MHA: Time Manipulator

Aizawa, seeing the room, couldn't hold back a barely noticeable smile. Among all the high-tech devices and equipment, his attention was drawn to a cabinet completely filled with boxes of various tea blends. 

"How unexpected..." he muttered as he stepped closer. Even though he wasn't as much of a tea fanatic as Nezu, Aizawa immediately realized that most of these blends probably cost as much as several years' worth of his salary... 

Toga was carefully examining the laboratory, trying to spot the long-awaited answers. Stopping by a table, she noticed an unfinished cheese sandwich. She squinted skeptically and picked it up. 

"Not exactly how I imagined the home of the smartest being," she remarked sarcastically, gesturing toward the sandwich and the bed in the corner.

Not getting an answer to her comment, she huffed in boredom, until her gaze accidentally landed on several papers scattered on the bed. 

Seeing not only an opportunity to get answers but also a way to amuse herself, Toga unhesitatingly tossed the sandwich aside and moved closer. 

Picking up a few documents, she began flipping through them with curiosity. 

"Aldera... Ha, someone's still interested in that place?" she muttered, carelessly shuffling through the papers. "Recommended students, boring... Salaries, boring... Again, something incredibly dull..." 

Throwing the documents from her hands, filled with an overwhelming desire to leave these boring papers behind and go to Nezu for answers, her gaze suddenly stopped on another sheet, seemingly hidden under the pillow.

It looked as though it had been crumpled into a ball multiple times and stained with tea droplets. And although she had the urge to toss it aside, Toga suddenly felt an unfamiliar impulse to see what might be inside. 

"I wouldn't do that," Nezu called out to her, standing next to Aizawa near the table and pulling a small vial of black liquid from a metal container. 

The black liquid in the vial, as if seeing something other than darkness and metal, began to ripple relentlessly, violently striking the walls, as though trying to escape.

At the sight of the mysterious liquid, everything around Toga seemed to vanish, and her urge to check the document only grew stronger. 

With a barely audible "Pff" she unfolded the sheet and, scanning it with her eyes, froze instantly. 

The paper displayed a blueprint of a building that Toga almost immediately recognized. It was a theater. 

The blueprint, besides the theater itself, had numerous arrows in different colors, resembling an action plan, as well as photos of several heroes — those whom Toga knew well, since it was because of them that she ended up in captivity, far from Kimika.

From the look on their faces, Toga's heart began to beat faster, and her hands subtly tightened around the paper. The last straw was when she saw a photo of both herself and... Kimika. 

"This plan...? Haha..." But as if that wasn't enough, she lifted her gaze upward and saw the headline. 

'A simple show... Was it really that easy for you, just... walk in and walk out?' Clenching the paper with all her strength, she tore the page in half in the next moment. 

A twisted smile appeared on her face, and a bitter, almost soulless laugh escaped her lips.

Hearing the sound of the paper tearing and that laugh, Aizawa immediately dropped into a combat stance, shielding Nezu, ready for any actions from Toga. Nezu, behind him, was also prepared to press the button on his bracelet at any moment to activate the devices on Toga. 

But… to their surprise… Toga almost instantly changed her behavior, smiling as if nothing had happened. 

Carelessly tearing Kimika's photo from the page, she placed it in her chest pocket and grinned predatorily, watching the astonished faces of the onlookers.

"What? Can't I even get a little angry anymore? Or... No! Don't tell me you were so eager to see me barely conscious and chained to the ground with bracelets that, Nezu, you specifically left your plan here? But unfortunately, that won't work on me," Toga said with a smile, casually squeezing both pieces of paper into a ball and tossing it under her feet before slowly stepping over it and moving toward Nezu and Aizawa. "Oh, and thanks for the photo of my Kimi — without it, I would have had a really hard time here... Especially since I still haven't gotten my answers and don't even know what's happening with my best friend and the love of my life!"

"Well, let's play by your rules, but as soon as I take the wheel... each of you, especially you, rodent, will regret what happened to me and especially to Kimi" Toga thought, blushing as she looked at her future victims. 

Coughing from the sudden shift in Toga's mood, Nezu once again realized the importance of quickly arranging regular visits to the best psychologist.

"As for the answers," Nezu said, carefully twirling a vial of black liquid before his face so that everyone could see its contents. "Here is the key to the answers, Hatred herself."

Toga, staring at the liquid that was swirling inside, suddenly felt an unfamiliar desire, just like last time.

But in addition to the urge to simply walk up to Nezu, snatch the vial from his hands, and smash it, as though breaking it would break all her problems too, flashes of memories began to ignite in her mind. These were moments from what she had seen before Aizawa and Midnight had neutralized and knocked her out...

