It was her fault. It was all HER fault.

Itsuka sniffed, using her hands to wipe at her eyes while she slumped lower in the hospital chair she had found in a quiet hallway where no one would see her..

She'd HURT Izuku.

She could still remember the pain and horror in his eyes from his...mutation. Only one had been his normal, brilliant green eye; the other had changed, the sclera becoming pitch black while his pupil had split into a red slit. She hadn't wanted to do it, but it was the only thing she could think of to make it stop. It had worked, as soon as he had hit the floor his mutations had receded into his body leaving him his normal, huggable self. She'd grabbed him before he had hit the floor, his body had felt so limp in her grip.

She had saved him but it was still her fault.

Only Gran Torino had stopped her from using One For All to rush Izuku to the hospital, he was much faster than her and she didn't even know the way to get there but she hadn't cared and wanted to do it. As if that would make up for what she had done to him. The old man had picked Izuku up easily despite his height and age then flown off leaving her and Asui to follow after him on foot.

How could she have done that to her friend?

When Izuku had asked for her quirk she had been unsure, something telling her to refuse him. He had been so eager despite how haggard he had looked. He was finally excited about using his quirk for the first time since she had met him! It was supposed to be a breakthrough for him! She had brushed her thoughts aside as just her being over protective of him and had put her hand in his. The mucus had been weird but his hand had felt warm in her's.

It had been her touch that had set him off. She just knew it had been because of One For All.

It had been all her fault.

"It's not your fault, Itsuka." Gran Torino grumbled as he ambled up to where she had been sitting. Despite the fact that even though she was in a chair and still physically towered over him his presence somehow made her feel small. Was it because he had set aside faking his 'senility' and was talking to her seriously as a Pro Hero? Was this what made All Might so afraid of him? "You're muttering just like him. It's contagious."

"Yes, it is...my fault. You saw it. One For All-" Itsuka argued but Gran Torino cut her off with a sharp whack of his cane against the leg of her chair.

"One For All...is a quirk that can't so easily be copied by anyone." Gran Torino said with utter finality, "It's not just a stockpiling quirk or an emitter quirk."

"If...if it's not so normal then how do you know-" Itsuka wanted to argue with him. She had caused Izuku to lose control of his quirk. She just knew it. Again Gran Torino cut her off the same as before.

"I know. I've seen it in action more years than you've been alive." Gran Torino sighed, for a moment his eyes wandered away from her. It looked like he was replaying an old memory. He grunted again before he continued, "Quirks are like muscles...you've heard that a lot before, right?"

Itsuka nodded.

"From what you, the kid and Toshi have said about him, Izuku has lived his entire life since the age of four without willingly using his quirk. Am I right?" Gran Torino waited for her to answer him.

She didn't know for a fact...but he was most likely right. Quirks could be completely harmless or they could be utterly destructive. Izuku's quirk certainly was closer to the destructive end of the spectrum considering what it did to his body and what kind of quirk he copied, but even he went above and beyond treating it like it was an open flame or poisonous. He had been coming around to see his quirk in a new light...but she suspected the events from earlier that day would make him even more loath to use his quirk.

"Right. He...he avoids using his quirk if he can help it. Since it's always active."

Gran Torino grunted at her last words, as if he was of another mind but he nodded his head and continued, "He hasn't actively used his quirk in a decade and a half, but then has suddenly begun to use it so much. It's like he walked into a gym for the first time in his life and decided to lift three times his body weight all at once. His 'muscle' spasmed under the stress which I forced him to do. If you want to blame anyone, then blame me, kid."

"No it-"

"Don't you argue with me, now!" Gran Torino barked, this time actually bonking her on the head with his cane, "I'm the Pro Hero here! It happened under my watch. It's my responsibility."

Itsuka remained silent, biting her lip as something else surged to the forefront of her thoughts. Something she had been thinking about long before today. "...did...did All Might...was he right in choosing me to take One For All?"

To her surprise his answer came quicker than she had expected.

"That's not something I and neither can you decide, kid." Gran Torino shook his head slowly before he met her eyes, "You have to prove it, every day of your life, but...I can see why Toshi chose you."

