A Suffocating Checkmate

Judo classes were productive, to say the least.

Although the end result might have led some of the other kids and the teacher to have some light PTSD and with Taro deciding it was best he moved to the next age group all in all Thaumiel felt pretty good.

His Martial Arts Talent had shot up like a speeding train all the way to level 26 and the Fighting Talent all the way to level 23.

Which shows surprisingly consistent differences.

As they progressed and he gradually 'deepened' his proficiency in the areas he noticed what distinguished both.

The Martial Arts Talent revolved mainly around control over one's body, what type of attack is most effective and what defense is most appropriate.

While the Fighting talent was more revolving around sensitivity toward timing, which timing was most fitting to attack, where attacking would be most effective, which opponent felt the most dangerous, which attack was too strong to let it hit.

It was that type of on hand's knowledge you only get when fighting for real against an opponent that doesn't care if you'll go down in one piece or with your head caved in permanently.

Doing an oversimplification of it, the talent of martial arts revolved around technique and control while fighting itself revolved around pure instinct.

Thus a combination of the two along with proper backing from the fitness talent was the most optimal combination when it comes to combat situations.

In his happiness he barely noticed he had already left the dojo and was sitting in the car with Makima.

However, one thing he noticed, a bit too late perhaps, was that this time she had him sit in the front… which was unusual considering he was 4 years old.

Feeling a bit more apprehensive Thaumiel couldn't help but wonder if he was imagining the black sedan seemed a little 'tighter', the leather seats seemed a little colder and the usually mellow light from the display seemed rather dim.

That paired with the current time left the inside of the car darker and more suffocating.

"So what did you think of the class?"

Being directed a question from Makima, Thaumiel was taken out of his contemplation, briefly pausing before answering.

"Pretty cool, Judo is quite fun. Taro-san is also pretty good as an instructor."

"It's mostly due to how long he has been teaching."

"You think? I find it quite interesting that he chose to change career from hero to owner of a Dojo."

"You'd think someone retiring from a hero career would want to 'drop' the excitement?"

"Shouldn't that be the case?"

"Old habits die hard, and once used to something it's difficult to change…"

She said, extending her words as her menacing orange eyes with red rings slightly averted from the road and focused on him.

They shone particularly ominously in the darkness of the car.

"Which makes it all the more eye-catching once it changes."

'W-what the… I'm getting a bad feeling here…'

"You never thought no, you might wake up the next day and see pigs flyings."

"Yes but it makes it all the more intriguing, wouldn't you agree? For example you…"

'S-she-'

"Same looks, same eyes, same little habits, same DNA results…"

With every cold word that was spoken in the most velvet yet indifferent voice Thaumiel had heard in his two lives his heart thumped a beat faster.

"Yet at the same time completely different."

THUMP

" More energetic~"

THUMP THUMP

"More curious as well~"

THUMP THUMP THUMP

"Not to mention courageous.'

"I-I don't und-"

"It's not polite to interrupt when someone is speaking, didn't I teach you that before? Or could it be that you don't 'remember' it happening~?"

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

With each word Thaumiel could almost feel an invinsible chain spreading around, wrapping the already tiny and uncomfortable small surroundings he was confined within into an even tighter and smaller space.

A chain could also be felt crawling its way toward his chest like a snake.

With it's intent lazer focused on his heart that beat so fast it's thumb made him almost deaf

'This is ba-'

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

"So 'Thaumiel' did you wake up, and how did you put it? 'See pigs flying?'"

At this moment his already pale body was almost turning transparent.

He could almost feel the snake chain slowly wrapping around his heart, and beginning to tighten little by little suffocating the life out of it.

A deafening sound of static was produced by his brain as under the pressure he couldn't even compose himself enough to think how he could possibly rearrange his talents in this situation and somehow survive.

Death had its scyther on his neck and was whispering sweet words of comfort as if trying to give his spirit some solace as the inevitable end approached.

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP 

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

"What's wrong~ Why so serious? it's almost like you've seen a ghost…"

'Ah, I'm dead ain't I?'

As darkness seemed to bloom trying to obfuscate even the small bits of light that could be seen leaving only Makima's chilling radiant gaze.

A small last remaining will to live, so small that could barely be considered a thought, made one last ditch effort to fight for survival.

[Talent: Survival(1) LV14=>Talent: Survival(856) LV14=> LV16 => 20 => 25 => 29 =>...]

"Auntie… Are you unpopular with guys? Why did the instructor seem so surprised when he thought I was your child?"

