Location: Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters
Time: 1:00 PM
SLID.
The automatic glass doors slid open.
Kaito walked inside the busy lobby in his Hero X appearance. He wore his white suit, red tie, and gold glasses.
Toshinori Yagi walked beside him, wearing his oversized yellow trench coat.
Principal Nezu stood waiting near the reception desk.
Nezu looked at Kaito.
The principal's sharp eyes analyzed the young man. He was very curious of the man that All Might asked a favor for.
He looked at Kaito and felt something indescribable. He wasn't sure what it was.
Nezu turned to Toshinori.
"I see why you called me for a favor early this morning," Nezu said quietly. "If the retired Symbol of Peace suddenly walked in here and sponsored an unknown young man. They would assume you are hiding a secret weapon."
"Thank you for stepping in, Principal," Toshinori nodded respectfully.
--<>--
Three hours earlier.
Hotel room.
Makoto sat on the edge of the bed. She had a stack of printed HPSC forms on her lap.
Kaito stood by the window. Toshinori and Mirai sat across from each other at the small table.
"I am staying dead on paper," Mirai stated firmly. "I will not reveal my resurrection. That means I cannot sign those forms. I cannot be your guarantor."
Makoto sighed. She set the pen down on the bed.
"If you go through the normal adult registry without a sponsor, it will take months," Makoto pointed out. "There are tedious written exams, basic evaluations, and mandatory waiting periods. The whole point of getting a guarantor was to skip the line and get the license today."
Kaito kept his hands in his pockets. He didn't say anything.
The guarantor rule was always just a flimsy excuse he made up to justify resurrecting Mirai anyway.
Toshinori leaned forward in his chair.
"I will do it," Toshinori offered brightly. "I am retired. I still hold my hero license. I will sponsor you, X."
"..."
"..."
The room went completely quiet.
Makoto stared at him. Mirai adjusted his glasses and stared at him. Kaito turned away from the window and just stared at him.
Toshinori looked around. The atmosphere felt incredibly awkward.
"What?" Toshinori asked, blinking.
"Pfft..."
Kaito covered his mouth. He started chuckling quietly by the window.
Makoto rubbed her forehead.
"All Might," Makoto said gently. "You are the former Number One Hero. You sponsoring an unregistered adult with zero background will cause a political storm. The HPSC will put a microscope on all of us."
Toshinori crossed his arms. He realized his mistake.
He was terrible at politics. He usually just punched villains and let other people handle the paperwork.
"Ahem..." Toshinori coughed into his fist, feeling embarrassed. "I did not think about the political fallout."
"It is fine," Mirai said. "We just need someone else. Someone with extreme political influence. Someone the government trusts completely."
Mirai looked at Toshinori.
"Ask Principal Nezu for a favor," Mirai suggested.
Toshinori blinked. "Principal Nezu?"
"He runs the most prestigious hero school in Japan," Mirai explained. "He has the clearance to fast-track any exam. If he brings in a new hero, the HPSC will just assume Nezu found a talented civilian and wants to legitimize him. Nobody questions Nezu."
Toshinori nodded. He pulled his secure phone out of his pocket.
"I will call him right now," Toshinori said, walking toward the hallway.
Makoto opened her laptop on the bed.
"We have another problem," Makoto said. "Mirai needs a new identity. Kaito altered the cognition of everyone in the world. If we walk outside, nobody will recognize you."
Mirai walked over to the bed and looked at the screen.
A small holographic projection of Eve 0.2 popped up from the keyboard.
[I have accessed the national database,] Eve chimed through the speakers. [I can insert a complete birth certificate, medical history, and tax record for a new identity. I just need a name.]
"Keep it simple," Mirai said. "Something completely mundane."
Makoto typed on the keyboard.
"Shin," Makoto suggested. "Shin Kudo."
"That sounds like a boring salaryman," Kaito joked from the window.
"I want to sound like a boring salaryman," Mirai said seriously. "An ordinary citizen."
[Registering Shin Kudo,] Eve announced. [Age thirty-four. Occupation: freelance consultant. The records are now permanently embedded in the government servers. The background check is flawless.]
