Chapter 186: Truth and Fear
_________ POV Narration_________
Unlike the usual meetings that Yori, Don and Beru had, this one was simply stacked.
The room was basically filled to the brim with influential people. There were also more familiar faces within the crowd, like Nezu and Toshinori.
Plenty of people already knew about Quirk Singularity since Yori and Beru had made it public at that fancy party a few years back.
But not that many had made the connection between current events and what Yori had warned them of. After all, the initial estimation was that they still had a few decades left.
There were also a few select members of the press present, people that Yori knew he could trust to properly report on the matter.
Spreading the news of the world ending in a safe manner was a matter of utmost importance.
"Some of you might have an inkling as to why you're here..." Yori started off without wasting any time. What was the saying? To rip a bandaid off quickly or something like that.
He Beru and Don were all on a podium in front of everybody else, all three of them sat down at a table, each with a microphone. They were all seated down at various tables and catching up with each other before Yori decided to attract everyone's attention and finally get to the point.
"... We certainly have an idea... But not everyone in this room has been acquainted to your research." The prime minister, one of Yori's most influential supporters was the only one with a pertinent answer.
"Indeed. I for example have quite a few questions..." Nezu almost glared a hole through Beru, his supposed employee and good friend.
"Well, let's start with the basics then. I'm sure some of you would like a refresher anyway~" Beru was the one to speak this time.
His tone didn't give away much, but his slumped shoulders did tell Nezu that the insectoid wasn't in a good mood.
"First off~ Quirk Singularity, silly concept on paper. Quirks get stronger the more DNA mixes together, the body doesn't evolve as quickly in return."
"Turns out, it's a bit more true than some would want to believe~ As in, the world keeps producing stronger and stronger quirks, and disaster ensues."
"Excuse me, sir! Do you have any evidence of that happening?" One of the people that didn't quite know about this seemed curious enough to ask such a question.
Nezu and Toshi also did not quite believe Beru's words.
"Sure we do." Don clapped his hands and a projector opened up, showing everyone in the room the little film that Yori and Beru had made quite a while back.
It was just as graphic as before, but this time, right after the death row prisoner exploded, the footage got cut.
The next image was of the site of the Egypt disaster, a large crater that was still not repaired.
The room was filled with silence. The people that had seen the footage in the past weren't anywhere near as bothered by it. But the final part did manage to scare them a bit.
Panning over to what was now considered one of the largest 'natural' disasters ever did put a few question marks in everybody's mind.
"As I've said, some of you might've already noticed. Quirk Singularity is happening at a much faster rate than we could've possibly expected." Yori spoke up once more, breaking the silence in the room and getting back everyone's attention.
"... So you tested your hypothesis on a human being to get these results..." Toshinori seemed far from impressed, rather, he almost seemed disgusted.
"No reason to feel bad for a child r***ist, the fate of humanity is at stake~ Lethal injection's more painful anyway~" Beru was quick to shoot him down though, not even entertaining the idea that their actions weren't justified.
"Regardless of the morality and viewpoints, this isn't a situation that can be hidden anymore. We've done our best to try and fix it in the background, but it proved to be impossible." Yori was also quick to quell any conflict.
"... Is this 'Quirk Singularity' truly the cause of the unusual disasters that keep popping up around the world?" Nezu himself wasn't quite bothered about the fact that Beru killed that supposed criminal.
Although the fact that Beru used a living person as a test subject did irk him in the wrong way.
"To put it bluntly. Yes. The probability is a lot higher than you'd expect.
All of the disasters that keep happening everywhere are in some odd way related to either births or children awakening their quirks at young ages."
Don decided to answer that question, to spare Beru from facing the friends that he kept this secret from for a whopping 3 to 4 years.
Beru just looked away, scanning the rest of the crowd, trying to ignore the various gazes he received from people that knew him better within the crowd.
"... So what you're saying is that this is already going on?" Nezu spoke up once more, this time his tone was a bit grimmer.
