Chapter 44 Lies and Deceit

“You know, generally I’m the one throwing people into volcanoes,” - Pele, B Class Cape, making casual conversation from under five hundred tons of magma.

As the sun peeked through the early morning, Aiden was sitting in a bus stop, Ranpo beside him, leafing through a book at the crow’s direction.

Then Aiden snapped shut the encyclopedia.

“Fugu pufferfish, black banded sea krait and the cone snail huh.”

Aiden1507: I won’t be present at school today.

WrenWood: Are you alright?（●´･△･｀）

Aiden1507: I’m fine, I just need to do my ability evaluation, I’ve already called ahead with the school.

JunMoon: Oh ye u hvn’t fin that yet

AspiringTubaSquire: I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK!

AspiringTubaSquire: TO BE FOUND WITH THE STRENGTH OF AN OX! THE DEXTERITY OF AN OCTOPUS! AND THE CONSTITUTION OF A HEDGEHOG!

JunMoon: Wut do hedgehogs hav to do?

WrenWood: Hedgehog? (•ิ_•ิ)?

AspiringTubaSquire: MY WAY OF KINDLY SAYING YOU LOOK VERY FRAIL!

AspiringTubaSquire: Because I'll be honest, you are rather skinny!

LuKing: Next to brutes like you and Jun anyone will look frail

DarKing: Fucking Josh ate a baseball bat to the face, there ain’t nothing that can move the idiot

Aiden1507: Hedgehogs are incredibly dangerous to predators, I’ll take it.

Aiden1507: Also, a baseball bat? When did that happen?

JunMoon: Oh ye afterschool baseball prac

AspiringTubaSquire: The bat slipped, BUT MY FACE WAS HARDER!

JunMoon: He was goin fr a home run

Aiden1507: Are you ok?

Jun then sent a picture of a metal baseball bat that had a noticeable nose shaped indent in it.

He briefly felt the bridge of his own nose, imagining the durability contest between his face and a metal bat, knowing full well it would result in his loss.

Aiden1507: Well, as long as you are ok.

AspiringTubaSquire: I MOUNTED THE BROKEN BAT ON MY WALL! MUM IS INCREDIBLY PROUD!

JunMoon: Oh ye @Aiden1507 can u teach me how to cook the food for Fluffy?

Aiden1507: The mix I prepared for him earlier? Yeah I can show you, it’s very simple.

JunMoon: Grt, aftr school, my place

WrenWood: You guys are having a pet meet? I wish I can come with Milo o(TヘTo)

Aiden1507: How is that cat? Is he well?

WrenWood: He is! Even mom gave me her approval after seeing how smart he is!

＼(￣▽￣)／

Aiden1507: How did Milo demonstrate intelligence?

WrenWood: He broke into her office! Didn’t even trip any alarms! Mom found him sitting on her chair when she returned! (๑˘︶˘๑)

“The classification system we use for Spawners is termed SARPP-VIC,” the official explained to him. “Standing for Source, Amount, Range, Power, Permanence, Variability, Intelligence, and finally Control, we rate them each up to a total of ten, and the final average total is what your spawner ability is ranked as.”

Aiden nodded along as he read the handy infographic detailing the numerical levels of each category.

“This is pretty simple, answer my questions about your abilities, give a demonstration or two, and we’re good, shall we begin?”

“I’m ready,” he replied, putting down the infographic.

“First one, source, describe to me where your spawns originate from.”

“They originate on my skin as tattoos, after which I can move them onto inanimate objects to animate to living. They have difficulties animating a body that is not of their shape, and I can’t make the same spawn twice in quick succession without reabsorbing the previous one or doing a certain action.”

Ignoring the vagueness of the latter part, the official jotted down on his notepad, “How long does this ‘certain action’ take and does it require anything in particular?”

“Can take a few minutes to weeks or days, depending on what I made, though I have made it pretty quick, and I only need some easily accessible things.”

“How much preparation do you need to create a creature?”

“I can spawn the tattoo immediately,” Aiden replied, demonstrating with a quick flash of octopus tentacles across his flesh arm, “the problem is finding a suitable body to hold it.”

“You’re on the lower end then,” he replied, pen now moving to an official looking document, “I’ll put you as a four out of ten for Source. Next is Amount, what is the total number of things you can spawn? Are you aware of an upper limit?”

“I am limited by the amount of Hume I have,” Aiden replied, “With my current Hume level, I can create a total of about eight large dog sized creatures, or something bigger but lower in number, or smaller with greater numbers.”

“Not surprising, also on the low end again, but with potential to be better, a four for now.”

