You and Emi devise a crazy plan together

You weren't willing to give up on a decent life yet and you imagined Emi didn't want you to either. That meant you couldn't do the heroic thing and run off to a mountain peak somewhere to live in isolation. You had to instead do the second most heroic thing: find a way to control your powers. You asked Emi if she had any tips, from her time using Outburst; from what you'd heard, it had a way of influencing people even when she didn't intend for it to. She sometimes wore a mask in crowds to minimize that effect.

"You mentioned my mask, but it's actually a specialized support item that was built for me. I wondered if they could make something just like it for you, but..." she trailed off, rubbing the side of one arm uncomfortably; she couldn't put on a smile while talking about such a glum subject. "Well, it's not as easy as covering half your face. From what we learned, as long as Benefactor could touch, see, speak, or even think, he was capable of using his quirk. The only 'solution' would be to put you back in the government's restraint system from yesterday. That's not a long-term answer, as far as I'm concerned. Those things lock a person up as hard as All For One, the most notorious criminal in the villain penitentiary system."

You agreed that you'd rather not go that route either.

"The ordinary way to get control of your quirk is learning from a government-assigned teacher. Maybe we should spend your time under house arrest, training like that?" Ms. Joke questioned, suddenly upbeat again with a huge smile on her face. "After all, this is the perfect situation, when you think about it! You, a student who unconsciously uses a behavior affecting quirk, and me, a teacher who can use a quirk just like that! With enough training, I can definitely teach you not to recklessly use that quirk!"

You shook your head; it was hard to put it into words, exactly, but Pendelum didn't just create a dependency, it generated a craving in its wielder. It was hard to interact with the world like a normal person when you had such a powerful option in hand.

Emi crossed her arms and knit her brow. "So it's like alcoholism, huh?" she questioned. You didn't understand the reference, but it seemed to help her to picture it that way. "I wonder if they have Mind-Control Quirkers Anonymous meetings? Ha ha... Sorry, that wasn't very funny." Your caretaker bowed her head a few times in succession; the overdone gesture was more comical than her attempt at a joke.

That joke of hers did put a certain idea into your head. You asked if there was any chance of a quirk just... going away on its own some day.

"Not exactly," Miss Joke responded quickly, but then raised her eyebrows and pointed one finger upwards in an expression of "Eureka!" "Oh! But there are some quirks that lessen in potency with age. Beyond that, there are even some quirks that take away other quirks. For example, the notorious villain, All for One, can absorb people's quirks and redistribute them. Though, trust me: giving that guy a mind control quirk is a non-starter. You could have me dancing on the table in my birthday suit and it'd still be better than letting a megalomaniac like that have it!"

You gulped, trying to shake the picture she'd just put into your head out. It was a good train of thought. You tried to think if you'd ever heard of anyone else losing their quirk... Then it came to you! Emi seemed to get the idea at the same time and the two of you put your faces close together with wide eyes, announcing the realization together like characters out of a cartoon:

"Benefactor!"

She patted one fist into her palm and nodded. "That's right! That guy apparently lost his quirk when he gave it to somebody else. If we could get you to give your quirk to somebody else too, it'd be off of you! Somebody like a pro hero who has lots of experience serving the law. Heck, I'd take it, if it'd help!" she mused, grinning to reassure you of the justness of her actions.

You couldn't quite agree to that. You were sure most heroes had noble intentions, but everybody changed with this kind of quirk in hand and the freedom to use it. Thinking that a "good person" with this quirk would be safer was missing the point; the quirk had the potential to corrupt people! What would be much better, you posited, was if there was a way to transfer the quirk to somebody who couldn't use it.

"Yeah... Yeah! If you could transfer the quirk to somebody who's comatose, they couldn't use it any more! You'd have basically destroyed your 'Pendelum!'" Miss Joke agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "I can definitely get something like that set up! I'll call Shota-!"

You halted her quickly, then explained the hard part: you had no idea how to hand over your quirk. Benefactor had never really made an effort to teach you that part; even his slow transfer of the quirk had been pretty discrete. Was that his way of grooming you at a steady pace, or was it instead that he wasn't capable of pumping it into you any quicker? Why had he even wanted to give you the power in the first place? One thing was certain to you now: reuniting with him would be your only way of learning why he did what he did, but more importantly, how to re-gift the quirk you'd been given.

"Will he tell you, though? Folks get angry when you don't appreciate a gift!" Ms. Joke joked, then bopped herself on the head lightly with one fist. "What I mean is: he'll probably clam up as hard as if he was wearing that restraining device we had on you."

You nodded, but told her you had the right trump card for that now: Pendulum. You could use your hypnosis to **** him to spill the beans. You hated to rely on the quirk, but it'd be very helpful in this instance.

