Chapter 119 - Alliance

If you want to read up to 40 chapters ahead of webnovel's publication, go check the story's P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

*

I flipped through the report, the pages sliding through my fingers like water, sharingan spinning lazily in my eyes.

It hadn't been that hard to find, considering what I was capable of, but considering the average of what an average super human was capable of, it was tricky.

My eyes glided over the autopsy, the characters imprinting in my mind.

All internal organs crushed.

I turned the page and the photographs of Mina Ashido's squashed body appeared.

The forensic pathologist had done an impeccable job of cutting her up, carving her up gently enough so that the internal mush that served as the remains of her organs didn't spill onto the observation table.

Even with my Sharingan and my extensive knowledge of the human body as a halfway decent Iryo-nin, I couldn't understand how Uraraka could have done such a thing.

What if she'd stuck her fingers in his mouth and activated her Quirk through physical contact, crushing only her internal organs ?

That would explain the condition of her windpipe. But it doesn't explain how she managed to limit the spread so that only the alien's insides were crushed.

If there was a scientific reason for that, there was no way I could find it - I've always been better at fuinjutsu than sciencesanyway.

Whatever the way she did it, it meant one thing: Uraraka's Quirk was far more powerful than she let on.

If I assumed that her Quirk wasn't really gravity, then I had two options: either she was telekinetic, or she was able to manipulate matter.

Telekinesis involved more psychic control, which meant she could apply a force to an object, or reduce it in one direction or another, levitating or crushing it.

Matter manipulation, on the other hand, meant that she could deform objects and reconstruct them as she saw fit, for example by manipulating a television into a metal disc.

Or perhaps it isa mixture of the two.

Something akin to a force that she could exert at will, which would allow her to manipulate and exert force on other people and other things.

I turned the autopsy report over again, trying, unsuccessfully, to find anything that might help me understand which option was more likely.

Telekinesis and matter manipulation are so similar...

I was almost certain of one thing: Uraraka couldn't activate her power without physical contact.

Because if she could, I could see no reason why she would choose to work for All for One.

If she didn't need physical contact to activate her power, then she could pulverise anything and anyone that got in her way, just as she had done with the alien girl.

If she kept practising and her power kept growing, she could reduce an entire city to dust with a single gesture.

My left hand shook.

This girl is a threat.

I had assumed that she could only do this with physical contact, because if I had been her, I would have done the same to Kaminari, so that his death wouldn't be linked to the USJ incident and it would be known that All for One had a powerful card in the shadows.

Smothering him in his sleep was tantamount to saying that there might be someone else dangerous around, maybe even in Yuei.

But she didn't want to be discovered.

It was the logical thing to do, especially since the surveillance tapes from the day of Kaminari's death had all disappeared.

If she really can activate her Quirk without physical contact, she could be even more dangerous than All for One.

I was just speculating on what little data I had, but it all came down to one thing: I had to kill her before it was too late.

But she's the only person who can lead me to All for One, and no one has a clue where he is.

I had to find a way to counter her if her Quirk didn't require physical contact.

But between the genjutsu and the fast-track project I'd been working on for a while, which required all my clones and most of my chakr-

A shriek pulled me out of my thoughts.

I looked irritably at the cage of two rats Nezu kept in the shadow of his office. They were staring at me with their bright little eyes and squealing like animals in a slaughterhouse.

Maybe he keeps them to remind himself of his roots or something.

My eyes went to the door before the handle had even turned.

In a fraction of a second, the file was put back exactly where I'd found it a few minutes earlier, the drawer closed, the spare key I'd made myself was in my pocket, the padlock was back in place, the incendiary device ready to burn the documents if they were forced open was reactivated and the fingerprint light was ready to go.

Oneshunshin and I was crouched over the front door, in the civilian version of Kakashi.

The door opened.

Nezu entered, whistling happily, his hands clasped behind his back, and made his way to the cupboard on the left side of the wall, which, together with all the other walls, formed a sort of gigantic belt of books.

No sooner had he taken a step into the room that he stopped abruptly and turned his head towards his desk.

He tilted his head to one side, his eyes narrowing.

He walked calmly across the room as I watched him, my chakra vibrating on the surface of my skin, the experimental genjutsu I was working on ready to be launched.

He paused behind his chair, his eyes riveted to the underside of his desk.

