"This is fucking insane."

Izuku couldn't deny that. He hated that this was the reason they finally met up. That the first time Izuku actually saw any of the other Assembly members in real life, was to share this awful news with them. Kacchan had already known, of course. He started swearing up a storm the moment Izuku came close enough for their minds to connect. All Might probably knew by now as well, seeing as their connection didn't require proximity or conscious thought. Izuku wondered what he thought about this whole ordeal...

"And you're sure it's One For All?" Eijirou asked, still in denial about the whole thing.

"Can't be anything else," Katsuki grunted, looking away at something in the distance, his brows furrowed in a way that told Izuku his brain was going a million miles an hour right now. He could faintly feel the buzz in his own skull, but opted to ignore it.

"That's...bad," Denki breathed, fiddling with the ropes of his sweater. "Like, really bad, right?"

"They're fucking manipulating Deku!" Katsuki snapped. "Of course it's fucking bad!"

"Not so loud, Kacchan!" Izuku hissed. Deku was dead. He couldn't go and yell that name for all to hear! They were in a public space, for crying out loud! "You don't know who is listening."

"If they're manipulating you through your quirk, does that mean it affects Katsuki as well?" Todoroki asked, making Izuku's eyes widen. They all knew about the weird quirk connection they had going on, but Izuku hadn't stopped to think that maybe that meant he was affected too. Maybe they were whispering their ideals to more people than they realized.

"I don't feel any different," Katsuki shrugged. "And I haven't pulled any reckless shit like this nerd, so I don't think it's getting me. I'm a lot more worried about how it'll affect Izu-Ikyu, though. God, I fucking hate that name."

"You can always call me Aizawa?" Izuku suggested, being reminded that he had to text Shouta. He asked to check in every hour he was out to make sure he was fine. Otherwise Mic wouldn't be able to hold him back, and he was needed to watch Eri back at home. Izuku couldn't help but smile as he remembered how they told Present Mic about all of this. He'd been surprisingly chill about it, going as far as to include Izuku in their wedding last Fall. Eri was the most adorable flower girl! "It's what everyone at school calls me, anyway."

"Sounds weird," Katsuki grunted, earning murmurs of agreement from within their group.

"Yeah, well, Dadzawa is real and all that," Hanta said, waving it off. "Not important. What is important is how we're gonna fix this. Jikan has One For All and they're using it to power the rewind machine, that's not technically a rewind machine, doesn't matter, and also to manipulate your behavior, which is, like, super duper bad. We need to get your quirk back inside you, man. Like, as soon as possible."

"The machine is heavily guarded, so it won't be easy," Izuku pointed out. "But I do have a general idea of where their hideout is. Shouta is looking into the location thing, actually, so it shouldn't be long before we can pinpoint them. I just... I don't know if raiding their base of operations is going to do anything."

"What do you mean? Of course it's going to do something! We're getting a part of your quirk back!" Denki exclaimed.

"No, what I mean is- Well, I don't- We've always raided their base to try and stop them, right? And it has never worked," Izuku said.

"We didn't know about their power source," Shoto stated. "It'll be different this time."

"Yeah! We'll make sure they can't time travel their way out of this one!" Mina exclaimed, obviously trying to lift their moods. No more time travel, huh? Izuku wasn't sure... Or maybe he just didn't want this to be the end of it. This was his life now, after all, and this timeline... It wasn't exactly the best to stop at. Not for him. Not when his mom was dead and he had to live on using a fake name. And wasn't that just selfish? To be willing to take such a big risk by letting Jikan continue, if only for one more loop?

"It's called caring, idiot," Katsuki huffed, elbowing him. Oh, he must've been reading his thoughts, because Izuku was quite sure he wasn't mumbling this time. "We're getting Auntie Inko back, I promise."

"Oh my god, Inko," Mina gasped, slapping a hand in front of her mouth.

"Yeah, I read about that too... I'm sorry man," Eijirou said, clearly feeling guilty about their little celebration just now.

"She's not really gone, so it's okay," izuku said. Yeah, he just had to keep repeating that to himself over and over again and he might actually believe it. How long could the stage of denial actually last? Had someone put some effort and research into that subject? "I'm fine, I promise."

Katsuki side eyed him, but he didn't speak up. At least, not about his depressing thoughts.

"Our current theory states that people can't actually die, and the dead can't be brought back to life," Kacchan said. "They're messing with time and our minds, sure, but they're not actually time traveling. It's more of an illusion, if anything."

"Then we just have to break it," Denki said. "Right? Take back the quirk, sabotage the machine, break the illusion."

"Not necessarily in that order," Izuku said. "We don't know whether we need the machine or not. For all we know, the machine is the only thing regulating all these quirks and destroying it will cause them to run rampant, trapping us in this limbo forever."

"Or it could rewind everything back to normal," Hanta shrugged. "We don't know, so there's no point in overthinking it right now."

"He's right," Katsuki said, shooting Izuku a small glare. "You need to keep a level head if you want to infiltrate Jikan and find out."

"So that's the plan? Send him in and hope for the best?" Mina asked, a bit skeptic about this whole thing.

"He's close with one of the executives," Katsuki explained.

"She's one of my teachers at my current middle school," Izuku added. "And she likes me! So hopefully I'll get away with asking too many questions."

