Disclaimer: Tiger & Bunny belong to Sunrise and their respective creators.
I've found out something I shouldn't haveChapter 1: Where there's a will there's a way
Kotetsu wasn't too drunk still, driving back home after having some beers with Antonio wouldn't be the wisest thing to do. Too bad they hadn't planned the night —now he had to take the monorail back home tonight and tomorrow morning. His casual commute from Bronze Stage to Apollon was going to take the double of the time.
From the station, it was still a twenty something minute walk to his house. He meandered through his neighborhood with not particular interest in going home, Kotetsu sulking he had already calling Kaede in the evening. He passed by a 24h convenience store to buy a quick after banter snack, and sat on a bench on the playground nearby. The full moon looked amazing that night.
Kotetsu was giving a lazy bite to his chicken salad sandwich, when a beam of light gliding the sky grabbed his attention. He couldn't mistake the blue and yellow arson tracing unsteady lines under the moonlight.
"Lunatic!" He muttered to himself, while he wolfed down his sandwich and put on his domino mask. He sprunt through the streets of his neighborhood, gaze fixed on the sky, barely missing the gleam of fire at every turn. He tapped on his watch band to dial Barnaby. His partner took a couple of tones to pick up.
"What is it, Kotetsu?" Bunny's drowsy voice pretty much gave away what he was doing at the moment.
"I've spotted Lunatic! I'm chasing him, near my house."
"Understood." Barnaby didn't need further explanation, that was the level of connection his partner and him had acquired after their confrontation with Jake Martinez.
Tiger turned a last corner to find Lunatic's blue light entering inside the Moorview abandoned hospital. There was no time to lose, he activated his powers and jumped the chain link fence that enclosed the place. Through dry grass and debris, he figured out the light moving behind the windows of the fifth floor. A leap took him inside the building.
His landing sent the debris flowing around in a curtain of dust that forced Tiger to tatter to find his way through the room. He stumbled with an abandoned wheelchair. The noise alerted another denizen of the night, the raspy voice of a man came into his ears.
"Who's there!?"
Wild Tiger didn't want to warn Lunatic of his intrusion —if the vigilante hadn't realized he was there yet. Instead, he darted to the source of the voice, prowling as fast as he could to avoid more flying dust and broken furniture. He reached the end of a long hall to enter a small room where an elder, and quite overweight, man was standing suspiciously in the middle of it.
"Who the fuck are you?" The man pointed his gun at him. He had left a beaten leather travel bag by his feet, and the whole setting of finding him in this worn-down hospital room at these wee hours was fishy, but there were more pressing matters.
"Listen, you have to leave." Wild Tiger raised his hands to show he was unarmed —although it was an underestimation, considering he was still glowing blue.
"Uh? You are a NEXT! Wait a minute, I know you… you are Wild Tiger."
Before he could feel tad proud that someone had recognized him on the spot, Tiger was already dodging bullets. A couple of them bull's-eyed him, it didn't matter much. He had to take this man out of danger. He got a second chance to speak once the gun barrel was empty.
"You are not understanding," Tiger tried to grab the man after he threw the empty gun at his temple, resulting in the man running away through a hole on the floor. "You gotta be kidding."
He hopped down the hole, barely dodging another deep hole leading to down to the first floor. Looking around, it seemed like the man he was supposed to protect had vanished in thin air. Wild Tiger's powers worn down at the worst moment.
"Hey you! Help me up!" The cry came from the floor, the hole. The old man was holding for dear life from a flimsy metallic pipe stuck on the ceiling of the lower level.
"Hold on to my arm." The hero stretched down his left arm, with his chest flat over the border. He had thought of using his grappling wire to catch the man in case he fell, but upon further inspection Tiger found this hole extended down the grand total of five levels to a dark pit that probably was an underground section.
The man reached his hands with both hands, the fragile wood from the floor cracked under the weight of both men. The sweaty hands of the old man were giving up, he made a last attempt of getting a hold of the border by crawling his fingers to the hero's communicator in his wrist. But to no avail, his communicator slipping through his hand with the frantic pleas of the man.
"Arg, grab my wrist not my communicator." He grunted. With his communicator trapping all together his fingers with the strap, there was no way he could use the wire on his right arm. "I'm gonna pull the both of us at once, all right? Try to help me as soon as you touch the border."
