"Quirk Meditation. It had been in practice for many years, but only recently was it decided that it would be put into the hero school curriculum." Aizawa started, with Vlad at his side. The entirety of Classes 1-A and 1-B were only half present.
Class 1-A was still recovering from the demanding training session they had the morning before, and 1-B, although also tired from training, had mostly stayed up past curfew, and weren't expecting a five AM start to the day.
Izuku himself felt like a walking ironing board. His knees ached with every step he took, and all of his joints seemed to creak when he moved. Not only that, but he also felt like he hadn't slept at all. He felt heavy and sluggish compared to how he usually felt, and from looking around at his classmates, everyone seemed to be feeling the same way.
"The premise of Quirk Meditation is to have you focus on the power flow of your Quirk, to feel it's energy inside you and try to focus it. The more you can feel your power inside you, the more you will start using it on a deeper level. Right now, you're all using your Quirks like tools, but they are a part of you; part of your soul." Aizawa explained.
Izuku stared at him, surprised by what he was saying. He sounded a little passionate within his stern and serious attitude, but it did get Izuku thinking. The greenette had always seen One For All as a part of him, but he'd never seen it as a literal part of his soul. However, it was true. A person's Quirk was almost like their life force, and without it, you would only be half living.
"You may go anywhere within this clearing. Space yourselves out and keep noise to an absolute minimum, otherwise, this task will be fruitless." Aizawa explained. They all stood there for a moment, waiting in case there was anything else he wanted to say. Aizawa stayed quiet, raising his eyebrows at them.
"Guess we should get going them." Kendo muttered, firing Iida and Momo a glance.
"Y-Yes, right... Come on Class-A, separate yourselves, find somewhere you feel most comfortable and do your best." Momo said, turning to her peers with an encouraging smile. Straight away the class dispersed, as did Class-B.
Izuku stood for a moment, watching where the others were heading to whilst also trying to find somewhere nice and peaceful to attempt Quirk Meditation.
"E-Excuse me... Izuku Midoriya, right?" A soft voice spoke up as Vlad and Aizawa headed over to a small bench. Izuku didn't process he was being spoken to until a few seconds after it'd happened, and quickly turned around to see the same girl from yesterday standing there.
She had long blonde hair that was ever so slightly curled, and beautifully large, azure eyes. Her lower facial area looked almost like a muzzle, and her nose was cute and rounded.
"Y-Yes?" He asked nervously, turning to face her.
"I'm Pony Tsunotori. Sorry, I know this is probably really random, but I wondered if you wanted to do this task with me." She smiled sweetly. Izuku stood and stared at her with a curious frown.
"P-Pony..." He muttered to himself. "Umm... I-I don't actually know if we can. Aizawa said we should separate ourselves." He said, somewhat reluctantly. He didn't want it to come off like he didn't want to, because he felt flattered to have been offered, but he didn't want to get himself and Pony into trouble with the teachers.
"Oh, no sorry, I didn't mean like that. You looked a little lost, so I thought I'd offer you to come with me. I found this really nice place just down the path so thought I'd offer you." She smiled, turning and pointing towards the path only a few feet away from where some of Class-B had settled.
"Oh, I see... Y-Yeah alright then, thanks." He smiled, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he followed Pony.
Mina watching him closely. Pony: the same name Jiro had brought up to her. What was she trying to pull with Izuku, and why was he just going along with it? Mina knew he'd never had any relationship experience, but surely it's not hard to tell that him just going off with random girls wasn't reassuring for her. She trusted Izuku and she never wanted to give off the impression she didn't trust him, but it was other people of which she had trouble trusting.
Maybe she was just overthinking things again. She'd never had a relationship before this one, and in her opinion, having insecurities is only natural. She didn't know what to expect from this relationship because she had never had any for comparison. What she had to remember, was the Izuku wasn't stupid, and although he can sometimes misunderstand what feelings people are trying to portray, he wasn't oblivious.
"I know what you're thinking Mina." Jiro spoke up, sitting down a few feet away from her pink-skinned friend, crossing her legs and firing her a smile. Mina looked at her with a fake expression of confusion.
"Don't worry about him. He wouldn't ever do anything to make you unhappy. At least not intentionally. I mean hell, maybe that girl is just trying to be nice." Jiro explained with a reassuring smile. Mina tried to keep up her act of not understanding, but it miserably failed, so she just let out a sigh and leaned back on her arms, looking up to the sky.
