Torahiko and Hideki stand in front of the gallery floor, dimly lit and all of the pieces on display covered in tarp. They flip the main lights on and walk in.
"Something weird's going on with my exhibit, one of my statue's been moving." Hideki pulls the sheet off the statue.
"Aren't they made out of thin bars? Maybe it's buckling under its own weight."
"Would buckling explain why every time I open the gallery it's always in a different pose? The other thin bar pieces aren't moving."
"Have you checked the
They watch recordings from previous nights, showing the center sculpture moving under the tarp.
"See?"
"Yeah, like it wants to get out of the gallery."
"I think it's doing that already, look." The live feed shows the figure moving more actively than recorded earlier.
"Don't make a noise, okay? Let's go."
The walk from the control room to the gallery proper is about a couple of minutes, so by the time they go in and Hideki flips on the light, it's as if nothing happened. They approach the sculpture in question, still as it ought to be.
"I think it found out." Hideki whispers.
"It's trying to trap us, I can feel it. You keep distance, I'll deal with this myself."
Torahiko takes a slow walk through the gallery, keeping a
Suddenly they hear metal creaking and look at the sculpture. It starts walking off its platform and goes straight for the two. Torahiko pushes Hideki out the way and the sculpture grabs him by the neck.
"Tora!"
With all his strength he takes hold of what's choking him and starts bending it out of his neck. Free again he gets his halberd out and swings at it, but the thing grabs his weapon and barely avoids being thrown off by letting go of his halberd at the right time to get a sort of jump onto the contstruct and try to pin it to the ground. Though the metal man keeps taking swings, the blond musters the energy to resist the attemps to overpower him. He notices one of the pieces of glass inside the construct glow, and amid the struggle he snatches it out of the sculpture, which stops and returns to the hunk of brass it should be.
"Is... is it over?"
"I think so; I think I took the heart out." Torahiko shows Haruki the piece.
"Heart?" He walks to the sculpture. "There's supposed to be nothing on that chest cavity, remember?"
"A break-in to put something, weird." He looks at what he extracted. "It's glass."
"Is it just me or is it glowing inside?"
The glass sphere makes one large flash startling the two. Torahiko looks at the glowing glass sphere once more.
"Is that what's making it move?"
"Yeah, but it can't seem to move this ball."
"Does that mean it's safe?"
"I don't think go, but just to be sure, I'm showing this to the other mates. Need help fixing the piece?"
"Thanks, and if you want I can get you a recording of the fight."
-----
"Tora?" Keizo calls out. "How did it go?"
"Sculpture almost tried to kill me."
"Try?"
"It went for me, lunged at me, the whole thing."
"Was it moving on its own?"
Torahiko pulls out the sphere from his pocket. "When I pulled this out it stopped."
"That doesn't look like something Hideki makes." He takes a closer look. "So you think there's something inside that that was possessing the statue?"
"For sure."
"I don't want that thing causing chaos in here, you better keep an eye on that."
"I'm gonna give this to one of my other mates later, he might find some idea."
"By the way, they're planning to check the gallery later; Hideki's announced it in chat."
"I'll tell the others, then."
"Good idea. Where are you gonna keep that ball?"
"In my bed, I wanna go back to sleep."
"If it starts moving?"
Torahiko holds up a slipper.
"You know how to deal with it, then."
-----
Kitsutsuki checks the social media feeds first thing in her shift. "Why are we getting mentions again?" She takes a look at the notifications and finds herself looking at a piece of viral news.
She enters the group room. "Crazy news, guys, someone managed to snap another picture of Nadehiko in incognito mode. We had such a good run not bringing that up again."
"How is this different?"
"The media guys are realizing that the guy with the powers that looks like the Spitfires captain may be the mystery guy seen with Rina. Look, his name's on the headline."
Nadehiko comes in. "Okay team, let's.. Is there a problem?"
"The media guys are realizing that you're the invisible dude."
"Those guys?"
"Check this out." She shows him the picture, from a date between him and Rina. "Someone still found you even though you're hiding. What were you doing, anyway?"
Cue the flashback. The two were in the middle of a date at a small café, Rina waiting for Nadehiko to return with their orders. She scrolls through her social media feed mindlessly until a piece featuring her boyfriend shows up.
"You know, I almost forgot you're supposed to have powers now." She says as he arrives with the coffee and cakes.
"It's best I keep it as hidden as I can, though."
"You say that like you even bother to change into the invisible man whenever you save the day. Where could he be, by the way?" She says teasingly.
"Let me try to call for him." He makes himself vanish. "Someone wanted me?"
Rina giggles. A few feet away a paparazzo makes quick work of his camera, snapping a show of the couple while Nadehiko turns visible.
"There was enough plausible deniability that they were two different people, but with this video?" Kitsutsuki groans. "You'll have to come clean. It's bound to happen, this secret only had about a month."
"Did Masato say anything?"
"He trusts you to be able to handle what might happen next, that's what he told me."
"So the world will get to know about my powers..."
"You'll be fine. Guys, I still have that meeting to go to, so if anyone calls asking about Nadehiko you know who to go to." On her way out she almost bumps into someone she hasn't seen before: a blond male.
"I'm so sorry! Did I hit you?"
