"Sit down," Kaito said, pulling out a chair. "Let me tell you how a rabbit is supposed to move."
Rumi didn't say a word.
She just crossed her arms and dropped into the chair across from him.
"There are three main types of Quirks in this world," Kaito started, leaning his back against the edge of her desk. "Emitters, Transformations, and Mutants."
"I know basic Quirk theory, Manager," Rumi grumbled, rolling her eyes.
"Then you know Emitters just shoot fire or ice out of their hands," Kaito said. "They use their power, and then they stop. Transformation guys change their bodies for a few minutes, but they have a time limit. They run out of gas."
Kaito pointed right at her long rabbit ears.
"But you are a Mutant. You don't have a time limit. You don't just shoot an attack. Your Quirk is permanent biological part of you. You were born with it. If a normal rabbit was the size of a human, a single kick from its hind legs would snap a steel beam in half. Naturally. Without even trying."
Rumi smirked proudly, leaning back. "Yeah, and I snap steel beams all the time."
"Because you're swinging your leg like a baseball bat," Kaito repeated. "You're forcing it. I watched your old fight tapes. When you miss a kick, you plant your foot, reset your stance, and jump again. That is a human fighting style."
"Hold on a second," Rumi frowned, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the desk. "I don't just swing. My Luna Fall literally craters the street. And what about my Luna Ring? I spin and take out five guys at once in the air. Don't tell me I don't know how to use momentum."
"Your Luna Ring is a wide sweep," Kaito countered. "You hit them, you land, and you stop. What happens if a fast villain ducks under it? You plant your foot, regain your balance, and swing again. That takes a full second. A rabbit wouldn't stop."
"So what do I do?" Mirko asked
"Recoil momentum," Kaito said bluntly. "You have high-twitch muscle fibers. When you miss a kick, you shouldn't stop to reset. You use the twisting force of that miss to spin right into the next kick. You don't regain your balance. You become a cyclone. Every time you miss, you just spin faster and hit harder."
"...."
Rumi blinked. She looked down at her own legs, imagining the movement. "Just keep spinning?"
"Exactly," Kaito nodded. "And what happens when a villain actually hits you? You flex your muscles and try to block it, right?"
"Yeah, I brace for impact," Rumi said like it was obvious. "I have strong bones."
"Wrong again," Kaito said. "Rabbits are flexible. They can squeeze through tiny holes. If you tense up against a heavyweight punch, your bones will snap under the pressure. You need to learn liquid relaxation."
"Liquid what?"
"You relax every single muscle in your body the exact millisecond before the punch lands," Kaito explained. "You let your body flow with the impact instead of fighting it. You absorb the hit, roll with it, and snap back."
"...."
Rumi just stared at him.
She was starting to realize he wasn't just talking about fixing her paperwork anymore.
He was tearing apart her entire way of fighting.
"Next is your thumping," Kaito said.
"My thumping?" Rumi frowned deeper. "I don't thump. That sounds stupid."
"You should," Kaito said. "Rabbits thump their feet on the ground to send warning signals through the dirt. They create heavy vibrations. If you learn how to vibrate the muscles in your foot right before you kick someone, you won't just hit their skin."
"What does it do?" Rumi asked, genuinely curious now.
"It sends a shockwave straight through their armor," Kaito said. "It bypasses their skin and rattles their internal organs. If you fight a big guy with shock absorption, a normal punch does nothing. A vibration strike turns their insides to mush."
A grin spread across Rumi's face. "Oh, I really like that one."
"It gets worse," Kaito said. His face stayed completely serious. "Rabbits have a heart rate that can hit six hundred beats per minute. Right now, if your heart beats that fast in a fight, you panic. You lose focus."
"I don't panic," Rumi said.
"Everyone panics when their heart rate spikes," Kaito told her. "It's biology. But if we train you to control it? To keep a clear head while your heart is beating six hundred times a minute? You hit adrenaline overdrive."
"What happens then?"
