Chapter TextOni whistled as he walked, though he was the only one physically capable of hearing it, cloaked with 'Ghost' as he was.
Cells lined the hallway he was walking down, and many more besides filled the rest of the prison. He was only somewhat focusing on the count he was taking in the background, but he'd already counted over a thousand since he'd arrived. Thankfully though, he already knew exactly where he needed to go.
Rei had worked her magic and found an incarcerated criminal with a flight quirk, passing the information to him so he could claim it for himself. It was a bit of a flight from Musutafu, even at the speeds he could reach, being in the Kagoshima prefecture almost 600 miles away, but it was well worth it for the quirk he'd be taking.
Based on what he'd gathered from the quirk description written up by the police before they'd been apprehended and the even older one written by the criminal's doctor, as well as the video footage Rei had managed to dig up relating to their crimes, it wasn't just any old generic flight quirk.
Firstly, most flight quirks took the form of wing mutations or transformations. In the grand scheme of things, wing quirks were incredibly common compared to other types of flight quirks. And then even when a quirk manifested that achieved flight through some means other than wings, that means was usually some form of wind or air manipulation. In fact, Oni was pretty sure that there was a fairly powerful air manipulation quirk floating around one of Japan's hero schools. He remembered receiving an analysis request for such a quirk about a year before he'd started at Yueii that had mentioned pursuing heroics. He'd included the idea of using it to achieve flight into the analysis he sent back.
But this flight quirk which he intended to take tonight fell into neither category, making it exceptionally rare. It didn't rely on any mutations or transformations, wings or otherwise, and it didn't function by manipulating air, or even any other outside discernible matter or force such as gravity, like Ochako's quirk did.
Based on everything the doctors could determine, the quirk functioned by allowing the user to freely manipulate their own movement through physical space. Though 'physical space' was more likely to be something determined by the user rather than any sort of abstract concept like the universe itself. It was most likely the case that—assuming that's how the quirk worked—the user didn't actually need to consciously identify any sort of 'physical space,' they simply unconsciously identified the Earth as such. And Izuku felt that 'controlling one's own movement' likely meant controlling momentum. The user could increase their upwards momentum until it was greater than the downward momentum imparted upon them by gravity, and then could further control it to move laterally.
Simply put, all of that—assuming it was all correct. Oni would know soon enough—meant that it was a remarkably versatile quirk that came close to rivalling some of Oni's most useful, including those such as 'All Sight,' albeit for different reasons.
It was a transportation-based quirk which afforded the user the ability to move through the air—or through presumably anything, provided it was something that could be moved through in the first place—however they wished, in a way that was likely almost completely silent, relied upon nothing but the user themself, and which was likely hardly limited in any reasonable way—again, assuming Oni was correct in his initial hypothesis.
Oni grinned to himself. It was a quirk that had captured his interest the moment Rei had told him about it, and it was one he wanted so very much to put to the test.
His fingers twitched, itching to tear the quirk from the flesh of its current user.
Said criminal, who had been wasting the potential of said quirk for far too long, was currently fast asleep. Oni was already close enough that his newest quirk, which he'd taken to calling 'Observation,' was picking up the steady stream of contentment and calm that came from sleep. A calm that knew nothing of what was coming to disrupt it.
Oni's hands clenched, and his impatience got the better of him. In an instant his muscles were surging with strength, and he was pushing off—just barely sparing the focus to make sure he limited himself enough so as to not damage the floor—appearing in front of the cell he was after in the blink of an eye.
His grin widened, his expression darkening underneath his mask as he looked down at the sleeping criminal. The insect had no idea what was coming for them.
Oni's impatience, coupled with his rapidly rising desire to make this random, insignificant criminal suffer, had his hands rising to grip at the metal bars that separated them, ready to pull them apart so he could step through and fulfill that desire. He stopped himself at the last second though, the metal creaking slightly in protest, and his grip leaving shallow indents. He shouldn't do anything to create a scene. That wasn't why he was here.
He was about to leave someone quirkless, something which Tsukauchi and the police had no doubt noticed him doing after some of his fights, and which wasn't exactly a widespread phenomenon with a great many explanations. Better to leave as few signs as possible that he'd been here, which was part of the reason that he would go cause some mayhem back in Musutafu—or perhaps Kamino. His sadistic urges were better spent on The Triad than the few petty criminals stupid enough to do anything in his city—just to give him something of an alibi. At least one other than the fact that Kagoshima was almost as far away from his usual hunting grounds as one could go without leaving Japan.
Closing his eyes, taking a deep breath and holding it for a few seconds, Oni forced his urges down, calming himself.
Opening his eyes again, Oni trained them on the criminal. Sinking into the shadows at his feet, he reemerged an instant later next to them. Reaching down, he poked their arm, pulling the quirk from them in a quick, painless motion. The quirk settled neatly into Oni's chest, nestled snugly with all the others.
Not sparing the now–quirkless criminal another glance, lest his urges rise up again, Oni sank into the shadows once more, rising up outside of the cell, already walking back the way he came.
Now that he could feel the new source of heat in his chest, Oni longed to pull on it, to let that heat diffuse through him and put it to the test. He wanted to experience the power for himself, and he wanted to test its limits so that he might understand how it worked.
