Eijiro II

From the window of a room on the upper floor, Eijiro watched the new guy get shown around. Another new patient of the clinic. He wondered if the guy would last long. This one seemed to be moving in, so that meant he'd be there at least a month. But so many others had come and gone, staying only a few months or even a few weeks. The doctor seemed to be showing the new guy to places on the grounds he hadn't already seen before.

Eijiro had initially seen the movers carry some boxes in, but hadn't had the desire to go meet whoever they belonged to yet. He always had to work himself up before meeting new people. What had caught his interest, however, had been the sound of loud sobbing. Peeking around the corner, he had caught his first glimpse of the new guy. He watched as the boy had a very tearful goodbye with who Eijiro assumed was his mother. It was… a little embarrassing to be honest. The woman had even said she'd be by the very next day.

After that, Eijiro just went back upstairs to where he currently was. They called it the Gambling Room, as it was primarily for playing billiards, darts, and card games. But it had windows with large sills, perfect for relaxing on and looking out at the property. The new guy was astounded by everything he was shown, and while Eijiro couldn't hear anything, he could see the boy's lips moving a mile a minute. Even the doctor seemed overwhelmed by whatever he was asking.

Hm. He looks pretty normal. Kind of plain looking, really. What could be wrong with 'im? What is it that made him come here?

Eijiro looked down at his hand; it was still mostly sharp and hardened. Ever since the accident, he'd never been able to fully deactivate his Quirk. Sometimes he could make himself look nearly normal, at least much of himself, but other times his powers seemed to intensify against his will. The doctor had said it was mostly based on his emotional state, even that of his subconscious

When he was too stressed, he'd look like some kind of freakish monster. With the doctor's help, on good days he was able to reach a point where only a third of his face was hardened by default. His hands and chest also remained hardened, but his palms were soft, and everything below his diaphragm was able to remain normal. That was a far cry better than when he first showed up. That made Eijiro shudder. He'd been unable to even make a single part of his body revert back. The softest he got it to was what was once his upper limit.

But the new guy might have some worse problem, he thought, as a means of making himself feel better. Not all Quirks were physical transformations. Some mental powers could be awful, at least from what he'd seen in some of the other patients in the past. He was one of the few who stayed full-time. Ever since his accident, really. Dr. Yonagawa had approached him in the hospital and offered him a chance to try and gain control of his Quirk again. His family was able to afford it, so they allowed him to stay there when he asked.

Over the years, however, progress had come to a crawl. The first year had seen huge strides. He'd been able to actually see his old face in the mirror after ten months. It was getting harder and harder for him to make significant steps now. The past three months, his control of his Quirk had stagnated. The doctor believed it was an issue of motivation. Eijiro didn't know what that really meant. He had plenty of motivation: He wanted to look normal! He wanted to be able to go to school without having to wear a hood so people wouldn't stare at him. He wanted people to not be afraid to touch him. He wanted girls to look at him with something more than disgust or pity. Especially one in particular…

"Think we should go say 'Hi'?" came a voice from behind him, interrupting his brooding.

Looking for the source, Eijiro saw the boy who had arrived four months after he had. They were friends, mostly, but it had been rough going. Eijiro's first year or so at the Clinic had been one spent in angst and moping. Not that he was that much better now.

"Hey, Denki. Yeah, we probably should. Yona-sensei will get on us for being antisocial if we don't."

"Yeah, I definitely don't need another lecture today," replied Denki Kaminari. He ran a hand through his golden hair, and there was a crackle of static, liking pulling apart blankets that were stuck together.

Eijiro snorted. "It's only like 10. What did you do?"

"Eh, Renchi tried to make me get out of bed early. I shocked her a little." Kaminari waved his hand like it was no big deal.

"Dude, why are you so mean to her? She's just doing her job."

"Pffft! She can be such a bitch! Always getting passive aggressive, ratting on every little thing I do. Plus I was groggy! I wouldn't have done it if I were more awake."

"Only because you'd have realized you'd get in trouble for it," Eijiro replied, scratching the hardened part of his forehead. How was it that hardened skin could still itch? "And, y'know, she's only like that to you. Makes you wonder if maybe you're just an asshole."

"She's been a bitch to me ever since that accident on my second day."

"Which accident?" Eijiro said with a grin. "The one you still won't tell me about?"

