Alright this is the first chapter to be posted under the new schedule. It was a bit hard to change, but I think I'm liking this schedule more than posting twice a week. But it's still the first week, so we'll see how it go.
Last time Izuku had his first day of training with Hawk. In this chapter we see the end of that end and the start of the second day. Then we get an outsider's prespective from Mei Hatsume and how she feels about everything that's going on.
As always I do not own MY HERO ACADEMIA or Marvel or any of their characters.
With that, let's begin.
At the end of the day, Izuku was able to run the entire course effectively for 187 times straight, without messing up. In actuality, Izuku had flown through the rings a total of 2,580 times. Each time he messed up, he would restart and go from the beginning. After switching tactics, around the 1,100th run, to breaking down the course into different sections.
Whenever he messed up a series of rings, he would fly back three or four rings from where he messed up. This allowed him to be a running start, before flying through the section again. Wherever he messed up, he would do this over and over until he was able to complete it three times without mistake. It was only then that Izuk would return to the beginning and restart. With every restart, Izuku was able to get further and further down the course.
Finally, around an hour before dinner, Izuku completed his last full run of the course. He cheered, he now had a baseline of taking sharp turns, momentarily gliding with some more advanced aerial manoeuvres such as the barrel roll, allowing him to easily move side to side without slowing down. The 'Cobra' instantly killed his momentum before redirecting himself upwards to a higher point, Izuku was happy to show that he already had a handle on it. He had the first half down as he often used it to make sudden stops before lowering himself to the ground.
Hawks had also formed the path to do a Kulbit loop, but placing two rings right above each other. Though Izuku had difficulty doing it correctly and Hawks explained it was one of the maneuvers that put more g forces on the body. Izuku also pointed out that either his hair got in his view or that his eyes became too watery to properly see. Hawks conceded with that and told Izuku that it would be fine if he only practised the move with his helmet on.
Izuku continued to cheer as he fell to his knees, happy with his success.
"Alright Han Solo, you did your first run, but you've haven't complete the castle run yet." Hawks said, as he hovered to Izuku and landed in front of him.
"No, I'm going to need a hyper-drive for that," Izuku said as he stood up and caught a water bottle Hawks threw at him. He twisted off the cap and down the contained quickly. After wiping his mouth he finished with, "I'm hungry and I have to cook for myself tonight."
"I won't hold you any longer. Let's get your equipment back to G-6." Hawks said.
As they walked to Classroom G-6, Hawks explained some of the advanced aerial manoeuvres and though Izuku may not use all of them, it would be still good to have a sense of how to perform them. Walking to the front gate, Izuku waved goodbye to Hawks and then began to walk down the hill to the nearest bus station. As Izuku turned to look back, he saw Hawks posing in front of the evening sun before flying off, getting a good laugh from Izuku.
At his apartment's stop, Izuku got off the bus and headed up to the apartment. As soon as he walked in, he turned on the TV which was on a new station. "Though Sutein Co has yet to release a statement, it has been more and more clear that something is amiss with their CEO and founder Mr. Sutein as he had not appeared in public for some time. Even missing his company's annual charity event, raising the question, has something happened to the man whose business has touched the lives of everyone in Japan."
Izuku sighed, as it seemed the news was starting to figure out what was going on with that mess. He remembered the conversation he had heard from his mother. It was late at night and Izuku was supposed to be asleep when he heard Inko talking to the board of directors. Her stressed tone of voice was what caught his attention and made him listen. They were talking about whether it would be better to cancel the charity event or make a statement that Mr Sutein was unwell and was unable to attend. Moving away from that, Izuku switched channels until he landed in the section of the channel that was always playing movies.
After finding one that provided good background noise, an old American movie about an egotistical old shot that learns he isn't the best at flying. After turning the volume up on the TV a bit Izuku walked into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and began looking for food to use to make himself some dinner.
The next day, Izuku arrived a little late to UA, having stayed up a little late on a project for the Sports Festival. Even without all the stalking he had done, he knew 1-A and 1-B would be difficult obstacles to get over. Class 1-B had Setsunna Tokago and Hiryu Rin from recommendation and along with them, Izuku had kept a close eye on Yosetsu Awase and Kinoko Komori. From watching them train their quirks at school, Izuku knew that with his wield quirk Awase could easily trap Izuku in his suit and render him immobile and Komori could make mushrooms grow inside his suit, messing up all the wiring.
