I do not own My Hero Academia or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
This chapter is late due to extensive rewrites, and because I was busy with hurricane prep. Thankfully the storm didn't actually hit my area.
There are many unpleasant ways to wake up, such as accidentally leaving your alarm set on a day you get to sleep in, or rolling over onto your cat in your sleep, who then proceeds to claw the ever living crap out of you. Another highly unpleasant way to wake up is jolting out of a deep sleep due to a sudden need to vomit.
Which, sadly, was what happened to Izuku. Running out of his room and down the hall, he slammed the door to the bathroom open and practically threw himself at the toilet, almost hitting his head against the bowl in the process. Once there, he threw up.
Then he threw up again.
And again. And again. And again, until he had completely emptied the contents of his stomach. Then he threw up one more time anyway, somehow. By the time he was done, Izuku was half surprised he hadn't vomited up one of his internal organs. He was almost expecting to look into the toilet bowl and see a lung in there.
'Ugh, gross.' Izuku grimaces,'Thanks brain, just the mental image I need when I'm already nauseous enough to puke my guts out.'
There was a knock at the door, followed by his mother's voice from the other side.
"I-Izuku? Are you okay in there?" She asked, concern clear in her voice.
"I'm okay, mom. You can go back to sleep." He responded. Because it was like one or two in the morning, and she didn't need to be up for him to get sick. Unfortunately, he ended his reply by dry heaving into the toilet bowl, because his body didn't seem to understand that there was nothing left to throw up.
"Izuku!" His mom exclaimed, "What's wrong!? Are you sick?!"
"Y-yeah." He answered with a shaky voice. He felt dizzy and his pajamas were damp with sweat and clinging to his body. He was pretty sure it was an illness and not just because he ate something that didn't agree with him. Besides, it had been a very long time since he'd gotten sick from eating something bad, his quirk would usually warn him not to eat it.
"I'm going to bring you a washcloth and some water to rinse your mouth with, okay." His mom said through the door.
"T-thanks mom." Izuku replied, still griping the rim of the toilet and he heard his mom's footsteps as she walked away from the bathroom door.
Less than a minute later, his mother returned. Opening the door, she handed him the glass of water. Once he had washed the taste of vomit out of his mouth, he took the washcloth and wiped his face off. He tried to stand up from where he had been kneeling in front of the toilet, but as soon as he did, a sudden wave of disorientation washed over him, causing him to almost fall over. Thankfully, his mother was able to catch him before that could happen.
"Izuku! Are you okay?! Can you stand up?!" She asked frantically, holding him up.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Izuku answered, "I just stood up too fast."
"Come on, let's get you somewhere you can sit down." His mom led Izuku to the living room, and carefully sat him down on the couch. Once there, she took a seat next to him and inquired, "I know you're throwing up, but is there anything else that's wrong?"
"I feel kind of dizzy, and I'm really hot." Izuku replied groggily. Lifting her hand to his forehead, his mother held it there for a few seconds to check his temperature.
"You definitely have a fever, you're baking." She said, as she pulled her hand away.
"My throat also hurts, but that might just be because I just puked." Izuku said, bringing his hand up to rub at it.
"I'll get you a glass of water." His mom got up from the couch and made her way to the kitchen.
"Thanks, mom." He called after her, and then winced at the pain in his throat. Mentally, he made a note to not raise his voice unless he absolutely had to. It wasn't very long before his mom came back and handed him the cup of water, which he drank in small sips. After his second sip, a faint buzz came from the cup in his hand. Izuku quirked an eyebrow in confusion, and held onto the glass with both hands to make sure he wouldn't drop it. The soft buzzing persisted, but Izuku decided to simply ignore it for the time being and went back to drinking the water. Once he had finished the glass, he spoke again, "Thanks, I'm going to try to go back to sleep. You should head back to bed too."
