Shuttered storefronts, graffiti, homeless people, and buildings that needed to be repaired decades ago. That was the reality of the city streets Izuku found himself walking down with Ryukyu and Nejire-Chan on the second day of internships.
"Today we're doing a patrol that's not subsidized by the HPSC. This area has historically been the residence of day laborers and one of Tokyo's poorest areas," Ryukyu said, waving at nearby civilians who waved back.
Every person they passed on the sidewalk seemed to fawn over Ryukyu as if her very presence made their day. It wasn't a completely unusual response to a Hero in the top ten, but it was more than that. He could feel it, they weren't excited the way fans yesterday had been, they weren't excited at the novelty of seeing a real live Hero in the flesh. No, these people had hope welling up within them like they had just been saved.
"Why are we walking instead of flying?" Izuku asked since the last patrol had been almost exclusively in the air.
"Besides the fact that I got my ear chewed off for letting you hit Mach three on our way back to UA yesterday? Because it's important that they see us," Ryukyu said, trying to sound more annoyed at him than she was feeling.
"Seeing us gives civilians a sense of security and would-be Villains pause," Nejire-Chan expounded.
He heard what they weren't saying. These people weren't all that used to a Hero's presence…
A few minutes of walking later they arrived at a community center. Inside, the already large building was packed to capacity. There was a board that announced the various things that the community center offered and where. In the main hall was the food bank/free meals, and in various classrooms was a daycare, practical skills, substance abuse counselors, interview prep, computer lab, library, and one simply labeled medical.
"Once you're making Hero money, taking down Villains on the evening news, and signing merch deals, it's easy to forget that some people require help from things that can't be punched. Today we'll be volunteering here, we're already signed up as floaters, so pick an area to help. Talk to the people here, and more importantly, listen to them," Ryukyu said as they all took in the scene of the community center.
"I'm going to see if the daycare needs help!" Nejire declared, giving him a quick kiss before bouncing off. As she did, several people greeted her with familiarity.
"I will be helping in the interview prep area if you need me," Ryukyu stated before walking off unrushed, greeting those who approached her.
And suddenly, he was alone.
He mentally went over his choices. Daycare was his immediate first choice, but Nejire was already there so maybe there was an area where he could help more. The practical skills section was an option, he had picked up a few skills while helping Mei in her lab. He had no clue how he would help with substance abuse counseling or if he even could so that was out. Interview prep was out, seeing as he'd never even had a job, let alone an interview. He might be able to help in the computer lab, but he was no computer expert. The library might be fun. The kitchen was a solid choice. Lastly was Medical. If there were people there who were hurt, but not badly enough to warrant a hospital trip, he could help. If he could use Cell Activation, that is. As a Hero student on an internship, he was technically operating under Ryukyu's license while out on patrol, which this technically was. Nodding to himself, he decided he'd rather apologize than ask for permission. Besides, it wasn't like he was using a Quirk to fight Villains. Successfully self-validated, he made his way to Medical.
After passing through a pair of double doors, Izuku found the medical area.
It. Was. Packed.
Instead of a waiting room with chairs and a receptionist or two, the room was large like a school gym, and filled with cots separated by sheets of plastic on rails to give the patients a modicum of privacy. It reminded him a lot of UA's infirmary, just less well-maintained and overcrowded.
A harried-looking woman spotted him and waved him over. "Are you with Ryukyu? Please say yes," She asked, pushing up her fogged glasses with a wrist and begging with her bloodshot eyes.
"Yes, where can I help? I have a healing Quirk," Izuku added.
He expected the woman to put up some kind of resistance to the idea of him using a Quirk, but instead, her eyes misted up a bit and she dragged him over to a stick of a man who was holding a bandaid up to a woman who wore a wrist brace.
"This will help with the pain for as long as the bandaid stays on, just make sure you don't cover it. My Quirk only works if the bandaid is uncovered," The Doctor said.
"You have a healing Quirk?" The dark-skinned man asked after being introduced, blinking at least five times while asking the question as though actively fighting off sleep. "What exactly does it do?"
Izuku explained that Cell Activation helped repair and build new cells, provide stamina, fight off infection and viruses, and more.
Dr. Ine cupped his mouth in a palm and began to mutter to himself. Izuku was so relieved to find someone else with the habit that he nearly missed what Dr. Ine was saying.
"Fascinating, but what about cancer cells? Everyone has some and if the Quirk speeds up cell growth then I would assume the Quirk would propagate the cancer cells. No, if that was true he would have died of cancer years ago. It must avoid unhealthy cells while aiding healthy ones. What if…" Dr. Ine snapped his eyes to Izuku's suddenly, almost making him jump. "Use it on me."
