A Precise Note Chapter 21 - Takers

Shiozaki would be perfect for my oral theory experiments.

Within thirteen to thirty milliseconds, the human brain began the process of recognizing things it had seen. Basic features, colors, shape, and motion would slowly start to register in the visual cortex. At around 100 to 150 milliseconds, the brain began recognizing objects and faces, triggering pattern recognition and category detection. From 200 milliseconds and above, conscious perception, emotional reaction, and memory association commenced.

Despite this, Izuku’s brain, at the initial point, roughly between the twentieth millisecond mark, saw Shiozaki Ibara, conducted a brutal, thorough, visual dissection and came to the conclusion that she would be a suitable research partner, if not the most suitable candidate.

Only after the decision had been made did his amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the parts of his brain responsible for moral decision-making and emotional salience, respectively, start firing. It told him that, perhaps, it was a bit inhumane to look at another person and instantly and only see them for their utility; a valuable resource that could be used to further a goal, regardless of how well-intentioned that goal was. It told him, gazing upon a female classmate and immediately thinking of how to proposition her for oral intercourse was not a thing most people did.

Another part of his mind, the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of his brain responsible for detecting moral dilemmas and internal conflict between action and belief, scoffed outright. It told him, if anything, it was the most normal thing a boy his age did. Regardless of excuses, justifications, or reasons, thinking about how to sleep with an attractive girl was the paramount thought on the mind of most male humans at all times and all moments.

Regardless of reasoning, Shiozaki’s arrival had set up a storm of thoughts within his mind, each one battling back and forth. His innate, immediate consideration and deliberation that she was the perfect candidate had not come without basis, and the basis had come from a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning that combined to form what could only be termed: a gut feeling.

The pre-Quirk era Nobel Laureate Kahneman argued that most human beings depend on unconscious heuristics to make fast decisions and use slow, conscious data analysis only when necessary…

As all of this happened, as his thoughts were slowed to a crawl, as his mind caught up with reality, Shiozaki greeted him, loudly, too loudly, with a smile, and immediately grew abashed with the candor of her greeting, all of which, he responded to with a simple, friendly smile.

For a fraction of a second again, his gaze landed on the pendant that hung on her neck, hallucinations created and replayed the images of their previous meeting, and the information, truth, came to him bare and clear.

Shiozaki was a member of a cult.

Though the public image of the Followers of One was that of an S-Rank terrorist organization, those terrorist actions were often claimed to be a result of a vocal, misguided minority. The true members, the true Followers, were simply a cult. They, of course, would decry any who claimed they were such a thing and insisted they were a valid religion. They had, after all, founded churches, temples, and some even went as far as to perform missionary work. They performed actions to prove that there were those amongst them who were good people who simply desired something to believe in, and that the violence, bloodshed, and terrorist deeds were committed by the ‘lost’ amongst them, whom they denounced vocally.

For that reason, one could not see every individual with a Hand Pendant and assume the worst of them. Izuku was not in the habit of judging people before he got to know them.

“Shiozaki-san, do you have a moment to talk in private?”

Kacchan lifted his brow at him. Hitoshi turned to stare at him, and Shiozaki herself blinked in surprise, before nodding in eagerness.

“O-of, course, Midoriya-san.”

He moved somewhere quiet and secluded, under a set of stairs that led to a higher floor, and was at the end of the hallway. He led her and positioned her away from prying eyes because the questions he needed to ask were things that could invoke an overwhelming emotional response.

“Is… is something wrong, Midoriya-san?”

She tilted her head before him, her vine-like hair shifting from side to side. Izuku smiled and took a step forward, his hand reaching towards her chest.

“M-Midoriya-san?!” She backed away.

He held the pendant gently and shook his head. “Can you tell me about your religion, Shiozaki-san?”

Her emotions cycled from excitement and panic, to relief, to disappointment, to excitement again in a matter of seconds.

“You— you wish to become a Follower?”

