19.06.2023

It is I, the Absolute Madman and I'm back after the break, feeling quite rested, but for a wholly different reason, though more on that later.

First and foremost, the chapter!:

After leaving the bath Izuku could wholeheartedly agree that this was one of the best baths he's ever taken. It was a close second to the ones he used to take all the way back in Fujikuma, a noteworthy feat in and of itself. Returning to his quarters after a refreshing bath like this one had Izuku's eyelids feeling heavy and ready for sleep. The sweet dreams would be denied him however, as he wasn't the only one coming to his room.

"Good evening." Izuku greeted his fellow intern when he rounded a corner and spotted Shiozaki about to insert a key into her door.

She was still wearing what Izuku guessed to be her hero suit - a snow-white toga-like robe that covered her body from head to toe - so she must've just returned from her first day with Kamui Woods. And it seemed that it was quite the tiring first day too.

"Good evening to you too." Shiozaki turned to respond with a smile on her face, though the droopiness of her expression betrayed her fatigued state.

"Kamui Woods must've put you through the wringer." Izuku commented as he approached his friend with a smile of his own.

"Truth be told we simply lost track of time and didn't do anything too exhausting. We covered a lot of ground though and this sapped my energy substantially." Shiozaki explained.

"Monk'ai took me for a tour too, though I'm sure you know the surrounding neighborhood like the back of your hand after a day like this." Izuku joked, managing to elicit a quick chuckle from his friend.

"That might very well be the case." The vine-haired girl agreed, her fatigue slowly fading into the background. "Kamui Woods said that we're going to stay in the agency and work on my quirk tomorrow, so I have that to look forward to." Shiozaki revealed, no doubt thrilled about getting to learn from the rising star of a capture specialist that was Kamui Woods. "How was your day?"

"Oh, it was awesome. Monk'ai talked me through many things and I even got to spar with him!" Izuku declared proudly, puffing out his chest.

"How did it go?" Shiozaki asked, her curiosity peaked by her friend's enthusiastic response.

"I lost every single time and he basically wiped the floor with me." Izuku stated, his pride unflinching even in the face of an embarrassing truth.

"That was to be expected I guess." Shiozaki sweat-dropped, not surprised by the outcome itself, but by Izuku's reaction to the beating he had received.

"At first I really thought I had a chance y'know?" Izuku admitted, scratching his neck. "The difference in skill was just way too big to overcome at my current level. I did good in his opinion and he even wants to teach me a few tricks about hand-to-hand combat. I'm not sure what he has planned for tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll get to learn something useful!" Izuku's enthusiasm was just too contagious and Shiozaki couldn't help but chuckle at the display.

It was at this point that she noticed Izuku's unusual choice of attire. Instead of wearing the casual clothes he always did when they hung out, he was wearing a black bathrobe tied at the front with a white rope. She was confused as to how that detail managed to elude her for such a long time, but she discarded the though quickly and simply blamed it on her fatigue.

"Did you use a public shower or something along those lines?" Shiozaki asked curiously.

"Oh, there's one floor that's like one giant bathhouse. Monk'ai showed it to me at the end of the day and I'll forever be in his debt. The water was amazing and they have to be adding something to it, because my bruises don't feel nearly as sore as I expected them to. I'm actually rather refreshed than tired." If Shiozaki was curious before, she was fully hooked right now.

"I'll definitely have to check that out then. But that'll have to wait for tomorrow as I'm too tired for any more exploring at this time. I'll just shower and head straight to bed." Shiozaki said.

"I don't blame you. I'm going to sleep as well. Goodnight Shiozaki." Izuku wished as he walked past her and towards his room.

"Goodnight." Shiozaki responded in kind, finally inserting the key and entering her room. "He's got quite the muscular chest." She thought idly as she managed to catch a few glimpses of his chest when he walked.

Waking up on the next day Izuku was more than ready to face the challenges ahead of him. He first headed for some light breakfast to make sure he didn't run out of energy during the day and then it was time to hunt down Monk'ai once again.

Finding him was easy as he was sitting at his desk in his office eating a banana. One might say it was a bit on the nose, but Monk'ai simply said it was a good source of potassium.

"Alright, yesterday we dealt mostly with the theoretical side of things, so today we're going to take a break from all that boring stuff and dive in to get you some much needed hands-on experience. We're going to start with a long patrol and then come back for some sparring later in the day. I'll try to teach you a few tricks you might find useful in a fight." Monk'ai listed out their plans for the day and without wasting any time, they headed out to prepare for the day ahead.

Izuku swung by his room to change into his hero suit, putting the armor on with no small amount of excitement coursing through his veins, and then headed straight down to the ground floor to meet up with his mentor.

Monk'ai had yet to arrive by the time Izuku was ready to head out, but there wasn't anything wrong with that, Izuku did suit up quite fast in the spur of the moment. And he even got a glimpse of Edgeshot himself as he was leaving the building, presumably to go on a patrol of his own, so there was that.

