The soothing orange of the early morning light, broke through the worn and slightly torn up curtains of an old and dusty apartment and into the eyes of an adult man deep in sleep.

Everything was quiet, calm and relaxing. That was until the alarm clock started to blare, shouting at the man to wake up. *BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*

A hand reached out from underneath the covers and was lightly placed on top of the alarm clock. Glowing lines raced around the alarm clock, in a circuit-like pattern, originating from where the man's hand was, and soon after a tired voice groaned from beneath the covers. "Silent."

*Beep! Beep! bee…* The alarm clock began to get quieter and quieter until it became completely devoid of sound. The glowing lines began to fade as the hand was taken off the alarm clock and retreated back under the covers to maintain warmth and comfort.

The man rolled over and everything was quiet as he started to fall back asleep, until a few seconds later. *...eep! Beep! Beep!* The alarm clock regained its sound and felt even louder than before, even though it wasn't.

"UGH!" The man loudly groaned as the hand reached back out and this time pressed the off button.

The man's wooden bed creaked as he sat up and looked at the time displayed on the alarm clock which read 6:00am. "Two late nights and then an early morning right after… adulthood's a pain." The man's tired voice continued to groan as they spoke.

He used his hand to move the fallen hair from his face and after a whole minute of staring blankly into the abyss, he reached for the curtain just above his bed and slowly opened it, revealing a heavily-littered and morning-lit back alley.

As light quickly filled the room, it showed the man's messy blonde hair, unshaven sideburns and his half asleep ruby red eyes.

The light entering the room became muffled and muti-coloured as a bunch of balloons blocked the window. The man opened his window, letting the cold morning air inside and instantly sent shivers around down his body.

As the balloons floated higher, so did an older bearded man with the balloon strings wrapped around his waist, slowly being dragged into the sky.

The older man seemed to notice the open window as he passed by it. "Oh, g'morning Kenny." The older man's voice was friendly and comforting, almost like you knew him your whole life.

"Morning Mr. Takahata…" Kenny slightly mumbled his words. "Heading to work?" He covered his mouth as he yawned.

"Aye. You're up rather earlier than usual." Takahata said as he slowly floated higher.

"I've been asked to watch over the shop today, so it's an early morning for me." Kenny replied.

"Ah~ Well it's a wee bit chilly, so be sure to cover up so as to not catch a cold." Takahata slowly got further away as the balloons got caught in a slow breeze.

"Thanks, I will. And hopefully there aren't any heroes in the area to catch you flying around."

Takahata laughed as he got further away, waving with an innocent, joy-filled and contagious smile on his face.

Kenny closed the window and got out of bed. He stretched each of his limbs before taking a cold shower due to his broken boiler.

After his shower he dried himself, roughly sweeping his hair back with his hands before putting on a pair of thin black glasses. He got dressed into a dark red, long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans.

Kenny walked to the kitchen, turning on his tv as he walked past and set it to a news channel that streamed weakly on the social media platform 'Chirpper'. He let the news run as he went to make his breakfast, listening to the upbeat voice of a teenage girl talk about recent events.

( ~~ - Phones/Radios/Etc…)

~"Good Morning Japan, It's your favourite social media news presenter, F.T. Aka: FortuneTeller. And I'll be the voice that tells you, what's happening, what's already happened and what's to come. But as usual we begin with today's weather forecast. For all you people living in the Yokohama area, It's going to be partially cloudy all day with heavy showers suddenly starting at around 5:23pm. So my suggestion to all you adults is to bring a coat and an umbrella to work with you today."~

Kenny opened his fridge and noticed how empty it was, aside from the possibly expired milk and the definitely expired eggs. "Black coffee it is… at least pay-day's today, so I can finally stock up on food."

Kenny made a warm cup of coffee to go with his plain toast. He walked into his living room and sat on his worn down, yet somehow comfortable couch and listened to the rest of the weather forecast until the next story began.

~"With the weather all done. Let's get into some actual news! Starting with this season's top hero! Which is…" A drumroll sound effect played. "ALL-MIGHT!" The sound of a crowd cheering was played to help hype the reveal. "Once again, one of the newer heroes to grace the scoreboards. All-Might, has been making his roaring debut all around America these past five years! And now that he's been living in Japan for the past year and a half, crime rates have and will surely continue to drop dramatically!"~

They showed a picture of All-Might in his young-age costume, standing in a heroic pose with his signature shining smile stretched from ear to ear.

