The knock came as he expected it to.
His two students step in. Young Akemi was still smiling when she slipped into the teacher's lounge, clipboard in hand but uncertainty in her eyes. Young Midoriya was right behind her, skittish and his hands fidgeting as he always do when nervous.
"Come. Take a seat." Finally, after a moment, he spoke. The two slipped into the seats across the table. Young Akemi would usually take the place on the couch next to him, but today as soon as she'd set eyes on him, she simply sat beside young Midoriya, her cheerful smile fading into a more neutral one.
Toshinori crossed his fingers before him, fighting the urge to wring his hands. Young Akemi set down her clipboard and walked over to where the kettle is, and came back with three steaming mugs of tea, gently setting them down on the table without talking. It's one of the most useful things that Akemi is good at, she always knows what you need even if you don't tell her. Reading the room, she calls it.
He took a sip of the tea (pleasantly surprised at the taste of honey in it), and sighed, this could very possibly be a deal breaker, and after looking back into his past, he somewhat regret pulling the two of them into this mess. Young Akemi has a powerful quirk and strong empathy, and Young Midoriya is compassionate and stubborn to a fault.
They are strong, and Toshinori trusts them, but they also young, and he regret putting this on them, turning them into a target. He thinks back into his past and his old sidekick, and looking at the two before him he wanted nothing more than to shut them out and hide them away from All for One, but in the same time he knew he couldn't have chose anyone better as a successor, and Young Akemi had been nothing but a great help and support; no matter in training, or emotionally.
So he tells them.
The past is painful to speak of, and the room was silent when he slowly began. Starting the conversation with Stain ingesting young Izuku's blood, hoping to ease into the topic with a little history lesson.
"When quirks first appeared, people were scared." He began, "The old laws didn't make sense anymore, and the definition of 'human' was beginning to change... The society was a mess— you could almost say it's crumbling."
"Humans fear what they don't understand." Young Akemi said gently, "A foolish and irrational fear. Approaching new things with caution is needed, but fear..." She shakes her head, "well that's just how messed up and stupid humans are."
"I heard that Interstellar travels would've been made true if not for quirks." Young Midoriya commented, "it really messed up the society back then, didn't it?"
"It was." Toshinori agreed, grimly, "and in this chaos, a man found his opportunity to rise, and he did."
"The 'Taker'?"
Toshinori blinks, and looks up to meet Young Akemi's eyes, she seemed a little surprised, "I... I used the person who steals quirks as base for one of my webcomics' character." She explained, wincing, "in the books they just briefly mention them as someone who can take quirks, but it still caught my eye. They didn't have a name for him, so I just call him 'The Taker'."
" A 'Taker' is right." Toshinori looks away, "He takes others' quirks, and with they he takes power and control over them... But it's not all he could do."
Across him, Young Akemi's face pales. "...No."
"He can also give quirks." Toshinori's face was grim when he spoke, "Sometimes, the quirks merge and evolves, but sometimes when too many quirks were given to one vessel... As we both know, a body will not be able to stand the strain of so much energy..."
"If the vessel don't self destruct it'll... It'll burn away it's energy to keep surviving." The girl chokes out, "The Nomus, their energy signature, their soul—" She turns a little green, "It's... That was a person..." She falls silent, eyes full of the horrors she must've seen from the Nomus.
Toshinori watches the girl with sad eyes, as she turned away to steady herself. He gives her time, he might be dense most of the time, but he can at least try.
The girl calms down soon, white-knuckled fingers gripping the hem of her skirt, he gives her another second, before slowly, and hesitantly continued.
"He calls himself All for One." He said softly. "And despite being powerful, his family was not. I don't know about his parents, but..."
"He had a quirkless brother, didn't he?," Young Akemi spoke softly, "That's the most I could find out about his background..."
Toshinori nods, Akemi's ability in research really isn't something to be underestimated. "His brother was small, and sickly. But he was firmly against All for One's actions. At some point, All for One forced a quirk upon his brother— A stockpiling quirk, for what reason, though, is unknown."
"Stock...piling?" Young Midoriya murmured, making the connection as Young Akemi went rigid, eyes wide and staring at the space between the floor and her eyes.
"Yes." Toshinori nods, "The little brother was thought to be quirkless, but in truth, he has a quirk— one that is useless on it's own: The power to pass on a quirk."
"It... they merged, didn't it?" Young Akemi said, softly, "Stockpiling quirks don't have much energy when there wasn't anything stored... And to pass on a quirk doesn't really sound energy based." She stares at him, "That's... That's One for All, isn't it?"
He didn't need to answer.
Akemi knows.
The moment he told them the name of the 'Taker', She knew. One for All, All for One. She is a novelist, and though most people call her empathetic, that's not quite right. Akemi don't actually feel what those around her feels, she is simply observant, and she just acts upon it. Reading body language has became easy for her after years of avoiding her father's bad mood, and her father is excellent at hiding those.
So simply reading Toshinori-san's body language she'd know, that the man is still alive. His slumped shoulders tells her that he doesn't want to tell them something, something heavy and personal by the look in his eyes, and from the story she already know where this all is going. So she stays silent, as Toshinori-San continued to speak, simply observing, breaking down, analyzing, deducing.
She watches when Izuku tells Toshinori-san that he feels like he can do anything with him there for him. Observing, watching, seeing.
Hiding, lying. It's all became so natural she don't even need to think about it anymore. Lying without blinking like him—
It disgusts her.
When Izuku left, she told him she wanted to stay around, avoide home. He smiled sadly and left on his own.
Lying without blinking.
She turns around and slips back into the lounge. The door closing with a click behind her.
"Young Akemi," Toshinori-san bites his lip, "I recall you said you wanted to talk to me?"
Akemi lifts her head, and opens her mouth to speak. Years of abuse, pain and suffering comes to mind, she can almost see the hope of freedom...
Then the knife was back. Invisible and digging into her throat as stood there, tounge locked in place and a familiar whisper and a video footage comes to mind.
You know what's at stake.
The words catch. She can feel it as another lie crawls it's way up her throat, natural, her expression schooled and nutral, natural, smooth and smiling without practice.
She lies without blinking.
Current Poll Results~ (from both the poll and the reviews)
Akemi's paring:
Todoroki Shouto: 16
Midoriya Izuku: 2
Iida Tenya: 3
Seiba Hiroi: 0
Ueno Hibiki: 3
Bakugou Katsuki: 3
Iida Tensei: 1
Others (Please state in review!)
Hibiki's pairing:
Todoroki Shouto: 0
Midoriya Izuku: 0
Iida Tenya: 4
Seiba Hiroi: 0
Kimura Akemi: 3
Shinsou Hitoshi: 6
Others (Please state in review!)
Aaaand she doesn't say anything again. DAMMIT AKEMI SAY SOMETHING! TRICK YPUR DAD OR SOMETHING JUST DO SOMETHING!
No Comments today... TwT
