Month 1 (April)

After reaffirming their dream with each other and some encouraging words from All Might, Izuku and Ochako were ready to begin their first day of training, or so they thought. By the end of their first day, both quickly realized what they thought was training was vastly different than what All Might considered training.

Izuku was feeling this difference as he groaned, digging his hands and feet into the sand as he tried to pull himself forward. Wrapped around his shoulders was a large pair of ropes tied to a large, heavy fridge that he was trying to pull up to a parked truck to get removed from the beach.

To his side, he could hear Ochako gasping for breath as she ran back and forth from a large tire pile, taking one out to carry it out of the beach and up the street to get picked up by the street cleaners.

All Might paced around them, either taking notes down on Ochako for her own modified workout plan or offering encouragement whenever he felt either of them had started to slack off.

After one last futile tug, Izuku collapsed on the sand, gasping for breath. All Might looked up from his notepad. "Hey now, do you think you have time to be lying around?"

"It's...really…heavy…All Might," Izuku gasped out.

All Might chuckled. "Really? If you are having this much trouble just moving a fridge, you'll never be ready to inherit my power. One for All needs a proper vessel."

"But you said I was worthy to inherit it!" Izuku would have sounded desperate if he wasn't still trying to catch his breath.

As All Might started to reply, he could feel an intense stare coming his way. Glancing to his side, he caught Ochako observing him and giving Izuku a worried glance as she picked up another tire to carry. As she ran by him, he continued to speak to Izuku. "You have the spirit, Young Midoriya, but do you have any idea what would happen to you if you got my power as you are now? Your arms and legs would get blown off, and your body would explode."

Izuku gasped in horror as the mental image of his bloody corpse flashed in his mind. Ochako almost tripped before catching herself and continuing her run.

"These next ten months are to get you ready to inherit my power. That's why I put together the Aim to Pass: American Dream Plan in the first place. This training plan will help you be ready by the time you take the U.A. entrance exams. It's set up so that every aspect of your life will push you forward! Even your sleep time will help. I will be honest with you, Young Midoriya. This is a super hard schedule, and it's only phase one. So you need to ask yourself: can you follow it?"

All Might let Izuku think about that as he made his way towards the outer edge of the beach, catching up to Ochako as she hefted another tire onto its new pile.

"Very impressive, Young Uraraka."

Ochako leaned forward onto the pile as she took a second to catch her breath. "Thank you, All Might."

"Yes, you were able to get quite a few tires up here today, but imagine how many more you would have been able to move if you hadn't slowed down every time Young Midoriya had a stumble. Or to glare at me whenever I am a little tough on him."

Ochako flinched as she looked down at her feet, away from All Might. "I...I'm sorry. I don't mean to do that. I guess I just worry about Deku a lot..."

All Might smiled as he put a hand on her shoulder. "You are a good friend, Young Uraraka. However, we can't have you distracted for the whole ten months worrying over Young Midoriya all the time. So let me try and help put your mind at ease. First, do you trust me?"

"Of course!" Ochako was surprised by the question. Of course she would trust the world's greatest hero.

All Might nodded. "That's good. I'd be a little stumped what to do if you didn't," he added with a laugh. "Now, you trust me, but do you trust Young Midoriya?"

Ochako blinked at that question. "Trust Deku? What do you mean?"

"Let me explain. For these next ten months, I'm not just going to be training Young Midoriya's body to become the next vessel for One for All. I will be training his mind to overcome all the mental blocks he has."

"So he'll be able to use his own Quirk better?"

"That's part of the reason, yes, but also to help him find some self-respect which he sorely lacks, if we are being honest."

No thanks to that jerk Bakugou, Ochako thought to herself bitterly.

"Now, from you, I need you to trust me that I will not do anything that will hurt the young man. There will be times where I will have to be rough with him that I may come off more interested in tearing him down. But this is only so that he can put himself back together, stronger than he is now, in both body and mind."

Ochako nodded. "I understand, All Might."

"But you must also trust Midoriya. You need to believe in him, that no matter how hard things get, he will be able to pick himself up and keep going. He needs people around him that believe in him so he will start believing in himself."

All Might moved to the side so that both he and Ochako could look back towards Izuku, who was back on his feet pulling at the large fridge with all his might while they were talking. Watching for a few moments, Ochako straightened up. "I trust him, All Might. I know Deku can do this."

All Might smiled. "Good, good! That's what I want to hear! Now, I think you've rested enough. Back to it, young lady!"

Ochako responded with a quick "Yes, sir!" before rushing back down the beach. As she passed Izuku, she gave him a little wave. "You got this, Deku!"

Izuku blinked, but returned her wave and smiled before gritting his teeth and digging his feet deep into the sand as he finally felt the fridge budge forward, if only a bit, but it was still progress.

With the sun now hanging high above them, All Might clapped his hands together to signal that their first day of cleaning the beach was over. Izuku lay on his back with his arms splayed out while Ochako sat down next to him, rubbing her legs as she tried to get some feeling back into them. All Might, now back to his smaller form, handed them both some water before he took a seat in front of them.

