25: Innocent Oyakodon.

Innocent Oyakodon.

Felix analyzed the young woman with more precision while his mind wandered simultaneously, imagining many different scenarios, from the simplest to the most obscure ones. He was prepared for any eventuality; he didn't go there like this with no plan or idea on what could happen to him. However, just like Mrs. Utsushimi, apart from her expressive eyes, one couldn't make any hasty conclusions about the girl's personality or what might be going on in her head. Aside from the fact that she used the same body language as her mother, there was nothing suspicious or unusual about her behavior, especially for someone her age. Moreover, her way of speaking disturbed him… He had only learned classical Japanese, not a slang version of it.

—I'll gonna have a stroke trying to understand her.

In any case, his presence didn't seem to bother her at all. Contrary to her previous statements, accepting a guest wasn't an issue, but Felix could sense that her concern was born from her father. Seems like he appreciated tranquility, something everyone has to experience once entering this residence. Before he could think about anything else, he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket... he never receives any message after 8 p.m, so it could be only one person...

Nobody told Felix what to do, but now he understood by himself that being courteous and silent, or at least discreet, would be the way to go to avoid provoking incongruous events that could jeopardize his cover and thus his investigation. The fact that he was invited here proved that at least Mrs. Utsushimi trusted him to some extent. You don't invite someone to your home if you are skeptical about the person, right? Or perhaps you wish to trap him, and in that case, it's also a great idea.

"Thanks again for inviting me; I hope I'm not bothering anyone."

"I don't think you will bother anyone, sweetheart. He also wanted to talk with you for some reason; that's also why I brought you with me.~"

"Really?" he asked by faking astonishment. "Why does a renowned surgeon find that interesting in me?"

"Well~ I don't know, dear, he doesn't talk a lot to me about these things. But I think he wants to recruit you or something like this."

"Recruiting me? He already knows about what I want to do with my life?" Felix inquired, knowing that Mrs. Utsushimi probably said just a little too much while taking off his shoes.

"I don't know about this~ Stop eyeing me like this. I think it's because he sees himself in you... or something like that, that's he willing to talk with you-"

"Hey! Just come in already." sighed her daughter with a frown. "It's like crazy fucking freezing outside; y'gonna cools down the whole house."

"Yeah, I already know this, Camie…" Mrs. Utsushimi growled with an amused smirk. "Next time we buy a house, I hope your father will think about buying one with better insulation than a prehistoric cave." After pushing Felix gently by the shoulder, they both took off their jackets while Camie looked at Felix with curiosity. "Am I witnessing a nightmare, or is Haruo still watching those dumb journalists talking about climate?"

"It was on the news, and y'know him, he loves drama. So he just waited for you while watching TV as I made dinner."

"He could make the meal once in a while..."

"No."

"Huh? Why not?" asked Mrs. Utsushimi by raising an eyebrow.

"I'm never grabbin' up a man's food again. Dad practically ended my life last time; I don't want to spend my day in the crapper again."

"You know, my dear daughter, you should have entered poetry school instead of choosing Shiketsu High School."

"Eh? No, my first choice was UA; you should know that, right? Unworthy mother." said Camie with a pout.

"...The fact that you can't understand the irony in the slightest is utterly concerning," replied Mrs. Utsushimi, glaring at her daughter before shifting her eyes to the living room after taking a few steps. "Haruo, I've brought someone we both wanted to meet."

A good evening and a rather cold welcome between them, Haruo, her husband, simply turned his head from the TV to her wife with a rather tired gaze.

"Oh?" he muttered by raising his eyebrow after seeing Felix behind her. "Welcome back, Victoria."

A slight smile, almost invisible, appeared on his face and disappeared as quickly as it came. The man didn't get up from the couch and just leaned over to the coffee table to crush the ashes of his cigarette in the ashtray. His right hand was worn and dry, with numerous scars, and his index and middle finger were yellowing from repeated nicotine use.

If Felix could be literally addictive, the addiction he created was a thousand times healthier and could be controlled... There, at the sight of Haruo's face, hand, and by the sound of his voice, the ex-convict understood quickly enough that Mr. Utsushimi's lungs must be blackened by coal, reducing his life expectancy, but more importantly-

—With that many cigarettes… Ugh… just the fucking smell of this house… Since they both smoke, it must have deprived them of a lot of money, which must be part of their financial issues. We could use this addiction to our advantage.