Desperate, as if torn from the very heart, Kimika's scream, the horn exploded at its roots, the bleeding eye... But there was something else too… Kimika, in her head, began whispering that she was the one to blame for all of this, that she hadn't saved her, hadn't persuaded her, and had allowed it all to happen.

And even if Kimika's words seemed completely uncharacteristic of her, the growing pain, anger, and desire in Toga's heart from the memories… a desire not only to smash the flask but also to rush forward and take revenge on Aizawa, who was standing just a few steps away from her…

And his silhouette... it began to allure her so strongly that Toga felt as if only one... just the slightest trigger was needed for her to give in to these desires, these words, and do it right now. 

"What's wrong with me? What the hell?" Toga screamed, holding her head as Kimika's words grew louder and louder in her mind. They no longer resembled those from before, becoming as cold and cruel as those in Kimika's recording.

Barely standing in place, struggling to hold herself together, as if fighting not only with the voice and the desires but with herself, Toga collapsed to the ground, curling up against the floor and closing her eyes. 

And suddenly... everything disappeared. The desires, the anger, the voice in her head – leaving no trace, as if it had all been just a bad dream.

Completely not understanding what had just happened, confused Toga opened her eyes, first scanning the floor, then her fingers, hands, Aizawa, who was now just a step away from her with his capturing weapon, and Nezu... Nezu, who had hardly changed, except that a new smirk was on his face – focused and almost thoughtful, as if an experiment had just been conducted. 

And in his hands, there was no longer that flask, which had probably ended up back in the metal container.

"How interesting... Now I'm sure that it exists within you. And it seems that hatred, or rather, wild hatred, can communicate with its kind residing in another host..." said Nezu, writing something in a notebook that had mysteriously appeared in his hands, and began muttering something incomprehensible under his breath. "And if this... what if they can communicate, then can this be used to find those infected with hatred? Interesting... interesting... And if we construct this... and then that...? Yes! Yes, this is a breakthrough!"

Aizawa, looking at the two of them, couldn't help but shake his head, realizing the situation he had gotten himself into. Not only had he become the "babysitter" — the one overseeing the captured Toga instead of Midnight, now forced to be by her side whenever she left the room — but it also seemed like he had acquired the position of babysitting Nezu, who was currently in his "experimental state."

In which he was currently walking around the room, muttering to himself, jotting things down in his notebook, and occasionally exclaiming about another "breakthrough."

Aizawa had already regretted more than once his decision to take on the role of Midnight, or even just the fact that he had decided to become a teacher at this crazy academy, instead of simply staying at home and getting some sleep. 

"God... why is all this happening to me..." he thought, bringing his fingers to his forehead.

However, as strange as it may sound, deep down he knew that it was exactly for this reason that he enjoyed his job. 

Deciding that Nezu's current state would likely last a few more minutes, if not hours, Aizawa sighed and walked over to the chair. He had already planned to sit down and at least close his eyes to get some rest when he suddenly heard a loud exclamation: 

"Eureka!"

With a loud sound, his notebook fell onto the table, causing the exhausted Aizawa to stand up after just sitting down in the chair, and still bewildered Toga, whose gaze was fixed on the metal container. 

"Well then! Now I'll finally show you your answers, Toga, and you, Aizawa, so you can understand what we're dealing with, and after that, I'll ask you both to leave me alone for at least a few days!" Nezu shouted enthusiastically, almost giggling.

In an upbeat mood, Nezu enthusiastically began pressing buttons on the control panel by the table. Before Toga and Aizawa's eyes, the metal container slowly sank into the surface of the table, and suddenly the room was filled with the melody of classical music. 

In sync with the rhythm of the music, the principal started dancing, moving around the room. He would press buttons, turn monitors on and off, with various data flickering across the screens.

After several minutes of this musical chaos, amplified by Nezu's dance that would have earned a 10 out of 10 for its expressiveness and absurdity, even Toga raised her eyebrows in confusion. 

And it was then that part of one of the walls began to slowly descend, revealing behind it a new, completely empty room. 

And just a moment after Nezu pressed another button, an absurdly large vase rose from the floor at the center of the room, holding a tiny, almost wilted flower.

"As they say, it's better to see something with your own eyes once than to ask a hundred times and hear about it," Nezu said, pressing a few more buttons. 

Two mechanical arms emerged from the wall of the room. In one, there was the same flask with the now calm Hatred, who seemed completely unaware of their presence, while in the other hand was a pipette, or rather, a micropipette. 

With the sound of another button press, Nezu spoke: "Experiment Plant-17. Initiated."

After his words, as if on command, the mechanical arm with the micropipette carefully took a barely visible drop of hatred and placed it onto the plant. In just a moment, before the eyes of the three observers, the drop disappeared, absorbed into the leaf.

"Since you don't know anything, Toga, and while we have a minute or two before it begins, let me briefly explain the key things I've learned," Nezu began, smiling as he looked through the glass at the plant. 

