Melissa Shield, the 18-year-old genius daughter of world-renowned, Noble Quirk Prize-winning scientist, Dr. David Shield, couldn't believe her eyes as the massive cyborg served coffee to Dr. Blessed.
The sight of a 12-ft-tall impossibility acting as a butler was even more baffling than the eldritch secrets Dr. Blessed had shared with her.
All For One and One For All, the two greatest secrets that were enough to make her gasp already, had just been a start, unfortunately.
The matter of Conformity and Singularity had followed later, ending with Mr. Fool, for whom this organization was created in the first place.
Unlike the former two, Mr. Fool was an outside entity and had no interest in the happenings of the world itself, other than spreading His faith.
The Apostles of Mr. Fool were as much His followers as they were pursuers of their own struggles.
Where Conformity was killing innocents, and Singularity couldn't utter a single straight sentence without talking about fate first, Mr. Fool gave them power to continue this pursuit, asking nothing in return but prayers.
Of course, Melissa couldn't deny that all the talk felt more like a fanatic preaching about some pagan god than an International Criminal describing the MO of his organization.
Still, by the end of it, Melissa had been so overwhelmed by the knowledge of these god-like entities that she had almost begun laughing, experiencing an existential crisis.
Only an hour ago, she had been worrying about her father.
To live a free life, while making sure that she had the power to help her friends and family, had seemed to be the greatest challenge — something to aim for with all she'd got.
But when Dr. Blessed widened the horizons, letting her know of the true horrors that plagued this world, she had almost begun missing her time at I-Island.
If it wasn't for the cyborg… Mushroom-nimi's antics, Melissa was sure that she had just lost her mind.
The massive wonder of bioengineering walked around the table and served coffee to Melissa.
"… Please taste it, Ms. Shield," Mushroom suggested, its voice carrying a distinct robotic tone. "We tried our best to brew it in a way to minimize its bitterness. Master has a lot of money, but he doesn't know how to buy a good coffee…"
"Ptew!" Coffee came blasting out of Luke's mouth, drops trickling down from behind the mask. "Cough… Mushroom-nimi. Iron Mentor and Trick*Step must be arriving anytime. Bring them here and tell them about our guest…"
All the mushrooms on Mushroom's body glowed upon getting a task. "We will bring them back with all our power, Master!"
"…" Melissa.
"…" Luke.
When the excited cyborg had gone, Melissa finally sipped the coffee. "… Whoa…"
"Yeah?" Dr. Blessed chuckled. "They do have a knack, I guess…"
"They?" Melissa frowned.
Dr. Blessed shrugged. "What else? Mushroom-nimi is a cyborg and has no gender. I asked if it would like to be addressed as 'he' or 'she', but they denied both. We are too many to be called He/She, they said. Whatever that means…"
Melissa's frown deepened. Why did it feel like Dr. Blessed had no clue about the cyborg? "… How did Mushroom-nimi join the organization?"
Dr. Blessed put the cup down and looked at her. "… I created it... them. Let that be the norm now."
"Ptew!" Coffee came spurting out from Melissa's mouth. "You… created them?!"
Smiling, Luke flicked his hand, taking a piece of cloth out of thin air and giving it to the girl. "That's one way you can help me out," he said, as a shocked Melissa stared at him with pure disbelief. "Mushroom-nimi is an… oddity. I created the cyborg, but I only have an idea about how it all works. I need someone to unravel the mysteries of the cyborg inside and out along with me."
Now, that felt… normal and exciting, Melissa noted.
Out of all the things, this was the only task that made sense and didn't send a chill running down her spine.
"Look," Luke said, seeing Melissa's emotions all over the place. "I know it's a lot. But now you can comprehend why All Might can't just punch his way out of it, right? The threat of All For One nags him constantly, as the concern for your father's safety nags you. Con and Sin are two wild cards that even I cannot predict… If it weren't for Mr. Fool's blessings, then the entire episode related to the Detention Center would have turned out badly for me, too.
"The point is, this is not the time to worry about things that you cannot sort out. Grow. Familiarize yourself with the world's ill and unfortunate events. Understand the bigger picture. I didn't heed this advice and suffered for it… You must not follow my example. Also, we have two more members with us to help you out…"
Suddenly, footsteps rang outside, and Melissa hurriedly thought of putting on the mask, but then the figures walked in.
It was a pink-haired girl with an eyepatch on her left eye and a tall, old man wearing a large overcoat.
They weren't wearing any masks.
"Oh, my god!" Kazuho held her cheeks and shouted in English before turning back to Japanese, knowing that Melissa was fluent in the latter, too. "… Hehe! I always wanted to do that…"
Melissa's eyes widened. "You are…"
She remembered this girl. During the Wolfram incident, this girl had saved her life. And, from the looks of it, both these members had been expecting her.
As Mushroom walked in and came to stand behind Dr. Blessed, Kazuho and Iwao took their seats to his left, Melissa eyeing them from the other side of the table.
Slowly, her eyes shifted, landing on Dr. Blessed. "So… only you get to keep the mask?"
Iwao and Kazuho winced a little. After what happened at the Detention Center, they had been doing their best to avoid this topic. Of course, Melissa found keeping his face hidden, while the rest of them weren't, dubious.
"It's alright…" Kazuho let out a smile, hoping Melissa would understand.
But Dr. Blessed raised his hand, cutting off her words. Then, to the extreme shock of the three people looking at him, the same hand continued and landed on the mask… taking it off.
Black hair.
Black eyes.
Youthful face.
And carrying authority on his shoulders.
Melissa's breathing quickened as she noticed some familiarities, but failed to pinpoint their origin.
"… The mask doesn't make me your leader," Dr. Blessed said, the hair on the neck of all standing up. "Nor does the face. It's what I represent."
He looked at them all one by one. "Hope."
With a flick of Luke's wrist, three vials appeared in front of Melissa on the table. "Now, choose your path, Ms. Shield."
Melissa gulped as she looked away from the face that the entire world was trying to sketch out, her eyes landing on the vials. Dr. Blessed had already shared the details of these powers that stemmed from Mr. Fool.
If she wanted to stand out in this world, among the Apostles, then she needed to work on her strong points, Melissa knew.
And one pathway suited an innovator like her the best.
Even as the leader had been sharing the details, she had already made her choice.
"I…" Melissa took a deep breath and lifted her head, and found everyone smiling at her. "… I choose Seer."
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