THEN

LAST SUMMER

"You're making a grave mistake!"

Neito's pleas went virtually unheard as the officer of the law shoved him inside the jail cell.

"Morningstar is the killer!" Neito proclaimed once more, bashing his bound hands against the iron bars. Metal clanked against metal, as Neito's restraints covered his fists up his arm nearly to his elbows entirely. "He is hiding behind the visage of a hero in order to carry out his murders without remorse!"

The policeman palmed Neito's face and pushed him back. Neito stumbled as the officer locked the cell. "Listen kid," he said gruffly, "we've got enough folks hysterical over this serial killer without you throwing these insane accusations around."

"I have evidence! We have evidence! Ship – Cooper stored the files in a secure location." Unfortunately, Cooper and Ship had their respective life forces drained by Morningstar already. They weren't dead, thank the heavens, but they were bedridden and practically comatose in weary zombie-like states. "Let me copy Cooper's Quirk and I can show you the files. The video footage, the testimonies, everything!" As a contingency, Ship had modified its body to be able to store the files in question within itself. Since both the dog and Cooper were incapcaited, only Neito had the ability to extract what he needed.

"You're not doing anything but sit here until we can spare someone to thoroughly question you. Besides that, unless you give us your aunt's number, you're going to have to use your one phone call to get her here."

Neito clenched his teeth. "She might already be dead if you don't let me out, or if you don't get Morningstar before he decides to feed on her completely!"

The last of Neito's pleas were also ignored as the police officer walked away, showing no further signs of acknowledgement to any of Neito's words.

Frustrated, Neito rested his forehead against the barred walls of his cell and slid down to his knees. Bashing the bars further would do him no good. No, he needed to think of a plan to get out of here.

Him, aunt Julie, Cooper, and Ship weren't even supposed to be in this town for more than a day. It was only a pit stop in their journey to the next decommissioned Plumber base, but some grizzly serial killer had been apparently marauding the area, so Neito had insisted on solving the case since the sparse few local heroes of the small town hadn't been having much luck.

Neito wouldn't have ever suspected the most dazzling and dashing of the locals, Morningstar, to have secretly been the culprit. If aunt Julie hadn't recognized the man, just barely from her time serving in the ever mysterious Highbreed Invasion…

But she had, and the villain in disguise had also recognized her. Now she was missing, Cooper and Shp were down for the count, and Neito was stuck in jail without access to his Quirk or to the Omnitrix.

Cooper… That fool should never have stepped in front of Neito and taken the brunt of Morningstar's attack. He could have brought the data from Ship the police's attention with ease, but sticking to that plan now was a longshot. In this situation, with the authorities turned against him and Morningstar aware that he was still alive, Neito was only as good as his own abilities, yet with both of his primary tools no longer at his disposal…

Out of spite, Neito suddenly stood up and kicked the jail door, only to fumble again, this time landing on his back from the imbalance.

"Smooth moves there, man."

Neito turned his head to the sound, to the cell right next to his, and he raised an eyebrow at the odd sight.

A girl who appeared around his age with long black hair was floating in the air. It looked as if she was lying on a faint pink outline of energy beneath her. She lazily flipped through pages of a magazine in her hands.

"Where are your restraints?" Neito asked.

A glowing pink tendril held up a matching pair to Neito's own expanded handcuffs, but hers were clearly undone and separate from her own hands. "They just get in the way."

Sitting up with his legs crossed, Neito eyed the girl carefully. "And the police just let you move around without your cuffs actually locked tight?"

"I don't mess with them, and they let me stay here until the boys in white upstate come to pick me up." The girl gave Neito a mischievous glance. "There's a killer out there, you know. Probably a crazy dude, but can't be crazy enough to attack a police station."

Yes, the aspiring hero Morningstar who liked to portray himself as would only sully his reputation if the station itself was attacked and police casualties were accrued, or if prisoners under their care became his latest victims. And her choice of words, "the boys in white upstate" – that was a possible code phrase to refer to Plumber reinforcements aunt Julie had taught Neito. Of course, this girl could actually be referring to real federal agents upstate, but Neito had a good feeling that wasn't the case.

