Chapter 14

As I waited for the day, my thoughts went back to my last discussion with the authorities. My rather shitty stance about Eri was gnawing at me from the inside – the only reason being that I wanted quirk erasing bullets. Frankly, and in hindsight, I highly doubted it to be a good outcome. If disclosed, it'd be a nightmare to deal with villains wanting their hands on the stuff themselves.

But I was a selfish person at heart. I wanted it so I could decide who could keep quirks.

But like I mentioned before, in hindsight, that wasn't a good outcome. That's playing Kira, right there. 'You either die a hero or live long enough to be the villain' thing.

But I digress. As of that day, the only way I knew how to create quirk erasing bullets was… well, Eri's blood was involved somehow but that was it. If I recalled correctly, Eri's quirk only worked on living things and Eri could not train it well enough to target specific things about the living thing such as just their body, or just their quirk, etc.

I wondered if Melissa could help me figure that out. This would be a challenge for even a genius like her. After all, without being able to observe the quirk in question directly, how could anyone figure out if it could be materialized in a bullet form? I mean, how could a bullet that directly injected… well, some blood from Eri, could erase quirks? Wouldn't the quirk need to be actively activated? It's an active quirk, not a passive one.

I decided to bring this up for discussion with Melissa when she arrived.

She arrived without any real fanfare. I wasn't sure why I expected one to begin with…

"And Melissa, this is Korai Haru, our newest intern," Nakamura-sensei introduced us in English. "He's from UA, All Might's alma mater."

At that, a mixture of expressions crossed her face. First, shock, then disbelief and surprise, and then joy. She almost bounced towards me, her face practically radiating her happiness. "Please tell me you chose to be here."

"I did," I replied as simply as I could. "Quirk research is interesting enough that I want to make it into a career."

"Thank you very much," she said, grabbing my hand and shaking it somewhat roughly. "Welcome to SRI and I hope you love it here."

She then quickly excused herself and called someone—presumably her father—and informed him the same. I could only watch in disbelief at the extreme reaction.

"Is it so unusual for me to be here?" I asked Nakamura-sensei out of sheer incredulity.

"It is," she replied with a nod. "Hero course people never choose research as one of their internship locations; after all, why would someone who wants to fight and gain fame choose to be stuck at a desk or in a room, experimenting in different ways with different quirks? It sounds like a waste of time when put like that, doesn't it?"

"It really does."

"That's why these institutes are mostly full of quirkless people or people whose quirks are not suited for combat. Rest all, if they even join, leave within a year to join the hero forces." She sighed as she said the last statement.

I hummed in acknowledgment and thoughtfulness as I turned my attention back to Melissa. That explained the reactions.

"So, what's your current project?" Melissa asked before I could think any further.

"Quirk genetics," I replied after receiving a quick nod from Nakamura-sensei. "Well, that's the area; I'm focusing more on how the genes that create quirks affect the strength and properties of the quirk. I'm starting with my own quirk right now."

"That's cool!" She exclaimed. "Do you mind if I join him, Nakamura-sensei?"

"Not at all. But let him take the reins of the project. I want to read his understanding of the topic, not yours."

"Yes!"

Melissa and I soon got talking, introducing each other and getting a feel for each other's personalities. It was quite obvious to see what an easy-going and open-minded person she was, but her real genius didn't shine until we started talking about quirks.

"Have you seen All Might's quirk work up close?" She asked me as our chat diverted us towards our most recent interests. "I haven't had a chance to; he always managed to divert me away from himself." She sounded annoyed.

I felt amused. I did wonder if I should state or hint that I knew what his quirk was all about for a moment, but then decided against it. He had been keeping my secret; I could extend the same courtesy to him.

I shook my head. "Sadly no. He seems to be very… well, secretive about it. He always diverts any attention to his quirk. All I have found out that it is speculated to be a super-strength quirk. What exactly it is escapes me though."

"You too, huh?" She seemed to empathize with me. "I've tried to squeeze it out of him but he always escapes. I thought you might have been more successful what with him being one of your teachers and all."

I laughed at her words. "You're barking up the wrong tree then. I'm simply not close enough with him to be trusted like that." I paused for a moment as a rather tempting thought entered my head. "You could try asking Izuku though."

"Izuku?"

"Yeah, my best friend. He's quite curiously close to All Might. I don't know exactly what secret the two of them share—they have hinted at me regarding that—but I know that whatever it is seems to do with his quirk."

