Chapter Text
It was a rare lazy Sunday in the dorms, and most of class 1A were hanging out in the commons. Kaminari was challenging Ashido to a best of 5 in Mario Kart. Satou and Uraraka were baking. Jirou was trying to teach Yaoyorazu how to play guitar. Tokoyami and Shouji were playing some complicated fantasy card game. Hagakure was cooing over Kouda's rabbit. Izuku, predictably, was on the couch, writing his most recent findings about his quirk in his notebook.
It was nice, not having to hide the truth about his quirk from his classmates anymore. He trusted them not to leak any information, and he wouldn't have to keep coming up with excuses as to why he was gaining random quirks that had nothing to do with super strength. They even offered to help him learn how to use them better. Sero had some awesome tips for Blackwhip that were helping Izuku enormously.
It eased a bunch of stress, too. Izuku no longer had to worry about accidentally muttering something that was meant to be secret, or having somebody read his notes over his shoulder. Speaking of-
"Theories on transferal," Kirishima's voice came from right behind Izuku. Izuku startled, snapped out of his thoughts. "Transferal, huh? That's the reason why you have so many quirks, right?"
"Huh?" Izuku took a second to process what he said. "Oh, yeah. All of the previous holders' quirks were stored by the power stockpiling aspect of One for All, so they're all lying dormant inside the quirk. That's where Blackwhip came from, and apparently I'll get Float soon."
Kirishima sat down beside him, apparently in the mood for a conversation. "So if all these quirks are a part of One for All, how come All Might never uses them?"
Izuku bit his lip. "He never unlocked them, and we don't know why. One for All reacted very differently to him than to me. He was able to use 100% right away without blowing himself up like I did, but I got the extra quirks."
Kirishima nodded wisely. "He didn't drink the bone breaking juice."
"What?"
"Bone breaking juice. Breaks the bones."
"...okay?"
Kirishima laughed, then turned his attention back to Izuku's notebook.
"Maybe it's because you were originally quirkless, so you have more capacity for quirks?"
Izuku froze at the mention of his quirklessness, but couldn't detect any condescension or belittlement in his friend's voice. Just an honest question. He wasn't expecting anything bad from Kirishima, but years of hearing the word as an insult was so ingrained in him that defensiveness was an instinct.
"No," he started carefully, "because All Might was originally quirkless too. Unless if one of us has a latent quirk like the first holder... but that can't be right, because I'm biologically quirkless. I wouldn't be built like this if I had a latent quirk. I don't know much about All Might, so maybe-"
"Hold on, biologically quirkless?" Kirishima interrupted, before Izuku could fully descend into his rabbit hole of mutters. "What does that mean?"
"There's physical signs of being quirkless. Biologically speaking, quirked people are more evolved, so their bodies have gotten rid of a bunch of small things that aren't useful anymore. An easy way to tell if someone is quirkless is by the amount of joints in the pinky toe. You have one, but I have two." Izuku forces himself to sound like he was reciting his notes. If he stayed analytical, he could fend off his emotions until the conversation was over.
"Wait, really?" Kirishima took off his slipper to check. "Huh, you're right. I never thought about that before. So you have extra bones?"
"I guess if you put it that way..."
"Why? Why would the universe trust you with more bones? You'll just break them!"
"Is Deku breaking bones again?" They turned towards the new voice. It was Uraraka, her face smeared in batter.
"Weren't you cooking?" asked Izuku, dodging the question.
Uraraka sighed. "Satou kicked me out after I spilt the cocoa."
"The cocoa?! Bro, that's a crime!" Kirishima cried.
"I know!" she groaned. "And now I'm paying for it. No kitchen for a week!"
"No! You make the best cookies!"
"What was that?" Satou yelled from the kitchen.
"You heard me!" Kirishima yelled back. "Your cake is amazing but Uraraka's shortbread is the best!"
Izuku tried his best to sink into the couch and not be noticed. If his friends got distracted by cookies, maybe he could avoid talking about quirklessness. He knew his friends were good, loyal, people, but he couldn't silence the voice in his head telling him that they'll all abandon him now that they know.
