A/N: This chapter is a few days late, so thanks for your patience! My current place of work has been changing policy left and right that has been targeting me (among a few others) specifically, so I've been spending a lot of time putting in applications and interviewing this week. I got an offer for the first place I interviewed with and accepted the job, and now I'm going to be working night shift at a hospital! I'm very excited!
OCs in this chapter:
Wakakuro Seibo – Quirk: Empathy – Former foster care caseworker of Hitoshi, Isozan, and Uretori
Tohiro – Quirk: Blood Diagnostics – Patient on Unit Echo, current foster child of the Hamabi family (Hitoshi's foster family before he was adopted by Aizawa and Yamada)
Hamabi Hanisu – Quirk not revealed, Hitoshi's former foster mother, current foster mother of Tohiro
Hamabi Genori – Quirk not revealed, Hitoshi's former foster father, current foster father of Tohiro
Omoto Isozan – Quirk: Full Throttle
Omoto Uretori (aka Phantasm) – Quirk: Hallucinogenic Gas
"I'll go first," Toga suggested nonchalantly, noting the subtle panic crossing Tohiro's face when the topic of using her blood-based quirk was mentioned.
The evaluation at Fields must not have gone well, Hitoshi thought, catching Neito's eye as he shared the same notion.
Denki slammed his hands on the table as he stood up, raising his hand erratically in the air like a small child in primary school who knew he had the answer for sure this time. "Me! Me! I volunteer as tribute! Oh, please, Toga! Please! Can I?"
Toga made a big show of looking around at the pointed lack of other volunteers, not that any one else would turn her down if asked, but that no one else would swoop in to take the job that Denki so obviously desired so strongly. She tapped her chin as if in deep contemplation as Denki jumped in place, still waving his hand in the air to be a more visible option to her.
"Denki?" she asked sweetly.
"Yes?! Yes?!" he practically wailed, buzzing with anticipation.
"Would you be so kind as to be the test subject?" she asked.
"I thought you'd never ask!" he sobbed dramatically as he deflated, the pent up energy leaving him as he slunk into the seat next to her, offering her his arm without hesitation, ignoring the giggles and chuckles from the amused audience in the room.
Hitoshi and Neito kept an eye on Tohiro throughout the process, knowing that it meant a lot to her that someone would allow such a thing just for demonstration purposes or just for fun, really. But to volunteer for the pleasure of undergoing a blood quirk?
Maybe there would have been an ulterior motive if it had been Hitoshi or Neito; they had been the ones who knew she had been at Fields and that it was for a quirk evaluation. But it was Denki. And it wasn't like it was out of character for him to be so flagrant and dramatic about something so small that he decided he wanted.
What Denki wants, Denki gets, of course.
And Denki wanted there to be two Denkis. Maybe he was spoiled by all of the Denki clones running around the League base while making his TikToks, but no matter the reason, soon enough, there was one less Toga and one more Denki at the table.
No one freaked out about the blood draw. No one got pale or excused themselves for the blood ingestion, even, and that would have been excusable, right? It's not an easy thing to witness.
But these were heroes and villains and her foster parents, not the kids or teachers from school or the evaluators at the hospital. This was nothing that none of them haven't seen before, especially with Toga among their ranks.
"Whatchya waiting for, soulmates?" Toga-Denki drawled, making grabby hands at Hitoshi and Neito. "Show me some love!"
It was surprising the ease in which Neito and Hitoshi rushed forward, laughing at the challenge, pulling the real Denki and Toga-Denki into a big group hug, laughing and swaying, raving about how the only thing better than one Denki was two, and the only thing better than two was three, and where was Twice when they needed him? It was clear that they had a close bond forged in an unknown, extended history that Tohiro wasn't privy to.
Feeling a surge of bravery, Tohiro reached out for one of the vials that was set aside, popping open the top and taking it like a shot of hard liquor that her friends had stolen away from one of their father's cabinets in the middle of the night, passing around the shot glass and daring each other to take the burning hit.
It's not that it tasted bad, but Tohiro didn't want to ruminate on what kind of person it made her if she allowed it to sit on her tongue and had the thought that it tasted good. Everyone viewed her quirk as more of a disgusting, but helpful thing, giving her sad looks that she would have to ingest blood to get the diagnostic overview of the person whose body the blood belonged. She made the mistake exactly one time of telling someone that it wasn't that gross because her quirk must make it so that it doesn't taste bad. She was glad to leave that foster home and school behind.
