- Location
- Leeds
Yeah I don't think anyone ever thought for a fraction of a second that something else would happen.
Dragonspawn (My Hero Academia SI)
- Thread starter Blackout
- Start date
HarakoniWarhawk
Striking from the Skies
- Location
- Holy Terra
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Best Dragon has returned to be awesome.
Everyone involved on the good side needs tons of hugs and more hugs.
Everyone involved on the good side needs tons of hugs and more hugs.
Blackout
Fed By Comments
- Location
- Who knows?
Fair enough, the point of that scene was more to set up Ryuuzaki hesitating to destroy the QAD later.
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- Location
- Leeds
Yeah, and thats why she was here about lifestyle assistance items. The problem for me is that its a Quirk Amplification Device, not about control or anything.
Its not even clear what it would do for her or why, let her turn into a bigger dragon? Let her turn into two dragon? Its not clear why anyone would expect this to let her turn her quirk off or change back.
I get what you were going for and yeah I see why it was your best bet to give Zaki a personal motivation beyond saving everyone in the island. Source material just wasn't working for you here.
Blackout
Fed By Comments
- Location
- Who knows?
It is called an amplification device, yes, but it doesn't just make the Quirk stronger, it allows the wearer's Quirk to do things that it couldn't do before.
That's why I pointed out in the Chapter that Wolfram's Quirk required direct connection to the metal he's controlling, but then after using the QAD he starts levitating metal.
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TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
It's technology that interacts with quirks - it's doing it in one specific way, but once you have that technology, it's going to be the starting point for other technology that directly interacts with and manipulates quirks. Even if it doesn't give you all the answers, it tells you where things start and how some of those interactions need to work.
Basically, it's fundamental biology and medicine for quirks. Might not have the answer she needs, of course, just like penicillin isn't the answer for all disease.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
Though given Sheild literally made it and unless he was stupid still has the notes of how I fail to see why the destruction of the prototype matters. If it is capable of being mass-manufactered as was the expectation then... well, they already have the plans for it. Why would it being destroyed matter at all?
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Because mad science, basically. Nothing about this plot makes sense, and it's presence actively makes the world make less sense.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Hehe, Tatsuma is gonna hurl when she finds out All-Might is running on fumes at like 1/10th of his former abilities.
He's a movie-only character, so he doesn't exist outside of the movie and neither he nor I-Island are ever seen again.
Yeah the plot for this movie is pretty dumb and totally disconnected from the rest of the story, even by MHA standards it makes bugger all sense, and the more you analyze it the less sense it makes.
But the big fight at the end is awesome, you just need to remember to turn your brain off at the start of the movie and keep in mind that status quo is god and nothing that happens will be mentioned ever again.
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Blackout
Fed By Comments
- Location
- Who knows?
When they shut down his research they seized everything, not just the prototype.
The other Pro-Heroes were in the Reception Hall and were captured alongside All-Might.
The movie showed them fighting the mercenaries when the security system was restored, but I felt like cutting away from the rooftop fight would have disrupted the flow of the scene and undercut All-Might's big entrance.
He disappeared off to MovieOriginalCharactersAren'tAllowedToAppearInTheManga-land.
In fairness All-Might was in better shape here than most of the time we see him, since in almost all of his canon fights he's pushing past the edge of his time limit.
Chapter 41 - A Step
Blackout
Fed By Comments
- Location
- Who knows?
I found Yui on the bench outside the hotel's main entrance, simply sitting in content silence with her crutch sitting by her side, her leg still bandaged. She perked up slightly as I approached, lifting her gaze to meet my eyes. There was no need for her to say anything.
"I know I don't need to go." I said. "But I choose to."
"Alright." She accepted with a nod, pushing herself up and grabbing her crutch.
"You don't need to escort me, you know." I told her as she hobbled up to my side.
"I don't need to. I choose to."
I just shook my head in exasperation.
The two of us walked along half-empty streets, the vibrant, enthusiastic atmosphere from before replaced with a much more subdued and sombre mood. A significant portion of the visitors had simply left, and the previously ever-present security drones were notable in their absence. Whether that was because their numbers had been reduced to such a degree, or because the Island Administration didn't trust a tool that had been turned against them so easily anymore, I wasn't quite sure.
Out in the distance the main tower loomed, stabbing towards the sky. There on top of it, all but invisible to naked human eye, I could see squadrons of maintenance drones hovering around the rooftop, working to replace damaged sections and clear the wreckage. Even after three days, their task had only just begun.
"I'm surprised they're even still going ahead with the Expo." Yui noted, tracing my line of sight. "After all."
"From what Mizutani told me it was a near thing, but there's just too much money involved to cancel the entire thing." I said. "It helps that most people on the island had no idea what was happening until it was over, and the administration was on top of handling the fallout."
"You mean the I-Island administration took control of the narrative and pressured the media to downplay what actually happened to keep shareholders happy?"
I was quiet for a bit.
"Would you rather they cancel the entire thing? They did agree to waive all collateral damage we caused."
"I didn't say that. Just pointing something out."
After that we fell into a silence, punctuated only by the clacks of Yui's crutch against the pavement, until we arrived in front of the exhibition building again, a few people drifting in and out here and there. The main exhibit had been open to the public for the last two days, but the meeting had been postponed until today.
"I'll be waiting here." Yui said as she limped over to a nearby bench. "You go and work your magic. Also, careful, you're shedding."
"What? Again?!" I exclaimed in frustration, checking over myself and finding a loose patch of scales on my left side, where the heavy plates covering my abdomen ended. I scratched it away, leaving the edges slightly frayed and revealing a layer of shiny new scales beneath. I turned my head left and right, checking to see if anyone was around and, seeing only Yui giving me an amused wave, shoved it to a nearby trash bin.
When I walked through the main doors I found the exhibition hall much as I left it, sans a few absences, though to my relief Mizutani's area was at least in at least a respectable if not outstanding level of organized. The man himself was all smiles when he saw my arrival, quickly excusing himself from a conversation with a bunch of suited businessmen before hurrying my way.
"Ah, good, you're here!" He semi-whispered excitedly. "Come on quickly, I need to introduce you to someone."
"I thought you said that we'd skip the mingling and just stick to the presentation?"
"I know, but this is a real bigshot I'm talking about. He was originally going to send a representative but he arrived in person yesterday."
"After what happened?"
"I know, right?" Mizutani exclaimed, but I couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed.
The man he took me to was a tall, late-middle-aged businessman with a lean build, extending to his facial features with a narrow, protruding chin and a long, pointed nose. His short, swept-back hair was orange-brown like autumn leaves, with a noticeably receding hairline on his forehead. There was something a little weird about his scent to me, something oddly familiar that I couldn't quite place.
"Can I introduce you to Rikiya Yotsubashi, President and CEO of Detnerat Company? Mr. Yotsubashi, this is Ryuuzaki Tatsuma."
"Ah, yes." Yotsubashi said with a warm, disarming smile, stepping forward to shake my claw with both hands. "I've heard much about you."
I floundered a little, unsure of what to reply to that.
"All good, I assure you." He smiled good-naturedly, putting me a little more at ease.
"Thank you." I said slowly. "I am honoured that you're here with us today. I am sure you are very busy."
"Oh, it is no big deal! We at the Detnerat Company are always on the lookout for ways to bring an ever expanding repertoire of products to our valued customer to assist them in their daily lives! And of course, when I heard that the Hero of Kashyyyk Mall would be present, I knew I had to be there!"
"That's not… I wasn't alone in Kashyyyk. There were others who did more." I shifted uncomfortably. "I just did my best."
"Isn't that what all of us strive towards?" He reached up to pat me in the shoulder. "But I see you're of the modest type. I can respect that. I won't keep you any longer, I hear you've got quite a presentation prepared for us."
-----
A few minutes later I found myself waiting in the corner of the meeting room, large and expansive enough to have room not just for me but a large table behind which sat a panel of serious-looking businessmen, Yotsubashi featuring front and center, his fingers steepled. Between us was a substantial open space in which Mizutani stood facing the investors, alongside a few illustration stands and tables for props.
"Welcome, everyone, to this presentation. I promise you, it will be worth your while." He began, pausing for effect, before starting his speech.
"Ever since the emergence of Quirks, our society has struggled to accommodate the diversity of body types and needs of our ever more varied population. And while much work has been done to give everyone an equal chance at a normal, comfortable life, there are challenges that even to this date remain unsolved. Well, today I'd like to present to you the solution to at least one of them." Mizutani explained, before theatrically pulling back his sleeves a little, showing off his palms to the panel. "Hands. Such a simple concept that we don't even think about them, but so much of our society is predicated on the fine motor skills offered by a human hand, and it is easy for the rest of us to forget their importance. So easy, that rather than pontificate to you myself, I've invited someone to speak of their own personal experiences."
