I-Island, as the leading location in Quirk research, had plenty of places for people to test out their Quirks to their limits. While these rooms were usually reserved for visiting Heroes, there others who used them as well. It was common for those who had particular dangerous and deadly Quirks to be given therapy here, due to being the only place that they could experiment with their powers safely under supervision.
These rooms were incredibly modular. Being located on the upper subterranean levels of I-Island, they could combine with each other for larger spaces, or have all kinds of testing equipment moved into them with a press of a button.
That is the explanation for how Izuku ended up on a diving board twenty meters up, staring down at a pool of oddly colored foam below him.
"Are we sure this is safe?" Izuku asked for the dozenth time. He had asked it on the lift up to the platform a number of times, and for each foot he shuffled along to the edge as well.
"Trust me kid, you'll be perfectly fine." The voice of Wedge spoke out from the earpiece he was wearing.
The Head Pilot for Star's personal fighter squadron had offered to help him gain control of Float, and Izuku had been quick to accept the offer. Why would he ever say no?
Because he preferred living, that's why!
"Don't worry, I've done this before. All of the Squad have! Though it was because we lost a bet, but the point stands." Wedge assured again. "The foam below is some of the most force-absorbent material in the world. You could fly a jet going Mach 1 into there and it would still bounce back in one piece. So just jump and feel the rush of the wind!"
Izuku spared another glance down and felt the pit in his stomach grow again.
"Can't you just put me in one of those freefall simulators? Get a fan and hover me a couple feet off the ground?" He asked hopefully. "We're trying to teach me to Float, right?"
"Where's the fun in that? Besides, that just does the job for you. What you need to do is experience how to fall, so that you know what you're cancelling out." Wedge insisted. "You said Float requires you to use your heart instead of your head? Nothing clears my head more than a freefall. Now get jumping!"
Tiptoeing towards the edge of the board, Izuku tried to steady his breathing and steel his nerves.
Keyword being tried.
Izuku took a step back so that he was no longer on the literal edge, trying to calm the part of his brain that said that this was a very bad idea. He had never done great with heights in the first place, and not even the trust in I-Islands tech was able to overpower his primal fear.
He turned on his feat, about to head for the lift back down. Unfortunately, his other teacher's patience had run dry at that exact moment.
"That's it!" Mr. Oguro shouted as the speakers crackled to life suddenly. "It's time to sink or swim, kid!"
There was a loud buzzer sound, and Izuku found the board he was standing under suddenly snap down at a perfectly 90-degree angle, leaving him standing on nothing.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
A rather pitiful scream echoed throughout the testing chamber as he suddenly found himself plummeting twenty meters to his hopefully-not doom.
'C'mon Float! Float!' he thought, but obviously nothing was happening. He closed his eyes in concentration. 'Shit! Alright, I need to free my mind, open my heart. I need to not think so hard about the wind rushing by, or how fast I'm falling, or whether anyone checked if the landing pad was actually operational- This really isn't working!'
Shooting his eyes open, he could see the oddly colored ground closely approaching, and that overwhelming fear came flying back. Tucking into a cannonball, he summoned as much of Blackwhip as we could around himself into a cocoon.
He felt himself impact with something outside of his shell and then slow to a crawl. It was like he had plunged into a pit of molasses, and the speed of his fall seemed to bleed away. He sensed the surface outside shift and then he sprung up like a trampoline a couple times before coming to a stop.
Izuku remained tucked inside, afraid that he'd find the ground drop out from under him again.
"Hey kid! You can come out now!" Mr. Oguro shouted close by, and Izuku felt Danger Sense go off as something (presumably the man's cane) whacked into the side of his black cocoon.
"… Fine." He relented, letting Blackwhip return back to him and revealing Mr. Oguro and Wedge standing over him. He made sure to give Mr. Oguro an annoyed look.
"Oh, quit being such a baby. You were perfectly fine, right?" Mr. Oguro said.
Izuku continued to glare at him.
"Maybe he started a little to high?" Wedge said placatively. "How about we lower the board and try again, alright? At least now that you've got a feel for it."
