"Um…Izu sensei?" Inquired Mirio with a raised hand. "Am I allowed to use Special moves?"
"Do as you wish, Mirio" Answered Izuku in a lackadaisical tone. "This is an assessment of both our skills, it wouldn't be fair if you were forced to hold back just because I'd have a hard time keeping up." He shrugged. "Besides, I'd be pretty offended if you didn't see it fit to go all out against little old me."
The Blonde Hero in training let out an awkward chuckle. "So he says after whooping my butt everytime we sparred."
Izuku raised an eyebrow. "We only ever sparred like 4 times, Mirio." He pointed out. "Plus, all those Victories on my part we're just barely won by the skin of my teeth, and it's been a while since we last sparred, so I expect your skills to have grown since then."
"A Victory is a Victory, Sensei! And despite my growth these past few months, I still don't think I can beat you if we were to go all out" Mirio said sincerely.
"I told you to please stop calling me that" said Izuku, changing the subject. "You're the older one of us, Mirio Senpai~." He added teasingly. "Calling Me Sensei is just weird"
"You boys Ready?" Came Sir NightEye's voice from the training room's sound system. The two candidates looked at each other before nodding to the observation room above them.
"Very well then…You may begin"
As soon as those words were Uttered, Mirio's form permeated through the ground and out of the greenette's line of sight.
Izuku already knew most of Mirio's moves, so the blonde hero acted immediately to take advantage of the element of surprise, sinking to the ground at the start of the match in the hopes of preventing his young teacher from analysing or predicting anything.
As expected, the greenette calmly reacted with a roundhouse kick towards Mirio's still re-emerging form sending him flying bouncing a couple meters on the ground.
"You can do better than that." Said Izuku matter of factly, as if ordering the older boy to do better.
"Yes, Sir!" Replied Mirio, immediately getting back on his feet before lunging at the greenette once more.
The blonde's flurry of attacks were all easily dodged or blocked by Izuku, weary of counter attacking due to the possibility of the blonde turning a careless counter into an opportunity to catch him off guard.
One quick activation of Permeation during a counter and Mirio could easily turn intangible, sink through the ground and reappear behind or underneath him to take advantage of his blind side or his footing.
Getting somewhat irritated at the Blonde's overly fretful disposition, Izuku decided to start prodding the boy in order to stimulate a more resolute reaction. "Is this really all you've got? Or have you just been wasting my and NightEye's time these past few months!?"
As if on cue, Mirio jumped at him, his limbs spread-eagle, as he fell towards the greenette with his Permeation active.
On instinct, Izuku went for a punch to the face. One that instantly phased through the blonde's face and entire body.
'Ehhh? Did I- Did I seriously just-?...How did I fall for that?!'
With the time Izuku had left before Mirio could reach the ground, the greenette managed to jump as high as he could in order to get a bird's eye view of where the hero in training might pop back up…
But he never did.
Not until Izuku started falling back down directly on top of the re-emerging blonde.
Seeing the opportunity, Mirio sweeped the appendages closest to his rising form which happened to be Izuku's legs, disrupting the greenette's landing and preventing him from regaining proper footing.
What Mirio didn't expect however, was for the greenette to land on his arms instead and use the opportunity to perform an improvised Air flare to hit him with a kick that redirected his upward momentum and threw the older teen towards a nearby wall.
'Did he just breakdance his way out of that?!'
Instead of the expected loud thud of Mirio's body hitting the wall however, the absence of said sound itself was what alerted Izuku of the permeation hero's next course of action.
The training ground they were currently in was an old underground basement floor redesigned into a metal box ment for teambuilding exercises, combination attack training, and sparrings between the Sidekicks of the agency.
Normally this information wouldn't have mattered at all in Izuku's mind, but being the quirk obsessed Otaku he was, he immediately came to a shocking realization, as well as to what his blonde senpai was planning.
This training room was perfectly suited to maximizing the extended application of Mirio's Quirk where he is repelled outward upon returning to a solid state while phasing through another solid object.
'Did he really master that move already?!'
