Location: Might Tower – Underground Facility
Date: Wednesday | 09:00 AM
The heavy tal doors of the sub-basent slid open.
HISS.
Sir Nighteye practically marched into the room. He looked terrible. His sharp suit was wrinkled, and he had dark, heavy bags under his eyes.
David Shield hurried in right behind him, carrying a silver tal briefcase. The scientist looked just as stressed out.
Gran Torino was leaning against the wall near the door. The mont Nighteye stepped inside, Torino shot him a sharp, deadly look.
Nighteye saw it. He clenched his jaw.
Torino had called them both late last night on a secure line. He told them about the status of All Might and the silence about what had happened outside regarding the Tartarus breakout. But Torino also gave them a strict, absolute rule before they arrive, 'Do not tell Toshinori.'
If All Might found out Japan was falling apart, he would stop his training and run outside before he was ready.
Nighteye swallowed and nodded. He forced his face to stay completely neutral.
All Might was sitting on the edge of the dical bed. He wore a loose white t-shirt and grey sweatpants. He held a hot cup of coffee in his massive hands.
Sip.
He didn't look sick or hollowed out. He actually looked completely refreshed.
"Calm down, Mirai," All Might said with a wide smile. He took a sip of his coffee. "Take a breath. Everything is fine."
"Fine?" David Shield put his briefcase down on the tal table. He pushed his glasses up his nose, his hands shaking a little. "Toshinori, you pushed your body for a month and for the past days using your strongest attack on your body for hours non stop. We were terrified your heart was going to stop."
Principal Nezu was sitting on the desk, casually eating a biscuit.
"His heart is perfectly fine, David," Nezu said cheerfully. "Better than fine, actually."
Creak.
The door opened again.
Kaito walked into the control room holding his tablet. He looked at the group gathered around the bed.
"You skipped school again, Principal Nezu," Kaito pointed out, tapping his screen. "Isn't a principal supposed to be in his office on a Wednesday morning?"
Nezu laughed, taking another bite of his biscuit. "Haha. I am the principal, Kaito. I can do whatever I want. Besides, I wouldn't miss this eting for the world."
Kaito walked over to the large whiteboard on the wall. He picked up a marker.
"Alright," Kaito said, getting right to business. "Yesterday, All Might told us he unlocked the core. He gave us the nas of the six quirks and told us how the previous users utilized them."
Nighteye walked over to the whiteboard. David picked up his briefcase and joined him.
They were both fully briefed on the six quirks by Torino, but they wanted to see what the manager had planned.
"Yes," Nighteye said, adjusting his glasses. "But holding six different quirks is incredibly hard right? How do we approach this?"
"We overhaul them each," Kaito said simply. "So the moves and attacks the previous users told you about? Give the first one, All Might."
All Might rubbed the back of his neck. "The Sixth User. En. His quirk is Smokescreen. It generates thick purple smoke. He used it to hide from All For One and cover his tracks."
Kaito wrote it down. He frowned.
"Just to hide," Kaito said. "That is a massive waste of an emitter quirk."
"Waste?" Gran Torino asked. "What else would you do with a smoke screen?"
"It's boosted by decades of raw power now," Kaito explained, tapping the board. "We change how your body mixes it with the air. We don't just make smoke. We make a Poisonous Haze. We change the flavor of it to make it sleep-inducing or highly acidic. Or, we use Smoke Solidification."
"Solidification?" Torino grunted.
"Hardening the smoke for a split second so it acts like a brick wall to block bullets or make a smoke fist or sothing," Kaito answered. "We can also use Thermal Blindness. Charge the smoke with One For All's energy to completely blind their scanners and thermal goggles."
Nezu's eyes lit up. "Toxic tactics and counter-surveillance."
"Exactly," Kaito nodded. "Also, One For All constantly emits that red and black static lightning when you power up, right?"
All Might nodded. "Yes."
"Trap the lightning inside the smoke," Kaito said casually. "Make a Thundercloud. Anyone who walks into your smoke gets constantly hit by minor electrical shocks. It ruins their muscle control. And finally, Shadow Step. You dissolve your body into the smoke and reappear sowhere else. High-speed misdirection."
Gran Torino just stared at Kaito. "You turned a runaway tactic into a literal minefield."
"What's next?" Kaito asked.
"The Fourth User. Hikage Shinomori," All Might answered. "Danger Sense. It pings his brain whenever a threat or malicious intent is nearby. He used it to avoid ambushes in the woods."