"I take it you're also an alien," Neito said bluntly.

"I'm an Anodite," said the girl.

Just as Neito thought. Aunt Julie and Cooper had talked about Anodites before, of their innate alien abilities, and of… magic, which also happened to exist alongside alien life. In any case, Neito also recalled previously seeing photographs of his aunt in her youth, some of which also depicted Benjamin Tennyson, Kevin Levin, and a certain Mana manipulator who completed the set.

"You resemble Gwendolyn Tennsyon," Neito observed.

Sunny snorted. "We're cousins. So you do know about her. That must mean you're the new kid with the Omnitrix I've been hearing about."

"You're aware of that? What, is there a popular alien grapevine on Earth?" On second thought, there probably was, considering how many aliens have hidden themselves among the planet's population.

"Alien, magic – rumors are rumors," the girl said with a shrug.

"I am Neito Monoma. And you are…?"

"Call me Sunny." She flipped onto another page in her reading. "Hey, how'd you get the Omnitrix? Word is that Ben's still fighting the good fight off-planet, ain't he?"

"Julie Yamamoto is my aunt. She–"

"Oh, I think I remember seeing her once or twice. So are you like Ben's long lost son or something?"

Neito stiffened. "Definitely not." He has heard a great many things about this Benjamin Tennyson, but Neito would rather not dishonor his true parentage with such a lie.

"Guess that makes sense considering the kind of guy Ben is. Then what is your story, kid?"

"My story is not relevant right now, Sunny." Neito stood up and looked out of the small barred window at the back of his cell near the ceiling. The sun's rays seeped through. The hours of daylight were to be depleted before long. "Your story and this town, with this serial killer, are far more pertinent."

Sunny sighed and tossed her magazine away. She began spinning in place while still in the air, her hair following with her motions. "God, he's such a prick, isn't he? Mikey's a pain to even think about, man"

Mikey? As in Michael? Michael Morningstar? Morningstar the hometown hero had changed his legal name, but aunt Julie had informed Neito of the man's true identity. "How do you know the killer?"

"We dated," Sunny answered, which made Neito cringe, considering the difference in – wait, she was an alien. Humanlike in appearance, for sure, but was Sunny really as old as Neito? "You see, one day, a girl and her new boyfriend decided to blow up the moon."

They what?

"Of course, Gwen-dy and her boy toy thought Earth needed that hunk of rock spinning around it – not like Ben could've used one of his aliens to replace it or whatever. Anyway, long story short, the new boyfriend became another ex-boyfriend because he was two-timing the girl with some two-bit magician. Gwen-dy and her Plumber friends saved the day, and all the 'villains' of the story get locked up in Legerdomain under a curse."

Where?

"Some big war with this old, crusty squid or something stirred things up, broke us free. Portals started popping, time started warping; real apocalyptic kind of stuff went on in the magic realm. Don't know where Mikey's floozy magician gal ended up. I ended up here with Mikey, but his power – sorry, you guys call them Quirks here, right? – his Quirk is called Drain Life. Does what you think, fuels himself with it. He tried to feed on my Mana. I'd have kicked his ass, but…"

Sunny stopped spinning. She faced Neito and pulled up her sleeves. Her skin was grotesquely gray and wrinkled, deprived of any life to it. It appeared the corrupted area moved further up her arm. It was a stark contrast to the lively pink air she generated around herself.

"He caught me by surprise," Sunny said with a palpable sense of bitterness. "I needed a place to lie low, lick my wounds. My Mana manipulation has been out of whack ever since leaving Legerdomain. Tried camping in the woods for a good while. Let me tell you, it sucked so hard.

"But anyway, it took pretty long to get to where I am now, but wouldn't you know it, since Ben and the Plumbers have been off fighting a war on the other side of the galaxy against that rusty squid, Mikey's built himself a new con in this town, killing off his new fanbase while pretending to hunt down the killer."

