he assessed the man before him: the gloves, the slight tension in his shoulders, the way he seemed just as nervous as jaehan was. the gloves were odd, but some of his friends wore gloves because of their quirks, so he brushed it aside. this guy seemed harmless so far. “i was expecting someone kind of sketchy, but you look fine, don’t worry,” he hurried to answer, still embarrassed by his fumble. “sorry if i scared you. my name’s jaehan.” he bowed his head again out of habit before nodding at the other’s question, more than happy to move on.
he opened his bag and took out a plain white notebook with a little cartoon snake sticker on the front. it was his designated color for the villains he researched; he’d figured it was more inconspicuous than actually labeling it ‘for villains.’
“yeah, i remember him before he turned into a big name,” he began. “i’m honestly surprised it took this long for people to realize how dangerous he is? i’m from incheon, and i used to see these buildings that looked exactly like the decay he leaves behind now, but those got nowhere near the same amount of coverage as the ones today. i kind of wonder if we would’ve been more prepared for him if the earlier incidents got more attention.”
jaehan shook his head to himself. “i guess there’s no use wondering about it now. i was more interested in what happens when he decomposes things.“ he flipped to his notes, which consisted mainly of bullet points and copious amounts of question marks. "like, i guess his quirk is closest to the decomposition process that happens in nature? but when that happens, matter breaks down into nutrients and chemicals that other organisms can use, and it got me thinking, what happens to all the nutrients and chemicals of the stuff that interitus decomposes? especially the… the people.” his voice dropped lower, discomfort flashing across his features. “in the wild, scavengers could get calcium from, like, chewing on a bone of some animal… so do you think interitus could do something similar too? like, get stronger or… or build up more power somehow, from decomposing living things?” he finally looked up at the other man again, only to feel another flush of embarrassment when he realized that he’d rambled for way too long.
“sorry, um– did any of that make sense?”
sungki offered the other a slight smile when he said that he was expecting someone sketchy. that would be the right proper conclusion in general. he would be also amiss in saying that he was also expecting someone sketchy as well, but the teenager was kind of a welcome sight. “i was also expecting someone sketchy, but i am....glad it’s you,” he said, smiling a bit and sipping the hot chocolate. as the younger apologized for scaring him slightly, sungki nodded with a slight hum. “i’m sungki... it’s nice to meet you, jaehan,” he said, picking his words carefully.
he watched as the younger took out the notebook. he had to admit the cartoon snake was cute and it didn’t look like an actual labeled villains notebook.
incheon? did that kid actually say incheon? he remembered that he spent time alternating between incheon and daegu so not to draw attention to himself while he tested his own limits. albeit as a graduate of u.y, he knew his basic limits, but back then he had no idea how far he could actually go and how long. as the younger mentioned that he was surprised that no one really caught on to him earlier and maybe they could have been better prepared for the decaying villain if the earlier incidents had gotten a lot of attention, sungki pondered that. “well, i’m sure that he had his reasons for staying low and local,” he said, thinking back to his own thought back then. “but sure would have helped. at least it would have been more fun,” he added.
as jaehan went on however, mentioning his notes and describing the questions that he’d had and suspected, sungki was impressed. he’d never even would have thought of scavenging calcium and nutrients from other things. the nutrients would boost his recovery time quite a bit and he could take less breaks. it would also mean more energy. he saw the discomfort when the other mentioned people and sungki made the aproppriate disgusted expression, since while it was his own quirk, he could agree. decaying people was gross, but they got in his way. when the younger however mentioned that idea, that he could do something similar like getting stronger or build up more power from living things, sungki quietly thought on that. it was a very valid point and he’d never even considered that. “no, it’s fine. it makes sense,...i’m just processing everything,” he said, thinking still.
“there’s one minor issue with building up power from decomposing living things, and getting stronger, it’s a matter of storing those extra nutrients, that extra calcium. In the news, interitus is more of a skeleton, i suppose. There’s not really any where to store it,” he said. “besides, while decay works very similar to the natural decomposition process, it’s a little more complex than just that,” he rambled on as well. “it’s more like if you sped up the natural decomposition process by a lot.”
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