"It's going to hurt," Kaito said bluntly.
All Might looked confused. "Hurt?"
"Your body is a giant antenna now," Kaito explained. "If you turn that on in a warzone, you are going to feel the malice of thousands of villains all at once. It will fry your brain. You need to enter a Zen State to filter out the pain."
"So how does he train it?" David asked, quickly writing on his notepad.
"Total sensory deprivation," Kaito said. "All Might already practiced it when we tried the psychological trainings. But, I need you to enter it actively during a fight. So I will lock you in a dark, soundproof tank for hours again. You need to learn to filter out natural danger from human malice. If you master that filter, you can use pre-emptive future sight. You'll see future versions of enemies three seconds before they move."
Nighteye's eyes went wide. That was basically a stronger version of his own Foresight.
"We also use a Malice Tracker," Kaito continued. "Lock onto a specific villain's hatred and track them across a city. We can use Weak Point Detection. The quirk will naturally ping when you look at an enemy's structural weakness or old injury."
Nighteye looked at Kaito with deep, profound respect.
"Next," Kaito said.
"The Fifth User. Daigoro Banjo," All Might grinned. "Blackwhip. It creates dark energy tendrils. He used them like ropes to swing around buildings or tie people up."
"..."
Kaito stopped writing. He turned around.
"Ropes," Kaito repeated, his voice flat.
All Might sweated a little bit. "Ah... yes?"
Sigh.
Kaito sighed. He turned back to the board.
"We are going to weave them," Kaito said, drawing a quick diagram of a human body. "You need extre emotional regulation for this. You wrap the whips tightly around your own skin, under your clothes. You create an Armor Weave. Black armor that stacks with your raw physical strength."
David Shield gasped. "You want to use an energy construct to artificially reinforce his bones?"
"Yes," Kaito said. "And for rescue, don't use big whips. Use microscopic ones. Spread them across the ground like a spider web for Tendril Sensory. You'll feel the vibrations of civilians trapped under rubble. You can use a Multi-Tasking Grapple to save ten people at once. Or a Blackwhip Catapult. Make a giant slingshot between buildings to launch yourself across the city. Or a Parasitic Bind."
"What is that?" Torino asked.
"Send a small whip into a machine or robot, hijack the internal gears, and shut it down from the inside or even control the body of the enemy you faced," Kaito answered smoothly.
"Incredible," Nezu whispered.
"The Third User," All Might quickly continued. "Bruce. His quirk is Fa Jin. He stored montum by performing repeated movents, then released it for a massive physical boost."
"So he basically charged his own battery," Torino grunted.
"It's too simple," Kaito corrected. "We need Repetitive Motion ditation."
"What's that?" All Might asked.
"You are going to do the exact sa punch ten thousand tis a day," Kaito instructed. "Burn the motion into your muscle mory. When you use Fa Jin, you use a Double Trigger."
Kaito tapped the board hard.
BAM.
"First release is on contact," Kaito said. "Second release is pure raw energy pushed directly inside the villain's body. You bypass their external armor entirely. We also use Impact Redirection. Catch an enemy's punch and add their force to your battery. Use Force Propulsion to release energy from your feet for air steps. Use a Pulse Wave to send a non-lethal shockwave through the ground and knock everyone off balance in a fifty-ter radius. And finally... Divine Speed. Channel the energy directly into your nervous system for instant reaction tis."
"My god," David muttered, writing furiously.
"Next," Kaito said.
"The Second User," All Might said, looking a bit nervous now. "Kudo. Gearshift. It lets him alter the speed of anything he touches. He used it like a speed boost to shoot small objects or make himself run faster."
Kaito completely stopped.
He slowly turned around and stared at All Might.
"He had absolute control over the rules of montum," Kaito said. "And he used it to run faster."
All Might scratched his cheek. "Well... they didn't have ti to experint back then."
"Haha. Well the era back then is very chaotic unlile now Kaito. They don't have enough ti to train and research their quirks." David Shield actually started laughing. The sheer waste of that quirk was hilarious to him now.
"Gearshift is going to be your absolute core," Kaito walked closer to All Might. "It breaks reality. If you run that fast normally, the friction will burn your skin off. But with Gearshift, you will achieve and use Frictionless Velocity. Shift your own friction to zero. You slide across the ground like a railgun."
