Chapter 2!
Hope this chapter opens up this Izumi's character a little more.
I've updated a chapter of Slice of Light alongside this update so check that out too. Like I've said before, I'll just be posting whatever updates I have as I get them done so there isn't another drought of me not updating at all. I want to get back to fics that haven't been updated for a long time but I'm a little stuck on some or had a more clear idea on other ones so I want people to have stuff to read instead of waiting and not getting anything.
User/Reviewer Logical-Tadkins: Being able to write Izumi with hints of Aokiji's character is definitely really enjoyable and allows for fun and goofy moments. She's definitely a lazy person now, though of course she's remained thoughtful and has a lot on her mind despite that. Yeah, the One Piece inspired Izumis are quite different in their own rights and perhaps I'll think of something in regards to them interacting. I don't know how or if I'd ever do something like a reaction fic or some kind of short story that gets them together somehow but it would be interesting for sure.
User/Reviewer LongNightDragon: I definitely liked naming the story since it made for a good joke of how lazy this Izumi is, therefore she 'misses' stuff, haha. I'll have a little more info in regards to this specific review in the end notes so check that out too.
User/Reviewer reaivyLS: Glad it has caught peoples' interests so far and I'm looking forward to keeping it going. Zoans are definitely a good idea especially considering the hybrid forms. Just to avoid OP spoilers for everyone I'll leave it vague and just say we probably have the same character in mind. The Buki-Buki fruit is another interesting one too especially with the relation you suggested.
User/Reviewer USSRParrot: Smoku-smoku would be kinda cool too. Just off my head I couldn't think too much on a story with it but it's got the potential so I'll surely keep it in the back of my mind and drafts.
User/Reviewer EndlessChains: Thanks as always for the reviews! Just waiting until I get to the part but I actually already have Izumi's backstory done so it just needs to be fully written and then of course for the fic to get there. She's definitely flying under the radar for the most part but things might go another direction with this chapter.
User/Reviewer Nano12Might: Ms. Valentine's kilo-kilo fruit is a good choice and I hadn't thought of that before. It would certainly make getting around quite easy as well as locking enemies down in one move.
User/Reviewer Cyde: Thanks for the reviews as always! There's quite a lot to get through and a lot I either just briefly touched on or hinted at in the first chapter. I'm 100% sure I'll use Izumi's POV eventually but it may not be for a while like the other two One Piece power fics and of course they may be used quite sparingly. For the most part when it comes to those fics I'm set on revealing Izumi through other characters.
User/Reviewer DraacoClaye: It's quite fun writing the admirals but I haven't quite gotten to them all yet as I haven't done Akainu but truthfully I'll probably skip him in favor of Fujitora and of course we don't know anything about Ryokugyu though considering he's technically Akainu's replacement then he's probably uhh, bad, haha.
Guest Reviewer: Sengoku's ability and character would definitely be an interesting one to implement into a fic and I'd have to build a good character and backstory for Izumi with that in mind. Certainly a solid suggestion.
To everyone who faved, followed, or reviewed thank you so much!
Disclaimer: I don't own BNHA or the referenced power
Enjoy, more notes at the end!
Chapter 2: Morning Frost, Evening Bite
*Shouko POV*
It wouldn't have mattered whoever her partner was going to be during the training exercise but it just so happened that it was going to be her fellow ice user.
It would be a simple retrieve or defend exercise between a hero and villain pair and Shouko would be on the hero team with Midoriya against Hagakure and Mashirao. Per usual, the greenette was evidently unmotivated but also not particularly worried going into the training and even her plain hero costume had something to say about Midoriya herself. If Shouko had to describe it then it would be a slightly sloppy attempt at being professional. There were a number of heroes that simply wore suits as their hero costume but they either had noticeable support items with it or a very formal look but Midoriya apparently took a third direction instead.
There was nothing special about the plain black dress shoes or the white trousers that she wore. Nor anything about the navy blue dress shirt, the cuffs only folded up once just above her wrists, that was beneath her half unbuttoned white high collared vest. An ice blue tie that was divided by a cross of two black lines was done well but a bit loosely. The greenette's hair was still in the same disheveled state that she previously kept it and the sleeping mask she had pulled out on the first day was hanging around her neck as more of a personal item rather than being a part of the overall outfit. If anything she looked like an overworked business person who had spent the night at the office and it would be hard to tell if she was an in training hero or just another civilian.
Both teams had already been waiting inside the training grounds and once it had started the hero pair strode in wordlessly, Shouko already deciding on how she would handle the situation, but Midoriya chimed in nigh reluctantly.
"Guess I should do a little work," the greenette whose eyes had been closed in thought offered but the white and red haired girl stopped her, not wanting to waste time.
"You should step out," Shouko told the other girl who was rolling her neck beside her, Midoriya opening her eyes lazily at the words.
It would just be best to freeze the whole building and lock down both their opponents but while Shouko had a way to regulate her body temperature, Midoriya did not so it was best to just stay out of the way of the attack. The white and red haired girl returned her partner's gaze but the other girl met her with an unperturbed look.
