Episode 13. Part II.

On Sunday morning, brimming with unhealthy positivity and manic enthusiasm, I stood outside Himiko's room at five a.m.

Yes, you heard me right! Because it was time for… experiments! And naturally, "villainous" ones—once I got a taste for villainy thanks to All Might, I couldn't stop! Now I'm a miscreant and a rascal! Mwahahaha!

...I should probably cut down on coffee.

It all boiled down to two things.

First, I simply wanted to study her quirk. I was overcome with the thrill of a researcher! Yui and Setsuna's quirks were good, versatile, and unusual, but what Himiko had… that was on another level. Full of mysteries and secrets! And when you consider the fact that she'll be able to copy other people's powers in the future... phew. Fascinating stuff!

Second, it had dawned on me just last Saturday evening that due to my meddling with the timeline, actual criminals, murderers, and maniacs would soon attack all these students in the coming weeks. And while many of them could surprisingly hold their own, Toga... well... on one hand, in a sparring match, she'd give even me a run for my money, and she could disguise herself and lay low, so she shouldn't disappear entirely.

But on the other hand, she was utterly defenseless! Sure, I vaguely remembered the anime's plot—what good did that do? The first time she ever faced the heroes, she had strong allies covering her! Like that... um… what's his name... uh… damn.

Damn it, he's an important character! Blue fire, black hair, horrible burns, a cloak...

No, can't remember. Even squeezing my eyes isn't helping.

Fine, we'll meet… eventually.

Back to Himiko: she had no proper costume, no way of defending herself, not even techniques. In chaos, cities, schools—yeah, she's formidable because she loves and practices ambush attacks. But out in the open—what would she even do? So, she needed to increase her chances of survival. But first, I had to understand the mechanics of her quirk better and figure out what kind of costume would suit her.

I knew this was dumb and maybe even dangerous, but I still felt responsible for this girl, who had trusted me.

Maybe my mom read me too much Exupéry before bed.

Some mom, anyway.

You know, time is a scary thing. I still had a decent grasp of my native language, even though I hadn't spoken it in fifteen years, but I couldn't recall the faces of my first parents at all. I couldn't even imagine them.

There's a chance that some part of my memories or personality traits were lost in the process of reincarnation. The phenomenon of retaining an adult's memory and consciousness in a child's brain, which didn't even have a fully formed cortex, still baffled me. I couldn't grasp how it was possible.

However, I had a theory that this might be connected to quirks—not necessarily my good memory, but some kind of space where quirks draw their energy and matter.

Maybe that's where my brains are stored, too? And the minds of all those heroes and villains whose bodies don't seem to have normal brains. Like Cementoss, for example.

Not a very cheerful thought.

I knocked on Himiko's door again.

She didn't have a mobile phone (another oversight that needed fixing), but I had warned her yesterday that I would come early.

So, a sleepy Himiko finally opened the door, and for the second time in my life, I saw her without those buns on her head.

Mumbling something in greeting and quickly shutting the door, she started tying her hair into the familiar hairstyle, holding some of the hair ties between her teeth. I gave her a suspicious once-over: no magical girl costumes, no school uniforms, no sailor suits—just regular sportswear. Good.

I turned and marched ahead, leading us to the stadium. More specifically, to that small field where her knife and I almost got acquainted in a bit more detail.

Might as well check the stash while we're there.

"Why are we going to the sports field, Niren?"

"You follow your quirk's lead, but you need to make your quirk follow you. To do that, you need to understand it and know your limits. So, we're going to figure out how your 'Transformation' works!"

"Wait, wait, maybe we shouldn't?"

"We should, Himiko, we should."

***

There was a lot I was curious about, but time was short.

First of all, what did we already know about Himiko's quirk?

We knew that she could transform into other people and mimic their behavior well. Her clothes would change along with her, and she could recreate not only the target's appearance but also what they were wearing—whether it be a swimsuit, a uniform, or even armor (and in the future, even their quirks). The functionality of the fake clothing was partially preserved.

What does that mean?

It means that the mechanics of her quirk aren't based on blood, no matter what people think. If she can copy someone's clothes by "photographing" them at a specific moment—and clothes obviously don't carry the wearer's genetic material (unless it's a rare hero with a suit made from their own tissues, like Setsuna)—then this conclusion is obvious.

Maybe in the future, she could use other "physiological" fluids, as strange as that sounds? Basically, any organic material, like hair? Or even personal items? Tactile contact? Visual?

