Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Lobby
Time: Day 3 of the Expansion
CLUNK.
THUD.
Two heavy-set movers grunted, dragging the massive metal tickle machine across the lobby floor.
They awkwardly shoved the bulky contraption through the front doors and hauled it out to the alley.
Mirai stood by the reception desk with his arms crossed. He let out a long, stubborn sigh.
Sigh.
"There goes morale," Mirai grumbled. "Place is going to feel like a morgue now."
Kaoruko, Bubble Girl, stood a few feet away, biting her lower lip to hide a massive smile. She won't get any tickle torture in the future anymore.
Juzo, Centipeder, just nodded politely beside her, keeping his mouth shut so he wouldn't offend the boss.
Kaito leaned against the front desk, holding his coffee. He gave Mirai an amused, knowing look.
"I get it, Mirai. You want a positive workplace," Kaito chuckled lightly. "But if the HPSC chairman walks in here and sees an intern strapped to a medieval tickle device, they'll pull your hero license before lunch. Let's build the intelligence hub first, then you can work on your stand-up comedy."
Mirai frowned and pushed his glasses up, but his shoulders relaxed a bit. He knew Kaito was just looking out for the agency's reputation.
Behind them, a construction crew was swinging sledgehammers.
CRASH.
Dust filled the air.
They were tearing down the drywalls of the old storage rooms, gutting the back half of the agency to make room for the server racks coming in later.
*-*-*-*
Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Back Office
Time: Day 6 of the Expansion
"I'm literally going to die in here."
THWACK.
Kaoruko, Bubble Girl, slammed her forehead against her desk. She was physically surrounded by towering stacks of legal documents.
"This is ridiculous," she groaned into the wood, her voice muffled and exhausted. "The Commission wants a Class-Three Information permit. They want three-month probation logs for every single new hire. It's going to take me a month just to read this garbage."
SLID.
A chair scraped against the floor.
Kaito sat down next to her. He set a fresh, warm cup of coffee right next to her hand.
"Take a breath, Kaoruko. You're working too hard," Kaito said gently, grabbing a red pen and pulling one of the heavy stacks over.
Kaoruko lifted her head, looking incredibly tired.
"Don't look at the standard patrol forms," Kaito told her, tapping a specific line on the paper. "Flip to section four. The loophole."
Kaoruko rubbed her forehead and squinted at the tiny text.
"If you label the new recruits as 'Data Consultants' instead of active sidekicks, it skips the probation period entirely," Kaito explained with a small smile. "All you need is Mirai's signature and a clean background check. It saves you about forty hours of paperwork."
Kaoruko's eyes went completely wide.
She grabbed a fresh stack of papers and shoved the old ones right off her desk, a huge wave of relief washing over her.
"Oh my god, you just saved my life," Kaoruko breathed out, grabbing her stamp. "Thank you, Manager. Please hand me the consultant forms."
*-*-*-*
Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Lobby
Time: Day 8 of the Expansion
The lobby was packed.
Dozens of fresh hero graduates and a few underground pros sat in the waiting chairs, sweating and clutching their resumes.
Mirai sat behind a heavy desk at the front. Kaito sat a little behind him, casually spinning a pen between his fingers.
"Putting 'All Might's former sidekick' on the recruitment was a mistake," Mirai muttered, looking at the massive crowd. "Half of Tokyo is out there."
"Hey, you used the bait," Kaito whispered back with a quiet laugh. "This is what catching the big fish looks like. Let's see what we got."
A kid with flashy blonde hair and a neon jacket walked up to the desk.
"Hello Sir! Name's Starburst!" the kid grinned, striking a pose. "I shoot sparks. Looking to hit the big leagues and heard you guys are hiring."
Mirai didn't even glance at the resume.
"When you walked in here... how many security cameras did you pass?" Mirai asked.
"Uh..." Starburst dropped his pose, looking confused. "Like... Two... Three?"
