Three month passed since I got back to Japan. The whole country was doing it's best as it was working towards repairing what had been destroyed. In the midst of that I finally decided to go and pay off the 100,000 YEN debt that I had before The Calamity happened.
For a period of time, the cost of living and everything else had risen to unimaginable heights, however recently everything was steadily going back to normal. And since I currently had a large sum of money on me, I decided I might just pay my debt off.
Currently I was back in my home town in the Nagano Province and was doing work as a volunteer. It mostly involved dealing with rubble, cleaning, helping the victims move and so on.
In the past three months, The Sanctuary Knights had apparently succeeded in their subjugation of Canada. After which Freya had officially announced that she would be leaving The Sanctuary Knights.
Suzaku which was led by Wan apparently also took on the subjugation of India, and had succeeded as well. And they also got a weapon sponsorship from that Saruman guy apparently.
At first I thought he really was a good guy for doing it, but then I realized that it was probably just a way to spread his business.
'A merchant is always a merchant I guess…'
Apparently he had gotten really mad after seeing the ruined sword, however after Leo had explained to him that I was actually the one who had defeated Hydra, he had seemed to calm down a bit… I guess the loss and profit had balanced out nicely.
I told Leo and Wan to contact me if I was needed, but I still hadn't received any notifications. 'I guess I'm just not needed.'
While thinking that, I suddenly heard a voice call out to me.
"Hey Gojo!"
"Yes?"
It was the person in charge of the volunteers, Mr. Murai.
'What does he need me for I wonder?'
After Murai took me inside the building where the rest area was, inside I saw a familiar face.
"It's been a whileMr. Gojo."
"Mr. Hagino!"
It was surprisingly Mr. Hagino of the Cabinet Office who had accompanied me on my trip to the United Kingdom.
'I wonder what brings him here?'
As always Hagino took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat of his forehead, looking kind of troubled.
While we were sitting around a rectangular table situated inside the rest area, Hagino proceeded to take out some papers from his suitcase.
'He's thoroughly prepared as always…'
"Gojo, today I didn't come to just talk but rather I came with a request."
"What is it?"
"You know about the case regarding the increasing number of ability users correct?"
"Yes, I'm familiar.What about it?"
"With the increase in ability users throughout the country, a number of problems started appearing.Especially ones in regards to the ability users who are still minors.As you can guess, they are still really emotional and inexperienced and some of them cannot control their newfound powers which leads to them running out of control."
"I see…"
'So there really are a lot of children that obtained abilities, now that I think about it there were a lot of elderly in China who also had some kind of ability…I guess it affected everyone regardless of age.'
Afterwards Hagino continued, "That is why in order for the children to be able to learn how to use their powers, the government has taken the lead in constructing facilities in which the children can be taught.You can basically think of them as schools."
"Schools huh… To me they sound more like isolation facilities."
"I cannot deny that that is part of it as well."
After saying that Hagino once again wiped off the sweat that was starting to show on his forehead.
'If it was adults they would immediately arrest them, but since they're still kids, they're trying to cover it up with the premise of it being a type of education huh.'
No matter how one looked at it, it was obvious that they were trying to get rid of ability users.
"The main problem is that there aren't enough experienced ability users that can teach the children.There are a lot of adult ability users, however most of them are unable to control their powers efficiently as well."
"Which is why you came to me.Still there's no way I can be a teacher.I'm pretty stupid you see."
"Don't say that Mr. Gojo. There is no one out there who can use their abilities better than you can!There are already people who will be teaching them the regular subjects, we just need you to teach them how to properly use their abilities."
He was saying it like it was nothing, but he came with a really troublesome task… After all, I wasn't good with kids at all.
Without stopping Hagino continued "In the end as I said before, we are by no way trying to force you, this is simply a request… However we had heard that you were doing voluntary work here, so we thought that maybe you'd be willing…"
'He's saying it in a way that makes it impossible to decline…'
"Let's say for example that I'm willing to do it, will I then be sent to one of these so called schools here in Japan?"
"Japan is lacking in people as well, however we have mostly received requests from other countries who are severely lacking in people, asking us to send over Japanese ability users.So I wouldn't mind at all if you were to choose from one of the schools situated abroad as well…" saying that, Hagino put a piece of paper on top of the table.
