…
[January Second, X039. HPSC Seaside Training Facility #7, Osaka.]
…
While the HPSC's New Years Hero Meet and Greet Gala had been a rousing success that ran longer into the evening than originally intended, the festivities had brought along another aspect very few people actually enjoyed being involved with.
Cleaning up.
Come the next morning, the various staff members had found themselves overwhelmed with the task of folding tables, storing banners and dividers, and generally returning the facility back to normal. Even with the help of several pro heroes, there just wasn't enough hands to collect all the trash that had been left behind by families who had spent the day enjoying the company of the heroes. Thus, the HPSC had put out requests for additional hands to help with the clean up. The request was fulfilled by some students looking to earn community service hours, along with some adults looking to make a little more spending cash to recover from the recent holiday season.
Currently, some of the adults were cleaning up the beach near where the arena had stood. A large amount of detritus had escaped from its place behind the barriers and was currently making itself at home among the sand and shallows. Two of them were near the water's edge, the waves gently splashing against the legs of the disposable coveralls the HPSC had been kind enough to provide the volunteers with so they didn't ruin their clothes. The taller of the two sighed as he plucked another bottle from the water and tossed it into the growing collection in the bin his shorter companion was dragging along the shoreline.
"Think anyone threw out one with a winning cap?" The short one asked, seeing the cap still on the bottle and the mention of a contest on the label.
"Probably not. And if they did, it probably only won a free soda anyhow." He added a few more pieces of paper trash to the small basket he had at his side before his eyes noticed something poking out from the sand as the waters ran from the shoreline. "What's this?" he asked, gently digging the item out from beneath the waves.
"Find something interesting?" His companion asked as he moved over to where she stood, eyes on the cylindrical object resting in her partner's palm. It looked like a metal Epinephrine Auto-Injector, the shining silver metal of its frame virtually untarnished by the waves. "Say, that looks like one of those Izu-Pens the HPSC were bragging about yesterday."
"So its something special then?" He rolled the object back and forth in his hand, keeping it to where only the two of them could see.
"Nah, its for some kid to pull his blood out and heal others with." She shrugged, "it's kinda useless without his blood in it."
"It's loaded."
"What?"
"Yeah, its got some red fluid in it. See?" He gave it a shake, causing the liquid inside the tube to gently swish back and forth without issue.
"No way." Her eyes were wide, lessons from some old high school anatomy lessons coming back. "Blood is supposed to clot up and coagulate...But the HPSC said that kid's blood..."
"What?"
"Quick! Hide it!" She demanded, seeing one of the supervisors moving towards them. Apparently the man had noticed they had stopped working and was now curious as to the reason.
He complied, unzipping his coveralls in favor of tucking the injector into the vest he wore underneath, "What's the big deal?"
"We have a dose of the biggest healing juice on the planet, and you ask what the big deal is?" She hissed, making sure only they could hear. "This is huge! If we sold it we could be set for life!"
"How much tea could I get?" He smiled, causing her to sigh.
"I love you, I really do, but that was such a stupid question..." She moved a few stray red hairs away from her eye.
"Sorry, I wasn't expecting liquid gold to be found during a part-time trash collecting gig!" He flashed her a smile right as the supervisor reached them.
"Everything okay?" The supervisor asked, noticing the slightly flushed features of the girl.
"Just felt a little overheated and had to stop a moment," the girl ran a hand along her brow and let out a weary sigh.
The supervisor looked at his watch, "take a break. Lunch is in fifteen minutes anyhow." He pointed up the beach to where the VIP tent still stood, "food might not be ready yet, but at least you can sit down a spell. Just take your bags and leave 'em up by the dumpster. Same with your coveralls, we'll give you a new set after lunch."
"Thank you sir," the pair gave a nod as the supervisor made his way over to several others working in the same area to deliver the message. Not wanting to attract anymore attention, the two calmly gathered up some more stray pieces of trash as they moved back up the beach. Both thinking of what they could do with the money the Izu-Pen was bound to bring in if they could find a buyer.
…
[January Second, X039. Federal Arrow Shipping Yard, Nagoya]
…
With the rush of the holidays dying fast, the majority of ports and shipping yards around Japan had resumed a more normal pace of business. There were far less people milling about at all hours, something that more than one group of workers were grateful for. Currently two of them were occupied in carrying an unremarkable cooler into one of the smaller warehouses, a third holding open the door to the main building. Once inside, the three paused only to don the surgical masks their boss insisted they wear when in his presence before moving to the small room the man had claimed as an office. The third member looked to his companions, who nodded before giving a single knock on the door.
"Enter." The command was clear, despite the muffling effect the walls and the man's own mask had on it. His eyes narrowed as the trio entered and stopped well short of his desk. "Well?"
"We got the blood, boss!" The one who knocked gave a bow as he spoke, gesturing to the cooler the other two were still carrying.
"Took you long enough." He idly scratched a spot on his scalp. "Any trouble?"
"Nope, everything went off without a hitch." The first answered again, "Quite literally, the guards bought the sob story. Once they were further distracted by the money, we took our leave."
A heavy sighed escaped the man, not caring about the finer details of his subordinate's mission. "How many bags did you get?"
"They let us take twelve." The man's eyes looked to the cooler, then to the open space on the desk. "With your permission, sir?"
Nodding, the man behind the desk gestured for the other two to step forward. The pair set the cooler down on the desk before once again backing away. The trio watched as their boss opened the cooler, the tell-tale hiss of the seal being broken the only sound in the room besides their own breathing.
"Seven and a half pints worth." The words were spoken more into the cooler than to the company before him. "Still a bit short, but it will have to do..."