"Oooh! That's a good idea!" she laughed, patting you on the back excitedly. "You know, there is one more problem, though. Getting to the guy isn't going to be that simple. He hasn't gone all the way to the maximum security detention center yet, but he's still sitting in processing somewhere with lots of cops around him. If I try to give the guys over the hero program this crazy plan we came up with, they're gonna laugh at me, not with me. Even Shota would probably look at me like I'm crazy and, if you know about Eraser Head, him looking at you the wrong way can be a bad thing!"

Sure, as a civilian it'd be hard for you to approach. However, accompanied by Ms. Joke, a pro hero, you might have a chance. With the power of Pendulum, you could convince everyone you met that it was normal for you to be there; convincing people that one's presence was ordinary was one of the most frequent ways that you'd see Benefactor exert his influence before. He'd explained it to you this way: most people don't want to bother with an interruption, and the power of hypnosis makes it easy to give them the extra push away from action. With Ms. Joke accompanying you, things wouldn't seem too out of the ordinary. It ought to be child's play.

The only downside, as far as you were concerned, was that you'd have to use your power again to make it work.

Was Ms. Joke, a pro hero, really going to go along with this reckless course of action? From what you understood, most heroes would stick to protocols. To your surprise, she threw you a thumbs-up. "If you were one of my students, I'd say 'absolutely not.' But I'm pretty sure if I tell you not to, you're just going to try it on your own anyway... That's even more dangerous. I'll help you out," she agreed. You thought that perhaps her acceptance of this plan was due to her hypnotized belief that she should not use her quirk against you, but hopefully, she also saw the goodness of your intentions in trying to throw Benefactor's "gift" into the garbage disposal. "It would be kind of nice, to teach you about how the world works without having to stop and talk about hypnosis every five minutes!"

You nodded along; it was pretty encouraging to think that you'd still have a place here for a while, even after wrapping up this saga. With your plan in motion, feeling confident, you glanced to your right... To your annoyance, Benefactor was still standing there. You'd hoped that coming up with this altruistic plan would drive him away.

"Quite a scheme you've formulated. I especially like how much it utilizes that very quirk you're trying to destroy. This will be an excellent chance for you to get acclimated to it! You're already so adept with it, she's eating out of the palm of your hand... When we meet in person again, I'll give you a pat on the head for growing so well."

When you finally met him again, you'd have to fight the urge to kill him. Hopefully, you could settle for getting rid of the imaginary one.

After a lovely dinner together with Emi in a cheerfully colorful apartment, not at all suited to the gravity of the plan you'd concocted and the peril it might entail, the two of you headed out together for the police station where Benefactor was being held. You imagined he would probably be found in the same kind of restraints you'd entered Emi's apartment wearing, though you wondered if there was any need for them now; your powers were so potent now, you imagined he must have fully transferred his quirk shortly before his arrest.

Your first train ride with Ms. Joke was fun; out on the town and dressed in her hero uniform now, she was a celebrity, waving to people and causing smiles and laughter without the use of her quirk. This time around, she had a few extra questions to answer, mostly revolving around you. The fact that she couldn't let you out of her sight meant that she got a lot of questions as to your identity. Obviously, she couldn't just tell everyone you were a Beneficiary who'd been rescued, but who now acted as a vessel for Benefactor's quirk. "Hmmm... Maybe he's my date?" she answered them with a wink and a grin, while pulling you in to her side and throwing her arm around your shoulders.

Everyone else's laughter in response reminded you just how weird that kind of viewpoint was. An 18 year old unknown like you wouldn't normally have a shot at Ms. Joke.

Not without your quirk, anyway...

The trip through the police station was a lot less frightening than you expected. Manipulating everyone to turn a blind eye to Ms. Joke's path through the police station was surprisingly simple. It was almost ****; small wonder that Benefactor had gotten addicted to this kind of thing.

"Alright, kiddo, he's just down this way," Ms. Joke informed you, as you navigated towards the holding cells. These weren't super-reinforced cells for high-powered quirkers. Rather, they were for the standard sorts of bad guys; the only difference was, when you found Benefactor's, the man had indeed been outfitted with a metallic, black helmet and giant gauntlets, binding his hands together in front of him like handcuffs.

Seeing him like this made you feel pathetic. You'd been panicking like a lunatic, seeing him smirking and walking about Emi's apartment, and here he was without the ability to so much as flex his fingers or escape his cell.

