Time waits for no one - Folklore
Chapter 8
I sat up with a half-strangled cry, hands reaching out for something that even now faded from sight.
Damn it.
Haven't had that one in a long time.
Thought I'd finally escaped it.
I found myself letting out a yawn as I stretched out my arms, a series of loud cracks ringing out as I did so.
Ah.
So satisfying.
My nostrils flared as something steaming was thrust under my nose and I blearily took in a disposable coffee cup held by a familiar hand.
"It's no artisanal blend, but it should help with waking up." Kayama Yomi said kindly, apparently having made the fresh cup of coffee in the time it took me to become aware of my surroundings.
Man, I really was out of it.
Was not expecting to have to do all that after my exhibition fight.
How's the old saying go again.
Man plans.
God laughs.
"Thanks Yomi." I muttered, taking a swig of the offered coffee.
And then immediately started retching.
Oh God.
That's not coffee.
The abominable taste of steaming hot Mana clung to my tastebuds as I coughed and spluttered, my assistant laughing loudly in a way that reminded me so very much of her cousin.
"Oh, the look on your face!" She laughed, tears running down her face. "Priceless!"
As much as I wanted to be angry at her, I could feel the good that the mana was doing me right now, the ache that had been pulling on me fading away as it fed into my quirk.
I had needed that.
I rubbed at my chin, feeling the stubble that had grown there with a scowl.
Going to need to shave that later.
I pushed myself from my impromptu bed, walking over to the mirror that had been stuck onto one of the walls and examined my face.
Hair is a mess.
My clothes need a clean.
At least there was no acne anymore.
That was always a pain.
And…
I raised my hand up to my forehead and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no blood there.
Thank god.
"You were bleeding." Yomi confessed, and I could make out the guilty look on her face in the mirror. "I cleaned it up while you slept."
"Thank you." I said simply, glad I didn't have that to deal with at least.
Now I need to get going.
Need to make my little stop over.
And then get some sleep right after.
A lot of sleep.
And I've got the first classes for the first years to plan out too, don't I?
Crap.
"Any other emergencies while I was out?" I asked Yomi, reaching into a pocket to make sure the keys to my apartment were still there.
They were.
Small mercies.
"Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow." Yomi replied, handing over my phone as she did so.
Yomi was usually the one who dealt with my phone whenever I was in the middle of a consultation or in situations like this one where I was mostly dead to the world.
Then I asked the question that had been waiting to be answered ever since I woke up. "How's Tensei?"
The grimace Yomi failed to supress said a lot. "He's alive, thanks to you." She started slowly. "But he's still unconscious. Until he wakes up we can't be certain about his condition."
Buggar.
We made our way back out to the front of the hospital, Yomi filling me in on what had happened to Tensei.
The Hero Killer, Stain.
Apparently Tensei had caught sight of him during one of his patrols, called it in, and then gone after him with the aim to either bring him to justice or failing that, hold him up long enough for reinforcements to help.
Only by the time said back up arrived Stain was gone.
And the Pro Hero Ingenium was in the process of bleeding out onto the concrete.
Got to be honest.
I hadn't really put much thought into Stain until this point.
Just another idiot with a half-baked philosophy that thinks violence is going to solve everything wrong with society.
I had far more interest in tracking down my own targets.
But it looks like this idiot really wants some attention.
I'll have to give Enji a call later.
He usually keeps an ear out to active villain activity.
Hell he's got a whole floor of his agency dedicated solely to that.
A hell of a lot more than my grand total of zero floors in my non-existent agency.
"Thanks again Yomi." I said with a wave walking through the final doors to the outside and my…car.
I stood before the empty space where my car used to be, bar the melted slag and rubber that likely had been my wheels.
Great.
Thought the car was in better nick than that.
"Mac has already received it in his garage." Yomi's voice piped up from behind me, reaching into her bag and pulling up a folded piece of paper. "He also sent this for you to read, and several very long, very expletive filled voicemails that I've since deleted."
I unfolded the piece of paper and found a large emoji of the middle finger waiting for me.