"Chronostasis," Kaito said. "Your brain processes information ten times faster than a normal person. To everyone else, you look like a blur. But to you, the whole world slows down to a crawl. You'll see a bullet moving through the air like a baseball."
Rumi stood up.
She couldn't sit still anymore. She paced back and forth in front of the window, her hands gripping her hair.
"And the last thing," Kaito said, watching her pace. "Your feet."
"What about them?" Rumi asked, stopping in her tracks.
"You're land-based," Kaito said. "You jump off buildings and streets. But if you compress your muscles tight enough, and kick fast enough... you can kick the air."
"...."
The room went dead quiet.
"Kick the air?" Rumi whispered.
"You compress the oxygen molecules right under your foot," Kaito said. "It creates a solid pocket of air for a split second. You step on it, and you jump again. You can literally run up into the sky."
"...."
"...."
Rumi just stared at him. Her jaw was slightly open.
"I can give you the shadow team and the routes, Rumi," Kaito said, his voice dropping slightly. "But if you want to be the absolute best, you have to do this physical training. And it is going to feel like absolute torture. I'm not just going to put you in a gym with weights."
"What are you going to do to me?" Rumi asked, her eyes narrowing.
"I'm going to lock you in a pitch-black room and shoot high-speed drones at your head until you learn to feel vibrations blindly," Kaito said flatly. "I'm going to drop you in a high-pressure water tank until you figure out how to kick a vacuum pocket just to breathe. It will break you down completely."
"You really think I can't take it?" Rumi scoffed, crossing her arms again.
"I know you can take it," Kaito said. "But it's going to hurt. Ask Snipe. I made him and his entire sidekick roster go through an absolute meat grinder for two months straight. I had them doing blindfolded acrobatics until they puked in trash cans just so they could learn Gun Kata and figure out how to curve their bullets."
Kaito paused, looking right into her red eyes.
"But look at them now," Kaito finished. "Nobody can dodge them."
"...."
Rumi looked at the floor.
"So how do I even start this?" She asked,
"Bio-tank recovery," Kaito said. "I bought repurposed medical tech from Detnerat. Every day, we will tear your muscles completely to failure. Then you sleep in a nutrient fluid tank. It knits your bones and muscles back together denser than steel while you sleep. You wake up stronger every single day."
"...."
Rumi was quiet for a long moment. She imagined the water tanks, the drones, the pain.
Then she looked up at Kaito. Her red eyes were practically glowing with a wild excitement.
"Hahaha... You're crazy," Rumi laughed loudly, showing her teeth. "You are completely out of your mind."
BAM.
She punched her own palm.
"Bring it on, Manager," Rumi grinned. "Mess me up!"
"Why does that sound weird?"
"Don't worry about it. So when will we start?"
_-_-_-_-_
Location: Detnerat-Shield Hub
Date: Friday | 10:00 AM
WHIRRR.
The heavy automated doors of the manufacturing floor slid open.
Kaito walked inside.
VRMMM.
KICHI. KICHI. KICHI.
The place was loud. Massive robotic arms were moving crates, and the smell of hot metal and ozone hung in the air.
"Kaito!"
David Shield jogged over from a nearby monitoring station.
He looked entirely different from a few months ago. He wasn't wearing a stiff suit.
He wore a simple lab coat, safety goggles resting on his forehead, and he actually looked happy.
"Dr. Shield," Kaito nodded, shaking the man's hand. "How is the new production line?"
"Incredible," David laughed, running a hand through his hair. "I haven't had to fill out a single requisition form in three weeks. We just design it, and the Detnerat printers build it an hour later. My team from I-Island is barely sleeping because they don't want to stop working."
"Just make sure they don't burn out," Kaito said casually. "Is the project ready?"
"Right this way," David said, gesturing toward a private testing bay in the back.
They walked past rows of workers assembling the new lifestyle support items.
David swiped his keycard on a heavy steel door.
BEEP.
The door hissed open.
Sitting in the middle of the empty room was a motorcycle.
