Rule #10: Never get personally involved in a case
A young sickly Toru sat in her bed surrounded by her array of teddies and medical equipment, the most prominent one being the oxygen tank decorated in sparkly stickers by her bed as she leant into her mother's side. With eyes closed and breath shallow, the little albino just basked in the soft tones of her mother as she retold the little tale of Grandfather Aoi, the angel who fell from Heaven and set the world afire, for the umpteenth time. She knew the story was supposed to be a warning—a precautionary tale, of sorts—but it had always been one of her favourites. It was one of her favourite stories, she had to admit, mostly because she liked to picture her own late father as Grandfather Aoi, laughing at those who'd shunned him. But also because there was a certain joy in setting things ablaze, even if that meant one did go supernova and burnt themselves in the process.
"Aoi would stroll through the heavenly village
Eyes fixated on the starry ground
But when greeted, the angel
Scarcely uttered a sound.
With hair was white as snow
And skin as clear as glass
He drew in thoughts of fellow angels
Without his ask.
They'd follow him in
The dark of night & in the light of day
Besotted by his
Peculiar way.
They'd leave their families
Snoring in the dark of night
To spy upon him as he danced
Amongst the forbidden firelight.
One angel swore, by God's good grace,
That she witnessed
Him reading of a book
So dark & wicked,
With this look upon his face.
It was no wonder, thought she,
That her spouse held such foolish notions
Possessed by this devil
And all of his fiery potions.
When confronted, Aoi
Could not tell what power had he
That could take ahold of a fellow
So strongly.
He only told them of the temptation
Led by dancing rainbows and fiery coals
That glittered in the city of glass
Like a thousand starry golds.
And so, deeming him beyond repair
They relieved him of his wings,
And tossed the little angel overboard without care
But you need not fear!
For you see, unlike them
Aoi was forged of fire.
He started with scorch marks on his heart
With singed edges that were delicate to the touch
And left dark streaks in the starch.
And when Aoi fell, laughing as he cried
He threw his head back
And spread his arms out wide
He yelled into the roaring winds,
Teeth bared to the world
And happily sighed.
For you see, there is a bitter triumph
In burning when crashing to the ground
When you should, instead, be soaring
High amongst the cozy clouds.
The light, it scorched his crystalline skin
Blazing trails ran down his back
And rainbows danced upon his feet, ankles & thighs
In great big gaping cracks.
Stars floated like prayers,
Slipping from his grasp.
Close enough to snatch back,
Far enough to pass.
That beloved flame, it wrapped him up tight
In glass-swaddled gold
As down dropped the little angel
Out of his celestial mould.
And when Aoi fell, smiling as he died
Painting the landscape in explosions of red, orange and gold,
He threw aside his fears
And forgot God's biting cold.
For you see, there is a beauty
In watching from pyre
Cackling at their misfortune
As you set the world on fire"
Blinking away the last remnants of her dream, Toru found herself staring up at the dirty white-tiled ceiling of her room. An oxygen mask sat snugly over her face & the uncomfortable feeling of a breathing tube was shoved down her throat. Topped off with the persistent beeping of medical equipment sounded in her ears. It was so familiar that she almost thought she was nine years old again, laying in a hospital bed and waiting for the inevitable denial of another heart.
She blinked languidly as her head rolled to the right where her hand was entrapped in a dozing Hitoshi's ones. His usually messy hair had curled up into little ringlets like it did when it was wet and his face lay buried in his arms as he tucked his head next to her side on the hospital bed. Rolling her head to the left, she found her greying mother camped out in the chair next to her, using the edge of her bed as her footrest. Mama's…here? She puzzled. The last time Toru had seen her mother was back at the beginning of the year, when she had moved in with her father's parents.
Through the curtain of get-well balloons tied to the end of her bed and an assortment of stuffed toys sitting at her feet, she could see that the supposedly empty hospital beds across from her were occupied by her chain-snoring grandfather and her lanky brother. Another series of languid blinks later, she registered that the room was illuminated by only the moonlight shining through the window, the lights on in the hallway and the industrial UV spotlight that stood at the foot of her bed. It was a stark difference from the last time she had woken atop the hospital's roof.
Approaching footsteps caught her attention and she sluggishly met the eyes of a tired Oishii who held a tray of steaming drinks in his hands, who stared at her dumbly like he couldn't understand what he was seeing. Raising her free hand, Toru wiggled her fingers at him and a tired smile spread across her lips from behind the oxygen mask. That seemed to kick him into gear.
