The four people, well, three people and rat-bear thing, sat around Izuku Midoriya's kitchen table, each with a freshly poured cup of tea in hand. Nezu was happily stirring his cup, ignoring the stares from the two teenagers. Eri was sipping at her tea with a weird face, clearly unfamiliar with the taste. Melissa sat in her seat quietly, giving polite put worried glances between Izuku and Nezu. Izuku himself had yet to touch his tea. He had a hand to his chin and had been incoherently mumbling nonstop since he sat down.
"I'm sure you all have many questions you wish to ask me." Nezu finally said.
"Certainly! Like how you found us! Or how you're still even around! Or-" Izuku began spitting off questions.
"Izuku, please! One at a time." Melissa interrupted him.
"Don't worry Ms. Shield, I can answer these questions rather easily," Nezu assured. "I found you by looking up the address in your Entrance Exam application. And as for how I'm still around, do you have any guesses?"
Izuku brought his hand back to his chin, mumbling just loud enough for everyone else to hear him. "The Rapture made everyone with a Quirk disappear at the same times. My initial analysis seemed to show that there weren't any exceptions. But you're Quirk is some form of heightened intelligence. So, what makes you different from all the other people-"
"He's not a person, he's a dog!" Eri interrupted.
Izuku looked over due to the girl's statement, his concentration completely broken. "W-What?"
"I remember someone telling me about them. They have tails and paws and are covered in fur. They can walk on all fours and have a good sense of smell. I didn't know they could talk and wear clothes though!" Eri explained excitedly. Everybody present just stared at the girl, unable to respond to her enthusiastic and entirely erroneous explanation.
"Eri…" Melissa finally spoke. "Mr. Nezu isn't a dog. At least I don't think he is."
"But he isn't human! Does that mean the Rapture didn't target Quirks, but humans with Quirks specifically?" Izuku questioned.
"Correct! Though you got help for that, so you only get partial marks." Nezu teased. "I hacked into the camera system of a nearby zoo famous for a lion with a winged Quirk, and he was still there too. It's safe to assume that the only targets of this phenomena were Quirked humans."
"But not all of them." Izuku countered. "Eri's still here. I don't know what her Quirk is exactly, but she has one. Why wasn't she affected?"
"That's an excellent question young Midoriya." Nezu nodded. "Well Eri, can you tell us about what you were doing yesterday? Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?"
Eri shuffled in her seat, looking around nervously. She clearly wasn't used to so much attention.
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Izuku assured, putting a hand on her shoulder supportively.
"If I do, will it help bring everyone back?" Eri asked.
"There's a chance. Any information will help immensely." Nezu said. He noted how Eri's face changed at his answer as if she wasn't pleased with the answer.
"… Alright." Eri finally agreed. "I was waiting in my room like usual, sitting in my bed, when my head started feeling funny. There was a bright light and it felt like my whole body was disappearing. But then my head began to hurt, and I… don't remember. I woke up later though, and there wasn't anybody around, so I tried to go find someone. That's when I ran into Izuku!"
"Is there anything else you've noticed?" Nezu asked, trying to fish for more details.
Eri put a hand to her head, rubbing her horn. "Umm, my horn seems to be smaller, I think. It used to be taller and curved a bit." She explained, miming with her hand how it used to look. Looking at it now, it seemed to be nothing more than a stump on her head.
Nezu took a sip of tea contemplatively. "Hmm, interesting. Eri, what is your Quirk?"
Eri shuffled in her seat. "Quirk? Do you mean my curse?"
"Eri, I told you you're not cursed." Izuku tried to reassure the girl.
"But I can make people disappear without even meaning to! How am I not cursed?" She said with teary eyes.
"But that's not true. You don't just make people disappear." Nezu pointed out.
"Huh?" Eri looked over at the puny principal confused.
"You said that your ability makes people disappear, but it seemed that you prevented your own disappearance by subconsciously using your Quirk on yourself. There must be more to it than meets the eye." Nezu elaborated. "In short, you aren't cursed. In fact, you're blessed with an amazing Quirk."
At those words, Eri's eyes began to tear up more, until she was full-on bawling in her seat. Izuku immediately got up and tried to comfort her, while Melissa ran off and grabbed the nearest box of tissues.
"Oh dear'" Nezu said shocked. "I'm sorry, I thought those words would have the opposite effect. I'm sorry if I've upset you."
"I'm not upset," Eri said before Melissa helped blow her nose. "I don't why I'm crying. It's just, no one has ever said that my powers aren't evil. It makes me feel something strange…"
"That's called happiness." Izuku told her, wiping away her tears.
