James Cardwick was a transferred officer to the Tokyo Police Department. And a husband.
He remembered seeing heroes all his childhood saving people from disasters and criminals. And there were days he would hear about heroes stopping dangerous villains with abilities that could level entire cities.
What amazing abilities.
James didn't like it. He was born with the ability to change the color of his eyes depending on his mood, and each color could see in different lighting and settings. Unfortunately that meant that if he was feeling angry, he had to put on a special set of goggles to keep himself from going blind, because that was the vision used to see in total darkness.
It was embarrassing to him and hardly useful, even as a police officer.
Well that was all in America. Just a few months ago, he was transferred with an opportunity to live in Japan. He and his wife Mariko felt it was best for their growing family and took the initiative.
Japan was much worse. Everyone's Quirks felt bigger, better, more powerful. And that meant unpredictability. Unease. Chaos being controlled by a thin line. With the presence of the greatest and most successful hero All Might, crime was lower, but incredibly dangerous.
Mariko loved it. Her parents were from Japan although she never lived there herself. She often convinced James that it was not such a bad place.
In the world of crime, where there is a ton of light shining... There is also much darkness...
James was called out the night the police forces were on the move against the infamous League of Villains. So far they've attacked students from the prestigious hero school UA on several occasions and kidnapped one of them. That one angry kid who won the sports festival.
James had the pleasure of watching the heroes be played by someone on the other side of the city, then springing into action as numerous creatures with multiple Quirks came out of portals formed and attacked.
His partner was crushed like a grape before his eyes.
In the ensuing chaos, James tripped over and had his hand crushed.
The rest of the night was spent in a hospital, along with a couple more weeks of recovery.
There, he learned the villain who caused that surprise attack was beaten and captured at the cost of All Might's abilities. The kid was saved. The boss villain was arrested. But the rest of the villains got away. And hundreds of lives were lost. Entire sections of Kamino Ward were destroyed.
Was it even a victory? It's not like organized crime only has one leader.
Now, weeks later, fully recovered and back on the job, James received a call about a couple robberies being committed by one gang.
With a new partner, a man with gecko-like features including big orange eyes named Officer Huyushi, they sped off to answer the call in their patrol car.
They quickly turned the corner with their siren and lights on and stopped. "FREEZE, POLICE!"
Within their headlights, a trio of criminals were carrying registers filled with cash out of a small store.
"It's the cops!" One criminal shouted. He dropped his register and pointed his fingers at the police getting out of the car. "Go, finger darts!"
James and Huyushi jumped out of the way as the criminal's fingers sharpened and launched out of his hands like bullets. Instantly as they fired, more grew in their place and fired as well.
"Haha! Run little coppers!" He shouted.
James took cover behind the car and pulled out his pistol. Huyushi drew the thug's fire his way and circled around, giving James a chance to open fire.
He stood up and pointed the gun at the three.
"OH no you don't!" One of the thugs yelped and literally sprang from his spot carrying a register straight to James.
"Shit!" James hissed as the criminal flew at him, swinging a punch at his face.
His body fell back as the criminal landed and pinned him down.
"Was expecting somebody better to try and stop us! Guess after All Might quit they couldn't find anyone else good enough!" He snickered.
James rolled his eyes and spun himself around, lifting his legs up around his hips and knocking him to the ground on his face. He then scrambled on top of the criminal and swiftly handcuffed him. "Stay down, clown." He ordered.
"Spring-Heel!" The thugs shouted.
"You're all under arrest!" James shouted back. "Stand down or we will open fire!"
"How bout another idea." They said.
James peeked over the top of the car to see the other two thugs now holding his partner down on the ground.
"Son of a bitch..." James glared.
"Let our guy go and we'll let yours go." They said.
"Don't do it! It's my own fault!" Huyushi gasped. "The third guy has a binding Quirk- GAH!" He was silenced as one of them kicked him in his back.
James flared his nostrils and closed his eyes, slipping his goggles on and reopening his eyes under the protective lenses.
