"Kacchan!" - Speech

'Shitty Deku!' - Thoughts

"I AM HERE!" - All Might Speech

"Detroit Smash!" - Special Technique Usage

Beta'd by BigCC

Chapter 4: True Overdrive

Half a Year Later

Living Room, Midoriya Residence, Musutafu Town

Jirō Kyōka was smiling as she watched her best friend blowing out the candles on his ninth birthday cake, but couldn't help the not-nice, angry-possessive feelings that were bubbling up inside her stomach as she caught sight of a certain orangette cheering on his other side.

Kendō Itsuka had arrived at Rairosu Elementary about six months ago and she and Izuku had quickly become fast friends; the two had apparently already met and had a 'super intense' sparring match at the Dojo Izuku went to the weekend before.

Kyōka wasn't sure why, but the closer Itsuka got to Izuku, the more unsettling feelings she got toward the redhead. And it was hard to dislike Itsuka. The [Big Fist] Quirk user was a bright, friendly girl who was easy to get along with and had a kind of 'Big Sister' attitude to her; she was really good at taking care of people.

She was almost as nice as Izuku in her own way. Less cherubic do-gooder and more protective big-sis, but the two were definitely similar in a lot of ways, a thought that made Kyōka's stomach churn slightly.

Kendo even had her own 'badass mode,' only it came out a lot easier than Izuku's. All you needed to do was get her started on martial arts and she'd go all hardcore battle chick.

Apparently Itsuka practised a heavily modified version of Shōtōkan Karate, one her dad had spent years specializing to work best with their [Big Fist] Quirk, or so she said. Kyōka wasn't a martial artist by any stretch of the imagination, so she had no clue what the difference was between any given style of Karate.

Izuku did, though. One of the two styles taught in his Dojo was karate, and he'd been learning to integrate the Tai Chi moves that he'd learned and Karate into a 'Mixed Martial Art', whatever that was.

The fact that Itsuka and Izuku meshed so well together and understood things about each that she didn't was really, really annoying for Kyōka, and she didn't even know why that was. All she knew was that seeing the two having fun together made her stomach churn in a way that was totally different to the times she had an upset stomach.

"Oh wow! Jirō-chan, this is…!" Izuku's excited exclamation drew Kyōka from her brooding. He'd just opened her present to him, a CD album published last year that had 'theme music' for all of the Top 100 Heroes in Japan at the time. This one was special though; not only was it a limited-edition copy, it included a sheet of paper signed by over seventy of the heroes featured on the CD. Her parents' connections in the music industry had managed to get this for Izuku, which was really lucky; only five of those were ever made, three of them to go on a charity raffle at the next Top 10 Hero Billboard Chart.

Yes, she owed her mother some singing lessons, but it was worth it to see the awed and happy expression on her friend's face.

"Like it?" she asked casually, then eeped as she was treated to a hug by Izuku.

"It's soooooo cool!" the green-haired boy said with one of those genuine smiles of joy that made her heart go pitter-patter. "Thanks so much!"

"N-No problem…!" Kyōka stuttered before she pushed him off. "And just call me by my first name! We've known each other for five years already!"

"She has a point, Izuku." Itsuka said, making Kyōka twitch at the yobisute that the orangette was showing, not using any honorifics towards Izuku at all. "Kyōka-san's long since given you permission to use her first name. Isn't it rude to ignore that?"

"I…I guess." Izuku frowned. "I'll try, OK Jirō-chan?"

"So long as you do." the purplette said with a nod. "Now get on with opening your presents!"

After the party was over and her mother came to pick her up, Kyōka was thinking a lot. So much so that her mother noticed.

"What's got you twisted into knots?" Mika asked as they entered their house. "You just had a party with Izuku-chan, and you had a good time from what Inko-san said."

"That girl…Kendō Itsuka…" Kyōka said reluctantly. She really didn't want to tell her mother this, but these weird feelings were going to drive her crazy if she didn't get some answers. Her mother was the most likely person to know something without freaking out like she knew her Dad would. "Whenever I see her and Izuku together and having fun, I...it's like something hurts and burns inside me. What's up with me, mum?"

Mika looked down at her adorably confused daughter and barely resisted the urge to squeal in joy. Fortunately, she had a lot of practice controlling her emotions when she wasn't in her stage persona, so she was able to swallow the reaction down to a small smile.

Aloud, she said, "Isn't it obvious, Kyōka-chan? You're jealous."

"Wha-?!" the eight (soon to be nine the next month) year old girl squeaked in shock, her face flushing red.

"You're jealous of Itsuka-chan, because before she showed up, there was no one as close to Izuku-chan as you were." Mika said, reinforcing the point. "Now a rival's appeared and she's pretty, outgoing, caring and is interested in martial arts, and even goes to the same dojo that Izuku attends. The question is, what do you want to do now?"

"What do I…" Kyōka gulped.

