Chapter 2.1: To The Beach!

It was currently the morning after Izuku told his mother about his Quirk. Despite it still being three hours till noon, Izuku was struggling to decide what to do as if he were in the middle of a crisis.

His mother had taken news of his absurd Quirk rather well; she had proof of it, by virtue of him literally copying her Quirk; a clearly superior version of it, anyway. She was not the cause of his stress. All Might, and his adamance in refusing all his calls took responsibility for that.

The man had been his guiding light for the past ten months and Izuku, whether he'd admit it or not, felt immense apprehension for trying just about anything without his oversight. However, Izuku had also just recently discovered that he had a Quirk of his own all along. As immensely apprehension as he was, he could not contain his desires to experiment with and master his Quirk after everything he'd been through.

He just had to do something with the new powers he had unlocked and thus he found himself at Dagobah Beach.

It was still February, in other words cold, so hardly anyone else bothered to visit the site of his training grounds for the past ten months. With no one else in sight, it would be the best place for him to continue developing himself, his unlocked Quirks, and maybe even One for All.

The first thing he did, however, was none of that.

Physical exercise had been ingrained into his very being at the former junkyard, programmed as a pavlovian response such that without thinking it was what he started with.

After most of the beach had been cleaned up, his usual routine began with a simple warm up of knee-to-elbow crunches, pushups, pullups and squats. To do as many repetitions of each exercise as his body could handle to the point of failure once before he continued his endeavour to clean up the rest of the beach.

However, with all that behind him and the beach now spotless, Izuku followed the routine All Might had included in his American Dream Plan for such an occasion. Coincidentally, despite requiring a proper gym with weights, the warm up routine was the same.

Yet…

"100… 200… 500… 1000?!" Izuku had gone through a whole thousand knee-to-elbow crunches without stopping and, more importantly, without cheating — he counted a repetition only after executing the exercise for each side of his obliques. Yet, his body simply refused to collapse; it never teetered farther than mild exhaustion even as almost half an hour's time came to pass.

Checking the status of his Progress with Vitakinesis revealed it was the likely cause for his seemingly infinite stamina.

Theoretically, Izuku could have continued and thus kept his Vitakinesis working towards its next evolution. However, he was exactly thrilled with the idea of wasting his day with unending abdominal exercises. The most he was willing to do is balance out the amount of time he spend working his core with the rest of his body.

3000 reps of pushups, pullups, and squats later, Izuku looked like he had just come out of the ocean several meters to his side. In actuality, he was just soaked in sweat he couldn't fathom his body produced naturally, else he'd currently be dying of dehydration. His eyes stung from sweat, his hair stuck to his face as if he had come out of a bath, and he smelled… god awful.

But no one was around and Izuku could forgo his own state of discomfort to finally practise with his other powers!

"Let's see, One for All, or Telekinesis… All Might's strength or mother's legacy… Hmm..." It was a tough choice to make for sure. But it's not like he'd lose one because he chose to train the other first.

"Hmm… All Might believed in me and gave me his Quirk first," Izuku sighed, with his decision made. His choice was made with more than sentimental consideration, as he weighed the chance of soon being in the position of nursing another broken appendage.

'If I break anything again, Vitakinesis can passively heal me and train at the same time, while I can consciously focus one Telekinesis,' Izuku thought.

"Now, I just have to consider the System's input," Izuku muttered.

[Progress:

One for All: ?%

...

Requirement To Advance: Discover the correct way to use the foreign Quirk.]

"What was wrong with my first attempt at using the Quirk?" He considered, "I remember my body moving at the sight of the girl being trapped in the zero-pointer's path. Then… I did as All Might said. To use One for All, you just have to clench your buttcheeks and scream 'SMASH!'

"Er… Maybe that's a bit too over-simplistic a description for what I actually felt when going up against the zero pointer, personally. True, I did clench my buttcheeks and scream 'smash,' but that was more out of panic than anything else. Internally, long before all of that, I already felt the magma-like heat of One for All spill into my limbs and expand."

"I was fine up until I actually made use of the energy, so maybe I'll be fine if I just stay still while trying to summon it again," Izuke concluded.

Trying to be as cautious as possible, he sat on the sandy beach ground and solemnly stared at his finger as he tried to recreate the feeling of using One for All. A few anticlimactic seconds passed before he felt it and…

"So that's what it looks like!" Izuku marveled at his careful held right index finger. Unlike the rest of his body, it was marked with red vein-like threads of molten power and crackled with sparks with every subtle movement.

Seconds passed with his finger empowered by One for All before Izuku confirmed, "Well, it's not broken… yet. Now," he gulped, "to recall One for All without destroying my finger..."