"So, Deku! What were you talking about? And why does Kirishima only have one slipper?" Welp, that plan failed. Bad couch.
"He was explaining biological differences between quirked and quirkless people," Kirishima explained, lifting his foot in the air. "Apparently, he has an extra joint and bone in his foot."
"Weird!" Uraraka settled on the armrest of the couch. "Why?"
Izuku sighed, not eager to repeat everything he just told Kirishima. "Technically, quirked people are more evolved, so their bodies got rid of things that have no use. Humans don't need two joints in our pinky toes, so why would they continue to have them? I also had an appendix. It was terrible when I had to get it taken out because they don't teach the procedure to many doctors anymore, since it can only be used for 20% of the population and 0.02% of that 20% ever need it."
Kirishima and Uraraka exchanged a look. "Uh... what's an appendix?" Kirishima asked.
Izuku waved his hand vaguely. "An organ attached to the intestines. I don't know what it does. Something about back when humans were hunter-gatherers. It's not really used for anything anymore. Mine got infected and had to be taken out. They don't teach about it in biology anymore because it's nearly obsolete. Also because society as a whole likes to pretend quirkless people don't exist." Izuku let a bit of bitterness into his voice.
"I had a quirkless classmate in middle school," Uraraka said thoughtfully. "She never mentioned any of this."
Izuku shrugged. "We don't like to talk about it. Besides, people hear the whole evolution thing and use it as an excuse to discriminate."
"You still see yourself as quirkless, don't you?"
Izuku looked up at Kirishima with a confused tilt of the head. The question was unexpected.
"Well, you keep saying "we", like you're still quirkless. You're putting a distinction between you and us."
Izuku had never thought about that before. Did he still see himself as quirkless? He's had One for All for over a year, but his nearly 15 years of quirklessness is still deeply ingrained in his mind. It was the reason why it had taken him so long to get control over One for All, after all. Kirishima was right, the whole time he was explaining, he put himself in the quirkless group. But in a way, he still is, right? One for All isn't actually his power, it's All Might's. Just because it's his turn to use it doesn't make it-
Something hit Izuku over the top of his head. He turned to see Todoroki behind him, holding a rolled up notebook.
"It's your power," he said, eyes narrowed in what Izuku had learnt was Todoroki's 'stubborn' face.
"...I was muttering again, wasn't I."
"Yes. Why are you talking about quirks?"
"It's Deku, Todoroki. Why wouldn't he?" said Uraraka matter-of-factly.
"Ah." Todoroki leaned over Izuku's shoulder to read his notes. "Transferal?"
"Yeah, it's how I have multiple quirks."
"Hm. Can you pick and choose?"
"...what?"
"If you wanted Bakugo's quirk, could you give him yours, then take it back and have his quirk?"
"Oh, like flypaper!" exclaimed Uraraka. "The quirk gets stuck to One for All on contact and become a part of it."
Izuku's eyes widened when he realized what they were saying. "So you mean I could pass around One for All to everybody in this class, and it'll pick up the essence of each user's quirk, and by the time it circles back around to me, there'll be twenty new quirks attached that I could use."
"Yes."
Izuku frantically flipped to a new page and started writing at the speed of light.
"I wonder if that would actually work... can One for All be returned to a previous user who gave it away? There's no way to know except experimentation but I'm not willing to risk that... maybe one of the previous users knows something about it? I should ask... but I don't know how to contact them on my own... I need to get Shinsou to help... and what about the people I give it to? Will they still be able to use their quirks or will they merge completely will One for All and transfer over when it gets passed on? I don't want to accidentally turn someone quirkless... All Might was able to hold onto the dregs of his quirk for months after he gave it to me... we won't be able to know anything about whether original quirks fully transfer over for months, probably. Unless if the amount of time he had left after passing it on corresponds to the amount of time he held it before that... in which case I wouldn't have it for as long after, but if..."
Uraraka sighed. "You had to get him started, didn't you?"
"Sorry," Todoroki replied, a bit at a loss of how to react.
"It's fine. I wonder what he'll come up with..."