"I met your father when I was around your age. We only met in passing on a school trip, but when we met later on during high school, we recognized one another and hit it off and the rest, as they say, is history." the singer/songwriter mused happily, before a small grin appeared on her face. "You want to be a hero, so does Izuku-chan. Training together for that goal doesn't seem like a bad idea. You only know a few basic defence techniques, but I think being able to combine your Quirk with martial arts for when a villain gets up-close and personal might be wise, don't you agree?"

Blinking up at her mother, Kyōka processed what she was saying before a grin crossed her face too. "Sounds like a plan, but…will Dad let me? You had to push him into letting me go to those self-defence classes…"

Mika patted her daughter on the head. "Don't you worry about a thing dear, you just leave that to me."

In truth, Kyōtoku was all for their daughter starting to attend classes with Izuku rather than simply relying on basic self-defence lessons; he'd made friends with a few of the heroes while he'd been helping produce the Theme Song collection they'd given to Izuku as a gift, and he'd learned from them that just knowing some basic self-defence techniques wouldn't be worth that much as a Hero. Kyōka simply hadn't shown any interest in that kind of training and they hadn't wanted to pressure her into it.

Still it was fine; she had plenty of time to train hard before applying to U.A. with Izuku.

As a mother, Mika wanted to help her daughter fulfil her dreams, and also protect her as much as possible. Having Kyōka attend Izuku's classes at the Enryū Dojo would help both goals.

'It's so cute how she can't see how she's got a crush on Izuku-chan.' she thought as she headed to the kitchen to get started on dinner for when her husband got in from work. He was fighting the greedy bloated ego of her record company again and he needed a nice meal to welcome him home.

Life was good for the Jirō family.

The Next Day

Katsuki's Room, Bakugō Family Home

Life for the now nine-year-old Bakugō Katsuki had, frankly, gone down the crapper over the past three and a half years, at least in his own opinion.

Currently lying on his bed, scowling up at the ceiling, Katsuki was taking a moment to brood over how his life had gone downhill, something that was becoming more common over the years with his normal means of venting curtailed.

Ever since he'd been transferred out of Dantouin Preschool, everything seemed to be conspiring to keep him from his (self-proclaimed) rightful place at the top. His mother was constantly watching him like a hawk and had cracked down severely on his usage of his Quirk outside of practice, which she was insisting on keep an eye on as well. The slightest crackle of an Explosion in a show of temper and he'd lose some privilege for at least a night.

Ever worse, his new schools, first Tarisu Preschool and then Tatoran Elementary School, refused to acknowledge his superiority and constantly shut him down whenever he showed any signs of putting the extras in their place.

All that, plus the infuriatingly frequent visits to that damned shrink that his mother forced him to attend, were constantly putting Katsuki on the edge of a full-scale detonation.

Unfortunately (at least from Katsuki's point of view), those same therapy sessions were producing some results. His ego had been reduced to a somewhat more manageable size and his attempts to assert his superiority were becoming increasingly sparse. As a 'bonus' (at least according to his old hag of a mother) he was no longer so leery of accepting help from others.

Gritting his teeth, Katsuki growled under his fault as his mind turned to the cause of his problems. 'This is all your fucking fault Deku!' His life had started going downhill when that shitty nerd had dared to develop a Quirk and stand against him, upsetting the rightful balance of the world. 'If these fucking nuisances keep me from becoming the Number One Pro-Hero, I will hunt you down and explode you into mincemeat!'

For all of Katsuki's life, there was a simple but firm belief that guided him: heroes were the ones who won. To fight and win against whoever was a villain was what a hero was meant to do. Rescuing people…pfft. If you took down the villain quick and hard enough, then no one would need to be rescued, 'cause the threat would be gone. That was why All Might was Number One, an unequalled power that no villain could stand against, one that Katsuki would one day surpass.

It was even part of his name, the katsu of victory!

Yet everyone seemed to be determined to tell him he was wrong!

The old hag, his old man, the teachers, that damned therapist, even some of the extras at school who had more balls than brains…! It pissed him off beyond all measure, because whenever they started spewing that kind of goody-goody bullshit about saving and protecting people, all he saw and heard was that damned Deku!

'So you have a goddamned Quirk…so what?' Katsuki scowled at the ceiling, fists clenching but his Quirk remaining contained for now. 'So some dumbass pencil pushers are trying to put restrictions on who can earn a hero license? So what? I'm gonna be the Number One Hero and nothing is gonna stop me. Not the damned know-nothing bureaucrats in the government, not some smart-mouthed quack, and not a little pain-in-the ass like you, Deku! I'll crush you like a bug when I get to U.A. if you dare to show your face there, just like I always did. Once a Deku, always a Deku.'

His thoughts momentarily calmed by his declaration, the [Explosion] Quirk user got up to finish his homework.