"Eh?" With just the thought, his finger returned to normal and there were no consequences to be had.

"Ok, I guess that confirms the theory that action is required for there to be a chance of breaking something with One for All. But… unless I want to settle for breaking my fingers for a total of ten attacks at the cost of severe pain, I need to figure out how to use One for All more efficiently. The System seems to agree..."

Alas, a whole five minutes would pass with Izuku getting nowhere. This problem, he believed, was one that would take time and ample consideration before solving. But… that didn't mean he'd give up on using One for All.

Izuku Midoriya was a lot of things: He was nerdy, he was plain, he was skittish… Beyond all that, he was unhinged in the best conceivable definition of the word. His insanity was on the weaker side of the spectrum, but it was present. The years he endured harassment and bullying and his lack of self preservation instincts, were more than enough proof if anyone needed it.

Now, that same unhinged mentality was what allowed him to fearlessly stand before the calm crashing waves of the ocean with his left hand supporting his right, which had already been affixed to a flicking position. Green and red glowed for a second before—

Flick!

A wind pressure so great it created a trench that stretched over ten meters into the ocean appeared in front of Izuku as the bones in his finger shattered. Then, the water that had been displaced was filled violently and Izuku was splashed.

"That—" Izuku winced despite his mesmerization, "—was a real Delaware Smash!" He had stars in his eyes until he looked to assess the damage and hissed at the bluish-purple mass that identified as his finger. Looking at it as intensely as he did, he noticed the green aura of Vitakinesis ever-so-slowly working to restore his finger.

"Heh," He nervously laughed, "I hope this at least looks presentable by the time I get home or mom might have a heart attack..."

He did not dare try that move again to see if having more wounds for his Vitakinesis to heal will increase its rate of progression through the Beginner Level.

Chapter 2.2: A Stranger Approaches!

"I guess the only thing left on today's agenda is working on Telekinesis," Izuku resolved, only to realize he had yet to check what the requirements to advance were for the ability.

[Progress:

Telekinesis: Beginner Level

Prerequisite: Prolonged exposure to someone with a Telekinetic Quirk

Requirement To Advance: Build up psychic reserves through various exercises, including but not limited to: Picking up as many objects as possible, holding one large or heavy object for prolonged time, and so on. (1% Complete)]

"That… makes sense," Izuku laughed at himself for expecting anything of a grander nature. It was how he imagined someone with a Telekinetic Quirk would improve.

"Now, to train that..." Izuku looked around and squinted, "I have sand..." It was all he had.

But that alone was good enough!

He willed for a handful of sand to rise but instead a mound of it flew into his face.

...

A whole half an hour would go by before he could simply lift a small amount without mishap, but if he moved it faster than a snail's crawl it would launch erratically.

...

"This… this harder than I thought," Izuku muttered to himself as he tried to maintain a ring of floating sand revolving around him. He had been sitting like a monk in meditation for the last couple hours; the progress of acquiring control was astoundingly slow.

"At least it no longer looks like I tried to block a metal bat with my finger," Izuku sighed as he got up. The sun was starting to set, so it was time to go home.

As he picked himself off the ground he cringed at the tacky feeling that caught his every move; the result of all the sweat he had worked up earlier in the day evaporating.

He swiftly returned home without anything delaying him and didn't even announce his arrival before he entered the bathroom and started up a bath. Minutes later, after he emerged squeaky clean from his shower and bath, he found his mother was still out at work anyways.

"Oh well," Izuku eyed the couch pillow he had fumbled yesterday, "I guess I can continue practising for a little while longer."

He took the couch pillow to his room and put on a pair of earphones to make his practice a bit less of a monotonous endeavour, before the concept of time eluded him and in what felt like just a couple minutes, several hours had passed and his mother was calling him to have dinner.

After dinner, "a little while longer" turned into practising throughout the night; courtesy of his Vitakinesis substituting his human need for sleep. Then because it was a Sunday, he was once again free to return to Dagobah Beach. Today and going forward, he resolved to bring a gym bag filled with bottles of fresh water to clean up with and clothes to change into after his insane workouts.

"Delaware Smash!" Izuku yelled like the madlad he was, after completing another couple thousand rounds of physical exercise.

He didn't question the implications of what being so quick to break his body might say about his mental health and instead focused his efforts into telekinetically moving around sand.

For nearly the rest of the day, Izuku practised wholeheartedly. He would have gone until dusk brought about the end of the day, but…

"Oi, you good?" A foreign feminine voice called.

Izuku's eyes snapped open as the seven rings of sand that seamlessly revolved around him lifelessly fell to the ground.

