Three AM.
The warehouse district was dead. Empty. Just sodium lights and shadows and the smell of rust and old oil.
Amaya stood with Alpha team in the staging area. An alley two blocks north. Out of sight. Out of earshot if anyone was listening.
Bakugo was checking his gauntlets. Silent. Focused. The pins were already pulled on both sides—ready to detonate. His face was hard. All business.
Kirishima was stretching. Rolling his shoulders. His quirk activated in patches—hardening, releasing, hardening again. Warming up.
Cellophane—Sero—was testing his tape dispensers. Pulling out lengths. Checking the adhesive.
The three others on the team were heroes she'd seen around. Didn't know their names. Didn't matter.
She checked her own gear. Earpiece. Keycard—useless here but habit. Her gloves. Fingerless. Better for quirk projection.
Her heart was beating too fast.
Not panic. Just... adrenaline.
This was different from patrols. Different from stopping thieves.
This was the kind of work that made the news. The kind that changed rankings.
"Comms check," Bakugo said into his earpiece.
"Beta in position." Shoto's voice. Calm. Flat.
"Gamma set." Suneater. Quieter.
"Delta ready." Hawks.
"Alpha good," Bakugo said. He looked at the team. "We go in sixty seconds. Sero, you're on the door. Kirishima, you're point. I'm clearing the first room. Everyone else follows and covers flanks."
He looked at Amaya.
"Tsukino. You're mid-range support. If someone gets past Kirishima, you stop them. Non-lethal unless they're about to kill someone. Got it?"
"Got it."
"Good."
Sixty seconds.
She counted them in her head.
Felt her quirk humming under her skin. Ready.
Fifty seconds.
Bakugo's gauntlets started smoking. Just a little. Residual heat.
Forty seconds.
Kirishima cracked his knuckles. Grinned at her. "Don't worry. This'll be fun."
Fun.
Right.
Thirty seconds.
She focused on her breathing. In through the nose. Out through the mouth.
Twenty seconds.
Bakugo started walking. Everyone followed.
Ten seconds.
They rounded the corner. The warehouse was ahead. Three stories. Concrete. Reinforced windows. A single door on the north face. Rusted. Padlocked.
Five seconds.
Sero's tape shot out. Wrapped around the lock. Yanked.
The lock snapped.
"Go."
Kirishima went through first. Hardened. His body turned red and jagged. He hit the door like a battering ram.
It exploded inward.
Shouting inside. Immediate. Panicked.
Bakugo was through next. His hands lit up. Explosions crackling in his palms.
Amaya followed.
The room was large. Open. Boxes stacked along the walls. Crates. At least ten people inside. Some armed. Some scrambling for weapons.
Kirishima took the first three. Just walked through their gunfire like it was nothing. The bullets bounced off his hardened skin. He grabbed two by their collars. Slammed them together. They dropped.
Bakugo didn't stop moving.
He went right. Explosions firing. Concussive blasts that threw people into walls. Into crates. He wasn't killing them. Just hitting hard enough that they didn't get back up.
Someone ran at Amaya.
Knife. No quirk visible. Just desperation.
She didn't think.
Crystals shot from her hand. Formed a barrier. The knife hit it. Stopped.
She pivoted. Sent a second crystal spike low. It swept his legs out from under him.
He went down hard.
She was already moving to the next target.
Two more. Coming from the left. One had fire building in their hands. Emitter type.
Sero got them first. Tape wrapping around their torso. Pinning their arms. The fire sputtered out.
The room was clear in ninety seconds.
Ten hostiles down. Not dead. Just unconscious or restrained.
"Room clear," Bakugo said into his earpiece. "Moving to second floor."
"Copy," Hawks replied. "Delta is inside. We've got eyes on the hostages. Basement level. Fifteen confirmed. Extracting now."
"Gamma reporting movement on the east side," Suneater's voice. "Six hostiles heading toward Beta's position."
"We've got them," Shoto said.
Amaya followed Bakugo up the stairs. Kirishima was still on point. Sero covering the rear.
The second floor was a hallway. Narrow. Doors on both sides.
Bakugo kicked the first one open.
Empty.
Second door.
Three people inside. Counting money. They looked up. Froze.
Bakugo's hand sparked.
They surrendered immediately.
"Smart," he muttered.
Sero taped them up.
Third door.
This one didn't open.
Locked from the inside.
Bakugo didn't slow down. Just blasted it. The door exploded into splinters.
Someone inside had a quirk. Stone manipulation. The floor rippled. Spikes shot up.
Kirishima took the hit. Let the stone break against his body.
Amaya sent crystals through the opening. Aimed for the quirk user's hands. Wrapped around their wrists. Immobilized them.
Bakugo was through. One hit. Clean. The quirk user went down.
"Second floor clear," he said.
"Delta is moving hostages out now," Hawks said. "ETA to evac point three minutes."
"Copy."
They hit the third floor.
This one was different.
The hallway opened into a large room. Observation deck. Windows overlooking the warehouse floor below.
And people.
More than before.
Twenty. Maybe more.
They'd been waiting.
"Fuck," Bakugo said.
Then he smiled.
Not a nice smile.
"Alpha team, engage."
Kirishima charged.
Bakugo went high. Explosions propelling him into the air. He came down in the center of the group. Detonated.
The shockwave threw half of them into the walls.
Amaya stayed near the door. Covering. Watching.