Besides that, the way they spoke to each other seemed almost professional, indifferent. Nothing alarming in a married couple, even more, if they're married over five years or even a decade, etc. If neither the man nor the woman takes care to keep the flame sparkling and routine sets in, the relationship loses its flavor pronto and becomes dull. But well, when you think of their possible routine, it's almost impossible to imagine that they would end up bored by their lives… If the accusations against them were true, then their lives of crime and betrayal of their own patients, assimilated with organ trafficking, would turn out to be... their own routines. Being accustomed to it could have made their relationship bland, like an office worker in a mid-life crisis and a housewife in need of love and unfulfilled sexual fantasy, but, well, that wasn't the same situation at all.

—Human beings can really get used to anything, huh…

Paying attention to their relationship's nature for a more extended period prevented Felix from focusing on the essentials and having a good time as a guest. Thinking about it later was way better, and so, discussing with Mt. Lady will be the priority from the next day. However, a thought remained in his mind, impossible to forget about it...

Was their daughter a part of this? Did she even know about it?

—Most likely not.

Her parents' situation reminded him of his own in the past, fooling around with everyone, maybe even trying to look dumb, hoping it would change something for the better to make people laugh. Felix noted that she wanted to be a heroine; Shiketsu was one of the best hero high schools in Japan, competing with UA itself… She was aiming to be a heroine, and her parents were probably both villains in some way... at least, the father for sure. He felt bad for her.

"So, Tremblay-san, what about we talk a bit between men while the women take care of the rest?"

"Dad, stop being a lazy fukin' ass!"

"The 'lazy fucking ass' in front of you give you enough money to compete with the maximum wage of a part-time student." He sighed while watching the ass of her wife, who opened the window to get rid of the cigarette smell that permeated the room. "Now you'll excuse me, Camie, but I need to have a chat with this young man."

"Riiight," she added with an annoyed tone. "It's like big bucks solve everything according to you."

"It is. Now just finish what you were doing; it should be done real soon, right?"

Camie glanced with narrowed eyes at her father before grunting and nodding. In fact, it's a family like any other; the father "suffocates" his daughter, the mother is annoyed by the father's behavior, the father is fed up with his situation... Nothing abnormal; it's almost disconcerting to make correlations with millions of other families. This type of stuff really does happen to everyone.

That said, it also proved that the weaknesses, or at least the places to look for clues, were already becoming more noticeable.

"What do you want to talk about, Utsushimi-san?" asked Felix after taking a seat next to the dull man.

"Fair question," Haruo said without noticing the uselessness of his statements while playing with a cigarette. "Guess I wanted to find someone to talk about things that women can't understand." He bemoaned with a tired expression toward the TV; journalists and hosts talked once again about climate and the people acting to warm up the Earth. He hesitated for quite some time but then started to speak. "What do you think about all this shit? I mean, the whole global warming and now global cooling that everyone talks about outside Japan, but nobody talks about on this big chunky island because everyone's obsessed with heroes... In America, it's different… 'cause one day, everyone talks about heroes and how the profession is attractive and well-paid, and the next day, they found new issues we all need to fix. It's like a never-ending roller-coaster of fuckin' trouble, just like a family. This is working me to bones, like… I need a cigarette."

Haruo's inquiry taken him aback; that was the most fucking random thing he could ask. And why can't women understand stuff like this? They were a big part of why all the problems of global warming were no longer an issue. He's either misogynist, either he's talking bullshit on a daily basis, either he's trying to test Felix. Three ideas, three solutions, three ways to answer...

It just felt like it wasn't the thing he wanted to talk about in the first place.

"You really are talking about this stupid stuff again, Haruo?" Victoria critiqued, a despairful sigh escaping from her mouth. "We already talked about this, just the three of us... You just want to hear what is good to your ears. And stop lighting this cigarette; we're gonna eat in a second."

"Never happy, never satisfied. Women in a nutshell."

"And you're the one saying that." Mrs. Utsuhimi taunted as she placed the dish Camie cooked on the table while rolling her eyes out of exasperation. "Just come here and eat, you stupid husband. Camie did her best to make your favorite meal; try to be nice with her for once."

