Location: Jaku Hospital, Underground Laboratory
Thick green fluid boiled violently inside the central glass vat.
BLUB. BLUB.
Dr. Kyudai Garaki sat in his wheelchair. He tapped his gnarled fingers against his metal armrest.
TAP. TAP. TAP.
Tomura Shigaraki thrashed wildly against his restraints.
Thick electrical cables ran directly into his spine.
The surgical machinery pumped raw Nomu-DNA straight into his nervous system.
WHIRRR.
Heavy mechanical clamps locked Shigaraki's jaw firmly in place. He bit down hard on a thick plastic breathing tube.
"ARRRGGGHHH!"
A muffled, agonizing scream vibrated through the reinforced glass.
"Yes, keep screaming," Garaki laughed, his voice raspy and manic. "Let it tear your muscles apart. You can't hold his true power if you don't break first."
Garaki spun his wheelchair around.
He rolled over to a massive bank of computer monitors covering the back wall and typed rapidly on his keyboard.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A messy cluster of viral videos and encrypted dark files popped up. Every single screen showed a man wearing a crisp white suit and gold glasses.
'Hero X,' Garaki thought. He finally noticed this newly debut hero. For the past weeks all the news and internet was talking about this guy.
He clicked a shaky cell phone video.
A giant, multi-armed mutant villain tore through a Tokyo crosswalk.
["I'll crush this whole damn street!] the mutant roared on the recording.
Civilians screamed and scattered across the pavement. The man in the white suit casually walked into the frame.
He kept his hands firmly in his pockets.
[Could you keep it down?] Hero X asked politely on the video. [You're blocking traffic.]
The mutant lunged right at him with massive claws.
[SNAP.]
The roaring audio cut off instantly.
The towering mutant lost all physical volume and flattened into a two-dimensional graffiti drawing smeared across the asphalt.
Garaki paused the video.
He leaned his goggles inches away from the glowing screen. He stared at Kaito's fingers and looked closely at the young hero's face.
'No trembling nor heavy breathing,' Garaki noted.
He clicked the next file.
The speakers played the sound of a group of street villains laughing in an alleyway.
[Burn them to ash!] the lead villain screamed.
He unleashed a massive, roaring blast of concentrated fire. The man in the white suit stepped right in front of the inferno.
[That's a serious fire hazard,] Hero X stated calmly.
[SNAP.]
The violent fire instantly turned into a flat, harmless piece of paper suspended in the air.
Hero X pinched the edge of the 2D fire and peeled it off the atmosphere.
[What the hell did he just do?!] The Villain panicked on the audio track. [He grabbed it?!]
Hero X crumpled the paper in his palm and tossed it into a metal trash can.
Garaki rewound the clip. He watched it three times in a row.
He desperately searched Kaito's forehead for a single drop of sweat. There was absolutely nothing.
Watching all the available footage since the beginning of his debut.
But all of them was just a simple...
[SNAP]
[SNAP]
[SNAP]
Then next he opened a highly encrypted file leaked directly from the HPSC testing facility. The audio feed crackled.
[I am the villain of this scenario,] Edgeshot announced loudly.
[I prefer negotiations,"] Hero X replied.
Edgeshot flattened into a razor-sharp string and shot forward. X casually sidestepped.
[SNAP.]
A visible distortion rippled through the air. X pulled the Number Four Hero directly into the flat surface of a solid concrete barrier.
[Did they just go inside the wall?!] a civilian actor screamed in the background.
Garaki watched the two men fight as flat, side-scrolling animated cartoons inside the solid concrete.
Hero X dodged every rapid strike with his hands still in his pockets.
Scratch. Scratch.
Garaki aggressively scratched his bald head. His manic smile completely disappeared.
'He ignores physical mass and thermal dynamics,' Garaki thought obsessively.
He typed rapidly to open an old, classified American military surveillance video.
He played the footage of Cathleen Bate right next to the Hero X clips.
Cathleen Bate leaped high into the California sky. The microphone picked up her heavy, strained breathing.
Sweat dripped down her bruised face. She physically punched the empty atmosphere.
Her neck muscles bulged with intense physical exertion.
[AIR!] Cathleen screamed at the top of her lungs.
[BOOOM.]