He turned to me with a flourish, and I pushed myself to a standing position, walking over to him, caaareful not to knock anything over on my way, keeping a close watch on where my tail was.
"Please, introduce yourself."
I took a deep breath.
I can do this.
"My name is Ryuuzaki Tatsuma. I am fifteen years old. I am currently a first-year student at the Heroics Department of UA in Japan. An incident three years ago left me unable to transform back into my human form." In and out. In and out. Easy. "Ever since then, I have been stuck in this form." I raised one huge, clawed forelimb to the air, to show it to everyone. "Even absent the size issue, I do not have the ability to hold a pen or a computer with precision. When watching television I cannot use the remote, and we had to get a voice-controller instead. I can't switch off the lights in my room. I used to have a hobby of painting miniatures, but I've had to give it up too. School is difficult, when I can only write on a touchscreen, and those break easily. It sometimes takes me minutes to get a doorknob open without breaking anything. I can't, um, play most video games. I can't fill in paperwork. I'll never be able to drive a car- uh, besides the obvious reasons. I scratch my smartphone to uselessness once a month. I can't-" I swallowed. "I can't ruffle my sister's hair, I can't-"
I paused, trying to ignore how unprofessional and horrible that speech sounded. I'm fifteen years old, they can't possibly have expected more out of me.
"And, and, I know I'm in a privileged position compared to most. My family can afford alternatives. But a lot of people in similar situations don't. People with crab or insect Quirks. Scissors for hands. Things like that. People who can't buy replacements every time a touchscreen breaks. But if there was another option, something you could buy once…"
I trailed off, realizing I'd gotten off topic of my personal experiences.
"Thank you, Miss Tatsuma." Mizutani nodded graciously. "That is indeed exactly what I am offering. A one-time investment that will allow anyone to utilize the normal, baseline methods rather than requiring expensive custom products for every occasion."
He walked to one of the tables and pulled off the covering, revealing the Synth-Hand. The same prosthetic he'd shown me when we first met, only packaged in a sleek black plastic casing, rather than an exposed mess of wires and metal.
"With the advancement of robotics and cybernetics technology, full-function prosthetics became a reality. We can make replacement limbs that function just as well as the originals. But the keyword there is, unfortunately, "replacement". We can replace a limb, but not add one. Well, no more."
He lifted the mechanical hand and presented it to me. I pressed it onto my palm and the mechanism automatically fastened it in place, a slight tingle running through me as it activated.
"This is my Synth-Hand. The hand itself is just a commercial-grade prosthetic, but the real secret lies in the neural interface. Please, would you demonstrate to our audience?"
I flexed the fingers of the Synth-Hand, pulling them to a fist and then opening wide, before closing again one finger at a time. Then, I stepped up to one of the prop tables, where a small plastic miniature of a futuristic soldier was waiting, alongside a brush and a small pot of paint.
In truth it was awkward to use, after so long and with so many eyes on me, but after a few moments I had managed to quickly colour up a few prominent details on the miniature. I grabbed it by the base and held it up to show the precision the Synth-Hand had been able to achieve. Then, I flipped a switch at the base of the hand and it detached, flopping onto the table. I held up my palm, showing that there was no access port or even the slightest mark where it had been connected to me, causing a few whispers to break out.
"The interface allows the user to manipulate the Synth-Hand as if it were an extension of their own body, requiring no costly and invasive surgery to accomplish." Mizutani announced with a smile, and I could see a few of the investors leaning forward, interested. "If you have any questions you'd like to ask…"
After that I had to sit down, my ears starting to buzz and my vision swimming. I'd done my part.
Mizutani fielded some questions, seemingly about market research and logistics from the few snippets I caught. None were directed at me, or at least if they were I didn't catch them. At that point I was too exhausted to care.
After perhaps half an hour the presentation was over, the investors filed out of the room. Mizutani clapped me in the shoulder, shaking me out of my reverie.
"We did it! We actually did it, you magnificent b… being!" He exclaimed as the doors closed.
"We did?" I said, thinking back to my horrid speech.
"Yotsubashi signed the contract the moment the presentation ended." He said proudly, thrusting the piece of paper at my snout. "And I couldn't have done it without you."
I recoiled, but not before catching a whiff of the scent on the document.
And at that very moment, I realized where I'd smelled Yotsubashi before.
"Right. That's good. That's… really good." I said, taking a step backwards. "I'm… I'm not feeling too well. I think- it'll be best that I go lay down for a bit. We can talk later if there's anything."
"Feel free to do whatever you want." He said, still looking at the "I can't thank you enough for what you've done."
"Yeah." I said distractedly, making my way out of the building. "You're welcome."
But as I walked, my thoughts were revolving around one singular thing.
It could be nothing. But I couldn't just ignore it.
Yotsubashi's scent… it was one of the samples Endeavour had given me from the Broken Circle safehouse.
-----
The thought was still rattling in my head after taking a quick nap in my hotel room before it was time for my next appointment. Alas, my quota of stressful situations for the day had only just begun.
I heard the doorbell go off, and could only sigh. Time to face the music.
"Come on in."
"Young Tatsuma." All-Might said gravely as the doorway slid open and he stepped inside, followed by Midoriya, his hand bandaged and wrapped where the superheated metal had burnt him.
"All-Might." I nodded. "Midoriya."
Despite his size, even the Symbol of Peace looked a little small in a room configured for a dragon, though I had asked for a normal-sized couch for visitors, originally with Yui in mind.
"Young Midoriya has been telling me about everything that happened." All-Might said as they sat down. "My apologies for taking so long, but there have been a number of matters pressing for my attention since the battle. But I believe it is high time we had a discussion."
"I understand." I said, taking a deep breath and gathering my courage. "But, um, before we begin, you don't, uh, have to maintain that form. Your muscle form. I figured it out. So you don't need to, um, use up your time."
"WHAT?!" All-Might suddenly exclaimed in a booming voice that made me recoil as he staggered backwards in surprise. "How do you know about that?"
"I have an enhanced sense of smell, you know." I explained, looking down at my feet. "You, um, however you do it, it doesn't change your smell."
"I- I see."
I heard a hissing noise, and as I raised my gaze I saw All-Might wracked with change. He sloughed off dozens and dozens of kilograms of muscle, until he was little more than a bundle of bones. His prodigious height seemed to bend his spine, forcing him into a forward slough, and his face tightened and lengthened, lantern jaw sharpening to an angular point. Even his hair seemed to lose its strength, deflating like a helium balloon.
"What you are seeing now is my true form. Several years ago, an enemy inflicted a great injury on me." He lifted the folds of his now far too large costume to reveal a massive wound on the side of his abdomen, a mass of raw, ugly red scarring. "Since then, I've been able to maintain my muscle form for only a few hours at a time."
I felt a brutal chill run through my spine.
"This is a secret known only to a select few, concealed from the public eye. The Symbol of Peace cannot be daunted by evil." He said, coughing into his hand roughly. "I am sure you understand."
"O-of course." I said. "I haven't told anyone- I would never tell anyone. I figured it out at the Sports Festival but I was… too afraid to approach you, in case anyone overheard. That it would get out because of me."
"You have a good head on your shoulders, Young Tatsuma. It will carry you far in life." All-Might said, before bringing a hand to his chin in concern. "But now, I must wonder how many others already know, too. I had never even considered the aspect of smell. Perhaps I should use some kind of powerful scent to conceal my own."
"I… don't know. It might make you even more noticeable to someone with a sharp nose.." I looked at my feet again. "I think… I only noticed it because you're a teacher at UA so I see you more than most people. And it would have been really easy to dismiss as coincidence, if I hadn't known about your conversation with Nedzu about your time limit."
"WHAT?!" All-Might shouted again, a bit of blood flying out of his mouth. "How do you know about that?"
"I, um, have enhanced hearing?" I shifted uncomfortably, my tail curling and uncurling on the floor. "I just.. overhear things and put them together. I can't help it."
"No, it isn't your fault. I apologize for raising my voice." All-Might said, wiping the blood off with the back of his hand. "Nor is it your responsibility to figure out the solution. I will have to figure something out. But I owe you my thanks, for bringing this issue to my attention. The next to use this avenue to figure out my identity may not be as considerate."
A silence fell over the room, until Midoriya finally broke it.
"So, ummm, should we talk about…?"