It was honestly impressive how quickly he had managed to turn Izuku's side comment of an idea into a fully functioning Ultimate Move. But right now, the greenette ever so slightly regretted ever giving the idea to the boy.
Bursting out of the training room wall, Mirio rushed towards Midoriya with unnatural speed that came as a byproduct of his Quirk.
'Golden Bullet!'
Izuku, however, already being prepared for this, managed to attempt a counter by leading a foot towards Mirio's rushing figure, forcing him to permeate through him and through the wall behind him.
Undeterred, Mirio gave the move another attempt, this time not immediately gunning for Izuku, prompting to instead, continously permeate through the walls and bouncing every which way in the room.
[Phantom Menace: Incomplete Version]
Granted, Mirio still didn't have much control over where he was going, but Izuku didn't need to know that. All that mattered was that Izuku neither knew where he was coming from, or when he was going to strike.
Gradually, Mirio managed to narrow down his trajectories to about a foot's radius around Izuku, his form constantly circling around the greenette hopefully disorienting him enough for Mirio to manage a sneak attack on his body.
"Poweeeer!!!" Exclaimed the young blonde, as he aimed a high speed fist towards the greenette's face.
Surprisingly enough, Izuku still managed to keep up with such speeds, as he released a chambered arm towards his student's fist. "How many times do I have to tell you Not to yell when you're going for a surprise attack!"
'He STILL REACTED TO THAT?! No way!' Thought Mirio, as he prepared his final trump card against his teacher.
Permeating through his teacher once more to avoid the counter and attempting a spinning crescent kick to the greenette's blind side before the momentum could carry Mirio away, the young hero in training was struck by a cold sense of foreboding emanating from the greenette, causing him to freeze for a moment, long enough for him to hit the wall with all the force from his momentum without activating his Quirk, interrupting his onslaught and built up speed.
'Wha….What was that? Deku sensei, never did THAT before. Is- is that his Quirk?!'
Izuku kept his gaze directly at Mirio, focusing his intent towards him in an effort to stagger him long enough for a clear shot. He didn't know how long this brief moment of shock would last, it was different for everyone (but 20 seconds was the general duration), he lunged at Mirio whiles throwing in a couple barbs, hoping to dissuade the older teen from fighting back. "What a Disappointment. All that training we invested on you, just for you to amount to only this."
The Blonde teen rolled away from the punch, as if forgetting he had a Quirk that would've let him phase through the attack. "It's only been a few months since we started! It's unfair to-"
"Unfair?"
A fist landed with a loud thud between Mirio's legs as he came face to face with his teacher's domineering emerald gaze. "Life is unfair. Its YOUR JOB to deal with it"
A kick slammed Mirio to the wall once more as his sensei continued his onslaught of attacks, his emotions in complete turmoil due to his teacher's sudden cruelty. "If you can't grow or adapt to the adversities you'll face out there on the spot then you won't be able to save anyone."
Mirio had never felt so powerless in his life, and the onslaught of relentless punches and kicks to his prone form certainly wasn't helping. What was happening? Why did he suddenly loose power in his limbs? It was like his own body had decided that there was no possible way of winning so it just gave up. He's heard of "Fight or Flight" before, but this?...this was more along the lines of "Flight or Die". The option of fighting back wasn't even there anymore it was just….Gone.
Suddenly the onslaught of beat downs intensified, before suddenly stopping as his sensei went for a choke hold maneuver in an attempt to knock him out and end the fight.
In his desperate struggle to fight back against the helplessness, Mirio's quirk finally activated once more, permeating him out of his sensei's grasp, who let out a swear in response.
"Shit. The 20 seconds are up."
'20 seconds? What 20 seconds? Does his quirk have a time limit?'
Taking advantage of the blonde's confusion, Izuku rushed in with a high kick aimed for Mirio's chin, which the blonde managed to dodge as his strength gradually came back to him.
"Seems like your fight or flight response are operational again. Should've just knocked you out sooner."
Feeling his courage and self confidence gradually return to him, Mirio hazard a question to his young teacher. "W- was that your Quirk, sensei?"
