Chapter 72: Stupid (3)
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"Then, let's talk about something else. I heard you have a cat? Ah, a black cat to be precise."
The boy blinked at him. "Yes, why?"
Nezu's eyebrows rose. Huh, so he was right?
Nezu had tried looking for Neji's background, but it's all locked behind walls and walls enforced by his parents, most likely Gara who Nezu was familiar with...
So he researched Neji's middle school, instead, for the last three days and came to learn about his explicit relationship with multiple women. Principal Nezu honestly didn't mind such a thing. Famous heroes always do scandalous things like that, it's better for the kid to learn to hide this from a young age, in fact. Nezu wasn't dumb enough to believe that something like Pure Good exists, there is always a mixture… maybe except for All Might, but not everyone is the Symbol of Peace after all.
So one of the silver-haired man's traits had already matched Neji; he was always surrounded by women. Only one trait was remaining, and now that he also confirmed about his black cat, Nezu couldn't help but smile to himself.
Nezu stared as Neji looked at him with a confused gleam. "Does the Principal not like cats? Black cats, in this case."
The boy asked in a curious voice, as Nezu considered something.
Should he tell him about Nighteye's vision? Or should he first let Nighteye know that the man in the vision was finally found? What should he do to him, exactly?
"Neji-kun." After a long silence, he asked. "Do you perhaps know about Sir Nighteye and his Quirk?"
This boy was special. He was smart and cautious. He was able to hide his relationship from everyone for three years, and if not for Nezu's connections flanking the other students' background, Nezu would never have been able to figure it out himself. After that, as he considered some other things that only his advanced brain could think and conclude of, Nezu had decided it's better to tell the boy instead of hiding it all.
The boy stared at his face silently, his curious face now unreadable. Did he know Nighteye…?
Moving to Neji, he considered what was happening exactly.
'Sir Nighteye…' he muttered in his mind.
He had no idea why Nezu was suddenly asking about him, but he didn't see any reason to lie.
"He is pretty famous, so I guess, I do know him. Though I only heard rumours about his Quirk, not what it does exactly." He nodded.
Smiling, Nezu moved his gaze to Aizawa who wore a grim expression. The man seemed to have his own things that he wanted to say, but from the looks of it, more questions were just about to pop up in his mind.
Nezu considered if he should ask Aizawa to go out or not before deciding against it. Aizawa was a reliable man, after all. He should also know about the vision, if possible.
"Sir Nighteye has a quirk that lets him see the future." Nezu went silent, took a deep breath, then said, "Using his Quirk, he has seen your future."
"..."
Neji stared at Nezu silently.
—★—
Now that's not something I was expecting to hear… at least not today. I had theorised before that Nighteye has seen the future of the world where Gods come, but I wasn't expecting to hear that he has seen ME. First of all, how did he see my future since he never got in contact with me? Even assuming he saw me in someone else's future, the further into the future he sees, the more uncertain and blurry it becomes. So how exactly did he know that it's me…?
That's assuming he saw me in the future where Gods attacked. Maybe he only saw my future after UA… which, if things go according to plan, isn't something pleasant.
"Pardon, but..."
I thinned my lips, by now all my worry of the police was gone. Aizawa was the same.
"Can you tell me what he saw?" I could guess what, and hoped it wasn't that.
Nezu nodded sagely. "I can, of course. Though… I am not exactly sure if it's okay to tell you that. You might get demotivated, or even fall into an existential crisis."
Ah, that's nothing new.
"That's fine."
After a second Nezu nodded, while Aizawa wore a serious expression as he also waited for Nezu to talk.
"It's…"
Nezu's words flew to my ears as my face contorted to a frown no matter how much I forced it not to.
⸢In a destroyed city, within a sea of flames, a silver-haired man was on his knees with a fiery blade coming out of his chest. Beside him, a bunch of women were lying, some of them had their limbs cut off while some were simply… dead.
The last thing he saw before the vision ended was a black cat the size of a skyscraper starting to rampage around the destroyed world...⸥
[Gamer's Mind is calming down Master]
The Gamer's Mind counts this as a dire situation, that's why it activated. But at least I am calm now.
People might say that's what I get for playing Hero, but I don't plan to do that. I planned to make some drastic changes after leaving the UA after 1st year… but it seems I have to pull that time down a little. Playing the hero won't work. I have to start hunting quirks, if I want to survive, I have to grow stronger. But calm, calm down now. The top Tower Dungeon is the utmost priority now because if I were to go hunting right now, I would be too weak to even go against Mirio Togata.
