- The next night in Osaka -

I had plenty of time to fidget with my gear suitcase, backpack, and phone on the train from Shizuoka to Osaka, where Mr. Aizawa had told me to meet him.

This also let me mill over the night before. It was all awkward even though it was unintentional. We managed to brush it off and have a semi-normal conversation about our internships starting the next day, but Ochako had still asked me at least a half dozen times to make sure I had not seen anything.

I left out the thought in my head where seeing wasn't the issue; feeling was. But I half convinced myself I didn't know what I was feeling with my eyes closed and all (not that I need conventional sight to see).

The train crept to a smooth stop and I checked my phone screen. Still a few hours to kill before I had to meet Teach at the "rendezvous point" he had set up for us.

The maps seemed easy enough to read and I had downloaded a satellite topography map of the greater metro area on my phone just in case. So I headed towards the building he marked for me and found a small cafe to relax in across the street.

I propped my gear behind me in a corner facing the store front and set my alarm for 15 minutes early.

That was the last I remembered before waking up to my alarm with a jump. I guess I was still tired from the shift in sleep schedule; despite staying up last night and sleeping in. The waitress had brought my drink, but was nice enough to not wake me so I had to leave it. I slid a few bucks under the cup and headed up to the adjacent rooftop.

I had beaten him here and settled into a light meditation, trying to scan the electrical currents around me. Osaka was a far more buzzing city though. The neon and plasma in lights and TVs made it hard to discern anything below. It was pure luck that I caught the swinging movement at roof level.

My eyes opened, turning to see Eraserhead himself landing on the roof. "Evening Professor." I waved.

He studied me quietly for a moment before pulling his goggles down around his neck and crouching to my height. Even then, he looked over the street and not at me.

"Glad you got here early. Means you have time to get dressed." He stated, thrumming my case with his knuckles.

"Oh. Yes sir. I wasn't sure if I was-" I began making excuses.

He just put a finger to his lips and then to his wrist. Got it, burning time. I wasted no more getting suited up. The new satchel sat nicely behind my shoulder without even being obstructive.

When I had finished and packed my old things into the security case, I returned to his side. He glanced at his watch, still early. A small cheer rising inside me.

"How familiar are you with standard hero patrols?" He asked.

"Very." I answered flatly, thinking back to the pro I grew up underneath.

"Good. Tonight is the exact opposite." He droned.

I must have looked confused when he shot me a look in the proceeding silence. "I mean that my style of patrol will be very quiet, and hardly, if ever, in the public eye."

"Makes sense." I prompted, seeing this as obvious with his abilities.

"Here." He held out an ear bud, wireless and flat black.

I put it in without hesitation, immediately hearing the squelch and call of police band radio.

"Alongside our rooftop patrol, we will be listening for any nearby call or assist in the area. Our primary goal is a quick, clean takedown of any illegal activity."

I gave a thumbs up, following the quiet part of his instructions. He nodded and stood, grabbing my hero suitcase and handcuffing it to a nearby pipe. Then with a quick point to the north began moving away from the busy street.

- Two hours in -

Everything had been smooth so far. We checked a couple local calls, but they were either handled, or benign. The pace was swift and I was feeling grateful for the breathable design of my gear.

Aizawa perched on a ledge and gestured me over. I sat, dangling my legs and looked down the alley below.

"Did you bring food with you? We won't be stopping." He asked, almost ready for me to bail.

Without breaking my scan I reached back and fished out a packet of protein paste from my bag, shaking it lightly.

Then came a light chuckle from the usually stoic man. I looked to see him smiling and staring at the packet.

"It's basically astronaut food. Lots of essentials including fluid. Only thing not accounted for is taste." I explained looking at the foil package in my hand, a sealed spout on one side. The word "watermelon" stamped on it was generous even on a good day.

Teach reached into his own pocket and pulled an identical package, only this one labeled "blueberry". This time I laughed. We snapped the tops off and grimaced at the flavors. Nearly criminal marketing.

There was another period of quiet, followed by a question from the elder. "So your quirk... It's entirely visual too?"

"Mmhmm." I sounded with a mouthful of sludge that I hadn't yet stomached the courage to swallow.

"And how's it work beyond that?" He prodded, looking for more details.

"Oh. Hmmm. On a micro level it manipulates chemical bonds by utilizing energy." I tried to sum up.

"But you don't produce any energy yourself." He stated, having seen it obviously.

"Not technically. I just make an impulse wave. That's why I have to use the energy in other people's bodies." I answered, expanding on his knowledge.

"So you pick an important area like the brain and use the energy there?"

"More or less. Fortunately for me it is important since it gives me everything I need to work, namely: chemical diversity, energy, and a cavity to manipulate inside."

