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Chapter 3: Interlude: Krabbo and the Intervention Dilemma / Scanner and the Unquantifiable
(A/N I lied about the less Denial)
Training Ground Z-Beta - With Krabbo - 11 Months, and 5 Days until the sports festival…
If Krabbo had a penny for every time he had woken up in the infirmary in the past month since his arrival into this new world, he would have 2. While 2 isn't a large number for a gentleman like himself, it is still unfortunate that it has already happened twice.
This was the first thought that came to Krabbo's mind as he awoke from the coma he had unknowingly been in for a week. Having several slabs of cement plus a several-ton dragon land on top of him in his sleep would be enough to take out anyone, in all honesty, it was more surprising that he had woken up in the short amount of time that he had.
However, unlike the first time that he had woken up in the makeshift infirmary that Phantos had set up in Training Ground Z-Beta he was alone. It seems that the area was empty, and Krabbo resolved himself to get out of his cot and look for the others.
Recently, he's been unable to stand being alone with his thoughts.
Krabbo makes his way out of the infirmary and onto the street, where he can hear faint shouting coming from the living area down the street, he assumes that is where everyone must be gathered and makes his way there.
Right as he's about to reach the door, it slams open, an enraged Denial stomping their way out and past Krabbo.
Denial's eyes widen a small amount as they see Krabbo and they stop for a moment as they pass him to say, "I'm glad you're alright." Before continuing to stomp past him towards where Krabbo knows the track is located.
Krabbo blinks a few times in the direction Denial stomped off to before entering the still-open door, where he sees Phantos smoothing out his shirt next to Pink, Rzuku, Keriyon, Peace, and Dormant, all of them in varying levels of distress.
When he steps in everyone except Phantos exclaims "Krabbo!" and some form of congratulations on him making a full recovery. Phantos walks up to him and gives him a pat on the back before pulling him into a side hug.
"I'm glad you're alright Krabbo… for what it's worth, I'm sorry about your injury."
Krabbo didn't feel like unpacking that loaded statement immediately, so he decided to respond,
"Hello Everyone! Yes, I've made a grand recovery as you can see, I'm feeling as though I'm in tip top shape. May I inquire as to why Denial stormed out of here in a huff? They seemed to be quite distressed."
Immediately after the question leaves his mouth everyone except Phantos falls into a grimace, Phantos' smile strains a small amount.
"Nothing much my friend, just a difference of opinion."
Krabbo's eyes narrow a bit at that.
"With all due respect, I've seen Denial's differences of opinions, what I just witnessed wasn't that. For you to make Denial frustrated enough to bail on a difference of opinion in that fashion, would be a first for anyone in the server."
Phantos steps away before raising his hands in a placating gesture. At first, Krabbo doesn't understand why he would take an action before realizing that he had been snapping his pincers while he had been speaking.
Before the "Fuckening" Krabbo had the bad habit of clenching his fists when something bothered him, never as a form of aggression, more-so just something that calmed him down when he was tense. However he no longer has fists to clench, and the habit had translated to becoming an action that would be easily observed as intimidating to others.
Peace stepped in between the two and looked up to Krabbo, and began explaining.
"You've been out of it for a little bit over a week, but did you have a dream the night that you were put into the hospital? One where you perhaps fought an enemy that was unique, similar to something you may have seen in an anime where we come from? Something that may not have been an issue for one of us, but for you specifically it was a challenge?"
Krabbo thought back… the night that he had felt the crushing pressure fall on top of him he had been dreaming, of someone attacking him while he was sleeping, but he wasn't sure if what had attacked him constituted a challenge.
"I remember fighting someone in a dream that suddenly cut to me waking up in the infirmary. But I don't remember if it truly constituted a challenge."
Krabbo vaguely remembers being attacked by a small human girl with a knife. But outside of the knife, he can remember nothing except the fact that the girl was extremely persistent, and he was struggling to find a way to defeat her without permanently harming her.
Peace looked at Krabbo for a moment, an analyzing gaze on his face before he continues explaining.
"Well whatever attacked you was apparently apart of a test by Phantos. Apparently he convinced Nezu to bring in an underground hero, Sandman, to see our progress in our training. He hadn't anticipated our quirks activating in real life if we activated them in our dreams which led to you getting injured."
