Hello my readers once again, hope you have enjoyed the story thus far and we are almost done with the origin! Sorry if the pace has been a bit slow for you all. Now this time around I am trying a different way of doing fight scenes and I hope you like it, as always give me any feedback you feel like weather it be reviews or pms or the like
Izuku, seeing the man in front of him jumped into his combat stance, putting up his hands defensively with his feet only a little spread apart to keep his footwork good but...It didn't feel right to do that in these trees. With a gulp, Izuku shifted into a different one getting low on the tree limb while his arms extended to his left and right to block any attack coming from above or below himself.
"New stance this time? It looks solid enough to me, but lets test that shall we?" Fumai gave his student a small smile before standing up on his own tree branch and leaping over to Izuku's sending out a spinning axe kick, bringing the heel of his foot down towards his student's collarbone, letting Izuku deflect it with his upper hand and transition into a hard elbow into Fumai's stomach as he landed on the wooden branch, the young man keeping on the balls of his feet as the hit landed allowing Izuku to back off with a jump on the balls of his feet, landing on a thinner branch behind him. The wood creaking under his weight as it was put on.
"Nice hit, but you shouldn't have backed off so soon my student." Getting into his own stance, deciding that the Mantis would be best here and shifted his body low and his legs far apart vertically, sticking his hands up to imitate a praying mantis's forelimbs. His eyes tracking Izuku's every movement in a tense stalemate, wanting to see how his student would break it with an opponent like him.
Izuku could feel it as he stared forward at his sensei, the man's anticipation in what he would do. The young man knew his teacher could have easily charged forward and broken it right now, so this was a test. It had to be, right?
Flexing his wrist a bit Izuku made the trigger on his left web shooter fly onto his palm, his eyes tracking the way his teacher moved, the light tension in his muscles as the man readied to spring forward into action at any time. Just as the man let out a breath Izuku leapt from his position while firing off a shot at his sensei's feet
Izuku landed on his targeted branch with a thud, his arms still up as he fired out the other web shooter's line to connect right on the trunk Fumai's next foothold and went into a web zip, as soon as he within his teacher's arm's reach Izuku started to send out quick jabs towards his sensei's chest, each and every blow was deflected easily by the man.
Izuku kept up the distracting blows as he landed before suddenly shifting into a sweeping kick, only able to hit air as his teacher hopped over the kick and let the boy's momentum carry him around to give Izuku a harsh palm strike to the small of his back sending him flying at another thick tree branch for support. The boy was just barely able to use the said branch to vault up into the air briefly before he landed in his stance again.
"Good try, but you were a bit stiff in your movements. Would have worked with a bit more practice I suppose but you don't really have that luxury do you?" The man's words were calm and studious, wanting to assure his student that he had done admirably so far.
"I suppose I don't Sensei." Izuku gulped some, his arms were still throbbing painfully and crying out for him to stop and rest for longer but, but Izuku knew he did not have that luxury right now, though he supposed he could focus on kicks for a bit and just use his arms for defense.
Speaking off said defence, Izuku started to take a few slow and deep breaths to calm himself and form his Seikuken as he waited for his Sensei's next move, which was to spring at him, waiting until he was landed to start striking his student with the quick and unending series of strikes this particular style of kung-fu was known for his arms acting like deadly whips.
With every strike towards him, Izuku deflected it as it came into his range, keeping each of his arms in their respective position to form as tight a defense as possible while occasionally trying to encroach on his sensei's own territory. The limbs were becoming a bit less responsive with each block and well, Izuku knew he couldn't keep up the defense for long in this position so he needed some way to go on the offensive, just long enough for him to get away. While keeping his eyes locked on his opponent Izuku tried to get anything useful he could out of his peripheral vision, only able to see the edge of their branch, giving the boy an idea.
Letting one of his sensei's hooked strikes hit him, Izuku flowed with the force and flew off the edge of the tree branch to start a fall towards the ground. Flipping around to face stomach up mid-air, the boy saw his concerned teacher looking down in a panic before he fired off two web lines directly above himself and cringed as he waited for them to go taught, slightly bending the trees they took the force of his fall making the boy stall near the ground for a tense half second before he sprung right back up, his legs together as he flew upwards, slamming his feet right into Fumai's stomach and transitioning into a hook kick to knock his teacher to tree branch for a moment and tried to raise his arm to fire off a web and trap his teacher for an hour to run but nothing happened.
