Chapter 171: Truth and Trust
__________ POV Beru__________
"Ok, can someone explain what the fuck just happened?" Don asked in a rather hurried and panicked tone.
This meeting is more of a rush, as I just teleported everyone in our meeting spot and showed them the news report I had just heard.
"Feels like a bad omen, we didn't prepare for people finding out things this soon," Yori said while staring at the screen, even Nemuri has a concerned look on her face... Why do I see a tinge of guilt in her eyes?
"Yeah, no shit~," I said while trying to remember the shit we all just heard.
Apparently, some shadow group sent a letter to the Egyptian Government and briefed them on the fact that the sinkhole might've originated from a quirk.
More specifically, form the quirk of a newborn baby.
The letter detailed the most bare-bones understanding of Kyudai's ideas about Quirk singularity and it seems to have been written in a hurry.
Officials don't seem to have any idea who the sender is, only that the letter came from Japan. Although sceptical, they started looking more into the concept of quirk singularity.
And they also seem to be keeping their research transparent to the world... Which isn't exactly great for us.
"I mean... No matter how you look at it, the answer as to who is responsible for this is obvious..." Yori seems to be rather stone-faced right now, I guess he's just a bit tired or something.
Both he and Don stared at Nemuri for a bit... Fuck sake, this looks kinda bad for her, I should try to at least defend her a bit since bringing her here was my decision.
Nemuri herself isn't doing much to defend herself, she actually couldn't look guiltier even if she was purposefully trying to.
She's just standing there, staring at the table. Like a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
"Now now~ It's not like we're the only ones that can come to such a conclusion~ Kyudai's papers aren't exactly a state secret, as we've pointed out~
There are plenty of others that could've come to this same conclusions as us~ Maybe some of the people we talked about this with spilt the beans~"
It's not like Nemuri is the only one besides the three of us that knows about the world ending. The people at that fancy party all can come to some conclusion on their own.
"... C'mon Beru. I may not be the smartest one here, but the timing is really shitty for your cause." Don said with a wry smile.
Fuck, I hate this cunt so much. Why is he like this?
Damn, I feel like I'm both, directly and indirectly, insulting myself...
"It hardly matters anymore... What's done is done. It would've been helpful if you told us about this beforehand..." Yori said while looking at Nemuri. I mean, at this point, I can't even do anything to defend her.
"... sorry..." Aaand she's admitted to it. Fuck sake.
"I-I thought that maybe telling the world about it would make things easier for us. Maybe if they find out about it they wouldn't mind taking in the cure you guys made..."
"... To be fair, I think most of the people in this room expected something like this to happen. You seemed the idealistic type, so it was obvious that something would happen." Damn... Yori is really laying out the facts. Like usual, I guess. He's not exactly the type to bullshit around.
Nemuri set her gaze back onto the table, it's making me feel a bit sad for her. I just reached over and stroked her head a bit. It's the bare minimum emotional support I can really provide at this point.
In truth, I was also concerned about Nemuri doing something like this. I was planning to keep a closer eye on her for a while, I was giving her some time to think about things, and I got wrapped into helping All Might and Nezu...
"No reason to keep crying over spilt milk. It's not like they will instantly prove Quirk Singularity. They don't really have the same resources as us." Don is at least making things less uncomfortable.
He's also right. We could easily prove Quirk Singularity, even get video proof of it, because we have both All For One and my quirk. The only other way to simulate that is through Kyudai's methods of extracting and implanting quirks into people, which they also don't have.
In short, they have no way to really get their answers anytime soon.
"That's true~ It's unlikely they'll even be able to prove anything with their investigation~ At least from this one incident~" Things will become more obvious after a few more incidents like these occur in other hospitals in different parts of the world, or even in other parts of Egypt.
"That's true... We should start preparing to make things public after a while. For now, let's just keep trying to do our jobs. Don, how is the expansion going?" Heh, at least we're changing subjects a bit.
"Nothing too bad... Local African warlords are a problem. The resistance they show is annoying. I'll have to rush things now..." Don has currently already started expanding the influence of the 'Grigorev Family' to the African continent.
