“It is with my great regret that today we gather today to bid farewell to our friends and teachers and the many who were victims of the recent destruction caused by the recent attack during the internship.” the school principal said solemnly.

He had just finished a long speech while the student body was in the massive gym and everyone was sad. The most affected were the heroic course students. Although a good part was sent all over but a good number were sent to the central area of Richmond where the damage happened.

There were gaps all over in the student’s seating among them.

Robin was thankful that all his friends had survived but only just. Lilian had taken five androids blowing up in her face and she had a large burn scar on her right hand and she is in the hospital even now as her body was recovering from the destruction of both her chain chomps which dispersed a lot of life force. She was in recovery at this moment.

The one other that was in Richmond was Shoji but he had been with his family and they quickly moved to help the military with evacuation instead of outright battle. The limit for civilian level powers was only strong men and they were well aware of the dangers and troubles they could cause. Of course, that didn’t mean they didn’t fight, the entire family was incredibly strong and their strange swords cleaved through android groups but that didn’t mean they didn’t take any damage either.

They had almost been surrounded by four beast droids and only because of Shoji’s father they survived because he didn’t focus on heavy attack, he focused on speed and attacking all the vital pipes and arteries since the droids we're still only half machine.

The rest were safe but they had followed behind their office as reinforcements but hadn’t been allowed to go deep into the city.

Robin was the one that took it the worse this last week. The students went one line at a time leaving flowers and notes in front of a wall of pictures. Among them were Mr Atlas’s because he was considered dead despite Robin already telling others that he could still hear his voice when near the rock.

Others did not believe him though.

Sadly they could only find destroyed facilities pertaining to the villain’s organization but they had massive deep underground train systems to run away through.

They were discovered only because the self destruction sequence took effect and sank a part of the city causing even further damage. They didn’t have any leads on where the passage goes and how far but they had completely missed the villain, who was confirmed to be at least a super villain since he could dodge Chasm Might’s sneak attack.

The identity was still up for question but it wasn’t good to know that there was a loose super villain loose in the AU.

The ceremony went on for about a half an hour more until everyone had the chance to go up.

“Alright, we will end here but for those who want to bring something else, the mural will remain outside for another week. Classes today are free and you can even meet up with clubs, tomorrow classes will return to normal.” the principal said and like that it ended.

The homeroom teachers guided the classes back as protocol. For Robin, whose homeroom teacher was Mr Atlas, they had a substitute currently and after returning they just took attendance and the students were released. They weren't allowed to leave the school premises without an adult's permission.

Robin didn’t know what to do so he slowly walked around until he met up with Milo who forced a smile. They eventually called those of their club and met up before heading to the club room.

“It feels strange without Mr Atlas.” Rudy said.

“Is the club going to be disbanded without a monitor?” Milo asked.

“Who knows.” Robin said as they reached the door and opened it.

What surprised them was a person standing in the room looking through the things stuck on the walls while having a notebook in his hand.

“Huh? Who are you?” Shoji exclaimed.

“Chasm Might?! Why are you here?!” Robin shouted.

The man looked over and smiled, “Oh you finally arrived, I’m sorry about the loss of your friends and teachers.” He said with a small bow.

“T-this is… the hero Chasm Might?” Rudy said, trembling.

“What are you doing here?” Robin asked, confused.

“I came to talk, naturally.” he said turned to the graphs, “You children sure are unique, your vision towards abilities is only subtly different from common people but these notes of so many abilities you’ve unveiled the secrets of without even using the Gamer Space of the boy is impressive. You can easily put to shame those stupid scientists who pride themselves on their impeccable knowledge but can’t even step off their pedestal to notice such simple things like this.” he said.

Robin looked at the graph and knew what he was talking about. The graph was a very basic diagram which they were building of Yuri’s acupoint system.

Beside it were notes on life force that the several users of the energy had been noticing purely the energy itself. There were totally different areas of notes for their powers.