"I can't be 'nice' with her if she's not even here."

"She just went to send a message to a friend. I hope you closed the door of your office; she could take a look at it," she explained by raising her eyes abruptly before calming down as quickly. "S-she's curious, and you know it."

"Don't worry, I'm not as absent-minded as you are," he replied with a silencing look as he turned back to Felix after sitting down at the table. "...Sorry, I mean, sorry about my wife cutting off our discussion. Do you have an answer for everything I said?"

"About global cooling and the fact that not everything needs to be centered about the hero world even in a society full of heroes?" Felix asked again, taking time to think about a response that would be good enough.

"Precisely."

"I think it's not only a problem occurring in Japan. Western culture is also corrupted by this "hero syndrome," but I think it's both a blessing in disguise and a curse in disguise. Without this, society wouldn't be as advanced… Even if technology didn't progress that much during the century, at least we now have real ideas to cure most diseases, how to solve global warming and cooling, etc.," he explained as he watched Camie come down the stairs to sit at dinner with them. "It may create new issues people need to think about, but quirks can solve this if given enough time, so…"

"Maybe if there weren't an ass-ton of activists in the past, the world would be warmer now," added Camie, trying to lighten up the mood. "But at the time, everything had to be cooled down for the world to be better... Our ancestors were kinda strange, not gonna lie."

Felix generally favored to keep quiet and listen to everything that was said, but here, Haruo was willingly trying to force him to talk, willingly trying making him feel discomfort; at first sight, it would look like some basic crackhead behavior, but he encountered too much warden with the same attitude to be fooled.

Maybe he was acting, but her wife also understood that he was assessing him, and this, with only one glance at her wife between their short interaction. Nonetheless, he let Camie continue talking and gathered his thoughts while eating the real good meal that she cooked.

Haruo's office, the way Victoria talked about it, the insane number of cigarette packs stocked inside the cardboard box stashed in a cubbyhole he could see through the half-open door showing a small part of its contents, how Haruo seemed to treat his wife and daughter and their relationship…

But some questions are still hanging: Where does the "festival" take place? How can they go unnoticed when doing what they do? What lies in this house about the underworld?

Maybe he could try something, but it was far too risky to try this today.

Felix sighed silently before thinking again about global cooling… Haruo was half-right. People don't really care anymore because the world got people working on this matter. Still, the disinterest expressed toward nature and politics since quirks became a thing was seen as annoying or disrespectful for some.

Although this was a test to see if Felix could remain calm for some reason, once this thought was born in his mind, forgetting about it was impossible. And so… he started to think about the weather... yeah...

For an early spring evening, the weather was once again abnormally cold. Speculations of conspiracy theorists—who weren't wrong—said that these climatic disturbances were due to the many heroes and shadowy figures who used their quirks against global warming. Whether it was a quirk that could change the atmospheric pressure, like the French twins, or the Greenlandic group of scientists, they controlled different characteristics that affect the temperature or weather, such as hectopascals, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, water control, ice control... It sounded absurd, but these scientists, heroes, and civilians forced to act by government order for the greater good succeeded and are still succeeding in gluing huge chunks of Arctic or Antarctic ice together, reforming glaciers, and maintaining a temperature sufficient to prevent the melting of the ice.

—All the issues of the last century aren't settled yet... But nature does things well; at least we could protect the Earth.0

The overall temperature of the globe had dropped by more than 8 degrees celsius in fifty years, 12 degrees in some parts of the world, reversing the situation of some countries near the equator to a completely different future, switching from a tropical or arid climate to a temperate climate. As a result, African nations entered the food, drug, and hero markets with intensity over time. Creating a new great world power far more dominant than America, Russia, Europe, or China could have imagined... and no major country or continent wanted a new competitor.

It also caused mass migrations of animals, and the disappearance of certain species and plants… Most of these things were already forgotten. People are only interested in the present and what awaits them in the future. Past mistakes are good to repeat as long as people gain something from them.

"About this global cooling thing, do you think that modifying humans genetically so that they can get multiple quirks, like fire and ice, or hectopascal manipulation and color manipulation could be a good idea? It would be like giving some people the opportunity to act according to what the Earth needs, heat or cold, more sunshine, more rain, and some parts of the world, all without requiring a ton of people. If enough people obtain this, then it would be possible. After all, if I remember well, there are studies of the doctor Daruma... Ojiko? I think... it's his name. Well, it says that it's possible and that he even performed it. Since you're working like your wife in the medical field, I was thinking that you would also know about his works." expanded Felix, hoping this little monologue wouldn't sound too suspicious.

