Chapter 68 - INTERLUDE 10: REACTION

IN A HOSPITAL IN TOKYO:

"Hum! hum! hum!"

A rather chubby old man of short stature, wearing a large white coat could be seen humming as he walked in the corridor.

As he walked, he was greeted by an old woman.

"Good morning sensei."

"Good morning Chie, how are the results?"

"Good, thanks to you."

"No, It's because you fought, for your survival that we got this result. Go take a rest."

Few meters later,

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for saving my brother."

"Oh oh oh, No need to thank me, I was just doing my job."

This kind of thing repeated until he finally reached his office. In front of the office, a nurse could be seen standing.

"Good morning, Doctor Shiga. Here is the list of the operations for this afternoon."

"Hum...I see. Prepare the materials. It seems like we will be busy tonight."

"Yes!"

The nurse bowed before going away. Shiga, now by himself, opened the door of his office, before closing it once he entered. On the door, the name Doctor Shiga Maruta could be seen written in bold.

(AN: So here, the thing. Recently MHA author had a problem with China because of the true name of the doctor "Maruta" He said that he would change it, but until he does so, I will still call him Maruta.)

---

Once Doctor Shiga entered his office, his usual kind and gentle expression was nowhere to be seen. He locked his door before going towards his desk and switched on his PC.

He carefully took a pair of headset before connecting it to his pc. Once he did, he entered a doc that was locked by 18 long letter code.

Once all those preparations were done, a synthetic voice sounded in his ears.

[...WELCOME…]

[...START OF THE FACIAL IDENTIFICATION…]

[...START OF THE VOCAL IDENTIFICATION…]

[...START OF THE…]

Such messages continued to appear. He was someone really careful. As such this system was heavily guarded and set to auto-destroy if even one mistake was made. Finally

[...IDENTIFICATION COMPLETED: ACCEPTED...]

[...WELCOME DOCTOR DOCTOR DARUMA UJIKO…]

Shiga Maruta, no Daruma Ujiko nodded as he heard this welcome. This was his usual ritual.

As a searcher for the truth, he had to work tirelessly every day, and every morning, he would connect to see if he didn't receive any instructions from his friend and master All For One.

He was about to verify his usual research when an icon suddenly caught his eye

[... WARNING WARNING. SUBJECT N° 3771 CODE NAME: ORIGINAL SIN INFILTRATED THE SECRET BASE WITHOUT SUPERVISION…]

[...PROCEDURE D'AUTO DESTRUCTION CODE NAME: REDLAW WAS ACTIVATED…]

[... AS OF NOW, THE LABORATORY N°20 AND N°20'' HAVE BEEN ERASED FROM THE MAP…]

"Oh…"

He was surprised. The secret base N°20 was one of his most developed ones. Sadly he had to abandon it when All Might discovered it.

But the N°20'' was a little different. It was one of his true research centers for the creation of Nomu. He would never give up on it since each N° " was really hard to create.

The protocol REDLAW was different. One measure of security he installed was the inability to enter the 20" without the blood of 3771.

After all who would have thought that the passcode was the blood of a research subject? Of course, as a scientist, he had to calculate all situations. If 3771 ever entered this center without supervision it would mean that he was compromised.

It would also mean that 3771 left their control. So killing him was the only way. Who would have thought that this measure would be activated so many years later?

Now he had a problem. Was 3771 dead? Hum… Most likely. Now, he had a rapport to make. Too bad, now that the initial and mid-phase of the project Nomu were complete, his value of the subject really plummeted to near zero. He wanted to let his master steal 3771 quirks before transforming him into a super Nomu.

He activated his voice call system

"Good morning master. I have a rapport to make."

----

Somewhere else,

A group of four people was seated in an office. Three men and one "young" woman. It was Gran Torino, All Might, Nighteye, and Millennia.

It was two days after the return of Kuroha. The reason why they did this reunion was of course in order to discuss about him.

"I would say that I told you so, but it would be too mean. Now, what will you do?"

Miliena opened her mouth as she let out a chuckle. They're watching the recording of Kuroha's interview.

Nighteye closed his eyes as he kept his hand crossed. He was struggling with a decision. Something that he had always postponed.

