Timeloop Trouble

Chapter 37 - Identity Bound

There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary at first. Izuku watched how All Might gave his quirk to Mirio, and although it stung, he did everything right. There was no reason why Mirio shouldn't have been able to use One For All to amplify his quirk output within the next 24 hours, and yet... The first thing he did was look over David Shield's reports, seeing a steady decline in All Might's power over the course of the years. It was what he expected, although Izuku didn't realize the decline had started so soon. He thought it only started after his big battle with All For One..?

Then he had blood tests done by Recovery Girl, knowing fully well no normal quirk test would be able to identify One For All's quirk factor. But Izuku knew what he was looking for. Or at least, he hoped he knew what he was looking for. Biology had never been a major interest for him outside of quirk anatomy. But getting other people involved in this research was risky. Besides, who would he even ask? Who could he trust with this? Izuku didn't have any connections in the biological department. It wasn't a course UA provided and it wasn't something he came into contact with during his hero work. Not unless you count his numerous visits to the hospital after bad fights.

And so Izuku kept running up the walls, desperately trying to find something wrong with the most perfect quirk to have ever existed. No, that wasn't true. One For All wasn't perfect, not by a long shot, not when it killed its own wielder. But to Izuku, it was perfect. It was all he could ever ask for and more, and he was going to make sure Mirio received it no matter what. In the meantime, he could give him advice, let him tweak his technique, make him the hero Izuku knew he'd become while guilt slowly ate away at him. Guilt, because he still hadn't been able to help him, because all of this somehow felt like it was his fault.

"So you're the quirk analyst Mirio told me so much about."

Izuku tensed up when he glanced up from his paperwork, rushing to finish one of Nezu's latest projects while also trying to come up with new approaches to the OFA problem. He hadn't expected Sir Nighteye to come and visit him.

"Hya, Izuku-kun!" Mirio called out, popping out from behind Sir. "Hope you don't mind, but I brought Sir Nighteye with me to our weekly meeting! He really wanted to meet you!"

"Mirio senpai!" Izuku sputtered, collecting the mess of papers on his desk into a makeshift pile, dumping it in one of his drawers to organize later. "I don't mind, it's not a problem! Uhm, it's an honor to meet you, Sir Nighteye. I heard a lot of good things about you."

"Likewise," he stated, shaking his hand. Izuku felt a shiver run down his spine, momentarily wondering whether or not he'd use his quirk on him. He had no incentive to do so, but Izuku knew him to be suspicious of new people getting involved with OFA, so he wouldn't be surprised. "You look even younger than I was told you were."

"Oh, uh, people do say I have a bit of a babyface," Izuku chuckled. Yeah, he still looked 15 after being alive for ages, reliving the same period of his life over and over again. Huh, he was probably older than All For One at this point... Was that even possible? "Can I offer you anything to drink?"

"I'm good," Mirio smiled, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Sir followed his example, staying quiet as he seemingly looked right through Izuku's soul. "So, any progress?"

"Still working on it," Izuku sighed. "DNA isn't really my speciality, you know? But if something's wrong, it's bound to show there. I mean, One For All is linked to one's identity more than it is to the quirk factor, after all."

"How certain are you of that?" Sir asked. "It's not something All Might is aware of as far as I know."

"Ah, well, you see, OFA is a quirk of the mind," Izuku told him, trying to stick to facts he learned or should've learned in this life and not any of his previous ones. "It's passed on by sheer will alone. That and a transaction of DNA, presumingly to allow the quirk to bind itself to your quirk factor. But All Might was quirkless, right? He doesn't have a quirk factor, not a natural one, at least! So where does the quirk go? Where does it attach itself if there's no clear destination? And since we already know it can be bound to DNA in order to transfer it-"