Location: National Takoba Arena – Briefing Hall
Date: Monday | 08:45 AM (Thirty Minutes Before the Exam)
BUZZ.
A thousand voices talked over each other. The massive indoor briefing room was packed shoulder to shoulder.
One thousand and five hundred hero students from all over the country stood around, waiting for the orientation to start.
Near the very front row, a tall student wearing the dark uniform and signature hat of Shiketsu High crossed his arms. He smirked, looking back at the massive crowd.
"Look at this," the Shiketsu student laughed, nudging a guy next to him. "Half these schools don't even have a training gym. They just look like a bunch of extras."
A U.A. second-year student standing nearby stretched his arms. His forearms sparked heavily with small bursts of electricity.
"Yeah, it's the same every year," the U.A. student said casually. "They all group up in massive mobs and try to crush us early. Let them try. It just makes it easier to find targets."
"Exactly," the Shiketsu guy grinned. "Ten minutes in, and we'll clear the floor."
TAP. TAP.
Someone tapped a microphone at the front of the room. The loud noise in the hall immediately died down.
Yokumiru Mera stood at the podium. He looked completely dead inside. He had heavy, dark bags under his eyes. His suit was wrinkled.
CRUNCH.
Mera chewed loudly on a white antacid tablet and swallowed hard. He leaned into the mic.
"Alright, let's get this over with," Mera sighed, his voice echoing through the giant speakers. "I'm Yokumiru Mera from the Hero Public Safety Commission. I haven't slept in two days, so pay attention. We are making a major change to how we grade you this year."
He pressed a button on the podium. The giant screen behind him lit up with a huge, intimidating number.
[< 5%]
"Things are getting bad out there," Mera said bluntly. "The League of Villain activity is up. The enhanced Trigger drug was everywhere. We don't need okay heroes right now. So, the passing rate for this entire exam has been officially capped at less than five percent, starting today."
"....."
"....."
The entire hall went dead silent.
"To make sure we hit that number," Mera continued, rubbing his eyes, "Phase One is going to be a massive purge. Out of the one thousand and five hundred of you in this room... only the first one hundred people will survive and move on to Phase Two."
Absolute panic exploded.
"One hundred?!"
"Are you kidding me?! That's a bloodbath!"
"This is different from last year right?"
"Yes, some of my friends in senior grades told me that it is 50-50."
"That means every school has less than 1% of their students passing."
"Damn!"
"I hope I will pass, I didn't even wake up at 3 am for the past week just to exercise my left hand."
"Dude, what's wrong with you? Focus on the exam."
The students from the average hero schools started shouting and freaking out.
The passing rate was normally around fifty percent. This was completely unheard of.
"Hey! Quiet down!" the elite U.A. student yelled, raising his hand high. He wanted to show off. He wanted everyone to know he wasn't scared of the numbers. "If the cut-off is that low, what are the exact rules for elimination? We need to know the targets."
SIGH.
Mera sighed, clicking the next slide on the screen.
"It's simple," Mera answered. "Zone Control and Tag. Everyone gets a digital armband. To pass, you have to steal two armbands from other people. Once you have three bands total on your arm, you go to the waiting room. Oh, and the arena walls will slowly push inward. The safe zones will shrink. That's it."
The U.A. student cracked his knuckles and smiled. He loved a straight fight.
While the entire room was either panicking or boasting, one group stayed completely quiet.
The second-year students of Ketsubutsu Academy stood near the middle of the hall.
Normally, they would be smiling, trying to act friendly and make alliances. Normally, their classmates would be loud and rowdy.
Not today.
One Ketsubutsu student just stared straight ahead, adjusting the straps on his combat gear. The others were doing the exact same thing.
They weren't scared of the five percent rule. They just looked incredibly focused.
"Ms. Joke really tried to kill us this past week, didn't she?" The student whispered, sweating a little just thinking about the grueling training.
"Yeah," another muttered. "I didn't think Makabe-sensei could yell that loud. They completely tore apart our fighting styles and broke us down."
As far as the Ketsubutsu kids knew, their teachers just suddenly lost their minds weeks ago and put them through a military boot camp.
"Just stick to the squads," another one said quietly. "Do exactly what they drilled into our heads. We don't fight the mobs."
The other one nodded. "Right. Hit, take the bands, and vanish."
