Shattering Humanity-Chapter 68: The ’Good’ Side To The ’Bad’ Guy

From inside Gray’s old office, Nephilim is smoking a cigar, sitting in the same seat, and with his feet on the same desk that Gray was last seen at, fixing his relationship with Saku.

A coordinated knock is heard.

Nephilim: "Come on in Silph!"

Silpheed enters, still with an eye patch over their right eye, but now there is nothing covering the bottom of their face, revealing their lips are sewn together on both of the corners leaving the front of their lips enough room for a straw.

Nephilim smiles at the new look of his acquaintance.

Nephilim: "It’s about time you took that mask off, you should wear it less often, you shouldn’t be ashamed of your own self image."

He takes a puff from his cigar as Silpheed gets surprised, pulls a thin layered scarf from their waistband, and puts it around their face, tucking it into their sweatshirt.

Silpheed: "Ai o- bbri- viaa- or- guynd- urdz- Nevvi- um- zr. Buh- diz- iz- moor- fur- mai- men-dal- gum-vert."

Nephilim lets out a puff of smoke as he sighs and takes his feet off the desk. He lets out a quick cough to clear his throat and he snuffs out the hot cherry of the cigar.

Nephilim: "Please tell me you’ve come with good news Silph. Being the general of this makeshift military is more tasking than I thought, and it’s just repetitive complaints and bad news all day. In only 2 days, including the terrorist, 30 of the 220 students and 5 mentors are K.I.A. You caught me during my ’break’. I’m going to have to reassign squads after this, hopefully I can build a couple of dream teams to be able to counter Daisuki and his goons.(smiles) But this suffering now will show us the results we’re aiming for."

Silpheed bows and then straightens back up.

Silpheed: "Aii- do- zr-, buh- wid- ahll- ahf- da- ooni-berse’s- ennr-ji-, der- muh- be- bahd- nuuz- dat- agumb- ah- neez- gud- nuuz-."

Nephilim(sighs): "I guess gimme the good news first then."

Silpheed: "Ob- korz- Neff-lim- zr-, dah- goo- nuuz- iz- zkuu-ahd- vordii- ahz- inkd-uhp- wiid- zkuu-ahd hurdi- doo."

Nephilim excitedly gets up from his chair, grabs his HFF General’s coat off the back of the chair and puts it on.

The man walks past Silpheed and out of his office with a wide grin.

Silpheed follows as they walk through the exit hallway.

Nephilim: "Squad 32 huh? That’s more to add to the total bill for those rich idiots. Make sure to have all their wanted posters printed and passed throughout the Academy to the other squads. Did you make sure you documented their location before disabling their watches pings?"

Silpheed(nods): "Deh- ahv- behn- okaadid- n- Zun- Go-gu- zitty- zr-."

Nephilim smiles and they exit the building and cross the same large grassy lawn that Katsu, Saku, and Shelly were playing catch on, just a few days earlier. They enter the building on the opposite side of the grass lot. The sign above the door labels the building as the "Resident and Resource Information Center".

From inside, a female receptionist is sitting at her desk to the left of a closed metal door. Next to the door is a numbered pin pad, the numbers 1 through 9 with a plus, minus, and colon button under the numbered buttons. There is also a confirmation badge scanner on the other side of the metal door.

The 18 year old, brown haired woman with pink eyes, is writing in her notebook. On both sides of the notebook are rough character designs and small side notes next to them.

She looks up at the sound of the opened door and looks surprised by the new General and his partner. She puts down her pen and pulls up the badge pass around her neck.

Receptionist: "Good Afternoon General Nephilim sir! Let me get-"

Nephilim: "No need to trouble yourself Persephone, I do appreciate it. How is your story coming along? I can’t wait to read your next Chapter."

The cute girl blushes and sweats a little.

Persephone: "Th- Thank you for enjoying my work General Nephilim sir! It truly means a lot to me to hear your eagerness."

She gets sad and looks at her notebook she left open on the desk.

Persephone: "There’s just one problem..."

Nephilim gets a concerning expression.

Persephone: "...It’s kinda hard for me to write a villain character. I like to think I’m naturally not a ’bad’ person who tries to hurt others, so when I try to introduce a new character as the one who tries to defeat the wrongfully framed group, they somehow always end up being influenced by my main characters. I can’t help but feel like because there is no ’bad guy’ there’s nothing interesting for you as an audience to read."

Silpheed’s single exposed red eye, silently watches as the ’General’ walks to the worried writer. Nephilim stands in front of her for a second, and then the "bad guy" according to Katsu and Saku’s group, hugs the troubled author, which surprises her. Nephilim talks to her while he embraces her.

Nephilim: "You don’t know how much your beautiful story has begun influencing my way of thinking, Persephone.It may just be fiction.Your punctuation and grammar also may not be 100% accurate.But your ability to show the audience there is a ’good side’ even to the ’bad guy’ makes me think everyday about how I treat others, even though I may not agree with them."