“I’m curious about them,” Midoriya acquiesced. “Would you be willing to answer a few questions regarding the Followers, Shiozaki-san?”

“Of course, anything!”

Izuku’s brain was moving quickly. Probably too quickly. It was the first day of school, but if he suspected that Shiozaki was indeed the prime candidate, then there was no need to delay matters.

“Shiozaki-san, can I ask, what do the Followers believe?"

“We believe in the One,” Shiozaki clasped her hands. “He is the original one. The First One. The first person with a Quirk. He has the power to give and the power to take. In believing in him, in following him, he will return one day, to take away the ills and ails of the world!”

Her chest heaved, her eyes sparkled, her breath quickened. Izuku took notes on it all. All history books recorded that the Luminescent Baby was the first person with a Quirk, but the Followers claimed their messianic prophet was the original one. It was a thing that could easily be disproven, but for some reason, they clung to this assertion.

Why? An obsession with firsts? An obsession with origins? With the number one? A desire to be number one?

Izuku neither denied the claim nor mocked it; he only nodded and slowly probed onwards.

“Do you know who founded the Followers?”

Shiozaki nodded. “The First Follower. He was the first one whose Quirk was taken by the One. His quirk had caused unspeakable pain to him every time he thought of certain things. Agony and torment. However, the One laid his hand upon his head, and delivered him from his suffering with a single touch…”

Tears stained the corners of her eyes. There was a glossy, distant look, far away in them. Izuku’s brain was thinking rapidly.

Laid his hand… congruent with the hand motif… the symbol being one hand, a palm… a quirk that connects with touch?

Izuku momentarily remembered something Suzume had told him. Suzume-san said Shigaraki was a man with a hand covering his face, and hands holding on to his body. The local thugs called him ‘the Hand.’ Is that a coincidence? 

Beside him, a hallucinatory blackboard came up, and he pinned ‘possible connection between League of Villains and Followers of One’ upon it.

“Shiozaki-san, is there a central text, teaching, or doctrine you follow?"

“We follow the One Word, the Gospel of One— I… I have a copy with me.”

She reached into her hair, causing Izuku’s brow to raise slightly. He had not known Shiozaki could also use her thorn-like hair as a place to hide objects. 

That could be useful. 

She handed him a thin, black book, with no words upon it, except a single palm engraved with the Roman Numeral: I. 

Or perhaps, it was the English letter: I.

Written as it was, there was no difference. 

“I’ll be sure to read it and return it to you, Shiozaki-san.”

“No, no, sharing the Word is the greatest thing I can do. Please, Midoriya-san, you don’t need to return it.”

Keeping the book under his arm, Izuku took a slow, steady breath and prepared himself to start asking the real, hard-hitting questions.

“Where do you live, Shiozaki-san?”

“I—ah?”

The girl blinked.

“With my parents, at the commune.”

Strike One.

“Are the Followers free to decide where to live, what jobs to take, and…” he paused. “Who to date? Would you need approval to date someone?”

Izuku was aware of how his question could be misconstrued. He was aware of the reasons she would believe he was asking this, and the reasons she would believe were behind his true ‘interest’ in her religion.

“I… that… well—” She stammered.  “The Followers… we… we all… must dedicate ourselves to him and his cause at all times, and, sometimes, due to… well, it is not that you would need approval but… just to prevent any who would try and pervert his message… you would need to be… vetted… and given… permission. But… to be vetted… You would need to be an Initiate…”

“So if I’m not a Follower myself, I can’t date a Follower.”

Shiozaki closed her eyes, as though his words had gouged a hole in her chest. “It was decided… such a sacrifice is necessary for the cause.”

On the mental board beside him, a hallucination of himself wrote: Strike Two.

“Are there any other things you aren’t allowed to do, Shiozaki-san? Even if they aren’t illegal or harmful?”

“Other…? I can’t… think of any…”

Suddenly, she went rigid.

“You thought of something?”