“What did you come for?” Robin asked as they walked in and some of them went to the computers while Shoji took out a heater and kettle to make some sweet tea for everyone.

He turned from the wall and sat down on the largest seat which Mr Atlas had used because of his large build.

“Well, first off I wanted to check how you were doing, it seems you are doing better than a week ago.” he said.

Robin nodded.

“Right, well I guess you don’t want to keep talking about that with the ceremony and all that happening today. Alright, what I want to talk about is seeing if you would like to be my apprentice.” he said.

“Huh!” Suddenly everyone exclaimed in shock.

“You mean you want to recruit Robin as a sidekick?!” Lola exclaimed.

“No, not sidekick, apprentice. I’m sure you children are aware but as a Hero, I’m among the few who has done little else besides training for a good part of my life to reach my strength. Achieving safety for our massive America requires more than what the 10 or so heroes we have for the entirety of the American Union.” He said.

Robin frowned, “You think that because of my bond with Mr Atlas’s stones that we both have the capacity to become Heroes?” Robin asked.

“Exactly, don’t think that this is a ‘guess’, it is almost an affirmation because that is just how much potential is hidden behind inheritance abilities.” he said.

Everyone except Robin was confused.

Robin sighed and explained what he was talking about and they were shocked that there was even something like this in the world.

“Correct, in this world there are heroes that are selfish and work more for their own gain but there are few who don’t think about the people they protect. They just have a harder exterior. I avoid making large businesses, sponsoring big things and more because of just how much political problems follow such a decision which is why I am called the Nomadic Hero, the one who lives in the wilds. However, because I was closest, I was also the one that found you and I know for sure that you and your teacher are definitely vital for the future. Not just you two actually.” he said looking at Kevin.

“Huh? Me?!” He exclaimed.

“Yes, do you think Server Admin came and helped you learn about your ability simply because you were another gamer? Sure he might do that for ones with hardships in using their abilities but no. The Seer herself told him to look for you and help you. This isn’t a simple ‘help out’ it means that he is waiting for each phase of your growth to unlock the next part. Realize, your ability surpasses Server Admin, in technical terms, you are the game master, you create the game, he can only administer and control the rules in accord to your settings. He definitely sees you as someone that will surpass him and in the same view he sees you, I see something similar in Robin and Mr Denis Johns, your teacher.” he said.

“Yeah… but I don't want to leave my school.” Robin said.

“I never said I would take you away.” he said.

“Huh?” they muttered confused.

“I talked with Captain Stretch to learn about you, I can only say that taking you away is spitting on an incredible research path that could truly decrease villain count. Because of this I am signing up as a temporary teacher in this school and will become your club monitor if you agree to be my apprentice.” He said.

The others looked excited, it was extremely rare for anyone to get a sponsor like a brave man but a full hero is here.

The others were excited but Robin and Shoji both were much more cautious.

The two noticed each other’s expression and knew they were thinking the same.

“Sir, although we understand that you want to prepare new heroes for the future, we want to know… what exactly do you want with the club.” Shoji asked.

The man smiled when he saw they were much more cautious then he had expected and liked them for it.

“I see I am among smart people, I am glad. How many of you know about my history?” He asked.

“I heard vaguely, you have basically full body enhancement powers in every last aspect of your body making you the hero with the greatest body strength. To achieve it you had to transform Chi into an incredibly powerful form.” Robin said.

“Exactly, compared to myself, other people who process Chi into Qi can barely compare because of the method I created.” He nodded. “And this is exactly why I want your help.” He said.

Robin thought for a moment but it was Tristan who spoke, “Do you want to research how all natural bio energies are affected when processed under the same system of change as yours?” he asked.

