Sorry about the really late chapter. Not only was this one kind of hard to write, but I switched to a new position at work that takes away most of my free time. Sorry ~
—
Chapter 18 -
[Name: Tobu Mikazuki
Age: 15
Level: 6
Quirk: Waking Nightmare (Rank: B)
HP: 430 / 430
Mana: 4,195 / 4,195
Stamina: 1,325 / 1,325
Str: 31
Con: 43
Dex: 38
Agi: 46
Int: 209
Wis: 315
Cha: 124
Res: 222
Status: Asleep
Quiet and calm. Asleep and awake. Fear the unending nightmare.]
"Um. Sir. She's asleep." The girl was floating on a small cloud.
Aizawa sighed, "Miss. Kubo, please either wake up or use your quirk." He turned back to Izuku, "I'm sorry for the sudden meeting. The papers were only finalized a few hours ago."
He nodded, "It's alright sir." He turned back to the girl, who was slowly starting to wake up. Her purple hair was done in a simple long bob and had two braided bangs going down the side of her face. Her nose was button sized and her eyes gave away her Japanese descent. She wore no makeup, besides a bit of baby blue lipstick on her thin lips.
She was roughly 150 cm, and probably weighed maybe 50 kg? He wasn't the best at guessing these types of things. With a final stretch, she yawned and blinked the sleep out of her eyes. The clouds that held her up poofed out of existence and she landed on her feet. Smoothing out her uniform, she gave him a half asleep smile. Her Japanese was fluent and her voice was wispy, "Nice to meet you Midoriya. My name is Kubo. I look forward to working with you."
"Nice to meet you." He turned back to Aizawa, "Are you going to introduce her to class at the start or do you want me to handle it beforehand?"
Aizawa shook his head, "I'll introduce her during homeroom. I called you early today to show her around the school. You'll be responsible for showing her around and any questions she has. She will also be joining your training class after school today."
He nodded, "Sounds fine to me. Can we start?" At his teacher's nod, he led her toward their classroom.
"This is our homeroom, do you know how Japanese schools work? I have no clue if Korea is any different."
She nodded, "From what I can find on the internet, they're really similar."
"Good to know. We'll head to the principal's office next."
He tried to make small talk with the girl, but she seemed to be falling asleep with every step.
"Are you okay?"
She gave a sleepy nod, "Yeah. My quirk is stronger when I sleep, so I tend to nap. A lot.." She finished with a yawn.
"What does your quirk do?" Using [Observe] on her provided no easy answers.
She smiled, "I can bring my dreams into reality, but they can't get more than 20 meters from me."
His mind instantly started going over the potential of that. "How do you fight?"
"Monsters. I can also create weapons, but I can't really use them."
"What's the cost of using your quirk?"
She yawned, "Headaches, really bad ones. I also sleep a lot more than a normal person."
So mana. It was no wonder her Wisdom and Intelligence are so high. I kinda want to spar her.
'My turn!'
He sighed, "Is that your natural hair color?"
She smiled, "No, my mom dyes it when I sleep. The week before I left home was purple week." With another yawn, she added. "I think I'm going to sleep now." Her eyes closed and she fell forward. Before he could react, a cloud poofed into existence and moved her into the floating position he saw earlier.
'Misaki?'
'Kid, I'll be honest. I'm tired of trying to figure you and your classmates out. This girl is probably the second most confusing.'
"Tobu?" At his call, a tiny purple acorn creature popped into existence, sitting on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry for falling asleep."
"It's alright. Just, kind of caught me off guard." The acorn nodded and sat facing forward.
They met Nezu on his way up to his office. "Hello Mr. Nezu! How are you today?"
Seeing the free ride, he jumped onto his shoulder and answered. "I've had better months, but things are finally looking up. Who's this?"
"Mr. Nezu, this is Tobu Mikazuki. Tobu, this is our principal, Mr. Nezu."
The acorn turned to them, "Nice to meet you." She paused for a second and added, "You are a strange creature. Are you sure I didn't dream you?"
Izuku raised an eyebrow, but Nezu laughed, "I'm pretty sure I'm real. You're the new student in class 1-A correct?" The acorn nodded. "I'll be sure to keep an eye on your progress." They made it to the principal's office, dropped off Nezu and made their way to the lunch room. With the mini tour over, he walked her back to the teacher's office.
"Thank you Midoriya, head to class, also here." He handed him a folder. Bowing to the two, he walked to his homeroom.
The folder detailed the girl's known quirk limits and some basic ideas for training. 'She's an interesting one.'
'You mean confusing.'
'That too, but I think it will be fun having her in class.' Walking into class, he took his seat and tried to think of a training method for her. She's a glass cannon, but Pixie probably couldn't teach her much. He said hi to Kendo as she sat down.
"I hear we got a new student today."
He nodded, "She's an interesting one."
"What's she like?"
He shook his head and smiled at her, "Wait and see."
She groaned, "Not even a hint?"
Hmm. "Good night." He turned back to face the front and smiled at her prodding questions. 'You got any ideas for training?'
'Aki would be good, but she seems to have the imagination part down. RagDoll wouldn't be much help in this situation, neither would Tiger or Mandalay. Your best bet would be either you or to find someone else.'
'What would I teach her?'
'Teach her to fight with weapons or like an animal. Her dreams become real things, so she's probably only lacking technique.'
'I can't even fight with a sword properly.'
'True.'
"Hey! Ms. Soma says the person who finds her missing doll gets an A for the next assignment!" A student he had never seen before, had run into the class and ran out just as fast.
'My eyes!'
'Shut up. That joke isn't funny anymore.' Every time he had an idea, she made it.
'Fine. It's a decent idea though, you should ask her. She's a damned menace with her cleaver.'
'I'll ask during lunch.'
The bell rang for class to start and Mr. Aizawa walked in. "We will be welcoming a new student in class today. Please come in."
