My Swarm Academia: Call Of The Void

"You, you can-"

"Give myself new Quirks, yes." Kai watched the flames dancing as his fingers batted them back and forth over his palms. "But it's a slow process. A dangerous one. About once a month, I get my DNA shifted. Some things added, others changed. Unfortunately, human DNA is a mess. Things are interconnected in strange ways. This is the result of about seven years of work, and this little candle flame is the best I can do. It's a complicated process for me to change my DNA for a Quirk. I can't risk dying or accidentally turning my Quirk off and losing for good. I need the opening it provides."

"What do you mean?" Deku asked.

"Nobody wants to believe that I exist because they would rather the Clan not exist. But if I can keep my Quirk and reveal myself to the world in the near future, I can find them and eradicate them. Besides that reason, if I could just give myself every Quirk I've ever run into, I wouldn't need to involve anyone else." Kai's expression darkened, and the flames went out.

Deku was frightened by the look on his face, but as quickly as it darkened, Kai returned to cheer.

"That's enough about me, though. I'd need some time to be sure, but I have two ideas on what's wrong with what All Might told you.

"The first is that you are thinking about this as a muscle that needs to be worked on, and while that is not totally incorrect, it isn't near enough to really get you anywhere. Some things need to be corrected, but that will take some time.

"The other thing is that you are popping your body like a balloon. This, I think I can help with more quickly, but it's still something where I'd need some demonstrations and such to change your perception of it."

"What do you mean, a Quirk isn't like a muscle? It's a part of your body, right?" This was common knowledge, wasn't it?

"Yes, but actually, no. E=mc^2 says otherwise. But, I think that that is a lecture for another day. You go run along home; I'll work on your training plan. Today was just for this test." Kai stood up and pulled Deku up too. "You have a good starting point."

Deku ran off to the locker room to change and go home. Kai watched him leave, and then walked over to the building that stood by the field. On Monday, some of the Quirk Apprehension tests had been carried out here. But inside the building was nothing of importance. Barely hiding around the corner had been a third person interested in Kai's teaching.

"Shoto, if you wanted, you could have joined in," Kai said.

"How did you know I was here?" Todoroki said. He wasn't terribly surprised, but he had thought he was far enough away to go unnoticed.

"Ayako told you what she knows of my origins. I'm one paranoid bastard. You want to go and get a snack? I'm feeling a snack… there's a Mister Donuts by the station." Kai gestured and turned back towards the school.

"So…" Todoroki had a hard time figuring out how to talk with Kai. "Were you telling the truth before?"

���You're going to have to be specific. But probably. I don't make a habit of lying. Jokes, yes, but I try to make it obvious then," Kai said with a smile. Then he turned more serious. "However, I suspect you mean things about your family."

Todoroki nodded. "Did your mom really know mine?"

"Of course. And then after your mom's 'engagement,' though I hesitate to apply the word, she started working every job she could to send your mom to America. From what she told me, just before her own mishap that led to me, my mom had gotten passports, new identities, and everything else you need to start a new life." Kai sighed. "Too bad the overwork made it easy for my mom to be abducted herself, despite her Quirk."

There was a short moment of silence before Kai shook his head and forced a smile.

"Anyways, she said that I would probably run into you at UA, so I should offer my help. How may I be of service? Assassination?"

"Are you really that eager to kill my father?"

"Well, I��ve never really had a solid opponent." Kai shrugged. "Even when busting human trafficking rings, there wasn't much in the way of head-on fights. Hit, run, ambush, and only confront the last room of terrified bosses head on. And nothing is more terrifying than a wave of monsters coming after you relentlessly without regard for their own lives, so they were hardly fighting with coherent strength. It would take a frontal assault to take on someone with little to no conscience like Endeavor. Not as much in the way of psychological vulnerabilities as All Might. Or I could bomb him, but that's a lot of collateral damage."

"You think that he can be a hero without a conscience?" Todoroki asked, surprised. No matter how much he hated him, Endeavor was his father, and a hero.

"Can't say for sure, but if he is what my mom said, then he can't be far off. Could be it's just taking a nap. Still, I hope to be able to make my own judgement. Or, you could judge for me, and just let me deal with the fallout. Course, it would take some time to arrange.

"But," Kai held up a finger, "you can't just ask impulsively. It must be a controlled, calm decision. Give it time and spend now just trying to enjoy life. Hence, donuts. Oh!"

"What?"

"Nothing, it's nothing. Well, it might be something, but for now, it's just something I find funny," Kai said with a laugh. The changelings' work was going well. One of them sent a text to Ayako for Kai, directing her to check up on something.

"Anyways," Kai said, "What are your plans as a hero? What will it look like for Shoto Todoroki to be a great hero?"

"Uh-"

"Sorry, weird question. A good one, but weird nonetheless," Kai said with an awkward wave of his hands. He rested one on the collar on his neck as he continued. "With all the people we saved, my mom wanted to follow through as much as possible. Helped me to listen in on their therapy. Seemed like the question of what 'perfect,' 'normal,' or 'fine' looked like was an important one."

An awkward facepalm followed. "I didn't mean that you need therapy, but it's just how I ask that now. Wow. If it's not Ayako, I guess I don't know how to really talk with someone normally. Much easier to speak with authority or mockery than as an equal."

"… Tell me, is anything real about you? You seem more like an actor than anything. I'd almost even think that you arranged to get kicked by your sister for the sake of acting."

"Perceptive, aren't you?" Kai was impressed. "Yes, that was acting, but why wouldn't it be real? People have many facets, and I got tired of hiding any of mine a long time ago." He yawned. "I just show all of mine at once, and it looks like acting. Yes, I arranged for Ayako to kick me in front of all of you, but that was to show that I can be reasoned with, because that is true about me."

"You know, that makes you seem like a psychopath," Todoroki said. Still, he had a smile on his face. This honest crazy guy was better than dishonest people who tried to act nice.

"High functioning sociopath, at your service," Kai said with a bow and a smile, not even breaking his stride. "First order of service for you, getting you some donuts."