AN: Just finished the cover image for this fic so you can see that above. My socials are in my profile if you want to see the full resolution image. I might post more fanart of my fics there as well (is it still fanart then?) or other unrelated stuffs.

Now onto the chapter!

I did say this was AU right?

…right?

Chapter 5

Blade dance

oooOo Izuku oOooo

It was during the summer of his first year at Aldera High that Izuku finally committed to something he'd been putting off for a long while. With good reason.

He was finally at the age where weight training wouldn't permanently damage his growing body. Rather than pushing his proficiency with his quirk any further, he instead shifted his focus to building the natural strength of his body.

At first, it was like starting his training all over again. Not to mention it was a harsh reminder that despite the imitation strength granted by his quirk, he was still a fairly thin young man. Sure, he was athletic enough from the constant riding around the city, but he wasn't even close to a hero's level of fitness. Not the kind of hero he wanted to be anyway.

So, for the remaining third of Dagobah beach that was still covered in junk, Izuku began hauling using only his body's natural strength. Having started during summer break, Izuku at least had time to acclimate to his new schedule before the school year resumed.

The first few weeks were agony to the aspiring hero, and he found himself crawling into bed unable to do much else at the end of each day.

His limbs, as well as the muscles and ligaments that moved them, hadn't really had experience lifting any seriously heavy loads, leaving Izuku's body no stronger than any other child his age may have been. He still had his active lifestyle to fall back on, but from the standpoint of sheer power, he was certainly lacking.

The first days were rough but eventually, he made progress.

School started again, and his workouts were restricted to before and after class within reason. His mother would never let him live it down if his grades fell as a result of his heroic pursuits. Katsumi and he both hung out when they could, finding that they were both focused on their own training now that the UA entrance exam was more of a reality than just a far-off goal. But even then, they manage to meet for joint training sessions whenever Katsumi wasn't busy with her martial arts.

The more time Izuku spent with the girl, the more he realized his feelings toward his best friend may have been less than platonic, not that it was any amazing realization. Even as a toddler when romantic thoughts were the furthest thing from his mind, Katsumi was always someone to be admired. But as that fiery blonde child had grown into a beautiful young woman before his eyes, how could he help but be enamored with her? With those striking crimson irises that glowed like embers when the light hit them just right.

Was it wrong to push her buttons slightly just to have that smoldering glare leveled at him every now and then? Perhaps… but he couldn't find it in himself to regret it.

With so many emotions running through his mind, how could he not have such puzzling thoughts for her?

That afternoon, Katsumi was again busy with her Muay Thai classes leaving Izuku ample time for such idle thoughts as he watched the sun set over the nearly pristine horizon of Dagobah beach. Once he had gotten used to the strenuous routine, his progress had been steady, and after several months of manually hauling trash, he had nearly cleared the remaining garbage that had once marred the west side of the beach. Other than the larger vehicles and awkwardly shaped hunks of metal he couldn't manage to lift the beach was nearly devoid of trash, and the result was astounding.

Izuku could hardly recognized the place! This had all started as a training exercise! He would never in a million years believed himself capable of coming close to what he'd accomplished. He leaned back in against his latest conquest, a broken-down washing machine by the looks of it, and took a rare moment to relax before he resumed his demanding training.

But so captured was he by the nearly cleared skyline, Izuku missed the pair of attentive eyes trailing his form curiously.

oooOoOoOooo

"Boy... Here you stand clearing the waste of others, yet ask for no reward… Why?"

Izuku paused his set of suicides, having added extra drills in between loads as the junk littering the beach grew sparser, and turned to the man who had spoken. The voice was raspy, as if it hadn't been used in years, but it seemed to suit its owner in away, now that Izuku got a better look at him.

His presence seemed to fill the beach despite standing with a distinct hunch, not much taller than Izuku's fairly average 165cm. He stood perched on a tower of broken-down cars, like a gargoyle guarding some ancient gothic church. The breeze blew his black, knotted hair revealing a sharp, angular face and a thick bandage wrapped around his head. It covered the space between his misshapen gash of a mouth and bloodshot dark red eyes.

An old injury perhaps? Or maybe it was to cover a part of his quirk he found unappealing? A quirked society they may be, but prejudice unfortunately remained rampant. Even with race and other social categories being muddled by the infinite mutations that quirks made possible, people undoubtedly found a way to be spiteful to others who were different.

The stranger's clothes were nondescript when compared to his physical features. The plain black cargo pants and a sleeveless tank top he wore revealed a corded musculature that seemed out of place on his relatively slender frame.

