Requiem of the Broken

Chapter 60: QUEESS

The group stood watching from the observation booth as the strange lights and sporadic bursts of pink electricity emanated from Ochako's body. Her heart rate had started up again, but it was slow, while the activity of her brain only increased. After a while, Tsu turned toward Takeo who was the head researcher.

"What's happening to her?" She asked worriedly.

"I don't know... This never happened with the other two Angels with the same suit as her..." He said, his brow furrowed.

He pulled a chair toward himself and plopped down into it, he crossed his arms and Tsu could see him moving his chin.

"Likely a habit he has when concentrating." she thought. She'd seen a number of ticks like it in the students.

"Whatever is happening can only be as a result of the black boxes... It's the only major difference we've made to the suit outside of basic upgrades..." He muttered, trailing off as he leaned forward and steepled his hands in thought.

"What are the black boxes? Actually, what even is the QUEESS!?" she demanded, anger starting to overcome her.

She was getting an answer as to what the hell all of this was once and for all, and unlike before, she wasn't going to accept the excuse of "Its a need to know basis" or "Its a matter of national security". Not after what she'd already seen.

When Takeo didn't move, she turned on the rest of the researchers.

"Well!?" She demanded.

When still no one said a word, she spun on Hawks.

"What is the QUEESS!" She demanded once more.

Hawks' gaze was fixed on Ochako, but at her demand, the skin around his eyes tightened. 

She waited, she knew he was thinking it over. Then he finally turned his gaze toward her.

"You've seen this much, I guess there isn't much point in keeping it secret from you. But you have to swear not to breathe a word of it to anyone. When this is all over, you'll have to let the Silent One use his quirk on you again. This is a matter of national secrecy and we can't let the info leak out. Do you still want to know?" He asked in a warning tone.

Tsu's mind flashed back to the events surrounding the moment when Ochako had undergone her psychotic break. The Silent One was a mysterious individual from the government, likely a spy, whose quirk prevented anyone from communicating a secret he specified to anyone or anything. It was like signing a non-disclosure agreement, except once you signed it was impossible to break. Nezu had had the man use his quirk to prevent the events of Ochako's psychotic break from leaking to the public. So far as she was aware, only Nezu could speak freely of it.

Tsu turned to look at Ochako, and she remembered the horrible screams, the nightmares that plagued Ochako, the scars she bore across her back that she was afraid to show the rest of the class, and the other angels. Ochako had confided to her that two had committed suicide shortly after the war ended, while Yo Shindo had been put into an institution since he was deemed unstable. Unstable might have been too nice a word, considering he had turned traitor.

"Yes." was all she said.

Hawks took a deep breath and pulled two chairs forward and pushed one of them to Tsu.

"We'll start with the name, as you likely guessed it's an acronym." He said, leaning back in his chair.

"QUEESS stands for, Quirk Enhancement and Evolution Suit System. The entire point of which was to enhance an individual to a point of strength where they could fight Shigaraki. Shigaraki is the only reason why the Angel Project was started, he was too strong and nigh-invulnerable to all our weapons and quirks. We needed a power that could fight him or at least a team of people who could combine their powers to come close." Hawks said.