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“All you have to do is copy his quirk, then use the duplicate to take the original, and wait for yours to time out.” There are so many ways that plan could fail. The quirk might be a blank, Neito might not be able to wield it properly, or even if he can it may be impossible to to transfer the original transfer quirk.
But Neito doesn’t point any of that out, responding solely with,
“I’ll do my best.” If it's not good enough then well,
This was just plan b, there are twenty four more letters.
All for One is intimidating even half dead and most certainly unconscious, but Neito doesn’t falter in his steps, moving past the armed guards to the side of the hospital bed the villain is strapped to.
Somehow Neito doubts all the shackles in the world would be enough to stop this man when he’s awake, not that it matters right now.
The hole in his hand grotesque, but Neito executes the plan nonetheless, reaching out.
His skin is colder than Neito’s, the second he makes contact he knows something has gone wrong, not as planned.
He yanks his hand back, guessing the internal tugging sensation to be one of the stolen quirks All for One is managing to use even as drugged up as he is, and waiting for the effects to kick in and do something detrimental to Neito’s health.
They don't.
The sensation of copying a quirk never appeared, suggesting it was a blank, and Neito turns to admit this, but the warden shouts something as a handful of the people surveying react, pointing at his outstretched hand and the guards lurch forward as erasure flares to life.
Neito blacks out to the final image of the pinhole in the center of his palm.
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The blare of an air horn that is the ringtone signalling a call is what Hitoshi wakes up to, pulling the phone to his face to accept the call before the shrill sound pinging around his head knocks him back out.
“Hello?” Hitoshi’s voice shortly after waking up is raspy and according to Neito ‘very sexy’, and after Hitoshi confirms the call went through he then hears Neito’s ‘I’m not panicking’ tone say,
“Can you come down to gym gamma?” Despite the headache he’s sporting Hitoshi isn’t dead enough to ignore the call for help and clears his throat before answering more clearly,
“Sure, dress code?” It is a gym meeting but he doubts it’s for regular exercise and he’d rather not put on exercise clothes if he can avoid it.
“Decent.” Hitoshi abandons the phone to pull on a hoodie and pants, grabbing his boots and putting them on as he rappels from the fourth floor to the ground, as it’s faster than the elevator and less work than the stairs.
Has he gotten yelled at for doing so? Yes. Will that stop him? Not a chance.
At gym gamma there is the expected Neito, plus Aizawa, Midoriya, and All Might, slimmed down in clothes that fit him.
Hitoshi can’t think of a reason they’d be here that's more plausible than pure chance, but trusts all will be explained as he closes in and doesn’t ask.
Neito’s face looks just as strainedly calm as his voice was, an unfortunate trend as of late, and Hitoshi works to hide the way his chest clenches as he sidles up next to him calmly.
“I need to work on being able to touch people without taking their quirk.” A bit of relief appears in hearing that the problem is solvable this time.
“Have at it.” Hitoshi says, holding out a hand, keenly aware of how long its been since they’ve touched and only able to keep his mind out of the gutter by noticing the increasing stress in Neito’s features.
“I might- not be able to give it back.” He points out, giving Hitoshi a chance to decide against agreeing.
Hitoshi doesn’t intend to.
“Only one way to find out.” He points out, and Neito stalls further with,
“You should not have this much faith in me.” So Hitoshi takes a stab at the whole ‘comforting assurance’ thing.
“Well I do, firstly.” He admits, explaining next, “Secondly, I didn’t make heroics my entire life, so if you wind up permanently wielding brainwashing, I’ll be fine.” If Hitoshi is going to lose his quirk to anyone, he’d prefer it be Neito.
Neito looks much calmer at hearing this, not completely, but there’s a noticeable difference, and he looks down, pressing two fingers to the back of Hitoshi’s hand.
The fight, the tug of war Neito had explained and Hitoshi had experienced in dream appears, pulling sensation yanking on his head instead of his chest this time, like the strangest migraine Hitoshi has ever experienced.
Then the presence settles in his chest, almost like he swallowed a rock but also not at all like that. Like he’s hung weights off each of his ribs, and Neito grabs him by the wrist as the headache and various other aches start to fade, like he’s on good painkillers yet still lucid.
“No,” Neito exhales, and Hitoshi looks to his hand, seeing the gap in his palm and startling briefly before collecting himself and adjusting to the turn of events. “No, give it back.” Neito’s panic is back, unhidden, and Hitoshi combats this with equal lack of concern.
“If you want it back, you’re going to have to want it more than I don't want you to have it.” He illustrates, and Neito’s expression of pure stress mixes with confusion as he comprehends.
“What?” Hitoshi is then spurred to explain when the hurt appears, no doubt Neito’s pre-existing insecurity warping Hitoshi’s words into an insult or belittling or some kind.
“I stood by for a month, and watched this quirk start to kill you.” Hitoshi says. “I absolutely believe you could’ve pulled through, but I’d much rather absolve you of the burden entirely.” Who wouldn’t want to magically solve every problem for those they love, really?
