Well, that's the thing... You can't handle it... Not anymore.
*
"What does that do?"
"That separates red blood cells from white blood cells."
"And that?"
"That? That's a microscope."
"Oh. And what's that-"
"Tobi, don't you have anything better to do other than irritate me?"
"Come on, pops!" Tobi dug his hands into his father's shoulders and rocked him back and forth on his stool slightly. "It's been so long since we've spent some quality time together as father and son."
Sana Arakawa, villainously referred to as The Doctor, rolled his eyes and his shook his head as he tried to continue his work.
"Just show me what you're doin', huh?" Tobi pulled up a stool, the dark metal scrapping harshly against the linoleum floors, making his father's eye twitch more than it already was. He propped the takeaway cup of soda he was slurping on on the edge of the table before he leaned in next to his father eagerly.
"Fine." Sana sighed. "Right now I'm separating each element from Shigaraki's serum and testing them against my own. Because my final serum has a long-term mutating effect, we need to know if building the anti-quirk serum on the same skeleton will cause mutations."
Tobi nodded slowly as he took in the information.
"Did you understand?" His father asked.
"For the most part."
"Looks like you've got a new lab assistant." A raspy voice made them glance up from Sana's experiments. They were met by Tomura Shigaraki as he scratched the side of his neck restlessly. "How is my product coming along?"
"I'm still in the testing phase." Sana said blankly.
"You've been in the testing phase for two months now. And I expected the testing phase to be testing multiples of my product." Shigaraki scratched at his neck more violently as he stretched his other arm around, gesturing at the mess of lab equipment around him.
"Listen, Tomura..." Sana slowly stepped up from his metal stool, making his various vials and beakers clink on the rickety makeshift lab table. "There's a reason why you hired me specifically... So if you want to achieve my level of quality product, let me do my job my way."
The two two men eyed each other. Shigaraki paused halfway through a scratch on his reddened neck as his eyes narrowed at Sana.
"I'm not the kind of person who likes to be kept waiting." Shigaraki slowly resumed digging his nails into his neck.
"Are you threatening me, Tomura?" Sana's eyes narrowed too.
"Please, you'd know if I was threatening you..."
Tobi glanced between the two of them, grabbing his soda and slurping on the remnants until the liquid made loud popping noises in the straw.
"You've got three weeks. If I don't see a case full of that serum, you'll know what it's like to be threatened by me." Shigaraki turned on his heel, smirking to himself triumphantly as he left the dim and cluttered pop-up laboratory.
"Well..." Tobi chimed as soon as the metal door had been clanked shut. "That coulda gone a whole lot better." He plopped his empty cup onto the table and got up from his metal chair.
"On the contrary." Sana quirked a brow and smirked to himself too. "That went exactly as I was hoping it would."
Shigaraki traversed the wide and empty decrepit halls, passing by rubble he'd kick unenthusiastically or empty glass bottles he'd bump out of the way until he reached the main room of the warehouse the League were using as a hideout.
Most of them weren't there but Dabi did happen to be about, lazing on a pile of dusty boxes and flicking a rusted old lighter open and closed in a repetitive rhythm. Kurogiri placed a cup of coffee on one of the dilapidated crates they had set up as a coffee table between a few used-to-be sofas. Shigaraki slumped down, sipping his black coffee deeply and humming to himself deeply.
"I take it that could have better?" Kurogiri asked him as his bright eyes thinned to narrow slits in his eery smokey frame. The repetitive flicking of Dabi's opening and closing lighter paused for a brief moment, just long enough to make Kurogiri keep the scarred man in the corner of his vision.
Shigaraki spread his chapped lips into a sadistic smile. "On the contrary... That went exactly as I was hoping it would."
Dabi's lulling eyes trailed over to Shigaraki for a second before he continued to flick his lighter open and closed in the same rhythm.
*
"Oh man!" Ren stretched her arms out tall and wide before she rolled out her shoulders. "I had no idea you could cook so well. I think I must've gained like, five pounds this week from all the eating."
"That's cause you never asked. And shut up, you look the same." Bakugo grumbled back at her as he readjusted his bag on his shoulder.
"Aww! Look at you, fulfilling your boyfriend duties so well already." Ren bumped his shoulder and smirked at him cheekily, to which Bakugo just rolled his eyes and rasped out another 'shut up'.
