Chapter Text
Two days before her fourth birthday, Miko Tsukikawa woke up like every other day. It was a weekend, she’d be celebrating her birthday in a few days after school with her friends, some of which had already manifested their own quirks. A girl who could heal small cuts and bruises, a boy who grew scales. Her parents had decided to take her to the local pool with her little sister away from the compound as an early celebration.
Her mother, a tall, beautiful woman with silver hair that glistened with moisture and sparkling red eyes, smiled at her from her seat on the pool’s edge. When he wasn’t looking, her mother dipped her finger into the pool and a trail of water followed her gestures when she lifted her hand before turning it into a small sphere.
She called out her husband’s name, flinging the ball when he turned to answer her, splattering it against his face. Turquoise eyes were bright against his tan skin and dark hair, Akio laughed and grabbed a water balloon to throw at his wife. Miko was enjoying laughing and smiling with her small family, listening to her mother laugh at her father while he joked around and threw water balloons at her and her almost one-year old sister, Riko. The feeling of cool, clean water caress her skin as she swam kept her peaceful.
Despite the excitement around her, she felt at peace floating in the pool, the harsh smell of chlorine was comforting. Feeling devious, she glanced around before diving beneath the surface, planning on swimming over to her sister to surprise her. However, the moment she decided to duck her head under the surface, she was suddenly overcome with a whole new sense of self. Every sense of serenity and security abandoned her, replaced with shattering violent chaos that hadn’t been there previously. No longer was she only aware of her small body, her extremities were now spread out across every cubic inch of the pool she resided in, feeling everything the water felt. The splashing of nearby children, every disturbance of the water, she felt it as it were her own body that the children were playing in.
The abrupt change had her screaming and choking and on everything and nothing all at once, and she felt a burning in deep in her chest and throat. Frightened by the overwhelming sensory stimulus, Miko gasped loudly and inhaled.
Just as suddenly as her sensory overload attacked her, she was brought back to earth when large hands pulled her out of the pool and laid her back along the pool’s edge. Concerned hands fluttered over her small form, checking her pulse and helping her turn over to spit out the water in her lungs when she finally managed to breathe in something other water. “Miko! Miko!” Hysterically blind, Miko could only hear her mother crying out to her, but all she could think of was the water that she could feel in the air, in the pool, in places that she couldn’t see but could feel.
When she saw her chest heaving rhythmically, her mother’s voice was no longer frightened, instead she heard the same stern tone she used when they were in the gym practicing her somersaults, or when she spoke to her patients. “Miko, stop. Come back to me. Let go of what you’re feeling.” She clenched her eyes as she heard her mother desperately trying to get her to leave whatever spell she had been put under. Her mother’s firm hand continued to force the water out of her lungs. Chest heaving forcefully, her small lungs couldn’t seem to inflate properly as all she could think and feel was the water drowning her.
Her lungs burned and her throat was swollen, and no matter how hard she inhaled, she couldn’t breathe. Strong hands pushed her back down when she began to curl into herself. As quickly as she had that last thought, her mother was roughly patting her back and water trickled out of her mouth. Unclenching her eyes, she stared fearfully into the cool, calming turquoise eyes of her mother. “That’s good, Miko. Just breathe, okay? Just breathe. You’re all right.” Miko felt decidedly not all right, her small hands trembled as she tried to hold herself together, this time no one tried to stop her, but the voice of her mother helped eased her panic. “You’re okay, Miko, you’re okay.” Her mother began to stroke her back soothingly. “It looks like you’ve inherited my Quirk, Miko-chan.” Her voice was only a little sardonic as she grimaced at her daughter’s quivering form.
Miko had always wondered when she was going to inherit her Quirk. She’d been waiting for it to manifest itself early last year when her friends’ Quirks had begun manifesting themselves, eager and jealous to grow into hers. Secretly, she worried that she would be Quirkless. Now, however, after experiencing the vast metaphorical pool of water her mother had access and power over…she was terrified.
