Yamazaki Penthouse.
Saiko Intelli.
"Have you ever heard of All For One?"
"All For One?" Saiko muttered, tasting the words on her tongue. "The name is tacky, but claiming that everything belongs to a single—?" she stopped cold. Her enhanced mind instantly making the connection. Understanding that, if Seiki Yamazaki is the one telling her this...
"The Quirk Thief is real," she breathed.
"Yep."
"He tried to take your Quirk."
"Ha, yeah. One second, I'm... pressuring a Villain for information— he had killed one of mine, so I was going to find out who he was, who he worked for, and circle back and all that. Then the very next second, a portal opens up behind my head, his fingers grazing the back of my hair," he explains, almost as if he's reminiscing.
"Naturally, I immediately went back in time. All the way back to 2304," he said. "Then I went a few seconds back, dodging the portal-hand, prodding him for information. Freaked out a bit, because learning that the boogeyman is real is fucking horrifying... but whatever. Then I went back to the morning of, and decided to just not go out that particular night."
And Saiko couldn't help but pick up on it.
Seiki wasn't afraid.
Momo's tea clattered to the floor.
"My, my Q-Quirk... it's..." the Yaoyorozu Heiress trailed off, her hands shaking. The Hado girl not faring all that better.
And Saiko felt the same way. Knowing that the Quirk Thief was real, operating out of the country that you lived in... knowing that your Quirk was public knowledge...
Knowing that your Quirk is worth taking—
"You should be fine. It's useful, yes. Incredibly useful. But you have two things going for you, two reasons as to why he hasn't bothered— one, you're a Yaoyorozu. Taking your Quirk, or even just making you disappear, is a bit too much heat for him. And second, he is far too lazy to ever make use of your Quirk."
"...L-Lazy?" Momo stuttered, confused.
"It takes genuine effort to use your Quirk. All For One knows that, so he probably doesn't want it nearly as much as he should. Even worse, your Quirk also takes knowledge. He hates that," Seiki said with a sigh, shaking his head at the absurdity of it. "I mean, if you just think about it for a second, this asshole's been around since the Dawn of Quirks. Born the same year of the glowing baby— a few months before it, actually." A statement that made Saiko tense... but it also made her relax. "He has Quirks that extend his vitality... not indefinitely, but for a damn long time. So for this guy to not have taken over the world, or at least a country? What does that tell you about him?"
Saiko put it together.
"He's weak," she said. "Mentally."
Seiki laughed, clapping his hands together. "Yes! Anything else?"
"He has everything he needs."
"Oh, you are smart," he muttered just loud enough for her to hear, giving her an appreciative glance. Saiko blushed. "I might actually not be walking circles around you. But yes, he has pretty much every Quirk that he needs. He doesn't have an Intelligence Quirk," he said, something that made her heart skip a beat, "but that's because taking one would be admitting he isn't smart. Actually hilarious. The only Quirks that will actually interest him nowadays are instant-sleep, instant-death, healing types... or game-changers, like mine. He actually knows of a matter manipulator, one with very little backing. One that works on both objects and people, granting the user instant re-assembly of themselves and others," Seiki said.
He looked to her. "Why hasn't he taken it?"
"Because he's afraid of death," Saiko muttered. "More afraid then us?"
"Eh, kind of. He wants to matter, and he likes being the 'big bad demonlord,' so anything that can instantly take him out like that? Quirks that make him fade into obscurity? Quirks like Overhaul. Quirks like... Save & Load..." he trailed off, his gaze distant. "They terrify him, or they break him."
"You've already beaten him," she said. "But it wasn't clean."
Seiki nodded.
"Yeah. First time, I rooted out all of his moles and ties while he was asleep, pretty much ripping away his hold on the underworld in twenty minutes. Then I had All Might ambush him, with Eraserhead backing him up," and before Saiko could even ask, "he's an underground Pro Hero. Line-of-sight Quirk Nullifier."
"Oh," she mumbled. 'That would definitely do it.'
All Might and the Quirk Thief.
Their fight... it was hard to even begin to quantify it, but with a Quirk Nullifier in the mix, the Quirk Thief could never hope to win. Not against unrivaled strength.
