A/N: Sorry, this was meant to go out yesterday night. Grandfather went into hospital, so family first, always. Hopefully an upload tonight will redeem me for the lateness, and apologies for that.
Also apologies to any reviewer last chapter awaiting a reply or anyone awaiting a PM reply from me from earlier this - I promise I'll check in with you at the earliest opportunity this week.
Last chapter with Ochaco seemed to go down so much better than I was expecting- I'm genuinely relieved that the way I write Ochaco, Shoto and Dabi has kept people's interests. I want to be authentic in how characters react to an AU and what personality traits they retain even in an AU; for me that meant Ochaco's earnestness, Shoto's awkwardness, Dabi's ferocity. Hopefully I'll keep that up going forward so you can enjoy.
Anyway, longer note at the end. Izuku chapter this week, after exposing the truth of his Quirk last time. Let's see how he gets out of this, shall we?
(***)
Of all the things that had happened in the life of Izuku Midoriya, waiting for Setsuna Tokage to finish processing her thoughts and voice her opinion on his Quirk was perhaps one of the scariest.
She had walked in by accident on Inko giving her Quirk away to Izuku, displaying an ability to take a Quirk that Setsuna hadn't been aware of, and Izuku knew that the game was up immediately. There was no way that he couldn't not explain what had happened to her, and if he was being honest a part of him was glad that he was having to now; she was his cousin and a key part of his and Tenko's little group, and keeping the secret from her was not something he had enjoyed doing. So he had offered to talk, knowing full well the damage it would do if he didn't say anything or tried to get her to forget what she saw without an explanation. He had offered, and she had accepted.
That said, he was still nervous. Setsuna was a joker, and effortlessly found humour in most things that happened in life, so when she smiled and said she wanted him to spill the beans, Izuku was sad to look in her eyes and see that her smile hadn't reached them. She was chatty, and suggested they went elsewhere to go and talk about it so that Inko wasn't dragged into anything she felt uncomfortable with, but it was superficial compared to her usual spark; when Izuku had suggested it might help to explain, Inko had happily ushered them out of the door and suggested they needed space to talk things through. Maybe she had seen it too.
Setsuna had led the way, still chatting and making jokes as she made a brief detour to a cafe to buy herself a bubble tea, but they hadn't seemed right. Half-hearted wasn't the right way of describing them, but... there was something missing there. Maybe, Izuku thought, it was a reflection on how he and Tenko were feeling at the time. They were both nervous about her reaction, shooting each other silent glances as they walked whenever she wasn't looking; maybe that was affecting how he saw her. A little fear that his cousin and one of his best friends was going to be hurting because of what they had kept from her, perhaps.
The end destination had surprised Izuku to an extent. They hadn't been back to the old warehouse in which they had been training before UA for quite some time, since he and his group were attacked by the group of Yakuza thugs. To his surprise and relief it had been completely empty when they arrived, almost as if nobody had touched it besides them; there were no signs of the Yakuza, save for a large dent in one wall which Izuku realised he had created from launching Shark Head at the wall with his Quirk. In other words, it was a good place for a talk.
And so Izuku talked. Tenko didn't add much as Izuku tried to explain everything to Setsuna, sprawled on a Fat Gum body pillow she had pulled from one of the crates of leftover merchandise in the warehouse, but for a few nods and snarky comments about the Yakuza getting what they deserved (prompting a frown from Izuku at the time). Setsuna, for her part, had been almost completely quiet as he talked her through from the very start- from Incident Zero, and the moment the villain responsible for taking All Might from them compelled him to drink his blood. He didn't pause, telling her all of it, noting her raised eyebrows in surprise as he told her how Air Force manifested itself at the time Bakugo and his bully friends tried to pick a fight with him. She didn't seem shocked when she heard about what happened with Toya Setsuno, taking Steal from him, from the fights afterwards with the Yakuza that she witnessed and why Shark Head had come after them.
The only time she seemed to break her thoughtful silence and do anything at all unusual was when Izuku let slip about the moment he used his Memory Reveal Quirk to see Tenko's past and Decay claiming his family's lives. Another secret came spilling out, Tenko having to explain what Izuku had revealed about his family and what happened to them, explaining why he was so affected by what Nighteye said at UA. Setsuna's response was to get off the body pillow and hug into Tenko for what seemed like an age, staring into his eyes for the longest period- Izuku noticed how Setsuna had detached her free hand and left it with Tenko to squeeze his afterwards, making sure he was alright.
The only thing he could do afterwards was apologise. He realised how she must have felt, that there was something going on with him and Tenko that she wasn't party to, that her friends and family were keeping something this huge from her. He didn't want her to feel like she wasn't valued or trusted by them, and all he could do was bow his head in shame and ask her forgiveness for what they kept from her, hoping she would at least understand in some way what they had done...
"You don't need to keep apologising, Zuzu."