Tobu, who was waking up, floated in and landed on her feet when she was in front of the class. "Hi everyone! My name is Tobu Mikazuki. I'm a student from Korea. My family is native, but moved to Korea when I was little. Mr. Nobuo, who's a teacher here is my Uncle." She bowed and stood back up with a smile, looking ready to fall asleep again.
"Miss. Tobu's quirk allows her to be conscious while asleep, so if you see her nodding off, please leave her be. If she has any questions I expect everyone to be courteous. Understood?"
The class answered in unison, "Yes sir!"
He nodded, "Miss. Tobu please take the empty seat." She nodded and walked over to the seat next to him.
—
"Sorry kid, I have a lot of stuff to do and don't have time for something like that."
"Are you sure there's nothing I can do to convince you?"
'Begging Izuku? We're the enemy of a god, we don't beg.'
She let out an annoyed sigh, "Fine. If you can successfully make my wire and make enough of it, I'll help the girl."
He bowed, "Thank you. Where would I start?"
"Go ask Power Loader, I normally use the forge next to his office. He should help you get started."
"Yes ma'am!" He walked out of the office and ran down to the support offices.
'We might get new skills!'
"Not the priority, but it is a plus."
Knocking on the door of Power Loader's office, he was greeted by a girl with pink hair and a crazed look in her eye. "Who are you? Do you need something? Are you a scout?"
She was grabbed and thrown backward into the office. "Sorry about her. She's a little excitable." He walked out of the office and closed the door. "How can I help you?"
"Nice to meet you sir. My name is Midoriya."
"I know who you are kid. You were at USJ."
He nodded, "That's correct. I was wondering if you could teach me how to make the wire Ms. Soma uses?"
He looked at him skeptically. "Why do you need to know that?"
"I need her help to assist a student in my class. She agreed to help as long as I can make enough of her wire."
He started laughing. When he calmed down enough, he took pity on him and explained. "Ms. Soma is a hard ass and built her wire from scratch when she was still a student. I only know how to make it because she left the notes behind one day. If she's having you make it from my memory, then she's testing both of us." He put a hand over his right bicep and struck a pose. "I'll teach you to make the highest grade wire in two days' time."
"Uh sir? I still have class."
He waved away the concern. "I'll message Aizawa and tell him the situation. He should be fine with it as long as you are learning." He pulled him down the hall to an unassuming door and threw it open.
Izuku had never seen a blacksmith's forge before, but he assumed this one was high grade. "Like? I spent most of my hero earnings on this room, and I get to keep it as long as it's open for other people to use. At my discretion of course. Can't have students like Hatsume digging through here." He gave an involuntary shiver. "Follow me."
They walked over to a cabinet and pulled out several bars of metal. "These are ingots that Soma made, they're made of a combination of tungsten, and some form of carbon. I'm still working on how she figured it out, but I'm close." He pulled out a bucket from a small room in the back, "This is the carbon she uses, but it's unlike anything I've seen. It's quality is top notch and I've never seen anything like it before. It doesn't act like normal carbon would."
"[Observe]."
[You lack the skill to view this item's description.]
"I'm guessing she won't be happy if we use her existing ingots for this, so we'll start from scratch!"
"How long does this normally take?"
"It will take awhile before the oven heats up enough to melt the tungsten, but it should do it in about an hour." He started to throw stuff in a small metal pot.
'Misaki, send a message to Aki and ask if there's a way to craft items faster.'
'Thank you!' A few minutes went by of him helping Power Loader load the bucket, it was apparently called a crucible.
A: If you don't have the necessary skill for what you are trying to do, just gain a single level and tap the thing used to make it.
I: Thank you!
A: Yup.
"Power Loader?" He looked at the man, who was fiddling with a couple of controls.
"Yeah kid?"
"Do you have a guide book for blacksmithing I can have?"
"Maybe. Let me check the storeroom." He got up and walked into a back room. A few minutes went by before he came back, and tossed a thick paperback book to him. It was nearly 800 pages long and the text was so small, that a normal person would probably need a magnifying glass to see it. "Take it. It's an old copy of the textbook from like 30 years ago. It's been back there since I started to work here."
"It won't be missed?"
The man waved away his concern, "Nah. The newer books are much better and easier to understand now."
"Thank you!" He looked down at the book and used [Observe].
[Forging the Future
By: Kon Daisuke
This book contains the basic functions and and procedures required to run a smithy.
Do you wish to absorb this book?]
He hit yes and the book evaporated.
[New skills added!
(Select to expand)]
[Skills added:
Metallurgy* Lvl: 1
Metal Forging Lvl: 1
Grinding Lvl: 1
Heat Treating Lvl: 1]
He tapped the controls with his hand and a new type of interface he had never seen before appeared. On the left, it listed every piece of machinery in the room. When he selected the crucible, the window on the right filled with the current project and its timer. Below both of those, he could scroll through all the metal and alloys he could make in it. The list was rather small, probably because the materials were in another room.
He tapped on the timer and was greeted by a small pop up.
[Current timer: 55 minutes and 36 seconds
Do you wish to speed up the process?]
[Please provide a suitable heat source.]
He hummed, 'Think my flames will work?'
'Give it a shot.' He ignited his hand and the window seemed to accept it.
[As you have provided a more than suitable heat source, the timer can be set to 0.
After exiting this window, the cost will be paid and the timer will be set to 0.]
Misaki closed the window and Izuku watched wide eyed as his HP went steadily downward. The timer on the crucible window also went down just as fast and he could see the bits of metal melt almost instantly.
"How the-" Power Loader cleared his throat, "How did you do that?"
"I used my fire to heat the metal faster."
He gave a few impressed nods, "Well since that is done, we can move on to the next part."
—
[Skills have leveled up!
(Select your expand)]
It only took an hour. Turns out he could drain his HP and Stamina to shorten the time of all processes. Power Loader was giddy and had sent Hatsume to get something for him.
