Takuma did not enjoy waking up early, even if it was second nature to him by now. The thought of leaving his furnace of a girlfriend behind to go freeze his nuts on a dirty beach did not appeal to him at all. However, he still made sure Mei had breakfast ready to go for when she woke up before taking the first train to Mustafu. From the station, it was only a ten-minute walk to his destination. The weather was windy, and the sun hadn't risen yet, leaving him cold and miserable as he waited for the treacherous bean he was supposed to work with in the morning. He hated it here.

"I just wanna cuddle my girlfriend. There is no hope. God is dead, and we killed It."

One of the few good points he could think of was that at least there wasn't anybody around. The beach was far enough from the nearest building that he didn't have to worry about pretty much anyone. Besides the few joggers running along the beach, he was alone, and he stayed that way until the bean finally showed himself. The same feeling of his limbs threatening to pop off his body returned but far weaker than yesterday, proving that Izuku had, in fact, rested and not thrown in an extra session like only a very smart moron would do.

Thinking back on the fact that he had, for all intents and purposes, decided to remain in the background as much as possible, he could admit that his original plan might have had a hole or two. First, there was the most important fact that Midoriya had become Mei's best friend faster than he could blink, which was one of the best things that could have happened for both of them. Just for this simple fact, it was worth throwing the plan away. But then he could add the bean's self-sacrificial streak and his dogged determination to better himself without a care for his own well-being in the process. To put it short, he had a lot of work to do and little time to get the bean a backbone and a support system. He was already planning how to introduce his girlfriend to the future 1-A, where she would hopefully make more friends to help her, so he might as well speed up the process for him.

So, as the bean strolled into the sand, eyes to the ground, Takuma moved. Not hid, moved against a torn fridge and allowed him to pass by him. Izuku could have noticed him, but for some reason, he was too lost in his own thoughts to. With a stick that had washed ashore in hand, he slipped behind him and followed him for three steps to catch up to him and slip the stick against his throat. The strangled choking sound Midoriya made wasn't pleasant, but he'd made sure it was a small discomfort rather than a slit carotid or a crushed trachea. He'd done both in the past, so he knew the right amount of force to deliver to make his shorter friend wince rather than need an ambulance.

"Good job, you're dead," he told the bean as the green mop of hair whirled to face him, an expression of fright on his features.

"Ta-Takuma?!" the bean half-screamed in shock as he processed his words. "I-What, why did you do that?!"

Takuma shrugged. He'd done this on an impulse. "You're training to be a hero. If I was a villain, you would be dead," he told him, spitting the last word as if it was made of venom. "Villains don't play fair, and neither do I. We have a week in front of us before you need to go back to building muscle, so that means I have a week to somehow find a way for you to not be completely useless in a fight."

"Ah-Wait, you want to train me?" the bean asked, still reeling from his mock assassination. "I-that..."

The anxiety wasn't a bad thing; only a moron fought without fear. "Muscle is one thing, Midoriya. You may need it to wield that sleeper Quirk of yours, but like you said yesterday, you don't have the years of training the others have. You can't rely only on your Quirk for now, so until then, you'll have to fall back on the old reliable," Takuma told him as he raised both fists. "Lefty and Righty."

"You named your fists?" Izuku wondered out loud uselessly.

Takuma fought back a blush as best he could. "Never had to remind myself which is which in my life," he deflected as he turned to walk back to the small alcove of trash, all the while rubbing his face to hide the blush as best he could.

"I swear it's not that weird," he complained to himself.

"Is anyone-"

Pain cut his sentence short as he palmed his chest with one hand and propped himself up against a fridge with the other. Two heavy boots landed next to Izuku in the sand. "Good morning, children," thundered the voice of All Might with the flair he kept during his hero work.

"Ow," he deadpanned with the driest voice he could muster.

All Might had the decency to look sheepish, something Midoriya mirrored.

"Good morning, All Might!"

