I don't own these characters, they belong to their respective owners

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"I am truly sorry; it is just that without NEXT powers, you can't be a Hero. I am sure you could do the job without them, Kotetsu. But if we allow you to be a hero without powers everyone would try to apply for a job as a Hero." The Director of the Secondary Hero squad sighed "I have talked with the police department, and they said that with a little training you would be welcomed with open arms. Don't think of it as losing your job, think of it… as a demotion. Here is the chief inspector's card. She asked me to give it to you and tell you that if you want the job, call her during business hours and she will tell you when to come in for training."

"Thanks" Kotetsu glumly accepted the card "I appreciate what you've done for me."

The director smiled, "it is nothing, even though you only worked here for a little over 3 months, you performed outstanding. I do not think our moral as a whole has been very high with all the disapproval we get from the fans; but it has raised considerably since you joined. Ever think about teaching at the hero academy?"

Kotetsu scratched his neck nervously, "no, teaching is not for me, I would probably sleep though all the classes"

The director laughed, "Then maybe that would not be a good option." He reached out his hand and looked at Kotetsu, "but whatever you become, I hope it is something that you are happy with. Good Bye-Wild Tiger."

Kotetsu reached out and shook the hand, "good bye,"

Kotetsu closed the door to the Secondary Hero League office, and sighed. It had been three months since Kotetsu had joined the secondary hero League, and that was how long it had taken for his powers to completely run out. Three months and now he was a 'powerless' human. Kotetsu lowered himself onto a bench and looked at the card the Director had given him. Kotetsu couldn't decide whether to throw the damn thing away, or take the job. It wasn't like he needed the money from the job.

What had motivated Kotetsu to become a secondary hero was that his daughter Kaede had thought he had been lazy just hanging around the house. She had wanted her father to be a Hero, something he could never accomplish unless he discovered he had a hidden NEXT power within the next few days.

Kotetsu stood up and slid the card into his pocket; he needed a beer to mull over a decision like this. So he walked off to the parking garage, taking a short cut between two buildings, trying not to pay attention to the crowd of people he left behind, or the Hero TV live streaming on a TV nearby, or the garbage littering the streets, or the person hunched over behind some crates, the blood on that person's clothes, the outfit in general!

"Oh my god" Kotetsu shouted then quickly covered his mouth and looked around, no one was in the ally way. He took a step back as the hunched blue and white figure, partially hidden by the crates stood up. "Lunatic" Kotetsu breathed.

"Leave," Lunatic commanded hoarsely, he was holding his right side, where blood had soaked though his outfit, "and I won't burn you"

"y-you're hurt" Kotetsu stated numbly.

"You think I don't know that?" Lunatic growled, "Now leave, this is your last warning!"

Suddenly there was a scraping sound, and Lunatic grabbed Kotetsu and pulled him behind the crates before Kotetsu could even look up. "Silence" Lunatic hissed quietly into his ear, holding him in a surprisingly strong head lock for someone who was injured.

Kotetsu didn't dare call out for the supposed Hero he knew was probably looking for Lunatic on the rooftop. Normally Kotetsu would not stay still at a moment like this; he would have activated his NEXT powers and taken the villain on himself. But now he didn't have those powers (though he could probably throw the injured Lunatic off without them); or the armor that usually protected him from Lunatic's flames. He was a 'normal' person now, he couldn't do anything. Rather he didn't want to fight Lunatic and capture him, not like this. Lunatic was injured, badly. It didn't seem very heroic to catch criminals that were sick or injured already, taking credit for it would just seem wrong. Plus Lunatic was injured, badly; and had Lunatic not helped him when he had been cornered like this? God he needed to stop thinking, every time he thought, something bad happened, and Kotetsu did NOT like where this train of thought was going.

"We lost him again" Antonio's voice came from above them, angry, "…yeah I know. We will get him eventually, but it's still makes me angry that he gets away every time…. Yeah well you saw the cut that sword gave him, tell the police to check the hospitals. Too bad he took the damn thing, could have gotten DNA from it… yeah, who uses swords these days? I'm going to head back now."