"Yeah, he got arrested. Sent to Tartarus. Quite a bit of property damage and news coverage, and not even a single death... But. He was still alive."
"And you want to kill him."
Seiki pursed his lips. "Eh. It's more like I don't want to worry about him... and he's such an asshole that the only way for that to happen is if he dies."
"Can he not be killed?" Saiko wondered. Trying to wrap her head around how anyone, even All For One, could feasibly survive infinite assassination attempts.
Her most prevalent theory was because the Quirk itself was useful.
If you had it, taking over the world would be— no. It was even more than that. A monopoly on the most important resource in the world, Quirks. You could take over the world and make it flourish, and you wouldn't even have to try.
"Ugh. No, it's not that," he shook his head, and Saiko couldn't help but shiver. Trying to wrap her head around the fact that he was learning new things instantaneously, constantly uncovering information about her in timelines that she will never be able to remember.
"It's just... I'm not explaining Quirk Theory to you now," Seiki explained, throwing the most subtle glance towards Nejire and Momo. Saiko very nearly missed it— in fact, given the way his eyes have been constantly swirling throughout their conversation, she can't help but wonder if she did miss it, only for him to be a bit more obvious the next time around.
But she got the gist of it.
This was false time, and Seiki didn't like to waste his time, even if he had an infinite amount. Explaining any of his scientific discoveries to her would be meaningless, even if it grated on the current her to not learn about something so intriguing.
It was why he met with the most promising Heiresses all at once, seeing no point in dragging any of this out. It was why this "meet and greet" so sloppily but together— this was all happening in false time, from the very beginning. There was no point in putting effort into it, when he can just perfect it in real time.
To top it all off, Seiki's Quirk was so frightening potent that it didn't even matter which family he married into, because integrating himself with the elites in any capacity would be more than enough.
He was perfectly fine marrying into all three of their families— and just wanted to get a read on his future wife in particular.
To get a read on her.
Not one to beat around the bush, Saiko decided to ask him outright.
"What's stopping you from killing him."
Seiki let out a sigh, sinking back into the couch.
"His Quirk is sentient. If he dies, it sends itself— and every Quirk within it— to the nearest person. Then it rewrites the target's brain into a copy of All For One, the man."
Saiko swallowed.
"Fuck," muttered one of Yaoyorozu's guards.
"Yeaaaah it's pretty bad. But even though his Quirk can cheat, it's not unstoppable," Seiki said, and Saiko couldn't help but hold out hope.
"His Quirk can just kind of... exist, in the air, without a body for three minutes—" that wasn't too bad— "for each Quirk held inside it. So 25 hours, give or take." Fuck. "And even though his Quirk needs to transfer itself via touch, it was able to adapt on the spot, and transfer itself through a few drops of blood. It is impossible to know the limits of its adaptation, because not even the Quirk itself knows it can do this. Not in real time."
"...You can't win," Saiko murmured.
Seiki nodded. "Pretty much. Save & Load can't win against All For One, the Quirk. Not in their current states. But Seiki Yamazaki?" he asked aloud. "If you were to systematically pick All For One, the man, apart, taking all of his Quirks away one by one, leaving him with just his base Quirk? You could just drop him off on an island somewhere, bullet to the head. And then the Quirk would be dead in minutes."
"You used his Quirk?" Saiko marveled. "Wait! If you take his Quirk, does it—"
"No, it doesn't," Seiki shook his head. "Quirks are both physical and spiritual. My Quirk can only send back the spiritual."
'They're physical AND spiritual...?' Saiko decided not to pick that apart. Not yet anyway.
"But the mind is physical."
"Yeah, but I also don't know how my Quirk works. Like, at all."
"Have you not gotten it examined?"
"Of course I've gotten it examined," he muttered, shaking his head. "It instantaneously rewrites my neuron connections—" which means he's simply sending his memories into the past— "or that's at least what it looks like on an MRI. My Quirk could be receiving messages from the future, it could be rewriting me—" Seiki's eyes glazed over, for just a few moments. "Okay, it's not that. But even then, it could still be like a dozen other things. Even if I know the physical effect that Save & Load has on my body, there's just no way for us to actually know."
"What was that? And what do you mean, it's not that?"
