章 2342: 84
Chapter 84: Cranial
A/N: And now for the continuation of the events within the lab! The explicit threat of 'Nomu-ification' lies in the back of Izuku's mind as he lays helpless. The ashen figure patrols the halls, the Doctor continues to poke away at Izuku's brain, and Izuku's control over bugs shows no sign of returning anytime soon. Just what is a boy who's way over his head to do?
Izuku took a breath in preparation for what he was about to do. He wasn't exactly looking forward to it, considering where he had left off with his previous conversation. Though, when the alternative involved merely waiting for his eventual transformation into a mindless beast made to serve and take orders from a group of villains, talking with the dimension-hopping, overbearing, and promise-breaking voice in his head was a much better route to take.
Well, better late than never, right? So Izuku cleared his mind, and reached out.
QA?
Silence.
Look, I know that right now we're in the middle of a… dispute, I guess I could call it? And yeah, I may have been the one to tell you to leave me alone, but... I sort of need some advice here. If you wouldn't mind.
…
Unless whatever the Doctor did to my brain severed my connection to you as it did with my control over bugs… Which might explain the void I'm now just noticing which I guess you always field up?
…
Izuku sighed, banging his head against the metal table that was holding him up. "Yeah, I was afraid of that."
"Afraid of what?!"
"Son of a—!" Izuku shot his head up with eyes opened wide. He immediately regretted doing so, though, considering the newfound close proximity of his face to Toga's own.
"Ooh!" the girl cheered. "I actually caught you off guard! I guess I can do that now since your quirk is all woobly wobbly right now, huh?"
She inched her face ever closer, inciting Izuku to push his own head back the farthest he could — which wasn't far, considering his restraints. It wasn't long until Izuku could feel Toga's breath cascading over every crevice and angle of his face.
But before their faces could meet, Toga backed away at the last second, an abashed look overtaking her features. She giggled, her hands gripping the sides of her cardigan as she swayed a slightly back and forth.
"Sorry Izuku! I know that you like taking things slow — it's just that I'm so excited, you know?! I finally have you strapped down, ready to receive whatever's my heart's desire!"
Izuku breathed, trying to shake off the feeling of unease that had raced up his spine. "I think that—"
"Oh, you're right!" Toga interrupted. She took out her knife and began playing with the tip of it with his fingers. "I should definitely engrave something on your skin! Like something that signifies a sign of our love!"
Toga giggled, pointing her knife in Izuku's general direction. "Oh~ I'm going to love taking things slow with you~"
Izuku couldn't help it; he said the first thing that came to his mind. "There's something seriously wrong with you, you know that?"
Toga flushed — and if anything, that was the reaction that Izuku least expected considering his words.
"Oh, I know that!" Toga giggled, leaning forward again towards Izuku with her arms around her back. "People have been telling me that for years! But that's the fun part! You can join me! I'd say you fit right in after a few… Hehe. Adjustments."
"I'd say that you two are close enough in similarities as is!" The Doctor's voice cut in. Peeking over at the doorway, Izuku spotted the man in question making his way in.
"Oh?" Toga peeped, looking over at the approaching Doctor. "What do you mean?"
The Doctor reached their position, instantly making his way to Izuku. Izuku heard the sounds of rubber gloves stretching, and the metallic cues of surgical tools ringing against each other.
"Well, for one," the Doctor said, "You and Midoriya here each have a fairly decent body count for being so young." The Doctor cleared his throat. "Henry! Come over here please! I need you for just a second.
Meanwhile, Izuku looked over Toga before him, who had a contemplative look in her eyes. She scanned Izuku up and down, eventually coming to some sort of revelation when she perked up.
"You're right!" Toga exclaimed. "We aren't all too different!" She went ahead and pinched Izuku's cheeks, much to his disgruntlement. "Right, Mister 'I killed so-and-so this many villains at USJ?'"
"I— That wasn't me!" Izuku stuttered. The fact that QA was the real culprit behind that fiasco remained unsaid, however.
"It was your power, kid," the Doctor said. "Doesn't matter if you weren't conscious during it, which the police reports seem to have concluded. Oh, and I know that you're strapped down and all, but try to hold still. This will only sting for just a second."
Izuku suddenly felt a massive wave of pressure on his head, followed by crackling sounds and a hue of golden light.
"And there we are!" the Doctor announced. "Thank you Henry; you may go now."
"Squee!"
Izuku took a breath. "Did you just remove a part of my skull?" He asked, his voice faint. "Just like that?"
