"That's not good, kiddo. Not good at all." claimed the old heroine in charge of Felix's quirk training and medical knowledge.
"Which means...?"
"You told me that you skipped a grade so that you were already in your third year in your medical school, but your knowledge and grade have obviously regressed. No offense, though, for someone who hasn't practiced for 4 years, it's reasonable."
Felix thought he didn't have to spend so much time with Recovery Girl to catch up on his medical and biology classes. Before he could fully understand how the smallest facets of his quirk worked and how to use it for good or bad, he had to review everything he had already learned and more to avoid putting himself and other people at risk as he did in the past. Doing bad things requires knowledge. In addition to that, he also has additional training he attends daily… Dodging, riposting, kicking, punching, all in one, or one by one. But if Rumi couldn't come to help him because of her job, like almost every day since she got called by the Hero Commission, he had to train only with Iwao Oguro and Nighteye, forming him to a different kick style to what he used to work with her.
Furthermore, without her, he no longer had access to her super-hormones, so his body was no longer receiving the effects of her rabbit-like power, putting him on an equal footing against his two coaches. The day he borrows Rumi's super-hormones again, he will be much more powerful and agile than before, and then he could appreciate his progress with pride. Still, of course, he knew that wasn't enough to beat in a 1 vs. 1 an experienced villain or heroes trying to kill him with their quirk, especially if its ice, fire, or just about any quirk or weapon that could make it possible to hit him from a distance. Medic or not, his goal would require meeting people who rub shoulders with dangers, so he needed to do the same. To get there, he still had ten months to go; focusing mainly for the moment on his reflexes, speed, and quirk was the way to go, in his opinion. Rumi and Chiyo shared his opinion, but this wasn't the case with his two other coaches, who were giving him a hard time to force him to listen to them.
"Kiddo! Are you listening to me!?" Chiyo angrily inquired. "I asked you if you thought about using your quirk to learn and memorize faster. You didn't answer this question last time."
"Thanks to a better circadian cycle? I've done that, yeah. I also remember studying neurotransmitters when I was in college, but it's a little too distant now."
"Mhm… I researched and noted things from my old books during the week, so the discussion we had a few days ago was indeed fruitful. Some hormones like the growth hormones can trigger and accelerate pluripotent stem cells' production like we thought, for example, mesenchymal or neural stem cells. Accompanied by the production of galanin and osteocalcin, with a good dosage, of course, you can theoretically develop your neuronal and maybe physical capacities at the same time with only a few hormones."
"So I was right about boosting everything we talked about?" asked Felix, raising an eyebrow. "Upgrade my sense organs, enhancing my reaction speed, better memory storage, multi-thought processing, and all this shit?"
"Your language!" scolded the nurse giving him a cane swipe.
"My bad, my bad..."
"Kids nowadays!" Chiyo sighed while coming up with a concise summary of Felix's possible future skills. "But yeah, everything you said is in range as long as you know how to dose your hormones to get the right result. You can do the same thing with other people to some extent." she paused, trying to contain the joy of finding a young man willing to follow her path or at least learn from her. "And… you can even cure any kind of cancer with your quirk! Did you realize your potential and how much you can help people with it? I can help you succeed with this, but please don't go back to your old doing."
"Oh? Worrying for me, huh? Back then, I was only selfish; spending three years behind bars has taken away my desire to use people as guinea pigs, don't worry about it. I have other plans now." He said between lies and truths. Doing evil for evil's sake was not what he wanted, but sacrifices were necessary to achieve his goal wildly since he wouldn't succeed without opposition. And some fuckers earned what he had in mind for them.
"You really want to create your own pharmaceutical company, as you said last time?"
"Yes, with your help, I think it's worth a try, but it's only at the embryonic stage," he said with a friendly smile.
For the moment, the former prisoner only wanted to get rid of the Hero Commission and starting to meet people with strong quirks to borrow their hormones and start trying to conceive some vials filled only with some type of hormone; by doing this, he could isolate them and keep them in stasis through his quirk and inject them into syringes after he has managed to stabilize them. If he could produce injections that could give people enhanced capacity for just a short time or curing cancer or other illness, he was sure he would make a fortune and be pretty known.
However, he wanted to keep his quirk-boosting capacity a secret; otherwise, he would probably be envied by even more people, but this time ill-intentioned people.
Felix looked at the list of possible skills Chiyo gave him; the number of valuable ideas for his quirk written on it wasn't that significant since they were only at the beginning of their research, but that also confirmed his expectation and that the capacities he used in the past weren't so bad. At the same time, he was also grateful to Recovery Girl for her help and support... Even though he was a morally grey person, his heart told him to treat this old lady with respect and kindness for what she does; he had no reason to betray her trust. His goal wasn't to become some kind of cringe-ass dark lord but to shut the corrupted part of the government, no need to go against the people or the heroes to do that.
—So… I will soon have to leave to join Iwao and Rumi... I'd better read this here; it's too windy outside.
