With zero fatalities and little to no drawbacks, the TS-Virus is the most tame affliction we have on site. Those affected would slowly find their physiology moped and shifted to be more in line with the opposite sex appearance-wise.
While it does change most of the musculature, it does not affect the skeleton- a point that causes mild physical discomfort throughout the duration of change. It has also been noted that while the virus does interact with the DNA of the subject, it is not meddled with. The leading hypothesis for this feature is that the virus is somehow reading the subject's genetic map and changing it to be something that is could have been.
Even I had to recompose myself when I read that second point on the file.
It was no wonder why something as ridiculous as the sex-change virus would warrant three sets of two dozen volunteers just to keep it alive, no wonder why this facility has over-the-top security and why I was slapped with a stack of NDA's before I even got aboard the train.
Simply put, the TS-Virus is an incomplete skeleton key.
Quirks have irrevocably changed the world when they first appeared. For every child that could make the laws of physics weep in the corner, there are thousands of others that are blessed with mediocrity and countless others cursed with debilitating 'powers' that did more harm than good.
Eighty percent of the world population are quirked and twenty percent are quirkless. Of the twenty percent, most of them would count towards the aging population in another decade with only a fragment left for the current generation, among of which is a green-haired boy who arrived for Heroism more than anything else. And on the same class as him, there was boy who was born for the sole purpose of achieving a dream that was never his. A boy who has three other siblings in their father's pursuit of the perfect blend of quirks.
What if that wasn't the case? What if there was a way other than to repeatedly procreate or to take swan dives off of roofs?
This is that 'what-if'. This seemingly asinine virus has the potential to give hope and save children of doomed fates. The potential to turn 'what could have been' into 'what is'.
When I first heard of this what this virus did, I've been laughing internally about how ridiculous it was, perhaps even vaguely thought of what Kuroko would have done if she had a sample of this. No, instead, what I've stumbled upon just so happened to be even more absurd than the marrow parasite a few rooms over. It was only now I realised that the other diseases might as well been a flashy smokescreen that took attention away with the sheer shock value from the truth jewel of this institution.
The fabled Quirk Gacha Reroll.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. It's still incomplete." Kimura-sensei reprimanded me softly.
"Right. Apologies." I suppose anyone would have paused and let their thoughts run wild at what they've just read. I still feel the cold sweat run down my back. "But still, this is ridiculous enough to beggar disbelief. Where did this even come from to begin with?"
A game-changer like this wouldn't have popped up from nowhere, right?
"It was a pure accident." Kimura-sensei waved a hand as her other hand kept writing. "An unexpected quirk outburst collided with volatile, unknown exotic materials. The quirk in question came from a middle schooler who just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. His quirk, 'Manly man', simply enhanced his masculinity- muscles, skeleton, hormones, you name it. The boy already looked like an adult despite being in the early years of adolescence."
Ignoring the implications of that poor boy's life- "So the key element is in the unknown material."
"Precisely." She nodded. "Unfortunately, we don't know what it it's exactly, only that it exists. If we had even a small sample of that material then we wouldn't have to allocate so many resources to keep the virus alive through volunteers." She let out a sigh of frustration. "The virus has a tendancy to die off without a host. Nothing short of temporal stasis can store them in stable condition and those sorts of machines costs as much to run a small city on a day-to-day basis."
"Forgive me if I sound imprudent, but couldn't we just host them in another species?"
"A fair question. That notion has been passed around at the beginning so we attempted the transfer." She stood up and lazily snatched a folder from the shelf behind her in a precise motion. She hafed me the files before going back to the paper she was writing. "Unfortunately, it seems that the virus was more versatile than we initially thought."
I opened the folder and reading the files. I skimmed through most of the techno-babble and med-talk but what was essentially highlighted was how the virus would change to fit the species.
Meaning that we can, technically, host the virus in another species but the drawback is that even if we develop the fabled Quirk Reroll using the new strain, it would only work on the species that the particular strain came from and not on humans. Or rather, due to quirks, it would only work based on an individual's compatibility.
A trouble in it's own right, honestly.
It would be like the discovery of blood types, except it's in the modern world with more thoroughly established laws and strong opinions on individuality.
Let's say that hypothetically, a person with an ice quirk was used to create a Reroll serum. That serum cannot be used on an individual with any other quirk type like say, a fire quirk. Best case scenario nothing happens but in the worst case scenario then that person's DNA might get damaged.
