MHA: Exchange

"Ughh. What happened?" Jugram began, holding his head as he awoke.

Looking around, he found himself alone in a room with Yuto once again, but this time, the door was kept closed. He briefly wondered if it was locked but decided there was no reason to test it. He needed to focus on his previous breakdown instead. It had been all-consuming at the moment, but now it was back to being dormant within him.

His first instinct was to call what had happened an emotional attack from some kind of quirk. Jugram was intimate with anxiety and stress from his previous life and had never experienced something even close to that level at his worst. While he had never encountered something as heinous as what he had experienced in the village before, he had mostly come to terms with the events before leaving.

Of course, an incident like that will stay with someone for the rest of their life, but this "panic attack" felt different. It had come on too suddenly, only starting to show its sign after the old woman rejected his attempts to trade for her quirk. However, it was possible that the stress of seeing many people die before his eyes was just too much for him to process, and all that emotion came crashing back down on him all at once. 

Yet, Jugram couldn't stop the nagging feeling of wrongness with the experience. Those were all his true feelings and emotions, although they were usually buried under his waking rationality and mental fortitude. He was in touch with his emotions enough to know those thoughts and feelings were honest, but it all felt off.

"Did the old woman use an emotion-based quirk on us, and it worked too well?" Jugram whispered to himself, "She didn't know we had just come from a traumatic experience and perhaps underestimated its effects."

Thinking back to that interaction, it was only during it that his frustration grew out of control, which was highly unusual. He was mature and stable enough not to be too bothered by rejection, and his pitch with the old woman had been off from the start anyway, so he wasn't surprised it had failed.

Plus, the heightened emotions were affecting Yuto, too! Jugram thought. Yuto had teared up during the talk, but that could also be explained rationally. The boy had just lost his family, friends, and pretty much everyone he had ever known. It would be more concerning if he didn't cry or show emotion. Still, the whole situation had him doubting everything, but he took a deep breath and centered himself. 

"One step at a time," Jugram said as he calmed his raging mind, "It doesn't matter what happened or what didn't. We need to keep pushing forward. I still have plenty of time to find all the answers I will ever need."

With that, his resolve strengthened again, but he could still feel the latent emotions sloshing around deep within his mind. He would need to deal with them again, most likely keep dealing with them for the rest of his life, but they were calmed for now. 

Just as Jugram fully calmed himself, the door revealed the female police officer, Akane Kobayashi. Following her was a male police officer who looked like a pig. Not to say that he was fat and pink. He was a pig. He had a large snout and dark, beady eyes that were uncomfortable to look directly into. They seemed to be mid-discussion as they entered. 

"I just don't get why the chief would reassign me this late into the process. I already have a bag packed for the drive to the city." Akane began.

"I have no idea what the chief is thinking either, Kobayashi. It's probably to give me the gruntwork since I'm newer to the post while you get to work on the investigation." Officer Pig, as Jugram now thought of the man, said.

"Maybe I should call him just to see what is going on," she began, but Officer Pig stopped her.

"I know you aren't happy about this development, but angering the Chief wouldn't be good for either of us." Officer Pig argued.

"I'm worried about you, too. This is a delicate job..." She began.

"Are you saying I can't handle it?" Officer Pig asked, seemingly offended.

"No, that's not what I meant..." Akane began.

"Then we'll see how well I perform this task." Officer Pig said.

 "Alright," Akane agreed, clearly trying to alleviate the tension before turning to Jugram and a now awake Yuto. "Hello, boys. There has been a slight change of plan. Officer Buta here will take you to Musutafu."

"Your last name is pig?" Yuto couldn't help but comment, looking at the officer.

"My parents thought that it was a charming name," Officer Pig said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Well, are you boys ready to go?" Akane asked, "We already had to delay here due to the...incident, but everything should turn out fine."

"We're ready," Jugram agreed.

Then, as the two boys got ready, Officer Pig and Akane had another discussion that seemed to end with her being ushered out of the room. Once she was out, Officer Pig turned and helped them finish packing up their meager belongings before beginning to lead them away from the room. 

