Bright Light

Raito's first act as a hero doesn't go as well as he planned.

After the meeting with Soul, Raito has been preparing himself to go out on his first ever patrol as his hero persona Wave. Flight ended up disappearing randomly the day after the meeting and hasn’t appeared for about four days. This didn’t worry Raito as he knew Flight would leave and would return eventually but did find it odd that Flight didn’t mention to him that he was leaving. To prepare himself for patrolling the streets, Raito wanted to do practice runs by dressing up and walking around his neighborhood. Raito lives in the type of neighborhood where by 9 O’clock the streets are nearly empty and by 11 O’clock everyone is asleep. This gives the perfect opportunity to walk around at night in his hero outfit. Before this, Raito only really wore his outfit at the park at night. He wanted to get comfortable walking around at night and to figure out the best way to hide his hero outfit. Originally Raito tried wearing it underneath his regular clothes similar to superheroes in comics but it wasn’t very comfortable and got hot really fast. Not to mention he couldn’t wear his sweater jacket underneath his clothes without having to wear a larger shirt over it. The only benefit to wearing his outfit underneath his clothes was that all he needed to do to transform was to remove his clothes. The other option was to carry around a small backpack with him that contained his outfit which he decided to do instead. So on his nightly patrol training he practiced looking for a secluded area to change and would time himself on how fast he could do it.

“Sweet! Twenty seconds is my best time so far. I think I’m about ready to finally do an actual patrol now,” Raito said as holds a stopwatch in his hand. “The only hard part now is quickly finding a place to change,” Raito said to himself as he begins changing back into his regular clothes. The place Raito had in mind to go to for his first real patrol was the downtown area in Phoenix as there tends to be a lot of small crimes that happened there at night. The idea of course is to do what he promised and only stop or prevent small petty crimes. The idea of having to face a powerful Gift terrified Raito still so he really did wanted to avoid having any conflicts with Time Keeper. As he heads back home his mind began to wonder again; for about a month Raito has been incredibly focused on dealing with the fact that he was a Gift. Nearly forgetting that soon he would be going to college and has already signed up for classes at a nearby community college. But the problem with this is that he’s not sure if he even wants to go to college. To him, Raito believes that he would accomplish more if he could go straight to making comics for a website. It’s a community website where if you’re able to reach a certain number of followers you can actually start making money off your comics. This was his dream and Raito will have to eventually bring this up to his mother and father. Once home and in bed, Raito looks over to his favorite poster by his bed and slowly goes to sleep.

“You can’t defeat me Wave!” Vile shouted out towards Wave. “I killed Hiro and you will be next!”

“I learned everything from him and I will finish what he started,” Wave said as he begins to walk up to Vile. Vile then charges at Wave leaving behind a trail of black flames. Without flinching Wave stood still and as Vile got closer grabbed both of his fist, stopping him in his track. Wave then throws his arms to the side leaving Vile open to an attack. “Sound bomb!” Wave shouted and a large sound pulse proceeds to come out of his mouth making a large boom sound. The large sound wave not only pushed Vile back but greatly damaged his ears causing them to bleed from his ruptured eardrums. Vile, ignoring his pain puts his hands by his waist and makes a clinched fist. Black flames start to appear around Vile and twist around him. Wave, not wanting to have Vile to have anytime to recover makes finger guns with his hands. From his fingertips small but heavily concentrated sound waves shoot from them. It was too late as the flames had surrounded Vile. Vile was getting ready to transform into his true form. Wave’s attack vanish inside Vile’s flames. Just then Vile begins to step out of his black flames to reveal…..

Raito’s alarm goes off scaring him and causing Raito to jump out of his bed. “Wow! That was weird. My dreams rarely have me lose a fight,” Raito says to himself as he rubs his head trying to wake up. After getting ready for the day Raito looks himself into the bathroom mirror knowing that today he needs to confront his mom about his desire to not go to college and start his own webcomic. As Raito works up the courage to talk to his mom he takes in a deep breath and goes into the living room to talk to her.

In japanese Raito begins to say, “Mom can I talk to you?”

In japanese, “Of course, what is it hunny?” Raito’s mom replied with.

“It’s about college, I think not want to go. Instead do comic webs I think for the best.”

