Chapter 122: Aftermath of the Rally.

After leaving the Los Angeles Sports Arena, Shido went to the temporary base, which is the rented house, and locked himself up in his room. Seeing Genesis' Phantom every now and then, Becoming Friends with the President of the US, Being announced as a hero, Attacked by 4 Villains at the same time. After handling so many things in a single day, He was too mentally exhausted and physical fatigue was catching up as well. So he just slept off the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, Waves of turbulence were created in the world by the fight in the Arena.

The Incident was considered an attack on President Valdis. Even if the Perpetrator Genesis claimed it as an attack on the newly announced Hero, Night Slash, the Media covered it as a failed attempt at the assassination of the President.

The Incident was taken as an attempt to kill President Valdis - The Most Popular and the Youngest President in the History of the US - Thus, the Incident was covered by almost all the media outlets of every country in the world, spreading the news of the Incident to the people in their own vernacular language.

And following the coverage the Incident was getting from the media, People also started their discussion after having a general idea of the Incident. Soon, the Internet was flooded with posts, discussions, threads, etc., only around one topic, and that was the fight that happened in the Arena after assailants were unable to kill the President.

Night Slash Vs. The Phantom 5.

Meanwhile,

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[Japan || 06:00 AM]

⁑ Good Morning. It's 6 o'clock and this is the NHA News program 'Good morning Japan'. At Midnight, when Japan was sleeping, A series of shocking events took place on the other side of the globe, in the United States.

Nation-wide Wanted Criminal Vigilante, Night Slash - who was not seen or involved in any incidents recently - turned out to be present in America and he was announced as the World's First Quirkless Hero by the President of the United States of America, Jakob Valdis ⁑

The Video of Valdis announcing Shido as a hero is then played on the screen.

"Put a round of applause for my FRIEND. AND. WORLD'S. VERY. FIRST. QUIRKLESS HERO, NIGHT SLASH!"

The curtains behind him opened up and revealed Night Slash. The Crowd cheering for him. He walked to the President and shook hands with him. All of that was shown in the video and then it cut back to the Reporter.

⁑ After being announced as a Hero, Jakob Valdis explained the reason for Night Slash being a Vigilante and not a hero. He told that the Vigilante felt that the Judiciary of Japan was not competent enough to deliver deserved punishment to the Villains and Night Slash felt that he needed to take the law into his own hands to save our country from a surge of Villains who were not punished or not punished 'enough' by the law.

The other reason why the said Vigilante never attempted to become a Hero is that he has powers from an unexplained source which is not Quirks, thus he got the title of the World's First Quirkless Hero. President Valdis also compared Vigilante Night Slash to the superheroes from the Comics who valiantly fight evil without getting anything in return.

He said that the People who are being saved by Night Slash through his decisive actions are ungrateful and are not recognizing his efforts, indirectly taking a jab at Japan.

We will focus more on President Valdis' speech on our program later. Please watch the program 'Report Analysis' on NHA News 8 AM where the experts will comment and give their opinion about the President's speech and its implications. ⁑

Another video was shown and the Reporter started telling about the details in Voiceover.

⁑ After the President's Speech ended, Someone landed directly onto the stage... ⁑

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[Pro-Hero Association HQ, Musutafu, Japan]

The Conference Hall of Pro-Hero Association was filled with Heroes and the Association Officials. On the center of the conference table, The Director of the Pro-Hero Association was seated. On his right, All Might was seated and on the left of the director was Endeavor who had a solemn expression on his face.

Some of the other Heroes who were inside the conference hall were, Nighteye, Hawks, Gang Orca, Best Jeanist, Mirko, Edgeshot, Ryuku, Selkie, Rock Lock, and Thirteen. etc.

All Might was newly introduced into this case and he had no prior information of Night Slash other than what he heard from the news about him. Gang Orca was present just because he was obligated to. After his fight with Night Slash, a few things became certain to him. He was getting rusty and he needed to do something about it but he didn't want to fight Night Slash anymore, The Vigilante has proven to be out of his league in both power and prowess.

Hawks and Endeavor were the ones who called this meeting. Hawks and Endeavor were acting like their usual selves. Hawks was casual and Endeavor was serious.

All of them were focusing on the News Report being shown on the TV.