He was brought out of his apologetic state by her comment, and looked up to meet her gaze. "H-Huh? What do you-"
"Look, I get why you never said anything." Setsuna's smile was faint, and not the teasing grin he was used to from her. "I don't wanna be mad at you over that. I was... kinda pissed on the walk over, I guess, a little? I mean, I did pick a fight with a pair of Yakuza to defend you for something it turns out you actually had done, but... I get why you hid it."
"Thank you..." The weight of relief made Izuku's shoulders sag. "I didn't mean to-"
"I know. But look... just because I get why you did it completely doesn't mean I agree with all of what's going on." Setsuna sighed, as he frowned, unsure what she meant. "Okay, maybe that didn't come out as well as it should. I guess what I mean is, you have a Quirk that does all of this and I get that if people find out you can take Quirks, you risk all sorts of bad people wanting you to use that power for the wrong reasons. You want to keep that power from the wrong people. But you can't hide that power for all of time, cousin."
"I... yeah." He couldn't argue with that. "I know. I just... it's a villain's Quirk, Setsuna. I don't want people to see me as a villain. I want to prove myself as a Hero to people and show them I want to protect people-"
"Which you can't do if they think you're going to abuse your power to steal Quirks," Setsuna interrupted, working it out. "I get it, just... when it does come out, if you've been hiding behind Aerokinesis or Air Force or whatever you want to call it for all that time, if it's a surprise to everyone they'll question your motives, dude. I won't, because you're a cinnamon roll who wants to right every wrong in the world, but... others might."
"So what do I do?"
"What, other than what you're doing? I'm not saying you need to change what you're doing and tell everyone, Zuzu. Just... don't feel you have to hide everything from everyone, y'know? You can tell me like you have today, you can tell Himiko when you feel comfortable with your little girlfriend knowing your tragic backstory-"
"Setsuna..."
She ignored his groaning. "And maybe when we're at UA and you know who to trust, you can tell more of them. Students, teachers, whoever. Just so if you do want to keep the secret until the future once you've proved yourself, you've got a good group of people around you who know you're a good guy and can vouch for you being a good guy."
"... R-Right."
"Just because a villain gave you that Quirk, without a say in the matter, doesn't mean you'll be a villain or a bad guy, Izuku. People will see that, and I'm not saying you have to advertise it to everyone, just... don't feel you have to keep it from everyone too, okay?"
It made sense. As much as the idea of showing the world that he could take Quirks was scary, Setsuna was right; he would only be able to hide it for so long. Some day the truth about what he could do would come out, whether by accident or otherwise, and he would have to face people questioning him with a Quirk as powerful as that. It would be better to let the people he trusted know what he could do, slowly but surely, and maybe when the rest of the world found out, whatever fallout it may bring, he would have those around him who he could rely on to stand by him.
A loyal circle is no bad thing for one with power.
His subconscious had a very dark way of putting this sometimes, and he shook himself, trying to clear his head of that thought. "Okay... I'll do it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you everything but... honestly some of what I can do scares me and, I guess, that's why I don't tell everyone all of it." He chuckled nervously, running a hand through his green hair. "I d-don't even know all of what I can do."
"That's the thing that means we both wanted to keep this secret as much as possible for now," Tenko said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "It's not just what he's taken but the ones we discovered by accident as well. Think about it. When he saw what happened with my family... that was some memory-related Quirk that he hadn't taken from anyone before. He discovered it by accident speaking to me and hasn't used it since. Seems like... he's got hidden achievements to unlock, but we don't know what those are yet."
"More Quirks stored up inside the actual Quirk?"
"Yeah... alright, maybe hidden achievements isn't perfect to describe. It's like..." Tenko paused, determined to make his gaming knowledge fit Izuku's Quirk somehow. "Consider it's like a skill tree. Some of the branches have grown, so he's unlocked some skills, but it's like there's others we don't know the unlock requirements for. It might be a level cap, so when he gains more EXP he can use a certain Quirk, it might be certain scenarios that pressure him into the unlock conditions, it might be something else completely."
"So..." Setsuna leaned forward. "He seems to have other Quirks available, because otherwise there's no way to explain that memory Quirk coming out. Maybe his body might not be ready or able to use some Quirks?"
"Exactly!" Tenko nodded, appreciating how easily Setsuna understood. "Even Air Cannon-"
"Air Force," Izuku disagreed, not letting Tenko try to rename his own Quirk again.
"... Fine, Air Force? He found he got that Quirk after that damn Bakugo kid tried to pick a fight like some reject miniboss. That never came from anyone else. So there's Quirks already in his system that are just waiting for their unlock requirements to be met..." Tenko chuckled, despite how serious the conversation was. "He's like a Quirk encyclopaedia, even without taking Quirks."
"Right, about that..." Setsuna took a sip of the bubble tea. "So you can take Quirks. Obviously you've taken Steal or whatever it's called off that Yakuza Guy, Setsuno. You took Auntie Inko's Quirk because I saw you do that. Do you... have any others you've taken? Ones you've not told me about?"
"Only one," Tenko said, chiming in. "Freezeframe too... that Yakuza punk who inflicted paralysis status from his eyes?" He jerked a thumb at Izuku. "He got that too. And don't ask for a demo run before you say anything. If I can go through life without feeling that damn Quirk again, that'd be great."
