Location: Sir Nighteye's Agency – Underground Gym
Time: One Month Later | Afternoon |
BAM.
The entire underground gym shook.
Kenjiro sprinted across the rubber mats, moving incredibly fast for a guy his size.
A massive, reinforced concrete barricade was set up in the center of the room.
Three months ago, he would have just thrown his shoulder at it blindly and ended up puking his guts out from the kinetic recoil.
Not today.
Ten feet away, Kenjiro dropped his center of gravity. He shifted his hips, locked his abdominal muscles tight, and planted his heavy boots straight into the floor.
He used his entire body, channeling the force from the ground up.
CRACK.
He rammed the barricade.
The thick concrete completely shattered into massive, jagged chunks that slid across the mats.
Kenjiro stepped back. He stood perfectly balanced, letting out a heavy breath.
"Hey, look at that," Kenjiro grinned, looking over his shoulder at the rest of the gym.
He wiped the dust off his mouth with the back of his hand. "My stomach is totally fine. I don't even need to hug the trash can today."
"Don't jinx it, big guy!" Bubble Girl yelled back, running past him.
Swissh.
Kaoruko was sprinting sideways across the far end of the gym.
Three automated training drones buzzed near the ceiling, constantly adjusting their camera lenses to track her.
Fwip. Fwip.
Small rubber pellets shot down at her, bouncing off the mats.
Kaoruko ducked under a pellet and slid to a stop.
Huff.
She took a slow, deep breath, holding the air tight in her chest.
She forced her heart rate to steady, dropping her core body temperature just enough to thicken the surface tension of her Quirk.
Bubble Girl brought her hands together.
BLLLRB.
A dense, dark purple bubble rapidly formed between her palms. It looked heavy, almost like liquid glass.
Kaoruko chucked the heavy bubble hard against the floor right in front of her.
BOING. BOING.
It bounced hard at a sharp angle, smacked right into the concrete wall, and ricocheted directly upward into the middle of the three drones.
POP.
A massive, thick cloud of purple sleep gas exploded in the air. The gas instantly coated the drones.
Their optical lenses were completely blinded by the dense foam.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The machines beeped in confusion, lost their balance, and crashed onto the floor, powering down.
"Yes!" Kaoruko cheered, jumping up and down. "Bounced it off the floor and the wall! And I didn't even gas myself this time!"
Clap. Clap.
"Nice angle!" Kenjiro called out, clapping his massive hands.
"Keep your guard up, both of you," Juzo said calmly from the neighboring mat.
Centipeder dropped his spine, bending his long torso almost parallel to the floor in a predatory, creeping stance.
Three automated combat dummies, armed with padded batons, rolled toward him on tracks.
Swish.
The first dummy swung a baton at his head.
Juzo moved incredibly low.
He whipped his long, segmented arms in wild, erratic arcs.
SWISH.
His right arm slithered past the dummy's guard from a totally blind angle, wrapping around its plastic neck.
At the exact same time, his left arm whipped around the other two dummies, the segmented joints snapping tight like a heavy coil.
Centipeder twisted his hips, using the momentum of his low stance to rip them off balance.
CLATTER.
The batons dropped to the floor, and all three heavy dummies slammed face-first into the mats.
Juzo cleanly retracted his long arms without tying himself into a knot at all.
"Getting the hang of the low stance," Juzo said softly, standing back up and stretching his long back until the joints popped. "It feels much more natural."
The three of them grabbed their towels and walked over to the bleachers to take a breather.
Yumi was sitting on the bottom bench.
"How are our times looking?" Kaoruko asked, grabbing a cold water bottle from the cooler and pressing it against her sweaty forehead.
"Your times are great," Yumi smiled, tapping the screen of her tablet. "But look at this."
She turned the tablet around so the Vanguard team could see it.
It was a highly detailed, real-time digital map of the gym. It tracked their individual heart rates, their exact movement speeds, and the trajectory of Kaoruko's bubble.
"The new orbital satellites are always online," Yumi told them, her voice filled with quiet excitement. "I'm tracking you guys directly from space right now. There is absolutely zero lag. The data transfer is instant. We have the entire city covered."
Kenjiro leaned in, staring at the screen. He let out a low whistle.
"So we really are the big leagues now," Kenjiro muttered. "Nobody can hide from us."