The rats were still squeaking.

He scanned them in silence.

Then he smiled.

- Ah, I forgot to feed you, didn't I?

He opened the right-hand drawer and pulled out bits of apple and cubes of cheese, which he slipped through the bars.

Then he opened the cage and started to change their water.

One of the rats bit him and Nezu jumped, almost showing his teeth.

- Bad, bad mouse

I watched him until he'd retrieved the book he'd probably come for, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

*

- Shoto, good evening.

The representative of the Heroic Commission stood up to shake my hand, and I had a vivid memory of seeing him years before, on the doorstep of my house, between a chubby lawyer and my unfriendly father.

- Good evening

I shook his hand, a thin layer of green chakra, barely visible to the naked eye, running over my skin.

A warning against poisoning attempts, you never know.

The man pushed his white ponytail back behind his shoulder.

- I'm Ryota Nishimura

- Shoto Todoroki, I said, and our hands parted without me crushing his fingers in retaliation for what he might have done to me.

His eyes fell on the towel around my neck and he smiled.

- Working hard, eh?

The training in the Elite Class was on a completely different level to what we'd had before.

The school curriculum had become intensive and very fast, so that we could get the school part out of the way by next year.

After that, everything would revolve around the idea of turning us into excellent little killing machines.

- Very much so.

I finished wiping my forehead and throat with one hand, for I had not had time to shower before I arrived.

I suppose I could have sent a clone to the class in my place, but if that meant working on Fuinjutsu for hours on end..

Besides, I already had made enough clones.

- Your little mates weren't too jealous that you got to leave early?

'Little mates'.

I almost smiled.

They were acting weird around me, and I didn't feel like being sociable with people who thought I was a killing machine that was going to blow up in their faces any second.

No one had dared to speak to me, particularly since what had happened last Tuesday.

Especially since we'd heard that Yaoyorozu had left Yuei.

- Not really

Ryota nodded several times, his benevolent smile never leaving his lips.

- I'd like to talk to you about your Quirks.

- What would you like to know about them?

- Their exact nature and what they're capable of.

I sank back into the uncomfortable seat, crossed my arms, raised my eyes as if thinking, and counted on my fingers to help him, point by point.

- Fire and ice, of course. I can use lightning, and my physical abilities are above average.

- But how ?

He placed a recorder on the table. The time read 5 minutes 42 and counting.

He'd started recording me before I came in.

- What do you mean 'how'? I can do it, so I just do

- Is there a pool of energy inside you that gets depleted the more you use your Quirks ?

- A pool ? You mean like a storage tank?

He nodded.

- Yes, there is. If I use them all at the same time, I get tired very quickly.

Not really.

But it was better to tell him that than to explain that I was working on a way to permanently eradicate that weakness.

At the same time, memories of one of my clones came back to me, and the mountains of seals and experiments my clones were working on made my head spin for a split second.

I blinked several times to clear the dizziness as Ryota stared at me, no doubt wondering if I was suffering from some kind of illness.

- And that thing where your eyes turn red, what is that?

- A side effect of my Quirk, I said.

Ryota watched me in silence.

- How do I know that what you're telling me is true?

- I'm afraid you don't have a choice, I said with a smile, my eyes narrowing slightly for him to see.

His face remained cold.

Clearly humour is an area that goes right over his head.

- I told you the truth

- And before that, you said that your Quirks were just fire and ice, and that turned out not to be true. What am I supposed to believe?

- I wasn't very discreet during the championship: you should have noticed that by now.

Nezu's lack of reaction when the 'full' extent of my power was revealed led me to believe that he had already figured it out.

Not to mention the video of the hangar that Aizawa had told me Nezu had...

- Don't act cocky, boy. You're in enough trouble already.

I relaxed in the seat, spread my legs and crossed my hands on my stomach, looking at Ryota with contempt and haughtiness, as I imagined Teka would do in my place.

- There's no need to get angry, Ryota. Everything is perfectly fine.

He raised his hand, obviously irritated.

- I don't-

His eyes met mine.

He sighed suddenly, took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Then, in a much calmer voice, he continued:

- You're right, I'm sorry. But you should know that if I'm here today, it's not because I enjoy interviewing minors without their guardians present - oh no I don't

He was silent for a second, his eyes shining with confidence.

