"Is it done?"
Kannagi opened his eyes and looked up at the man who had asked him the question.
It was Shin Nemoto — the same man who had ordered the two men to kill him months ago.
Since then, circumstances had led Kannagi to join the Shie Hassaikai Organization. Since then, he had become a Yakuza. Since then, he had become the youngest member of the Eight Bullets… well, Nine Bullets. Since then, he had also become a year older.
At 12 years old, Kannagi didn't look much different from his previous scrawny self.
However, he wasn't malnourished. His eyes weren't sunken in his skull. He wasn't wearing filthy rags for clothes. Not anymore.
Of course, none could have picked up on these changes as Kannagi's face was hidden behind a plague mask.
Presently, he was wearing a black, hooded cape that hung to his knees, concealing his black denim shorts.
For shoes, he wore the same sneakers as Shin, but black in color.
Slowly, Kannagi stood up and stepped back, revealing the object on the ground.
It was a small Mecha toy — the Totem!
Shin nodded. "About time," he said. "Your time limit to set up the Territory has come down, right?"
"Forty-eight hours," Kannagi replied, not fooled by the friendly tone. These days, he was rarely fooled by just about anything, anyway. "The range has increased to 150 meters as well."
At the mention of the range, Shin looked around.
Kannagi, involuntarily, replicated the action, taking in his dark surroundings.
It was a small, discrete side of the dock, with several large crates on either side, around 200 meters away, preventing anyone from looking at what was going on. The place was open at the back, stretching to at least a hundred meters, but was heavily fielded by dozens of Yakuza, all armed to the teeth. In the front, some hundred meters away, was the sea, low waves crashing, sodding the concrete ground.
There, Kannagi's eyes paused.
Another member of the Organization was standing at the edge, looking out toward the black sea, wearing a white coat.
Kannagi didn't know this person.
He had only seen this man once when he had met the Boss.
"You don't have to worry about him," Shin explained, still looking around, comparing the open ground with the new range. "Just follow the plan if something goes wrong, got it?"
Always ends a conversation with a question… Kannagi noticed Shin's habit offhandedly.
He also noticed that, unlike him, the older and taller man wasn't precise with his sense of distance.
Kannagi was noticing, learning, and making his peace with a great many things, though.
Some of these things he didn't even want to know. Not at first. But, they revealed themselves to him anyway, becoming something sensible, despite the adults thinking that they were too complex for him to understand.
At first, Kannagi hadn't realized why the Boss had let him stay alive after they had captured him.
At first, he hadn't realized why they had allowed him to be near Eri when none of the others were allowed to do the same.
However, with time, especially after becoming a Sequence 8 Reporter, Kannagi had realized a bitter truth.
Day after day, he was walking away from his fantasy.
Kannagi wasn't a Villain like the Boss and his goons, who were taking advantage of Eri's awesome Quirk. He wanted to be a Hero. He wanted to save Eri from the Boss's evil hands, take her away, and help her live a happy life. She deserved that. Truly.
The urge to turn that fantasy into reality was so strong in Kannagi that he had begun disliking the world.
Dislike was a small word.
No.
Kannagi hated it.
He hated the way the Boss had given him the label of Ninth Bullet, as if he would ever be a Villain like others and would be ever loyal to him.
He hated the way they still treated him like a child, despite them knowing how strong he was.
If it weren't for Kannagi knowing the truth that he couldn't defeat all the remaining Bullets, the Boss, and his close associates, all by himself, then he would have already taken Eri away from them.
But, more than anything, he hated the way these adults lied to him.
They lied to him despite knowing his new abilities. They lied to him despite knowing that he didn't need to activate True Sight to tell apart these simple lies. They lied to him despite knowing that he would never betray them… not until he could find a way to save Eri.
"Are you thinking of killing the Boss again?" Shin asked, using his Quirk, Confession, which could force the target to speak the truth involuntarily.
Kannagi frowned under his plague mask in disdain.
He didn't need Shin to implant the urge to speak the truth about something so… obvious.
"No," Kannagi replied truthfully, easily finding the loophole, as he had never considered killing the Boss. Not until he was strong enough.
Shin nodded, satisfied, taking the boy's "no" for something else — growing loyalty.
"Things will change after today," he said, as if promising. "Trigger. Erasure. And, now, this Compound Monocle. Shie Hassaikai will be the only organization in the entire world having access to these drugs. Soon, we will be ruling the entire world, not from shadows, but from the open… The Boss will make sure of that. This new world without Quirks… it will be ours."
He truly believes that, doesn't he? Kannagi thought.
"It's here," Shin said, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Are you ready?"
Kannagi stared into the darkness and saw the silhouette of a ship, and nodded.
A world without Quirks…
Yes, that was also the reason Kannagi wouldn't betray Shie Hassaikai. Not today. Because he knew that it was Eri's Quirk that had led her to be tortured by the Boss.
So, if he wanted to make sure that something like that never happened again, then… it was better for her to lose her Quirk, no matter how awesome it was, no?
Also, it wasn't like Quirks were the only way to be awesome.
All Eri needed to do was accept God, and He would help her become awesome again…
… just like He had helped him.