“Oh yeah,” Aiden added, “I can use my tattoos as stores of Hume, since I regain all Hume spent on one when I reabsorb it, which can temporarily raise my maximum Hume level.”

The pen paused slightly, “Hume storage is notable, are you capable of transferring this Hume to others?”

“I was successful once,” Aiden said, recalling the time at Last Stand when he pushed his tattoos into Jun’s body. “Though it felt to me like an application that did not seem original to the power, I based it off the ‘Transfusion’ meta technique which I have heard about.”

“You must have some innate talent with Imbuement, given the nature of your power,” he replied. “The ability to prepare and increase your maximum is notable, I’ll bump you up to a five. Your Range?”

“I’ve had a flying spawn explore the city, he has been to the city limits and has been fine, though anything past that seems difficult,” Aiden lied with a completely straight face.

The official raised an eyebrow, “That is a significant range, minimum six. How powerful can you make one?”

“I am limited to real animals that exist within the laws of reality,” Aiden answered. “I could make something on the strength level of an elephant or rhino, and everything lower than that.”

The official thought for a moment, “Power five then, though your Variability would be around a seven, what’s your Spawns’ Permanence?”

“I’ve had the flying one around for several weeks, it has yet to disappear,” he answered. “I’m not aware of a time limit to its existence.”

“That is a very good time,” the official replied, nodding, “permanent creatures would easily land you into ten, though since we can’t confirm it yet, I’ll put you as a six. What about Intelligence and Control?”

“Intelligence wise I can make them intelligent enough to speak and communicate, though I have limits,” he replied. “For Control I am limited to verbal commands and any pre-programming I place during its creation, I am unable to telepathically control them or do something like see through their eyes, they act independently from me.”

A frown, “That is quite problematic. Intelligence would be a solid six or seven, but your lack of ranged Control would land you as only a three.”

Finishing writing, he said, “Protocol dictates that I place your values on the lower end for first valuation, with the expectation that they increase in time. Intelligence I shall place at a six for now. I require you to demonstrate each of these scores to ensure you are capable of them, shall we move into another room for this?”

Aiden nodded, standing up from his chair.

The next few tests were very simple, they just needed to confirm he was minimally capable of all the things he had listed, with intelligence he had simply demonstrated by calling Ranpo and having him communicate information with him through a wall.

Leaving him with only one last test.

He was sat down and blindfolded in a room the size of a very large gym, and something was wheeled in, something that gave him a sense of discomfort.

“Is that Bleed?” Aiden asked aloud.

The wheeling paused, “You sensed it as soon as it entered the room?”

Aiden nodded, “It’s coming from the left of me, front left, I can feel it is about two-hundred metres away.”

There was a sound like a measuring tape being unfurled, quickly being pulled next to him. “Correct, it’s one-ninety-two metres away from him,” the man beside him said.

“You can take off the blindfold now,” a voice further away said.

Aiden did, noting the non-descript rock which was placed on top of the trolley cart. If it weren’t the source of the Bleed he felt, he would’ve completely ignored it.

“That is a significant Bleed sense,” the official remarked. “A few more tests, we’ll need you to describe the location and movement through walls and other obstructions.”

He was found able to sense Bleed easily through walls, though the weaker the source the closer he had to be. That rock was an old remnant from a Gate and thus he lost track of it past two-hundred and ten metres.

Stronger sources he could sense further away.

Around three pm, he was let go, in his hand was a new document detailing his abilities.

“Spawner five is what they settled you on huh,” Ranpo said, peering at the document from his shoulder.

That and Regen two, which was a known factor after he had lost his hand and the mechanism of his regeneration was revealed to the Guard.

“A successful lie,” Aiden murmured, heard only by Ranpo.

Ranpo nodded, he had done the math as Aiden had his Bleed Sense tested, quickly calculating Aiden’s true Spawner capabilities.

He had settled on Spawner seven or eight.

Almost every one of his values were higher than Aiden had pretended they were. Most of his scores were closer to nine or above, as ten meant effectively no limit in that category. The only exceptions were Source and Control, which both agreed were a two and a one respectively, compared to the four and three he was given.

Two for the simple reason his Spawns also took memories and emotions, while for Control, Aiden had absolutely no control of a tattoo once it left contact with him, all that he could rely on was preprogrammed instincts which could be overturned and the creatures’ loyalty to him.

Though Aiden had also left out the fact that he could ‘wear’ his tattoos, gaining their capabilities in a way similar to armour or equipment, which both agreed would also give him a Shifter two rating.

So his official MCS rating was:

Spawner 5

Regen 2

While his true one was likely:

Spawner 8

Shifter 2

Regen 2

Aiden sighed, “I get what Trist meant by these things being unreliable.”

