"Alright Kouhai! Time to teach you how to control your power." Hadou exclaimed with excitement.
"I'm all ears." Midoriya replied.
"Alright, it's simple, you gotta feel it!"
...
...
"Huh?" That was the only question Midoriya could formulate at that moment of total confusion.
"Isn't it obvious?" She asked, tilting her head, "You were using 100% last night weren't you? So what you gotta do is lower how much power you can use."
"That's easier said than done!"
"You mean it's easier done than said? Look, just keep it simple and use your arm, don't make any sudden moves to not risk blowing your arm up. Charge up that power of yours into your arm at full blast." With a nod Midoriya held out his arm and charged up One for All at 100% through it, "Now, concentrate, and lower the power percentage in a controlled fashion. The minute you stop feeling pain, that's your limit."
Midoriya closed his eyes to concentrate, and after a few moments the red cracks of power slowly began to shrink in both power and size. After about a minute, he opened his eyes again and a thick crack of power remained on his arm, "This... is how much I can use without pain."
"Good work Kouhai! You're a fast learner." She praised, ruffling his hair, "Now, picture that power, memorize how much that feels on your arm... and then, use that amount all throughout your body."
'Alright, focus...' He thought as he felt One for All course all throughout his body, 'The amount that won't give me pain felt like... 10%. So going above it is fine, but reach for 10%.'
*Bzzt* *Bzzt*
"I... I did it." Midoriya grunted, not used to the power coursing through him.
"So cooool!" Hadou exclaimed with excitement, "Ooh! What do you want to call it?"
...
...
'I can't think of a Fighting Type move that would fit with this. Bulk Up is close, but it's not quite... I guess I can move from the trend for now.' Midoriya thought before smiling, "Full Cowling."
"Ooh I like it, sounds awesome." Hadou said... before a smirk dawned on her face, "But we need to test its effectiveness."
"How do we do tha-"
*FWOOSH*
"RACE YA!"
...
...
"Oh you're on."
...
"Aaah... this is the life." The Dragoon Hero Ryukyu muttered, soaking in a warm bath with a mug of tea, "Nejire asked for a day off to train a Kouhai she picked up... no villains in the area... haah... and a nice bat-"
"RYUKYU!"
"GAH!"
*Crash*
...
...
With the mood killed, Ryukyu grabbed the walkie talkie, "Yes?"
"We have a Quirk Street Race."
"... Just get Ingenium on it."
"No you don't understand... Nejire is racing a green haired boy with some sort of speed Quirk."
...
...
"Son of a... fine. Is anyone else making chase?"
"All Might, that's about it."
"I'll provide back up... in a few minutes." Ryukyu said before taking out the batteries and setting the walkie talkie on the sink.
...
...
"Damn it..."
...
"Come on slowpoke! You're supposed to be fast-"
"I AM HERE!"
"A-ALL MIGHT!" Hadou exclaimed as she paused right in front of All Might, giving Midoriya a chance to play a game of leap frog and jump over the pair.
"I took the lea-"
*FWIP*
"Woah claw! There's a claw in my face!" Midoriya exclaimed as he pried himself out of the massive claw. Giving him a clear view of who stopped him, "R-Ryukyu!"
"Nejire... boy... care to explain why you're having an illegal Quirk street race?"
...
...
"Would you believe us if I say this wasn't in any way our fault?"
...
*SLAM*
"So let me get this straight. You, Izuku Midoriya, was it? Found another application for your Quirk that grants you super speed and super strength, and the best way you decided to test it was to have a street race?" All Might, sounding disappointed but is in reality very proud, asked as Hadou looked down in sadness.
"Yup." Midoriya, on the other hand, wasn't sad at all. "And I won by the way."
"... Be that as it may, the two of you broke a law. However, given you had a note from the Principal of U.A High that you are allowed to use your Quirk for training purposes, and the fact that Ms. Hadou is a Provisionally Licenced Hero, we will overlook this just once. And we kept this out of the media." He said, which got a breath of relief from Hadou, "However, this is clearly stretching the pardon Principal Nezu allowed. So don't do this again, do I make myself clear?"
"Y-Yes sir."
"Crystal."
"Good, now I'll let you two go." He said as the pair started to get out of their seats, "However, a word of warning for Ms. Hadou."
"Y-Yes sir?" She asked, as All Might gulped with nervousness.
"Ryukyu isn't happy."
...
