Chapter 28: Saviors
Happy Hogan felt as if he'd just crawled out of a long, twisted dream. In it, he was back in the boxing ring, pinned under some monstrous brute with strength beyond anything human. His bones snapped one by one, and even breathing became a luxury he couldn't afford.
Then he was submerged in something warm, like sinking into a gentle pool where every shred of pain faded away.
He jolted awake with a sharp inhale and pushed himself upright.
"W-where am I? Did I die?"
Shrill sirens and restless murmuring filled the air. The smell of smoke and blood hung heavily around him.
He lowered his gaze. His suit was torn to shreds and drenched in blood, but his body was completely fine.
He pressed his palm to his chest, then to his abdomen. No wounds. No ache. Not even the faintest discomfort.
"You're alright now."
A soft voice spoke from right in front of him.
Happy lifted his eyes and found the orange-haired girl crouching near him. She wore a gentle smile.
"You...saved me?" Happy's voice was a little hoarse
"Mhm."
She nodded with a bit of enthusiasm, then scratched her cheek with a shy look.
"Your injuries were really bad. You were losing blood fast, so I asked my power to heal you."
"You asked your… power, and it healed me?"
Happy echoed the words, still trying to orient himself. He glanced down at his body again.
The memory of bone-breaking pain was vivid, painfully real, but now he couldn't find so much as a bruise. Only ripped fabric and dried blood remained.
He stretched his arms, twisted his torso, rolled his shoulders. He felt better than he usually did after a full workout session.
What was this? A superpower?
As Tony Stark's former bodyguard, Happy wasn't new to the concept. He'd met a green rage monster, a literal Norse god with a hammer, aliens, robots, and way too many things that shouldn't exist.
So an orange-haired girl using some mysterious ability to patch him up… weird, sure, but not the weirdest thing he'd ever seen.
He staggered to his feet, glancing from her innocent face to the towering blind man beside her. Just standing there, the man radiated such oppressive presence that Happy felt the air around him grow heavier.
He understood clearly that he'd brushed past death and these two had pulled him out of it.
Straightening what was left of his suit, Happy cleared his throat and tried to regain some dignity.
"My name is Happy Hogan. Head of Security at Stark Industries."
It was habit to introduce himself that way.
"Thank you both for saving my life. I owe you one."
"Oh, please don't be so formal."
The girl waved her hands frantically, overwhelmed by the seriousness of his gratitude.
"I'm Orihime Inoue. It's nice to meet you."
The moment her name slipped out, the pale blue flower-shaped clips in her hair shimmered lightly.
At the same time, she saw a semi-transparent shield pattern emitting a soft green light flash above the tall blind man's head.
A companion?
Orihime's eyes sparkled. The anxiety she'd been shouldering since arriving in this unfamiliar world melted away almost completely.
Before she could think further, the man finally spoke.
"Fujitora Issho," he introduced calmly.
His voice was low and steady, as if the earth-shattering explosion and rain of glass had nothing to do with him.
"It was a small effort. Think nothing of it."
Though blind, Fujitora's Observation Haki saw far more than ordinary eyes ever could.
When Orihime introduced herself, he "heard" the aura she radiated — gentle, pure, filled with a will to protect. It resonated faintly with his own sense of justice, the compassionate justice he upheld.
It also aligned with the mark he'd noticed on his system panel earlier: [Guardian Faction], pulsing in quiet harmony.
He tilted his head slightly, turning the scarred profile of his face toward her.
"To reject all phenomena and return them to nothingness… young lady, your ability is truly remarkable."
He meant it. Gravity was a raw force that could protect or destroy, depending on how one wielded it. But this girl's power seemed rooted in compassion from the very start.
"E-eh?!"
Orihime's cheeks flushed in an instant. She waved her hands frantically, stumbling over her words.
"N-no, that's not it at all! I just… just did a tiny little thing! Compared to you, sir, it's nothing!"
She pointed to the sky, then toward the distance, trying to explain as quickly as her flustered mind allowed. "If you hadn't thrown that exploding guy into the air, and gathered all the broken glass, this place would've… would've…"
She couldn't find the right word, so she swung both arms and mimed an explosive "everything wiped out" gesture.
"My little bit of power can only save a few people. You're the one who saved everyone here!" Her tone was earnest, eyes shining with admiration for someone clearly far stronger than herself.
Happy listened in growing disbelief, his mouth widening little by little.
Thrown the exploding guy into the sky? Collected all the glass?
He dug through his last memory before blacking out. Taggart had turned into a human torch, then… shot upward? After that came a thunderous blast he couldn't process.
Happy glanced at the buildings around them. The skyscrapers whose windows had shattered earlier now showed nothing but empty, dark frames. But the ground didn't have a single shard of glass anywhere.
Then he remembered the huge splash he'd heard from the river.
A wild idea formed in his head.
Did this blind man… compress all the broken glass in the city into one giant ball, then throw it into the river?
Happy swallowed hard, once again feeling reality stretch to its limits.
Compared to these two, his boss who just flew around blasting lasers suddenly seemed a lot less impressive.
Their conversation was cut short by a sudden commotion.
"Police! Nobody move! Hands where we can see them!"
A group of officers, finally recovering from the night's shock, moved in with guns drawn. They surrounded the devastated plaza with extreme caution.
Their expressions were tense, and the hands gripping their guns were slick with sweat. It wasn't their fault. Everything that had happened tonight was far beyond the scope of their duty manual.
A man flew into the sky and exploded. All the falling glass fused into a giant sphere and flew away. A dying guy got hit with a glow and bounced back to life.
Who were they supposed to aim at?
The towering blind man?
The glowing girl?
Or the guy who was pinned to the ground and couldn't move?
The middle-aged officer leading them wiped sweat from his brow and forced his voice to stay steady.
"Who… who are you people? We got a call, and something happened here. We need answers."
Before anyone could respond, a furious voice cut in.
"Who are you pointing your guns at!"
The blonde doctor from earlier strode forward and spread her arms, shielding Fujitora and Orihime without hesitation.
"They saved every single one of us! The criminal is the man lying over there!"
She pointed to Savin, who was still being held down by gravity, sprawled on the ground like a lump of mud.
"That guy injured this gentleman and tried to rob him! And the one who exploded was his accomplice!"
Happy stepped up right beside her, straightening his back and letting the authority of Stark Industries' head of security settle over him.
"She's absolutely right, officer. I'm the victim here. If not for this man and this young lady, I'd be dead, and that walking bomb would've leveled the whole place. You should be thanking them, not pointing weapons at them."
"Yeah! They saved us!"
"The guy in the kimono was awesome! He made all the glass disappear!"
"And that lady! She glowed! My leg got stepped on and hurt a lot, but when she shined that light, it stopped hurting!"
A little girl clinging to her mother shouted with bright enthusiasm.
The crowd began stirring. Tourists who had just been pulled back from the brink of death chimed in one after another, loudly defending Fujitora and Orihime.