"Five," Mirai corrected him flatly. "Door is behind you."
The kid scowled and walked out of the lobby.
"Next," Mirai called out.
A quiet, serious-looking girl with thick glasses stepped up.
"Name?" Mirai asked, his tone softening a little so he didn't scare her off.
"Yumi," she said nervously. "Hero name: Cipher."
"How many cameras, Yumi?" Mirai asked.
"Hmm... Five, sir," Yumi answered instantly. "Three in the main hall, two over the doors. Your exit sign has a short circuit, and the guy next to you needs a new pen."
Kaito paused. He pressed the tip of his pen against his notepad and tried to scribble.
Kaito let out a genuine, impressed laugh. "She's good."
Mirai smiled slightly. "Data Network. Stand over there."
Next up was a massive guy in a plain grey tracksuit.
He looked exhausted, like he had been rejected a dozen times already.
"Kenjiro. Call me Breach," the big guy said, bowing. "Quirk is Concussive Ram. Look, I didn't get drafted anywhere else because my quirk doesn't look good on TV. I don't care about cameras, I just need a job."
Mirai respected the honesty. He didn't need flashy.
"Vanguard Unit," Mirai said, giving the guy an encouraging nod. "Next to Yumi."
*-*-*-*
Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Mirai's Office
Time: Day 11 of the Expansion
Mirai stood behind his desk, looking over a physical shortlist of fourteen names.
Yumi was sitting at the new terminal desk in the corner. She was already logged in and working alongside Mirai's veteran cyber-agents.
"Cypher, run the final sweep on these fourteen," Mirai ordered. "Check everything. Financials, family, past addresses. Make absolutely sure nobody is leaking info to the underground."
"On it," Yumi nodded.
She activated her Speed-Read Quirk.
Her eyes darted rapidly across the glowing monitor, tearing through hundreds of digital files and bank statements in minutes.
BEEP.
"They're clean, Boss," Yumi said, looking back at him. "No red flags anywhere."
Mirai nodded, setting the paper down. He looked over at Kaito leaning against the doorframe.
"Fourteen unknowns at once," Mirai said quietly, a hint of worry in his voice. "It's a big risk."
Kaito walked over and gave Mirai a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"It is," Kaito agreed warmly. "But you can't run a national network by yourself, Mirai. You vetted them, and Yumi cleared them. Now you just have to give them a chance to prove they belong here."
HUFF-PUFF.
Mirai took a breath and nodded, his anxiety settling.
*-*-*-*
Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Briefing Room
Time: Day 15 of the Expansion
The fourteen new recruits stood tight inside the renovated briefing room.
Yumi and Kenjiro were in the front row. They looked eager, but definitely a little intimidated.
Mirai stepped up to the front.
"Let's get this straight," Mirai told them, his voice carrying in the quiet room. "You won't be on the news. You won't get famous. If we do this right, nobody outside this agency will even know we're here. We're splitting up."
Mirai pointed to the left. "Yumi, you and your nine, step left."
Ten people quickly moved over.
"You're the Data Network," Mirai said. "Work the holotables, track the money, find the targets."
Mirai pointed right. "Kenjiro, your group to the right."
The four people moved over. Bubble Girl and Centipeder walked up and gave them welcoming smiles.
"You're Vanguard," Mirai explained. "Bubble Girl and Centipeder are your squad leads. Data gives you a target, you kick the door down and clear the room."
Kaito finally stepped up to the front, standing next to Mirai.
He looked right at the Vanguard group and gave them a relaxed, encouraging smile.
"Alright guys, take a breath. The stressful part of getting hired is over," Kaito said, his tone casual but focused. "Welcome to the team. But before we get too comfortable... Vanguard, head down to the gym. Let's see where your quirks are at and figure out what we need to work on."
*-*-*-*
Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Underground Gym
Time: Day 16 of the Expansion
"Huuuuurgh!"
