Surgeon Master
In an alley of Musutafu, in the poorest part of the city, there was a gathering of a certain type of people. Many of them were enjoying cheap booze and cigarette. Various parts of their clothes showed signs of wear and tear. Some of the men seemed to be neglecting their facial hair.
These people were part of a social group known as Burakumin, the lowest social class in Japan and often faced social discrimination. While legally liberated in 1871 with the abolition of the feudal class system, it did not put an end of the discrimination that they faced. While their condition became better during the 21st century, it fell when the emergence of quirks and the rise of heroes occurred. These days, the Burakumin were often discriminated and ostracized because many of the villains in the nation were Burakumin.
The people in the group stopped when someone approached the alley. They saw that it was a blonde girl in a ponytail wearing gray sweats while carrying a brown bag. She didn't show any fear as she walked, despite the fact that the area was notorious for its rate of crime.
When the girl reached the ally, she simply walked pass through the crowd. Many decided to let her, not wanting to be bothered by confronting her and continued their activities. One, however, decided to confront the girl. He put out his cigarette and blocked her way.
"Please get out of a way, sir." The girl said in a typical voice of a little nice girl.
"Oh yeah? What in the fuck makes you think you can pass through here?" The man asked her.
"Don't swear!" The girl stated as she pointed at him. "That's rude."
"I can fucking say whatever the fuck that I fucking want, little girl!" The man rudely replied. "Now, what the fuck are you doing here?"
"Buying some chemicals. This place has the cheapest price."
"Cheap, huh? Well, I have fucking bad news for you, kid; the price had just become triple." The man then showed the palm of his right hand. "Now, pay up!"
"You're still swearing." The girl stated, not caring about the thinly-veiled threat.
"Just what the fuck it is with you and swearing? Your momma too scared her little flower would fucking love to swear?"
As both the man and the girl had their conversation, others simply watched the event in action. One of them simply shook his head and grabbed a bottle of beer. When he tilted his head to gained the last drops, he saw something that made his eyes wide. He immediately dropped the bottle, touched the shoulder of a person beside him and pointed upwards, before running away from the alley. Said person looked up and without hesitation followed the running man. This action caused others to looked upward as well, resulting in them taking similar action.
"Yo, dude, what the hell? Why all of you…?"
The man was unable to finish his words.
Inside the teacher's lounge, All Might was looking through the files of the students of Class 1-A. Today, he would be teaching them during the heroism class. Their costumes had been made and this would be the first time that the students would wear them.
Speaking about Class 1-A, All Might couldn't help but wonder how Riley would perform during the exercise. He, unfortunately, had become a first-hand witness in how Riley fought against her opponent.
Let's just say when the authority found him, they were incapable of figuring out how he was still able to live despite the internal being external. The only saving grace was the man turned out to be a notorious rapist. A pedophile one to boot.
Hopefully, by now, Riley managed to find a way to defeat her opponents non-lethally, one that wouldn't be described as "cruel and unusual." Maybe a tranquilizing agent, like creating a gas similar to Midnight's quirk.
All Might's thought was interrupted when he found out about a habit of one of the students, namely Katsuki Bakugou. He then focused on the file about Riley, especially at the notes. His blood ran cold and was now praying to any deity that could hear his plea that this wouldn't result in young Bakugou becoming something else.
"Oh, shit…"
"IT'S ME…!" All Might exclaimed as he entered Class 1-A. "…THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"
As he excitedly told the students on how they could finally wear their costumes, All Might gave a look towards Riley, who happily humming a song as she created a cocktail of chemical substances. He hoped that it wouldn't be something too dangerous. Considering that no one in the room showed a symptom of any kind, at least it wasn't airborne virus or bacteria.
But with Riley, that wasn't a guarantee.
When he and the class went towards Ground Beta, Riley was still making a chemical cocktail. She was now in her costume; a grey dress with a red cross armband on each of her arms. She also put on a belt with several bags and pouches.
When the lottery for teammates was taken, Riley was partnered with Momo. The former had finished working on the cocktail and was now honing a scalpel. When her teammate approached her, Riley looked at her while kept honing the scalpel.
"What is it, Yaoyorozu?" The foreign student asked.
"Well, since we're both teammates, I am thinking that we should know each other better so that we could make an effective plan when our turn comes." The local student replied.
"I see." Riley stopped the honing and offered Momo her right hand with a sweet smile. "Name's Riley Davis. I am from the States. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you as well. Name's Momo Yaoyorozu." Momo accepted the hand. "I must say, your Japanese is good and has a little accent to it."
"Thanks. Many commented that if my name remains unknown, I could pass as a Japanese well enough." She explained before once again honed her scalpel. "So, what's your power?"
"It's called Creation. It gives me the ability to create any nonorganic material from my skin using my fat cells. I need to know the composition of the material and how it is made to be able to create it. I am also limited to how much fat cells that I possessed." Momo explained as she created a matryoshka doll. "What about yours?"
"It's called Bio-Tinker. It gives me immense knowledge in any field related to biology." Riley explained before she checked her scalpel, finding it good enough, and put it into one of her bags.
