King
The Strongest Hero in Staredowns
Hero Public Safety Commision, Days after AFO 'defeat' by King.
In a room situated with a rectangle table stocked with office chairs for it, the Madam President and every other associate tasked with reviewing the activities of Japan's heroes were all present and sitting at the table; the room was filled with idle chatter as the day had just begun and everyone had finally arrived to give their own reports. The agenda today was to figure out the next hero ranking for the upcoming Hero Billboard Chart of Japan. With All Might now retired, the number one spot was now empty and would now doubt bring up a hot debate on who deserved it.
The Madam President was the one to break the idle chatter by clearing her throat and speaking up, "Alright, I believe we stalled long enough." she spoke over the idle chatter with her voice raised a tad bit to be heard of the ruckuss, the effect was instant and those that were still out of their seats sat down to begin the meeting.
The President of the HPSC glanced around before holding up a stack of papers to begin figuring out who to assign their rank, "I'll just cut to the chase and speak what we all need to say, the number one spot and who it should belong to the most."
Silent murmurs from the employees speaking to each other broke out, words of King and Endeavor were the most prominent, prompting the Madam President to smile. "I see we are all on board between King and Endeavor. Correct?" she asked her employees, earning positive answers and nods from the men and women sitting at the table. "I see. Good, then this will be easier." the President mused with a grateful expression. "As you all know, both have been the hotly contested choices, as evident from our analysis that have been working overtime in scouring each and every social media site."
More murmurs broke out, along with growing arguments of who would be a better choice. The Madam President sighed irritably. "Gentleman, ladies, this will not be a matter of personal bias between us!" she hollered out through the arguing, earning once more a room of silence for her to talk in. "We need to figure out who's best suited, not out of favoritism." she glared out at her employees, making them all look like chastised children out of embarrassment.
"Wait! You can't just go in there!" An employee hollered from the otherside of the room's double doors.
A commotion from outside prompted everyone to direct their attention to the doorway with puzzled looks, Hawks, who had stood by the Madam President the whole while and staying silent, looked down to her with a look of questioning. The president looked up to him and nodded, prompting Hawks to make his way towards the double doorway.
"Sir! Sir, please! I don't want to lose my job! I implore you to turn and leave!...*gulp*... Please….sir?" a shuffle of feet later, "Can you at least offer me a job if I get fired?" the man squeaked out with nervousness in his voice.
As Hawks approached the doorway, he reached out and opened both doors to allow everyone to see what the ruckus was. Lo and behold, standing outside was King staring down at a slightly shorter man that was in charge of keeping watch from outside the doors. The hero had an oppressive aura about him and his expression was that of an imposing demeanor as he stared at the employee. The opening of the doors prompted both men to look and see Hawk just standing with the door handles in his grasp from him opening the doors, meanwhile in the room, the Madam President stood up and glared out at King.
"What is the meaning of this!" She hollered out with an authoritative voice, earning the attention of both the employee and King.
Just as the employee was about to explain himself, King was already on the move to walk in; Hawks however shifted over to stand in King's way, he had to crane his neck up a bit to look King in the eyes with a nervous grin. "Hey now big fella, this isn't-" Hawks began to speak, before being interrupted by King as the hero stared down at him.
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Hawks gulped nervously with a shaky smile, "Shit! That's the King's engine! I know I'm full of myself to an extent, but I'm freaking facing down the guy that took out All For One with nary a scratch or sweat!" Keigo Takami, aka, Hawks, screamed in his mind with a facade of a smile present on his face.
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King meanwhile continued to stare down at Keigo with a menacing air surrounding him, an oppressive darkness shadowed over the top of his face from the angle of the ceiling lights shining down on him. "Crap! It's Hawks! The Hero Commission's assassin!...no wait, don't get ahead of yourself Kenshiro, it has to be all hearsay, right?" He mentally screamed in his mind, unsure how to handle his situation now.
"Holy bejesus!" Keigo screamed in his mind as he kept his head craned up to stare back at King, his eyes were wide with uncertainty and a few beads of sweat fell from his forehead, "The dude's tall! I mean, I was expecting a giant, but that guy still towers over most people. He's no All Might or Endeavor in the height department, but good cripes! The guy is literally standing over me like he's about to crush me like a grape!" Hawks gulped momentarily and offered a smile at king as the man stared down at him with a menacing stance.
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Hawks began to panic now, as it seemed his simple offer of a smile caused King's engine to pick up in tempo, "Shit, he's about to attack! How does he even fight? Barely any data on the guy exists on his combat abilities! Shit shit shit!
