Guidance, or To Help (those in need) by orionchildofhades / shwwmf

6. for or against?

Weirdly warmed by the words of the man, this Sensei, Izuku had shyly made his way to the bar where he decided to sit. He chatted politely with the mist man, asking a few questions about the place and the man's quirk as he got bolder.

It was truly fascinating.

Wrap Gate was some sort of teleportation quirk controlled by the fog that covered the body of the man. Izuku learned that yes, Kurogiri had a body underneath the layer of darkness and that no, he would not show it. He could teleport to places only with precise coordinates.

Izuku found himself sketching the man as he started cleaning again, adding notes and thoughts on his quirk. He probably started mumbling at some point but no one called him out on it so he didn't care.

After a while, Shigaraki went and sat beside him, bringing his video game and asked for food and drink. They each kept quiet, minding their own business.

But at some point, Izuku started glancing at the screen, first just out of curiosity and then more interested. The guy and his video games got his interest fairly quickly.

Shigaraki had removed his mask, revealing chapped lips and more dry skin. A mole decorated his chin, and a scar cut his lips with a pale line. His eyes were focused on the screen and his fingers moved with practiced ease, sometimes a frown would shadow his gaze or a smirk light up his face slightly.

After abandoning his notebook completely, Izuku didn't try to hide his interest and started questioning Shigaraki about the game. Reluctantly at first, with hesitation and quick answers, they discussed it, Izuku had heard of it but was not excellent on the subject and they chatted for a while about the best options to follow a certain enigma and the smartest way to level-up some characters. One thing led to another and Izuku ended up talking about quirks again and, since they were talking about video games, how he thought that 'upgrading' people's quirks was actually far from impossible once people put their pride aside. Most of the time, they tended to think they knew better than anyone else their powers only because it was theirs and refused to listen to constructive criticism.

Shigaraki seemed to be listening, or at least wasn't telling him outright to shut it and that he was being annoying or boring. Izuku actually felt happy about it. He thought of all the time he tried to talk about it with other people, with Kacchan who told him it was creepy until he started hitting anytime Izuku would try, to his mother who, he knew, tried her best but always seemed so lost and jumped on any occasion to change the subject after some time. And here Izuku was, in a villain hideout , talking to some guy who liked video games and seemed okay with Izuku's habit to mumble, happy because someone finally paid him some attention.

Shigaraki ended up interrupting him. "Do you think you could do it?" Kind of confused, Izuku asked what it was about. "Level us up? Kurogiri, Me, others... Sensei seemed to be right when he said you had some brains. What would it take to level-up some characters and party members?"

"I- I mean, it could go from anything to try out new things with the quirk, test the limits of it... usually people underestimate themselves and their quirk because they don't think of all the possibilities. It can also be support items or such. It's actually something that heroes overlook most of the time. They rely too much on their quirks and support items are seen as weaknesses."

"And what resources does that take? What kind of requirements for the quest to be achievable? How do you access it?"

"I- Theoretically, until now I simply need the name of the quirk and the usual uses of it. Not all of my theories end up true and feasible but that's how making out the limits usually work. You know, like experiences for science. Quirks are just biology."