[Author's Note]
Alright, let's address the comments lately. I've seen some of you getting bored, complaining about the pacing, and saying I should change the title because Hero X hasn't shown up in a while.
First, let's look at the title of the book again: MHA: I'm the Reality Warping Hero X, but I'd Rather Have a 9-5 Job.
That "but" is the entire point of the story. Kaito is a reluctant powerhouse. He isn't Batman patrolling the streets every night.
He's a guy trying to live his life and do his desk job. He only drops the hammer as Hero X when trouble directly interrupts his peace, threatens his loved ones, or if he's just acting on a whim.
Think about it logically. If an omnipotent reality-warper actively hunts down villains, the stakes vanish. He would beat All For One in an afternoon, and the story would be over in two chapters.
Also, a reminder on Kaito's morals.. Since, when he awakened his Public Belief quirk, he has never killed anyone. He beats down the immediate threat if they mess with his life, and then lets the pros do the cleanup. That is his character.
Second, this story leans heavily into a Seinen genre style, not a typical Shonen. I refuse to write a story where an overpowered MC hogs 100% of the spotlight while the side characters just stand around uselessly.
I have spent hundreds of chapters properly building this world. I've branched out to show how Kaito's butterfly effect changes everything.. From how the hero agencies operate, to Star and Stripes and each pro heroes power development, to AFO's adaptations, from the villains in the movies and even spin offs, and right down to Midoriya getting a transforming cat and how that shifts Bakugo's rivalry.
Everything in this world-building connects. I am not going to just abandon the side characters and their growth to force Hero X to show up and rush the plot. That would be incredibly jarring and ruin the foundation of the book.
The pacing is exactly where it needs to be for how overpowered Kaito is. Hero X will make his return, but it takes a specific, personal trigger to get him to put the suit on.
Until then, enjoy the world-building, watch the butterfly effects unfold, and let the plot cook.
Thanks for reading and supporting the story!
.....
Support the journey here:
patreon.com/Dr_Chad
(9 Advanced Chapters)
_-_-_-_-_
Location: Takoba Municipal Beach
KABOOM.
The massive flash from the stun grenade turned the beach completely white. Thick smoke filled the air, blocking out the sun.
Most people would freeze. Izuku just closed his eyes under his mask and ran forward. He listened to the shifting sand.
WHOOSH.
Izuku threw a heavy punch through the smoke.
His fist hit nothing.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The sound didn't come from in front of him. It came from above.
Izuku looked up. Bakugo had aimed his palms at the ground and fired, launching himself thirty feet straight up into the air.
"Where are you looking?!" Bakugo yelled.
He didn't just fall back down. Bakugo started chaining small, rapid explosions from his palms.
The blasts spun his body into a fast, tight somersault mid-air. He was building intense rotational momentum.
He dove down like a missile, aiming a massive explosive right hook straight at Izuku's head.
Izuku didn't step back. He shifted his weight and raised his left arm.
CLANG.
Izuku's heavy kinetic bracer caught Bakugo's forearm right before the explosion went off.
The steel absorbed the shock, but the sheer force pushed Izuku's boots deep into the sand.
Bakugo didn't stop to trade punches. He used the impact to flip backward.
Before his feet even touched the ground, Bakugo fired his right palm, then his left.
POP.
POP.
He launched himself sideways, zigzagging through the air like a pinball.
He bounced off the rusted roof of an old van, completely changing his angle in a split second.
His aerial mobility was insane.
He came in from Izuku's blind spot, using a blast from his hand to fuel a brutal, high-speed spinning kick.
SWISH.
Izuku ducked hard. The kick missed his mask by an inch.
Instead of backing away, Izuku stepped inside Bakugo's guard.
He grabbed Bakugo's jacket, spun on his heel, and used Bakugo's own forward momentum to throw him hard over his shoulder.
Bakugo flew toward a pile of scrap metal.
BLAST.
Bakugo fired a quick explosion at the scrap pile to cushion his crash. He flipped in the air and landed perfectly on his feet.
He was sweating heavily in the morning heat. The sweat beaded on his forehead and dripped down his arms.
The intense morning sun was acting like a massive battery for his Quirk, producing far more nitroglycerin than he could usually generate indoors.
"Stop dodging and fight!" Bakugo shouted.
He realized close combat wasn't working. Deku's martial arts were too tight.
Bakugo planted his boots. He extended his fingers, placed his other palm flat against his open palm, and formed a tight circle.
