Izuku had never, in all his life seen a pair of legs as perfectly toned and muscled as what was currently in front of him. Not even Himiko for all her physicality and beauty possessed anything that was so wondrous to look at as this and right now, Izuku was far from denying that he was enjoying it, much to his shame as a supposed gentleman.

Hana was in the middle of stretching right before their very first training session and she was dressed in a blue leotard which she had bought from a nearby second hand store. Her hair had grown by a noticeable amount to where it slightly went past her shoulders and her glasses were still worn while she did this, but Izuku didn't care. He would start off slow and show her the basics and after getting her comfortable with simple drills they would move up to sparing. He also made a mental note to hold off on that until they could pad the floor of the warehouse they were using as an impromptu gym.

Another thing about the girl which became apparent was her flexibility. She had readied herself by twisting her body this way and that, even casually performing a split right before hopping back up. That would be a boon in combat for her, flexibility was one of the necessities of CQC. On the off hand he decided to teach her how to grapple once she had the basics down.

Regardless, professionalism filled him as he watched Hana wait patiently for him to speak after finishing her stretches. This was his student, a fellow warrior come to learn and as such he had to put her needs over his weakness. Izuku rolled his shoulders as he approached the quirkless girl, the mild chill of late day buffering off his bare chest as he stood in nothing but athletic shorts.

"So you ready to start?"

She raised up a hand in salute.

"Ready as I'll ever be coach."

That made him smirk a little.

"Good, today we'll be starting with gauging your current abilities so we know what to work on. Just run, do push ups, sit ups and what not like you would in gym class, ok?"

Hana nodded at him.

"Yes sir."

Upon reviewing what he had seen Izuku had found that his student had a perfect bill of health, minus her eyesight. If anything she surpassed him in a few select areas and oddly that made him feel proud instead of disheartened. Once that was done and Izuku had written down the results, they moved onto the very start of their training.

He had moved five feet away from her with his body taking a traditional boxing stance, keeping himself moving with tiny steps here and there with both of his fists raised to cover his center.

"The first thing you need to know about a fight is to always keep moving, if you stand still your opponent can hit you a lot easier, or if you piss off the wrong person, stab you. Make short motions and never cross your feet. Now let's practice that for a bit."

Hana watched as Izuku showed her how to move and after a few tries and errors where she nearly fell down, she had learned what to do. Izuku nodded in approval as she mimicked his actions well enough for now.

"Good, now onto the second part, when you're dealing with an opponent and you have to fight another thing to keep in mind is the distance between yourself and them."

He stepped closer to the blue haired girl, keeping his guard up as he did.

"I want you to make a fist and try to hit me."

Hana did just that and felt her knuckles lightly contact the armor of abdominal muscle on his stomach.

"Now do it again.

She raised her arm back as she made to throw a punch, but when she tried to strike him, Izuku stepped back at the last second, causing her to hit empty air.

"That's distance in play right there, if I'm out of your striking range then you can't touch me, however if I were to step towards you and avoid your line of attack then I'm safe."

He did as he said, where Hana tried to land a hit on him, but instead of stepping back, he moved to the side of her and pivoted on his rear foot and slowly tapped her on the head.

"The biggest thing is experience, the more you get used to it the better you'll react in the proper situation, but here's something else to remember, a real fight isn't a damn thing like sparring where you know the person and understand you'll get to walk away. Getting into a real fight you have to learn how to turn your civility off because your opponent likely won't hold back. Got it?"

Hana listened intently but a bit of hesitation lingered in her eyes that Izuku had once seen in himself.

"But what if the guy isn't going to kill you or something? Not everyone is a murdering psychopath so-"

"It doesn't matter, they forfeit their right to safety when they violated yours. If they're willing to assault you or worse then they won't even care if you do get messed up because they don't see you, they barely see a person in the moment. All they see is something that has to be submitted because they will it. It's a competition in the purest sense, so don't pull any punches. All you are to the enemy is an obstacle that has to be removed."

There was a harshness to his voice that spoke of countless experiences of such violence. He saw how Hana's head dipped down at the idea, uncomfortable with the reality of things and that softened the steel in his heart ever so slightly.