"Trust me, I don't want to ever use that Quirk again." Izuku shuddered. "It gives me a migraine for twenty minutes after I use it. I... don't want to repeat it, having been on the receiving end too."
"Count yourself lucky you never felt it," Tenko muttered darkly to Setsuna.
"I'll bet! Although..." Setsuna frowned. "I didn't even see anything at the time. I didn't even know you'd taken it-"
"Neither did I." Izuku remembered just how helpless he had felt at the hands of the Quirk, and how in a brief moment his fingers had brushed the spine of the Yakuza with a crackle of energy. "I guess... in the moment I must have taken it from him subconsciously. I'm kinda worried that might happen at UA-"
"I'll come onto something I thought of which might help with that in a sec," Setsuna said. "But it brings me back to what I was trying to say earlier..."
"What's that?"
Setsuna looked thoughtful, and a little pensive, as she turned to Izuku. "Your Quirk only came out when Bakugo and his douchebag friends tried to pick a fight with you?"
"Yeah..." Izuku felt a little concerned as she asked. "W-Why do you ask?"
"Well... one of my girlfriends from school was pretty close with Bakugo's wingman. Hell if I remember his name, but the pair of them grew up together. She said there was something a while back which made him completely change, get all withdrawn. She said he'd left the area and gone away with family, but..." Setsuna gave him a knowing look. "She also said that he used to love to show off with his Quirk. Smokescreen, I think he called it? Only... from that day until he left with family, he never showed his Quirk off to anyone again. They never saw him again."
Izuku blinked, blinked again at this news, and spun to Tenko. "Oh no. Do you think..."
"He deserved it? Probably. But that's not what you're asking, is it?" Tenko grimaced. "Do you think you took their Quirks at the time? Bakugo's friends?"
"It's a bit strange if you managed to take their Quirks and not Bakugo's..." Setsuna said, humming. "But not impossible."
"Bakugo's a bully who escaped punishment for years because the school wanted him to be number one in the future. His thick plot armour probably protected him."
Setsuna stared at Tenko. "... I like you, Ten, but sometimes I have no idea what you're saying."
He shrugged. "Don't ask me. Hey, Quirk nerd? What Quirks did they used to have?"
"Oh! Um..." Izuku's obsessive mind began to whir into action, cogs that hadn't been exercised for years cranking up to peak intensity as he called back to what they could do. "So Setsuna got it right, Kamegawa had Smokescreen... he could make smoke from the palm of his hand. The other one I can't remember his name, he used to be friends with Tsubasa, but... ah! He was the guy with the Long Fingers Quirk!"
"Long Fingers?" Setsuna wiggled her eyebrows. "Bet he got a lot of second dates."
"I, you, waaaah-"
"Before Setsuna manages to completely corrupt the most innocent guy I know, focus, Izuku," Tenko groaned, as Izuku nearly went bright red in embarrassment. "So try them, Izuku. I guess that's what Set's suggesting, right?"
"You got it!" Setsuna nodded, a strange look in her eyes. "Neither of them have manifested in you to date, fine, but... let's see if you have them and can bring them out, or let's see if something is stopping you from using them."
"R-Right! Okay." Izuku got what they were saying, and so the opportunity to assess a Quirk overrode any brief embarrassment he had at Setsuna's more risqué comments. The first and more simple one to visualise, for him, was Long Fingers; its user had been at Bakugo's side bullying him since Bakugo's own Explosion Quirk had manifested, so Izuku had a good memory of what it looked like. The ability to grow the user's fingers to abnormal lengths, up to nearly two metres in one case, was not something anyone could easily forget. So he looked down, concentrated, felt the crackle of black lightning in his palms this time, and...
Hmm. Not quite compatible...
"No, I can't..." After some pause and concentration on his part, Izuku broke his concentration on his hands and looked up to Setsuna. "It doesn't... feel connected. There's something there because my fingers are tingling right now, but... if I have it, the Quirk won't activate in my fingers."
"Yes! Level cap!" Tenko crowed, punching the air. "I should write a book on this shit, I'm a genius."
"... Don't go celebrating just yet. His hands tingling might just be his Quirk triggering, it might not prove he has the Long Fingers Quirk in his powers. For all we know he didn't take it." Setsuna ignored Tenko's cry of indignation and turned back to Izuku. "So that's a bust. What about Smokescreen? Did you say that came from his palms?"
"Y-Yeah, I think it was like that..." Izuku nodded to her, before concentrating back on his palms with a look of confusion. He hadn't even known Kamegawa's name- he was just another classmate who helped Bakugo try to torment him at every opportunity- and all he remembered is that the boy seemed to be able to generate smoke from his palms on command, being able to wrap it around himself and create a blanket that on occasion had covered the whole classroom...
Like so?
"Huh..." Izuku felt the all-too familiar energy crackle in his palms, and after everything he had been through, he wasn't surprised to see the stream of black smoke emerging from his hand, beginning to fall to the floor and wreath his feet in dark smoke that occasionally crackled with specks of dark red lightning. "It's... I have his Quirk."
