Location: Hosu City – North-West Sector
Friday | 18:00 PM (Three Days Later)
GRRRRRND.
The five-story apartment building groaned loudly. The concrete foundation had been melted by a Trigger-enhanced villain two days ago, and the structural integrity was finally failing.
"Hold the line!" Ryuko Tatsuma shouted.
She was in her full Dragoon form, her massive claws gripping the edges of the falling roof. Her scales scraped against the exposed rebar.
SCREEECH.
Sparks showered into the smoky air.
Beneath her, two of her newly hired sidekicks were struggling to keep the exit clear.
WHOOSH!
"I can't clear the smoke, Boss!" shouted Gale, a young sidekick with wind-generating gauntlets.
She blasted a current of air into the lobby, trying to carve a path for the trapped residents.
KRAK-KRAK.
"The ceiling is coming down!" yelled Pillar, a heavyweight hero whose quirk allowed him to merge his arms with concrete.
He was acting as a human support beam on the first floor, his face red with strain. "My arms are cracking!"
High above them, a calm voice cut through their earpieces.
"Stop panicking and listen," Kaito Arisaka said.
Fifty meters away, Kaito sat in the driver's seat of his car, parked in a cleared intersection.
He had a physical blueprint of the building spread across his passenger seat and a live thermal feed on his dashboard screen.
"Gale, cut your wind output by forty percent," Kaito ordered. "You are creating a vacuum. You aren't clearing the smoke; you are pulling the fire from the second floor down into the lobby."
Gale blinked, immediately dialing back her gauntlets.
The backdraft stopped instantly. The lobby cleared just enough to see the exit.
"Pillar," Kaito continued, his eyes tracking the structural stress on the screen. "You are holding a decorative archway. It bears zero weight. Shift two meters to your right and brace the load-bearing column next to the elevator shaft."
"Got it!" Pillar scrambled to the right, slamming his hands into the main column.
THUD.
The entire building instantly stopped shaking.
"Tatsuma-san," Kaito said. "The residents are exiting the east stairwell. Do not lift the roof. The moment you pull up, the sudden pressure change will collapse the third floor. Just hold it steady for thirty seconds."
"Understood, Arisaka," Ryukyu grunted, her massive jaws locked tight as she froze her movements.
Below her, fourteen civilians ran out of the lobby, coughing but uninjured.
Paramedics immediately rushed them behind the police barricades.
"The civilians are clear," Kaito confirmed, drawing a line through the final hazard marker on his clipboard. "Tatsuma-san, let go and step back."
Ryukyu released the roof and pushed herself backward. The five-story building collapsed in on itself.
BOOOOOOM.
A deafening crash shook the street, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
But it fell perfectly into its own footprint. No debris hit the neighboring buildings. No one was hurt.
Kaito rolled up his car window to block the incoming dust cloud.
"Threat neutralized," Kaito said into the radio. "I am closing the Hosu operational logs. Your sidekicks are cleared to return to standard rotation. Good work, everyone."
A few minutes later, Kaito's secure phone line buzzed on the dashboard.
BZZZT. BZZZT.
"Arisaka speaking."
"I'm shrinking down now," Ryukyu said over the line. Her voice was exhausted, lacking the booming projection she used for the press.
"The fire department has officially taken over the structural checks. The suppression deployment is over."
"Understood," Kaito replied. "Your agency's performance metrics for the last three days are logged. If we maintain this operational efficiency going forward, your agency will break into the Top 15 within four months. I will have the restructured standard patrol manuals on your desk by Monday morning."
There was a brief silence on the line.
"I don't care about the Top 15 right now, Arisaka," Ryukyu said softly. "I'm looking at the casualty report for my sector. Zero. We had zero civilian casualties in the North-West ward. We were fighting in a burning maze against Trigger-enhanced thugs for three days, and we didn't lose a single resident."
"Your team followed the routing instructions perfectly," Kaito replied. "You kept the collateral damage to a minimum. That is why the casualty rate is zero."