Lunatic and Kotetsu listened to Rock Bison walk away, and after a few seconds Lunatic released Kotetsu, "sword? " he said dumbstruck, looking at Lunatic.

"LEAVE" Lunatic hissed.

Kotetsu looked at Lunatic, hunched over and clutching his side. He saw now, a sword behind him, it was horribly decorated, but apparently still sharp. He made up his mind, "no, my car is just across the street-"

"What does your car matter?"

"We can get to my house in it, and then we could stop the bleeding I have-"

"Don't throw your demented justice into this situation!" Lunatic hissed, "just leave!"

"You saved me when Maverick was after me and now I'm going to repay you the favor." Kotetsu said seriously, "and I don't even know why I'm doing this so-so just stay here while I go get a car."

With that Kotetsu left Lunatic in the alley way and walked calmly to the parking garage. He got into his green SUV stopped to think about what he was doing. He knew he couldn't just leave Lunatic in the alley way now, it went against everything he was not to help someone, but helping lunatic wasn't the same as lunatic helping him. Helping Lunatic was a crime that could put him in jail; Lunatic helping him was just Lunatic being a vigilante. He shuddered to think what Judge Yuri, the judge that had been assigned to all things Kotetsu after his tenth crushed car, would sentence him if he learned what he was doing.

He had to be careful. He glared down at his steering wheel, thinking. He needed to check for cameras, Lunatic needed to get into the back of the car so he could lay down, he shouldn't look like Lunatic when walking out of the alley… or he could back up into the alley, it was wide enough. But why would he be doing that? To throw something away? A plan blossomed in his head and Kotetsu went over this plan several times in his head, decided on several scenarios and then started his car.

"here is a hoodie, use the hood to cover your face till you are in the car, go keep 'watch' if anyone comes by we are going to say we are dumpster diving for some stuff. If anyone does pull off your helmet, and throw it in the back. They might not recognize you if we are lucky. I'll just grab enough to cover the sword and put it in the back. You get in the back and lay down then, we are off. There is a camera on the left building across the street directed towards us, we have maybe ten minutes before someone stops by and wonders what we are doing." Kotetsu said all this as he handed Lunatic a black hoodie Kotetsu kept in the car for cold mornings and started to dig through one of the dumpsters, "what are you waiting for?" he hissed when Lunatic simply stood there. Lunatic jumped slightly then started pulling on the hoodie, "You could get in serious trouble for doing this, Kaburagi" he growled, managing to pull the hood over his helmet.

"Well it is happening" Kotetsu pulled said, pulling dumping what looked like several computer mice and a trashed computer into one of the crates, "that's good! Now get in the car" he picked up the garish sword and placed it into the back of the car, throwing the trash on top of it.

Lunatic grunted and pulled himself into the back of the car. Kotetsu took no time in driving off.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ouch!"

"It's just disinfectant, be a man"

"Kaburagi, I have a giant cut –OW- in my side, I believe I am entitled to a bitch a little."

"A wound you got trying to kill someone, I'd say it ought to hurt"

"That someone rapped five women and beat his wife to death, he deserved to die."

"How do you know he did those things?"

"He was put on trial last week, but the jury –ow be careful! - voted he was innocent. They were 'persuaded' by two of his cousins who managed to get onto the jury somehow."

"How do you know that?"

"Anyone who pays attention to court cases could find that information out, there was to be an appeal next week I think…"

"Hmm…"Kotetsu thought about this for a while then said, "this is going to need stiches."

Lunatic froze in place "NO, I'll be fine"

"No, it isn't. Give me a second I'll get a needle…"

"Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, you are getting NOT going to stitch up this wound. If it is that bad I would rather do it myself,"

"I find it extremely creepy that you know my full name and all I know about you is what your chest looks like and that you kill people as a pastime."

"I don't kill people for a pastime; I kill people who deserve to die because they themselves have killed innocent people."

"So it is okay if someone else starts killing off criminals?"

"So long as they don't hurt innocent people they can go to- get that needle away from me!"