"We can go get more boss!" One of the cooler lackeys answered, "we can bribe another pair of guards, or maybe just go in and take what we need from another bank an-"
"Idiots." The lid of the cooler slamming shut stopped the man's planning. "We're lucky to have gotten what we have so far. Remember, we're not the only ones trying to bleed this golden goose." He tapped his fingers on the cooler. "I'll make do...Tell Chrono to bring a body down to the lab. I think it's time to try something new."
"Anyone in particular boss?"
"Preferably, we want someone with a similar body type to Midoriya. The closer a match you can find, the better." He noticed the three exchanging looks. "Ideally, someone of the same size, blood type, age, sex..." He lifted a finger with each ideal option he listed.
"Shouldn't be too hard," one of the three answered, mind already considering various options. "Though should we keep this quiet, or can we make some noise?"
While they couldn't clearly see their boss' face, the faintest lines of a smile appeared around his eyes.
"Keep it as quite as possible. But if a good enough copy comes along, go loud. I want this to be perfect..." He dismissed the three with a wave, hands coming to rest on the cooler as the last man left and door clicked shut. Opening the cooler, he once again stared at the bags within with the same reverence one would look upon a holy artifact before deciding it was time to get on with his work.
…
[January Second, X039. Anjou Bar, Kamino Ward, Yokohama]
…
"It's arrived, Sensei." The shadow of a man dropped to one knee, head bowed before the man he viewed as a sort of teacher. He held his arms up in offering, a deep red bag nestled securely in the palms of his elevated hands. The whole of the scene akin to a mortal making an offering to their god.
"Excellent. Doctor, prepare the blood. I want to be restored without delay." The man shifted slightly in the chair, posture akin to that of a sunbather at the beach as opposed to a patient about to undergo another round of treatment.
"At once." The doctor gave a tiny bow as he took the bag from the kneeling man, who took that as his cue to rise and move aside. While blood bags of any type were a valuable resource on their own, the doctor knew the one he was currently holding was the medical equivalent of a unicorn.
"Six years of waiting, and the solution to my problems falls right into my lap." The soon-to-be patient chuckled as the doctor went about his business. "It's almost serendipitous in a way. Who would have thought-"
"It's ready." The doctor answered as he carefully hung the bag up alongside the other various IV drips from earlier and future treatments.
"Don't keep me waiting doctor, administer my 'medicine'." The patient held out his left arm, no fear in him as the doctor chuckled and secured his arm. While the procedure was frequent enough, the doctor still followed all protocols like it was his first day, and after sterilizing the area, carefully connected the needle with a vein. Slowly, the three watched as the blood began to flow into his body.
"Oh that feels quite nice." There was an icy calm to the patient's voice as he felt the effects of the blood. "Such a burst of strength...such a...wait. No...What is this!?" The calm was gone, replaced now with a monster that was howling, bucking and thrashing in his chair. With a panic driven fury, his unrestrained hand lifted in a blur. The bones within shifting into blades that were quickly used to server the restrained arm.
"Sensei! Why?!"The shadow cried as the doctor clamped off the IV, not wanting to waste what remained of their only sample before making sure the rest of the equipment was undamaged from the outburst.
"It-it took from me! I felt it tear at me beneath my skin!" He leveled an accusatory finger at the bag. "What is this?! How did this happen?!"
"I-I don't understand? What happened?"
"The Blood you imbecile! It started eroding at my collection!" He looked to his severed arm, before looking to the stump that remained. The torn flesh already starting to regenerate into a replacement limb. "The moment that blood was in my veins my quirks were pulled from me one at a time by the dozens! I want to know how! Was it poisoned? A chemical? A trap?"
"Sensei are your-"
"The rest of my quirks are safe!" He flexed the fingers of his still-forming appendage, as if counting. "A few dozen lost isn't enough to cripple me...But this insult must be repaid!"
"Sir? Is it possible that..." The doctor's voice faded just as soon as he started speaking, wondering how his idea was going to be received.
"Doctor, if you have a theory, lets hear it..." He made a rolling gesture with his remaining hand as the doctor studied the bag.
"First, unless a piece of equipment was contaminated at the time the donation was taken, there's no way this bag was tampered with. It was your textbook perfect example of a properly prepared blood bag. And unless you knew who was going to receive the contaminated donation or just wanted to cause some chaos...The effort it would take to do something so convoluted wouldn't be worth it."
"Like the Adviprophenol Scare?" The patient asked, bringing a nod from the doctor as the memory of a pair of pharmaceutical-themed villains came to his mind. The pair had released a tampered batch of over-the-counter painkillers to the population that either killed you outright or left you seriously ill if you survived. When they were caught, the two admitted they didn't care who they hurt, and that they just enjoyed the fear their actions caused.
"Exactly. But again, I don't think that's the case here." He picked up one of the pages on his desk and reviewed the notes, stalling for time. "While this may be a 'universal donor' in the truest sense of the words in that anyone can receive it..." The doctor took a deep breath, steadying his nerves, "the effects it has on unnatural elements of the body might be what caused the issue here."
A heavy silence fell over the room, the only sound the faint beeps and whirs of the equipment surrounding the three. The silence was broken by the patient letting out a long sigh, before he started laughing slightly.
"Eh, should have known it couldn't be this easy." He smiled, an air of bitterness surrounding the action.
"Perhaps..." The doctor's eyes flicked to a small centrifuge, to a microscope, to the papers in his hand before settling back on his patient. "Wonder if there's a way to extract the quirk factor from the blood itself and refine it? Alter it to a state of...impurity that would accept the unnatural..." The doctor's words echoed around the room, though it was hard to say just who he was talking to.
"Is that even possible?" The shadow looked back and forth between the two, wanting nothing more than for his teacher to be well again.
"Who knows but we'll figure something out..." Another laugh escaped the patient, the bitter smile back in place as he settled back down in his chair. "One way or another..."