"No, I'm... fine." She eyes the man from head to torso, "You're fine too..." she mutters looking his arms, then quickly looks up to his eyes when she notices. "I haven't seen you before, are you looking for someone?"
"Yeah, Nadehiko Izuki, is he here?"
"He's in the lobby over there. Uh, I gotta go now, see you again!" She leaves, while Torahiko watches on confused.
"Hey, something happened at the other gallery."
"Yeah?"
"One of the statues tried to kill me."
"Which statue?"
"The big one that looks like a man, went for me and only me. Good thing I took out what's making it move, I think."
"You have it with you?"
Torahiko pulls it out of his pocket.
"It's glowing."
"Weird how it can control a sculpture but couldn't bother to roll itself out of my custody."
"Hasn't it tried to posses anything else?"
"No, or if it did it wasn't obvious."
"Yeah, carrying it around in your pocket like that's still not a great idea."
"I know, I might make a cage later. So, are you busy today?"
"I'm going to an esports event later. Why, you need me for something?"
"They're checking the scene later, would love to have you and the others be there."
"This one's pretty important for the Spitfires so I can't drop it. Toshiro isn't on today either."
"Maybe tomorrow then."
-----
"Hey, is he still here?" Kitsutsuki asks as she returns.
"Who?"
"Your friend, the guy with the arms- in the black tank?"
"...He left a while ago."
"Shoot."
"You need him for something?"
"You should've introduced him earlier!"
"Did you spend your meeting daydreaming about him?"
"No!" She turns red. "I didn't think one of your new teammates would be so handsome."
"And I, the face of the Spitfires, am not?"
"You are, but you already have Rina. Is he single?"
"I don't know, you ask him."
"He's coming back, right?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't he? You know, I could just send him a message and tell him-"
"Don't! It would be so embarrassing."
"If you say so, you'll just wait for him?"
"Could you at least tell me his name?"
"It's Torahiko, Kurogane."
Kitsutsuki jots the name down on her notebook. "Got it, now let's talk about the fan event."
"I know you've been looking for the best time to announce your invisible thing, but you have to do it ASAP, and this event's the perfect opportunity, so how will you tell them?"
"I'm going to show that I can become invisible, simple. Just how much are they talking about me?"
"These sites are already expecting you to address what happened at... Torahiko's gallery? They'll surely ask you about your powers if they can."
"I'll do it when someone does interview me post-game, like the ones posting about me."
"You could be hiding your new superhero stint, you know, you even have the ability to be faceless. But no, I have to add hero PR to my job description."
-----
"We're about to meet the new team managed by a familiar name, Masato Matsuoka. Here's Spitfires captain Nadehiko Izuki to talk to us about the team."
"Hey."
"Great performance last few games, you're really going for the big leagues as you mentioned before..."
The formal interview over, here comes the miscellany.
"Just for fun, I'm sure you've gotten this comment before, but you look like you've been working out."
"Yeah, I've changed my routine a bit."
"Surely you're not wearing that shirt for nothing, show us what you have!"
Nadehiko pulls his shirt up, already having made his waist vanish beforehand, hiding what his tight-fit shirt's implying.
"Whoa, those are definitely results, tell us your secret."
"It's a secret for a reason."
Fans start chanting "Take it off!" He pulls his shirt down, which would usually cause disappointment but instead brings out more curiosity. Nadehiko retreats to the team's spot while a few journos follow. Kitsutsuki and an assistant, expecting this, handle the curious witnesses.
On short notice, the presser is done makeshift on someone else's table.
"So what would this mean for the team?" A journo asks.
"We didn't make any lineup changes, so we're still sticking to our plan."
"How confident are you with handling these two jobs?"
"To be honest, I'm still getting used to these powers, but I know I can persevere through."
"There have been more reports of activities from what seems to be the successor to the Shin Akuma cult, and the leader's last public appearance said that he wants to eliminate, quote, an invisible man, is it likely that you are said target?"
"Yes, but let's leave it at that for now."
-----
In the cult's main headquarters everyone is currently busier with more mundane matters.
"So, has the trap been laid for one of our enemies?"
"Yes, it should work any time now."
"Good, that should be one less-"
"Master," another disciple barges in, "our insider has just told us that control of the statue has been removed."
"Dammit! I will make myself known to them, soon enough. Prepare the rituals, we will need more power for our next move."
-----
Nadehiko picks Rina up at her work.
"Hey, how did the event go?"
"It was great." His face says otherwise.
"Did something happen?"
"No, it's... it's official now."
"You told them? Aww, I could have had a boyfriend with a secret superhero identity. You should have stayed invisible last fight."
"I think I've heard of a series like that. Having to keep hiding yourself sounds exhausting, though."
"Isn't that one of your powers?" She smiles coyly. "But if you don't want to, and you don't have to, it's fine, you're still my superhero boyfriend."
---
After dropping her girlfriend at her place, Nadehiko returns to his apartment, although tired his mind is busy thinking about the road ahead, leading two teams in two different realms. He quietly dozes off in his couch while thinking.
Later, his phone rings out a chat message, waking him up.
"hey, we need your help" is the message from Torahiko.
"is it about the gallery?"
"yeah, tomorrow good?"
"sure, I'll bring the others."
"great." "btw, i read they're changing your team's name."
"what now"
-END