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: Hero Public Safety Commission – Control Booth
Date: Monday | 09:00 AM (Fifteen Minutes Before the Exam)
High above the massive briefing hall, Yokumiru Mera walked into the soundproof control booth.
He slumped down into his office chair and groaned.
"How is your stomach holding up?" a woman asked.
Agent Mera, his sister, walked over to his desk. She wore a plain gray suit with her hair tied back.
She looked just as tired as he did. She dropped a thick paper folder right next to his keyboard.
"Bleeding," Yokumiru sighed. "Are the Shikoku and Hokkaido venues locked in too?"
"Yes," Agent Mera nodded. "The five percent passing limit is active nationwide. It's going to be a total massacre out there."
Yokumiru grabbed another antacid tablet. "Good. We need the best. Any problems on the guest list?"
Agent Mera crossed her arms. She frowned deeply.
"Actually, yes," she said. "We have a big problem right here at Takoba. In the Block A VIP deck."
"Who?"
"Hawks," she answered. "He completely ditched his morning patrol route in Kyushu. He just flew straight to Tokyo and walked into the VIP room uninvited."
"Ugh"
Yokumiru groaned loudly, rubbing his temples. "That bird is going to give me a stroke. He just started his own agency. He needs to stick to his schedule. What is he even doing here?"
"He followed someone," Agent Mera said quietly.
She reached over and tapped the keyboard. One of the glowing computer monitors switched feeds. It showed the live camera of the Takoba VIP room.
It zoomed in on a man in a dark, perfectly tailored suit standing near the glass window.
Yokumiru stared at the screen. He read the name out loud.
"Arisaka Kaito."
"The Golden Manager," Agent Mera confirmed. "He walked in ten minutes ago. Hawks just followed him right inside."
Yokumiru stopped chewing his tablet. He just stared at the screen.
Whenever Arisaka Kaito showed up, the entire industry shook.
He pushed Mirko in trending section now. He fixed Endeavor. He handled America's absolute best pro hero.
The guy was a walking nightmare for the Commission's status quo.
And now, he was standing in a high school testing center, quietly watching the Ketsubutsu teachers.
"Why is he here?" Yokumiru asked, feeling a cold sweat on his neck.
"He claims he is just a guest spectator, and he was really invited by Ms. Joke" Agent Mera said.
Yokumiru let out a long, heavy breath. He knew better than that.
He looked up at the digital clock on the wall. It read 09:14 AM.
"Something is really up with him being here. I just can't prove it."
"Maybe he's really here just for sightseeing brother. After all he just ended his contract with Mirko last week."
"Hmm. Let's see."
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: National Takoba Arena – Exam Floor
Date: Monday | 09:15 AM
BZZZZZT.
The massive horn echoed across the entire stadium.
Phase One had officially started.
Down on the ground, one thousand and five hundred students stood in the center of the arena.
The terrain was huge. Fake ruined buildings, a rocky mountain area, and an industrial factory zone spread out in all directions.
The moment the orientation ended, the arena turned into pure chaos.
RUMBLE.
The ground started shaking violently. The outer walls of the stadium groaned and slowly started moving inward.
The safe zones were shrinking, forcing all the students closer together.
The students from the average hero schools didn't waste time.
These schools had massive classes of forty or fifty kids. They didn't have custom gear or flashy quirks. But they had numbers.
"Get the U.A. kids!" a boy with thick rock armor yelled, pointing toward the ruins. "We know their quirks from TV! Take them out first!"
A massive mob of almost two hundred students charged straight toward the U.A. and Shiketsu classes.
It was the traditional crushing tactic. The elites always got targeted first.
"Let them come!"
BOOM.
Taro, a second-year U.A. student, slammed his fists together.
A massive shockwave blasted out like a bomb. The front line of twenty average students didn't even stand a chance.
They were literally blown off their feet and thrown into a brick wall.
Taro stood tall, his forearms smoking. His quirk, Kinetic Burst, made him an absolute tank.
He wiped sweat off his forehead and grinned wildly.
"Is that really all you guys got?!" Taro laughed, cracking his knuckles. "I'm just getting warmed up!"
A volley of fireballs, acid spit, and metal pipes rained down from the roof toward him.
"I got it!" a girl shouted right next to him.
Hina, his classmate, whipped her head around. Her long black hair suddenly turned stiff and sharp like metal wires.
She swung her hair like a massive, deadly whip, slicing the fireballs and metal pipes completely in half before they even got close.
