The Shizuoka Vocational staff room smelled of burnt coffee and industrial cleaner.
Agent Mera sat across from Principal Goro, her tablet displaying the looped footage of Shop 1-B.
On the screen, Kaito Arisaka fumbled with a heavy wrench, his expression one of dull, panicked confusion as smoke filled the room.
"The metadata is flawless," Mera said. Her voice lacked inflection. "The timestamps align with the local power grid's fluctuations. The frame rate is consistent with an aging CMOS sensor."
Principal Goro crossed his arms. "Then why are you still here, Agent? The boy was in the workshop. The 'X' entity was in the chemical yard. Those two locations are separated by hundreds of meters with open asphalt. Why are you still bothering a average and good student?"
"Because it's too consistent," Mera replied. She swiped to a forensic overlay. "Look at his hands. Every time he drops the wrench, it falls at the exact same velocity. His recovery time is within a three-millisecond variance every single time. Humans are messy, Principal. Humans have stamina decay. This footage shows a boy who is performing 'incompetence' with the precision of a Swiss watch."
"You guys in HPSC really need to change your guidelines. All I see is a normal student."
-----
Kaito stood in the school's welding bay, the arc-flash reflecting off his dull safety goggles.
He wasn't welding; he was listening. His "Senses" update, fueled by the three billion views of the "Six-Second X" video, allowed him to hear the vibration of Mera's vocal cords through the ventilation shafts two floors up.
'She's smart,' Kaito thought. 'Too smart. I over-optimized the loop.'
The "Updates" was a physical pressure now. It felt like a column of water pressing against his skull.
The world's collective belief in "Hero X" was trying to straighten his spine, to clear his skin, to make him stand like a king. The Updates were endless.
Kaito fought back with the 'Normal Slouch'. He manually forced a tremor into his left hand.
"Arisaka! You're staring," Saito shouted over the roar of the exhaust fans. "You're going to burn the plate if you don't move."
Kaito blinked, appearing dazed.
"Right. Sorry. Just... didn't sleep much."
"None of us did," Saito grunted, sticking a screwdriver to his palm with his quirk. "My dad thinks Hero X is an alien. My mom thinks he's a government project. What do you think, Standard-kun?"
"I think he's a headache," Kaito said. "He makes the HPSC hang around school. It's slowing down the curriculum."
Saito laughed. "Spoken like a true retail individual. You're hopeless."
-----
At 2:00 PM, the school's fire alarm screeched.
This wasn't a drill. Kaito felt the atmospheric pressure shift.
This should be the "Stress Test" Mera had promised.
Kaito didn't run. He stood among the surging crowd of students in the hallway, acting the part of the confused, slow-moving "passerby."
In reality, Kaito's mind was a tactical radar. He identified four HPSC "Recovery Teams" stationed at every exit. They weren't looking for fire. They were holding high-speed bio-metric scanners.
'They want to catch me in a reflex,' Kaito realized. 'What's going on with these guys mind. They're endless.'
Kaito looked toward the north exit.
A "villain" had manifested—a mercenary with a kinetic-burst quirk, hired by the HPSC to cause a controlled crisis.
BOOM
The mercenary sent a shockwave through the hallway, shattering the overhead lights.
A heavy steel light fixture detached from the ceiling, plummeting toward a group of first-years.
SCREECH
Kaito's body tried involuntarily move to intervene.
'No,' Kaito commanded his own nervous system. 'If I save them and show any signs warping, I lose everything. Grandma. The hardware. The pension. The 9-to-5. Everything will be useless today.'
Kaito didn't move to save them. He moved to "trip."
He lunged forward, not toward the children, but toward a trash can.
BAAM.
Kaito collided with it, falling flat on his face with a pathetic, heavy thud. The light fixture slammed into the ground inches from the students, the impact spraying sparks and glass over Kaito's back.
Then the falling fixtures were slightly meters aways from the panic students.
Kaito lay there, face-down on the linoleum, smelling the floor wax. He felt the heat of the sparks on his neck. He didn't use his "Indestructible" skin.
He allowed the glass to nick his ear. He allowed himself to bleed.
Mera watched the live feed from her van. She saw Arisaka trip. She saw him cowering on the floor, bleeding from a minor glass cut, while other students with minor quirks tried to help the first-years.
"Bio-metrics on Arisaka Kaito," she snapped.