"And the school robots?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Easy targets since they are just electricity, minerals, and dead space."

"Hmmm." He murmured, bringing his hand up to his unshaved chin. "Couldn't you do more than just freeze in that case?"

"Yes." I thought back. "It is what comes most naturally, and is the fastest waveform, but I can technically make other effects. The problem is speed and difficulty."

"How so?"

"Well, my quirk works like a striker for a lighter." I mimed, thumbing down on air. "It causes an initial reaction, but without compatible fuel it's essentially useless."

He nodded and I continued. "For instance; even if there were minor amounts of available energy, my attempt to light a campfire would equate to being a little shower of sparks."

"However you can modulate the intensity, right?"

"In a way. When I use my quirk at it's weakest: I'm trying to affect as small an area as possible very slowly, and a major attack focuses on changing as large a space as possible as fast as I can. You've seen that for yourself, sir." I replied, alluding to the recent tournament.

"But you can also change something's composition?" Came an unexpected question. What exactly is he trying to get at?

"Yeah? My mother's quirk was basically alchemy in that it changed chemical compositions on contact. If you had a conductive mineral hooked up to a live jumper cable I can change it to gold, but the process is slower and requires a lot of strain to keep elemental exchange straight, since there's basically no chain reaction."

"I ask because you showed a lot more diversity in using your quirk during the tournament."

He looked me directly in my eyes and I merely managed to raise an eyebrow.

"In the race you disabled landmines while running. Then you nullified a tear gas in the first round as well as stopped your opponent's creation quirk. And against Bakugo we could see in the broadcast box that you were looking right at him before the smoke had cleared."

"Oh!" I exclaimed quietly. Somehow remaining mindful of the current location. "Those are, for the most part, the same power just used on different things."

He seemed confused and held up a hand to go on. "The landmines had a literal striker that produces energy to ignite the explosives, and tear gas is a chemical reaction in itself which produces energy on a very broad, albeit small scale."

"So you froze the landmines and the air?" He asked, almost certain that assessment was wrong.

"Not really." I started, getting traction on his heading. "The best way to deal with an explosive device that you can't manually disable is with extreme heat." I cited directly from my memory of the bomb training I had received at a single digits age.

"So instead of freezing it, I made it consume all of its fuel in an instant; rendering it inert without a secondary ignition source."

"And the gas?" He pressed.

"I just stripped the dangerous bonds away leaving atmospheric air in my path and forcing the removed molecules to combine into dense carbon which probably just looked like dust falling to the ground."

"But how did you know where the mines and your opponents were?"

"Ah. Since my quirk manipulates energy: I'm able to sense bigger energy sources like humans without needing direct eyesight. And the mines were electronic in a field of dirt, not hard to see there."

"Interesting." He mumbled. "Close your eyes."

I complied, focusing instead on my quirk sense as I assumed where this was going.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three." I stated, having played this little game before.

"And how many people are in the street below?" He asked, walking over to the street side edge.

"Hmmm. It's harder to tell with the electronic signs, but I'd say... 24?" There was a certain amount of guessing with all the bleed of electricity.

"26." He corrected. "But I'm guessing you missed the two children in front of the TV store."

I tried to focus on tv shapes. I grimaced, looking at free energy is like looking at the sun. You might see detail if you squint really hard, but ultimately it just hurts.

Finally I caved. "I can't see any kids, sorry." I began rubbing my eyes with one hand and letting the vision fade out.

"Not bad." He applauded, coming back over to me. "A fatal error if this were a raid, but you have time to get there."

I frowned. Pretty much a hollow compliment, since he's inferring people would die because I'm not good enough.

"Your real problem is thinking about your quirk too narrowly." He went on.

I was taken a bit back. "I don't understand."

"Let me simplify to begin with." He said, drawing a pen from his pocket to scribble on the rooftop concrete.

"All chemical interactions are either Endothermic or Exothermic, correct?" He glanced up and I nodded. "Your main use draws in energy to use endothermically, transforming naturally occurring gaseous nitrogen into its liquid form."

"That's really accurate given how little I've ever mentioned it to anyone... Uh, sir."

He barely acknowledged my comment. "I do read all of my students' files, Decklin."

Duh. I guess my basic quirk registry paperwork covers most of that.

He started on again without waiting for me. "However, you just told me that you are capable of causing exothermic reactions as well. If you can harness your unique sight and compress energy together, you should be able to cause other effects, even midair."

"Well that's not..." I began, only to pause. "I guess... Well, not midair..." I felt like Midoriya with all this murmuring.

"Why not midair?" He asked, breaking me away. "You already did it with the tear gas. What's the difference?"

I thought briefly. "The gas was already emitting energy, something normal air doesn't do. Besides, compressing that much material would still take a lot of time."

"So?" He interjected. "Can you do it?"

