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1: Eshiro's Legacy

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Kazuto's backpack landed with a 'thud' on his bedroom floor after he turned around from closing his door. His breath became shaky. "Y...You're...You're the Red Mask..." He stuttered, "I-I-I-"

The vigilante coughed from Kazuto's desk chair, "Yeah shut up kid listen."

Kazuto gulped, "Ok."

The Red Mask pulled up some of his suit to expose his stomach to Kazuto, "See that?"

"I-Is that poison?" Kazuto asked.

He nodded, "The Hunstman got me tonight. And I'm done for kid."

Kazuto gasped and placed his hands on his mouth, "Shit." He breathed out.

"It's okay...it's okay the world's not over-"

"Yes it is what're you talking about!?" Kazuto shouted, "You're the Mask you-"

"Shh! Ach!" The hero gasped in pain and clutched his poisoned mark on his torso, "Keep your voice down you'll wake up your aunt. I don't have much time, so you got to listen."

Kazuto nodded and stopped the avalanche of questions from flowing out of his mouth.

The Mask started talking, "You have to do exactly as I tell you." He pulled his red Kabuki mask off his face, revealing his masculine features and blue eyes, "Make sure my body isn't in the suit."

"You're-"

"Eshiro Ishoyama yes." Eshiro nodded, "I know you have a lotta questions, but you have to trust me I'm dying."

"You got it."

Eshiro coughed up some blood, "Do not under any circumstance let my body be found in the suit. It's-" He tried not to cough up blood on Kazuto's carpet, "Critical that you let me have a regular funeral. Do not let anyone think the Mask is dead."

"But you're the Mask..." Kazuto noted.

"Yeah. But the public doesn't know that." Eshiro chuckled, "Oh god I'm gonna die with my last words to a freaking kid...Second, be there for my little brother...You can't let this..." Eshiro gasped in pain, "Crush him."

Kazuto nodded.

"Then...never let the Mask die. If baddies take away someone you're protecting, no matter what, keep fighting to save others. Otherwise, you're done for, along with Tokyo. Never..."

Kazuto spoke slowly, "Let the Mask die. But why?"

"Because you're gonna be the Red Mask kid." Eshiro smiled, "You've got a bike?"

Kazuto nodded while trying not to cry. His sadness at seeing a hero die overshadow the Mask's choice to choose him to be his new successor.

"Thanks kid, now you're gonna take me down to the harbor and let me die there."

"O-Okay." Kazuto choked out, "Okay Mask I will."

The saddest and weirdest moment of Kazuto's life unfolded when he helped the cities protector downstairs with his arm over his shoulder and onto his motorbike outside. He then drove him to the harbor in the middle of the night with his face covered, Eshiro slowly passing away as he rested on top of Kazuto's back.

When they reached a quiet place in the harbor, Kazuto parked his bike and helped Eshiro off it and near the water. Eshiro coughed on Kazuto's knees looking up at him, "Thanks kid. Means a lot."

"Wh...Why me? Why not anyone else? Why not your younger brother?" Kazuto asked.

"I asked myself that after the Hunstman stung me." Eshiro frowned before making eye contact with him, "But then I realized you had something unique. You have an incorruptible heart from what Tai told me. And if your identity ever gets found out, which it can't...but if it does...the public will learn something important..."

Kazuto watched as Eshiro raised a frail finger and poked the center of his chest, "It's not the Mask that matters...but the person. If anyone learned that my Karate, bojutsu and boxer superstar brother was the Mask and that he was another perfect rich kid, it wouldn't make the Mask unique because of how talented he was...The Mask needs to be someone ordinary..." Eshiro coughed on Kazuto's knees again, "It...needs to be you."

Kazuto started crying, "You can't die like this...You can't lose to him."

"Sorry kiddo..." Eshiro handed Kazuto the red Kabuki mask, "The suit will refit itself to match your size when I die. And...know this..."

"N-Never let the Mask die?" Kazuto sniffled.

"Damn right." Eshiro smiled and leaned back his head, "Keep your identity a secret. The point of the Mask is that it can be anyone. If it gets out who you are and that you didn't co-operate with the police...your family will be devastated."

"I saw you once outside a coffee shop, you were flying about with your ice off rooftops and the sides of buildings when I was little...and I always wanted to be you." Kazuto wiped away another tear.

Eshiro smiled up at him with closed eyes, gently wrapping his hand around Kazuto's, "Be that for this city. It...needs you now. Before I pass now, promise me you'll defend Tokyo."

"I promise." Kazuto nodded faster than he ever had before.

His face froze with that smile and Kazuto sobbed a little. He then removed the suit from Eshiro's corpse and held it in his hands. He pushed Eshiro's body into the harbor and rode off back home tearfully.

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Midori knocked on the door to Kazuto's bedroom the following morning, "Kazuto? Are you in there honey?"

Kazuto quickly shoved the Red Mask suit under his mattress that he held in his hands, "Yeah mom I'm here."

Midori opened the door and closed it behind her gently, "Hey honey...Mitsura just texted me...her son just passed away. They found his body in the harbor."

"I know mom." Kazuto raised his phone, "Tai told me."

"He seemed like a good young man. Mitsura wouldn't stop praising him whenever she got the chance." Midori smiled faintly for a second, "Um...the Ishoyama's invited us to the funeral tomorrow. Would you like to go?"

"Yeah mom, go ask Sugu."

"I just spoke with her she said yes. Kazuto...are you all right? You seem different."

Kazuto nodded to his aunt, "Yeah ma, I'm fine."

"All right sweetheart, do your dress slacks still fit you? You need to be well dressed for the funeral tomorrow." Midori said.

"Yeah, they fit me."

Midori nodded and stood up off Kazuto's bed, "Talk to me if you need anything."

He smiled to show he understood and Midori left. Kazuto took the Red Mask suit back out from under his mattress and sighed as he looked at it, staring right back into the Red Kabuki mask's black eyes. He knew he had a massive problem on his hands if he didn't use the suit regularly, as people would associate Eshiro's death with the sudden and indefinite disappearance of the Mask.

No, he didn't just have to use it soon. He had to use it the very night of his funeral to remove any possibility that the Mask could be associated with Eshiro. And Kazuto knew this very well. Lest someone find out the country's most well-known vigilante was just another trust fund kid who could probably just make in a day what the criminals he beat up made in a lifetime.

Kazuto put the suit back under his mattress before flopping on it and staring at his white bedroom ceiling. This was going to be a rough ride, managing a nighttime vigilante life with a regular teenage one. What the hell kind of excuses was he going to give Rika and Taisuke? He was out freezing bank robbers and jumping around rooftops and building sides instead of going out to the movies with them?

People were going to notice if he was gone and the Mask suddenly appeared. Either way, this was going to be anything but easy.

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Quick A/N: I always wanted this to be a superhero fic, that's why I had that red Mask idea that never went anywhere. So then I rewrote Aftermath into this! Get ready for an actual fic I plan on updating...whenever Harvzy does...Just kidding, I'll upload when I can and Harvzy really inspires me. Catcha on the fly.