"Loony, it won't hurt if you sit still and let me do this. I have stitched up my dog, my brother, and Antonio before. And they are all alive and kicking. Well, except for my dog… he got hit by that car… but that was after he healed!"

"Don't call me Loony, it's Lunatic"

"Fine, Lunatic, but we I am stitching you up. Here are some pain killers, and put this rag in your mouth to bite down on as is am stitching you up. I'll turn around"

Lunatic grudgingly lifted his helmet up to take the pills and swallow them dry, then bit into the rag and lowered his helmet back down. "Rgan" he mumbled around the rag

"Done? Okay let's start then…" Kotetsu then kneeled down and started to stitch up the cut in Lunatic's side. Lunatic, who was sitting on the edge of the counter, clutched the edge with white knuckles.

"Finished" Kotetsu announced wiping the length of the entire cut with disinfectant one last time then starting to clean up the medical supplies, "stay here, I will get you some clothes to change into"

Lunatic nodded and gently slid himself off the counter, while Kotetsu was gone he took the opportunity to spit out the rag he had been given and inspect the cut himself using the mirror in over the sink. Kotetsu had done a better job than he had thought he would do, better than anything Yuri himself could do with his very limited experience in medicine. He sighed begrudgingly and pulled his looked out the hall, he hadn't been paying much attention to his surrounding when Kotetsu herded him through the house and into the restroom. The house was surprisingly spacious for a city condo, two stories, with a huge living room and decent kitchen down stairs, two bedrooms he guessed, one master one guest. The house was a mess though, beer bottles littered the floor, and ashtrays were scattered about, most needing to be dumped.

He quickly replaced his helmet when he heard Kotetsu approaching, the man was holding a pair of sweat pants and a white t-shirt, "they will probably be a bit baggy" the man apologized in advance, "you are a lot skinnier than me, you can clean up in the rest room if you want, towels are in the closet. I'll… um try to clean up some?" Kotetsu grimaced at the mess.

"Don't bother" Lunatic said, "I should leave, I have to get back before it's dawn anyway"

"You sure?" Kotetsu looked uncertain, "You can stay the night if you want, I don't want you to open those stiches I just spent ten minutes on."

"I'll be fine" Lunatic shook his head, wondering why was this man helping him at all, after all he was a killer and he was a Hero, "I'll be careful not to open the stiches… thank you for… helping me."

"It's fine" Kotetsu scratched the back of his head, "compared to how you helped me when Maverick was accusing me, just a few stiches is nothing. By the way I've been meaning to ask you, why did you help me?"

Lunatic was thrown for a moment by the sudden question; "Because it was the right thing to do" he cursed himself silently for answering so quickly, he didn't want to argue about his beliefs right now. Kotetsu seemed to think be thinking about his answer.

Lunatic was surprised that Kotetsu actually was paying attention to what he was saying and not just shutting it down as 'a murderer's ranting's ignore him and try to arrest him' like everyone else did. He suddenly felt the need to explain to him how he had discovered that Kotetsu's entire record had been cleared and that he knew Kotetsu would not even squish a bug on purpose, let alone kill a person. So he had decided to help Kotetsu get away from the hero's because he knew something had been going on that he was not aware of. Why did he feel the need to explain anything to Kotetsu at all?

Damn he was so confused, as he usually felt when the subject of Kotetsu came up. It was all because Kotetsu was the huge contradiction in the way Yuri saw humanity. Humans were vain, and self-centered, Heroes were not saving people because they felt the need to, but for popularity; Kotetsu contradicted all of these things, and it gave him a headache every time he saw Kotetsu act against these morals. He was the black hole in his view of Justice.

"So you think everything you do is right in one way or another?" Kotetsu asked, snapping Yuri out of his mind rant, a habit he really should drop.

"Well, no" Lunatic said after a while, feeling very queasy "Nobody's perfect… I mean it is wrong to kill people in general, but I only kill people that kill or hurt other people, so it isn't like I'm slaughtering people for no reason"

"So you do it because you feel like it is the right thing to do?" Kotetsu seemed to be thinking out loud and not really asking Yuri directly.

