Bab 246: Chapter 243 - Will
The trip to Italy was quicker than I expected.
We stopped by Turkiya to replenish our fuel, and a couple of hours later, we arrived at Florence.
Kilometers lower, through my window, I spotted an orchard of orange trees covered in a thin layer of snow. It was a strange sight.
I hadn't been back in years, and the only time I was there had been summer : I was supposed to come back in a few months when it'd be hotter, yet here I was, looking at this place unlike a vacation one but rather as my new home.
Leaving so abruptly made me feel like I'd left unfinished business behind.
I'd never see my childhood home again, would never again go to Yuei, and wouldn't mentally complain about and judge all of my classmates during classes.
I'd find a way to corner Katsuki someday one way or another – or at least I would once I was sure he'd gotten over his little existential crisis.
Italy without Dad made me nostalgic.
It reminded me of the day he'd dropped me on her after Kenzei had died, and it was weird to realize that nothing much had changed since then.
I was certainly way stronger than back then, and I definitely wasn't – as much – of an arrogant little shit, but I was still the kid that had to be dragged over half of the world for his safety while his father did who knows what who knows where.
I heard Teka cough before the door to her private bedroom slid.
She sat in front of me right as the stewards finished serving a late breakfast.
Teka wasn't much of a talker and, thus, had left me for her bed right after dinner.
I'd spent the night in my seat, legs propped up and eyes closed, monitoring our surroundings, paranoia fully kicking in, imagining that someone would find us and try to shoot our plane down.
Being needlessly alert was better than sleeping in a small, caged room, and even the appeal of a comfortable bed wasn't enough to get me voluntarily in another enclosed space – or rather a smaller enclosed space than I was already in.
Teka greeted me briefly and drank a black coffee and I remembered thinking it must be as black as her soul, hence why she liked it, which made me smile.
Between one sip and the next she coughed
"Want me to take a look at your lungs ?", I asked.
She quirked a brow and I raised my hand, a faint green glow surrounding it.
"… it is merely a cold", she said, putting her cup down. "Though I wasn't aware you had other… abilities"
I shrugged.
"I figured there's no point hiding anymore what I can do"
All for One was out of the game and I'd defected from Yuei ; canon wasn't something I'd put any thought to for a while and that I certainly wouldn't even consider from now on.
Everything I had was the future and unbridled freedom.
A long time ago I would've felt exhilarated at the prospect of it yet now I found myself carefully considering my options and what I wanted to do with my life.
All the paths were open : I could do whatever I wanted – as long as I pondered over the consequences of my actions and accepted to pay the price for it.
Earlier that night, one of my clones had popped : I had finally finished my greatest fuinjutsu project, the work of a lifetime, and from now on, no one would ever be able to threaten or hurt me.
Going against me would now be the equivalent of risking humanity's extinction.
"I figured", Teka said "that, because of your… peculiar mindset, you'd still be hell-bent on hiding your abilities"
I appreciated that she didn't pry – never did – and even though she'd had a hunch about my abilities close to a decade ago, she'd never pressured me to tell her anything, only giving me her silent support.
Even when I was a child – my still developing brain making me one even though I had twenty years of experience prior – she always treated me like an adult.
"Paranoia", I said out loud, grinning. "You can say it, you know. I'm not touchy about it"
Or rather I wasn't touchy because it was her.
It had been a while since I hadn't gotten a full-on paranoid crisis – except for my little freakout when I'd heard Keigo had been sent to Tartarus – and I felt rather proud of myself for it.
I was aware of my shortcomings, my blatant paranoia that had saved my life more than once, my violent outbursts that had brought more problems than I could handle, my arrogance that had stopped me from creating a lot of meaningful connections, and my selfishness that had made me destroy most of the few I had.
Yet I didn't want to stay as fucked up as I was and I knew that with time – certainly decades – and a lot of hard work, I could become someone my current self would admire.
In some way, Italy was a new chance for me to start everything anew.
"I figured telling a paranoiac that he's paranoid isn't always the best course of action", she said, and I recognized my shrink's words behind hers.
Scarcela, as I always suspected, must've sent her weekly reports of my progress – or lack thereof, depending on my fluctuating mood.
"Though we can both agree that it doesn't matter for someone aware of being one",
The shadow of a smile quirked her lip.
"If I may say, a healthy dose of paranoia in our line of work is equivalent to a healthy dose of self-preservation"
Paranoia and self-preservation : I'd always believed that in excesses, paranoia pushed me to do anything but preserve myself.
"Then it must mean I am ready to take over the family's business"
I'll probably start my training as soon as we land.
She merely finished her coffee but the way her shoulder sagged, the way her eyes sparkled, hopeful, made me realize how utterly relieved she was at this prospect.
