Dang, chapter 49, I never thought I would get this far as this has been a project that's been going on for over a year now, and it's only just hitting me now cause I never stopped to consider that. Make no mistake, I'm not stopping anytime soon; I still got plenty in me, but…damn, it's just been a great ride so far. Funny enough, when it came to this arc, I got some inspiration from a pretty popular OC, though I won't name-drop them here or in the end notes; instead, send me your guesses, and I'll announce who got it right in the next chapter.

Chapter 49: The Force of the Mantle

After a filling dinner with Burnin, who insisted he call her Kamiji while off the clock, and some…insightful time spent watching sports with someone who could generously be called an avid fan, he retreated to his room. Kamiji had been clear that he would have an hour to do whatever he wished, but lights would be out by 10. So once he managed to get his hair into its nighttime bun, he got to work.

Using his phone, as he didn't bring his computer, Midoriya decided to use the time to search up volcanoes for inspiration.

He didn't know what he was looking for. Still, he supposed that he should start from the top, looking up what a volcano was, leading him down the rabbit of the classifications of volcanoes, the ring of fire, magma and lava composition, how volcanoes formed, and other phenomena around them.

He had known a little about this, mainly from middle school geography, but there was so much else that he spent most of the time just writing down notes and summaries. Mt. Fuji hadn't gone off in a while, but if it did, most articles published in the last 40 years claimed that it could make Pompeii look like a footnote-he had to look up Pompeii to understand the reference because of how densely populated the areas around Mt. Fuji were compared to that ancient Roman city.

There wasn't so much a knock on his bedroom door as a bang, jolting him out of his thoughts. "Lights out, kid! We can't have you half asleep tomorrow because you'll be rolling with me!" Kaiji yelled, either not knowing her strength or not caring. He wasn't sure, but glancing at the corner of his screen, it was now 9:57PM.

He could be smart and call back when he still had 3 minutes, but that would be needlessly confrontational and rude. Besides, an early riser like him understood the importance of sleep.

"Understood, goodnight, Burn-I mean Kamiji." He called back, the woman wishing him sweet dreams as she entered her room. Midoriya quickly changed out of his clothes and into his sleepwear, which was just an incredibly fluffy and thick green PJs with white polka dots. It would be sweltering to wear anywhere but the worst winter nights, but for him, it was just a little warm, which he enjoyed.

Especially when he got into bed, Koharu slithered in with him and found her way into his PJs, her head popping out of the top, flashing him a sleepy little gaze, which was just adorable.

"Goodnight to you too, Koharu." He replied to her unspoken words as he reached for the switch close to his bedside and flipped it, turning off the lights.

If Moe Kamiji had to describe herself, she was energetic and with a can-do attitude. If others were asked to describe her, it was an inferno with legs and no filter; she didn't mind either description. She was outspoken with burning passion and very much intended to throw herself into whatever it was she was doing.

It was how she managed to get into Ketsubutsu Academy and graduate at the top of her class, how she gained the attention of the grumpy number 2 hero, and how she secured her spot as his best sidekick despite how punishing his demanding work ethic was for all those that he hired. He didn't even let the janitors off easy.

That meant that she had long since gotten used to getting to work early, which meant waking up earlier than most. But today, when her alarm went off at 5:30AM, as it always did on weekdays, she was pleasantly surprised to find that her house guest was also an early riser.

Yawning as she walked downstairs, her nose was immediately hit by the smell of something in the kitchen that smelled pretty darn good. Walking in, she found Midoriya, still in his PJs but now wearing her apron over it, working the stove as he prepared breakfast for them.

Koharu, lazily wrapped around her human's shoulders, noted Kamiji's arrival. "Oh," Midoriya turned away from the stove where he was grilling a large piece of fish. "Good morning, Kamiji! Sorry about using your kitchen; I didn't want to wake you."

Kamiji smiled as she sat at the island table and watched the boy cook. "No problem, kid; I'm pretty sure it's the opposite, as I thought I'd have to drag you out of bed. You've been up long?"

