Hero La Kill Ch. 16: Prep Time
Written by Aduubo, Buckichamp, and PikachuSpartan.
I OWN NOTHING. KILL LA KILL IS OWNED BY STUDIO TRIGGER AND KAZUKI NAKASHIMA. MHA IS OWNED BY TOHO ANIMATION AND KOHEI HORIKOSHI.
—
Today was the day the students returned to class after being given a day off to relax following the USJ Incident. For some, it was tough to unwind after such a traumatic experience. They were teenagers, after all. None of the young heroes expected to be put in a life-or-death situation and fight. Yet the students prevailed. Still, the toll it took to stand up and fight wouldn't evaporate overnight.
Everyone spent the start of homeroom talking about the incident, and the amount of press the news media gave to the attack. Both Matoi and Midoriya were able to make the best of it and put that time into training. They had a boost of confidence from the headway they made and were ready to tackle whatever hill of schoolwork – or life-threatening scenarios – that would come their way today.
The clock soon ticked to 8:24 a.m. One minute before homeroom. Within a second of the time shift, Iida immediately dashed from his seat and towards the podium in front of the class.
"ATTENTION! Homeroom class is about to begin! Everyone, stop talking and take your seats!"
"Uh, we're all sitting," Kirishima corrected.
"Yeah, you're the only one standing," Sero also remarked.
"Good try though, Iida!" Ryuko hollered and followed up with a laugh.
Iida begrudgingly sat down, feeling embarrassed about the irony of him being the only one not following his own instruction.
"Dang… IT!"
"Don't sweat it." Ochako consoled.
Not even a second later, the entrance door slid open, revealing a mummified Aizawa. His entire face and his right arm were wrapped in bandages, though his hair flowed freely from the binds. His left arm was free to move around, as he somehow managed to escape the fight against the hulking Nomu with only some cuts and bruising, but the limb was still too stiff to move easily.
"Mor-"
"Oh my god! Is that a mummy?!" Ryuko's jaw dropped at the sight of "Mummizawa."
The class went silent from Matoi's comment before a few stifles of laughter attempted to force its way out of their mouths.
"Everyone, please cease your laughter! You're being insensitive! Mr. Aizawa, I'm glad that you're okay!" Iida stood from his desk.
"Forget about my well-being, there are better things to be concerned about. The UA Sports Festival is about to begin," Aizawa announced. He spoke with the utmost sincerity as his stern eyes peeked out from underneath the bandages.
The students were jazzed up. It was the moment that every hero course student dreamed of participating in.
While most of the students cheered on the announcement of UA's premier event, the girl with the red highlight sat there with a bit of a bored expression.
"Why's it such a big deal to host this thing? Didn't we just, oh I don't know, get attacked by a bunch of villains?" Ryuko posed to Aizawa.
"You really don't get how important this is?" a few of the students asked, to which she could only shrug.
"It's our chance to get scouted by hero agencies. The more exposure you get and the chance to be seen by pros, the better the odds are you end up in a better situation after graduating," Izuku explained.
"Yeah. Though not to be a downer-" Jirou started.
"Well…" Kaminari trailed off when the violette shot him a glare.
"But like Matoi said, we were just attacked by villains. It doesn't seem like a good idea."
"I understand some of you have concerns, but we've added extra security and made sure that stricter protocols have been put into place to minimize risk. Consider it as UA declaring we aren't scared and showing the world that we can bounce back," Aizawa explained.
"The sports festival has even surpassed The Olympics of old in popularity once Quirks emerged and became the norm. This is your class' opportunity to get noticed. You get three chances in a lifetime to take advantage of the exposure of the festival. I expect you all to make it count."
"Yes sir!" The class responded, though Ryuko still wasn't convinced it was worth it.
"You have the next two weeks off from class to train. Don't forget about your studies, but train hard and show the world who you really are. Class is dismissed."
Hours later, the students were let loose to go to the cafeteria as it was lunch time. During this interval in schedule, all that the students from 1A could talk about was how excited they were for the festival, completely forgetting about the USJ. Midoriya and Matoi were about to fetch Iida and Uraraka to head out before a familiar voice called out to them.
"Deku. Shank."
The two had turned their heads to meet Bakugo, who stood from his desk.
"You two extras better do well in the first two events. Deku, we have a score to settle. And Shank, I'm going to give you back that punch you laid out on me," Bakugo challenged the pair.
"Shank?" Ryuko appeared confused.
"BAKUGO! How dare you use such vulgar words!" Iida shouted from hearing distance.
"Vulgar?" Ryuko stopped for a moment, piecing together what "shank" could mean.
"What are you...OH YOU FUCKING TRAILOR PARK BIMBO!"
Ryuko tried to rush Bakugo, but Midoriya, Jirou and Uraraka restrained her from putting another imprint on his face.
"WHADDYA CALL ME, YOU WALKING ONAHOLE?!" Bakugo screamed back while Kaminari, Sero and Kirishima rushed to hold him back.
"RICH COMING FROM THE GUY WITH BIGGER TITS THAN HALF THE CLASS!"
