Chapter 42 The Cost of Power

“When you reached the top, do you still remember why you climbed?” - Megalovania, S-Class Super Villain.

Aiden notified the local waste disposal company through a phonebox, repeating the address where the mimic bodies were dumped.

HELP! MIMICS!

Payment: $200

Resolved by Taotie

Aiden squatted down and sniffed the dried and desiccated corpse of a golden retriever, the dog was practically mummified.

He turned to the grieving old man beside him, “Don’t worry, I’ve got the scent now.”

On the dog’s neck was a massive hole, as if something had punctured through it.

Following the scent to the local park, in a lake surrounded by trees, did Aiden hear the loud buzzing that was described to him previously.

A massive, blood engorged mosquito clawed itself out of the underbrush, its wing flapping wildly, yet they were not strong enough to allow this almost bowling ball-sized creature to fly.

It tried to rush him, its long spindly legs surprisingly agile.

It could not reach him, but Aiden’s snake arm certainly could.

Find out what killed my dog

Payment: $80

Resolved by Taotie

“Johnny snake arms is starting to sound less and less like a joke,” Ranpo said, remembering how he had resolved the last two cases.

Using the enemy’s aggressiveness to trap it within the Umbrella, then finishing it off with a long snake arm that could move freely within the Umbrella due to being directly attached to Aiden.

“Tāo Tiè still sounds better,” Aiden replied, before gesturing towards the top of an old abandoned house. “Can you talk to it?”

Ranpo followed his gesture, towards the massive birds’ nest where a four-eyed magpie stared down at them. “Oh because all corvids know each other do they?”

“It’s worth a shot.”

Ranpo snorted, before cawing at the mutated bird.

The magpie quirked its head before it cawed back.

“Oh, you take that back about my genitals!” Ranpo yelled in response. “Go get him boss!”

Aiden rolled his eyes, “It was worth a shot.”

When Aiden broke out into a running sprint, the trees around him rustled, as the leaves shot out from the trees and flew like knives towards him!

They paused when they entered the Umbrella’s range, but when Aiden ran past the frozen razor leaves, they resumed movement, causing them to slash at his skin with dozens of small cuts.

Seeing an unknown power, the magpie cawed and manipulating the nearby leaves, created a blanket which raised the nest and flew off with it.

Aiden stopped, watching with slight regret as the paycheck escaped.

Though the animal was likely only defending the contents of its nest, magpies in particular got really aggressive when chicks were involved.

Wiping some blood off his cheek he said, “The Umbrella isn't an omnipotent defence, if I walk into an attack, it will enter the unaffected zone and proceed as normal.”

The cuts were already scabbing, leaving behind irregular red lines where the leaves had slashed.

“Projectile manipulators like that one are a problem,” Ranpo agreed, “After it entered the thirty-centimetre safe zone, the leaves could be freely manipulated.”

“I think I would also have problems if I walked into a melee attacker.”

“That depends,” Ranpo replied, “They would need to practically stick to you or enter the inner range of the Umbrella.”

Glancing absentmindedly at the cuts on his clothing and skin, Aiden took a note, “I need to bring a bag with extra clothing and nutrients, probably a medkit as well.”

He glanced at the spot where the nest was.

“Do you think we still get a partial payment?”

Kill the manifested magpie that attacks passersby

Payment: $100 $50

Resolved by Taotie

Note: Magpie is still loose

“I’m starting to remember something.”

“What?” Ranpo asked.

“A decent exterminator would probably cost you $500 back in my world, more if your house is large.”

“So now you think we’re actually getting underpaid?”

Aiden raised an eyebrow, “The novelty is wearing off.”

“So is this job worth it?”

Ranpo gestured at the small convenience store, where the roof had fallen in.

Inside, all surfaces were covered in a writhing layer of maggots that spat out a strange clear slime.

From a distance of several dozen metres away, it actually looked like the store was filled with sticky white rice.