A massive, devastating shockwave blasted outward from her hands.
Garaki stared at the American hero. He clicked another footage.
[FIST BUMP OF THE EARTH!]
Still the same. He watched for more short footage that he was able to get.
Everytime Star and Stripes used her quirk he needed to shout something.
"Is she enforcing her rules? Then it should require tremendous physical stamina, vocal chanting, and direct physical contact."
Because of the existence of Hero X here, Garaki observed the quirk of Cathleen in depth.
He spent a few hours to verify his theories and observations.
Then Garaki shifted his eyes back to Hero X.
The man in the white suit didn't do any of that. He just snapped.
Thump. Thump.
Garaki's heart pounded heavily against his ribs. His breath hitched in his throat.
'This completely defies my Quirk Singularity Theory,' Garaki thought wildly. 'Every Quirk has a physical breaking point. Restrictions, Limits... I don't know if this hero have one.'
Garaki needed raw data.
He needed to push X until this hero finally sweated or bled or show struggle or any visible tell.
He grabbed the wheels of his chair and rolled away from the monitors and went down the dark, freezing laboratory hallway.
SWIISH.
Garaki passed rows of empty medical vats in the shadows and stopped directly in front of three massive, frosted cryogenic pods.
He reached out and typed a sequence into the wall console.
BEEP. BEEP.
HSSSSS.
The heavy metal doors hissed open. A thick wave of freezing white fog spilled out across the floor tiles.
Three heavily engineered biological monsters stepped slowly out of the mist.
One possessed a sleek female frame with a massive exposed brain.
The second stood incredibly fat with bulging, unnatural limbs.
The third featured a completely mechanical head grafted onto a muscular torso.
Garaki looked up at the High-End Nomus.
"Go to Tokyo," Garaki commanded, pointing a gnarled finger back toward the laboratory. "Find the man in the white suit, Hero X."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The three monsters stared at him in complete, eerie silence.
"Force him to use the limits of his quirk," Garaki ordered with a twisted grin.
That's right, Garaki knew that there is a low chance of succeeding. But he wanted data. If he can somehow find its limits.
He would be able to let All For One or even Shigaraki plan or steal it.
'Is this quirk, Canvas nearing singularity?'
--<>--
Location: The X Agency, Lounge Room
Time: 2:00 PM
The lounge room was completely quiet.
Best Jeanist sat comfortably in a sleek leather chair.
He wore a sharp, casual denim jacket with a high collar.
Thanks to Kaito's cognition shift, the rest of the world just saw a completely ordinary civilian.
Jeanist picked up a porcelain teacup.
Sip.
Mirai or Shin Kudo sat on the sofa across from him.
He scrolled through a digital tablet in his lap.
"The police scanners are completely dead," Mirai noted.
Jeanist rested his teacup on the saucer.
CLINK.
"Tokyo is a ghost town right now," Jeanist agreed.
He crossed his legs.
"Anyone who tries to rob a bank gets folded into a piece of paper before the police even dispatch a car," Jeanist said.
Mirai adjusted his glasses.
"It makes the jobs of other heroes look a bit obsolete," Mirai admitted quietly.
"That's right Kudo-san..."
Jeanist let out a short, humored breath.
He spent years doing grueling detective work and countless nights freezing on rooftops during stakeouts.
Now, he just sat in a quiet room drinking tea.
He thought back to a few days ago.
Hero X teleported him directly into the underground HPSC meeting room.
The reaction was pure chaos.
THUD.
Police Chief Kenji dropped a massive stack of folders on the floor.
"Beat Jeanist!"
"WOOF!"
He barked loudly in complete shock.
Detective Tsukauchi just stared at Jeanist with his jaw hanging open.
Agent Mera violently rubbed his tired eyes.
The Madam President leaned back in her chair and let out a massive sigh of relief.
They established an absolute circle of secrecy right there in the room.
Only the people in that room and the X Agency staff knew the truth.
They kept Hawks and other pros completely in the dark to ensure the villains never suspected the fake corpse.
Since Hero X maintained the cognitive disguise, Jeanist agreed to join the agency as a temporary logistics member.
Back in the present, Mirai looked at the denim-wearing hero.