Toshinori walked back into the room. He put his phone away.
"Nezu agreed," Toshinori said. "He is waiting for us at the HPSC testing facility in Tokyo."
Kaito stepped away from the window.
"Perfect," Kaito said while looking at Makoto and Mirai. "Please go secure the office building for the agency. Me and All Might will go take the exam."
--<>--
Present Time.
Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters.
Nezu smiled politely at the young man in the white suit.
"I am looking forward to seeing your abilities," Nezu said. "The hero society needs a new pillar right now."
"I appreciate the help, Principal," Kaito replied.
Nezu looked up at Toshinori. The tall, skeletal man was looking around the busy lobby nervously.
"Toshinori, you cannot stay out in the open like this," Nezu warned. "You are too recognizable. The media and the HPSC agents will swarm us if they see you sponsoring a new hero."
Kaito chuckled.
SNAP.
He snapped his fingers softly.
A tiny distortion rippled through the lobby air.
"Don't worry about it," Kaito said casually. "I just adjusted the cognition of everyone in the building. To them, Toshinori just looks like a tired old man. They will completely ignore him."
Nezu stared at Kaito.
He looked at the HPSC guards near the metal detectors.
One of them glanced directly at Toshinori and then immediately looked away, showing absolutely zero interest in the former Symbol of Peace.
Nezu sighed.
"Why did a young man with your talents wait so long to become a hero?" Nezu asked, genuinely curious.
"Change of heart..." Kaito answered with a straight face.
Nezu shook his head and turned around.
"Follow me," Nezu said. "I already pushed the recommendation paperwork through. We are skipping the written exams and the basic evaluations. You are going straight to the physical combat assessment."
--<>--
Location: Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters - Underground Testing Facility
Time: 1:30 PM
The massive observation deck buzzed with activity.
Dozens of HPSC agents sat at glowing control consoles, typing rapidly and monitoring the camera feeds.
Principal Nezu stood near the main reinforced glass window overlooking the simulated city.
He cheerfully sipped tea from a small thermos.
Toshinori stood a few feet behind him.
Thanks to Kaito's cognition block, the HPSC agents completely ignored the former Symbol of Peace, treating him like part of the furniture.
Agent Mera rubbed his temples. The heavy bags under his eyes looked darker than usual.
"Principal," Mera said, his voice dragging. "I reviewed your candidate's file. The background checks are completely clean. No criminal record. Flawless taxes. But the name..."
Mera squinted at the clipboard in his hands. It was still blurred
Mera winced and squeezed his eyes shut.
"Every time I try to read the top line, I get nothing." Mera complained. "My vision just blurs out."
"Ah, minor clerical glitches. No harm done," Nezu smiled politely, deflecting the issue entirely. "Do not worry about it, Mera. Focus on the assessment."
Step. Step.
Footsteps approached the glass.
Pro Hero Edgeshot stood next to Mera, wearing his full ninja uniform.
He had been called in specifically for this exam.
"It is incredibly rare for a grown adult with zero hero school experience to get a direct sponsorship," Edgeshot said, his sharp eyes fixed on the empty street down in the simulation. "Especially a sponsorship from the Principal of U.A. High School. The HPSC requested I act as the final villain boss for this assessment. I also wanted to test him myself."
Mera looked down at the clipboard again, avoiding the blurry name at the top.
"What exactly is his Quirk?" Mera asked.
"He registered it under the name Canvas," Nezu answered brightly.
Edgeshot crossed his arms. "Canvas?"
Down in the simulated city, the heavy metal doors opened.
Kaito walked out onto the main street. He wore his crisp white suit and gold glasses.
"..Hmm~~"
He kept his hands resting casually in his pockets and looked around the concrete buildings while humming.
Dozens of professional actors from the Help Us Company were already positioned in the rubble and inside the damaged buildings.
They wore tattered civilian clothes and fake blood, acting terrified.
[Begin the assessment,] Mera's voice echoed over the city's loudspeakers.
VVRRRRR. CLANK. CLANK.