Once again feeling impatient, Oni prepared to sink into the shadows, ready to skip the trip out of the prison and the even longer trip all the way back to his city. He was a split second away from doing so when something caught his attention.
For Oni, prisons were practically all-you-can-eat buffets. So many quirks, all belonging to the only demographic that he allowed himself to take from. He'd been trying to ignore it, the literal smorgasbord of quirks around him, as he came to do what he intended to, lest he give into temptation and indulge himself, no doubt leaving behind a mess of quirkless criminals that would attract far more attention than a single isolated case, but he couldn't help but to glance around just in case he stumbled upon one he truly felt that he needed. Up to this moment, he'd been doing well enough, pushing past the temptation to simply rush around and take every quirk he could get his hands on, but then he saw one that struck at something he was very rapidly realizing was a weakness of his.
It wasn't a quirk that was in any way powerful or even particularly useful, despite how interesting it appeared to be at a glance, but it was one that immediately struck him as something that Iona might enjoy.
Name: Kadiri Mitsugi
Quirk: Florist. Passive. Automatic. Focus.Generation/Mutation.
Replaces the user's hair with flowers. Flowers change rapidly in response to the user's emotions, with different flowers corresponding to different emotions. Also allows the user to consciously grow flowers anywhere on their body.
In an instant, Oni redirected his focus and the shadows at his feet and was emerging from the darkness next to the criminal. Just as quickly, he reached down and snatched the quirk from them, utilizing a quick pulse of 'Conqueror' to keep them silent when the action caused them to stir, his haste and excitement making for sloppy work.
After taking a quick moment to savor the feeling of another new quirk settling in his chest, Oni once again prepared to sink into the shadows to travel back to Musutafu. He almost stopped again when another quirk caught his attention, but he quickly pushed that thought from his mind before the idea to take it could even fully form. An instant later he was rising back up from the shadows, hundreds of miles away, back in Musutafu.
Taking a deep breath, savoring the cool night air, Oni stepped over to the edge of the rooftop he'd chosen as his destination, settling down with his legs dangling over the side. Feeling for the newest additions to his collection, he chose the more important of the two to test first. As he pulled on it, he could feel the hair on his head begin to recede. He watched with 'All Sight' as a bed of flowers grew in to replace it. It roughly followed the hairline he'd had a few moments ago and grew in thick enough to not show any skin, and looking at all of them made Oni realize that he knew practically nothing about flowers. He couldn't identify a single one that had sprouted on his head.
Pushing that thought to the side for the moment, and vowing to do some research once he got home, he moved on to the other side of the quirk, the part that supposedly allowed the user to consciously grow flowers.
He might not know much about flowers, but that didn't mean he knew nothing. He could picture a few in his head, which, with his memory being the way it was, meant that he could picture them in perfect detail. If he was correct in assuming how this quirk worked, then that was all that he needed.
Generally, quirks that manifested or created something to the user's wishes simply required some form of understanding of the physical characteristics of what the user wanted to create. One of his quirks, 'Aroma,' which allowed him to produce any scent he wished, required him to imagine the scent he wanted to create, though he wasn't sure to what degree that quirk should be compared to others since he was fairly certain it was entirely mentally based. Another quirk, 'Parrot,' a voice mimicry quirk, required him to 'picture' or recall the voice he wished to mimic. His shapeshifting quirk simply required him to picture what he wished to look like.
There were exceptions and variations to this rule of course. Some quirks required a much greater understanding of what the user wanted to create. Yaoyorozu's 'Creation' was a prime example of that, as it required her to know the exact molecular makeup of the object she wished to create.
If Oni had to guess, this new quirk, 'Florist'—he might just keep the same name, as it did fit quite well—sat somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum. Obviously it didn't require an exact knowledge, or even a general understanding, to create flowers on its own. It had already created some that he couldn't remember ever seeing before. So either he had seem them all before and just couldn't remember, or perhaps the quirk contained some form of storage for the knowledge of the flowers, and he'd taken that too, just as, when he'd taken 'Hotbar,' it had come with all the objects the original user had stored away in it.
The exact reason aside, somehow this quirk managed to create flowers without Oni consciously possessing any understanding of their appearance or physical makeup. Since it already fulfilled any broader requirements on its own, to consciously manifest flowers, Oni felt that all that was needed was enough of an understanding to be able to distinguish what exactly he wished to create.
With that in mind, Oni removed his gloves and extended a hand, picturing one of the few types of flowers he could actually recall. An instant later, just as he'd hoped, a bright pink and white Cherry Blossom grew from the center of his palm, bringing a smile to his face.
Emboldened by his success, and excited now that he had an understanding of how the quirk functioned, he took it a step further. In another instant, every inch of exposed skin on both of his hands was completely covered in Cherry Blossoms. His smile widened.
