Paradosi
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The Abyss (chapter 12)
🕑 Added 2024-10-22 17:29:57 +0000 UTCNobuto could admit that going to his sister’s Hero Agency first had been a mistake. All it did was get him heckled by her boy toys, each of them so smug about it, too.
He was feeling petty enough to leave all four of them seeing creepy, crawling things for the next few hours.
Arriving at her apartment next, he found the door unlocked and Nemuri bundled up in a blanket as she watched some brain rot. At least she didn’t have a giant tub of ice cream in her hands.
He could feel her relief when she saw him, but mixed around in a cocktail of guilt, anger, and other not so pleasant emotions. At least it gave him an idea of what to start with as he plopped down on the other side of the couch.
“If it makes you feel any better, I got a good taste of humble pie today,” he started.
Inwardly, he was much more annoyed. He had been so preoccupied crafting a believable lie, as well as everything else on his mind at the time, that he never considered all its ramifications. Now he was stuck trying to justify something he would never have actually gone through with. That was the problem with lies. He had hesitated to even let the empty-eyed Kai Chisaki touch him, after all, and even a good lie can come back to haunt you.
Nemuri looked him over until she saw the mark on his neck. It wasn’t quite a scar as it hadn’t healed, but his poor control over the Quirk certainly hadn’t left unblemished skin.
“I don’t blame you, Sis,” he continued quickly, feeling her guilt grow. “Hawks was really nice about it. We even shared a sandwich after.”
Though maybe seeming unbothered wasn’t the best way to go about it either, seeing as her eyes had narrowed. He was off his game today.
“What did they say?” his sister asked instead.
“They’ll be babysitting me now. At least until they think I’m ready for my own Hero Agency.”
There was a flash of hurt there before she quickly buried it. “At least the boys will quit their whining about you,” she muttered under her breath. Her electric blue eyes even seemed duller today. “A Hero Agency’s a lot of responsibility, Nobuto.”
He looked at her doubtfully, but instead of accusing her of dumping all the actual work on her sidekicks, he would be a good brother.
“Let’s go to the park and watch the stars like we used to,” he told her. “When’s the last time we did that? It was back home, I think, before I followed you to U.A.”
She grew nostalgic at that, but there was still something very bitter there. He gave her hand a tug to try and pull her out of it.
“Come on. You can ask me anything and I’ll answer honestly.”
Nemuri held his stare for a few moments. “I’ll hold you to that. Let me put on a sweater.”
He was tempted to ask why her slippers looked like mops, but she got rid of them for something more appropriate before they left for the park.
The sun had long since set when they arrived, but between his suit and trench coat, he barely felt the chill as he took off his sunglasses and laid down on the grassy field. Though while he stared out at the dark abyss above, his sister had decided to sit and stare at him instead.
“I know I’m easy on the eyes, but I meant the actual stars in the sky,” he teased.
She tugged at the grass with some annoyance. “I'm as angry at myself as you, Nobuto. Maybe more. They threw the book at me, and I deserved it. These past few months it’s like something’s possessed you, and what did I do but enable you every step of the way? This was just the latest, and the worst.”
He glanced at her, but the words were stuck in his throat. Anything he could say would just be another lie.
“I need you to tell me why,” she continued. “When you arrived at U.A., all you wanted to do was make friends and try to impress me. You succeeded on both counts, baby brother. I know I’d gotten on everyone’s nerves with how much I talked you up.”
Maybe that’s why Aizawa kept glaring at him.
“What changed that you started keeping secrets from all of us?”
He glanced at her again, finding her earnest. How was he supposed to tell her that he’d been keeping secrets ever since he started to understand how his Quirk worked? That the only reason she hadn’t noticed was because that same Quirk had rewritten him into maybe one of the world’s greatest liars?
Even now she still looked at him with so much love that he would sooner throw himself off a cliff than risk its loss. But he had to say something.
“We’re all fighting for something, right?” he asked rhetorically, looking back up at the stars. “I want us to look at the stars again, Nemuri. All of us. Almost two hundred years later and we still haven’t figured out what to do about Quirks.”
“I’m not sure what that has to do with you keeping us in the dark, but I’ll bite,” his sister commented with a sigh. “The Dark Age of Quirks is behind us, isn’t it?”
He snorted. “It’s in the name, isn’t it? A dark age that’s behind us. Except now we know it was all a lie. The League of Villains and the Nomu, All For One, All Might’s retirement, and that’s just in Japan. The world’s been hanging on a knife’s edge, civilization kept going through brute force.”
“Even before Quirks, that was how the peace was kept,” Nemuri told him softly. “But I see what you’re hinting at. Those encounters have only grown more violent with Quirks.”
