It's time for Chapter 21 of Electric Heart. This chapter we get to see what advice Gizon is about to give Ochaco for controlling One for All. Will it be helpful or will his unique situation be able to further Ochaco's understanding of One for All.
As always I do not own MY HERO ACADEMIA or Marvel or any of their characters.
With that, let's begin.
School had been out for an hour and all the students had gone home, even the one that had started for after-school training was starting to pack up and leave. Meaning the trio was left to themselves as Toshinori had easily gotten them permission to use Gym Beta. Gizon was counting on this so before either of the One for All users arrived, Gizon did some warm-up. He dropped his backpack and jacket to the floor. He then loosened his tie a bit and began to practice his form.
Gizon switched behind the different martial forms that he knew, and every time he made a move, Gizon could see Nomu. The hideous creature with its large purple body and its exposed brain. Now Gizon didn't fear the Nomu, he had lived, and Class 1-A had survived. And that all he needs to have his mind be at peace. Yet every time Gizon threw a punch, he could imagine it. Nomu stood in front of him, but in his mind, the creature didn't have Shock Nullification so with every punch Nomu went flying.
When Nomu finally disappeared from Gizon's mind, his last punch sent it deep into the heart of the North Pole. Gizon took a deep breath, then he fell to the handstand. He had known one for gymnastics and he only practised parkour to help with his past life. Yet he always found this position calming. Even with the blood rushing to his head, his mind was able to calm down.
Then Gizon heard the door opening behind him. With a sigh, he flipped himself out of his handstand and landed on his feet. He brushed some dust over his shoulder and grabbed his jacket off the floor. He flickered it off and then tied the sleeves around his waist. He then turned to greet Ochaco and Toshinori, and with a sarcastic tone said, "Well you must be desperate to come here?"
Toshinori stopped walking while Ochaco scoffed and spoke back in an equally sarcastic tone, "We're not expecting much from you, but you better not make this a waste of time."
Gizon nodded as he grabbed a water bottle from his backpack and took a sip. "Alright the UA Sport Festival is in a month. That's our timeline and the benchmark you need to reach Uraraka to be able to control the percent of One for All you summon." Ochaco tilted her head, "Remember what I said, using 100 percent of our strength can damage our body. You need to learn how to hold back and use One for All at a level that doesn't break you. Okay, right now you're currently using 0%."
Gizon slipped his water bottle back into his backpack, which he threw so it landed next to the door. Ochaco looked from the backpack to Gizon, "Shouldn't we change into our costume, at least our Gym clothes"
"We won't be fighting, so there's no need to." - Yet despite this Gizon was stretching his shoulder then pointed his fingers at Ochaco, "When you gain enough control, then I might let you try a punch, but we'll see. To begin, take off your backpack, your jacket and shoes." Ochaco paused for a second then began taking off the requested items. She stored her jacket and shoe in her backpack and then tossed them a bit away. Ochaco then turned back to face Gizon, "I want you to take a minute and relax."
Ochaco cocked an eyebrow in confusion, not understanding where Gizon was going with this. As Gizon rolled his shoulder and cracked his neck by twisting it, he said, "Humor me."
Ochaco sighed then undid her tie, throwing it onto her backpack then undid the top button of her collar, allowing her body to more freely breathe. She took a breath and allowed her arm to drop, and loosely hang by her side. It took a while, but the entire time Ochaco held a slow breathing pattern and soon her entire body was relaxed. Something Gizon immediately took notice of, Ochaco had fully entered a relaxed state, meaning she was well-versed in meditation. Perfect that would help lay a foundation for controlling One for All.
A few moments later Ochaco could hear her own heartbeat and feel a small breeze coming through some of the cracked windows. The stress of the day and training began to smoothly flow out of her body and disappeared into the air. Mr Aizawa had been relentless in pushing Class 1-A to find their limits, and to better themselves for the festival. The only more relaxed she could have been was if she was in a hot spring.
"Now I want you to focus on your arms and legs. Feel the muscles and the tendons. How some are stretched and some are loose. Feel your heart and the blood it pumps throughout your body." Gizon said as he let out a deep breath
"Are you about to go Mr Miyagi on me?' Ochaco asked, interrupting Gizon as she looked him in the eyes. This wasn't a movie, so Ochaco didn't believe in the method that if one could think of it, they could do it.