“Exactly, I’ve never taken sidekicks, though i have trained disciples, but only lightly because I’ve only focused in strengthening myself for the time when all the unions decide to finish off the last super villain power but when i saw the boy force world power into his meridian channel, it made me realize that other energies could be very similar to chi. We simply have not researched this. I looked through countless archives but besides Chi and Chakra, no one actively ‘cultivates’ a power from natural and unnatural energies. I want to see if it is possible and the effects it has on the powers of people. If it works, this also means that it is possible to give people like the little miss here who only has basic chi control or someone with only life force control, a method to grow and allow them some level of self defense they can use to run or fight back. If the lowest level of society grew stronger then it would make the upper levels stronger as well.” He said.

“Yeah but if the lower side strengthens it also breeds more illegal crime fighters and criminals at the same time. If this research does bear fruit, it will eventually also reach the hands of super villains making them even stronger.” Robin said.

“Only if it is prematurely released, I’m more than ready to build companies if it is required to recruit people we have done the tests with to maintain secrecy.” he said.

Everyone looked at Robin this time, he had been the main focus of the club since the start.

“And what of the normal research into possible curing methods for abilities?” He asked.

“There are tens of thousands of methods that can be tried but have never been used. You’ve used medicine from the undead, life force rich oil from demons, even now you are helping a boy create digital life forms which could eventually breed a totally unique world of their own which would produce immense forces of nature on their own as well along with many unique materials to work with and most importantly, just learning the method of channeling energy could also be researched to try and fix the flow of power in a person's body.” he said.

“Now that you mention it, why hasn’t that been a major research topic? It is something that energy control masters can do.” Robin asked.

“Because the trick is incredibly hard, you have to infuse power into another person’s body without losing control. Also, raw energy, without the assistance of a person’s power, is incredibly hard to push outside the body. Processed energy is much easier but I personally never developed that kind of trick but I can still sense people’s bodies which is how I sensed you doing that thing with the world power. This trick doesn’t let me ‘see’ the process direction, only sense reactions and flow.” Chasm Might said.

Robin nodded, he looked at all his club mates for their opinion because it affected the entire club extensively.

Everyone was looking at him expectantly making him slightly sigh and nod. “Fine, there are still many different kinds of methods of using abilities I wouldn’t even think about so that might be interesting to see how it works and if it can change and improve the powers.” Robin said.

Chasm Might nodded and stuck his hand and the two shook. “Good, I’ll be fully registered by tomorrow then and will be only the PE teacher.” He said.

Lola chuckled, “With a hero as a teacher, it might even make this school grow rapidly because everyone would want to try and put their children in this school.” she said.

“Oh, that shouldn’t matter because I plan to only sign up for 4 years until your grade graduates. My focus is on the boys who have the potential to affect the future and who need a lot of growth. I’ll be preparing a lot of things, be ready to feel pain, kid.” he said.

Kevin was trembling but the others just laughed.

Chasm Might didn’t lie though, he was completely registered as a teacher the very next day and replaced Mr Atlas but it sent huge ripples when this got out but he was indeed there. It was even more surprising that he even replaced the monitor of the club clearly showing he had an interest in the club or at least it’s members.

Instantly there were people trying to join the club under a true hero but Robin was firmly and completely rejected anyone in the heroic course because they just wanted to be near Mr Might while the civilian course, he interviewed a lot of them to see if they had actual ‘value’ that could help out the club and it’s workings. The entire student body had gone through the Gamer space so they had a clear knowledge of their ability to the point the space showed it. The club did increase by nearly 20 people out of hundreds and that was it.

Every last person had only energy control abilities and that was it. Many of them could barely even do much with it, surprising so many people but they were happy.

The first day of PE, Chasm Might took the chance to see how the class functioned before half way through he changed the method.

He showed just how experienced he was in training his body and pulled from his old training routine and produced entire routines for each student for each day. There was not a single day among the 5 days that was the same.

Robin was the only one that did have a difference and it was a single workout. It was called ‘Hardened beating’. It was purely meant for him to beat up Robin in his hardened form and strengthen the hardening of his body as well as increase the heat tolerance of his body.