Later

Office, Enryū Dojo

"So." Kanzashi said calmly as she viewed the woman sitting across the desk from her. "You are...I'm sorry, I'm not very good at reading Chinese characters…"

"Ran Xiaoyu." the woman replied softly. She was a young woman, in her mid-twenties or thereabouts, her black hair tied up in a tight bun, held in place with wooden kanzashi hair pins. She had heterochromatic eyes, with one being yellow and one being crimson red. She was an average-sized woman, wearing blue jeans, a t-shirt and a denim jacket.

"Ran-san, then." the Tai Chi Master said with a nod. "Now, you are the third applicant we've had for the teacher position we have open here, and the other two haven't been very impressive, truth be told, so impress me and you likely have a job. Now, what qualifications in martial arts do you have?"

"I am an accredited Master at Yin and Jiang-style Baguazhang, Tianjin-style Shuai Jiao and I was close to attaining my mastery of Wu Hao-style Tai Chi before I left China." Ran stated, pressing a manilla folder onto the desk demurely and pushing it forwards.

Picking it up and opening it, Kanzashi had to whistle at the certificates of Mastery it contained. She recognized a few of the names on them as she flipped through each sheet; each was well-known in the Martial Arts community as a strict and demanding taskmaster, and several were well-known for demanding that Quirks not be used or else be as limited as possible during sparring matches and training sessions. Getting a Mastery awarded from just one of them was more than worthy of recognition.

"Well, these are some impressive qualifications." she noted aloud. "Better than mine, even. Do you have a martial arts teaching license?"

"Sadly, I do not." the Chinese woman shook her head, her barely-accented Japanese sounding worried. "I...was not expected to pass my arts down to anyone, which is one of the reasons I left my family and country to emigrate here."

"Hmm...well, with these Mastery certificates, that isn't too much of a hurdle…" the Dojo Master offered ambivalently. "And if you want, I can complete your training in Wu Hao Tai Chi; I'm a master in all five of the main Tai Chi styles."

A flicker of surprise crossed Ran's eyes. "That would be…appreciated, thank you."

"Might I ask what your Quirk is?" Kanzashi asked curiously. "Our dojo's central philosophy is mastering the body through training and dedication, that includes encouraging combining the use of Quirks with martial arts in order to better master them as well, so if you have one which is easy to control…"

"My Quirk is called [Shock Absorption]. It is classified as a Mutant-type Quirk that allows my body to absorb the vast majority of force behind physical impacts and nullifying them, up until a certain point anyway." the Chinese woman replied.

"Sounds like a useful Quirk to have in a fight." the Tai Chi Master offered, slightly envious. It was certainly one which you could use to go Pro Hero, in her opinion.

"My…family…disapproves of passive Quirks." Ran said, her visage becoming slightly uncomfortable. "They are of the opinion that a power that is used outside of someone's control is a power that can be used against the user."

"…I won't say that it's the stupidest philosophy I've ever heard because I've seen quite a few ridiculous ones bantered about in my day, but its still pretty far up there." Kanzashi offered in a deadpan. Compared to what people like the Meta Liberation Army and the dying Quirkless Freedom Alliance, amongst others, believed in, that kind of banal stupidity was fairly vanilla. Annoying and stupid, but not exactly groundbreaking. "OK, so…your family. Are they likely to cause problems for my dojo if I hire you?"

"No." Ran shook her head firmly. "I was disowned after I refused to bow to my parents' wishes and marry someone old enough to be my grandfather 'for the sake of the family', so I doubt they'll bother to remember I exist."

Well, that was something, anyway. "And you don't have your family's biases?" Kanzashi checked.

"I admit to having a personal preference to Quirks that require conscious activation, but I have never been one to allow those preferences to colour my judgement." the Chinese woman replied calmly.

"Fair enough." Everyone was allowed their own preferences after all, whether it was a preference in looks, clothing, food, or even Quirks. As long as the other young woman could keep it from biasing her teaching, then Kanzashi couldn't care less about her preferences. "To warn you, there are at least two Quirkless students who attend this dojo, one in the karate class and one in the Tai Chi class." Kanzashi continued cautiously. This was where the last applicants had fallen though; both had been discriminatory against those without Quirks.

One had gone far enough to ask why teaching 'useless throwbacks' was even worth their time. Needless to say the man wouldn't be getting the job.

Luckily Ran simply shrugged her shoulders absently at the question. "I really don't really have an opinion on the Quirkless." she offered evenly. "As long as they prove to be attentive students, I can see no problem teaching any that I am assigned."

Kanzashi let out an internal sigh of relief at that, they could work with that kind of outlook easily enough. She and her husband had planning to add another instructor to the dojo for a while now thanks to the rising popularity of the Enryū Dojo. Most of the other dojos in Musutafu specialized in the latest 'Quirk-based' martial arts that had started to emerge since the start of the so-called 'Age of Heroes.' Most were semi-decent martial arts in theory, particularly when they were combined with a specific type of Quirk. Sadly, in practice, the amount of ego stroking, brown-nosing and outright pandering that most of said dojos paid toward students with particularly powerful or 'well-suited' Quirks tended to make the places ineffective schools and little more than cults of personality around a 'star student.'