Krabbo contemplated that for a few seconds.
"I understand this, however I don't believe Denial is one to get irritated by one of us being injured."
That gets a few chuckles from the room before Pink sits back in his chair and says,
"Sorry Man, That isn't what Denial was upset about. Denial believes that we should all have minimum interactions with the outside world until the inciting incident for the story occurs."
"The USJ incident." Krabbo states.
"Ding Ding Ding, right on the money. Hell Denial thinks that we should be even safer and limit our interactions even after that, though that's where I begin to disagree."
Rzuku, from his position on the chair where he had been doodling in his notebook (which Phantos had gotten for him), speaks up next.
"Denial believes that every interaction we have with others has the potential to make the world much more dangerous for not just us, but for all of the people involved with UA. Denial thinks that not only introducing a foreign element such as an Underground hero, but not deigning to warn them beforehand puts everyone at massive risk. You've been out for almost over a week and every day you were out Denial brought up this argument, each time with more fervor."
Phantos suddenly speaks up,
"That's enough about this topic, ultimately I am the one who was designated as the "Teacher" of this class, meaning I get the final say on most of the decisions regarding you."
That statement immediately rubs Krabbo the wrong way. A good portion of them had been adults before the fuckening, Krabbo isn't sure how comfortable he is with letting somebody else, no matter how familiar, have complete control over the circumstances within which Class 1:CNT acts.
Everyone else in the room feels similarly to Phantos and begins voicing their objections to the statement. Some loudly, some angrily, and some quietly. The cacophony of the room begins to reach the point where it's getting impossible to make out what anyone else is saying.
Phantos' voice cuts through the haze of noise.
"That said, those of you who do have an issue with our intervention better buckle up and get over it soon because the HPSC has forced Nezu's hand. In 48 Hours, they'll be sending an inspector to judge the value of the "freed experiments'', to the HPSC as a whole. We need to put on a good show, or else they might decide to shut this whole operation down, and who knows what happens to us after that."
That brings everyone in the room to a halt.
"Special inspector Shikan Nia will be coming to judge our strengths, quirks, and overall potential. Instead of standing around arguing with me, I suggest getting to work on your quirks.
Phantos' eyes are passing over the crowd as he speaks, though his eyes linger on Krabbo's form when he says "Or working on other facets of yourself that they would see as useful to 'the cause'."
Phantos walks past Krabbo and opens the door, as he exits he looks back at the group and throws out one last parting shot, "Or don't, after all, most of you are adults. I'm sure you can figure something out."
The door shuts behind him softly, to everyone else in the room which has gone silent, it might as well have been as loud as a gunshot.
Krabbo only has one thought.
"This is going to be a disaster."
Training Ground Z-Beta Entrance - With シカンニア- 11 Months, and 5 Days until the sports festival…
Shikan Nia is one of the Heroic Public Safety Commission's most important assets, held under guard by at least 2 pro hero's at any given time, his quirk, Threat Assessment, is the main way that the HPSC scouts members for the heroes that work directly under them.
His quirk is a mutant quirk that affects his eyes. Imagine that any one person has 6 stats that define them and their abilities, each stat ranking anywhere from E (The lowest) to S+ (The Highest). When looking at a person he'll see an aura around them showing their highest-ranked stat.
Shikan is famous among the facility for being the person to scout out Hawks, while the young man saving someone at the ripe old age of 7 would still have garnered attention, the real reason he was picked out of the crowd was the fact that he already had an A+ stat with 0 training with his quirk, it was due to Shikan's diligence that Hawks managed to be conscripted so early.
Ever since that fateful day, Shikan's been on the up and up in the organization, every accomplishment of Hawks boosts his reputation as well, and every other child scouted by him has been similarly successful. If he were to continue at his current pace, Shikan bets that he'll be in a high-ranking position by the end of the next year.
'More vacation days, and a loser schedule! I can hardly wait!'
There is very little that Shikan Nia has to worry about in the days ahead, his path to success is practically set in stone! All he has to do is walk to the finish line one step at a time!
And yet…
The coming event fills him with so much dread that he can barely bring himself to enter the gate which holds whatever project that damned rat Nezu has cooked up.
