I should've wrote in the description "discovering that true power lies within the creativity of the writer"… This was so hard to write lmao!
It might seem like he's progressing a bit fast, but I have a bad habit of making it too slow and it be boring. So hopefully it works out okay.
Chapter 2 – Starting From Control (Again!)
The lessons drifted past Izuku in a blur, as he barely registered the voices of his teachers or the notes on the board. It was only when the bell rang for lunch that he snapped back to reality, blinking in surprise at how much time had passed.
He had been deep in thought about how to approach experimenting with One For All, but every idea seemed either stupid or impossible, leaving him frustrated and distracted.
As he walked to the cafeteria, his thoughts continued to churn. Should he dive straight into trying to develop a new technique if that was even possible? Or should he continue with improving Full Cowl?
There were risks and benefits to each one, but what should he pick?
Sitting down with his tray, Izuku barely touched his food. His mind was elsewhere, unable to concentrate on anything except his thoughts.
"Deku-kun, are you okay?" Uraraka's voice jolted him out of his trance. She, Iida, Todoroki, and Asui were at the table with him, their trays already half-empty.
"Yeah, just... thinking about training," Izuku admitted, rubbing his temples.
"Are you thinking about what was said during the mock battles?" Asui asked calmly. "I don't think you need to worry about it."
"Huh?" Uraraka tilted her head in confusion. "Was something said during the mock battle?"
Iida, sipping his orange juice, explained, "The topic of Izuku having a similar fighting style to All Might came up."
"Do you not like being compared to All Might?" Todoroki inquired between bites of soba. He had compared Izuku to All Might during the sports festival… Did that offend him? Was it too late to apologise?
"Uh, ah? Nonono it's not that," Izuku shook his head repeatedly, causing Todoroki to sigh in relief. "It's just that everyone is so cool and unique, so I feel like I should be working to do the same."
"But isn't the only similarity your smashes?" Uraraka asked, drawing everyone's attention.
With a small gulp, she continued, "All Might is more like thwoong bang! But you are more like zoom ping ping ping bang! Ah, like throwing a bouncy ball!" She animatedly mimicked the time she had seen Izuku pinging off walls.
"Oh, that's Gran Torino's fighting style," Izuku said, a smile spreading across his face. He noticed the puzzled expressions of his friends and quickly added, "He's the hero who trained me during the internships."
"Ah…" Iida and Todoroki responded in unison, recalling the terrifying old man who didn't hesitate to kick Izuku during the Stain arrest.
Uraraka's eyes sparkled with curiosity as she exclaimed, "So he was the one who taught you how to get that cool green lightning!"
"Now that I think about it, you didn't really spark before your internship, Izuku-chan," Asui remarked, tilting her head thoughtfully.
Thinking back to the times he had used One For All before Full Cowl. Izuku remembered that while he had some faint green sparks on occasion, it was only after mastering Full Cowl that they truly appeared.
"Too bad it doesn't do anything." Uraraka added with a slight pout.
Izuku's eyes suddenly lit up with realization. "Thank you, Uraraka-san!" he exclaimed, his excitement palpable.
"Um… You're welcome?" Uraraka looked at him confusedly, not knowing exactly what she did, but she was glad to see him snap out of his miniature slump.
Izuku caught up on eating his lunch as the conversation shifted to talking about the final exams while occasionally chiming in.
…
Later that day, Izuku sat in a meditative position and channelled One For All. But instead of the mental image of the power spreading evenly across his body, he concentrated it into his right hand.
He was using it in the complete opposite of what he had learned during the internship.
Creating a new image of using One For All like he had originally thought of seemed easy, but Izuku couldn't even begin to think of an idea.
It was easy for him to modify Full Cowl because he already knew the energy could strengthen himself. He already had a starting point. So all he needed to do was optimize his visualisation, and his usage improved.
Of course, he still needed to experiment with strengthening other aspects of himself, but that was a project that required time and knowledge.
But what about for other ideas?
'I want to use One For All to heal others'
It was an easy thing to imagine, and with a bit of medical knowledge, it could work. Maybe after spending time learning, he could be on par with Recovery Girl.
At the same time… what if it didn't work?
What if there were limitations to using the energy of One For All, and it couldn't heal others at all?
Learning something like medicine could never be a waste of time for someone wanting to help people, but what about the time lost on creating and experimenting with an image that wouldn't work?
During the sports festival, he had overheard discussions among business course students about the hero participants. One term that cropped up frequently was "return on investment."
In essence, if the time, money, and effort invested in something didn't yield sufficient results, it was deemed not worth it.
The time lost on a technique that didn't work could be better spent perfecting Full Cowl, physical training, or even keeping up with his studies.
Shaking his head of these thoughts, Izuku continued to concentrate the stream of power on his hand. Yet instead of focusing on strengthening himself, he envisioned pushing the power out of his body.
