The air was buzzing with tension in the meeting room on the second floor of Sir Nighteye's hero agency. The heroes seated at the table were silent, but there was a growing awareness between them that somebody had to say something eventually. How did one continue a discussion about human experimentation? It would be hard for a master conversationalist, and Izuku was not that kind of person. He and Hitoshi shared a look, and it was clear from the expression on Hitoshi's face that he too had no idea what to say after a revelation like that. Luckily, neither of the boys ended up having to be the one to break the tense silence that had filled the air between the heroes present.
"So, where do we go from here?" Centipeder asked.
"I believe that Midoriya's deduction is the most likely answer," Sir Nighteye said. "Bubble Girl, you will continue looking into this. We need to know what the Quirk Factor within the weapon is. Determine to the best of your ability the effects of the power utilised by the dart."
"Yes, sir!" Bubble Girl said with a salute.
"Mirio," Nighteye said. "Continue your patrols. Centipeder, business as usual." He paused for a moment, and then his eyes slid over to Izuku and Hitoshi, who awaited instructions that did not come.
"Sir, what can we do to help?" Izuku asked.
"You may help," Sir Nighteye declared, though he didn't sound excited about it. "Midoriya, was your patrol with Lemillion enlightening?"
"Yes, it was," Izuku said, frowning. "I was shown just how hard I'll have to work if I want to be the number one hero someday. It's something I already knew, but to have the difference between me and a real pro made so obvious was eye-opening. I have a long way to go."
"Yes, that's … good," Nighteye said. It did not sound like that was the word he had been wanting to say at that moment, but Izuku was not going to tempt fate and ask what the matter with him was.
Sir Nighteye paused for a while, silent and staring at the door at the far end of the room from where the group had sat. His heavy gaze never moved from that one spot, and if one of his fingers hadn't been tapping at the back of his other hand as he ruminated, he might've seemed to be asleep with his eyes open. Sir's eyes were sharper than ever, though. They might've flashed one or two times behind his glasses, but it could've been a trick of the light. After about a minute, Nighteye corrected his posture, which had become hunched, and turned to glare at the two students.
"Midoriya, you will work with Bubble Girl in determining the Quirk Factor within the dart. Shinso, you will go with Lemillion on patrol."
"Yes, sir!" Izuku said, in sync with Hitoshi as he said, "Got it."
The meeting was adjourned after the heroes had heard their orders. Sir stayed behind in the meeting room to, according to him, think things through. When the sidekicks and the interns had vacated the room and exited into the hall, Lemillion immediately cracked a small smile.
"I've never seen Sir be that shocked by a student before!" Lemillion said, turning to meet Izuku's eyes.
"Me?" Izuku asked.
"All he did was raise his eyebrows a little bit. Is that really something?" Hitoshi asked.
"Absolutely," Bubble Girl added, the gloomy expression on her face not vanishing as easily as Lemillion's. "Sir's as strict as they come. That little eyebrow raise is like Endeavor shaking the hand of a hero who beat a villain faster than he did. It doesn't happen."
"Huh," Hitoshi said with a little smirk on his face. "That means you're smarter than he thought."
"It was a lucky guess," Izuku said. "Sir said it was the most likely answer. He didn't say that I was correct."
"That's because he doesn't know the true answer, either," Bubble Girl said. When Izuku looked at her with wide-eyed surprise, she smiled slightly. "You got to an answer faster than him. Take pride in that, Midoriya."
"Okay," Izuku said, his face heating up a bit at the compliments.
"Speaking of finding the true answer to this mystery, that's our job now. Come on, rookie," Bubble Girl said, beginning to walk down the hall the opposite way that Izuku, Lemillion and Centipeder had approached from.
"And we better hit the streets, bud!" Lemillion said, turning to Hitoshi, who looked dead inside as they began to head toward the stairs. "Hey, I just realised that you look like Eraserhead. He was my hero course teacher during my first year at UA. Is he yours? Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself here – what's your hero name?"
"Kill me now," Hitoshi muttered, and it was barely audible through the layers of his binding cloth and across the distance between Hitoshi and Izuku.
"That's a weird codename to have for a hero," Lemillion said with a laugh. "I'm not really one to judge, though." As he and Hitoshi walked further away, their conversation faded out, and Izuku was left with Bubble Girl, and he had to try his very best to hold back all his questions that immediately came to mind.
