MHA: Exchange

The two boys took a quick glance around the quiet hallway before they hurried into the open hospital room. Inside, they saw an old woman lying on her bed, staring out the window beside her. An oxygen pump exhaled softly beside her every few seconds, filling the room with the white noise of working pumps. 

At their arrival, the old woman glanced over lazily, scratching absently at the clear tubes leading from the oxygen pump into her nose. She blinked repeatedly in confusion when she saw them standing a respectful distance away. For a moment, nothing happened. Jugram and Yuto stood still while the old woman stared at them confusedly. 

"Who are you two?" The old woman eventually asked sweetly, "Are you two lost?"

"No, Miss, we came in here on purpose." Jugram began, "We wanted to talk to you."

"Talk to me?" She asked.

"Yes. We have a proposal of sorts."

"About what?" she asked in amusement, a smile stretching across her wrinkled face, "I have no money for candy or snacks from the vending machine if that's what you two are wondering."

"Actually," Jugram said, "We would be trading. I don't want to bore you with the details, but-"

"He wants to trade you something in exchange for your quirk if you're not using it, that is." Yuto cut in. 

"My quirk?" she asked, her smile faded as her brows knit in confusion and concern.

With an exaggerated sigh and a meaningful glance at Yuto, Jugram continued.

"Since my friend boiled everything down to basics, so will I. My quirk allows me to trade almost anything between people. I was wondering if you would be willing to part with your quirk. Unfortunately, we can't offer you much of anything in return. So I would trade you one of my happy memories for your quirk, quirk storage, and experience using your quirk." Jugram said.

"You can trade quirks?" the woman asked.

"Memories, objects, and experiences, too, but I plan to focus on trading quirks in the future," Jugram said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Why what?" Jugram asked, starting to wonder if he had accidentally chosen a dementia patient by accident. 

"Why do you want more quirks?" she asked.

Jugram opened his mouth the readily respond but paused. He tried again, opening his mouth to speak, but the words died on the tip of his tongue. Eventually, ignoring Yuto and the old woman's gazes, he paused thoughtfully. Why DO I want more quirks realistically? he thought, scratching his chin. It was a complicated question, especially without considering how he would phrase it to a woman who didn't have his knowledge of the future.

"I want to be able to protect myself and my friends while also earning enough money to live comfortably with said friends," Jugram said finally.

"If that's what you want, then what is there to stop you from selling quirks to villains? They already do enough damage in society with only one quirk per person. What will happen if they have even more power." She said.

"Alternatively, I could give the quirks to heroes," Jugram countered.

"Yet you still want to keep quirks for yourself?" She asked.

"Yes..." Jugram said, uncertain of where she was going with this, "To protect myself. When knowledge gets out that I can grant other people quirks, there will undoubtedly be those who want to try and capture or kill me."

"Then why pursue such a path? Why not ignore your quirk and live a normal life?"

"I wouldn't know how to start pursuing a normal life," Jugram said honestly, "I have this power and have always planned to use it in the future."

"Regardless of the laws or potential consequences?" she said with a soft snort that devolved into a coughing fit.

Yuto moved toward the sink, where an empty glass sat, but she waved him off, turning back to Jugram, who was still considering her words. He thought about everything she said and understood that it made sense from her perspective. However, he knew the worst was still coming in this country, so he needed to prepare. The problem was how would he do it? 

"I don't want to be rude, but your power seems to make you a walking calamity, in my opinion," she said.

Just wait till she learns about All For One. he thought, glancing at the woman's ventilator and frail appearance. Or perhaps not.

"Am I wrong just because I was born with this power?" Jugram questioned.

"Wrong?" she said, "No, but I don't think you will be a force for good in society with this power to redistribute quirks."

"What if I wanted to be a hero then?" Jugram asked, his frustration mounting, "Would you be more willing to trade me your quirk if I fit into the societal mold better?"

Now, it was the old woman's turn to pause and think. She glanced over to Yuto and then to Jugram lazily as she thought.

"No, that power is too great for either heroes or villains." he said finally, "I think you should go and find your parents,"

Yuto's jaw clenched with an audible click at those words, causing the woman to look over at the boy as his eyes welled with new tears that he quickly wiped away. He tried to return to his regular stoic expression but couldn't quite manage it.

"We're not here with our parents," Jugram said, turning on his heels to leave.

It was clear that they had not succeeded here. With that, the two of them filled out of the room and turned into the hallway. Frustration smoldered in Jugram's heart as they wandered through the hospital halls, avoiding staff and patients alike. 

He wasn't angry at the woman, but what she had said to him hit a bit too close to... He wasn't entirely sure what the root cause of his frustration was. He held the power to change society, but what did he want to do with it? 

Jugram hadn't been lying about wanting to become a businessman, but what did that mean for people beyond himself? Was it selfish to pursue this path? Does any of that even matter? Why do I even need more power beyond the sake of just having power itself? These questions cycled through his mind repeatedly, but the answers didn't come to him. He wasn't sure.

Despite his lofty declarations of future plans that he made to Yuto not even a few hours ago, he felt adrift at sea without any way to navigate. There was no north star guiding him. No end goal, as it were. No great ambition beyond just surviving the future and perhaps profiting off of it.

Does there need to be anything more than that, though? Is just living for the sake of living and collecting power not enough?

He couldn't say.

The frustration burned inside him hotter and hotter as his uncertainty mounted, and the path forward seemed more and more hazy. It was like a spiral that he couldn't escape from. He wanted to scream, yet knew it was completely irrational. His breathing came faster and faster, which fueled his frustration, which further fueled his spiral until he was hyperventilating and gripping the wall tightly.

It's all too much. I don't know what to do. Grandpa, tell me what to do!

He closed his eyes and tried to refocus, but he only saw a vision of carnage. His grandfather's stern face and the hidden affection beneath dead. The torn-apart bodies of people he had known well within the village. Rumi's lifeless gaze. All the uncertainty. It was just too much. He wasn't equipped to deal with so much death. 

The dead dragged him down into a pool of blood while he fought tooth and nail to rise out of the dog pile and reach the surface. He hated the oppression, the suffocation. It was all too much. He fought harder, but the more he fought, the deeper he sank until he was completely under.

He fought in a frenzy now. Dozens of hands and arms wrapped him up like chains, causing him to sink faster as his lungs screamed out for air. He needed air. He couldn't breathe. Everything started to go black as he couldn't take in enough air. There was too much pressure, too much uncertainty. Too much.

"JUGRAM," Yuto shouted as his friend slid down the wall, his breathing frantic while he tried to support him.

Unsure of what was going on and still filled with raw emotion from everything that had happened in the past hours, Yuto began to bawl as he watched his friend, who had been an unmovable rock throughout this whole ordeal, collapse.

Quickly, the hospital staff noticed the two boys since they had already been notified of their disappearance, and they were rushed back to their room. The doctor put an oxygen mask over Jugram's face as he continued to hyperventilate without being able to stop.

"You're perfectly fine." the doctor stated calmly, "Just breathe in an out slowly. You are just having a panic attack. It's perfectly natural, given the circumstances. Just breathe."

Finally, the doctor injected something into his arm as Jugram tried to master his breathing. After a moment, a wave of dizziness washed over him and forced his consciousness to fade.