“Unless you have a flame thrower on hand?”

“I believe that is called arson,” Ranpo commented.

Clear out the bugs infesting my store!

Payment: $250

Unresolved

“This is much easier,” Aiden murmured, his serpent arm coiled around an increasingly panicking cat.

“I think the owners want her alive.”

Aiden shrugged, “If you can lend me a hand- oh wait, you can’t.”

“Is that a pun I hear?” Ranpo asked as he landed on his shoulder. “I wasn’t aware you had humour inside you.”

“Stranger things have happened,” Aiden replied cheerfully as he returned the cat.

Find our beautiful pet cat, Lucy.

Payment: $50

Resolved by Taotie

Aiden counted the money in his hand.

“$380 after a single day of work…”

He counted it again, almost afraid the money would evaporate from his hands.

“This is more than a Bachelor's Degree makes after graduation.”

“Is that a lot?” Ranpo asked.

“It is a salary comparable to someone who has several years of experience within their field,” Aiden drew the comparison, before shaking his head, “Sadly it’s not sustainable. I can only keep up this kind of pace for a few more weeks.”

He took out one hundred dollars in notes, then stashed away the remainder, “This is enough to pay for the bike I need for Huang’s job and for replacing this set of clothes…”

He paused slightly before he took out the entire wad of cash, “No, I have to spend this all on more durable clothing, or one that is easily and cheaply repairable. There are tinker and meta shops that sell good, durable clothing for this purpose.”

“Why so?” Ranpo asked, quirking his head from his feeding bowl.

“It’s simple,” Aiden answered. “Say you have two people, a middle-class person and a poorer person.”

“For their job, they both need to buy a pair of boots, say a good pair of boots cost about three hundred dollars. But the poorer person has a low salary, he only earns about five hundred a week so he cannot save up for the boots. Instead, he buys a pair for say, fifty.”

He continued, counting the money again as he spoke, “The middle-class person can afford the three hundred dollar pair of boots, and they are good boots that last him ten years. However, the poor person’s boots only last him a month, or even only a few weeks.”

Aiden put down the money, “In the end, the poor person buys a new pair of cheap boots every month, spending fifty dollars every time, after a decade, he would’ve spent thousands more on a pair of boots than the middle classed man.”

“Why wouldn’t the poor person just save fifty dollars each month for six months and buy the boots?” Ranpo asked, his head quirked.

“Because the boots are needed for his work,” Aiden replied, “Maybe he’s the breadwinner for his family, and if he doesn’t have boots his boss won’t let him work due to safety regulations, or maybe he uses the cheap pair for the six months and the water and muck seeps into his socks, causing him to catch a disease on his feet, forcing him to rest in the hospital and shoulder treatment costs, along with missing more time at work.”

Aiden shrugged, “The boots can be replaced with a thousand other things. In the end, the easiest way to make money is to already have money.”

Ranpo was quiet for a moment, “... Poverty really sounds expensive.”

“Be glad neither of us was born into it,” Aiden smiled.

Continuing, he spoke, “We’ll use the initial payments for this week to invest into more durable gear, along with a to-go bag with a medkit inside. Along with some highly preservable foods.”

Something like that nutrient bar the military medics fed him after his trip to Last Stand, though it was boggling expensive, if he ate one after the encounter with Johnjohnjohnjohn then he would not have had any problems dealing with the remaining goblins.

To him, that kind of nutrient-dense bar was a hail mary and second wind. His innate regeneration worked wonderfully when there was something to supply it.

The durable clothing was a good idea even if he didn’t plan on constantly engaging in combat, one must was an indestructible pair of glasses. His current one was barely holding up, and using eagle eyes could only enhance his sight by so much, it also came with the problem of not allowing him to see in the dark.

His eyes flittered as he mentally calculated the cost, “It should total to maybe a thousand, I need to spend tomorrow doing commissions like today, along with the work I get next week from Boss Huang, I should be able to pay it handily.”