"I guess." Izuku sighed as he got to his feet, trudging along the spongy, fall-absorbing ground with the two adults to a nearby control panel.
Wedge pressed a couple buttons on the device, and the diving stand began to lower itself down to 5 meters. As he did, the man looked back at Izuku. "Don't get too disheartened. Trust me, even Star has trouble with her Quirk from time to time."
Izuku's head snapped up at the mention of Quirks. "Star has trouble with her Quirk? How?! Isn't it literally reality warping? She can touch and say anything and make it true! Or at least that's what it appears to do. I've watched a lot of her fights and she can definitely manipulate the things she touches with a voice command, but from what I've seen she can do basically anything."
"You're certainly a clever kid, Midoriya." Wedge smiled. "Technically, the limits of her Quirk are classified by the government, but anyone with eyes and ears can see what she does. But let's just say people have trouble seeing what she can't do."
"You mean limitations of her Quirk?" Izuku realized. "I mean there's the obvious one of needing to touch and speak a command, which I imagine can be rather hard to do if she doesn't know what she's touching is called, or unable to speak. But there's also her limitation on how much she can change from reality, I think. I presume she's using her Quirk to enhance her abilities, but even at her best she never topped All Might's own feats. The only other problem I can think of is a limitation on the number of things she can change at once. I remember a big fight she had with an American villain group that took a plane hostage last year, and she suddenly got a lot weaker when she had to negate two villains gas and fire attacks both from hurting civilians at once. That's what the phone cam footage I found in the back corner of the internet showed, at least. Seems footage of that fight kept getting taken down by the U.S. government for some reason."
Izuku heard a sigh, and he looked up from his mutterings to see Wedge giving him an amused look.
"Y'know, for a supposedly secret Quirk, you sure have figured out a lot about it." Wedge laughed.
"Well, it takes one to know one, I guess?" Izuku said back, and the pilot laughed even harder.
"Man, Kathleen would have liked you. You gotta come visit after we sort this whole mess out." Wedge wiped a tear from his eye. "I'm sure he'd like to meet All Might's apprentice."
"W-What?!" Izuku began to panic. He had never mentioned such a thing about All Might to the man. He hadn't, right? "I-I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, I've never even met the man! Y-Yeah! Besides, his Quirk is, umm…"
"Classified?" Wedge said amusingly. "Funny, I don't remember bringing it up. Any reason it would matter to you so much?"
Izuku felt his mouth open and close a couple times, but no words formed, and eventually he just let out a sigh and slumped his shoulders. "I'm not very good at this."
"You're really not." Mr. Oguro said unhelpfully from the side.
Wedge gave him a hearty slap on the back. "I'm just messing with you kid! Don't worry, I know the importance of keeping your lips sealed. Me and rest of the team are bound by so many secrets that even hanging out the rest of the military can be a bit of a drag sometimes."
At the mention of the Rogue Squadron, Izuku shot back up to attention, questions back on the edge of his lips. "Speaking of your team, are so many of you really Quirkless? Or do you have other people flying with you as replacements?" Izuku asked.
"Nope, no backups here. Of the twelve of us in Rogue Squad, eight of us are completely Quirkless." Wedge explained.
"That's… a pretty high number." Izuku said.
Wedge just shrugged. "Well, the military is a pretty popular field for those without Quirks, due to current laws making them basically impossible to use anyways as a member. It's kinda an issue nowadays that recruitment has plummeted now that everyone has Quirks and wants to use them. And with the downsizing of most militaries due to global stability and a focus on internal Villain issues, most of what's left are able to get the training for specialized roles much easier."
"Yeah, I'd heard that Japan is in a similar situation as well." Izuku said. He had done a lot of research into the topic, before he had met All Might.
It wasn't hard to stumble upon the many promotional materials put together by the JSDF that had been growing in number as the years went on. They were frantic to get new recruits these days, judging by the frankly insane incentives they handed out for signing up. But with a society focused on Quirks, an organization that had a number one rule of "Absolutely no Quirk use whatsoever" was a hard sell. Throw in All Might's effect as the Symbol of Peace, and most citizens weren't feeling the need to sign up for boot camp and help defend Japan.