Once Monk'ai arrived not even two minutes later, the mentor/student duo hit the ground running to capitalize on the momentum of the previous day. Izuku already had an idea on what to expect as Yanaka was a very quiet neighborhood and just the sheer presence of Edgeshot's agency was enough to put an end to any criminals that might've been lurking in the alleyways of the district. Still, it was important to make sure that things stayed this way by appearing before the public. Yet, even with all those deterrents in place, there are always going to be people desperate enough to try and pull stuff despite the high probability of being caught. That's just how the cookie crumbles.

Today however proved to be yet another quiet day that everyone working at Edgeshot's agency was already used to. Whether it was due to criminals finally giving up on this area or the commotion that Izuku's appearance as an intern caused we may never know.

"Well shit. It seems that even the purse snatchers tremble before our combined might!" Monk'ai declared, flexing his muscles a fair bit.

"The agency is just a couple minutes from here, so they might be intimidated by that as well." Izuku offered his input, earning himself a thumbs up from his mentor.

"Good observation kid. With how many flashy fights get shown on TV one might think that fighting is all we do. I won't pretend that fighting isn't fun and all, but resolving conflicts without the use of one's fists is something everyone should strive to do. You can always pick up martial arts if the thrill of a fight is what you're looking for." Monk'ai stated with conviction clear in his voice.

The more time he spent around the pro, the clearer it became to Izuku that his mentor is one hell of a motivational speaker. His manner of speaking and the sheer energy behind his every word would be enough to force even the toughest villains to reflect on their behavior. This is greatly exaggerated of course, but puts into perspective just how astounding Monk'ai is.

Izuku couldn't help but pray for certain people to mature into respectable men akin to his mentor. But whilst he doesn't put The Lord's omnipotence into question, he doubts even he was capable of straightening his troublemaker classmates. Either way, he wasn't eager to give up on them. Who knows, they might just surprise him one day.

"Welp, I guess you get no hands-on experience today either. Kinda sucks, but days like these are exactly what we're fighting for I guess." Monk'ai summed up after a few uneventful hours of patrolling the surrounding area.

The time wasn't wasted however as Monk'ai made it a point to share his own experiences throughout the day. Some of them were pretty funny like that one time when he was chasing some notorious small-time local thief and he ended up running into a dead end alley three times in a row despite knowing the area like the back of his hand. Others were really insightful, like when Monk'ai explained how he managed to single out a drug dealer inside a crowded mall by the way he carried himself and the clothes he wore. Pretty impressive stuff.

Since there wasn't much going on outside the agency, Monk'ai decided to conclude the patrol early and head back to get on with the program.

The journey back was as eventful as the rest of the day up till now, which basically means that they stopped a couple of times to shake hands and strike up some conversations with random people on the street. Since they were wearing their hero suits anyways, Monk'ai decided to do some sparring.

As expected, Izuku got his rear handed to him every round, but the whole bout was much more educational than what they did yesterday. The breaks between rounds were much longer and spent mostly on Monk'ai explaining where Izuku went wrong and what led to his defeat this time.

"To be honest I don't know squat about sword fighting, so all I can teach you is related to hand-to-hand combat. It might be useful if you were ever forced to fight with your fists, but I'm not sure about other scenarios." Monk'ai stated after one of their spars.

"Don't worry about it. Being a melee fighter I'm pretty much forced to be on the offense or risk getting outranged by my opponent. Learning about the openings in my attack patterns is more than enough for me." Izuku assured his mentor, getting up to his feet to continue the training.

"That's the spirit! Now I'm pumped! Let's do this!" Monk'ai declared, starting yet another round of sparring.

Sparring was very insightful, great fun for all parties involved and above all else - tiring. As such Monk'ai eventually came to the conclusion that a break was in order. They spent about an hour grabbing some quick showers and something to eat before going back to the training floors once again. This time however they didn't plan on fighting. Instead Monk'ai wanted to help Izuku develop something that might help him against ranged opponents.

"Tell me, how good are you with that shield bubble of yours?" Monk'ai started off by asking Izuku a couple of questions about his baseline abilities.

"I didn't get a lot of practice with it, but it's certainly got its uses even at this level." Izuku answered, curious where his mentor was going with this train of thought.

The utility that his barrier provided against ranged opponents was obvious, blocking directed and area of effect attacks was basically a core of countering ranged enemies and Izuku knew that already. Was it possible that Monk'ai figured out something that Izuku hadn't thought about yet?

"Can you move with it for example?" The white-haired man continued his questioning.

"I… actually didn't try that." Izuku realized with his eyes going wide suddenly. "I was always thinking about my barrier as a single use thing since it's not strong enough to withstand multiple attacks. I never thought about using it like a regular shield." Izuku explained, already eager to see how viable this new tactic might be.

"Give it a try right now." Monk'ai urged him and Izuku complied immediately.

