Fog Atlas (Bungou Stray Dogs Self Insert Fanfic)

Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Abilities and Information Brokers

Since he was a child and before Robert Louis Stevenson even discovered his ability, he has been interested in them.

There was a lot of curiosity and questions in his young mind.

As he grows, his interest in the abilities and its users becomes more prominent.

When he discovered his ability to treasure the island which allows him to detect and identify who is an ability user, Robert Louis Stevenson thought that he was blessed with the ability that suited him the most. Even though the ability user is ignorant that he is one, the treasure island still allows Robert to identify them.

Robert Louis Stevenson loved his ability very much. But it was also a pain in the ass. People could see how useful and valuable his ability is. Among those people was the Order of the Clock Tower.

The country in which Robert Louis Stevenson was born was an interesting one. Almost everywhere you walk, it isn't strange to see or encounter an ability user.

Britain, in the world, has the most amount of ability users that exist.

For the conqueror of the waves Britannia, this fact has massively struck their ego and their delusions of superiority towards other people.

The actions of the Queen and the British government were considered to be a betrayal for those ability users living in Britain.

As for Robert Louis Stevenson, he decided to leave the country in the wake of chaos. Even though he wasn't opposed to the actions of the Queen and the British Government to keep the ability users in check, he didn't want to get his ability restricted and his love of analyzing and studying the different existing abilities.

He could join the rumored Order of the Clock Tower but he thinks that being in that secret organization doesn't suit him and fit his taste.

Robert knows the importance of his power and the people who visit him and try to recruit him for their needs. With his ability, they would be able to identify the individual who has the skill to manifest an ability.

In the wrong hands and power-hungry individuals, it would end up disastrous. For years since he manifested his power, he evaded the recruitment and forced capture of various organizations and worked as a freelance ability information broker.

As an Ability information broker, Robert makes sure that he chooses his client and target carefully.

Within the circles of information brokers regarding ability users, there exist categories and classifications of the abilities.

The basics are the Range, Category, and Danger level of the ability themselves.

The Ranges are Short, Middle, and Long Range.

The Category, it is Offensive, Defensive, and Supplementary

As for the Danger level, it is divided into Low, Middle, High, Transcendent Level, Disaster, and Calamity Class.

Other than those 3, other categories exist. There was the Ability Type which questions what type of ability is the ability.

For example, there exists an ability user that can turn anyone into a mindless zombie. The person was labeled as a Calamity Class and his ability was an infection-type offensive ability.

Another example was an ability user who could boost her intelligence, it is an enhancement-type ability.

Then there was a person who could summon a fortress in the middle of nowhere, their ability was summoning type.

Another category is the Mastery Level. Instead of the ability being gauged, the one being measured is the user of the abilities. It ranges from 1 star to 5 stars. It defines how much a user wants control of their abilities and if they are using their abilities to their maximum potential. There is also a zero-star which labels the person as having no ounce of control over their abilities.

There are other categories like speed– the activation time of the ability, power– the effectiveness of the ability, and finally presence– how noticeable is the ability when being used or activated. Finally, there was the overall which combines the previous categories into one final assessment for the ability and ability users themselves from Level 1 to 7.

Of course, as an information broker of abilities, Robert Knows that the current categorization being used in the information broker circles isn't perfect. It has its faults and he knows that it could be better. But despite the imperfection, it was better than having nothing at all. It was the best that the information broker circle could do right now.

The categories and classification that was used by the information brokers have started to be used by the criminals, the government, and the world itself. It has been circulated after the Great War to improve the previous ability assessment of the ability users which has caused so much trouble.

Another reason why he was being searched or chased by the Order of the Clock Tower and various organizations was because of his ability assessment. The latest ability assessment– he was one of the major contributors to developing the ability assessment.

It was a pain in the ass. You would think with the very long history of ability users of this world, they would have developed an efficient categorization of their own, but no, the governments of the countries are dependent on the International Association of Ability Information Gathering. An unofficial freelancing organization establishes 50 years ago.

But Robert couldn't fault the governmental associations for being inefficient. The History of the Ability users of this world is very long. The public didn't in the existence of ability users and just regarded them as myths.

In history, you would find traces of ability users if you look carefully like someone having the ability to see the future, etc. But most historians would look at those records and accounts with doubt.

Nowadays, the existence of the ability users in Britain is public. A law acknowledging the existence of the ability of users and restricting them– where would you find such glaring evidence that ability users exist than an existing law regarding them?

For Britain, the Queen and the government authority are absolute. People don't believe that the current Queen despite being old is senile and would believe in hogwash if she doesn't have clear evidence of their existence.

A few days after visiting Jules Verne on his self-created Standard Island, A very interesting summoning-type ability– which leaves Robert stumped.

Something has been keeping his mind preoccupied. Verne's ability is indeed among them. How would he categorize the Mysterious Island? It makes him rack his brain hard when Verne explains the capabilities of his ability to him. But there are also other members of the 7 traitors. Other than Antoine and Helena, he hasn't witnessed any of their abilities.

Grimm– A former German transcendent, Dante Alighieri— the former Italian transcendent, Shi Naian, a former Chinese Transcendent and finally, there was the leader of the 7 traitors himself, David Mitchell.

He knows that he has offensive-type ability. David's ability allows a person to enter a time-looping state. From the accounts of the people who witnessed his ability and survive the great war, he has shown great mastery over it.

But from what Verne has implied to him days before, it seems that it wasn't the full capacity of David's ability. Unfortunately, David himself refused to use his ability when it wasn't needed. It left Robert Disappointed but it seems that his disappointment wouldn't last long since he was allowed to witness the ability of David Mitchell today.

He was currently accompanying David on a mission in Canada. And it also happens to be his first mission as a member of 7 traitors.