Hah, we back an entire month later because I'm lazy and I hate tournaments. Thank god it's over after this chapter so maybe, MAYBE I'll be able to write more often and post more. Ok have fun.

And we're back much to my dismay.

"Ladies and gentleman, the final battle of the tournament! This battle will decide who stands at the top of the first years!" Mic spun around in his seat in pure excitement.

The crowd was as equally hyped as the fire that got set to signal the beginning of the finals.

Todoroki and Bakugo stood opposite each other, both getting in their respective poses before the fight starts.

"It's the final countdown!"

Cameras zoom in on all our favourite main character expect Shinjiro because he's still bed bound like the loser he is-

"Fight!"

Todoroki planted his palm on the ground and unleashed a giant wave of ice to instantly cover the arena. Okay, maybe not just one wave but multiple waves rushing right at Bakugo.

The angry boy channeled his inner Jotaro and started to punch the ice coming right at him. With each punch, he imbued his fist with his explosions to make it easier to smash the ice.

However, he was immediately consumed by ice and the explosions soon stopped as everyone watched on in suspense.

"Todoroki with a strong first attack! Is that enough to put Bakugo out of commission already?"

"It's way stronger than the one against Sero!" Mineta shouted in horror.

"He aimed the attack while being cautious about the next one," Midoriya thought as he analyzed the battle.

Suddenly, the arena started to rumble. The sound eventually got louder and louder. Todoroki narrowed his eyes as he got ready for another attack, knowing what coming next.

"Don't underestimate me!" Bakugo shouted as he erupted from the ice, a burning tunnel left in its wake.

Todoroki instinctively jumped backward once Bakugo broke through the ice.

"No way! He used explosives to prevent himself from freezing over and dug out!" Sero exclaimed.

"That's kinda crazy," Kaminari added.

You guys haven't seen crazy yet though.

Bakugo grabbed two ice rocks in front of him and started to heat up his hands. Todoroki decided to move in to try and freeze Bakugo only for the boy to propel himself forward with explosions.

"Your quirk may be strong. But your moves-" As Bakugo neared himself to Todoroki he blasted himself in a different direction as Todoroki had stuck his arm out.

The half-and-half boy's eyes widened as he had made a big mistake.

"-are careless!" Bakugo shouted as he grabbed onto Todoroki's head.

Wait, he's not even going to blast him? Okay then.

"You think I'm stupid?" Bakugo flipped over Todoroki and imbued his explosions into throwing him away full force. "You idiot!"

Todoroki went flying like a ragdoll, the dizziness of flying made gaining control very difficult. But somehow, he managed to get control of his arm and shoot it forward, creating an ice slide to send him back into the fight. The ice built and swung around for Todoroki to glide right at Bakugo.

Todoroki sent another wave of ice at Bakugo only for the boy to obviously dodge and leaped at his opponent. Expecting this, Todoroki grabbed onto to Bakugo's arm with his left hand.

Oh wait, is this the moment where we get a quick flashback to Todoroki thinking about using his fire while his dad and Bakugo are just begging him to use it-

Nope, he just continued his momentum and threw Bakugo away.

The boy landed with ease but was quickly pissed off at the fact that he did not get third-degree burns. Shadows covered parts of his face as he started to burn.

"Am I a joke to you?" Why, yes you are.

"Am I too inadequate for you to use it?" He asked.

Now, we're going to cut to Shinjiro- Wait, this is a bit too sudden. He's watching the match on the television but are we getting his thoughts now?

"No, just listen to Aizawa. He's doing all the commenting. Just because I'm a main character doesn't mean you can-" Okay!

"The way he purposefully grabbed his left side, and timed his explosions means Bakugo has done his research. That kid improves every fight. Even his last couple of fights where he adjusted his strategy to match his opponents and doing better than them," Right on time, Aizawa starts to talk. "Todoroki moves really well but his attacks are too simple. His condition is off ever since his fight with Midoriya."

Bakugo held his hands together as sparks radiated off them.

"Hey you…you better stop making a fool out of me! I'll kill you!" He shouted, making Todoroki soften his stance.