Yuri shrugged, "well- part is because even when they are caught by the police and such they are just put into jail where they eventually get out and the process repeats itself, it seemed like if they were just put to death for committing those crimes, like some countries do, There would be less crime. I mean a lot of the criminals I kill don't care if they are caught or not, because the judicial system is such a way that they don't really get punished at all…" Yuri fell silent, why was he explaining his motives to this man? Yuri didn't have to make anyone understand Lunatic's motives.

"Is it because the City doesn't have a death Penalty anymore?"

"The City deemed it 'inhuman'"

Kotetsu frowned, "So then you showed up, because you felt like justice wasn't doing its part."

"Well… yes and no" Yuri said turning to face the living room, not able to bring him to meet Kotetsu's gaze.

"Well at least you aren't completely bad" Kotetsu said lighting a cigarette, and taking a seat on the living room couch, "I mean you aren't an angel obviously, but at least you have some sense of justice, that makes you a few steps above a demon"

Yuri was dumb struck at Kotetsu's words for a minute, then shook his head, "I'm not some Hero, Kotetsu, I'm just some crazy person trying to push his views onto the world because I is what I think is my duty to some god I that talks to me in my sleep. Were you not the one who told me that all I was doing was senseless killing?"

"well… I thought that at first, at least" Kotetsu said after taking a drag at his cigarette, "But then I looked into some of the people you killed after that lady killer incident, and well… they kind of did deserve to die…" Kotetsu stared down at the ash tray in front of him, his brow's knit "it's confusing. You think about these things and they just keep going in circles like the whole fight about which religion is the one God wants you to follow."

The room grew quiet, Yuri shifted in the uncomfortable silence, not really sure what to say at all, he needed to get away and think about all that Kotetsu had said, he looked over at the clock, "I, should go, it's getting late."

"Okay" Kotetsu said sitting back, "hey, if you ever need help or, anything medical you can't do yourself; don't be afraid to come here, just make sure not to bring the cops," he chuckled, "though I might not be in town,"

"I think you've repaid your debt in full, so don't be worried" Yuri said as he approached the back door he turned around just before he left, "thanks again, Kotetsu."

"No problem"

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It had been a few days since Yuri's injury, and he still had not recovered fully. Kotetsu's stiches had held, and thankfully the wound had not gotten infected, so he was recovering quickly. Lunatic would probably be haunting the streets again by the end of the next week or so. He was still amazed at how calm Kotetsu had been, when he had gotten home he had almost dropped several dishes he had been cleaning up, as Hero TV made a small announcement that Wild Tiger's powers had officially faded away, and today had been his final day as a Hero. Yuri thought that anyone normal would be at least a little depressed if they were in Kotetsu's shoes; yet Kotetsu in person hadn't looked fazed at all, he looked as normal as Kotetsu ever been. The fact that the man's powers had faded, exactly like his father's; yet Kotetsu himself had remained cheerful, the exact opposite of his father: It made the scar his father had so kindly given him ache. And the conversation he had held with Kotetsu didn't help. Wild Tiger had always disproved of what he had been doing as a hero, yet now as Kotetsu he was saying thought he was doing something good for the city: it all made his head spin. He had decided not to think too much about it.

"Just because someone might support your views doesn't mean it's right" Yuri physically flinched as a translucent figure of Mr. Legend scolded him. Besides the flinch, Yuri didn't acknowledge the apparition, and continued reviewing the evidence for his next case, "still ignoring me I see" Mr. Legend sighed, "you know it won't work, Son"

Yuri slapped his desk and turned to his 'father' "shut up,"

"Ah, so you can speak,"

"You're just some figment of my imagination, ghosts don't exist. Get lost."

"What about Thanatos; don't you believe in gods?"

"He's just an excuse I came up with in my lunacy!" Yuri nearly yelled, he took a breath and calmed his voice, "if god truly did exist… you would have never picked up drinking when your powers started to fade. Then I wouldn't have killed you… he, god or Thanatos, does not exist in any form. There is only justice."

"Who is to say what justice is and isn't?" Mr. Legend asked solemnly, "what gives you the right to punish others?"

