Location: Might Tower – Secure Data Center
Date: Monday | 09:00 AM (Three Days Later)
CLACK.
CLACK.
TAP.
Kaito Arisaka sat in front of the massive dual-monitor terminal. His fingers moved across the keyboard in a blur.
On the left screen, lines of green text cascaded downward faster than a normal person could read.
[Bypass_Init: EU_GRID_09]
[Fragment_Split: 1,800_Nodes]
[Encryption_Key: Spoof_Active]
Behind him, the room was packed, but nobody was saying a word.
Sir Nighteye's top programmers stood with their arms crossed, sweating.
Yokumiru Mera was leaning heavily against a desk, rubbing his deeply bagged eyes. His younger sister, Agent Yui Mera, stood next to him holding a clipboard tightly against her chest.
They were all just staring at the screens.
"Wait, hold on," the lead programmer for Nighteye's agency suddenly leaned in, pointing a shaking finger at the monitor. "Did you just bypass the Pentagon's active sonar grid? How? Their security keys cycle every five seconds. You didn't even run a brute-force script."
Kaito stopped typing for a second and looked over his shoulder. He gave the guy a calm, easygoing smile.
"I didn't break in," Kaito explained, his tone conversational. "If you force it down, the alarms are going to ring. I just used dynamic IP spoofing to convince their defense grid that this ghost-program is a scheduled internal weather update. They opened the door for me."
"Ughh" Yokumiru Mera groaned loudly, dragging a hand down his face.
"The WHA gave us the green light for All Might's global strike," Mera complained, looking incredibly stressed. "But Arisaka, if your ghost-program accidentally trips a national defense grid instead of bypassing it, they are going to blame the HPSC for a cyber-attack."
"Standard WHA communication channels aren't secure enough, Mera-san," Kaito reassured him, turning back to the keyboard. "If we send the Blitzkrieg coordinates through regular government channels, spies will intercept it and the League will scatter. We have to bypass the governments and put the WHA's mandate directly into the heroes' personal devices."
Yui Mera stepped forward, looking genuinely confused. "But how? The data mass required to link 1,800 high-level devices simultaneously is huge. Even if the WHA approved it, the international threat detectors will flag a data package that big the second it crosses the ocean."
"That's why I'm not sending it all at once," Kaito said.
TAP.
TAP.
"I fragmented the main program into a few million harmless data packets," Kaito explained, pointing at the right screen where a map of the globe was slowly filling with tiny green dots. "It's riding the background noise of commercial satellites. It just looks like spam emails or GPS pings. It only reassembles the moment it enters the heroes' specific phones."
"....."
"....."
The programmers in the room just stared at him.
They were professionals, but watching Kaito work made them feel like they were still in middle school. The logic he was using felt like it belonged fifty years in the future.
"Do you understand what he's saying?" some HPSC personnel whispered to the person beside him.
"You can't even understand, how can I understand" the other one whispered frustratingly.
"I still can't believe this golden manager also knows programmming. And the way he worked is very advanced," a professional cyber agent that was part of Sir Nighteye agency butted in.
Near the back of the room, Lady Nagant leaned against the cold concrete wall.
She wore a sharp, dark suit, her dual-colored hair falling over her shoulder.
She wasn't looking at the code on the monitors. She didn't care about the computers.
She was looking at Kaito.
She studied the way he breathed.
Slow.
Even.
She watched his posture. He was sitting in a room full of stressed, high-ranking government agents, yet he was completely relaxed. There was absolutely no wasted movement in his hands.
Her gut was screaming at her.
As a veteran assassin, she learned a long time ago to trust her female intuition.
She remembered that dark alley in Osu Ward years ago. She remembered the sheer, suffocating authority of Hero X. The way he commanded reality itself without ever raising his voice.
Kaito Arisaka looked like a normal, twenty-three-year-old manager. He didn't sound like the monster she met in the ruins.
But the way he commanded this room? The absolute certainty he carried?
Her instincts told her there was something deeply terrifying hiding underneath that expensive charcoal suit. She just can't prove it.
BEEP.
"The initial framework is compiling," Kaito announced, pushing his chair back. He stood up and rolled his shoulders, working out a small kink in his neck. "It needs five minutes to finish the handshake protocols. I'm going to grab some coffee."
STEP. STEP.
Kaito slipped his hands into his pockets and walked out of the data center.
Nagant immediately pushed off the wall. She followed him down the quiet, carpeted hallway.
The breakroom at the end of the hall was completely empty.
Kaito grabbed a paper cup from the stack and pushed the button on the large espresso machine.
WHIRRR.
Nagant walked in quietly.
CLICK.