He disengages his hug on the now teary eyed young woman, his hand still on her shoulder.

Nephilim: "Plus, your awareness in your flaws shows that you are a true artist, always looking to improve.(He looks at Silpheed) Even science can be seen as art in that sense, right Silph?"

Silpheed nods without saying a word.Nephilim looks back at Persephone and gives her a smile.

Nephilim: "I appreciate the people like you who are smart enough to understand there is no true ’good’ and ’evil’ in the universe we live in. An action that is ’negative’ to one sentient being, must undoubtedly be ’positive’ to another. Your novel, in less than 100 Chapters, has already displayed your enlightened moral compass."

Nephilim lets go of the girl’s shoulder and moves towards the metal door, Silpheed makes their way too.

Nephilim: "Your work is just as beautiful as you are Persephone, keep up the great effort and the only results you’ll be able to see are the positive ones."

Persephone bows with tears falling, before sitting back down.

Persephone: "Thank you Nephilim sir! I’ll do my best."

She sits down and starts writing frantically. Nephilim holds up his ID card and then the pin pad lights up. He presses the code "6:1-4" and the door opens.

He and Silpheed enter the room and the metal door behind them closes.

The computer wall turns on as soon as the door closes and the new HFF General stands at a podium with a keyboard attached and starts typing.

"Squad 1" appears on the top center.

A picture of the blonde haired blue eyed man introduced during the graduation ceremony as HFF’s "Supreme Ultimate", pops up on the wall screen along with his "stats".

Total Survivors Saved: 545

Total Supplies(Important) Retrieved: Top 1%

Total Supplies(NotImp.) Retrieved: Top 1%

Nephilim: "Sun Goku City, huh? Perfect, that is Ryan Briggs home, it’ll give that mute monster a reason to be irrational. I’ll have you prepare a helicopter to be ready, and I’ll have Squad 1 go with you to investigate."

Silpheed: "Ehz! Rriii- ahh-waii- Neff-lim- zr!"

The picture scrolls to the left and the three young adults within Squad 1 are shown.

The first is a girl with spikey black hair and forest green streaks, a studded nose piercing, asky blue left eye, and an IceEye. The name "Bethany" underneath the picture.

The second is another female student, lime green hair, that match her lime green eyes, she is blusing with a combined expression of both frightened and shy, not looking at the camera. Her name is underneath, "Stephanie".

The final student, is shown with a polaroid camera, the same student, Tristan, that was seen getting on a shuttle while greeting a waiting Shelly and Katsu. Black hair, full beard, and a brown left eye, but now Tristan has an IceEye.

Underneath the two eye users is their ability description. The girl’s ability simply says "X-Ray Eye" but Tristan’s ability isn’t seen from Silpheed’s perspective behind Nephilim.

Nephilim: "If Dice and his band of merry terrorists battle against the Supreme Ultimate and his squad, they’ll most definitely raise their stock, and even if Briggs does manage to collect one or two of the smaller bounties, that little group is bound to retaliate to save their friends."

Silpheed: "Buh- wuh- iivv- eee- gess- ah- iiee- bahw-nee?"

Nephilim: "Being labeled ’Supreme Ultimate’ doesn’t necessarily mean the one labeled is the greatest at fighting, Silph. I will say he’s a worthy opponent, but Dice has his own blonde haired, blue eyed weapon. Briggs is put on a pedestal because it encourages the students to cooperate with the deadly scavenger hunt. (remembering) Oh yea, I almost forgot, what’s the bad news?"

Silpheed takes out a folded new Wanted poster from their pocket.

Silpheed: "Aii- did- dee- kalk-yu-aii-shuns- awf- oou-uhn- oohv- dah- skow-tin- ree-borss- phrum- ah- skuu-ahd- hurdii-doo- memmbor."

Nephilim: "Yes, the formula I created to make the reward money coincide with the threat level of each terrorist, what about it?"

Silpheed silently puts down Taylor’s Wanted Poster, his Academy photo shows him eating multiple apples with his eyes closed in enjoyment.

Nephilim: "So this is that young man the sparring scouts told me about. The one that would pal around and be the only competitive partner against that son of a slut, Saku."

Nephilim gets an evil and eerie grin while looking at Taylor’s whole poster.

WANTED TERRORIST

"Giga-Beast-Man Taylor"

Dead $1,000,000

Alive $2,000,000

Nephilim: "I appreciate your concern Silph, since he has a higher potential strength than the girl, but I see this more as good news."

He looks directly at the pic of a smiling Tristan with the visible polaroid camera around his neck in his Academy photo. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Nephilim: "Did you know Silph, the power of a single photo from the right perspective, can change the very path of history itself?"