"I'm a judge" Yuri said rubbing his temple, his scar was starting to sting. It always did when he talked to his father's ghost. Why had he started talking at all he knew this was going to happen, "it's my duty to see that Justice is delivered without bias,"

"And you do, when you aren't killing criminals and fighting Heroes. Why can't you just be satisfied with doing that? Why kill them, they will be caught eventually and then given the sentence they deserve."

Yuri was about to reply when a crash was heard, drawing his attention. When he looked back over his shoulder his father's ghost was gone, "good riddance" he growled, getting up to see what the noise had been. It was the middle of the night, and the neighborhood was usually very quiet. He left his study and walked down the hall. He paused a beat to check in on his ill mother, who was quietly sleeping in her bed, then continued on.

The back yard was small and quaint, a set of tables and chairs on the patio, and a bed of neglected flowers taking up most of the grassy. A medium sized oak tree with a thread-bare tire swing, a rarity in these condos, provided much needed shade during the summer. There wasn't anything out of place as far as he could see; he really should weed the flower bed. Noise from the front of the house drew his attention, and he jogged around through the side gate to investigate.

"Get back here!" a Man shouted, the noise was coming from two houses down, the lights were on, there was a crash and then a woman's scream.

Yuri jogged quickly out into the street, he wasn't the only person coming out of his house, "I'm calling the police," his neighbor, Mr. Jones said as Yuri walked passed. The man was already on the phone, "hello, yes I'd like to report an incident happening down the street, it sounds like a fight… Mr. Petrov! Where are you going?"

Yuri ignored his neighbor, running up to the house, several people followed him. The man was obviously hurting his wife! He stormed up to the front door, and shoved the door open, the house was in a mess, broken things were lying everywhere.

"who are you? What are you doing in my house!" a man, standing over a woman clutching her face, yelled.

"Get away from her," one of the men shouted who had come in with him shouted, then the three of them managed to pulled the man away from the woman, the other two wrestled the man into a head lock. Yuri helped the woman off the ground and onto the couch. The woman's face was red, and her eye was showing the first signs of what looked to be a nasty black eye.

"Are you okay? We've called the police they should be here soon." He told the woman.

"Are these the guys you've been cheating on with me?" the man laughed, "This pasty freak? These twigs?" the man spat, ignoring his captors, "I could squash them with my little thumb,"

"You're drunk" Yuri's hands curled into fists, he felt his power urging to get to the surface, to burn the man to a crisp on the spot. A wife beater and a drunk! "get him out of my sight, take him into the kitchen and tie him down so he won't get away."

"I never cheated!" the woman cried softly, "I would never, not with Charley-Oh my god Charley!" The woman started to become hysterical, "my baby, where is he?"

"Calm down," Yuri said keeping the woman from running off, "I'll go look for the child, and I'll bring him to you. Your ankle looks twisted. Where is he?"

"He- he should be upstairs" The woman said starting to calm down, "thank you."

"It's nothing," Yuri said, he checked on the two men who were holding the woman's husband, the two were obviously father and son, the son being around 20ish and the father 40 , "He secure?"

"Yeah," the father said bitterly, he shoved the man into a dinning chair and hand cuffed him, the son was gagging the man with a towel. Yuri looked questioningly at the man when he saw the cuffs "Junior here is a part-time cop," the man said as an explanation.

"There's a kid, I'm going to bring him down to his mama" Yuri just said and went up the stairs, the first room he encountered was a small rest-room, the second one was the child's. It was baby blue, the floor was littered with toys, and there was a crib in the corner. He walked up to the crib, the baby was sitting up in its crib, clutching a bottle, looking at him with the roundest eyes Yuri had ever seen. "Hey there," he said awkwardly, as he approached the crib, "ready to go see mama?"

The mother was relived to the point of tears when he brought her his baby, she cried, holding the toddler close and shaking, thanking god that she and her son had been delivered from this whole mess unharmed. Yuri knew he should have stayed and make sure the woman was fine, but it was just to awkward standing there, with her crying. So he left her to cry in peace and went into the kitchen. The woman's husband was glaring at all of them from where he was tied down, the atmosphere was heavy, and filled with contempt, he could deal with this better, he didn't like people who cried.

