The industrial district of Shizuoka was a grid of corrugated steel, rusted piping, and the constant, low-grade hum of heavy machinery. It was the kind of place people ignored unless something broke.
Kaito Arisaka was in the middle of a practical exam in Shop 1-B. His task was simple: dismantle a hydraulic pump, inspect the seals, and put it back together.
He was working at a steady, unremarkable pace. He didn't want to be the first one finished, nor the last.
Thump.
The floor of the workshop vibrated. It wasn't an earthquake. It was a heavy, localized impact.
Kaito paused, his wrench hovering over a bolt.
He didn't look at the ceiling. He checked his watch. 12:10 PM.
"Probably the demolition crew at the old textile mill," Saito said, wiping grease off his forehead. "They've been at it since Monday."
"The textile mill is three miles away," Kaito said. His voice was flat. "That impact was within six hundred meters. The frequency is too low for a wrecking ball."
Thump.
CRACK.
The sound of shearing metal echoed through the workshop. This time, the windows shattered in their frames.
"Everyone away from the glass!" Mr. Goro shouted, dropping his clipboard. "Arisaka, Sato—get the emergency shutter down. Now!"
Kaito moved toward the shutter crank. As he reached it, his Upgrades surged. His hearing sharpened, cutting through the shouting of his classmates.
He heard the sound of a pressurized tank venting gas. He heard a woman's voice—sharp, panicked, and familiar.
"Get the truck out of here! Move it!"
It was Kimiko-san.
Kaito's grip on the crank tightened. Kimiko-san was delivering a shipment of industrial gaskets to the chemical plant next door. If she was there, and the air smelled like ammonia, she was in a kill zone.
'If Kimiko dies, the store closes. Saki loses her income. I lose my cover. I can't also let her get injured.'
Kaito didn't feel heroism. He felt a cold necessity.
"Sato, take the crank," Kaito ordered.
"What? Where are you going?"
"The surge blew the safety valve on the gas line in the back. I need to shut the manual bypass or the whole shop fills with methane. I'll be back."
Kaito didn't wait. He disappeared into the back storage room, moving through the smoke of an electrical short he triggered by kicking a loose wire into a junction box.
He reached the back wall. He touched the concrete. He didn't destroy it. He "edited" the 3D space, folding a slit into the wall and stepping through.
He was out of the school and in the alleyway in four seconds.
-----
The villain was a "Heavy-Type" mutation named Bulkhead. He stood four meters tall, his skin a calcified, bone-like armor.
He had escaped a transport van five minutes ago and was smashing structures to create a distraction.
He was currently standing on the hood of a delivery truck.
Kimiko was trapped in the driver's seat, the steering column pinning her legs.
"Help!" she screamed, as the villain raised a massive, bone-plated fist.
A local Pro Hero, Iron-Pulse, was already on the scene. He was a man in his late 20s with a magnetic shock Quirk. He was on his knees, blood leaking from a head wound.
"Stay back!" Iron-Pulse coughed. "Backup is coming..."
"Too late!" Bulkhead roared, bringing his fist down toward the truck.
-----
Hideki was crouched behind a concrete barrier, his Camera-Eye whirring at maximum speed.
"Come on... come on," Hideki whispered.
"Show me the real Hero. Show me the 'X'. I can feel it, this is the time which he will appear."
He panned his camera toward the truck. He saw the villain's fist descending.
Then.
The air in the center of the yard... changed.
The Public Belief didn't just ripple; it exploded.
Hundreds of people in Shizuoka were looking toward the smoke, praying for someone. The collective imagination of the "Perfect Hero" hit Kaito like a physical strike.
-----
Kaito didn't have a choice. The Upgrade overrode his meditation.
As he stepped out of the shadow of a shipping container, his black hair bleached into a pristine, slicked-back white.
His greasy vocational coveralls didn't just change; they re-rendered.
The fabric smoothed into a sharp, wealthy-looking white suit. A black shirt materialized underneath, accented by red cuffs.
His necktie snapped into place, centered by a heavy, metal "X" symbol. Finally, square-rimmed glasses with orange lenses settled onto the bridge of his nose.
Kaito wasn't a student anymore. He was the "Perfect Entity" the public demanded.
He looked at the space between Bulkhead's fist and the truck.
'Rendering solid air.'
Kaito clicked his fingers.
SNAP.
The sound was like a gunshot. A three-foot-wide plane of existence between the fist and the truck cabin became so clear. The air molecules were forced into a 2D-lattice structure with infinite rigidity.
Bulkhead's fist hit the "plane."
CLANG.
The kinetic energy reflected back into the villain's own shoulder. Bulkhead's arm shattered. He let out a confused, guttural scream.
"AAGGHHH"
Kaito stepped forward. He didn't run. He walked with the self-assured composure of a man who owned the pavement.
SPLOSH.
SPLOSH.
SPLOSH.
Every step he took left a light-consuming 2D circle on the ground.
Iron-Pulse looked up, his eyes wide. "Who... who are you?"
Kaito didn't answer. He reached the truck and looked at the steering column pinning Kimiko.
Kimiko was staring at him. She saw the white suit. She saw the orange lenses. She saw the man who looked like he belonged in a high-rise office, not a warzone.
"Hero X?..." she breathed.
Kaito touched the steering column.
'Delete mass.'
SNAP.
The steel column didn't bend. It became a 2D image of a steering column. It had no physical presence. Kimiko's legs were free.
Kaito turned his head. Bulkhead was swinging his remaining arm wildly.
