BP 10 Rank 3

Izuku

Was

Exhausted.

Never before had so many different muscles ached at the same time. Only pure determination kept Izuku from falling; despite this, he was still half-collapsed against the wall of the gym where he trained with Akira. His heart beat was loud in his ears. Was that normal? It didn't feel normal.

Izuku… may have been doing more than his exercise regimen recommended. All Might didn't know that he was learning to fight… Not that Izuku didn't want to tell him! He was just worried that the hero would think Izuku was ungrateful for his help, or that Izuku was pathetic for not already knowing how to fight. For the past few days, Izuku's been feeling this bone-deep pain that he pushed through to keep his schedule.

Plus Ultra, right?

Besides, he couldn't stop now! Akira's quirk was fascinating. Together, they had figured out that Akira's shadows could hold objects inside themselves with no strain on Akira. They'd yet to find his upper limit with both the number and weight of objects, but Izuku was sure there was one. There was always an upper limit to find. Akira was really determined to figure out where it was, saying that it was better to learn now in a controlled setting than figure out later under duress, which was… concerning. But even more fascinating was the possibility of teleportation.

Which was why Izuku was determined to be here instead of at home, resting. One of Akira's friends had a warp aspect to their quirk and Izuku needed to study one in action to make sure Akira's shadows were safe for human travel. While it wasn't 100% necessary to experience a warp quirk, research has shown that there are fundamental similarities in how each function, specifically in the travel aspect. A physical sensation has been reported in travelers, like a buzz beneath the skin the moment a body part passes through a warp. Izuku wants to feel that sensation himself, and then stick his hand in one of Akira's shadows. If the sensation is the same, it sound be safe.

Of course, that would mean that Akira actually had a warp quirk, which very well might not be the case. It could be a pocket-dimension quirk, or a carrying quirk, both of which could harm people. But Izuku was twitching at the idea of a bran-new quirk to play around with.

"Oh, Izuku-kun!" Speak of the devil.

Izuku tried to straighten as Akira and three others approached, but his arms stayed dead at his sides. He managed a strained smile. "Hey, senpai. How are you?"

"I should be asking you that." Akira reached out as if to steady him, only to retract at the last second. "Have you been overworking yourself? I thought you said your exercise plan was optimized to avoid that."

Izuku waved off his concern, or at least he would have if he wasn't so tired. "I'm fine, just worn out from a hard day of work. Anyway, are these your friends?"

Akira didn't appear to believe Izuku, but didn't press, to which Izuku was grateful. "These are my friends: Ryuji Sakamato—" the blond boy waved—"Yusuke Kitagawa—" the blue-haired boy nodded stoically—"and this is the one I was telling you about, Ann Takamaki."

Akira's final friend was a beautiful blonde girl around senpai's age, with big blue eyes and her hair pulled back into pigtails. But her most noticeable feature was the large, pulsating flame sacks that sat on the sides of her neck. The sacks glowed with inner light, flaring yellow and orange and an occasional blue as they pulsed presumably in time with her heart beat.

Izuku found himself staring without his consent. He shook his head to focus. "Right! Akira told me that you have a form of warp quirk, Takamaki-san?"

"Yeah…" Takamaki glanced around the alley fearfully, as if expecting someone to be eavesdropping. "Not so loud, though. That part of my quirk isn't… well, it's not on the registry, you know?" She shot him a quick glare. "I'm only trusting you with this because of Akira."

"I understand completely." And he did. Takamaki wasn't the first person he knew that didn't register their entire quirk. Besides, while the quirk register wasn't public information, their system could still be hacked, as almost everyone involved in quirk trafficking knew. And warp quirks were almost as valuable to the criminal underworld as healing quirks. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Besides, even without that particular ability, your quirk is already interesting enough without it."

"Ah, really?" She laughed nervously.