"I'm, uh, not good with crying people" he said when the father and son questioned his entry.

"Junior," the Father said, not taking his eyes off the abusive father, "go get your mother, tell her to bring something to calm the lady down, better yet take her there, she can wait there for the police, to many broken things around a toddler makes me uneasy"

"Yes sir," the son said, before leaving.

"It's a sad day when things like this happen" the father said after he left, "what is the world coming to, when husbands beat their loved ones."

"Indeed," Yuri said leaning against the wall.

"Men like this are demented, not even men anymore; don't matter if they are drunk or whatever, it is all excuses. You're a judge yes?"

"Yeah," Yuri glanced over at the father, who was still glaring at the man.

"What's he going to get? As far as punish meant, I mean?"

"No more than a year," Yuri thought, "If he has been reported before maybe two years. He'll pay a hefty fine either way though."

"Bah" The father shook his head, "should be more, personally I think he should be tied to a pole and beat himself, an eye for an eye. That's the way justice should work."

Yuri shrugged, "it isn't my job to change chose the punishments for criminals, I just trial them. Either way this guy won't have a case in my court room, if we judges are involved in an incident we aren't supposed to hold that case,"

"Your awful young for a judge, I thought judges were supposed to all be old men with tons of wrinkles." The father joked.

"That's a stereotype," Yuri faked a chuckle and tried not to have his face examined to closely, "but sadly most of the people I do work with, fit that description perfectly."

"for a bunch of old geezers, seems to have lost their marbles then, a man like this should get more than a few years…"

"Father the police are here!" the son announced, coming into the house followed by several officers, "we tied him up in the kitchen" the boy explained. The police untied the man, and hauled him off in a police car.

They interviewed all three of the men, the wife, and several people who had called the police. It wasn't until very early in the morning that Yuri stumbled into his house and got ready for the long day that inevitably he had to face.

"Says here the good judge helped apprehend the man" Kotetsu said with interest, hiding his face slightly behind the paper.

"Kotetsu, stop trying to change the topic" Muramasa, Kotetsu's older brother scolded, "So you got a job offer from the police? Sounds like a good job, why don't you take it?"

"Because it would involve me working in Sternbild," Kotetsu gave in, folding the newspaper back up. He placed it down and rubbed his eyes, "I'm tired of living away from home, Muramasa, and I want to stay here, close to Kaede. She has not got a hold of her powers fully yet, and I am tired of seeing her grow up when I'm not there,"

"What about this other job offer?" Muramasa asked "you said you were offered one a few days ago?"

Kotetsu took a drink from his orange juice, before looking out the bar's window, "they didn't even tell me exactly what they job was," he grumbled, "they said they had a position coming up, that a retired Hero was exactly what they needed for the job,"

"Who would you be working for?"

"… some agency, I think. They didn't really say" Kotetsu said after a long pause.

"What would they want with you?" Muramasa joked, "Do they need someone to destroy property on command?"

Kotetsu laughed "no, it was something about defense. I don't think I'll accept it, it sounds too fishy."

"wouldn't hurt to learn more about the job," Muramasa sighed, "so then are you just going to retire? You're not even 40 yet, you could still do something,"

Kotetsu thought silently for a while, then sighed, "I don't know, I guess I could look into this fishy job more, they might let me stay here,"

Muramasa stood up and smiled, "might as well, just don't come home smelling like fish,"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It was nice of you to come in for a briefing, Mr. Kaburagi" a man in a very nice suit said, "come this way, please,"

Kotetsu smiled as he shook the man's hand and took in his surroundings before following the man. He was outside an army air force in the town, groups of pilots were marching here or there, several planes were taking off, "Didn't say this job was in the military," he commented dryly, watching a plane take off.

"That would because it isn't, exactly" the man said, "Oh, I'm Tyler Dain by the way,"

"Nice to meet you," Kotetsu scratched his neck.