"Neji-kun, are you feeling okay…?"
Nezu asked, his face forming a concerned look.
I have the mouse to thank for this. From the fanfictions I read, he seemed like the evil dumbledore guy, and maybe he is truly, but he is not against me. At least not yet. I can appreciate that.
"I… Thank you for this information, but can I ask just when Sir Nighteye saw this vision of his? How many days ago, I mean."
"Years." Nezu corrected. "It's been 5 years since then. Exactly on October 6th, year 196."
...Now this, this does put a smile on my face.
For starters, I started my journey on October 7th, a day after my and Nejire's birthday (we have shared birthdays). Back then, I had how much luck?
[64, master.]
Yes, 64 LUC. Now I have 225 LUC. My future depends on Luck, UnknownGamer69 had said so. Nighteye's vision isn't absolute, I know that much too, and since I know my luck can affect the time lapse for the arrival of the Gods, the future he saw was the unlucky Neji's, not the Lucky Neji, that is I. UnknownGamer69 said I can buy decades worth of time with High Luck, so let's just assume the Gods arrive 5 years later than the vision he saw, would the future be same?
Now that I have made some extreme plans… I doubt it will.
"Neji-kun?"
"Thank you." I smiled at him. "I appreciate it."
Nezu smiled too. "It's nothing. The future has already changed since you didn't receive the Quirk that you were supposed to receive like I just said. So maybe things would be different now…"
That's good and all, but I had one question. "Then why tell me? Since the future has changed already, telling it to me won't change anything."
Nezu smiled a strange smile that I couldn't understand… at all.
"When you have intelligence beyond a certain threshold… let's just say things are hard to explain at that point. But be sure this is all for your and the world's betterment."
Oh, okay. Keep your secrets. I won't pry too much, I will… see the future in a few months with my own two eyes, don't worry.
"Then can I go please?" I tried to stand up, but Aizawa stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulders.
—★—
Aizawa stopped Neji from getting up, his face grim as he sat with one of his hands hanging from his neck.
"It's certainly strange knowing about your future, moreover knowing you avoided your fate. But… you have other problems to worry about." He glanced at Nezu. "Clearly, you are not going to let him off after killing some villain, will you?"
Nezu shrugged. "It's not like he has done any harm to the society, and it wasn't intentional. It was merely self-defence, from what you told me yourself. If he hadn't done that shockwave burst, Nomu would have crushed his skull. Moreover, on the second burst of wave, he threw the shards of glass that would have killed you, himself, Izuku-kun, Momo, Tsuyu and Kendo-san too. He has saved lives, your life and multiple lives, lives that would save more lives in the future, at the expense of lives who would have taken more innocent lives in the future."
"..." Aizawa glared at Nezu. "So you now support the vigilantes?"
Nezu shook his head. "Aizawa-san, you know that's not true."
The room grew silent and dark, Neji now felt a little uncomfortable.
"Then you're showing favour to a student? Why? Because of his future?"
That was partially correct, according to his <Calculations>, the boy would save millions even without One for All. But he can't say that here, nobody would understand him, nobody would believe him. Being too smart was a curse sometimes…. There was also another reason, Neji's mother. It's not her status, no, that's not the problem, the problem is his past debt with her... but again, Aizawa didn't need to know that.
"It's-"
Nezu started, but the door burst open.
"YOU RAT!"
A woman walked in while stomping on the ground, her straight blue hair flowed in the air like ocean waves. Her eyes lit up looking at Neji, but as they landed on Nezu her frown returned.
"How dare you interrogate my injured son!? Don't you feel any shame, doing this to kids?"
"Ah, Gara-"
"Shut!"
Gara's stood glaring at him for a whole minute before grabbing Neji by his hand and pulling him out of the door.
"I am taking my son away, try stopping me."
"..."
Neji stared in a slight daze as he was pulled out of the school, going to the car.
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Author's Note: I have exams again from today. (Already gave one). Just wanted to finish this arc, or I would have stopped uploading 2 days ago.
Anyway, the updates won't be everyday for the next two week, until December 23rd, when my exam ends.
I will hopefully not die and be back in time, and continue updating like usual.
🙏 Bella Ciao, for now!