Her eyes glowed red as she looked at Denki. Even as Hitoshi and Neito shuffled the two Denkis around, she could easily tell which was the real deal because of which one was lit up by her quirk. She saw the tale-tell signs of his quirk, the lightning constantly buzzing just underneath his skin, and knew from looking at its placement and movement that it was physically harmless, even if it would never shut itself off. She sighed in relief, knowing that she did not want to have to be the one to tell someone that their quirk was killing them from the inside out. Her eyes changed to different tones of red as she examined different layers of the body: The deeper she went, the darker the red. She examined Denki's skin with light red eyes, moved to muscles and ligaments as her eyes brightened to cherry, and shifted to examine his bones as her eyes darkened to crimson.
She smiled, relieved as she gave him a clean bill of health. Her smile stuttered, then came back full force, tinged with awe when everyone surrounded her, talking about how cool that was.
Isozan, who only introduced himself by Isozan and insisted that she call him by just Isozan (so weird), sat down where Denki had sat, offering his arm to Toga before abruptly pulling it back and spinning to face Tohiro.
"Do you want to learn how to draw blood? You'll have to eventually, right? Toga's practically the ultimate master," Isozan praised, shooting a sheepish smile at Toga, hoping to be forgiven for volunteering her for teaching Tohiro a new skill that was not originally agreed upon.
No forgiveness needed if Toga's resulting squeal of excitement was anything to go off of.
"Can I? You don't mind?" Tohiro asked, just to be sure, directing the question to both Toga and Isozan. "I mean, I knew Toga was really good. Denki's veins are tricky. It took me a moment to realize what I was looking at when I first started using my quirk. It's from the constant electricity zapping along under his skin. I think his veins and arteries kind of naturally formed to the zigzagging path that the electricity takes, and…" she trailed off, looking around when she realized that everyone was looking at her, her cheeks darkening as she couldn't maintain eye contact with any one person for more than a few seconds at a time before looking to someone else.
"That's amazing that you know that just from that quick scan!" Neito gushed. "Do you mind if I see what you see?" he asked, holding out his hand in invitation as he tilted his head slightly in question.
"You—you want to? My quirk? You do know that you'd have to consume blood, too, right? I can't do that for you, I don't think," Tohiro hedged.
"Wouldn't be the first time!" Neito dismissed easily, shoving his shoulder against Toga's to get his point across what he meant, just in case he wasn't clear enough with his words alone.
Tohiro looked wide eyed between the two before stuttering out her amazed agreement, reaching out to meet Neito halfway, grabbing his hand and giving a brief, hopeful, grateful squeeze that spoke volumes before turning back to Isozan, shaking her hands as if to physically shake the anxiety off like water.
She was a natural, and Toga made sure to tell her many times as she praised her when she did something correct and made small corrections that she easily took to when she needed some adjusting.
When she missed Isozan's vein the first time, she tensed, but Isozan laughed it off easily. "I'm not afraid of needles. You take your time and take as many shots as you need," he offered with a smile and a one-sided shrug, careful to not move the arm that she was tense over, looking up at him with wide eyes, first scared that he might be upset, and then in awe that he was allowing her such an amazing opportunity.
When she finally did it, the tubing connecting to the vacuum vial flashing red as it filled with blood, the whole room went from holding their breaths to cheering. Even Wakakuro surprised himself when he realized he was cheering loudly in between Shigaraki and Hitoshi, ecstatic that his current foster youth was successful in her endeavor of drawing blood from his former foster youth. What a strange situation he had found himself in.
Toga, Tohiro, and Neito lifted up their little vials of blood in a little toast, smiling mischievously at one another as they brought the little glass vials to their lips, tipped them back, and drank the contents down.
It was kind of thrilling for Tohiro to be surrounded by people who weren't leering at her for using her quirk. It probably helped that she wasn't the only one, but it was more than that, too. Even when people tried to be discreet about it, she could feel their judgment, but right then, she could only feel their excitement to be part of her growth as she tried something new, gained some experience, and helped out their friend in the process. It wasn't that their gratitude was outweighing the ick factor; it was that the ick factor wasn't there to begin with for the gratitude to have to try to mask.