It was a slightly odd sensation, both the flowers growing from his hand and them remaining attached once they had. A light pinch—not enough to be painful, even considering his skewed pain tolerance—and then the weight tugging ever so slightly at his skin where the stems attached to his palm. Beyond that, he could almost… feel… the flowers, as a part of himself. It was exceptionally odd. He wasn't receiving any sensory input from them, at least as far as he could tell, but he was just faintly aware of them functioning as living organisms, taking in carbon dioxide and photosynthesizing with what little light was available, and even taking nutrients from his body. He wasn't sure if that was a result of the quirk itself or if it was something else about the myriad of quirks in his body that was causing it, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Also rather interesting, was the fact that the flowers all looked exactly the same. It wasn't a case of them all just being the same species of flower and therefore sharing a similar appearance, they were all completely identical to the flower he had imagined in his attempt to use the quirk.
"Excellent," he said, "so many things to test."
He smiled, even as he pulled on his fire quirk, wreathing his hands in flame and burning away the flowers. All that he needed now was to do some research so that he'd be able to recall more than a handful of flowers, then he'd be able to start testing the limits of the quirk.
His gut–instinct had been right. Iona would love this quirk when he-.
Oni's smile fell, brow scrunching up as his hands dropped back to his sides. When he… what?
When he showed it to her? Gave it to her? Which had he intended when he took the quirk?
The fact that his immediate answer to that question wasn't "Show it to her," and that he hadn't even disregarded the latter as an option at all was somewhat shocking to him. Even more so was the fact that he still wasn't sure.
Did he want to give her this quirk? Could he? Shouldhe? Obviously, he knew that he physically could give it, and he didn't doubt that she would like it, but there was more to consider than just that.
In nearly fifteen years of having 'Soul Thief,' he'd only purposely given one quirk, and that was a strength enhancer he'd given to Rei back when they were still living on the streets, so as to ensure that she could better protect herself when he wasn't around. Beyond that, he'd hardly ever even thought about giving quirks to anyone. It wasn't that he'd outright decided not to, it was simply that the thought of giving away pieces of his collection was so foreign to him, and that for the majority of his life he'd only had one person he was even willing to consider giving them to, that the idea so rarely even entered his mind. The only times it had-had been in passing, casually considering giving an interesting quirk or two to Rei.
Oni looked down at his hands, still covered in a fine layer of ash leftover from the flowers. He pulled on and activated 'Shower in a Can,' watching the ash vanish in the blink of an eye as he thought.
No doubt the reason for his thinking like that was, at least in part, greed. It was an inherent aspect of his quirk after all, and was how it had been used for over a decade. Stealing quirks from others and hoarding them for the strength they offered. Some part of him was hesitant to give quirks to anyone, even someone like Rei, the one to whom he owed his life, and who was the most important person in his life—or at least was the most important. Iona's presence in his life made that question a bit more difficult—simply because they were his.
A bigger part of him though, saw the logic in at least entertaining the idea. He had so many quirks that would benefit those around him. He had three regeneration quirks, two more than he expressly needed. The presence of just one made nearly any physical damage meaningless and made one nearly impossible to injure, let alone kill. Ochako especially would benefit from such a quirk. There would be the matter of explaining why her injuries suddenly heal so quickly, but the benefit of saving her from anything potentially life–threatening outweighed that issue.
More than just out of necessity though, as he very recently just discovered, he was also willing to give quirks simply for the sake of enjoyment. Most of the passing thoughts he'd entertained about giving quirks to Rei over the years had been for a similar reason, but this was the furthest he'd ever taken such a thought, and without even consciously thinking about it in the first place. What's more is that he'd even taken the quirk with the express intention of potentially giving it to someone else, again, without even consciously thinking it.
However, even though he now knew that he was willing to consider giving quirks to other people, there were risks to consider. Risks that he did not fully understand.
In the past, what little he thought about giving quirks, he didn't associate any risk with the action aside from losing out on whatever power he was giving away. But that was before he learned that there was another iteration of his quirk in existence, that resided in the hands of a villain. That was before he'd encountered the Noumu.
Hulking monstrosities mutated almost beyond the point of being recognizable as human and practically bursting at the seams with quirks. They were the only example he'd encountered of any sort of potential risk that came with giving too many quirks. And even then, there was still far too much that he didn't know.
On one hand, he could see the logic connecting a body holding too many quirks to the end result of a Noumu. A quirk was, at the most basic level, a genetic mutation. Now, such mutations weren't necessarily a bad thing, as that's essentially what evolution was, a series of countless mutations altering organisms generation after generation to increase survivability in some way. Quirks might be a bit different in that there was no clear evolutionary reason for their appearance, but all the current leading theories as to the origin of quirks painted them in the same light.
However, start adding more mutations to the DNA, without the benefit of developing a fresh body around said mutated DNA, and it wouldn't be surprising if issues started to present themselves.
Then on top of that there was also the mental strain to consider. Most, if not all, quirks came with an added alteration to the user's brain, an added section or a change to a preexisting one that allowed for control of the quirk, in the same way the brain allowed for control, conscious or otherwise, of everything else in the body. Oni was unsure as to how giving a quirk actually affected the target, whether or not it actually facilitated a change in the target's brain to that end, but if it didn't, then some preexisting part of the target's brain would be forced to pick up the strain of an additional quirk.
With both of those issues combined, Oni could see how too many quirks could reduce a person to a braindead, mutated monstrosity.
Granted, all he knew about the Noumu was simply what he'd observed from the final products, which was to say: hardly anything at all.
