Ch4 - A Twist of Fate

Read ahead: https://www.patreon.com/bloooog

***

It wasn't that long before Yoshiki saw her in action.

Nemuri Kayama was a Yuuei alumni, and Yoshiki lived in Musutafu, so it wasn't really all that out there for him to see doing hero work. Yoshiki knew that. Except... he had all but forgotten that the total knockout used to sport a much, much more risqué costume before she was a teacher. One so revealing that even the HPSC had to step in and put their foot down.

'Holy shit,' Yoshiki thought, his thoughts practically stopping.

Midnight was wearing a belt, shoes, an overcoat... and that was it. It looked like it was 'locked' to her body, so it wouldn't slip, but holy shit.

Nemuri's hips, ass, thighs, and tits were all on full display.

He couldn't actually get horny yet, but... but he could fix that.

It almost fell like a wake up call. All this time, Yoshiki had been patiently waiting to grow up, but that was because he had to. With Forge, he could actually do something about this childlike body of his. It'd be a little suspicious if he just went and turned himself into an adult, but he could certainly speed up the clock a bit.

Rapid Aging: Physically age twice as fast. *Passive.

With just a little over a day's worth of Energy, Yoshiki had cut his lifespan in half... but that was only up until he got rid of Rapid Aging. Sure, his main Quirk didn't come with the ability to destroy his sub-Quirks, but that was the beauty of Forge. It let him create ANY power that he so desired, including one that did exactly that.

Dismantle: Remove any sub-Quirk. Returns 10% of Energy spent. *Meta.

Upgrade: Improve the potency, duration, or cooldown of any sub-Quirk, at the cost of Energy. Energy cost depends on the upgrade's strength. *Meta.

Yoshiki had also decided to nab Upgrade, just because. And since they didn't have all that much use on their own, neither of them had cost more than a week.

'5 more years,' Yoshiki decided. He'd wait 5 more years, and then he was going to immediately start drowning himself in ass, thighs, and pussy.

Ahem. Moving on.

As for his 'Quirk,' it turned out that Lightcraft was really, really fun to use.

First and foremost, Yoshiki could finally defend himself. In nearly an instant, he could stab anyone within 3 meters of him with a stake of light. He hadn't exactly advertised this development, but it was still good to know. Yoshiki had also realized just how... lacking he had been before, at least when it came to combat.

Forget All For One– before Lightcraft, he would've lost to a Quirkless guy with a knife.

Yoshiki also learned that, not only was Lightcraft fast, but it was powerful. Since he could control the color, shape, and texture of his hard-light, he had subtly made a dull gray platform underneath a parked car, and tried to lift it.

He almost panicked when it shot half a meter off up into the air.

For not even being 5 years old yet, that was really strong. Sure, he had dumped 3 entire months of Energy into it, and he had made the range pretty restrictive... but still.

Then there were the other things, like just how malleable light could be. Sure, he could create incredibly sharp, solid stakes of light, but he could also make goopy puddles. Yoshiki was pretty sure that he could jump of a building and then catch himself with a ball of liquid light.

But most importantly, Yoshiki could use it to fly!

'Well,' he admitted, 'in theory.'

Yoshiki was certain that he could form a disk of hard-light, and then hover around on it like a knock-off silver surfer... but he hadn't tried it yet. There were two reasons for that– first off, he was still trying to downplay his Quirk– and second off, it was dangerous.

Yoshiki had realized something crucial. If Lightcraft granted him full control over light within his range, and light moved at the speed of light...

Then couldn't he also move himself at the speed of light?

Or rather, couldn't he accidently explode into tiny chunks of meat?

Lightcraft moved according to his thoughts, and if he desired, its movement would appear instantaneous to him... so Yoshiki wisely decided not to risk it. With the speed of thought being around 120 m/s, his light could easily be moving at speeds of 400 km/h.

He could wait until his control improved a bit more.

As for Izumi and Katsumi's reactions, they were pretty much what he expected.

"Woah, amazing! I wonder if... mumble mumble..."

"Tch. Explosions are better than stupid cubes!"

Inko, Mitsuki and Masaru had congratulated him as well. They had also said he had a Quirk fit for a hero, and Yoshiki could tell that they meant it. Not because of a sub-Quirk, but because he had known them for a while. Which... that had felt nice.

As for his own father, Yoshiki and Fumika had video called.

"Nice Quirk, son."

It was better than nothing, but the man was so distant, so emotionally hollow.

'Why the fuck did mom marry this guy?'

Whatever. Yoshiki hadn't been trying to impress. He could easily wipe the floor with all of the kids his age, and even most adults– including his dad– but Yoshiki was still holding out.

He didn't want to, but it was necessary.

'Fucking All For One and his goons...' Yoshiki cursed.

Well, Yoshiki had patiently waited 4 years to get a superpower, so he could wait a couple more years for the wannabe Demon King to get his face caved in. Yoshiki was honestly a little curious– All Might and All For One's original clash had never been shown in full, so no one besides Horikoshi really knew the full scale of it.

It might be fun to watch.

***

Something was wrong.

Yoshiki's mom had just gotten off a phone call, and something was off. After spending so much time with his mother, he knew Fumika fairly well. That included her tells, too.

Pressing her lips together. Staring off at nothing.

