u/Ace_Of_Blades_7

An expansion of the unnamed black lightning quirk used by All For One.

Black Lightning

Allows the user's body to absorb and store kinetic, thermal and electrical energy, converting it into a highly condensed form of bioelectricity which they can project outward in the form of lighting bolts of an unnatural, black colour outlined by a cold, cyan-blue crackling glow.

In order to absorb electrical or thermal energy, the user must make contact with the object they are trying to steal energy from with their physical body or the black lightning they shoot. Kinetic energy, however is only absorbed by contacting the object with the black lightning bolts.

The user has a limit on how much energy they can store, and exceeding this limit can cause the user to experience fractures, burns or electric shocks internally.

The user's body has a higher resistance to their own black lightning. As such, they can use it to slightly enhance their physicality.

They can circulate it throughout their nervous system to enhance their reflexes and senses. Furthermore, they could cover a part of their body with it, such as their hand, effectively turning it into a high temperature electrical blade or weapon.

This can only be done in small quantities, and further use would damage the user's body for a temporary boost.

The user also has to maintain control over their mental and emotional state while using the quirk.

The calmer and more low-arousal the emotional state of the user is, the more control they have ever the output and trajectory of the lightning.

Excessive high-arousal emotions such as anger, fear and panic can cause the quirk to run haywire, branching out throughout a large area and damaging the user's own body.

Ghost Edge(Emitter):

It allows the user to create, manipulate and shape razor-thin cutting forces which appear like impossibly thin cutting black planes whose shape and movement the user can manipulate.

The cutting power of these forces is finite, and highly depends upon the skill of the user. That is to say, it doesn't simply "cut anything".

From this point onward, the cutting phenomena created and controlled by ghost edge will be referred to as "edges" for the sake of simplicity.

The most basic manifestation is a large, crescent shaped edge which can be shot towards a target.

The edges can also be manipulated into shapes, such as that of daggers or weapons. Due to their impossible thin sharpness, the weapons often look two-dimensional black silhouettes rather than constructs.

More familiar shapes, such as known weapons are easier to manifest than obscure, abstract or difficult to visualise shapes.

The edges' trajectory can also be controlled.

A slash sent through the air may curve like a ribbon and pirouette around a defense to slice from around a corner.

A large sword may split into countless slashes being hurled toward an area.

A myriad of daggers could start swirling around an opponent like a murder of crows.

Though these slashes can appear similar to blades, and seem to have cutting edges, hilts and flat sides, they are localised cutting phenomena given an outline, rather than constructs.

For example, if one were to touch the apparent edge of the silhoette of a dagger, it would result in a cut. However, if they were to touch its flat side, their hand would pass through it completely.

The user's ability to utilise these advanced applications depends on the clarity of their focus and willpower.

Raw willpower determines the strength, speed and cutting force of the edges. When in a crisis, or a high-stakes scenario, a highly trained and strong-willed user's edges can reach velocities similar to that of crossbow bolts, with the ability to cut through wood cleanly.

The sharpness, focus and clarity of the user's mind determines the finesse, dexterity and complexity of their usage. A sharp-minded user in a flow state with high amounts of training could control dozens of dynamic blades and slashes, each sword or dagger striking independently with the precision of a trained duelist.

The limitation is mental fog. The more hesitant, uncertain or unfocused The user is, the less stable the quirk is.

The above examples are of hypothetical top-hero level users on their absolute best days.

An average, untrained user may not even be able to use the quirk while panicking.

It requires incredible mental precision, focus and instincts.

It practically requires a user to simulate the fighting arena inside their head, and make split-second decisions on which objects will be slashes in order for the quirk to manifest.

A high-level user may find themselves simulating several swordfights inside their head in order to fight and opponent.

It allows the user to turn parts of, or their entire body into a cloud of black most of equal mass to their body or corresponding body part, along with any object making physical contact with their body.

If the total weight of the additional objects the user attempts to turn into smoke exceeds 100 kilograms, no objects get turned along with them.

If the user decides to take a living creature, then they must make contact with it with all five fingers with both hands, whereas any physical contact would suffice for a non-living creature.

This helps in displacing enemies and disrupting coordination and positioning.

While transformed, the user can control the movement, shape and trajectory of the smoke, though with concentration.

Movement is relatively easy, but manipulating the shape is difficult.

Imagine trying to do yoga, or make shapes in the shadows with your hands, except your body has no stable structural framework.