"Look, I know how hard it can be to accept the concept of not caring about others, but it's for your own safety. There are people in this world who don't care if you live or die, so we can't afford mercy."

He was met by an indignation storming in his student that banished all her reserve away.

"But how can you just be ok with the idea of hurting someone so badly? Heroes manage to subdue people without going that far. All Might-"

"All Might is able to pull his punches because he can break buildings with a single blow and literally move faster than a bullet if he wants. Heroes have their quirks to even the playing field, all you and I have is our physicality so we can't play by their rules in the same situation."

Hana bit her lower lip in frustration.

"But...I've seen your quirk in action, you were able to shatter that ice wall with a flick of your finger. Why wouldn't you use it in a fight?"

Izuku shifted his gaze to the side, a heavy discomfort reigning over him at the topic. Shaking his head at his own weakness, he looked back at her.

"And do you remember what happened next? I broke my fingers and most of my arm. The sad thing is that wasn't even twenty percent of the power I could have made. If I screw up in a fight and break a bone then I'm dead or I'd be crippled for months until it healed."

The girl's head tipped to one end as she cupped the bottom of her chin in contemplation.

"So you mean to tell me you can generate even more power from your quirk? How does it even work if it's that harmful to you?"

He sighed and placed his hand in front of her to show the blue crackle of energy flowing in his muscles.

"It's an emitter type ability that allows me to multiply my physical force by a factor of nine, the problem being that my body can't handle the strain and needs heavy conditioning so it doesn't get damaged."

He made a fist and threw a few enhanced punches that made the air pop from the power and speed which made them blur.

"The best way to describe it is that I lack the muscle mass required to safely use it fully because the muscle acts as a capacitor for the excess energy, if I have too little muscle that can't take the charge then I blow my limbs out."

The quirkless girl watched him eagerly, almost entranced by the strange blue light as question upon question entered her mind.

"Then how did you manage to use it all the time? That had to be painful."

He shrugged.

"I didn't care about the pain, I just wanted to live out my dream and Recovery Girl made it easy to heal quickly so I could afford to be reckless. At the time I was just happy to not be mocked for being alive."

A frown escaped him as the unpleasantness of those moments came back to him.

"Anyway, let's get back to it. I want you to practice hitting my hands for now."

He ended the connection with his given quirk, killing the light and raised up his open palms to Hana, who clearly wished to know more. Thankfully she didn't press the matter and continued on with the training. Though as she learned the basics of stances, punching and kicking, Izuku couldn't but feel something was off about the whole thing going forward. It was like there was an itch under his skin that burned annoyingly and he didn't even know how to scratch it. He looked to Hana as the drills were followed to the letter. Sweat now coated her brow and she moved with fresh determination that chased away her fatigue.

Izuku had ceased his own exercise and stared solely at the girl who was so lost in the motions that he may as well have been invisible. He had not done it out of some sheepish desire to admire her physical beauty or to simply monitor her progress. As he emptied his mind of the distraction of training and the panic laced worry that possessed him for the past couple of days, the information of what he had heard came into focus and that began to grow a curiosity all of his own.

Patiently he waited for her to at last wear herself out before a question passed his lips. One that went out easier than he would have liked.

"What was she like back then?"

Hana turned and scowled at him, but as she wiped the sweat from herself the quirkless girl answered, much to her teacher's surprise.

"She was like a snake in a garden. At first, when middle school started everybody loved her and praised her all the time. She even got confessions from boys and girls almost weekly because everyone thought she was so pretty. Then half way through the year, her real self started to show. She talked about horror movies and serial killers which everyone believed to just be her being a bit weird. Then everything changed when she was caught sneaking into the science lab after school to drink the blood of the animals we dissected. Everyone stayed away after that and then a year or so later, she snapped and well, the rest is history."

Izuku clicked his tongue uncomfortably at that, feeling oddly defensive even when he knew he shouldn't. Wisely, he kept that much to himself.

"Did you ever get a feeling about what she was like? I know she can hide that easily if she wants to."

