“Really? You’re telling me both died while dealing with those kids?”, a doubtful inquisitive feminine voice echoed inside a massive office. Marble floor, exquisite gothic paintings and a red carpet leading all the way from the entrance of the room to a 3 meters (~10 feet) wide desk, neatly arranged with some documents to the side and a laptop in the middle. Atop the carpet, ‘C’ was standing still, with a poker expression, face uncovered. He had a chiselled jaw, pure-dark hair, brown eyes, a straight nose, and baby white skin, devoid of blemishes or facial hair. In front of him was the owner of the earlier voice; a gorgeous shoulder-length-red-haired woman, with blue eyes, cherry-rounded-red lips, petite nose and wearing a full business black suit, which accentuated her charm even more. She wore a sarcastic expression, with one of her eyebrows raised, awaiting what the man in front of her was going to answer.
“Yes, madam. One of them got instantly killed by the bald child. We suppose the cause is related to the usage of his quirk, it seems related to poison, since my men revised and he transformed during the quirk assessment, developing sharp canines and an alteration of his iris’s tonality. He used Johnny’s mishap and was able to bite his bare hand. For that, please let me excuse my poor performance. I should have been more alert even if the children seemed inexperienced regarding quirks.”, he bowed, placing one hand over his shoulder, and stood still.
“You may rise, mistakes happen sometimes. However, be more focused next time something similar happens. Even if those kids looked harmless and malnourished, always remember there are some quirks that awaken off feelings or when cornered. So please don’t repeat it again in the future. Also, I’ll get his replacement soon, what was his name?”, she asked, while at the same time typing something on the laptop.
“Johnny Maccler, madam.”, he straightened and replied.
“I see, a telepath and analyst. I don’t have anybody with a similar quirk here, but I’ll order someone with those characteristics. Do you mind if the temporary replacement isn’t a telepath?”, she inquired while writing.
“No problems, madam. Analyst is sufficient.”, he confirmed.
“I sent you the data regarding your new employee, don’t waste him as you did with Johnny. These types of quirks are really annoying to request, so treasure them.”, she warned, mildly annoyed at all the paperwork she’ll have to deal with later. “And what happened with the other guy?”, she kept pressing her most concerning question.
“Albert Maccler, madam. He was Johnny’s brother. Seeing his own brother die in front of him caused his emotions to run rampant, provoking him to try and kill the bald child. I tried warning him not to do it, but he refused and still went in for the kill, so I had to prevent it by amputating both of his hands. He didn’t make it back to HQ, dying due to blood loss.”, he replied in one go, without stuttering and conveying the scenes chronologically.
“I don’t like liars, Emmanuel. You better explain yourself. One last chance”, she glared at him, exuding killing intent. Sweat began forming under his left brow, now more nervous than before.
“I’m sorry, madam. I killed him on the way back before we arrived.”, he nervously replied. His breathing was getting a bit ragged at the end, indicating clear discomfort.
“W.H.Y?”, she softly asked, now exuding even more killing intent than before.
“I believe he wouldn’t cut it for future jobs, his emotions will interfere with the way we carry things, making it harder for the crew. I don’t need sensitive puss*es on my team. And I believe no other captain would want an unstable person working under them. For that, I think he’d be clearly disposed of by you anyways, madam, so I thought I’d free you of additional work.”, he replied, now calmer, seeing that today she was in the mood to hear explanations.
“Mhm…”, she kept tapping her index finger on the desk, mulling over the reason he had given her. After some minutes, she wrote something on her laptop, stood up and began walking towards him.
“You see, I appreciate that you think so fondly of me. However…”, she, standing in front of him, grabbed his ball sack, squeezing it tight with her polished black-painted nails. “I don’t need such kind workers. Understood?”, she whispered to his ear. To which he replied, wheezing; “Ye-yess, madam.”. His face was slowly turning purple, and he had both eyelids tightly closed, grimacing his pain.