"....." Nighteye stared at Kaito. As he listened to this deadly, insanely complex proposal, a heavy realization hit him.
'This is why Torino wanted the information blackout,' Nighteye thought, his heart beating fast. 'These moves aren't just hard. They require absolute, razor-sharp focus. If Toshinori finds out Tartarus is breached... if he loses his concentration for even a second while shifting his own montum or weaving black armor onto his bones... the backlash will literally injure him.'
Nighteye clenched his fists. He fully understood now. Keeping the secret wasn't just to buy ti. It was to keep All Might perfectly ready. And besides the other top 10 heroes and those ones who were handpicked are managing the outside situation now.
"We can also use Overdrive Transmission," Kaito continued. "Shift the speed of sound around you to create a silent vacuum. The enemy never hears you coming. Or Downshift Crush. You touch a moving villain and instantly shift them to Reverse. Their montum goes forward, but their body goes backward. They tear themselves apart from the conflicting directions."
"Haha. It's too complicated Kaito-shonen." All Might swiped his non existent sweat while listening for the developnt of quirks.
Gran Torino stared at Kaito.
"You are a terrifying kid," Torino grunted.
"I'm a manager trying to give my best services ok," Kaito corrected. "You can also use Vibrational Phase. Shift the vibration of your own body fast enough to pass right through solid attacks. And the final move... You accelerate your own perception so fast that the entire world appears frozen for one full second or more."
"....."
The entire room went dead silent.
Nighteye, David, Torino, and Nezu all looked at Kaito.
The golden manager had just completely redefined the strongest power in the world.
"There's one left," Kaito said, walking back to the board. "The Seventh User."
All Might smiled softly. His eyes got a little misty.
"Nana Shimura," All Might said proudly. "Float. She could suspend herself in mid-air and fly."
"Core balance," Kaito said imdiately. "You are going to spend hours inside a high-speed centrifuge. If you fight in the air, there is no ground. Enemies hit you from all sides. You use a Gravitational Anchor to increase your weight while floating so explosions can't knock you back."
All Might nodded seriously.
"You can use an Air Surface to harden the air beneath your feet and literally run through the sky," Kaito added. "Use Tactical Rescue to float massive debris piles with a single touch. Create an Aerial Vortex by spinning while floating to suck up fire or gas. And when you combine Float with your raw strength..."
"An Orbital Strike," All Might finished the thought, his eyes lighting up. "I hover high in the sky, aim, and drop like a teor."
Kaito smiled. "Exactly. That's the entire proposal I managed for your quirks."
*-*-*-*
Location: The Quirk Plane
It was bright now.
The misty, dark city had changed. The sky was clear.
The Vestiges were all sitting on top of a massive floating building. They were looking down at a large puddle of water that acted like a perfect window into the real world.
They watched the control room. They heard every single word Kaito just said.
"....."
"....."
Dead silence hung over the group.
Kudo was staring at the puddle with his mouth wide open.
"Frictionless velocity," Kudo whispered. He grabbed his own spiky hair. "I could have shifted my friction to zero? I just ran fast! Why didn't I think of that?!"
Bruce was rubbing his chin. He looked deeply disturbed but incredibly impressed.
"Double Trigger internal damage," Bruce muttered. "I used Fa Jin to break walls. That kid wants him to use it to bypass armor entirely. The absolute logic of it is flawless."
"DAHA!"
Banjo slapped his bald head with a massive hand.
"An armor weave!" Banjo yelled, laughing in pure disbelief. "He wants to weave my whips into armor! I used them to tie people up like cattle! This kid is making look like an absolute idiot!"
En pulled his high collar up over his nose. He looked genuinely terrified.
"Trap the lightning inside the smoke," En whispered. "He turned my escape tactic into a war cri."
Hikage Shinomori just gave a small nod. "Sensory deprivation. Filtering out the pain. Yes. That is exactly what I should have done."
Yoichi Shigaraki sat in his chair. He looked at the puddle, watching the young manager adjust his golden glasses.
Nana Shimura sat next to Yoichi. She was smiling so hard her cheeks hurt.
"Toshinori found a good one," Nana said proudly.
Yoichi slowly nodded.
"He isn't a hero," Yoichi noted quietly. "Heroes use powers to save. That young man looks at our quirks and developed it into calculated weapons. He is absolutely brilliant."
*-*-*-*
Location: Might Tower – Underground Facility
Clack.
Kaito put the marker down. He looked back at All Might.
