Chapter 6 - Ambition

The next day.

Warm sunlight dyed the horizon with a gentle orange glow, illuminating the tranquil world as if to announce its presence and show to everyone that it was already morning. The cries of roosters resounded throughout farms, and birds flew all over the sky and greeted the drifting clouds with cheerful melodies.

At this moment, a pair of vertical golden eyes opened and a young child at the age of 4 yawned. He wore a genial smile and pushed himself up the bed, although it seemed that he had exerted too much strength as he went flying and nearly fell to the ground if not for his incredible balance that allowed him to stabilize his core and stop any accidents from happening.

Craning his head back, he patted his chest and smiled. He then stood up from his bed and extended his hands outwards to the air, bending his back until he heard his bones let out an audible crack. He then dropped down to the ground and reached to the tips of his toes; he felt his heart pump with vigor as his blood flowed through every single vein in his body, giving him unprecedented energy that made him wanna run for hours on end without pause.

Clenching his fist, Dolian stared at his forearm as golden scales grew out, and as if his entire body was undergoing a monstrous change, he can feel his muscles suddenly turn hard and firm, and his strength was overflowing.

'Just my physical strength alone is terrifying for a child, and with the scales, I can even smash open rocks with my bare fists. If I wanted to, I can completely hide the true abilities of my quirk, but that would only serve to give me more problems as quirks have hereditary properties and both my parents have quirks in the domain of the mind.' Dolian opened his fist and watched the golden scales recede into his skin, disappearing as if it was merely a figment of one's imagination.

As he stared at himself in the mirror, Dolian noticed a new aspect of his quirk that he found quite useful, 'My ability to remain calm and control my emotions has indeed undergone a qualitative change. Even my extreme joy was easily quelled last night and I easily slept and entered a lucid dream.'

After finding another useful ability that was given to him by his quirk, Dolian nodded his head, stood up, and walked out of his room with an obvious grin on his face. When he manifested his quirk, Dolian's mind was enhanced, giving him a keen insight and monstrous talent to comprehend and understand others including himself, giving him greater confidence in his ability to act as the person he now is, Dolian Tatori.

'Even my ability to create my personas has been enhanced. Of course, this can also be used to map out the character of other people, an ability that would undoubtedly prove itself in the near future as something useful.' Dolian's smile deepened as he used his newfound abilities to perfectly control his emotions and external appearance.

His smile turned more sincere and childish, his grin showed his pearly white teeth, and slight wrinkles appeared around the edge of his eyes. Both of his golden vertical eyes shimmered with illusory stars.

He then walked down the stairs at a rapid pace, arriving at their house's living room. There, he saw both of his parents doing their own thing.

Ayumu, Dolian's father, was staring intently at a holographic image that floated in front of him over their table.

On the other hand, Dolian's mother—Hope, was typing out messages on her laptop while a holographic book was floating right beside her.

Noticing his presence, the duo turned around and stared at Dolian with a smile, "Good morning."

Then just as they greeted Dolian, both of his parents squinted their eyes at the same time as they noticed a certain little change that would have gone unnoticed by normal people for a short while. With their keen insight and distinct talent for matters regarding other beings, whether it be humans or animals, they would be able to notice subtle changes such as sudden changes in eye color in just a glance, especially so for Hope.

'Like I expected.' Dolian inwardly chuckled then calmly controlled his reaction. He stepped back for a bit after they squinted their eyes, and a brief flash of surprise and understanding appeared in his eyes before he then hid his unobvious reaction that would have fooled normal people.

"Did you…" Hope mumbled and stopped her typing fingers, causing silence to descend upon the room.

"Manifest your quirk?!" Both Ayumu and Hope stood up in shock and their eyes shimmered with clear joy.

Dolian made his muscles tighten up for a split second and turned his smile stiff, before promptly remodeling his body and thoughts, "What quirk?"

His reaction was as quick as lightning, integrating his previous action of stepping back from having his secret figured out into his recontextualized act of surprise and confusion from his parents' extreme reaction.

