2 Deku

Sighing at the relief of being back in his right body, Izuku made his way back into the bedroom, scaly tail trailing behind him. He dropped his discarded vigilante outfit in the hamper as he passed it, making sure to extract the information ledger and his phone from the pockets. Donning a t-shirt that was very stylishly decorated with the word 'shirt' across the front, he left the room, the door sliding open automatically at his approach.

Traveling through a short hallway brought him to a large open space. Half of it was taken up by the living room while the other half was a connected kitchen. One entire wall was made up of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city with a balcony just on the other side.

He moved to the kitchen, opening the fridge to retrieve what he needed to start cooking breakfast, and grabbing a pan from a cabinet. In a few well-practiced moves, he had butter in the pan and had turned on the stove to start melting it.

Letting that sit a moment, he turned away, slithering out of the kitchen. He came to another short hallway with a door at the end, going through it when it opened at his approach, just as the other one had.

"Hey Gremlin." He called out in greeting as soon as he entered the dark room.

"Fucker." Came the response, gruff from exhaustion, from the figure hunched in front of a computer that was the only source of light; windows having been covered by curtains, blocking the light from the sunrise.

"C'mon." Izuku said, stopping behind them, poking at the back of their head. "Work-time's over. I'm cooking breakfast."

A small noise of complaint rose from their throat as they typed at the computer. "I still have stuff to do." They groaned. "This bullshit essay is due in, like, two days."

"Then that means you still have two days to work on it. So, come on. You need food, and sleep."

When they still didn't move, he tried again. "Come on." He pestered, poking them again. "I'll even help you with it later, just come eat some food."

He turned away after a second to exit the room, not waiting for a response; he had a pan on a hot stove to tend to. "Now hurry up and get out there before I have to come back and carry you out. Because you know I will. And if I have to, I'm opening those curtains too."

They let out a louder groan as he moved.

Back in the kitchen, he worked at preparing the rest of the ingredients. Pushing a speed quirk into his limbs made quick work of it. Before long, everything was cooking away while he worked on preparing some fruit to go along with it.

Just as he was getting the plates out, about thirty seconds before he was going to go back to the room and carry its occupant out into the light, they appeared, bleary eyed and grumbling.

They had pale blue hair – the same as the roots of his – that reached down to their shoulders and eyes that were completely brown, lacking definable irises, and speckled with gold. Most notable, though, was the snake's tail that trailed behind them. It was almost identical to his own. The only differences being length – theirs was a bit longer than his – and a slightly different pattern in the scales.

This person was Reiko Etsumi, Izuku's older sister.

As the tired woman made her way over to the table, he deposited a plate full of food in front of her.

"I made omelets." He informed her as she blinked down at the plate, eyes unfocused. "Now eat up so you can get some sleep."

She grunted in reply, already working at the food. He grabbed his own plate and settled at the table. He didn't sit though, nor did his sister. They didn't even have chairs at the table. Their biology not only made sitting in chairs unnecessary – with their muscles designed to keep them 'standing' nearly all day long with no issues – but it also made it tedious to try to sit in them; their bodies were not meant to fold like that. At least not comfortably.

After a few moments of eating in silence, Rei spoke up.

"Good work tonight." She started. "Those assholes might've been incompetent, but they'd still been pouring drugs into the city for months now. And it's good that Eraserhead didn't try to capture you, not that it would've accomplished much."

He hummed in agreement. It had been really nice to find out that Eraserhead wasn't going to try anything after they finished up. He'd known the hero for the better part of five years – almost as long as he'd been a vigilante, and nearly every encounter they'd had ended with conflict. Only recently – in the past few months – was he finally starting to back off.

Maybe he was starting to decide that it just wasn't worth it to try anymore. In all the five years, Eraserhead had only once come close to actually capturing him. He'd been wrapped up and halfway to the police precinct before he finally got away. Not exactly his best day.

In his defense, it happened early in his vigilante career and he'd already been immobilized when Eraser arrived. Thanks to an asshole with a paralysis quirk that got a lucky hit.

Or maybe Eraserhead had finally realized that he didn't need to take Oni down in the first place. Sure, his methods were rather violent, and he had some borderline sadistic tendencies when it came to dealing with the criminals he fought. But he felt like he did a pretty good job nonetheless. He saved people, punished those that deserved it, and all around lowered the crime rate in the areas of Musutafu he was active in – he actually had the statistical data to back that up, courtesy of some digging around on Rei's part – it just so happened that the method of fighting crime he was best at was literally fighting crime.

"I like him." He responded. "He's quite skilled. And it's cool that he essentially fights quirkless. Makes what he does seem more impactful. Plus, I really like his quirk. It's too bad he isn't a criminal or villain, or I would've taken it already."