"Ah, that is right. We have gotten a little sidetracked." All-Might shook his head. "Young Midoriya told me that you had figured out the truth of his Quirk, and that he inadvertently confirmed it to you." He glanced at the green-haired boy, who turned beet-red and tried to slunk down in his seat. "Please, if you would, I'd like to know how "
"Well, umm… his Quirk is like an exact replica of yours. He's very inexperienced with it. Everyone thought he was Quirkless until recently, but it's too strong and obvious to have been a Silent Quirk all that time. And, um, no offense Midoriya, but you act pretty weirdly whenever the topic of Quirklessness and people being given Quirks comes up. And then there's how you two act with each other, like when giving out the awards at the Sports Festival."
"WHA-?!" All-Might began, blood jetting out of his mouth, before he paused to reconsider. "Ah. That is right. Enhanced hearing."
"Yeah." I nodded, shuffling my feet. "And I already knew your Quirk was losing power. So I… put it together." I shrugged my massive shoulders, my wings rolling with the motion.
"I see. Thank you, Young Tatsuma." He said. "Again, perhaps even moreso than with my true form, I must ask for your discretion on this matter. My Quirk, One For All, can be transferred from one bearer to the next at will. But it is at its most vulnerable when given to a new host. I have many enemies who would relentlessly pursue Young Midoriya if they knew him to be my chosen successor and inheritor, to snuff out his flame before he has the chance to mature into the great Hero I know he will become."
I saw Midoriya bow his head in embarrassment, looking away.
"Of course. I'll- I'll keep it a secret, no matter what." I said, sitting up straighter. "These enemies… do you mean like the man who can give Quirks?"
"Yes. He is an old enemy of mine." All-Might said, his expression hardening and his eyes narrowing. "That is all I will speak of him."
"But-"
"No." He stated firmly, taking a step forward and I shied back."You already know more than you should, but: He is the one who gave me the scar I showed you, and who is responsible for the state that I am in. I am telling you this only so that you may understand the danger you are in." As he spoke a strange intensity had entered All-Might's voice, that seemed at odds with both his fragile frame and his typically jovial attitude. "The more you know of him, the more you risk him knowing of you. And should he know of you, everyone close to you is at danger. Because he will stop at nothing to get at me, through the deaths of innocents if necessary. Do not seek knowledge of him, for the sake of yourself and those around you. Do not try to fight my battles for me. Do you understand?"
He'd advanced until I was almost up against the wall of the meeting room, with nowhere to retreat.
"Y-yeah! Of course!"
"Good, good." He backed off, rubbing his eyeballs as he sat down. "I apologize again for my tone. But you must understand, this is for your own protection."
"I understand." I bowed my head. "I shouldn't have pried."
"Now, unless there's any other big revelations, I should get going."
I shook my head and All-Might struggled to his feet, offering me a bony hand. I shook it awkwardly with my claw and he turned around to leave.
"Sorry." Midoriya said with an apologetic expression as the door slid shut. "You gave him a bit of a shock and he's just… worried about others being hurt for his sake. And I think he's been on the edge since finding out about Shield."
"Mmm." I said neutrally. "So, how is it, being All-Might's successor?"
"It's…" He made a vague gesture with his hands. "I don't even really know how to put it into words. I've never had the opportunity to talk about it with anyone."
"Must be reassuring."
"Reassuring? How?"
"Well, knowing you've been chosen by the Number One Hero to be his inheritor, you have to be doing something right."
"I… I guess that's one way of putting it, yeah." Midoriya said, his mouth tugging into a slight smile. "But it can also just be this big… thing, behind you. An expectation that you need to fulfill."
"That's why you were so determined to win the Sports Festival." I observed. "Anyway, I'd say you're doing a good job of it."
"I… thank you." He said quietly.
----
"So, are you two ready to leave yet?" Melissa Shield asked as we sat in the cafeteria. She'd been showing us around for the last few hours, including to her own laboratory. "Your flight was leaving today, wasn't it?"
"I'm ready to go but I think somebody's got more packing to do." I said.
"Not all of us can travel with just what's on our back." Yui said, casting a judgemental look up at my direction from the seat beside me.
"Uraraka's been helping me pack since…" Midoriya said, wiggling his bandaged hand. "I'll have to wait until I get to Recovery Girl to get my burns properly healed."
"You know, that reminds me." I said. "What was that gauntlet you used against Wolfram? You said that Shield made it for you, but I never got the full details."
"Oh!" Shield perked up. "That was the Full Gauntlet. I had originally made it for All-Might, but, well, he doesn't really need it. But when I saw Midoriya in the robot battle game I realized I could modify it to act as a brace for his arm. I estimated it would allow him to safely unleash his full power three times without breaking."
"It saved our lives." Midoriya admitted. "Shame it was destroyed."
"Can't you just make a new one?" Yui asked. "It seems really useful, if it can let him do that."
"It took me the better part of a year to craft it." Shield shook her head. "It's not just the assembly, the special composite weave it's made out of needs to be manufactured in a particular fashion, which takes time. I'd need a source of some new material of just the right kind of pliability that also has an ultra-high tensile strength."
"You mean like, say, this?" Yui said as she reached over to pluck another loose patch of scales from my side, causing me to recoil a little.
"Hey!"
"I… don't know." Shield said, looking at the piece of white scales Yui had handed her. "Is this…?"
"It's her scales, yeah. She sheds like a husky every so often and drops this stuff everywhere, it's disgusting."
I made an offended huff.
"It could work." Shield breathed out, springing to her feet, already halfway towards the door before turning around. "I'll need to run some tests, but maybe… um, do you have any more of this?"
"More than I know what to do with." I replied. "I can mail you a basket of it once I finish molting."
"Thank you so much!" She exclaimed, walking backwards towards the door. "I thought I'd- Well. I'll be in touch?"
"Well, I guess that's that." I said with a bit of amusement, turning my head towards Yui. "I think we should head out, you need to finish packing."
"Actually, Tatsuma, can I talk to you about something before you go?" Midoriya said, rubbing the back of his head. "It's something private- well, private for you, I don't really know how to put it- I think it's best if you come and see."
"I'll see you at the airport, then." Yui nodded, making her way towards the door, and I turned towards Midoriya.
"Show the way."
He led me on a circuitous route through the building, passing through clean, well-lit hallways, occasionally pressing myself against the wall to let some researcher or assistant to pass by, giving the two of us weird looks as they went. We eventually arrived at a particular door, an armed security guard standing in front of it.
Midoriya handed one a card of some sort and wordlessly he ran it through some sort of scanner before handing it back.
"You're approved. Go ahead."
He stepped aside and the door slid open with a whirr, admitting us within. I felt very weirded out by the whole affair until I saw what, or rather who, was waiting inside.
David Shield sat by his desk, arranging some sort of papers before swiveling his chair around to look at us as we stepped inside, the doors clicking shut behind us.
"Ah, Midoriya. Thank you so much for bringing her." Shield said as he stood up from his seat with a grunt of pain, glancing at his shoulder before looking up at me. "It occurs to me that we've never been properly introduced. David Shield, Quirk Scientist."
"Ryuuzaki Tatsuma. Hero Student." I extended a claw to shake the offered hand. "I wasn't expecting I'd get to see you."
"You mean why I'm not sitting in a jail cell right now." He said with a sigh, sitting back down on his chair, gesturing towards the mess of documents on his desk. "All-Might talked them into giving me a few days to put my affairs in order, in exchange that I confess to everything. He's also trying to get them to let me continue my research in prison, but all of my notes were in the helicopter when Wolfram tore it apart. With the prototype broken, I'm not sure what I'd be able to accomplish." He took a deep breath, looking back up at me. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Alright." I replied cautiously, and Shield cleared his throat.
"What I did was unforgivable. In my blindness, I almost threw everything away. I put everyone into danger. But thanks to you, I now have a chance to fix things. I can make amends." He said, squaring his shoulders. "Words cannot properly express my gratitude to all of you, and there's precious little I can accomplish in the time that I have left. But when I approached him, Midoriya had a suggestion for what I might be able to do for you.."
"I, um, I said that he could maybe take a look at you?" He said awkwardly. "He's one of the most accomplished Quirk Scientists in the world, and I thought, only if you want to of course, he could try to see why you can't transform?"
It felt like the floor had suddenly dropped out from beneath my feet.
"I spent years studying and analyzing All-Might's Quirk trying to find a way to fix it. And though the solution I came up with is now gone, I still have all the tools I used to monitor his Quirk. Tools that can not just measure a Quirk, but read the data stored within the Quirk Factor and figure out at least in part how it works." He gestured across the room at the large machine mounted on the far wall, with a built-in examination table within a glass tank, alongside a variety of scanners and implements I hardly recognized as I numbly turned my head to follow. "I will warn you, I probably will not be able to figure out a solution in one evening." He admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "But I might be able to figure out the root cause, and point you in the right directi-"
"Do it." I breathed out in a whisper, my voice seeming to have suddenly left me. "Please."