"He really wants to kill everyone," Todoroki thought.

"The title I want is a desirable first place. I can't get that even if I win against a half-assed scum like you," Bakugo taunted. "If you're not here to win, don't get in my way!"

Oh no, a man's worst nightmare: the actual flashback sequence.

Todoroki had an entire episode's worth of flashbacks to his fight against Midoriya when Bakugo's words triggered his mind to drift towards that time.

Speaking of Midoriya, the boy seemed to notice that Todoroki definitely wasn't in his right space of mind. He started to get worried as Bakugo-

"Why the hell'er you spacing dammit!" Bakugo blasted his way towards Todoroki and tackled the shit out of him.

"Oof!" Todoroki felt the wind being knocked out of him as he crashed on the ground, Bakugo on top of him.

"If you don't wanna be here then don't," Bakugo said. "But at least give me a fight dammit!

He raised his arms up, ready to slam down on Todoroki.

In that moment, Midoriya shot up from his seat. Knowing exactly what to say, he just shouted at the top of his lungs.

"TODOROKI! Don't give up! Give it your all!"

You know, the Midoriya classic.

"That damn nerd," Bakugo said to himself before boosting up in the air with his explosions.

Hearing Midoriya's words of encouragement forced Todoroki to ignite his fire within. It evaporated all the ice buildup on his body and he was ready to strike.

"Come on! Give it all to me!" Bakugo shouted as he started to let off explosions, turning around and around. The explosions speeding up his spinning as it went on, soon creating a smokey tornado as Bakugo flew towards Todoroki.

As he got closer, Todoroki suddenly had another flashback sequence of his entire life flashing before his very eyes. No, he's not going to die, he's just reliving his entire life in just a couple of seconds.

And then- the flame in him stopped. The fire died down.

"Howzter…IMPACTO!" Bakugo screamed as he unleashed his strongest attack onto Todoroki.

Well, not onto to him because we gotta keep the pg-13 rating here. What do you mean it's M-rated?

Whatever, Bakugo ends up hitting an ice barrier that Todoroki made last second and you know the rest. He ends up blowing up the entire arena once again. When is Bakugo not blowing everything up.

The explosion was so massive that even all of the ice was completely shattered and replaced with a hurricane of black smoke.

Do we really want to know what happens? I mean, it should be blatantly obvious-

"Oh! The smoke's clearing up! We can finally see what just happened!" Mic interrupted.

As soon as the smoke started to show who was standing and who wasn't, a simple click of a button switched off the television broadcasting the fight.

A- Are we really blue balling the people right now?

"I believe no more explanations are needed right now," A distorted voice spoke.

"Very well. I assume the plan's execution has been carried out?" Another voice spoke, this time deeper and way more menacing.

"Of course sir. Everyone has been contacted and their own plan to carry out," The softer of the voices spoke out.

"Good. I appreciate everything you have done so far Monarch."

The man bowed graciously. "Of course. After all you and my leader both have a similar goal. I shall assist in every way I can."

"Hm," The leader seemed to nod his head in approval.

"By the way, how's that prodigy of yours?" The Monarch asked.

"He's currently watching that sports festival to see who are the upcoming heroes this year." The leader replied. "Despite his…tantrum, he has been studying every single one of those children that he may fight soon."

"I see…"

"However…your little specimen doesn't seem that great," The leader said in disdain. "I was hoping your experiment would have produced results right now."

"It has been clear to me since the beginning. Despite his setbacks, I will not give up hope. My entire being is riding on his shoulder right now."

He pulled a remote out of his pocket and pressed a very discreet red button at the top. A machine whirled, a metal rope started to pull on something very heavy. The machine groaned at the weight of the object as it slowly ascended into view.

"I'm guessing that is it?" The figure stated rather curiously.

"Incorrect, he's already out on the streets. This however…" He began to trail off before looking back into the figure's eyes. "Shall be revealed very soon."

"I see… I sincerely hope everything goes as planned. Otherwise there will be some…consequences."

"Be as it may but we shall be seeing him very soon," The man bowed once again.

