35: Freedom Comes at a Price.

Freedom Comes at a Price.

Felix felt needles going under his skin, extracting the microchip he still has in his hand since the last time. The small device used to remove the object looked like a nail gun and acted much the same, but with needles capable of gripping a tiny thing. Felix wondered if the girl he had met at the store a month ago would be able to do an even more thorough job than this object. It could be helpful for many things, and not only in the field of medicine, since his eyes could zoom in on something up to the microscope scale, or even more if he made sure to "awaken" her quirk.

She had given him her business card so that he could contact her again, but it was impossible to find this card since... since when exactly? The last time he saw it was the day before he had to infiltrate the festival; he had dropped it while passing by, most probably... He would have to go back to the same store, hoping to run into her again, but he didn't really know who he would run into this time.

He had put it on the shoe cabinet just to the right of the entrance of his apartment to be sure to find it. Ideas for creations had gone through his head, prototypes that he could work on with her, and since he had enough money now, he could pay her without worrying about being in debt. Money needs to be spent after all, but without the card, he was buttfucked.

—Mei… but Mei what?

"Hey, the chip is removed; as my boss said, you're free now, not tied anymore to the HPSC.," sighed the chameleon man, the first person he saw in Japan apart from a photographer he will probably never see again.

"Oh, chameleon-dude… I was lost in thought, my bad."

"I'm not a chameleon, but more of a toad."

"...Of course, I knew, I was joking."

"Yeah, right." smiled the man with a laugh.

"By the way, what's your name, pal? You know me since the beginning, but I don't know anything about you still today."

"Well, I'm a double-agent, so yeah, but I guess since I will stop soon enough, I can say that to you," he admitted by scratching his head. "Ganma Asui. It's my full name, nothing fancy."

"Why do you want to stop? These clowns pay you well, and you have an office job at the same time… It's a lovely life for a man who likes to live dangerously. Just the type of guy you are."

"Maybe, yeah, haha! From what you've heard of me when we were drinking at the pub, it might be true, but I have three kids, and my firstborn will be attending high school next academic year," Ganma explained with a tired face. "I've done enough for this country without asking for any recognition. But, well… the young half-cane-toad I was is no more; I prefer to retire and live a quiet and happy life with my family."

The ex-con looked at his way older buddy with a somehow bewildered expression; Felix didn't know what Ganma did back in the day since he was under professional secrecy, but most of the time, state double-agent make their men go into other countries to spies the doings of other government and the potential threat they could bring if nothing is done to stop them. Ganma probably had to "create" a new family somewhere else when he was in his twenties, before coming back to Japan… Or at least, to pass under the radar, he did a lot of things to appear as normal as he could be. That would also explain why his English is crystal clear, fluent, and devoid of any accent, unlike 99.9% of Japanese people.

"Ganma, were you in Canada before?" inquired Felix while looking at the drop of blood from where the microchip was implanted.

"...Since when do you know this?"

"I was doubtful since you brought Mirko and me to the Hero Commission's HQ to meet O'Clock and Nighteye," Felix explained in a low voice. "Since all the jailers were masked, I could never see you, but you drove that car the exact same way as the guy who drove the prison bus that brought me in and out of my prison, even though the two vehicles aren't driven in the same way at all." he continued before looking at Ganma straight in the eye. "I had a hard time remembering whose pheromones I was smelling when I was in Tartarus just after the photographer left the room, but I immediately knew that someone I already met was here in the cell, even if you were invisible, I could sense your presence and even approximately know where you were in the cell. Since you're half-animal, your body produces much more pheromone, which, like you already know, I can detect and manipulate. So after working on my multi-processing thinking, I finally managed to remember that you were the one who got me out of jail."

"...I'm sorry. That's my fault if they were using you…" he sighed with a saddened expression, feeling the guilt of his choice. "I was sick and tired of all this; I just wanted to go home after all those years… So I chose the one person with the better quirk and who was quite young… Hoping to come back to Japan before the Canadian authorities grasped who I was… I wasn't in a cell, but I was a convict like you… and freedom comes at a price, a price I was ready to take from anyone."

"You know, I should thank you. Now I'm free even of these vultures in suits and ties."

"Even if you say that, if someone had done that to my son, I would have flipped out…"

"We gucci. If I got mad every time someone does something selfish for their own good, I'd never stop being mad. I do the same, so it's not like I can't understand what it is to be selfish. I'm not an edgy kid wanting revenge for every misdeed people have done to me, although some of them highly deserve it." Felix paused, thinking about these special people, before getting up to reach the office door in front of which Ganma was now standing. "Don't worry about my parents, one of them is probably drinking beer at the pub thinking only about the next football match, and the other is most probably searching to suck one more dick. It's not like they care about me."

