Pandora's Gift

Chapter 46

The next couple of days followed any other normal day. Patrols were boring, Sakaki hated sticking to normal routes. She was not one who enjoyed being put on for show to the people. Fan service was not her strong suit. She did not enjoy people, she did not enjoy them watching her or bothering her. There was a reason she was an unranked hero, and why she had no desire to be one. But being out with Bakugou on patrols for the public to watch and follow along was no fun. It was impossible to be invisible when she was standing among a high ranked hero and one the public loved, even if she could not understand why.

But civilians were not the only ones to notice, those in the shadows had as well. That was annoying, Sakaki used her element of surprise to her advantage. She was not physically strong like a lot of hero's. But she was stronger than she looked, which often helped a lot in fights. Her quirk being able to incapacitate others was her other strength. But that had a lot of drawbacks too. And was the primary reason she liked to work alone. The gasses she could produce were not controllable once released. She could affect friend and foe alike. And the fact her own gasses made her drunk meant she had to keep her mask on herself or risk the consequences.

"You should have a gas mask on you when we work together," Sakaki said randomly one day as the two of them were walking back to the agency after having taken down some criminal who had tried to rob a subway train. Sakaki had refused to use her own quirk while Bakugou was around and she found it annoying.

"Huh? Why the fuck would I do that?" The blonde had barked out.

"Because I can not use my quirk around you without risk of it affecting you," she pointed out as if it was common sense and the blonde was a moron.

"So what? You don't have to worry about it," the blonde said back. Of course Bakugou would act as if he was completely impenetrable.

"Dumb ass you can not do anything about an invisible gas. You can not just blow my quirk away with an explosion. And prolonged exposure will be dangerous. My gasses are poisonous after all," she said simply. Though she wasn't sure if that information actually went through the blondes thick head and that he was able to comprehend it.

"What do you mean prolonged exposure is dangerous?" He asked as he looked over at her as if she was a moron.

"It's as I said. My poisonous gasses will cause issues if you are exposed to it too much. I'm not completely immune either so I can't just keep giving you my mask either," she said simply.

"What do you mean poisonous gas? Isn't your quirk just similar to Midnights had been?" The look on Bakugou's face was either confusion or constipation. She was going to assume confusion.

"No. There's actually a lot of difference between what her quirk was and what mine is. To help with that memory of yours my quirk is called toxic aeration. The gas my body creates is always poisonous. It's just that I can slightly alter the potency of the poison. That is what makes the difference between the gas killing someone or not. Think of it similar to carbon monoxide. The gas affects the blood's ability to carry oxygen to the brain and the person passes out. If I turn it up too high I can actually suffocate the person inhaling the poison," she explained a little bit better for Bakugou since he apparently could not remember how her quirk worked from their time in UA. Then again she wasn't exactly sure Bakugou could remember the two of them had been in the same class.

"Huh? I never knew it was poisonous. How the hell do you use your quirk around others?" He asked.

"I try not to. It's why Mirko allowed me to work alone. Those who work with me need a mask like my own. Though I do have pheromone blocking as an added option to help ensure alpha criminals can not try to boss me around," or send her into heat if things were unlucky for her. But she was not going to voice that part out loud.