It was the single battered katana that hung sheathed at the man's side however, that gave Izuku pause. He resembled no hero that Izuku knew of, but that didn't really mean much, there were thousands of new applicants for hero licenses every year in Japan, it would be absurd to expect to keep track of every single student that passed, not that he'd ever let that stop him from trying.

But something about the man screamed danger, despite his relaxed posture.

That was another thing, the man had seemingly shown up out of nowhere, but knew Izuku had been cleaning the beach. Sure, he could guess such information from watching for an hour or so, but assuming he cleaned the entire beach? Why was he there? For how long?

"Answer me, boy," The man spoke up, taking a lurching step towards Izuku. The metal spire he stood upon creaked ominously.

His instincts urged him to answer for some reason, and Izuku obliged seeing no harm in the information.

"I want to be a hero."

Something changed in the man's expression. "Ah… Is that so?" Izuku was surprised such a hoarse voice could sound so delicate. He spoke as if trying to grasp a concept that was utterly foreign to him.

Another perilous step.

Izuku's blood seemed to freeze in his veins, a gripping, unrelenting fear filling his being. The air seemed to turn to sludge, each breath a battle leaving him paralyzed at the sensation. He had to leave. Get far, far away from this man and the oppressive force he oozed effortlessly.

But something held him back, whether it was the sheer conviction in the man's eyes or his own fear, something stopped him from turning tail to run.

"Why?"

Izuku almost missed it when the dark-haired man spoke again. Why? What was he asking? It took several seconds for his brain to catch up with the conversation. Why he wanted to be a hero? Well that was easy…

"Because I want to help people," he managed to choke out. The answer was simple enough, but any further explanation would be an unnecessary complication. Izuku admired All Might, but not because he was number one. It was because he inspired people to hope with his presence alone. Katsumi would be much better suited to the number one spot, but as long as people could see Izuku flying into danger and think 'everything's going to be okay now!' then he would be happy.

The stranger seemed almost confused at his answer, before his expressional hardened into something more sinister. "Words can be quite powerful, boy, but ultimately meaningless." He scoffed, and Izuku flinched at the man's first show of emotion since his sudden appearance.

But Izuku was more concerned with how the man flickered, disappearing in an instant from his perch atop the tower of old Toyotas.

Izuku's head darted from side to side, trying to locate the strange man, reassessing the threat he posed all the while. A speedster? Guess his bandage was just an injury after all.

Before he could pursue that line of thought any further, Izuku's world was tilted on its axis. He suddenly found himself flat on his back, a heavy, reinforced boot forcing what little air he had left out of his lungs. He stilled, heart racing at the metallic hiss of a Katana leaving its sheath and the cool bite of metal settling against his neck a moment later.

"Be still," the man rasped, either utter unconcerned with the situation or a very talented actor.

Izuku's quicksteel hovered uncertainly overhead, torn between its master's instinctual need to be free, and the logical decision to avoid being beheaded.

For a moment, cold fear spiked through Izuku. His offensive and defensive capabilities, while formidable, were not autonomous. They were entirely reliant on his own perception and how fast his mind could react to various events, subconsciously or otherwise. The fact that this man, no, this monster could move faster than Izuku could think, was both terrifying and enlightening. He'd have to find a way to overcome this obvious weakness.

That is, if he ever managed to get out of this situation alive.

The man stared uncaringly down the blade of his sword toward Izuku as the boy tried and failed to inch even a centimeter away from the razor-sharp edge. It felt like an eternity before the man spoke, though it may have only been seconds.

"The girl from before, the blonde that was with you, tell me everything you know about her and I'll let you go."

A sting of pain followed by a hot trail inching across his skin indicated the increased pressure of the man's blade, but Izuku's mind was elsewhere.

Kacchan!? What could he want with her? Was that the whole reason this maniac was here in the first place? The pain and asphyxiation were distracting and making it hard to think clearly, but air could wait, first he had to get himself out of this situation.

He gritted his teeth letting out a hiss of pain, eyes narrowed dangerously at the man holding him hostage but mouth remaining stubbornly shut.

"Last chance, boy!"

This was it, he was out of time. He had to risk taking him out with quicksteel faster than the man could move his blade. Izuku knew, judging from the man's casual show of speed, it was a longshot, and that was being generous.

Now!

But his lance of quicksteel swished through air, as the man strolled a few meters away before turning to watch the horizon. His aggressive posture and the pressure he exuded had vanished entirely, leaving Izuku heaving disbelievingly on the ground, quicksteel primed and ready to attack at the slightest provocation.