"Ryuko! Calm down!" Midoriya strained as the three of them were barely keeping the hothead from sending Bakugo out the classroom door.
"He's right, Matoi! Just deck him at the festival!" Jirou tried to find a way to appease her, now wrapping her jacks around Ryuko's midsection as another restraint.
"I don't fucking care! Let me at him! I'm about to shove my scissor blade so far up his ass, it's gonna be the only thing that's ever gonna be penetrating him in his natural life!"
"Why do I feel like we're missing some context with that insult?" Sero questioned as the two volatile hero students continued to fling insults toward each other.
"MATOI!"
Everyone froze when Uraraka spoke out with such a sharp tone. But most of the class soon began to fear the bubbly brunette over the two class dogs.
"LET'S DO OUR BEST AT THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!" Uraraka yelled out her battle cry.
The sudden change in Ochako definitely caught Matoi off-guard. Heck, almost everyone except for Bakugo. Though she had to admit, the others were right. She just had to do her best at the sports festival…
'And then Katsuki's going to be crying uncle when I'm done with him!'
Ryuko straightened up as she began to relax, indicating she wouldn't continue on the attack. But she would leave Katsuki with a few final words before everyone headed out.
"Tch, we'll take your challenge. Just don't cry again like you did the last time when you lost, Kacchan."
Katsuki froze for a moment when Ryuko had uttered that name. He was barely recovering from that incident, but she had just reopened the wound. Ryuko then forcibly shoved past his shoulder, as Izuku and the others soon followed her, but scooched around Katsuki.
"Geez Uraraka, what a performance back there. The Sports Festival really got you fired up, huh?" Ryuko asked as the gang made their way to the cafeteria.
"Oh yeah! It's got me all pumped up!" The brunette then raised her fist into the air.
"I'M GOING TO DO MY BEST!"
Uraraka's cry soared out with triumph. Her usual soft round eyes turned into a sharpened gaze, which then glowed with a bright white that shined over her shadowed face. Her expression showed pure focus, which threw her friends off at first, but then soon joined in on her enthusiasm as they too raised their fists into the air and cheered her on.
"Hell yeah! That's the spirit, Uraraka!" Ryuko expressed joyfully.
"Yeah!" Both Izuku and Tenya also cheered.
'This is the first time I've ever seen Uraraka like this. Her scary eyes really contrast with her bubbly look. Huh, her blush hasn't faded though. I've never noticed how bright and rosey they were. So cute… wait-w-what? I-Izuku, what are you saying?!'
Izuku's cheeks soon began to sport a similar kind of blush at that rogue thought. Where did that come from? He quickly made sure to sweep that under the rug, as it was just that, a rogue thought. After all, there was something that he had actually been meaning to ask her.
"S-say, Uraraka?"
"What's up?"
"I-I've been meaning to ask, what made you decide to come to UA? What made you want to be a pro hero?"
The overwhelming aura of confidence that radiated off of Uraraka had shriveled up in a snap.
"O-oh, uhmm… I… well it's… For money," The girl's hand gnawed at her head to scratch away the embarrassment.
"I'm sorry if it sounds greedy! I-I know it's not noble like you or Iida, but… well… My family owns a construction company. We're not doing so well and are flat broke. Please don't tell anyone."
"I wanted to help them at the construction sites with my quirk, but they turned me down."
Uraraka then clasped her hands into her cheeks before turning away, feeling more embarrassed.
"I hope you guys don't think less of me!"
"Not at all! Wanting to help others with finances is an admirable quality! That is a heroic deed on its own!" Iida quickly came to Uraraka's defense.
"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that, Uraraka," Ryuko reached out forward to grab both of Ochako's shoulders.
"My friend Mako, her dad is a back-alley doctor in the slums back at Honnōji. Every day she's trying to climb the ranks of that school in order to give her folks back home a better life. She's risking everything there for her family, just like you are here. Don't put yourself down over what you want. We all have our reasons."
"Keep going after what you want."
Uraraka remained silent for a moment, taking in Ryuko's words. She then shot up to meet her gaze with fire in her eyes.
"Right!" Uraraka nodded.
"Heh, now that's more like it," Ryuko smiled before letting go and stepping back.
With her spirits lifted, Uraraka set her gaze upon the friends that stood in front of her.
"I'm going to become a pro. I'll make enough money to give my family the life they deserve!" A dashing smile soon dawned on her face, the confident attitude coming back to life.
"THAT'S BEAUTIFUL! SO NOBLE! ENCORE!" Iida clapped loudly, which caught the other two near him off guard.
He would continue to cheer on with other words he could think of, even in other languages.
"Geez, you ever consider having an agency in theater as well, Iida?" Matoi laughed, with Uraraka and Midoriya following soon after.
While they continued to talk, Ryuko turned to see Izuku with an unusual look on his face. His eyes were lidded over a bit, giving a very relaxed look. His cheeks donned a red blush, the diamond shape of his freckles nearly fading in it. And finally, a warm gentle smile. And it was all directed towards Uraraka.
Matoi had seen him smile before, but this was different. A grin soon enveloped on her face. She was already happy that Izuku was making friends so quickly, but now he was well on his way for the next step.
