When I came to, the boy was watching over me, a mix of exasperation and concern on his face. Judging from how much his tail was swishing, mostly exasperation.

He had was wearing a simple Gi with a white belt tied around his waist. I made a motion to speak, but apparently I wasn't that recovered yet, and it ended up coming out as a silent gasp for air. I decided that it would be better to just tap his tail. It was closest, being in front of him, and didn't seem too sensitive. At most I'd get some mild annoyance from him before he helped me up.

At least, that's what I thought.

Almost on reflex, the tail lashed out, bashing my head against the mat and sending my body into the air by about 6 inches. I didn't flip, just felt the rest of my body go up and then down.

"Oh-I'm sorry," the boy must've said, but I couldn't confirm that for you, because I was already gone.

Gojo greeted me when I woke up.

"Am I still out?" I half-muttered, half-groaned.

"Yep," he said with a grin. "That's a pretty powerful tail he's got on him, huh?"

"Can you at least pretend you care about my well-being?" I groaned as I rolled over.

"I have to be my authentic self all the time," Gojo said with a smirk. "And besides, I knew you were fine before you woke up."

"I guess..." I groaned again as I stood up. "Wait."

"So, you got voices in your head huh?"

I sighed and turned around to the older voice. "Look, I'm not crazy."

"But of course."

He was pretty fit, for someone so obviously past their prime. Well-toned. The jacket that he was wearing was long sleeve and fit him perfectly. He was missing an eye, and one of his legs were a prosthetic, but despite that he gave me the impression that if he wanted to beat me, he wouldn't need to try hard.

"Good to see you awake, student. I'm the head of this dojo," he took a pause, as if he had forgotten his name, "Ryu Kryze. I'll be teaching you all you need to know about shoot boxing. I have some questions to ask though."

"Um...ok." I said, a little nonplussed. Disregarding it, I pressed on. "So, what do you want to know?"

"For starters, where's your parents? I mean, you seem a little young to be here by yourself."

"Do I," I asked, "When people are fine sending ten-year-old's to walk to school by themselves?"

"Well, I pride myself on being head of a reputable," he paused to look around as something creaked, "If not rich institution, so I would like to know the identity of your parents before getting them roped into something they wouldn't let you do otherwise."

"I see. Well, I did tell her I was going out, so would that work?"

"Hmm...what do you think?" He asked with a mischievous smile as he leaned in close to me.

One hour later...

"I'm a fan of him learning to defend himself, but at the end of it, I do still want him to have time for other things, especially cram school in the future," My mom brought up with mild worry as she absentmindedly lifted a pencil out of her purse and into her hand to sign the form.

"Of course, Ms. Midoriya. I'm sure you'll be delighted to know that our school has very flexible scheduling, and that we'll be able to accommodate for changes brought on by catastrophe or obligation," Ryu said with a grin that was rapidly becoming his trademark for me.

"Thank you. Is that phrased in the contract in front of me, or..."

"Yes, of course."

While this was going down, I absentmindedly looked around the dojo. It was nicer on the inside than the outside, although you could tell that it was still lacking. There were two sandbags, two dummies, and a fenced in area that was the 'fighting ring', covered in mat. The rest of the floor was in carpet.

There was also one bench, which made me wonder where exactly that boy had put me. It couldn't have been the bench, and the mat was the most similar, but for some reason my mind kept going to the carpet. It was very perplexing.

"You're an odd one, you know that right?"

I perked my head at the remark. It was the boy with the tail.

"So I've been told. Not as twitchy as you, though." I shot back, rubbing my face from where he hit me. It was still red.

He winced. "My tail's a very sensitive part of my body. If someone were to touch your hand with no context, I'm sure you'd react the same way."

"Maybe, but I probably wouldn't smack the life out of them." I said as I brought up and rolled my hand around. "At any rate, it's my fault. So, let me make it up to you with a real introduction."

I stuck my hand out. "I'm Midoriya Izuku."

The boy accepted my hand. "Ojiro Mashirao. My quirk is my tail, obviously."

"Ah." I took a moment before remembering that I also had a quirk, technically. "My quirk is...what I call cursed energy."

"Wow, that makes so much sense," Gojo snarked. "He certainly has no questions left after that crapshoot of an answer."

Please shut up.