'Update gravity constant.'
SNAP.
Kaito flicked a single 10mm hex nut he had taken from the workshop. It hit the ground directly under the villain's feet.
SNAP.
The hex nut re-rendered the floor in a ten-foot radius into a 2D asset. No friction. No grip. Bulkhead's legs slid out from under him. He hit the ground with enough force to crack his own armor.
Kaito walked toward the fallen villain. He felt his body trying to glow brighter.
'Hnn'
He reached down and touched Bulkhead's chestand flicking his left wrist
'Render 2D-Lock.'
SNAP.
Bulkhead's entire body flattened. He was now a two-dimensional mural pressed against the concrete.
Kaito turned back to Kimiko.
"Get out," he said. His voice was a layered, resonant echo. "The Pros are coming."
Kaito stepped back into the shadows. As soon as he was out of sight, he forced the Upgrade down.
His hair turned black. The white suit bled away into stained coveralls. The orange glasses vanished.
-----
"I got it!" Hideki screamed. "The white suit! The orange glasses! I got the 'X'!"
"I knew it. I knew it. My guts was urging me"
He was shaking. The footage was perfect. It showed "Hero X" the slim, wealthy-looking man, flattening a villain in nine seconds.
"He's real," Hideki whispered. "And he's in Shizuoka. "
-----
Kaito was back in the storage room. He folded the wall shut. He wiped the glass dust off his shoes and walked out into the shop floor.
"Arisaka! Where have you been?" Mr. Goro shouted.
"The bypass valve was stuck," Kaito said. He sounded tired. "I had to use a cheater bar. But the gas is off."
"Good lad. Get outside. The HPSC is doing a sweep."
Kaito walked out. He sat on the curb, drinking a juice box. He saw Kimiko being interviewed in the TV. She looked shell-shocked.
Kaito watched her. He didn't look heroic. He looked like a student who was annoyed his lunch was ruined.
-----
Mera stood over the "mural" of Bulkhead.
"The driver said the man was wearing a pristine white suit and orange glasses?"
"That's what she says, Ma'am."
"Of course. He's Hero X. What I wanted to know is his face. Can she described it."
Mera looked toward the vocational school. She saw the students. She saw Kaito Arisaka. He was staring at his feet.
"Arisaka," Mera whispered.
"Ma'am?"
"I want the CCTV from that school. I want to know exactly where Kaito Arisaka was during those nine seconds."
-----
Saki sat in the back of the hardware store, the flickering television screen casting long shadows over the stacks of inventory. The news was already showing the grainy footage Hideki had captured.
The white suit. The glasses. The total lack of effort.
"Thankfully, Kimiko was saved. I was really worried"
-----
Iron-Pulse lay in the recovery ward, his head wrapped in bandages. He couldn't stop thinking about the orange glasses.
"He didn't even look at me," the hero muttered to the nurse. "I'm a licensed Pro. I've been active for five years. And that... that man ignored at me like I was a piece of broken furniture."
"You were in shock, sir," the nurse said gently.
"It wasn't shock. It was the atmosphere. When he stepped into the yard, the temperature didn't change, but the feeling did. It felt like the air was suddenly made of glass."
Iron-Pulse looked at his hands. They were shaking. Not from the injury, but from the realization that he had seen something that shouldn't exist.
"He's not a hero," Iron-Pulse whispered. "He's a correction. Like the world found an error and just... erased it."
Saito sat on the train, scrolling through the viral clips of the "Nine-Seconds 'X'." The video was already at five million views.
"Man, look at that suit," a student next to him said. "That guy must be loaded. Probably some billionaire with a hidden quirk."
"I think so too"
-----
[HPSC Internal Records: Agent Mera's Report]
Subject: Incident #402 - The "Nine-Second X" Event.
Location: Shizuoka Industrial Zone.
Primary Target: Unidentified (Hero X).
Secondary Target: Kaito Arisaka (Suspected Catalyst).
Summary: The entity known as "Hero X" manifested in a physical form consistent with public rumors: white suit, orange-tinted lenses, refined demeanor. Entity demonstrated Grade-S reality-warping capabilities, including the conversion of 3D matter into 2D planes.
Observation: The proximity to Shizuoka Technical & Vocational High is no longer a coincidence. Multiple witnesses report the entity appeared exactly when the school's surveillance systems suffered a catastrophic (and suspiciously clean) failure.
Recommendation: Escalate surveillance on Kaito Arisaka. If he is the entity, he is utilizing a "Mundane Camouflage" technique. If he is not the entity, he is the anchor point for its manifestations. Requesting permission to initiate a "Stress Test" – a controlled crisis to force the target's hand.
Status: ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE.
-----
Kaito was back at the hardware store, sweeping the floor. The "Updates" were still humming under his skin, but he had them contained. He didn't mind and didn't care if HSPC did something.
Kimiko was already in the office, her voice loud as she talked to the insurance company on the phone. She already talked with my Grandma of what happened in the site.
Kaito pushed the broom, collecting a pile of dust and a single, stray hex nut.
He looked at the nut.
'Nine seconds,' he thought. 'I was out for nine seconds, and I've set my plan back by six months.'
He picked up the hex nut and put it back in the correct bin.
'I need to find a way to make the HPSC look somewhere else. They're annoying as hell.'
Kaito went back to sweeping.
Outside, the world was screaming for Hero X.
Inside, Kaito was just a boy with a broom, counting the years until he could finally, truly, live in peace.