-----
Since I couldn't fit on the examination table Shield had had me stand under the ceiling-mounted scanner, fastening some sort nodes on several points on my body, wires leading back into the machine. Midoriya had vacated the room, and for several hours Shield had been working tirelessly, examining the data pouring across the screens from the machine, pausing only to make notes and mumble to himself.
For all that time I had held still as a statue, barely daring to breathe lest I distract him or mess something up, but inside I was nothing but a mess. Every part of me wanted to pace around, scream until my voice ran out, run away, or both.
"Alright." He finally announced, and the scanner above me dimmed, before folding back into the wall. Shield walked over, carefully removing each of the nodes from my scales. "I've gathered everything I can. Anything more is just putting it off."
I wanted to say something, but no words came out. I couldn't move, pinned to the spot by anticipation and nervousness, at once both wanting to break out through the door and never think of this again, and for him to just get on with it.
"You told me that your Doctors had outlined two possible theories. That it could be an issue with the Quirk itself, either because it was damaged or as a built-in failsafe due to your human body having perished, or a mental block created by the trauma of your experiences." He took a deep breath. "I believe… I know the answer. You may wish to sit down."
I glanced at my feet, then back up at him. "I don't think I could, even if I wanted to."
"As you wish." He said, turning back towards the screens. He tapped the keyboard a few times and several images popped up on the screen, most prominently a 3D model representation of myself, and a large graph with attached numeric values that, from a casual glance, seemed to be going steadily upwards. "I believe I can confidently say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with your Quirk. It is working just fine- better than fine, even. It's healthy, powerful and growing, clearly receiving proper exercise and training. Quirk Factor is being produced at an increasing rate. I've studied All-Might's Quirk for years, and many other cases for reference. I know what a damaged or malfunctioning Quirk looks like, and yours isn't one."
"And the others?" I forced myself to speak.
"Your Quirk creates a data repository that it uses to recreate each of your forms when you transform. Your human body can't be dead because it doesn't exist in storage somewhere, only as data stored within your Quirk. When you switch forms your Quirk, through methods which no science can fully explain, transmutes the matter of your old body into the new, adding or removing excess. The Quirk references the data and recreates the new body based on that data. But it doesn't just recreate it at the moment you last transformed, as you'd essentially grow up at half speed. It also doesn't simply simulate what would have happened to your body in storage, because it would simply starve to death. Instead, it recreates your body, for a lack of a better word, as it should be. This is why, for an example, why your nails don't grow to a huge length while transformed, or why it recreates your clothes. Because the Quirk thinks that's how it should be. Can you see where I'm getting at with this?"
"It could- If it recreates my entire body from scratch, if it can figure out how old my body should be, what state of health it should be in, it could recreate me in an unwounded state." I said slowly, and he nodded. "But… how does it know?" I croaked. "How does it know what should be? How does a Quirk… make a decision?"
"It doesn't. It interfaces with your consciousness and subconsciousness. A Quirk is like an organ, it receives input from the brain on how to interpret and utilize the data it has stored." He stated in a soft voice. "In my research I've often come across the relationship that must exist between Quirks and the minds of those who bear them. How else would we have Quirks that resemble modern technology or, indeed, mythological creatures existent only in tales and stories? There are studies that indicate a varying degree of correlation between the personality and the Quirk of an individual." He picked up a pen from his desk, putting it between his fingers and fiddling with it, his voice a little nervous as if he was struggling to find the best way to put things. I simply listened numbly. "You, of course, know about the Nomu. I believe that the reason they lose higher brain functions is due to the stress of multiple Quirks demanding input at once. A particularly resilient individual might be able to handle two or even three with difficulty, but four, five, six, or even more? Without some kind of buffer? There would be no capacity left for anything else." He shook his head. "But I apologize. I am getting off topic. While we don't fully understand how or to what extent, the mind affects the Quirk, just as it does the body. Kind of like the placebo effect. No, off-topic again. What I am getting at is that a Quirk is, to a lesser or greater degree, a reflection of one's own self. In fact, perhaps a better word for them would be "Individuality"."
"So the reason it would refuse to recreate my body would be because… consciously or subconsciously… I..." Bile rose up my throat as the realization bloomed into being, my legs feeling like jelly whilst the world spun around me.
"B-because on some level I don't want it to."
"...Yes. I am sorry."
...
My mouth felt dry, my tongue feeling heavy and leaden.
"Can you… show me?"
He tapped some buttons and a new image blinked onto the screen.
And there it was.
Me.
Or, the me that I had been for thirteen years. The one that had died.
The same large blood-red eyes I remembered. The same messy, short-cut white hair, the colour of my scales. The same face, with light freckles and small nose, and a mouth filled with sharp, triangular reptile teeth. The same pair of horns jutting out above my forehead and poking from amidst my hair, one longer and curved, one short and straight behind it. Even the same clothing, a tracksuit and a pair of sneakers.
But I wasn't quite as I remembered me. I was older. Taller for one, judging by the proportions, though it was hard to gauge by how much without a reference. I'd also left my teen beanpole days behind, putting on not a small amount of muscle mass, with a very impressive pair of arms. Even my features had aged, though not as drastically, retaining some childish appearance. My horns weren't quite as long as I remembered them, though perhaps the rest of me had simply grown.
And yet, a strange swirl of sensations rolled over me as I saw myself, defying description. Disgust? Sadness? Fear? Sorrow? Revulsion? Longing? All of them at once?
I looked at the soft, tiny thing and I just… I just...
It was me, and yet it was not me. It didn't feel like the real me.
But what was the real me? When I looked inside of myself, at how I thought of myself, what did I see? Was it the me that had bled out fifteen years and one hundred and fifty-seven years ago in a training accident on the other side of the planet? Or was it the me that was on the screen before me, the one that had been murdered on one snowy day almost three years ago?
...
I looked at the screen again, not at the images on it but the reflection of light upon the glass. I looked at the huge reptilian monster that stared back at me with glowing red eyes, coated in a thick layer of armour-like scales, teeth glinting in the darkness of the dimly lit laboratory.
----
"All-Might? All-Might, can I talk to you?"
The Number One Hero, in his civilian guise, turned around at the sound of my voice, looking up at me to meet my eyes. I'd tracked him down in one of the airport terminals by scent, a private one with nobody around.
"Of course, Young Tatsuma. What is it?"
"I… wanted to ask you a question."
"Well, I cannot promise that I will answer, but I can promise to hear you out."
"It's not about… the stuff you didn't want to talk about. Well, maybe a little. But it's more of a personal question." I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. "I just… how do you deal with it?"
"With what?" He tilted his head in concern.
"Becoming… powerless. You go from the most powerful being on the planet to a cripple. How do you… handle it?"
"Ah. I see." All-Might scratched his chin. "In truth, I did struggle with it for a long time. But for how I came to terms with it… would you like to know how I came to choose Young Midoriya as my successor?"
I nodded wordlessly.
"He was, as you already knew, born Quirkless. But in spite of that, more than anything, he wanted to become a Hero. Through no fault of his own the genetic lottery had denied him his dream. He came to me and asked this question: can someone without a Quirk be a Hero?"
All-Might's blue eyes blazed from their sunken, hollow pits as he looked at me, and I found I couldn't turn aside my gaze.
"I told him no. And I was not wrong in saying so; someone Quirkless cannot become a Pro-Hero. But while I thought of it purely in terms of a career, there is a greater meaning to the word "Hero". I will not tell the whole account of what happened next, but Midoriya did something incredibly foolish, yet incredibly brave. He put his life on the line to save another's. Where others stood by he, timid and Quirkless, threw himself into action for the sake of someone else. Though he could not be a Hero, he was already a Hero. Do you understand what I mean?"
I wasn't entirely sure, it felt almost like my head was underwater, but I nodded numbly.
"I came to realize that the truly brave are those who go on to do good in spite of their powerlessness and vulnerability. The real essence of Heroism does not come from superpowers, but the heart." He said, leaning forward to rap his knuckles on my chest. "Does that answer your question?"
"I… suppose it does." I replied stiffly, almost on autopilot. "T-thank you, All-Might. I won't bother you anymore."
I left the terminal in a trance, a buzzing filling my ears. It was hard to focus on anything. My heart was beating hard in my chest, and my breathing was shallow.
So if true bravery means being able to act in spite of your vulnerability, no matter how powerless you might be...
What, then, did that speak of someone who couldn't?