It didn't look like a normal street bike. It looked heavy, armored, and aggressive.
It had thick, wide tires designed for all terrains, and the chassis was a sharp, angular black.
But the accents running along the sides and the wheel rims were painted in a very specific, bright blue and white pattern.
"We followed your exact specs," David said, crossing his arms and looking proudly at the machine. "The armor plating is a Quirk-resistant ceramic blend. It can take a direct hit from a car throwing a red light and barely scratch the paint. The suspension is active, meaning it automatically adjusts to drops from high altitudes."
Kaito walked around the bike, inspecting the heavy exhaust and the sleek handlebars. It was exactly what he wanted.
"It looks good," Kaito said. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small black USB drive.
He walked over to the digital dashboard of the bike and plugged it into a hidden port near the ignition.
BZZT.
The dashboard lit up instantly. A small, blue digital eye appeared on the screen, blinking twice.
"What is that?" David asked, stepping closer. "We already installed the navigation software."
"It's a simple, smart A.I. I coded a while ago," Kaito said, tapping a few commands onto the touchscreen. "It isn't self-aware, but it acts like a loyal butler. It handles autonomous driving, biological locks, and voice recall. If the owner yells for it, the bike will drive itself through a wall to get to him."
David raised an eyebrow. "You even know that? You're really something else Kaito. But then, that is a lot of firepower and tech for a street bike. Are you expanding the consulting business to vehicle manufacturing now?"
"No," Kaito smiled slightly. He pulled the USB out and put it back in his pocket. "It's just a birthday gift."
"This is really an expensive gift"
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: Naruhata Apartment – Koichi's Room
Date: Friday | 07:00 PM
"HEY! Who ate all the spicy chicken wings?!"
Soga yelled from the kitchen, holding an empty plastic platter in the air.
"I did!" Rapt shouted back from the living room couch, his lizard-like tail swishing happily. "You gotta move faster, old man!"
"I'm going to kick your scaly ass!" Soga shouted, throwing a balled-up napkin at him.
The apartment was absolutely packed. It was loud, chaotic, and smelled heavily of fried food and soy sauce.
Koichi's mother was near the stove, laughing and handing a fresh plate of food to Grandma Saki.
Saki took it with a warm smile, chatting happily with Kimiko.
Moyuru was sitting on the floor, arguing with Makoto about a recent hero news article.
Iwao sat at the small dining table, wearing a simple button-down shirt.
His wife and daughter were sitting right next to him, looking completely relaxed and happy.
It was Koichi's birthday. And for the first time in his life, he had a real, massive family filling his living room.
Koichi stood near the window, holding a paper cup of soda.
He wore his usual hoodie, looking around the room with a goofy, emotional smile on his face.
CLINK. CLINK.
Iwao tapped his glass with a chopstick.
The room quieted down pretty fast. Everyone respected the big guy.
Iwao cleared his throat and looked right at Koichi.
"Kid," Iwao said, his gruff voice carrying through the room. "Come here."
Koichi blinked, setting his cup down, and walked over to the table. "Yeah, Master?"
Iwao reached into his jacket. He didn't pull out a weapon or a training schedule. He pulled out a small, heavy black box and slid it across the wooden table.
"Open it," Iwao said.
Koichi looked confused. He picked up the box. Soga, Rapt, and Moyuru crowded behind him, trying to see what it was.
Koichi popped the lid open.
Sitting on a velvet cushion was a solid, shiny plastic card. It had a gold seal stamped on the corner.
Koichi picked it up. He read his own name. He read the official Hero Public Safety Commission watermark.
"Master..." Koichi whispered, his hands starting to shake. "This is... a Pro License."
"Yeah," Iwao said, leaning back in his chair. "I took your entire field record as my sidekick and threw it on the board's desk. As a Top 10 Pro, I have the authority to push an independent graduation through. You don't need to take the U.A. exams, kid. You're fully licensed. You aren't my sidekick anymore."
"...."
