Issue #22: Actions Have Consequences? "Tch," came the voice of the mummy. "I knew this was going to happen. We can't match him in speed. He's too fast."

  "I didn't get a chance to use my quirk before he was gone. Once again he has bested me," said the weirdo dressed in denim. He sighed. "What a shame. I thought we had him this time."

  The dragon snorted while looking at the ground where Smiley stood. The asphalt was completely cracked, reaching their feet.

  Not like she cared, she could do the same thing with her legs no problem.

  "So that's him? I only saw him on the news, I didn't know he was that fast," the dragon chick Ryukyu said.

  She tsk'd in annoyance. He was fast, yeah, but there was a trick to his speed, she just needed to keep training so she could catch up to him.

  And then she would kick his stupid smiling face in.

  Her musings were interrupted by the denim weirdo. "Mirko," he said while fixing his dumb hair. "I appreciate your enthusiasm but your actions undermined our efforts to capture Smiley. You need to understand that there's a time and a pce for everything."

  "It's not like you had it. You were talking the whole time!" She excimed, throwing her arms in the air. "This is why I hate teamwork. Especially when I have to work with weaklings!"

  The other heroes hummed in response.

  "And you think attacking him without following the pn was the smart idea?" responded the guy dressed in bck with a gray scarf.

  "It was complicated and stupid!" she retorted.

  "No it was not. It was in fact easy to follow," the denim boy replied, raising a finger, almost like she was being reprimanded for her actions like a child. "First I use my quirk to restrain his movements, then with the help of Eraserhead we keep him from moving further, then you'll use your strength to knock him out, and finally Ryukyu would've delivered him to the proper authorities."

  "Tch, well look how that worked out for ya," she saw the denim hero sigh before he directed his attention to the others.

  "Well then, let's pn ahead for the next-" the blond haired hero began to say only to be interrupted by the hero dressed in bck.

  "Was it true?" he asked, his tired eyes meeting hers.

  "What?"

  "Was he telling the truth?" he asked, his expression hardened. "About the explosion?"

  The rabbit heroine remained silent for a few seconds, before crossing her arms and breaking eye contact with the mummy, directing her gaze towards the pce she heard the explosion go off, before directing her eyes towards the other heroes.

  "Yeah, he was telling the truth." she said, still irked by Smiley's escape.

  She heard a few of them gasp in surprise, the bck haired hero looked taken aback.

  "What?" she asked, nonchantly.

  "He was telling the truth about an explosion nearby and you thought the best course of action was to attack him?" the blond haired hero asked, watching her like she grew a new head.

  She scoffed.

  "Like I give a damn. The top priority is to take that asshole down," The rabbit heroine revealed, directing her gaze towards the pce she heard the explosion while sporting a frown. "Once I beat that asshole to the ground you could've interrogated him or something."

  Her response was met with silence. Her frown deepened as her rabbit ear twitched hearing another explosion, then silence.

  "Mirko…"

  "He stopped fighting," she stated. Directing her gaze to the next building as she calcuted the trajectory to jump so she could get a better view and follow the trail of the viginte. "I'm going after him."

  "Mirko, stop this instant."

  She froze as she readied to jump, then slowly met the gaze of the three heroes and a few that were listening to their exchange.

  "You're not following him."

  "What?" her frown turned into a snarl as she fully turned to the other heroes who tried to work with her. "He's running away! I need to catch up to him! Now!"

  "No, you're not," said the blond haired hero while pointing at her with his index finger. "You're going to take us to the location of the explosion. We are not prioritizing the capture of Smiley over the lives of civilians."

  Her snarl deepened.

  By the time they got there she could no longer hear him.

  But she could smell him.

  My feet met the roof of a warehouse close to the one we use as a homeless shelter. My clone was cooking in the stand nearby, PopStep was there waiting for me, and a few people were seated close to the stand, eating lunch.

  Some of them I didn't recognize.

  'No, wait. I recognize that one,' I thought as I saw the pin looking guy with an All Might hoodie eating a bowl of stew while talking to a few people at a table of four. 'Why does that Ingenium guy keep sending people here?'

  I hummed while putting a hand on my chin covered by my yellow mask.

  Jin was not there either.

  'He must be in the shelter…' I thought, watching my clone cook in a trance. 'Probably for the better.'

  Even though everyone in the shelter finally felt happy to go outside and come back as they pleased, it looked like Jin was the only one who was still feeling down and didn't see the need to go out.

  It didn't take a genius to know that he had mixed feelings about the whole ordeal.

  I closed my eyes and sighed.

  Then I opened them and took a different route so nobody would see me enter the shelter.

  Once inside I went directly to the bathroom and changed clothes to the same clothes my clone was wearing outside. I walked out of the bathroom and took notice that my second clone was nowhere to be seen, meaning it probably was out as the 'Hood'.

  I noticed Salt drinking beer with a few of the guys while watching a baseball game on tv, my gaze went to Ena who was drinking a cup of her expensive coffee that I managed to save money to get it. She had sewing tools and fabric all over her bed, most likely for the new outfit I requested.