I chuckled at that.
Yeah, Mac's going to be pissed for a bit.
Just like every other time I write off the car.
But that does mean I'm obviously not going to be able to drive home.
"Any chance you could give me a lift home?" I said with a smile as I turned to my assistant, hands together in prayer.
Yomi was unimpressed. "You are not getting on my bike. Not after last time." She said shortly, the smile on her face becoming decidedly sharper at that.
I winced.
Right.
Thought she'd forgiven me for that.
"I bought you a new one!" I said defensively, hands up to protect myself from any oncoming attacks as I did so.
The crossed arms and gleam in her eyes suggested that my tactic was not successful. "And bumped up my insurance premium." She said dryly. "But don't worry, I arranged for someone to give you a lift."
And that's when I heard it.
The music.
The goddamn Scorpions.
And there descending from the heavens, complete with air guitar solo was my best friend.
That dick.
"What's that make it?" Hawks asked rhetorically, maintaining his position hovering above me so I wasn't able to look down at him. "Three cars in as many months?"
I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling the barbed words forming to be flung in our usual back in forth but I swallowed them.
I was still tired.
And I needed to get this done before I turned in.
"Thanks for the lift." I said simply, feeling the tension fade out of me. "Mind if we stop in at the gym before you drop me off? Need to check something's been put away."
I saw the realisation flicker across Hawks' face, far too quickly for anyone else to have taken note of it.
He shrugged dramatically at my request even as he reached out to the boombox that had been held aloft by some of his feathers and turned the music off. "Can it wait?" He asked casually but the look in his eyes was growing sharper by the minute.
"Afraid not." I replied, with my best attempt at casual which was in all likelihood an utter failure given my newly awake status.
Hawks nodded at that. "Well, that's that then."
A flurry of red feathers surged forwards towards me and I found myself being lifted up into the air, my boots lifting off the ground even as I felt the tug of gravity seek to reclaim me.
This always feels so bizarre.
When I'm doing my air walk it's still like my feet are on the ground.
Being lifted by Hawks was a very different kettle of fish.
"Thanks again Yomi!" I called out before we gained too much momentum. "Don't know what I'd do without you!"
Yomi just laughed, waving briefly before she turned on her heel and made her way towards where the car was undoubtably parked.
"So…" Keigo drawled out, a smirk growing across his face.
"Oh here we go." I muttered, rolling my eyes.
"Now that you're my captive audience, I've just got to know." He said mock earnestly. "Losing on national television…wait no it was international wasn't it? How did that feel?"
"Only slightly better than your last attempt at okonomiyaki." I deadpanned, earning a chocked guffaw from my means of transportation.
Hawks cooking was…well to call it bad seems like a grave insult.
To anything that identifies as being bad that is.
"I am wounded by your spurious words!" Hawks responded dramatically, mock fainting in mid-air even as his feathers pulled both of us towards our destination.
I shook my head at that, smiling despite myself.
"Never should have got you that word a day calendar, you freaking Enji fanboy." I declared even as we both started laughing at each other as we fell into the same routine we always did after one of my spars with Enji.
I felt a weight lift of my shoulders, as we bantered back and forth, moving closer to our destination.
I placed the key on the hook on the inside of the store and stumbled down the stairs.
Well, I say stumble but it would be more accurate to say slip, almost fall and crack my head open, if not for Keigo's feathers catching me before the end.
"Woah there!" Hawks called out, his feathers tugging me back upright even as another one soared off into the darkness to hit the light switch. "Careful now."
"I'm fine." I grunted out, managing to stand on my own feet now that the stairs were out of the way.
"Hold up." I felt my friend's hand on my shoulder, holding me in place as he moved forward to face me. "We can do this later Kaito, you're clearly not fully recovered yet."
I paused for a moment before raising a hand to brush his off of my shoulder.
"I just need to get this done, then I can rest." I promised, although I was unsure just who I was making the promise to.
Was it to Hawks?
Or to me?