She shut the door behind her, locking the two of them inside.
"Is there something wrong Miss Nagant?"
Kaito didn't turn around. He just watched the dark coffee pour into his cup.
Nagant stepped right into his personal space. She didn't hesitate. She wanted to test her gut feeling right now.
SWISH.
She moved incredibly fast. But she didn't grab him by the collar or pin him to the wall.
Instead, she reached out and grabbed Kaito's right hand.
She pulled his arm up, forced his long fingers directly under her own chin, and physically tilted her head up so she was staring directly into his eyes.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Kaito was puzzled by the action of this woman.
Nagant forced him into the exact, one-to-one domineering pose that Hero X had trapped her in back in the ruins.
She stared deep into his eyes. She waited for his aura to spike.
She waited for that terrifying, heavy pressure to drop on her shoulders.
Kaito didn't flinch. His heart rate didn't even elevate a single beat.
Internally, Kaito just let out a long, tired sigh.
'Female intuition really is literal plot armor,' Kaito thought to himself.
He remembered reading manga in his past life where characters just guessed the ultimate truth based on a random vibe.
He knew she couldn't prove a single thing unless he wanted to.
Outwardly, Kaito gave her a completely bored, deadpan look.
"Nagant-san," Kaito said, his voice totally flat. "Forcing a young man's hand onto your face in the breakroom is sexual harassment."
"....."
Nagant frowned.
She was incredibly frustrated. The physical pose was perfect.
The proximity was exactly the same. But the terrifying feeling of Hero X was completely gone.
The man standing in front of her just felt like a office worker who was genuinely worried about an HR violation.
"Wha~"
She opened her mouth to say something, ready to push him a little harder.
CREAK.
The breakroom door swung wide open.
"Excuse me, I need some coff~~"
All Might walked in, holding a massive stack of mission files under one arm.
"ee..."
He stopped dead in his tracks.
"...."
All Might was fifty-three years old.
He was a lifelong bachelor who had spent his entire existence punching villains and saving civilians. He had absolutely zero experience with dating and romance.
He looked at Kaito.
Then he looked at the deadly, beautiful HPSC sniper who was intimately holding his young manager's hand against her face while staring deeply into his eyes.
All Might's brain completely short-circuited.
His face turned incredibly red, matching the blue and red stripes of his suit.
"O-Oh my!" All Might stammered loudly, physically taking a large step backward into the hallway. "I am so sorry! I did not mean to interrupt your... youth! Please, carry on! I will get coffee later!"
SLAM.
Step. Step. Step.
All Might violently slammed the door shut, and they could hear his heavy footsteps literally running away down the hall to give them privacy.
Deep inside the Quirk Plane, the past users were losing their minds.
"HAHAHAHA!"
Daigoro Banjo was rolling on the misty, dark floor, clutching his stomach. "Look at Toshinori! He's turning into a tomato! He doesn't know what to do!"
Nana Shimura giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "My goodness. Modern romance is very aggressive, isn't it? The young lady just forced his hand right onto her."
"Aren't you guys worried? This big oaf will grow old without a descendant." Banjo relayed his thoughts.
"...." Everyone.
Back in the real world, the timing totally shattered the heavy interrogation.
Nagant's face flushed.
She realized exactly what that just looked like to the Symbol of Peace.
She just got caught looking like she was forcing a secret, highly inappropriate workplace romance on a younger guy.
She quickly dropped Kaito's hand and took a large step back. She cleared her throat, looking extremely awkward.
"Ahh Right... I'm sorry... Never mind," Nagant muttered, avoiding eye contact. "Just... checking your reflexes."
She turned around, quickly opened the door, and walked out fast.
Kaito just grabbed his coffee cup from the machine. He took a slow sip.
Sip.
"What a long day."
*-*-*-*
Location: Might Tower – Main Lobby
Time: 02:00 PM
BAM.
The heavy glass front doors of Might Tower swung wide open.
Salaam, the Number One Hero of Egypt, marched straight into the lobby.
He was wearing his massive golden pharaoh headdress and his bright, flowing robes. He moved with huge, energetic strides.
Two HPSC handlers jogged behind him, completely out of breath.
HUUF-PUFF.
HUUF-PUFF.
"Mr. Salaam! Please wait."
They were sweating heavily just trying to keep up with his pace from the airport.
"Where is he?!" Salaam boomed, his voice echoing across the marble floor. "Where is the Golden Manager?!"
DING.
The gold-plated elevator doors slid open.
All Might stepped out into the lobby. He wasn't in his hero costume. He wore his sharp yellow suit, looking completely relaxed.