Thus, most sensible parents started looking elsewhere for places for their children to study.

She and Masuo weren't going to turn down the extra business, but they needed extra hands to ensure proper supervision. While it was traditional for senior students to supervise the lessons of the younger students, it was necessary to have proper instructors, who had qualifications and experience, to truly teach their students.

Adding a couple of new branches of martial arts to those they already offered would simply be an added bonus.

"OK, well, I can arrange for you to get a teaching certificate within the month, providing you study hard enough." Kanzashi said evenly. "Barring you failing the exam, I'll look forward to seeing you show up as a teacher. As for your lessons in Tai Chi, let's discuss a time which is suitable for both of us so I can see exactly how far you have to go before I can certify you as a Master of Wu Hao…"

By the time Ran Xiaoyu left her office, Kanzashi was fairly confident that they would have a new instructor in about a month's time. She returned to the paperwork, when a name caught her eye in one of the notes left for her by Masuo. He'd taken care of the dojo yesterday while she had gone to fetch more training dummies.

"Jirō Kyōka…why does that sound familiar…oh, right…that's Izuku-kun's friend…" she mused aloud. "Huh...so her mother's enrolled her in a class to find out which suits her better, karate or Tai Chi…? Well, this'll be interesting for Itsuka-chan."

The young orangette was quite proud of her status as Izuku's rival in martial arts, and the two had quickly become the other's favourite sparring and training partner. The last six months of this had firmly broken Izuku of his disinclination to spar with girls, which was excellent progress in her opinion. It was a sweet and gallant attitude in its own way, but Kanzashi knew very well that there were plenty of female villains out there, and they wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of gallantry.

Returning to the main point, Itsuka was somewhat possessive of her status as Izuku's rival, so having a friend of Izuku's, who was a 'cute, grumpy, tsun-tsun girl', as the [Big Fist] Quirk user had called Jirō Kyōka once, come in and start learning martial arts was bound to set off some jealous vibes for the girl, which would confuse her.

Itsuka was a genuinely good person who could get along with almost anyone. She'd even managed to make some of the more snotty brats get knuckled down and working hard. She was a shoo-in for an assistant dojo master...or she would be if she didn't plan on becoming a hero. Still, she was as human as anyone and she was very protective of her time spent training with her 'rival', so there was a possibility of conflict with Kyōka…

"Well, I'll just have to keep an eye on the three of them." Kanzashi sighed. Izuku, being a young boy, was a bit lacking in the finer points of awareness when it came to how females interacted. For all that the boy was quite bright, but he was still just a boy and, like most males, lacked the ability to read the subtleties of female-female interactions. There was a chance something he said could set off a landmine, which would be bad.

Remembering the few times that even her husband stepped on a conversational landmine around her, the Tai Chi master chuckled. "Well, at least things aren't going to get boring around here."

Same Time

Elsewhere

"So she…works…at the Enryū…Dojo?" a voice wheezed. "There is…no mistake…?"

The doctor in the room shivered at the words. Even so, he replied respectfully. "No mistaking it, Master. She changed her surname from Chen to Ran, but there is no doubt that it is her."

The Dark Emperor of the Japanese Underworld, All for One, breathed in and out as he eyed the numerous pieces of medical equipment surrounding him with distaste. That accursed fool All Might had all but crippled him, managing to do something that many would have considered impossible; overloading and either damaging or destroying most of his longevity and healing Quirks over the course of their battle. The damage had been so bad that he'd been forced to strip away the vast majority of most of them, discarding the broken remains into a number of lab rats, just so that the few working remnants he had left could be safely bundled together and put back to something approaching working order. Even then, they were barely enough to help keep him alive, let alone actually restore him.

His original Quirk, [All for One] itself, was more of a Quirk Manager than a Quirk Thief. Rather than simply absorbing and redistributing Quirks, he could even break them down into multiple smaller, weaker Quirks or even strip away aspects of a Quirk and combine it with others as he liked (within reason) in order to augment or optimize them before either using the new hybrid himself or gifting it to another. It was truly an awe-inspiring ability, the power to reshape power itself to suit his desires, and one that was truly appropriate for one who sought to rule.

Sadly, no power came without costs or weaknesses, and [All for One] was no exception. Quirks he'd taken and 'altered' tended to be a bit…unstable. If they were mishandled or overworked it could have rather nasty consequences, both for the Quirk and its host, including the Quirk Factor itself breaking down rather violently. He thought he'd countered this by stockpiling multiple copies of similar Quirks so that, even if one broke down, he'd have backups, and backups for his backups.

Unfortunately, All Might had proven that his precautions hadn't been as comprehensive as he'd hoped.

