Chapter 19 - Final Recruitment

Izuku examined the children with such scrutiny that they began to back away from him.

His glare was so intimidating, hinting at his dissatisfaction with their presence. He hated children.

"Stop glaring at them like that, Izuku! "You're upsetting them!" berated Urahara right before asking them,

"What are your names, little ones?"

"Enji," said one,

"Genta," said the other.

She noticed almost immediately that they were identical twins.

"I wonder how we will be able to tell them apart, Master Drey," she remarked, scratching her head in shallow confusion.

Genta raised the locks of hair covering most of her face, revealing a scar that ran right over her one eyebrow; it seemed the hair was kept that way to hide her unusual eye, though people seldom failed to notice it.

"What caused this?" she asked.

"A stone," replied Genta.

"Was it thrown at you?" she asked.

"Yes," nodded Genta.

"Damn, you are lucky it missed the spot, or you could have gone blind for sure." But why would someone throw such a thing at you? "Because this scar is huge and was caused by no small rock, I can tell!"

Genta looked down, not answering.

Urahara examined her sister Enji and noticed she had no scar above her large single eye.

"If I'm allowed to guess, I'd say it was simply done for sport, end of the story," suggested Izuku, still glaring at them.

"From now on, they cease to be common slaves; they are now comrades and trusted enforcers." "They may be children, but they are to be treated as equals, effective immediately," declared Drey.

"Goddamn, it must have been tough for you girls. But don't worry, your big sister will take care of you from now on!" She said as he looked at Genta with compassionate eyes—something neither of them was used to.

"Big Sister?" they both chorused, obviously not understanding what just happened.

"That's right. From now on, I'm going to look out for you, okay?" she assured.

The twins stood in silence and awe, still trying to wrap their heads around the thought of having an older sister willing to look out for them.

"I hope we are complete now, Master Drey. Plus, I hope we aren't recruiting more children—I rarely tolerate such vile children!"

"Better prepare yourself then; now that you've asked, our next recruit might be a teenager," teased Urahara.

"What?" asked Izuku. "Are you joking?" "Master Drey, tell me she is joking!"

"She is right, Izuku," clarified Drey.

"Damn it!" He swore, "When I was recruited by General Senju, and he told me I was going to be part of a great and powerful team, this was not what I had in mind!"

"Oh, shut up, Izuku, and stop whining!" Nobody asked you to babysit anyone, and you are not the one shouldering the responsibility of leading and looking after children. At best, you will only tolerate their existence on the team and nothing more. "So why are you complaining?" asked Urahara.

"You know what, Urahara?" You're right. "I'm not recruiting nor taking responsibility for anyone; I guess I could live with that," replied Izuku as he thought about it.

The atmosphere was calm for about a few seconds until Drey clarified,

"I am not recruiting the person."

"What?!" they both exclaimed in shock, afraid they would be the ones responsible instead.

"It turns out he has already been recruited," he answered.

"From where?" asked Izuku.

"Straight from the dungeons, by General Senju himself—the same as the way the both of you were recruited," he elaborated.

"Oh," they both replied.

"It seems he was a peasant criminal that managed to smuggle himself past the walls into the capital city," Drey explained.

"Sounds like my type of person—a daredevil... "It's just too bad that I'm not into younger guys," remarked Urahara.

Izuku was surprised at her reaction, never thinking she would have it in her to even "like" a man, and it made him curious and uneasy.

"Why does that make me feel very uncomfortable?" he asked.

Urahara smirked at him playfully,

"Jealous much, Izuku?"

"Dream on, She-Monkey!" he spat.

"Not to interrupt your petty quarrels, but we have a long journey ahead of us, and time is not on our side right now," came another voice from behind.

"I couldn't agree more, Yuri," said another voice beside him.

"Akira, Yuri...Sorry for the delays. "Let's get going now, shall we?" said Drey.

They all nodded in unison, ready to start the three-day walk back to the capital city for their final recruit.

Drey was quite troubled within, as the news he received prior seemed to hint that the recruit might be a "Tobirama Hayato," who most likely was the same boy he had met not too long ago, back when he slaughtered his parents before his very eyes.

He worried that having such a person on the team might not be safe at all, for him or the others.

He comforted himself with the correct assumption that he was the strongest in the entire team and could therefore take the necessary action should the boy pose a threat to any one of them as revenge for his fallen parents.

He believed he did the right thing and stood by that belief no matter what, though he admitted to himself that he should have done it in the child's absence.

But it seemed his weakness for children got in the way of his clear judgment that night, causing him to react a bit carelessly upon hearing the young outcast's unusually loud cries for help.

The thoughts of what happened that night caused him to act so carelessly that he got himself caught unawares by the unknown people and arrested.

That was how he found himself in the capital city, getting offered great power by the great General Senju, which ultimately led to his current job, leading the enforcers.

Little did he know, though, that the boy he was expecting to pose a serious threat to him and the team would turn out to be the one who adored him the most.

....