Hero Headquarters

It doesn't take a long train ride until we arrive, getting out of the station to Tokyo around us.
'So cool...'
From my right, Tarou talks with two others.
"Isn't it awesome?"
"Hell yeah it is! Hiro you better not laze around all day now."
Shin turns to Hiro who was yawning after waking up earlier than his usual during vacation.
"Yeah, don't worry. I want to see the sights too."
'I still can't believe it...
"Like a road trip?! I gotta invite the guys!"
Tarou really did it.'
"So..."
I turn to my left, where Tomo and Aya are.
"Why are you here too?"
Tomo turns to me with a wide smile.
"Tarou and I exchanged numbers back with the whole memory thing."
'Of course he did.'
"Still, I can't believe you couldn't just teleport all of us here."
I give him a stunned look as he laughs.
"Who the hell do you think I am?"
'Whatever, we just gotta quickly warn the Chairman.'
I look over at Aya who's looking around all wide eyed.
'Well... This could be fun.'
While I looked at Aya, I notice Tomo giving me strange look and smile, but before I can jab him, Gaia speaks.
"Alright everyone, it's just going to be me and Kazu when we go to the Headquarters, but in the meanwhile we can visit anything on the way to it."
After Gaia finishes, Shin puts his hand up.
"Yes, the tall one."
"I'm curious, how are the actual Headquarters like? Is it similar to the regional HQ back home?"
"Hm, I'll say yes and no."
Shin waits for her to continue, when she just says with a wink.
"Sorry, secret."

We spend some time looking at store fronts, and even eating in some restaurants as Aya and Shin basically pulled the group in whatever direction they wanted.
As we pass by the moat surrounding the Imperial Palace we stop, as Aya takes some pictures.
"This is awesome~!"
Before we can continue, Hiro lifts his hand.
"Right, let's split up here. I've got some places I want to see too."
As he says that, Shin approaches Hiro and puts his arm around him.
"Hiro taking the initiative? I've gotta check this out too! Tarou you coming?"
"Yeah, sure!"
Gaia gives them a thumbs up and says with a smile.
"Great, remember to meet us back at the station by the end of the day!"
As the trio set off, Tomo and Aya look at each other, before turning towards us.
"Then we'll go too! I've got waaaaayy too many things I want to see. Cyaaaa!"
She says that and quickly runs off, with Tomo giving me a quick goodbye before trying to catch up with her.

With that, Gaia puts her hand on my shoulder.
"Ready to go then?"
We continue on towards the Headquarters, when I ask.
"So why can it only be us going there?"
"I'm not going to show up with a whole group, there's no need for that. Besides they're kind of strict when it comes to making appointments."
"Why am I allowed then?"
She looks at me with a gentle smile.
"Because I wanted you there. Besides, maybe you haven't realized, but I'm a pretty great hero! I just asked for a favour of letting me bring a plus one."
When she says that I blush, to which she laughs a bit before we keep going.
'Somehow I forgot how kind Gaia is...'
I smile and start to enjoy the moment, which I haven't done in a long while.

After some more time we finally come up to a huge and impressive building when Gaia turns to me.
"It's the National Diet"
"Is it there?"
Gaia thinks for a moment before answering.
"Ehhh, sort of. Come on."
We keep walking all the way around the building, taking a back entrance, passing by a guard who recognizes Gaia and welcomes us in.
Gaia turns to me before saying.
"Stick close okay? You don't want to get lost."
I nod and we both continue, going down hallways and taking a couple of turns until we finally arrive at a fancy looking door as Gaia turns back to me.
"Right through here."
"Huh, for the Hero Headquarters it's not that impressive."
"Oh, this isn't the hero headquarters."
"What?"
"This is just the regional hero HQ for Tokyo, the real Hero Headquarters is in Hokkaido."
'...'
I stare at her in silence for a moment before finally asking.
"Then what are we doing here?"
Gaia laughs and says.
"Follow me, you'll see."

Gaia pushes open the doors and we go through, passing by a bunch of heroes in what seems like an intense room with always something going on, until getting to another room in the back with another set of fancy doors and the name Hero Headquarters above.
I look around before noticing.
"Not many heroes here..."
'Still hectic though.'
"Yeah, the regional hero HQ here is more spread out, with offices all over the place. The one we need is this one however, here."
She opens doors to a strange hallway with four people inside, two on the left and another two on the right. They all had robes and had their hands clasped together and their eyes closed, turned towards a gate in the middle of the hallway. Looking through it I can see another four people on the other side of the gate dressed the same, turned towards it.

