When his back slammed into the beach, creating a small storm of upturned sand and a crater he sank into Izuku had to admit - for what felt like the hundredth time - Kendou knew how to put the moves on him.

"Oof...I think I almost saw my ancestors with that one." Izuku quipped weakly, anything to distract him from Kendou's powerful arm locked across his chest and her looming figure that filled his vision. When she smiled it reminded him of All Might.

"Aww, but you look so cute on your back. Like a cute little hedgehog." Kendou winked before she let jumped back up to her feet and helped up with a strong enough tug on his hand, one embiggened hand locked in the other, for a moment he thought she would dislocate his shoulder.

He was happy though that he was getting much more used to touching Kendou. It came with the necessity of sparring but he no longer flinched as much around her, "At least your learning to fall better, Midoriya."

"It's something I guess…" he shook his head and rolled his arm to ease up the tension. Sparring with Kendou was something else, the ginger-haired amazon was fast, strong, AND well trained in several different martial arts. Her last attack that had sent him sprawling had been simple, she just charged straight at him, swept his feet from underneath him, and knocked him down with her arm across his shoulders.

In short, she was still amazing.

"Hey...you have been getting better over the last month." Kendou frowned at him, which only made him curse himself silently. He hadn't meant to make it sound like he was whining or complaining.

"I know, I know." he sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "I'm just having a hard time trying to find my advantage in a fight against you."

He had studied heroes fighting villains for years. He could easily call up the strengths and weaknesses of most Pro Heroes in a snap and decide the best way to fight them but in practice was a lot harder than theory in his case.

"You do have an advantage I can't beat" Itsuka pointed at his embiggened hands, "Unpredictability and adaptability with your quirk! No two fights will be the same for you."

"I don't know. It's not like there will be quirks I can copy just laying around every fight. I've really only been able to spar you with your quirk so far." Which was true. So far he had been mostly training with her quirk, except for once or twice and those times had been accidents and short lived. Aunty Mitsuki had come over to the apartment he shared with his mother and she had hugged him on his way out the door - so he had her Glycerin-quirk. Another time the subway train had stopped short and a man had bumped into him with a mutation quirk that grew a strong lizard tail. "Aunty Mitsuki's quirk let me produce enough liquid from my pores that made skin contact with my slippery until I hit the sand and it stuck to my skin negating the quirk. The lizard tail was useful to sweep out your legs but then I lost my balance and fell over. Though Big Fist was useful to get me back to my feet-"

He felt a flick on his ear from Kendou's normal sized hand, "Your mumbling Izuku."

She did not seem annoyed with his mumbling, she was smiling at him again and that more than the flick to his ear made him stop. She was wearing a teal training gi that absolutely hugged her form and did more to accent it than hide it. He also knew fully well that she had brought her swimsuit with her - it was part of the training schedule they had come up with, on the weekends they would spar in the morning and then do laps in the ocean in the afternoon. He could just picture her in it-

No. No, that was a bad idea. He could not afford to be so distracted when he was so far behind her in training. He also doubted she saw him...like that, he did not know her type but that didn't stop him from thinking that she had far better choices than someone like him.

"Sorry…" he mumbled, caught himself then spoke louder, "Sorry. I just wish there was a better way then using or just to use my quirk." Improvement on the time limit on his quirk had been non-existent as far as he could tell.

"Don't sweat it! Once you get into U.A. you'll have loads more resources to improve." Kendou replied, which was another frustratingly attractive thing about her. She believed he would get into U.A. with her. "How about we end the sparring a little bit early. You get in the water while I run through some of my forms, okay?"

"Sure." he grabbed onto the lifeline to change the topic and do something else.

Together with Mr. Yagi they all had been able to set up a small changing tent on the beach and even connect a shower for after each swim. The beach had been a popular spot at one point before all of the illegal dumping so it had only been a matter of tapping into the water line. Heading over he changed into his swimsuit, slipped on ear plugs, and put on the goggles he wore to protect his eyes from the sea water.

After a few warm up stretches he walked down to the water itself but he did his best to not stare as Kendou stretched her body through one or another forms of the various martial arts she studied.