"AP SHOT: AUTO-CANNON!"
POP. POP. POP. POP.
Concentrated blasts shot through the air like invisible bullets. They tore deep holes into the wet sand.
Izuku jumped. He twisted his body mid-air, landing lightly on the hood of a rusted car, and flipped backward over a broken washing machine.
He kept moving, using the junk as cover. He moved just like a seasoned street vigilante, rolling and vaulting over the trash without losing any speed.
'Kacchan's combat instincts are crazy,' Izuku thought, ducking behind a pile of old tires. 'But he only trains by himself. He doesn't fight desperate guys in alleyways who try to trap you.'
Bakugo pushed harder. He widened his stance and gritted his teeth.
"AP MACHINE-GUN!"
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-BOOM.
The blasts came faster, ripping the beach apart. Sand and rusted metal exploded everywhere.
Izuku peeked around the tires. He noticed something wrong right away.
Bakugo's arms were shaking violently. The raw recoil was tearing his muscle fibers.
Without support gear to store the sweat and take the kickback, Bakugo was ripping his own ligaments apart just to keep up the barrage.
If he kept firing, he was going to destroy his hands permanently.
Izuku reached to his utility belt. The pouches were a bit rough, held together by heavy stitching.
He built his gear using his allowance and the cash he scavenged from knocked-out Trigger dealers. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.
PSSSHHH.
Izuku threw a smoke pellet. Thick grey smoke mixed with the white, covering the area.
"Another cheap trick?!" Bakugo yelled, aiming his hands to blast the smoke away.
But Izuku was already behind him.
He moved completely silent. He pulled a heavy rope bola from his belt. It had metal weights on the ends and exposed wires running down the sides.
SWISH.
Izuku threw the bola. It wrapped tight around Bakugo's arms and torso, pinning his hands to his sides.
BZZZZT.
A low-voltage electric current pulsed through the rope. It wasn't enough to hurt him, just enough to numb his nervous system.
"Damn! What is this?!"
Bakugo's arms went limp. His fingers twitched, completely paralyzed. He couldn't spark a single drop of sweat.
THUD.
He fell to his knees in the sand.
Izuku walked over. He reached up and pulled his mask off, letting his hood drop.
"It's over, Kacchan," Izuku said.
Bakugo glared up at him. He ground his teeth together, struggling against the heavy rope.
"Shut up!" Bakugo growled. "Take this crap off me! We aren't done! Damn you and your toys."
"We are," Izuku said bluntly. "Look at your wrists."
"....."
Bakugo stopped yelling.
He looked down at his hands. Even paralyzed, his forearms were visibly trembling. His skin was red and inflamed.
"Tsk." He clicked his tongue and looked away, his pride taking a massive hit.
"That rapid attack move is amazing," Izuku told him. "But you don't have support gears to handle the recoil. If you kept firing for another minute, you would have torn your muscles. You can't just power through physics."
"....."
Bakugo didn't say anything. Internally, he knew Deku was right.
He hated it, but his combat instincts couldn't deny reality.
Deku had been fighting real thugs with knives for years. He had live-combat experience and the support gear to back it up.
Bakugo just had his strong quirk and a backyard to train in. He lacked too much experience.
Izuku pressed a small button on his glove.
CLICK.
The electric pulse stopped. Izuku reached down and unwrapped the bola, pulling it away.
Bakugo stood up slowly.
He rubbed his sore forearms, glaring at the electric rope in Izuku's hands. He didn't say thank you.
"You just wait," Bakugo said, his voice full of fierce, stubborn anger. "Once I get into U.A., I'm getting real gauntlets built. Not this garage trash you taped together."
Izuku smiled a little. "I know. It's going to be a lot harder to tie you up then."
Bakugo turned around, kicking up a cloud of sand.
"Damn right it will be," Bakugo called out over his shoulder, walking back toward the concrete steps. "Don't think you're better than me just because you got a head start!"
Izuku watched him storm off.
The intense rivalry hadn't cooled down at all. If anything, Bakugo looked more fired up than ever.
Sigh.
Izuku watched him storm off. He let out a heavy sigh and dropped to the sand, taking a long drink from a water bottle in his belt.
MEOW.
Kuro jumped down from a rusted pipe and trotted over. The black cat rubbed his head against Izuku's heavy boots.
"Yeah," Izuku sighed, looking down at his partner. "He's definitely going to be a problem when he gets his gear and live-combat experience. Kacchan has a strong quirk. I really envy him."