"Six quirks," Kaito said. "Six completely different training thods. "So what first?"
Nighteye crossed his arms. "I agree. Toshinori needs to master one perfectly before moving to the next."
"The choice is yours, All Might," Nezu said, taking a sip of his tea.
All Might didn't even have to think about it.
He didn't look at the whiteboard. He looked straight ahead, rembering the warm hug in the dark mist.
He rembered the woman who pulled him out of the rain and told him to smile.
"Float," All Might said, his voice thick with emotion. "We start with my Master's quirk."
Kaito smiled.
"I expected you to say that," Kaito said. "Let's get to work."
*-*-*-*
Location: Tokyo Bay Sea Wall
Date: Thursday | 11:30 PM
The cold ocean wind whipped across the dark, concrete sea wall.
Three n walked along the edge. They wore regular street clothes and didn't even bother covering their faces.
"My feet are killing ," the skinny guy complained, rubbing the back of his neck. "We've been walking for miles. Can't we just plant this thing and go find a bar?"
"Shut up and keep walking," the leader spat. He was holding a heavy tal cylinder that blinked with a slow, red light. "We already dropped the other three in the deep water. This is the last one. We plant it right here on the fault line. When it blows, the sea wall cracks, the water rushes in, and the whole coastal ward goes underwater."
The third guy grinned. He looked at the dark mark on his shoulder. "They won't even know what hit them. The pros are way too slow to catch us."
High above them, perched quietly on a massive steel crane, three figures listened.
Ryukyu crouched on the tal beam. She looked down at the thugs, her eyes narrowing.
"Should we move in, Boss?" Gale whispered over the comms.
"Yeah, they're about to arm it," Pillar added. He cracked his knuckles.
He wasn't the nervous rookie who almost broke his arms back in Hosu two years ago. He was calm and ready.
"Move in," Ryukyu said softly. "No ssing around. Take the bomb first. Watch your step, and keep the collateral damage to zero. Let's go."
SWISH.
Gale jumped off the crane, riding a current of wind down toward the walkway.
Pillar dropped straight down, landing heavily on the concrete path right behind the villains.
THUD.
The three n spun around.
"Heroes!" the skinny guy yelled. He raised his hands, and a massive blast of high-pressure water shot right at Pillar.
"I got it!" Gale shouted.
WHOOSH.
She swoops in and blasted a heavy gust of wind from her gauntlets, blowing the water attack completely off course. It splashed harmlessly into the ocean.
"Nice save, Gale!" Pillar laughed.
He didn't waste a second. He slamd his hands onto the sea wall, rging his arms with the concrete.
The leader panicked and tried to hit the red button on the bomb.
ROAAAR!
Ryukyu dropped from the sky, transforming into her massive dragon form.
She didn't crash into the ground.
She hovered right above them. Rembering the training from Kaito years ago, she didn't push down. She beat her massive wings straight up.
FWUMP.
A massive, suffocating updraft ripped across the walkway.
"Whoa!" the leader scread.
The wind pulled all three villains right off their feet. They spun helplessly in the air, gasping for breath, completely unable to aim their quirks or hit the bomb.
The heavy tal cylinder slipped right out of the leader's hands.
"Gotcha," Pillar grunted.
A soft pillar of concrete shot up from the ground like a giant hand. It gently caught the falling bomb and swallowed it into the wall, keeping it perfectly safe.
Ryukyu shifted back to her human form and landed smoothly on the walkway.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
The three villains hit the ground hard, gasping for air.
"Good job, team," Ryukyu smiled, walking over.
Gale and Pillar were already there, slapping heavy, quirk-suppressing cuffs on the guys.
Ryukyu pulled out her tablet. She was the Number Seven Pro Hero now.
She had access to everything. She snapped a quick picture of the leader's face.
BEEP.
The screen flashed red.
[Location: Tartarus. Status: Solitary Confinent.]
Sigh.
Ryukyu sighed heavily.
The HPSC had secretly briefed the top heroes about the prison break a few weeks ago, but seeing them out here planting bombs made her stomach turn. They were just disposable pawns.
"Alright," Ryukyu said, looking down at the leader. "Where exactly did you drop the other three?"
The leader glared at her. "Go to hell."
Suddenly, his eyes went wide.
SKRRT. SKRRT.
His whole body jerked. The dark mark on his shoulder started to glow a bright, boiling red.
"Ahhhh! AHHHHH!"