Hawks stood there for a moment before he threw up his hands with an exhalation. "You never listen to me like this, so fine. We do this, then I'm taking you straight back to your apartment. No more detours." He said seriously, no trace of joviality in his voice this time.
I moved forward towards a dusty old framed photo of one of the Old Man's favourite boxers from back when he was my age, Takamura something or other, and shifted it to the side to reveal the palm scanner hidden behind it.
Blocking off ground entry and reinforcing the building for full Quirk sparring wasn't the only renovations we had done to the old gym.
Granted what I was using it for now was decidedly not it's original purpose but I'd repurposed it well enough.
The high tech scanner, direct from I-Islands private security division read my palm, taking note of not just my hand and finger prints, but also my pulse and even my DNA with a light incision.
Once all the security protocols, some of which even I purposefully was unaware of, were satisfied with my identity, the scanner pulsed a soft green and a loud click filled the air.
I moved towards the storage closet that remained empty at all times, and stepped through it, the back wall having retracted into the ceiling above to allow entry to the hidden room.
Within there were a series of weapon racks all holding bladed weapons of various types, from small weapons like a set of punch daggers and a stiletto knife to utterly monstrously huge weapons like a cruel double-bladed axe that would have been twice my height if it had been standing upright.
The nineteen weapons, despite the differences in design and in some cases in metal all had two things in common.
One, that they had all been made by the same man.
And two, that they had all been destroyed.
Some were in two pieces.
Most were in more than that, little more than shattered pieces of metal remaining.
But I had still gathered all the pieces together to contain them all here.
All but one.
The empty space silently challenged me each time I looked upon it when I entered this room, filling me with fury and regret in equal measures.
The other wall of the room was a very different affair.
Compared to the wall occupied with the broken remains of the weapons, this wall bore only one thing.
A single box of silvery-gold material, which to be perfectly honest was the most expensive thing I had ever bought, even with the discount I'd gotten on it. [Color=transparent] Finally. [/color]
Getting something this large made out of a platinum-gold alloy was by no means cheap.
Platinum by itself usually costs in excess of a thousand dollars a gram.
The case propped up along the wall was almost as tall as I was. [Color=transparent] What took you so long? [/color]
But it's the most wear-resistant material ever made by man.
And I needed it to contain what was inside. [Color=transparent] Should I take that as a compliment? [/color]
I looked down at the base of the box to find a piece of crumbling chain, which even now was corroding at a rapid pace, crumbling away into nothing. [Color=transparent] Hello? [/color]
Even with the case containing it, one of the chains that had once been pinning this box to the wall had faded away to nothing, as if it had been centuries since I'd last returned to this place instead of a mere three years. [Color=transparent] You're kidding me? [/color]
The other wasn't looking to crash hot either, looking like it was going to fall apart if I so much as looked at it the wrong way. [Color=transparent] Listen to me goddamn you! [/color]
I sighed and turned to walk towards the box of chains that I had stacked at the end of the room.
I'd tried with rope before but it didn't last anywhere near as long. [Color=transparent] Alright screw this. [/color]
There was a loud ringing sound and I turned to see the final chain snap as the box fell towards me.
And before I could stop myself my hands leapt up to stop it from falling, almost of their own accord.
My hands touched the box. [Color=transparent] We need to talk. [/color]
And it all went white. [Color=transparent]Face to face. [/color]
One moment I was in the store room.
The next?
I was there.
Standing before the barred door, locks and chains attached liberally all over it.
But despite the many shackles and deadbolts on this door, I could still see through to the darkened cell and the single occupant within.
The music drifted towards me, echoing through this strange space, seeming to be far too loud to have come from an ordinary piano.
I know this piece.
Once upon a time I could play it.
Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.
I hated that piece of music.
I hadn't played piano in a very long time.
It only bought back bad memories.
"So." The prisoner spoke up, still facing away from me, seemingly focused on playing the piano more than his only visitor. "Took you long enough."
I felt something rise up at his words but I forced them back down.
No.
That's not him.