"A very good first day. I am impressed with both of your drives."

Both Ochako and Izuku mumbled something close to a thank-you as they gulped down their water.

"Now before you two head off, I want to go over your workout plan. Fortunately, for now, you two will be able to use the same plan, so here you go. Give it a good look over. Come tomorrow you both will be following that plan to the letter."

Handing them the stack of papers, Ochako held them so both she and Izuku could read them. Flipping through the pages, both Izuku and Ochako came to the same conclusion.

This was going to be hell.

"Well," Izuku began. "U.A. is the hardest school to get into. So we'll just have to work that much harder to get ready. It is the school that All Might went to, so it's gonna be worth it."

Ochako chuckled. "You are such a fanboy, Deku." Skimming through a few more pages, she pulled out a sheet with a list of meals on it. "Wow, this is a lot of food, though…"

"You are going to need that fuel, Young Uraraka. Without it, you won't have the energy to do this training."

"Don't worry, Uraraka; I'm sure convincing Mom to make all this for us won't be too hard once she learns it's for our training."

All Might frowned. "On the subject of your mother, have you thought about what you will tell her?"

Izuku sat up so he could look directly at All Might. "I have. At least for now, anyway. I think I'll tell her that Uraraka and I are going to be following a program I found to do our training and leave it at that. Honestly, I don't know if I could keep track of anything more complicated than that."

All Might nodded. "Considering how quickly you folded this morning, that may be for the best."

Ochako snickered while Izuku looked away bashfully. "I bet if your mom did find out, she would have a heart attack."

Izuku agreed. "I know she worries about me a lot. Whenever I talk about being a hero, she looks a little scared. I want to try and keep her happy as long as I can."

"And you, Young Uraraka? What will you tell your parents?"

"The whole reason I moved out here was to get ready for U.A. So I can just tell them I'm training and not have to worry about it. No news is good news in this situation."

With that settled, All Might stood up and pulled out his keys as he got into his truck. "Well then, I will see you two tomorrow morning, bright and early."

Both Izuku and Ochako waved as All Might drove off. When he was out of sight, Ochako helped Izuku up. "Come on. We still have to go over everything you missed from school. We should be able to cover it today."

"Yeah, sounds like a plan. Thank you, Uraraka." Izuku and Ochako collected their belongings and began their jog back to his house.

Month 2 (May)

From Izuku's point of view, he wasn't sure if either he or Ochako were having a rougher time at the moment. After a month of pure physical hell, All Might had added on a new part to their training. They were working on their Quirks.

I knew this was coming, but it doesn't make it any easier, Izuku thought to himself as he continued the simple but grueling task ahead of him. To his side was a child's play pool, and all he had to do was fill it with water from the ocean. Simple, in theory. But All Might had given him strict rules to follow. He must use a small coffee mug to carry the water to the pool, which was several yards away from the shore. He had to stay next to the pool while doing the training, and he was not allowed to ever touch the cup with his hands. The only way he could move the cup was with his Quirk.

With a small groan, Izuku reached out with his hand, willed the cup forward until it was over the open water, and slowly began to lower it down until it was fully submerged. Gritting his teeth, Izuku pulled the cup up and out of the water. His body trembled and his head throbbed as he brought the cup back towards himself, careful not to let any of the water splash out until the cup hovered over the pool beside him.

With a slight tilt of his hand, the cup was emptied, and Izuku took the chance to catch his breath as he looked down into the water. At least I can actually do the training now. That first day was so embarrassing. I couldn't even lift the cup at first. I'm just glad All Might was so understanding. And when I was able to lift it, Uraraka was so happy.

Izuku smiled at the feeling of actual pride he had felt while they had congratulated him.

A sudden loud crash broke Izuku from his thoughts. Turning to his side, he winced as the abandoned cars Ochako had been floating crashed into the sand. Soon afterward, Ochako stumbled into view, holding her stomach before she heaved over. Izuku quickly turned away, but he could still hear Ochako vomit up her breakfast.

No, now that I'm thinking about it, Uraraka is definitely having a rougher time.

When she was done, Izuku shouted over to her, "Are you okay!?"

She gave him a shaky thumbs-up as she used a small towel to wipe her mouth before standing up. After taking a deep breath, she began to walk around each car, touching them and floating them up as she went back to her training.

Izuku couldn't help but smile. No matter how hard things got, Ochako kept working at it. I wonder if she realizes how cool she is? She's going to be so strong when this is over.

After catching himself staring for a bit too long and feeling his cheeks heat up, Izuku refocused on his own training as he once again pushed the cup out towards the ocean.

A few hours later, with the sun beginning to set, All Might stood over both Izuku and Ochako, who were both collapsed on the sand and trying to recover from their day of Quirk training. Izuku was busy rubbing his head with one hand and pinching his nose closed with his other. Ochako was curled up and clutching her stomach, trying to keep the little sips of water she had just finished from coming back up and joining her breakfast and lunch, which were splattered all over the sand.

"Kid," All Might began as he took a seat next to Izuku, "you keep bleeding like that, and I might think you're copying me."

