Nezu sat lower than the rest, his chair comfortable for his short, mammalian frame. Though, one could easily say he had more fun than most during this portion of the enrollment season. Currently, it was the one month period that they were given to overview every student's performance during the physicals.
While Nezu could easily say quirks weren't his most favorite topic… the people attached to them? He found them fascinating. Even discounting quirks, there was a raw diversity amongst humans that made each one unique and a puzzle to work out. He knew it was something that they never seemed to pick up but perhaps that was their obsession with the super normative nature of quirks. All humans had a set ability… which was rather narrow if he were to admit.
If you were a smart human, you would have a far better lot in life than having anything else.
Quirks though… mixed that up.
What use was intelligence in the face of a man who could generate storms with his fists?
Nezu glanced to All Might.
Quirks provided a solution to the human condition… or at least a part of it. Quirks were an evermoving game of rock paper scissors, allowing the weakest to go toe to toe with the strongest…
He smiled, watching the screen.
A young purple-haired kid… others seemed to be helping him…
Nezu reached for a stack of files, pulling out the one for the boy.
"Shinso Hitoshi. Quirk: Brainwashing. It would appear he used his quirk to make others gain points for him." Nezu commented
"Would that count as destructive interference?" Aizawa, wrapped in blankets, asked
"I don't believe so. After all… he isn't hurting or restraining them."
"Your thoughts, Toshinori-san?"
"I think you're right, but I also don't think he should get full credit. Maybe split the points 50/50?"
"I think that'd be fair. Your thoughts?" He looked to Aizawa
The man remained silent a moment.
"I'd agree."
Nezu smiled. Interesting.
"Now… the final contentious student."
"Midoriya?"
"Yes… quite the conundrum."
"Something's fishy about the kid." Aizawa offered, "Late bloomer? Normally those only occur with high-intensity quirks or ones that rely on Puberty."
"Ah… are you referring to Titan and…" Nezu felt his lips purse at the absurdity of the name, "Bush Wookie?"
"Titan was a nightmare… a gigantification quirk that covers you in flames? I'm just glad Torino gave me the idea to punch the sky and make it rain, otherwise the fire department would've had a century's work ahead of them…"
"Please don't make me remember Bush Wookie." Aizawa muttered, "But yes."
"Indeed. Midoriya's quirk is quite the conundrum… A short-range, high power telekinesis quirk… perhaps it's a high-intensity quirk like Titans?"
"No… He didn't seem to have any stamina issues over the course of the exam…"
"Actually… I might have an idea." Nezu commented, "I don't think it's telekinesis at all."
"Where do you get that from?"
"The way he damages the robots… it's more akin to someone with a strength quirk. All penetrative attacks on the robots' armor appear to be akin to something you would deliver, Yagi-san."
"Now that you mention it… you're right… perhaps it's like another student?" All might suggested, "Fumikage-san's quirk operated in a similar manner, though we don't see anything here…"
"But that's not the most contentious factor for our student here…" Nezu stated, "Look."
The screen switched to a girl, her ankle badly sprained. She seemed to call out for help, though there was no audio. The zero pointer, a hulking behemoth moved in, cocking back a strike at the downed student.
Suddenly though, Midoriya jumped in, holding back the blow with his… entity. After a few seconds of struggle, Midoriya seemed to be fighting a losing battle before the video appeared to skip…
"Did something happen to the camera?" Aizawa asked, sitting up from his covers
"No. Several cameras reported the exact same jump as well as the sensors and Ochako-san herself."
Seeing the aftermath was insane… the one frame, Midoriya was barely holding back the behemoth… the next, it's arm was scored, dented, and torn to shreds and Izuku was hunched over, vomiting.
"Quite the bizarre cut, wouldn't you think?"
"Perhaps he moved faster than the camera?"
"The zero pointer registered no time as having passed between Midoriya's struggle and it's incapacitation."
"How short can it measure?"
"To the Nanosecond."
"High intensity it is…" All Might muttered… looking at the boy as he held back the bot with a fierce smile, "What's it called, by the way."
"The World."
"I'll have to look into that."
Izuku hummed to himself, not any particular tune, but more a 'hmm' in concentration. While the world was quite powerful… his ability to act autonomously was strictly limited to self-defense. Shame. Some autonomy could be helpful… but he had to figure any quirk had to have some downside. Power never came for free.
The World, on his command, buried its fist into one of the robots.
It did bother him, though. His quirk seemed to have no downside… which was impossible. All quirks had something. His father, for example, could breathe fire but needed to eat spicy foods. He also got acid reflux if he did it too much. His mother got headaches if she tried to pull something too large towards herself.
Perhaps the world was like his mother's quirk… and he hadn't pushed it hard enough?
"Faster." He commanded The World.
Izuku wanted to give his all on this practical exam, no holding back.
At his command, The World moved faster, each swing becoming harder to detect. Still, no strain, though. He frowned as The World took out a three-pointer by caving it's metallic head in… an unnecessary show of force, but he wanted to find the absolute limits of The World. His commands demanded more, in less time until... a noise took him.