“Good. Next time you want to free me of work, ask me first alright?”, she let go and patted him on the shoulder, now wearing a brilliant smile and going back to her desk, no killing intent to be sensed.
“So, I guess you also need a new replacement for him?”, she asked, typing some more on her laptop.
“Ye-yes, madam. But i-if it’s too much at the same time, I can perfectly work with just one.”, he said slowly, still recovering from the, probably permanent, pain.
“Alright. Albert, huh. This one is even worse, you did free me of some work, but threw me another mountain of it.”, her brow twitched.
“I’m terribly ashamed, madam.”, he again bowed, this time even lower.
“You better be, you wishfully killed an extremely rare quirk. It’ll probably take around 2 months for me to get an X-ray type of quirk as a replacement. You better pray for HQ to accept the petition, otherwise…”, she stopped at that and carried on typing. He kept silent, bowing, until she finished her work.
“Looking good. I did the petition for your mistake; I should be notified by the end of the week if it goes through or it’s a dud. So, keep an eye out for it.”, she said.
“Thank you very much, I’ll do as you say, madam”, he replied.
“Good. Now, as for those two kids. You told me that you had some personal comments about them, right?”, she leaned back on her chair, closing the laptop and preparing herself a cup of wine.
“Yes, madam. The bald child awakened quite the deadly quirk, so I’d suggest extra carefulness with his transport, and I’d recommend him for the premium category.”, he argued.
“Oho? You know what that implies right?”, she asked surprised.
“Yes, but I truly think he’s worth it. His quirk is already that deadly in such weakened state, I can’t imagine how he’d develop if enough nourishment was given to him over the long run.”, he responded.
“Very well, I’ll take your opinion into account, since you are the only witness of his quirk in action.”, she sipped some wine, enjoying its fragrance.
“Ha~, I can’t get used to this flavour. Italian wine. Have you tried it?”, she asked.
“No, madam.”, he replied.
“Well, try to save a bit of your wage for it, it’s worth it. Anyways. What did you have to say about the other child?”, she switched topics, seeing that he didn’t share her passion, unamused.
“I believe he’d be eligible for the red category, madam. He doesn’t have a quirk yet and, seeing the state he was in, Johnny determined that he had zero potential about possible quirk development, stating him as ‘harmless’ for the future. However, I think that if we fed him a bit, his unique characteristics and complexion would place him as quite the charming child. Hence why I think it’d be a waste to throw him directly into the neutral zone.”, he argued his point of view about Zo’s case.
“Well, from your report he seems to be quite special. White braids, bluish eyes and tanned, which most likely means he’s basically white-skinned. An anomaly around here. I agree he has quite the rare traits for an African boy, he resembles a textbook version of a child with North-European ascendency. And if what you say is true, then I guess he has potential.”, she clinked his cup, seemingly immersed on deciding what to do about it.
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“I’ll assign some resources for him to recover from the malnourishment, it should take a week for him to recover. If you still think by then that he has what it takes; go for it, after all that category isn’t as important. Focus primarily on the bald child, I want a detailed report of his quirk and progress through the week. If his quirk is as good as you say, I’ll grant you a bonus for it. After all, premium decisions demand premium rewards, don’t you think?”, she smirked.
“Ye-no, I meant, no need for it, madam. Just doing my job.”, he stuttered, spacing out a bit.
“Hahahaha… It’s fine, no need to be modest. Premium products usually come from intuition, so you shouldn’t feel ashamed of claiming what you’re worth”, she insisted.
“In that case, thank you. I’ll gladly accept the offer.”, he promptly added, slightly flustered.
“Alright, good job. Now get out, you stink and it’s polluting the wine’s taste.”, she waved him off, not even bothering with him anymore. She went immediately back to enjoying her cup.
“Ah~ fine wine is the best after all…”, she muttered.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel was making his way out the office. Formally saluting both guards stationed at the office’s door and exiting the building.
