Hello everyone!

So somehow I'm still creating these at a fast pace? I really don't know how. I'm kind of afraid of burning myself out, but I'm also scared of losing motivation to keep writing, so... yeah. That's fun.

This next sequence actually ended up being turned into more than one chapter because of how long it is. Sorry about that, but hey, at least you have something to look forward to! Hehehe... please don't hurt me.

Anyway, disclaimer's on the first page. Without further ado, the next chapter of Might and Magic!

Chapter 4: Let's Get Down to Business!

Izuku stared at Maestro in shock. "You want me to do what?!"

Maestro smirked at him. "Clear this whole section of the beach, without using any active magic."

"I thought I was here to train," Izuku muttered. "You are," Maestro replied, and Izuku stiffened as he remembered that the sound mage's name wasn't just for show.

Glancing around, Izuku wondered again why his mentor had chosen here of all places. It was obvious that no one cared about the place, and community work didn't count as training, right?

Wait a second… Izuku took a closer look at the mountains of trash. Sure, there was the usual light rubbish, scrap metal, and tires, but there were also heavy appliances like refrigerators and ovens.

"Your dragon slayer magic makes your body stronger, but only if you put in the effort to back it up," Maestro said. "I'll admit that I don't actually know all that much about training up a body, so I called in a favor from an old friend of mine."

He let out a noise, sort of a soft howl mixed with a trill, and a person walked out from behind one of the many trash piles.

The man was practically a skeleton with yellow hair, the only sign of life being the blue pinpricks of his eyes that seemed to burn with intensity despite his relaxed posture.

The man walked closer, and Izuku could see the lean muscles where the baggy clothes fell short; the man might look like a walking skeleton, but Izuku had no doubt that he could bench press Izuku with little difficulty.

The skeletal man stopped in front of Izuku and held out a hand which Izuku accepted.

"Yagi Toshinori. Pleased to meet you." Izuku smiled nervously. "Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you too, Yagi-sensei."

Toshinori smiled and pointed to a fridge that had yet to gather any other trash around it.

"Young Midoriya, to start off I want you to push that fridge to the sidewalk." Izuku gulped, but nodded and walked over to begin pushing the heavy appliance.

Toshinori turned to Maestro as a sound-blocking privacy barrier cut their voices off from Izuku.

"So you've taken on a disciple, huh?" Maestro sighed. "Looks like it. Thanks for agreeing to supervise his training. Gods know I need help with it."

Toshinori smiled at the teen. "Oh, please. I more than owe you. If you hadn't put up that shield spell, I'd be so much worse off. Helping you train someone is minuscule compared to that."

Maestro ducked his head in embarrassment. "It wasn't that big of a deal…"

"Recovery Girl said that I would have lost my stomach and a lung at the very least if I had taken that hit. It is that big of a deal. I'm probably still active today solely because you shielded me, a man you had never met, from damage because you knew he was a hero."

"You saved my life that day." Toshinori put as much sincerity as possible into those words, and Maestro's cheeks turned red as he ducked down even more and let out a noise like a dying kazoo. "Stop. Please," he whined.

Toshinori chuckled lightly before turning to look at Izuku, who had managed to push the fridge about three quarters of the way towards the top of the beach before collapsing.

Toshinori gave a small, almost sad smile as he pulled out his phone to take a picture of Izuku's noodle body. "And to think I told him that he couldn't be a hero. Well, he'll have no trouble now!"

Maestro dropped the privacy barrier as Toshi let out a loud laugh and walked over to Izuku.

"It's not funny," Izuku groaned up at him. "No, no, quite the opposite actually. I expected you to be unable to move it more than a third of what you managed."

Toshi grinned down at the boy as he took another picture. "You're stronger than I thought, though that's probably the result of your slayer element."

"My what?" Toshi looked at Izuku in confusion before turning back to Maestro with a raised eyebrow.

Maestro blinked before smacking his forehead. "I forgot. How the hell did I forget?"

He walked over to stand next to Toshinori. "Sorry Midoriya. I forgot that I hadn't told you what your slayer element was."

Despite his exhaustion, Izuku still managed to look excited. "You can tell that?"

"As the person responsible for giving you your gateway magic, I get enough knowledge to make sure you don't kill yourself, or me, trying to use it."

Izuku opened his mouth to ask why Maestro had said it like that, but what came out was, "why is Yagi-sensei taking pictures of me?"

Maestro and Toshi snickered. "Before and after pictures," Toshi replied. Maestro let that sink in before resuming.

"Your element is power, slightly altered by your desire to be a hero. You'll have a few restrictions as to what your powers can do because of the natural heroism of your magic, but that shouldn't be much of an issue. I'm gonna skip the long boring explanation and boil it down to what you need to hear."

Maestro gave an honest smile as Izuku stared up at him in wonder. "You wanted to be a hero as great as All Might, and you magic was influenced by that wish."

Now Toshi had joined Izuku in staring at Maestro with awe. Maestro grinned and raised his voice ever so slightly, as though announcing to a large crowd.

He spread his arms slightly for dramatic effect. "Make way, make way! The Mighty Dragon Slayer has awoken!"

AN: I really wanted to end the chapter here, but found a better spot a little bit lower. Cue the time skip!