Before she could ask him anything else he waved his cane in her face again. "No, that's it. No more questions. You haven't even gotten into U.A. yet! You have years to figure this out. The kid's mother should be here soon, and from how she sounded on the phone we are going to need a mop and bucket once she gets here. Maybe three."

Two Days.

Izuku had been asleep for two whole days.

It was already Saturday and tomorrow when he was released from the hospital he would have to go home.

"Sigh…" Izuku rubbed his hands in his face before he let them drop so he could stare at the ceiling. Two of the tiles were cracked.

When he had woken up he had looked around the room he was in, bewildered to be in a hospital. There was a window letting in the morning sunlight and another bed which had the privacy divider closed. His mother's shout of "MY BABY" was the first thing he heard before she wrapped him into a soaking hug. Which had got him crying once he realized he had worried her half to death. Asui had coughed loudly to get him to notice that she and Itsuka were also in the room. He had frozen up when he had seen them. The image of himself in the mirror had flashed before his eyes and he had felt something twist inside of him and couldn't stop thinking that he was a monster.

He was lucky to have two good friends.

They had guessed his fear over what had happened and had reassured him that everything was alright, they just wanted to make sure that he was alright. That they had cared about him had only sent him and his mother crying even more again.

Asui had talked more than Itsuka. She had looked like she had wanted to say...something to him but whatever it was she had kept it to herself. A few times it looked like she would come out and say it but each time her resolve seemed to crumble and she kept quiet. Letting Asui fill him in on what had happened the last two days with their training under Gran Torino.

He had wanted to say something to Itsuka but he just couldn't put it into words.

His friends had worked together to pry his mother off of him. Visiting hours for the morning had almost ended and he did not want her to miss work because of him. He was...fine. Still weak, but the doctors had told him he would be released the next day. Gran Torino had not been there. Was the Pro avoiding him or was it something else?

After lunch he had felt tired and closed his eyes, but then he had fully realized he had missed two full days and that had woken him up again. Though why should he care? Was he really going to use his quirk after what had-

"Izuku...are you awake?" Itsuka appeared in the doorway, peeking inside. Had she snuck inside to see him? The thought made his chest tighten.

"I'm...yea." he replied, his head felt fuzzy still but he was definitely awake. "Come in."

It was only when she slipped inside the room and he saw her smile down at him that he realized the mistake he had made. They were alone together. He was alone with her. By themselves. In a room.

His face felt hot as he blushed. Sure they had been alone together before at Dagobah Beach...but this felt so much more intimate than that. It felt like the walls were shrinking around him as she stepped around the foot of his bed and she sat down next to him.

That was a mistake for two reasons. What he saw and what he felt.

It was as if he was blind to everything else in the room but her. She was radiant and it only made him think even more on the minute details about her that made her so overwhelmingly attractive. The brilliance of her orange-hair and teal-colored eyes. The ease at which her smile could reassure him when he was on the verge of panic. The aura of inner and outer strength that seemed to glow around her. The...heft of her chest...the powerful, taunt muscles underneath her arms...the dangerous curves of her waist…

He shook his head, "What was it that you wanted to-?"

She easily stopped him from speaking with a single finger pressed to his lips. Her eyes looked into his and her eyelids drooped as a sultry smile curled on her own lips. Slowly, deliberately she climbed onto the hospital bed and straddled his waist, he felt her powerful thighs squeeze and lock him in place with barely any effort on her part. He felt absolutely dwarfed by her Amazonian stature looming over him. His already twisting core continued to stretch as she tore out the hair tie that kept her ponytail bound, letting her long hair fall out draped across her shoulders and frame her beautiful face. He was transfixed. She was like a marble statue of a goddess come to life as flesh.

"I want...you, Izuku~" her voice was low and husky, his only response was an squeak of shock.

Was this happening? Was this really happening? Not that he hadn't dreamed this before but Izuku never thought in all his eighteen years of life it would come true. Normally, he would have been a flinching, squirming mess at such close contact to someone else due to his phobia thanks to his quirk. With Itsuka though he wasn't feeling anything of what he usually felt, his nerves weren't screaming at him to get away. No, he wanted to get closer to her. He wanted her to touch him more, to feel her skin against his skin.