Honestly, Shikan was rather blessed to have avoided interacting with the hyper-intelligent creature for so long. Most higher-ups with the commission have at least one horror story where they stepped out of line and had to be verbally put in place by the Mouse. A non-zero number of them even enrolled in therapy after the fact. And here he is about to spend an entire day with pet projects which apparently had been taken under his wing.
As he stands in front of the door, two masked guards standing behind him, the only thoughts running through the inspector's mind are;
'I'm scared, I don't want to do this, I want to go home!'
Just as Shikan decides that he can push off his plans for a promotion another year and begins to turn around, the choice of a retreat is taken from him as the door opens.
"You must be the inspector sent by Nezu… are you alright?"
Standing in the doorway and looking out at him is Phantos' tall form, looking down on the man with a small amount of worry.
Why the worry?
Shikan, upon seeing a new person in front of him activated his quirk's ability instinctively, and what he saw terrified him beyond words.
A person's aura corresponds to the highest stat that they have at any given time, the darker and larger the glow, the higher the stat connected; an S+ stats aura would being a dark purple that takes up so much space it's hard for Shikan to see with his ability on, which is the reason he tends to avoid being in a room with any of the big 3 hero's at the same time.
Standing in front of him, however, was a type of aura that he had never seen before. A dark black shade reminiscent of the midnight sky in a Japanese winter, the fact that the aura seemed to be rolling off of the man in front of him in waves similar to the dancing flames of a raging forest fire, and the fact that the aura was so thick it felt like he was suffocating on air.
This aura seemed to show off more power than even All-Might had at his prime, this… This Man…
This man's highest stat is unquantifiable!
That was the last thought in the mind of Shikan as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell into unconsciousness.
Training Ground Z-Beta Infirmary – 1 Hour Later
When Shikan awakens in the infirmary an hour later, he's greeted by the sight of his 2 guards exchanging strong words with someone he doesn't recognize.
He blinks twice before sitting up, his ears finally beginning to register what was being said.
"I just want to see the face of the so called 'inspector' who couldn't even make it inside the facility before fainting. I don't understand why you both are being such a pain right now."
"We've already told you several times, you're dealing with a high ranking and a highly regarded HPSC official, if the presence of one of you is enough to knock you out then we'll have to send him back to get a different official."
The argument looks like it's going to go on for a while, and honestly, Shikan sees no reason to clue in the person to the fact that he's awake. He'd rather not see that terrifying aura again.
Slowly Shikan turns to look out the window at his side before freezing suddenly.
Looking back at him was the side of a massive scaled, a large dark-yellow slitted eye staring back at him. The top of the head was lined with dark orange horns and it's large maw had sharp teeth outlining the lips. It was clear to Shikan that he was staring at an Apex Predator, and his body, lacking any immediate options, opted to freeze and hope that the creature that was clearly looking at him didn't get startled.
This was of course, the perfect moment for his quirk to activate on its own once more. Instantly the creature which was already terrifying took on an even more sinister appearance. The black fog which had poured off of Phantos earlier surrounded the face of the large reptile. The smoke seemed to pour out of his scales and his mouth, coating the creature and making it look even less like a somewhat large crocodile and more like a demon from one of hell's oceans.
At this Shikan let out a girlish shout of fear and stumbled back off of his infirmary bed, his body having reached the conclusion that attempting to freeze would do nothing to save him. The loud clattering fall attracted the attention of his bodyguards and the person with whom they were arguing.
The guards immediately run to the side of Shikan to help him up, the first one to his side immediately looks out the window to assess the situation, their arms splitting open to reveal a serrated blade. The second guard arrives with a gust of wind and begins helping Shikan off the ground in preparation for a retreat should it be necessary.
The person with whom they were arguing slowly approaches as well, their androgynous form leaning forward a little bit to peek out the window before returning to a relaxed stance, though there is still an air of hostility around them as they look back towards the HSPC employees.
The creature in the window, seeming to have gotten bored of the situation lumbers away from the window slowly, the entire length of its body passing by showing how immense its form is.
The androgynous character snorts with contempt at the officials, all 3 of which were still staring at the window where the massive beast had been standing.
"Is this really all you amounted to? And you had the balls to come here and claim that you were inspecting us. Maybe you people should be more focused on learning to act with some decorum instead of poking your noses where they don't belong."