One thing to say is that Robin did have a few changes because of the world power. The day they returned after the talk, he had Lola call out Lily and he had her examine his DNA to see if he actually had any changes.

Shockingly, the only change was that his body was more energized with the second energy source. Of course, there was one effect this brought with it. Side effects from his hardening had reduced a bit and even the new weakness from heat gained a valve. World power contained the capacity to change heat into power so taking a beating actually allowed his world power to convert heat into power which allowed him to cool down faster. Of course, under the beatdown that Chasm Might could hand out, he could barely handle it but he beat him in a controlled manner no stronger than a top strong man like the beast droids.

Like that, with a hero for a PE teacher, he started to try and adapt to a much harder work ethic so that he didn’t have to live through the same thing again.

***

“Urg! This… is too much!” Robin shouted as his hands were against the Atlas stone and his body was surrounded by a green energy. In just a week's time this power was generated by the stone and he was now actively absorbing the energy.

Behind him Chasm Might just watched, “You need to stress your body to the limit with this. Just like Mr Atlas, your body now feeds and grows off this power and it will only generate more and more power as time goes on. To support all of it completely you need to gain the tolerance to contain this all inside your body. You’ve just tried to merge and we all saw the result, you have to contain the power to do it all at the same time, unless you can store all the power the stone can produce then you will not be able to do that.” He said.

He watched Robin and inwardly smiled. He remembered reading the book on Mr Atlas and his ability and how he contained his power in every cell of his body but he didn’t do like Robin.

Currently his body indeed was stored in his cells, he could see his skin gaining a subtle shine just like when Robin passes his LP oil but he also felt the intense flow of power through the still very undeveloped meridians and the nucleus of power slowly forming in his Dantian.

Almost all that power is consumed just during PE several times and the stone didn’t show even a little bit of weakening the aura of energy.

Soon Robin pulled back as the cloud of energy quickly weakened while the rest of what was released concentrated and he worked to pull everything inside but he couldn’t and the last bit dispersed slowly into the surroundings.

“Good, how does it feel?” he asked.

“Stuffed… like overeating.” Robin groaned.

“Okay, get to your daily routine.” Chasm Might said and Robin nodded and ran off to get the much more intense weights and then run at full speed for as long as he had energy.

Chasm Might looked around at the class taking each of them into consideration and smiled lightly, “The recent attack was quite the wake up call for them. The Kong boy is among the ones working the hardest now. His file showed a history of bullying Robin for his defective power but has stopped since the start of the year when he showed better results. His King Kong transformation is still quite juvenile however but as the clan hoped, it had great potential after his development through the Gamer Space and highschool life fixed his minor ego problem.” Mr Might thought.

At that moment, a boy from a different class was coming around. He had shiny hair like it was coated in gel. He was pretty fit but had the appearance of a thug.

Around him were several similar guys and he followed their run and frowned as he saw the lead boy’s shirt on the back.

It had a skillfully hand sewn circle with Japanese writing one it. When his eyes landed it, they seemed to shine and his brow raised as he suddenly understood the meaning.

“Huh? Is that done by some kind of ability?” he muttered confused.

Robin started to run at this point and with the hardship of the equipment prepared for him, he still rushed forward at the full speed he could reach and after a moment he passed the group of thuggish students and instantly the leader growled and suddenly rushed forward.

“Ah! Boss! Not again!” one of the followers shouted as they all stopped, huffing while their leader ran despite his fatigue and surprisingly he soon matched Robin’s speed.

Mr Might looked confused and looking around he found a few other teachers and quickly walked over, “Hello, that strange boy with the thug-like face and shiny hair, who is he?”

“Who?” the teacher said surprised and looked suddenly finding the boy that was being pointed at. “Oh, that is Silk Kraus, he looks like a delinquent but is a very nice boy. The boys that follow him used to be delinquents until he beat them up and slowly befriended them, helping them get better. In fact, it was such a big improvement that they went from having low 70s on their scores to the upper 80s.” the teacher said.