"A budding hero with conviction, huh?" The man tilted his head curiously and peered over at Izuku, "I suppose there are outliers to every rule."

Izuku barely caught what the man said under his breath, but it had only served to confuse him further. His heart was still hammering in his chest as he sucked in lungfuls of air, and he may or may not have been suffering from an adrenaline crash. Disoriented as he was, all he could managed was a simple, "Huh"

"Your physical skills are still weak, boy. I subdued you in an instant and there was nothing you could do," the man rasped, ignoring Izuku's ineloquent response.

Was this guy fucking insane? "Are you fucking insane?"

Dark pupils pierced Izuku and his mouth clamped shut of its own volition. Perhaps it hadn't been the best decision to curse at the homicidal maniac that'd had him at blade point not sixty seconds previously.

"What will you do about it."

"What?!"

"Your weakness… what is your solution?"

Izuku was so confused. This guy had come out of nowhere demanding answers from him and then the next thing Izuku knew the guy was slicing him up like a side of beef and demanding to know about—

Izuku hopped off the ground and was in the air in a split second. His skyboard vibrated in agitation as he hovered at what he had deemed a safe altitude.

"Who are you and what do you want with Kacchan?" he growled down at the figure below, who hadn't shown any indication of noticing Izuku's abrupt movements.

"Ka…cchan," the man said slowly, as if tasting the word on his lips. "Ah, the blonde one? Right… she was merely a means to an end."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Izuku shouted. He couldn't be serious right? The man hadn't made another aggressive move since then, but Izuku wouldn't let his guard down so easily a second time.

"It was a logical ruse, a test, so to say." He seemed to grow melancholy for a moment, "I've been traveling around Japan lately in search of… a new path."

The words held a certain weight to them, but whatever that meant was beyond Izuku's current understanding. He descended to just above eye-level with the man still keeping his distance.

"I was here yesterday as well, saw you and the girl," he said rolling his eyes. "That just now was more of a spur of the moment decision," his eyes narrowed, inspecting Izuku like a surgeon would his tools. "People like you are a rarity these days. In this world full of fakes…"

Izuku was stunned, "That was a test? I'm bleeding over here."

"Don't be so dramatic, boy, it won't even need a bandage."

"You're one to talk," Izuku muttered under his breath.

The man didn't respond for nearly a minute, and for a moment Izuku thought he might have gone too far.

"Chi" the short syllable cut through the silence like a gunshot.

"What?"

"You asked who I was. I have been called Chi… before." His voice was gruff, but not unkind.

"Riiight." Izuku didn't quite know what to say, this guy… Chi-san? was all over the place. The ghost of that terrifying pressure still echoed in his mind, but if the man's explanation was to be believed, and that was still up for debate, then he had never meant any harm.

"You noticed it too, yes?"

"Wh—"

"Stop asking what! Think, boy!"

His skyboard lurched back at the burst of emotion from Chi and Izuku leveled it automatically. What had he been talking about before? He'd called him weak? And then—

"How will I fix it?"

A slow nod.

There was of course the question of why Izuku was humoring the man in the first place. As insane as he appeared, he was right about one thing. Izuku was helpless to his assault, incapable of mounting even the most meager of defenses. It wasn't the only weakness his abilities had either. He had mobility and augmented strength in spades, but combat experience? Technique? He was sorely lacking. Quirks that granted immunity to physical attacks would utterly overwhelm him unless he took to the air. And that was all ignoring the natural weakness to heat that was built into his quirk. Somehow, he needed a way to get around even the worst matchups for his quirk possible.

"Its ok if you don't have an answer, I'm no teacher, but if you learn something from this, I don't care either way." Chi deliberately drew his katana once more, the scraping metal filling the empty coast with a ringing hiss.

Izuku's eyes widened in alarm. Was he really doing this again? Did this guy just get off on attacking people out of nowhere?

"Why would I fight you? Someone who ambushed me out of nowhere." Izuku questioned rhetorically. He was ready to simply fly home and leave this whole insane experience behind him.

"'I want to be a hero,' that's what you said right?" A cruel sneer came over Chi's features, "Is your conviction really worth so little?"

Izuku froze.

That couldn't be right, of course he wanted to be a hero. It just made zero sense to humor this man that he had just met today, and under perhaps the worst circumstances possible. But would this always be his solution? Fly away and wait for someone else to take care of the problem?