I-ISLAND ARC END
"I know I don't need to go." I said. "But I choose to."
"Alright." She accepted with a nod, pushing herself up and grabbing her crutch.
"You don't need to escort me, you know." I told her as she hobbled up to my side.
"I don't need to. I choose to."
I just shook my head in exasperation.
The two of us walked along half-empty streets, the vibrant, enthusiastic atmosphere from before replaced with a much more subdued and sombre mood. A significant portion of the visitors had simply left, and the previously ever-present security drones were notable in their absence. Whether that was because their numbers had been reduced to such a degree, or because the Island Administration didn't trust a tool that had been turned against them so easily anymore, I wasn't quite sure.
Out in the distance the main tower loomed, stabbing towards the sky. There on top of it, all but invisible to naked human eye, I could see squadrons of maintenance drones hovering around the rooftop, working to replace damaged sections and clear the wreckage. Even after three days, their task had only just begun.
"I'm surprised they're even still going ahead with the Expo." Yui noted, tracing my line of sight. "After all."
"From what Mizutani told me it was a near thing, but there's just too much money involved to cancel the entire thing." I said. "It helps that most people on the island had no idea what was happening until it was over, and the administration was on top of handling the fallout."
"You mean the I-Island administration took control of the narrative and pressured the media to downplay what actually happened to keep shareholders happy?"
I was quiet for a bit.
"Would you rather they cancel the entire thing? They did agree to waive all collateral damage we caused."
"I didn't say that. Just pointing something out."
After that we fell into a silence, punctuated only by the clacks of Yui's crutch against the pavement, until we arrived in front of the exhibition building again, a few people drifting in and out here and there. The main exhibit had been open to the public for the last two days, but the meeting had been postponed until today.
"I'll be waiting here." Yui said as she limped over to a nearby bench. "You go and work your magic. Also, careful, you're shedding."
"What? Again?!" I exclaimed in frustration, checking over myself and finding a loose patch of scales on my left side, where the heavy plates covering my abdomen ended. I scratched it away, leaving the edges slightly frayed and revealing a layer of shiny new scales beneath. I turned my head left and right, checking to see if anyone was around and, seeing only Yui giving me an amused wave, shoved it to a nearby trash bin.
When I walked through the main doors I found the exhibition hall much as I left it, sans a few absences, though to my relief Mizutani's area was at least in at least a respectable if not outstanding level of organized. The man himself was all smiles when he saw my arrival, quickly excusing himself from a conversation with a bunch of suited businessmen before hurrying my way.
"Ah, good, you're here!" He semi-whispered excitedly. "Come on quickly, I need to introduce you to someone."
"I thought you said that we'd skip the mingling and just stick to the presentation?"
"I know, but this is a real bigshot I'm talking about. He was originally going to send a representative but he arrived in person yesterday."
"After what happened?"
"I know, right?" Mizutani exclaimed, but I couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed.
The man he took me to was a tall, late-middle-aged businessman with a lean build, extending to his facial features with a narrow, protruding chin and a long, pointed nose. His short, swept-back hair was orange-brown like autumn leaves, with a noticeably receding hairline on his forehead. There was something a little weird about his scent to me, something oddly familiar that I couldn't quite place.
"Can I introduce you to Rikiya Yotsubashi, President and CEO of Detnerat Company? Mr. Yotsubashi, this is Ryuuzaki Tatsuma."
"Ah, yes." Yotsubashi said with a warm, disarming smile, stepping forward to shake my claw with both hands. "I've heard much about you."
I floundered a little, unsure of what to reply to that.
"All good, I assure you." He smiled good-naturedly, putting me a little more at ease.
"Thank you." I said slowly. "I am honoured that you're here with us today. I am sure you are very busy."
"Oh, it is no big deal! We at the Detnerat Company are always on the lookout for ways to bring an ever expanding repertoire of products to our valued customer to assist them in their daily lives! And of course, when I heard that the Hero of Kashyyyk Mall would be present, I knew I had to be there!"
"That's not… I wasn't alone in Kashyyyk. There were others who did more." I shifted uncomfortably. "I just did my best."
"Isn't that what all of us strive towards?" He reached up to pat me in the shoulder. "But I see you're of the modest type. I can respect that. I won't keep you any longer, I hear you've got quite a presentation prepared for us."
-----
A few minutes later I found myself waiting in the corner of the meeting room, large and expansive enough to have room not just for me but a large table behind which sat a panel of serious-looking businessmen, Yotsubashi featuring front and center, his fingers steepled. Between us was a substantial open space in which Mizutani stood facing the investors, alongside a few illustration stands and tables for props.
"Welcome, everyone, to this presentation. I promise you, it will be worth your while." He began, pausing for effect, before starting his speech.
"Ever since the emergence of Quirks, our society has struggled to accommodate the diversity of body types and needs of our ever more varied population. And while much work has been done to give everyone an equal chance at a normal, comfortable life, there are challenges that even to this date remain unsolved. Well, today I'd like to present to you the solution to at least one of them." Mizutani explained, before theatrically pulling back his sleeves a little, showing off his palms to the panel. "Hands. Such a simple concept that we don't even think about them, but so much of our society is predicated on the fine motor skills offered by a human hand, and it is easy for the rest of us to forget their importance. So easy, that rather than pontificate to you myself, I've invited someone to speak of their own personal experiences."
He turned to me with a flourish, and I pushed myself to a standing position, walking over to him, caaareful not to knock anything over on my way, keeping a close watch on where my tail was.
"Please, introduce yourself."
I took a deep breath.
I can do this.
"My name is Ryuuzaki Tatsuma. I am fifteen years old. I am currently a first-year student at the Heroics Department of UA in Japan. An incident three years ago left me unable to transform back into my human form." In and out. In and out. Easy. "Ever since then, I have been stuck in this form." I raised one huge, clawed forelimb to the air, to show it to everyone. "Even absent the size issue, I do not have the ability to hold a pen or a computer with precision. When watching television I cannot use the remote, and we had to get a voice-controller instead. I can't switch off the lights in my room. I used to have a hobby of painting miniatures, but I've had to give it up too. School is difficult, when I can only write on a touchscreen, and those break easily. It sometimes takes me minutes to get a doorknob open without breaking anything. I can't, um, play most video games. I can't fill in paperwork. I'll never be able to drive a car- uh, besides the obvious reasons. I scratch my smartphone to uselessness once a month. I can't-" I swallowed. "I can't ruffle my sister's hair, I can't-"
I paused, trying to ignore how unprofessional and horrible that speech sounded. I'm fifteen years old, they can't possibly have expected more out of me.
"And, and, I know I'm in a privileged position compared to most. My family can afford alternatives. But a lot of people in similar situations don't. People with crab or insect Quirks. Scissors for hands. Things like that. People who can't buy replacements every time a touchscreen breaks. But if there was another option, something you could buy once…"
I trailed off, realizing I'd gotten off topic of my personal experiences.
"Thank you, Miss Tatsuma." Mizutani nodded graciously. "That is indeed exactly what I am offering. A one-time investment that will allow anyone to utilize the normal, baseline methods rather than requiring expensive custom products for every occasion."
He walked to one of the tables and pulled off the covering, revealing the Synth-Hand. The same prosthetic he'd shown me when we first met, only packaged in a sleek black plastic casing, rather than an exposed mess of wires and metal.
"With the advancement of robotics and cybernetics technology, full-function prosthetics became a reality. We can make replacement limbs that function just as well as the originals. But the keyword there is, unfortunately, "replacement". We can replace a limb, but not add one. Well, no more."
He lifted the mechanical hand and presented it to me. I pressed it onto my palm and the mechanism automatically fastened it in place, a slight tingle running through me as it activated.
"This is my Synth-Hand. The hand itself is just a commercial-grade prosthetic, but the real secret lies in the neural interface. Please, would you demonstrate to our audience?"
I flexed the fingers of the Synth-Hand, pulling them to a fist and then opening wide, before closing again one finger at a time. Then, I stepped up to one of the prop tables, where a small plastic miniature of a futuristic soldier was waiting, alongside a brush and a small pot of paint.
In truth it was awkward to use, after so long and with so many eyes on me, but after a few moments I had managed to quickly colour up a few prominent details on the miniature. I grabbed it by the base and held it up to show the precision the Synth-Hand had been able to achieve. Then, I flipped a switch at the base of the hand and it detached, flopping onto the table. I held up my palm, showing that there was no access port or even the slightest mark where it had been connected to me, causing a few whispers to break out.
