“Isn’t it obvious?” Shin replied, his tone matter-of-fact. “I’m sure you’ve read the details of why SUBLIME expelled me.”

  “Oh, that,” Hawks said, pretending to understand while probing further. “Didn’t think you’d still be pursuing that.”

  “Yeah, they wanted someone like All Might, but I became interested in espionage after one of their stealth lessons. They didn’t like that, and after I kept insisting, they just kicked me out,” Shin vented, his frustration clear from his expressions.

  Hawks nodded slowly, processing the explanation. “And now you’re here, expecting me to train you for that goal.”

  “Exactly,” Shin said with a cheerful smile. “If you’re willing to teach me, of course. I’m a quick learner, after all.”

  “And what about being a hero?” Hawks asked, pushing a little further.

  “I’ll still be a hero,” Shin replied confidently. “Who says heroes can’t be trained in stealth? Aren’t you one, too. My dream may have shifted from being a spy to being a hero, but my passion for espionage hasn’t changed.”

  Hawks shrugged with a smile, “If that’s what you wish, who am I stop you?” Then he continued, “Alright, head to the changing room. Take off your hero costume, put on something casual to blend in with the crowd, and meet me at the city square. We’ll start your training right away.”

  “Understood. I’ll see you at the city square,” Shin replied as he exited the room.

  Hawks leaned back, his mind turning over the details of their conversation. While it seemed his initial suspicions about Shin were unfounded, he couldn’t ignore the fact that the information from the organizations had been incomplete. They hadn’t mentioned Shin’s keen interest in stealth and espionage, which felt like a notable omission.

  Even so, Shin didn’t come across as an immediate threat. Hawks decided to stay vigilant, keeping a close watch on Shin during the internship. At the same time, he’d aim to subtly gather more information about SUBLIME and its activities. Caution was always a good policy—especially with someone as powerful and influential as Shin.

  …

  As he headed to the city square, Shin pondered over the conversation he just had with Hawks. He had detected the growing suspicion in Hawks mind through his Karmic Vision when he mentioned the organizations.

  Therefore, he started spouting half-truths and half-lies to confuse him. Having gone through all the publicly available information about himself, lying about SUBLIME and its activities was quite easy. Shin skilfully manipulated his words, ensuring that Hawks was convinced he had left the organization long before its destruction. At the same time, he shifted the blame onto the organization for providing incomplete information, successfully diverting Hawks’ attention from suspicion toward him and instead toward the gaps in the details given by SUBLIME.

  He knew Hawks would attempt to uncover more details in the coming days, but Shin felt satisfied. He now had someone to test his skills in manipulation and intelligence gathering against. All he needed to do was stay vigilant and ensure he didn’t accidentally divulge anything important.

  …

  After meeting Hawks and some of his subordinates specializing in undercover activities, Shin was taught the various skills he sought—surveillance, counter-surveillance, manipulation, cryptography, and more. During these sessions, Hawks sometimes questioned him on specific topics, trying to subtly gain more information on him. However, Shin either lied skilfully or diverted the conversation, ensuring he revealed nothing significant. In this process, Shin even managed to glean significant insights into the current underworld situation from their discussions.

  Over the course of two weeks, his speedy progress impressed everyone who was involved. Seeing how quickly he was learning, Hawks suggested something that hadn’t been initially planned—a real infiltration mission. Although they were quite hesitant about allowing a student, even one with a powerful quirk, to undertake such a task, Shin’s monstrous aptitude made them reevaluate the possibility.

  Shin was presented with a list of gangs to target. One of them piqued his interest—a large organization with thousands of members actively recruiting new members. He decided on them and infiltrated their ranks easily, relying solely on his superhuman physique and martial arts to pass their trials. For the sake of his anonymity, he used the alias Kairu and wore a skin mask to alter his appearance.

  One day, while Shin, in his guise as Kairu, was leading the newer recruits, a man entered their compound. He carried a katana and machete, his face and arms wrapped in bandages. He wore a combat suit reinforced with armor, red gloves, and boots, excluding an aura of grim intimidation. The man immediately demanded to see the gang’s leader.