But then, an unexpected, yet recognizable laughter joined the ambience, cutting off the others.
"HAHAHAHA!"
The unknown assailant swerved around the corner, revealing themself to be All Might.
"YOUNG MIDORIYA...IS HERE!" The hero dynamically pointed his finger towards Izuku, surprising everyone in the process.
"All Might? What are you doing here?" The boy on the other side of the hero's finger asked.
"Lunch! Ya wanna eat with me?"
"THAT'S ADORABLE!" Uraraka had a spasm nearby. The amount of sweetness in that proposal nearly gave her diabetes.
"Whaddaya say?"
Izuku debated for a moment on if he would join him, but realized All Might sought him out for a reason. He turned to his friends for any affirmation, which both Ryuko and Tenya nodded, giving him the go ahead.
Returning their gesture, Izuku stepped forward to follow his idol hero into a nearby teacher's lounge.
..~~~HLK~~~..
-UA Teacher's Lounge-
"Only 50 minutes?"
"Yep, that's about how long I can use my power now. I've been pushing myself too hard as of late," Toshinori replied while preparing tea.
"I-I'm so sorry! I should've just-"
Izuku's words were cut short when Yagi burst into laughter while spewing blood at the same time.
"Man, you don't need to apologize for anything! Come on, have some tea. I brought you here to talk about the festival. The problem is, you still can't control One for All yet. So then, what's your plan?"
"Well, I just started training with Ryuko yesterday. We don't know what we need to work on at the moment, so we just did some light sparring for now until we can figure something out."
"Ah, Young Matoi. How's she doing?"
"Oh? She's fine. Is something wrong?"
"Nah. Although I did want to bring up what we talked about in Recovery Girl's office the other day," Toshinori said.
"I don't trust anyone who doesn't already know about the secret of One For All learning about it right now. But part of me believes it may end up being inevitable that Young Matoi may end up "in the know" of all of this. So it begs the question…"
"What?" Midoriya asked, slightly unnerved.
"Would you be willing to trust that your friend wouldn't share the secret, no matter what?"
"O-of course! We're old friends! I already told you that she would keep her mouth shut about what little I mentioned to her before."
"That's my point. You're so close to her…" All Might stopped.
'Do I tell Midoriya about him? No, not yet.'
"You're so close to her already, that if she were to get hurt, I wouldn't want you kicking yourself over it."
Once All Might finished speaking, a few moments of silence passed. And then Midoriya started chuckling and wouldn't stop.
"What the hell is wrong with you, kid?"
"You're worried about her getting hurt? I'm sorry All Might, but I think that's the least of our worries," Izuku's chuckling started to die down. No one really needed to be concerned much about Ryuko. He found that notion ridiculous.
"Trust me, young man. There are things out there that even people like Young Matoi are ill-prepared for. Forces that have even kept me on my back foot," All Might said while holding his injured side, which caught Izuku's attention.
It wasn't every day Midoriya saw All Might in such a sullen mood. The only time he'd seen this side of his mentor before was the day they first met. Now that he thought about it, if Ryuko was here right now, that meant that Satsuki Kiryuin definitely gave her a run for her money and she didn't reach her goal. Not to mention what also happened at the USJ. All Might was right.
"Oh...right. That's a good point. Sorry, I got ahead of myself."
"OH NO! That's quite alright, Young Midoriya. I'm just worried about how Young Matoi will handle these situations. Even with her power, she's still just a teenager."
"So am I," Midoriya responded innocently, with All Might coughing briefly before the boy continued on.
"To be honest, I think she could handle things very well. After spending some time with her and knowing the things she told me, this wouldn't be the most surprising thing in the world to her."
"Really? Well, that definitely puts a new spin on things…"
'Come to think of it, if there's any merit to why we're bringing Young Matoi here as an ally, this might work to our advantage,' Toshinori pondered.
"For now, I think we should still keep this only between the two of us for a bit longer. We'll talk about this again. By the way, your tea's getting cold."
"Oh, sorry. Thanks," Izuku reached out to get a sip.
Yagi stood up from the lounge chair before stepping over to gaze out the window.
"Sometime soon, I'll have to relinquish the title as the Symbol of Peace. Villains out there are starting to notice. Someone else now has to stand up and take this mantle."
Izuku inwardly gasped as he stood up. All Might's words were taking him off of his seat.
"You are going to be the hero that will take my place. That is why I gave you my power."
For a brief moment, Izuku's world flashed back to when he was first training with All Might. He was face-planted into the ground due to overexerting himself. Yet he still looked up to his idol with hope, declaring his dream to save people and live up to his name.
"Do you still feel the same way when we met? Do you still want to be a hero?"
Izuku's muscles tightened with vigor, his heart set ablaze.
"Yes!"
"Excellent. This Sports Festival will be your moment to prove it. It's something that the pros - no, the entire country will be watching very closely. I want you to think of this festival as your debut. You are the fledgling Symbol of Peace. The next All Might!"
Izuku began to tense up, feeling overwhelmed by the words that All Might poured into his mind.