"Kid. I got to say, you are by far the most useful person I've ever met. What do you say about becoming my apprentice?" He threw an arm around his shoulder.
"Sorry sir, but I want to become a hero."
"You'd be able to fulfill hundreds of requests in a week by yourself, you would be a hero to heroes kid!"
"Hey! That's my job not his!" Hatsume had come back with Nezu and was stalking up to Power Loader, giving him an angry glare.
The teacher met her glare with a large grin, "I can have more than one apprentice, Hatsume."
Nezu started clapping to get their attention. "May I know why I am here? May I also know what two students are doing here when classes are in session?"
Hatsume crossed her arms and answered his question, "As per my agreement with the support course teachers, I have two days off from class to spend creating my babies."
Nezu nodded, "I see. And you Midoriya?"
He was going to answer when Power Loader spoke first, "I kept him here to teach him a few things. I want this kid as my apprentice."
Nezu's nod was accompanied by a small smile, "I see, but you do realize that his power extends beyond that of a maker do you not? Midoriya please show us an example."
His mind went blank as he tried to think of something he could do. Misaki answered his thoughts, 'Fire ring, shadow, gravity, and oh… I don't know. Spear?' He cast the necessary spells and used his quirks.
He saw Hatsume's eyes light up and a grin over took her face. Power Loader whistled, "Maybe you're right." He thought for a second and asked, "What about helping me out every Wednesday?"
Izuku looked at Nezu, who nodded. "Sure, I wouldn't mind. You'd have to double check with Mr. Aizawa though."
"I have no issue with it as long as your grades remain the same." The tired man, as if called, appeared from the doorway.
Power Loader threw his arms wide. "Aizawa! Just the man I wanted to see! You sure it's okay?"
His homeroom teacher nodded, "He earns top marks consistently and trains regularly on his own. He's more than welcome to assist you as long as he keeps it up."
Nezu jumped onto Aizawa's shoulder, "Now that that's out of the way, I would like to know what spurred your declaration Power Loader."
His new teacher grinned, "The kid finished two days worth of work in little over an hour. He's amazing at this!"
Aizawa gave him a raised eyebrow, "Midoriya?"
He shrugged, "I needed to help Ms. Soma do something and I figured out I can use my quirk to make it faster."
"You mean the quirk that costs you your life to use?"
His AI snorted. Letting the spells and quirks dissipate, he scratched the back of his head with a smile, "Yes?"
His teacher sighed, "Just don't over do it. You still have your training class after this."
He bowed, "Yes sir." Both the teacher and principal walked out.
"You ready to go again kid?"
"Actually sir, I have a question for you."
The man gave him a toothy grin, "Shoot."
"You're working on the arm for the former member of Class 1-A correct?"
The smile died and was replaced with a grim line. "I am."
"Do you mind if I help with it?"
Hatsume walked over to him, "You think you can improve my babies do you?" She was less than an inch from his face and still blatantly peeved at him.
"I actually just wanted to add something to it. I didn't want to change it."
Power Loader put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. "What did you have in mind?"
—
"How often can you do this?" Power Loader was looking over his shoulder as he slowly etched the first rune into the surface of the arm.
"These particular runes can only be done once a month. They're extremely strong but time consuming to make."
"That's a shame. If they do what you say, it would be a real boon to any hero."
Izuku had no doubt about that. The runes were the newest addition to his repertoire after he hit level 40 in the skill.
[Rune of Enduring Strength
Provides a 10% boost to Str
This rune can only be used once a month and must be drawn perfectly. Any changes from the exact posture and depth will result in failure.
This rune is permanent, but will cancel if any of the lines are disrupted.]
On top of the first one, he was planning on adding a weight reduction, Agi increase, Dex increase and a death save. Besides the death save, all the runes add 10% to their given stat, or in the case of weight reduction, a -10% to total weight.
[Rune of the Forgiving Reaper
When the wearer of this rune is killed, they will be resurrected after 10 minutes.
This rune can only be drawn once a year.]
Like the others, it needed to be absolutely perfect. He had asked Aki why she didn't use these types of rune on herself, and it turned out the runes needed depth to work. It wasn't possible with their bodies to make it last.
With the final bit added, he put down the tools he borrowed from the teacher. "Time to power it. [Observe]."
[Rune of Enduring Strength
Total stored mana: 0/2,500]
Putting his hand on the rune, he began to pour mana into it. After a minute, he could feel the rune holding his hand in place as it drank. When it hit the halfway mark, lines of red mana began to spiderweb away from the rune.
"Not very good for a stealth mission, but we'll make do. How long do you think it will take you to make the others?"
"Uh. I can probably finish by the end of the week if I come back everyday this week."
"We planned on delivering it this Sunday, so I'll talk with Aizawa about letting you come here during and a little bit after lunch. After you're done I'll create a protective barrier for them."
Another minute went by before the rune fully matured and the spiderweb started to throb with energy.
'I hope he likes it.'
'If we could lose an arm, I'd like something similar.'
'That's something at least.'
—
That day after school
—
She could honestly say, she had never worked up a sweat before. Her dreams always did the heavy lifting and she never felt more tired than now. Her teacher had forced her to wake up and fight with her own two hands.
'There's no way you'll learn to use weapons, if you can't feel the effort you put in.' What the hell type of logic was that? She'd have to give the person who made that saying up a stern talking to.
She swung the cleaver at a wooden dummy and repeated the action, again and again. Every swing was from a different angle, but the rhythmic sway was making her even more tired. She was sure her muscles were pudding, but every time she tried to put her arms down, the crazy lady smacked her.
She whined, "I wanna sleep!"
—
After training
—
"Dang, her place is huge."
"I know right? She said her family had money but I was thinking like a three story house with a basement, not this." Kendo gestured to the massive mansion. He had decided to bring Kendo instead of his other vice representative, mainly because he needed a girl to double check clothing levels.
