Disclaimer: Both Street Fighter and My Hero Academia belong to each of their respective franchises. I claim no ownership whatsoever.

The next few hours could only be described as a blur for Toshinori. The arrival of Agent Charlotte Guile of Interpol had come as a shock to both him and Tsukauchi, not least because of the bombshells she had dropped on them unnoticed. The man, Gouki, remained stoic throughout the ordeal, but they just barely caught the subtle glances he threw at Miss Guile, a ripple of... recognition buried deep down there somewhere.

Agent Guile, for her part, gave them only the barest of details before declaring that the man would be taken off their hands. Gouki was, according to what she implied, a criminal of some repute in the early 21st century. Long before the Dawn of Quirks, if they were to believe such an outlandish claim.

Naomasa was understandably hesitant. "Now, wait. Miss Guile, you must know that there are procedures for this."

"I am well aware of that, Inspector," Charlotte, or Charlie, replied calmly. "In fact, the arrangements are already being ironed out as we speak."

"Still, you haven't exactly been forthcoming," Naomasa persisted. "Is the information concerning this Gouki character classified?"

Charlie eyed the man with an unreadable gaze. "Even if I told you, I doubt you'd believe me. And, yes, Naomasa, we're well aware of your Quirk. Both strengths and weaknesses. You cannot trust everything I say without me being compromised."

Naomasa's eyes narrowed slightly. She's deflecting. "Try me."

This only seemed to amuse the woman once again. "Very well. I'm a fifty year old lesbian. My partner is eighty years younger than me. My Quirk is being able to roast hotdogs to perfection. How's that?"

Tsukauchi and Toshinori both blinked blankly at her and the obvious lies she had just told them. "Th-That's too easy," the police inspector stammered, leaving unsaid; with the exception of her alleged sexuality, almost nothing had triggered his Quirk. It was as if, at that moment, the woman believed the things she was saying to be true, but only barely. He had felt something, but it was so negligible that it could be considered either a false positive or negative. That was the downside of his Quirk, and of polygraphs in general. A lie couldn't necessarily be pinned down as a lie, as it relied solely on the physical reaction of the individual, and it was clear that Miss Guile was trained to pass even if she told the most ridiculously obvious fib ever heard.

"Satisfied?" Guile prodded, and when there was no answer, "Then it has been a pleasure, gentlemen."

"Wait," Toshinori called out as the woman turned to the door, "how... when did you even get wind of Gouki-san?"

Guile stared at the number one hero with the same unreadable expression. "We've been tracking his movements since our satellites picked up his profile about 300 miles from the North Pole. That was nearly four days ago."

Toshinori didn't betray anything, simply glancing at Naomasa who shook his head - it wasn't a lie. "300 miles? From the North Pole? How?"

"As hard as it is to believe, Akuma, or Gouki, was trapped in a glacier not long before the first Quirk was reported," Guile elaborated, much to their surprise. "That would put his disappearance somewhere around 2014 to 2016."

"2015."

All three pairs of eyes shifted to Gouki, but he said nothing more. "So you're saying that he was encased in ice the whole time?" Toshinori repeated, trying to wrap his head around such an explanation. "Could he be a first generation?"

Guile scoffed, a thin smile on her lips as she answered, "Hardly. He's Quirkless."

The room fell silent again, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife, only to be replaced by another knock. "That should be mine," Guile said as she walked to the door to open it, and two male agents in black suits, one caucasian and the other black, entered. Both men barely acknowledged the inspector and the hero as they moved to flank Gouki, who still had not budged from his chair.

"How…" Toshinori began asking again, not even worried that he might not get a straight answer, "How is that even possible, Miss Guile?"

The Interpol Agent shook her head. "I'm afraid I've said too much already. It would be best if the both of you just forget about this whole thing and resume your lives as normal."

That would have been enough, but Toshinori's treacherous curiosity and sense of justice spurred him on. "Miss Guile, I'm well aware of the consequences if we try to dig deeper into this, but if Gouki really is who you say he is, then maybe-" He was interrupted when the sound of thudding reached his ears and he turned to Gouki to find two of the agents who had surrounded him lying on the ground, knocked out. Gouki, however, remained in the same position he had been in since the beginning, as if he had hardly moved at all.

Naomasa had already drawn his gun when Charlie Guile slipped in front of him with surprising speed and grace, her hands tucked behind her. "Lower your weapon now," she ordered the inspector.