"Focus. And yes. My fighting style is varied, but the base is martial arts and the key to martial arts is balance of energy. Ki, aura, lifeforce, call it whatever you want to. Our quirk gives us super strength and speed, however, in their simplest form our quirks give us more of this energy that we can use to enhance our strength and speed. However the human body is only able to handle so much energy at once. Moreover if your channels are blocked, then that energy can become stagnant power, possibly resulting in it becoming harder to control One for All. And that is why control is important even with our body adapting to quirk through the years, at the end of the day we are still human." Gizon paused, then asked, "Are you familiar with hysterical strength?"
Ochaco paused, she only heard the term in passing and heard more stories than what it meant. "Heard stories from before quirks. Mother lifting cars off of their kids." Ochaco said then she took a slow deep breath in and then slowly exhaled.
Gizon laughed a bit, "I've heard those stories too, they always make it seem that the car was lifted off the ground, when in reality it was just one end of the car, but yes. Medically speaking the human body places limits on its physical strength, not allowing anyone to use more than 80% of their true strength at one time. Hysterical strength is the term for when in a stressful situation, a car on their kid, someone pushes past that limit and uses their full strength. With our quirk it is easy to reach Hysterical strength, something we both did against Nomu. By using Hysterical strength we forced our limits into overdrive and as the result of doing so our muscles weren torn, our bones broken destroying our bodies. This is why you must learn how to control One For All's energy, so that does not happen again." Gizon explained.
"Okay." Ochaco said as she somewhat understood Gizon's explanation. She recalled when she first started helping her parents at work. Whenever she lifted something heavy, she always felt that she should be stronger, like she wasn't using her full strength. By Gizon's explanation, she was stronger but her body was stopping herself from tearing a muscle.
"Good. Now you told me earlier your parents work in construction." Gizon watched as Ochaco's finger flickered at the small breeze. It showed her mind and body were working as one, taking and processing everything simultaneously. She felt the world around her, the breeze, and maybe she could learn to sense others' energy the same way Gizon's recent upgrade had given him. But most importantly she began to sense the energy within herself. She could sense Zero Gravity pooled around her hands, but One for All spread throughout her body.
"Yes. They have their own company." Ochaco said, remembering the conversation they had before lunch. She was still a little ticked off by how he acted, but now was not the time to bring that up.
"Good, I want you to close your eyes and picture a 100 story building. It doesn't matter what kind of building or what it looks like. Do you have a picture?" Gizon thought back to his days of training in martial arts, while his father was out working. He couldn't have gone to a dojo, so he was mostly self-taught, but luckily the basics had come easy to him.
"Yes." Ochaco was picturing a large apartment building. It had a traditional Japanese style to the exterior, with a more modern one on the interior. The front lobby had a hand-carved wooden desk, with a spiral marble counter. The floor was tiled in a pattern to show the sun setting over a mountain range. A quiet wall waterfall filled the lobby with the sound of rushing water.
"How many rooms are on each floor?" Gizon asked.
"20, why?" Ochaco asked. She couldn't tell if she was more confused at the order Gizon was asking these questions or how she knew each floor had 20 rooms. Two more questions she would have to come back to later.
"Later. Now you are currently in the lobby, the ground floor. You are at the front desk ready to check in. Now I want you to summon One for All." Gizon said, his voice becoming soft, almost hypnotic.
Ochaco walked forward to the front desk, as a hotel key appeared on the counter. She grabbed the key and she felt her entire body flex. At first, it was only her natural strength, but then she felt One for All begin to pour into her body. All the lights within the lobby turned bright, but then Ochaco felt her body begin to move. Her vision became blurry for a second then she stepped out of the elevator onto a new floor.
"You are now on Floor 100. You are using One for All at 100%." Gizon said as he felt One for All flare up in Ochaco's body, but then he noticed something off about its flow, "Something is off." This confused Ochaco as she didn't understand how Gizon could tell what was going on with One for All. She remembered he expressed his belief that he could now sense quirks, but he hadn't really explained that new ability of his.
Ochaco shook her eyes as her vision was starting to become fuzzy and she relaxed a bit as Floor 100 came back into focus. The hallway carpet was expensive white linen with a pattern that made the carpet appear to be dancing in the light. The lights were modern and had a sunset glow to them that helped with the illusion of the carpet. The doors were dark brown walnut with golden numbers on the frames.
Ohaco turned around and walked to the windows that she noticed were cut and sectioned perfectly to give the illusion that it was one glass plane spanning the entire height of the building. She walked up to the window and peered down. Far below her, she could see the ground, barely making out the parking lot and the entrance of the hotel.