  Taking charge, Kairu stepped forward and replied with confidence. “The leader’s out of town today. He’ll be back tomorrow. Take your ass and leave before I beat you up.”

  By this point, Kairu had become the de facto leader of the recruits due to his overwhelming strength. The man sneered, drawing his katana and pointing it at Kairu. “You? Beat me? Don’t make me laugh. Come at me if you’ve got the guts.”

  Kairu stood his ground, smirking as he raised his hand in a taunting gesture, daring the man to come to him instead. Provoked, the man charged forward, swinging his katana in an arc aimed at Kairu’s neck. Kairu ducked swiftly, dodging the strike, and countered with a leg sweep. However, the man jumped, avoiding the attack, and immediately followed up with a vertical slash aimed at Kairu’s left arm.

  Kairu rolled to the side, escaping unscathed, and sprang to his feet. Rushing toward his opponent, he aimed a punch at the man’s face. The man countered with an upward slash, forcing Kairu to halt his punch mid-motion and rotate his body to evade the blade. Using the momentum, Kairu closed the distance and launched a powerful kick aimed at the man’s abdomen.

  The man reacted by slamming his elbow down to redirect the kick, but he winced in pain as Kairu’s superhuman strength caused unexpected damage. Distracted, he failed to block a second kick from Kairu’s other leg, which struck his midsection and made him stumble back, coughing blood.

  Despite the impact, the man steadied himself, pointing his katana at Kairu. “You’re a good fighter. I’ll spare you if you join me.”

  Kairu narrowed his eyes, studying him. “Who are you?”

  From their exchange, Kairu had already deduced something about the man’s quirk. His attacks seemed aimed more at grazing than cutting deeply—most likely, his quirk required blood to activate. Determined not to give the man that opportunity, Kairu remained cautious.

  “I’m the Hero Killer, Stain,” the man announced. “I came here looking for recruits, and you fit the bill.”

  “Stain, huh?” Kairu said with a slight nod, feigning thought. “And what exactly do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to act as my messenger,” Stain explained. “Someone reached out, offering to help with my next kill, but I don’t trust them. Their ideals don’t align with mine. You’ll meet them on my behalf—or I’ll kill you here and now.”

  Kairu weighed his options. He was confident he could take Stain down without exposing himself, but doing so would waste a rare opportunity. This was a chance to uncover Stain’s ideology, his targets, and the group wanting to aid in the killing of heroes. With this information, he could potentially shift Hawks’ focus entirely onto this new threat and away from his suspicion about SUBLIME.

  “Fine,” Kairu said with a reluctant tone. “I’ll do what you want.”

  Stain led him into the dark alleys, explaining his plans as they walked. He shared details about his upcoming attacks, his targets, and his ideology. Stain believed the hero society was deeply corrupt, driven by greed, fame, and selfishness rather than genuine selflessness.

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  Kairu listened carefully, committing every word to memory. Stain’s core belief was that true heroes should be driven purely by a desire to help others and make the world a better place. He despised those who became heroes for selfish reasons—fame, money, or glory—considering them hypocrites who sullied the meaning of heroism. He, surprisingly, agreed with this perspective to an extent. He, too, felt that the current heroes were diluting the significance of the word Hero and failing to personify its true essence. However, unlike Stain, Kairu couldn’t agree with the method of killing these individuals. To him, eliminating them was a waste of human potential.

  Kairu’s view was that those who pursued heroism for personal gain should stop being hypocrites and instead embrace their true motives. They should be seen by society as professionals in a job, not as heroes. Only those who acted out of selflessness, with no ulterior motives, deserved the title of a hero. This philosophy was why Kairu refused to use the word hero in his own epithet, High Guardian: Equinox. He didn’t see himself as selfless and wouldn’t pretend otherwise. His ambitions were personal, and he accepted that truth fully.

  As Stain finished speaking and stepped away, he made a call. Then, he looked at Shin nodded his head giving him a signal and hid on a nearby rooftop.