"You're right." Mina muttered, although she didn't really mean it, and Jiro saw that. Doubt was something Mina hated having, but no matter how many times she tried to eliminate it from her mind, it just wouldn't leave her be.
"Honestly, why are you so worried." Jiro laughed.
"I... Oh, I don't know Jiro- I wish I did." Mina sighed, picking herself back up and pulling her knees up to her chest.
"Just forget about it for now. Focus on this. I guarantee you it'll be okay." She smiled, before turning away from Mina and looking up to the sky, closing her eyes and resting her hands in her lap.
Mina looked at her for a few seconds before sighing again, copying what it was her friend was doing.
Come on Mina, just relax and trust him. She muttered to herself.
"So... How far is this place?" Izuku asked.
"We've only just started walking." Pony laughed. Izuku sighed to himself and continued following her. The sound of a running river was slowly fading into his ears and the trees around this area were getting ever so slightly scarcer.
"Here, I found this yesterday whilst using the trees for target practice." Pony said, leading the boy into a clearing. The sun beamed through the trees and cast a green hue over them and the small river running through the centre.
"Wow..." Izuku muttered. In all honestly, Izuku was always a big fan of places like hits. He liked the ambience of the water and the smell of the fresh flowers and grass.
"Right! It is beautiful!" She exclaimed excitedly, turning away from him and taking a deep breath.
"Should we get to work then?" She asked, beaming over her shoulder at the greenette. He started at her blankly for a moment. He couldn't get over her eyes. They looked so shiny and happy.
"Midoriya..." Pony repeated.
"What? O-Oh, right! Y-Yes." He blurted all at once, quickly walking over to the riverbank and sitting himself down at its edge, crossing his legs to and getting himself comfortable.
He watched Pony leap across the river to the opposite bank like a gazelle, elegantly landing before making it over to the spot opposite himself. He watched her sit down, cross her legs, straightening herself up and smiling over at him.
"Good lucky Midoriya." She smiled, before closing her eyes, turning her face towards the sun, and falling silent. He stared at her and found himself smiling. It felt nice being in the company of someone new, especially for a task like this one.
He was nervous because he was unsure as to how One For All would react if he focused on the power and tried to increase it's concentrating through this Quirk Meditation. The point of it, from what he'd gathered, was to focus deeply on the feeling of his Quirk flowing through his body like blood. Feeling this power will make it easier to focus it and use it at higher powers without pushing it to the point of injuring his body.
The thought of that was immensely encouraging; being able to use higher percentages of One For All's power whilst minimising injury to his body simply by this task, but there was also the chance that it wouldn't work out how he planned. There was no way he'd find out without trying it though.
So, he closed his eyes, turned his face up to the illuminated canopy, and relaxed. Nothing happened, but of course, he wasn't expecting it too. This action wouldn't happen at the click of his fingers. Meditation was a talk that in and of itself, it took a long time to find peace and feel your own being, but now Quirks are in the picture, it was another whole step on the end of that, which would probably make it twice as hard to reach a state of meditation.
Five minutes passed, and still, he felt nothing different to what he'd been feeling for the past few minutes. Keeping quiet he opened one of his eyes and looked over to Pony. Her face looked incredibly stern and focused, although that wasn't really a sign that it was working.
He closed his eyes again and tried focusing first on blocking out the sounds of the wind through the leaves, the water and the birds in the trees. If he could do that, he'd be one step closer to completing this Quirk Meditation, although this was hard enough. With nothing to look, all his mind would focus on was the sounds around him.
No, he just wasn't trying hard enough. There were times, like in the Sports Festival, where he heard no sound and only saw what was in front of him, which looking back to that point in time, was Todoroki. If he could do something like Quirk Meditation whilst moving and fighting, then he could sure as hell do it in a state of meditation. All he had to do, was focus.
He closed his eyes tighter and clenched his fists. He tried to feel himself, the beating of his heart in his chest and the pulsing of blood in his ears. He wanted to focus on the sounds within his body, because if he did that, then the sounds of the world outside would fade into the background.
He did his best to ignore all distractions and waited patiently, feeling the incredibly subtle movement of his chest as his heart quietly beat. He followed its rhythm, feeling it move within his body, following the feeling of blood all the way up to his ears. The warmth of it and the strange pulsing feeling it gave him when it moved through his veins.
He followed the feeling of his blood around his body for a while longer. He'd never done anything like this before, and he'd never realised just how much he could feel within his own body. There was something else he could feel within him. something that felt like it was either within or behind his heart, something that felt like electricity or fire.
