Dante led Rinji back over to the training dummy.
"Okay, little rabbit, let's do this again."
Rinji followed behind, a little embarrassed at the nickname.
"Just punch it again, though, don't stop this time. Keep punching it repeatedly, I wanna test something."
Rinji blinked. "O-okay."
He struck once. Then again. And again.
His fourth was noticeably faster. Then the fifth even faster.
Dante's grin twitched.
As Rinji kept punching, the dummy started to rattle. The sensors blinked faster. His fists started to blur, slamming faster and harder with each strike.
Dante noted more down.
He accelerates in repeated motions. Not just movements, intentional rythm. So if he intends to do something, it will build up.
Rinji eventually had to stop, he hiccuped and stumbled.
Dante handed him water. "Don't give up yet, we've got more to do."
He pointed at a like of cones and crates. "Jump over those. Then again. See if it builds."
Rinji nodded and after he was feeling okay again. He hopped. Then again. And again.
And sure enough, he was moving through the air faster and faster.
Dante noted everything down.
Finally, Dante gestured for silence and pointed at the floor.
"Last test. Your favourite animal being a rabbit kinda gave me the inspiration for this. Stand still and tap your foot on the floor. Right there. Keep going. Tap, tap, tap."
Rinji tilted his head, "Like a rabbit thumping?"
Dante nodded, "is that what it's called?"
Rinji hesitated… then started.
His foot thumped softly at first. Like a shy rabbit's warning. Then it got faster. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. His body vibrated slightly with each tap. The marks on his body started to glow faintly.
Dante's eyes widened with excitement. "Now run."
Rinji didn't question it, he just trusted Dante.
He launched forward.
It didn't build up like on the treadmill. It wasn't a ramp. It was instant. A blur of motion blasted forward and into Dante as if he'd skipped the entire acceleration phase.
Dante caught him and clapped once, laughing under his breath.
"I knew you could do it!" He said, picking Rinji up proudly. "That thumping—just like a rabbit. It primes you. It preloads momentum!"
Rinji's eyes widened, blinking with awe.
"You mean…" he whispered, hesitating. "I can go fast… even without running first?"
"Yes! And the more and faster you do it, the faster you go!" Dante replied, grinning. "And this is only the first day, I will turn you into the greatest hero to ever live!"
Rinji looked down at his hands, his glowing marks dimming, heart still pounding.
Then he looked up at Dante.
And smiled, small, unsure, but proud.
"I don't wanna be the best hero, that's for you. I wanna be the best sidekick!"
Dante laughed for what seemed like the first time in years. "Great work, Rinji. You're something special!"
The words hit harder than anything he'd ever felt. Rinji looked like he might cry for a moment, but instead, he wiped his nose, smiled wider and nodded rapidly.
"Thank you… teacher!"
…
…
Last Night - Police Report Log : Incident #77-B | Location : Unknown Bunker Facility, Outskirts of Mustafu
The signal came late at night from what seemed to be a burner phone.
The man's voice was gravelly, calm and clipped.
"I called before regarding kidnapped children, I have just found a trafficking facility… there was sixteen children, they are safe now but they need picking up."
"Track the location."
And so they did, they triangulated the source before the man hung up.
Around five-ten minutes later, flashing sirens pierced the night, red and blue lights flashing bright. Detective Sakamoto stepped out of his car, his eyes narrowing.
The field was desolate, the place was quiet and cold.
Then his eyes narrowed.
A crowd of trembling children stood just outside the entrance of a large bunker next to a few unconscious men. Some held hands. A few were crying. All were staring into the dark woods beyond the facility, as if they were looking at someone—something, retreating into the night.
"Secure the children, detain the unconscious men for the time being, they could be the traffickers!" He barked.
Officers rushed forward with blankets and medical kits. The kids didn't resist. They just… watched.
"Who found you?" One of the officers calmly asked a little girl.
She pointed into the woods. "A hero… I think? He was very scary looking… maybe a monster?"
Sakamoto's gaze narrowed further.
Inside the bunker, the scene was straight out of a horror movie.
The long hallway had bloody footsteps along the floor.
"What the hell is this place?" An officer asked.
Sakamoto continued down the corridor. "No idea. We will need to continue."
When they found the next doorway, they stopped.
There was blood, everywhere.
A huge white room, filled with corpses—huge, malformed corpses all strewn across the ground. Twisted limbs. Exposed bone. Burnt bodies. Strange black tar like residue on the ground.
They didn't look like humans. Nor did they look like any kind of robots.
One of the officers recoiled. "What the hell… are these?"
"They look like people," another said. "But not really."
Sakamoto's stomach turned.
"Get a bio team down here. And call the Heroes Association. Now."
Within twenty minutes, three pro heroes had arrived. One of them, a forensic hero named Scanner, crouched near one of the bodies.
"I'm not sure these things are human," she said coldly. "They seem like bio-weapons, modified humans. Look, there's strange stitching along their joints and they have multiple organs—someone created these."
Sakamoto asked, "They sort of resemble those creatures from the Hosu attack…"
Scanner nodded grimly. "I think they are the same thing. Though, they feel less refined. That one, however, seems to be even more powerful than the ones from Hosu." She pointed to a large one, its entire upper body completely eviscerated.
"Dear lord…"
Then, a younger cop suddenly exclaimed.
"Sir! There are cameras, look up! Do you think there's footage of what happened?"
They all rushed to the only other doorway in the room, leading to a strange hallway of shattered glass containers and… PEOPLE? There were some people inside of the glass containers.
Sakamoto's eyes widened, "Are they alive? We need to help them!"
Scanner raised a hand, "Leave it to the others, we need to figure out exactly what happened."
Sakamoto nodded silently and they continued through the hallway.
They ended up in what seemed to be a lab room / office.
There was a large cage, presumably where the children had been kept, lab equipment and a large computer.
After managing their way into the computer, they were immediately greeted with hundreds of thousands of files, but, there was one thing they wanted. The camera footage.
They clicked on the footage and watched.
The unconscious men that were outside were walking through this corridor with the crowd of children, then, a few minutes later, a man with long, messy, unkempt, matted golden hair wearing a long dark red scarf walked through the corridor behind them.
Then, sirens started to wail and the monsters broke out of their containers.
After that, they watched the young man, who wasn't wearing his scarf or mask anymore, fight the monsters.
They watched as he effortlessly dealt with a horde of them, but then that's when two hulking monsters appeared.
They started to destroy the young man, flinging him around like a ragdoll.
The officers watched in horror as the young man twisted and grew, how he fought, it wasn't like any hero at all.
Sakamoto blinked. "Who is that? Wait… isn't that the vigilante guy that has been around recently?"
Another one of the cops pointed. "That little one there—the boy wearing his scarf and mask—he wasn't out there, with the others!"
Sakamoto's hands balled into fists.
"…We have to find out who he is. Both of them. Fast."