"Go on," the greenette waved Shouko off nonchalantly, running her other hand through her messy hair unbothered, just barely irking the dual quirk haver, "walking out then back in is a waste of energy when I'm already here."
"Don't say I didn't warn you," the half ice user responded blandly at her partner's careless disregard.
Placing her right hand against the wall, Shouko immediately used her quirk and ice crawled along every surface of the building, both inside and out, and she got on her way without sparing a glance at her partner. The white and red haired girl heard footsteps following along just beside her so it was plain enough that the greenette had been fine despite the sudden freezing. The two ice users had continued through the frozen halls before Midoriya suddenly sneezed openly, rubbing at her nose with her index finger as she straightened up.
"My, my, really did a number on the place," the green haired ice user noted, some hand warmers being taken out of her pocket and handed towards Shouko, "want some."
"No need," the dual quirk girl shot down, her eyes still trailed forward and solely focused on reaching the bomb room. As another person with an ice quirk, Midoriya must have been thinking of the frost downside during her offer.
"Suit yourself," the green haired girl sighed a chilly breath while returning them and her hands to her own pockets. "Bit excessive isn't it," the greenette remarked right after and Shouko scowled a bit.
"I fail to see how," she slightly shot back and this time did give Midoriya her attention, the greenette's useless remarks and laziness starting to become bothersome.
Midoriya didn't even look at her with a side eye, the tired and plain expression never leaving her face, "Defrosting the building will be a pain if chunks of ice or large amounts of water crash down," the greenette observed, "not to mention what freezing a whole regular building might do to it." Midoriya yawned but then shrugged her shoulders, "though I guess it might be okay, it's just a training exercise."
After hearing the other girl's input, Shouko frowned a bit more as she hadn't thought of that and even if this was a real situation she probably would have done the same thing without much thought. While her solution may have been correct depending on the situation, in this case they were against two people who couldn't physically make contact with them without being frozen and at most they probably only needed to freeze the room that held the villain team and the bomb.
They continued on in relative silence, the occasional yawn or stretch coming from Midoriya, before they eventually reached the bomb and ended the exercise. Shouko at least defrosted the bomb room and their opponents before they had to make way for the next teams and while the dual hair colored girl had been named the MVP, she still kept some of her thoughts on what Midoriya had inputted. Even if the greenette didn't seem keen on using her energy at all, she at least had some sharp observations and a relatively thoughtful mind.
Then again, how much could she get from the words of someone who wouldn't work in the first place.
-break-
*Eraserhead POV*
While he was fully prepared to be sleeping and the chattering noise of his class nor the steady movement of the bus bothered him, Shouta hadn't quite drifted off as the subject of their talk and his own thoughts kept him awake. From his comfortable sleeping bag and with his eyes still closed, the erasing hero mulled over the heroics exercise that 1-A had done. It was good to know the level of each of the students as well as what they individually needed to work on as well as how they would use their quirks in such situations but the unassuming Midoriya was now someone that needed to be re-evaluated.
The freezing move that Todoroki had done during the exercise had actually hit Midoriya as well despite the greenette urging her partner to go ahead and use it. The ice had crawled up Midoriya's leg but then disappeared and the green haired girl's face had never changed at all, completely unaffected. Of course he had access to the audio within the testing field and had listened to Midoriya's offer to do something initially as well as her thoughts on Todoroki's course of action and Shouta could spot some of just what kind of person she was.
Obligation.
Midoriya didn't unleash her currently unknown level of power unless it was necessary. The absolute best result for the most reasonable amount of energy. At the very least Midoriya would always give just what was needed for a situation, whether she would willingly give more or go over the top wasn't something that could be discerned yet, but that kind of thinking, despite being a thin line, was important for hero work. Too much destruction or damage to surrounding areas or the people, and even the villains they had to fight, wasn't acceptable and you needed to be mindful of such extra factors as a hero.
Midoriya was currently a topic right now because of her shared ability with Todoroki as well as the fact that she was sleeping at the moment, like Shouta would have liked to, and being students their imagination jumped to whether the girl was related to either of them.
"Hmm, have we arrived?" Midoriya's just woken voice cut in but Shouta knew that the others had just roused her from her nap to question her.
"Nope! But since you're up Midori are you related to either Todoroki or Sensei?" Ashido pressed gleefully, a chorus of agreement and curiosity following from the others.
"Woah, woah," the green haired ice user calmed her classmates, "I doubt it, apparently I'm the first ice user in my family," Midoriya claimed while the others took in the information, "and as for Sensei, I'm not sure. Go ahead and ask him though since he's awake." the greenette revealed and the erasing man had to open his tired eyes in response to the attention turning to him.
"We're not." He spoke plainly, Midoriya already having her sleeping mask back on, and he closed his eyes once more to actually sleep this time.
She wasn't loud but she was clearly shaping up to be a bit of a problem child. Really, throwing the attention on him so she could go back to sleep.
-break-
*Shouko POV*
It didn't take much for Shouko to subdue all the villains in the landslide zone and she had already gotten all the information she could out of them so all there was to do was head over to the central plaza.