"Ah" He said, snapping his fingers, "Don't forget. I can still give you that quirk from a few weeks ago if you want it."

His quirk, in addition to allowing him to take the quirks of others, also allowed him to give away the ones he had. It wasn't something he did very often though, as the more his quirk and its specifics remained a secret, the better. Taking the quirks of criminals could be covered up by blaming their inability to use them on the physical trauma he inflicted, but people suddenly gaining quirks would be much more suspicious.

In fact, he'd only actually used that part of his quirk twice in his entire life, the first time had been unintentional; he'd accidentally passed one along to a mugger that had actually been mugging him – but that was years before he became a vigilante, so. Thankfully, he'd been able to take it right back, with the other being none the wiser.

The second time had been when he gave Rei a strength quirk a few years ago.

It was during a more… uncertain… period of their lives – when their safety was anything but assured – and he wanted to make sure she could defend herself, should it ever become necessary and he wasn't around.

Not that she was in any way defenseless beforehand. Of course not. She might not have any real experience in a fight – at least compared to him – but her lower body was still that of a giant anaconda that measured in at fifty feet long and weighed several thousand pounds. She was more than capable of putting up a decent fight even without the added power of a strength quirk. But still, better safe than sorry.

She glanced up at him from her food for a moment, before returning to it. "That the color-changing one?"

He nodded. "Yep. Any part of the body, any color, for any length of time." He brought his hand up as he spoke, pulling at the quirk in question from where it was settled in his chest. The skin of his hand flashed blue for a moment, then snow white, then bright red, before settling back at his normal skin tone.

That had been a neat quirk to stumble upon, even though it wasn't overtly combat oriented. It allowed the user to, at will, change the color of any part of their body.

She eyed his hand, watching as it changed colors again. "Isn't that the one you use when you go out as Oni? To change your appearance?"

He shrugged, releasing the quirk. "I have been recently, but that's mostly been so I could experiment with it. I still have the minor shapeshifting quirk that I was using before, and that I still have to use to change my face. That one works well enough for what I need."

She gave her own shrug. "You keep it for now. S'not like I need it for anything."

"If you say so. But you know that if you change your mind, I won't hesitate to give it to you."

"I know." She responded, finishing up the last of her food just in time to let out a massive yawn.

Smirking, he moved over to collect her plate. "Now go get some sleep. I'll go get to work. I might see about starting to comb through the ledger those idiots gave me."

She grumbled as she moved away, towards another door in the large room. "Fuck you and your magical 'I don't need to sleep' quirk. Just in case no one's told you before, your quirks are bullshit."

"People have indeed told me that." He replied, still smirking. "Mostly you. You tell me that all the time."

"S'cause it's true." She mumbled, just as she passed through the doorway. The door slid closed behind her a few moments later as the last of her tail made it through.

"Goodnight!" He called out to the closed door. Then, quieter, "Or, morning. Whatever."

Turning to the sink, he got to work cleaning the dishes as he considered Rei's words. That particular quirk – which he lovingly called 'Insomnia' – was one of his favorites. Actually, of all the quirks he'd acquired, that one was easily ranked as number three – two places under the one that gave him his snake tail. It allowed him to survive without having to sleep at all; a true gem that he'd stumbled upon.

Well, technically, it didn't just allow the user to survive without sleep, it forced them to. They would still feel all the exhaustion that came along with never sleeping, they just wouldn't die from it.

That had been one of the few instances where he used his quirk on someone that wasn't a criminal. He'd happened to hear about the person struggling with it – they were having difficulty focusing on anything for longer than a few seconds and it was, in general, making their life difficult – and it caught his attention. As Oni, he'd snuck into their home in the middle of the night – it was really easy to sneak up on someone when they were as unfocused as they were – and took it from them; without causing them the same pain he normally would. They passed out as soon as he took it, immediately falling asleep. From what he'd heard, they stayed asleep for a full two weeks before waking up again.

At first, he'd been slightly concerned about the side effects that came with it – more curious than actually worried – but he'd amassed quite a few quirks over the years, and a few were perfect to counteract them.

The result? He could stay awake as long as he wanted to, with no side effects other than occasionally missing the feeling of falling asleep. But even that wasn't an actual problem.

He still could sleep if he wanted to – with the way his quirk worked and how it stored away the ones he took, it meant that all he'd have to do would be to deactivate the quirk in question – but why do that when there were so many other things he could do with his time?

He finished up the last of the dishes he'd dirtied with breakfast and set it aside to dry, before moving off back towards his room. But instead of entering it, he went through the door directly opposite.