"I- I can't." The man wept in desperation, his hands barely crisping on Wild Tiger's fingers.
"On the count of three!" He ignored the man's panicked whine. "Two!"
He never got to the count of three. His communicator's strap gave away under the weight of the man. However, Tiger could never hear the man's fall. A fire arrow had pierced the poor midair in the lower level, changing his trajectory, and sending him to the floor like a wailing ball of fire. By sheer reflect, Wild Tiger hopped in the opening, his feet stepping on the border of the lower hole where by inches he regained equilibrium before running to assist the man.
Perhaps the cue to understand it was too late, was that the man had stopped screaming, but Tiger nonetheless used his jacket to try to suffocate the fire. In less than a minute, he realized his efforts were to waste, and turned around in hopes of finding the murderer. The place was empty, he gritted his teeth. Barnaby should be in his way, except he couldn't call him to give him the bad news, his communicator was a bent plastic piece in the crisped hands of Lunatic's victim.
"Show yourself coward." Wild Tiger screamed just in case, mostly to ease his frustration —of course Lunatic would leave the place once the deed was done.
He realized his hat had felt somewhere during the chase, as if the whole night couldn't become more upsetting. There was nothing else he could do in the place. He was taking his leave when something cracked under his shoes. The floor crumbled down, the fire may had compromised the already fragile structure of the floor, opening a bigger gap on the deep hole. He didn't muster much on it, as his wire had taken a hold of the higher levels immediately. But to his dismay, the grappler hook broke also the old plaster where it had attached itself. Worse even, it pulled a large portion of concrete, which was now falling down towards him —that was it, he was going to die sandwiched like chicken mayo salad.
A huge blue flame bathed the concrete piece coming his way, it deviated its direction for a space big enough for Lunatic to squeeze himself underside it and to push it away with the aid of his propulsion hand. In theory it seemed a solid idea, but the vigilante miscalculated the width of the gap varying across the different floors in the building.
An unnoticed loose pipe hit the vigilante on the back, one that the hero had skipped by inches in his former fall. Fortunately, it broke also on the cement piece, making it spin in the air and crash on the border of the hole, cracking more debris from what may be the first floor's ceiling. Wild Tiger didn't have more time to discern what had happened, something hard hit him on the head and everything went black.
For a moment he thought he was in his couch, his body aching from last night banter and sleeping on a bad position. He was thirsty and his face felt greasy and dirty. He squinted his eyes in a confused gaze, his house smelled to moist with traces of pee. His head hurt, a hand to his forehead feeling a bump explained the reason.
"Aouch." He sat up on the rough cement floor.
"You are a resilient man, Wild Tiger." An altered voice named him from across the room. A tiny blue flame lit up the room.
"Lunatic!" He backed away in automatic. But instead of standing up to fix a fighting stance, the hero noticed the vigilante was casually laying on the floor, the right arm with the flame sprawled in front of him while the other was out of sight. It was an odd pose even to the eccentric villain. After a too uncomfortable silence, Tiger peered up from his place to reveal Lunatic was not moving from his spot, because his left hand was trapped under a piece of concrete —probably part of the huge debris he had prevented to fall upon them. "You… you saved me…"
Everything he got as a response was the vigilante turning his body to lay full on his back.
"Thank you."
The silence ensued one more time, in which Tiger took advantage of Lunatic's illumination to inspect the place. They were trapped somewhere in the basement of the building. Here the walls weren't deprived of plaster, leaving only sturdy bricks of concrete; and under the wreckage some portions of cement floor were still visible. There wasn't much room to move around, a portion of the ceiling had fallen upon them and was lodged at about four feet from the floor. He peeked underside it, considering the hole they had come from had collapsed. It was pretty much the only exit.
If he could move aside that rock it appeared there was a path towards an iron ladder. He checked on his watch: 3:23 AM.
"You were unconscious for barely ten minutes." Lunatic spoke, the empty eyes of his mask still piercing some point on the ceiling. "It appears you will have to wait for a while before reactivating your powers."
The know-it-all was aware of Tiger's one hour restriction, it was public knowledge thanks to HeroTV, but it didn't make it less bitter to hear it from a criminal. It meant there were at least forty minutes before he could activate his powers again —he still had faith that Bunny was on his way, accounting on the last location his communication band worked.