"Not long, woke up around 5. Haven't even had time to shower and get dressed." Midoriya replied, surprising her with how nonchalant he was about it. She had seen people push themselves to impress and could spot such bullshit from a mile away, but this kid, he was genuine. She wondered what sort of lifestyle he kept that waking up so early seemed so typical for him.

"I can see that," she laughed. As if nothing else, the kid had the makings to fit in well at the boss's agency. He even managed not to quit after spending an entire day with him. There was the bonus that this would also save them time as she got up. "Well, since you're handling breakfast, I'll shut the shower so when I'm done, you can head in, and I'll finish up breakfast. Sound good?"

"That's fine," Midoriya replied as Moe turned and quickly went back upstairs. As she showered and got ready, Midoriya continued to prepare their breakfast, keeping an eye on the well-seasoned fish as it grilled, making sure the rice cooker wasn't having issues, checking on the steam pile of beef broth, and going about prepping a salad side dish for both of them.

He didn't know her preferences, but she would probably enjoy the meal since she had all of it stocked up. Besides, she said it herself: Flame users like them required a hearty meal to perform at their best, and he was determined to make up for his lack of success the previous day.

When she came down, all dressed and ready, she took over the final parts of the cooking as he raced up the stairs, cleaning himself down and doing the same for Koharu before he got dressed in his hero costume. However, he still did not have proper headwear for it. Getting downstairs again, Burnin had already set up breakfast for them, each bringing a tall glass of orange juice, 3 large bowls of steamed rice, beef broth, and 2 large servings of fish with a side of salad.

"So, when are we going on patrol?" Midoriya asked as he met with Burnin inside the gym for the Endeavour Hero Agency. The place is as prominent as he would expect, with exercise equipment and free weights for working on almost every body part. Enough of it allowed 2 dozen people to comfortably go through a multi-hour-long full-body workout. According to Burnin, the tiles covering its floor, wall, and tiles were incredibly fire resistant, the same for the machines and free weights the place had.

Burnin stood with a fiery smile on her face and arms crossed. "That'll come later. Right now, I want to know what you can do. So let's start there."

Midoriya stood a little straighter; already, the woman was proving to be more approachable than her boss, who had met them earlier, Todoroki following behind, if reluctantly, before he walked out the front door. "I need to find ways to increase the power I can get from my quirk without transforming, but I'm not sure about how as too much and my limbs deform and shoot off from the pressure build-up."

"Sounds gross, let's avoid that!" Burnin chirped. "Okay, so the issue I can see there is that your body isn't strong enough to withstand the pressure your quirk builds up, but you can heal back up well as new if you need to, right?" She wanted to be sure about that as she didn't need to accidentally put the kid in the med bay.

"Yes, mam."

"None of that 'mam' business makes me sound like I'm in my 40s and have 4 cats with no weekend plans." Burnin shivered at the comparison, whereas Midoriya and Koharu shared a confused look.

'That sounds too specific.' Both thought as maybe…no, probably best they don't.

Getting over whatever thought was on her mind, Burnin tapped her boot to the ground in contemplation, her gaze going up and down his body. "Well, could you always do that?"

"Healing myself?" Midoriya asked for clarification, but she shook her head.

"The steam thing."

"Oh well…yes, but for the longest time, I never used it, and it would just seep out whenever I got overly emotional," Midoriya replied, as for the longest time, he had tried to not use his quirk, which resulted in most slips just being his body temperature spiking but little else. It wasn't like it was all that noticeable when his natural temperature matched someone running a high fever.

"That's your problem right there!" He jumped at how loud Burnin was, her bright and confident gaze that you couldn't look away. "You never used it. Your body might be adapted to handle your quirk, but like how your legs are adapted to walk and run, if you don't train them, you'll end up with noodles or sausages that can barely do that."

As she spoke, she patted her legs for emphasis while he got a little red in the face, like he had before. She was in exceptional shape, as her boots might be slim-fitting, but he saw her in just shorts. Those legs of hers were packed with well-trained and hard-working muscle.

Burnin's smile remained as she pointed an oversized thumb to herself. "So, for your time with me, we're gonna work on increasing that limit. Bit by bit, we'll get your body used to handling extreme pressures."