Tohiro turned her glowing eyes on Isozan and wondered how she was going to give the news. She had never had to give big news before, and she was pretty sure this counted as big news because she was pretty sure no one knew about this except for her as of five seconds ago.
And maybe whoever gave him that scar.
"Uh…" Tohiro hesitated. "Do you want the good news or bad news first?"
"Bad news," Isozan answered immediately.
There was no expectation in his voice. His face was calm and open. Tohiro took a breath and told herself that she could do this.
"You're injured. Chronically. Are you in pain?" she asked.
"No," Isozan answered, shaking his head. He didn't push further, allowing her to lead and take her time.
She swallowed and licked her lips. She swallowed again and put her hands on the table, leaning forward. "That scar—it's healed on your skin, but below the surface, it's still very agitated. It doesn't seem natural. I think it's quirk-induced."
"Well, fuck," Uretori muttered, looking at the scar in question peeking out from the collar of Isozan's shirt. "What's the good news?"
"It's reversible," Tohiro answered simply.
Uretori and Isozan both jolted forward at that, practically falling at Tohiro's feet, desperate for details and answers, not understanding. Tohiro jumped at the sudden flurry of movement, the feet of the chair scraping on the tile as the chair moved back from her startle.
"What's going on?" Dabi asked.
And, well, wasn't that the question of the hour?
Isozan explained to the group how he got his scar in the first place. Denki had wondered if it had been a physical reminder of the trauma he carried around from his adoptive family.
"No, actually," Isozan said. "My birth mother, this time."
-.-.-
Wakakuro was a newly trained foster care caseworker, finally on his own and given his own small caseload to handle, starting with a home visit to the Sezuno household to see if any of the concerning reports held any truth. Wakakuro had read over the reports and vaguely knew the quirks of the parents and one of the children, but he liked to keep an open mind.
It didn't do anyone any good to pre-judge someone based on preconceived notions of the quirk they were born with. Hallucinogenic quirks were not very desirable according to the majority of the population, but that did not mean that the father of the family was abusive. Just because the mother's quirk involved a poisonous substance gathering on her skin didn't mean she that ever used it. But maybe that was just Wakakuro's Empathy quirk talking. In his humble opinion, his quirk made him perfect for social work.
They had two children who the reports were on. The older one, a boy, had gone to school with a recent injury, which is why Wakakuro was sent to check in. The boy had a quirk-enhancing quirk based on touch, and the girl had yet to be registered with hers.
He rang the doorbell, a little nervous for his first unannounced visit, only to wonder in hindsight if that anxiety came from behind the door that his quirk was allowing him to pick up and was not entirely his own.
The instant the door opened, it was a disaster. The drug dealers thought that the family called the police on them and acted immediately instead of finding out that Wakakuro was a lowly social worker who didn't have a gun to defend himself or threaten them with, and suddenly he had threatening quirks and guns in his face, sending his heart skyrocketing. Even in that moment, he knew that some of that adrenaline was his own, but some of it was coming from everyone else: The drug dealers not wanting to get caught and go to jail, not wanting to have to use their quirks and weapons despite the threats that they would if they had to, the parents of the household not wanting their new business associates to really think they called the police on them, and the children not wanting more loud things to happen, just wanting it to be quiet and serene for once in their short lives as they huddled in the corner, tears escaping quietly down their face as they didn't dare let out any loud wails to add to the growing madness of their surroundings.
Sezuno Uretori's quirk had just developed, and the meeting was to determine if the gas she emitted from her skin could be contained and used and sold, Wakakuro would later learn. He would also later learn that the mother's quirk was not poisonous, but the secretions caused a kind of quirk inhibition or malfunction, depending on how it interacted with the specific quirk.
He didn't need 'later' to learn that the listed quirk of the father was wrong as the man told everyone to calm down and that he'd handle it.
Mind control instigated through physical touch, Wakakuro learned through experience. It was weird when he touched him, like his body was shut off access from his brain and the controller was just handed over to someone else, and that someone else was him of all people. Instead of asking what his quirk was, they decided not to take any chances. Mrs. Sezuno reached out and slathered a hand over his arm, the substance easily absorbing into his skin and it was a new kind of hell to be shut off from the emotions of others. He was at least able to keep track of the mindset of the children if nothing else, even while helplessly trapped in his body that wouldn't follow his commands anymore, but she cut that off, too.