“You’re still just barely breaking even though-”

Suddenly, there was a tapping coming from the balcony.

Aiden and Ranpo both turned towards it and saw that tapping the glass sliding door, was a murder of maybe five crows.

One, that was missing a leg and scarred in one eye, cawed towards Ranpo.

Ranpo blinked.

“You can’t be fucking serious.”

Aiden, who mentally began calling that crow Uno due to it missing its leg and eye, asked, “What’d they say?”

Ranpo didn’t have a chance to reply before the several more crows flew down.

Some were carrying shiny coins.

Some of them were carrying green notes of money.

“They want to buy food,” Ranpo spoke disbelievingly.

Aiden’s expression froze.

Silently, he walked towards the balcony, sliding open the door, the crows backing off, leaving a small circle with a pile of money at the centre.

He squatted down, and silently looked over the pile, not yet touching it.

Aiden saw at least two fifty dollar notes, along with six twenties, a number of tens and fivers, along with a pile of golden dollar coins and silver cents.

“Ranpo, how did they get this money?”

With a strained voice, the crow asked, “Do you really want to know?”

“What is the danger of me knowing?”

“You might not take it, knowing its origins,” Ranpo replied.

Aiden closed his eyes, silently repeating under his breathe, “Ignorance is bliss, ignorancing is bliss…”

Don’t think of what the birds might’ve done to amass this pile of wealth, think only of Jaden, think only of her laying comatose in her bed…

After a while, Aiden’s eyes flittered back open, “How much food do they want?”

“Enough to feed all of them?” Ranpo hesitantly replied.

“For how long?”

“The expectation seems to be just this day.”

And Aiden realised something.

The crows didn’t actually understand how much this was all worth.

They just understood that humans used money.

Aiden stood up, walked back into the apartment, and dragged out the twenty-kilogram bag of bird feed he had bought for Ranpo.

After showing it to the crows, whose numerous beady eyes had all locked onto it, he gathered the money into a bowl, before dumping the entire bag of birdseed onto the balcony.

The first to step forward was Uno, who began eating its fill, emboldened by their actions, the rest quickly descended, pecking at the plastic to rip open more openings to feed from.

Aiden counted the money they had given him.

And sighed.

He sighed deeply as if he had suddenly realised his life’s work was meaningless.

The bag of bird feed cost him thirty dollars, it was enough to last Ranpo alone for several months.

The crows just gave him $348.55.

“This feels wrong.”

Catching onto his tone, Ranpo quirked his head, “Committing actual crime compares to this?”

“This feels worse…” Rubbing his brow, he muttered, “I just… I never realised I was the type of person to care so much about working for a living.”

If he was female, was this the point where he opened up an OnlyFans?

‘No,’ he shook his head, the prerequisite for that was that he needed to actually be attractive. If his current malnourished state was any indicator, a female version of him would likely be lacking in those areas.

Then his treacherous mind began to question the requirement to be female to open an OnlyFans, and Aiden almost attempted to use Colorful to purge his mind of that idea.

The next day, after doing a few more commissions, earning a total of $430, he brought home two sets of tinker created clothing, outdoor pants and hoodies that were significantly more durable than any of his current clothing, as they were immune to cuts, burns and even bullets to a certain extent, a few bars of nutritionally dense foods, a tinker made gym bag to carry all of it, and finally a bicycle according to the specifications Huang gave him.

He still had about three hundred dollars left.

“In the end, the fucking birds paid for my savings,” he muttered.

“Do you regret it?” Ranpo asked.

“I feel morally dubious,” he answered honestly.

At least with Law, he understood that the vast criminalisation of the meta population was the desired intent, meant to fulfil several conditions for a power grab. It was endorsed by society to a certain extent, and thus, ‘morally acceptable’ with big air quotes.

But the crows?

