As Shindo opened the door to the empty smeltery room, the familiar metallic smell of the room filled his nose, which brought a smile to his face.

How could he not enjoy this? He loved hearing the smelter roar as he turned it on. He liked preparing the materials and tools in an orderly fashion, readying it for when the smelter came into temperature. He adored the same respective process: Heating the bar, tempering it, re-heat, temper again, shape, quench, grind, and polish.

He could not help but grin in anticipation as the smelter finally reached 450 degrees Celsius: the best temperature he thought was best to work with steel. As if possessed, Shindo quickly thrust two of the bars while immediately bowing to the smelter. He happily hummed as he waited while the flames heated the bars, while the chatter of clients started to thin out as Angela and Oscar finished some of their tasks.

However, this didn't distract Shindo. He waited patiently with hammer in hand, and in an instant, the red bars where on his anvil.

Without hesitation, he hammered the bars into the rough shape. It was an arduous process of patience and boredom. Only those truly devoted to the repetition of this craft would be able to succeed at creating a weapon full of passion.

To finish off the process Shindo went to a barrel full of cold saltwater. Slowly, he set the bo-staffs in a nearby water barrel, hearing that satisfied sizzling coming from it. It was only then when he called for Ben. "Oi, Ben! The batons are ready!! Come get them!"

He heard screams from the other side of the room. "About time! Leave them on the table!"

Shindo did just that and immediately went to work on the broken Spy Hero's watch that was on his table.

As he worked, Ben settled down in a nearby chair, wearing a sort of tired smile. His eyes flashed with a gentle glimmer.

"Got you some good news. The cowboy hero's trigger system was delayed. He called me saying that he'll pick it up next week."

"Thank god." Shindo exhaled as he started picking up some of the broken gears of the spy hero's watch. "Ben, could you bring me the gears in cabinet T502? The watch is in a way better condition than I first expected."

"On it."

In the manner of forty-five minutes, Shindo finished the watch and started readying himself for the armor sets along with Ben.

"Ben." Shindo suddenly called to his boss, who was checking his rubber hammer, "Is it only the two of us working on the sets?"

Ben smiled at Shindo. "Oh hell no. Oscar and one of the interns are going to help us as soon they finished a gauntlet order."

"That's good to hear, those armor sets looked difficult enough to develop. Let alon repair” Shindo sighed in relief. Armor sets were one of the hardest thing to work on as a gadgetsmith. Just thinking about what to keep in mind when thinking about the wearer drove Shindo mad. Still, these were the scarcest and most interesting orders, as heroes prefer to ask The Center for their armor requirements. It was so scarce that this workshop only received one or two per month.

"Alright, alright! Let's do this." Shindo psyched himself to get him through the rest of the day.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Geez, every time I see you craft you amaze me, Shindo." A tired Ben said. It had been a few hours since they finished assembling and building the armor sets. Thankfully all went well, since they had the right amount of support and the armors weren't that complicated to fix.

"We both know I did nothing special," Shindo said as he catched his breath. He threw his head before continuing talking, "It also helped that some of my orders were canceled. It really eases me that I have enough time to deal with the String visor."

"Good," Ben replaid, "although speaking about cancelled orders, the client for the trigger system canceled his order."

"Aww, I was looking forward to screwing around with a grapnel gun... we don't get enough of those orders." Shindo sighed a bit. He took a nearby towel but accidentally tucked his arm under a desk nearby. He touched a few pieces of dried gum.

"Fuck! Which bastard left gum under the forgery desk? Gah!" He immediately retracted his hand and took a nearby towel in a fell swoop. Ben chuckled a bit against his junior's exasperation.

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"Hehehe, please don't go on a rampage against the part-timers. On the other hand, what about the smoke pellets?"

Calming himself down, Shindo looked at Ben "For the smoke pellets... I think Angela has one of the packets I’ve made, but I also made a few custom ones in advance last week. Check the third shelf of my desk. Should be in perfect condition. If there aren't any, just scream my name I'll make them. For the moment, I'll handle that "string" visor."

Ben nodded, quickly hurrying off.

Shindo went back to work. One of the drawers on the opposite side of the room had a bit of fiberglass. Sighting he lost himself again to his traditions, patiently waiting...

And that is when he looked to his side. In the desk, a pair of gauntlets in a perfected state tempted Shindo. He smiled wickedly. The beauty of the craftmanship irked Shindo's senses. A masterpiece, not that Shindo believed in that word.