Ochaco smiled as she looked down, she felt One for All continuing to fill her body. Yet then the lights behind her began to flicker. Ochaco quickly turned around and saw the first light to burn it. It flashed a bright light then went out, then she looked at the second one. She willed it to stay on, to stop flickering but that too flashed and then went out. Each light she turned to would flash and then go out.
"What's the matter?" Gizon asked, noticing the frown on Ochaco's face and the fluctuation of One for All's power.
"The lights, they're starting to flicker and go out. They need to be turned off and replaced. I'm losing control of One for All." Ochaco said. She had helped her parents repair old buildings and the first thing they replaced was the lights. It helped show the state of the electrical wires but it also provided light for the rest of the job.
"Allow them to burn out." Gizon said, knowing that they would come back to this moment to explain problems in the future. Yet it was important that Ochaco let the light burn out.
"Why?" Ochaco asked. Gizon had offered to help but all he had done was tell her what she already knew how to do, just in a new way.
"Allow them to burn out." Gizon repeated, his voice taking on a more stern tone. He had reasons, but if he tried to explain them, it could confuse Ochaco even more. Ochaco needed to let the light burn out and feel the loss of control.
Ochaco wanted to focus on the light and make them turn back on. But as she did this more and more light went out. Very soon all the lights were out and Ochaco felt her body get pulled back. She soon was standing back in the lobby, the sound of the waterfall filling her ears followed by the sound of a bell. Ochaco turned to look at the front desk and saw the hotel key materialize, waiting for her to pick it up again.
Ochaco's body gave out as she fell to her knees, but she kept her eyes closed. She was struggling to keep the image in her mind and if she opened her eyes then it disappeared. And she didn't know if she would be able to create it again.
"What just happened?" Toshinori asked as he moved to help Ochaco, but Gizon stopped him by putting his hand on Toshinori's shoulder, palm open and pointing up. Toshinori looked harshly at Gizon for stopping him from giving aid to his successor, but Gizon's hand laying gently on his shoulder felt more weight than the world.
"Ochaco just experienced the full extent of One for All. However since she can't control it, her grip on it becomes loose and she can no longer control it. A person needs a strong foundation before building upon it, Urarak must start from the beginning. Now Uraraka, do you remember how 100% felt." Gizon said, looking at Toshinori before back at Ochaco.
"Yes." Ochaco as she wiped the sweat from her forehead and stood up. She had memorized the feeling, it filled her with so much power. She wasn't going to forget that feeling anytime soon.
"Good. Now without grabbing the key, I want you to walk up out of the lobby and into the hallway of the first floor." Gizon instructed. Ochaco turned, mentally and physically and mentally walked away from the front desk. She passed the common area where breakfast would typically be held, however, as she reached the hallway she was stopped.
Ochaco put a hand out and it felt as if she was pushing against a wall. She tried harder but she was still kept from entering the hallway. The lights around her flickered, but never fully turned on. Was One for All barring her from leaving the lobby, it was All Might's power. Didn't he want her to be able to learn how to use it?
"What happened?" Gizon asked, withdrawing his hand away from Toshinori.
Ochaco sighed, then answered, "I ran into some kind of invisible wall. One for All won't let me leave the lobby."
Gizon thought for a moment. There were several possibilities of what the wall represented. One, Ochaco's mind was putting a limit on One for All, since knew if she tried to use One for All she would wind up hurting herself but if that was true then she wouldn't have been able to visualize the top floor. That formed a new thought in Gizon's head, One for All was a unique quirk in the fact that it could be passed from person to person to increase its power. What if power wasn't the only thing it stockpiled?
Ochaco hadn't accepted the quirk, so the quirk wasn't accepting her. If that theory was right, then that hurdle would have to be cleared before Ochaco could make any progress in gaining control over One for All.
Gizon took a step towards Ochaco and grabbed her hand. "Now don't get the wrong idea," Gizon said, as his quirk flowed between his and Ochaco's hand. Ochaco laughed a bit at Gizon's comment but stopped as she felt Gizon's quirk starting to flow into her body. Was this what he had done to extend All Might's hero form during the USJ attack?
Gizon closed his own eyes, feeling One for All within Ochaco's body. It was hard to locate as she wasn't currently using it, but then it began to mix with Gizon's energy. As their quirk mixed, Gizon suddenly felt One for All enter his mind and fill it with a black void.
