A smile appeared on Mako’s face as he was glad that his plan had worked as expected.

“Can you disable them?” Mako asked Nathan.

Nathan nodded as he sent a command to the control panel using his brand-new Hack ability.

****************

The Hack ability was one of the most famous abilities and for good reason. It was an ability that wasn’t naturally occurring in beasts but rather was possessed by a species called the androids.

When Rose had explained to Mako how the universe had granted different beings with different ways of gaining power like Beasts who were born with a crystal that provided them with abilities from birth and then their human who didn’t have a natural ability but instead could manipulate mana directly and hence gain several strong abilities.

She had failed to mention an outlier; a type of species that was specially favored by the universe, who naturally possessed an ability and also had the potential to manipulate mana directly.

The androids were one of these special species as they naturally possessed the Hack ability from birth allowing them to communicate with machines and codes directly leading them to be massively developed in technology.

Soon after the Yalhvi enabled humans to travel past their solar system, the androids were one of the first species that humanity encountered and made a treaty with.

Similar to beasts, species like the androids also had a crystal inside their bodies which they traded with humans in exchange for other resources.

Those crystals were used to create the very first Hack ability books which were one of the factors that led to the massive development in human technology in the years that followed, and even centuries later, there were many universities all around the world that trained students to be the perfect candidate to receive the Hack ability.

Almost all of the top engineers and scientists of the world had the Hack ability and were considered in a league of their own as other humans could be compared with them.

Nathan’s quirk, VERSATILITY allowed him to switch one of his current abilities to any other ability that he had knowledge about keeping the new ability at the same ability and skill level as the old ability.

However, once he had used his quirk, he couldn’t use it for a whole month which is why he had to be very careful in the decisions he made as he couldn’t revert his choice afterwards.

Since the Hack ability was so popular and advertised all over the globe, Nathan had no problem remembering all the details about that specific ability and his quirk did the rest. Mako used his Analyze skill on Nathan and sure enough, his ability tab had been updated. Analyze

Profile: Nathan Wesley

Ability: Enhanced Perception (Level 5), Hack (Level 5)

Seeing this a plan began to formulate in Mako’s mind for the future which he kept to himself at the moment.

*******************

“The hidden cameras were only recording footage, no audio. I deleted the footage of all the events that took place since you came here and replaced the footage with Natasha just waiting around for you to show up,” Nathan stated as he finished operating the control panel.

“Perfect,” Mako said as he took the control panel and changed the terrain of the training room to a natural field with a river flowing down the middle as well as lowering the light to make a more suspenseful environment.

They quickly tied up Haruto’s hands behind his back and let Erin do the honors of waking him up which she gladly accepted.

{Minutes later}

Haruto gulped with fear in his heart as all the cadets that he had pissed off in the recruitment test were staring at him whilst surrounding him in a tight circle.

“Don’t worry, we are not like Natasha, we are not going to torture you,” Mako reassured him while patting his shoulder. “Instead, I have a proposition for you,”

“What do you mean?” Haruto asked.

“I am offering you a way out… an escape for her. The way that you fought me back then, I could see that you weren’t doing it willingly but rather were being forced. If you agree to my proposition, I will help you escape,” Mako said.

Haruto was speechless as he processed Mako’s words. Freedom was something that Haruto couldn’t even dream about after being with Natasha for so long.

“Freedom… how can I escape…?” Haruto asked, clearly becoming more emotional with each passing moment.

“Well if you agree to my deal and do your part, then I will hold up my end of the deal and help you escape her for good,” Mako said.

“What’s your proposition… what do I have to do?” Haruto said with increasing desperation in his voice, the fear now completely gone from his body as all he could think about was the sliver of hope that Mako had made him feel again.

Erin and the others were surprised to see how quickly Haruto was complying with Mako and how desperate his voice sounded.

“Well you see, I believe that you are innocent in all of this, but my friends are still not convinced especially after what you have done to them in the past, but if you honestly give us the answers to our questions, we will help you?” Mako stated.

“Deal!” Haruto replied instantly.

“Alright then, first question, did Natasha tell you to lure me here by saying that she had some information that I would want to hear?” Mako asked.

“Yes… After our classes were over for the day, she told me to stay in my room for a few hours and then came back to give me the order to go to your dorm room and tell me to come to the training room because she had something important to tell you,” Haruto replied.

This confirmed it for Mako that Natasha was indeed lying as she had stated that she hadn’t given Haruto any specific order and had just instructed him to lure Mako to the training room. “Do you have any idea what information she could have wanted to share with me?” Mako

asked.

“I honestly have no idea, Natasha-kun… I mean Natasha doesn’t really fill me in on anything and just orders me to do something when the time comes,” Haruto responded.

“You must know something… you have been with her ever since we arrived at the military base, she must have told you something?” Bill asked.

“I am telling you guys the absolute truth, Natasha never told me anything. Even back on the military base, she would just order me to stay in my room while she said she had business to attend to. She would even let me train because it would be harder for her to use her ability on me if I got stronger,” Haruto responded with hints of fear returning in his voice after getting a violent staredown by Bill whose face was cold as ice.

Suddenly everyone’s eyes widened as they processed Haruto’s response, all of them thinking

the same thing.

“When Natasha would go by herself to attend her “business”, at what time would she usually leave and come back?” Mako asked trying to confirm the burning theory inside everyone’s

minds.

Haruto was a little confused after seeing everybody’s reaction as he didn’t think he had said anything of great importance.

“Uh… it would usually be in the late hours after we had free time to do whatever we wanted,”

Haruto replied.

“…and how long would these “business meetings” take?” Bill asked again.

“Uh… It varied… sometimes it would take 30 minutes and sometimes she would be gone for

hours,” Haruto replied.

With this newfound information, Mako had a strong inclination that the imposter inside the military base and Natasha were somehow connected.

“The fact that she got so strong in just two months, even activating her mutant gene and coming after me on the very first day, it couldn’t have been just from her acting on her on and training hard by herself, she must have been getting trained by someone…” Mako stated.

The rest nodded in agreement as they had a similar line of thought.

“But we can’t prove anything with this. He was never with her when she would go out so we

can’t really make any actions based on a hunch.” Iris stated.

This was indeed true as all they had at this moment was a hunch that happened to fit perfectly

in their situation but it very well could be two very separate things.

However, Mako had a perfect question that would hit the nail in the coffin.

“Haruto, how did you arrive at the military school?” Mako asked.

Haruto was a bit confused as he didn’t understand why would Mako ask such a question but he

answered nonetheless.

“I arrived using the teleporter…” Haruto replied.

“Okay now… *when* did you arrive at the military school,” Mako asked the million-dollar

question.

Everyone immediately realized what Mako doing and leaned in closer toward Haruto as they

anxiously awaited his response.

Haruto still didn’t realize why were they giving such importance to a basic question.

“The special class cadets were teleported to the military base at night, before the other cadets. We were the last ones to leave the base,” Haruto answered honestly.