I stood there in silence glaring at the shadowed figure as they continued to play the sombre piece before with a sigh, they abandoned the attempt and stood up from their seat.
They walked towards me slowly, the click of their footsteps against the floor near deafening in the silence of this place, before they came to a stop before the bars.
Even this close, I couldn't make out any of the details of the sole prisoner.
It was like trying to make out a shadow on a cloudy night.
Like that one villain, Kurogiri I think it was, but without the cloths or the glowing eyes in the void.
Nothing.
Except for the two horns, curling up from their forehead and above their head, pulsing a faint white as they stood there as if replicating the beat of a heart.
"Really?" They asked dryly, their shadowed form looking decidedly…disappointed? "You don't call, you don't write. I was starting to worry."
Fury surged through me at the painfully familiar tone.
I hated this person.
More than anyone.
Well.
Almost anyone.
"What do you want?" I snarled through gritted teeth.
"My god, he speaks! Alert the media." The prisoner said sardonically. "For a while there I was worried that you'd forgotten how to. You know, given the amount of stuff you've chosen to forget already."
Calm.
They're just trying to rile you up.
You know that.
With that knowledge, I was able to force out the question once more, eager to get this over and done with so I could move on with my life.
"Oh you know, the usual." The prisoner drawled. "World Peace, healthy food that doesn't taste like garbage or cost a small fortune and, oh yes that's right, for you to let me out of this cage."
Another tumult of emotions threatened to rise up at that but I ruthlessly pushed them back down.
"You know why that's not going to happen." I said softly, clenching my fists tightly as I did so.
The prisoner scoffed at that. "Really?" They said derisively. "Still? After all this time? It's been years since that night Yo-"
"My name," I interrupted him loudly, slashing an arm down for emphasis as I did so, "is Kanetsuki Kaito. And don't you dare talk about that night."
I couldn't see them, but I could almost guarantee that the prisoner was rolling his eyes at my words.
"Sure it is." They said conversationally. "Sure would like it if you said my name once in a while. It's not like it would kill you." Their form shifted slightly as if awaiting my reply.
I remained silent at that.
The figure waited as well and the silence dragged on between us.
"You've got to be kidding me." The prisoner spoke up after what felt like an age had passed. "You don't remember my name do you!?" They finished with an outraged voice.
I went to deny the accusation that was there but as I reached for the words they failed to appear.
They weren't wrong.
"Oh this is just great!" They muttered derisively, now pacing angrily back and forth in the shadowed cell that was their only home. "First time you actually bother to open your stupid mouth only to reveal you don't even remember my freaking name! That is just…"
Underneath the rage, the pain, the sadness and the melancholy that the prisoner's voice elicited in me, there was one that rose to the top, one that I didn't want to acknowledge.
Guilt.
Because I knew that it was my fault.
But I was just too stubborn to admit it to the prisoner.
The prisoner stopped, strangling the air for a moment in a bout of sheer frustration before stopping. "Fine." They spat out. "Down to brass tacks. Next time he pops up, you're taking me with you."
"I don't need your help." My response came automatically, the same stubbornness that had gotten me this far in life fuelling it.
The prisoner scoffed at that. "Because it went so well last time." The prisoner said sarcastically, drawing out the 'so' as they gestured with their arms. "Oh hero of Kurobe Dam."
I grimaced at that.
They weren't wrong.
Last time had gone…poorly.
To put it lightly.
I'd been able to stop the dam from breaking and having Lake Kurobe flood the resulting area but that was the only good piece of news I could say about that attempt.
That bastard broke the dam so he could get away from me and it worked.
I wasn't enough.
If I took the sword with me, I'd probably be able to finish it.
It was how I'd been able to dispatch the other wielders so easily after all.
The clang of something hitting the bars drew my attention back to the prisoner.
"You're not the only one who made that promise, Kaito." The prisoner said firmly. "I intent to keep it."
I stood there for a moment longer before with great hesitation, I nodded.
I wanted that final weapon collected more than I cared about that promise I'd made to myself.
Guess I did care about the older promise more than the more recent one.