"So he has Long Fingers too, he just can't use it because of unlock requirements." Tenko looked smugly over at Setsuna. "I rest my case."
"You're so insufferable." Setsuna rolled her eyes and looked over at Izuku, whose smoke was slowly spreading across the floor. "You, uh, you mind turning that off before you gas all three of us?"
"O-Oh right!" It took Izuku a second to work out what he was doing. The Quirk seemed to be generating the smoke from the pores of his skin and coming out in wisps unconsciously, so while he tried to imagine turning it off in his head, it took a little bit of time before the Quirk responded to his mental images and turned off, petering out. "I guess that's one to practice with outside of UA..."
"Pretty good Quirk for a stealth mission." Setsuna raised an eyebrow at him. "Just wait until Himiko ever finds out you can do that. Her Transform Ability mixed with a smokescreen from you? No villain would ever know what hit them."
"Mix in Lizard Tail Splitter into the smoke and you could blindside people," Izuku said; his strategist mind which was so used to coming up with hypothetical mission plans for compatible Quirks was marvelling at the potential to build on the team up which Setsuna was suggesting. "They couldn't anticipate where you were coming from, and they wouldn't know what hit them!"
Quite the useful acquisition, don't you think?
That thought made Izuku falter from his excitement at considering the potential of what he could use the smoke Quirk for. "That is... Yeah. Useful."
Setsuna could clearly sense the change in his mood, and he realised he had disguised it really badly; her tone changed to reassuring instantly. "Hey. You're thinking about how you got it, aren't you?"
"... Maybe a little. I guess..." Izuku knew he would be repeating his earlier comments, but it was a fair way to sum up how he really felt, after all. "This happened in the heat of a moment with one of my bullies but... what if I accidentally take something from someone good? If I take something off of one of our classmates and ruin their chances of becoming a Hero-"
"I'm going to stop you right there, Zuzu." Setsuna finished a sip of her bubble tea and sprang up from the body pillow. "You said that already, but anyway, that's kinda the point I was trying to get onto earlier. You keep talking about this Quirk that you have which can steal from people and everything, but... have you ever stopped and wondered if it's a two-way street? Like, probably a strange question and all, but surely there's gotta be more to the process than just collecting Quirks and being able to stockpile them? Surely the energy can work the other way?"
"Setsuna..." Tenko muttered, as Izuku frowned in confusion. What was she talking about. "I don't follow-"
"Come on, it's simple. Whatever you did to take Auntie Inko's Quirk, however you made that energy move... you could make the energy move in reverse, couldn't you?" Setsuna put her hands on her hips and stared at Izuku with a challenging look in her face. "Oh come on, surely this has occurred to you before? Or have you seriously never asked yourself whether you could actually give a Quirk to someone?"
... Oh, she is smart. Keep this one around.
"Wait..." Izuku's eyes widened, his mouth hanging wide open for a second in shock before the weight of what Setsuna had said hit him like a wrecking ball. He had no idea how he hadn't thought of that until today, when she just dropped into conversation like it was the most obvious thing in the world- now that she said it, he couldn't get the thought out of his head. Everything he thought he knew about the Quirk he held could be turned upside down if what she said had merit, if he could reverse the direction of the energy flow and give rather than take. "It... it could actually work! I mean, it's possible! When mom offered me her Quirk and I took it... the flow of that energy... who's to say I couldn't try to turn it around the other way and give back to the other person!"
"Equivalent exchange..." Tenko mused. "It's possible."
"That's an old reference even by your standards and you know it," Setsuna snarked, detaching an arm to dig her elbow into Tenko's side. "Don't spoil the moment, silly."
"... Fair enough. But I guess you kinda have a point. I don't think we've ever tested it before..." Tenko raised himself up from where he had been slouching on the floor and pushed his scraggy blue hair out of his eyes, grinning at Izuku like a mad scientist. "How about it, partner? You want to try it now?"
"I..." Izuku hesitated. "Hang on. Say Tenko is right with this skill tree theory-"
"Of course I'm right, but carry on."
Izuku ignored his best friend. "Then there are Quirks which my body or my actual Quirk has locked away because it doesn't think I'm ready for them. I only know about a few Quirks which I have right now, but... I-I can't just give you a random Quirk and expect it will be a success. I'm happy to try it to see if it works, but we need something which it's likely one of you could use."
"He's right, y'know," Setsuna agreed, bouncing back on her heels a little. "That memory reveal Quirk, for instance, probably wouldn't mesh with anything Tenko or I can do because it's mentally based, and our Quirks aren't. We wouldn't have any idea how to use or activate it-"
"If it helps, I don't think I really understand how to use it," Izuku said with a nervous chuckle, running a hand through his hair. "But you're right, I kinda don't think that would be a good one to try. So... something either of you two might be more used to."
"Not Freezeframe," Tenko said, quickly. "Give her Freezeframe to mess with me and I'll sell your Quirk Analysis books."