"That's…a very brief description. Are there more details or the limitation?"
"It can only be that brief. I can make an entire book if I give more details about my ability. Let's just say I am good at anatomy, biochemistry, bioengineering, microbiology, neuroscience, and that's merely the tip of the iceberg." Riley took out a test tube and shook it. "For the limit, biology expertise is the only thing that my quirk grants me. My other skills require mundane training."
"Other skills?" Momo put her hand on her chin.
"I know some basics about hacking. I doubt we're going to need it."
"Not disagreeing with that."
After having the conversation, Riley and Momo focused their attention on the screen featuring the battle between Izuku and Uraraka against Bakugou and Iida.
The good news was that Riley merely chastised Bakugou for his use of curse words. The bad news was that it resulted in a verbal fight between the two and there was no guarantee that she would do something bad after the exercise.
All Might could only hope for the best and prepared for the worst, as they said.
"ALRIGHT, THE SECOND COMBAT WILL BE BETWEEN…" He stated as he took out a ball from each lottery box. "…TEAM E AS HEROES AND TEAM C AS VILLAINS!"
"That's us!" Riley said excitedly.
Both teams went to their respective position. Inside the building, along with their "nuclear bomb," Momo and Riley were preparing their defense. While the former barricaded the doors leading to the room with steel bars, the latter was mixing several chemical substances.
"What are you making?" Momo asked without stopping the barricading.
"You'll see. If things go well, then all I need to do is to throw the final product and we will win!" Riley replied happily.
As she kept barricading, Momo tried to figure out what Riley was making. The latter's ability gave her immense knowledge in biology, which meant it was likely that biochemistry was involved. She remembered reading some books and watching some documentaries regarding biochemistry. If she wasn't wrong…
Suddenly, Momo stopped moving. She slowly turned her head towards Riley, who almost finished making the product.
"Riley, this…product that you make…" Momo asked slowly, not wanting to surprise the girl. "…is it poisonous?"
"Yes," Riley said simply.
"What?!" Momo dropped the bar in her hands, surprising Riley and almost caused her to drop a test tube.
"Jeez, careful, will you? If the content is spilled, then we won't have our most effective weapon!" She chastised.
"But, Riley, poison? It's our classmates we're fighting against!"
"This is not different than how Midnight fight!"
"Midnight's quirk creates sleep-inducing miasma, not poison!"
"It is poison! How much do you want to bet that if someone breathes too much of her miasma, they will suffer an overdose? Anything if taken too much can be a poison to the body."
Now that she mentioned it, Momo could see why Riley seemed to have no problem in creating a poison. However, their debate was cut short when the bell rang, indicating that the exercise has begun.
"Well, better not waste any second," Riley commented as she continued making her poison.
"Look, I am sorry about the cape, OK? I am sure they can fix it and if it does cost you money, then I'll be the one who paid it."
"Fine, mademoiselle. It's good to know that you know how to take responsibility."
So far, Ashido and Aoyama encountered no resistance on their way to the "bomb." Due to that, the former became quite impatient and decided to play a bit with her acid. Needless to say, some of them spilled into the shiny student's cape, causing it to be damaged.
When they reached the top floor, the heroes found the door leading to the room being blocked by bars of steel. Aoyama sent a small beam of the laser to test the strength, leaving only a scorch mark. Ashido went towards the bars and smeared it with her acid.
"Alright, my acid will weaken the bars. Then, you will fire your laser and then we charge in. How does that sound?" The pink-skinned girl asked.
"Splendide, mademoiselle! Love the plan!" The fake French replied as he positioned himself in front of the bars.
Slowly but steady, the steel bars corroded. When they were weak enough, Aoyama fired his naval laser, destroying the barricade. Wasting no time, both heroes immediately charged in. She was only a few feet away when Ashido had to avoid a projectile being thrown towards her. When she looked at the source, the pink-skinned girl saw Riley with a slingshot.
"Ha, you miss!" She exclaimed as she pointed at the foreign girl.
"Nope!" Riley retorted, as equally cheerful. "The thing that you just avoided? It has an area-of-effect influence, to say the least."
As the heroes took cover behind a pillar, Ashido decided to look at the projectile that she avoided. It was glassware – which obviously broke to several pieces - and seemed to be containing a liquid. From the pieces, she managed to find out that it was a test tube, which could explain the existence of a small cork.
Suddenly, both of them felt their energies being drained. They tried to move but the heroes fell on their knees. They were forced to crawl on their four limbs before they became too weak to even did that. Seeing that their opponents were incapacitated, the villains went towards the heroes and captured them using the tape.
"THE VILLAIN TEAM WIN!"
"Are they going to be OK?" Momo asked, worried about the conditions of her classmates.
"Don't worry. The effect will be gone in a matter of an hour." Riley replied as she took out a syringe, already filled with a substance. "Or I can just give them the antibiotic."
"SO, CAN ANYONE GUESS WHO'S THE MVP IN THIS MATCH?" All Might asked the students.
"Sir," Shouto raised his hand and received a gesture from the Number One Hero. "It's Davis, sir. Though by a short margin."