At the moment, Fumika was either impatient– which only really happened when they were waiting on something, like food or people, and since they weren't... the most likely scenario was that she had just received bad news.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"It's..." Fumika let out a breath. "It's Izumi. She's..."

Yoshiki stilled.

"Is she Quirkless?"

"Yes," his mom breathed, looking forlorn. "It's supposed to be incredibly rare..."

'You're right,' he thought. Quirklessness was rare. 20% of the world didn't have Quirks, that much was true, but in Japan's current generation, the place where Quirks had actually originated... not even 0.03% of them were Quirkless. The chances of Izumi being Quirkless were slim to none.

Not to mention the fact that Izumi has a Quirk.

He had literally seen it with his own eyes.

So Yoshiki waited.

It only took a single day for Izumi to 'confess,' the bleeding heart that she was.

"I... I d-don't have a Quirk!"

Izumi sobbed and sobbed, but she didn't whine. Yoshiki could tell. She wasn't angry, she was just... sad. She didn't blame anyone. She was too kind for that.

Katsumi had also stomped off, but not before calling Izumi a "powerless weakling."

There might've not meant to be so demeaning, but the damage was done. Furious, Mitsuki had chased after Katsumi. Inko was a mixture of anger and guilt, and had resorted to quietly sobbing. After bearing her heart to her friends, and immediately losing one... Izumi had ran off to her room, tears in her eyes.

As for why Izumi might've thought herself Quirkless, Yoshiki had a good idea.

Absorption and Release. Izumi's Quirk stockpiled energy. That meant that, without literally reaching out into fire, heat, or electricity, she might not be able to use her Quirk.

With that in mind, Yoshiki had been more than ready to reveal her Quirk's true nature.

At least until he activated Identify.

[ Quirkless. ]

It took him a few seconds. But then it clicked.

In canon, when Tomura decided to attack Hosu, he asked his master for Nomus. Having been so long, Yoshiki didn't remember it all too well... but there was one.

One that could absorb and release fire.

If he were to compare his knowledge to that of what he knew now, All For One must've taken interest in Izumi's Quirk. Since Izumi never realized she had one, either her memories were tampered with... or her Quirk had been stolen before it even manifested. That wasn't something he'd put past AFO's capabilities.

In fact, knowing that Garaki was capable of making crude, artificial Quirks, Izumi's Quirk could very well end up being the baseline for the USJ Nomu's Shock Absorption.

Even if Yoshiki knew ahead of time... there wasn't anything he could've done about it.

The All For One during the Kamino Incident was strong. Way too strong for Yoshiki to even think about escaping, let alone confronting. But that was a crippled AFO. The current AFO was a different beast altogether. Uninjured, entitled, and arrogant... and so impossibly strong that he had gutted and nearly killed prime All Might.

As he was now, what could Yoshiki possibly do, besides hide his true Quirk?

He let out a defeated sigh.

'Fuck.'

Yoshiki turned toward his mother, and Fumika immediately gave him a small nudge, along with a very faint smile. She knew him too well.

With no one really paying attention to him at the moment, Yoshiki left the living room, going down one of the hallways. Towards Izumi's room. Opening her door, he quietly entered, the faint sounds of sobs reaching his ears.

"Izumi," he whispered.

Sniffling, Izumi looked up from beneath her All Might blanket.

"S-Shiki?"

"Do you want to be a hero?"

Izumi flinched. "I... I c-can't..."

"Why not?"

"I d-don't have a Quirk!"

"You still want to be a hero, don't you?" he asked. It was very subtle, but Yoshiki smiled just a little when he saw her nod her head. Of course she wanted to be a hero.

"It'll be difficult," Yoshiki continued, "But I think you can do it."

Izumi stared up at him, eyes wide.

"You'll be fighting an up hill battle. It will be difficult. Every villain will have something that you don't. But I believe in you, Izumi," he told her, and he meant it. "You can be a hero."

"R-Really?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

"Really. Let's be heroes. Together."

Izumi broke out into tears again, but it was different this time. He could tell. Yoshiki sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her into a hug.

Even if Izumi was Quirkless now, Yoshiki wasn't going to let her delude herself and effectively give up like she would've in canon. No, Izumi was his friend, and he'd be damned if he didn't intervene. He didn't blame Inko for not supporting Izumi, since like every mother should, she just feared for her daughter's safety... 

But Izumi was going to shine. He'd make sure of it.

When the time came, he would find a way to return her Quirk back, too.

Despite his soft demeanor, however... Yoshiki was absolutely livid.

While he had always considered Garaki kind of gross, and All For One stupid, he never really cared one way or another when they were just characters on a page. But now, now that they've taken Izumi's Quirk... taken from what was his...

Being a hero had always been the plan.

Not because he was good, but simply because it was the best course of action. Meaning that he would've eventually brought AFO and his goons to justice.

But All For One and Garaki... they were no longer just going to pay for their crimes.

No, they were going to suffer.

***

***

***

Yoshiki's Sub-Quirks:

New: Rapid Aging, Dismantle, Upgrade

Index: Blank, Cost, Notepad, Identify, X-ray Vision, Lightcraft, DNA Lock, Sincerity, LC_decoy, Rapid Aging, Dismantle, Upgrade

Total: 12