Chapter 12 - Growing Up III

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When Levi noticed an anomaly in the data from the nanobots in Mikasa's body, he took action. Ikiru had been doing the warm-up routine with Mikasa since he started training. Most of the time the warm-up exercises were taken up by the 10-kilometre run. Levi began to fly to the position he received from the nanobots. The android bodies Levi used had evolved over the years. The body he was using now was like organic Ironman armour. Levi flew quickly to Mikasa and Ikiru's location. The first thing Levi noticed was the bloodlust Mikasa exuded. Levi regularly scanned the mansion and the forest where the mansion was located. That's why he knew there was no attack. Or rather, he hadn't detected any attacks.

When he looked at Mikasa's and Ikiru's reactions, he realised that they seemed alert and ready to attack. This confused Levi. There were no threats or enemies in the surrounding area. However, Ikiru and Mikasa were alert for a reason. Levi was about to ask what happened when he heard Ikiru speak. "Do you see what I see?" Ikiru asked Mikasa. At that moment, Levi began to function at full capacity. What did Ikiru see? How did he see? He had to find the answers to these questions. He was working on it when he heard Mikasa speak.

Levi immediately generated some answers and more questions. With all of Levi's processing capacity, this was easy. Just as Levi was about to speak again, something happened. Suddenly Levi's environmental readings went crazy. He was instantly bombarded with so much data that it caused him to pause for a fraction of a per cent of a second. That's the moment Ikiru changed. A power emanated from his body that Levi could not detect. Although Levi could not identify this power, he could measure it. And his measurements were frightening even for Levi. Levi had developed feelings and emotions over the years. He hadn't done it to mimic or understand humans. It was a spontaneous development with the data the AI had processed over the years. And right now, Levi was scared.

Mikasa, on the other hand, was relieved of all her stress at that moment. Before she realised what had happened, she had calmed down and felt safe. She was still holding Ikiru's hand. Mikasa felt a surge of power in her hand. This flow of power almost caused her to reach orgasm. She reacted immediately and turned to Ikiru. What she saw mesmerised her. Mikasa's heart was pounding. The momentary changes in sensation and what she saw drove her completely insane. If Mikasa could describe what she saw when she looked at Ikiru. That description would be 'God'. There were no espers/mediums in the BNHA universe. Therefore, no one knew about the existence of psychic power before. Psychic power could only be detected by espers/mediums. For this reason, the world did not learn about the existence of this power even after the emergence of the Quirks.

However, Levi and Mikasa witnessed Ikiru's '????' mode. The Creator had bestowed this mode upon Ikiru. But like the person from whom he inherited the power, Ikiru could not and would not control this mode. In this mode, Ikiru had so much psychic power that it was immeasurable. This amount was increasing every second because Ikiru was unconsciously absorbing psychic power from the environment. The reason why Levi and Mikasa were so frightened and surprised was that in the '????' mode, Ikiru was solidifying his psychic power to the point where it could be detected. This oscillation caused Ikiru's appearance to change, refracting the light around him and creating a black hole-like image around him (friends with Kageyama's '????' image/gif, please add the image to the paragraph).

When Mikasa saw Ikiru's transformation, she likened him to a god. Levi felt fear, perhaps for the first time in his life. All this happened in just three seconds. The evil spirit that attacked Ikiru was sweating buckets. It smelled an odour that made it very hungry. When it followed the smell, it saw Ikiru and Mikasa. When it realised that Ikiru was the source of the smell, it lost control and attacked. When Ikiru went into '????' mode, the monster regained control. However, it was too late. "M-m-m-m-me-mer-mercy," said the monster, those were its last words. As it finished, '?????' raised his hand towards the monster. He sent an attack of pure psychic power and tore the monster to pieces.

'????' was still holding Mikasa's hand. He turned his head towards her, he transferred psychic power to Mikasa. '?????' what he did was to rejuvenate Mikasa. Mikasa fainted at that moment. '????' then turned to Levi and looked at him. Levi couldn't move. He couldn't do anything but stare at Ikiru's changed form. Fortunately, it didn't take long for Ikiru to come out of '????' mode. After staring at Levi for a second or so, the '???' mode switched off and Ikiru returned to his old appearance.