"That we shall."

Oh…well that was over fast. But take a time skip because the author decided to blueball you all even more.

You want a recap? Watch the anime.

"All the first-year's events for this year's U.A. Sports Festival is now officially complete!" Midnight announced as fireworks exploded overhead.

The crowd was pretty pleased with how the events played out and the media was for sure having a field day.

"Now, onto the award ceremony!" Midnight said as the screens in the stadium showed a giant cup and the beginning of the ceremony.

More fireworks were launched because we can never have too many fireworks. Then, thick fog and smaller fireworks started to expose itself right behind Midnight.

Podiums started to rise out of the ground as three silhouettes stood on the podiums. Well, the one on the top 'standing' can be used very loosely.

"Wow…" Mineta said in shock…or fear.

"What the hell?" Jiro sweatdropped.

"He's been like that ever since he woke up…" Kaminari explained with an awkward smile on his face.

On the first-place podium, yeah you guessed it, Bakugo stood atop there being chained to a wooden plank. Every single part of his body was chained to the thing, even his mouth. Damn, that's a strong piece of wood.

In second-place, Todoroki was just stood there. I don't know what he's thinking but it's probably contemplating life.

Finally, we got Tokoyami in third but Iida isn't there since he had to leave early. The bird boy was slightly taken aback by Bakugo's actions. Even calling him a:

"A man-eating fiend…" The bird sweatdropped.

Midnight turned to face the paparazzi, who were basically everywhere, constantly taking pictures of the top three.

"In third place is Tokoyami along with Iida but the latter had to leave due to a family issue. So thank you for understanding, " She winked at the cameras.

Midoriya, who was in the crowd of students, looked down after hearing the aforementioned Iida. He was slightly worried for his friend, who had to run off. From what he heard, it seemed serious.

Don't worry, Iida's got plot armor, he'll live.

"Now, we'll start handing out the medals!" Midnight announced. "This year, the medals will be presented by-"

A loud and boisterous laugh echoed throughout the stadium. A shadowy figure appeared right on top of the stadium and in an instance, everybody knew who it was. All Might leaped from the top ropes and struck a couple of poses in the air.

"I have brought the medals-!" The hero shouted as he landed.

"-our very own All Might!" Midnight introduced the man who needed no introduction.

In turn, All Might turned to look at her and the two were silent in their awkward atmosphere. Midnight brought both hands up, set in a praying motion.

"Sorry for speaking over you," She whispered before reverting back to her announcer self. "Now, please kindly award the medals starting from third place"

She held up the medal box for All Might to grab one and bring it over to Tokoyami.

"Congratulations young Tokoyami! You're so strong!" All Might praised as he slung the medal around Tokoyami's neck.

"I do not deserve such praise," The boy bowed.

All Might then hugged the bird and gave him a pat on the back. "But to overcome different compatibility, you can't solely rely on your quirk. Train in your own strength and you'll have more options."

All Might let go of the boy after giving him that advice. Tokoyami looked down at his bronze medal and took his advice to the heart.

"Yes, sir."

All Might smiled and gave him one last pat on the shoulder before moving on to second place.

"Young Todoroki, congratulations," He said before placing the medal around Todoroki's neck.

"Is there a reason you did not use your left side during the finals?" The hero asked.

"I got the chance to when I battled Midoriya, and then I got lost, somehow," Todoroki said. "But I think I understand now, why you care for him so much. I really did want to become a hero, but I didn't think it was right for me to put my issues behind me. There are things that still need to be settled after all."

All Might nodded. "The look on your face has completely changed," He said before bending down and hugging Todoroki.

"I won't inquire any further but I know that you'll be able to settle things."

"Yes…thank you," Todoroki said.

Aaaand we can skip Bakugo. I'm kidding but first we'll do a quick cut to-

"I'm here," Shinjiro said in a deadpan voice.

Everyone around him jumped as he was somehow in the middle of his class.

"Shinjiro-san?!" Midoriya's eyes bulged. "What are you doing here?"

