chapelseed:

rex101111:

chapelseed:

rex101111:

@chapelseed

As the sight of the hospital crept closer, Izuku couldn’t get off the bus fast enough. Tearing through the crowd and out the back doors with little heed for anything other than finding the receptionist and making sure his friend was alright.

His anxiety had been eating away at him the whole trip over, the last couple days ramping up his usual paranoia a few notches. Ever since his mother was taken a seed of fear planted itself in his gut, would Overhaul be satisfied with just his mother? Would he target anyone else he cares for? 

The sheer contempt Overhaul had grown for him and shown during the phone calls Izuku had gotten was not something to underestimate, there was no telling what a criminal of his type would do if he felt justified and slighted.

Hearing Uraraka was hospitalized sent his panic into overdrive, and until he could determine that she was alright nothing else mattered.

“For the final time, I am not here for my physical therapy!”

The familiar voice snapped Izuku out of his laser focus, whipping his head to see All Might arguing with a nurse a full 3 heads shorter than him…and losing.

“You can’t be serious, you’re all skin and bones! You should be in a wheel chair not rumbling about!” She took a firm hand on his forearm and started to tug, “Now come on-”

“Excuse me!” Izuku shouted, coming over to the arguing duo, Toshinori visibly relieved at the sight of his student, and a little white lump peering from behind his legs at the sound of his voice, speaking to the nurse. “You do know this is All Might, don’t you?”

The nurse raised an eyebrow, before looking at Toshinori again more closely. 

The retired Symbol of Peace raised one of his own.

The way her eyes widened in panic was almost enough to make Izuku laugh. “I am so-so sorry about that Mr. All Might-san!”

All Might took this with a surprising amount of grace, sighing calmly. “No need for that, but if you honestly want to make up for that little mix up…” He grinned widely, images of his many TV appearances springing to Deku’s mind as he did. “Could you please direct us to the room of Uraraka Ochako?”

The nurse rushed off to get the name of her doctor and room number, leaving Toshinori and the extremely nervous Eri with Izuku…who just noticed her presence, eyes nearly bugging out of his skull, “Eri-chan!?” He whipped his head to look at her idol, “All Might-san! Why is she here and not at the school!?”

“Calm yourself young man, we’re in a hospital.” Toshinori gestured to a few nurses and doctors milling about the entrance hall of the hospital giving the hero student dirty looks, which he reacted to by rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. “And as for Eri-chan…I tried to convince her to stay at UA…but-”

“O-Ochako-san helped me when I woke up at UA!” Eri spoke up of a sudden, a great deal of worry in her eyes, “so I want to help her too!” She took in the fear in Izuku’s eyes as he looked at her and curled inwards slightly, “…please don’t be mad…”

Izuku took a deep breath to calm himself and went down on one knee to look Eri in the eyes. “Eri-chan, I’m not mad,” he put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I was just worried, you’re safe at UA but going out like this, even with All Might is-”

“But now you’re here!” She shouted again, a hopeful look in her eyes, “and you said I’m always safe when you’re here…right?”

Izuku took in her eyes, so full of trust and desperate hope, and something swelled in his chest, something bright and warm that made a lump grow in his throat, “y-yes, Eri-chan,” he stated thickly, “you’ll always be safe with me…that’s a promise.”

Toshinori felt a tiny smile tug at the corner of his mouth as he watched his successor comfort the young girl, a shadow of the hero he would one day become cementing itself in front of his eyes.

He cleared his throat to catch their attention, the young girl wiping at her eyes, “I’m glad you’ve settled that young man…but now that you’re here, I must ask…any results?”

Midoriya’s eyebrows pinched in thought for a moment before realization rose on his face with a firm nod, “yes All Might-san, I managed to gather some info.” He thought back to his talk with All for-…with Suukikyou, “have you ever heard of Yabinshi temple?”

A look of intense concentration dawn on the retired hero’s face, “hmm…possibly, I’ll probably need to go over some of my old reports, but it sounds similar to something I’ve dealt with earlier on my career.” He nodded, a bit more haltingly, to the boy, “it would also be wise to contact…Nighteye-san about this, he might remember this better than I.”

