NeonHorizon: This is the alternative route from my story Feathery Wings, but it can be read without you reading Feathery Wings. Same OC, but in this one she makes the choice to answer Twice's first question with confidence whereas in the other story, she just timidly nodded. By making the choice to offer a confident answer, it results in this timeline. Really, it's a story about trying to find one's place among villains and allowing one's self to feel accepted.

It was not uncommon for her to get calls late at night for work, but they were usually from the same clients. Repeat visitors that needed casual wound care. Kaere was accustomed to being woken late at night and called upon for help so when her phone rang, it came as only a slight surprise.

Her stomach twisted in anxious knots as she answered the call and chewed at the skin around her thumbnail as she listened to the request. The girl had a very peculiar quirk that allowed her to treat wounds and heal them almost instantly so people found her useful, but she was a very nervous, awkward person. Working in a clinic or being a hero just did not fit with how she was so she worked with slightly shadier clients who simply did not care.

She listened to the man's request before grabbing her medical kit and setting off to the address he indicated. Limited information was provided, but that was normal. With her clients, most of the details of her work had to be kept secret. All she knew was that his name was Giran and someone needed patched up.

Kaere walked at a brisk pace, keeping her head down and nervously picking at the skin around her right thumbnail. The knots in her stomach were tightening, the taste of bile rising to the back of her throat. She carefully avoided bumping into anyone, goose bumps rising on her skin and every muscle tensing.

Anyone else might have been fearful in this situation; going to meet strangers in an abandoned building. There was a high possibility of getting ambushed and killed. Or worse. That was not at all what Kaere was afraid of. Her fears concerned interaction with others.

She often tripped over her words and she was terrified of embarrassing herself. With her quirk, an injury was a minor inconvenience. Even dying would actually be a little difficult. An injury would still hurt, but she knew it would heal. She was more afraid of humiliating herself.

As she entered the building, she saw the cherry-red tip of a cigarette glowing in the shadows. "Ah…Giran-san?" she quietly called.

A man stepped out of the darkness into the faint light from the lamppost outside. He looked quite a bit older than her; short gray hair, small round glasses. When he saw her clearly, he frowned and drew his cigarette away from his mouth. "You're Kaere?"

"Y-yes, sir." She gave a nod and felt her face heating up already. It felt like her heart was going to pop from beating so fast. Sweat began to form along her hairline and she bowed her head. I'm not what he was expecting. He's disappointed. I can tell…just looking at him. I don't have any business being a medic.

He stared for a moment longer before he turned away. "Okay, I guess. I'll show you where everyone is. Follow me." He started walking, but then paused and looked over his shoulder. "You didn't bring a bodyguard with you?"

The girl tilted her head slightly. "A…bodyguard?"

"Never mind. Let's go." Giran continued ahead of her, glancing back every so often to make sure she was following. "Okay, so I'll fill you in. You've heard of the League of Villains, right?"

"Of course. In my line of work…I hear quite a bit. I've heard a few things, but nothing recent. Um…?"

"You guessed it. I need you to patch up Compress's arm. There was an…altercation…earlier. Just some bad business with yakuza. You know how it goes, right?" He glanced back and saw her nod. "So. We don't have the whole group right now. You probably heard how everyone scattered after the thing in Kamino. What we do have is kind of a mess. But you're good under pressure, right? You're a villain medic!"

Pressure…? Kaere's eyes widened and she lifted a hand to adjust her glasses. Her fingers were shaking and she silently cursed. Why am I like this? I'm already shaking…and I don't even know what's going on.

She chewed at her lower lip as they came to a stairwell and began moving up toward the second floor. Despite working mostly with villains and criminals, Kaere had never worked with the League of Villains. She never even spoke with one of their members.

Giran led her to the only doorway that shed light out into the hallway. He entered first and announced, "The medic's here."

Kaere's pulse quickened again as she stepped into the room and took in the "mess". There were four other people in this room. A blonde girl who looked younger than Kaere, sitting against the wall beneath a window and carving something into the wooden floor. A young man around Kaere's age with messy pale blue hair and narrowed red eyes, briefly looking up from examining a business card. A man in a pale gray and black costume that completely concealed his identity, kneeling on the floor near a man that she was sure had to be Compress.

Her gaze fell upon the man and felt her trembling grow worse. He was lying on his back on the floor, unconscious. More than half of his left arm was missing and someone had bunched up a shirt to press against the wound in an effort to stop the bleeding. He was dressed rather nicely; not exactly like how her typical villain or criminal clients would dress. A nice button up shirt and vest, bolo tie, fancy boots, and even what she thought was called a top hat. In a strange contrast, he was wearing a black balaclava to hide most of his face from view.

That wound…She pushed herself to approach and knelt on his left side, staring down at the soaked fabric of the shirt pressed against his arm. A tourniquet. They should have made a tourniquet. He's lost a lot of blood.

"Medic! You'll fix this for sure! Tell me you can fix this!"

Kaere glanced across the unconscious man to the costumed villain on his other side. Despite not being able to see his face, she could hear the panic and desperation in his voice. She lowered his gaze again and hunched forward a bit, sort of curling in on herself. This was a crucial moment, even if she did not know it. Her next words would determine the path her future would take.

Summoning some courage, she looked up at him again and gave a nod. "Y-yes. I can fix him," she stated. Her eyes widened as she was pulled into a hug, leaning over Compress. A…hug? I haven't done anything to deserve something like this. Even if I can patch up his friend…

Heat rose to her face when she was released and she pushed her glasses up more, her index fingernail tapping against the plastic frame anxiously. "Right…I'll need to measure the open end and…harvest some adequate pieces to work with. Maybe a blood transfusion, too. He needs some more blood."