MEOW.
"Yes you're right. What we lacked is resources. If we have plenty, we can build a better suit and support gears to fully counter quirk abilities. I need to learn more and practice more." Izuku continued as he looked at his gloves.
"Come on Kuro, let me perfect my kicking skills. I still couldn't understand how Mirko can run and step in the air and kick wind blades. Change into Martial Arts Master form."
FWOOOP.
*-*-*-*
Location: Singapore – Red Dot Taskforce HQ
Date: Monday | 10:00 AM
HUMMMM.
The boardroom air conditioner was running on full blast. The room was freezing.
Sip.
Kaito took a sip of his hot black coffee just to keep his hands warm.
Big Red Dot sat next to him, taking up two huge chairs. He chuckled, noticing Kaito shivering a bit.
"Welcome to my local agency, Kaito," Big Red Dot smiled. "We keep it cold to keep everyone awake."
"It's working," Kaito said, setting his cup down.
CLAP.
Big Red Dot clapped his massive hands together. The loud smack echoed in the room.
"Alright, let's get into it," Big Red Dot announced. "Kaito, you already met Siti and Raju. I brought the rest of the senior team so you know who actually runs the docks."
He pointed to a woman with short, sharp blue hair sitting across the table. "This is Tidal. She manages the physical boats and fleet operations."
"Nice to meet you," Tidal said with a quick nod. "We need all the help we can get down there."
"Next to her is Pulse," Big Red Dot continued, pointing to a young guy with heavy headphones around his neck. "He handles our radar and comms."
Pulse gave a lazy two-finger salute. "Hey."
"And down at the end," Big Red Dot said, "is Farah. Lead Legal Counsel. She keeps us out of jail."
Farah pushed her glasses up her nose. She looked completely exhausted. "Barely. The lawsuits from yesterday are already piling up on my desk. It's a pleasure, Mr. Arisaka. I've read the files on what you did with the Japanese hero agencies."
"Just Kaito is fine," he said, giving them a polite nod. "And I'm here to make sure you stop dealing with this."
THWACK.
Kaito dropped a stack of thin folders on the glass table and slid them across.
"Before we fix anything, tell me exactly what's breaking on the water right now," Kaito said.
Sigh.
Farah opened her folder and sighed heavily. "It's a free-for-all. Since the Boss has the mainland streets completely locked down, the city itself is too safe. There isn't enough daily crime on land for the thirty independent agencies to farm Societal Contribution Points."
"So they all hit the water," Siti added, leaning forward. "Taking down a high-level international smuggler at sea is worth triple the Billboard ranking points compared to catching a purse-snatcher on land."
"Which makes them reckless," Tidal chimed in, crossing her arms tight. "Last week, the Blue-Guard agency literally rammed one of my patrol boats just to get to a smuggler first. They care more about the PR photo op and the ranking boost than the actual arrest or civilian safety."
Raju rubbed his face. "If a ship sinks, three different agencies show up. They spend twenty minutes screaming at each other on the deck over who has jurisdiction and who gets the credit, while the bad guys just swim away."
Tap. Tap.
Kaito tapped his pen on the table.
"So we stop giving them a choice," Kaito said. "Proposal one... Centralized Dispatch... Pulse, your office must be like Air Traffic Control. You see a distress call, you pick one agency to take it. Anyone else who shows up gets heavily fined."
Pulse blinked. "Uh, Kaito? I can't just boss them around. We don't share radio frequencies. They'll just ignore me."
"Second," Kaito continued smoothly. "We build a Mother Base. We retrofit a massive floating platform out in the strait. Every maritime hero launches from there. Same fuel, same repair shop, same dispatch."
Tidal let out a sharp, loud laugh. "Hehe... You want to put thirty rival agencies on one rig? Are you crazy? There's going to be a fistfight in the cafeteria every single day."
Farah shook her head quickly. "It won't even get to that point. It's illegal. Anti-monopoly laws protect them. We can't force independent agencies to merge. If we try to push them, the government will sue us."
"Why won't the government step in?" Kaito asked her directly.
"Bad PR," Farah replied bluntly. "The politicians want the harbor fixed, but they are terrified of looking like the bad guys shutting down small businesses."
Sip.
Kaito didn't look worried. He took another sip of his coffee.
"Farah is right," Kaito said. "We can't force them. So we won't."
Siti leaned forward. "Then how do we get them on the platform?"
