Chapter Text
Kusuke was testing one of his inventions on Saiki again.
It was another attempt at removing Saiki’s powers. Kusuke had done the math and devised a new and improved way of doing things. It involved more than the small limiters, which had proven too weak to contain and eradicate his ESP. Instead, it required his lab, built deep underground, to continue with the process. That’s why Kusuke brought Saiki all the way down to his mad scientist lair to test it out.
The problem is… Saiki doesn’t know what happened after that.
Well, to be more specific, he doesn’t even remember how he was convinced to enter the lab in the first place. Kusuke always has weird tricks up his sleeve. Saiki wouldn’t go anywhere near his machines without full disclosure of its functions. But he doesn’t remember anything at all about that period of time. Nada. Zilch. All that comes up is a blank slate. Like someone had wiped his memory clean off.
Which leads him to the confusion that is sitting in an alleyway, without his limiters or glasses, and butt-naked.
“Ugh…” he couldn’t help but grimace.
It was embarrassing, sure. Never would Saiki have guessed that his omnipotence wouldn’t be able to avoid such a shameful situation. Bare for just anyone walking by to see, it went against all of his instincts to remain average and invisible. He would immediately remedy this situation, of course, if it weren’t for a bone-deep sluggishness throughout his whole body.
Even thinking was slow and arduous for him. Opening his eyes, moving his limbs, or even twitching his fingers felt like a monumental effort. His consciousness flickered on and off for an indeterminate amount of time. It might’ve been pitiful, if the person in his position wasn’t an all-powerful psychic who could rival god. How the great have fallen.
The alleyway stank of piss and grime. Angled away from the street and barely shined on by the moonlight, it took a few hours before someone with enough empathy found and checked in on him.
“Hello? Can you hear me? Uh, please wake up…!” the civilian kept panicking.
He was shaken a few times to wake up. Only when he remained unresponsive did the civilian decide to call medical services.
The lights and blaring sounds grated on his ears. But even then, he was powerless when strong arms picked him up and onto a stretcher. Feeling the car drive on, Saiki’s consciousness flickered one last time before shutting off.
He really hoped Kusuke wasn’t behind all of this. If he was? Well, it’s safe to say he doesn’t have a brother anymore.
It wasn’t uncommon to see people without an ID being brought into Jaku General Hospital. Homeless people, beggars, and those who can’t afford a healthy life often collapse and are sent here by worried civilians. If it was any other medical institution, the sheer amount of sick people who need free treatment would eat away at their funds. Usually, free medical treatment is unsustainable. Or downright disgusting in its quality. It’s a dog eat dog world and some things thrive better as ideals.
…That is, if Jaku General Hospital was stingy and lacking in funds.
Dr. Ujiko Daruma, chairman of Jaku General Hospital, is a generous and brilliant man. When the hospital was built, the quality of treatments for patients boosted its prestige. And now, it has the reputation to instill admiration and respect in people.
Which is how he was able to open free treatment for the desperate and the sickly. Specifically those with no family, support, or immediate ways of paying their medical bills. Combining the public’s support as well as funds from the government, Dr. Ujiko Daruma successfully opened his services for those in need.
Their admission criteria usually prioritized the elderly, children, women, men in that order and anyone who’s in a critical state. Anyone who looks like a threat or a villain is usually reported to the police before ever stepping foot in the hospital. They treated less than capable patients, not wayward villains.
Which is exactly where Saiki has found himself in. As a minor with no ID, and reported in a concerning physical state, he was easily accepted into the hospital.
The quality of the hospital’s free treatment was far better than what one would expect. With that, Saiki recuperated as police quickly tried to identify him or his guardians’ whereabouts. He remained unresponsive as days passed, and police struggled to figure out where exactly he spawned from.
That is, until Dr. Ujiko Daruma came to survey the situation.
“Doctor! Checking in on the patients again?” an employee greeted him.
“Yes.” Dr. Ujiko Daruma responded in kind.
As the chairman, it wasn’t rare to see him inspect the services he helped to form. It was expected, almost awe-inspiring to see him care so much about his patients. As if they couldn’t ask for a better chairman, the hospital staff usually did their utmost for Dr. Ujiko Daruma. No one suspected or stopped him whenever he roamed around patient’s rooms and kept track of everyone in critical condition. It’s simply his kind soul, after all.
