First World: Chaos.

"What do we have here? You're even more fired up than usual. But-"

Unhurriedly dodging and parrying his flurry of blows, it grabbed Edison's leg and slammed him hard to the ground.

"-it's too much for my liking, Edi."

BANG!

Seamless cracks expanded throughout the Void, but as if it had a will of its own it quickly mended itself.

Staring down at the motionless body of Edison who got slammed, it indifferently sat on his back.

Not forgetting to manipulate its weight to increase the burden, it again looked at him with contempt.

"Timing couldn't be more awful. What's with the precision, the fuck are you trying to hit? Santa? Cause he sure as hell doesn't exist. And what's wrong with that little temper of yours, got rejected or sum?"

"..."

"Well, I guess your speed and power increased a bit, but it doesn't matter, not like you could do shit to me anyway. So what if you're fast? Won't do anything if you try to hit me like an untrained and inexperienced amateur. Power? Won't work if your opponent found your rhythm and times it well enough...Seriously what the fuck happened? Thought you'd be better than this."

Getting no response, it suddenly changed its form.

"Edi, is this what you want~?"

Edison showed no acknowledgment of its existence, though, at the corner of his eye, he could see that this 'guy' changed into Madison.

"How boring."

Alternating its form back to a mass of constant movement with spirals of black-like ink coursing through its humanoid body, it swayed its head.

"*sigh* This won't do."

Edison felt some kind of force pulling him off the ground, now standing face to face with it, it bored its eyes resembling black beads into his countenance.

"Hmm, you look dead as hell. Some trauma from childhood? Well, not that it concerns me, but care to explain?"

As it waited, silence passed while time kept flowing.

Still looking into his unresponsive face, it unexpectedly started shaking Edison like a child.

"C'mon, asshole. My time is limited."

"...did I fail?"

"Fail you asked."

It stopped shaking him while tilting its head to the side, seemingly annoyed.

"You always failed, but always got back up...still failed though."

"...last time."

Hearing the words coming out of his mouth it mockingly snickered.

"Last time you say? It was barely passable and it took you over a decade for this minuscule amount of progress."

Looking at Edison who had his empty gaze set on it, it oddly looked away.

"...that's fine."

"Hmmm?"

He walked away before turning back and taking a stance.

"Progress...is effort."

Edison emotionlessly said while some kind of desire appeared in his eyes and noticing this familiar look radiating from this stubborn kid, a toothy grin appeared on the being's menacing face.

"Good...let...whatever the hell is bothering you out-"

Instantaneously disappearing from their spots, they both clashed in the middle creating a mini shockwave.

"-and control it!"

...

..

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{1st POV, Jared Lorenz.}

What is this?

It feels hot on my skin, the fire and smoke filling my lungs.

The feeling of hopelessness pervaded every fiber of my being.

I desperately tried to put the surrounding wildfire out with water magic, but I can't seem to focus...

Hey...why did the screams disappear?

Why would anyone do this...?

As I madly consumed mana to pour water over another area, I saw the remains of what seemed to be a family.

"...hey?"

I absently flew down from the sky and tried to shake them but at last...

"Yeah...of course. What was I thinking?"

It was hopeless from the beginning.

So what if I saw everything that happened? I could do nothing but watch...

Adventures? Thrilling? The relics of the past?

"Fuck...who am I kidding...this is reality."

Looking down at their corpses, I realized something that almost broke me to bits.

Moving closer, I saw what I assume to be a mother holding her child, yet...

"Yet..."

My eyes couldn't move away, as it burned this forsaken image to my memory.

My hands shook while my body trembled.

They were just going about their day until this happened...

Innocents burned and died because of some psychopath with a twisted desire to ruin everything life had given.

Tak...

Tak...

Tak...

Hearing some footsteps, I numbly turned over to see who it was.

"Ah..."

A child.

Hope had returned to my eyes.

A survivor...at long last, yet as soon as hope came to be, it only served to fan the feeling of despair and hopelessness, a foolish dream that showed nothing more than carnage and destruction.

The kid gave off a weird vibe before it rushed toward me.

"Hey, what are you doing!? Stop!"

Quickly dodging by jumping to the side, I saw it shredding the building alongside the deceased into bits and pieces, displaying raw madness and ruthlessness.

"No..."

My body automatically dodged again, before I looked at the kid.

"No...please...don't make me do this."

As a Mage, this all seemed too familiar to me.

The bane of magic that only taboo mages in my world use...

Mind Control.

And this one, in particular, seems irreversible to revert them back to normal due to the change in nature in this world and different methods of using the said ability.

"I can't...I can't..."

I mumbled over and over again as the child in front of me mindlessly tried to slaughter.

But, it seems like...

...there's only so much I can do.

My hands twitched as I quickly appeared behind him.

I grabbed the child's head.

"...please let it be painless."

A burst of mana erupted from my hands, before encasing the child's whole body, rendering him immobile.

With trembling hands, I invoked the incantation.

"Artic Explosion..."

BOOM!

I backed away, seeing the surroundings get frozen and pierced with shards of ice, I looked at the remains.

Falling to the ground I gasped for breath.

Even then, the relief of defeating an enemy this time brought no such thing as honor and happiness, only grief.

Not bothering to look at my state of body, I took the time to look at everything.

"..."

Tak...

The moment I heard the sounds of food steps again, despair took hold of me.

"Please...enough."

I refused to turn my head around.

I didn't do it!

Please...

"Kiddo..."

But, what I heard was the voice of a gentle old man.

I turned back and saw them again.

"Ko...Kojiro?"

As I choked on my words, I saw him with a lost look while behind stood Musashi who carried...

...Mr. Caddel in her arms.

"Is...he dead?"