The maintenance team at UA had done a good job of clearing the snow from the paths as they stepped along to gravelly ground to their dorm room home. There'd been a few heavy blizzards during their holiday break and thick white sheets covered the once green gardens. Ren couldn't wait until the spring when the cherry blossoms would bloom once more and summer heat would be just around the corner. She stuck her tongue out as a single snowflake fell in front of her face while others sporadically dotted in her hair.
"You seem a lot more cheerful towards the snow than usual." Bakugo commented as he noticed her catching the ice on her tongue.
"It's cause I'm all warm and fuzzy inside from having a boyfriend." Ren smirked at him again.
Bakugo gritted his teeth as a flush spread over his cheeks and nose. "If you're gonna be this fucking cringe, I'll dump your dumbass."
"Ah! Let me have my fun teasing you, Katsuki." She chortled as they climbed the steps up to the 2A Height's Alliance patio. "Be honest, you wouldn't like me as much as you do if I didn't tease you."
Bakugo opened the door. "I hate that you're right."
There was a general buzz and chatter amongst the students who'd already returned to the dorms and unpacked and were now seated downstairs and sharing stories from their winter break. Ren and Bakugo split at the elevators to return their stuff to their respective rooms and in her quiet moment alone, Ren felt a little sad.
As dysfunctional as they seemed at times, it was nice to be with a family that at their core, loved and cared for each other deeply. Bakugo's mother had even rushed out the day after Christmas to gather gifts for Ren when she'd come unprepared and empty handed, she didn't even have a gift for Bakugo. She already missed Granny B, the Bakugo family's lavish house and lifestyle and even the silly arguments that her boneheaded boyfriend and his mother would get into.
Being at his house with his family over Christmas made everything feel so normal. She'd even forgotten about the pile of shit waiting for her in the real world in a few brief moments of happiness. The quirk tests Endeavour had promised as part of her punishment along with stripping back to basic patrols, and any possible information Hawks might have waiting for her by now...
Ren was lost in her own head as she unpacked her things, dividing her dirty laundry from the clean and stacking her bath goods on her desk, ready to go back to the communal bathroom.
Man, bathing alone was so nice.
A light knock on her door drew her out of her mind and she opened it to a suspicious looking Ashido. Her pink arms were crossed as she leant against Ren's doorframe, a single brow arched and matched with slightly pouted lips.
"Hey Mina!" Ren greeted her excitedly. "How was your break?"
Ashido lifted an unimpressed hand to stop Ren from speaking further. "Don't try and throw me off with your chit-chat, babe."
"Ah, what?" Ren quirked a brow as Ashido invited herself in, taking a second to scan the room before she plopped onto Ren's bed with her arms still crossed. "C-can I help you?"
"You lied to me." Ashido furrowed her brows deeply as she glared up at Ren.
"What?! What do you mean?" Ren shut her bedroom door and stepped over to her glaring pink neighbour. She sat down next to Ashido on her bed, her brows furrowing too but of concern rather than irritation.
"I totally called that you and Bakugo were a thing and you denied it."
Ren's eyes widened for a second before she burst out laughing. "Oh my god- Mina! You had me so stressed! That's what this is about?!" She held her sides as she continued to chime out a laugh of relief.
"How can you laugh at a time like this?!" Ashido grabbed Ren's shoulders and shook her violently until she stopped laughing. "You lied to me! During girl talk!"
"I did no such thing." Ren swatted Ashido's hands from her shoulders and wiped the little laughter tears from her lashes.
"Ummm... Yeah, ya did!"
"No, Mina. Think about it." Ren quirked her brow. "You made accusations but I never denied them, now did I?"
Ashido pinched her chin between two fingers as she thought back to their group conversation the day their break started. "Oh... I guess you didn't really confirm or deny what I was saying..."
"Exactly." Ren flicked her nose into the air triumphantly.
"I'll see you at dinner then." Ashido said with a little shrug as she began propping herself up from her seated position.
"Just a sec." Ren flicked her pink forehead so she'd sit down again. "How did you know?"
Ashido rubbed the darker pink spot on her forehead and grumbled. "K-rshm-a t-ld m-."
"What was that?" Ren held a hand up to her ear and leant in a little closer
"I said KIRISHIMA TOLD ME!" Ashido gasped as the words slipped out of her mouth, making her slap her hands over the gaping hole. "But I wasn't... Supposed... To tell you that..." She mumbled out from beneath her hands.