"Okay, let me know if anything's wrong. I'll call the school and let them know you're not coming in today." His mom said as she got up from the couch. Izuku almost argued with that, but decided that he probably shouldn't be going if he felt this bad. Besides, he could really use a break from school. She offered him her hand, and helped him up when he took it, but Izuku insisted that he could walk back to his bedroom by himself.
Once he was in his room, Izuku wasted no time in climbing back into his bed. He felt completely exhausted, as though he hadn't slept in days. And yet, in spite of the exhaustion he felt, he couldn't seem to go back to sleep. So, he just layed awake in his bed, too tired to get up or do anything, but unable to close his eyes and fall asleep.
And then he suddenly needed to throw up again. It wasn't even a half an hour after he got into bed that he found himself scrambling out of his blankets in order to get back to the bathroom before he threw up so that he could vomit in the toilet. Even though he was a bit of rush, Izuku still tried to keep quiet. He didn't want to wake his mom up for a second time.
Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly throw up any more quietly than he normally did.
'I can't even keep water down!?' Izuku thought to himself once he was done vomiting, 'This sucks. What am I going to do?! I can't just stop drinking the entire time I'm sick!'
Izuku closed his eyes and groaned. Well, he understood why his quirk buzzed when he was drinking now. In hindsight, it was kind of obvious that it was warning him to stop drinking. He must not be thinking clearly if he didn't realise that.
Standing up, slowly this time, he flushed the toilet and wiped his mouth with a piece of toilet paper before washing his hands and turning to the door. He opened it to leave, only to find his mother standing directly on the opposite side. Both of them startled slightly.
"You threw up again." His mother said in a worried voice, "But all you had was a glass of water. What are you going to do if you can't drink?! People need to drink more when they're sick in order to stay healthy."
"I-I think I can drink a little bit of water. It's just if I drink too much, I puke." Izuku said.
"You only had a single cup of water. If that's too much, you're going to get dehydrated." His mom fussed, "Maybe you should go see a doctor."
"I just got out of the hospital a few days ago." Izuku objected, "It's just a cold, I'll be fine."
"Izuku, you're throwing up constantly. You can't keep anything down." His mom countered with a look of intense concern.
"If it were anything serious, my quirk would tell me." He said, 'Probably.' He added internally before continuing out loud, "I probably just need to rest for a few days and I'll be fine."
His mom seemed to mull over his words. She was always worrying over him, and it had been worse since the incident on the train. Eventually, she gave him a determined look.
"If you hear a buzz, no matter how faint, you will tell me, and I will take you to the hospital. Okay?" She said in a tone that broached no argument.
"Okay." Izuku replied, "You should go back to bed. I don't want you to get sick too."
"Are you going to go back to sleep?" His mom asked, as though she wouldn't let herself sleep if her son couldn't. Which was definitely something she would do.
"Hopefully." Izuku answered. Though, in reality, he doubted he'd actually fall asleep any time soon. But his mom didn't need to know that and not go to bed because of it.
This time, his mother insisted that she walk him back to his room, and made sure to change his sheets and blankets before he went back to bed. He tried to stop her, telling her that he could do it himself and she shouldn't be spending so much time in his room because she might catch whatever he had. Ultimately though, she didn't leave to go back to her room until Izuku was tucked in bed with fresh, new blankets piled on top of him.
Once they had both said goodnight and the lights in the bedroom had been turned off, Izuku tried to fall asleep. After a while, it became clear that he wasn't going to have any more success this time than he did the last. Growing tired of simply lying in bed being unable to sleep, he eventually shuffled under his covers and grabbed his phone from off the night desk by his bed. Turning it on, Izuku winced at the sudden brightness coming from the screen and pointed it away from his face while he rubbed his eyes. After a few seconds, he tried to look at his phone again, but his eyes still hadn't adjusted to point where he could look directly at the screen. Instead, he stared at the space just above his phone in order to try to adjust to the brightness.
Once he was finally able to look at the screen, he noticed two notifications. The first was an alert, telling him that a villain was active in a certain area and to avoid going near there. Fortunately, the location listed in the alert was literally on the other side of town. The second was a notification from a hero news app that Izuku had on his phone, and it was what mainly caught his eye.