Izuku nodded vigorously, "Mhmm! My dad had a fire breathing quirk too!" She visibly relaxed to Izuku's confusion. "Well, it was more of a gas creation quirk with a small mutation that could create sparks with his teeth, but that's basically all non-mutant-based fire breathing quirks, so yours is so much cooler!" Izuku flushed. "Ah, sorry! I ramble a lot whenever I learn about a new quirk, I'm sorry!"

Kitagawa hummed. "You know quite a lot about quirks, Midoriya-kun. Your passion for the subject is magnificent to behold."

"Ah—"

"Yeah, dude, don't sweat it!" Sakamato slung his arm around Izuku's neck. "You're just interested; it's not like you're being a creep about it, unlike some people."

"S-Some people?" Izuku looked around at the teens, all of whom seemed to loom over him. Something uncomfortable crossed the faces of Takamaki, Sakamoto, and Akira, though Kitagawa seemed clueless. "Guys?"

"There was someone at our school—"

"A teacher," Sakamoto interrupted Takamaki.

She glared. "A teacher at our school who was… a perv. He especially had a thing for girls with mutant quirks."

"Ah!" Oh, God, no, did she think—"I'm not like that, I swear! I just, I just think your quirk is really cool, Takamaki-san! It's not, It's not like a…" his voice dropped into a whisper, "…a fetish or anything, I promise!"

Takamaki laughed, drawing the attention of a few passersby. "Oh my God!" she giggled. "Sorry, I'm sorry, just the way you said that, I—" She smiled at him, instantly setting off Izuku's embarrassment again. "I haven't laughed like that in a long time, Midoriya-kun. Don't worry, no one here thinks you're anything like Kamoshida."

"Kamoshida?" The group froze as Izuku pondered the familiar name. "That's… Oh! That's the abusive gym teacher from—Wait, that's your school! I had no idea!"

"The principal has been trying to keep everything under wraps," Akira told him. "He says it's bad for the school's reputation."

"Which really means it's bad for his reputation," Sakamoto continued. "It's a good thing those Phantom Thieves acted when they did."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess."

"Yeah, they're pretty cool—what do you mean, you guess?"

Izuku shrugged at Sakamoto's over reaction. "I'm just not that into vigilantes? I'm training to be a hero, after all?"

The group exchanged a glance. Kitagawa spoke. "My apologies. What do you mean by vigilantes?"

"Well, they're clearly using some type of quirk to brainwash their victims," Izuku said, cupping his chin. "A mental quirk, maybe something that manipulates emotions or the perception of their victims? Its trigger would have to be something innocuous, touch or even just looking at the victim. It sounds like an interesting quirk, but I can't help but worry about the long-term societal effects their actions could cause."

"And what would those be?" Akira asked.

"For one thing, there is already a sigma against mental quirks. Telepathy and empathy are seen as invasions of privacy, while brainwashing and hypnosis quirks are deemed 'villain' quirks. That the Phantom Thieves are using such a quirk outside the bounds of the law is definitely bound to worsen or reinforce these opinions." They looked somber, even Sakamoto, who had been most in favor of the Phantom Thieves. "Then there is the fine line between vigilantism and villainy. Studies put forth by the Hero Commission state that most vigilantes fall into villainy somewhere between six months to a year after they begin their illegal activities. Of course, there is always a chance those studies are biased or doctored, but many descents are documented in real time by the news media, like in the cases of Pagan, Miss Mark, and PopStep." PopStep in particular was still at large, even four years after her transformation into BeePop.

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into this," Takamaki said.

"Ah!" He was rambling again. And to people who really liked the Phantom Thieves too! "Y-Yeah, I've had a lot of time to think lately. Basically, I'm not worried about that Phantom Thieves themselves, more about their long-term impacts. W-What they've done is great, but… well, the media usually isn't so kind to vigilantes. It's making me worried."

Akira nodded. "Thanks for the info." Izuku blinked, confused. "Anyway, weren't we supposed to be quirk training? Let's go inside."

"Yeah!" He'd recovered enough to move on his own. "Let's give it our all, everyone!"