'It's still surreal seeing him sitting here,' Mirai thought quietly. 'I'm a dead man hiding in this agency. Now the Number Three hero is doing the exact same thing.'
Jeanist picked his teacup back up.
"Working here is easy," Jeanist said. "But it's incredibly strange working for a man whose real name I can't even perceive. Can't we really find his real name? I even suspect that his appearance ks also different..."
Mirai pushed his glasses up his nose.
"I tried everything to look up his public registry," Mirai shared. "The text physically blurs on the screen."
Mirai pointed at his own ear.
"If someone he also say his real name out loud, I just hear a sharp BLEEP sound," Mirai explained. "The cognition block is terrifying."
Step. Step.
Footsteps clicked against the floor.
Makoto walked out of the kitchen area holding a datapad.
She smiled at the two veteran heroes.
"You guys look very relaxed," Makoto joked.
She leaned over the sofa and lowered her voice to a playful whisper.
"If we keep collecting veteran pros, this agency is going to turn into another organization," Makoto teased softly.
"Heh..." Jeanist chuckled at joke. He didn't know that Makoto was also referring to Sir Night Eye and not just him.
Makoto smiled and walked back toward the front desk.
Mirai watched her leave.
"The censorship applies to her too," Mirai pointed out. "I don't know her name. I'll just call her Manager."
Jeanist shook his head slowly.
He shifted the conversation toward their boss's actual combat abilities.
"The teleportation ability that X completely baffles me," Jeanist admitted. "How can his quirk Canvas do that? I know that he can change anything and anyone from reality to drawings. But teleportation is different..."
Mirai placed his tablet onto the glass coffee table.
TAP.
"I have a working theory on that," Mirai said.
He dragged his index finger across the smooth glass.
"The Canvas Quirk flattens 3D objects into a 2D plane," Mirai explained. "He basically treats the entire world like a flat paper map."
Mirai tapped the other side of the glass table.
"He slips his own body into that flat plane," Mirai continued. "He completely bypasses standard geographical distance, slides across the paper, and expands back out wherever he wants."
Jeanist stared at the glass table.
"...That breaks the everything I know about quirks," Jeanist muttered.
"He edits reality, so it really doesn't make sense..." Mirai corrected him.
"..."
They both sat in silence for a moment.
Jeanist thought about the massive army.
He thought about the massive death toll he expected when he agreed the plan with Hawks.
Jeanist looked over at the empty office chair behind the main desk.
A genuine wave of relief washed over him.
'With a unreasonable Quirk like that on our side,' Jeanist thought. 'We actually have a chance to end this war easily right?'
--<>--
Step. Step.
BANG.
The heavy front doors of the agency slammed open.
Mirko marched straight into the lounge room wearing her white hero costume.
Her combat boots stomped aggressively against the carpet.
It had been exactly one and a half weeks since Kaito tossed her the USB file.
Kaito walked out of the kitchen area holding a fresh cup of black coffee.
He stopped and stared at the rabbit hero.
Mirko marched right up to the glass coffee table.
She pulled a crumpled bank receipt from her pocket.
SMACK.
She slapped the paper down right next to Mirai's tablet.
"I just wired three million yen to the agency account," Mirko announced bluntly.
Kaito looked down at the receipt.
"Huh? Why?" Kaito asked curiously.
Mirko grinned widely, showing her sharp teeth.
She stepped back and dropped into a tight, incredibly low combat stance.
And bent her knees and tensed powerful thigh muscles.
"Because I cracked the basics of the muscle tension and breathing rhythms," Mirko declared proudly.
She cracked her knuckles, her red eyes burning with absolute excitement.
"I don't owe anyone favors," Mirko stated. "I bought your techniquses. Now please come outside and spar with me again."
Kaito rubbed his temples with his free hand.
Sigh.
He let out a very long, tired sigh.
"I told you no," Kaito reminded her.
"I'm not asking for a lesson," Mirko shot back, her grin turning feral. "I just wanted to know and see how my technique is different from yours."
"I don't need your money... Take it back..." Kaito replied casually.
"..."
Mirko didn't yell.
She just narrowed her eyes dangerously. If he wasn't going to step outside, she was fully prepared to just launch herself across the lounge room and force him to defend himself right here.
