Midori the Phoenix

Troubled Youth

"DAMN IT!" Dabi slammed his fist into the wall, using overhaul to satisfy his need for destruction. The wall blew open like a door, wood chips flying on the opposite side, startling Twice who narrowly dodged. He held a rubber ducky, a towel around his naked waist, and had put a shower cap on despite still having his face mask on.

"GAH! Rude!" He pointed and squeezed the rubber duck for emphasis. "Can't you knock, Dabi?"

"Shove it, two face!" He snarled and whirled on Shigaraki. "How the fuck did we not see this? Of all the places the heroes could have hid her they chose UA, and we were stupid not to think of it!"

"Calm down, Dabi." Shigaraki said with uncharacteristic patience. "We don't know for sure."

"The king is right, Touya." Eri tried to soothe from the couch. "Maybe it's not her, maybe the child is-"

"No... it's too big of a coincidence. We find out Karma's alive, find out she's been reduced to a toddler, and then all of a sudden a child with a fire-based quirk burns down the UA dorms. This is a sign! Karma was telling us where she is!"

"Was," Compress corrected. "The heroes probably thought the same thing when the building went up. Which is why they're moving her, to keep her hidden and keep the students at UA quote unquote safe."

"Which opens up numerous possibilities of where they could be hiding her now." Shigaraki rubbed his chin. "We've been careful these past few years not to get caught, especially since that annoying Liberation Front has been searching high and low for us. We can't afford to make any mistakes."

"May I interject, your highness..." David Shield's face popped up on the TV screen. The doctor's lab humming with the usual buzz and beeps from the experiments and machines.

"What is it, David?"

"I know, I'm not an official member of the league... frankly I consider myself more a hostage but... I'd like to put in my two cents." He adjusted his collar. "Is it really necessary for you all to find Karma now? I realize she's an important part of your group, but she's not the Karma you all remember. She's a child now, and may not have the same abilities, or mind set that you remember."

"The hostage makes a valid point..." Kota cracked his knuckles, his body still getting used to the new quirk. He found himself itching to move and stretch out his abilities and often struggled to maintain a calm composure. "Karma's no good to us if we can't find a way to bring her back to normal."

"It's also not gonna be a simple matter of erasing my quirk's affects either," Eri put in, swallowing hard as eyes turned to her. "Th-that man... Chisaki... he was working on a reverse serum to remove my quirk's affect... but I overheard him say that it was proving to be difficult. You can't just rewind a rewind."

"You instead have to fast forward." Doctor Bennet interjected, his mask in place and his hands behind his back. "Which I'm sure Doctor Tsubasa can assist you all with."

"Hah?" Shigaraki raised a brow at the newbie. "Since when have you been in contact with Tsubasa?"

"I'm also a doctor, or did you forget? I've done my own research, and once I knew who your current physician was I did a little research. He's currently involved in a project that may suit Karma's case. He's assisting in the testing of a genetic bypass to help counter the effects of dangerous quirks."

"Plain Japanese, if you please, or English if it's more convenient." Dabi said irritably.

"From what I've read of Tsubasa's research, the newer generation's quirks are growing more and more powerful. Some are becoming impossible to control at the age of four when they manifest due to the lack of proper body or mind development. So he's working with a team of experts to create a form of accelerated growth. It's done a little at a time as the body is not meant to age so rapidly, but it's a technique that accelerates a person's age and it's proven successful thus far."