"Why haven't you escaped?"
"Why do you think I haven't done it?" He turned again on one side, the light on his hand put out in order to illuminate the room with his eyes. It was hard to find him menacing when he was reclining on his elbow like a posing model.
"Can't you burn down that rock? I saw you broke the big one a while back." His headache was getting worse, and his eyes stung from all the dust and debris. If there was a chance of getting out of there earlier —even if it meant asking Lunatic for more help, he was willing to take it.
"Oh, what a great idea." Lunatic cooed, neck cracking in sarcasm. Not finding amusement in Wild Tiger's befuddled look, the vigilante continued. "Except for the fact that the air is scarce down here, I am not immune to suffocation."
And that said, he put away his flames, leaving them in the most unsettling darkness.
"Are you…" Tiger's eyebrow went deeper; his mouth could put the Sahara to shame. "Are you injured?"
After an unnerving pause, Lunatic's voice came in a whisper.
"…perhaps, yes."
"Awwwrg, all of this is your fault!" The hero scratched his head with both hands, missing his hat. "If you haven't appeared, I'd be sleeping already at home and… and that man would be still alive."
"Are you feeling pity for that sinner?"
"I wouldn't call it pity, but what you did to him was horrible."
"Evan Dilley had been sentenced to forty years for the violent felony of aggravated murder, and first-degree murder. He also ran a network of child pornography that the corrupted justice system overlooked during his trial. He was out in probation after only seven years of serving in prison. Surely even you can piece together what he was doing in this place and time."
He didn't have a reason to doubt Lunatic on this —considering the vigilante's history and the worn leather bag the, now dead, old man had by his feet when Wild Tiger had found him. He didn't want to think what kind of nightmare-inducing material the man had in that bag. The hero whistled.
"You surely do your research on those."
"Are you praising me?" There was an indignant tone where normally those words would lead to expectation.
"Of course not!" Tiger sat down on the floor akimbo, miffed himself of even having such thought. "You murdered him. You don't even think people may have a family who would miss him."
"I am sure Evan Dilley didn't have one, as he was prosecuted for the cold blood murder of his wife and two children."
It left Wild Tiger out of arguments for a long moment, clasping his fist on his knees he recomposed.
"Killing is not ever the solution, that's all I know. Why is it always so frustrating to try to reason with you?"
"Likewise."
The hero stared at his wristwatch, aware that it was so dark it was useless. His pride didn't let him ask for a little light from his enemy. He sighted —probably only some minutes had passed by. It was either wait for Barnaby or wait for his powers to come back.
"Say, do you have any information about Ouroboros?" This was probably the only opportunity he had to ask Lunatic, and as the vigilante seemed well informed of any criminal activity, there was nothing to lose.
"Why would I share my intel with you?"
"That would mean a lot to Bun— to Barnaby."
"Ah yes, your fiery partner. How is your shoulder from defending that hot-headed idol?"
Instinctively Tiger reached to his old injury, it still hurt from time to time, oddly in rainy days. He would never regret having taken that arrow for Bunny.
"Ouroboros is an underground crime syndicate, its network extends to big circles of power in the country. I may have punished sinners from their lesser ranks, no doubt Jake Martinez was one among them, but he was too… flashy to be considered one of the leaders. That is as much information I have about them."
"I see. Thank you anyway."
"You shouldn't be thanking me; I am your enemy." Lunatic lighted up his eyes to make a point. Wild Tiger wasn't fazed from the obvious taunt, he took advantage to glance down at his wrist: twenty minutes before recovering his powers.
"You aren't my enemy, that's not how it works." The flames were put out again. "Sure, I'm going to capture you and put you behind the bars, but it sounds as if your personal goal is to stop me from doing what I do as a hero."
"Which is…?"
"I save people." Although Lunatic couldn't see it, Tiger pointed at himself with his thumb, determination in every word. He added with a bit cockiness. "I may even save you by capturing you."
It seemed his pep talk had worked into the vigilante, hence the new silence settled for a while, making him wonder if Lunatic was pondering in his words to the point of finally giving up, and surrender to the police.
"I was wondering, can't you turn into fire anyway? The other night I was tracking you, I was about to capture you when you went fwoosh! and turned yourself on fire. Wouldn't it be easier for you to just leave that way?"