"And how will we do that?" Midoriya asked, leaning into this.

"First thing, show me what your limit is. Don't worry about moving around just yet; I just want to see what you can reach without popping like a balloon, " she ordered.

"Right!" Midoriya squared up, shifting his stance a little before taking deep breaths, visualizing his control as he stroked the flames in his core. As always, his breath came out hotter than the last as he started to create steam, but he kept it from turning into smoke. Instead, he forced it to remain just steam, which allowed him to flood into his body.

However, as a consequence of this, and heating his innards to such temperatures that even with his control, he started to bloat in uneven ways, mainly his chest but also his legs, as his face grew puffy like he was suffering severe swelling.

Burning observed it, walking around him to get a better look. "Oh wow, you weren't kidding. You're like a mini Fatgum filled with hot air instead of dumplings." She patted his shoulder, and even with so little force, she saw her finger sinking into his body. When she pulled back, it reflated like a bouncy house.

That seemed fun, but she didn't get this far as a hero by not being observant, and what she saw wasn't something to ignore or be proud of. "All right, you can stop." With her words, Midoriya didn't reply verbally, not when he was keeping such focus. Instead, he opened his mouth and let the steam rush out like a deflating balloon. His form slowly reverted back to normal as healing rapidly repaired its internal damage.

Wiping a bit of sweat away from his brow, he explained what he had just done: "It takes a minute to cool since I can only release my steam through my nose or mouth. Using my ears leads to other issues like hearing loss and dizziness." There were his eyes and…other orifices, but those were incredibly unpleasant for a number of reasons.

"And I'm betting my lunch that your combat form is smaller?" Burnin asked as he nodded with a frown.

"It has to be, and while my body doesn't inflate, I'm not as strong as I could be. I thought I could learn how to control the percentages of it, maybe increase the percentage when I want a burst of strength or speed."

"Not gonna work." She cut him off, walking up to him. The woman was slightly shorter than him, but it sure as heck felt like she towered over him as she poked him again; this time, his body reacted as it should, firm muscle hardly giving. "You might have greater power in that form, but from what I saw, like I said, you were a balloon. If you mess up or are attacked at that moment, pop goes the Hebimi. You wouldn't want the public to see that, would yeh?"

One thought about how much of a disaster that would be, and he rapidly shook his head. "No."

"Then we need to work on your body as it is now. We gotta keep your body durable so you can take some damage without getting knocked out. It's something all flame users need to learn as we're born with heat resistance, but we need to train it to a level where we can use it." She instructed as she was much the same. It took years for her to raise her fire's temperature to its current average and get her body accustomed to it.

Pointing to some of the equipment, she gave him her instructions: "So start with that. I want you to use as much power as you can hold. Get on the treadmill and set it to the fastest setting you can handle while being a human kettle."

Doing just that, Midoriya approached the first one he could and took a moment to familiarise himself with it as he'd never used such equipment. When he lived at the shrine, he just went out for a run if he wanted a run. Same with Ryukyu, though his time under her tutelage meant he would often just use her agency's in-house track.

That done, he went through a similar process but made sure he was still nimble and mobile before he jumped onto the treadmill and set it to a pace and incline that would leave most exhausted in less than a minute. He handled it well enough as he increased the speed until he was downright sprinting on the machine, his footfalls making a ruckus that worried him.

"Don't worry about that; everything here isn't just fire resistant. The boss made sure all of it could take a beating." Burnin seemed to guess his question before he asked. Still, he appreciated it all the same as he continued, reaching a steady pace, sprinting in place as Burnin watched for a few minutes.

The heroine was impressed. While he wanted improvement, it wasn't as if he was starting from nothing. His speed could outmatch most, and he had managed to keep that pace without visible exhaustion for 10 full minutes. Still, she wasn't there to praise him for what he did but to get him to do what he could do.

"Now try raising your limit just a little while maintaining that speed. Once you can hold that new limit, even if only a fraction higher for another 5 minutes, then rise it again," Burnin told him, keeping an eye on him the entire time. But that was where they ran into problems. The swelling—she could spot it, however faint—that he was swelling again.

"Stop."