Trying to raise his arm again, Izuku found his arm unresponsive once more before trying the other and it was the same thing. They both felt like sandbags attached to his shoulder, the painful throbbing was gone but now it was just numb.
When he tried to flex his wrist. Izuku thankfully found he could still control that as well as ever. Jumping away from the branch, Izuku using the momentum to swing his limp arm up and fire a few web shots at the man who was taking a suspiciously long amount of time to recover from his attack. Only one of the shots struck the man's arm to the branch but Izuku wouldn't complain and turned around before he started to jump through the forest again, using a few close together branches to rise up further, to the tree limbs that could only support his weight.
After his hour of running through the trees, shooting off a few fake web lines in whatever way his limp arms were facing at the moments to act as distractions, Izuku finally took a chance to rest, sitting on one of the branches before getting into a fork between branches and settling in, his legs draped around the strong oak tree's large limb so that he wouldn't fall off before Izuku drifted to sleep again, tired out after just that one fight with his sensei and dreading the fact that he might be found again.
Izuku woke up to the bright sun piercing through the treetops that he had been sleeping in for the night and sat up with a groan. He had been at this whole cat and mouse chase for the past six days and well he was tired of it all, the intense feeling of always being on the brink of Sensei finding him to attack and Izuku being forced to run away for his own safety. Luckily he had only been found out three times and had managed to run away each time with his tricks and such. Flexing his arm a bit, Izuku smiled as he felt the dull and painful throb as he did so.
Getting up and stretching some, Izuku popped the empty canister of web fluid out of his shooter before replacing it with a new one, as he looked in the bag for the second shooter he cursed to see that he only had four left including the one he just put in which was just great. Though maybe sensei would consider a surrender from him today? At this point, he would rather have to dodge bamboo spears than spend another day being hunted by the man who had taught him so much so far. Though, Izuku knew that if he just gave up when he was so close to finishing it would only disappoint his teacher.
Checking over the edge of his pine-scented resting place for his teacher and finding him nowhere to be seen, the boy nodded before spraying a web line at the fork he had used as a bed, making sure to give himself a lot of extra line before tugging on the thing, making sure his anchor point as secure before wrapping the silk around his waist and repelling downwards to the nearest point he could stand on and started his journey once more. Walking along the treetops like it was second nature to him, the boy started to make his way over to the river. Knowing that if he and his sensei were going to leave tomorrow he needed to be at or around camp when dusk fell to spend his last night in the shelter. The thought of sleeping in a semi-soft bed of needles and grass as opposed to the hard trees he had been the past week nearly made the boy shiver with delight at the thought.
"Hm, it doesn't take long for perspective to set in does it?"the young man chuckled to himself as he spoke aloud to himself, he had noticed his sensei always answered, it was a likely another handicap that the man put on himself to further Izuku's training here, his eyes spying around himself as he walked through the trees to catch any possible ambushes from his teacher and was relieved when he seemed to catch none from the man. As he continued on through the trees Izuku eventually spied the river out of the corner of his eye and started to increase his pace.
Once he was close enough Izuku repelled down from the tree to the floor of the forest, the length of the web line enough to take about a quarter of his web fluid on its own with the lack of elasticity Izuku wanted for his gentle repel downwards. Once he touched down on the rocky shore of the river, he had to waggle his arms a bit to regain his balance from the shift in the surface. When his balance was restored to full the young man started his way down towards the river, salivating a bit at the idea of a fresh and meaty fish for him to devour after his fruit based diet of the past week though as he stepped into the ice-cold water he nearly collapsed onto the riverbed with a gasp.
Regaining his composure a moment later, Izuku started to slowly drift his way into the river, stopping at the point where he could sit in the water comfortably while keeping his neck above the water and just relaxed some into the river, letting the cool water rush over his aching muscles and sooth them a bit while his clothes got soaking wet but the young man honestly didn't care at the moment. Feeling around the bottom of the river some with his hands, Izuku was a little disappointed to not find any pumice on the riverbed to use as a makeshift soap but he supposed the running of the river would be good enough to bathe himself somewhat. His body relaxed a bit more, his eyelids struggling to keep themselves up as a wave of tiredness washed over the boy. The week of constant running, jumping and fighting taking its toll on his body finally it seemed.