“Oh, the boy sounds like a natural therapist. That is a pretty good talent that could develop into a promising criminal reform therapist.” he said.

“Yes, he does give that impression.” the teacher said.

“He is a heroics student, so what are his abilities?” Mr Might asked.

“That is the funniest part about him, his abilities are hair growth and metal hair.” the teacher said with a hidden laugh.

“Huh?” Mr Might said, blinking in shock.

“Yep, that’s right. He regularly cuts his hair almost daily with special scissors that are like wire cutters because his hair is composed completely of metal alloy. It grows quickly along the day and remains down like it is now but after he finishes PE he activates metal hair and surprisingly his hair actually curls into the shape of a pompadour.” he said.

Mr Might looked at the teacher like he was joking and even said so.

“Nope, as funny as it might seem but his powers are just that. However you shouldn’t look down on it, he is a very determined boy and despite only being a little more then two months since school started, he and Mr Harrison have formed a strange rivalry.” he explained.

“Mind telling me how it started?” Mr Might asked.

“Sure, do you see the word on the back of his shirt?” he said as the two boys dashed past them and he pointed at the back.

“Yeah… I was curious about that.” Mr Might replied.

“We all love that because the one who did that is his very own sister. She calls her ability Absolute writing. No matter what medium she uses to write words, she can infuse the meaning of a word that people seeing it will be able to understand. At the same time she can make people unable to read it even if they know the language, the meaning keeps slipping from their minds.” the teacher said.

“That… is actually pretty amazing, she could become the best information broker if anything she writes is unable to be read by others but can’t they just copy and paste?” he asked.

“Anything written by her, even copies such as photos taken or films, or copy and paste, will be under the influence of her ability. She is actually a collage student already training to be a skilled programmer and hopes to work for several companies doing exactly what you said, helping them hide the key coding of their programs so that hackers would be unable to break their firewalls because she would hide essential programs to know about.” he explained.

“So that is why he has ‘stupid idiot’ written on his back? What does he think is written on it?” Mr Might asked.

“This one… I believe he said all his PE clothing had motivational words written like determination, power, strength and so forth. The truth is that they have words like idiot, dumbass and some funny ones that were her own insults for making fun of Silk.” the teacher said.

“He is so naive.” Mr Might said.

“Yes but you shouldn’t look down on him, he trained his entire core extremely well and taking his pompadour smash isn’t a nice feeling. Remember, it looks soft but once his hair has stiffened, it is as hard as iron. I think I heard that it’s been getting stronger after coming to high school so maybe it’s upgraded to steel already.” the teacher said.

Mr Might sighed, “There are really so many unique characters who aim for becoming heroes.” he said.

“Well, you and the others are the main cause of that. Even if you don’t appear often you are still the focus of extreme admiration for most people. Even bravemen who are more photogenic are a big focus of children growing up. Who doesn’t want to be like their favorite superhero.” the teacher said.

“Just hero… super heroes are beings that already surpassed the power of heroes themselves.” He said.

The teacher laughed at the thought but left it.

Mr Might smiled it off but in his mind, it was frowning and it was for the sole reason that there is even a villain country surviving today. It isn’t by chance, the only reason is because of a sole being among the villains that no hero can surpass without grouping up and it is one of the reasons that the heroes might not look for them but will always follow the orders of The Seer when she mentions to ‘help’ certain people. No few of these mentioned people didn’t become influential people important for rebuilding society as it is.

However, looking at the boy who was matching Robin’s pace while still fatigued and the subtle irritation on Robin’s own face as he looked back and forced himself to get away only to be matched further made Mr Might realize that he could very well use this to his advantage.

After class, he asked for Silk’s information to understand how his power activates and under what source before getting a small thing and asked to call him to the office he was given.