"... Okay, not Freezeframe." Izuku glared at Tenko. "Besides, I think we would have the same problem- neither of your Quirks are based on your eyes. That means-"
"Can I make a suggestion?" Tenko waved lazily at him, and then pointed to Setsuna. "I'd normally volunteer to be your lab rat and do whatever crazy shit you were suggesting this week, but... a new player joined the game today. Set knows the truth about your Quirk now, so I think it's right she's equally as in on this as I am." He nodded. "Try giving her Long Fingers."
"Ooh!" Izuku nodded eagerly, bouncing, as he heard the suggestion, and turned to his cousin with excitement. "That could really work! Lizard Tail Splitter means you already have such good control over your individual body parts anyway, so it shouldn't be trouble for you to make the Long Fingers Quirk work for you too! That also makes sense because you could try and see if you can extend them before or after separation, and-
"Woah, woah, easy Zuzu! I understood why he suggested it too, don't you worry!" Setsuna chuckled, seeing her cousin lose himself in a Quirk Analysis rabbit hole like he had so many times before. "I get it. And while I'm not necessarily too happy with Ten deciding to throw me into the firing line without asking me first, like a true gentleman-"
"I'll take you out for food after this if you really wanna make me earn forgiveness."
Setsuna's provocative personality and frequent desire to flirt at the worst possible moments meant that she took Tenko's blunt suggestion completely in her stride. "Good boy! Date bribery always works. But as for the Quirk test... makes sense to try it with me, and I'm happy to help. Hopefully it means you can stop worrying that you're going to permanently rob people and make loads of enemies, eh Zuzu?"
"R-Right," Izuku said, bemusedly shaking his head at her antics. "So... let's give it a try?"
Setsuna slammed herself down on the Fat Gum body pillow with such force that just for a second, it looked like the fabric Fat Gum was wincing in pain, and offered her arm to Izuku. "Let's go! Just like you did with Auntie Inko but in reverse, okay?"
"I'm... are you sure you're okay with this? I don't want to go wrong and take Lizard Tail Splitter from you-"
"Izuku." The use of his actual name and not a nickname got him to look up at her, emerald eyes meeting dark green as he took her hand. "Besides the fact that I know you would lose a foot and probably your head if you even tried to take and use my Quirk... I trust you not to get that wrong. You're not gonna take my Quirk. You know what you did with your mom, and I know you've got it in you to show you can give too. You can do this, okay?"
"Okay..." He knew what he had to do at that moment, to smile, just like All Might always used to do to put people at ease and let them know that he meant them no harm. The reassuring grin on her face was all he needed to see in return before he closed his eyes. "Let's go."
As he closed his eyes, Izuku didn't look to extend his power, and didn't think for one second about Setsuna's Quirk. That wasn't what he was there to do, and he knew he needed to look inward, look back to his past, find the memories to help visualise what the Quirk looked like that he wanted. There was a brief moment where he tried not to shudder at the memories of being blasted by Bakugo, as his crony with the elongated fingers cackled in the background, and joined in with a punch or two, but that was all he needed to help visualise and see exactly what he was looking to give. He had the Quirk now, the image fresh in his mind, the tingling in his fingers back again. And now...
Push.
When his mother's Quirk had jumped to him, Izuku had felt the slightest tug inside himself, as if he had caught a tiny fish on the end of a lure and was able to bring it to sure with no effort at all. This time, without moving his hand, it almost felt like he had flicked something away from him, as if he was casting a lure out into the water to see what other fish he could find, before the feeling of tingling in his fingers disappeared. It... felt for a second like there was an indent in his being, like his body was a puddle, and that for a moment a hole had been dug out that now was being filled with the rest of the water with barely a ripple on the surface to show. He felt lighter. He felt...
Successful.
He opened his eyes, slowly, one at a time, and peered at Setsuna with concern. "Do you... did you feel that?"
She took her hand back from him, looked down at her fingers, and appeared to concentrate. "It... tingles. Wait... visualise it, right?"
"Yeah..." Izuku's jaw nearly hit the floor at the next bit, where Setsuna's thin hands seemed to extend rapidly, all four of her fingers and her thumb on the hand he had been holding shooting out like a coiled spring to reach nearly a metre in length. "WOW! Setsuna, your hand, you..."
Setsuna stared at the hand, and laughed out loud, turning it one way then another to look. "No fucking way. You actually did it, Zuzu. You mad genius. You can give and take Quirks."
"That's amazing!" Overcome with joy at this discovery, Izuku leapt forward and grabbed his cousin into a hug, shaking her as she sat up on the body pillow. "You made it look so easy!"
"Nothing to it," she bragged, self-assured swagger returning back out of pride, before raising an eyebrow and with a brief pause, separating her gigantic fingers from her normal-sized hand to float in the air. "Holy shit! It actually works with mine too... would you look at that?"
"Any bad guy who sees those come flying at them is going to wish they'd spawned into another level," Tenko said, laughing as he saw the giant fingers levitating in mid-air before Setsuna sent her metre-long middle finger flying at him like a javelin. "Hey! Those things hurt even more now!"