We needed to run experiments. But I had a hunch that Toga had some kind of backdoor access to that space where quirks were stored. Maybe through this, she could tap into the attributes of their owners... ugh.

It's hard to speculate about something you can't even imagine. I'd tried searching for scientific papers on the topic, but found nothing even close. Again, strange. Is someone scrubbing this information for some reason? Or am I just clumsy?

Moving on. Another crucial point—her transformation easily wipes away my markers, even though she doesn't know they exist.

What else do we know?

Her disguise allows her to change height, weight, body build, and even voice. Maybe even body mechanics.

How is all this possible?

It seems her body is altered by the quirk factor to a much greater extent than one might think. I've already partly confirmed this—Himiko is incredibly, inhumanly flexible, presumably due to enhanced ligaments and hypermobile joints.

Important note: in ordinary people, such mutations in the body—like Marfan syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and others—often lead to a reduced life expectancy. Maybe Toga, too...

No, stop. Without long-term, genuinely scientific studies, not just my on-the-fly musings, it's impossible to say for sure. However, there's a chance that part of her body's tissues regenerate with each use of her quirk. In other words, she might actually live quite a long life.

Although—wait again! Every person's cells, or rather, the ends of their DNA chains, have special sequences—telomeres, which are biological limits on the number of divisions a cell can go through. When a cell divides, the telomere shortens. I can't see where Toga could get the missing biomass needed for her transformations except from explosive cell division.

Or from that otherworldly quirk dimension?... Ugh, it's frustrating...

One more side note: if the Recovery Girl's powers, as she told Midoriya and me, activate and stimulate the natural regenerative abilities of the target's body, doesn't that mean she's shortening those telomeres, reducing the number of times a cell can divide, and thus cutting down a person's lifespan? Hmm… I'll need to ask her about that and maybe avoid overusing her powers. But that's for another time.

What else?

A very important point: can Toga heal her own injuries by transforming? I don't know yet, but we absolutely need to test that today.

Also, does her disguise withstand physical damage—most likely, no. After relatively minor impacts, her disguise starts to break down. Organs, pieces of clothing, gadgets, and body parts created by her quirk are incomplete—they don't have the durability or, let's say, muscle strength of the originals. From what I've gathered, the muscles she mimicked when transforming into me didn't give her a significant boost in physical power.

Clearly, the gray biomass she generates compensates for the lack of volume. But then what? Does it integrate into her limbs? Let's not forget, I'm a good third of a meter taller than Himiko. Does the gray mass extend her legs? If that's the case, what happens if her leg gets hit? Will it pop, like her disguise?

But no, it wouldn't pop—she operated successfully in my form, maintaining both combat readiness and flexibility—she'd easily outmaneuver me in acrobatics, even in my own appearance. So how, then, does she gain height and shoulder width? Is this explosive cell division creating not only gray slime to mimic clothing and appearance but also growing muscles and bones?

But that's a bit absurd. Temporarily increasing the volume of muscle sarcomeres is possible even without a quirk (just ask any gym-goer). It's a different story, though, to create new myocytes— these cells don't typically divide, unless they are tumor cells. And then there's the issue of bone regeneration—it's possible, but it takes so much time...

But what am I talking about? I live in a world where the difference between iambic and trochaic meters in poetry class is explained by a block of concrete! Stranger things happen here.

And why absurd? Recovery Girl's abilities allow her to heal multiple complicated fractures in a matter of seconds. Simply by accelerating (and, I suspect, improving) cell regeneration.

So, most likely, Himiko is a regenerator—but with a switch.

Speaking of which, her quirk clearly alters body mass. Sure, I could lift her, but the nearly forty-kilogram difference between us was still a nearly forty-kilogram difference. It was like getting two Togas for the price of one. To put it in fun mathematical terms: Himiko to the power of Niren equals Himiko plus Himiko.

Speaking of one plus one: could Toga transform into a child, significantly reducing her body mass? Again, I don't know. And where am I supposed to set up that kind of experiment under makeshift conditions... what if she reverted back and ended up as a tiny, child-like Toga? It would be funny, of course, but I'm a hero, not a villain. Should I ask Nezu for help with the research? Or maybe visit that quirk research center where Yui and I have already made a few appearances? Not now.

What else?