“Well… we — we aren’t allowed to… watch… um… things… illicit, sinful, video m-m-materials—”

“You’re banned from… pornography?” Izuku blinked. “Why?”

“B-b-because they’re depraved! Wrong! Sick! They — they do things that… that should be reserved for — for a man and his wives— and…”

“Wives?” Izuku interrupted. “Shiozaki-san, do the Followers practice… polygamy?”

“Polygyny,” Shiozaki corrected. “It is the role of all, good, devout women of childbearing age, to marry and create as many children as possible, so the One can have as many Quirks as possible to use to bring salvation to the world.”

A knot formed in Izuku’s stomach.  The psychosomatic hallucination of the clone beside him wrote on the board: Strike Three.

“Is it okay to read material that disagrees with your group’s teachings?"

Shiozaki balked. “Certainly not! The truth has already been written in full in the One Word—”

Izuku pressed on. “How does your group view people who’ve left or criticized it?"

“They are persona non grata, covenant-breakers and oath defilers,” she huffed. “We do not associate with them, or allow any association with them. Their punishment is exclusion and scorn by friends and family. For more severe crimes or blasphemy, it is said the Prime Follower delivers personal judgment—”

“Are questions and doubts welcomed, or are they seen as disloyal or sinful?"

“It is unwise to question the wisdom of the First Follower, and one must seek penitence and absolution when doubts seep in—”

Slowly, Izuku asked questions. The more he asked, the more he garnered, the more he learned, the more he disliked what he learned. His initial goal, using Shiozaki, had been pushed to the back of his mind. The knot in his stomach grew larger and deeper, and he found himself like Alice, wandering down a rabbit hole of which he had grossly underestimated its depths.

“While in the commune, are you told how to dress? What to wear?”

“On the weekdays. The weekends are days when we can wear what we want. However, they still must be within the decency guidelines—”

“Are there consequences for breaking rules? If so, what kind?"

“The One is said to be able to give and take away, so punishment is given by taking from others… what is taken is dependent on the severity of the rules broken,” Shiozaki admitted. “Sometimes, toys or meals. Other times, it’s clothing,… and for truly severe offences, the things taken aren’t given back. Sight. Hearing. Sunlight. Laughter.”

Izuku fell silent.

Shiozaki looked at him and said quickly, “But — but — these are the sacrifices we make, for the salvation of the world. For the One. Because…we need to make these sacrifices.”

Shiozaki stepped forward, slowly reaching to hold his hands.

“We are all takers, Midoriya-san. From the very day we were born, we take a name, we take an identity, and we take from the air that we breathe. Afterwards, from that day on, we never stopped taking. We take fossil fuels, minerals, and fresh water, stripping the Earth of its non-renewable resources. We take lands, habitats, and forests in the name of agriculture, urbanization, and resource extraction, driving countless species to extinction. We take away the richness and complexity of life that has evolved for longer than we have been here!”

“We take from others, forced labor, unfair wages, poor working conditions, and steal the wealth from workers. We take from time, trading waking hours for wages, personal autonomy for survival! The history of this world, Midoriya-san, is a history of takers! A history of a species that takes and takes and takes!”

Shiozaki panted. She gasped, clutching her chest.

“But it doesn’t have to be. He is the Giver. He has the power to ‘Give.' Because he can give quirks, he can give back the fuels, the minerals, the water, the lands, the habitats. He can give back the clean air, the atmosphere, and the animals that have gone extinct. He can give back the time spent and lost, the relationships lost, the wealth mismanaged, the prosperity forgotten, the joys never tasted. He can give us back our future, a future.”

She stepped forward. “He’s the only one who can. Because he’s—”

“A god?”

Shiozaki’s eyes brightened. They watered.  “You understand, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

Izuku smiled.

“I do.”

XXXXX - A Precise Note - XXXXX

When they returned to the classroom, both Kacchan and Shinso stared at him as though he had grown two heads, entirely because Shiozaki was holding his hand, by his side, and possessed a blissful, cathartic smile on her face.

