Reckless

Part One

One of the most dangerous things about evolving Quirks was the fact that they could turn on their own users.

Quirks were like muscles - Use it and it would stay in shape. Train it and it would get stronger. Practice with it and you'd be able to use it better. But this also applied to the downsides one could experience - Use them too often and you'd wear them out. Train them too much and you'd tear them. Practice too much and you could end up overworking them.

They weren't anything special, Quirks. In the past people seemed to think they were, and before Quirks became commonplace, people seemed to think of powers and people as being separate. There were a thousand comics where a person could lose their powers, and then get them returned to them, as though they were separated from the person who used them. None of this was the case.

A Quirk was an extension of the body.. A unique extension from person to person, but an extension nonetheless. They really were nothing more than that.

Just parts of the body.

That meant that they were as susceptible to outside influences as any other part of the body.

Mina had never seen a city be so quiet before. It was surreal. Musutafu was one of the most populated cities in Japan, only ten or twenty million less than Tokyo. But she knew Tokyo was much the same. Barely occupied streets, the few that did wander wore masks and gloves, and kept their distances from anyone that were often open for all twenty-four hours of the day had shut down. Some had even been closed permanently, unable to finance themselves under the face of the pandemic.

"It's quiet."

Glancing at her side, Mina noticed Izuku looking around at the mostly empty street. The sight was as foreign to him as it was to her.

A month, two months - It didn't matter. The sight of the city being as deserted as it was now was... Surreal. Like something out of a disaster movie.

"Yeah." Mina responded, simply. Her voice was a bit muffled because of the mask she was wearing around her mouth and nose, but she spoke loud enough that it didn't matter so much.

"...It's weird."

"...Yeah."

Part of Mina expected Izuku to start muttering like he would do when something about Quirks or heroes came up, like he had done throughout most of their first year. He didn't though. He was just silent. She could only assume that he found this as eerie as she did. Like saying a word would... Shatter what was in front of them somehow.

To call it creepy was an understatement.

Izuku had grown up around Musutafu. He had been to the city often, long before he ended up attending Yuuei. It occured to Mina that he might be handling this differently to her. To look at him was to see someone who didn't represent the person she knew back in the classrooms, or on the field before the virus. "You holding up alright?" She asked, tapping at his shoulder with the back of her hand.

For a moment, he looked startled, before he realized that he had zoned out. Mina couldn't see his lips or what expression the rest of his face was making, but his eyes opened up slightly as he returned to real time. "Y-Yeah." He nodded. "Just... " He made a vague motion with his hands at the scene in front of him. Mina understood well enough.

It was all so surreal to see.

Behind the two of them, Aizawa, Yaoyorozu, Monoma, Sero and Todoroki were all batched around, listening to... Something. Mina had honestly blocked it out. What she was looking at right now had her a bit more overwhelmed, even though she'd seen this same scene every day for a month now.