[You exposed Natasha Romanov's deepest secrets and shattered her sense of security! +17,500 FP]
[You induced sustained fear and helplessness in Clint Barton (Nemesis) during surveillance! +3,000 FP]
[ 3x Nemesis Modifier applied! 3,000 FP → 9,000 FP]
I had received slightly more than enough needed to buy the Hanma template, and so I did.
To be honest, it was hard to describe the sensation I felt upon my body rapidly reforming. It felt like my body briefly became rubber, stretching out and reforming, then settling. The whole process couldn't have taken more than two seconds.
[Natasha Romanov witnessed an ability she cannot categorise or account for. Her threat assessment has been rendered useless! +2,800 FP]
It seemed that my on-the-spot decision paid off.
I rolled my shoulders as I stepped out into the street.
The rubbery sensation had faded, and I could now feel the result. To say the least, everything felt different.
'And this is unawakened, huh?'
I didn't have the full thing, just the foundation, the frame that every Hanma was born with.
Even so, this was a massive upgrade. The kind of physical difference I was feeling, it was probably something akin to the gap between a starving cancer patient and an athlete in his prime.
I flexed my hand once whilst walking, feeling the tendons in my arm move with a responsiveness that I was unused to.
A man walking towards me glanced up and immediately moved out of my way.
I didn't have my Sharingan active, and I wasn't trying to look threatening at all.
The guy just saw me and moved.
Perhaps it was due to my imposing size, or perhaps it was because of my strange appearance. Right now, my clothes were... tight, to say the least. They looked a little ridiculous.
'Gotta throw out the wardrobe now, huh?'
Anyway, I thought back on what had happened in the cafe. Clearly, I had exceeded their expectations. Something told me that I'd be seeing Fury sooner or later.
The man would approach me, that much was certain. The question was what I'd say when he did.
Joining the Avengers Initiative was the obvious ask he'd make, and to be honest, if the circumstances were different, I'd probably accept.
The issue was the nature of my ability. What hope could I, a man who grows stronger through fear, have to be a hero?
So it was a flat no, then. But the problem was that Fury wasn't the kind of guy to just accept a no and leave me alone. Everything I had shown up until now demonstrated that I was an asset.
Basically, I needed him to leave me alone willingly.
Out of everything I had shown so far, the Haki, bone manipulation, eyes, and even the transformation I had shown to Natasha, none of it was close to my most valuable card.
What I held was the future.
Loki's arrival, the Chitauri, the Infinity Stones, Thanos, and other threats that weren't on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar.
If I spoke to him and gave him some well-placed information, specific enough to be undeniable yet vague enough to be unexplainable, Fury would conclude for himself. The conclusion being that keeping me at arm's length on good terms was more valuable than attempting to bring me in whilst I kicked and screamed.
The question was what I would tell him.
Of course, the Hydra card existed. Hydra was something I'd inevitably have to deal with, but if I randomly told Fury that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., with my words actually being true, it'd probably have him on my ass even more.
So that was off the table, at least for now.
I walked in silence for a moment.
Perhaps I was overthinking this whole thing.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had already tried to contain the Hulk and failed. Then, they'd tried to contain Thor and also failed.
At some point, they'd have to realise that the smart move was to stop putting things in boxes and start figuring out how to point them in a useful direction.
Fury was a stubborn man, but he was surely smart enough to know that.
Government agencies really were a pain in the ass.
---
Checking myself out in the mirror, I couldn't help but be impressed by my improved physique.
I wasn't a slouch before this, but I was far from having a physique like Thor or Steve.
But now, I actually looked like I had a superhero's physique, probably even slightly beyond that.
The Hanma bloodline really didn't mess around.
Thankfully, my physique hadn't transformed into the levels of absurdity that the Baki series had displayed. It still appeared to be human, albeit an absurdly ripped human.
I extended a bone spike from my forearm slowly, watching it emerge in the mirror.
It was faster, noticeably so. The activation also felt smoother and more natural.
Recently, my training with the ability had slowed down, probably due to my own lack of talent, but now I felt as if I'd be able to make massive breakthroughs given time.
'This is good.'
I turned around in the mirror, observing my back.
No demon back, at least not yet.
I knew what the awakening looked like. The grotesque, enormous musculature that transformed into the face of a demon.
I opened the shop briefly.
[Hanma Template Awakening Upgrade - 100,000 FP]
The cost had been discounted by 50,000, seeing as I already had the unawakened form, but regardless, paying nearly a hundred thousand points for something my own body could produce for free felt like a scam. Besides, the whole point of the demon back was that it emerged under intense combat pressure, something I could experience in future.
The same couldn't necessarily be said for the Sharingan. Getting my own Mangekyo would be an issue, considering that to begin with I had nobody close to me, and once I did, I surely wouldn't let them die.
Also, the Eternal Mangekyo was just outright impossible for me to obtain without buying the relevant upgrade.
I opened the shop again and filtered for the Sharingan.
[2 Tomoe Sharingan Upgrade - 22,000 FP]
[3 Tomoe Sharingan Upgrade - 55,000 FP]
[Mangekyo Sharingan Upgrade - 180,000 FP]
[Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan Upgrade- 600,000 FP]
[Rinne-Sharingan Upgrade - 9,500,000 FP]
The 2 and 3 tomoe upgrades were straightforward enough. As a matter of fact, I could've bought the 3 tomoe immediately if I hadn't wanted the Hanma template.
The Mangekyo was a problem. It was a tremendous boost in power, but it was also tremendously expensive.
The Eternal was something I couldn't even think about buying as it stood with my current FP gains. My best bet would be to hopefully find some alternative way through, perhaps either magic, technology or a regeneration trait, to avoid the blindness caused by the usage of the regular Mangekyo.
I didn't bother thinking about the final seven-digit upgrade; I had no interest in casting my own Infinite Tsukuyomi.
I closed the shop and looked at the pile of clothes on my bed; practically none of them fit me anymore.
"Damn."