"The monster's already down?!"
"So fast! She didn't even break a sweat!"
"As expected of Hellish Blizzard, the strongest B-Class esper!"
"Lady Fubuki is incredible!"
The newly recruited members of the Fubuki Group erupted in cheers, voices overlapping in enthusiastic praise. But Fubuki stood at the center of their circle with a frown, her psychic aura already fading. Something didn't add up.
A purple blur. Just for an instant.
One strike, and the monster was paste. What the hell was that thing?
A white shape darted between skyscrapers overhead. It moved on all fours, scaling walls and pipes with inhuman agility, gravity apparently optional. The figure leaped from a residential rooftop toward the column of smoke rising in the distance.
It arrived just in time to witness the monster's upper body explode from an invisible force.
The white figure froze mid-stride, ready to pounce. Then it locked eyes with the tall young man in casual clothes standing before the corpse.
"Hey there." Jordan Evans raised a hand in greeting. "Hope you don't mind. We were in the neighborhood."
Watchdog Man.
The hero crouched in his perpetual white dog costume, every movement canine. When he saw the monster was already eliminated, his attack stance melted into a harmless sitting position. He tilted his head, sniffing in Jordan's direction.
After a moment, he nodded once. Approval, apparently.
Communication wasn't Watchdog Man's strong suit. Without another word, the hero sprang onto a nearby building and vanished into the urban jungle in three bounds. His jumping ability was borderline superhuman, movements fluid as water.
Jordan whistled low. Even Spider-Man would've been impressed.
This was his first direct encounter with Q City's guardian. The hero currently ranked C-Class 301st, his position fluctuating weekly but never climbing far. Internet forums in Jordan's previous life had jokingly called him "Saitama's alt account," and watching him move now, the comparison felt apt.
Like Saitama, Watchdog Man didn't care about rankings. The truly strong rarely did. They fought monsters, saved people, and went home. No press conferences, no social media campaigns. Just quiet heroism.
Jordan watched the white figure disappear into the distance. Every mannerism, every movement was pure dog. The man had committed to the bit harder than anyone Jordan had ever seen.
"A hardcore cosplayer," Jordan muttered, shaking his head with reluctant admiration. "Respect."
Across the country, chaos erupted in disconnected bursts.
A notorious bounty hunter held hostages at gunpoint, high explosives strapped to his chest. The police crouched behind their vehicles, radios crackling with desperate requests for backup.
In the next instant, the explosives vanished. The man's limbs snapped like dry kindling. He hit the pavement screaming.
The officers stared at each other.
"Did anyone see what just happened?"
A cyclops three stories tall rampaged through a city center, wielding an uprooted tree like a club. Bullets bounced harmlessly off its enormous eye.
Then the eye burst. The back of its skull exploded outward, creating a crater large enough to crawl through. Gore sprayed across the street in a pixelated mess of brain matter and blood.
The tree tumbled from the monster's hand. Its body crashed into the pavement, collapsing an entire section of road.
Jordan Evans moved between cities like a ghost. His mobility eclipsed anything ordinary heroes could manage. In half a day, he'd accumulated the ten card draws necessary to unlock his Stand's fourth ability.
The only cost was stamina. Long-range Instant Teleportation burned through mental energy at an alarming rate. Even with his reserves, he'd already consumed nearly twenty percent.
Twenty percent of Jordan's psychic power wasn't trivial. If he released it all at once, Z City would cease to exist.
Fortunately, his energy pool and regeneration speed matched top-tier espers like Tatsumaki. After a short rest at home, he'd recovered to seventy or eighty percent capacity.
Meanwhile, Hero Association intelligence officers across multiple cities were losing their minds.
Monsters identified, monsters eliminated. By the time cleanup crews arrived, all they found were mangled corpses and no hero to credit. No witness statements, no combat footage, no social media buzz. The publicity campaigns that should've accompanied each victory simply couldn't materialize.
What kind of hero didn't care about fan engagement? Rankings depended on popularity metrics! At minimum, heroes needed attendance records, battle documentation, activity allowances.
In offices across the nation, propaganda coordinators wept at their desks.
This job was impossible.
Back in Z City, Jordan had no such concerns.
F-boy materialized after removing his headset, reaching for the Hero Association walkie-talkie. Blue spiritual flames spread across the device as the Stand ability activated. In seconds, the equipment transformed into a card and joined the deck.
"Alright." Jordan gestured to the lounge chair on his balcony. "Let's test this new ability."
F-boy settled into the chair beside him, pale purple form semi-transparent in the afternoon light.
Jordan leaned back, hands behind his head. "We need to confirm the card pool and type, right? How about this: Devil Fruits for the pool, Ability Cards for the type. Let's pull."
F-boy turned his head.
Then shook it.
"What?" Jordan frowned. "That's exactly what the ability description says."
Their mental link translated F-boy's wordless communication instantly. The Stand's feedback was as clear as spoken language, professional and precise.
Available gacha pools are world-based. One-Punch Man universe. Marvel universe where Spider-Man's parallel dimensions exist. Et cetera.
Card type must be accurate. Devil Fruit cards are item cards. The Devil Fruit abilities possessed by users who ate the fruit are ability cards.
Jordan scowled. F-boy's explanation was technically correct, but something about the kid's tone felt condescending.
No proof, though. Frustrating.
He refused to concede the point. Sitting up straighter, Jordan posed what he thought was a trick question.
"Fine. Then tell me this: what type of card is a Zanpakuto?"