The only things he knew was what they had been reduced to, and the fact that they possessed multiple quirks. He knew nothing about the process that led to that. There could be any number of things that came into play, especially with how widespread All For One's influence was supposed to be. There was nothing to say that all that had happened was the villain giving them quirks.
Maybe the subjects had been experimented on beforehand? The Noumu were clearly meant to be some form of weapon, so it would make sense if there was more that went into the process than simply giving them quirks. And if there wassomething more, then that would provide some reason as to why the Noumu all share such similar appearances rather than just being horrible amalgamations of whatever quirks were stuffed into them.
Actually, that was another thing. In over a decade of fighting and taking quirks, Oni had never encountered a healing quirk as strong as the regeneration that most of the Noumu had possessed, nor had he encountered physical enhancers anywhere near as strong. How was it that there were so many just lying about that almost every single Noumu he'd encountered thus far was packed full of them?
Oni shook his head, dismissing that train of thought. All For One was supposed to be over a century old, and he'd already learned of the connection between him and The Triad. It shouldn't be too surprising that with so much time and such a wide selection pool of quirks—one that wasn't limited by criminal status no less—All For One had found such a selection.
Going back to the possibility of experimentation, there were so many things that could have an impact on what the Noumu had ended up as. Biological manipulation, to strengthen the bodies or to enhance the quirks, mental manipulation-.
Actually, that was an interesting thought. How much of the Noumu's appearance and mental state had been accidental and not a direct goal? The Noumu were almost certainly all but entirely braindead, but based on what he'd seen of the one in the USJ, there was still enough in their heads to allow them to follow orders. And their appearance might be horrible, but they were tools to be used by a villain, so who's to say that wasn't the point? Who's to say that All For One hadn't intended for them to become terrifying monstrosities devoid of free will?
Then, on the other hand, disregarding the possibility of biological experimentation playing a significant role in the creation of a Noumu, there was almost certainly variation when it came to giving quirks. Variation based on how complex or powerful a quirk was, how well it matched up to a preexisting quirk or to a natural bodily function and how much stress it induced because of those things.
The strength quirk he'd given Rei, for instance. It was remarkably simple, even when compared to some of the other strength quirks he'd accumulated. All it did was allow the user's muscles to exert more force—strengthening the muscle fibers at the same time to allow for such a thing—at the expense of a bit more stamina. It couldn't be toggled on or off, it was always active, and required the user to learn how to better regulate how much strength they put into their actions. In terms of how much strain it might put on a body, Rei's body, it would put almost none at all, assuming his understanding of how everything worked wasn't flawed. It would induce minimal changes to the body itself and likely wouldn't even require any addition section in the brain.
Compared to that, a more complex quirk such as Bakugou's, or Yaoyorozu's, or most of his other classmates, would put quite a bit more strain on the body. They changed the body to allow for an entirely new function, and therefore would likely put a much greater amount of stress on a body that hadn't developed to handle such a quirk.
Actually, that presented a whole new set of issues. Bakugou and Yaoyorozu's bodies both contained adaptations to handle the stress induced by their quirks. Bakugou's flesh and bones, at least around his arms and hands, were likely much stronger than anyone else that didn't possess a similar quirk, so as to handle his explosions, and Yaoyorozu had told him about how her fat cells were much denser than a normal person's. If their quirks were to be given to someone else, would those adaptations transfer as well? Were they part of the DNA that dictated the quirk itself, or were they technically separate mutations developed by the body to support the quirk?
Oni brought his hands up to his face, heaving a sigh. For as much effort he put into understanding the quirks he took and as much pride as he took in his ability to use them far better than their original owners ever could, there was still so very much he didn't know about his own quirk.
He dragged his hands down his face. Hell, he didn't even know how similar his quirk was to All For One's. For all he knew they could have the same apparent functions but operate completely differently.
He let himself fall backwards, ignoring the slight twinge of discomfort when his wings hit the surface of the roof.
Staring up at the night sky, he let out a smaller sigh. Maybe it was time to start looking into that side of his quirk. But where to even begin though? Any route he took would inevitably involve giving quirks to other people. And there were so many variables to consider…
Oni closed his eyes. And he still hadn't come up with an answer to the question that had led to this train—trainwreck—of thought. If he found out that there would be no detrimental effects, would he be giving this new quirk to Iona?
Oni's face scrunched up after a few seconds of thought.
"Fuck it. There's a metric shit–ton of work to be done before that day comes. No sense in worrying so much about it right now."
Sitting up, then rising to stand on the edge of the roof, Oni smiled to himself.
"There's something a bit more urgent to think about anyway."
There was still his original goal for tonight to take care of. The quirk he'd traveled to the prison for in the first place.
Sorting through the heat in his chest, he picked and pulled on a few, preparing himself. The flowers blooming on his head detached and fell away, making room for his hair to regrow, and his wings receded into his back, leaving a slight empty feeling with their absence. He made sure that his durability quirks were in place as he pulled on the focus of tonight's efforts, relishing the slight heat that spread through his body with its activation.
'Hmm.' Oni thought, tilting his head, observing his own body as the quirk settled. 'No obvious changes to how anything feels, which means no obvious evidence as to how the quirk is actually activated.'
