...I really shouldn't be publishing this particular chapter first. But I really wanted to write it, and something tells me you'll all REALLY enjoy it.
He knows it's impossible, but Yagi Toshinori swears villains have a sixth sense for when he's reached his limit. There's less than a minute left, he's done with his usual patrols, and he was hoping he might actually get through shopping for groceries and back home without calamity, when a window on the other side of the street shatters with force.
A thousand spectacular curses want to come out of his mouth, but he bites them down and frantically looks for somewhere he can dump his bags and transform without issue.
As he dives into the alley, he silently begs that it's just one small time villain and not a group or professional causing havoc. He really does not need to hear the lecture he'll get for overdoing it again.
Unfortunately, it looks as if Recovery Girl will get a repeat performance, because there's 3 villains, and while they're not pros, the sound quirk, barrier quirk and can-telekinetically-control-glass quirk are clearly used to working together. Given enough time, he could easily dispatch them. However-
At fifty-five seconds, he finds himself being thrown into a shattered store window and feels his form begin to fall apart. Only a few feet away, there's a table overturned, t-shirts once on display now scattered across the floor, and he runs for it. He gets out of sight just in time for his quirk to give out, and sighs as he reverts to Toshinori Yagi.
The only consolation is that the barrier quirk had been in effect, and it was clear the user couldn't see through it when activated, so the villains had no idea where All Might had escaped to. All he could do now was hide and wait until the back up he'd called made it to the scene.
That's when he hears a squeak, and when he glances up, the curses are back in his throat.
There's a girl huddled beside a wall, using the table as and the structure as cover, the one eye not covered by an eyepatch wide at All Might's apparent deflating. To make things worse...he recognises her.
"Miss Chrome" he says, voice light. For all he knows, she'd been so busy hiding from the noises she hadn't noticed-
"Y-Yagi?" she stutters. "You...how...All Might?"
Oh, Yamada is never going to let him hear the end of this. And that's assuming Aizawa, Recovery Girl or Nedzu don't kill him for letting yet another civilian in on his – literally fatal – secret.
"What you saw is classified Miss Chrome" he warns. "People aren't supposed to know about my...condition."
He can see the comprehension dawn in her eye, and to both his astonishment and relief, her panic dims to a confident understanding.
"A secret then. I can do that" she says, almost to herself more than Yagi, but he's grateful either way. "It's because you're injured? Your organs aren't right?"
"Yes" Yagi admits, because honestly at this point it can hardly do more harm. "I'm surprised you could tell."
"I know a bit about abdomen injuries" she admits, while hand brushes against her side. Yagi frowns, but the hand then goes straight for a bag hidden behind her, and she smiles, pushing aside any thoughts he might have brewing.
From outside, there's another explosion and the shattering of glass, followed by the sounds of screaming and Yagi grits his teeth. He hates this. The villains are literally right there and he can't do anything-
"Shouldn't you be going back out?" Chrome says, voicing his thoughts and forcing him back to reality. "How long do you have to wait before you can transform again?"
Yagi's heart sinks. The young woman still thinks All Might is going to save the day. Fact hasn't completely slotted into fact yet.
"I'm afraid I wont be able to help any more" he replies, and Chrome's eye widens. "Thanks to my body's injuries, I can only maintain that form for a few hours every day. As of right now, my time limit is over. I wont be able to become All Might again until tomorrow."
Chrome glances towards the street, and Yagi offers her the best smile he can.
"Don't worry. Other heroes will be here soon" he consoles. "If you stay in here, you'll be just fine."
The screaming outside is dimming, but it's being replaced by a faint crying from those who haven't been able to flee. From the expression on her face, the girl he's hiding with can hear them too.
"But the people outside won't be" Chrome all but whispers. "Boss wouldn't hide, not when he could help."
Yagi's not sure he's ever heard of a hero with the name 'Boss,' but he can all but see the resolve settle on the girls shoulders at the thought of him.
"I shouldn't hide when I could stop them."
"Miss Chrome, please don't think like that" Yagi begs. He doesn't know what her quirk is, but she's not even in a hero course, and it could only end badly for her given that she's not in immediate danger. "There are rules regarding quirk use for a reason."
The girl flinches, and her face falls.
"Have to help, but can't draw attention. It's not fair, it was so much easier back there, nobody cared..."
Suddenly, she freezes, and turns to Yagi with frightening intensity.
"You...you're a hero?"
Yagi blinks.
"Um, yes."
"So you could use your quirk, you just can't right now. Because your body is injured."
Yagi really doesn't know why they're repeating this, but he nods anyway. In reply, Chrome bites her lip and glances to the side.