And so Izuku did.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed now, Dr. Ine gestured to the middle-aged woman with the wrist brace after briefly introducing him.
"Ganto here has carpal tunnel syndrome from her work as a cashier. Careful, she's a stubborn one," He snarked, shooting the woman some side-eye.
The woman with graying brown hair scoffed. "I can't take four months off work to recover from surgery, I don't have that much paid time off! I can't afford to send my kids to their summer camps with their friends AND the unpaid time off from the surgery."
Most people would see the interaction, assume it was genuine conflict, and grow uncomfortable. Izuku however could read the nuance of their emotions. Where some would see conflict, he saw old friends who had grown to love and worry over each other. He saw a doctor who would push his patients to do what would make them healthier out of genuine care for their well-being. He saw a woman who had worked hard all her life and was too proud to stop providing for her family even if they would understand. He saw people.
"Miss? May I?" Izuku asked when his lightning-flecked eyes met hers, a glowing green hand outstretched in offer.
He could feel her warm up to him immediately. "Miss? Oh my, where did you find this one, Ine?"
Dr. Ine's face became pensive and held up a hand, making Izuku pause.
"You aren't pregnant, are you?" He asked the woman.
She just scoffed in answer and Dr. Ine gestured for Izuku to continue before Izuku could even think to ask a question.
Ganto took his hand with her brace-clad one and her entire body glowed, her eyes going wide at the effect. After about a minute, Izuku relinquished her hand. She rotated her wrist slowly and blinked. She tore off the brace and rotated her wrist again, experimentally. She let out a half-laugh, half-choked sob.
"There's no pain…gods, when was the last time it didn't hurt?" She asked herself before turning to him and bowing her head, her hair whipping about at the motion. "Thank you, Singularity. You may have just changed my life," She offered, her gratitude evident in her words and emotions.
He placed a hand on the woman's shoulder and gently righted her posture. When she was again looking him in the face, he beamed.
"Just glad I could help!"
After the woman had left, Izuku closed off the partition so that it was just him and the doctor.
"Hmm? What is it? Did you have a question?" Dr. Ine asked when he noticed.
"What is your Quirk?" Izuku asked.
Dr. Ine pulled out a bandaid box. "Bandaids I place dull any and all pain within a localized area without any of the nasty side effects of prescription pain medication. I have to place the bandage myself and it can't be covered, so no taping it on to make it last longer, unfortunately."
"Why do you help here? I'm sure you could be making more money at your own practice," Izuku said, careful to keep his words innocent and curious.
Dr. Ine scowled anyway. "Because nobody else will," He bit out.
Izuku smiled and held out a hand, palm up and glowing.
"I can sense that you are a good man, a man who puts others ahead of himself. I see the way the people here look to you, the way they rely on you. Because of that, I want to give you something. Take my hand and your Quirk will evolve, but please keep it between us."
Dr. Ine looked at him, skepticism written all over his face, but reached out a hand anyway and when he took Izuku's offered hand, his eyes glowed with power. He looked up at Izuku with awe, his eyes still aglow.
"Healing and now this?...Who are you…" He asked in a shocked whisper, like he was looking at a completely different person.
Green energy danced outwards from Izuku's pupils as he met the doctor's awestruck gaze, Blackwhip coiled around Izuku's arm like a curious pet, and crackling energy played across his skin.
"I am The Singularity."
Izuku watched Dr. Ine's face as the Hero name became something altogether more within the man's mind.
Izuku broke the man's trance by waving his hands about in excitement, like the 6'6" nerd he was.
"Let's see what your Quirk's evolution does!"
Dr. Ine eyebrows shot up into his thinning hairline.
"What are we waiting for!?" He asked, flinging open the partition and rushing to the next partitioned bed.
Izuku followed quickly, giddy at witnessing a new Quirk evolution.
His excitement dimmed when he saw the next patient, though he did his level best not to let it show on his face.
Sitting on a bed were three people, two large and one small. A man and a woman sat on either side of a girl only a few years older than Eri and Yuki. Izuku could tell the assumed parents were feeling tired and worried, but it was the girl who had caught his attention and dulled his excitement. She was bald, without eyebrows, and wore a pink lace bow wrapped around her head. She was quietly sniffling into her mother's chest. From what he could see of the girl's face, her cheekbones stuck out a little too much, her face a little too angular for what was healthy for a child her age. It wasn't necessarily the girl's heartbreaking appearance that had immediately captured Izuku's attention, it was her emotional state. An upset child was nothing new, but she wasn't just upset or grumpy. She was bone weary and in enough chronic pain to consume her thoughts, both something a child her age shouldn't have to experience.
