AN: Yay, this is the rewrite y'all. I know it's been months, but i've finally delivered on my promise and chapter 1 is finally done. This one will be very different then the original version, but the same themes still pull through. I've got no update schedule since I write when I have time, so yea. Enjoy :)
Chapter 1: Of Beautiful Dreams and Dangerous Quirks
Hideyoshi Sera is 4 years old when she awakens her quirk.
Even years later, when the memories from that time had all but faded into small fragments and blurry moments, the instance where she awakens her quirk stands out in its perfect clarity.
One moment she is in her classroom listening as the teacher instructs all of them on how to cut snowflakes out of paper. In the next second she hears a soft squeak and looks over to see her deskmate Sakura Mikan with a small, thin cut on her finger.
Before she can process the scene before her though she feels a tremor in the back of her mind, as if something suddenly clicked into place. Instantly, she feels as if a film that had been blocking her vision had finally been removed and she was finally seeing for the first time.
Her vision zeroes in on Mikan, on her cut, and like magic something inside of her snaps into place and then she sees it.
Sex: Female
Age: 4
Injuries: 1
- Injury: Papercut
- Description: A thin cut made by the thin edge of paper sliding across skin.
- Side Effects: Open wound, slight bleeding, ?, ?, ?
- Danger Level: Not Dangerous
- Treatment Options: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
Status: Alive (Barely Injured)
It is later, when she sits in the white painted walls of the doctors office is she informed of what exactly her quirk is.
They call it Diagnosis, a quirk that allows her to examine and scan someone for injury. Based on what she describes on seeing, they come to the conclusion that she can only diagnose based on her own knowledge. Meaning if her quirk was a computer then it's bank of knowledge was her brain. It couldn't diagnose anything she doesn't know about, which is why there were question marks in some spots.
A variation of her mother's quirk, the doctor had said. Although it was a strange variant that had little to do with the minor healing quirk her mother had, the doctor says that perhaps her father's enhancer quirk changed it somehow.
Sitting in a chair that was even taller than she was, Sera nodded her head at his words, her cherub face flushed with excitement and her sea blue eyes gleaming as she committed every word to memory.
"You will make a fine doctor one day." The doctor says, as he pats her head, "Maybe I'll see you again in 15 years."
"A doctor?" She asks, short legs swinging, "Is that a good job?"
The man laughs at her words, "It's the best job!" He exclaims, eyes shining with admiration as he stares at her, "With a quirk like yours and with enough knowledge you would be able to diagnose anything at a glance! With you there would be no need for waiting for precious time to do countless tests or examinations, just a glance and we already know what's wrong! You would be able to save countless lives!"
"But of course we'll have to let her see what she likes first, Sera is still young after all." Her mother interrupts with a light laugh, there is a sharp edge to her voice but Sera doesn't notice, instead she stares at the little sheet the doctor hands her with the information known about her quirk printed on it.
Sera's father is the only one to notice the curve of a pleased grin on her face, and with one looks he knows that Sera's already made her decision.
A week later she receives an entry level book on Biology.
.
.
Sera learns to love her quirk.
She doesn't mind that it isn't flashy or strong in the ways that all kids her age wished for.
She loves it because it was hers, all hers. It was a quirk uniquely hers, that no one could ever have a perfect replication of. It was her own special power, that she would use to its fullest potential.
She didn't care about being a hero, about fighting villains, she never liked fighting anyways.
What she liked was the satisfaction of seeing the question marks slowly disappear with every book she reads. To see more information become available to her as her repertoire of knowledge increases.
With every book she reads, with every question mark she uncovers Sera feels giddy in the contentment of it all. As if she knew a secret from every person she meets.
The gauntness in that man's cheeks wasn't because of stress or tiredness, he had endocarditis.
The woman who passed by her on the street had arthritis.
The boy who she saw in the park was a hemophiliac.
Sera takes all of this knowledge in and when she falls to sleep every night she smiles with the satisfaction that with every secret she uncovers is another life she can save,
.
.
But no good thing ever lasts and Sera is 8 when all her dreams crumble to dust, and the quirk that she so dearly loves is the reason for it all.
One moment she was in the department store with her mother, her hands holding a newly bought copy of Gray's Anatomy For Students: Second Edition, and the next the world around her literally crumbled.
It begins with some light tremors, which isn't too surprising considering that they lived in Japan, the worldwide hotspot for earthquakes. But the tremors don't stop, instead they get stronger in a way that was no longer like a simple earthquake but rather as if something large was walking closer and closer.
