Marvel x Genshin: Mavuika, The Sun Goddess Rules Asgard — Chapter 135

Chapter 135: Caution

Mavuika listened, her expression unreadable for a few silent seconds. Then, a gentle smile touched her lips.

“Since you have a way…” Mavuika nodded slowly. “Then please, help me shift the public’s focus.”

She truly knew little about the intricacies of modern public opinion. If this continued to escalate, any future outings would inevitably involve being watched and questioned by strangers. It would be a significant disruption to the quiet life she had built.

“Understood,” Fury replied, his tone all business.

He reached into the inner pocket of his trench coat, retrieved his phone, and pressed a single shortcut key. The call connected in less than three seconds.

“Coulson,” Fury said, wasting no time on pleasantries.

A calm, middle-aged man’s voice responded from the other end. “Director. Your orders?”

“Initiate the public opinion response plan for the Harlem incident,” Fury instructed. “We’re going with Plan B. I want at least three new trending topics to suppress the discussion about the mysterious woman.”

“Understood,” Coulson’s voice replied, utterly devoid of fluctuation, as if he had executed such orders countless times.

Fury ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket. He looked at Mavuika, his posture relaxed. “Just wait a moment.”

The courtyard fell quiet once more.

Morning light filtered through the gaps in the large parasol, casting a dappled pattern of light and shadow across the stone table. The faint, clean scent of rosemary drifted from the garden, and the distant chirping of birds was the only sound that broke the stillness.

Fury’s gaze drifted past Mavuika to the flower bed behind her.

The blossoms were not merely surviving, as they often did in the gardens of ordinary homes; they were thriving, bursting with a vibrant, almost preternatural vitality.

“These flowers…” Fury began, his voice softer now. “Did you plant them yourself?”

Mavuika followed his gaze, and the corners of her mouth lifted in a fond smile.

“I did,” she said. “The seeds were a gift from Howard and Maria, over a decade ago. I’ve been tending to them ever since.”

Fury was silent for a moment, processing the casual mention of the long-dead Starks.

“You like Earth very much,” he stated. It wasn’t a question, but an observation delivered with certainty.

Mavuika turned her gaze back to him, her golden eyes serene.

“Yes,” she said, her tone calm and unequivocal. “I like it very much.”

Just then, Fury’s phone buzzed. He picked it up, glanced at the screen, and then handed it across the table to Mavuika without a word.

She took it, her eyes scanning the screen. A single, elegant eyebrow rose in mild surprise.

“The effect is this fast?”

On the social media trending list, the hashtag SunWoman had already plummeted from the number one spot to sixth. In its place, a series of new, sensational topics were rapidly climbing: CEO_Cheating_Scandal, Senator_Caught_Soliciting, Unemployment_Data_Exposed…

The public’s attention was a fickle thing, and its direction was already being expertly diverted.

Fury’s expression remained unchanged, as if this outcome was utterly predictable. “Coulson has always been efficient,” he said simply.

Mavuika placed the phone back on the table and offered him a genuine smile. “Thank you.”

Faced with her gratitude, Fury simply waved a hand, his tone deliberately casual. “It was a small effort. Your Highness need not give it a second thought.”

He didn’t press his advantage. He didn’t bring up S.H.I.E.L.D.’s agenda or so much as breathe a word about the Avengers Initiative. Instead, he simply chatted with Mavuika about everyday things. He asked if she was accustomed to life on Earth and whether the flowers in her courtyard were difficult to care for. His tone was relaxed and easy, as if he were nothing more than an old friend who had dropped by for a visit.

After only a few more minutes of conversation, Fury took the initiative, rising from his chair. “I’ve taken up enough of Your Highness’s time,” he said, his demeanor impeccably polite. “We’ll take our leave now, so as not to disturb your rest.”

Mavuika didn’t press them to stay. She smiled and stood as well, walking them to the villa’s gate. “Take care,” she said, waving goodbye. “Come by again when you have time.”

As Fury and Natasha stepped out of the apartment gate, a flock of pigeons took flight from the roof of the building across the street, their wings flashing a grayish-white in the morning sun. A line had already formed at the corner coffee shop, a mix of white-collar workers in crisp suits and freelancers clutching laptops, all waiting for their breakfast coffee. A bicycle courier, his front basket overflowing with packages, whizzed past them.

The New York morning was as noisy and ordinary as ever.

Fury stood on the top step in front of the villa and looked up at the sky. It was a brilliant, cloudless blue, as if it had been freshly washed. He took a deep breath of the city air, then descended the steps.

Natasha followed a pace behind him, maintaining her customary silence. They walked to the corner and turned onto the side street where their black sedan was parked.

Fury opened the driver’s side door and slid inside. Natasha entered from the passenger side, closing her door with a solid thud.

The engine started, and the soundproof glass immediately cut off the city’s din, leaving only the low hum of the engine and the soft whoosh of air from the conditioning vents. Fury released the handbrake and smoothly pulled the car into the flow of traffic.

The sedan moved slowly through the congested streets of Manhattan, stopping and starting, just one of hundreds of thousands of vehicles submerged in the daily hustle of the city that never sleeps. It wasn’t until they merged onto the West Side Highway that the traffic finally thinned. To their right, the vast expanse of the Hudson River shimmered under the sun, a few cargo ships crawling slowly toward the horizon.

It was then that Natasha finally spoke.

“Director.”

Fury didn’t turn his head, merely acknowledging her with a soft, “Hmm.”

Natasha studied his profile. There was little expression on his face; his single eye was fixed on the road ahead, his hands steady and calm on the steering wheel.

“You came here with such careful preparation…” she began, choosing her words precisely. “And now you’re just leaving? Like this?”

The corner of Fury’s mouth twitched, the barest hint of a curve.

“What else?” he asked in return.

Natasha paused for two seconds, organizing her thoughts.

“You’ve been preparing for over a decade. You’ve endured and observed for so long, and you finally managed to establish face-to-face contact with her. And you chose to say nothing? You finally get your chance, you come in person, and you just chat about watering flowers and the news… and then you leave?”

She looked at him, her confusion evident. Having followed Fury for years, she knew him as a man who was calculating and ruthlessly decisive. Yet, faced with a figure as key as Mavuika, he hadn’t even touched upon his core objectives.

“This doesn’t seem like your style, Director.”

Fury was silent for a long moment. The car continued its steady progress north, the Hudson River flowing beside them, the distant shore of New Jersey hazy in the morning light.

Then, he smiled—a small, knowing smile.

“What do you think I should have said today?” he asked.

Natasha considered it. “A lot,” she replied. “Invite her to join the Avengers Initiative, or at least test her attitude on the matter. Establish a formal channel of communication. Figure out her stance towards Earth, and by extension, Asgard’s stance towards Earth…”

Fury listened, nodding slightly.

“You’re right,” he said. “I did think about all of that. I had a dozen different scripts in my head—how to bring it up, how to test her, how to make her like us without setting her off, so she’d be willing to help when the time comes.”

He paused, his eye still on the road.

“But after meeting her, I changed my mind.”

Natasha waited.

“I didn’t come here today to ‘achieve’ anything, Romanoff,” he said, his voice low and steady. “I didn’t mention the Avengers Initiative. I didn’t mention a single S.H.I.E.L.D. request. I didn’t ask for a damn thing. Because with someone like her, you don’t push. You don’t manipulate. Today wasn’t about getting her help. It was about earning the right to ask for it later. It was about leaving a good first impression.”