The Man In The Shadows

*

After almost a minute of waiting, Josh was finally freed from his slow prison. He looked around and sighed, realising what had happened. Josh knew all my abilities of course, but the Review category was more abstract and open ended.

He walked over to me with a smirk.

'Why the heck are you looking smug when I finally beat your ass?!' I thought.

"Well played. Well, I guess the credit belongs to destiny which allowed you a good roll," he said as he narrowed his eyes.

"You can't give me this one win can you?" I asked in exasperation.

"I did," Josh said as he sat down. "You finally landed a hit after destiny guided your baby hands."

"Since when do you believe in destiny? And I don't have baby hands," I retorted.

"I don't believe in destiny. Its just a fun thing to throw around as if it explains everything in the world," he said.

Well he was right. Destiny was humanity's favourite scapegoat for inexplicable occurrences.

"I have a question that's been bugging me. I never asked about your innate ability, Lonely Brother-"

"Lonely Bastard."

"Right. Lonely Bastard," I said with a look of concern as I said it. "I initially thought it just stops all physical matter from reaching you, but after fighting you while using it, I've seen many physical objects remain intact even after you use it on them. Do you just have fine control over your ability or was I wrong about it?"

"Well. The answer to both questions in yes. I have fine control over it and you were wrong," Josh said intimidatingly, making me back away a bit.

This guy always did some of the most unnecessary stuff I've ever seen.

He cleared his throat and explained.

"My innate ability's strength lies in not allowing any living matter near me. Not simply physical objects. However, I do have an Extension ability that allows me to harness the force I use in order to affect any physical objects.

For example Lonesome Fist which gathers that energy into a weapon I use to amplify my strength or the way I used it jump off the ground to escape your Sundering Rings attack last time."

This shed some light on many things I had been thinking about and it was further consolidated in my mind how broken this guy was.

"You never bothered to correct me the last time I asked?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

"You weren't wrong. You just weren't completely right. Extension abilities are a pain to use because they drain a lot of your energy, which would leave you open if they failed to damage the target," he said with a smile that wasn't a smile.

"Fine. I need to get going. I only get two hours of rest per day and I plan on using them to do some things that I have neglected because of this harsh training schedule," I said while getting up.

"Sure. Just make sure to stay away from the MILF during physical training," Josh said while smiling and closing his eyes as if he had just said the coolest thing ever. I detected a hint of a blush as well which irked me.

'Bro, what's going on in your head?!'

I immediately exited the large room and rushed to my own room to take a bath, relieving myself of the foul stench that clung to me as well as the sweat.

I dressed up in a blue shirt and jeans before walking out of the room and going up tens of floors until I reached an office. I knocked on the door, a raspy voice telling me to enter a moment later.

As I walked in, I wasn't surprised to see that Astrid wasn't the one seated on the chair behind the large desk.

A curly haired man in glasses sat behind the desk while doing his best to manage both paperwork and the data on his computer. When he saw me enter his once fatigued and stressed face....remained fatigued and stressed, with the only improvement being a sliver of relief.

"Ah, you actually came!" he exclaimed as he got up from his seat. "Welcome...uhmm...Bernard right?"

"Y-yeah," I answered. "You're Dexter, if I recall correctly."

"YES, YES! That's right! You remembered me!" he said as he almost ran up to hug me, however I saw in how he looked glued to the floor that he resisted the urge. "Please sit!"

I acquiesced to his request and sat down on the chair on the other side of the desk.

"I can't believe you really came here," he said with a zealous tone that emphasised the joy and disbelief in his heart.

"Well I did say we could meet up and talk," I said to him.

"People say a lot of things, man. Not everything said is ever done and the opposite is also true, you feeling me?" he said.

I cringed hard. I clenched my fists and gnashed my teeth secretly.

'Ah. It seems this guy actually does this a lot. I don't know if I can handle a conversation like this if he keeps saying those 'cool' phrases,' I thought.

"Sure. What is it that you do though?" I asked.

"Uhm... the Safe Zones have a lot of side-line productions and activities that are overseen by auxiliary Invigorated. For example the rearing of animals, crop production, water filtering and so on.

All these need to be handled well, alongside monitoring the condition of both standard and Elite Invigorated. Disputes, troublemakers, everything that has to do with social welfare also falls under the things I have to do," he said.

"That's a heavy work load. How do you handle it all even though Astrid definitely can't?" I asked.

"Well, having tonnes of work piled up in front of me isn't necessarily new to me. I actually volunteered because my innate ability supports such work. I call it Manager. Not much of a cool name I know, but it fits what it does. You feeling m-"

"Please stop saying that," I stopped him from making me cringe again.

"Oh. Sorry," he said.

"What does your innate ability do?"

"Well, it allows me categorise all the work I have into specific sections and produce the best possible way to manage them as possible," he said.

"That's pretty neat. Everything is always in order?" I asked.

"Of course not. When humans are a variable, there will always be problems. However, when it comes to other matters like agriculture, my solutions have made sure that we don't deplete our resources too quickly," he said.

"I see. I can't imagine Astrid being able to handle that all by herself. Your ability is pretty amazing," I said with a look approval.

Dexter's eyes began shining behind his glass as he looked at me with anticipation. It didn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out what he wanted me to ask about.

(A/N: That was intentional).

I sighed.

"How did you get such an amazing ability?" I asked, pretending that I was genuinely curious and stroking my chin.

Dexter smacked the table and replied in a way that failed to hide his yearning to reveal his backstory. He smiled, his eyes turning glassy under my concerned gaze.

"It was simple actually. For as long as I can remember, I've always been a sensitive person. I was bad at saying no to people when they asked for help and I..... always found myself being taken advantage of. I know its stupid, but each day that I thought I would finally say no and look out for myself, I found myself thinking 'Just this once'.

It went on throughout my life until my attitude drove me to become someone's assistant in a manufacturing firm, called Deux. I never improved. I could never stand up for myself and I ended up being everyone's assistant. I got comfortable after a time and accepted it. A full time job of trying to please everyone," he explained.

'Damn man that's a depressing story! Why were you so eager to share it?!' I thought.

"It was impossible to please everyone, but I did learn to divide my attention and became good at paying attention to detail as well as managing the firm's departments more than the managers themselves. For the first time, I was praised when the profit margins rose.

Of course I was only praised by those who used me and I couldn't get a promotion or anything. I preferred it that way. I was not meant to be in the spotlight anyway. When I was Invigorated, my happiest thoughts had been me doing what I did best. Working overtime in the shadows to make sure everything was in order," he said as he adjusted his glasses.

Frankly I was stupefied by how this guy was comfortable in the background without recognition. I suppose old habits are hard to change. I was glad that he at least got good at something. Though, it didn't amount to much.

"That's a harsh background you have," I said with a tinge of sympathy in my voice.

"Oh don't worry about it. Everyone has their role to play in this world. This is something I discovered in my life. Not everyone can shine like the sun. The world can only remain stable when there's a balance. Those who run things in the shadow like me, make that balance," Dexter said with a smile that showed that he really believed in his words to be true.

Was he right though?