After Mei's shocking declaration, I didn't know what to say, but I promised myself that I too would always be there for her. The family didn't seem too keen on learning more groundbreaking revelations about my quirk, except Mei, but she got outvoted. Of course, I promised her we could talk about it later when we finished eating. After all, I had a pretty interesting idea from her sister's question that I wanted to try out. But before we left, I wanted to ask them if my plan was doable or if I should do something differently—after all, if they can somewhat keep up with Mei, they can't be stupid.
"So before we go our separate ways, can I ask you a question?" All of them perked up, and even Mei looked at me intrigued.
"I'm not sure if my current idea on how to train myself to better utilize my quirk is the best possible way to do it right now. You guys are pretty smart, so maybe you could give me some insight or at least different opinions?" They nodded, now interested and a bit flattered.
"Well, first of all, every puppet is loosely based on me, and currently, I only know how to make two types of them. I haven't really tried to come up with new ones since then. The first type is the Combat Type, which is great for fighting—hence the name. They are about twice as talented as I am in these fields and incorporate everything I learn into their moveset and style. For example, I'm learning mixed martial arts at the moment, and they've also learned it with me. The other, more important type in this case is the Utility Type. They're basically the same but on the other side of the spectrum. They're not combat-oriented but more technical. When I learn something, like how to weld, they know how to do it as well, just much better. My question is: what should I prioritize learning so I can be helpful to both Mei and myself? I went full throttle at the beginning, learning advanced math, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and other subjects. But now I realize I've spread myself too thin and don't have time to experiment with my quirk anymore. Also, now that I plan to work with Mei, I realize I don't need to do everything by myself." Everyone became silent, thinking long and hard about it.
The first response came from Mr. Hatsume: "Well, kid, you've got the right idea, but it's a shame you went with possibly the worst path you could choose. It's great to be a jack of all trades in most situations, but with you, it's not so simple. You had a great idea in learning about fighting to be more efficient—the problem is you applied the same mentality to the sciences. It's not so simple there. You should learn only a few subjects, but you need to concentrate on them and strive to be the best. This takes a really long time. If you don't specialize, you'll basically have a bunch of useless information that you can't use in practice because you haven't learned enough. I'm not saying you should never try new things, but do it only after you're satisfied with what you have." The whole family nodded in agreement, adding a few comments about what I should choose, but then Mei spoke up: "Okay, I think I got it. The most beneficial subjects for you would be engineering and biology. Engineering will help ease my workload, and biology should be your main priority because it could help you understand your quirk better and do some cool things with it, since you're basically a one-man human factory." I nodded, and this seemed like a great idea.
I was just about to stand up when Mei's sister suddenly spoke up: "You should also consider learning archery or shooting. You're most likely going to run into villains with stronger bodies than yours or quirks more suited for close combat, so you're kind of screwed with just martial arts. If you can't learn those things because of your age or some other nonsense, then at least learn to use a sword, a staff, or any weapon that gives you a range advantage. Your best bet will be swarm tactics, but you shouldn't waste your puppets just because you can." I was a bit speechless but understood where she was coming from. The average joe doesn't have the power to fight back against even middle-class villains, so even if I can outnumber them, I'm much better suited to be support or reinforcement to other heroes. Another problem is that even if I can have a thousand units swarm one man, they would still need the opportunity to hit him, and only about six people can attack one man at a time.
With these insights, I thanked them and headed back to the workshop with Mei.
When we arrived, I spoke up: "Okay, Mei, I have an idea for a project. Let's try to come up with a bow for me to use and another type of bow that can be mass-produced at a relatively low cost. I doubt the government would let me get a license for gun usage, and I doubt they'd let you get a gun-manufacturing one with us being just around 8 years old." She nodded, then asked: "Where and how do you want to set up the production line? I don't think either of us has the space for it, even if we do have the manpower with you." I lowered my head sadly. 'Yeah, even if the beach is big enough, I doubt no one would question the noise. Not to mention, if we build everything, we'd need to store the resources and finished equipment as well. I could do the latter with my quirk, but it would be such a hassle. It would mean I'd have to be there to help them with storing things…' This train of thought revealed something to me. "Mei, I think I do have a large space with me all the time, and I could make the process more secretive and easier on my stamina." She seemed to get what I was trying to say and agreed.
