Nutricula

Chapter 2: Tetraphylla

The next few days were... Interesting.

After Izuku got over his initial shock of his sheets being covered in blood and bile, he quickly pushed them into the washing machine and thought back to what could have possibly-

The Sludge Villain.

Which brought his thoughts to Kacchan.

Kacchan had been held longer by the Sludge Villain than Izuku had been, and if the Sludge Villain had had some sort of disease that made the victim sick enough to vomit up their heart...

Without a second thought, Izuku put on his shoes and rushed to Kacchan's house, where, sure enough, he found his parents in a state of disarray.

"Izuku?" Mr. Bakugou said, "You've come at a bad time... Katsuki is... Not doing well..."

"Katsuki!" Mrs. Bakugou wailed from another room.

"I understand, Mr. Bakugou." Izuku said, walking in, "B-But I think I have an idea of what to do... I-If Kacchan is willing..."

Mr. Bakugou looked, worried, towards his son's room, before taking Izuku aside. "To be honest, I'm not sure if it's a good idea." He sighed, "The boy takes too much after his mother... Mitsuki holds grudges very well, and if the way Katsuki's been talking about you is any indication..." Mr. Bakugou gave a sort of noise that showed how good of an idea it would to mix the powder keg of a sick Kacchan with the object of his ire.

"U-Understood..." Izuku stuttered. Did Kacchan really hate him that much? To be honest, he wasn't that surprised, but he was still hurt. "Th-Then at least let me make him some tea... I want to help...!"

Mr. Bakugou seemed to think it over, before sighing. "Sure. You remember where it is? It has been a few years since you were last over..."

"I-I think?" Izuku said, "J-Just tell me where the cabinet is."

Once Izuku got the necessary information, he made his way to the kitchen. Getting the tea, he slowly prepared it as he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. Though he wasn't sure what gave him this idea, he just knew that it would work.

Making sure that Mr. Bakugou wasn't looking into the kitchen, he quickly took a knife and nicked his finger, letting the blood slowly drip into the tea as it boiled. Washing the knife and sucking on his fingertip, he finished the tea and brought the cup to Mr. Bakugou, who was currently speaking to his wife.

"U-Um..." He said, catching their attention, "I-I know it's sudden, but-"

"Oh! Izuku!" Mrs. Bakugou interrupted him, "I'm afraid Katsuki can't play today. He's really sick, but he's fighting every step of the way. I don't know where he gets it from..."

"R-Right..." Izuku replied. He had an idea where. "W-Well, I made Kacchan some tea, so..."

"Oh, great!" Mrs. Bakugou said, "I'll let him know you'll be i-"

"N-No!" Izuku squeaked, and both of the Bakugous eyebrows raised. Shit. "I-I mean, I d-don't want to get sick, you know? I think it's a good idea for Kacchan to just... Get the tea from one of you!" He offered the cup to Mrs. Bakugou, who took it.

"...Okay." She said warily.

"Th-Thank you, I'll just be going now..."

"Thank you, Izuku. Say hi to your mother for me!"

With that, Izuku left the house as fast as he could.

"Masaru, it's Katsuki!" Mitsuki shouted, running into the living room.

"Mitsu, dear, your volume..." Masaru sighed, "What about Katsuki? Is he alright?"

"He's better than alright!" Mitsuki said, uncomprehending of the sudden turnaround, "His fever's gone, his breathing's stable... It's all fine! It's like he was never sick!"

Masaru blinked. "What?"

The next incident happened two days later, when Izuku returned to school. Apparently, the fight with the sludge villain had been widely broadcasted on the evening news, and currently everyone who had recognized him were now praising him for having such a cool and powerful Quirk, and were now saying that with a Quirk like that, he was a shoo-in for UA.

It was fake, and Izuku hated it. He almost started to cry, actually.

But the weird thing was how Ka- Bakugou was avoiding him as if he was the Horseman of the Plague. Izuku sighed for the third time that day as he stared at Ka- Bakugou (he really wanted to drop saying "Kacchan", but old habits died hard), and the girl next to him who had a sound echoing Quirk if he remembered correctly looked at him strangely.

When this newfound respect continued into the next day, and the day after that, Izuku realized that literally the only thing that had kept his life from being like this always was the fact that he just happened to be born without a Quirk.

Except he had a Quirk, apparently, he just didn't know what the criteria to activate it were.

The third incident came Tuesday evening, when he fell asleep in the bathtub.

He had filled up the bathtub with quite a lot of hot water, and this had soothed him to sleep.

He woke up at the bottom of the tub, totally submerged. Immediately, he surfaced, and spat out all the water that was in his mouth.

Except the water kept coming, in a steady stream that contained more water than what should have been in a human body of any size.

Izuku closed his mouth, and opened it again. When nothing happened, he thought about the odd torrent of water, and the liquid immediately came gushing out until Izuku shut his mouth again.

It was at this point that a sobbing Midoriya Inko crashed in through the door, holding her cell phone.

"I-Izuku!!!" Izuku's mom shouted, wrapping her arms around her wet son. "Micchan! You won't believe this, but Izuku's okay!" She sobbed into the phone. "I had thought the worst when I saw Izuku was at the bottom of the tub and he wasn't moving- What? Why didn't I call an ambulance? Micchan, you know how to do CPR, I would have had you guide me..." Her quavering voice faded as she walked to a different room.

Izuku paid it no mind. He had fallen asleep in the tub... He was at the bottom... His mom had found him at the bottom and was going to perform CPR... Judging by how cold the water had been when he woke up, it dawned on Izuku that he had drowned in the tub.

He had died.

Izuku immediately thought back to when he woke up in the middle of the night with a fever, then woke up in the morning with blood and vomit all over his sheets. Then he thought back to the day before that, when he had certainly hit the ground after jumping off of the school roof.

Had he died those times then?

If so, how did he get antibiotic blood and super-strength? And, just recently, how had he been shooting copious amounts of water out of his mouth?

This required analyzation. And luckily, Izuku was practically already a Pro at that.

Notes:

It should be obvious at this point, I think, but I'll have it spelled out sometime in the future.

Remember, the main thing about evidence in a mystery: we, as the audience, can only work with the evidence we are explicitly given.