Izuku smiled despite the splitting headache he had. "It's not that bad, really. I think I only lost a pint today. Plus, there are worse things I could be doing than copying you, All Might."

All Might chuckled. "As long as you don't get as skinny as me, you should be fine."

While they laughed, Ochako groaned out her disapproval. "I swear, you start vomiting blood, I'm retiring you and taking One for All myself."

Izuku rolled over, slowly as to not worsen his head, to give Ochako a lopsided grin. "Maybe you should work on your own vomit issues before judging me and my bleeding."

Ochako's cheeks puffed in a playful pout. "I know where you live, Deku. You be nice about my vomiting. Besides, you're out for the count, while I'm just resting. I'm fine."

"Really?" Izuku challenged.

"Really."

Izuku smirked. Taking the challenge, he reached over and gave Ochako's stomach a gentle but firm poke. Ochako dry heaved as she clutched at her stomach. "DEKU! I swear I'll throw up on you next time."

"If you two have enough energy to horse around, maybe I need to add a little extra to your training." All Might teased. Both teens quickly looked over at him and shook their heads almost pleadingly for him not to. "Don't worry. I'm not going to add anything... just yet."

Both Izuku and Ochako sighed in relief. After a bit, Izuku looked back over to All Might. "Did you train like this when you got One for All?"

"Hmm. Honestly, not quite. While I don't like to brag, my body was already fit enough that I didn't need to train to receive my power, so I went straight into combat training."

"Oh…" Izuku frowned as old feelings of self-doubt crept back into his mind. "So I'm really behind, then."

"Deku…?" Ochako reached over and laid a reassuring hand on Izuku's shoulder. "You're doing great. I can tell you are getting stronger."

"She's right, Young Midoriya. I can already see the efforts you have put into your training are starting to pay off."

Izuku smiled at that, much to Ochako's relief. Over the past couple months, she had watched as Izuku's constant self-doubts began to fade away. And while every now and then something would come up that would bring about new ones, it didn't take more than a few encouraging words to push them away.

"Will we be doing combat training as well, All Might?" Ochako asked with just a bit of hope mixed in with her curiosity. While Izuku missed it, All Might didn't. "Eventually. Though if I'm being honest, I'm still working that whole regimen out. You seem a little eager to learn how to fight, Young Uraraka."

Ochako looked away sheepishly, but couldn't deny there was perhaps one person she'd love to practice some fighting moves on.

With a grunt, All Might stood up and dusted himself off. "Now, if you two think you've recovered enough, help me load up my truck and we can all head home."

With a groan, both teens slowly got up and began to load up the truck with the training supplies they had used that day. While Izuku loaded up some weights, Ochako walked over to where Izuku had been training to retrieve the small pool and cup. As she reached down to pick them up, All Might gave a hushed but quick call, "Ah, Young Uraraka, wait-!"

Ochako blinked in surprise, not from All Might's call, but by the sheer weight of the cup. What had looked like a simple ceramic coffee cup weighed far, far too much.

What is this thing made out of? Lead?

Glancing over towards All Might, she saw him quickly put a finger to his mouth, practically imploring her to be silent as he rushed over and took the cup from her.

"All Might?"

"Shh, not so loud."

All Might glanced back and gave a small sigh of relief after seeing that Izuku was busy loading stuff back at the truck.

"All Might? What's going on here?"

"Do you remember the first day of training, when I said I was going to help Young Midoriya overcome the mental blocks he's put in place when using his Quirk? Well, this is it."

"A cup?"

"That's right. It looks like a normal coffee mug, which is how I want Young Midoriya to see it."

Ochako tilted her head as she thought about that. "So...he thinks he's lifting something that's actually heavier than he realizes?"

"Correct. Right now, he only thinks he can lift a certain amount of weight. On the first day of Quirk training, I had him work on lifting a normal coffee mug that looked just like this until he was able to do it. If you recall, I switched the cup when he wasn't looking. It took him a few tries, but he started lifting it quickly enough and was able to begin training with his Quirk."

"So while he's lifting what he thinks are light items, he's actually training his Quirk much harder than he realizes, and he's not running into the blocks he put up regarding his limits?"

"Correct. And when the time comes, I'll show him just how strong his Quirk is. By then, all those blocks and self-doubts will be gone. But he must not figure this out before then. If he knows the trick, then the placebo effect won't work anymore. And honestly, I had a heck of a time trying to come up with a safe way to help the boy work past his limits the first time. So let's just keep this between us, okay?"

Ochako nodded vigorously. "I promise."

As All Might carried the items away, Ochako let her gaze wander over to Izuku, a small smile spread across her lips as she watched him.

After all this is done, I can't wait to see just what you'll be able to do, Deku.

Notes:

Sorry for such a short chapter after a long wait, but work has been so busy that it was hard for me to find time to work on this chapter. So I decided to go ahead and split it into separate parts. With luck, the next couple of chapters covering the next few months of training will come out much faster. Months 3 and 4 are about 70% done. I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter and if so please leave a review. They help me so much as I try to better my, lackluster writing skills :D

A big thank you to my beta readers!