"That was Save & Load telling me that it wasn't 'rewriting me.' In fact, it seemed pretty miffed that I even thought it could be that," he admitted with a chuckle.
Saiko blinked. "Your Quirk is sentient?"
"All Quirks are sentient."
"There's no way—" she stopped herself. "B-But, if that's—!"
"I am NOT explaining Quirk Theory to you right now," he told her. Again.
Right.
"So why not just win? If you can get your hands on All For One, I honestly cannot see how you haven't simply solved this problem by yourself." Even more than that, Saiko couldn't see why he needed to marry her. Or why he would need anyone else, at all.
Because if he were to commit to a timeline where he has both All For One and Save & Load...
Seiki simply wins.
Forever.
"All Quirks are sentient," he repeated.
"...Oh."
Which left her with another question. 'Then how...?'
"Queen Bee. Quirk, Parasitism. A bee that can insert itself into the eye socket of any human, merging their personalities, and then letting the host spawn and control an almost unlimited supply of bees. Each bee capable of controlling another human for a limited time through their stingers. It has been heavily modified, allowing it to spawn BombBees, TriggerBees, ToxinBees... and most importantly, if a bee injects you with someone else's blood, you can use their Quirk. For a handful of seconds."
"...I'm guessing there's side effects?"
"Cellular degradation, which stacks with each use of a beeQuirk. By the end of our fight, I only had a few months to live at most. If I were to optimize it..." he mumbled, frowning in thought, "I could maybe get myself a few years out of it. And no, I couldn't find a cure. Healing Quirks— matter manipulation— they all undo the aftereffects, not the source of the effect itself." The "at least out of the Quirks I've tested" going unsaid, because he could not have tested every Quirk.
But still...
"Spiritual damage?" she muttered, not quite believing it herself.
"It has something do to with it not being a proper Function of the Quirk," Seiki said. "Beyond that I can't tell you. I'm still trying to figure it out. So that plan of attack is on the back burner."
"Is there truly no way to win with Queen Bee?" The "and survive" part left unsaid, because she already knew that Seiki Yamazaki was not the type to sacrifice himself.
At least not in real time.
"...To win, without irreparable damage to myself, I cannot use a beeQuirk more than 3 times a day, 8 times in total. Which means that I would have to permanently take other Quirks into myself to succeed. Quirks that are not All For One, yes, but I cannot afford to take another Quirk into me. Whether it's compliant or not."
"...Another?" Saiko prodded.
Seiki made a face.
"It's not a risk worth taking. Not until I exhaust every conceivable option."
"You..." Saiko clicked her tongue. He was hiding something from her— not that she'd be able to force an answer out of him.
No one could.
"Do you not want multiple Quirks?"
"It's... when I fought All For One with Queen Bee's, D'Vorah's, assistance... I..." Seiki trailed off, his gaze unreadable. "It wasn't like when I usually used my Quirk. There was no prodding, no learning attack strategies, no learning my opponent, no making the most of my movements. There was no growth. It was simply picking the right Quirk to use ahead of time. Even if I ended the fight on death's door, the entire fight felt... hollow."
"You're afraid? Of what, being too strong?" she asked, bewildered.
"How could I not be? Using other Quirks through a medium is one thing. But if I were to have both infinite time and infinite power at my fingertips... what would be next? Indulgence, forever? Even with just Save & Load, my options are practically limitless, to the point that I'm not really sure what to do next. If I were to commit to a timeline like that... I fear that I would never struggle for anything, ever again."
'He wants to struggle? Why?' Saiko wondered, still trying to wrap her head around it.
She decided to let the topic rest. For now.
"Any other methods of attack?"
"Hmmm... well, the International Hero Summit is in two weeks..." he muttered, a devilish glint appearing in his eyes. "I never tested it, but I came up with an outline of a plan— one to simply force the myth to prove its existence on the world stage. Offending people not even he can afford to offend. Setting things up in a way that... that makes sure that everyone involved will have to go for the kill."
Saiko shivered.
