36: Surface Pressure

BNHA Fanfic

We've all heard the story before: young kid born in a society of powerhouses without a power of his own, but his faith and determination lead him to receive the key to limitless might and multiple powers. But… he isn't the type for limitless might. In fact, he is something of a scholar. What power, then, should this little boy have?

Izuku Midoriya was well-known to be quirkless. He had been that way since he was just a little fella, or so everyone thought. As it just so happened, however, that wasn't quite right. You see, Midoriya had a quirk. It was just a stockpiler.

Ten years. That was how long he was bullied and belittled for being 'worthless'. Ten years of suffering, ten years where agonies were required for him to learn any fact, ages were required for any analysis, and the insults always bit just as deep, if not deeper. Ten years of agonies of mind and body. Then, a change came. It started small, with hunger. Given the fact that he was extremely runty and weak for a kid his age, he welcomed it, hoping that his growth spurt was finally hitting, that he could gain a little height, maybe have some of the muscle mass his consistent exercise and religious dieting should have given him, but that wasn't quite what happened.

It was eleven months to the UA exam, the date he hoped (beyond any reasonable expectation) to be able to become a hero, when his hunger and suffering came to a head. He had a seizer. A Grand Mal. The kind that puts you in the hospital for years, maybe for good. His body shook its way through dozens of them, cramping, twisting, and even tearing as it ripped itself apart. Bit by bit, he changed. Inch after inch of height was gained. Pound after pound of muscle mass appeared, then compacted down into the most perfect form a human could have without a quirk. His skin became flawless and tough enough to resist small arms fire, his bones became reenforced enough to handle a hill's worth of weight, his sinews corded and compacted to the point that he could lift more than fifty times his body weight while they and his joints became as flexible as possible, with no sacrifice of power of mobility, he gained a healing factor at least twenty times that of the average, and his flesh hardened to the point he could withstand a hundred times the pressure of anyone else his age (that didn't have a power backing it). All this was just the beginning.

At the outset, his body slurped anything that was given to it. A feeding tube and an IV were kept running around the clock to keep up with his dietary needs, but after thirty-six hours, they were both expelled from his body by its own processes, and he was too tough by this point for them to add more. His body found a way. His whole skin, and even his hair, started to consume things nearby, sucking them in like it was drinking through a straw. Medical care became infinitely more difficult, but the doctors persevered in keeping him alive, all while desperately trying to figure out what was happening to this boy.

On the fourth day of his treatment, the first clue was found. In the greenettes room, a mountain of biology and molecular science books were found, as well as a massive collection of notebooks filled with hypothesis after hypothesis on how to advance, upgrade, and refine the human form. Ideas about gene treatments, extra organs, composition alterations, and so on were listed in great detail, including many that were viable for common usage. More than that, they were done in an… erudite style, far different from his norm. After all, he had barely managed to graduate middle school with a 3.8, and his work was, while good, normally rather laborious, as is normal for people with developmental issues. THAT was clue number two.

It was known to everyone even tangentially related to him or his mother that the young Midoriya was slow, sickly, and socially awkward. While the social thing was easy to see, the rest didn't match his medical files. His IQ scores placed him above 200, his analysis books of heroes and their techniques were insightful and even a little scary, he had an AMAZING eye for detail, and his body had never so much as once gotten sick. That was when brilliance struck one of the researchers, who ran to do a quirk factor test on the patient.

His results were ten times the norm.

A day and a half later, he submitted his opinion at a staff meeting on the boy. He hypothesized that the patient, who he now referred to as 'The Prototype', had a fascinating combination of a mutation and a stockpile quirk. Basically, all of his young life, his body was stockpiling brilliance, willpower, and energy to put the boy through this transformation, and that the notes he wrote were the result of a quirk-instinct driving him to come up with the finished result that he would metamorphosize into, listed in both his book, and all available data, as 'Neo-Adam'.

The Neo-Adam State concept was based on the hypothesis of regressing damaging genetic drift as far as was possible. Gene science had led to the discovery that the average person was massively unhealthy compared to the genetic norm. Genes in humans aim for a nine- to fourteen-foot height, one- to two-and-a-half tons in weight, vastly more power, a three (or so) century lifespan, and many other things besides. However, if one tried to regress to that point, not only would they stand out (peak human ain't a joke, folks), they would… well, the strain would kill them. This state, however, is referred to as the 'Adam State'. As such, a variant, or 'Neo-Adam State' was the goal: the max state a person could be, while surviving and staying healthy. As such, he had stockpiled both resources and knowledge to go through this.

It was more than that, however. As a side effect, his body (in desperation for nutrients and materials) used the quirk-factor to give the boy his very own quirk: personal and touch-based molecular alteration, the ability to alter the molecular composition of anything you touch and of yourself.

As such, when exactly three weeks after he went into the hospital, the boy woke up… well, he was buff, strong, and fast, yes, but he was also SMART!

Now where will THIS end up?