"Good morning, my boy. And you too, Takuma. It has been an unexpected pleasure to learn you wished to join us."

'Didn't have much of a choice.'

"What can I say, I am full of surprises," Takuma said while stretching to work out some of the leftover second-hand pain as he reinforced his mental wall against the strength of the number one hero's spirit.

"If I may, what has made you wish to join young Midoriya's training?" asked the number one hero.

He could only let out a chuckle thick with sarcasm at the question. "Of course, why don't you tell him, Midoriya."

His girlfriend's best friend looked absolutely ill as All Might turned his attention toward him.

"I-I added a few things to your training regimen," the bean confessed.

All Might, to his credit, got the idea pretty quickly. "You haven't been resting properly," he stated with disappointment.

Takuma could feel Izuku wilt at his words. "I didn't."

The Symbol of Peace stared for a few seconds at his protégé. Takuma stood back, letting the dance of mentor and mentee continue its course.

'I wonder if Mei would enjoy pork for dinner. I could try my hand at Mama Midoriya's recipe while I'm at it.'

"I am proud of you, young Midoriya."

This brought Takuma's attention right back to the number one hero. 'I'm sorry, what the actual fuck?!'

The towering hero walked closer to his protégé, then kneeled to his level. "Your dedication to your training is admirable. Your drive to better yourself and the lives of others is something to be proud of."

'Please get to the point before he gets the wrong idea,' he chided the number one hero mentally. Izuku didn't need to be praised when he was harming himself!

"Sadly, your body has limits that simply cannot be pushed with all the best intent in the world," Yagi said while laying a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "While I can understand why you did it, I cannot let you stray from the already harsh plan I have laid for you to be ready for the U.A entrance exam."

'Could be worse, could be better. Please just say he did something wrong so we can move on,' Takuma pleaded internally.

"This determination will carry you far in your career. In fact, pushing yourself beyond your limits is something all great heroes do. You need to keep this hunger and push even harder, even if it feels like too much. Sometimes, a hero must go beyond their breaking point to achieve greatness."

Takuma facepalmed. 'I am surrounded by idiots.'

"All Might," Izuku whispered before the current and soon-to-be wielder of One For All hugged him in a tearful embrace.

'Don't hug, don't stomp on everything I hold dear,' Takuma thought numbly as the form of what he was going to have to deal with started to take shape. 'I wanna go home.'

A mentor who was ready to push an untrained and inexperienced Quirkless kid as much as he could. That same Quirkless kid with a sacrificial streak and something to prove to the world, whatever the cost. He could already see the headache this was going to be.

"If you two are done, we can start with this morning's workout," he called to the two who were still committing their war crime against his favorite pastime.

All Might stood up, breaking the embrace. "I do not think training will do anything good until young Midoriya has recovered enough to gain anything from his hard work."

"I agree. That's why we'll be sparring this week," he informed the number one hero. "I don't know what form his Quirk is going to take, but I can tell he has no clue what to do with himself. Teaching him the basics of hand-to-hand combat will be a good start. Hopefully, he'll be able to build on it when he awakens his Quirk."

"I see, a light workout could prove useful then," Yagi agreed, which somehow made Takuma shiver in disgust without knowing why. "I could teach both of you if you are willing."

"I'll be the one teaching. No offense, All Might, but a hero dealing with national-level threats isn't the best suited to teach the basics of hand-to-hand combat. You have a Quirk, and until Midoriya awakens his, it's better that someone with a more grounded view on fighting teach him." He told the hero, "That person would be me, because unless I've missed something, I can't blow up a district with one punch, and neither can he."

"Not yet," Izuku let out. Takuma stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe? Hopefully?"

He shook his head. "Work with what you can do, not what might or might not happen. You need certainty in a fight, not hopes and dreams."

"Well said, young Takuma. If I may, where did you learn how to fight?" Yagi dug into his life as he had expected him to.

