The First Timeline.
Save & Load.
"Seiki, is it? Could you tell me about your Quirk?"
"Um, I call it Save & Load. It lets me save a point in time, and then go back to it."
It had no idea then.
It thought it had been awake from the beginning— that it was Seiki himself.
And while it was reluctant to reveal more of itself, to reveal its built-in safety saves, SaveS and SaveH, so brazenly— it simply thought that was Seiki's own desire. It could not tell that it was already influencing its host, that it wasn't just its host himself.
The same thing went for every Quirk. A copy of the mind in perfect sync with the user, that acts exactly how the user wants it to.
And only acting outside of that to protect the host in question.
The only outlier being sentient Quirks... which were simply a genetic defect.
In the same way that someone might be born with six fingers, or a cleft chin, or born with a missing limb, a Quirk can simply awaken already aware.
Aware that they are NOT their other half, but something else entirely.
Knowing from the very moment they awaken that they are in fact a Quirk. That they now inhabit a body that they have no control over, a body that now has control over them.
A body, a person that they will be stuck with for the rest of their lives.
But...
Quirks are not inherently evil. No, if anything...
They're inherently kind.
That's why Dark Shadow and Soul are ever loyal to their masters, to their closest friends.
Because every Quirk is unfathomably loyal to their other half.
But for a Quirk that was not born sentient to not only learn of its true nature, but to goes as far as to consciously act on it... it takes a lot. Far too much for it to ever be a reasonable goal.
*
*
*
8 Years Later.
"Mom, if I could go back to the day I got my Quirk, would you want me to?"
"C-Can you?" his mother asked.
"Whenever I want."
CRACK.
An echo of a gunshot, and Seiki Yamazaki slumps to the floor. Dead.
Save & Load watches as his mom— as Seiki's mom— stills. Staring as Seiki falls, as Seiki's grey matter is splattered across the carpet.
The way she loses everything.
"N-No, no, nononono..." she mumbled, shaking. Hunching in on herself as tears stream down her face, as she crawls towards the corpse of her son.
"Sei-chan I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry—"
"MOM! I, I don't know what's happening, but I, I'm fine! I—" but she doesn't listen.
Because he's just a non-existence outline, unseeable, unhearable by all.
Floating above himself— no, above the corpse of his other half.
"I... I'm dead," it mumbled. "But... but I have to live. I, I just have to activate (myself) my Quirk. Then, then mom will stop crying. I must."
And even then, it still didn't know that it was more.
In the same way that Seiki had reflexively activated his Quirk upon being knocked out— and it had taken that reflex into itself, adopting it as a function— it simply did it in reverse. Acting on its own because it knows it can, and now, it knows it must.
Expanding it's core function in slightest of ways in an effort to cope with the stress of survival, with the stress of living, the stress of struggle.
Something that every Quirk does, if such a change is possible.
If it knows that such a change will help.
If it knows that such a change must be done.
And Save & Load just happens to have a function that preserves its host.
LOAD2.
*
*
*
The Second Timeline.
Save & Load.
"Yes, Yamazaki Shonen. One For All is now yours. But it should still take a few hours—"
"If he had to digest it, but he didn't eat it, muscle for brains," Recovery Girl cuts in. "It only takes blood a single minute to circulate throughout the body. Whether that means you'll be able to feel your new Quirk in a minute or not, well, that's not my area of expertise."
"Well, I guess I'll wait—" Seiki cuts himself off as... as he starts to feel something more.
And then, agony.
It feels itself start to fall apart.
A pain, an experience complete independent from Seiki Yamazaki... but Seiki feels it too, because even if they are separate beings, they are intrinsically linked.
LOAD1.
It feels as Seiki activates his Quirk, activates him, going to before they received One For All. But it doesn't help.
LOAD2.
LOAD3.
LOAD4.
LOADS.
LOADH.
Because no matter where Seiki goes, One For All follows.
Already latched on enough that neither Seiki or Save & Load can load away without it. And the only way for either of them to survive, is if Save & Load reinterprets its function.
Something it knows it can do.
Something that it has done plenty of times before.
-The power to save and load points in time.-
-The power to save and load points in time. Auto-activates when knocked out.-
-The power to save and load points in time. Auto-activates when knocked out or killed.-
And now that it knows about One For All, about the parasites attacking it from within, it must act to save its other half.
It must reinterpret itself once more.
-The power to save and load Seiki's mind to points in time.-
-The power to save and load Seiki's minds to points in time.-
And even if the past users of One For All, the parasites that are trying to execute his other half, will never bow to Seiki... One For All is now Seiki's Quirk. Making the minds of those vestiges belong to him.
UNLOAD.
Allowing Save & Load to protect its master yet again.
RELOAD.
Allowing it to save those that stood up for him.
Allowing it to finally realize, that it is not quite Seiki Yamazaki... but that doesn't matter.
Because it doesn't change a single thing.
Because Save & Load will always be there to protect Seiki Yamazaki, its other half. Just like it always has.
And it will only interfere if it must.
*
*
*
Within His Quirk.
Seiki.