"Ohmygod! Toru! You're okay!" He whispered rushing forth to place the drinks on the nightstand, "I should get the nurses—" He rushed back to the doorway before spinning on his heel, "—Wait! Maybe I should wake your mother—!" He turned back to her sleeping mother, before turning back to the doorway again with a look of indecision on his face that made her chuckle. In the end, the small commotion between the two was enough to rouse her mother from her awkward sleeping position anyway.
"Ugh!…" Mother groaned hoarsely, cracking her back as she sat upright and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "What are you doing up, brat?" She turned to Oishii who still stood in the dimly lit doorway.
"Um…" Oishii appeared at a loss for what to say…that or he was scared of her mother. If Toru had to guess, it was probably a bit of both.
Taking pity on him, Toru patted at her mother's arm making the woman snap around to face her daughter with wide disbelieving eyes. "She's awake…" Oishii pointed dumbly to the invisible girl.
"My baby…" Mother murmured, cautiously caressing her daughter's cheeks as if she were going to break. "You're okay…!"
"Ngh!" Toru gave a soft grunt around the tube in her throat as Oishii chose that moment to go and fetch a nurse.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Mother suddenly whacked her across the back of the head, careful not to dislodge the oxygen mask or knock the tube.
"Ngh!" Toru grunted, rubbing at the back of her head where she had been hit and glaring at her mother as if to say, 'what was that for?'
"You know what that was for!" Mother pointed a finger at her, easily reading her expressions. "How many times have I told you not to go that far?"
"Nnn!" Toru furrowed her brows into a look of disbelief as she tried to convey how it wasn't her fault.
"Oh? So who should I blame then? The villains?"
"Uh huh!" Toru nodded vigorously.
"I've told you—!"
"Ma—" Kenta groaned tiredly from the other bed as he rolled over, his long legs becoming tangled in the crisp hospital sheets, "Stop yelling at Sensei…! And go to sleep!" Toru winced at that, well-aware of her mother's infamous argumentative abilities. There was a reason she had wanted to be a lawyer when she was younger.
"I'll deal with him later" Mother retorted with a huff, crossing her arms childishly and stomping her foot like a petulant child, "But right now, your sister is going to explain what happened?!"
"Yeah, yeah—" Kenta nodded tiredly, barely registering the words. When he did, he bolted upright and glanced over at the bed where his younger sister now lay awake. "—Wait! What? Sparkles! You're awake!" He fell from the bed and landed on the floor with a thud before he sprang to his feet and raced over. At the same time, Toru scrunched her nose up at the use of the childish and embarrassing nickname.
Thankfully before the two could really start in on her, Oishii returned with a nurse who introduced herself before shooing her conscious relatives away so she could remove the God-awful breathing tube in her throat. A fair amount of gagging followed—from both Toru & Kenta—before the oxygen mask was placed back over her nose and mouth, just in case. Next, Toru tiredly ran through a couple of basic check-ups before the nurse instructed her to rest some more, and more or less ordered her mother to halt on the interrogation, at least until morning.
The next time Toru woke up, the sun was blaring in through the window and her room was mercifully empty. The sticky note stuck to her forehead told her that her grandfather had herded everyone down to the cafeteria for lunch & to push the call button if she ever needed anything.
The nurse who had tended to her in the middle of the night returned, this time with a starch-coated doctor who explained what had happened to her. It was so much to take in—the damage she sustained, the overload of her Quirk & subsequent supernova, the heart attack, the aftermath, what she would have to do going forth, adapting to her 'new' Quirk and so on. It soon became too much and she felt herself begin to become—quite literally—hot under the collar.
Flinging herself from the hospital bed & untangling herself from the various wires and tubes, she dodged the attempts to get her back into bed and dove for the door. Brushing by startled staff and wandering family members, Toru pushed open the first door she could find, it just so happened to be an empty bathroom. Leaning against one of the porcelain sinks she stared into the mirror with a look of disbelief and horror at what she found.
Patches of her skin flared to life beneath the purple light that bubbled there, almost like lightning was dancing beneath her skin and illuminating the veins within. Her eyes—once golden—bled violet in the dimly-lit bathroom and where her hands had met solid porcelain only moments, now hovered above sunken and melting china.