Koichi just stared at the card.
Tears immediately welled up in his eyes. He tried to wipe them away with his sleeve, but they just kept falling. He had wanted this for so long.
"Hell yeah!" Soga cheered, grabbing Koichi in a massive headlock and ruffling his hair. "Look at you, man! An actual Pro!"
Everyone started clapping and cheering.
Koichi's mom ran over and hugged him tightly.
Kaito was standing near the front door. He smiled and reached into his pocket.
He tossed a small black key fob through the air.
SMACK.
Koichi caught it in his free hand, looking confused again. "What's this?"
"Look out the window," Kaito said.
Koichi, Soga, and the rest of the crew rushed to the open window and looked down at the dark street below.
VROOOM.
A heavy, deep engine roared at the end of the alley.
A massive, armored motorcycle rolled down the street completely on its own.
It stopped right in front of the apartment building. The blue and white paint job matched Koichi's hoodie perfectly.
"Press the button," Kaito said.
Koichi pressed the fob.
["Biometrics registered. Good evening, Skycrawler,"] a smooth, robotic voice echoed from the bike's dashboard.
"NO WAY!" Rapt screamed, pressing his face against the glass.
"Are you kidding me?!" Moyuru yelled, his hands on his head.
"That is the coolest thing I have ever seen!" Soga shouted, looking at Kaito. "Where is my bike?! I want a bike!"
"You aren't a Pro Hero yet, Soga," Kaito joked.
Koichi turned around.
He looked at Kaito, then at Iwao, then at his mom. He was completely overwhelmed.
"I... I don't know what to say," Koichi stammered, wiping his nose. "Thank you. All of you. I really thought my life was just going to be picking up trash in the alleys forever. You guys changed everything for me."
The room gave a collective, warm "Awww."
But in the corner, Kazuho Haneyama was looking down at her shoes.
Sniff.
Everyone turned to look. Kazuho was crying. Not happy tears. She looked genuinely distressed.
"Kazuho?" Koichi asked, walking over to her. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"I'm sorry," Kazuho sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "I'm so sorry, Koichi."
"Sorry for what?" Koichi asked gently.
Kazuho looked up, tears streaming down her cheeks. The room was completely silent now.
"Years ago," Kazuho said, her voice shaking. "The day of the Hero Entrance Exam. You missed it because you jumped into the river to save a little kid from drowning."
"...."
Koichi blinked, surprised she knew about that. "Yeah... but how do you—"
"It was me!" Kazuho sobbed, grabbing the front of his hoodie. "I was the girl! You missed your entire entrance exam because of me."
"..."
The crew went dead silent. Iwao just watched quietly.
Koichi stood there, completely stunned.
He looked at Kazuho crying her eyes out.
He thought about all the years he spent getting berated by cops, scraping his knees on the pavement, becoming a vigilante with Master and Pop Step. It's not a failure at all.
Then, Koichi smiled.
It was the warmest, most genuine smile anyone had ever seen.
He reached out and gently patted Kazuho's pink hair.
"Kazuho," Koichi said softly. "A piece of paper or passing an entrance exam doesn't make you a hero. Saving people does. If I had to go back to that day right now... I would jump in that river a hundred times out of a hundred. I'm glad I saved you."
"...."
"UWAAAAA."
Kazuho let out a loud wail and threw her arms around him, hugging him as tight as she could.
Koichi hugged her back, laughing softly. The whole room felt it. It was a perfect night.
_-_-_-_-_-_
Location: Underground Training Facility
Date: Six Weeks Later | 03:00 AM
'When do we start?'
The answer had been 'immediately'. And it hadn't stopped since.
WHAM.
Rumi hit the heavy padded wall and slid to the floor.
"Dammit!" she cursed. She spit a little blood onto the mat.
"You tensed up again," Kaito's voice came through the intercom.
"Because a massive metal arm just hit me in the ribs!" Rumi yelled back, glaring up at the observation booth window. "I swear to god, Kaito, nobody trains like this. You're actually a psycho. I don't think anyone else would even survive this."