⁑ After the President's Speech ended, an attack was initiated on the newly announced hero and the President. It turns out that the Quirkless Vigilante Night Slash has a Quirkless enemy called Genesis and he sent 4 assailants to kill Night Slash and the President.

The Identity of the assailants has been finalized by the White House except for one and the information is now available to the public.

The White House has denied any possibility of a Press Conference by the President to address the attack as he is currently hospitalized after suffering a minor concussion during the rescue. The White House Press Secretary told the reporters to have patience as the details will be provided to the public in due time but also dodged to answer the questions pressed by the reporters.

Some of the major questions were,

Since the questions were left unanswered by the Press Secretary, People took it upon themselves to find the answers and they started scrounging the video of the attack and the fight between Night Slash and the assailants. They also looked through articles about Night Slash written before the announcement. ⁑

The Director resumed with the News Report and two videos started playing side by side. One was the video of Night Slash fighting Breeze, NRG, Jetstream started playing and the other was Star and Stripes fighting El Macho.

In the second video, El Macho beating the hell out of Star and Stripes could be seen. Initially, the fight started with some talks between El Macho and Star and Stripes, and then Star and Stripes started the attack. All was good and El Macho took some hits from her but then the game flipped.

El Macho started countering her attacks first and then his offense started. El Macho - who was short in comparison to Star and Stripes and had a fat body - still he beat the crap out of Star and Stripes. Punch after punch, straight to her face. On the other hand, Star and Stripes did try to do more than acting as a mere punching bag for El Macho but the short, fat uncle who has a bald spot clearly spoiled her attempts to change the situation of the fight.

After that, the second video was ended and now only the first video was on the screen. In the video, Night Slash initially ran with an unconscious President in his arms and after giving him to the losing Star and Stripes, He could be seen standing against the four assailants Breeze, Jetstream, El Macho, and NRG.

El Macho soon transformed into a purple monster, Jetstream attacked with his sword, Breeze shot her bullets and NRG shot Energy Blasts. Night Slash alone fought the four and first killed Breeze by spawning a Monster Truck, then killed El Macho by making his head swell and blow up like a balloon. He was able to break the metal suit of NRG with a single punch.

Then smoke filled the area by the smoke bombs dropped by Night Slash, Nothing could be seen. But soon, a series of explosions happened inside the smoke. After some time, Night Slash could be seen walking out of the smoke alone while staggering a bit, with his suit torn. He then climbed out of the rubble and then lifted a fallen wall.

After a few brief moments, he came back with a little girl in his hands and helped a woman out of the rubble. He shared some talks with Star and Stripes and then left the arena by flying off with his jetpack.

The Video then ended and the reporter came back.

⁑ The videos that we just showed you, gave the answers to the two of the questions asked. The reason behind the SS-rank for SuperVillain El Macho was him easily handling down US's No.1 Hero Star and Stripes and after his transformation, he became stronger. There are also rumors that El Macho in this form was near Invincible. Rumors suggested that he could eat missiles and there would be no scratch on him. Thus the reason for his High Threat Ranking of SS.

Some People have also speculations about what might be Night Slash's powers be and partially answer the third question.

The source of his powers still remains unknown but these speculations are agreed upon by many on the Internet. But Having a Source of Power other than Quirks has caused the debate -- ⁑

The News report paused as the Director paused the TV and turned to the Heroes present in the conference room.

"Now what do we do?" The Director asked the Heroes.

But there was no answer was given by the heroes as silence spread throughout the hall. All of them had a thoughtful look on their faces except, Hawks, Gang Orca, Endeavor, and All Might.

The Director turned to Endeavor to get his opinion but Endeavor didn't reply to him. The Director then turned to Hawks. Hawks was just sitting casually by All Might's side. He had his hands behind his head. It looked like he was not serious about this at all.

"He is in the US and is a hero there now. Why bother thinking about him? It's not like he is going to come him back or anything," He casually asked the Director.

Hawks' casualness in such a situation and his opinion made the eyebrows of the heroes furrow.

"We still have the arrest warrant on his name that we issued a month ago and the US is an ally of Japan. We also have an extradition treaty with the US which allows us to bring Night Slash back to Japan as he is technically a fugitive who is escaping his arrest." Best Jeanist pointed out.