At the very least, he had scored a strong blow back against the Eighth Bearer of [One for All] before he had been forced to scurry away in defeat; dealing a solid wound on All Might's chest, ripping into a lung, but somehow the large muscled man had managed to dodge away before he could drive the blow deeper down into his abdomen. A kind of latent sixth sense from his experience in battle, perhaps? How annoyingly persistent of the man.

"Doctor Tsubasa…wishes to…acquire her…Quirk…for his project." he said eventually. "What…Quirks…do the…dojo masters…possess?"

"Bushi Masuo possesses the [Bulk Up] Quirk, while his wife Kanzashi possesses the [Body Memory] Quirk." the doctor replied, having anticipated this enquiry. "Useful, but fairly weak Quirks overall, Master."

"Perhaps…but in…skilled enough…hands….even a…needle….can overcome…a sword." All for One wheezed out. Even before his defeat, he had known that raw power was not the only factor in deciding victory. "Both are…skilled…martial artists…and likely…have trained…to use their…Quirks…in tandem…with that…doctor. Do not…underestimate…them. Hiring…a martial artist…to deal…with a…martial artist…is the right…plan here. I shall…take care of…the arrangements…once my next…'donation' is…prepared."

"Yes, Master. That should be prepared inside of the next two days." the doctor said evenly. He was very much relieved that his Quirk wasn't of any interest or use to his Master.

"Very…well…doctor." the two-hundred-year-old man croaked. "Now…please…call Doctor Tsubasa in…for me. There is…much to discuss…regarding Project Nomu…"

A Week Later

Enryū Dojo

Kanzashi adjusted the stance of her newest female student slightly before nodding in approval. It had been just under a week since Kyōka had joined the dojo. The young musician had shown a bit more talent in Tai Chi than in Karate, though it was not for a lack of talent in either; rather it was a simple fact that Tai Chi's more fluid movements suited her build more than Karate's fairly rigid stances.

"Now, try that again." she instructed the purplette, who nodded and slowly moved through the basic kata that she had been learning since she arrived. The girl looked pretty cute in her gi, and the way she absently controlled her Mutation Quirk's jacks in imitation of the movements of her arms was adorable as well. Not to mention the way she blushed when Izuku helped her.

Itsuka, as Kanzashi had half-expected, was more than a little jealous that her rival was spending time helping to train a new girl rather than practising with her, even if she didn't recognize that fact about herself. She and Kyōka were approaching the beginnings of puberty, and girls did develop emotionally faster than boys, so it would be very interesting time for Izuku when his two best friends were more emotionally mature than he was.

"OK, very good, Kyōka-chan." she said as the girl went through the kata nigh-perfectly. "You have the right kind of dedication to make Tai Chi a solid weapon in your arsenal when you become a hero."

Kyōka blushed lightly. "Th-thank you, Bushi-sensei…"

"OK, so, now you've mastered this kata going slow, you have to learn how to use it quicker. It's a lot harder to master the kata when you're moving at a more normal pace, but with time and effort I'm sure you'll pull it off splendidly." Kanzashi informed her, demonstrating the same kata the girl had just used, but accelerated to combat speed. "This kata is one shared by all of the styles of Tai Chi. Once you have this mastered, I'll test you to see which of them you are more suited for. Now try to speed up one step of the kata at a time…"

As she supervised Kyōka, Kanzashi watched Ran Xiaoyu out of the corner of her eye. The woman was a good teacher and generally a fairly nice person as well, but seemed to keep most at arm's length. She kept an emotional distance from her students, which wasn't entirely inappropriate for the most part, but would it kill her to smile?

All movement in the dojo stopped cold as the sound of wood breaking, more like being smashed into kindling, from the direction of the entrance to the dojo.

"Kids, gather on the other side of the dojo floor, now!" Kanzashi snapped instantly, moving to place herself between her students and whatever was to come through the door. Adrenaline started pumping through her body and she switched from dojo mode to real combat mode, mentally accessing several forms and techniques of her Tai Chi that she usually partitioned from herself to prevent her from using them by accident.

It was a minor, if useful, technique of her Quirk with a bland name: [Memory Partitioning]. She could mentally assign certain movements and techniques to 'folders', and restrict or grant access to them for her body as she pleased. It was what a lot of people would think of as a useless technique, as it only restricted and weakened her, but as a teacher, certain forms and techniques were too deadly to show to or use against students, so it was her most often used Quirk technique.

The children trembled as they huddled together on the other side of the dojo floor, Ran Xiaoyu standing in front of them protectively as a series of thuds came from the corridor leading from the front door.

Into the room strode a large man, with long, straggly white-grey hair, bound in a rough ponytail. He had cement-grey skin that seemed to sag slightly off his musculature, yellow eyes with bloodshot veins in them, and his clothes were a filthy and ragged gi, with a worn and ratty black belt securing it at the waist. He was barefoot, his cracked and broken toenails standing out vividly.