"Snipe did," Kaito said calmly. "If you relaxed your muscles a millisecond before impact like I told you, your ribs wouldn't hurt right now. Liquid relaxation, Rumi. You need to flow around the hit, not break against it."
Mriko groaned and pushed herself off the mat.
Her arms and legs were covered in dark purple bruises.
The heavy weighted bracelets on her ankles felt like solid lead. It had been a month and a half of absolute hell, and they were still running drills at three in the morning.
First, he had locked her in the dark with silent foam drones for two weeks until she learned how to use her feet to feel the floor vibrations.
Then, he made her kick solid shock-absorption blocks until her shins bled, just so she could figure out how to vibrate her muscles and shatter the core.
"Stop planting your feet when you miss, too," Kaito added over the speaker. "You missed the second dummy and immediately reset your stance. What did I tell you?"
"Recoil momentum," Rumi grumbled, wiping sweat off her forehead. "Use the twist to spin into the next kick. I know, I know. It's just hard to rewrite twenty years of instinct, alright?"
"That's why we're down here," Kaito said. "Again."
WHOOSH.
A heavy metal pendulum swung right at her head from the dark side of the room.
Rumi didn't tense up this time. She forced herself to go completely limp for a split second.
The metal hit her shoulder, but her body flowed with the momentum instead of snapping. She rolled right off the hit, used the spinning force, and whipped her right leg around in a massive, blind arc.
CRUNCH.
She kicked the next swinging dummy so hard it tore right off its hinges.
"Better," Kaito said. "Now, we push the heart rate."
"Wait, what?" Rumi blinked.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The automated drones in the ceiling suddenly dropped down.
The speed dial on the wall monitor cranked all the way to maximum.
The drones swarmed her. They were moving ridiculously fast.
Rumi started dodging, but there were too many.
Her heart started pounding against her ribs. She could feel the panic trying to creep into her chest.
"Your heart rate is hitting five hundred," Kaito's voice echoed in the room. "Five fifty. Six hundred. Rumi, don't panic. Breathe through it."
"I can't even see them!" Mirko shouted, ducking a drone that buzzed her ear.
"Yes, you can," Kaito said. "You're a rabbit. This is your overdrive. Chronostasis. Just breathe."
Rumi clenched her teeth. She forced herself to take a deep, sharp breath.
Suddenly, everything shifted.
The frantic buzzing of the drones dropped to a low, heavy hum. The high-speed targets looked like they were floating through wet cement.
The whole world just... slowed down to a crawl.
Her eyes went wide. She wasn't panicking at all. Her mind was crystal clear. She could see exactly where every single drone was going.
"Jump," Kaito ordered.
Mirko didn't hesitate. She coiled the tension deep into her hips, turning her legs into tightly wound springs.
BAM.
She exploded off the mat. She shot toward the high ceiling faster than she had ever moved in her life.
As she hit the peak of her jump, gravity started to pull her back down.
"Kick!" Kaito yelled over the intercom.
Mirko focused everything into her right leg. She aimed right at the empty air beneath her feet.
She snapped her leg down.
CRACK.
A sound like a gunshot echoed through the massive room.
THUMP. THUMP.
Mirko felt her foot hit something totally solid. She had compressed the oxygen so hard it formed a tiny, hard platform.
THUMP.
She bounced back up a few inches before she finally lost her balance and fell back to the floor.
THUD.
She landed hard on her back, completely out of breath. Every muscle in her body was screaming.
CLICK.
The heavy steel door of the training room opened.
Kaito walked in, looking down at her. He held a clipboard in his hand.
"You lost your balance on the landing," Kaito said flatly. "But you got the step. Session over for today. We run it again tomorrow at four in the morning."
"...."
Mirko didn't argue. She didn't even have the energy to curse at him. She just let out a tired, breathy laugh.
HUFF-PUFF.
She forced herself to stand up, her legs shaking violently.