"Take their bands!" Hina yelled, spinning around to block another attack.
Taro dashed forward, easily ripping three digital armbands off the stunned students on the ground. He was incredibly fast.
"Too easy!" Taro cheered, holding the bands up.
But before he could even clip them onto his arm, fifty more students poured out of the side alley, screaming and firing their quirks at him.
Taro grunted, forced to drop the armbands just so he could raise his fists and block the massive barrage.
They were absolute monsters. They were mowing down the average students like it was nothing.
But they were fighting head-on. The sheer volume of enemies meant they couldn't even stop to secure their points.
A few blocks away, the Shiketsu kids were demonstrating the exact same terrifying power.
"Do not break formation," Goro said coldly, adjusting his Shiketsu hat.
A mob of forty students charged down the street right at him.
Goro didn't even flinch. He just calmly pressed his hands flat against the concrete.
CRACK.
A heavy, dark purple dome of gravity instantly expanded across the entire street.
The charging students froze. The gravity was so intense that the asphalt spider-webbed beneath them.
All forty students slammed face-first into the dirt at the exact same time, totally pinned to the ground.
"They are completely open, Rei," Goro said without breaking a sweat.
"Got it!" Rei grinned. She stepped out from behind him and clapped her hands together.
FLASH.
A blinding burst of pure light erupted from her palms, completely blinding the few stragglers who managed to avoid the gravity trap.
Goro and Rei calmly walked through the groaning pile of students, picking the armbands right off their wrists. They looked completely unstoppable.
But the noise and the bright flash of light acted like a giant flare.
Within seconds, another massive wave of sixty students rounded the corner, completely surrounding the street.
Goro sighed, forced to drop the gravity dome just so he could reset his stance for the next wave.
They were dominating, but they were playing a never-ending war of attrition.
But across the fake ruined city, a different group was moving completely unnoticed.
The second-year students of Ketsubutsu Academy.
Kenji crouched low behind a broken concrete wall on the second floor of a ruined office building.
Two of his classmates, Yumi and Arata, squatted right next to him.
They weren't fighting the massive mob. They weren't throwing themselves into the chaos.
"Three targets coming down the left alley," Yumi whispered, peaking through a crack in the wall. "Looks like Isamu Academy students. They look tired. They probably just ran away from the U.A. brawl."
Kenji looked over. He saw three guys limping down the alley, leaning against the walls to catch their breath.
"Perfect," Kenji muttered. "Arata, bubble."
Arata just nodded.
He tapped his fingers together. A faint, transparent dome expanded around the three Ketsubutsu students.
It was his Sound Canceler quirk. Anything inside the bubble was completely silent to the outside world.
"Going in," Kenji said. The words made no sound.
The three of them dropped from the second-floor window.
They landed in the alley right behind the Isamu students. It was totally silent.
Kenji placed his hands on the ground. The solid asphalt beneath the three targets instantly turned into a thick, sucking mud pit.
"What the—?!" one of the Isamu students yelled as he sank up to his knees.
He didn't even get to finish his sentence.
SWISH.
SWISH.
Yumi shot both her arms out. Long, thick organic ropes fired from her wrists.
The ropes wrapped perfectly around the arms of the trapped students, ripping the digital armbands right off them.
Yumi snapped her wrists back, catching the bands.
"Got them," Yumi signaled with a thumbs up.
Kenji instantly turned the mud back into solid asphalt, leaving the Isamu kids permanently stuck in the ground.
"Fall back," Kenji mouthed.
The three Ketsubutsu students vaulted over a nearby fence and vanished back into the ruins.
The entire ambush took less than five seconds.
The Isamu kids were left stuck in the street, looking completely confused and missing their armbands.
Two blocks away, Kenji, Yumi, and Arata stopped in a dark, empty basement.
Arata dropped the sound bubble.
"That's six bands total," Yumi said, holding up the stolen targets. She handed two to Kenji and two to Arata. "We all pass."
Kenji clipped the bands onto his own arm. He let out a long breath, wiping a single drop of sweat from his chin.
"I can't believe that actually worked," Arata laughed quietly. "We didn't even get punched once."
"Makabe-sensei's hell training was no joke," Kenji said, looking out the basement window at the explosions happening far away. "Let U.A. and Shiketsu show off and get tired. We just take the points and go."
Yumi smiled, leaning against the wall.