What exactly is that gray slime, biomass, oatmeal that remains from Himiko's transformation when she shifts back? Is it pluripotent stem cells that can turn into whatever's needed for the specific transformation? Are they dead cells, like the cornified layer of skin she "sheds"? Or are they not even cells but rather some kind of organic material, like a secretion from her glands, similar to Bakugo's sweat? Maybe they're nanomachines—biobots that know exactly which structures to mimic?

This is not just complicated, it's ****ing incomprehensible!

At this point, I need a microscope. And a lab. And scientific education. And researchers who would do all of this for me and do it ten times better.

Alright, so not today either.

One thing I do know for sure is that she can transform into different versions of the same person; maintain a disguise for varying lengths of time depending on how much of the donor's blood (or not blood) she's absorbed; and freely switch between multiple forms.

Basically, she's the perfect spy—though not well-suited for direct combat. Or is she…

I felt a tug on my sleeve:

"Niren-kun, are we going to stand here much longer?"

Oops, I got too lost in thought. We're already here...

I turned to Himiko, handed her a syringe filled with my blood (I definitely need to visit Recovery Girl today, or I'll end up with anime… I mean, anemia), and gave her a wide, encouraging smile:

"Get your knife out, Himiko. It's time to cut you up."

The girl turned pale.

***

In short, according to the quick quirk assessment conducted by "Niren and his Kind Smile," Himiko Toga can do the following:

First: retain some small items on her body during a transformation.

I had noticed before that despite all her clothes dissolving, her fluffy buns on her head, tied up with a bunch of rubber bands, remained untouched during the reverse transformation.

What does this mean?

For starters, she can maintain connection through a headset even while transformed, as she demonstrated during our practical exercise with All Might. Yesterday. Another useful spy skill—sneaking out valuable data on flash drives, planting bugs...

Secondly, I reaffirmed my opinion: the fact that her clothes transform along with her isn't an inherent, "systemic" limitation of her quirk, but simply a lack of control. Think about it—the girl never had a chance to train her ability, only recently gaining the freedom to use it openly.

Therefore, over time, she'll be able to avoid being left naked (a particularly relevant issue during training sessions when I had to turn away and retreat to the far side of the gym), transforming only her body without affecting her clothes. And maybe, in the future, she'll be able to change her clothes without transforming herself? That is, if I'm right about the lack of a fundamental connection to the donor's genetic material, of course.

And it's not just a matter of female magic or everyday convenience. Yes, her constructs are more fragile and functionally limited, but nevertheless... she managed to transform into me, wearing those gloves from the entrance exam—the ones with the metal knuckle guards. And they were solid! Is there a chance that over time, she'll be able to create, say, a knife, if I happened to be holding one while she copied my form?

Hmm... her powers are starting to remind me of Momo Yaoyorozu's in this context.

The second thing she can do: heal wounds. A definite yes!

For someone who craves cutting and drinking other people's blood, Himiko was surprisingly squeamish about the idea of making a small cut on her hand. Though, maybe that actually makes sense… Either way, after transforming into me, the wound vanished, and when she transformed back, it didn't reappear. Success!

The third thing: her movement coordination and motor skills remain completely unaffected during transformation, despite the difference in height between us. This was precisely why I dragged her to the sports field—to check if the transformation had any impact. No, none at all—in my form, Himiko achieved practically the same results on all the exercises and equipment. Quite curious.

The fourth thing: her gray slime-biomass, whatever it is, can dissolve unexpected materials—like metal. Last time I was out in town, I stopped by a pawn shop to test this theory and bought a bunch of metal trinkets, like broken, cracked wristwatches, pins, medals...

Himiko, wearing all of this, completely melted the objects through her transformation—then turned into me, who had put them on beforehand, after drawing a little more blood from my vein. Damn, where's my hematogen bar...

What's more, the watch she recreated was surprisingly solid and durable! Apparently, during transformation, the atoms of various materials in this gray slime are redistributed and repurposed to build whatever form is needed. The idea of bio-nanorobots starts making even more sense.

What would happen if we decked her out in metallic items? Would she be able to block bullets with fake watches or crush diamonds?

"Niren-kun, I like spending time with you, and it's fun to keep becoming Niren—it feels like I understand you better and better... But let's go to the cafeteria already! I'm hungry. I want steak..."

"It's fine, Himiko-chan, hard training makes for easy fighting!"

"I want steak!"

"If you want steak, let's finish the remaining experiments first."

"And the steak?"

"The steak later."

"Rare?"

"Yeah."

"With blood?"

"Yeah."

"Really, really?"

"Toga, let's just get on with it. I want to finish quickly too, we still have a lot to do today."

