Summary: Ougai Mori—Yokohama's most infamous underground doctor—is a formidable genius with a reputation on the same level as the Port Mafia's. His clientele and contacts range from the aforementioned Port Mafia to the Japanese government's Special Abilities Department. Ougai Mori's least known trait is his proclivity to somewhat accidentally adopt children with special abilities. Dad!Mori.

Auguste's First Strike

—Akiko Yosano

Yokohama, Japan

Mori felt around among the blood, using a pair of sanitary tweezers. He hit something hard and pulled it out. That should be the last of the fragments. The bloody piece of flattened nail fell into the jar, clattering against bent nails and scrap metal. The perpetrator had really put whatever he could find into that shrapnel bomb. Mori disinfected the area and put a patch on the wound.

He had been working for several hours on this unlucky thug. It was a good thing for the thug that his friends had the good sense to bring him to Mori quickly, without medical attention the wounds would likely have gotten infected.

A young woman appeared in the corner of Mori's eyes, a white dress fell past her knees and she had blond hair and blue eyes. But she wasn't human, the way her gaze moved was robotic. She did not breathe.

Mori ignored her. It was merely an apparition, a delusion of his mind after working for so long. He sanitized his tools and went to bed. He would wake up in a few hours to check on the patient and collect his fee.

The woman stood beside his bed.

Mori sat up. His mind no longer befuddled by exhaustion. . . he knew that she wasn't fake. He reached out and cupped her face.

She did not respond. Her face was a lotus white, no blemishes or scars or freckles, merely skin that looked to be crafted out of porcelain.

He grasped onto the hope in his chest. 'Had he been lied to?' The question reverberated in his lungs. "Elise?"

Her gaze focused slightly. "Yes?" Her voice was empty of any emotion. It was not Elise, no matter how much it resembled her. There was no life in her eyes.

Mori gripped the doll's shoulders, for that was all she was, and started to cry. His tears were sparse, his sobs were silent, but his body was wracked with them. He couldn't keep himself from shuddering heavily as he pushed down his screams.

To be wounded was something he was used to, to have something tear the scab off a partially healed wound and rub salt into it with a wicked grin? That was a new, painful experience.

His alarm went off again.

Mori glanced at his clock. "Stay here," he ordered. He knew he could do that somehow.

The underground doctor washed his face to ease the redness of his face and his eyes. He checked on his client, and handed the man off to the thug's friends, being given a wad of cash in return.

He went back to his bedroom and sat on his bed. He ran a hand down his face, trying to figure out what to do.

The young woman was still there. No, she was a doll. Not a woman, a doll. An it, not a she; it had a glassy-eyed look, betraying its inhumanity.

'That is still an idea, isn't it?' Mori thought. "Act human," he ordered.

The doll blinked at him. It started to move. It started to breathe. It smiled at him, blue eyes brightening.

Mori's voice broke as he ordered, "Stop." He swallowed. The doll could pass for her too well, it was too alike for him to ignore the resemblance. "Your name is. . . Elise."

"Yes, sir," Elise, the doll, droned.

Mori felt tired. He massaged the bridge of his nose. "Don't call me sir. Act. . . however you like. . . unless I order you to do something."

Elise nodded, a slow movement that looked like it should be accompanied by the metallic sounds of gears turning.

XXX

A Few Months Later

Mori appeared disinterested, although amiable. In his brain he was furiously figuring out the pros and cons of accepting. This was an interesting opportunity. "What rank would I be?"

The man in front of Mori was respectably calm and stern, no hint of any nerves. His name was Taneda. "First Lieutenant. You would be considered part of the Medical Corps, Mori-san."

Mori inclined his head. He seriously was considering it now. Playing as an underground doctor had gotten. . . tiring, as of late. "Would the Special Forces be able to call on me?"

Taneda frowned. He cleaned his glasses off with his sleeve. "If they heard of you, yes. But it is unlikely." Unless you had an ability, was left unspoken.

Mori shrugged. Something against the Special Forces? Officer Taneda could be an ability user. "May I have some time to think about it?"

"Perfectly acceptable." Taneda stood up. "Here's my card."

Mori accepted the card with two hands. He continued to smile pleasantly. "I'll get back to you soon," he promised. The government was willing to work with him. They needed doctors. They needed ability users. Mori would wait a day or two, get his affairs in order, and tell them his decision.