Kaminari chuckled. "Yup! That's the one. You'd have to sneak me plenty of sake before I fess up to what happened."

He rolled his eyes. "Denki, I'm not gonna smuggle alcohol."

"Oh, c'mon! What are you, the police?"

"No, I'm someone who saw what happened to the last idiot you tricked into doing it," he replied, hopping off the window sill to give Kaminari a playful shove. The skin on his fingers was too thick for the static discharge to hurt much. The electrified boy had a way of getting him in a better mood. "C'mon, let's say hi to the new guy like you said," he added.

Eijiro reached behind his head and pulled his black hair out of the ponytail he'd put it in for his morning jog. He almost reached for the hood of his jacket. But this was the Clinic. It was someone new but…

We're all here because we have something wrong with us.

He left it down.

Izuku V

After a mutually tearful farewell to his mother, Dr. Yonagawa had treated Izuku to a more thorough tour of the facilities and grounds they hadn't seen on the first visit. There were a few places they skipped due to accessibility of the doctor's wheelchair, but he had a decent idea of where most things were.

They came to a stop in the First Garden. The doctor liked to rise from his chair when they stopped to speak, and he did so then. Using his ever-present cane, he stood up shakily and smiled down at Izuku.

He mentioned his knees on our first visit. They shake and buckle when he stands up. One is always bent when he leans on the cane and he switches which side he leans every so often. But he's way too young to have knee issues like that. Maybe an accident? Probably too soon for me to ask him.

"We've met before, you know," Yonagawa said, hands crossed atop his cane. Izuku hadn't expected anything like that. He furrowed his brow.

Does he have memory problems too?

"Uhm… Yes, sir. We have. We met when my mom and I came here last week…" he said it awkwardly, but not unkindly. His grandparents had developed issues like that before they passed.

Yonagawa laughed. "Hey, I'm still pretty young! Too young to be going senile. I meant before that. It was years ago, and I had to look it up to be sure. But there it was. When I was still an intern, I used to keep a journal. And I found one entry in particular: 'Green-haired boy came in. Doctor said he was quirkless. Used that dumb toe theory. I checked though, and he was right. Quirkless as quirkless can be. A lost cause for manifesting a quirk.'"

That triggered a memory in Izuku. He never forgot that day, but he had to admit it had been a long time since he had thought of it in detail. "You're… the intern! Dr. Tsubasa's intern!"

The man lifted a hand from the cane and made the same gesture as on that day. And just like then, a needle extended from his fingertip. "Yup! Yonagawa Junji, that's me. Quite the twist of fate, huh? All those years ago, I helped diagnose you as Quirkless. And now I'm your therapist. More than that, I'm going to be helping you understand your Quirk! Boy, does that make past-me sound like a fool."

It was a small thing. A coincidence that wasn't too improbable when they lived in the same city for years. But it made Izuku feel far more comfortable with the doctor. They had a connection, no matter how slim.

I have to admit, it's a good feeling. Someone who was there when I learned that I was Quirkless. I get to show him that was wrong!

A selfish notion, but it still excited him. Until, that is, he remembered that his Quirk had killed someone.

Will it be safe to do this? What if I lose control? Couldn't I hurt Dr. Yonagawa?

Seeing his sudden loss of energy, the doctor frowned. "Listen… I know you're probably scared of your power. But your body reacted on instinct because it had to. You saved your own life. And the life of that other boy, and maybe even those heroes who couldn't help you. And who knows how many other people that villain would have killed after you. It's normal to feel remorse. It shows you have empathy and compassion. That you're a good person. But you have to remember that you had no choice. Literally. That was your body reacting to a life or death crisis. I doubt you'll be able to replicate that level of power without intense training."

Normally, Yonagawa was casual, relaxed. But now he was serious. His words were measured and decisive, even a touch forceful. Everything sounded like a solid inscrutable fact, and Izuku couldn't help but nod. Still, doubts persisted in his mind.

"We should have our first session soon. Maybe tomorrow, I'll let you settle in. But why don't we prove my little theory, hm? Hm? You can't mutter to yourself in anxiety if we can empirically prove your current strength. Let's head down to my lab and do a quick test and—"

"Yo, Yona-sensei!" came a voice Izuku didn't recognize. He turned around and saw two boys walking up. One had black hair and was dressed in sweatpants and a grey jacket over a black tank-top. The other was blond and was in a colorful t-shirt and slacks. The latter was who had spoken.

