Panacea

Panacea Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I certainly don't own Scarlet Nexus or any of its affliated properties.

"Scarlet Nexus": Speech (Bold for yelling or Boss level creature)

'Scarlet Nexus': Thought

[Scarlet Nexus]: Brain Talk

Chapter 2

As the four cadets and Hikaru were taking an elevator to the Chief's office, Naomi suddenly decided to break the silence. "So who are you sir? We cadets have never seen you before; you don't even appear on action reports during Other suppressions or on the OSF database." She said as Hikaru decided to direct his attention to her. As his eyes fixed themselves on hers, she grimaced, feeling light headed as her precognition suddenly activated but strangely showed her nothing. "What's wrong Naomi? Is it something connected with your powers?"Kasane said as she sidled closer to Naomi and put her hand on her shoulder.

"Oh you don't have to worry about her."Hikaru said as he adjusted his contacts. "What do you mean? She's clearly disoriented right now!" Nagi suddenly interjected as he and Yuito turned to look at Hikaru. Hikaru then sighed and drew himself up to his full height and said, "The nature of my power tends to overpower or otherwise overwhelm sensory psionics unless they are used to it." "So what you are saying is that because my power was trying to perceive you, it was forcibly activated? But my precognition power didn't pick anything up..."Naomi said as her headache abated. "Well, the same thing happens to clairvoyants-I can't be perceived by others unless I am caught completely off guard or am knocked unconscious. This also answers your first question about why people don't know me as freshly inducted cadets are only told the details by their platoon commanders when they work with me for the first time." Hikaru said as the elevator started to slow down as they were coming up on the top floor of the Suoh OSF building. "Let's just say as Major General Karen's aide, I get to ply my trade in absolute secrecy with guaranteed eschewal of Crows." Hikaru said as the elevator doors opened and they started to walk towards the Chief's office. 'An aide to Septentrion First Class Major General Karen Travers?! He works alone when he could be leading his own platoon already!' Yuito thought while Kasane had similar thoughts as the cadets watched Hikaru walk into Kaito's office. 'I should keep an eye on him if his powers can affect Naomi this much. As he seems to be friends with Captain Seto, so this should be an easy task.' Kasane thought as they waited for their turn with the chief.

"Ah, Hikaru Artes. I see you are finally following in your mentor's footsteps and getting write-ups from your superiors. Considering your previous track record though I have to ask-why are you fighting so openly now?" Kaito said as he crossed his fingers in front of his face. 'Can't tell him that Karen told me to watch his brother because I am in enough hot water already.' Hikaru thought as he laughed sheepishly.

"Well sir, would you believe me if I said that I didn't want the newbies to get in trouble so early in their careers?"

"No, but seeing as your actions did not reflect badly on the OSF, I suppose I can let this infraction slide." Kaito spoke as his face took an even grimmer look if possible."Have you replenished your psionic pseudo powers? Your last feeding was about three months ago and I do not want casualties from SAS overload in any platoon unlucky enough to host you." "I was going to visit Arashi, Kyoka and Seto right after this meeting sir. I haven't really needed to use Luka's or Gemma's abilities so I will not need to visit them." Hikaru flatly stated as Kaito finally eased off on his death stare and looked towards the door.

"That is all Lieutenant Artes. Call the cadets in and remember your platoon assignment for this year. Your punishment will be a twenty percent reduction in kin earned from each deployment." Hikaru sighed and left, making his way towards the elevator after informing the cadets that they could enter Kaito's office. "Man, normalization days always leave me bone tired afterwards." Hikaru moaned as he called Seto via brain talk.

[Hey Seto, Chief wants me to vamp on you guys again. Meet me at Arashi's- Arashi and Kyoka should already be there.]

[Will do. Looking forward to tomorrow, meeting the new cadets should be interesting.]