But then there was Class 1-A, every student there had earned their place in that class, but like Class 1-B, there were some students that Izuku kept a closer eye on. Momo Yaoyorozu and Shoto Todoroki were the other pair of recommended students. The son of the number 2 hero and a girl who could make anything almost instantly. Izuku feared her power a bit, what if Momo saw his suit blueprints, could she instantly make her own version and who's to say his version would be better? Then Katsuki Bakugou, his old childhood associate, his explosions could potentially damage his suit, a theory Izuku hadn't gotten a chance to test nor did he really want to.
Lower on the list was Mina Ashido. With her quirk: Acid, there was no telling what kind of damage she could do to his suit. Then in fourth was Ochaco Uraraka, and she interested Izuku a bit, her school file had her quirk listed as Zero gravity, yet that wasn't what Izuku feared about her. He already had aerial mobility, so losing his gravitational pull wouldn't affect him that much, not unless Ochaco could increase gravity, but she never showed the ability to.
No, what he feared about Ochaco was her second quirk. It reminded Izuku about All Might, a lot in fact. The pink glow she got around her body and how she gained super strength and enhanced speed. Yet She only seemed to practice her secondary quirk with Gizon Hisahito.
Speaking of Gizon Hisahito. He was at the top of Izuku's list. Not out of fear or respect, but for his raw strength and tactical mind. During training, sometimes Gizon moved so effortlessly that it seemed he had already gone through UA's hero course before and he was able to handle any kind of situation thrown at him with a calm and collected mind. And worse it seemed he had it all with his quirk, super strength, super speed, endurance, regenerative property and worse it seemed like no attack could hurt him. How was anyone supposed to defeat a person who couldn't take damage?
Izuku shook his head from that as he walked through UA's gate. Though the first years had the week off, Izuku was late to his training with Hawks. So Izuku quickly took off towards the support department to get his equipment. Arriving at the building, Izuku scanned his student ID and then began running through the hallway. His shoe squeaked across the freshly cleaned floor, catching the attention of Powerloader. Who looked up from his coffee to see Izuku breeze past him. Powerloader began to scold Izuku, but by the time Powerloader fully turned around, it was just in time to see his student disappear around a corner
Sliding across the floor to slow down Izuku arrived at Classroom 6-G, he pressed his hand against the door to scan it and the door quickly opened. Running inside, Izuku grabbed his gauntlets and boots from the holo table and a wrench then ran out. As he ran out of the support department building, Izuku slipped on his gauntlets, using the wrench to tighten the screws as he shoulder checkered the door. Outside, Izuku continued to run until his gauntlets were fully assembled, and then he fell to the floor and put on his boot.
Once all the wires were tightened, Izuku connected all the wires to the arc reactor. Once he heard the familiar sound of his equipment powered up Izuku quickly blasted off to Gym Omega
As he flew to Gym Omega, he blew past Principal Nezu, nearly making the little rodent spill his tea. Izuku hit the ground and slid to a stop then turned and looked back at Principal Nezu.
With tea spilt over his vest, Principal Nezu looked at Izuku with a neutral face, but to Izuku that was scary then angry
"Mr. Satuka." Izuku knew he was dead- "You are only permitted to use your equipment within the support department or one of UA's gyms. They are not to be used for transportation when you are late to class." Principal Nezu said, making sure that Izuku heard every word, "Now swipe get to your training.
Izuku gave a nervous smile as he began running away, reigniting his equipment once he was out of range. Izuku lowered his speed a bit so he had better control over his path, but was still moving at a good speed to get to Gym Gamm.
As he neared the door, Izuku accidentally killed all power to his equipment, causing him to drop to the ground and roll. Which resulted in him rolling through the door and comically ending as he rolled onto his butt and stopped.
"Oh man, I wish I had my phone ready to record that, I bit that would even get a smile out of Eraserhead." Hawks called out, hovering in the air as he looked down at Izuku.
"Glad my panic and anxiety can give you a good laugh," Izuku said as he sat on the floor for a bit before picking himself up. He spent the next few minutes brushing all the dust and dirt off of him, "So what's the plan for today."
Izuku then shook his head, and a loud dust cloud appeared above him that was big enough to conceal his entire body. This almost got another laugh from Hawks, but he was able to keep his composure.
Hawks held a hand up to his mouth and coughed into it, "First off, we're going to be in the air all day. You'll only be able to land when we take a break. So get up here with me."
Izuku nodded and ingated his equipment and rose up until he was level with Hawks, "Well if nothing else, this will be a good test to see how long my equipment can last. That and my quirk."