'A girl? No. A floating pair of girl's clothes?!' Izuku didn't even know when he had gotten up to his feet.

"Seriously, you're looking awfully pale," the same voice from before said. "And every time I've passed by here since yesterday, I've seen you just sitting with your sand. Like… have you even eaten anything all day?" She thought he was homeless or something.

"I… M-my Q-quirk can actually w-work as s-supplementation for f-food, at least t-temporarily," This being the first time he had actually spoken to a girl in years, his stuttering was at an all time high.

"Whoa, chill dude… I'm not going to do anything to you. Though, now I'm curious," the sleeves of the floating shirt suggested that whatever invisible person was wearing them was now holding up a hand to their face, "Isn't your Quirk like Psychokinesis? How do you figure that keeps you fed?"

"Oh, uh… T-that's n-not my Q-quirk; at least, n-not the e-extent of i-it." Taking a deep breath, Izuku was about to explain when again, he almost suffered a heart attack.

[Congratulations!]

[Due to being in prolonged close proximity to "Invisible Girl" who possesses a Photokinetic Quirk, Host has unlocked Photokinesis!]

"What?!" Izuku suddenly backpedaled several steps away from the "invisible girl."

"Y-you! H-how long h-have you been w-watching m-me?!" Izuku cried.

'Crap! I didn't mean for it to come out like that!' He started to panic.

"Wait, you knew I've been watching you?" The girl said with… hope?

"It's because of my Quirk," Izuku managed to cleanly say as he almost completely disregarded the girl, "It lets me unlock new powers related to the movement and control of things due to being in prolonged close proximity to someone with similar powers. But with regards to how close and how long someone needs to be relative to me to unlock a new power, I… I still don't know."

"So you're telling me you unlocked Invisibility? That's a pretty sweet deal, seeing as I've only stopped to check if you've still been at it with the sand around six times since yesterday. I may have stuck around for a bit longer the last couple times I passed by, seeing as you started doing tricks… to get better control of your Quirk, I think." the invisible girl said.

"Invisibility?" Izuku's eyebrows scrunched up, "My Quirk tells me I unlocked Photokinesis, or the ability to manipulate light. It says the power came directly from you so… There's a good chance there's more to your Quirk than just being invisible."

"Wow, that sounds so neat! You can talk to your Quirk?"

"More like it just spits information into my head with certain keywords, but… It hasn't been wrong or lied yet."

"So… You said I unlocked Photokinesis for you." Seeing Izuku nod, the girl continued, "Ok, what does that do?"

The invisible girl's ability to get off track and enter tangents disoriented Izuku, but he couldn't find a reason to not tell her. He was probably just as excited as she seemed to convey, through sheer body language, himself. So, he thought the magic word, 'Evolution.'

[Evolution:

One for All: ?% "Level"

Vitakinesis: Beginner Level

Telekinesis: Beginner Level

…

Photokinesis: Beginner Level

Beginner: Grants the Host access to Light Refraction, the most basic form of photokinesis that allows the Host to change the trajectory of photons. With a current maximum range of one meter from the Host's body, photons grow increasingly harder to control the farther they are from the host's body.]

"Ooh," Izuku marveled at what most would consider a useless party-trick of a Quirk. Instinctively, as he had done with Telekinesis, he figured out how to will his new-found photokinetic powers into existence and made a laser pointer out of his now-pointed forefinger.

"Apparently, I can refract light," Izuku explained as he went on to turn the stable laser pointer into a collage of dots, shining forth from his entire body like a disco ball and illuminating in all directions for dozens of meters. The dots all started dancing hypnotically on the sand, as Izuku grinned excitedly, "I might even be able to do… This!"

His body promptly vanished from the invisible girl's sight, leaving behind only the clothes he wore. There were now, two invisible people on Dagobah Beach.

Izuku quickly released his invisibility and mumbled, "I can't believe it was so easy to do that! I guess this means that photons that make contact with my body can be perfectly redirected. Only a seamless and perfect veil of refracted light like that could have turned me invisible! But… Does it only go so far?"

Izuku's eyes shined eagerly as he posited, "I have control over light in a meter radius, so hypothetically I should be able to— Ha! I worked! It really worked!"

The invisible girl didn't know it but after Izuku had gone fully invisible, meaning even his clothes had vanished from her visual perception, he started moving around; his veil was perfect even after he extended his control over photons past his skin and onto his clothes.

Releasing his perfect invisibility, Izuku continued to mumbled, "This must mean that either I retain perfect control over photons within a couple millimeters from my body which exponentially degrades further on, or… It could mean that my perfect control extends to things making physical contact with me. Hmm… That extent of my ability is heavily tied to the truth behind the nature of this mechanism, so I should test it as soon as I can."

