Yo! I'm back from a break and some editing. Here's the next arc. I hope you're enjoying the book, and if there's constructive criticism, feel free to comment! Without further ado, let's hop back into the story.

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Recap

Paradise's pupils were dilating, staying conscious was a monumental task he was desperately trying to fulfill.

His mind was divided. One side wanted to flee for their lives, and the other wanted to rest, but Paradise knew that either of those choices would warrant him such hardships in the future that he would wish death upon himself.

He was barely maintaining consciousness when the pressure drastically increased. He couldn't hold on and was about to fall unconscious. All he could do was repeat the same things over and over in his mind, like a mantra.

'Stay awake…stay awak...st-' As he repeated, his pupils almost receded and his scarla almost turned fully white. Then the pressure disappeared as if it was all an illusion.

Paradise's body dropped onto the floor, the sweat that trickled down his body and his haggard breathing being evidence of that mysterious pressure.

Looking at the 'chess piece' on the floor, the man in the chair only took one glance. Then he returned his gaze to the chess boards. As he did that, he said, "Clean up your mess, and when you're finished, rest. Your 'training' has been quite lax, mainly on account of your mission.

Now that it's finished, I believe that you should meet my disciple, and prepare for the future. '

Those were the last words Paradise heard before blacking out. His body was instantly untensed. Shortly, however, before he fully lost consciousness, he said to himself, 'I will never try to interfere with the "game" again.'

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*Timeskip 6 months*

In the dark streets of Musutafu, lights could be seen shining despite it being 2 am. Coupled with that, a large number of footsteps could be heard.

Inside a building, many people were shuffling from corner to corner trying to quickly reach their destination. Sitting in a chair, a man with heavy eyebags and a disheveled appearance could be seen covering his face with his hand.

With how motionless the man was and with the aura that covered him, seeming to say 'Leave me alone'. Many would assume that the man was sleeping.

However, if someone could observe closely through the cracks in his hands, they would notice that his lips were moving ever so slightly and they would hear a small but audible noise coming from him.

*3rd Pov*

A person with a dog for a head walked up to the man in the chair. Glancing at his detective, who was clearly tired, the dog-headed man said his condolences in his heart and announced his presence.

"Detective Tanuma, how's the day going?"

The dog-headed man said while handing Tanuma a cup of coffee.

Tanuma slowly spun around in his chair and glanced up at the familiar voice. At first, he was going to glare at the chief for interrupting his muttering session, but seeing a hand outstretched towards himself holding a peace offering, he decided to hold back on his complaint.

Accepting the cup, Tanuma greedily drank the contents, leaving nothing left despite the coffee being pitch black with nothing else in it.

"Ah…These damn villains, can't they give an old man a break."

Seeing his detective, a bit more lively, Chief Tsuragamae now deemed a better time to talk to him.

"Old man? You're only 35. Besides, you know as well as I do that in a city such as this, there's never a night without crime. "

Taking a look at the chief, Tanuma sighed.

"So, what does the ever so busy chief of police need with a detective such as myself? Ah..it's about 'that' case, isn't it? I'll warn you now, though, I don't have much info on the guy. "

"That's fine. Just tell me all you've found. "

"Alright."

Tanuma spun his chair towards his computer and typed some things in until he found a folder titled, Vigilante: Azure.

"On the media and news, everyone's calling the guy Azure. A fitting name for his quirk. " Tanuma said, making small talk.

"By the way, do you want to start from the beginning or-"

"The beginning, I wanted a recap of the entire case." So said the police chief in a stern voice.

"Alright."

Then, as Tanuma skimmed through the files, he started explaining what he'd found in these past months.

"As you know, about 8 months ago, history was made. The death rate around Musutafu greatly increased, while the crime rate subsequently decreased. The biggest shock, though, was that it was happening all around the city. At first, it started in the east, but eventually, it started happening all around Musutafu.

Many people, heroes, and villains alike went missing, and when they were searched for, only ashes remained. Strangely when the ashes of the heroes-"

Tanuma stopped for a moment when he felt a piercing gaze upon himself.

"Ex-Heroes." Chief Tsuragamae spat out with a dark gaze encircling him.

"Right..Anyway, as I said, when the ashes were found, documents and piles of evidence were found near the scene. The thing in common with these documents is that they all presented the criminal deeds that the EX-heroes did.