Without any other explanation she bent forward, her arms reached out and gripped his sides just underneath his armpits, he felt her thumbs briefly move in soft circular motions against his chest. Then with only a slight grunt of effort, which the sound of sent a shiver down his spine to his groin, she lifted him up into a sitting position with his back against the headboard. Her strength on display, her arms rippled as the muscles underneath flexed. He shuddered uncontrollably when he felt his legs slowly slide up and out from between her thighs. Now she was holding herself up with both hands on the bed, yet she was still able to look him in the eye from where she had popped him up.

If he looked a little lower he was in danger of vertigo, of falling into the canyon that was her cleavage formed from the push-up bra she must have been wearing.

He wanted to dive in head first, but a confused part of him still continued to shout 'This is Itsuka! She isn't like this. He would ruin his friendship with her if he took advantage of her.' He froze with conflicting signals bouncing off one another inside of him.

"K-k-kendou." he stammered as she crawled forward until their faces were mere inches apart, all he could see now were her face the hint of the canyon of her cleavage which was already pushing against him, her legs clamping down on his body again and pinning him in place. He couldn't feel his heartbeat. He couldn't feel anything.

"Call me, Itsuka and I'll call you mine~ All Mine~" she cooed, biting her lip, again in a display of strength she balanced herself up on one hand while using the other to slide behind and grab the back of his head. She giggled and it sounded like bliss as she slowly ran her fingers through his hair, he lost himself. The starvation of touch he had felt being satisfied by her. Then after an eternity she leaned in closer, her lips puckering just for him and he found his numb body somehow able to respond, he moved his face closer to her.

Their lips met.

Slash. Cut. Blade.

He felt the blade growths bloom suddenly on his chest, he tried to scream a warning but no sound came from his mouth. Time slowed down to an agonizing slow pace as he felt the chitinous blades burst forward from his chest, piercing Itsuka in the heart and then-

He was pulled back into the waking world with a splash of water against his face.

"I can't get any sleep with you groaning over there, Moptop."

"What-?" he sprang up in bed, his head soaking wet while the rest of his body felt like it was drenched in sweat. In particular his ear. He looked around, he was still in the hospital but judging by the lack of daylight from the window it was nighttime. The room had a dimmer switch so it was mostly dark. He looked around for the source of the voice, and he saw it, sort of. The privacy curtain around his 'roomate's' bed was still drawn but from the light of a lamp on their side of the curtain he could make out the silhouette of them sitting up in their bed and looking in his direction.

"You were groaning in your sleep…" the voice said, it was a woman's voice and the next words she spoke had more than a hint of playfulness, "...or should I say moaning? Dreaming of your girlfriend, hmm?"

Oh gods. His face felt like it was on fire, he remembered just exactly what had been dreaming. He felt relief that he had not really hurt Itsuka, but also disappointment once he realized she had not been there at all. Which...was for the best. They were just friends after all. He doubted she could be interested in a boring person like him who could turn into a monster.

"N-no! I don't have a girlfriend!" Izuku stuttered, he leaned over to the night stand and picked up a small hand towel to dry his face off. How had she poured water on him? Did she have a water generation quirk?

"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you dreaming about -both- of your girlfriends then?" his roommate cackled. Surely she couldn't see how his blush had only deepened from behind the curtain, right? As long as she didn't see she wasn't winning anything from him. "I heard your two girlfriends earlier."

"You did?" he frowned, not that Itsuka and Asui were his girlfriends. They were just friends.

"It might surprise you but when you and your mom cry, you aren't exactly subtle about it." she said with mock sarcasm, "You ruined my nap then. So now I get to ruin yours now. We are officially even."

"That's good...I guess…but they were just my friends! My only friends" Izuku responded, wincing at how pathetic that sounded.

"Are you suuuure? Perfectly positive?" she asked, he felt she had something else to say on the tip of her tongue but he couldn't guess what. It felt like a trap.

"Yes, I am sure." Izuku replied, something in his stomach dropped as he said the words.

"Oh good. That means you're free to go out on a date with me, right?" she purred the words, her silhouette seemed to lean closer towards him.