She pursed her lips as she studied the scars on Izuku's torso, seeming to try and understand the pain he went through.

"From day one I knew something was off about her. I can't really explain it, but at first it was like there was this force that just told me this person was dangerous. Then I saw why very soon. Me and her competed in the same gymnastic club and I always saw her staring at people when she thought nobody was watching and then I started to notice other things. Like the bag of razor blades she kept in her bag or how her fingers always had cuts on them or the pictures of autopsies and crime scenes she kept in a binder hidden in her locker. Then it progressively got more disturbing the longer I watched her."

She took a swig of water and continued.

"I always made sure to come in third place or lower in the competitions because that way she wouldn't focus on me. I saw the way she'd look at the top two girls in our team and it made my skin crawl. Yet for some reason I had this urge to learn more about her, to the point that I'd follow her around some days if I had a feeling about it."

Izuku raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"You mean to tell me you managed to follow her, of all people, without being seen?"

"I'm used to being like wallpaper and stepping without making a sound, besides I think she was more...clumsy back then. I'd seen the outside of her home and it was one of the best looking houses in town, but there was this massive forest behind their property that went on for almost a mile, just large enough to get lost in and I saw something back there that proved what she was."

Hana suppressed the disgust at the memory.

"I had maybe walked for a half hour when I came across this old shed deep in the woods and there were four padlocks on it. I wanted to check it out, but something in the back of my head told me to hide and so I did. Looking back, I'd probably be dead if I hadn't hidden behind that tree. She came walking by minutes later and she pulled out a key wrapped around a chain on her neck and she had a mouse in this tiny cage in her other hand. She opened the door and I got to see everything she kept in there when the light from the sun hit the interior at just the right angle."

A shudder came through her as she described what was in that place.

"There were pictures of mutilated bodies posted to the walls and there were these animals she had pinned into dissection trays on a table with their throats slit. The whole building stank of death and rot, and she had this black snake in a cage that she talked to. I saw her take out the mouse and cut it open with a scalpel, draining it's blood into some kind of shot glass and feeding the remains to that snake."

A sudden dip in the mood of the room came next when the story went on. Hana gained a look of terror that Izuku knew all too well as she did so.

"I...I watched her giggle and laugh while she cut away at that poor creature and listened to her coo at that snake when it ate up the body, calling it her baby and offering to feed it more. Then once she had gotten that done, she took off her shirt and started to...cut and hit herself and…"

Izuku filled in that last bit, knowing where this was going.

"She started to moan and howl, didn't she? And after that she drank whatever bit of blood she had laying around and sobbed a little bit after."

Hana was silent at his remark, but they both knew he was correct. She jabbed at him with an evenly spoken question that was laced with a certain emotion Izuku didn't like.

"Why did you even tolerate that? I mean you were imprisoned, but even the villains had to look at that and say it was wrong."

He popped his knuckles as a reason as best he could see came to mind.

"She was all I had. It was hard, rough and horrying doing what I did, so I fell for the comfort she gave me and when she started to push herself onto me, I didn't resist...much. There were some lines I wouldn't let her cross, but even then, I found myself being in those situations more and more with her. I started to enjoy it after a while and eventually it grew into a need between the both of us."

He looked at how his student's eyes went wide and strangely felt no shame nor relief. It was merely the facts of what happened and as such he had to accept them. However there was a question she asked that irked him somewhat.

"But just...how? I don't understand how someone can find something so painful to be pleasant unless they were like that originally and that's a whole other thing."

He shrugged at that and how she looked away from his gaze.

"I don't think I was like that originally...I think. It was...hard to describe but it wasn't an overnight thing, she was gentle with me, as gentle as she could be, at the start. Then she started off lightly slapping me right after we kissed, then slowly over months, graduated into a punch to the gut when she did something else and so on and so on until it was hard to receive one impulse without expecting the other."

He pinched chin in his hand and found himself explaining more than he likely should have.