If Izuku was honest, he had thought about signing up for it if U.A. had fallen through (and more importantly, hadn't gotten a Quirk). The government would have basically paid for all his higher education for life, and it was the only legal way he could get real combat experience outside a Hero School. He had made a rough plan somewhere in his sea of notebooks. He'd serve for about four years, get an all-paid-for engineering degree in support gear to forge his own equipment (because no one else would be willing to make any for him), and use the money from his service to take one of those later licensing exams.
Of course, that was a rather out there idea he had come up with during one of his impressively bad depressive spirals. But looking back it honestly wasn't that bad a career plan. He just doubted he'd have been able to stick to that plan.
"I bet everyone currently enlisted is feeling might proud of themselves now, finally having a real job to do." Mr. Oguro said.
"Hey, we had plenty of work before this! It's not like we just sat around drinking all day waiting for something to happen." Wedge glanced away. "Most of the time, I mean. At least with my squad, Star always managed to keep things interesting." He put a hand against his chest, seemingly grabbing something under his vest.
"What's that?" Izuku asked.
"Hm? Oh this?" Wedge realized what Izuku was referring to after a moment, lowering the zipper of his vest and pulling the chain with his dog tags on them. Along with them, however, was a ring of yellow braided together.
"Is that… hair?" Izuku asked, squinting at the ring.
"Yeah. Star gave them to each of us when we became a squad. She did something weird with her Quirk to make them super tough. Said she gave them to us to show anyone who says otherwise that we're Heroes along with her." Wedge explained as he fiddled with it.
Izuku made a confused face. "Well of course you guys are. You're always flying into danger right alongside her. Who would say otherwise?"
"Some people think that we shouldn't be helping Star, and that we should stay in our lane, so to speak." Wedge made a face. "They're usually unclear if they mean because we're in the military or because we're Quirkless."
"Oh." Izuku couldn't help but let the disappointment seep into his voice.
"Don't get all upset over that. Honestly, I think most of them are just jealous they don't get to fly around the country with the most famous woman in the world." Wedge said, laughing it off. "Now let's get back to practicing with you're Quirk. We'll have plenty of time for more stories later."
"R-Right." Izuku said, looking back at the diving board. It was noticeably lower to the ground than before, but still would have been considered dangerous to leap off if he were landing in anything normal like water. He slapped his cheeks, focusing on taking a step towards the lift up to the top of the diving platform.
'This Quirk isn't going to train itself. Pull it together! A bit of discomfort is nothing compared to potentially helping everyone who had been taken.'
As he finally stepped onto the lift and it began to move up, he looked down and immediately regretted his determination.
'I really hope Nezu is having better luck with his talks than I am with my training…'
Nezu sat around the round table within the small meeting room of I-Island's Central Tower like he was back in his office at U.A. High, tea in hand and easygoing smile across his face. It contrasted well with the daggers Professor Pleione and General Adams were glaring at each other. It was only the three of them currently present, but the general had been rather clear about the armed escort they had standing outside.
He let out a polite cough, and both of them turned to look at him.
"Now that we're all comfortable, how about we finally start discussing the topic at hand? I believe it is time for us to discuss each of our findings on the Rapture." Nezu asked. Both made one final glance at each other, before deciding to finally speak aloud.
"Agreed, Nezu. I couldn't agree more." Pleione said curtly.
"Before we continue, may I ask about the status of that horde of 'Nomu' that you found? Have they reached U.A. yet?" Adams asked.
Nezu raised an eyebrow, surprised by the seemingly off topic question. "They have. It seems we were right about their target. Those monsters scaled the wall rather easily, but don't appear to be attempting to wildly destroy everything, as we originally feared. Most footage I've seen has them turning the place on its head looking for something." he explained. Pressing a button, he showed footage of the Nomu wandering over every inch of U.A., from the school itself to the training areas. "We're not sure what exactly they were after, but considering everyone that had been present there is now here, they won't find their objective any time soon."