Giggling slightly Raito’s mother says, “Raito your japanese still needs work. I can barely understand what you’re saying. Just speak english and if I don’t understand a word I’ll ask you to say it in japanese.”

Speaking in english now Raito says, “I don’t want to go to college but start a career in doing webcomics instead. I feel like I can learn more doing that instead of going to college to do exactly the same thing.”

Upon hearing this Raito’s mother proceeded to make a disappointed expression on her face. She really wanted Raito to pursue a college degree believing that in order to succeed in life you needed one. Talking slowly so Raito could better understand her she replies with, “I really want you to go to school. I know your father will agree with me on this since we both have degrees. We want what’s best for you.”

“But this is what’s best for me. I can make money doing this instead of putting myself in debt in order to basically do the same thing,” Raito exclaimed.

“Persuade me then, explain to me what webcomics are and how doing this instead is for the best. If you can do that I’ll talk to your father about it,” Raito’s mother replied with.

Raito went on to explained webcomics and how he would make money off of his comics. Even tried showering her some of the stories he had made and his drawings that go with them. Raito has been drawing since he was five and even his mother was genuinely impressed on how far he has improved. Even being bold enough to say it was good enough to be in an actual published work. Being convinced she decided to make a deal with Raito. He can take the year off to work on his webcomic but if he doesn’t make any money off of it in that year he will have to go college. Of course he also needed to look for a part-time job so he’s not just in his room all day. But, Raito’s dad needs to agree on it too so until his mom is able to contact his dad, Raito will still have to get ready to go to college incase his dad doesn’t agree on the plan. Excited to hear this, Raito quickly ran up to his room to start posting chapters for his first webcomic called We Are Other Heroes which is his own comic idea to be based off other heroes doing their own adventures while the main plot of I Am Hero is happening. This was done so he would have an audience already to target and then expand from there. Raito spent most of the day writing and refreshing his page every hour to see if there were any comments or likes on his first chapter.

The day turns to night and now it was time to take being a hero to the streets for the first time. The plan was for Raito to sneak out once his mom went to sleep so he can drive to Phoenix. As Raito puts his outfit into his bag he sneaks out of the house and proceeds to drive to start his first ever real patrol on the streets. The drive took about twenty minutes and once there drove deeper into the city. Raito knew he was where he wanted to be once the area was full of graffiti, broken down cars, and small groups of men smoking throughout the area. Not wanting to get his car potentially stolen or worst, Raito made a U-turn and kept on driving till he felt he was in a safe enough area to park his car and leave it. At first Raito planned on walking around the area in normal clothes and then change once he spotted trouble but the area made him nervous. Instead, Raito changed inside his car and got ready to make his way back the rough looking neighborhood by foot.

While walking down the street people would glanced at him but never really stared at him or looked weirded out by seeing someone dressed up in such an odd outfit. Probably because this is the type of neighborhood where weird people tend to hang out at. As Raito gets closer to the more sketchy area two teens ended up walking up to him. They looked to be around the age of fourteen and didn’t give off a feeling that they wanted to start trouble either. “Hey man! Why you wearing such a weird outfit? Looks like someone fucked up your sweater and clothes,” one of the teens said as he looks up and down at Raito.

“I’m a hero named Wave and this is my outfit,” Raito said with pride.

“Hero? Boy this is no comic book. You own medication?” The same teen said.

“No you moron, he’s one of those real life superheroes. I watched one of those documentaries about them. They dress up as the own superheroes and do s**t to help people,” the other teen said has he playfully pushed his friend.

“Oooooh, that be gay. Why help people, what in it for you?” The teen mocking him said.

“Well I grew up reading comics and watching shows about heroes so I want to help people like any other hero would. I’m new to this area and maybe you can help me. You know anyone that might need help?” Raito asked.

“Nah man. This area might look rough but really it aint that bad. Mostly drug deals and the occasional chop shop happens,” said the teen that’s been nice.

“Chop shops you said?” Raito repeated as he taps his lips with his finger. Raito wasn’t sure if chop shops were a small enough crime to intervene in or not. After thinking about it for a few seconds went on to say, “is there a place where it seems to happen a lot at?”

