Kasumi Basijan sat cross-legged in front of her monitors, eyes moving quickly between city feeds. Musutafu at night was never silent, and tonight wasn't going to be an exception.
An alert blinked on her left screen:
VILLAIN INCIDENT: Riverside District — Hostage situation. Hero on scene: Kamui Woods.
Kasumi leaned forward.
She remembered this one.
A minor villain with a binding-type quirk—dangerous because he panicked easily and tightened his hold on civilians when pressured.
In the original timeline, two hostages were injured before backup arrived.
Not this time.
She slipped on her custom earpiece, fingers tapping across the encrypted channel she'd prepared months ago. Her voice had to be calm. Controlled. A voice a hero could trust in the middle of chaos.
She watched Kamui Woods on the camera feed.
He crouched behind a delivery truck, studying the villain who had two civilians wrapped in his elastic polymer tendrils.
Kasumi pressed her mic.
> "Kamui Woods. This is Oracle. Do not move from your position."
He stiffened instantly, head snapping up.
> "Who's there? Identify yourself. This frequency is restricted."
Kasumi stayed focused.
> "If you act now, the villain will constrict the hostages. He responds to sudden movement with compression. Wait for his left shoulder to twitch—he does it before shifting targets."
Kamui hesitated.
She could tell he didn't trust the mysterious voice.
But he also didn't have a clear shot.
The villain shouted and jerked one hostage closer.
Kasumi zoomed her camera.
There—
The twitch.
> "Kamui. Now. Use Lacquered Chain Prison on the ground behind him. He has a blind spot when turning right."
Kamui didn't question it this time.
Wooden tendrils erupted from his arms, striking the pavement in a spreading pattern. The villain spun—exactly as she predicted—leaving his lower body open. The binding wood wrapped around his legs and torso, locking him in place without tightening the hold on the hostages.
The villain struggled, panicked, but immobilized.
Kamui moved fast, slicing through the polymer restraints and pulling the civilians to safety.
Kasumi exhaled, finally allowing her shoulders to loosen.
Her first real intervention.
Her first life saved.
Kamui Woods tapped his earpiece, still catching his breath.
> "Oracle… whoever you are… how did you know that? Are you Commission? Support? Underground?"
Kasumi muted the line.
She couldn't risk being traced, not when she had no license, no quirk, and knowledge no normal person should have.
She whispered only to herself:
"Just someone who refuses to watch this world fall apart."
Then she disconnected from the frequency entirely, the apartment going quiet again.
Tonight, Musutafu had heard the voice of Oracle.
A whisper in the hero's ear.
A ghost with perfect timing.
And this was only the beginning.