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Beginning of Chapter
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-2 hours later-
The rooftops of Hosu City stretched endlessly beneath the deepening evening sky, layers of concrete and steel stacked atop one another like uneven chess pieces laid out for a game no one could win.
Neon signs flickered to life far below, their colors bleeding into the streets as traffic hummed and distant sirens echoed faintly through the urban sprawl.
Burnin moved confidently across the rooftop ahead of him, her boots crunching softly against loose gravel and scattered debris. The wind tugged at her jacket and teased the flames that were her hair as she pressed a finger to the side of her ear, voice sharp and professional as she spoke into her phone.
"–yeah, copy that. Keep eyes on the west side," she said, gaze sweeping across the city as if she could will trouble into existence. "If anything changes, call it in immediately." She paused, listening to the response on the other end, then exhaled slowly before ending the call.
Her shoulders relaxed as she glanced back over the rooftops. "Seems like it's been a pretty quiet afternoon," she muttered. "A few petty crimes here and there, but nothing serious.
Patrol teams are handling it and im still so bored, ugh." She groaned as she sat on the legde, swinging her legs as she waves down at the people who saw her.
Behind her, Gojo Satoru might as well have been in an entirely different world. He stood near the edge of the rooftop, facing opposite of Burnin, his posture loose and unfocused, the light breeze passing his snow white hair.
His eyes weren't on the streets below nor on Burnin ahead of him, but somewhere else instead, lost in thoughts only he could see. To anyone watching, it might have looked like boredom, or carelessness.
In reality, his mind was anywhere but the present. The two of them had been patrolling Hosu's rooftops for nearly two hours now, moving from building to building.
Currently, after the continuous patrolling, Burinin suggested they took a small break. Even on this break of theirs, Burnin keept watch, maintaining communications, while Gojo lingered behind her, detached and in thought, as if the world around him were little more than background noise.
He paced back and forth across the rooftop, steps light but almost restless, a small notebook open in one hand while his pencil tapped absently against the page.
'…Cutting space. Cutting space…' The thought looped endlessly as he walked. Then he stopped, finding himself near the edge beside Burnin without realizing it.
She glanced over her shoulder at him, eyebrow lifting. "Hey, kid," she said amused. "You've been pacing back and forth like some kind of mad scientist. What's going on in that head of yours?"
The question pulled him back into the moment. Gojo blinked, before casually closing the notebook and sliding it into his pocket along with the pencil.
"Oh, that?" he replied lightly. "I'm just working on developing a new move. Trying to expand my arsenal, you know. Gotta become a top hero somehow." He shrugged as if it were nothing.
Burnin turned fully toward him now, surprise flickering across her face. "Wait, developing a new move?" she repeated. "You're telling me you can just… make new techniques like that? Damn, kid, from what I saw at the Sports Festival, you've already got more than enough firepower. You really need more?"
It isnt easy to refine a quirk, let alone invent entirely new applications for it. Most heroes spent years mastering what they already had instead of finding and pushing their quirk to find new applications of it.
Gojo chuckled softly, a confident smile tugging at his lips. "Well," he said, hands slipping into his pockets, "I plan on becoming the strongest hero. Might as well have more than a few tricks up my sleeves."
Burnin's phone suddenly vibrated against her palm, the sharp buzz cutting through the conversation. She shot up to her feet and answered almost immediately, turning away as she cleared her throat.
Gojo already drifted out of the moment, aftee seeing her turn away he too wandered to the other side of the rooftop. 'I'm so bored,' he thought with a quiet groan. 'I really regret coming to Endeavor…'
He pulled his notebook out again, and flipped through several pages filled with cramped handwriting, diagrams, and half-finished theories
'Define a cutting plane.' His eyes sharpened as the thought settled into place. 'That's my best guess. That's the most likely answer to what my father's quirk really is.' He paced slowly as his mind raced.
'He isn't cutting space itself. He's using space as a cutting plane... Forcing it into a defined surface and splitting whatever intersects it. That's why the slashes cause damage.'
A smirk tugged the corners of Gojo's lips. 'He doesn't cut space. He makes space do the cutting... But I manipulate space directly…' His smirk faltered slightly, turning thoughtful. 'So could I technically stop his slashes?
So unless I can define that plane precisely, or actually experience one of those slashes firsthand... I can't fully replicate his specific cuts...' He paused, tapping the pencil against his notebook.
'Still… the slash I created the other day worked. Crude, but functional.'' A dangerous glint flickered in his eyes. 'All I need now is a proper test subject...' He exhaled slowly, letting the thought fade before it could fully take shape.
That was when movement at the edge of his vision caught his attention. Burnin had ended her call. She straightened, turning back toward him as green flames began to stir subtly within her hair, he could sense the quirk energy slowly rising within her.
