Chapter 135: An Important Diversion
Chapter 135: An Important Diversion
Izumi had expected, after their short break, that they would end up back in orbit and to begin work on producing parts of the first Forge station. As well as any miscellaneous bits that might have been missed for the Orbit series of stations, of course. Instead, they had found a priority request from Recovery Girl waiting for them. By luck or fate, it had come right alongside a notice that the need to properly train people for the Orbit Stations was slowing the original timetable enough that work on Forge 1 couldn’t realistically begin for another few days.
That latter hadn’t been entirely unexpected. They had built a fair bit of wiggle room into the original timetables precisely because literally almost everything about their new orbital stations was exactly that. New. No one had ever built stations on this scale before, nor with even a fraction of the capability they were building either with or for. The rush to get everything in place as fast as possible meant there were inevitably going to be procedural bumps as unexpected issues arose.
Still, she admitted she’d half expected it to be them that couldn’t keep up the pace, rather than the training crews. Which might well have been the case without Ochako’s brilliant bit of reshuffling to their schedule. While that reshuffle had slowed them a bit at the front end, it had allowed them to finish faster than the original plan, by the time the entire series of Orbit stations had their parts produced.
As it was, the fortuitous alignment of the Drone Fleet crews and Orbit Station training cadres both admitting they needed more time, coupled with Recovery Girl’s priority request, had seen them shifting their first day back ‘at work’ to visiting the healer. They fact that, upon arriving at the meeting in the UA medical wing, they also found Power Loader and a number of fourth year support students present, was unexpected. At least, it was until Power Loader and Recovery Girl pulled them aside, plopped down an early version of Jirou’s support gear that had apparently remained at UA, and Power Loader started talking.
“I admit I’m embarrassed to have missed this, Midoriya, and I suspect you’ll feel a bit sheepish too. Don’t beat yourself up over it please, as you’ve been pulled in many directions…but it seems one of your own early designs has held the secret to using Eri’s power safely to return a number of our students and other Heroes to the field. We’d set some of our fourth years to looking into a support device for her…and it barely took them a week to turn up an existing solution that could be adapted.”
Izumi blinked, looked down at the where Power Loader had opened up the Mark 1 Sonic Cannon…and face palmed at what he pointed to.
“The Quirk storage capacitors! I’d nearly forgotten about the damn things after we swerved first into storing larger amounts of QE, and then trying to artificially form patterns out of the unaligned QE that the storage devices hold. You’re thinking that, if Eri simply fills a capacitor with her specific pattern of QE, then we can use the same dialing system from the Sonic Cannons to allow each use of the stored energy? That, doing it like that, we can control it so that the support device only releases specifically measured amounts?”
Power Loader nodded, though it was Recovery Girl who spoke.
“Precisely. Which, as it happens, might be the only way forward. Despite Eri’s own unusual determination for a child, throwing herself into training her Quirk in a way that Anan has had to carefully monitor so she doesn’t overdo it, the girl has hit a wall. With her mother’s permission, I can reveal to the three of you specifically, that Overhaul’s repeated experiments on Eri appear to have damaged her Quirk. Its development has been warped in such a way that means she may never have the degree of fine control required for safe usage. As a result, such a support device would be essentially a required safety mechanism for her in the long term, as well as solving her short-term issue.”
Izumi and Momo’s expressions both darkened at that, with Recovery Girl’s cane having creaked in a way that expressed her own displeasure at the truth. Momo found her voice before Izumi, reaching for the Sonic Cannon and fiddling with the capacitors, deftly removing them to exam their own previous work.
“These were honestly somewhat crude. While we might not have specifically focused on developing them farther, I think we should be able to apply a lot of what we’ve learned about Quirk Energy Resonance in an improved design. One that would likely let us properly meter and measure the amounts used better, as well as extend the time the capacitors can retain the correct waveform. Originally, they lost their specific QE resonance within twenty minutes, becoming neutral QE. Even Jirou’s current set only added another ten minutes to the original time, as it wasn’t really important for the way she uses them. It just wasn’t a serious issue we were trying to solve. What do you think, Izumi, 2B? If we apply what you learned on the RADS array project…”
Izumi’s nod was immediate, but 2B spoke even before she could. She was currently inhabiting one of her non-combat ‘adult’ bodies, looking much the same age as Izumi and similar enough in looks to be mistaken for her sister. Not that either of them, let alone Inko, would actually consider that a mistake. For all intents and purposes, it was effectively what they considered each other. Though it was a bit more debatable which one was the older or younger.