~"He's been moving up the hero ranking a lot lately. I have no doubt he'll acquire the title of 'Number one Hero' someday. We're all counting on you to keep Japan safe from here on out, All-Might!"~

Kenny finished his toast and continued to drink his coffee. "All-Might again? He's been stealing the spotlight from the other heroes for a while now. But then again, compared to the more boring heroes like CollarHog and BanjoBoom. All-Might at least pulls his weight when saving the day."

~"Now the next piece of news is one you all blew up my DM's with!"~

Kenny's attention turned back to the news channel.

~"So from what I've read up, two nights ago another black market deal became a black market bust! Due to the hands of Yokohama's very own myth-shrouded individual. As police entered the warehouse they found both the dealers and the buyers, brutally beaten and tied up, ready for a swift ride to a cozy jail cell."~

The news channel showed a picture of inside the warehouse, with the dealers and buyers tied up and the goods secured behind police tape.

~"Most of the stolen goods were accounted for aside from a single golden pocket watch, which police believe our mischievous individual took as 'payment' for his good deed."~

They showed an image of the missing golden pocket watch, covered in shining gemstones and extravagant engravings.

~"This mysterious individual has been around for many years now and many of the criminals they've beaten up, have all said they saw this individual using multiple quirks."~

The news channel showed different quotes, for the next bit of the story and the teenage girl imitated a rough criminal-like male voice as she read them.

~"For example when the police interviewed one criminal, they stated that 'Their hands generated lightning and they were strong enough to flip over a four-ton truck!' Another criminal stated 'They shattered metal with just a touch and then they jumped 30ft into the air without issue!"~

Kenny got up to refill his coffee. "Multiple quirks, huh…"

~"Lightning hands, Super-strength, Shattering-Touch and High-jumps?… This is only the tip of the iceberg of quirks as well. It's rare enough to have two at once! but this person must have hit the quirk jackpot! But there's no real evidence as to whether these claims are true or false. On the topic of evidence, did you know that there's only ever been a single photo taken and shared of this individual."~

The news channel showed a slightly blurry picture of the individual's silhouette running on top of a wall in the dead of night. They were about the height of a 15 year old boy and clad in an all black sleeveless hoodie, a pair of fingerless gloves with steel knuckles and baggy black trousers, tucked into steel-plated combat-boots. The person's face was covered by a hood and a black face-mask that covered their mouth and nose, but their ghostly green eyes shone through the darkness.

~"This lack of evidence leads many to believe this individual to be an internet hoax and others to believe them to be an 'accumulation of spirits belonging to fallen heroes, back from beyond the grave to bestow divine retribution onto those who turn to sinning'. But in the end, all that only solidifies this individual more as the Myth that Yokohama has come to call… Nemesis!"~

"After all these years and only a single photo of this 'mischievous individual'?" Kenny said to himself before finishing his second cup of coffee. "And what kind of name is Nemesis? It doesn't even make sense, who is he the nemesis of?"

The female commentator's voice turned more cheery. ~"Now that I've talked about the rising hero: All-Might and the myth-shrouded individual: Nemesis. Let's move onto something less hero based. You see, at the start of the month Aria's bakery released a guide on how to create their award winning cookies. But many people were outraged at this, saying that they didn't taste right and they released a fake recipe. Guess what, they were right. Aria's bakery only responded to the outrage by releasing a voice clip of their founder laughing and yelling… April Fools Suckers!"~

Kenny looked at a cracked clock hung on the wall and noticed that he'd have to leave now if he wanted to get to work on-time.

On his way out he put on a white hooded overcoat and a red scarf, he picked up a red motorcycle helmet that was hung on a coat rack next to his front door before leaving.

Kenny opened his slightly broken apartment door and navigated the littered and broken stairwell without a problem, this is his morning routine after all. He walked out of his apartment building and through the cold, littered back alley, towards a white motorcycle parked next to a wall, returning greetings from nearly every resident of the back-alley he walked past.

"Good morning, Kenny." Said a woman taking out the trash.

"Morning, Mrs. Kawamia."

"Hey, Mr. Barker check this out!" A young boy ran past as he juggled a football with his knees.

Kenny gave the boy a smile. "Nice. Maybe you could learn to balance it on your head next."

"I will!" The boy waved as he ran towards the exit of the alley with the ball.

"How bout a drink, Kenny~" A drunken old man said loudly, holding up a half empty bottle of alcohol.

"Ease up on the morning drinks, Hagano. But then again… maybe after work."

"I'll be waiting." Hagano said as he took another chug of the alcohol.

When he finally got to his bike, he listened to the purring of the engine, before riding it out of the back-alley, only to join the early morning built-up traffic.