  So far I've been using just two outfits for my daily activities, one of them being my civilian clothes with just a mask. I previously asked for a new one so I could complement it with the Oni mask I had lying around. I was supposed to use it, but I hadn't gotten the chance with the whole… protecting the shelter thing. Now that things were starting to slow down I could finally use it for night patrols, same with the new costume, that way we would have two to three eyes open at night in different cities.

  Finally, my gaze found the old man Knuckles without his costume drinking a beer in his bed. His eyes met mine and he motioned for me to come closer. I made my way to him and stayed next to him.

  "How's the leg old man? Do you need another beer to lower the pain?" I asked.

  He took a long sip and burped.

  "Another beer would be nice, but I didn't call you here just so you could get me another one," he said, his eyes meeting mine for a few seconds before he directed them towards the crowd watching tv. "How's the head?"

  "Hm… I feel much better now."

  He grunted before taking another swig from the can.

  "The fact you didn't suffer internal bleeding from the impact alone it's surprising. It seems your body unconsciously avoided the explosion before it could happen," he mused as he gave me another look, centering his sight on a scar over my brow. "Leaving only a scar… Hrm…"

  "What's so surprising about it? I had worse encounters with animals. I still have the scars to prove it." I said, rolling the sleeves of my hoodie, showcasing the scars across my left arm. One of them looked like it almost reached to the bone.

  The old man gave me a worried look as he examined my arm and then directed his gaze towards my brow before he took another swig from his beer until there was nothing left.

  "You healed fast… too fast. And what's more, you're used to pain." He stated with a grunt before throwing the can to the trash bin I put close to his bed. "No wonder you didn't feel the need to check the damage after getting me patched up."

  "Your wounds had a higher priority over mine," I said while sporting a small smile. "By the time we got here the bleeding stopped and I didn't feel any pain from my wound, so I didn't see the need to check on it."

  "Tch, of course you would say that," he muttered looking to the side with an annoyed expression.

  We stayed in silence, the only sound around us was the one coming from the tv and the occasional commentary from the people around it.

  "You've gotten faster… or at least it seems so from what I've seen on the web," he mentioned, fetching his cellphone and showing me a video of me soaring through the streets. The person recording had one of those speed radars and recorded my speed, then he brought up a graph comparing it to a previous speed from a few months ago.

  What type of person records the speed of heroes and posts them online?

  "One of the clones mentioned it, but I didn't feel any different. Is there something I'm missing?" I asked as I rolled back my sleeve, covering my scars.

  He hummed.

  "If I didn't know any better I would've said you have a quirk. One that heals and improves your body every time you get hurt. It would expin why you managed to improve so fast," he said, rubbing his chin. "But the two joints in your pinky toe says otherwise."

  Ah, that.

  'What a stupid way to know if you have a quirk or not. Shouldn't it be tied to blood or something else?' I thought, leaning my head to the side.

  "What's more, it looks like your techniques can be taught or copied." Once again Knuckles went through his phone, tapping on the screen and showing me another video.

  This time it was a slow motion video of an old fight I had with that rabbit hero. Then it zoomed to that woman's legs. I hummed as I saw them move repeatedly then the footage changed to the hero incrementing her speed towards me, only to get parried away.

  "You don't seem surprised. So that means you already knew, or you were teaching those techniques to someone else." He stated, pocketing the phone. He brought a hand to his neck and cracked it. He sighed. "You don't look like the type of guy that teaches his moves to his enemies. That means she saw you move and replicated it."

  "What's your point?" I asked, crossing my arms while I tried to pinpoint Jin's location.

  "Hrn… You don't get it, do you?" the old man questioned, getting my attention back to him. "If someone can replicate it… what's stopping him from doing the same? That monster is no slouch. He doesn't py fair. He will learn all your tricks and before you know it, he'll come for you."

  My eyes hardened. My teeth grinded against each other.

  "By any means necessary."

  I opened my mouth with the intention of giving a rebuttal. But then, the memory of Emiko's hat in my hands, covered in blood, surfaced and I gave a shuddering sigh. I clenched and unclenched my hands.

  I inhaled… Then exhaled.

  "I know," I said, rexing a little. My sight finally nded on Jin, who was eating stew from a bowl. My expression softened. He was close to the radio, listening to a mencholic country song as he ate. I closed my eyes, then I opened with determination. "That means I need to become stronger. Learn more techniques. Refine what I know and improve past that."

  Old man Knuckles stared at me in silence for a few seconds before he nodded.

  "He probably… No. He knows your moves and knows how you implement them. If we take into account all the footage there is about you, he already prepared countermeasures for you." He grunted as he shifted his position so he could take a seat. He sighed once he managed to do so. "That said. You're right about something: You need to get stronger. And fast."

  He took the slightly wet towel I gave him so he could clean himself and used it to clean the sweat from his face.