The others, even Gran Torino, stayed silent. Right now, the one with the highest seniority was Miliena. She had the most experience, and they always listened to her.

Miliena, the Millennium hero. No one knows exactly how old she is, but from the information they had, she was basically over a hundred years old. At the very least, Gran Torino personally confirmed having met her as a teenager.

After ruminating a little, he finally opened his mouth,

"Should I use my future quirk?"

"Sigh...It's this problem with you guys. You're so used to a world with quirk that you always rely on it."

She got up before walking toward the window.

"Let say that you use your quirk and see the future. Then what? If this doesn't please you you'll give up on him as you did with Toshinori?"

Right now, the funny and always smiling Milienia was nowhere to be seen. Nighteye got up with outrage

"I NEVER G…"

"Sit down."

His words got stuck in his throat. One look from her was enough to silence him. He slowly closed his mouth and sat down without arguing.

"*Sigh* so troublesome. Anyways, I have taken a liking to this young kid. So let me be clear. This kid is broken. So broken that the simple fact that he can learn to smile is a mystery. No amount of therapy or advice will ever make it change."

Finally, Gran Torino opened his mouth

"In that case what should we do?"

"Nothing."

She shrugged as he said this.

"Nothing?"

The other repeated like parrots. She said that he was broken but she said that they should do nothing.

"Yes, nothing. He is broken but he can hold down by himself. Trying to change him is the stupidest thing to do. Rather than acting without understanding the situation. We should help him when he really needs it. Because sooner or later he will"

"What do you mean?"

This time it was All Might who asked. He seriously couldn't understand her reasoning. No, he could understand it. But how could they not act now that he revealed such a powerful killing intent?

Miliena let out a sad smile.

"Kuroha is naive. He only saw two faces of this world. Darkness and Light. Never was he confronted with the grey side of this world. He wants to eradicate evil, but by doing so, he himself became evil. A necessary evil but still evil. This way of thinking hides an incredibly large hypocrisy."

"..."

"What's more, some evil hides an incredibly kind heart. In this world, there's more grey than white or black situations. Everything holds two sides. He will learn, he will doubt, he will cry and that's when you must play your roles as a father."

Nighteye stayed silent. He understood her reasoning. But he couldn't accept it completely. How many will die in his hand before he understands all that? Even though heroes have killing right, this right can only be used under very strict situations.

How could Miliena not understand this? As such she decided to help him a little.

"Let me be honest with you. If you try to control his killing urge, one day he will be unable to hold on. This day will be the days he stops being a radical hero and will directly become a murderer. Also, with such a way of thinking, I refuse to believe that during all those years he never killed anyone."

No one spoke. No one was an idiot, this kind of killing intent couldn't be born from just killing a few researchers eight years ago. It was the kind that was honed after killing many different kinds of people over a long period of time.

All Might feel ashamed of himself. The hero in him screamed to arrest Kuroha, while the uncle in him screamed to close his eyes and ears and act as if he saw nothing. He, of course, wasn't the only one in this situation. Gran Torino and Nighteye were the same.

"Before you guys do something stupid let me be clear. Firstly, All we have is speculation. As long as there's no proof of his crimes, then it means he did nothing. Secondly, confronting him about it would serve no purpose. [See no evil, know no evil]. As long as we don't know anything it also means that we aren't participating in a crime."

Nighteye struggled before closing his eyes and nodded. All Might and Gran Torino did the same. Milienia seeing this, continued,

"All this is just for the past. For the present and future. let's give him conditions. Until the end of his studies as UA, he will be forbidden from killing anyone who isn't a direct threat to his life. Three years should be enough to make it so that even if he becomes a killing hero, he doesn't become a maniac."

The atmosphere was silent and depressing, but they had no better solutions.

Milienia let out a sigh before leaving the room. This was the sorrow of being a parent. When your kid does something bad you can scold him and when he does something good you can praise him. But what if he commits something irreparable?

While you protect him or give up on him? There was no good solution. For heroes of their caliber, being able to bend their principles for Kuroha showed how much they loved him.

But this wasn't enough. A bad child needed to be scolded. Since Nighteye was unable to do it, she will be the one to do so.

"fufufu, this will be so fun. Little Kuroha, I hope you're ready."