That was a bunch of raw ideas, but a lovely bunch of fuck*ng raw ideas with notes written everywhere on the paper and the drawing of a human body describing everything he needed to know how to handle his hormones even better. Felix laid his eyes on it and started to realize his quirk's real potential, and this even without the use of his system.
Activate, suppress, and overdose of specific genes, to enhance himself, like the myostatin genes, causing extremely well-developed muscle tissue and, with the help of some hormones, capped out and sized maximum myofibrillar muscle hypertrophy to be even tougher without looking like a bodybuilder. If used to perfection, even triggering dormant genes is possible, but they lacked information on how far this power could be used. Anyway, coupled with an improved reaction time, multi-thought, better sense, and an increased intelligence or analytical skill, this could be a deadly combo for any hand-to-hand fighter—the main issue with this being his agility and dexterity.
Enhance the amount of testosterone, insulin, GH, and estrogen to boost his healing factor and the mechanism of it while creating stem cells, reminiscent of Chiyo's quirk, but neither he nor she knew how much this capacity could be improved.
Strengthen and improve his immune system by forcing the bones and lymphatic system to produce more white cells and hormones related to homeostasis. Resisting deadly infection or poison might then be possible, mostly thanks to generating stem cells and thanks to a still theoretical process to create new lymph nodes...
Talking about pluripotent stem cells, it's also possible for him to create and trigger their production and resistance thanks to the GH and Vitamin D. In this case, re-kick-starting the development of some of his organs was possible by using this type of cells with genes and RNA—also activated by some hormones—, not an organ as potent as the original one, but a second nonetheless, like a second heart or brain. The same could be applied to his new lymph nodes and lymphatic system, his new veins and arteries, new brainstem and spinal cords, new everything, as long as his body tolerates it and it cannot be seen from the outside or felt by touch to avoid any potential issues.
At the bottom right-hand corner of the page was a small note: Paracrine BMPs family can help the metabolism a lot and maybe even regrow bones if triggered enough… I need more time to search on the paracrine, autocrine, and intracrine systems, all operating through or thanks to hormones.
And he could copy the quirk of others and even modify his body with it.
—Well… I didn't think all this was possible… and as I can use all these hormones on people, except super-hormones, I would be able to do to a lesser extent what is written here on patients or heroes. I've been following the training for more than a week now… but with everything I need to do, I guess I can say goodbye to my free time. At least I continue to work with Rumi and Kaoruko… Mt. Lady too if I pretend to like her-
"Oguro-san and Mirko, just send me a message," said Chiyo by stepping out of her seat. "Oguro-san is waiting for you like every day in the closed area just behind my office. As usual, go all out; no one can see you from here."
"They are early. Well... knowing Rumi, it's not surprising." he sighed by closing his eyelids. "Well, see you tomorrow, Mada-"
"Ah! I almost forgot to tell you; next week, UA will need me a lot more, so you won't be attending the quirk training with me. I would take this opportunity to tell the teachers and the principal about you, maybe they will want to meet you, someone with a quirk like yours can prevent them from getting into a lot of trouble with the students' parents… like almost every year at some point."
"You really want me to integrate into this school, huh?"
"You would be a nice addition to the staff. And the pay is probably two or three times better than the one given to you by the Hero Commission."
"Hmm... You had my curiosity; now you have my attention. How many bucks?"
"¥1,500,000 for the teachers, if I remember well. But as a medic, I earn a lil' more, around ¥3,000,000," she said thoughtfully. "I don't know how much that's worth in dollars, but this is much more money than any job can give you. Aside from popular heroes earning more."
"That's almost $23,000 per month, I think... Thats... quite a lot of money, indeed," he murmured, thinking about all the risk he was taking just to finally make less money than some teachers when he could be chilling as a doctor in a high school full of heroines and people with the most interesting quirks in the country. "Jesus…"
"Huh? Don't hear what you just said; my ears are too old for this... but just go before this rabbit heroine bombards me with text messages. I don't know why she's acting like this when it comes to you."
"Yeah... me neither, that can be quite bothersome."
He lied with a mischievous gaze, then finally said goodbye and left to join the two coaches of the day. Felix's level in combat was already growing, but against a former vigilante and hero with more than fifteen years of experience in hand-to-hand combat, he was struggling to keep up even with the help of his quirk, although Iwao no longer possesses his own, proving once again that with sharp and straightforward combat skills, one could destroy many obstacles... as long as one had the necessary experience to avoid and counter dangerous quirk, of course. But even Iwao would never go up against someone like Endeavor; you have to know where your limits are and how to counter someone who has a quirk that can obliterate you. That's what Felix was learning till now.
Of course, he also worked many different moves to remind him of the basics and polish what he already knew, such as uppercuts, overcuts, hooks-punches, straight-punches, and even some wrestling holds. Until now, beating Iwao in a simple boxing match was impossible. Too fast and unpredictable even though he's in his fifties, even Nighteye was surprised when they fought to show Felix how to adequately dodge different types of attacks-
"Yer late!" grumbled Rumi as she approached him; it was the first time he actually saw her like that, a little bit tired, with black circles under her eyes and without a proper smile.