Gizon mentally stood up and looked around. He saw nothing, so clearly this wasn't his mind otherwise there would be some kind of landscape. Gizon always liked to think his mindscape would take the form of his old favourite park from his childhood. Yet there was nothing, then suddenly a teal light formed in front of him and pushed him away. "You are not one of us. You enter without permission from the users." A voice said, driving an ice pick into Gizon's mind as it spoke. Gizon did his best not to show his discomfort and his confusion at the voice.
Gizon slowed himself from being pushed and looked at the teal light, which was starting to take the form of a human, "You're right, I am not a wielder of One for All. But I have come here to provide aid to the ninth wield." Gizon told the voice.
The teal light suddenly rushed forward to attack Gizon. Gizon was ready to defend himself and if needed counter. Yet this wasn't his mind, but All For one's, there was no way of telling him if he was able to use his quirks. Yet Gizon didn't have to find out if the teal light was intercepted by a red light. "Allow him to help, First. The Ninth has struggled to learn from the Eighth. Look inside this invader, he might be of great assistance to her now and in the future. I believe it would be for the best to see how this plays out." A more controlled voice said as the red light kept the teal light from reaching Gizon. The teal light backed off then a few moments later Gizon felt the ice prick become removed from his mind, allowing him to breathe.
"Are you saying Toshinori isn't a good teacher?" A feminine voice said, with a defensive tone. A gray light appeared behind the red light. The red light appeared to turn around, and then it flew a bit away from the gray light as if dodging an attack
"No better than you." The red light said as it floated a little more away from the grey light.
"I think we can all agree that the eighth was never one that was meant to be a mentor." Said a green light as it appeared between the red and gray one, "We are lucky that this newcomer has appeared, yes we can all see their history but that is what makes him valuable to the coming fighting."
"His history isn't that different from yours First. Yet you feel the need to act harshly to the kid." The red light said, then seemed to laugh, but stopped when the gray light turned a bit brighter.
Gizon looked back at the teal light, it being the one in charge.
"Leave us for now. The ninth struggles to accept her responsibility, so she is not ready to know of our existence. But another has spoken for you and has convinced me to agree with the Fifth's belief for this and allow you to guide the Ninth until she unlocks One for All true power. To begin I'll do this." The teal light said. Gizon took a knee and bowed his head, showing his thanks. Then Gizon felt himself moving backwards at high speed, being forced out of the black void, but right before he was cut off. He felt the chaos of energy begin to settle.
"I'm in the hallway," Ochaco said, causing Gizon to open his eyes. Dismissing all he had just experienced, planning on coming back to it later. Gizon let go of Ochaco's hand and stepped back, his job known for that part.
"Good, what do you see?" Gizon asked.
Ochaco looked around, it was the same as the hallway from the top floor. Yet it was hard to notice any detail as the lights were off and there was no light coming from the windows. "It's dark, the lights are off." She focused on the hallway lights and they slowly flickered to life.
Gizon watched red energy lines appear over Ochaco's chest, "Now focus on the rooms. Don't worry about the other floors, just turn this floor on and nothing else."
Ochaco nodded and turned her focus to the room. 20 doors swung open and lights within the room slowly turned on. Starting at the end of the hallway and slowly coming towards her. After two minutes, all the lights on the first floor were turned on.
As this occurred, Gizon watched more red lines appear around Ochaco's body. Once the last light turned one, the red energy lines disappeared and were replaced with a pink aura. He had seen that occur at the USJ, but as he was more forced on the Nomu, he hadn't internalized it. Now that he could focus on it, he guessed it was a show that Ochaco was using One for All properly. It was another full minute of Ochaco having her pink aura stay steady before Gizon spoke again
"Ochaco, remember this feeling and open your eyes."
Ochaco opened her eyes and saw the pink light surrounding her body. She slowly raised her arms and flexed her hands. She could feel the power within them. If she felt this strong with only the first floor, she couldn't imagine how strong she would feel as she worked up the floors.
"But how?" Toshinori asked. He was at a loss for words. When Nana Shimura passed One for All to him, he was able to use 100% of it. So when it was clear Ochaco couldn't do the same, he didn't know how to teach her. He had talked with his old teacher, but his advice didn't do much, his letter spent more time belittling Toshinori for his inability to teach.
Now here stood Gizon Hisahito. A first-year high schooler, with more than a questionable history, who had only truly known about One for All for under a month. Only seen it used once or twice, and never had a chance to process its power for himself. Yet he seemed to have a better understanding of it than its current users and was able to teach Ochaco more in 20 minutes than Toshinori was able to do in a year. Toshinori couldn't hide his glances over at Gizon, he was so mature for his age, did his past have anything to do with that? And he was powerful too, he stood his ground against the Nomu by himself for a bit.