The leader scread at the top of his lungs. The other two villains started screaming too, thrashing against their cuffs.
"Hey, what's wrong with them?!" Gale yelled, taking a step back.
"Help! He promised us!" the skinny guy cried out, looking at his own burning shoulder. "He lied!"
"What are you talking about? Tell !?" Ryukyu reached out to grab the leader, but before she could even touch him, his skin started to crack.
FWOOSH.
Right in front of their eyes, all three villains crumbled.
They turned completely into piles of grey ash. The strong ocean wind picked up the dust and blew it away into the dark water.
There was nothing left but three empty pairs of handcuffs lying on the concrete.
Ryukyu just stared at the ground. Her heart was pounding.
"Boss!" Pillar yelled from the wall.
Ryukyu spun around.
HSSSSSS.
The concrete pillar was smoking.
The bomb trapped inside it was hissing violently, giving off a terrible chemical sll. It was rapidly lting down into a puddle of bubbling, useless sludge.
Pillar reached in fast.
RIP.
He ripped off a small, un-lted piece of the tal casing right before the rest of the bomb turned into toxic soup. He tossed it onto the ground, panting.
"A failsafe," Ryukyu whispered, looking at the tal scrap. "If they get caught, they burn up. The bombs lt. No evidence."
"What the hell just happened?" Gale asked, her voice shaking a little.
Ryukyu looked out at the dark, vast ocean. The villains had dropped three other bombs down there. If they went off, the entire coast was dood.
"Gale, get on the radio right now," Ryukyu ordered, her voice completely serious. "Call the Coast Guard. Call Gang Orca. Tell them we have an ergency in the bay."
"On it!" Gale said, pulling out her radio.
Ryukyu bent down and picked up the small piece of tal casing. They had stopped this one smoothly, but the real nightmare was still hiding underwater. And the rest of the the villains who escaped.
*-*-*-*
Location: Tokyo Underground Expressway
Ti: | 11:45 PM
Down on the highway, a little boy pressed his face against the backseat window of his family's minivan.
He watched the bright yellow lights of the tunnel blur past them. His parents were listening to the radio, completely relaxed.
They had no idea what was happening fifty feet above their heads.
Up on the narrow, tal maintenance catwalk near the tunnel ceiling, three n walked in the shadows.
They wore stolen neon-orange construction vests over their street clothes.
"I hate it down here," the shortest guy groaned, pulling at his collar. "It's too tight. I can't breathe right. Can we just drop the thing and leave?"
"Shut up and stop whining," the leader snapped. He held a heavy tal cylinder. A small red light blinked on its side. "We are dropping it right over the main support pillar. When it hits, the gravity core goes off. It pulls the whole ceiling down. Thousands of cars get crushed, and we get to watch the news panic from a nice warm bar."
The third guy laughed, leaning over the railing to look at the rushing traffic below. "Hehe. Man, the Master really hooked us up. The heroes aren't ever going to see this coming."
VROOOOOOM.
A massive, roaring sound echoed through the tunnel. It sounded like a jet engine.
The three villains jumped.
"What is that?" the short guy panicked.
Before they could even turn around, a silver and blue blur shot down the catwalk.
"Drop the weapon and put your hands on your heads!" Tensei Iida yelled. He wore his full Ingenium armor, his engine exhausts glowing bright blue.
"Crap! It's the speed freaks!" the leader yelled. He didn't even try to fight. He just held the bomb out over the railing and let go.
"Enigma! The road!" Tensei shouted over his comms.
Down on the highway shoulder, a massive shadow grew over the passing cars.
Enigma used her gigantification quirk. She grew twenty feet tall in a split second, placing her giant hands over the lanes like a roof so the drivers wouldn't get hit by anything falling from the catwalk.
Tensei didn't stop running. He hit his Recipro Burst.
VROOOOM.
He launched himself off the catwalk, running completely sideways along the curved concrete wall of the tunnel.
He reached out and snatched the falling bomb right out of the air before it could hit the ground.
Up on the catwalk, the third villain roared.
"DIE!" Jagged bone spikes shot out of his forearms. He swung at Tensei's back.
"Not today, buddy!" Bigshot yelled, sliding in from the right.
THWUMP.
Bigshot fired his arm cannons.
A massive wave of thick, fast-hardening impact foam blasted the villain, gluing him entirely to the concrete wall.
The short, claustrophobic guy panicked and tried to run the other way.