'All Might Currently Engaged with Villain.'
He had received the notification at 2:14, and he checked the clock on his phone to see that it was 2:16 at the moment. If he hurried, he might be able to watch the tail end of the fight. Unlocking his phone, he quickly opened up a news app that had would live coverage of the fight. The few seconds that it took to load were agonising to Izuku. He had seen first hand how quickly All Might could stop a villain attack, by the time Izuku actually got the video up, All Might would have probably already won.
At last the video started playing, and Izuku was greeted to the sight of a completely destroyed street from above (most likely the video was being filmed by helicopter if the noise was anything to go by) and the yelling voice of the reporter. Thankfully, he had grabbed his earphones before opening the video, so he didn't have to worry about the noise waking up his mom.
"-owing down! I repeat, it looks like All Might is slowing down!" The reporter yelled with a tinge of panic in her voice.
The camera zoomed in on the unmistakable figure of All Might, currently locked in battle with a lone villain. Shockingly, the reporter's words seemed to be true, as the villain managed to dodge one of the punches thrown by the Symbol of Peace. However, the next blow managed to strike the villain in the chest. Izuku caught sight of a brief flash of blue just before the punch connected, and the villain shot backwards across the street and smashed through the side of a building, demolishing it.
During the pause in the fight granted from that, Izuku managed to take his first good look at the Number One Hero. His costume was all scuffed up, and All Might was breathing heavily. Izuku only had a moment to process his appearance before the villain leapt out of the collapsing building like a bullet fired from a gun. All Might raised both his arms in front of his face to guard as the villain shot towards him.
Suddenly, as the villain got close to the Symbol of Peace, a blue, humanoid figure with a robotic appearance seemed to come out of him. It was probably the villain's quirk. Companion quirks like that were rare, but they tended to be very powerful. This one in particular reminded Izuku of his own quirk. It threw a powerful punch that hit All Might in the left side of his chest, hard, completely avoiding the arms the Number One Hero was using to shield his face. All Might was knocked backwards and a spray of blood gushed out of his mouth in a way that reminded Izuku of Yagi-san. Izuku never thought he would compare the sickly man to All Might in such a way, and he wished he didn't have too. Seeing All Might in such a state seemed wrong, like seeing the sun turn black. Izuku could feel his heart rate speed up as he watched in fear.
With All Might staggered and his guard lowered, the blue figure punched him directly in the face. The Symbol of Peace didn't even try to block or dodge the blow. Had he really slowed down that much from injury and exhaustion? The punch was powerful, enough so that it created a massive shock wave that blew away large pieces of debris close the hero and villain.
But, as All Might was thrown backwards through the air by the punch, something looked wrong. He didn't fly back nearly as far as a blow of that magnitude should have sent him, and it seemed as though his flight through the air was too slow as well. Also, there seemed to be smoke coming off All Might, and the air around him was distorting like a mirage. It looked like his costume was... burning?
As All Might stood up from where he hit the ground, Izuku could see it clearly. The Number One Hero's skin was red and raw, and his costume was shredded and blackened. But how? What did that villain's attack do?
Then, All Might charged at the villain. As he ran the air around him started to glow a brilliant orange. He looked a meteor catching fire in the atmosphere. But there was no way that could be happening, he wasn't moving nearly fast enough! It looked like he was only moving at around three hundred kilometers per hour, that was only about as fast as a bullet train.
Then it dawned on Izuku.
Friction.
The villain's quirk had to have something to do with increasing the amount friction an object or person experienced. It would explain why All Might's movements were slowed to such a degree, even when he was being launched through the air. And the burns on his skin and costume were friction burns.
