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On The Nature Of Variation Quirks

Article by Kida Shizuko

Quirks. We all know them, we all have them, we all (or at least most of us) love them. But not everyone understands them. So, today, I, Shizuko, will explore a topic that has perplexed many a scientist for many a year: Variation Quirks.

For those of you who have never heard of them, Variation Quirks are a phenomenon seen as early as the second generation of Quirked individuals. It is when a child's Quirk bears not even a slight resemblance to their parent's. Some have hypothesized that it occurs from the remnants of the first generation's chaos, still lingering, while others have thought that it was sheer random chance, and still others think that it comes about only when two people of extremely incompatible Quirks have a child together.

The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between. When two people have a child together and their Quirks are highly incompatible, they will more often than not have a child with a Variation Quirk. Likewise, Variation Quirks can often show up in completely random places, in couples who have compatible Quirks. There is no evidence for the first hypothesis.

Variation Quirks have a reputation for being extraordinarily powerful, but that's only mostly true. In the case of incompatible Quirks, statistics show that their children's Quirks are not any more likely to be exceptionally powerful than any other child's. The same does not, however, hold true for Variation Quirks that come from unlikely sources.

Interestingly, Variation Quirks on the whole are never, no exceptions, Mutant Quirks. When they are Transformation Quirks, they tend be more on the complex side (e.x. mythical creatures, technological chimeras), which no one has come up with a theory for yet.

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Chapter Text

How do quirks Work, Anyway?

Article by Kida Shizuko

We talk all the time about Mutation quirks, or Emitter quirks, or Transformation quirks, but what are these classifications, and what do they mean? How do we categorise a subject as broad as literal superpowers?

Well, broadly speaking, quirks are divided into 5 categories. These categories can and do intersect with each other. They are Emitter, Transformation, Mutation, Adaptor, and Meta.

But what do each of these mean?

Well, I'm glad you asked, mysterious disembodied voice, because I'm about to explain.

Emitter quirks are quirks that are purely external, such as anything with "kinesis" in the name, Blaster quirks like X-Less' Eye, clairvoyance, and precognition (not that you've heard about any precognitives).

Transformation quirks allow their bearers to transform into something else, like becoming huge — they're very straightforward.

Mutation quirks are quirks that alter their user's base state in a static way. Mutation quirks are a tad more complex (heh), having two major subcategories: Simple and complex. Simple Mutations are exactly what they say on the tin, like having engines in your arms or RGB hair. Complex Mutations are where things get contentious. A Complex Mutation quirk is a quirk that mutates the user in accordance with a complex concept — for example, Mirko's Rabbit quirk is a Complex Mutation quirk. It gives her charactaristics resembling a scaled-up rabbit, including heightened senses, rabbit ears instead of human ones, a rabbit tail, and incredible leg strength. They're a bit of a touchy subject because they are extremely genetically dominant, and due to the way quirks work, almost all descendents of a Complex Mutant will themselves be Complex Mutants.

Adaptor quirks are something like the love child of all three. They change their users in permanant ways over time — for example, the A-Rank Villain Crawler. Early scientists couldn't agree on what category they were, so they made a new one. Adaptor quirks are always Passive quirks, so they're always on.

Meta quirks are almost impossible to pin down, but in general are quirks that interact with other quirks. For example, a Copy quirk would be a Meta quirk, but a quirk that emulates observed quirks would not because it did not interact with the quirk in question. Don't ask me how Meta quirks work, I have no idea, it's really complicated.

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The world is dark, Midoriya Izuku mused to himself as he brooded edgily on a rooftop somewhere in Mustafu. The strong live like kings while the weak barely scrape by.

It was a phenomenon he'd been observing for a long while — all his life, really. From the tender age of four, when Bakugo had first gotten his quirk. The moment the world put the once affectionately titled "Kacchan" would be forever engraved in Izuku's mind.

He snapped out of his musings at the sound of a familiar explosion. He was about to write it off as Bakugo being his usual self, but stopped abruptly. The explosion was simply too large, it didn't make sense — if Bakugo were to use explosions that large on people, it would cause major injuries, and it was far too much effort for mere intimidation. Bakugo much preferred to use smaller, firework-sized explosions for that.

All of this lead Izuku to one conclusion: Something was terribly wrong.

I hate interacting with Bakugo too much… But what if someone needs help? Izuku debated with himself. His altruism won out after a second, so he grabbed his backpack and started running down the stairs. Well, running as in wall running, he didn't have enough time to run the regular way so he was putting his hard-earned parkour skills to use.

Another explosion rippled throughout the city. Izuku ran faster. He burst out of the door of the vacant building he had been brooding on top of, and started tearing through the streets. He could see the smoke from here, about five blocks away. That was about half a kilometer. He picked up the pace again. By this point, he was exceeding the speeds of pre-quirk olympic sprinters.

The adrenaline was starting to make the world seem as though it was moving in slow motion now. His practiced mind picked out the fastest route to his destination, weaving through the crowd of civillians evacuating and sometimes even going over people's heads.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he arrived at his destination. The situation was simultaneously better and worse than he imagined.