“Not just the RADS array project. The data learned by the Shield creation team, the Harvest Stone Team, and even the work done to close that reality break at Gajajima island. We’ve advanced quite a lot since we made these originally. At a rough estimate, we could likely make a handheld device capable of maintaining the right QE form and frequency for at least a day, possibly two or three. Which would mean Eri could simply drain her Quirk into them and let others use them at various hospitals.”
Power Loader and Recovery Girl looked to each other for a moment and nodded, with the former speaking first.
“That would, I think, be for the best. Better no one actually knows who possesses her particular Quirk, given what it can do. Though letting her heal a few trustworthy individuals with the support gear would likely do a great deal for her own mental health, I think. That little girl has put her all into trying to help.”
Recovery Girl nodded even more firmly at that comment.
“Quite. We’ve been a bit worried at how much she’s putting on herself, given her age. Seeing a few people personally restored, and working to help far more, will likely go far in continuing to undo that fool Overhaul’s mental conditioning.”
Ugh. That’s right. That bastard had the poor girl convinced she was cursed, that her Quirk itself was a curse, by the time they’d rescued her. Remembering that little detail made Izumi immediately shuffle this to top priority. She said as much a few moments later.
“Well then, it just so happens that we aren’t needed for the Orbital Projects for a few days. So I see no reason not to get right to work fixing up a few usable copies of such a device. Given how thin stretched we are, it will be up to you to calibrate how much power to use for any given injury, but we’ll include detailed documentation on how the devices work.”
After a few more minutes of back and forth over the specifics of what Recovery Girl wanted, what controls and features would be needed, the trio left. It would be nice to get back to basics in their private workshop for a few days. Particularly for a project they knew was destined to help so many…
… … …
“Okay, Jirou. Load in some QE please.”
Jirou, grumbling a bit about being a guinea pig, pumped energy from her Earphone Jacks and into the latest array of crystalline QE capacitors that Momo and Izumi wanted her to test. If it had just been one or two sets, she might not have been so annoyed. Doubly so since, not only was this for a Heroic cause, but technically the end result would be used to upgrade her own kit right alongside the new support device for Eri’s Quirk. Unfortunately, this was the 47th set, and she’d had to load each one of them up with her Quirk’s energy several times to test and make sure they wouldn’t just break or break down with repeated energy loads.
A legitimate concern, given four separate versions had exploded. One near instantly, and three after a few uses. Eleven more had eventually broken down in some fashion. Mostly just having their energy matrix destabilize too much to hold a specific waveform. Though the most exciting one had induced something like a RADS array in tiny miniature. Something they’d noted and sent off to the team working on any possible improvements to Izumi’s original designs for those.
Despite her grumbling, and the fact that her jacks were getting sort of sore at this point, she went through the procedure again. It was for a good cause, after all…and Izumi and Momo’s Quirks were, for all intents and purposes, utterly useless for this. Creation couldn’t be used without a mind to actively guide it. One for All just sort of exploded the capacitors into dust motes. And, of course, Izumi’s complicated-as-fuck Quirk had far too many ‘moving parts’ for this sort of thing.
Which meant Jirou had been roped into the testing. Her Quirk had a nice, simple waveform and that waveform was one her mistresses already had oodles of data on, regarding how it interacted with such capacitors. Well, at least this particular capacitor didn’t seem like it was gong to explode? Wait, why was it turning green? Quickly tossing the crystal away, into a hazardous object containment area her lovers had set up, she stared as it turned into some sort of acid that made even the protective materials of the hazard are sizzle on contact.
“Okay, nope! No more, I’m not getting my face melted off! No more exotic options!”
She could practically hear the pouts in the dutiful ‘okays’ that came through the comm. Those two were absolutely going to owe her kinky sex and snuggle time for putting up with this…
… … …
Izumi and Momo were due back up in orbit today. But they’d put it off, delaying until after lunch and just promising to work later than usual, in order to be on hand for the first test of the Healing Device. It had taken three days of slightly Mad Science (according to Jirou), but they’d produced at least a prototype that should work. Eri had already managed to charge it, though that in and of itself had proved an interesting problem as her first attempts had destabilized the first few types of crystal that they’d tried. Apparently, the fact that crystals ‘grew,’ even if they weren’t alive, made them an edge case for Eri’s Quirk, in which they were partially affected. Enough to destroy those first few, at least.