"Ah! There you two are," Yonagawa greeted.

As the black-haired boy got closer, Izuku could see he had some kind of mutation Quirk. Part of his face looked strange. His right cheek and jaw were rigid, like rock, and the same effect crawled up to his temple. As his hands left his pockets, Izuku noted his sharp, claw-like fingers. "We came to greet the new guy," the boy said, giving him a somewhat awkward wave before extending his hand.

"I'm Kirishima Eijiro," he said, and Izuku shook his hand immediately. He doubted the boy would offer his hand if he was dangerous to touch.

"Midoriya Izuku," he replied.

"And I'm Kaminari. Kaminari Denki," the blond boy said. He said his name like it was important, or maybe recognizable. Unfortunately, Izuku couldn't place it.

"Kirishima, Kaminari," the doctor acknowledged, "I'm surprised you're taking the initiative. Happy, but surprised. Midoriya, these two are patients here, like you. They actually occupy the rooms next to and across from yours."

"It's nice to meet you," Izuku said. He wasn't sure what else to mention. It'd be rude to ask people he'd just met about why they were patients. Especially since this was a place for therapy as well as Quirk research.

"So what's wrong with you?" Kaminari blurted out, making Izuku sputter.

"Dude!" Kirishima said, looking equally shocked.

"What? It's what we all think when we meet new people here. We might as well just ask." Beside Izuku, the doctor put a palm to his face.

"You need to learn to filter what you think and what you say, man!" Kirishima insisted.

"You're all filter, Eijiro. You gotta be more gutsy, dude. If you want to know, ask! You know what, I'll start." Kaminari looked right at Izuku. "I have an electricity Quirk. But I'm always covered in electricity, even just a little static, and if I use my Quirk actively too much it messes with my brain for a while. I get all dumb and don't even remember what I do."

"You mean you get dumb-er," Kirishima muttered with a snicker.

Their exchange was a lot to take in, but it also made Izuku relax. They were friendly, and were being friendly with him. That was… new. Most people either looked down on him already, or Bakugo and his henchmen had gone and said something about him to taint the person's view.

Kirishima, after getting a static shock to his ear for his snide remark, then gave a tilt of his head. "Well, uhm, you can probably see how ugly I am," he said with a nervous laugh. With his face more clearly presented, Izuku could see that even his right eye looked… hard. Like it was glass rather than tissue. "I have a transformation Quirk, but I haven't been able to turn it off completely in years. I got hit by a truck one day, and now I'm always a little… well like this."

Mentally, Izuku was taking notes he'd need to write down later. His mother had bought him a fresh set of notebooks. He'd intended them to be for notes on his own Quirk, but he was suddenly desperate to know more about the two before him.

After a pregnant pause, Izuku realized they expected him to speak up. Yonagawa jumped in. "I don't know if Midoriya is ready to share yet—"

"No… It's OK. I uhm… Well I got attacked by a villain. And my Quirk manifested. For the first time ever. I was Quirkless before that," he said, even shier than Kirishima. He expected some kind of reaction to that, as usually happened when he disclosed his (now former) status.

"Woah! That's you?!" Kaminari exclaimed. "I saw a story about that on TV! You're the Quirkless kid who killed that sludge guy!"

Immediately, Izuku shut down. He clammed up and stared down at his shoes. So, he thought, he had gone from the 'pathetic Quirkless kid' to the 'killer ex-Quirkless kid'.

"Dude! Not cool!" Kirishima growled, and he punched Kaminari in the arm.

"Ow! Hey! I didn't mean anything by it! That's just what the news said."

Kirishima just shook his head. "Let's change the subject. You were Quirkless before all that right? So what's your Quirk?"

"I…" Izuku still couldn't look straight ahead. "I don't know."

"We were actually about to go try and figure that out," Yonagawa replied. "You two can join us if you want. If Midoriya is comfortable with that, of course. But it can just be you and I, if you prefer."

"I think… I think I'd prefer just you and I today, doctor," he admitted. It wasn't that he didn't want to interact with Kirishima and Kaminari further. From what he could tell, Kaminari was a little blunt, but not malicious. And Kirishima seemed like he was trying to be a mediating presence. But the reminder of his Quirk's lethality had only intensified his fear of hurting others by accident. The fewer people around, the less that could happen.

