"What do you think?" Rikiya asked, when a man entered his office. It was the same man who went to Reo to give him the autobiography of Destro. They have been keeping quite a close eye on the boy since the incident and they were surprised when they realized just how paranoid the boy was.
"He is dangerous… He isn't afraid of using force to get his way. He threatened to break my legs and shove them up my ass. The look in his eyes told me that he would have carried out the threat" The man explained and Rikiya hummed with a thoughtful look on his face.
"I am glad that you decided not to test him. Chitose is still at the hospital" Rikiya pointed out with a grave look on his face. Chitose had been severely injured by Reo, there was a fracture on her neck and her right shoulder blade was cracked. Since they wanted to keep the incident under wraps, they couldn't bring in any outsider healer to get her fixed.
"Yotsubashi-sama, that boy needs to be dealt with. Either get him to join us or he needs to be destroyed" The man begged and Rikiya simply leaned back in his seat instead of saying anything.
It wasn't like he didn't know that… He wasn't beyond using Mai and Ren to get his way, but what Chitose tried to do was wrong only because it wasn't the right place to do something like that where everybody could watch him… Everyone besides his Commanders and his closest aides believed him to be a benevolent and righteous leader and he wanted them to keep believing that.
Rikiya knew what needed to be done, but it was easier said than done… It was clear that Reo cared about Mai and Ren, but thanks to his promise in front of everyone, he couldn't use them to blackmail Reo, at least not yet since a lot of attention was on the two of them. If he tried something right now then his actions would get noticed and people would start criticizing him.
He needed to avoid that at all costs right now…
There was another reason why Rikiya decided to dismiss the situation by telling Chitose to release Ren and Mai. He was using 100% of his power, but the boy was already stronger and faster than him. He had no idea just how much stronger the boy could become if he kept pushing. Rikiya knew that he had to de-escalate the situation to avoid as much collateral as he could.
A part of him was glad that Chitose showed up the way she did or he would have lost the fight in front of everyone. That would have been a worse outcome…
Rikiya tapped his finger on the desk with a thoughtful look on his face before an idea finally appeared in his head. He wasn't able to get the boy to join him willingly, but what if he destroyed all of his other options? "I think I have an idea… Let's ruin him" Rikiya finally revealed his decision.
They simply needed to orchestrate a situation where Reo would need to use his power in the open and with his power, it would be impossible for him to diminish the collateral damage. Reo would get arrested and then Rikiya would use their political and financial power to get him out. After that, the path of a Hero would be closed to him since it would become impossible for him to get a Hero license after that.
Yes, it was going to work brilliantly. Now he simply needed to orchestrate the whole act…
~~POV Reo~~
By the time I finally finished the autobiography, I was mentally spent and since I hadn't slept for the last couple of days, it was just so hard for me to keep my eyes open, but somehow I still managed to finish the book since it was quite interesting even though I had no idea how much of the book was true and how much of it was simply propaganda.
Still, I managed to learn quite a few things thanks to the book… It was the mother of Chikara Yotsubashi who used the term Quirk to explain her son's meta-ability and was later murdered for it. However, the politicians later twisted her words to regulate the use of Quirks. Chikara hated how the government used his mother's words to regulate the use of Quirks and to topple the whole system, he created the Meta Liberation Army after he took the name of Destro.
There was a massive war, but the Mera Liberation Army eventually lost and Destro was captured and the army was dissolved, however, the government missed his son and some of his acolytes. Later one of their descendants, named Rikiya Yotsubashi and the surviving acolytes reformed the Meta Liberation Army and this time their army was way more stronger than the original one, at least according to them.
However, that wasn't all… When I finished the biography, my gaze landed on a thin book, which was lying under the autobiography. The thin book was glued to the autobiography, which was probably why I never noticed the second book… Feeling somewhat hesitant I finally opened the book and my eyes grew wide in shock.
The book was filled with all the crimes various Heroes have committed and how the Hero Public Safety Commission have covered those crimes and that wasn't all… There were also a few records in the book which showed how the Hero Public Safety Commission had forced some Heroes to do the dirty work for them… By the time I finished the second book, I wasn't sure what to think.
I knew that there must be some skeletons in the lockers of the Hero Public Safety Commission, but I never thought that they would be this corrupt… I had no way of verifying the records, so I wasn't going to believe it completely, but even if half of these records were true, I was not sure if I wanted to join them anymore…
Shit! What the fuck am I thinking?!! Rikiya is obviously trying to play with my head. That must be why he gave me this book. However, there was something else I realized… The MLA must have people in high places or it would have been impossible for them to get their hands on these. Even if half of them weren't true, half of them probably were.
After all, if all of them were fake then he would be simply ruining his own authenticity and reputation in front of me, something he couldn't at this moment…
Initially, I thought the MLA was only financially powerful, but they were also politically powerful too. I realized that I had made the right choice by accepting the deal. If I had tried to reveal their existence to the world, then I would have been in a heap of trouble. If the fight had continued then they could have simply blamed me for all the trouble. After all, they had all the money and influence to do so.
I was an orphan. They could have simply portrayed me as a disturbed child who went berserk for whatever reason and set me against the whole system…
Now it was even more dangerous for me to stick around in Deika City… Life was comfortable here, but I was sure that they were simply trying to lull me into a trap or something like that. I was certain that Rikiya was probably planning something to get me under his thumb, after all, I remember a lot of men like him from my memories…
I snarled in anger and slammed my fist on the table, breaking it… Now, I only had two options in front of me… I could either stay here and wait for them to spring the trap or I could escape… Even if I managed to break through their trap, they could still turn me into an enemy for the rest of the world. After all, who was going to believe an orphan 7 years old when thousands of people were going to testify against him?
Either way, I was certain that I could no longer become a Hero… My own feelings about the Hero Public Safety Commission aside, I was going to become a runaway as soon as I left the city. The cops would be after me and if they caught me, they were going to send me back to Deika City… Something I can't let happen. I looked down at my hands and I started to chuckle mirthlessly.
I thought life was going to be so simple for me… I thought I was going to have an easy life after I manifested a strong Quirk. I thought I was going to have a lot of opportunities presented to me when I got adopted, but now that I was here, standing at the crossroads, I knew that I was simply deluded… Maybe, I was simply naive. Yes, that was probably it.
If I was going to become the bad guy either way, it was going to be on my terms… I clenched my fist tightly as a look of determination flashed across my face…