"Recovery Girl allowed me to leave…I think," He stated. Shinjiro was back in his gym uniform with supringingly no bandages around him.

"But aren't you still-"

"Shhh, I wanna see this," Shinjiro put a finger to Midoriya's lips before pointing at All Might walking up to Bakugo.

"This might be too much…" The hero sweatdropped after seeing the chained state of the rabid dog.

He walked up to him and took off his mouthpiece.

"You did well young Bakugo. You lived up to your pledge," All Might congratulated. Although, I don't think Bakugo's taking it too well.

"All Might…" He started to growl. "This first place is meaningless! Even if the public approves, it's garbage if I don't approve of it!"

His pupils were white and he was in a rage at this point. Even All Might found him scary.

Keeping his composure, All Might cleared his throat. "In this world of comparative assessment, not many people can uphold the evaluation of an unchanging world."

Did you get any of that? Yea, I didn't.

Bakugo's face was unwavering leading All Might to once again yell out:

"I think I understand young Midoriya's fear of him now…"

The hero held the medal in his hands, continuing on with his speech.

"Accept this medal as part of your scars so you never forget."

"I said I don't want it!" Bakugo yelled as if he were a child throwing a tantrum.

"Now, now," All Might tried to put the medal on him but Bakugo resisted.

"I SAID, I DON'T WANT IT!" Bakugo pushed his head up and moved it around from side to side to avoid the medal.

"Ngh…here!" All Might struggled for a bit before finally resting the medal inbetween Bakugo's teeth.

Bakugo was already steaming in anger from having to accept this trashy first place medal. All of that changed when his eyes locked on to a particular protagonist in the sea of students. Shinjiro seemed to have noticed Bakugo staring right at him before lifting his arm and giving him a thumbs up in a sarcastic manner.

Yea that set Bakugo off alright, he gritted his teeth so hard he was cutting through the fabric that held the medal up. His entire body heated up to at least boiling point. It's safe to say that Shinjiro might not survive their next encounter.

All Might then turned to the audience.

"As you can see, these are your winners this time! But everyone, every student had the chance of standing atop here, just as you have seen," He announced. "The sight of them competing, enhancing each other and rising even further above. The next generation of heroes is definitely sprouting forth!"

All pointed his finger straight in the air.

"And so here's some final words-! Everyone, say it with me! Ready, go!"

"-Plus Ultra!" The audience collectively shouted.

"-Thanks for your hard work!" All Might said differently.

"..."

There was an awkward silence before the crowd started booing. Guess that's what you get for not using your catchphrase.

"You're supposed to say 'Plus Ultra' there All Might!" Many of them shouted.

"Oh…well, I thought since everyone worked hard…" All Might embarrassingly rubbed the back of his head.

"Huh, well the guy actually did it," Shinjiro scoffed at the sight of Bakugo.

"Ahah…" Midoriya nervously chuckled, before turning around and seeing Shinjiro walk away. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Home…" Shinjiro said.

"What? But don't we still have-" Midoriya's voice slowly got softer the further Shinjiro walked away.

"I could stay for the aftershow, and whatever's going on in the evening but…I don't think anyone will mind if I'm gone right?" Keep telling yourself that bud.

~{Afterschool}~

"Good job. There's no school tomorrow and the day after," Aizawa said in his usual monotone voice.

The class all were gathered up and listening to Aizawa's final speech before their mini break. Oh right, Shinjiro isn't here because he's a little b-

"You all might get offers from pro-heroes but we'll gather those together and announce it after the break. Wait in expectation while you rest," Aizawa finished.

"Yes sir!" The class shouted in response.

Midoriya looked over to Iida's seat, worry rushing over him. He had texted him but hasn't gotten a response back yet. Seems the boy was too worried with his own issue and never noticed his friend's texts.

How you may ask? He probably had his phone turned off and was in a rush.

As he was walking out of school, Midoriya's phone went off with All Might's catchphrase signalling he has a phone call to take. He pulled out his phone and saw that Shinjiro was calling him. He promptly pressed the accept button and brought it up to his ear.

"Shinjiro-san?"

