They were all in the same room. Nezu, Toshinori, Recovery Girl, and Aizawa. And the silence was thick and tense. As predicted, Toshinori reacted badly to the assumption that Midoriya was a traitor and attention was drawn into the office via his booming exclamations. And so here they all were. Everything out in the open. Everything so heavy on their shoulders. 

Because yes Toshinori told them about his quirk: One for All and how it could be passed down. And how he had trained and chosen Midoriya to succeed him. But he also told them about All for One, his enemy and underground leader of multiple villain organizations. 

And in turn, Recovery Girl went into full detail about the physical demands the quirk was having in Midoriya’s body. And to say Toshinori felt horrible would be undermining it. He was slumped in his seat, head in his hands and nearly in tears. How could his quirk go so wrong? He thought to himself. 

From what he knew about the other previous users, nothing like this ever happened when they obtained One for All either. Then again, they weren’t quirkless like he and Midoriya were. But nothing came of Toshinori having it either. He was at a mental stalemate with himself. 

Nezu tapping his claws on his desk was what brought everyone out of their minds. “So, to sum up. Your quirk was passed on to Midoriya and such quirk is now killing his cells slowly.” He said rather bluntly. Toshinori felt a wash of shame overcome him as he thought more about it. 

“That seems to be the most simplified explanation as to why this is occurring.” Recovery Girl spoke up, her voice gritty. Toshinori gulped.

Aizawa was glaring at everyone in the room, annoyed that they were treating this so softly. But downright angry that Toshinori had put a kid’s life at risk by pulling this stunt. Because now Midoriya could die. 

He was already dying. 

And he was only barely a teenager. 

“I do believe,” Recovery Girl added, a softer tone to her voice yet a meaningful one, “that there is more to what is happening to Midoriya than just a physical aspect of things.” 

“Elaborate.” Aizawa supplied. 

Rolling her eyes, the nurse sighed. “I believe that Midoriya has been experiencing signs of mental illness that do not coincide yet are not unaffected by the quirk taking hold over him.” 

“What makes you say this?” Nezu said, sitting forward in his office seat. He was directly across from Recovery Girl’s desk whereas Toshinori and Aizawa had pulled up wooden chairs on the other ends. 

Recovery girl shifted a few pages on her desk once again before picking one of them up. “I asked Mrs. Midoriya questions about Izuku and his life and she told me about how he always revolved around patterns and if he didn’t do them correctly the first time, then he would have to repeat the steps until they were perfect. Another thing she spoke to me about was his odd timelines of going mute. She said some days he would be fine, others he would refuse to talk. She noted that he often refused to eat unless the tableware was the same way and he tapped a rhythm before doing so. But more importantly, he would run through days as if they were all the same.” She paused. “Of course, that was all earlier before he got his quirk. But apparently his search for patterns began to turn into a sort of obsession and he somehow became reliant on those patterns in order to start his day off on the right foot. And yet about when he was given the quirk is when his health took a turn for the worse. Mrs. Midoriya states that she would hear him talking to himself quite often, but also he became more paranoid. I think the talks of poison and familiarity are key aspects of this.” 

“Not to mention his odd collection of keys.” Aizawa grumbled, remembering the whole situation last time they were in the medbay. 

Recovery Girl gave him a sideways glance before pursing her lips and looking at the two men and chimera before her. 

Nezu was nodding. “So you believe that Midoriya should visit a Mind Healer.” 

“At least to get an initial diagnosis. Then once the quir--One for All is calmed down, then I believe that figuring out a means to help him get back on track and healthy will be beneficial in the long term--” 

“Take the quirk back.” Aizawa cut off Recovery Girl, looking Toshinori directly into his eyes. Anger was flaring underneath the teacher’s skin and he physically couldn’t hold it in any longer. He was done playing nice, especially so when one of his students was suffering by means of this buffoon. 

Immediate silence took place. It was thick and filled with surprise. Toshinori was gawking at his coworker, eyes wide and mind completely reeling at the idea. “What?” He breathed, wondering if he heard it right. But looking at the black haired man’s dead-serious face made him immediately gulp. 

Aizawa ignored his boss and the nurse, staring soullessly into the number one hero’s dark eyes. “Your quirk is what’s killing him. Take. It. Back.”

“I--” He stuttered before continuing. “I can’t!--” 

“Why can’t you?” Was the cool response. 

Nezu leaned back in his seat, watching the two men bicker ruthlessly. Aizawa on Offense, Toshinori on Defense. Both had differing opinions and opposing biases on the subject, leading Nezu to decide that he was going to watch this play out before he interfered. He shared a glance with Recovery Girl and noted how they were both on the same page. 

“I--because he wanted to be a hero!” 

“So you’re insinuating that a quirkless kid cannot be a hero? So then it’s safe to conclude you gave him the quirk as a charity?” Aizawa spoke with venom in his voice. 

The blonde’s eyes widened ever more so. “I gave him the quirk so he could achieve his dreams!” He said, leaning forward, his white-knuckled grip tightening on the chair impossibly more. 

“He can’t achieve his dreams without the aid of a quirk? Your quirk?” 

“You don’t understand.” Yelled Toshinori, his voice so loud that the vitals in the other room started beeping, presumably scaring Midoriya in his induced sleep. Recovery Girl silently slipped out of the room to check on him, closing the door on her way out with a soft click. 