It was an office, like the one that he'd retrieved Rei from when he got home. Like hers, this one had a computer set up in the center, but unlike hers, he had the curtains drawn, revealing the floor-length windows and letting in the early morning light.

He settled himself in front of the computer, powering it up, and navigating to the website he needed. As soon as it opened up, he saw the screen filling with all the requests that had been sent in since the day before. Humming to himself, he picked out one of the oldest, and set to work.

It was a request for him to analyze a quirk. To pick apart its details and uses, figure out its limitations, and come up with ways to improve upon and train it. He considered it for a moment, mind racing to work it through, before beginning to record his thoughts.

His nights were spent patrolling the city as Oni, the wanted vigilante. But this was how he spent his days; as a professional quirk analyst, under the alias Deku.

It was something he truly enjoyed doing. Quirks were, by far, his favorite subject to study and discuss. Few things brought him more joy than picking apart every minute detail, usage, and weakness of a quirk.

Even his own. Especially his own. Every quirk he took, no matter how simple or how weak, he would spend hours practicing and pouring over every bit of it, until he understood it more intimately than even the person who originally had it. They were his gems, and he made them shine.

People from all walks of life sent him requests, and not all of them from Japan. All they had to do was send him as much information as possible about their quirk. From there, he went to work.

There were those that wished to learn if there was more that they could do with their quirk, who maybe were under the impression that it was weak or useless. There were people with quirks that were difficult to manage, or otherwise made their life harder, seeking assistance in controlling or managing it so they could live their lives with a bit of normalcy. There were even students hoping to apply for hero schools, seeking ways to improve their chances.

Then, sometimes, there'd be a request from a more serious source. A quirk counseling office working with a troublesome quirk, the police or the government dealing with a new villain or troublemaking criminal – though they usually tried to disguise it as just another citizen seeking help -, and even the occasional hero school looking to better train their future heroes.

Those requests had begun a bit more recently than the others, when he'd earned a degree in quirk training, roughly three years ago. He'd been analyzing quirks long before that but, legally, he wasn't allowed to take requests from those places without being certified to do so.

He was quite proud of the fact that even the illustrious Yuuei had sent him a few requests.

Very rarely, he'd even have a Pro Hero send him a request, usually looking for a way to boost their effectiveness and, subsequently, their ranking.

Once or twice, though, he'd had a villain try to have him pick apart the details of a hero's quirk, to aid them in their fight. Those particular ones, he made note of. Then the following night, Oni would visit them and analyze their quirk instead, after he'd taken it.

The biggest part of all of this was that, in addition to stimulating him intellectually and fulfilling his greatest passion, he got paid for all of it. It wasn't a particularly large sum per request, but take a few hundred every week and it started adding up fairly quickly.

Once he'd established himself as an analyst and people started seeing the quality of his work, it wasn't long before he was finally making enough money to support himself.

And now, that money was what allowed him to live the sort of leisurely life he did. It payed for this penthouse that he and Rei lived in; specially modified in places to accommodate their quirks. The clothes that he wore out on his nightly adventures; expensive but letting him express a certain aesthetic that he enjoyed. It even payed for the classes that Rei was taking, that she worked on as she assisted him at night.

Really, he considered himself quite lucky.

A sudden chill sent a shiver across his body. It was March, and it was only just starting to warm up. A bit of cold air – remnant of the quickly ending winter season – must've seeped into the apartment.

Speaking of special modifications to the apartment…

He picked up a small remote sitting on his desk, clicking one of the buttons. A moment later, he let out a blissful sigh as he felt the tile floor beneath him begin to heat up.

The snake tail he so often wore made him more susceptible to colder temperatures. He wasn't truly cold blooded, but it did make it a bit harder to regulate his body temperature when it was cold. He'd take any additional heat where he could get it.

He soon finished off the first request of the day, sending it off and moving onto the next. This one was a bit different, however.

Instead of someone looking to have him assist with their quirk, it was someone looking for help with a paper for one of their college classes. He usually got a number of these too, in addition to the normal ones; students seeking someone to proofread a paper before submitting it. And, unlike the usual ones, he didn't get paid for any of these. That was on purpose; he saw no point in charging for something as simple as proofreading, especially when college students were usually already hurting for money.

He probably got more requests for paper-reviewing than for quirk analysis – what with people all over Japan coming to him – but a few speed quirks made quick work of all of them. Depending on how into the work he got, his fingers would literally start to blur as they danced across his keyboard.

In fact, it was probably the speed at which he answered requests, more than anything else, that had made his reputation spread the way it did – though the quality of his work no doubt contributed. He knew that there were rumors floating around that he actually had people working for him to field the mountains of requests he got.