Still shivering, she heard her father speak distantly. “Well, since its your birthday, Miko-chan, why don’t we take a break from training today?” The faint lines of worry behind his eyes and furrowed brows on her father’s betrayed the easy smile and Miko knew the only reason he was allowing her to skip her daily training was due to the frightening manifestation of her Quirk. In his arms lay Riko, expression fearful and hesitant to approach her older sister. Miko managed a meager smile for her sister’s sake, hoping to alleviate some of her fear. Though she loved running and somersaulting across the floor and vaulting herself off of the practice beam, she took the free time to collect herself before she was required to return to the gym.
Due to Miko’s violent reaction to the manifestation of her Quirk, her parents had decided that instead of going to school in the morning the following Monday after their family outing, they would pay a visit to the hospital. Since manifesting, the girl hadn't been able to completely dry off, silver locks sopping wet and dripping everywhere. Her mother was forced to tie her hair up into buns to reduce the mess.
Miko tried to ignore the foreboding dull oppression of the water surrounding them brought on by her Quirk as they travelled, focusing instead on the sights around her. There they waited to be called in to see the family Quirk specialist, Riko sitting on their father’s lap while Miko held her mother’s hand between them. The hospital smelled like a harsh cleanliness: bleach and antiseptic.
After explaining the situation, with Miko staring meekly at her feet while her mother spoke and Riko poked at Miko’s silver twin buns, the doctor explained that she had a composite Quirk, a fusion of her parents’ Quirks. Her mother’s emitter type Quirk Hydrokinesis allowed her to manipulate water in any form while her father’s transformation type Quirk Phase allowed him to phase into whatever inorganic material he touched, and on occasion retain some of those inorganic qualities of the material he touches.
The missing joint in her pinky toe meant that Miko’s Quirk, Aquaporin, named after the cell organelle, meant that she could manipulate water, like her mother. Though born with a typical human body, her Quirk manifestation had begun to retain more water in her cells and the Quirk specialist believed that eventually she would be made purely of water. Normally mutative Quirks were seen at birth, but in cases such as Miko’s, rare that they were, late Quirk manifestations were capable of transforming a person permanently.
Thus instead of phasing into and through inorganic materials like her father could, she instead was slowly retaining and turning into an inorganic material, water, permanently. Or mostly of water. And she would likely eventually be able to manipulate water she didn’t have to channel through her the way her mother did. Though for now, she’d have to increase her water intake and moisturize her skin frequently to help her body stabilize to the slow change of her composition, as her doctor theorized that she’d be susceptible to dehydration.
Walking hand in hand with her parents, they left the hospital still tense from the days’ events. The small tyke kept her head down and concentrated on counting her steps to keep out the awareness her Quirk was feeding her. By focusing on each step she took, she was slowly keeping out the slowly impeding feeling of water all around her. Her body no longer felt like her own. Her mother looked down worriedly at her uncharacteristically quiet daughter, her youngest child lay sleeping peacefully in her arms, unaware of the increasing tension building in the air. Trailing behind the small family, were splotches of water dripping from the eldest child.
When she returned to school the following day, it was with her parents. They took her directly to the principals office, followed by a trip to the nurse, before they finally walked her back to her homeroom where her principal explained the unique circumstances of her newfound Quirk. With her new situation, she found herself unable to stop her hair from dripping water all over the floor, or sweating just a little too easily.
Miko was to be allowed to leave the class to go to the nurses office to moisturize her skin in its entirety as well as keep a large water bottle by her desk to maintain her water levels as her body grew accustomed to her new Quirk. Given the state of her hair, and her inability to control it, the nurse let her borrow a small towel to keep with her so she wouldn’t make such a huge mess at her desk. Next time she’d have to bring one of her own. They were relatively easy accommodations and her teacher was happy to help out, telling her not to worry and to just ask if she needed to leave to get more water.
Miko joined her class again almost as easily as it was for her to breath, the slight hesitation she felt when she entered the room left as her peers congratulated her on her Quirk.