Emi approached him and, with a stern but smiling face, removed the helmet from the man's head. When it came off, exposing his dry mouth and military, flat-top hair, shaved on the sides, you felt your brow tightening in anger. You wanted to beat the man to **** for everything he'd done, but you held back, just as you held back from using your quirk. As he blinked dumbly, trying to adjust his gray eyes to the light, you told him you'd give him one chance to answer your questions without using your Pendelum against him to **** it out.

"Hmmm.... Mrrrgh," he grunted, wiping drool from his lips with his tongue and turning his head to watch Ms. Joke instead of you. Seeing the green-haired beauty brought a smile to his withered face. "Young Ren! What a lovely jester you've thrown in with! Ha ha ha... 'Pendelum' is what you're calling it now? Ah, but I wondered if you'd show up here. I suppose our destinies are still intertwined, even now that I've lost my spark."

You demanded that Benefactor tell you how to transfer your quirk to another.

The smile remained on his face as his eyes travelled up and down Emi's form; she simply returned the smirk, while challengingly crossing her arms across the swell of her chest. "It's not so simple... Rather, it's impossible for a youngling like you! I'll tell you what my father once told me: this quirk is a tool for your own satisfaction. Only once you're satisfied will it leave you. I'd done it all, Ren; I'd checked everything off my bucket list. The only thing I still wanted was a protégé, and finally, after testing many potential Beneficiaries, I obtained even that!" A soft exhalation of air escaped his chest as narrow shoulders shrugged in that blue-black trench-coat that was his signature. "If all you really want is to get rid of the quirk, you can probably do it instantaneously. With the right vessel, you can go as quick or as slow as you want, just by focusing your mind upon them. If you try and find you can't, well..."

You thought you already knew what he was going to say. It was uncanny how the man knew how to push your buttons; that dream vision of him was not off the mark in that regard.

He smacked his dry lips, then chuckled. "If you can't, I'd say that you haven't fully satisfied your list of desires. Only the Buddha and an old man like myself are without desires! You'd better get started on yours! Ha ha ha ha..."

Growling, you placed a hand on his shoulder and caught him with your hypnosis. With all of your will, you **** him to tell you the truth.

The man smiled teasingly. "Oooh... Now you're getting carried away, young Ren. If you ask for the truth, you'll often be disappointed. Still, for the sake of satisfying your desires, I present you the truth: until you satisfy your latent desires or you perish, you will never escape the gift of my quirk."

"That figures," Emi sighed, plopping the helmet back onto the man's head and twisting it to lock it back onto the brace at his neck. "Best laid plans of mice and men, huh? Sounds like we're stuck with that Pendelum of yours... Kids like you have all kinds of dreams and aspirations! There's no way you're fulfilling all of them any time soon. We'd better regroup back at the house."

... You weren't so sure that you had that many equally weighty desires. On the contrary: your long isolation and your awakening from that nightmare had left you with just two strong dreams, ones which far outstripped whatever normal aspirations young men your age would experience. Silently, you took inventory of them: the first was to finally escape Benefactor's influence and lead a comfortable life; annoyingly, you had just learned you'd never achieve that unless you could accomplish the other one. Speaking of which, the second...

The second was a little selfish. As the two of you escaped the jail and covered your tracks, you watched Ms. Joke intently and clenched your teeth in frustration at your sexual repression. Yeah... the second goal wasn't going to be the kind of thing you could accomplish easily or guilt-free.

On the train ride back, with night now falling, your caretaker grinned and placed a gloved hand on your head. "Still, kinda nice to see the old bozo can't control your mind any more, right? Plus, he's in cuffs! That's gotta be reassuring," she reassured you, looking on the bright side. You nodded along, unsure if you could really agree that he'd ever stopped controlling your mind. "He he... Say, maybe we can fix things up by crossing some of those aspirations off your list! What sort of things does a kid like you want, anyway? Wanna go to the Americas and visit Las Vegas? See all the girls in bunny suits and play the poker tables?"

You wished it was something like that. You couldn't tell her what you really wanted... but you did tell her that the part about girls wasn't too far off. Embarrassed, you admitted that you'd never been around many girls and you were sure that would factor in somewhere.

Grinning with pink cheeks, the teacher giggled and ruffled your hair. "Nothing to be embarrassed about, Kiddo! Look, this kind of education is also part of a teacher's responsibilities some times."

You gulped hard, wishing some of those fanboys would come up and interrupt Emi right now by asking for autographs.

"Don't look so frustrated. We'll get you through this! Sure, you're a little older than most kids start worrying about girls, but I've got a couple of ideas for what we can do to satiate that curiosity of yours. Honestly, it was stuff I needed to show you at some point or another, whether it was tied to your 'desires' or not."

You couldn't imagine what she had planned... but it just might be exciting enough to keep you from using your quirk for a while, hopefully.