"Indeed. We've been trying to suppress it for a while now, we've even managed to manufacture a cure of sorts. But distributing it is another thing entirely..." Yori's words managed to reassure some of the people present, although they weren't completely positive in nature.
"The cure itself is a very specific quirk factor that seems to be at odds with all other quirks within the body when active. The problem is that this cure is by no means permanent, the second the quirk factor runs out, quirks will get stronger again."
"... So sustained consumption is the only way forwards for now?" Another member of the crowd joined the conversation, it was none other than the current head of the Public Safety Division(former Hero Public Safety Commission).
"Yep~ Japan is actually pretty safe in that regard~ We've managed to distribute it rather evenly within the country~ Such is the case with the majority of developed countries within the world~"
"How long exactly has this been going on? For how long have you been fighting this losing battle?"
This time a reporter spoke up, seemingly with renewed energy. It was clear that he was trying to paint a picture for his report.
"Around four years, give or take. We've had a lot of success, but not everything is going as smoothly as we'd want it to." Yori's response was also planned out beforehand since the scientist had somewhat scripted this to occur.
"We've managed to distribute the cure in various countries, but it's already a bit too much for only the three of us to handle. This is why we are currently making the matter public."
"For now, we ask the public not to worry too much. The situation is only going to get better from here as the cure gets distributed in a more open fashion."
Yori had already started giving the closing statements.
Beru didn't linger on the stage for much longer either, he posed for a few pictures with Don and Yor, then he went to finally speak with Toshi and Nezu, who were still seated, seemingly waiting for him.
"You sure know how to surprise someone, Beru," Nezu spoke with a cordial smile on his face, but his tone was anything but happy.
"I know that keeping all of this from you guys wasn't a good thing~ But I honestly didn't want to stress you guys out with this~ I thought that we'd be able to take care of things ourselves~"
Toshinori sighed a bit when hearing Beru's apologetic tone.
"Well, it doesn't seem to have worked. At least not completely. Maybe it was a bit too much pressure on the shoulders of just three people... I won't bother asking who Don is, by the way. It seems to be a bit more secretive than Yori's since you never even mentioned hi-"
Nezu's words were interrupted.
"Oh, he's just my clone. Which also happens to control the underworld of the majority of the world. He's the one handling distribution~" Beru didn't even bother hiding Don's identity. At this point, it scarcely mattered.
There was no reason to keep it a secret from Nezu and Toshinori of all people either.
"... huh?" Both Nezu and Toshi seemed just as confused, Beru just shrugged his shoulders, to indicate that he wasn't actually bullshitting them.
The footage from this meeting was quickly made public, it was plastered all over the internet and on every news station.
They were all careful to not paint the situation in too bad of light, many of them claiming that it would've been much worse had it not been for the effort of those that had already found the cure.
Currently, the public's reaction was a bit hard to gauge. It was as split as could be.
Some didn't believe that this was serious, thinking of it as nothing more than a gag.
The people that had already been theorizing on this were basically climaxing with happiness as they realised that they were actually right, their theory was confirmed. Only to be doused in cold water as they realised that being right meant that humanity was heading for extinction.
Some decided to believe it wholeheartedly, it certainly helped that Beru was one of the people on stage. After all, Beru is currently the Nr.1 Hero after all. Heralded as the strongest man alive and one of the most trustworthy people around.
His reputation made things land a bit easier. It didn't help the fear that started rising in everyone though.
And just like that, the world was shaking in fear, as Yori started making the cure publicly available everywhere he could.
But people were afraid... Who's to say that they were all willing to take a strange serum to cure them? Especially when that 'cure' involved their quirks weakening?
Things were bound to become a bit... Messier from here on out.
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Hello there! I am glad to announce that I haven't died yet. I kind of took a break, now finals are coming up and I felt like writing again. I'm at work and bored so figured, why not?
If you want to support me blahblblablablh(you know the drill)
I hopefully won't take a month to write another chapter!
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