Welcome, people, to this new story of mine. I wasn't planning on writing a story other than Gravitational Sorrow, but this idea came to mind and I had an obligatory right to put it somewhere. Now, before I say anything else, yes, this is a Fem!Izuku story. If you don't like that, then kindly leave now. In this story, Izuku's name will be Izuka. Moving on, this is also a Ghoul Izuka story. This isn't a crossover, though. The world of Tokyo Ghoul does not exist in this story, only the powers of a Ghoul. The quirk 'Ghoul' is a combination of two quirks in this story, you'll see how I incorporate it soon enough.
Now onto some disclaimers. First of all, you do not need to have read or watched Tokyo Ghoul to any capacity to read this story. The extra abilities of a Ghoul will be explained at the end of this chapter. Extra detail will be given throughout the story. Next, this story can get quite graphic. It's M rated tag is not for show. I will give a disclaimer of the themes present at the start of each chapter to be safe. For this chapter, there are heavy implications of torture. Next chapter will have a torture scene or two, so if you are easily offended or just squirmish, then I won't blame you if you click away from the story now. There's also strong language, but if that offends you then I honestly pray for your future. Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get into the first chapter of this story!
I do not own My Hero Academia or its characters, the franchise belongs to Shonen Jump and Kohei Horikoshi. I also do not own the concept of Ghouls. The credit for that goes to Sui Ishida.
A Ghoul's True Purpose
By Kokoyori
Pain. It was a feeling Izuka Midoriya had gotten abnormally accustomed in the short 8 years she'd been alive. She knew that what they did to her wasn't normal for her age. No, it wasn't normal for anyone. Well, it's not like she can do much about it. She spent every second of her now mundane life chained to the same damn chair. They even injected her with some type of drug that weakened her muscles every 24 hours. The chains wrapped around her thighs and shoulders were already durable enough, but they had to ensure that she had no chance of escaping what could easily be considered hell.
Her life had held so much promise, but they forcefully took that from her. All because of her stupid quirk. A quirk was something Izuka had dreamed of getting, but finding out that she did indeed have powerful regenerative abilities had only ruined absolutely everything. To make her situation worse, ever since they experimented on her and transferred someone else's quirk into her body, she had to endure seemingly endless torture. Every. Single. Day.
The experiment they ran on her should have failed. Transferring quirks via surgery was something long since ruled out of the realms of possibility. Typically, the new quirk cells would be rejected, resulting in permanent crippling or most likely death. However, they knew that if someone had strong regeneration to work through the process, perhaps the experiment would finally succeed.
For their experiment, they took a unique organ produced from a quirk and surgically transferred it into Izuka. Like every other attempt at the experiment, it was quickly pronounced a failure after Izuka's body began to reject the new organ and its cells. However, in a last-ditch effort to save Izuka, her quirk forced itself to combine with the foreign quirk. Against all odds, this action worked and a new quirk was born - 'Ghoul.' At that moment, Izuka became the first human to receive a quirk via surgery. Not only that but she also undoubtedly became the most terrifying being in existence. Of course, they spared no time in using this opportunity to forge a new goal.
Izuka knew what their goal entailed, and she knew how imperative she was to the success of it all. But, she didn't want to play that role - she didn't want to be turned into a weapon with the sole purpose of killing. She wanted to be a hero, someone who saved people and brought a smile to their faces, right?
That was what she wanted before they ruined her. Just the idea of people being saved when she had spent 3 years hoping for the same thing now sent a bitter taste to her mouth. 'Why the hell should I have to help people when I can't even get any help?' was her main thought process on the matter. Not that one could blame her new views, 3 years of constant torture had left her mind in a state of absolute peril. Sure, she was much stronger than most at rejecting the negativity of it all, but everyone has a limit, no matter how strong you are. She often wondered how her parents would react to her changes, or maybe that boy with the explosive quirk and nature. What was his name again? Izuka knew that he was important to her, but everything about the boy had become foggy. The only people she could remember were her parents.