Kenjiro was on his hands and knees in the corner, aggressively throwing up into a grey plastic trash can.
The rest of the recruits were flat on their backs on the mats, completely gassed.
The gym smelled like sweat and misery.
Kaito didn't yell. He walked over to the water cooler, filled a paper cup, and crouched down next to the big guy.
"Small sips, Kenjiro," Kaito said, handing him the water. "Your Quirk uses your physical mass as the bullet. If you don't flex your core right before you hit the wall, the kinetic shockwave bounces straight back into your stomach. That's why you want to puke."
Kenjiro groaned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Got it, Boss. Just... give me a minute."
"Take two," Kaito patted his heavy shoulder. "Then we fix your stance."
Across the room, Kaoruko wore her new silver Aroma Gauntlets.
She took a deep, shaky breath, holding her hands together as she tried to compress a bubble of heavy sleep gas.
"Hold the tension in your chest, Kaoruko," Kaito called out, walking over. "Don't let it sit in your throat."
"I'm trying!" Kaoruko, Bubble Girl, grunted. Her arms were physically shaking.
POP.
The bubble burst. A thick cloud of purple sleep gas exploded right in her face.
"COUGH! COUGH!"
Kaoruko dropped to her knees, hacking violently.
Tears streamed down her face.
Kaito grabbed a wet towel from a bench and threw it over her head to clear the air around her face.
"You panicked and released the pressure too fast," Kaito told her gently, handing her a bottle of saline. "It's fine. Wash your eyes out at the sink. We'll try again."
Kaoruko nodded miserably and stumbled toward the locker room.
In the middle of the gym, Juzo, Centipeder, was trying to swing from the heavy metal pipes on the ceiling. He shot his centipede arms out, wrapping them around a pipe.
He swung forward.
"Use your hips!" Kaito coached him.
Juzo twisted, but he mistimed the release completely. His long limbs got tangled in their own slack.
CRASH.
Juzo slammed face-first into the padded wall and slid down to the floor in a sad heap.
"My back," Juzo groaned into the mats.
Kaito walked over and offered him a hand up. Before he could speak, a loud noise echoed from the sparring ring.
BAM.
THUD.
Mirai Sasaki slid backward across the mat, holding his ribcage.
He was sparring against one of the new Vanguard recruits, a girl with a hardened-light shield Quirk.
Mirai was sweating through his clothes, looking incredibly frustrated.
"You held Foresight for six seconds, Mirai," Kaito called out, leaning against the ring ropes. "The brain lock triggers at five. You held it too long."
"It goes against every instinct I have," Mirai panted, resting his hands on his knees. "Turning the Quirk off right as the punch is being thrown feels like I'm blinding myself."
"You only need to see where the fist lands," Kaito told him. "You don't need to see what she does after she throws it. See the hit, turn it off, and trust your body to dodge. Again."
Mirai took a deep breath, rubbed his ribs, and gave the recruit a nod to keep going.
*-*-*-*
Time: Day 19 of the Expansion
Mirai stared hard at his laptop screen. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week.
Kaito sat across from him, sipping warm tea.
On the screen was a silent, grainy security video of a guy talking on a street corner.
"Watch his lips," Kaito said. "What did he say?"
Mirai squinted, leaning inches away from the screen.
"He said... 'I need to find my mom'," Mirai guessed.
"Wrong," Kaito said patiently. "He said 'I need to find the bomb'."
Mirai ran a hand down his face.
"This is impossible, Kaito," Mirai admitted, rubbing his tired eyes. "The human mouth moves too fast. B and M look exactly the same."
"They don't," Kaito corrected him. "Look at the shape of his mouth on the 'B'. His lips press flat together to force the air out. When you say 'M', the jaw stays loose. You're trying to read the whole sentence at once. Just look at the syllables."
Mirai clicked the video back. He stared at the man's mouth.
"You're right," Mirai muttered. "The jaw tension is different."
