"Getting rejected from interviews?! Life feels dull?! No luck romantically?! For only one dollar, yes, One Dollar, know why it is so!!!"
On the side of one of Tokyo's busiest streets, a beggar was shouting at the crowd.
There was a small, torn cloth on the ground in front of him, holding a deck of Tarot Cards, with a few cards lying out open in two rows.
A raven was perched next to the Tarot Cards as well.
More often than not, it was the raven that attracted the people's eyes rather than the beggar's stinging words.
"… Excuse me…" a young girl asked, seeming shy, "… can I…"
"Oh, yes!" the beggar shouted in thrill, nudging the raven. "What does the young miss want to know today?"
"I want to know…" The girl looked around. "… I want to know if my boyfriend is cheating on me…"
As the beggar held out his hand, she took out a coin and handed it over to him.
Nyx opened her eyes, her pupils dilating. "Do you have anything that belongs to the rascal?"
The girl gasped. It speaks?! … Rascal?!
She hurriedly nodded and took out a bracelet from her purse.
The moment Nyx laid her eyes on the bracelet, her eyes squinted. It looked shiny, but it was a counterfeit. She had stolen… borrowed enough jewelry to tell real from fake in two lives.
Dream Divination should do the trick, Nyx thought.
Unlike Luke, who dared not attempt Dream Divination anymore because of Conformity and Singularity, Nyx had found no such risks while using her Seer's abilities.
Holding the bracelet with her claws, Nyx repeated a question several times in her mind, letting her spirituality guide her to the dreams.
Images began taking shape as she traced the bracelet back to the owner.
After a while, she opened her eyes, spat on the bracelet. "He is cheating… with your sister."
"NO…" The girl stumbled back. "… How can…" Fuming, with blurry eyes, the girl ran away, not even taking the bracelet with her.
"Alright." Nyx kicked the bracelet away. "It's enough for today. Time to go to heaven…"
"No...." The beggar cried. "Your Highness, are you sick?!"
"Sick your mother!" Nyx spat. "Mongrel…"
Then, slapping the back of the beggar's head, she took off.
…
Midoriya ran on the beach, the sun setting behind the waves on the horizon.
For the last few weeks, he had been training himself to use Full Cowling better, letting his body get used to it.
Despite gaining an initial mastery over One For All, Midoriya felt like he wasn't improving as fast as he should be.
It was especially so after what happened during the Summer Internship.
The more he thought about it, the more Midoriya felt like he was just at the bottom, with the real players hanging around at the top, remaining out of his reach.
If he didn't get stronger soon, he wouldn't be able to even see them.
I wonder how much everyone has improved during the Summer Break, Midoriya thought. They all must be training hard, too.
The good thing was that he wouldn't need to wait long to get the answer.
School was going to start tomorrow, with new lessons and new challenges.
Suddenly, a cawing sound dropped from the sky. Midoriya looked up. It was Nyx.
Midoriya hadn't met Luke since the Summer Internship. But Nyx had kept visiting him now and then, saying she found him handsome.
Nyx landed on Midoriya's shoulder and yawned. "I am sleepy. Don't wake me up."
Then, closing her eyes, she fell asleep.
Midoriya's lips twitched. He had a vague idea that all the talk of her finding her handsome was just a ruse to avoid training with Luke and fall asleep.
To his relief, Nyx was strong enough not to get blown away when he…
Red colored veins slithered on Midoriya's body, shining with stars within them, as he activated One For All.
His toes dug deeper into the sand. With a gentle push, Midoriya shot forward, kicking the sand with as much power as he could.
Luke… Todoroki… Bakugo… Midoriya blurred across the beach, thinking of everyone. I hope you're all giving it your all. Because if you are not, I will not wait for you to catch up.
…
Luke smiled as Dr. Donald drew blood from his arm.
The bald, old man handed over the syringe to a nurse and put his hand on Luke's shoulder.
"You should visit often," he told Luke, smiling. "Everyone here misses you… I know it sounds selfish, but we were gathered by your father to keep you safe. You must understand how we felt, learning that a Villain kidnapped you."
Luke stared at Donald's hand, still smiling, rage boiling under the Clown's mask.
[He is planting a mental cue inside you, Luke. Don't worry. I will take care of it.]
"I will make sure it doesn't happen again, Donald," Luke said, knowing Miss Justice's utterly ridiculous powers when it came to such things. "Also. I think, yes. Why not? I will visit more often, I guess."
Dr. Donald beamed, seeing Luke agreeing to him.
Luke had better things to do than deal with this man right now. There was a reason he wanted to visit the Blue Site in the coming months, at least.
To Luke's dismay, things had taken an unpredictable turn.
"I am very curious about the specimen, though," Luke said, using Swindler's abilities to redirect Donald's thoughts. "Can I see it?"
"… Of course," Dr. Donald said. "I meant to show it to you, anyway. Follow me."
Luke followed the Chief Scientist, putting on his clothes. Through the Blue Site's hallways, down an elevator that took them deeper, they reached a massive laboratory.
There, bolted to a huge table, was the Nomu.
The same Nomu that All Might had sent flying before it was taken away by the police, throwing it into Tartarus.
In his previous life, because of their priority in keeping Luke hidden from outside, the Blue Site hadn't begun researching the Nomus until a few years after the Final War.
"What are you planning on doing with it?" Luke asked.
"… It's opposite you, you know," Dr. Donald said. "There's someone out there… who can bestow Quirks upon people… Your father is very interested. Both in the man behind Nomu and… Dr. Blessed."
Luke's brows rose. "Dr. Blessed?"
"Yes, in this, I and Reijirou agree," Dr. Donald said, smiling. "The world will be a better place if these two men… don't exist."
*******************
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