Twenty minutes later.
Mirai sat in a leather chair inside the fifteenth-floor hotel room.
He stared at the glowing screen of Makoto's laptop on the desk.
CLICK.
He moved the wireless mouse and pulled up a digital calendar.
January.
Mirai took his hand off the mouse. He looked down at his own palms.
'I'm really alive... And healthy.'
He flexed his fingers. He felt his pulse beating steadily in his wrists.
The Shie Hassaikai raid took place in the fall. He had been dead for months.
He turned around in his chair.
Kaito stood near the window, still wearing his complete Hero X suit.
He looked out at the city traffic below. Makoto sat on the edge of the king-sized bed, organizing a stack of printed registration forms.
Mirai stood up. He walked over to the center of the room.
"I still do not understand the exact mechanics of your power," Mirai said quietly. "But you gave me a second chance at life. Thank you."
Kaito turned away from the window. He kept his hands resting casually in his suit pockets.
"Don't worry about it," Kaito replied smoothly. He offered a light, easy smile. "Just smile. You still have a bright future ahead of you."
"..."
Mirai froze.
The breath caught in his throat.
A massive wave of deja vu hit him straight in the chest again.
Those were the exact words he spoke to Mirio in the hospital room right before his heart stopped.
Nobody else was there except his students and Recovery Girl.
Mirai stared at the white-haired man. He tried to calculate how a complete stranger could possibly know his dying words.
'Well, if he can revive a dead person. Maybe knowing this things make sense.'
Kaito just stood there, completely relaxed, letting the silence hang in the air.
Mirai took a step forward. His professional paranoia kicked in.
A man with this much power could easily destroy the country.
He needed absolute certainty before he agreed to anything.
"Before we proceed any further," Mirai said, his tone turning dead serious. "I need to know you are not a threat to society. May I use my Quirk on you? I want to see your future."
Kaito didn't look offended at all. He just chuckled and held out his hand.
"Be my guest."
Mirai reached out. He grabbed Kaito's wrist and made direct eye contact.
He activated Foresight.
The hotel room vanished. The film reel of the future played rapidly in his mind.
Mirai braced himself to see destruction, blood, or a villainous empire.
Instead, he saw a house.
He saw a peaceful living room. Makoto with a blurred face was sitting on a couch. A bunch of kids were running across a wooden floor, laughing loudly.
And standing in the kitchen, cooking a meal, was the man.
But the man's face was completely blurred. A heavy patch of static covered his features, blocking the timeline from identifying him properly.
Mirai pushed his quirk harder, but the conceptual block held firm.
Still, there was no villainy. Just a happy, mundane family life.
The vision ended.
SIGH.
Mirai let go of Kaito's wrist. He let out a long, heavy exhale. "You lived a happy life..."
"I already know." Kaito smiled.
A massive weight lifted off his chest. He could trust his quirk.
This man was not a villain.
Makoto shifted on the bed.
"So," Makoto said, breaking the silence. "Who can you actually trust with this? You already decided not to announce your resurrection right?"
Mirai blinked. He pulled his attention away from Kaito and looked at Makoto.
He adjusted his glasses and slipped back into his professional mindset.
"Yes... Nobody even in the government," Mirai answered firmly. "If the Hero Public Safety Commission discovers I am alive or even the government, they will probably study me in an underground research facility. Coming back from the dead breaks the natural order."
Mirai looked back at Kaito.
"However, having a man with your level of power working as a licensed pro hero is a massive benefit to this country," Mirai stated. "I will gladly be help you."
Makoto set the printed forms down on the mattress.
"Who do we go to?" Makoto asked. "We need someone with enough prestige and influence right?"
"Toshinori Yagi," Mirai said immediately.
Makoto recognized the real name of All Might.
"He is the only person I trust with this secret," Mirai explained. "He has the political weight and the discretion to push a new agency registration through the HPSC."
Kaito nodded. He walked over to the small kitchenette in the corner of the room.