"If you misread that on the street, you let a bomber walk away," Kaito reminded him. "Now play the next video."
Mirai clicked the spacebar.
A new video played showing two people talking in a coffee shop.
"Don't read their lips," Kaito pointed at the screen. "Give me the anchor point. When did this happen?"
Mirai forced his eyes away from the people. He scanned the background.
He saw a newspaper, but it was too blurry. He saw a calendar, but a plant blocked the month.
Then, he spotted the TV playing in the corner.
"The news ticker," Mirai said, leaning forward. "It says 'Endeavor resolves massive highway pileup in Fukuoka'. That happened three years ago. Second week of August."
"Perfect," Kaito smiled. "You anchor the date, then Yumi pulls the police files from that week to figure out who the guys are. Keep practicing."
Kaito stood up and walked out to the Data Network room.
Yumi was sitting at her holotable, rubbing her temples with both hands. She looked completely miserable.
Kaito walked over and set a small bottle of painkillers and a water bottle on her desk.
"Headache?" Kaito asked.
"Migraine," Yumi corrected him, taking the pills. "I'm speed-reading too many files. My eyes are burning."
"You're reading every single word," Kaito said, pulling up a chair next to her. "Stop doing that. Your brain is a muscle, and you're pulling it. You don't need to read the filler words. Skim the page and only let your Quirk lock onto names, dates, and locations. Filter the rest out."
Yumi blinked, taking a sip of water. "Just scan for keywords?"
"Exactly," Kaito nodded. "Try it on the next batch. Pace yourself."
*-*-*-*
Time: Day 24 of the Expansion
The recruits were covered in athletic tape and bruises, but the atmosphere in the gym was completely different. They were focused.
Juzo stood in front of a dummy, looking unsure.
Kaito stood right next to him.
"Instead of just striking in straight lines, try letting your limbs slither and loop like a fluid, snake-like muscle. Keep them totally loose to build up speed, then harden them to bone right at the exact second you hit. Also, don't forget those little leg segments on your arms. If you ripple and twitch them while wrapping someone up in a Centicoil, you can use them like a saw to tear through armor without moving your main arms." Kaito explained.
"Just let the movement be a bit more frantic and erratic, it'll make you completely unpredictable."
Juzo took a breath and adjusted his feet. He didn't tense his shoulders this time.
A few feet away, Kaoruko was holding her hands together.
"Keep the pressure low in your chest," Kaito called out to her. "Don't let it rise to your throat."
Kaoruko nodded, closing her eyes and focusing entirely on her breathing.
*-*-*-*
Time: Day 28 of the Expansion
The heavy smell of sweat was still there, but today, things finally clicked.
CRACK.
A sharp noise echoed like a gunshot.
Kaoruko stood near the padded wall, panting.
She had just compressed a flashbang bubble and thrown it. It snapped loudly against the wall without blowing up in her face.
"Yes!" Kaoruko yelled, throwing her hands in the air.
"That's it," Kaito grinned from the center mat. "Now burn that feeling into your muscle memory."
Across the room, Juzo stood perfectly still.
A plastic combat knife was taped to a dummy's hand twenty feet away.
Juzo relaxed his shoulders.
SWISH.
His arm elongated, whipping through the air in a blur. The tendril snapped around the knife.
YANK.
He used his hips to rip his arm back. The knife tore out of the dummy's hand before it even swayed.
Juzo caught the knife, a massive smile breaking across his face.
SMASH.
Kenjiro rammed his hardened shoulder into a thick concrete block, shattering it into pieces.
He stepped back, took a deep breath, and didn't throw up. He gave Kaito a tired but proud thumbs-up.
Upstairs, Mirai sat alone in his quiet office.
He watched a villain's lips move on the screen.
"He said 'The shipment arrives at the south docks at midnight'," Mirai said out loud. He immediately looked at a diner menu board in the background of the video. "And it happens on a Tuesday."