"Alright, clear the center," Kaito Arisaka called out, walking into the gym through the heavy double doors.
The sidekicks immediately grabbed their water bottles and backed up to the bleachers, giving the center mats plenty of space.
Sir Nighteye walked in right behind Kaito.
He looked entirely different than his usual strict office persona.
He had already taken off his suit jacket, his tie, and his sharp glasses.
Crack. Crack.
Sir Nighteye walked out to the middle of the mats, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck.
Kaito dragged four separate automatic tennis ball machines out of the storage closet. He positioned them in a wide circle, completely surrounding Mirai on all four sides.
"Max speed. Random firing sequence," Kaito said, pulling a small black remote control out of his pocket.
Click.
Kenjiro frowned. He leaned forward on the bleachers, looking genuinely confused.
"Wait a second," Kenjiro whispered to Kaoruko. "Sir Nighteye needs to physically touch a target and make eye contact to read their future, right? How is he going to read the future of a plastic machine?"
Kaito heard him. He glanced over at the bleachers and smirked.
"He isn't," Kaito said simply. "He's reading himself."
Mirai raised his right hand. He pressed two of his fingers directly against his own chest, right over his heart. He looked down at himself, locking his focus.
"Start," Mirai said.
Kaito hit the red button on the remote.
WHIRRR.
The internal motors of the four machines spun up instantly.
THWACK. THWACK. THWACK.
Dozens of heavy yellow tennis balls shot out from all four machines at the exact same time. It was a complete, chaotic crossfire. There was nowhere to hide.
Mirai triggered his Quirk.
He forced his Quirk to overlap directly with the present. He looked exactly five seconds into his own immediate future.
In his mind, he saw translucent outlines of himself standing in the center of the ring.
He saw a ball smash into the ghost's left shoulder. He saw another ball nail the ghost right in the jaw.
So, in the real world, the real Mirai just didn't stand there.
STEP.
He took a casual half-step backward.
SWISH. SWISH.
Two tennis balls crashed into each other in the exact empty space where his face used to be.
He swayed his hips to the left.
SWOOSH.
A ball zipped right past his ribs, entirely missing his shirt.
He ducked his shoulder.
He tilted his chin a fraction of an inch. He pivoted on his right heel.
It was a completely fluid motion. He was perfectly relaxed, weaving through the absolute chaos of the crossfire without a single wasted movement.
Mirai knew exactly where the balls were going to be before they even left the barrels of the machines.
He looked like a man taking a casual stroll down the street, stepping around puddles of water.
"..."
The sidekicks watched in total, stunned silence from the bleachers. Kenjiro's jaw was practically hitting the floor.
THWACK. THWACK.
Click.
The machines sputtered and stopped. They were totally empty.
Hundreds of yellow tennis balls covered the rubber floor. Mirai stood perfectly still in the dead center of the ring.
He hadn't been hit a single time.
SIGH.
He let out a long, heavy breath, lowering his hand from his chest.
He immediately reached up and rubbed his temples, wincing slightly.
"The physical headache is terrible," Mirai muttered, opening his eyes normally. "But the five-second overlap works perfectly. I can see the immediate intent."
"You just turned a detective Quirk into a top-tier combat ability," Kaito grinned, tossing the remote onto a nearby bench. "If anyone tries to hit you in a real fight now, you already know exactly where to step before they even throw the punch. You're practically untouchable."
Mirai looked down at his own hands. He slowly clenched his fists, feeling the real weight of what he could finally do. "Yes you're right Kaito. But I also need my body to react fast enough."
"You're a sidekick of All Might. You should know how he trains his body. You need to be physically fit. Always." Kaito replied.
The constant, paralyzing fear of his own power was completely gone.
"Go get showered," Kaito told the room, checking his watch. "The guys already ordered the pizzas for the breakroom. My contract officially ends today. Let's celebrate before I leave."
*-*-*-*
Location: Agency Breakroom
Time: Evening
CHATTER.
CLINK.
The agency breakroom was packed wall-to-wall.
Dozens of data analysts, sidekicks, and logistics guys crammed around the long tables.
Empty pizza boxes stacked up fast next to plastic cups and soda bottles.
The room was incredibly loud, full of people talking and laughing over each other.