She dug her boots into the carpet and shifted her weight forward.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
A blaring red emergency siren ripped through the lounge room.
"..."
The casual atmosphere died instantly.
Mirko stopped her plan.
Jeanist stood up from his chair.
Mirai grabbed his tablet off the table.
"Eve, report," Mirai ordered sharply.
The large flat-screen television on the wall flared to life. The AI system overrode the standard broadcast.
[Priority alert from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police,] Eve's robotic voice echoed from the speakers. [Multiple hostile biological signatures detected.]
The television screen split into a live news helicopter feed.
The camera zoomed in on the roof of a massive corporate skyscraper in the center of Tokyo.
The wind whipped hard across the concrete roof.
Three creatures stood near the edge.
One possessed a sleek female frame with an exposed brain.
The second stood incredibly fat with bulging limbs.
The third featured a completely mechanical head.
They stood perfectly still.
And suddenly the female figure talked something to the other two companions.
They argued and then looked out over the city skyline, waiting for something or someone.
A cold chill ran straight down Best Jeanist's spine.
He spent the last few days reading up on the world news he missed while sitting in that freezing coma.
He recognized the exposed brain tissue and the heavily modified biological structures immediately.
"Nomu," Jeanist said grimly. "Those are the exact same engineered types that nearly killed Endeavor in Kyushu."
Mirai pushed his glasses up his nose.
"They aren't mindless," Mirai noted, his voice extremely tight. "Standard Nomus thrash and destroy everything. These three can communicate."
Mirko glared at the screen, her previous battle-hunger shifting into pure hero instinct.
"Look at the muscle density on the fat one," Mirko growled. "Those things are built specifically for a war."
Sip.
Kaito took a slow sip of his black coffee.
He looked at the three biological monsters on the television screen.
He didn't look excited or challenged.
Just looked deeply exhausted. Although he can solve everything, it was really a bad time when you just wanted to relax.
''Another one?'
Sigh.
Kaito let out a heavy breath and placed his cup down on the kitchen counter.
--<>--
Location: Endeavor Hero Agency, Top Floor Office
Enji Todoroki stood perfectly still in the center of the room.
The Number One Hero wore his full combat suit. Flames continuously rolled off his broad shoulders.
He stared dead ahead at the massive television monitor mounted on his wall.
He watched the exact same live news broadcast.
Enji gripped the heavy oak wood of his desk.
CRACK.
The wood violently splintered under his thick fingers.
A visceral, agonizing memory forced its way into his mind.
He remembered the collapsing skyscraper in Fukuoka. Then the blinding speed of Hood.
The phantom pain of claws ripping straight through his left eye was still there.
Coughing up his own blood on the pavement just to survive a fight with one single High-End. If not for the assistance of Hawks, he didn't know the outcome of that fight.
A few sweat dripped down his scarred face.
Seeing three of them standing right in the middle of Tokyo settled a cold dread deep in his stomach.
"..."
"..."
But he is the number one pro hero in Japan.
He won't fucking back down.
"Burnin!" Endeavor roared.
BOOM!
The door slammed open. His fiery sidekick rushed into the office.
"Sir!" Burnin yelled.
Endeavor pointed at the television screen.
"Evacuate that entire city block!" Endeavor ordered loudly. "Call every single pro hero in the district!"
He let go of his splintered desk and stomped toward the door.
Endeavor decided. "I will go first!"
SWIISH.
CRACKLE.
BAAAM. BAAAM.
"NO! CHIEF!" Burnin shouted but Endeavor already blitzed his way out.
"WAIT FOR THE BACK UP!"
--<>--
A/n: Huge announcement... For the past months I have like suffered several problems in my body.
And just this lunch, My left side of my stomach hurts so badly. Thankfully I still have some pain relievers to lessen the pain before I can have a check-up with the doctor.
Last three months ago, I also had problems with my liver. I don't know if I have a stomach ulcer or something since it was on the left side now.
But, I'll have to lessen my workload, from my hobbies and job. Just to take care of my body.
So starting this week, I can only release 6 chapters per week. Hoping you for understanding.
I just hope, the pain I felt recently is not serious like pancreatic complications.
--<>--
Support the journey here:
patreon.com/Dr_Chad
(9 Advanced Chapters)