Dr. Ine however, didn't falter for a moment. With a smile still in place, he crouched at the bedside.
"OH, noooo!" He exclaimed dramatically. "Why is my favorite patient crying?"
The girl continued to sniffle, but Izuku could feel her spirits lift.
"Hello, Doctor," The father greeted, eyeing Izuku with due suspicion.
"This is Singularity, he's a Hero intern with Ryukyu, he's playing assistant today. Singularity, this is the Kamiko family," Dr. Ine introduced.
The little girl looked up from her mother's embrace at the word 'Hero'.
"You're a Hero?" She asked with a final sniffle.
Izuku floated an inch or two off the ground with his fists on his hips and smiled broadly. Dr. Ine's eyes bulged at the display of another Quirk.
"Pretty much!"
The girl's face lit up. Joy and excitement bloomed within her, but the chronic pain and weariness within the girl swirled still, like an undertow at sea that threatened to drown any other emotions.
The mother spoke up as Izuku's armored red hightops touched the ground again.
"Minamoto was having a good day yesterday and feeling up to playing with her friends. She tripped and scraped her knee, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but she had to stop playing and I'm worried that it was the straw that broke the camel's back. She wanted to come get one of your special bandaids."
"I'm not a camel, Mommy," The little girl, Minamoto, giggled and Izuku could feel the effort it took.
"I have just the thing!" Dr. Ine announced. With much fanfare, he brandished a bright pink bandaid that sparkled in the light. He removed the bandage already over the scrape with a showman's flourish that distracted the child from the pain. After cleaning up the scrape, he peeled off the pink bandage and hovered it over the wound. "This will make it ALL better, my Dear!" He proclaimed and Izuku could sense Minamoto's belief in the words.
The instant the bandage was applied, the red and angry skin surrounding the wound returned to its normal color. Dr. Ine spun his head, his building eyes meeting Izuku's.
The little girl rubbed her knee. "It's all better! Mommy! It's all better! Does that mean I can play with my friends?" Minamoto asked excitedly even if the very act seemed to tire her.
The Mother eyed the Father before responding. "You seem tired, Sweety. Are you sure you don't want to rest up today and play tomorrow? Maybe you won't be as tired?" She tentatively proposed, careful not to outright refuse.
The little girl's shoulders slumped and she leaned into her Mother. "I am sleepy, but…" She began to choke up, frustrated tears springing to her eyes.
Izuku stepped in and lowered himself to a knee by the bed.
"Maybe I can help with that. I can give you some energy," Izuku said, a glowing hand outstretched.
The Father glanced from Izuku to the doctor and back again. "Is it safe?"
Dr. Ine nodded. "I've tested it myself."
"Go ahead," The father said.
Permission secured, Minamoto reached out, her small hand fitting within Izuku's palm. A gentle green emanated off the girl's entire body as Izuku's worry and heartbreak for the child faded, becoming fuel for Cell Activation. Minutes passed and Izuku could see Minamoto come more alive by the second. When he switched off his Quirk, Minamoto was glowing, and not from his Quirk. The undertow of chronic pain and weariness was gone now, at least temporarily, and in its place was a high tide of joy and energy. To his surprise, she leaped off the bed and threw her arms around him.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Minamoto exclaimed, her voice muffled against his Hero suit.
Once the family left, Dr. Ine rounded on Izuku.
"Did you see that?" Dr. Ine asked, his voice quiet and incredulous.
"Your Quirk? Ya, and I have a theory. I can sense emotions-" Izuku said, causing Dr. Ine's eyes to bulge again. "-and she believed you wholeheartedly when you said the bandage would make everything better. I think your Quirk might have something to do with the placebo effect."
Dr. Ine covered his mouth with a palm and began to mutter again.
"But it didn't make Minamoto's energy levels rise. Maybe because I implied it would make the injury better? Or because there's an upper limit? Gaslighting my patients into believing I can fix anything with a bandaid isn't very ethical. I'll just give examples of what I've healed while keeping the details vague, letting their imaginations take over. Will be more effective on children. With training, it may grow stronger!"
After clearing the medical area of patients, Izuku was now helping in the kitchens. Blackwhip filled the air of the kitchen with hundreds of tendrils as it did the work of a dozen people. Izuku levitated at the center of the large restaurant-style kitchen, supervising his Quirk in a sense.
Along the walls of the kitchen, other volunteers cheered, laughed, or otherwise gawked.
That was how Ryuko found him.
"I leave you alone for two hours…" She sighed upon seeing him. "Come on, they want us to sign some autographs before we go back on patrol."
After finishing prepping next week's meals for the community center, Izuku followed Ryukyu to the library. At a wooden table normally used for quiet reading, Nejire was already signing autographs for a gaggle of young children who were chattering excitedly. Among the children and fitting right in with the other energetic kids was Minamoto.