Three military-grade HPSC suppression bots rolled out from the side alleys.
They were massive, heavily armored, and equipped with real flamethrowers and high-pressure cement cannons.
"HELP US!" an actor screamed from the third floor of a half-collapsed office building. "WE'RE TRAPPED!"
Two of the suppression bots targeted the building.
Their hydraulic gears whined as they aimed their cement cannons at the main support pillars.
Kaito didn't take a fighting stance. He just smiled slightly.
"...Help is coming," Kaito said casually.
He raised his right hand.
SNAP.
The space around the two massive robots simply folded.
The heavy machines instantly lost all their volume.
They flattened completely, turning into 2D black ink drawings printed directly onto the asphalt road.
Up in the observation deck, the typing stopped.
Dozens of HPSC agents shot up out of their chairs and crowded the glass.
"What happened?!" one agent yelled. "Did he vaporize them?"
"Look at the street cameras!" another agent pointed at a monitor. "They aren't destroyed! They're drawn on the road!"
Down below, the third suppression bot locked onto a group of Help Us actors huddled behind a wrecked sedan.
FWOOSH.
The bot unleashed its flamethrower.
A roaring, blazing wave of real fire rushed directly at the actors. They threw their arms up, bracing for the intense heat.
Kaito stepped directly in front of them.
SNAP.
The roaring fire instantly flattened.
It turned into a bright, 2D colored drawing suspended in the middle of the air. The heat vanished completely.
Kaito reached out and grabbed the edge of the 2D fire.
CRUMPLE.
He peeled it off the air like a literal sticker. He crumpled the drawing up in his palm, walked over to a metal trash can on the sidewalk, and casually tossed it inside.
He turned around and smiled at the actors.
"Everyone okay?" Kaito asked politely.
"..."
"..."
The actors stared at him, their jaws hanging open.
"Did he... did he just peel the fire?" one of the actors muttered in absolute shock. "What exactly his quirk?!"
CRACK.
The top of the damaged office building broke apart.
A massive chunk of concrete rubble plummeted toward the street.
Kaito didn't even look up.
SNAP.
The falling concrete turned into a flat paper cutout. It drifted down like a leaf and landed softly on Kaito's shoulder.
Tap. Tap.
He brushed it off his white suit jacket.
Up in the observation deck, Edgeshot narrowed his eyes.
The sheer casualness of the rescue was unsettling.
"Drop me in," Edgeshot ordered. "Now let us see how he handles a live target."
Edgeshot turned and dropped down a deployment chute.
A few seconds later, the Number Four Hero landed softly on the street directly in front of Kaito.
The Help Us actors gasped and backed away, recognizing the famous ninja.
"I am the villain of this scenario," Edgeshot announced loudly. He dropped into a low combat stance. "Your rescue operations are flawless. Let us see how you fare against a direct threat."
Kaito looked at the pro hero. He kept his hands in his pockets.
"I prefer negotiations," Kaito bantered lightly. "But I can accommodate you."
Edgeshot activated his Foldabody quirk. He flattened his entire body into a razor-thin string.
SWISH.
Edgeshot launched himself forward.
He aimed directly to bind Kaito's wrists and end the exam instantly.
SWISH.
Kaito just stepped sideways.
Edgeshot whipped past him.
The razor string bounced off a concrete barrier, angled sharply, and shot back toward Kaito's blind spot.
"Incredible speed," Kaito noted, dodging smoothly as the string sliced the air inches from his face.
Edgeshot expanded back into his full human form right behind Kaito. He reached out to grapple the young man's jacket.
SNAP.
A ripple of distortion hit the air.
Kaito pulled himself and Edgeshot directly into the flat surface of the concrete barrier next to them.
"What the hell?!" an actor from the Help Us Company screamed on the street.
Several actors scrambled backward, tripping over the rubble.
They pointed at the concrete wall in absolute disbelief.
Up in the viewing deck, the HPSC agents completely lost their minds. Dozens of people jumped out of their chairs.
"Did they just go inside the wall?!" a senior agent yelled, slamming his hands on the console. "Zoom in on camera four! Zoom in right now!"
