Quirk Evolution
“Speech” Thoughts
Hope you like it ;;
Izuku woke up to the beeping of machines, and a splitting headache that was probably the worst he had ever had. Instead of doing the idiot thing of sitting up, Izuku just groaned loudly to notify whoever was in the room that he was awake. After hearing the shuffling and clink of a cane on cement, Recovery Girl put a hand on his arm.
“Young man, why did you do such a thing to your body?!? You were nearly dead when I arrived! If it hadn’t been for that girlfriend of yours you would have died on the spot merely from someone trying to move you!!”
Izuku knew she would’ve hit him on the head if he wasn’t teetering on the edge of death. “Headache… can’t think…”
“Headache? You didn’t suffer from a concussion, so what caused it?” Recovery Girl wondered aloud, going to grab some medicine.
“This fucker gets headaches every morning because he has two fucking brains.” Kacchan called, probably sitting in a nearby chair. Izuku felt a shift from his side, realizing that it was probably Ochaco. How on earth did Recovery Girl allow her to sleep here?
Don’t complain, at least you get to wake up cuddling your girlfriend. Deku thought back, rolling his imaginary eyes.
Our girlfriend, you know she loves us both.
Fucking Communist. Deku replies, laughing inside.
“Two minds? That would explain the irregular brain function, his mind is much more active than any other brain besides Nezu’s.”
Feeling a pill being put in his mouth, Izuku swallowed and sighed in relief as his headache slowly lost its bite. “So how long was I out?”
“It has been a day, and no, that doesn’t mean you can get up and move around. I’m keeping you in the infirmary until school starts up again at the end of the week.”
Izuku nodded, instantly regretting and winning at the pain. He heard a slight grunt from his side and finally mustered the strength to look down, seeing Ochaco’s red eyes and small frown. Doing his best to limit the protest of his muscles, Izuku reached down and patted her head, smiling as she woke up blearily and looked at him. Izuku noticed, but didn’t comment on, the fact that she seemed to be more tense than usual, keeping her arms closer to herself.
“I’m sorry I worried you Ocha-chan.” Izuku whispered, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head. “I just couldn’t let Aizawa-Sensei die.”
Curling up into his side, Ochaco cried silently grabbing bundles of his shirt with tears staining her cheeks. “I-I was so sc-scared. Y-you just collapsed spitting b-blood everywhere. Then A-All Might came and s-stopped the blue haired man from k-killing you.” Ochaco burst into a new fit of sobbing, unable to form any actual words anymore.
Izuku just held her in his arms and patted her head, crying as well because… well… he was a sympathetic crier. After he eventually regained his composure, Izuku looked through bleary eyes toward Kacchan. “Kacchan… they said they could kill All Might…”
“I know,” said the ash blonde solemnly, “after you fell unconscious, All Might came and fought off Handy McFuckface and Nomu. During the fighting, Thirteen was hurt and the mist dude escaped.”
“Handy McFreakface? That was what Deku called him too. Apparently though, his name is Tomura Shigaraki.”
During this conversation Ochaco had calmed down slightly, but still cling tightly to him. “Ocha-Chan, I’m sorry to ask but, could you let go? My ribs are starting to hurt again.” Reluctantly the zero gravity girl released his shirt, but still clung to his arm.
“I…” Ochaco whispered, “I felt so useless. I am useless. All I did was distract you and watch you die…”
“No.” Izuku said firmly, cupping her head with his free hand. Her soft cheeks pressed against his fingertips and he smiled, “You did your best and that’s what matters. You. Aren’t. Useless. You helped transport me here and saved my life.”
Izuku presses a soft kiss to her lips, feeling her melt into the show of affection. “I threw myself into that fight, and, to be honest, I accepted death. It felt like a relief.” At this, both Recovery Girl and Kacchan started and turned to him, questioning looks on their faces. “But, now that I see how sad you are even with me surviving, I won’t ever do something like that again. I have someone I need to protect. So remember, you are my lighthouse, to lead me back home when death tries to come for me.”
The duo stared into each other’s watering eyes, before they both burst into tears and hugged each other. Izuku whispered soft words of encouragement, and Ochaco whispered words of thanks. After a few minutes, Recovery Girl pried them apart and told them they had a visitor.
To his surprise, All Might walked in. It didn’t end well. To everyone but Kacchan’s surprise, though evident concern, Izuku yowled in surprise and clutched his head. Images passed through his mind. His mom, the All Might figurine, blood, a broken hand, a broken neck. The smell of blood, the feeling of coldness. The thick liquid clinging to his hands and feet. Words spoken by a dream. His trembling hands clutched at his chest as he fought to breath.
He could vaguely hear Kacchan screaming something, and Ochaco calling his name, but it was like watching a movie with the sound off, from the backseat, while at a party. Nothing seemed to matter but his shuddering. This was probably one of the worst reactions he had ever had.