"Alright, that's more than understandable. Kaminari, we have a session tonight. But I'll speak to the both of you later," the doctor said, his tone like a parent lightly scolding their child. Both boys cringed at that.

"Yes, Yona-sensei," they both muttered while Yonagawa sat down in his wheelchair. As he and Izuku walked away, he could hear the two bickering.

"Nice going, battery brain…"

"Oh shut up, rockface!"

Yonagawa sighed as he and Izuku crossed the First Garden. "I'm sorry about that," the man said after a while in silence.

"No… No it's OK. They were just trying to be friendly. I'm the one who made the problem." Izuku berated himself mentally, and he almost wanted to walk back and invite them along.

"Stop," Yonagawa said assertively. "You reacted as anyone would. It's a fresh event, and it troubles you. Kaminari spoke carelessly. He should've realized it would be a serious subject, not one to bring up so soon. He and I have been working hard on his impulsiveness, but it's still a major problem. Don't get hard on yourself for it."

"OK but… please don't be harsh with them either."

"I won't. But I will speak to them about what happened. Problems don't go away if we just leave them alone. But here, this is the lift down." They had stopped before a large elevator, and with a gesture of his wristband, the doctor had it open.

"Can I ask about that?" Izuku asked, pointing to the metal bracelet.

Yonagawa followed where Izuku's finger was gesturing. "Oh this is just a keycard, basically. You'll get one soon. Patients get ones with basic clearance. This elevator, for instance, won't open for you, but will for staff. And then certain staff don't have access to other areas. Only mine is all-access," he explained. They boarded the elevator, and he pressed one of two buttons on the elevator's floor selection panel.

It descended smoothly, but Izuku noticed something. Namely, that there was music playing. A generic, but outdated tune. It was odd for an elevator that only went between two floors, but as the ride down extended longer and longer, it made more sense.

"The basement is a ways down. There's a normal basement in the main building for storage. But the labs are pretty far underground for safety. And, for some, size," the doctor explained unprompted.

Izuku wasn't sure what to expect when they reached the labs. Maybe metal walls and floors, pure white and sterile. But as the elevator opened up, the hallway was much the same as the floors above. The only real change was that rather than maroon and tan carpeting and hardwood, the floor was off-white linoleum. He and the doctor traveled down the hallway, walking past room after room. Many rooms were spaced apart significantly, but had two doors, one always being marked "Observation."

After a while, Izuku was getting tired. The second tour of the grounds had been a decent walk for him already, and by the time they reached their destination, he was actually a bit short of breath. Yonagawa, being in a wheelchair, was perfectly fine and chuckled at Izuku as they stopped at the door marked "B-03".

"We'll have to work on your physical fitness while you're here. There's thousands, probably millions, of papers linking physical fitness to greater control of Quirks. It's not universal, but it can help with mental health too. The human body's all one system, after all, mind and Quirks included. But here we are." His wristband unlocked the door, which slid open to reveal a mostly empty room. It contained a variety of objects, however, ranging from kettlebells to furniture to even a tea set. Next to the latter was one of the nurses from his first visit.

Izuku stepped in, but Yonagawa did not follow. Instead, he entered the Observation door, which led into a room separated from the main lab by a long glass window. That relieved Izuku a little.

But from what I saw in that video, some glass, even reinforced glass, might not be enough to keep him totally safe. And then there's the nurse.

He approached the woman in question, and frowned. "Uhm, ma'am, are you sure you should be in here for this?"

She didn't reply. Instead, Yonagawa's voice came on an intercom, which drew Izuku's attention to the numerous speakers and cameras that hung from the ceiling of the lab. "Oh don't mind Nurse Renchi. She has a cloning Quirk. Her duplicates cannot speak, and while she sees and hears all that they do, they don't feel anything. If anything goes wrong, you won't hurt anyone," Yonagawa assured.

Izuku nodded. That was reassuring, at least a little. It also explained how the nurses looked identical, and were addressed singularly. "So… What should I do?"

"Well in the forms you filled out for me before today, you described 'reaching out for something'. Like you had grabbed something physical. It's very similar to how your mother described her Quirk."

"You had my mom fill out one too?" Izuku asked, surprised.

"Of course. Your father sent one in digitally too. Most Quirks are evolutions of Paternal and/or Maternal Quirks. I had this lab set up based on my own theories of your Quirk, based on the footage we have and your parents' abilities."

