Good news. It's finally spring. There is hardly any snow left and usually not on the street or even sidewalk. Oh also here's this little chapter thing.

.

Comments:

BradenTrivett: Glad to hear that... or read in this case.

Dsman: Bakugo has enough explosives to mine a mighty big hole for himself.

AnimeFan13579: Canon might not have a reason beyond it being necessary to balance the character, but as long as they don't give a canon reason...

mjcarlson96: I assume you mean Izuku and I'm pretty sure there are plenty of villain Izuku stories.

.

.

Proofread by 3DPhantom

Chapter 32: Everyone Is Preparing

"Good, I can feel your anger. I am defenceless. Take your quirk. Strike me down with all your hatred."

Izuku tried to imagine intending to kill his father while drawing out as much of the Killing Intent quirk's power as he could, but it was difficult since he didn't really harbour any hatred for his father, let alone enough to want to kill him.

"Is that all the hatred you can feel? Do I have to bring Inko into this again?"

"Don't you dare!" Izuku shouted. His father shook for just an instant.

"Good, good. I could really feel that. I wonder how you would react to me mentioning someone else, or specifically two people, who are actually still alive, for now."

"Dad!" Izuku shouted and lit a Dragon Blade on one of his hands. His father took a step back, a first as far as Izuku remembered, and they ended up in a standstill staring at each other, as much as his father could stare without eyes that is. It lasted until his father burst out in laughter.

"Good, Izuku, good. Let the hate flow through you. It will make your quirk stronger. If you can impact me here, enemies on the battlefield will freeze in terror in front of you."

"I thought I was supposed to learn how to control the quirk to supress it."

"The control that allows you to draw out its full power is the same control you need to suppress it or control it so that people don't even realize you are using a quirk on them."

"That makes sense, but are you sure we should be spending this much time on it? I am still struggling with the jets, and I can't use them at the sport festival if I just fly out of bounds."

"Winning at the festival is a secondary goal. You have dedicated much time to the skills and quirks you can use in public as Izuku Midoriya, but you must be able to also act in the shadows as Shirokuro. Do not forget you are at UA to gather information."

"I know. I found out where the Nomu is being held didn't I?"

"But the Nomu is still being held there."

"I'm going to get it out on Monday when they try to move it."

"Good. Then if that's settled, let's focus back on the training so you will be ready for that mission. Now, think about killing me. Make me really feel that bloodlust. Would be a shame if I had to drag some random criminal from the streets to play with you again to bring it out."

Izuku gritted his teeth.

"Good, good, I can feel your anger," his father said, "unless you activated the quirk by accident, tsk tsk tsk."

Izuku drew a deep breath. It was going to be a long evening. At least the weekend was starting so it was his turn to be the slavedriver and go for a swim.

Izuku's toes brushed against the water as he wavered from side to side, but he managed to stay somewhat upright without dipping fully into the water below him, gliding forward using his jets as Tenya ran to keep up with him along the beach.

"Okay, are you ready to turn?" Tenya called out.

"As ready as I'm going to be!"

"Remember to adjust for the change in balance when you turn to maintain your momentum!"

It was easier said than done. The rapid changes in momentum and balance took all of Izuku's concentration to even hope to adjust to. He was tempted to tap into the Calm Mind but it was dangerous with Tenya and Hitoshi present to notice odd behaviours and he didn't want to depend on the quirk. He turned his upper body, redirecting the jets. He could feel his centre of gravity shift. He bent back to counter it.

The move messed up his direction of thrust.

Suddenly the surface of the water was right in front of his eyes.

There was a loud splash. Izuku sighed while still underwater, producing bubbles before he turned upright and brought his head over the surface. He was still blinking water out of his eyes when there was another splash nearby. Both Hitoshi and Kirishima scrambled to get back standing up in their shallower water.

"Toshi!" Izuku called out while wading towards them. "Did you finally take him down without your quirk?"

"I wouldn't call that taking him down," Hitoshi responded, "more like falling together."

"Still better than you did last weekend. All you needed was to make sure you land on top and keep him down until he fainted from the lack of oxygen."

Both Hitoshi and Kirishima stared at him for a long time in silence.

"If it was a real fight I mean."

"Right heh."

"You on the other hand," Izuku said interrupting Kirishima. "You are still physically much stronger than Toshi. Even if you both fell down and even if he was on top of you, you should have been able to turn the tables before running out of air even without your quirk."

"Wasn't the fight over already though?"

"If you think a fight is over before you win, you have already lost."

"Maybe I should get a notebook too," Hitoshi said, "for all the Izuku proverbs and motivational speeches."

"You can have one of my empty ones," Izuku said, "they're on one of the lower shelves in the library."

"Oh thanks," Hitoshi answered with a blatant lack of seriousness.

"Try to keep over the surface," Izuku said and turned to leave them.

"Right back at you."

Izuku smiled as he waded back towards the beach and Tenya. As he approached, he flared his jets enough to lift him out of the water. He couldn't fly properly jet, but he was more than capable of jumping even with some extra kick to make it an inhumanly long leap. Seconds later his feet sunk into soft sand as his legs flexed to absorb the impact. There wasn't even the tiniest waver as he landed and stood back up. At least his balance was fine. It was just adjusting to the new quirk that was the problem. He faced Tenya.

"So how did it look to you?"

"It seemed fine at first. You were able to redirect yourself and as far as I could tell you were balancing quite well, against the initial change in direction, but you had to move to do that so there was a change you also would have had to counter, but that… thinking like that it could go around forever."