"Private Green! Where have you been?!" Armie yelled as Midoriya trudged inside Fat Gum's agency.
"... Racing Hadou."
...
...
"Did you win?"
"Of course I did."
"Then I suppose I can overlook this incident just this once." She said, before aiming the barrels of her drone's minigun at Midoriya, "But do it again and I will send you to the firing squad!"
"Y-Yes ma'am!"
...
...
"Wait, why isn't the minigun going away?"
"Well since you got your fancy newfangled technique, we should see if it affects your reaction time Private."
"Reaction ti-"
*BANG*
"Gah!" She fired a shot right at his feet, "What the heck-"
"Better start running Private, the next one isn't going to miss."
"R-Right." Midoriya replied as he started running.
...
...
'She sure has a one track mind on her.'
...
"... Okay why am I blindfolded?" Midoriya asked as he felt a slap on the back of his head, "Oww!"
"You're overthinking the exercise little dude." Togata commented, "A little girl told me that you have garbage reflexes."
"I dodged over half of those rubber bullets, and have you tried to dodge minigun fire?!"
"Sounds like a load of excuses to me. So anyway, this is the first exercise Sir did for me when I joined his agency."
"By blindfolding you?"
"Yup, he wanted me to visualize my opponent without sight. Use my other senses like hearing and your sense of smell."
...
...
"Is that why you smell like barbecue?"
"W-Well... Fat Gum ordered some barbecue." Togata back-peddled, before shaking his head, "But if that will help you track my movements then go all for it. A hero should use every advantage the villain mistakenly throws at them. Whether it'd be their sounds, or their smells. Understand."
"Yeah... I think I do."
"Great... we're not that advanced for you to block my attacks whilst blindfolded, so we'll settle with turning where I pop up. Sounds good?"
"I like not being in pain, so it sounds fantastic." He said, which made Togata laugh.
"Haha! Oh man I bet Sir would love you. But Fat Gum has dibs so oh well. Anyway I'm going to start in three... two... o-"
*Fwoop*
...
...
*Fwoop*
"Okay I appear-"
"Behind me."
"Good warm up, now I won't be talking after this."
*Fwoop*
...
...
*Fwoop*
*Sniff* ... *Sniff* *Sniff* *Sniff*
"To my right."
"Righto."
*Fwoop*
...
...
*Fwoop*
*Sniff* *Sniff* *Sniff* *Sniff*
...
...
'Wait.' Midoriya angled his nose downwards and sniffed, "Below me."
"Haha, thought I'd getcha."
"You did, I had to think about that one."
"Which means I gotta get even more creative."
*Spritz*
"Ghh! What the heck?!"
"Nejire let me borrow her perfume." Mirio said before disappearing again.
'My sense of smell is gone... and he's not going to say anything. So what do I d-'
*Fwoo-* *Fwip*
"I-I thought you said we weren't throwing punches!"
"You were progressing much faster than I expected... and it's hard to shake up my exercises in this empty gym. But you caught it! Not bad." He said, before his hand phased away and he returned underground.
'Where is he coming from now-'
*Fwoosh*
'Behind!' Midoriya leaned sharply forward, causing Togata's punch to sail over him.
*Fwoosh*
'My right!' Another dodge.
*Fwoosh*
'Below?!' He jumped out of the way as Togata shot out of the ground.
"Final test!" Togata yelled as he rushed straight towards Midoriya, throwing numerous punches at near blinding speed. "Hiya hiya hiya hiya!"
'It's a full-on assault, I should block!' Midoriya firmly stood his ground and prepared himself to block.
*Fwoop*
...
...
"Hu-"
"Surprise!"
*WHAM*
"SHORYUKEN!" Togata launched from below the ground and landed a powerful uppercut on Midoriya, the force sent him flying backwards and flat on his back.
"... Ow." Midoriya muttered, ripping off his blindfold and laid on the ground, "I was expecting a full on assault. You even yelled 'Hiya' like a dumb boy in a green tunic."
Togata chuckled and laid beside him, "We call that a 'Feint' in the business. It's where someone does a telegraphed attack... like a punch, and does something completely different, like a kick." He explained, "But I must admit, I'm impressed. You did about as well as I did on my first go. Sure I got hit once, but Sir didn't really explain what was happening. Took getting hit once for me to figure it out. But hey... I didn't fall for an obvious feint."
"Oh ha ha." Midoriya laughed, dripping with sarcasm. "But that was... an enlightening experience."