As Eri began to calm down, the two teens sat back in their seats. Izuku rubbed his right arm as he did, still feeling sore from the punch earlier. He supposed he should be lucky he didn't drop the entire building on all of them, from what he's seen of All Might's fights. 'Now that I think of it, even though I put everything into that attack, I didn't cause too much damage. If One for All's power is the same for me as it was for All Might, I should have taken out half the block with that attack. Why was the attack weakened?'
"Oh yeah, Eri's not the only one with a quirk! Izuku was able to use one earlier when he saved me from those thugs!" Melissa pointed out.
That got Nezu's attention, the small mammal's head snapping toward Izuku. "Is that so? And what kind of Quirk would that be?"
"It's amazing! He punched one of them across the entire supermarket! It was just like Uncle Might!" Melissa said, miming a punching motion.
Izuku felt his cheeks heat up at the praise, but his mind screeched to a halt when he replayed what Melissa had said. "Wait, 'Uncle Might'? How do you know All Might?" he asked, remembering how her name sounded familiar when they introduced themselves.
Nezu looked shocked. "Apologies, I presumed you were aware, I see some introductions are still in order. Melissa Shield here is visiting here from I-Island with her father, David Shield. He-"
"Designed All Might's old costumes!" Izuku interrupted, squealing in excitement. "He's a world-famous creator of hero support equipment! I knew I recognized your name from somewhere."
"Yeah, my dad is pretty great. He usually isn't allowed to leave I-Island due to the importance of his work, but he managed to talk his higher-ups into giving him a weekend abroad as long as we were escorted by a Pro Hero." Melissa stopped for a moment, glancing away sadly. "It was supposed to be an entire weekend of just the three of us, but then, well…"
The table fell into another awkward silence as Melissa thought about her father. Nezu coughed slightly, before speaking up. "Getting back to the topic on hand. Izuku, you say your Quirk is a form of strength enhancement, but I find this odd."
"Whatever do you mean?" Izuku tried to say innocently.
Nezu's grin perked up slightly at the boy's tone. "Well for one, your application for the Entrance Exam states that you are Quirkless. So, I see three obvious options. Firstly, you could have lied about your lack of a Quirk, which I find incredibly unlikely for many reasons. Lying about a Quirk's abilities I could see, it's common enough, but pretending your outright Quirkless is incredibly unlikely, considering your aspirations. The second option is that you hadn't awakened your Quirk until after the Rapture, an equally unlikely possibility due to your generation and age."
"But then how does he have a Quirk? It doesn't seem like his is anything special like Eri's, no offense Izuku." Melissa cut in.
"None taken." Izuku assured. While One for All may be a Quirk passed down by eight generations to create the perfect Hero, at face value it looked like any other strength boosting Quirk.
"Exactly, which leaves us with the third option. That he received his Quirk after the Rapture." Nezu said.
Izuku's eye's widened, but Melissa just looked confused. "But I thought you just said that it was unlikely he had awakened a Quirk after the Rapture?"
"Yes, but I said 'receive', not awaken. In this scenario, Izuku was truly Quirkless until after the Rapture, and somehow gained a Quirk afterward." Nezu theorized, shooting Izuku a knowing glance. "I would hazard a guess that it has to do with our mutual acquaintance."
"What mutual acquaintance?" Melissa asked, looking between Nezu and Izuku.
Taking a deep sigh, Izuku realized that keeping the truth of One for All secret would be rather hard now, considering the circumstances. "He's talking about All Might. I… got my Quirk from him." He finally admitted.
"Ah-ha! I knew it!" Nezu exclaimed, shooting a paw up in excitement.
"H-How is that even possible? I know I said your Quirk looked like Uncle Might's, but I didn't think it literally was!" Melissa said in disbelief.
'This might take a while to explain.' Izuku thought, looking at the expectant expressions of his company.
"Hmm, that certainly explains how you have a Quirk still. You're certainly a lucky one, a minute or two later and you might not even be here!" Nezu said upon hearing the truth of One for All. He and Melissa had listened intently at Izuku's tale, while Eri had moved to the couch to take a nap.
"Yeah, I realized that." Izuku nodded nervously. "You said you knew already earlier. How exactly did you figure it out?"
"Well, I didn't have any exact proof, and All Might didn't tell me himself. However, I already knew about his injuries and declining strength. To tell the truth, he came to me to look for a successor at UA. I always found it odd that he was looking for a specific successor to train, instead of simply wanting to help raise the next generation. Then suddenly ten months ago, he brought up the idea of teaching the first years but stopped bringing up talk of a successor. Come the time of the Entrance Exam, when everyone disappeared in the Rapture, you can imagine my surprise when I was reviewing the footage and found a boy wandering around UA as if nothing happened." Nezu laboriously explained. "Also, I hacked your phone and saw that All Might was in your contacts."