It had gotten to the point that he had long since undercut a number of other independent quirk analysts. They simply couldn't match up to the sheer number of requests he was fulfilling, and they lost business because of it.

He probably should've felt at least somewhat bad about putting people out of business, but he didn't. Not in the slightest. He'd been fighting for survival for the majority of his life. This was practically the same, the only difference being that, for once, he was the one in the lead.

He finished up the paper-review, moving on to one for another quirk. This one caught his eye almost immediately.

It was a hero school hopeful – a student seeking to take the Yuuei entrance exams in ten months – and their quirk was fascinating for how similar it was to his own. They could, with skin-to-skin contact, copy another person's quirk to use for themselves. There was a time limit, and a limit to how many they could copy at once, but still. This was another person that could use someone else's quirk. Truly fascinating.

It was almost a shame that they weren't a criminal or villain. Almost. It would be quite interesting to see how that would interact with his own quirk.

Many quirks, when used at the same time as another, had their abilities combined to achieve greater effects. For instance; two of the strength quirks that he used most often. One granted strength by increasing muscle mass, the other, by condensing existing muscles to increase their output.

Separately, they weren't all too impressive, but combined?

Combined, they more than tripled his natural strength. And that was before his others were taken into account.

Maybe if he used this one at the same time as his natural quirk, it would allow him to truly copy, instead of taking? Giving him access to any and all quirks he came across. Or maybe make copies after he's already taken?

He shook his head, dispelling those thoughts. No point in thinking about any of that. Not when this person was very clearly on the path to become a hero.

He quickly started to write out his analysis, noting that the quirk likely only needed contact with someone's DNA, not just their skin, to allow them to copy. Assuming that were the case, they could have jewelry – rings would be the most efficient – made from select people's hair to give them access to certain quirks whenever they were needed. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of any ways to work past the limits to the number of quirks or the time to use them through training. But with the rings – constant access to quirks – he could effectively remove both.

He included in the analysis, the name of a support company that he knew could make such equipment.

He also added that they should look into learning hand-to-hand combat. Having a quirk that directly relied upon someone else meant that they needed a way to fight that didn't; doubly important if they were looking to apply for a hero school. Not only would learning to fight increase their combat effectiveness, but it would also give them an effective method of putting their hands on their opponent to potentially copy their quirk.

He finished typing out his thoughts, adding in a few finer points here and there, and sent it off.

Shaking his head once more, to keep himself from thinking of such an interesting quirk, he moved on to the next request, adding another speed quirk to pick up the pace.

---

When he finally finished with the last request in the queue, he saw that it had been a few hours; it was almost noon.

Standing a bit taller, he stretched to work the soreness from his body; a consequence of staying hunched like that for hours. Locking his computer, he made his way out of the room and across the hall, back to his bedroom. Time to get started on the rest of his day.

He picked out another shirt from his closet. One that was a bit better-looking than the plain t-shirt he already had on. He settled on a simple, light-gray dress shirt that he thought paired rather nicely with the green of his scales. It was specially tailored with slits across the back to allow it to fit comfortably around his wings. He also picked out a bag, which he slung across his chest, over his shoulder, to hold his phone and other items. The bag was necessitated by his inability to wear pants, thanks to his biology, and the resulting lack of pockets.

Now properly dressed, he made his way to the glass door leading to the balcony; the same one he had landed on earlier in the morning. Perching himself on the railing, he stretched his wings out, now much larger than before to accommodate his increased weight, and took off.

He didn't go far, just gliding down to the ground, to an alleyway leading off the main road. He preferred flying to the slow process of going down the building by tail – especially since his weight was a bit more than what the elevator could really handle – but still enjoyed traveling along the sidewalk to his destination, even if flying might be faster.

Once he touched down, he pulled a pair of headphones out his bag and slipped them on. A moment later, music started playing as he picked out his desired playlist, quickly drowning out the noises of the world. He grew a small smile as the old song poured into his ears; a classic from the early 21st century.

Personally, he didn't much care for recent music. Because, as with most everything else, the appearance of quirks had brought stagnation. Nearly everything made in the last century and a half really wasn't worth listening to. Even now, it was only just starting to pick back up. Instead, he liked to listen to stuff from before quirks. Namely the first two decades of the 21st century and a few choice songs from earlier.

Satisfied with the song he'd chosen, he exited the alley and set off down the road, humming along with the tune. It was a lighter one that echoed gently through the air, making those that could hear it break into small, content smiles as they passed.

