A small, involuntary smile tugged at Shinso's lips as he leaned back against his seat, closing his eyes. Rei's frantic typing continued, her messages becoming increasingly futile as the person on the other end stopped responding.
The metro continued in silence, there were hardly any other passengers except them due to their destination.
". . . . . . . How much did you see"
'OH SHIT' (⊙_⊙)
Even with his back drenched in cold sweat, he didn't dare open his eyes. Through sheer will and determination, he made sure not even a single muscle twitch. He could swear on his ancestors that the training that would follow after this would solve all his sleep-related problems PERMANENTLY!
But thankfully by the blessing of gods, or prayer of his ancestors, it was not him 'Rip'
"N-no, I-I wasn't looking," a faint nervous voice replied. From the high-pitched nature, it seemed to be a teenage girl, but then again, all Japanese women sounded like high school girls.
"Then why are you flustered" her voice gets even colder as she tilts toward the girl.
"Aug!" Shiso moves his head from Rei's shoulder, rubbing his eyes slightly, trying to look as clueless as possible about the situation. He gently rubs his messy hair, showing a pained expression as he tries to adjust to the light.
"Metro?" he looks around trying to access the situation before facing Rei while stealing some glance at the. . . man.
'The fuck' he thought as his eyebrows shot up and mouth curls down looking at the muscular man with a double chin clean shave and red lipstick not to mention the large eyelash and the skirt 'Ugh!' goosebumps rose in his entire body looking at the unusual sight.
'. . . .that will haunt me from now on' thinking that this image will flash in his mind ever time he hears a women just send additional chills.
His eyes bounce between rei and the man waiting for them to speak. . . but the silence remains, he twists his neck trying to find anyone else but sadly the birth decline was visible.
"So. . . where are we heading to" he asked softly as his eyes darted toward her phone.
Click!
Which she closed infinitely faster, giving him a dead fish look before huffing toward the fashionable man.
"It's not we, you are going home kid" she blurts without looking at him just staring at the seats in front of her without blinking.
"_______" the man gives him a nod with an embarrassed smile which he returned with a an equally awkward smile.
'Everyone has their own taste'
SCREEEEEE!
The wheels hissed as a stronger vibration passed through the speed Thak! the brakes cried as they halted the moving behemoth burning through the tracks.
SHHHHH!
Tsugi wa Shim-Mikawashima, Shim-Mikawashima desu. Doa wa hidarigawa ga akimasu. Go-kōsha no sai wa ashimoto ni go-chūi kudasai
"Next is Shim-Mikawashima. The doors on the left side will open. Please watch your step when stepping out."
The man beside them nearly ran from his seat while the older woman moved ever so slowly, leaving only the 2 of them in the monotonous cold silence
"Ahm" he tries to clear his throat while giving her a side eye "Ahm"
"What?" she robotically moved her head toward him giving him a cold stare. "Ah n-nothing" she twist her head back, mindlessly watching the seat in front of her hardly blinking, it was as if she was frozen in time sitting up pole straight wearing a black tracksuit and a black cap with white grey sports shoes.
He clenches his fist knuckles turning white nails digging in his palm "I do have something to ask" she turns toward him again but he doesn't look at her, takes a deep breath trying to calm his nerves.
"Doesn't it. . . like nigh-"
"No!" a sharp response that forced him to look toward her while she looked away, he could swear he saw a flicker of hesitation in her face.
"I. . . don't think so" her voice shakes a little while she avoids eye contact.
"Why?" he presses seeing her unsure only reinforces the idea "Why not? ar- like seriously? can't you see the similarities? the timeline, the recruitment style and-and the money!"
"He is a child a quirkless one at that"
"The other guy literally said he has one! and maybe even stronger "
"He could be wrong and even if he is not he only awakened it now" she rebuked unwillingly to back down.
"Haa?!" shinso interrupted clearly confused by the stupid show she was putting not knowing if she was genuinely confused or playing stupid with him.
"Are you even fucking listening to yourself that cop is a walking lie detector and if he can create something like this why can't he hide a fucking quirk or make another one like us." he halts in his speech as he realizes he might have overstepped his boundaries but she didn't rebuke him
Sigh~
Just a tired and confused voice "I am, i know what you are thinking and you might not be wrong but." she leans back in the seat a little her head resting on the seat facing the roof of metro.