It was practically deafening as a single footstep practically made the earth quake. He felt his stomach bottom out once he saw the Godzilla sized machination. He couldn't dream of beating it… not in a thousand years…
"Help! I'm stuck!" A female voice called to him, his feet moved in response
'WHAT. AM. I. DOING!' Izuku screamed to himself… or out loud, he wasn't sure
His feet scrambled forward, the power of his physical training allowing him to outpace his former self by leaps and bounds… but it wasn't enough. Izuku mentally screamed to himself. He had to be faster!
He pushed off using The World, propelling himself into place with just enough time. If he wasn't fast enough, he'd have to borrow The World's power to enhance his own. He pushed The World to stop the gigantic fist, larger than he was and for the first time, he felt strain… but not to himself. He could feel his doubts climb into him.
Perhaps Kacchan was right?
Maybe he wasn't cut out to be a-
No.
This was his quirk's limit. But that didn't mean he couldn't push harder. Like a muscle, he would just have to train his quirk as he had his body. But right now? His limit wasn't enough. Someone was behind him… relying on him to protect them.
If he wanted to be the greatest hero… beyond even the symbol of peace himself, he would have to go beyond! To crash through his limits and keep pushing!
"PLUS ULTRA!" Izuku howled, demanding every ounce of power and speed The World had and more
Izuku heard the ticking of a clock, the world slowing to a crawl. The world seemed serene, as he felt his arms give. His arms… not the world.
His arms were sore…
Was this…?
He smiled, looking to the side as The World pulled back from the machine.
So… The World's ability is to stop time…
He laughed… the sheer arrogance of his quirk.
He wanted to be a hero… and something that always stopped a hero from saving people… even All Might… was time. No matter how fast you are… time will always pass and when time passes, people die. It was an immutable fact. The best you could do as a hero was to be faster, that way fewer died.
He roared in laughter, a crazed kind.
"Fine… I'll take your gambit, life. I'm gonna save everyone. My World will transcend the limits of humanity and become the symbol of peace for the whole WORLD!"
For the first time since time had stopped, Izuku moved, a smile spreading across his face as he gave The World one simple command.
"Save her from this villain." Izuku's finger pointed at the arm
Izuku had barely moved but he felt the strain on himself. It appeared that moving within stopped time consumed his stamina at an alarming rate. He had maybe a second...er… perhaps using time to measure time during stopped time was a poor idea but he had no real analogy to work off of.
Time without time it is.
His best guess was that he could only physically move about as far as he could in a single second within stopped time before his body would give… the world on the other hand... could do far more…
He was almost completely unrestricted within this space of his.
By the time he felt the world's limit, the machine's hand looked like a junk pile rather than any semblance of the Colossal titan he'd held back before.
"The World… Resume Time." Izuku said, energy leaving his voice
As soon as he did, he felt his world collapse on itself. His blood pumped in his ears, deafening him as he felt as if someone had dropped a planet on his gut. He hurled and heaved as he barely managed to hold back the black edging in the corners of his vision. His eyes watered as his blood felt as if it were made of molten lead.
"A-are you okay?" The girl asked him
Oh. It was the girl who helped him when he tripped earlier.
Through his gasps, he responded.
"Yeah… just… never… pushed… my quirk… that… hard… before." He said between heaves, "Feel like… I just… ran… two mara… thons."
"What did you even do? You were just holding it back and then… 'Boom'!" She waved her hands emphatically, "and it exploded!"
"Not sure exactly… I kinda just winged it. My feet moved on their own and I kinda was there… to help." His breathing started to return to normal
"I've hit my limit for the day… would you mind…" She pointed to a slab of concrete that easily weighed several tons, "I can make it wei-"
"S-sorry." Izuku ordered The World to lift the stone off of her, something well within its power
"Woah… Your telekinetic quirk is strong."
"Thanks." Izuku said, "So…"
He looked around nervously.
"Wanna get something to eat once this is over?"
She smiled.
So, that's chapter two, and our introduction into the abilities of Time Stop.
To make it fair, and a bit different than it appears in Jojo, I'm going to be adding some strict limitations and some perks as well.
Time stop, in this fic, will (With the exception of one planned moment) NEVER be like Dio's. Stopped time's duration is directly proportional to what Izuku does, as I think it better explains the discrepancies within Jojo's anime.
So, if he can do something in 1 second, and he does it in time stop, that would be "1 second" of stopped time. If Izuku doesn't move much, or he just looks around, his time stop could potentially last longer than Dio's. Also, the World, with no real stamina limit, and a much higher speed and strength, would, of course, have far more they could do in a "Second" Than Izuku, which I think nicely explains how Jotaro learned time stop and his stand was the only thing capable of moving at first.
As such, I'm mostly going to have it used as a last-ditch trump card, or a tool for thinking and observation rather than a tool to overpower opponents and flip tables as DIO used it.
Also... the next update might be a ways away. I'm getting the feeling my girlfriend is about to end things between us... so... I'm honestly not really feeling up to doing much as of late... so... I'll probably post the next chapter maybe a week or two from now.