"That requires concentration and I…" He muttered after what it seemed and eternity, despite his distorted voice, he had dropped the derisive style. "I'm in pain right now. I cannot think clearly."
"You are really injured." It wasn't a bluff?
"My right shoulder, it is probably dislocated." He confessed. "But, if you move the boulder that blocks the exit, that will threaten the stability of the whole area. In my state I won't be able to escape, hero."
Tiger shook his head dumbfounded, this guy…
He stood up to have a closer look —or touch. Yet he stopped midway across the room when Lunatic created a flame on his free hand. There was a split second of hesitation, in which his nerves eased at the reasoning that he was simply creating a source of light. It was already established that he won't be attacked down there.
He kneeled on one knee beside Lunatic's mask to palpate on the man's back. The metallic pipe that hit him was probably the culprit of tearing away the costume's shoulder pad and of leaving an ugly rash that had already coagulated. Tiger only had to pull the fabric further away for a bit. The whole shoulder looked swollen.
Yes, there was an odd bump on his left shoulder. The hero could feel the wince in the vigilante when he prodded on it.
"Yep, it's definitely dislocated. And I hope you have gotten a shot against tetanus, because that pipe that cut you here was probably rusty."
"I have." He winced through the mask.
"If you want, I can push it back to its socket." He said casually. "I've done it more than a dozen times. You will feel good as new, promise."
"Go ahead then."
"Uh, do you have something to bite under that mask? It's going to hurt like hell and you may end chopping your tongue off." Then Wild Tiger realized the underlining implication. "Don't think it's a pretext for seeing your face —I don't think you are someone I'd know anyway. Just bear in mind it would be better for you, even breathing some fresh air could help you to cope with the pain."
The lights went off, when Lunatic agreed to remove his mask. It was a grueling task using a single hand, but he refused to allow anyone's help. Once it was done, Tiger accidentally brushed a bunch of hair with his forearm. He could mentally picture Lunatic had long hair, but nothing else. The man was breathing heavily, when the hero pulled out his own wallet for him to bite.
Before becoming a hero, Kotetsu had dislocated many joints in his quest of helping people. Some of them were his own, some of them belonged to ruffians who got in his way. He had equally learnt how to shove them back as his own betterment as human being.
Lunatic's arm trapped under a rock didn't give him much of a space to maneuver, he felt the exact spot where the bone shouldn't have been and spent a couple of minutes deciding where to press. The movement was going to open the gash again, however there was no other option. In a clean push the bone snapped back in its place. Lunatic muffled any scream to the best of his temper, still he was breathing hard and trembling from the endured pain.
Tiger unfastened his tie and bandaged the mistreated shoulder to the best of his abilities. When he fumbled to recover his wallet, this time his forearms brushed Lunatic's wet cheeks. He didn't make a commentary of it —even murderers vigilantes cried out of pain.
"Done." He tiptoed back to his side of the room, pocketing a bitten wallet before returning to sit with his back against the wall. "How are you feeling?"
"I think… the pain is subduing." Where had he heard that voice? Lunatic didn't say anything else during the minutes he struggled to put back his complicated helmet on. "Do you realize you could have capture me if you had let me injured?"
"Just like you said it, this structure is fragile. I wouldn't risk your safety over your capture."
The vigilante turned on a small flame once again, illuminating the room for Tiger to glance at the time: it was 4:00 AM
Wild Tiger felt his powers coming back. He activated them instantly and, certainty in his actions, he resolved to lift first the boulder trapping Lunatic. The vigilante grunted, but didn't put a resistance when the pulled his arm free. He was massaging his wrist when a crumbling sound froze both men. As Lunatic had predicted, the rest of the structure was resting on that piece of concrete; by moving it with the hundred power, it had broken the feeble equilibrium of that wrecked building.
The hero caught midway the other piece of building; his two arms busy each with the boulders trembling over his head like a crumbling tower of cards. His powered eyes gazed at his companion on the floor, he could resist for five minutes but the escape route he had traced beforehand had collapsed. Five minutes more and they would no longer be trapped, squeezed instead. He thought of leaving one of the rocks, maybe tackle the debris in direction of the now gone exit would create an opening. Nothing was certain.