"No," Ryukyu corrected, her tone filled with absolute sincerity. "You kept us focused. You saw the whole board when we were blind in the smoke. I've worked with the best tacticians at the Hero Public Safety Commission. None of them care about the people on the ground like you do. They care about the arrest numbers. You cared about getting the families out of the basements. Thank you, Arisaka. From the bottom of my heart. And also don't be so formal with me, call me Ryuko."
Kaito gripped the steering wheel. Hearing the raw relief in her voice grounded him.
It reminded him exactly why he took this private contract over the HPSC's offer.
"You're welcome, Ryuko-san. If that's the case, call me Kaito." Kaito said quietly.
"The HPSC is in a complete panic, by the way," Ryukyu added, her tone shifting to a more serious note.
"The news from Naruhata. The '2D Graffiti' left by Hero X. The Commission is terrified. They are calling emergency meetings every hour. What is your take on it, as our Logistics Manager?"
Kaito sighed, rubbing his temples. He needed to maintain his cover as a mundane, grounded employee.
"My take is that Hero X is an arrogant show-off who doesn't respect proper zoning laws," Kaito deadpanned. "Turning fifty living creatures into wall art is a jurisdictional nightmare. Who cleans that up? The police or the sanitation department? Does it count as a homicide or public vandalism? It causes unnecessary paperwork for everyone."
Ryukyu let out a short, surprised laugh.
"Haha. Only you would look at a god-like reality manipulation and complain about the paperwork, Kaito. But honestly... it is terrifying. Power like that shouldn't exist in one person's hands."
"Whoever he is," Kaito said, his voice softening just a fraction, "he stopped the bombs. The neighborhood is safe. Let's just be glad for that. The Hosu crisis is officially over. Get some sleep, Ryuko-san. I will see you at the office on Monday."
"Have a good weekend, Kaito. And thank you again."
CLICK.
Kaito hung up.
He put the car in drive, navigating through the cleared checkpoint, and merged onto the highway heading back to Naruhata. He had a dinner to get to.
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: Naruhata Ward – Local Ramen Shop
Friday | 19:30 PM
Ding-ding
The bell above the door chimed.
Kaito walked into the warm, steam-filled ramen shop.
The owner had closed the front blinds, giving the group total privacy.
In the back booth, the entire crew was waiting.
Koichi Haimawari and Kazuho Haneyama were sitting on one side.
They both had bandages on their arms and cheeks, but they were smiling.
Makoto Tsukauchi sat at the head of the table, tapping a pen against a thick manila folder.
And sitting opposite them was Iwao Oguro.
The massive man looked pale. He was wearing civilian clothes—a heavy flannel shirt and a beanie.
The steam from his quirk was completely gone, but the exhaustion in his eyes was deep.
"Arisaka," Iwao said, his voice a low rumble. He didn't smile, but he nodded respectfully.
"Old man," Kaito said, sliding into the booth next to Makoto. "How is your daughter?"
"She is asleep," Iwao answered, his broad shoulders relaxing slightly at the mention of Tamao.
"Makoto's brother, the Detective, pulled some strings. She is in a secure, off-the-books wing at Hosu General Hospital. The doctors said the toxin is completely gone. There is no trace of the parasite. She is going to recover."
"That is good news," Kaito said, signaling the owner for a bowl of miso ramen.
"It's a miracle," Koichi chimed in, leaning across the table. His eyes were wide with sheer gratitude. "The whole night was a miracle. The old man came out of nowhere! He was moving so fast I couldn't even see him. He saved Kazuho. He saved everyone."
Kazuho nodded enthusiastically, grabbing Koichi's arm. "We thought we were dead. But Knuckleduster... I mean, Master... you were incredible!"
Iwao didn't look proud. He looked deeply conflicted. He stared across the table at Kaito.
"I need answers, kid," Iwao said, his tone dead serious. "You saved my life in your kitchen a few months ago. I know what you did. Makoto told me. You pulled a bullet shard out of my heart through solid bone. You stitched a collapsed lung moving at full speed. You fixed me so I wouldn't die. But my quirk... All For One stole my speed years ago. How is it back?"