"What?" 'What?'

"I mean… it's one thing to be surprised, but Taro-san 's were about to fall off his face when he saw me."

'No, for real what am I even asking?'

"Thats…"

"I'm a bit worried you know… even if you don't plan to date or get married in the near future it's not very good for others to have an impression like that."

"That's not-"

"As a family I'm a bit worried if I'll be able to have a cousin in the future so try and smile a bit more, you are always so stiff."

"..."

"What? It's a pretty fair request, no? Even kids like me know if you wanna get popular you need to smile more."

"...Alright."

"It's a deal then~"

…

"I actually survived…"

Thaumiel said in a daze as he laid on the bathtub, at the moment he was a bit confused about life.

Even as someone who most probably died before he had never felt death, so clearly and intensely as he did in the car drive back from the Dojo.

He grew too lax.

He originally thought his 'family' talk had originally dispelled Makima's doubts and allowed him to act a bit more freely…

Yet the situation was but his own illusion, or thinking better now it was an illusion Makima gave him.

The initiative of the matter was in her hands from start to finish.

It's because she stopped pursuing the matter and took a step back that he grew lax, to the point he even forgot to keep survival boosted to max around her.

And just like that he almost got cornered to death when he was most relaxed.

'...I might have no scratch. I massively underestimate Makima. Yet funny enough what saved me once again was a 'family' talk… Why is it that those work so well defusing the situation with her? It's weird, way too weird.'

Throwing a quick glance at his talent panel he could only sigh at the current Survival Talent

[Talent: Survival(819) LV34]

Beside some Talents he had intentionally grinded or were just too convenient to grid this was actually one of his highest leveled talents, what's even more doubfolding is that it was grinded entirely by dealing with makima.

'Just how high were the odds of me dying in that car for the talent to jump directly from 9 all the way to 34 in under a minute?'

It was scary, to the point he kinda wanted to see a psychologist.

Turns out karma is a bitch.

Thaumiel gave the kids and the Teacher from the Judo class PTSD and Makima gave him a PTSD even bigger.

"Should I kill her? ...Can I even kill someone?"

While Makima was appearently a highly skilled officer who dealt with quirk users who sometimes were pro heroes yet never arrived home with as much as a scratch and also had a very versatile 'quirk'.

And he was just a slightly above the average fighter with a little bit of strength and no quirk so to speak…

Killing her was not entirely impossible, putting aside if he could steel his heart to do so.

'I could make a homemade bomb and blow her to pieces... no I'd need a lot of materials and she'd most probably catch on. Then poison? But she is the one that makes all the food and I never even saw her eating anything handed to her... Gas her room while she sleeps? Shouldn't work either she got a nose no different from a dog? Set the house on fire and hope she dies inside? Even more unlikely...'

His odds of succeeding aside Thaumiel wasn't all that confident either about his resolve of murdering another person as well.

'Then should I ran away? With my 'Talents' shouldn't be difficult to survive on my own... No she is an official and in a world with quirks while not having one I'd probably be found the second or third day no matter how hard I ran away.

'Ahhh~! Damn damn, what the hell why do I have to dela with this? I did nothing fucking wrong yet things out of nowhere start sucking soo much? I don't wanna deal with this crap right now!'

Groaning mentally, Thaumie felt an inner irritability and annoyance he hadn't felt in quite a while.

A character trait he bought with him from his previous life.

Not wanting to confront his problems head on and always dodging till the last moment and getting annoyed once it blows up on your face.

'Didn't I have a skill for time like this?'

Moving some TP to the Meditation Talent, Thaumiel closed his eyes and sunk a bit deeper into the warm water trying to also wash and melt away his frustration and other negative feelings.

Yet even as he vaguely felt that the state of his meditation deepened he didn't feel any less like crap compared to before.

Makima had, put him in a check position.

And if he delayed a few seconds more it would have been a gruesome checkmate ending with a future he didn't even dare imagine.

'I really need to awaken that quirk... No, not just the quirk, it's no guarantee the quirk will be something good... I'll need more.'

As the distracting and annoying thoughts were pushed aside allowing him to dig deeper and deeper into what he possible could to arrive at a solution an answer came so obvious yet obscureat the same time.

'Talent... I need more talent... much, MUCH more. To the point even if there is some human limitation to how far talents can be raised it won't be enough to stop me.'

As iritation, annoyance, fear, apprehension and other emotions dissappeared what begun to bloom was a deep seated craving for more power.

One he hadn't felt before, in truth he never felt anything remotely similar.