Shikan, finally tearing his eyes away from the window stops to look at the person who's been looking down at them since he woke up. This time, when he activates his quirk he sees nothing coming from the person in front of him.
'What the hell? They dare to look down on me when they don't even possess a quirk of their own to quantify.'
Shikan, used to being one of the more important people in a room at any given time, would not stand for being looked down upon by a quirkless person and made sure to inform them of that fact.
There was a sudden but subtle shift in the way the person was standing, one that Shikan would have missed if not for his years of assessing a person's abilities professionally.
The somewhat short dark-skinned person had squared their shoulders and withdrawn their hands from their pockets. While they hadn't taken any form of combative stance the way their eyes shifted from "contempt" to "hatred" instantly set Shikan on edge.
The person's next statement set Shikan on edge instantly.
"Someone as weak as you isn't allowed to talk down to us."
Suddenly for an instant that didn't last longer than a second, the black mist which had coated everyone he'd seen since he entered appeared once more. The smoke leaked from the person's mouth and shrouded the person's entire head, the only defining feature remaining visible being the glow of blood-red hexagons peaking out from behind the shroud.
As soon as it came, it vanished once more, leaving only the visage of an irritated and unimpressed young lady.
The door behind her opens once more, and the man who spoke to him at the gate steps in once more, behind him, a large monstrous form bearing large pincers for arms, a monocle, and a top hat behind him.
Shikan flinches at the sight of them both, though the way the Monstrous Newtype's shoulder slumped made him think that he might have offended the creature in some way. He feels almost apologetic, after all as an inspector of the HPSC he's seen much worse things than a crab person (at least that had been the case before today.
Having learned his lesson Shikan keeps his quirk tightly shut down, unwilling to expose himself to more of what he's seen so far.
Phantos passes and comes to a stop in front of the hexagonal-eyed young lady, not even glancing at them as they glare back with an emotion akin to hatred.
"I trust that you've seen everything you needed to yes?"
These so-called "New Types" are all unquantifiable, and there are supposed to be how many of these. I've seen everything I needed to. Thinks Shikan, unnoticing of the subtle influence of his thought process.
"We're leaving, we've seen everything necessary to form a proper evaluation.
As Shikan exits the infirmary with his guards and approaches the exit of the training grounds, he's already formulating the report he's going to make to the commission.
"Let Nezu play with fire, when this blows up in his face the commission will surely be in a position to leverage more power against him. There's no way that he'll be able to keep all of these "Newtypes" from making the waves that are sure to come from their existence."
The Infirmary
Phantos turns to look at Denial.
"Was that necessary?"
She huffs and turns away from him, walking to the exit slowly.
"We've minimized the amount of contact we had with the outside world, now that the HPSC's suitably afraid of us they won't poke around without reason, likely because they expect this to put them in a position of power over Nezu."
She stops in the doorway before glancing over her shoulder.
"I've effectively prevented us from being forced to make any massive moves before our future knowledge could be in an extreme fashion. It wouldn't kill you to say thank you."
She exits the building, the door slamming behind her.
Phantos sighs, Krabbo looking at him apologetically before gracefully exiting the building, running gracefully into the direction that the large dinosaur footsteps outside the window were headed.
I miscalculated. Phantos thinks.
He hadn't expected the person who would evaluate them to have had such a violent reaction just to seeing one of them, and while he had expected Denial to have attempted to obstruct them in some fashion he hadn't anticipated him roping in Peace into his efforts.
In the end, he ended up having to apply his quirk just to keep the situation from getting any worse.
While Denial thinks they helped the situation, Phantos finds it just as likely that the HPSC will look upon someone willing to threaten one of their members and judge the group as a whole instead of seeing it as the actions of one individual. Maybe this helps in the short term, but in the long term, they may end up getting more oversight than Hawks because of today's events.
Phantos is glad that he's in the infirmary right now, he needs to make a plan for how to make sure today's incident doesn't bite them in the ass too badly, and to do that he'll need aspirin for his budding headache.
Shikan Nia
Quirk: Scanner
Description: Wielding eyes capable of discerning how powerful a person's most effective ability is, the User see's an aura quantifying said strength. With these eyes, discerning if someone is talented is as easy as breathing and it's only a matter of discovering their talent after the fact.