Even if on a much smaller scale, the amount of money they gave to him was simply suspicious. So he had no choice but to worry about it while knowing it would be best to not know.

He sighed and continued with the stance that it was best not to think about it.

“Should we do that test tomorrow?” Ranpo asked.

Aiden nodded, “Yeah, you need me to borrow several books for that right?”

The crow nodded.

“I have a training room booked for the occasion,” he said. “Boss Huang needs me on Tuesday, and I’m nearing my month limit to register my power…”

“Can’t you apply for an extension?”

Aiden shrugged, “It’s best to get some version of it out there, I’ll embellish a few details, such as you needing to stay within a certain range of me, or saying my tattoos can’t greatly improve my own body’s function.”

His enhanced senses and wall climbing were already revealed at M.I.A, and some people also thought he was capable of controlling a large swarm of crows. It was true to a certain extent, in the same way a store manager’s only power was to pay their employees.

Throwing in some real weaknesses, such as his creations learning to become independent after a while, would also help with this.

Aiden decided this mostly so that he could lay low, for now, he didn’t want the attention of something he couldn’t handle, and he didn’t fully trust his government to not get grabby if they thought his power was good enough.

Powers that created secondary powers like his Umbrella was also somewhat common amongst Spawners, who mainly fought using secondary agents. Generally, the more spawned, the less individually powerful each Spawner’s creation was. So his ability copying wouldn’t be too great of a problem if he also pretended there was a limit on the number he could create and control.

And if he was forced to reveal more tricks later? Then he’ll just say he discovered it and put off adding it to the registry.

So all that was left was figuring out how he could produce meta powers tomorrow.

Excitement and anticipation came hand in hand.

He spent the majority of the day tapping his foot, waiting for the final bell to ring. Aiden long thought himself free of such habits, but some things never went away.

“Anticipating something?” Jun whispered next to him.

Aiden shrugged, “I’m meeting Boss Huang for the job today,” he lied.

She had a thoughtful look.

“Maybe I should do something like that…”

When the final bell rang, Aiden walked with noticeable speed back to his locker, bringing out his bag filled with books, he briskly entered the gymnasium, Ranpo landing on his shoulder as he pushed open the door to the private training room.

“Spread the books out,” Ranpo ordered, “and turn your back while I flip to the right pages.”

After a moment of flipping, Ranpo got to all the pages he needed, “Alright, first, check the wolf.”

Aiden nodded, glancing at Oros, who was pure white at the moment, he reabsorbed the Dire Wolf tattoo that he had on his body for the past few days.

He suddenly became slightly more aware of himself, as Oros raised its head to look at him. Rainbow scales sprouted from the serpent’s head, spreading down its body.

About the same length, as the Hume spent to create the tattoo.

“So when the Hume is full, reabsorption overfills Oro’s body…” Ranpo quickly deduced.

Though almost as quickly as they appeared, the rainbow scales fell off of Oro’s body, shedding itself on Aiden’s skin, their colour draining until they disappeared.

“I can create much larger creations with this, but I need to do it quickly before they’re dissipated,” Aiden followed on.

“Works well enough,” Ranpo said, there was the sound of shuffling behind him. “I’ve placed a book behind you.”

He nodded, knowing well enough what they planned to do, moving his hand back to feel the book, he brought it to his lap.

Behind him, Ranpo flew to a keyboard, pressing several buttons, letting a projector lower down and project a screen in front of Aiden.

He looked down and read the entry in front of him.

The City of Youth, Tír na nÓg.

The projector showed a video, the perspective of a wheeled drone that moved through the dense underbrush of some jungle or forest. Quickly, it neared something, its camera rising to see a common high rise building.

Except it was almost entirely formed from wood and vines.

The camera kept going forward, entering a city entirely formed from plants, as it moved, its camera rose to see statues of people, almost entirely formed from plants and vines. Seemingly frozen in time. There was a couple who held a vine where a still dog mimicked walking. Cars made entirely of plants waited behind traffic lights of the same, where red, yellow and green leaves mimicked their function.