Kacchan looked at him as though he had grown two heads and mouthed ‘What the fuck?’ Whereas Shinso said nothing, only boring a hole through him with his eyes.

From an outside perspective, Izuku was aware of what it looked like. He had left with Shiozaki, a new classmate and stranger, mere minutes ago, and they returned with her seemingly enraptured in bliss, and clinging to him.

Nothing untoward had happened between them, but by accepting Shiozaki’s worldview, by relating with her, empathizing with her, he had, one way or another, become the person closest to her in a new, strange, and alien environment. He had become a fellow ‘brethren’ of hers.

Kacchan isn’t going to like this. Nor Himiko-chan… nor Toru-chan… nor… anyone… actually.

He was going to join the Followers of One.

In the future, one of his ‘dates’ was going to be him meeting Shiozaki’s parents and the ‘Head Follower’ of her commune, where he would be ‘Initiated.’

As it stood, Shiozaki would never accept that she was in a cult, or that she was brainwashed, and any attempts to correct that worldview would end in failure, disappointment, and distance, if not scorn and hatred.

She had little reason to leave, and would not listen to any logical arguments to leave, especially from a boy she had met only twice and knew next to nothing of. How could she, when the consequence of doing so was to be shunned and condemned by everyone she knew? However, if she were to have someone who would be willing to leave together, and if that someone happened to be a classmate, or something more…

This is going to be the most insane thing you’ll ever do, Izuku.

He had read that the most foolish thing to do was to attempt to go undercover into a cult, into any cult, because the possibility of losing oneself within it was very real, and very dangerous. He was aware of tales of individuals who set out to infiltrate cults and ended up becoming devout believers and advocates of the very cult they had initially sought to bring down.

The only reason he was considering this was because he could control his emotions and emotional state at will.

It didn’t matter if they love-bombed him, threatened, shunned, or humiliated him. Once he put up his ‘Apathy State,’  it would all be sticks and stones. With it, he was, to a degree, immune to the various manipulation tactics typically used by cults.

Cults rely primarily on four methods to control others: Behaviour, Information, Thought, and Emotions (BITE).

An imaginary whiteboard formed in front of him, as he began rapidly taking notes.

Under behaviour, cults dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates, they dictate when, how, and with whom the member can have sex with, they control types of clothing, hairstyles, and regulate diet. They deprive sleep, finances, and restrict leisure and entertainment. Rewards and punishment are used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative. They discourage individualism, encourage groupthink, and impose rigid rules and regulations—

Izuku moved towards his seat at the front of the classroom, slowly leaving Shiozaki’s side, as Kacchan stared at him even longer and harder, again mouthing under his breath: ‘What the fuck?’

Under information control, cults deliberately withhold information, distort information to make it more acceptable, systematically lie to their members, minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including the internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, media, and contact with former members.

Taking his seat and steepling his palms, he only tangentially noticed when the door to the classroom opened once again, and a newcomer, a new classmate, made their way into the room.

Under thought control, cults require members to internalize the group’s doctrine, they change a person’s name and identity, encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts that undermine critical thinking, and teach thought-stopping techniques that stop ‘negative thoughts’ and shut down reality testing. These include: Denial, wishful thinking, chanting, meditating, praying, speaking in tongues, singing or humming, rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, and constructive criticism. They forbid critical questions about leaders, doctrine, or policies and label alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or useless.

Izuku slowly stroked his temples. Those features were, to his irritation, a boon and a benefit. It meant the other cult members would be less rational, less critical of his motives and intentions, and unlikely to suspect his true motives for joining. He was certain he could fool everyone into thinking he was a genuine devotee.

Lastly, under thought control, they manipulate and narrow the range of feelings; they teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, and doubt. They make a person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault. They promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, instilling the idea that a person is not living up to their potential, that their family is deficient, their past is suspect, their affiliations are unwise, and their thoughts, feelings, and actions are irrelevant or selfish. They make it clear there is never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, traitors, heretics, or they were swindled or seduced.