"Sparkles?" Kenta's voice followed tentative knocks on the door, having followed his sister's path to the bathroom. "Sparkles? Are you all right? Toru?"
"Go away!" Toru cried, her voice hoarse and thick with unshed tears as she stared at the freak she had become.
"Toru?"
"GO AWAY!" She sobbed, collapsing against the far wall away from the warped mirror and broken sink. Her heart beat loudly in her chest, overtaking all sounds except for her rasping gasps of breath. Great heaving sobs turned to gasps as her breath came in short bursts and tears blurred with he snot dripping from her nose as panic took hold.
Everything around her faded away and she barely registered the bathroom door banging open a few moments later as Oishii rushed in with Kenta hot on his heels. She didn't see as her senior ripped the well-worn Eraserhead t-shirt over his head, revealing the multitude of hungry mouths that dotted his skin. Curling in on herself, Toru moved away from the tentative movements of her brother as a violet bubble of light encircled the girl in a cocoon; encroached only by the harmless firefly-like orbs floating about the room.
"Sparkles?" Kenta hedged, shuffling as close as he dared, "Look at me, look at me. Toru, I need you to look at me, okay?" Slowly tearful eyes full of fear emerged from the crook of her elbow and turned to face him. Her red eyes and tear-tracked cheeks pulled at his heartstrings, unable to see his baby sister this way. "Hey, Toru?" He continued keeping his voice soft as he watched her heave in gasping breaths, "What are five things that you can see?"
"Wha—?" Toru gasped.
"C'me on! You know the drill, what's five things you can see?"
"B-b-brother…" She stammered. "F-friend"
"Take your time, Toru" Oishii encouraged, crouched on her other side as a tongue from the mouth adorning his chest lolled out like an over-eager puppy.
"T-toilet, d-door, s-s-sink"
"And four things you can touch?" Kenta continued.
"No—!" Toru's eyes blew wide at the instruction and breathing picked up once more.
"C'me on Toru, four things you can touch…" Oishii held out his hand to her, palm-mouth facing up.
"…F-friend…" Toru cautiously placed her shaky hand in Oishii's; jolting only slightly when the mouth on his palm began to suckle at her Quirk like a newborn.
"Keep going, Sparkles" Kenta urged.
"Sh-shirt—" She clenched her spare fingers into the loose hospital gown she was shrouded in, "—F-floor—" Here a foot untucked itself from the ball she had curled into and she spread her toes out against the cold dirty tiles. "—B-brother" Next her spare hand threaded through the translucent fingers of her sibling.
"And three things you can hear?" Kenta tried to hide his wince at the power radiating from Toru as he held her hand.
"T-tap—" Toru heaved a sigh, her breath slowly starting to calm as she went through the familiar steps to calm herself. "—Pipes, Mama"
"And two things you can smell?"
"Soap & shit"
"Is that what that was?" Oishii scrunched up his nose in disgust as the scent was identified, "Eurgh! Gross!"
"And one thing you can taste?" Kenta shot a quick glare towards the pinkette before turning back to his younger sister.
"Uh…" Toru's eyes roved back and forth as she tried to find something she could taste,
"Here"
"Oh" Toru took the offered citrus lollipop from her brother and stuck in her mouth without a second thought. "Lollipop"
There was a beat of silence as no one moved, save for Toru who sucked on the lollipop and resolutely stared at the dirty floor beneath them. She was breathing easier now, but the light surrounding her had yet to disappear. "Sparkles?" Kenta shared a glance with Oishii, "Sparkles? Are you okay? Does it hurt?"
"N-no" Toru replied around the lollipop as she shook her head, "I just can't…stop it"
"Okay, c'me 'ere" Oishii let his feet fall out from under him as his ass met the cold floor and mouthy arms encircled the small girl, bringing her to his chest. "It's okay, I got you" He reassured when Toru began to struggle. The mouths adorning his skin opened up and—much like earlier—latched onto anywhere they could find, suckling at her Quirk like a newborn, draining it away until it could become stable once more.
With her head tucked beneath Oishii's chin and head buried in his chest, she missed the arrival of Bakugou & Rio as they entered the co-ed bathroom with flowers and card in hand to find their friend huddled up on the dirty floor. With the arrival of her peers, Kenta moved out of the bathroom and off to find a figure of authority who could get the situation under control, leaving the blonde cousins to squat down next to the pair still seated against the back wall.