Guess a few years can bring change in a person.
"Wait you said yes?" The prisoner seemed surprise at my answer. "Well…shit. I thought I was going to have to try and bribe you into it, but I guess I'll just tell you as a sign of good faith."
I perked up at that.
What could the prisoner possibly hope to bribe me with?
Not trying to get me to use the blade?
Fat chance of that.
"I'll give you a hint. That new technique you've been working on, the one you've been trying to recreate after that one time." He spoke up drawing a straight line in the air.
I started at that.
How the hell did the prisoner know about that?
"Just because you don't hear me anymore, doesn't mean I'm not there Kaito." The prisoner said bluntly. "Time is not a straight line."
What?
That doesn't make any sense.
The prisoner leaned forward as if to say something but what I heard wasn't words.
What I heard was more like static, the electronic crackle of dead air drowning out whatever else they had to say.
I strained my eyes, trying to make out their mouth so I could try to read their lips in a final attempt.
The room went white.
I blinked.
My eyes opened and I was back in the hidden room, the sealed case still being held upright by me.
I pushed it up and propped it up against the wall absently brushing my hands off on my coat as I stood before the case.
I knew I should have had a lot of questions after what had just taken place.
I knew I should have felt something after what had just taken place.
But the only thing I felt was tired.
Bone deep tired.
"You done in here?" Keigo's voice called out from the gym proper, his head poking out through the hidden door. "Not trying to rush you but I do have other things I've got to get done today Kaito."
I turned towards the box of chains in the corner, as well as the hammer and heavy nails that would have been used to bolt them into the wall.
Then I turned back towards the door and nodded. "Time to go home."
Keigo scoffed at that. "Time for you maybe, I've still got a full day of work ahead of me. You know being number three and all that."
I rolled my eyes at that. "Hey we both agreed that the Hero Billboards are bullsh-" I stopped midsentence as I felt my legs buckle beneath me, the floor rushing up to meet me.
Guess that conversation might have strained something.
I stopped just before I hit the ground the bright red feathers of my best friend once again saving me from an unwanted reunion with the padded floor.
"Have you gained weight Kaito?" Keigo said slyly, even as his feathers started to float me back up the stairs towards the only exit of the gym, the hidden door having slid closed as soon as I had passed through it. "Quickly, give me a sign of life.
I slowly raised one hand to give him the finger.
Keigo grinned at that. "Close enough." The door swung open to reveal the blinding light of the sun as I floated out into the busy sounds of morning traffic. "Let's get to bed Sleeping Beauty."
Goddamn it.
Never should have introduced Disney to that birdbrain.
I closed the door to the staff room behind me and walked over towards my desk and sat down with a loud sigh.
Well.
That went well.
I think they're starting to pick it up.
Glad I don't have any sparring matches planned for today.
Would not have been at my best.
Probably need another day or two of bedrest before I can start breaking out the big stuff again.
In al honesty I'm just mad that I wasn't able to talk to little Green before he got shipped off to his internship.
I opened up a blank document entitled 'Lesson plan for the first years' and…stared at it blankly.
Damn it.
Still can't think of the proper way to start them off.
I'd do the normal way but that relies on a year's worth of schooling that hasn't happened yet.
So…
Uh.
I shrugged and spun in my chair once, taking in the form of some of the other teachers completing some of their own work with some exceptions.
Including Aizawa.
What black magic is this?
Aizawa not cocooned in the staff room at the first opportunity?
What the hell happened?
Not wanting to disturb anyone from their own work through my inability to do my own I turned back to my computer and tried to focus.
No dice.
Well in that case.
I activated the UA's internal server and bought up the class lists for the first years, eager to see just who had taken an internship with who.
Ken always posted a combined list of all the students out on internships so any teacher would be able to know where the student in question would be.
Most of those who'd not appeared in the finals were likely to take up a spot at one of the forty Hero Agencies that had already agreed to offer internships
Let's see then.
Looks like Kirishima got an internship with the Chivalrous Hero; Fourth Kind.
Nice!