Statues of people sat in cafes, raising cups and reading spread out leaves like newspapers.

None of them moved, as if frozen in time as this drone kept moving forward.

It was as if Aiden was looking at the most complex garden hedge decoration ever concieved.

The video neared its end, towards the centre of the city.

Where a single massive tree grew, its body curled around a clear glass orb, as blue as the sky.

As the drone neared the tree, it saw something inside the orb.

A single tadpole, its body made entirely out of green wood.

Then the tadpole saw it.

And suddenly the video turned strange.

The blue sky in the background turned grey as a bright white line drew a half circle, numerous smaller lines with a dimmer light spun itself in the sky, as suddenly all the plant statues came alive around the drone. The couple walked their dog with casual grace, the people drinking at the cafes lifted their mugs, and the wooden cars moved as the traffic lights gave their signal.

It ended then.

“The ability Tír na nÓg,” Ranpo introduced. “It is definitely a meta ability, everything that enters that tadpole’s city wide radius is turned into a plant like version of itself. Flesh is instant, but machines and non-organics require the user’s attention to be turned.”

“The plant versions are slowed down significantly,” he added on, “they experience life at an extremely slowed down pace, a decade of ours equates to a single minute to them. They aren’t frozen in time, just moving too slowly for us to catch unless we observe them for years on end.”

“And what happened to the video?” Aiden asked, examining the curved white lines that dotted the grey sky.

“The drone also experienced this, the last few seconds of video is the automatically compressed result of several years of recording,” Ranpo answered. “The sky looks like that because it was slowed down so much that the sun, moon and stars appear like nothing but lines of light in the sky. This effect does not end when an object leaves the city, people who leave Tír na nÓg are often unable to interact with normal society or even survive because they move on a completely different timeframe.”

Aiden nodded, “This may be a poor idea for a first try, but here we go.”

He raised his finger, and he thought of that tadpole, he thought of the ability Tír na nÓg.

Nothing happened.

“A somewhat expected result.”

Ranpo nodded in agreeance.

“Next up,” he flipped the pages of the book in front of him, arriving at a picture of a marble Greek statue.

Xotan ereu, the Idols of Parasitism.

Flying back to the keyboard, Ranpo typed in the name of the creature, and the projector showed numerous pictures of statues, some cut open to reveal the truth inside.

“Xotan ereu,” the crow explained. “Otherwise known as the parasitic statue.”

“It is a species of evolved fungi that have incorporated an ability,” Ranpo said. “They grow in the shape of statues, creating a hard mineral shell that mimics the hardness of a statue.”

Aiden glanced down at the book, where a dissected portion of the fungal colony was revealed, showing a white, sponge-like interior.

“Its ability allows it to feed off ‘adoration’ and ‘attention’,” Ranpo noted, “it is believed they didn’t originally look like statues, and later selectively evolved into the shape by pure random chance, as human attention granted it the best chance of survival, but also needed to be discrete enough they weren’t annihilated.”

Aiden once again raised his finger, only thinking of manifesting a small, tiny portion of what he desired.

Nothing happened.

“Another failure,” Ranpo muttered. “I’ve placed another book behind you.”

Aiden reached behind him, not looking at the scattered pile as he brought the book forward.

What was pictured in front of him was some manner of beetle, but not one that he recognised. It was about the size of a lighter and had a large abdomen. It was held in a hand, and a diagram beside it showed an inside view of its abdomen.

Aiden paused as he recognised the portions within.

They were extremely similar to the separated sacs of a bombardier beetle.

“The lighter beetle,” Ranpo introduced, “Brachinus flammus. An evolved form of bombardier beetle that can produce fire.”

The projector showed a man with a lighter beetle, squeezing it a few times, he made it spew out a flame, and he lit a cigarette with it.