Ranpo cocked his head, “How so?”

“Spawner eight sounds impressive,” Aiden replied, “only two off being considered a God-rating, but the drawbacks of my power are enough that I won’t be able to demonstrate such a level without a lot of prep.”

‘And a lot of sacrifice,’ he thought but didn’t say.

“Plus I can’t really control anything stronger than me,” he muttered.

“Is that why you have yet to create anything stronger than a house cat?” Ranpo asked.

“Part of the reason,” Aiden replied, “the other part is how the fuck do I take care of something like an elephant?”

There would be nowhere for it to live, eat or sleep, and though he could shrink it down, without a body actually the size of an elephant, creating one would be rather redundant, and where would he put a massive elephant body? His apartment certainly wasn’t going to fit.

“I’m going to need a large zoo if I want to fully use my power,” he murmured, rubbing his brow.

Right now the limitation of space and resources meant he could only really use a minor portion of his abilities. “I might be able to make a dog and work with it,” he murmured in thought. “Though its cost of living will have to be added to my budget.”

Currently the cost of Ranpo’s food and board were negligible, all he had to do was buy a few nuts and Ranpo was fine nesting on a pillow.

“Hey, I’m a net positive, remember?” Ranpo cut in, “If it weren’t for me, you won’t have stupid birds buying food off you.”

“That is true,” Aiden replied, just as they returned home.

More crows were waiting on the balcony, and Aiden methodically prepared a large dish of bird feed, a mixture of nuts, mealworms and some fruits.

As he slid open the door, the crows flapped away and made space for him to place down the dish, then left him space to count their spoils.

A large number of notes.

Ranpo had told them that humans valued the notes more, which was a difficult thing to get across through crow culture as they valued more solid and shiny objects like coins.

Judging by the nests that were starting to spring up around their neighbourhood, the crows gave him the notes while keeping most of the coins for themselves.

The few coins that were given to him, if Ranpo’s intuition was correct, seemed to indicate friendship.

There were fewer large notes this time, the crows seemed to have given them all that first time, leaving him with only a few fives, tens and twenties, in total, eighty-five dollars.

After sorting the notes and putting them away, he sighed, “I can’t believe the most lucrative job I have right now is bird feeding.”

Aiden had prepared enough bird feed to last the week, and it only cost him around thirty dollars, even if he had bought particularly high quality stuff out of guilt. On the first day he had already made a net gain of fifty dollars, and the crows would only return later on in the week, bringing more money with them.

Both labour and cost wise, this was the most efficient method.

“Should I expand into more areas?” he muttered, biting the nail of his thumb as he thought.

Currently he was limited to this house and only a singular ‘shop’. Aiden could theoretically expand and get more buyers.

The only problem was the source of the money.

Unlike his gallivanting killing mimics and finding lost cats, this application of his power was criminal in both Law and morality.

His outings as Tāo Tiè would get ignored because even if he was blatantly breaking the Law by earning money with his ability, he was helping people by doing so, actually contributing to society. He did it for a paycheck but he still did it.

Earning money through actual thievery was a significant leap from there. There was a degree of separation since he got it from the birds, but he could not argue ignorance on the money’s source, as it wasn’t likely that the crows had jobs or legal sources of income.

He can’t scale up for the simple reason he would be breaking the unspoken rules. If corvids started suddenly mugging people in broad daylight, such a disruption, even if not the strangest thing, would be investigated and might eventually lead back to him.

So keeping operations small scale enough that military police looked the other way would be best.

“Where are you going now?” Ranpo asked as Aiden headed towards the door.

“I need to drop something off at school,” he replied, “then I’m going to Jun’s.”

Finding Trist’s office was simple, it was a room on the top level of the gym. Knocking on the door, he heard a “Come in,” and entered.

Trist put away a book she was reading, tapping her desk as she turned to Aiden. “Yes?”

Aiden went straight to the point.

“I would like to apply for the advanced Meta Techniques class.”

Trist’s tapping stopped.

“Do you meet the needed requirements?” she quietly asked him.

Aiden pulled out a form which he had swiped earlier.

The advanced Meta Techniques class was an extracurricular class that allowed students to begin learning Meta Techniques several years early during non school hours.

There were two main requirements.

“I have a method of storing Hume for later use, and my grades speak for themselves.”

The first was to have the Hume to begin safely practising without risk of fading away, generally this occurred at seventeen years of age for geneline children, but there were exceptions, some simply had more Hume, and some had powers that allowed the user to store Hume for later use.

The second requirement was to have exceptional grades.

Aiden was a Grade A student.