Chapter 2.3: Where Did The Time Go?!

"What?" At most only a couple seconds had passed, and yet it was as if Izuku's whole world had been flipped on its head.

"You said you might be able to retain your control of light with physical contact. You also mentioned my Quirk may be more than just Invisibility and you showed me how you could become invisible by manipulating light. So… I thought maybe it could work in reverse."

"E-even if that were the c-case," Face flushed and now fully cognizant once again of the fact that he was talking to a real girl, Izuku said, "I-i'd still have to t-touch y-y-you!"

The invisible girl misunderstood and desperately said, "Please! I… I know I don't have any right to ask you to do this for me. But, if there's any chance I might be able to actually see what I look like. Maybe take a picture… Anything! I'd be forever grateful." She honestly thought he was being creeped out or at the very least uncomfortable with having to touch her; a stranger.

"Y-you don't mind?" Izuku could hardly fathom any girl asking him to touch them, regardless of context.

The invisible girl answered by grabbing Izuku's hand into a handshake. "Please," she added with almost audible angst.

Izuku swallowed his anxiety as the desperation and hope in the girl's voice summoned his heroic desire to help her. He looked at the hand she had grasped and concentrated.

"It's working!" The girl excitedly yelled as she started bouncing in place.

Her arm was slowly but surely unraveling out of invisibility, starting from her fingers and palm, then her wrist and forearm. However, halfway up her forearm, Izuku hit a roadblock and could no longer continue correcting photon trajectories antiparallel to the path the girl's body naturally affixed them to remain perpetually invisible.

"Hmm," caught up in his analysis, Izuku lost his stutter as he said, "It's a safe bet to assume physical contact does, in fact, help me retain perfect control over photons, but only over a short distance of whatever it is I'm touching; maybe a quarter of a meter at most."

Suddenly, the girl pulled Izuku hand over to her face, dragging him out of his musings. But as Izuku looked up, he froze.

"Beautiful," he couldn't help but quietly say as he felt himself get absorbed by the girl's frigid white eyes. Her snow-white hair, cherry lips, and flawless nose doubtlessly made her face the most beautiful he had seen in his entire life and he…

He was cupping her face, her right cheek… with his hand!

Izuku reacted to this with the intensity of a child that had ignorantly touched a hot stove. He took his hand back as if it burned and refused to look in the girl's direction. 'I must look like a creep now...'

"Do you mean it?" Izuku picked… something up from her tone, he just couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.

Had the girl's face been visible, the degree of her reddening blush would come in close second to Izuku's as she said, "Since I've been invisible for as long as I can remember, I've never had to use make up or had to take super good care of my appearance. I half expected to look ugly and have you regret being pressured into helping me."

"Ugly?" Quite out of character, Izuku actually snorted in disdain at the notion. "I—" He quickly caught himself before saying anything that would severely embarrass him, "W-words wouldn't d-do y-you justice. I-if you want to s-see for yours-self, I think I could r-reveal your f-face by holding a bit of your l-long hair."

In a literal blink of the eye, the girl produced her cellphone with the camera app already running. She walked over to Izuku and bowed, "Please… After this, I won't bother you again..."

"I-it's no b-bother; h-honest," Izuku waved dismissively for her to stop bowing to him. When she did, he referenced what he had momentarily seen a minute prior to find her hair and worked his photokinetic magic.

"T-that's me?!" the invisible girl froze, dumbstruck even harder than Izuku. She took a selfie and continued to look oddly at herself through the camera app that was running until she suddenly disappeared; Izuku had let go of her hair.

She seemed at a loss for what to say, so Izuku commented, "if you could j-just get a handle o-on your Quirk and maybe f-figure out how to refract like I did, y-you could easily m-make it as a model or actress."

"I..." The girl's voice, now tainted with melancholy, said, "I want to become a hero."

"Even better," Izuku said.

"What?" Unknown to Izuku, the girl suddenly gained a serious disposition as she awaited his response.

Thoughtlessly, Izuku continued, "Not only could you make it as a world class stealth or infiltration hero, if you managed to figure out Light Refraction as an application of your Quirk, you could be a monstrous all rounded hero. You could even be like Uwabami and brand your hero persona and not have to miss out on other commercial avenues."

"Wh— How do you figure I would be an all rounded hero?" The girl knew he said she could be monstrous, but despite it seeming like an obvious jab at her on paper, his candid tone made her want to know his thought process.

"The power to refract light can be immensely useful in dozens of completely different situations. You could blind villains, or maybe even expand your own field of vision. If you concentrated a mass of light into a beam, you could use it offensively.