"Salaam, my friend!" All Might smiled widely, walking over to meet him. "Welcome to Japan!"
"Long time no see, All Might!"
Salaam grinned.
He stepped forward and firmly grabbed All Might's extended hand.
GRIP.
The very second their skin touched, Salaam's eyes went completely wide.
"...."
Every single veteran hero instinct in Salaam's body screamed at him to back away.
On the outside, All Might looked like a normal, smiling man in a business suit.
But underneath the skin, Salaam felt a humming, vibrating pressure. It felt like he just placed his bare hand directly on the hull of an active nuclear submarine.
All Might was constantly running a Detroit Smash through his entire body. It was a tempering technique Kaito taught him months ago.
He kept his muscles dense and stored kinetic energy inside Fa Jin twenty-four hours a day non-stop. It was as natural as breathing to him now.
HUFF-PUFF.
Salaam's legs buckled slightly. He staggered back a step, breaking the handshake and gasping for air.
"Salaam!" All Might asked, looking genuinely surprised. "Are you alright?!"
"What... what are you doing?" Salaam whispered, staring at All Might's hand in pure shock. "That pressure... that is not normal."
All Might blinked. Then he looked down at his own hands, his face turning slightly red with embarrassment.
"Oh! Haha! I am so sorry!" All Might apologized quickly, dialing the internal aura back. "I completely forgot I was doing it. The manager has me running this technique constantly to train. I forgot to retract it and scares people sometimes."
DING.
A second elevator chimed.
Kaito walked out into the lobby. He was holding his tablet in one hand and his paper coffee cup in the other. He already recieved the notification from his A.I back in his office that Salaam will meet him personally.
Salaam immediately stood up straight. He adjusted his robes, regaining his pride as a Top Hero, and walked right up to Kaito.
"Manager Arisaka," Salaam said. He didn't beg, but his voice was full of burning intensity. "I saw the news. I saw the sky over Asia. I flew straight here to be the first one in line. I want to officially request a contract."
Kaito stopped walking. He took a sip of his coffee.
"I'm currently booked," Kaito said simply.
"I know," Salaam replied quickly. "But the WHA held the Geneva Summit a month ago. They saw the power spikes in Captain Celebrity and Big Red Dot. They officially voted on it. The World Hero Association passed a mandate requesting you to contract the Top 10 heroes of every single member country."
"....."
All Might's jaw actually dropped.
"Wait," All Might said loudly, looking back and forth between them. "Every member country? That is over a hundred and eighty nations! That's almost two thousand heroes!"
All Might looked at Kaito in sheer panic. "What the hell are they doing? They want him to do this for the rest of his life?!"
Kaito didn't look angry. He actually gave a genuine, tired chuckle and shook his head.
"Heh. Politicians," Kaito said softly.
He looked up at Salaam. He didn't act cold, but he drew a very clear line.
"Salaam, I respect you," Kaito started, his tone polite but totally firm. "You fight hard for Egypt. But I am just one guy. I am a free civilian in Japan. If I sit down and contract eighteen hundred people, I will be ninety years old before I finish the first round."
Salaam listened closely.
"I'm happy to help people," Kaito continued. "But I do things on my own terms. I value my life and my free time. I'm not a government asset, and the WHA can't mandate my schedule. I might do some group seminars later, or pick a few cases based on my own standards. But I'm not going to work myself into an early grave."
Salaam nodded slowly. He didn't look offended.
In fact, he looked like he respected Kaito even more for standing his ground against the entire global government.
"I understand completely," Salaam smiled warmly. "I just wanted to be the first to ask in person. I also can't believe their decision, those guys. Tsk... Please, just put my name on the waiting list. Whenever you decide to take a new client, I will be ready."
"Fair enough," Kaito said. He tapped his tablet a few times. "You're on the list. But right now, we have a bigger problem than my career."
Kaito switched to business mode. He walked closer and held up his tablet so Salaam could see the screen.
"The WHA approved the Blitzkrieg protocol," Kaito explained. "I just finished building the ghost-program upstairs. Give me your secure phone."
Salaam reached into his robes and handed over a heavy, encrypted WHA smartphone.
BEEP.
Kaito connected a small cable from his tablet to the phone. A green loading bar flashed across Salaam's screen.
"I just bypassed the standard channels so the League's spies won't see this coming," Kaito told him. "When the global timer hits zero, that phone will give you the exact coordinates of a local League base in your sector. You go in, and you capture everyone inside. No hesitations."
"I didn't know about this. This is a serious event." Salaam took the phone back. The dramatic, hyped energy from earlier completely vanished. He looked deadly serious.
"Understood," Salaam said, giving a sharp salute. "Egypt will be ready."
