Daily Life III
Izuku III
When he lit a flame on his hand for the first time, Izuku became more determined than ever. He had power now. There was no doubt that he would become a great hero.
Three days later, lying flat on the grass of their backyard, he was beginning to regret everything. Hisashi, after the family had nearly drowned Musutafu in their tears, had decided to start combat training much earlier than planned because of his newly acquired Hyper Intuition. And while he didn't get hurt, he always ended up as a pile of exhaustion and soreness with a mild sprinkling of regret. He could only thank his lucky stars that his battle junkie of a dad had enough common sense to know to seriously hold back on his 6 year old son.
It also helped that Hisashi didn't want to face Inko's special move, Furious Spank Barrage. The last time he became a target for the move, the poor fire breather couldn't sit for five days. And when he had to, it was like sitting on nails.
The older Midoriya male had gone back into the house to get something for them to drink, and Izuku took the time to mentally review their latest round of training. Once again, Hyper Intuition let him avoid most hits, and the ones that did connect were too fast for him to avoid at the moment. He had yet to land an actual hit on the hero, but he could feel himself improving every day, and it felt amazing.
Training wasn't the only new part of his life, though. He had friends again! Not only did he reignite his friendship with Bakugo Katsuki, he even got a new friend in Ojiro Mashirao! Of course the other kids in school tried to befriend him after hearing about his newfound powers, but he was swift to reject their offers and advances, remembering his father's advice from the day they registered his flames as a quirk.
"Lil' Zuku, you know, now that you have a quirk, people are gonna try really hard to be friends with you. Especially since your quirk is so strong. Your choice of friends isn't something I can or should control, but choose your friends wisely. If you think they'll stay with you through thick and thin, then go for it! But very few things are worse than a 'fair-weather friend.'" Izuku looked up to his father, in a mix of understanding and slight confusion which was obvious through his vibrant, emerald eyes.
"Dad, what does 'fair-weather friend' mean?"
Hisashi smiled and ruffled his son's soft, messy hair as he explained, "A fair-weather friend is a person who's only your friend when things are going well. But the moment something goes wrong, they abandon you." The fire-breathing dragon of Musutafu took amusement in watching his son process the words.
The greenette seemed to take a while to figure out the meaning behind each word, and after a while, nodded to his dad with a big smile. "Okay, I'll be really careful!"
Izuku sighed, wondering when his classmates would finally realize that he wouldn't accept their friendship. He was pretty sure they were the fake friends he was warned about, considering how they went from bullying him to trying to become his lackeys, like what a few had tried and failed to do with Katsuki when his Explosion quirk awakened. It was starting to become annoying because of how obvious they were.
A cold feeling against his head snapped him out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see Hisashi pressing an ice cold bottle of water against his forehead. "Your brain's gonna start overheating from all that thinking, son," he said with his usual playful smile slapped on his face.
With a barely-suppressed laugh, Izuku gratefully took the drink from his father's hand and twisted the cap off, taking a second to gulp down a quick mouthful before looking at the older Midoriya male. "Hey, dad… Why aren't you letting me use my flames in combat training?"
"Hm?" The question seemed to confuse Hisashi for half a second, before understanding showed on his features and he started explaining, "Honestly, we don't need to train your quirk yet. You said you somehow knew how to draw those flames out and control them, so we don't have to worry about them going out of control yet, and you can just do basic practice with them. But the situation is different with your Hyper Intuition."
"How is it different?"
"It is, without a doubt, the strongest aspect of your quirk. The ability to sense danger and read your opponent's moves, and possibly their fighting style. It is-"
"Actually," Izuku interrupted, "I think it can also detect lies…" At his father's bewildered and slightly disbelieving face, he continued to explain. "When I got back to school last Friday, everyone was apologizing and trying to be friends with me. Somehow I could just tell who was lying. A lot of them were."
"..." Silence once again took over their surroundings, until Hisashi broke it with a slightly horrified tone to his voice. "Son, what the heck? Your quirk is terrifying. Powerful and great for hero-ing, yeah, but terrifying." He shook his head and started explaining once more, "Yeah. So now it's also a lie detector. That only proves my point."
Seeing a confused look on his son's face, he kept going. "Your hyper intuition is your greatest tool. Most pros would kill for a quirk that can detect danger and you have an upgraded version of it as a part of yours. But, while it was more than enough to deal with your everyday bullies, it's not nearly as effective in a pro hero's line of work. Remember how our spars always went?"
