Mitsuhiko sighed, finally free of the clutches of Jodie-sensei's nagging voice. Okay, it was his fault for losing another textbook and he could tell that Jodie-sensei was getting increasingly less sympathetic to his excuses.

("You might as well just say that the dog ate your homework, Tsuburaya-kun," She said jokingly.)

In his defense, this time there was a guy trying to steal a bike and that seemed more important at the moment than to bother with where he threw his backpack. Then the time before that, he had left his bag wide open while swinging around the city and hadn't noticed until he got back home. Two weeks before, he webbed his bag in an alleyway but unfortunately didn't account for someone's stray dog to rampage through it…

Another sigh escapes his lips, he would have to get the previous class notes from Ayumi and Genta. Arriving at the end of the staircase, he turned towards the Criminology club room, only to be met by the other only two members of the club standing outside the room.

Mitsuhiko frowned, "Ayumi? Genta? What are you two doing?"

Ayumi turned towards him with wide eyes, "He's-He's-!" She stuttered, then seemingly giving up trying to form complete sentences to opt for frantic pointing. "It's him! Here!"

Beside her, Genta nodded silently in agreement, seemingly at a loss for words. Mitsuhiko stared back in confusion, "who?"

"Him!" Ayumi grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the doorway with a surprising amount of strength. Their clubroom didn't have much, it was a measly space with a set of foldable table and chairs, lend to them graciously by another club. The lone posters and newspaper clippings were awkwardly placed on the walls and there are still remains of Genta's snack packaging on the floor.

Sitting in one of the chairs however, was a man dressed lazily in formal wear. It looked as if he had tried to look well-put together, but gave up halfway through the cuff buttons. He shifted his expensive-looking shades on top of his head as Mitsuhiko stumbled into view, "Ah, you must be Tsuburaya-kun. We were just talking about you."

"Iron Man-!" Mitsuhiko squeaked, feeling his face heat up. "Um, what-what are you doing-?"

Here. An Avenger. Sitting in probably the most uninteresting club in Teitan High, while drinking nonchalantly from a juice box that looks suspiciously similar to the ones they have in the school vending machine.

"I'm not in my suit currently but yes, I am Iron Man. Just call me Kuroba, I prefer Kaito but everyone just loves my dad's last name." Kuroba looked over at the three huddled by the doorway, "You know that you guys can come in and sit down, I am the one intruding after all."

Mitsuhiko cautiously moved forwards, with Ayumi and Genta pressed tightly behind him as if using him as a shield. He fidgeted and swallowed nervously as he settled down into one of the seats.

"So, um, what is going on? Didn't, I didn't expect to see you here, in, well," Mitsuhiko gestured wordlessly at the space, "a place like this."

"Well before I answer that, a quick question," Kuroba pulls out a phone from his pocket, the screen expanding into a hologram as a familiar video played on the screen. "That's you, right?"

Mitsuhiko started, feeling his hands go cold, "Uh, no–?"

"So you're the spider boy," Kuroba interrupted him. Oh, crap. Mitsuhiko glanced away when he realized his mistake, nervously clenching his clammy hands together at the reveal of his identity.

Kuroba continued on as another video showing a person swinging down and preventing an incoming car to crash into a bus played on the projecting screen. "That's a pretty good catch there," He gestured at it, "1300 kilograms at 64 kilometers per hour. I'm impressed."

"You found that on the internet though," Mitsuhiko tried, "That's, that can't be real you know. It's fake."

"Yeah!" Ayumi finally chimed in to defend him, "it's probably just, CGI or something. Like the Gomera movie that premiered saw last week!"

"Gomera looked really real," Genta added definitively with a nod.

"Oh, I was invited to the pre-screening of that," Kuroba said casually, "but not the point. Use your heads, why would I be here if I wasn't confident that one of you three is the one in the video?"

They shrank back from the man's accusing stare, slumping together in defeat. Ayumi got up the courage to look back nervously, "So, uh, what's going to happen to us?"

"Nothing bad, I assure you. So stop cowering away from me like I'm a supervillain, it hurts my feelings." Kuroba huffed, "Look, I already told you. I'm impressed by what you guys do – well, one of you in particular – You have skills that I need right now. Now those spider web silk, who made that?"