"Yeah, that's a great idea. Bows aren't that complicated to make, even modern ones, so you shouldn't have any problem preparing your workforce while I try to make a universally suitable design for you and the puppets."
When I told her I wanted to try something with my quirk, she quickly agreed but said she wanted to film the whole process so she could better understand it. I agreed without objection.
When she gave me the go-ahead, I closed my eyes and concentrated. I wanted to test something. When I felt calm, I focused on the image of the symbol that glows on my face, which looks like the giant arch in the vault. I felt like everything disappeared around me, and when I opened my eyes, I could see everything and nothing at the same time. When I focused, I saw the inside of the vault with its unique geography—even in this otherworldly state, I couldn't see the end of it. I saw Wilhelm and the other puppets sitting around, toying with scavenged materials. I had an idea and mentally commanded Wilhelm to look up at the sky. He seemed confused at first but did as I commanded. When he looked up, he got shocked and frightened. I didn't understand why, but since I couldn't talk to him, I asked him to take a picture of it so I could see what he was panicking about. Once he did, I returned my gaze toward the horizon, toward the Black Hole. I got a feeling and looked inside it. It wasn't what I expected—inside, I saw a giant floating screen that made no sense. It wasn't being projected by anything and wasn't linked to anything. There was only one thing I could interact with called the "Data Bank."
When I thought about interacting with it, it lit up and opened. Inside, I found a startup screen that read:
Welcome to E.D.E.N.: Evolution and Developmental Exploration Nexus
Administrator: John Adams
Role: Creator and curator of the Archives
Current templates available:
-General Combat Engineer Unit: GCEU
-General Utility Engineer Unit: GUEU
-Create new template?
As I saw the endless possibilities in front of me, I started to get giddy with excitement.
I decided I should consult with Mei about the possibilities, so I tried to go back into the real world, and thankfully, it worked. When I opened my eyes, I saw Mei hiding behind a table, but nothing seemed out of place, so I called out: "Hey, what happened? Why are you hiding?" Mei perked up when she heard me and replied: "Did your eye stop glowing like the sun?" I didn't understand what she meant, so I answered casually: "Yeah, I think so. I didn't realize it was glowing so brightly—or at all. When I use my quirk, my eye and face only light up a bit." When she finally came out of hiding, she looked at me, shocked. "What, is there something on my face or what?" She shook her head and handed me a mirror. It turns out my eyes had changed again. My right eye now looked similar in color and pupil shape to my weird left one, the only difference being that my left eye's pupil had changed again—this time into a deep purple star that shimmered as I moved. The color of it brought up some strange images of a metal of the same color, but I had no idea what it could be or where I might find some of it.
With my eyes now evolved, I felt a drastic change all over my body. I felt faster, stronger, and filled with an unending energy. Mei helped check my body, and it seems it had changed a lot. My original brown hair had turned into a shining blond, my baby fat disappeared, and although I didn't grow muscles or abs, I became more lean overall. I think I even grew two or three centimeters. Mei concluded that it's likely my body fixed up my genes to near perfection and cleansed all the impurities within them.
Before we continued, I remembered the photo I'd made Wilhelm take, so while explaining what happened to me to Mei, I searched for Wilhelm's contact information and saw the message. It did make me wonder how Wilhelm managed to send a message from inside me, but it frustrates me how little I know about my own power. When I finally opened the photo, I saw the most unsettling yet calming image I'd ever seen. Mei seemed just as shocked. In it, there was a giant eye made up of hundreds of stars, staring at the observer with the most calming yet powerful gaze imaginable. Surrounding the eye was a giant interstellar cloud, framing it in a brilliant mismatch of colors. Mei only uttered one sentence: "It's like the whole cosmos is looking right at us." And I couldn't agree more. The Eye of the Universe is a pretty fitting name, I think.