Well, that wasn't entirely true. While he may not know for sure what the Nomu had been ordered to do, he did know that the target for Nine was Katsuma. Or more specifically, his Cellular Activation Quirk. But since the General seemed so insistent on playing his cards close to his chest, he decided he could do the same.
"I see. I wonder what it could mean for…" Adams put a hand to his chin as he mumbled silently, genuinely interested in what Nezu had shown him.
Not exactly the reaction he had been expecting if he was honest.
"Excuse me, but for what purpose are you discussing the issue with the Villain from Japan. As far as I can tell, it is unrelated to the issue at hand." Pleione said in annoyance. "Unless you plan on offering some immediate assistance, why bring it up?"
"Because the issue with these monsters may not be affiliated with the Villains you think they are." Adams revealed. He displayed his own data, showing some form of wavelength, among other things. "On the day those Villains led by the man you call Nine attacked, an unknown signal was detected bouncing through our satellites, having somehow hacked into them. We were unable to keep track of the signals destination once it entered Japan, but we did recover the data that was being sent. Most of the information were inputs for terminal commands that were impossible to interpret without knowing what kind of device it was interacting with. But the final thing that was sent was the above audio file."
He pressed a button on his device, and the wave form began to play. An empty and robotic voice began to echo in the room.
[Capture the current holder of One for All. Begin searching at U.A. High School.]
Nezu's tea went flying from his mouth in spectacular fashion. Pleione was shocked out of her stunned state by his loss of control, and both humans looked at him in concern.
"A-Ah, sorry. How rude of me. I usually have better control than that." Nezu laughed off, pulling a tiny handkerchief from his suit and wiping up his mess. As he did so, his mind moved at a mile-a-minute, High Spec kicking into high gear.
'The data the General showed appeared accurate at first glance. That voice, it has similar characteristics to the one that Midoriya had mentioned hearing, as well as being after his Quirk. But how does it know the name, and where he most likely was? Some feature of whatever had taken everyone perhaps? And how did it know about the Nomu in the first place? Nine seemed to command some of them perfectly fine beforehand, suggesting they were indeed under his control. Were these new orders from someone higher up, or someone else entirely? It is unknown how Nine managed to avoid the Rapture still. Could he have made a deal with the Villain that caused it?'
He continued going through scenarios in his head with High Spec until he felt a shake on his shoulders. He looked up to see Pleione looking down at him worriedly.
"Nezu, are you alright?" She asked. "You've been wiping the same spot on the table for a minute straight."
He looked down to see the paw holding the handkerchief was indeed spinning in circles across the same stretch of table over and over again. He quickly stopped the action, tucking the cloth away with a tinge of embarrassment. "Apologies again. I may have gotten a bit lost in thought. Do you happen to know where this signal originated from?"
"Somewhere in America." Adams said.
"Could you be a bit more specific?" Pleione asked.
"That's classified." Adams bluntly replied, making it clear that was all he was going to say on the matter. "What do you know about this One for All? I assume it's related to the Villain All for One in some way?"
"I know that it is a very powerful Quirk." Nezu said.
"And who has it? What can it do?" Adams continued to question.
"That's classified." Nezu happily answered, producing a growl from the man. As he complained, Nezu sat back. "I understand you have rules regarding confidentiality, but these are trying times after all. Could we perhaps not have a simple conversation and not worry about such things for a time?"
"I'm not being obtuse for no reason. The situation is more… delicate than you may think." Adams said with a sigh. "If the holder of this quirk is truly so strong, then they may be the only hope we have of saving everyone."
"Why, General. When you speak like that, it almost sounds like you know exactly what we're dealing with. Would you be willing to share with us?" Nezu asked teasingly.
"It's…" Adams seemed unsure about how to continue, and Pleione threw her hands up in annoyance at the man's hesitance.
"For gods sake Adams! What is the point of this secrecy?! You know I already know most of it. Just tell Nezu so we can get this over with!" Pleione demanded.
"If you know really know what I do, then you can understand why I'd be hesitant to let my trust extend fully to him of all people!" Adams shouted back, pointing at Nezu accusingly.
Nezu couldn't help but sigh. To think that they were still scared of him even now.