Well, if only they knew.
Dr. Ujiko Daruma, real name Garaki Kyuudai, is always on the lookout for new subjects or biological material. It paid to have a well-established hospital. Heroes with decent quirks were always flocking to his hospital. Abundant and ripe for him to take, Dr. Garaki Kyuudai made sure to be updated on exactly how many people were in critical condition. And, by extension, ready for him to snatch away from the morgue.
But, of course, he couldn’t just kill people as he liked. It would reflect poorly on the hospital’s reputation. An artificially induced brain aneurysm was easy and almost impossible to leave a trail. But do it enough times and people will start to get suspicious. Dr. Garaki Kyuudai wasn’t amateur enough to let that happen. So, when in need of more material, he usually looked to the people receiving free treatment. AKA, lonely, pathetic people with no one who’ll miss them when they disappear.
They’re usually on the brink of death anyway. Pushing the tipping point just a little bit was no problem for him.
“Hehe…” he laughed to himself.
That’s why he came to this side of the hospital in the first place. He needed more material. And, coincidentally, there enters a certain pink-haired boy with no ID and no sign of waking up anytime soon. In other words, perfect for him to harvest.
“John Does” or unidentified people usually wake up and go their merry way or are identified by police within the week at most. Our pink-haired John Doe has been unresponsive for over a week. No missing people reports, no one to claim him. It was obvious, he was alone! If he dies, staff will just sigh and remark, ‘he was too young.’
Dr. Garaki Kyuudai didn’t hesitate to kill him immediately. He didn’t need a breathing human, he just needed the body. A body with fresh, young, and healthy flesh would do good in his lab. He just needed to do things discretely.
Which is how Saiki woke up bound, blindfolded and powerless in a lab reminiscent of Kusuke’s.
“Are you awake? Well, aren’t you fascinating.” A deep yet old voice spoke to the right of him.
Saiki jerked his head to the source of the sound. With restrained movements, his mobility limited him from taking off the blindfold or even freeing himself. In fact, he was spread in an x-form of position while angled forward. His unstable footing led him to immediately tense and try to find some kind of stable hold. There was none.
“Hoo hoo! I can’t believe you fell right into my lap! Your quirks are so interesting, it’s a good thing you didn’t die when I killed you… you are so much more valuable alive.”
This is bad.
On Saiki’s wrists, ankles, neck, and torso lay chains attached with choking tightness. Even worse, no amount of his strength could break free from them. No thoughts came in from his surrounding environment, and no x-ray vision could see through his blindfold. It was as if he became normal, average. Did Kusuke’s attempts work?
‘Who are you?’ Saiki broadcasted his thoughts.
The Doctor didn’t respond. Saiki could hear him typing into a keyboard and shuffling around.
‘Answer me.’
Alas, still no answer came. It was unclear if the Doctor was ignoring him on purpose or not. There’s a chance his telepathy wasn’t working too. Saiki could only confirm his hypothesis by speaking verbally. Which is a privilege he doesn’t want to bestow onto this weird old guy.
Wait… oh no. Has he become a test subject right now? Last he remembered, an ambulance picked him up. Anything could be suspicious in a hospital. His biology, his bloodwork… heck, even just opening his eyes to check for a concussion could petrify the unsuspecting doctor.
Though, considering the strength of his powers, it might be that none of that happened.
“Ahahaha! I finally figured it out! Ooh… after I crack you open, I’ll make all of my children as magnificent as you. Just you wait, my brilliance is an equal match to your greatness… heh…” The old guy suddenly exclaimed.
What…? Are we sure this isn’t just Kusuke?
“Hmm, can you not speak? Your vocal chords and brain activity are normal… Or, is it because you’re used to speaking telepathically?”
…If he isn’t Kusuke, Saiki’s in for some deep shit. The Doctor waited for him to respond before speaking again.
“Ah, let me encourage you a little bit. Here, maybe this will persuade you!”
At that, Saiki felt a searing pain come up from his left thigh. It was so much more pain than he was used to. Paired with the inactivity of his powers, his body reacted and hurt in the same way as an average body. Which was not good for the pain tolerance of a certain psychic.
“Agh..!” Saiki couldn’t help but react and grit his teeth. Crackling could be heard from the rod-like object that tapped onto his thigh. Almost like a cattle prod, electricity coursed through him in droves.
