Chapter 54: Experiment
"All Might, can you help me get him back into a sitting position?" Kira said, silently retracting his hand without a hint of awkwardness. "He's too tall. I can't reach his head."
"Haha!" All Might laughed. As he pressed Nomu down onto the stool in front of him, he didn't forget to tease Kira. "Young Kira, you still need to grow taller! You won't make it if you're not at least one meter ninety!"
Kira rolled his eyes. I don't have the blood of the Joestar family. It'll be my limit to reach 175cm as an adult...
"Is this okay?" All Might positioned Nomu's body like an elementary school student at an assembly, with his hands on his knees and his back straight.
"His back is too straight," Kira said, slapping Nomu's back hard. He slumped into a hunched, head-bowed sitting position.
Like he was using the Star-Sucking Great Skill, Kira pressed his right hand onto the exposed brain on Nomu's head and let out a soft cry, "Hamon Overdrive!"
Golden Hamon with arcs of electricity appeared on the surface of Kira's palm, stimulating Nomu's brain. All Might saw a look of pain on Nomu's face and asked nervously, "Young Kira, how is it?"
"It's slippery to the touch. It feels like there's something covering the surface, preventing his brain from making contact with the outside world," Kira said with a frown, increasing the intensity of his Hamon. "But this layer of tissue isn't too thick. I can break through it."
In the somewhat dim room, the light from the Hamon seemed to be the only source of light, illuminating the various blood vessels on Nomu's brain.
"Alright," Kira said, taking two steps back. "Now let's see what happens."
Just as All Might was wondering what was going on, Nomu slowly raised its head, stood up from its seat, and stared intently at All Might.
"Young Kira, what did you do?!" All Might got into a fighting stance, breaking out in a cold sweat. He thought to himself, I might not be able to beat Nomu in my current state. If he wakes up, I'll have to hold him off and let Young Kira escape first...
Just as All Might was planning his escape route, Nomu suddenly raised its chained hands, parallel to its shoulders, and hopped like a Chinese zombie. The chains on its body rattled with its movements.
As All Might stared in disbelief, Kira nodded with a look of understanding. "As I thought. Nomu has no self-awareness right now..."
"...Eh?"
"Nomu, raise your hands," Kira instructed. Nomu immediately raised its hands straight up, without a hint of hesitation.
"Crouch."
"Stand."
"Raise your hand."
"Turn around."
"Roll your left eyelid, cross your right eye."
"Uppercut into a rising dragon kick."
Like training an animal, Kira issued various commands, and Nomu faithfully carried them out, performing the actions quickly and accurately.
Is this the same Nomu that was trading blows with me... This is completely like a loyal pet following its master's commands, All Might couldn't help but think.
"Spin, jump, and close your eyes."
When Kira gave another command, Nomu suddenly stopped moving, just maintaining its hunched-over standing posture.
"Has it reached its limit..."
Kira snapped out of his research mode and looked at All Might, who was, at some point, sitting in a chair like a well-behaved student. He smiled apologetically. "Sorry, All Might. I got a little carried away."
All Might shook his head and smiled. "It's good to be focused, Young Kira. No need to apologize... So, was your research successful?"
"I have a rough understanding of how Nomu operates," Kira said after a two-second pause. "As you can see, I just controlled Nomu's actions, making it perform a series of movements under my command. This is because Nomu has no self-thinking ability at all."
"What?!" All Might suddenly slammed the table and stood up. "If it has no thinking ability, is it being controlled by someone else?!"
Before Kira could speak, All Might sat back down and said to himself calmly, "That's right... that's how it is. Nomu is a tool controlled by the boy named Tomura Shigaraki..." All Might laughed self-deprecatingly and said in a low voice, "Am I just venting my emotions on a wooden puppet... How embarrassing."
Kira didn't hear the last part and nodded in agreement. "My Quirk, Hamon, has an effect that can temporarily paralyze someone's nerves, allowing me to temporarily control their actions under my will."
Kira thought of Caesar's first fight with Joseph and added, "I can control a mentally normal person for about a minute at most. But I was able to control Nomu for a full ten minutes. That means his mental state can't be described as just weak."
"Wait, Young Kira!" All Might suddenly asked anxiously, "You can control other people's actions. What if you were facing me?"
"Let's put it this way. If I want to control someone, I have to infuse Hamon into their brain to paralyze their sensory nerves and take over the role of their central nervous system to issue commands to their motor nerves."
Kira demonstrated his Hamon. The golden Hamon flickered in the air for a moment and then dissipated. "As you can see, once Hamon leaves the body without a medium, it dissipates very quickly. It's very difficult to reach someone else's central nervous system."
"And if the other person is conscious of resisting and their neural activity is very strong, the Hamon will at most paralyze their movements. It's very difficult to control someone's body for even a second," Kira said, pointing at Nomu's brain. "His structure is different from a normal person's. His brain is completely exposed, so I can directly contact it with Hamon."
All Might breathed a sigh of relief. As he thought, there were such great restrictions. If it weren't for the special case of Nomu, the strict conditions would be almost impossible to meet. It's a good thing he can't. If he could freely control other people's bodies, how terrifying would Young Kira's ability be...
There was one thing Kira didn't say. If he wanted to control a normal person's body, he would have to transmit the Hamon through their body, preferably through their lips to reach their brain. But he would never do that to someone.
"To summarize, this monster called Nomu is just a biological weapon controlled by someone else. It might be a Quirk, or there might be a special receiving device installed in his brain that sends various commands to his nerves. When the controller, Tomura Shigaraki, is too far from the receiving device, it will be out of range, and without commands, he will remain still—just like a computer in standby mode."
Officer Sansa heard Kira's explanation, and his cat-like pupils instantly widened in excitement. He slammed his fist on the desk. "So that's how it is! No wonder our people couldn't get him to talk, no matter what they did! He has no self-awareness at all!"
Inspector Tsukauchi had finished his business and came to the detention center to see All Might. He happened to hear Kira explaining their discovery to a few officers. He slowly took a sip of his tea. "Since this student has analyzed how Nomu operates, I'll let you off the hook for filing a false report in my name for now."
Hearing this, Officer Sansa shuddered and let out a silent sigh of relief. The thought that his own decision to let All Might into the interrogation room might have led to the discovery of Nomu's secret made him excited again. He looked at All Might with eyes full of admiration—As expected of my idol! He easily does what others can't!
Never mind that the content of his report was all from Kira, and All Might had actually just been there to vent. But in reality, if he had taken All Might's request to Inspector Tsukauchi, the inspector would probably have agreed anyway.