Timeloop Trouble

Chapter 52 - Manipulation Talk

"This is fucking insane."

Izuku couldn't deny that. He hated that this was the reason they finally met up. That the first time Izuku actually saw any of the other Assembly members in real life, was to share this awful news with them. Kacchan had already known, of course. He started swearing up a storm the moment Izuku came close enough for their minds to connect. All Might probably knew by now as well, seeing as their connection didn't require proximity or conscious thought. Izuku wondered what he thought about this whole ordeal...

"And you're sure it's One For All?" Eijirou asked, still in denial about the whole thing.

"Can't be anything else," Katsuki grunted, looking away at something in the distance, his brows furrowed in a way that told Izuku his brain was going a million miles an hour right now. He could faintly feel the buzz in his own skull, but opted to ignore it.

"That's...bad," Denki breathed, fiddling with the ropes of his sweater. "Like, really bad, right?"

"They're fucking manipulating Deku!" Katsuki snapped. "Of course it's fucking bad!"

"Not so loud, Kacchan!" Izuku hissed. Deku was dead. He couldn't go and yell that name for all to hear! They were in a public space, for crying out loud! "You don't know who is listening."

"If they're manipulating you through your quirk, does that mean it affects Katsuki as well?" Todoroki asked, making Izuku's eyes widen. They all knew about the weird quirk connection they had going on, but Izuku hadn't stopped to think that maybe that meant he was affected too. Maybe they were whispering their ideals to more people than they realized.

"I don't feel any different," Katsuki shrugged. "And I haven't pulled any reckless shit like this nerd, so I don't think it's getting me. I'm a lot more worried about how it'll affect Izu-Ikyu, though. God, I fucking hate that name."

"You can always call me Aizawa?" Izuku suggested, being reminded that he had to text Shouta. He asked to check in every hour he was out to make sure he was fine. Otherwise Mic wouldn't be able to hold him back, and he was needed to watch Eri back at home. Izuku couldn't help but smile as he remembered how they told Present Mic about all of this. He'd been surprisingly chill about it, going as far as to include Izuku in their wedding last Fall. Eri was the most adorable flower girl! "It's what everyone at school calls me, anyway."

"Sounds weird," Katsuki grunted, earning murmurs of agreement from within their group.

"Yeah, well, Dadzawa is real and all that," Hanta said, waving it off. "Not important. What is important is how we're gonna fix this. Jikan has One For All and they're using it to power the rewind machine, that's not technically a rewind machine, doesn't matter, and also to manipulate your behavior, which is, like, super duper bad. We need to get your quirk back inside you, man. Like, as soon as possible."

"The machine is heavily guarded, so it won't be easy," Izuku pointed out. "But I do have a general idea of where their hideout is. Shouta is looking into the location thing, actually, so it shouldn't be long before we can pinpoint them. I just... I don't know if raiding their base of operations is going to do anything."

"What do you mean? Of course it's going to do something! We're getting a part of your quirk back!" Denki exclaimed.

"No, what I mean is- Well, I don't- We've always raided their base to try and stop them, right? And it has never worked," Izuku said.

"We didn't know about their power source," Shoto stated. "It'll be different this time."

"Yeah! We'll make sure they can't time travel their way out of this one!" Mina exclaimed, obviously trying to lift their moods. No more time travel, huh? Izuku wasn't sure... Or maybe he just didn't want this to be the end of it. This was his life now, after all, and this timeline... It wasn't exactly the best to stop at. Not for him. Not when his mom was dead and he had to live on using a fake name. And wasn't that just selfish? To be willing to take such a big risk by letting Jikan continue, if only for one more loop?