But before she could think anymore, her mother grabs her arm and drags her towards the stairs. The department store alarm echoes in her mind like a pinball, and she feels her mother dragging her along as they push and shove their way downstairs.
"Get out of the way!"
"Takeshi, where are you?!"
"Run!"
The people around her panic, and she hears screams and shouts, along with the shrieking cries of children as they get separated in the crowd. Sera holds onto her mother's hand as if it were a lifeline while her other hand clutches tightly to her book.
As they make their way down the stairs she notices the spider web like cracks slowly make their way up the building, growing bigger and bigger as the shakes get stronger and stronger.
The building was collapsing.
THE BUILDING WAS COLLAPSING!
She moves her short legs as quickly as possible, a part of her mind praying, begging, every god she knew to help her survive this.
But it is when in her moment of desperation she glances past the window that she realizes what was happening.
It wasn't an earthquake, it's a villain attack.
The monster outside the window is a gigantic thing, encroaching over the many office buildings that dotted Tasomiya ward. Sera stares at the Toad-like creature through the window and watches as it prepares to launch an attack.
However it is only when the shining beam of light leaves it does she realize where the attack was heading.
Here.
The beam hits its target before she could even scream.
.
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Sera doesn't expect to wake up, she's well versed enough in her medical knowledge to know the human body— especially one as small as hers— could not withstand the damage from a fall that high.
But, she is proven wrong when her teal blue eyes, in all their glory open up once more.
She feels her body being pressed by something, but it is too dark for her to see what it was. She can feel bits of rock and rubble digging into her back and the sound of water pouring from some pipes slowly dripping down.
The building had collapsed, she realizes, and she was currently trapped under it. She tries to move the thing above her off, and when she does so she realizes that the thing above her was too soft to be a chunk of rubble, no it was a person.
She instinctively activates her quirk and chokes back a scream at what she sees.
Sex: Female
Age: 23
Injuries: 12
- Injury: Cranial Cerebral Trauma
- Description: A large wound caused by the impact of the cranium against a hard object, leading to damage to both the skull and the brain.
- Side Effects: Internal Brain Bleeding, Concussion, …..
- Danger Level: Dangerous
- Treatment Options: Decompressive Craniectomy
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- Injury: Pneumothorax
- Description: A collapsed lung caused by a blunt or traumatic chest injury that led to air leaking into the space between the lung and the chest..
- Side Effects: Hypoxia, Fast Heart Rate, …..
- Danger Level: Dangerous
- Treatment Options: Needle Thoracostomy
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.
.
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Status: Deceased
Time of Death: 32 minutes
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The woman on top of her was dead.
With whatever strength she had left in her body Sera pushes the woman off of her and scrambles around trying to find her mother. She crawls on the ground, eyes squinting in the pitch darkness of her surroundings as she stumbles over the rough terrain.
Quirk still activated, she chokes on her sobs with every status she reads.
Deceased.
Deceased.
Deceased.
"Mom!" She screams, voice hoarse. "Mom! Where are yo—"
She chokes on the fishy metal-like smell in the air, and in between her heaving coughs and chokes she realizes what it was.
Blood.
"Mom!" She yells again, hands feelings around for any semblance of a body.
It is there, in the middle of a collapsed building, under mountains of rubble that she hears it. The soft whisper of the voice that sang her lullabies, that read her stories, that scolded her, that loved her, her mother.
"Se..ra…"
She scrambles towards the sound of the voice, climbing over rubble and squeezing between chunks of debris until she finally reaches her mother.
"Mommy?" Sera asks. Her face wet with tears and blood, she stares at the broken body of her mother, and for the first time she wishes she didn't know so much.
Didn't know with frightening accuracy every single injury that her mother had, every single thing that was slowly killing her.
Her mother, her sweet— caring, wonderful, strict, loving— mother. Who didn't deserve to die, not like this, not now.
"Sera…," Her mother whispers, and Sera can see the shine of tears in her mother's eyes— her eyes— as she stares at her, "How long do I have left…"
Sera freezes at that, and shakes her head as she breaks into another round of sobs.
Status: Heavily Injured
Time Left: 4 Minutes
"You're not gonna die!" She wails as she holds her mother's hand, as if the tighter she held the harder it would be for death to pull her from her grasp, "You're gonna live." She swears as if putting enough conviction in her words would make it into reality.