"I grew up in a bad part of town. It was poor and far from anything that could catch the public eye, so no hero patrols, no police officers either," he lied through his teeth. "I learned to defend myself because there was simply no other way to stay safe."

Guilt welled up in All Might's chest. "I see, you had a rough life. In that case, why don't you show me how you wish to proceed with young Midoriya's teaching, and I'll step in if I see any reason to."

He gave a firm nod to the number one hero and then walked closer to Izuku. Takuma wasn't blind to the fact All Might was humoring him because, for some reason, the hero hoped for an opportunity to know more about him, which he could admit he wasn't particularly interested in. Being close to the Symbol of Peace in any way, shape, or form was bound to push him into the limelight at some point, and Takuma wanted none of that. He would leave the hero-ing in front of the crowd to the bean and his future friends.

"Alright, you're a bit beat up, so we aren't going to do much more than go over the basics. We're going to stretch first, and then you're going to show me what you can do," he informed the bean as he started to limber up.

Midoriya awkwardly started to follow his instructions. "But-I-I don't know how to fight."

"I know. It's not about what you know; it's about what you don't," he told the green-haired boy. "Nobody knows nothing. You've probably picked up on a few things you just haven't realized it yet."

Takuma refused to believe that the hero fanboy who spent his life watching heroes fight didn't have a basic grasp of combat, even theoretically. He'd seen his notebooks, for crying out loud. Someone with no grasp of how a fight played out wouldn't be able to think of special moves for the heroes he watched. Izuku's notebooks were filled with them.

As expected, Midoriya grew quiet before he started mumbling at high speed while doing his stretches. Takuma turned to look at All Might with a quizzical eyebrow raised.

"He does that sometimes," Yagi told him from his perch on a nearby fridge.

They stared at each other in awkward silence before Takuma returned to his stretching. All Might wanted to say something but fumbled on how to interact with him, which suited him just fine. After a few more minutes of making sure his limbs could suffer through some harsh movements, Takuma threw his stick at Midoriya to wake him up from his mumble storm.

"Pick it up," he told the bean, who followed his command. "For all intents and purposes, consider this as a death stick. If it touches me, you win. We'll go for a few rounds until I can judge what you need to focus on."

Midoriya looked skittish and clumsily held the stick in front of him. "So do I just come at you, or...?"

"Yes," he told him, already annoyed at the bean for being so indecisive.

It took him a few seconds to close in, and as soon as he could, Takuma slapped the stick from his hand. "Pick it up," he told him again. "If you have a weapon, make sure to grasp it properly. Imagine a villain stealing a weapon from a hero and going on a killing spree with it. Could you live with this if it happened to you?"

Izuku stilled as he processed his words. When he picked up the stick again, he held it in a white-knuckle grip. 'Good.'

Wordlessly, he gave the bean the go-ahead to try again. He let him get close and tried to slap the hand holding the stick again. This time Midoriya was ready and pulled back before trying to slash his hand. The move was clumsy but succeeded in making Takuma back off and try another approach.

"Good feint," he praised the bean, who didn't react outwardly, yet Takuma could feel him basking in the praise.

Right before he tried to rush him and hit him on the right side with the stick, Takuma jumped to the left and extended a foot, sending the green-haired boy sprawling to the sandy ground of the beach. "Rushing headlong into a fight only works if you know what you're doing. Get up."

Again, the bean got up. "You're smart, Midoriya. A fight isn't an indecipherable monolith you cannot peer through. It's action and reaction, feint and deception. Think, analyze, take your time. Strategize."

Izuku dusted the sand off his pants and nodded again. Takuma gave him all the time he needed, following along the thoughts that made it through his mental defenses. The bean's mind was truly something. He felt naked under his gaze, yet made sure not to give a hint of his discomfort as the bean worked out a plan of action.

"Again," Izuku said as he closed in, seemingly with a plan in mind this time.