"Hey, Midoriya," Shinjiro's voice said from the other side. "Sorry I had to leave early. Recovery Girl wanted to send me home just in case I did anything stupid at the festival again."

Midoriya shook his head to particularly no one. "It's okay, I understand. But it's a little weird, why wasn't I sent home?"

There was silence for a few seconds on the other end before Shinjiro sighed. "Ok ok, so I may or may not have decided to skip school."

"Shinjiro-san! You know that's a bad thing to do!" Midoriya shouted, catching the attention of some students leaving.

"Alright, alright…don't worry about it. I'm sure everyone's exhausted from a full day's worth of activities. Some of us need to hit the hay early don't you think?" Shinjiro used justified reasoning!

"I guess…I can give it a pass," It was effective enough.

"Great, that's all I wanted to say. I'll see you in a couple of days okay?"

"Huh? I thought we were going to hang out or-"

"Listen, Midoriya. I don't mean to stand you up but you need rest. You took more damage than me so you deserve to heal. Let's take a raincheck on the hanging out just for this week alright?" Shinjiro said.

"Oh…okay, I understand," Midoriya said feeling a little dejected.

Shinjiro sighed. "Why don't you ask Uraraka? I bet she'll be down to go on a date with you."

"E- Eh?!" Midoriya was caught off guard and suddenly shouted again. "W- What do you mean by that?"

"It's pretty obvious no? Ask Uraraka out, you deserve it."

"I- I- I-," Oh hey, Midoriya broke again. He's in yet another stuttering mess. "D- d- d- d-"

"Alright I'm hanging up now," Shinjiro said, knowing it will take a while for the boy to calm down.

After doing so, Midoriya was just left there, red in the face with the phone still up to his ear and still stuttering. Estimated time of recovery: 5-6 weeks.

After Shinjiro put the phone down, he spun in his chair around to his computer. The same article from the last chapter was pulled up on the screen.

He sighed before starting to read through the article, taking in every word and account added. However, it just seemed like a regular article explaining an unknown cause for an airliner being blown up.

Shinjiro skimmed through the words again, narrowing his eyes at each one. He felt something off with it but he couldn't put his finger on it. He opened several more tabs of the same article by different news sites but he still couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

There were obviously no witness statements but weirdly enough, no family members of the deceased were on board. That prompted Shinjiro to look deeper into the entire situation, fortunately for him, that's what he has been doing this entire time.

He flipped through the articles back and forth and gathered all the information for those who were on board.

"I see…" He mumbled to himself before bringing a hand to his chin. "Ambassadors… Minami? Where have I heard that name before…"

He brought up a separate tab of an editing software, on it was the video of the plane being blown up. At this first, it seemed like a regular malfunction like the news articles had claimed it to be.

"How would anyone know about this…moreover, taking a video of the plane right before its destruction…" Shinjiro muttered to himself. The rabbit hole seemed to go deeper than ever.

He tried searching for whoever else was on the plane but there was only so far he could go without hacking into systems.

"Where's that dumb brother when you need him," He internally groaned.

It had been an hour since he started his search but he only seemed to travel farther back the more his researched. The articles provided no useful information and the search for any of the deceased family members seemed to be a dead end.

Shinjiro ruffled his hair in frustration, why was something that seems so simple so hard to find. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath, looks like he'll need to come back with a fresh mind.

He pushed his chair away and walked out of his room. He dragged his feet along the floor and made it to the kitchen where he poured himself a nice cold glass of milk from the fridge.

Shinjiro stopped mid way of his pouring. "What? I can be normal."

Yea yea, anyways after a small break with the milk and his dad still not back, he decided to check his phone. No reason apparently, after all he's a millennial who checks his phone a hundred times a day.

Just kidding, he actually got a couple of text messages from everyone he met today asking him if he was alright.

He smirked. "Everyone is so trusting of me already… I guess everyone's friends when you're in a hero school."

He quickly texted everyone back that he was fine and promptly switched his phone off. After doing so, he started to walk back to his room with the glass of milk in his hand. Making it to his room, he sat back down at his desk and set both his phone and glass on the table.