"But-"

"Lower. It. Now," Guile said in a crisp warning tone, her eyes now drawn in a glare that sent a shiver down the man's spine despite the gap in their ages, a pressure hanging thickly between them.

Toshinori was now staring directly at Gouki, torn between taking on his muscular form and compromising his secret in the station. "Miss Guile," he said, "if I may be so bold, I would like to be the one to help escort Gouki."

Instead of refusing, Guile nodded in agreement, her eyes still on Naomasa. "Very well."

Toshinori released a breath that he had been holding, already one heartbeat away from activating One For All. "What exactly did you mean? About him being Quirkless."

"Nothing so ambiguous," Guile stated as she strutted up to Gouki, causing the only two other conscious men in the room to tense up, though nothing seemed to happen other than Gouki giving her a look. "Gouki is Quirkless. That much is true according to surviving records of him."

"Then…how?"

Guile seemed to take a moment to answer. "Do you gentlemen happen to know anything about 'Ki'?"

"Ki?" Toshinori repeated questioningly, exchanging a look with Naomasa, who wordlessly signaled that she had not lied so far, despite her earlier statement. "To my understanding, Ki or Chi, as some would also call it, is energy. Specifically, the energy of living beings. But surely..." He was understandably skeptical about such things. Mysticism, special abilities, they were all now the possibility behind the phenomena of Quirks. As far as they knew, no one with superhuman abilities had ever been found to be anything else, even without a proper medical procedure.

Guile lowered her head as if in contemplation. "Ki is considered the life force of everything. Not only organisms like humans, but also animals and plants. It has even been said that the stars themselves, our very universe, runs on Ki. It is the very energy that drives life itself."

Toshinori hung on the woman's every word, as did Naomasa. "Before Quirks were even a blip in the world, there existed an untold number of individuals, people who were able to tap deep within themselves and harness Ki. In the process, they gained superhuman abilities not unlike those of today. And there was probably no one in this world with a better understanding of Ki than Gouki.

Naomasa was beside himself. Unlike before, he couldn't detect a single lie coming from the Interpol Agent. Either she believed what she was saying, or…

"To better understand where I'm coming from," Guile said knowingly as she faced them, "I'm well aware that you need proof. Which is why..." She turned to Gouki when her colleagues had just regained consciousness. They didn't say a word, save for grunts and heated glances they threw at the imposing man, who wasn't bothered. With a flick of her head, they left the room, leaving the four of them as the only occupants once again.

She then nodded to Toshinori, who turned to Naomasa for a change of clothes. He did not wish to risk wearing the same clothes he had come in with. He snuck into the locker room, stealthily navigating his way from sight until he entered a stall. Once inside, he donned a black suit under a brown coat, black gloves on his hands and polished shoes. With a breath, his body then exploded in musculature, growing tall and bulky, a hulking Adonis who wore his signature smile with pride.

With practiced ease, he slipped back into the interrogation room where Naomasa, Guile and Gouki were waiting. Nodding to the inspector and the Interpol agent, he shuffled over to the person-of-interest. "Gouki-san, if you would, we'd like for you to come along."

Gouki, whose eyes had been closed, opened them to reveal his piercing red pupils that seemed to bore into all of them. Both Naomasa and Toshinori braced themselves for the worst, but in another surprising twist, the beast-like man slowly stood from his seat. It was then that Toshinori couldn't help but size the two of them apart, with Gouki actually…a bit shorter by some meager inches. It must have been the hair tufts.

Naomasa had another officer put Gouki's handcuffs back on, which earned a passing glance from Guile before the agent slipped on a pair of aviators. On their way back past the lobby, Toshinori could only feel fewer eyes than before, the atmosphere having grown quieter. No doubt, with the arrival of Interpol, not many were too eager to stick their noses in. And his presence didn't cause anything like the excitement of his first visits. He walked in lockstep with Guile, allowing those curious to put two and two together.

Once outside, the first thing Toshinori noticed were two vehicles parked parallel to one another. The first was a black Dodge Charger, which must have been Guile's, and behind it was a large armored van, flanked by three men in body armor. He narrowed his eyes at them and the Saiga-12s they were packing. "Military grade weapons?" The sheer gravity of the situation was beginning to sink in for the Number One Hero, if it hadn't already.