"General, I understand your hesitance at trusting me. It was your people who experimented on me after all, made me the way I am now. But I happen to have grown rather attached to humas as a whole. I find them rather fun to watch grow. I believe it's best we both let bygones be bygones, yes?"
Adams and Pleione both looked at each other awkwardly for a moment.
"If you won't tell him, then I will." Pleione stated.
"Alright, fine!" Adams relented, turning to face Nezu. After steeling himself, the man began to speak again. "Nezu, there are a few things we will need to go over first. As you are aware, in your early life you were experimented on by a, let's say secret branch of the U.S. government."
"I am well aware of that. My Quirk makes it quite hard not to." Nezu informed him, enjoying the momentarily flicker of guilt that passed across his face. "I was there for over roughly a year after I fully gained sentience."
"Do you happen to remember anything before then? Anything at all?" Adams asked.
"I don't. As far as I know my life began in that lab of yours." Nezu said. "I've been meaning to ask about that, actually. Now that we're being honest with each other, do you happen to have the data on what DNA you used to create me? I've been trying to reverse-engineer my 'parentage' with other suspected species, but no mix I come up with seems to match it just right."
Pleione shifted at his words, glancing at him nervously. "That is part of what we need to talk about. Nezu, I know this may be hard to believe, but they weren't the ones responsible for your creation."
"But… that's impossible." Nezu stated, staring ahead blankly. "I'm certainly not a natural species, and the chances that I'd develop a Quirk like this by chance are beyond infinitesimal. I had to be created."
"And you likely were. Just not by the U.S." Adams said. "We simply discovered you. And when faced with the question of your existence, we began the experiments you remember."
"That is a rather bold claim General, but you'll have to forgive me for instantly believing you at your word." Nezu said as he tried to think of an explanation for his creation himself. But the U.S. were some of the leaders in genetic engineering. If they truly didn't create him, then no other country on earth likely would have been able to.
"That's fair enough, so I'll tell you another thing and ask you a question that may help you understand our worry more." Adams said, and Nezu listened with rapt attention. "Every single member of the team at the site you were located in had a Quirk. They were the best of the best, and most of their abilities allowed us to make leaps and bounds in the scientific field. As you have made it known, you've wished to extract your revenge personally against these people. What exactly was stopping you from doing so?"
"Well, that's a simple one. It's the same reason I was able to escape in the first place." Nezu began to explain, recalling the story he had told Eri a week before. "I remember it quite clearly. One day, everyone simply disappeared from the facility. It was like everyone simply vanished without a trace-?!"
'Oh.'
'Oh!'
Everything suddenly began to click into place for Nezu. The day he had escaped, everyone that had experimented on him had simply disappeared, never to be seen again. He had assumed there must have been some leak of hazardous materials, and they had all fled for the hills. But now that he looked back at it, the most suspicious detail was staring him in the face.
Everyone who had a Quirk had suddenly vanished, just like with the Rapture.
"And I'm sure you found it odd how little effort we put into retrieving you, after you escaped." Adams added.
"But that was because Pleione assisted in getting me overseas to Japan, smuggling me through I-Island," Nezu said, before realizing something a moment later and turning to the woman with a smile. "But you knew about my origins already, didn't you."
"I did." Pleione admitted. "The U.S. noticed that you were the only one unaffected by what happened to the scientists. They believed it wasn't safe to keep you in America but wanted to keep an eye on you in case something suspicious happened again. So we moved you to Japan, and made sure to keep an eye out if it happened again."
Nezu took in what the two had said in quiet contemplation, sipping at what remained of his tea thoughtfully.
"I'm sorry for never telling you." Pleione said, bowing her head. "I always did think you would do great as a Hero, and I could see quickly that their fears were unwarranted. Please forgive me for not telling you."
"Oh, it's quite alright, Pleione. I always knew you disagreed with your superiors' actions. And I always knew that my actions were being monitored." Nezu admitted.
He had always known that people would watch him carefully for the rest of his life. Being smarter than the average human despite not actually being one himself made others nervous. And with his position as both a Hero and principal of the biggest school in Japan, many feared he had too much power.
