It was a completely unnatural phenomenon. Even in a world of superpowered people, nothing like this could ever be expected.
But when Izuku Midoriya felt an intense heat and cold take over his body as he was being absorbed into a mass of sludge by a villain... He didn't question it very much. He assumed that he was dying.
Izuku felt himself drift further. He continuously felt more tired, but oddly enough, he didn't feel any pain. Just a sense of a burning so hot… It somehow felt cold.
He must have been hallucinating when he heard the telltale voice of his most beloved hero shout "SMAAAASH!" Maybe this was his mind's way of mocking him. Either way, there was complete silence after this, and he knew this was the end.
There was nothing. Nothing but the unbalanced temperatures crawling along his skin as he slowly succumbed to his imprisonment.
Then, in an instant, there was something.
Intense, burning flames took over his vision while his entire body seemed to shiver from the cold, until all he could see was a bright light. Ice, fire, and the sun took him over as he was launched out of the dark tunnel and into the day.
As he felt his consciousness fading, he saw a blur of yellow take over his vision. Izuku Midoriya found himself surprised as the bright world finally went to black. He didn't expect death to be so... blinding.
It didn't take very long to wake up, and Izuku found himself in a hospital room. He leaned forward, blinking sleep out of his eyes, and looked around the room - only to see a skeletal man sitting in the chair next to his bed. He seemed to be on the phone with somebody, but noticed Izuku was awake and finished up his phone call.
"Midoriya-shounen, right?" He asked quietly, with a gentle voice, his droopy blonde bangs swaying a little with the room's air conditioning. The man seemed a bit on edge, but didn't seem particularly upset. Maybe he was with the police. Izuku nodded slowly, and lifted himself into a seating position. His whole body was quite sore, but nothing else seemed wrong.
The man went silent for an extended moment as it seemed like he was pondering what to say next, before eventually deciding on asking "What do you remember about the villain attack?" He leaned forward, intent on finding out what he could.
"I… I was grabbed while I was walking home. By a villain made out of some kind of slime." Izuku explained as he stared down at his hands. "He was trying to absorb me so he could take over my body and use it as some kind of vessel." Izuku swallowed, feeling uncomfortable as he considered how he felt as he passed into consciousness. "But… I thought I had died." Izuku thought deeply over his words as he was having trouble coming to a conclusion as to how he ended up here, still alive. "I could hardly breathe and I went unconscious from there. I guess I thought I had suffocated." And after saying this, his eyes widened briefly as he recalled what he heard before passing out. "...Was All Might there?"
"Erm… Yes." He didn't seem very pleased to say this. "All Might had arrived to save you, thankfully, but then you used your Quirk to free yourself, so he left after that. I'm actually his secretary, and he asked me to check up on you. My name is Toshinori Yagi." He held out a hand to shake, smiling a little, but it didn't quite meet his eyes.
Izuku shook his head quickly, looked towards the side of the room, where he noticed a closed curtain likely belonging to another patient. Under normal circumstances he'd love to be in the presence of All Might's secretary, perhaps ask him a few questions about the hero in question, and maybe get some kind of autograph - despite not even knowing All Might had a secretary. However, on the reminder that he was Quirkless, he seemed to droop with more disappointment. Maybe someone else would have been able to defend themselves.
He still returned the handshake, of course. "Yagi-san, I'm not sure if that was me. I'm... Quirkless. Someone else must have attacked the villain." He let go of his hand, and began to think of if he had seen any other heroes nearby at the time.
Toshinori seemed to perk up with apparent curiosity at that. "You're Quirkless? But there was-"
He was interrupted by the door opening. A nurse came in to check up on Izuku's vitals, advising him that he was all good but they wanted to keep him in the hospital for the night for monitoring. Nodding, he asked about his mother and if she knew he was here, to which the nurse said she would see about contacting her.
It was after she had left that he noticed a black-haired man in a trench coat had entered the room and was speaking with Toshinori. He turned to Izuku and held out a hand as well. "I'm Detective Tsukauchi. Sorry I'm here so late, Midoriya-san - I've been quite busy with many other issues today… You are aware of what happened to you, though, aren't you?"
Izuku nodded, and again explained how he was attacked by the villain, that All Might was on the scene, and the hot & cold feeling he felt over him as he passed out. He then looked to Toshinori briefly. "Yagi-san said that it was my Quirk that finished off the villain, but I'm Quirkless. There had to have been some other hero on the scene who dealt with the villain."
"Midoriya-san…" Tsukauchi took in a deep breath, with a frown. "Those issues I mentioned - we're having mass reports of people who have swapped Quirks with each other. We're still trying to work out what caused this and how it can be fixed, but if you were Quirkless before… You aren't anymore. All Might said there was fire and ice coming from your body, and that was what had finished off the villain." He then took out a notepad, unaware of Izuku's expression growing more and more unsettled. "Would you be able to describe the Quirk to me in further detail? Maybe we can track down the previous owner, let them know what's going on."
Izuku froze as he took the information in. There was no way - he'd always been Quirkless. It's impossible to just suddenly… Switch Quirks with somebody. And if that really is what happened... He had to give it back. He had to. It didn't belong to him, there had to be some way to revert things-
As he mumbled his thoughts out loud, muttering so quietly and quickly that his audience could hardly understand, his breathing picked up and the heart monitor at the side of his bed began to speed up. Toshinori reached over and held the boy's arm. "It's okay, Midoriya-shounen. Take deep breaths. I understand this is a lot to take in, but we're doing our best to make sure things can go back to the way they were."
It was then he noticed how cold his arm was. It felt like he was touching pure ice. The bedsheets began to freeze over and frost covered his skin as the young teen continued to mumble, not even noticing the touch on his arm, nor what was being said to him.
"Midoriya-san." The nurse had come back, clutching a clipboard tight to her chest with a nervous, panicked expression.
He stopped right away and looked up at the sudden intrusion as the frost continued to spread down his arms.
"Your mother is Inko Midoriya, correct?" The nurse asked, and Detective Tsukauchi seemed to startle at the words as he looked to the nurse in shock.
"Don't worry, we're getting you to the hospital." Tsukauchi told the woman, looking her directly in the eyes as she was curled up on the floor, splintered wood and broken glass surrounding them. Despite the circumstances, he was glad to be a good distance away. She certainly didn't seem dangerous in the slightest but there was no telling what could happen next.
Her eyes were glowing an intense green. "Eraserhead should be here soon," He said gently as he checked his watch, mentally cursing at how late the pro hero was. "He'll be able to stop this. Can I have your name?"
"Y-you can call me Inko." She managed to say, a smile somehow appearing on her face through the pain. Then, the ceiling collapsed. Tsukauchi called out to her, him and the other officers jumping into action to release her. The glowing had stopped.
"She's here in the hospital as well - she was administered around the same time you were. They had to give her Quirk suppressants, her Quirk went completely out of control. She's a few rooms down, actually, but I don't think you should visit her for a while-"
Izuku was already out of his bed, panicked. Chunks of ice stuck out of his skin - which he didn't seem to notice as he ran past the nurse, nearly slipping on the icy floor he had created underneath him.
Tsukauchi and Toshinori stood as well, the latter looking to follow him, but Tsukauchi had a deep frown and was looking up at the taller man. "Her mother… I recognize her name. She's the worst case so far." He said grimly, and eyed him with a hesitant expression. "She was the one who got, well, you know…"
Toshinori was out of the door as quickly as possible. He had to speak with the boy's mother as soon as possible, so he chased after him down the hall, noticing his distraught expression and that he had begun to cry.
Toshinori knew that if someone else had gotten their hands on One for All, then they could be facing a huge threat.