EDIT: 19/07/2018
Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad that people seemed to really like this fic that I wrote half-heartedly lol. Some of you are disappointed, but well, this is the story that I want to write and I won't change it for anything. Many of you seemed to know the direction I'm going to take with this fic though… and here I really wanted to make it a surprise too lol.
There's some more explanation at the bottom of this chapter! I stole the name of Ryouka's Quirk from Junpei's (Persona 3) skill by the way.
No. 3 All Might
"I hate this."
Ryouka grouched, glaring at the porcelain floor of the famed Hero Academy that would be her new school as she followed the small old lady that called herself Recovery Girl down the hallway.
"Now, now, Ibuki-chan. Live with the consequence of your action. You're the one who told me the location of your parents, aren't you? Of course I wasn't going to waste the chance you gave me. You even told me good luck, too." Recovery Girl said, trying to pacify her. She wore a serene smile on her face, but Ryouka knew that beneath that kind-old-lady façade was a devious schemer.
Ryouka clicked her tongue, annoyed that the Royal-Pain-in-Her-Ass was right. She was being too arrogant and sure of herself—so convinced that the old hero wouldn't be able to find her parents that fast. She didn't know that her mum was a fan of Recovery Girl too. It was her fault for not noticing this.
Recovery Girl didn't take her time with anything, it seemed. The old lady was quick to act and just a day after she found her parents (in the middle of African wilderness for gods' sake) Ryouka found herself being greeted by the Pro Hero in front of her hotel room first thing in the morning. Apparently the principal of U.A. had called for her so they could arrange her schedule for the following year.
"How do you even find them so fast anyway?" Ryouka asked finally, sighing as she resigned herself for her fate for at least the next year.
"Oh, I asked for Principal Nedzu's help." Her would-be-master said, flashing her a smug grin. "He owed me a lot, so he went an extra mile for me. He even introduced me to an acquaintance of his who had a Teleportation Quirk so I could meet your parents in person!"
Ryouka clicked her tongue again, annoyed that the Royal-Pain-in-Her-Ass was... being a royal pain in her ass. Damn her new master for being famous and have many connections.
Ryouka already knew she would have no rest once someone important noticed her Quirk, no matter what. Even telling the old lady to find her parents in Africa was just to delay the inevitable. She just didn't know that the Pro Hero would find them in a matter of hours though. Talk about overkill.
Well, it was already futile to resist, she should just go with the flow for now. It's not like being an apprentice healer would be that bad, right? She just have to heal people, not saving them. She'd leave the savings and heroic acts to people who actually want to be a Hero.
"Anyway, aren't your character a bit different now? You were so polite at me before, Ibuki-chan." Recovery Girl smiled at her.
"Well, you kind of forced me into this, you know. I'm displeased, so I'll behave however I want." Ryouka groused moodily. "I was acting like I'm polite and reserved because I don't want to attract unwanted attention in the first place. Now that I've been noticed, there's no need for me to pretend anymore."
"Don't be like that, Ibuki-chan! Here, have some Haribo candies." Recovery Girl laughed, shoving her a handful of said candies before she continued walking the long hallway again. "You'll thank me when you became a successful Hero later, I guarantee!"
Ryouka grimaced, looking at the candies that her soon-to-be master shoved in her hands. Popping one of them in her mouth, she sighed at the old lady. "That's… exactly the point. I don't want to be a Hero, successful or not."
"You say that now, Ibuki-chan, but I know your type." Recovery Girl wiggled her finger with squinted eyes like she's scolding a child. "Deep down, there's a hero inside of you. Someday, there will come the day when you couldn't stand all the evil that's happening around you and you will step in to save everyone."
As the old Hero finished her words, both of them stopped walking, each staring at the other's eyes with still expression before the somewhat tense moment was cut by the smile that the old woman suddenly sported on her face.
"Well, it's like that! I thought it'd be better if someone is there to guide you to that path rather than having you rushing into things unprepared." Recovery Girl laughed softly as she popped a candy into her mouth too. "That's just one of the reasons why I chose you, of course."
"There's other reasons?" Ryouka asked the Hero who took her time to answer her. Though, in the end the Hero didn't answer it by redirecting the conversation to another topic.
"Hmm. You'll find out soon enough. Ah, see that big door? That's the Principal's office." Recovery Girl said, pointing at said door with her cane. When they reached it, Recovery Girl knocked on the door 3 times before she opened it and walked in like she owned the place.
"Nedzu-chan, are you here?" Recovery Girl called out and Ryouka looked around at the empty room in annoyance. Come on, they called her in so early and they didn't even show up on time? She was about to say something when a white fluffy form of… something jumped on the sofa in the middle of the room proudly.