It took them about a minute to think before one of them replies with, “they happen randomly when there is a nice car around. But we’ve notice a lot of really nice cars tend to show up around eleven and business looking people appear. They go to this abandoned garage store that used to be a car repair shop. A real big and nice one too. My guess is that they are the ones buying car parts.”

Thinking this will be the perfect first job to do asked if they could direct him to the place and then made his way there. Once he was in the more sketchy area surprisingly the more people continued to ignore him. Everyone was more interested in being in their own little bubble to really care for a random stranger wearing a weird outfit. As Raito continued his way he spots what looks to be a black Mercedes along with a group of motorcycles near it. This must be the garage that the teens were talking about. Raito looks around and notices a few people nearby but they look like they are purposely avoiding looking at the same direction of the garage. Deciding to take advantage of this Raito slowly walks over to the back of the garage. Using his Gift he was able to reduce the amount of noise he makes as he walks around. Looking for a back door he spots one and proceeds to enter the garage. Once inside the garage, Raito spots various men in nice suits just like the teens told him confirming he was at the right place. Not wanting to make his presence known just yet as he wants to know what exactly they are here for, looks for a place to hide. Spotting a few metal oil drums nearby crouch walks over to them and hides behind them. “Time for super hearing,” Raito whispered to himself. Upon listening to them, none of them said anything interesting until one of the men stated that their buyers were taking a while to get here. “No wonder they’re just standing around. This might be a chop shop ring. Now the only question that stands is can I handle this,” Raito whispered as he sat down thinking about how to act. Just then he hears one of them addressing a man by sir. Raito’s geek knowledge made him recognized that the only time henchmen address a person as sir is if they are the leader. Raito slowly stands back up to see a man wearing a black jacket with a yellow dress shirt. What was even weirder was that the man was wearing a yellow motorcycle helmet with the eye shields being down. “How the hell can this guy see with that helmet on,” Raito said as he continued to whispered to himself. Thinking to himself, Raito concluded that the car outside must belong to him as was probably waiting inside. Maybe this is why people were avoiding eye contact with the garage? Upon listening in Raito could hear this man talking.

“The clients are around the corner. I had them take a different route to get here. With Simon dead I’m starting to think that someone is on to us. I don’t know if they got information of his computer or not so this will be our last meeting here,” the man said. Just then about four other men enter the garage but what was odd about them is that they were wearing white coats. The type of coats you would see a pharmacist wear.

“You got the pills?” One of the men that just walked in asked. This was no longer a chop shop deal but a drug deal. This was too big for Raito to get himself involved with and needed to get out now. As the men were talking and getting ready to exchange drugs for money, Raito turns around and starts walking back from where he came from. Too busy looking at the back door to get out Raito accidentally trips over an empty metal tool box creating a loud and sharp noise.

The noise quickly grabs the drug dealers attention and Raito freaking out on what to do. He can either run and hope the men will let him go or fight. Fear starts to cloud Raito’s mind as he continues to whisper to himself “I don’t want to die I don’t want to die.”

“Is someone here?”

“F**k, how were we followed?”

“Relax, if it was someone who was on to us they would have shown themselves to us by now. Probably just a rat”

Raito was able to collect himself since it seemed like the men quickly dismissed the noise he made. Not wanting to lose this opportunity he quickly heads for the door but stops just before opening the door. Raito wasn’t able to notice this before because of the low visibility but on the back of the door was a sticker. It was a sticker of Hiro in his signature pose with a carving right next to it that read “It’s Hero Time for I Am Hero!” Raito couldn’t help but think to himself that he’s making a huge mistake leaving. He is a hero and who knows, maybe these people have no connection to Time Keeper. Raito lets go of the door handle and walks back to his hiding spot. Just then he kicks down one of the metal oil drums and shouts, “when I hear evil I will appear for I am Wave!” The men quickly look over towards Raito and appeared to be shocked but only because of the odd situation that is happening.

“Now as I was saying the new location will be at-” the man with the helmet went on to say.

“Ummm. Didn’t you hear me?” Raito asked.

“Just leave and I’ll pretend I didn’t see you,” The man said as he makes a shoo gesture with his hand.