Shinjiro stared at the computer screen, contemplating on what to do next. He was stuck at a roadblock with no way to get around it. As if someone had heard him, his phone vibrated. He took a glance at who was calling him at this hour but surprisingly it wasn't who he thought it was.

He picked up his phone out of curiosity and at once glancing at the name, he answered right away.

"Nezu?" Shinjiro said.

"Ah Shinjiro-kun, I was wondering when you would pick up," The mouse said from the other side.

"Why are you calling me at this hour?" The boy asked.

"Aha, I see. Straight to the point as always huh?" The rodent chuckled. "Well, you weren't at the award ceremony earlier so I wanted to check up on you."

"I see…even you wanted to check up on me huh?"

"Of course, it's normal for people you care about to be worried about their wellbeing," Nezu replied. "I'm guessing your friends checked up on you too?"

Shinjiro nodded. "Yea they did…it's weird though."

"Hm? How so?" Nezu asked.

"Like you before…you seemed to trust me even though I was a stranger. I've only met some of these people today and they're already concerned for me. It's weird, shouldn't they be less inviting to someone they know?"

"Well of course but this is U.A you're at. Everyone is training to be a hero and being brought up to have their own mindset of what is right and wrong. There is no reason to suspect your classmates and we have to be openminded about it," Nezu explained.

"I guess that's reasonable…" Shinjiro said before sighing and rubbed his face with his other hand.

"Is something the matter Shinjiro-kun?" Nezu suddenly asked causing Shinjiro to jerk a little.

"Y- You're oddly perspective," He commented, spinning in his chair.

"They don't call me smart for nothing," Nezu joked.

"Well… I'm doing something right now but I'm stuck and there's nothing else to help me," Shinjiro wanted to explain the situation as discreetly as possible.

"Something? I wonder what this 'something' is?" Shinjiro's eyes slightly widened as he felt an aura he had not felt before seep through the phone.

"A- I'm not doing what you think I'm doing!" Shinjiro shouted quickly. "I- I'm just… reviewing a couple videos of myself and Midoriya training to see if I could get better. But comparing it to my fight against Bakugo this morning…I don't know how to feel about it."

Nezu's aura slowly calmed down before he cleared his throat. "Well, from how I see it, you're looking at things quite one dimensionally."

"One dimensionally?"

"Try focusing on other things other than the main attraction. If you understand everything that is going on in that video then maybe you would learn things that you have not yet discovered," Nezu said. "Who knows, there could have been something you or Bakugo did or said for the outcome to be what it was."

Shinjiro listened carefully before realising something that he hasn't done at all. He secretly bonked himself in the head for being an idiot and knew what he had to do.

After Nezu finished speaking, Shinjiro spoke up. "That was actually good advice. Thank you Nezu."

"Of course Shinjiro-kun, now shall we talk about why you were absent during the later part of the festival?" Nezu said in a very passive-agressive tone leading Shinjiro to start sweating bullets.

"Uh…don'tworryaboutitgottagobye!" A jumble of words later and Shinjiro hung up as fast as he could. He definitely didn't want to incur Nezu's wrath, well he'll have to eventually. But he wasn't worried about that right now, he was focused on what Nezu had said earlier.

"Focus on other things huh? Right…the video," Shinjiro changed the page back to the video of the plane explosion. He set the video to the slowest speed he could and magnified it as it played.

He found himself squinting as hard as he could to try and see through the pixels. Too bad the video's so low quality, there's no way he could find anything there. After a long and miserable while later, Shinjiro was fed up with his inability to see through anything.

"Bullshit, I can't even see the sky. This is the worst quality I've ever seen," Maybe because it's ten years old you idiot-

He stood up from his chair so hard it rolled across the room. Picking up his computer he walked out of his room and into the living room. Do I really have to narrate him walking to places?

"Alright here we go," Shinjiro picked up the tv remote and promptly turned the television on. He looked down at his computer and got the youtube link for the plane explosion before pairing it with the tv. The power of technology.

Too bad it's still not going to help with the bad quality. Are we really spending this much time trying to find a pixel, I don't have all day here.

