Need You (ShinDeku)

Ch. 119 - Unimpeded

A/N: ran out of data last night a few hrs before I meant to post the chap... sry.
Have fun reading!

Midoriya POV

I look at the posters in the hall as we make our way back the way we came. They say things like "Cure-all for bodily woes", "Better than plastic surgery", "Miracle Juice: Practically magic", and "Permanently alter your body to match your wildest or most mundane dreams with help from The Alchemist!". That last one was a bit of a mouthful for my tastes, not that I'm a marketing student.

"How does his quirk work?" I can't help but ask him later while we wait for a taxi, on the same street we previously got out on.

Shota looks at me thoughtfully, making brief eye contact. "I expected you'd ask something like that." He scratches the back of his head, slow to answer my question. "It's a very powerful quirk. He's used it to make himself a very wealthy man." He checks the taxi info on his phone and looks down the mostly empty street before continuing.

"I can't tell you the details of how it works because he's not exactly going around explaining it to people. What I do know is that he's able to mix his and another person's DNA along with... something else. A solution of some kind. He can activate the mixture—as one would their quirk—with nearly limitless possibilities on how it can change the other person's body upon consumption." I look up at him with wide eyes, and he must be able to tell that I was hoping for more. His expression though, is not quite one that I can read. It seems like his face is a bit softer around his eyes, but I also can't help but feel like he's holding back a sigh.

"If I had to guess, I'd say it's a case of creative quirk use. If you're looking for an impressive scientific explanation you won't get it from me. It probably wasn't intended to be used that way, whatever it is, but he found a way around his quirk constraints to make these elixirs. Perhaps it was originally a quirk which allowed him to alter a body on a molecular level through touch, which he found a way to automate and turn into a liquid for consumption. Could be something else entirely. I'm not particularly inclined to find out. All I care is that it works, very well. And it's not a gimmick."

So, lots of secrets and incredibly good marketing. Maybe I was too judgmental about his advert posters. The possibilities are all really interesting, given the recent advancements in quirk science and quirk technology. But wait, are we really just going to skip past the part where he said that this man may have turned his quirk into a functional liquid form?! Wouldn't that be groundbreaking? No, I have to remind myself, it's just a theory he threw out there, and even if it were true what would you do about it? It's just some guy profiting off of illegal quirk use anyways.

"What are the limits of his... quirk elixirs?" I shift my train of thought. "He said he couldn't do aesthetics and functionality at the same time, and that it only works one time to do one thing on a given person. Has he done both? Was he saying that because it wouldn't work or because it's his policy? Doesn't one sometimes affect the other, anyways?" Oh, and the setbacks! What kind of setbacks does his quirk have? Are there repercussions when he stretches the limits? Would they impact him as the quirk user or the recipient?

I could only describe Shota's expression as amused as he watched me spew questions. "I'm not sure, kid. In the underground they say he's made people with mutant quirks effectively quirkless by changing their appearance to that of a 'normal' person, and he's healed full body paralysis. I've even heard that he's gotten rid of cancer and regenerated a few limbs, though it may just be a rumor. To everyone who knows about him he really is a miracle worker, a living legend. It's hard to say what his limits really are, to imagine there are any, and if they're self-imposed or the actual upper limits of his quirk." He seems to indulge me a little as he says that, and it probably doesn't help that I'm looking at him with wide eyed fascination. I can't help it; mysterious quirks are the type of thing I can sit and learn about for hours, alongside heroes.