Chapter 1
The night was brightly lit as the helicopters for Hero TV followed their stars, shouting out commentary as they went. It was a big night for them; not only was it the premiere of the new season, but they were finally able to release their shiny new Hero onto the public. They'd been hinting all the previous season about a young, up-and-coming star that was in training before joining them. They'd made such a big deal out of all of it that the other Heroes had almost felt certain the public didn't believe it could live up to all the hype.
As Kaede Kaburagi, codenamed Tiger-chan, came skating along the street though, you wouldn't need super hearing to know cheers were coming up all over Sternbild.
"And here she is!" The announcer was just as enthusiastic as ever. "Our new Hero, Tiger-chan! As many of you are aware, Tiger-chan is the daughter of Wild Tiger, former member of the A-Team Heroes and current enthusiastic petty crimes chaser. You'll always be in for a surprise, folks, because Tiger-chan can copy the ability of any NEXT she touches. What will she show us first?"
The camera cut straight to Kaede, catching sight of all three logos on her armor: Rollerblade on her boots, Kadokawa Shoten on her left arm, and Sanrio branded right across her chest. Her armor was a soft pink and mostly just covered her knees, elbows and chest, with a black body suit underneath and a helmet with a tinted visor over her head. Her father had insisted on that one the minute he saw she'd be utilizing rollerblades.
"Careful, Tiger-chan!" Fire Emblem smiled as he ran ahead, his cape flowing behind him. "Our brazen little kidnapper is a NEXT, but no one seems to know what his power is."
"Thanks, but I can take care of myself!" As if to demonstrate, Kaede sped up, rushing past Fire Emblem and only slightly wishing they'd opted for giving her rocket-powered skates. Poor Kotetsu had screamed at the thought, though; even now that she was a teenager, he was still so protective of her. One couldn't necessarily blame him, since for all the training she'd done she still had little control over her powers sometimes. But, in the end, she'd agreed to join Hero TV partly to prove that she wasn't a little girl anymore, and that her father could rest easy in the old age she and Barnaby agreed was coming upon him.
"And it looks like Rock Bison is off to a good start this season! He's taken a hold of the kidnapper and it looks like we already have an arrest!"
Kaede stopped at that, almost knocking into a car that had been abandoned by a panicking citizen. Lights from the helicopters overhead brought her eyes a few rows of cars ahead to Rock Bison, who was holding the criminal up in the air as the woman he'd taken as a hostage fled. Sky High was more than willing to comfort the woman as she burst into hysterics.
"Well that was a let-down." Blue Rose was beside Kaede, her arms crossed and her ice guns in either hand, just hanging loosely as she observed. "I didn't even get to make my entrance." Just as she sighed and was about to go console the hostage, a blinding light flashed and everyone turned back.
The kidnapper was surrounded by some kind of blue aura. It wasn't like the usual glow of a NEXT when they activated their power; it took the form of a ball around him, and all he could do was sneer as Rock Bison slowly crumpled. Once the kidnapper was let loose, all it took was a simple kick from him and Rock Bison was down.
"What a startling upset! Could this be the mysterious NEXT's powers?"
"But what is it?" Blue Rose asked, narrowing her eyes as the man advanced upon Sky High, who was still consoling the hostage.
"Sky High!" Kaede yelled, and before she could decide on anything else, she charged forward, activating the Hundred Power she had absorbed from her father through the hug he gave her right before she set off. She was determined to pile-drive the man before he could do whatever he'd done to Rock Bison to Sky High.
Kaede flinched as she entered the strange ball of energy, but she managed to push the man right into a lamp post before collapsing to the ground, not even thinking that her Hundred Power had been leeched from her with that touch. It wasn't the classiest way to shut down a bad guy, but she was pretty sure saving Sky High (Thank you, Tiger-chan, and again thank you!) got her some points. Blue Rose was the one to arrest the man in the end, however, trapping him to the glassphalt with what was perhaps an overly-enthusiastic amount of ice.
"My ice is a little bit cold, but your crime has been put on hold!" And her catch phrase never changed over the years. Kaede vaguely remembered her saying something about a poll that determined fans liked it the way it was. Even big corporations knew not to fix something if it wasn't broken, it seemed.
Kaede vaguely registered the blaring voice of the announcer coming from one of the Hero TV helicopters, yelling about Blue Rose making the first arrest of the season, as well as Tiger-chan's wonderful performance in apprehending the criminal. What she was paying more attention to was the ball of energy surrounding her body, exactly the same as the kidnapper's. This was forgotten, however, when she heard Rock Bison groan.
"Are you okay?" she asked, running over to him but careful not to touch him. She still didn't have much control over absorbing powers. She felt a sudden shift in her aura, however, and as soon as Rock Bison was enveloped in it, he groaned in a less painful way and sat up.
"I am, thank you," he said, rubbing at his head even though he still had his helmet on. Kaede breathed a sigh of relief, the relieved look in her eyes hidden behind the tinted visor.
There was the general chaos that always happened when an episode of Hero TV came to a close, but no one seemed to notice Kaede sneak off to the side and sit down in the shadows. Except, of course, her father, who had abandoned the B Team to congratulate his daughter as soon as he'd heard she hadn't died horribly on her first job. Kaede groaned in embarrassment as she saw her father running down the street, giving enthusiastic greetings to his coworkers as he made his way over to her.
He was going for a hug, but he stopped for a second as he came in contact with the energy surrounding his daughter. After a bit, though, he shook his head and picked her up, swinging her around and effectively wiping away whatever power that kidnapper had had. The aura faded from her, and she wasn't sure if she missed it or not.
"Oh, Kaede, look at Daddy's little girl! All grown up and apprehending criminals!" He grinned as he danced them out onto the street, ignoring Fire Emblem's grin and Blue Rose's bemused look. "Someday you'll be just as famous as me."
"Aspiring to be Wild Tiger 1 Minute doesn't aim that high." Fire Emblem nudged Kotetsu playfully as he pulled off his mask. Then he turned to Kaede, who was trying to keep her footing on her rollerblades as her father danced her around. Fire Emblem patted her on the shoulder, and Kaede took the opportunity to scare her father with a burst of flame to get him to let go. "You're learning how to deal with him quite effectively, Tiger-chan."
"Like it's that hard." Kaede rolled her eyes and removed her own head gear, shaking out her flattened hair and frowning. "Where's Mr. Barnaby?"
"Still with the B Squad." Kotetsu grinned sheepishly. "Well, Bunny's Hundred Power hadn't run out when we got word about the criminal being arrested, but mine had. He told me to go if I knew what was good for me."
Two years after Kotetsu and Barnaby had joined the B Squad of Hero TV, Kotetsu's powers weren't much better. They still only lasted about a minute, but every now and then, they wouldn't activate at all. When that happened, Kotetsu was prone to going home looking slightly more tired than usual, made much more obvious since he'd started freeloading at Barnaby's apartment about the time Kaede announced she'd take up Apollon Media's offer to join Hero TV. It made even Kaede, who tried to focus more on her own rise to fame than her father's fall from it, frown.
"Anyway!" Kotetsu waved his hands around as if to wave away the tension that had fallen between him and his daughter. "Your things arrived earlier today, so what do you say we go home so you can unpack? You're starting school tomorrow, too."
Kaede sighed and shook her head, shifting her helmet under her arm. Her father had somehow managed to change out of his suit before meeting her there, but she still had to remove her armor and the bodysuit that was currently making her sweat more than she was comfortable with.
"Okay, Daddy."
