Chapter 14: Past&Future

The process of registering quirks could be said to be a not too complicated one.

With law enforcing on every citizen that should got a quirk, it was only natural the process would be shortened into a more simple and faster examination.

What they are more interested in after all is keeping a general tab on the type of quirks that are popping and how they are progressing with every generation.

'Though whenever the government might make some moves on individuals that present some unreal quirks if given the opportunity is a whole other story.'

Thaumiel thought while curiously being led by hand, as Makima guided him inside the quirk registering facility.

It was a freek-ishly huge place that had apparently been made by repurposing a hospital that once existed here.

People could be seen going in and out after a couple few seconds, some still very young and others a tad older. The majority though were children between their 2 and 5 years old. Of course its not to say older and young people couldnt be seen at all.

It had been only yesterday when Thaumiel had gotten released from the police

As for his current mood, he felt rather mixed feelings for all the wrong reasons.

Only two days before he had made his plans about how he would explain his quirk and tohugh he had all the possible situation udner control from that moment and onward.

Yet he couldn't even go through his with it what he planned before god threw a hammer onto whole fucking mind.

Just remembering the ride as Makima drove him here today already made him feel a deep feeling of helplessness about the unpredictability of the world.

'No wonder even guys like Aizen, and Fang Yuan end up dying or sealed despite their plans...'

…

"Have you already figured out more or less how your quirk works?"

Makima inquired, her words filled with an uncharacteristic warmth, which hinted at her genuine concern for Thaumiel's well-being.

'It's not a bad thing but… man the contrast sure feels weird…'

he thought, acutely aware of the contrast between Makima's demeanor now and the frigidity he had grown accustomed to, found himself navigating unfamiliar emotional terrain.

"Hum, I more or less got the hang of it… It's pretty cool to be honest, I like the idea of shifting that the quirk got to it. Although it could be a bit cooler or flashier."

"...You are quite blessed, your quirk is a very big upgrade of your father's quirk."

Her answer made him pause, his father? It had already been almost half a year since he 'became' his current self yet he hadn't really asked about his parents.

Neither had Makima even talked about it, thus the subject caught him off guard.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't curious though.

'Just to be sure…'

Moving a good part of his talent points to socialization and another good part to survival, so he could best maximize his conversation and social perception abilities, and not risk accidentally mentioning any subjects that might be a bit too sensitive and another good part of the points to meditation enjoying that nice boost in emotional control. He proceeded to dig into the matter.

'Time to learn a bit more about myself.'

"What were my parents' quirks like?"

As if already expecting him to ask, Makima didn't wait too much before answering something that surprised him a bit.

"Your dad's quirk was called 'Claws'. Much like you can apparently shape your body parts into different animal's parts, he could shift his hands into different types of claws, some sharp, some poisonous… So like I said your's is quite the upgrade no?"

Hearing the answer Thaumiel thought it made sense for the quirks of his father to be somewhat similar, but then his brain quickly caught a problem.

With the ever so perfect memory leveling academic gave him he remembered very well the theory behind how quirks are inherited.

'Quirks are either a sort of mix of an inheritance of one of the parents' quirks or something completely mutated on many rare occasions… So how the hell is dad's quirk something like Claw and auntie's quirk 'chains'?'

"Do you think it's weird?"

Makima asked not even having to glance his way to perceive the momentarily confusion.

"It's very simple why me and your father's quirks are different actually, it's simply because I'm adopted. In fact you don't know it but our family wasn't originally japanese. My brother and My parents were both from America where I got adopted not too long after being abandoned by my immigrant parents, things were a bit complicated at that time. As for how we ended up in Japan, well after your grandpa died from old age, your dad wanted to spend some time away form the United States. Japan was a pretty good focus point for heroes back then because All Might started his attention so your dad came here to spend some time…"

'No wonder… always wondered why the surname saintclair would appear in a place like Japan… Thaumiel doesn't exactly sound like an American name either though.'

"I came along as at that time I was still just finishing my studies and thus still depended on my brother for a place to live. Here was where he met your mother… well not here, 'here', but here in Japan. She was quite a sweet woman, her quirk was also very specious as well. She called it Minor Adaptation, it would allow her body to adjust itself to some minor degrees like thicker skin, bigger muscles and such. They met, worked together for a bit, fell for each other and married in the span of 4 years. Then 4 years later you."