"Don't… that makes you sad?"

"Maybe a little, I guess."

Ganma stopped talking while looking at Felix, a question in mind, but he preferred to keep it for himself, and Felix knew well what he wanted to ask him. Ganma had suffered from many health problems, including hormonal issues since he returned to his homeland. Obviously, Felix had something to do with it; the ex-con had made sure to leave the after-effects of his quirk in the jailers' metabolism to take revenge; the father in front of him was one of them.

Even though he had stopped giving so much energy in order to curse these men metabolically, he decided a little while ago, after having understood all these things, to stop his childishness and to cease breaking these men this way, some of whom will have health problems for the rest of their lives, it was more than enough as revenge.

Plus, he needed all this energy that he was using until then on these ten people only for revenge to concentrate on his training because once Felix works, he won't have that much time to focus on this.

That said, he felt a bit strange now that he was sure that he had created many problems for the family of a man with whom he drank beers at the bar, played pool, etc. Especially since he invited him to dinner at his place... But as the jailers used to say: Laugh best who laughs last. Both Ganma and the other supervisors were reaping what they had sown.

—They will probably all die in their fifties. For those who were younger, no further than forty. Their ulcers must not be pretty-

"What the fuck are you waiting for?!" intervened a harsh voice from the door. The individual kicked it to open it before trying to hit them with a barrage of punches, but two feathers moved them out of the way and flew them to the other room. "You freaking chicken, do you have to spoil the fun every time?"

"You would have more fun if you were faster than me, but that's not the case yet, my dear Rappa. So keep quiet for once." responded a young blond-haired man with large wings. "You should be careful, you two; this animal is in good spirits since this morning. I spent my day flying to avoid getting hit."

"And to think we all trained together when it's supposed to be our day off, you never stop, huh." sighed Felix remembering the training sessions that Nighteye had planned for him to fight all types of enemies, including a flying dude and a berserker. After more than a week like that after meeting with All Might, he had been granted the right to freedom, but he wasn't fooled; the HPSC was only doing this to avoid any scandal that might concern him. He knew too much and had too much power in his hands and over the people around him for them to control him.

It was the end of their total control. When one of their men starts to put more trust in Felix than in them, they know that they have to let it go to avoid making sparks.

Not to mention that Rappa only listens to those who can stand up to him, and Hawks just followed orders with a casual attitude, never letting any emotions and feeling show… that said, he was like a bird in a cage, and Felix was the key of it, he was aware of this. Hawks had probably already noticed this, and that's what worried the Hero Commission members even more.

The HPSC president watched Ganma's car with the four of them inside pull out of the underground parking garage from the top of the headquarter. As she watched the car disappear into the distance, her eyes eventually crossed the path of her reflection in the rain-stained window.

She closed her eyelids before resting her forearm on the window, a quiet sigh escaping from between her lips.

"What do we do now?" asked the tactless man who saw Felix for the first time with the President when he was still at Tartarus.

"Like if I knew," she muttered while leaving the meeting room with the other members. "He's too much of a problem… We wanted to take the opportunity to have a second 'Hawks,' but look at us now; if we don't do anything, it will be even worse than with Nagant."

"That's why I was against this from the start. The Canadian sent us a poisoned gift!"

"We were the first one to spy on them. It's a miracle that they agreed to ally with us," faltered another man. "I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. I mean, we got what we deserved."

"No, Mr. Fortier isn't an ally of the Canadian government, considering the way he was treated; there is no doubt about it, that's for sure. It's the complete opposite; he acts according to his own norms and needs; even when we use him, he still managed to do what he wanted. So… after studying his personality and actions for several months, I at least understood that part of him." explained the President by massaging her temples. "Rappa will follow him, same for Mirko and Nighteye; the fact that this animal became friends with the three of them is scary for a lot of reasons... especially Nighteye."

"If the information that we use people like Rappa or Mirko who have been involved in illegal activities in the past, it could get dire. Even though we've done our best to hide the real Hawks from the world, someone smart enough could find the truth…"

"Mirko has her own set of issues right now; her reputation has skyrocketed but not only for the proper reasons. Because of our wrong choice, Usagiyama is believed to be a former MMA underground fighter by people on the internet. Conspiracy theorists are trendy these days, and it must be said, they're sometimes right. More than the media try to sell it." growled the President by lighting a cigarette. "Now that she severely injured people in her frantic race toward this 'festival,' we know why she did it. If the media ever finds out she did it for the person she loves, it could make waves. This would put her under criticism, but people would tend to forgive her; that said, the responsibility would shift back to us. We let rookie teams like Mt. Lady and Kamui Wood do most of the work when the information gathering should have been done by Hawks."