Izuku nodded and went into analysis mode. "Yeah. I could just barely dodge your attacks, and there were some that were just… too fast. My Hyper Intuition is strong by itself, but my body can't keep up with it."
"Exactly," the fire breathing hero confirmed with a proud smile on his face, his voice snapping his son out of analysis mode before the muttering could begin. "And that's what we're trying to fix with training. Your body will naturally get stronger with your daily work-outs, and as you grow older. You're far from your peak. We don't have to worry about strengthening your body too much or else you'd become a muscle freak like All Might."
"What's wrong with that?" The greenette asked, confused once again. All Might was super fast and super strong, right? Why didn't he want to be as strong as the number one hero?
"If you had a strength quirk, sure. Get as bulky as you can, it'll definitely help. But," Hisashi picked up a stick and tossed it randomly. "What you need is speed. You need to be fast enough to react to the little warnings your quirk gives you. The only reason All Might is so fast despite his musculature is because of his crazy, overpowered quirk, but your quirk is too different. You don't have his monstrous strength, so that much muscle would end up slowing you down, and your Hyper Intuition would be reduced to a glorified warning siren. Don't want that, do we, kiddo?"
Izuku, recognizing the benefits of his intuition in battle, quickly shook his head. "So I need to become suuuuuuper fast!"
Hisashi resisted the urge to smother his adorable son in hugs, instead opting to give an approving nod. "Yep! And that's why we're doing this combat training without your flames. While your daily routine builds your body up, our combat training will train your body to react to your quirk's warnings, and I'll also train your mind so that you can control yourself, know when to react to your intuition or not. Got it, champ?"
"Yeah!"
"Alright!" Hisashi's excited grin was as bright as the flames of hope he wielded for the innocents. His son was truly on the path to becoming a hero, and he couldn't be any prouder of the boy, even if he tried. "Let's go again, little man! We got a few more hours before mommy tries to kill me for overtraining you, let's make the most of it!"
"Yeah!"
Most of Izuku's time was spent training. At first, it was to learn how to fight with his Hyper Intuition. And as time passed, he grew stronger and faster, and he eventually started to mix his flames into his combat practice as well, after some encouragement from his dad.
Every morning he would do some light exercises, and when he got back home from school he would train with his dad. Saturdays were usually full days of training and Sundays were days off. While the schedule was rough for a boy his age, he couldn't complain. Heroes had much harsher training, after all. And Katsuki and Mashirao eventually started joining him on some days, which was really fun. Sparring with his two closest friends quickly became one of his favorite activities, and it was something Hisashi personally approved of.
~5 Years Ago~
An explosion rang out in the outskirts of the city, which held many reinforced warehouses that some heroes liked to use for more destructive training. In one of these warehouses, Midoriya Hisashi grinned as he watched his son, now 9 years old, spar with two awfully familiar blondes.
"DAMNIT, DEKU! STOP FUCKING DODGING!" Screamed out the explosive Bakugo Katsuki, hands sparking with explosions that added a punch to his strikes, which would have been great if said punches actually hit. But his target, the elusive blur of green that was Midoriya Izuku, twisted around the strike, letting it explode the air behind him as he landed a kick onto the bomber child's chest.
In the midst of preparing a punch for Katsuki's face, he suddenly stopped and dove to his left, just barely avoiding the overhead strike from the tailed martial artist, Ojiro Mashirao, rolling onto his feet as the powerful appendage slammed into the ground. With an irritated click of his tongue, the tail quirk user was forced to use his tail as a springboard and jump out of the way, dodging a bolt of orange flames which unfortunately slammed into Katsuki.
"Motherfuck!" The explosion quirk user exclaimed as he was pushed back by the flame shot. While he did have some fire resistance due to his quirk, he couldn't completely negate the force that slammed into his gut. He growled and chained explosions behind him as he flew to Izuku, who flipped over the blonde and used his head as a springboard to reach Mashirao, who had just landed a short distance away, which prompted a string of curses from the explosive boy that would put the saltiest sea dogs to shame.
Hisashi sighed with some relief as he watched from a safe distance. 'Good thing I brought them here when Izuku started using his flames in combat training,' the fire breather thought. 'Inko would have killed me if their spars broke something again. Seems like it was the right time to change things up. He's already used to fighting with Hyper Intuition, and he has enough control over his flames to not be a hazard. Not to mention he can use his flames for a good amount of time, since he has a pretty good resistance to fire. It wouldn't hurt to improve his control and fire resistance, though, and maybe increase the strength of his flames. There's always room for improvement.'