Hearing about his mom's quirk, Thaumiel raised an eyebrow… isn't that quirk a bit too strong? Even if it was a super weakened version it was still similar to the special ability of Darwin.

One of the most buggy mutants in marvel ever.

"At that time I wasn't around so I don't know too many of the details, but one day I got a call from my brother as he happily told me he now had a son. He called you Thaumiel as apparently both he and she couldn't quite agree on a japanese or an american name and ended up settling with a name from one of their favorite common hobbies. Looking at your quirk now to a certain extent I guess it's fair to say you were a type of unintentional quirk marriage. You did to some extent inherit the best of both worlds."

'So it was like that…'

Somehow they weren't really his parents but hearing about them for the first time brought a strange motion to his eyes. One he couldn't quite suppress no rather he didn't want to suppress with meditation.

'How weird… it's obviously not my parents but it feels so strange to hear about them… why?'

"How did they…"

"Die?"

"...yes…"

"It's a rather mysterious case…"

Makima started before briefly pausing, a side glance at her revealed to Thaumiel she seemed to fall in a brief reminiscence as she remembered the matter.

"Back then your mother one day while performing a rescue at a certain incident was a bit too overwhelmed under the situation. To a point her quirk wasn't able to adapt like it would usually. As a result perhaps out of desire to survive her quirk underwent a rather strong stimulus and she adapted in a way she had never done before. Her quirk created a type of sub-quirk that allowed her temporary pyrokinesis."

hearing the situation Thaumiel mind couldn't help but turn toward his own quirk panel…

Had his mother's quirk undergone certain conditions and improved/evolved like his talent redistribution changed into All Talents?

"Then what happened?"

"Things didn't change much, you might not know but quirks are like muscles and sometimes when trained to a certain extreme they might break through their limitations and change in very significant manners. Although her case was fairly extraordinary beside a few invitations from I-Island not much happened. At least not at first."

With a brief silence enveloping the car, Thaumiel found himself unconsciously frowning, even his levels in acting couldn't exactly help him keep a poker face as he felt growing uneasiness, which he was swiftly trying to suppress with meditation.

"But not too long after it she started to worry she was being followed, by who or how wasn't quite clear but someone seemed to be after her improved quirk. Your father worried the situation could affect you, asked me to take care of you for sometime till the matter was resolved, but what came as a surprise was that one day their house was attacked by 'burglars' and in some very extraordinary manners 2 pro-heros with fairly strong quirks, specially your mother whose improved quirk made her very hard to defeat and extremely difficult to kill ended up dead because of simple and random 'burglars'... the investigation at the time showed that they were apparently 'caught off guard' and couldn't resist, which prompted you mother to not have time to adapt to the situation."

Makima didn't even need to complete the sentence as Thaumiel already understood.

Although she said it in a rather matter of fact tone, like reading it out of a report it took no genius for him to know the situation was suspicious.

A person with a quirk whose only focus was making it hard to kill ended up dead because of random burglars?

You think adaptation is that simple? don't look at sebastian Shaw being able to kill Darwin in a certain movie, that's simply bad writing. Such powers are usually outright unkillable and can be at most trapped or incapacitated, not killed.

'The whole situation seemed to have turned strange from the very moment mom's quirks upgraded… being stalked and one day being suddenly killed off… It is all related to her quirk…'

"And because of their death, you who was only 1 and a half back then ended up under my care… Thaumiel do you know what the role of a guardian entails?"

Makima suddenly asked, pulling him out of the complicated emotions he was suppressing in his mind.

With his eyes still faintly distracted as his thoughts wondered about theories and possibilities, he tried to focus on her.

"To guard?"

"In essence yes, but it entails a bit more. To put it fully: 'If children are not subject to the parental responsibility of one or both of their parents, they come under guardianship. This happens for example if the parents die. The guardian then takes over responsibility for the child and has a duty to ensure the care and upbringing, and good health of the child.' So Thaumiel as your family, as you like to put it, I need you to tell me something."

picking out some incomparably serious tone from her, the car came to a halt under a redlight allowing her a brief moment to make her gaze meet his.

