprived noodle than a hero-in-training.
Taylor blinked in surprise, looking back at him and the photo, not believing her eyes. "That's you?"
He nodded with a proud smile. "Yup."
And then, because the universe had a cruel sense of comedic timing, he accidentally swiped to the next photo.
Taylor caught a full-screen image of Izuku, post-training, in all shirtless glory. His abs were toned, his arms cut with definition, his ches-
She made a noise like a broken kettle and turned sharply away, covering her face. "You didn't have to show me that one!"
Izuku, confused, looked down at his phone and went crimson as he scrambled to turn off his screen. "I-I'm sorry! That wasn't on purpose! I was just—!"
From the sidelines, Sukuna was cackling like a madman, doubled over on the grass. "Oh, this is delicious! I should've popped popcorn for this!"
John just groaned and rubbed his eyes, mumbling to himself that only Sukuna seemed to hear, with him laughing even louder. "That was such an anime thing to happen."
Alastor, of course, sipped his tea he had magically summoned with a contented hum.
Taylor finally turned back around, still flushed, but her arms weren't wrapped quite so tightly around herself anymore.
"…Thanks," she muttered. "I appreciate that."
Izuku smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Anytime."
John clapped his hands again, cutting through the moment. "Alright, enough flirting, you two. We're starting with stretches."
She groaned.
Sukuna grinned from the shade. "Stretches? You're being gentle. I was thinking we start by setting her on fire and-"
"Stretches first. Fire later," John said flatly.
Causing Sukuna to raise his hands in mock defeat.
"A-Actually, before we start, can I take a picture?" Izuku asked nervously, getting everyone to look at him.
Taylor blinked at Izuku's request, tilting her head slightly. "A picture? Why?"
Izuku flushed a little but didn't back down, holding up his phone again. "Well, it's just… taking a photo now could help you see how far you've come later. Like, a progress shot! Not for posting or anything!"
He quickly clarified, hands waving in front of him.
"Just for you, so you can look back on it and realize how far you've gotten."
Taylor hesitated, eyes darting away. The thought made her stomach twist a little, seeing herself now, all awkward limbs and ill-fitting clothes, but there was something about the way he said it. Soft, encouraging, like he believed without question that there would be a 'better her' to look back on.
"…Alright," she said at last, a bit gruffly. "Just one."
Izuku beamed and lifted the phone—only for a very loud "HEY!" to interrupt him.
Sukuna practically teleported in from the shade, arms thrown wide like he was announcing a concert.
"You're taking a picture without me? Rude! I'm a vital part of her character arc!"
Taylor squinted at him. "You just said ten minutes ago that you want to set me on fire."
"And I still do," he grinned, "but that doesn't mean I don't want to be immortalized in the 'before' shot!"
"I think she meant this to be a personal picture," Izuku said, already awkwardly lowering the phone.
"No, no, no—listen," Sukuna continued, suddenly sidling up to John and throwing an arm over his shoulder. "We do a group shot! Whole team. Before the training arc begins, one of you can even do that stupid hand sign thing everyone does."
John blinked. "What, like the peace sign?"
"Yes! That one!" Sukuna pointed dramatically. "Come on, it'll be iconic!"
John glanced at Taylor, eyebrow raised. "Up to you."
Taylor stared at Sukuna, who was now striking increasingly exaggerated poses behind John with all the seriousness of a toddler on a sugar high.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. One group picture. Then we start."
"YES!" Sukuna fist-pumped and immediately shoved John into place. "Funny magic smile demon man! Get your skinny ass over here!"
The radio demon blinked slowly from his chair, delicately sipping his tea. "Do I have to?"
"You live for theatrics," John deadpanned.
Alastor sighed, stood up in one fluid motion, and adjusted his tie. "Very well, but only one. If we must immortalize this moment of preposterous team bonding, then let us make it at least… symmetrical."
Everyone gathered around, with Alastor taking Izuku's phone with his shadow tendril to take the photo. Taylor ended up in the middle, flanked by Izuku on one side and John on the other, with Sukuna, who slung an arm over her shoulder with no hesitation.
She immediately tried to wriggle out of it. "Off."
"Can't hear you over the cameraaa~," he sang before getting smacked by John, and reluctantly took his arm off.
Alastor positioned himself behind them, looming politely like a very dapper cryptid.
"Alright," Izuku said, "Three… two… one—smile!"
Click!
Taylor stared at the screen afterward as Izuku showed it to her.
"…We look like a disaster," she muttered.
"We look like a team," Izuku said softly, smiling.
Taylor didn't say anything, but she didn't argue, either.
And then her hellish training began.