Inexplicably, Izuku found his bare feet settling in the still warm sand.

What the hell was he doing?

Chi's eyes bore into his own as he closed the distance, slowly at first but gradually hastening his approach. "So, you've decided then." The tip of his katana left a shallow line in the sand.

"Do try not to die."

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku avoided his apartment entirely after that first night. His mother may have already gotten used to his ardent training routine, but staggering into his home with bandages covering him nearly head to toe would probably be a bit too much.

So instead, he made an executive decision and called ahead letting her know he'd be at Katsumi's house. It was a simple matter avoid Kacchan's mother by flying through his friend's window. Its not that he was worried she wouldn't let him up here, he wasn't. In fact, Aunty Mitsuki was always oddly lenient with him, at least when compared to her daughter, but that was a whole other topic. Izuku avoided her for the very same reason he avoided his own mother, he knew she'd fuss over him, in her own way.

Though her daughter hadn't been much better.

Katsumi had been understandably irate when he'd came through the window wrapped up like a mummy. But for all her worry disguised as aggressive demands, Izuku knew she would keep this between the two of them. At least if he managed to convince her that he wasn't in any immediate danger.

And so, he told her the tale of a man named Chi and how he may have just become Izuku's bootleg sensei…

"Oi, Deku," Katsumi mused nearly a half hour later, "If this guy's as strong as you say he is, then why haven't we even heard of him before?"

That was a good question. At first Izuku had written it off as a case of a recent license recipient who had yet to make his hero debut. But that explanation became less and less viable as the night went on and Izuku witnessed the true scope of Chi's abilities. Time and time again he'd been humbled by this stranger, who Izuku knew was holding back.

The man had hardly broken a sweat after all. Every cut delivered to the aspiring hero had been precise, barely deep enough to draw blood, yet painful enough to be a hindrance, opening up his guard to subsequent attacks.

But Izuku had taken Chi's words to heart, little by little, he was observing, learning, and adapting. Hardest of all to come to terms with was the brutality of a true fight, something he hadn't really experienced up to this point in his life. By the end of the night Izuku was hopeful he'd take just a few more seconds to subdue than when he'd started.

"Earth to Deku," Kasumi said flicking him in the forehead. She was leaned over him, peering into his eyes, her left arm braced on the right arm of his chair.

So close.

His eyes widened as he realized he was close enough to notice light flecks of gold in her crimson eyes. His face lit up like a beacon causing Katsumi back away abruptly.

He was seriously losing it around this girl.

Rather than acknowledging what had just happened, Izuku instead answered her question. "Chi did say he had been traveling recently, maybe he's one of those heroes that sticks to defending a single area." Local heroes weren't unheard of, but Izuku knew this explanation was flimsy at best.

"Look Deku, we both know this guy is fuckin sketchy, and that's just from you tellin me about him." She sighed deeply, her voice growing quiet, "I won't stop you if you think this is the right choice, not again."

Izuku barely caught that last part, but it seemed she wasn't finished.

"Just be the fuck careful!"

He could do that. Izuku grinned at the fiery blonde, a show of worry like that was rare for her, and Izuku was equally concerned. But if this was the path to be the best hero he could be, then he couldn't afford to pass it up.

"How are you gonna explain the bandages to Aunty Inko?" Katsumi said, trying to lighten the mood.

He walked over to her closet and grabbed one of her many plain hoodies. Despite Izuku having shot up in height the last few months, much to the blonde's ire, Katsumi had an enormous collection of pullovers, some of which would fit him in a pinch. It would be fine until he could get past his mother and in his room.

"Sure, take my clothes, not like I fuckin need them," she drawled, flopping onto her bed with her phone and a pair of earbuds.

"Appreciate it, Kacchan."

"Whatever, nerd."

"Night."

"Yeah, yeah."

oooOoOoOooo

Chi had spoken the truth that night, he was no teacher. In fact, it was almost a full month before Izuku even saw the man again. But somehow, he had managed to inject the urgency he had felt that night into his own personal training. Izuku pushed his body to the absolute limit, and when he was broken and bleeding, he went even further beyond, improving at rates he would have thought impossible.

Where at the beginning of the most recent summer break Izuku would struggle to lift microwaves, he could now haul fridges through the sand, though not without significant effort. Quicksteel acted as a personal spotter in a way, letting him take on bigger and bigger challenges without worry of injuring himself.

Izuku wasn't at all surprised when Kacchan had upped the intensity of her training to match his own. Especially when she saw the results his routine had had so far on his growing body. At least, that's what she'd said when he'd caught her staring that one time.