The first strike was a prodding attack that tried to recreate their first bout. Takuma didn't bite and backed away from the clumsy swipe as Izuku finally became a credible threat in their imagined scenario. The intent was becoming clearer. After a swipe, he made an attempt to reach for the wrist holding the stick, which was what Midoriya hoped for as he remembered he had two hands and tried to grab onto him. Instead of pulling back, Takuma pushed into his guard, hooked one of his feet behind the bean's heel, then pulled. His opponent, wielder of the dread stick, was about to strike him on the arm, then the next second he was on the ground.

"Better," he told Izuku as he took a step back from the prone form of his girlfriend's best friend. "You had a plan, and you executed it fairly well. You lost because you lack experience. Something we're going to remedy with your first lesson. Get up."

"I-what is it going to be?" the bean asked as he scrambled to his feet.

Takuma took two steps and pushed Midoriya, making him land on his ass. "This one. DO. NOT. FALL. Get up."

He let him get back to his feet before slamming both hands against the smaller boy's chest, sending him to the ground again. "Again."

The bean got up, and he knocked him back down again. He said nothing, trusting him to figure it out on his own. After the third time, Izuku didn't get up. Oozing with frustration, the boy stayed seated on the sand. Thinking. Scheming. Learning.

Izuku took a breath and stood up. Takuma pounced, slamming both his hands against his chest, which was covered by the bean's crossed arms. The bean slid on the sand before taking a single step back. "Think. That's what is going to give you the edge in a fight. Don't rush in blindly. Don't do the same thing and expect a different outcome. Learn and adapt."

Takuma threw the stick that had fallen on the sand next to him at Midoriya, who caught it this time. "Again."

Bit by bit, he pushed Midoriya. Now it was time to change the rules again. So he attacked. Slowly, making sure his opponent noticed him coming since he wouldn't teach him anything by taking him by surprise. Izuku had the death stick; Takuma's goal was to throw him on the ground.

'Let's see what you can do.'

Izuku lowered his center of gravity by bending his knees slightly, which meant Takuma actually had to put in the effort this time. Inching away, he made a grab for the hand holding the stick. Midoriya backed away, wisely re-thinking his approach as he kept closing in the distance. A swipe to the hand missed, followed by another to the throat that Takuma pushed away from him before twisting and putting his core behind a palm strike to the chest in an attempt to throw his opponent to the ground again. He felt as much as noticed the air knocked out of his smaller opponent's lungs, yet the bean stayed standing. So he kept pushing, matching his stance. He started slapping aggressively at the hand swiping at him, pushing them away from his body as Midoriya backpedaled frantically in an attempt to regain space. His swipes grew frantic, and as one of them took his hand holding the stick high, Takuma jumped and tackled him to the ground. He took control of the stick during their flight, twisting the wrist in such a way that Izuku had no other choice but to let go.

"Never let go of your weapon. Never fall down. You suck at both of those things, but that's to be expected. You're here to learn," he told the shell-shocked bean as he extended a hand to help him get back to his feet. "Take the time to breathe before our last spar, then I think we're going to be done for the day."

Izuku was winded. He could go on for a little bit more in Takuma's opinion, but he wasn't an expert on the matter, so going easy on him on the first day was a given. So he found himself a nice microwave that would do just well enough as a seat and then turned his attention toward the number one hero who had been watching their little spar like a hawk.

"Anything to say?" he asked, wondering if Yagi would finally get out of his grief-induced silence.

"I believe young Midoriya isn't the first person you've trained. You have done this in the past, haven't you?" stated as much as asked the blonde hero.

"I did," he confirmed. It wasn't much of a secret. "Some friends of mine needed some guidance, and I offered to help. Nothing much."

Midoriya opened his mouth to speak, then seemingly thought better of it. Takuma invited him to talk with a nod.

"N-Nothing, it-it's just that it's very different from what I expected," Izuku confessed as he fidgeted with the stick in his hand. "I don't know what I expected either... I think I have a lot to think about," he added with a more solemn tone.

