REWIND:
— Reijirou Saionji - Head of Saionji Group - Quirk Soothsayer
— Misaki Saionji - Reijirou's wife - Quirk Future Sketch
— Rikuya Saionji - Reijirou's Son - UA's 1st year Business Course - Quirk Dream Walk
— Aina Saionji - Rikuya's twin sister - UA's 1st year General Education - Quirk Snapshot Prophecy
— Renji Saionji - Luke - Reijirou's adopted son - Quirk Bioalchemy
— Nyx - A Raven - Luke's Sassy Companion
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Chapter Begins:
On the very night that he regressed, Luke changed his fate for the first time.
Then he spent the nights to come in a hushed dread, walking, eating, and living on the edge. Whatever that blue, supermassive black hole was, it wasn't his father's Soothsayer Quirk, that was confirmed.
Still, it wasn't like he could give up.
There was no such option for him anymore.
Luke knew that he hadn't pulled the roots of the problem, as the dream revelation could return. So, he kept sending Nyx to his father's dreams, hoping she could talk him out of the madness if the dream were to return.
Surprisingly, neither the dream returned nor there was any sign of a black hole when Luke went to check after a few times using the System.
Luke would have doubted the System itself, as he hadn't seen anything.
However, he had felt it. He had felt the presence in his bones.
So, making his peace with the changed fate, he began focusing on other things.
One of the two most important things he needed to decide was, of course, All For One. Even if he didn't know the intricacies, the big things he knew were also significant enough by themselves.
Among those big things was the existence of Dr. Kyudai Garaki, the most infamous man who had sided himself with All For One.
Behind the guise of an innocent civilian, it was he who had created Nomus (genetically engineered multiple Quirk users) and then later helped Tomura Shigaraki reach his full potential.
One could even say that without Dr. Kyudai Garaki, the return of All For One would have been almost impossible.
Here it all became a little tricky — How to do it?
The most outright way was to just go out and declare that he had awakened a Future Sight-type Quirk, mentioning all the relevant events.
Many things made it impossible, though.
First, who would believe him? He was a 14-year-old child with a troubled past. The moment he opened his mouth, his father would throw him to the Blue Site, locking him up for who knew how much time.
Not to mention, Luke was weak, even if he had awakened Bioalchemy to support him. He couldn't fight a man who practically owned the government. Not yet, at least.
Second, even if someone were to believe him and ask him to prove it, he wouldn't be able to. The reason — Bioalchemy's Weaknesses!
Other than the obvious hindrances like Contact Time, Activation Time, and Activity Radius, Bioalchemy's true weakness lay in something else.
Even if Luke could grant a Quirk, he couldn't control it.
Once bestowed, how the Quirk would be used entirely depended on the lifeform using it.
It was like a child awakening their Quirk for the first time. Forget about control, even coming to terms with the mystical phenomenon would be troublesome.
That's why, there was a Compatibility Factor involved in Bioalchemy, i.e., if a Quirk was compatible with the lifeform, then it was much easier to control outrightly.
An even bigger trouble was that Luke couldn't control the nature of the Quirk.
For example, even if he could bestow a Future Sight-type Quirk to Nyx, he couldn't dictate what Sights she would actually see upon using it.
That's why Luke had decided to use Dream Walk and not Dream Manipulation because they already had ample amount of experience in handling the former Quirk in their previous lives.
So, in the end, Luke concluded that the matter of All For One was not in his hands as he was now.
If the opportunity presented itself, then he would try to subtly guide others toward it. Otherwise, he would focus on improving his strength, tackling the situation by himself later.
That's how the second of the two most important things came into the picture.
…
Late July,
"He's doing what?!" Mr. Reijirou's brows shot up.
Sand scratched his light brown beard with a rueful expression.
The personal bodyguard was still wearing a brown jacket over a skin-tight brown t-shirt and brown cargo pants.
His short, brown hair looked wild, as if he had stretched his neck out of a car moving over 100 miles per hour.
"Where is he?" Reijirou asked, standing up. He was in his bedroom, reading the morning newspaper. "Take me to him."
Sand nodded.
Despite being Mr. Reijirou's personal bodyguard in name, the man had only one specific task in the Saionji Mansion — Luke's Safety!
They arrived at the garden and saw an unbelievable sight.
On one side, Aina Saionji, Mr. Reijirou's daughter, was having tea with her mother, her brows pressed together. She was a student of the General Education Department at UA High and had come home for Summer Break.
Her presence at UA High was only symbolic, though.
The Hero Agency she would be working with, for how long, and for what was already decided.
Unlike her, her brother — Rikuya Saionji, was a student of the Department of Management, despite Mr. Principal requesting him to be in the Hero Department.
But, like his sister, what Rikuya would be doing was already dictated by his father.
And that left…
"20… 21…" Nyx cawed, perched on Luke's bare back. "Come on! You can do ten more! 24… 25…"
Luke was doing... push-ups.
Silence.
…
They all eyed him with gobsmacked faces.
It's been over five years since Luke arrived in their home after getting adopted.
Forget working out, the boy barely talked to anyone except for the bird. Forget looking at someone, the boy barely lifted his head to learn someone's face.
As if that wasn't enough, the boy's hair wasn't dyed anymore.
Golden hair, blue eyes, sweaty, thin body…
Just what was going on?!
"I noticed it a month ago…" Sand whispered in Mr. Reijirou's ear. "He's been eating a lot. Working out as well… or, at least, trying to work out… The boy is naturally weak… because… you know…"
Mr. Reijirou frowned.
Bioalchemy cost stamina. With a weekly visit, it had never surprised him that the boy barely left his room till the next visit to the Blue Site.
"He asked me…"
Mr. Reijirou's head snapped toward Sand. "Asked what?"
Sand gulped. "To help him build muscle and stamina… He said he wanted to do better during the experiments."
Mr. Reijirou's expression softened. "And?"
Sand shrugged. "I upped his diet and recommended some light exercises, but… Mr. Reijirou… the boy's serious. He never focused on anything other than books…"
Reijirou looked at the boy as he fell after doing thirty push-ups and got up. His eyes narrowed.
Luke still looked scrawny, but he could spy hints of muscles here and there, like someone had just begun chiseling out a thin block of ice.
Is that why he's showing so much enthusiasm in going to Blue Site? Reijirou asked himself. Every time we go there, he spends hours roaming the place…
From the corner of his eyes, he saw his daughter staring dead at Luke. He sighed.
"You are a military man, Sand," Reijirou said, turning around. "Just how much stamina can he even raise with all this?"
Sand didn't even need to think about it. "I didn't recommend it before because the boy… well, it didn't feel like he would ever go for it. But, considering his Quirk, raising stamina makes absolute sense.
"Also, Luke has half the stamina of a healthy boy of his age. His potential will go through a massive boost if…"
Sand left it unsaid.
Mr. Reijirou sighed again.
"Very well… if he wants to be strong, then let him be — " Smiling a little, Reijirou looked over his shoulder as Luke began doing sit-ups.
"— for strength gained in silence is the kind that changes fate…"
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