He had to think of a way to take down the criminals without getting his partner killed.
The crook with pointed fingers can fire them like bullets. The one standing over Huyushi has some kind of binding Quirk. And the one he had on the ground has some kind of spring joint Quirk.
If he tries to just open fire, he could take out the finger bullet guy, but then the binding guy could hit his partner.
He can't get a clear shot without exposing himself. But taking too long and the finger bullet guy could shoot his partner instead.
As he was planning quietly, Huyushi stretched out his tongue and wrapped it around the binding criminal's wrist, startling him and the finger dart crook.
Their audible shock caught James's ears and he leapt up and fired into the long-ranger's shoulders. He then turned and shot the binding guy in his femur, forcing him to fall to the ground.
James sighed. "Next time, find some cover." He said to Huyushi as he rushed over and unlocked his handcuffs and helped him up. "You have to tell me what you're doing! You could have gotten yourself killed!"
He continued to shout and reprimand his younger partner as they piled the criminals in the back of their car and drove them off to the police station.
That night, he finally came home to his wife looking at her phone. "Gang of three captured by the dashing and daring Officer James Cardwick." She smiled, leaning back in her spot on the couch, giving her ever-growing baby bump more space to breathe.
"There's no way they have a headline out that says that." James chuckled and hung his jacket up before sitting next to her. They shared a brief kiss before he leaned over and pulled off his boots.
"Aren't my headlines the best though?" She giggled.
"Hmm. By comparison, I prefer yours." He smiled. "In terms of optimism, yes. But in terms of realism, I think I trust the local news station."
"Oh hush." Mariko rolled her eyes and pushed back his face with two fingers.
James wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back in against his chest. "How's the baby?" He asked softly.
"The baby's doing great. But she won't stop kicking sometimes. Especially right after you leave in the mornings." She sighed and blew some hair out of her face.
"Don't worry, hun. Just a few more months and she won't be in there." He said while gently poking her belly.
"Yeah but she will be running around. I'd rather her kick me than our house." Mariko said.
"That's fair." James shrugged. "But we can't always pick our poisons."
"Sometimes we get one kind after another." Mariko added.
"It'll all be worth it, right?" James smiled.
"True. Very true." She smiled and reached around, kissing his cheek.
Meanwhile, outside of their suburban home, a dark car pulled on the side of the road and the people inside observed it.
"That's the Cardwick guy's home?" One man asked shrouded in the shadow of the car in the driver seat.
"Yeah. The one who arrested our buddies and shot them up."
"So how are we doing this?" The driver asked.
"We're not doing anything. We'll let mother nature take care of it." The man in the back seat said. He lit a match to light his cigarette and tossed the match out the window until it landed in the bushes by the front windows.
"Go! Drive!" The man in the passenger seat ordered the driver, who stepped on the gas inconspicuously and drove off.
The match began to ignite the rest of the bush which started burning on to the house.
You can imagine what happened next.
It wasn't until an hour later, after the couple went to bed that James started to smell it.
He sat up quickly and breathed in smoke.
"Ah! Fire! Fire!" He coughed as he pushed on his wife to wake up.
Mariko gasped and quickly climbed out of the bed.
Around the frame of the room, fire glowed and burned through everything.
"Oh no!" James shouted.
"It's okay, we have to get out!" Mariko yelled at him.
James grabbed her arm and guided her out of their room. Their front door was just down the hall but it was too late to take that way. Everywhere they turned, the fire had spread across the house.
He heard a loud crackling noise above their heads and pushed Mariko out of the way as the ceiling came down separating them.
James did all he could to make himself sad. His eyes turned blue and he looked around through the smoke. "FIND AN EXIT!" He shouted to his wife, wherever she was.
As he rushed to the closest window he found, the fire crashed the ceiling again and caved the windows in.
"No! No no!" He yelled out in fear. His eyes a light purple now.
There was no way out that he could see now. He prayed that Mariko found a way out as he fell to his knees and felt the heat rising around him.