They first took the time to deposit Gouki into the armored van, which turned out to be less of a hassle than first thought. Still more than a little baffled, Toshinori patiently got into the Dodge Charger, with Naomasa riding shotgun. Once they were a good distance from the station and on a road with fewer cars, the hulking figure deflated. No one spoke for most of the ride as they followed the van, with another car upfront which could only be the two other agents from earlier. They kept a close watch on Gouki seated quietly as two of the three armored men sat next to him on either side, fed to them via live feed on the head-up display.

"Miss Guile," Naomasa started speaking, watching as the city passed by them from the window, "about what you said back there. You mentioned Gouki…swimming all the way from the North Pole?"

It wasn't exactly an unbelievable feat in the current era, for someone like Gang Orca was capable of covering such long distances on a regular day. It was an entirely different story for someone supposedly without a Quirk. "Hard to believe, right?" Guile conceded as she drove calmly. "Fortunately, I came prepared."

"Hm?" This drew both Toshinori and Naomasa's attention, wondering what she meant when the Interpol Agent fished out a flash drive from her coat pocket. She plugged it onto the port and shrunk the live feed on Gouki, allowing a separate window to pop up. "This was taken from a submarine stationed by the Pacific." She pressed play.

"The Pacific?" Toshinori leaned forward next to Naomasa, both of them seeing nothing but darkness at first, then a scene of the ocean floor came to life. "This was taken about two days ago."

"T-Two days ago?!" Both men thought in unbridled shock. They heard voices in the background; english. "A US sub?" They kept their eyes trained on the footage, seeing nothing other than sand, plankton and some deep water fish swimming by. The pressure under such depths must have been clocking in at about a thousand bars, realizing now that what they were looking at was the Marian Trench.

"You're kidding me…" Toshinori thought in a cold sweat, a sinking feeling in his stomach on what they were about to see. Naoamasa, as well. Not long after, they both choked back gasps when something; or someone, came into view. His figure was veiled in shadow because of the distance, but there was no mistaking such a silhouette after seeing it up close.

Down at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench, Gouki could be seen walking. Walking! It took everything of Naomasa to not gawp like a fish himself, while Toshinori was wondering if he was simply watching something with special effects.

"Who the hell is that?" They could hear just one of the voices say. Of course, they didn't sound too surprised that a human looking figure was walking on the seafloor, as it could have simply been someone with a Quirk, but…

"Miss Guile," Toshinori started apprehensively, "are you certain…that Gouki does not possess a Quirk?"

"Even if I was under torture, it wouldn't change anything," Guile proclaimed. "Gouki is indeed Quirkless." She pressed another button, and behind the gear stick, a briefcase rose from a secure compartment. "Open it." She told them simply. Naomasa picked up the briefcase and unclasped it, revealing a dossier; folders and documents.

For the rest of the drive, the two men rifled through the files containing information on Gouki, which consisted of only the barest details such as his date of birth and family. There were also files on other people. One was supposedly Gouki's brother, an equally strong looking man with a bald head and a white beard. A prominent x-shaped scar could be seen on his forehead. There were two others present. One was a man with short dark hair, a red headband, and a beard. Another was an American man with neck-length blond hair.

"World Warrior…Tournament?" Naomasa read aloud. "What exactly is that, Miss Guile?"

"The World Warrior Tournament," Guile began, "was a global fighting circuit that drew in participants on an international level. There was no fixed venue, hence people also tended to call it the Street Fighter Tournament. Participants could be in the middle of the street duking it out until one was the winner."

"And... Gouki participated in this tournament?" Toshinori asked from the backseat, looking up from his reading when Guile didn't answer right away.

"Gouki was not an official participant. At least not at first," Guile revealed, her eyes fixed on the road. "There was an infamous match he crashed during the second tournament. It should be in the files, but to make a long story short, he murdered one of the competitors in cold blood."

Both men exchanged tense, but quiet looks. "Was he…ever arrested?"

"No," Guile replied. "He disappeared before they could even get a bead on him, and was not seen again for some time until the next tournament, where he officially entered."

"They actually let him?" Naomasa said with no little surprise. "After murdering an innocent?"

"PFFT HAHAHAHA!" Guile suddenly burst out laughing, taking her passengers wildly by surprise. "S-Sorry, sorry, that-ngh…ahahahahahaha!" She hunched down as she tried to choke in her laughter, her forehead flushed against the steering wheel for but a moment before regaining most of her composure. "Ah, I needed that. I was actually on break in Okinawa visiting some army buddies, and having a good laugh just made this suck less than it had to."