"Will it work though? The President of the United States himself vouched for Night Slash. Do you think they would be gracious enough to give him back to Japan when the President used his own name to publicly announce him as a hero and his friend? He even criticized Japan for how 'we' treated his friend. After listening to this, if you still thinking that they might return Night Slash back as a fugitive, then you are too optimistic for your own good, Best Jeanist," Hawks scoffed.

The other heroes remained silent as they didn't have any new opinions about this that may prove productive to the discussion.

"All Might, What do you think about this?" The Director asked All Might's opinion.

All Might - who looked unfazed by the whole situation - replied, "Maybe Night Slash has found the goodness inside him and now wants to do things in the right way and without going rogue against the government and the Heroes."

He had a scarce amount of information of Night Slash, his records, and his personality but seeing him helping his student, Star and Stripes, and saving the civilians, He thought that the Vigilante was not that bad of a person.

Nighteye - who was sitting beside Endeavor - had his head leaned towards the table, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Sorry to disagree with you, All Might, but the Vigilante in question is not a good person at all. He has mercilessly killed all of his targets to this date, without having them go through a fair trial. He became the court, the judge, the law, and the executioner himself as to punish these villains.

You never killed a Villain nor did you ever encourage it, so you vouching for Night Slash is against your ideal of upholding Justice even for villains. And even if he turned to the good, he still has to serve his punishment which is due to his past crimes. If he wanted to become a hero so badly, then he would've surrendered first then chosen the Supervised Hero Program by the HPSC and not by going to the US to become the World's First Quirkless Hero. Things are not so simple here." Sir Nighteye said to All Might.

All Might nodded after listening to Nighteye's opinion. He took Nighteye's opinion at face value as he didn't have much knowledge about the Vigilante or his record.

After that, the heroes started voicing their opinions on how to deal with the Surge of Vigilantism taking place after the rise of Night Raid and Justice Rider.

During the whole conversation, Only one person was sitting silently without even listening to the ordeal going around him. It was Endeavor. He only had one thought in his mind.

'I was defeated by a Quirkless Vigilante...'

He didn't consider the fact that Night Slash has some other powers which were not quirks. The sheer thought of being defeated by a Quirkless brought the anger that was he was trying to suppress down. All his attempts to push his ambitions to reconcile with his family started to crumble as his ego took a massive hit. The rage and the hate were growing inside him and all of it was directed to a single person.

'Night Slash...'

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[Fuyumi's Bedroom, Todoroki Abode || 7:00 AM]

Fuyumi was beaming with a smile on her face. She watched the entire video of him fighting so many times that she has lost count now and she is still watching it on her phone. She even took screenshots from the video and stored them in a new folder 'Heroic Shido' in her database of pictures of Shido.

She would read the tweets about him on the Internet and feel happy about him as the tweets were discussing how heroic Night Slash was as he saved the President by taking attacks on himself or how the first Quirkless Hero was the first step of Quirkless becoming equals to the Quirk Holders.

As she saw the tweets appreciating and celebrating her man, Fuyumi was all smiles and flowery but then she stumbled on the photo which kept getting viral since last night.

It was the picture of Shido holding a little girl in his hands with a smile on his face. They were smiling in the picture and the picture was taken by the mother of the girl. The mother and daughter are the ones who were saved by Shido.

The caption was, "Had a very good and bad day. I don't know whether to be happy or sad.

Today I attended President Valdis' rally to show my support for the Equity Bill. But the attack on the President made everyone run in fear and I was not able to run away from the scene as I had my daughter with me. Things happened and a wall flipped over us, thus trapping me and my daughter under it. I calmed myself down for my daughter but when I looked down to look for my daughter. I was horrified!

Her head was bleeding and the blood flow was crazy! I couldn't stop the bleeding by any means so I cried for help. But nobody heard my pleas for help... I asked, I shouted, I cried... Nobody came.
I was this close to losing my hope whenever I looked down to see my daughter's condition but I still shouted... I cried so much that even I had no more tears to shed.

But then sunlight hit my face. I looked up to see what happened and then I saw him. The Quirkless Hero: Night Slash Standing there while lifting the wall. Someone finally came to my help.

He brought my daughter literally from the clutches of death. When my daughter opened her eyes, she saw him and gave a wide smile. Her smile didn't look like she just escaped death. Then she asked me to click a picture of her with him.