Creating an image from scratch was difficult, but if he had a reference point…
"The lightning looks cool… too bad it can't do anything"
That was the breakthrough point!
Izuku's hand crackled with far more sparks than he had ever seen before. His hand lit up a bright green as more and more energy was pushed to the surface.
With the increasing number of sparks sparking across his palm, Izuku struggled to maintain control over them.
The sparks flickered erratically, some arcing back into his skin, merging seamlessly with the stream of power coursing through his body. Others fizzled out upon contact with the floor or air, dissipating into nothingness.
Izuku gritted his teeth in concentration, his brow furrowed with determination. He focused on channelling the lightning into a coherent form – an orb that hovered above his palm.
Slowly, the chaotic energy seemed to respond, arcing across his hand until it condensed into a softball-sized sphere.
Calling it an orb was generous. It was so distorted it could barely even maintain its shape. Izuku had to continually send a stream of One For All toward it, as the energy he couldn't control was lost.
"Now… let's see what it can do," Izuku thought, cautiously extending a finger toward the 'sphere'.
His touch met no resistance, the energy felt inert, as if it wouldn't react with anything at all.
Disappointed at first, Izuku quickly realised his mistake and scolded himself for his thoughtlessness. "Right. I need to will it to do something."
With intense focus, Izuku focused on what he wanted to do with the orb. Yet, with a momentarily lapse in concentration, the orb collapsed, and the lightning scattered in all directions.
"It's too unstable," Izuku muttered, frustration creeping into his voice. It had taken over twenty minutes of relentless focus just to form the orb. Even if he could do anything with it, it couldn't be used in any meaningful way.
Therefore, rather than advancing to the next stage of his experiment, Izuku redirected his efforts to controlling the energy itself.
Sometimes, despite his best efforts, the orb would implode due to a lapse in focus. Each time it happened, Izuku meticulously noted his observations in his notebook, and slightly altered his mental image.
Hours passed in his bedroom, the air crackling with residual energy. Izuku remained undeterred, his mind singularly focused on mastering this new usage of One For All. The occasional collapse of the orb only fuelled his determination, as he refined his control with every attempt.
By the time the sun dipped below the horizon and the training room fell into darkness, Izuku laid asleep on the floor, surrounded by scrawled notes filled with remnants of failed attempts.
…
Two weeks flew by as Izuku devoted almost every waking moment after school to practicing his control of One For All.
The sphere that had originally taken him twenty minutes to form now materialized in under a minute. Izuku had also gained the ability to manipulate its size, from as small as a ping pong ball to as large as a basketball.
However, he didn't just focus on the size but also the shape.
As a result...
Izuku watched with a small smile as the orb above his hand rapidly morphed. It shifted from a cube to a cylinder to a pyramid, each transformation smooth and stable.
It no longer looked like a green ball of lightning, instead the energy was tamer, and instead was just a green glowing orb.
During this time, Izuku had realized that his issue wasn't just with his mental image of the orb. His control over One For All had been rough and unrefined.
It was like trying to paint with a giant brush; if he wasn't careful, each stroke would splatter paint across the canvas, ruining the image. Only the most skilled painters could manage it.
As for why All Might never struggled with this issue. He had inherited One For All when it was far weaker. While it was always a strong quirk, it wasn't nearly as powerful as it was now.
All Might's continuous use of the quirk over the past 40 years had strengthened it.
As a result, All Might had started with a smaller brush and gradually moved to larger ones. He didn't need to consciously visualize his power; it had become instinctive.
Moreover, All Might could always use 100% of his power without any problems, unlike Izuku, who would break himself if he tried.
This was why Izuku felt fortunate to have discovered this training method. He didn't need to worry about injuring himself or those around him. He just needed to focus on controlling One For All to form various shapes.
Every day, he felt his control over One For All improving. This progress was evident in his hero studies as well. He could activate Full Cowl faster, with less focus, and his power output was more consistent. His overall power had also increased significantly.
Before the mental image change, he could only use 8% of One For All. Afterward, it was 15%. Now, he was comfortably using 20%.
Izuku knew that he wouldn't experience such explosive growth in power anymore. If his previous limitations were due to his mental image and control, now it was his physical body that held him back.
"That's why…" he muttered, focusing on the ping pong-sized orb hovering above his pointer finger. If his body couldn't handle the full power, then he needed a different approach.
He could simply shoot the power.
"One For All – Storm Shot," Izuku whispered to himself. In an instant, the orb transformed into a brilliant green beam, striking the wall and exploding into a shower of sparks.
End of Chapter 2
Hi all, hope you have enjoyed the second chapter. Each one will probably be about 2k words since that's the length of chapter I usually like to read.
Hopefully it wasn't too boring to read, I have been trying to break up the training with dialogue and work on the pacing (since I know I can write like 5 chapters before reaching this spot, haha).
I'll start working on chapter 3 at some point, if anyone has any ideas for abilities, names etc, then drop a review or private message!
Cya