"Be careful," Shoto said, worried his friend might do something unnecessary or reckless.

"Of course," Izuku nodded. "My safety is my first priority, information comes secondary. Believe me, dad has already-"

He cut himself off when he caught the slip up, but it was already too late.

"Dad?" Eijirou asked with a small smile while Denki snorted.

"Dadzawa is real, I told you guys," Hanta laughed.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe," Katsuki grinned, making Izuku's eyes widen. What the hell are you planning, Kacchan? "This guy was the ringbearer for his wedding-"

"Kacchan!" Izuku shrieked, his face turning as bright as a tomato as others laughed and teased him endlessly.

//\\
\\//

Izuku couldn't help but stare at the machine, having a hard time listening to what Kohaku was saying. He had the urge to just lay his hand on the glass, but he didn't know what would happen. How would his quirk react to something like that..?

"You got all that?"

"Oh, uh, yeah! I think so," Izuku said, quickly turning to face his teacher. He was here to analyze some quirks for their research, quirks that could possibly improve the rewind machine. He'd been upfront about needing more equipment to analyze quirks if they weren't directly connected to a person, like quirk samples and stuff like that, so Kohaku had been so friendly as to allow him to use part of the lab for his research. Izuku had used similar technology back when he was trying to be a quirk analyst. Back when he was trying to figure out what was keeping Mirio from manifesting One For All, before he realized All Might couldn't pass on what he didn't possess.

"Great! If you've got any questions, I'll be in the next room. You've got the whole afternoon, so do what you can," she said, patting him on the back before leaving him alone. Well, alone was a strong word. Izuku knew there were several cameras keeping an eye on him, other members and executives watching him closely to see whether he'd make a wrong move.

"Alright then," Izuku sighed, shooting another glance at the machine in the middle of the room, of the part of him that was crying out for him. He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the buzzing in his chest, willing his quirk to stay put. "Focus."

The quirks he had to investigate were quirks they were already using, Izuku was sure. They brought him a little more insight into how the machine messed with them and the world around them. There were a multitude of minor and major illusion type quirks, but also terrain altering, like Cementos' quirk. But to reshape the world every time they reset the timeline... The energy that would take... Izuku glanced back at the piece of One For All, bouncing off the glass in an effort to escape. Yeah, okay, maybe that would do the trick. They also had energy quirks backing it up, so there was definitely enough power to change the world- And wasn't that messed up?

That a couple of quirks jumbled together could alter reality itself?

Izuku tried not to think about it too hard, tried to focus on the task at hand. He'll have time to freak out later. Besides, it's not like it was entirely new information, either. They already knew Jikan was altering reality as they knew it. It just felt different now that he actually understood how they were doing it.

"It doesn't change our goal."

He did his best not to react to Nana, who suddenly appeared next to him as he was inspecting a sample under a microscope. Camera footage won't be able to pick up on her, but it would pick up on Izuku's voice, so he needed to keep it down. He couldn't let Jikan know there was someone else here with him, even if she was literally a part of him by now.

"This will make it easier to sabotage them," En added, now standing on his other side. "To stall for time while we come up with a strategy to take them down."

If only things could be so easy-

"Oi, none of that!" Nana yelled as Izuku sat up, knowing she'd read his mind. "We are fixing this!"

Yeah, just like Jikan was fixing things, right? Izuku sighed. Sometimes it felt like they'd become just as fanatic as their opponents, and the lines between good and evil blurred out. They pushed just as hard, weren't afraid to get their hands dirty once in a while, not when desperate enough. And they were. Both sides were desperate for change and Izuku couldn't tell which of them was right anymore. That could be Jikan manipulating him, now that he thought about it. But it could also mean they'd become the people they never wanted to become. Heroes who only thought about themselves and their problems rather than those of the civilians.

Having All Might protect them forever was a dream, wasn't it..?

"You're slipping."

Izuku blinked, looked aside at Second before quickly casting his eyes down to his notes, pretending to read them.

"Being this close to it... It's affecting your mind," Second continued while looking at the machine that contained a part of their essence. "You need to leave as soon as possible."

Izuku could handle it, though. If they'd really been manipulating him all this time, he'd gotten off fairly okay. He was still himself, still sound of mind-"

"Then why the hell won't you listen to them?!"

He froze when he heard Kacchan's voice, his hands hovering over the paper for a moment, afraid to look up and face his childhood friend.

"Don't be a reckless idiot and put your own safety first for once!"

Izuku swallowed the lump in his throat, closing his eyes and willing the ghosts away. He took a shaky breath and stumbled towards the other room, where Kohaku said she would be.

"Uhm, sensei? I don't feel so good," he choked out, not needing to feign the nauseousness he was feeling. Not when all he needed to do was think about the things he just discovered. "I think it's quirk backlash..? I'm not supposed to use it like this, so..."

He stumbled again, seeing the worried eyes of his teacher as she quickly guided him to a chair. It didn't take long for her to bring him home, or rather, to the building where he lived, and apologize for not taking that into account when assigning him the work. She'd offered to take him to the door, to make sure he didn't fall on his way up, but Izuku assured her he was feeling better now. He didn't want her to bump into one of his 'parents' and have his cover fall through after how far he'd come. No, right now he just wanted to lock himself up in his room and write down his thoughts and feelings before he started freaking out completely.