Bubble Girl escorted Izuku to her workspace. It was less like an office and more like a laboratory, with dozens of vials of chemicals labelled and stored on a shelf that took up an entire wall. There were dozens of machines and tools present on the desks and tables, gadgets that Izuku couldn't even put a name to if he tried. He did recognise a centrifuge, sitting on the floor for some reason, but beyond that everything inside Bubble Girl's workstation was far above his level. She started to smile once again when she saw how lost he was and explained her role in the agency. Izuku wasn't sure he liked that the thing that had broken her out of the dark headspace she'd been in was amusement at his expense, but he listened eagerly and took in all the information he could regarding how things worked in a real hero agency.
"I process the material evidence that Sir and Lemillion bring in, the stuff that's not handed over to the cops. Like the darts you gave us. I guess you could call what I do forensic investigation, but I basically just figure out what's what and put a name tag on it, so we don't have to go searching through years' worth of files if something from a past case becomes relevant again for whatever reason," Bubble Girl said.
"Is that what that is?" Izuku asked, gesturing to the wall of vials containing assorted substances.
"Ah, no," Bubble Girl chuckled, her face turning a darker shade of blue. It took Izuku a moment to realise that that was how she blushed. "That's my personal collection. It's for my Quirk."
"Your Quirk is called Bubble, right?" Izuku asked, his hand twitching toward the pouch on his belt that contained his notebook.
"How'd you know?" Bubble Girl asked, her whole expression brightening at the change of topic.
Izuku hesitated; it was always embarrassing to admit his hobby to actual heroes. "I'm a big hero fan. I don't know much about you and your power, though, since it's my understanding that you prefer support to frontline fighting."
"That's true. My Quirk isn't suited to battle, so I like to hang back and help those who can tangle with villains as best I can. It's not very flashy, but it's a job that needs doing," Bubble Girl sighed.
"That's really cool!" Izuku said.
"But enough about me," Bubble Girl said, moving over to a table with the red and blue darts sat atop it. The dart had the cap with the needle removed, and around it sat three vials; one was filled with a black substance, labelled Trigger, another was filled with a red liquid, and Izuku didn't need the label to figure out what that one was, and another was filled with something clear and was labelled Various. Izuku realised that Bubble Girl must have separated the components of the dart's contents and then figured out what they were, instead of the other way around. "Let's figure this thing out., shall we?"
"How does it work?" Izuku asked, standing across the table from Bubble Girl.
"Well, the obvious thing would be to run the DNA through a criminal database. That way, we can see if the blood belongs to someone who's already a criminal. Then it's a matter of tracking down their known associates and asking them where this person might be. If they're not in the DNA database, it gets a little bit trickier. We can run it through a few similar lists, like Quirk registries and databases dedicated to tracking those with rare diseases. If that doesn't work, we might have to hit the books and construct a profile of this person's Quirk Factor ourselves and compare it to the usual expressions of the three most common types," Bubble Girl explained. "That'd only be if we get desperate, though, so we probably won't have to do that."
Izuku wished that he could agree with her confidence. Somehow, though, he doubted that things would be easy for them. Over the next few minutes, Bubble Girl inserted the vial of blood into a machine that she called the blood machine for simplicity, but which was really a haematology analyser, and waited for the analysis of the blood to be complete. While the machine was working its magic, Bubble Girl spent the time asking Izuku about himself, which he hadn't been prepared for whatsoever. He answered questions about what his hero name was — having to explain that twice in one day was an odd experience — his Quirk — lying about it never felt good, especially to somebody who hadn't done anything wrong by asking — and what life at UA was like — apparently, Bubble Girl had gone to Ketsubutsu for high school. By the time Bubble Girl's curiosity about UA was satisfied, the blood had been analysed, and it turned out that there was nothing unusual about it, so it likely wouldn't turn up any results if they searched any registries related to obscure diseases. Bubble Girl put the blood into a DNA sequencer next.
In return for answering all of her questions, Bubble Girl answered all of Izuku's questions about her Quirk. Apparently, her Quirk didn't just produce bubbles. She could alter what they smelled like, so the shock of smelling something foul could throw villains off for the second or so she needed to make an opening in combat, and sweet smells could comfort children, or other people in distress. She explained that she could only replicate smells that she'd smelled before, so that made seeking out repulsive smells to use against villains not fun. Izuku wrote every detail down, and wondered out loud about the mutations throughout and around Bubble Girl's central nervous system that would be necessary in order for her Quirk to work the way it did. Smell was a fundamental sense of the human body, so a Quirk that altered the way that worked so that her body somehow remembered and could reproduce any smell on command was impressive. The amount of micro-mutations that had to have happened at such a sweeping scale within her body was staggering to Izuku.