Neito took a moment to go through Sunny's tale another time in his head. This person wasn't Gwendolyn Tennyson, but she was still a member of the family. She had magical powers, and she knew Morningstar personally. Though she had been clearly affected by Morningstar's Quirk, she was also clearly healing and in stable enough health to so casually levitate in her prison cell.

"On what charges did the police arrest you for?" Neito asked.

"Probably the same as you, kid. Since I haven't been doing too hot, I thought I'd try telling the locals who Mikey really was." Sunny floated down to a bench against the wall and laid down, blowing a strand of hair off of her face as she rested her head against a pillow. "Fat load of good it did me. They were too into Morningstar. Guess I was, too, at one point, but so was Gwen-dy! I think, at least. Pretty sure they almost got to second base way back when."

"Well, you can get your second chance for revenge today." Neito looked again at his window. He could see the orange air of twilight creeping in. "Free me, and we can find Morningstar together, rescue my aunt, and make him pay for his –"

He abruptly stopped speaking as Sunny extended a beam of pink energy from her arm to press against his lips.

"Not so fast, kid," she said with a condescending smile. "I told you my story. Tell me yours? What makes you so special to get the Omnitrix?"

Neito tried slapping the pink extension away. It removed itself from his mouth, but Neito had a feeling that it was only because Sunny allowed it to move, not because he actually applied enough force. This person was clearly in complete control of her own abilities.

He told his story expediently; about coming to America to train his Copy Quirk, Benjamin Tennyson's message to aunt Julie, Neito accidentally claiming the Omnitrix, teaming up with Ship and Cooper, and traveling across the country dealing with further alien threats along the way.

From the way Sunny's eyes never strayed from Neito, and from how she sat on the bench and leaned forward, he had her full attention. She was truly curious to hear Neito's story. Considering her attitude so far… was the attention out of boredom? A lack of interesting stimulus while waiting here and healing from Morningstar's attacks? Being an alien personally related to the Tennysons, was she testing Neito's character if he deserved to wear the Omntrix? Other Plumbers and those familiar with Tennyson that Neito has encountered in America so far have done much the same to him already.

As Neito quickly recounted how Cooper and Ship were incapcaited and how he wound up in jail, he was struck by sudden inspiration.

The sunlight coming through the window was at its peak now. With the sunset, nightfall was inevitable.

"You must have some sordid, dark past in your life," Neito said once he was done describing his own history. "Blowing up the moon – I'll be honest, that's the most dramatic and nonsensical thing I've heard any criminal, alien or otherwise, try to accomplish."

Sunny scoffed. "Yeah, like that's the worst thing someone's ever tried to do to Earth."

"It was egregious enough to imprison you in – correct me if I'm wrong – another dimension."

"Yeah, another dimension. Magic and shlock like that."

The world of aliens grows stranger by the day. "Did you serve your sentence to completion?"

"Hell if I know. What, you want to try to turn me in?" Sunny resumed her levitation, swirls of pink energy spiraling around her as she leaned to the side against empty air. She placed a hand on her hip and tilted her head to stare down at Neito with glowing eyes devoid of irises. "It's been a spell since I got to brawl with someone other than cops or Mikey. Fighting some kid with the Omnitrix sounds like a good warmup before I get to Mikey. So, you want to fight me?"

Neito chuckled softly, just as he had practiced to convey a sort of dismissive amusement. It often annoyed his aunt, so it must be working. "No, on the contrary, I want you to fight for me."

Understandably, Sunny raised an eyebrow in confusion. "For you?"

"With me. Beside me. Not against me, mainly, but rather in support of me."

The alien girl snorted. "A team-up sounds fun, too, but why was the first option for you?"

"Well, you're a criminal," Neito said simply. "You can't deny that."

"Sure."

"A criminal who has burnt bridges with her Plumber relatives, yet you've tried to do some good regardless. Instead of leaving the innocents of this town to be fed on by Morningstar, you stayed and tried to evict that monster from here. Meanwhile, I am the Wielder of the Omnitrix – still proving my worth to the title, I'll grant you, but if you fight alongside me, follow my lead, my instructions, and help me defeat Morningstar, then I can guarantee you amnesty for any other crimes the Plumbers may try to make you pay for." Within reason, of course. Neito didn't get the feeling Sunny was a heartless murderer or of that sort, so he still felt confident in his offer.