“Two men fought in Kamino Ward, and what was left of it? The death toll was climbing for a week until they finally called it.” He hated to be a stick in the mud, but there was a method to his madness. “As Quirks proliferate through the population, it’s only going to get worse. In a few short generations, those with Quirks went from a small minority to the majority, the Quirkless only a fifth of the population now.”
“The Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory,” his sister helpfully summarized. “It’s an old idea.”
“One that’s now staring us in the face. People are going to have kids, and their Quirks will combine and fuse into new Quirks. It’s not a guarantee that those Quirks will be more dangerous, sure, but that’s been the trend. We’re not the worst example ourselves. Mom can change the way she smells, and Dad can kind of make people feel things.”
He was a picture-perfect example, if anything.
“I’m still not seeing how it all fits together, Nobuto. I’ll grant you that you have been a great help with Yuga Aoyama and even discovering All For One’s location, and that’s what kept you from an immediate suspension following your very ill-advised idea to go yourself, along with seven other students who didn’t even have their provisional licenses.”
He was getting to that, but his sister had the patience of a squirrel on fire.
“And if you had shown them the hard drive, they might have let you just get away with one strike,” she kept going. “Instead you decided the best way to go about it was to get close to a lunatic like Overhaul, and then let him touch you? Of all your hare-brained ideas, that was the worst. By far!”
Nemuri understandably had a lot to get off her chest.
“I will admit that some of it was spur of the moment,” he started, weathering the small stick she threw at him, “but I did think some things through as well. If I’d just handed the hard drive over to the Safety Commission, they would have just thrown it into some old room to collect dust. I had no intention of letting Chisaki lay a finger on me, or defending him from Shigaraki when he came knocking. It just worked out that way.”
Even now the lies flowed like water.
“I should have listened to Uwabami,” Nemuri complained instead. “She told me I was spoiling you, but it’s worse than that. You can’t accept that you can’t control everything, Nobuto, else you would have thought about exactly why you shouldn’t have acted on your own. I would have happily stuck my neck out for you if you had come to me, because screw them.”
“I didn’t want you to get into trouble on my behalf…” he defended.
“And how did that work out? Twenty-seven different fines, Nobuto! If Chiaki didn’t run a tight ship or if Matsu hadn’t prepared for something like this happening, it would have been a lot worse.”
Hearing her praise them tweaked that petty part of him, and he tried not to pout. How she even convinced an accountant and a lawyer to sign up as her sidekicks, he still didn’t know. He assumed it was just a kink of theirs.
He decided against offering her his proceeds from the Court of Heroes miniseries, as that would almost certainly make things worse. He knew she didn’t care about the money.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” And he meant it.
He wasn’t so far gone as to believe that the ends always justified the means. That’s the same thinking that led the bureaucrats to give All For One everything he wanted for peace, and it was the same kind of thinking the Safety Commission operated on today.
Nemuri sighed. “Where were you even going with that earlier? You don’t agree with Overhaul, do you?”
“Robbing everyone of their Quirks? No, even if I put aside what he’d done and that he still wanted to lord over what was left, people would have fought him tooth and nail.”
She nodded, pulling at her mane of hair. “Our Quirks are so rooted in who we are that doing so would not only be grossly immoral but would only lead to another collapse, just as it had when people had tried to wipe out Quirks a hundred years past.”
“That doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do about it.” He turned back to watch the stars. “The answer’s been right in front of our eyes the whole time, Sis. If Quirks will continue to evolve until they reach critical mass and bring about the end of civilization, then we need to expand our horizons. All the stars in the universe are a lot harder to destroy than a country or even this speck of dust we call home.”
His Quirk stirred as his blood ran hot, but he was practiced at raining on his own parade.
“None of that will come to pass if things remain as they are, or worse, if All For One or his manchild of a protégé get what they want. The hard drive could have revealed his plans to us. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of the Nomu at any rate.”
He heard his sister’s approach, feeling her take his hand. He didn’t complain that her hands were cold.
“You know I’ll always support your dreams, baby brother. But not like this. I don’t want to be kept in the dark and your friends don’t either. If something were to happen to you, then all your dreams would go with you. You see that, don’t you?”
“I know. It isn’t just for the hard drive that I took the risk, Nemuri. I…” Why did he never tell her about what happened in Kamino Ward? He had told Nejire, and maybe that was why his actions had been easier for her to swallow. “My escape from Kamino Ward wasn’t as easy as I made it out to be. I almost died.”
He didn’t dare look at her, but with how he winced at her crushing his hand, he could guess how she felt about that.
“No more secrets,” she told him tightly. “Promise me.”
For a single moment, he was tempted to tell her everything. About his Quirk. About what he’d done. The words just wouldn’t come.
“I promise,” he lied instead. And he hated himself for it.
“I’ll hold you to that,” she told him seriously.