On top of it were the names of the countries along with the facilities there. Some of them included countries in Europe, Africa and America as well. China and Russia would take care of their matters by themselves it seems.
While looking through that list, I suddenly caught sight of something.
"There's one in France as well I see."
Hearing my remark Hagino began speaking "Yes. There wasn't a monster outbreak in France which led to there not being many ability users over there as a whole.However due to there being a number of kids that awakened to abilities in the whole world, France has been taking in children from other countries as well and are looking for experienced ability users who can teach them."
"So that's the case…"
'France huh… Now that I think about it, on my way back from the United Kingdom I checked with my Archive and it still had Rank A attached to it.The same as China and Russia.'
Out of all of the countries currently remaining, France had the highest difficulty rank. It was probably fine to leave the other countries to Leo and Wan, however it would be for the best if I went to France personally.
"Mr. Hagino can you tell me a bit more about the facility in France."
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Two weeks later・France・Marseille
"So if I followed the map correctly, then it should be around here."
Before coming to France, I originally thought I would just teleport there, however doing that would result in me entering the country illegally, so in the end I just took a plane like any normal person would do and came to Marseille.
Apparently the kids that awakened to abilities were being gathered in a monastery here in Marseille. In Japan we rarely see any monasteries, however here in Europe they are a pretty normal scenery.
"Here huh…"
I finally arrived at St. Victor Monastery, looking up at it, it was way bigger than what I had originally thought it would be. It was a little bit run down, but even so it still looked like a solidly built fort. The front door was closed, and right next to it there was an intercom. To be honest it didn't seem like an active monastery to say the least…
I pressed the button on the intercom and after waiting for a bit, an elderly lady answered.
"Hello, how can I help you?"
"Hello, my name's Gojo. I was sent here from Japan.I'm supposed to meet with abbot Colbert."
"Oh yes, we've been waiting for you.Please stay where you are."
In a bit, one of the sisters of the monastery wearing a black attire came out. She let me inside and guided me to the abbot's room. From what I had heard from Mr. Hagino, apparently half of the kids present here were French, while the remaining kids were taken in from other countries.
All of them were apparently learning English as a means of communication, however I had decided to learn French before coming here, so talking with the Sister went pretty smoothly.
Thankfully with the help of Thought Acceleration, I was able to completely master it in just a week. Hurray for abilities.
"Abbot, I've brought him."
"Let him in."
I went inside the abbot's room, after which I was shown to a chair that I could sit on. The abbot sitting in front of me was wearing an elegantly looking long black robe, that gave a completely different feel from the Sister's attire.
"Mr. Gojo, I'm pleased to have you here.We have been awaiting your arrival." said the abbot.
Looking at him more closely, he looked like an elderly man, around his seventies.
"I'll be in your care starting today." I responded with a smile.
"Mr. Gojo, you will be teaching the children in the monastery on how to properly use their abilities but before doing that there's a certain thing that I must tell you." said the abbot with a meek expression.
"What is it?"
"The classes in the monastery are divided by either age or abilities.And amongst all of them, there is this particular class in which we have gathered the students with the strongest abilities, and to be honest we've been having a really hard time with them."
"What exactly do you mean by having a hard time?"
"To be honest we've already had a number of ability users in charge of that class, however due to them sustaining injuries every single one of them quit… There wasn't a single one that could continue for an extended period of time.From what I've heard Mr. Gojo you're a really capable ability user, so it pains me to ask this of you, but could you take charge of them?"
'So in other words they're the troublemakers here huh.Well it's me we're talking about so I don't think I'll get hurt in any way…'
"This monastery has been officially accepted as a school from the government, but for good or worse if the children with abilities don't manage to graduate from here they'll be sent into a proper isolation facility.Which is why I ask you, Mr. Gojo, to lead those kids down the right path." said the abbot, asking me with a worried expression. From his eyes I could see that he was really worried about the kids.
"I will do what I can, that is why I came here after all."
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"There's gonna be a new teacher coming."
"What does it matter, he's gonna leave soon either way."
"We'll make sure to drive him out after all."
"I feel bad for him already."
"It doesn't matter who he is, there's no way he's gonna be stronger than us.For our sake, we'll just have him leave as soon as possible…"