All Might approached the villain and pulled his arm back in order to punch him. The blue figure raised both its arms, and blocked the punch before it could hit the villain. The ground around them cracked from the force of the blow, even with the increased fiction weakening it, it was still one of All Might's punches, but the blue humanoid didn't buckle under it. In response it lashed out with a kick that caught All Might directly in the chin. The Number One Hero's head jerked back from the blow, and the blue figure threw a flurry of punches at him. All Might was thrown backwards again by the attack rush, but even more slowly this time and not as far.
Izuku had pretty much figured out how the villain's quirk worked by now. When the blue humanoid figure punched the Number One Hero, that must have been when it increased the friction that All Might felt. His movements only seemed to slow after it hit him with its fists, the kick didn't appear to increase the friction. As long as All Might could avoid those punches, he could still win this.
Then, before he even hit the ground, All Might shot towards the villain again, having seemingly kicked off of thin air. Izuku had seen All Might do something like that before, propel himself through the air with his punches, but the teenager realised that the increased friction would actually probably make it easier to do so. In fact, one might even be able to swim through the air due to the increased friction. Once again, the Number One Hero caught fire as he moved.
The blue figure of the villain's quirk appeared again, placing itself between the villain and the rapidly approaching All Might. It shifted slightly into a combat stance, ready to attack the Symbol of Peace as soon as he got close enough. It looked like the villains quirk could only move maybe a meter or two away from him, at best. Once All Might was close enough, it lunged forward with a punch. But All Might suddenly brought his feet to the ground, and due to the increased friction, instantly skidded to a stop, his face only about thirty centimeters from the blue figure's outstretched fist.
'YES!' Izuku thought joyfully, 'As long as he stays out of villain's range, he'll be safe.'
All Might drew back his fist and threw it forward with all his might, intent on ending the fight while the villain was momentarily shocked by his own attack missing.
But the Number One Hero punched directly into the path of the blue figure.
Why!? Why would he do such a thing?! Couldn't he see that it was directly in front of him!?
Both of the villain's quirk's fists shot forward to meet All Might's punch. The blows collided with each other, creating a shock wave so powerful that the helicopter filming the fight was jerk to side by the wind pressure.
A minute later, the aircraft righted itself and the camera quickly refocused on All Might and the villain. And Izuku's eyes widened in horror at the sight.
All Might wasn't moving. He stood frozen in place, his fist still extended out in front of him, looking like one of the many figurines placed throughout Izuku's room.
The villain next to him looked to be laughing. He casually walked up to All Might, and leaned close to him, and said something that couldn't be heard from the helicopter. Straightening back up, the villain snapped his fingers and the blue figure delivered a punch to the left side of All Might's body. Apart from more blood dribbling out of the Number One Hero's lips, he didn't budge at all, despite the force behind the blow. This sent the villain into another fit of laughter.
Izuku felt cold, in a way that wasn't related to his illness. His hands started to tremble as his eyes were glued to the screen, unable to look away. There's just no way All Might could actually lose.
He's... He's All Might. He didn't lose. He always won in the end, no matter how bad it looked. So, he was going to win this time too. Right?
He had to.
Just as Izuku thought this, the Symbol of Peace's extended arm looked as though it twitched. Both the villain and the camera man seemed to notice as well, as the former's laughter suddenly stopped and the latter zoomed in even more on the Number One Hero. Now, Izuku could see that All Might lips were moving, albeit barely, that he was speaking. The villain seemed to be almost as frozen as he was, a look of shock written on his face at the fact that All Might could still move.
The Number One Hero's arm shifted, and his hand began to glow. Not the bright orange color of the air catching fire, but rather a brilliant white light, like the glow of pure crystallised power. All Might's frame shifted as he turned to face the villain, the small movement setting his entire body ablaze, and hurled his fist at the villain. The villain stumbled backwards in surprise and fear, and the blue figure emerged from his body again, throwing its own punch at All Might.
The two blows raced towards their targets. Whichever one landed first would determine the victor.