'When facing two of America's greatest psychologists and masters of the human mind, I need to grasp the character of Dolian Tatori perfectly and make sure to perfectly represent him.' Dolian finally saw how thin the rope he was standing on these past few years had been.

'Now that I have the combined might of their quirks, I can already see just how lucky I have been for four years. A single glance alone and I can sniff out any lie from someone else from just the first 10 seconds of meeting them.' Dolian shook his head at the monstrous might of his quirk and, in turn, realized just how strong both of his parents are as his quirk was the combined version of their quirks.

Just as he mumbled about his luck inside his mind, both of his parents had glint in their eyes as they easily understood what he was trying to do.

'This sly kid.' Both of them grinned and laughed as the two understood what Dolian was plotting.

'He's trying to keep it a secret!'

Snorting, Hope walked towards Dolian and ruffled his hair, "You… You think you can fool us?"

Arriving beside the two, Ayume chided in, "I also remembered how smug I was when I gained my quirk. I tried to keep it a secret from both of my parents just like you are doing now."

"How…" Dolian looked at the two with brief shock, and then returned to his calm but curious state, "Did you know?"

"Hmph, we're not just called the best for show." Hope smugly explained before then crouching down with a relieved smile.

"This is good…" Hope sighed and shook her head. Her sigh seemed to exhale out all of the weight in her body as she slumped her shoulders in relief.

"That's right." Ayumu nodded his head and smiled.

"You're not quirkless." Hope muttered with a grin as her eyes started to tear, "You're not quirkless!"

"My baby boy is going to be the world's number 1!" Hope exclaimed as she hugged Dolian tightly with her monstrous strength.

As her arms wrapped around Dolian's body, her emotions got the better of her as she quickly realized she let go of her control for a bit and used too much strength for a normal child to handle. Then, that fear and surprise turned into curiosity when she looked at the eyes of her child that seemed to be unaffected by her strong hug.

"That's too tight, Mom!" Dolian shouted and struggled to break free.

Not missing his unexpected response, she realized another thing about her son's quirk and laughed, "So you did inherit my strength!"

'It seems like his quirk is not simple at all!' Hope exclaimed as she looked back at her husband with eyes that seemed to transmit what she had just thought of.

Nodding his head to show he understood what she wanted to say, Ayumu hurriedly grabbed three chairs and sat down on one of them.

Standing back up, Hope sat on the chair beside Ayumu and they both turned extremely serious to the point that the air felt tense and solid.

"Hmm?" Dolian raised his brows in confusion at his parents' sudden shift in attitude.

"Sit down, Dolian." Ayumu snapped his fingers as the chair retracted back into the ground, pop out, and grabbed Dolian by the chair to automatically make him seat on it.

In that sudden shift, he acted as if he calmed down his turbid emotions and regained his usual calm.

"So…" Hope stared at Dolian in the eye, "Care to explain the details of your quirk, young man?"

Pausing for a second, he seemed to have understood what they wanted from him and said in all seriousness, "I call my quirk Mind Dragon!"

"After I manifested my quirk, it was like a book was downloaded into my brain! I can now 'see' through people, notice details I didn't see, and…" Dolioan blabbered to no end as he gave a long list of details, and both of them perfectly grasped what Dolian was trying to say.

Their eyes glanced at one another for a split second as thoughts ran through their head, 'He… He's a genius!'

'He did not just manifest one of our quirks or allowed one of them to mutate, but harnessed both of them to turn into a single quirk!'

'A quirk that is a perfect all-rounder! He has great physical strength and dragon scales, while also having control over the mind!'

'Even if he doesn't train hard, he'll be leagues above the rest in comparison!'

'He's a lot like Aleks!'

After finishing his demonstration, his dragon scales retracted back into his skin. The two silently stared into Dolian's eyes. Noticing their piercing gaze, Dolian became flustered and stared elsewhere while asking, "Umm-"

"You're so amazing!" Hope was the first one to erupt in excitement and grabbed Dolian into a tight hug, spinning around the room as she wore a wide grin.

"Even your uncle Albion wouldn't be able to resist feeling envy!" Ayumu chuckled while pinching Dolian on the cheek.