Izuku nodded, putting a hand on Eri’s head as he rose to his feet, “I will,” he chewed his lower lip for a moment, “All Might…there’s something else-”

“Excuse me?” A professional voice cut through what Izuku was about to say, the owner being a fairly young doctor striding over with his clean white coat and the nurse from before at his heels with a rather embarrassed look on her face, “are you the visitors for Uraraka Ochako?”

Toshinori turned to the doctor with a curt nod, “yes, I am Young Uraraka’s teacher, I came over to check on her well being,” he gestured at Izuku, “along with one of her close friends from school and…” he paused for a moment as he went to Eri, “…and someone rather close to them both.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow at the young girl for a moment, before he smiled politely and nodded at Toshinori, “very good.” He offered his hand to the teacher, who shook it, “I’m doctor Soro, I’m the one assigned to Uraraka-san.”

Izuku lept up to the doctor, “is she alright!?”

“Calm down kid.” Soro raised a hand calmly, “she’s a bit banged up from her mission, but she’s fine other than…” Soro hesitated for a moment before he pointed behind him, “perhaps it’s best if she told you herself.”

Toshinori and Izuku looked at each other before nodding and turning back to the doctor.

“Right, follow me this way please.”

He turned and the two walked a couple steps behind, Eri taking hold of Izuku’s hand as they walked.

“Tell me the rest of your findings back at school.” Toshinori whispered to his young charge, “for now let’s focus on young Uraraka, shall we?”

Izuku nodded briskly, and when he felt Eri squeeze his hand he looked down with a smile and squeezed back.

But still, the seed in his gut grew, little by little, as they walked down the hall to her room.
 

Ochako stared up at the lemon cream colored spackle of the ceiling of her hospital room, laying down heavily on the events that transpired.

Heavily.

That word made her cringe at the mere feeling of it. For such a bubbly bright girl, she never felt so grounded in the worst way possible.

“Ochako-chan – what’s -!!!”

“Urarara!”

The echoes of Tsuyu and Nejire-senpai sudden cries made her grip the thin blanket in in frustration and anxiety. But despite grabbing it fully, it stayed covering her.

Her Quirk was gone.

Could she be a hero without a Quirk? Would they even accept her now? What would her parents think? They had such hopes for her, and now she might not even make her goal a reality. Oh god, what would DEKU think?!

She sat up to curl her head between her knees and scream in grief, but the room’s door unlatched and opened. Her head shot up to see an all too familiar green bush of hair followed by an almost as messy blond broom head.

“D-Deku-kun? All Might-sensei?” she called, perplexed, but suddenly felt a thump to her side, finding an newly iconic white haired girl with a single horn. “E-Eri-chan?! What are you doing here?”

“We came to see you as soon as we heard you were brought in.” All Might said calmly. “Young Eri was quite adamant on coming as well.”

The said adamant one was currently burying her face into Ochako’s side. The brunette heroine-in-training smiled gently and rubbed Eri’s head, noticing that the child flinched on contact.

“How are you feeling, Uraraka-san?” Izuku asked, and just looking into his deep green eyes made Ochako fill with dread at his reaction. It took her a moment to collect herself, clutching Eri closer before speaking.

“I feel empty inside, like a piece of me was torn out…” she spoke barely above a whisper. “I…I can’t feel or use my Quirk at all…”

Both wielders of One for All froze as a spine chilling bolt flashed through them. “You mean like someone stole it?” Izuku asked breathlessly.

‘Could that madman have passed on his Quirk to Shigaraki?!’ Toshinori felt like his right lung was about to collapse. “Young Uraraka, did anyone physically touch you before your Quirk disappeared?” he asked hotly, the burning pain in his side flaring more than anything Endeavor had.

“Eh?!” Ochako flinched at the duo’s terrified expressions, she didn’t notice the mild whimper of the girl in her arms. “N-no, I don’t think so. It was up until the air when I just…” she paused, disbelief at the recurring scene played in her mind. “- started falling.”

A moment passed in silence, before Izuku spoke up. “Do…do you think you can tell us?”