  "Stop relying on the same moves. The parrying you do won't help you forever. Try to change fighting styles on the fly or learn new ones," he said once the towel left his face. A serious expression pstered all over his face. "That technique you did to that lunatic… Use it only as a st resort, but should you encounter that monster, don't hesitate. If you fight him, it's a life or death situation."

  His hand went through his hair. He kept staring at the towel.

  "I won't lie to you. I don't think you could win." A frown found its way to my face. "The only way for you to get rid of that monster is if you had the same strength as All Might. And we both know that if you trained your entire life… you'd still be halfway to his strength, and I'm being generous here."

  My entire body tensed in response to my anger. I saw the man in front of me twitch slightly, his gaze met mine for a second before his eyes went back to the towel.

  "But, and this is a big but… That guy with the clone technique. If he could do more clones of you… I think you could have a better chance," he revealed. My gaze immediately went to Jin. He ended his food a while ago and now he was drinking from a pstic cup. "The only way to get rid of him is by attacking him from all sides. No time for retaliation. Eventually he's going to make a mistake, and it's going to be his st."

  I sighed as my face formed into a complicated expression.

  He was right.

  And I was mad that he was right.

  "Two clones won't be enough to deal with him, not at the strength you currently have." He said, leaving the towel to the side. He grunted as he slowly began to stretch his neck, then his shoulders then his arms. "I know he's not willing to do more than two clones at a time. Is there a reason?"

  "His quirk allows him to make two clones at a time, but should he make a clone of himself… You can guess what happens next," I said with a sad expression. "But he lost control of his own clones one night and the experience deeply traumatized him. So he refuses to clone himself out of fear."

  "Fear of losing control?"

  "He fears that he might be a clone," I looked at the ground with disinterest. I could hear the end of the baseball game from the tv, followed by an ad about a new gaming console. "He fears the answer. It doesn't matter if he had instances in which he hurt himself, he still believes he could disappear at any moment."

  "Hrnm. You don't want to push him. Meaning there's no way to convince him, huh?" he hummed as he scratched his beard. "I guess there's only 'Pn B'."

  "Which is?"

  "After you took the warehouse from me, I had to find another joint to keep me in shape. I think you can use it to its full potential," he smirked before he winced as he started to do light stretches with each foot.

  "What's so different from lifting big rocks and trees?" I said while scratching my cheek,

  "Have you ever tried to carry an entire train?" he asked, his smirk turned predatory.

  A smile made its way to my face.

  "No. I don't think I have," I revealed before I turned around and made my way towards the fridge with the intention of fetching another beer. As I passed where Jin was seated my nose caught the smell of alcohol, but I didn't register it, considering that Salt used to drink around the pce.

  Once back I gave the old man Knuckles the can.

  "So where's this pce?"

  "Thank you for waiting," the detective Tsukauchi bowed while sporting a frown. He took a folder he had with him and put the contents in the table and shared it around for everyone to see. "As you can see, we got the results of the blood samples at the crime scene. We identified one of the participants as the high speed hero O'Clock. Legal name: Iwao Oguro."

  He looked at the gruesome picture of what appeared to be a person divided into chunks of meat followed by another photograph of an explosion of gore that painted the ground and walls.

  He looked away before passing the pictures toward his colleague Eraserhead, who admired the photos with a tired expression.

  "The victim of the crime samples came up as inconclusive. Unknown type of blood and DNA mixed with high concentration of chemicals. If it wasn't for the body at the site, we would've beled the victim as a heteromorph." As the detective kept going through the report he closed his eyes in discomfort. "The only thing we know about the next sample is its blood type. Besides that, this person doesn't exist. There's no records of the individual's blood sample."

  The people at the table muttered between them.

  His eyes scanned the report Thirteen gave him once she was done reading it. He immediately went to the st individual's blood.

  O-Positive

  A common blood type.

  For some reason he expected something else.

  "Going by Mirko's testimonial. We are to believe it belongs to the viginte Smiley. The forensic report indicates a fight broke up between the three parties, ending in the demise of one of them."

  He took three photos from Thirteen and examined them. There he could see different angles from the scene. One of them in the rubble, another in the middle of the room and finally a picture close to a wall. The st one being the one where the corpse was but instead of it, there was a human shape made with white tape.

  There were spshes of blood in each picture.

  He sighed, before delivering the pictures to Eraserhead, who looked at them with disinterest before passing them along.

  "In the first picture is the blood sample of Iwao Oguro." Even though they were watching the same photos, the detective showcased them in a projector. "The second one is from Smiley."

  "The st one is from the victim."

  Silence.

  Tensei swallowed as the picture where the corpse should be, stayed in frame.

  "With this information we shou-"

  A loud sm was heard, shutting up the detective, followed by everyone's attention.

  "You let him escape!!" Growled Mirko, sporting a sneer, the photograph of the corpse was in front of her. She didn't pass it along once it reached her. "I could've caught up to him and you fucking let him run!!"

  "Mirko… " warned Best Jeanist, a frown marring his face.