"Izuku Midoriya. Show them who you are. Introduce yourself to the world, and proudly say "I AM HERE!"
..~~~HLK~~~..
After that meeting, classes proceeded like normal until the entire school was dismissed for the day. The gang walked together to the station to process their thoughts about the sports festival, while Izuku also caught Ryuko up to speed with how the event works.
"Tournament-based, huh? Sounds like fun," Ryuko smiled.
"The entire country will be watching too! How exciting!" Uraraka chirped.
"Really now? If that's the case, I better get myself as much screen time as possible so that I can flip Satsuki off."
"THAT IS UNCALLED FOR, MATOI!" Iida shouted while pointing his entire hand at the blue haired girl
"You sure don't let up, do you Ryuko? Sometimes I wonder if you and Kacchan could be siblings," Izuku half-joked.
"Tch, don't lump me in with that sad sack of shit. There's plenty of differences. I'm waaaaaay nicer than he is. And way better looking too," Ryuko then brushed her bangs out into the wind, resulting in them slapping back into her face, just like her confidence.
Silence breezed over the gang like the wind as Ryuko attempted to get her hair out of her eyes and mouth before they all burst into laughter.
Through all the fumbling, Matoi was finally able to fix her hair before sticking her tongue out and blowing a raspberry.
"Ah, you know what I mean. So, you guys going to train for the festival?"
"Of course! We all will be using these two weeks to our fullest. The Sports Festival is our chance to get into the spotlight!" Iida proclaimed with both his hands raised into the air.
"Well you two better get in line, cuz Izuku and I already got a headstart on training yesterday," Ryuko locked her arm around Izuku's neckl and brought him over.
"Really? That's so cool!" Uraraka responded.
"Yeah! It's actually paying off so far. We have a good basis on what to work on. Ryuko's a way better fighter than me though," Izuku chuckled sheepishly.
"Yeah, kicked his butt a bit. But he ain't that bad, though. Izuku doesn't slack when it comes to training."
"Speaking of slacking, I remember that someone was late on the morning wake up routine, and I had to come wake them up myself," Izuku raised a brow with a chuckle.
"Ah, what are you complainin' about? Most guys love the opportunity to go to a girl's house."
Izuku suddenly became bright red in the face. His face became so hot that steam fumed right out of his ears, a gust of it blowing into Ryuko's face.
"N-Now that is not true! I only came over because I didn't have your p-phone number to call you!" Izuku retorted while flailing his arms, making everyone laugh once more.
"J-just give me your phone number f-for next time! Or s-set an alarm on it!"
"Huh? Oh… Uhm… I don't have a cellphone," Ryuko responded with a straight face. She'd never thought of needing a phone before, much less actually going to buy one.
"You don't have a cellphone?" The other three teens asked in unison.
"…How do you contact anyone?" Iida asked.
"I either go straight to Izuku's house, write letters, or find a telephone," Ryuko responded.
"Wow. Yeah, you should get a phone. Even I have a phone, and I'm dirt poor!"
"Well, I have been able to save up on the rent money thanks to Izuku's mom making food. I'll keep that in mind!"
"Looks like it's time for Operation: Cellphone! Why don't we go shopping to help you find one? Two weeks is plenty of time! We can take a day out of one of the weeks to go browsing!" Uraraka suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! Ryuko still needs to explore more of the town to familiarize herself with it. It should be a fun time," Izuku remarked.
"I'll have to go home and check my schedule. I will be sure to notify you two by text! Midoriya, you can relay the information to Matoi, right?" The speedster asked, which Izuku responded to by nodding.
"Yeah! Operation: Cellphone is now underway!" Uraraka cheered with her fist up, the other three soon joining in on the fun.
..~~~HLK~~~..
-Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, 14 days until the Sports Festival-
"This is…what you've been doing for almost a year straight?" Ryuko strained a bit as she was performing well over 200 consecutive push ups. 310 to be exact.
"Yep! Even with that…I still have a long way to go before I can properly use my power…" Izuku responded as he also did push ups in front of her.
After Izuku and Ryuko had made it back home, the two wasted no time as they immediately prepared to go to the beach. Izuku saw this as the opportunity to let the world truly see what he was capable of, while Ryuko saw this as a moment to see if she made improvements to lift the cap on her limitations.
To continue her routine, Matoi remained in sync mode for the duration of the push ups. Her enhanced strength currently enabled her to push past Izuku in terms of the amount of push ups she could do. The boy was no pushover though, as he remained closely behind Ryuko during their exercise. The two then finally stopped to go over their progression.
"How's the endurance training working out for you, Ryuko?"
"So far, so good. I'm definitely getting a better handle on Sync mode. If my body could just wake up a little bit more, that'd be great! I just wish there was a faster way to do this."
"Ha, you and me both. But it wouldn't really mean anything if it was easy, right?" Izuku asked as he pulled out his notebook.
"Pff, easy for you to say. You're not the one having your blood sucked out by a piece of skimpy clothing," Ryuko snorted, and Izuku would also do the same.
"Ouch," Senketsu remarked.
"Yeah, but you're one of the strongest students in the class right now. So I think it's a good effort to work towards."