"Just like that!" the Doctor relied. "Wonderful, isn't it? Shows you the wonders you can get even from my smaller Nomu!"
"Ooh!" Toga cooed, disappearing past Izuku's vision and likely towards the Doctor. "Look at it! It's all veiny and weird looking and stuff! Can I poke it?"
"I'd rather you didn't Miss Toga," the Doctor retorted. "I don't mind the two of you two conversing, but please try to refrain from damaging him? That would include poking him in the brain without the proper medical experience."
Hmph!" Toga harrumphed. "Fine! But can I do it later at the very least?!"
"Maybe when he's a full on Nomu, I'll let you."
"Yay!" Toga made her way back to the forefront of Izuku's vision, looking at him with glee. "How about cutting?"
"When I leave," the man said. It was at that point that Izuku began to feel the familiar prodding motions on his head. "And only only to the extent that he doesn't become too damaged."
Toga nodded. "I can work with that."
"I'm guessing that I get no say in what your planning?" Izuku asked.
"Not unless you can break yourself out of those restraints," Toga smiled. "And if you get to that point I might even let you escape without stopping you! Think! You can do whatever you want to me!"
"Just don't loosen the restraints yourself," the Doctor said.
"I won't!" Toga retorted. "I want to keep him here as long as possible, after all!"
At that moment, Izuku saw a blur at the edge of his vision. He darted his eyes over, only to find nothing.
"What'd you be looking at?" Toga asked, pressing her face to Izuku's and looking in the direction that his eyes pointed. "I don't see anything there."
Izuku twitched at the unwelcome contact. Though at the same time he saw the blur again, this time near the ceiling of the room. He caught a better look at it this time, the blur being a mix of black and brown. Still when went and darted his eyes towards it, he found nothing once more.
"Hmm…" Toga hummed. She backed off, looking at Izuku with another contemplative look. "Just what are you doing, Izuku?"
The blur was back, this time manifesting behind Toga. It was a different mix of colors however — a mix of white and blue. It didn't dart away, but the fact that it didn't disappear the second Izuku glanced at it ultimately resulted in nothing. The stationary blur seemed like nothing but an upward line just about Toga's width, a mass of twisting colors and moving lines.
Izuku groaned. "Great," he muttered. "I'm pretty sure that I'm hallucinating now." As if a voice in his head wasn't enough of crazy. "Thanks Doc."
"Hallucinations, eh?" the Doctor mused. "I must say, it's not a completely unexpected side effect, but it wasn't the first thing that I expected to become of me poking at this thing."
"What was the first?" Toga asked.
"Violent convulsions, minor seizures, and maybe initiating some traumatizing flashbacks. Hallucinations were tenth in line in the list of things I expected, honestly."
"Seriously?" Izuku scowled. "You went poking around at my brain when you expected violent convulsions to be a primary side effect? What happened to keeping me healthy and undamaged?"
"Eh," the Doctor, muttered. "Necessary risks for the sake of advancing my research. And besides, I'm not necessarily poking at your brain at the moment. I'm just continuing from where I left off from last time."
Izuku furrowed his eyebrows. "What the heck is that supposed to mean? My brain is exposed to your tools; what else could you be fiddling around with?"
"A growth on your brain, technically, to be precise," the Doctor replied. "One not present in any other person I've ever examined."
"A… growth?" Izuku asked.
"Yep! It's right in between the frontal and parietal lobes, jutting out straight atop the rest of your brain. It's a bit embedded into your brain, however, with a bunch of webbing extending into other sections of your brain. It's also a bit more swollen than other areas… the veins are more pronounced too…"
Izuku gulped, he remembered QA mentioning something like that offhand, once. Corona Pollentia, or something like that. It's making sure that I have proper control over my powers. Or not, at the moment, considering his bugs were still unresponsive.
"Anyways," the Doctor continued, "I'm fairly certain that it's unique to people of your kind of power acquisition. Stranger than strange, I'd say."
"It's not some sort of cancerous growth of something?" Toga asked, visibly worried.
"Nah," the Doctor instantly replied. "I know cancer, and it's nothing like this. Unless Midoriya here has some sort of new super-cancer or something. But no, it's nothing like that. The kid's healthy as can be, you see."
Toga visibly relaxed at that. "Phew! That's good! I was worried that my time with Izuku would have been cut short!"
"Bah, it wouldn't have mattered anyway," the Doctor said. "There was nothing to worry about. I could easily circumvent the damage after turning him into a Nomu, cancer or no."