Of course, he hadn't given them any reason to suspect that his intentions were unwell, but humans were humans.
"So just to clarify, you suspect the same people behind my creation were the ones responsible for the Rapture?" Nezu asked, and Adams nodded. "Then you surely must already know their identity? I doubt you simply found me wandering the wilderness, so where did I come from? That would surely lead to the perpetrator's, no?"
"You are correct, it would. And it did." Adams said.
There was a silence in the room for a moment, before both Nezu and Pleione whipped their heads toward Adams.
"I beg your pardon, but it sound's like you said you found the Villain responsible for the Rapture already?!" Pleione said.
"You're correct, we have. And we also already attempted to fight them and save those taken." Adams said, before looking to the ground. "But the forces we sent were completely and utterly destroyed."
"What forces did you send?" Nezu asked curiously. It was rather unheard of to hear the U.S. admit to being defeated so easily. Even if their forces were limited, it's military was state of the art. Who could they have possibly been fighting?
"25 tanks, 15 jets, and a whole lot of drones. All of them were taken out by a single enemy fighter craft." Adams revealed, much to Nezu's shock. "It was the best force we could gather on short notice, but still our opponent made mincemeat of them. The technological gap between us is too much, even after all our research into them. Which is why we've come to I-Island."
'Research into them?' Nezu noted his wordings curiously. It seemed they were aware of this opponent before the Rapture and were also far more technologically advanced than the U.S. military.
"Ah, so that's what you are after. You want to use that? And how exactly do you plan on running it? No human has ever managed to understand it's workings." Pleione asked Adams, leaving Nezu out of the loop once again.
"I don't plan on having a human try this time. If you believe that he can be trusted, then he may be the only one who could get that thing flying again." Adams said back, and they both turned to Nezu.
"While I would love to help you two save those from the Rapture, I think a bit more context is required. What do you need my help in getting operational? Is it the device Pleione mentioned that allows one to detect Quirks? Because I have been rather looking forward to seeing that device in person." Nezu admitted.
Adams gave Pleione a look, clearly displeased that Nezu had already been informed of the device. But he quickly turned back to Nezu and continued speaking. "That device is just part of a whole that I-Island and the U.S. has been researching for a very, very long time. It was recovered from them almost a century ago, but we've never figured out exactly how it worked. I fear that it might be beyond even someone of your intelligence to understand completely."
"I find that hard to believe." Nezu said, clearly in disagreement.
The two others looked at each other silently for a moment, having a conversation without words. They eventually nodded, getting up from their seats and heading for the door. Adams looked back at him in amusement. "Then how about we go take a look at it ourselves?"
Nezu raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and decided to follow along them as they left the room. They reached the elevator, and once they entered, Pleione typed in a destination that Nezu recognized as part of the subterranean levels. If his understanding of I-Island's level system was correct, the destination that she had plugged in was just underneath the North Lake.
Pleione scanned her ID Card, and the elevator began to move, first down and then north. As it did, Nezu thought about what could possibly be down here. He knew that the underground areas had rather spacious areas for testing dangerous inventions, like automated drones and weapons. Could it be some sort of advanced fighter jet, like the X-66? But Pleione had said that the device, and thus whatever greater whole it had come from, had been around since the Dawn of Quirks. How could they have had something so advanced that far back, and still not understand it fully?
The elevator came to a stop at floor number F -50 (600, 0), meaning they were fifty floors down from the city level and 600 units north exactly. The doors opened into a large circular hanger, engulfed in darkness. As they all stepped out, Nezu scanned the room excitedly. Pleione walked over to a nearby panel and flicked a switch.
One by one, the lights around the hangers curved walls began to flicker on, slowly revealing the object parked in the middle. Nezu felt the breath leave him as its full scope became clear, and he identified the vessel for what it truly was.
"Ah, I see! So that's the kind of opponent we are planning to face!" Nezu said, feeling himself begin to laugh maniacally. It was just so insane after all. If this was from the ones who created him, then that would mean he himself was also…
Well, it definitely wasn't his first guess.