  "SHUT UP!!" she screamed, pointing to the jean themed hero. "It was your fault that I had to let him escape!!"

  Jeanist started to brush a fleck of his blond hair with his fingers.

  "Your attack jeopardized our strategy of capture," his expression hardened. "We could've captured him together at that very moment. Instead, you only caused us to lose the course of action, giving him the distraction he needed so he could escape."

  Mirko bared her teeth.

  He closed one of his eyes in discomfort. This wasn't how he pictured the meeting to end up. His eyes roamed the table, some of the heroes present were looking uncomfortable at Mirko's words. His gaze nded on Endeavor, a sneer framed his face, small but noticeable fmes came from his upper lip.

  "It wouldn't have worked!! Don't you get it?!" She growled as she smmed her fists on the table once more. "He's stronger than any of you!! What would a bunch of weaklings working together would've done to him?! NOTHING!!"

  The fmes of Endeavor's lip grew, capturing the attention of a few heroes who were watching the exchange, himself included.

  "And what did your little outburst accomplish if I might ask, Mirko?" Jeanist asked in disdain.

  He blinked. Almost baffled.

  This was the first time he saw Best Jeanist this vexed with a colleague.

  'In fact… I don't think I've ever seen him mad before,' Ingenium thought as his gaze kept going from Mirko, to Jeanist, to Endeavor, who looked like he was about to burn everyone in the room alive.

  "If you have let me go I wou-!"

  "You would do what? Lose like every single time you try to capture him?" the blond hero asked as he put both of his elbows on the table and interced his fingers "Make another disappointing dispy of heroism in the eyes of the world?"

  Mirko gritted her teeth.

  "None of the encounters we had with the viginte resulted in victory. The only ones who have not crossed paths with Smiley are All Might and Endeavor. I fear that th-" Jeanist said but was immediately interrupted by the red haired man.

  "Fear what?" The hero asked as searing hot fmes engulfed his lips and eyes. His gaze was directed specifically at the blond hero in denim, who sported a serious expression, not backing down from his statement. "Are you implying I would lose to that murderer?! Don't make me ugh!"

  Mirko crossed her arms and looked to the side.

  "That same confidence could result in your downfall, Endeavor," stated his colleague.

  "Don't compare me to you or All Might for that matter." More hot fmes engulfed his form, making the heroes next to him back away in fear. "Should I cross paths with this 'Smiley', there won't be ashes of his body to remember him by…"

  Silence.

  Endeavor just decred that he was going to personally kill Smiley.

  Tensei's expression worsened as the thought of a white haired teen with yellow eyes who had some sort of respect for Smiley crossed his mind.

  Before any of them could go one, the detective spoke, getting everyone's attention once more.

  "Unfortunately, Best Jeanist observations in the matter are true. Several actions against the viginte have proven to end in failure. Being by the police or heroes alike." Tsukauchi said, his face hardened. "But that doesn't mean we can't pn ahead. Jeanist's idea of teaming up could prove beneficial in Smiley's capture."

  The detective took a small device and connected it to the projector.

  "As you can see from the footage we've gathered, we believe a combatant, a speedster and a restrainer combo is what we need for his capture," he said, showcasing multiple heroes for each category.

  The hero Ingenium saw that Mirko was included in the combatant section, followed by him in the speedster section and Eraserhead in the restrainer category.

  A frown marred his face as he saw a blond haired man in aviator getup with red wings on his back in the restrainer category.

  A new hero?

  Once the list was over, Tensei noticed that Best Jeanist, Endeavor and All Might, the heroes with the highest ranking above all of them, were excluded from the heroes shown in the presentation.

  "What's the meaning of this?!" Growled Endeavor, fmes igniting once again around his lips. "Why the sudden exclusion? Do you think I can't beat this murderer?!"

  "Don't misunderstand our decision, Mr. Endeavor." The detective expined, trying to calm the number two hero. "It's because there's a high probability of his capture by All Might, Best Jeanist and yourself, that we think you should concentrate your resources in your sectors. That way, should he engage with any of you, we would be able to assemble the backup team to assist you."

  "I don't require any assistance whatsoever," the man in fmes said, crossing his arms with disdain, as more fmes responded to his anger. "I shall take care of him myself, no need to involve him."

  Before they could exchange more words on the matter Mirko spoke, this time more calmer than before.

  "A year." She uttered.

  "A year? A year for what, Mirko?" asked Jeanist, directing his attention from the detective to her.

  "I need a year to prepare. You all… Need a year to prepare." She stated as she looked at the gruesome picture that she never passed around. She was still staring at it, in a trance. "All that effort would be wasted if everyone who tries to take him on is not able to pull their own weight."

  The blonde hero nodded, still sporting a serious expression. It was like he was expecting for her to say the wrong thing.

  "What makes you say that? What made you change your opinion on the matter?" Jeanist asked.

  "I won't apologize. You're all weaklings. None of you have a chance of beating him, even if you team up and jump him at once, he will still mop the floor with you," she growled, looking at the picture with disgust, before she directed her gaze to the side. "Including me."