"Yeah, I suppose that kind of gives it away, huh." Izuku agreed. He really should change the contact's name just in case.
"Izuku, was-" Melissa tried to ask, voice filled with worry. "Was Uncle Might really that injured?"
'Oh, right. I guess learning about All Might's injury like this isn't ideal.' Izuku realized. This was probably why the Hero wanted to keep it a secret. "He was. He didn't want to break the publics' faith in the Symbol of Peace. So, you didn't know either?"
"No," Melissa said sadly. "But I think Dad did. Around the time Uncle Might got injured, he got really motivated on some sort of personal project. And his insistence to visit Japan was leaning on desperate."
"I see, that's interesting to know. But with all that out of the way, we now know more about the Rapture than we did an hour ago. This is good. Very good." Nezu. "Well then, I suppose it's time we get back to U.A., so the two of you can start working on your class assignment."
"Class assignment? What do you mean?" Izuku asked.
"Well, it would be irresponsible of you two to not think about your education, even in such trying times. I assume you want to be a hero, yes?" Nezu questioned.
Izuku took a moment to realize what Nezu was saying but quickly nodded his head. "Of course."
Nezu then turned to Melissa. "And Ms. Shield, may I interest you in an exchange program for the time being. I do believe this would prove an invaluable experience for you."
"What would be? What is this assignment?" Melissa asked as well.
"Ah yes, it's improper of me to give an assignment without properly explaining the objective. Forgive me, it's been a while since I've done any direct teaching." Nezu apologized, before hopping up on the kitchen table and holding a hand up dramatically. "Your first assignment is to rescue the 8 billion people who have gone missing from the Rapture!"
"… WHAT?!" The two of the teenagers yelled.
"Who-?!" Eri suddenly shot up from the couch, looking around in surprise.
"You'll all have to move into U.A. due to the current conditions. While we don't have any official dormitories, I imagine we will be able to work something out." Nezu continued, ignoring the incredulous looks everyone else was giving him.
"D-Do you really think we can bring them back?" Melissa asked, a speck of hope in her voice.
Nezu nodded. "It wouldn't be fair of me to give an assignment you have no hope to complete. Though it will certainly be quite challenging. Are you two up for it?"
Melissa nodded determinedly. "Yes! Anything to help bring back my dad!"
Izuku looked behind Nezu at a picture hanging on the wall, of him and his mom on his first day of middle school. He thought back to when he was little, and she would play Hero with him. 'Mom, I really will save you this time.' He looked at Nezu with the same determination as Melissa. "How do we start?"
"First…" Nezu began to announce dramatically. "We have to go to school!"
Izuku looked outside the window of the moving vehicle as they rode up to the U.A. campus. Apparently the vehicle that was parked outside of his apartment was used by U.A. for a variety of tasks, from getting students around campus to emergency services. It could drive around without any human input, explaining how Nezu had managed to get it across town despite his stature. There was enough space in the back for a half dozen adults, leaving plenty of room for all of them. Izuku and Melissa sat across from each other, while Nezu sat in the front to watch the road, and Eri went up with him to get a better view. Nezu had attached a wedge plow on the front of the drone, originally used for removing snow around the school, to push many of the vacant vehicles out of the way.
Glancing to the back of the automated vehicle, he could see two suitcases shuffle around as they bumped down the road. One for him and another for Melissa. They had taken a detour back to where she had initially been staying to retrieve her clothes. Izuku had also suggested stopping somewhere to get Eri something else to wear, but Nezu insisted that he could deal with that at the school itself.
Lost in thought, he wasn't ready for a large bump in the road. He shot his arms out to stabilize himself, but immediately regretted it as the muscles in his right cried out in pain. "Damn." He couldn't help mutter under his breath.
Melissa stopped staring out the window, catching his quiet cursing. "Did you say something?"
"No, nothing! Just a bit bumpy is all…" Izuku said. He tried to bring his right hand behind his head to scratch it, a nervous tick he developed from dealing with Kacchan all the time, but stopped himself halfway and winced in pain.
Melissa gave him an unimpressed look, before getting up and hopping over to his side of the vehicle, sitting down on Izuku's right side. "Don't try to act all tough. I know that All Might's Quirk can be too much to handle. He complained about the recoil all the time. Let me see how bad it is."