XXX

The building bustled with life. People flooded the corridors, rushing this way and that on various tasks.

Mori knocked on a door, dodging a stray elbow as he did so.

"Come in."

"First Lieutenant Rintarou Mori, reporting for duty, sir."

XXX

He was promoted before he knew it, all because of a suggestion that saved about twenty people's lives in a packed infirmary. But that quick rise in rank drew him some attention.

XXX

Kyushu, Japan

Mori stared at the concrete wall. His eyes lazily traced a crack.

Due to the scheme of a superior officer, he had ended up close to the front lines, even though he was a doctor. It was done in the hopes of him messing up or being killed.

Mori was stuck in a base under attack now.

He had offered strategic advice to the officer in charge of the base, but had been brushed aside. (He made a mental note of the man's name.)

He had no patients to treat. Which was why he was doing nothing except stare at a wall.

Bored, he estimated the enemy's current position.

Wait. . . was that right? He checked over his mental work. Yes, that would be right.

Mori smiled as a thought occurred to him. If he didn't have patients, then why didn't he get some while he had the chance?

He would either be called a genius or an idiot. And that would depend on whether or not he died.

Mori smirked as he grabbed his medical bag and summoned Elise. Time to slip off the base.

XXX

Mori was glad for once that he was wearing a uniform and not his white doctor's coat.

He was crouched beside a body. He pressed two fingers against the man's wrist, there was no pulse.

Elise stood nearby. She was dressed in army fatigues as well, she didn't breath or blink as she kept watch over Mori.

Mori heard a cough—a voice croaked something in English. He raised his head, glancing to his right.

Mori had found someone alive. But it wasn't one of theirs.

He approached the wounded foreigner with a calculating eye. The damage was fixable, definitely not lethal, it looked more like the man had been knocked out. He might also have a concussion.

What to do? Save him? Would a hostage be viable in this situation? Or should he just slit the man's throat and be done with it? Mori pondered.

Negotiations were still open. So yes, the base could use a hostage as leverage.

Mori hoisted the foreigner over his shoulder.

XXX

That somewhat insubordinate action got the pressure taken off the base and earned him another promotion.

General Yamashita was an army officer, far higher up than Mori. He wasn't terribly older than Mori himself. Yamashita used a letter opener to slice the mouth of the envelope; it was a restrained, jerky movement.

Mori folded his hands together. He was sitting in front of the desk, back perfectly straight. He kept his face neutral.

General Yamashita's eyes scanned the letter. His lips twitched downwards for a split second. "Congratulations, you are now a Major in the general army."

Mori almost smirked at his superior officer's barely disguised irritation, looked like he wasn't as far down the chain of command now.

XXX

Yokohama, Japan

A Year Later

Mori had an ability. Because of this he had been pulled from the general army and given the job of tracking down promising ability users to recruit. Basically, he was a talent scout for the government.

He was given files and lists to comb through. One of those on the lists was a woman who could control black shadows. Unfortunately, many turned out to be rumors and nothing of substance.

Mori wandered down the streets of Yokohama. It was drizzling lightly, enough to keep most people indoors.

A young girl came out of a sweet shop. Her clothes were threadbare. Her hair was greasy.

Mori watched as the girl crossed the street and entered an alleyway. He heard a sound from beside him, it came from Elise. He turned his head to find his ability already halfway across the street.

Mori frowned. Unease prickled inside of his chest, coupled with minor curiosity. He followed the two.

The girl was crouching next to something, face full of alarm.

Elise had stopped at the entrance. Her. . . its eyes held some emotion, a drastic contrast to the empty emptiness it had displayed before today.

The entrance of the alleyway had gathered a large puddle of water. Mori stepped over it with care. By the time he was looking up again, he saw the girl reaching out.

There was a small flash from the girl's hand. The messy pile of fur and mud moved from underneath her hand, it was a stray dog, previously on death's door.

"A wonderful ability you have there," Mori commented. He watched the girl jump and warily turn to him. "I'm Rintarou Mori." He spread a hand out towards his ability. "She is Elise." He pushed down the thoughts about how Elise was acting right now.

