"Oh, come on Jiki. We can do this! Floating is like riding a bike, you'll never forget." Nejire promised, trying to encourage her friend to join her out on the mat.
"And if you do forget for some reason, Deku-Sensei and Aizawa-Sensei made sure that every inch of this gym is covered in this soft padding, so we won't get hurt no matter what." Nejire added when Jiki still wasn't letting go of Miyake's tail.
Honestly both of them had done a very good job making every surface of the gym covered in the soft foam, and they even covered the gym equipment too and added some aerial stuff for them to try out.
If they ever got high enough to use it.
Jiki had unfortunately taken to clinging onto either herself or Miyake after they got him down the first time, even though he had only started floating off a couple of other times.
Her friend was absolutely terrified he'd accidentally float off if he didn't hold on to someone or something.
When the only response she got was a croak of sorts Nejire's shoulders slumped, and she scratched her head trying to think of anything else she could do to convince Jiki to come out and join her for training Float.
She had already made some progress. Manipulating her own energy was something she was already used to doing in her everyday life. Sure, it was a little different trying to move under Float's magnetism, but it would have been ultimately more fun if she had spent more energy while doing it.
"Amajiki, would you feel more comfortable if you ate something you could use to move around with while floating?" Yuyu asked after a few seconds.
Jiki bit his lip then after thinking about it, then nodded.
"Yay!" Nejire cheered clapping her hands "Okay, okay. What things we could get for Jiki to move around with, we could send Masao-Chan out to grab a feather or maybe we can ask if Yagi-San still has some com-pow chicken." Nejire supposed, pacing in a circle.
Cause having those would let him grow a pair of wings that he could use to move with some certainty, Jiki had used wings before, and they were just removing the problem of gravity he normally faced when it came to lift off.
"I can run down to the corner shop and see if they have some grapes so he can root himself to the ground like a balloon." Yuyu offered.
Ooh, vines or tentacles would also be useful here, and Jiki would not have to go too high when he floated, they could get another curl of taffy from Oz-Chan instead and it would have the same result.
"N-no, you don't have to do that." Jiki protested and Yuyu placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Amajiki, don't worry about it, I've got plenty of pocket money, and I would feel much better helping you in some way." Yuyu told him, since they could easily see what Jiki's main problem with the idea would be.
Jiki flushed and his ears dipped.
"I-I know... but I was thinking a spider would be better." Jiki replied with his head ducked.
"Hm, not my first idea but if it's a spider you want, then we'll get you a spider Jiki! There's probably a few up in the corners of the ceiling, just give me a moment to find one." Nejire agreed then shot up into the air, expelling some energy with her birth quirk to move to the corners.
The ceiling was surprisingly clean of webs but after prying open a vent she struck gold, and found a nice little spider for Jiki to eat and she grabbed some webbing for good measure before coming back down.
"One spider and some webbing for you Jiki!" Nejire happily presented her find to her friend.
Jiki hesitated likely because the spider was still squirming in her hand, so Nejire carefully sent a jolt of energy into the spider.
The whole body spasming before twitching like most dead spiders did, there, problem solved.
"Thank you Nejire." Jiki muttered before taking both and eating them, Yuyu turning away since she didn't have the same stomach they had, that was fine though.
Masao and Jiki could eat bugs and spiders with her.
Once Jiki swallowed, he took a deep breath and then took hold of her hands, letting go of Masao's tail and following her out to the middle of the floor.
"Okay Jiki, let's focus on turning Float on and off first," Nejire said calmly as they stopped and stood holding each other's hands.
"I knew the basics for it since it wasn't too far off from my birth quirk, but this is going to be pretty new for you and once you know how to turn it on and off, you'll be able to take a load off." Nejire instructed.
"So, first close your eyes, the calmer you are the easier this will go for us." Nejire told him. Jiki, not needing more incentive to do so, did exactly that.
"Now, I don't know if you've eaten shark or electric eel before," Nejire said waiting for Jiki's answer, which was a no judging from how he shook his head.
"Well, I'll cross that off the metaphor list then, but either way you should feel a... tingling of sorts under your skin." Nejire began to explain.
"It's kind of a buzz for me but it might feel like a hum or a thrum for you, I want you to focus on it cause that'll be the magnetism of Float you're feeling," Nejire told him, Jiki's face scrunched up as he concentrated.
"Found it." Jiki shakily admitted after a minute, causing Nejire to blink.
"Oh wow, you found it faster than I thought you would, way to go Jiki!" Nejire praised him and his ears turned red from embarrassment.
"Now that you found it, I want you to… well, twist it mentally, like you would a... radio dial." Nejire tried to guide Jiki.
Redirecting energy in any form was hard to explain to someone that hadn't done it before, and moving a radio dial sounded the closest to what she had always thought of when using float.
"O-okay." Jiki nervously muttered, clearly uncertain about actually doing this even with all of their precautions.
"Do you want me to talk you through it? Like how Haruki-San does for our meditation?" Nejire offered and Jiki nodded his head.
"Alright then, let's take one deep breath first, then focus on the pulse of Float within yourself." she instructed him.
Watching Jiki as he took a deep breath.
"Like how it feels almost like a second heartbeat with how it circulates throughout your body." Nejire told him as she let her own eyes closed.
The buzz of Float thrummed along with her own quirk under her skin, the two moving nearly in sync with each other.