"Your friend was right," Bubble Girl said, bringing Izuku's attention away from his notes. "Not many people your age think like you do."
"Oh," Izuku said, frowning. "Is that bad?"
"No, just different." Bubble Girl laughed. "I used to carry around a little journal, too. I used it to remember the names of smells I liked. Other kids who didn't have Quirks like mine used to tease me about it, but I wish I had kept it."
"I got made fun of a lot for my notebook, too," Izuku said with a heaviness he hadn't intended. "People thought I was some kind of stalker or something."
"Well, screw those kids. I think anybody is better for having worked out their brain as well as their muscles!" Bubble Girl cheered. "Can I see?"
Izuku hadn't always been comfortable with people looking at the contents of his notes, mostly because his peers in middle school would always be disturbed that he thought so much about their Quirks. But he didn't feel like he was going to get judged by Bubble Girl, so he opened his notebook and flipped to a random page before sliding it over to her. She picked it up and eagerly read through the page she'd been given. Her eyebrows rose, and she made a little hum of surprise, before flipping the page and whistling.
"These drawings aren't bad either," Bubble Girl said with a grin. "Mt Lady, huh?"
"Yeah, I was there for her debut!" Izuku said, before realising what Bubble Girl had to mean. His face grew hot and he waved his hands in denial. "Wait, she posed like that for the cameras. I didn't want to draw her that way."
"Right, that's what they all say." Bubble Girl laughed at the same time that the DNA sequencer chimed, seemingly finished analysing the genetic sample it had been given. "Oh, let's take a look at this!"
As it turned out, the DNA of the person whose blood was in the dart hadn't been in any kind of criminal database, nor was the Quirk Factor within the DNA recorded in the national Quirk Registry. That meant that, aside from their last resort method of finding out what the person's name and Quirk were, they had come to a dead end. However, they did have that last resort. Bubble Girl put a visualisation of the Quirk Factor within the blood up onto a screen, and Izuku had no idea how to read what he was looking at. She then brought out a book titled Quirk Theory Volume 1, seemingly a textbook for some foreign school, given that it was written in English. Izuku wasn't the greatest in his class at speaking English, but he could read it just fine, so he cracked it open and read the part about how to find out what a Quirk Factor's expression might look like by the standard for visualising the genetic material that made up the Plus Alpha elements in a person's DNA. He sat there for about an hour reading and rereading that specific part of the book, passing it off to Bubble Girl and taking it back again as they familiarised themselves with the method through which they could identify the Quirk being used by the dart. Eventually, Izuku felt like he could try to piece together the Quirk Factor, and brought out his notebook for help in keeping his thoughts ordered. Every single time he'd analysed a Quirk in the past, he'd had some information to build upon in his notes. That was not the case here. Izuku was going to have to push himself if he wanted to figure this one out. He was not going to fail.
"According to Quirk Theory, a heteromorphic Quirk is ruled out immediately," Izuku thought out loud. "There's not a lot of indication given these markers that the Plus Alpha elements target the Quirk user themself. That same fact rules out a transformation Quirk as well. Does that sound right?"
Bubble Girl sat across from him and peered down at the page of Quirk Theory that was open between them. "Sounds good to me. Emitter it is. But there are some markers that share commonalities with heteromorphism, like this one here." She pointed to one of the genetic markers that matched with what the book said was typical for mutations in the structure of a person's skeleton. "Could this person's Quirk be the power to control bones, and the dart allows the person to control their own skeleton to empower themself?"
"Maybe." Izuku didn't think so, but wrote it down anyway. There were no wrong answers when they knew so little. "Maybe it's vestigial, and that's why the indicators are so isolated. I have classmates that have heteromorph features they inherited from their parents, but their actual Quirks are unrelated to their mutations. A friend of mine makes acid, but she has pink skin and … horns. Her Quirk Factor would probably look a lot like this, actually. Maybe this person has horns?"
"That could be it!" Bubble Girl grinned. "And look here. These markers around the heteromorphic aspect look like the signature of an electricity Quirk. See?"
