One Month Later
Izuku was currently sitting on his couch at home, lifting a small dumbbell with his right hand as he watched t.v with his best friend right beside him.
Today was one of his free days and he was going to take advantage of it by watching one of his favorite events of the year.
The U.A Sports Festival.
He had already seen the first years have their turn at the festival a little while ago and now it was time for the second years to have their go at it.
"This is so amazing, just think about it, any one of these participants could be pro heroes in just a couple of years! Maybe one of them could be in the top 10 someday!" The young boy said, letting his inner fanboy come out.
"Just imagine, next year that could be us participating on t.v." His best friend said which made him widen his eyes and feel pretty nervous as his face became red.
"O-Oh yeah I didn't think about that. So many people will be watching huh?" The teen boy then held his dumbbell up high as he smiled. "Well then we'll just have to show everyone what we can do right?"
The purple haired girl nodded and laughed a little. "Look at you getting fired up a little. This part of you is fun to see."
"It's just that after all that's happened, I'm feeling better about our chances to get into U.A. We've both improved a fair amount in this past month. Just 9 more months until the entrance exam and for me to get stronger." Izuku said as his smile grew.
"Well, you're certainly making great progress. Before I would say we were around the same strength, but now you would definitely beat me if we had an arm wrestling match." The teen girl said with a smile as she twirled one of her earphone jacks around her finger.
"Yeah I've gotten a little stronger, but it's not enough. Sure, carrying around smaller tires has gotten a lot easier since I first started, but I need to get to the point where my body is ready enough." He said, trying his best to not let anything slip up with his mom being in the same room as the two of them.
"Would you two kids like some popcorn?" Inko asked as she grabbed a bag of popcorn.
"If it's not any trouble to you Mrs. Midoriya. I don't need you doing any extra work." The teen girl said to the woman as she looked back.
The green haired woman shook her head as she opened the microwave and placed the bag of popcorn inside. "Oh it's no effort at all, you two keep enjoying that sports festival."
Both teens nodded and continued to watch, but something strange suddenly happened with one of the participants. "Why the hell are his clothes coming off?!"
Kyouka covered her eyes immediately with a bright red face while her hero had a shocked look on his face. "W-What the heck..."
Both of them had witnessed a second year with blonde hair have his clothes just fall off of him at the beginning of the round. Izuku watched with wide eyes as the second year struggled to put his pants back on while the other students ran past him, looking embarrassed.
"T-That certainly leaves an impression to anyone watching. Even if he doesn't win, at least he'll be remembered." The young boy said, still not believing what he saw.
Kyouka rubbed her arms and shook her head, still disturbed at what she just witnessed. "G-God, I hope we never have to see him when we're in U.A. I'd rather forget what I just saw forever."
Hopefully, that image in her head would go away sooner or later. She'd rather not have an image like that appear in front of her eyes ever again.
She then turned to Izuku, watching him as he continued to enjoy the sports festival with the same enthusiasm he showed when watching the first years compete.
She could imagine next year with the two of them walking together side by side at the sports festival. All the people watching will of course make her nervous as well, but she knew that as long as her hero was by her side, she could handle anything.
1 month later
It was now June with only 8 more months until the entrance exam. School had ended a little while ago and currently the two friends were at the beach together, getting ready to train.
"Okay young Midoriya, just continue what you've been doing and start hauling some trash off of the beach. Maybe try to go for some heavier loads this time." All Might in his scrawny form said as he pointed at some trash.
The young boy nodded and stretched a little before running towards the trash. "I'm on it All Might!"
The scrawny man laughed a little as he crossed his arms, watching as the boy ran off. "It's been 2 months and he's still got that enthusiasm. I hope it continues for the next 8 months. Most people would start having second thoughts by now."
"Well, Izuku has always had this persistence to him. It's traits like those that'll make him an excellent hero when he's older." Kyouka said as she watched the young boy doing his best to push a big metal safe, moving it little by little.
"I see, well seeing this much persistence makes me know I made the right choice in choosing him as my successor." The hero said as he crossed his arms.
Hearing these words brought so much happiness to the young girl even after two months of knowing this information. Izuku has been waiting his entire life to become an amazing hero and he was getting that chance from the person he admires most in the world.
Sometimes she would feel like it was a dream herself, pinching herself once in a while. It was just so crazy to believe that the number one hero would be training the both of them for U.A.
Of course, there's a part of her that wonders how things would've been if Izuku hadn't met All Might that day. There's a good chance that her hero wouldn't have the chance to get a quirk, but she knows that if that was the case then he would still do his best to get into U.A and she knew he could do it even without a quirk with his hard work.
"I guess it's time to train for the day. I want to try something new for today." She said to herself as she looked at the ocean.
This is kind of training is something she's been thinking about ever since they were attacked by the sludge villain.
She remembered when she tried to stick her earphone jack into the villain, but it didn't work since his body was fluid. Maybe if her quirk could work on liquids then maybe she could've saved him.