The girl kept her eyes on Mori, ignoring the dog that was walking away. "Ho Sho."

Mori smiled. "A pleasure to meet you, Ho-chan."

XXX

Mori waited until he was back in his hotel.

He summoned Elise, crossing his arms. "You moved without my orders, why?"

Elise did not reply. There was nothing in her that could reply, the emotion had left her. Her eyes were glassy and dull, like the eyes of a dead animal.

XXX

A Few Months Later

Tokyo, Japan

Immortal Army.

The words at the top almost made Mori freeze and glare at Yamashita.

They were planning to use the homeless girl he had found.

The government did not think of people with ability as human, and why should they? It was far more convenient to treat them as weapons.

Mori kept his eyes on the brief, skimming over the words of the document. If he looked up, he was likely to stab Yamashita, or since the man was two chairs down, throw a scalpel.

"Lieutenant General Mori, will you take the helm of this project?"

"Of course. It would be my honor, General Yamashita." Mori kept his tone polite. He predicted things would go south but didn't see any other options for himself at this time, and it would be far worse if Yamashita got his hands on Yosano. But Mori cursed himself that he hadn't entirely omitted Yosano from his weekly reports. That honesty was biting himself in the a*s now.

XXX

Osaka, Japan

"Because you had anywhere to go?" Mori mildly pointed out.

Ho Sho childishly puffed up her cheeks and refused to answer, but then she was still a child, not an adult. She wore a small nurse's outfit that had to be specially ordered for her size.

Having successfully cut off his new assistant's rant, Mori opened the door. "Attention! Meeting in the mess hall in ten minutes," he yelled. "We have a new recruit."

The men in the front hall would spread the word quickly enough.

XXX

Mori's men had been chosen for the Immortal Army project. They would hand over control of their base to another group and be transferred to different base.

"This is to be a trial run," Mori explained. "We are to hold down a fort right on the front lines."

"But, isn't trying to hold a base there hard?" Yosano asked.

"Practically suicidal," Mori agreed with a wry smile. Someone was undoubtedly trying to get them killed or at least, to break them; and he had a d*mn good idea of who it was.

XXX

Kyushu, Japan

A Few Months Later

Elise stood near Yosano. Just its mere presence kept the admiring soldiers as bay. To them, Elise was Lieutenant General Mori's personal assistant.

"Elise?" Ho Sho asked. She wasn't stupid; she had noticed her personal guard.

Elise looked at her. "Yes?"

"Thanks."

A smile formed on Elise's face. It made her look like she was human and not a doll.

XXX

Mori saw Ho Sho's fire for living, love for life, the refusal to let things die. He clearly saw it every time she helped treat the soldiers. While on one of their rounds, he remembered the ferocious look of the girl, a stalwart defiance against the pain of injuries and the encroaching terror of death. It made him smile.

Ho Sho turned her face upwards, catching the expression on Mori's face. She made a comment about it.

Caught off guard, Mori laughed.

Sho's eyes widened with shock. She had never hear Mori laugh. She had rarely seen him with any sort of emotion at all. For the first time, she saw him as human.

Mori culled the laughter welling up in his chest. He slipped his mask of cold indifference back on. He raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Really?"

Sho put her hands on her hips. She scowled. "Yes. And now you're back to being fake," She commented with some amount of frustration.

"You're a perceptive child," Mori noted, complimenting the girl. He couldn't help but think that Yosano was what little Elise would have been like, if she had the chance to grow up, with Mori's brain for medicine and her mother's strong spirit.

XXX

Tokyo, Japan

Mori noticed the plate of sweets sitting innocently on the desk. They were something yellow and caramelized, vaguely smelling of lemon. The sweets were only thing livening up the musty, well ordered office.

"How are things going, Lieutenant General Mori?" Yamashita questioned with faux concern. The collar of his army jacket bore the yellow patch of a General. The breast pocket had also been enamelled. He had become a Marshall.

"Well, sir."

"That's good." Yamashita kept his smile on his face. His tone slipped into something warm, as if trying to placate Mori. "I would like to take some of your men."

"How many, sir?"

"About half of your force," Yamashita's smile turned sly, "Assuming you aren't only just managing as it is of course." It was a blatant challenge. Yamashita was setting traps for his subordinate to fall into, as usual.