When I was about to click the picture, My daughter asked him how would she know if he is saying CHEESE or not when I am clicking the picture. I know it was a pretty awkward situation but he just chuckled and did something to his helmet so that his mouth was visible. And after that, I clicked on this picture.

I didn't believe in God because no matter how much I prayed to him, my husband lost to a terminal illness... but now... I believe he sent Night Slash to save my daughter who was on verge of death to bring her back to life.

#ThankYouNightSlash #GetWellSoonPresident #FuckUGenesis."

You are reading story MHA: ‘Serene’ Life in Another World. at novel35.com

And with this picture going viral, the three hashtags were getting viral as well. #GetWellSoonPresident was for the fast recovery of the most popular President in the history of the US, Jakob Valdis. #ThankYouNight Slash was for saving President Valdis and defeating the assailants alone and #FuckUGenesis was obvious. He was the instigator of the Incident so he was the target of the abuse on the Internet.

Fuyumi looked at the picture and saw Shido's smile in that picture. She could tell that the smile on his face was genuine. Normally, this would've made her smile as well but that didn't happen. What she felt were guilt and remorse.

'He always had this Heroic side in his personality and now when he is acting on it and is happy doing it, then why am I feeling guilty when he is happy? Yeah... Why am I even acting ignorant now? I clearly know the reason but I was acting like I didn't know till now.

The reason is clear. I always tried to manipulate him to spend more time with me. Trying to make him feel guilty and stay with me, stay with his family. I tried to manipulate him so many times, even accused him of not spending enough time with me even if he did his best... He took care of the kids, cleaned the house, and even cooked. He even accepted my selfish desire to spend a whole week with us without going outside to be a Vigilante.

I just go into his house after my job and demand him to spend more time with me. I acted so entitled to him till now. I ask him to share some responsibilities with me but never I took initiative on my own to help him. He has such a hectic lifestyle and I still act spoiled demanding time from him like a kid. It is like I am the third kid he is taking care of. He never complains to me about why am I not doing my part of the chores... He never complains... And here I am asking him to call me Mrs. Kanzaki... What have I done to deserve that?

He loves me genuinely and I am using his love for me against him like this?

What would he do when he realizes that I used his love like this? Will he leave me?

Definitely, he would leave me...  I tried to manipulate him. Why would he stay with a lazy, entitled, manipulative, and spoiled girlfriend? Sooner or later he will leave. What do I do? I cannot lose him... and I cannot tell him about this... I genuinely want him to stay with me more, but he is cutting out his own happiness just so he could fulfill my selfish desires...'

She needed to talk to someone about this and she needed it desperately. The idea of Shido leaving her is a thought that always recurred to her due to her having a Fear of Abandonment. But over the course of their relationship, Shido made sure she doesn't feel insecure or fear him leaving her.

But after talking to her former roommate, Moe Kamiji aka Burnin, Shido's absence has caused that fear to come back. Moe didn't explicitly tell her that Shido will leave her due to her overprotective nature but Fuyumi's interpretation of things other than what they were actually meant led her to overthink. And Overthinking how she acted with Shido has led her to come to this realization.

She couldn't talk about this to Shido as she feared him breaking the relationship over the call if she confessed what she has done till now. So after thinking for a while about whom to call, she found the right person and picked her phone.

"Hello... Can you please make an appointment for me to meet patient Rei Todoroki? Yeah... My name is Fuyumi Todoroki... Yes... Yes... 11 AM would be good... Yes... Thank You!"

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Meanwhile in the Living Room of Todoroki Abode.

Eri was wide awake at 7:00 AM on her own. This thing would alone give a shock to Shido as he spent a considerate amount of time to wake her up at around this time but now she wakes up on her own today. Another thing that may add to his shock is that she is sitting with Himiko and was talking to her on her own accord.

From far, this may look like two sisters talking normally but things were far from what they looked like.

"Papa took a picture with another girl, Is he thinking of adopting another daughter when he is there in America?" Eri asked Himiko with a grim expression on her face as she looked at the picture of Shido and the little girl on her tablet. Shido was smiling in that photo while having the little girl in his hands, which irked Eri.

