So again there are people here who have problems with Izuku's loss in the last chapter.
Let me make this clear. If you came into this story thinking that Izuku was gonna win every fight and look awesome doing it, then think again. Izuku's armor is powerful and will get more powerful as time goes on, but it has limits and it's not even comparable to the most powerful things in the MHA world like All for One, One for All, and Gigantomachia. At least not yet. And with his inexperience and no training, of course, he's gonna make stupid mistakes.
If you gave an average person a state of the art military grade weapon and made them fight an unarmed army veteran, then the person with the weapon would most likely lose because they have no training. Now imagine if you gave them a fighter jet. They would most likely die just by crashing it into the ground. It's a miracle Izuku's able to work his armor as well as he does already.
Now let's talk about the fight and why Izuku lost again.
Firstly, I was given problems with "He lost because and ran out of power in the last chapter and he made a suit that has even worse power?".
The Parasite armor was made to absorb energy attacks or attacks powered by energy like Whiplash's whips. In a sense, taking away Whiplash's ability to use his whips.
And the armor did its job, in a straight-up fight or in a fight like in chapter 9, Whiplash would have stood no chance at all, with his ability to attack being completely taken away. At that point either Whiplash's only options would have been to keep trying to attack, giving Izuku more power, or trying to dodge forever which, with Izuku's speed, would have led to Izuku eventually getting a hit on him, and taking him out.
Whiplash, however, was aware of this and used his environment. First taking the stealth advantage to make Izuku waste power, and then attacking him with trees instead of his whip.
Now let's talk about those trees. Another comment that was given said "A couple of trees and he uses his most powerful attack?!"
Firstly, I'm pretty sure I described it as a mountain of tree's meaning at the very least a couple dozen, and secondly trees are quite heavy. A single tree can weigh thousands of pounds, and Izuku was under a lot of them. He could have just used his repluser beam and broken enough trees until he was free, but that would have taken a while and left him a sitting duck.
Whiplash isn't a joke. He's not some loser who one can just effortlessly defeat. As stated, he is the same rank as many of the league of villains.
If you want a power fantasy where Izuku magically knows how to use abilities two seconds after he gets them and beats all the well established well-trained villains without having to work for it at all and can basically anything and everything. Then look elsewhere. Izuku's gonna earn his wins in this fic. And no that doesn't mean he's gonna lose a lot.
Anyway, onto the chapter.
"Breaking news!" Said a newswoman on television. "C.E.O. of Midoriya industries, Izuku Midoriya aka the non-vigilante vigilante Iron Man, was defeated in battle. He was seen retreating back to his home. Apparently, this is not the first time Midoriya has suffered defeat, as according to our information, that A-rank villain Whiplash, notorious for killing several pro-heroes, has been giving the billionaire trouble for a while. However Midoriya has managed to leave alive, he has always suffered defeat at the hands-off-"
PEWW.
The T.V. turned off in Izuku's lab, and the owner of said lab placed the remote on the table.
"Always suffered defeat." Izuku quoted irritably. "I only lost to him twice."
"Once would have been enough for him to kill you." Ochaco reminded him.
Chizome was looking at the battle footage from Izuku's helmet, watching the fight intently.
"Damn it," Izuku growled, he sat back in his chair, thinking of how he could beat Whiplash. "He's too good. And he keeps ambushing me!"
"Well maybe stop walking into his obvious traps," Ochaco suggested, also extremely irritated with the situation, but for different reasons. "You know how to track his energy signature. Any time he uses his quirk we know where he is, just avoid him, go back to fighting grunts and low-level villains, and wait for the heroes to take care of Whiplash."
"But they can't catch him!" Izuku argued. "I've left him alone for the heroes to catch before. He knows the patrol routes of all the heroes, and he's deliberately chosen locations that are far away. By the time other heroes would be able to arrive he's already gone. The only people who can get there before he leaves are me and Mirio, and he's out of the country."
"Then just wait till the heroes eventually track him down and take him out!" Ochaco countered.
"Who knows how long that might take!" Izuku rebutted. "How many people could he hurt with that tech in that amount of time! I need to stop him!"
"You're not going to save anyone by throwing away your life in a fight you can't win!" Ochaco shouted.
"But I can win!" Izuku said almost as loudly.
"Not the way you are." Chizome suddenly interjected, causing the two to turn to him.
"I'm repeating myself but what I say needs to be repeated. You're too inexperienced." Chizome repeated. "Even if you have the most powerful weapon in the world, experience almost always beats power. If you did have the experience, you would have known that hunk of junk armor you made was a downgrade in every sense of the word."
"The parasite armor was made to counter him-" Izuku tried to say before getting interrupted.
"It's too situational," Chizome said. "Firstly, you took away his main method of attacking, a good idea, but it wasn't worth the cost. Power is the most important thing about your armor, without it, you are defenseless, so making a suit that uses too much of it isn't a good idea. You could replenish your power by getting attacked, but since his attacks weren't doing anything to you, it's obvious he wouldn't attack. You could have still beaten him if you managed to trap him in close quarters, but you lack any of the necessary combat prowess and training to do that, so any competent opponent could either wait until you ran out of power or retreated, or attack you with other things...like trees."