*-*-*-*
Location: Might Tower – Secure Data Center
Date: Thursday | 04:30 PM (Three Days Later)
TAP.
TAP.
CLACK.
Kaito hit the heavy enter key on his keyboard.
The secure data center was an absolute mess. Empty coffee cups and energy drink cans were piled up on every single desk.
The cyber-agents from the HPSC and Sir Nighteye's agency looked like actual zombies.
They had spent the last three days running background support, tracing minor data nodes, and formatting the raw information Kaito was pulling from the dark web.
"I got the cross-references," one of Nighteye's exhausted programmers called out from the back. "Syncing it to the main display now."
BEEP.
The massive wall monitor lit up. A global map appeared, completely covered in hundreds of glowing red dots.
Every single dot was a hidden safehouse, a smuggling route, or an underground base owned by the League of Villains.
All Might, Sir Nighteye, and Gran Torino walked up behind Kaito's chair.
"You found their financial trails?" Nighteye asked, adjusting his glasses to look at the massive map.
"Better," Kaito said, grabbing his cold coffee. "I found the shell companies. I tracked the money laundering routes. But I also dug into the deleted server logs from their medical and logistics divisions."
Kaito clicked his mouse. The screen zoomed in on Europe, specifically Italy.
"Remember the report from the WHA and the HPSC?" Kaito asked the room. "The ash dying villains and the possibility of bombs those Tartarus prisoners are using. I tracked the manufacturing origin. The League cannibalized the Gollini mafia's drug labs in Italy. They took the trigger drug research and weaponized it with quirks."
Kaito opened a digital ledger on the screen.
"These are their shipping manifests," Kaito told the pros. "The League has already planted dozens of these disaster bombs in highly populated civilian sectors all over the world. They are keeping them hidden. If they get cornered, they will probably detonate them."
THUD.
Gran Torino slammed his wooden cane hard against the floor.
"Cowards," Torino growled. "If we launch this Blitzkrieg raid, they are going to trigger those bombs the second we kick the doors down. Thousands of people will die."
"Only if the people are still there," Kaito replied plainly.
All Might looked down at him. "What do you mean, Kaito-shonen?"
"We don't raid blindly," Kaito said, pulling up a list of city grids. "We have the estimated locations of the planted bombs. Before the global timer hits zero, you send in underground heroes. Guys like Eraserhead. People who don't attract cameras. They quietly pull the fire alarms. They fake gas leaks. You evacuate the targeted civilian zones in total silence. By the time the raid starts and the villains try to push the button, the blast radius will be completely empty."
Nighteye let out a sharp breath. He looked incredibly relieved.
"That works," Nighteye said quickly, pulling out his own phone. "I will start organizing the silent evacuation orders right now. We have the connections to do this."
"Good," Kaito said. "Because the bombs aren't the worst part."
CLICK.
Kaito switched the main screen to a heavily encrypted medical file he ripped from Doctor Garaki's personal server.
Seven distinct biological profiles popped up on the monitor. They looked like X-rays mixed with heavily modified quirk DNA strands.
"The Seven Crowns," Kaito read the file aloud. "Humility. Diligence. Kindness. Patience. Charity. Temperance. Chastity."
"What are those?" All Might asked, his voice dropping an octave. "What's with the code names? Are they the same ones we fought back in Sky Egg in Tokyo?"
"No," Kaito said. "They are elite, perfected clones of All For One himself. Each one has a customized loadout of quirks."
"....."
The entire room went dead quiet. Even the exhausted programmers stopped typing.
"Clones?!" Torino yelled, his eyes going wide. "That bastard made copies of himself?!"
"Wait," All Might said, stepping closer to the screen. He remembered the Geneva Summit report. "The WHA said the Gollini mafia was wiped out by just two men wearing grey masks. The mafia had an army, and two men slaughtered them all."
Kaito nodded. "That wasn't regular thugs. That was two of these clones probably testing their strength. And they didn't just wipe the mafia out. They got the mafia family and also got the girl with the overmodification quirk."
Kaito pulled up a photo of Anna Scervino.
"They are using her Over-Modification quirk to create the serums," Kaito explained. "Maybe those high agents or even All For One himself also drank this serum to get their quirks stronger"
"...." Everyone was speechless. How come the terrorists leader also got stronger.
Nighteye crossed his arms. He looked deeply stressed. "Seven of him. Even with the global heroes handling the bases around the world, how do we fight seven All For Ones at their main headquarters?"
"You forgot All Might? He is so strong now. I believe him."
Kaito leaned back in his chair.
Externally, Kaito looked deadly serious. He had a tight, grim expression on his face.