"...If my...quirk could fix that, would that be okay?"
"...Miss Chrome, what are you talking about?" Yagi asks, and Chrome's looks up with a driven expression.
"I'm not sure but, the way my, um, quirk can work, might give you more time. Would that be allowed? If I'm only using it to to support you, so that you can use your legal quirk, that's not against the law, right?"
Technically? Yes, it was. Quirk use is still quirk use, no matter the reason. It's just that the effects of support quirks on other people can be veryhard to prove, cases often got thrown out on lack of evidence.
But All Might is the Symbol of Peace. He really can't justify using a legal loophole, even if Chrome's mysterious quirk could somehow buy him a few more minutes.
Yagi's trying to figure out exactly how to explain this to the young woman when she makes the decision for him. She lifts up hand adorned with a large jewelled ring and clenches it into a fist. Yagi spots a strange dark blue aura begin to form around her hand, and then realises it's appearing on his body, forming a strange indigo flame that quickly engulfs his body. He yelps, waving his hands in front of his face to remove it, but it vanishes as soon as it came, and the panic changes to awe as he takes in the wide, muscular arms in front of him.
A very quick scan reveals that he's back in his All Might form, but that's not the craziest thing. For the first time in years, he's not in any pain.
He risks pulling up his shirt, and gasps when the scar from five years ago appears to just be gone.
"What on earth-"
What did she just do? No quirk can do this! He should know, he went looking through the medical fields with a fine toothed comb after the incident. No healing quirk can work this thoroughly or quickly. Unless its some kind of time-reversal quirk?
"It's not permanent" Chrome is quick to warn. "I know I shouldn't be using it in the first place but-"
He stops her by placing a large hand on her head.
"Thank you Miss Chrome" he says. "I promise I wont let you get into any trouble for your help."
She blushes and gives him a small smile, and All Might vaults over the wall to finish his job.
Part of him feels very bad about his choice. Legal loopholes are not things the No. 1 Hero should be exploiting. Especially when it involves young, absurdly-powerful quirk users who don't know better. Bad All Might.
But when he punches sound quirk hard enough to send him flying down the street without even a twinge of pain in his stomach, that part of him becomes very hard to hear.
Ten minutes later, his backup arrives to find all 3 villains knocked out and tied up with the bumper of a ruined car. Given the quirks he'd been up against, he's not surprised to find Eraser Head and Present Mic are the ones who came to his aid, and he's somewhat relieved. If he's going to keep Chrome from facing any punishment, these are the two heroes he needs.
He's helping rescue the last civilians from the rubble and guide them to the nearby ambulance when he hears the loud whistle from down the street.
"Wow Might" Mic compliments. "You were really motivated today."
He toes the bumper with his boot, looking bored with the scene, but All Might can see his sharp eyes taken in the scene, calculating the fight length, and the fact that All Might is still there.
Eraser Head is silent, but there's no doubt he's making the same connections as his friend.
"Question" Present Mic finally asks, once the last civilian is evacuated and they're left in relative privacy. "How are you still, you know-"
His hands splay gesturing to All Might's form, and the man laughs, the volume hopefully covering the nervousness.
"I must admit it's not entirely my success. All of this was thanks to a special young lady."
He turns to the restaurant, where Chrome is stepping out from a ruined door. At the attention of the heroes, she freezes, and starts glancing down the street, hands grasping at her bag.
"...All Might, please tell me you didn't let a civilian used their quirk on you in order to bypass your limit" Eraser head growls, and All Might winces. He keeps forgetting how sharp the young man can be.
Present Mic gapes at the accusation, and stares at the girl in shock.
"Oh Chrome, you didn't."
The girl blushes, and the Voice hero shakes his head.
"I didn't even know your quirk could – wait, what exactly does your quirk do again?" he asks.
"And is it permanent?" Eraser Head adds.
The girl looks down, face bright red.
"I just, substituted a few things. That's all. And it's not, I mean, it could be but...permanent no?"
It's not enough of an explanation for Eraser head, whose frowning at the girl.
"You are aware of the laws regarding quirk use, correct?
She's staring at him, posture stiff and face calm. It's clear she is, but chose not to care. This has Yagi written all over it.
True enough, All Might all but darts to her side, hands up in a placating gesture.
"I take full responsibility for what happened" he insists. "I promised that she wouldn't suffer any repercussions."
Eraser head scowls, and immediately steps forward and activates Erasure. Whatever this girl's quirk does, it's too dangerous to have it activated on an hero without clearance, for both All Might and Dokuro Chrome. And he's certainly not going to let her be punished because All Might was a self sacrificing idiot who pushed himself to his limit again. If they erase all traces of her quirk before any official report starts, they might be able to brush this all under the rug without her facing any consequences.
