When the ritual finished the summoned girl's thread unraveled like wet cloth. Her pale skin darkened, the temporary flesh collapsing back into soil and dust. Ryuuto watched the dirt settle, then the terrified shell he'd used as a vessel—the unconscious officer—gave a soft, final exhale. He didn't linger to tidy the scene. Lessons learned; tools collected.
The experiment worked. Impure World Reincarnation—ugly name, ugly art—answered. Two hairs in a bag and a few drops of blood had called a lost witness for five minutes. That was all Ryuuto needed: proof the technique could pull souls and carry them, briefly, into the present. In another life, if he ever pushed far enough, he could call up far worse—names that would make gods sweat. He smirked grimly at the thought. "Thanos, planet-eater," he muttered under his breath as he walked away, "one day I'll see how you taste."
On the way back to Axville, the world felt like a pressure cooker.
Before Magneto's declaration, mutants and humans had a brittle peace. After it, everything splintered. Conflicts flared across cities; protests became pitched demands. In the U.S., states were marching and calling for a military solution—some even pushed to cordon mutants into special zones. The government shuffled, afraid: mutants were few, but their powers made them impossible to confront head-on. How do you arrest a man who can rip steel like paper?
The latest promise from a pharma firm flashed on every screen in the school lounge: a experimental "Null Serum" that, in theory, could suppress mutant abilities and render a subject human again. The scientist on-screen spoke measuredly, eyes hungry for funding. "Under the premise mutants don't use their powers, this drug could restore normal physiology," he said. "We believe results are days away. We ask for calm."
Ryuuto watched, Charles, Ororo, Jean, and Scott beside him. The room hummed with tension.
"What do you think?" he asked.
Charles' voice was steady but tired. "Let people decide freely. I won't interfere."
Ryuuto snorted. "That scientist just read a death certificate out loud. Magneto won't accept this. If a cure that strips our kind of what they are exists, he'll act. He always acts."
"If Magneto kills the doctor," Jean said softly, "the war will escalate. That's dangerous."
Charles rubbed his temple. "Based on what I know of Erik, it's possible. We must consider whether to stop him."
"If it were me, I wouldn't stop him," Ryuuto said bluntly. "Mutants will keep being born. Some awaken at birth; some never awaken in a lifetime. Even if we stop Magneto now, the underlying contradiction remains. And the people who hate us won't stop. If war comes, we fight. If they invade this school, we send them to hell. Simple."
A beat of silence. Charles' expression folded into sorrow. "I don't want to see more die."
"Then act early," Ryuuto said. "Late outbreaks are worse than early ones."
Ororo—calm as storm—spoke: "Delaying may be comfortable, but it won't stop the tide."
Scott lifted an eyebrow. "We're in a school. We're not the world's military. But this so-called serum—that's horrifying. We aren't a disease to be cured."
Jean folded her hands. "If the serum works, what happens to choice? To identity? Someone else deciding who we are—what a nightmarish future."
A worry passed through the small group: suppress mutant powers by pharmaceutic means, and you don't just neutralize a threat—you erase a people. If the government pushed that route, the conflict wouldn't calm. It would harden into something uglier.
Ryuuto looked out the window at the gray city. He felt both the itch of strategy and the hollow of responsibility. "War may come," he said finally. "If it does, I won't back down. But we need information, allies, and a plan."
At that precise moment, someone knocked on the door.
It was a knock that sounded ordinary, but with the world on the edge, ordinary knocks smelled like trouble.
[Ding! World Alert: Political Tension Rising]
Shion: "Heh—pharmacological villains and magnet dudes. Host, sharpen your knives. Politics is about to get spicy."
Ryuuto's mouth twitched. "Bring it on."