TOKAI BUILDING - FLOOR 5 - SURVEILLANCE ROOM
A tall, blond, fair-skinned young man entered a dark room illuminated only by thirty computers monitoring each floor of the building, and in the center, a giant screen serving as the main display.
"Good evening, gentlemen," the blond young man said as soon as he crossed the threshold.
They all stood and greeted him in unison. "Good evening, Mr. Yoshida."
Yoshida went down to where the thirty computers were and headed straight for number twenty-five.
"Why are you calling me so urgently?" he asked, approaching the employee. "I hope it's important."
The man reacted quickly, adopting an almost military stance.
"I called you because we have a situation, sir."
He returned to his seat and quickly projected onto the main screen the exact moment Laia and Gatling entered the restricted area.
When the worker turned to face his boss, Yoshida's gaze remained fixed on the main camera.
He spoke angrily in a whisper, so no one else could hear.
"Useless heroes!"
He quickly returned to his command post.
"Contact me with the Hero Association," he ordered, then raised his voice. "NOW!"
ASSOCIATION OF HEROES - 11:30 P.M.
"Mr. McCoy, we have an incoming call."
The video call appeared on the main screen.
At that moment, a figure slowly swiveled in his chair. It was a muscular man with glasses and an eye patch covering his right eye.
His hair, styled upwards, resembled a drill bit. He had a serious and intimidating expression.
Without turning to look at the employee, he calmly asked,
"Who's speaking?"
"From the building where the monthly gala is held, sir."
McCoy picked up his tablet to verify the information.
He scanned the data for a few seconds before confirming.
He accepted the call, and the screen immediately changed; the security room appeared on screen, focusing directly on Yoshida.
"Good evening, Mr. Yoshi..."
"Stop fooling around, McCoy," said the head of the security team.
"Just give me the password to activate the building's robots."
"The robots?" he asked sarcastically; then, with a smile that seemed more malevolent than friendly, he replied, "I'm sorry. I can't give you that information."
Yoshida was surprised, but his annoyed expression didn't disappear. "And why not?"
McCoy looked at him seriously, his face expressionless. "Tell me first what you need them for. Weren't the Class A heroes I sent enough?"
Yoshida lowered his head and, with a mocking gesture, looked back at the screen.
"Is that enough? You sent two Class A officers to guard an eighty-nine-story building?"
His expression turned serious again, and he stared intently at the screen, as if warning McCoy. "One collaborates with the most wanted assassin, and the other... The other is treated like an ornament by the millionaires who fund your organization."
He returned to his seat, irritated. "I don't know if you're joking, McCoy; I'm always asking you to send Class S heroes, and you almost never listen to me."
McCoy leaned back into his fist and replied as if he didn't care about what he'd said: "Easy enough, sometimes S-Class heroes are busy, and occasionally they're hard to reach."
"Not even the lowest-ranking ones," Yoshida insisted.
"No, and if you think you can control them and give them orders, you're wrong; they're not easily manipulated, not even with threats."
"You're useless, McCoy," Yoshida said coldly. "Then let's drop it. Who has the password?"
"I already told you, you have..."
Yoshida, still leaning back, looked at the screen again to see what was happening. "What did you say?"
"..."
"Good evening, Mr. Yoshida Ikeda," said a man behind the screen with receding white hair, an overbite, and a prominent nose.
Mr. Yoshida remained motionless; Except for his family and a few close friends, no one else knew his last name, and my first thought is that someone leaked it, or worse, that someone close to him betrayed him.
"Believe me, leader of the surveillance room... no one leaked anything. This isn't about revenge either. It's not the time to worry about that."
Yoshida slowly raised his gaze to the screen. The unease was still there. "Then tell me something more important," he replied coldly. "Who are you?"
There was a brief silence. The man on the screen observed him with absolute tranquility. No tension. No hurry. "My name is Bofoi," he finally said. "Although most know me by another name." A slight interference cut through the transmission. "Metal Knight."
It was the first time Yoshida and those in the room had spoken with the same hero who almost never showed his face in public, not even to the higher-ups; only a few had the opportunity to meet him. "Well, Bofoi," Yoshida said coldly. "What do you want?"
"I don't want anything," he replied calmly. "Weren't you the ones requesting the password to activate the robots?"
"How is it that you…"
"Please, I ask you not to interrupt me."
Bofoi sighed softly. "I will give you the password." But in return, you'll listen to me. I'll tell you everything I know so far.
"Everything you know?" Yoshida glanced sideways at his equally bewildered employees. "And what exactly do you know that we don't?"
The image on the screen seemed to darken for a second. "The truth about the world we live in now."
Yoshida didn't understand anything. Had something changed in this time, or was a threat approaching? "Why are you telling us this right now?"
There was a brief silence on the transmission. Bofoi didn't look away. "Because there's a possibility," he replied with absolute calm, "that you could die tonight."