  Ingenium blinked in surprise.

  Mirko accepted defeat.

  His eyes went from all the stunned heroes towards the detective, who was also taken aback by Mirko's words.

  "Err… Well… we don't think that's a wise idea. The fact of the matter is that we need to capture Smiley as soon as possible. We can't have a viginte, now a vilin, roam the streets pying as a hero," the detective informed them once he recovered. "His status as a vilin needs to be addressed immediately."

  "I agree with Mirko," intoned the calm voice of the underground hero.

  Every single head turned to Eraserhead, who took a small bag he brought to the meeting and put the contents on the table.

  "As you all know, I've done an extensive research on Smiley, the viginte. All the way back to his debut," he decred, getting a few winces of their colleagues who mocked his efforts back then. Without acknowledging their reactions he opened the folder and passed it to Tensei. "I've studied him thoroughly, and to this day I still can't figure out his quirk."

  Ingenium opened the contents of the folder and gave them a quick look. There were pictures from various angles with notes in certain spots made with a red marker and papers with testimonies, reports and newspaper articles.

  A picture caught his attention however.

  An image of Smiley in a horizontal position, an almost unnoticeable wind explosion that came from the sole of his feet. A date in red marker specified that it was taken years ago.

  Once he saw the st picture he passed them to Thirteen, who began to organize them by date.

  "What's more. He has never fought seriously ever since two encounters in particur. But those were when he was still young. Still learning." He said in an impassive tone as he took another folder containing two reports beled as 'Instant Vilins', both of them had a mugshot at the right corner. "I've showcased this encounter before, but to refresh your memory you can examine the results. I added a few notes at the end."

  Tensei, who was still engrossed at the papers he had in front of him, missed the opportunity to get his hands on them and were passed to the heroine Midnight instead.

  The purple haired heroine hummed in thought as she went through the papers much faster than he thought she would. Then it ended in Best Jeanist hands.

  "I see… " the man muttered, gaining Tensei's attention. "Yes. I believe I was at the scene when this event took pce. He slipped right through my fingers that day. He took the opportunity to escape the moment the vilin woke up. The bleakest moment in my career I must add."

  It wasn't long before the reports were in front of him and immediately began to read the highlighted sections. Then he went towards the notes at the end of the paper and…

  They were a complete mess.

  Specutions, inquiries, connections that went nowhere and a list of a possible quirk or multiple quirks Smiley could possess. A lot of them were marked as negative while others were outright marked with bck ink.

  It was worrying that the first report's notes was smaller and less messier than the second one.

  "I apologize for my penmanship. I didn't have the time to organize or rewrite my notes. Too busy dealing with crime," was Eraserhead's response. "Smiley has grown a lot since our first meeting. If I had the assistance of Ingenium or Mirko that day, I believe we could've stopped him before his 'career' could even begin."

  Mirko gave a frustrated growl.

  "But the fact of the matter is that they weren't there, and now we have to deal with our past mistakes. That's why I have to agree with Mirko," Eraserhead said while taking another folder from his bag. "We had the strength to stop him together back then, but should we join forces now, it would end in failure. Our st attempt during the Sky Egg' incident has proven my hypothesis."

  He gave a deep sigh. He sounded defeated.

  "He's too strong. During his entire career as a viginte, Smiley has been toying with us. Should he be beled a vilin now and give him a reason to stop holding back, I fear what would happen next." The hero with the scarf said. "Whoever pns to join the strike team, needs to use that year to better themselves. They should show in public for publicity's sake, but keep them to a minimum."

  Eraserhead hand moved to his frontal pocket, before sighing and dropped his hand.

  "We stagnated while he grew stronger. Now we need to py catch up with him." Tensei watched in silence as his colleague looked to the ground then directed his gaze towards the detective.

  Death arms looked at the reports of the two vilins that made Smiley go all out. He looked concerned.

  "Wait, if he has grown stronger since his debut, how can we catch up to him in a year? Wouldn't the gap between us keep growing even if we train?"

  "There's a silver lining to all of this. I took the liberty of doing some research online with the intention of gathering it for this meeting," Eraserhead said as he stood up and made his way towards the detective who took the device from Aizawa's hand and plugged into the projector.

  It was footage of a man who showcased his test slow motion camera stationed in the sidewalk of a frequent part of Naruhata. The person gave the specs of it, followed by a few images with comparisons to the st model.

  Before anyone could say anything, the man took a speeding radar and gave an expnation of the purpose of it, as if he was doing this for the first time. It was probably a way for new viewers to get context of how the channel works.

  Once he stopped his expnation the footage of the camera was divided in four different perspectives. Two of them were moving much faster than the other ones. One was the slow motion camera, while the other was skyscrapers in the opposite direction of the slow motion camera. The st two perspectives were from the man, one of them was him at the site giving some commentary white he waited. Which skipped from time to time for the other image of the same person as he expined how much he had to wait to capture Smiley's speed compared to every other hero, except for All Might of course, showcasing another graph comparing their speed.