They sparred regularly in order to make sure their power could be put into practice. After all, what was the point of all the strength in the world if there was no finesse to back it up? All Might could probably level cities with all that overwhelming power but has never denied shaking the hand of a fan on the street. How would that be possible if not for absolute, equally-overwhelming control.

When Izuku's sensei(?) next made an appearance, he came strapped with another pair of daggers and matching black wrist bracers. Izuku hardly thought the man needed any more sharp objects, but didn't comment. It wasn't even close to the strangest part about the man after all.

Chi didn't waste time with idle words, "So, you've improved some." He drew his blade, "Let's see how much, shall we?!"

The man seemed even more ferocious than the night Izuku met him. Flickering out of sight before a vicious slash clanged against Izuku's quicksteel armour. It had barely finished hardening around his forearm but held strong under Chi's blade.

"Ah yes, such a versatile quirk, hero-kun, but can it keep up?" Chi's smile stretched mockingly, vanishing from in front of him like a specter.

The soft sand surrounding them was probably hampering the older man's speed more than Izuku would like to admit. He shuddered at the thought of what he could do in a proper environment. A puff of displaced sand indicated where the man would charge from, but once again Izuku's speed was lacking as Chi flickered by, leaving a familiar stinging pain on his left calf as he passed.

He let out a hiss in agitation, "Do you really have to cut me every time?"

A voice came from behind his left shoulder, "How else will you learn unless there is a drawback to being so slow?"

Izuku swung a tendril of quicksteel from a closed fist, sending it whipping through the air towards where he heard the disembodied voice. Another miss. "I thought you weren't a teacher?" Izuku called out, trying to locate his sensei.

What seemed like a wrecking ball plowed into his back, knocking the wind out of him. Izuku found himself flat on his stomach, spitting out globs of dry sand from where he had face planted.

"I'm not," said Chi, though Izuku could not tell from where, horizontal as he was currently. "But that doesn't mean you can't learn."

Izuku sighed, "How am I even supposed to keep up with someone with a speed enhancement quirk?"

Chi came to a stop, lounging against what looked like a beat-up old golf cart.

"Wrong, boy. You are still thinking too narrow-mindedly. People come with a wide-variety of skillsets, not all of them related to their quirks." An uncharacteristic grin stretched over his terrifying mouth, "besides, hurting you with my quirk would be illegal, no?"

Was he saying his speed wasn't his quirk?! He'd seen Chi kick straight through car doors before in their spars, the thought that it wasn't the result of a supernatural ability was terrifying if her were being honest.

"What will you do when an opponent exceeds all your careful calculations and predictions? Give up? Cower in fear? If that's your answer, then it seems I've made an error in judgement of my own."

Izuku struggled to his feet, spitting the last of the grit from his mouth. Fine then! Quirk or no quirk he would overcome this obstacle, and he would be a hero.

That was the day Izuku acknowledge that human potential could outshine any natural ability.

But if he could embrace both? For the first time since that day almost a month previously, he felt he may have made the right decision risking life and limb to humor this unpredictable man.

oooOoOoOooo

This trend continued in the same vein for nearly his entire first and second years of High School. Chi would inconsistently show up while Izuku was out training, they would spar, and the man would dish out advice veiled as aloof observations. Sometimes, he appeared three or four days in a row, and sometimes it would be a whole month between meetings. Chi's schedule was as inconsistent and unpredictable as the man himself.

It took several meetings, but over time Izuku managed to deduce the secret behind the man's overwhelming strength and speed. In short, there was no secret, it was a product of backbreaking effort and dedication.

In this superhuman society, people tended to ignore anything that didn't have a hand in something related to quirks. Products and advertisements were catered to the quirked individual. Clothes were styled to adapt to every shape and size, jobs tested for quirk compatibility along with a merit-based screening, at least for those where a quirk would aide in efficiency. There were laws in place of course to avoid discrimination, but things always slipped through the cracks.

It was essentially the basis of their society. But what went ignored was the sheer potential of the human body in those who had taken the next step in the evolutionary chain.

Izuku had noticed it before, of course, though not in the same context. The bodies of humans with a quirk were practically wired to adapt to any harsh side effect of their ability. Why would any other form of stress on the body be any different? Breaking muscle down to build it back stronger was the basis of exercise, so why wouldn't the body's boosted adaptability apply to that as well.