Suddenly, a flash of white smashed through the walls and scooped up his body before rushing out the same way.
James found himself being carried out to his front lawn and to an ambulance. "No wait, wait!" He told them and looked around for his wife.
"No! MY WIFE IS STILL IN THERE! In the back!" He screamed.
The flash of white was a pro-hero. A woman dressed with support items that made her look like a big strong rabbit.
"On it!" She shouted before dashing back to the house.
James's eyes glowed bright yellow with the fire that now collapsed the rest of the house entirely before the heroine could reach it.
He thrashed in the arms of the paramedics and broke free. His legs carried him up to the burning remains of the home until the heroine grabbed him.
"I can't let you go there!" She shouted. "I'm so sorry, sir..."
He didn't listen. He still thrashed around in her arms as she forced him back little by little until the paramedics subdued him with tranquilizer.
James finally woke up in the hospital bed. The loneliest memory of his life, and it was worse now.
"Wh-Wh..." He looked around feeling a bit dazed. His arms and legs were bandaged from third degree burns and his room was empty except for the heroine sitting in a chair by the door.
"Oh you're finally awake!" She jumped up. "Officer Cardwick..."
"Tell me it was a dream..." He said softly.
All she could do was shake her head and lower it in grief.
"Tell me my wife made it out." He pleaded.
Once again, she shook her head slowly.
He stared at her for a minute, then slammed his fist on the side table with his ready-made meal. He put his hands over his eyes and kept them there for a number of reasons.
The bunny heroine, Mirko, stood in respective silence before him. "I know I didn't do all I could. If I told you that, you'd tell me I didn't. And you'd be right..."
He lowered his head in his hands and sobbed.
"As heroes, we know we can't save everyone... We try to... We try everything to do so... Nowadays it just seemed like something only All Might could do... And now it all just feels like a fairy tale o-or some myth..." She sighed. "Ever since I was a little girl I-"
"Shut up..." He muffled in his hands. "SHUT UP!" He pulled them away with his eyes closed at her. "I don't want to hear that whole 'hero shtick'... You know as well as I that it doesn't make the situation better." He hissed.
"What do you want me to say to you, Officer Cardwick?" She asked patiently.
"Nothing! Just go, get out of here. Leave me alone." He said with tear-stained cheeks.
"I'm very sorry, sir... Truly, I am..." Mirko said. She bowed to him then exited out the door.
Physically, it wasn't long before he was back on the force.
Mentally, he was never the same. Especially towards the pro-heroes they often worked with. It didn't help that Endeavor became the Number One Hero and therefore one of the heroes they heard from the most.
And ever since All Might's retirement, gangs and organized crime were starting to make a comeback. They investigated his house fire and found that it was started by a match outside.
From that moment, James wanted nothing more than to know who was responsible.
In between patrols and shifts, he would request to speak with the criminals he arrested that day. It was the only clue he had to who did it. But every day he was denied access to them.
"Hey, Cardwick?" Huyushi asked him as they sat in their patrol car.
"Hm?" James asked.
"Are you...feeling okay?" His reptilian partner asked.
"Yeah. Yeah." He said.
James had his goggles on his eyes more often than before. And he would simply sit in silence. He knew of all people, he couldn't vent his frustrations to Huyushi. But he didn't have anyone else. So he sat there. In his apartment. In his car. On their break, in silence, breathing heavily.
Mirko's words rang in his head and he hated it. "As heroes, we know we can't save everyone... We try to do so..."
"She couldn't save two souls." He thought to himself. He wanted it to be himself who was crushed under that burning house. Not her. Not Mariko.
It tortured him.
And he worried Huyushi. To the point where he had enough and reported his troubled nature to the chief of police himself.
Chief Kenji Tsuragamae stepped out of the police station one morning as James had just arrived for work.
"Officer Cardwick." He bowed.
"Chief Tsuragamae." James quickly exited his car and bowed back.
"I have something special for you today. I'm hoping it helps." The chief said with his dog head hanging low.