"This black liquid is the physical form of Hatred, as it calls itself. It's like a kind of parasite or symbiote, depending on the specific conditions, which... unfortunately, I don't know. But that's temporary. So, it infiltrates its target through the blood or is absorbed into the body, though the second method takes more time and requires more energy. Once inside, Hatred spreads throughout the body, like in the plant: along the stem, through the leaves, leaving even the smallest droplets, and most importantly — into the roots, triggering what, at this point, is the point of no return."

At first, this explanation seemed to answer the questions Toga had been so eager to understand, but then Nezu seemed to intentionally start moving in the completely opposite direction. 

She still couldn't understand how this Hatred appeared, and why it manifested specifically in Kimika. And even more confusing were questions like: what does intelligent Hatred mean, and what is the difference between that and unintelligent/wild Hatred, and what does it mean that Hatred exists within her too? Or rather, how exactly did it come to be in her? These questions filled her mind.

Already about to voice her questions aloud, Toga noticed how Nezu, anticipating her, pressed his finger to his lips, signaling that it was not yet time for questions. 

Without wasting a moment, he pointed forward, redirecting Toga's attention to the flower.

Toga obediently shifted her gaze there. But what she saw made her swoon.

Just a moment ago, the barely alive flower, now before their very eyes, seemed to come back to life. The weak, wilted stem grew stronger with every passing second, the leaves began to regain their fresh green color, and the flower, which had nearly fallen off, started to bloom, becoming brighter and more beautiful. 

In an instant, there was no trace left of the once nearly dead plant. This spectacle left both Toga and Aizawa speechless, stunned by what was unfolding before their eyes, while Nezu, smiling, continued to explain.

"So, before the next phase begins… As you might have noticed, the plant restored its normal state right before our eyes thanks to Hatred. The exact reasons why it needs this are unknown to me. However, I have two theories. First — Hatred restores the host's condition to prevent it from dying so that it can reproduce and spread hatred… But, judging by the next phases and the experiments conducted, it resembles fulfilling the host's desires more. After all, what is likely the sole desire of a plant? To survive, adapt, and reproduce."

Toga, continuing to observe the plant carefully, couldn't understand one thing: if Hatred truly just granted wishes… then why did Kimika look so… like the way she saw her? 

"Look, the second phase is about to begin. And you'll soon find out why such a large vase is necessary," Nezu said, pressing a few more buttons.

The flower, now fully healed, began growing at an incredible speed, nearly filling the entire vase and beyond. Its stem and roots started expanding in size, and soon, with loud cracking sounds, the vase began to shatter into pieces.

"The growth phase, as I've named it, will be followed by the final phase. But before it begins, I've discovered that we can introduce yet another phase to make the conclusion planned by Hatred far more interesting. So watch closely. After all, my reserves of hatred aren't endless, and there's a rather simple reason why I can't take samples from the plant. Unfortunately — or perhaps, to great relief — hatred doesn't survive separation from the plant's organism, disintegrating into dust instantly."

Nezu pressed a few buttons, lowering the temperature in the room to below freezing. Right before their eyes, everyone watched as the flower began to wilt slightly, its leaves curling, but as they could all see, this was only temporary. Nezu smiled, watching as the plant successfully adapted to the cold conditions.

A few seconds later, the flower began to change color. Its natural green hue gradually shifted to a cool blue, and as the temperature in the room dropped, the color increasingly took on a bright blue shade.

"Right now, you witnessed a brief phase of adaptation, the plant's third and final wish, which Hatred will successfully fulfill. But if I hadn't forced the plant to adapt to the cold, its third wish would have been reproduction, after which it would have died. And by the way, none of the plant's offspring receives even a drop of Hatred, which I don't understand at all. Because what's the point of Hatred fulfilling all three wishes, only to kill the plant in the end? But since the plant's third wish was adaptation... something both terrible and fascinating will happen right before your eyes."

Aizawa and Toga, who were watching this with full interest, couldn't wait to see what might happen, but before they even had time to consider their options, they saw something truly horrifying. 

The plant, as Nezu had said, began to change right before their eyes. Its blue color, which had only recently been acquired through adaptation, started growing darker and darker. The dark hue spread throughout the plant until it became completely black, like the night.

"How her horns and eyes..." Aizawa muttered softly, watching these changes. He couldn't understand why the process with Kimika had been completely different. "Has she already made three wishes?" 

Nezu, not taking his eyes off the plant, laughed, knowing what thoughts were currently running through his subordinate's mind. He couldn't help but smile, knowing that Aizawa was probably thinking the same way he had before conducting a few more experiments and reviewing the same mission video several times.