"Is your quirk really just changing some body parts into animal features?"

And with her question a standstill began, with both seemingly trying to stare into each other's soul.

"...It is."

And with his answer things seemed the matter initially seemed to come to a stop as Makima's eyes lost small hints of the care and luster for a second.

"The second one is."

"?!"

…

'So much hiding and planning for things to end up like that… But well I'm not Aizen, my plans can't be perfect to the point I overwhelm god's casual curve balls.'

To a degree Thaumiel wasn't sure if revealing to Makima some extent of All Talents was the right call.

The passive sixth sense bought by boosting survival at that time indicated that both options held no immediate danger to his life, so theoretically both telling her and not telling her would not end up killing him.

Yet because it was like that he couldn't possibly tell which option was the best.

At the end he chose to bet on telling, believing that Makima's obsession in family had indeed been placed onto him because of Ubersmith's plan and she did have his best in mind. Then telling her would do more good than harm.

But even so he felt uncomfortable.

Because it was something so deeply integrated into himself and his experience of possible death and rebirth that he felt so unsure about revealing it.

As for why he thought rebirth after death instead of taking over after death…

Well the unexplainable feelings he ends up having while hearing about his parents and the confusion and anger that came upon hearing about their murder because of some mysterious backhand left him wondering… Had he really taken over 'this' Thaumiel's body? Or… was he simply having a type of identity crisis because of having two types of memories and in truth the whole story wasn't what he thought it was?

'Too much to think about right now… damn life never lets you off easy huh? Solve a problem and another pops up… I need to focus on the quirk assessment now though she did say I shouldn't mention it during the quirk interview to only show the second quirk. So I guess she must have something in mind.'

Looking up to the woman's back as she led him with her hand tightly grasping his he decided to simply shove those thoughts aside and consider what she had said after hearing more or less how All Talents worked.

''You are not using that quirk right.'... It's my quirk, what does she mean I'm not using it right… I'm obviously trying my best here, okay?'

"Thau, we are here."

"Ah! Right sorry."

Breaking out of his own thoughts he looked up to the plaque attached to the door.

'Examination room number 22.'

Stepping inside the first thing he caught sight of was a slightly shorter kind looking nurse with dark green hair talking with a medium sized man with short brown hair and a mustache dressed as the doctor.

With the entrance of him and Makima, their attention was picked prompting them to finish their conversation and welcome the new 'patients'.

"Ah yes do come in and take a seat, sorry for that. It's been a rushed day. So I guess you are the one registering your quirk today young man? But where did I see your face before…Ah from the news! You are one of the two little heroes!"

Said the Doctor introduces himself after shaking hands with both Makima, and Thau, and proceeding to exclaim in surprise when recognizing the boy's face, just as the nurse beside him did, even going so far as to cover her mouth to prevent herself from grasping.

"To think I'd receive a little celebrity today~ But I am a bit curious what quirk our little hero got. I'm Yukimura Sato, it's nice to meet you young man. This one beside me is my assistant nurse, her name is Inko Midoriya."

"I'm Thau, Thaumiel Saintclair."

"I'm Makima Saintclair, his Auntie and current guardian."

"Oh an unusual surname, foreigners? The first of the day. So what can you do young man?"

"A small correction doctor, although my Nephew here was indeed one of the boy's you were referring to, he didn't have his quirk at the time."

Makima briefly cut him and surprised both the doctor and the nurse with what could be considered quite shocking news.

After all, although it had been some weeks since it happened, both remembered well the news mentioned two 4 year olds taking down an adult villain that took a whole class hostage.

"O-oh, to think that was the case…"

The doctor paused as his eyes did a quick glance at the nurse who for some reason seemed very stunned by the news and turned back to him.

"Well I am pretty good at Judo~"

Thau said in a child-like cheek manner wanting to ease the mood a bit.

"Ahahaha, young man I think you needed to be more than just pretty good, in that case what you did was much more shocking… but hero these days, they are getting more and more sloppy, needing to rely on kids to do their job, hmph I knew the hero exam as grow too lax since the last review, any joe can become a hero now days. Back in my times-"

"Doctor please focus on the matter"

Makima said with the usual frigid tone managing to choke the doctor on his words and bring his attention back to the discussion.

