….
The area was dead quiet when he arrived - the outskirts of Shizuoka industrial zone, long abandoned, a yard of rust and scrap metal.
The air stank of oil and smoke, and faint blue light flickered behind the piles of junk like ghostly fireflies.
Jin-Ho's eyes narrowed. Blue fire.
He moved closer, hands in his pockets, not bothering to mask his presence.
The sound of shouting reached him before he even saw what was happening.
In the clearing beyond the rusted fence, a young boy was surrounded by three older thugs - all wearing half-burnt jackets with some gang insignia Jin-Ho didn't care to recognize.
Toya - though Jin-Ho didn't call him that yet, looked barely fourteen.
His skin was pale but blotched with angry burn marks that crept up his neck.
His left eye gleamed with rage.
"Say that again!" the boy snarled.
One of the thugs laughed, tossing a charred kitten to the ground. "You gonna burn me too, freak? Like you did to it?"
That was all it took.
A roar of blue flame erupted from Toya's hand, slamming into the man's chest and sending him flying into a heap of junk.
The other two panicked - one ran, the other tried to fight back - and Jin-Ho just stood there, leaning against the fence, watching.
The boy's fury wasn't random - there was a reason.
A few feet away, a cat lay on the dirt, its fur singed, chest barely rising.
"Ah." Jin-Ho muttered, pulling out a small slip of paper. "That explains it."
While Toya fought, Jin-Ho crouched beside the cat, pressing a faintly glowing talisman on its side.
It is a [High Grade Healing Talisman].
"Sorry, little guy. That is all I can do… for now." He murmured, moving past it. "But I promise I will save you."
It wouldn't heal it completely, but it would keep the poor thing alive for a while longer.
By the time he looked back, the fight was over.
The thugs were either unconscious or screaming, and the boy stood there breathing hard, arm shaking, flames flickering like dying candlelight.
When Toya finally noticed him, Jin-Ho was still crouched near the cat, calmly brushing dust off his school blazer.
"Nice fight." He flashes a thumbs-up. "Kinda messy, but gets the job done."
Toya's body stiffened, that voice was quite familiar. "Who the hell are you?"
He didn't wait for an answer - he just hurled a blast of blue fire straight at Jin-Ho's face.
The flames crashed forward, lighting up the night, and vanished, snuffed out the instant they touched him.
Jin-Ho sighed. "Right to the face again. I swear, this keeps happening."
He rose slowly, brushing his hands together. "Anyway, kid. You are coming with me. I believe you need some counselling sessions."
Toya scowled. "Not a chance."
"Figured you would say that."
A brief scuffle, quick, one-sided, and over before Toya even realized it.
The next thing he knew, his world was spinning, his wrists aching, and that annoying man was dragging him by the collar through the dirt.
Jin-Ho caught him before he hit the ground, muttering. "Stubborn little bastard."
Then he slung Toya over his shoulder like a sack of rice and started walking.
"Hey—! Let me go!" Toya snapped weakly, trying to ignite his flames again.
"Nope. You will set your hair on fire, genius."
He didn't bother explaining who he was or what he wanted.
There would be time for that later.
For now, all that mattered was that the kid was awake…. and healthy. Too healthy.
The cat, miraculously still breathing, mewed faintly behind them - the healing talisman glowing faintly in the dark.
Jin-Ho glanced back once, then smirked. "Guess we are both taking in strays tonight."
He kept walking.
Toya didn't know it yet - but that night, his life had already started to change.
Forever.
….
Jin-Ho shifted Toya's weight on his shoulder as he walked through the alleyways.
The kid stopped fighting anymore - just grumbling under his breath, too tired to keep struggling.
Behind them, the cat he had patched up floated gently in the air, held aloft by Jin-Ho's [Telekinesis].
Its tiny paws dangled lazily, the talisman on its side pulsing with a soft amber light. Every so often it let out a questioning mewl, as if wondering what kind of weird group it had just joined.
Jin-Ho had initially considered using Blacky… but the creature would stick out far too much.
So instead, with a faint grimace, he pulled out another [High Grade Concealment Talisman] and activated it.
[High Grade Talismans].
He learned how to make them when he levelled up.
However - they weren't easy to make, time-consuming, resource-heavy, and annoying to replace.
But this wasn't the moment to be grumpy about it.
He needed results, not complaints.
….
Their stride ended at a modest apartment complex on the quieter side of Hosu.
The lights in most rooms were off - except one on the third floor, where faint laughter and the sound of TV static spilled into the hallway.
Jin-Ho balanced Toya's limp body against his hip, freed one hand, and knocked.