This was a quirk that—presumably—solely affected the user, elicited no changes to the user's appearance, makeup, or physical state, only imparting kinetic energy either onto or through the body, and had no defined activation requirements. Chances were that the activation 'trigger' was entirely mental. Some form of thought that controlled this unseen body part.
In essence—once again, assuming his understanding of how the quirk functioned wasn't flawed—this quirk likely wasn't dissimilar to 'Florist' in how it was activated. All that was needed was an understanding of what the user wished to achieve, what they wished to happen.
In this specific case, the simplest way to achieve such an understanding was likely for the user to imagine themself moving through the air in whatever direction they desired.
Oni smirked, so if he were to simply picture himself mov-.
His thoughts cut off as an explosion cracked through the air and he was slammed face–first into the adjacent building, with enough force to send him through the wall and into the building itself.
Oni groaned, shaking his head to dispel the ringing in his ears. He coughed, sending a mouthful of blood splattering onto the floor.
"Well… that was fun." He wheezed, before coughing up more blood.
All of his ribs were broken, along with his nose, his right arm, and his left leg. There were also a few fractures in his skull and in a couple of his vertebrae, and a number of tears and ruptures in his muscles and internal organs. Thankfully though, his regeneration quirks were already hard at work. He could feel the heat burning through him as he healed, the pain of the injuries already starting to fade away. Though he would still most likely be spitting up blood for the rest of the night.
With a slight groan, Oni pushed himself over to lie on his back.
So… A few important discoveries about this new quirk have been made.
First, and arguably the most important: He was correct in how the quirk was activated. It could indeed be activated through the user visualizing how they wanted to move. So that was good.
Next, this visualization method was incredibly sensitive. He'd just pictured himself flying forward a bit and had put himself through a wall. He would have to do some experimenting to fine tune it a bit, hopefully enough to not repeat the mistake.
Next, the quirk was capable of great speeds and a tremendous rate of acceleration. Acceleration that was nearly instantaneous. He'd moved so fast that even he hadn't been able to notice before he was flying through a wall. No doubt the explosion he'd heard was him briefly breaking the sound barrier. More than that, he'd gone so fast that his impact with the brick wall had overpowered his shock absorption, which could withstand a hit from All Might, as well as the three durability quirks he had active at the moment.
Finally, this quirk either had no limits, or something about him—his natural quirk, the numerous quirks strengthening his body, or something else entirely—had raised its limits to a ridiculous level. He had accelerated to the speed of sound almost instantly. Too fast for him to notice. That fact alone made this already–powerful, already–immensely–useful quirk so much more so.
It was surprising too, to find out that this quirk allowed for such extreme movement. The probability of finding such an exceptional variant of an already rare form of quirk aside, the fact that it was so exceptional at all was fascinating.
Normal humans, with their mushy, fragile little bodies, were not meant to, or even nearly equipped to handle extreme forces. Even with as enhanced as Oni was, the forces exerted upon his body by the rapid acceleration had left his organs in tatters, a deadly injury for anyone not possessing a healing quirk. Any lesser human would've been as good as dead before they even hit the building.
So the fact that the quirk wasn't limited to what a human body could withstand was interesting. It made Oni curious as to what sort of adaptations its former user must've possessed to protect them. It would have to be an impressive mixture of physical enhancements to handle the stress of extreme speeds and mental enhancements to be able to process the world when utilizing that speed. Or perhaps there were limits, just not on the quirk itself—obviously the quirk itself had limits somewhere, but they obviously were somewhere beyond the point of ridiculousness—but on the user. Maybe it was a case of subconscious limitations. The body itself prevented the user from utilizing the quirk for more than the user could handle, in the same way that the body prevents one from using the full strength their muscles are capable of exerting, so as to prevent them from tearing their muscles to shreds.
Oni's body did not develop with the quirk in its possession, so he did not possess such subconscious limits, hence the extreme speed that nearly splattered him against a wall.
A smile stretched across his face. Oh, he loved this quirk so much already, and he hadn't even learned how to use it correctly.
Feeling that his healing quirks had finished stitching him back together, he pulled himself up into a seated position, brushing off his now tattered clothes. Reaching up, he removed his mask. His smile faded a bit as he took in the damage that it had taken with the impact, before he tucked it away within 'Hotbar,' shrugging to himself. If he managed to figure out this new quirk, then he would consider his damaged mask a fair trade.
Hauling himself up onto his feet, he rolled his shoulders, working a bit of stiffness out of them. Had he known the quirk was going to be so strong—strong enough to overwhelm both his durability andhis shock absorption—he would've used 'Metallum' to at least strengthen his bones.
Granted, for whatever reason he'd decided to move laterally instead of doing the smart thing and just trying to go up, but whatever. He could overlook his own stupidity. With Rei no longer watching over him at night, there was no one around to judge him but himself.
A quick pull on a flame quirk had fire burning away the blood he'd coughed up, erasing the obvious trace of his DNA from the floor of what looked to be an office building. Then, sinking into the shadows, Oni reemerged back where he'd been standing before sending himself through a wall. Activating 'Hotbar,' he pulled his 'Oni' bag from its space within. Reaching into it, he grabbed at a piece of aluminum he'd tucked into it, letting it overwrite 'Metallum.' He activated the quirk as he tucked the bag away, metal flashing across his body.