  Tensei heard a growl from Endeavor's direction, but his eyes never left the video in the projector.

  The footage of the man expining from his studio was repced by a close up to the screen of the speed radar. It seemed he brought four cameras to the site.

  It was at that moment that a blur went from the footage of one camera to another, the first one was faster than the other. The number of the speed was dispyed on screen, followed by the man's reaction in real time.

  The scene changed to the footage of the camera that managed to capture a better image of Smiley with the frames per second on screen and the speed radar's screen at the corner of the video.

  A bed of sweat fell from Tensei's brow to his chin.

  The video then made another cut to the man in his studio giving a detailed expnation of the experiment and put up a new graph.

  That's when Aizawa stopped the video.

  "As you can see from the graph provided by the speed recorder enthusiast. His jumps in speed stopped right here since st year. This video took pce three days before the Sky Egg's incident. Meaning his strength reached its peak."

  "Ah, I see," said Best Jeanist, directing his fingers to his head and began to slowly rub a strand of his blond hair. "His stagnation gives us the opportunity to prepare, strategize and train, so we can generate an ambush for a swift capture."

  "I'm starting to believe a year won't be enough for us to catch up to him." Gunhead shakily stated.

  Endeavor snarled in distaste.

  "Don't put me in the same category as yourself." Fmes engulfed his face as he brought one hand up next to his chest and immediately ignited in fmes. "I don't need a year to defeat a good for nothing hero wannabe. I'll deliver him myself by the end of the week."

  Best Jeanist admired the graph on the screen, then at the photos that finally arrived ever since Tensei passed them around to Thirteen.

  "He will outpace you." The blonde hero revealed making a few of the heroes present grimace. Jeanist ignored them all and took the st photo of the whole collection. "His speed is outmatched even by our fastest speedsters. He will be gone from your sight the moment you try to name your attack."

  Tensei noticed as the man in denim put down the photograph, revealing that it was a blur of white and bck with a yellow streak following it. The date below the picture showed that it was taken very recently.

  What's more, the notes indicated that the picture was taken by a slow motion camera.

  "What are you implying? That I'm weaker than this piece of trash vilin?!" The number two hero asked as he put one of his hands on the table.

  "If you feel capable enough, then please go on. Embarrass yourself," Eraserhead added, a bored look marred his features. "But don't jeopardize our attempt of capture."

  Before the red haired hero could verbally retaliate, the detective chimed in.

  "Endeavor, Eraserhead. There's no need for this discussion at the moment. Please both of you go back to your seats," the man said, small beads of sweat present in his forehead. "I don't particurly agree with this decision. But if everyone in this room believes this is the best course of action, we will follow your lead and postpone Smiley's vilin status until you're all ready."

  There were a few hums in response, but a lot of them were deep in thought.

  Tensei's jaws tighten as the silence grew and grew.

  Everyone kept quiet.

  Nobody wanted to step up and form part of the team.

  "I, Ingenium, nominate myself for the team as the speedster. Team Idaten could prove beneficial to change his course of movements, keeping him in one pce for the rest of the team to take charge," Tensei said, standing up for everyone to see.

  'I'm sorry Gurē,' he thought, returning back to his seat.

  "I'll go as well," was the quiet response from Mirko, who was still seated with her arms crossed.

  Tsukauchi nodded as he took a piece of paper and began to write their names and their charge in the team.

  "Anyone else?" the detective asked, only to be met with silence.

  Tensei blinked as his eyes nded on the bck haired hero who returned to his seat at his left who looked at the folders that came back to him.

  "Hm… that's ok, there's no need for more than what we have. The hero public safety commission recommended the upcoming hero, Hawks." The screen of the projector came back to life, showcasing the hero with red wings on his back, giving a salute towards the camera. "His area of expertise is capture and combat, his quirk lets him fight from a distance, covering the need for another combatant oriented hero."

  'That's impressive,' Tensei thought as he put his elbow on the table and his hand began to rub his chin. 'His abilities could come in handy in Idaten.'

  "And with Eraserhead as the second restrainer that would be a-" the detective started to write again before he was interrupted.

  "I'll pass."

  The underground hero stood there, unmoving.

  Tensei could hear a few heroes talk among themselves. He noticed Midnight and Present Mic looking at their fellow colleague in concern.

  "Is there a reason for your ck of involvement in the strike team?" asked Tsukauchi, sporting an anxious expression.

  "I came to the conclusion that I'm no longer fitted for his capture," he said before he took the folders in front of him and began to put them back into his bag. "That's all."

  "What a sorry excuse to give up," came the rude response of Endeavor, who looked at Eraserhead with disdain.

  "That's enough, Endeavor," Jeanist replied. He pointed at the detective, taking charge of the conversation and directing it back to where it was before. "Mr. Detective. I believe that with the combined efforts of Ingenium, Mirko and Hawks there's a huge chance for Smiley's capture. I support the idea of Endeavor and myself to concentrate our efforts into our own sectors and call for backup should we see any sight of the viginte."

