The Hero Thinks About Work

Hoshi stood across from the remains of the orphanage. Nearly everything was scorched black and police tape still wrapped around the building. Scavenger and construction crews had already begun sifting through the wreckage and cleaning things up. Public interest had already disappeared, and people walked by the building without a second glance, which saddened Hoshi somewhat.

There was a lot to think about after the past week, and now that it was the weekend, Hoshi had a lot of free time. When he had told Reiko, he felt some of the weight off his shoulders lift. Some of the words she had said were a little confusing and didn’t really make sense, but that was almost on par with the Reiko he knew. In any case, he was glad he had someone he could fall back on now.

Hoshi sighed, turned away, and merged with the crowd. After a few days of searching for more answers, he still hadn’t found anything other mentions on the news and a few low-level thugs he had been able to take down. No one seemed to know what the Moon Ravens were doing except the Moon Ravens themselves, and Hoshi was getting frustrated. There wasn’t much he could really do about it though because if he did anymore, he would probably get found out and caught.

Since the interview, Hoshi had also been doing his best to catch Reyna up on everything she might need to know. From their on-call nature and their salary, the ins and outs of request forms and office work, to the strategies and plans they might need to survive the outside world. Admittedly, that made it sound like they were terrified of getting hurt, but it was Danger Crew policy. They needed to be safe in the most general sense possible, and Hoshi’s Power was sufficient for both him and Reyna.

And while Hoshi was assured that he could avoid most dangers, his Power could never protect him from the dangers he willingly ignored. Along with his power came a sort of sentience, where even if he couldn’t see something that might hurt him, his power activated, alerting him to the fact that something was happening that he needed to consider. In some aspects, it was almost like being able to make a decision in a visual novel: Hoshi had all the time in the world until you needed to choose a path.

“I wonder if Hikaru is doing alright,” Hoshi muttered. He had seen how much the orphanage fire had affected her. While she had seemed to bounce back the next day just fine, he knew something was bothering her. He asked her a few times if she was alright, but he always got a vague response. It wasn’t his place to budge into her business, but he couldn’t help worry about her. It was clear there were some unresolved problems she had, but again, he couldn’t do anything unless she herself talked to him.

It was difficult conundrum and one Hoshi wished he could resolve, but for now, he had other things to worry about. Namely, looking out for any trouble. Hoshi had his hero clothes underneath his zipped up sweater: It was his quick-change uniform on the weekends. While he was a little worried about getting noticed since he was seen in this getup enough times over the course of sudden Powered attacks, with the way big cities worked, he knew no one would really notice until he really got involved.

In a way Hoshi was grateful for the public disregard of other individuals. If it were any other city, Hoshi was sure he would have been noticed and caught ten times over. As it stood now, he was just glad no once gave him a second glance. He was a decent looking guy in his opinion, after all, and really did try not to stand out when it mattered.

Which was why he was surprised to see a blazing streak of blue cross the sky above him, with many others gasping at the sight. “Flare…?” Hoshi murmured with a frown. While she disappeared from his view, he ran into an alley, unzipped his sweater, slapped on his mask and scaled the nearest building. His vision flickered with his Power, and he rolled onto the rooftop to see Flare zoom to a running stop on a distant apartment complex.

“What is she…” Hoshi wondered. Usually, Flare was very flashy with her entrances. If she went somewhere, she was doing so with as much, well, flare, as possible. It was honestly one of the reasons why she had the name. But here she was, crouching on a rooftop trying to look stealthy. At that thought, Hoshi could only look up at the white smoke she had left behind and sighed. She wasn’t really doing a good job so far, but he could admit it was more than she usually did.

He then began running and crossing the rooftops to close their distance and see what she was seeing. The entire time, he would flash his Power at her to make sure she wouldn’t look his way, and each time she did, he hid. Finally, he was able to cross the distance and was only a street away from the place she herself was hiding, and when he looked where she was looking…

All Hoshi could see was a simple convenience store among other chains and food venues on a simple street. A transport truck was parked in front, and workers were hauling boxes from the store to the truck. Hoshi wondered why this was so interesting at first, before he realized that it wasn’t the goods or the truck that were important (though he was sure they had something to do with it); It was the logo of the store and the moving company.

Above the store in bright neon colours was a large blue crescent with the silhouette of a bird. A Moon, and a Raven.