This wasn't something I'd ever tried. My whole life's training was "move fast, hit first".

I had almost forgotten he was still waiting on me when he said, "What would happen?"

I began thinking out loud: "Molecules under that much pressure will force further friction on one another. The tighter the area the more unstable the situation becomes until it is unable to be maintained any further. The result would be rapid and aggressive expansion of all contained material in any direction without resistance."

"Like an explosion?" He concluded.

"More akin to napalm actually. Of course it would depend on the contents, but it would be a whole lot of really hot material going all over the place." I corrected, looking up to Mr. Aizawa. He had a big smile creeping onto his face.

It took a minute of silence before I finally spoke. "Wow. You think that I could actually do that?"

He let out a single chuckle. "I think you'll never know what you can do until you push your own boundaries."

I was absorbed in my own world, grinning like a fool when our earpieces cut in.

"Convenience store robbery in progress."

I didn't have time to speak before Teach leapt into the air for the next building, moving quickly towards the address as they gave it. I propelled myself forward, trying my best to even keep pace. How was he this fast?

I saw that he jumped down a block ahead, using his capture weapon as a rope swing. I had no such thing, but luckily caught a fire escape, rolling as I dismounted early.

It was only a block, a few hundred feet at most, but he had already tied one perp up with the weapon and was kicking another in the head. The last of the three was now in flight mode, yelling "Damn hero!" Over his shoulder and headed straight for me.

He was big, seemingly a mutation based on perhaps a bear. Whatever it was, he had hulking musculature and a coat of body hair. None of that gives him a defense against me. A quick, but most likely, assessment.

His head turned a second later, seeing me with my hand raised. I imagine that's probably all he remembers because the searing pain caused him to lose his stride and smash the ground, face first.

I moved to his back, putting a knee in his spine as if he were going to run. Honestly I think he's out cold though, no pun intended.

The police showed up a minute later, thanked us for the assistance, and took the criminals into custody. We went back to a high vantage point in silence to start our watch again.

Eraserhead pulled at my collar as I neared the ledge. "No use staying here. Word travels fast and any smart criminals will avoid areas where heroes have been seen. We have to relocate."

It hadn't occurred to me yet, but he was absolutely correct. What kind of idiot would be caught dead committing crime within a quarter mile of a recent hero sighting?

- Thirty Minutes Later -

We had moved at a healthy clip to get distance between us and the last area. My endurance was holding, for now. However, Mr. Aizawa didn't even seem to notice the amount of exercise he had done so far. Is this just a normal night for him? No wonder he travels light.

"What's with the hand?" He asked out of nowhere.

"What?" I replied confused and looking at my own hands, front and back, as if they might be injured or something.

"Whenever you attack, you raise your hand and point your arm where you are shooting. If your quirk is visual like you said, why use your hands at all? It's just telegraphing your movements." He explained.

"Oh... Kind of embarrassing actually. It's part of why I was hoping to work with you directly. I ummm... can't really aim without using my fingers as a guide. Like sights on a gun." I said as if guns were common here, forgetting how American that thought is.

He turned and stared, brow furrowed. "What do you mean you can't aim? Doesn't it just go where you look? Your eyes are already an aiming device."

"It's complicated, I guess?" I said, sounding dumber already. "If I don't use my hand, my impulse waves tend to be more uneven and inaccurate. Like, I can't modulate power well without and may go too hard or too weak when attacking. They also may skew off in unintentional directions."

"That's bizarre." He stated curtly. "You would think that at that speed your eyes wouldn't have time to move before impact. But instead, you start immediately scanning for other dangers if you don't focus yourself."

"Oh." Was all I said. Trying to think about if that's just my natural behavior at this point since it was so drilled in.

"Usually that level of paranoia takes years worth of poor outcomes to develop."

I could feel him honing in on the crux of my problems. "Sounds about right." I admitted, already defeated.

This was clearly outside of our emotional comfort zones. He coughed as if to clear his throat and looked away. "Try to trust that I have your back. I'm not saying I'll do everything and guarantee you'll be ok, but I want you to try without the hand while you're with me in the field."

I scratched the back of my head uncomfortably. "I appreciate that, Sir. I'll do my best to follow any order you give."

Then came a long silence.

A long… long silence.

God damn, how long is it going to be this quiet?

Really?

This is ridic-

"Over there!" Aizawa called in a hushed tone, pointing down a side street.

I could see what looked like a biker gang blocking a young couple from continuing down the road.

We shot off again, using the top of a sky bridge to traverse to the other side. We had to have conclusive reason to believe this was a criminal act before we could intervene. If we didn't have those rules, the world would be anarchy.