Tough Grab stepped right into his path. His heavy armored gauntlets were already raised.
BAM.
Tough Grab delivered a clean, hard punch right to the guy's gut.
"Oof!" The villain folded over, the wind completely knocked out of him. He dropped to his knees, gasping for air.
The fight was over in ten seconds.
Nobody tripped over each other. Nobody shouted over the radio.
Team Idaten worked together like a perfect, well-practiced machine.
Tensei slowed down, sliding back onto the catwalk with the heavy bomb tucked safely under his arm.
"Nice catch, Boss!" Tough Grab grinned, pulling out thick zip-ties and slapping them on the gasping villains.
"Great cover, Bigshot," Tensei praised, breathing a little heavy. He looked down at the cars rushing by safely below. "Everyone okay?"
"All good here!" Enigma called out, shrinking back down to her normal size on the shoulder.
Tensei walked over to the leader, who was glued to the wall by the foam. Tensei tapped the side of his helt.
A small blue scanner light swept across the villain's face.
BEEP.
The display inside his visor flashed bright red. It showed a mugshot and a prison file.
[Location: Tartarus. Status: MISSING.]
Tensei felt his stomach drop. A cold chill ran down his spine.
The top-secret warning the Hero Commission gave him weeks ago was real. The worst criminals in the country were walking right past them.
"Where did you get this?" Tensei demanded, holding up the bomb. "Who told you to put it here?"
The leader opened his mouth to insult him, but his eyes suddenly went wide.
His whole body convulsed.
"Ahhhh! Help!" the short guy scread from the floor.
Tensei took a step back. The dark marks on the villains' shoulders were glowing. They looked like boiling iron.
"It burns! Make it stop!" the leader cried out, thrashing violently against the foam. "He said we were safe!"
FWOOSH.
Right in front of Team Idaten, all three villains crumbled.
Their skin, their clothes, everything just turned to a pile of grey ash. The heavy draft of the tunnel wind caught the dust and blew it down the dark highway.
"What the hell?" Tough Grab muttered, taking a slow step back from the empty zip-ties. "Did they just... disappear?"
HSSSSS.
Tensei yelled in pain.
The tal cylinder in his hands was burning right through his thick armored glove. He dropped it onto the tal catwalk.
CLANG.
The bomb started lting instantly. It gave off a terrible, toxic sll, turning into a bubbling puddle of sludge.
It was a built-in safety switch so the heroes couldn't figure out how it worked.
"It's destroying the evidence!" Tensei shouted, holding his burned hand.
Bigshot panicked. He aid his arm cannons at the lting sludge.
THWUMP.
He blasted the puddle with a huge glob of his impact foam.
CRACKLE.
The chemicals in the foam reacted with the hot sludge. It instantly froze a chunk of the lted bomb solid, stopping it from completely turning to liquid.
Bigshot let out a huge breath. "Got it! I saved a piece!"
Tensei stared at the frozen chunk of tal, then looked at the empty spot where the villains used to be. His heart was hamring against his ribs.
"Boss?" Tough Grab asked quietly. "What do we do now?"
"Call the police. Tell them to lock down every single exit on this highway," Tensei said, his voice deadly serious. "There might be more of these things out there."
He looked at the frozen piece of the bomb. He knew exactly what this ant. This wasn't a random attack.
*-*-*-*
Location: Sato X News Headquarters – Central Newsroom
Ti: 12:15 AM
The newsroom was buzzing. It wasn't the cramped little van Hideki Sato used to run. It was a massive, high-tech office filled with dozens of employees working the night shift.
Sato stood in the back of the room, arms crossed, looking at the giant wall of monitors.
He wore a sharp suit, looking every bit the wealthy CEO he had beco.
For the past week, he had noticed the top hero agencies acting weird. They were keeping quiet, tightening their patrols.
He knew the Hero Public Safety Commission was hiding sothing big, but he just couldn't prove it.
Until tonight.
"Boss, you need to see this," Nagi, his lead tech guy, called out. "Our hidden caras at Tokyo Bay just caught a fight. And we just tapped into the traffic caras in the Underground Expressway."
Sato walked over. "Put it on the big screen."
CLICK.
The giant monitors in the front of the room flickered.
On the left screen, Ryukyu and her sidekicks were fighting three guys on the sea wall. On the right screen, Ingenium and his team were busting three guys in construction vests in the tunnel.
Sato watched closely. He saw the heroes grab the heavy tal cylinders.