On their way toward the desk, surprisingly, they saw the old woman from before, supported by a wheelchair with her tank of oxygen strapped to the side. She seemed just as surprised to see them, and a small smile started to emerge on her face before it died as she turned to Officer Pig, who didn't seem to notice the old woman. Before they could pass, the old woman called out to them. 

"What do you have to do with these boys? Officer Pig asked, examining the woman.

"These two wandered into my room earlier, and I may have been a bit too harsh with them, so I wanted to apologize." she began, evenly looking back at the officer, but Jugram noticed that one of her hands was shaking.

Is she afraid that we told the police that she used her quirk on us? Jugram wondered, but that didn't make any sense because he wasn't even sure that was what happened. It didn't make sense for her to be afraid or concerned about Officer Pig, but maybe she just had bad experiences with the police. He just shrugged and ignored the detail.

After he shook his head and refocused on the conversation Office Pig was speaking with a slightly exasperated voice.

"Fine, I will use the bathroom quickly while this lady apologizes. Please stay here so there are no more delays when I return." He said before moving off toward the bathroom.

"There is no need to apologize. What you said was ri-" Jugram began, only to be cut off by the old woman.

"I was going to apologize for being harsh, but that's not what's important now. The man you are with is dangerous." She said, catching both boy's attention immediately.

"How so?" Jugram asked cautiously.

"Trade me my quirk, and you'll see." she said quickly, "Hurry."

"I'll trade you this paperclip," Jugram said, taking one from the reception desk next to them, "In exchange, I get your Quirk Storage, Quirk, and experience using it. Do we have a deal?"

"Yes, we have a deal." She said, then sat back heavily, beginning to cough as Jugram felt a new quirk take root inside his body.

Immediately, he felt sick to his stomach from the situation with Officer Pig. He couldn't put anything specific to justify the feeling, but he knew something terrible would happen if they went with him. He looked back to the old woman who had recovered enough to say a few words through the coughs.

"Quirk...Threat...Detection," She said between hacking coughs that caused nearby caretakers to rush to her aid.

"Thank you," Jugram said solemnly, turning and running toward the exit. 

Yuto was on his heels, easily able to keep pace due to his superhuman strength. 

"Go get Officer Kobayashi," Jugram called out, allowing Yuto to begin speeding away forward. 

The quirk was pretty simple, probably due to being for an older generation with less complicated quirks on average, but it was still potent. He didn't know exactly what would happen if Officer Pig got them, nor what his plans were for them, but Jugram didn't particularly want to find out. 

As he ran with all he had, the new quirk triggered once more like a siren in his mind. Then, a moment later, there was another surge of emotion inside him, like what he had experienced just before his panic attack. So it is someone's quirk, but whose? he realized, turning to throw a glance over his shoulder, but there were only seemingly regular people looking at him in confusion as he ran.

He quickly focused back on running as the emotions swelled within him. Now that he knew this was an attack from an outside influence, the force with which the emotions were dredged up was greatly lessened. He was quickly able to brush them off as he finally burst out and into the parking lot, seeing Yuto far ahead of him, stopping a police cruiser from exiting the lot. 

Jugram took off in that direction, but a few seconds later, Officer Pig burst from the door and shouted after him.

"Where do you boys think you are going? Come back here." 

Jugram ignored the call and rushed toward Akane's cruiser which was now stopped as she stepped out and talked to Yuto. Jugram didn't know precisely what Yuto said, but Akane's face immediately snapped in their direction, and she pulled the radio from within her car out and started speaking. 

Finally, Jugram made it and stopped beside Yuto panting heavily. Officer Pig stopped a fair distance away and watched silently as Akane spoke into the radio, her voice shaking a little.

"Okay, I'm putting you through to the chief on an emergency channel now. Over." A voice crackled through the radio.

"Cheif, did you send Officer Buta to take over my post of transferring the two boys to Musutafu? Over," she asked into the radio.

After a few seconds, a confused voice crackled back, "Officer Buta? What are you talking about? Nobody I have ever heard of has that name."