Touya's head was aching and he was trembling from how cold he felt, something he had gotten used to the past couple of days from the illness he caught so he buried himself into the nice soft pillow, subconsciously he noted... albeit distantly that something about the previous thought wasn't right and though thinking made his head hurt, he tried to find what was wrong with the situation.
Because as far as Touya could tell in his state, he was just laying in his bed and pretty sure he never wanted to catch the flu ever again. Maybe it was the blanket cause it felt softer than his, perhaps Fuyumi had given him her blanket but that didn't make sense. How would Fuyumi find him this far from Musutafu? And why would she be looking for him after being "dead" for seven years now?
It was that last thought that jogged his foggy memory onto the fact that he could not be in his bed and it set off alarms in his head, Touya should be on his bare soggy mattress and feel bone-cold because of the gaping holes all over the warehouse he'd taken residence in. He struggled to sit up and not just because he was sick but because a good part of him didn't want to leave the bed since it felt so good where he was.
He had just managed to push himself upright when someone put a hand on his shoulder and gently stopped him, freaking Touya out since he hadn't opened his eyes yet, light sensitivity sucked but he should have risked the headache just to make sure he wasn't alone " Hey, hey, hey. Don't try to get up yet, you're not doing so well hun." His terror ebbed slightly upon hearing Magne's voice, he was still freaked out but having someone he kind of knew helped a bit.
" R-red?" He croaked trying to open his eyes " Yeah kiddo, it's me. Just... try to calm down, do you need anything?" She asked removing her hand from his shoulder just as he got over his light sensitivity, with his vision returned he could see Magne wasn't in the best shape herself. She was sitting on the bed in a stained tank-top, sweatpants, and her hair in a messy bun.
Then his gaze went over the room they were in and noted two things, it was pretty bare outside of the bed there was a chair and bedside table, and it was a good thing he hadn't opened his eyes cause the room was mostly white " The fuck a-are we?" He questioned searching his groggy brain for what could have happened, he was coming up empty cause the last thing he could remember was trying to get some sleep after she helped him back to his building.
Magne hesitated, looking away from him " Somewhere safe, I was worried... You didn't look good and I couldn't just leave you like that hun, I came back to check on you but well, someone else did first." She explained and that helped him to recall some bits of a blurry figure but he still couldn't remember shit " My new boss, the kid I mentioned. Yeah... He saw how bad off you were and had me drive us here." She told him.
Touya was going to again ask just where "here" was when the door to the room opened and some preteen greenette entered with a tray of food, upon locking eyes the memories of what happened hit Touya like a truck, including the part where he tried to bluff the kid into leaving and subsequently got a bucket of slush to the face for his troubles.
" Ah, you're up," he commented, " Good, let's check your temperature," Deku said placing the tray down on the side table and grabbing a thermometer off of it, Touya scowled back at the boy as he approached " D-don't come near me y-" he growled only to gag as Deku stuck the device in his mouth.
" I woke up at 1 am to catch a train to check on you, it's 5 am now, so I'm running on three hours of sleep and I haven't eaten anything since yesterday night." Deku cheerfully told him with a smile that didn't reach his eyes " And in your state, you couldn't fight off a toddler." He added giving off a much more sinister vibe than Touya thought the boy could be capable of, maybe it was the kid's quirk.
" So I highly suggest that you stop trying my patience considering I've gone out of my way to get you somewhere to recover, now close your mouth." He instructed and reluctantly Touya closed his mouth shooting a look at Magne, unfortunately, she looked just as taken aback by the boy's demeanor " Thank you." Deku said with a sigh, his "threatening" aura dissipating but Touya didn't let his guard down.
There was a beep and Deku removed the thermometer to check the temperature and hummed " 18.3C, that's better." He muttered placing it aside " 18C!?" Magne hissed looking horrified but Deku waved her concerns off " Considering he was around 16.6C when he got here this is a vast improvement, one that is to be expected given the nature of his quirk." He replied offhandedly.
That made Magne look between the two of them rather lost " But... I thought you had a fire quirk?" She said looking at him confused " I do." He snapped " But his body is built for an ice quirk." Deku commented rooting through the drawer for something, Touya felt his heart jump into his throat " H-how did you... " he trailed off shocked because how did this kid know that? What else could he know about him?
The kid rolled his eyes but didn't turn his attention away from what he was doing " If your body wasn't built for it you'd be dead already, and even if I wasn't familiar with Ice quirked bodies your scars make it pretty clear you inherited a strong ice quirk from someone." He answered pointing to the large purple-tinted scar on his forearm. While Touya could understand the temperature thing but his scars? " What about my scars?" He questioned unsure what the greenette was implying, he didn't like not knowing what others were talking about.
Instead of replying right away the boy stopped what he was doing to roll up his sleeve and showed his forearm to both of them while pointing to five small patches of discolored skin with multiple small red or black specks in the middle of each oval of bleached skin, it wasn't a pretty sight and looked disturbingly like fingerprints " This is what third-degree burn scars look like. Those, however," Deku said then he pointed to one of Touya's burn scars.
" Are ice burns, which always happen whenever someone with an ice quirk gets burnt due to the biological makeup necessary for safely housing an ice quirk. The degree of the burns varies from person to person due to the strength of the ice quirk and how bad the burn itself is. Yours are third-degree, bordering fourth ice burns, no doubt from pushing the boundaries of your Antithesis quirk." He explained and for the most part both could follow along.