If they user spends too much time in the form of the black haze, their motor function slowly gets rusty. Upon transforming back, they may have to consciously remember how to move in a human body. They may, for example, forget that moving requires them to place their legs on the ground to catch them, not just transfer their weight forward.

While transformed, the user can move freely, accelerating to much greater speeds (roughly around the speed of an average motorcycle for a completely untrained user) than possible in human form.

After accelerating and transforming back into human form, they do not stop or lose the momentum they've accumulated.

This allows them to accelerate and strike enemies with impressive force.

They may also use to strike an enemy with a simultaneous palm strike with both hands, not only dealing damage but also touching them with all ten fingers, immediately turning them into mist and displacing them, disrupting their positioning.

A more advanced application is that the user can control the density of the smoke. The smoke normally occupies more than double the volume of the body part it originated from, but the user can condense it it into an area smaller than their original body, with intense concentration.

Imagine clenching your first, except your hands have no bones to limit how much you can condense them into a smaller surface area, and what shape they assume is also something you have to control without your bones there to do that for you.

So, in physical combat, they could swing their arm or leg and transform it into mist, in an incredibly condensed form, practically acting as a sharpened whip.

In full-body haze form, the user can also condense their entire body into a compressed form, practically becoming a mini-whirlwind of compressed, cutting smoke.

This technique is incredibly difficult, and high-risk, though. The user is spinning continuously in the air, without any feet to plant them into the ground, trying to get as fast as possible while simultaneously tracking an opponent and determining linear movement alongside rotational momentum. All while trying to compress parts of themselves into compressed smoke blades.

The overall cutting force depends largely upon the speed at which they accelerate, so an arm-whip strike would hurt much less, but would be much quicker than a full body slicing whirl.

This is a revised version of the quirk 'Blackedge', which I had created earlier. It was a little rough around the edges, and I thought I had some better ideas on how to execute it.

Blackedge(Emitter):

It allows the user to create, manipulate and shape razor-thin cutting forces which manifest as spectral-looking black slashes. The quirk reacts to emotional and mental states, such as anger or intent.

Intent governs slashes' power and precision. The strength of their intent increases power and force, while the clarity of their intent controls finesse and sharpness. Doubting one's intent can cause it to lose cohesion.

Anger is a secondary, impure power source, increasing strength, similar to intent, but not precision. The more it influences their decisions, the less controlled it is, and if it overrides their decision-making, the quirk loses control, lacerating the user's body and surroundings.

The quirk does not interact independently with anger, rather, anger makes the user's intent much stronger, but less clear.

Intent does not completely define cutting power and precision, however. The quirk has a defined ceiling and floor for either, which can be raised through training in the same way it can for other emitters in MHA.

The quirk thematically centers around growing through subtraction.

An edge cannot create or protect directly, only separate.

The user, likewise, doesn't grow by directly adding strength. Instead, they start out with their mind riddles with doubts and fog and slowly cut them away, giving way to clarity.

Upon awakening, the user, when attacking, stops shooting slashes altogether. Earlier, the main form of attack was through shooting a compressed, crescent shaped wave-like slash, Now, they gain the ability to slash directly at the space a target occupies, slashing remotely at an opponent, the slice only manifesting for the exact time and space necessary to strike. It is important to note that the slashes do not slice through space, but rather target it.

The slash is not a blade. One could not even call it an object or construct of energy. It is a cut, manifested without a blade.

It is as if the user is controlling an imaginary sword, but any objects in the path of its swing are affected by it as if it were real.

It's as if, earlier, the user was flipping through a book and their target was the last page. Blackedge was a pair of scissors, and the pages leading up to the last were the space between the user and the opponent, including any barriers, shields and armour.

Initially, they had to cut through each page, one by one, to reach the last, by which point the scissors would have inevitably dulled.

Now, however, they change their targeting mechanism. They flip the book and open the last page, and cut it directly.

To viewers, it appears as though shimmering slices have opened up in the very space the target occupies.

These slashes do not, however, directly cut through the fabric of reality. They, however have much greater cutting power than regular Blackedge slashes, as the energy is concentrated entirely along the finest possible trajectory, rather than dispersing throughout a crescent wave.

They also help to bypass most conventional defenses, as instead of the slash travelling towards the target and originating from Ren, the very space they occupy is sliced. Defenses which are used to intercept an attack, such as shields, armour and barriers, are largely ineffective, now.

Each of their slashes is limited by the fact that it is only effective in a certain radius. The trajectory they define must also be visible, or the user must have a clear enough mental understanding of its structure for the slash to be accurate, as if they were simulating an entire sword-fight in their head while simultaneously fighting.