She took in the bewildered faces of her passengers by the rearview mirror she adjusted. "Innocent? No, Inspector Naomasa. The man he killed was far from what can be remotely considered…innocent. You'll find the bastard's file there, as well. M. Bison."

Flipping through a few more papers, Naomasa came across one with a photo of a man in a red, vaguely military-style uniform. "M. Bison?" He handed the document over to Toshi after he had skimmed through it, not liking the details surrounding the man.

"The leader of a terrorist organization known as Shadaloo, also called Shadowlaw by some," Guile related. "They were a paramilitary group that had their claws deeply entrenched in the underworld. They dealt in the blackmarket, smuggling weapons, drugs, and would fund and supply other cells to destabilize various countries."

Toshinori nuzzled his chin as he read through the file, or rather files, as Naomasa kept passing him more. It seemed that this Bison was no mere terrorist leader if his rapsheet was anything to go by. "Human experimentation? Brainwashing? Cyborgs?" The Number One Hero grew even more unnerved as those weren't even the worst that Shadaloo was responsible for, with a few paragraphs actually redacted. "Is this Shadaloo still active?"

"Disbanded," Charlie Guile corrected. "They were brought down by the combined efforts of a number of World Warrior competitors, who formed their own coalition after the first two tournaments. A secret anti-terrorist faction that officially did not exist on any record."

"Excuse me?" Naomasa asked strangely. "Wait, let's back up. How or why would a leader of a terrorist organization be at a fighting tournament?" Toshinori silently seconded the question.

"Shadaloo's ambitions didn't end down the barrel of a gun or a crack pipe," Guile expounded. "They were also in the business of studying fighters, techniques, so long as it was a source of power to further strengthen the organization. Bison himself was an incredibly powerful martial artist, having studied extensively in the ways of Ki. He would scout out fighters from around the globe, and abduct those who did not wish to join him of their own accord, subjecting them to his vile experiments and even brainwashing them to be his obedient slaves, putting them to work as bodyguards or assassins."

"Psycho...Power?" Toshinori slowly read the part he found under the man's personal profile. Or the lack thereof. He had no fixed date of birth, no family, not even a home country to speak of other than Thailand, though that was a complete assumption since that was where Shadaloo was first known to operate. He read the rest with a scrutinizing eye, especially into the man's alleged abilities through his mastery of Ki. "Psychokinesis? Teleportation? Energy blasts?! It's almost like...And Gouki...killed him?"

There was another pause. "You could say that."

"What…do you mean?" Naomasa dared to ask.

"That wasn't the last of Bison, I'm afraid," Guile admitted. "Shadaloo's experiments included cloning."

"C-Cloning?!" Toshinori actually dropped the papers he was holding, causing Naomasa to act fast and catch them. "At that age?"

"People back then weren't cavemen," Guile quipped with a lopsided grin, with Naomasa deftly taking note that they were already past city limits. "Yes, even in that era, the scientific community was already entertaining the idea of cloning. Shadaloo simply took several extra steps forward, ethics be damned."

"So he cloned himself a body?" Naomasa asked uneasily.

"Bodies," Guile corrected, much to the shock of both detective and hero. "A man like Bison would never allow himself to be deterred by an inconvenience such as death. That was just another aspect of what made him such a formidable enemy."

Toshinori tried to stifle the dread that slowly crept through his veins, reminded of a certain man he could only draw similarities from to this Bison, or perhaps it was the other way around. "No, it couldn't be. He wouldn't…"

"And…these cloning experiments were successful?" Naomasa asked, a tremor seeping into his tone. "But…that wouldn't really make any sense. Even if he did have a clone-"

"Fully grown," Guile interjected, earning choked gasps from both men a second later. "The clones were designed to age at an accelerated rate until reaching adulthood, guaranteeing that he always had one in reserve, perfect for Bison to transfer his consciousness to."

"Y-Yes, but-" Both Naomasa and Toshinori instantly went numb once they heard and processed that tidbit. "Transfer…"

"M. Bison, through his mastery in the arts of Ki, managed to elevate what he referred to as his Psycho Power to such levels that he could project and transfer his soul to host bodies once one was no longer viable" Guile elaborated. "Combine that with the cloning technology at his disposal, and you'll begin to understand what kind of man The Dictator was, which was just one of the epithets he earned from those who knew and feared him."