Technically, Neito didn't have the authority granted by the Plumbers to offer amnesty to anyone. When one of the elder Plumbers Neito had met on his journey had offered to formally deputize him as a member of the organization, aunt Julie had interfered and forbid it for some reason. Neito was already committed to serving with the Omnitrix, so why not formally commit to being a Plumbers? If only… Well, no matter.

Neito can complain about aunt Julie stonewalling his entry into the Plumbers another time, after she was rescued and after Mornginstar's reign of terror was put to an end. To get on with this mission, Neito needed to be freed from this jail cell, and for that, he needed Sunny's allegiance. A promise to stand beside him. In spite of Sunny's careless demeanor, he could give a guess on the potential power as an Anodite at her disposal, power which would serve him and his mission against Mornginstar very well if only she abided by Neito's terms.

Yet Sunny still remained hesitant to acquiesce to his offer. "You trying to blackmail me?"

"No, merely attempting to reach an accord, and I swear to uphold my word so long as you give me yours. What I am at my core is a hero. What kind of a hero would I be if I were to turn away from a fair maiden in distress such as yourself who is able to do some good in the world?"

Now a hard guffaw of laughter broke out of the alien girl. "Fair maiden? Is that supposed to be a come-on? Really?"

Neito shuffled his feet. In the hallway beside their respective cells, lights along the ceiling were turning on, probably in response for the growing darkness of nightfall. "Do you find our banter more entertaining an exercise than, I don't know, fighting next to one of the Omnitrix's many aliens and humiliating your boyfriend for the gluttonous farce that he is? And then being graciously rewarded a pardon for your cooperation?"

After snickering some more, Sunny said, "Alright, Omni-boy. You've convinced me."

Finally! She waved her hand, purple-pink pulsating energy shooting out from the motion. The energy passed through the cell bars and over Neito. He recoiled but felt no harm done to him. Instead he felt his restraints loosen and slip easily out of his hands.

"Excellent," Neito said, rubbing his wrists."Now–"

Sunny made another motion that extended a narrow thread of smooth energy to wrap around his hands. Neito found himself being puppeteered. His fingers activated the Omnitrix and twisted the dial.

"What are you doing?!"

"Playing the lottery."

His hand no longer in control, Neito pressed down on the watch.

Neito quickly realized which of his aliens he now embodied. As with most of his transformations, his body became larger and taller. In this form, the texture of his skin changed as he grew scales, gills, and fins. With how close Neito had pressed his legs together before pressing the Omnitrix, they were now combined to shape a black alien tail fit only for underwater traversal, so Neito unfurled his limbs to freely stand on his feet. Neito gritted his sharpened teeth as the antenna extending from his head hung a bright orb over his eyes like that of an anglerfish.

Ripjaws had his fair share of strength and power. His speed and strength used to swim at high speeds in the depths of the ocean could translate well to hand-to-hand combat.

But already Neito could feel the heat begin to fatigue him. From Neito's experiments, he knew Ripjaws was able to operate without being submerged in water for a short time, at least four and a half of his ten minute countdown for Omnitrix transformations, but being exposed to extreme heat lessened that time considerably. Clearly the police station was poorly insulated in the midst of this hot summer. There was dry taste in the air as Neito's breathing strained to steady itself.

"Better not waste your breath," Sunny said as Neito kneeled down and patted his chest. Though he kept his head down, he could practically feel Sunny smiling down at him, and it was absolutely infuriating. "I've seen Ben fight. Not even at his best – I could still kick his ass, trust me on that – but he's a helluva fighter. I've never seen you fight before. Maybe you'll be boring. Maybe you'll be a liability. I wanna see you inaction before I commit to this partnership."

Ripjaws', well, jaws clacked together as Neito glowered at the alien girl. "We're wasting time."

"Come on, Omni-boy. Clock's ticking. Impress me."