  Tsukauchi paused, before he nodded. Gd that the conversation was back on track.

  "However, I feel we have the need to add another restrainer into the capture team. So I recommend Midnight for the job," the heroine's eyes widened in surprise. She opened her mouth but Jeanist stopped her before she could say anything. "While her combat skills are something to reckon with, against Smiley, they might as well be useless. On the other hand her quirk could prove beneficial to slow down his movements or even take him out of commission."

  Tensei blinked in confusion.

  'If she isn't capable of keeping up with Smiley, why is he nominating her?' he thought with a frown.

  "Of course for that to happen she would need to get close to Smiley, something a few of us can barely do," the blonde hero ignored Mirko and Endeavor expressions of anger. "But, should we work with a team of support heroes we could find a way to use her quirk in a more… creative way."

  He leaned against a wall close to an alleyway as he looked at the few heroes on the sidewalk who stayed once the meeting was over and shared a few words with each other.

  With a sigh, he took a cigarette from his frontal pocket, followed by a pin metal lighter and lit up the stick he put on his lips.

  He inhaled.

  Then exhaled. A smoke trail flew from his mouth and disappeared in the wind.

  His eyes met the floor as he took another drag from his cigarette, trying to forget the memories that resurfaced during the meeting.

  'Why did I give them false hope?' He thought, closing his eyes while he went through the events of the meeting. 'A year is not enough. The only person capable of stopping Smiley is All Might.'

  His eyes opened, a sigh escaped from his lips.

  'I should've told them,' he took another drag, trying to keep himself calm. 'Why did I hesitate? Did I want them to fail?'

  He closed his eyes with remorse.

  'Too te for that now,' he thought with some sense of finality.

  "Eraserhead? A moment of your time please?" Aizawa's head slowly moved to the side until his eyes met the form of the speed hero Ingenium walking directly towards him.

  Smoke left his mouth.

  He nodded in acknowledgment at the man once he was close enough.

  "You want to talk about Smiley," he stated with a neutral expression. "Quite logical. You offered your agency and your assistance for the operation."

  "I was one of the few heroes who could eventually match his speed," the man said with a disarming smile

  Aizawa doubted that statement.

  "And… the only one to accept the position." The man known as Eraserhead nodded at Ingenium's words.

  He wasn't entirely delusional.

  "That's understandable. Nobody else wanted to partake in what they believed was a doomed, almost suicidal, tactic. There was also the fact that they feared that their ratings and popurity would dip by the ck of public appearances," he said uncaringly as he took another drag from his cigarette. "If that's the thing that they fear the most, then they might as well hang up their costumes and go home."

  He noticed Ingenium's lips turn into a straight line.

  He didn't like to hear that.

  But that was the harsh truth.

  "I'll share my findings on Smiley directly to you one of these days. It might surprise you, but I only shared a summary of the information I currently possess. I'll organize and clean the data, so it isn't a complete mess." Aizawa said as he looked at the cloudy sky. He took a piece of paper in the shape of a business card from one of his pockets. "Here's my number. Don't contact me. I'll contact you. And don't bother with exchanging my number with Midnight or Mirko."

  The hero nodded before pocketing the paper.

  "You have the most experience and battle data on Smiley. Do you perhaps have a recommendation that I can implement in his capture?" He asked as he leaned against the wall beside him.

  The man known as Eraserhead looked down at his hand holding his white stick.

  "Learn how to fly without losing speed," he informed him with a contemptive expression. "Even though Smiley does most of the fights on the ground, he also moves in the air, a lot actually. I've seen a few of his encounters against vilins with gigantification quirks."

  Ingenium looked taken aback by that.

  He probably expected something more simple.

  "The next best thing would be to run on walls and jump from building to building without losing momentum. The faster you go, the better chances you have to catch him or at least slow him down," he said. His lungs burned as he inhaled from his cigar once again. "Hm… maybe entertain the idea of adding gadgets to your costume; sedatives, electric or regur nets, better propulsions… hm… explosives. "

  "Explosives?!" The speedster screamed. He raised an eyebrow at his reaction.

  "You want to catch him, don't you?" Aizawa asked as he exhaled a long trail of smoke. He wondered if he could make smoke rings one day. "That crime scene demonstrated that Smiley is not invincible. He can be hurt like any other man. He has weaknesses you can exploit."

  He hummed as a memory of him meeting the viginte for the first time and the moment he hesitated before jumping after him.

  The moment he discovered his quirk didn't work against him.

  "Do it. Because you only have one chance."

  A silence fell between both of them.

  "Do you think there was something else we were missing from the crime scene?" Ingenium asked, changing the topic.

  They both saw the st of the heroes on the other sidewalk leave.