Amidst their praises, Dolian excitedly smiled and said, "Hehehe, is that true?"

"Of course!" Hope patted her chest, "With enough effort, you'll even be able to become number 1 in the entire world!"

Dolian's eyes glowed with childlike wonder as he inquired, "Really?"

"Really!" Hope answered with unwavering confidence in her tone, "Isn't that right, dear?"

"Yes." Ayumu laughed softly and patted Dolian on the head, "In the future, you'll become a bright shining star that illuminates the entire world."

As Dolian gasped at their claims, he inwardly grinned as his plan was faced with tremendous success.

'What I just said where actually not the full thing. While the things about my physical strength were true as they are harder to hide, all of the stuff regarding the domain of the mind was only half-truths. With the combination of the two quirks, I have instead acquired a quirk that went through a qualitative evolution.'

'With the combination of both Mind Tether and Psychologist, I have gained numerous abilities with a vast potential ahead of me.'

'Through the combination of Mind Tether and Psychologist that has received a major boost, my ability to read and simulate the minds of others has been amplified to an enormous degree. With that, I can control the flow of conversations, their impression of me can easily be changed, and their thoughts and actions can be subtly manipulated with just words and gestures alone.'

'If I were to use Mind Tether, then theoretically speaking, I would already be a terrifying manipulator!' Dolian sighed and couldn't help but want to try out using Mind Tether already, but with both of his parents being monsters in their own right, Dolian didn't dare to even have the thought of using it.

'Of course, if my father were to read my mind, he'll only read my "fake" thoughts that are used to hide my "true" thoughts. All that painstaking effort sure has been more of a blessing in disguise than I first thought, especially when he could have just read my thoughts without a single care in the world about morals and ethics.'

Laughing dryly at his own dangerous predicament that he luckily survived through for four years straight, he now had the confidence to fool both of his parents without any problems. 'Heh, my greatest weapon against them is that they're in the dark about my true abilities. Given enough time, I'll be able to do more as I please once I have enough experience and strength.'

'Of course, I'm already doing that as I speak.'

'After hearing them say that I can be the best in the world, I can use that as a catalyst to spark the ambition in my heart to grow stronger and reach the pinnacle, giving me an alibi and freedom to do more things at the same time.'

'Now I only need to show that more and more throughout days, weeks, and months as I can develop the character known as Dolian Tatori.'

'Later on, Dolian Tatori would be known as the young genius with an insatiable thirst to improve. He has both the talent and determination to grow, leaving behind others in the dust as he becomes a dazzling star amidst a sea of gems and crystals.'

Finalizing his thoughts, less than a second has passed in the outside world as Dolian exclaimed with a resolute voice, "I'll make sure to work hard then starting from now!"

"That's good! If you become number 1 in your class, daddy will buy you anything you like!" Hope said with a grin and stared at Ayumu for his confirmation.

"That's right!"

Hearing them state their promise, Dolian hurriedly hugged both of his parents and shouted, "Yay!"

Chuckling, Hope sighed once more as her eyes softened before she then said with a stern voice, "Don't go celebrating now, mister. Are you sure that you'll even become number one in your class?"

"Eh…" Dolian paused before he then awkwardly rubbed the back of his head with a wry smile.

Laughing at his family's antics, Ayumu stepped in and reminded the duo of the true worries of the day, "Are you two forgetting that today is your birthday already?"

"That's right!" Hope widened her eyes as she shook her head, "What are we doing here wasting our time!"

"Dolian! Go take a shower already! Ugh, I got too caught up in the situation."

Nodding his head, Dolian saluted and shouted, "Ma'am yes ma'am!" and then rushed up the stairs to grab his towel and shower.

AN: This chapter has 2463 words.

Damn, Dolian is still so human at this point. By the time Arc 1—Dolian Tatori, ends, he would be more closer to God than he is man.

Anyways, you're welcome for this weekend chapter because I decided to be benevolent even if there's a mountain of school work that I have to deal with.

Writing is hard; power stones is great. Comment your thoughts and critique me in the reviews. Save the book to your library if you find it to be good!

(March 15, 2023 - 475th day of writing)