Ochako looked in his eyes, concern flaring in them. She looked back to Eri, her red eyes watering. Brushing some of the girl’s hair behind her ear, she gave a light smile. “Okay, so it was like this…”

“Ryukyu-san was having Nejire-senpai, Tsuyu-chan, and I on patrol, and we found two street gangs fighting. It wasn’t too bad until they injected themselves with some dark liquid, and suddenly their Quirks went haywire!”

‘That sounds similar to the Trigger case Naomasa told me about five years ago…’ Toshinori thought, still listening.

“Two of them had giant-like Quirks and grew up to the size of skyscrapers. Nejire-senpai was able to stop them and Tsuyu and I were able to work on our combination attack, but after both of the big guys were gone, I suddenly felt myself falling to the ground…” she stopped and shuddered. “If Tsuyu and Nejire-senpai hadn’t caught me…”

The story halted at the mewling of the child in the room.

“Eri-chan?” Ochako reached out a hand to rub the child’s shoulder as she started to shake. “Eri-chan is everything okay-?”

The girl only dug her face into Ochako’s shirt with a choked sob, refusing to say a word.

Izuku looked between the two worryingly, reaching a hand to try and calm Eri down, but she only flinched away as the tip of his finger brushed her back. He sighed and looked back at Uraraka. “Can you remember anything else?” Izuku asked, at a loss, “anything from just before you started falling?”

Ochako wrapped her hands around the shaking girl on her lap, biting her lower lip as she shifted through her recollection of the fight.”Maybe…just as we were about to cuff the two fighting, I could feel…” She reached one hand to touch the back of one of her shoulders, “something hitting me…right here.” She tapped her shoulder for emphasis, “something…like a dart or a needle.” She shook her head, “I thought it was just some debris hitting me but…maybe…”

She was stopped again, this time by a startlingly loud sob tearing out of Eri, the girl tightening her hold on the older girl as she soaked her hospital shirt with her tears.

“Eri-chan!?” Ochako panicked and tried to get the girl to look at her, “Eri-chan what’s wrong!?”

“I’m sorry!” Eri shouted of a sudden, whipping her head up to look at Ochako, her cheeks soaked in tears and face red and twisted in sorrow, “this-it’s all my fault!” She dug her face back into Ochako’s chest, trembling and crying. “They did this because of me!”

“They?” Ochako shook her head, gripping Eri’s shoulders more firmly so she can pull her back and face her properly, “Eri-chan what are talking abou-”

“OCHAKO-CHAN!”

“URARAKA-KUN!”

The door burst open without warning, bring the ones shouting into view; a rather frazzled Tenya, and a near terrified looking Mina, who rushed over to her bedside with little regard for present company.

“URARAKA-KUN ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?”

“THE DOC SAID SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR QUIRK OCHAKO-CHAN WHAT HAPPENED!?”

“Guys?” Ochako mumbled, flat footed at the sight of her two panicked friends, “Guys relax I’m-”

Before she could continue, the door burst open again, with the rest of her class (with the exception of Bakugou, obviously, and Kririshima, which was actually rather odd) following suit, equally as frazzled and, more importantly, loud as the first two, crowding around her bed and throwing out so many questions she could only hold on to the crying Eri as she tried to calm them down and get them to be quiet.

Just then one more person entered the room and did it for her. Shouta Aizawa took a grand total of two heavy steps before breathing in shooting out his scarf in all directions, silencing every single student who barged inside. “Were you all raised in a farm house?” He ground out from between his teeth, one eye twitching and making all the trapped students gulp, “you are all in a hospital, the next one of you to cause a damn racket gets detention for the rest of the school year.”

 They all nodded quickly and without a sound, and their teacher removed the binding so they could all stand in order. “Now,” he said after a short and calming breath, “you’re all going to come with me, and return to school, before you cause Uraraka any undue stress.” A few students, namely Mina and Denki opened their mouth to protest, only for Eraserhead to turn to them with a sharp look. “No arguing.” He pointed to the, still crying, child in Ochako’s arms, “or do you not care about her?”

They clamped up quick after that.

“Now come on.” Aizawa made a sharp nod towards the door, and the class soon sulked off one at a time, offering a quick apology to Ochako and Eri before they did, leaving only Eri, Izuku, and All Might in the room, the last of which Aizawa turned to, tone all business, “All Might-san.”