Ryukyu took her place at the center of the table and Izuku took his place at her side. A line began to form and they began giving autographs. He had doubted he would get many, if any people looking to get his autograph specifically. He was surprised to find a handful of people recognizing him from the sports festival. He was humbled when some of the people he had healed came to find him and ask for autographs. He was having one of the best days of his life when something came to his attention, sobering him up in an instant.
He was flourishing a signature with almost too much gusto when the emotions of someone in Ryukyu's line caught his attention. It was an attractive woman with red skin and knifelike horns that protruded from the upper corners of her hairline. She was wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt, nothing that would normally stand out, but every eye in the room seemed to gravitate to her every few seconds. She had inky black hair, a heart-shaped face, red irises with black sclera, narrow shoulders, a gravity-defying chest that was just short of being so big that it was more strange than attractive, wide hips that seemed to pop with every step, a flat stomach, and legs for days. Ok, attractive may have been a massive understatement, the woman looked like she had been made in a lab. Attractiveness aside, the woman's emotions were what really caught Izuku's attention. She was nervous, and not in the 'meeting a top ten Hero' type of nervous. She was nervous in the 'building up the courage to do something truly crazy' type of nervous. Izuku tensed as the woman moved forward in the line, her eyes a little wild and pointedly not looking at Ryukyu. The whole thing was setting off alarm bells for Izuku. Heroes getting attacked while they were distracted with fans was unfortunately not unheard of and not nearly rare enough. Blackwhip coiled along his arm like a rattlesnake ready to strike, drawing a few "ooohs" and "Ahhs" from the crowd.
"Relax, you'll scare her off," Ryukyu whispered out of the corner of her smiling mouth.
Izuku relaxed only marginally as he continued to greet people and sign his signature, all the while keeping the red-skinned bombshell in his peripheral. When she was just about to step in front of Ryukyu, she met his lightning-flecked eyes. She froze mid-step, fear sluicing through her aura. She looked ready to bolt.
"Akane! It's so good to see you!" Ryukyu greeted, shooting Izuku some side-eye.
The woman, Akane, startled before turning her attention to Ryukyu.
"Hey, Ryukyu," Akane greeted, her eyes darting back to Izuku for a second. "Can I get an autograph? My nephew lost the last one I got him."
The woman's emotions wavered like the flame of a candle when a window or door was shut. She was lying, but why?
"He sure is the forgetful type," Ryukyu lied.
Ryukyu signed a magazine with herself on the cover. As she slid the magazine back, she subtly slid a loose piece of paper from the magazine and palmed it. The movement was so deft that Izuku barely noticed, despite being on high alert.
"Thanks," Akane said, sparring him one more worried glance before weaving her way out of the crowd.
Once the lines had died down, Izuku watched as Ryukyu pulled out the slip of paper and read along with Ryukyu in silence.
"The supplier will be here at 11:00 pm Friday," Was scrawled on the note along with an address.
Ryukyu drew in a breath through her nose. "We're leaving, the rest of the patrol is canceled," She said quickly and evenly.
Nejire leaned in to read as well.
"We finally have actionable intel?" She asked in a near whisper, hope filling her emotions.
"Yes, I have a lot of phone calls to make," Ryukyu said.
"Can someone please explain?" Izuku asked, tired of being out of the loop even if he had no real right to be in it.
Ryukyu met his eyes for a long moment before explaining in a hushed whisper.
"Akane is an informant of mine, she works at a high-end and less-than-legal hostess bar in Kamino ward. Her Quirk is called 'Succubus' and she learns a lot from pillow talk if you catch my meaning."
"She's a prostitute?" Izuku asked, just to clarify.
"Yes, she craves sex like Himiko craves blood," Nejire answered.
"And the note? Supplier of what?" Izuku asked.
"Trigger," Ryukyu answered this time. "We catch dealers all the time, they're always just two-bit gang members selling out their neighborhood for some easy cash. The problem is, nobody's ever caught a supplier. Not once. Not in the ten years the drug's been around. This is the best chance we've ever had."
"He deserves to know the whole truth, he's in this now," Nejire said.
Ryukyu squinted at Izuku for a moment before relenting.
"My agency has had a long-term goal of catching a Trigger supplier. We discovered something while researching the drug," She said, her eyes darting around for eavesdroppers before whispering, "The drug contains human DNA, but not enough to get a match in a database".
Izuku's eyes darted to Nejire and she nodded, she knew what conclusion he had immediately come to.
There was someone out there being used the same way Eri had been, the realization making his stomach flip and his blood boil.