[We'll be arriving tonight. Be ready.]
Kagome stared down at the text from Nine nervously. She hadn't expected him and the others to get to I-Island so quickly, but it appears that one of those Purple Oni's ended up actually being useful for once. It was getting dark outside, and she only had a couple hours left at most to prepare.
She set the phone down on her hotel room bed and began pacing nervously. She had barely had any time to search for where the equipment she was looking for was! The obvious answer was the Vault at the top of the control tower, but there were probably dozens of different projects sealed away up there, and she didn't have time to try and search through them all.
She thought about trying to lean on Samuel for information. It was the obvious answer, as he had been working here for decades. But she couldn't risk messaging him, as Nine might see them and get even more suspicious. She could try and question him in person under disguise, but she'd have to do it after Nine's crew arrived or the scientist might rat her out.
"Damn it!" She banged her desk in frustration. Everything had worked so far, right? She couldn't stop now!
Her goal needed to be accomplished tonight. If it didn't, then Nine would become unstoppable. He relied on her due to her medical expertise being able to ease his frail condition. But once he stole that Quirk, there wouldn't be any use for her. He might not even give her a Quirk. She could see the obvious tension growing between them.
That's why she was sure to bring a little something extra when they next meet up.
Pulling the drawer in front of her open, it revealed a small gun-like object. She grabbed it with one hand, pulling back the hammer and seeing the rounds loaded inside.
Quirk-Erasing bullets.
Once she became a nurse at U.A., she had discovered their existence when treating the children after Nine's attack. The white-haired girl, Eri, had an incredibly dangerous Quirk, and Nezu had lent her a couple of the bullets in case her Quirk went wild during her treatment. She wasn't quite sure how they were made, but she had managed to convince Nezu that holding onto them was a good idea, as she was still Midoriya's nurse, and Eri hung out around him often.
Nine may have a bunch of Quirks, but with one shot from this he'd be nothing but a sickly man.
Dealing with the Purple Oni's as well might be trouble. But if Nine was out of the picture, she figured she could convince them to go along with her own plan.
'My plan… what is my plan anyways?'
She shook her head at the thought. It was obvious! The plan was to get All for One, and then…
Was there anything more to her plan? She just wanted all the Quirks she could ever have, and All for One could give her that, right? That was a good enough plan, right?
No. There was more to it than just wanting a Quirk.
The ability to give and receive a Quirk to anyone. It was just like what she had theorized in the work that had gotten her recognized by Doctor Ujiko in the first place. There was a reason she had wanted to create the ability to do just that.
A scene from long ago suddenly found itself thrust into her mind. Of when she was just a young kid who didn't have what everyone else had.
A young girl stood alone on a playground, while everyone else was busy playing Hero. Even in a world of pretend, she was considered unimportant. She hid within one of the structures, away from the eyes of others. She could stay here for hours and no one would even care that she was missing.
Suddenly, another figure ran into her hiding spot. They appeared to be a young girl as well, judging by the clothes, but she barely even looked human. She had purple spiky skin all over, a tail that became a sharp club, and green glowing eyes, with pitch black irises.
"Ah!" They both stumbled back at each others existence.
"Did you hear something?" A boy nearby asked, and the monstrous girls eyes widened. She put her hands to her mouth as a group could be heard outside the structure, and the other girl did the same. "Eh, she must have gone elsewhere. C'mon!"
The sound of the boys outside slowly faded into the difference, and both girls let out a sigh.
"W-What are you doing in here?" The normal girl asked. "Were those boys chasing you?"
"Yeah." The other girl responded, her voice coming out all gravelly. "They always make me play the Villain because of how I look. They just chase me around and hit me with sticks most of the time."
"That's terrible!"
"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. My skin's pretty tough."
"But that doesn't make it okay! Why don't you fight back?"
"Really?" The monstrous girl scoffed. "You've seen what I look like. If I fought back they'd just say I was a villain in training and throw me away, like my parents did." There was a stretch of silence, before she decided to speak again. "What are you doing in here then? You get bullied for your Quirk too?"