Toshinori fixed his tie as he removed himself from the wall the students pushed him into in their haste, glancing at his fellow teacher, “Yes, Aizawa-san?”

“Come with me.” He said plainly, pointing to where the students gathered outside the door. “I need you to help me corral these crazy kids before they cause anymore trouble here.” 

Something in Aizawa’s focused stare made Toshinori pause for a moment, before nodding briskly. “Yes, yes of course.” He turned to Izuku, “young Midoriya, I need you to stay here with these two.” He pointed to Ochako and the still shaking Eri, “see if you can calm things down here.”

Izuku, glanced at Eri briefly, before nodding at his mentor, eyes firm. “Of course All Might.”

“I’ll be back soon enough, so wait until I do.”

With that the two teachers left the room, closing the door as they did.

Izuku sighed as he looked at Ochako. “Well…that was…something.”

Ochako laughed a bit nervously, “good to know they care about me this much…” The sound of muffled sniffling brought her attention back to Eri, who had been holding her in a vice grip while all that was going on. “Now…what to do about this…”

“Eri-chan…” Izuku came close again, pulling up a chair so he could sit by Ochako’s bedside, putting an arm on Eri’s head. “Eri-chan this wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes it is!” Eri shouted, voice muffled against Ochako’s shirt, “I ran away and they hurt Ochako-san! They hurt her because of me!”

“They?” Izuku asked, rubbing his forehead, frustrated that he couldn’t understand what she was saying, “Eri-chan you keep saying they, who are you talking-” 

Suddenly it clicked, some horrible stone dropped on Deku’s head and brought with it a terrifying thought, to awful to contemplate but too plausible to ignore.

“Deku-kun?” Ochako asked, the looking of mounting horror on his face digging a pit in her gut, “Deku-kun what’s-”

“Uraraka-san,” Izuku muttered, voice dry and trembling, “do you remember anything particular about the criminals you fought with Tsuyu-chan and Hadou-senpai?”

“Particular?” Ochako mumbled, unsure of what he meant, she rubbed the top of Eri’s head as she thought back again on what brought her here, “well, they both seemed like a couple of meatheads, rugged clothes and all that…though one of them was wearing a-” A lump stuck itself in Ochako’s throat, the same look of terror that dominated Izuku’s features appearing on her own, “a…a bird mask.”

The two looked at each other, mirrored looks of fear in their eyes. The hospital room was silent except for the steady beeping of the heartbeat monitor, punctuating the sudden tension in the air.

Only Eri broke that silence with a single wet “I’m sorry” before digging herself back into her broken embrace of Ochako, refusing to say anymore.      

“This is becoming more and more of a problem…”

Toshinori looked over to Aizawa as the shorter man slumped onto the wall in the lobby, the students forced onto the closest bus headed for UA. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“All of this…” he growled out. “The reporters on UA’s doorstep like the rabid dogs they are so quickly after Kamino, parents worried about the responsibility we’re burdened with, and now this… pseudo-eraser has stepped into my own classroom.” Shouta rubbed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Toshinori blinked. Aizawa knew Young Uraraka lost her Quirk?

“Don’t be so surprised. At least twelve separate cases of Quirks suddenly stopping – especially when Mutation types jam – catches my attention. Each incident involved a rescue which suddenly got worse after a Quirk disappeared. And now at the center of all of this is that girl, if I had to guess. And the Problem Child just dragged us all into it.” The sleep deprived man seethed as he pressed his brow into the wall.

The true #1 hero sagged slightly. “The issue would have been brought up with the other pros sooner or later, Aizawa-kun.” Toshinori shrugged with a wry smile on his face. “Midoriya-shounen did what I would have done in the situation.”

Shouta rolled his head to the side to glare at the taller man. “One, talk like that is what fuels the rumors Todoroki has running through his head – and yes I’ve also been part of those with the Shinsou kid in GenEd.”

“So you have your ow- GKK!” Toshinori started before his arms were bound to his side by the capture scarf.

“Don’t.” Aizawa cut him off. “And two, this will be the fifth public fiasco this year involving him, indirectly or not. Not even you has that much presence, a shock in itself.”