It was indescribable, but it felt powerful and its aura was immense. This had to have been the Aura of One For All, the Quirk planted deep within his soul by his hero, but how would he go about increasing its energy or power? What did he have to do?
One For All... Full Cowling... ten percent. he muttered to himself. He kept his mind focused on the power and tried initiating his Full Cowling technique. The energy grew substantially. Nay, it was almost exploding within his body. It was the same feeling as when he activated Full Cowling at ten percent usually, but the magnitude of power he felt was much larger.
It was hard to put into words. There wasn't more power present, and he was using no more than ten percent, but it felt like it took up his entire body, not just his arms or legs. The feeling was akin to static electricity if his blood were replaced by that charge.
"M-Midoriya! What's happening to you!" Pony screamed. Something within him snapped hard, like an elastic band stretched to its absolute maximum. His snapped his eyes open and was thrown backwards by some invisible force. His body was unbearably hot. The air smelled heavy with static and teal bolts were sparking from his body at an unnerving pace, blowing chunks out of trees.
What was happening to him? His mind felt like it was being clamped in a vice, and his bones felt like they were shaking. Had he lost control of Full Cowling through Quirk Meditation? What percentage was he being pushed at?
"I-I... I don't know... GAAAAH! Izuku stuttered, before screaming out in agony. The pain he was feeling was incredible, like nothing he'd ever felt before. Then, it stopped as soon as it had arrived. Pony was cowering in the corner as Izuku fell to the floor, the taste of blood in his mouth as it slowly crawled up his throat and drooled from his mouth.
"What happened!" Aizawa yelled, running to Izuku side. His voice was echoing slightly and sounded like it was at a lower pitch. Everything he saw was slightly hazy and the teacher trailed as he crouched at Izuku's side, pulling him into a cradling position, facing the floor so he wouldn't choke on blood and saliva.
He wanted to move, but he felt trapped inside his own body. What had happened to him? Had he pushed himself too far and lost control of Full Cowling? That was more than likely what had happened to him. He lost focus of Full Cowling and the full power of One For All had fun wild whilst he meditated.
"I-I-I don't know... He was fine until a few seconds ago. His haired got all... Glowy! I've never seen anything like it..." Pony exclaimed, pulling herself up as Izuku's body heaved, almost like he was about to be sick, but couldn't, only a tiny bit more blood leaked to the floor.
"Midoriya!" Mina yelled, following the crowd of Class 1-A and 1-B.
"Stay back and be quiet!" Aizawa ordered in a bit of a flustered mess. The hubbub instantly fell, and Mina stopped dead in her tracks. Seeing him in so unable to do anything caused her so much pain.
Izuku himself felt perfectly aware and conscious, even though he couldn't move. He tried harder than ever before to at least lift his arm, but he couldn't. He felt like he was living whilst his body was dying. His vision was fading in and out and their voices were getting harder and harder to hear. Was he dying? It felt like he was dying, but he had nothing to compare it too. He didn't want to die.
Everything was black now, and things were getting quieter and quieter.
"Midoriya, stay awake! Someone get the Pussycats, now! Midoriya... Midoriya!" Aizawa was yelling, but it to Izuku it sounded like he was only whispering. It was dark now, and quiet. He couldn't see anything, and he felt cold.
Mina? Iida... Are you guys there? He asked stupidly. There was always the chance he was just having a strange nightmare, but no, it was real. However, there was one incredibly faint light. It was minty green in colour with a crimson tinted core, sparking weakly and ever so slightly vibrating.
The urge to touch it was massively strong, but he reached out his hand only to see nothing but black. He could feel his body, but he couldn't see it. The aura of this energy was exactly the same aura he felt when using One For All. Was he looking at the essence of his Quirk, its core? It was like he was looking at his second heart. It gave off something that felt far too familiar.
But it faded away as soon as it had appeared, and the aura grew weaker and weaker. He tried to call out, but no words left his mouth. He tried to run after it, but it continued to fade. He was losing himself to the darkness and there was nothing he could do about it.
Mina sat in silence, staring at the floor. She couldn't move the sight of her boyfriend, hunched over drooling blood, completely incapable, from her mind. What had happened to him? By the fear in that Pony girl's eyes, there was no way it had anything she'd done.
"Mina, are you okay?" Uraraka asked, slowly walking over to the pink-skinned girl. Mina slowly looked up to the brunette and gave her a weak smile. Everyone was nervously talking amongst themselves, but the girls were all aware of how Mina was acting and how she must feel.