Before long, he reached the first stop in his outing; an outdoor café. He enjoyed coming here for lunch, they had excellent katsudon that even he hadn't been able to match, as skilled in cooking as he was after years of practice.

There was also the fact that this was one of the few places that he could eat at. Most restaurants didn't have the room to accommodate his lower half, unless they had outdoor seating or specially catered to those with size altering mutation quirks. It didn't bother him overly much though. If he really had a desire to eat somewhere else, he could just change his appearance around, like he does before he goes out to pursue his vigilantism.

Situating himself at a table, after ordering his food, he pulled out his phone to check for any activity. Part of the same website that he used for his analysis requests – which he'd had Rei set up and design for him – was a sort of forum where people would contact him, sending him news articles about hero or villain activity, asking him to comment on it, asking him what he thought of certain recent events, or just in general asking his thoughts on whatever they wanted.

Quickly sorting through the activity, and responding to a few people as he went, he came to where someone had sent him a video of a hero's debut from earlier that morning, asking for his thoughts.

Interested – and mildly excited at the thought of a new hero making their appearance – he tapped on it, playing the video. He saw a news reporter providing active commentary on the fight. Behind them, he saw Kamui Woods, a relatively new Pro Hero that was rising through the rankings at an impressive pace; already sitting at twenty ninth as of the last released update to the rankings. The hero was fighting against someone who appeared to have a transformative quirk that gave them odd, almost shark-like physical features, but also increased his size to match that of the buildings around him. Maybe his appearance was just the result of a residual mutation left over from a parent?

It seemed like it would be a fairly easily victory for the new hero, despite the criminal's size; he'd seen videos before displaying the strength of his abilities. But just as he was about to restrain them, already calling out the name of his capture-oriented super move, a new hero entered into the frame, kicking the criminal into a nearby building, partially crushing it and knocking him unconscious.

The newcomer, who the reporter identified as Mt. Lady, then started making witty comments about her own body, striking a pose as groups of photographers took as many pictures as they could. Afterwards, with the villain being restrained and loaded into a police van, the reporter praised the two heroes, and informed everyone that there were no casualties resulting from the fight, including the building that was partially crushed. The video stopped after that.

He sighed, setting his phone down as he processed what he had watched. For starters, the new hero, Mt. Lady, had butted into a fight unnecessarily just to score herself a flashy debut. The way she did so was quite careless as well; knocking the criminal into the building, causing property damage and potentially putting civilians at risk, even though no one got hurt. She was very clearly attention-seeking, with the posing for photos before she even ensured that the criminal was properly secured.

She should've left them for Kamui Woods to handle �� which he clearly could've – and just stood by to offer assistance had it become necessary.

That being said, she did have a quirk that was well-suited for heroics. Gigantification to that scale was incredibly powerful and extremely difficult for any but the most dangerous villains to counter. And while she had recklessly knocked the criminal into the building, she was instinctively avoiding colliding her own body into nearby buildings. She was at the very least able to manage her own size carefully in a city environment.

If she could get over her attention-seeking attitude, she would likely make a successful hero that would rise through the ranks fairly quickly.

He took a moment to type all of that out, posting it to the forum. Replies were almost immediately coming in as he set his phone back down. His food had arrived. With a quick 'thank you' to the server, and a flick of his tongue to taste the delicious sent that permeated the air, he dug in. He didn't pick his phone back up as he ate, choosing instead to enjoy the atmosphere as he ate in silence.

---

Soon enough, he was finishing up and paying, before continuing on to the next stop in his trip.

As he traveled, he watched the people he passed by, analyzing them. He tried to figure out their quirks as he went, without the use of his own and with just a few moments observing to work with. He would often challenge himself like this. He had to keep his skills sharp; his job was reliant upon them, after all.

Mutation quirks were easy enough to figure out. Most of them could be separated into one of three categories: animalistic, transmutative, or enhancing.

Animalistic were simple and fairly common. It gave the user some number of features that, usually, matched up to some existing animal; ears, eyes, claws, fur or scales, and a number of more complex traits. These usually also came with enhanced senses and physical capabilities, as well as, depending on how extensive the mutation, instincts that matched up to the animal they emulated. Even his own quirk – the snake mutation – gave him some instincts, though they only extended so far as to make him want to curl up on the nearest warm surface and soak in the sunlight.

Transmutative were usually more complex. They served to change the user's body in more visibly extensive ways. This usually presented in changes to their skin, turning it to stone or metal, or cement, in Pro Hero Cementos' case. There were also instances in which they changed certain body parts; gun quirks were a good example of that. He had even seen a student walking down the road one day, that appeared to have a Lego piece in place of their head. He hadn't even seen a mouth or eyes. After that, he wasn't sure whether he should marvel at, or be scared of, the sheer randomness of quirks.