"Someone help!" She screams, hoping, begging for any hero to hear her, to come and save her and her mother, "Please! Help! I'm trapped!" She yells herself hoarse.
But as the seconds tick by and no one comes, she comes to the terrifying realization that she was all alone, that no one would come.
Her mother gives her a watery smile, and Sera knows she'll be haunted by this memory for the rest of her life.
"Sera," Her mother whispers, hand gently stroking Sera's blood covered fingers, "My quirk might've only been able to heal bruises, but today it kept me alive long enough to see you." She laughs a little at that, but it's a brittle choked thing, and Sera could imagine the blood rising up her pale throat.
"Nonono," Sera desperately says, her head shaking, "Even if the heroes don't come, Ican save you, I can. Mom don't give up, please!"
She paws at her jacket ripping it off of her as she tries to stem the bleeding wound on her mother's abdomen.
"You have to stay awake!" She cries in determination, as she wipes away her tears, "You have to." She presses hard on the wound.
"You're gonna live, and we're gonna go home, and everything will be okay." She continues on erratically, as if she was trying to convince herself.
"Sera.." Her mother whispers, and she can feel her heart clench.
What was the point of this knowledge? Of knowing this?
What was the point when she couldn't do anything?!
Sera hates herself, she hates herself for not being able to do anything. For not being able to save her mother.
"It's okay" Her mother whispers and Sera finally cries.
As her tears drip down her face she shakes her head over and over, "Nononono, you're gonna live." She chokes as she begs whatever god above to just let her mother live.
1 minute.
"Sera, it's okay." Her mother whispers, "I'll be okay…you'll be okay..."
Sera couldn't hear her anymore, her vision a blurry mess as she chokes on her own sobs.
No, she thinks, I have to save her. I have to do something.
"No," Sera whispers, "You can't die...you won't DIE."
And then suddenly, in reminiscent of the awakening of her quirk 4 years ago something in the back of her mind clicks into place. But unlike the previous time, Sera is suddenly overrun with a feeling of completion as if a final missing puzzle piece had been fit into place.
She wipes her tears off of her face and looks her mother in the eyes, "You'll live." She says, with a steely determination.
With those words Sera's hands suddenly flicker, as a green light slowly began encasing it, flickering in and out of existence as Sera struggled to grasp onto it.
But as the seconds passed, the flickering grew less and less until finally the light stabilized and Sera began working.
The information flowed through her brain in a steady stream as she went on autopilot, healing whatever she could with the amount of knowledge that she had.
Close the blood vessels, force the hemocytoblasts to produce more blood, heal her tissue….
She repeats the instructions in her mind over and over like a mantra, and slowly she can see that it works.
She sees the timer stop, freezing at 30 seconds. Before slowly increasing little by little, with every wound she closes with every blood vessel she closes.
She didn't stop until all the energy inside of her was spent and she could feel herself collapsing any moment now.
Status: Stable
She reads the words with a smile, and let's out a relieved sigh before she finally closes her eyes and collapses.
.
.
When Sera wakes up again it is to the familiar white washed walls of a hospital. Looking at the window, she sees that the sun had already gone down and it was already late into the evening.
She is told by a passing nurse that she's been asleep for 5 days. She is informed that both her and her mother were stable but both of them suffered from the same types of injuries. Both of their quirks had been burning away anything that wasn't useful in order to heal the injuries they had from the villain attack. By the time that Sera had been rescued she had been halfway done burning away all of her muscles.
Her mother wasn't much better.
In the five days that she had been asleep her quirk had used the nutrients given to her via IV bags to heal her muscles.
"It says here you have a Diagnostic quirk," The nurse says, as she looks at the file clipped to the end of her hospital bed, "But you also show some regenerative abilities. You might wanna go to the quirk doctor again to update your quirk registry."
So that's why she wasn't injured when she woke up. Sera thinks as she stares at her thin, sickly looking hands. She remembers back to the green glow that they had back then. Her memories of the events that had happened had blurred slightly, as if it had all been a bad dream. But despite that she could still remember with perfect clarity the green of her hands, as she knit together the tissue of her mother's wound and the feeling of power that had rushed to her fingertips as she healed.
But, she refrains from mentioning it, because even she knows that no one has a quirk like that. A quirk that could heal another person to such an extent, not even Recovery Girl could have saved her mother, and Recovery Girl was known to have one, if not the strongest healing quirk in the world.
But Sera did.