"Yeah sure, try to keep that optimistic view on this." Hawks said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture, "Yesterday you got a good baseline of your level of mobility, now today we'll see how well you can fight in the air."
"Well I've had training before, but not in the air." Izuku said.
"Oh and who thought it would be a good waste of their time training you?" Hawks asked, his voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"Crimson Dynamo and Captain Japan," Izuku said, as he waved his arm around a bit as he leaned forward a bit too forward. Hawks laughed then Izuku said, "And Mirko trained me for two days.
Hawks immediately shut up at the comment. He looked at Izuku to see if he was lying. It was clear he wasn't. Hawks had run into the number 5 hero before and it was clear why she was number 5 in Japan. She was stubborn and hard-headed and she never gave up, and if she trained Izuku, Hawks was a little afraid that he had underestimated the kid in front of him.
"I did stay most of those two days on my back, but hey it was fun nonetheless." Izuku said.
Hawks screamed in his head. Izuku had trained with Mirko for two days, nothing someone would imagine as fun. Mirko was known to be ruthless in the way she fought, a step beyond dirty. She is a pride warrior too, so if Izuku never surrendered and kept on getting back on his feet, which Mirko would only seen as him asking for more. Hawks could only imagine Mirko kept her cool for so long. All the Izuku saw that training as fun.
Stupid, Crazy, Resilient or Blissful. Hawks could describe which one Izuku was, probably all of them. A thought he would probably be coming back a lot during the next week or so. For now, he had to table it and teach Izuku how to survive a fight, then again he survived what Mirko considered training, he could probably survive anything.
"Shut up." Hawks yelled in his mind, then focused on Izuku, "Alright we're going to similar training as yesterday, while we can talk about aerial combat you best learn by practice. For now we'll begin with dodging." Hawks gave a sinister smile as he transformed one of his feathers into a blade and held it out ready to use. Hawks saw Izuku's visible swallow, before nodding and getting a serious face.
Izuku knew he could use his quirk to enhance his cognitive ability, but it was going to be a long day and Izuku didn't know why to tire himself out too quickly. Besides Izuku had spent his childhood and early teenage years dodging attacks. How wrong could it be in the….
Izuku's mind refocused as he saw Hawks swinging his weapon. Izuku tried to take a few steps back, but his feet just waved back and forth through the air, keeping him in the same spot. As that didn't work, Izuku held his arms down in front of him in an X formation to block, but that stopped his arm from keeping him up in the air. So while this results in Izuku successfully dodging the attack, it occurred by him falling backwards and down.
Izuku nearly hit the ground, before he realized what was happening. He quickly shot his arm out, increasing the power directed to his gauntlets. This stopped his descent by backflipping back into the air, further away from Hawks.
"Well I would say that works, but we both know that isn't the truth." Hawks said as he watched Izuku regain his balance, "As that wasn't what you meant to do. You haven't not much experience fighting the air, let alone dodging an attack. You tried to take a step back, but that's not going to work in the air. As you have nothing to push against except for the air around you. That's your personal challenge for becoming a hero, while everyone else learns how to fight on the ground, you have to learn how to also fight in the air. Otherwise, you limit yourselves in what you can do as a hero."
Izuku nodded as he regained his balance and slowly hovered back over to Hawks.
"While on the ground, you move your legs to dodge, up in the air it's a bit different. Personally I have to rely on my wings, but with you, you're still using the same area of your body but in a different way. It's like you grew up playing a game one way, but then you learn you're been doing it wrong your entire life, you'll have to break old habits and make new ones. Instead of moving your muscles, you'll just need to focus on them. And that only comes with practice." Hawks said, reading his weapon and lounge towards Izuku.
Izuku panicked but managed to stay in control enough to keep his legs from moving, he held his arm out in front of him. However, instead of simply increasing the power to his gauntlet Izuku let loose an energy attack. So while the concussive force went forward, Newton's third law sent Izuku backwards. This effectively made him dodge the lounge while deferring Hawks from moving forward, making him spread his wings out to stop himself.
"A good try, but like last time it was more of a happy accident than anything else." Hawks said as he batted his wing and flew back a bit. Izuku thought about lying and saying he meant to do that, but then he dropped his head and gave a small nod. Seemed today was going to be longer than yesterday and yesterday already felt long.
Mei was taking a bite from her sandwich from the lunch made by her mother and forced to take by her Inner Izuku Midoriya, as she looked at the computer screen in front of her. It would typically be showing off data from one of her inventions, or be filled with notifications of stuff she had forgotten to do or simply ignored. But now it was showing off something new as she swallowed the bite of a sandwich from her water bottle and looked back at the computer screen.