"What I mean is," I quickly brought up, "I can make myself stronger and faster, and some more stuff later. It gets stronger with negative emotions, and it's versatile, so I call it cursed energy."

"I see," Ojiro said. "Must suck having such a complicated quirk."

"Eh," I shrugged it off, "It's got potential."

"Still though," Ojiro chuckled, "It feels like a whole different power system as a quirk."

"Ha...is that so?" I said with an awkward smile. "Well, I'm sure there's a quirk that's more complicated out there. Like a quirk about...invisible punching ghosts that effect things based on the person's personality, or favorite song, or something."

"Maybe," Ojiro nodded. "Or giant space-worm fragments powered by conflict."

"How do you even get that as an idea?" I laughed.

The conversation spiraled from there, and for the rest of the contract signing that mom did, we talked about nothing serious. Eventually, though, I had to leave, and as I shook Ojiro's hand, I realized that I hadn't laughed like that in a while.

The next day, I came back to the Dojo in actual training garb: loose-fitting, light material for my sleeveless tank top and training shorts. I also brought my All Might water bottle with me and a sweatband that I was actively regretting having on: it was scratchy and chafed on my head.

"You should've left it at home," Gojo crowed. "I kept telling you you're gonna look stupid and wear yourself out more, but you said you were fine and it was tactical, and now look at you. Sweating your hair out."

"Shu-y'know what, fine. You were right." I groaned out as I tugged the sweatband off of my head, wincing at the way it almost scratched me and putting it in my All Might bag.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up too much. You were just nervous and overpacked," Gojo said consolingly, rubbing my head. Or at least trying to. His hand kept phasing through me. "Happens to the best of us!"

"Did that happen to you?" I said skeptically, eyebrow raised.

"...Look, my training was in-house," Gojo deadpanned.

I laughed the rest of the way-two blocks-there, and Gojo swore to never console me again.

When we got there, Ryu was waiting. "I was about to say you're late, but you actually came just in time. Good on you."

"I'm not that far from here anyways," I replied. "Besides, I wanted to make a good impression."

"Is that so?" Ryu asked. "Keep making it, then. Get inside, and I'll get you situated."

"Ok, so before you get started, I'm gonna be real with you. Listen good, because this is the only motivation I'll give you." Ryu said as we were inside and I was in proper gear: boxing gloves and headgear.

"I'm going to break you. Maybe not completely, and maybe not completely by myself, but I will break you. Your body physically won't be able to deal with the punishment I'm going to mete out to it, followed by the stresses of daily life."

"As you are, you've got potential, maybe even some prowess. But in the end, you're not as good as you can be. You're a bunch of faulty parts mixed with a nigh perfect core and some pretty new stuff. But that's not enough."

He pointed to his prosthetic, then to his eye. "Someone will come with more refinement than you, which wouldn't be a high bar, considering the way you are, and they'll take what makes you good. They'll break you and leave you to rot, taking the best of you. As I'm going to do. The only difference here, between me and them, is that I'll be giving them back, and so much more."

Ryu's body lit on fire as his hands grew blades that went through the forearms. The sudden display itself startled me out of my seat, but the thing that kept me out was the sheer power and heat he exuded, the sensations rolling out of his body in a constant blast in every direction. And yet the flames themselves did not burn the dojo.

It was as if I was standing next to a raging bonfire in a pit, and at once I was confronted with the reality that this man was not a normal man on any level, but a force of nature. That there were people that had become gods among men.

"You're reforging yourself here, kid. Casting away faulty parts for new strengths. And because of that, you have to experience the fire first."

The fire extinguished itself. "Now, give me as many laps as you can without stopping around the school. You have 20 minutes."

"Yes, sir!" I belted out as I dashed out of the school, mentally reeling in awe from his last display.

As I ran, however, I couldn't help but ponder the question that crossed my mind.

Someone on his level must have had a teacher of some kind. It simply wasn't possible to achieve his level of power without it, in my opinion. I could be wrong, but just from the display there...it was highly unlikely. And they must have had a hand in his injuries. Probably in the training itself.

But who could have taught someone like him, who'd obviously been powerful before it, and made him respect them? And if reforging is about making something better, why did it look like his faulty parts were not detached, but ripped out?

A/N: Sorry for the blueballing. Not really.