Hey, guys! Sorry for the long wait. I just had a bad week. I will try not to leave y'all hanging like that again. On to the training montage!
For the next ten months, before the UA Entrance Exams, she tested out her powers.
It wasn't hard to form a cover story. She used her power of suggestion to convince her mother that she was now receiving training from an interested hero to get into UA. Her mother cried and hugged her tightly when she told her.
Lying and using her powers on her mother did leave a bitter taste in her mouth. But Izuki accepted it as necessary, and moved on.
From nine in the morning to nine in the night, she would be out, 'training.'
First, she tested her power by teleporting from building to building. It was a little hard at first due to her inexperience. But eventually, she found it to be easy. Next, she attempted to teleport objects, without teleporting herself as well. Again, she needed some practice, but eventually, she managed to do it. Small objects at first, then large ones. From short distances, to long ones.
Izuki wondered if she could do the same thing with actual people, instead of scraps of junk at Dagoba Beach. She reasoned that it was definitely possible, but she couldn't try it, unless she wanted to get caught.
After a month of practice, Izuki had managed to master teleportation, thanks to the naturally enhanced intelligence and learning capability of a Q. She found out that in order to teleport, she just needed to have the target area in her line of sight. But to teleport to places that she could not clearly see required her to activate her cosmic awareness.
So the next month was spent trying to do just that. This, she found, was the hardest and most painful part of her powers. When she stretched her awareness to just a few inches beyond her body, the sensory output was so overbearing, that it caused the human part of her to shut down, and she simply fainted on the Beach. Luckily she managed to wake up and get home just ten minutes late.
The next day, she came to her usual spot in the beach, and was about to begin stretching her awareness, when a flash of light appeared beside her. Without even opening her eyes, she could tell just who it was.
"Ohayo, O Ball-chan."
"Ohayo~, Izu-chan!"
"Why are you here?" asked the Half Q in an irritated tone, as she stretched her awareness. Only to find an empty void. Wh-what?! But when I did it earlier..
"I cancelled all sensory input for you, darling!" O Ball said in her usual peppy tone.
"What?!" Izuki screamed.
O Ball shrugged. "Why so shocked? I'm just trying to help here!"
"How?"
"Simple. It's something your teachers always tell you. And it's something you are obviously not very good at!"
"What do you mean?"
"Concentration!" O Ball announced, her hands spread wide. "I'll leave the rest to you to figure out! Goodbyeee~"
And just like that, O Ball was gone again.
Izuki soon figured out just what O Ball had meant. When she began stretching her awareness, she attempted doing what O Ball had suggested. She concentrated on a single spot, just a few metres in front of her.
When she opened her eyes, she gasped. She could see,..everything.
Every molecule in the air, every little microbe that flitted around particles of sand, every electron that rotated around a nucleus like a miniature solar system. If she concentrated enough, she could see all the way down to subatomic particles!
It felt like opening her eyes, truly opening them, for the first time after being born. Except unlike the first time everyone else did it, where it would eventually disappear from memory, this one would never fade. It felt amazing.
By the end of the month, she had managed to stretch her awareness enough to be able to teleport anywhere within Musutafu, and for twenty miles around the city in any direction.
She then quickly went through her minor powers. Telekinesis, her mother's ability. For her, however, there was no specific upper limit. She found that lifting a few tons of trash and settling them elsewhere was just as easy as picking up a grain of sand. Fire breathing, her father's ability. For her, it was far more potent and powerful. She could change the temperature and compositional makeup of her fire, making it burn hotter, or colder, for longer or shorter periods of time. The first time she tried it, she did harden the skin of her face to take the damage, but it still felt like dunking herself in a pot of boiling water. She was half human, after all.
Soon enough, as the day of the UA Exam drew nearer, she began to attempt travel out of Earth. This was especially dangerous. The first time she tried, she nearly choked and froze to death. Luckily, she managed to teleport back down to the ground before she died. Unluckily, she teleported right into a restaurant, scaring everyone, and causing a few to fall off chairs. Realizing where she was, Izuki managed to teleport away before the authorities were called.
The next time she tried, she was a little more slow. When she reached Earth orbit, she began to concentrate, and built a rudimentary atmosphere around her, allowing her to breathe. Then she stared around.