His breathing quickened and he couldn’t feel anything. Everything was… far away. Distant. He thinks Deku was calling his name, something about counting. Counting? What… before Izuku could ponder it further he felt something press against his lips, making some of the tension leave his body.
Ochaco, she had her face up to his. Oh, a kiss. That’s what it was. It was nice. Kinda salty. Finally having the presence of mind to begin his calming down, Izuku started counting, feeling his breathing slowly falling back to a normal rhythm. Finally coming completely back to the world, Izuku realized he had been clinging to Ochaco like she was his lifeline, which was quite likely.
Jesus Izuku, you have me a fucking heart attack, Deku thought, shaking his head.
Sorry… and thanks for helping.
No problem.
“What was that dearie?” Recovery Girl asked, standing by his bedside.
“I-I have some bad memories, and A-All Might has to do with them.”
“Next time tell us who is going to fucking come in.” Kacchan snapped out, slamming his fist onto the bars of Izuku’s hospital bed, causing said boy to jump in surprise.
Before anyone could respond, a knock was heard from the door. “If that’s All Might, I’m going to fucking kill him.”
Good for the number one hero, it was just the entirety of class 1A. Bad for Izuku, it was the entirety of class 1A. They all clambered up to him, some of them cooing over how adorable he and Ochaco were, others asking how he was, others thanking him for his inspiration. To be honest, it was overwhelming, and Kacchan seemed to recognize that because he threatened to murder everyone unless they went into a line.
The first up was Mina and Hagakure, who smiled at how adorable Ochaco and he were, laughing at their embarrassed faces. The next were Jiro and Yoamomo, who asked if he was feeling better and he answered with a simple yes. After them everyone else became a blur of affirmatives, reassuring that he was indeed fine and that no matter how many of his classmates asked if he was okay it wouldn’t change the outcome. Eventually they accepted his answer and left the room, leaving only Ochaco, Izuku, and Recovery Girl left.
“Baby, I’m sorry that I scared you but you need to head back to the dorms and rest.” Izuku whispered into his girlfriend’s ear.
She sniffled quietly, clinging to his shirt slightly tighter, not releasing her grip despite his protests. “Baby, please… I want you to get a lot of sleep and I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
Ochaco still didn’t move, just clinging to him tightly. Sighing, he sent a questioning glance toward Recovery Girl who let out a sigh rivaling his own, before nodding in confirmation to his silent request. Getting the okay from the elderly nurse, Izuku wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and closed his eyes, letting himself drift into unconsciousness.
He didn’t get much sleep however, instead being woken up in a cold sweat from a now familiar dream. Shifting positions so as not to wake up Ochaco, Izuku looked at his girlfriend and kissed her forehead, trying to erase the last bits of self-hatred that lingered from his dream. The kiss seeme to rouse Ochaco from her slumber, causing her to squint her eyes up and look at him.
“Izuku? S’that you? Why are you awake?” she mumbled out, yawning loudly.
The greenette just petted her brown hair and smiled down at her. “Don’t worry about it, my little lighthouse, just woke up a little earlier than usual.”
This seemed to satisfy the tired girl because she wrapped Izuku in a hug and drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.
(Just so you know, this next portion will be completely in Izuku’s mindscape, so any actions or movements will be in his head, not real life.)
Deku… you up? Izuku asked, closing his eyes and letting Ochaco’s warmth ground him.
Course I am Zuku, I may ‘sleep’ more than you, but I’m awake now. Deku replied, seemingly yawning.
What do you think that well of power was? Izuku asked, looking down at his fist. I’ve never felt anything like it before.
I don’t know, you remember when we read that book about quirk evolution? Deku asked, flipping through the scrapbook of their memories to find the right time.
Izuku nodded, walking though his mind scape to peer over Deku’s shoulder. Yeah, the one about how quirks evolve under high stress situations. Right there. He stopped the page turning and pointed to a specific picture, the one with the book.
Thanks. But what if we also went through such an evolution? It would line up with the events that happened. We were desperate to save Eraserhead, we might have died ourselves. If that doesn’t qualify as a traumatic situation then I don’t know what is.
You have a point, Izuku mused, rubbing a hand to his chin, but what does this evolution consist of? In the book it mentions that sometimes it can be unrelated, like if you had a laser eye quirk you can now shoot it out of your hands. But other times it just buffs your current one.
I think it is the latter. Deku said, slamming the scrapbook closed and tossing it in the air where it dissolved back into his mind.
As do I, but how powerful of a boost do you think it was? Izuku asked, going to sit down, a chair appearing beneath him.
Deku hummed, scratching at his hair. His tired eyes looked around for an object to explain something. I think…, he grabbed a rock out of nowhere and held it out. If we say that me Pushing on this rock and raising it 30 feet into the air is the value one…
Izuku continued the thought, then the hardest we could Push on something would be about 10 times that strength. They both did that, the small sun child summoning his own rock and Pushing it up thirty feet.