Of course! That makes total sense. Although…

"Why didn't you use your Quirk on me, doctor? Couldn't you get an idea of how my Quirk works from that?" he asked. It would have made sense. From what Izuku could remember, Yonagawa could read genetic code with his needle.

"Research, Midoriya, research! You're a unique case. I'll use my Quirk later, but I need to assess if you already know how to use your Quirk too. A blind test like this will give me a better idea of that. The courts like it better too. If I gave you a genetic breakdown of your Quirk, the other party can argue against the results. Plus my Quirk works better if I have data to compare my findings to. Now, please try to see if you can reach out like you did before. Try it on that smallest kettlebell to your left."

Izuku gave a slow nod. The kettlebell was tiny. It would fit in his hands, and had a weight marking of 1kg. He extended his hand to the metal object, like he'd seen his mother do. But he felt nothing.

What had been happening before? I felt something but… I couldn't see it. I just thought there was something and pulled.

He closed his eyes, and tried to picture the kettlebell like he had the 'rope' he'd reached for. And this time he felt something. It was faint. Thin and delicate. It was like the vaguest feeling of warmth, yet in a way, he could almost… see the kettlebell. Like he was mapping it out by touch in his head. It was faint though, far more faint than the 'rope'. He pulled like he'd seen his mother do, using a gentle and continuous movement. Each time he moved his fingers, he could feel that same warm, buzzing feeling as in his incident. But it was like he was barely grasping it, scraping his fingers against it. It slipped out of his grip as he relaxed and tried to pull again.

He dropped his arm, and let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "I… huh… I felt something but… I dunno. It's like I can't get a grip on it like my mom does."

There was silence for a moment. Then the intercom crackled. "Would you say you used that same motion of your hands in your incident?"

Izuku shook his head. "No… I was… grasping wildly."

"Would you say… desperately? You said you thought it was a rope. You were trying to pull yourself out. Did it feel like the rope was slipping through your fingers then?"

"Yeah…" he said, after a moment to try and remember. "Yeah it did. I didn't want to lose my chance so I pulled and pulled. But I can't seem to grab this kettlebell at all."

"Try to imagine it like a rope again. Or… no that's an awful way to put it. Hmmm…"

Izuku glanced at the duplicate of Nurse Renchi. She locked eyes with him, and he noticed they looked… dull and lifeless, like the eyes of a doll or painting. She shrugged at him, and he remembered she couldn't talk.

"Ah! OK, imagine that, like the rope, what you need to gather up the kettlebell in your hands. Don't just pull on it, but keep a tight hold on what you've already pulled before trying to pull in more. Basically assume there's resistance, an opposite force pulling the object from you."

It was strange instructions, but Izuku understood the basics. His mother just had to keep pulling something inch by inch. Like she was tugging on a string that was lassoed around the object. But for him, for some reason, whatever he was grabbing was fighting back. He wished he could see what was happening when he did it, but for now closing his eyes was the only way to get the strange sensation of 'feeling' the object he was reaching for.

Izuku tried again. He felt the object, and then pulled on it. He imagined someone was trying to take it away from him. Katsuki filled that role, sneering as pulled the kettlebell from his grab. Izuku pulled on the bell, fingers straining and clinging to the object, to the vague dull buzz around it. He pulled and grasped, and he could feel something in his hands. Then he let go. After a moment, he opened his eyes… to see the object unmoved.

"Interesting…" the intercom said. Izuku's face scrunched up. What could be interesting? Nothing visible had happened. The doctor continued. "Renchi, please prepare the tea."

At his request, Nurse Renchi turned on the electric kettle on the table in front of her. Within moments the tea inside was boiling hot, and she poured it a cup. She sat down, the cup in front of her. He glanced back at the kettlebell and frowned. "Izuku," the doctor said, "I want you to try and do what you just did, exactly as you did it, on Renchi's cup of tea. But try and see if, once you begin, you can open your eyes and see what happens."

Izuku took a few slow breaths and nodded. His eyes closed and he reached out his hand. While the kettlebell was vague and faint, the tea, as he 'felt' for it, was intense. It was easy to feel and define, and he reached for it mentally with ease. His hand began to pull, and it was easier to grasp, but still it resisted him. Izuku pulled more and more, eyes still shut, until his hands were straining and it felt hard to hold the buzzing mass in his grip. As instructed, he opened his eyes. They quickly went wide.