The entire room fell silent, perhaps due to the impact of the statement; some were even breathing heavily, others kept their eyes glued to the screen, unable to move. It could be a joke, maybe, but when someone says it with such coldness... the possibility vanishes. Yoshida knew that remaining calm was important, so he took a deep breath and looked back at the screen, but this time, his gaze was no longer one of confidence. And Bofoi noticed.
"I'll answer your questions," Bofoi said. "But first, listen."
He pressed a button on his keyboard. A three-dimensional hologram of the Tokai Building appeared on the table. "I was the one who built it. It's not as imposing as the Hero Association headquarters... but it's one of my best creations."
With another command, the hologram expanded, highlighting cameras, access points, and restricted areas throughout the eighty-nine floors. "Each floor has sealed areas." Each floor houses a thousand units: eighty-nine floors. Eighty-nine thousand robots. All of them can be activated and controlled with a single command.
Yoshida's expression tightened; he knew there were robots on every floor of the building, but he never knew—no, he was never told how many there were in total.
"I have access to all the building's cameras," Bofoi continued. "Including the optics on each unit, and I've noticed you have some unwanted guests."
Yoshida snorted, knowing what the man on the screen had said was pretty obvious. "I know, that's why..."
"Do you know who they are?"
He swallowed, and knowing his answer would be wrong, his pride got the better of him, and he replied, "The blonde assassin. Classified as a demon-level threat."
"Correct," Bofoi replied emotionlessly. "But there are also other individuals who could pose a considerable problem for you... and your team."
"Others?"
Bofoi began separating images in the air; a hologram showed two men. "You have two men hired to steal the building's most valuable possession." Images of Daz and Nate slowly rotated.
"You have the younger sister of the Hero Association's most feared hero." Fubuki's face appeared in translucent blue.
"And finally…" The next image didn't appear immediately; Bofoi zoomed in first, observing it privately. "Look who's here."
Yoshida frowned; then the image was projected. It was me, but an old photograph, hooded, wearing a coat, my face partially obscured. "You have the person who doomed everyone in this building."
Yoshida's body tensed even more. "What do you mean by that?"
"Mr. Yoshida… tell me something. How much do you really know about the Hero Association?"
The question threw him off. "How much do I know...?" He lowered his gaze for a few seconds. "It was founded by Mr. Agoni. It's a highly protected organization. It boasts the most powerful heroes in the world... and is practically impenetrable." Bofoi still didn't react and spoke calmly, "Good, you'll also know about the origins of the S-Class heroes."
Yoshida grimaced in annoyance: Why was he asking so many questions? What was this man trying to achieve? He snorted. "I suppose from the beginning, S-Class was composed of the strongest heroes. "Blast, Tatsuma..."
"I already knew that," Bofoi interrupted emotionlessly. "That's the answer you were taught to repeat." There was a brief silence. "Mr. Yoshida... you should already understand why I'm asking you these questions." The screen flickered slightly. "Everything you know about the origin of the S-Class... is a lie."
The entire room fell silent. Yoshida wasn't the only one stunned; the workers exchanged nervous glances, unable to process what they had just heard.
Bofoi looked directly at Yoshida, the man who had initially regarded him with an air of superiority; now, his expression was one of surprise and fear. "Mr. Yoshida," he said firmly, "inside you give orders, you're the leader." He paused. "But outside... you're just another replaceable piece." The silence grew heavier. "People can be manipulated. They can be made to believe whatever suits them. History can even be rewritten before their very eyes."
Bofoi took a deep breath and retrieved a document from one of his old cabinets; it was torn, the bottom half burned. "This is all I could salvage from one of my drones that left at the Hero Association on September 21st; you know which day I'm referring to."
Yoshida responded, but he was no longer certain. He was no longer the leader he had once been, just a man struck by a truth he knew would cost him his life. But at that moment, upon hearing the date, something inside him stirred again. At the same time, he responded with what he already knew. "It's the day..." He swallowed, "...that the heroine Tatsumaki eliminated a Dragon-level threat."
Bofoi whispered softly, though his expression remained unchanged. "I didn't think the Association was capable of altering an event of such magnitude... without leaving a trace."
Yoshida descended the command center stairs with purposeful steps; he no longer wished to speak from a distance. He stopped in front of the screen. "I had my doubts too," he admitted. "I never showed anything of that fight." He clenched his jaw. "And that's just too strange... coming from them." The room fell silent once more.
Bofoi placed the document on the table and stared intently at Yoshida.
"Before Tatsumaki joined the Association... and before she reached Rank Two of the S-Class..."
A file appeared on Yoshida's tablet; the screen vibrated slightly. "There was another woman, capable of challenging the entire Association and the first to form a team that rivaled the S-Class heroes, the woman who died alongside her team on September 21st."
The document appeared on his tablet, and he opened it to view the file; a photograph appeared.
"Her name was Nitta."
At that same moment, the name appeared below the photograph.
"The first S-Class hero to reach Rank Two."
At that moment, everything went silent, and only the sound of the man recalling a moment he desperately wanted to erase, but couldn't, could be heard. The only thing that came out of his mouth was:
"It was all true."