"Huh, you could do that, huh?" Toga muttered. And then she perked up. "Oh, right! I wanted to ask you something, Izuku!" Toga leaned forward once more, getting uncomfortably close to Izuku's face.
"It was— Erm…" Toga cocked her head to the side. The blur was back, shifted to the duller black and browns. It merely floated behind Toga, or whatever equivalent to floating a hallucination did. "What was it again?" Toga asked.
Izuku heard the telltale sound of crinkling paper over his head, likely the Doctor pulling something out of his coat pocket.
Whatever was one the paper, Toga's face brightened upon seeing it. "Oh right!" she cheered. She grabbed the paper and clutched it close. "Thanks Garaki-san!"
Izuku blinked. A hint to the Doctor's identity — his name was Garaki.
"No problem, Toga."
Toga backed away, a glowing expression on her face. The piece of paper was pressed against her chest; whatever was printed on it was on the side facing her, given the blank side Izuku could see.
"Soo…" Toga trailed off. "Guess what Izuku?"
Izuku sighed. "What?"
"I have a surprise for you!" She cheered. "You want to see?"
Since it was a surprise from Toga, Izuku didn't really want to see it. For all he knew, it was a picture of someone she killed recently, entrails and blood spread out all over in a way she would have labeled as 'art.' Still, Izuku knew that there wasn't any getting out of his current situation, so he nodded along.
Toga responded by turning the paper around and shoving it in Izuku's face. To his utter befuddlement, the paper was actually his class roster — or rather, two different class rosters squeezed together onto one paper.
The list was accurate, completely down to every member in 1-A and 1-B. The only thing that stood out to him, however, was how some of his classmates were hastily crossed out with red marker.
A small part of him panicked at the sight, fearing that the red marker meant that they were dead, eliminated by the League. Though, that fear almost instantly faded away for the ludicracy of it. There wouldn't have been any possibility of over half his classmates to have been killed and the heroes not already being up in arms and storming the place.
"So…" Izuku attempted to keep his voice steady. "The rosters for 1-A and 1-B?"
"Uhuh uhuh!" Toga's face adjusted to take on a full toothed smile, her fangs slightly jutting out from her lips. "And guess what the lines means!"
Izuku hoped that his initial fears were wrong. "I don't know… what?"
"It represents whether or not I have their blood! You know, from the License Exam? You remember that day, right? When we spent some personal time together in the restroom? All by ourselves, hmm?"
Garaki guffawed. "Sheesh, kid. Refrain from speaking of your personal business when I'm right here, will ya?" he pleaded, obviously amused.
Meanwhile, Izuku thought over Toga's words. H did, right down to every last detail - remember that day, taht is. It was the first time Toga had used those 'Caustic-bombs, or whatever they're called, as well as the moment she goaded him with various vials full of his classmates' blood.
He remembered not being able to do anything for fear of what Toga would do with them. And now, it seemed as if the moment he feared had come to fruition. It made sense in hindsight, considering Toga had disguised herself as Todoroki to abduct him.
"I do," Izuku admitted. He flinched again, this time due to the Doctor's — Garaki's — prodding. The blur hiding behind Toga looked as if it had sputtered out of existence for a split second, like it had glitched out of reality.
"Great!" Toga exclaimed. "Then this will be easy to explain!" She pointed at one of the students who was crossed out with a marker — Momo, specifically.
"See your rich friend here?" Toga questioned. "She's crossed out because I don't have any blood from her. And that's despite her having so much exposed skin with that costume of hers! She was just too observant for me to do anything about," Toga grumbled.
Her finger moved along, this time to a student not crossed out — Aoyama this time. "And you see sparkle rainbow beam guy? He was easy; I got his blood while he was using his quirk! He barely even noticed — though I did see him throwing up afterwards… oh well!"
"Sooo…." Toga smiled, gesturing to the paper. "Pick one!"
Izuku blinked. "What?"
The unnatural glow of cheerfulness around Toga glowed even brighter. Izuku could have sworn that the blur backed away from her, even. "Think of it as a birthday present!"
Izuku narrowed his eyes, unimpressed. "My birthday's in July, Toga."
