u/Glacium-Terada

A lot of characters are initially motivated by some tragedy in their younger days that continually pushes them forward. However, I'm more interested in the moments after their initial motivation that weigh on them as the worst moments of their life.

For Tainaka Nao, it would be the death of Sir Nighteye. When she was 8, her parents both died in front of her because of a building collapse. She couldn't use her biokinesis quirk to heal them, because as an 8 year old, she didn't know enough about biology to fix what was broken.

But with Nighteye, she knew exactly what needed to be done. She barely knew the man, but after the Shie Hassaikai raid, she was the best option for healing him, and she knew what she needed to do.

The issue was that he had so much going wrong in his body she couldn't keep up. She had to force his heart to keep beating, replace the lost blood in his body, keep his organs free of internal bleeding, help his lungs take in enough oxygen, and between all that, somehow find time to actually heal him. It ends up all being too much for her that she was falling behind and he was getting worse even through her healing.

So he still ends up dying, and it's all while she's actively healing him and getting a constant awareness of his entire body as he dies. It's worse for her now because she isn't limited by the knowledge she possessed like with her parents, but she still couldn't save him because she just wasn't good enough.

#Name: Tainaka Nao (躰中治)

#Quirk: Biokinesis

Nao possesses rectangular pads on her palms. When these pads make skin contact with a living organism, she gains full control over that organism's biology.

As a required component for her quirk to be usable to begin with, as soon as Nao makes direct contact, it activates Bio-scan. This is the full awareness of a target's biology, down to a molecular level. Nao becomes aware of every single facet of her target's body as a constant stream of information. However, her quirk does not give her an innate knowledge of biology. Without education, most of the information that appears in her head is meaningless. She cannot choose whether Bio-scan activates, as soon as she makes direct contact, the information appears in her head.

Once a connection has been formed, she can make any modifications she desires. These modifications are slow, though, as she can only change one small thing at a time. For example, if her target had an open would, she could easily cause the blood to clot to stop bleeding withing just a few moments, as she modifies the blood cells into a clotted state. But stitching that wound closed takes significantly more time, as she has more surface area to cover. At her base level, anything more than simple injuries will take multiple hours to heal.

Just as with Bio-scan, she does not innately know anything about biology. Even with many years of dedicated study, she still keeps to returning a body back to its healthy state, as she needs her modifications to properly function within the bounds of existing biological systems. Stitching a wound closed is simple, but replacing organs or even enhancing the body comes with magnitudes more considerations to make.

If a modification she is making lacks the required materials within the body, she can also use Bio-conversion to convert biological matter within the body into other forms as needed. If her target was exsanguinated, to replace the blood she could convert lipids or muscle mass into blood. She cannot create matter from nothing, only convert existing matter into different forms.

She can also perceive quirk factors using Bio-scan, since they too are a part of a person's biology. However, since quirks are so varied, not as well-researched, and push the limits of scientific understanding, she can't comprehend what she is seeing. As such, she avoids touching people's quirk factors, as she would be essentially doing blind surgery on them.

In combat, she mostly avoids direct confrontation. However, she can still use her quirk offensively without resorting to lethal measures. Her favoured methods of combat is with quick split second modifications during the brief period her palms are in contact with skin to disrupt sensory information or tweak hormone balances, such as increasing melatonin levels to make her opponent drowsy.

Biokinesis cannot be used on Nao herself.

#Background

When Nao was 8 years old, she got noticed by the HPSC after an incident left her orphaned. Due to the potential of her quirk, and the danger if it were to be utilised by villains, she was taken in by the Commission to be trained.

She was trained in a very different way to previous agents such as Hawks. The value of her as an asset was in her ability to heal theoretically any injury should she gain enough knowledge and experience. While she was still trained physically in hand to hand and physical conditioning, much of her training was in giving her an enhanced education in the matters of biology and biochemistry.

Since she was scouted at the age of 8, Hawks both physically and figuratively took her under his wing. It is thanks to him that she was shielded from many of the darker sides of the Commission growing up, and she didn't succumb to her natural pessimism.

She began to view Hawks like an older sibling, and given that she shared a coincidental resemblance to the hero, the Commission saw that as an opportunity as a cover story.

To gain some field experience, build her skills through active usage, and start forming a bond within hero society, it was deemed best that she enrol at UA. She took the recommendation exam, being recommended by Hawks. If questioned about it, their cover story is that she is some form of relative of his, something that is believable because of their similar appearance and dynamic together.

#Personality

Nao has been trained most her life to be a warm, professional healer. Even though one would expect her true self to be opposite and the professional persona as just a facade, she is truly a warm and caring person.

She does have a pessimistic streak at times, with it being easy for her to view things as hopeless. But the hopefulness of those around her is usually enough for her to regain her drive.

Even without considering her training, Nao has a strong sense of ethics. Her Bio-scan makes her a walking privacy violation against her will. To limit this, she wears gloves to cover the pads on her palms, and has a strict rule that she ask for permission with fully informed consent before she uses her quirk on someone.

Another self-imposed ethical law is that any non-healing modifications she makes will be reversed as soon as relevant. This is to ensure she doesn't accidentally cause lasting damage through making unnatural changes the body isn't fully built for.

She prefers not to touch people directly with her hands, but that doesn't make her touch averse. In fact, she is the opposite, being a very physically intimate person with those she's close with.

She is often a nag to those around her, being almost obsessive with people being physically healthy. She is stubborn when it comes to health and will berate anyone who is overly reckless or doesn't take care of themselves.

Since her quirk requires her to fully know what she is doing when she makes her modifications, she is among the top in her class in terms of academics, especially when it comes to biology. However, it also makes her aware of just how much she still has to learn, and she struggles with the fact that her mind still isn't good enough to deal with some of the worst injuries she has encountered.

With Hawks, she has a dynamic where they constantly get on each other's nerves in a friendly way. Hawks will tease her, use his feathers to pick her up off the ground, and often treats her like a feral cat. Meanwhile, Nao constantly lectures him, especially on his terrible eating habits, and will respond to his teasing by attempting to attack him.

I'm looking for any and all moments in fics that have made you go, "aw, that's cute."

I may or may not be writing a more slice of life arc in my current fic, and be looking for material for inspiration.