Kenny's bike made a satisfying roar as he swerved in and out the still and packed traffic, gaining a few evil-eyes along the way from tired adults forced to go into work. After ten or so minutes of riding, he turned into another alley. A smaller, quieter and all around less inviting one than the alley he lived in. He parked his bike next to a shady pawn shop hidden from the view of the main street and walked in.

The hanging doorbell rang as Kenny opened the door, the dust filled air hit him and he saw that only two of the five dim lights that were hung along the ceiling worked and looked as if they were about to fall down at any moment, you could tell from a glance that the walls had cracked and were crudely repaired and the merchandise was thrown around on the shelves of the very few aisles without care or caution.

The small shop was watched by the man at the front desk with his legs laid on top of the desk and a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth. He wore a black shirt with a dark green military style jacket, dark grey cargo trousers and black leather boots. He had noticeably large, pointy bat-like ears and his eyes were covered by his dark green cap, sitting on top of the man's black fur that spiked up like hair.

Kenny walked up to the man at the front desk and placed his motorbike helmet on the counter. "Yo Mori, I'm here."

The man called 'Mori' didn't look at Kenny and spoke in a deep, shady voice. "I know kid, I can hear that new bike of yours from a mile away."

"A beauty isn't she?" Anyone could tell Kenny was proud of his bike.

"Whatever floats your boat, kid." Mori showed his disinterest in Kenny's bike.

"So, you said I'd be taking care of the shop for today, right?"

"I'm just waiting on a customer, then I'll be out of your hair." Mori's ear twitched. "Speaking of which." Mori used his head to gesture to the other side of the small store.

"Yeah~ I get it." Kenny picked his helmet up and slowly walked away.

The bell of the shop's door rang and in came an overly suspicious man, shaking with nervousness, he repeatedly checked his surroundings as he walked to the front desk with a briefcase held close to his chest. "I'm here to pick up an order, Mr. Shop-Keeper, sir."

Mori sat up straight and lifted his cap, revealing his pitch black eyes. "In store or online?"

"I-In store please." The man's voice shook with his fear.

Mori found the man's nervousness humorous. "It's your first time doing something like this, isn't it?" He groaned as he stood up. "Wait right here." He walked into the back room of the small shop and came out a few seconds later with a small paper bag. Once he got behind the desk again he tapped the glass top of the front desk with his claw-like nail. "Payment for the order?"

"Huh?... O-Oh right, yes!" The man harshly slammed the briefcase on the desk.

Mori was quick to hide the briefcase out of sight, behind the front desk. He passed the paper bag to the man. "Here's your order. Come again." Mori said as he sinisterly smiled.

"T-thank you, v-very much sir." The man quickly walked out of the shop. "But I won't!"

Kenny kept his eye on the man and saw him open the paper bag right in front of the store door and pulled out the missing pocket watch that he saw on the news earlier that morning. "You should really tell them to stop opening the bags as soon as they leave the shop."

Mori took the last puff of his cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray. "Yeah, I know. But did you see how frightened he was, fucking hilarious!" Mori looked at Kenny with a larger sinister smile on his face, almost as if he had dropped his tough guy persona.

"It's been ages since we've had someone that scared." Kenny smirked.

Mori stood up with the briefcase and took it into the backroom and came back out with no briefcase and a scarf around his neck. "Kid, like I said yesterday, I have a few meetings to go to. I should be back around two, three at the latest. Oh and kid." He walked over to Kenny and passed him an envelope. "Your payment for the month. I put a little extra in there for your good work these past few days."

"Thanks." Kenny put the envelope in his coat pocket as he sat at the front desk and watched as Mori walked over and opened the shop door.

"Oh, and make sure to clean the shop while I'm out." Mori quickly walked out of the store.

"You should do it once in a while yourself, Mori!" Kenny shouted, only hearing Mori's ominous, muffled laughter behind the closed door in return.

He lent back in the chair and watched a few seconds go by. "Well… I guess I do have nothing else to do all day." Kenny hung his coat, scarf and helmet on the coat rack by the shop door, before going to get an apron and cleaning supplies from the back room.

He mopped the floors, cleaned the walls, dusted the shelves, tidied and restocked the mis-matched merchandise and fixed the broken lights. "There, all done." Kenny felt proud of himself as he looked upon the now spotless store.

Kenny looked at the clock hanging on the wall and saw that the hands pointed to 10:44. "Only two and a half hours?" Kenny glanced around as he felt a presence watching him, but he saw no-one. "Guess the lack of sleep finally caught up to me." He sighed and sat at the front desk again, pulling out his phone to waste the hours away.

Time went slow for the next few hours, no customers came, the cleaning and restocking was done and the lights were fixed. There really was nothing to do except wait for Mori to return… which took longer than he said it would.