The table went quiet. Koichi, Kazuho, and Makoto all looked at Kaito.
They had seen the impossible surgery in Unit 203.
They knew Kaito was brilliant and full of mystery, but quirk restoration was a medical impossibility.
"....."
Kaito met Iwao's gaze perfectly. He didn't blink. He prepared the lie, mixing it heavily with the truth to make it unbreakable.
"I didn't give you your quirk back, Old man," Kaito said flatly.
He pulled out a pen and drew a simple diagram on a napkin. A circle for the heart, a line for the lungs, and a jagged spike representing the bone shrapnel.
"When I operated on you in Unit 203, your chest cavity was a mess. You were suffering from tension pneumothorax. Your heart was being crushed. I have a very specific, highly attuned perception for biological damage. That is why I am a good logistician; I see where things are broken."
Kaito pointed the pen at Iwao's chest.
"I told Makoto that night: I just know things more than others. I didn't use a quirk to heal you. I used violent efficiency. I decompressed your chest, extracted the shard from your pericardium, and sutured the lacerations in your lung before you could bleed out on my kitchen counter."
"But the speed..." Iwao frowned, tapping the table. "I felt the friction again. I felt the world slow down. It turned on."
"Maybe because of the trauma," Kaito explained, his voice entirely grounded and serious.
"All For One didn't physically scoop the quirk out of your DNA. He severed the neurological connection to the quirk factor. He left you with the engine, but he cut the ignition wire. When I opened your chest and shocked your system back to life, it may have accidentally triggered a massive systemic reboot."
Kaito leaned forward, his expression hardening.
He needed Iwao to understand the danger, leaning into the scientific logic of the world.
"Adrenaline is a violent chemical. When you watched Kazuho almost die in Naruhata Park, your brain flooded with it. Combined with the sheer biological trauma your body endured during my surgery, it forced a spontaneous neuro-plastic connection. The repaired nerves fired all at once, bypassing the mental block the villain boss left behind."
He paused, letting the weight of the medical jargon sink in.
"It was a one-in-a-million medical anomaly. It was a miracle of your own body fighting to protect your family. Do not think I can replicate it. I am a manager who knows how to use a scalpel a little bit."
Iwao stared at Kaito for a long time.
The old vigilante had spent years looking for a conspiracy.
But looking at Kaito—a tired man eating ramen, explaining a brutal, desperate surgery with cold logic—Iwao accepted it.
He accepted that he had saved himself through sheer, stubborn willpower and a lucky medical reboot.
"A spontaneous reboot," Iwao muttered, rubbing his jaw. "Damn. I owe you my life, Arisaka. Twice over."
Koichi wiped a tear from his eye. "You really are amazing, Kaito-san. You just did what you had to do to save a friend."
"Touching as this is," Makoto Tsukauchi interrupted, slapping her hand on the manila folder. "We have a massive, immediate problem."
She pulled out a tablet and turned the screen around.
It was playing Hideki Sato's broadcast. The footage showed the silver-and-black blur of Iwao dismantling the Nomu.
"Hideki Sato blasted this to the entire country," Makoto said, her voice dropping to a serious, business-like tone.
"The world thinks the Pro-Hero O'Clock has returned from the dead to clean up the mess the current heroes couldn't handle."
"Let them think it," Iwao grunted. "I'm not doing interviews."
"You don't have a choice," Kaito said, setting his chopsticks down.
"The Hero Public Safety Commission is terrified right now. Hero X just turned fifty men into 2D wall art. The Commission realizes they have absolutely zero control over Naruhata. They cannot arrest Hero X. So, they will look for someone they can arrest to prove to the public that the law still matters."
Makoto nodded in agreement. "My brother covered for you at the park. He lied on his police report. But the HPSC investigators are already breathing down his neck. You are an unlicensed vigilante, Oguro-san. If you stay in the shadows, they will hunt you. They will arrest you. And if you are in jail, who is going to protect Tamao?"
Iwao's fists clenched on the table. The mention of his daughter hit the mark perfectly.