What utter malarkey…

Neito chose not to initiate physical hostilities against the Anodite. Instead, he turned his attention to the police officer currently entering the hall. The officer was fanning himself with one hand and staring at a clipboard in the other.

Ignoring whatever he was saying about identification regarding the prisoners, Neito slipped a hand between the cell bars and grabbed the officer's head. Neito slammed it twice, against the bars then on the ground. The man was unconscious almost instantaneously. Fishing through his pockets, Neito found a set of keys. He unlocked his cell and quickly moved to unlock Sunny's.

"You're probably strong enough to have just pried open the walls yourself," Sunny said as she ignored her open door and instead sliced through the bars with her Mana. As cylindrical pieces fell to the floor, she strolled right through the opening she just made. "Not really making the most of the Omnitrix's time limit."

What an ignorant observation. Neito had neither the time nor the energy to waste explaining how destroying infrastructure would exhaust him far more than knocking out the officer. Naturally, when another officer arrived to investigate the commotion, Ripjaws simply slapped his hands against the newcomer's ears. Dazed, he was open for Neito to shove him against the brick wall, once more sending an officer into unconsciousness. There was a third officer, but Neito dispatched much the same way, with blunt force to the cranium. Clearly the small police force of this town were being overworked and were too caught off-guard by Ripjaws' sudden ambush.

However, as Sunny trailed behind Neito entering the main office area of the station, the shocking flow of electricity suddenly dispersed itself all throughout Neito's body. Not the same type of electrical weapon used to deactivate the Omnitrix and force Neito to return to his human form. No, this was a normal taser, its barbs digging into his arm.

Thankfully, Ripjaws was able to endure the pain long enough to grab the wires connecting the probes to the taser itself, thus pulling hard to bring his attacker within striking distance. This officer had a Quirk providing him rocklike skin, so Neito's punch was not enough to put him down. Instead, the officer pushed through the jab and tackled Neito.

"Need a hand, man?" Sunny asked, hands held behind her back as she leapt over Neito and the officer struggling against each other. The rock man found a tight grip over Ripjaws' thick throat. Neito fleetingly considered using his claws to disable the officer's eyes, which lacked the rock texture matching his skin, but he banished the thought immediately. He did not want to cripple these people, enforcers of the law, no matter how blind they were to the villain living right under their noses. Blows to the head were already pushing it.

No, not Ripjaws' claws… but his actual namesake. Grasping the officer's shoulders for leverage, Neito lunged his head forward to entrap the rock man's between Ripjaws' teeth like a crocodile capturing its prey. The teeth dug into the officer's skin, not deep enough to draw blood through the man's Quirk yet enough to make him panic and change tactics. He released Neito's jaw and tried prying Ripjaws' jaw off him.

With his neck no longer being suffocated, Neito grabbed the officer's underarm. He used his grips between his hands and his bite to lift up the officer before promptly slamming him against the ground. Flowing with the motion, Neito mimicked one of Cannonbolt's moves: he followed through in a forward somersault, and unique to Ripjaws, connected his legs to form his slithering tail to smack against the back of the officer's skull. Continuing to spin in mid-air, Neito also clasped his hands together to land another hit. Cracks spread along the rocklike skin, and across the flat floor like, but no blood spilled.

The officer remained unmoving safe for his breathing. Satisfied, Neito looked around the station. This was office space, somewhat reminiscent of his father's law firm. And if this was an office area…

Sunny was still being an unhelpful bother. She slashed open a vending machine and pilfered a soda can. "You can copy superpowers, right? Couldn't you have copied his rock Quirk?"

Neito only grunted. He did out of habit copy the Quirk of each officer he had knocked out, but Neito's Copy Quirk was likely already recorded in their police files considering how he tried to resist arrest before he was brought here. Later, Cooper could destroy those files, and any possible camera footage of Neito transforming with the Omnitrix in his cell, but better to not let these policemen see one of the Hourglass Vigilantes utilizing the same Quirk known to belong to Neito Monoma.

