April 10th,
The next day, Zen woke up from the ruckus in the hall.
With his perception growing stronger steadily, Zen would wake up by even the tiniest noise.
'Must be Jin Sahyuk...' Zen predicted by listening to the voice outside his room.
Entering the hall, a wave of cold air brushed past him.
Jin Sahyuk stood half frozen in the middle of the hall, clearly struggling to deal with the ice. With her [Gift] taken away, she had no way of melting the ice effectively.
Keilene bowed towards Zen apologetically.
"Sorry for the disturbance, Master."
"...No matter." Zen spoke with a benign voice.
After experiencing how to control his subordinates, Zen naturally picked up the original All for one's facade - to some degree.
Hiding his benevolent and sadistic temperament behind the mask of understanding and benign attitude.
Keilene was used to Zen strange acts. He appeared very understanding towards the new subordinates he has recruited before too. While making them do things that would put their life at risk.
However, Keilene didn't feel relaxed at the slightest when Zen acted all Benign. Instead, it just made her skin crawl further. His voice might have changed, but the darkness around his eyes and the atmosphere didn't change.
It just made the sensitive Keilene feel confused.
Watching Keilene's behaviour, Zen mused internally: 'I still have to practice more.'
"You...!" The ignored Jin Sahyuk tried to jump at Zen with wrath, but her body stayed stuck with Keilene's ice.
"No need to fret. We don't have any intention of harming you. I just felt it would be sad to leave you to rot in there, that's all." Zen spread his hands, as if helpless.
Jin Sahyuk stopped trying to move and glared at Zen's face with sharp eyes. Without the mask, his face was handsome and...weirdly serene.
Byran and the other subordinates watched the show from the corner.
"...Join the [Dark society], it's an organization I created. I went as far as to let you live, so you won't reject me, right?" Zen asked while perfectly knowing her answer.
Jin Sahyuk's face grew blank for a second, before she sneered instantly. Her defeat left a big scar on her pride and listening to Zen, just made it worse.
"I refuse! You bitch!"
Zen tilted his head: "Did you not see your status? Have you not awakened yet?"
"So what if I haven't?!"
Zen made a strange face hearing her, "Haven't you felt it yet? Your gift is long gone, where does your confidence come from?"
The more he watched Jin Sahyuk, the more Zen lost his motivation to recruit her.
Jin Sahyuk's expression fell into a trench, her eyes immediately fumed fire. It was really gone, she couldn't feel it at all.
"What did you do?! Give it back!"
Zen sighed to himself and used [Black lightning] to paralyze her. Even with its potency controlled, black smoke rose from her body.
"Ah...right, It evolved to grade 6 yesterday, I will have to train with it again." Zen shook his head, not minding Jin Sahyuk's condition because he had already decided she had only two fates left.
Zen looked into Jin Sahyuk's still defiant eyes and smiled slightly.
"If you can defeat me, I will give it back to you. Until then, you will have to work as my subordinate. We can sign a mana contract if you don't trust me."
'Slave contract actually...' Zen sneered internally.
His mind was already made up, if Jin Sahyuk rejected his offer, Zen would kill her immediately. There was no benefit in leaving her alive at that point.
Keilene melted her ice covering Jin Sahyuk's legs. Her body slumped down weakly, her legs shaking from the cold energy they were subjugated to.
Just thinking of her current situation made anger rise to Jin Sahyuk's head, but she couldn't do anything. Her body refused to move even when freed.
Zen gazed at her calmly, thinking which was the most interesting way to kill her.
Seeing Jin Sahyuk not moving even after 2 minutes - Zen felt his patience run low.
Suddenly, his [Probability sense] gift activated.
"..."
"I accept your condition." Her resolute voice cut him off. She wasn't going to give up here, even if she was humiliated now, she would repay him hundredfold in the future!
"....."
'Probability sense might be more useless than I thought.'
.....
After a few hours,
After signing a tight contract with Jin Sahyuk, Zen Shigaraki waited patiently for the boss of the Chameleon troupe to arrive.
Unlike others, Jin Sahyuk will have to gather 10 people with [gifts] for him and in exchange he would give her one of their [gifts]. This was the main benefit Zen offered to her after much consideration.
The contract was so compact that Jin Sahyuk couldn't even reject the smallest of Zen's orders.
Lastly, she could only challenge him once a month.
'....She can't leak any information about me now. I don't care where she goes next.'
Zen turned his attention towards the Boss after everything was done.
Her visit was most definitely to inform about the real organization behind - [Jeromino mercenary group]. The Chameleon troupe and benefits of joining them.
Boss's gift was [Infinite shadows] - it was a true master rank gift. There were dozens of overpowered abilities within this [gift].
Like the infamous [Yaksha transformation] and so on.
Zen wanted to make her into a pawn, however he knew that it was a long project. Even Kim Hajin took dozens of years just to win her trust.
Unexpectedly, The Boss arrived into the underground arena an hour early - At 3 PM. And she wasn't alone, Jain and a man with a big physique followed beside them.
Cheok Jungyeong - the seat of red in the Chameleon troupe. He possessed the gift - [Inheritance] letting him acquire the memories and strength of his past life. His strength was comparable to a master-rank hero too.
They arrived at Zen's room without much obstruction with Jain's lead.
Byran let them in with a stoic expression, he went back to the sofa acting not interested, but his ears practically followed their footsteps.
"You must be the boss of [Jeromino mercenary group]. It's a pleasure meeting you, I'm Zen Shigaraki - I was surprised you were willing to recruit me even after the hero association blacklisted me." Zen greeted them calmly and asked as if still wary.
Zen Smiled at the Boss slightly, but his heart fell silently internally.
Jain wasn't a problem - but Zen wasn't very sure about Cheok Jungyeong. A fighting maniac and a homicide with many tendencies to violence.
'I can't defeat any one of them...' This fact slowly sank into Zen.