In his palm was not the tea cup. It remained motionless. Instead, he had a ball of energy in his hand. It was orange and yellow-white in color, like a perfect sphere of molten metal. Yet he held it, and it didn't hurt him. His hand trembled, and he felt the strain and burn in his forearm. He could focus on nothing else as it struggled against his hand, shaking like it was trying to escape in all directions.

"Renchi, how's the tea?"

Izuku wasn't looking at the nurse. He did not see what she did. He only stared at his hand as his head became light. And finally, he let go, his vision blacking out, but not before he saw a jet of silver flame burst his hand. His fingers roared in pain, and the smell of fire and smoke filled his nose.

"—riya? Can you hear me? Midoriya? Machines say you're waking up. Can you hear me, yet?"

Izuku opened his eyes, and immediately closed them from the bright lights. It took him a minute before he could finally try and look around. He was clearly in a medical room of some kind, in a hospital bed.

Again. In a hospital bed, again.

"There you are! Back in the land of the living," he heard Yonagawa say. The doctor was standing beside his bed, leaning on his cane. "Well, I don't really think too many more tests will be needed to prove your quirk is new," he said, and gestured towards Izuku's right hand.

Lifting it up, he saw that his fingers were bandaged heavily. Thinking back, he had to assume that the blast of fire was the cause. "What… what happened?"

"Well," Yonagawa started, tapping his cane on the floor, "to start, you gave yourself third degree burns on your fingers, and a second degree burn on your thumb. There will be a bit of lasting damage, I'm afraid, but nothing serious. You also made yourself collapse from exhaustion, and the fall left you mildly concussed. That should already be gone by now, but do let us know if you notice anything off."

"Wait," he said, touching his temple with his left hand, "My concussion is already gone? How long have I been unconscious?"

"Only a few hours, but most of that was the exhaustion. We have a gifted medical team. The main issue is that you seemed to have really pushed your body. Seems you're going to need to start eating a lot. You burned through quite a lot of energy just from what we managed in the lab."

Izuku nodded as Yonagawa spoke. "And what… what did we manage in the lab? I remember… I didn't move the tea. I just made a… an orb in my hand. And then there was a fire."

"Yes, it looks like my initial theories were only scratching the surface. I already verified what I could with a glance at your genes while you were out," he said excitedly, taking a moment to extend and retract his finger-needle. "To put it simply, your Quirk is a synthesis of your parents'. Your father's manipulates heat to generate a flame from his mouth. Your mother's pulls small objects to her. Your Quirk, well, it pulls not on the object, but on the thermal energy of an object's molecules. The heat! That was the orb. All the heat in that boiling hot tea, and in the porcelain of that room temperature cup, gathered in your palm."

Yonaga stroked his chin and limped over to the wall to lean against it. "Well, not all the heat. But a decent amount. Thermal imaging put that tea at 97 degrees Celsius before you reached for it. While you were holding onto that 'orb', the tea was at 2 degrees. Renchi dipped her finger right into it, no problem."

Izuku's mouth just gaped in awe, and he stared at his hand. It felt strange to think he had a Quirk. He wasn't used to it. But today he'd seen it. He'd felt it. At last he knew what it was like to be like everyone else.

I guess… I can see how my Quirk evolved. Dad breathes a flame from in his mouth, not from anything inside his body. The heat gathers in his mouth. Mom can only pull small things. And I… I pull on the heat of the smallest things, and it gathers in my hands.

"What about… the fire?"

"Ah, not fire exactly, Midoriya. Plasma. When you let go, all that heat left your hand immediately. It heated the air and turned into a jet of hot plasma. That's what burned your fingers. I'm… well I'm not actually sure why the heat wants to escape. Might be something with how hard it is to contain energy. Might be how you're pulling it away from its origin. Could be some unknown quantum mechanic at play. We'll figure it out. What gets me is the color."

"The… color?"

"Yes. There's an experiment you can do on materials in chemistry. The flame test. You expose bits of a material to a hot flame. And in many cases, different elements burn different colors. You use the color to see what kinds of elements are present in the material. It's as imprecise as it sounds, especially for complex materials, but what I noticed is that the plasma you created, for a moment it was a simple blue-white. The basic color of when oxygen in the air burns. But then it turned silver-white. Specifically the shade was like how a flame burns in the presence of aluminium ions."