Wanting to show he meant business, Raito put his right arm out arm with an open palm and proceeded to shout out his attack “sound blast!” A sound wave shoots out from the palm of his hand, striking one of the businessmen and knocking him down. The men didn’t seem that fazed by the attack and quickly pulled guns out at Raito. The people believed to be pharmacists were however frighten by the attack and quickly ran out. Raito, realizing that he might have made a mistake made a gesture with his hands that looked like he was holding an invisible ball with both of his hands. He then whispered to himself “sound bang” and threw his hands down. An emourse bang sound goes off creating a sound wave knocking all the men down and dropping their guns. All but one man were on the floor, the man with the helmet.

“The number one rule is that a Gift never reveals their powers to none Gifts unless that Gift wears a mask…or is ready to kill the witnesses. Nice to meet you Wave. You can call me Blight,” Blight said as he slowly turns his head towards Raito. With a snap of his fingers his men knew that was the signal for them to leave and not come back.

“You’re a G-G-G-Gift too?” Raito stuttered out.

“Indeed I am. By the looks of what you’re capable of doing you must be the Gift of Sound,” Blight said as he removed his gloves. “The fact that you know what a Gift is means you must have met one before. Why not take a guess on what my Gift is.” As he said those words his hands began to glow orange and orange light began to illuminate through the eye shield. Fear starts to run throughout Raito’s body but there was also courage in him. He wasn’t planning on this type of fight but now is the best way to see where he stands against other Gifts.

“By the looks of that light I’m guessing fire?” Raito said as he gets into a fighting position.

“Close but not exact,” Blight said as he throws his right arm out. A beam of light shoots out of Blight’s hand striking Raito in the chest. At first Raito flinched and was shocked but slowly realized that the beam of light wasn’t actually hurting him. Blight chuckled softly and snapped his fingers with his left hand. As he did that the beam of light started to turn brighter and began to slowly turn blue. Heat began to emit from the light causing Raito’s chest to feel like it was being set on fire. “I’m the Gift of Light and along with controlling light I can also control heat that comes from light. So I guess you can say I have some similar powers to fire,” Blight explained.  

In pain Raito shouts out, “knock it off!”

In attempt to stop Blight’s attack, Raito throws out his right arm to do an attack right back at Blight. Raito did his normal sound blast attack which was strong enough to pushed back Blight making him lower his right hand, stopping his attack. “That...that should have knocked you down,” Raito said as he was confused why his attack wasn’t as strong like before.

In a cocky attitude Blight responded with, “you mean that pathetic attack you did earlier? The only reason why it even pushed back my men was because you caught them by surprise. You lack any real power in your attack, probably because you don’t want to actually hurt anyone.” Blight, slowly walking over to Raito continues to talk, “for an attack to do damage you must be ready to kill your opponent.” Once in striking distance from Raito, Blight throws a right hook into Raito’s face causing him to stutter backwards. The heat resonating from Blight’s glowing fist ends up leaving a burned mark onto Raito’s face. Before this, Raito has never been in any real fights except for one that happened during his junior year in highschool. Shocked and afraid of being hit, Raito closes his eyes and starts throwing random sound blast attack towards Blight. With each attack they began to get weaker and weaker to the point where Blight barely even feels the attack.

“Get away get away get away!” Raito cries out as he continues to blindly throw out his sound blast attack.

“You started this and I’m here to end it!” Blight replied with. Blight then quickly grabs Raito by the neck and pulls him in close. A beam of light comes out of the eye shield striking Raito in the face. Luckily Raito already had his eyes closed or else he could have possible gone blind from this. Raito’s head began to feel like it was being set on fire and while this was happening Blight began to knee Raito in the stomach over and over again.

“Stop! Please stop!” Raito pleaded. As things began to get worst Blight throws Raito across the room.