Aiden once again read the details of the Brachinus flammus.

It created its flame through a purely chemical based reaction with the air, its abdomen and body were also adapted against high temperatures.

Aiden raised a finger, and thought of the creature.

A tattoo soon covered his finger, and a small flame spewed out from the tip of his index.

“Success…”

Aiden blinked in surprise, feeling the real heat warm and scald his fingers, before he blew out the light. Reabsorbing the beetle, the memory returned to him as normal.

“It seems like creatures that follow the laws of physics can be made, even if they have strange abilities,” Aiden determined.

Ranpo nodded, “Good to know, but we’re here to figure out the method to mimic a meta ability.”

Flying beside him, Ranpo flipped through the pages of the first book, until he landed upon a spread of a stony three-legged frog.

Symbol of Wealth, Pearl Frog.

“The results of a Bleed effect,” Ranpo explained as Aiden read through it, “these frogs were forcibly merged with clams, and feed in a very similar way. They are capable of forming pearls inside their mouths of a superior quality.”

“But it seems like they are dependant on this Bleed effect,” Aiden noted, seeing a paragraph detailing the attempt to purge the Bleed from the creatures.

None of the frogs survived the tests once the Bleed naturally dissipated or was removed through the applications of a high level Savant or rare ability.

“They’re used as a symbol of wealth in many countries, their low maintenance makes them a preferred pet amongst the rich. Some even use them as ingredients for medicine.”

Not that surprising, given what a Health Potion was made from.

Aiden once again raised his finger, and attempted to create the creature.

Nothing.

“I can’t create a Bleed effect it seems,” Aiden said.

“In line with previous observations,” Ranpo agreed. Next, Ranpo pushed another book forward, Aiden took it, seeing an illustrated creature.

“The Red Sugar Glider,” Ranpo introduced, “It was observed by a person who crossed a Gate and explored an Earth-like world, presumed to be an alternate version of this dimension, where the physical laws are exactly the same and Gates are not a problem.”

Mammalian, Aiden noted, appeared much like the sugar gliders he knew of, except a bright crimson in colouration.

Nodding, if this world was really a one to one of earth’s laws, then he should be able to make it.

He tried and,

Nothing.

Aiden frowned.

“This is slightly less expected,” Ranpo said, flying down beside him. “Flip through more of the book, see if you can make anything else.”

Aiden did.

The entire book documented the various species that lived on the Earth-like world Carmin-3, they documented their biology, their habits and environment. All of it was plausible, yet Aiden could not create a single one. Perhaps there was an unknown Bleed effect or meta ability associated?

“We can disprove belief,” Ranpo quietly said.

Aiden turned to look at his companion, an eyebrow raised in questioning.

“This book is purely fictional,” the crow explained. “None of the creatures within actually exist.”

Realisation dawned on Aiden’s face, “You were testing whether or not the abilty mimic block was mental.”

Ranpo nodded.

“Good job,” Aiden replied, turning back to the book, “This is so well written and documented I actually believed it to be of a real world and real creatures.”

And he still failed to create anything, “This means that the generation of creatures is not based on whether or not I believe it could exist.”

“However,” Ranpo added, “when you actually create a creature, your bias and perception of it flavours how it will act.”

“That’s why I could create an intelligent crow but not an intelligent koala,” Aiden agreed. He simply perceived one of the exemplary traits of a crow as intelligence, but not with a koala. “In which case my perceptions matter when I want to enhance traits.”

He casually patted Ranpo’s head, “You did well with this.”

“It… it took a while to find a book with the exact specifications I needed,” Ranpo said with a strange tone. “If you had looked at them when you borrowed it, this wouldn’t have worked.”

“We would’ve figure it out eventually,” Aiden said, “show me the next one.”

Ranpo nodded, a renewed gleam in his eyes as he pushed forward another book.