Before he knew it, he was already eyeing the gauntlet as an overly curious cat. He stalked his silent prey and slowly approached the table. He blinked a few times and he'd already disassembled the gauntlets. His extreme focus led him to improve the product with its same parts. He had no time, as he needed to finish his other job. He slowly pieced it together. Bit by bit, they came along, until he sat and saw the marvel he'd improved. He smiled wickedly at the result.

"Soooo, you must be Shindo East..."

"Fuck!". He fell from his chair to see a petite girl with black and white short hair sitting while staring at him intently.

"That was amazing! I've never seen a gadgetsmith reassemble something in a span of an hour!" the woman excalimed, her eyes glimmering with a hint of amusement.

Shindo ignored her as it dawned on him that he may have screwed up. He cursed like there was no tomorrow. He rushed to save the glass from the smelter and breathed in relief. A few minutes more and Shindo would've fucked the visor up, big time.

"Heyyy! I'm talking to you!" The girl said, pouting.

He set the glass cast on the table and spared a glance at the girl. "There is a sign at the front desk saying clients aren't allowed here. Who are you?"

"Call me Diva, an informant from the Info-tunnels," Diva Introduced herself as she spun around in her chair, "Ben always makes an exception for me..."

Of all things, that client had to come today...

"So, I'm betting this "string" visor is yours, right?" Shindo asked in a neutral tone.

"Yep, but that isn't what I came to talk about." She stopped spinning to assume a rather innocent thinking pose. "However, now that I’m seeing you in person, you are way taller than I expected."

If Shindo felt something at those words, he didn't show it. He wouldn't dare show it. He knew full well that conversing with an informant, hell, even showing any sort of emotion or reaction was dangerous enough for Shindo. That's how deadly those greedy information hoarders were.

"No questions? Well, this is a new one for me."

Diva spun around in her chair while smiling innocently. She stopped to point at Shindo.

"Well, l’ll get to the point. You sir, have become very famous in certain hero circles. Your actions today even made HOC interested in you. They hired me to tell you that they want to invite you to take the hero exam."

Diva stayed quiet to let her information sink in. Shindo on the other hand, couldn't care less.

"Geez, so cold! Many people would've been elated to hear this!"

"Not me." Shindo retorted, but then realized that he had given her something when her eyes gleamed. She leaned in with interest.

"No interest in heroism, hm? You are making yourself more interesting by the second Mr. East! Would you mind if I ask you a few questions? You seem to be an interesting fellow."

"..." He was in complete focus, but she took the silence as a yes.

Her eyes grew sharp. "Where were you during The Night of Fear?"

Shindo stayed silent.

"Won't you answer?"

More silence as Shindo started shaping the individual wires of copper into the seams of the visor.

"... You know, I've been researching you for quite a bit now, even before today's event. You seemed very knowledgeable at speaking with villains..."

Shindo's face didn't betray him, yet his mind spun. This damn hacker!

"During the last few attempts at Crime Joint, you have always been spotted. You entertained several different villains throughout this month. Yet, the peculiar thing is that you stopped entertaining them at the exact moment the Heroes' Operation Center responded to the threats. In every footage. Every. Time.”

She remained silent, allowing Shindo to absorb the information. However, Shindo ignored her in favor of giving the finishing touches to the visor.

You also changed jobs from the Silent District days after the Night, and straight to the most slummy and hidden area of the city, Crime Joint. Is it that you are –"

"Finished?" Shindo interrupted. Diva looked at him in rage.

"I wasn't talking about your information Diva, I bet you have more. I meant that I finished your visor."

She looked at him in disbelief. "You finished a "string" in 50 minutes, while also cooling it..."

He plopped the visor in her hands. "Could you please test if it fits you? It's better than you do it now, since I may not be able to attend you next week."

The little gal looked at him it perplexed, but he eyed her innocently. She quickly put it on, giving her a bit of a tech-savvy look.

"It looks fine by me, now please leave. I need to restock some of the materials for future use."

"But..."

Shindo glared at her. "You already did your job in telling me I'm invited to take part in the exam, but I'm not accepting the summons. At least, not from you."

"Shindo! New orders came from the DSG!" Ben called.

He stood to leave but Diva grabbed his arm. "I won't stop until my job's done, East."

This irritated him. He shook off her arm and smirked at her.

"You know Diva, you are starting to annoy me. I can bet fifty customized smoke bombs that you found something, a little lead on my information. However, you will not get information directly from me. I'll have to stop you from crossing the line. I plead the fifth. You can show yourself out."

He turned and left the informant there.