And it was All Might's attack that made contact. The punch hit the villain directly in the chest. For the brief moment that his fist connected with the villain, time seemed to freeze. And then the villain shot backwards like he had been fired out of a canon. He flew through the air so fast that he created a sonic boom, before colliding with the side of a building. A massive spiderweb crack formed across concrete wall from the point of impact, then gravity peeled the villain off of the damaged side of the building, and he fell several meters onto the pavement below.
Izuku felt relief and elation flood through his body. Tears of joy fell down his face as the biggest, happiest smiled formed there. He was almost ready to shout in victory.
But then the villain stood up, and Izuku felt his heart stop.
Slowly, the criminal pushed himself onto his hands and knees, then stood up fully. Blood was running down his face from a wound on his head, and coming out of his mouth. He was breathing heavily, and wasn't putting too much weight on his right leg. But he was still up. He was still moving.
The camera shifted to find that the case wasn't the same for All Might. Now, he was truly frozen, completely unable to move. The camera zoomed out in order to capture both hero and villain in the same shot.
The villain started limping forward. As he did, the blue figure appeared again at fist side. He gestured towards it while shouting something, probably declaring his victory.
Then, a piece of debris broke off of the building behind him. It was a chunk of concrete about the size of a microwave, it fell down...
...And struck the villain directly in the head.
There was a spray of blood as his skull split open, and Izuku quickly closed his eyes before he could see too much. The reporter was started shouting, while she had been talking before, Izuku had been too focused on the fight to register what she had been saying until now.
"A- A piece of c-concrete just fell on the villain!" She shouted in a shocked, almost disbelieving voice, "He's on the ground, not moving. And There's a pool of blood around his head. I- I think he's dead... Ah! All Might's moving again!"
At those words, Izuku opened his eyes again. True to the reporter's words, the Symbol of Peace was no longer frozen in place, instead he was standing tall, even if he appeared to be breathing heavily.
The reporter said something else, but Izuku wasn't paying attention anymore. He collapsed backwards onto his pillow, and dropped his phone onto the bed at his side. All Might was okay, he had won. Izuku really didn't feel the need to keep watching after he confirmed that.
He felt exhausted by the whole ordeal. Was this some tamer version of how his mom felt when he had been in that villain attack?
On the upside, he might actually be able to get some sleep now, considering how much watching that had taken out of him. Or not, since his heart was still beating at a thousand kilometers per hour in his chest.
STAND NAME - FRICTION
STAND MASTER- UNKNOWN
POWER - A | SPEED - A | RANGE - 1m
DURABILITY - E | PRECISION - E | POTENTIAL - E
The stand was named after the song Friction by Imagine Dragons. I'd never actually heard the song until I started writing this chapter, when I went looking for a song with the word friction in the title.
I mentioned that this chapter was heavily rewritten, and that's because the first draft was so ungodly boring. I'd never written slice-of-life before I started this fic, and as such, I really don't know how to write it. As a result, this chapter was originally just a slow plodding mess where nothing happened. At all. It wasn't interesting to read, and it was even less interesting to write. As a result, I added the fight between All Might and the Stand User, because fight scenes are something I'm good at/like writing, and because I wanted to advance the plot. At the same time though, I'm kind of disappointed in myself for chickening out on trying to write more slow, domestic scenes.
I really need to stop giving such cool powers to nameless villains who only appear once. There are so many ways that Friction could have been utilised in the fight. I actually wanted to have a part where the villain used it on himself and then swam through the air like it was water, as Izuku mentioned might be possible, but I sadly couldn't find a way to fit it into the fight. Also, while Friction is very fragile according to its stats, since only a Stand can harm another Stand, it could block and withstand punches from All Might. Basically, I designed the Stand to be something that would specifically give All Might a hard time, I think another Stand user might have done better. Helping matters is the fact that trying to fight a Stand User without being able to see or harm Stands would be pretty difficult.
Izuku's illness is based off of an illness I once had. It's not even exaggerated, in fact it's actually tamer in the fic than it was in real life. I managed to survive by drinking water out of a shot glass once an hour. Thankfully, it only lasted a day or two.