He regretfully never got to meet the neighbors that got tired of hearing all the yelling and commotion and called the police, but he would have thanked them immensely.
Even with his quirk impaired, Wakakuro was grateful to find that he didn't suddenly turn into some kind of monster as he interviewed the children, learning all of the things that their parents put them through.
-.-.-
Isozan explained how he got his scar in the first place, how she was "training" him to use his quirk (even though she had no expertise to draw upon to be training him to do anything) and had him use his quirk on her. Immediately after, she unexpectedly slashed out at him with a knife. If asked, he was sure that she'd explain that she wanted to train him to always expect the unexpected. He understood now that she never had the skills to be able to parent him effectively and keep him safe, not even from herself let alone the rest of the world.
"Your mother did that to you because you used your quirk on her?" Neito asked, looking at Isozan's scar. "After she asked you to? To enhance her quirk?"
Isozan shrugged. "She wanted to teach me a lesson."
"What lesson? That she's fucking crazy?" Neito sneered, angry on Isozan's behalf.
"That when I use my quirk, I have to get away quickly or people will retaliate," Isozan said, answering despite it not really being a question, knowing that Neito wouldn't dig for real just in case Isozan didn't feel comfortable divulging the details.
"We already knew she was fucking crazy," Uretori said lightly with a small smile. "No lesson needed, there."
"You used your quirk on her before she did that to you…" Wakakuro muttered, deep in thought. "Tohiro said it's quirk related. I wonder if you enhancing her quirk combined with the substance getting into an open wound instead of being absorbed through the skin would have a more long-lasting effect."
Hitoshi looked at Wakakuro consideringly, then looked at Neito and Denki. "I'm going to introduce him to Midoriya."
Denki lit up and said, "do it!" at the same time Neito muttered in horror, "don't you dare."
"You said it's something that can be fixed?" Dabi asked, directing his question to Tohiro.
Before he could retract his statement, fix his mistake, dampen the effect of speaking directly to her and putting her on the spot as a terrifying villain, Tohiro answered easily.
"Yeah. The skin's healed, but it's still agitated underneath, like that substance or whatever is corrosive or abrasive and it just hasn't allowed it to fully heal," Tohiro said. "Surgery to clean out the wound of the quirked substance, or even a strong healing quirk to force the substance to be inactive would work."
"And that will fix his quirk, right?" Neito asked.
Isozan furrowed his brow in confusion, about to open his mouth to protest, to say how that didn't make sense, but Tohiro confirmed before he could.
"What?" was all Isozan could manage.
"I told you before something was wrong with your quirk," Neito said.
Isozan laughed, but it lacked its normal humor. "All this time. You're saying all this time, and all I've ever had to do was get injured enough to seek out a healer, and my quirk problem would have been solved?"
"To be fair," Denki said, "you didn't even know you had a quirk problem."
"Guess it's time to call in a favor from the magic healing lady," Dabi drawled, pushing his hands against the table to tip back to balance on two legs of the chair.
Standing behind him, Hanisu pushed the back of the chair forward, making the chair come back down to all four legs with a clack, and reprimanded, "no broken skulls on my kitchen floor, young man!"
Dabi held up his hands in easy surrender, but Denki wasn't distracted from his earlier comment by the cute found domesticity.
"Recovery Girl is one of yours?!" he squawked, eyes wide as he practically leaped across the table, desperate for answers.
A/N: OCs in this chapter:
Wakakuro Seibo – Quirk: Empathy – Former foster care caseworker of Hitoshi, Isozan, and Uretori
Tohiro – Quirk: Blood Diagnostics – Patient on Unit Echo, current foster child of the Hamabi family (Hitoshi's foster family before he was adopted by Aizawa and Yamada)
Hamabi Hanisu – Quirk not revealed, Hitoshi's former foster mother, current foster mother of Tohiro
Hamabi Genori – Quirk not revealed, Hitoshi's former foster father, current foster father of Tohiro
Omoto Sezuno Isozan – Quirk: Full Throttle
Omoto Sezuno Uretori (aka Phantasm) – Quirk: Hallucinogenic Gas