It was at that moment, more than any other, sitting above Earth, dodging satellites and gazing around at the vast field of stars, that it finally hit her. She was the most powerful being in the Universe. Her responsibility was now not just to those people she had to save on the little blue dot below her. Her responsibility was to all reality.
"Not quite, darling~" said a voice beside her.
She spun in confusion, and snarled. "You!"
"Yes. Me." smiled O Ball, infuriatingly.
"What do you want?!" asked Izuki, angrily.
"Just to clarify, darling~!" cooed O Ball. "Your responsibility is to this Universe. Not reality. Leave that to me! Toodles!" And like that, she disappeared.
Izuki snorted, and turned back to the twinkling vista, losing her anger immediately. Despite the mischievous way that she said it, O Ball was right. She now had to look after an entire Universe.
She looked back at Earth. Then she looked out at the stars.
Making her choice, she blasted off. After all, she could travel back in time to the point before she left. So there wouldn't be much of a time gap between departure and arrival.
She was soon at faster than light speeds, streaking across the void at a pace that made All Might look like the love child between a sloth and a snail.
She was soon in another star system. She quickly came to a stop, and began looking around it.
Alpha Centauri. Her mind told her. A trinary system with three stars. Proxima Centauri was the closest one to Earth. Each star had planets orbiting around it, with a total of four gas giants, and over ten rocky planets.
Izuki took a deep breath, and teleported to the nearest habitable planet.
Well, nearly habitable. It was still a volcanic hellscape that seethed with rivers of magma that cut through it's surface. But it did have an atmosphere, and if the volcanoes were somehow stopped, life might flourish on this world at some point in the future.
Should I do it? Izuki wondered, as she stood on a small bluff in front of the biggest concentration of magma on the planet, fed by four giant volcanoes, lining the basin.
"You think too much, darling!"
Izuki sighed in pure frustration. "Seriously? You are such a pain.."
"Ouch!" O Ball dramatically clutched at her chest. "You wound me, ma cherie! All I'm trying to do here is to help!"
"You're not!" snapped Izuki.
"Oh~, I think I am. You're so unsure and nervous. Loosen up a little!"
"So I should just play with the fate of planets and civilizations?" Izuki asked. "Not very heroic."
O Ball stared, then she floated up and smacked Izuki upside the head. "Idiot! Who the hell do you think you are?! A hero? Puh-lease! You are no hero, neither are you a villain!" she gestured wildly. "You are a Q! Half Q, maybe, but still! You thought it yourself! You have a responsibility to the Universe! And what kind of person takes responsibility for someone or something? A hero? A villain? No, a leader!"
Izuki gaped at the omnipotent being. "Are you telling me to think of myself as..Queen of the Universe? You were serious when you suggested that earlier?!"
"YES! Although maybe not Queen of the Universe. Sounds waaay too,..weird. Maybe a more appropriate name. A heroic name. How about...Angel?"
"You knew I would choose that name in the future, didn't you?" Izuki deadpanned.
O Ball pouted. "Seriously?! You ruin all the fun!"
Izuki turned back to the erupting volcanoes. Raising her hand, she snapped her fingers. Immediately, the volcanoes stopped spewing out lava. The smoke still remained, but it would soon dissipate.
Izuki turned to the deity. "Tell me.." she began. "Did you really do this for amusement? The way you sounded right now..you seem to have a lot of conviction."
O Ball shrugged, and wagged her fingers playfully. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. I will neither confirm nor deny!" she said cryptically.
Izuki finally returned back to Earth, after adjusting the planet that she had been on to create life in the future. She did not regret it at all. As for O Ball, she disappeared soon after Izuki decided to take the responsibility, and began changing the planet. She seemed almost..pleased. Not by Izuki's actions, of course. The half Q was not that naive.
No, O Ball was smiling the way one would when they realize that their game is going as planned.
SPEEHSSS! Yes, space will be part of the story, as will other alien civilizations. Though mostly it is just filler. O Ball will be taking care of creating the real challenges. Speaking of which..I have a guest here.
O Ball: Wazzup, ya sonsabitches!
Really? That's your intro?
O Ball: Screw you! Do not come in here and steal my fucking thunder, you bitch!
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Do whatever it is you do. Welp, she'll be here for a while.
O Ball: I'll be here for for-fucking-ever!
SpectreOfMars