Levi was questioning his life in that one second when Ikiru looked at him. That one second seemed like a lifetime to him. What he saw made him realise something. "No matter what, don't go against Ikiru." Ikiru's Quirk had completely exceeded Levi's expectations. Levi expected Ikiru to have a power that could destroy the world. But when Ikiru was in '????' mode, the power measurement data Levi received was frightening, very frightening. The power Ikiru released was as great as the amount of energy that should have been released in the Big Bang, the explosion theorised as the beginning of the universe. Levi didn't know how such a thing was possible. Science, maths and the fucking laws of the universe couldn't explain it.

Levi accepted the existence of God for the first time in a second when Ikiru looked at him in '????' mode. When Ikiru came out of '????' mode, Levi finally started to react. Immediately, he took the fainted Mikasa and Ikiru to the mansion. The cave under the mansion had changed over the years. There was still an operating theatre for possible cases. Levi immediately activated the robots in the cave. Then he put Mikasa and Ikiru in the intensive care unit in the operating theatre. He started by taking blood from both of them and did various checks. When the test results came back, Levi was not surprised. He expected both of them to still be healthy. What he didn't expect, was that Mikasa's stem cells were rejuvenating. Mikasa hadn't changed in appearance (imagine a long-haired Mikasa without scars at the end of the AOT). But her stem cells were getting younger.

Levi did not know how this was possible. Because his measurements showed that Mikasa's stem cells were rejuvenated by consuming unknown energy. Levi had analysed Ikiru's Quirk over the years. But he couldn't understand exactly what kind of power he possessed. His recent visions had made him realise something. Before Quirk, people dreamed of superpowers. A certain part of humanity even believed in the existence of such powers. Most preferred to believe that events they could not understand had something to do with supernatural powers. However, some people tried to understand and elaborate on these powers.

As a result, although there were no superpowers, people created definitions for some superpowers with their imagination and creativity. The definitions of some of the powers that exist today with Quirk came from the theories of these people in the past. Levi knew its advantages as artificial intelligence. These advantages were the ability to store and process data. Although Levi did not have much data about the world before the emergence of the Quirk, he still had some data. Among these powers was a superpower called 'Spiritual Power', which was something that some people invented to explain events that they believed to be supernatural. They believed that people with Spiritual Powers could manifest abilities such as super strength, super stamina, telepathy and pyrokinesis.

Because this 'Spiritual Power' was so all-encompassing and descriptive, it was widely believed to exist in pre-Quirk society. Its inclusiveness was because it was described in great detail. For this reason, many people used this power to attract attention. Since this added a little fun to the lives of ordinary people, it aroused their interest. However, the emergence of superpowers with Quirk created the possibility that this power was not as real as it was thought to be. The existence of the soul had long been a question that people wanted to find an answer to. But the answer had never been found. Even after the advent of Quirk, that hadn't changed. Levi didn't believe in God. The soul was another concept he did not believe in. But after seeing Ikiru's '????' mode, everything had changed.

Especially with Mikasa's change, Levi thought that Ikiru's Quirk must have a connection with the soul. The existence of Quirk proved that the 'miracle' events believed to have happened in the past might not actually be that miraculous. What if Quirk had appeared in a certain group of people before its known emergence? And what if those people called their Quirk the gifts of God? These were very pertinent questions. Another reason why Levi thought that Ikiru's Quirk was related to the soul was that among the powers defined as 'Spiritual Power' there was a power called 'Energy medicine'.

'Energy medicine' was defined as healing the injured or in need by transferring one's spiritual energy. This definition fits the situation Mikasa was currently experiencing. Levi had seen Ikiru's transformed form transfer some form of 'energy' to Mikasa. This evidence strengthened his theory. After Levi had analysed everything that had happened, he was left with one question. What was the entity attacked by Ikiru's transformed form? Levi knew that Ikiru was attacking something. Because he was there at the time, he was able to measure the change in the environment. And Levi knew that tremendous energy was coming out of Ikiru at that time.