"What the hell are you doing on the bathroom floor, Sunshine?" Bakugou puzzled as his nose scrunched up at the smell permeating around them.
"N-nothing…" Toru mumbled, curling up tight in Oishii's arms like a young child.
"Ah well, I don't blame ya, you're mother's in fine form this afternoon" Rio added, coming to sit next to her cousin, "She's absolutely ripping into ya sensei—keeps going on about supernovas, lax security and stupid brats"
"I am not stupid!" Bakugou snarled.
"I wasn't talking about you" Rio flicked his forehead. "But good to know where you're head's at" Toru couldn't help the small smile that spread across her lips at there sibling-like interaction between the two blondes.
"Yeah, well who did you mean then?"
"Who do you think?" Rio gestured to the invisible enveloped in violet fireflies.
"Is that what happened to you?" Bakugou turned to Toru. "When you exploded?"
Toru leant into Oishii, hiding herself from the blondes' questioning gazes, but neither Rio nor Bakugou were ones to be easily persuaded, even now. Both blondes sat to her left, with varying looks of concern and intrigue plastered across their faces.
"Hagakure—Toru—what did they mean?" Bakugou tried again.
"…Going supernova…is…extremely dangerous…" Toru admitted as she fiddled with her hands, refusing to meet anyone's eyes, "There's no telling what can happen to you—before, after or during. Of—of the fifteen of my family members who did go supernova, only two survived" She sniffed, wiping her nose with a swipe of her thumb, "The first, aborted just in time and received minimal damages. The second, saw it out until the end, surviving everything, even the…aftermath"
"…Who were they?" Oishii hedged from above her, his chin resting atop her crown as Bakugou seemed to be digesting the information.
"My great grandfather was the first—he was the one who aborted just in time— and as a result his secondary Quirk became permanent; an eternal active Quirk—more like a mutation, y'know?" Toru sighed, hunching herself into a smaller ball. "The second was my father. He—he survived the entire event, at least for a good hour or two and then died due to his injuries. I never met him"
"Oh…What—what does that mean for you, then?" Rio sniffed, tears gathering in her eyes as a story began to come together.
"It means that I might need to invest in some quality gloves—" Toru huffed a sarcastic laugh, "—And that I'm lucky to be alive… Tears dripped from her eyes as she continued, but her lips seemed unable to stop what was spilling from them. At some point she registered the bathroom door opening again as Aizawa came to rest in the doorway, just quietly listening to her little tale.
"The—the nurse said the only reason I really survived is because I went into cardiac arrest halfway through the event…I—I shouldn't be alive…" She heaved a shuddering sigh that rattled through her lungs, "Not that it matters anyway"
"Wha-! How can you say that!" The fiery blonde suddenly grew enraged at the self-deprecating attitude.
"Bakugou," Toru met his gaze head on for the first time that afternoon, "Transplantees only live a certain amount of time after they receive their transplants"
"So what?" He deflated. "Are you dying or something?"
"Or something" She sighed, "If I'm lucky, I'll make it to graduation, maybe a couple of years after, but that's it"
"Well, can't you get another—whatever? Tell 'em your a hero, or something"
"It doesn't work like that. You could throw around all the names and money you like, but you've still got sit on a waiting list, become a match and even then the family has to agree to the donorship, and by that point I'd be dead anyway. So, what's the point?"
"You sound like you're giving up already" Rio pointed out. "Like you're scared of even trying…"
"I'm not upset, and I'm not scared, not of death anyway" Toru fiddled with her fingers, "…I just…I dunno…thought maybe I'd be lucky or something, maybe get a little more time…"
"Are your family aware of this?" Aizawa softly spoke up, his drawl echoing around the small bathroom.
"Yeah…yeah, they know" Toru nodded, collapsing back against Oishii's chest. "Kenta & 'Toshi kinda just ignore it, y'know? They tend to just pretend that nothing's wrong. I dunno 'bout Ma…she kinda just complains about it a lot…and Gramps is kinda…stuck in his own thing at the mo', so y'know…" She shrugged helplessly. "It's there, but it's not there kinda thing. It's more like, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it"
"…Is there really nothing you can do?" Rio sniffed.
"It's just how it is" Toru sighed, "Unless you got a spare heart lying around?"