"Let's head to the waiting room," Yumi said. "I bet the rest of our class is already done too."
They didn't fight fair. They didn't try to look cool.
They just did exactly what they were taught.
Hit and run.
Clean, simple, and completely unseen by the massive brawls happening in the center of the arena.
Prioritize and remove unnecessary decisions.
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: National Takoba Arena – VIP Observation Deck
Date: Monday | 11:30 AM
DING.
DING.
DING.
A loud chime echoed through the VIP room. The giant monitors mounted on the walls suddenly flashed bright green.
"Phase One is over," the intercom announced. "All one hundred slots have been filled. The remaining students are eliminated. Please clear the arena floor."
The room went totally quiet for a few seconds.
The veteran teachers from U.A., Shiketsu, and Seiai stepped up to the glass.
They looked at the digital roster showing the names of the passing students.
Aizawa frowned.
His eyes scanned the list. U.A. lost a lot of students. The five percent passing rate was just too harsh.
Combined with the massive target on their backs, some of the kids just couldn't handle fighting non-stop for two hours. They just got too tired and overwhelmed.
Nearby, the tall Shiketsu teacher pulled his hat down. He looked really frustrated. Shiketsu lost some of their best prospects too.
Then, Aizawa looked at the Ketsubutsu names.
He blinked.
He rubbed his tired eyes and looked at the screen again.
"No way," the Shiketsu teacher muttered out loud, staring at the exact same thing.
It wasn't just Takoba. The monitors were showing the passing lists for the Shikoku and Hokkaido venues on the side of the screen.
Every single Ketsubutsu second-year student passed.
Across all three national venues, they had a one hundred percent pass rate. One hundred and twenty students. None of them failed.
That was statistically impossible in a five percent limit exam.
BZZZT.
BZZZT.
A tablet vibrated in the back of the room. Emi Fukukado quickly pulled it out of her bag.
She grabbed Shikkui Makabe by the sleeve and pulled him over to a quiet corner near the window.
She answered the video call.
On the small screen, the Ketsubutsu Principal was grinning from ear to ear.
He was clearly ecstatic, but he kept his voice down to stay professional.
"Ms. Joke. Mr. Makabe," the Principal said, his voice full of pride. "I am looking at the national boards right now. A total sweep."
Emi covered her mouth with one hand, trying very hard not to scream and jump up and down.
"They actually did it," Emi whispered excitedly. "Every single one of them. Not a single scratch on them either!"
"I couldn't be prouder," the Principal smiled. "Now... is our guest nearby?"
Emi grinned and tilted the tablet screen to the side.
Kaito was standing right there, his hands resting casually in his pockets.
He just watched the arena below.
"Mr. Arisaka," the Principal said softly, his tone full of deep respect. "I just wanted to personally thank you. Your short time consulting with our academy was clearly worth every single yen. You saved our students a lot of heartbreak today."
Kaito looked at the tablet and nodded politely.
"I simply fulfilled a short-term contract," Kaito said calmly. "I gave them a manual. The students did the actual work."
"Still. Thank you," the Principal replied before ending the call.
CLICK.
Across the room, Aizawa sat in his folding chair. He watched the whole quiet interaction.
He looked at the impossible one hundred percent roster on the screen.
Then he looked at the Golden Manager casually hanging out with Ms. Joke while on a private call with her boss.
Aizawa stared hard at Kaito. His headache was pounding against his skull now.
He finally put the pieces together.
He knew it. He knew the Golden Manager didn't just show up to watch high school kids for fun. Hawks wasn't the only reason Kaito was in this building.
"Eraser," Vlad King grunted, walking over. "Did you see the boards? Ketsubutsu passed everyone. How is that even possible with the mobs?"
"Because they didn't fight the mobs," Aizawa muttered under his breath, massaging his temples.
"What?" Vlad asked, confused.
"Nothing," Aizawa sighed heavily, sinking deeper into his chair. "That guy always brings a massive headache with him."
Aizawa didn't announce it to the room. He kept his mouth shut.
The other teachers from Shiketsu and Seiai were still confused, whispering to each other about the crazy Ketsubutsu numbers.
But Aizawa knew the truth. Kaito Arisaka had completely rewritten Ketsubutsu's playbook right under everyone's noses, and nobody even noticed until it was too late.
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: National Takoba Arena – Exam Floor
Date: Monday | 01:00 PM
BOOM.