First Izuku created the bubble around himself, amazing his mentor with the golden glow light show that always accompanied his abilities, and then proceeded to try and take a step forward. Walking was not hard, but the barrier didn't like that one bit. It flickered wildly, almost completely fading away, but came back full force when Izuku stood in place.

"It's hard to move and maintain it at the same time." Izuku explained whilst keeping the shield going steadily. He was about to chance taking another step, but Monk'ai stopped him with a suggestion.

"How about you try and make the shield smaller? Maybe project in a single direction rather than all around? That bubble might be good when you're surrounded, but against a single opponent it seems like a waste of energy." Monk'ai reasoned, constantly trying to figure out a way for his student to improve and have something to show for his internship.

"It's worth a try at least." Izuku responded and then let the barrier fade out for a few moments before focusing once again and summoning it once again.

Despite trying to picture a wall instead of a bubble, the barrier he created was the exact same as it always is, so he tried once again. And then again and again. It took him almost ten tries but he was eventually able to create a barrier that protected him from most sides, his back being wide open and his flanks mostly protected by the golden gleam of his shield. It was a far cry from how he pictured it inside his head, but it was a start, one that he could always try improving upon.

With the partial barrier in place, Izuku chanced to take a step forward whilst maintaining it. The shield once again flickered and waned, but it didn't come close to fading out fully like the previous time. Despite being more of a hassle to set up, the smaller shield proved to be easier to maintain on the move in comparison to the regular bubble. If only he could work on making it even smaller, then moving with it could be actually quite easy!

At least that's what Izuku thought in the heat of the moment, until Monk'ai poked the shield. Now it didn't even flicker and simply vanished upon impact. The most devastating part about it was that Monk'ai wasn't even trying to pierce it.

"Having fancy tricks up your sleeve never hurt anyone, but you've gotta make sure that you keep improving your basics, because in the event that all your special techniques fail you will always have something to fall back on." Monk'ai stated wisely, nodding to himself a couple of times. "Let's work on this for now. Once you get comfortable with working around we will proceed to the next step."

"The next step?" Izuku asked curiously, the prospect of improvements quickly overcoming the sour taste of failure.

"Not so fast young one, one thing at a time." Monk'ai chastised his student, though there was a smirk on his face.

"Yes, yes…" Izuku dismissed, though he took the advice to heart and started practicing his newly rediscovered ability.

He wasn't improving by leaps and bounds mind you, the improvements were there and definitely were noticeable but they weren't anywhere near as impressive as an MMA/UFC boxer discovering they had legs. Walking around with the barrier was easy enough after a while, but sudden movements or obstacles were still enough to shatter it in the blink of an eye. If he focused on making the shield tougher on the other hand then it became much harder to move it around with him.

In time he'll most likely be able to get a grip on this ability and find some semblance of balance between durability and ease of use and then he'll be able to proceed to the next step of his training which Monk'ai stubbornly decided to keep a secret from him.

After practicing for some time, getting varied results from every attempt that he made, Monk'ai decided to take Izuku to the meditation floor once again. Izuku once again tried focusing on the inside like the last time and then shifting his thoughts from subject to subject. Nothing he imagined however helped him enter that state of clairvoyance that Monk'ai described previously.

Since Izuku didn't make any headway in meditation, the mentor/student duo decided to move onto the last position on their to-do list for today - the bath.

Refreshed and rejuvenated by the warm water, Izuku returned to his room and, since it was still fairly early in the evening, decided to text his friends and see how they were doing on their internships.

Ashido seemed to be busy at the moment, but Kirishima was more than eager to share his experience. For starters, he also happened to be doing his internship with a student from class B, one that had similar tastes and interests as Kirishima which caused the two to quickly become friends and strive to push each other on a daily basis. It was definitely nice to see his friends making friends outside their class. They were all going to be heroes one day so it'd be good to get to know each other now, so that they could work together seamlessly in the future.

Before going to sleep Izuku wanted to check up on Shiozaki, but she seemed to be still out with Kamui Woods, so Izuku decided to go to sleep early and rest up, determined to make some big progress on Wednesday!

So... the reason for me feeling unexpectedly rested is that I had an accident at work and basically dislocated my knee which somehow popped back into place moments later and partially torn some of my ligaments, the ones on the inside. My knee basically popped out to the side and then back in, sounds quite wicked but hurt like a bitch I tell you. Now I'm wearing a brace to stabilize my knee while it heals and got a two week long sick leave. It's not much but its something, especially considering that I'm basically stuck in my house the entire time. I can't even mow my lawn! And I love mowing my lawn!

Alirght, newsflash aside - Izuku gets to learn a new way to utilize what he already has, we take a jab at canon and the internships seem to be going quite smoothly. Some might say 'too smoothly' even... Oh, and Shiozaki starts noticing muscles, let's add fuel to this slow burn!

For now though have a great day and I'll catch y'all in the next update!