“I understand plenty.” Aizawa spoke, eyes narrowed but words without its sharp edge. 

“No! No, you don’t.” Toshinori said, feeling as if he was about to pull out his hair in frustration. Aizawa didn’t understand, he could never possibly do so. Because he was born with a quirk, he was born with a power to be great and sure he had to work and train hard with it to beat the odds, but he still had backup. Toshinori and Midoriya didn’t have any means to start their journey no matter how hard they dreamed and trained and disciplined themselves. They had started from zero and never made it to checkpoint one on the roster because their own genetics betrayed them. Their families and friends betrayed them, leaving them behind as they started their own lives. And most importantly, society kept them shackled to the starting point, preventing them from moving forward at all. 

No, any quirk would be better than none at all. But Aizawa wouldn’t know that would he?

The homeroom teacher was fuming, his anger filling his body with pure resentment. He couldn’t believe Toshinori would stoop so low as to force a quirk on a kid just so he could live vicariously through his successor’s dreams. He felt completely sick knowing that Midoriya’s body was self-aborting and in a war between retaining and booting the quirk. All for Toshinori to feel better. Simply for the long-term goal of All for One to be fought and beaten in the future. 

Aizawa leaned forward in his seat, eyes icey and face screwed up in blatant furiosity. “You’re killing him.” He spit out. His hair was floating, eyes flashing with red-hot emotions and body stiff yet on the verge of jumping across the table in an attempt to strangle the blonde at a moment’s notice. If steam could come from Aizawa’s ears whenever he was angry, it would seem like a volcano was on the verge of erupting. 

The three hateful words strung together by such viciousness caused Toshinori to falter. His face warped slightly, shifting from determined to completely taken aback. His dark eyes widened and face relaxed as the words slapped across his face. He felt his body jolt backwards at the sheer force of Aizawa’s sentence, simultaneously stiffening and losing fight at the same time. 

Unswayed by the shift, Aizawa continued to talk in a further attempt to get his point across. “His quirk--your quirk--is causing his body to essentially kill himself because it was not formed with the genetic capacity for a superpower. His body can not and will never be ‘fully trained’ to handle such a powerhouse of a quirk--especially one so physically taxing. And compared to the information of all the previous successors having their own quirks along with One for All? Their bodies were more adept to handling the merge of both genetic quirk traits--”

“But I--” Toshinori tried to cut in, only for Aizawa to interrupt once more. 

“Do you ever wonder why you’ve been getting progressively more sick as time goes on? Why are your infections taking more time to heal? Why is your body slowly dwindling down to nothing while the previous successors had no such problem?” Aizawa spoke, eyes refusing to look away from Toshinori as he leaned across the desk and into the man’s personal space. His words were now softer, yet didn’t miss out on the lack of importance conveyed within his sentences. Toshinori gulped at how oddly personal this felt. “It’s because…” A pause. “Every successor’s quirk traits merged into the quirk to create a stronger cultivated front. So every successor has more power than the last, more dynamic additions, more aspects added onto the original. Yes, your quirk is passed down, but it is also added upon as the progression of time takes place.” Aizawa nearly sounds as if he is whispering. The undertones seem oddly fatal, and Toshinori is forced to break eye-contact as all the words settle into his mind. He was now working overtime as he mulled over all the information. “So no, Midoriya did not merely inherit One for All, but a cultivation of all previous successors' quirks as well as the original. And on top of that? His body lacks the genetic resources and space to withhold and maintain them. So what does it do?” 

Toshinori felt tears well up in his eyes as the revelation finally struck a chord in his chest. He felt as if he was unable to take in a deep breath--like his oxygen was being cut from his lungs. He felt horribly ill, mentally and physically going down a rabbit hole of doubt and self hatred. The world was caving in on the number one hero and he was unable to do anything but let a single tear fall down his face at the ruthless reality of the situation. 

Aizawa leaned back in his seat once more, the chair legs scratching against the floor at the force of which he sat down. Like nails on a chalkboard, Toshinori flinched at the sound, his eyes turning red the longer he felt sadness well up in his body and mind. “So what does the quirk do?” Aizawa repeats again. “It kills his original cells to make room for its own. Take the quirk back. Stop the quirk from mutilating his body and mind beyond repair.” Aizawa spoke, oddly calm, at the end of his argument. Yes, he was still angry, but at least he knew now that Toshinori knew the extent of which his actions were leading him to. 

“You can always find a successor with the ability to endure your quirk and its intense stakes. Midoriya is simply not adept at maintaining such a quirk, however that does not matter in the long run, now does it?” Nezu hummed, drinking from a tea he had pulled from seemingly nowhere. He had let the heated debate run its course, and now he was putting in his two cents. And the best solution possible. 

Toshinori, now red faced, teary-eyed, and hoping this situation was a dream, looked at his boss with an emotion akin to confused despair. 

Everything the number one hero had built in the past few months was crashing down and burning to ashes. 

Instead of answering, Nezu smiled into his mug and vaguely continued. “Midoriya would make a fine quirkless hero, wouldn’t he?” He mused, taking a sip. “And I seem to recall a second young gentleman who needed to be physically trained to become a hero as well?”