Should hopefully help him out with his lack of close-range combat training.
Oh wait Fourth Kind took another intern?
Who…
I looked at the face to Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and supressed a chuckle.
Oh, I wish I was there.
I grabbed a protein bar and started chewing as I moved down the list spotting that Uraraka had accepted a placement with Gunhead, an excellent choice in my opinion, before I nearly choked on my next bite as one placement in particular stood out.
Jet-Black Hero: Tsukiyomi
Interning under the Wing Hero: Hawks
That son of a bitch.
He didn't say a damn thing about that!
Oho, that is so going on the list!
I moved down the list stopping as one name came up.
Tenya
Interning under the Normal Hero: Manual
Who?
After a quick search of my own I looked up the hero in question to discover that he was a relatively low ranked hero, No. 222 at last check, with a Water based Quirk.
Nothing amazing, just a very well-rounded hero with no outstanding abilities or accomplishments as far as I was aware.
Did the job and did it well by all accounts.
Based in Hosu.
On a hunch I bought up Tenya's other offers and saw many that were either higher ranked, better suited or a combination of the two.
I pursed my lips.
Not a good sign.
I might have to follow up on that later.
I saw Enji had made an offer to his son that had been accepted.
Of course.
I had a double take at the next hero name.
"King Explosion Murder?" I said bemusedly. "Really?"
A quick check on the owner of said ridiculous name revealed it to be Bakugo.
Yeesh.
Midnight is going to need to do workshopping of that Hero Name.
Then I saw who he was interning with and through otherwise.
Oh, Hakamada has a lot of work ahead of him.
A lot of work.
But if anyone could pull it off, it'd be Best Jeanist.
Finally I spotted the name that I'd been most curious about.
Deku
Interning under Gran Torino
Once again, I found myself drawing a blank.
Gran Torino?
Who's that?
Some new kid on the block?
A quick search for the hero in question proved me to be entirely wrong.
Gran Torino wasn't new.
Grant Torino was old.
A seasoned veteran who was an active Pro Hero during the Dark Age of Heroics in Japan.
Where the death rate for heroes was at the highest point it had been in recorded history.
And he'd been an active hero for the entire time.
One seemingly uninterested at gaining any popularity by his actions, but if the arrest record attached to his name is even half right then one, he defiantly knows his way around a fight.
No noted team ups.
No sidekicks.
No team to speak of.
Purely a solo act.
The only time he'd ever stepped back from hero work was when he decided to work as a homeroom teacher hero of all places.
Feeling curious I pulled up a class photo of the hero in question, wanting to get a look at him.
As I pulled up the photo, it wasn't the picture of the tall hero in question I found my eyes being drawn too.
The first thing my eyes were locked onto was the much younger face of one Toshinori Yagi.
Well.
That's someone I can ask about him at least.
The sound of the door being pulled open met my ears and the much shorter form of the Hero of Peace walked into the staff room, practically swimming in his oversized clothes as he made his way towards his desk, before he spotted me and made his way towards me.
Speak of the devil.
"Young Kaito! Good to see you up and at'em." Toshinori said loudly before shrinking down as a barrage of shushes came form the other desks. "Feeling alright?"
I smiled at the earnest of his inquiry and waved lightly. "Good to see you too. Just need a bit more bed rest and I'll be back too normal before you know it." I said, waving my protein bar for effect before I realised what I was doing and put it down on my desk beside me.
"Say I was looking into the internships the first years have gone off to and I saw one that I couldn't recognise." I started before flicking back to my computer and bring up the class photo once more. "Is this Gran Torino teaching Midoriya the same one that used to work at UA way back when?"
I sat there waiting for Toshinori's reply but didn't hear anything.
"Toshinori?" I asked again spinning my chair to face him once more and caught a very rare sight.
The hero of Peace was shaking like a leaf from head to toe as if an arctic chill hand entered the room, with the normally broad smile on Toshinori's face was now a far more fragile looking thing.
But it despite everything, I felt a dull sense of familiarity as I looked at him.