‘Tsk, f*cking b*tch. She thinks she’s all high and mighty because of her connections. Just wait. I’ll make sure to repay the favour.’, he thought, while massaging his ball sack, clearly still somewhat sore. ‘I should get this treated…’, and like that, he began heading towards the healing department at the camp….
Meanwhile, on a completely dark room, Zac was laying on a bed, asleep, and had both of his legs and arms tied up. The room would resemble a hospital one, being 4x4 meters (~13x13 feet), with a single bed on the far end towards the corner and some additional equipment. The walls gave off a plastic vibe and were purely white, with a greyish tone for the floor and ceiling. It had been already a day since they were captured.
“Good morning~”, a pleasant voice entered through the door, lighting up the place and walking towards the bed.
Jolted awake, the first reaction Zac had was to grab his weapon immediately.
‘Huh? Hpmh!’, he tried to move, fighting, and trying to get free from the restraints, but to no avail.
“No can-do young man, even in your current state it’s not possible to break free. Give up.”, now visible, the young woman, wearing what looked like a cian nurse outfit, commented. She was dark-skinned, had brown hair and green eyes, and gave off motherly vibes. She kept going on with her work, as if he wasn’t there, struggling and still trying to break free.
“Sigh, young people really do have energy…”, she commented while preparing what looked like an injection. She turned around, with syringe in hand, facing the bed. “This should help you regain some clarity, relax young man. It’ll just take a second”.
‘Stay away!’, was what he tried to say, but what came out was some muffled noises.
“Oh wow! Finally, you regained some consciousness. When you arrived and woke up the first time it was a pain to deal with your excess of energy hohoho~~. You are gagged because your canines are very sharp! We had to isolate them or else you could harm this beautiful nurse, don’t you think? I think it’s a fair price to pay…”, she kept debating with herself for a bit more, fully preparing the injection, while making some diva poses. During this time, Zac was trying to assimilate the state he was in. He began recalling the events prior to this, remembering his unnatural transformation, which he could still feel, and the state Zo was in. The latter caused him to become even more anxious, trying to break free again. And making continuous muffled noises.
“*Sigh*… and here I thought you’d be a bit more relaxed today. Just stay put for a second, I assure you it’d become much more bearable after the injection. Now be a good boy~~”, she came closer to Zac, lifting his hospital gown sleeve and intending to inject the syringe through his wrist. However, Zac kept shaking due to the constant attempts of breaking free, making it difficult for the nurse to complete the task.
“Mmm…”, she pouted. “Young man, if you don’t let me inject it, your friend and I will be in big trouble, after all you are quite dangerous in that state. Do you really want that? I saw he was such a beautiful child… it’d be a shame. I’m also beautiful, so I don’t think you’d want to see neither of us suffering right?”, she was making puppy eyes and gently questioning Zac.
At the mention of Zo, Zac became much tamer. Hearing that his most precious person could suffer because of him, it was unbearable. So even with his instincts yelling at him not to let her complete the task, he fought them over, staying put so she could continue.
“Wow… didn’t know you cared so much about me young man! *Sob*, I’ll do it fast, don’t worry it won’t hurt.”, she said and placed the tip of the syringe, finally injecting it into his bloodstream.
What came afterwards was a very weird sensation for Zac. It felt as if his whole body was shutting down, his senses became dull; more precisely, they reverted as to how they were in his human form. His canines also shortened, becoming normal once again, and the odd flow he felt at the back of his head no longer there. It felt both relaxing, since he felt much calmer, but also it felt weakening, as if he had just received a beating.
“You’ll probably feel weird for a bit, don’t worry young man. Those changes are the consequences of your quirk, which is your transformation, shutting off. If our guesses are correct, your canines should be back to normal, and you no longer feel the biting need anymore, right? Your eyes turned back to normal, so I suppose the anaesthesia worked out.” Zac nodded unconsciously at that, which the nurse noted down.
“I’ll be removing the gag now, ok? I’m here to help you, so don’t go biting me please~”, she came closer and gently removed the straps holding the gag. “There you go, much better right?”, she asked, smiling.