The effect is almost instantaneous. All Might deflates back into Yagi, who clutches at his side while his other hand slaps across his mouth to catch the spewing blood. He's glaring daggers at Eraser for the lack of warning, but the expression is wiped from his face as the girl shrieks, falling to the ground the second Erasure hits her. To their horror, her clothes begin to droop inwards, her abdomen caving in.
Eraser Head immediately shuts off his quirk, half stepping back in shock while Yagi knelt next to the girl, pulling her shirt up slightly to assess the damage.
What he sees is chillingly familiar. Numerous scars, and damage from an injury at least a few years old.
This girl is missing organs. Probably even more than Yagi is.
And Eraser Head just took out the one thing keeping her alive.
"Get the medics back here now!" He yells at the frozen heroes standing to the side, before returning his attention to the girl.
"Miss Dokuro!" he yells, shaking her shoulders slightly. "Please, can you reactivate your quirk?"
For a moment, he's worried the shock at losing her quirk has rendered her immobile, but suddenly, there's a pained sigh, and an indigo haze covers her body as her one good eye snaps open.
When she struggles into a sitting position, the shirt slides back down, but Yagi saw scars vanish under perfectly smooth skin, and a dangerously collapsed chest puff out as the dark blue aura vanished.
She glances at the men around her – from the relieved Yagi to the pained Eraser Head to the panicking Present Mic yanking a first responder in her direction, and gives a shaky smile.
"I don't suppose you'd believe it's not as bad as it looks?"
Despite her best attempts, Chrome's pleading that 'I'm just fine, really' and 'it's not the first time that's happened, I'm used to it,' she'd found herself escorted to hospital for a medical check up regarding accidental quirk backlash. Present Mic had taken the job of calling Yamamoto to let him know where his ward was, and Yagi had found himself getting yelled at by Recovery Girl, who Eraser Head had seen fit to contact.
However, the lecture had been cut short, because Recovery Girl was more interested in the condition of All Might's would-be-supporter than dressing down a man who had made it clear 'it went in one ear and out the other, Toshi!' She'd gone straight for Chrome, making sure the girl was fully recovered from the lack of quirk before insisting on an MRI to see the state of her body.
Yamamoto, then on scene to collect the teen, had been awkwardly reluctant to let her. But given what had happened in the street, Recovery Girl wasn't willing to see it happen again – and unless Chrome and Yamamoto could offer up previous medical records to show everything was stable, Chrome wasn't leaving the hospital without one.
Yagi was a little worried at how easily they'd given in after that, considering how badly injured Chrome had to be.
He suddenly remembers Yamamoto setting down a plate of sushi, explaining Chrome was the one to notice Yagi's restrictions. How the chef had mentioned needing to work around dietary issues before, and when Chrome had brushed her side when they hid.
All Might is a hero, but he dearly wants to find whoever left a child with injuries like that and do something emphatically unheroic. No one should have to go through what he does, especially not a young girl, even if her quirk can help.
The duo have left the hospital now anyway, with the scans showing nothing life threatening. Recovery Girl and the doctors however, have continued to look over the scans, and Yagi feels reluctant to leave without her. It's getting far more convoluted than he'd hope. Eraser Head and Present Mic clearly feel the same, because while Mic needs to go back on patrol, Aizawa isn't technically on the schedule until the evening, and remains the private room. He'd have been sleeping solidly if not for Present Mic calling him every fifteen minutes for an update – and making the two heroes wonder why he even bothered leaving in the first place.
Almost an hour after Chrome left the hospital, Yagi is starting to feel the exhaustion of the day, because his eyes are drooping and he might just manage to crash on this ridiculously uncomfortable excuse for a sofa in the private room, when the door slams open.
"You need to see this" Recovery Girl insists, a laptop hoisted under her arm. At her appearance, Aizawa crawls out from his sleeping back and groans, reaching for his phone.
"Wait a moment" he says, lifting the device to his ear. "Hizashi will be intolerable if I dont-Hizashi not so loud! Can you talk? Good, I'm putting you on videophone."
He immediately turns the phone round, the Voice hero eagerly looking at the screen.
"YO! You find something interesting Recovery Girl?"
Chiyo chuckles.
"That's one way to put it."
Yagi stretches his arms as he stands, watching the elderly woman set the computer on the bed and fire up a program showing MRI photos.
As far as Yagi can tell, there's nothing all that special about them. They look perfectly normal.