Lunatic stood up, his back bent as the man's height was larger than the one of the crumbling ceiling. Before Tiger could ask for suggestions for their situation, the other man grappled the hero's chest with an unexpected might —if he hadn't his powers activated, that would have knocked him flat. But instead of falling on his back, Wild Tiger had the weirdest of experiences.
For the short span of what last a deep breath, he felt intangible. Even in retrospective, it was hard to explain, as if he had become water or he was made of a slimy material. He was slow and warm, perhaps too warm for feeling comfortable, and the longer he stayed in that liquid state the heat raised from a hard sunlight to grilling oneself in a barbecue. He gasped for precious damp and putrid air when he fell on his back a second later, Lunatic laying on his chest. His hard breathing forcing air out of the vent of his disturbing mask. Two flames busted from his eyes to illuminate the place.
Tiger sat up with the crumbling noise coming from the direction of his feet, he registered he had lost a shoe until his attention came to the pile of collapsed boulders that had made their nest during the former forty minutes. Looking up, he pictured the huge gap on the ceiling from where him and Lunatic had fallen down: they were out.
"…how?" He muttered.
The creaking noise from the building didn't give him time to counter his disbelief, the whole area was compromised and was falling apart. He swooped his heels to stand up and sprint practically at the same time. Lunatic had barely advanced two steps when Tiger picked him under his armpit like a messenger bag —the man didn't put any resistance. And rushed through the hall breaking down ahead.
As he forced his way to create a path among the falling pieces of concrete and boulders, Lunatic disintegrated falling debris and provided light. The ladder the hero had picture as their means to escape out, was a bent piercing mess now, and the entrance on the ceiling was covered. It wasn't impending to someone with hundredfold powers.
The hero sprung up to destroy the ceiling along with the levels above up to the roof with a powerful punch, effectively freeing them from the collapsing structure.
Wild Tiger couldn't contain a "Whaahoo!" when he was finally breathing fresh air with the abandoned hospital one hundred feet underneath. Lunatic was still on his grasp, completely limp and respondent. He wondered if the man had fainted. Pivoting from the border of the roof, he not-so-graciously fell on the yard surrounding the building. His powers had worn down a couple of yards before hitting the floor.
Now that his five minutes were over, every small ache started to claim for his attention. Tiger realized he had let go of Lunatic while he was busy cushioning his land with both arms.
The vigilante had gotten away, again.
An uproar behind him prompted to twist his neck to witness how the whole Moorsview hospital was falling apart as if the earth was claiming it again. He stared mouth wide open.
And then someone called his name from the other side of the fence.
"Bunny!" His partner was as befuddled as one could be upon discovering that his partner had single handedly demolished an abandoned building in a single night.
"In the case of Voidwell Real State versus Wild Tiger, after lecture of the law and, from the medical examiner's report that reveals how the defendant was trying to protect the now deceased Evan Dilley, this court concludes that, the property damage motif of this case came as a result of executing his duty as hero.
"Now, taking in consideration the decade Voidwell Real State had disregarded the government request to demolish, in view of public health and safety, the property denominated Moorsview Hospital, as the cost of such task would surpass by much the amount the prosecution demands as compensation. Such omission falls under the circumstance of demolition by neglect.
"Under this reasoning, this court finds the defendant not guilty of property damage, in neither way intentional nor negligent. And in what respects the accusation of trespassing, this court finds the defendant not guilty, as evidence show there was no visible notice impeding the entrance into the building.
"Voidwell Real State will pay Apollon Media the correspondent legal fees as well as a penalty fee for as compensation to Sternbild government for the risk the building had represented to the surrounding neighborhood during a decade.
"Thank you for your service today. This Court is adjourned."
Only after that phrase Tiger could release the air he had been holding in his chest for what it seemed the entire proceeding. This time the damage fee was way too much —nothing could beat that time when he broke that Justice Statue, but still Lloyds was already on his neck when he saw the cipher with more double of zeroes on the right than his yearly income.
Bunny came to his partner's side to give him an affectionate pat on the back, his smile was probably mimicking his. It was such a rare eventuality that Justice Petrov didn't considered him guilty, that Kotetsu was elated. He thought about going to the man already packing up files in his briefcase to thank him, but something stopped him in his tracks. Petrov had a bandage in his left hand, and his planned movements gave away it was quite painful.
