“Who could that be this late?” Izumi asked.

“Probably his landlord demanding rent.” Replied Four Eyes.

“If he does…” Mohawk Thug slapped his baseball bat against his hand in a threatening manner.

“Put that away! Where did that even come from?!”

“A true hero… never leaves home without being prepared for danger.”

The two started at Mohawk Thug as he tried to act cool. Both of their thoughts were along the lines of ‘But you’re just a delinquent that somehow passed the exam, aren’t you?’

Forrest opened the door. Standing in front of him was a man in a black suit and tie with sunglasses. Three people stood behind him. He took off his sunglasses and revealed a familiar face.

“Jarret!”

Forrest spoke in a surprised tone at seeing his friend again.

“Forrest! It’s good to see you.”

Jarret walked inside without invitation. Forrest stared at the three that were still standing outside the door. Even though they all wore the same black suit and sunglasses, they had wildly different appearances.

The first was an old woman with grey hair. Her hunched over back gave off the impression of frailty.

The second was a fat and piggish looking boy with pale skin. He was currently eating potato chips.

The third was a cute and short girl with blue hair in pigtails. Despite her cute face, she looked like a child with her small body.

“Ummm… what’s going on?”

“Jarret! You idiot. You can’t just walk into somebody’s house like that!” The girl lashed out.

Jarret, who was already through the door and walking toward the bedroom, had tape measurers and rulers out. He started to measure the doorways while the rest of the group stared.

“Hey, bastard!” Mohawk Thug roared as he brought his baseball bat up.

“Start talking before I break one of your legs.” His face was already twisting into anger.

‘Yup, definitely a delinquent...’ thought Izumi and Four Eyes.

“Sorry for the intrusion.” The old lady walked forward into the room and began to speak for everyone to hear.

“We are from the Association.”

“Ah!”

The four gasped. Were they hear to fire them?!

“I’m not sure what those faces are for, but there is no need to worry. We have been assigned as your supporters.”

Supporters? Forrest thought back. He remembered that Jarret had become a Supporter, but that was all that he knew about them.

“What is a supporter?” asked Four Eyes.

“A supporter is a person with a particular skillset assigned to heroes. Currently, every hero is being assigned a supporter. This is in response to the increasing monster and villain threat as well as the high rate of hero fatalities.”

“Well, at least they recognize that there is a problem…” said Izumi. The old woman continued speaking.

“I will now introduce myself and my colleagues. My name is Sandy. You may call me Mrs. Sandy. This gluttonous boy to my left is Sumen.”

The four looked at the fat boy that continuously ate his chips. None of them wanted him as their support.

“The rude boy measuring your room is Jarret. I believe you have already met before, Forrest?”

“Ah! Yes. Everyone, this is Jensen. I met him during my exam.”

The three watched Jensen continuously measure the dimensions of the room.

“This cute girl is Mandy! Look at how cute she is!”

The three giggled in a perverted tone as they menacingly stared at Mandy. Mohawk Thug looked at his friends and laughed.

“You childish boys. Getting so riled up over a child is-”

A swift kick to the stomach from a small foot cut him off mid-sentence. A cold voice with a dark tone littered the room.

“I’m not a child. I’m twenty-four years old.”

“Eh?”

All four of the heroes couldn’t help but show the surprise on their faces.

“Moving on…” The old woman broke the tension.

“We have been assigned as your support. I am assigned for Izumi.”

Izumi’s heart broke. He had hoped that his support would be the violent girl. ‘Well… whatever. 3D girls are lame anyways.’ The fat boy spoke for the first time.

“I’m assigned to Four Eyes. Good to work with you.”

“Likewise.” Four Eyes shook his hand respectfully. The other three were glad someone so collected as Four Eyes got stuck with him, as they would probably cry to have such a useless support. Mandy spoke again.

“I’m assigned to the failing hero known as Mohawk Thug.”

“Bleh…” Mohawk Thug scoffed.

“I have a flat little girl supporting me now. Wow, this changes everyth-!”

Another kick to the stomach silenced him. Forrest looked at Jarret.

“Then that must mean…”

“Yup. From today onwards, we’re partners through thick and thin!”

Forrest smiled and shook Jarret’s extended hand.

“By the way, why are you measuring the room?” Asked Forrest in confusion.

“Ah!” Sandy gasped.

“I forgot to mention. For all C class heroes, Supporters and Heroes must live together. If they are not the same gender, they are allowed to live in the same building.”

The four heroes stared with their jaws on the floor. They all yelled their incoherent thoughts. Four Eyes was the only one to make sense in the confusion.

“Wha-! This is a breach of privacy! We can’t just give up our home privacy-”

“Any hero that defies this rule will be fired.”

The heroes stared at the old woman with broken expressions. They simultaneously dropped to their knees and drooped their heads in acceptance.