"Those are just a couple ways versatile onto themselves, I thought up on the spot, but you could probably figure out a couple more if you gave it further thought; or, better yet, got experience using such a power extensively," Izuku managed to say before becoming self aware again.

"Say… I know it's kind of awkward asking now, after everything you've done for me. But… What's your name? I'm Toru Hagakure."

"I-Izuku Midoriya," Izuku squeaked, never in a million years expecting that curveball to come out of nowhere.

"You want to be a hero too, don't you?" She asked, apparently already knowing from her tone. "You must have come here for the U.A. Entrance Exam, too. It's the reason you've been training so hard, right?"

"I want to be a hero, and I did take U.A's Entrance Exam. But… I'm not sure about my chances. Also, I didn't come here for the test; my mom and I live in Musutafu."

"You don't think you passed the Entrance Exam?!" Toru asked in disbelief. "How could you fail? If me just watching over you for the past two days was enough to unlock Photokinesis, haven't you unlocked dozens of other powers over the years?"

Izuku let out a derisive chuckle, "Believe it or not… M-my Quirk only manifested after the Entrance Exams." Unable to see Toru's jaw drop and eyes widen, Izuku rubbed the back of his head, as he said, "It says I needed to save one person with my own strength to awaken, and that was just about the only thing I could do before being put out of commission from the practical exam..."

"So you're telling me that you attempted U.A's Entrance Exam… without a Quirk?!" At this point, Toru wondered how many more insane things she would learn from Izuku today.

"What can I say," the light in Izuku's eyes dimmed as he said, "I want to be a hero too. The least I could do was give my dream a chance."

"You make it sound like you can't become one any more. Like, aren't you already a hero?" That seemed to get Izuku's attention. Toru continued, "Your Quirk seems to think you are if it only manifested after you saved someone with your own power, and just now, you helped me with something no one else has been able to do in all my life.

"Even if you don't make it into U.A… which I wish we both get accepted into... I hope that doesn't stop you from trying to become a pro hero. Just think of all the good you could do if you keep unlocking new powers! You can still attend another top hero school and graduate with the skills to become our generations All Might after he retires!"

"Y-you really think so?"

Toru had no idea what hearing her say that meant to him. Alas, before she could reaffirm—

"Oi! What the hell are you kids doing out so late? People are starting to file complaints!" A police officer said as he descended the stairs to the beach and approached.

"What?" Izuku only then realized that it was well into the night. He reached for his phone and shivered.

"How is it a quarter to ten?! When we started talking, the sun hadn't even finished setting!" Izuku couldn't help but shout.

"I don't know, but since I came from out of town just to take U.A's Entrance Exam, I'm currently staying at an apartment by myself. I don't really have a curfew to worry about," Toru shrugged.

Izuku then checked his phone and paused, "Odd… I have plenty of battery and no missing calls. Mom apparently hasn't called to check in on me..."

"Are you two ignoring me?!" The police officer glowered as he neared.

"S-sorry officer, I just didn't realize so much time had passed," Izuku said.

"Whatever, just go home or at least somewhere less suspicious. People find it odd when individuals or small groups of people gather in isolated places."

"R-right!" Izuku said, before he felt a hand grab his and start leading him to the stairs; it was Toru.

"So… you plan on going home for the day?" Toru asked as they scaled the stairs.

"Well… Mom doesn't seem to have a problem with me being out so late, so she probably won't mind if I take a bit longer to help you on your way back home. I feel rather uncomfortable with the idea of just letting go alone, in the dead of night, after taking so much of your time, especially after you told me you're from out of town."

"I… I'd appreciate it," Toru said and she meant it. She hadn't considered it until he brought it up, but it would probably be terrifying to roam Musutafu at night. The city was a hot spot for villains so great that even with heroes like Endeavour and Hawks, even with U.A's staff constantly trading patrol shifts, the crime rate never seemed to drop.

To turn away Izuku's offer, the offer of a kind, patient, intriguing, amusing, intelligent, and handsome boy, a boy who was familiar with the city and innocent to a fault… She'd be beyond helping if she even considered it; at least, that's what she thought.

Author's Notes

Oof, I guess might have been a bit too out of left field for anyone to guess I'd set up Izuku to meet Toru at Dagobah Beach and get photokinesis. But! There's still future chapters to play along with and Chapter 3, though not complete, already has another new power for Izuku to make use of. Feel free to guess what it is, though I'll only shout out people who guess both the person Izuku's System derives his new Quirk from and the name of the power.

Also, I know I'm kind of trash at writing romance— or just scenes with romantic undertones —, but the only way to get better is with practise. So... feedback would be appreciated~