"Shit!" King yelled in his mind as he continued to stare down at Hawks, "He smiled! He's about to attack!" he panicked in his mind, all the while the atmosphere was so tense from the outside view, it felt like it could be cut with a butter knife.
Every employee that was sitting at the table in the room were all breaking out in nervous sweating, the stare down between the two heroes was like a palpable showdown, however most had doubts that Hawks called lay a finger on the man. The Madam President however had a stern glare and stomped her way over, willing to put on a brave front and face down King and request him to leave.
"That'll be enough!" the Madam President hollered out as she approached the two, earning their attention, most notably, King himself as he gave her his undivided attention. As the president glared up at King, she could only pray that King wasn't here to muscle his way up in the rankings.
As King stared back at the President of the HPSC, he began to panic more in his mind. "Shit, I've gone too far! I only came to request that they don't rank me as number one! Last thing I need is more villains coming after me!" He panicked in his mind.
The Madam President swallowed a glob of built up spit from her unconsciously stopping from doing so, and spoke up with a determined face and voice. "King, I must ask that-"
"Forget it! I'll just say it!" King yelled in his mind, "Don't bother putting me as number one." he asked, but to the rest in the room, it sounded like an order from the inflection from his stern and calm voice.
The Madam blinked in confusion and surprise, "I'm…I'm sorry…what?" she asked with a befuddled look.
King let out an exasperated sigh, making Hawks more nervous in thinking King was now about to attack. "Crap! Wrong choice of words! What do I do!"
"King has to be a reasonable man! I need to ask what he meant fully!" The HPSC president mentally scolded herself, "King, are you...saying you wish to decline any chance of the spot as number one?" she asked with surprising calmness in her tone. "King's interruption aside, I am thankful he's been reasonable in the past, cooperative, and listens to reason. The mere fact that he asked to not be put as number one, eases the selection of what most likely would have taken hours!"
King's gaze scoured the room, then to Hawk, then back at the Madam President. "I am. Let me be perfectly honest here. I do not deserve the top spot." The hero implored with a stern tone of voice, his declaration earned a raucous argument from the employees still sitting, but one glance from King caused them to silence their grievances.
The President however could only keep herself from smirking, "I really should ask if I can hire him for other meetings, that was the fastest everyone shut up." she thought to herself in humor, the Madam President then frowned up at King. "Would you care to at least explain why you believe you do not deserve the top rank?" she inquired with a bit of curiosity seeping into her tone.
King brought his attention back to the Madam President before answering, "If you review every case of mine, you'll see that they were all circumstantial. In the majority of cases, I was either minding my own business, traveling to another city, visiting a friend, the list goes on." He listed out. "For the god of luck's sake! Just yesterday, I tossed a banana peel into the trash can outside a convenience store, and it somehow bounced off the rim and to the ground! Just when I was about to walk over and pick it up, a villain came running out of the convenience store and slipped on the peel!"
The sounds of papers being shuffled and laptop keyboards being tapped on could be heard from the employees still sitting, King meanwhile continued to explain himself. "There are heroes out there that deserve the rank, if not more so, Endeavor. Say what you will about him, but he has more than earned the title as Japan's number one hero."
The Madam President offered a tired smile, "Well…he was the other choice, but-" she began to explain, only for King to cut her off.
"Endeavor? Great! Put him as the number one!" King thought to himself, "Then do it." King asked but came out as a command to everyone else, earning confused looks from the employees and the President. "He's earned the spot, whereas my cases have all been mere happenstances of coincidences." He tried to reason with the HPSC.
"Wait, what about the fight against All For One?" One employee hollered over from the table, a confused expression written all over his face. King glanced his way, making him gulp in nervousness.
"You can thank Sir Nighteye for directing me to come to the arcade at the time." Was all King offered as his reason for being there, "In fact, most of my cases were of me and Sir Nighteye working together as a team." "Sorry Sasaki, but I need a scapegoat here!" King mentally apologized to his former superior.
"Of course!" Shouted an excited employee from the table, "Leave it up to Sir Nighteye and King to be the best hero team!"
"...wait…" King muttered near silently, but was unable to be heard as the employees began discussing how King's teamwork with Sir Nighteye was a paramount key to solving quite a few cold cases. King sighed before taking his leave, "Take it however you will, but please regard my request." he said with a stern voice, but inwardly he was panicking. "Screw this! I'm getting out of here before any more crazy assumptions are made!"
