MHA: Exchange

Jugram awoke with a groan. It felt as though he had undergone the most intense workout of his life, and his muscles still screamed with protest. It was hard to lift his head from the bed, let alone get up. So, he just laid there with his eyes closed. He remained like that until he heard a door open nearby. 

Opening his eyes, he was met with the sterile white of a doctor's office. The bright light in the room made him squint, but he fought the pain in his muscles and eyes, turning to observe his surroundings. 

He wasn't in a typical hospital room since no hospitals were close to the village. Instead, he was in a small white room with a large bed and two chairs at his bedside. His grandfather, Ren Orihara, occupied the first while a boy around Jugram's age sat in the second, holding the same large rat from earlier. All three were asleep but awoke as the doctor approached with purposely loud footfalls.

'At least out here in the sticks, I don't need to worry about Doctor Garaki,' he thought, looking at the local doctor, Dr. Otoribashi. The man was tall, with dark hair shot through with grey and slightly unsettling eyes. Apparently, that was a side effect of his quirk, Severity. The quirk allowed him to see what was wrong with somebody, but not in great detail. He mainly used it to tell if the patient's case was urgent enough to call for aid from the hospital.

Ren rose quickly, shaking off his weariness. For an old man, he was still very active and able-bodied, so it wasn't challenging for him. Before looking at the doctor he looked down, noticing the boy and rat in the opposite chair. 

"Go on home, Yuto. As you can see, Jugram is fine. When he's recovered, I'll send him over, and you three can play." Ren said with a sigh. 

With a quick nod, the boy, Yuto, looked over at Jugram, who gave a thumbs up in return, even though it hurt to do so. He left with a quiet "Get better soon," leaving only the adults and Jugram in the room.

"How is he?" Ren asked finally.

"He'll be fine, just sore for a day or two. It was a rough quirk manifestation, just like his moth—" the doctor began, but Ren cut him off with a sharp look.

"Can you tell us anything about his quirk?"

"Given the matching manifestation...erhh...difficulties, I would say that we can expect his quirk to be similar. It will most likely have something to do with enforcing rules on others, but some aspects of his father's quirk could be mixed in." Dr. Otoribashi said uncomfortably.

"Thank you, Jugo."

"What exactly was my mother's quirk?" Jugram asked suddenly, surprising the two adults.

"Ughh... I don't-" The doctor began.

"We'll talk about it at home," Ren said, suddenly looking much older.

"Don't experiment with your quirk without going to a more specialized quirk-testing facility first. I could be wrong and it could be entirely different to both parent's quirks." Dr. Otoribashi added, finally sounding natural once more.

"Understood," Jugram said, getting to his feet with a wince.

After that, Ren and Jugram left the doctor's office in comfortable silence. Ren hadn't directly asked how he was doing but had picked Jugram up and carried him out. The old man was severe and strict but not uncaring. He didn't express his feelings much, which, from what Jugram had heard, was very much a trait that ran in the family.

However, when the two of them reached home, it was clear that there was going to be a talk as soon as his grandfather led him into the living room. Ren placed Jugram on a chair before sinking down onto the couch with a sigh.

"I think it's time we talked about your parents," the old man began. "I would have put this off until you were older, but you are mature for your age—just like your mother."

"If it's painful to talk about, all I need to know is what their quirks are/were," Jugram said.

"Well, your mother's quirk was called Contract. It allowed her to produce contracts that couldn't be broken once signed. Everything was fine at first, but her quirk made her obsess over control of everyone around her." Ren looked like he wanted to continue but shook his head somberly, "Your father could switch two objects that he considered to be of equivalent value."

"So I probably have one or a combination of these powers?" Jugram asked, sensing that there was a bad end to the story about his parents.

While he was curious about his parents to a certain degree, it didn't matter that much. He could honestly take the information or leave it. His parents no longer matter. He has never met them and they have no impact on his life.

"Most likely." The old man said, "While I'm inclined to agree with Dr. Otoribashi about not testing your quirk at home, in this case, I think it's safe. Try and see what you can do."

"You want to see if I have the same quirk as my mother." I guessed, "You want to prevent the same bad ending she had if I have her quirk."

"Yes, but I hope that you don't have her quirk. It made her...unstable."

"Well, let's see then," Jugram said.

He sat silently for a moment and felt inside himself. He had heard Rumi talk endlessly about what it was like to use her quirk the first time, so he knew roughly what to do. He reached deep inside himself and felt something new inside. It was like a wellspring of power, but at the same time, not. The spring didn't offer him any direct power but opportunities. 

Reaching out, Jugram touched the power within him, but nothing happened. He tilted his head in confusion, reaching out and grasping the power with a firmer grip, but still, nothing happened. 

It was only when he opened his eyes and looked at his grandfather that he saw the application of his quirk. Ren pulsed with potential under the vision of Jugram's quirk, a potential that could be taken. So, he reached out with a small hand and touched his grandfather's hand with a curious expression. 

Instantly, he felt all different aspects of his grandfather—namely his quirk, experience using the quirk, and ability to hold a quirk. Beyond those three, he could take hundreds of thousands of individual memories, but when he reached out to them, a wall blocked him. He felt that there was an extra step that he would need to take before gaining access to any of these aspects.

He blinked in surprise once he felt all these aspects of his Grandfather become clearer. 'Do I have a quirk like All for One?' he thought internally but quickly dismissed it. 'No, I can't forcefully take anything, but a lot is available to me. Is this some kind of information-gathering quirk? Also, what is this about the capacity to store a quirk?' Jugram thought, his mind racing wildly.

His quirk's potential was insane, but he had no idea how to use it. However, he quickly remembered his parents' quirks that his grandfather had just told him and got an idea. 'Could this be the key to accessing all these aspects of my Grandfather?' he wondered as he decided to act on his ideas. 

"Grandpa, I think I get how my quirk works, but I'll need to test it right now," he said.

"Aren't you testing it now?" he asked.

"No, there is another step to it," Jugram said distractedly before he grabbed a pillow and held it up. "How about you trade me your quirk and the ability to store a quirk in exchange for this pillow?"

"Huh?" Ren asked dumbly before he audibly swallowed, clearly catching onto the significance of what he had just heard, and said, "Yes."

Instantly, the pillow Jugram held disappeared and reappeared in his grandfather's hands, but that was the least of his worries. All his attention was focused internally. First, it felt like something had been constructed internally, a vessel to hold something. Before he could consider further, he felt something surge into his body, and it brought a new awareness along with it. 

He stumbled and fell back at the exact moment that his grandfather blinked rapidly. While his grandson fell over, Ren grappled with the sudden loss of his powers and the awareness that came with them. All the knowledge of the composition and amount of blood in his body vanished, along with the connection that allowed him to control his blood at a thought. He had held his quirk so long that he had forgotten a time before he could innately feel all the blood in his body.

The sudden loss was jarring, but he quickly focused on his grandson who was sitting back stiffly, undoubtedly dealing with the overload of information that came along with Blood Manipulation. 

"Jugram," Ren called, "I'll trade you this pillow for everything you just took to return to me." 

"Deal," Jugram croaked, straining under the flood of information.

Then everything snapped back to normal, as both grandson and grandfather heavily fell back into their chairs, panting.