Midoriya didn't want to; he wanted to keep going, but the looks she gave him made it not an issue to discuss as he jumped off the treadmill. His power fading. "I'm sorry, I tried, but-"

"No time for that, we're here to learn, and dammit, we're gonna learn. Let's move on to the step cycling machines. We'll have your muscle groups till we hit a possible way forward, understand?" Burnin told him, though not unkindly as what Endeavour would have been. Those ringed yellow infernos that were her eyes conveyed instead a deep understanding and comradery.

That was enough for him to overcome his failure and keep trying. "Yes, Burnin!"

They spent the next few hours doing just that. Midoriya would push himself to his limit and work on something under Burnin's careful eye, but they found no success. While he could handle just about everything thrown at him, any attempt to cross over that darned line in the sand would cause him to bloat. Eventually, lunch came around, and Burnin told him to hit the showers. Then, they could discuss things in the agency's cafeteria.

All that brought Midoriya to where he was slumped in his seat as he picked at his second serving of Carolina-style roast pork. "You should eat," Burnin hardly looked up from her meal, the woman eating as much as she did at breakfast without issue.

"I'm not being pouty," Midoriya replied to Koharu's assertion over his situation, his scaled friend munching on some meat Burnin grabbed for her, curled up at the end of the table in full view of others who gave her a second glance, decided it was weird, and then moved on.

"The reputable reptile's right, kid. Pouting won't help you; trying to improve while starving is just asking for trouble. Stuff like this takes time and dedication to see anything worth the effort." Burnin told him.

"But I need something to show for it by the end of the week. I'm playing catch up with all my friends who didn't neglect their quirks growing up." Midoriya replied, to which she raised an eyebrow as dang, that was just being impatient.

"Compare yourself to others, and you'll run into the ground. Even the boss knows that. You know he once tried to match All Might's stamina, which backfired on him big time." She told him.

"Yeah, I remember…" All Might before his…well, the injury was someone that didn't seem to have to rest like everyone else. It wasn't weird to realize that All Might could spend 24 hours in a single shift, going from one part of the country to another. Endeavour had attempted to match that and nearly crashed out after 16 hours when he nearly botched a runaway train rescue.

The man reluctantly admitted that he wasn't at his best and apologized for his poor judgment, something which anyone could tell was like pulling teeth for the proud number 2. Midoriya had tried not to bring it up when he was with Endeavour. Still, knowing Todoroki, he's probably brought it up more than once just to get under his dad's skin.

Seriously, just how messed up was their dynamic?

"Still, he's the number 2 hero." That aside, Endeavour was still second only to All Might, and with how much power and achievements the number one had under his belt, he might as well be considered the highest peak in the world. Endeavor being second to that made him first of the mere mortals.

"A position he got and keeps through an insane amount of training and skills he's refined over the years. What? Do you think he started as a first-year and could use Flashfire first? That took him a while to figure out and years to perfect." Burnin replied but paused and shook her head. "Hell, I don't think he considers perfect with how much he's always looking to improve, but you get the point."

Midoriya hummed but didn't quite buy it. He came here to learn, and his short time chasing Endeavour only made it clearer that he needed to improve quickly. He might be among the strongest in class, but that could change. Vlad told him to compete with them and take them seriously as rivals, which meant not letting his game slip.

But the issue was how? His issue was that his transformed state did provide him with all that he needed, and maybe he could train that, but it would burn through far too much energy to be feasible. Even if he ate until he was stuffed and trained, training always burned through energy almost as fast as combat. He couldn't afford to consume that much every day.

Burnin suddenly growled, looking up. "Damnit, they haven't fixed it yet?"

"What?" Midoriya's brow creased as he looked up, but he didn't see anything that looked broken. The ceiling was normal, the lights were all functional, even if not on with the light coming in through the windows, there was an air vent, several actually, but-

"You feel it, don't you? That breeze?" Burnin asked, and now that he focused on it, a chilled breeze was coming in. Strange as he would have thought they'd set it higher with the weather outside being a bit chilly. "Well, the building's got this super complicated AC system but it's been on the fritz for a couple days now after something broke in the vents and sent pieces all over the damn place."