Setsuna cackled as they returned to her. "Oh man. This is too good." She grabbed at the middle finger with her free hand as the other fingers reattached themselves, and pointed it out in front of her like a sword. "Avast, ye scurvy dog, I'll cut ye as ye stand!"
All of the tension disappeared as she joked about, Izuku chuckling and Tenko howling with laughter. "THAT ACCENT!"
"WHO EVER TOLD YOU THAT WAS A GOOD ACCENT?!"
"Hey, not my fault you two bird-brains can't appreciate good acting!" She had the good grace to laugh at herself as she reattached the last finger to her hand and shrunk them down to normal size with no effort, wiping away a tear from her laughter. "Well, I guess that proved it works. As much fun as I'd have with a finger sword, I think you can have that back as a successful test run, oh great Quirk Thief Midoriya."
Izuku's chuckling stopped, before a thought crossed his head, and he made himself pause for a second. "Or..."
"Or?"
"Yeah." He nodded to himself, and smiled faintly- it made sense to him, after all, with what she had shown today. "Or you could keep it, after all."
That made Tenko, rolling on the floor with his laughter, prop himself back up and pay attention. "Say what, Izuku? You're serious?"
Setsuna had faltered too. "Yeah, what he said, seriously?" Then she raised an eyebrow, as if challenging him, but it was only half-hearted. "Not trying to buy my silence by doing this, are you Zuzu? Tenko can buy my loyalty with a dinner date but this is a little different..."
"H-Heh, no, no, but... hear me out." He looked at his cousin, and the way she had effortlessly handled the Quirk she had only just been given. "Your own Quirk, Lizard Tail Splitter, involves instant manipulation of your body to split yourself into pieces. You had all that control ready to make the most of it, and you showed you can control it... it fits you. And, and, it's wasted on me when you think about it! Up until today I didn't even know I had it until you said something, and I couldn't bring it out to use it... you could."
"Izuku..." She paused, and she was for the first time in ages a little lost for words; she didn't look uneasy at the prospect, but certainly surprised. "But... people know what my Quirk is. They know I can split my body apart, they don't think I can change the size of the pieces-"
"If it helps," Tenko interrupted, "people's understanding of Quirks changes all of the time. Izuku got himself re-evaluated because Inko told him to, and the Quirk Registry happily updated the abilities on their list for him. Best Jeanist was always thought to be able to manipulate fabric, until he showed one day he could manipulate carbon fibre and they changed his Quirk name to Fiber Master. Yours... maybe just got a level up too."
Setsuna seemed to mull that over. "Huh... I guess. And I guess... it isn't likely that you'd be able to go and find its original owner. You'd wanna try, but even if you did find him, and told him you'd taken his Quirk... you'd be out in the open for everyone then."
"R-Right..." Izuku was too afraid of being exposed to everyone just yet to even consider that. "It's... better this way."
"You're sure? You can take it back right now if you-"
"I'm don't want to keep a Quirk I have no use for, or no idea how to use, when someone else could use it and make the most of it just like that." Izuku nodded, his mind made up. "I'm not going to force you. If you absolutely don't want to take it, then... I'll have it back, and try to give it to someone else in future. But you could make it work to use it as you become a Hero, and between you and Tenko and mom there's nobody I trust more in the world, so... you'd put it to good use, and I'd rather see that."
"... Alright. If that's what you want then..." Setsuna nodded, a faint grin back on her face. "I'll take it. Beats some of the Christmas presents you've given me before."
"Hey, it's not my fault you only seem to ever want dinosaur books-"
"I'm just messing with ya, Zuzu! But seriously... thank you. I'll do my best to make use of it properly with my own Quirk. It's gonna take some practice, but... I'll get there."
"I'm sure you will."
"Shake on a done deal?" Setsuna smirked, extending her new Long Fingers to offer Izuku a gigantic handshake.
"... I'm going to regret giving you that, aren't I?"
"Maybe. Although... now you mention giving Quirks... I guess the test was a real success, huh?"
"E-Exactly!" Izuku had nearly forgotten the main reason behind the suggestion from Setsuna to try out that side of his power. "It really worked, huh? I can take Quirks... and I can give them."
"Someone please nerf Izuku before he can create Quirks as well," Tenko pleaded sarcastically to the heavens. "Guess that means you don't have to worry about anything going wrong at UA now, hey Zu?"
"I don't... I c-could fix things even if I took something by accident! They wouldn't even feel a thing necessarily if I messed up, I could just... put it right!" The revelation had lifted the weight of the world off of Izuku, truth be told. The worry that his actions could be permanent for undeserving people terrified him. "I... still seem to have Quirks I don't know about, but I'm not going to be hurting our classmates by adding theirs too!"
"We'll cross that bridge of other unknown Quirks if and when we come to it," Setsuna said, trying to shoot him a reassuring look. "I'm just glad you now know you don't have to worry about that anymore. And honestly I'm surprised you'd never asked that of yourself before, you Quirk nerd."