BOOM.
A massive series of explosions ripped through the arena floor.
The fake ruined city collapsed even further. The industrial factory caught on fire.
Thick, dark green smoke started pouring out of the ground, completely filling the streets and blocking the sun.
"Phase Two begins now," Yokumiru Mera's tired voice echoed over the intercom. "This is a hazardous rescue. A toxic chemical spill has occurred. Save the trapped victims. Defend the safe zones against villains. Go."
Down in the thick green smoke, the remaining U.A. and Shiketsu students ran forward, coughing and squinting.
"Help me! My leg is stuck!" an old man yelled.
He was trapped under a heavy piece of concrete.
He was a professional actor from the Help Us Company (HUC), holding a clipboard to grade the students.
"I got you!" Daichi yelled.
Daichi was a second-year U.A. student. He ran over, coughing heavily from the smoke. He placed his hands on the ground.
His quirk, Earth Shaping, allowed him to slowly lift the heavy concrete slab off the man's leg.
"Just hold on, I'm going to carry you out—"
CRASH.
A Pro Hero acting as a villain suddenly jumped down from a nearby roof. He pointed a large rifle and fired a barrage of hard foam bullets right at Daichi.
"Crap!" Daichi panicked.
He threw his hands up, pulling a wall of dirt out of the ground to block the bullets. But because he broke his concentration, the heavy concrete slab dropped right back down.
"Ouch! You just crushed my good leg!" the HUC actor yelled, violently scribbling on his clipboard. "Minus fifteen points! You didn't secure the area before attempting a rescue!"
"I'm sorry! I can't see anything in this smoke!" Daichi argued, trying to keep his dirt wall up while the villain kept shooting.
A few feet away, a Shiketsu student named Ren ran out of an alleyway. His uniform was torn and he looked completely exhausted from Phase One.
"I'll back you up!" Ren shouted. He swung his arms, using his Wind Blades quirk to shoot sharp gusts of air at the villain on the roof.
But two more villains dropped into the street, flanking them.
"There's too many!" Ren grunted, backing up until he bumped right into Daichi. "I barely have any energy left after that massive brawl this morning!"
"Me neither," Daichi panted, wiping sweat from his eyes. He looked around the smoke-filled street. "Wait. Look over there."
Ren squinted through the green fog.
Down the block, there were green Ketsubutsu Academy uniforms everywhere.
"Why are there so many of them?" Ren asked, totally confused. "Didn't anyone take them out in Phase One?"
"I don't think so," Daichi muttered. "There's like... a dozens of them left."
The U.A. and Shiketsu numbers were heavily thinned out. But Ketsubutsu was operating at full force.
Across the street, a villain squad pushed toward a collapsed factory where three HUC actors were trapped under a fallen roof.
A massive squad of Ketsubutsu kids was already there.
They didn't panic. They didn't run around trying to do everything at once like Daichi and Ren.
Sinko didn't yell. He just raised his hand and chopped it forward.
Ryo, a tall Ketsubutsu student, stepped right in front of the villains
BAAM.
His Flash-Freeze quirk instantly turned the entire street into a sheet of solid ice, causing the villains to slip and fall.
Kenji stepped up right next to him.
He used his Mud Pit quirk to turn the ice and dirt into a freezing, sticky swamp, completely trapping the villains' legs.
SLOOSH.
Ryo and Kenji didn't look at the trapped victims behind them. They didn't care about lifting the rubble. Their only job was to fight and hold the line.
Sinko ordered another hand sign.
Behind the fighters, another group stepped up.
BAAM.
Daiki pointed his hands at the heavy concrete pillars. His Repulsion quirk blasted the debris right off the victims.
SWISH-SWOOSH.
Yumi fired her organic Grapple Lines up to the ceiling, tying the collapsing roof to a sturdy steel beam so it wouldn't fall on anyone.
Daiki and Yumi didn't throw a single punch at the villains.
They didn't talk to the victims either. They just moved heavy things and made the area safe.
"Medicals, move in!"
Arata ran straight to the HUC actors.
POP.
He tapped his fingers together, dropping his Sound Canceler bubble directly over the victims and the medical team.
"....."
Inside the bubble, the terrifying sounds of explosions, shouting villains, and crumbling buildings completely vanished. It was dead silent and peaceful.
