"Sakura, Kyle. I hoped you wouldn't come…"
Immediately Akiko spoke, Sakura's mood instantly changed.
"How can you say such a thing?!" She screamed, letting out all her bottled emotions.
"You hid something like this from me? What were you planning to do, fight this alone?!"
The children who had been playing stopped to stare at her, then Akiko sighed and walked towards them, grabbing Sakura's arm and leading her away.
"Let's talk in another room…" she said, leaving the puzzled children behind.
Akiko led them to a small room inside the orphanage. There was a table at the center, and two couches opposite each other.
Akiko and Sakura sat on one side, while Kyle was sitting opposite them. And from the moment they entered the room, Sakura had been glaring at her friend.
Akiko was trying her best to seem unaffected, but after a few seconds, she caved and sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to worry you guys."
"You didn't want to worry us? What do you even mean by that?" Sakura's eyes glistened with tears as she spoke.
"D-do you know how hard it was… watching you faint?" She stuttered, leaning at the edge of her seat.
"Do you know how terrible I felt when the doctor said you were dying?!"
Kyle was silent by the side, letting everything play out. He knew Sakura and Akiko were close, but apparently he didn't know the extent of their relationship.
Akiko smiled sadly while nervously rubbing her fingers with her thumbs.
"I was going to find a cure before telling you about it… " She said in a low tone, her face downcast.
Sakura heaved a breath and ran a hand through her face, wiping away the tears that were threatening to break free.
For a few seconds, the room remained quiet, while both of them organised their thoughts.
Then Sakura broke the bubble. "So…" she said, her voice filled with hope. "Did you find what you were looking for? Did you find a cure?"
Akiko smiled, the curtains fluttered, allowing the sun to grace her face, the green cracks shining even brighter.
"I did…"
'She already found a cure?' Kyle mused.
From what the doctor had said, there was no known treatment for her condition.
How then was she able to find a solution, and why hadn't she used it?
Filled with hope, Sakura didn't even consider these facts.
Her face brightened up. "Then what are you waiting for?! We need to get you treated right away—"
Akiko slowly shook her head, her lips quivering as she stared at Sakura, eyes filled with tears.
"It doesn't change anything… I'll certainly die soon."
As the words left her lips, Sakura's expression fell, and she relaxed her back on the chair, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"It can't be…"
But before she could give herself to brief, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
Kyle had placed his hand on both of them to comfort them, then he sat on the table in front of the two girls.
Now that Sakura poured out her heart, it was time to find a solution.
"Tell me everything, right from the beginning."
Akiko nodded, wiping off her tears, then she began her story.
***
Akiko could not remember much of her childhood. But there were two things she remembered vividly.
The fact that she had been abandoned by her parents… and pain.
The type of pain that ate at your mind, one that you could never get used to.
Her quirk was catalysis, the ability to amplify the body's physiological activities, including significantly boosting quirks.
By all ramifications, her ability was more than enough to land her admission in any hero course.
But the drawbacks of the quirk was that it was constantly overworking her organs, even when inactive.
All her life, she had tried to rid herself of that crippling pain. She had gone to different hospitals seeking a cure for her condition, but the results always came back the same.
No quirk, no medicine, no medical procedure could cure her.
On the worse days she would be bed ridden, lying on the floor and rolling around in a vain attempt to sooth the pain.
There were days she would throw up so much that she felt like her throat would burst… and days she felt like the dead had it good.
At one point, she gave up. The orphanage was spending money they didn't have, and after countless attempts, she had come to accept her fate.
But when she turned seventeen, the orphanage went into debt, and as a result, the children, her brothers and sisters were to be divided across countless orphanages in the country.
Akiko's life was already a mess, and now, her family, the one thing that made the world worth living in would be taken as well.
To prevent this from happening, Akiko doubled her efforts at finding a cure. She found medication that made the pain a little more bearable, and found work at a cafe.
Since there was no hospital capable of curing her, Akiko went to research institutes, hoping there would be some experimental treatment available.
She allows herself to be experimented on by scientists who found her situation to be fascinating, and finally, she wound up in the hands of a small organisation barely known by the public.
An organisation that turned out to be a branch of the Hero Public Safety Comission…
At the mention of the Commission, Kyle's face hardened.