“Replicating Pin Badges, they appear like human-made pin badges but when attached to a person, they takes cookie-cutter shaped bites out of the person, creating a new one after each bite…”

Failure. Its reproduction was linked to a meta ability, that was why it was instant the moment it ate.

“The Surveillance Bird, a pigeon that can attach itself to any surface much like a gecko, and when still appears exactly like a surveillance camera, with the tail end appearing as the camera…”

Success, it had no paranormal abilities, its appearance was the result of a gadgeteer messing with genetics, proving Aiden was capable of creating ‘created’ creatures.

“Parasitic Hair Pin, a species of mosquitoes that have evolved to look like beautiful hairpins, feeds off humans by sucking blood directly from their heads…”

Another success, this one confirmed the results from the Surveillance Bird and Lighter Beetle.

“The nation state of Emus, who rule over the western portion of this continent…”

Failure, the intelligence of the Emus was dependant on a Thinker ability that was passed down through the species.

“The Shadow Cat, a cat like entity that lives on the surfaces of objects, often appearing like a black shadow…”

Failure, the creature was the result of a Bleed effect.

“Delivery Mimics, you met those just last Saturday…”

Failure, some portion of its biology seemed to require an ability to function.

Failure.

Failure.

Failure.

Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure.

When Ranpo frustratingly kicked away the last book, not one of their attempts to replicate a meta ability or Bleed effect had succeeded.

“Have you tried copying one of your classmates?” Ranpo asked.

“Trying,” Aiden replied, now laid on the cold floor with his hand raised above him. Cycling first through the memories of his friend group, then his other classmates, then random people he had met on the street. “Nothing but failure so far.”

“There has to be something we are missing,” Ranpo muttered. “Your stupid Umbrella came out just fine.”

“Maybe it requires me to be life-threatening danger?” Aiden suggested.

The crow shook his head, “No, the conditions we know so far are all related to each other somehow, even tangentially. I think we might be down to our last option.”

They both glanced at the Umbrella, laid beside Aiden.

Reabsorb the Umbrella, quickly figure out what he lost to create it and recreate it before the Hume overcharge wore off.

“That should be our final option,” Aiden said, the ability the Umbrella had simply too good to recklessly test its creation.

“I don’t have any ideas left,” Ranpo said with frustration.

“Maybe there’s something we missed,” Aiden calmly suggested as he flipped through the books.

His hand slowed as he came to the page with the Gapple.

“I thought you failed to make that one as well,” Ranpo said, remembering Aiden’s numerous staring contests with the bag of Gapples in the kitchen.

“I did…” Aiden muttered, his eyes was reading the page, not fully paying attention around him.

And Aiden learned the story of the Godfather’s Apple.

In a wasteland near the north of the continent now name Afrikaans, where the corpses of devils and demons littered and stained the land till nothing could grow, there lived a farmer.

He was one of hundreds of nameless individuals, and though the village became a wasteland and the people migrated to the sea, he had to stay behind. He had a sick, bedridden son whom he cared for, whom he knew would not make the journey alive.

He broke the dried and dead land, working under the blazing sun, his food slowly dwindingly as time went on. His olds crops withered and died, barely even a sprout could grow from Hell corrupted lands.

On many days, he consumed dirt to stave off his hunger, sparing all his food for his sick son.

Until one day, that son crawled out of his bed, his legs atrophied from disuse, his muscles withered and almost dead, the son tried to raise a hoe and break the land along with is father.

The son could not, for he was too weak, malnourished and burdened with disease, he could barely stand, let alone raise the hoe to farm.

Even as the father tried to bring him back to bed, the son fought weakly, but fiercely against. The son begged his father to abandon him, to save his own life migrating to better lands.

The father was moved.

And at that moment, was born the ability of the S-Class known as the Godfather.

With his new ability, he could force plants to grow, create nutrients in the soil when there were none. He hybridised new plants that could survive the harsh environment, slowly purifying the land of the Hellish Corruption that tainted it.