"Wh-what!? Y-y-you-?" his stuttering ended when he heard her cackle much louder this time. He heard her slap her hand several times against her mattress.

"Oh, wow. I got you good. Look at you, your face is so red. Hahaha~" she laughed. Mortified, he put his head in his hands. Did she have an x-ray quirk? Could she see through the curtain? No, maybe she was just bluffing to get another rise out of him. It had worked.

Eventually her laughter petered off into silence. Hoping that would be the end of their already embarrassing conversation he dropped back down to his bed and covered himself with the blanket. His roommate had other ideas.

"So, you're in here for quirk exhaustion too, hmmm?" she asked, curiosity filling her voice, "What kind of quirk do you have?"

He could just ignore her. That was always an option. He knew that, but years of politeness and his obsession with quirks eroded his will until he answered her after what seemed like an eternity- a whole ten seconds.

"My quirk, Mutate. It...let's me copy mutation and transformation quirks." he finally answered, hoping she would be satisfied. She wasn't.

"Now that sounds like a fun quirk." she hummed. It was a casual response, maybe a little envious but for some reason her words set him off. He flipped over the blanket and sat up in his bed.

"What? No! It's horrible! I can't turn it off and if I copy too many quirks...I become a monster." he shook his head as his whole body shuddered, "I...don't ever want to use it again."

"You're going to have to if you want to be a hero, kid." Gran Torino said from the doorway, despite his age he was surprisingly stealthy. Perhaps his height helped with that? He turned the dimmer up so the room was several shades more visible.

"G-gran Torino-sensei? What are you doing here? Visiting hours are over." Izuku asked. The older man had not visited him earlier when his mom and friends had, why was he here now?

"I'm a Pro Hero, kid. I literally have a paper that says 'I can do whatever I want'." Gran Torino barked with laughter then strolled up to Izuku's bedside. The amused sneer on his face slowly faded and was replaced with a grimace. "I meant what I said. You are going to use your quirk again and again."

"W-what? How could you say that?" Izuku flinched backwards, as if Gran Torino's words had burned him, "Y-you saw what happened to me! M-my damn quirk. It..made me into a m-monster."

He had become a monster, just like Kacchan and the others had said he was, but at the sametime he remembered feeling so powerful when using his quirk. It had been a good feeling.

"Quirks are dangerous. That's why you train to use them and why the law says no one can go and use theirs all willy-nilly like." Gran Torino tapped the bedside with his cane.

"Oh! I can attest to that." his roommate chuckled, earning her a look in her direction from Gran Torino but he ignored her.

"Some folks are naturally gifted with control over their quirks. Some folks need the practice." the older man continued, a wry smile forming on his face, "The first time I used my quirk my head got stuck in a ceiling."

"Y-your quirk isn't like mine. I can't control it. I can't turn it off at all!" Izuku responded, shaking as the memories of years of accidents and failed attempts clawed at him.

"Yes, you can Izuku. I've seen it." Gran Torino replied. Izuku did not respond for several seconds as he just stared at the old man.

"No." Izuku said the word with the same amount of surety as if Gran Torino had told him the sky was purple, water was dry, or that Endeavor was the #1 hero in Japan.

"Oh? How do you know for sure?" Gran Torino hummed the words, his wry smile getting wider.

"How do I-?" this time the anger he felt he knew was his own, it filled his veins and gave him the courage to stare down the Pro Hero, "Y-years worth of torment and failure! Trying and seeing it fail again and again. Of-of wishing I had ANY other quirk than my own!"

He shook as he said the words, slowly he calmed down and the older man waited for him to get a grip before he continued.

"Yes. Exactly," he sounded triumphant, as if he had solved a hard riddle, "You've always wanted another quirk, eh? Consciously AND subconsciously. Well, your quirk lets you 'have' other quirks. That's why your quirk ONLY turns off when you are asleep."

Izuku's heart skipped a beat. Sweat formed on the back of his neck and palms. What...what was Gran Torino saying? He heard the words but it sounded alien to him. No...his quirk never turned off. Never. Ever.

"Well, yea." his roommate spoke up, drawing Izuku's gaze toward her silhouette. "You didn't copy my quirk when I tried slapping you awake earlier. That's why I had to use the water."