"What?" Izuku felt confused, and not just because chemistry was never his best subject. "Why would it have aluminium?"

"Well, I'm trying to test the ashes right now. Oh, you set the table cloth on fire, by the way. But I suspect we'll find some silicon in there. The cup the tea was in was porcelain. Porcelain clay contains, beyond Oxygen, silica and aluminium oxide. My working theory, that's going to take a lot of testing to prove, is that when you pull on the heat of an object, some ions of the material are pulled too. Like... dust is getting swept up into your orb. When the orb is released into a blast of heat, those trace amounts of material burn, changing the color of the flame. So… say you pull the heat out of a pile of warm salt. Salt has sodium, and sodium burns yellow. The plasma you created from that would be yellow, rather than the silver we had from the aluminium of today. That all… make sense?"

After a moment to consider it all, Izuku nodded. "Yeah, I think it does. The video of my incident, it was a different color. So whatever I pulled the heat from that made the explosion, it was made of different elements?"

"Yes, exactly. Or at least you ended up pulling off more ions of that element from the object and- Er, that's irrelevant, you get it. And I suspect your desperation had you gather up a ton of heat, and then you let it all out. It explains the light, your burns, and the injuries on the villain. Today, in normal conditions, two pulls, one of very little heat from the kettlebell, one of a lot of heat from the tea, made you collapse. And you burned yourself again. In theory, you should be able to avoid doing that. Even if we add in the exertion of the walk earlier, that's negligible compared to the walk from your school to the site of the incident, and the stairs you took to the top of the building. Just from today alone, I'm quite certain that your Quirk is not something you were aware of."

Yonagawa put up his hands, lifting up his cane. "Not that I doubted that. But it's even more obvious now, and it will be to the courts. I will say, though, you did pick up the basics pretty quick. How'd it feel?"

"I just… pictured what I was grabbing. I could feel, I guess the heat of it. It let me trace the shape of the objects in my head. I kind of just… well it came to me as I went along."

"That's not uncommon. Quirks they… they have a way of coming to us naturally. At least the simplest aspects of them. I admit I was a bit worried that you, since you were Quirkless so long, would have had some trouble feeling that... instinctive part. I guess I was wrong. Just like I was wrong to ever think of you as a lost cause for a Quirk all those years ago." The doctor grinned.

Pride filled Izuku again. It stemmed from that same selfish desire he had just before the test. He'd proved someone wrong. He'd shown Yonagawa that his assumptions were false, that he was more than some Quirkless loser. Again, that made him also recall the villain, who he'd killed without even meaning to. His pride dampened, but his resolve only grew stronger.

This power… It can be dangerous. But that just means I have a responsibility to control it. And I… I'll show them all wrong. I'll show everyone who ever doubted me wrong! I'll master this Quirk, and I'll become the strongest Pro anyone's ever seen. The Number #1 Hero, even better than All Might!

No one is ever going to look down on me again. They'll be looking up. Up at me, as I get stronger than all of them, as I save the helpless, as I inspire the weak.

He lifted his bandaged hand again, and he clenched into a tight fist, even as it made the skin sting.

From now on, I'm not some weak tag along. I won't be a punching bag for people with power. I have power now. My power. So I'm going to be the main character of this story now. The story of how I become the greatest hero in the world!

[A/N]: Here we are! I felt bad about dragging out so much before revealing Izuku's Quirk. So I decided to give you a nice meaty chapter featuring Izuku's Quirk, a greater explanation of that Quirk, and fit in some time with Kirishima and Kaminari!

On the topic of Izuku's Quirk, I'm always just a little peeved when fanfics give him something just... totally unrelated to either of his parents. A passing explanation, or just saying it's similar to a grandparent's Quirk is all I need, but when his mom pulls small things and his dad breaths fire, I always find it weird when Izuku can bend Space-Time or whatever for no reason. This fic actually started with a chat with my friend over what could be a cool evolution of both his parents' quirks. We were torn on if Hisashi's Quirk is based on manipulating heat or generating chemicals to breath fire. I opted for the former, and so now Izuku can pull in heat from other objects and make himself into a plasma torch as a result.

Next time, we'll take a moment to spotlight Kaminari, and have our present trio of misfit boys bond a little.