Today, 80% of the population have quirks.
Long ago, people are quirkless until quirks started emerging.
Yet, there is not many records of what the world was truly like before quirks emerged.
Quirks help improve medical care and many aspects of humanity, but it was never told how quirks started to bring a much helpful cause than cause people to fear the unknown.
And that is what I, Kinoshita Ren, will narrate as best as I can narrate in this journal.
For some basis, my age hardly matters. But my quirk, it's Alchemy. You know, like those things in fantasy video games and the show Fullmetal Alchemist.
My quirk basically uses practice and knowledge of alchemy to reality like it's magic and with it, I can decompose and recompose materials and create things I want. Like a chair or something.
The reason my age hardly matters is mostly because I use alchemy to create a new body for myself and in a sense, I achieved immortality.
Not for the reason you think of course.
Well then, since you have so graciously found this journal of mine, you are by all means, free to read this journal of untold stories of the days of old.
It was chaos when people started having quirks left and right.
Those who exhibit any kind of abnormal action are deemed freaks and alienated till they found a fellow abnormal person.
And news of it are all over the place.
But through it all, Kinoshita Ren could care less of the mass reaction that occurred three years since these abnormal powers started to emerge.
Staring at the news blankly and out at the window showing the bright sky.
"Must be nice to be abnormal." She murmurs.
If superpowers and magic are real, she wished she could be able to leave this hospital and be healthy.
As a young child, Kinoshita Ren has a weak immune system and prone to sickness. But at age of eight, she had an accident where she started coughing blood and almost died due to heavy physical exertion on physical education class that she is hospitalized since the incident.
The doctors are thinking that it's because she also has a condition where doing heavily physical activities like sports would kill her but there is no effective and surefire cure due to it being a rarity among the whole world population. She was just lucky that she didn't exert herself to the point of dying from it.
So she's stuck at the hospital since and now a fourteen year old girl, losing hope of getting any better from this illness and felt a tinge of envy at people who has these quirks.
Having quirk felt close enough to magic, magic that could cure her.
She was pulled off from her thoughts as she heard the door slide open, and an unfamiliar man enters.
Now this puts her on edge. "Who are you? One of those doctors?"
"Quite the contrary, young lady. My name is but a secret, but I have a preposition to make. You may simple call me... All For One."
Ren raised her eyebrows in suspicion. "Sure... what do you want?"
All For One chuckled. "You may have a guess, no? But to put it simple, would you like me to cure you of that illness?"
Ren felt a surge of her dying hope running through her veins but otherwise, skeptical. "Really?"
"Quite skeptical, are you? To be frank, my quirk is an ability to steal and give quirks to others I wish to give. And I can provide you one of these quirks I have taken to heal you."
"...What."
That's... too good to be true.
"In a world where the quirkless are common, it's a given something like superpowers and magic are considered too good to be true."
Wait, how-
"That's one of my quirks that I have from the array of quirks I had stolen from and given to people, young lady.."
"So... you're really-"
"Yes. I was not lying when I said I can help you cure that illness of yours. You may need extensive knowledge due to the quirk I plan to give you."
Now this got her curious. "...What is it?"
"It's Alchemy. What do you think?"
Alchemy... it's almost close to magic. And she once read this manga where people have alchemy as powers.
She's still skeptical, but if she has a choice between being bed-ridden for life and being free and rid of this painful body, she'll take being free.
"Deal."
It's better than nothing.
Cross-posted from AO3.
This was meant to be a world-building practice for me because some stuff are just glossed over with little context to help.
Kinoshita Ren's quirk, Alchemy is inspired by Granblue Fantasy's Cagliostro and Clarisse. Character wise, Ren is close enough inspired by Cagliostro.
Due to meaningful names being all over BNHA characters in general, I did the same with Ren. Take the first three letters of Ren's surname, and you get "Renkin", derived from "Renkinjutsu", which meant alchemy in Japanese.
Ren's poor physical condition is an actual condition I read over once, but I forgot it's name.
See you next time!
― torinokomachi
