Electric Water Mind Control and Dry Out

I figured I couldn't hide the fact I'd awakened my quirk from people for too long, and I don't wanna be considered quirkless, so I had to come clean eventually. But I made sure to make the reveal very dramatic.

I remembered this one scene from Railgun in particular where Canon Misaki used Mental Out to convince a scientist that he was eating a food he liked, only to remove her influence to reveal he was eating something he hated and I said to myself "Heh, that's funny. I wanna try that".

And try that I did, except with my own personal twist on it. My first unwilling victim was Renko, whom I tricked into thinking that her favorite food was bananas and ketchup. After that, I decided to see how many people I was able to influence. And so for a month straight, Mrs. Eirin's class had found itself with a strange obsession. Not the entire class, unfortunately, I found out I could only really control 14 people at once. I could do more, but I could only give them really simple instructions. And so 13 kids in class found themselves craving bananas and ketchup while the others were made to ignore it. If it was just one kid it would've been seen as relatively normal, but if they all seemingly found themselves obsessed with bananas and ketchup, something was amiss.

I decided to pull the plug on the experiment and to a less-than-adoring audience I announced that I had procured my quirk and they'd all been duped. Surprisingly enough they were more upset with the fact that I hypnotized them than the fact that I tricked them into liking bananas and ketchup as a combination. Hell, some of them even admitted the combination wasn't that bad. Mrs. Eirin just looked at me like I was a Genshin Impact player, as usual. After I told everyone what my quirk did they gave me the 'Shinso Treatment'. I mean I wasn't very popular to begin with due to my maturity (debatable) but now it was even worse. Not like I'd want to be friends with a bunch of preschoolers but being ostracized certainly didn't feel very good. I couldn't blame them though. Even dumb kids know to be wary of someone with mind control.

I decided to uplift myself after the school day ended and waited for Renko to come home to reveal my dastardly ploy.

I walked into the dining room holding my trusty remote control.

"Hey Renko" I greet her.

She looks up from her bowl of 'absolute culinary masterpiece' and responds in kind "Hey Shoku." while giving me a warm albeit tired smile.

"Sorry to interrupt you while you're eating. But I just wanted to tell you that bananas and ketchup aren't actually your favorite food." I raise my hand and point my remote in her direction.

"Oh, and I got my quirk," I say nonchalantly

Renko becomes still and takes a quick glance at the bowl containing banana slices and ketchup and then looks back up at me before jumping out of her chair and running towards me with energy I had thought was impossible for her to muster.

"Oh Shoku you got your quirk! A-Awah that's great! we'll go to a doctor to get you registered, ok?" She said while gently hugging me.

Welp. My prank went completely over her head. I had underestimated the lower class. One of the perks of being poor is that you can't afford to be a picky eater.

I mentally :/ and curse my circumstances once again. If only the glowing guy didn't hate the middle class, it would've worked damn it.

Renko found a way to get a day off from work to take me to get my quirk registered. Luckily the doctor wasn't AFO's right-hand man and just a regular guy. He took some tests and I gave a brief demonstration of Mental Out in action by reciting the entirety of the Bee Movie script to him telepathically. To his credit, he was actually able to determine exactly how Mental Out worked and even recognized that it could have many applications.

"Your quirk seems to work by manipulating the flow of bioelectricity in the brain through the control of moisture to manipulate the human mind." He rubs his chin while looking over some papers before continuing "I must say... I've seen my fair share of brainwashing quirks in my time, but certainly not one as powerful as yours. Most are quite simple and only have one application" he pauses before looking at me sternly "Young lady, you've been gifted with an incredibly powerful quirk. I trust you'll use it responsibly?"

"Yessir," I respond. I mean who does he think I am? Of course ill use it responsibly. Like that time I (responsibly) almost gave myself a lobotomy. If that's not responsible I don't know what is.

Renko looks awestruck by the quirk doctor's words and turns to me "Wow... isn't that great Shoku?" I simply smile and nod in affirmation.

The doctor looks unsurprised by Renko's excitement. He's likely seen this same song and dance before. He straightens the pile of papers he's holding before placing them down and turning to a computer on his desk. He turns his head to face us before he opens his mouth to speak.

"Well, since it's your quirk. Naturally, you get to decide its name so tell me, young lady. What would you like to call your quirk?"

Well, the answer was simple. It could only really be called one thing.

"Electric Water Mind Control."

"..."

"..."

The doctor and Renko both seemed unimpressed but agreed with my name nonetheless. The doctor said some final remarks about how I could always change the name if I ever came up with a new one but I don't think I'll ever take his advice. I see no problem with my naming sense. When we arrived home Renko told me to not go overboard with my quirk usage and bid me adieu. She had multiple jobs and she was only able to take a day off from one to find the time to visit the doctor. So I was left at home to my own devices.