“Oh, we are waaaaaay pass me letting you go free. You ruin my deal so now I will ruin you!” Blight shouted out and snapped his fingers. Just then lights in the garage began to turn on that were above Raito. “I think it’s only appropriate you understand why you’re dying the way you are,” Blight said with a finger snap. The lights turn orange and Raito’s body begins to feel warm, “red fire is actually weak with only a temperature of 525 degree celsius and then next is orange with a temperature of 1,100 degree celsius which you are experiencing now. But since this heat is coming from light it’s not as damaging as it would be if it was coming from fire.” Raito tries to get up and get out of the light but Blight would just kick him in the gut knocking Raito back down onto the floor. Blight snaps his fingers again and the light turns blue, “and this is the next step before the hottest temperature which is white light. Why don’t you relax and enjoy the light!” Raito’s clothes begin to smoke as the ends of his clothes were starting to catch on fire and burn off. Raito’s skin also begin to go from just sweating to starting to dry up and peel causing him to bleed. As this goes on Raito can feel his energy draining from him. He knew had to get out of this light by any means or else he will surely die! With the last bit of his strength Raito quickly stands up and does another sound bang attack. It was weaker than the one he had done before but it was strong enough to knock Blight back from this surprise attack. With Blight out of striking distance, Raito quickly runs out of the garage screaming for help.

This is what Flight had warned Raito about and this is what Flight feared would happen to Raito. Memories began to fluid Raito’s mind, if he were to die he will never get the chance to see his parents or apologize for leaving them. All the work Flight did with him would go to waste and of course his dreams of being a manga writer will never happened. Raito had to get help and get away before it’s too late. If he can just be around people Blight would have to stop because a Gift can’t let bystanders see them use their powers. As Raito makes his way out of the garage screaming for help he began to feel safe but it didn’t last very long. “I need help! Please anyone come out and help me!” Raito pleaded out. Yet nobody turned around to even acknowledge him; even after shouting out towards specific people that were nearby. They all simply walked away. What was even stranger is that they all kept their back towards the garage, it was like they knew what would happen if they were to turn around.

“No one will help you here,” Blight said as he made his way towards Raito. “I own this part of the city! They know damn well to not even look at me. Time Keeper is really strict on the whole no one sees us use our Gift. I can get killed if he were to find out someone saw me use my Gift. So we have a rule that if anyone were to even catch a glimpse of our powers. We have permission to get rid of them.” Blight makes his way to Raito with a very casual walk, cracking his knuckles as they continue to glow a blue light. Exhausted and stunned with fear, Raito couldn’t even run anymore and just stood still as Blight got closer and closer. Once in reach, Blight grabs Raito’s face so his hand can continue to burn Raito’s skin. “Now you will experience true pain,” Blight says. With a snap of his fingers the blue light turns white, “what you’re about to experience is 1,500 degree celsius worth of heat!” Blight screamed. Realizing they were under a street light, Blight snapped his fingers again and white light began to shower down onto Raito. With the intense heat, holes began to appear throughout Raito’s clothes and his skin continued to peel. Completed exhausted, Raito goes limps and falls flat onto the ground. Raito didn’t even have the energy to scream out in pain as skin starts to bubble with blisters and started to suffer side effects of dehydration.

“I’m going to die here....I’m sorry Flight...I’m sorry mom...dad. I thought I could be a hero...I guess that stuff...should be left to the comic world…” Raito thought to himself. As Raito gets ready to close his eyes and accept his fate he spots two feet next to his face.

“That’s enough. You showed him how tough you are. Now leave,” a voice said.

“Sounds like a man...is he here…to help me?” Were Raito’s last words before passing out.

Raito slowly opens his eyes and then immediately sits up from his bed. “Was that just a bad dream,” Raito asked himself as he checked out his arms and face for any peeled skin or blisters.

“It wasn’t, you almost died. You’ve been unconscious for the past three hours,” said a voice.

Raito turns around to see Flight sitting on his computer chair watching over him. “F...Flight? Were you the one who saved me?” Asked Raito.

Flight shook his head no, “I called in a favor from a friend. I was worried something bad would eventually happen to you and I guess I was right. That’s why I was gone, had to sort of go somewhere far. I’m just glad nothing bad happened to you while I was away.”

Raito, checking out his arms noticed that his skin looked fully healed. Then out of the corner of his eye he spots his hero outfit on the floor. They looked like someone had set them on fire with all the burn marks and holes in them. “I had like blisters and my skin was peeling off! How is it that I don’t even have a scratch on me?”