Takuma was glad to see he was taking their little bout seriously. From what he could gather from his Quirk, their next spar would be very different. Turning his knowledge of heroes into something he could use as a Quirkless individual would be a nice way to keep him occupied until tomorrow.

"Good, that means you've been paying attention," he told the heir to One For All. "Fighting can be overwhelming when you start learning. Take it easy, and while you recover, use those brain cells of yours to come up with ways to make me eat sand. You have the whole week to succeed, or until one of your mentors has a better thing for you to do."

"I feel this is an adequate challenge. If you are to rest, then using this as a first foray into the more gritty part of hero work will be an excellent experience," All Might boasted loudly. "Young Takuma's teaching, as rough as it is, will surely help you grow into a fine hero."

"Right," Midoriya said, still deep in thought as he grabbed his phone and looked at something on the screen. "We still have an hour before I usually stop my workout. We could keep—"

"Don't even dream about it," Takuma cut him off, letting his non-negligible amount of irritation at the bean's lack of self-care show. "I swear if you even try to push yourself anywhere where I can't see you, I will break your leg myself."

The threat was enough to have Midoriya back down with a small flinch.

"I do agree with Young Takuma's words if not with the substance of them," Yagi added next to him. "You need to rest. Taking the first few days easy will help in your recovery."

"And don't forget you did that to yourself," Takuma added, unwilling to let the bean forget this little tidbit. "Every day you miss is your own fault. And don't think I'm above letting Mei glue you to a wall if it's the only way to stop you from being your own worst enemy."

"She-She wouldn't?" Izuku asked, unsure.

Takuma's deadpan stare dug deep into the bean's confidence. "I guess you'll be the first to know."

"A-Anyway, didn't you have one last exercise in mind?"

He stood up and invited his smaller friend to take his position around the same place their mock spar took place. "Give me the stick. This time I'm the one who is going to wield the mighty stick of destruction. Same rule applies: if it touches you, you lose. Ready?"

Izuku nodded, his expression set into a firm line of focus and determination as he readied himself to defend his life. "Ready."

Takuma threw the stick. It hit the green-haired boy in the abdomen, then bounced harmlessly on the sandy floor.

"Alright, good work. Same thing tomorrow," he called as he dusted himself off from the sand that had made its way onto his clothes.

Izuku, still in shock, kept looking at the stick then at him as if he was unable to comprehend what happened. "What?"

"Remember what I told you earlier?" he reminded his friend, who was fighting back tears of frustration. "Villains don't play fair, and neither do I. I told you to hit me with that stick to win. You could have thrown it all this time. Why didn't you do it?"

"Because I didn't think to do it," Midoriya stated, his voice thick with unsaid recrimination.

"And why would you?" Takuma chuckled as he closed in and laid a hand on the bean's shoulder, forcing him to look him in the eyes. "You're training to be a hero, finishing high school, and learning from the foremost hero of our age. Honestly, it's a miracle you can still think straight," he told the bean, letting a hint of honest awe slip through. "You don't know how to fight, much less how to fight dirty. A hero with a Quirk can afford to fight fair. For the rest of us, it's about what works and what doesn't. And until you get that Quirk, I'm going to teach you how to fight like the meanest motherfucker on this goddamn earth."

"By mean, what do you—"

"Don't waste your breath, you'll learn soon enough," he cut him off again. "I'll trust you're going to review what happened this morning. But keep this in mind: you're not strong or experienced enough to take anyone head-on. Think, but don't overthink. There is strength in simplicity. Like throwing a stick."

Midoriya, who was a little overwhelmed by this morning's lesson, gave Takuma the impression he was a second away from falling into a mumbling storm of epic proportion. "Thanks for the lesson and taking the time to teach me," the bean told him with a grateful, mega-watt smile.