Sensible enough to not fall asleep in the river at least, the young man picked himself up from the water, before his groggy mind looked around for any features that would direct him to camp. Catching the sound of a nearby splash and assuming it had to be his master fishing again Izuku started northward, drifting a bit into the treeline so he wasn't discovered instantly. He, he really didn't care about the punishment for being caught and disabled by the man now. His body needed to rest after all, and Izuku felt that he could collapse at any moment. Sure his nightly rests had staved off the soreness and sleepiness for the days past when he was on the move, constantly in a flight or fight mode so he couldn't afford to spend more time resting than was absolutely necessary to keep functioning. Once he spotted camp, Izuku's eyes became misty with tears of happiness seeing his soft, comforting shelter before he shuffled right up to it, positioned himself right at the spot where he knew he wouldn't damage his head on the way down and collapsed into a limp pile of muscle and tiredness.
Fumai came back from his little mock fishing trip to find his beloved student snoring in his shelter back up, completely wiped for the day and practically knocked out by his own body forcefully shutting down for proper rest. Chuckling a bit to himself the teacher went over and flipped his student onto his stomach to get him into proper sleeping position before he lay back against one of the tree trunks surrounding their camp though still close enough to his student to defend him if any wildlife attacked.
"Good work Izuku, you earned yourself a nice long rest. I hoped you could have made the whole week but six days straight is not bad for your first extended battle experience." Letting out a sigh, Fumai turned to the sky above himself, looking into the clouds for any sign that what he was doing was right. That...He wasn't messing up his precious disciple's future by pushing him like this. He was sure that his own teachers were looking down on him from somewhere and he could only hope that his actions made them proud. Yawning a bit himself, Fumai stretched a bit before smiling thoughtfully as his eyes fell onto the sleeping boy again. The boy's safe return assuring himself that they would be.
Katsuki let out a monstrous roar as he flew forward at his sparring partner and hit him with the strongest explosion he could muster at the moment, slamming Kirishima's blocking arms with pure force, slightly cracking the boy's hardened skin with one blow before he followed this up with a moderately strong one hoping to finish off the hardened bastard's defense and he did successfully get under that to the raw, red skin beneath the arms.
"Come on Kirishima! You gotta get stronger if you want to stand up to me ya know? Otherwise, I will kick your ass in just a few moves!" The young man smiled as his friend gave him a smirk before letting his quirk go back to inactive as Kirishima laughed a bit. Clearly pumped up by the blond's words towards him as he slammed a fist into his palm.
"Man, you don't hold back much do ya Bakugou? Though I guess that's only the manly thing to do. Great training for my quirk as well." Kirishima, face continued in its grin as he threw an arm around Bakugou's shoulder as they started to walk out of the gym together.
"Well of course it is. Your kind of power needs my awesome destructive power to test it constantly after all! Not everyone is born with the perfect quirk like I was so I don't mind helping the peasants now an then." Kirishima let out a small sigh at the other boy's abrasiveness, sure he had learned that it was a compliment hidden in an insult but still, it didn't seem very heroic to him.
"So Bakugou, where do you want to eat today? There's the Wcdonalds nearby, as well as a few fast food places around I think."
"Lindy's, it's a new burger place that opened last week, dad said that they made burgers that could compare to his own cooking and that passive asshole doesn't say that without good reason." Katsuki's stomach rumbled a bit at the thought of his dad's burgers but he staved the idea of just going home to ask off, the man was meek as hell when compared to him or the hag but the blond had to admit he made sure his food had enough impact to make up for that.
"I still can't believe the milquetoast asshole went into the fashion industry instead of cooking, though his clothes do look cool somewhat." Katsuki looked down to his own clothes while grumbling to himself about that, he had the usual tank top on for training but with explosive lines running up and down the chest.