In an alley to the left of Izuku, Bakugo was being suffocated by a strange anthropomorphic sewer sludge with very large eyes (kinda like three-dimensional googly eyes, which he would never be able to un-see) and a massively oversized set of teeth. That was all. There were no other organs or features, just limbs, eyes, teeth, and goop.

Watching this situation unfold in impotent frustration were four spotlight heroes: Kamui Woods, an up-and-coming pro with surprising versatility and a rather on the nose quirk; Mt Lady, a hero with a gigantification quirk that had debuted earlier that morning; Backdraft, a rescue hero with nozzle gloves (or maybe those were just his hands?) spewing water that he could control, which he was using to keep civillians away and put out fires set by Bakugo; And finally, Death Arms, a hero with super strength only in his arms who wore quite possibly the worst costume Izuku had ever seen.

Of these four pros, precisely one of them was being helpful; Backdraft. The rest were just standing there bemoaning how their quirks were useless in this situation.

Izuku scoffed. Amateurs.

The situation now known, Izuku swiftly began formulating a plan.

Okay, so the sludge clearly has a few weak points — the eyes and mouth. A thin weapon won't cut it here, I need something flat with a large surface area, like a paddle, or maybe a disk… His eyes scanned the intersection. There! A trash can lid!

He darted over to the trash can, ducking under Backdraft's barrier, kicked the lid off the ground with a clang, and spun it like a frisbee at the sludge villain. His aim was dead on, severing the villain's eyes from the rest of its body. They hit the ground with a disgusting squelching sound, both halves of the villain collapsing for the moment. This had the lovely benefit of releasing Bakugo from its grip.

"Now's our chance!" Mt Lady shouted to Kamui Woods, who extended his arms to encircle Bakugo and yanked him away. With that done, there was nothing stopping Kamui from fighting the villain, so Izuku considered it a win.

Izuku began to calm his racing heart, taking a much-needed breather after such intense exercise. As he stood there hunched over, hands massaging his legs, he released a sigh that seemed to carry a tangible cloud of stress.

The world still hated him, though, so of course he was jump scared by a hand patting his back.

"Are you alright there, my boy?"

Izuku jumped. "Gah! Who-?! Wha-?!" he demanded of the sudden presence.

"I couldn't help but notice your intervention when things got dicey there," the skeletal figure that had snuck up on Izuku stated without explaining anything at all. "I would like to speak with you. In private."

Izuku stared at the extremely shady skeleton wearing a thin layer of skin and muscle. "Uh… No?" he stated in utter bafflement.

The skeleton tilted his head in a manner similar to a golden retreiver, his long bangs swaying with the motion. "Hmm?"

Izuku marvelled at the man. "You actually don't realize how suspicious you are. Okay. Cool. This might as well happen. Why not?"

"I'm glad you're amenable, my boy." The stick figure passing as a person smiled gently at Izuku. It was like staring at the sun.

Izuku did a slight double take in confusion. "Oh- Uh, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the world at large, because it seems to hate me," Izuku explained with a slightly strained smile. "Who are you and why do you want to speak with me?"

"Oh, I'm Yagi Toshinori, I work with All Might's hero agency. I'm his secretary. I wanted to talk to you about a possible mentorship program." Yagi fished out a business card and handed it to Izuku, who took it on autopilot.

"And do you have any proof of this? Like, at all?" Izuku skepticized skeptically.

"Of course, my boy!" Yagi assured.

Why does he keep calling my "my boy?" Izuku wondered for a moment. The whole encounter had put him off balance.

"Why, the customer service office at Might Tower can confirm it!" he continued.

Izuku's eyes momentarily became circular. Oh my god he's actually serious.

"Uh- I'm just gonna confirm that really quick," Izuku stammered. He whipped his phone out, and quickly googled the information, then called the number provided. The phone rang into the akward silence for a solid eight seconds, during which Yagi just kept smiling at him.

Izuku was just starting to sweat when the call was finally picked up. "Hello?" the receptionist on the other side greeted.

"Hi, just calling to confirm something. I was approached by someone claiming to be a colleague of yours, but he's rather suspicious and I asked him for some way of verifying his identity, in response to which he referred me to you. Do you happen to work with one Yagi Toshinori? If so, in what capacity?" Izuku inquired with considerable strain.

"Why yes I do!" the receptionist replied. "Yagi-senpai is All Might's secretary, and we were all instructed to verify his identity as such if requested by All Might-sama, which I can only assume is because he's at least a bit self-aware. I know he can be a bit shady, what with the twig limbs and glowing irises floating in voids where the whites of his eyes should be, but he's really a cinnamon roll at heart," she gushed.

"Okay, that was helpful, thank you," Izuku said with something similar to a customer service smile. He hung up. "Okay, so let's say I believe you are who you say you are. Why do you want to talk to me?"

Yagi seemed confused. "Because I saw your actions and think you have serious potential as a hero?"

Izuku stared at Yagi harder. "Why? Firstly, why you? Secondly, why me? Good things don't just happen to me."

Yagi made an ah of realization. "Ah, I see. I happen to run a sponsership program for All Might — his idea, not mine — and I was very impressed at how you handled the situation earlier. It was very smooth."

Izuku made a sound that might have been a sigh of frustration, or perhaps a whine of despair… Or maybe a sob? "Fine, I'll talk to you in private."