"It would be best to keep the men there that we already have. There is a possibility of a targeted strike in the future. And, the less people who know about the Immortal Army project, the better." Mori's eyes crinkled in false cheer as he joked, "No need to transfer my men around and let the whole army know, sir."

The corners of Yamashita's smile twitched. His nostrils flared slightly. His displeasure at Mori refusing to play along with his framing of the situation. "Very well then, Lieutenant General Mori, I'll find the men I need elsewhere."

Mori's eyes sharpened. So one of the goals of Yamashita's plan was to gain inside information about the project and what Mori had been doing. Yamashita was still interested in taking over directly.

"Dismissed."

Mori stood and bowed deeply to his superior officer. "Yes, sir."

XXX

Kyushu, Japan

Mori suspected the soldiers would turn sour eventually. He knew Ho Sho would figure out that the non-severely injured soldiers could go home if she didn't heal them. But Mori wasn't expecting the man—who had given Sho that butterfly hairpiece she always wore—to be the first one to break.

He turned his body, placing himself between Sho and the sight of the corpse. She tried to glance around him, but he covered her eyes with a hand. The girl was too curious to not try and get a look, but still far too young and innocent to deal with such a sight.

"Elise, take Ho-chan to the mess hall," Mori ordered. He closed the door as Yosano was being pulled back by his ability. Being nonhuman, Elise was strong despite her lithe appearance.

He noted the markings made by the hanged man. It was a tally of each time the soldier had been healed by Ho Sho.

Mori felt a sort of fury well up inside of his stomach. The hanged man had timed it so that the girl would be there when they found his corpse. The dead soldier knew the regular rounds Ho Sho took around the base. This was how the girl's genuine care was returned?

Mori sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Emotions would have to wait until later. Plans, Yamashita, and the thought of whether things had truly fallen through would have to be considered later as well. For now, he had a body to dispose of.

XXX

Yamashita would take over the project by tomorrow, when the suicide would be reported.

They needed to be gone by then.

Mori shook Ho Sho's shoulders to wake her up and cupped a hand over her mouth to keep her from talking. "Pack your things," he ordered. He removed his hand.

"Where are we going?" Ho Sho softly replied, confused. She rubbed her eyes.

"We're leaving," Mori simply answered.

Ho Sho stared at him in confusion through the dark. "Leaving?"

"Yes," Mori patiently responded. "Now grab your things. Meet me at the back in five minutes."

XXX

Nagoya, Japan

They stayed at a seedy hotel overnight.

Mori had already changed his outfit that morning, instead of army fatigues, he wore a white coat.

Mori handed a dress to Ho Sho; the girl went into the bathroom to change out of her nurse outfit.

Mori broke out the new, falsified passports. They would disguise themselves as a family. Rintarou Mori was now Ougai Mori, and Ho Sho was now Yosano Akiko.

While Yosano was gone for a minute, Mori decided to take the opportunity to meddle with his ability. Mori summoned Elise. He concentrated and Elise's appearance changed accordingly. She matured further before his eyes, matching the aging he had gone through over the past few years. Her clothes changed into something suitable for a normal Japanese woman. She looked what his wife Elise would have looked like. . . if she hadn't died. He pushed the feeling aside, the feeling of his heart breaking every time he looked at his ability.

Mori picked up his briefcase and medical bag from the floor.

Ho Sho, now under the identity Akiko Yosano, came out. She stared at Elise but didn't say anything, having spotted the frown on Mori's face.

"Ready to go?" Mori asked. He glanced out the window, it was raining, hard. At the gesture of his hand, Elise withdrew a large umbrella.

Yosano smoothed down the front of her purple dress. She had started to figure out what was going on. "Yes. Where are we going?"

"Yokohama." Mori plastered a smile on his face as he walked out the door, hearing two sets of footsteps behind him.

A/N

Mori has adopted his first child. There's more to come.

Auguste's First Strike was a poem by Akiko Yosano, about her baby son. It's a very interesting poem and I suggest you look it up.

Irl, Akiko Yosano is the pen name of Sho Ho.

Timeline note: Mori is 26 and Yosano is 11 by the end of this chapter.

Chapters:

1-Mori

2-Yosano

Next: 3-?

-Silver