The fire breathing hero barely managed to hold back a laugh as he witnessed Izuku and Mashirao hit an angry pomeranian boy back and forth like they were playing tennis, either completely oblivious or completely uncaring of said pomeranian's building rage.
"STOP TOSSING ME AROUND LIKE A FUCKING PINBALL YOU CHUCKLEFUCKS!"
As the sounds of Katsuki's explosions got louder and louder, Hisashi could only thank his gods that they hadn't destroyed anything yet.
Flight came in as a pleasant surprise for everyone. And Inko would happily admit that she nearly killed her husband the moment she found out that Izuku's first time flying ended with him blasting himself into a reinforced metal roof at high speed.
Luckily, the boy wasn't hurt too badly. Or else Hisashi would have had to say goodbye to his little friend. Not that she could blame him much, anyway. The possibility of flight only came to light when Izuku accidentally launched himself in an attempt to dodge a surprisingly fast attack from Katsuki. But she wouldn't be an overprotective mother if she didn't plant fear into the hearts of those who hurt her baby boy.
Hisashi slept on the couch for a week out of said fear.
Flight training became a constant part of Izuku's days after that, even if he didn't seem to need it. He had taken to the skies like a fish to water, as if he was meant to fly.
Hisashi was ecstatic. His son was even more amazing than he thought! The man had no doubt in his mind that his little boy would grow to become an amazing hero. And the fire breathing hero was determined to make sure he was ready.
But Japan wouldn't allow the boy to practice his full range of abilities, even with a pro watching over him. They were only able to get away with it because their training was restricted to the warehouses. And due to the popularity of the hero profession, getting a license to let Izuku train his powers without worry would take way too long.
Thankfully, Hisashi knew of a place that could help with his little problem.
So, third chapter took way longer to get to. Sorry that it's so short! I had a lot of ideas I wanted to get down but in the end I couldn't settle on anything and had to cut a good 3k words, maybe even more. Not to mention I just keep getting distracted! I'm honestly so sorry.
For the people still here, thank you so much for your support and patience! This chapter is admittedly one of my more disappointing chapters, but hopefully I can make up for it in the future.
Here's some snippets from future chapters that can hopefully make up for my sub-par product.
Once again, I am so sorry! And thank you for putting up with me!
Preview:
Izuku barely dodged a heavy, robotic fist that came rocketing at him. His heart was pounding in his chest, eyes wide with fear and shock that was significantly above mild. That nearly killed him, damnit! Was there something wrong with his Hyper Intuition? It wasn't picking anything up!
With an embarrassing yelp, flames burst to life around his gloved hands as he launched himself into the air, staying a few feet away from the machine of death as he tried to calm down. Then his emerald eyes met mechanical blues and he immediately had to fly out of the way from another rocket death fist.
"Hey, Izuku?"
The greenette hummed curiously as he looked up, being greeted by the sight of blue eyes that shone brighter than the stars in the night sky. It was a sight he would never really get sick of, one he would miss when he eventually went back to Japan.
"Do you really have to go back to Japan?" It was an innocent question, but anyone could tell that the speaker hoped for an answer tht wasn't 'yes.'
Unfortunately, he could only sigh and shake his head disappointedly. "U.A. is still my dream school, you know? And I also have friends waiting for me, there."
There was a brief pause. Then the person spoke again. "Don't forget us, alright?"
"Don't worry," Izuku answered with a growing smile as he looked up to his friend. "I'll never forget you guys."
Everything hurt.
Izuku felt like his body was just barely holding itself together. He had completely exhausted himself, running and trying to find an opening against this villain that chose to attack him. The greenette didn't know if he could beat the man, but he had tried to at least lure the villain away from such a populated area.
It really helped that he was the villain's target in the first place. A grudge against his father, perhaps?
But he hadn't done enough yet. If he lost now, the villain would go after innocent people. And worst of all, they would go after his friends. He didn't want that. He couldn't let that happen!
But he was already down, wasn't he? He couldn't even bring himself to summon lick of flame. He was so exhausted from the chase he had to put the villain through, which rendered him incapable of properly acting upon his intuition. Something that had ended with him getting slammed into a nearby wall.
He would have given up already. He probably should have. But he couldn't, because of that voice in his head. The one that always reminded him to fight with his Dying Will, with the resolve to fight until the destruction of his body. The voice that told him to fight, and win.
The voice calmed him down whenever he heard it, like it belonged to someone he could trust with his life. So with great difficulty, Midoriya Izuku chose to believe the voice. He forced himself to rise once again, and his gloved fists were once again engulfed in his orange flames.