Takehara South Japan 1:32 AM

Ronin slammed his sheathed blade down on the head of another mugger, the impact overpowering his opponents talent limit and causing him to pass out next to the other two.

The victim, a man in his thirties maybe early forties by his look, he also had large circles of discolored skin all over his body. Most likely his own Talent as none of the muggers attacked with a talent, but rather used makeshift clubs form planks of wood, and a old rusty box cutter. The victims lip was busted, and had a bruise along his face. Bending down he checked for a pulse. He was still alive, which saved the three villains from an extra few decades in prison.

He was still breathing and there was no other signs of severe injury so Ronin concluded that while knocked out it was most likely caused by his limit breaking and not severer head trauma. He'll be fine in a few days.

Motioning to his ear piece he switched it to the police hotline. Which was unusually full of chatter this night. Ronin heard words of "The Directors daughter" and "Vigilante."

Cutting the chatter like a knife through cloth Ronin began to report his actions.

"Dispatch this is Ronin, I need a police car to pick up three criminals under arrest for mugging, and assaulting with a deadly weapon. I'll also need an ambulance here for the victim." Ronin's clear and conscious tone put a stop to the gossip and both operators responded the same "Y-yes sorry Sir. Cars are on there way. Please stand by for their arrival."

Ronin gave an approving grunt. But before he could cut the line one of the operators spoke out.

"R-ronin! Its good that you called, Kraiger called a little bit ago asking for you, but said not to disturb you as your trackers heart rate monitor suggested you were in a fight. He said he needed your 'expertise' with a recent situation out in Kishiwada."

"Kishiwada? What's the situation going on there"

"Oh well apparently, um someone tried to kidnap Director Itos daughter from a bar. But was stopped by a supposed Vigilante that fled the scene."

Your expertise.

Ronin bit back the urge to mutter a certain unprofessional word over comms.

Honestly what's with everyone and always calling him for this stuff. There are hundreds of hero's and they all sat through the HPAs three hour lecture training on vigilantes a few years ago when the Vigilante to Hero program was introduced.

Sure he was the one that suggested the program to the HPA, but it was supposed to get the other Hero's involved in the effort to keep vigilantes off the streets until they received trainings. However the outcome seemed to remained the same.

With last nights vigilante and now this one that's up to four new Vigilantes in one month! Honestly what was the hero world coming to, with people taking law into their own hands. Were the people really loosing trust in the HPAs ability to protect them? Or was something else going on that he wasn't aware of.

The thought unsettled him, more vigilantes on the street would just lead to more pain. There was a reasons things were done by the books, why couldn't people just use their brains for a moment and think of that before running off to be self made hero's.

The closest police department sent an available car to drive him to Kishiwada. He maintained his glower face and furrowed eyebrows the whole hour drive, which luckily the driver picked up on and didn't try to strike up a conversation with him.

Finally arriving to the scene of the crime, Ronin was greeted with a shocking lack of activity at the scene. Only two police cars were there their lights no longer flashing. Kraiger sat in the passenger seats of one of them, his face illuminated by his portable laptop. He didn't seem to notice Ronin's arrival, which Ronin decided to use to his advantage and scope out the scene before Kraiger could start with his rambling theories.

Down the street he saw two police officers talking to what looked to be a employee. The bars lights were off and the parking lot empty save it for one car. Which Ronin assumed was the waiters car.

Ronin began to survey the area. But couldn't find anything that stood out. There was no damage to any of the buildings, not so much as a trash can was disturbed from what he could see. With all the ruckus dispatch was making about the 'kidnapping' he was expecting there to be some amount of damage. But there was none.

Walking over to the side door of the car Ronin knocked on Kraigers window with the hilt of his sheathed blade. The scrawny but lengthy man pulled his eyes away from his montior reluctantly, each eye processing Ronin knew far more information than his own eyes could. Perhaps he had some important insite as to why he ecactly it was so important he come such a distant.

Finishing what looked to be police report overflowing with so much information it could be classified as a book. Kraiger closed his laptop and got out of the car.

"Ronin, glad you could make it! What took so long?"

"I was in Takehara" Ronin replied dryly.

"Oh I see well then I guess you're on time than, come with me its late, but I got something I neeeeeed to show you." Kraiger hurriedly walked to the sidewalk and stood triumphantly arms outstretched.

"Notice anything?" He asked quizzically.

Ronin let out a long sigh, and glance his eyes around, still seeing nothing out of the ordinary he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"No not really." He replied, a hinge of announce on his tongue.

"PRECISLEY!!" Kraiger exclaimed with a clap of his hands.

"No damage, no casualties, no injuries', well despite a single nosebleed. Ronin we are almost looking at what the HPA would call a Perfect takedown of a villain."

Ronin raised an eyebrow at that. A subtle sign his handler knew meant he was interested.

"What villain?" Ronin asked, he hadn't seen one in either of the squad cars, was it some invisibility based talent?