"Honestly, it wasn't all that bad in the moment, it felt good even. It was after the fact that I hated so much. How we had to worry about the effects and just breaking down into a sobbing mess once it was done. Still, it kept the demons away from us so we just went on doing more and more until I broke away. The best reason as to why for both our cases that I could see was that it kept reality away...no, that's not quite right either. It's more if you're beating the hell out of someone or getting beat, then it's hard to focus on the fact that your family hates you or that your life is over or whatever bullshit made us upset."

She stared at him. Not judging him from what he saw, but it wasn't pity filled either. Disgust didn't show either, but there was something there that he couldn't identify.

"Do you miss it? Her, I mean."

Izuku considered the idea and shrugged, but this time there was an audible dread in his voice that sounded akin to hopelessness.

"I don't know. Part of me says yes and part of me says hell no. I do miss her some days, her company was pretty nice and despite the time I still get, well yeah. But Honestly I'm scared of her and for her. I know exactly how dangerous she can be and that's part of why I went along with it, but I've also seen her at her most vulnerable, at points where she can't even get out of bed some days or when she can't think right because of her quirk. I think in a messed up way I still love her, but La Brava would call that depency. I still care for her, I wonder if she's okay at times and if she's moved on. Which I highly doubt, but a man can hope."

Hana squinted at what he said, a visible wonder coming over her as if she had found some kind of clue.

"You said something about her quirk? What do you know about it?"

Again he shrugged.

"That it makes her mental and physical health dependent on blood, because without at least a cup being consumed before a new moon phase happens, she'll develop much more animalistic tendencies. As for how it works, well, she can take the shape of anyone she ingests the blood of, right down to their fingerprints and voices."

Hana looked shocked, but Izuku found it as a reason to chuckle.

"To tell the truth, I thought you might have been her in disguise when I brought you back. Though the idea didn't cross my mind until it was way too late, thankfully I know you aren't because she would have acted a lot soon and I know exactly how to tell her minor giveaways. Seeing as how you didn't get transfixed by the sight of blood and all that."

"That's horrifying."

"Or really hot depending on the situation."

He turned his head away at that while Hana glared at him as he tried to make a reason to cast the feelings away into cheap smiles but it failed.

"Look, I know how she may seem and you're completely right about how dangerous she can be, but...she was my friend, a member of my family. Which is why it's hard for me to just accept the concept of me hating her or any of them, really hard to think about."

Anger showed clearly on the girl's face this time as she stared daggers at him, or rather not at him per say, but more the attitude he wore.

"So that makes it fine for her to ruin your mental health and kill innocent people, just because she's mentally ill and has a messed up quirk? What about someone like that Moonfish guy who murdered and ate those twenty people? Does he get a pass because he's nuts?"

Izuku snapped out of his funk, blinking at what he heard.

"You know who Moonfish is?"

"Yes, I…"

Hana's expression turned blank suddenly.

"Why do you sound like you know him personally?"

The former hero looked to one side and tried to laugh it off, to no avail.

"Well...it's complicated."

She remained as she was.

"How so?"

"I...may have met him and...I really don't want to say more on that."

The air grew cold the longer the silence remained between them. Hana stood up from where she was sitting and approached him.

"Did he do anything to you?"

She asked as if she had the power to change whatever happened.

Izuku again became defensive at the suggestion, but recalled that Moonfish didn't need any defense in his case. That man had demons aplenty and he owned them well enough.

"No."

She wrapped her arms around him, rubbing the small of his back comfortably. There was a quality to how she held him that reminded him of Himiko, but not as desperate or as forceful. The scar tissue on his back felt strange at her warm touch and that caused him to slouch while she said something.

"Just know that I'm here if you ever need to talk."

He didn't say anything as his embarrassment and discomfort grew by the second. After a minute or two she released him, the blankness turning into a far kinder sort of thing. It oddly made him feel more ashamed to receive that sort of reaction instead of how people usually behave when he talked about his past.

"I appreciate the sentiment, really I do, but would you mind if we just get back to training? Dwelling on things isn't my favorite pastime if you get my meaning."

Her gaze lingered on him for a while longer before lightly tapping him in the gut.

"Sure thing hero."