"If I can give Quirks back..." Izuku's mind was racing a mile a minute as he thought of the possibilities, almost missing Setsuna's comments. "I can-"
"If you're about to suggest that we go back and find that Yakuza and offer him his Quirk back, then you've outdone yourself," Tenko chuckled, before looking up at Izuku and seeing his face falter. "... Seriously? You weren't actually considering trying to do that, were you?"
"... Maybe a little?"
"God dammit, Zu." Tenko tipped his head back and groaned in exasperation. "Alright, since you actually had those thoughts, let me spell out why that's a bad idea so your dumb ass doesn't get us all killed. One, and probably most importantly, do you remember that shark guy telling us that his boss killed the guy you took a Quirk from? Good luck giving him a Quirk back from a hole in the ground. Unless you're carrying an OP as shit respawn Quirk, that ain't happening."
"... Oh." Izuku had forgotten what Shark Head had said about his old lieutenant when they had fought him in the warehouse. It had seemed like a lifetime ago, before the UA exams and everything, and that particular fact had slipped his mind. "I guess that's the end of that-"
"Oh no. There's more numbers past one, because let's just picture this for a second if he was still alive." Tenko was on a roll and clearly wasn't going to stop for Izuku. "Two, even if he was alive and you did want to give him a Quirk back, I don't know where the Yakuza bases are around here and I don't want to go finding out-"
"I kinda know where some of the Yakuza are, I think." Two sets of eyes, one red and one green, flickered to Setsuna at her interjection, and she shrugged, completely unfazed. "What? My uncle Rapt used to be mixed up with the Villain Factory and the old Trigger dealers before Incident Zero happened. He was a bad influence on his niece."
"... I don't even want to ask what you got up to." Tenko paused, his train of thought seemingly completely derailed for a moment. "Where are they around here then?"
Setsuna kicked a chunk of concrete on the floor. "Round here, I'm not a hundred percent sure. Uncle Rapt always used to say they had somewhere over by the train station as a warehouse, as well as a big compound over on the city outskirts, but... well, when he was trying to clean himself up he gave the Police the location of a few of them. They sent a couple of local Heroes round, like that Kesagiriman who used to turn up to all the school sports festivals? The Heroes said they found nothing so..." She took a sip of the bubble tea she had bought, a loud noise coming from the straw as she reached the bottom of the cup, and shrugged. "Case closed, I guess."
"If he used to know them before Incident Zero, maybe they're long gone by now? Who knows." Tenko looked like he was about to ask another question, before stopping. "I'm getting distracted aren't I?"
Setsuna stuck her tongue out at him. "Slightly."
"Dammit." Tenko held up a third gloved finger. "Right, three, being added in because the dipshit lizard apparently knows all the wrong people, I am not letting you two morons with a death-wish go and find Setsuna's crazy criminal uncle and get a level map from him. Even if his knowledge is probably too old by now. Four, Inko would kill me for letting you do that even if the Yakuza didn't."
"Fair point. And five?" Setsuna asked, with a wry smirk.
"Last but not least. Five would be if we did find their hideout, wandered into the boss and said 'oh hey, we stole your lieutenant's Quirk a couple of years ago, do you want it back', what do you think he'd do?" Tenko made really lame finger guns at Izuku. "He'd laugh at us or shoot you."
"Or both," Setsuna helpfully supplied.
"... Or both." Tenko looked like he had been trying to land on something more intelligent as a final point, but gave up, lamely waving both hands. "That's it. I'm hoping your thick head doesn't need more telling than that, Zu..."
"Yeah, I get it..." As Setsuna started chuckling to herself, Izuku looked up, all defensive. "H-Hey! W-Why are you laughing at me?"
She actually wiped a tear away because of her laughter, and grinned. "Heh, nah, it's just... you really did consider for a second trying to give someone like that their Quirk back. You're a good guy, Zuzu, so good you'd even consider putting yourself in danger to help a bad person out, when they don't deserve any of your time. And yet you doubt yourself? You think that because of what your Quirk could do, people are going to look at you and think you're a bad person? Nah. That's not you, dude."
He felt himself wobbling. "T-Thank you-"
"Sheesh, some of those kids really did a number on you growing up if you think me saying you're a decent human is something to thank me for. You don't need to thank me, dummy." Her grin remained, but something in Setsuna's eyes softened, and her voice lost its mocking tone. "Believe me, Zuzu, you're a stand-up guy who's going to be a good Hero. You don't have to prove your intentions to me because after everything you've been through to get here and the fact you still want to do right by everyone, no matter who they are... I know you're going to make a difference and I know you're heroic to your core, my dude."
Izuku sniffled, wiping away the trademark Midoriya tear that had escaped and smiling at Setsuna. "Okay... I just... let's just not tell anyone for now about what my Quirk can do, okay?"
She detached an arm and levitated it across to pat him on the back. "Sure. Look, I don't agree with keeping everyone out of the loop, but hopefully today has shown you that you don't have to worry. Sure, you can take, but you can also give, so you can fix any problem that comes our way, and rise above it all to show you're a good guy, right?"