Standing three stories over them it was now clear to see that each of the five had a weapon of some sort: a baseball bat, tire iron, one just had a broken bottle, another had brass knuckles. The leader however had his hands hidden in his jacket. I couldn't tell what he had, but there was no way it was nothing.

"He said: 'Cash and jewelry'! Are ya deaf or somethin'?" Hollered the one with the bat. Now pointing it at the two. The young male of the couple reflexively pulled his girlfriend back a couple of steps as if preparing to run.

This was more than enough to act, but before we could even begin to move: the leader pulled up his right hand revealing a small handgun. From what I understood: Handguns are outright banned in Japan. In fact, most guns are; outside of air rifles. Not that something being illegal was a major deterrent to real criminals. This was no time to delay as his finger was already squeezing the trigger.

I tried to remember what we had just talked about and trust my leader. I washed the gun with an impulse. My eyes must have lit up the darkness because the couple had adjusted their vision to see me, my shape now springing downward. The wave hit just before the round went off, there was a very brief pause followed by an explosion warping the metal of the gun and throwing shrapnel into nearly all the members of the gang. The leader's hand was shredded and running with blood, shock spreading on their faces.

Oddly, Eraser's weapon reached the head man first and tightened in an instant around his torso. He was ripped up into the air moments before I slammed into the man with the bat, hard, driving his face into the ground. It wasn't necessary, but I let an impulse wave fly at the grounded man for good measure and spun, ready for the next target. The younger man with the broken bottle was closest and striking out at my face.

I ducked to my right and felt a sharp sting as the edge caught the outside of my jaw. At this point I wasn't considering my quirk, muscle memory was kicking in and I grabbed the arm as it passed.

With everything I could muster I pulled, moving in the opposite direction and forcing the joint head against his shoulder blade. He fell forward, already off balance. I planted a foot in his back and twisted hard on the arm, feeling the telltale crunch and tear that meant serious tendon and ligament damage. Without expert medical care his arm will never work the same again, perhaps 10% capacity.

A body slammed down, with force, not far in front of me. It was the leader, and Eraserhead had ridden him down from above like a comet.

The man with brass knuckles took a deep breath and his skin combusted as if coated in fire. He laughed and took a swing which missed Eraser by quite a bit, thanks to quick evasion.

I trained my eyes on the last man with the tire iron and felt empowered when I saw in my peripherals that the fire was now out, no doubt thanks to the erasure quirk.

It was over just like that. He had no defense against me and I made the wave strong enough to KO a rhino. No lasting damage, hopefully, but one hell of a lasting headache for sure.

Eraserhead had also easily dealt with his opponent and was already on the phone with police dispatch.

The couple was nowhere to be seen. I'm sure they had run as soon as the gun blew up, and honestly I think that's for the best. I just really wanted to see the reaction more than anything. Seeing heroes protect you, instead of the version built up in my head.

It wasn't until we found a new roost that we spoke again. I was just settling in and feeling my muscles protest when the pro spoke.

"I won't discourage anything you did back there. It was all necessary, or close enough to it." Mr. Aizawa took a deep breath. "We do this to protect innocents from the bad out there in the world. Sometimes that means going a little overboard."

"Sorry, Sir? Did I take things too far?" I asked, worried that I was in the wrong.

"I just don't want you to lose sight of where you are right now. You handled everything back there like a pro would. That no doubt comes from having experienced things like field work before. But you are still a student, and with that come general restrictions. If you weren't with me tonight, working under my license, you would have been arrested as well."

"Right..." I paused. "Students are no different from civilians legally. We aren't permitted to do bodily harm with our quirks."

"Exactly..." There was another longish pause. "But... Beyond a shadow of a doubt you saved at least one of those civilians' lives."

I looked up to him as soon as he said it, with wide eyes I'm sure.

"Even with my experience and training, I would have been too slow to catch that gun before it went off. But you did." He said, almost sounding more hurt by his own inability.

There was more silence, the theme of the night. This time I wanted to break the tension. "Did you see that I did it without my hand?"

He let out another small chuckle. "Oddly, I was a bit involved in other things to notice." We both laughed softly. "I did see that it wasn't an ice attack though." He mimed the explosion.

"Yeah, but it wasn't really all that special either. I turned the heat and blast inwards on itself and tried to seal the barrel with pure carbon. I'm not even sure if that part worked, I just know it blew up as intended." I confessed with a shrug.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." He quoted effortlessly.

I was beginning to trace back my past, wondering how many steps in I would be by now, when he held out a gauze pack to me.

"Your jaw is bleeding."

(With this chapter we have officially broken the 100 page mark! It's crazy to think that time and content has gone by so fast. And yet, there's so much more to go! I can't wait to share more of this rapidly expanding story, now that we are through what I would consider to be the introduction. I hope you'll all stick with Decklin and I as the story continues to unfold!)