He tapped the buzzer. Buzz.
"Hello? How may I help you?" A man's voice.
"Hi. My name is Midoriya Izuku, I'm here to see my vice representative Momo?"
There wasn't an answer for a while. The gate swung open and a woman's voice came over the speaker. "Please come in."
The walk to the mansion was long and filled with lots of gardens lining the road. They were met at the circle drive, by a woman, who was the best candidate to be Momo's mother. "[Observe]."
[Name: Yaoyorozu Kurihara
Age: 39
Level: 17]
"Nice to meet you Mrs. Yaoyorozu." Kendo bowed along with him.
"Please forget formalities for today. My daughter needs help." Izuku looked up at her. "She hasn't eaten anything besides the bare minimum and she never leaves her room anymore."
"I'll do everything in my power to assist her today. Can you take us to her?"
The worried mother nodded and began to walk into the mansion. While they followed, Kendo asked the question she probably had on her mind since the start of their trip. "What exactly do you plan on doing? You never told me."
"You'll see. I also promise it's something that won't happen very often or ever unless I need to do it." That did little to settle her nerves apparently as she gave him a nervous glance.
Up the stairs and down a hallway, they arrived at a massive door. 'It's like a palace!'
Kendo unknowingly mirrored Misaki's shout. "She lives in a castle."
"This is my daughter's room. I'll be preparing drinks for you all, please give me a minute."
He and Kendo bowed, "Thank you ma'am."
When she disappeared around the corner, he nudged Kendo. "Go on."
"Yeah yeah." She knocked on the door, "Momo? It's me Kendo, can I come in? I brought Midoriya here with me, we want to talk." There wasn't an answer. She looked at him.
He shrugged, "Go in, make sure she's dressed and then let me in."
She nodded and slipped inside. While he waited, he double checked with Misaki. 'Kid! It's fine for the 100th time, the memory is right here. I'll even gift wrap it for you in a nice little bow. Stop worrying about it, you'll do fine.'
He sighed, 'Yeah, you're right.' The door opened and Kendo waved him in.
Momo was laying on her bed with the curtains closed and a single lamp on. "She was laying down in the dark. She won't answer me."
Nodding, he rounded the bed and approached the girl. "Momo? I have a proposal for you." The girl didn't respond, but he saw the slight flicker of eye movement. "If I told you I could take your memory of USJ, would you take the deal?"
His partner's eyes became filled with desperation. Only a single word came out. "Please."
"Then I will help you, but on one condition. You have to take back the memory at a later date." She looked down at her bed, but gave a small nod. "Then please sit up."
She pushed herself up on wobbly arms, and kept herself wrapped up in a blanket. Kendo moved to sit with her and grabbed her hand, whispering something in her ear.
"Are you ready?" The question was aimed at Misaki as well. He felt a mental nod and saw Momo's. "Here we go." He reached out to her head and activated his quirk, "Memory Transfer."
[Memory Transfer Lvl: 1 Xp: 0.00%
This ability allows the user to switch certain memories with a target. You must have physical contact to use this ability.
Max # of memories - 1
Cool down - 10 hours]
A window opened in his vision. It was like a folder on a computer, but had a calendar above it all. Assuming he needed to select the date, he tapped the date of the USJ attack, and the window below the calendar filled with memories from the day.
He scrolled through them until he found the moment it happened. 'Damn. The girl can be lethal.' He had to agree with Misaki, they heard she had killed a villain but in such a way? He selected the memory and that window closed, opening up another.
[Please select a replacement memory.]
He closed the notification and was happy to see he didn't need to do any searching. Misaki had been able to push the memory into the forefront of his mind, allowing it to appear on the screen immediately.
The memory itself was very similar, but with a major change. Instead of killing the guy with a ball of liquid hell, she shot a sticky bomb at him, giving her and Shoji enough time to escape. He selected the memory and the screen disappeared.
Small motes of rainbow light started to fill the room, pouring out of their heads. The process only lasted a minute, and when it ended Momo slumped back. Kendo became worried and started to tap her.
"She's just asleep, let her rest." Kendo nodded and both of them worked to get her in a more comfortable position.
They walked out a minute later to the sight of Kurihara carrying a small platter. "Is she okay?"
He smiled and nodded, "Yes ma'am. She is resting right now, but after she wakes up she should be okay."
"Should be?" She looked worried.
"I have no way of accounting for how all the memories before and after the event will affect her mind. She has no memory of what she did, so the event itself will not affect her."
Her mom nodded, "I'll wait for her then. Please feel free to take a bun for the road. I assume you don't need to be walked out?"
Both of them shook their head, and Kendo said, "Please tell her we said hi."
The lady nodded, "I will tell her to call you."
They said their goodbyes and walked back to the main road. The station was a bit of a walk, and since they had a bit of time, they stopped for some drinks. "What exactly did you do?"
"I traded a memory I made up and her kill."
"And since when could you do that?"
He smiled at her, "Yesterday? I've been training to you know. I've actually been working on a bunch of stuff after training you guys."
Kendo groaned, "You're quirk is such BS."
He started to laugh, "Pixie says the same thing."
They left the shop after receiving their drinks. "To Jiro's?"
"Actually if you want to rest, I can handle this one on my own. She'll at least answer and move around, so I won't need your protection for this one."
"Rest sounds nice. I'm still having phantom pain." She massaged her neck.
"Sorry about that."
She shrugged, "It's nice actually."
"Getting dropped on your head?" He raised an eyebrow.
She punched his shoulder, "No you idiot. I meant being able to fight so brutally. Besides a few of my trainers, everyone I've ever trained with before was too scared to fight me like that." She threw a bit of hair back. "I may be a girl, but I'm a fighter and hero first."
He shrugged, "No problem. I'm sure if I didn't take you seriously you'd hurt me for it. So there was only one option."