Although that's abnormal to say the least, he knows Chrome's body can't possibly look like that.
"I don't see anything" Aizawa says, voicing Yagi's concerns.
Recovery Girl smiles. "Neither did we, then we started looking for quirk-related disturbances. Took us a few tries, but eventually this popped up."
The next image was almost identical to the first, but now several of the organs in the x-ray were glowing.
"These organs?" Recover Girl begins. "They don't exist."
"Huh?" Present Mic says with a frown.
"What do you mean?" Yagi asks, and the woman shakes her head in awe.
"Dokuro's quirk is registered as 'Illusional Construction,' I thought it meant she could create wide scale illusions, but it's a lot more powerful than that. Whatever that strange aura is, she can use it to create a physical copy of...anything!"
She gestures at the screen. "I dearly want to know how she ended up in this condition, and why nobody has been charged with medical neglect, but she's found a way to replicate her missing organs with her quirk. It's so perfect her body doesn't even realise the difference! Do you have any idea what a quirk like that could do with the right training?"
Yagi's eyes widen in astonishment. Construction quirks are highly desired, but they're supposed to have limitations. Young Yaoyorozu has to eat substantial amounts of food in order to create additional lipids, know the chemical build-up, and can't create any organic material. By the sounds of things…
"I never told her what injuries I sustained" he says, still reeling. "But when she used her quirk, she provided or supported everything in a matter of seconds."
"Her quirk can create something out of nothing, and keep it running indefinitely, without needing to know the exact chemical make-up or structural context" Recovery Girl finishes. "Who is this girl? and how has a quirk like this gone unnoticed for so long! Where is she enrolled? It can't be a hero school, the bragging would have reached me by now."
"...Seirin" Present Mic finally offers up, and Recovery Girl frowns.
"Sports?" She certainly didn't seem the type but-
The woman trains off when Aizawa starts shaking his head.
"Basic education?" she says, almost in disbelief. "Are you kidding?"
"A quirk doesn't necessarily define what someone does with their life Chiyo" Yagi warns.
She gives an almost hysterical laugh. "When it's something like this it does" she replies. "Any educator worth their degree would have fast tracked her into a Hero Course, or at least a school with a heavy medical background. I've never seen a quirk with this kind of versatility, and she's not even considering using it? I can't understand it. It shouldn't even be possible to have that mindset in this day and age."
"Well...if it helps, I get the feeling she doesn't like heroes all that much" Present Mic offers, rubbing the back of his neck on the screen. "Takesushi didn't exactly give me a warm welcome when we first met."
Aizawa turns the phone around to frown at his friend.
"I thought you said it was something you did?"
"I thought it was" Mic insists. "But...maybe there was more to the story. They did say where they lived didn't have a strong hero presence."
Yagi gawks. "Where did they live, Antarctica?"
"Yagi, really" Chiyo chides, and the man blushes in embarrassment.
"You need to find out" Recovery Girl says, returning to the matter at hand. "Mic, if you're friendly with her guardian, ask him. This quirk could do so much for the world, if she's not using it because of a negative history with heroes, we need to see if we can't offer some kind of rehabilitation. Possibly find a place for her at UA."
"A mid-year transfer" Aizawa asks, eyes wide. "From a non-hero course? That...those don't happen."
"Oh I'm pretty sure I could talk the principal into making an exception" Recovery Girl replies.
On the phone, Present Mic sighs.
"Fine. I'll test the waters next time I visit. See if Yamamoto can shed some light on it. But honestly, I don't think you'll talk her into it unless you agree to take the others. I've never met a group of teens so close knit."
With that he hangs up, and Aizawa makes a beeline for the door, the two older heroes slowly following.
"Chiyo, I promised her there would be no repercussions" Yagi says one last time. "Whatever her reasons, please don't bring the principal into it if you don't get the answer you want."
The woman frowns at him. "Of course not" she insists. "I just...I need to understand."
She pauses at the door, and smiles at the taller hero.
"Yagi, you of all people should understand that this girl has a quirk that can work literal miracles. If she's not using it, I want to know why. That's all."
The man nods in acceptance, and escorts the woman out. If he's brutally honest, it's a question that's been plaguing his mind ever since he felt the indigo flames on his body.
Unfortunately, Yagi's been in this business long enough to know he's probably not going to like the answer. He dearly hopes for Present Mic's sake, and young Chrome and her friends, that there's another option he's missing.
Because powerful quirks are always brought to society's attention, either through school or government drives or even accidental use. The only time powerful quirks go unnoticed to this extent, is when they're intentionally hidden.
And the only people who do that, are villains.