For a moment I didn't see the strong and brash Teka I knew but rather only the old, tired woman she truly was.
There was a pang in my chest.
I reached forward, grabbing her hand on the table.
She looked up, startled, and nearly spilled her drink. Her hands were cold and worn out, battered by hardships and life.
"I won't leave", I promised. "Teach me all you need to and then enjoy your retirement"
She deserved it.
I squeezed her hand and let it go, settling back against my seat.
Her eyes were glassy.
She scolded her features, threw her shoulders back, and everything was gone.
"It won't be an easy road", she said. "There's a lot that you are not yet aware of... And you still need to win our men's trust"
I would've found it weird if they'd followed me only because I was their boss's grandson.
"Have you read any of the materials I sent you ?"
"I started but haven't finished yet"
I'd had a fairly good start on the subject but as I hadn't expected to need to go to Italy before next summer, I hadn't spent all of my time on it – and then, well, inmates weren't allowed to bring stuff from home.
"You still have the basics down concerning the Ndrangheta, the Camorra, and the Sicilian mafia ?"
The three groups that had shared power in Italy before Quirks' awakening.
"I do, though I didn't understand why they suddenly disappeared: they were already large and powerful and we were only civilians back then"
"That has to do with their preconceived notions of superiority", she explained. "The arrival of Quirks leveled the field but they were too engrossed in their archaic traditions to seize the opportunity"
Quirks appeared two centuries ago.
I wondered what kind of power our family had managed to accumulate from two centuries of domination : we owned Italy, yes, but most importantly we owned the men and women working for us as well as all of the resources found across our country.
She waved her hand dismissively.
"We'll talk about it more thoroughly in time. Let's finish our meal first"
We lapsed into a comfortable silence as we finished our breakfast.
"Do we do drugs ?"
She shot me an assessing glance.
"… indeed. May I know why this sudden interest in the subject ?"
"Merely curiosity"
*
Spotless and well-kept, the old room I'd spent a summer in was exactly as I'd left it.
Close to the bed's left foot was a smudge of blackened red, a reminiscence of the blood ink I'd stirred.
A few of the Sharingan's matrice designs – circles and gibberish writing that made no sense for anyone but me – I'd made were still pinned to the wall.
I scoffed while remembering how sick I'd been when I realized I was allergic to cheap, regular ink.
"Wise indeed to keep your room in the state you left it", Teka mused, looking at the pinned with fuinjutsu with interest.
"You know, I disliked you the first time I met you"
"Likewise"
I smiled, glancing at her though her face remained smooth and unbothered, her voice flat.
"It was difficult to feel otherwise when you wiped your steak-stained hands on our table-cloth barely half an hour after our first encounter"
I'd truly been an insufferable little shit.
At least I can be glad that the older I get, the less the lack of maturity of my brain plays a part in my actions.
Her fingers brushed what was the ultimate matrice, the one I used to make my sharingan.
"Seeing as you are not as secretive concerning your abilities as you used to be, enlighten me : was there any point to your scribbling ?"
"There was"
She nodded, and I expected more questions.
"I see"
She let go of the seal and walked back to me, hands clasped behind her back like a soldier.
"You 'see' ?", I prodded
"I was of the mind that there always was a reason for your actions and that you wouldn't spend hours locked up in your room scribbling nonsense. It is nice to see my suspicions confirmed"
She surveyed the room one last time.
"I will let you settle"
She left and I looked down at the few suitcases brought for me.
Dad and she had had the foresight to send someone to raid my room : everything I'd ever owned was there, and I patted myself on the back knowing that I'd hidden my weapons well enough that they hadn't managed to find them.
Otherwise they would've triggered the traps, and it wouldn't have been a pretty sight.
As soon as Teka closed the door, one of my clones appeared on the windowsill, arms full of ink, sturdy paper, and a cage full of rats.
He settled everything onto the desk.
Two other clones appeared in a near-smokeless puff and I sat at my desk while they organized my stuff.
I drew the seal I'd mentally configured in the loneliness of my cell, the one I'd believed to be the perfect one.
"What do you think ?"
I asked, giving it to him.
His sharingan spun to life while he studied the drawing, putting a small, transparent pouch of white powder in front of me.
I opened it, my nostrils flaring while I took in the delicious smell.
"Looks more promising than anything we've made until now"
I licked my lips, anticipating what was to come.
"Let's start with the experimentation", my clone proposed, dragging the cage of screeching rats to us.
I nodded.
"Let me just get a bit more before we start..."
*
"I would. I'd kill you"
Katsuki's amusement was fading, replaced by a dubious expression.
"If you stand on my path, I'll kill you. And I'll kill everyone else who'd try to stop me"
Katsuki had chalked Shoto's words to him trying to shock him.