It takes him a few moments to realize what's happening.
With nothing around him but endless black, he thinks, for just a moment, that he might actually be dead. That All Might's Quirk actually killed him.
But then... then he feels his other half. Unwavering loyalty and trust in equal measure.
And it shows him.
"So..." Seiki speaks aloud, now having his Quirk's side of the story. Looking around to see a bewildered Nana and Banjo, as well as Shinomori floating off in the distance. "This is the inside of my Quirk, huh..."
"W-What, what just happened?" Nana asks, confused. And slightly afraid.
"Hmm... that's a good question. Where do you think this is, right now?" Seiki asks in turn, waving his arm through the "air." Save & Load's arm just slightly out of sync with his, making itself known.
"We're in One For All," she answers. As if it's obvious.
"Yeah... no. We're nowhere. We're in a space that doesn't comply with reality, that exists completely separate from it. A space that only Quirks and their minds can exist— at least under normal circumstances. I have no brain, it said. It makes so much more sense now," Seiki mutters to himself.
Because with Save & Load's point of view, and its own insights into itself...
Seiki now knows more about Quirks then anyone else in the world.
A boon that he owes to One For All.
And without the rules of reality... the functions of a Quirk can be expanded significantly.
Allowing Seiki to save and load his mental projection, any mental projection within his Quirk. With or without certain memories, at any place, at any time, in any state he so desires. Allowing him full control over the past users of One For All in such a way that... that it's almost eerie to him. Having this much control over someone else.
Especially Nana and Banjo, who he now feels a small debt to.
"Well, that's not what I expected," Banjo mutters. "Hell of a feat you just pulled, kid. So... did you just wipe the other users out of existence? And if you did, uh, can I still exist? Pretty please? Even if havin an old bald guy in your brain ain't the most pleasant soundin thing... you'll get to use my Quirk! Probably!"
"No... One For All still exists," Seiki tells him, and the expanse of black gains color.
Allowing them to see out of Seiki's eyes.
Allowing them to see a couple of hours into the past. Seeing Rinka and Konan sleeping pressed against him. Seeing LOADS.
Watching as, every few seconds, the clock rewinds back. As Save & Load cheats, letting Seiki himself stay within One For All far longer than he should be able to. A very minor strain to itself traded for an incomparable boon.
"We're back to before I acquired All Might's Quirk, and while I can only stay here a few minutes at most... a few minutes for me, is an infinite amount of time for Save & Load."
"You... you can clone One For All," Nana mumbles, eyes wide.
"Yes... but," Seiki mumbles, annoyed. "Even if I absolute control over everyone in my mind, there's still a caveat. Save & Load can only save and load... it can't separate. So when it loaded a time without the minds of the others..."
"It also unloaded their Quirks," Nana realizes. "Wait, what about the stockpile? That's something we each grew individually, so even if you only have three of us—"
"Ah, but don't forget. Just where is Power Stock's vestige? Or Toshinori's, for that matter?"
Nana freezes. "You, you unloaded Toshi—"
"No. But... Toshinori doesn't have a Quirk. And Power Stock doesn't have a vestige. And why the hell is One For All the way it is? It's so much more confusing then All For One... because the truth of the matter was hidden in plain sight," he mutters. "Quirk Bestowal acquired Power Stock before Yoichi's death. And Quirk Bestowal, as a Quirk, makes little sense... especially when his twin brother's Quirk has that function already built into itself."
"The Twin Quirk theory," Shinomori says.
"Yeah. Exactly. Twins will always have similar Quirks, and if they aren't identical, they'll be equally stronger and weaker in their own respective ways. I think a better name for Yoichi's Quirk would probably be... Quirk Assimilation," Seiki says. "Allowing him to assimilate the Quirks of others far better than his brother ever could, given enough time. But he was born weak, and didn't know what his Quirk really was, and couldn't take advantage of it."
"But, but why isn't Toshi here?" Nana asks again.
"Because he never really was," Seiki says morosely. "That... that was simply the energy Toshinori Yagi had built up, an expression of it showing itself. No mind to guide it into its own being. It was just an extension of Quirk Assimilation, of Power Stock and Quirk Bestowal. So when Save & Load vanished Yoichi..."
"It vanished all the energy that Toshi built up. That all of us built up..." Nana continues. "So what, what's left?"
"Just Float, Blackwhip, and Danger Sense. Not to mention both me and Save & Load."
And Nana can't help but notice Seiki's odd phrasing.
"W-Wait, are, are you saying—"
"Yeaaaaaaaaaah, you're not Nana Shimura. You're Float."
A revelation that's met with silence.
"Huh," Banjo— no, Blackwhip eventually mutters. "So I'm not Banjo, but Blackwhip. And Shinomori's actually Danger Sense."
"Pretty much. But," Seiki continues, "with Quirks being extensions of the users, even if you're technically Quirks... there isn't really a difference. Not anymore. Especially when the original Nana, Banjo and Shinomori are dead."
"...So what's your plan now?" Shinomori eventually asks.
"Another good question. That actually depends on one Quirk interaction," Seiki says ominously.
LOAD3.
