章 8: Ch8 - Celebrity Status
Read ahead: https://www.patreon.com/bloooog
***
"""It's Shiki-kun!!!"""
"Ssssh," Yoshiki held a finger to his lips, and the three fangirls went silent, staring at him with their faces flushed. "I'm on my way to a photoshoot, but if you want get a picture together... we'll just have to get make it quick, okay?"
"Y-Yes!" the girl at the front yelped, pulling out her phone.
"Give Gekka your phone," Yoshiki ordered, gesturing towards their bodyguard.
"O-Okay."
Fumika watched as the girls huddled around him, getting a little too grabby. Since Yoshiki hadn't said anything, neither her nor Gekka stepped in.
She watched as her little boy threw up two peace signs.
"It was nice meeting you three, but I have to go," Yoshiki deflated, and Fumika rolled her eyes as she watched the girls swoon. Her son was a damn good actor. "Just wait a few hours before you post that, alright? It'd mean a lot to me..."
"O-Of course!"
Fumika still wasn't exactly sure how it happened.
Yes, her boy was cute. That much was certain. In fact, Fumika was pretty sure that her little boy was the cutest in the whole wide world... but that was her opinion. Or rather, Fumika thought that that was just her opinion. Somehow, nearly all of Japan now saw her little Shiki in the same regard that she did.
It all started with Eto, Ichiharu's father, reaching out to meet them. But instead of being interested in her husband, Eto had been far more interested in Yoshiki... to the point that he made her little boy a business proposal.
And just like that, Yoshiki became a model.
In a matter of weeks, her little boy was in photoshoots. He was in commercials. He was on the covers of magazines. His kind and warm personality was an instant hit. In fact, his modeling career had such a great start that he was pulled out of school for it. Fumika had been against the whole thing at first, not wanting to take away from her little boy's childhood...
But Yoshiki took to it like a fish in water.
In a sense, it was like her little boy was born to be a celebrity. Never nervous, never wavering, projecting a constant warm smile the entire time...
Fumika could tell. Shiki was happy.
But then, just a few months back, Yoshiki got his first acting gig. Fumika knew her little boy was talented. Even if he was as cute as a button, he was far smarter than he had any right to be. That was why Fumika was certain that Yoshiki would excel at anything he tried, acting included, but she never would've expected his first performance to be so gut wrenching.
It was just your normal TV Drama, and he was just a minor role.
Just a single episode where Yoshiki witnesses the death of his mother, and then provides a police report. That was it. Except... the emotions that his performance had evoked were extraordinary. She could feel the sadness, the despair, the anger. Fumika didn't really know all that much about filmmaking, but at the time, she could tell.
Her boy was going to be a star.
To be a celebrity nowadays, you were almost required to be a hero. Nearly every single model and actor were, at one point, heroes. Heroes were popular, and practically the entire world looked up to them by design. Just being a licensed hero made you famous to a degree, and top heroes could easily become world renown.
Case in point, All Might was the most famous person. Ever.
But through a mixture of marketing, Eto Enokawa's connections, and her little boy's ability to captivate everyone around him, he somehow pulled it off.
Yoshiki Enokawa was on its way to becoming a household name.
That was why they rarely went in public anymore. Her little boy's black hair and blonde tufts were so distinct, it only took a few minutes of walking down the street for him to get recognized. They first learned that the hard way when they went out to eat, and then were consequently swarmed in the parking lot.
Knowing that their were thousands of girls out there that would do anything just to get a glimpse of her boy, some of them even going as far as to stalk him...
'All of them wanting to molest my Shiki...'
Fumika took a deep breath. 'It's fine,' she told herself.
Yoshiki was happy, and that was all that mattered.
Finally arriving at the scene of their photoshoot, Fumika watched from the side as her Shiki went through outfit after outfit, modeling clothes for yet another brand endorsement. Watching the woman directing her little Shiki get a little too up close and personal, her face flushing red, her breathing getting heavy.
In fact, many of the women present had red faces, mesmerized by Yoshiki's beauty.
Fumika bit her lip.
'Shiki is happy. Shiki is happy. Shiki is happy...'
***
Finally done for the day, Yoshiki smiled and stretched.
Grandpa Eto had been a great help. Truly. Yoshiki probably could've become famous without his support... but it definitely would've been difficult. Eto's money and connections, along with his own fabricated talent had made it a smooth process. Yoshiki was honestly surprised by just how famous he's gotten in just under three years...
Not to mention his increase in strength.
Since when it came to Forge, the grind quite literally never stopped.
Hypercog: Incredible levels of intelligence, perception, and comprehension. Process information at speeds on par with supercomputers. *Passive.
Warp: Instantly warp yourself and/or anything you're touching to another location. Cannot warp things inside of other things. *Focus. 80km range.
Those two had been at the top of his list for a while now.
Yoshiki's Hypercog, much like his Archive, was inspired by an already existing Quirk– that being Nezu's High Specs.
Except... Hypercog wasn't as good. With Cost, Yoshiki knew exactly how much a replica of Nezu's Quirk would cost him, which was twenty years. After careful consideration, he decided to only invest 5 months worth. That made Yoshiki just 2.08333% as intelligent as the world's smartest rodent...
And the combat potential that it granted was immense.
Frankly, High Specs was underrated as fuck. The only real scene that hinted at the Quirk's potential was when Nezu fought Ashido and Kaminari during the Final Exam. Even though that scene was brushed off as comedic... Nezu was casually calculating the exact trajectory and force of his swings, applying that to all of the structures around him, and ultimately predicting the fallout of the destruction to a frightening degree.
The intellect required for such a feat was well worth the twenty years.
With High Specs being Nezu's only Quirk, though, Yoshiki could see why its usage was rather limited. Brain could only do so much in front of overwhelming brawn. But even if Yoshiki only had a fraction of Nezu's Quirk, he still had Lightcraft. And since Hypercog let him calculate the exact distance and trajectories of anything within his purview in milliseconds...
Lightcraft had gotten much faster, and much more accurate.
Warp, on the other hand, had cost him a whopping ten months. That included all of the times that Yoshiki had used Upgrade on it to bring the sub-Quirk up to standard– eliminating the cooldown, for one. Yoshiki was still nowhere close to being able to beat All For One, but now that he had Warp...
Now, now he could finally escape.
Unless his opponent could kill him faster than he could think, which was really fucking fast now that he had Hypercog, Yoshiki was truly untouchable.
With Warp, hostage situations were all but useless too, with everyone he remotely cared for being marked by Archive. Unless they were welded to the floor, Yoshiki could instantly warp to them and then warp away. And thanks to Archive and Alert, the second that anyone tried to take someone he cared for hostage, Yoshiki would know.
And then there was Linger.
Linger: When people see you, you'll linger in their thoughts, just a little bit. Influence is minimal and undetectable. Works through photos, videos, everything. *Passive.
At just over a month, Yoshiki had bought himself his ticket to fame. Hypercog had helped, but Linger was the bread and butter of his celebrity status. Whenever anyone saw him, they'd wonder about who he was. Just a bit. That was all Yoshiki needed to slowly and steadily rise to the top of the celebrity world.
And with that, Yoshiki had acquired a total of 26 sub-Quirks.
...26 different powers.
Blank, Cost, Notepad, Identify, X-ray Vision, Lightcraft, DNA Lock, Sincerity, LC_decoy, Rapid Aging, Dismantle, Upgrade, Ideal Body, Healthy Body, Hyper Gains, Hyper Senses, Fast Recovery, Near Perfect Memory, Body Talent, Archive, Alert, Observation, Mutual Attraction, Hypercog, Warp, and Linger.
Yoshiki didn't have OCD, but that was a still a bit much. Enough to the point that he finally decided to do something about it. All of them had their uses, and Yoshiki wasn't going to get rid of any of them just yet... but that was no reason to leave himself feeling so bloated.
Merge was his answer to that.
Merge: Combine any previously specified sub-Quirks into one. May cost Energy depending on whether or not adjustments need to be made. *Meta.
First to go were Cost, Dismantle, Upgrade, and Merge itself.
Revise: Upgrade, dismantle, or merge any sub-Quirk(s) of choice. Know the exact Energy cost of any potential sub-Quirk and/or revision. *Meta.
Ideal Body, Healthy Body, Hyper Gains, Hyper Senses, Fast Recovery, and Mutual Attraction were next.
Divine Body: With phenomenal physique, beauty, growth, health, and recovery, you are perfection in human form. You are undeniably attractive. *Passive.
And then Near Perfect Memory, Body Talent, and Hypercog.
Divine Mind: Grants you unprecedented levels of intelligence, perception, comprehension, and recollection. You are exceptionally talented in all endeavors. *Passive.
Even though Yoshiki had definitely splurged a bit here and there, like he had with Linger, as well as... those powers, he hadn't stopped training. Being a model and a blossoming actor normally would've cut into that time, but after switching to private tutors, he had plenty of time to train his mind and body.
Constantly honing his sub-Quirks and skills.
With each passing day, his long term goal of destroying Garaki and All For One seemed more and more feasible.
He was, unfortunately, spending less and less time with Izumi and Katsumi, but that was always inevitable. They might be fun to be around, but sitting in a classroom everyday with twenty hyperactive children, all with superpowers of their own... yeah, fuck that. Yoshiki was more than happy to just meet with a handful of tutors twice a week.
Since he had Hypercog, Yoshiki was downplaying his intelligence a lot, but he was still 3 years ahead minimum in every subject.
But most importantly...
"Shiki, are you ready to go? Should we stop somewhere to eat?"
[ Fumika Enokawa. Proud, Jealous, Aroused, slightly Ashamed. ]
Yoshiki gave his mother a onceover, licking his lips. He reveled in the way that Fumika flushed at his obvious interest in her, despite not daring to acknowledge it. Yoshiki knew that she desperately wanted to claim him, but she couldn't. Fumika just wasn't brave enough to cross that last boundary... but that didn't matter now.
He had waited years for this, years to take what was rightfully his. Something as trivial as societal norms weren't going to stop him.
Yoshiki dismantled Rapid Aging.
"I'm fine," Yoshiki smiled. "But I could probably use a bath."
***
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Yoshiki's Sub-Quirks:
New: Hypercog, Warp, Linger, Merge
Dismantled/Merged: Cost, Dismantle, Upgrade, Merge, Ideal Body, Healthy Body, Hyper Gains, Hyper Senses, Fast Recovery, Mutual Attraction, Near Perfect Memory, Body Talent, Hypercog, Rapid Aging
Revised: Revise, Divine Body, Divine Mind
Index: Blank, Notepad, Identify, X-ray Vision, Lightcraft, DNA Lock, Sincerity, LC_decoy, Archive, Alert, Observation, Warp, Linger, Revise, Divine Body, Divine Mind
Total: 16
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