Sera saved her mother.
And wasn't that an amazing thought.
Sera feels the tension leaving her, and she can see that the nurse notices it too when she bends down to meet Sera's eyes, and gently pats her dark feather-like hair.
"You and your Mom are gonna be just fine dear."
Sera nods, and she finally let's the tears escape her eyes. Her cries are soft, relieved ones this time, instead of the mournful wails she had down in that dark space, underneath all of that rubble.
The nurse doesn't hesitate to wrap her in a hug and pat her slowly on the back.
She cries herself back to sleep.
.
.
When she woke up again it was in the middle of the night, and the moon was high in the sky as it shone through the window of her hospital room.
She shares her room with a few other children, but all of them are deep asleep.
Feeling the uncomfortable dryness of her throat Sera looks around for a water dispenser or a water container, only to see that the one in the room was empty.
Unable to endure the sandpaper texture in her mouth she relents to going to the front desk to ask for some water herself.
Carefully stepping down from her bed she winces a little at the cold floors beneath her. From there she carefully and quietly makes her way to the door, slowly sliding it open just enough for her small body to fit through. When she is finally out she carefully slides the door back in place and toptoes her way down the hallway.
She continues walking and walking but doesn't find any desks or any rooms that might lead to where she wants to go.
It is 10 minutes later, when she is still walking around aimlessly does she realize that she is lost.
Feeling a tingle shoot up her spine she suddenly feels hyper aware of how dark the hallway was and how many ghost stories existed where the setting was that of a hospital.
Quickening her pace Sera decides to forgo the water and just head back to her room. Walking down the different hallways that all look the same Sera tries to retrace her steps. She quickens her steps with each hallway she enters and each doorway she opens, and when she finally sees a familiar looking unmarked door she quickly enters it, hoping that this was the direction she came from.
Unfortunately for her, when she opens the door what greets her is not another hallway but a large, cold room with a tall ceiling, filled to the brim with bodies.
Dead bodies.
Sera chokes back a scream as she stares at the pale, cold bodies that surround her, and she immediately thinks back to all of those bodies she saw with her quirk when she was still trapped underneath the department store building.
She quickly turns around to leave, but freezes when she hears footsteps come her way.
In a panic she quickly runs to a corner and hides next to the large wall of giant drawers used to contain bodies, covering her mouth and holding her breath, all the while trying to make herself as small as possible.
Perhaps she should have just stayed there and let herself be found, after all it was most likely just some doctor that was there to check the bodies. She could have even asked for directions and she would have been led back to her room.
But she didn't, instead after years of watching enough anime and hearing scary stories, the first thought she had when it came to footsteps at night was to hide.
Years later, thinking back at this moment, Sera could only thank all the gods above that she, in all her infinite wisdom, was smart enough to do this. Or else who knows what would have happened.
The doors click open and Sera stiffens herself at the sound, further curling into a small ball, making herself as tiny as possible.
"Did you get him?" She hears a voice male voice ask, and from the voice she imagines it to be a middle aged man.
She hears feet move around and the rolling of wheels as someone pushes some of the gurneys aside.
"No, but we did get another one." A second voice responds, this one sounded familiar, "He was also there on the scene, but died due to some rubble. He's got a good quirk though, from what his file says it's called Cloud. It lets him generate clouds that are dense enough to carry him and hold stuff."
Sera holds back a gasp as she hears what the man says, her eyes widen as she realizes the implications of his words.
"That's an okay quirk, that man's been asking me to make him a warp quirk of some kind, maybe I can use this one for that." The older man says, before letting out a sigh, "It's too bad we couldn't get Erasure. Now that is a good quirk, if that man had a quirk like that he could easily deal with All Might."
"At least the villain we sent wasn't wasted, Garvey did enough damage for us to take a few bodies with pretty good quirks."
"Garvey was a good one, I don't have many like him, with big destructive quirks like that." The man pauses and she hears some papers rustling, "All the bodies we're taking were set to be cremated right?"
"Yes, sir."
The other man yawns, "That's good, it's been a good day. More wonderful quirk to add to my collection."
"I'm glad sir," The man says, before she hears him snap his fingers, "I almost forgot, one of the survivors developed quite an advanced Regeneration quirk. I recognized her from a few years ago, she had a Diagnostic quirk that worked based on her own memory, but there were no regenerative aspects observed from her. But after today it looks like her regenerative factor works in the same way as her Diagnostic quirk, based on her knowledge. Which was probably why it wasn't activated before."