Toshinori chewed the bottom of his lip hard enough to draw blood. "No, I mustn't think that. If…all of this is true…then…" The very thought made every jangling nerve in his withered body burn with phantom pain, fighting the urge to hold the injury in his stomach and smothering the burgeoning paranoia that was starting to fester.

Naomasa must have caught on and felt the same, barely able to keep his composure. "And this…M. Bison is…"

There was no immediate reply, which only added to the already volatile atmosphere within the car. "Who can say? After nearly a decade of battles, Shadaloo simply stopped its operations, never to be heard from again."

The numbness returned with a vengeance, unable to hide their colorless faces from the woman, for she had not said they had been stopped. Only that they had ceased operations and retreated into the shadows. Perhaps waiting for an opportune time to rise again, assuming the original members were still alive. For all they knew, Shadaloo had long since resurfaced under a different name.

"Or maybe you would have preferred a happier ending?"

Some time passed and Toshinori and Naoamasa noticed that they were now entering the countryside. Where could they be going? It certainly wasn't in the direction of any prison they knew of. Regardless, they kept busy by poring over more of the documents, mixed with some small talk. Guile was actually quite sociable the more they spoke with her, and other than info that was clearly classified, she provided what she could and clarified as best as possible to her knowledge. They flipped through separate folders containing the information of more World Warrior competitors, one of which was a man with the name William F. Guile.

"That would be my Great-Great Grandfather," Charlie informed them. "A Colonel during the early conflict with Shadaloo, eventually promoted to Major."

Toshinori read through the file on this Major Guile. From what he could gather, he had been a man who was not content to stand idly by while Shadaloo ran rampant. It almost seemed like he was waging a one-man war, had he not been working with allies such as Chun-Li, a fellow World Warrior competitor and Interpol agent herself. It seemed that no matter the era, there were heroes willing to fight against injustice. For that, the Number One Hero had nothing but respect for a man that wouldn't have been out of place in the current time.

"And you've been following in his footsteps?" Toshinori wondered aloud. "Your family seems to have deep ties to all of this."

"My clan would tell me stories," Guile reminisced with barely constrained fondness. "William Guile was a man who had put everything on the line for his country and family. He was a hero to us all, and mine as well."

A small smile appeared on the Number One Hero's haggard face. He was sure that if circumstances were different and he had met the man himself, he would have proudly shaken his hand.

It was unfortunate that the only relic that had survived to their present was the enigma known as Gouki, whose files they sifted through with a fine-toothed comb; as much as could be scrounged. What they found was far from heroic. Besides Bison, he had murdered others, all of whom were warriors in deathmatches.

"How had he been evading arrest all this time?" Toshinori asked since Gouki had no official arrest record. "Surely, the police or even the other fighters could have brought him to justice."

"Gouki…can't exactly be pinned as your average criminal," Guile provided hesitantly.

"A villain, then," Naomasa concluded, to which Toshinori concurred.

"Gouki only ever sought out strong fighters," Guile explained. "Those he deemed worthy, either to die by his hand…or able to kill him."

"So he's that kind of person," Toshinori remarked stoically. He couldn't pretend not to understand such a mindset, for there were heroes and villains that were fiercely competitive or dangerously suicidal when it came to proving their strength. "It would seem that he can't be allowed free if that is what he still wishes to undertake." If allowed to his own devices, he shuddered to think how Gouki's MO would translate to an abundance of strong heroes and villains for him to challenge. He wasn't certain just how strong the man was, but after the feat they had seen; provided it was genuine, they weren't too eager to test such a speculation out.

Guile silently drove, which both men could only infer as her being in agreement. More hours passed, until they pulled to a stop in front of a tall flight of stone stairs, exiting the car and seeing that they had arrived in a remote mountain province, surrounded on all sides by tall trees. The air was cool, with the sound of birds and other local wildlife fluttering in the distant background. Gifu, by the looks of it.

"Is…this supposed to be where Gouki will be transferred?" Naomasa said aloud, causing Guile to shoot him a glance from the driver's side.

"Huh?" The Interpol agent blinked behind her aviators as Gouki was led out of the armored vehicle. The two men in body armor held their rifles close in case the man tried anything, while the third, who had been the driver, had the task of unlocking Gouki's cuffs without much fanfare. The old martial artist rubbed his now bare wrists as he looked up the stairs, a flash of recognition passing through his red pupils.