Izuku planted his notebook onto his lap before he began writing notes while simultaneously sketching a full body drawing of Ryuko. He performed his usual muttering under his breath, deciphering all sorts of information he had on her currently.
Ryuko sat in front of him, staring as he jotted down his notes. The boy was practically face down in his book, but she was still able to pay attention to his features. His eyes were fixed with focus like gears, which was nothing new from how he was many years ago. She let out a relaxed sigh and followed up with a smile. She felt at ease.
"...This is tough. I can't think of anything beyond just you working on endurance. Is there anything else you know about how Senketsu works, Ryuko?"
For a moment, he received no response. Izuku looked up from his notes to see Ryuko directly staring at him. The expression on her face gave off a sense of warmth and comfort.
"Ryuko?"
"H-huh? S-shit! Sorry! Spaced out! ...What were you asking?" Ryuko began to curl up a bit, a hint of red flushing on her face as she looked away.
'What the hell was that?! Since when did I start spacing out?!' Ryuko troubled over what she just did.
"There isn't a lot we know about your power and Senketsu, so I was actually stumped on what to come up with besides you having extended exposure to using him. I wanted to try and see if there were actual faster methods," Izuku repeated.
"Awww, even when you told me that nothing's ever easy, you still try to find ways to make it easy. You really are a hero. Helping everyone no matter what it is."
"Well, I've had so many supportive people that helped me get this far, including you. So I owe it to everyone to give as much back as you all gave me."
Ryuko's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this from Izuku. After years of being alone and fighting for her life, it felt nice to be appreciated for once.
..~~~HLK~~~..
-Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, nine days until the Sports Festival-
It had been five days since Ryuko and Deku had started training for the sports festival, with the sunset casting an orange light over the pristine ocean water meters away. While they both did running and other calisthenics, they also tried their hand at one-on-one combat sparring.
With the girl sporting the red highlight in Sync Mode with Senketsu, she could easily dodge Izuku, who was trying to not use One For All and wind up breaking himself nine days before the contest.
"Hyahh!" Ryuko cried out, landing a roundhouse kick to Deku's gut, the green-haired boy falling to the ground with a soft thud on the warm sand.
"Ouch! That smarts," Midoriya grumbled. His attire that day was a teal-blue tracksuit, similar to what he wore at the entrance exam.
Ryuko reached her hand out and pulled Deku up to his feet, as he dusted himself off from that last beating.
"Dude, you know you can't win the UA Sports Festival without using your quirk, right? Even if you still haven't gotten a handle on it, you've had to come up with something by now," She looked him over with her arms crossed, trying to figure out anything that could give him an edge.
"I wish. The only time I haven't broken one of my bones was when I punched that big brain guy back at the USJ," he sighed, a defeated smile showing.
"Well, what was different?" Ryuko asked.
"I guess I've just been going at every obstacle at 100%, but that was the first time I've used it on a person. When it came to villains, I knew it wasn't just training anymore. But at the same time, I kept thinking about what Thirteen said back at the USJ about our powers," Izuku took one look at his hand before clenching it into a fist, staring into it deeply.
"Yeah, I remember that too."
Both teens remembered Thirteen's speech about how such powers can be used for malicious purposes. It was absolutely crucial that everyone learned to maintain control of their abilities.
"Right now… it sounds like you know when to hold back just so you don't end up killing someone," Ryuko inputted.
"I might have an idea," Senketsu said, drawing the girl's attention.
"Why doesn't he just lower the percentage of power in his attacks?" Senketsu offered up, with Ryuko's eyes flying wide open.
"Hold on, Izuku. You're just using either 100% or none whenever you use a smash, right?"
"Umm, yeah. Why?"
"Senketsu might have just reached a breakthrough!" She grinned, pointing her left thumb at his eye.
"Really? What is it?" Izuku wondered.
"He said to lower the percentage of power you use in your punches. That way, you wouldn't be KO'd after each hit," Ryuko expressed.
"Oh yeah! How come I didn't think of that? Man, you two really are amazing."
"Makes it easy when I can hear him talking to me. But believe me, it was also a rough start for the both of us. I was rejecting him at first because I was so embarrassed during sync mode. Senketsu was drinking too much blood from only one place because he was blocked out. After I accepted him, the blood and power are distributed evenly through the both of us."
Ryuko delicately placed her hand near where Senketsu's eye was, patting at the surface with a warm smile.
"Wearing a Kamui means becoming one with it. And it becoming one with the wielder. Our whole bodies play a factor in this synchronization."
Izuku's world suddenly stopped. That way of phrasing stuck into his mind once more and played on repeat. Ryuko's lesson now being added into the fray.
'Your entire body is a weapon. That is the true essence of a fighter.'
'You can't rely only on one trick.'
'Focusing on one trick to bail you out in any scenario, that's going to get you killed, boy.'
'Wearing a Kamui means becoming one with it. And it becoming one with the wielder.'
"THAT'S IT!" Izuku shouted, which took Ryuko and Senketsu by surprise.
"Ryuko, I'm a Kamui!"
The Kamui and his wielder stood wide eyed, absolutely confused by Izuku's reasoning.
