Haru sat across from Director Piggot in an interrogation room. Armsmaster and Miss Militia stood at either side of Piggot, weapons ready. The boy had consented to all orders given to him and was now handcuffed to his chair. It was doubtful the PRT had anything to truly contain the new Ward, who had an amazing ability to ignore nearly every security measure he was confronted with.
"A question I should have asked from the beginning: what are you?" Director Piggot asked. Her face was grim. Her eyes were weary.
Haru closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as he searched for words. "I usually just call myself a ninja."
Armsmaster scoffed, "Ninja? That would explain the shurikens."
"That doesn't explain your unusually vast repertoire of abilities," Miss Militia pointed out. "I believe the director is asking whether or not you are a human."
Haru took a long breath and answered, "I'm at least PART human. It's kind of complicated."
"Enlighten us," Emily intoned.
"...And that's how I became a cursed half-human ninja clone who moonlights as a demon hunter and savior of humanity," Haru concluded twenty minutes of outrageous backstory.
It was a full minute of silence before Armsmaster spoke, "He's telling the truth."
Piggot pulled her face out of her hands and asked, "These 'Angels' you fought, how would you compare them to Endbringers?"
"I don't know. I've haven't fought an Endbringer yet."
The Protectorate capes looked to their leader for how to continue the interrogation.
"First of all, you are forbidden to tell anyone you are from an alternate Earth. Second, you are forbidden from provoking confrontations unless under direct orders from a superior. That means no more fighting capes on your own."
"That's so boring though!"
"Third, you need to conceal the nature of your abilities. Publicly, your power will be the ability to create illusions. You will maintain this pretense," Piggot told the boy despite his protests.
"But...but I hate doing that! It's no fun to cheese fights with genjutsu. You might as well cast an illusion on the entire world and call it a day," Haru pouted.
"You can do that?!" Armsmaster asked, putting his free hand against the side of his helmet in response to psychological distress.
"What if I could? Would you ask me to?" Haru asked the man. "Is that the kind of thing this job entails? Cause I was going to rehabilitate the ABB and dismantle the E88 but you decided you didn't like how I operate. So what exactly do you want me to do?"
Piggot slammed her hands down on the table. "That's not how it works. You can't just do whatever you want!"
"Why not? I felt like helping your silly paramilitary. At this point I'm just curious what would happen if you were to finally win, what you would become if you finally beat all the bad guys and there was no one left to fight. It's been fun so far but maybe I'd rather see what would happen if I helped the bad guys win. It might be more interesting."
Miss Militia spoke up, "How could you..."
"Because I've seen it. I've seen it both way. And could you even stop me if I decided to just start killing everyone in the city?" Haru asked, smiling maniacally.
Armsmaster confidently proclaimed, "Of course we would stop you."
Haru began laughing, becoming louder and louder. "I've killed gods and devils. Do you really think some bullets and a fancy axe is going to take me out? Are you serious?"
It was clear that the three adults were weighing their odds against the boy.
Piggot answered coldly, "You have your orders, Zetsu. You're free to go."
The boy slowly stopped laughing and said, "Alright, boss. Man, I'm super hungry. I want to try that deli on Fairmount. Oh, my god, a sandwich would be perfect for breakfast." To that end, he returned the unlocked shackles to Armsmaster and made to leave.
Director Piggot asked one final question to end the meeting, "Zetsu, do know about the cape known as Scion?"
"Only a little. I'm very interested in meeting him. And knowing my luck, it won't just be for coffee and chitchat."
The boy vanished, leaving the others in contemplative silence.