I quietly asked the question.

Fortunately, she shook her head, albeit it looked forced.

"He's unconscious."

Though, it was Kojiro who answered in her stead, as Musashi couldn't focus anymore.

Looking at them now...

They all look disheveled, however, I can only imagine what they had to deal with.

I'm not gonna pretend like I was the only one who suffered a huge mental scar because for all I know they suffered just as much.

So with the remaining strength, I had left, I mustered everything I could to stand up only to feel someone picking me up.

"Let's go...we have to."

Kojiro's hoarse voice carried hints of rage and sadness. It was obvious that he also said that to himself as a form of distraction and comfort.

As he carried me and headed on in a random direction, I quietly looked behind, seeing Musashi slowly but steadily following us.

That happy-go woman was long gone, as she carried on a look of cheerlessness and bleakness.

Looking at Mr. Caddel who was being carried in her arms, I watched as his right arm dangled from the side like a corpse.

However, it seems like she also noticed the detail and gently placed his arm back on his stomach.

"..."

I...can tell, the things we experienced won't be the end and worse of it, I'm sure.

My eyes droopily closed themselves.

'But what can we do but prepare ourselves?'

...

..

.

--------

{3rd POV}

It has been several days since the massacre.

As expected, the incident spread like 'a virus', appearing in every broadcast around the world.

The Veiled Wildfire of Okinawa Island.

That was the name the incident was given, as death counts added up to a total of more than 900.000. The remaining survivors who luckily lived in a safer area had immediately evacuated while heroes made their way there to investigate.

"It's useless."

One of the heroes at the scene said with a frown.

"We found you..."

"The fear you aroused in everyone...you will pay."

Clenching their fists until they became devoid of blood, the other heroes at the scene had the same thought.

Though, among them, an oddity could be seen as one of them gave off a subtle smirk.

'Let my romance begin...'

--------

Kyoto, Japan.

"..."

A young woman meditated on her bed in a hotel room, deep in her sea of focus and calmness.

She wore casual clothes, though from time to time she would squirm in her place due to not being familiar with this style of clothing.

As her eyelashes slowly fluttered, her eyes snapped open, revealing a set of unique pupils.

"..."

With no emotion on her face, she pulled her hair back into a bun and tied it into a ponytail.

She looked in a certain direction, specifically the door as it opened itself to reveal an old man and a youth.

"...Welcome back."

"Yeah."

"Hmm."

Walking in, they sat at a small table and released sighs of relief.

"We found some activities."

"Is that so."

"But...we couldn't find anything else. Kojiro had already destroyed several of their branches but-"

"No leads."

"Yeah, right."

Seeing no response from Musashi as she blankly peered into the distance, Jared recounted their stay here.

It had been several days already since they left the island with the help of an evacuation team.

Coincidentally, it was due to them that they were able to get here without trouble because upon seeing a certain someone's condition, they took priority in transporting them onto the mainland.

Thus, using the phones they had gotten legitimately from 'him', and with the help of Jared who already had experience with smartphones, they quickly got the hang of it and adapted to the modern culture of Japan or the world in this case too.

With pickpocketing skills rivaling 'him', Kojiro stole an abundant amount of money, though they made sure it was from the thugs, not civilians.

Applying said money to buying several commodities, like clothes, food, and a large enough hotel room, they quietly settled in and immediately took action.

As Edison was still in a deep comatose state, Musashi insisted on staying behind to look after him, while both Kojiro and Jared went out to do some cleaning.

Using his All-Seeing Eyes of Ethean and Kojiro's remarkable scouting skills, they made a mess of the Lost One's plans or otherwise known as the representative of the Outsiders in this universe.

However, even with all that, they couldn't find traces of him, but they found one thing that disgusted them to the core.

During one of their cleanouts, Kojiro had stumbled upon a weird-looking basement after decapitating all the Quirk users in the building without much of an effort. Getting confirmation from Jared that it was safe to go, he still cautiously treaded in the unknown...only to see something that made his veins pop in his temple.

Numerous rusty torture devices could be seen, while massive tubes of capsules with liquid within them spread evenly on the sides, yet what made him seethe with rage, was the children caged in like animals and dried blood on the experiment tables.

Dried blood, meaning some of the kids had been experimented on, and looking back on how crazy they were in Okinawa Island, he concluded that some servant of this scum also took part in doing this.

Keeping his composure the best he could, he gently sliced the cages open, and looking at the fear and confusion in their eyes, his kind grandpa side couldn't help but come out.

Comforting them with words and reassuring smiles, Jared also came in and took hold of the scene, forever burning it in his memory.

Luckily most of them only suffered from minor bruises and malnutrition so they quickly picked them up and...

"..."

Hearing some creaking sounds, Jared came out of his thoughts, as he heard one of the doors open.

Looking at the little heads poking out, he kindly smiled at them.

That's right, they bought another hotel room that connected them together and of course, they couldn't sneak them in the morning, so our Jared here had to improvise a bit.

Since they were in a relatively high place, he used flight magic while picking them up one by one and dropped them off at the balcony where Kojiro would welcome them with his gentle smile.

"Ohh, the little ones are here. Haha!"

Seeing them made his mood much better as he heartily laughed.

"..."

Musashi peeked at the kids.

'...'

A sudden thought came to her mind before she quickly dismissed it by quickly shaking her head.

'Must not succumb to cuteness.'

Silently chanting a mantra, she distracted herself by looking at 'his' sleeping figure.

Edison had a peaceful look on his face while his body was covered in sheets in her bed.

A small but subtle smile came upon her twitching face.

'Must not succumb to cuteness overload.'

Continuing her chant, as silent as he may be, Edison's mind was anything but tranquil...

...

..

.