Izuku stared at the board, and the four corners of Behaviour, Information, Thought, and Emotion: the four touchstones of cult manipulation.

If it’s just this… I won’t have any problems. I know their playbook, and I know how to counter their playbook. However, this is the Quirk Era.

Izuku would not put it past the Followers of One to have individuals with either emotion manipulation quirks, truth-sensing quirks, or for there to be one Precog or another behind the works. 

There has to be one, else they would never have allowed Shiozaki-san to leave, much less allow her to apply to a hero school.

It was the missing piece of the puzzle that Izuku could not find. Shiozaki’s presence in UA Academy was a glaring hole that went against every manipulation tactic. The fact that UA allowed her admission was one thing, but the fact that the Followers allowed her to apply was unthinkable. There had to be a bigger reason behind it, a plan, a plot, or a motive, or they had to have some way of guaranteeing she did not stray away from the cult’s teachings even when she was attending UA.

Why is it that every time I help a girl, I find another girl who needs help?

In doing Saiko’s task, he got to meet Himiko, due to helping Himiko, he got to meet Toru, and now, in striving to help Toru, he would be entangled with Ibara.

Is this really worth it? Can’t I simply find a different person for my oral theory experiments instead of Shiozaki?

He could. 

At the same time, he couldn’t.

Shiozaki was already a person trained by a cult and unlikely to question things. Joining the Followers of One meant being surrounded by people already molded by a cult ideology, and even less likely to question things. The experiments he needed to do in the future for his consent drug would require people and a large sample size. Unless he was planning to abduct criminals off the street and use it on them, he would never get anywhere.

Saiko probably had a solution to that issue, but Izuku did not want to be overly reliant on the girl.

One way or another, he was going to need human test subjects.

Within a cult, there were those more likely to agree, less likely to report him, more likely to support him, and more likely to cover up for him.

Taking the hand, literally and metaphorically, of the Followers of One would open many doors previously considered locked. He did not believe there were no members of the Followers of One in positions of authority and power, with access to information, wealth, and influence to lobby for new initiatives, or circumvent bureaucratic processes and the hassles of red tape.

It was likely he would be able to find an answer to the depths of the corruption of the Public Hero Safety Commission, using the doors unlocked through this method.

Of course, there were downsides. Publicly associating with the cult would close several doors, as there were many who hated the Followers and were firmly on the stance of ‘good.’ Izuku was aware of this. Yet, he believed it necessary. The doors that would be closed from associating with the Followers of One could again be opened by virtue of his status as a student of UA Academy and, ultimately, a status as a Pro-Hero.

Izuku ran his hand through his hair, sighing.

Giving and taking Quirks… is such a thing even possible?

The idea sounded too absurd, but if it was true, if there was a quirk that did just that…

A god.

Izuku’s eyes flickered.

“It makes Izuku-kun a god.”

Was what he was seeking to be? Was that what he was pursuing by seeking to create a drug that could rid the world of quirks? In doing so, he would ‘take’ away all quirks. Would that not make him the same as what the Followers worshipped?

Or would it make him the opposite? 

A False Prophet?

A Fake Messiah?

A Devil?

Izuku did not know. All he knew was that his goals would put him at odds with the Followers of One, sooner or later. The only question was, did he want to be caught blindsided by them when it happened and on his own, or did he want to be a member of their higher echelons and knowledgeable of all weapons they would fashion against him?

But if I aim to create a drug that can suppress quirks…

Could I do the inverse?

Could I… create a drug that bestows quirks?

Could I give myself… someone else’s quirk?  

A bolt of electricity had flashed and filled the air with ozone.

It took only a moment to notice the bolt of electricity was not a figment of his imagination. 

Striding into the class with wild, spiky blond hair, wearing a leather jacket atop his uniform, and a set of headphones, the boy moonwalked into the room, before spinning, and giving them finger guns.

“The most electrifying man in Hero Entertainment, Kaminari Denki, has arrived!"