While she had to be careful of more potential villains, the white and red haired girl ran off at a quickened pace and saw that the area across from her, the flood zone, had just been frozen over. A figure had appeared from the middle of the ice and given the effect it was to no surprise Midoriya, frost clinging to most of her face, body, and outfit, while Asui and Mineta trailed behind her. The frog girl looked like she was getting tired but was holding the hand warmers that the green haired ice user carried.
The group of three had spotted Shouko and hurried towards her, Midoriya's face taking on a more pensive expression given the situation, and in turn the dual quirk user moved in their direction.
"Off to the plaza then," Midoriya noted, having had the same thoughts of Shouko apparently, and the now group of four headed straight on.
"The villains?" Shouko directed a tilt of the head at the flood zone. The greenette had been particular during their training exercise and now this was a real situation.
"A thick layer of ice just above the water." Midoriya replied, her thoughts having already accommodated for the work of a hero it seemed.
Since it was just a straight shot from where they had met up, it didn't take long for the four students to make it to the central plaza. In fact, they arrived just in time to see some hulking creature appear directly behind their teacher.
Shouko had instantly activated her right side, her ice aimed at the creature, but another wave of ice reached it first and formed a thick wall between the monster's hand and their teacher. The erasing hero retreated without more injury, save his already damaged arm, thanks to the intervention but the creature smashed through the wall just as Shouko's ice crawled onto the left side of its body.
"Damn artificial sandbag, get moving already," the hand covered villain urged and the dual quirk user could hear Asui and Mineta gasp as the thing snapped its own body apart to remove itself from the ice. Despite the gruesome sight, the creature balanced on one leg as its body seemed to regrow from its wound until it was completely back to normal. "You should be grateful to those kids Eraser," the villain mocked, "but can you protect them from Nomu by yourself?"
"Run!" the black haired hero shouted at the four of them, the Nomu already basically on the group, while their teacher stood between them.
It was a futile attempt as the surprisingly fast creature ignored the erasing hero and went for Midoriya, its head charging forward and its arm back to strike. However, instead of the familiar lazy girl she always appeared to be, Midoriya boldly moved straight for it and shot her arm forward directly into the Nomu's mouth all the way up to her shoulder. The creature adapted to her and clamped down with its teeth but Midoriya didn't budge as the others heard it crunch into her. There was no time to even react as a cracking noise reached everyone's ears as the Nomu turned to ice before shattering into millions of pieces, nothing of it possibly left unfrozen for it to regenerate from.
Midoriya's whole left arm and shoulder were frozen and even the left side of her face was frosted but she was otherwise undisturbed by what had just happened. The green haired girl's left hand creaked open and a small frosty gust came from it and the other three students heard a sharp hiss of pain.
"Dammit what the hell!" The villain who had been calling the shots hollered, both of his hands frozen in balls of ice and their teacher took the opportunity to wrap him up.
Unfortunately, the obscuring black mist from earlier exploded before them and swallowed the still yelling villain before it, and the hand covered enemy, disappeared into thin air. The erasing hero scowled in displeasure but made to head off for whatever villains were still lurking about but stopped briefly to look at them.
"Head to the entrance and regroup with 13 and whatever other students you run into. Do not engage any other enemies." He ordered harshly and looked directly at Midoriya, "Do not make this a habit Midoriya."
"I should hope it won't be one." the greenette answered him back seriously, not flinching at all at his tone or from his gaze.
The man's eyes hardened but he eventually turned away to help elsewhere and Shouko decided that she would need to look at Midoriya in a different light. The greenette was far stronger than she could have initially predicted and whether her lazy attitude was a front or if she only became serious in a situation that demanded it, Shouko would do well to not let that escape her mind.
Notes and Stuff
Very different from her usual lazy self.
It was kind of the distinct difference from Kizaru and Slice of Light Izumi that I wanted to highlight and that would be that Sheer Cold Izumi and Aokiji get serious when it's needed. Despite being laid back and lazy, in situations like this, this Izumi would put forward the effort earnestly and seriously thus never making light of a situation like how whimsically SoL Izumi and Kizaru do things. Of course given the referenced character, Aokiji, and that I've made the One Piece inspired fics feature an OP Izumi, she's absolutely crazy overpowered and of course since we hadn't gotten to a real fight before this that may have gone undersold.
For the most part her hero outfit is just like Aokiji's, save the color of the tie, the absent suit jacket and likewise admiral coat though I may add them later, and that she generally keeps her sleeping mask down around her neck instead of on her head. I do have a reason for her outfit being the way it is and other heroes like Gang Orca and Nighteye wear suits as their hero outfits so its not necessarily a unique thing. While I did do some color theme changing in SoL I kept it more true here.
On another note, I've heard everyone's devil fruit suggestions and taken them into consideration while putting many of the really interesting ones in my drafts but you can always suggest more stuff as I love to hear everyone's thoughts on the matter.
Lastly, and I'll put this on my other fics that get updated, I've mentioned making a Yuri anthology in the past that would contain side stories from my fics as well as short stories and currently I have one side story done and perhaps a second by the time people give their thoughts. Should I just release it or wait until I have more content for it? As I've said I only have a side story currently so it's related to one of my currently existing fics rather than being something completely new from me in a sense. Let me know!
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and look forward to more updates from me!