"This is…"

Guile was already up by four steps as she turned to regard the man. "Familiar? We had our people here the other day to restore and refurbish everything, which should be to your liking."

Toshinori, who had resumed his Muscle Form, and Naomasa were understandably puzzled by this. "Miss Guile," he called to the Interpol agent, "why…are we here, exactly?" He had a sinking feeling he already knew the answer, but he still wanted to hear it from the woman.

"Hm?" Charlie Guile panned a glance at the two men, returning her gaze with dumbfounded and worried expressions. She blinked twice, before it seemed to dawn on her. "Oh, wait. You…actually thought this was a prison transfer?"

Both men sweatdropped. Naomasa stepped forward and replied, "We thought that, yes. Hell, we even thought Interpol would come via plane or boat to take him."

There was a long pause of silence before Charlie stiffened, laughing in what sounded like embarrassment as she rubbed the back of her head. "Gyahahaha! Oh, that's right! I knew I forgot something!"

All of the others present; with the exception of Gouki and the other Interpol agents, collapsed to the ground in abject shock.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What?!" Naomasa snapped as soon as he recovered. "What do you mean you forgot? Forgot what?!"

Guile held up her hands and made a calming motion. "Relax. I'm sorry, but I forgot that I wasn't supposed to escort Gouki to a facility to be detained. If you would just follow me, everything will be clear." She gestured with a gloved hand to the top of the stairs, and soon enough, they arrived; not at a prison, but at a Japanese estate. More specifically, a dojo. Abandoned by the looks of it, except that everything appeared like it had just been built. Or restored, based on Charlie's words from earlier. From the gate to the cobblestones, everything looked spick and span. Not even a dry leaf in sight.

Gouki strode into the courtyard, his head turning as if in inspection. With a low, guttural hum, he walked towards the house, leaving Toshinori and Naomasa to pick up their jaws from the ground, the latter then turning to the female Interpol agent standing next to him. "Why here?"

"Hm? Because this is where Gouki lives," Guile replied as if it wasn't strange at all. "Or rather, this property used to belong to his brother, Gouken. According to his will, it will all be bequeathed to Gouki as soon as all other beneficiaries can no longer lay claim to it, and since Gouki is the only living relative left, this entire estate belongs to him."

"That's not what we meant!" Naomasa practically fumed. "You honestly expect us to let a dangerous criminal remain free?"

Charlie blinked at the man, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked between where Gouki was heading and the inspector. "Uh, yes?"

Naomasa gaped at the woman, before bristling with a shake of his head and stalked after Gouki. Charlie didn't stop him, only sighing in resignation at what she knew was about to go down. "Do you feel the same?"

Toshinori, conflicted behind his wide smile, glanced at her before setting his sights on Naomasa's diminishing form. Without a word, he sped forward to catch up, hoping to at least mediate the situation.

Gouki, standing at a door he never thought he would see again, raised his hand to run his palm over the wood, half expecting it to be rotten to the touch. It was undeniably smooth and firm, the grain of good quality. He could tell that this wasn't the original material, but the dojo looked exactly the same, down to the last detail. He had to give these "Quirks" credit; they did good work.

"Gouki!"

The detective now had his gun drawn, pointing it straight at the man, whose back was facing him. Truth be told, Naomasa was sweating profusely as he kept his gaze fixed on the fugitive. Even if a significant number of years had passed, the man before him was still responsible for multiple counts of murder. He had to face justice under the letter of the law.

"Hands where I can see them," the detective ordered with glare clear across his features. "I won't ask again." He stiffened slightly when the man continued to disregard him after a moment. "I-" He stopped when he felt Toshinori's hand on his forearm.

"Gouki," Toshinori said and stepped forward. "I am sorry, but by all accounts, you are still a criminal who has managed to escape justice for far too long. Given your history, I cannot risk a potential danger like you roaming free." They waited for an answer until they saw Gouki's hand reaching for the door to open it. With a sigh, Toshinori marched up the wooden stairs and grabbed Gouki's shoulder, when he blinked…and found Gouki standing some distance away.

Wait.

To his and Naomasa's shock, he was back where he had stood, next to his friend and in the same pose when he grabbed Gouki's shoulder. "What…?" He gazed down at his hand, opening and closing it before looking up to find Gouki having entered the house.

"I suggest not to waste your time," Guile said as she walked up to them, hands behind her back. Adjusting her aviators, she went on, "Gouki would rather not come to blows with you, All Might."