"Vents…" Midoriya repeated, looking up at the tiny square in the ceiling, the stone gears in his head groaning as they started to turn.

Burnin didn't seem to notice as she just sighed. "Worse part is that they need to send tiny bots in to clear away shit, and then they can start repairs. It's not too bad now, as if it happened in Summer or Winter; this place would be annoyingly cold or hot, but still-!"

"I have vents!" Midoriya slammed his hands on the table, standing up with a look that said he just had his eureka moment.

There was silence as those at other tables looked their way, just as confused as Burnin at Midoriya's sudden declaration. "…No, you don't. Are you sure you're okay, kid?" Burnin asked.

"Wha-no, not literally." Midoriya shook his head, stepping back from the table. "I just mean I finally realized where I've been going wrong. My power is volcanic; volcanos can produce large amounts of hot gases. Still, I've neglected one critical thing about them. Volcanoes are just oversized vents for pressure and heat in the earth."

He didn't seem to stop; he couldn't stop when he finally figured it out. "But the thing is, they can have smaller channels form in them to vent excess heat and gas; that's why volcanoes can go 'dormant' while still performing their purpose." He breathed and shifted his stance into a familiar one in the middle of the cafeteria. "If I'm really a human volcano, then my issue isn't that I'm building up too much pressure for my body to hold; it's that I'm not disturbing it right across my body."

"I just need to picture my body as a volcano as I always do, but also imagine little channels and vents in it, taking heat all around…and" Midoriya took control of his breath, letting it reach the flames at his core and stroke them, fuelling them. Still, he did something different: instead of seeing his entire body as a pressure vessel with valves to control where steam went, he imagined that his spine was the central hub, where the steam would be funneled through.

Sending that much heat into his spinal column had invisible effects as his entire spinal, not just the column but the cord, started to light up under his skin, glowing a bright green, his quirk rapidly healing the damage done, or else he would collapse from complete paralysis, but he shifted it.

He didn't want his nerves to burn-not fully, as. Instead, he felt blood vessels and nerve strands branching across his body. Everything branching out from it to his very bones to just beneath the skin's surface. All of it becomes vent tunnels for his quirk. It nearly slipped, but he kept control over it as onlookers watched as his body started to rapidly heat up, and steam began to build but didn't escape; his body started to glow, heightening those very same vents across his body.

"Come on…come on…!" As he started to glow brighter, he clenched his fists. He kept concentrating as the light faded, leaving just his spine glowing as steam escaped through it, but in controlled, measured bursts. Taking a breath, Midoriya shifted around, bouncing from one foot to the other, and he felt…lighter, faster, stronger.

"You're something else, kid." Burnin couldn't help but say, as she had expected, he would pull someone out, but damn, these U.A. kids were really something else.

"I've done it! I…I did it!" Midoriya cheered as he felt it. His steam production was higher, much higher than before, but he wasn't bloated; he wasn't struggling to maintain it. Pressing into his side, his body gave, but not nearly as much.

"Haha! I knew you would be a crazy one!" Burnin laughed while others cheered on for her charge's breakthrough, but there was still more to be seen, and she would make damn sure they explored it. "Finish your damn food, then we're hitting the training room. Let's see just what this new form does."

From what I found online, Japanese work days are meant to start at 9AM and end around 4-5PM. Still, as you would expect from heroes, they get to work earlier, as their workdays start around 8AM. At the same time, Endeavour has his people coming for the regular shift around 7AM, and his sidekicks, along with the man himself, work 10-hour shifts, which seems brutal and unsustainable, which it is, but seeing how All Might once worked 3 whole days, Endeavour would definitely push his people to operate for 10 hours a day, with the night shift working just as long.

It's only 4 hours at best where there are no pros working for him on patrol, but seeing how we see the man work well into the night, I wouldn't count on that window being consistent. And yes, Burin's 10PM curfew would mean she would be getting, at best, 8 hours of sleep. As with where she lives, she would need to get up at least 6AM, but as anyone who's been to college can tell you, you're fine with maybe 5-6.

The next chapter will be out on February 25th

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