Oh gods, what am I doing?

Welcome to "The Plague (pray it take not thee)"! In other words, the monstrosity of a story my siblings managed to convince me to write that I have spent more than two months plotting out. This story is (for once in my fucking life) completely plotted out from start to finish, although I am not yet finished actually writing it. Updates will be sporadic (as people who follow just about any of my other stories will know) but hopefully fairly quick. Hopefully.

(Don't get your hopes up.)

Quick forward: As stated in the summery, no knowledge of Bloodborne is necessary to understand what is going on in this story. If I mess that up somehow, feel free to tell me and I will make an attempt to fix it. In addiction to this, fans of Bloodborne should keep in mind that Quirks have kind of thrown a wrench in things, and thus some things from the game will remain the same and other things will change.

That being said, buckle up, because this is gonna be one hell of a ride.

...

Unknown Location, Europe

A man holds a bottle of liquid to his chest, and bows where he is crouched. "Oh sweet, merciful-" he whispers, curing in upon himself. He begins to cry, first quiet tears and eventually great heaving sobs. "Aah!" he cries out, gripping the bottle tight to his chest, shaking his head as tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Once," he whispers, reverently, "there was a city wrapped in a Dream-" He takes in a sudden breath and gets fluidly to his feet. He holds the bottle out in front of him-gently, carefully cradling it in his hands-as he turns towards the rest of the room. Around him, the rest of his team was kneeled, each whispering prayers under their breath.

They had been searching for this. For so long, they had been searching for this. For the remnants of that forgotten city-

For the source of all quirks.

…

CHAPTER 1

The Red Elixir

…

One Year Later - Musutafu, Japan

People dressed in uniform rush about, talking to one another, answering calls, and making their way from one section of the building to another. Aizawa Shouta walks through it, well accustomed to the sounds of hustle and bustle within the police station after a villain attack. He hadn't been involved in either the main fight or the clean up afterwards, but there was an incident involving a villain with an explosive quirk not even two hours previous, and the police were still busy handling the aftermath.

He dodges around a woman carrying a pile of paperwork nearly a half a meter high, and spots Sansa pouring himself some coffee by the break station. Shouta makes his way over.

"Sansa," he greets, giving a nod of his head.

"Eraserhead." Sansa cradles his mug in his hand. It's pale blue and has a black paw print on it. Shouta has a similar one at home-a bright yellow one given to him by Hizashi as a gift two years ago. "What brings you to the station?"

"I'm looking for Tsukauchi," Shouta tells him. He scans the organized chaos of the room once more, to see if the man had slipped in at any point. "Have you seen him today?"

"Yeah. He's working on a case in his office. Seems like it's taking some strange turns. You know where it is?" Sansa waits until Shouta nods before taking a sip of his coffee. Shouta gives him his thanks before leaving the table and making his way to the elevator.

He has to dodge around another few harried people but he has the elevator to himself. He rides up to the right floor before making his way down the sparsely populated hall that leads to Tsukauchi's office. When he finally reaches the door, he knocks, and enters when he hears the call to come in.

"Ah, Eraserhead." Tsukauchi smiles tiredly up at him from his desk. There are dark circles under his eyes and his desk is covered with case notes and pictures of various people and scenes. One of them looks familiar. It's a picture taken two years previous of the very man Shouta had come to discuss today. "Take a seat. I take it you're here about Shiba Kazuya?"

"I am," Shouta answers. He walks into the room and slumps into the chair in front of Tsukauchi's desk. "I'd been told there have been some changes?"

"So there have…" Tsukauchi trails off, gazing at his desk, before he starts flipping through the papers. He pulls out a file with Shiba Kazuya written in neat kanji on the label. "Remember how Shiba was feverish when we found him?"

Shouta does. The man had been pale, shaking, and covered in sweat when Aizawa had come across him finishing up a robbery. He'd also been desperate and wild eyed. Aizawa had logically assumed drugs had probably been involved. "Yes. He was using something, right?"

"You'd be correct." Tsukauchi sighs, running a hand through his hair. He opens the file and flips through the ages until he reaches Shiba's medical file. "We found some bottles of Red Elixir on him, and traces in his bloodstream. Seems like that's what he was after in that apartment building. I already questioned the tenants, though, and no one there seemed to know anything about how the Red Elixir had come to be there. None of them lied, at least. At my best guess, it was simply where he stored his own stash."

Red Elixir. The miracle drug. So that's what the villain had been after? "The symptoms are from taking the elixir? Word is it has no side effects and is non-addictive." Shouta didn't know too much about the louded miracle drug, only that no one had been able to track down the source of it just yet, someone was passing it out like candy among the homeless, and it had since spread to other circles as well. Including Villain ones. Supposedly it could cure any illness, no matter how severe. Shouta had always thought it was too good to be true.

"Supposedly it is," Tsukauchi agrees with him. "But the man keeps begging for it. And he's not getting better either. We have him under medical watch because his fever has slowly been getting worse."

"Worse?" Shouta questions. "Has he been showing any other symptoms?"

Tsukauchi hesitates, but shakes his head. "No. Just some night terrors. They started five days ago, and haven't stopped. Whenever he wakes up he cries out to something. One of the guards we have on him asked what he was dreaming about and Shiba only responded with 'Blood.' When asked to elaborate, he only started asking for the Elixir again."

Blood? What did Shiba mean when he said he dreamt of blood? "Do you think there's a connection?"

"I don't know." Tsukauchi sighs and leans back in his chair, suddenly looking exhausted. "We're still not even sure what Red Elixir is made of, or what the side effects of it are. We have analysts working on it, but it seems like they're not making much progress. We do have a new lead to where it came from though-a pharmaceutical company based in Hosu. I don't have high hopes for it, though. It's a long shot at best."