On the side of the concrete barrier, a 2D white-suited man and a 2D ninja were clearly visible. To the outside world, it looked exactly like a highly stylized, colorful 2D drawing fight projected directly onto the wall.
Inside the 2D plane, Edgeshot didn't freeze.
He found himself standing in a vibrant, purely flat dimension.
'What is this place?' Edgeshot thought, his mind racing to process the shift in reality. 'Is this the effect of his quirk?... wait. I can still move!'
He immediately adapted to the side-scrolling physics.
SWIISH. SWOOSH.
He launched a rapid flurry of razor-string strikes at Kaito.
Kaito moved perfectly within the 2D space.
He dodged the lightning-fast strikes with his hands still in his pockets, stepping back and forth with casual ease.
The bright colors of his suit popped against the gray background of the concrete drawing.
SNAP.
"You're so serious, Edgeshot-san.."
Kaito stepped out of the 2D barrier. He pulled Edgeshot out with him.
They erupted back into the 3D world mid-air above the street.
SNAP.
Edgeshot twisted his body in the air. He shifted his weight and delivered a diving kick directly at Kaito's chest.
SNAP.
The world folded again.
They instantly flattened onto the asphalt road below. Now, they were fighting as 2D ink drawings sliding across the ground.
"Look down!" one of the civilian actors shouted, backing away from the street. "They're on the ground! They're literally drawn on the road!"
Inside the asphalt drawing, Edgeshot flipped backward.
SWIISH-SWOOOSH.
He threw a series of string-pierce attacks.
Kaito casually sidestepped every single one.
Edgeshot stopped his assault. He stood completely still in the 2D dimension.
'... I can't hit him at all,' Edgeshot realized, a cold sweat breaking out on his face despite the 2D space. 'I can never win. He is not even fighting me seriously. And right now this guy is controlling the very medium we exist in. Anyone can be trapped here with no way out.'
It was an insurmountable gap in power.
Edgeshot raised his flat, inked hand. He made the formal gesture of surrender inside the drawing.
SNAP.
Kaito pulled them both out of the asphalt.
They expanded seamlessly back into three dimensions and landed softly on their feet on the street.
Edgeshot looked at Kaito. He nodded respectfully.
"I surrender," Edgeshot said clearly for the microphones to pick up. "You pass."
Up in the observation deck, the room was dead silent.
"..."
"..."
Nobody was typing on their keyboards.
Nor anybody was talking.
The agents just stared down at the street through the reinforced glass, completely dumbfounded by the scale of the quirk they just witnessed.
Even Agent Mera stood frozen. His mouth hung slightly open. His exhausted brain completely stalled out trying to process the dimension-hopping fight.
A junior HPSC agent stood next to him. The young man swallowed hard.
He awkwardly tapped Mera on the shoulder.
"... Ahem, Sir?" the junior agent whispered nervously, breaking the heavy silence. "What... what is the final verdict for the assessment?"
Mera blinked rapidly.
He shook himself out of his stupor. He looked down at the clipboard in his hands, then looked back at the street.
"Just pass him," Mera mumbled, completely dumbfounded. "Print his license..."
Nezu smiled cheerfully and poured himself a fresh cup of tea from his thermos.
Toshinori watched Kaito shake hands with Edgeshot down on the street.
' Young X was really strong. Even in my prime, I can't think of any good idea how to counterattack him.'
--<>--
Time: 8:00 PM
Location: Tokyo Restaurant, Private Dining Room
Kaito sat at the head of the long wooden table. He still in his Hero X appearance. Makoto sat to his right. Toshinori and Nezu sat to his left. Mirai sat at the far end of the room.
Plates of premium sushi and grilled beef covered the table.
Kaito reached into his suit pocket. He pulled out a small plastic card.
TOSS.
The card slid across the smooth wood and stopped directly in the center of the table.
It was an official Hero Public Safety Commission Pro Hero License.
The printed name on the card was completely heavily encrypted by the cognition block.
"I look good in the picture" Kaito joked. He picked up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks.
Toshinori raised his glass of water.