Mirai leaned back in his chair. His body ached from the gym, but he finally felt like he was entirely in control.
Down in the gym, Kaito looked at the battered, bruised, but smiling Vanguard unit.
"Alright, that's enough for today," Kaito called out, clapping his hands once. "You guys actually did good. Hit the showers. I'm ordering pizzas for the breakroom. Let's take a breather before the weekend hits."
*-*-*-*
Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Breakroom
Time: Next Day.
The breakroom smelled heavily of cheap pepperoni pizza, garlic, and soda.
The gym training was finally over for the week, and the entire agency staff was packed into the room.
People were sitting on the couches, leaning against the counters, and standing by the fridge.
Kaito sat at a small table with Mirai.
Kaoruko, Juzo, Kenjiro, and Yumi were gathered around them, all staring at the massive flat-screen TV mounted on the wall.
["YEAAAHHHH!"]
Present Mic's voice blared through the TV speakers, hyping up the crowd. ["WELCOME BACK, LISTENERS! THE U.A. FIRST-YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL IS OFFICIALLY UNDERWAY!"]
"Grab a slice before Kenjiro eats the whole box," Sir Nighteye told the group, picking up a piece of pizza. "We need to pick our 1-week internship drafts by Monday. Watch the screen."
On the TV, the first stage kicked off. The Obstacle Course.
"Look at that big guy go," Kenjiro pointed at the screen with a mouth full of pizza.
A large first-year student with glowing metallic skin was literally running straight through the robot minefield, taking heavy explosions directly to the chest without even slowing down.
Yumi rapidly swiped her finger across her data pad. "Kenji Daido. Quirk: Kinetic Plating. He's front of the pack."
"He's just tanking hits," Kaoruko noted, shaking her head. "Really messy footwork."
The camera panned backward to show the students struggling in the middle of the pack.
Kaito watched quietly while chewing his food. He saw them.
A kid with dark messy hair and elf ears was violently shivering as he ran, looking like he was about to throw up from panic.
A girl with periwinkle hair was flying through the air but kept getting distracted by the cameras, flying in weird, wavy spirals.
And a tall blonde kid with a bright smile was running hard, but every time he tried to phase through a robot, he sank waist-deep into the dirt and had to drag himself back out.
"Those three are having a really rough time," Kenjiro pointed out. "But hey, they aren't quitting."
"They are surviving on pure physical stamina," Mirai observed, adjusting his glasses. "But they have absolutely zero control over their Quirks."
"Wait for the team battles," Kaito said, taking a sip of soda.
The TV cut to a commercial break, then came back for the Capture the Flag Battle.
It was a total disaster.
On the screen, the pointy-eared kid, Tamaki Amajiki, completely froze up.
The noise of the massive crowd and the live cameras caused a severe panic attack.
He vomited on the side of the grass and had to be escorted away by a medical robot.
Kaoruko winced, covering her mouth. "Oh, no... the poor kid. The crowd just broke him."
A few minutes later, the periwinkle girl, Nejire Hado, tried to blast a shockwave to steal a flag.
The wave came out way too slow, spiraled completely out of control, and blew her own team entirely out of bounds.
Juzo sighed. "Too much raw power, completely wrong direction."
Then came the blonde kid. Mirio Togata.
He was cornered by two other teams. He smiled confidently and activated his Permeation Quirk to phase through their attack.
He sank straight into the grass. But his gym uniform stayed above ground.
POP.
Mirio popped back up from the ground ten feet away. He was completely naked except for his boxers.
Someone in the back of the breakroom snorted.
"Hehe..."
A couple of the new sidekicks chuckled because the visual was just totally absurd.
But the laughter died down almost instantly.
They were adults watching a teenager get publicly humiliated on national television. The pity set in fast.
Kenjiro rubbed the back of his neck, looking deeply uncomfortable. "Man, that's just... rough. Being laughed at by the whole country? I feel bad for him."