Hikaru then terminated the connection and as the elevator doors opened on the Kodama platoon's floor, he walked towards Arashi's side of the room and sat on the couch there. "Oh there you are! What brings you to us today Hikaru? Is it that time already?" Kyoka asked as she and Arashi walked up to him as the latter blitzed over to him and laid on the couch as well. "I sure hope it is! After you do the whole brain shadowing thing, I always get to have an excuse to laze about~." Arashi sang out. "Arashi, you know that only Hikaru gets drained by the whole process so you shouldn't slack off so much." Kyoka admonished as Hikaru sat up and watched Seto walk into the room as well.

"Okay Hikaru, we're all here. Let's get this over with." Seto spoke as Hikaru took of his contacts and walked over to Seto to place his left hand on the back of Seto's head. Seto then allowed his hands to fizzle and spark with a lazy voltage as Hikaru's pupils started to dilate; the sunbursts around the pupils expanding to cover half of his irises as a white particulate energy started to collect around his hand. After about two minutes, the energy dissipated and Hikaru then turned towards the women who had taken residence on the couch in the meantime. "Thanks Seto, that should do it. I'll see you tomorrow yeah?" "Sure, Tsugumi will be happy to see you too." As the man left the room, Hikaru then repeated the process with Kyoka. As he did this though, Kyoka couldn't help but notice how sweat had beaded up on his forehead. "Don't overdo it okay, I am fine with more regular appointments." Kyoka said as Arashi turned to her with an impish look in her eye.

"Ooo~ Are you sure that not because you like the feel of his hand on your head Kyoka~." She teased as Hikaru grunted irritably. "No, no that's not it at all Arashi! This is strictly professional even if the setting's a little intimate." Kyoka said. "Yeah, I know-just trying to get a rise out of the hotshot here." Arashi grinned as Kyoka sighed with a very faint tinge of pink on her cheekbones. "Okay Arashi, your turn now. No funny business okay, this is a very sensitive process." He warned as Kyoka followed Seto to receive cadet placements from the administration.

As soon as Kyoka left though, Arashi became stern. "So how are your eyes? Is your power flowing stably through the BIAS and SAS? I know Karen and Fubuki are trying to get you to expand your Genesis power even more but messing around with it while studying Others is straining you to your limits. Take it easy and come to grips with power by listening to your instincts." Arashi said as she looked up at Hikaru as even while seated, the man's six feet and three inches made her look like a kid.

"Thanks Arashi, you are always so nice to me. Even if your teasing can get a little old sometimes..." Hikaru groggily muttered as he finishing normalizing his psionics to Arashi's, his eyes drooping as he fell over backwards in the couch, fast asleep. "Who are you calling nice? I just don't want to pick up any extra work if you suddenly leave the OSF..."She mumbled as she got up and eased Hikaru's head so that he could sleep better. She huffed and took the other end of the couch, her legs ending up in his lap as she got a bottle of soda and started reading an e-magazine, occasionally looking over at the 'kid' as her eyes softened a touch.

The next day,

As the sun started to peek over the roofs of the many skyscrapers in Ryujin ward, Hikaru's eyes flitted open as his internal alarm clock got him up. 'I should vamp out more regularly, I haven't passed out from a normalization session in a while and my workload is only going to get bigger in the future.' He mused as he made to rise from the couch, gently moving Arashi's legs off of his lap so he could leave. 'She's so small and peaceful looking when she sleeps, you'd never assume that PR director Arashi is such a lazy minx when off the clock.' He grinned as he saw her snuggling with her mega sized soda bottle. 'While she is annoying, I suppose I can't let a mind like hers go to waste fighting off a cold of all things.' He then materialized a blanket and threw it over Arashi, leaving only her head uncovered.

He then took the elevator to the mess hall, missing Arashi crack an eye open, smirk and snuggle even deeper into the couch.

So this is chapter 2, didn't go into the Kikuchiba deployment just yet as I had to lay the groundwork for the OC. I didn't want things to get weird by making character interactions seem forced. So far so good though, the OC Hikaru Artes has now been revealed to have Genesis as his power-as unlimited as his potential is, the use of his powers comes with a hefty price. Maybe something to do with his eyes? He seems to have a good relationship with the senior commanders despite his younger age and speaks with them freely (perhaps too freely). As always, reviews are always welcome.

Next on Panacea: Kikuchiba Deployment and perhaps more.