Chapter 26: Meeting AFO
Himiko and I walk through the purple portal Kurogiri opens for us along with Crusty McChappedLips. On the other side is someone famous worldwide. Someone everyone has heard of. Someone who either brightens or traumatizes your childhood. Indeed, it's the legendary-
"Mr. Potatohead! I had no idea that the toy was based on a real person! Ooh, ooh! Do you have the parts of your face laying around this lab somewhere? Is this like a scavenger hunt? Did you lose them because you took off both eyes and couldn't see anymore? Hey, Himi. Let's help him out and find his eyes for him. Maybe we can get an autograph after!"
Himiko facepalms while the others are frozen in shock at my barrage of words. But I guess that makes sense. Thinking about it I doubt Mr. Potatohead is his real name, it's probably just his brand name. And judging how we got here by portal, he probably doesn't get a lot of new visitors.
"Izu." Himi says with a serious look on her face. When I tilt my head in confusion she sighs. "Remember earlier when I said that sometimes it feels like I'm the sane one in our relationship?"
I nod and she continues. "This is one of those moments.
I pause my excitement for a moment and replay what I said before my eyes widen in understanding. "I'm sorry about that, I guess I let my excitement get away from me." I rub the back of my head sheepishly.
Thankfully my apology seems to get the other two back to normal since Potatohead turns to Crusty. "Tomura, why have you brought such a disrespectful child here?"
Rude! I'm not disrespectful, I'm excitable! There's a difference! Sort of!
"His quirk brought him back to life. I figured that you would want it, Sensei." His reply is straight to the point, rather bland I'd say. Potatohead's reaction isn't though.
He jerks straight up in his chair, which honestly looks super uncomfortable without any cushions on it. And he turns his eyeless and noseless head towards him. "What!? Are you certain that it is not simply a powerful regenerative quirk!?"
The now named Tomura nods his head as he rests four fingers on the side of his neck. "I'm sure. I completely disintegrated his head, but for some reason it didn't travel to the rest of his body. After he died, his girlfriend-"
"Girlfriend!?" I can't help my blush accompanied shout at his casual claim. I mean, sure I like her, but we aren't officially dating I think! Well, I haven't had a girlfriend before so I'm not entirely sure, but still. As my face starts to reach cooking temperature, I shyly look to the side only to see Himi giving me an odd look.
"Why are you acting surprised? We've been together ever since you let me drink your blood."
"That long!?" This day is just full of surprises. First I see Kachan doing community service, then she brings me to a bar for dinner, I get my head destroyed - by disintegration he said? - meet Potatohead, and now I find out that Himi and I have been dating for months!? It's hard to wrap my head around this, but as Himi hugs my arm, I decide that I can accept that I'm just kind of oblivious in social situations.
Seeing that I'm done with my outburst, Tomura continues as he scowls at me. "As I was saying, the girl told me that his head would grow back after about three hours. It took an extra couple hours, but she was right. He was completely dead, and he came back to life. Kurogiri even checked his pulse after I'd grabbed him. Watching him grow a new head was pretty creepy, definitely rated M."
Seeing his gaze drop down to my neck as Potatohead turns to me with a smile through his oxygen mask, I try to follow his gaze. But since whatever he's looking at is on my neck it doesn't really work…
Seeing my predicament, Himi, my now girlfriend, takes a picture and shows it to me. Taking her phone from her hand, I look and see what's drawn their attention. There's a jagged scar running around my entire neck, like if someone wrapped something coarse around it and pulled.
I'm silent as I turn my head to look at it from different angles, my brow furrowed. 'This… is weird. I've never gotten a scar or anything like that from something that killed me before. Does this mean certain types of wounds can't be healed? Or is it something to do with his quirk? On one hand I don't really want to die anymore, on the other…'
"I really want to study your quirk." I look up from my thoughts only to have my vision filled with the palm of someone's hand. "Huh?" I'm surprised, obviously. I really need to stop getting lost in my thoughts and mutterings, one of these days it's going to get me in trouble.
But that day is not today since Himi slashes at the outstretched wrist, causing them to pull back. Even without eyes, you can tell he's angry just by the pressure he's giving off. Himi flinches, and her knees buckle, but I hold out a hand to steady her. Feeling my reassuring presence transmitted through my touch, her legs stop shaking and she looks up to meet his, er, glare?
Next to him, Tomura is holding out his hands in his own preparation to fight. But is that really necessary? I'm not even sure what the guy was trying to do given how much I was thinking at the time. "Can you explain what you were trying to do? I promise that I'm paying attention this time."
Everyone can see that he's impatient, but to my surprise he actually holds up his hand to stop Tomura from attacking. Grumbling, he listens, but given how quick he was to kill me when we first got to the bar that doesn't really mean much. But my attention is completely focused on Potatohead, something that I'm only comfortable with due to the knowledge that Himi will have my back no matter what happens.
The growl is clear in his voice when the man speaks. "I have the ability to give and take quirks, as such I would like to take yours. Coming back from the dead is quite the feat. Something that I'd like to add to my own arsenal of quirks. Rest assured that I would allow you to have the quirk of your choice in exchange. You nodded, so I was under the impression that you'd agreed."
"Ah." I scratch my head sheepishly while Himi sighs beside me. "Sorry about that, I was thinking about Tomura's-"
"It's Shigaraki to you, loot bot."
I continue as if I wasn't interrupted. "-quirk since my healing left a scar. The only time that's happened is when I intended for the wound to stay. See." To demonstrate I pull up the sleeve from my jacket and reveal the scar carved from Himiko's name. Seeing me showing it off, Himi swoons.
"So romantic~. Carving a girl's name into yourself is one of the best shows of affection."
I raise an eyebrow without taking my eyes off of the two in front of me. "'One of'? Then what would be the best?"