"You the dojo master, little girl?" the man asked, his voice hoarse and deep, like rocks grating against rocks.

"It's usually considered polite to introduce yourself before asking the name of another, not least waiting to be invited into somewhere." Kanzashi replied tightly.

"Hah! Impudent stripling. I'm Zanki, no surname worth mentionin'." the man sneered harshly. "M'Quirk's called [Dead Cell] and I've been hired to trash this little dojo."

"A dojo destroyer, in this day and age?" the only present Master of the Enryū Dojo scoffed in return. "Well, you'll see that I'm no pushover."

"Hah! Chance'd be a fine thing, kid." Zanki scoffed as he flexed his large hands menacingly. "My Quirk was fuckin' useless while I was alive, 'cause I could only control dust, and even then not all of it. Was a right big surprise when I woke back up after I died, my Quirk keeping my body together and moving even when all life should have bled out of it. That's the power I've got at my hands, chitling, I'll live forever by the power of my Quirk and with the skills I spent my livin' years acquirin', I'm unmatched in a fight. I've been undead and kickin' for over a hundred and ten years now, and been fightin' through most of it. I don't get tired, I don't lose focus, my strength is greater than yours and will never flag, and I've got at least a century's worth of experience on yeh. What do you have to hope to match me?"

"A smaller ego." Kanzashi replied dryly, absently wondering why villains always loved to monologue. "And watch your language, there are children within hearing distance."

"Gotta smart mouth on ya." Zanki growled, cracking his knuckles. "Lessee how well ya talk with it after I punch yer teeth out."

With an unimpressed mien to her, Kanzashi flowed into a defensive Tai Chi stance, ready for her opponent. "Master of the Five Major Styles of Tai Chi, and Joint-Master of the Enryū Dojo, Bushi Kanzashi." she stated.

"Practitioner and Master of Shōtōkan Karate, Shitsuyōna no Zanki (Zanki the Relentless)!" the undead Quirk User responded with a snarl. "Now I attack!"

Izuku, who was crouched next to Kyōka and Itsuka, watched in awe as Kanzashi smoothly blocked and redirected several punches from the man.

"What's she doing?" Kyōka asked with wide eyes. "She's just rotating her arms and it's blocking his punches!"

"It's a mid-level technique called Kakei." Izuku whispered back. "Kanzashi-sensei's been teaching it to me, but I still haven't managed to get to work yet. She's spinning her arms to negate or dissipate the force of his blows!"

"Tai Chi...what an inadequate art to use." Zanki scoffed as his arms began to blur as he focused more and more strength into each blow. "A fool's practice, little more than a bit of fancy exercise packaged to look like a true fightin' art. Having such a thing taught at a Dojo, it'll be a right pleasure to break this sign over my knee."

"Your knowledge is apparently as lacking as your sense of hygiene, oh undead one." Kanzashi replied coolly, her arms flowing through the motions of her Kakei; diverting and redirecting the majority of force behind her opponent's blows away from her. The man in front of her was strong, but compared to her husband, who she sparred with regularly, his strength was inconsequential. "Tai Chi is an art that focuses on the balance of Yin and Yang within oneself. Keeping one's body healthy with the exercise forms, nourishing one's mind with its teachings and protecting one's body with its combat forms. It is an art for living, growing and flourishing oneself."

"Fah!" the man snorted, stomping forwards with his left foot and sent a fist towards her face, whilst the other flew toward his stomach hidden in the shadow of the first. It was a move forbidden in tournaments, the Yamazuki.

Much to his mild surprise, the woman dodged both blows, and then unleashed a quick barrage of punches that he didn't bother blocking or dodging.

Zanki merely sneered as he pushed through the blows and launched a return-strike of his own, forcing the Tai Chi practitioner back onto the defensive.

"Fool woman, I already told you my body's dead as old wood." the undead martial artist spat out as he pursed her. "I don't feel pain and it'll take more than your little love taps to do me any damage. You're goin' to have to do far better to stop me."

'He's not afraid of injury because his Quirk doesn't let him feel pain and prevents most forms of attack from doing lasting damage.' Izuku realized quietly as he mentally studied and analysed the man's words and Quirk.

"Well then, allow me to do so." Kanzashi growled, growing a bit irritated with the man's disrespect and more concerned with the threat he represented to herself and her students. She tensed before moving, her speed at the very limit of the human peak, to the point that she temporarily moved faster than Zanki's eyes could see. The next moment, she was behind him, fist drawn back.

"Raisei! (Thunder Sound!)" she hissed before she exhaled using a special breathing technique. Much to the shock of all of those watching, her fist seemed to start vibrating visibly before it slammed into Zanki's back, driving the much larger man to his knees.

"Ooff…! Well...that might have smarted were I alive." the undead Quirk user spat out as he stood up once again.

"You're certainly sturdy, I'll give you that…" Kanzashi said with a frown. "My arm was striking with the force of a bullet there. At the very least your spine should have been cracked by the impact alone, let alone the damage to your muscular tissue."