Once I had put it that way, I could see that I had her hook, line and sinker. I grinned to myself. Perhaps, she would get Midoriya. Like really 'get' him. Uraraka was a sweet girl but she was way too passive. Was I making a future catfight? Perhaps, but really, some things badly needed to change, Japanese cultural expectations be damned. Besides, Melissa was cute; Izuku shouldn't be allowed to complain.

"Whose quirk? All Might's?"

"I think so," I replied, faking a thoughtful expression. "You see, Izuku suddenly developed a quirk after middle school, right before joining high school after a particularly scary incident. I never found out the full details except for the fact that All Might saved Izuku during that incident and the two of them have been close since then. It's odd for me to observe from the outside so I asked them, but neither has given me a straight answer so far."

She gave me a look full of sheer disbelief. "You're saying this friend of yours developed a quirk at… like 14 or 15 years of age?"

"Yes."

"Impossible."

I let out a snort of uncontrolled laughter. "You can say that," I said as I regained my composure, "but I'm telling you something that has already happened. That's why I brought it up in the first place. I was hoping you could tell me something about it."

She hummed for a moment, mulling over the situation. A minute or so later, she sighed, "I can't tell you anything without at least seeing his quirk in action. Have you seen him using his quirk? How does it affect him?"

"Well… it breaks his bones."

"… what?"

"Unbelievable, isn't it?" I laughed. "He evolved to have the quirk factor but not the required body type to handle said factor."

"But still…" she said incredulously. "I have never heard a quirk having a backlash strong enough to break bones."

"There's always a first for everything," I said, my voice full of wisdom.

She laughed at my mock representation of 'a wise old man'. "Perhaps. This intrigues me. Will it be possible to meet him within this week?"

"I'm not sure honestly. I will ask him if he'll be free any time soon." I sent her a questioning look. "How long are you planning to stay here?"

"Just this week," she replied, clearly displeased about it. "I was hoping to explore more of Japan but that isn't happening; I simply won't have the time."

"Eh, that's fine." I waved away her displeasure with a wave of my arm. "It's a matter of priority. You can't always prioritize your work; you have a life to live as well. Why not set a cut-off time at, say, five in the evening to stop all work and just head off to do your own thing?"

"I wish I could," she said with a sigh. "I've got a deadline though for my research."

That made me prick my ears. We had been talking a lot about ourselves and our general hobbies and stuff, but not much about our research topics… well, her research topics; mine was already being discussed.

"What is your research topic?" I asked out of genuine curiosity.

"My interest is towards support gear; this research topic is about a particularly difficult quirk that I only barely know about—Permeation. I heard from All Might that one of the top UA students had it so I decided to choose that as the research topic for my school research paper. It sounded like an interesting quirk."

… at this point, I was starting to question how much was a coincidence and how much was fate.

"I have done as much theoretical research I could but now I want some practical research so I decided to visit here."

"You sound a bit stressed. Is it tough?"

She gave me a surprised glance before sighing a bit. "It's not tough per se; it's more that the expectations are quite a bit high given that I am the poster girl of SRI." She grimaced, letting out some of her genuine feelings. "It's anything but fun."

I lightly patted her on the back. "I understand."

"So anyway," she said, getting back on track, "do you happen to know the student? The one with the permeation quirk?"

"I do. Never met him or talked with him though," I replied in affirmation. "He's one of the third-years. Do you want to meet him?"

"Preferably. I'd like to interview him about his quirk if possible. And you can introduce me to Izuku as well."

"Sure."

And that was that.

I never did bring up Eri's quirk. How could I have explained it to her in a way that I would have gotten my answers? Frankly, I had no idea. I figured I should just build up my friendship as I thought how exactly I would convey my question. It would work out for me in the long run.

That night, I dropped the surprise of Shield on our group chat. Said group chat included me, Momo, Shoji, Ojiro, Izuku, and Uraraka.

Their astonishment was palpable to say the least.

'No way,' Izuku wrote. 'You directly met Melissa Shield? She has written some amazing research papers!'

'I can't believe I missed out on meeting her,' Momo wrote, as I noted the crying kaomoji (Japanese emoticons) after that message.

'Well, as it turns out…' I thought to myself humorously as I replied back on the group chat. 'She's going to visit UA during this week. I already talked her into it.'

Another batch of stunned messages assaulted my phone. Being in control of situations like these always gave me a really satisfying feeling.

And then I decided to drop the final surprise on them.

'And she wants to meet Izuku.'

A very short chapter given the break between this one and the previous one. But this story is not abandoned! Slow updates but they are going to be there.

Not much to say anymore except fave and follow and review. Reviews help align this story in the right direction!

Signing off!