Thematically, it represents the user gaining a level of clarity which allows them to outright ignore that which is not useful to them in a given situation, cutting to its core with extreme mental and intellectual precision.

This is a revised version of the quirk 'Blackedge', which I had created earlier. It was a little rough around the edges, and I thought I had some better ideas on how to execute it.

Blackedge(Emitter):

It allows the user to create, manipulate and shape razor-thin cutting forces which manifest as spectral-looking black slashes. The quirk reacts to emotional and mental states, such as anger or intent.

The main form of attack is the user shooting a slash towards target.

Intent governs slashes' power and precision. The strength of their intent increases power and force, while the clarity of their intent controls finesse and sharpness. Doubting one's intent can cause it to lose cohesion.

Anger is a secondary, impure power source, increasing strength, similar to intent, but not precision. The more it influences their decisions, the less controlled it is, and if it overrides their decision-making, the quirk loses control, lacerating the user's body and surroundings.

The quirk does not interact independently with anger, rather, anger makes the user's intent much stronger, but less clear.

Intent does not completely define cutting power and precision, however. The quirk has a defined ceiling and floor for either, which can be raised through training in the same way it can for other emitters in MHA.

The quirk thematically centers around growing through subtraction.

An edge cannot create or protect directly, only separate.

The user, likewise, doesn't grow by directly adding strength. Instead, they start out with their mind riddles with doubts and fog and slowly cut them away, giving way to clarity.

Upon awakening, the user, when attacking, stops shooting slashes altogether. Earlier, the main form of attack was through shooting a compressed, crescent shaped wave-like slash, Now, they gain the ability to slash directly at the space a target occupies, slashing remotely at an opponent, the slice only manifesting for the exact time and space necessary to strike. It is important to note that the slashes do not slice through space, but rather target it.

The slash is not a blade. One could not even call it an object or construct of energy. It is a cut, manifested without a blade.

It is as if the user is controlling an imaginary sword, but any objects in the path of its swing are affected by it as if it were real.

It's as if, earlier, the user was flipping through a book and their target was the last page. Blackedge was a pair of scissors, and the pages leading up to the last were the space between the user and the opponent, including any barriers, shields and armour.

Initially, they had to cut through each page, one by one, to reach the last, by which point the scissors would have inevitably dulled.

Now, however, they change their targeting mechanism. They flip the book and open the last page, and cut it directly.

To viewers, it appears as though shimmering slices have opened up in the very space the target occupies.

These slashes do not, however, directly cut through the fabric of reality. They, however have much greater cutting power than regular Blackedge slashes, as the energy is concentrated entirely along the finest possible trajectory, rather than dispersing throughout a crescent wave.

They also help to bypass most conventional defenses, as instead of the slash travelling towards the target and originating from the user, the very space they occupy is sliced. Defenses which are used to intercept an attack, such as shields, armour and barriers, are largely ineffective, now.

The main way to defend against it is through raw durability or evasion. Another way is through disrupting the user's mental understanding of their target's location and structure, possibly through induced hallucinations, neurological effects, illusions, or plain constant movement.

Each of their slashes is limited by the fact that it is only effective in a certain radius. The trajectory they define must also be visible, or the user must have a clear enough mental understanding of its structure for the slash to be accurate, as if they were simulating an entire sword-fight in their head while simultaneously fighting.

Thematically, it represents the user gaining a level of clarity which allows them to outright ignore that which is not useful to them in a given situation, cutting to its core with extreme mental and intellectual precision.

Rate this as an MHA quirk:

Blackedge(Emitter):

It allows the user to create and manipulate impossibly thin cutting edges and slashes of spectral-looking void-black energy. The quirk reacts to emotional and mental states, such as anger or intent.

Intent governs slashes' power and precision. The strength of their intent increases cutting power and force, while the clarity of their intent controls finesse and sharpness. Doubting one's intent can cause it to lose cohesion.

Anger is a secondary, impure power source, increasing strength, similar to intent, but not precision. The more it influences their decisions, the less controlled it is, and if it overrides their decision-making, the quirk loses control, lacerating the user's body and surroundings.

The quirk does not interact independently with anger, rather, anger makes the user's intent much stronger, but less clear.

Intent also does not completely define cutting power and precision, however. The quirk has a defined ceiling and floor for either, which can be raised through training in the same way it can for other emitter quirks in MHA.

The quirk thematically centers around growing through subtraction.

An edge cannot create or protect directly, only separate.

The user, likewise, doesn't grow by directly adding strength. Instead, they start out with their mind clouded with doubts, hesitation and fog and slowly cut them away, giving way to clarity.