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The sun rose and lit the sprawling buildings across the land. An alarm clock rang in a dark room to awaken the sleeping man inside. A hand slammed the alarm clock as Forrest climbed out of bed to walk to his living room. He heard the chopping of knives as he entered.

Standing in the kitchen with a feminine apron is Jarret. He diligently chops the vegetables, seeming to be unaware of his resemblance of a caring wife.

“Ah! You’re awake. I’m preparing our meals for the day. While we eat, I’d like to go over the numbers from your first month as a professional hero.”

Forrest winced. He knew that his numbers couldn’t be anything good. Just before he sat down, a loud knocking on his door beckoned him to open. Standing in the doorway was Mohawk Thug with a disgruntled look on his face. Beside him, Mandy appeared to be pouting.

“What are you doing here so early?”

“She woke me up and drove me nuts.” Mohawk Thug pointed at Mandy. “I figured I’d see how things were going with your support.”

Jarret invited them in.

“Come on in. We can go over the numbers and film together.”

The two walked in and sat down. Forrest sighed and wished he had warned Jarret to not invite any of his friends inside. They had a habit of overstaying their welcome.

Eventually, the four sat down on the floor. Jarret and Mandy had laptops out and were typing away.

“Well…” Jensen spoke.

“These numbers are… how do I say it…”

“Awful!” Mohawk Thug exclaimed in a joyful voice.

“Yours are even worse.” Mandy sighed.

“Forrest… what is the problem? You have a strong ability! Why are you not rising through the ranks?”

“Well…” Forrest scratched the back of his head in an embarrassed manner.

“Well?”

“It’s sort of…”

“Sort of?”

“It’s kind of like…”

“Kind of like?”

“I can’t beat any of these monsters! They’re way too strong! It’s crazy! My ability doesn’t have any attack power, so the only thing I can do is survive!”

Jarret couldn’t believe it at first. He was sure that there would be a viable excuse, but for someone with Forrest’s talent, he should be able to easily meet his quotas. However, upon further thought, Jarret remembered that Forrest’s ability was some form of extreme regeneration. Jarret stared blankly at Forrest and realized his glaring weakness. After all, the reason he had not been given higher clearance was due to his knowledge. He looked over at his friend and realized that he was probably in a similar situation.

“Forrest… That skeleton clearly had a full upper body. Even if you don’t know how to use the arms, you should be able to get a better understanding of it through training.

“Ah… I really don’t know how to train my ability, you know? I don’t even know how to use it. Once the skeleton’s gone, it’s gone.”

Jarret sighed. Indeed, Forrest’s situation was different from others. To put it in another way, Jarret was beginning to think that even Forrest didn’t know anything at all about his own ability.

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“Alright. Try bringing out your skeleton.”

Forrest stood in a small field that hadn’t been mowed in a while. The grass and weeds were almost touching his waist. Forrest had already complained about the quality of the location for the training session, but Jarret had wanted to explore the potential of Forrest’s Blood Burning ability. He had incredibly high expectations considering the defensive capabilities, but he wasn’t sure that Forrest could use it correctly.

“Ok. Here goes nothing.”

Forrest stood in an athletic stance while closing his eyes. He tightened his muscles in an attempt to replicate the feeling of the skeleton appearing.

“It’s no use. I don’t feel anything happening. Like I said, it comes out on its own whenever I’m in danger.”

Jarret raised his hand to his chin in thought. Wind blew through the field in waves, bringing a refreshing air while going through their hair. After a few moments, he spoke.

“Continue what you’re doing, but open your eyes.”

Forrest opened his eyes to see Jarret with a pellet gun aimed at his chest. Before Forrest could react to the situation, Jarret pulled the trigger. The bullet flew toward Forrest before being slowed and halted by the red skeleton.

“What the hell?! That could have killed me!”

“Don’t worry. This brand is can only kill squirrels, and I’m not aiming at your vitals. At the worst, if your skeleton fails, you will be out of commission for a couple days.”

Forrest took a step back in fear. Despite Jarret’s nerdy looks, he said some pretty scary things.

“More importantly, I just figured out how to give you control over your ability.”

“Oh?” Forrest asked expectantly.

“Muscle memory. I will continuously shoot at you in order for your skeleton to activate. Focus your effort on the feeling of when your skeleton forms, and try to recognize how it materializes. This will probably take a while, but no need to worry.”

Jarret pulled a box out of his backpack.

“I have plenty of ammunition.”

‘Yeah, as if that’s what I was worried about’ thought Forrest. Despite his hesitation to be shot at, he did feel that this kind of training could work. If he could only command the skeleton, he would likely be able to develop its offensive power as well.

“Then, let’s begin.”

At this time, neither Forrest nor Jarret knew that what they were doing would impact the world in ways that they could never imagine.

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