"What do you suggest, then?" Iwao asked.
Kaito leaned back. "You need a political shield. You need to align yourself with someone the HPSC is too afraid to cross. I recommend you go to Principal Nezu at UA High School. He is untouchable. Alternatively, go to All Might. If you tell them your story, they will offer you sanctuary and legal protection. After all, he should know All For One personally."
Iwao scoffed. He crossed his massive arms.
"No," Iwao said stubbornly. "I am not leaving Naruhata. I am not hiding behind a rat in a suit or a blonde boy scout in Tokyo. This ward is my home. Tamao needs to recover here, in peace. I am not becoming a corporate pawn for the big leagues."
Kaito looked at Makoto. Makoto looked back at Kaito.
They both smiled slightly. They knew he would say exactly that.
_-_-_-_-_
Makoto slid the thick manila folder across the ramen shop table. It stopped right in front of Iwao.
"We knew you would be stubborn," Makoto grinned, pulling a pen from her pocket and placing it on top of the folder. "If you won't hide behind a big agency, you have to build your own wall."
Iwao opened the folder. The first page had a gold seal.
"What is this?" Iwao asked, his eyes narrowing at the legal text.
"That is a fully drafted, legally binding business charter for a private enterprise," Kaito explained calmly.
"I spent the last three days coordinating the Hosu cleanup, and in my breaks, I drafted this. Makoto expedited the paperwork through the municipal courts using her PR contacts."
Koichi leaned over Iwao's shoulder to look at the papers. "Wait... 'The O'Clock Hero Agency'?"
"Exactly," Kaito said. "Hideki Sato's broadcast gave you the ultimate leverage. The public loves you right now. You are the veteran who came back to save the children. The HPSC cares about public opinion above all else. If you officially reinstate your Pro-Hero license and open a registered agency, they cannot arrest you without causing a national riot."
"I don't know how to run an agency," Iwao argued, looking overwhelmed by the stacks of financial and legal forms. "I punch thugs in alleyways. I don't fill out tax brackets."
"You don't have to," Kaito said. He pointed to the second page of the document. "Makoto Tsukauchi is listed as your official Public Relations and Legal Manager. She will handle the press. She will handle the HPSC auditors."
Makoto winked at Iwao. "I already have three sponsorship deals lined up just based on the rumors. We are going to be very well-funded, Boss."
Iwao looked at the third page. His eyes widened.
"Haimawari? Haneyama?" Iwao read the names aloud. He looked up at Koichi and Kazuho.
"You two have been fighting without licenses for years," Kaito said, looking at the young vigilantes.
"You are reckless, untrained, and a massive liability. But you are also dedicated to this ward. The charter lists 'The Crawler' and 'Pop★Step' as official, salaried sidekicks under the direct mentorship of the Pro-Hero O'Clock. You will get provisional licenses. You will stop hiding from the police."
Koichi's jaw dropped. "I'm... I'm going to be a real hero? Like, legally?"
Kazuho clapped her hands over her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. "Master! We can stay together!"
Iwao looked at the papers, then at the beaming faces of his two students.
He looked at Makoto, who was tapping the pen expectantly. Finally, he looked at Kaito.
"And what about you, Arisaka?" Iwao asked. "Your name isn't anywhere on this charter."
"I am a freelance logistics manager," Kaito said, pulling his wallet out to pay for his ramen.
"I do not tie myself down to a single agency. However, my apartment is three blocks away. If you hire me as an independent consultant, I will optimize your patrol routes and manage your dispatch center. For a discounted market price, of course."
Iwao picked up the pen.
He looked at the group around the table—his found family, the people who had pulled him out of the darkness and brought his daughter back.
He signed his name on the bottom line.
"Fine," Iwao said, a genuine, tired smile finally breaking across his scarred face. "The O'Clock Agency is reopened for business. But you're paying for the ramen tonight, kid."
Kaito stood up, leaving a crisp bill on the table.
"Consider it an investment," Kaito said. "Keep my neighborhood quiet, High-Speed Hero: O'Clock."
~~~~~~
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