"Yeah," Juzo agreed softly. "That is going to mess with his confidence for a long time."
The broadcast rolled on. Stage three wrapped up, and Kenji Daido took first place in the tournament.
Yumi looked up from her data pad. "Daido won. His stats are the highest by far. Boss, we should probably draft him for the seven day internship."
Sigh.
Mirai sighed quietly.
He looked at the blank U.A. draft forms on the table.
He was secretly hoping to spot a brave kid with a huge heart someone who felt like All Might. Preferably a quirkless one from the support class and other departments.
Instead, he just saw arrogant winners and messy failures.
"I'll write it up," Mirai said, reaching for his pen.
"I wouldn't," Kaito said casually.
He just leaned his forearms on the table and looked sideways at Mirai.
"Why?" Mirai asked, stopping his pen.
Kaito said, eating his pizza crust. "Daido just stands there and takes the hits. The second he runs into a villain who punches harder than his metal plates, he's going to freeze up."
Mirai set the pen down. "Then who do you suggest?"
Kaito casually pointed his pizza crust at the TV screen.
The camera was showing a replay of Mirio trying to quickly pull his gym pants back on while the stadium laughed at him.
"Him," Kaito said. "And the other two that failed."
Juzo blinked, looking completely shocked.
"Mr. Arisaka, are you joking?" Juzo asked politely. "Those three were the worst performers in the entire school. They couldn't even control themselves."
"You're just looking at the blooper reel, Juzo," Kaito replied smoothly. "Look at the actual potential."
Kaito pointed at the girl, Nejire.
Kaito explained quietly to the table. "She fires her own stamina as kinetic shockwaves. Right now, it's slow. But what if you train her lungs? If she learns to condense that air pressure? She turns into a flying artillery cannon with endless ammo."
Mirai frowned, thinking about the sheer destructive output of that idea.
Kaito pointed at the shivering kid, Tamaki.
Kaito continued. "He takes on the physical traits of whatever he eats. Sure, he has stage fright. But what if he eats a clam, a bull, and a bird? He gets steel shell armor, horns, and wings all at once. Fix his nerves, and he is the best chimera fighter alive."
Kaito finally pointed at Mirio.
Kaito said, his voice dropping a little lower. "When he activates it, light and air pass right through him. That means he goes completely blind and deaf. He can't breathe. He has to perfectly calculate his mass and trajectory in total darkness just to keep from getting cut in half when he turns solid again."
Mirai's eyes widened behind his glasses. He never even thought about the absolute technical nightmare of using that Quirk.
"But look at him right now," Kaito said quietly.
Mirai looked back at the TV.
Mirio was fully dressed now. The entire stadium was still laughing at him. He had lost his match instantly. He was a complete joke to the crowd.
But Mirio wasn't hiding his face. He wasn't crying.
He stood up perfectly straight, raised his fist in the air, and flashed a massive, bright, unbreakable smile at the crowd, laughing right along with them so they wouldn't worry about him.
The visual hit Mirai like a physical punch to the chest.
He saw it. The exact same smile. The exact same unwavering presence as Toshinori Yagi.
"Even if he's not the one you were waiting for Mirai but his potential and the huge smile he always project is what the future of the hero industry needs. Maybe that kid will be a top pro hero in the future." Kaito added.
Mirai ignored Yumi's stats. He ignored the winners.
He picked up his pen, firmly crossed out Daido's name on the draft paper, and wrote down three names.
Mirio Togata. Tamaki Amajiki. Nejire Hado.
Yumi stared at the paper in shock. "Boss, are you sure about this?"
Mirai put the cap back on his pen.
"Print the draft forms, Yumi," Mirai said, a real spark of excitement in his voice. "We have three interns in the future."
.....
[A/N] I'm late again sorry, It's work related stuff.
but here it is.
.....
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(9 Advanced Chapters)