"I'm glad, because we're doing this again tomorrow, and we're going to keep going until you can fight me semi-competitively blindfolded. That way it can work as fight training and reflex training."
...
...
"Works for me."
*Fwong*
"Hey is Mi- OH COME ON MIRIO NOT AGAIN!" Haya yelled, covering her eyes, "It was funny with Midoriya in hindsight, but you've done this HOW MANY TIMES?!"
"Huh?" Midoriya gave a good look at Togata... and instantly regretted it, "WHY ARE YOU NAKED!"
"Oh sorry! My clothes phase off of my body when I use my Quirk. Hope you didn't see my willy!"
"I SAW EVERYTHING!"
This is going to be a running trend isn't it?
...
The last training session of the day, a combined session with Haya and La Brava. The two hit it off the minute they shared their interests and decided it would be easier if they trained Midoriya together.
"Okay, twist it slowly..."
Which would have been the case, but a certain round jolly hero practically destroyed one of the washrooms. But Aiba was more than willing to give a seminar on a chair, mainly because she was bored and wanted something to do.
"Remind me again how Fat Gum destroyed the sink, the shower head, and ruptured a pipe? Asking for an annoyed friend."
"Beats me... I get the feeling he did it to train you."
"I'd be appreciative if this wasn't the only washroom near us!" Midoriya yelled before sighing, "At least he fronted the bill for the piping and other stuff we needed."
*Bzz* *Bzz*
"Huh? That's weird." Aiba muttered, "Three people walked through the door. None of them I recognize." That made Midoriya pause.
"What does this person look like?"
"A woman with long black hair in a ponytail, a blue cardigan, and some weird slippers? Another is a man with his blonde hair in a bun, weird glasses, and clothes that are way out of style. The last one is another man with long black hair, black shirt, black pants, and pretty much a black soul."
"One of them has to be Mr. Aizawa, or Eraserhead. The other two? I don't remember, but they have to be U.A teachers in their normal clothes." Haya pieced together, "But why are they here?"
*Creak* *Creak* *Creeeeak*
"Well all that's left is the shower head, then we'll be done. It's just insert and screw it in, they can wait a few more minutes."
...
"This is a waste of time... he's going to end up in U.A anyway." Aizawa groaned as he downed his coffee.
"Oh chin up Shota, you want to meet him too don't you?" The blonde haired man asked.
*Fwong*
"He has an impressive grasp on his Quirk, but Vlad already claimed him, so I don't care."
"Wow, okay then. I'll try not to get offended."
"Hey little listener."
"... Oh Present Mic." Midoriya pieced together, "And now that I'm getting a good look at you, Midnight right?"
"Ooh right. How did you know? Was it my charm and allure?"
"... We'll roll with that, sure." Midoriya replied, earning an appalled glare from the woman in question, "But what are you three doing here?"
"Classified." Aizawa replied.
"But Nemuri and I are here to see you, little listener."
"I'm scared."
"What Mic was trying to say... is that a certain girl with blue hair was bragging about a 'Kouhai', and how she was going to make him the best student in U.A history, and something about being the 'Wolf Amongst the Dogs'? Naturally we wanted to see how this 'Kouhai' is doing."
"But how did you know it was me?"
"You were literally in a street race with her. We put two and two together." Aizawa commented.
"... Okay fair enough."
*Fwong*
"Aah Eraser Head!" Fat Gum exclaimed before stopping in front of Midoriya and Haya, "Oh thanks for fixing the bathroom you two. Anyway, I have some info about the drug ring you've been trying to bust, come with me." Aizawa and Fat Gum left, leaving the four of them in the main lounge.
...
...
"Why was the bathroom destroyed?" Mic asked, as Haya shrugged.
"I don't know, nor do I want to know."
...
"I'm home!"
...
...
"Looks like they're not home." Midoriya said, as set his key on the holder. Right next to a stack of letters, "Oh the mail, I should check if there's the results from U.A." He grabbed the letters and rifled through them, "Junk mail, electric bill, magazine for Mom, ooh coupons for McDonald's score... oh hey U.A." He pocketed the coupons and took the letter to the living room. With one swift rip a lone hologram disc landed on the table.
*Fwong*
"Ahem." A man in a red jumpsuit said, "I have forty of these to make so I'll keep this brief. With your lone attack, you wiped out every single robot in your sector. Earning the first ever perfect villain score in U.A History. And while these are mainly ceremonial at this point, you were given 100 Rescue points for giving away 400 points to students you deemed to be U.A material. Your choices also coincided with the Principal's choices as well. But back to the matter at hand. In three more weeks you will be attending Class 1-B. Congratulation Izuku Midoriya, welcome to your Hero Academia."