"The interface allows the user to manipulate the Synth-Hand as if it were an extension of their own body, requiring no costly and invasive surgery to accomplish." Mizutani announced with a smile, and I could see a few of the investors leaning forward, interested. "If you have any questions you'd like to ask…"
After that I had to sit down, my ears starting to buzz and my vision swimming. I'd done my part.
Mizutani fielded some questions, seemingly about market research and logistics from the few snippets I caught. None were directed at me, or at least if they were I didn't catch them. At that point I was too exhausted to care.
After perhaps half an hour the presentation was over, the investors filed out of the room. Mizutani clapped me in the shoulder, shaking me out of my reverie.
"We did it! We actually did it, you magnificent b… being!" He exclaimed as the doors closed.
"We did?" I said, thinking back to my horrid speech.
"Yotsubashi signed the contract the moment the presentation ended." He said proudly, thrusting the piece of paper at my snout. "And I couldn't have done it without you."
I recoiled, but not before catching a whiff of the scent on the document.
And at that very moment, I realized where I'd smelled Yotsubashi before.
"Right. That's good. That's… really good." I said, taking a step backwards. "I'm… I'm not feeling too well. I think- it'll be best that I go lay down for a bit. We can talk later if there's anything."
"Feel free to do whatever you want." He said, still looking at the "I can't thank you enough for what you've done."
"Yeah." I said distractedly, making my way out of the building. "You're welcome."
But as I walked, my thoughts were revolving around one singular thing.
It could be nothing. But I couldn't just ignore it.
Yotsubashi's scent… it was one of the samples Endeavour had given me from the Broken Circle safehouse.
-----
The thought was still rattling in my head after taking a quick nap in my hotel room before it was time for my next appointment. Alas, my quota of stressful situations for the day had only just begun.
I heard the doorbell go off, and could only sigh. Time to face the music.
"Come on in."
"Young Tatsuma." All-Might said gravely as the doorway slid open and he stepped inside, followed by Midoriya, his hand bandaged and wrapped where the superheated metal had burnt him.
"All-Might." I nodded. "Midoriya."
Despite his size, even the Symbol of Peace looked a little small in a room configured for a dragon, though I had asked for a normal-sized couch for visitors, originally with Yui in mind.
"Young Midoriya has been telling me about everything that happened." All-Might said as they sat down. "My apologies for taking so long, but there have been a number of matters pressing for my attention since the battle. But I believe it is high time we had a discussion."
"I understand." I said, taking a deep breath and gathering my courage. "But, um, before we begin, you don't, uh, have to maintain that form. Your muscle form. I figured it out. So you don't need to, um, use up your time."
"WHAT?!" All-Might suddenly exclaimed in a booming voice that made me recoil as he staggered backwards in surprise. "How do you know about that?"
"I have an enhanced sense of smell, you know." I explained, looking down at my feet. "You, um, however you do it, it doesn't change your smell."
"I- I see."
I heard a hissing noise, and as I raised my gaze I saw All-Might wracked with change. He sloughed off dozens and dozens of kilograms of muscle, until he was little more than a bundle of bones. His prodigious height seemed to bend his spine, forcing him into a forward slough, and his face tightened and lengthened, lantern jaw sharpening to an angular point. Even his hair seemed to lose its strength, deflating like a helium balloon.
"What you are seeing now is my true form. Several years ago, an enemy inflicted a great injury on me." He lifted the folds of his now far too large costume to reveal a massive wound on the side of his abdomen, a mass of raw, ugly red scarring. "Since then, I've been able to maintain my muscle form for only a few hours at a time."
I felt a brutal chill run through my spine.
"This is a secret known only to a select few, concealed from the public eye. The Symbol of Peace cannot be daunted by evil." He said, coughing into his hand roughly. "I am sure you understand."
"O-of course." I said. "I haven't told anyone- I would never tell anyone. I figured it out at the Sports Festival but I was… too afraid to approach you, in case anyone overheard. That it would get out because of me."
"You have a good head on your shoulders, Young Tatsuma. It will carry you far in life." All-Might said, before bringing a hand to his chin in concern. "But now, I must wonder how many others already know, too. I had never even considered the aspect of smell. Perhaps I should use some kind of powerful scent to conceal my own."
"I… don't know. It might make you even more noticeable to someone with a sharp nose.." I looked at my feet again. "I think… I only noticed it because you're a teacher at UA so I see you more than most people. And it would have been really easy to dismiss as coincidence, if I hadn't known about your conversation with Nedzu about your time limit."
"WHAT?!" All-Might shouted again, a bit of blood flying out of his mouth. "How do you know about that?"
"I, um, have enhanced hearing?" I shifted uncomfortably, my tail curling and uncurling on the floor. "I just.. overhear things and put them together. I can't help it."
"No, it isn't your fault. I apologize for raising my voice." All-Might said, wiping the blood off with the back of his hand. "Nor is it your responsibility to figure out the solution. I will have to figure something out. But I owe you my thanks, for bringing this issue to my attention. The next to use this avenue to figure out my identity may not be as considerate."
A silence fell over the room, until Midoriya finally broke it.
"So, ummm, should we talk about…?"
"Ah, that is right. We have gotten a little sidetracked." All-Might shook his head. "Young Midoriya told me that you had figured out the truth of his Quirk, and that he inadvertently confirmed it to you." He glanced at the green-haired boy, who turned beet-red and tried to slunk down in his seat. "Please, if you would, I'd like to know how "
"Well, umm… his Quirk is like an exact replica of yours. He's very inexperienced with it. Everyone thought he was Quirkless until recently, but it's too strong and obvious to have been a Silent Quirk all that time. And, um, no offense Midoriya, but you act pretty weirdly whenever the topic of Quirklessness and people being given Quirks comes up. And then there's how you two act with each other, like when giving out the awards at the Sports Festival."
"WHA-?!" All-Might began, blood jetting out of his mouth, before he paused to reconsider. "Ah. That is right. Enhanced hearing."
"Yeah." I nodded, shuffling my feet. "And I already knew your Quirk was losing power. So I… put it together." I shrugged my massive shoulders, my wings rolling with the motion.
"I see. Thank you, Young Tatsuma." He said. "Again, perhaps even moreso than with my true form, I must ask for your discretion on this matter. My Quirk, One For All, can be transferred from one bearer to the next at will. But it is at its most vulnerable when given to a new host. I have many enemies who would relentlessly pursue Young Midoriya if they knew him to be my chosen successor and inheritor, to snuff out his flame before he has the chance to mature into the great Hero I know he will become."
I saw Midoriya bow his head in embarrassment, looking away.
"Of course. I'll- I'll keep it a secret, no matter what." I said, sitting up straighter. "These enemies… do you mean like the man who can give Quirks?"
"Yes. He is an old enemy of mine." All-Might said, his expression hardening and his eyes narrowing. "That is all I will speak of him."
"But-"
"No." He stated firmly, taking a step forward and I shied back."You already know more than you should, but: He is the one who gave me the scar I showed you, and who is responsible for the state that I am in. I am telling you this only so that you may understand the danger you are in." As he spoke a strange intensity had entered All-Might's voice, that seemed at odds with both his fragile frame and his typically jovial attitude. "The more you know of him, the more you risk him knowing of you. And should he know of you, everyone close to you is at danger. Because he will stop at nothing to get at me, through the deaths of innocents if necessary. Do not seek knowledge of him, for the sake of yourself and those around you. Do not try to fight my battles for me. Do you understand?"
He'd advanced until I was almost up against the wall of the meeting room, with nowhere to retreat.
"Y-yeah! Of course!"
"Good, good." He backed off, rubbing his eyeballs as he sat down. "I apologize again for my tone. But you must understand, this is for your own protection."
"I understand." I bowed my head. "I shouldn't have pried."
"Now, unless there's any other big revelations, I should get going."
I shook my head and All-Might struggled to his feet, offering me a bony hand. I shook it awkwardly with my claw and he turned around to leave.
"Sorry." Midoriya said with an apologetic expression as the door slid shut. "You gave him a bit of a shock and he's just… worried about others being hurt for his sake. And I think he's been on the edge since finding out about Shield."
"Mmm." I said neutrally. "So, how is it, being All-Might's successor?"
"It's…" He made a vague gesture with his hands. "I don't even really know how to put it into words. I've never had the opportunity to talk about it with anyone."
"Must be reassuring."
"Reassuring? How?"
"Well, knowing you've been chosen by the Number One Hero to be his inheritor, you have to be doing something right."
"I… I guess that's one way of putting it, yeah." Midoriya said, his mouth tugging into a slight smile. "But it can also just be this big… thing, behind you. An expectation that you need to fulfill."
"That's why you were so determined to win the Sports Festival." I observed. "Anyway, I'd say you're doing a good job of it."