"Unfortunately, the fucker has to be killed in a really specific way to not body-snatch people, so I'd be forced to reveal my hand to some degree. Not to mention that Trigger doesn't even work on him," Seiki groaned in annoyance. "A small part of me was hoping that he'd simply explode— too many stressed Quirk Factors making him pop like a balloon— but no. He just has an anti-Trigger Quirk of all things. There's other ways to force him to use his Quirk on national television— Queen Bee comes to mind— but it's still a little disappointing."
"...An anti-Trigger Quirk?"
"Bloodlet. It lets him expel all of his blood in a tenth of a second," Seiki explained.
"...But just blood expulsion shouldn't be enough to..."
"Bloodlet's Function is to expel blood, so even if Trigger seeps into other parts of his body, like his spinal fluid, Bloodlet's Function will still expel it. It's too minor of a deviation for the Quirk not to cover it," Seiki said, and Saiko could barely grasp what he was saying. 'Function... he's said that twice now. It's not just a word, but a term. The Function of a Quirk? What does that mean, exactly? Beyond the obvious.'
"But if All For One didn't have Bloodlet, he would be affected by Trigger."
"Yes. But it wouldn't kill him," Seiki insisted. "And even if you were somehow able to give him a lethal dose, that doesn't solve the original problem. In fact, with the way Trigger enhances Quirks— the most common enhancement for Emitters removing any range restrictions— it just makes the original problem worse."
Saiko took that in.
Taking it in the same way that she's taken everything he's said so far, doing her best to make sense of it all. Taking another sip of her tea.
"But Trigger can affect him," she said.
"In a sense."
She took another sip.
"And All For One, the Quirk, will use the Quirks within itself to sustain itself off of nothing— no, it'll use the energy within each Quirk to sustain itself," she confirmed. And when he nodded, "what if one or more of those Quirks is completely exhausted? Will that influence the amount of time All For One has at it's disposal?"
"Uh..." his eyes swirled. "Yes. Yes, it would. And while killing All For One via Quirk exhaustion is certainly an idea, I don't see how that is in any way feasible."
Saiko Intelli took another sip of her tea.
Quirk, IQ.
Drinking tea multiplies her IQ, simple as that.
Saiko doesn't have the raw calculation that Nezu has, the resources that Nezu has. The experience that Nezu has. She's arrogant, brash, narcissistic and naïve... but even with that in mind, she still has something that Nezu doesn't.
Her Quirk.
Even if they both enhance intelligence, no two Quirks are the same. And instead of coming to a sensible solution like Nezu did for dealing with Seiki...
"I could make it."
"Make what?"
"A new version of Trigger. One that forces every Quirk Factor that it touches to constantly activate at a minimal level, slowly dwindling the target's energy reserves without forcing them to rampage. An unlethal version of Trigger that wouldn't sentence All For One, the man, to death... not until his arsenal simply runs out of energy," Saiko stated. "And then all you'd have to do is find a way to counter Bloodlet."
Saiko simply picked an avenue attack, and clamped down on it. Using her intelligence to brute force a nonsensical solution.
But even if it was still nothing more than an idea...
Seiki's eyes swirled.
"Would it be faster to involve your parents, or just involve you for its creation?"
Saiko hummed, understanding that their meeting was coming to an end. That the current Saiko Intelli would be coming to an end.
Understanding that she has succeeded.
"Would that time be false as well?"
"Yes."
"Arrange another meet and greet. Just us. Explain the situation," Saiko said. "It shouldn't be too hard for you to convince me to help my future fiancé."
"I'm going to pamper the ever living shit out of you," he muttered, eyeing her intently.
Saiko blushed. "T-Thanks?"
"Anything else you want to tell me?"
"Hmmm," Saiko muttered, wondering if she should say it or not. Her face going a little pink as she thought it over... and nodded. "I've always known that I was to be married off— or rather, I wouldn't have the freedom to pick whoever I wanted as a husband. That's why I'm so willing to settle with you, flaws aside. But... it, it would still be nice to live that fantasy. To experience seduction, to be swayed off my feet by you without even knowing we're fated to marry."
She was going to have her cake and eat it too.
"I can do that for you," Seiki said, his eyes swirling one last time. His face gaining a faint, kind smile.
"Congratulations. You're mine now, Saiko Intelli. Mine. For all of time."
And before she could fully process the weight of that statement—
LOAD2.
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