"Um, Bakugou? Where is this burger place that you wanted to eat at then? Your mumbling to yourself." Kirishima's words brought Katuski out of his own mind, and with a small curse about the nerd influencing him, he led Kirishima to the small diner, holding itself to a bit of an early 2000s aesthetic. After an and sitting down with their menus, Katsuki scanned the options nodding at them all before he ordered a cheeseburger with a fried egg and green chilies on top. Kirishima ordered the full protein burger.
"Dude, are you going to eat all of that? I know your hardening needs protein to work properly and all that but still, it seems a bit excessive to get the egg, bacon and small sausages on your burger." Katsuki didn't really care about how Kirishima spent his own cash but he didn't want his training partner to be stuck up with a stomach ache for the rest of the day that would be a pain in the ass.
"But man, we gotta go all out today, harder than ever before its the last day of summer break after all. Besides, I planned to get a box anyways and take it back to the gym with me so I could recover faster after my skin breaks you know? It'll be fine trust me." Bakugou nodded at that as he looked out their booth window, staring up towards the mountains where Deku no doubt was coming home from today. Should he introduce Kirishima to the nerd? They might like each other but on second thought Hardass went to an entirely different school and Deku never went to the quirk gym so it might just be a waste of time
"Say Kirishima, would you say someone working their ass off to be a hero despite being a quirkless little shit is manly to you?"
"Of course that's manly! Staying true to your beliefs in the face of adversity and pushing past your own preconceived limits is the very definition of manly! Why are you asking though, it's not like you to go into hypotheticals and the like." The black haired boy chuckled some, their food arriving before Bakugou could answer, though there was a feeling that he wasn't talking about the idea of this kid. Maybe Bakugou knew one of the few quirkless kids in their generation? Shrugging at the thought, Kirishima bit right into his burger, letting out a pleased gasp as the flavors of the egg yolk, sausage and bacon all combined in his mouth with the patty to form a wonderful symphony of flavor.
"Hm, dad was right these are pretty good. Though it can't really compare to his own green chili burger." Bakugou dove into his sandwich with a bit less favored hunger than Eijiro, who just raised his eyebrow at the statement. His dad could make food better than this? Swallowing the mixture of pork and beef in his mouth with a loud gulp the hardening boy opened his mouth to speak.
"Dude if your dad is really that good at cooking then I need to come over one of these days if your parents wouldn't mind of course but man I want to taste something that makes this stuff be just good and not godly."
"Eh, you should be able to come over tonight if I call me beforehand. Pops and the hag are usually cool with friends coming over to eat. Though don't you have to take a train to get home from here? There isn't a station that runs by my house so you would need to leave pretty early to make one at a reasonable time." Kirishima let out a dejected sigh at that, knowing his friend was right in his assessment, he had school tomorrow as well so he couldn't very well crash at Bakugou's place for the night and leave in the morning.
"Damn it, well do you think I could come over next Saturday? If needed I could crash on your couch and we could hang out for a while, I would leave in the morning to get out of your hair then." Katsuki raised an eyebrow at the statement, chewing his burger in thought before he nodded, it would be a good chance to introduce Kirishima to the rest of his friends. He knew Deku was shooting for the UA hero course as well, Bulu...Bulu wasn't the kind of girl to go for hero stuff like he or Deku but still, she was a badass in her own right and could probably beat Kirishima like it was nothing right now, hardening or no cause of her family's weird martial arts shit.
"Yeah that will be fine, I can also see if my other friends can come over then, I think you would enjoy Deku's presence as he just exudes the essence of that manly shit you are always spouting on about. He is going to be part of our group in UA so might as well get to know him now."
"More manly bros to hang out with? That sounds sweet! Looking forward to it then." Eating his food until only about a quarter of the sandwich was left, Kirishima called for a to-go box before getting up and heading back to the gym alongside Bakugou, ready to train his ass off and make his lame quirk good enough to call hero quality!
And so, summer vacation concluded for the aspiring heroes, leaving them stronger and with more allies around than ever before, after the break ended. Nothing really changed from the regular schedule of the young men and women, until spring came around. The time for the transfer exam was here, and the hopeful young men and women approached their school, some shaking with excitement and others nervousness. Though all were eager to face the trials ahead of them.