Chapter 10 - Matcha Latte

Dolian stared at himself in the mirror, and what was reflected was a young boy who was about 11 years old. The boy was fairly tall with an athletic build. He has raven-black hair and golden vertical eyes, eyes that resembled a dragon's eyes.

Dolian wore black trousers and long-sleeved white shirts. Then, he puts on a black blazer on top of it with a golden crest placed around the right side of his chest. The crest was fairly simple, depicting a pentagon with five stars and numerous stars in the background, along with a few words inscribed on it, saying: Glory.

He brushed his damp hair, let his bangs fall over his forehead, and went to grab something inside his bag to take out a pair of glasses. Putting them on, he takes one last look at the mirror with a smile and thought, 'If I wasn't blessed with such good genetics, I could have still used my previous life's experiences to level up my charisma, so looks are mostly for a general profile that is convenient to control larger crowds with less effort.'

After having manifested his quirk more than five years ago, Dolian has constantly learned more and more about the mind with each passing year. Charisma, emotions, and thoughts; they became simplified concepts to him that were easy to understand and control.

If he was simply a normal boy who didn't understand the harrowing reality he lived in, then he would have long blurted out his secrets to his parents and put himself into a tough spot. Fortunately for Dolian, his experiences in his first life forged him into the cunning fox he is now, and had long taken care of problems like letting others know his true capabilities.

He then opened the door to his room and walked out. He turned his body to the side and grabbed the handle of the door and closed it; a soft click echoes in the silent hallway.

Gliding down the wide flight of stairs, their grandeur living room surfaced in his vision, and saw both of his parents doing their own businesses. His father seemed to be signing papers for work such as finalizing appointments with clients, while his mother browsed through a series of holographic files on a recent case about missing students all around the country.

"Hmm…" Hope squinted her eyes as she read many rows of text and stared at the pictures of missing children, "If only I was instructed to investigate their objectives, then I would have long guessed it."

'They are just targeting talented kids and possibly eliminating them, or maybe turn them into villains. With these talented individuals unable to live up to their full potential, they're nothing more than short-lived stars that shone brightly in their abrupt life.' Hope shook her head.

Her emotions then flared as she clicked her tongue, 'but nope, they want me to investigate the people who are behind these crimes. I'm a psychiatrist, not a detective!'

She placated her emotions and calmed herself down, refusing to further complain and waste time, and instead continued to work.

"Are you having a hard time at work?" A childish voice asked behind her, breaking her out of her focus as she turned around with a smile.

She glanced up and down, admiring how her little boy has grown up to be a handsome young man. "Look at how dashing you are."

"Yes, mommy is having a hard time cracking down on this case those naive fellows gave." She stiffened her smile as she didn't hide her feelings of anger from her son.

Dolian took a quick glance at all of the floating holograms around his mother and browsed through his memories, 'A case about missing students of relatively famous schools around the country, specifically hero schools.'

'It seems like the major mystery here is their true motives, and their methods of kidnapping. Perhaps they have someone with stealth and teleportation quirks on their team or even organization.' Dolian smiled warmly while fixing his hair.

"Oh…" Dolian responded with a slightly knowing look, "Then once I become number one, I'll make sure to not have any crime be a problem anymore!"

Hope laughed at her son's claims and leaned back on the soft sofa, "That's the spirit. Now go on already unless you want to be late for your first day in Glory Academy."

Dolian nodded his head and turned around, and thought with an emotionless voice, 'If I have a puppet that has a teleportation-type quirk, then maybe I could have started slaving orphans and homeless tramps all over the world while significantly lessening the risk.'

After he wore his pair of black leather shoes, he patted his pants and stood up from the round. Taking one last glance back at his parents, he said, "I'm off!"

"Take care!"

The door to the Tatori Manor then opened as a young boy walked out. He wore a dashing school uniform with black pants and a black blazer that has a gold emblem embedded on the right side of the chest.

As the wind blew against Dolian's body, his outfit fluttered against the wind in return as he ran at an abnormal speed. Each of his steps seemed to exert an abnormal amount of strength like a cannonball being shot out, but weirdly enough, none of the butlers, maids, or any of the workers of his family heard the commotion or even 'see' him even though he was right in front of them.

He ran through the manor like a shadow, passing by the garden and appearing right behind the black metallic gates that separated their manor from the outside world. As the muscles on his legs bulged, he took a shallow breath and up he went towards the sky.

Like a heavy boulder released from a catapult, he tore through the skies and went above the gates. Landing on the ground outside with a silent thud, the world turned silent for a split second before he then continued running forward like a bullet train.

As he ran through numerous terrains, from flat ground to rocky mounds and asphalt streets, his mind seemed to have been separated from his body as he appeared within a strange, astronomically large palace that seemed to belong to a giant instead of a human.