Honestly, after everything that had happened, Izuka didn't know what she wanted in life anymore. Right now it is most definitely answers, though. She already knew a few things about them. Like how they were a neutral organisation, how they were paid to deal with things, how they were incredibly secretive. Perhaps most important of them all, how Izuka's torture was meant for training her quirk. But other than that, she knew nothing. In the end, she had accepted that it would remain that way, even if she decided to join their cause, whatever it was.
To sum things up, Izuka's life the past 3 years had been worse than hell. The only time she had to herself was the time between her training sessions, which she often spent contemplating how she had even gotten in her current situation. Or how things could have been different. Perhaps having one of her parent's quirks, or a combination would have resulted in something not, well, this. Fuck it, having no quirk at all would have been better in hindsight. And that? That was just depressing.
Unfortunately, her contemplation was interrupted by the sound of metal scraping against the floor. Out from the newly opened door stepped a behemoth of a man, who wore a crazed expression. The man was dressed in a bloodied jumpsuit and he was slightly overweight, but that didn't matter for his expertise, something Izuka had learned the hard way. The most notable thing about the man, however, was the large, bloodied machete he carried around with him. It was the man's prized possession - his favourite torture device. Sure, he had many unique devices, but after he got his hands on Izuka and disposed of the rest of his playthings, the oversized machete quickly became a staple on his person.
Evidently, Izuka had shitty luck, so she wasn't remotely surprised when they assigned the worst of the sick fuckers in the organisation as the person to train her quirk.
"Little Izu~" the sick man taunted as he slowly but menacingly approached the chained up girl.
Izuka hated him. No. Words couldn't even begin to describe how much she loathed the sick fucker. If Izuka had any part in it, this man would experience a fate worse than anything imaginable. And she would enjoy it, too. He put her mind and body through hellish torture every day, so it would only be fair that she got to deliver the same at some point, right? Yes, that was how it worked. When Izuka got the chance, she would make sure she enjoyed every second of this disgusting man's demise. Wait, no. Thoughts like this were exactly what the organisation wanted. Izuka wouldn't let them control her like this, right? Right?
'Maybe I should just give up?'
Izuka startled even herself after that thought came to mind. She didn't want to lose hope, surely her parents were still looking for her, right?
'They wouldn't want a broken daughter anyway.'
She couldn't help but let out a slightly crazed laugh at that one. After all, it was true. However, just thinking about it drove Izuka's insanity to levels she had tried so hard not to sink to. At this point, though, it took every bit of her consciousness to not fall to the mental torture that challenged her. It's not like she also had to endure physical torture or anything.
'Shitty world,' she thought bitterly.
Whisking away her crazed thoughts, Izuka once again focused her attention on the man that had entered the room. He didn't seem to notice her laughter, or if he did, he did not care for it. His attention was entirely focused on the machete in his right hand and the cart he was pulling in his left.
"I wonder how much longer we can go on for today, my sweet little Izu~" the deranged man taunted her as he finally reached her, caressed her cheek.
Before she could do anything, he used the hand already on her cheek to pull down under her eye. Now that one of the only areas he could inject her was open, he grabbed an object from the cart to his left and ruthlessly stuck in a needle he had brought in with him. Being the sick bastard he was, he made sure that he took his time when releasing all the liquid from the needle.
Izuka had gotten used to this procedure by now, but that still didn't take away from the fact that it hurt like hell. Plus, if it weren't for this damn drug they injected her with, she would have long since gotten out of the shitty situation she was currently in. So, in retaliation to the drug, she would usually react physically in some way, given the man's proximity. However, she had little to no energy left on this certain day, so she instead settled with glaring deeply into the man's soul. It didn't seem to affect him.
"Oh? Not too feisty today, are we?" he asked cooly, not expecting an answer. Izuka made sure she never gave him the satisfaction of getting one.
A wicked grin made its way onto his face.
"Well then, if you aren't going to give me a reaction, I'll force one out of you!"
Izuka could only let out a slight wince before his machete came down and cut her left-hand clean off.