"Uhh… what?"
"With my power, I've only been using it in certain parts of my body, instead of distributing it evenly around me. I used it like a tool, when I should have been letting it become one with me. Like with you and Senketsu."
The lightbulb went off and now he could see things far more clearly. Use the power throughout his entire body at a small percentage that he could handle. It'd save so many trips to the nurse's office and give him a fighting chance against Ryuko, Bakugo, Iida, Todoroki and the others!
"Alright! Let's give it a shot!" Izuku's lips curled upward, ready to see what this could do.
"Wait! How much power are you going to use?"
"Huh? Well, you said something smaller, right? I used to do either none or 100%. Maybe I'll try 5% until I figure out what my body can handle at its max."
"Go for it then! We'll see how you do in round two," Ryuko smirked.
'I just have to get this going through my entire body! And not let it go. A continuous 5% of One For All!' Deku clenched his teeth, trying to focus on not letting the egg explode. He began to glow, blood-red veins brightening within him. His teeth bare, his knees and elbows locked, a strong focus on what he wanted to achieve.
The intense brightness of the red veins began to settle and fade as he began to gain control over One For All, which became streaks of electricity that jutted off and crackled around him, the color of the bolts matched the signature color of his eyes and hair. He was holding the power at five-percent, and while he was a bit stiff, he wasn't in pain. It felt different than before, but it was better than nothing. Now it was time to test it.
"You ready, Ryuko?" Deku hollered, trying to maintain his focus on not going over the limit.
"Bring it!"
Deku's feet leapt from the sand and towards his opponent, as he took a swing at Ryuko.
"Dodge!" Senketsu alerted her, to which Ryuko barely managed to escape from the full brunt of his punch, though the blow managed to scrape by her right cheek, leaving a small cut there.
"Dammit! I missed!" Izuku yelled out, his frustration getting the better of him. He lost his focus during that outburst and powered down, falling to his knees as he pounded his fists against the warm sand.
"Are ya shittin' me?! Dude, you landed a hit on me!"
Deku lifted his head to see Ryuko beaming, pointing to the cut with a small amount of blood dripping from the wound.
"I… did it?" Izuku pinched himself, trying to make sure this wasn't a dream.
"Heck yeah, ya did!" Ryuko cheered on, raising a fist into the air.
He'd done it. Midoriya had gotten one step closer to making One For All his own. And the person partly responsible for this moment stood right across from him.
The boy charged forward with a full-blown grin, laughing with unbridled joy. Ryuko powered down and he grabbed onto her as they both jumped around for a moment, ready to celebrate this important step forward.
"Tomorrow, we're going to go at it and see what you can do when we both aren't so tired," Ryuko fist bumped Izuku, both of them feeling even more determined now that the odds had evened out a bit.
Izuku was ecstatic. He couldn't believe that he had made such a breakthrough. At this rate, nothing could ever change his mood.
"OH MY GOSH, RYUKO! YOU'RE BLEEDING! ARE YOU OKAY?!"
Spoke too soon.
..~~~HLK~~~..
-Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall, seven days until the Sports Festival-
Uraraka, Iida, Midoriya and Matoi all met up at the Kiyashi Ward shopping mall to take a break during the midway point of their training for the sports festival. Though more importantly, Ryuko needed a cell phone and there were plenty of stores to choose a device from.
"Just so you know, I'm not getting a flip phone," Ryuko noted.
"Yeah, I getcha," Uraraka nodded.
"Still, I can't believe you never had your own phone all this time. It's somewhat surprising," Iida chimed in.
There were several phone stores around the mall. The first two didn't have any designs that appealed to Ryuko, and another was too expensive.
A little more walking later, they found the next phone store in the mall. Nothing was overly flashy, but the phones all looked nice and weren't too pricey for Ryuko's budget.
"Hey, Ryuko. How about this one?" Izuku pointed to the left wall. The phone he was pointing at was similar to the one he had. A touch screen, headphone jack, bluetooth connectivity and a few more simple bells and whistles.
"Huh… This one doesn't look bad. And it won't take a dent out of my wallet."
"Do you even have a wallet?" Izuku asked.
"What're you t-" Matoi paused, seeing Midoriya hiding his laughter by covering his face.
"Veerrry funny," she punched lightly at his left arm as the whole group laughed.
They took the phone to the register and asked to get Ryuko set up with all the necessary files and start-up procedures. It'd take about 20 minutes since she had no previous phone records that they'd have to transfer, and the phone would have a 50% charge.
"Man, that was easier than I thought," Matoi sighed.
"Yeah, but now I'm starving! Can we at least visit the food court before we go?" Uraraka pleaded with the other three.
None of the other teens could deny that request. They were all hungry and it wouldn't hurt to get a little food in their stomachs before getting back to training for the rest of the lead-up to the festival.
They all agreed they'd go grab a bite. It wasn't too long after that Ryuko's phone was ready to go. She rang the phone up at the register and got the charging cord and outlet plug, plus some regular earbuds and bluetooth earbuds as well.