  "Hm… too many variables. He could've been fighting a vilin that could regenerate. He could've been protecting the retired hero O'Clock. Both of them could have teamed up with the intention of stopping a vilin only for one of them to go too far," he said with a frown, his cig went back to his mouth and inhaled. "There's a high possibility he was fighting the one responsible for the bombing incident of the Sky Egg… and won."

  "What? Wh-Why didn't you say so during the meeting?"

  "It wouldn't have changed anything. It's only a specution. The police won't forgive Smiley's actions either way. He killed what they believe was a civilian. It wouldn't matter if the victim was the actual terrorist involved in the incident, the fact of the matter is that Smiley killed an individual in cold blood." His tired eyes met the worried ones of Ingenium. "The ck of head in the corpse is proof enough in their eyes."

  "I… " Ingenium began, only for his words to get stuck in his throat.

  There was a long silence between them after that, only broken by the sound of Aizawa inhaling and exhaling from his cigarette.

  He closed his eyes, then he opened them.

  "Why do you think I refused to participate in Smiley's capture?" The bck haired man asked all of the sudden.

  Ingenium looked to the side, lost in thought.

  "You mentioned it before, right? He's too fast. So it isn't a surprise that you wouldn't be able to keep up and stop his quirk in time," he specuted.

  "Guess again."

  A complicated expression marred the fast hero's face.

  "Did something happen to you, Eraserhead?"

  He gave a long sigh.

  "I'm becoming a teacher," Aizawa relented. At the man's confused expression he continued. "Once I had all the information on Smiley, I didn't know what to do with it. I tried to capture him so many times that I lost count. My best bet was to take the data I managed to gather and share it with my colleagues. "

  He inhaled from his cig then he exhaled a gray trail of smoke.

  "I thought for a long time about this and I came to a realization," he said, watching with disinterest the cars that sped by in front of them. "I spent too much of my time on him."

  He sighed.

  "The only things I did all day were fighting criminals, eating fast food, sleeping for four hours and gather all the information about him as I was able to… So I could capture him myself." Ingenium looked concerned from what he could see from his side view. "I realized that it wasn't a healthy lifestyle. His entire existence consumed my life, and you wanna know the worst part about it?"

  Aizawa slowly blinked as he felt a droplet of water hit his hand.

  It was going to rain.

  "I tried to seek help." A few more droplets of rain fell on the ground beside him. "I made presentations, I brought footage to meetings, I contacted heroes in person and tried to make this information reach All Might… It was all in vain. They waited until this point to do something and it's too te now."

  He brought his cigarette to his mouth and breathed in.

  "So, I decided to accept Midnight's proposal to work at U.A." Aizawa said while sporting a calm expression. "Endeavor was right about something. I'm giving up. I'm going to teach the next generation so they don't commit the same mistakes my colleagues and I did."

  Silence.

  "I… " Ingenium began before he cut himself. The underground directed his attention to the man, who looked troubled. "I feel like you're not really… telling me everything here. Is there another reason?"

  He inspected the speed themed hero for a while before responding.

  'It's not like it matters now,' he thought.

  "My quirk never worked against him." Ingenium eyes widened, almost in fear. "I've only shared this with a few heroes and the police. I didn't see any need to inform you all, because it was irrelevant, but since you're forming part of the capture team, I don't see a reason to hide it."

  Silence again.

  Aizawa could hear the sound of water hitting the street but it was almost unnoticeable.

  The hero by his side took a shaky breath and then exhaled.

  He directed his gaze towards him.

  "Can you… share one of those with me?" He asked, pointing at his cigarette while sporting a nervous smile.

  "Sure."

  Once the white stick was in his mouth, he lit it up and pocketed the lighter.

  Ingenium took a long drag.

  Then he began to cough.

  A/N: (Written in May - June, 2023) Sorry for the long wait. My family visited me and I couldn't write for a whole month, even now I can barely write a few paragraphs before stopping, and combined with my job as an artist I can't keep up.

  A/N: (Written in February, 2024) It's been a rough couple of months since the st time I posted on this site. The aunt I adored died by the end of June. I missed her st couple of days alive, her death and funeral. By the time I got there (to my home city where she died) on a pne, I only got to see her tomb. I couldn't write anymore. I felt stumped, I could barely get out of bed. Then I had to go back to my apartment in the capital.

  In October I felt I could go back to writing again, but then I got the news that my cat that was staying with my family, died. It was one problem after another. By that point, I could only concentrate on drawing for patreon to feed myself. It was awful. I'm sorry that I haven't updated since then, but at the same time I'm not, I was going through a lot and I wasn't going to force myself to keep writing while I was in that mental state.Hopefully from here on, I can keep on writing,

  A/N: (Written in April, 2024) The author notes should've stopped here, but since I've been struggling with monetary problems I had to do a patreon. I'm kinda vexed to be honest. I really wanted to keep this a hobby, but now it has become a job. How long before I lose all interest and I only write to meet a monthly quota? (If I can even do that, that is)

  Sorry for the bleak (and long) author notes.

  A/N: (Written in March, 2025) I literally forgot to upload this here, sorry about that.

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