“*cough*Where am I? And where is Zo?”, was the first thing he asked.
“You both are in the hospital. And could you tell me your name? Naming is one of my favourite hobbies…”, she replied, while writing most likely Zo’s name.
“Zac”, he dryly said.
“A cute name, mhm… but I cannot shorten them further for a nickname, such a shame…”, she kept commenting, still jotting down more information.
“Where is Zo?”, he kept inquiring.
“In this hospital, Zac. In another room, he needs his own privacy hohoho~”, she answered, avoiding swiftly giving away details.
“And why are we here? I’m pretty sure we got captured by those men.”, he asked.
“Well, you came here to recover from the fatigue of the journey, Zac. Both of you were found exhausted, with critical injuries on both legs, in the outskirts of the forest by our hospital’s patrol squad, so they picked you both up…”, she explained slowly, weeping at some points.
“We were running away from the Doraad attack and got ambushed by a group of masked men, are you related to them?”, he asked, wondering what had happened after they got ambushed. Suspicious about the whole sequence of events.
While he was questioning, the nurse kept noting down ‘-Possible Memory Loss due to quirk awakening: Events after getting shot might be lost- ‘on her notepad.
“Ugh, don’t compare us with those terrible people young Zac, we’re quite the opposite, from what I’ve been told you both were left in that cold forest *sob**sob*, such a horrible act, leaving two children to die.”, she kept sobbing, snorting, and non-stop using tissues.
‘That aligns with what those men said, last thing I remember is Zo getting called trash by those sons of b*tches, unforgivable. It makes sense that they left after checking me up too, since I’m no better than him. But this transformation of mine, it felt very nice, as if my body is a hundred times better…’ he thought.
“Ms. Nurse-“ he said.
“Oh please, Zac. Just call me Nana.”, she smiled and tried to warm up to him.
“Mhm. Nana… this transformation of mine that you mentioned, is it common? Like do people usually have those kinds of changes…”, he asked timidly, still not sure if he was hallucinating.
“Oh my. Of course, it is common. It’s just that children your age are usually malnourished, so it takes some extra time to develop. They are called quirks, Zac. They come in different shapes, forms, and ways, but in your case, you transform some parts of your body. In my case I can help people heal much faster, can’t you feel that both your legs don’t have no more holes? I did that, aren’t I super incredible?”, she smugly asked, puffing out her modest bosom.
‘Oh wow, it’s true, both injuries are gone.’ He thought while glancing at his lower body.
“Nana, did Zo get the same treatment?”, he questioned.
“But of course, Zac. I made sure you both were in tip-top condition as soon as you arrived. Nothing less for both my favourite patients, hohoho~”, she laughed jokingly.
“Thank you *sob* so glad…”, Zac broke down in tears after hearing that, finally relieved to find out he was safe and recovered the same way himself was. “Ca-can I see him?”, he followed.
“Oh my, impatient, aren’t we? I also want to see him soon, but he still must wake up. I know he’s stable but he’s a bit weaker than the norm regarding his body condition…”, she excused.
“Mhm, I know, he’s been always like that. But he’s very smart you know! A bit stubborn sometimes though…”, he mentioned, while accepting the fact it might take some time for him to see Zo awake again. Nana just nodded along. “Mhm, he looked so sweet too! Is he related to you? You are somewhat similar, very cute too!”, she mentioned.
“I’m his older brother…”, he murmured.
“Oh really! Must be a blessing to have such an adorable little brother.”, she complimented.
“Mhm…”, he faintly smiled at that, eager already to meet with him again.
“Well, seeing that you are faring much better than before, I’ll go check on him alright? I’ll leave those bed-straps on so no adverse effects can cause you harm because of the injection, alright Zac?”, she wore a brilliant smile and had a somewhat apologetic expression when mentioning the straps.
“That’s fine, go attend Zo please.” he complied and decided to rest for a bit, too many emotions in such a short time, it had built up a toll inside him. However, now seeing that both him and Zo were on a safe environment, he could relax a bit…