While she didn't know why she'd need both, Iida said it would sometimes be more helpful for some people who train and do a lot of activity to have music play and not having to worry about yanking the cord out of the jack port and ruining the regular buds. He threw some of his cash into the mix to secure those for her.
Aside from the phone itself, everything ended up bagged and they all headed down towards the food court.
"Thanks a lot, you guys! I appreciate it!"
"That's what friends are for, right?" Uraraka encouraged.
"Speaking of friends, is that Jirou up ahead?" Ryuko pointed about ten feet ahead. The jacks coming from her earlobes were a dead ringer, as she was listening to music with her head down walking.
"Yo, Jirou!" Ryuko shouted, giving the purplette a bit of a shock before finding the source of the ruckus.
"Matoi? Never thought I'd see you here. What are you guys doing here?" Jirou walked over to join the group.
"Matoi didn't have a cell phone, so we came to aid her in her search for one," Iida declared.
"Pff, you didn't have a phone?" Jirou stifled a laugh.
"Hey, I already got this guy on my ass about it. I don't need you joining in," Ryuko joked while nudging Izuku.
"So, why don't you show me what you got?" Jirou asked as the group settled at a table.
Ryuko set her phone onto the center of it for the purplette to look over, but kept her hand over the device.
"I only got this because I just want something that works. So you can keep all that joke train shut," Ryuko chuckled, immediately knowing that Jirou was one of the types that liked to be witty and sarcastic.
Thanks to her longtime involvement with the Kanto Gang. She could read expressions that stemmed from simple sarcasm, to being straight-up rude.
"Haha, gotcha," Jirou laughed lightly before picking up Ryuko's phone to give a closer look.
After hearing what Matoi said about Jirou, the other three tensed up a bit, hoping they picked the right choice for their friend.
"Mmm... A bit bland, but hey, we gotta appreciate what we got, right?" Jirou then placed her phone down onto the table, which sported a similar look to Ryuko's, but the camera was on a different side of the back. The others sighed, relieved that they didn't get Ryuko something lame.
"HEY GUYS!" Someone yelled in the distance.
The group turned to see Kaminari and...ugh Mineta walking towards them. Kaminari held some bags he got from some generic merchandise store, while Mineta had a big bag full of...materials. No one asked what was in the bag, for the contents themselves were FAR too horrifying for the naked eye.
"Whatcha guys doing here? I'd figure you'd be training for the Sports Festival every waking second," Kaminari said, gesturing to the green and red duo.
"Oh we came here to get Ryuko a phone. She didn't have one when she transferred over to UA, so we decided it was best to get her one," Izuku replied as Kaminari started to examine the device.
"Hm…" Kaminari looked at the phone up and down, much to the bewilderment of the entire group.
Jirou looked at her classmates while raising her brow. Why was Charge Dolt here eyeing the phone up and down? It's just a pho-
"Yeah, you guys got stiffed."
Everyone looked to Kaminari with collective wonder.
"Whaddya talking about? It looks just fine," Ryuko said, a little perturbed by the electric user's comment, with Uraraka nodding in agreement.
"Just because it looks fine, doesn't mean it'll work as well. This thing looks like it was made with cheap materials. The screen is cloudy, meaning it was recently damaged. Plus, the audio jack looks like it got jammed by headphones that don't even exist. And feel how hot this is! They gave you a damaged battery as well. This is literally burning a hole in your pocket. How did you not feel it?!" Kaminari lectured while the others continued to just stare at him, both tepidly embarrassed and surprised.
They never would have guessed that their resident dumb friend would know so much about phones. He barely paid attention in class as is! He then opened up the back of the phone, revealing its interior to the group.
"Cheap plastic, damaged glass, bad battery, and...Christ, even the inside is somehow worse than the rest of this thing. The circuit board looks like it was built by a child, the speaker has dust build up so they've had this for a hot minute, and like I said before, damaged battery," Kaminari finished by putting everything back in place, handing the phone back to Ryuko with the contents intact.
"That's...I...you?"
"HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW THIS BUT CAN'T EVEN PASS A MATH QUIZ?!" Jirou exclaimed, completely bewildered by what she just heard come from his mouth.
"Jeez, relax okay. My pop runs an electronics shop near our house. I see people come in with busted phones every day, so I kinda get a lay of the land, ya know? And it's mostly out of towners and tourists coming by to get these fixed, so most of the time it's just cheap phones like those. How do you think I know how to charge my phone with my mouth?"
"What does that have to do with what you just said?"
"Cuz if I use the wrong voltage, I could turn a phone into a mini grenade, that's why." Kaminari said to Jirou, who looked even more stunned.
"Wait...how do you know tha-"
"I was 10, bored, and my dad was on break. So...I kinda got curious?" Kaminari said with a light blush on his face.
"DUDE, YOU COULD'VE DIED!" Ryuko berated him, horrified by her friend's blatant stupidity.
"Hey, I came out okay… after almost setting the shop on fire. But I got better at it!"
"Wow, I'm surprised. There's a lot more to you other than being an idiotic pervert. I'd also say I'm impressed, but that'd be giving you way too much of an ego boost. So I'll just say, that was neat," Jirou smiled.