"I… thank you." He said quietly.
----
"So, are you two ready to leave yet?" Melissa Shield asked as we sat in the cafeteria. She'd been showing us around for the last few hours, including to her own laboratory. "Your flight was leaving today, wasn't it?"
"I'm ready to go but I think somebody's got more packing to do." I said.
"Not all of us can travel with just what's on our back." Yui said, casting a judgemental look up at my direction from the seat beside me.
"Uraraka's been helping me pack since…" Midoriya said, wiggling his bandaged hand. "I'll have to wait until I get to Recovery Girl to get my burns properly healed."
"You know, that reminds me." I said. "What was that gauntlet you used against Wolfram? You said that Shield made it for you, but I never got the full details."
"Oh!" Shield perked up. "That was the Full Gauntlet. I had originally made it for All-Might, but, well, he doesn't really need it. But when I saw Midoriya in the robot battle game I realized I could modify it to act as a brace for his arm. I estimated it would allow him to safely unleash his full power three times without breaking."
"It saved our lives." Midoriya admitted. "Shame it was destroyed."
"Can't you just make a new one?" Yui asked. "It seems really useful, if it can let him do that."
"It took me the better part of a year to craft it." Shield shook her head. "It's not just the assembly, the special composite weave it's made out of needs to be manufactured in a particular fashion, which takes time. I'd need a source of some new material of just the right kind of pliability that also has an ultra-high tensile strength."
"You mean like, say, this?" Yui said as she reached over to pluck another loose patch of scales from my side, causing me to recoil a little.
"Hey!"
"I… don't know." Shield said, looking at the piece of white scales Yui had handed her. "Is this…?"
"It's her scales, yeah. She sheds like a husky every so often and drops this stuff everywhere, it's disgusting."
I made an offended huff.
"It could work." Shield breathed out, springing to her feet, already halfway towards the door before turning around. "I'll need to run some tests, but maybe… um, do you have any more of this?"
"More than I know what to do with." I replied. "I can mail you a basket of it once I finish molting."
"Thank you so much!" She exclaimed, walking backwards towards the door. "I thought I'd- Well. I'll be in touch?"
"Well, I guess that's that." I said with a bit of amusement, turning my head towards Yui. "I think we should head out, you need to finish packing."
"Actually, Tatsuma, can I talk to you about something before you go?" Midoriya said, rubbing the back of his head. "It's something private- well, private for you, I don't really know how to put it- I think it's best if you come and see."
"I'll see you at the airport, then." Yui nodded, making her way towards the door, and I turned towards Midoriya.
"Show the way."
He led me on a circuitous route through the building, passing through clean, well-lit hallways, occasionally pressing myself against the wall to let some researcher or assistant to pass by, giving the two of us weird looks as they went. We eventually arrived at a particular door, an armed security guard standing in front of it.
Midoriya handed one a card of some sort and wordlessly he ran it through some sort of scanner before handing it back.
"You're approved. Go ahead."
He stepped aside and the door slid open with a whirr, admitting us within. I felt very weirded out by the whole affair until I saw what, or rather who, was waiting inside.
David Shield sat by his desk, arranging some sort of papers before swiveling his chair around to look at us as we stepped inside, the doors clicking shut behind us.
"Ah, Midoriya. Thank you so much for bringing her." Shield said as he stood up from his seat with a grunt of pain, glancing at his shoulder before looking up at me. "It occurs to me that we've never been properly introduced. David Shield, Quirk Scientist."
"Ryuuzaki Tatsuma. Hero Student." I extended a claw to shake the offered hand. "I wasn't expecting I'd get to see you."
"You mean why I'm not sitting in a jail cell right now." He said with a sigh, sitting back down on his chair, gesturing towards the mess of documents on his desk. "All-Might talked them into giving me a few days to put my affairs in order, in exchange that I confess to everything. He's also trying to get them to let me continue my research in prison, but all of my notes were in the helicopter when Wolfram tore it apart. With the prototype broken, I'm not sure what I'd be able to accomplish." He took a deep breath, looking back up at me. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Alright." I replied cautiously, and Shield cleared his throat.
"What I did was unforgivable. In my blindness, I almost threw everything away. I put everyone into danger. But thanks to you, I now have a chance to fix things. I can make amends." He said, squaring his shoulders. "Words cannot properly express my gratitude to all of you, and there's precious little I can accomplish in the time that I have left. But when I approached him, Midoriya had a suggestion for what I might be able to do for you.."
"I, um, I said that he could maybe take a look at you?" He said awkwardly. "He's one of the most accomplished Quirk Scientists in the world, and I thought, only if you want to of course, he could try to see why you can't transform?"
It felt like the floor had suddenly dropped out from beneath my feet.
"I spent years studying and analyzing All-Might's Quirk trying to find a way to fix it. And though the solution I came up with is now gone, I still have all the tools I used to monitor his Quirk. Tools that can not just measure a Quirk, but read the data stored within the Quirk Factor and figure out at least in part how it works." He gestured across the room at the large machine mounted on the far wall, with a built-in examination table within a glass tank, alongside a variety of scanners and implements I hardly recognized as I numbly turned my head to follow. "I will warn you, I probably will not be able to figure out a solution in one evening." He admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "But I might be able to figure out the root cause, and point you in the right directi-"
"Do it." I breathed out in a whisper, my voice seeming to have suddenly left me. "Please."
-----
Since I couldn't fit on the examination table Shield had had me stand under the ceiling-mounted scanner, fastening some sort nodes on several points on my body, wires leading back into the machine. Midoriya had vacated the room, and for several hours Shield had been working tirelessly, examining the data pouring across the screens from the machine, pausing only to make notes and mumble to himself.
For all that time I had held still as a statue, barely daring to breathe lest I distract him or mess something up, but inside I was nothing but a mess. Every part of me wanted to pace around, scream until my voice ran out, run away, or both.
"Alright." He finally announced, and the scanner above me dimmed, before folding back into the wall. Shield walked over, carefully removing each of the nodes from my scales. "I've gathered everything I can. Anything more is just putting it off."
I wanted to say something, but no words came out. I couldn't move, pinned to the spot by anticipation and nervousness, at once both wanting to break out through the door and never think of this again, and for him to just get on with it.
"You told me that your Doctors had outlined two possible theories. That it could be an issue with the Quirk itself, either because it was damaged or as a built-in failsafe due to your human body having perished, or a mental block created by the trauma of your experiences." He took a deep breath. "I believe… I know the answer. You may wish to sit down."
I glanced at my feet, then back up at him. "I don't think I could, even if I wanted to."
"As you wish." He said, turning back towards the screens. He tapped the keyboard a few times and several images popped up on the screen, most prominently a 3D model representation of myself, and a large graph with attached numeric values that, from a casual glance, seemed to be going steadily upwards. "I believe I can confidently say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with your Quirk. It is working just fine- better than fine, even. It's healthy, powerful and growing, clearly receiving proper exercise and training. Quirk Factor is being produced at an increasing rate. I've studied All-Might's Quirk for years, and many other cases for reference. I know what a damaged or malfunctioning Quirk looks like, and yours isn't one."
"And the others?" I forced myself to speak.
"Your Quirk creates a data repository that it uses to recreate each of your forms when you transform. Your human body can't be dead because it doesn't exist in storage somewhere, only as data stored within your Quirk. When you switch forms your Quirk, through methods which no science can fully explain, transmutes the matter of your old body into the new, adding or removing excess. The Quirk references the data and recreates the new body based on that data. But it doesn't just recreate it at the moment you last transformed, as you'd essentially grow up at half speed. It also doesn't simply simulate what would have happened to your body in storage, because it would simply starve to death. Instead, it recreates your body, for a lack of a better word, as it should be. This is why, for an example, why your nails don't grow to a huge length while transformed, or why it recreates your clothes. Because the Quirk thinks that's how it should be. Can you see where I'm getting at with this?"
"It could- If it recreates my entire body from scratch, if it can figure out how old my body should be, what state of health it should be in, it could recreate me in an unwounded state." I said slowly, and he nodded. "But… how does it know?" I croaked. "How does it know what should be? How does a Quirk… make a decision?"
