Somewhere near Japan, in a location that didn't appear on any map, President Ming sat in a chair and watched the news.
The room was simple. Wooden walls, a low table, and a pot of tea, still steaming. A single television mounted in the corner, tuned to the Japanese broadcast that was currently being watched by half the planet.
On the screen, Akira Shuzenji lay on a stretcher, unconscious, as two women walked beside him.
Behind them, HPSC vehicles waited in a line. The jungle smouldered in the background. The sky was still faintly violet.
Ming took a sip of tea.
"Hohoho..." he chuckled softly to himself. "Quite a show he put up. Don't you think?"
A crack of electricity split the air.
Blue light arced across the ceiling, scorching a thin line in the wooden beam above. The air in the room compressed, heated, and then settled as the discharge faded. Where there had been empty space a second ago, a man now stood.
Indra looked exactly as he always did..... tall, lean, dark-skinned, with wavy hair. His eyes glowed faintly in the dim room. He wore simple clothes, nothing that identified him as what he was: India's joint Number One Hero, AKA: The Thunder Born. One of the most powerful quirk users on the Asian continent.. and the world.
He looked at the television and sighed.
"That kid is so random."
"Hohoho, I agree," Ming said, refilling his cup. "Died the second time, came back as something like a god, erased a villain from existence on live television, and then fell out of the sky like a sack of rice. The boy is... unpredictable."
"That's putting it mildly."
Indra walked to the window and leaned against the frame, his arms crossed.
"But you know the rules, right?" Ming added, his tone shifting from amused to something more deliberate.
"The strong ones are always weird?"
"Exactly." Ming smiled. "And that boy is strong. The purple flame... I haven't seen anything like it in my lifetime. And I have lived a very long one."
Indra turned from the window and looked at Ming. "Do you really think this will work? The plan you told Jian?"
Ming looked at him over the rim of his teacup. The steam curled around his face, obscuring his expression.
"I don't know."
Indra stared at him for a long moment. Then he sighed yet again.
"Of course you don't know."
"Hohoho. When have I ever known anything for certain? Certainty is for people who haven't lived long enough to learn better."
"That's not reassuring, old man."
"It's not supposed to be."
Indra shook his head as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
He scrolled through his contacts. Found a name and just stared at it.
Then he took a deep breath and dialled.
The phone rang. Once. Twice.
Then someone picked up, and the first thing that came through the speaker was a laugh.
"BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
The voice was loud and full of energy.
"Well, well, FUCKING WELL!! How come the.... what's it called? The Indian god of lightning decided to remember this lowly hero?! Huh?! Did the Thunder Born finally get bored sitting on his mountain?!"
"Rumi..."
"WHAT?! You never answer my calls!! You never show up when I want to fight you!! I've been asking for a rematch for TWO YEARS and you keep making excuses!! 'Oh, I'm busy, oh, I have responsibilities, oh, I'm dealing with international affairs!' BORING!! Why should I listen to ANYTHING you have to say?! HUH?!"
"Rumi....."
"DON'T! RUMI! ME!!!!!!"
In the background, Ming laughed softly into his tea. "Hohoho... youngsters these days."
Indra closed his eyes. It's always hard for him to deal with her.
"OKAY, OKAY," he said, raising his voice to match hers. "RELAX. I will fight you."
The line went quiet for half a second. The silence of a predator hearing exactly what it wanted to hear.
"You always say that, Sparky."
"I mean it this time."
"You said that last time too. And the time before that. And the time before THAT. You've been dodging me since that joint operation in Osaka and I swear on my-"
"I have been busy," Indra said firmly. "You know that. You know what I'm working on. You know why I can't just drop everything and fly to Japan for a sparring match every time you get bored."
She went silent for a moment. After all, she did know what he was dealing with most of the time.
"Fine," she said. Her voice dropped from its usual roar to something closer to normal conversation. "Tell me."
Indra relaxed.
"Have you seen the news?"
"Noooo, why? I've been training. You know I don't watch TV unless someone's fighting on it."
"Turn it on."
"This better be worth interrupting my workout, Sparky."
He heard her shuffling through her things, mostly looking for her tablet.
She was quiet for a few minutes... then she spoke.
"...Holy shit."
Her voice had changed completely. The brashness was gone. The playful aggression was gone. What was left was the voice of a professional hero processing something that didn't fit into any category she had ever seen.
"What the hell is that kid?" she said.
"That," Indra said, "is our next candidate."
Another silence. Shorter this time.