"Do they like getting paid?" Kaito asked. "And more importantly... do they like their Billboard rankings?"
"....."
"....."
The room went quiet.
"Of course," Raju muttered. "Fame and money. That's all those other guys care about."
Kaito pointed to the blank TV screen on the wall.
"Captain Selkie in Japan runs the 'Silent Command' sonar system. It's the best deep-water radar on the planet. It tracks villain movements live," Kaito explained. "You should contact him to collaborate on linking that radar directly to Pulse's desk here. I already informed him the other day."
Pulse sat up straight. His eyes went wide.
"Wait. We get the Japanese live feed?"
"We do," Kaito said. "But the other agencies don't."
Kaito leaned over the table, looking at the team.
"We control the information toll booth," Kaito said. "Tomorrow, you call a massive meeting. You offer them the 'Pacific Shield' treaty. If they sign the paper and move to the Mother Base, they get access to the live radar. Plus, we set up an automatic fifty-fifty split for both the government bounties and the Societal Contribution Points. Pulse tracks the boat, another agency makes the arrest, and the system automatically logs joint-credit. They get guaranteed ranking points. No PR disasters. No lawsuits."
Farah stopped adjusting her glasses. She stared right at Kaito. "And if they refuse to sign?"
"Then they stay independent," Kaito smiled. It was a very sharp, confident smile. "And they stay completely blind. While they wander around the ocean looking for smugglers, the agencies on our radar will catch everyone first. The holdouts won't make a single arrest. Their Billboard rankings will plummet to the bottom, the media will forget them, and they will go bankrupt in a month."
"....." Everyone.
The boardroom went dead silent. The only sound was the hum of the AC.
PUUFF.
Farah let out a slow, long breath.
"It's totally legal," Farah whispered. "The government keeps their hands clean, and the agencies put themselves out of business if they don't adapt."
Tidal shook her head in sheer disbelief. "You just cornered the entire ocean without throwing a single punch."
"Information is the only currency that matters," Kaito said, tossing his pen onto his folder. "Are we doing this or not?"
"Hahahaha!" Big Red Dot let out a booming, massive laugh.
THUD.
He slammed his heavy hand on the glass table, rattling the coffee cups.
"I love it!" Big Red Dot shouted. He pointed his thick finger around the room. "Farah, start drafting those treaties right now! Pulse, get your servers ready for the Japanese link and call Selkei Agency! Tidal, call the others. We're building a Mother Base!"
"Got it!"
"Yes."
"Leave it to me."
The room exploded into motion. The sidekicks grabbed their folders and rushed to the door, talking rapidly to each other.
*-*-*-*
Location: Singapore – Kaito's Hotel Room
Date: Tuesday | 11:30 PM
The city lights glowed through the massive hotel window.
Kaito sat on the edge of the large bed. The room was totally quiet. He had his laptop open, scrolling through a few shipping manifests from the docks.
BZZZT.
BZZZT.
A cheap, plastic burner phone vibrated hard against the wooden nightstand.
Kaito reached over and hit the green button. He brought the phone to his ear.
"Hello."
"Are you on a secure line? The local networks down there are garbage," a raspy, paranoid voice demanded immediately.
"It's triple-encrypted, Tomoyasu," Kaito sighed, leaning back against the headboard.
TAP. TAP. CLACK. TAP.
The sound of furious, heavy typing blasted through the tiny speaker.
"Must be nice," Skeptic muttered. "Sitting in a luxury hotel in another country while I rewrite the entire Detnerat payroll system from scratch.
Kaito leaned back against the headboard. "Hello to you too, Tomoyasu. And I'm working, not tanning."
"Sure you are," Skeptic scoffed.
CLACK. TAP. TAP.
"I haven't slept in three days," Skeptic continued, his voice tight with stress. "The supply chain for the new support gear line is a nightmare. I had to bribe three different port authorities just to get the raw materials moving on time."
"You're going to have a heart attack before you turn forty," Kaito told him. "Drink a glass of water."
"Water is for people who aren't running an empire," Skeptic snapped back. "I run on espresso and spite."
Kaito smiled a little.
It had been nearly two years since he took the black coin and became the Auditor for the Meta Liberation Army.
Working with Skeptic was exhausting, but the hacker was genuinely a genius.
"How are the foot soldiers holding up?" Kaito asked. "Did you push that corporate benefits package I sent you last month?"