  Moments later, Kairu sensed the clear sensation of teleportation nearby. His suspicions about the group Stain was dealing with was confirmed when a swirling purple mist appeared before him, gradually forming into a humanoid figure dressed like a waiter. Kairu instantly recognized him: Kurogiri.

  Kurogiri’s glowing yellow eyes locked onto Kairu as he asked in a calm but firm tone, “Where is Stain?”

  Without hesitation, Kairu answered, “He’s not here. I’m his messenger. He sent me to speak with your leader in his place.”

  Kurogiri studied Kairu for a moment, clearly weighing the situation. “Wait here,” he said before disappearing into the mist.

  As he waited, Kairu’s mind raced. This unexpected encounter had handed him an incredible opportunity—one that could allow him to infiltrate the League of Villains and uncover critical information. But it also came with substantial risk. He’d need to maintain his cover and tread carefully to avoid suspicion.

  When Kurogiri returned, he didn’t waste words. Opening another portal, he signaled for Kairu to follow. “Come with me.”

  Kairu nodded and stepped through the swirling mist, his senses on high alert. He had no idea what lay ahead, but he knew this was a crucial moment in his mission.

  …

  When Kairu stepped out of the purple mist, he found himself in a room that resembled an old bar. Sitting inside were two figures. The first was Shigaraki, immediately recognizable with his unsettling ‘Hand on the Face’ getup and his grim expression. The second was a man dressed in a full black suit with a white mask covering his eyes and nose. His calm demeanor gave off an air of inquisitiveness.

  “Well, well, look who’s here,” Shigaraki said, his voice laced with irritation. The masked man, chimed in, “Finally, I was tired of waiting,”

  “But he’s not Stain, Twice.” Shigaraki pointed out with a grimace. “He is someone else entirely.”

  “What he is not Stain? Then who is he?” The masked man, or Twice, asked suspiciously while rubbing his chin with his left hand.

  “Stain didn’t want to come himself, so he sent this messenger.” Kurogiri explained taking his place behind the bar, as he casually started cleaning the utensils. Shigaraki turned his full attention to Kairu, his voice dripping with disdain. “Fine. Tell me everything Stain told you.”

  Feigning nervousness, Kairu recounted Stain’s supposed plan to kill a hero in Hosu City that weekend. He added details about the heroes Stain had been targeting, listing names and information as if it were carefully prepared. His delivery was deliberate, calculated to appear genuine while keeping his true intentions hidden.

  Abruptly, the small television nearby started to flicker as a deep voice came out of it. And Shin recognised it immediately as All For One’s, “This Stain would be a good addition to the League. We could also use his Ideology to recruit more people into the league.”

  All For One ordered with a cruel tone, “Send some Nomus as a distraction every time he goes for the kill. This would make the public think Stain as part of the League, improving its already infamous reputation.”

  “Yes, Master,” Shigaraki replied respectfully as he bowed towards the television. The next second itself the television shut down, prompting Shigaraki to turn towards Kairu and say, “You heard Master. Tell Stain that we will send distractions; he just has to join us. These distractions are the Nomus from the USJ incident. They would slaughter everyone until Stain finishes his kill.”

  “Should I make a clone of his?” Twice asked.

  “No, he doesn’t have any good identity to use even if you make a clone of him. And seeing he was sent as somewhat of a scapegoat; I doubt he has any good quirk too” explained Kurogiri.

  “Oh! So, it’s a no, then.” said Twice showing a hint of disdain, “Kurogiri, could you please send him back to where he came from.”

  Subsequently, Kairu was taken back to the place from where Kurogiri initially teleported him from. After the purple cloud villain was gone, Stain, who was in hiding, came to him and asked for details. Kairu told him what Shigaraki intended to do, excluding his other findings, and went back to the gang he had initially infiltrated. He continued his life in the gang for about one and a half weeks.