Once King was finally gone from sight, and the doors were once again shut with the employee that was once standing outside now inside the room, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The employee that was keeping watch outside the room faced the Madam President with a nervous look, "Please don't fire me!" he begged.
The president offered the man a sympathetic smile, "I'll excuse it this one time, facing down that man is far above your pay grade." she jested, earning a chuckle back from the man.
Hawks meanwhile sweat dropped at the choice of words the president used. "Above his pay grade my ass! What about my ass and my pay-grade?! For all I know, he could have used whatever he did to All For One, and sent me flying out the window! NO PUN INTENDED DAMN IT!" Keigo screamed/panicked in his mind, all the while keeping up an aloof expression on his face.
Japanese Hero Billboard Chart event
Three months later
"And coming in at number two, is Kiiinnnnggg!" The announcer declared, followed by cheers and the crowd talking animatedly as King came onto the stage from the same way as the previous heroes before him. Clad in an offshoot of All Might's silver age costume, a decision made out of his hands; He didn't like it, but Toshinori Yagi had insisted he wear such a costume for the event. As he stopped to stand by the number three hero, Keigo Hawks, he simply kept his usual stoney facade of a stern face. "Crap, keeping this face up is going to give me indigestion by the end of the day!" King chastised himself as his gaze swept across the crowd, earning many photographers in the crowd to take snap shots.
"And finally, the number one spot, give it up for Endeavor!" The announcer spoke through the cheering crowd.
As Endeavor made his way onto the stage to stand beside King, the only thought running through his mind was why King wasn't placed first instead. Once he finally stood beside King and the Madam president took to the stage to begin her speech, he cleared his throat quietly while crossing his arms. "King." he softly spoke out, earning a sound from King that he was listening.
"Any idea why-" "I suggested you were given the spot instead of me." Was all King uttered out as he had interrupted the other hero, but kept his gaze forward with his arms crossed as well.
Endeavor grinded his teeth in anger but kept his mouth shut before speaking up, he glanced King's way. "Don't mock me-"
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"I was hoping this wouldn't happen!" King screamed in his mind, all the while keeping a stern expression and glanced over at Endeavor, "I am of the opinion that I do not deserve the top spot." he simply offered as his reason.
Endeavor could only scoff in response, "Don't patronize me-"
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The two heroes were now facing down each other, with Endeavor a few centimeters taller than King, but both kept up their unwavering facades. "I would rather not take a spot that I did not earn." King spoke out in a gruff tone, "come on man, just take the win!" he yelled in his mind.
Endeavor narrowed his eyes at King, "What's he playing at? He defeated All For One, who else is more deserving?" he thought to himself. "From this point on, don't expect me to simply relax now." he warned King.
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"And I would tell you, don't. Be prepared for anything, the league of Villains is still out there." King returned back with a menacing stare back.
"Gentlemen?" The Madam President spoke over to the two with a concerned expression, prompting both to return to facing forward. "Oh thank merciful heavens, they looked about ready to fight!" The HPSC president panicked mentally.
Keigo 'Hawks' Takami however, who was still standing beside King as the number three hero, could only let out a breath of relief. "Holy crap! I could have lost a limb here! Those guys looked ready to destroy this place from their stare down alone!" he screamed in his mind, all the while keeping a relaxed expression; however a few beads of sweat fell down his forehead.
Later
Heroes Endeavor and King come to near blows.
Was all that was propped up in newspapers and websites, social media sites and news channels; An image that would later be an icon for years to come. Endeavor and King facing off was an image plastered almost everywhere, many t-shirt companies ended up with wait lists with how many they sold out of the image alone of Endeavor's and King's faces directed at each other in a showdown of sorts. The iconic image was Endeavor's face lit with his flames, while King's side showed his iconic three scars that went down the left side of his face over his eye. Safe to say, portions of the profits made were directed to the heroes themselves, less they incur the wrath of the two men.
"Hmph, at least you got my good side." -quote from Endeavor
"...The proceeds can go to the victims of crime and villainous assaults." -Quote from King
"He did what! Very well, then I shall give the proceeds to those in need as well." -Quote from Endeavor after another news conference was held, and was asked about his thoughts on King's decision with the money.
Author's note; Sheesh, thanks for the reviews. Didn't think these silly snippets and previous chapters would be that popular. Don't expect an exact cohesive story, I'm only writing this to have a bit of fun with King and op/plznrf lmao.
later!