"I've already told you, my Quirk is the ability to control dead cells, and since I'm little more than a walking corpse, that means my entire body's under my control." Zanki smirked wickedly as he turned to face her. "More than that, I can absorb them into me from the dust in the air, store them within my own dead flesh and then use them to help rebuild and repair any damage you manage to do. To put it simply, I'm invincible you fool girl. You lost this fight the moment I decided to challenge yeh."

"There is no superiority before or during a fight." the Tai Chi master said diffidently. "Only afterwards are you permitted to make one-sided declarations such as that."

"Tch, spoutin' that kind of twaddle even now…!" the man growled. "Yer lookin' ta die, bitch!"

"There are children here, keep your language polite." Kanzashi warned him again before she used the special breathing method again, her entire body vibrating like her fist had before.

"Huh...so you've mastered that trick of yours to the point you can use it over your entire body? I'll admit, that's an impressive feat for a stripling not even in her thirties yet." Zanki admitted, though his sneer never left his face as he fell into a new stance of his own. "But I've been fightin' for over a hundred years now girlie, I've seen, fought, and beaten more martial arts than you have ever even heard of. Do yeh think I've never faced the likes of that before? That I don't know how to beat it!? Tetsuki Rendan! (Iron Demon Barrage!)"

His arms blurred, moving so fast that it was hard for the kids to see them. Kanzashi narrowed her eyes and used the Kakei to try and block the attacks, but the force of the blows was far greater than before and blasted right through the defensive technique and into several places on Kanzashi's body.

"Gah…!" the woman gasped as she was thrown back by the force of the attack, slamming into the wall and lying against it, stunned.

"There's the trick to it. Like I said, every dead cell in my body is mine to command; that means I can condense them to the point that my limbs are as hard and dense as iron." Zanki boasted arrogantly. "A brattling practising a soft art with a weak Quirk like yours should have never tried to step in my path."

"Ní Shè Shuǐ Bù! (Mud Wading Steps!)" another voice shouted, and abruptly, Zanki found himself surrounded by blurred images of Ran Xiaoyu, trapping him within a circle

"Huh...so you're the foreign strumpet with the [Shock Absorption] Quirk, eh?" the dojo destroyer mused darkly. "And this is the famous 'Mud Wading Steps' of Baguazhang, a technique that traps the opponent in a circle and hemming them in by the close proximity…not a bad technique…but nowhere near enough! Testuzan Mawashi Geri! (Iron Cutting Roundhouse Kick!)"

With a roar, he unleashed a fast roundhouse kick that slammed into Ran and sent her flying with a spray of blood from one shoulder.

"How?! [Shock Absorption] should have let her ignore that kick?!" Itsuka squeaked.

"Heh, like I said brat, all my dead cells are under my control, shaping those in the front of my leg into something sharp enough to cut instead of simply smash is a simple thing with enough practice." Zanki stated, having overheard her. "[Shock Absorption] may make blunt force attacks moot, and even make most bladed attack next to worthless, but my kick there was just fast, not strong. All of the damage came from her running into my leg, not the other way around, so [Shock Absorption] didn't activate until the blade was already in her flesh."

'I underestimated him.' Izuku gulped in fear, looking toward where both of his teachers were struggling to stand. 'He acts like nothing more than an arrogant muscle-head at first, but its obvious now that all of the things he's said about his knowledge and fighting experience weren't just empty boasts. He knows a lot about how both Quirks and martial arts work and has developed technique to use his own Quirk and fighting style in concert for the maximum effect…'

"Now that the mother hens are down, I can deal with the chicks...a few broken bones will heal in a few months time…" the dojo destroyer sneered as he walked towards the children. "And this dojo will never recover from the scandal…"

"Sc-scum! Leave those children alone!" Kanzashi shouted as she stood up. She had at least one broken bone from being hit multiple times by iron-hard fists, but she was damned if she was going to let her students suffer from harm!

Izuku's heart sped up as he saw Zanki's eyes lock onto Kyōka. He firmly pushed himself in front of her and Itsuka, making the undead martial artist chuckle darkly.

"Tryin' ta protect your little girlfriends, kiddo? Well you've got some iron in yeh, I'll credit you that." the undead sneered down at him, a dark grin spreading on his lips. "A'right, to respect your intentions, you're first."

Exhaling, Izuku started the special breathing technique he'd been using for the last few years, making the glow of his [Hamon] energy spring up around his body.

'I have to fight! I have to protect my friends!' he thought nervously as Zanki mockingly took such a loose and open stance that it practically begged Izuku to attack…a trap, in other words. 'But I can't beat him! What should I do?!'

