Welcome to Narukami City!
As the Flaming Sidekickers arrived in Narukami city, in their casual outfits, they were walking into a building that the helicopter dropped them off on. The four of them entered the HQ where they would be meeting with a Pro Hero in charge of the investigation.
"Thank you for joining us. I'm thankful for having you four here, especially since you come from the now number 1 pro hero of Japan, Endeavor. My name is Tenji Daichi, but you can call me Yami." A 6ft tall man with dark skin and glowing markings on his arms had spoken.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Yami."
Akano said with a smile on his face.
The moment he spoke, Yami was shocked to see such a young hero tagging along with other pro heroes.
"Aren't you a bit young to be a pro hero?" Yami said already feeling a bit doubtful of Akano.
"He's eighteen, but he has been working under the current number 1 pro hero Endeavor for two years already. He is just as experienced and capable enough for this mission as the rest of us." Burnin said in a reassuring tone of voice.
Yami had his arms crossed and responded: "I'll be the judge of that, but now that I have you all here let's get this debriefing over with so you'll be caught up with the investigation."
Akano was already feeling a sour taste with Yami because of how he was looking down on him, but he had to put it behind him to focus on the mission.
As Yami touched a button on his computer, that rested on the desk next to a large screen.
"As you are aware, there has been an uprising of beast men attacks here in Narukami city, and as of recent, we have reports of targeting other areas in Japan. One of those locations was Musutafu, which is where Endeavor had encountered and taken them down."
Everyone was listening attentively, but Akano was getting slightly irritated due to Yami glossing over his involvement in the incident.
"Here in Narukami City the pro heroes kidnapped and interrogated those beast men, but they have zero recollection of how and when they got there. It seems like they are taken by surprise and only can remember events before their attacks."
As Yami explained, he then changed slides to one man that seem to be very important.
"This man here, his name is Yukichi Nagima, was only one of a few beast men who were able to give us details of someone who may be behind the kidnappings. The location? The Narukami Zoo."
"The zoo?" Onima said in a very confused tone of voice.
"Yup. Nagima was visiting the zoo to meet up with his sister who was from out of town. When he left to use the restroom, she was left there waiting and waiting. That was until she asked a bystander to check in on him to make sure he was ok."
Yami was changing the slide and showed the sister.
"Najenda Nagima. The sister of Yukichi, who is actually a pro hero, felt something was very off and decided to contact local authorities to investigate the disappearance of her brother. Nothing came up, until recently when we captured him. We found out his identity thanks to the missing person report issued by Najenda. Though, she said she would have gone on her own if it wasn't for the regulations set here in Narukami."
That part threw everyone off instantly.
"Regulations in Narukami? What kind of regulations would hold back a Pro Hero from investigating the disappearance of her brother?" Kido said with a confused tone of voice.
"Here in Narukami, the town had a large insurgence of random quirk users wanting to play hero because of the heroes they see on the rankings, and it led to an event... we, unfortunately, call 'Narukami Massacre' and it left a massive number of casualties amongst the civilians and even pro heroes. Due to that, we had to enforce strict restrictions on both the citizens of Narukami as well as outsiders who haven't registered in this district. That's why we heroes here have remained incognito and rarely remain visible in the public eye." Yami responded, with a bit of a somber tone.
The atmosphere turned heavy within an instant. Everyone was shocked because they never really recall hearing about such an incident. It was really unsettling, but the Flaming Sidekickers just focused on what Yami was going to say next.
"This is why when you were told to come here, you had to remain hidden and disguised. We do not want to attract the attention of these villains who are operating around here."
That was when Burnin spoke up.
"Wait... if many heroes here are hidden, how have you handled the attacks?"
"We still patrol around the streets of Narukami like how you guys do, but we aren't in our hero costumes. The issue is that this sudden rise of Beast men has occupied a lot of our heroes and even hospitalized them. This is why we reached out to Endeavor as he encountered them. Which leads us to the reason why you are all here."
That's when Yami put the map on the screen.
"There are four locations where we noticed the most disappearance in the past month, and we are going to split you guys up to go undercover and investigate. I'll bring in a team of my own to be in charge of two of the spots as well. You four can decide amongst yourselves on who will go with who."
The flaming Sidekickers looked at each other and smiled.
"You got it, Yami. Anything else we need to know?"
Yami nodded.
"Be on the lookout for the employees there, they may be also in charge of these kidnappings too. Now any other questions?"
No one responded and that's when Yami spoke one more time.
"Alright then. Operation Zookeeper will commence in a few hours. There's food in the building here so feel free to help yourselves while my team shows up soon."
Everyone nodded and headed out to eat at the cafeteria, where thankfully one of the assistants decided to help them find it so they wouldn't be lost.
Yami turned to his other assistant that was on the computer.
"Tanya, I need you to get me all the information on that kid. I don't get how he was sent here for a mission like this. If the Endeavor Agency sends children out to dangerous missions like these, then I will have to test him myself to see if he is actually fit for the mission."
Yami was noticeably irritated and was not about to let it slide so suddenly. He was going to figure out what made Akano so special to be sent out here... there's no doubt that Yami has his eyes on him.
After all... the Flaming Sidekickers are all his responsibility now. There's no doubt that he has a full plate to deal with... and he won't let this mission fail. He worked too hard to get this far to find the one behind the kidnappings and the beast men's attacks.
Operation: Zookeeper is now active!