….
After a few minutes, everyone on the team had gathered in the secret room beneath the cafe, built exactly as Jin-Ho had specified.
Kaina Tsutsumi, aka Lady Nagant, was also present. She had been respectfully given a chair to sit in, along with restraints on her hands and legs to prevent escape.
"Jin-Ho, we are not attacking the Hero Public Safety Commission headquarters, are we?" Giran finally asked the question that had been lingering in his mind for quite a while.
But there was an underlying meaning in his tone, not fully opposed to the idea, but more like questioning whether it was the right time.
"Huh... No, why would I?" Jin-Ho lied.
"I think he already did." Toya said flatly.
Keigo nodded in agreement.
Stain looked at Jin-Ho with suspicious eyes, while Jin seemed lost in his own thoughts.
"Forget about it. It was just a small visit." Jin-Ho said dismissively. "As I said before, we do need the HPSC to maintain order in Hero society. Its disappearance would only cause more chaos."
Jin-Ho held some resentment toward the HPSC, but after observing them for a while, he had come to understand that the organization was genuinely needed to run this society, flawed as it was.
A sense of relief washed over Giran's face. It was true that he despised the HPSC, but he believed it was too early to confront them head-on in their plans.
Stain expressed slight dissatisfaction but understood Jin-Ho's reasoning.
"The only thing that can help the HPSC is cutting off the rotten parts." Jin-Ho stated.
The others on the team weren't particularly interested in the topic.
They adopted a 'whatever happens, happens' attitude - they would lend a hand if asked, but otherwise, they would stay out of it.
But one person who wasn't part of the team was paying far more attention than the rest.
And with an extremely baffled expression.
If the topic of conversation was one part of her shock, the projection displayed on the screen was another.
It contained detailed information about everyone working undercover for the HPSC, and that was a lot of people.
The files included details about everyone in the organization: their missions, their operations, every piece of dirty work the HPSC had ever conducted.
Lady Nagant's eyes widened as she processed what she was seeing.
Years of operations she had thought were isolated missions, all documented and connected. The full scope of the Commission's shadow activities laid bare.
"Then what should we do about her?" Giran asked, gesturing toward Lady Nagant.
A wry smile appeared on Jin-Ho's face. "What do you mean by 'her'? I don't see anyone here."
"Hmm? You want to play hide and seek?" Giran immediately caught what Jin-Ho was implying.
"Then what about all the commotion that was caused? No matter how much we cover up, they will soon…."
"Let them find out." Jin-Ho said calmly.
"Come on, now that's just plain bullying." Giran protested.
"It's called disciplining." Jin-Ho corrected, refusing to back down.
The interrogation room was still tense from the previous confrontation when Jin-Ho finally extracted the truth from Lady Nagant.
The HPSC had been operating independently, no surprise there.
What caught his attention was their reasoning: they were terrified that Toya's sudden reappearance would damage the image of Japan's second-ranked hero.
Endeavor's 'picture-perfect' family narrative, the devoted father, the proud legacy, the next generation of heroes, would crumble the moment people discovered he had had a son who had burned himself nearly to death and been left for dead.
And with All Might's inevitable retirement looming on the horizon, the Commission couldn't afford for their backup Number One to have any scandals attached to his name.
"Disgusting… piece of shit." Jin-Ho muttered.
Just when they thought everything was settled down for now… something else happened.
BLARE. BLARE. BLARE.
The alarm system erupted throughout the building, its piercing wail signaling an imminent attack. The abruptness sent adrenaline spiking through everyone present.
Jin-Ho didn't waste a single word.
He moved out of the basement instantly to the source of the disturbance.
He reappeared outside, and immediately the stifling heat hit him like a physical wall.
"Fuck. Not again." Jin-Ho cursed aloud, his voice equal parts exasperation and grim readiness.
The scene before him was pure devastation.
Thick smoke choked the air, the acrid stench of burning wood and melting metal assaulting his senses. Flames licked hungrily at the edges of his restaurant, the place he had painstakingly built as a safe haven for his people.
The crackling roar of fire consuming everything it touched filled the air, punctuated by the occasional crash of collapsing structures.
The heat was so intense that sweat began beading on Jin-Ho's forehead within seconds of arrival.
And at the center of it all, standing like a living monument to destructive power, was–
Endeavor.
The Number Two Hero's massive frame was wreathed entirely in flames, his Hell Flame quirk on full, terrifying display.
The heat radiating from him distorted the air itself, creating shimmering waves that made it hard to look directly at him. He looked like a god of destruction who had decided to make this street his personal domain.
Jin-Ho's eyes swept the area, cataloging the damage with growing fury.