Enhancing mutation quirks were the simplest. These were the ones that granted extra limbs, increased body sizes, or increased strength or speed as well as other invisible quirks such as intelligence enhancers.

Other quirks, transformative and emitters, were a bit harder to work out. For those he had to look at how they walked or behaved. How did they hold their hands? If they were held a bit away from the body it might be indicative of a hand-based emitter or a claw transformation. Gloves might indicate a touch-based quirk. Maybe they averted their eyes or kept their gaze at the ground as they walked. That may be the result of a sight-based quirk.

Every little thing was usually indicative of one's quirk in some small way. How their feet moved as they walked, the clothes they wore, how they reacted to other people, or how other people reacted to them, and even their confidence, or lack thereof, as they moved.

All of these things and more were what he was taking in as he moved down the street, working to discern their quirk as quickly as possible.

---

As he arrived at his destination, he took a moment to look it over. The once trash-covered shores of the beach now gleamed with clear sand, and the number of people that visited it was growing – though it was still quite low due to the time of year; it was a weekday, and summer vacation wasn't for another few months.

He moved down from where he was standing, almost sighing in relief as he hit the sand, the built-up-warmth seeping in through his scales. Moving towards the waterline, he pulled an empty trash bag from the bag hanging at his waist. As he worked his way down the beach, he picked up any stray piece of trash he came across.

He may have cleaned the trash that had been piled across the beach, but there were still pieces that washed up from the water, having been carried from elsewhere by the currents, and although people had stopped dumping their trash here, the occasional visitor still left debris where they had been sitting. It didn't bother him. Compared to the initial cleanup, this little bit was nothing, and he had noticed where other people had started to pitch in as well to help keep the place clean, something that he appreciated immensely.

As he finished up, placing the partially filled bag into the dumpster, he moved over to his usual spot in the sand, before coiling overtop of himself, piling up his tail. He laid down over the improvised furniture with a content sigh, soaking in the heat both from the sun above and the sand below. He stretched his wings out above him, letting them soak in the heat too as they caught the constant, light breeze from the ocean.

This was part of his usual routine. Take analysis requests until close to noon, head out for lunch, usually at that same outdoor café, then head here, to keep the beach clean and relax in the sand, sunning himself, then from there he would take care of any further errands before heading back home.

Usually, he would start to doze off as he basked in the heat, or read, or maybe interact with people on his forum, but this time he had a different activity in mind. Sorting through the quirks bundled in his chest, he pulled on the one he got the night before – Spectrum – settling it behind his eyes.

At the same time, he reached down into his bag, pulling out a small notebook. The cover read 'Quirk Registry'. Though it wouldn't appear that way to anyone that wasn't him. He'd put effort into encoding the notebook so that it would be gibberish to most. Its contents were too important to have anyone else be able to read them.

It was where he kept all his notes on the quirks he'd taken.

And this one was volume 12.

He opened to the next empty page, ready to record what he found.

He blinked, and his vision switched to the thermal he had made use of last night. However this time, with the sun blazing down and the sand around him soaking in all the heat, he couldn't see much beyond a blanket of white and yellow.

He blinked again, skipping past the night vision, - as he had no intention of blinding himself in the midday sun – and instead picking out a new one. When he opened his eyes, the world around him took on a subdued, darker quality. The sand around him wasn't quite as bright and, when he looked up, he found that he could look directly up at the sun without the slightest bit of discomfort; UV protection then, essentially really good sunglasses. He made a note of its strength in the notebook. He repeated the process, opening his eyes to reveal not much change from before. Everything still seemed slightly subdued, so what changed? He was about to move on to another one, planning to come back to that one later, when he glanced over to the side, at the nearest group of people.

He couldn't actually make out any details about them; their clothing, facial features, hair, or skin color. But what he could make out was their entire skeletal structure.

He glanced down at his hands, seeing the bones beneath the skin. Behind them, he could see the odd skeleton of his coiled-up tail.

X-ray vision. Quite interesting.

Moving on, he found that the next one provided little difference from his normal vision, except that his depth perception was off, to a major degree. It took him a moment, and a slight bit of nausea at the sudden change, to realize that his vision was actually being magnified. He couldn't tell by how much exactly, but he could clearly make out a cargo ship sitting on the horizon, miles out to sea. If he strained, he could just barely differentiate between shipping containers sitting on its deck. Quite powerful magnification then.

Closing his eyes once more, he could feel that there weren't any other changes to be found. Even still, despite the small number of variations, each one was incredibly useful in its own right. He could think of so many uses for each of them.