Shouta frowns. "Anything about it I should know?"

Tsukauchi shook his head. "Nothing in particular. Nothing related to Shiba, at least." He frowned and pulled a notepad and a pen out of one of the drawers of his desk. "You should go visit him yourself. Here's the hospital address and the room number." He tore the paper off the pad after he was finished writing and held it over to Shouta.

Shouta reads over the address. The hospital wasn't too far from here, and he didn't have any more papers to grade today… He should be able to make a visit after this meeting was over. "I'll make a visit."

"Good. Let me know if you learn anything," Tsukauchi says. Shouta stands and shoves the address in his pocket. He gives Tsukauchi a nod in farewell and leaves the office.

...

Sansa catches him before he leaves the building. "Hey there. How was Detective Tsukauchi?"

"Tired," Shouta answers, thinking back. "Seemed frustrated."

Sansa nods. "Yes, he'd been like that for a while now. Doesn't want to stop and take a break from it, either. Some people are saying he's getting obsessed. Do me a favor and keep an eye on him? If you're involved with his case?"

"I'll try," Shouta agrees, because he can do that much. Sansa is a friend, regardless, and Shouta doesn't mind.

…

"He's been in a great deal of pain for the last few hours," Doctor Hattori tells him as they walk down the hall towards the room Shiba is being held in. In his hands he holds a tray of food for Shiba. "We're not quite sure why. As unusual as it may sound, he's the picture of health other than the traces of Elixir in his bloodstream. I can only assume he's having a bad reaction to the drug, or that this is some side effect we haven't seen until now."

"Have you tried talking to him recently?" Shouta asks, running the information through his head He doesn't like the feeling he gets from this situation. He feels like something is about to go wrong.

"He can speak well enough, but it's usually only to ask for the Elixir or complain. Barring when he wakes from his terrors."

They turn a corner and Shouta can see two police officers in uniform, standing outside the door to the room near the end of the hall. They straighten when they see the two coming towards them. "What does he say when he wakes?"

"Only that he dreams of blood." Hattori frowns, looking oddly disturbed. "He mutters in his sleep, too, but it's just nonsense words as far as any of us can tell."

Shouta frowns as well. "I see."

He comes to a stop in front of the observation window looking into the room. Beyond it, he can see Shiba on his hospital bed, moaning.

Shiba Kazuya was a rather average looking man. He was of average height, both his hair and his eyes were a dull reddish brown, and he didn't have any of the additions so many quirks afforded people these days. His quirk was a minor one that let him grow and retract his fingernails up to 10 cm. Dressed as he was in his hospital gown, groaning in fever and delirium, he seemed very little like the man Shouta had found, wild eyed and savage in his fighting style, clawing at his capture weapon when Shouta had wrapped it around him, vicious and desperate.

In the corner of his eyes, he watched Hattori and one of the Police men acting as a guard enter the room.

"Mr. Shiba? I have some food for you. Are you feeling up to eating something today?" Hattori asks, approaching the bed slowly, with a friendly smile on his face. He kept his body language open.

"Huurts," the man moans in response. "Give me the Elixir. Give me. I need it. Huurts."

"I understand, Mr. Shiba. Would you like me to get you some pain killers?" Hattori asks, setting down the tray on the bedside table.

"NO!" Shiba shouts, shaking his head violently. Then he settled and whimpered. "The Elixir. GEt me the Elixir. Please, doctor, the Elixir."

"You know I can't do that, Mr. Shiba. Would you like to eat something?" The doctor asks again.

Shiba growls, and the sound sends shivers up Shouta's spine. Shouta moves to the doorway, careful to keep out of sight of the villain so as to not set off a reaction if Shiba recognized him. "The Elixir. Get me the Elixir!" The heart rate monitor beeps faster, and Shiba's hands claw at the sheets.

"I need you to take a deep breath, Mr. Shiba. Can you do that for me?" Hattori asks. He holds his hands up in a calming gesture.

"Huurts…" The man moans in response, still clawing at the sheets. "Hurts so bad, Doctor. The Elixir, please."

Hattori sighs. He picks up the tray of food again, turning to leave the room. "I can't," he says.

Shiba suddenly leaps at Hattori, nails outstretched and sharp. "GIVE IT TO ME!" He screams in a warcry. Hattori drops the plate of food and it hits the floor with a clang.

Shouta moves to intercept, just as the policeman is moving in front of the doctor, and before Shiba can do anyone any harm, he's wrapped up in Shouta's capture weapon, arms bound to his side. One of his feet slip on the fallen food, and he goes to the floor as well. "GIVE IT!" He's still screaming, incoherent in his rage. "GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Dr. Hattori," Shouta says, walking into the room, his grip on his capture weapon tight. He doesn't move his gaze from the villain screaming on the floor. Shouta's quirk feels like a little light lightning in his veins. "Are you alright?"

"I-" Hattori breathes in and nods shakily, staring wide eyed at the villain on the floor before switching his gaze over to where Shouta stands, his hair flying around him. "Y-yes. I- um. Yes. I'm quite alright."

"Do you have something to sedate him with?" Shouta asks, because he can't hold the villain forever. Shiba struggles in his bindings, and Shouta can see the strain of the fabric against Shiba's body.

Hattori startles before nodding quickly once more. He leaves the room, supposedly to get the sedatives. "You two," Shouta addresses the police guard standing in the room as well as the one still guarding the door. "One of you, contact Tsukauchi. Tell him there's been a development and let him know what happened. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Shouta sees the guard in the room salute from the corner of his eye. He still doesn't take his gaze off of Shiba. The man has stopped screaming and is now crying incoherently on the floor.

"What a mess…" Shouta mutters to himself.

...

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