"There's no pleasing you, is there?" Kaminari rolled his eyes, but a grin grew on his face from the compliment he received.
"And what about you? Got anything surprising for us? Or is it that you buy weird things in your free time?" Kyouka peered towards Mineta's bag, which made him close it up out of embarrassment.
Ryuko began to chuckle as she found enjoyment out of Mineta being made fun of. Rightfully so.
"And a better question, what are YOU TWO doing here together? I get the whole phone thing, but it's like the two of you can't stay five feet from each other. Seriously, it's like you're dating or something," Jirou said to Matoi and Midoriya, earning two blushes for the price of one.
"N-N-NOW HOLD ON JUST A SEC-"
"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL HONES-"
"A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HERE!"
The group all froze up as the ring-tone blared off of Ryuko's cheap and busted phone...somehow.
"Um Izuku...why is this on my phone?" Ryuko questioned her best friend, who looked away in embarrassment.
"I thought it would be cool to have it on your phone. You know, since you liked the All Might videos."
"AND YOU WATCH VIDEOS TOGETHER! SERIOUSLY, ARE YOU TWO DATING OR NOT?!" Mineta exclaimed, having enough of this back and forth.
'Wow, she even knew it was Midoriya that put the ringtone on,' Jirou thought.
"A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HERE! A PHONE CALL IS HERE!"
"...So, is anyone gonna answer that?" Kaminari asked, wanting to find out what sort of sorcery is allowing this phone to take phone calls when it PHYSICALLY SHOULDN'T.
"Oh yeah, I got it."
Ryuko pressed the answer icon on the touch screen, hoping to find out who was calling her.
"Um...hello-"
"HI RYUKO! OH MY GOD, I GOT THE RIGHT ONE! I THOUGHT I GOT ANOTHER WRONG NUMBER! ...Wait, that IS you, right? Ryuko?" A voice screamed out of the phone, catching the entire group off guard...except for Ryuko.
Matoi's eyes widened as she remembered the one person who owned those particular set of pipes.
"Hold on...MAKO?!"
To Be Continued
Buckichamp A/N: Man, each of us had a particular scene in this chapter we loved writing up. I wrote up the Izuku and Ryuko "full-cowling" scene about a month-and-a-half before we wrote this chapter (for reference, we wrote the initial draft of this chapter way back around November).
The one thing you'll notice with certain scenes I write is that I really like to put in scenery descriptors. Like here, I wrote in the water and sunset kind of stuff on the beach. You'll see in one of the first chapters the cherry blossoms floating around, and then Chapter 7 when Ryuko grabs Izuku's hand in the orange lit hallway. Those types of scenes and a good chunk of what follows and precedes them are usually from me, but not always.
It's just so fun to finally have these stored up scenes published and out for everyone to see! We've each got a few of those scenes that we've used or have in the wings for down the road and it has saved us a hell of a lot of time instead of writing them up on the fly.
Aduubo A/N: I modified the full-cowling scene by tying back to specific quotes that Izuku heard during the course of the story. As well as some of the exchanges that Izuku and Ryuko had during their training.
Buckichamp: Yeah, you did do that. But the entire rest of the scene I basically wrote up completely LOL. I know Pikachu's one scene he got in was definitely a chapter highlight. I'll let him explain.
Pikachu A/N: Two scenes to be precise, with one of them being a team effort with Bucki. My solo scene was the exchange between Bakugo and Ryuko. MY GOD, did I have fun with that scene. When I was writing it, I kept thinking back to that one meme with Mt. Lady and Bakugo having… varying chest sizes (seriously, some of ya'll need to touch some grass).
So I thought a small "callback" to that would be entertaining. Plus let's be honest, Bakugo will always be a bottom to a lot of people, so there's that.
The second scene was done together with Bucki and that was the Kaminari phone scene. I like the dumb friend dynamic as much as the next guy, but there has to be some kind of quality that they have that can show that they have some level of intelligence.
Like Happy in Iron Man Armored Adventures, in one episode the whole cast were trapped inside their school by a big bad and had to do challenges that were meant to test the strengths to their fields of intelligence.
The last challenge was a music composition that they had to identify, and Happy surprisingly was the one to identify the music piece. That little nugget of him being a classical music nut was what made me like him more. He's the "dumb friend", but he's shown why he was admitted to the same school as Tony and the rest of the cast.
So having Kaminari's thing being electronics is something I wanted to really explore in a way. The guy is seen charging peoples phones on the regular and not causing any fires. Remember that scene from the movie Shazam where Billy was using his lightning to charge phones and they explode? Yeah, having that amount of control needs some prior knowledge of electronics. So yeah, Kamanari is gonna be our electronics guy for this fic.
Buckichamp: Also, shoutout to LegoBrick13 for catching that damn easter egg! Yo, it's about damn time! We have a few other easter eggs scattered throughout the published chapters if you look through the details and between the lines at times.
There's a few of them out there. Not sure who'll find them all first because that's the only one we'll confirm being an easter egg…
That's also because I think we forgot a couple of the Easter eggs we inserted in previously or that may be published in the future LMAO!