"Yeah, I rolled it out," Skeptic said, sounding annoyed. "Full healthcare, paid time off, and a standard retirement fund for all the lower-ranking grunts. It cost a fortune. But I hate to admit it... you were right. Factory productivity is up forty percent."
Skeptic paused his typing for a second.
"It's weird," Skeptic said. "They aren't even talking about overthrowing the government anymore. They're too busy arguing with me about dental coverage and overtime pay. It keeps them totally quiet."
Kaito looked out the window at the dark harbor.
'Of course it keeps them quiet,' Kaito thought. 'You can't convince a guy to throw his life away in a bloody street war if he's worried about losing his 401k and his health insurance. You give them a comfortable life, and the revolution dies on its own.'
"It's just good business, Tomoyasu," Kaito said out loud. "What about the board? How is Chitose?"
"Curious is too busy to bother me," Skeptic laughed dryly. "Shoowaysha just bought out two more rival news networks in Kansai. She controls over half the media narrative in the country now. The HPSC is literally quoting our articles in their press briefs, and they don't even know we wrote them."
"And Trumpet?"
"Hanabata is at another political gala in Tokyo," Skeptic said. "He's rubbing elbows with the prime minister's cabinet. Re-Destro is thrilled. The stock prices keep hitting record highs. We basically own the system now."
"Good," Kaito said. "So why are you calling me at midnight?"
The typing stopped completely.
"A small problem," Skeptic admitted. His voice dropped the arrogant tone and got totally serious. "Detnerat's R&D department is tapped out. I need fresh blood. I need young, brilliant coders and engineers to build the next wave of gear. But I can't get them."
"Why not?" Kaito asked.
"Because the HPSC keeps stealing them," Skeptic groaned. "Every time I find a genius kid at one of the top universities, the government swoops in and offers them a massive, shiny hero-support contract. I can't just kidnap the kids. It would ruin our legal cover."
Kaito thought about it for a few seconds. He tapped his finger against the laptop casing.
"Stop trying to recruit the individual kids," Kaito said. "Change the target."
"What do you mean?"
"The HPSC hunts for standout students," Kaito explained. "So you go under their radar. Don't offer them jobs. Offer them a start-up incubator program. Create five different shell companies that look like trendy, independent tech investors."
"...."
Skeptic was quiet for a second. Then, a sharp intake of breath came through the speaker.
"Grants," Skeptic said, his voice speeding up instantly.
"Exactly," Kaito nodded. "Offer massive financial grants to the university support-gear clubs. Tell them you want to fund their labs no strings attached."
TAP. CLACK. TAP. TAP.
Skeptic started typing again, faster than before. Kaito could practically hear the gears turning in the hacker's head.
"The kids will think they just scored a grant from a cool indie start-up," Skeptic said, finishing Kaito's thought. "They get endless funding to build whatever crazy gear they want in their dorms. The HPSC won't even look twice because it just looks like a college club project."
"And when they finish building the prototypes?" Kaito asked.
"The shell company legally owns the patents," Skeptic grinned, his raspy voice full of excitement. "We take the tech, funnel it straight into the Detnerat factories, and the HPSC doesn't even realize we just bought their best talent for pennies."
"It's clean, it's legal, and the students get paid," Kaito said.
"It's perfect," Skeptic said. "I'm writing the corporate structure for the shell companies right now. I'll have the grant money wired to the Tokyo engineering schools by tomorrow morning. You actually saved my life tonight, Arisaka."
"Just go to sleep after you wire the money, Tomoyasu."
"Yeah, right. Goodbye."
CLICK.
The line went dead. Skeptic hung up without another word.
Kaito tossed the burner phone back onto the nightstand. He rubbed his eyes and let out a long breath.
HUFF-PUFF.
As long as Skeptic was busy writing code and the grunts were happy with their paychecks, the streets stayed safe.
*-*-*-*
Location: Singapore Strait – The Mother Base
Date: Two Weeks Later | 02:00 PM
WHOOSH.
The ocean wind hit the massive metal deck of the Mother Base.
The floating platform used to be a commercial oil rig.
Normally, it would take years to retrofit a structure this massive. But by combining Raju's logistics team with dozens of heavy-lifting and metal-manipulation Quirks from the cooperating agencies, they had completely rebuilt it in just fourteen days.
Now, it was the main launch hub for the entire Singapore maritime hero network. Ten different patrol boats were docked around the lower edges.
Down in the open-air canteen, heroes from different agencies sat at the long steel tables.