Snuggling up into his side after, she was finally watching the stars with him. Though she still kept his hand in a vice, maybe afraid he would vanish into thin air if she let him go.
“Me and you will visit Dr. Airi for a chat or two as well.”
He snorted. “I don’t think she’d find it near as fun with my Quirk. And I’m—”
“Don’t you dare. You are not fine,” she interrupted callously. “I have some ideas as to how to rectify the problem, but I want to run it by her as well. She’s the professional.”
He didn’t see a way out of it so he simply nodded.
“And no using this as an excuse to bow out of the miniseries either,” she continued. “We’re filming the first three episodes next month, as you well know.”
He sighed dramatically. “I wasn’t planning to. But if we’re being honest tonight, why push so hard to get me out into the public eye? Let alone going through the trouble of getting Mirko and Ryukyu to participate. And should I even ask about Mt. Lady? You two hate—”
She cruelly hushed him. “You shouldn’t stick your nose in those kinds of things, Nobuto. It’s not like I kept it a secret either. I wanted to show everyone how handsome my baby brother is.”
Nobuto looked at her doubtfully.
There was a sly smile on her lips now. “Well, maybe there’s another reason, now that I think about it.”
“I don’t know if I should ask,” he admitted.
“You don’t have to, because I’ll tell you! I think the reason you keep finding yourself in trouble is because you have too much time on your hands. While your friends have been busy with their Hero Work-Studies, you took advantage of my generosity to stick your nose into every fire and wonder why all you smell is smoke!”
“Before you get ahead of yourself, didn’t I mention that the Safety Commission—”
“I don’t care what those grumps do,” she viciously interrupted for a third time. “They’re worse than Aizawa.” A moment or two passed before she sighed. “For all your cleverness, Nobuto, you still don’t value the court of public opinion as you should.”
“I know it matters,” he argued. “We’re crime-fighters and propagandists all in one.”
“It’s more than that. The higher your star rises, the more leeway you’ll have in dealing with the Safety Commission. All Might had as much charisma as strength, and because of it the suits were relegated to just a bunch of nodding heads around him.”
The thought wasn’t unappealing, admittedly.
“And why do you think they let me get away with as much as they do, hm? Despite everything that’s happened, Japan is still a democracy.” A smile slipped back on her lips as she spoke. “Those prudes might hate it, but I have enough fans to give them a headache if I so wished.”
“I don’t know if that level of naked corruption is something to brag about, Sis.”
“You get used to it,” she told him, happily using his arm as a pillow. “I’ll still have to have a chat with Hado, however. You shouldn’t even have the energy to do these foolish things with stamina like hers. She’s clearly slacking in her duties.”
“Please don’t,” he pleaded. “You’ll only encourage her, and I’ll need all the free time I can get to figure out this Quirk. It’s a nightmare.” Maybe he was being overly dramatic and exaggerating, but it wasn’t a lie. The only upside was he didn’t have to worry about it doing something he didn’t want it to, like another Quirk he could name.
“You’ll find time,” she said instead. “Just like you found time to worry me half to death.”
He knew how to pick his battles, and this wasn’t one he could win.
It wasn’t one he wanted to fight either. He could still feel the hurt from her, and until things were back to normal, well, he would just have to make do.
“Fine,” he finally grumped.
At least she hadn’t insisted on dragging him back home by his ear. If Nemuri was this angry with him, his mother was just as like to beat him with a broom until his spirit passed on, only to find someone to bring his ghost back to try and do it again.
There was something deeply disturbing about the women in his family, and it’s why it never surprised him that his sister was a spinster. And no, his father didn’t count.
There wasn’t a soul more deeply devoted to the art of masochism than him.
Interlude: Of Mice and Men
Nezu poured himself a nice helping of steaming peppermint tea, staring over at the tired figure opposite him. “Should I pour you some as well, Eraser?”
“Fine,” he gruffed.
It wasn’t often a human had earned his trust, and yet he trusted the Pro Hero in front of him implicitly. As such, allowances could be made for how grumpy the dark-haired man often was.
Finished pouring, he took a seat and took a quiet sip of tea, the mint burning his nose maybe not pleasantly, but it kept him alert despite the late hour. “Do you have any thoughts on what’s happened? He was your student, after all.”
“He always had a bad habit of sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, just maybe not to this extent.” Taking a sip of tea himself, the dark-haired man sighed. “I couldn’t tell you what he was thinking. This was reckless even for him. It might even be a step too far for her.”
“Oh, I can assure you that Midnight’s less than pleased with him. Just maybe not for the right reasons.” He took another sip of the peppermint tea, the burn smoother this time. “They still went ahead and tested him. Of course, they ended up figuring out what I have been telling them these past few days. You humans are a stubborn sort.”
“You never did say why you were so sure,” Eraser commented. “Or why exactly you were so insistent about protecting him despite the level of disregard he’s shown us all.”