Saki, a Ketsubutsu girl with a medical kit, knelt down next to the actors. She wasn't out of breath. She wasn't stressed.
"Hi there," Saki smiled warmly, quickly wrapping a bandage around an actor's fake wound. "Everything is totally secure. We have a clear route to the safe zone, and you are going to be just fine."
The HUC actor looked around. The villains were locked out. The rubble was perfectly cleared. The noise was gone.
The actor smiled and wrote a perfect score on his clipboard.
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: National Takoba Arena – VIP Observation Deck
Date: Monday | 01:30 PM
Up in the soundproof VIP room, Vlad King watched the massive monitors.
He crossed his huge arms over his chest, scowling deeply.
"They aren't acting like heroes," Vlad King grunted, pointing at the screen showing the Ketsubutsu squads. "Real heroes are supposed to handle the villains, protect the bystanders, and clear the hazards all at once. Those kids are just ignoring everything outside their specific roles."
Aizawa sat in his folding chair. He didn't take his eyes off the screens.
"That's exactly why they are passing, and our kids are failing," Aizawa said quietly.
Vlad looked over at him, frowning. "What are you talking about?"
"They aren't acting like lone heroes trying to carry the whole world," Aizawa explained, his voice low and serious. "They are acting like a high-end corporate agency. An assembly line. Arisaka didn't teach them how to be traditional symbols of peace. He stripped away their pride and turned them into pure Specialists."
Aizawa watched a U.A. student on the screen get shot with a foam bullet because he was trying to carry a victim and fight at the same time.
Then he looked at the Ketsubutsu kids, who were walking away with perfect scores, completely untouched.
"Vanguard. Logistics. Medical," Aizawa muttered, rubbing his tired eyes. "They don't multitask. They just do their one job perfectly. It's a machine. And it's working flawlessly."
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: Takoba Stadium Exterior – Street Food Stall
Date: Monday | 04:30 PM
SIZZLE.
The smell of grilled chicken and soy sauce filled the cool afternoon air.
The exam was officially over.
A line of school buses idled by the sidewalk, waiting to take the students home.
Kaito sat on a small red plastic stool at a street stall just outside the stadium gates. He held a small paper cup of hot green tea.
Hawks sat on the stool right next to him. He was rapidly eating a stick of yakitori. He looked over his shoulder at the buses.
Some of the U.A. and Shiketsu kids were dragging their feet.
They looked completely beaten up. A few were actually crying near the luggage racks because they failed the rescue phase.
Right next to them, the Ketsubutsu students were laughing, high-fiving, and tossing their bags onto their bus. Not a single scratch on any of them.
Keigo swallowed his food and pointed his empty wooden skewer at the buses.
"Man," Keigo mumbled. "You actually broke the whole exam. One hundred percent pass rate."
Kaito took a slow sip of his tea.
"I just gave Ketsubutsu a better way to operate," Kaito said.
"You turned them into an assembly line," Keigo corrected him. He tossed his empty stick onto a paper plate and grabbed another one. "I watched the monitors. You stripped away all their hero pride and made a machine."
Kaito didn't deny it. He just set his cup down on the small table.
Keigo stopped eating. He dropped his usual lazy, carefree smile. He leaned forward, looking straight at Kaito.
"Listen to me, Arisaka," Keigo said, his voice completely serious now. "I need that. I need that kind of thinking for my new agency."
"You just went independent," Kaito pointed out.
"Yeah, and I want to be the fastest hero in the country," Keigo said. "I want to save people before they even realize they are falling. But I can't do that if I'm stuck at a desk."
Keigo ran a hand through his messy hair, looking annoyed just thinking about it.
"Reading sidekick resumes, mapping out patrol zones, dealing with the Commission's paperwork... it keeps my boots on the ground," Keigo complained. "I need to be in the sky. I want you to manage the ground. Countless heroes have been managed by you now. If I don't upgrade and push myself, I won't be able to be at the top."
Kaito looked at the young hero. Keigo wasn't just talking big.
He had the raw talent, the Commission backing him, and real ambition. This was exactly the kind of drive Kaito liked working with.
"Three months," Kaito said.
Keigo blinked, caught off guard. "What?"
"I will give you a three-month contract," Kaito explained. "I don't hold hands forever."
Keigo slowly lowered his chicken skewer. "So what happens in three months?"