If something like that ever happened again, she wanted to be ready this time. She had spent the first 2 months testing the limits of what objects she can destroy with her earphone jacks and she's made decent progress so far.
One thing she had been trying was doing various exercises to try to get her heartbeat to speed up. With a faster heartbeat, she had been able to destroy more large and dense objects.
At the moment she isn't able to destroy any objects that are made of metal with her normal heartbeat. But with about 20 to 30 minutes of exercise, she had been able to destroy a car door at best.
The purple haired girl walked towards the ocean and stopped as the waves began to gently hit her feet.
"Let's try my normal heartbeat first." She said to herself as she crouched down and put one of her earphone jacks into the water.
She then started to channel her heartbeat into the water and saw small ripples forming in the water. 'Dammit, it's not strong enough. That won't do anything against a villain made of fluid.'
The young girl sighed as her earphone jack stayed still in the water, watching as the gentle waves kept coming.
Maybe she could try doing some exercises to get her heartbeat to speed up for a stronger frequency. That could work, but would it be enough?
She shook her head as she stood up, not wanting to doubt herself now.
The teen girl began to perform her exercises, trying to speed up her heartbeat. She performed simple jumping jacks, squatting, and running in place as she felt her heartbeat getting quicker.
However, there was an issue with this method, it left her a little tired every time. At the end of her exercises, she felt sweat forming on her forehead as her breathing got a little heavy. 'This can't be very efficient, I can't be useful in battle if I'm tired beforehand.'
The young girl shook her head as she decided to ignore these thoughts for now and went back to the ocean, crouching down and putting her earphone jack in the water once again before starting to channel her heartbeat into the water.
She gave a tired smile as she saw the ripples in the water become larger than before, but it still wasn't quite enough.
She then remembered something Izuku said a long while back about her using both earphone jacks to double the power. 'No reason not to try it…'
She sent her other earphone jack into the water and channeled her heartbeat through both earphone jacks. The water now started to fluctuate and soon enough some water came splashing up at her face.
"G-Gross…" Kyouka coughed a little with some of the salt water getting in her mouth and spit it out immediately before she smiled, realizing what she just achieved. "Hell yeah, I did it!"
Her cheers were heard by the teen boy as he ran over to the girl with a microwave in hand. "What is it Kyouka? Did you make a breakthrough with your quirk?!"
She could tell he was getting a little excited even though he was trying to hide it. Those green eyes shined with passion whenever something had to do with quirks.
The purple haired girl smiled at him and nodded as she pointed at the water. "Yeah, I did. Watch this."
She then put both earphone jacks back into the water before channeling her heartbeat through them as she backed up a little. Suddenly the water fluctuated and came splashing up like before, luckily missing her face this time.
"That's amazing! I didn't know your quirk could work on liquids too! This just expands the possibilities of your quirk even more!" Izuku shouted in excitement, not being able to hold in his fanboyish nature any longer. "With both earphone jacks, you've doubled the power of your heartbeat. That means my hypothesis I wrote my notes was correct. Does this mean others could be correct as well? What would happen if someone was inside the water? Would they get damaged by the vibration? I know you can't control the exact direction of the frequency, but maybe in the future you could have equipment to aim. Maybe something similar to Present Mic's equipment could work. Then again.…"
The quirkless boy continued to mutter away as usual when talking about her quirk as the young girl listened to every word with a small hint of red on her face. 'I can't help but feel proud that he puts this much thought into my quirk. I can't wait to see what other ideas he'll have in the future.'
As the boy continued to mutter, All Might walked towards the both of them as he raised an eyebrow. "Why is young Midoriya nerding out again?"
Kyouka wiped some sweat off of her forehead as she stood up before looking at the scrawny man. "I found out a way to have my quirk work against fluids. But the issue is I have to do some exercises beforehand so I can speed up my heartbeat, it leaves me a little tired every time."
"Ah I see, you wouldn't want to force yourself to be tired in order to have more power." The hero said as he cupped his chin. "I have an idea, maybe you can try some breathing exercises."
"Breathing exercises?" The teen girl asked as she tilted her head.
"Yeah, some people use breathing exercises to either slow down or speed up their heartbeat. It's not the easiest thing to learn, but I'm sure some online videos could help with that. If you have to, you can even attend yoga classes for that." All Might said with a small smile on his face.
"Yoga classes? I think I'm good on that, but I'll definitely look up some online videos for breathing exercises." The young girl said, not wanting to take yoga classes so she wouldn't have to be away from Izuku much.
The green haired boy now finished his muttering and looked at Kyouka with a smile. "Yeah, breathing exercises are perfect. It'll also be great if you're ever rescuing people and need to use your quirk to destroy larger objects that are in the way. Or maybe even before a battle so you can use your quirk at full power right away."
The purple haired girl nodded at this, taking all of these ideas to heart. She really appreciated how much he and All Might have helped her these past couple of months even though they were supposed to be used on Izuku. But it's not like she could tell him to stop giving her ideas. If anything, that would only discourage the boy and she didn't want to ever do that.