"I want steak."

"Fine, let's wrap up and go."

"I want steak now!"

"I'm going to turn you into steak!"

"No! Niren, I don't want to be Himiko steak!"

Here's the key takeaway from point four: if she can dissolve things like metal watches, what's to stop her from doing the same to handcuffs? Rope? Chains? Once again, I'm convinced—she's the perfect spy.

Now, what can Himiko Toga NOT do?

Long training might eventually allow her to, but at the moment, there's no sign of progress, and we don't have time for cultivation.

She can't remove clothes without dissolving them into slime. We tried to exchange a copy of my glove with her, but—alas.

She can't replicate electronics—her mock-up of the old calculator from the pawn shop didn't work, and I'd have been surprised if it had.

Himiko can't switch between forms instantly—transformation, after all, isn't a split-second process. Nor can she create a stable production line of her slime. Too bad—I was already thinking about a transportation method based on Mina Ashido's rapid movement.

Toga can't control the concentration, thickness, or amount of biomass. Not at all. The slime itself, of course, wasn't a great defense. Still, any advantage is still an advantage. And the basic properties of the biomass weren't bad at all—it doesn't burn well, doesn't freeze easily, is slippery and doesn't dissolve in water, and helps her slip out of holds. Dissolves even metal. Doesn't leave stains and doesn't smell—evaporates quickly.

Among everything listed, one thing remained unclear: can Himiko transform partially? Partial transformation is almost useless by itself, but if you consider that at some point she'll be able to control other people's quirks. And then, if she can combine two of them... oof!

Hmm. I keep coming back to the fact that she'll eventually gain a new ability. I remember that specific moment clearly, even though I watched it when I was in really bad shape, minutes away from death. It was such a vivid scene.

But why did it happen then? I don't recall the exact circumstances, just that it occurred during a fight. So... is this ability available to Himiko right now? No. If not, does that mean it only appeared in an extreme situation? If so, does that mean that new powers could potentially fall into our laps in critical situations?..

I hope so.

I couldn't test whether she can control additional limbs, like Mashirao's tail—since I don't have any extra limbs myself. Theoretically, I could have gone around the dorm and asked my classmates for a blood sample "for scientific purposes." Kyoka, in particular, was a promising candidate, with her earphone jacks.

But my authority wasn't high enough to make such requests, Himiko's was in the negatives, and I didn't think to secure the teachers' support in time.

"I'll have to talk to Aizawa about this tomorrow—he'd probably help with studying a classmate's quirk," I thought.

One more thing I learned from Himiko: as a child… she ate sparrows. She caught them, bit them, drank their blood, and then showed her parents the "pretty" bloodied bird.

She shared this with me herself, staring thoughtfully at a sparrow that had innocently landed on a nearby branch.

I... just nodded.

I mean, only a jerk would make comments about how wild and inappropriate that is in a situation like this.

Anyway, she can't transform into animals. Only people.

And what about people? Right, only people have quirks.

I need to find a blood sample from a quirkless person and determine if she can transform into them. If not, it'll prove the theory about her transformation being tied to some kind of "quirk dimension."

Which means we could start weaning her off her "bloody" diet.

However, the fact that she can't transform into animals doesn't mean much—it could be a built-in limitation of her "Polyjuice potion," so she doesn't spawn catgirls, or maybe her quirk just can't handle it because it isn't developed enough yet.

I could also say that I was interested in whether her reproductive system changes when she transforms into a man. That is, me. But I'd be lying because I'm not interested at all, not even a little bit, and I didn't bring it up with Himiko.

There are some topics you just don't touch.

***

And so we hung around outside until noon.

I was prepared for it: brought us some water, a couple of onigiri, picked a spot where we wouldn't be disturbed—it was Sunday morning—and made sure there was a locker room nearby where Himiko could transform. I voiced all my thoughts and hypotheses to her, encouraging discussion and dialogue, pushing her to start thinking about the nature of her quirk herself.

In the end, I saw her tired for the first time. Essentially, we had switched roles that morning—I was the one trying to, figuratively speaking, "devour" her, in the informational sense.

Everything was fine, measured, and quiet—I sat by a brick wall, calmly recording my observations and conclusions on my phone, while Himiko rested from the repeated use of her quirk, fantasizing aloud about an undercooked piece of beef and watching sparrows, lying on the grass and swinging her legs.

And then Setsuna's flying swarm showed up, and my peaceful time ended.