A faint silence hung in between them not with tension but something of its own a question.
". . . i joined night first, somewhere around five or nearly six years ago, I worked part-time at Kenta's mother company, a small laboratory, then they reached out to me"
"Did he?" he frowns a little wondering if Kenta was involved too "No, not him" she replied while shaking her head lightly "A. . . colleague introduced me, then a few months later kenta reached out to me helping with the comic company jin. . . jin was never in the picture, i hardly met him."
"Not for us" he smirked remembering the absurdity of the situation he found himself a few years ago. "it all started with him" yet his suspicion wasn't going down he believed if jin could create light why not light?
she gently rubs her eyebrows as she tried to stay calm "Maybe, at least not for me, they didn't share much about him just the fact that most of the work is his, which i didn't understand why he never claimed or took any money from until i joined in their shenanigans"
A very small yet pleasant smile tugged at the corner of her lips remembering the day kenta and natsu approached her talking about such an impossible dream with an equally impossible conviction only to live up to their dream. . . for now at least.
she shakes her head not wanting to say more.
"And you didn't think anything was wrong with that?" he squinted his eye at her not convinced by the reply.
She just shrugged her shoulder looking at him like he was a fool "I thought they will give up soon" she stared at him with dead eyes "And the pay was high"
"The company flourished day by day, they recruited more and more kids and even built a trust" her eyes became a little hazy as she tried to connect invisible dots "which i thought was but it wasn't their idea."
"And that's the problem isn't it" Shinso asked with a tired smile which she didn't respond to.
"One trust that focuses on the company while the other is philanthropic and who would doubt the credibility and name of No2 hero" but the question didn't end there it only began from there.
"It's like he knew but-like why?" he put a thoughtful expression while scratching his chin
"Even if he didn't want to have attention from having such a successful company why did he give up so much money not even a single penny or mention, not even as a part-timer in his own company"
"Why do so many transactions that even bank stop caring who you give money too" it wasn't a question he knew the answer and he knew that his guess had to be right because if yes at least that would lift the guilt from his chest.
Rei grinds her teeth in frustration as the kid didn't back down, there was already so much on her latter and now this too
"Why become this masked genius philanthropist then donate all that money and what proof do we even have that money reached the kids not some members of night. . . this was his plan from the start wasn't it?" he starred at her face scanning every inch for an answer.
"He was paranoid" veins pop on her forehead as she barely control herself
"Paranoid enough to show all of us his face? even those 2 don't know how many well-wishers he actually has, maybe he himself doesn't know."
"I shaped you guys in the image of night making the similarities and unlike you guys our money comes from shops of our people, hard-working people, people we helped in early stages and now they do their part not by a grand plan of some lunatic"
"He might be controlling your strin-"
Bam
Her fist dug into the wall of the train leaving a big dent while her eyes looked at him with fury.
She takes a paused scanning their surroundings but there was no one except them hardly anyone was interested in going to their destination and those were couldn't afford to.
The dim greyish light made the situation appear more sombre and monotonic like a lifeless vortex of metal.
Tak!
She snaps her finger and the air slightly ripples invisible to the naked eye but Shinso knew she had used her quirk.
He shifts uncomfortably in his seat while he slightly peaks at his devil instructor 'Shit! Should have kept quite' his minds juggle between the possibility of him suddenly disappearing or getting thrown in some back alley where dogs won't even leave his bones forget dogs even humans won't
The train moved with a familiar rhythm calming his nerves she points her finger nearly stabbing in his chest "What you have seen is just the tip of the iceberg" she straightened hunched her back as she moved closer to him, her eyes gaining the previous cold chill as she stared into his.
"You have hardly stepped into the new world, few strolls and look at you" She stared at him with displeasure and a hint of pity?
"What we do is. . . a league apart from playing gang with some children or money laundering tactics from some novel"
"B-but" his voice quivers as he feels his body going cold, he wants to break eye contact but he can't he could swear he saw them as yellow and a patter for a second instead of brown dirt eyes.
"We kill them we torture them, threaten them and if it needs to be done we will kill their whole families too. . . ."