The son grew healthy, now with better food to eat, he grew strong, and people eventually moved back to the village.

And yet, it was said that the Father was not satisfied.

As outsiders came, they told him of other places, of other people suffering just like him. They asked to go and save them as he had saved this wasteland.

But the Father could not, for his ability was centered around him, the miraculous growth effects ceased when he was a certain distance away, if he left, the Hellish corruption would return to his village, it would waste away without him.

He saved his son, he saved his village, but he could not save everybody across the entire world.

But he wanted to.

And so, he sacrificed his future, activating a Swan Song.

The Swan Song brought him to the maximum possible potential of his person, and with it, he created from a potato and several strains of fungi, a fruit that could feed a person, that could be grown anywhere, and revive dead lands.

When the Father began to crumble away, he was asked why he did so, why did he waste his life to create this!

And he simply said,

“Is it not the duty of the father to feed his children?” Aiden read aloud, his face unreadable.

And so was born the Godfather’s Apple, a proclamation that all who ate it had him as their Godfather.

He was later posthumously awarded as an S-Class, after the sheer survivability, nutritional value and environmental repair the Gapple was capable of came to light.

Aiden raised his hand, appearing like he was reaching for the sky.

The tattoo of a Godfather’s Apple appeared on his hand.

Ranpo was shocked, staring at the paranormal creation, before Aiden reabsorbed it.

Tears immediately fell down his face, as the memory of the story returned, and the emotion he felt, the emotion he had bottled up as he was reading, now slamming back all at once into his mind.

“Why…” Aiden raised his hand, he kept trying to wipe the tears, but they kept flowing no matter how much he wiped them, no matter how much he tried to blink them away, no matter how much he tried to not show weakness.

The tears still flowed.

“I see now, what the condition is…”

His eyes seemed to move to a far away place, as suddenly he was no longer sitting on hard steel flow, but on a soft sandy beach, where black waves lazily lapped at his feet.

Aiden turned around and saw him, Johnjohnjohnjohn.

“I can make you,” Aiden said.

The hobgoblin nodded in agreement.

The beach receded, and Aiden was back in the training room, wiping wet tears off his face.

He recreated the Gapple on his hand again, and with the Gapple tattoo still existing, he read the story of the Godfather again.

And he felt nothing.

He coldly read over the words, registering their meaning, but he felt no emotion, nothing at all to the story of struggle that made him weep a moment earlier.

Aiden reabsorbed the Gapple tattoo, now knowing the cost of mimicking an ability.

Emotion.

Something that was deeper than a memory, something that affected him on a fundamental level, which he would lose upon mimicry.

“I can make a hobgoblin,” he hoarsely stated.

Aiden could gain the strength to rip apart steel, to break concrete as if were a biscuit cracker, he could get the explosive power that caused a building to crumble.

All it would cost was the emotion he felt in his chest when Johnjohnjohnjohn talked to him.

All it would cost was his empathy.

Aiden shook his head.

“I promised you, I would not forget you,” he spoke quietly, almost like it was a mantra, a core unshaking belief.

Because no matter what, a promise still had to mean something.

He could eventually mimic all the powers of his friends, he knew that.

All he needed to do was feel something.

Right now, they were friends, good friends, he might even lose sleep if they died.

But they did not shake him.

They did not affect him deeply, he still felt of himself as an outsider, his old inner age a continuous barrier against real connection with mere children, he merely tagged along with their antics.

His impression of them wasn’t strong enough.

“But if it was, would I still be willing to forget them?” he asked.

He couldn’t find a good answer.

He turned to his Umbrella, now feeling a deep sorrow.

He lost something to create it, something that might’ve been negative, something that might’ve been positive, but he still lost something that was once a part of him.

He forgot an emotion, one he may never feel again, so long as it remains separate from him.

He cannot create an ability without strong emotion, he cannot lose a strong emotion unless it was associated with an ability.

That was the Condition.