"Oh no, no, no, actually, I've only conducted one experiment so far—not on the plant, but on a hamster," Nezu said, briefly recalling the experiment. After those words, his mood shifted abruptly. He shook his head as if trying to shake off the unpleasant memories and thought to himself: 'I've sunk to their level…' 

Clearing his throat quickly and refocusing his thoughts on what was about to happen next, Nezu dismissed his gloomy thoughts, as he could hardly wait for the moment when he would conduct new experiments on this fascinating thing, especially considering the new data.

Nezu could no longer wait to conduct the next experiments, so, counting the seconds in his mind from impatience and aiming to minimize his explanations, he changed his plan. 

Now, he wanted to provide Toga with only the bare minimum of information, throw out a hook, and then quickly usher them out of the room.

He straightened his back and continued: 

"And for an unknown reason, Hatred interacts completely differently with various types of organisms. With plants, it's like a mythological genie, granting three of their wishes. With fungi, it acts similarly, granting only one wish. But with animals... It instantly takes control of their body, making the animal incredibly aggressive and, moreover, extremely resilient." He paused briefly in a somber, reflective silence, recalling the hamster, then quickly added, "Oh, right, I almost forgot!"

Nezu quickly pressed a few buttons, and the room was instantly filled with sound as two mechanical arms appeared, now equipped with flamethrowers. They directed flames at the plant, burning it to the ground, and Toga, her mouth agape in astonishment, couldn't believe what she was seeing. 

Aizawa, though less shocked, also hadn't expected such a turn of events, and all eyes immediately shifted to Nezu, awaiting his explanation.

"What? You thought there would be some continuation?" he said with a smile, watching as the plant gradually disappeared under the powerful flames. "Actually, the continuation would be rather dull—the plant would begin wilting before your eyes, and the smell it emits will be so unpleasant that I had to seal off the previous room and use a new one. Agree, no one would want to repeat such an operation."

Nezu, jumping down from the chair he had been standing on for convenience to be on the same level as Aizawa and Toga and to be able to press the buttons, observed their reactions. 

"Well, you've just witnessed the effect of Hatred on plants. You might ask me the meaning of all this, since you were mostly interested in Kimika? Well, apart from the fact that any scientist would be willing to kill or even sell their soul for the chance to see something like this... And l also wanted to introduce Toga to what she needs to know, and show you the effects of predatory hatred."

"WHAT? So, is that it?" Toga screamed, not believing her ears. She was told straight to her face that she had been here the entire time, calmly... almost calmly, just to witness this scene, which, although interesting, could not even come close to satisfying her desire to find out what happened to Kimika.

"Mm? Yes, that's all. I fully understand your surprise and indignation, Toga, but I also introduced you to the predatory Hatred, which differs from the usual in that it follows the same script and operates more on an instinctive level. Although probably… no, I'm definitely sure that it doesn't work the same way on people as it does on plants... But now you can imagine the importance of what I want to tell you."

Nezu quickly leapt first onto the chair and then onto the table. After pulling a document from the folder, he tossed it to Toga, then, from seemingly nowhere, pulled out tea and took a few sips before continuing:

"Everything related to Hatred is there, everything I didn't have time to tell you. All the words spoken by Hatred, all its abilities, the goal it shared with us, although it's probably not wise to fully believe what it said, still... Oh, and don't forget, what you felt when I took out the flask with Hatred — that was just a tiny drop of what Kimika is feeling right now. And you... You, as the one who, somehow, got infected by Hatred, though mindlessly, could become the key to creating a cure."

Pausing for a moment and glancing at Aizawa, motioning towards Toga, Nezu continued: "Now, I ask you to leave my home and think over everything you've learned. And remember, I'm always ready to talk."

Watching the elevator doors close, Nezu added with a smile: "When I have new information, we'll make it a tradition — the three of us will gather and watch the experiment. Until then, see you."

The lift began to rise, and Nezu, left alone in his laboratory, took out a classified folder from the cabinet. 

He looked carefully at the photo of a carnivorous plant, a chimpanzee, and a wolf, and, holding his breath, whispered, "They're not ready to know about this yet..." His gaze grew even more thoughtful as he carefully placed the folder back in the drawer, locking it with a key. "I need to find the cure as soon as possible, before this Hatred spreads..."

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The chapter turned out to be quite long, even though it was supposed to be much shorter... but inspiration struck, and here's the result. I even considered splitting it into two parts, but I think I made a good decision not to, so here we have a whole chapter of 4,000 words! Yuppi!

Also, under this chapter, you can write how you would describe the effect of wild hatred (any hatred not belonging to Kimika's body can be considered wild) on any plant, animal, or human. And if your description is interesting, I might include it in the story! Imagine what would happen if Kimika created her army from such plants/animals or even humans or Nomu, infected with hatred.

Want to see the continuation even faster than the next day? Or perhaps you want even more chapters? Head over to my Patreon — it's all there! But don't worry, sooner or later, it will be here too! patreon.com/Zoi4erom

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