Inheritance of Giants

Break on Through

"He needs to live, Dad," Toga said, steadier now. "He's... special."

"You think I don't know that?" Yapool said with a confused face. "Of course I know he's special. I wouldn't have bothered with it if he wasn't, just killed him and be done with it. You know, I used to think his kind were genuinely worthless in the grand scheme of things. Just a blip of order in the universe to prove how worthless an Inter Galactic Defense Force really is."

"What are you talking about, dad?" Toga questioned, herself becoming confused as well. "I've never heard you talk about an Inter Galactic Defense Force."

"Yapool blinked. Then Laughed. "Well, yeah! Of course I haven't, because they proved me correct! They really were just a blip in the universe to show how worthless the idea was."

"You're... making no sense, dad," Toga muttered with narrowed eyes, fingering the pouch on her lower back. "It makes me wonder if-"

"My first student was a man named Shigaraki," Yapool said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm not some imposter because I'm not making sense. If I wanted to, I'd just be confused all the time."

"There was that one time you stole a mind controller's plant flesh and it took over your body for a little bit and I had to figure out you weren't you. Who was it, I think you called it Keronia or something?"

"Ah, yes, I remember that," Yapool answered with a roll of his eyes. "Yeah, Keronia. You know, one of its abilities is the control spore I used on you, right?"

Toga stiffened. "I did not."

"Fascinating thing, really," Yapool continued, almost wistfully, setting his head on his hand. "It's a parasite that takes over your mind with its electrical impulses. It rewires you with shocks — over and over — until your thoughts aren't yours anymore. Brutal for humans, as it does it to the brain directly, frying them and just taking over the body. Plus, it was made for Kaiju control, so of course a human would die from it."

Toga's fingers twitched. Not from fear — not yet. But from alertness. She knew this tone. Knew the weight behind Yapool's rambling. He only talked about the past like this when the present was about to become dangerous.

"You used it on me when I fought Katie, didn't you?" she asked slowly, thumbing the scar that went across her belly. "The Keronia spore?"

Yapool shrugged. "A modified version. More elegant. It keeps your body intact compared to the original strand, growing around your central nervous system and, in fact, improving it by a lot."

Her mouth went dry.

"Relax," he added with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. She hated when he said that. He only ever said it when something couldn't be undone. "I scraped you clean of Keronia. The only lasting effect was the improvement to your fast twitch muscles."

"I'm gonna go," Toga murmured.

As she walked away, Yapool sighed and rolled his eyes. "Love you too, my precious star."

Toga didn't answer him.

She kept walking — not slow, not fast. Just enough to make sure she didn't look like she was running.

She walked to her own room, labeled Himiko Toga with the number two under it, and stood in front of the door.

Looking behind her, she saw the name: Shigaraki Zen, the number three labeled beneath it.

It wasn't that she was the first that made her Student One.

It was that she lasted the longest.

Well—second longest.