"Heart rate is 160. Cortisol is spiking. Pupils are dilated," the tech reported. "He's in a state of pure sympathetic nervous system shock. He didn't even try to protect his head when he fell."
Mera bit her lip. "He's right there. The anomaly should happen near him."
"Ma'am, the boy is bleeding. The 'Hero X' entity has never been reported to bleed. The physical profiles don't match. Arisaka is 172cm and 63kg. Hero X is estimated at 185cm with a completely different skeletal structure."
"Because he's rendering a new body," Mera whispered. "I know it. And I can feel it."
"With all due respect, Agent, you're chasing a ghost. We just put a fifteen-year-old in a life-threatening situation, and he responded like a Quirkless civilian. We're done here."
-----
Kaito sat on the curb outside the school, a paramedic dabbing at the cut on his ear. He looked small in his oversized charcoal blazer.
Aizawa stood ten feet away, his yellow sleeping bag slung over his shoulder. He was watching Kaito.
He wasn't looking at the blood. He was looking at the trash can Kaito had "tripped" over.
Aizawa walked over. "You have bad luck, Arisaka."
Kaito looked up, his eyes watery and blinking behind his cheap glasses. "I guess. I just... I didn't see it coming. Everything was so loud."
Aizawa narrowed his eyes. "That trash can is bolted to the floor. To knock it over with that much force, you'd have to be moving at a significant velocity. Or you'd have to be very heavy."
Kaito rubbed his neck. "I'm just clumsy, Aizawa-san. My center of gravity is weird. My grandma says I have two left feet."
Aizawa didn't say anything for a long time. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, bent hex nut. The one Kaito had dropped in the shop earlier.
"You're a technician, right?" Aizawa asked.
"I'm learning," Kaito replied.
"Then you know that when a bolt fails, it's usually because of internal stress. It looks fine on the outside, but on the inside, the molecules are screaming." Aizawa dropped the nut into Kaito's hand. "Don't break, Arisaka. It's a long walk to retirement."
Aizawa turned and walked away toward Nezu's waiting car.
-----
Kaito walked home as the sun dipped behind the Shizuoka skyline. The cut on his ear was already trying to vanish.
He had to keep "un-healing" it, manually keeping the wound open with his thoughts so Grandma Saki would see it.
Kaito entered the hardware store. The "Hero X" fan club was gathered across the street, painting a mural on a brick wall. They were chanting.
'They're making me stronger,' Kaito thought bitterly.
He found Saki in the kitchen. She saw the bandage on his ear. She didn't ask questions.
She just set a bowl of mackerel in front of him.
"The school called," she said quietly. "They said you were brave."
"I wasn't brave, Grandma. I fell over a trash can."
"Sometimes," Saki said, looking at the rolled-up diploma on the shelf, "falling is the only way to stay down. But the world is getting louder, Kaito. Are you sure your walls are thick enough?"
Kaito took a bite of the fish. It was salty and real.
"I'll just buy more insulation, Grandma. We sell it in Aisle 4."
-----
In the basement of the store, Kaito sat in the dark. He held the hex nut Aizawa had given him.
Kaito closed his eyes and felt the "Update" trying to claim the metal. The world believed Hero X could turn lead into gold.
"Hmm" Kaito whispered.
He touched the nut.
'Render Obsolete. Render Rusted.'
The metal didn't become gold. It became a piece of useless, red-brown oxide.
It crumbled into dust between his fingers.
He was winning.
The HPSC thought he was a victim. Nezu was suspicious, but had no proof. The "Hero X" persona was a separate entity in the eyes of the law.
But as Kaito stood up, his vision flickered. For a split second, he didn't see the basement. He saw the wireframe of the entire city. He feels the heartbeats of fifty thousand people.
The "Update" was reaching its limit. The world was outstripping his ability to suppress it.
'I need a bigger distraction,' Kaito thought, his eyes glowing orange behind his glasses. 'So Kaito Arisaka can finally be free.'
Kaito walked upstairs to finish his homework. Tomorrow was "Advanced Logistics," and he couldn't afford to be late.
~~~~~
[Author's Note]
Only 4 chapters left, he will be freed by the suspicion of the government and the end of the second arc. I know it's annoying but this book is a daily-life trope. After he graduates and started his 9-5 Job. The annoying part is gone. HPSC plot is needed. Just binge read it if you want to. Please be patient and thank you for the support.
~~~~~
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