"Oh, Mina!" Ren threw her arm around Ashido's shoulders, giving her a half-hug. "I'm just messin' with ya, we don't really care if people find out now I guess... But do tell me how and when he told you."
Ashido's usually pale pink cheeks turned to a deep magenta shade as she sunk into her shoulders against Ren's arm. "We may or may not have hung out over the winter break. Once or twice..." Ren quirked a brow at her and Ashido's blush grew more intense. "Don't give me that look! We're from the same area, okay?!"
"Oh yeah, yeah." Ren nodded slowly, giving Ashido a knowing side glance. "Don't forget all the crap you've literally just given me about Bakugo."
Ashido slapped Ren's arm off of her shoulders and groaned quietly. "If there was something to deny, I wouldn't deny it." She got up off of her bed and glanced back down at Ren, poking her tongue out a little and making a 'nyeh' sound.
"Of course." Ren nodded, still smirking knowingly.
Once the evening rolled around, everyone had returned to Height's Alliance. They shared a chattier meal than usual, everyone giving a rundown of their break to their friends and classmates, and wishing each other a Happy New Year. After dinner had been devoured and cleared, they convened in the living area for what Iida called a post-break recognisance.
Ren followed her group of gal pals to their usual seating spot, listening in on something Jiro was saying to Yaoyorozu when she was tugged back by the hood of her hoodie. She paused and looked behind her to see Bakugo still holding onto the tip of her hood with a mildly irritated look on his face.
"What's up?" She asked, tilting forward slightly so the hood would slip from his fingers.
"Sit with me." He said as his brows furrowed slightly. This wasn't a suggestion.
Ren glanced around, no one had seemed to notice the two of them standing in the open halfway between the kitchen and the living room.
"Can't I sit with my friends?" Ren asked with a little smile. "I've spent the last week and a bit with you non-stop."
"Yeah but..." Bakugo's eyes lingered off to the side and a flush spread over his cheeks and nose. He held a hand over his mouth as he turned his head away from her too. "I know we said we'd let things pan out..." His eyes darted to her for a second. "But I kinda wanna show you off..." He mumbled into his hand, barely audible.
"And you accused me of being cringe." Ren clicked her tongue a few times.
"Forget it-"
"Katsuki." Ren took his hand before he could bump past her in a huff. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I- I think it's sweet... And seriously, how are you not used to me teasing you by now?"
Bakugo rolled his eyes as a small smile spread across his lips. "Shut up, Freckles."
"That's the spirit." She pulled on his hand so they'd start walking toward the living room together. "You make fun of me but I know you call me that cause you've always loved that part of me." Ren shrugged her shoulders and flipped her hair sassily, thinking Bakugo would just roll his eyes at her for saying so.
"Yes, I have." Bakugo said plainly, as if he was stating the obvious to her sarcasm. Wasn't that clear from the beginning?
Ren froze. "Wait- What?!"
"OooooOOOOoooh!" They heard a playful and mocking singing coming towards them and they both turned to see Kaminari gleefully marching at them. "My, my, my, what do we have here?"
Bakugo clenched his jaw tightly and the natural furrow his brows always lay in deepened intensely. Ren tugged on his hand lightly when she noticed he was instantly annoyed and he turned to look at her. "This was your idea, remember?"
"It's about time you crazy kids got together." Kaminari said as he slumped an arm over each of their shoulders, letting the two of them take his weight as he hung between them. "Kacchan's been pining since day one."
"Shut up, Dunce Face." Bakugo growled at him as a flush spread over his cheeks. He shifted away so Kaminari's arm could flop off of his shoulders but he was too quick, wrapping his arm around Bakugo's neck securely.
"I'll let Iida know he's gotta add this announcement to the agenda." Kaminari chuckled as he pushed through the gap between them, chuckling to himself while Bakugo glared at the back of his bright blonde head.
"You can't be mad. You wanted to show me off." Ren quirked a brow and Bakugo groaned, loudly and lengthy.
It was a mix of reactions from the class when Kaminari obnoxiously announced their relationship for them. Those who knew, simply sighed with relief now that they didn't have to keep the secret anymore, while some didn't seem at all surprised and others were shocked. Todoroki even gave the two of them an awkward smile and nod before he kept his eyes in front of him for the rest of the evening.
Iida was quick to lay down some ground rules. "This is delaying my other announcements but some restrictions must be implemented." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "Technically, girls aren't allowed on the boys side of the dorms and visa versa, it's up to us to ensure Chinami and Bakugo won't be breaking these rules and sneaking around between the two sides."