"I don't think so... He once said he feels happy when he spends time with us..." Himiko replied in her casual cheery tone. She was just a 4-year-old kid, She wasn't even thinking of this as something worth talking about.

When Eri called her, Himiko thought she was going to play with her or going to watch cartoons with her but she started talking about this 'boring' topic.

Eri looked back at her with a serious expression.

"You are speaking in a casual tone, then it seems you don't know the importance of this matter that we have at hand right now. Well, what would you know..." Eri turned her head down "Since you don't know what it feels like to have a competitor..." She murmured the last sentence which was not heard by Himiko.

"Look! Something is written under the picture..." Himiko pointed out to Eri.

"I can see that, Dimwit! It's called a caption and it is written in English and I don't know how to read English," Eri scolded Himiko for no apparent reason. Eri was angry since this morning. And it was because when she woke up, she found out that she was sleeping while being hugged by Himiko.

Being hugged by her competitor was like signing a truce with her enemy and she would never do that. It was a sign of weakness to her. She was determined to become the victor in this battle of winning affection from her parents and she won't settle for a truce.

And after that, she found the viral picture of Shido and the Little Girl which blew her rage to the roof. No matter what she said to herself, the girl in the picture was cute. Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes, Cute Smile. She could see no reason why anybody won't adopt someone like her.

So even if she considered there was going to be no truce with Himiko just this morning, she broke that and established a temporary truce with Himiko and was now talking about the matter of what to do with this situation.

"Can't you use an online translator to translate the text?" Himiko asked.

This baffled Eri. 'How could I be so dumb that I didn't even think about that and this dimwit would come with the idea? I lost to her again...'

But she pushed the feeling of defeat aside and quickly pasted the caption in the translator. The text was translated into Japanese and then she read it. It turned out that the girl already had a mother so there is no way Shido can adopt the girl in the picture.

Eri breathed a sigh of relief and took a look at Himiko, 'I am glad that I have to deal with only one Rival.'

She pumped her fist, determined to win the battle of affection of her parents,

'Victory shall be mine!'

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[Musutafu, Japan]

A boy in his teens with ruffled dark-green hair and freckles on his face was in front of his computer in a dark room. The boy's eyes were glued to the screen as was intently watched the video of Shido fighting the Phantom 5. He had a notebook in front of him and a pen in his hands. He watched the video for some time then write something in his notebook.

"Night Slash can use Swords and Guns which means he has Proficiency in both Hot and Cold Weapons... this was known before the fight and he did use this in the fight. Let's see if the Superstrength, Blood Manipulation, and Regeneration that were mentioned in the news are true as well..." The Boy was mumbling on his own as there was no one in the room to whom he could talk.

He resumed the paused video and had his pen ready on the notebook. He wrote down some stuff as the video continued. He wrote the details he could see in the Assailants and Night Slash but his pen stopped when he saw Night Slash punching El Macho in the abdomen. The Punch was not that special but the aftereffects were.

After the punch landed, El Macho acted as if nothing happened but then he fell to his knees and clutched his abdomen. The boy's eyebrow furrowed when he saw the aftermath of the punch.

"Is this the Blood Manipulation people were talking about?... But the physical contact was very brief... No... this is not Blood Manipulation... It is... a technique I guess... Yeah... that must be it... but why does this technique seem so familiar? The punch landed but the damage came after a delay and the damage is not visible... which means the inner organs were hurt."

The boy was in deep thought as he tried to think why does the technique seem familiar to him. He tried to search more about the Vigilante. He opened more articles about Night Slash just to find if someone mentioned this punch in particular but he was not able to find any detail about it. After failing to find more, he downed his head but then it came to him.

"Isn't it..."

He jumped off his chair and rushed to his bed. He crouched down and brought a cardboard box out from under the bed. He opened the box. The box was filled with notebooks similar to the one he was writing in earlier. The boy searched through the notebooks and found the one he was looking for.

He picked up the notebook and it was named "Advanced Techniques (Punches)". He quickly went through the pages, searching for something. He then landed upon the page titled "Snakehead's Techniques".

————⁙ »Snakehead's Techniques mainly focuses on dealing damage directly to the internal organs. The Damage dealt by these techniques is quite low when compared to the counterparts which are taught in other disciplines of Martial Arts but it makes the enemy stunned or unable to move for a period of time due to damage to internal organs. It feels like a thin sword pass through you and sometimes the damage dealt may become lethal if the technique is used on important regions like the chest or neck. Imagine the thin sword passing through the heart.