Then there's the other, lesser known yet still significant problem.
Quirks aren't the only abilities that can be acquired from lineage, and humans aren't the only sapient species on this world.
"Shuzenji."
"Hm?"
"You look pale." Kimura-sensei stated as casual as she was talking about the weather.
"T-this, The implications of such a thing-!" "Breathe." "-Sensei! Is the infosec of this place secure? No that's stupid, every secret gets out sooner the more people know about it..." "Shuzenji, calm yourself." "That many volunteers... Are the agreements enforced by a quirk at- wait, are they even volunteers to begin with?!"
"As I have said before, it's still incomplete, and it will most likely stay that way for the foreseeable future." That same calmness of hers-
"...How many people were here when this project started?"
"..."
"How many sponsors does this facility have?"
"..."
"...Sensei, have clinical trials been conducted, only to fail and have the documents purged?"
"...I cannot answer that."
"...Kimura-sensei... The reason why I got the offer... Was it because I could lower costs and casualties?"
The woman in front of me leaned back on her chair and a sigh escapes her lips, heavy and despondent. "...I never wanted someone so young on this project. Let alone a hero student."
Her admission didn't hurt because I've only known her for a day at most, but the betrayal still stung a bitter sensation in the core of my being.
"I'm sure you're aware that, statistically speaking, one out of five individuals are quirkless. Only one out of a thousand have any significantly powered quirk and at least a quarter out of that thousand has a quirk that are more detrimental than vaguely useful." Kimura-sensei spoke up, her voice steady. "If everyone has the power to save themselves, there would be no need for heroes to swoop in and smile for the cameras."
"And if everyone has the power to save themselves, so too do they have equal power to cause harm, inadvertently or not." I countered. "Do you know the statistics for quirk-related accidents? Sixty-two percent for people ages one through five, sixty-five percent for the ages six through twelve, a spike to seventy-nine for the ages thirteen through nineteen. The number only drop in the twenties and beyond but even then, the numbers never dip below forty-five percent. And this is only the reported cases in Japan."
"Those numbers are only due to the lack of experience in using them. There are places as such where you can train your quirk without crossing the law, but not everyone is able to use them."
"True. You have a fair point, however! That still doesn't excuse turning every person into a weapon!"
"Save your delusions for your dreams, there is no such-"
"Humanrise." She shut up. "The Meta Liberation Army, The Radicals, The insurgents, The anarchist and so many more... Africa regressed to a warring states period and China's five states are constantly embroiled in a war."
"Then that's all the more reason to empower the people."
"...I'm the shadows of peace, corruption festers." I spoke, the words felt like slime and tastes of ash. "No one is born equal, and that inequality brews darkness harboured in the depths of one heart and mind. I'm all for giving people a second chance, but no one should ever be given absolute power." The hypocrisy of my words... I stood up from my seat. "I'll do my part here, not because I agree with your view, but because I follow my own ideals."
With that, I turned and left the break room, leaving Kimura-sensei to do whatever it is she's doing.
'Apologies, Kimura-sensei. Even if I see this through the end, I have to do something about it still.' I sighed internally. 'If it's completed, war is all but guaranteed. Magic and quirks alike would benefit from this research. However, it wouldn't come to a peaceful resolution. And yet, it would also be so simple to get rid of the traces here, but even if I ignored the repercussions, I wouldn't know of any backups elsewhere...'
'...What should I do?'
~~~
The dilemma hadn't left my thoughts even after a few hours.
Quirks have already broken the status quo once before. Despite how weak the first generation has been, it was still enough to overturn society as a whole.
Nowadays, a relative peace has blanketed the world for the most part, protected by civility and superpowered individuality. Painful lesson learned from the past has moulded what the world is today but even so, I fear that history would repeat itself once more.
As expected, should I get Nedzu's council? Or someone else's, like Cen perhaps? Or Reiko-nee...
I suppose I should investigate this a bit deeper before making a decision. Acting now is just foolish, a leak at this time would make me, the new intern, the prime suspect.
How infuriating, I came here in hopes of taking it easy but I managed to stumble upon a conspiracy instead.
My plate is already stretched with investigating the Neo-Shintoists but now it's going to eat up the rest of my time investigating who's behind this operation.
Can't I just take it easy for once?