5:23pm finally arrived and just as FortuneTeller predicted, the rain came down suddenly and hard. Kenny checked his phone's clock. "Right on time as always."

The next fifty minutes passed and Mori finally returned drenched in rain, bearing a sour look on his face, a complete opposite to the smile he left with.

"Welcome back, how was your day?" Kenny said with a jokey tone in his voice.

Mori groaned as he took his scarf and jacket off and then hung them up to dry on the coat rack by the shop door, over the radiator.

Kenny could tell that Mori wasn't in the jokey mood like earlier and decided not to tell any other joke he thought of while he waited for Mori to return. "I'll go get you a towel…" He went into the back room and came back with a warm towel.

The disgruntled Mori took the towel and started drying himself. "It was meant to be an hour… but no, instead it was five hours of non-stop chatter, just to ask for a little bit of info gathering on their ex-girlfriend."

"Where'd the other hours go?" Kenny asked.

"Travel. The trains were majorly delayed thanks to a villain attack." Mori felt more pissed as he talked about his day.

"Did you take the request?"

"No I didn't take it! What do they think I run? A P.I service?!" Mori lit a cigarette. "I run a serious back-alley business here." He stormed over to the front desk and sat on the chair before slamming his feet back onto the front desk. His eyes traced the sparkling clean store. "You actually cleaned the place up." His mood lifted a little. "That's one thing off my back at least."

Kenny picked up his coat, scarf and motorbike helmet. "You should at least try to keep up with some cleaning since I'm not here all the time like before."

Mori's eyes gained a fierce look. "You'll do as you're told, isn't that right, kid?"

Kenny put his coat and scarf on and gave Mori a wide jokey smile making sure not to answer the question.

"Get outta here already, will ya." Mori tried to sound frustrated as he hid his growing smirk.

"Yeah~ Call me if any jobs come up." Kenny and his jokey smile disappeared out the front door.

Mori took his cigarette out his mouth as he heard Kenny's bike get further away. "Damn kid, always knows how to cheer me up." His ears twitched as he heard heavy footsteps outside the store disappear in the same direction Kenny went. "I'll alert the kid, but I'm sure he already knows." Mori pulled his phone out and texted Kenny, only to hear the ping from Kenny's phone sitting on the counter. "He forgot his phone... again."

Apart from the heavy rain and his quick visit to a shop for groceries where he felt the presence again. The ride home was similar to his morning ride. The tired adults, the constant honking of said adults repeatedly banging their heads against the steering wheels and the dirty looks Kenny got when he swerved in and out of traffic.

He pulled into the alley his apartment building was in and parked his motorbike under some shelter the building provided. He walked into his apartment building, up the littered steps, making sure to avoid the passed out drunks and broken glass bottles as he made his way to the fourth floor where his apartment sat.

Kenny entered his home through his front door, which should have been falling off its hinges but seemed to have finally been fixed by the landlord after months of asking. He hung his bike helmet along with his coat and scarf on his coat rack before walking to his kitchen to put the shopping away.

Before he finally sat down on his couch, he made a hot drink to relax with. "Finally done with today. At least I can sleep all through tomorrow."

Kenny glanced at his front door as he heard heavy footsteps and noticed a shadow under the door. "Hagano? I guess I did say I might have a drink with him after work. " Kenny got up and walked towards the door. "Sorry Hagano, but we'll have to drink another da-"

As Kenny opened the door he didn't see a oldman Hagano, but a teenage boy wearing an orange hoodie, black jeans, and leather gloves and boots. But the most interesting thing was the large black orb-like helmet covering their entire head with two glowing orange dots acting as eyes.

"Um… Do you need something?" Kenny asked, trying to be polite, yet wanting nothing more than to sit and relax.

The boy looked up at Kenny and the two orange dots locked with Kenny's ruby red eyes. The kid's voice sounded artificial, like they were trying to hide it. "I would appreciate some help."

"With what exactly?" Kenny thought the kid would reply with something like, 'I need to call my parents'.

But the kid said something entirely different. "I need your battle expertise."

Usually Kenny would be intrigued, but he felt too tired to care about anything except resting. "Sorry kid, you have the wrong person."

"You would be correct and incorrect in that assumption."

Kenny's face showed his confusion as to why this teenager was talking in riddles and even why they're even here in the first place, but he just wanted to leave this conversation as fast as he could. "I see… goodnight then." Kenny went to close his door but the kid stopped it with their unusually heavy foot.

The kid put their head closer to Kenny's and their voice grew quieter. "I didn't come here seeking Kenny Barker's aid… I came seeking Monarch's."