Before Izuku could respond, Melissa started feeling his injured arm up with her hands, putting pressure on different points. His cheeks began to heat up and he froze up on instinct. He could see her mouth moving, asking him something, but his own internal thoughts were completely blocking it out. 'A girl is touching me! A girl is touching me! What do I do, I haven't prepared for this?! Oh god her hands are so soft! Should I say something, or is that creepy? What do I-'
"Izuku… Izuku!" Melissa finally shouted, snapping him out of his trance. He couldn't help but notice how close her face was to his. "How does this feel for you."
"Soft." He answered without thinking, snapping a hand over his mouth when he realized what he had said.
Melissa was confused for a moment, but eventually, Izuku could see her eyes widen in realization and cheeks redden. "I-I meant your arm Izuku."
"Right of course you did. I knew that." Izuku insisted unconvincingly. "It feels like every muscle in my arm is pulled. It's fine if I don't put any pressure on it though, so it's fine, really!"
"It's not 'just fine'. In case you forgot, people with healing Quirks aren't around anymore. If you go overboard, you'll have to heal the old-fashioned way." Melissa sighed. She got up and walked over to her suitcase. She bent over to grab something inside it, and Izuku looked away from the sight before he lost focus again.
"Here we go." Izuku heard Melissa take her seat beside him again and looked over to see her holding some sort of red wristband in her hand. "This can't heal you, but it should help prevent you from injuring yourself too much in the future." She said, moving the device over his right wrist and pressing a button on it. The device began to glow, before growing and wrapping itself around his hand and lower arm. It eventually stopped, forming a red fingerless gauntlet on his right arm.
"What is this? I've never seen a support item like it before, who made it?" Izuku marveled, looking the gauntlet over inquisitively.
"Um, I did," Melissa admitted, embarrassed by the praise. "I'm not as good as my dad yet, but I want to be just like him someday."
"What exactly does it do?" Midoriya asked.
"I always wanted to make something that Uncle Might could use as dad did. I eventually realized that he must put up with a lot of force on his body, due to Newton's third law. So, I developed a device that could absorb the blowback of his attacks, hopefully lessening the strain and allowing him to work for longer. I was going to show it to him during the trip, but I think you'll get a better use out of it." Melissa explained.
"It's able to take the force of All Might's attacks? That's incredible!" Izuku praised, staring at the gauntlet like it was a holy relic.
"It's not as impressive as it sounds. It can only take three of his Smash's at full strength before being strained beyond the limit and breaking. It wouldn't actually be practical for him to use for work." She said disappointed, reaching a hand towards the gauntlet and running her fingers along it.
Izuku shook his head in disagreement. "Don't sell yourself short. You managed to make a piece of support equipment that All Might can use. Do you know how long companies have been trying to make something that's actually helpful to him, or that won't break into a million pieces after a single punch? I have no doubt you'll eventually be just as good as your father, if not better!"
"I, well…" Melissa looked unsure how to respond to him, instead turning her head away to look out the window before answering properly. "I'm glad I could help."
Despite her head being turned away, Izuku could see that she wasn't upset by what he said at least. He turned his head away as well to look out the window but froze up again when he felt something on his hand. Glancing down, he could see that Melissa's hand that had been holding the gauntlet had now lowered itself over the back of his hand and had begun rhythmically tapping her fingers between his.
Acting again without thinking, Izuku flipped his hand over so that their palms were touching. The drumming continued between his exposed fingers, and Izuku decided to return the gesture. After a moment of the two fiddling with their fingers, he suddenly found his hand clasped in hers. She squeezed his hand lightly, and Izuku returned the gesture.
He turned his head away again, this time to try and hide the stupid grin he had on his face. He sat there in silence the rest of the way to U.A. with a sudden boost of confidence. For some reason, holding this hand made him feel like he could take on anything the world threw at him.
Kagome Mirai wandered around the empty halls of Jaku General Hospital without a sense of purpose. The slowly setting sun darkened the many halls she had been walking around since morning. She was truly alone.
There wasn't anyone in the Hospital. Hell, there wasn't anyone in the entire city. Jaku City was well known for having a large population of people with Quirks, as she had quickly found when she had moved here for work. Everyone couldn't help but brag and boast about their abilities, and she didn't miss the looks people gave her when she said she was Quirkless. A mix of pity, disgust, or smugness. It seemed all anyone talked about here.