Well, admittedly less for the UV protection, but all the same.

His hand blurred as he began writing in his journal, recording every little detail he could think of regarding each of the changes to his vision. He noted how ineffective the thermal and night vision would be during the day – rather obvious but still important to understand – and how strong the magnification seemed to be.

Pulling the quirk back into his chest, he scrubbed at his eyes, rubbing away the sudden, subtle ache that was present. A limit then. It wasn't too surprising; forcing the eyes to mutate in order to change how they received light waves had to bring on some kind of strain, especially when done in quick succession like that. He'd have to experiment more in the future to see if that was a limit that could be removed, or otherwise alleviated.

'If I can't train the limit away, maybe I can find a quirk that can help?' He mused, staring out at the tiny dot off in the distance that he now knew was a cargo ship. 'Maybe a healing quirk of some kind?'

He would also experiment to see if he could alter any of the mutations further, maybe even combining their effects. X-ray and magnification, for one, would be incredibly useful. Maybe he could force a different change into each eye?

He made sure to take note of that particular limitation to the quirk, as well as the theories he wanted to test. The limits he could work on at any time, especially when he went out to work at night. But he would save the theories for when he came to the beach.

Stowing his notebook back into the bag after touching up the last of the notes, one of his quirks alerted him to someone approaching him from the side, pulling him from his thoughts. Turning to look at them, he took in their appearance.

They were tall, easily standing over six feet, and that was without including the blonde hair that stuck out above them – which probably added at least another foot. They were also extremely skinny, to the point of being gaunt and malnourished; their cheekbones were quite prominent, and their eyes were sunken into their sockets so far that they very nearly left only shadows in their place. Their clothes hung loosely off their frame, clearly designed to fit someone much larger than them.

Their eyes were trained on him, and their feet were taking them on a direct path to him.

Based on their physical appearance, they weren't much of a threat, but that meant next to nothing in the world of quirks. He strained his eyes once more, using an intelligence quirk he called 'Appraisal' to figure out what theirs was.

[Name: Toshinori Yagi]

[Quirk: One For All]

[Emitter-type quirk that stockpiles the energy of its previous users in the form of strength, allowing the user to achieve enhanced physical capabilities.]

Izuku quirked an eyebrow at that. A stockpiling quirk? Specifically, an energy stockpiler? Those were fairly rare. And this one stockpiled energy in the form of strength, which was doubly interesting. He himself had an energy stockpiling quirk – two actually – but he couldn't do anything with them, not directly at least. They only acted as a second source of stamina; recharging whenever he wasn't physically exerting himself.

And then there was the bit about it stockpiling energy of previous users. Was it a quirk that could be directly passed down to children, instead of them receiving a mutated version of it? That was the most likely scenario. Quirks acted almost the same as all other genes did when they're being passed down; either dominant or recessive. It's possible that this quirk mutated to be permanently dominant, to always pass down to the child in place of the other parent's quirk.

Before he could explore that line of thought any further, the man – Yagi – was stopping in front of him. He looked as though he wanted to say something, but for some reason he was hesitating. Izuku decided to take the initiative instead of waiting for them to gather their nerve, raising himself up off the ground so he was even with the newcomer.

"Good afternoon. May I help you?" he asked, as good a starting place as any. He would remain cordial until the man gave him a reason not to.

"Ah, yes." Yagi responds, still slightly hesitant for whatever reason. "I apologize for bothering you, but would you happen to be the one that cleaned this beach up?"

For the second time in just a few minutes, he quirked his eyebrow at them. Why did he want to know that?

"I'm not the one who cleaned the beach." He lied. "But I do know them. Why do you ask?"

"I see." He looked slightly disappointed at that. "It's just that I saw you going around picking up trash, and I thought that you might've been the one to clean this place. I remember it from before it was a dump, and wanted to thank whoever it was that returned it to its former glory. I don't suppose you could give me the name of the person so I may thank them personally?"

Ah, so he just wanted to thank whoever cleaned the beach? Izuku supposed that made sense; the beach had been quite a mess, after all. But he felt like there was something else that the man was leaving out.

"Unfortunately, no, I can't." He responded. "I don't know who you are, and I doubt that person would appreciate me giving out their name to strangers."

"Oh! Of course! Of course!" Yagi said, waving his hands in front of him. "I understand. Please pass on my thanks to them, then."

He held out his hand. "I'm Toshinori Yagi, by the way."

Izuku reached out to take it. "Izuku Etsumi."

He took Yagi's hand, keeping a polite smile on his face. Underneath it, though, he was barely able to hold back a reaction at what he felt.