Then, he saw the crazy part.
"Look at their shoulders," Sato said, narrowing his eyes. "They're glowing."
On both screens, the villains started screaming. And then, right in front of the heroes, they just crumbled into grey ash and blew away.
The entire newsroom went dead silent. Everyone stopped typing.
"Did they just... turn to dust?" a junior reporter asked, staring at the screen.
Sato didn't look scared. He looked like a guy who just struck gold.
"Nagi," Sato ordered, pointing at the frozen video fras. "Zoom in on their faces right before they burned up. Run them through the public arrest records. Go back ten years if you have to."
CLACK. CLACK. CLACK.
Nagi typed fast. The computer scanned the faces.
BEEP.
Six mugshots popped up on the screen. Murderers. Terrorists. High-profile villains.
"Boss..." Nagi swallowed hard, looking up at Sato. "These guys aren't regular street thugs. Every single one of them was sentenced to life. They are supposed to be locked up in Tartarus."
Sato felt his heart hamr against his ribs.
He didn't know the whole story. He didn't know about the three hundred escapees or the massive villain army.
But looking at those mugshots, he connected the dots perfectly.
"The most secure prison in the country," Sato whispered.
A wide, sharp grin spread across his face. "And the inmates are out here planting bombs in our backyards. The HPSC knew, and they kept us in the dark."
"What do we do?" Nagi asked, sweating a little. "If we run this, the Commission will send agents to shut us down. They'll take our servers."
"Let them try," Sato laughed. "By the ti they get here, the whole country will know."
Sato turned around and clapped his hands loud.
SMACK.
"Wake up, people!" Sato shouted, his voice echoing across the huge office. "Hijack the public feeds! Take over the digital billboards in Shibuya! Link it to our streaming sites! And get Nakamura in the anchor chair right now! We are going live in two minutes!"
The newsroom exploded into action. People ran to their desks, shouting over the phones and typing frantically.
Sato walked into the glass-walled control booth. He looked through the glass at the main broadcast desk.
His top news anchor, Nakamura, rushed into the seat.
A makeup artist quickly powdered his sweating forehead.
Nakamura looked nervous. Taking on the governnt on live TV was a career suicide mission if they got it wrong.
Sato pressed the intercom button so Nakamura could hear him in his earpiece.
"Don't panic, Nakamura," Sato said smoothly. "You just read the prompter. You ask the questions exactly how I wrote them. We are making history tonight."
"Three, two, one. You're live," the floor director pointed at Nakamura.
The red "LIVE" light turned on.
Across Tokyo, massive digital billboards suddenly changed. The late-night comrcials cut out. Nakamura's serious face appeared on screens all over the city.
["Citizens of Japan," Nakamura said, reading the prompter clearly. "We interrupt your regular broadcast to bring you breaking news. Tonight, Sato Press is asking the Hero Public Safety Commission a very simple question."]
Behind the glass, Sato smiled and hit a button.
The video footage of the villains on the sea wall and in the tunnel played right next to Nakamura on the broadcast.
The mugshots flashed clearly for the public to see.
["Look at these faces," Nakamura told the cara, his confidence growing as he read Sato's words. "These n were arrested years ago. They were sent to Tartarus. The most secure, undisclosed prison for high-profile villains. So why are they fighting top heroes on our streets tonight?"]
Out in Shibuya crossing, the late-night crowds completely stopped walking. People looked up at the giant screens, their mouths hanging open.
["What happened to the ultimate prison?" Nakamura demanded, staring right into the cara. "Did soone break in? Did the villains break out? The governnt has been hiding this from us. They are treating us like fools while criminals run around planting weapons in our cities. And when these criminals get caught..."]
The clip of the villains screaming and turning to ash played on a loop.
["They burn up to hide the evidence," Nakamura said. "This is an organized terror plot. If the Commission calls this a fake video, then we dare them to put the Number Seven hero, Ryukyu, and Team Idaten on a stage tomorrow. Ask them to lie to your faces. Ask them what really happened tonight."]
In the control room, Sato leaned back in his chair, totally satisfied. He had just dropped a bomb on the whole country.
The streets of Tokyo went totally silent for about ten seconds.
And then, absolute panic erupted.
People started screaming. They grabbed their phones, calling their families. Cars honked and slamd on their brakes. Complete chaos took over the city.
Ten minutes later, inside the HPSC headquarters, it was a total disaster.