Burnin rolled her shoulders once as she flashed a grin. "I'm getting bored," she said. "How about we do something fun?"
Gojo blinked at her request. He tilted his head, studying her expression for a moment before shrugging. "Alright, I'm in."
Her smile widened immediately. She stepped closer to the edge of the rooftop and scanned the skyline, eyes locking onto a massive structure in the distance.
A sprawling shopping mall rose above the surrounding buildings, its glass reflecting the afternoon light.
"Hm… yeah, that'll work. So heres the deal." She lifted an arm and pointed. "First one to reach that mall wins. I got a call somethings happening there, might as well make it a race to who'll get there first."
Gojo hold his chin, nodding alone with a smile, already planning what to buy once he wins the race and already calculating the distance. He was about to accept when Burnin smirked, then quickly raised a finger before he could respond.
"And no, you can't use your teleporting trick. That'd be way too unfair for me." Her eyes slid back to him knowingly. "And no Blue either. I saw what you did crossing that huge ravine at the Sports Festival." when she finished speaking, Gojo just stood staring at her in disbelief for a beat then slumped dramatically.
"Oh, come on," he complained. "You say to have a race then ban literally everything I do so I can easily win.That's just cruel." he held his chest, grasping the air as if he couldn't breathe and trying to grab it. Burnin laughed, unfazed by his theatrics.
"Sounds like a skill issue to me," she said with a shrug. "Consider this a lesson. Even if your quirk's busted, you can't rely on it for everything." She stretched her arms and legs, green flames flickering lazily as she loosened up.
"Strong quirk or not," she added, "a hero still needs a solid physical foundation." Gojo straightened, cracking his neck once as a faint grin returned to his face. "Fine," he said lightly. "But don't complain when you lose. I won't even ask for you to not use your quirk to fly, it'll make victory even better."
She stood on the legde before striking a pose, as if a shy teen thanking someone, one fi ger on her lip as she swayed side to side on her heel. "Aww, you'd do that for me?"
She immediately laughed and turned to face them direction they'd race. "Im the pro hero here pal, i dont got to listen to you. Im a grade 2 hero, you aren't even a registered grade kid."
Gojo rolled his shoulders casually, as if unbothered at the jab, but his mind was already racing. 'Uh huh... Sure. No Blue. No warping. Tch… great.'
He glanced once toward the distant mall, then back at Burnin, already suspecting how this was going to go, and then she moved.
Burnin shot forward without warning, boots pounding once against the rooftop before she leapt clean off the edge.
Green flames erupted from her hair and back in a roaring flare, propelling her skyward in a streak of light. "See you later, kid!" she called back, laughter carried on the wind.
Gojo blinked. "…Fuck." He launched after her an instant later, sprinting hard and throwing himself across the gap between buildings. The city rushed beneath him as he landed, shoes skidding slightly before he pushed off again, vaulting from rooftop to rooftop with long, powerful strides.
The race was on.
Despite the obvious disadvantage, no flight, no shortcuts, Gojo was closing the distance. His movements were fluid, almost effortless, each leap calculated with terrifying precision.
Burnin glanced back midflight and her eyes widened. He was actually gaining on her. "Seriously?" she muttered under her breath, flames flaring brighter as she angled higher and began putting more power into her Quirk.
Below them, civilians stopped in the streets, pointing upward as the green streak of a pro hero cut across the skyline. Cheers erupted when they recognized her, voices echoing between buildings.
"Burnin!"
"That's Burnin!"
She gave a quick wave without slowing, teeth clenched in a grin as she surged forward. 'Damn it,' she thought. 'Even just sprinting, he's that fast? Might of made a slight mistake...' She pushed harder, flames roaring louder as she treated the race less like a joke and more like an actual challenge.
Meanwhile, Gojo ran with sharp focus, his earlier grin gone, eyes narrowed as calculations flashed through his mind. Wind tore past him as he cleared another gap, landing and rebounding in one seamless motion.
'Infinity's useless here,' he noted calmly. 'She's got altitude, flight, and a head start.'
He clicked his tongue. 'At this pace… yeah. She's got the edge. Unless–' a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. "Red's all I've got," he muttered under his breath. "And it doesn't pull like Blue…"
His steps didn't falter but his expression changed. "…Wait a minute." A slow smile spread across his face as understanding clicked into place and threw his arms to the side.
Space warped faintly around his outstretched and open palm as space took a crimson tint, beginning to warp within his hand and glowing brighter with each step he took toward the edge of the next rooftop.
"Oh," he whispered, amused. "This'll work."
Above him, Burnin was flying high and fast, confidence blazing brighter than the flames in her hair. She'd already crossed nearly half the distance to the mall, the city shrinking beneath her as she cut through the air like a comet.