While Sunny downed another soft drink, Neito moved to what he was looking for: a water cooler. He counted himself lucky as there were two coolers right next to each other. For the first one, Neito picked up the water container and poured its contents down on him. His breathing and energy flourished as he showered in the fresh cold substance. Setting the now empty gallon aside, he kneeled down in front of the second cooler. Carefully he pulled out its gallon and the slim tube which pumped the water to the dispensers.

Using the unconscious rock officer's belt, which was quite long considering the man's size, Neito strapped the gallon along his back. Ripjaws couldn't simply drink water from the connecting tube and be instantly rejuvenated, but he would still be able keep his dry fatigue at bay for the remainder of his transformation.

"Nice jury rig, man," Sunny said with what almost sounded like genuine awe. There was a childlike, adventurous spirit in the way she stared at Neito's water supply. "But, you've only got like ten minutes in that form, right? Plus you're down a couple minutes already."

With the dryness straining Ripjaws now reduced, Neito waggled his set of keys between his fingers as he marched for the door. "Not enough bodies of water nearby. Need the supply to stay stable. We'll take a police vehicle and make for Morningstar's mansion as soon as possible."

"Stealing a cop car? Nice! Though we'd be faster if I just fly us, you know. I can carry you with my Mana."

"We follow my lead." And Neito didn't trust letting her take the wheel, so to speak, and to take a frivolous diversion from their mission. No more "tests" or other distractions. "We take Morningstar together, and you will know not to think so lowly of me any longer."

He could sense Sunny's smile as she drifted through the air and followed him to the parking lot. "Better not disappoint me, kid."

NOW

"... and it was an ingenious stratagem to leave those class 1-A posers behind. Make them realize the gravity of the situation with one of the party missing, prompting them to follow our 1-B compatriots into battle as the support."

"Monoma–"

"And your reaction time was excellent regarding that unstable hothead Bakugo's foolish reaction to attacking Cannonbolt. I'm sure it only took a hero of your will to get the idiot to consider the consequences of his actions for once."

"Mono–"

"And let's not forget about–"

"Neito."

Finally, Neito relented and shut his mouth, leaning back in his chair. Kendo sighed tiredly as she took another sip from her tea. She stared blankly around the tea shop, mostly empty save for herself and Neito. The elderly shopkeeper was distracted as he counted up the last of the money owed to him that they had given him.

The cafe had been an unfortunate victim of collateral damage during one of Neito's and Kendo's previous bouts of vigilantism against villains. The owner was grateful for the help at the time, but Neito had often frequented this shop with his parents when he was a child, so he contributed to the repairs while posing as one of the Hourglass Vigilantes with the Omnitrix. Neito had continued to return as a regular customer afterward. With the true identities of Lucky Girl and the Protector of Earth recently exposed, Neito had wanted to reimburse the old man for the damages in full, paid by a graciously understanding Ryukyu.

"Enough with the flattery," Kendo said. "If you want to ask me something, ask it."

Neito flinched. "Dare I?"

"Will you?"

"Fine." He's been avoiding directly saying it for too long anyway. "Put simply, I think you should stop beating yourself up over the incident at Kamino."

Predictably, Kendo scoffed. "Geez, who would've guessed that's what you wanted to say."

"You told me to tell you!"

"I can't just flip a switch and automatically stop thinking about it." Kendo patted the wheelchair she was currently sitting on for emphasis. "I won't be needing this before summer ends, but I just can't forget. Especially that incident's all you've been talking about ever since we came in here."

"I said I want you to stop beating yourself up about what happened there. You should remember and cherish your undeniable successes from that night, not wallow in excessive self-criticism."

Kendo rubbed her temple and shook her head, in clear disagreement with Neito's suggestions. "I literally can't walk on my own… Monoma, I understand what you're trying to say – you've been saying it for the past half hour –"

And he had at least another two hours worth of more constructive praise to go over!

"– but I just… it seriously freaked me out, Monoma."

Kendo's tone now made Neito refrain from interrupting with that praise. She sipped her tea again, as if to delay from elaborating, but it wasn't long before she went on.