The normal girl flinched. "N-No. My parents did some tests, and they think I'm Q-Quirkless. They don't even act like I exist half the time, so I thought I'd disappear for a while and see if anyone really cares."
"You're really Quirkless?" The monstrous girl asked in awe.
The normal girl nodded in response, shutting her eyes and bracing for the response.
"That's… so cool! I wish I was like you!"
"What?!" The normal girl looked up in confusion. "Why would anyone want to be me? I don't have anything special about me! I don't have super strength or flight, or anything cool like that!"
"You also don't have skin that makes it hurt someone if you ever try to hug them. You don't have a tail that accidentally breaks things if you don't always keep an eye on it. You don't have eyes that make people run away from a child like they were going to eat them." The monstrous girl explained, tears forming in her eyes. "I wish I didn't have something that made me stand out so much. I wish I had the ability to just be a normal person and choose who I want to be for myself, instead of a freak."
Something in the normal girl changed that day. It was the first day she had realized that there was more to person than a Quirk. That having a Quirk wasn't this perfect thing that completed you.
As she grew older, her perspective let her see through the cracks more clearly than those around her. All kinds of phrases hit different for her.
"What do you mean you don't want to be a Hero? Your Quirk is perfect for it! I don't care if you want to be an artist, keep training for a Hero program!"
"Why do you even bother coming to school with an evil Quirk like that? We all know you'll use it to end up in jail before you graduate, you Villain!"
"Don't even bother trying to apply to that job. I heard they hired someone with a Quirk that worked far better than yours for that position."
The more the girl grew up, the more she realized that a single Quirk wouldn't be able to solve her problem. She'd just go from a nobody to somebody she might not even want to be.
If only she could be anybody. Do anything. Then no one would try to tell her who she had to be.
She wouldn't let herself be manipulated by Quirks. She will be the one to manipulate them.
Kagome was knocked out of her musings when something flickered in the corner of her view. She quickly turned her head to see the light from under her door was being obscured by someone. She gripped the gun with the Quirk-Erasing bullets tightly.
Even if they weren't filled with real bullets, everyone else didn't know that.
She watched as the light shifted momentarily, and a piece of paper was slipped under her door. The light quickly returned, and Kagome ran to the door, flinging it open. A quick glance around the hall revealed a tall figure disappear around the corner, to fast for her to identify in any way.
Seeing that whoever it was at her door had fled, she slowly closed it again. Gun still in hand, she bent down and picked up the slip of paper that had been left for him. Flipping it over, she could see only two lines written on it.
'Elevator: F -50 (600, 0)'
'Admin access required.'
The instructions were incredibly clear. The first line was giving a location that the main elevators could go to. The Central Tower used a system of 'elevators' that moved across the subterranean layer, allowing one to get anywhere from there. It's part of why the place house control over the entire island. The second line was saying that she would be unable to access said location without an admin's ID Card.
"Who-?" Kagome couldn't help but ask out loud. Why would someone leave this under her door? How would anyone know what she was after in the first place? There were so many alarm bells going off in her head right now.
Was this Samuel's work? Did he somehow learn that she was working with Nine, and set this up as some sort of trap? That wouldn't make any sense though. He likely would have gone straight to turning her in if he wanted to get rid of her.
Then did Nine put him up to it? No, it didn't make sense that he would attempt to betray her now considering how much she knew about his plan. It would ruin his infiltration of I-Island.
In the end, there wasn't an obvious answer she could think of. For some unknown reason, someone was telling her to infiltrate a specific part of I-Island completely unprompted. It had to be for her, right? What were the chances of this being for some other person looking to infiltrate I-Island?
Could she trust this message?
Did she have a better option?
No, she didn't.
She grabbed her gear and the case holding All for One, preparing to make her way down to the dock that Samuel had specified to land at. Her plan was clear. Cause a ruckus, get an admin card, and head for the location listed while Nine had his fun.
The power to fulfill her dreams were almost at hand. She just had to place her faith in this note.
Fate seemed to have smiled on her so far, and she hoped it wouldn't stop before the night was through.
Next Chapter: Towering Threat