The first thing she did when she got to UA, was hack into the security system, not an easy task. And now Mei had one of the cameras and had one of the cameras of Gym Gamma in the corner of the screen. And now she was taking lunch, she had made it fullscreen so it was the only thing she could focus on. This was the first time she wasn't able to watch Izuku train and work on his equipment, one of the few things was that invention that Mei could focus on without becoming a distraction. While other people listened to music, talked to a friend or had a movie on in the background while they did stuff, Mei watched Izuku work on his equipment.
It kept her attention and allowed her mind to actually subconsciously work on projects, but now Mei and Izuku were apart to get ready for the Sports Festival. Mei felt her mind jump back and forth behind different projects. Yesterday she had barely made any progress on anything, but since she had a small window to Izuku, she felt driven. But watching Izuku as he trained with Hawks, Mei felt it was more of a hindrance than expected.
"Hey Hatsume," Powerloader called from behind Mei. Mei quickly panicked as her teacher was about to see that she had hacked into UA's security, without permission and was not focusing on her project. She grabbed her mouse and moved it to close the window, but Powerloader grabbed her hand and stopped her from clicking the button, "I see that you've been up to breaking into UA's security system again. Last time Principal Nezu warned you about that."
"Sorry." Mei said.
"What were you trying to get access to this…." Powerloader paused as he looked at the screen and watched Izuku try to dodge Hawk, but swiftly got nailed in the side from the blunt side of Hawk's sword, "Cameras, and you're watching Midoriya. You know stalkers start out by watching their victims from a distance."
"It's not like that." Mei said, trying to close the window, but Powerloader held her finger back before pulling her hand away from the mouse, "I'm not stalking Midoriya." She got a small blush on her cheek as her mind told her that she was lying to herself.
"Yet you hacked a multi million yen security system, risked your enrollment in Japan's top hero school and tried to close it so I couldn't find you watching your classmates. A classmate that is trying to get into the hero course. I think that's considered stalking." Powerloader said.
"Please don't tell Izuku." Mei said and Powerloader caught on to the fact Mei called Izuku by his first name.
"I'm not into drama like Midnight, but is there a reason you're watching Midoriya?" Powerloader asked. While he wasn't Midnight, it was still his duty as a teacher to look out for his students. And he has grown close to Izuku in the few weeks since school had started.
Mei whined a bit as she tried to reach for the mouse again, but Powerloader quickly flickered it out of her reach. She closed her eyes and looked down, whining as she shook her head.
"Hatsume, why are you watching Midoriya?" Powerloader asked and Mei shook her head. Powerloader was going to ask again with more force in his voice, but then Mei answered.
"I'm proud of what he's doing!" Mei yelled out loud, eternally grateful that she had her own space to work and the other student of the support department didn't hear her, "With how Izuku is going, he'll be the first student from the support course to be transferred into the hero course."
"You sound proud but disappointed," Powerloader said, as he pulled out a chair and sat across from Mei. Mei wasn't working on an invention, something that was rare to see in the support department. Even outside of the support department, she was always trying to work on some project, so whatever was going on was big enough to pull her away from that.
"He's doing so much to fulfill his dream, to prove to the world he can be a hero. And he's doing it so quickly" Mei said.
Powerloader was going to say something that Izuku had help but stopped himself. He took a moment to look at it from Mei's perspective. She, the daughter of two of the world's best engineers, had been engineering since she could first walk. Got in trouble for taking things apart around the house, and putting them back together, usually not the correct way.
Mei had been working on her hover boots since she was a kid, Powerloader knew this as he had got a glimpse of some of her old blueprints. The dates had them made when she was 9 and she had worked tirelessly to get to her level of skill and knowledge.
Yet then came along Izuku Midoriya, who probably had the skill of an engineer of taking apart pens and putting them back together. Then He had met Mei and her parents and within a few years, had caught up to Mei's level of engineering, who had taken years to do so. And then quickly surpassed her and was doing engineering of equipment she could never have dreamed of.
Mei probably felt she was being overshadowed by Izuku and by watching him train, she could always tell how far behind she was and use it to try and best herself and her inventions.
"Hatsume, Midoriya's a smart kid and he had some good teachers and a good friend to push him to where he is today. But just as there are different types of heroes, there are different types of engineers. And Midoriya will always look towards you for help." Powerloader said.