Sera's fist clenches at the man's words, and suddenly she remembers who he was. He was her quirk doctor. The man who told her about her quirk, who said she would make a good doctor.
The man who just now, was basically selling her to someone who would experiment on her.
She can feel the panic rushing through her veins like rushing rivers during a storm, as she waits for the other man's answer.
"Her Diagnostic quirk sounds pretty interesting, but I have enough regenerative quirks." The man finally says, after what felt like eons, "You said she survived?"
"Yes sir, both her and mother had similar quirks, and due to their regenerative capabilities they were able to survive under the rubble from one of the collapsed buildings for hours."
The old man hums, "I have enough analysis quirks, and I'm not in need of a diagnostic quirk. I don't need the girl."
"Someone will send you the bodies in a few days sir, we need to forge the paperwork and make it seem like they were cremated first."
"That's good, I'll be waiting for it."
"Then let's go sir, it's getting late."
She hears the door click as they leave, but she continues to sit there in the cold morgue in silence. Waiting— watching for any signs that they were still there.
But as the minutes pass and she doesn't hear anything Sera slowly makes her way out, staring at all the dead bodies lying in the room as she did so, wondering which one of them was going to end up in the hands of that man.
"I'm sorry." She whispers, staring at their cold bodies.
I'm sorry I'm too scared to do anything.
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She doesn't remember how she makes it back to her room, she only remembers running and running down the white hallways until finally she sees her room.
From there she quietly re-enters the room and climbs back onto bed, hiding under her covers as if it would protect her from whatever monster was lurking about.
Or monsters. She thinks as she thought back to the events that occurred in the morgue. This was clearly a larger operation then she thought, her quirk doctor was in on it.
They were good enough that they could easily forge paperwork and steal dead bodies without being caught.
They were good enough that they could send a villain like— like that monster Garvey who could level buildings and kill dozens of people.
Yet, they didn't get caught.
If— If they found out she knew, If anyone found out what she heard.
She would die.
Her parents would die.
Countless other people might die, just for them to silence her.
Just like how countless people died for that man to get that boy's Erasure quirk.
But then suddenly she remembers, her quirk wasn't just Diagnostic it wasn't just Regeneration either. She could heal other people.
That would definitely put her in their radar if they knew, then they would find her, and they would even go as far as to kill her parents just to hide it.
After all, her quirk could surpass Recovery Girls' quirk that made it valuable.
It made her an asset.
She couldn't let it happen.
She wouldn't let it happen.
.
.
So days later when both her and her mother are discharged and later that night when her parents sit her down to talk about her quirk, about how dangerous her quirk is, not because it would physically hurt other, but of the danger that she would be in if others knew.
To their surprise Sera nods in agreement.
From then on, for the next 7 years Hideyoshi Sera's quirk is called Diagnostic and with it she can diagnose people and use her knowledge to heal herself.
Despite such a good quirk Sera doesn't want to be a Doctor, nor is she interested in being a hero.
Sera wants to be an office worker, someone who works a simple 9 to 5 job.
Her classmates laugh at her simple aspirations but they leave her be.
Her teachers collectively sigh in disappointment, remarking that she would have made a wonderful doctor.
Her parents are glad, because Sera would be safe.
All the while Sera is content with where she is now.
Because she would rather not be a doctor then know that she could save so many more lives if she just tried harder.
So she puts away her medical books, her posters, her dreams and aspirations, all into a little box that to this day sits in a little corner in her basement.
She accepts a life of simplicity, a life of normalcy, where she tries to forget the flow of energy thrumming underneath her skin, begging to be released, to be used.
She forgets about her dreams of knowledge and her wish to uncover all the question marks that cloud her vision. Instead she is content with not knowing and accepts that perhaps ignorance is better.
With every year that passes she forgets more and more of the Sera that wished to be great.
Instead she becomes the Sera who wants to be ordinary, who wants to be forgotten.
She succeeds in this endeavor.
But just like how her dreams crumbled down like the rubble that almost killed her mother that day, her hopes of a normal life are crushed in a similar fashion 7 years later.
By a man named All Might.
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AN: So I know this happened when Aizawa was like 17 which meant Sera was like 2 instead of 8 since Aizawa is 30 when canon starts. but in order for this to work I had to change some things. So Aizawa will be 24-25 when canon starts. But, other than the timeline being a bit different nothing else has changed.