Gulp.
he could not muster the courage to say it was wrong all he could do was lower his gaze and stare at his shoes he felt like a coward a criminal but he knew a hero wasn't what he thought it was, he saw the state of slums, rape, murder, homeless children were as common as flies.
He didn't even know when his breathing got so rigged but his muscles were tensed like a draw string that could break any time, she backs down leaning on her seat as if life was sucked out her.
"Yet you could be right" She closes her eyes as she leaned back in her seat.
"Rather I want to believe that he is a part of night"
"or at least some other group because" her eyes become a little unclear as her thoughts wandered off to make conspiracies.
Believing there was a once in a lifetime genius child who faced with the trauma of losing his mother decided to change the world by making a secret society group that he might have seen in a movie or a book is easier to comprehend.
Way easier to comprehend compared to killing and not some bands of lunatics that kill for fun or revenge but a systematic fungus that has remained hidden for half a decade seeping through their enemy's pores, potent enough to kill, threaten and manipulate any and all who stood against their mission.
She knows what attracted her here and so did the others yet she refuses to believe all this could be planned by a 10-year-old child, who is to say that they are not being tricked in something worse without knowing.
And the only person who could answer her wasn't available after all today was the ceremony.
"Because if not, then I don't know what kind of abomination have miss asano has given birth to"
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A hand slides through a majestic Renaissance painting. A faint layer of glass stands between the person's finger and the painting, his yellow reptilian eyes tracing every single detail.
"The Faithful Lion and the Rebellious Bull" It was a barren land with few patches of dried grass and cracks going deep in the abyss. The sky was filled with dark clouds, with a single asure glow parting the clouds around it.
On the ground the lion had a majestic golden aura surrounding it, hundreds of swords and spear lay broken around him, and the ground beneath him was muddy and bloodied with thousands of peasants and clergymen lying dead as ants and spiders feed on their corpses, the lion was exceptionally big compared to the corpses around it, yet his except his eyes not even a single touch of blood remains on his fur.
He stood up on it's hind limbs as he roared at it's opponents unclear whether he roared in anger or pain
On south stood his opponent a blue bull standing its ground proudly ready to charge its horns at the lion, it looked bloodied with all kinds of wounds and gashes on it's body its silver metallic horns stained with blood at their tip, it was unimpressively small compared to lion yet behind him stood children, injured men and women with torn clothes whose wrist bleed and necks bruised but they stood calmly behind the bull putting their faith in their mighty protector.
All but its eyes shine brightly as they glowed in an azure aura as the sky.
The faint yellow light fell from the sealing as Jin sat down on the tatami mats the room was half steeped in shadows, Sliding shoji doors framed the space with delicate wooden lattice in them.
His face was still covered by that white mask but his eyes flowed as he felt a connection with the painting a surge of energy rushing through his left hand.
"Brother" a voice so deep and twisted as if made in the image of demons of hell, a voice of a grow man, women and cries of children twisted in one abomination that threatens to split any normal being psyche, the more one focused the different it sounded.
Shuff.
The shoji door opened swiftly a figure covered in dark clothes sitting in a red metallic wheelchair while the boss from the lighthouse stood behind him bowing his head toward jin, who replied with his own short bow.
"Mahito, yaksa" he called.
The person on the wheelchair tried to get up as his figure shook weakly "Don't" Jin commanded and the person sat back down while his caretaker stood stoically, he stood up putting the picture down taking hold of the wheelchair from Yaksa.
"You can leave." he said without looking as he pushed forward toward his sitting place.
"But the ceremony" yaksa asked softly
"Did you not hear what brother asked of you" The room rippled as the demonic voice vibrated through the room, tearing through the air filling every corner with a malice parallel to demons, his feat nearly gave up as if a mountain was placed on him.
Pat!
The room returned to its tranquillity as Jin gently held Mahito's shoulder.
"Give us a few minutes, look at the preparation in the meantime" his voice calm and steady with a hint of pity in his eyes which Yaksa completely missed as took a deep bow and closed the shoji door.
"I do not know whether to show my happiness or guilt that I feel great, that you failed in your endeavour but it is an utmost great pleasure that you have returned brother" the voice was still as demonic as before but it definitely had a lighter hum.
Sigh~
"How many damn times do i have to tell ask you two to talk like normal sigh~ god knows whether he rubbed his edginess on you or vice versa"