Elder Sis

At home, Adrian, who had skipped school thanks to the masked vigilante, logged into the school forums and saw the gossip in horror.

"Cody actually battled four times in succession and seriously injured all of his opponents." Adrian read the posts on the forum, as he clicked on the video links that someone had recorded from the audience.

Cody's terrible increase in strength as it appeared in the videos put a shiver down his spine. After hesitating for a while, Adrian downloaded those videos and sent them to Gray Ninja's chat.

As Adrian browsed through the forum, he found someone mention anonymously that they heard the student council discussing that Cody might be a double ability user and the reasoning behind it.

"Double ability user?" Adrian mumbled in shock. He rewatched the video of the battle between Cody and Dino. When he saw the scene where Cody activated his strengthening ability after Dino had nullified it earlier, Adrian paused the video.

As if remembering something, Adrian opened another tab to search for the video of Gray Ninja that had gotten viral. Adrian saw the video where Gray Ninja battled with five members of the snake gangsters who used near identical ability.

"This ability... its the same as the one Cody uses here!" Adrian realized with shock. The realization of the implication shocked him and put a lot of fear in him.

"The mysterious woman, can provide others with this bulking strengthening physical ability?" Adrian thought in his heart.

"But how is it possible" He ventured further. "How can abilities be transferred in this way? Moreover, hoe can so many people get the same ability? Just who is behind this?"

Adrian then remembered the terrifying bullet wounds on Gray Ninja, who was also investigating this matter and his heart cooled. "This is too dangerous. I should stay away from this matter. But, why isn't the Security Department doing anything?"

Adrian tried searching about news regarding the snake gang, and found that the news didn't seem to report anything about them, yet a lot of people had posted on social media of a gang constantly harassing people in the poorer districts of Twilight City who wore black jackets with a snake emblem on their backs.

"Is the news censoring the matter?" Adrian wondered, but then shook his head. He already sent the information to Gray Ninja. He himself had no ability to interfere on this matter.

After thinking for a while, Adrian made a call.

"Yo, little brother. How did you remember me today? Feeling lonely?" The voice of a girl teased.

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Sis, want to meet up for coffee? I want to talk to you for a bit."

"My dear little brother is asking me for a date <3. Of course I'm free." Adrian's sister, Emily laughed on the other end.

---

"What's up, little Adrian?" Emily asked as she saw the pale look on her brother's face in the cafe they decided to meet.

"There's something I want to talk to you about." Adrian replied urgently as he looked around the cafe as if to ensure he wasn't being followed.

Emily understood his worry and raised her palm. Inside the cafe, small drops of snow began falling around the two, surrounding them and forming a curtain.

"Okay, you can speak now." Emily said with a gentle smile.

Adrian nodded with a heavy look and then began speaking. He spoke about his coming across the mysterious woman who slaughtered two people, the relationship with Cody and his conjectures about the matter.

"So this woman is involved in transferring this strength based ability to other people?" Emily raised an eye in confusion. "Our company actually received intelligence that many people in the poorer districts had been repeatedly abducted a few months back. As for this snake gang, some of our workers have indeed reported that they were being threatened by them, but there isn't a lot of information about them."

Adrian let out a breath. After telling all this to his sister, he felt a bit relieved. His sister was six years older than himself, and always protected him. Over time she had become his guardian and good friend as well as his sister, someone he could confide in.

"Don't worry, little brother. I will look into the matter. You don't need to take stress over it. Your big sis will protect you."

"Thanks sis. I feel better just talking to you about it." Adrian said with a smile.

"Hehe, do you want me to teach that Cody a lesson? I heard he was bullying you a lot." Emily asked with a grin as the snow curtain around the two disappeared.

Adrian shook his head. "Don't. He will only turn more vindictive against me. His emotional state also seems unstable and he's become more violent since he got terribly beaten by Dino."

Emily ignored Adrian's explanations as she sipped her latte. Her eyes glinting. "If it weren't for that ungrateful gal Sarah, my poor little brother wouldn't be so bullied by every random kid in school."

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Sis, its not Sarah's fault. She couldn't possibly control how others think about me."

Emily snorted. "That girl used you as a shield in school and then forgot about you once she graduated. I want to go and give her two good slaps for messing with my little bro."

Adrian shook his eyes. "Don't do anything sis. I don't want you to get beaten up and lose your self esteem."

Emily made a sad expression. "Adrian, do you have such little faith in your super strong elder sis, huh?"

"Last I heard, her ability was graded at 9.6. Have some self awareness, my otherwise bright elder sister." Adrian said with a knowing smile as he shook his head.

"Whatever." Emily said as she pinched Adrian's cheeks, much to his chagrin. "You take care of yourself, okay? Don't worry too much, if you need any help then ask for it."

Adrian winced. "Sis, stop it. I'm an adult now!"

"Hehe." Emily gave a wide grin, but was interrupted by her phone ringing. "Looks like I got to go back to work. See you around little bro."