"Hmm." She glances up while tapping her chin with her index finger. "Maybe spelling out my name with dead bodies? Ooh! Or blood! I think that I'd prefer blood, that way I can drink it later. But it would have to be somewhere that heroes wouldn't be trying to get rid of it."
I nod before noticing that Potatohead and Shigaraki are getting impatient. Focusing back on the matter at hand I clear my throat. "Sorry again. Anyways, even if you obtained my quirk, there's no guarantee it would work for you. The people in charge of the afterlife are able to keep you there if they choose. I'm told that my soul just isn't valuable enough to do so."
Seeing that I'm talking about my quirk, the two of them calm down and Potatohead rests his head on his fist. "Hmm. Interesting. And what exactly would make someone's soul valuable?"
I shrug. "Dunno. Probably like, age and achievement or something? They did say that extremely atrocious or desirable souls are the main ones they'll stop from coming back. Apparently one of my 'handlers', as I call her, has a coworker who's been waiting on a soul for two hundred years! They even have an entire team waiting to grab them when they eventually go down."
There's silence as they process the information, and looking at Potatohead, I realize something. The top half of his head isn't how it's supposed to look, it's actually all scar tissue. I probably would have noticed earlier, but it's pretty dark in here. And his oxygen mask covers basically the only part of his head that isn't scarred, so I think I can be forgiven for not realizing sooner.
And with this realization comes another. "You won't heal your scars if you take my quirk and come back to life. Any damage from before your first death remains, except for around the time you die. And keep in mind, you have to die for it to activate. It is not any type of regeneration quirk. You die, you come back."
Suddenly, I realize what we've been talking about. "WAIT A MINUTE! YOU CAN TAKE AND GIVE QUIRKS!?"
While Potatohead seems lost in thought, Shigaraki frowns at me while Himi rolls her eyes. "Talk about bad lag."
"Yeah Cinnamon Roll, that was a super late reaction. You feeling off from having your head turned to dust earlier?"
I wave off her concern as I pull out a fresh notebook and flick my wrist, suddenly holding a pen. "That doesn't matter! A quirk like this overturns basically everything we know about quirks! I'm sure that this guy has taken at least one mutation type quirk before, but it doesn't seem to have affected his own body. Which means that mutations might not actually be passive like everyone believes. They're more like nobody knows how to turn them off!"
I quickly tap my chin with the point of my pen, ignoring the mark it left as I go back to writing at a mildly slower speed than my muttering. Those healed muscles are really coming in handy. "Or it could be that his quirk keeps them in a kind of storage, and they only become active when he wants them to. Still though, that would raise the question of whether or not he can give someone a mutation type quirk and change it from passive to active, thus turning it from a mutation to a transformation type. What about animal types like Mirko? Would he be able to turn her fully human if he were to take her quirk? Her quirk literally turns her into a rabbit, but the only things that could obviously change for her are the ears and tail. Her leg strength is part quirk and part training, so would that strength be gone? Or would it stay? There's- Ow!"
Feeling something hit me in the head, I give out the obligatory sound of pain even if I'm not in any. I'm told it's creepy if I just accept the hit and turn towards the person, who in this case is Himi with a palm-sized frying pan.
…
"Why do you have a frying pan?"
"For when you go mega muttering super quirk analysis mode. Just look at that guy, he's basically passed out on his feet!" I turn my head to follow where the pan is pointing only to see Shigaraki with glazed over eyes and slightly swaying.
"Hehe. Whoops." But to both of our surprise, chucking echoes throughout the room. The source? Potatohead.
"Hahaha. That's quite the mind you have there, boy. You've only just learned of my quirk, yet have already figured out quite a bit about it. Tell me, can you do this for any quirk?"
Tilting my head, I pull out one of my older notebooks and toss it to him. "I really like quirks. At first I analyzed them because I thought it would help me to become a hero. But after All Might crushed that dream I decided that I could make some good money from selling the information."
I sheepishly rub the back of my head. "Though I haven't gotten around to it yet… Himi has been looking for a Broker we can work with that wouldn't try to scr-" *Thunk* "-take advantage of the fact we're so young. You really should go easier on how much you hit me, Himi."
She seems to think about it for a moment. "No cursing." Thunk* My vision is a bit blurry now, but whatever. She's cute when she gets like this.
"Hmm. If that's the case I have a proposition for you." He smiles, but I have to object.
"Sorry, but you have to get Himi's permission first. I'm open to the idea, but I care about her too much to just have a casual fling with someone we just met. Even if I was oblivious to the fact we were dating until a few minutes ago."
"Aww, thanks Cinnamon Roll. I'm glad you care! We can talk about that stuff later though, it's serious talk time."
I nod. "Right. Sorry Potatohead."
I see a vein pulse on his head, but he takes a deep breath to calm himself. "I would like for you to join Tomura's organization, the League of Villains. You'd do as he says, as well as provide analysis for those he targets. In return, all of your needs will be attended to. Money, weapons, training, whatever you desire, you will be provided."
"Hmm…" I look over at Himi to get her thoughts on the offer, but she just shrugs. Which is entirely unhelpful, but I get where she's coming from. As long as we have each other and freedom it doesn't really matter where we go. Plus, this seems interesting~.
So I turn to Potatohead and nod. "We'll accept your offer, but what's your name? I'm pretty sure you're going to kill me after this talk for calling you Potatohead this whole conversation and don't want it to happen every time."
"You may call me… All For One." He extends his hand, and I'm sitting back in the darkness across from the lady. Wow, that pulsing vein can rival All For Ones! Though this is the third time I've died today, so it's understandable.
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We all know Izuku deserved that third death. Honestly, it's a miracle he got off so lightly.
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