The stillness of the Lin mansion was almost as oppressive as the chaos of the worlds he had visited. Li Wei had returned, not as the silent ghost of the previous night, but with a purpose. He needed what he had left behind: memories, documents, a past that, though painful, was his. The Fortress of Justice awaited, its next mission in the My Hero Academia universe already programmed. But first, a final, silent reckoning with his origin.
"Commander, significant movement has been detected within the Lin mansion. Your parents are in the main living room. Lin Jian has departed, possibly to manage his declining businesses," Aegis reported, the information surgically precise.
"Good," Li Wei murmured, his voice rough. Lin Jian's absence was a relief, but not a complete victory. The true conflict was no longer with the tyrant, but with the traces he had left behind.
He entered through the service door, not bothering to hide. The servants saw him. Whispers of disbelief and fear followed him as he ascended the grand staircase. Years had passed since Li Wei had walked those steps with his head held high. Now, his stride was firm, the echo of his Helldiver boots resonating on the marble. It wasn't the physical armor that made him formidable, but the one forged in his soul.
Upon reaching his old room, he found it just as he had left it: cold, impersonal, a place where his existence was barely tolerated. There were no personal items, no photos. Nothing to indicate that it had ever been a home. It didn't matter. He didn't need the past, only a reminder of why he fought.
As he picked up an old wooden box with some notebooks and a couple of books he had saved from his previous life, the door burst open. His parents stood there, their faces a mixture of relief, shock, and, beneath it all, a hint of fear.
His mother, eyes wide, was the first to speak, her voice sharp. "Li Wei! You're alive! Where... Where have you been? What happened to you?"
Li Wei turned slowly to face them. He had removed his helmet, revealing a face that was and was not his own. His eyes, once sunken with contempt, now shone with a steely intensity forged in a thousand battles. His jaw was more defined, his features sharper. His skin, once pale from seclusion, now had a darker hue, weathered by the sun of alien worlds and the glare of explosions.
And then, the scars. A thin line crossed his left eyebrow, a reminder of a skirmish with a mutated Desolated. Another, deeper, extended from his jaw to his neck, testament to a too-close encounter with a Kree plasma explosion. His arms, where the fabric of his uniform left a gap, showed a network of older scars, of scrapes, burns, and cuts that were not visible to the naked eye, but which testified to years of brutal combat.
His father stepped closer, his voice trembling. "Son... what are those marks? What have you done? You don't look like yourself! You look... different. Dangerous."
Li Wei smiled, a joyless smile, cold as the void between stars. "Dangerous," he repeated, the word resonating in the room. "Perhaps. You made me this way. You taught me what it means to be a weapon. A scapegoat. You taught me what it is to be disposable."
His mother's expression contorted. "Don't say that, Li Wei. We were worried. Lin Jian has been so... unstable since you left! His businesses, everything is... we don't know what's happening!"
"Lin Jian is getting what he deserves," Li Wei said, his voice devoid of emotion. "He is reaping what he sowed. And you... you sowed well." He looked at the scars on his arms. "These marks... they are the price of freedom. Mine. And others'. They are the cost of no longer being anyone's toy."
His father recoiled, his eyes fixed on the scars, on his son's new coldness. There was a fissure in the mansion, in its perfect facade. The Li Wei they knew, the one they despised, was gone. And in his place, there was a formidable being, a stranger, a commander who had seen death and returned, marked.
"It's not too late to come back, Li Wei," his mother pleaded, tears beginning to fall. "We can fix this. We can..."
"There's nothing to fix," Li Wei interrupted her, his voice firm, final. "You chose. I chose. And my choice led me to war. To worlds you cannot even imagine. To a truth that would consume you."
He finished gathering his things, a small box of memories from a life that no longer existed. He turned to them, his eyes fixed on theirs, without forgiveness, but with brutal understanding.
"You sought a scapegoat. And you found one. Only this scapegoat... has learned to use his own horns."
Without another word, Li Wei turned and left the room, leaving them in the wake of his new and terrifying presence. He heard their sobs, their pleas, but he did not stop. Every step he took distanced him further from the cage, further from the echoes of contempt.
Outside the mansion, a familiar pulse of energy enveloped him. The Fortress of Justice awaited.
"Commander, the dimensional jump is ready. Your return has been undetected by local authorities, but your presence in the area is... notable," Aegis reported, its tone indicating that even for the AI, the confrontation had had an impact.
Li Wei closed his eyes for an instant. The scars on his arms were not just physical; they were the map of his pain, his anger, and his incredible transformation. And each one reminded him that he was free.
"Go ahead, Aegis," he ordered, his eyes opening, filled with a new determination. "Next world. There are more masks to break."