Savior (My Hero Academia: Todoroki x OC)

Chapter 59: Beauty Before Battle

The room I found myself entering had my head on a swivel, unsure of where to focus my attention. Marveling at the sights around me, I realized it really was a research laboratory. There was a nursery with plant beds and hanging baskets filling one side. A chemical lab occupied another section with beakers, flasks, and test tubes sitting atop work tables. A storehouse with a collection of herbs, minerals, and chemicals for use in experiments filled the back wall. There was also a whole wall of laboratory machinery used for different types of analysis and a small library that looked to hold reference materials. It all seemed a bit overkill for a high school. 

As though affirming my opinion, Momo gasped beside me. I glanced up to see her wide-eyed, her head turning to take in the space just as mine had. She also seemed in awe of the sight. It was certainly the most unique laboratory I had ever seen. She immediately headed over to the small section of books, most likely looking for the formulas for creating whatever she was assigned. I headed for the opposite side of the room, analyzing the plant tags sticking out of the dirt in the small garden plots. I soon found the section I assumed Mr. Aizawa wanted me to study. The poison garden.

"Belladonna, hemlock, henbane, oleander, peyote cactus, ricinus, white snakeroot..." I began mumbling out the names listed on the labels. I was familiar with a couple, but most were new to me. Much like Momo, I found myself searching out the small library of reference material, knowing that my first task was to understand the properties of each plant before deciding if it was something I could use.

Sitting down at the table next to Momo, I noticed she held a very similar book in her hand. Except, instead of poisonous plants, hers seemed to be an encyclopedia of dangerous gasses and liquid chemicals.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say Mr. Aizawa was planning to have us assassinate someone," I said with a humorless chuckle as I held up the book in my hand.

Momo frowned. "It does seem like a strange assignment. I'm pretty sure we would be breaking the law if we used the things he's asking us to study out in the field. Yet, with all the trouble our class has had with the league of villains, maybe he wants to prepare us for the worst."

"My assignment does say to look for things that won't cause long-term damage. Maybe this is his way of bending the laws but not breaking them entirely."

After that first day, I found myself accompanying Momo to the research laboratory a couple of days a week after class. I studied the structures and functions of a few of the poisonous plants available and began practicing growing them. Meanwhile, Momo worked on creating nerve gas, sleeping gas, and several liquid poisons. The most surprising thing was how we were able to help each other. 

After two months, I had managed to successfully grow several mature species, even breaking them down to grow only the poisonous berries and leaves that were needed. But I was struggling with how to integrate that into hero work. It's not like I could force a villain to eat a berry to make them sick or to consume some leaves that would slow their heart rate. It was Momo who suggested I concentrate on the nectar or juice of the plants. A liquid would be far easier to consume or even inject to get the desired effect. 

Similarly, while she was adept at creating a variety of liquid chemicals and gasses sealed in appropriate containers, she could only copy the formula laid before her. Increasing or decreasing the potency seemed to be something of a struggle. Actually, she was quite good at making the proper calculations, which wasn't a surprise with how intelligent she was. But she lacked confidence in her work. More often than not I saw her deliberating, unable to come to a conclusion, until I came over and confirmed her theory and her calculations. 

But it was nice. We had managed to push aside a lot of the awkwardness from the past several months that had prevented us from becoming friends. And by the time the school term had come to an end, Momo had successfully created nerve gas, sleeping gas, and a liquid anesthetic and was able to appropriately adjust the dosage. Meanwhile, I had managed to successfully create poisonous nectar from the oleander, produce juice from the berries of hemlock and belladonna, as well as extract liquid mescaline from the peyote cactus. I personally never intended to make use of them, but, nevertheless, our assignments had been completed.