We're still using that name as our puppet. Little Vlad's identity will be a great scapegoat in the future if things go south. The best part is that dead people can't refute any accusation thrown at them.
We kept on talking about random things for a while. I tried to implicate Nemuri in the conversation, but she's still rather guilty about the whole mess she's caused.
At the end, she's finally mouthed a few more words.
"S-so... Can you guys forgive me? I-I understand that I messed things up a bi-"
"If it was that big of a deal we wouldn't have changed subjects so quickly." Damn, Yori didn't even let her finish things.
I guess it isn't that great a deal when you think about it. It would've been a lot worse if she did a huge press conference and announced our research to the world, an anonymous letter is ok enough I guess.
"Everyone would've found out eventually, at least we would've told everyone after a few more incidents propped up. We just didn't want to rush things. Thankfully, that letter doesn't change too much, it's just given them some clues." I guess she had no way of knowing most of that, I can see some relief in her eyes after hearing that.
"Still... I'd appreciate it if you would refrain from revealing our secrets any further." Yori's words would usually be taken as a threat by any outsider, his tone certainly didn't help that perception.
But I know he wouldn't be threatening Nemuri, he's just saying what's on his mind.
"Yes... I won't do this again." She said with a sigh. I guess this settles it then...
"Well then, that was a nice meeting~ I think we should try to hurry things in Africa~ Don, make some clones of yourself and go ham on those African warlords~ We can't really afford to waste anymore time~" What we lack now is capable soldiers.
I mean, we have Don's group of augmented retirement home soldiers, but they aren't really enough to fight a few armies.
I also forbade him from using Twice's quirk since having a single version of myself to talk with is already enough. But it really feels like there's not much choice to be had.
It won't take more than a few days if he could make enough clones.
"Understood... I'll take care of things swiftly then." Don got up and warped himself away. I could see a bit of confusion on Nemuri's face, but I'll explain things later.
"I'll also get going. I think I found something of interest. A quirk that might help us with the Nomus. You might want to visit me in a few weeks." Yori's words instantly made me turn my head towards him.
"Damn~ Why'd you keep something this important for last?~" I had somewhat given the task of looking for a suitable quirk to Yori and Don.
I don't really have any access to regulated networks, although I could gain it if need be.
I figured I don't really have to attract any attention by searching up in governmental databases.
"You're sure about it?!" Nemuri seems just as surprised as me, I've already told her the whole story about the Nomus and our failed attempts to fix them.
"I had somewhat forgotten, as other headaches arose in this meeting. And yes, I am relatively positive." I could see Nemuri looking a bit guilty again, but hey, at least he's positive.
Yori wouldn't say that he's positive unless he is truly confident about something.
"Great~ I'll visit you sometime next week~" Yori just nodded as he opened up a misty gateway behind him. He walked right off and left us with a wave.
"... Welp~ At least we have some good news on the table~," I said, trying to make the situation less awkward.
It's a bit hard honestly since she technically betrayed my trust to some extent. But I guess I have no right to complain since I kept things from her for so long.
"Yeah..." Yep, didn't work for shit. But at least she's aware that her letter didn't affect things as heavily as it otherwise would have.
"Let's head back home~ I bet there's plenty of things you want to tell me about ye?~" I said while also opening up a gateway and extending my hand towards Nemuri...
A hand that she took with quite a bit of hesitation, this is a bit annoying, but whatever.
I have plenty of things to worry about, her awkwardness will fade after a night or two.
Maybe this is a bit insensitive of me, but I did kinda open up to her, told her just about everything, and she responded by accepting me, hiding her worries from me and then proceeding to break my trust.
I guess if my self-esteem was any higher I wouldn't have forgiven her this easily. It's not that big of a deal though(thankfully).
... I have a lot of shit to clean up now though. There's also the underworld in Japan trying to recover as of late, I need to deal w-
Nah, fuck that. I'm not the only hero alive. I'll leave Izuku and his friends to deal with Japan for a while.
If they needed me at every turn of the way then I'd really have wasted my time training them so diligently.
For now, I'll focus on the Nomus, since Yori said he found something. Not today though... I really feel like lazing around today.
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