RING. RING. RING.
Every single phone in the building was ringing.
*-*-*-*
Location: Might Tower – Underground Facility
Date: Friday | 08:00 AM
The heavy tal doors of the centrifuge machine were open.
Inside the massive silver sphere, All Might was doing so light stretches. He wore his loose sweatpants and a white t-shirt, looking completely focused.
Outside the machine, Kaito sat at the main control desk.
CLICK.
Kaito pressed a button on the console, mutting the microphone so All Might couldn't hear them inside the tank.
Gran Torino walked over. The old man looked exhausted. He leaned heavily on his wooden cane and rubbed his eyes.
"You saw the news at midnight, kid?" Torino asked, his voice low and raspy.
"I saw it," Kaito nodded. "That Sato guy leaked the whole thing. The Tartarus breakout, the lting bombs, the villains turning to ash. He didn't hold anything back."
"The whole country is losing their minds," Torino groaned. "People are terrified. The Hero Commission is in full panic mode right now. Nighteye and David are upstairs running damage control, trying to keep the governnt agents busy so they don't co snooping around down here."
"That's good. We need them distracted," Kaito said simply. He looked through the thick glass at All Might. "We agree on the rule, right? He doesn't find out."
Torino followed his gaze. "Yeah. We agree. If Toshinori finds out the public is terrified, he'll punch a hole straight through the ceiling and run out there to save them. He'll get himself killed trying to use these new quirks before he understands them."
Kaito reached for the console.
BEEP.
He unmuted the microphone.
"Everything okay out there?" All Might's voice ca through the speakers. He looked at them through the glass. "Sensei looks like he hasn't slept in a week."
Torino didn't miss a beat. He smoothly slipped right into the lie.
"Just a headache, Toshinori," Torino grunted, waving a hand. "Mirai and Nezu are upstairs arguing over agency budgets and paperwork. They wouldn't shut up about it all morning."
"We need your head in the ga today, All Might," Kaito added, backing up the excuse. "Learning six new quirks at once is a lot for your body to handle. You wanted to master Float right?"
All Might laughed, a deep, booming sound that echoed in the tank.
"Hahaha! Got it! No distractions," All Might said. He cracked his massive knuckles. "I'm ready when you are, Kaito-shonen."
Kaito pulled the main lever down.
WHIRRRRR.
The heavy doors of the centrifuge closed and locked shut.
The massive tal sphere started to spin. It moved slowly at first, but quickly picked up speed.
Within seconds, it was a complete blur of silver in the middle of the room.
Inside the sphere, All Might was imdiately pushed back.
THUD.
His back slamd against the padded wall. The G-force was incredible.
The world outside the machine was spinning in every direction. There was no up. There was no down.
"You're at eight G's," Kaito's voice echoed clearly through All Might's earpiece. "Focus, All Might. Find the center."
All Might gritted his teeth. He tried to move his arms, but they felt like they weighed a ton.
He reacted the only way he knew how. He flexed. He tried to use his raw power to just muscle his way through the pressure and stand up.
It didn't work. His boots slipped on the curved wall.
"Stop fighting it with your muscles," Kaito coached over the radio. He talked to him like a partner, completely calm. "You're a fighter, I get it. For years, your answer to a problem was just smashing it really hard. But you can't punch gravity."
All Might groaned, his face pressed against the padding.
"Relax your arms," Kaito instructed. "Stop flexing. Just breathe, and feel the specific energy of your Master."
All Might stopped pushing. He let his muscles go slightly loose. He closed his eyes.
He didn't panic.
He just reached deep down inside himself, past the explosive, raw lightning of his normal power. He looked for her.
All Might found the core of the seventh quirk.
It didn't feel like a fiery blast of strength. It felt gentle. It felt exactly like a warm, familiar hand gently lifting him up by the shoulders.
Float.
All Might opened his eyes.
Swoosh.
He pushed off the padded wall, but this ti, he didn't use his leg muscles. He just altered his own gravity.
He drifted forward. He didn't get slamd back against the wall.
All Might hovered perfectly in the dead center of the sphere.
He was completely weightless, hanging in the air while the tal walls spun violently around him. He found his balance.
"I've got it," All Might said, a massive, proud grin spreading across his face.
Out in the control room, Gran Torino let out a long breath and smiled. Kaito just gave a small nod, watching the vitals on his screen.
"Good. Now we will do so basic flying drills."
.....
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