Usually, whenever he made direct physical contact with someone, he could feel their quirk. It felt like a flame sitting just beneath the skin, centered in their chest and wherever the quirk use is focused; like 'Spectrum' being focused behind the eyes.

But this man…

Not only was his quirk the single biggest flame Izuku had ever encountered in all the nearly fourteen years he'd been observing and taking quirks – like a raging bonfire compared to a candle and burning everywhere across his body – but it was also cut off in a way he didn't understand.

When he touches someone and feels their quirk, it feels as though he's holding his hand at the edge of the flame, warming it and just waiting to plunge his hand into it to pull it into himself.

He didn't feel that with Yagi. It was as if there was a barrier keeping him just out of reach from the quirk. He knew immediately that, no matter what he did or how hard he tried, he would not be able to pull this one into himself.

And if that wasn't enough, the man's quirk felt almost segmented. Or maybe layered? If he didn't know any better – a sentiment he was slowly beginning to doubt – he would assume that they had multiple quirks.

Yagi, thankfully, didn't seem to notice his reaction, walking away with a slight wave. "Well then, have a good day! Perhaps I shall see you around."

Izuku couldn't find it in himself to respond; still trying to process what exactly he had just experienced.

He glanced down at the hand he'd just used to shake Yagi's. Whatever the reason was, Yagi's quirk was simultaneously the single most powerful, and strangest quirk he'd ever encountered.

Yet, with that realization, he was left with an even greater question.

Just who the hell was Toshinori Yagi, to have a quirk such as that?

---

Toshinori contemplated the interaction he'd just had as he walked away from the strange young man.

He had been quite surprised when he visited the beach – just a few months ago – for the first time in years to find it almost completely cleaned and restored to its previous state.

He knew what kind of dump it had been reduced to; something that had greatly saddened him, and that he would've taken care of himself were his injury not so limiting on how he could spend his time. When it came down to whether he should use his time saving people and apprehending villains, or using it to clean an old beach, there was really only one choice.

So, when he had discovered that it had almost been returned to how it was in his memory, he wanted nothing more than to find whoever was behind it and thank them personally. He'd asked the local government and nearby public service organizations, thinking it was maybe one of them that had put together an effort, but was surprised to find that they were just as clueless as him.

He was even more shocked when he'd heard from a few local citizens that it was seemingly only a single person responsible.

Ever since then, he'd been coming to the beach whenever he could spare the time, attempting to catch wind of whoever had cleaned it, but never having any luck, even after the bulk of the cleanup had been completed.

He'd been hopeful, then, when during his visit on this day he'd spotted a young man with a truly fascinating mutation, traveling the length of the beach picking up stray trash. It was a little surprising to see someone of his age out doing something like that, especially during what he thought to be a school day, but there could be any number of explanations, so he didn't worry about it. He thought that maybe the young man was the one to do it, so he approached them to ask.

Once they had realized he was approaching them, and turned to watch, they gained an odd quality about them. He couldn't explain it, precisely, but it felt as though they were seeing through him, or maybe appraising some piece of him, instead of actually watching him. He would be lying if he said that it didn't unnerve him somewhat.

There were only two people that Toshinori had ever encountered that had that quality. One was the principal of Yuuei, Nezu; the chimera's analytical mind and inhuman stare seemingly able to pick apart every detail of one's life at just a glance. The other, was him. The one his predecessors had dedicated their lives to fight against, and who he had finally defeated all those years ago. That man seemed to stare straight through people, seeing only their quirk; what it was, how useful it could be, and whether or not he should take it for himself.

To see such a quality in this young man was shocking to say the least.

He was disappointed to find that it wasn't actually him who had cleaned the beach and that, once he found out that the young man knew, he wouldn't tell him who had. He supposed it was understandable though. To them, he was just some stranger – and, with the appearance of his true form being what it was, not one that looked friendly. But he supposed that, at the very least, his thanks would be passed on to the correct person.

When he had gone to leave, finally giving his name and offering his hand to the other, he noticed yet another oddity to be added to the list. It was subtle, extremely so, but when Toshinori finally shook their hand, the young man – Izuku Etsumi �� had been shocked for some reason. He could see it in his eyes; something in that moment had shaken him to his core.

Even more strange, though, was that on Toshinori's side of the interaction, as soon as his hand touched Etsumi's, One For All lurched inside his chest in a way he'd never felt before. It was almost as if the echoes of the previous holders of the quirk all collectively recoiled in shock.

He decided right then that he would be returning to the beach again to try to find Etsumi again. He was missing something, and he intended to figure out what it was.

There was definitely more than meets the eye when it came to Izuku Etsumi.