  This left Shin with plenty of free time, which he didn’t want to waste. Whenever he found himself alone, he used the time to experiment with his skills, trying to address the issue of skill splitting. However, his attempts didn’t yield much success, as it was a natural process, and Shin wasn’t powerful or skilled enough to go against it. Eventually, he stopped trying to stop it and shifted his focus to finding a solution.

  Through this experimentation, Shin made a crucial discovery: his skills’ potency steadily increased whenever he used them. After carefully looking deeper into this, he realized that every single aspect that made up the skill was growing. He had initially thought this improvement was merely a result of better utilization of his quirks, but now, with concrete data, he understood that both his control and the potency of his skills were growing.

  Shin also uncovered the main reason behind the splitting of his skills. To illustrate this, he used an analogy: imagine a skill as a small glass marble. Inside the marble, the skill's aspects exist as droplets of varying sizes. These droplets are spherical and continuously grow over time. However, when Shin trained in a way that deviated from the usual aspects of the skill, the droplets which were related to that training would stretch and elongate. Eventually, after mastering the new aspect, the elongated droplets would separate, combining to form a new droplet, causing the original ones to return to its spherical shape. Normally, this process stayed within the marble.

  But when the marble becomes 75% full, the new droplet would automatically be ejected, forming a new marble or skill, containing only that specific droplet. This happens because the marble subconsciously recognizes its limit— and knows that if this specific capacity was exceeded, the droplets inside wouldn’t have enough space left for their own growth. This example basically explains the splitting of skills in its entirety.

  Shin also discovered that some of his skills, like Force Manipulation, Force Pulse, and Karmic Vision, were already past the 75% threshold. He even realized that Force Manipulation would soon reach full capacity, and he still didn’t know how to expand the capacity of a skill.

  Near the end of his infiltration period, Shin made another significant discovery. He comprehended why he couldn’t copy aspects from one skill to another: it wasn’t a matter of intent, but rather how he was going about it. Instead of trying to direct the aspect he wanted to copy into the other skill, he needed to connect the two skills—the one containing the desired aspect and the one he wanted to copy it to—with the aspect as the center. Once connected, the aspect could be transferred to the other skill, and the connection could be severed, leaving the aspect in both places.

  However, Shin found that he couldn’t keep copying or transferring aspects without consequences. Each time he moved an aspect, its potency decreased by around 10%. When he copied it, both the original and the copied aspect would only have half the potency. Despite this, Shin didn’t worry too much, as he had only experimented with the Illusion Immunity aspect, which he considered relatively unimportant. In fact, its potency had decreased so much that it could no longer be called immunity, but only resistance. He also realized that the potency of copied or transferred aspects increased at a turtle’s pace, until they returned to their peak, after which they resumed growing at their normal rate.

  Through these experiments, Shin successfully copied the Illusion aspect from his Force Pulse and added it to his Force Manifestation skill. This gave him the ability to bend the light around his force energy and use it for stealth. He could basically cover himself in force energy, bending light around him to become invisible. The same could be done with his force orbs, making his offensive attacks unseen and thus more deadly. He could also apply this ability to the force dome he created, allowing him to hide more people than just himself.

  Anyway, it was a great deal of progress, although not towards what he originally desired. He still didn’t have any idea about a solution, so he decided to just wing it. He would wait and see what happens when his Force Manipulation skill reaches the full capacity.

  And so, he continued to spending the time in the gang until the last day of his internship, as was instructed by Hawks.

  ……

  Toru Hagakure was having the time of her life. She was currently interning at the Ryukyu Agency, and she wasn’t alone. Alongside her were some of her classmates: Kuroiro, Jiro, and Setsuna.

  Until the day before, she had been training with Ryukyu’s sidekicks, who were teaching her how to maximize her quirk’s potential. The focus? Reconnaissance. Most of Ryukyu’s sidekicks were specialized in this area for a simple reason: Ryukyu, with her massive dragon form, was unsuited for stealth missions. Instead, she relied on a team to handle reconnaissance before she stepped into action. This principle extended even to the interns. Each of Toru’s classmates had quirks perfectly suited for this line of work, and their training reflected that.