"OH? CAN YOU GIVE THE REASON, YOUNG TODOROKI?"
"Due to the carelessness and cockiness of the hero team, both Yaoyorozu and Davis only need to do minimal actions. The MVP belongs to Davis because what she did was more difficult, namely creating the paralyzing agent that knocked out the heroes."
"CORRECT ANSWER, YOUNG TODOROKI!" All Might diverted his attention to Momo. "SORRY ABOUT THAT, YOUNG YAOYOROZU! IT'S SIMPLY THAT YOUR ACTION IS SIMPLER COMPARED TO DAVIS'."
"It's fine. While I need to know the composition of steel to make it, Davis created the agent manually and is something that's more complex compared to creating steel." Momo replied with her eyes closed and head nodded.
"GOOD TO HEAR! REMEMBER, KIDS; JUST BECAUSE YOU AREN'T THE MVP, DOESN'T MEAN THAT WHAT DO YOU IS USELESS!" All Might turn his attention to Riley. "YOUNG DAVIS, PLEASE REPORT YOURSELF TO RECOVERY GIRL! I AM SURE SHE'S WAITING FOR YOU TO HEAL YOUNG MIDORIYA!"
"Yes, sir!" Riley turned her attention to her classmates. "Good luck, guys!"
As she went towards the infirmary, Ashido curiously looked at the girl as she rubbed her neck, where Riley injected the antibiotic. She looked around and found that others were looking at the foreign girl curiously as well.
"Say, doesn't Davis spend a lot of time with Recovery Girl?" Ashido stated.
"Indeed. During the rest time, I often saw her went to or coming from her office." Iida stated as he fixed his glasses. "She's also often ordered by the teachers to meet with Recovery Girl."
"Is it possible that her quirk is related to healing and as good as Recovery Girl's?" Uraraka suggested.
"It's quite possible," Momo said as she put her hand on her chin. "She said that her quirk is called Bio-Tinker, which gives her immense knowledge in any field related to biology."
"Really? Man, that's cheating! A quirk that gives her knowledge? She won't need to study for biology." Kaminari complained before he was poked by Jiro's earphone jack, shocking him.
"Still, I wonder…" Momo moved her head slightly upward. "If her quirk simply gives her knowledge, then why does she receive special attention from Recovery Girl?"
When Izuku woke up, he noticed the IV needle that was embedded in the left forearm. He used his right hand to touch his dizzy head when he realized something more important; his right hand was not in a cast, merely bandaged. He remembered breaking his right arm, so it should've been in one.
"Oh, you're awake?" Izuku turned around and saw Riley carrying a platter with various surgical instruments.
"D-Davis?" He stated, surprised by the presence of the girl. "W-What are you doing h-here? Where's R-Recovery Girl?"
"She has a meeting with the principal." She replied as she put the platter on the table. "That's why I am the one who fixed your broken arm."
"Y-You did this?" Izuku looked at his right arm.
"Yep." Riley walked closer to him, causing Izuku to become nervous.
"That's a-amazing! Do you have a quirk like Recovery Girl's?"
"Nope, it's a simple surgery. I am just very good at it that it's equal to her quirk. Maybe even better."
"Oh, I – wait, surgery? By you?!" Izuku's eyes became as wide as a saucer.
"Relax, this is not my first surgery nor would it be the last." Riley's face and tone became more serious. "I must say, what you did during the exercise was incredibly reckless. It's a good thing that I am here since you wouldn't have enough energy for Recovery Girl to be able to heal you."
"W-Well, it's…" Before Izuku could make most of the sentence, she put her finger on his lips.
"Up, up, I don't want to hear excuse. If I find you here too often to heal yourself, and that life-and-death situation is not the cause, then let me tell you that I am more than willing to perform surgery without anesthetic."
"W-What?! But that's…"
"Oh, but I am sure that would be a good deterrent." Riley's voice seemed to turn sinister while keeping her cheerfulness. "Imagine, being tied up to the bed, waiting in fear as I…"
She suddenly slapped herself in the cheek twice, causing Izuku to be surprised.
"No, no! Bad Riley! You don't do that!" She chastised herself.
"Eh?" Izuku looked at the event as he blinked in confusion.
"Never mind." Riley turned around and walked towards the door. "By the way, after Recovery Girl cleared you, return to the classroom."
"O-Of course!"
She nodded her head and exited the infirmary. The foreign girl looked out of the window as she let out a sigh. Riley then walked towards the opposite direction of the classroom.
"Maybe I should get a visit now."
Answers to some reviews:
dgj212: As far as I know, no. Her ability revolves around tinkering with biology.
ian25rebel: Just wait and see!
Ancarius: Riley looks like how she is in Ward. If I am not wrong, her official age has not been stated, but she has been described to look like 14 – 15 years old.
Creus: Yes, I have read it. That's actually my inspiration. Considering Riley wants to be a good girl, as her mother's last wish, it's something that I can see her doing.
And this chapter is now over.
If you have a question or suggestion, feel free to tell me!
Review, please!