Grinning, "Dang straight I would've."
A few minutes later they said their goodbyes and boarded separate trains. 'So I got a question, obviously I can see your thought process behind it and why, but what's the reasoning behind teaching them to fight like you?'
He closed his eyes as he sat down, 'I'm also teaching them to dodge you know. The whole idea is to destroy the fundamentals of formal training. To teach them to go that extra step and actually harm their enemies. If what Aizawa and All Might said was true, then they'll need that extra step to keep themselves alive.'
He had a talk with the two teachers yesterday before the first training club and it changed his schedule drastically.
—
"What do you mean?"
All Might explained, "Heroes, not the ones you see on TV and newspapers, but the smaller ones, local and small timers. They're disappearing, and we have no idea why or for what, but it is happening."
"Are there any leads?"
Aizawa shook his head, "The closest anyone can come up with is that the person doing it is trying to not cause mass panic."
He leaned back, "Why tell this to me? I'm not complaining about getting new information, but there's not much I can do with this."
All Might nodded, "This is actually in regards to your after school training."
Aizawa added, "We want you to step it up a notch."
Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "What do you mean? Why?"
"Who's ever behind the disappearances took a kid two days ago." His mind went hyper focused, "She was a member of Isamu academy. The local police and national police are in high alert. The search for her and the other heroes is ongoing. They haven't had any luck."
All Might continued, "If this monster is taking kids, that means we have to worry about our own. We want you to step up the training with only one thing in mind. Survival."
Aizawa nodded, "While I would normally prefer to have my student learn this stuff later, It's needed now. They need to learn how to fight to survive and bring down villains. Their preconceived notions of a proper fight need to be destroyed."
He could only nod, he'd have to speak with the Pussycats and Aki.
Aizawa broke him from his thoughts, "We also want the training to extend past the sports festival. Obviously we can't expect the Pussycats and The Hale's to help past it, but Mr. Kan and I have agreed to joint training with the assistance of the teachers to expand all of your fighting potential."
Izuku nodded, "I'll change what I have planned."
—
Knock, knock.
A muffled voice came through, "One minute!" It belonged to a woman. The door opened to reveal an older looking Kyoka. "[Observe]."
[Name: Jiro Mika
Age: 36
Level: 11]
Misaki let out a whistle that thankfully only he could hear. 'Mama got game.'
"How may I help you young man?"
He bowed, "My name is Midoriya Izuku, I'm the class representative of 1-A. I was actually hoping to speak to Kyoka, is she here?"
Mika simply leaned to the side and pointed her thumb backward. Loud angry sounding music was being played, the words unintelligible to his ears. "She's letting off some steam right now."
"May I?"
"Please, be my guest. While I don't have a problem with metal and screamo, it's not my favorite."
Izuku walked in and was greeted with another person, "[Observe]."
[Name: Jiro Kyotoku
Age: 40
Level: 10]
He bowed to the man, "Nice to meet you Mr. Jiro."
The man turned to his wife, "Is this little music note, gonna help our daughter?" She shrugged. "Then why did you let a boy into our house!?"
Mika smiled, "He said he wanted to talk to her."
The man whirled on him, "Boy! You don't plan on asking her out do you? If you do tell me now!"
He sweatdropped, "N-no sir. I just want to try and help her get over this bump in the road, and to get her heart into training again." A loud chorus of a song ended the piece and another immediately started to play.
He saw her father wince, "Then feel free to try and help her, she hasn't been the same since the attack." Her parents walked to the kitchen, as he followed the sound to the source.
Knocking on the door, he was greeted with a break in the music. A few footsteps later the door opened, "Yeah?" Her eyes met his and she slammed the door shut.
"That wasn't very nice. I just wanted to talk."
She didn't open the door but did respond, "Why are you here?"
"I just want to talk."
"Then talk!"
"May I come in? Please?"
There wasn't a response for a minute, but the door did eventually creak open. "You have five minutes." She walked further into her room and started to put instruments away. Her room was musician's heaven, he knew how to play the piano, somewhat.
Izuku whistled, "This place is awesome. I never knew you could play."
She shrugged, "It's not something I advertise."
"Fair enough." He sat down at a chair next to her desk. "I got a question."
"What?"
"What happened at USJ? I've tried asking Ashido, but she won't say anything."
Kyoka spun, anger burning in her eyes, "Of course she wouldn't! She doesn't want to get blamed for what happened!"
Taking the anger in stride, he nodded, "You might be right, but I have no idea what happened. Can you tell me?"
The anger seemed to drain out of her as she sat on her bed. "The villain that was attacking us made Ashido useless. I was hurt, so we did the only thing we could do, run. We were in the landslide scenario and as we ran away we found the hydraulics control room for it." She pulled her knees up to her chest. "Ashido melted the beams and forced me to drop it on him." He saw tears budding on the edge of her eyes.
"It does sound like it was her fault, so why are you beating yourself up?"
"Because I pulled the trigger, Ashido aimed it, but I finished it." Her voice was quiet.
"I see." He tried to think of something, but was coming up blank.
"I heard what you did."
He looked up at her, "What do you mean?"
"You killed enough people to be considered a mass murderer, if you weren't a hero in training."
That actually raised his anger levels a bit, "Kyoka." She looked up at him and recoiled slightly. "What do you think they were there for?"
She didn't answer, but he continued. "They were there to kill us, our teachers, and All Might. What do you think would have happened if that villain finally cornered you and Ashido?" He didn't wait for an answer. "He would have killed you. There is no doubt in my mind, that you saved yourself and Ashido." She tried to say something but no noise came out.
"You can blame Ashido and condemn her to whatever plane of hell you want. What she forced you to do was not right, but you can not blame yourself for what happened. Are you really going to let that one moment, a moment you had no say over, define your life?"
Kyoka put her head back into her knees and started to shake. A few minutes went by of her crying and she finally looked up with him. Her face was filled with tears and the small amount of makeup she had on was smeared badly. "How do you live with what you did?"