"Oh fuck!" A blinding streak of crimson force tore past her face with a deafening crack, close enough that the shockwave rattled her teeth. Her flames sputtered as instinct took over, and she stalled midair, momentum dying as gravity reclaimed her.
"What the–?!" she gasped, arms flailing as she struggled to stabilize. She twisted mid fall and looked back. Gojo was there.
Not far, but way too close for comfort, standing on the edge of a rooftop with his arm still outstretched, palm aimed directly at her. Before she could shout, it was as if the air detonated.
An immense force slammed into her side, the impact was brutal and precise. "Shit–!" She exclaimed, her body was hurled sideways, flames scattering as she crashed down onto a rooftop in an explosion of dust and shattered concrete.
She rolled hard, pain screaming through her ribs as she skidded toward the edge. "Crap! I forgot he can manipulate the damn thing's movement!" She barely managed to push herself up when instinct screamed again.
She looked up just in time to see another Reversal Red screaming toward her. Burnin dove aside, the blast tearing through the space she'd occupied a heartbeat earlier.
The shockwave ripped past her, sending loose debris spinning into the air as Gojo began sprinting once again, closed the distance at terrifying speed.
She sprang to her feet, ignoring the sting in her muscles, tearing a ball of green flame free from her hair and froze. "...Worthless." She couldn't hit him. Not with Infinity in play.
"Only need to fly 800m, give or take a few. Hes vastly superior physically to me, I need to—!" The crimson sphere curved sharply midair, looping back toward her like a predator correcting its course.
Burnin twisted, ducking under it by inches, heat washing over her as she burst into laughter despite herself.
"Ha!" she shouted, exhilaration overriding pain. "You missed me!" She didn't wait.
Kicking off the rooftop, she launched back into the sky, flames roaring as she surged forward once more. 'Almost there.' She said to herself.
Behind her, Gojo didn't respond. He was already charging another Red. Over 40 buildings hes raced across, with pure sprinting only and he managed to stay on her tail.
"Impressive," he murmured under his breath, tone light despite the strain. "Guess shame on me for trying to fool you…" He sprinted hard, each step pounding against the rooftop as he reached the edge.
Then he jumped.
Instead of falling, he fired the charged Red behind himself. The blast hit like a cannon. The force launched him forward, feet touching nothing as he ran through the air, Infinity stabilizing him as the city dropped away beneath him.
Wind howled past his ears as the Red curved, arcing through the sky returning to him like a loyal satellite. Below, civilians stopped dead in the streets.
Gasps rippled through the crowd as they watched a white haired figure sprint across the wmpty sky, chasing a blazing streak of green through the sky.
"This was a very stupid idea... But ive always wondered what its like being shot out of a canon!" He said loud enough that Burnin could hear.
Gojo grinned. '400m, this will be easy!'
Burnin twisted mid flight, eyes widening as she saw him right behind her, far closer than he had any right to be, nearly in arms reach. The crimson sphere screamed through the sky toward them, its path warping as it curved back.
She looked back seeing him right behind her as the Red came rushing back to them. "HA! Ill be able to dodge this easily!" She shouted with a large grin as she now continued moving in a zigzag to dodge the Red.
"You're not even the target for this!" he shouted back. The realization hit her a split second too late. Her eyes snapped to him as the Red veered, not toward her, but him. "Oh... Oh no you didn't–!" she exclaimed.
In that instant, Gojo dropped Infinity.
The Reversal Red struck his back head on. The impact was catastrophic, space ruptured outward in a violent shockwave, sound tearing apart as the force detonated against his body. Pain flared white hot, slamming through his spine and ribs.
And then he was gone.
Gojo shot forward like a bullet fired from a siege cannon, velocity multiplying in an instant. The grin on his face was wild, unhinged, dwarfed only by the sheer recklessness of the maneuver.
He reactivated Infinity in his mid flight, stabilizing himself as he tore through the air, momentum screaming as he blasted past Burnin before she could even react.
"WHAT THE HELL—?!" she yelled, watching him blur past her field of vision.
The mall rushed up beneath him. Only a few seconds and he crossed the 400m easily. By using the repulsive force of Red, and Infinity to stop him from falling to fast and to stop the air resistance he managed to blast himself across the remaining distance.
He hit the air above the mall, coming to a slow stop, he maneuvered himself in the air, skidding forward in an invisible line before touching down lightly on the rooftop edge coat fluttering, breathing steady despite the ache burning across his back.
He straightened, hands slipping casually into his pockets as he looked back over his shoulder. Burnin still still flying towards him.
He could already feel his back feeling better now as he then looked down the legde waiting for her. Police cars parked outside. "I guess we kinda got carried away... Guess Ill drop in."
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End of Chapter
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Belated Happy new years, merry Christmas. Lets get this show on the road.