- My superiors are not happy, not at all. Everything would have been fine if we'd stuck to the story that you were one of the brilliant Heroes who saved Tokyo...

He shook his head, sorry.

- But that damn recording had to come out. We didn't even know about it, and (he chuckled, raising his eyebrows to show his confusion) it's quite something for the government agency in charge of Internal Security not to know about something like that.

Of all the lies that had come from his lips, this was the one that sounded most like the truth.

- Because we didn't know about it, it blew up in our faces, you see?

Because if the Commission had gotten wind of my abilities much earlier, they would have tried to get to me before the Special Forces did, just as Gunhee had explained to me.

If they didn't release the video to use public opinion against my father to get me back, then who did ?

How did All for One got a hold of the video?

Why now ?

I was speechless, unable to comprehend the maelstrom of which I seemed to be the epicentre.

Fuck, what the hell is going on ?

- People want answers. My superiors want answers. They won't let you off that easily.

For the first time in years, I felt that my control over my life was slipping away from me.

- Are you threatening me ?

- Absolutely not. You and I are on the same side. All I want is for our country to be safe. You cooperate with us and we'll leave you alone.

The only reason I even bothered to breathe in the Commission's direction was the threat of prosecution they hung over my eighteenth birthday.

That, and because I was planning to join the Special Forces after school, and my failure to comply with one of the most important laws governing the lives of super humans could cost me my place, according to Gunhee.

Special Forces...

Once again, I had misunderstood the reality of this world.

There were things I didn't understand, people pulling strings in the shadows without me knowing why.

I needed to know.

Which only two things could give me: the Special Forces... and Teka.

- We're not an oligarchy, Shoto. This little interrogation means absolutely nothing to me as a person. But it has value for our nation.

He licked his lips.

- We can't afford to have someone walking the streets of our country with an unknown Quirk, Quirks or whatever it is that you have. It's a security risk that could cost us dearly.

Which I could imagine.

- You're a clever boy, Shoto. You must have understood that the Heroes only deal with superficial problems that might concern the general public. The real war is fought in the shadows, by people like you and I.

As Teka had already explained to me.

- Your abilities - what you could do with them - make a lot of people nervous. Very nervous.

Which I was beginning to understand.

- What do you want from me?

- First of all, I want you to know that I respect your father and the work he's done for this country, both as a Hero and for his service in the Special Forces.

Not the kind of information you can just stumble across.

- I also get the distinct impression that no one ever formally thanked you for your service in Tokyo during the Gigantomachia attack. Without your presence and actions, the damage could have been disproportionately worse. On behalf of Japan, I thank you for your service.

I nodded, encouraging him to continue.

- I'd like you to remember that there are no 'good guys' or 'bad guys', no matter what anyone would have you believe. No conflict since the First World War has been bilateral.

Funny, considering one of your employees hid fucking microphones in my hospital room.

- What do you want?

Ryota put his hands flat on the desk.

- My superiors are offering you two choices: either you allow us to perform a series of tests on you, or you allow one of our probationary agents to track you.

- What kind of tracking are we talking about?

I hadn't even let a hairdresser get a pair of scissors close to my neck in nearly ten years, so I definitely wasn't going to let anyone run a series of tests on me.

Hell would freeze the day I let that happen.

- You know that refusing the tests only makes you look more suspicious, don't you?

- I was ten years old when my medical check-up at school turned into an impromptu kidnapping by men who planned to rip off my fingers and mail them to my father.

Ryota's lips tightened.

- You can understand my aversion to anything having to do with doctors or needles.

Ryota nodded.

- I understand completely, and as I told you, the choice is yours.

- What kind of agent?

- The discreet kind, who won't cause you any trouble.

- Which means ?

- Hawks

- Hawks ?

Hawks the villain killer ?

- Hawks the number 3 himself, yes, Ryota smiled, mistaking my surprise for something other than what it really was.

Then he raised his voice.

- Hawks, please

The door opened.

So that's why it smelt like chicken...

I looked into his piercing yellow eyes, slit like those of a bird of prey.

His hair was longer than I remembered and-

My eyes came to rest on the junction of his left shoulder and neck, where a dark scar stretched like a flowing star, slipping under his suit and disappearing from my view.

I looked up at his face.

His jaw tightened, his eyes taking on a cold glint.

I didn't need him to tell me that these were burn scars.

*