Internally, Kaito was trying incredibly hard not to laugh out loud.
'Are you kidding me?' Kaito thought to himself. 'Seven clones named after heavenly virtues? He's literally just doing a cheap knock-off of the Six Paths of Pain next door. What a massive chuunibyou. This guy had a huge power up. It should be because me.'
Kaito didn't care about All For One. He really didn't.
Years ago, Kaito beat the so-called Demon Lord into the pavement in Ota Ward and trapped him in a 2D drawing. Kaito didn't fear him at all.
In fact, Kaito hadn't even fought a street mugger in years. He used his quirk to create probability manipulation field to make sure crime just naturally avoided him.
He changed the passive reality around his daily routine so he could just commute to work and enjoy his coffee in peace.
He hadn't needed to put on the Hero X mask for over fifty chapters because his life was completely mundane.
He didn't view All For One as a terrifying Demon Lord. He viewed him as a dramatic, cringy nuisance who may watched too much movies.
He didn't want to ruin the serious mood of the pro heroes.
"We fight them by hitting them harder," Gran Torino grunted, though his hands were shaking slightly on his cane.
All Might stepped right up to the monitor. He didn't look worried at all.
He looked at the seven profiles of the clones.
HUMMMMM.
Underneath his skin, the Detroit Smash flared just a little bit brighter and change into United States of Smash.
He felt the raw, buzzing power of One For All racing through his veins. The internal Blackwhip bracing held his ribs tight. The Fa Jin shock absorbers were primed. The Smokescreen coolant was ready.
He wasn't the same man who faced AFO back in Kamino.
He was a living weapon now.
Inside the Quirk Plane, deep in his mind, the vestige users were grinning like wolves while also relieved about the evacuation of the civilians.
Kudo cracked his knuckles. Daigoro Banjo laughed a loud, booming laugh.
They weren't scared of clones.
They were practically itching to test their new, physics-breaking Mach speeds on the fakes.
They wanted to see if they could vaporize a clone with a single hit.
"Let them come," All Might said, his voice entirely steady and full of absolute confidence. "I am so strong right now."
*-*-*-*
Location: Might Tower – Top Floor Office
Date: Monday (One Week Later)
RING.
RING.
Captain Celebrity sat on the couch in Kaito's office, tossing a baseball up in the air and catching it. He was wearing his casual clothes.
"You gonna answer that, Kaito?" CC asked, pointing at the phone on the desk.
Kaito picked it up. He saw the encrypted international number.
"Arisaka," Kaito answered.
"Kaito!" a loud, brash, distinctly American voice blasted through the speaker.
It was Cathleen Bate. Star and Stripe.
"Cathleen," Kaito said, his tone softening just a bit.
"Are you eating enough over there?" Star and Stripe demanded loudly. "You sound tired. I swear, if you are skipping meals again, I am flying to Tokyo just to drag you to a steakhouse."
CC laughed from the couch. "She's got your number, Kaito!"
"I'm eating fine, Cathleen," Kaito said.
Star and Stripe treated Kaito exactly like an overprotective big sister.
Her tone shifted. The friendly banter vanished, replaced by the cold, hard authority of America's Number Two.
"I got your encrypted WHA package," Star said seriously. "My military boys are all spun up. We have the coordinates for the North American safehouses and especially the location in Italy. The moment your timer hits zero, we are kicking the doors down."
"Good," Kaito said. "Be careful."
"Let them try," Star growled. "That bastard tried to come after my family. He wants my New Order quirk. I am going to bury his entire network in the dirt today."
CLICK.
The line beeped as another call merged in.
"Manager Kaito," a deep, calm voice echoed. It was Big Red Dot from Singapore. "The Pacific Shield alliance is in position. South East Asia is locked down. We await your signal."
"Understood," Kaito said. He hung up the phone.
He walked over to the massive glass window looking out over Tokyo.
Captain Celebrity stood up from the couch and walked over to stand next to him.
A moment later, the office doors opened, and All Might walked in.
The Symbol of Peace and the Symbol of Hope stood side by side.
Kaito looked down at his tablet. The global countdown timer was ticking down the final seconds.
3...
2...
1...
BEEP.
The ghost-program triggered worldwide.
Across the planet, 1,800 of the strongest heroes received their final strike coordinates.
The largest synchronized raid in human history had officially begun.
*-*-*-*
[A/N]
Random overtime and work emergencies tend to mess with my upload schedule sometimes. I'm still sticking to the planned releases, but the exact time might shift depending on how crazy work gets.
Thanks for bearing with me! Enjoy the chapter.
.....
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patreon.com/Dr_Chad
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