Singapore only had about four hundred registered pro heroes. It was a small country.
Space was incredibly tight, and the competition for Billboard rankings was usually brutal.
But right now, nobody was fighting.
Arthur Lee, the Rank 3 hero known as 'Current,' took a bite of his noodles. He ran the Crest Agency and fought using compressed hydro-whips.
Sitting right across the table from him was Hakim, the Rank 8 hero 'Ironhull.' His skin looked like heavy, rust-proof steel.
A month ago, if these two crossed paths on the water, they would have rammed each other's boats just to get the front-page news spot.
Now, they were both staring at a large flat-screen TV mounted on the canteen wall.
DING.
The screen updated. Their Societal Contribution points ticked up at the exact same time.
"Hey, look at that," Ironhull pointed at the screen with his fork. "We just got the payout for that smuggler run from Tuesday. Full points."
Current wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Told you. Half the points for cutting off the escape route, and zero property damage. Better than paying the city for a broken civilian dock. But still, I can't believe the Golden Manager came all the way here from Japan to contract Red Dot. I emailed him a lot of times but was rejected."
"Me too. Damn! I won't be able to overtake that Lion for a long time now," Ironhull agreed.
Up in the air-conditioned command tower, Big Red Dot watched the two heroes through the thick glass window.
He shook his head slowly.
"I still can't believe it," Big Red Dot muttered, looking over at Kaito. "Arthur and Hakim sharing a table. They used to hate each other. Hakim actually sued Arthur last year for stealing a bounty."
Kaito stood near the back wall with his hands in his pockets.
"They didn't hate each other," Kaito said. "They just hated losing money. The laws here are strict. If they break a pier during a fight, the repair bill comes right out of their agency budget. This new system gives them the arrest out in the open water. No broken docks, no lawsuits, and guaranteed ranking points. It's just less stressful."
Big Red Dot laughed a little. "You really know how these guys think."
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Pulse spun around in his computer chair. He pushed his heavy headphones off one ear.
"We got a live one," Pulse called out, pointing at his screen. "Unregistered speedboat entering Sector Four. Looks like a smuggler trying to slip through the eastern reef."
Siti stepped right up behind him. She grabbed the main radio mic. She looked at the live radar map.
"Manta Agency is patrolling Sector Three. They are the closest," Siti said. She pressed the talk button. "Control Tower to Manta-One. You have a target moving south through Sector Four. Engage and detain."
CRACKLE.
"Manta-One copies," a voice answered over the radio. "We see him on the shared feed. Moving in."
Siti didn't stop there. She checked the other patrol routes.
"Control Tower to Ironhull," Siti said into the mic. "Hold position at the reef exit. Block the perimeter. Manta has the lead."
Kaito watched the screen. This was the real test.
Ironhull was Rank 8. Manta was Rank 12.
A month ago, a Top 10 hero would never let a lower-ranked guy take the main arrest.
CRACKLE.
"Ironhull copies," Hakim's deep voice came through the speaker. "Moving to block the exit. Pushing him back toward Manta."
No arguments. No complaining. Hakim knew that holding the perimeter meant an automatic fifty percent cut of the Billboard points.
On the massive digital map, the blue dots cornered the red dot perfectly.
In less than three minutes, the red dot stopped moving entirely.
"Target secured," the Manta hero radioed in. "Nobody got wet. Requesting police pickup at Dock Seven."
Big Red Dot let out a massive breath. He grinned so hard his beard shifted. "Clean. Not a single argument."
Pulse hit a few keys on his keyboard. A loading bar filled up on the main screen.
"Kaito-san," Pulse said, looking back at Kaito with a huge smile. "The handshake protocol just finished. We have a secure data link."
A series of bright green lines appeared on the digital map. The lines stretched from the Singapore harbor, all the way up through the Philippine Sea, connecting straight to the coast of Japan.
"Captain Selkie's ship just confirmed the connection," Pulse announced. "The Oki Mariner is online. We share the same radar feed now."
Big Red Dot crossed his thick arms. He looked at the map, then at Kaito.
"The Pacific Shield," Big Red Dot said quietly. "It's actually live."
Kaito looked at the green lines crossing the ocean.
The network was locked in. The independent heroes were working together, the government was happy.
"It is," Kaito nodded. He turned his head toward Big Red Dot. "Tell your teams to prep the long-range boats. We start the joint patrols with Japan tomorrow morning."