"Wait!" Shinjiro shouted, scrambling to get the tv remote. As soon as he did get a hold of the device, he pressed the pause button.

"I understand now…all this time I've been looking at the explosion itself but I never thought to look inside the explosion," He thought as he let the video complete its runtime. Just when it was about to end, he paused again. "I've finally found you…"

It might not have been clear to some but to Shinjiro, who somehow has 20/20 vision, it was clear as hell.

The freeze frame showed half of a large spinning object in the midst of the fire. Although, it was transparent and it was near impossible to see but luckily the edges of the circle hummed a light blue.

"Kazuya…"

That was all the evidence needed for Shinjiro to believe something was awry. He picked ups his computer and up and pulled up his notes. Just in case, he had written down every name that was mentioned in the articles. Unfortunately, there was only one person that had been mentioned:

"Fortunately, one member of the committee survived by not being available during the day of the flight." His name wasn't mentioned in the article due to safety precautions however, Shinjiro managed to track him down.

How? Off-screen searching that is.

In a rush, Shinjiro grabbed a pen and ripped a piece of paper off a page of a notebook. He wrote down the address of the mysterious member and set off to find him. He still had time to locate the person and hopefully get them to spill.

~{An alley in the middle of the city}~

An old man sat at his work desk, filing a stack of papers. The room around him looked messy as if a bull and an explosion ran through it. The shelves were dusty, and the equipment that littered the floors looked sooty and rustic.

The old man sighed and lifted his frail boney finger up to his face, pushing his tiny glasses up his nose. It seemed to be just a regular night with no clients bothering him and no deadlines to meet. All he had to do was finish the paperwork and then-

*Knock Knock Knock*

Three loud knocks echoed throughout the room.

"We're closed!" The old man shouted, not removing his eyes off his paperwork.

…

*Knock Knock Knock Knock*

"I said we're closed!" The old man yelled before looking up to his door, a shadowy silhouette encompassing it. He sighed before calmly taking of his glasses and setting it on the table. He sat up from his chair and made his way towards the door.

*Knock Knock*

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" He said out of frustration.

He got to his door and unlocked a single lock, leaving his door chain still strapped to the door. As he pulled open the door, it creaked before stopping slightly ajar. Stood on the other side was a young man, the streetlights behind him masking the front side of his body.

"Can I help you?" The old man said, although his tone was of dissatisfaction.

"Are you Yarou Poru?" The man asked.

"What is it to you?" He narrowed his eyes.

"My name's Shinjiro…and I think we have a lot to talk about."

The old man scoffed. "You can come back in the morning kid, I'm closed anyway."

As he was about to close the door, Shinjiro reached out and held the door from shutting.

"I'm here to talk about the incident ten years ago," He stated, leading the old man to widen his eyes in surprise for a second.

"I- I see," He stuttered before contemplating for a moment. "One second."

He slowly closed the door before a metallic clink was heard before the door was opened once again, this time without its chain. He gestured with his hand, allowing Shinjiro to enter his workshop.

Although it seemed like a regular old workshop, there was more than meets the eye. Shinjiro seemed to notice a couple of discrepancies with how it was all set up. However, there were more important matters for him to press onto.

"So, I think we can start with- " Shinjiro started to turn and face the man but felt a little prick on his neck. "Ah…"

Shinjiro grunted as he brought a hand up to his neck, feeling a little dizzy.

"I'm sorry kid," The old man seemed to apologize for his actions.

Now, Shinjiro was struggling to stand up and stumbled around. He reached out for a nearby table but the dizziness made him trip over himself and crashed into it. Its contents spilled to the floor before he slid down the table and collapsed.

His consciousness faded in and out as the old man stood in front of him, the frail-looking man seemed to be a giant peering down at an ant. It was only for a few seconds more but to Shinjiro, it felt like an eternity for him to keep his eyes open.

Eventually, his eyelids snapped shut.

Oh boy do I love the blueballing in this chapter. Makes you guys go through the same pain I do whenever I write this story. Okay, yall be good people now.