"All three of us did," Mitsuhiko admitted, "We made it together. But I'm the only one with the, super strength and all."

"I see," Kuroba leaned back in the chair, seemingly pondering something. "So why do you guys do this? This detective business."

"Well we can, we have the power to help people!" Genta said heatedly before the other two can hush him, "Are you saying we can't?"

Kuroba didn't seem to be bothered by the retort, "First of all, I never said that. Second, I was hoping you'd be more specific. Come on, there's got to be more than this. It's one thing to help an old lady walk across the street and another to stick your noses into crime scenes."

"Well, we've just been, you know, us, our entire lives." Mitsuhiko said quietly, he paused to look up at Kuroba's expression.

"Go on," he prompted, his face unreadable.

Mitsuhiko exhaled, "then there's you, the rest of the Avengers, saving the world and all that big stuff. But even then, people get hurt and bad things happen." Like the first time they went to investigate the supposedly haunted mansion down the street, just three elementary kids going ghost hunting. However what they found was worse than a supernatural being – a man who was guilt-ridden by the murder of his father, but was kept locked up in the basement by his mother, unable to turn himself in for 5 years.

He clenched his fist and looked the other man in the eye, "I know the police can investigate and find out who did it, but that doesn't change the fact that there's a dead body on the ground."

"Or on top of the elevator," Ayumi muttered almost inaudibly beside him. Mitsuhiko winced inwardly as he remembers up the time they found a body in a bathtub, and on the couch, and hanging from the ceiling in front of the movie screen…

Yeah, they probably should consider seeing a therapist some time together.

"So you just want to look out for the little guys," Kuroba said, breaking the silence. "Filling the gap between superheroes and the police, doing what you can to make the world safer and all that."

They looked at each other and nodded in confirmation.

"Basically," Mitsuhiko replied, nervously fidgeting with his hands again.

"Right," Kuroba stood up at that and checked his watch, "Well, I think I've took up enough of your time. I know there's still a lot of things that need to be explained, but I think it'd be best if we save that discussion for somewhere away from possible prying ears."

They looked outside as a few students chattering loudly walked by their door, most likely now heading home from the English study club a couple of rooms down. Right, that makes sense.

"So, when are we going to meet up again?" Ayumi asked.

"I'll send a call a few days. Well, not me specifically," Kuroba corrected himself as the three faces fell in disappointment. "Me as in, us, someone from the company. Anyways, I should get going now."

As he went for the door, Ayumi's eyes met the two other boys and grinned. Knowing that smile, they looked back and nodded in mutual understanding.

"Kuroba-I, I mean, Kaito-san!" Ayumi called out, stumbling slightly over the name. The man turned around with a questioning look as Mitsuhiko and Genta hastily pulled out a pen and some posters. She can barely keep her voice leveled as she bowed her head down, her eyes peeking up in nervous excitement.

"Um, could you perhaps sign some stuff for us, please?"

Mitsuhiko shrank back from the two looming shadows advancing towards him, trying to sink into the wall as he held his hands up in surrender, "I-I swear that I can explain this-!"

"Mitsuhiko," the boy swallowed nervously as Ayumi glared at him, "you traitor."

"Yeah! How could you just drop out of class and fly to Germany?" Genta rolled up his sleeves and crossed his arms. "You left us behind and you didn't even tell us."

"It wasn't my intention!" Mitsuhiko protested, "I wanted to stay and I tried to say no but Kaito-san-!"

"You could've at least sent us a call or text-"

"Don't expect me to give you my notes for class-"

As his last resort, Mistuhiko hastily pulled out his phone and held it in front of him like a shield. "Look, I'm sorry! I know that I should've found a way to contact you guys but I recorded everything!"

Ayumi and Genta looked unimpressed, "and you think that'll make it up to us?"

"All of the Avengers were there! Antman, Black Widow, Hawkeye! I even fought with the Captain!"

That caught their attention, Genta paused and looked at him suspiciously. "What? Are you serious?"

Mitsuhiko nodded frantically as he pointed towards one of the luggage he brought back, "I told you, it's all recorded! Kaito-san even made me a brand-new suit and everything!"

Ayumi's eyes glimmered with curiousity at that, anger temporarily held back. "Fine then, you're not forgiven yet but I think I'll let you live a bit longer. We're not letting you go until you show us everything."