"I'm fine." She smiled, sitting up and back against the sofa, rolling her head back towards the ceiling. "I just want to know what happened to him..." She added heavily. Uraraka didn't say anything at first. She was just as worried as everyone else, if not more. It looked like Aizawa was cradling a dead body and the thought that it could've been Izuku really scared her.
Mina herself had a small inkling as to what the cause could've been. She'd seen from some of All Might's most famous battles just how powerful One For All could be. Ever since she found out Izuku was the successor to that Quirk, there was no way something that powerful would've destroy him in one way or another. Maybe she was miles off from what had really happened, but to her, that felt most plausible.
"I wanna see him but... Not like that." She sighed. Uraraka nodded in response.
"I understand. It's scary seeing him hurt like that." She said, twirling her thumbs whilst looking at the floor.
Then, a knock at the door on the far side of the room, between the 1-A dorm and the 1-B dorm buildings, and it slowly opened to reveal a very anxious looking pony, with Kendo at her side.
"Kendo, Tsunotori, is everything alright?" Iida asked, getting up from the sofa and making his way over to the two girls. Pony fired Kendo a glance over her shoulder and received a reassuring smile in response, before turning back to Iida timidly.
"I... I was wondering if it was okay for me to see Midoriya. It's really been bothering me- what happened." She asked, not looking at the Engine Quirk user. Mina felt a small flare of something that felt like frustration awaken in her stomach.
Why was she feeling jealous? This girl was just trying to be nice and ease a little stress she'd had after watching the Acid Quirk user's boyfriend break down, there was no reason for her to feel like this. Then again, Jiro's words were the main cause for this, replaying over again in her mind. Maybe she was overthinking things, but the feeling was a hard one to ignore.
"Yes, I don't see why not. Would anyone like to accompany Tsunotori?" Iida asked openly, turning back to class 1-A. Everyone stayed silent and Mina herself didn't have any massive urge to go to the greenette's room. This wasn't because she didn't want to see him, she just didn't want to see him hurt.
"I can." Momo offered with a smile, pulling off her reading glasses and closing the book she was reading, adjusting her expensive-looking salmon pink blouse before starting over to the stairs, waving for Pony to follow, which she quickly did. Mina watched the Creation and Horn Cannon Quirk users from the corner of her eye, before turning back to Uraraka, raising her eyebrows and letting out a sigh as if to say, 'that's that then.'
"How is he doing?" Kendo asked in a hushed voice at Iida. The glasses-wearing teenager gave a small shrug and stroked his chin nervously.
"I'm not sure, but he looked very rough when I check up on him earlier. I can't believe he's been out for five hours. I don't believe it was wise for Aizawa to make us stay behind and complete today's exercise after something like that." He explained, venting a little bit to his fellow class-rep.
"Hmm, I know what you mean... Are you sure he's still here?" Kendo asked, hinting at something dark. Iida gave her a surprised look before smiling a little.
"Absolutely sure, there is no way it could kill him..." Iida said. "Even so... It's not a nice thing to think about." He added.
"You're right, sorry." Kendo apologised quickly. Iida raised his hand.
"Nothing to apologise for, it was a very frightening event and I'm sure a few people would share in that assumption. Would you like to sit down whilst you wait for her?" He asked, shaking himself and indicating the now free space on the sofa.
"Oh yeah, thanks." Kendo smiled, heading over to the sofa with Iida following suite.
"So Tsunotori..." Momo started as they headed up the stairs and towards the boy's dorm room hall.
"Call me Pony." She smiled. Momo nodded.
"Alright then, Pony. How are you feeling after that? I noticed the damage those bolts were doing and was worried you may have been hit." Momo smiled, before turning quite serious. Pony opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again, thinking through what to say carefully.
"I... I didn't get hit. They came quite close, but they didn't hurt me." She said quietly. Momo doubted her a bit but going by how large the chunks taken from the trees were, she knew she could believe the girl's words.
"I've never seen anything like that before, and the aura he gave of was incredible. Has that ever happened before?" Pony asked as they neared Izuku's door.
"No. Midoriya has always struggled to control his Quirk, but it's never gotten that extreme. I just hope he'll be alright." Momo responded, carefully resting her hand on the door handle of Izuku's room, slowly opening it.
It was cool and quiet inside, the only sound was the hum of the air conditioner and Izuku's shallow, breaths. He was incredibly pale and speckled with bruises. An untouched glass of water sat on his bedside table and his battered uniform was needlessly folded on his desk chair, courtesy of Iida and Rikido, who'd changed the unconscious teenager into his pyjamas.