Awakening:

Upon awakening, the user, when attacking, stops shooting slashes altogether. Earlier, the main form of attack was through shooting a compressed, crescent shaped wave of cutting energy. Now, they gain the ability to manifest slashes or cutting edges anywhere within a certain radius. The edges, however, cannot spawn intersecting an object.

It's as if the user is controlling an invisible blade which only manifests for the moment necessary to strike. When its edge appears, it is already touching the opponent, and slashes into them.

To viewers, it appears as though shimmering slices have opened up in the very space the target occupies.

These edges do not directly cut through the fabric of reality. They do, however have much greater cutting power than regular Blackedge constructs, as the energy is concentrated entirely along a fine edge, rather than dispersing throughout a wave.

Quirk: Blackedge

Rate this as an MHA quirk:

Blackedge(Emitter):

It allows the user to create and manipulate impossibly thin cutting edges and slashes of spectral-looking void-black energy. The quirk reacts to emotional and mental states, such as anger or intent.

Intent governs slashes' power and precision. The strength of their intent increases cutting power and force, while the clarity of their intent controls finesse and sharpness. Doubting one's intent can cause it to lose cohesion.

Anger is a secondary, impure power source, increasing strength, similar to intent, but not precision. The more it influences their decisions, the less controlled it is, and if it overrides their decision-making, the quirk loses control, lacerating the user's body and surroundings.

The quirk does not interact independently with anger, rather, anger makes the user's intent much stronger, but less clear.

Intent also does not completely define cutting power and precision, however. The quirk has a defined ceiling and floor for either, which can be raised through training in the same way it can for other emitter quirks in MHA.

The quirk thematically centers around growing through subtraction.

An edge cannot create or protect directly, only separate.

The user, likewise, doesn't grow by directly adding strength. Instead, they start out with their mind clouded with doubts, hesitation and fog and slowly cut them away, giving way to clarity.

Awakening:

Upon awakening, the user, when attacking, stops shooting slashes altogether. Earlier, the main form of attack was through shooting a compressed, crescent shaped wave of cutting energy. Now, they gain the ability to manifest slashes or cutting edges anywhere within a certain radius. The edges, however, cannot spawn intersecting an object.

It's as if the user is controlling an invisible blade which only manifests for the moment necessary to strike. When its edge appears, it is already touching the opponent, and slashes into them.

To viewers, it appears as though shimmering slices have opened up in the very space the target occupies.

These edges do not directly cut through the fabric of reality. They do, however have much greater cutting power than regular Blackedge constructs, as the energy is concentrated entirely along a fine edge, rather than dispersing throughout a wave.

Rate this as an MHA quirk:

Blackedge(Emitter):

It allows the user to create and manipulate impossibly thin cutting edges and slashes of spectral-looking void-black energy. The quirk reacts to emotional and mental states, such as anger or intent.

Intent governs slashes' power and precision. The strength of their intent increases cutting power and force, while the clarity of their intent controls finesse and sharpness. Doubting one's intent can cause it to lose cohesion.

Anger is a secondary, impure power source, increasing strength, similar to intent, but not precision. The more it influences their decisions, the less controlled it is, and if it overrides their decision-making, the quirk loses control, lacerating the user's body and surroundings.

The quirk does not interact independently with anger, rather, anger makes the user's intent much stronger, but less clear.

Intent also does not completely define cutting power and precision, however. The quirk has a defined ceiling and floor for either, which can be raised through training in the same way it can for other emitter quirks in MHA.

The quirk thematically centers around growing through subtraction.

An edge cannot create or protect directly, only separate.

The user, likewise, doesn't grow by directly adding strength. Instead, they start out with their mind clouded with doubts, hesitation and fog and slowly cut them away, giving way to clarity.

Awakening:

Upon awakening, the user, when attacking, stops shooting slashes altogether. Earlier, the main form of attack was through shooting a compressed, crescent shaped wave of cutting energy. Now, they gain the ability to manifest slashes or cutting edges anywhere within a certain radius. The edges, however, cannot spawn intersecting an object.

It's as if the user is controlling an invisible blade which only manifests for the moment necessary to strike. When its edge appears, it is already touching the opponent, and slashes into them.

To viewers, it appears as though shimmering slices have opened up in the very space the target occupies.

These edges do not directly cut through the fabric of reality. They do, however have much greater cutting power than regular Blackedge constructs, as the energy is concentrated entirely along a fine edge, rather than dispersing throughout a wave.