"Count it with me, one, two. One, two." Nejire said counting the seconds with her heartbeat, her mind being able to separate the two quirks with the rhythmic beat in her chest.
"Can you feel it Jiki?" Nejire asked after a couple of minutes.
"Yeah." he quietly answered, slightly calmer now from the counting.
"Good, now we are going to focus on making Float stronger, by making that soft pulse louder so that we can hover a couple of feet." Nejire said rubbing circles into the back of Jiki's hands after she heard him gulp.
"Now think about the pulse of Float, start with another deep breath Jiki," Nejire instructed and Jiki didn't hesitate to take another calming breath.
"Then, you're going to count with me down from ten, and with each number we're going to take another deep breath," Nejire elaborated.
"Short breath in and long breath out, with each breath out your body is going to feel lighter and lighter." Nejire explained to him.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"As I'll ever be." Jiki muttered.
"Okay, ten... nine... eight... " Nejire counted along with Jiki, the buzz of Float coming to the surface as it had before, the weight of her body decreasing with every exhale.
"Three... two... one. Now Jiki, do you feel lighter?" Nejire asked opening her eyes, watching him nod his head, then Nejire looked down to see that Jiki and she were hovering up in the air, thankfully only a couple of feet.
"Great Jiki, we're floating now, do you want to try moving around or just try turning float off?" Nejire asked making sure to just what Jiki was comfortable with.
"I- I want to stop." Jiki admitted, a bit shamefully.
"It's fine if you don't want to go bouncing off the walls like I did Jiki, you're our shy little cannibalistic bean and we adore you no matter what." Nejire said slightly teasingly.
"Nejire." Jiki whined under his breath with bright red ears.
"Now, we are going to count down again, long inhale, short exhales, with every breath our bodies are going to become heavier as Float's energy becomes weaker. Repeat after me Jiki. Ten... " Nejire told him, moving swiftly along and counting with Jiki until their feet reached the soft ground again.
"And one. Since we are on the ground again, you feel okay opening your eyes?" Nejire inquired.
Jiki's eyes opened and Nejire beamed at him "You did fantastically Jiki, you got up and down all on your own this time with a bit of guidance." Nejire praised the boy.
Jiki smiled his usual lop-sided smile back at her.
"Think you want to do it again Jiki? Or would that be too much for you right now?" Nejire questioned, tapping her foot to let out some of her energy.
Jiki's eyes went down to her foot before he answered her "I could, in a few minutes. Go let out some steam." He told her, letting go of her hands.
Nejire huffed, bemused, giving him a quick hug then moved a few steps away before kicking off the ground with a burst of energy from her birth quirk.
Toshinori watched as both of the ninths were playing around up in the air of the gym, it had taken a few days, but Amajiki had really come into Float.
He was still using his birth quirk to shoot webbing to help him move around but he was comfortable to float up multiple meters away from the ground.
Hado had turned using Float into a game of tag of sorts, the two of them moving around the equipment attached to the ceiling and the lower obstacle course parts.
Each time they tagged the other there was laughter from Hado.
"Awe, I wish I could have done that with someone when I was younger." Nana said wistfully.
"I'm glad that your friend was right Yagi." En told him next, and Toshinori nodded smiling as Nejire made sure to let go of Float for a moment to sharply dip in the air out of Amajiki's reach.
Happy to see that the two of them were able to find some joy in wielding Inheritance where most could not.
For as much as Inheritance had given to him, he could not say it had brought him the same mindless fun that it was currently bringing both Amajiki and Hado.
"They deserve to have some fun before we need to deal with Aoi." Youchi warmly said.
"If we need to deal with Aoi, your kid's plan sounds mostly fool-proof Youchi." Hikage pointed out.
Toshinori privately hoped that they would drop the running comments of how Midoriya-Kun was Youchi's son, somehow before the ninths were able to enter the mind space fully.
Nana huffed and Toshinori felt her phantom hand ruffle his hair.
"Toshi, those are my grand babies over there and they shall adore their cousin and Nejire will help us make up for all the birthdays Youchi and I missed." Nana told him clearly bemused, while Toshinori sighed into his hand.
"Wouldn't that make Youchi your Nephew?" En questioned.
"Yes." Nana confirmed and given the squawk from Youchi, she most likely tackle-hugged Youchi in the mind space "He is now one of my babies." Nana declared.
"I am centuries older than you!" Youchi protested embarrassed no doubt.
"Don't care, you're one of my babies now." Nana replied.
Toshinori was glad he didn't have to be there to see what was going on in the mind space, he definitely would have been dragged into the hug by Nana.
"Wait, is Yagi a dad now? Cause I don't think he's responsible for his own health, much less could be for two kids with such different personalities." Hikage pointed out, and Toshinori almost choked up some blood.
He was what now?
"Of course he is, he just doesn't have main custody and is the fun weekends dad since he's terminal, and they can always go to their cousin Izuku for help." Nana proudly explained.
"Nana, no." Toshinori tried to say under his breath to avoid getting looks from the others.
"Nana yes, you and Youchi are my babies now and are giving me beautiful grandbabies, deal with it." Nana cheekily told him and Toshinori buried his heads in his head as both he and Youchi groaned.
En, watching Nana's baby fever making her crack and forcefully adopting the others.
En: The army grows...