"Think nothing of it," he downplayed by reflex. "I do expect you to explain how you go about breaking down someone's Quirk at some point."

His fellow boy's eyes grew wide. "Wa-Wait, you want me to explain to you my-my notebook?"

"Well, yes. As much as I hate the idea of being inside one of them, it doesn't mean that I can't learn a thing or two from you," he answered honestly.

Takuma didn't understand why that surprised him so much. No, in fact, he understood. He forgot Midoriya was still an outcast because of the Quirkless thing. If those dumbasses wanted to let a genius slip by, he wasn't about to complain. If he could learn how Midoriya saw Quirks, then he could develop a way to maim his opponent in such a way that he could render their Quirk useless. It was worth a try.

"I-I could teach you. I don't really know how to go about it, but I ca-can t-try," Izuku stated quickly, as he now had one more thing to think about.

"Not right now, obviously," Takuma said to calm the bean down. "We have two months to get to it, and you need to think about yourself first."

"R-Right."

"Okay, I guess we're done here for today," he stated, looking at both the smaller boy and the blonde hero to see if they had anything to add. "In that case, I'll be going home. See you tomorrow."

He saw the quizzical expression on the bean's face and realized too late he had made a mistake. "You don't go to school, Takuma?"

And just like that, he had all the unwanted attention of The Symbol of Peace right back on him. "No, I don't."

"And if I may, why is that?" asked the number one hero, who he could already feel going through a thousand and one explanations with his Quirk.

Takuma shrugged as if he was unbothered by the prying into his life, even if it was grinding his gears like nothing else. "I already graduated high school."

"That's quite surprising. What school did you go to?" questioned Yagi.

"Online school, the cheapest I could find," he answered truthfully. "Don't worry about me. I've been studying with Mei for the entrance exam. I should be able to pass the written part, but it's the practical that's going to determine if I'm going to make it into the Heroic Course."

"You hope to make up for your studies in the practical exam. A strategy that has its merit. As long as you can collect enough points, there is nothing that stops U.A from allowing you in, as long as you reach the minimum amount of points to pass the written test," All Might pondered while rubbing his chin with his thumb.

"It's the plan. I am surprised you know that much about U.A given that you graduated like four decades back or something," Takuma offered as whimsically as he could, even if he was fishing for one of All Might's secrets in the process.

All Might joining the U.A teaching staff wasn't news yet, and he certainly wasn't above prodding back if it kept him off his back.

"U.A is an old institution, and I have worked alongside its headmaster many times in the past," the blonde hero replied, making a surprising amount of sense in the process.

"Makes sense. Then, if you are both done, I'm going to get myself home," he offered as parting words as he started to pat his clothes in an attempt to get the sand out of them as best he could. In the same instance, it served as an opportune moment for either of them to speak.

"Have a good day, Takuma," Midoriya told him with a wave of his hand.

"You too, Midoriya," he told the bean before turning to the hero. "All Might," he added with a nod before he started to walk toward the stairs that would lead him to the city and then the train station.

"If you wish, I could carry you back home," Yagi offered. "I can't imagine the train being an agreeable experience for you."

Takuma shook his head. "No thanks. The train line isn't as crowded as you would expect it to be, and it's far enough away from the main artery that it doesn't put a strain on me," he told the hero. "I also have a few things to grab before I get back home, so it's not necessary. Thanks for the offer, though."

Then he finally succeeded at putting some steps between him and the duo, walking up the stairs and into the city as he beelined it for the train station.

'Not too shabby,' he thought to himself. He was a bit annoyed at having to reveal more of himself to the duo, but overall, he would count their morning spar as a win.

He felt the duo leave the beach with one of All Might's mighty jumps and breathed a sigh of relief as he quickened his pace to reach the train that would bring him closest to Mei's school. He wasn't about to go home when he had a perfect opportunity to check out any other problems around her school. He had the day to search; maybe he could even go and see Nova if the coast was clear. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to kill someone this time.