"Here we are, this is the staff building." Dain announced entering a nicely decorated building, he led Kotetsu to an office on the first floor, there was a stiff looking woman sitting at the desk, "this is Major Ray," Dain said, "Major, here is Mr. Kaburagi,"

"Afternoon Mr. Kaburagi, Mr. Dain," The woman said, standing up and shaking his hand, "please have a seat, both of you."

"Not to sound rude or anything," Kotetsu said as he sat down, "but what is exactly this job you are offering me supposed to be?"

"Mr. Dain here has an idea that the government will possibly like to sponsor, Mr. Kaburagi" the Major said bridging her fingers, "they will deal with the NEXT criminals outside of Sternbild, since we don't have Heroes. They will actually be more like police than military, but the government is funding it, and they want a team like this to report to us the military-"

"It's basically Hero TV, but without all the publicity," Dain said cutting in, "the normal police don't have the equipment or training to deal with big NEXT criminals, and only Sternbild has the Heroes. The truth is that everywhere NEXT criminals are evading the police and it is becoming a big problem. So I proposed making a special division, like SWAT to deal with the problem."

"The team Mr. Dain here is talking about will have training the federal government can't afford to give to every police officer," Major Ray said, "and equipment to help them take down NEXT easier. The government decided to allow a trial group, and then expand if it proved successful."

"And this has to do with me how?" Kotetsu asked.

"The only ones who have large experience dealing with fighting NEXT are the Heroes, which you use to be" Major Ray explained, "Me and Mr. Dain thought it would be a huge boost to this team if you could be on it. In short we are asking for you to help form and lead this team, Mr. Kaburagi"

Kotetsu pinched the bridge of his nose and was silent for a while; the other two looked at him expectantly. Kotetsu sighed, sitting up straighter in his chair, "listen, I understand where you're coming from with asking me to do this… and this sounds like a good job, but I have a family…"

"The first few months will be here, training, and dealing with recruits," Major Ray said knowingly, "and then after that you will be working from the police station down town. Working normal hours, it will be two whole years, before the team is branched off, and even then you don't have to leave to those branches permanently. I have a family to, and I understand wanting to be close to them."

Kotetsu looked up and nodded, "sounds good then… um so if I do join; I'll be the chief of this 'team'?"

"You would be reporting to me," Major Ray said, "Mr. Dain here will be the technical supervisor, in charge of 'specialty' equipment. During training you would teach the recruits how best to fight with NEXT opponents,"

"Will these recruits be NEXT themselves? And you say recruits, so they will be military personnel?" Kotetsu asked.

"Most of them will be normal people, though there might be a few NEXT, but not with extraordinary powers," Dain said, "people with powers that are useful… usually become Heroes."

"and yes the people we are letting in have some military training, but only the basics" the major said, "however we aren't just letting anyone sighn up, we have a few candidates selected already."

Kotetsu nodded and looked down in thought, "If you wouldn't mind I'd like to think on this; before I commit to anything,"

Dain frowned and was about to say something before the Major stopped him, "That's fine, here is my card," she said standing up, "call me tomorrow around lunch with your answer, and have a good day Mr. Kaburagi"

"It was nice meeting you both" Kotetsu said, shaking their hands and then leaving. He walked slowly to his car, looking around the air field contemplatively.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"The military?" Muramasa said surprised, handing over a beer to his brother.

"They want me to lead a trial team, that will deal with NEXT criminals," Kotetsu sighed, flopping down onto the bar, "training people from scratch, then being placed in the field with nothing but a prayer."

"It sounds like a good cause" Kaede said, munching on some chips and watching the TV.

"But dangerous," their mother said, concerned.

"How's the pay?" Muramasa asked

"Decent," Kotetsu shrugged, "and the job will be no less dangerous than working as a Hero,"

"Yes, but then you had NEXT powers and could stop bullets," their mother sighed, "oh, just be careful, please"

"It seems simple to me" Kaede cut in, waving her feet back and forth, "if you don't want to do it, just get another job. If you want to, do it."

Kotetsu smiled, and ruffled his daughter's hair, "I guess you're right. Well it does seem like a good thing to be doing, so I guess I'll do it." He stood up, ignoring her protests about being treated like an adult and not a child, "I'm off to bed, good night"