"Yes! It's me, the guy you can't quite make out if he's a mouse, a dog, or a bear: Nedzu, your soon-to-be principal!" The white fluffy thing who was apparently her new principal said, offering his hand to hers. "Ibuki Ryouka! It's nice to finally meet you! I've heard a lot of good things of you from Recovery Girl!"
And… damnit, Ryouka wanted to be rude to him for his part in getting her trapped in this situation, but… her new school principal was very cute and Ryouka was very weak against cute things. Like, the mouse-like principal was wearing a small suit. It was a very cute sight.
But, Ryouka had an image to keep, damnit! She won't lose so easily.
"It's nice to meet you too. I guess." She grouched, reluctantly taking the hand his principal offered her.
"Yes, yes! Take a seat please!" The (man? Mouse hybrid?) said, ushering both her and Recovery Girl to the other sofa, the one that he wasn't standing on. "Let's just get to business, shall we? I called you here today to talk to you about your schedule for the year. The paperwork are all done, you just have to read and sign it and I'll handle the rest. Don't forget to read everything thoroughly!"
Principal Nedzu handed her a stack of important-looking papers and a pen to sign them with.
"Alright."
"I'll brief you while you read then. To tell the truth, because you're transferring here during your second year, I wasn't sure how to properly arrange your education since you've been through the normal first year lessons, but if I put you with the rest of the second year you'll be missing one full year of heroic lessons. I wracked my brain all night and came up with the most brilliant idea!" The Principal beamed at her as he poured on green tea for all of them. "You'll have your normal lessons with the rest of your year-mates, but when it's time for the heroic lessons, you'll join one of the first years' class! Isn't this just exciting?"
No.
"Uh… I don't exactly see where the excitement is, but sure. Whatever works, I guess." Ryouka shrugged as she continued to read the documents. Strangely, there was quite a bit of clause regarding secrecy and whatnot here.
"Perfect! I've arranged a spot for you in class 2-A. I'll inform your transfer to your new homeroom teacher today. Ah, if you're done with that, Ibuki-kun, please fill in your measurement on this request form for your school and gym uniform. On the second page is for you to sketch your preferred design for your Hero costume! You can even make request of the materials and special functions of your uniform, so be as detailed as you can! I'm going to meet with the headmaster of your current school after this so you'll have to submit it to the support department yourself. I trust you can do that?"
Her new principal sure do like to talk huh.
"Sure, Nedzu-sensei. I have a question thou—"
What Ryouka was about to say was interrupted by the excited voice of the mouse-like principal.
"Would you look at that, Recovery Girl? She already called me Sensei. This is touching, don't you think?"
"Very. She hasn't even called me Sensei yet." Recovery Girl agreed, pouting a bit.
Ryouka coughed to get their attention. Seriously these two…
"As I was saying before the two of you interrupted me, I have a question." Ryouka looked at the mouse-hybrid principal pointedly. "Is this allowed? I didn't enter through the entrance exam after all."
"Yes, yes, there's no need for your concerns! People get recommendation letters all the time here, though normally we gave them to middle school students. There's Yaoyorozu Momo and Todoroki Shouto of first year, Sawa Rakan and Senroh Chigusa* of second year, and Yuzuriha Shiki and Kurumi Touya* from third year. You're not alone or special here, so don't worry!"
"Alright." Ryouka nodded in understanding. "What about my duty as Recovery Girl's apprentice?"
"Well, you're basically my sidekick from now on. You do what I told you to do, and in return I'll teach you everything I knew." The old hero smiled at her and sipped her tea before she continued her answer. "You'll serve with me in the campus' nurse office and whenever there's an emergency, you will go there in my place."
At her answer, Ryouka frowned. "I don't have a hero license though."
"Not to worry! Here's your license." Recovery Girl quipped as she slid a small card from her sleeve onto the table. "The Hero Association always makes an exception for Healing Quirk owners since we're so in demand and there're so few of us. Healers could get an Emergency Hero License without much fuss, but with it we're only allowed to heal, not to fight or rescue. If you wish to fight villains or protect and rescue civilians, you have to apply for the actual Pro Hero License."
"I see. How convenient." Ryouka said, taking said card from the table and turning it over. "This license is perfect for me, then."
"That's no good, Ibuki-chan! You have to strive higher than that!" Recovery girl pouted, huffing at her lack of ambition. "Plus Ultra! That's the motto of this academy, after all!"
"No thanks."
Quickly shutting down the idea of striving for greatness, Ryouka flipped a page on her contract, frowning when she saw more secrecy clauses. She was just going to be an apprentice healer, why would they issue a gag order on her?
How suspicious.
"Can I ask you a question?" Ryouka asked out loud, not looking up from her contract documents. She caught the mouse-like principal and her soon-to-be master exchanging a brief look, but she didn't comment on it.