"He can have some of mine! I doubt we're compatible!"

What…? Kaere was a little perplexed by his words, but thankfully, Giran was done talking with the blue-haired man and approached them. "Do you…know his blood type? Compress-san lost so much blood and…this man…"

"We don't know his blood type." Giran lit a fresh cigarette and pointed the tip at the man on Compress's other side. "That's Twice."

"Right…um…o-okay, I'll need to use my own blood then." She started rummaging in her medical kit and located some scissors to cut away the remainder of Compress's sleeve so she could examine his wound. It looked like the lower half of his arm had exploded from the inside out; there was no shrapnel that would indicate a close range explosive.

She chewed at her lower lip as she got the rest of her supplies ready. Kaere tried to ignore the stares, but it was difficult. Her face turned a bright shade of red as she set about slicing away strips of her own pale skin and settling it across the opening at the end of Compress's arm. Her flesh immediately bonded with his and blended to close the wound, making it look like it had never been open.

The cold air in the room made her new wounds sting for a moment, but soon enough her quirk had formed scabs to keep her from losing too much blood. When it came to the transfusion, she had to rely on help from Giran and Twice. The bespectacled man basically supervised; looking a little unsettled by Kaere's quirk.

Her quirk was called "donor". It was an advanced form of regeneration. Her skin, blood, and organs could be removed and donated to anyone because they would alter to match the recipient. Her own body would then do whatever it took to stabilize; reforming an organ, increasing the production of blood, growing back her skin.

When it was all over, she could see that what little of Compress's skin that was in view seemed to have more color to it now. "He should be stable now…um…but he should probably try not to exert himself. S-so just let him rest for a few days."

"So he's good for a prosthetic, right?"

Looking to Giran, she nodded. "Yes. I used enough skin to seal up his wound. It might be sensitive for a while. Um…s-sorry to ask, but what happened to him? I've never seen an injury like this…"

Kaere had expected Giran to offer an explanation. Out of everyone in the room, he seemed to be the most even-tempered. From the moment she walked in, the man with blue hair had glared at her like he wanted to kill her. The blonde girl watched most of the procedure with half-interest, but began to grin when she watched the blood transfusion take place.

Twice spoke before Giran could. "It's all my fault! If I didn't take that guy to meet everyone, none of this would've happened!"

She had been looking up at the broker through her long, dark brown bangs and quickly shifted her attention to Twice. The man was slouching, his face directed at Compress to indicate he was staring down at the other villain. "I…I don't understand."

"Don't you get it?! It's my fault! If I didn't ask him to meet Shigaraki, this never would've happened! Compress wouldn't have gotten hurt and Big Sis Magne would still be alive! I let everyone down! I ruined everything! I shouldn't have talked to him!" Both hands were pressing at the sides of his head, distress clear in the tone of his voice.

"Y-you…couldn't have known," she stammered. Kaere lifted a trembling hand and rested just her fingertips on his shoulder. "Um…I mean…I don't know the whole story, but…just from what you're saying. You didn't mean for something bad…something like this…to happen to him. So, um…it's…it's not your fault."

The man sniffled quietly beneath his mask and tilted his head, staring at the girl and watching a warm flush overtake her pale face. "You're too sweet! You're a liar! It was totally my fault!"

Kaere found herself pulled into a hug again and winced at the tightness of it. Two hugs in one day? She hesitantly patted him on the back, still a little alarmed by the amount of interaction she was having that day. It was rare enough for her to have a verbal conversation with someone so receiving a hug was a pretty big deal.

To her right, Compress began to stir awake. She was released from the hug as his eyes opened and Kaere turned all of her attention to him. "You're…Compress-san, right?" she asked, just to test how lucid he was.

He gave a nod and used his right arm to push himself to sit up, leaning his back against the wall. The man stared down at the stump of his left arm, but seemed more alarmed by the fact that his wound was sealed rather than the fact that most of his arm was missing. Looking back up at Kaere, his eyes skimmed over her bare arms; taking in the scabbed-over wounds.

"I don't believe we've met, my dear. You're…?"

"This is Kae-chan! She patched you up so you'd better say thanks!" Twice clenched a fist and pointed at Kaere with his other hand.

Compress tipped his hat forward slightly. "Kae-san? That's a lovely name. Thank you for tending to my injury."

He's…sort of…weird. Everyone is sort of weird. But…nice? Well Twice is nice. She lowered her head and half-shrugged. "…wound care is my specialty…" Her glasses slid forward down her nose a little, but now she was feeling too self-conscious to push them back up. It felt like everyone was staring at her, sizing her up. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew it was ridiculous, but the worry was too strong for her to attempt to rationalize it away.

"Are you alright? You're trembling," Compress pointed out.

Now feeling like her fears were completely warranted, Kaere pulled her jacket on once more to conceal her wounds. "I-I'm fine…um…I need to go home. Working tomorrow. Out of groceries. Um…I'm sorry, I just…I really need to go."

"What? Oh, yeah. Here's your pay." Giran rejoined the conversation and counted out a certain amount of cash into Kaere's palm. "There you go." He turned to look toward the blue-haired young man across the room. "Hey, Shigaraki. Did you want to say anything? Kaere's leaving now. She did a pretty good job with Compress's arm. Check it out."

"It…it's alright. I'm in a hurry and I know…Compress-san is feeling better so that's all I need to know. Um…it was nice meeting all of you." Kaere stood and bowed before briskly making her exit, butterflies in her stomach.