"Congratulations, Young Man," Toshinori smiled warmly. "You earned it."
"You certainly stunned the examiners," Nezu added, taking a sip from his wine glass. "Every HPSC agent almost forgot how to speak."
Makoto opened her bag. She pulled out a thick manila folder and slid it across the table toward Kaito.
"I secured the agency building," Makoto announced. "It is a five-story commercial office in Tokyo. I used our funds to buy the property completely outright."
Toshinori looked at the thick folder.
"That is incredibly fast, Young Lady," Toshinori said.
Makoto smiled and tapped the folder.
"Our A.I. handles the digital paperwork instantly," Makoto explained. "Bypassing the bank loans and the real estate agents. We just bought the entire block."
Toshinori looked back at Kaito.
"What will be the operational focus of your agency?" Toshinori asked. "Most offices specialize in either rescue, combat, or underground intelligence."
Nom. Nom.
Gulp.
Kaito chewed his food and swallowed.
"Battle, rescue, and containment," Kaito answered casually. "My quirk handles all three without any issues. We will just do everything."
Toshinori nodded in agreement.
"And the official name?" Toshinori asked.
"I registered as Hero X," Kaito replied. "The title just feels right. We will call the business The X Agency."
Nezu sat quietly.
His intellect ran a fast analysis on Kaito's quirk. He saw the reports from the testing facility. He watched the footage on the monitors.
He naturally compared the power to the strongest reality-altering quirk known to the world.
America's Number One Hero, Star and Stripe. Her quirk, New Order, imposed new physical rules on targets.
Kaito's Canvas operated on a completely different level.
Canvas ignored physical rules entirely. It changed the actual dimension of the medium.
The young man sitting next to him could turn reality into a drawing and peel it away.
Sip.
Nezu took a small sip of wine.
'The quirk of this young man is much stronger...'
A deep sense of relief washed over him.
Japan desperately needed an ally with this level of absolute power.
Nezu set his wine down. He looked toward the end of the table.
"And what about you, Mr. Kudo?" Nezu asked politely. "What do you do for a living?"
Nezu assumed the man was just a civilian friend of Toshinori and Kaito.
Mirai set his chopsticks down on his plate.
RUSTLE.
He wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin.
"I am joining The X Agency," Mirai announced calmly.
Toshinori stopped chewing.
"I want to take the role of Chief Logistics and Intelligence Officer," Mirai clarified, looking directly at Toshinori. "I want a quiet life off the radar. I will handle the background operations."
Toshinori swallowed his food.
He stared at Mirai's face.
His former sidekick.
The smartest tactical mind in Japan. A man who died on a hospital bed as a hero.
Now.
He was alive.
A massive wave of gratitude hit Toshinori's chest.
He smiled broadly. He forced down the tears threatening to form in his eyes.
"That is wonderful news, Shin," Toshinori said softly.
Nezu watched the exchange.
The highly intelligent principal tracked the heavy emotional weight between Toshinori and Shin Kudo.
He noticed the intense relief in Toshinori's eyes. He noticed the deep, unspoken history in Shin Kudo's posture.
'Interesting..'
Nezu realized the truth instantly. There was a massive secret sitting at this table.
This man was definitely not a random freelance consultant.
Nezu looked down at his tea.
He decided to drop the subject. He respected Toshinori too much to pry into his private life.
If the former Symbol of Peace trusted these people, Nezu trusted them.
Nezu picked up his glass and held it out toward the center of the table.
"To The X Agency," Nezu said.
Kaito smiled. He raised his glass of wine.
Makoto and Mirai raised their glasses. Toshinori did the same.
"To the agency," Kaito agreed.
CLINK.
The glasses tapped together over the wooden table.
The new era of the Hero X officially began in another reality.
--<>--
A/n: I don't feel good. I had a lump on backside, it hurts too much. I even caught a fever because of it. I think I needed to rest and heal for a day or two.
Hopefully it will be gone with just sitz bath, pain reliever and antibiotics. If not, I will have a minor surgery to remove it.
Sorry~
-Dr_Chad