"Huh," she said. "Of course he is."
"You see why I'm calling."
She exhaled. Long and slow. "Let me guess. You want me to say that he's been secretly working under me? That the whole thing was sanctioned? And that whatever he did in that jungle was part of some unofficial training operation that I authorised as a pro hero?"
Indra nodded.
"Yes," he said. "And you are the perfect person to ask, given your reputation. You've taken on unauthorized operations before. You've worked outside the system. You've been reprimanded by the Commission three times and have come back stronger each time. If anyone in Japan would secretly mentor a fifteen-year-old with a god-complex and a fire quirk, it's you. No one would find it odd."
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered. "Make me the weird one. As always."
"Rumi...."
"Got it, got it." A pause. Then her voice sharpened again. "But the HPSC is involved. Meaning that the woman is involved too. Things might get complicated."
"If things go that far," Indra said, his voice dropping to a register that the air in the room seemed to cool around, "I will personally deal with it."
"Oh?" The playfulness crept back into her voice. She couldn't help it — the prospect of chaos was her love language. "Now THAT would make headlines. India's joint Number One hero appears in Japan. The Thunder Born himself, walking into HPSC headquarters. Can you imagine the look on that woman's face?"
"Rumi...."
"Got it, got it. I know. Last resort. Don't make it a thing. Blah blah blah." She paused. "You always call me when you need something, you know that? Never just to chat. Never just to say hi. It's always 'Rumi, I need a favour' or 'Rumi, can you punch someone for me' or 'Rumi, pretend you mentored a divine phoenix child for political cover.'"
Indra sighed.... he had lost the count....
"How about this?" he said. "When we are done with this, let's get some food together."
The line went silent.
"You sure about that?" she said slowly. "You do know how much I can eat."
"Yes, yes. It's on me."
"I'm talking a LOT of food, Sparky. We're talking multiple restaurants. We're talking buffets. We're talking those places where they bring the food on carts and you point at what you want and they just keep bringing it."
"I said it's on me."
"NOW THAT SOUNDS LIKE A DEAL!!!!!" Her voice was back to full volume. Full energy..... AKA: the Rumi he knew. "ALRIGHT!! I'm on it!! Give me an hour to make some calls. I'll have a paper trail that'll make it look like I've been working with the kid since he was twelve! NOBODY questions my operations!! Not even that cold-faced witch at the Commission!!"
"Thank you, Ru-"
"BYE!! GOT WORK TO DO!!"
The call ended abruptly. The way all her calls ended.... not with goodbye, but with the sound of someone sprinting toward the next thing.
Indra lowered his phone. Stared at it. Then put it back in his pocket.
He sighed.
Behind him, Ming set down his teacup.
"Never thought you two would become this close, especially after that day...." Ming said.
As there was something between two younger people that they themselves hadn't fully figured out yet.
Indra leaned against the window frame. His electric blue eyes looked out at the mountains.
"Me too," he said quietly.
But there was a smile on his face. Very small. Barely visible.
Ming noticed. Of course he noticed. He noticed everything.
He chose not to comment. Instead, he shifted to the matter at hand.
"If you have to show up in Japan," Ming said, his tone losing its warmth, becoming the voice of the man who ran the most powerful hero support organisation in Asia, "this might get complicated. You know that. Your joint first-place holder might come looking for answers. That kid just needs a reason to fight you..."
Indra turned from the window and answered calmly.
"It's fine," he said. "I can manage that kid."
"Can you?"
"I am used to it by now...."
Ming raised an eyebrow. "You sure? Is AKira worth it?"
Indra simply nodded.
"I'll deal with it," Indra said simply. " And you and I both know Akira is worth it."
"Worth starting an international incident over?" Ming asked, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer.
"You saw what I saw," Indra replied. "That purple flame, that resurrection. That wasn't just a quirk evolution, old man. That was something we haven't seen in... how long? Centuries? The boy carries the weight of something ancient, and the people trying to put him in handcuffs have no idea what they're holding."
He looked at the television. At the stretcher disappearing into the back of an HPSC vehicle.
"If we let them bury him in bureaucracy, if we let that woman turn him into a weapon or a prisoner or a cautionary tale, we lose something that can't be replaced."
Ming looked at him for a long moment. Then he smiled.
"Sounds good to me," Ming said.
He picked up his tea and took another sip.
The television played on. The violet clouds faded. And somewhere in Japan, a boy slept on a stretcher while the world around him prepared for what came next.
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welp.... some development here..... you gonna love it..... Trust me
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