Rather than argue, Toshinori asked, "What reason would he have not to, Miss Guile? Given what you've revealed so far, I would think that I fit the criteria."

Guile made a show of rubbing her chin in thought, rolling her eyes behind her aviators. "What do you think the reason to be?"

To Toshinori's immense chagrin, he came to a fairly simple conclusion with a dip of his head. "My injury."

Guile nodded. "Not only that, but Gouki has long since toned down a lot of his more…problematic tendencies."

"So, what," Naomasa turned to her after holstering his pistol, "he's reformed? Forgive me if I find that a little too played out."

Guile shrugged her shoulders with an impish grin. "He's spent all this time trapped in ice. By his own volition, I might add. That's gotta count for something."

"A prison that he, for some reason, broke out of," Naomasa pointed out, his already thinning patience waning.

Charlie's grin widened. "Inspector Naomasa, there is no cell, no box, no glass case, or even the best damn cardboard on this God-given Earth that can hold Gouki. And even if there was, he'd just take it as a challenge and bust out anyway."

Naomasa stared at the Interpol agent, not even bothering to tell if she was lying or not, way past the point of it. He threw his head back, and with the heaviest of sighs, ran his hands through his hair. "What am I gonna tell-"

"Your Chief?" Charlie interrupted, idly checking her watch. "Tsuragamae-san has agreed to turn a blind eye."

Naomasa gritted his teeth, stripped of all cards. Without a word, he hobbled over to the wooden stairs and plopped himself down, completely drained, both from the trip and the exchange. "We can at least do something."

"Heh, by all respects, you're just threatening Gouki with a good time," Charlie said as she came near and sat on a step above the detective. "You saw him taking a stroll down the Mariana Trench. By our estimates, he didn't stop to rest or anything. He just kept going. A relentless, tireless force of nature that would lay waste to everything in his path with nothing but his bare fists."

"You don't know that," Naomasa countered, looking up at her.

"He destroyed an entire island with a single punch." Naomasa froze, as did Toshinori. "It was an incident reported off the coast of Nagano. A devastating tsunami caused by unusual tectonic shifts. At first, officials thought it was just a disaster caused by a natural earthquake. Upon further investigation by Interpol, and an affidavit from Ryu, Akuma had smashed an entire island during one of their duels. Back then, he was nowhere near as strong as he is now. Imagine, if you will, where he currently stands."

Toshinori let off steam and realized that a fight would be pointless. He hadn't even felt anything. It was as if Gouki hadn't touched him at all, but he knew that he had been pushed. He was smart enough to know what a full-blown battle would cost him. Gathering his courage, he trudged up the stairs, covering the distance from the door.

"Wh-What are you doing, Toshi?" Naomasa asked in worry, only for the man to wave off his concerns. He opened the door and stepped inside, depositing his shoes by the genkan.

"Ojamashimasu," Toshinori called politely. He straightened and scanned the foyer, the floors and walls well polished and clean. At the side of the entrance to what he assumed was a hallway was a single vase, which appeared to be an antique. He idly wondered if it had originally been part of the house or a recent addition. Touring the rest of the estate, he found it to be quite spacious, which he figured was necessary for a dojo to accommodate students. There wasn't much in the way of furniture, as the restoration was fairly recent. Crossing his arms, he was actually quite impressed, since no one would ever expect someone as... gruff-looking as Gouki to live in such an abode.

When he came to a wide door, he carefully pulled it apart to reveal an even wider room that could only be the main training hall. In the middle of it, Gouki sat in a lotus position, staring at a Butsudan at the very end. He was silent, and Toshi respectfully did not intrude until he heard a deep, "Enter."

Toshi said nothing, taking off his coat and hanging it by one arm, coming within a few feet of the former sole occupant. "Is it to your liking?" He didn't know why he asked such a question but Toshinori could sense that Gouki... didn't feel like he fully belonged here. All he received was a gruff hum, and nothing else. "Was…this your home?"

"No…"

Toshinori sucked in his lips, choosing his next words carefully. "Your brother must have cared about you, then." The next response took much longer, but he realized that he needed to be patient with Gouki.

"We fought…"

Toshinori closed his eyes, knowing that it wasn't a mere familial dispute. "You killed him…"

"I thought I did…"

Toshinori looked up in surprise.

"He survived…"

The Number One Hero stared at the back of Gouki's head. "What will you do now?"

It felt like an eternity before Gouki responded.

"The boy…"