Average fitness scores worldwide had gone up since the quirk revolution, and this fact wasn't exactly hidden. But it was no astounding increase, the average person would never have any reason to push their body far enough to tap into that enormous potential.

But Chi-sensei? Average?

The thought itself was laughable. Chi had taken that simple concept and slammed it up into eighth gear pushing through agonizing pain and fatigue, until the result was the power he now wielded.

If Izuku managed even a fraction of what the man had, then it would be more than enough to cover up his quirk's drawbacks.

Over time, Izuku did improve. While before Chi seemed to vanish from existence with his speed, Izuku could now recognize the predatory grace his sensei moved with. But more importantly, he could see him. His perception seemed to improve the fastest. Having to constantly track and avoid his sensei was proving dividends, and eventually, his body caught up to his mind.

Izuku pushed himself to his physical limits, sometimes unable to pull himself into bed at night, but it all paid off the first time he had consciously managed to react to one of Chi's rushes. He'd merely deflected the first and second strike only to be domed by the hilt of his sensei's blade, but to Izuku, it meant he was closing the gap little by little.

In the time that Chi was not present Izuku studied up on various types of practical martial arts. Having no sensei dedicated to teaching a discipline, Izuku's technique was sorely lacking. But after repeatedly testing a grab bag of techniques from different arts in his brawls with his errant sensei, along with things he picked up from the man himself, Izuku slowly developed a style that was both versatile, and synergized well with his quirk.

Izuku often wondered what the man did in the time he spent away from him, but any search in hero databases had turned up blank, Izuku had checked several times. He was no villain, at least not one Izuku had heard of. And Chi just really didn't give off that vibe.

Besides, how bad could someone willing to help out some nobody hero-in-training really be?

oooOoOoOooo

Something was different that day.

It was the break between his second and third years of high school, and Izuku's chorded muscles rippled with the effort it took to drag the massive broken-down sedan inch by inch through the soft sand. It was one of the very last hunks of metal still marring Dagobah beach. However, they were all pieces he had skipped over in the earlier years of his training, deeming them beyond his ability to move. Now, however, such a feat would be child's play, at least if he'd used his quirk. But Izuku was determined to clear the rest of the beach without such a crutch, so that's what he'd do.

Chi showed up unannounced, but that wasn't strange in the least.

Over the months the man had collected the arsenal of weapons, that currently littered his figure. So when he arrived with new gear, Izuku barely blinked an eye anymore. However, typically, his tools could be matched to entirely functional purposes.

Izuku had been skewered by throwing knifes, butchered via katana and hogtied by metal wire more times than he could count. And the protective combat gear Chi wore now offered the most protection he could afford without hampering any of his overwhelming mobility.

The addition this time, however, was a long, tattered scarf. It was blood red, the exact same color as the man's eyes, and seemed to serve no actual purpose besides making his already intimidating figure even more menacing.

Izuku braced himself for the inevitable surprise attack, so was utterly surprised, when no surprise came at all.

Chi seemed to deliberate for a while, which was the second out of character action he'd made that day. But it all made sense when he finally spoke.

"I'm moving on, if you're lucky this will be the last time you see me."

Huh. Well that wasn't ominous in the slightest...

Well, it wasn't exactly unexpected. Izuku had no illusions about where the man's loyalties lied. The fact that he had even come back to tell him at all was a miracle in itself.

But Izuku would still miss the guy, his gruff personality had grown on him after a while. Not to mention he was way easier to like once their meetings stopped consisting of constantly getting sliced up. Despite knowing barely anything about the man there was a certain bond you made with someone who constantly threatened your life.

"I'll miss you, Chi-Sensei," Izuku said with a bow.

"I'm not your sensei, kid."

His aura grew oppressive, evoking that same sense of dread just like all those months ago, "I trust you remember your goal?"

Izuku shook off the pressure after a moment, having gotten used to the man's aura over their time together. He nodded resolutely, staring the man in the eyes no matter how intimidating they were.

"Good," he said after a moment. "I can see the resolve behind those eyes, kid." He grew a bit somber, "Just remember to keep that resolve, no matter what kind of monster you end up fighting."

Those were the last words Chi had for him before disappearing in a burst of speed, red scarf trailing him like macabre trail of blood.

What a strange guy.

AN: Alright, you can have at me with your pitchforks now. All jokes aside, I can understand if some people may not like what I've done with this chapter. Anyone who feels that way is welcome to leave a review, and I'd be happy to discuss my reasoning with you. Next chapter we catch up with canon if that makes you feel any better :]