"Now then…" He said. "Let's see if I can do a bit better this time."
Deciding to go upwards this time around, he focused on the quirk, dedicating a bit more to it this time around, trying to be a bit more careful with how he visualized himself moving.
After a few moments, he felt something akin to the weightlessness induced by Ochako's quirk, and his feet lifted up off of the surface of the roof. It was an odd sensation. He could definitely still feel the effects of gravity, unlike when under the effects of Ochako's quirk, it simply wasn't enough to keep him tethered to the ground.
A small, giddy laugh escaped him. Partly at his success, partly at the odd weightless sensation that enveloped him as he continued to rise, now a few feet in the air, and partly at the idea of another quirk messing with the modern understanding of the laws of physics.
Still rising, he began to wobble ever so slightly, surprising himself. It felt almost as if he was off balance. Such a thing shouldn't be possible, given the fact that one couldn't really be off balance when being balanced in the first place required gravity, not to mention his experience with moving in three dimensions and dealing with shifting perspective, which ought to be keeping him from experiencing any form of difficulty moving in any abnormal fashion.
Then again, how this quirk functioned was clearly unique, with how it left him feeling both weighted and weightless at the same time. Plus, this was his first time experiencing this quirk. He didn't have years' worth of adjusting to it to help him.
Holding his arms out instinctively as he started to lean, he found himself moving to the side, in the direction he was leaning, surprising him a bit. Was this some form of subconscious effect on the movement of the quirk? Trying to straighten himself out had him overcorrecting and leaning in the opposite direction, with his movement through the air following suit.
Putting a bit more focus into the quirk, he visualized himself stopping. Immediately his movement halted, both vertical and lateral, leaving him hovering over the roof at an angle. Instead of correcting that and straightening himself up, he decided to take it a step further. Visualizing it in his head, he leaned further, tipping until he was parallel with the roof, and then until he was completely upside down.
Another example of the strange weightless–not–weightless phenomenon, he could feel the blood rushing to his head.
Feeling a bit more comfortable with the quirk and moving around with it, he decided to try out two different types of movement simultaneously. With a thought, he began to spin so that his feet were facing the building he'd sent himself through, at the same time beginning to drift towards it. After a few moments, and perhaps a correction or two to his orientation, his feet touched the side of the building.
Once his feet were firmly on the vertical surface, he experimented a bit with moving his body under his own power, crouching at first, and then taking a few steps.
He was amazed at how normal it felt. It was like he was standing on the ground normally, with nothing but gravity holding him down. It was a bit light, sure, almost like he was standing on the moon, but that was simply because he'd been moving himself so slowly.
But this confirmed something else about the quirk. When it did move him, the movement wasn't absolute. If another force acted upon his body, then it would still move him.
He hummed to himself, smiling. "Now then. Let's try something a bit more fun."
Now that he felt as though he was starting to get a handle on the quirk, he was ready to try to use it for what it was meant for.
Floating away from the building and flipping himself around so that he was right side up, he started rising higher, gaining a bit of speed. It didn't take him long to make it high above the city.
Looking out over his city, he turned towards the coast. Ignoring the temptation to simply keep flying higher, until he could barely breathe and he could see the curvature of the Earth, and then even farther, beyond what the thinning atmosphere would allow his wings to achieve, he leaned forwards a bit, and moved himself in that direction. The wind whipped past him as he let himself gain speed, the lights below him passing by quicker and quicker until it was suddenly replaced by water.
Oni flew out over the ocean for a minute, putting distance between himself and the city, before a wide smile stretched across his face.
He pulled on 'Quick Thinker,' slowing the world around him to a crawl.
'Let's see what you can do.' He thought. 'No more holding you back.'
With that thought, he no longer put any effort into trying to control his speed.
Thanks to the effects of 'Quick Thinker,' he was able to feel the quirk working, to see what he wasn't able to the first time. It wasn't much, and it was still nearly too fast for him to process, but it was enough.
Simultaneously, he felt a pressure on his body pushing him in the direction he was moving, and he felt his internals being pushed back as he began to accelerate. Then he caught up with what was happening, and exploded forwards.
Just like the first time, there was an almost instant sonic boom as he reached the speed of sound, only unlike the first time, since he continued to travel over the speed of sound, he didn't hear it. The only reason he knew at all that he'd reached that point was the cone of pressurized air around him.
The wind tore at him as he rocketed forwards, the ocean beneath him blurring and Musutafu behind him shrinking into a cluster of lights.
An almost manic laugh escaped him as he flew, enjoying the open space over the ocean that allowed him to out the quirk to the test. After a minute or two of simply relishing the raw speed the quirk possessed—and he knew almost instinctively that this wasn't the limit, not even close—he started to mix in some other motions, spinning and rolling and turning through the air, maneuvering with far more dexterity than his wings were capable of. After a bit, he found himself heading north, following the coast away from Musutafu, and even past Tokyo, drifting back towards land as he did.
Passing by a few more cities, now close enough to make out individual buildings, he didn't stop until he reached one that was a bit bigger. Sendai, maybe?
Deciding to continue to put both his and the quirk's limits to the test, he visualized himself coming to a dead stop, not bothering to slow down at all.