"I'm just putting this out there," Yumi said, pointing a half-eaten slice of pepperoni pizza at Kaito. "If the servers crash tomorrow morning, I am fully blaming you. You spoiled the other guys. Nobody here actually knows how to fix the firewall if you leave."
Kaito leaned against the kitchen counter with a cold beer in his hand. He laughed and took a drink.
"I wrote that code to be completely idiot-proof, Yumi," Kaito joked right back. "If the network goes down, it means one of your guys clicked on a bad link and downloaded a virus."
"Hey!" Yumi threw a crumpled-up paper napkin at his face.
Kaito easily ducked it.
The napkin bounced off Kenjiro's broad shoulder.
"Watch the aim," Kenjiro laughed, grabbing a fresh soda from the cooler.
He looked around the crowded room and shook his head. "Man, we are really going to miss having you around, Kaito-san. The entire vibe of this place flipped over the last three months."
Kaoruko grabbed a powdered donut from a massive box on the table.
"He's right," Kaoruko, Bubble Girl, smiled brightly. "When I first got hired, this office was terrifying. It was silent, and we had that horrible tickle machine in the lobby. CURSE THE TICKLE MACHINE!"
"Haha... Yeah, well, someone still has to eat all these leftover donuts." Kaito said, pointing his bottle toward the tall heteromorph standing near the fridge. "Just force feed Centipeder. He has a fast metabolism. And with you cursing loudly, Mirai should have heard it."
"Oops." Bubble Girl looked left and right forgetting that the boss was still around.
Juzo held his hands up politely. "I must decline. Sugar makes my joints stiff."
A handful of the background analysts cracked up laughing.
Near the back of the room, Mirai stood quietly by the hallway door.
He held a simple ceramic mug of black coffee. He watched the massive crowd of people he employed.
They were happy, relaxed, and talking like actual friends.
Mirai caught Kaito's eye across the room. He gave a small nod and tilted his head toward the glass balcony doors.
Kaito nodded back.
He set his beer down on the counter and pushed his way through the crowded room, following the boss outside.
Slide.
Mirai pulled the heavy glass door shut.
The loud noise of the party instantly cut out, leaving them in the quiet night air. The bright city lights of Tokyo stretched out for miles below the balcony.
Sip.
Mirai walked over to the metal railing and rested his arms on it. He took a sip of his coffee and looked out at the skyline.
Kaito walked up and leaned against the railing next to him.
"You got quiet," Kaito said casually.
"I was thinking about the first day you walked into my office," Mirai spoke softly, keeping his eyes on the glowing streetlamps far below. "When I told you about my vision of All Might's death."
Kaito just listened. He let his friend talk.
"I was completely paralyzed back then," Mirai admitted, letting out a heavy breath. "I truly believed that vision was an absolute script. I thought the future was completely set in stone. The fear controlled every choice I made for years."
Mirai finally turned his head and looked at Kaito.
"I had a breakthrough in the gym today while I was dodging those tennis balls," Mirai said, his expression softening.
"Care to share?" Kaito asked.
"I realized I am finally ready to look at that timeline again," Mirai said firmly. "Because you gave me the tools to tear it apart. I don't even need to touch All Might to do it. A single strand of his hair or a DNA swab is enough to trigger my Foresight remotely."
Mirai stood up a little straighter. The usual heavy exhaustion in his shoulders was totally gone.
"When I look at it this time, I won't freeze at the sight of blood," Mirai continued, his voice picking up energy. "I will look at the villain's mouth and read his lips to get his name. I will look at the background, find a calendar, a news ticker, or a street sign. I will anchor the exact date and the exact location of the attack."
Mirai smiled.
It was a real, confident smile.
"Once you have a date and a location, it is no longer unstoppable destiny," Mirai said. "It is just a planned attack. And we have the tools to stop it."
Kaito smiled back, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Foresight isn't a script, Mirai," Kaito told him. "It's just a map. It shows you the road you are currently driving on."
Mirai listened closely.
"If you look at the map and see a cliff ahead of you, you don't just step on the gas and cry about the crash," Kaito said.
He spoke like a friend giving simple advice over a drink. "You grab the steering wheel. You change lanes. You take a detour."
Kaito pointed a thumb back toward the glass doors, gesturing to the loud party inside.