"Young man…" a voice said in his mind. His vision went grey. The figure of a man wearing a white suit, with a white and black checker-printed top hat, facing away from him, appeared to his eyes. "To face a monster such as this, in spite of your fear, is nothing short of true courage. Do not allow fear to cripple your courage or hamper your breathing; overcome it, master it, and make it your own. We shall speak more later, but for now...take this technique that my greatest student created...and strike down this abomination!"

Suddenly, knowledge flowed into him and his vision cleared up, just as Zanki lunged into an attack, a fist that was slow compared to the ones he'd used against Kanzashi and Ran, but still faster than an ordinary child could normally respond to.

Izuku leapt over the blow and clenched his right hand as words erupted from his mouth unbidden.

"My heart is burning with the heat of a raging fire! Feel the pounding beat of my pulse!" he roared, the glow of his aura redoubling as he increased the amount of Hamon Energy that he wore, making the infrequent sparks of lightning appear again. "Nikkō-Kiiro Hamon Shissō! (Sunlight-Yellow Overdrive!)"

With a shout, Izuku punched at Zanki, the glow of his [Hamon] blinding by this point. Of course, Zanki managed to interpose a hand to catch the blow...but then something amazing happened.

The energy of Izuku's [Hamon] Quirk shot through the entire arm that Izuku's fist was connected to, which then sparkled with golden-yellow lightning before falling from the rest of Zanki's body, the flesh sloughing off the bones.

"Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!" the undead martial artist screamed, feeling something akin to pain after over a century without. "My arm! MY ARM!"

He staggered back, his remaining hand clutching at his dissolving arm in shock, the loose bones and liquefying flesh dribbling down onto the dojo's floor, smelling absolutely disgusting. Izuku almost gagged at the smell, but he managed to hold his gorge down, winding up another attack on the zombie-like man.

"St-Stay away! Fucking brat!" Zanki screamed, attempting to kick the boy away. Unfortunately for him, the haze of the first true pain he'd felt in over a century, mixed with the raw terror he was feeling that someone, a prepubescent kid no less, had managed destroy one of his arms, left the movement blatant and sloppy to the point that even a child like Izuku could read it and react appropriately.

Ducking under the kick, Izuku ground his teeth together as the golden energy of his Quirk crackled around his fists. This man had hurt his sensei and had threatened his best friends...he was going down hard!

"Hamon Sōtenken! (Ripple Twin Heavenly Fists!)" he shouted, leaping up, his body moving in echo of someone else's motions, one that Itsuka recognised, judging by how her eyes widened.

"That's my…!"

In a perfect imitation of Itsuka's Sōtaiken technique, minus the enlargement both of his fists, Izuku slammed both of his fists into the upper body of Zanki the Relentless, the golden light and crackling golden lightning crackling over every remaining part of his body and head.

"N-No…how could…I lose…to a brat…to someone not even a decade…old…!" Zanki choked out, his entire body starting to melt and break apart as the golden lightning danced across it. He tried to reassert control with his Quirk, but the flesh refused to respond to [Dead Cell], as if, for a brief moment, the flesh had been brought back to life even as it destroyed itself.

Realizing that his 'immortality' might well and truly be at an end, Zanki's fear boiled over into rage. "Th-this brat…if nothing else…I'm gonna take this…brat down…with me…!"

Even as he reached for Izuku with his slowly dissolving arm, however, two people reacted quickly.

"Raisei!"

"Sōtenshu! (Double Palm!)"

In a twin cry of anger, both of the teachers, who had been left gaping at both the ferocity of Izuku's attack and the effect his Quirk was having on the undead, leapt into action and slammed their attacks into Zanki with enough force that Izuku was sent flying back, only to be caught by Itsuka and Kyōka. The previous resilience shown by the hired dojo destroyer was nowhere to be seen as his torso was pulped by the combination of the two techniques.

With a pathetic gurgle, Zanki the Relentless died as his body, kept intact through the power of his Quirk up until this point, collapsed under its own weight as it liquefied. The bones thumped onto the floor, leaving disgusting pile of sludge and bone across the dojo's floor.

"Heh…I...did it…" Izuku said with a blink of surprise before his eyes rolled back and he fell unconscious, much to the worry of Kyōka and Itsuka.

"Ran…call the police…" Kanzashi huffed as she shook her hand to get the Essence of Zanki off it. "…and the on-call doctor. I want Izuku-kun looked over ASAP."

"Yes, Sifu." Ran nodded, moving off while holding the bleeding wound on her arm. She still had much to learn, so it seemed.

Stepping around the puddle of Zanki's remains, Kanzashi checked over Izuku before smiling at the two fretting girls hovering nearby. "He's OK, girls. He just pushed his Quirk too hard and fainted in exhaustion. He should wake up once he's recovered."

Nodding at the two relieved girls, Kanzashi turned and looked at what remained of one of the most powerful martial artists that she had ever fought. Taken down by a nine-year-old boy.

"Something tells me that this is only the beginning." she muttered before getting herself ready to answer the questions of the police.

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Next Chapter: Ghost of a Mentor

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