Toshinori chuckled beside himself as the bindings loosened. “I know! But that’s what makes him a natural hero.” he seized a moment as a drop of blood ran down his lip, before his face went somber. “Heroes would have been brought in eventually.”

“They’re still kids, damn it. I still would have liked a bit of warning before the gates burst open.”

“When have we ever gotten any warnings?”

Before Aizawa could respond, the sound of ambulance sirens echoed from outside. Looking out, they saw paramedics wheeling in a gurney with a cream colored cape on it followed be a large round man in an orange hooded tracksuit and the unmistakable red dyed hair of their interning student.

“You were saying, All Might?”

It took every single inch of self restraint Chisaki Kai had to not strangle his esteemed guest as he flopped onto the couch and placed his (flithyflithyflithy) shoes on his table.

Usually he was better about controlling his temper, but the various set backs he had suffered had taken their toll, regardless he took a deep breath through the nose and leveled a calm stare at Shigaraki.

“Didn’t anyone teach you to never put your feet on the table?”

“Didn’t anyone teach you not to pull your guests leg by dragging them through a maze after inviting them for a visit?” The younger man shot back, slouching into the couch with little care, “speaking of the table though, I’m noticing a glaring lack of a head of a certain green haired brat.”

“Goodness’ sake Shigaraki,” Overhaul put on a dramatic air, voice dry. “I never had you pegged for such a barbarian.” He shrugged easily. “If I had known you were serious about that request, I would have perhaps put more effort into acquiring it for you.”

“Don’t think you needed the extra motivation.” Shigaraki rasped out a laugh. “Considering he’s made a fool of you a few days ago.”

“And I repaid in kind.” Overhaul shot back sharply, eyes narrowing. “He stole something from me and I stole something from him,” He spread his palms and spoke in a patronizing tone, “you’ll see that all things come up even eventually in this business once you’ve been in it long enough.”

“You sent one of your brain-dead minions to smash up a house and grab a middle aged woman in the middle of the day.” Tomura spat, ignoring and unmoved by the yakuza’s attempted lesson. “Don’t make it sound like you did anything impressive, you piece of shit.”

One of Overhaul’s eyebrows climbed a few inches up his face, “speaking of her,” he intoned quietly, ignoring the insult and noting the way the young man twitched slightly for later, “if you’re so insistent on having a severed head on the table, I’m sure I can arrange for the mother to replace the son.”

“Don’t bother.” Shigaraki hissed out, voice unnaturally flat. “It’d be a waste of our time, I was kidding about being more open to compromise.” He narrowed his eyes over the hand attached to his face. “You killed Magne.”

Chisaki leaned back, eyes calm and quiet. “And you killed one of mine in return, we’re even on that front remember?”

“Like hell.” Tomura ground the words between his teeth. “You killed one of my top fighters, and I killed one of a hundred dozen nobodies that seem eager to throw their lives away for you.” He leaned forward. “You don’t even remember their name.”

“A capo does not concern himself with every rank and file grunt.”

Shigaraki leaned back with a scoff, looking away. “Fine, then there’s what ever the hell you did to Compress.” He looked back at the yakuza. “You took away his quirk.”

“No I didn’t.” Chisaki snapped his fingers, and a door opened behind him to allow one nondescript man carrying a tray with a small metal box. He placed the box on the table before bowing deeply at the waist and holding that position until Chisaki dismissed him. “What took away his quirk, temporarily I assure you, was this.”

He opened the box to reveal several capsules filled with a dark red liquid, the very air around the box chilling and stilling as it opened.

“…the hell is this?”

“A work in progress.” Chisaki declared blandly, “you may have heard of similar cases of quirks stopping in the middle of a rescue or a drug bust, these are the reason why.” Chisaki took one capsule out and held it up for scrutiny. “For the past couple of months I and my organization have been selling this material in various states of potency to some…up and coming individuals in order to test it’s effects, and only recently have those efforts begun to bare fruit.”

“A quirk nullifying drug?” Shigaraki muttered, scratching his neck. “What, like the opposite of Trigger? You guys responsible for that too?”