CRACK.
Kaito twisted the plastic cap off a bottle of water and took a drink.
Mirai watched him carefully. His analytical mind ran through the entire situation again.
'I still can't understand this man.'
The man standing in the kitchenette possessed the power to reverse death.
He could bend the fundamental laws of life. If he wanted a hero license, he could simply walk through the front doors of the HPSC, demonstrate his power, and demand one.
The government would hand it over instantly out of sheer awe.
Taking the time to locate a dead hero, resurrect him in the middle of the night, and ask for his help was incredibly tedious. It was a massive waste of time.
Mirai couldn't figure out the motive.
Kaito set the water bottle down on the counter. He didn't say anything.
He didn't care about the HPSC rules. He didn't care about the government audits.
He just felt sorry for the Mirai of this timeline. In his home reality, they were close friends.
Reading the police reports about Mirai dying brutally on a cold hospital bed didn't sit right with him.
Resurrecting him was an entirely selfish, sentimental choice.
Kaito just used the guarantor as a convenient excuse so he didn't have to admit he actually cared.
--<>--
Location: U.A. High School Teachers' Dormitories
Time: 2:00 AM
The campus was completely quiet.
Toshinori Yagi sat at a small wooden desk inside his room. A single lamp lit the papers scattered across the surface.
Scratch. Scratch.
He dragged a pen across the pages of a thick notebook.
He wrote down the histories of the past One For All users. He listed their quirks and the exact details of their deaths.
He stared at the ink.
Almost all the past users died incredibly young. He connected the dots. Holding the quirk burned away the natural life force of anyone who already had a quirk.
Toshinori put the pen down. He looked at his own frail hands.
A heavy guilt sat in his chest.
Young Midoriya, Young Bakugo, and Young Todoroki were out doing their hero work studies under Endeavor.
They were teenagers preparing for a massive war against the League of Villains.
Toshinori was just sitting at a desk.
He rubbed his tired eyes and thought about his current plan.
He needed to talk to Young Uraraka tomorrow. He wanted her to use Zero Gravity on Young Midoriya during their secret training sessions.
Young Midoriya needed to get used to the feeling of floating so his body would be ready for Nana Shimura's quirk.
"And then there is Aizawa," Toshinori mumbled to himself, leaning back in his chair. "He just keeps asking questions."
Sigh.
He let out a long, exhausted sigh. Eraser Head was highly suspicious of Midoriya's new Blackwhip quirk.
Dodging the man's sharp questions all month was completely draining.
Toshinori hated keeping secrets from his coworkers.
BZZZT. BZZZT.
Toshinori jumped.
"What's going on?"
He looked at the desk. His highly secure, private cell phone vibrated against the wood.
Only a few people in the world had that number.
He picked it up and checked the screen.
[Unknown Number]
His eyes narrowed. He pressed the answer button and held the phone to his ear.
"Toshinori speaking," he said cautiously.
[Toshinori.]
The pen rolled off the desk and hit the floor.
"..."
Toshinori stopped breathing.
His grip on the phone tightened until the plastic cracked slightly. He knew that voice.
Anger flashed in his eyes.
"Who is this?" Toshinori demanded, his voice rising. "Is this a sick joke? Some villain with a shape-shifting quirk?"
[It is me,] the voice replied calmly. [I know this is impossible to believe. Come to the municipal cemetery. Meet me at my grave. Come alone.]
CLICK.
BEEP. BEEP.
The line went dead.
THUD.
Toshinori slammed the phone down on the desk.
He did not dial Gran Torino. He did not call Aizawa or the police.
Someone was using his dead best friend's voice as bait. This was a deeply personal insult. He would handle it himself.
He stood up and grabbed his oversized yellow coat. He picked up a heavy metal flashlight.
He walked out of his room and moved through the dark dorm hallways.
He walked fast. He kept his head down.
Minutes later he took a cab and arrived.
All Might reached the quiet municipal cemetery.