"There is no fate but what we make for ourselves," Kaito said. "If you don't like the ending you saw for All Might, then change the middle of the story. You just put four satellites in orbit. You've built the best intelligence hub in the country. If the villain from your vision pops up anywhere in Japan, you find him first. You take the detour."
Mirai stared at Kaito.
The heavy, suffocating dread that had haunted him for years completely washed away.
He finally let go of the trauma.
Sigh.
Mirai let out a long, quiet sigh of pure relief.
"Take a detour," Mirai repeated softly into the night air. "I like that. Thank you, Kaito. For everything."
"Don't thank me yet," Kaito grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Wait until you see the bill I am sending your accounting department tomorrow."
"Hahahah!"
Mirai actually laughed out loud.
*-*-*-*
Location: Somewhere in Europe
Time: Night
Giulio sat on the edge of a cheap motel bed.
He wiped an oily cloth over the barrel of his customized handgun.
The small lamp in the corner cast long shadows across the peeling wallpaper. He set the gun down on the mattress.
He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. The muscle still ached sometimes.
It had been months since he broke into that hidden mafia compound.
Months since he finally found the Young Miss standing in that master office.
He closed his remaining eye and replayed the exact moment.
Anna looked right at him with deep sadness. She pressed her fingers to his forehead and used a forced-sleep Quirk to knock him out.
Right before everything went black, he saw the dark, ugly symbol burned directly into her shoulder.
The League of Villains Mark.
RING. RING.
Giulio pulled his secure cell phone from his jacket pocket. The screen lit up with Mr. Scervino's name.
Huuuf.
Giulio took a quiet breath. He pressed answer and brought the phone to his ear.
"Mr. Scervino," Giulio said. His voice was completely steady.
"Giulio," the older man rasped. The father sounded incredibly tired.
His voice carried the exact same heavy, suffocating grief from the night he screamed at the European Hero Affairs Council in his Rome study. "Tell me you have something. Did you find a trail? Is she safe?"
Creack.
Giulio gripped the plastic edge of the phone. He stared at the blank wall of the safehouse.
If he told the truth right now, everything would fall apart. If the hero authorities found out Anna used a stolen villain Quirk and carried the League of Villains' mark, they would classify her as a terrorist. The World Heroes Association would issue a warrant before sunrise.
Giulio swallowed the heavy guilt in his throat.
"I am so sorry, sir," Giulio lied. He kept his tone totally professional and calm. "The safehouses in Milan were completely empty. The leads ran cold. There is no sign of Anna here."
SIGH.
A ragged sigh came through the speaker. It sounded like a man having his heart ripped out all over again.
"I understand," Mr. Scervino whispered. "Thank you, Giulio. Just... please keep looking."
"I will bring her home, sir," Giulio promised. "You have my word."
CLICK.
Giulio hung up the phone and tossed it onto the bed next to his gun.
He stood up and walked into the small bathroom.
Giulio turned the cold water tap on and splashed his face.
He grabbed a towel, dried off, and stared at his own reflection in the cracked mirror. His single eye stared back.
He thought about the Mark.
As far as he knows. The terrorists leader All For One branded his subordinates with it. It was a binding covenant.
Miss Anna never betrayed her family.
The League of Villains just locked her in a different kind of cage after the Gollini Family.
They were forcing her to work for them.
Giulio looked down at his bare hands.
His Quirk was Neutralization. He could cancel out the effects of other Quirks.
He knew exactly what he had to do.
Maybe he just needed to find the her. Get close enough to place his hand directly over that ugly mark on Miss Anna's shoulder.
His Quirk should maybe erase the effect and break the chains in her mind.
Giulio walked back out to the bedroom.
He grabbed his heavy tactical jacket from the chair and pulled it on.
ZIIIP.
He zipped it up to his chin and picked up his thick black leather combat gloves.
He loaded his magazines and packed his throwing knives into his hidden pockets.
The remnants of League of Villains thought they could steal his Young Miss and use her as a tool in the shadows.
They made a massive mistake.
*-*-*-*
Location: Secret Subterranean MLA Facility
Time: Afternoon | Two Day Later
BZZZT.
The heavy steel doors to the underground lab slid open. Kaito walked in carrying a cardboard tray holding four cups of hot coffee.
"Here you go," Kaito said, setting the tray down on the main console desk.