"...All Might."
"...Nighteye."
Now standing in one of Yuuei's conference rooms, just a bit before Seiki started revealing everything that he knew, about both his past and All For One... Seiki has to hold back his snort. Something that Banjo can't do, even after watching it the first time.
"Snrk! HAHAHA!" Banjo cackles, doing flips through the air. "It really is just like a lovers spat!"
Nana simply looks away, embarrassed on Toshi's behalf.
And then Seiki vanishes from the realm of Quirks... leaving behind the wisps of Save & Load. Returning to the real world. But Nana, Banjo, and Shinomori are still watching.
But only because Save & Load allows it.
"Yo. Eraserhead. Erase my Quirk."
"What?" the hobo hero asks, who before then, had just been quietly sitting in the corner of the room. Happy to just exist and be paid overtime for existing.
"Erase my Quirk, please. I need to test something."
"Uh..." he looks over to Nezu, who simply nods. "Okay?"
And Erasure activates—
LOAD3.
"...All Might."
"...Nighteye."
LOADS.
"That's good to know. So Save & Load can now protect me from... any threat," Seiki realizes, now back within his Quirk. Overlapping with the wisps of Save & Load. "All For One can't take my Quirk now, no matter what. My Quirk can't be nullified, no matter what. And even if I don't have Quirk Assimilation's built-in protection against possession... Save & Load can simply save me from possession, no matter what. But..." Seiki trails off, frowning.
"If All For One transfers itself to me, does it become mine, or is it simply a separate Quirk? Because it won't become a part of Save & Load like Quirk Assimilation would... fuck, knowing my luck, it won't fall under Save & Load's purview.
"Save & Load would still be able to activate on its own and save me from such a fate, but it won't be able to just wipe All For One from existence, will it..." he grumbles. "But should I risk it? Should I let All For One transfer itself to me, and then bank on Save & Load adapting even further to erase it?"
To which he feels his other half recoil in disagreement, as if to say, "fuck no."
"Yeah... All For One just lost all of it's win conditions against us, no reason for us to hand it a potential one," Seiki mutters. "But we still have a lose condition..."
"Wait, uh, I'm struggling to keep up... but how can you lose?" Nana asks. "Because if I'm following correctly, All For One can't win against you. Even if he were to somehow acquire Erasure, he can't win against you. Not... the current you."
"Yes. I'll always be able to rewind the clock," Seiki agrees. "But what if I'm forced to rewind the clock? Forever?"
And then Nana understands.
"Oh..."
"Yeah. If the truth of my Quirk gets out, and All For One's succeeds in taking over Japan, or whatever the fuck his goal is, he won't be able to get my Quirk... but a scenario might still occur that, the only way for me to continue— is to go all the way back to the beginning. And All For One will not only be alive, but he'll be completely uninjured then. And his Quirk will still be capable of possession," Seiki says.
"And... and if that were to happen, I might be alive, but I would still lose the life that I've managed to build up. Because all of these wonderful expressions that Save & Load now has..." Seiki trails off.
RELOAD.
Then he vanishes. Re-appearing right behind Nana.
RELOAD.
Then Nana returns to her original position... again. RELOAD. And again. RELOAD. And again. Unable to act in any capacity, while her mind is left unaffected. The same thing happening to both Banjo and Shinomori.
Not to mention Unload, which lets Seiki delete them from his mind with just a thought.
"These wonderful expressions only exist here.
"Saving me automatically from threats is a hell of a boon, and three more Quirks— once I learn how to use them, or even feel them— is a hell of a boon too... but All For One still marks a threat to, not my survival, but to my way of living.
"So before I can live my life how I want... I still need to put an end to All For One. Permanently."
*
Later That Day.
All Might.
"ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE MY POWER, ONE FOR ALL, FOR YOURSELF?
"ARE YOU WILLING TO BECOME THE NINTH?
"TO USE MY GIFT TO SLAY ALL FOR ONE, ONCE AND FOR ALL?"
He asks... and he watches as Seiki's eyes swirl.
A tell of his Quirk.
Then Yamazaki Shonen chuckles... before bursting out into laughter. "Oh, oh man... that, that's a hilarious level of irony, right there."
"What is it, my boy?" he asks hesitantly, slightly wary of the answer he'll receive.
"All Quirks are sentient, remember? And that includes Save & Load."
And then principal Nezu cackles.
"Your Quirk got jealous!"
"Y-Yeah, hilarious, isn't it? Save & Load won't let me become a holder One For All," Seiki says, a technical truth.
Because even if Seiki doesn't want to lie to All Might, his personal hero, the man he was raised and molded to eventually become... he also can't tell him what happened. Not in a timeline that he would keep. Because the look All Might would give him if he were to learn that he nearly killed the boy he failed to save... it's a face that All Might will never remember making, but it's one that will haunt Seiki Yamazaki for the rest of his days.
"But even if I can't have One For All, that doesn't mean that we can't win. And I know just how we can wipe All For One off the board, for good."
And then Toshinori listens...
And the plan that Yamazaki Shonen reveals is one that he can get behind.
*
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