He sat down next to her and looked at his open palms, "I don't live with it. I accept it for what it was, a massive pothole in my life, and keep going. I left the pain behind and looked forward to the future. I'm not saying you shouldn't remember the pain, I'm saying you need to use that as fuel to drive you to do better."
The crying stopped as she went back to her knees, "Can you leave? I need some time to myself. Can you also tell my parents I want to talk to them?"
Nodding, he stood and walked out of her room. "I'll see you tomorrow." He closed the door behind him and made his way to the kitchen.
He found her parents crying and holding each other, her mother's earphone jack plugged into the wall. "I assume you heard?" Both nodded. "Then you know she needs you right now. I'll show myself out."
Before he could walk away, both of them pulled him into a hug, giving him their thanks. The hug was brief and both of them practically ran to their daughter's room.
He made his way out of their home and decided to walk his way back to his own house. "Do you think mom is concerned about me?"
Misaki shrugged, 'I know she cares for you deeply, but concerned over what happened? I don't know. Why not ask her?'
"How would I even ask that? 'Hey mom. Do you care that I killed four people and helped kill another 14?'"
'Fair point. If they show up to training tomorrow, who are you putting them with?'
"I'm thinking Momo can go with Soma. Kyoka can probably go with Tiger. Momo learning how to use weapons and being able to confidently defend herself in melee will help her. Kyoka can probably use her jacks in conjunction with a support item to deliver one hell of an ear piercing punch."
Misaki laughed, 'That would be amazing to see.'
They lapsed into silence as they made their way home.
—
The next week
—
He blocked a strike from Kendo and slapped her hand upward. She resisted her natural instinct to enlarge her hand and sent a knee aimed for his gut. Blocking it, he was immediately attacked again when she dropped herself to the floor. A fist aimed for his knee managed to connect, but had no power behind it. He smirked, when instead of taking his kick, she enlarged her hand springing herself off the ground and went for his head.
Blocking the easily seen attack, he sent a punch for her gut. Instead of blocking, she shrank her hand and fell into his uppercut. He was yanked forward as she returned with a punch into his gut. Her grip on his arm felt like it was locked in a pair of shackles. So he did the next thing on his mind besides punching her again. He dropped her face first into his knee.
He heard a snap and a groan of pain as her grip weakened. When she fell to the ground, he was forced to make a decision. The fight wasn't over until she called it, but he did hurt her pretty badly.
'Oh well.' He sent a kick aimed for her stomach and was greeted with her catching his foot and spinning with the momentum. The kick she sent at his foot connected and dropped him into doing the splits. He heard a noise come from one of the guys watching. Using his unnatural flexibility, he slammed his legs together, aiming for her head.
She took the kick head on, literally and kicked him. It was aimed for his head again.
'I think she really wants to hurt you.'
Instead of taking the attack, he leaned back and lifted her into the air and slammed her in the ground. The attack loosened her grip and with the momentum, he was able to stand.
"Call." She tapped the ground and coughed up a bit of blood.
"[Emergency Aid]." He helped her to her feet and took in her appearance. Her nose was broken and she had a massive bruise on her forehead.
'She did pretty well. If you let her use her quirk to attack, I'm sure she would beat you.' She was right, their fight had lasted about 10 minutes with nothing but a close quarters brawl. If he could bruise, he was sure he'd be covered in them. The worst injury was her broken nose though.
He smiled at her, to which she returned, "Not bad, I say you pass."
She pumped a fist in the air and then sent it straight for his gut. He stepped back out of range, but was still hit as she enlarged her hand. He was laid out.
He was there for a few seconds as she walked into his view. "If you ever, and I mean ever, drop me on my face again. I will find a way to harm you. Got it?" Her nose was healing, but the blood was still present. "Got it?"
He gave a strained laugh and made a placating gesture, "Got it."
She stuck up her nose at him and walked over to sit with Ojiro and Kirishima. Standing, he walked over to them. Each of them had managed to learn the basics of his style and incorporated it into their own style. Out of all of them, Kendo was the most brutal with it. If she used her quirk in a fight now, he was sure she would crack skulls.
"From today forward, I'll allow you to use your quirk when we fight to get the hang of it." All three smiled, "Though that does mean I get to use my quirk too, nothing too big, just enough to pack more of a punch." Their smiles faltered. "We're done for today though. You can work anything you want, I'll heal you if you decide to practice though."
They tended to get into three way spars when they decided to practice. It almost always ended with one of them breaking a bone.
"Actually Midoriya, we were wondering." He looked at Ojiro. "We were wondering if you would fight all three of us."
'Hell yes!' Misaki's excitement was bubbling over to him. He grinned at them and started attacking. Real fights never started with a go.
"[Pillars of Hell]."
All three dodged and went on the offensive.
—
'How are you girls doing?'
Pinky was breathing hard and looked ready to collapse. "How. Much. Longer?" Every word came out in a gasp.
She stopped, and pulled out her phone to check the time. 'Five more minutes. After that, we start a different workout.'
Ashido grimaced but kept going.
'How are you doing?' The question was aimed at Uraraka.
"Every muscle in my legs hurt and feel like they're ready to fall off." She complained but showed no sign of giving up.
This week was hell week for them. Every other day they began with squats, and moved on to push ups. If they were able to stand and move after that, she made them do aerobics. She wasn't a cruel person though, so she did the exercise with them. Everyday in between the workouts was more fun as they got to dance. Pinky was a natural dancer and enjoyed herself to no end, at least until the last hour of nonstop moving. The other was slow to pick up but started to get better.
'Push-up time!' Both girls fell on their back splaying out on the ground. 'If you get moving, I'll share a picture Izuku accidentally sent to me awhile back. When he borrowed my quirk, we started talking about the natural hot springs at our house and he started to think of the guys section. He passed a mirror.'
