EDIT: 19/07/2018
Here's the second chapter! Hope you enjoy this one too. There's a few notes at the end that I think will clarify some things so I hope you read them too.
No. 2 Recovery Girl
The first time Ryouka found out about her Quirk was when she was in 5th grade in elementary school.
Oh, she knew she had a Quirk since she was 3 years old, but she didn't know what it was since the activation for her Quirk was a bit more specific than most other Quirks.
Ryouka was born with dark hair like her parents, and when her Quirk manifested suddenly her dark brown locks turned pure white. Physical changes was a common thing during the manifestation of a Quirk, so when this happened her parents are overjoyed. Ryouka, who wanted a boring life, was not.
She was glad that that seemed to be all though. When her Quirk first manifested, she tried to find out what it was, but no matter what she did it just wouldn't activate, so Ryouka had thought that her Quirk was just a strange one-time hair color change or something and put it out of her mind for a long time.
That was until that happened.
She didn't know if it was a blessing or not, but Ryouka was one of the prettiest girl in her school—especially because her white hair demanded so much attention because of its rareness in her school, and thus, many of the boys were always vying for her attention.
Tough luck for them, Ryouka was not interested in children since that would be just wrong—she was like ancient compared to them, after all, but yeah. All the boys (younger, same age, or even a few years older than her) decided they wanted to be her boyfriend or something.
It might not be that bad if they only want and admire her from afar, but the problem was they wanted her so bad that they held a fighting tournament to win her over.
Ryouka wasn't one to socialize often with her peers (especially since all of them were childish and she was, again, ancient and didn't have the patience to deal with their shits), so she didn't find out about the stupid tournament until it was too late and a victor had been found.
Apparently, the winner got the right to kiss her. It was both ridiculous and appalling that they decided this… prize without even considering that she'll agree to it or not, but well, they're children. Children did stupid things all the time, so it was kind of understandable.
Not that Ryouka would let that slide without consequences.
As the tournament allowed the use of Quirks, the victor—a boy from 6th grade—approached her in bruises, cuts, minor burns, and an entirely too smug face. Imagine everyone's surprise when his injuries disappeared before their eyes when he literally stole her breath as he kissed her.
After Ryouka recovered from the shock of being suddenly kissed, she returned the injuries ten times of what she healed to that boy and ever since then, everyone stayed clear of her, afraid of being beaten up because when she was angry, she didn't hold back at all even to children.
Horrible as it may be, that incident was what made her aware of her Quirk initially. Everyone praised her power and told her that she'd be a great Hero—maybe even greater than Recovery Girl!—but Ryouka didn't want to be one. So to avoid similar incident from happening again, Ryouka tried her best to be as inconspicuous as she could growing up.
She kept an average grade in class (which greatly confused her parents since they knew just how intelligent she was), never got into trouble with her teachers or fellow students, kept to herself so that no one really knew her, didn't wear make-up to avoid catching someone's attention, wore thick glasses (a fake one, because she got good genes this time from her parents) and kept her hair long and messy to hide her face, wore unflattering baggy sweater all the time, and she never ever used her Quirk when people could see her.
In other words, she was someone you'd glance over and ignore when you pass her at the street. She was just that inconspicuous.
There was nothing special about her if you didn't count on her snow-colored hair, but even her strange hair color was considered somewhat normal in this world, so really, people had never had a reason to notice or even approach her before.
Up until now, that is.
.
.
.
That week had been a terrible week so far for Ryouka.
First was that accident which forced her to use her Quirk in public and caused blood to dirty her face and uniform. After that, because people kept sending her bloodied uniform a look and it made her very uncomfortable, she was forced to go to a narrow, dark alley to use her other power (the magical one) to clean herself up.
Not only that, when Ryouka went back to her home, she found her parents missing with a note in the dining room telling her that her happy-go-lucky and somewhat airheaded parents had gone on another honeymoon trip, this time to the African wilderness or something without even bothering to tell her in person.
Okay, that one was not that bad since Ryouka did love the freedom of living alone, but they could at least tell her first before even planning for the trip. It helped that they left her a large sum of money so that she could survive the month alone, but their action still managed to tick Ryouka's temper a bit.
That was just the first day though.
After that, somehow or another accidents just popped out all around her and, damn her hero complex, Ryouka cannot bring it in herself to abandon any of the victims.
The second accident was a burning building and Ryouka had to heal three victims with third-degree burns all over their body. Kissing someone reeking of burning flesh was not something that she would like to experience ever again, thank you. She thought she was going to throw up in their mouth.
The next one was another car-related accident where somehow, Ryouka managed to attach a woman's severed arm back to the rest of her body. Honestly, even during Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry had never seen so much gore and blood. This universe was horrifying.