"Certainly! You can ask anything you don't understand, Ibuki-kun!" The small principal chirped happily, belying the previous apprehension she sensed him felt from before. Finally looking up from the papers in her hands, Ryouka arranged them back in order and put them on her lap as she frowned at the mouse-hybrid principal.
"Why the need for so many secrecy clause?" She asked, gesturing at the somewhat thick wad of papers on her lap. The Pro-Heroes exchanged looks again, openly this time, and this time it was Recovery Girl who answered her.
"We'll tell you after you sign it, Ibuki-chan." The old lady said in a placating tone, but Ryouka was not having it. Crossing her arms, she narrowed her eyes at the Pro Hero and very firmly retorted back at her.
"If you don't tell me now, I won't sign it."
When they only exchanged worried looks with each other instead of answering her, Ryouka was about to enact a very convincing rendition of the trademarked "Snape Glare" when suddenly the door was slammed open and a very muscly figure in a fitting dark blue suit suddenly stood in front of it.
"That's because of me." The figure said, flashing his very white teeth before he strutted inside, the blond antennas on his head staying strangely still even as he walked. "Greetings, young Ibuki, Mr. Principal, Recovery Girl! Excuse me for intruding on your meeting!"
Ryouka's eyes widened as she finally registered who this person was, but before she could voice her disbelieve, the tiny principal voiced it first.
"All Might!" The mouse-man gasped, tone disapproving. "You shouldn't be here!"
Hearing the admonishment in the tiny school principal's voice, the Number One Hero at least had a decency to look guilty.
"I know, but I was eavesdropping and I thought it would be unfair for young Ibuki here to be dragged into this without knowing anything!" All Might said, sounding apologetic while still maintaining his trademark smile.
All Might, Recovery Girl, and the principal exchanged glances again and Ryouka sighed, feeling a bit fed up. First all of the secrecy, and now All Might was involved too? What the hell is going on here?
"Explain," was all Ryouka said to that.
When Recovery Girl looked a bit worried at her demand, All Might quickly shook his head and flashed a reassuring grin at the old woman.
"It's alright. I trust young Ibuki. She won't spill my secret to the media!"
Secret? Media?
Ryouka frowned, beginning not to dislike where the conversation was going, but finally the mouse-hybrid principal nodded his acquiescence at the Number One Hero's judgement.
"Alright then," Principal Nedzu began gravely. "Ibuki-kun, what I'm going to tell you is a state secret. You must absolutely not tell this to anyone else."
When Ryouka shot him an unimpressed look, he coughed and nodded at her.
"Well… to put it simply, All Might is dying." At the tiny principal's words, Ryouka fought not to choke on her own saliva. Was her hearing suddenly failing her or did she really hear that right?
"…what." Ryouka finally said after a long while of staring at the three to see if they're just actually fooling her, but no, they looked entirely too grim to just be joking around.
Recovery Girl, hearing her disbelieving reaction, nodded to back up the principal's claim.
"It's true, Ibuki-chan. All Might is dying. Maybe at an extremely slow rate because of the combined effort between us and the government to keep him alive, but he's dying all the same," the old lady said, looking dejected and guilty somehow. Ryouka could guess why—she must be All Might's primary healer and she failed to heal him. That must frustrate her.
"It's been five years… and I'm only getting worse each day." All Might added, still grinning like it wasn't a serious matter. "I met a really tough villain 5 years ago. That villain gave me a wound that not even the most advanced medical technology could heal."
Ryouka followed his movements as he traced the wound under the pristine suits he was wearing with a frown. From his left rib and down to his navel, before the hero continued his explanations.
"My respiratory system is in shambles and my stomach was totally scooped out. I've wasted away from constant surgeries and their complications and reduced to a maximum of around three hours of heroics every day. Even this muscle form I am wearing right now was just that—a form, and just maintaining it has already proven to be difficult and taxing for me."
Wait, this wasn't even his real form?
"…are you serious?" Ryouka finally said, still expecting everything to be an elaborate joke or a trap to make her sign the damn contract, but…one look at All Might she could already tell that it was all real.
"Unfortunately." The Number One Hero nodded, finally a hint of discomfort showing through his ever-present grin. "Even now that I am stable, I still vomit blood when I exerted myself. Sometimes, even when I'm in a relaxed state too. I can't eat solid food either so recovering is pretty hard for me."
Ryouka pressed her lips tightly.
"…show me your real form and the location of the injury."
After a brief exchange of glances with the principal and the old healer, All Might nodded at her and with a poof of white smoke, the muscly form of the Number One Hero was replaced with a skeletal, gaunt, and brittle man with too large suits hanging on his small frame.
The gaunt man then lifted his shirt to show her his injuries and… Ryouka closed her eyes tightly.