" A what quirk?" Magne asked in his place and he was glad he wasn't the only one confused by the term, they received a patient smile in return as Deku pulled his sleeve down again " I apologize Magne-San, I tend to forget most people aren't well versed in Quirk science outside of the bare minimum." He apologetically told them and Touya was surprised there wasn't much arrogance in his voice, and he would know considering how his sperm donor was capable of surrounding himself with people as bad as himself.
" I'm sure you know the three quirk types, Transformation, Emitter, and Mutation... But quirks also fall into one of three categories; Old-world, Antithesis, or New-world." Deku explained causing Touya to become lost because in all the time his sperm donor talked about quirks he's never heard of quirk categories.
" Contrary to popular belief, every quirk is usually two quirks combined. A primary quirk that allows the abnormal ability, and the secondary quirk, the way primary and secondary interact with each other is what places them in either Antithesis or New-world." He told them, going back to the drawer and pulling out a jar of something.
" New-world is what most people think when they think of quirks nowadays, someone has a primary quirk fire for example and a secondary quirk that protects their body from fire to a certain degree." He elaborated as he opened the jar and stepped closer to the bed again, Touya shifted to move away but there was only so far he could go with a wall behind him.
" Antithesis quirks on the other hand are where the primary and secondary quirks have a negative reaction to each other, that can cause severe damage to their holder without proper training or support, like how your fire quirk leaves ice burns when you exceed your limits because your secondary quirk only gives you a degree of invulnerability to the cold." Deku finished off saying as he pulled out some goop from the jar and proceeded to rub it on Touya's arm.
And for all Touya didn't trust the kid he only let the boy continue rubbing the goop on him because whatever it was made his scar tissue feel... "looser" for lack of a better word, he could move his arm and it didn't feel like he had to force his skin to stretch itself out, his ability to fight the kid off in his current state notwithstanding.
" Magne-San could you make him some soup since he's up now?" He requested as he finished rubbing whatever the goop was into his scar tissue and turned away to wipe his hands off on some wipes also on the tray, Magne met his eyes silently asking if he wanted her to stay, and Touya found himself... Not dreading the idea even if he still felt unease about being alone with this kid, the boy was kind of like his brother and he was enough of an egghead he felt reasonably "safe" with him.
So he gave Red the go-ahead and Magne hesitantly exited the room and left the two of them alone " These should help with your cold, do you need something to drink to help you get them down?" Deku questioned grabbing a bottle of pills and getting out two small white tablets, Touya quickly clocked the label before deciding whether or not to accept random drugs from a stranger " Nah." He rasped and the boy put the pills in his hand and let him swallow them before Deku spoke again.
" My friend is going to let you stay here until you get better, do you have any idea what you'll do after that?" He inquired, Touya scowled back at him " What's it to you?" He questioned giving him a dirty look being as grateful as he could be to the kid for kidnapping him, but he wasn't going to just blab his plans to the brat, temporary roof over his head or not.
Deku remained unfazed by his actions " Considering I'm planning on offering you a job I think I'm entitled to know if you at least have a roof over your head." The boy responded crossing his arms as he leaned back into the chair. Touya blinked then stared at him for a solid minute " What?" He said because there was no way he heard him right.
Deku closed his eyes and took a deep breath " I am quite... lenient about my clientele and I don't particularly care what they do on their time, but that doesn't make me naive of what other people do when I'm not around. And the... respect I've cultivated only grants me a certain amount of clout." The boy admitted with an odd pause when he mentioned respect.
Despite being called a failure from birth by his sperm donor Touya wasn't a total idiot and had heard bits and pieces of the mysterious "Deku-Sensei" but he was still having trouble reconciling with this kid being that Deku-Sensei, mainly because he was warned about crossing him and that didn't line up with the brat... mostly, if he did have some kind of secret emotion influence quirk then he'd be more receptive of the idea.
" So to keep my areas a bit safer I've been thinking about finding someone to keep an eye on my territories in the South Side when I'm not there, it would also help discourage others from starting something if I had someone that can fight to back me up, someone like you." Deku told him " And if I don't want anything to do with your shit?" Touya scoffed back at the "coincidental" timing of it.
" Then we go our separate ways once you've recovered, no strings attached, you staying here is a favor for Magne-San." He answered with a shrug and Touya wasn't assured by his nonchalant " And just what would I get for working for you, Deku?" He sarcastically asked and the boy brought his hand to his face as he thought with a hum.
" Does ¥3,904 a day sound good?" He offered " The fuck, are you serious?" Touya replied starting at the kid like he was a two-headed alien " Would ¥5,210 be better?" Deku questioned with a raised eyebrow " You're serious." He muttered, Deku shrugged again " ¥156,300 a month doesn't sound too bad of a price for keeping my people safe." The boy commented.
" You don't even know me and you want to hire me to be some off-brand "hero"?" Touya questioned almost spitting the last word " Magne-San can vouch for you, that's enough for me. Besides, you can't be worst than any of the other heroes that have "visited" the South Side." Deku responded and Touya noted the bitterness in the second sentence.
Deku stood up and moved to the door " I don't need an answer now, you can take your time to think about it. I'll be back later so it will be just you and Magne-San for the rest of the day, see you then Scar." He told him as he left the room and left Touya to well... process everything that had just happened in the last what, fifteen minutes?
Getting kidnapped by a kid, learned that he was one of many with a shitty quirk and was offered a job by his kidnapper who could not be older than his baby brother.
Touya felt his head was pounding from trying to grasp all of this but at least he was going to eat soon and had a soft bed to sleep his cold off in.