"Right this way Ronin I think you'll like this." Kraiger moved with the grace and gate of an Ostriches to the second police car and pointed into the back window.

"Have a look."

Walking over Ronin peered down into the bottom of the foot rest of the back seats. Crumbled limp over limp in what must be a very uncomfortable position, a relatively well dress man laid unmoving save it for his breathing.

Ronin was gonna ask what his talent was but quickly made a guess after seeing the HPA special blind fold wrapped tightly around the mans eyes.

"A hypnotist?"

"Excellent observation! Indeed Mr. Orbal here had used his hypnotic eyes in an attempt to steal the Directors daughter tonight. But as you can see, he's been dealt with, without a single punch or kick, and if my suspicions are correct. They didn't even have to use their talent."

Ronin couldn't mask his shock at that conclusion, both eye brows shot up to Kraigers guess.

Stolen story; please report.

"How? What did this 'vigilante' do to him?" Gesturing to the man unconscious in the back of the car.

Kraiger readily gave his explanation. "Assuming he broke the mans talent limit some how, which is how most Hero's apprehend villain's or criminals. Breaking a limit put talent users into a unconscious like state. Scientist have determined that its a built in safety mechanisms within Talents to keep the user from over using their talent to the detriment of their own body. As you well know a strong blow to a persons body can trigger this safety mechanism with in someone."

Ronin cut him off with a curt reply

"So he did attack the man and physically hit him then?"

"Not at all Ronin!, as I mentioned before I don't believe any violence truly happened."

"Then get to the point, what happened?"

"Alright alright" Kraiger raised his hands defensively before continuing his probably now scaled down lecture.

"I used my talent to see what was going on with our would be kidnapper there. He's stuck in a endless loop of trying to control his own mind with his talent. I believe that the Vigilante was able to trigger the limit break by using Mr. Obals own talent against him."

Ronin hand moved to his thin beard as he thought about that.

It was impressive, most people, even some heroes wouldn't think of how to use a hypnosis type talent against its user. Going against some one with the ability to control mines was no easy task, and was usually something taught to third year hero trainines. It involved primarily how to find out what their trigger was, what gave them control, and different ways to potentially overcome the affect of mind control if you ever fell under its control.

"This vigilante... Where is he now? What did he look like?" Ronin asked still working out in his mind how he would have approached this situation had he been here.

"Miss Ito gave his description. However its not much to go on." Pulling out a tablet form his pocket he unlocked it clicked around a bit then began to give what Ronin knew what's the Directors daughters exact words.

"Young, Tan hair, covered in dirt, no costume."

No costume, now that was rare, almost every vigilante tried to hide their identity, there were a few he could recall that didn't. According to them they did because they thought the Hero's were corrupt for hidings their true self's, that they had something to hide. That particular vigilante, she learned the Hardaway of why keeping your personal life and anything resembling hero life separate was vital to not just your own survival, but to the safety of people who know you. Family friends, even old classmates were at risk just from the fact of them knowing you. it was risky of this kid to do that, so either he's sloppy or... Or he wasn't planning to be a vigilante tonight.

And what was that before, covered in dirt? What was that about?

"And that's not all Ronin, she also said that he tried to not take credit for saving her. But according to her own testimony there was no one else around who could have intervened. And using her talent on him showed a rather interesting conglomerations of truths and lies about himself. And one in particular that stood out to me."

Kraiger paused, Ronin knew he was waiting for him to ask which one. Instead he just gave a slight nod to continue.

"The phrase "I could never be a hero". He believed that, not only that he specifically insisted he had nothing to do with this and quickly ran off Which Miss Ito Believed to be a lie. Which makes me believe he is familiar with the laws revolving around Vigilantism and that he didn't want to get caught. I suspect that our unknown local hero is in the process of either becoming a vigilante, or.." Kraiger paused for a dramatic moment before continuing. " Or was already one in the past. Which then begs the question. Why did he interfere, when a normal person would have just called the Hero hotline for help?"

Kishiwada South Japan - The next day.

Perran started the day by sending a quick text to Brick Forge apologizing profusely that he can't come into work today because he was feeling sick. Which was kind of the truth. He wasn't ill per say, but felt horrible. His stomach was all tied up in nots, his mouth was dry and he had a pounding headache. All probably caused by the one giant shot of alcohol he had taken the night before. Again not the brightest of moments for him.

Actually that whole night was just one stupid mistake after the other. He should have never let Kazuki drag him along, he shouldn't have drank, and most defiantly he should not have interfered with that villain last night. He knew he would just get in the way and make things worse. The only reason it didn't go bad was he got lucky with his gamble. Nothing more.

A hero or police officer probably would have shown up and apprehended the person. They had trainings for that. He knew he was ill prepared and the wrong person to be able to help.

So why did he?

That was a question that kept Perran up most of last night. He didn't have to get involved, that's what the police and hero's are for. Perran was just a warehouse worker with a bad hip.