The door opened almost instantly.
"Roomie!" A man beamed, his wide grin the same as ever.
His messy hair stuck out in every direction, his hoodie half-zipped, and a mug of instant noodles dangled in one hand. "You are back! I was starting to think you ran off to start your own cult without me."
He is Jin Bubaigawara - better known as Twice.
But a much younger version, right now, he is twenty-two, living alone in a cramped apartment.
His Quirk is called, "Double" - allows him to create perfect duplicates of anything:
Living or non-living, including himself and other people.
Jin-Ho had met him during his earlier days in this world, long after he crossed paths with Giran.
After staying in this world for six months.
For now, Jin was just a loud, eccentric guy who cracked jokes to keep the silence away - someone who laughed too hard and talked to himself a bit too often.
But Jin-Ho knew who he really was though, and more importantly, what was coming.
The 'nine-day conflict with his clones'.
It hadn't happened yet.
But it would - somewhere near the start of the main story.
Jin-Ho couldn't remember the exact timeline.
What he did remember was this:
Before joining the League, Jin had used his Quirk to create clones of himself.
The problem?
The clone insisted he was the original - and the two began fighting to prove their existence.
That scuffle snowballed into a nine-day standoff, each clone making more clones, each killing one another until only one remained… or believed he had.
The trauma shattered his mind.
Jin developed dissociative identity disorder, forever questioning whether he was the real one or just another duplicate.
…and Jin-Ho remembered the root cause behind everything.
Loneliness.
That was all it took for Jin to fall apart, being alone long enough for the cracks in his mind to split open.
So this time, Jin-Ho made a simple choice.
He would make sure Jin never felt alone in the first place. And if that small change could alter his fate - then that was exactly what he intended to do.
Jin-Ho just stepped past him, carrying Toya straight into the room. "Close the door, Twice. Got something."
Jin blinked, glancing at the kid dangling over Jin-Ho's shoulder. "Uh… is that a 'something' or a 'someone'? 'Cause one of those sounds like kidnapping, and I am not sure I have the bail money for that."
Jin-Ho ignored the comment, setting Toya down carefully on the couch. "He is the kid I used to talk about. He will be living with us from now on."
The flying cat drifted in after him, making Jin drop his cup of noodles.
"Holy—! It's floating!" He yelped, pointing dramatically. "You brought a ghost cat! Dude, you didn't tell me our place was haunted! This is awesome!"
"It's not haunted. That's my quirk."
He flicked his wrist, and the cat gently landed on a folded blanket near the heater.
It curled up instantly, purring like it owned the place.
Toya, still half-conscious, groaned. "Where… the hell… am I?"
Jin crouched down next to him, poking his cheek. "In my living room, little bro! Don't worry, we are mostly sane here. Mostly."
Jin-Ho shot him a look. "Don't scare the kid, Jin."
"Scare him? I am the comforting presence here!" Jin gestured grandly toward himself. "You are the scary one - showing up at dawn with blood on your blazer and a levitating cat. That's horror-movie-level weird."
Jin-Ho just rolled his eyes, heading to the small kitchenette.
Jin crouched again beside Toya, tilting his head curiously. "So, kid… blue flames, huh? That's badass. Name is Jin. Jin Bubaigawara. You can call me Twice, it's a cool nickname right? Jin-Ho gave it to me."
Toya's eyes flicked open slightly, gaze unfocused. "You guys… weird as hell."
Jin grinned. "I get that a lot."
Jin-Ho came back with a damp towel and a bottle of water.
He sat beside the couch, tossing the bottle lightly toward Jin. "Make him drink, not too much. His body is burned out from the heat control."
Jin nodded solemnly - then immediately tried to pour water into Toya's mouth like feeding a baby bird.
"Jin." Jin-Ho said flatly.
"Right, right, small sips, I got it."
The boy coughed once, weakly, but managed to swallow.
Jin-Ho leaned back, stretching his arms. "He will be fine after some rest."
Jin smiled, propping his feet on the coffee table. "Man, I like this new rhythm we have got. You go out, find broken strays, I feed them noodles, and the rent still gets paid. It's like having a very sketchy family."
The cat purred louder from its blanket.
Jin raised his mug. "To new roommates - human and otherwise."
Jin-Ho just sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You are buying groceries next time."
"Deal!" Jin said brightly. "As long as I can get the cat a name. What do you think - Floaty McBurnface?"
Toya groaned again. "Kill me."
"See?" Jin grinned. "He is already fitting right in."
….
.
[To be continued…]
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