He halted in midair immediately, the world around him exploding as his sonic boom finally got a chance to catch up to him. His hearing cut out as the immense blast of sound and even greater blast of pressurized air ruptured his eardrums, even though they were metal, then it faded back into a dull ringing in his ears as his healing quirks went to work. Aside from that, he was immensely glad that he'd used 'Metallum' to make everything metal, because otherwise he likely would've turned his internal organs into soup with that stop. Thankfully though, all of his organs were still intact.
Breathing a bit heavier than normal, he looked down at his hands to find them shaking from the exhilaration. He clenched them, his smile so wide that it was nearly painful.
He absolutely loved this quirk.
Taking a deep breath, he brought a hand up to massage the side of his head as the ringing in his ears started to fade away. He tilted himself back to stare at the night sky, assessing a few things he'd gleamed from his flight.
He squeezed his eyes shut, blinking them a few times to relieve a slight dryness.
"Slight issue with the air drying my eyes out," he muttered, "but not as bad as I was expecting considering my speed and how long I was flying. It would still be nice to find a way to alleviate that though… Potential solutions range from finding a quirk to counter it—perhaps an air manipulation, or maybe I can find something really niche like a moisture retention—to simply having lenses installed in the eye holes of my mask, to essentially act as a pair of goggles. If at all possible, I would prefer the former, as that would mean that I wouldn't be relying on anything outside of my own abilities, but the latter would be useful in the meantime. Besides, an extra little bit of protection around the eyes wouldn't hurt."
He idly began tilting himself further back as he spoke, slowly spinning until he was parallel with the ocean far beneath him, and then going further.
"There's also the matter of the speed of sound being nowhere near the limit of this quirk."
He'd felt it when he was flying around. He could absolutely push the quirk further. It might be a new function to his body that he was getting used to, but he'd already become familiar enough with it to know that he hadn't been pushing or straining to attain the speed that he had. All that he had done was simply not put any effort into keeping his movements slow.
Oni looked up at the sky as he righted himself, taking a minute to rest and think, and to simply enjoy the night sky, and push past the burning excitement that was rising up at the thought that the speed of sound wasn't just within the quirk's abilities, but its baseline. Instead, he tried to focus on how easy he had found it to maneuver in other directions once he had gotten up to speed.
The obvious advantages of such a high-speed method of transportation aside, the sheer potential for maneuvering that it offered were tremendous. He could already move quite fast while on the ground, but take that speed—or something faster—and factor in a third dimension of movement and it sent his combat potential through the roof.
There was also the fact that the movement required nothing but a thought to set in motion. No buildup or physical exertion needed.
He tilted his head as a sudden idea came to him, before looking down at his hands. He could move his body with a thought, but could he move parts of his body with a thought? Nothing that he had seen thus far would indicate that he couldn't.
Deciding to put it to the test, he focused on his right arm, letting it go limp as he visualized it raising. To Oni's slight surprise, and much greater delight, it responded, doing just that. It rose up in front of him, with only the slightest pressure on the limb—that of gravity trying to pull it back down and that of whatever about the quirk was resisting it—to indicate that it was moving at all.
His wrist and hand remained limp, which excited him further, because it implied that he could take this even further.
Controlling his arm to bring his hand closer to his face, he poured more focus into the quirk, extending its control to the rest of his arm as he visualized his hand and fingers moving. He smirked as his hand obeyed, closing into a fist. It was such an odd sensation, his fist clenching without any of the muscles within doing the same.
Reversing the motion, he opened his fist, forcing his fingers to flex.
He stopped though, losing focus on his arm entirely, when his index and middle fingers were abruptly yanked loose, flying away for a few feet before dropping down towards the ocean.
"Ow." Oni said, though it was more out of disappointment than pain, as his regeneration quirks had already replaced the missing fingers. He activated 'Attraction,' pulling the severed ones back to him before they could drop out of sight. No sense in leaving DNA lying around, or at least any more than there already was.
He thought about what happened as he stared at the still-metal fingers, leaking blood that was still very much not-metal. He must've moved them faster than they could handle, even made of metal as they were. That tiny slipup served as yet another example of the raw power this quirk possessed. Aluminum didn't have the greatest tensile strength compared to other metals he regularly used, and it was possible that it was made a bit weaker by being dynamic and flexible, essentially just flesh that carried the properties of metal—or was it metal that carried the properties of flesh?—but it was still metal, so to be able to pull it apart in such a way would take an amount of force that wasn't exactly insignificant.
Tucking the severed fingers into a pocket in 'Hotbar,' Oni's thoughts turned away from the sheer power of the quirk and back towards the significant degree of utility offered by its unique form of activation. He hadn't realized it when he'd first had the idea, but being able to use the quirk to move his body in a way that wasn't dependent upon his muscles and that allowed for a level of precision that matched what he was already capable of—once he'd practiced a bit more with it of course—meant that he now had a failsafe to fall back on should he ever be physically incapacitated while remaining conscious.
It was only a partial solution, since relying on a quirk didn't account for situations where his mind was cut off from his quirks, but it meant that normal forms of immobilization would no longer work on him. And besides, he still had Tamako, who both served as another failsafe and who was still helping him overcome his instinctual reaction of blind panic in the face of mind control.