“That's not- you can’t do that, that's not fair.” Neito points out, a bit childishly, but Hitoshi is forced to recognize yes, Neito loves him back and yes, this is putting Neito in the same situation Hitoshi was in before, the position that he hated every second of.
So he compromises.
“Fine. In a month, I’ll consider giving it back.” No promises though, and seeing the opening Neito challenges,
“If I don't manage to take it.” Grip tightening on Hitoshi’s hand, though he makes no progress in reclaiming the all for one quirk, the part of Neito’s mind that believes he won’t be able to handle it stronger than the one that cares about Hitoshi’s well being, thankfully.
“Feel free to try whenever you want.'' Hitoshi grins, glad the atmosphere isn't as tension-filled, and they're back to brazen confidence.
“What if Monoma brainwashes you into giving it back?” Midoriya pipes up, and Hitoshi barely misses a beat as they both turn to him, reminded of their audience.
“I would promptly do the same to him, and then he’ll just take it back, and so on until one of us gives up, which will never happen.” He outlines the likely reality succinctly, and if Neito wasn’t on his page before he is now, abandoning that potential route to succeeding in reclaiming the transfer quirk.
“Shinsou,” All Might interjects next, tone not promising in what he’s about to say is going to be helpful. “I believe it would be best if Monoma was the one with the all for one quirk.” Fat fucking chance, but Hitoshi cant say it in those words, Yamada taught him better than to be so blunt and offensive.
“With all due respect,” Of which there is none, “this quirk is parasitic. One person holding it for too long ends badly. The original wielder went crazy, he was starting to lose it, and I probably will too, eventually. When it's too much for me he gets it back, and vice versa, until one of us dies.” Hitoshi isn't sure what’ll happen then, but they can figure that out later.
“You'll have to start seeing a therapist then.” Aizawa cuts in, already on board with the proposed turn of events.
“Dammit, I knew there'd be a catch.” Hitoshi sighs, though knowing ultimately if he isn’t checked on well enough he’ll snap and disappear before they can stop him.
“Plus extra training.” Aizawa adds, and Hitoshi groans, void of any real annoyance.
----------------------
Either Hitoshi has it worse or Neito was hiding things, Hitoshi concludes after the first few days.
He heard about the nightmares and the bone deep itch from the hole in his palms, but the vivid hallucination of the original wielder and intrusive thoughts are a surprise, worse than usual but nothing Hitoshi can’t handle.
Caught when Hitoshi brings it up, Neito admits it to him and then his therapist that he’d been struggling more than he let on.
Now that they’ve got the shared experience, they can snitch on each other to various adults, which has its pros and cons, but Hitoshi is ultimately glad neither of them are in it alone.
Anti-psychotics accomplish very little in the ways of helping, as this isn’t his own brain being difficult but the quirk he’s possessing.
More like the quirk is possessing him, but Hitoshi stays in control of his own body, even if it’s harder some days than others.
Training helps. Becoming more accustomed to the various new quirks lets them settle, no longer foriegn presences in
his chest but a part of him.
It’ll make it harder to part with them later on, but Hitoshi will cross that bridge when he comes to it.
He quickly learns bad days come more often when he is less physically healthy, and starts taking sleeping pills, cutting back on the coffee.
They work fine with little consequence, but previously Hitoshi had held off for fear of being pure dead weight in case of attack.
He still does worry about that, but after a close call with the telekinetic quirk and all of the kitchen knives nearly reverse- porcupining an unsuspecting Shishida one early morning a week into the swap, Hitoshi's priorities had shifted, and now he reluctantly relies on everyone else in the building to move and or protect him in the event of an emergency.
He settles into the new normal, admittedly substantially worse than his previous normal, and eventually it’s been four weeks, Neito waking up and demanding the quirk back.
Hitoshi argues the switch happened in the afternoon and successfully stalls until five pm, meeting in gym gamma once more, doubting his ability to argue his way into keeping the quirk.
Hitoshi knows it’s wearing on him. That all it would take is one slip up to do some serious damage, the longer he presses his luck the more likely it is that damn thing will break, so despite how much he doesn't want to see Neito like that again, Hitoshi doesn't put up a fight.
He tries not to, his subconscious does what it wants.
Neito is more determined this time, and the transfer is fast, leaving Hitoshi without any quirk at all, just like Neito had been until Hitoshi figured out how to push copy back into him.
Eventually Hitoshi gets brainwashing back, and they make an agreement that the holder can and will tap out if it ever gets to be too much sooner than the allowed single month, and they'll track the lost time to stay even in accordance with the original deal.
All for one and the stolen quirks may or may not be too much for one person, but rather than test that and risk catastrophic failure, they much prefer splitting the burden between the two of them, dubbed the hot potato solution by Midoriya.
It isn't perfect, they’ll have to involve some else at some point given the average lifespan of a hero (excluding All Might, who is an outlier and should not be counted) and getting the commission on board to get licensed will be an entirely different battle, but they have their sanity and each other, which is good enough for now.