Izuku's eyes widened a bit, before letting out a small chuckle and answering with a shrug. "Nah. I don't have any."
Mirio was taken aback at this. His master was…Quirkless? And yet Sir, the other Sidekicks, and numerous other heroes have such high respects for him and hold him on such a higher regard than themselves. How did-?
"Don't get distracted."
An elbow painfully connected with Mirio's guts, followed by a kick to the knee which brought Mirio down a peg and led his chin directly into Midoriya's rising knee.
"Had I known that learning about my disability would have this much of an impact towards your concentration I would've revealed it whiles you were still under the effects of Bloodlust Binding."
"Bloodlust Binding? What's that?" Asked Mirio as he rose from his laid form.
"A technique my friend developed to temporarily immobilise more powerful QUIRKED opponents." Izuku answered, pausing for a second. "I'm gonna let you take this moment to catch your breath"
Mirio took the chance to take a deep long breath as he strategized his next move.
He had already used up his arsenal and the only trick left in his bag was a volatile and uncontrolled one. And even if he had any other tricks left, the beat down his teacher served him when he lost his strength was one that ensured he lacked the capability of performing anything more complicated than a street brawl.
'Screw it! I guess I'm using that then. I need to time this perfectly or else…Tho this seems like an outcome he more than likely already devised….'
A moment of silence befell the training room as Izuku just stared at Mirio, and Mirio came to a realisation.
'Of course he did.' Mirio's eyes narrowed in an annoyed deadpan expression, as his gaze travelled up to the monitoring room above them. 'This whole time, you wanted to give me an opportunity to show everything I had to offer, didn't you, Sensei.'
[Partial Permeation level 1: Segmented Arm]
'But still…I have every intention of winning. So I'm going to do something you can't have planned for and Pull off this next manuver!'
A last minute desperate gamble.
An attack to settle things for good.
He just needed to permeate his arm through Izuku's eventual counter punch before resolidifying the fist just in time to make contact with the greenette's face. Easy, right?
…
…Right?
Letting his held breath out, Mirio charged towards his sensei to throw the last haymaker that would decide the battle.
"All caught up?" Izuku quipped in response as he obliged his student's charge with a counter punch, planning to let his students last gambit play off.
Activating his Permeation Quirk once more, Togata held his breath right before all of his senses left him as a side effect of permeation.
After 3/100th of a second he assumed the end of his fist must've gone through his sensei's arm by now, and he began attempting to resolidify his permeated fist.
'Only solidify from the wrist outward'
'Only solidify from the wrist outward'
'Only solidify from the wrist outward'
'Only solidify from the wrist outward'
'Only solidify from the wrist outward'
Mirio repeated like a mantra in hopes of executing the move that his sensei said would easily put him in the leagues of top 10 heroes once fully mastered.
When the knuckles of his fist made contact with what seemed to be flesh, Mirio elated in pride and joy as he had seemingly pulled the move off after only training for it for about a couple of weeks.
This Joy would end up turning on him however, as the loss in concentration led to his quirk's deactivation, and his senses returned to him just in time to see his sensei's palm blocking his fist.
'Oh No…' Mirio could only lament and widen his eyes before the hand that Midoriya used to throw a counter punch came back to grab the back of his head, and pulled It towards his sensei's already accelerating knee.
Fortunately for the young blonde hero in training, Izuku wasn't a Sadist (At least he thought he wasn't), so instead of aiming the knee towards his senior's face, Izuku prompted to instead go for his wide open torso, hitting the permeation hero on the solar plexus and making him fall down to the ground to catch his breath, and hopefully, not throw up his lunch.
"Training over. Winner: Izuku" Stated NightEye's monotone voice from the observation box.
"Almost…had…It-" Mirio haphazardly attempted to say before the contents of his lunch came up rushing out of his mouth.
"You two clean that up and meat us on my office later." NightEye quipped cheekily, the trace amount of smugness in his voice being more than enough for Izuku to perceive the smirk currently plastered on the foresight hero's face.