"You're right," Izuku said, turning to the page on how the author of the Quirk Theory book, a doctor of biology named Victor Reed, informed the reader of how electricity Quirks — a common, simple kind of power that had popped up early into the age of superhumans alongside other elemental powers — functioned and how to spot their Plus Alpha elements. "The elements around the mutation look like e-cells. My first guess, judging by the structure of these elements, is that the person's Quirk uses the heteromorphic feature, which might be horns, as a kind of conductor for the energy these e-cells absorb, either from within the body or from the area around them. Then, because most of these indicators are in line with Emitter Quirks, my guess is that they can then shoot that energy out at people!"
Izuku made a quick movement with his hands to emulate shooting a beam of energy in his excitement, and immediately realised that he was getting too worked up about this. He went to dial his enthusiasm back a bit, but Bubble Girl met him on his level and cheered, "Yes!"
"But what does the energy do?" Izuku asked, letting the smile back onto his face when he realised that he didn't have to pretend he wasn't having fun. Getting to do his favourite hobby for pay? This was incredible. "If it was just an electricity Quirk, surely there are better ways to make an electric bullet. Just buy a taser.'
"That's a good point," Bubble Girl mumbled. "These e-cells don't look exactly the same as the ones in the book, so maybe the Quirk doesn't work with electricity, but some other kind of energy?"
"Most likely, yeah," Izuku said, writing it down in his notes.
The hypothesis underlined in dark lines on the page under the heading Mystery Quirk was that the Quirk in question gathered energy through a heteromorphic feature akin to horns and then did something with it, most likely expel it onto a target other than the Quirk user themself.
Pride swelled in Izuku's chest and Bubble Girl congratulated him on finding that much in just one day, and shut him down when he tried to say that he couldn't have gotten that far without her help. A light argument then followed, where Izuku refused to take all the credit for how much of this Quirk they'd uncovered in just one day and Bubble Girl vehemently insisted that he accept the praise that she was sending his way. After all the time he'd spent at UA, Izuku still had trouble casually accepting compliments. It just felt like he was indirectly bragging, and that was the last thing that he wanted to do. He also had a hard time accurately measuring his abilities. Izuku could see that, objectively, he and Bubble Girl had done something impressive by even halfway deciphering the Quirk within the dart with the limited resources they had. It was still hard to say out loud that he was the one who'd helped in doing that. In his mind, he was just a kid, engaging in this hobby he'd had for as long as he could remember. He'd almost forgotten that he'd been doing hero work while he and Bubble Girl had sat and talked about this mysterious Quirk for hours on end. He didn't think he'd done anything all that impressive until they'd taken it to Sir. When Bubble Girl was finished explaining what they'd found, he sat there for a long time, mulling it over with his eyes fixed on the plain wooden surface of his desk.
"Good. I can use that data, and the DNA scan, to more thoroughly search through the Quirk registry and DNA database. Unfortunately, our systems only look for close matches. Even distant relatives are useful to us, so I will search overnight. Excellent work, Bubble Girl. I trust that Midoriya was not too much of a hindrance?" Nighteye said.
"Actually, sir," Bubble Girl said with a sly smirk. Izuku was about to ask her not to revive the argument in front of Sir Nighteye, but she spoke before he could. "Midoriya did most of the work. He's something of a Quirk expert."
"Not an expert," Izuku said quickly, shifting his gaze to Sir. "And I've never done it like this. Normally I'd just do practical observations, figure out new uses for Quirks that I already know a good bit about. Doing this with DNA itself is new to me. Bubble Girl's help made it possible for me to add anything to her work." Izuku paused for a moment, before turning to Bubble Girl.
"I don't want to hear your justifications, I just want results, and results I have," Sir Nighteye said, glaring at Izuku. "Well done." He seemed to hesitate before adding, "Both of you."
"Thank you, sir!" Bubble Girl cheered.
"Thank you," Izuku added a moment later.
"You are dismissed," Sir said.
Out in the hall, Izuku checked his phone to discover that it was later than he'd thought. Hours had passed while he and Bubble Girl had been putting together their hypothesis, as opposed to the minutes it had felt like at the time. He guessed that the saying really was true; time really did fly when you were having fun. His first day as an intern at the Nighteye Agency had ended, and it was time to relax and rest before their work continued in the morning. Izuku and Bubble Girl went their separate ways, and he found his way to the living spaces for employees, which was really a lounge with a series of doors that led to cramped rooms with single beds inside and not much else. Izuku found Hitoshi halfway sitting, halfway laying on one of the sofas in the lounge. His arrival prompted Hitoshi to sit up and greet him with a lazy wave. Izuku went over and sat on one of the single recliners, his whole body relaxing into it after such a long day. He couldn't believe that it had only been about ten hours since he'd had to defend his right to One For All to Sir Nighteye, and now they were more or less past it. That felt weird to Izuku, like it had been too easy, but he figured that Nighteye hadn't accepted him as All Might's successor any more than he had that morning. They had bigger problems than their personal disagreement.