He walked through the open iron gates and headed straight up the dirt path toward the small hill.
He saw a tall man waiting near the polished black headstone.
The man wore a gray suit. Green and yellow hair caught the moonlight. He pushed his glasses up his nose.
Toshinori stopped ten feet away. He had no embers of One For All left inside his body. He was powerless.
But he stood tall, clenching his fists and bluffing his confidence. He refused to show weakness.
CLICK.
Toshinori turned the flashlight on. He shined the beam directly at the man's face.
"Drop the act," Toshinori ordered. "I don't know what villain sent you, but prove who you are right now."
Mirai did not flinch from the bright light.
He pointed at the ground in front of the headstone. Toshinori looked down. The ground was completely dug up and disturbed.
"My original body is gone," Mirai said flatly. "The coffin down there is completely empty."
Toshinori kept the flashlight steady. He waited.
"Six years ago," Mirai said quietly. "In the private hospital room after your first fight with All For One. You were covered in bandages. I begged you to retire."
"..."
Toshinori froze.
"I used my Foresight on you," Mirai continued. "I saw your future. I told you that if you kept fighting, you would face a villain in a few years and die an unspeakably gruesome death. I begged you to pass the quirk to Mirio Togata."
Mirai took one step forward.
"You refused," Mirai said, his voice completely steady. "You told me the Symbol of Peace could not stop running. I told you I could not stand by and watch you kill yourself. I walked out of that hospital room. We broke our partnership that day."
Thud.
Toshinori's knees gave out.
The heavy flashlight slipped from his fingers and hit the grass.
He dropped to his knees.
No villain knew that story. No reporter ever found out. It was a secret kept strictly between the two of them.
Toshinori covered his face with his large hands.
"Mirai," Toshinori sobbed.
Tears spilled through his fingers. He cried heavily, completely overwhelmed by relief and grief.
Mirai walked over and knelt on the grass. He placed a hand firmly on Toshinori's bony shoulder. He stayed quiet and let his friend cry.
A few minutes passed. Toshinori finally caught his breath. He wiped his wet face with the sleeve of his yellow coat.
He looked up at Mirai's chest.
"How?" Toshinori asked, his voice hoarse. "I saw the heart monitor flatline... You're supposed to be dead."
Mirai stood up. He offered his hand and pulled Toshinori to his feet.
"I woke up a few hours ago right here," Mirai explained, pointing at the grave. "A man pulled my body out of thin air and resurrected me."
Toshinori stared at him.
"Why?" Toshinori asked. "Who would do such a thing?"
"He calls himself Hero X," Mirai said. "And he did it because he wants to open a hero agency. He needs a veteran hero to sign his guarantor paperwork."
"..."
Toshinori stood in the middle of the cemetery, completely speechless and dumbfounded.
--<>--
The morning sun lit up the hotel room.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Makoto walked over and opened the door.
Toshinori and Mirai stepped inside. They both looked completely exhausted.
They spent the entire night at the park just talking and catching up on everything that happened over the last few months.
Kaito stood near the window. He was fully shifted into his Hero X form. White suit, white hair, gold glasses.
Toshinori looked at him.
He didn't feel anything. No killing intent. No heavy aura. No suffocating pressure.
The young man standing across the room felt completely normal.
But Toshinori knew the truth.
This normal-looking guy just reversed death. Even All For One could not do that.
Toshinori bowed deeply at the waist.
"Thank you," Toshinori said sincerely. "You gave my friend his life back. I don't know how to repay you."
"Stand up, All Might," Kaito said easily. "You don't owe me anything."
Toshinori stood up straight. He looked at Kaito with genuine confusion.
"I don't understand," Toshinori admitted. "Mirai explained your plan to me. You possess a power greater than anything I have ever seen. Why go through this long process? Why not just walk into the Hero Public Safety Commission, show them your power, and demand a hero license?"
Kaito shoved his hands into his pockets.