Though she supposed she wasn't one to complain. She had come here to work at Jaku General Hospital due to it being one of the leading experts on Quirk physiology. Inspired by Daruma Ujiko, she did everything she could to work under him, and eventually, he personally recognized her talent, even calling her thesis on the possible techniques of artificial Quirk transferal 'an impressive insight into the future'. It had always been her dream to have a Quirk, and with the good Doctor's help, she believed it was possible. But now…
There was nobody with a Quirk anymore. Her dream of having one was basically dead. She had come to the Hospital to see if Dr. Ujiko was still around, in the vain hope that he had some miracle solution to the crisis, but he appeared to have vanished along with them. She found his lab coat and ID lapel hanging on his office desk chair, and he never went anywhere without them. She had taken a sick day yesterday, so she wasn't here when the Rapture itself happened, busy binging some trashy hospital drama.
Now that Kagome thought about it, the Doctor was supposed to be Quirkless as well, wasn't he? That's why she had been inspired by his work. Could he have had a Quirk that even he didn't know about? It's not entirely impossible, but she would think an expert like him would notice after so long.
Her aimless wandering had found her at the morgue. She could see the door was half-open, a surprisingly common occurrence she noted, despite there being very few deaths at their facility. On a whim, she fully opened the door and strode right in. She didn't know what, but she felt something calling to her.
As she wandered around, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary about the place. Out of a morbid sense of curiosity, she checked one of the units, before quickly slamming it shut again in a rush. That at least answered her question if dead bodies applied to the Rapture.
She entered a side room and noticed an empty bed. She sat down on it to catch her breath while observing the drab interior. Compared to the homey and welcoming atmosphere around the Hospital the morgue was, well, dead and lifeless. This place really wasn't doing her head any good. She needed to leave before she ended up like the other bodies down here.
getting up to her feet, she was about to leave when she noticed the door next to the bed she had been lying on. It was a rather thick sliding door without any windows to reveal the other side to her. Glancing around it, she noticed there were no labels around the door to say where it led either. It clearly had some use though, as there was a card reader on the door that the employees scanned to access important areas of the Hospital.
Kagome tried her own card but heard the buzzing of an error notification, and the panel flashed with a red light. Not much of a surprise, she was just a nurse. She had heard rumors that there were place's around here that only the Doctor himself could access, so there was no way for her to get in… Unless she had his ID card.
Reaching into her pant pocket, she pulled out a card with the picture of Daruma Ujiko on it. It had been in his office, and she had picked it up for some reason. To remember the Doctor maybe? Holding the card up to the scanner, there was a different sound than before, and a glowing green light now. With a hiss the two doors opened for her, revealing a poorly lit hallway leading to a staircase into the darkness.
Kagome stood at the doorway, weighing her options. She felt like she had seen this exact scenario in a horror movie before, but the thought of discovering something that Dr. Ujiko had kept hidden from the public eye overcame any self-preservation she had.
"The worlds already ended, what the hell have I got to lose?"
And so, she descended into the depths unafraid of any possible slasher villains lurking in the shadows.
Eventually, she reached the end of the stairs and found herself in a room that looked almost otherworldly. Giant tubes were laid across the floor and up the walls, pumping who knows what through the vast subterranean space. In the darkness, there were glass vats filled with some sort of liquid. She could see the shadow of something in the one closest to her, and when she approached it, a light shown down revealing-
"AHHH!" she couldn't help but shriek at the sight. Floating inside was some sort of inhuman monster, its limbs bent at awkward shapes and brain exposed. It wasn't human. It wasn't, it wasn't…
Alive? She noticed a panel at the base of the container for that monster, and when she worked up the courage to approach it, she could see that despite its heart rate being slow but regular, there was no brain activity. It was like a coma patient. But what is it? Looking at the panel she could see some sort of name along the top of it.
[NOMU #59 – QUIRKS: Regeneration, Shock Absorption, Super Strength]
Looking around her, she could see dozens of vats containing the same inhuman monsters surrounding her. Why would something like this be underneath the Hospital?
Looking down at the floor, she could see the tubes running through the base were connected to the vats, likely pumping in whatever liquid these things were floating in. The tubes seemed to connect and were all leading to the same place. Curiosity not yet sated, she followed the tube along deeper into the lair. Eventually, she came upon shelves full of something she couldn't identify. They were containers filled with some sort of organic material she couldn't identify.
As she approached what she believed to be the center of the base, she could see an even larger tank than the ones holding the monsters. When she finally got close enough to turn on the automatic lights, she couldn't help but gasp in surprise again. This one contained not another monster but a man. Looking down at the panel, she found the name listed for him.
[SUBJECT NUMBER NINE – QUIRKS: Weather Manipulation, All for One (Imperfect)]
Next Chapter: Going on a Field Trip