The last one was a Hero-Villain fight that not only injured over 100 civillians and causing her to exhaust herself almost to unconsciousness, but also destroyed part of her home and forced her to live in some hotel while the construction workers are fixing it.
She already sued Mount Lady for that damage, but the damage to her reputation as an aloof and uncaring person was not something so easily fixed by money.
People already begun to talk about a white-haired angel who was always ready to help people whenever there was an accident and it was making Ryouka almost crazy since the rumor was threatening her lifelong dream of a danger-free, action-free, and carefree life.
As if that wasn't bad enough, all week, Ryouka had felt someone constantly following her movements. Which made her really unsettled, because every time she looked over her shoulder, the presence that had been following her would disappear.
Ryouka swore if it was some villain looking forward to kidnapping her or something, she would actually beat their ass so hard they won't be able to take a shit for months.
The presence hadn't been doing anything besides following her around though, so Ryouka had hoped that they would get bored and leaver her on their own, but no such luck apparently.
Because right now, the perpetrator was sitting in front of Ryouka.
.
.
.
It was with wariness that Ryouka watched as the tiny old woman in front of her calmly sipped her green tea. The old woman set her cup on the table and smiled kindly at Ryouka, but Ryouka swore that she could smell the evil plot that was brewing inside this tiny, harmless-looking woman's little head.
Ryouka honestly didn't know how the hell she got into this situation.
The old woman was waiting for her in front of her school building after school that day and Ryouka had been alarmed at first since the old woman's energy and the energy that had been following her around for the past few days were one and the same, but somehow the old woman managed to manipulate Ryouka into agreeing to give her some of her time. That was why she was currently sitting in this quaint little café with the old lady in the seat right front of her, but she was starting to regret her decision.
Ryouka kept her face mild to the best of her ability so that this tiny predator in front of her couldn't sense her wariness, but she could tell that the woman was not buying it.
How scary.
"My name is Chiyo Shuuzenji." The woman introduced herself at last. Ryouka forcibly kept her face from showing any kind of emotion as she responded to the old woman's introduction.
"And?" She asked, and the old lady smiled kindly at her.
"You've never heard of me, Ibuki-chan? I am a Pro Hero under the name of Youthful Heroine Recovery Girl. Everyone usually call me Recovery Girl though," the old lady explained patiently to her, and Ryouka narrowed her eyes at the old Hero.
"I've never heard of you before." Which was a blatant lie, but Recovery Girl didn't seem like she noticed it. She didn't know why the Hero was here, talking to her like this, but she had a bad feeling about it. "Why are you here? Don't you Pro Heroes have anything better to do?"
"I'm currently off active duty so I'm fine being here right now," Recovery Girl said as she sipped her tea again.
"Is that so?" Ryouka replied back, keeping her voice level. She closed her eyes and adjusted her glasses before she sipped at her own drink. "Well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but unlike you, I don't have much time. I've got homework to do, so why don't you tell me what it is that you want from me, Recovery Girl?"
"My, you're so cold, Ibuki-chan." Recovery Girl said before laughing the stereotypical Japanese-old-lady-hohoho-laugh. "Well, as you can see, I am getting quite old, Ibuki-chan. Even though I still feel as youthful as when I debuted as a Pro Hero, sooner or later I will have to retire, that's why…"
She stopped for a dramatic second before continuing in a cheerful manner:
"I want you to be my apprentice!"
What.
When the words finally registered in her brain, Ryouka forced a small smile onto her face and bowed at the old Hero.
"I apologize for wasting your time, but I can't be your apprentice." She said, trying to hide a grimace as she tidied up her belongings. I need to get out of there fast, she thought. "I don't want to be a Hero. I'm quite happy with my life right now."
"But you have the potential to be a great Hero, Ibuki-chan." Recovery girl insisted. "I saw what you did this past week, ever since the first car accident. I was really touched. You saved that man's life when he was in the brink of death."
What are you, a stalker?
"I didn't want to save him though—I didn't even want to get involved. I was ready to walk away." Ryouka said primly with a small frown between her eyebrows. "I'm not the Hero material you're seeking for."
Recovery Girl smiled at her then. It was a secretive smile, like she knew something Ryouka don't, and it was making her feel on edge.
"But you still came back and saved that man's life."
"Not because I wanted to." Ryouka insisted. "I just can't stand crying children."
"And the other accidents? There were no crying children there, and you still saved all those people." The old lady smiled at her, and Ryouka felt her face twitch in annoyance.
"That was…" Dammit, she didn't have an excuse ready for that.
Recovery Girl looked like she had won and wore a serene smile as she continued to talk.
"Ibuki-chan… our job as Heroes aren't just to fight villains, you know? To make people smile and to stop their tears—they're our job too." Recovery Girl said gently, reaching out a hand to cup hers. "That's why, when I saw you running to save that man so that his little girl will stop crying, I think you'd be perfect for this job. The other incidents has served to convince me even more of that fact."