She limped over to the corner of the room toward the massive, cylindrical glass tube filled with thick, glowing green fluid. The Bio-Tank.
After a month and a half of doing this every single night, there was zero hesitation.
RUSTLE. RUSTLE.
Kaito told her on day one that the fluid needed direct skin contact to actually knit the micro-tears in her muscle fibers.
Sports bras and compression shorts just blocked it.
So, she didn't care.
RUSTLE-thud.
She grabbed the hem of her sweat-soaked shirt, peeled it off, and dropped it on the mat.
ZIIPP.
She unhooked her shorts and stripped completely bare.
Kaito was standing a few feet away at the control panel. He had his eyes locked on his glowing tablet. Never looking up.
Mirko stopped. A mischievous spark lit up in her eyes. She put a hand on her hip and leaned her weight onto one leg.
"Six weeks, Manager," Mirko teased, a lazy smirk on her face. "Six weeks of me dropping my clothes every single night, and you still stare at that screen like it's saving your life. You can look, you know. I don't bite. Well, unless you tell me to."
"...."
Kaito stopped tapping the screen.
He didn't sigh. He didn't turn red, and he definitely didn't stare at the wall.
He slowly lowered the tablet and looked directly at her.
"...."
His gaze didn't flinch. He looked her up and down, completely calm.
"I'm not looking at the screen because I'm embarrassed, Rumi," Kaito said, his voice smooth and dead serious. "I'm just making sure the fluid mix is ready. And it's the basic respect a man should give."
Mirko raised an eyebrow, challenging him. "Yeah? Then what do you see right now?"
She expected him to stutter. She expected him to look away or give some boring, generic excuse.
Kaito didn't do either.
"I see a lot of deep bruises on your ribs," Kaito said honestly, holding her gaze. "I see swelling around your ankles. But I also see a woman who just shattered the laws of physics and kicked solid air. Your muscles are coiled tighter than a steel spring. You look like an absolute weapon, Rumi. It's a hell of a look."
Kaito didn't stop there. He held her eyes, his expression completely genuine.
"And if we're talking standard attraction? Your body is perfect," Kaito said, his tone unwavering. "You are incredibly fit, insanely strong, and you own every single inch of it. You're beautiful, Rumi. Not despite the muscle and the scars, but because of them. There isn't a single flaw there for me."
"...."
"...."
Mirko froze.
The silence stretched for a second. Kaito just kept staring right into her eyes, completely owning the moment.
He wasn't embarrassed at all. He meant every single word.
A sudden, unexpected heat flared up the back of Mirko's neck
TWITCH. TWITCH.
Her long ears twitched violently. She realized her little tease completely backfired. He called her bluff and hit her with a heavy compliment that caught her totally off guard.
For the first time in her life, Mirko actually felt a faint blush spread across her cheeks.
She broke eye contact first, looking away and clearing her throat.
"Tch. Whatever," Mirko muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. She quickly grabbed the cold metal rungs of the ladder. "Just turn the tank on, smartass."
Kaito let out a short, quiet laugh. "Get in the water, Rumi."
'This woman is really wild. But I'm not losing something here though.'
Mirko climbed the ladder.
She grabbed the breathing apparatus, strapped it tightly over her mouth and nose, and slipped into the fluid to hide the fact that her face was still slightly red.
SPLASH.
The green liquid was thick and freezing cold.
But almost instantly, the deep burning in her torn muscles started to fade.
The fluid aggressively attacked the torn fibers, forcing them back together. It hurt, but it was a deep, satisfying kind of pain she was addicted to now.
She opened her eyes and looked through the thick glass at Kaito.
He was standing right outside the tank, typing on his tablet, keeping her vitals stable.
He was watching her back, just like he did every single night.
Mirko was exhausted, beaten, and bruised.
But as she sank deeper into the healing water, feeling the heat finally leave her face, she looked right at Kaito and gave him a hard look.
_-_-_-_-_
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(9 Advanced Chapters)