"Oh, look how hurt he is." Pony muttered to herself, bringing her hand to her mouth as she slowly walked over to him, Momo close behind.
"I must admit, this is the worse I've seen him..." Momo admitted. This was her first time seeing Izuku since Aizawa first found him in a state of paralysis, and she was shocked, to say the least. Pony could feel his aura, although compared to when she'd first spoke to him, it was much weaker.
"May... May I touch him?" She asked nervously, looking up at Momo, who stared back at her with wide eyes.
"Well... I-I suppose so... Why?" She asked, trying her best not to sound as suspicious as she felt.
"I can sense people's auras. It's nothing to do with my Quirk, it's more of a personal trait. It can feel it better when I'm in contact with someone." She replied, taking Izuku's crooked and scared hand in her own, holding it tightly and closing her eyes.
It felt like she'd just touched a Van De Graaff generator, and static was running through her body. It wasn't a strong feeling by any means, but it was there, and that reassured her of a lot of the worries she'd had about him.
"He still has the same aura I usually feel, but it's incredibly weak. Has he been out this entire time?" Pony asked curiously, letting go of Izuku's hand and tucking it back under the duvet cover.
"No, he's been asleep since it happened." Momo replied. Pony turned back to the greenette and hummed thoughtfully.
"He really should eat something, it's the most efficient way to recover the power he's lost. At the moment it feels scary, like he's on the brink of leaving us." She admitted, her face turning much more sombre than before.
"R-Really? Have you told Mr Aizawa?" Momo asked urgently. Pony shook her head.
"Sorry, I haven't... I only realised this myself after doing that. Besides, even if I do tell him there's a chance he already knows." She admitted. "But if he did, I'm not sure why he'd not do anything about that." Pony added.
"There isn't much we can do if he's in this state I suppose..." Momo muttered, although she sounded very uneasy with the idea. "It doesn't make me feel any better, knowing there's nothing we can really do to help." She added. Pony slowly nodded in agreement.
"Yea, I understand... I feel a little bit responsible for not doing anything about it. There were signs he was going to breakdown, but I thought it was normal." She explained, keeping her eyes on Izuku, letting out a heavy sigh.
"Oh no, it's nothing you've done." Momo replied quickly, before turning and slowly opening the door. "Anywho, we should get going- let him rest." She smiled, nodding for the Horn Cannon Quirk user to follow before leaving the room. Pony did as she was asked, but stopped in the door, looking back at Izuku one more time.
"He seems to have it very difficult with that Quirk. Last time I saw him was the Sports Festival, at least whilst he was using his Quirk, and he got really badly injured there." Pony explained, following Momo down the hall after she'd closed the door to the greenette's room.
"He does. His power is incredible, easily one of the strongest in our class... But... The way it affects his body makes me uncomfortable." Momo responded, leading her back down the stairs and to the rest of the class. Pony didn't say anything back but nodded instead.
"Momo, how's he doin'?" Mina asked quickly, just as she got to the bottom of the stairs.
"He seems fine Mina, don't worry about him." The Creation Quirk user smiled, sitting back down in her seat beside Kendo.
"Feel better now you've seen him?" The ginger-haired girl asked, sitting forwards as Pony made her way over. She nodded in response, much more content and happier smile on her face from how she looked earlier.
"Guess we should get back over there then." Kendo sighed, going to get up from the sofa before being stopped by Momo.
"It's no hurry, surely. Why not stay and chat for a little while? I've been wanting to hear a little bit about your training yesterday." She said.
"Oh yeah! I swear they better've been training you as hard as us." Kirishima exclaimed, quickly pulling himself up from the beanbag he was sat on. Kendo let out a half-laugh, half sigh and sat back down.
"Here." Todoroki quietly offered, moving further to the edge of the sofa he was sat on with Tokoyami and Ojiro so Pony could join them.
"Thank you." She smiled, making her way over to them and sitting down. It made her feel better knowing Izuku was going to be alright, but it worried her now she knew that he'd have to live with the constant trial of destroying himself because of his Quirk. It was one of those situations where she wanted to help more than anything, but she just couldn't, and it hurt her more than she thought it would.
A/N: Sorry for the wait on this chapter! I've been quite busy with home stuff, and after the constant cycle of writing, playing video games, drawing and going on the same walk, it's getting harder and harder to motivate myself. I do really enjoy writing this story once I start though, so no need to worry! Thank you, take care!
-ElliottChap