This… this was serious.
"You should be at the hospital." Ryouka finally said, opening her eyes and setting her gaze on the blond man in front of her.
"Evil will never rest, young Ibuki! There's no way I can stay still when evil is lurking around, threatening civilians!"
As expected of the Symbol of Peace—he didn't accept her suggestion of what he should do as a sane person. Instead, he stood up from his seat and launched into a short monologue, clenching his hand to his chest and settling into his muscle form.
Ryouka sighed and massaged the area between her eyebrows with her index finger and thumb as she leaned back onto her seat.
"I won't lie. Even this is beyond the ability of my Quirk." Ryouka told him honestly. "I'm sure you knew the details about my Quirk already, if you're that determined to have me."
"Yes, actually. We have the data from the Quirk Registries." Nedzu-sensei answered her. "Spring of Life, a Quirk that can heal any wound by breathing in the user's breath. Unlike Recovery Girl's Recovery which only speed up the receiver's healing rate, Spring of Life actually healed them by draining the user's energy. Though there's no limit to how severe the damage that can be healed, there's a limit to how much you can heal before you ran out of energy. So far, the limit seems to be about thirty minor injuries or equivalent to about three major ones."
"Not bad." Ryouka nodded, but the principal was missing something crucial about her Quirk. "My Quirk can only heal a fresh wound though. If you came to me while the wound is still fresh, I would be able to fix it somehow, but this, while badly, are already healed."
She paused, looking at All Might before she continued.
"I could potentially heal it with my Quirk of course," Ryouka continued. "But to do that I need to deconstruct about half of your upper body so I could reconstruct it back to your prime state, and in your state right now, there's no way you will survive it."
All Might nodded in understanding, not at all dejected by what she just told them.
"It's alright, young Ibuki! That's not why we required your presence here!" The Symbol of Peace said enthusiastically. "In my current state, Recovery Girl's Recovery won't be able to help me anymore as it leave me very exhausted and weak every time it was used on me, that's why we are in need of your help!"
"I see." Ryouka hummed, looking at Recovery Girl who was looking at her with a sheepish smile. "So all that shit about you seeing a Hero in me and wanting to make me your apprentice was just a cover so that I'll be All Might's designated healer?"
"Yes." Recovery Girl nodded, finally coming clean to her about her intention. "Of course I didn't lie about seeing a Hero potential in you, but this is the main reason why I want you. Why we need you. Currently, there are no other Healing Quirks that are quite as powerful as yours, mine included."
"I see." Ryouka said, acknowledging her honesty. She looked back at All Might, who started to sweat nervously under her calculating stare.
Truthfully, if she used magic and her potions making skill, she could probably make him a new stomach and lungs from his DNA and could attach it inside him without harm. Combined with her Quirk, he would probably be as healthy as he was before the incident happened in about three to six months, depending on how hard it would be to construct the organs needed, but…
She looked at everyone in the room and closed her eyes again.
She wasn't ready to tell them about her magic yet.
Finally, after a lot of contemplation, Ryouka sighed out loud, making the nervous man in front of her jump in anxiousness.
"I still think you should be at the hospital, All Might." Ryouka began and was cut by the man's nervous explanation.
"I… understand, but this world needs a symbol of peace so that—"
Ryouka snorted at that and grabbed the pen on the table.
"Save that lecture for someone who cares," she said, signing the documents that finally cemented her apprenticeship with Recovery Girl. "I'll do it."
"Young Ibuki!"
"Ibuki-chan!"
"Ibuki-kun!"
"I don't want anything like this to be dropped on me so suddenly again though. No more secrecy. I hate being manipulated into something I don't want." She growled, glaring at the three adults in front of her as she slammed the pen loudly back to the table. "Believe me when I said I can make your lives into an unending nightmare should you do that to me again."
She wasn't above getting revenge on the people who wronged her multiple times, after all. She wasn't that much of a pushover, no matter how lazy she was or that she usually prefer to go with rather than against the flow.
"We understand." Principal Nedzu said, smiling at her and extending his hands towards her. "Thank you for your cooperation, Ibuki-kun."
"Good." Ryouka nodded, shaking the tiny hand in front of her strongly before a dangerous glint entered her eyes. "Then let us discuss my payment for being your sidekick then."
No way she's letting them work her to the bone for free.
No. 3 All Might — End
Oh shit it turned way more serious than I planned. Not that I have one, but you know what I mean. You guys are definitely expecting way too much from this story though, lol. Thanks for reading, have a nice day!
*Yuzuriha Shiki and Kurumi Touya's name are stolen from Morimoto Shuu's Moon Trick while Sawa Rakan and Senroh Chigusa are from Sugiura Shiho's Silver Diamond. I love them, ok, shhh.