"I hire your sidekicks," Kaito said plainly. "I draw up your daily flight paths. I handle the paperwork. I will build the foundation of your agency so you only have to focus on fighting and flying. I'll suggest and propose howntou can achieve and better use your quirk. But after three months, the place runs on its own, and I leave."
"...."
Keigo stared at him for a second.
Then, he broke into a massive, genuine grin.
He liked that.
"Deal," Keigo said. He wiped his hand on a napkin and held it out across the table. "Let's get to work, Golden Manager."
Kaito reached out and shook his hand.
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: U.A. High School – Principal's Office
Date: Monday | 06:00 PM
SIP.
Principal Nezu took a long sip of his high-grade black tea.
"It really is something," Nezu smiled, his small tail swishing happily behind him.
He pointed a paw at the large flat-screen TV on the wall.
The screen played a loop of the Ketsubutsu students during the Phase Two rescue.
It showed them freezing the street, clearing the rubble, and bandaging the actors in total silence.
"We push our kids so hard to be like All Might," Nezu said. "We teach them to carry the whole world on their own shoulders. To do everything themselves. But look at this. They completely dropped their egos. Pure teamwork."
Aizawa groaned from the leather couch. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week.
"It's a nightmare for the graders," Aizawa grumbled, rubbing his face. "Half my class failed today because they tried to fight a villain and carry a civilian at the exact same time. Ketsubutsu just chopped the problem into three simple pieces."
Midnight leaned against the wall next to the TV. She had a knowing look on her face.
"That wasn't Ms. Joke's idea," Nemuri smirked.
Aizawa glared at her. "I know."
"Who was it?" Nezu asked, tilting his head.
"Arisaka Kaito," Nemuri answered. "He took a one-week contract with them. He completely gutted their old syllabus and gave them that."
"...."
Nezu blinked. Then he let out a bright, happy laugh.
"That man is a once-in-a-century genius," Nezu smiled, setting his tea cup down on the table. "He isn't just fixing pro heroes anymore. He's actually changing how we teach the youth. I almost want to offer him a job here."
"Don't you dare," Aizawa snapped, standing up from the couch. "Keep him away from my kids. That guy just gave me a mountain of paperwork for the remedial classes."
"Hehe. Who knows what the future holds."
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: Hero Public Safety Commission – President's Office
Date: Monday | 07:30 PM
The Tokyo skyline glowed brightly outside the massive glass window.
The Madam President stood there, watching the city lights with her hands clasped behind her back.
CREAAK.
The heavy office door opened. Yokumiru Mera walked in.
He looked completely drained, holding a single piece of paper in his hand.
"Madam President," Yokumiru said, his voice raspy. "The Takoba venue is cleared. The final results are in."
"And Ketsubutsu?" she asked. She didn't turn around.
"One hundred percent pass rate across all three venues," Yokumiru confirmed. "And I got a call from Hawks. He officially signed a three-month contract with Arisaka Kaito this afternoon."
The President finally turned around. A small, satisfied smile showed on her face.
"Good," she said. "Tell all our handlers to back off. They are banned from talking to Hawks for the next three months. Let Arisaka build his agency. No interference from us."
Yokumiru nodded. "Understood."
"One more thing, Mera," the President said. Her voice dropped lower, getting much more serious. "Go down to the basement archives."
Yokumiru asked. "The physical archives?"
"Yes," she said. "Years ago, Sir Nighteye forced us into a legal agreement. He wiped out Kaito's digital files clean. If we type his name into the main servers, we break that contract."
She walked over to her desk. She picked up a black ink pen and held it out to Yokumiru.
"I need you to pull his physical paper file," she ordered quietly. "Update it manually."
Yokumiru took the pen. He knew exactly why that file existed in the first place.
Years ago, Kaito mapped out the hidden financial trail of All For One.
He handed the Commission the exact map they needed to raid the League of Villains' warehouses and safehouses. That's the reason why the Global raid happened.
"Write down everything he has done recently," the President said. "His psychological profiling of Endeavor. How he handled Cathleen's PR and Mirko's business. His new syllabus for Ketsubutsu. Write it all down."
Yokumiru looked at the pen in his hand.
"He isn't just a cvilian anymore," she said seriously. "He is actively reshaping the entire hero industry from the shadows. We need to know exactly how he thinks."
"Yes, Madam President," Yokumiru sighed.
He turned around and walked out, leaving her alone in the quiet office.
_-_-_-_-_-
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