"First of all, hello, and no, I'm not late. YOU are early," Felix said after shaking hands with Iwao. "You seem quite tired, though. I can stop by your apartment, you know. Increasing the quality of your sleep wouldn't be difficult."
"Like if they're going to allow me to accept that." She grunted, crossing her arms. "They have a grudge against ya on top of that for some reason… All this because ya defeated me, and now I still have to stay under their orders for a little more than a week. What a fucking disaster."
"That's a grumpy bunny we have here today." Felix mocked with a playful smile.
Rumi furrowed her eyebrows, denying the fact that her animal hormones and instinct asked her to do more than just save and protect people. Still, she wasn't here for that, and her grumpy and aggressive mood won't disappear till her needs are fulfilled. She was keeping a straight and smiling face all day long, but at the end of her shift, she just couldn't hold on any longer, and once at her apartment, it wasn't water that filled the bathtub.
Denial of her own desires and frustration caused her to leap forward towards her partner, ready to give him a violent heel kick.
"The fuck are you doing?!"
"Ya just fucking pisses me off, ya damn coward! Stop running!"
Iwao looked at the watch on his wrist and sighed when he saw that it was only 2:00 pm. All of Felix's mornings and lunchtime were spent with Chiyo, and in the afternoon, it was with him, the former vigilante, accompanied from time to time by Nighteye or Rumi on their days off. He should continue training until 5:30 pm before doing a half-hour stretching session...
It's going to be a long day for Felix.
"Here I come! I join Mirko!" yelled Iwao with a sadistic smile. "Today, we're doing endurance and dodging training. You better run fast, boy!"
Unfortunately for the former detainee, he didn't have access to Rumi's super-hormones; plus, he vowed not to use this hormone type during his training session with Iwao to really progress. He was going to have to "face" two enraged animals for three and a half hours. For the moment, he wasn't tired, but if it's going to be like this, as soon as Rumi stops being commanded by the Hero Commission, on top of everything else he has to do, he might end up collapsing from exhaustion. The secret for saving as much energy as possible was to learn how to dodge and parry any kind of blow because even the most brutal ones can be drifted away with the palm of a hand if placed well. Luckily, Felix had some experience in this field thanks to Nighteye, but he won't last forever.
They didn't stop all afternoon; it was terrific that Felix didn't even get a broken limb from all that between the start of training and the moment Iwao's watch rang to signal that it was 5:30 pm. During their fight, the former vigilante approached Felix to detect openings in his guard and punch him whenever he could, while Rumi had been continuously chasing him, jumping from wall to wall trying to kick him in the balls, hoping it would... alleviate her feelings and craving for him.
He had been able to avoid the most pernicious kick, but at the end of the day, his pain resistance had improved. She actually kicked him in the balls twice… not with full power, but this was enough to put any man to the ground in a lateral security position.
Nonetheless, Felix managed to bear with it.
"You both... are inhuman beasts…" panted Felix, lying on the ground while small droplet blood was dripping from his nose.
"I definitely feel better than before!" Rumi replied with a broad smile, her long eyelashes flickering as she looked at the one she had chosen; she squatted down to get closer to him and readjusted her hair, now tangled together. "There's nothing like learning on the job! The best and fastest way to learn! That's how I got to be strong, personally. So… don't be too upset with me for trying to crush yer eggs."
"I would hope to learn on the job differently if you know what I mean... I really feel like you don't want your reward."
"A reward?" asked Iwao, also exhausted but more because of his age than his lack of stamina.
"N-Nothing!" Rumi exclaimed, flattening her rabbit ears on her head. "We'd better stretch out and go home... Ya two are tired, and I also need to do something back home, so..." she continued, wiping the blood from Felix's nose with a handkerchief.
Unfortunately for the rabbit, the more she tried to bury the desire to be with Felix just for one night, without there being anything sexual, the more she couldn't stop thinking about him. She didn't know if this was love or her animal craving, but that's was unbearable. Even during the stretches, her head was too busy thinking and focusing about her womb to do the job properly; only fighting worked for her, but even the rabbit hero didn't have enough stamina to go on for ten hours… But it depends on ten hours of what.
—Darn me… I'm just going to explode if this goes on…
She looked at her companion's back, too busy thinking about his kendo and sword training that would begin after the weekend. He was already thinking about how tired he was going to be despite his abilities, and it was taking away all his desire; he just wanted to sleep... but maybe she could rekindle the flame.
Rumi instinctively grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her while Iwao was already inside his car on his way home. She gave him one of the sweetest glances he ever saw of her, like a pleading puppy.
"Would—would you like to come to my house…? Just for tonight, at least... The commission isn't hanging around for once, and... I don't want to be alone tonight..."