"I wish Tsu were here," Hitoshi said. "They'd get along great with that Lemillion guy. And that means that I wouldn't have to talk to him."
Izuku didn't have a retort to that. His feelings about Lemillion were still mixed up. He thought that they could be friendly coworkers if Izuku could forget about what Sir Nighteye had said. Every time Lemillion proved that he was just as great as Sir had said he was, it felt like it also confirmed that everything he'd said about Izuku was also true. He sighed and sunk into his seat.
"What do you actually think about him?" Izuku asked. "Don't go for a joke or a deflection. Do you think what Nighteye said is right? Is he better than me?"
"Obviously," Hitoshi grumbled. When he looked over and noticed Izuku's shocked expression, he frowned. "He's older than you, bigger than you, more experienced than you. Of course he's a better hero than you. I saw him out on patrol, the guy's kind of a beast. And it's unavoidable that people are gonna think of All Might when they see that stupid face of his. He's got that aura, too. I didn't do anything out on patrol with him today because he's crazy strong. He's perfect and it weirds me out."
"So you think I should give him One For All?" Izuku asked, his voice small.
"Hell no!" Hitoshi shouted.
"You're confusing me," Izuku said.
"Your power is yours. You get to decide what to do with it," Hitoshi said with a sigh. "I know what I think you should do, but what I think doesn't matter. I don't get a say. Neither does Nighteye. It's your Quirk, not his. What do you want?"
Izuku looked up at the ceiling, and didn't have to think about how to answer that question. "I want to use this power to save people," he said.
"Then don't give it away," Hitoshi said with a gesture that probably meant, see? "Simple as that."
"Thank you," Izuku sighed. "I know that giving One For All away would be the end of my dream. I don't even know why I'm thinking about it. It's like Sir just got in my head and I couldn't get him out."
"Hey, I'm pretty good at mind games myself, and trust me — he used all the textbook moves on you," Hitoshi said. "Guy's trying to screw with you, so don't let him."
"I won't. He's not going to get his way. All Might chose me," Izuku said, lowering his gaze to Hitoshi.
"Now I really wish Tsu were here. They're better at this stuff, too," Hitoshi muttered.
"Yeah, I wish Ochako could be here. Everything feels easier when she's around for some reason," Izuku said.
"That's because you love her, idiot," Hitoshi said with a snort of a laugh.
"Yeah," Izuku said. "I haven't said that to her, not since we actually made things sort of official, but yeah."
"What's the deal with you two now, anyway? Are you dating?" Hitoshi asked.
"Sure, if that's what you wanna call it," Izuku said. "I don't think we ever gave it a name, we only decided that we weren't just friends anymore."
"You were never just friends." Hitoshi laughed again.
"Maybe," Izuku said, laughing softly as well. "After the last few weeks, I can't see why I ever tried to hide the way I felt. I guess I was just scared. Kinda like with Nighteye and One For All. I've obviously considered before that someone other than a scrawny, apparently Quirkless middle school student would've been a better person to give the power to. I think that's what let him get in my head so much. I was already worrying about all the things he was saying. But All Might didn't choose me because I was already a great hero. He chose me because he believed that I could be using his power. My power." Izuku looked Hitoshi in the eye with a smile. "Thanks again."
"Don't mention it. Please, don't. I'm too tired to keep sitting here and letting you bask in my infinite wisdom," Hitoshi said, standing up and stretching. "Let's see if I have a shot at sleep tonight."
"Right," Izuku said, standing up.
The two boys went to bed after their enlightening chat. Izuku felt at peace now that he had sorted out his feelings. He knew exactly what he wanted now. All he had to do was get it, and he was well on his way to that end. For the first time in months, he rested easy knowing that he was working toward fixing his mistakes and making it back to the people he cared about, the person he loved. It wasn't the end of the world if he wasn't good enough right then and there. He was growing all the time, learning something new about himself, the world, and One For All every day. Izuku had time to grow up. Maybe Sir Nighteye couldn't see that given how much he was used to skipping ahead into the future on account of his Quirk, but Izuku was okay with taking his time. He couldn't see the future, but he could see his past and his present, and that was all he needed to know that things would turn out fine if everyone gave it their all, plus ultra style.