"O-Oh that's right." Toshinori said dully, his eyes almost turning glassy eyed as he spoke. "He taught me a great deal about combat training. He's very…thorough."
Well.
Someone's looking traumatised.
That was when it hit me.
Why the look on the number one hero's face was so familiar.
It was the same look that Keigo made whenever I brought up Yoroi Musha.
The realisation sunk in slowly.
Gran Torino is a hero that can make the greatest hero in Japan break out into a cold sweat at the mere mention of his name.
I said a silent prayer for little Green.
He's either going to come out of this as a one of the best in his year.
Or he's going to be coming out of this in the hospital.
I'll give it 50/50 odds.
After All Might managed to stop doing his best impersonation of a panic attack, which was only missing him breathing into a paper bag at this point he began to update me on what I had missed yesterday, the latest password that Snipe had installed in some of the restricted areas, things like that.
We'd just about got through it all and I was about to try to quiz him more about this mysterious Gran Torino guy when my phone decided it would be a good time to interrupt me.
I didn't recognise the number, but few people have my number anyway.
With an apologetic smile to my fellow teacher who nodded understandingly I stood up from my chair and answered the phone, going to step away from the staff room so as to not distract anyone with the phone call. "Kanetsuki Kaito speaking." I answered professionally.
"Relax Kaito it's me."
I felt my eyebrow shoot up at the voice on the other end of the phone.
"Tensei! I didn't know you were up." I said feeling a smile start to tug at my lips. "Good to here from you. How're you feeling?"
"Ah. Well…" There was hesitation in Tensei's voice.
I'd never heard him hesitate before.
I felt a ball of ice slowly form in my stomach before it started working it's way up.
"It's my legs." He admitted. "I can still feel them…I just can't seem to…move them."
Shit.
"What did Negi say?" I asked, knowing that the last thing that Tensei wanted to here from me right now was pity, or a reminder of his current status.
"She says there's still hope." He said quietly. "Thanks to you letting them start the surgery instead of waiting, there's a chance I'll be able to use them again. It's…just going to take some time."
I let out a breath at that piece of news.
Well.
It's not perfect.
There's not going to be an Ingenium for the foreseeable future.
But it's hope.
There was silence from the other line for a moment before Tensei spoke up again. "I need a favour." He said seriously.
I nodded, staring out the window to Mustafu, my eyes absently looking at the horizon. "Alright shoot. What do you need?" I asked simply.
"You're not going to like it." He warned me.
"Tensei." I tried to interrupt.
"It'll just be for a few days I swear." He continued, raising a lot of alarm bells which I was choosing to ignore.
"Tensei." I said in a much louder voice, forcing my way back into the conversation. "I do kinda owe you one for last time so just ask?"
"It's a big ask." Tensei admitted, still seeming to hesitate with actually telling me what the favour was.
"How bad can it be?"
I stood before the gathered group of sidekicks and other assorted support staff in my hero outfit outwardly smiling and inwardly cursing myself for ever agreeing to do this.
"For those of you who don't know me, I'm Shiro Madoushi, the Magical Healing Hero but you can feel free to call me Kaito." I said casually, taking off my hat and giving a little bow as I did so.
I didn't recognise most of the people looking back at me, with the exception of a few of the more consistent members of Tensei's patrol group like Bigshot, Onemu Shinya and the newest addition to the team Enigma.
"While Tensei's out of action he's asked me to step in for a few days until you think you're ready to take over by yourself." I continued on, while at the same time frantically scraping together what few pieces of knowledge, I had on running a hero agency together in my mind.
"I look forward to working with you." I finished finally to the sound of muted applause, some of the people in the crowd looking decidedly unhappy at my presence here.
Hey I wasn't exactly jumping for joy over here either buddy.
The group dispersed into the Team Idaten building, everyone splitting off to their own stations, with the exception of a few others who approached me with small mountain of paperwork.
Great.
It's just a few days Kaito.
Just a few days of shadowing patrols and they'll be ready to take over without me.
Everything is going to be just fine.