*Bzzt*
"... Well that was pretty short." Midoriya commented before pulling out his phone.
*Bzz* *Bzz* *Click*
"Young Midoriya?"
"I passed. Not that there was any doubt with the 200 points I saved for myself, but I figured I'd let you know."
"I figured as much as well, but I've been on the receiving end of Principal Nezu's tricks far too many times to be certain. We're still up for coffee right? We have a lot to discuss."
"Hmm... with my 6 teachers, I might be able to pencil you in... okay does after school sound good?"
"Perfect, have a good evening Young Midoriya."
*Click*
"Guess I should tell the others I passed too." He told himself as he pulled up the 'Kouhai Training Group Chat' or the KTGC for short.
IM: I passed.
MT: Oh yeah I forgot to ask if you actually made it to U.A yet.
YH: That seems like something you should have asked before agreeing to train him
TA: I figured he passed... that's why Fat Gum agreed to train him.
NH: I'm still mad at you
IM: It was your idea to have a Quirk street race!
NH: And you threw me under the bus!
NH: It was supposed to be us against the man!
YH: But it was Ryukyu that chewed you out.
NH: ...
NH: It was supposed to be us against the woman!
MT: Aaaanyway, congrats little dude! You'll truly become the Wolf Amongst the Dogs now.
MT: Speaking of, which class are you in?
IM: 1-B
MT: AAAHA!
NH: Dang it! Why couldn't you be in 1-A?!
TA: It really doesn't matter... if anything I like Vlad King more than Aizawa...
NH: Traitor.
YH: But it really doesn't matter, we'll be training him regardless right?
NH: Well yeah... but it's the principle of the thing!
IM: Well you all can fight amongst yourselves, I'm going to dip.
TA: Don't leave me...
YH: Please don't leave me...
IM: Sorry, my planet... and by that I mean my dinner needs me.
He exited the group chat and began searching the fridge and the cupboards for any sort of food combinations he could make. And then he had an idea.
...
...
A very bad idea.
...
"Alright, I have about 10 minutes until I should bring my best worst idea out of the oven... time to get some practice in." Midoriya rushed into his room and grabbed his acoustic guitar. "Hello Lorraine." He gently grabbed his guitar by the neck and opened his window, "Time to have some fu-" His adventure to the roof was cut off by a lone blue eye with a slash of silver hair over the other.
...
...
"'Sup?" He greeted in true Midoriya fashion.
"... Hello." She replied, holding a drumstick in each hand. "I overheard you partaking in music. I wish to join you."
"... Well my mom told me not to talk to strangers."
"... Oh, I see."
"So I'm Izuku Midoriya, what's your name?"
"... Reiko Yanagi."
"Now we're not strangers anymore." He said as he pulled up the chair on his desk and tuned his guitar, "So get ready Yanagi, we're playing some jams."
"And what 'Jams' are we playing exactly?"
"I dunno, I was thinking I'll play some random notes and see if we can make it into a halfway decent song."
"But what is the point of that if we have no structure?"
"We're playing music, not running a government! We gotta go with the flow and have fun, because that's the point of everything isn't it?"
...
...
She gave a soft smile in response.
"Very well, I'll follow your lead."
...
*Strum* *Tish*
"Wow! That was awful!"
"I must agree." Yanagi said with a small smile, "That was terrible."
"But wasn't it fun?"
"It was quite enjoyable." She replied, until Midoriya's phone started to buzz.
"Oh right, be right back!"
*FWOOSH* *FWOOSH* *Plang*
"Behold! The smartest dumbest thing I've ever done!"
...
...
"What is that?" Yanagi asked, pointing to the bubbly and rather yellow concoction in a massive pan.
"This, my dear Yanagi, is what I call a massive mistake." Midoriya stated, as he brought it up to the windowsill to give her a better view, "What we have here is biscuits, with a layer of scrambled eggs, hash browns, crumbled up sausage, bacon bits, chopped grilled onions, gravy, and cheese... I might have said all of that out of order. All I know is it's the pure manifestation of excessiveness and gluttony all in the biggest cast iron skillet we own... which is pretty dang big." He said before holding up a fork, "Wanna share it?"
