Post Vitam

Chapter 39

Feeling the glare from Aizawa after he swore worried him but Izuku was more concerned about how he was hovering. Is someone using their quirk on him? If they are he cant feel it. Out the corner of his eye he saw his backpack. It was the same one he's been using all his life. It showed in how tattered and beat up it was. Some of it due to age and general use but most of it was from shielding Izuku during Bakugo's attacks. There's even a sewn up bit where it had caught a flying knife from his mom...

Then he had a wild idea but if it was true it would explain what was going on. Having nothing to loose on trying it out he went ahead. He closed his eyes and focused on standing on the floor. Sure enough he felt the cold tiles of the floor on  his bare feet.

"So far so good" he mumbled just loud enough for Aizawa to hear.

He went up to look him in the eyes as he spoke. "What's up kid? Seems you stopped floating. So it was you then?"

Izuku eyed the man still unsure himself. "Possibly, have to check something." With that he extended his arm to the side where he saw his backpack, sure enough the backpack came flying to him. Izuku frowned much to the concern of Aizawa.

Resettling himself after being surprised by the flying backpack he turned his attention back to Midoriya "Will you tell me what's going on now problem child?"

"Y-yes" Was all he said before having a troubled look on his face and staring out the window. They stayed like that for a while, Izuku not talking and Aizawa not wanting to push him too quickly. There was no imminent danger so he allowed the boy to compose himself.

Izuku sighed heavily and sat crossed legged but in the air. "It's typical you know? Years of my life I spent trying to activate a trauma quirk and I get the one that was the main source of my torment? If there really is a higher power they have a sick sense of irony and humor."

Aizawa was concerned the way Midoriya was way too cynical for anyone his age. He acknowledged to himself that he doesn't know everything the boy has went through. He was scared to learn just how much though. 

Going off his conversations with Mr.Takada and the notebooks, Midoriya has endured and survived more than anyone should during their whole lives. Yet given how kids rarely tell the full story he knew there had to be more but desperately wished he was wrong.

Before he could reply and at least try to acknowledge the kid's troubles there was a knock on the door. The nurses and the large orderly had left to get taken care of, it seems they sent for the doctor at some point. In came a tall thin man resembling a stick insect.

"Mister Midoriya-kun? I'm here to update your quirk registry seeing as well..." He gestured to the state of the room. 

Izuku just kept staring out the window. But he gave an audible hum in agreement and held out his arm. The doctor got right to work delighted that there wasn't a fuss. Getting patients to cooperate in the dangerous quirk ward must be a hassle for him usually. Though how someone so fragile came to be working in a ward where a hard sneeze might snap him was a mystery to Izuku.

"Given that we already have your registry cuboid at this hospital I just need to add this sample to it. Easy and quick." He went about tying off Midoriya's arm and drew his blood giving the usual "it's going to pinch" warning they always do when drawing blood. The syringe filled and was emptied into the cuboid which came to life again. The doctor's digital pad pinged and the results were in.

"Ah let's see here." He tapped and swiped at the pad and look confused. Izuku didn't seem to care so Aizawa spoke up. "Everything okay doctor?"

"fine... fine..." is all he said without looking up from the screen.

This just stirred Aizawa's nerves, he put his hand on the doctor's arm very gently as he really did look like he could snap with barely any force. "Talk to us doctor. Is something wrong?"

The doctor looked up at Aizawa. "No nothing is wrong, it's just very rare to have more than one quirk but that's not unheard of. What is even rarer than that is having three different types of quirks."

"T-three?!" Aizawa asked shocked. He knew about the healing but what else can this kid do?

"Yes, so far he basically had an active and a passive quirk. Healing type and the second most common one, extended lifespan. It seems somehow a third type was activated. A form of quirk replication, the nanobots has designated it "Mosaic".

Izuku nearly fell out the air hearing this only half listening expecting it to be Telekinesis like his mother had. But it was a quirk copying type?

"You mean I'm just copying my mother's quirk without trying? HOW?"

The doctor looked Midoriya directly in the eyes. "No Midorya-kun, not copy. Replicate. Given enough information about any quirk you are able use it and possibly improve upon it. I take it your mother has Telekinesis?"

Izuku's head was spinning... but he needed information and pushed himself past the confusion at what was happening. He put aside the panic, sadness and worry memories of his mother  had brought him. 

"Had... yes"

The doctor either didn't register what Midoriya said or simply brushed past it. "Well given that you lived with her I'm sure you are acutely familiar about how it works, you've even improved upon it already. No known telekinetic user is able to cause this much damage nor are they able to hold themselves in the air."

Izuku thought about it and nowhere in his memories was a time his mother had kept herself in the air, she had thrown him across a room sure but never herself. She could lift things and throw them but bending metal or shattering glass without effort? Never...

"So I replicate but not copy?"

"Exactly that Midorya-kun, however i've never seen anything like it. There doesn't seem to be a limit that we can detect. Theoretically you could use every quirk in existence if you knew enough about them. That being said please don't try to do that. One thing we can tell is that some quirks will just give you a form of protection against them. Mutant type quirks are also a grey area where we just don't know what would happen. You must not try it. Mutant quirks alter DNA and there's no telling how that will effect other parts of your quirk. I'm rambling but all of it needs to be said and you must listen to this one especially as it's more of an everyday risk. You do not loose any replicated quirk. So... NEVER USE MORE THAN TWO AT A TIME"

Izuku sat there in the air trying to process everything he was just told. He can use any quirk if he knows enough about them? It made perfect sense given his natural curiosity about quirks when he was younger. He even had a few notebooks filled with quirk details. Well before they became a place to practice suicide notes. . .

Izuku shocked both the other men and just started laughing hysterically while they just looked at him sucking air in-between laughing fits. He eventually calmed down and wiped the tears from his cheeks. Giggling between every second word he stammered out "I went from having no quirks to basically having all of them... Mother nature is a fickle bitch"