"What?" Mei asked, looking at her teacher. Why was he saying that, sure, Mei was a little jealous of Izuku's equipment, but she knew that they were Hisashi's inventions?
"I'm saying that you and Midoriya are two different types of engineering," Powerloader said, caught off guard by Mei's sudden lacklustre response.
"What, no I'm not disappointed over that. Yeah, it's a little unfair that quickly Midoriya has progressed, but I'm glad he's doing what he loves." Mei said, then gestured back to the camera, as it showed Izuku accidentally ramming his back into the wall, "I guess, I just wish that what he loves to do won't take him away from me."
"What do you mean?" Powerloader said, confused about how the issue was different from what he was expecting.
"Since we learned about Classroom G-6, even before that, Izuku has been working towards one goal. Getting transferred to the hero course and we both know that Izuku is going to get in. Hawks are training him for pete's sake, a top ten hero won't waste their time on a support student unless they sees potential. And since Izuku has wanted to be a hero since he was a kid, he's going to work harder than anyone else to prove himself. So when he gets transferred, I'll lose him. He'll have whatever new class he gets into to spend time with and he won't have time to come back to the support department and see me, spend time with me," Mei then let out a deep sigh, "I'm afraid I'll lose him."
Powerloader looked at Mei with an acknowledging look on his face, but then it broke and he chuckled a bit. Mei raised her arm to hit Powerloader in the shoulder as she would have with Izuku but stopped when Powerloader answered why he was laughing. "You're afraid that you're going to lose him, soon to be Mr-Super-Famous-Support-Course-Student. You think that once he becomes a hero, he'll no longer have time for you. That he won't make time for you, that he won't need you any more. But I'm telling you, he'll come back to the support department. It is where his suit is stored."
"That just it, I don't want Mr-Super-Famous-Support-Course-Student. Izuku Midoriya, the first support sutdent in history to become a hero. I just want my Izuku Midoriya, the nerd geeks out whenever he meets a new pro hero, and asks for their autograph in his notebook that he always seems to have on him." Mei said, looking down at the ground.
"So what do you want him to do, put your name on the side of his suit, your parent's company logo. Have Hatsume Indtrsuise be a sponsor of Iron Man." Powerloader said in a small joking tone of voice, then Mei shook her head. Powerloader sighed and put a hand on Mei's shoulder. "You aren't going to lose that Midoriya. The nerd that wants every hero's signature, or the one you met in the junkyard that day."
Mei looked at Powerloader confused about how he knew about that. Mei and Izuku had agreed never to discuss that day ever again, it was water under the bridge, more out of embarrassment than bad blood.
"Your mom and Izuku's told me about that. But I'm telling you, he'll come back to you, he'll always will. He'll continue to come back to the support department and when the time comes he'll look to you for assistance. Eventually, he'll run into a problem that he can solve by himself and I bet you'll be the first person he turns to for help. He'll be the same out Izuku Midoriya from when you first met him, just in a new environment."
"But the new environment is what I'm afraid of. Spotlights will be on him as he joins 1-A. He'll be in 1-A, and he'll have to focus on becoming a hero, spending time with his new friends to learn from them. I'm afraid I'll fade from his mind." Mei said.
"I can promise you won't. You're the first friend he ever made, he isn't going to leave you behind." Powerloader said, then looked Mei in the eyes as she glanced back at her monitor, "You've done a lot in preparation for the Sports Festival, Why don't you take a break tomorrow, and watch Midoriya train with Hawks? Get your mind off of inventing."
Mei looked at Powerloader and smiled at the suggestion. She always told herself that inventing was her number one priority, at least until she met Izuku. So if there was anything that could distract her, it would be him, maybe she would get to see him fall flat on his face like he did during his training with Mirko. Mei smiled as she remembered how she burned those images into her mind.
"I will." Mei said. Her mind was now focused and she could think clearly. Tomorrow she would take a break, watch Izuku humiliate himself in some way, and have a good laugh within him, but for now, she had found her motivation again and it was time to put it to work.
Mei closed the camera from her monitor, it would now just be a distraction. Making her come back to a worry that she had faced and overcome, for now. She needed focus and Izuku was the one thing to draw her away from inventing.
And that's chapter 26. Izuku gets toyed on by Hawks, as he tries to break some old habits. Mei feels like she'll lose Izuku if, if Izuku joins 1-A in the hero course.
Next week: Izuku has the chance to go on the offensive and try to attack Hawks. Learning the true meaning of "Try, fail, try harder."
Next time: Flight School 3.0
Review and tell me what you think.