Recovery Girl paused again before she squeezed Ryouka's hands in hers.
"There's a great Hero inside you, Ibuki-chan."
Recovery girl continued, looking up at her with sincere and hopeful eyes that was actually really scary because she could see that glint in her eyes.
Wow. She's really good at this, isn't she? Ryouka thought as she suppressed a grimace from forming on her face. If she was still Harry, she would have been really touched by that speech and immediately caved in.
But she was not Harry anymore.
"That's… still a no from me."
Ryouka could have imagined it, but she swore she heard Recovery Girl clicking her tongue at her statement.
"Still a no? You're not moved at all by my speech? Hmm, I thought I'd be able to reel you in with that."
Is this old lady for real…
"Anyway, even if I want to be your apprentice—which I don't—I can't." Ryouka shook her head with a sigh. "Being your apprentice means that I have to be with you every day and I have school to attend to. I can't just drop my education to be your apprentice."
Recovery Girl hummed cheerfully, waving a hand to dismiss her concern. "I don't think that will be a problem. I can arrange so that you can to U.A. That way, you can attend school and be my apprentice at the same time, right?"
Again, Ryouka felt her face twitch. This lady really don't know when to give up, huh.
"You're right." Ryouka said finally. "But the decision is not up to me—it's up to my parents. They're the one who have a say in my education."
"Oh! Silly me, I should have asked for their permission first before I approached you. I think my age is finally getting into me." Recovery Girl laughed her scary ohoho-laugh again. "If I may ask you, where is your parents, young lady?"
"I don't know. Somewhere in Africa. I don't know their exact location." Ryouka said, smirking smugly. Her parents' decision to have a sudden honeymoon suddenly worked in her favor. "Good luck finding them."
With that last words, Ryouka stood up and gathered her belongings before she left the Pro Hero behind, confident that she would not be able to find her parents so easily.
But of course, again, there was no such luck.
Right when she finally could rest on her hotel bed that night (her home was still being renovated), suddenly, her barely-ever-used phone rang the obnoxious ringtone Ryouka had set for her parent's number.
Groaning, she rolled on the bed until her hand could reach the phone that she put on the bedside table.
"Hello—" She greeted, but was immediately cut down by the excited shriek of her mother.
"Ryouka-chan, Ryouka-chan! Can you believe who just gave us a surprise visit?" Her mother giggled and honestly, Ryouka didn't care who just visited her, but she didn't have the heart to tell the woman just that.
"Just tell me who is it, Mum." Ryouka groaned into her pillow.
"It's my childhood idol, the one and only, Recovery Girl!" Her mother shrieked again in her ears. "Oh, Ryouka-chan, why didn't you tell me that you two knew each other!"
Ryouka couldn't believe her ears.
"…what."
"She told me that she wanted to take you as her apprentice, and—this is honestly such a dream come true for me, to be able to speak to my idol, so I immediately agree to her request!" Her mother giggled again. "Isn't this good, Ryouka-chan? You'll be able to go to U.A., one of the best Hero Academy in Japan! Oh, this is such a happy occasion!"
What.
"—I've always told you that your Quirk is Hero material, just like your grandpa! Oh, if he was still alive, he'd be so proud of you! Your dad is already opening the wine to celebrate, he's so excited that you're finally—hello, Ryouka-chan? Are you listening to me? Ryou—"
…
…
Goddamnit.
No. 2 Recovery Girl — End
SinghSong asked if Ryouka's Quirk is the same as Recovery Girl or not. The answer is yes, they have the same type of Quirk (healing Quirk), but the activation requirement and how their Quirks work are quite different. From the manga and the anime, I think Recovery Girl's Quirk requires her to touch her lips to the recipient's body while Ryouka's Quirk will only activates if the recipient breathes in her breath. So no, Ryouka doesn't have to exactly kiss her patients, but kissing (or CPR or whatever that is you call them) is the most effective way for her to heal someone—especially if they're like, dying or something. Also, Recovery Girl's Quirk only sped up the recipient's healing rate so it's taxing on the recipient, while Ryouka's Quirk heals them by using Ryouka's energy instead.
Sceonn said that having to kiss someone in those extreme cases are quite disgusting and I agree. Even Ryouka agrees with them too in chapter 1, but she can't just breathe out on people's injuries. You can read the reason why on the paragraph just above this one.
To Everyone Else, thank you so much for the warm response! I honestly didn't know this would get this much reaction from all of you. Like, it got better response than my first (and main) story that I pour my heart and soul into. Even now, I still don't know if I should be happy or lament on this fact lol but I still love you guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter too! Thanks for reading!