"... This seems like a bad idea. Especially when I'm going to attend U.A in the upcoming weeks."
"Great, so am I." He said, holding out a fork and waving it slowly, "But you know you want to... you can't resist..."
...
...
"Very well, figure out how we can share then I will."
"Oh easy." He sat the skillet aside and extended his hand, "Jump I'll catch you."
"... You cannot be serious."
"Of course I am, you can trust me!"
...
...
'I cannot believe I'm doing this.' Yanagi thought as she stood nervously on her windowsill, "If you drop me, I will be very upset."
"I won't, if I did then it won't look good for me going to U.A."
"Glad to acknowledge that your only concern is your public image and not my health." She stood up straight, did a mental count of 3, and jumped.
*Fwip*
"Alright, I gotcha!" Midoriya took her other hand and lifted her into his room. "See? That wasn't so bad!"
She took a second to calm her admittedly nervous hands. After a quick recovery, she held up her fork.
"Where is that skillet?"
...
"You're joking."
"Nope! I destroyed every single robot with my biggest AOE attack." Midoriya recounted, taking another bite of his monstrosity, "The boy with blue hair made me mad, so I decided to end it right then and there. But I gave away 400 of my 600 points."
"... You have quite an impressive Quirk." Yanagi said, "It's rather irritating. Knowing there's always one with a stronger Quirk than your own."
"... Well what's your Quirk then?"
...
...
"*Sigh* I refer to it as 'Poltergeist'. It grants me the ability to telekinetically manipulate objects around me. However I can only lift and manipulate objects as heavy as a normal person."
"... Okay? I don't see your problem."
"Your Quirk is more powerful than mine."
"In terms of natural fire power? Sure. But think about it in terms of utility." Midoriya stated, "A villain has to deal with you, and objects flying in all directions. He'll have to divert their attention and won't be solely focused on you. While it's not powerful, it's very... very dang useful. And while your limit is the weight of a normal person... which is still around 100-130 pounds by the way, that limit will soon grow to who the heck knows! Trust me Yanagi, I wouldn't be surprised if your future limit will be lifting buildings."
...
...
"You give me too much credit." She said, before digging her fork into the skillet, "But... thank you."
"You're welcome neighbor BFF." Midoriya said with a thumbs up, "Now let's keep eating, I'm not wasting a single ounce of this thing."
...
They managed to finish the skillet and were now laying on his roof staring at the few visible stars in the night sky.
...
...
"Midoriya?"
"What's up?"
"Do you have... a reason for being a hero?"
"... A reason huh?" Midoriya asked, "I guess I do. It's selfish but it's still a reason." She nodded, urging him to continue, "A very... very long story short. I want to be strong." He said, shooting off a stray fireball that soon disappeared into smoke, "My biological dad pretty much abandoned Mom and I. Said I had no more use now that his 'true' son got his Quirk. I always hated the prick. I know why he has a massive lust for power... but that didn't make it right. Anyway, I didn't want to be associated with him in any way."
Another fireball.
"So I hid my Quirk from my classmates and said I was Quirkless, because to be completely honest... and I don't want to come off as insensitive to actual Quirkless kids who go through this crap without any hope of it getting better... but I felt that being hated is better than being liked and fawned over because of my father." He explained, before sighing, "This might be from being abandoned, but I want to become strong. Stronger than him, stronger than the true son, the strongest person I can be. So, I guess you can call that my drive."
...
...
"Guess I... probably shouldn't have dropped that info bomb on you. My bad."
"No, it's quite alright." Yanagi replied, "I understand being the ire of ridicule as well."
"Kids are assholes, it's almost like parents forgot how to raise their kids properly."
"Agreed. Whether it'd be insults about my posture, taping my hair behind my head to irritate my lazy eye, to actual physical bullying." Yanagi recounted.
"Well... we only have to deal with it... actually, we don't have to deal with it anymore. No one would dare hurt kids going to U.A... but we're the only ones who would escape from that." Midoriya muttered.
As much as Yanagi didn't want to admit it, Midoriya had a valid point. She and him are the lucky ones, they escaped torment and are given a chance to do bigger and better things... while others are stuck in the stereotypes built for them.
"Not much we can do about it now." He said sitting up, and extending his hand "All we can do now is train to become heroes, then we can lead a full scale revolution against bullying. You with me?"
...
...
She smiled and shook his hand, "Yes I'm with you."
"Great!" He exclaimed with a massive smile.
"Now get out of my house."
*End of Chapter*