"Let's go, Kotetsu. Honestly I cannot wait to see Lloyds' face when you tell him." Bunny tugged him by the sleeve.
Just when Petrov closed his briefcase he looked up and their gazes met: it was odd. The man acknowledged Kotetsu with a nod —which he replicated all the same, and left the room.
It kept nagging him the rest of the evening. He had narrated Bunny the events with Lunatic last night, and even he was surprised the vigilante had collaborated to help them escape. Bunny was a bit upset upon hearing that not even Lunatic had information about Ouroboros —the most worrisome was that the crime syndicate extended far from Jake Martinez and Kriem.
They also discussed the bizarre experience that took Tiger and Lunatic out from the enclosed trap of fallen boulders, Barnaby concluded it was villain's ability to turn into fire.
"You said it yourself, there are instances where he appears inside places that didn't sustain fire damage after his entrance. And I remember him vanishing in a gust of fire when I was chasing him once." Bunny and him had plenty of time to discuss. Lloyds had congratulated the finally win at least one trial by giving them the day off, but Tiger wanted to patrol anyway, and now they were just strolling in the Silver Stage because no one was going to call them for an emergency.
It was nice to take it easy once in a while with his partner. People recognized them and they stopped to sign some autographs in nearby park —well, mostly Barnaby. But an aged couple got close to Tiger to speak to him about the good old times in the superhero golden era. Wild Tiger had not shortage of stories about Mr. Legend's feats, some of which the couple could spice up out of their own experience.
Wild Tiger was bluffing the old couple how he even had a signed copy of the first Hero Monthly special dedicated to Legend, when he noticed Justice Petrov coming out of the mall across the street, his customary briefcase and a plastic bag with the logo of a pharmacy on the right hand.
"Bunny, I'm going to get us something to drink. Anything in special?"
"A cold tea would be nice, peach flavor." Said Barnaby not lifting his face from the backpack he was signing on.
"Cold tea. Peach. Noted." Tiger promised the old couple to pass by the week to show them the magazine —it was his most precious treasure, and he was happy to share it with someone who appreciated its value.
Wild Tiger walked casually to the same direction where Petrov was going, not sure of his intentions until he was behind the judge by mere steps. Felling tracked; the man stopped to face him.
"Good evening Wild Tiger. Is there a particular reason you are follow me?" His default demeanor was affable, though the hero had been enough times in court to perceive the vein of anger in the judge's posture.
"Ah no, no, don't— don't misunderstand your… your Honor." Tiger flailed his arms around. "I was… uh, I wanted to speak to you but I didn't know how you would take it."
The man's glare softened, and easing the defenses, he almost smiled.
"I am afraid I'm not on service at the moment. Unless it's an emergency, please refer to my secretary and I will respond as soon as possible."
"Not it, not and emergency it's… I was just wondering if you are okay." Tiger clumsily scratched the back of his head and pointed at the judge's poorly bandaged hand.
"This?" He raised the hand with a hidden effort. "I appreciate your interest in the citizens wellbeing, Wild Tiger, but it's nothing you should worry about."
Petrov noticed they were encumbering the sidewalk and invited Tiger to move aside, standing side by side in front of a boutique shopping window, the hero feared for the integrity of the glass at inches from his hero suit.
"Can I ask what happened?"
Giving up his secrecy, the judge rolled his eyes in amusement —hard to figure it out if such expressions were natural or staged.
"I tried to move a refrigerator at home and it fell on me. It is a bit embarrassing."
"Not at all! Home accidents happen all the time."
"There you are." Barnaby called Wild Tiger, his partner had fetched the iced tea that he had been left waiting for, alongside with an orange juice for him. Bunny greeted Petrov and diverted his attention to nick Wild Tiger. "We still have to patrol silver stage before the end of the day, and you shouldn't bother Justice Petrov outside his working hours."
"I wasn't bothering, Bunny." He moaned, alternating between the judge and his partner in search of agreement.
"He wasn't bothering me." Petrov granted with a gentle shake. Somehow, his silky silver hair waving left Kotetsu alienated. "Well, if you excuse me, I believe the three of us have things to do for the evening."
"Thank you for your dedication, your Honor." Barnaby said his goodbyes in lieu of his partner, who barely managed to sort a "get well soon" and they parted to retrieve the double chaser.