A smile spread across Oni's face, and he released his focus on the quirk, immediately dropping towards the ocean as he allowed gravity to do its job.
As tempted as he was to continue testing this new quirk, particularly whether or not it would still work underwater, there were still things that needed to be done tonight. Specifically, he had a number of criminals to punish, to give himself an alibi that placed him across the country from the incarcerated criminals he took the two quirks from.
As he fell, he twisted around, without the aid of the flight quirk, so that he was parallel to the ocean's surface, facing the direction he needed to go.
A few seconds before he would've hit the water, he reactivated the quirk. His smile widened almost painfully when he exploded forwards, the quirk once again almost instantly accelerating him to the speed of sound.
He relished it, both the thought that such a powerful quirk was now a part of his collection, and the sensations he was experiencing that served to reflect that power. The wind whipping at him, roaring in his ears and tearing at his clothes and making it difficult to hold his eyes open. The vibrations racing through his body, particularly around his knees, where the cone of condensed air wrapped around him. The sight of the ocean racing beneath him, and the disturbed water trailing in his wake, mimicking the cone around him.
He loved this quirk. And now it was time to take it a step—or a few—further.
'Now that I know what you can do when I'm not holding you back,' he thought, 'let's see what you when I actually start pushing you.'
It was time to go faster.
At his mental signal, the forces acting upon his body increased. The force of the quirk pushing him forwards and the opposing force of air resistance trying to hold him back. The cone of air around him began to stretch backwards ever so slightly, narrowing with his increasing speed.
He laughed, the action sounding weak and muted with the roaring in his ears and the wind whipping past him making it slightly difficult to breathe.
'Faster.' He thought, pushing the quirk further. It responded, and the ocean began to blur beneath him.
'Faster!'
He was finally beginning to feel strain from the quirk. A pressure in his forehead, and just behind his eyes, slight but slowly mounting as he continued to push it. He ignored the discomfort as he pushed himself into another burst of speed, this one threatening to rip the air from his lungs.
He knew that ignoring the early signs of quirk overuse was a bad idea, especially since the quirk in question was responsible for hurtling him through the air at some indeterminate, yet supersonic velocity, but he was too absorbed in his own excitement and the adrenaline of the moment to care. This quirk was fucking exhilarating.
"More!'
And just like that, he was pulled from his adrenaline-induced frenzy in an instant. Though, not because the strain had worsened, but because of an interesting phenomenon that was making itself known.
His clothes, a bit frayed from his impact with the building earlier, were burning. That last increase in speed had caused flames to break out across his body.
Now faced with something more interesting than the immediate excitement offered by traveling at supersonic speeds, he forced himself to calm down, hitting the brakes—so to speak—and bringing himself to an abrupt halt.
As it had last time, the shockwave that had been trailing behind him ruptured his eardrums as it caught up with him, but he paid it no mind as he observed the flames that were still eating at his clothes.
Pulling on one of his fire quirks, he cancelled out the flames with a thought, leaving blackened fabric behind.
"Huh… Interesting." He said, before smiling. The flames themselves weren't anything to be concerned about. Between his temperature resistance and his currently being made of metal, his clothes were the only thing that had been hurt. What was something to be concerned about, or rather, something to be extremely fucking excited about, was the fact that there was only one thing that could've caused the flames.
He'd been traveling so fast that the compression of air in front of him began to generate heat. Heat that was intense enough to ignite fabric. It was similar to how spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere seemed to catch fire as they fell, though that was a much more extreme example, and in that case the fire wasn't really fire, but superheated plasma, but it was the same principle.
Oni's outfit was primarily made of linen, which wasn't exactly the most flame-resistant fabric available, but it still had an ignition point of roughly 450 degrees Fahrenheit. So in order to catch fire in the way he just had, assuming his understanding wasn't flawed and his math was correct, it would mean that he'd have to have been traveling close to 700 meters per second. Just over twice the speed of sound.
Oni was practically vibrating at the thought. Mach 2! That surpassed the record for the fastest non-mechanically assisted speed achieved by a human, previously held by All Might. And he'd only just barely begun to use this quirk. How fast would he be able to go after training and mastering it?
After a moment, he started to laugh, low and quiet at first, but quickly rising in volume until it was echoing out across the water, sounding nearly maniacal.
So much raw power under his control, and so much potential for it, so much that it might be able to do that he so very much wanted to test. Would this quirk allow him to 'fly' to the bottom of the ocean? His enhanced body would likely be able to handle the intense pressures, especially with 'Metallum,' so he saw no reason why it wouldn't. Would it allow him to fly right out of the atmosphere and into the vacuum of space? Would it allow him to keep going? Aside from the lack of oxygen, would there be anything to stop him?
So much to do, so many things to test, so much raw potential.
But no time to do anything about it right now.
Oni shut his eyes, taking a deep breath as he forced himself to calm down. There would be plenty of time to hurt himself trying to visit the bottom of the ocean or the upper atmosphere later. For now, he had criminals to hurt.
Opening his eyes, he turned towards where Kamino ought to be, before exploding forwards. He smiled as a shockwave shook the world behind him.
Oh, he was going to have so much fun with this…