“You can thank Doctor for that. He’s the Gift of Health and is sort of like an off limits Gift. He doesn’t belong to either Soul or Time Keeper. His Gift is too valuable to fight over so both sides are allow to use him and no one is allowed to harm him. When he saw your clothes he made an assumption that you were set on fire. He had to take your clothes off to see just how serious your wounds were. Don’t worry, you still have your boxers on,” Flight said with a slight chuckle.

“Wait my car is still back there!” Raito shouted.

“Don’t worry, I found your car when I was flying over to where you were. Doctor drove you home. I sort of don’t know how to drive,” Flight replied with.

With that Raito was able to calm down. After a few seconds of silence he looked over to Flight to apologize about getting into a fight with a Gift. He didn’t think he would run into one and he only got into that situation because he thought he was busting a chop shop. Flight put his hand onto Raito’s shoulder and asked how he was feeling. Raito began to be teary eyed and raised his right hand to show that he was shaking uncontrollably, “I thought I was going to die back there. I even accepted the fact that I was done. Even my legs are shaking...I thought I was ready but I’m far from it.”

“How are you mentally? Something like this can cause some severe PTSD,” Flight asked.

“I can’t stop picturing his helmet and his hand on my face,” Raito says as he starts to rubs his arms, “my skin is fine but I can still feel the pain of my skin peeling and the blisters popping up.”

“This is the last thing I wanted to happen to you but maybe look at the bright side. At least you got the wanting to be a hero out of your system,” Flight said.

“Out of my system?” Raito said in a confused matter. “Who said I was done being a hero?”

“You can’t be serious!?” Flight said in a angery tone. “You would be dead if it wasn’t for me! Do you want to go through that pain again!”

Without saying a word, Raito got out of his bed to walk towards his book shelves. While walking Raito couldn’t even take a step without almost falling from how much he was shaking. It was like he was walking in snow without clothes. Despite being healed there were small scars throughout his body which were most likely were the blisters were on his skin. Even Raito couldn’t comprehend how much this encounter has affected him mentally and physically. Raito grabs a comic off his shelf and walks back toward Flight. The comic was called The Last Angel is ME which is a story about an angel from heaven that has been sent to Earth. “This comic is about how this angel from heaven is the only survivor of a war between Hell and Heaven. His task is to help protect humans during this post apocalyptic world where demons now roam Earth. His journey is to reach a sanctuary to resurrect all the angels and God himself. In the first chapter he is nearly killed my demons and raiders but survives. After which he becomes stronger and stronger. He learns from all his mistakes that nearly kills him. Death only makes him stronger. This is just one story but there are tons of mangas and comics that are exactly like this. The hero almost never wins the first fight because it’s a dose of reality of what an enemy is truly capable of,” Raito said with a strong look in his eyes towards Flight. During this stare Raito didn’t shake once and Flight took this as a sign that Raito isn’t one to quit after falling down just once. With a deep sigh Flight realized that to Raito, being a hero isn’t about fulfilling some nerd fantasy. No, it’s so he can truly be liked the heroes in his stories and save people. Even after facing the break of death, Raito is only thinking about how to improve from his mistake.

Flight reaches behind himself to pull out the second volume of I Am Hero and says, “I’m ready to read the next volume.”

So who exactly saved Raito? That answer may surprise you.

Leech appears out of nowhere walking towards Blight, “that’s enough. You showed him how tough you are. Now leave.” Blight appears to be in complete shock to see Leech and quickly snaps his fingers to stop the white light from killing off Raito.

“L-Leech what are you doing here!?” Blight asked while trying to compose himself.

“An old friend of mine told me to keep this guy safe,” Leech said as he nudge Raito with his foot to check if he was still alive. “This fight is over, now get out of here.”

“You’re joking right! He’s a Gift that opposed against me which means he opposed against Time Keeper! He’s seen my Gift and he’s that type of Gift that wants to play hero. We kill these type of Gifts anyway! I’m not letting this Gi-” Before Blight could even finished his sentence Leech snapped his fingers and a clear barrier surrounds them. Blight knew what this barrier was and what it meant, Leech is using his actual Gift. Any Gift that is inside this clear barrier won’t be able to use their Gift at all. This is how Leech has been able to kill Gifts to steal their powers. Before Blight could even apologize, Leech grabs Blight by the throat. Since Leech is a skilled killer he knew the perfect amount of pressure to use that makes it very difficult for the person to breathe but still be able to speak.