"I could have died," she stated plainly, but Neito could practically feel the tension oozing out of her. "I know you've been close to death before, but… I don't think I ever really understood it until that night. I mean, yeah, there've been times I've been hurt enough where I was bedridden for maybe two or three days. At Kamino… I wasn't sure if I was going to die by bleeding out from the bullet wound, by being torn apart in the explosion, or by getting my face caved in with Muscular's fists."

Unused to Kendo being so… descriptive when talking about brutality, Neito felt the urge to turn away, but he resisted the notion and kept his eyes purely on Kendo's.

She smiled grimly. "That yandere villain wanted to cut me with her knife, too. You'd think I'd have gotten used to getting cut with how rowdy our training at U.A. gets, but I guess that girl isn't a villain for nothing."

Her somber tone was getting to be too much. Neito didn't want to let it fester any longer. He noisily planted his hands against their table as he stood up. Kendo was startled, flinching enough to make her wheelchair move. "Itsuka Kendo," Neito said with as much energy he could muster, "you are a brilliant woman."

"You've been saying –"

"I don't want to see you drown in indecision or self-doubt. You deserve to shine as a hero. Even when we had to be rescued ourselves by other heroes that night, even when death is and will always be a real danger to us considering your career choice, your love of life, your ardor, your care for the world can make you one of the most exceptional heroes of us all."

Normally in an improvised speech like this, Neito liked to pace back and forth, usually to stall for time to come up with more material. However, now he had Kendo captivated and didn't want to lose any momentum with such a tactic.

"In America," he went on, clenching his hands into fists digging in the wood, "one of my traveling companions had also been held back by her own doubts," and also her devil-may-care personality, granted, "and made her hesitate from being the hero she was destined to be. Another of my companions was often too cowardly as well, afraid of applying his abilities to their full potential. I mean no disrespect to my old friends, but you're a person ten times the worth of each of them, Kendo. This world deserves and needs heroes like you."

Because there were too many villains – human, alien, and beyond – that were haunting this world.

If Kendo of all people lost her passion and resolve to be a hero, what hope did the rest of U.A. have?

What kind of hero would Neito be if he could not save Itsuka before she was consumed by despair?

Then Kendo started crying.

Tears down the sides of her face. Sniffling.

Neito picked up a napkin and held it up for her. She just turned away. Neito lowered his hand but continued to hold it forward. Some time after he sat back down, Kendo's reddened eyes opened as she took the napkin and wiped her face.

"I'm never not gonna be a hero," she said, her voice keeping itself steady. "I didn't become a vigilante with you or go to U.A. for nothing. You know that. I know that… so thanks for reminding me. Really."

"You're welcome." Neito considered moving around the table and embracing Itsuka in a hug, but he found his legs too weak to stand back up again. "It's what I'm here for."

"You have a good heart, Neito."

"You… you have the soul of an angel, Itsuka."

Itsuka laughed. An honest, blissful guffaw, thank the Lord. "Please tell me you aren't going to try serenading me, too."

Neito leaned back and crossed his arms, offering his own chuckle, falling into the regular habits. "I love you, Itsuka, but I still have standards."

Itsuka took a moment to recompose herself. They both continued to sip their tea in silence.

"Just so we're clear on this," Itsuka said once the tears had dried. "I'm never walking away, Neito. From the hero business or your alien schlock. We're in this together."

"Happy to hear it." They raised their drinks in toast before clanging their cups and drinking the last of their contents. "I thank you."

"So…" Itsuka flipped some of her long hair back behind her shoulder. She leaned forward, to speak at a whisper, so Neito also leaned in. "I've told you what I was holding back. I think it's your turn."

Neito spread a false grin across his face. Just when he thought they were done pouring their hearts out… "And what do you think I've been holding?"

"You tell me. You were willing to go out of your way to talk with 1-A's prez the other day. That's a sure sign as any that something's throwing you off your game."

… He should really stop underestimating Itsuka and her talent for spotting the signs when he's hiding something.

She had learned the truth about the Omnitrix within a day of them seeing each other when he returned from America.

It was only a matter of time until she learned about the second biggest secret of Neito's life. He might as well let her know now.