"Ourway?"
"Hell yeah, our way! You don't think I'm going anywhere now, do ya?" She stood up and re-attached the arm, extending a Long Finger to poke him in the chest. "You let me in on your secret, and I'm going nowhere, cousin of mine. I don't care if it's you, me and your best friend with shitty references against the world-"
"Hey, some respect please!" Tenko piped up. "Only quality from me!"
"Whatever! Look, I don't care if it's just us three musketeers against the world, we do it together! It'll be one for all and all for one, right?"
You have no idea.
Izuku felt a wave of familiarity wash over him as she spoke, but it was replaced by the sentiment behind those words, and how much he appreciated them. "Right. All together, whatever it takes."
"Yeah, yeah, power of friendship, I get it." Tenko slouched over now, dodging a Long Finger jab from Setsuna. "Now that we're done, let's go home and get back to Inko, right? This warehouse gives me the creeps after what happened before, and now I just feel with all those body pillows around like I'm being watched."
"Heh. Yeah, I get that." Izuku smiled thankfully at Setsuna and Tenko, his cousin and best friend, the people he knew he could count on against the world. "Let's go."
As they walked towards the exit, Izuku felt tonnes lighter than he ever had done, and he shot the most simple and happy smile over towards Setsuna as he walked. He had been so afraid of being exposed before, of his Quirk hurting people he wanted to make friends with and become Heroes alongside, of not being able to fix anything; today with Setsuna had proved that in the worst possible circumstances, he would still be able to fix things and do the right thing. Now he could rest easy, knowing that he could just try his best to become a Hero, knowing he had such a supportive group around him who had his back no matter what happened. Izuku was lucky, and was going to UA, and couldn't wait to show them what he could do to help people. The future, he thought, was bright.
There was a creak as Izuku and his group left through a fire door and headed on home, and the warehouse was still..
"So he really does possess All For One."
In a dark corner of the warehouse roof, high above where Izuku and his gang had been talking, the shadows rippled and a deep voice resonated, and two yellow gleaming eyes within the darkness narrowed as they looked down on the empty space. This was a space where watch duties had become routine, after the incident with the Yakuza; it was a known location for the boy, one which could be watched over without outside interference (unlike his home in a quiet residential neighbourhood near the police station, or his school teeming with students and teachers). The boy hadn't been there for a long time, but he had been there today, and as for what he had said...
Kurogiri warped to the floor, inspecting the Fat Gum body pillow which had been laid on by Setsuna, before frowning, yellow eyes narrowing in suspicion. "And yet he wants to go to UA, with the Master's Quirk. Doctor, we may have a problem... and we may need to act with a firmer hand."
The shadows coiled and writhed, the spectre disappeared, and the warehouse was still once more.
(***)
Izuku Midoriya. Aged: 15. Quirk(s)- ?. Air Force, Steal, Flashback, Freezeframe, Attraction of Small Objects, Smokescreen, & ?
Setsuna Tokage. Aged: 15. Quirk(s)- Lizard Tail Splitter, Long Fingers.
Tenko Shimura. Aged: 17. Quirk- Decay.
Kurogiri. Aged: ?. Quirk: Warp Gate.
(***)
A/N: Well, that was the longest yet. Woo.
Setsuna is a really interesting character in canon, and in fanon too- as I've said before, I've had more exposure to her from other writers than the series gives her. She is intelligent and capable in canon, or she wouldn't be recommendation student material, so I tried to convey that in how she interacts with Izuku this chapter; she's clever enough to understand his reasons and be willing to help, although she's independent enough to not be an absolute yes-man to him. Hopefully I got that balance right.
And yes, she now has another Quirk. The dilemma from Inko offering up her Quirk caused a delicious amount of discussion which I loved, and so the ripples keep pooling out here- now not only does one character lose her Quirk, one has gained another. It's not going to be the last crisis of conscience for Izuku, but he has good intentions with this one, and I wanted to show he's trying to do good with it. This coming as a result of Setsuna's "can't you give them instead" moment- think of this as my canon version of "Deku discovers he has legs" from season 3.
Next chapter we may well revisit a couple of old faces from previous chapters... we may not. I'll keep you on your toes. For now, let me say we hit over 900 favourites and we've blitzed over 1100 followers onto the story, which I find absolutely mad. We hit the over 500 review landmark too (cue the Proclaimers, anyone?), and I couldn't be more grateful. Some of the support I am receiving has been remarkable and so appreciated, and it means the absolute world on shit days to read what some of you have to say.
Anyway, if you enjoyed this feel free to follow and favourite if you haven't done already. Reviews always go down a treat to read, and hey, feel free to recommend this to friends or give my other works a try too! Thanks to my regular reviewer Cottonmouth25, I have a Goth Eri crack one-shot up called "Rev-Eri in the Dark", if that floats your boat, or plenty of other one shot goodness besides.
Thanks all, and until next time, ya boy out.