"Early present, then! That's not the point though! Pick one for me!" She began pointing at the paper again. "You see. You have a whole bunch of choices! There's kalamari guy, that one with the weird elbows, mushroom girl, that green guy, the horn girl who looks American — I think, at least — or that girl with the big hands. I suppose I can risk going as ice boy with the blood I have left if you really want. Or Uraraka? Nah, I'd rather save her for later when—"
"Toga," Izuku interrupted. "Stop. I'm not just… going to pick one of my classmates for one of your schemes. I mean, I don't even know what you're planning on doing!"
Toga bopped herself in the head. "Oh yeah, duh! I forgot to tell you the details! So, funny thing about picking you up off the street. Turns out, the heroes of UA or whoever didn't want to stir up a giant panic for some reason.
"My guess is that they probably don't want to look bad," Garaki proposed. "Having the same student being abducted by the same organization within just a few months of the last attempt would do that."
"Yeah, sure," Toga waved Garaki off. "Thing is, they didn't increase security around any of your classmates or with the agencies. Because of that, I find myself with the opportunity of doing this again!"
Izuku blanched. He had an inkling of where this was going. Still, he voiced his thoughts, even if he was dreading the answer that was going to come out of the girl's mouth. "Doing… what again exactly?"
"Taking someone, of course!"
Izuku mentally cursed. And then he flinched again due to Garaki's machinations. He ignored the fluctuation of the blur that time as well. "But why? Far as I can tell, I'm the only one in all of 1-A and 1-B who has a… what did you call it?"
"A 'Triggered' quirk," Garaki replied.
"Yeah, that," Izuku said. "So why are you planning on taking someone else?"
"It's a whole different plan actually," Toga responded. "Gerry and Caustic thought it up for me! UA is recalling all of its students before sending back to their internships, you know? It's for preparation of some sort of operation in Hokkaido, or something. So, we're taking advantage of that!"
"The basics are that I'm going to sneak into UA dressed up as one of your classmates. I sneak in, bring maybe Gerry or Twice with me in Compress's marbles, and have Compress activate them from a distance. Since nobody will be suspecting a thing, and then poof! All Might assassination time!"
Izuku paled even more, his breath catching in his throat at the implications. I—! What—! You can't!"
"Of course I can!" Toga bopped Izuku's nose. "It's not like you can do anything to stop me, right?" She giggled.
"So," she brought the roster paper back to the forefront, "come on! Pick one for me already!"
"Like hell I will!" Izuku exclaimed. "You think that I'd just stand by and be complacent while you plan All Might's murder?!"
"Like Toga said kid, that's the only thing you can do at the moment," Garaki reminded Izuku.
Izuku scoffed in response.
Toga crossed her arms and sighed. "Fine! If you're not going to pick, I'll just go with whoever's first! Which means—!" She scanned the paper. "Sparkly kid!"
Her expression soured just as she said that. "Yuck! Nevermind! He's way too sparkly for me! Let's go with the second choice right under him! Which is… the pink girl with horns!"
Izuku grimaced. He didn't want Ashido getting tangled up in all of this, but it wasn't as if he had a choice. What was he supposed to do? Volunteer someone that he didn't really care for from 1-B just to save somebody he had a better relationship with?"
"Huh," Toga muttered. "Not that I think back on things, I think that Ashido's a wonderful choice here! She acts like me! Kinda, sorta. We're both hyper to certain degrees!"
Toga giggled once more and nodded to Izuku. "Thanks 'zuku! Pinky here is a wonderful choice!"
Toga turned away, waving a goodbye. "Bye guys! See you both later; especially you, Izuku! I'll cut you later! But for now, I have a girl to catch!"
"Bye Toga," Garaki bid farewell. "If you don't mind, give the girl to me after you take her, yeah? If I remember correctly her quirk's Acid. Oh, the possibilities of a Nomu with that…"
"Sure thing Garaki-san! Anything for you; you are making Izuku into a mean, green... Uh, thing that I can play with, after all! Oh! Johnny-chan! There you are! Mind sending me out somewhere whe…"
Toga's voice faded, and the only thing left to Izuku's senses was Garaki humming some tunes, the sensations of the intermittent pokes and prods at his Corona Pollentia, and the hallucinatory blur waving in and out of his vision, its color scheme switching every so often.
He was left there, helpless to stop Toga's plans. And he was cursing his inability to do anything even more than ever.
A/N: And there we are! Things are getting worse, and Izuku can do nothing to stop it! Well, at least he'll be getting a friend to spend some time with next time, right?
(If you couldn't tell — in that case, yay! — this chapter was a bit hastily finished. Sorry for any mistakes that you might find! Point them out for me if you're up to it, if none of you mind).
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