Of course he wouldn't kill him – and of course, he wouldn't hurt innocent people.
Despite what everybody said, Katsuki knew Shoto, and Shoto wouldn't hurt innocent people.
Now he wasn't so sure anymore.
"I will ask you one question and one question only", said the police officer, face hard and fingers intertwined "There's is no point lying as I will know if you do"
Katsuki saw the looks of distrust and barely contained anger.
They'd handled him like a prisoner, shoved him into an interrogation room roughly. It'd been hours ago.
Katsuki rubbed his tired face.
There was dry blood under his nails and inside his nostrils, dirty knots in his hair giving his blond mop a reddish hue.
"Did you – in any way – help Shoto Todoroki escape ?"
The detective was tense, his muscles pulled, his eyebrows furrowed.
They'd been surprisingly delighted when they heard that Katsuki had taken care of Kai Chisaki.
This alone – their endorsement of his crime – had sent him into another whirlwind of confusion.
Why had they been relieved ? Wasn't it bad ? Why did everyone act like it was a good thing ?
Had Shoto been right, as always ?
"No"
Tsukauchi stayed still for a while.
Then a wave of relief overwhelmed him, and he leaned back, looking at the one-way window.
"Cleared"
Katsuki wondered if, had he been guilty, they would've forced him to give away the One for All before killing him.
*
It was late at night when she got home.
She'd been discussing all day long matters regarding a restaurant that would be integrated into a high-end hotel, doing her best to take her mind off what had happened to their youngest.
Like everybody else, they'd learned about his imprisonment last week.
Rei had been in her office's lobby when she'd seen the news displayed on the TV : her mind had felt full of cotton and her legs wobbly.
She'd sat on the floor, under her employees' bewildered gazes, knowing that if she didn't, she'd faint.
Fuyumi hadn't been much better. Natsuo, back in the US, had called to ask if he should get back home, saying he wanted to get back home, but she'd placated him by saying she'd speak with Enji first to see what was the matter.
She'd tried contacting her husband to no avail.
She even called Shoto's school to see if they knew anything but had been turned down, as she had no legal right over Shoto.
She grasped with utmost conviction the belief that whatever had happened to Shoto, his father would never let him rot in jail.
Her faith in her husband's absolute love for their youngest was the only thing that stopped her from hunting down Enji and pushing for more information.
Fuyumi and Natsuo hadn't agreed with her views and, despite their strained relationship with their brother, they'd argued with Rei, asked her to do something, anything, and that they needed to know their brother was sound and well.
Touya's fresh death sentence was still on their mind and, even though they did not voice it, Rei knew they feared that the same fate would befall their brother.
"I trust Enji", Rei had quietly answered.
If there was one person he wouldn't ever fail, it was Shoto.
That's why, when she saw the letter on her desk, she knew she'd been right to trust him.
She opened it eagerly and drank in the meager content as fast as she could.
By the time you'll read this, Shoto will have left the country.
Rei briefly closed her eyes, so overwhelmingly relieved she had to grasp the mahogany desk to not fall.
They will freeze my accounts to find a lead ; thus, from today onward, you are the sole owner of all of our accounts and real estate throughout Japan.
Rei's eyes widened.
Should the situation change in any way, here are my last wishes.
I trust you to carry them on.
- Enji
And to that, he'd added a copy of his will.
*
Bonus :
"He- he died ?"
"As I said", explained the soldier. "A riot broke out in the prison. Your uncle tried to use the diversion to flee with a bunch of other inmates. He refused to comply and hurt many wardens. We were forced to use lethal force"
None of the kids said anything, too stunned to speak.
The soldier's eyes slid to the little girl seated right beside the blonde teen and felt guilty even though he was only the bearer of bad news.
"Is she… ?"
The boy brushed his eyes with the back of his arm, trying to reign in the tears from spilling on his cheeks.
"She's his daughter, yes", he said.
He stood up, and the little girl followed.
"Sorry for taking that much of your time"
She grabbed the teen's wrist.
"Why is daddy not coming home ? You said he'd come back and he wouldn't- he wouldn't-"
A gut-wrenching sob left the little girl.
The soldier pursed his lips, nearly reaching out for her.
The teen leaned down, wiping away her tears, trying to smile even though he was crying.
"I'm sorry Eri, but Dad is not coming back"
Neito scooped her up in his arms while she started sobbing loudly. She buried her head in his shoulder and held on his neck for dear life.
Neito brushed his wet cheeks, fresh tears rolling down as soon as he finished his gesture.
Without a look for anybody else, they left.
*
A/N :
Three chapters left and I'm done with this fic.
Even though they're the shortest they're the hardest to write because I'm mentally tired of writing this fic lmao.
But show must go on.
See you in the next update.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone