บท 11: Perilous Recruitment? (I)
~~POV Narrator~~
Rikiya Yotsubashi, otherwise known as Re-Destro, the President and CEO of the Detrenat Company and the Grand Commander of the modern Meta Liberation Army stared at the lobby, feeling extremely proud. When he took over the army, it was nothing but a husk, but over the years, he rebuilt a real army.
"There he is" He heard someone matter from beside him.
"Yes" Rikiya nodded his head as his gaze focused on Itsuki Reo, now known as Adachi Reo, the owner of Quirk Escalation. Thanks to Akunji they managed to learn about this hidden gem almost three years ago. The kid was an absolute treasure and he completely agreed that it would have been a complete waste to leave him at the orphanage for someone else to pick him up.
"I want to meet him after the party" Rikiya expressed his desire to meet the boy before finally looking away. The boy wasn't old enough to join the army, but Rikiya wanted to plant their ideologies inside his head before he could be corrupted by the so-called Heroes and their system.
Thanks to constant reports from Mai and Ren, Rikiya knew that the boy wanted to be a Hero, but people change… He simply needed to let the kid learn the truth on his own and he was going to change too… After all, the kid was pretty smart and loved reading books according to Mai and Ren. Rikiya had the perfect book in his mind he could gift the boy.
Escalation was quite similar to his own Quirk Stress but the potential was completely different if Dr. Akunji was to be believed… Apparently, Dr. Akunji had never seen a Quirk like Escalation in his life. The Quirk was so deeply ingrained into his genes that it was impossible to separate the Quirk factor from his genes, which was simply unheard of.
Rikiya knew about the Awakening of Quirks… The right emotional catalyst could evolve a Quirk, especially during a life-or-death situation, but according to Dr. Akunji, the boy would never need to go through something like a Quirk Awakening simply because his Quirk was already a part of his very existence. Dr. Akunji believed that the boy would keep getting stronger as he continued to become older.
Dr. Akunji had been running tests on his blood for the last couple of years and his blood was just as amazing as the boy himself… With enough time, his blood could assimilate foreign Quirk factors, which was considered impossible until now. Thinking about all the miraculous possibilities they had tried to see how his blood would react if it came in contact with foreign blood.
The answer was very violently… Which meant it was impossible for them to synthesize anything from his blood. They wanted to see if they could use his blood to transplant more than one Quirks inside a person's body, but it was proven impossible when they realized that the person would not survive if the boy's blood was injected inside their body in any form.
Rikiya wanted him… He wanted the boy to become a part of the Meta Liberation Army. No… He needed the boy to become a part of the Meta Liberation Army. He couldn't have the boy to grow up and become a Hero… If Akunji was right then the boy was going to be a powerhouse, he couldn't let the boy join his enemies. He was going to either have him or ruin him…
Rikiya felt a pang of guilt well up in his chest, but he quickly shrugged off the feeling… It needed to be done. At first, he was going to pitch the idea, but if the boy didn't show any interest then… Rikiya simply shook his head and decided to walk away…
~~POV Reo~~
I felt like someone was watching me, but when I turned around, I didn't see anyone watching me… However, I refused to drop my guard. Now that I knew that I was in the den of Quirk supremacists, I refused to lower my guard even for a second. "You look riled up" A voice called out and I turned around to find a yellow-skinned girl staring at me with a haughty sneer on her face.
"Just what I needed" I grumbled as I turned around and decided to ignore her.
"Hey! Don't ignore me, you loner" The girl called out feeling outraged.
"You know I am a loner so why don't you buzz off?" I suggested, knowing that she was going to ignore my suggestion. She was annoying like that. I grabbed another jello and started to savor it.
"You should be glad that I am here to talk with you" The girl harrumphed, but once again, I simply ignored her. "I can't stand Yotsuba, you know. He is just so stupid. Agh!! He keeps getting on my nerves" The girl exclaimed and picked up a jello herself.
You are getting on my nerves too, do you see me complain? "Just ignore him like I ignore everyone and who is Yotsuba again?" I ended up asking since she was drawing attention. If Ren and Mai noticed me ignoring her then they were not going to be happy with my conduct and the girl was from a family of elites, so I didn't want to ruin a possible connection.
"He is the hulking one. You forget him every time" The girl glared at me.
"Oh…" I muttered as I finally located the kid she was talking about. "He looks bothersome" I admitted as I remembered the times I interacted with him. I opened my mouth to say something else, but I noticed Mai approaching us, so I turned around to look at her.
"Matsu-san, please excuse me, but can I have a moment with my son?" Mai asked while looking at the girl.
"Of course" The girl simply waved her hand.
"Thank you" Mai thanked the girl and beckoned me to follow her. Matsu might be as old as me right now, but she belonged to an elite family, so Mai needed to treat her respectfully. "Reo, how many times have I told you to treat Matsu respectfully? When are you going to learn?" Mai looked disappointed as she rubbed her head. I silently followed her without saying anything.
"I am sorry… I just don't like talking with people in general" I apologized. I know why she wanted me to treat the girl nicely, but it was hard for me to connect with anyone.
"I know" Mai sighed tiredly. "But you need to do what's necessary. In our society, sometimes you need to do something you hate with a smile on your face. That is just how the world works. You don't like talking with people, but then are you going to survive? You aren't planning to become a shut-in, are you?" Mai asked with a huff as she gave me a questioning look.
"We are going to talk about your conduct after we return home, but let's put that aside for now" Mai quickly waved her hand and looked straight into my eyes. "There is someone who wants to meet you and let me remind you, this person is not someone who you or we can afford to offend" Mai said with a grave look on her face. "You better not muck up an opportunity like this, Reo" Mai warned threateningly.
Now, I am finally starting to feel really uneasy… This is the first time I have seen her act like this. "Do not botch up anything or all of us will be ruined" Mai added before releasing a deep breath. "Reo, we adopted you. We may not have been good parents, but we gave you everything you asked for or needed. Just think about me and Ren before making a choice, alright? That is all I asked of you" Mai almost begged.
To be honest, I did not know how to feel… I was glad for everything they had done for me, but that did not mean that I was going to sell myself into slavery… From the conversation, I realized that probably the leader of the Meta Liberation Army wanted to meet me… Now that I think about it, my adoption might have been a plot all along…
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