What was her quirk again? She had said she was in the hospital for quirk exhaustion as well, hadn't she? She had been able to see him blush and had dumped the water on him even though she appeared to not have moved from her bed. Yet she just said she had touched him and he didn't feel as if he had copied any quirks.

WHAT was her quirk? His mind scrambled for an answer, it had to be an emitter or something similar right?

"You...my quirk can't copy emitter type quirks." he twitched as he said the words. His mind felt like it was starting to split in two directions. One with his usual despair and the other direction with...hope?

"Oh, my quirk isn't an emitter type." she answered. Izuku watched as her silhouette sat up straight so he could see a full profile of her before she held up both of her hands he guessed for him to see. When nothing happened he was about to call out to her but his words died in his mouth when the silhouette of her left hand, then her right hand, and last her head detached themselves from the rest of her body. Her detached body parts floated upward and then over the top of the curtain. Two detached hands floated down on his side of the curtain, one holding an empty glass. One head, detached just below the neckline floated over, revealing the smirking, kind of cute, face of his 'roomate'.

She had curly hair which was surprisingly of a similar shade of green as his. She reminded him of a smiling lizard.

"Setsuna Tokage. Nice to meet you, Moptop." her head turned to the side, letting Izuku catch a glimpse of exposed nerves and muscle, she glanced at Gran Torino "Captain Senior Citizen. My quirk is called lizard-tail splitter and as you can see it is a transformation quirk." one of her hands pointed at him as her smirk became maniacally triumphant, "A quirk you told me in your own words you could copy."

"I..I...what? No! What?" Izuku stuttered, his eyes growing wide as he looked at her then at himself. He turned over his hands, checked his arms, and felt his neck. Everything was still connected to one another. "You...you're lying to me. You didn't-"

"Thought you'd say that." Tokage interrupted him, one of her floating hands floated back and behind the curtain. He heard several thumps from her bed, and by the way Tokage's eyes narrowed in concentration he guessed she was looking for something. After several more seconds of looking she went "Aha" in triumph and her hand returned clutching a phone. She unlocked it, flipped around on the screen and then turned it toward him to show a saved picture.

It was a picture of him sleeping with one of her hands stuck in his ear.

"A wet willy. It was before you started to moan in your sleep." her head and hands bobbed in the air as if she had shrugged her shoulders, he did catch sight of her torso's silhouette doing just that a moment later.

She had...touched him and he had not copied her quirk. He had not copied her quirk. She had a quirk which he could copy but he had not copied it. His quirk had turned off.

His quirk had turned off!

"I..I have so many questions…" he mumbled, he was dreaming still, wasn't he? This was all just a dream…if this was a dream he wanted Itsuka back.

"The question you have to ask yourself is this: Do you want a different quirk more than you want to be a hero? Which is more important?" Gran Torino answered him, his grimace returned, the cackling old man who had delighted in pushing and punishing Izuku was gone. He was the stern sensei who was looking to his student for an answer.

A part of Izuku wanted to scream and shout 'a different quirk!' but it was overpowered by another deeper desire...a deeper dream. A dream he had always held onto no matter how many times he had despaired over his quirk or others had called him worthless or a quirk stealer. He had held onto it since even before his quirk had manifested. The memory of his younger self as he watched All Might save the day time and time again. How much he wanted to be a hero, the kind of hero that would smile and that alone would let everyone know everything would be alright.

No matter the danger. No matter who you were or where you were from. No matter the quirk you had or didn't have.

"I want to be a hero." he didn't hesitate to say it, he squeezed his fists tightly over his blanket, "I've always wanted to be a hero. Whatever quirk I ended up with...or even if I never gained one at all..."

He felt...he felt something in him give way, a feeling he couldn't place but felt so very familiar. It subsided within him but it wasn't gone, just within reach of himself.

Slowly, Gran Torino pulled something out of his utility belt, it was the baggy with Itsuka's hair inside of it. He didn't say anything to Izuku, he didn't need to. Izuku reached out with his hand to grab it-

-but before he could reach it a floating hand swept down and slapped his wrist with enough force to make him hiss at the fleeting pain he felt.

Divide. Heal. Autonomy.