Each HPSC member in the corridor walking toward the elevator looked at the floor or sighed, knowing what they'll need to do if they want to keep their safety and high-ranking positions. They were far from being alone in this fight, but fighting against several fronts at the same time became complicated, especially when none of them had a quirk, and they only had their authorities to lead the people. Most people don't care that much about freedom because routine dictates their lives, so most people mainly want to be safe.

Safety was the primary way for the HPSC to rule and impose people to conform to a mold. If everyone has similar, well-ordered lives, clothing, opinions, etc., it is easier to control the masses and provide security, but all this went against Felix's ideals, and the President understood this very well.

"We may need the help of Detnerat company to take care of everything." muttered the chairwoman.

"Why do we need the help of a lifestyle support item company? Doesn't make much sense."

"We need their item; it could be crucial for us to avoid them to ally with someone else and take advantage of their product; that way, even our spy and assassin with no quirk could take care to make what annoys us."

"You want to take care of him as soon as possible, right?"

"I would like to, but it seems impossible right now. Mr. Fortier apparently managed to establish a deal between himself and All Might. We don't know too much about it, but they are now allies, and as soon as he sets foot in UA in a few days, he would also probably be part of the facilities staff."

"If he ever enters UA, we could just blackmail him or even throw the information about his past and his quirk to the media. He couldn't do anything from there."

"Mate, you know what? That's a perfect idea to put us in deepshit even more." hooted the tactless man. "He has the evidence that it was us who brought him here and who allowed him to use his quirk on people. Moreover, we didn't try to contradict Recovery Girl when she offered Fortier to join UA as an apprentice, so in a way, we were okay with it, and to be honest, it's a goddamn good idea to help the younger generation if we forget the inconvenient part that comes with it. Now, if everything he knows about us comes out of his mouth, we're going to have to fight an angry mob and not just journalists."

"Better avoiding making waves, for now, we gave him his freedom back, so he must have dropped his guard a bit. The fact that he went for a drink with his three colleagues proves it." mumbled the chairwoman. "That let us time to prepare for the danger that hangs over the Japanese people and to prepare to counteract not only Mr. Fortier but also the things that have been happening in the background for quite some time now."

"You talk about that man with the mask observed by Nighteye when Felix and Mirko fought in the Underground Maskerade, right?"

"Yeah, the marker on him disappeared in the middle of nowhere two days after Mirai managed to put a microchip under his skin with the special gun. One of our spies never came back, but it's not the only worry I have right now. We have no more news about this; we only knew that former outcasts and homeless peoples disappeared around Tokyo, but also everywhere in Japan, we don't know why, and that's a real problem."

The chairwoman sentence filled the elevator with a cold silence while they went down into the underground of the general building, even further below the place where Felix and Rumi had first fought. They were going to see someone, something, that perhaps could help them.

╞════════════════════╡

Tokyo's night sky didn't show many stars, but Felix could at least see the Moon. This simple detail reminded him of the hero suit Rumi wore during her work hours. He had been informed by Rappa, whom he had taken home to avoid him smashing people against walls when he was drunk, that she had gone back to work in another city, Kyoto, for a while since times were relatively calm; it was also a way to show that she was still the same Mirko as before despite the public apology she made and the several million yen in fines the bunny girl owed for the damages she had caused. That said, it will probably be some time that she must be boiling with desire; she must not be very efficient at work.

—She works day and night, huh? Must be rough. I might have a surprise for her in a while since we haven't seen each other for more than a month and a half.

The ex-con opened his door and closed it right away, not very relaxed being home alone for quite some time. Drenched like he was because of the rain, he went to take a shower and finished his evening in his boxers and T-shirt as any right-minded man would do.

He had time to kill, so he went straight to continuing the study he had started on his skills and the hormones he had extracted from different people and put in syringes. The complete list was: himself, All Might, Nighteye, Kaoruko, Mt. Lady, Rumi, Rappa, Recovery Girl, Camie, and some other small pack of hormones he managed to isolate in test tubes for further studies.

