Chapter 01 ~ Jin.
Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Tsukishiro estate's grand dining room, reflecting off the pristine silver cutlery and the crystal chandeliers. Jin Tsukishiro, the sole male heir to the Tsukishiro conglomerate, ignored his plate of truffled eggs. Instead, he was entirely focused on adjusting the micro-servos of a sleek, black metallic gauntlet resting beside his crystal juice glass.
His mother, Sayuri, sighed elegantly as she placed her teacup back onto its porcelain saucer. "Jin, please remove that contraption from the table. It is entirely inappropriate for breakfast."
"It is a carbon-fiber pneumatic gauntlet, Mother," Jin replied without looking up, carefully tweaking a minuscule gear with a specialized screwdriver. "And it is perfectly clean."
Across the sprawling mahogany table, his older sister Miyuki let out a soft, mocking laugh. She idly tapped her manicured nails against the rim of her glass. "Still playing pretend, little brother? The U.A. High entrance exam is in six months. All the money in our vaults will not make you sprout a Quirk overnight."
Jin finally stopped his work and looked up, his sharp grey eyes locking onto hers. He flexed his bare right hand. The skin over his knuckles was heavily calloused and covered in faint white scars, a stark, gritty contrast to the luxurious silk morning robe he wore. "I do not need a Quirk, Miyuki. I just need to be smarter and better equipped."
At the head of the table, Daigo Tsukishiro, their father, slowly lowered his financial newspaper. His expression was stern, carrying the heavy authority of a man who controlled half of Japan's technological infrastructure. "It is a barbaric pursuit, Jin. A Tsukishiro commands empires from a boardroom. We do not brawl in the dirt like common thugs."
Jin remained silent. He closed the protective casing on the gauntlet with a satisfying, metallic click. He slipped the heavy device over his right hand and forearm, feeling the familiar, reassuring hum of the internal mechanics powering up.
They think this is a childish rebellion, Jin thought to himself as he adjusted the straps. They think a life of comfort makes a person soft, incapable of stepping into the fray. I will show them exactly what this wealth can forge. With a smooth, calculated motion, Jin reached out with his armored hand, the mechanical joints moving in perfect tandem with his own fingers, and quietly picked up a green apple from the center fruit bowl.
The sterile white LED lights of Sub-Level 3 hummed to life, illuminating a massive underground training facility that stretched beneath the Tsukishiro estate. The room was a stark contrast to the classical luxury of the floors above. Here, reinforced steel, impact-absorbing mats, and holographic projectors dominated the space.
Standing by a bank of computer monitors was Kuroda, an older man in a perfectly tailored three-piece suit. He was the family's head butler, though his secondary job description seemed to include 'chief weapons tester'. He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses as Jin walked in, still wearing his morning robe over his athletic wear.
"I see breakfast was a delightful family affair, Young Master," Kuroda said, his tone dry and perfectly neutral as he tapped the screen of his tablet. "Are we proceeding with the kinetic impact test?"
"My father called it a barbaric pursuit," Jin replied, dropping his silk robe onto a nearby bench to reveal a tight, sweat-wicking black shirt. He walked toward the center of the room, raising his right arm, still clad in the carbon-fiber gauntlet. "Activate the heavy-class dummy, Kuroda. Let us see how barbaric we can be."
Kuroda pressed a button. From the floor, a thick, metallic training dummy rose, designed to simulate a villain with a minor physical enhancement Quirk. "Setting resistance to Class-C. Please try not to break your wrist this time, sir. The medical bills are negligible, but explaining your injuries to your mother is a task I do not relish."
Jin took a deep breath, ignored the butler's dry remark, and fell into a solid fighting stance. He activated the gauntlet. The micro-servos whirred loudly, building pressure in the pneumatic chambers. He lunged forward, twisting his hips to generate maximum force, and threw a straight right hook directly into the dummy's reinforced chest plate.
CRACK.
The sound of the impact echoed sharply across the cavernous room. The dummy bent violently backward, the metal chest plate denting inward. However, the immense recoil of the pneumatic blast sent Jin skidding backward on the mats. He stumbled, barely keeping his balance, and gritted his teeth against the sharp pain shooting up his forearm.
Kuroda looked over his tablet, raising a single eyebrow. "Impressive output. Output force increased by fourteen percent. However, the recoil absorption is clearly insufficient."
Jin exhaled slowly, rotating his shoulder to shake off the numbness. He looked at the dented dummy, then down at the smoking exhaust vents of his gauntlet.
"We need to add a secondary dampener near the elbow joint," Jin muttered, pulling a small notebook and a pen from his pocket to jot down the idea. "And maybe re-calibrate the pressure release valves. If I use this against a real person, I will dislocate my own shoulder before I can throw a second punch."