And so I got back to trying to crack the code on Mental Out's moisture control. Since I was alone I could practice safely forcing Mental Out to go out of control. But first I have to make more boundaries for myself. In order to make a certain ability easier to access, Canon Misaki divided it into "categories" in order to make it easier to use. It kind of works like a menu at a restaurant. She says "category" followed by a number and the effect assigned to it is applied. They are mostly used to make access to certain effects easier. You wouldn't see her using a category for complicated tasks. It's usually simple stuff like shutting off pain receptors or making someone unconscious for 30 hours. I guess they'd be considered the keyboard shortcuts for Mental Out. But anyway I want to make one right now to help me gauge how Mental Out works on the macroscopic scale. After covering my schoolwork with calculations since I didn't have any paper lying around the house I had my first keyboard shortcut down. Aptly named Shortcut: 001 because I'd like to distinguish myself from canon Misaki. What does Shortcut: 001 do exactly? Well, it basically puts anyone it's used on in a state of extreme distress for 30 seconds. And like the responsible person I am, I'm going to use it on myself. I put a bunch of fruit around me to see if Mental Out would freeze-dry it and prepared for trouble.

"Shortcut: 001" I utter as I point the remote at my head.

And make it double.

I press the remote.

To say what followed was unpleasant would be an understatement.

For those 30 seconds, I sat on the floor clutching my head. I lost any control I had on my ability which caused it to go haywire. The numbers in my head that were usually so clear were now undiscernible as I had lost the ability to form coherent calculations. Not like I'd be trying to form any anyway. My heart rate went through the roof due to the adrenaline rush from my body's fight-or-flight response kicking in. My heart rate also went through the roof. For 30 seconds I was overwhelmed by a feeling of complete helplessness and laid on the kitchen floor bawling my eyes out. If anyone had seen this go down I would've no doubt looked like a crackhead undergoing withdrawal. A super-crackhead but a crackhead nonetheless.

After the 30 seconds were up and I stopped dry heaving on the floor I shakily got myself off the ground and sat my ass down on a chair. After a full 5 minutes of sitting there, I realized I very much could have died once again and that I was in fact not responsible. It seems the biggest threat to my well-being is me. What can I say I'm an impatient person. I'm surprised the body of a 5-year-old was able to handle that and not die of shock. Perhaps it was my mature mind or maybe... divine intervention. I stare towards the floor where my little ritual took place and look at the fruit. Judging from their wrinkly and dry appearance they've been freeze-dried quite thoroughly. Unfortunately, I didn't really have much time to analyze what the hell had gone down to make this happen on the technical scale during the 30 seconds so I couldn't recreate this effect.

Or could I?

Cue the Vsauce music.

I have Mental Out so I can just use it to recall the calculations that went through my head during that moment of distress.

And so I did through the use of the newly created "Shortcut: 002". Which allows me to recall any calculations made during the 30 seconds under 001. Now what the hell actually happened during my mental meltdown? My brain, while under distress, lost the ability to distinguish between brain fluids and regular fluids, inaccurately manipulated the moisture of the fruits causing the freeze drying, and manifested Mental Out on the macroscopic scale because my calculations weren't as precise as they'd usually be.

Now that I understand how it all works I just have to add boundaries to make this usable. First, it needs a catalyst. I can't use remote controls since they're a Mental Out thing, and I'd personally rather not have to rely on objects any more than I already am. How about I use my hands instead? They'll need boundaries too though, since I don't want any accidental activations. I'll have to do something specific with them. How about pointing with two fingers? Nobody does that except Disneyland employees, and I'll only do it on my left hand. If I can remove moisture it only makes sense to think that I can add it. Canon Misaki could also add moisture to things so I should be able to do it. I'll have my left hand remove moisture while the right hand adds moisture. While it would be cool to become a water bender and somehow achieve full moisture manipulation, this isn't the conventional way to be using Mental Out. I probably won't be able to do much besides freeze-drying stuff and adding moisture to things, but hey it's better than relying on nothing but remote controls.

This "adding moisture removing moisture with my hands" power I'm cooking up is too far removed from Mental Out that I consider it to be a different power altogether. So much so that I deem it necessary to give it an entirely different name. The left hand will remove moisture causing a phenomenon akin to freeze drying and since it's an extension of Mental Out it feels only right to call it "Dry Out".

I'm not coming up with a name for the power my right hand will have, so it'll also be called Dry Out. Call me lazy all you want I just couldn't come up with a good name for it.

It's probably because I drained all my creative juices when I came up with "Electric Water Mind Control"