Although all evidence was swept under the rug by the HPSC. Since then, the background checks of heroes were even stricter, and monthly deep investigations into heroes have been commenced. Many incriminating things have been found.

Due to this, many corrupt heroes were found, and they were all silently escorted to jail. The HPSC gave the public many excuses as to why a vast number of heroes were 'retiring'. This, as you know, caused many of the heroes to become overworked, and even those underground heroes were exhausted, causing our police station to be in a state of distress. "

The Chief nodded, as this was all information that he already knew since he's the one who has to deal with those bastards in the HPSC who only care about the Heroes image.

Tsuragamae then motioned for Tanuma.

"Back to the case, when locals were asked what happened, they reported that they heard a range of different sounds in the night and when they looked out of their windows there was something covered in flames soaring away from the scene. After doing a bit of digging and stakeouts, we caught these photos. "

Pulling up the images, Tanuma moved slightly out of the way so the Chief could see them. After a few minutes, Tanuma proceeds with his findings.

"As you can see, our guy is under 5 feet tall with black hair, and blue eyes. He is frequently seen with sweatpants, a baggy jacket that has the hood up, and a black mouth mask. We also got some photos of him in the air.

We could see that in place of where his arms would be, there's something that looks like wings on fire, especially when you zoom in. You'll see something like feathers. This would explain how he's evading our blockades, and it would also allow us to narrow our search.

But the most crucial piece of information is that he's under 5 feet. With that piece of information, we can either assume he's a short man or-"

"A child." The chief said grimly.

'Catching and processing vigilantes is difficult enough, especially since ones like this guy only kill villains and ex-heroes. And since he even provides evidence for the Ex-Heroes-.'

Tsuragamae could feel the headache coming on. But momentarily forgetting that, he continued with his thoughts.

'-But to prosecute a child? The outrage the public would have if they learned of this.' Tsuragamae then felt a dizzy spell incoming. He grabbed a chair and sat down.

He looked at Tanuma and told him.

"Continue."

Tanuma, after hearing the chief voice, continued, "With this, I've narrowed it down to about 4 individuals in our database, who are under 5 ft and have a quirk that's similar to this one. The most prime suspect, however, is Dante Tanaka. "

The chief's eyes grew wide for a moment as he remembered an acquaintance who passed away, a couple of months ago.

"He fits the profile stunningly well, his quirk is extremely similar, if not identical, but the kicker is that he disappeared nearly the same time that this masked crusader appeared."

The chief considered what he would do, or even what he could do if this truly was his acquaintance's son. In the midst of his thoughts, he remembered what Tanuma said at the beginning of the conversation.

"Then, what did you mean by you don't have much information?"

Tanuma paused for a moment and glanced at the chief through the reflection on the screen before continuing.

"Maybe that was a poor choice of words. Sure, I might have found out who our assailant is, but I can't seem to track him down. For 8 months we have been trying to track him, yet he moves so unpredictably, making most of our plans fail.

He goes from place to place, all around Musutafu, and everywhere he leaves, ashes fly through the air. He doesn't seem to have a set goal, but from what we've seen, I'm assuming that if this kid is our perp, his goal is only to kill the evil scum.

He doesn't discriminate between heroes and villains. It's as if he has a different set of criteria that he judges people based on.

That makes him indefinitely harder to catch since he can kill whenever, wherever. The only saving grace is that he doesn't seem to kill randomly and instead, at least for heroes, he compiles evidence of their crime before executing them.

A month ago, I put in a request for a hostage operation using some corrupt heroes that the HPSC found. But it was denied. I was given many excuses, but to sum it up, they denied it because it would give the public a higher chance of finding out about the corruptness of our organization and would put the heroes in danger.

That would go against the hush contract that the HPSC gave the heroes' families. The family wouldn't expose anything about the heroes' going to jail, and in exchange, the family would get money and we would guarantee the heroes' safety. "

*Sigh*

The chief glanced at his partner, whose eyes looked as if they'd close at any moment. He has found out so much information in a mere 8 months! The chief wanted to say something, but before he could he was called for by another officer.

"Chief, the HPSC sent more documents that require them to be signed by the morning. They detail the events of Pro Hero: Darken, and his transfer to Iron Heights."

Tsuragamae could only sigh at the thought of pulling another all-nighter. He glanced at Tanuma, who may have been staying with him, and dragged his tired body over towards his office.