The cold ocean water had not failed to clear his mind before. It would help again.

Dipping into the water he floated on the surface for a minute or so letting his body get used to the colder temperature of the sea water. Once he felt comfortable he started his warm ups, holding his hands out he brought his legs up together, back toward his body and thrust them out propelling him through the water. Slowly he moved his arms out at his sides, progressing into a breastroke. It had taken him a few days of practice but the movements felt automatic, natural.

It always made him feel like a frog.

He used a buoy out further in the water as his end point for his sets, it was a few meters short of an olympic sized swimming pool but it worked out. After fifty sets of the breaststroke he changed his form, adopting a freestyle strike - instead of kicking out to his sides he kicked straight, his arms coming up and down in the water over his head. After another fifty of those he flipped on his back and began to backstroke.

Kendou's quirk timed out mid swim which slowed down his speed but that was fine.

He hadn't exactly taken to swimming like a fish to water but he did have to thank for encouraging him to take it up. After the first couple days of washing up on the shoreline he had begun to improve and it was a lot more noticeable than his sparring with Kendou. His stamina was getting better, even if it was slow going which helped buoy his confidence about his quirk.

After another fifty sets of the backstroke he let his body rest in the water, floating just above the surface with his arms and legs spread out. With the sun on his face it felt peaceful, relaxing. After a few more minutes he decided to hold his breath and turn over in the water so he could look down at the clear sandy floor beneath him. With how clear the water was he could make out quite a lot beneath him.

There was a couple of fish swimming in a small school, the floor was littered with shells of all shapes and sizes, there was a frog girl staring at him, and also the tell-tale shape of a couple rusted barrels stuck in the sand from the past illegal dumping.

Wait. Frog Girl?

He shot his head down and focused, yes there was a girl who looked like she was a frog staring at him nonchalantly from the sea floor. She waved a slightly oversized hand at him. He did the most natural thing when surprised, he gasped and immediately choked on the sea water that flooded his lungs.

He felt his lungs and throat burn, immediately he started to thrash in the water to turn around and break the surface but even though he managed it he was still choking on the water he swallowed. His vision blurred as he continued to gag and sputter, then he felt something slimy wrap around his waist and tug him back quickly toward the beach. Except the moment it touched him he felt his quirk activate.

Amphibia.

He didn't have time to appreciate the changes to his body, he only felt the rush of speeding through the sea water and being pushed to his hands and knees into the sand..

"Cough the water out. It will burn but you need to drain it out before you can breath. Kero." a deadpan woman's voice told him. He couldn't do anything else but shake on his limbs and heave up the sea water onto the sand, it hurt but just as she said it was getting easier to gasp for air. His entire face must have looked green or blue. After he felt like he could breathe easier again he turned to his savior.

"Thank you for that. Kero."

Did he just ribbit like a frog?

The stunned face on the frog girl he had seen earlier told him that he had.

"Strange. I didn't realize you had a Frog-quirk like mine when I first saw you." she put one long finger to her lips. She was actually pretty cute, her head was slightly shaped like a frog's but she had large eyes and long green hair almost the same shade as his own. She was also wearing a green bodysuit that showed off a lithe swimmer's body.

"I don't normall-HRUG!" he began to say before his tongue erupted out from his mouth stretching in the air for several feet before it fell limply to the ground. Bleh! On instinct he retracted his tongue and regretted it, feeling the crunch of sand between his teeth he did his best to spit it out.

"Oh my gods! Izuku are you alright?" Kendou's voice called out urgently, he heard her feet charge across the sand over to them before she stopped suddenly followed by silence.

"I'm fine. BLEH. I'm fine.." he looked up at Kendou and immediately felt his core tighten up in response to what he saw. She was wearing her swimsuit now, it was a one piece that didn't look all that different from the ones girls wore in school. On her though...he felt like he needed to jump back into the water. It stretched over her well built, amazonian body in ways that made him want to bang his head into the ground. What stopped him from doing that was the stunned look she was giving him - her eyes were wide and her mouth was open. "Kendou? Kero."