Thankfully, they’d had several more exotic options to try, thanks to Jirou’s sacrifices. Ultimately, they’d hit on one made of a type of Maso-infused metal YoRHa had in its database, that both worked as a capacitor and seemed decently stable with Eri’s Quirk. Escalating tests on plants, insects, and small animals that each produced solid results. Proving that ‘Rewind’ could work through the new Healing Device. Now, it was time to test it on a volunteer. For safety, it was a 34-year-old Heroine named Crystal Haze, who wouldn’t be too inconvenienced if she accidentally lost a couple of years.
She’d lost an arm to a Monster two months ago and, unfortunately, her Quirk required the use of both hands. It was a damn good Quirk, allowing her to create extremely tough barriers of Crystal that had made her a fantastic Heroine for containment operations. Something which made her a good choice from multiple different perspectives as a first attempt. A relatively safe person to try it on, an injury unhealable by ordinary Quirks, and a major asset that the powers that be would love to have back in the field. She was also a UA Alumni, one who Nedzu said could be trusted to keep her mouth shut about the more secretive details of the treatment. Which allowed Eri to be nearby to watch.
All of them, including Eri, who was being held by her Anan, watched from outside the operating theater window as Recovery Girl arranged the device carefully. It was calculated as best it could be with limited data for a roughly time of three months. They didn’t want to come up short on the healing, as that would just undo all the natural healing that the woman had gone through at this point. So, without much precision being possible just yet, they’d erred on the side of going a bit too far. Something Crystal Haze had been cheery enough about, admitting she wouldn’t have minded if they went for a whole year or two.
“Alright. Device is in position and charged. Miss 2B, the sensors are ready?”
2B, hovering in the room in their most advanced Sensor Pod, designed to have every instrument for QE detection they could think of stuffed in it, spoke from its speaker.
“All instruments are recording, Recovery Girl. You may begin when ready.”
The Heroine, looking good in just her 40s now after another few more ‘accidental’ exposures to Eri’s Quirk that Izumi had suspicions about, nodded firmly.
“Beginning activation. Three, two, one…”
The Healing Device lit up, glowing with the effects of Rewind. The energy was successfully directed to all land on Crystal Haze, one of the more important features of the vaguely gun-like device. More like a radar gun with a concave disk that looked a bit like a satellite dish worked around it, that dish directed all the energy of the Device forward in a broad cone. One that fully encompassed Crystal Haze’s body. She grunted, but it was at the oddness of the sensation, rather than pain, from what Izumi had heard about the effects. After just a few seconds, an arm burst out of her bare shoulder, rapidly reconstructing itself to what it had once been. The light continued for a second or two longer, somewhat humorously causing Crystal Haze to lose her tan, the woman apparently having gained it at some point in that extra month.
Somehow, as the light faded and she flexed her restored hand in awe, Izumi didn’t think she was going to complain about needing to sunbathe a bit, again. Smiling broadly, she turned to Eri, to see the little girl absolutely beaming in her adoptive mother’s arms.
“Well, Eri. Looks like you just became one of the world’s finest healers! Why, you’re positively a Hero already, just from what you’ve done today, not to mention helping All Might and others.”
Those sparkling, happy eyes met Izumi’s…and then the little girl was somehow out of her mother’s arms and hugging her. Blinking at how the little girl had practically seemed to teleport, Izumi hugged her back, her own cheeks aching in a huge smile. They’d need to do a lot more testing, and even after that, carefully select who to heal. Despite Overhaul’s experiments expanding her reserves, Eri was young and had significant limits to how much energy she could safely produce with her Quirk. But this was still a hell of an accomplishment. Better yet, she could see how ecstatically happy it made Eri to be able to help. Something that was, in and of itself, worth it all on its own…
… … … … … …
A/N: Annnnnnd we're back! This story got downgraded to a 'when it wins the monthly poll' slot after Halfway Broken trounced it in a popularity poll. I admit, I was a bit shocked that it took this long to win the monthly poll after that -_-. Still, it won for November, so an update is here!