We go through it and through the doors at the end of the hallway only to come to an entirely different room.
"What?"
I look around to see a calm room with a bunch of seating and floor to ceiling windows instead of the normal ones that had been there.
I look at Gaia who is staring at me with a smile, waiting for me to say more.
"We're in Hokkaido aren't we?"
"Aww... I was hoping you'd be like "WOAH, THE ROOM TRANSFORMED", but nothing."
"I wouldn't say that... Still, how did we get here?"
Gaia nods towards the hallway we came from and I look.
"You probably thought that gate was in the middle of the hallway right? But no, that was at the end, all the people there are constantly casting their magic to keep the portal open."
I look back at her.
"A portal?"
'Like mine?'
"Yeah, it's a little different from the ones you do though, and they certainly can't do it as easily. It's type of magic that connects space, but you can consider it sort of like a discount version of your magic."
"Is that why they need so many people?"
"What? No. Have you tried maintaining your portals open all the time? That is very tough to do, there's rotating shifts of people that go in to always maintain this connection, and obviously they need people on the other side to connect the spaces."
I look back once more, now appreciative of their hard work.
'A portal open the whole day... I don't think I could keep it open for even ten minutes...'

Gaia sits in one of the seats and I sit next to her as I ask.
"So why the portal?"
"Look outside and you'll see, this is inside a compound and the only way in is extremely fortified. I believe the waiting list to use that entrance is months from now."
"Months?!"
"Yeah, they the only ones using that one is trucks with supplies for the building. They got everything here including a little gift shop, we can stop there later."

I get up and head towards the window, the moment I look through it my eyes widen with shock.
'We're... We're so high up!'
It looked like we were in some very tall building. I looked down and I could see an area about the size of a neighbourhood surrounded by very tall walls with guards everywhere, the entrance she spoke of alone had 10 guards on either side.
In the distance I could see a very tiny village along with what seemed to be a school.
"That's the village of Tomurauchi"
I look over and Gaia had walked beside me.
"This is..."
"Impressive? I know, you should see the weather!"
'The weather... Who cares, we need to warn the chairman and take that group out fast, so much practice time lost.
Envy...'
Gaia notices that I had accidentally been staring at her as I thought, and assumed I was waiting for her to continue.
"You see, the weather around here is controlled by someone."
When she says that it surprises me from my thoughts and I ask.
"Controlled?"
"Yeah, only inside the compound. They don't play around with security, if anyone tried breaking in by, jumping the walls or something, they'd quickly find themselves in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm."
"Woah..."
"Yeah, though sometimes they take requests, like for rain or something. Everyone has their favourite after all. That and they need to account for the nearby village, to try and not disturb them too much."
I nod, and go back to watching the view from the window.

A couple of hours later and we're still waiting, with me getting increasingly annoyed.
'So much time... Do they not know the severity of the issue?'
Finally I have enough and I look at Gaia who had been laying on the seats, almost falling asleep.
"Let's just go for it!"
The sudden outburst from me causes her to wake up as she starts getting up.
"Huh? What?"
"Let's burst through those doors and get to the chairman already! We've waited so damn long!"
As soon as I say that Gaia sighs, as she then tells me.
"Look, I like your enthusiasm sometimes, and we both know this is urgent, but if I did that I'd be arrested before lunch. I'd like to not have my credibility damaged thank you very much. It's an unfortunate thing, but the only thing we can do now is wait."
'So much time...'
"...Fine. How much longer will it take?"
"Well, let's see..."
Gaia goes back to laying down as she thinks.
"They know me, and I've stated this is an emergency, one that may affect all heroes. I also mentioned the Chairman is being targeted and I scheduled the meeting for yesterday, specifically for ten minutes after we had left Wrath's interrogation. Oh, and also that it was a clear life and death situation, which I think it is."
"...For yesterday?"
"So I'd say, if we're lucky we'll be able to see her within the week."
'W... Week?'
My jaw drops as shock fills me.
"...WHAAAAAAAAT?!"

...

Another hour passes as they eat in the cafeteria.
'"Yeah... This is a big known problem..."'
"That's putting it lightly..."
Gaia, who is eating some some yakisoba, turns to me.
"Hm? Did you say something?"
I turn to her with a forced smile on my face.
"No, no. Just... Talking to myself."
I grab a slice of pizza from the plate and I'm about to eat it when someone comes up to us, wearing some fancy uniform.
"Excuse me. Are you Gaia marked for yesterday?"
We both turn towards her and Gaia nods as her mouth is still full with food.
"Great. The Chairman and Vice Chairman will see you now."

As soon as she hears that, Gaia starts coughing wildly, almost choking on the food from shock.
Before I know it she suddenly grabs me and runs out of the cafeteria, leaving me filled with confusion.