"Balancing change from trying to balance other change, and the quirk itself doesn't offer much help for that. I can't change their direction enough to have much control. I'm starting to see why the villain used a wing suit. I might have to rethink my hero costume. I'm already planning modifications to use these jets without ripping it apart. Still that way would be too limiting for battle. Do you have any other suggestions to improve this training?"

"I'm afraid I'm out of ideas. Our trainings have similar needs but the quirks are really quite different. Even though my engines can provide thrust somewhat similarly having them on my legs is quite different from your jets. There is only one other thing I can think of."

Izuku's head perked up.

"My brother's quirk is much more similar to your jets and he has had his own problems with changing directions at high speed. He has a free evening on Monday and wanted to see how my training has gone. He has said he'd like to meet you too so we could see if he can help you."

"That… would be great, but I can't on Monday," Izuku responded. He forced a wide smile on his face while locking away the voice screaming 'liar!' in his head. "Dad is flying in briefly during a business trip, so we are going to spend the evening in Tokyo together."

"Oh, I'm happy to hear that. You shouldn't worry about training during that time then. Tensei is also usually busy but I'm sure you can meet eventually. I think he is planning to have a short vacation after the sports festival."

"Yes, we should set up something. I don't think I'm going to be able to use this at the festival anyway, or at least not much."

"I doubt that. You have a tendency to surprise people, especially when it comes to quirks," Tenya said. Him and Hitoshi really had too much confidence in Izuku, especially in other matters. Izuku didn't respond but simply stood there looking as Kirishima pull Hitoshi almost all the way out of the water before slamming him down again. It was a welcome challenge for Hitoshi, but if Kirishima kept dominating this much, they'd have to adjust the training. When he avoided Hitoshi's brainwashing the redhead, despite also not using his own quirk, had proven to be even tougher for Hitoshi to beat than Izuku had estimated.

"I'm not sure if you have noticed," Tenya said, "but you have seemed more… relaxed and natural with Kirishima around than last week."

"Have I?"

"Absolutely. I know it wasn't the easiest thing for you but look at what happened when you gave someone a chance."

"One person."

"I hope it's only the first of many."

"Well actually more like the third… sixth… seventh, maybe," Izuku corrected rather than try to counter Tenya's point.

"Does that include your parents?"

"Yes."

"You should know I and Hitoshi plan to grow that number further."

Izuku wasn't sure how to respond, but he had to stomp out and burry alive the same voice that previously called him a liar. He swallowed before speaking.

"You've spent the whole afternoon helping my training. We should do something to help you too. Perhaps get some more sparring in."

"Are you sure? You just said you are worried about being able to use the quirk for the festival."

"I'll see if I can get some use in during training. I think that is better for the festival than trying to master flying." Izuku stepped back into the water.

He was doomed to fail their confidence in everything else eventually, but not necessarily in preparing them for whatever might come. Izuku glanced back as Tenya followed him into the water.

Not all evenings could be about training for festivals at the beach. The next day was Monday. Izuku dropped off Hitoshi and Tenya at their homes and only came home long enough to change clothes from his school uniform to regular civilian clothes, perfect for a evening in the city. There were a hundred things he still wanted to check or go through so driving all the way to Tokyo felt like a waste of time even if he knew it was important to keep his cover. He could only focus on preventing his anxiety from showing too much in the presence of the driver.

"I see you are excited to see your father again."

Well, that had been a failure.

"Yes," Izuku responded briefly before realizing brief and antisocial didn't fit the situation he was supposed to be in. "It's been too long. Hard to imagine but I wasn't even at UA when he came home last time."

"I hope you enjoy the evening."

"It's definitely going to be special," Izuku said and turned to look out of the window, hoping the driver would get the message. Thankfully he was mostly quiet for the rest of the drive until stopping at the centre of Tokyo in front of a bank with plenty of surveillance cameras. The spot wasn't an accident.

"I'll call you when I'm ready to go back," Izuku said and dropped a bunch of cash on the front seat. "It could be late so try to enjoy the evening yourself."

"Of course, Midoriya-san."

Izuku got out and briefly stretched out his arms in front of the bank before walking down the street and once out of the sight of spying optics headed to a nearby parking garage. With a tap of a button in his wristwatch a dark warp gate appeared in a prearranged dark corner of the space and he stepped through. Arriving back at his usual training hall with his father and Kurogiri waiting, he couldn't help but feel he had just wasted a ton of time, even if it had been necessary.

"Hello son, I'm home. How have you been?"

"Better after the mission is done," Izuku responded as Kurogiri handed him the suitcase with his 'villain costume'. Izuku gave the Nomu his first genuine smile of the evening.

"Are you ready for this?"

"Yes, young Shigaraki. I will complete my part of the mission as you command."

"Just make sure to stay safe. I'm not willing to lose you for that Nomu."

"I will remain safe as long as your safety does not require otherwise."

Izuku blinked and glanced at his father. Did Kurogiri just say he'd disobey him? Father too had tilted his head towards the misty Nomu.

"Son, you should go change. It's almost time."

"Right," Izuku nodded, glancing at Kurogiri one more time before going. He never wanted to control Kurogiri so he wasn't very bothered by it, but it was still surprising.

In the dressing room he changed his clothes and held up his helmet. Completely covering his face was such a blessing in letting him be Shirokuro, no need to worry about what sorts of facial expressions he might make during villain work, but it also made him look like a completely different person; a person that Hitoshi, Tenya and their classmates would either fear or hate, probably both.

Izuku couldn't help but wonder if Shirokuro would suffer nightmares from everything that had happened to him. He blinked at the strange notion and shook his head, pulling himself back to reality.

He put the helmet on.