The feeling of having copied a quirk rang in his head.

"Ouch! Tokage-" he rubbed the spot where she had struck him then froze. He looked at his hand, while using the other to feel his neck. Afraid that he would suddenly split apart and float away in a dozen panicking body pieces.

Nothing happened.

Before he could question it, he acted on adrenaline and impulse. He snapped his hand out and grabbed Itsuka's hair in his fingers.

Huge. Limb. Grip.

He waited for the all now very familiar sensation of Big Fist activating, but again nothing happened.

"Hmph. What did I tell you?" Gran Torino huffed, his grin back on his face, arms wrapped around his chest, "I was a teacher at U.A. for years. You aren't the first whippersnapper I've seen with control issues."

He wanted to laugh, to cry, to shout so many godsdamned things all at once. His entire body was trembling. Instead, he breathed in deeply and then let it go again. Mentally he reached into himself and pulled on his quirk. Immediately he felt his forearms at his elbows detach and float in the air while at the sametime his fists swelled larger - he felt a connection between them even though they weren't physically connected. He commanded his hands to open and close as he normally would and they responded. He commanded both of them to sink lower as if he was just normally lowering his arms and they followed his brain impulses perfectly.

Again he reached out to his quirk and turned it off. Like they were caught on a fishing line, both of his arms zipped through the air on their own accord and attached themselves to his elbows again, his fists shrinking back to their normal proportions as they did so.

Focusing on his quirk and the two he had copied he realized that he couldn't feel where one began and the other ended. Neither quirk could be toned down over the other, if he activated one the other would activate immediately. It was like a default setting, all or nothing at all. Which meant his quirk was still converting both transformation quirks from both girls as mutation types in his body. It was almost like his body really wanted to shape itself to the quirks he had as naturally as he would breathe air.

FLASH

A bright light made him blink several times, once his vision returned he looked over at Tokage who was fiddling with a phone.

"Did you just take my picture?" he asked, face flushing again.

"Of course! The look on your face was priceless, Moptop." she cackled and tapped away on the phone. He looked closer at the phone, she had an All Might protective cover just like his phone.

"Wait. That's my phone!" he protested, blushing even harder now he jumped out of bed and made to grab it but without even looking up Tokage floated out of his reach towards the ceiling.

"Suuure is. Swiped it before you woke up. You have got to get a better password than 'AllMight#1' it was so easy to guess, I am not kidding." Tokage's body shuddered with laughter.

"What are you doing with it?" he groaned. He hoped she wasn't going through his pictures or his quirk analysis notes.

"Putting my number in of course, Moptop. We are both gunning for U.A. after all and I know I'll get in but you'll need all the help you can get. Plus you are fun to tease. Plus ultra, making a chat group with Kendou and Asui. I didn't get to meet them but from what my floating eye saw they look like they are fun to tease too."

"W-what? How do you know their names?" Izuku flinched, next to him Gran Torino started to shake with laughter.

"Apart from your Mom they are the only contacts in your phone," she stuck out her tongue, "Aaaaaand there we go!"

She flipped his phone back over to him, her body parts immediately descended back over her curtain toward her torso. He barely caught his phone, it almost slipped but he grabbed it before it could get away. He opened it and saw a chat group had been created.

*Mean Green Dream Team*

DNA Helix: Hey guys! I met this super awesome and great looking girl in the hospital! She is going to U.A. too! I can't believe how amazing she is. Totes.

T-Rex: Hello, hello my fellow ladies! Nice to meet you! Also FYI Kendou will have to dye her hair green so we all match! Sorry, that's the rules.

Fist: ?

Frog: What happened to you?

T-Rex: The first best thing in his life, me, and also the second best thing in his life.

Fist: Midoriya, what is she talking about? Who is she?

"A benefit to being old." Gran Torino shook his head and hopped up onto the bed with a relieved sigh, "You can pretend to be senile enough to not know how technology works so none of the young hotshots can bother me with texts or video chats or whatever."

Izuku ran his free hand over his face. He felt exhausted after all of the mental trauma and hoops he had been forced through, but he owed his friends an explanation at least. He started to type on his phone.

DNA Helix: Good news everyone. I can control my quirk.