"It doesn't. It interfaces with your consciousness and subconsciousness. A Quirk is like an organ, it receives input from the brain on how to interpret and utilize the data it has stored." He stated in a soft voice. "In my research I've often come across the relationship that must exist between Quirks and the minds of those who bear them. How else would we have Quirks that resemble modern technology or, indeed, mythological creatures existent only in tales and stories? There are studies that indicate a varying degree of correlation between the personality and the Quirk of an individual." He picked up a pen from his desk, putting it between his fingers and fiddling with it, his voice a little nervous as if he was struggling to find the best way to put things. I simply listened numbly. "You, of course, know about the Nomu. I believe that the reason they lose higher brain functions is due to the stress of multiple Quirks demanding input at once. A particularly resilient individual might be able to handle two or even three with difficulty, but four, five, six, or even more? Without some kind of buffer? There would be no capacity left for anything else." He shook his head. "But I apologize. I am getting off topic. While we don't fully understand how or to what extent, the mind affects the Quirk, just as it does the body. Kind of like the placebo effect. No, off-topic again. What I am getting at is that a Quirk is, to a lesser or greater degree, a reflection of one's own self. In fact, perhaps a better word for them would be "Individuality"."
"So the reason it would refuse to recreate my body would be because… consciously or subconsciously… I..." Bile rose up my throat as the realization bloomed into being, my legs feeling like jelly whilst the world spun around me.
"B-because on some level I don't want it to."
"...Yes. I am sorry."
...
My mouth felt dry, my tongue feeling heavy and leaden.
"Can you… show me?"
He tapped some buttons and a new image blinked onto the screen.
And there it was.
Me.
Or, the me that I had been for thirteen years. The one that had died.
The same large blood-red eyes I remembered. The same messy, short-cut white hair, the colour of my scales. The same face, with light freckles and small nose, and a mouth filled with sharp, triangular reptile teeth. The same pair of horns jutting out above my forehead and poking from amidst my hair, one longer and curved, one short and straight behind it. Even the same clothing, a tracksuit and a pair of sneakers.
But I wasn't quite as I remembered me. I was older. Taller for one, judging by the proportions, though it was hard to gauge by how much without a reference. I'd also left my teen beanpole days behind, putting on not a small amount of muscle mass, with a very impressive pair of arms. Even my features had aged, though not as drastically, retaining some childish appearance. My horns weren't quite as long as I remembered them, though perhaps the rest of me had simply grown.
And yet, a strange swirl of sensations rolled over me as I saw myself, defying description. Disgust? Sadness? Fear? Sorrow? Revulsion? Longing? All of them at once?
I looked at the soft, tiny thing and I just… I just...
It was me, and yet it was not me. It didn't feel like the real me.
But what was the real me? When I looked inside of myself, at how I thought of myself, what did I see? Was it the me that had bled out fifteen years and one hundred and fifty-seven years ago in a training accident on the other side of the planet? Or was it the me that was on the screen before me, the one that had been murdered on one snowy day almost three years ago?
...
I looked at the screen again, not at the images on it but the reflection of light upon the glass. I looked at the huge reptilian monster that stared back at me with glowing red eyes, coated in a thick layer of armour-like scales, teeth glinting in the darkness of the dimly lit laboratory.
----
"All-Might? All-Might, can I talk to you?"
The Number One Hero, in his civilian guise, turned around at the sound of my voice, looking up at me to meet my eyes. I'd tracked him down in one of the airport terminals by scent, a private one with nobody around.
"Of course, Young Tatsuma. What is it?"
"I… wanted to ask you a question."
"Well, I cannot promise that I will answer, but I can promise to hear you out."
"It's not about… the stuff you didn't want to talk about. Well, maybe a little. But it's more of a personal question." I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. "I just… how do you deal with it?"
"With what?" He tilted his head in concern.
"Becoming… powerless. You go from the most powerful being on the planet to a cripple. How do you… handle it?"
"Ah. I see." All-Might scratched his chin. "In truth, I did struggle with it for a long time. But for how I came to terms with it… would you like to know how I came to choose Young Midoriya as my successor?"
I nodded wordlessly.
"He was, as you already knew, born Quirkless. But in spite of that, more than anything, he wanted to become a Hero. Through no fault of his own the genetic lottery had denied him his dream. He came to me and asked this question: can someone without a Quirk be a Hero?"
All-Might's blue eyes blazed from their sunken, hollow pits as he looked at me, and I found I couldn't turn aside my gaze.
"I told him no. And I was not wrong in saying so; someone Quirkless cannot become a Pro-Hero. But while I thought of it purely in terms of a career, there is a greater meaning to the word "Hero". I will not tell the whole account of what happened next, but Midoriya did something incredibly foolish, yet incredibly brave. He put his life on the line to save another's. Where others stood by he, timid and Quirkless, threw himself into action for the sake of someone else. Though he could not be a Hero, he was already a Hero. Do you understand what I mean?"
I wasn't entirely sure, it felt almost like my head was underwater, but I nodded numbly.
"I came to realize that the truly brave are those who go on to do good in spite of their powerlessness and vulnerability. The real essence of Heroism does not come from superpowers, but the heart." He said, leaning forward to rap his knuckles on my chest. "Does that answer your question?"
"I… suppose it does." I replied stiffly, almost on autopilot. "T-thank you, All-Might. I won't bother you anymore."
I left the terminal in a trance, a buzzing filling my ears. It was hard to focus on anything. My heart was beating hard in my chest, and my breathing was shallow.
So if true bravery means being able to act in spite of your vulnerability, no matter how powerless you might be...
What, then, did that speak of someone who couldn't?
I-ISLAND ARC END
This Chapter was a long time in coming, and it just so happened that such a pivotal Chapter would be released on the second anniversary of this fic. I wasn't planning on it but it certainly was fitting.
I hope that you are satisfied with the Chapter. It's been quite a road up to this point, but we still have loads of places to get to.
I hope that you are satisfied with the Chapter. It's been quite a road up to this point, but we still have loads of places to get to.
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- Location
- Omniverse #1345
It means nothing. It is not an indictment to not be as foolishly brave as Midoriya. Remember if things had gone just a bit differently he would be getting a closed casket funeral.
No, there is nothing wrong with choosing to run away. With being unable to overcome your fear or whatever else it is.
No, there is nothing wrong with choosing to run away. With being unable to overcome your fear or whatever else it is.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This was an utterly excellent chapter. Ryuuzaki has been set up for future character development.
My prediction is she doesn't get past this mental block until she gets to such a point where she comes to terms with not being "brave enough" and has, if anything, moved past the idea of ever getting past the block in the first place.
But either way. Exceptional, exemplary, and worth the build-up.
My prediction is she doesn't get past this mental block until she gets to such a point where she comes to terms with not being "brave enough" and has, if anything, moved past the idea of ever getting past the block in the first place.
But either way. Exceptional, exemplary, and worth the build-up.
Lovnag
Clumsy little penguin
- Location
- Antarctica
In principle for an ordinary human being - absolutely. I mean, what may be wrong is what can happen after you run away, not the actual running away.
The problem is that, for Ryuuzaki, it would equal admitting that she is unsuited for being a hero.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
No, it really isn't. It means she is not suited to being someone like All Might or Midoriya. But that isn't the only kind of hero by any useful measure.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
What was Mizutani going to say to Ryuuzaki initially? Seems like something insulting.
So, the truth behind Ryuu not being able to turn human finally comes out, and it t'was trauma as many of us predicted. That'll be a hard hill to climb for the protag, as foes of the mind are often quite a bit tougher than something you can whack in reality.
- Location
- Elsewhere
And that's the problem with that trite little saying.
Telling someone they can choose to be brave, when they're dealing with a phobia or panic attack, doesn't help.
To be honest, I'm not sure anybody ever defined courage as "being fearless."
I suspect that anybody who was actually facing something terrifying was either worried that they would choke, or too preoccupied by their fear to be worried about definitions and labels.
I think the media created that definition because it was convenient for speeches.
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TimEd
Meteor maker
Magnificent Beast or Bastard (i assume)
Either censored due to its derogatory nature, or due to Ryuuzaki's age.
Ehhh. Not feeling this chapter. Especially that bit regarding the scent she recognized, where she didn't even send a message to Endeavor to at the least log the file.
PAGDTenno
Verified Warmind. Probably on fire.
- Location
- South Carolina
She was a little preoccupied. People - even highly intelligent, competent people - don't do the optimal thing 100% of the time, especially when they're stressed, off-balance, or excited, and I'm pretty sure all three apply to 'Zaki here.
ScottotheUnwise
Verified Crack (fic) Dealer
- Location
- Mulberry, Fl
My thoughts: Tatsuma will eventually find herself needing very badly to get into a small space to save someone, a child maybe, that can't be reached by anyone else in time. She will transform without thinking about it, perhaps not even using her Dragon form during the rescue itself, and be found and assumed yet another unidentified victim with Tatsuma herself MIA. And then, because I am a bastard, I imagine she will wake up in the hospital (human form) with bandages on her chest and assume she is still 13 and she dreamed the time frame from then to current.
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