Was it for attention? Or some sort of ego boost? An excuse to get away from his coworkers? No, none of these felt right.

When he was a little kid he wanted to be a hero like his father and help people. But is that reason enough to get evolved, of course not. It was thinking like that that lead to his injury in the first place, and many other things that happened because of him. No he couldn't be a hero.

His phone vibrated from a recent message. Grabbing at it clumsily he flicked the screen on to see the notification from his boss.

"Perran we need you in today. If you don't show up because you can't handle this line of work I'll have no choice but to let you go." -Brick Forge (Boss)

Perran buried his face in his pillow and let out a long breathe.

If they need me, then they need me in.

Rolling out of bed he began his prework routine, but a little slower than usual.

Putting on his boots he dusted some metal shavings off his well worn jeans slung work pack over his shoulder and he headed for the front door. He had his hand on the handle when a door opening behind him made him stop for a moment.

Jacob in his Power pajamas and dreary eyes shuffled out of his room. A fuzzy cloud followed behind him.

Sometimes after waking up Jacobs talent would show little snippets of his dream that his subconscious was still thinking about.

This time his cloud showed what looked to be a group of adventures fighting a large Obsidian dragon, It wasn't as big as say a silver dragon, but its entire body was sharp with black glass, that it used offensively. Perran made a mental note to prepare to fight one in the next session.

*YAAAAWN* "Perran? You're up late, where were you last night? Mom and Dad were worried." Rubbing his eyes he moved into the kitchen to prepare his morning cereal.

"Sorry to have worried them, Some work colleagues invited me drinking last night, and I just lost track of time." It was technically true, he was just leaving out the parts that Jacob would tell Mr. and Mrs. Hikari. He knew Jacob wouldn't want to get him in trouble. He's just very kind hearted, and would be doing it for what he believed was Perran's safety.

He'll make a good Hero.

Perran turned back to the door but before leaving he had a question for Jacob.

"Jacob. Why do you want to be a hero?"

"Hmm?" He already had a mouth full of Crunch MIGHT! Cereal. His face got a bit red as he hurriedly chewed.

"Oh... ummm it ah seems like a good career to see the world... You know get to umm.." Jacob fidgeted in his seat, flustered by the question.

"You don't' have to answer it if you don't want to Jacob. I was just curious." Perran really didn't mean to make Jacob uncomfortable from his question.

"Oh.. No its fine Perran. Its just that... hah.. Kasai said my reasoning was... stupid." Jacobs eyes darted down to his bowl.

He seemed to take a few moments to gather his thoughts before continuing.

"I... I just like seeing people happy... And I see hero's making a lot of people happy." Jacob shoulders hunched in with his back, his face got even redder. And his cloud that floated close by showed a much younger version of Jacob shrinking in on himself.

"That's a great reason." Perran said matter of factly.

"You think so?..." Jacobs head raised up a bit.

"Of course I do, wanting to help people by making them feel better is one of the best reasons to be a hero. Don't worry about what anyone else says. As long as your goal is to help others than what other people think about your motivation doesn't matter, especially if its Kasai."

Jacob seemed to like what Perran had said.

His big smile returned and he sat up straighter.

"Thanks Perran, I really appreciate it. I feel a little bit more motivated for the entry exams next week."

Perran own mood improved with Jacobs.

"You'll do great Jacob, don't give up, you can do it."

Jacobs cloud swirled a bit and showed a rather funny interpretation of Perran as a cape wearing hero striking some power pose.

Jacob upon noticing the cloud swatted it away.

"Ahem.. sorry about that still working on that."

Perran wasn't sure what he was apologizing for, sometimes talents just behaved in weird ways. Besides Jacobs cloud was so used to showing fantasy characters its no wonder it showed Perran as an actual Hero.

"The HPA will help with that, I'm certain they have some courses dedicated to concentration based talent use."

Jacob perked up at that "Oh there is! Its taught by the retired hero mecho mind! He has the power to manipulate mechatronics. He's like a human control board! Apparently it takes a lot of concentration for him to just move one motor. And yet he's able to control his 16 mechanical arms he built himself... Sorry I'm rambling you have to get to work now. Have a good day Perran."

"Thanks you too Jacob." Waving goodbye Perran set out for work.

The walk wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. That morning conversation with Jacob really did lift his spirits a bit. He was looking forward to watching Jacob and Kasai at the entry exam that coming Saturday. He truly was confident that both of them would get in.

But he'll have to have another talk with Kasai. The both of them haven't really gotten along since Perran's arrival seven years ago, unlike Jacob and Nakama, Kasai always felt, no pun intended, Icey to him. But Perran couldn't really blame him for that. When he arrived at the Hikaris he wasn't very talkative either. But eventually he opened up a bit more with the Hikari family.

But it seemed Kasai never truely did, he like Perran didn't change his last name to Hikaris like Jacob and Nakama had.

Perran always tried to give him space but include him when he could. But now thinking about perhaps he pushed too hard?