MHA Chaos' Whims Chapter 50: Strange Timing (Patreon)

“And when did you first notice this?”

“Last year, around the time I started using my quirk more.”

“Can you demonstrate one of these abilities?”

Nezu had found Akaguro to be an interesting one on account of his simple reasons for attending U.A. alongside the resilience he seemed to have towards what could be labeled a traumatic, or at least defining, moment. Curiosity was a natural part of that, and not one to ever let his go unanswered, he had reviewed plenty of the information on file about Bloodboost as well as Akaguro’s performance in class so far.

Raising his hand, flames, a hot orange and subtly dancing about, enveloped it, Akaguro appearing to be in full control of the display.

A classic case of quirk misidentification? That theory, while more than possible, was set aside for others. Common as it was, the early quirk examinations the majority of people went through these days far from comprehensive, quirks that made use of controlled substances were always given more attention. His ability to use blood had led to tests those with more simplistic quirks didn’t have to go through.

Akaguro possessed as specialized organ connected to his digestive tract. When he consumed blood, that organ acted as starting line for where his quirk and its effects began.

It could still be a misidentification but from what Nezu had seen so far and what he read, there could be just as many ways to explain what he was seeing.

“How interesting.” Nezu said, nodding for Akaguro. Flames vanishing without a hint of a struggle, he dropped his hand, no burns left on his skin. Nothing about what he knew of Bloodboost offered any resistance or control over fire, but it was more than capable of changing his biology; perhaps the type of blood or amount had more effects than simple enhancement or healing. “This is a significant aspect of your quirk. I assume you’re aware that updating your quirk registration would’ve been a mandatory step to take.”

Akaguro nodded. This new information not withstanding, he truly was an interesting one. His exhaustion was clear enough to those with a keen enough eye, and completely inline if his quirk had produced an entire organ and all that came with it, but he was far calmer than any student should be when confronted by their principal about ignoring the law.

“Is there a reason you’ve neglected to do so?”

“Paranoia, I guess.” He admitted, Nezu feeling even more curious. “Do you know about the incident I was involved in last year? Even before I learned my quirk could heal me, I was doing a lot of research about them. Plenty of it just sounded like conspiracy theory talk but I read about enough things happening to people with strong quirks to hold off on it.”

“The healing part already makes me stand out. I wanted to make sure I could defend myself and my aunt if any of that stuff turned out to be true before I did.” Akaguro finished.

An aspiring hero jumping over the fame and attention his quirk could’ve given him in favor of being cautious. A promising youth at that. Paranoid as it may have been, Nezu knew better than most that the cruelest things humans were capable of could often be aimed at their own. Even worse, it wasn’t just villains responsible for such things.

Some might say villains and government officials were synonyms at times.

It was safe to assume that the only reason Akaguro was in his office now was because of the extent of the changes to his body. Any number of quirks would’ve been able to pick up on appearance of a second heart.

“I’m glad you brought this to my attention. I’ll need you to head to the nurse’s office for a checkup and some proper rest.” Nezu said, hopping out of his chair and rounding the desk. “For now, we’ll put off updating your quirk registry. Until I speak with you again about how to properly handle it, I’ll keep the full extent of your quirk to myself.”

As the principal of a hero school, he couldn’t outright say Akaguro had done the right thing, but his paranoia wasn’t unfounded, and, at the very same time, as the principal of U.A. the wellbeing and futures of every student here was his top concern.

If Akaguro’s quirk could change his body to point of producing and controlling flames or the other things he mentioned, functionally showing what could all be mistaken for completely unrelated quirks to Bloodboost, that would’ve made him the center of focus for quite a number of people, both good and bad.

It certainly made him all the more intriguing.

The recent break in that allowed those swarms of reporters to trespass onto academy grounds was no mere accident, their entire front gate reduced to a pile of ash. The actions of one overzealous citizen with a powerful quirk or a sign of someone or someones probing at the school’s security?

Strange timing all around, but for now, keeping the details of what had been shared today off Akaguro’s records would be for the best, least he end up targeted if the latter proved to be true.

Luckily, young as he was, he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders.

Willingly stifling himself for the safety of those around him was a good sign for a hero in training.

A nearly pure white room with hospital beds, dividers, and all the other typical stuff needed to monitor a patient on one side, with a desk, computer, and cabinets upon cabinets of medicine on the other. That whole operating room back on that ship had put me off from these kinds of places but at least there weren’t any ominously robed robots waiting to stab at and cut me open.

“You’re quite the durable one, aren’t you dearie.” Recovery Girl, an older woman with dark graying hair pulled into a bun and a helmet running around the sides of her head that kept a thick purple visor over her eyes, said as she leaned back, looking over the bent tip of the needle she’d been trying to stab into me.