He had put his apartment upside down to find the monthly hero magazine he had spoken about that afternoon to no avail. He was on the verge of tear of frustration when the phone rang: it was Kaede.
At least seeing his little girl lifted his spirits.
She was very perceptive and soon she asked what was bothering him. Kotetsu described in great detail the magazine he had lost, wondering if someone had broken in his apartment to steal it.
"Oh, I've seen it!" Kaede smiled at the camera, her expression one of an angel. She went away and returned with the thick volume on her hands. Daddy was on the verge of tears —this time of joy.
Apparently, he had forgotten it under the bed —alongside with less flattering material, according to the prompt intervention of his mother. While his daughter passed the pages, he narrated how he had waited hours in line to enter the event area, and how he had shaken Mr. Legend's hand and how the man had actually recognized him from that time on the bank robbery.
"You shouldn't tell lies to your daughter." Anju interrupted his fantasies. "You never went to that signing event; I had given you a time out because you had hit a little kid."
"Dad would never do something like that!" Kaede jumped to defend him, she was a saint of justice.
"He used to be a bit more aggressive, believe me."
"Mooom! Don't tell little Kaede things that make me look bad."
"You don't need grandma's intervention for that, dad. And don't call me little." She scoffed.
He remembered having hit a small child that day. Why had he forgotten that incident? Perhaps his mother was right, and he was ashamed of hitting anyone, or he preferred to brag a story that meant he had seen Mr. Legend more than once in a lifetime.
Kotetsu sat on his couch with a half-forgotten beer on his hand. He mused about that day more than twenty years ago.
He was ten at that time, his powers had just manifested, and Isei Kawakami along with his cronies had made his personal quest to make the living hell out of Kotetsu's life. A couple of months had passed ever since he had helped Mr. Legend with that bank heist, he was pumped with the idea of becoming a hero when he grew up. But he still had problems controlling his powers, which derived in him avoiding to touch anyone when his blue glowing went awry. Isei knew this, so he resorted to violence whenever they found Kotetsu during his uncontrollable incidents.
That time, the Kotetsu was coming back home from the books store. He had bought the Mr. Legend special edition of Monthly Hero with all his savings, when the lightness of his backpack alerted him of the incoming rush of power.
"Kaburagi is glowing blue!" One of Isei's friends, a little rat named Honzo, pointed at him from across the park.
He thought of outrunning them, his powers didn't think so —back then the five minutes length wasn't a staple, neither the one hour wait. He used his hundredfold speed for exactly three steps. And the fourth, his powerless self couldn't bear the acceleration and sent him rolling on the playground like a soccer ball. Kotetsu didn't put much resistance since he was protecting the magazine against his chest. Of course, Isei and his group had caught up when he stopped.
"What a pathetic NEXT, Kaburagi!" Isei mocked while looming above him. "Your shitty powers only last two seconds."
"Go eat dirt, Kawakami." Kotetsu was standing up when another of Isei's friends kicked him on the shin. He screamed and bent down, giving another kid the opportunity to push him; a third one edged his leg to make the boy trip down.
Luck always seems to be against the man who depends on it. Right when he was thinking of fighting back, young Kotetsu regained his powers. He didn't have other choice but to bent down and receive the barrage of kicks from the circle of boys going full force at him; his magazine tight against his jacket.
"Hey! Don't do that!" A tiny voice called the group out. The boy peered from the legs that had stopped kicking him to a little kid, maybe six or seven years old, his hair an ashen blonde and his big eyes strikingly green.
"Oh yeah? And who are you to stop us?" Isei left his group to stand before the kid, he won him by a head in height.
"What you are doing is wrong." The little kid puffed up his chest, despite being thin, and that everything in his appearance spoke fragility. "Leave him alone, he hasn't done anything to you."
"This is none of your business, brat." Isei raised his fist to strike at the newcomer kid, but he found a painful resistance when Kotetsu had used his hundredfold speed to grab his fist before he even connected.
Kotetsu had never seen his bully that scared when he let him go of his hold. Isei ran away screaming that this was not over, he was going to tell the adults what Kaburagi had done with his powers, alongside with all sort of false threats —it did come back at him later that year, but at least that was the last time Isei and his pack had been a nuisance to him.
"Are you okay?" Kotetsu turned at the boy who looked at him in awe, his face brightened by being addressed.