It had only been five weeks, but to the almost thirty year old soul inside Aiden’s body, most class and homework amounted to nothing but simple busywork. He had already completed the majority of the subjects in his previous life and Grian was extremely ‘chill’ regarding Visual Arts grades, giving everyone good marks even if they didn’t pay much attention.

Only Four’s Magic class and Trist’s Self-Defence were anything new. However, the lack of pressure from his other subjects meant he could devote most of his time to them.

Trist took the form from him, glancing it over, seeing everything filled out and written neatly.

Seriously considering the paper before her, she asked, “Why are you looking to do this, kid?”

“I wish to begin earning a military salary as soon as possible,” Aiden replied.

Even with all the bullshit he started doing, working with Huang, doing odd jobs all across the city or feeding crows, he could not reasonably achieve his goals with such chump change.

He was breaking even, not saving Jaiden.

A military salary, even with a portion going to his student debt, was significantly more reliable and higher paying.

Not to mention it accelerated him earning a Metahuman Licence, allowing him to legally acquire money through his power, which meant a significant expansion of his current scope.

Trist put down the form, looking seriously at Aiden.

“You chose a very bad time to do this.”

Of all the responses he had prepared for, this one caught him off guard, “Why?”

She shrugged, “Currently military secrets, though you should learn soon enough.”

Aiden frowned, “Would it affect me in any way, should this application pass?”

“It might,” she answered vaguely, “you might see some action, though there is also a chance you won’t.”

“Then my answer remains the same,” he replied calmly.

“Isaac is the one teaching the class,” she replied, “it’ll be his choice whether you go through or not.”

“I understand that.”

She waved her hand, “Anything else?”

He shook his head, “That’s it, thank you for your time.”

Isaac stared at the application, neatly written at the top, was the name Aiden Bu.

Everything was filled out correctly, including the MCS rating which he seemed to have only gotten this day.

“Are you going to accept him?” Trist asked, wrinkling her nose as she sniffed his office.

He put down the form, turning to Trist, “How is he doing in your class?”

“He has a good head,” she replied, “sensible, a lot more than most others. Steady and quietly reliable is my impression. He’s mostly been in the background, and has yet to really make an impact on anyone in the class.”

She rapped the desk, “That is precisely why I didn’t throw it out immediately.”

“He’s hiding a lot,” she continued, “I’ve yet to see him use his power in a serious setting, and though I have his MCS I have the gut feeling it isn’t fully accurate.”

Isaac scoffed, “I thought you always thought those things were bullshit.”

“His one feels particularly bullshit,” she replied, leaning back into her chair. “So? You think it’s worth getting him in that propaganda unit?”

During normal times, Isaac would’ve simply rubber-stamped this application.

Currently however, war with Hell loomed in the distant horizon, and though it may be years or decades before it occurred, policy was forced to shift in preparation.

“It depends,” he replied, threading his fingers, “do you plan on adding him to this ‘Junior League’?”

Trist scoffed, almost insulted by the insinuation, “Not when I don’t know what he can do, and there are plenty of better options in the older classes.”

“For me or Tang Rou to pick him would require him displaying something that makes him more valuable than a senior student,” she told him. “And we already have a list, we’re just waiting for the official announcement before we make offers.”

Isaac nodded, “Then I think I can approve this application.”

“I think this is for the best as well,” Trist replied, “one way or another Hell is going to be a problem in his time, accelerating his schooling wouldn’t change that fact.”

He nodded in response, though in truth, there was another reason he had approved of Aiden’s application.

His Hume level was abnormal.

Not because he had an abnormally high amount from experiencing a Defining Moment, but because he had an abnormally low amount.

Isaac had grasped Aiden’s Hume level relative to his own during that brief moment when he had disabled his power, and for a survivor of a Requiem, Aiden’s Hume level was too low.

The more impact a person had on reality, the more Hume they got from a Requiem. Naturally, people who were older tended to have greater gains than younger ones.

But Isaac had had his Requiem around the same age as Aiden was currently, and with his knowledge of Freddy’s Hume level post Requiem, he could figure out that Aiden could not have gotten more than a year’s worth of Hume from his Requiem.

Isaac’s current low level was because he had spent the majority of his Hume Imbuing his one decent gadgeteer creation, creating a Focus, but Freddy was freer in his use, so he still retained the same level.

Isaac began jotting down notes and reminders, one to contact Freddy once he finished his mission, and the next he began crossing out days in a calendar.

“What’s this?” Trist asked with passing curiosity.

“My predictions of when my Gadgeteer trance will appear,” Isaac replied. “I finally have enough data to figure out a pattern, so I can plan for the future.”

Judging by his predictions, Isaac would just have barely enough time to train an additional class in Meta Techniques before his ability whisked him away.

It would have to do.