Yes, but from what I could tell is that we just ripped the lid off that limit. Deku continued. He squatted down and placed his hand on the floor, not wanting to rip his arm off from the strength of the Push he was about to do.
At full power we can go about… Deku started, before the rock shot into the stratosphere. About a hundred thousand times ‘one’.
But then the force on our body will be a hundred times what it was before. Izuku said, writing all these observations in a notebook to file away for later.
Not necessarily. Deku said, letting the rock drop back from wherever it had been sent. In my opinion our body also got strengthened. Maybe not like physical strength wise, but definitely bone strength and the lining of our organs.
A calculator fell into the calmer green child’s hand, and after punching in a few numbers, he nodded his head in agreement. Yes, that makes sense, because if I calculated the Pushes we used on that Nomu and the anchors, then I will have to say we only used about fifty times one. That much force, though little compared to our max, would have destroyed our rib cage, not just our stomach and a lung.
Smiling, Deku threw his arms around Izuku and laughed. Sometimes my genius, it’s almost frightening.
Please no, I’m already awake there is no need to torture me so.
No promises.
(Okay now Izuku is back in the real world, not his mind scape.)
A tap was felt on his shoulder and Izuku opened his eyes, already recognizing the form of Recovery Girl over his shoulder.
“Dearie, are you okay? There has been a lot of brain activity this last hour.” Recovery Girl said, smiling kindly at the dual personalities greenette.
“Yeah, just working through some things with Deku.” Izuku said, smiling brightly.
Hours? That couldn't have been more than a few minutes.
Life flies when your trying to figure out your fucking quirk. Deku replied with a smile.
And he’s back.
What’s that fucking mean?
Nothing.
“The additional activity that I have is probably because of me and Deku talking. We were messing around in our mindscape, trying to figure out our quirk.” Izuku continued, smiling down to the old lady.
The sun streamed in through the open blinds, causing Midoriya to squint his eyes and twist his neck to get it out of his eyes. Ochaco seemed to be stirring as well.
“May I ask you to explain your quirk to me? Push and Pull is it? I need to update your quirk registry if you really did evolve your quirk.”
“Wait, how do you know that?” Izuku asked, surprised.
“You mumble dearie.”
“Oh…” Izuku looked embarrassed and covered his face with his hands. “A-anyway, to describe my quirk I would say it’s like a bunch of strings.”
At the confusion that was evident on the elderly nurse's face, he tried again. “Okay, imagine the inside of a piano, with all of the strings side by side and the drums to strike them if you click the right strings. That’s how I see my quirk. If I want to Push on something I strike a drum on the string and it will Push or Pull depending on the sound of the note.”
“For every object in my range, which is quite a lot, there is a string. It can seem a lot, especially if I lose focus and every inch of the floor is a string. Instead, I just choose the center of gravity of each of the objects and use that as the string. Do you follow?” Izuku asked.
“I think so… each of the objects in your range are a string, the string allows you to Push of Pull on the center of gravity of said object.” Recovery Girl parroted back, typing away on a computer.
“Yup! This doesn’t mean I can’t Pull or Push on the edge of an object, it just becomes harder to judge the direction it will fly because of, y’know, spinning. If I really wanted to I could break someone’s arm by Pushing on their elbow and Pulling on their hand, but I’m not cruel.”
“Regardless, the thing that changed is the strength I could strike each string. If I set the value of one being Pushing a rock 30 feet into the air, then my old limit was ten times that strength.”
Recovery Girl seemed impressed by his analysis, obvious due to the raised eyebrow and approving nod. “What is your limit now?”
“Oh…” Izuku smiled bashfully, “about a hundred thousand.”
A squeak was heard from his side and Izuku looked down to see Ochaco looking at him with awed eyes. “A-a hundred thousand??”
“Yup,” Izuku said, popping the ‘P’. “I could literally send someone into the stratosphere without lifting my finger, though it may hurt a bit.”
“Then there will be no Pushing people into the atmosphere for you.” Recovery Girl stated, glaring at him. “I don’t ever want to see you injured this bad ever again.”
“Fine…” Izuku mumbled out.
Nice, let the little old lady yell at you. Deku said, laughing at his expense.
“Now, off to the dorms with you Miss Uraraka.” Recovery Girl made a shooing motion. “You may not have school for the rest of the week but I’m going to use my quirk on him, and he needs to be alone to rest.”
Ochaco begrudgingly left the room, after giving a goodbye kiss to her boyfriend, however. With a final wave she disappeared around the corner.
“Now, smooooooooch~” the nurse said, kissing his cheek. Izuku’s eyes became droopy and he felt his ribs begin to heal the cracks inside of them. Finally losing the battle with sleep, he embraced the blackness and fell into a comfortable sleep.