"You are a NEXT? You have powers!"
He felt his glow disappearing, that had been convenient. Seeing someone praising him for something the boy hated of himself made him uncomfortable. He nodded timidly.
"Amazing! What kind of powers do you have?"
They sat on a bench in the playground. The kid had told Kotetsu his family was visiting Oriental Town because of his father's job —his parents were accompanying HeroTV's crew, and were helping in the preparations for book signing event with Mr. Legend of that evening. Kotetsu decided to keep the little boy company; half of it because he felt bad for him wandering by himself in an unknown town, half of it because he hadn't met someone as obsessed about the heroes like himself.
They had a long discussion about the points and most memorable events of last HeroTV season. Having family working directly with the heroes, allowed the kid to info that normally wasn't released to the public, like which was Mr. Legend favorite candy. The conversation derived to the kid's dad and his job crossing elbows with the heroes.
"My dad is the best! I can look around in every event of the heroes. See this?" The kid had a button badge with the Mr. Legend logo pinned to his polo t-shirt. "This is a prototype; they still don't release them in the market. Dad brought me several the other day…"
He droned about his father for a couple of more minutes. Kotetsu's mind started to drift, it fell on him how amazing would be being this kid. He was brave despite his frail shape, he knew the heroes in person and had access to every fan gathering, he didn't have to worry about any stupid NEXT power going haywire; and above it all, his father was there and loved him. It made hate him the most.
"Shut up!" He was being rude but he didn't care. "I don't want to hear anything else of your dad."
The kid was surprised but not taken aback, he riposted.
"All right then, if you want, it's your time to talk about your dad. But I don't think that what he does is as interesting as what mine does." He dangled his legs on the border of the bench with self-sufficiency.
Kotetsu pushed him off the bench, hard. Even though his powers weren't on, the kid flew a couple of yards to the floor, where the sand grated his elbows cushioning his fall. The kid blinked in shock and started to cry. Mrs. Ohara, who had been looking after the boy from the beginning called Kotetsu out. The boy couldn't stand the situation anymore and started to run.
Mom heard the story from Mrs. Ohara —the next-door neighbor who was taking care of the kid while his parents worked in the hero event. She had cured the kid bumps and rashes, and called the Kotetsu's mother to make him go to her house and apologize. Anju gave her boy an ultimatum, either he apologized or he was not going to the Mr. Legend's signing event that evening.
To say young Kotetsu was dismayed was an underestimation. He spent hours in the afternoon with his face buried on the pillow. He felt awful for what he had done, but he was too ashamed to apologize. And on top of it all, he had forgotten in his haste the Hero Magazine on the bench. As the hours passed, any prospection of attending the event thinned out.
It was Muramasa from all people who persuaded him of doing the right thing —he even offered himself to accompany his little brother, and to send mom proof that the deed was done.
Muramasa knocked at Mrs. Ohara's door and asked the neighbor for the little kid. Kotetsu grimaced upon seeing the kid's elbows covered with gauze and a band-aid on his cheek —had he inadvertently activated his powers, he could have broken the kid some bones.
"I'm sorry for what I did in the afternoon." He bowed as low as his straight back allowed.
The kid stared at him with his wary emerald colored gaze for several seconds, and then he ran back inside the house. Muramasa patted his brother's back, in means of condolence for the unaccepted apology, until the younger kid came back with the heavy volume of Monthly Hero that Kotetsu had forgotten on the bench.
The boy looked at the cover and he couldn't believe his eyes: it was signed to Kotetsu from Mr. Legend himself!
"What you did was unfair but, Mrs. Ohara explained me your circumstances." The kid acted all proper as if he understood the meaning of those words. "I think you and I are even."
Now that Kotetsu reflected in the memory, that Monthly Magazine with the signature of the cover had a terrible condition for any collectable. He had been such a dumb kid. Proposedly forgetting the little boy, also meant he had another reason to blame Isei's bullying.
The next morning, a random thought snapped Kotesu's eyes wide open when the clock of his bedside table marked five minutes to five: the kid's name was Yuri.
Author's notes: I started writing this story as a prompt for the 10th T&B Anniversary event, but it went off rails and became this novel length story haha. As this is text is barely edited and never beta read, I appreciate any criticism.
I'm so hype for the second season :P