"If I walk in directly and demand a license, it will take time... And besides I'm a nobody from the past." Kaito explained. "I prefer to follow the proper procedure. A guarantor likr a famous hero makes the process of getting a license easier."
Toshinori nodded slowly.
He tried to understand the mindset of a man who could easily conquer the country but chose to follow bureaucratic rules.
"What exactly is your quirk?" Toshinori asked.
"I manipulate dimensions," Kaito said.
"..."
Toshinori and Mirai exchanged a look. They didn't see the connection between dimensions and reviving the dead.
Kaito laughed.
"Watch."
SNAP.
The world didn't explode.
It didn't even shake.
Everything just went colorful.
"Wha?!"
Toshinori gasped. He looked down at his own hands.
They were completely two-dimensional.
His skin had no texture. His fingers were outlined in thick black ink, exactly like a sketch in a manga panel.
He tried to take a step, but he couldn't move his legs properly. He had absolutely no physical depth. He felt like a literal piece of paper.
"Unbelievable..." Toshinori breathed, his voice sounding weirdly muffled in the flat space. "What happened to us?"
Mirai knelt down. He pressed his flat, inked hand against the floor. It didn't feel like a carpet anymore. It felt completely smooth.
Like touching a printed page.
Mirai's analytical mind raced.
His eyes widened in absolute horror at the combat implications.
If this man left a villain in this space, they would be trapped in a drawing forever. There was no space to break out of. No walls to smash. Just ink.
SNAP.
The room expanded back into three dimensions instantly.
Toshinori stumbled forward and grabbed the edge of the bed.
Huff. Puff.
He breathed heavily. His weight and depth crashed back into him all at once.
Mirai adjusted his glasses. His hands were shaking slightly.
"Too dream-like," Mirai whispered.
Kaito walked over to the small table in the corner.
"Hungry?"
He picked up a laminated room service menu. It had a printed photograph of a hamburger and a cup of coffee on the front.
Kaito held the menu up so they could see it.
SNAP.
He reached his hand directly into the flat paper.
His fingers curled around the printed image of the hamburger.
He pulled his hand out.
A real, physical, steaming hot hamburger sat in his palm.
The smell of grilled beef filled the room. He reached in again and pulled out a ceramic cup of hot coffee.
The images on the menu were completely gone.
Only a blank white space remained.
Kaito set the burger and the coffee down on the table.
"..."
Toshinori stared at the food.
He realized the truth instantly. His physical strength, his kinetic shockwaves, his Prime Smashes.
All of it would be completely useless.
You cannot punch a man who treats reality like a comic book.
This young man who calls himself X could just snap any kinetic attack away into a drawing.
He felt a deep sense of relief. He was retired. The Symbol of Peace was gone.
Japan needed a strong hero right now. Knowing this incredibly powerful man wanted to be a licensed pro hero gave Toshinori hope for the country.
Toshinori smiled warmly.
"If you are going to be a hero, I want to thank you properly," Toshinori said. "What are your real names?"
Makoto smiled back.
"I am [BLEEEP]," Makoto said clearly.
Toshinori flinched. He rubbed his ear.
"And I am [BLEEEP]," Kaito added.
Mirai sighed.
"I told you," Mirai muttered.
Toshinori looked highly confused. "I just heard static."
Kaito laughed casually. He walked over and patted Toshinori on the shoulder.
Kaito joked. "A secret identity is completely pointless if people can just learn your real name. Just call me X."
"Hahaha.." Toshinori laughed.
The absurdity of having his mind censored by a reality warper broke the tension in the room.
Mirai stepped forward.
"I still do not understand your patience," Mirai said professionally. "But you gave me a second chance. I will gladly help you navigate the HPSC."
"Perfect," Kaito said.
Mirai checked his watch.
"The main licensing office opens in two hours," Mirai said. "We should head to the government district."
...
Support the journey here:
patreon.com/Dr_Chad
(9 Advanced Chapters)