"Pardon me, well so what can you do little guy?"

"Well… My quirk. I think you can say it's a mutation type, it lets me turn any of my body parts into an animal's part as long as I know the general biology of the animal I want to mimic. It requires some focus and some attention."

Thaumiel said proceeding to raise his hand making it shift and activating his quirk as green collared scales spread around and his fingers became slightly more curved. Last but not least sharp dark collared claws appear at the end of his finger tips.

"Oh impressive… to think you can shift with such speed not long after awakening. Could you demonstrate it a few more times?"

Nodding Thau released his hand transformation and instead focused on his head, his ears slowly disappeared and from the top of his head bunny-like ears popped out which looked quite fitting with his overall looks.

In this state Thaumiel's hearing experienced quite the explosive boost as he could even faintly hear the talking of doctors and patients in the other examination rooms.

"H-how cute!"

Exclaimed the green haired nurse as her eyes comically grew a few times their original size.

Even makima raised an eyebrow amused by the bunny-like looks.

Faintly feeling a not so good presentiment, he released the bunny ears and proceeded to shift another body part.

His jaw slightly sharpened as his mouth bulged a bit, peeling back his lips he revealed shark like razor sharp teeth making the nurse who was still immersed in his cute looks take a step back spooked.

'haha she is quite fun to tease.'

"Amazing… shark teeth, lizard hands and claws, bunny ears… You got quite the amazing quirk young man, it possesses amazing flexibility and although the power it can give is not too big you can be a sort of jack of all trades being able to quickly adapt to any situation. I guess it's perfect for a little hero like you hu?"

He answered amused but apparently not too surprised with the boy's quirks.

Although Thaumiel's second quirk was indeed much more flexible and useful than the majority of quirks like that, it couldn't quite surprise the doctor.

After all, not to mention he himself would see all kinds of weird and unusual quirks every day, but as a member of the scientific community he was also aware of some international unusual quirks that left the boy's looking like nothing but an interesting trick.

"I guess…"

"Now Midoriya-san, could you take Thau-kun here aside for a minute? I need to ask a few additional things to his guardian so we can properly fill up all the documentation."

"N-no problem doctor Yukimura."

And with that, Thaumiel was taken to the side by the nurse named Inko as Makima was left to talk with the doctor about whatever she had in mind.

Slightly worried Thaumiel decided to put some trust in her, after all he had pretty much told his auntie his biggest secret before.

"So hum.. are you married Midoriya-san?"

"Ah you can just call me Inko, Thau-kun. Yes I'm married, even got a son your age… although he…"

"Oh, miss is indeed a beauty, no surprise there I guess. But what's the problem?"

"O-oh you think so? Thanks for your kind words and the compliment, well I wanted to ask you something…"

Hearing her question and picking a peculiar feeling from her expression, Thau was a bit surprised.

'Lady we just met what kind of question you want to ask? I'll have you know I ain't casual!'

"D-did you really not have your quirk?"

"A-ah you mean during the villain thing? Uh… I didn't, although the other kid had a quirk that allowed him to briefly stun the villain and then I could take him down."

"W-was that the case. I see…"

Confused by the mixed feeling he felt aligned with a strange inner struggle from the woman, Thaumiel became a little curious.

"Why are you asking that?"

"O-oh no it's nothing…"

"Come on miss, since you are asking me you might as well tell me about it, maybe I can help a bit? The doc did call me little hero no? And heroes gotta help others after all!"

Taken aback by his declaration Inko's teary eyes turned to look at him and seemed with an intense inner struggle as she considered for a good couple seconds, before reluctantly opening her mouth.

"Thau-kun… do you think a quirkless person can become a hero?"

---

As I'm gradually getting used to writting I may have begun to make my writting more lenghty, so chapter may be a bit longer ocassionally.

I'll try and keep the 2000 words but chapter may be longer or shorter if I find they need it to be so I can add a satisfatory amount of details yet not make it so the story dosn't progress at least a bit with every chapter

I'm still kinda figuring out the right balance between pacing the progression of events and describing the events in more depth.