Izuku groaned around his heavy breathing. He was sprawled out on the beach again, a week and a half into Toshinori's 'American dream plan'.

His body was sore in places he didn't know could even be sore, but he was definitely making progress. He had just finished pushing a stack of three tires from the shore to the top of the beach, and had fallen over to catch his breath.

"Oi, Midoriya. Get over here." Izuku looked towards the shoreline where Maestro was now standing.

He had vanished after the first few days, with Toshi only saying something about underground hero work when questioned.

Ignoring his desire to just lay down and sleep for a week, Izuku pushed himself up and walked over to the mage.

"What do you need, Maestro-sensei?" Maestro smirked at him. "We're going to start you on learning dragon slayer magic."

Izuku's tiredness seemed to fade instantly in the wake of his excitement. "Really? That's awesome!"

Maestro's smirk became slightly more predatory. "Let's see how long you can keep that positivity. Now, watch me."

Izuku snapped to attention and stared as Maestro turned to face the ocean. "Our first lesson will be the most important; consuming your element to replenish your energy."

He pointed his palm at the ocean. "Sound Siphon" he commanded.

Instantly, the sound of the waves went silent, and a river of pale green energy flowed from the silent waves into his palm. He stopped the spell after a few seconds, and the noise of the ocean meeting the sand returned as the last of the energy was sucked into the mage.

He turned to Izuku with a serious look. "When magic was forgotten, the natural supply of magic energy in the world diminished, and thanks to quirks it's become practically nothing. Unless you figure out how to create more magic energy for yourself by consuming other forms of energy, you're going to run out of power before you have a chance to learn anything."

Izuku nodded, his own face serious despite the joyful cheering in his head. "We're going to start with sensing your magic core. This will lead to feeling your magic energy within your body, which will let you channel your magic actively instead of the passive boosts that you've gotten used to by now. It will also mean that you can work on your magic while resting your body."

Izuku let out a small sigh of relief. Now he could at least get something done when Yagi-sensei called for a break or his body gave out. "You can sit down now. Find a stance that's comfortable, but not so much that you fall asleep."

Izuku dropped to his knees in a seiza position. "Good enough. This is basically going to be meditation. I want you to focus on the energy in your body."

Izuku closed his eyes and tried to focus on what his body was feeling. After a moment he opened his eyes. "I just feel sore," he grumbled.

Maestro gave a small snicker. "Yes, that does tend to happen with intensive training. Try again." Izuku sighed and shut his eyes, trying to find whatever feeling the other mage was talking about.

Maestro spoke up again, his voice seeming to pierce straight into Izuku's head.

"You haven't used any active magic yet, so don't look for anything that feels drastically different from your own strength. What you're looking for is a subtle supporting energy. Your body knows it's there, what you need to do is find the dividing line between the strength that comes from your physical flesh and the strength of your dragon magic that is being absorbed by your muscles."

Izuku responded with a distracted hum, lost in his meditation. He could feel his whole body responding to him, tell where each finger and toe was instinctively.

He sat for what felt like hours before he felt it. It was barely there, but he could feel a small string of energy in his arms and legs that wasn't from food or hard work.

He latched on to the feeling and held tightly, examining it forcefully until Maestro's voice pierced his mind again.

"Don't force the knowledge once you find it. Your body knows where your magic is, remember? If you try too hard, you'll end up ignoring the bigger picture. Don't strain your brain, or you'll lose sight of the path backwards."

Izuku relaxed his focus slightly before actually processing what his mentor had said. The path backwards? A bigger picture? Izuku pondered this for a moment as he relaxed his focus a little bit more… and felt his awareness of the passive magic spread down, until he could feel the magic in his hands and feet.

Oh.

Now it made sense. If Izuku could feel the flow of magic in his limbs, all he had to do was follow the path backwards, against the natural flow, to find the source of the metaphorical river.

He took an absent breath as he relaxed the intensity of his focus while still keeping a hold on the feeling of his magic.

He watched as the mental strings seemed to travel from his limbs to his hips and shoulders, down from his head into his neck and chest, all of them finally meeting at his sternum, where he suddenly sensed a deep well in the instant before a resounding, monstrous roar tore through his senses.

His concentration suddenly shattered, he gasped and opened his eyes before falling backwards into the sand from the mental impact.

He looked up at Maestro, who wore an expression of interest, and uttered the only thing that seemed appropriate for this situation.

"Holy shit."

So there you have it!

All Might may not be around this time, but that doesn't mean I can't bring in Toshinori! And don't hate on me too much for saving him, I just feel like without Izuku gaining One for All, the plot device of All Might's injury doesn't make sense. So instead, we have a healthy Toshi who helps train the boy that he discouraged the day before. There are also going to be a few more time skips, just because I don't feel like writing the things that you already know from watching the anime.

So... how about that cliffhanger, eh? hehehe... please don't kill me. I just couldn't resist.. *hides behind riot shield* Stop throwing things! I'm already working on the next chapter, okay? I'll have it soon!

Anyway, next time Izuku learns that he's a lot better at this 'active magic' stuff than he realized. I wonder who might be able to tell him why...

See you soon! PLUS ULTRA!