“Sorry.” I said as she hopped off her seat, pure white doctor’s coat trailing across the ground as she looked through one of the nearby cabinets. I didn’t intend on trying it, but I was pretty sure unless it was to my eye, low caliber bullets would be lucky to do anything more than leave a bruise on me at this point. If they managed that at all.

I doubted there would ever be a situation where I was looking back and thinking the surgery hadn’t been worth it.

“No need to apologize, honey. Our quirks are what they are.” Finding whatever she was looking for, she smiled up at me as she lightly flicked the tip of a fresh syringe, needle a different shade than the other. “You don’t think you’re the first thick skinned patient to come through here, do you? We’ll make it work.”

She said that but as she tried again, putting even more force behind that unusual syringe, my skin refused to break.

“I’ve got it.” I said, raising and straightening out my other hand. A quick swipe before she could think to stop me and I cut open my palm. Precise, combined with the surgery and everything I learned from the Thunder Breathing skill made it easy to use my own strengthened body as a blade if need be. “I would hurry, it looks like the bleeding is already slowing.”

“That’s one way to do it but remember that you’re here to rest, honey.” Recovery Girl chided me while bringing the needle over to collect some of my blood. “That Midoriya boy is already shaping up to be a regular and I don’t need another. Try to be a little more cautious about hurting yourself.”

I nodded, quietly accepting the small lecture she broke out into about health.

I wasn’t too worried about what any tests or scans would reveal. Everything stuffed into my body was biological in nature and made to match me through whatever technology and advancements they had in that other world, so there wasn’t going to be any cybernetics or metallic abnormalities calling things into question. On that same note, despite my body recognizing all the additions as part of itself, nothing that came from the surgery was encoded into my actual DNA.

We’d never had to figure it out, but if Himiko’s quirk worked solely based off that, she was never going to be able to make herself into a perfect copy of me anymore if that was the case. I’m sure she’d find that frustrating, but I liked the benefits. Blood alone wasn’t going to be enough to land me in some cliché movie where a proper clone of me was running around. If someone wanted to quickly replicate all these organs I now had, they’d need to rip them out or trap me for study and I’d have much bigger problems to worry about if either was going on.

A shame that I probably wouldn’t be able to pass all this on to a kid though. At least the Kure trait should show up. However they turned out, I’d be surprised if a kid Himiko and I had couldn’t at least defend themselves.

Kind of made me wonder what our quirks would come together and produce. A quirk that could actually copy and create strengthened versions of people’s quirks through the digestion of blood sounded awesome. Maybe even better than what I had if the quirks copied were permanent.

…is this the kind of thought process that led to the whole social services case that was Endeavor? Best to just leave these kinds of things as entertaining thoughts rather than turning to the obsessive mess he’d been.

I entertained a few more quirk outcomes while Recovery Girl carried out a bunch of different tests.

Principal Nezu didn’t know about the Chaos Gacha itself, but keeping him looped in on a portion of what I could do should help things go smoothly in the future.

“He’s really out cold…” Himiko whispered, poking at Katsu’s cheek.

Uniform left hanging on the couch’s edge, he was face down in their bed in nothing but sweatpants. He hadn’t bothered to cover himself up with the sheets or even fully get on the bed, his feet hanging off the edge as he slept.

After spending most of the school day in the nurse’s office, he’d been ordered to go home early. Knowing Katsu, she’d expected to get a text that he was off at the park training, see him waiting for her after the school day ended for the rest of them, or to come home and find him in the middle of studying or cooking.

But nope. He was really just in bed and asleep, none of her gentle pokes stirring him or the still ringing alarm from his vibrating phone, set just before school would’ve ended.

Good. This guy needed to actually sleep. He shouldn’t have bothered going to school at all in her opinion; who did something like that fresh off a surgery of any kind?

This workaholic apparently.

The same workaholic that loved her.

Smiling widening, she poked his cheek one last time, admiring his peaceful expression before turning off his alarm, standing up and clapping her own face. This was her chance to shine. She might not be as good of a cook as him, but she could surprise him with something good to eat. It couldn’t be that hard to make one of the meals he’d planned on making them.

She stepped away from the bed and rounded the corner, looking between it and the thin wall separated the kitchen.

The hard part would be not waking him up. Did she have to worry about that with how tired he was?

Soft knocks came from the door. “Hey, it’s me, Ochaco.”

Perfect. Maybe she wouldn’t mind letting her borrow her kitchen?

(A/N: In a bit of a rush since I want to get this done a bit earlier than usual. Going out for my birthday. Hope anyone else who has theirs today enjoy it and those who don't live long enough to see their next and many many more.

Anyways, Katsu obviously hasn't revealed the entirety of the Chaos Gacha nor every ability he has. Honestly, other than Toga and his aunt, I don't see most people hearing a thing about it outside of the far far future, possibly epilogue level future, and even then, probably just restrained to family/harem. We'll see how things go on that end though. Could always get a roll that blows that expectation out of the water.

Anyways, I'm out!