He tried to keep his composure, but it was futile. His whole body was trembling and the sense of helplessness throughout his body didn’t help. Still, he’s not going to follow the Doctor's orders anytime soon. Saiki may have an average body now, but his mental strength is still comparable to his psychic strength. Saiki won’t be the first to break.
“Hmm, why don’t you tell me where you came from? I can’t have another doctor make Nomus as high-quality as you... I'm supposed to be the best!”
When Saiki kept his mouth shut, another course of electricity hit him.
Well, it seems he’s not going anywhere in the near future. At least he wasn’t naked anymore.
Saiki has encountered many nuisances in his life, but not to the extent where months pass by without any improvement whatsoever.
Well, there’s a first time for everything.
Saiki kept careful vigilance to not reveal anything… though it didn’t seem to have any effect. The Doctor was able to look through his genetic material and figure out all of his powers. Or, in his words, ‘quirks’.
“You have so many quirks, almost as many as All for One! Haha! My masterpieces could learn a lot from you...”
Well, those were his exact words. Saiki didn’t say anything back. What stood out was the Doctor’s casual acknowledgement that he had powers. As if it was normal. He seemed more fascinated by the fact that he had multiples of them, not by its mere existence. He should’ve given that implication more thought, to be honest.
Instead, he was more interested in what he had to say about the state of his powers. Contrary to what he first thought, it seems he hadn’t lost his psychic powers. The chains around his limbs had the same mechanic as his limiters. Or, at least, a less effective and weaker version of his limiters.
“At first, I wanted to just knock you out for my own convenience. But then I thought this is the best time to test out my new invention! Your chains here are my new and improved quirk suppressants!”
Ew.
Instead of connecting to his neurons and weakening the neural signals that activate his powers, these chains had a more physical function. As in, it stops his powers from manifesting externally. It was more like a dome covering a speaker to reduce the sound, where his limiters had functioned by unplugging or changing the speaker’s settings to achieve the same results.
‘Quirk suppressants,’ the Doctor said. His powers were still there. Just, significantly dampened. Just enough to keep him alive.
Saiki didn’t even know what he looked like. The Doctor had conducted many tests from the time he first woke up until now. Many of them gave him excruciating pain to ‘test his limits,’ as he says. Carving into his body to test the rate of his already weak regeneration, the Doctor left Saiki bloody more often than not.
Still, he didn’t like it whenever the old guy got up close and personal into his space to attach sensors or the like. It invaded too much of his space.
Considering his recent findings, it may spell worse news for him.
“You’re like a cockroach! You’re still healthy even when you’ve been starving this whole time… I can’t believe your quirk factor is still in effect.”
Saiki didn’t like this guy’s tone, but he was right. It seems he’s gradually regaining energy from the atmosphere. And it’s combating the limiters.
Well, it’s a little weird, but this is how Kusuke worded it. Way back when they first tried to figure out his powers.
‘Imagine that you’re like a battery, and the world is full of ambient energy. Mostly in the air. Since you were born with the ability to absorb this energy, you can just keep absorbing more and more of the Earth’s ambient psychic energy. That’s how you're so strong. You wouldn’t be able to rival god off of mere mortal food, after all. The law of energy conservation and all that.’
And thus far, his ‘quirk suppressants’ stopped energy from coming out of him, not the other way around.
“Hm, we can’t have you getting any stronger. I’ll just make you your own private room!” the Doctor said.
As if he could read his mind, the old guy figured out exactly what was happening. Within the day, germanium walls erected themselves on all six sides of him. The same material as his chains.
Good grief.
See, even if he was being limited by these ‘quirk suppressants’, Saiki should still be able to free himself. The suppressants weren’t as effective as Kusuke’s, and his powers should be strong enough to at least do that.
Saiki’s mind couldn’t help but wander to the time he woke up in the alleyway. Even then, he felt incredibly weak. It might be that Kusuke’s attempts were semi-successful, and most of his fuel has been expelled out of him. But that didn’t explain how he woke up on the side of a random street.
Increasingly, the situation started to look hopeless for Saiki. Unless Kusuke or some third party busts him out and exposes the Doctor’s creepy experiments, Saiki is truly, devastatingly helpless. There’s not much that he can do. He can’t even see the guy’s face.
Well, he spoke too soon.