Sitting on a golden throne was a man with black hair and black eyes. He wore simple black pants and a white shirt, staring right at the blank air ahead of him.

But strangely enough, he gave the feeling of someone who was looking at something else, and looking at something else he did.

Peering through the castle walls, he arrived at a strange scene outside where numerous Dolian Tatori fought one another in a strange white void.

Some of them fought one another bare fists with the aim to kill one another either by hook or crook.

Some of them used weapons with the same intent to kill, masterfully wielding large chunks of metal or finely crafted blades.

If a black-belt martial artist looked at a random bare fist match, they'd be astounded at the numerous martial arts used by each of the Dolians, and it was as if they were doing art instead of fighting to the death.

The same can be said for a master of the sword, a master of the hammer, or a master of the gun.

Anyone who wasn't blind would say that any random match in the area was a fight between two beings who are nearing the pinnacle of their arts. In fact, if Dolian was back on his original Earth, any one of the random bozos fighting to the death would have been unrivaled already as they were literally living, breathing killing machines.

Unfortunately, martial arts and weapons have a limit inside this world where gods roam, but only a fool would underestimate that limit.

'A common saying goes that if someone were to spend 10,000 hours on a single area, they'd be an expert in that subject. And the same can be said in this world too.' The Dolian sitting on the throne wore a subtle grin as he rested his chin on his arm.

'Now, even if I were to be reincarnated in another world without any overpowered quirks or any supernatural power at all, I'll still be greater than what Reanue Keeves would ever be able to accomplish.'

Dismissing his random train of thought, his eyes turned golden and his vision once again switched to him running through the streets.

He planted his feet firmly on the ground and stopped his rapid movement. After that, he glanced around the area and saw something that made his eyes light up.

In front of Dolian was a store that belonged to a poor "old" lady he was close with. She was an unfortunate woman whose husband died and had to take care of her child all alone. After years of stress, she now seemed many years above her actual age of 40.

When Dolian was around 5 and attended a nearby school, he saw this lonely store while walking around the city with their family's head butler and secretly his most loyal subordinate, Will Myers.

To further his act and to handle a minor business for more experience, he elevated the store year by year until it finally became a popular cafe in the area with a thriving business.

In a year alone, the cafe earns the lady nearly 150,000 dollars!

'Then I would earn a small percentage of that cash for some of my minor projects here and there. Maybe in a year or two, I can start selling drugs with the puppet leader I have set my sights on and earn a ton of cash.' Dolian wistfully thought and walked through the door.

Glancing around at the bustling cafe, he walked through the crowd that completely ignored his existence and entered the door meant only for staff. There, he saw a cold cup of matcha latte resting on the table alongside a lady with a face riddled with wrinkles.

All of a sudden, she seemed to notice his presence as he came out of the shadows with an amicable smile.

"Good morning, Dolian." She smiled and handed the cup of matcha latte to him.

He received it with a grateful smile and said, "Thank you, auntie! By the way, how's big bro Sammy? I heard it's his first day at Greensprout High!"

"Fufufu…" She chuckled and said, "Even I was slightly surprised that that boy was able to enter Greensprout, that high school known for its people in the medical industry."

"He's doing fine, especially when you tutored him when you came to visit here during the weekends. If only he was as smart as you, then he might have even entered Glory Academy just like you."

"Well, Sammy seems to like biology very much so I think it was for the better for him to have been admitted to Greensprout. Oh, wait!" Dolian paused as his glasses suddenly showed the time.

"I'm running late already! Thanks for the matcha latte auntie! I'll be pre-ordering it again on Wednesday once I'm sure that I won't get fat with my new diet!" Dolian said in a panic and rushed out of the door, his presence disappearing as if he was a ghost that no one noticed.

Chortling at the outgoing child, she rested her back on the chair she sat on and closed her eyes.

Back to Dolian, he appeared at the gates of Glory Academy and couldn't be bothered to take in its beauty. After showing his ID to the guards and lowering his presence to the minimum.

"Sometimes, being famous really isn't a good thing…" Dolian sighed as he grimaced, "Maybe my middle school life would be more peaceful."

Just as he said so, he saw a crowd of students forming a wide circle in a large flat plain of grass that grabbed his attention. As he sipped on his matcha latte, he walked towards the crowd to see what was happening when he suddenly heard a loud voice akin to a crack of lightning.

"Aleksandra Glory! I challenge you to a fight!"

AN: This chapter has 2045 words.

Wow! The plot here is so fucking simple that I don't know what happened. This is like the calm before the storm, the rising action before the climax, but instead of a rising hill, it's a flat ground that instantly burgeoned into Mount Tai.

When I say shit gets wacky near Chapter 20, it gets real wacky. This shit for Arc 1 is beyond my pay grade already, not to mention all the kinds of bullshit Arc 2 and beyond has in store.

(March 24, 2023 - 484th day of writing)