The girl was on her hands and doing push-ups even though her face was a very deep shade of red. 'I love this girl!' She started to do push ups with her. Pinky joined a minute later.
—
He had been putting them through the paces and training them to fight without quirks. His plan was to get them so naturally attuned to fighting they could fight while blinded or in a rage. It was coming along nicely he had to say, the large one had taken to boxing like it was second nature to him. The one time he allowed them to use their quirks in a fight, the kid had been a menace when he flew into a rage.
Shocky was taking up Chi Blocking and slowly learning to incorporate it into his fighting. He fought the kid yesterday and had to say, if the kid was given a few more months, he'd be terrifying. It was too bad he couldn't have more time with him. Koda was still having trouble adjusting to actual combat, but his stances were becoming more fluid with repetition. Kyoka was slowly picking up Muay Thai, her movements were blocky and easily telegraphed.
"Gather around kittens!" The four stopped and sat down in a small circle next to him. "It's time we move onto the next stage of your training!" They glanced nervously at each other, it caused a smile to creep up on his face. "We're going to begin speed weight training!" He yelled into the air, flexing his arms.
"Sir?" Sparky raised his hand.
"Yes!"
"What is speed weight training?"
"Glad you asked!" He turned to the girl sitting at a table a little bit away. "Little Miss! Can you open it?" She didn't even turn or acknowledge the request and just snapped her fingers. One of her portals opened above them and five weighted vests fell out.
"Take the one with your name on it, it has been weighted to your body and your current strength level. After that we start running through the obstacle course!" He donned his own and tapped his foot while waiting for them.
The obstacle course was designed by them, Lion, and the girl. It was meant to be both speed and dodge training, but devolved into a race when Lion finished it in 10 seconds. There were a few rules of course, no flying over it, and no destroying the whole path in front of you. That kept most of the kids from getting sub sixty, but there were a few that were close.
—
"Go get'em!" She let out a cheer as her girls started to fight each other. She was very happy with their progress so far. With another 3 weeks they should be able to dodge nearly every attack from a single person.
Izuku had requested she teach them her "fighting" style, which really wasn't a fighting style at all. Practicing against Tiger, Pixie, and Mandalay, who were all competent fighters, had left her with only one course of action. Dodge.
Over the last few years she had picked up the ability to sense a person's movements, before even they knew what they were doing. Very handy, but hard to implement. It would take some time for them to be able to use it in a full fledged fight, but that would come with time.
Hagakure, at her request, was dressed in a long sleeve shirt and gloves to give Asui a chance. Asui was a shadow as she dodged her clothed assailant. A hit did land more often than not, but she kept on her toes and always tried to dodge, never stopping. The fight shifted when froggie managed to dodge an attack and struck out on her own.
Invisigirl took the first hit, but started to bob and weave as she went on the defensive. It was really fun for her to watch them fight. If they had more combat training, they would be like two dancers. Right now it was like a fight between two untrained kids. They'd throw a punch but miss and when they would hit, there was no power behind it.
BOOM!
Feeling something flying right at her, she threw herself to the side and watched as both of her students dodged the rock, but fell on their butts. She looked over in anger at the walking stick of dynamite. "Pixie! Get a hold of him!"
—
"How's it going?" She peered down at the paper. Teaching Mr. King of Murder was a challenge, his natural disposition was to pour as much energy as possible into a single attack. The paper was an idea from Aizawa, the kid's mission was to pour as little sweat as possible on it and spread evenly across. The idea behind the paper was for him to see his results, not just be told he's doing better. It seemed to be working as the kid was quiet and concentrating very hard. He didn't answer, so she left him to his work.
Making her way over to the one dubbed, Icy-Hot, she watched him work. It was crude but his progress was steady. She tapped him on the shoulder, "Let's talk."
He nodded and stood.
"I heard about the fight at USJ. If you don't mind me asking, how did you create the mirrors at the end?"
He looked down at his right hand, "I created a long chunk of ice and forced it to split. After they were the right size, I buried them in the ground. It was easier since they were such large objects and plain. This type of control was not something I ever thought of trying."
She hummed and tilted her head. He just stood there waiting for a response. She could feel a bead of sweat run down her cheek as he just watched her. 'Did this kid ever start out with little to no power?'
"Maybe the bike was too big of a step. Let's try this." She stomped her foot and created a small pile of balls the size of a head. She handed one to him with a much simpler task. "This ball is hollow. I want you to fill it with ice. It has to be done without cracking or breaking it. If you destroy it, no problem. If you think you've done it let me know, we'll break it open and check your progress."
He looked down at it and activated his quirk, the ball was encased immediately. He picked up another with the same result. "Try sitting down and closing your eyes. Focus and control your ice with your mind, not your eyes."
He nodded and sat in the lotus position. She sat on a chair and watched as the ball was encased and shot off flying right at, 'shit.'
The ball smacked the walking dynamite in the head. She swore she heard everything stop moving and the gears in his head turn. He was letting out small explosions all over his body as he looked at Todoroki. The kid in question raised a hand, "Sorry."
"Icy-Hot!" Bakugo flew at him and slammed the now vacant spot.
"Pixie! Get a hold of him!"
She closed her eyes and sighed. 'Fu-'
—
"There's a woman lying in an alley, you just heard her scream. The alley is empty besides her unconscious form and a dumpster. There is no other exit or entrance. What do you do?"
He didn't answer for a second. "Fire a shot aimed for the dumpster and pull her to safety. Keeping my eyes on the rooftop the whole time."
She shifted her hand, '[Mana Stone].' Aoyama dodged the small stone. "You pulled the woman to safety, she has no obvious injuries. What now?"
He bit his lip, "Call for assistance and check the alleyway, if I see anything, defend myself and the woman."
Another dodged stone, "You get attacked from the rooftop, the villain is using a sword."