The number one hero had turned on to be a better mentor than she expected. It's not that she doubted him much, but she wasn't too sure how much mentoring the hero could do other than focusing on building muscle.
What she wasn't aware of is that in All Might's back pocket there was a book called "Teaching for Total Dummies."
All Might then transformed into his muscle form and started ruffling the boy's messy hair as he laughed. "Analytical as always young Midoriya! Now let's continue your training, these 8 months will be over before you know it!"
"Right! I can't afford too many breaks!" The quirkless boy said as he ran back to the trash to continue picking up the smaller pieces with the muscular hero following him and hyping him up.
"Put your back into it, young Midoriya!"
"Yes, sir!"
Kyouka couldn't help, but laugh as she watched the scene. These two were getting more and more casual with each other with each passing week.
She was glad that she was able to make her quirk work on fluids, but she knew that alone wouldn't be enough to protect him. There won't always be a villain who's made of fluid. She still was nowhere near close enough to the strength she wanted to be at.
She definitely had to get those breathing exercises down to control her heartbeat. It would be very useful to get her heartbeat to speed up when she needs more power and to slow down when she doesn't want to do too much damage.
All of this training will be worth it when the day of the entrance exam comes. At this rate, she knew that she and Izuku would have a chance to get into U.A no problem.
As both teens continued to train, they both had a similar thought in their heads.
'This isn't enough, I have to get even stronger.'
A/N
Okay that's chapter 15 done! Sorry for the long wait, college has been kicking my ass even at home.
I hope you guys liked that little Mirio cameo I included in the beginning. I remember watching episode 25 of season 3 and seeing a scene where Izuku mentioned seeing Mirio in the sports festival the year before. Sadly our good old lemillion won't make an appearance for another 40 chapters at the rate of my story.
I know this chapter is really short compared to the others, but I just couldn't think of too many ways to drag it on long enough for 5k words. I have been trying to shoot for 3k-5k words each chapter not including these A/N segments. I'm sorry for anyone disappointed by the 2k words in this chapter.
Also, a quick question, do any of you know how far Kyouka can heat when she's not plugging her earphone jacks into anything? I want to make sure I get that kind of information right.
Here's some small spoilers for the next couple of chapters cause I want to give you guys an idea of my current roadmap for chapters 16-18 so I can have your guy's opinion.
Chapter 16: Kyouka's birthday
Chapter 17: All Might and Kyouka finding out Izuku is overworking himself.
Chapter 18: More training and it ends with Izuku getting One For All.
Of course I'm considering adding another chapter in between 16 and 17 for more training. Let me guys know what you think of this small roadmap. I'd appreciate any feedback given.
Now time for the reviews!
Naoto Koizumi: Thank you so much for actually liking the last chapter. I have to admit I was a little worried people would not like it very much. And yes, the USJ and sports festival arc is where I plan to make big changes. I've also been thinking of slightly changing the battle trials as well recently.
shadowwriter01: Yeah I've been considering having Izuku get One For All a little earlier, like maybe a week or two before the exam. Yeah I don't want to spend too much time on the training arc.
rikanavarro92: Thank you, I can't wait to provide you all more chapters.
puppy: Yeah I noticed that too after I wrote those chapters, I'm pretty embarrassed by it to be honest.
Chuck Winanaki: I think I'll mostly differentiate them by using 'scrawny man' and 'muscular man'. I know it's very unoriginal and boring, but it works for me. I do have some fun plans regarding Izuku and Bakugo's first match in U.A.
CrazyMax1: Don't worry I won't rush this romance too much and Izuku won't instantly fall in love. I already have plans on when Izuku will start seeing Kyouka in a different light and I know the confession will be way after that.
Im The Person: I will definitely do my best to not stick too close to canon, I'll talk more about the USJ very soon regarding changes. Yeah I am heavily considering having him discover how destructive One For All is to his body more early than in canon. Yeah I saw that fight, it was really awesome and one of my favorites.
Ability King KK: I certainly do plan on having Kyouka be a better combatant and that will play pretty well in the USJ and sports festival arc. Also I already have plans for the comedic moment when she sees Izuku's muscular body.
HeroLuffy726: Yeah it's been a little hard writing this training arc and I hope I'm translating it well enough into this story.
Holl0w Dan: Thank you for enjoying the fix and yeah I'm kind of embarrassed at how similar she is to Hinata sometimes, I really didn't notice it til after. I'm highly considering him getting it quicker. .Unfortunately it will take a very long time for black whip to appear.
Jack Redhawke: I appreciate it when someone loves my story, it makes me think I'm writing a decent story.
Thel310: I gave it a quick listen to, it's pretty good.
Okay that's it for reviews!
By the way the delays on chapters have extended to May 15th cause my classes love giving me more and more work. It's torture, but I'll hopefully make it through.
Hope you guys enjoy this story! Please feel free to leave a review!