Toshinori thought about Eraserhead's advice at the beginning of the year. The always-tired teacher talks about how the students hadn't had a chance to use their quirks every day, many of them won't know their limits or have complete mastery over their quirks. But the second piece of advice spoke to the symbol of peace at the moment. Since classes 1-A and 1-B were now using their quirk on a daily basis, their quirks were bound to grow. Like muscles at the start of a workout, it would be slow but eventually, they would begin to strengthen rapidly.
Toshinori looked at Gizon, if he was already this strong and smart, how would he be at graduation? Could he be able to stand by Ochaco, perhaps as her equal? Was One for All no longer alone in its strength? A question for later as Gizon began explaining his thoughts.
"Each floor represents a percentage of One for All. As the lights turn now on each floor you use that level of power. However, the rooms went out, meaning the different parts of your body were using different levels of One for All. This results in a domino effort of Uaraka losing control over One for All. By forcing One for All to the first floor, Uraraka is forcing it to flow evenly through her body. A person, neither a building nor an army can stand if they do not first have a strong foundation to build everything upon.
"Now release One for All." Gizon said and Ochaco did so. The pink aura around her disappeared. Ochaco felt a small wave of exhaustion hit her, it was different but felt similar to the nausea she felt from zero gravity, "Now I want to see you summon 1% of One for All throughout your body again."
Ochaco nodded and closed her eyes. The hallways lights immediately turned up, while the doors were slow to open and the lights to come on. But overall it was much faster than last time. She was starting to get used to the feeling of using One for All at 1%, meaning she could find that feeling easier.
"Now dodge this." Gizon said in a calm tone.
Ochaco opened her eyes and saw Gizon throwing a punch. Ochaco panicked and let go of One for All. She tried to react, but in her confusion, Gizon was able to stop his fist an inch away from Ochaco's face. He had stopped when he noticed the pink aura disappear and felt One for All because subdued
"What was that for?" Ochaco yelled, pushing Gizon's fist away from her face. She was ready to return the favor, but actually make contact. She might not be able to use One for All to attack, but she still had a mean right hook. A few of the bullies at her old school learned that the hard way.
"You lost focus. Focusing on One for All now and during combat will be two extremely different experiences. I want you to work on summoning One for All until it becomes second nature, that way you can focus on the fight in front of you." Gizon calmly said as he threw a punch at Ochaco's gut.
Ochaco panicked and powered up to 100%. Gizon stopped as he felt One for All flare up, "and not allow yourself to act on instinct alone. You have only had this power for a while, but that doesn't mean we as your classmates are going to stop and wait for you to catch up. You have to work harder than anyone else. If you don't then All Might picked the wrong successor."
Ochaco's anger flared up at Gizon's comment. She quickly slapped him in the face activating her zero-gravity quirk. She then summoned 1% of One for All and hit him in the chest. She had dealt with his careless attitude all day long and she was starting to get ticked off by it.
Gizon didn't go flying as suspected, but slowly went floating back, "Ha, I think that only filled out about half a percent of my tank. You're going to have to punch harder than that to fight me."
Ochaco growled as she cancelled zero gravity and took a step towards Gizon, ready to unleash her fury on her classmate. While Gizon could most likely handle himself, Toshinori had seen how furious Ochaco could get when she was mad. So he buffed up to his hero form and held back Ochaco
That's chapter 21. Gizon explains the fondmentals of his and Ochaco's quirk and how they work. He is able to help Ochaco begin gaining control over One For All. Then there's Gizon talking to the previous users of One for All. And to clear this up befor it becomes an issue, No Gizon will not be able to read other people's mind.
Recently in Anime it's shown that All for One can control Shigaraki's body through All for One. (Bit of a Manga spoiler)
But later on All for One explains further that the quirks he steals still holds their user's personality and memories. This is shown more through Izuku being able to talk to the previous holders. This mixed with Gizon's explanation of energy held within quirks, allows him to mix his energy with One for All, thus allowing him to talk to the previous owner despite not possessing the quirk himself.
Next Week: Izuku makes the final preparations for the madden voyage of his Iron Man suit, then gets into a bit of trouble.
Next Time: Min/Maxing and Records Were Made to be Broken.
Review and tell me what you think.