Tomoyasu, Skeptic, grabbed a cup immediately. He looked terrible. He rubbed his dark eyes, staring at his massive wall of monitors.
GULP.
TAP. TAP. TAP.
He took a huge gulp of the hot coffee and went right back to typing aggressively on his keyboard.
SIGH.
Koku loosened his expensive silk tie and let out a loud, miserable sigh.
"I need a vacation," Koku, Trumpet, complained, grabbing his own cup. "I spent five hours smiling at local politicians this morning. Asking bureaucrats for recycling donations is completely destroying my soul."
Chitose, Curious, leaned against the reinforced glass window and laughed at him.
"Oh, stop crying, Koku," Chitose teased, taking her coffee from the tray. "You are practically running the government's environmental policies right now. Plus, my media department is paying for all your little nature rallies anyway."
"What's your plan next? Should be months now after the final episode of your last series." Kaito asked her, taking a sip from his cup.
Chitose grinned. "The sponsors are throwing bags of money at us. I'm still thinking what is the next project I'll do. But honestly, I'm just using the extra budget to fund my investigative team. We are hunting down Hero X."
Kaito chuckled, leaning against the console. "You are still trying to find him?"
"I am going to find him, Kaito," Chitose said, crossing her arms with a confident smirk. "The mystery just makes it better. And the second I figure out who is under that mask, I am buying a wedding dress. He is the ultimate scoop, and I always get my scoop."
"You guys are so loud," Tomoyasu grumbled, glaring at his monitors. "Everyone shut up. The calibration is ready."
The executives stopped talking and looked through the thick blast glass.
Rikiya stood in the exact center of the massive training room.
He wore a simple black tank top and combat pants. He was covered in heavy sweat and dark bruises from the VR holograms he had been fighting all morning.
Tomoyasu hit a flashing button on his console.
CLANG.
A massive, solid steel hydraulic ceiling press dropped down from the roof.
One thousand tons of solid metal free-fell directly toward Rikiya's head.
HUUUF.
Rikiya took a deep breath. He triggered his Rage Refinement.
CRACKLE-CRICKLE.
The pitch-black stress energy erupted from his skin. He forced the energy inward, compressing it tightly around his normal-sized body like dense armor.
He raised his hands and caught the falling steel block.
CRUNCH.
The heavy concrete floor instantly shattered under his boots.
"UGHH!" Rikiya's muscles bulged from the insane pressure. He gritted his teeth, locking his elbows.
He held the immense weight right above his head.
"Whoaa! He's holding it," Koku whispered, leaning closer to the glass. "He got so strong."
"Three minutes," Tomoyasu read the timer on his screen, looking genuinely shocked. "He just passed the three-minute mark. His limit used to be five seconds."
"OOOOOOHHH!"
Inside the chamber, Rikiya let out a massive, booming shout.
BAAANG!
He dropped his hips, coiled his right arm, and threw a vicious uppercut directly into the center of the heavy press.
BAM. CRACK.
The thousand-ton steel block completely shattered.
THUD. THUD. BAAM.
Heavy chunks of twisted metal blew upward, slamming into the ceiling and raining down across the room like scrap.
HUUF-PUFF.
Rikiya dropped hard onto one knee. The black energy faded entirely from his skin. He gasped for air, completely drained and sweating profusely.
SLID.
The heavy metal doors of the training room slid open. Rikiya walked out into the lab slowly, his legs shaking a little.
Kaito grabbed a clean towel and a cold bottle of water. He walked over and handed them to his friend.
Rikiya wiped his face, breathing heavily. He looked up at Kaito with a massive, bruised smile.
"Was that it?" Rikiya asked, his voice filled with pure, hyped excitement. "Was that punch finally close to ten percent of Hero X's power?"
Kaito smiled back.
"You destroyed a thousand tons in your base form, Rikiya," Kaito told him honestly. "Your base strength is ten times higher than it was three months ago. You are definitely getting closer to him."
Rikiya pumped his fist in the air, totally thrilled. "I will keep pushing! I will be completely worthy of standing beside him in the new world!"
"Yeah, yeah, you're a god among men," Chitose laughed, grabbing her designer purse from a chair. "Now go take a shower. Koku is buying us all dinner."
"Wait, why am I paying?" Koku asked, looking completely offended.
"Because you complain the most," Kaito laughed, walking toward the exit with his friends.
...
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