'Why are they always involved in everything?' He mused.
By now, it was already a given that whenever they were involved, problems always followed.
But Kyle made no comment, he simply paid attention as Akiko continued her story.
Unlike all the others, the commission had far more funding and their research was making headway.
The deal was that she would allow them to experiment on her to further their research, and as payment, when a cure was found, she would be the first to receive it.
So she suffered through the pain and procedures that she had to go through twice a week.
And eventually, the hpsc did come up with a cure.
But when it was time to fulfil their end of the bargain, the hpsc had another plan in mind—
"Akiko." Said a slender man in a spotless black suit. "What do you think about heroes?"
Akiko was 19 at the time, and had been invited to see the chairman. She sat in his office, still contemplating on his question.
"They keep our city safe, I'm grateful for their help."
The man laughed. "Good, good, that is the right way to think. But you see, peace is a fragile thing. It's like glass, even the slightest turbulence can shatter it."
The man turned to stare at her, his expression serious. "That is why we at the hero commission do what we can to support our heroes and maintain that peace."
Akiko still couldn't understand what he was getting at, so she listened carefully.
"Akiko, I want you to join us. We need people like you in the commission." He said bluntly, pushing a paper towards her.
Akiko took a moment to read through the document, and then she gasped and pushed it back.
She would be a ghost, presumed dead so that she could act in complete secrecy.
Akiko would be separated from the very people she was doing this for. But that was not what bothered her the most.
It was the rumours that went around the facility, whispers of the actual job the hpsc often carried out. Work drenched in blood.
And now, she was being invited to join such an organization?
She slowly shook her head.
"What if I say no?"
The man laughed. "You can't." He grabbed the paper and pushed it back to her. "If you do, who's going to cure you?"
Akiko's heart sank the moment she heard him. "But that wasn't the deal! You promised me—"
"This is just life, kid, in the end, those with leverage always win. I'm sorry I have to do this, but the world needs dirty scumbags like me to function."
He pulled out his drawer and handed her a pen, because he knew… Akiko had no choice.
But to his surprise, she stood up and left his office, choosing to leave everything behind.
She had accepted her fate that day, and now, the time had finally come to reap the results of her choices.
"Death has finally come for me." Akiko said, her voice low.
When she finished, Sakura was beyond stunned. She was just beginning to realise how corrupt the system holding their country together truly was.
Kyle on the other hand took a moment to think over her words. Not only had the heroes commission turned their backs on her after using her, they had even threatened her with her condition.
'How low can they get?'
Solvane, Lady Nagant, and now even Akiko had all been victims of their ideals. How many more were suffering in silence?
'What are they even experimenting for?'
Kyle's mind went back to the white lady's words.
"The world is far bigger than you think Vigilante…"
First, someone who was not under all for one was in possession of a high grade nomu with multiple quirks.
And now, he was discovering that the Commission had been running experiments on quirks using volunteers.
'What is their aim?'
Kyle breathed out a sigh and stood up.
"Give me a few days, Akiko, I'll see what I can do."
Akiko nodded and tried to smile, but she had long forgotten what it felt like to hope.
"Sakura, let's go."
Sakura got to her feet. "Where are we going?" She said in a low voice.
Kyle began walking towards the door. "To the hero public safety commission."
•••
A man was sitting in a large classic cafe, reading through a newspaper with his legs crossed.
"Damn it, I can't read this shitty language." He cursed as he tossed the newspaper to the table.
'At least this place is nice.'
The café was aesthetic to look at, and the best part of it was that they had pretty girls too.
"Sir, your coffee…" a girl with dark brown hair said as she placed the tray on the table.
"Ohh, thank you umm…" he read her name tag and smiled. "Xian…"
The girl nodded and turned to leave. Just as she walked away, the man's phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out, placing it against his ear.
"What?" He said bluntly.
"I need more." Came a gruff voice from the other side.
The man scoffed. "How many?"
"Fifteen more high quality specimen, and I need them by tonight."
The line went dead and the man frowned, putting his phone back in his pocket.
"Well, I guess my little vacation is now over."
..
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Long chapter today, hope you enjoyed it!
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