Someone came at her from the side. Enhanced strength quirk. She could tell by the way they moved. Too fast. Too aggressive.
Her crystals formed gauntlets around her forearms. She blocked the first hit. Barely. The impact rattled her bones.
Second hit. She redirected. Let it slide off the crystal.
Third hit. She didn't block. Ducked under. Sent a spike into their knee.
Not deep. Just enough to drop them.
They went down screaming.
She turned.
Bakugo was in the center of the room. Surrounded. He didn't look worried.
His gauntlets fired. Massive explosions. Controlled. Directional. Every blast hit a target. Sent them flying.
He was... incredible.
Fast. Brutal. Efficient.
No wasted movement. No hesitation.
He fought like he'd already won. Like the outcome was inevitable and he was just going through the motions to make it official.
Someone grabbed her from behind.
She didn't panic.
Crystals erupted from her shoulders. Sharp. They stabbed backward.
The grip released.
She spun.
Sent a crystal fist into their stomach.
They doubled over.
She kneed them in the face.
They dropped.
"Third floor clear," Bakugo said.
His voice wasn't even winded.
How—
"Delta is out," Hawks said. "All hostages secure. Beta and Gamma, collapse inward. Lock down the perimeter."
"Copy."
Police sirens in the distance.
The whole thing had taken eight minutes.
Eight minutes.
Amaya stood there. Breathing hard. Her hands were shaking. Adrenaline crash.
Bakugo walked past her. Didn't look at her.
"Good work. Let's move."
The news coverage started two hours later.
JOINT HERO OPERATION DISMANTLES TRAFFICKING RING
FIFTEEN HOSTAGES RESCUED IN HOSU RAID
DYNAMIGHT LEADS MULTI-AGENCY ASSAULT
The footage was everywhere. Helicopter shots. Body cam footage from the police. Civilian recordings from nearby buildings.
Amaya watched it on her phone. Sitting in the debriefing room. Waiting for the paperwork.
There was a clip of Bakugo. Mid-explosion. Airborne. The camera had caught him perfectly. His face set. Focused. Dangerous.
It already had two million views.
Another clip. Shoto freezing an entire hallway. Precise. Beautiful.
Kirishima tanking gunfire.
Hawks directing the hostage extraction.
She wasn't in any of the footage.
That was fine.
She'd been there. Done the work.
That was enough.
Her phone buzzed.
HERO BILLBOARD CHART UPDATE
She opened it.
Scrolled to her name.
Rank 98.
She stared.
Ninety-eight.
She'd climbed ten spots.
In one night.
Not because she'd been flashy. Not because she'd been on camera.
Because the algorithm counted assists. Counted successful operations. Counted being part of high-profile cases.
She'd broken into double digits.
Finally.
Her phone buzzed again.
Emi: SAW THE NEWS. YOU WERE THERE???
Hana: nice work. take tomorrow off. you earned it.
Kamiko: Congratulations on the ranking jump. Told you you'd climb fast here.
She looked back at the screen.
The news footage was still playing. Bakugo landing another hit. Perfect form. Perfect timing.
Rank 5.
He'd been rank 5 for three years now. Hadn't moved up. Hadn't dropped.
Just... stayed there.
Because moving higher required things he didn't care about. Media presence. Approval ratings. Playing nice with sponsors.
He could be number one if he wanted.
Everyone knew that.
He just didn't want it.
The gap between rank 98 and rank 5 felt infinite.
Not just in numbers.
In skill. In experience. In raw competence.
She'd watched him tonight.
Really watched him.
The way he'd moved. The way he'd read the room. The way he'd known exactly how much force to use. Where to aim. When to hold back.
He'd been fighting for fifteen years.
She'd been fighting for two.
And it showed.
She'd done fine. Good, even. Hadn't fucked up. Hadn't frozen. Hadn't needed saving.
But fine wasn't the same as what he did.
What any of them did.
Shoto. Kirishima. Hawks.
They operated on a different level.
A level she couldn't even see the ceiling of yet.
She closed the app.
Leaned back in her chair.
Her body ached. Bruises forming. Muscles sore.
But she felt... good.
Accomplished.
And aware.
Aware of how far she'd come.
Aware of how much farther she had to go.
She went home.
Showered. The water ran brown from dirt and dust. Her knuckles were scraped. A bruise forming on her ribs where someone had landed a hit.
She stared at it in the mirror.
Evidence.
She'd been there. In the fight. Part of something real.
She got dressed. Collapsed onto her bed.
Her phone was still open to the news.
Another clip autoplayed.
Bakugo again.
Always Bakugo.
She watched him move. Watched the way he controlled the battlefield. Watched the way everyone else followed his lead without question.
Because he'd earned it.
Not through rankings. Through being undeniably, brutally good at the work.
Her chest felt tight.
Not desire this time.
Something else.
Respect.
Admiration.
The kind that made her want to be better. Made her want to close the gap. Made her want to prove she belonged in rooms like that briefing room. On teams like Alpha.
She saved the clip.
Not for tonight.
Not for that.
Just... to remember.
What it looked like when someone was the best.
What she was working toward.
She closed her eyes.
Rank 98.
It was something.
It wasn't enough.
But it was something.
...
And tomorrow she'd go back.
Do the work.
Climb higher.
Because that's what heroes did.
That's what she was going to do.
Even if it took ten years.
Even if she never closed the gap completely.
She was going to try.