His cafe, the place where Toya had started to find some semblance of peace, where Jin had begun to stabilize, was being reduced to ash and rubble.
Months of carefully building something that mattered.
All burning.
"What now?" The thought flashed through Jin-Ho's mind, anger bubbling beneath his forced calm.
He knew Endeavor's methods were harsh, hell, the man's entire Hero career was built on overwhelming force and relentless pursuit of results.
But this level of collateral damage was beyond reckless.
This was personal, targeted and desperate.
Jin-Ho took a breath, the superheated air making his lungs feel like they were being seared from the inside.
He got closer, just outside the immediate reach of the flames, close enough to be heard, far enough to avoid being incinerated on instinct.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Endeavor turned, and for a moment, his blazing eyes locked onto Jin-Ho with an intensity that would have made most people take an involuntary step back.
"Is Toya really alive?"
While his voice was deep and controlled, there was something underneath it, something that might have been desperation masked as authority.
Jin-Ho's gaze deliberately traveled down to Endeavor's hands, both completely engulfed in flames that seemed to burn hotter with each passing second.
"I see you are here for your son." Jin-Ho said slowly, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
"But I have to ask—" He gestured at the destruction around them with exaggerated confusion. "What the hell is this? You came empty-handed? Where are the flowers? The apology cake? The 'sorry I left you for dead' fruit basket? Is this really how you greet your long-lost child? With arson?"
Endeavor's expression hardened further, if that was even possible.
"So he is indeed alive." It wasn't a question. "Return him to me. Now."
Jin-Ho crossed his arms, completely unbothered by the hellish temperatures surrounding them. "Come again tomorrow. He is not home today."
Endeavor's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"And while you're at it." Jin-Ho added, his voice turning cold. "Pay for the damage. You just destroyed months of work and put innocent people at risk. That's coming out of your Hero salary, Flame Hero."
"Kid." Endeavor's voice dropped to a threatening rumble, flames intensifying around his body. "Do not test the patience of an adult."
"Adult? Hmm?" Jin-Ho made a show of looking around theatrically, scanning the burning street as if searching for someone. He even shaded his eyes with one hand, peering into the distance.
"Nope. I don't see anyone matching that description around here."
He turned back to Endeavor. "What I do see is a half-dead, stubborn old man who failed as a hero, failed as a father, failed as a husband, and more than that—" His voice dropped, each word landing like a knife. "—failed as a human being."
That did it.
Something snapped in Endeavor.
With a roar of pure rage that seemed to shake the air, he launched himself at Jin-Ho, his fist engulfed in flames and aimed straight at Jin-Ho's face. The attack carried the full force of a top-tier hero pushed past his breaking point.
Jin-Ho blocked it just in time; he had to open the Seventh Gate while shielding himself from the heat with telekinesis.
He was already exhausted beyond anything he had dealt with today.
The impact of the two colliding was so powerful that the ground beneath them buckled, forming a charred crater in the pavement, cracks spider-webbing outward from the point of contact. The sheer heat of Endeavor's strike melted nearby debris into slag.
"Is this how you solve your problems?!" Jin-Ho shouted, staring him down, his voice filled with genuine disgust. "With brute force? With violence? No wonder Toya wants nothing to do with you!"
Endeavor tried to push back against him. "You don't understand—"
"Oh, I understand perfectly." Jin-Ho cut him off without budging. "I understand that you saw your son as nothing more than a tool to achieve what you couldn't. That the Number One spot blinded you so completely you couldn't see the child burning himself alive trying to earn your approval."
Endeavor's flames surged higher, but Jin-Ho noticed something beneath the rage, desperation, maybe regret. It was hard to tell with someone who communicated mostly through fire and intimidation.
"After you deemed Toya useless, a failure, your words, you abandoned him." Jin-Ho continued, his voice cutting through the roar of the flames. "You moved on to your other projects, your other children, pretending he never existed. And now? Now that you have discovered he survived, now that he's proven he grew strong despite you rather than because of you, you show your face here demanding him back?"
Jin-Ho laughed, hollow and humorless. "You really are unbelievable."
"Return my son to me." Endeavor's voice was rough, the command losing some of its earlier conviction.
"Like I said - no. Not happening." Jin-Ho's stance didn't shift, his expression completely serious. "You want Toya back? You want even the slightest chance of being part of his life? Then earn it."
"I am his father—"
"You were his father." Jin-Ho cut in sharply.
"Past tense. You gave up that right when you left him to burn on Sekoto Peak. Being a biological parent doesn't grant you ownership over someone's life, Endeavor. It doesn't work that way."
….
.
[To be continued…]
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