"Midoriya...you...you…" her eyes started to waver as she leaned closer to him, until she finally announced, her eyes almost seemed to sparkle "You're so cute!"

"Agreed. Kero. Kero." Frog Girl simply stated next to him, making him blush for several seconds before he stomped it back down..

"Oh, right. Quirk. Kero." he grumbled and looked over himself. His limbs had gotten longer and they now seemed to want to naturally bend, as if he was readying himself to spring into a jump. His hands and feet were much larger and definitely webbed which he guessed explained how Frog Girl had moved so quickly through the water. He felt his face and his features felt like they were changed, his eyes and mouth were bigger and wider while his head felt angular similar to a frog's. He already saw what had happened with his tongue.

"Thank you for saving me and I apologize for copying your quirk. Please forgive me." He apologized and bowed to Frog Girl on instinct, at least it did not feel so bad this time because she had actually saved him and copying her quirk had been unavoidable.

"It is fine. Kero. I should apologize for startling you. I saw how nice the beach had become and saw you so I let my curiosity get the better of me." she replied bounty, waving off his apology. "Though I am surprised that you copied my quirk. It is a good surprise though. My name is Tsuyu Asui."

"My name is Izuku Midoriya and this is Itsuka Kendou. Kero." Izuku ribbited, it somehow felt natural to do so after only a few minutes after copying her quirk.

"It's nice to meet you, and thank you for saving him." Kendou added in.

"Hmm." Asui put her finger to her lips again, "I've never heard of a quirk that could copy mutation quirks. Emitters and transformation quirks, yes."

"Yea...mine can, it can also copy transformation quirks but it kind of converts them to mutation quirks in my body so I can't turn them off, like I can't turn off your quirk right now." Izuku sighed, if he could just turn off his quirk he wouldn't have sand stuck in his teeth.

"That sounds inconvenient. Kero." Asui blinked and replied bluntly again, "But potentially very powerful."

What? Someone else was actually calling his quirk powerful? Sure, All Might, Kendou, and Mr. Yagi seemed to have some hope for it but still...

"Aha! See now, someone else agrees with me!" Kendou grinned triumphantly, wrapping her arms underneath her chest and pushing her bust out in a way that made Izuku flinch his eyes away quickly and back to Asui. Who appeared to be staring at Kendou with...interest? Maybe? Her facial expressions did not seem to change that much. Was that from her quirk or just something she did on purpose? "Your quirk is what's going to get you into U.A.!"

"Oh? Are you both also applying to the Hero Course at U.A. University?" Asui asked, her head dipping to the side in curiosity.

"Yes, yes we BOTH are!" Kendou nodded her head enthusiastically before she swept one bulging arm over the beach, "I cleared up the beach, with Midoriya's help toward the end, now we are using it as our training grounds for the exam."

"You are?" Asui tilted her head the other way, "I just thought you were a couple out for a date at the beach. Kero."

This time his blush came back with much more power and was not so easy to subdue. He felt like if he looked at Kendou his chest would burst so instead he focused on Asui. He raised both his hands and shook them, "N-no. Kero. We aren't a couple at all! W-we're just friends and sparring partners."

It took him two weeks for him to accept that she was his friend and even then Kendou had to drag it out of him to finally realize it. She had challenged him to a Big Fist thumb wrestling contest and when she had won he had to say it out loud that they were friends.

"Yea…" Kendou added, but unenthusiastically, he thought he heard her shuffle on her feet and kick the sand but he was focused on not looking at her. After a short pause she coughed and continued, "If you are applying for U.A. Why don't you join us?"

"Join you?" "Join us?" he and Asui asked and ribbited in unison electing a giggle from Kendou and forcing him to finally look back at her. He thought he saw the tell-tale signs of a blush on her cheeks but dismissed it as unlikely.

"That's what I said," Kendou stifled another giggle, "I can show Asui-san my fighting moves, and she can provide her quirk to you to practice with. Plus it would be nice to talk to another girl. Plus Ultra, more the merrier, right?"