After almost three hours, he managed to finish one thing and associate some hormones with a combo of others: two skills, the first ones he really created since he started concocting the [Love Potion].2

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

[Level 18 — 215/4000} — ]

[STR :black_small_square: 120]

[DEX :black_small_square: 155 (+1%)]. — [AGI :black_small_square: 90]

[END :black_small_square: 145] — [RES :black_small_square: 110]

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

[You are Level 18 — {3750 EXP needed.}]

[Perk Obtained] — [Passive] — [+]

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

[Skills:]

►{Metabolism Hyperdrive}—{Increases metabolism to over 500% of its normal potential, allowing the user to safely use multiple quirks and to produce hormones and pheromones without backlash for a short duration.}—[+]

►{Temporary Buff}—{Reduce pain, increase blood pressure and vascular capacity while making more red blood cells. More energy for the cells and body transmutes into improved strength, endurance, and awareness. Better memory storage, coherent reactions, and reaction time. The metabolism also reacts faster.}—[+]

►{Love Potion}—{Makes one feel good, confident, and even amorous. Boosts motivation, ability to learn and makes one happy. Can affect several people at once, male and female, if used with releaser pheromones.}—[+]

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

—[Temporary Buff] was a hard one to pull off, but I'm happy about it… Jesus, I'm exhausted. Working with my system disconnects me from the world, huh... It's almost like it's vampirizing me. Too bad I can't try my skills right away, but Rumi will be the first to try them. I guess we're both lucky.

Felix closed the vials and corked the test tubes to see how they would react the next day now that they were mixed with Felix's lymphocytes; he wanted to know if he could make a hormone progressively more potent and thus unable to be stopped by anyone's metabolism.

Moreover, he was so close to being at [100] on all his stats that he was eager to ultimately unlock Rumi's quirk. After all, once he reached [100] everywhere, a copy of this quirk that was more effective than the current one would be unlocked.

In retrospect, the [1%] on [DEX] had probably been his best choice. In one week, he had managed to get [5000 EXP], thanks to the fight against Hawks and Rappa, which was worth a lot of EXP—not as much as a wild sex session with Rumi, but efficient nonetheless—and had thus gained 50 points in dexterity, allowing him to use his own quirk and Rumi's quirk a little better. The only exception was All Might's quirk, he had tried to enter this pocket dimension again, but surprisingly, he was pushed back. He could only copy some of the super-hormones, but once in his bloodstream, his increasingly aggressive metabolism left no chance for them to integrate his glands.

Felix had a certain bitterness towards the people inside this dimension, ghosts of the past hanging out there, superficial egos needing to free themselves from their old self to be free as well. Even after death, none of them seemed free; it was their choice, but living at the expense of another because of a hundred-year-old grudge wouldn't benefit them much. He tried to think how he could make them leave this world so that they could finally "rest", but what came to his mind first after lying down in his bed was that if their "ghosts" could appear in front of the actual user as explained by All Might and sometimes even control body parts, then possession by the ones inside this pocket dimension is possible.

If they can do this, then Felix can also do the same if he's in this dimension. He could also possess the current user of OFA.

However, he couldn't think any more about this because he slept immediately afterward. As already explained, his circadian cycle is way more potent than any other human, so when he goes to sleep, he most likely only has thirty seconds maximum and enters his phase of REM sleep way faster than average. That's said, his almost animal instinct was enough for him to detect the slightest unusual noise.

The moment he heard faint but excited breathing, hardly noticeable in the room, he opened his eyes and jumped at once towards the origin of the noise by pure instinct, the Moon offering only a feeble glow across the room.

He collided with a body much smaller than his own before tackling the person to the ground, but this one managed to free herself effortlessly and made a small jump backward, which made her pass in front of the luminous aura of the Moon.

"No need to jump on me like that, Felix-chan!" she said with a knife in her hand. "I wanted to give you back the business card I stole from you the day you left your door open overnight. The girl on it is cute. I like dreadlocks; it's exotic. Mei Hatsume, since you forgot her name, I'll help you a little. Do you want me to give you her address?"

"Himiko…" Felix muttered, trying to gauge the situation… he wasn't very well awake, but she seemed to have only one knife this time.

"My first name?!" she exclaimed with a blush even more intense than before and a big smile; that said, Felix could clearly see a scar on her thigh and crossing from her lip to her chin resulting from the fight with Rumi and himself. "F-Foreigners really are something else! Haha! Now… Can I have some of your blood?" she asked in a pleading tone between pain and thirst and cocked her knife towards Felix, who readied himself to counter-attack.

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