“It is one of the products we sell for the proposes of a steady income.” Chisaki replied easily. “But this, this is a culmination of months and years of careful research and experimentation in order to serve a much larger end goal.”

“Which is?”

“Same as yours.” Chisaki spoke with conviction. “The complete upheaval of the currant state of affairs, the nullification of the power heroes hold by ripping that power right out of their hands.” Something grew sharp and baleful in his eyes. “After all, we all saw what remained of the ever powerful All Might when his quirk failed him, so what do you think would happen to the rest of the bastards?”

The mention of All Might made Shigaraki clench his teeth, but he held back still, having caught on to something Chisaki tried to hide behind his grand speech. “But still…just a work in progress?” He sniffed imperiously, “you talked yourself up pretty damn well the last time, making it sound like you were ready to grab the world by the throat…when you don’t even have a finished product?”

Chisaki narrowed his eyes and made a displeased sound in the back of his throat. “We have…run into some complications as of late.”

For all that could be said of Tomura Shigaraki’s impulsiveness and short temper, he was quite the quick thinker. “The girl.” He muttered with a satisfied chuckle. “No wonder you sounded like you wanted to rip his head off, that girl really is critical to this whole operation isn’t she?”

Chisaki glared for another second before sighing deeply, “fine, I was planning on letting you in on the matter at a later date, but no point in hiding it any longer.” He swirled the liquid in the capsule. “Eri’s DNA, her Plus Alpha factor, is the prime ingredient, the raw material of this quirk erasing compound, and it is very nearly finished.”

“But then the girl slipped through your fingers before you could finish it.”

Chisaki’s eyebrow twitched. “Yes. Yes she did.”

“So you bring up a plan that involves me coming under your influence while you barely have even half a plan?” Shigaraki growled. “If you wanted to insult me, calling me an asshole would have saved us a lot of time.”

“The plan is sound Shigaraki.”

“Oh really? Because last I checked, that girl being in UA custody is a pretty huge problem.”

“A problem that will resolve it self by the end of the week.” Chisaki muttered coolly, “you can be sure of that.”

Shigaraki scoffed, “oh right, the whole kidnapping for ransom thing…though to be honest that was something that I rather approve of.” Shigaraki smiled wide and crooked under the hand on his face. “I wonder what the promising hero will do, will he choose his love for his own flesh and blood, thus forsaking his so called precious justice…or will he allow someone he loves to be thrown to the pyre as a sacrifice for this rotten world order.” He laughed bitterly. “Damn if he does, damned if he doesn’t…cracks me the fuck up.”

“He will choose wisely, have no doubt of that.” Chisaki put the capsule back in the box and closed it. “And if he is having trouble deciding, I’ve sent one of my men to acquire additional…” His voice was a splash of cold bleach on the skin. “Leverage.”

“That doesn’t concern me.” Shigaraki waved him off easily. “I’m still not hearing you saying anything that actually makes me want to join you.”

“Because I know enough about you and yours to know that we strive towards the same goal.” Shigaraki’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Calm yourself, I doubt I have you full history, but there’s enough rumors to piece together the general picture.” Chisaki spread his arms wide. “Your life, whatever it was, was sundered from you from an early age due to circumstances you could not control…and the world didn’t care.”

Shigaraki tensed. Chisaki smirked under his mask.

“People lived their lives as normal, the news came on as normal…and heroes, All Might, saved people with a smile as normal because that’s how it works in this world.” Shigaraki was utterly silent, a statue on the couch. “You wish to make the world pay for it has taken from you, and for daring to think it’s any better than it actually is, you wish to tear down heroes from their lofty pedestals and watch them crumble and die, so that people know their true nature.”

Shigaraki clenched his fists on the couch, one finger still carefully lifted, but dropping down.

“Join me, Shigaraki Tomura, and together we will yank the rug from under the world’s feet.” His eyes grew sharp and acidic. “And watch it fall down a cliff.”

Silence.

“…what do you need from me?”

“First off, manpower.” Chisaki leaned back, voice satisfied and proud, the canary that got the cat. “I have a play coming up that requires additional staff.”

“…what do you have in mind?”

Chisaki Kai allowed himself an indulgent grin under the mask.