Ren and Bakugo exchanged a side glance as Iida rambled on about how they were expected to act appropriately, both trying not to snicker. Kirishima held a hand over his toothy grin too, and Uraraka's face had turned bright pink with how hard she was trying not to laugh.
"Bless you, Iida." Shoji muttered to Ren from his seat on the couch next to hers. "I've been sleeping without ears since the Sports Festival."
Ren's face went bright red and she snapped her attention to him. "W-w-what?!"
He simply winked at her knowingly.
"-And how long has this been going on, anyway?" Iida's question brought Ren's attention back to what had just sounded like the muffled ramblings of an annoyed parent.
She and Bakugo glanced at each other before they turned to Iida.
"Since the Sports Festival."
"Since the dance."
They glanced back at each other when their answers in unison didn't match up.
"Uh- Since Okinawa."
"The School Festival."
Ren rubbed her temples and sighed while Bakugo slapped his forehead and huffed out a groan.
"All of the above." Ren muttered as she glanced up at Iida's quizzically knitted eyebrows. "Don't ask." She added quickly.
Bakugo's regret for wanting to show Ren off only grew as the evening continued. Iida would clear his throat halfway through conversations when he caught Bakugo's arm draped over Ren's shoulders or her hands within is. All of which made Bakugo flip Iida off or bare his teeth aggressively. He eventually snapped at their bespectacled class representative when he caught him spying on the two of them at the base of the staircase.
The evening had drawn to a close, with most of their classmates having retired for the evening either to bed or to the showers as they prepared for their lives and school to resume as normal. Uraraka had volunteered to go up on Ren's behalf and grab her things while she said goodnight to Bakugo.
"This is kinda late for you to be goin' to bed." Ren noted as she checked the time on her phone. "9:05pm, you've become such a delinquent, Baka."
"If I told you why you'd just make fun of me." Bakugo grumbled as he shoved his hands into his sweatpants pockets.
"Goodnight you two~!." Hagakure sang out as she passed them going up the steps. Bakugo growled at her while Ren waved, a small flush on her cheeks.
"If you know I'm gonna make fun of you for it you might as well tell me." Ren said returning to their conversation, a little devious smirk spreading on her lips. He pouted slightly, eyeing her suspiciously as he gathered his thoughts.
"I do actually like hanging out with our class."
There was a brief silence between them.
"Katsuki, I'm shocked."
"Shut the fuck up." He rolled his eyes, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his chest as she began to laugh.
"Imagine; you, like our class!" Ren poked his sides, making him wriggle and push her out of his hug. "You've grown soft, Katsuki!"
Bakugo held her at arms length so she couldn't reach him and continue to poke and tickle his sides. "Shut up, you ass." Ren continued to laugh at him, pushing her hair from her face when it fell in front of her eyes. "And stop looking at me like that!"
"Like what?" Ren asked, her laughing dying down enough for Bakugo to trust to let her come closer than arms length. 'G-Goddammit.' He thought to himself as he felt his cheeks warm up. Her eyes sparkled from the glassiness her laughing had created and she bit into her bottom lip.
"L-Like that." Bakugo grumbled. "L-like you're in- Fuck off four eyes!" He suddenly snapped when he noticed Iida looming around the corner behind Ren's shoulder.
"I set specific boundaries for the two of you to follow and-" Iida crawled out from his hiding spot, thrusting his flat hand against his palm with every word.
"I'm just trying to say goodnight to my girlfriend!" Bakugo lunged forward but Ren was quick to react, gripping his arm with one hand and pressing the other over his chest.
"How was I meant to know that you weren't conspiring to meet up in secret?" Iida folded his arms and quirked a brow.
Bakugo smirked. "You'd have a hernia if you knew what we've been up to until-"
"It's okay, Iida." Ren cut Bakugo off. "We respect you guys and we don't want to make you uncomfortable." She glared at her blasty boyfriend to communicate a shut up at him. "You've got nothin' to worry about."
Iida eyed them suspiciously from behind his squared spectacles. "I've got my eyes on you, on both of you." He slowly stepped past them and up the stairs.
Once Iida had rounded the corner and up the next flight of stairs, Ren turned back to Bakugo. "What a pity he's half blind."
She had to convince Bakugo not to follow her to her room that night after her shower, given how suspicious Iida was. Their goodnight was a little salty and disappointed on his part but she promised that as soon as things and people had settled down, they'd easily be able to manage going back to their old sneaky ways. They'd gone that long without being caught...