“He’s still a student here. If he stumbles, we have to be there to help him up.” Nezu glanced away at the clock for a moment thoughtfully. “As for why, I suppose that’s a result of him not exactly telling the truth. Even were Overhaul a commensurate actor, it still would have been a very peculiar thing to say.”
The tired man looked at him skeptically. “You’ll have to be specific.”
“Why, the whole story has a small flaw in it that puts it to doubt. If he could indeed trick Overhaul to hand over his Quirk Factor on the spot, then why did he wait at all? He could have gotten what he wanted long before the League of Villains had shown up.” He set the tea down on the table for a moment, bringing his paws together. “And that he said that it was a spur of the moment decision? I think we both know him well enough to say how deliberate he is.”
“That seems exactly like something he would do.”
Nezu shrugged his shoulders like a human. “I could be mistaken, of course, but I believe Algernon is very meticulous in how he approaches even his lies. I don’t believe he would have intended to wait until they were alone unless there was a reason for it.”
Eraser’s eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting that he went into it intending to take Overhaul’s Quirk?”
“It’s much too early to say something like that. All I could tell for certain was that their fears were unfounded. Overhaul would have had no reason to mention a detail like that, while Algernon would have more than one.”
A tired sigh went out as Eraser leaned back, tugging at the binding cloth around his neck to reveal more of his long hair. “I’m worried you might be overthinking things, and it wouldn’t be the first time. The younger Kayama is many things, but a nefarious mastermind he is not.”
What nefarious mastermind would want people to believe he was one, Nezu thought to himself humorously.
“And besides, weren’t you thinking of hiring him on as a counselor?” the dark-haired man continued with some exasperation.
“I still am,” he replied cheerfully, “though I don’t believe they will allow him something they will see as frivolous. His new Quirk is so useful that they will have completely forgotten about the Quirk he was born with.”
“Having seen it in action myself, I’ll agree with that much.”
He could have sighed. Even someone like Eraser Head couldn’t rightly see how dangerous the mind was, even without a Quirk which resided entirely in that domain. Humans relied on their eyes too much to see it as easily as he did.
“Recovery Girl has been in a better mood,” Nezu commented. “Understandably so. Quirks like hers are very rare indeed, so she had been so worried that she would have left us all in dire straits when her time was up.”
“I would be happy too if I could hand over my job to someone else,” the dark-haired man snarked. “Unfortunately, my only replacement is a tortured little girl that can just as much erase someone out of existence as erase their Quirks.”
“Have you approached Neito Monoma yet? He might not be a permanent replacement, but I don’t see why he couldn’t copy your Quirk.”
“Vlad had mentioned that he’s something of a character,” Eraser replied hesitantly. “It would be best to wait until he’s had some time to mature, I think.”
“Not because another student has taken your attention?” he wondered pointedly.
The man made another exasperated sound. “Maybe you’re right about Kayama. You and he both share the same bad habit, after all.”
“That bad habit has served me well, just as it has served him well. Whatever his intentions, I don’t think we have too much reason to worry, seeing as his attention’s been aimed squarely at villains. I only wanted you to be aware.”
“And just what am I supposed to do with that? You haven’t even bothered interrogating him.”
“I wouldn’t want to confront myself either,” Nezu commented happily. “It would just ensure that I would never make the same mistake again.” Retrieving his cup of tea off the table, he finished the rest of it quickly now that it had cooled.
“I’ll just pretend you know what you’re doing,” Eraser muttered. “It’s saved me more than a few headaches.”
“At least we have this year’s school festival to look forward to next month,” he said as he bopped his paws together again. “It’s always such a treat to see what show the students will put on this year.”
“You’re still going to go ahead with it? I know there have been calls to cancel it with everything that’s happened.”
“That’s precisely why we cannot. It’s in these times that we need something to remind us that things are not always as bleak as they seem.” And if it also happened to be a good excuse to indulge in all kinds of sugary delights for a few days, then who could blame him.
“I’ll break the news to them tomorrow. They know better than to embarrass me, at least.”
“I’ll be looking forward to Class 1-A’s performance!” he called at Eraser’s back as the grouchy man departed his office.
Nezu knew he would keep an eye on Algernon as well, in his own way. It was such a clever name as well, Algernon. It’s just a shame that he still carried a grudge, making ferreting out if he was right about the name a tricky task indeed.
Maybe he could bribe Midnight to find out. It would be a fun distraction if nothing else.
Comments
Paradosi
While Nezu could empathize with feeling helpless (given his lab rat past) and so understand him taking such steps for power, he would probably frown at the sheer recklessness. After all, Nobuto had no way to know the whole FUSION HA thing would work out like it did.
Kind
What's Nezu ethical/moral framework like? That is, how world he view Algernon's true actions.