But at least, he managed to say something witty to gain information about Haruo's doing. And the silence that arose after he spoke made it clear to everyone that Felix was hitting on something that interested and disturbed the dull man.

"These works are nothing but gibberish. Moreover, it has been proved that Daruma Ojiko didn't even exist."

"Are you sure about that? I mean… It's also proved that this person was someone with real medical and quirk knowledge, but he just didn't want to give his real name. To be honest, I find his works fascinating, but I don't think I would ever see one of his bioengineered humans he's talking about in his last public research."

"Well, you seem to have a real desire to research; I respect that," assured Haruo with a genuine smile. "But I don't think it's the best place to talk about it. The only thing I would say about this is that trying to imitate his work would be… great."

—Come on now… Talk more...

"Someone of your age knowing old works and research like this is a godsend, to be honest. It's not every day that we find youngsters with the will to be something else than a hero," he said while looking at his daughter with an irked look. "Right?"

"I guess so…" Felix answered as he looked back at Camie, who looked down, expressing something between sadness and frustration... Although Victoria wanted to intervene, she immediately stopped to avoid embarrassing Camie even more. There aren't many ways to lighten the mood in this case, but he needed to do this quickly and go out of here soon.

Why?

He was starting to feel something, but not something arousing or familiar. But to help him, someone was already there, waiting for him to go outside and take him to safety. He started feeling bad during the start of their discussion; at the time, it was too silent and discreet to be something to worry about, but now his body was literally fighting against it since his metabolism still managed to contain and repulse the effect of the product he swallowed, Felix didn't know what it was.

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

[Super-Hormones Modifier — R"µb/t.]

[Exceeding Body's Capacities: 113%.]

[Stored Hormones & Pheromones: 16%.]

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

He looked at his system to understand what was happening, and yes, that wasn't okay. Even when he got the flu, his body capacity didn't exceed 70%. To explain further, since his mom was the holder of the original hormonal manipulation quirk, she "boosted" him from a very young age. In other words, his mother used her abilities on a newborn Felix, then during his childhood and adolescence to allow him to grow as strong as others while teaching him the basics of his power. She explained to him in the past that the reason she was doing this was to allow him to keep up with other people who don't need to work to be powerful, fast, etc. Most quirks were visible or at least easily detectable and made their hosts stronger; she just wanted her son to be on an equal footing with people of his age. After all, it had taken her over 20 years to find out what her quirk was since it was invisible, and the results of it were also imperceptible. She didn't want her son to experience the same feeling of inferiority. What mother wouldn't do this to her kid?

And so, thanks to this, he got a metabolism 50% stronger than average and enhanced muscle and organs. So, what is alarming about this? Body Capacities at 100% meant true and violent aggression from the inside, not just some kind of indigestion or stomach ache. His body was releasing many hormones to keep him in check, and the percentage didn't cease to increase, 113, 119, 125%...

It was a kind of feeling or a sensation in his stomach that also seemed to go up to his brain; his more acute senses felt it just a little, but this was enough for him to know that he either got "poisoned" because of something in the food or this was one of their quirks acting on his metabolism and mind. Somebody with normal senses wouldn't even fill the effect; it was almost imperceptible even though his body was fighting against it. In other words, whatever was in his blood would have gone unnoticed for most people and affected anyone without these people even realizing it.

It probably wasn't Camie, but you're never sure of anything…

"Well, it's already almost 10 p.m, I gotta work tomorrow too, so I'll leave you all. Sorry to say goodbye like this, but I didn't see the time flow," Felix stated while looking at his watch. "Thanks for the meal and the chocolate mousse, Camie; it was delicious. If you are as good at being a heroine as you are at cooking, then you have nothing to worry about."

"No need to leave so soon. We have all the time we want, you know. The coffee will be ready soon." said Haruo by raising an eyebrow.

"Don't annoy him, dad," grumbled Camie as she cleared the table.

"Yeah, just go, Felix. You don't have to be there anymore. It was nice of you to accept coming here. Hope you enjoyed your stay," Victoria added with a serious yet hasty tone.

