Work was good today it was always a rush to take down a baddie and deliver him to the side of justice. Mumei was definitely a dangerous criminal who needed to be contained. It was the fate of aggressive metahumans.

SNAP!

The sound of the cuffs locked tightly around Mumei’s wrist while the officers secured a silver collar around his neck. When it comes to dealing with people with gifts there had to be a way to deactivate their power. Even with intensive research, they couldn’t make the connection on how it superpowers were used.

What they did find out was how the brain reacts to using these abilities. The brainwaves changed whenever a person activated their powers and became more active. So through science, the officers were gifted with a device that could sense the stress that was put on the human brain when powers were activated and thus the collars injected a strong sedative into the body of the host.

The drug was really potent it would immediately put the person asleep and keep them in that relaxed state for hours on end. It took a lot of regulation from the government to come up with this idea. Previous ones involved electrocution, poison, and straight up death devices.

The government thought it was important to have people believe that metahumans were just as human as the rest as everybody else. They didn’t want another surge of hate to imitate the things you see on shows.

“Toss him in. Watch his head.” The officer warned not really caring if he bumped his head against the roof of the car.

“Good work, Justice. Maybe you aren’t as problematic as we all thought.”

“Of course not! We’re heroes! Saving people, kissing babies, and beating up bad guys is in our job description. Haven’t you checked out our business page?” Jesse asked.

Jesse took being a hero as some sort of comic book interpretation. He constantly went on about his favorite heroes like Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men and so on. But, this was real life things weren’t as cheesy as that. Once you died there was no coming back.

“Hopefully this changes the minds of a lot of people. We truly are acting out of our hearts. The people’s safety will always be our main priority.” Higashi mentioned, talking to the officer.

The man gave a nod, thanking them once more before heading to the squad car and almost in sync they all pull out, blasting their sirens as they sped off along the asphalt.

“Higashi that was really cool of you to put your differences aside to work with Yun.” Rebecca chimed.

“Please, let’s not even discuss that.” Higashi moved his index finger and thumb to rub the bridge of his nose as he looked at the burger joint. This place would now be shut down for a little bit until the fear wore off. It was a shame how much lingering damage that people could cause.

“Just face it, man, Yun’s the leader. You aren’t. I mean, she’s been the leader for years. Why are you still mad about that?” Jesse yawned, working with such strong personalities tired him out. The constant headbutting between the leader and the co-leader for a better word was stressful.

“I will never forget! Never! Nobody has worked harder than me! Nobody!”

Oh no… this was what the two were afraid of. It wasn’t fair that they were forced to listen to this while Yun was MIA. This has been happening far too often.

“I was working my entire life for this before I even knew I was gifted. I came from an orderly, traditional Japanese family. Raised by a successful, orderly man and a rightfully supportive mother.”

“You mentioned orderly twice…” It was too late, once he started his rants there was no going back.

“I was taught from a young age on how to be a morally right individual and how to contribute to society. I went to school got good grades, befriended all of my teachers and got the recognition I needed to advance in this world. Then even though I could have continued my education, I decided to enroll in the Paladin Society. I don’t talk about it often guys, but those were the days that shaped me into the person I am today.”

Jesse covered his ears, trying to block off the rant while Rebecca listened in with awe. She couldn’t help it she was too good-hearted.

“The training was brutal. I wasn’t even that religious, I just wanted the training. I spent two years there… waking up before the sun even rose, eating the slop they called food… being whipped and paddled!”

“What kind of school was this?”

“Then when Justice became a thing I just knew that I was going to be the leader of this team. I just knew, but then I had to meet her.”

“Oh, oh! I remember this! This is the first time you met Yun all those years ago!” Rebecca shouted, raising her hand as if Higashi was a teacher.

That moment was forever seared into his brain. He fought Yun not knowing who she was and how overpowered her ability was. Still, he stood his ground. The more he got to know her the more he started to understand just how one dimensional she was. She was like one of those Chinese characters cut out from a cereal box. It brought him to tears the more he thought about this.

“Then it was decided that Yun would be the leader… an immigrant let me remind you. Someone who snuck into this wonderful, orderly, traditional country and was somehow awarded for it. Oh, I can’t believe it! I still can’t believe it!” The man was starting to cry, but on cue, Rebecca handed him a handkerchief.

“Thanks, Rebecca.” He wiped his tears before folding the fabric into a perfect square before handing it back.

“Now with that out of your system… can we go? I’m missing a tournament today! There’s going to be a lot of loot!” Jesse became antsy.

“Just go back with Yun. She drove you.”

“She’s gone, man. I don’t feel like finding her. Come on, you don’t have anywhere to be.”

It was true. Higashi was somewhat of a workaholic. He put all of his energy and passion into his job, leaving little time for a social life. That was why he had so many dating apps on his phone.

“Fine. I’ll drive you home.”

The group was seen walking away from the empty burger joint with quite the considerable amount of damage to it. Wonder who’d pay for that? The cast walked along the street, hopping into the vehicle and applying their seatbelts. They knew Higashi wouldn’t leave until everyone was strapped in.

It wasn’t long before the gang was back at headquarters. A sight Higashi loved coming back home to. It was a secure area with a gated door and two armed guards protecting it at all times. The outside was a large yard with the grass so evenly cut it was reminiscent of a golf course. There was not one uneven blade of grass to be seen.

The group walked along the stone path to the three-story-tall building. The construction process was aided by Atsuo Tech and so it had some built-in defenses to keep baddies out if they ever discovered this place.

Inside the walls and tiled floor was white as snow. Lots of decorations hung up on the wall of various things from flowers, to oceans, and fields of snow. Jesse went his separate way once inside, heading up the flight of stairs which curled about.

The lighting in here was very well done with various chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. It was nice living like this it made saving the world that much motivating when you got treated with favoritism.

However, Higashi couldn’t relax. He thought about something on the drive home which stuck with him. Mumei was acting differently, but what if he was working with someone? From all the year's Justice fought him he was always a lackey. If he ignored this feeling it could mean lives. There was no harm in questioning him. Mumei was easy to read.

“What’s wrong? Something’s bothering you, isn’t it? You were quiet the whole ride home.”

“Rebecca. I believe that Mumei is indeed working for someone. Do you remember what I told you?”

“Yeah! You said always believe in yourself!” She shouted as her fists were raised into the air.

“That’s right… so we’re going to interrogate him.”

“Oh sweet! Can I really tag along?”

“Yes. You should always be accompanied by at least one person. If something goes wrong you need someone to watch your back. Justice is also a bit low on manpower, so it’s hard.”

“I understand. When you’re ready! We’ll interrogate the mighty Mumei!”

This girl is so freaking weird… what I wouldn’t do for a better sidekick…

“Right….”

It wouldn’t take long for the two to get to the holding station. One of Higashi’s rule as a hero was to never second guess yourself. It was important to be logical, but sometimes you had to let intuition take the lead. Was he doing the right thing? What could be the harm? He was collared so he couldn’t do anything.