Ren had just flopped into bed, head barely sunken into her pillow when she heard a light tapping at her window. She glanced up at her shut curtains and quirked a brow.
'Katsuki I swear...' She thought to herself as she irritably groaned out of bed. Thrusting the curtains apart, she was shocked to find no one there. "What the-"
A small object caught her eye as it zoomed in concentric circles before looping around to tap on her window again, this time close enough and illuminated by the light in her room for her to see.
A red feather.
Ren sighed and pried her window open.
"What?" She called out into the cold, dark night.
A loud whoosh cleared the snow from her small balcony before a pair of heavy boots landed in the dark. Ren could only just see the outline of his broad red wings before Hawks stepped closer for the soft light from her room to illuminate his glasses.
"Hey kid." He said casually as he shoved his hands deeply into his jacket pockets. "We gotta talk."
"I don't know how I feel about inviting you into my room. You'll probably break something." Her eyes darted between the wide tips of his wings.
"Not here." Hawks stepped a little closer until he was looming over Ren, who was still half in and half out the window. "Too many of these walls have ears." He reached under her arms and tugged.
"What the heLL AREYOU- OH MY GOD!" Ren cried out as she felt her body exit the window, and with a powerful flap of his wings they'd soared far and clear from Heights Alliance. Her stomach lurched so hard and fast it felt like it slammed against her lungs and Ren regretted that second cup of tea.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" She screamed as she clung her shaky arms and legs around Hawks, watching the ground and the buildings below shrink smaller and grow further away.
"First time flyin' huh?" He asked casually as his wings flapped down again, creating a deep beat and rush of wind that made Ren's head feel like it was about to pop.
"PUT ME DOWN!" She demanded as she shoved her face into his chest. "FUCKING PUT ME DOWN!"
"Yeah, yeah." He droned as he rolled his eyes. Ren's stomach jumped back down to its rightful place but it didn't make her feel less queasy. Her head swelled as their altitude dropped and her ears started popping along with the wind that rushed through her hair.
Hawks flapped his wings roughly again and she felt deeply laden snow sweep up and around them. His boots landed on cleared concrete and they remained still for a moment.
Hawks cleared his throat. "You can let go of me now, we've landed."
Ren peeled herself away from his chest and glanced around her. There was a circle cut out of the snow that his powerful wings had swept away, and they were standing on top of one of the buildings in the urban training grounds, Ground Gamma.
"I-if you ever do that again..." Ren stepped away from Hawks and instantly wrapped her arms around her freezing frame. "I will literally burn every damn feather on your back."
"Wouldn't be the first time." Hawks chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, a chuckle he cut short when Ren shot him a look that said she meant business.
"W-w-what did you h-have to te-tell me?" Ren asked as she drew her arms closer to her chest.
"You cold?" He asked quirking an eyebrow.
"It's f-fucking snowing and I'm in my pyjamas!" Ren shuffled from one foot to the other as the icy concrete began to sting at her soles. "And y-you d-d-didn't really g-give me a ch-chance to get a coat. A-asshole."
"Heeeey, that's not very nice-"
"Dude! Can we m-mmmove this al-along?!" She tried to focus her energy within her body to generate heat but she was shivering so much she couldn't focus. Hawks sighed and spread one of his majestic crimson wings around Ren's shivering frame, and she instantly felt her muscles relax as the warm down defrosted her. "T-thank you." She mumbled without sparing him a glance. She appreciated the gesture but it was his fault she was cold.
"L-look I-" He sighed again before he took his glasses of and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Things have... Progressed between your father and the League but not only that..."
"...What?" She glanced up at him as her brows knitted.
"What I'm about to tell you stays between us. And I mean that." His normally lighthearted and chilled tone turned serious. "I know you and Bakugo are close, and you've got other friends but I'm serious. Between you and I only."
"Y-You're scaring me..."
"I-I fought against it, Ren. Really hard... But-"
*
Ren's stomach was in constantly unfurling and retightening knots as she sat on the examination table in one of the medical rooms. It had been that way since her late night conversation with Hawks two weeks back, and returning to work studies didn't make her feel any more relaxed. Endeavour had mentioned that upon her return back to the agency, she'd be back on patrols and quirk tests, and thankfully she'd gone through none of the latter - until today. She understandably hated being poked and prodded by doctors and scientists, and she was sick of retelling her experimental experiences over and over again.