And so, once again, it began.
And it's done, I hoped you enjoyed the first chapter. Although I don't think I need to say this, Prologue's are usually shorter than normal chapters. So don't worry, chapters from now on will be longer. Okay, from here onwards I will be explaining the abilities of a Ghoul. So for those of you who know said abilities, you can just skip it. If you don't, then I highly recommend you read it. However, everyone should read the last paragraph on RC cells. It is VERY important for future events and I don't plan on explaining it again. Anyway, onto the explanation.
To start, Ghouls are around four to seven times more physically capable than the average human. Well, humans that have quirks that don't affect their physical attributes. Quirks kinda complicated some things, but also solved some problems I almost had while writing this. First off, one of the most important things about a Ghoul is the fact that they can only eat human meat. Normal food does not give them sufficient nutrients and tastes like shit to a Ghoul. When it comes to drinks, Ghouls only find taste/nutrients in coffee and water. Don't ask me why coffee is one of them, I ain't Ishida. Moving on, Ghouls are also injured with more difficulty. For example, a normal sharp object like a knife or needle would break if you tried to pierce a ghoul with it. You need either stronger material or specific places to pierce the body of a Ghoul. Plus, a Ghoul has much sharper senses. Next is a Ghouls regenerative abilities. A normal Ghoul can regenerate small cuts and bruises very quickly. They can even have literal chunks of their body taken out and survive as long as they have an adequate supply of food. Regeneration is a huge part of this story, as I'm sure you can/will tell. Now, onto the most important part of a Ghoul. RC Cells.
RC cells are a unique type of cell that appears in the world of Tokyo Ghoul. Even Humans have them, but Ghouls have them in much higher quantities. The amount of RC cells someone has is usually referred to as their 'RC factor'. A key difference with Ghouls is that they have an organ called a Kakuhou. It's a sort of sack that carries the RC cells of a Ghoul, and it allows them to manifest a Kagune. The location of the Kakuhou depends on the type of Kagune the Ghoul has, in Izuka's case, her Kakuhou is located on her back - around the waist. Izuka has a Rinkaku Kagune, which is the only type you need to know for this story. A Rinkaku Kagune excels in its destructive power and the user's regenerative abilities. However, the Kagune itself is quite brittle and can be broken relatively easily. Oh yeah, a Kagune is a manifestation of solid RC cells. In the case of Izuka, she can manifest red tentacles. I know that this is Rize's Kagune, but it's the one I'm most familiar with and the one I feel fits the most. Ghouls also have things called Kakugans, which transform their eyes so they have red irises and black scleras.
In this story, I have implemented RC cells as a dormant cell in the body of every quirked individual. They are like sub-cells to the main quirk cell. The quirk that Izuka receives is unique in the sense that it makes use of those cells and has formed a Kakuhou. The person Izuka receives her quirk from is a Ghoul in every sense of what they are, but I decided to officially only name Izuka's quirk 'Ghoul' after the two quirks combine, for simplicity's sake. The way I have it, as people train their quirks and develop more, the number of quirk cells and therefore RC cells increase along with it. To give some simple examples, Izuka will gain barely any RC cells from eating a child who hasn't trained or developed their quirk but will gain a lot of RC cells from say a fully grown Hero or Villain. By default, an adult will have more RC cells than a child as their quirk has developed fully, but that much should be obvious. To those of you confused by the importance of Izuka gaining more RC cells, it will make sense soon enough. To those of you who have read/watched Tokyo Ghoul, I'm sure you know why I felt the need to explain this, given its importance.
And DONE! That should be everything I need to cover, but if you feel I left something out then feel free to let me know in a review. Speaking of which, reviews are greatly appreciated and recommended as I am quite unsure of this story as of yet. Also, before I close this off, feel free to join my discord server if you are interested in learning more about this story or maybe just getting to know me better. The invite code is FbcN96kkgM, or you can just find the link in my fanfic profile. Thank you for reading if you got this far and make sure you check your PMs if you review!