“Now you listen to me. You’re going to get into your car and leave. You will forget you ever saw this kid or even what his Gift is. If Time Keeper discovers that this kid exist I’ll make sure to inform him about your backdoor dealings. I know for a fact you’re not supposed to be here. Not to mention that little speech about how you own this area. And just so you know, you were to right to think Time Keeper is on to you because that’s why I’m here too. To spy on you and then kill you if I found any evidence of your betrayal. This was just a nice coincidence that I got to kill two birds with one stone,” Leech said with a smile on his face as he lets go of Blight. Blight, not wanting to trigger Leech into killing him does what he asked. With Blight gone Leech looks over to Raito and kneels down. “I probably should have stopped this a lot sooner,” Leech says and he checks Raito’s condition. Leech puts his hand onto Raito’s head and closes his eyes. After about a few seconds, Leech gets back up and snaps his fingers so the barrier goes down. He takes out his phone and begins to dial a number.

“I have someone I need you to heal...yah just charge my account...I’ll open a portal for you now...bye.” Leech hangs up and snaps his fingers to create a black hole on a nearby wall. A person merges from the black hole wearing a doctor's coat, dress pants, dress shirt, and a surgical mask.

With a slight Middle Eastern accent the person spoke, “so who’s the person that needs help.” This man is known as Doctor who is the Gift of Health. With his ability to heal almost anything both sides tend to use him in order to save lives of important people or other Gifts. He’s also a Gift that is in a position where he doesn’t need to hide his identity because he’s under protection from both sides. The only time he ever needs to hide his face, usually with a surgical mask, is when he’s need to use his Gift out in the open.

Leech points over to Raito. Doctor’s eyes widen to see the horrible condition Raito is in and rushes over to him. Doctor asks Leech what happened so Leech explains the situation to Doctor. “He must be important if Flight actually came to you for help,” Doctor said as he started to remove Raito’s clothes, “the last time you saw him was also the last time you ever took off that mask.”

“I don’t see how this kid is special in any way. Just a kid getting himself killed. That’s why I let Blight beat the s**t out of him. Hopefully this a*s beating will knock some sense in him.”

“Wait, Flight told you to let him get roughed up so he won’t try this again?”

“Of course not, this was my decision. I must admit though that I let Blight do more damage than I should have allowed.”

“So where were you watching all of this?”

“I was spying on Blight for Time Keeper. I was watching everything from the roof top of that garage over there,” Leech said as he pointed to the garage, “next thing I knew this kid shows up.”

“I really wished you didn’t let this poor boy get so fucked up. He’s suffering from dehydration, bleeding everywhere because his skin was peeling off, blisters all over his body and lots of burn marks.”

“So what? You can’t heal him?

“No, I can but remember my powers don’t heal people like magic. When healing a person what’s actually happening is that I manipulate a person's body to heal itself.” Doctor puts both of his hands onto Raito’s chest and closes his eyes. Raito’s body begins to glow bright green. With that, Raito’s skin starts to slowly heal. The blisters on his body slowly fade away but leaves behind small scars. Skin that was peeled off gets replaced with new healthy skin. The burn marks fade away and just like that, Raito’s body looks to have fully healed. “I sped up the natural healing process and increased its efficiency. This will cause him to be unconscious for about three to five hours since his body needs rest from forcing itself to heal. As for the dehydration I need a bottle of water to help hydrate him.” Leech creates another black hole and pulls a water bottle out of it to hand Doctor. Doctor pours it into Raito’s mouth and snaps his fingers. “I made it so his body will evenly distribute the water throughout his body. It should hold him till tomorrow. He will be extremely thirsty but this way he won’t be suffering from dehydration.”

Leech in a calming matter shrugs himself off and says, “guess I’m no longer needed. Make sure to call Flight so he can pick him up. I agreed I won’t be around when he comes.” With that Leech snaps his fingers and leaves through his black hole to go back home. “I’ll see you soon again Wave, now that the seed has been planted,” Leech whispered to himself.