Chapter 2: Adapting
I used Animal Control to call all the animals in a 100 meter radius to surround me so I could examine them all and see if any of them had a quirk. People don't really think about just how much wildlife surrounds us, especially when that wildlife is insects. If I didn't have them all under my control I'd be fucking terrified.
I could see why known cases of animals with Quirks were rare. The only one that I think was widely known in Japan was Nezu and that's probably only because he had an intelligence quirk that let him speak.
Unless the Quirk was obvious, such as a physical change, then I doubt it would be obvious if an animal even had a Quirk.
Only two animals within my radius had Quirks, so far. A bee with a Quirk called heightened vision that lets it see clearly from vast distances and even lets it see through solid objects.
Of course I took that immediately. My main source of Quirks was going to be animals so seeing them from far away and through walls would be a great boon. At least it would let me see the prospective Quirks without calling thousands of disease ridden rats to huddle around me. It's just less of a commotion and less chance I'll get caught.
The other animal was a lizard. It had a Quirk called Growth Surge. It allowed it to accelerate natural processes in itself and others. I already saw a bunch of uses for this such as muscle growth for me and maybe Izuku to help him get One For All faster. I would probably use it to accelerate the pregnancies of the animals with quirks I breed.
This park was kind of the perfect place to experiment. It was abandoned so I doubt many people would be wandering around here. It was also surrounded by a thicket of trees so nobody could just look into the center of the park and see what was going on here. I could conduct my experiments without worry.
I wandered around the park some more just to catch any more animals that were not in my radius. While I hoped for more quirks I wasn't fortunate enough to find any more animals that had them.
I give all the animals in the park the command to breed and then use Growth Surge to speed that up. I decided I would come back tomorrow and check if any of the spawn would have developed any powers.
Promptly leaving and, because I didn't want to watch an animal orgy, I returned home.
"Hey mom." I said to my mother who was sitting on the couch watching the news.
A smile blooms on her face. "How was your day Ken?"
"Good. What did you do today?" I asked.
She points towards the kitchen where there are a couple of dishes. "I made you some lunch. Go ahead and don't worry about Izuku. He said he'd be back late today."
"Thanks." I said as I grabbed the dishes and started eating.
It's only my first day here and I feel like I've accomplished so much. No doubt the universe is looking out for me. But I've been using my enhanced vision to look for any animals with quirks but I guess they truly are rare because I haven't found any more yet.
I'm sure I'll find more but I don't think I can bank on that as my only source.
I'd been thinking about it and maybe I should go to a cemetery, or maybe even a hospital. I don't know for sure but maybe I could steal a quirk off of a corpse. I don't think All For One was able to do that. He could only steal quirks from living people and only when he grabbed them.
But I don't have All For One, I have All For Me, and I'm not limited to stealing a quirk by touch since as long as I can see the quirk, even if from a far distance, I can steal it. Since my quirk is already different, then maybe I'll be able to steal it off a dead body.
With my belly full and a new resolve I decided to immediately visit the nearest cemetery.
"Bye mom! I'll be back soon." I say as I pass by my mother towards the door.
"Be careful Ken." She replied.
I leave and travel to a nearby cemetery. I look around and notice a couple people paying their respects to the deceased. That's of no consequence though. It's not like there's a visible sign that I steal a quirk.
I activate Heightened Vision and look through the ground only to be met with no quirks. I couldn't see any floating orbs. And it's not like they're easy to miss, they are literally like miniature stars so I would have noticed them if there were any.
To my shock I can only see a bunch of urns. What the heck? Where are the bodies and the caskets? Isn't this a cemetery? I pull out my phone to search this up and learn with one of the biggest shocks of my life.
The dead are cremated in Japan. It's literally a law in most places.
WTF!?
Why didn't I know that? Didn't I have all of Ken's memories. Did he not know that? I try to remember but am met with nothing relating to cremations.
I think I get it. Ken didn't have any close family members who had died so he never even realized that this was the way things were done.
Major culture shock for me as an American.
Well this was a bust. And I still don't even know if I can steal quirks off of dead people or not. All I found here was cremated remains so the quirk factor of a person is assuredly destroyed at that point.
I guess my last resort is going to a hospital, or maybe to wherever they do the cremation. Both of those places would assuredly have corpses that I can test my idea out on.
I look that up too and find out that Japan has crematoriums where the cremation takes place. I'd go now but it's actually getting pretty late and I'm just walking everywhere on foot. I better just start walking home at this point. I'll visit a hospital and maybe a crematorium tomorrow.
As I walked along the darkened streets all I could think about was how disappointed I was. I was really betting on the cemetery thing to work out.
I guess the universe was sympathetic to my misfortune because out of the corner of my eye I could see a pulsating red orb. Using Heightened Vision to get a closer look I realize the orb is in the chest of a crow.
[Quirk: Danger Sense. The user has an innate ability to assess the threat level of individuals and can instinctively sense when an attack is imminent. This quirk provides a heightened awareness of danger, allowing the user to react swiftly to hostile intentions.
Hell yeah! Yoink!
Immediately the orb shoots into my chest and I activate it.
Thanks universe!