"If I'm not mistaken, my wife told you that we could pay a cab for you if you want to go," continued Haruo with a small rictus, giving absolutely no attention to his daughter and wife.

"No, thank you, that's kind of you, but no cabs, I send a message to someone I know so that you didn't have to pay for me."

Haruo glanced at the two other family members with a somehow bewildered expression before sighing and crossing his arms. Even if knowing why he wanted Felix to be here just a little longer, he now knew that this wasn't something to do. No one gets poisoned by mistake. Although he wanted to check out the office they had talked about earlier, the idea of going to the upstairs bathroom to peep into this office was no longer a good one. If it ever was a good one…

He shook hands with Haruo before doing the same with Victoria. He didn't send any hormones to avoid them detecting anything but took a small number of their hormones, hoping to analyze and understand their quirks… it was precious information. Still, with such a small amount, he didn't expect much.

—What kind of shitty jobs you have to do sometimes to earn just little extra bucks…

After saying goodbye to everyone and praising Camie once again on her cooking skill, he left accompanied by Haruo, who guided him into the garden. He tried to keep some distance from him until he reached the side of the garage. At that very moment, as the dull man was about to touch Felix's shoulder, he saw a blond woman dressed in a light down jacket and jeans in front of her phone, who looked up at them from across the street. Haruo stopped immediately and let his arm fall along his body before accompanying Felix to the young woman's car with a slightly more reserved attitude than before.

Luckily, Mt. Lady had made an effort to change her hairstyle and makeup to avoid being noticed. Against all expectations, her behavior was also completely different from usual, which surprised Felix, who had difficulty reacting accordingly at first.

"I thought you'd never get out of there; you told me you'd finish your day at 7 p.m, geez." she began with a pout and a shy look before pulling him by the neck and giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "I hope at least you have something good planned for him in the future and that you didn't just steal my boyfriend on my birthday for your own entertainment." she continued, addressing Haruo with an even more noticeable pout, which made her strangely cute when you know her actual temperament.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know about your birthday." the dull man apologized, raising his eyebrows. "But for valuing us over you... I can assure you it will be rewarded, and so, you will be too, so don't worry about it."

"Valued more than me?" she muttered as she turned back to Felix with a jealous, cutting look before punching him painlessly in the chest. "That sounds really bad! Do you prefer your job to me or what?! What am I missing to be to your liking?!"

"Honey... stop making a drama in front of someone you don't know..." the ex-convict added as he looked away.

"Hahaha! Sorry about that, Felix, and thanks. Good luck for the rest of the night." Haruo laughed sincerely before tapping Felix's shoulder with friendliness.

They continued their couple mess for a while until they got into the car and turned on the engine. Felix looked at the different places where Haruo had touched him but found nothing... Since he knew that his Victoria had talked to him about paying him a cab without him being there at the time, there was the possibility that he had hidden mini-microphones discreetly, but here, this was not the case.

Felix turned back to Mt. Lady, who was now wearing her natural expression, vanity.

"Nice acting skill, you almost make me fall in love." he grinned with a teasing tone as his metabolism gradually managed to contain the aggression... 147%.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"He said 'good luck for the rest of the night,' you know what it means, right?"

"Shut your stupid mouth... I don't gonna do that with you, plus we're on a mission." she sighed after missing a red traffic light. "Shit..."

"Your driving skills will never cease to amaze me."

"...I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Thanks for the risk you took, any new pieces of information after a week of research?"

"Yeah, to be honest, more than I would have imagined, like-"

"Not here; I'm already tired and not good at driving; if you talk about this to me, we might end up in a roadside gutter." Mt. Lady confessed. "You're lucky I looked at my phone before going to sleep, you crazy bastard… What was your goal by doing that completely alone?"

"Well, if you accompany me at my apartment fast enough, then I might have enough time to analyze their quirks, and we might hold the answer to why I have done that."

—————————————

A/N — Hi ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I'm here to collect ideas/opinions about something I've seen a lot during these last week. It concerns the topic of pregnancies in the story. I'm originally not against it or for it either, but I know many readers don't like it, and others absolutely want to see it. I wanted to get your thoughts on the matter. I won't be choosing for a while, so don't worry.

pqdm.com