Yet something about this visit felt different, like maybe they'd figured something out but it wasn't going to be good news, not for Ren at least. She stared at her feet floating off the edge of the table and bopped them up and down to a random tune in her head until the entry panel of the wall slid out and to the side. Three people entered; Dr Yuuko, and two scientists she'd met the first day upon her return to Japan. One was a young man by the name of Akihiro and the other an older woman and his superior named Bon.
The three of them rolled up some stools to sit in a semi circle around Ren, Yuuko pulling her tablet out and flicking through to find her notes while Bon opted for a clipboard to dot down her own. Akihiro cleared his throat and smiled at Ren awkwardly, obviously he'd been volunteered to pass on the information.
"How are you feeling today?" He asked as he rubbed his hands awkwardly over his knees.
"Fine, I guess." Ren shrugged.
"Good to hear, good to hear." Akihiro glanced at the other two for reassurance before he gulped deeply. "It's taken some intensive research over the last few months but we've managed to work out how the serum your father devised works. Essentially, he gathered the DNA of multiple professionals, top heroes, sidekicks, amateurs, everyone. His position as a quirk researcher for the government certainly helped him locate them. He took that biological information and injected it into your body. From what you told us, prior tests subjects-"
"They were my siblings and my friends." Ren snapped. "Please, please don't call them test subjects."
"Oh- Of course. I'm so sorry. Their bodies weren't strong enough to withhold the overload of quirks and foreign DNA. But yours was, and that's why the serum worked and continues to work in your body. Originally, we thought you'd manifested a total of four quirks; your natural born H2O quirk, and the injected flame, wind and earth quirks. H-However..." He glanced at the other two again.
"However..?" Ren egged him on, rolling her hand in front of her to get him taking again.
"Our research has led us to believe that you've manifested more than that, a lot more. Approximately 27 other quirks, all at different stages of growth. These varying stages makes it appear that you've only got four quirks because the others haven't grown enough to manifest properly, well, most of them. A few tend to slip out here and there when you lose control. Your glowing eyes, the sparks that zap around your body, how your hair seems to float of its own will, and so on. We thought those were side effects of your four quirks but all of those were their own little manifestations. Furthermore, it explains why you've been able to take control of your flame quirk better then the wind quirk, and the wind quirk better than the earth quirk as the flame has grown the most, followed by the wind."
Ren huffed a sigh as she absorbed the information. It made sense to her that so much would be going on within in her body but it didn't seem like that much of an issue to her. "So, what's the plan?"
"Our plan is to inject you with a counter-serum we've created-"
"Oh great. More weird foreign shit in my body." She rolled her eyes.
"I understand your hesitation but this will act differently. This serum will boost the growth of the quirks, one at a time, until they're active and isolated enough for us to identify and extract them. Your flame quirk, for example; like I said, it's grown the most and enough for us to identify the DNA used to create it was none other than Endeavour's. And your wind quirk comes from DNA extracted from a family by the name of Yoarashi."
Ren nodded. "Okay, while I understand the idea of isolating the quirks so they grow and manifest properly, why extract them from my body? If I can handle it, I can use it to my advantage, right?" Yuuko and Bon glanced up from their notes and grimaced. "R-Right?" She asked Akihiro again.
"Well, that's the thing... You can't handle it... Not anymore. We've been comparing your vitals every time you go comatose from losing control. Between the first time we could analyse you when you arrived back in Japan to the time in Okinawa and a couple of months ago on your agency mission, your vitals have dropped drastically each time. Not only that, small pieces of your lungs have literally disintegrated and half of one of your kidneys has shut down. Surface level injuries, like cuts and bruises heal tremendously fast on your body and they don't leave a mark. But every time you overextend your quirks, your body literally eats itself from the inside out."
"... Fuck." Ren sat back on the table. She glanced down at her shoulder that had been badly cut into by the Nomu on her agency mission and she pictured the skin beneath her hospital gown. It was flawless but anyone else would have had a scar. She thought the serum had given her incredible healing but all that time it had been attacking the parts that really matter. "And we can't just let it be because...-"
"You'll die." Akihiro said, reinstating what Ren was already thinking. "Without proper development and extraction, the 30 foreign powers within you will continue to battle each other until their container can only longer hold them."
"... Okay." Ren tried to swallow the immensely dry lump in her throat as she begged her muscles to stop shaking. "When do we start?"
"Immediately."
*