Darn it...he has a point. On paper, the armor sounded perfect. But I guess I was too reliant on the idea that he would be helpless without his quirk...oh. Izuku suddenly realized why he had gotten that idea.
"That armor is almost entirely useless, it could come in handy but only in extremely rare circumstances," Chizome explained. "You made a common mistake. Thinking that the tool was a fault when it's the man using the tool that needs improvement. Your old armor was far superior. You need training to beat this opponent. You don't need to be more skilled than him, but you need to close that skill gap enough so your other advantages can win the fight. I'd say a few months should-"
"We don't have that much time!" Izuku interrupted. "They're not gonna stop using my tech until-"
"You stop them? You can't stop them if you die. And eventually, Whiplash or whoever is in charge of him, will run out of patients and kill you." Chizome said bluntly. "Boss, I hate to break this to you. But just because you have power now, does not mean your All Might."
Izuku's eyes went wide, and he almost seemed to recoil at that statement, before sheepishly composing himself. "I know that-"
"Don't kid yourself." Chizome didn't let him finish. "I've seen the way you fight. Head on, charging in fist first as fast as possible. You're trying to fight like All Might. But I'll say it again. You, not All Might. You're not that fast, and you're that strong. If you try to fight like him, you WILL die."
Izuku didn't respond. He just stood there looking at the floor. Thinking.
After a few moments of thought, Izuku eventually spoke up.
"I just need to keep working," Izuku said. "If I keep working on my armor. Increase the power efficiently, speed up the thrusters. Maybe find a better way to use the Uni-beam. Then I can do it. But I can't just stop."
Chizome sighed, rubbing his temples to ease the headache that was quickly developing.
The bodyguard was ready to keep on arguing with his boss when Ochaco stepped in.
"Chizome, can you give us some privacy?" Ochaco asked in her serious, no room for argument, tone.
Chizome looked at her. Her expression lacked the frustration she had before. There were still some there, but she looked more...resigned. A little sad even.
He didn't fight it. And Chizome nodded and left the room.
Izuku and Ochaco stared at each other for a while, Izuku growing increasingly nervous the longer the silence went on.
How does she always manage to make me like this? Izuku wondered.
"Do you remember that time, in the days leading up to the sports festival, when you were desperately trying to make more and more support items so they could get shown off by Mei during the festival?" Ochaco asked him. "It was during the second year. Do you remember the conversation we had?"
Izuku spent a moment searching for the memory, before nodding.
He knew exactly what conversation she was talking about. It was, as she said, a few days before the sports festival. Ochaco had been Izuku and Mei's manager for quite some time at that point and had been friends with him for about the same amount of time.
As he was prone to do, he had been overworking himself, even more so with the sports festival looming near. Mei was going to use their gear and show it off during the event, as she had done last year.
The chance to show off during the sport's festival was not to be taken lightly. And so Izuku had really been pushing himself beyond his limit, and that was taking a toll on his body.
And Ochaco let him know exactly how she felt about that.
Several years ago, at the U.A. support lab.
"You're overworking yourself!" Ochaco argued.
"I-I'm fine Uraraka," Izuku said, looking away from her.
"Midoriya, I can see the bags under your eyes!" Ochaco pointed to said bags, making Izuku flinch from how close she was.
"I-I-I-uh-" Izuku tried to come up with an excuse, but his panicked state combined with his sleep deprivation was making that rather hard for him.
Ochaco glared at him. "What have I been telling you and Mei about taking care of yourselves! I swear, I scooped up the best partner out of the support course, and Mei, but I have to make sure you don't kill yourselves anytime I turn around!"
Izuku cringed with guilt. "I-I'm sorry."
Ochaco's gave him a skeptical glare. "Does that mean you're going to sleep and take better care of yourself?"
"W-Well I still need to work on the gear." Izuku stuttered. "I need to work harder than everyone else. People won't want to buy support gear made by a quirkless kid, so I need to make sure that everything is top of the line...You took a chance partnering with me, I need to do what I can to make sure you didn't make a mistake."
Ochaco glared softened, before dissipating with a sigh. Damn it why do you have to be so sweet and considerate?!
Unable to stay mad but not willing to drop it, Ochaco decided to try a different approach. If Izuku wouldn't look after himself for his sake then maybe he would for her's.
"Izuku, this isn't good for either of us. If you're working while sleep deprived then you're going to make mistakes. And that will only make the quality of the gear worse." Ochaco pointed out. "Don't lie to me and say that it hasn't been getting harder to work on the gear without sleep."
Izuku didn't respond, but the look of worsening guilt on his face gave away the answer.
"Whether I get into the hero course like I want and use your gear, or I stay in the management course and sell it, it's best if it is the best it can be. And that will only happen if you're working on it at 100%." Ochaco continued, giving Izuku a pleading look, really hammering in the guilt. "And besides."
Ochaco grabbed Izuku's face and made him look at her. "You're my friend. Don't be so considerate and kind, and make me care about you, only to kill yourself by overworking. You can't do that to me."