» The Technique mostly consists of punches.

» When the attack lands on the target, the target may not feel any change but after a few brief moments, the target feels pain. The Pain will persist and even transmit a bit around the attacked region but it will soon dissipate, so try to use the chance where your opponent is unable to do anything as they are handling the inflicted pain. ⁙—————

The boy read through the pages which described the Snakehead's Techniques. He was thinking about the knowledge he just revised and the punch that he saw in the video. He was sure that Night Slash used the Snakehead's Technique and punched El Macho to stop his rage tackle.

"Izuku! Get ready! Or You will be late for school!" But before the boy could think more about it, a feminine shout reached the room of the boy.

"Hai, Okaa-san!" Izuku replied.

He closed and threw the notebook to his bed. He then went on to wear his uniform and set his bag. When setting his bag, he reached out to the notebook he was just reading from, was about to put it in his bag. But then he noticed something.

------------------

Advanced Techniques (Punches)

-Taught by Kanzaki-san

------------------

"Kanzaki-san..." But his attention quickly went to his computer screen as he heard something. On the computer screen was an article on Night Slash.

* Stereotypes were SMASHED when the World's First Quirkless Hero defeated 1 A-Rank, 2 S-Rank, and one SS-Rank Villain alone. *

In the article, there was a video playing of Night Slash coming out of the rubble with a mother and her daughter. It may seem ordinary to some but for an All Might fanboy, it was like he watched something similar. This action of Shido saving the mother and daughter out of the rubble was similar to the video of All Might making his debut as a hero, saving over 100 people.

"World's First Quirkless Hero..." He muttered under his breath. It made him remember the time he first met All Might.

--"Even if I don't have a Quirk, can I become a Hero? ...Can someone without a Quirk be like you?"

--"No."

He still remembers the hard 'No' that All Might said on that day. He still remembers the hardship of not having a Quirk and aspiring to be a hero. He was in thought how all the stereotypes were broken and a person without a Quirk became a Hero.

"IZUKU!!" Inko Midoriya shouted.

"Coming!"

'Yeah... He is technically Quirkless. Otherwise, He has powers from another source, just that... But the first Quirkless Hero... Could I have become the world's first Quirkless hero if I didn't take One for All?...' He thought but then he pushed those thoughts aside and stormed out of his room to go to UA.

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[Kamino Ward, Yokohama, Japan]

Inside a warehouse, In a room with no lights lit, the room was engulfed in darkness. Only a small screen was there with the video playing of Shido fighting the Phantom 5.

"A source of power... other than the quirks... Isn't it fascinating, Doctor?" A heavy voice could be heard inside the room.

"Indeed. We always thought the Quirks were the epitome of Power. But it seems the world has its  own wonders to surprise us..." A bald man with a very bushy mustache came out of the darkness. He was wearing a lab coat and a rather peculiar set of goggles.

"Will this wonder be able to defeat the creation of ours?" The Voice asked the Doctor.

"Maybe or maybe not... The Nomu Project still has not reached its full potential. I am not so sure what would happen but... I have to say, Whatever that source of Power is... It looks quite powerful. He alone defeated an SS-Rank Villain and 2 S-Rank and an A-Rank Villain," The Doctor replied in a jolly tone and checked up on a machine. The Machine was connected to a bundle of tubes and these tubes run down to be attached to the hand of a man. His face was not visible due to the lack of light in the room.

"Are you interested in the source of the Vigilante's Power?" The Doctor asked the man.

The Man leaned more towards the screen as he watched Night Slash using his Jetpack to leave the arena. When the man came closer to the screen, the light from the screen made his face visible, but it turns out that there is no face in the first place. There were no visible nose, ears, hair, or eyes, though the outlines of eye sockets were visible. He couldn't see because he had no eyes.

In Actuality, he was not watching the video, instead, he was listening to the voiceover of the reporter who was describing what was happening in the video.

When the man heard the Doctor's question, he let out a small laugh and said in a happy tone but in his heavy voice.

"Yes... Not only do I want to know more about it. But... I also want to take it..."