His answer came faster than the previous ones, "Grab the woman and fire a shot at the ground, in an attempt to gain distance."
Another dodged stone, "You successfully dodged the attack, but he's gaining on you."
"Brief glance at my surroundings."
"You see a bus bench a little distance down the street. It's sides are mirrors."
"Fire two shots, one to the left, aiming for the mirror to come back at me. The other is aimed at his right side."
She clipped his ear this time, "He dodges the shot aimed for him and jumps in front of the returned shot. He stumbles forward, but keeps coming for you."
"Fire at the ground to keep gaining distance."
No pebble this time. She smiled, "Good job. You finally passed." She leaned on her hands and smiled at his sigh, "You ready for the next part?"
He gulped. "No?"
"Too bad." She opened a portal beneath his chair and dropped him into a world constructed entirely of mana. It had taken her nearly three days of nonstop meditation to create it, but the benefits it would give outweighed the cost. He wouldn't, and couldn't get hurt during the scenarios, but he'd have to relive them until she pulled him back out.
She looked at glasses and mask jumping around in the small rock wall area she had Pixie make for them. The small lights were sitting at the top, seemingly taunting them.
She waited and watched each of them. Iida was foregoing staying in a single place and was jumping off the handholds side to side. 'He's like a goat.' Shoji was trying to go with the same principle. It was actually fun watching them.
—
Soma sighed, "Come on. Stand up and fight." The girl let out a whine and stayed on the floor. "If you don't get up, I'm increasing your daily repetitions."
She let out another whine and was thrown up to her feet by two shadowy arms. Yaoyorozu held her swords at the ready and waited. The tired girl put up her hands and materialized two cleavers. The taller of the two was by far the more experienced, and had a near perfect win rate.
"Alright, start from the top, but make it faster."
Their fight was about the same pace as before, but whiny was slowly down again. It ended when she was punched in the nose and laid out again. She could feel the vein in her forehead pulse, 'How the hell did she even pass the test?'
Even when she was a kid her quirk, Puppet Master, didn't keep her from actually exercising. More than likely the kid was lazy as hell and didn't put effort into anything. "Get up."
"But I hurt." She let out another annoying whine.
"How?"
The girl opened an eye and looked at her, "Wha?"
"You don't deserve to be here if you're not gonna try. Get up and leave, I'm tired of wasting my time with you." The girl's face went dark as she slowly stood up. Without any hesitation, she jumped forward, the cleaver in her hand pulled back.
She pulled out her own cleaver and blocked a slash aimed for the neck. "Daydream!" Snakes and lizards sprung into existence, and started to attack her at all angles.
"Cutting board." Knives flew out from their hiding spot under her dress and began to attack the creatures. The girl jumped back and slashed an empty hand forward. Trusting her instincts, she connected to the two nearby dolls and used their bodies as a shield. Whatever the girl did slammed into the dolls, throwing them and her backward.
Skidding to a halt, she untangled the dolls into their smaller forms and took stock of the situation. Yaoyorozu had retreated away and looked worried, while the other trainers had stopped their lessons to watch. The girl's bubble of influence was filled with a deep mist and strobing light. She could barely make out a faint whisper from the bubble. "Sleepwalk."
It went silent for a few seconds before the bubble erupted in noise. She could hear howls, chirps and growls. The girl began to slowly walk forward, the land she left behind was destroyed. The mist in the orb seemed to become solid and formed a face. "You don't know me, but you'll know my nightmare."
The bubble flew forward, forcing her to yank herself to side, barely avoiding it. "Chef's Cutting Board!" All of her knives flew forward into the bubble, loud whines and chirps accompanied a loud yell. She worried she hurt the girl for a second, before the bubble cleared of mist.
The girl was hung on a cross, blood pouring out of her mouth and eyes. She heard one of the students vomit, as her eyes went wide. Her combat instincts were replaced with legitimate concern as she ran forward. Stepping a single foot into the bubble, she was grabbed and yanked into the air. A being made of blood was holding her by the ankle and began to laugh in a deep hoarse voice.
"Alright. I'm done with this." She connected to her dolls and knives. She sent the knives for the girl, her attack had its intended effect. The being turned to face to watch the attack, giving her a needed second to break free. Three of her dolls flew forward into the being and broke apart into wire. The last one flew toward the girl. The 'demon' blew apart in an explosion of razor wire and dropped her.
That did little slow it down though as it reformed itself in front of the knives, becoming thicker. The knives hit and slowed to a crawl before completely stopping. Her fourth doll exploded into the wire and kept the sharp edge on the outside. She closed her hand into a fist and thought, 'Funeral March of a Marionette.' The wire pulled taunt and cocooned both the girl and demon.
The demon went away, but the girl wasn't done. She was fighting against her hold, not enough to give her trouble but she was still fighting. She commanded her other wire dolls to wrap themselves around her. 'Just go to sleep.'
It took a minute and a couple of beasts that were easily put down, but the girl hit her limit and went still. She lowered the girl to the ground and unwrapped her. As soon as she was free, a cloud formed under her, lifting her up and slowly started to wrap her like a blanket.
"Stupid brat."
Pixie walked over and put an arm over her, "Aww, admit you like her Soma."
Her former teacher gave a wide grin, which she didn't return. "The girl refuses to put in work to get stronger. The only reason she could put up a fight right now was because she went berserk. There was no thought in the fight."
"Do you give up?"
She let out a sigh and closed her eyes, "No, but she needs more training than what I can give her. Even a week later she's barely improved her body physically."
Pixie hummed, "Tell Aizawa. I'm sure he and All Might can work on it."
She let out a breath and picked the girl wrapped in clouds. "I'll take her to the nurse's office, can you tell Yaoyorozu to train with Izuku for the next hour?"
Pixie nodded, "Sure thing."
—
Chapter done!
I'd like to reiterate, the new character will NOT be a main character. She will be a side focus for a few chapters in the future, but so will all the other students.