"Agreed, I accept your invitation." Asui bobbed her head before Izuku could say anything. He couldn't blame Kendou for wanting to talk to someone more interesting than him. Just like Kendou had said it would be handy for him to have access to another quirk but it felt like he wasn't sharing equally. Asui was giving him her quirk, Kendou was giving Asui sparring training.

What else could he offer that would help both Kendou and Asui pass the Entrance Exam?

"Ok, but let me help you both study for the written exam. Also...I don't know how much it will help but I can give you advice on how to fight other quirks."

Hopefully his notebooks would be good enough.

"Alright, I know my own strengths but if we needed to fight others examinees for the practical it would be useful." Asui bobbed her head again.

"Awesome! Welcome to the Dagobah Squad, Asui-san!"

"Dagobah Squad…?" Izuku chuckled, shaking his head as Kendou winked at him.

"Thank you. Also, please call me Tsuyu. Kero."

"You got it, Tsuyu-chan." Kendou beamed, she looked very pleased at the latest turn of events.

"O-okay, Asu-, Tsuyu-san." Izuku stuttered, a little nervous to use a cute girl's given name so casually.

Wait. Cute girl?

"I am curious, Midroiya." Asui turned to him dashing his last thoughts out of his head as he focused on her, "Can you only copy one quirk at a time? Multiple? Do you need to touch them?"

"Uh…" he was shocked by the blunt questions but was oddly pleased someone was asking him about quirks, even if it had to be his own, "I can copy multiple quirks at once. It takes a lot more energy from me to do so and I can only do it by touch which lasts only an hour."

"Yea, Izuku has been struggling to overcome his time limit and he can't turn off his quirk so he isn't really big on touching other people." Kendou added with a huff. Did she sound disappointed?

"Yea...it just takes a single touch from me, but I can't do it through clothing. Which is hard because I don't want to be labeled as some weirdo asking random people if I can touch them to copy their quirk." Izuku blanched at the thought. He'd probably die of a heart attack just trying to ask a stranger.

"Does it have to be skin? Would something like hair or teeth work? Kero." Asui asked, and he nodded back an affirmative. Granted he had never touched someone else's teeth, a few times he had just accidentally brushed long hair while they were walking by or the wind picked up suddenly blowing it in his face. She continued, "Does it have to be attached to their body?"

Izuku opened his mouth, and then immediately closed it.

Did it have to be attached to the quirk user for him to copy it? He tried to remember if he had ever copied someone's quirk out of the blue without touching someone. He usually wore his gloves and tended to wear face masks and scarves until the temperature spiked hot. He also avoided crowds like the plague. His mom cut his own hair, and the one or two times he had gone to a barbershop he had always arrived early so he could leave before they got busy and crowded. What if there was a time limit for the genetic material to be separated from the quirk user before his own quirk could not copy-

"You're doing it again," Kendou's words interrupted his mutter storm and dragged him back out of his head. Asui ribbited in amusement.

"Sorry, sorry. Kero. Um, I guess to answer the question. I don't know?" Izuku blurted out.

"Well, we can find out now. Can't we?" Kendou said, moving one hand to her orange ponytail and after combing through her hair for a moment gave a sharp tug. She held out a single strand of her hair for Izuku to take. He almost reached out and grabbed it but hesitated, what if his quirk absorbed her's because she was still holding her hair? So instead he cupped his hands and asked her to drop her hair. Understanding, she let the single thread of hair go from her fingers and they all watched as it drifted through the air and onto his palm.

Huge. Limb. Grip.

His hands swelled larger as he copied her quirk.

"I...I never knew that...could happen…kero" he said, dumbfounded as he stared at his hands. He poked one finger at the strand of Kendou's hair in his palm.

"Hmm. I get the feeling Midoriya that you have been so focused on learning about other people's quirks that you have really shunned your own." Asui hummed knowingly, and he couldn't argue at all. This was one way he could get around his time limit and the need to touch someone to use their quirk, but a thought occurred to him as he imagined himself doing that.

"Wait, no. No. I don't want to be some weirdo who goes around carrying other people's hair or fingernails or something strange like that!" Izuku groaned and placed his head in his oversized hands.

He had made progress on his quirk but he wasn't sure he liked it all that much.