Izuku broke, as did the dam holding back the waterworks. "I-I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Ochaco told him. "Just promise me you'll take care of yourself."
"I...I promise." Izuku told her.
Back in the present.
"You promised me. That you would take care of yourself." Ochaco reminded him.
Izuku felt the guilt well up in him, and he knew that his resolve was starting to crumble. "I…"
Ochaco gave him a sad smile. "It's funny, this isn't the first time you threw your health and potentially your life away without a second thought. Caring for you is hard you know. Your self destructive, you're stubborn as hell, and despite being a genius you can be really dumb when you get tunnel vision. It's hard Izuku, it really is."
Izuku was trying really hard not to let his guilt consume him. Every time Ochaco really wanted to convince him, she would guilt him. And it almost always worked.
Ochaco took his hand, the care and warmth put into that gesture, nearly caused Izuku to crumble right there.
"But I wouldn't have married you if I wasn't up for a challenge," Ochaco said tenderly. "Because I know that you're worth it."
Tears were welling up in Izuku's mind, partially because of guilt, partially because of how touched he was.
"But you can't do this," Ochaco told him. "You can't make me love you, help me achieve my dreams, marry me, make me the happiest woman in the world, and give us a child, only to throw your life away. You can't do that to me. To us."
He never stood a chance.
All of his resolve and will to argue died right there. And once again, he started to cry, but to his credit, it was only a little.
"I...I've been being stubborn again. Haven't I." Izuku admitted? "I-I'm sorry. I keep making things difficult."
"I just told you, I'm up for a challenge." Ochaco reminded him. "I'm just glad you can see reason in the end."
Izuku sighed. "I'm...gonna have to train. Aren't I?"
"Yup. Like Chizome said, at least a few months." Ochaco told him. "And you will be taking breaks. Training won't help if your body collapses, and I don't want you neglecting our daughter during all this."
"I...understand," Izuku said with no small amount of hesitation. He didn't like how slow this was going at all, but...he didn't really have a choice at this point. "I'll go see who I can get as a trainer."
"Nope," Ochaco told him. "I'll be taking care of that. As well as your scheduling, because I know you're still terrible at that. I'll get in contact with our hero friends and see who can train you. Also, I'll get our contacts in the police to focus on tracking down Whiplash, next time you two fight I don't want it to be you flying into an ambush. For now, you can work on improving the Model 2 armor, and I'll call Mei so she can work on the armor while you're training."
"That's...you're doing a lot." Izuku pointed out. "You just scolded me for overworking myself."
"Izuku, I'm just making some calls, sending some emails, and writing down a schedule. It's fine!" Ochaco reassured him. "And you're out there risking yourself. I can't just stand on the side sending you disapproving looks, no matter how much I hate this. If we're going to do this, then we need to do it right. And as a team. Like we always have."
Izuku smiled at her. "I guess I really am hopeless without you."
Ochaco giggled. "I thought that was obvious. Although to be fair I doubt I'd be anywhere near as happy without you."
The two of them laughed until they heard a knock on the door.
"Are you two done making out yet?" Chizome asked.
Izuku was about to tell him to come in when Ochaco suddenly grabbed him.
"Not yet!" Ochaco called, before kissing him right on the lips.
Izuku was taken off guard, and by the time he truly realized what was going on, it was over.
"We can spend more time like that once Whiplash goes down." Ochaco teased him. "Now let's get back to work."
"Y-yeah." Izuku was too stunned to say anything else.
Ochaco let go of him, and walked away, opening the door and leaving the lab.
Izuku heard a short conversation between her and Chizome before it ended and Chizome walked into the lab.
"You know if there is one thing I've learned from you boss, is that the power of love is real, and it is strong." Chizome half-joked.
"Well...yeah," Izuku admitted with a fierce blush still adorning his face.
Chizome shook his head with a small smile on his face. "I'm glad you're going for training. I've always liked your strong sense of justice, but you can't let it kill you for stupid reasons."
"Sorry for making you worry." Izuku apologized.
"Wasn't worried, more frustrated." Chizome denied. "But on a different topic, you know I could teach you a few things. Hand to hand combat, how to aim without assistance, and how to deal with armed opponents."
"Well you'll have to talk to Ochaco, she's making the schedule." Izuku chuckled. "Meanwhile I guess I'll go get back to work on my armor. Can you go get Eri for me?"
"Gonna have her help you out in the lab again?" Chizome asked.
"I think she likes it," Izuku admitted.
"I think she just likes spending time with you," Chizome said.
Izuku paused. "Well, another reason not to die I guess."
Chizome shook his head. "I guess sir. I guess."
Alright, so the next chapter will be a training montage and the reveal of the MK.4! Then the next chapter after that will be the third confrontation with Whiplash!
Oh, and I want to address something. Someone suggested loading the armor with A.I. that could learn opponents' moves and counter them or help Izuku fight, like in Captain America Civil war. However at that point, if you just have a computer do the work then why even have Izuku in the suit. Why not just make it a robot at that point. There will be an A.I. that helps Izuku, just not THAT directly.
Anyway, please review and have a nice day.