Being back in his Hero Costume was a rather warm moment for Izuku. There wasn't really any other word he could use to describe the feeling other than warm. He would almost have called it nostalgic, were it not for the fact he'd only been out of costume for a couple of weeks at the most. It felt like he'd been away from it for far, far longer. It felt good, and he couldn't stop the smirk grow growing from his lips, even if he wanted to try.
It felt insanely good to be back in classes, even if they were still supposed to be in Summer break. He was getting exactly what he wanted – Getting throw right back into classes so he could get on with his life, and working once again, towards being the Hero that he always wanted to be. There was bound to be some rust and sluggishness to his moves, since he'd been laid up for a full week, and his injuries were still present from his time as a hostage, so he knew that ahead of him, was a mountains worth of work, both for him to catch up on as he re-discovered his abilities, and figured out what he was going to do next.
In the time that had passed since both he and Mina had been at Yuuei, a new task had been laid out in front of them – The development of super moves. Something which the rest of their classmates had already dived right into while they were away.
"Super moves… So, what, stuff like All Might's United States of Smash thing?" Mina asked for clarification from one of the many clones that Ectoplasm had sent out around Gym Gamma to observe and assist the many students in their quests of self-improvement.
"For simplicities sake, yes." The clone responded with a nod. "Personally, I think that would be more accurately an 'Ultimate Move', but you've got the right idea. I'd say Iida's Recipro Burst would be more in line with what we're going for here."
Quirks, after all, were intensely flexible, depending on the power that one had. It wasn't always a case of just charging right through with all the subtlety of a speeding train, but could be more methodical, experimental, and useful in so many different ways.
Super moves were good for brand recognition of particular Heroes, as well as being a way of smashing through an opponent's defences. Even if someone knew it was coming, reacting to Iida's speed increasing special move was borderline impossible. They let the user vary up their attacking style, and utilize their Quirk for maximum impact. A move that just pushed the Quirk all that bit further, and in such a way that it became harder for Villains to counter.
In a sense they almost became trademarks of the Hero in question as well. With some famous Heroes, all one needed to hear was the name of their attack, and images of that Hero. They were the moves young kids would pretend to use when playing as the Heroes that they admired.
"Got it!" Mina's hands pumped up and down whilst a smirk grew on her lips. "I know exactly what I'm going for!"
She didn't waste a single second either – Instantly, she turned on her heels, and took aim at the target – Little more than a block of concrete Cementoss had conjured up – And swung her arms back. Then, she pushed them forward, the wrists meeting one another, and from her open palms, she shot out a large ooze of Acid.
Only to have it barely get half a meter in distance before it began to fall to the ground.
"Well?" She turned towards both her boyfriend and their teacher, with a big smirk on her face like she had just developed one of the greatest moves since the Detroit-Delaware Smash. "Whaddya think?!"
Izuku couldn't help but feel his face twitch in amusement, and a small sigh escape his lips. She certainly had an idea of what she was going for – Couldn't be any denial about that, but she didn't seem to quite understand the physics behind her own Quirk.
The Ectoplasm clone seemed to have a similar reaction, but without the amusement. Instead, he was more focused on the practicality of such a move. And apparently decided that her idea had its merits. "If your goal is to have more direction over where you shoot your acid, try creating a smaller exist with your fingers." Mina blinked at him, but followed his instructions, creating a smaller mouth with her hands, until only a narrow exit remained. "there, like that."
Another burst of Acid shot from Mina's hands – This time, having the effect that she seemed to desire in the first place. It shot out from her by a good few meters, landing further away from her than any normally thrown glomp she'd thrown before would have.
"Woah!" The pink girl bounced up and down on the spot in excitement. "It went much further!"
"Your goal will be to increase your range, by the looks of things."
Izuku smiled, feeling pride in Mina for already having a move planned out. It was to be expected of course. Mina had had her Quirk for years, and had know what she wanted to do for a long time too. There wasn't any doubt that she had some kind of idea what she'd wanted to do from the word go. Everyone seemed to at least have an idea of the kinds of special moves that they wanted to craft. "So, we just need to think up some kind of move to give us an edge…"
He glanced towards the gloves of his costume, thinking about what his options were. They were depressingly limited from what he could think up.
Not so much that One For All was limited – It was a Strength Enhancement Quirk. They were some of the most versatile powers out there. The issue was primarily due to his own inability to control his bestowed power.
As he thought more and more about it, he wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to come up with a special ability when he couldn't even control this power at the baseline. And then, there was the warning that he got from the hospital staff.
If he should wreck his arms up again, it seemed likely that he was going to end up losing all ability to use them at all. A thought that made him shudder still. So, he couldn't risk breaking his arms into fragmentation again, and he couldn't control his power all the way under normal circumstances.
What exact options did he even have?
"You okay, Izu?" Mina's voice caught his attention, and when he turned to the source on impulse, he realized that she was stood right next to him, and that without even thinking about it, he had begun to stare at the other students around him, watching them develop their moves.
Hoping that inspiration would strike him if he simply observed for a moment.
A small sigh escaped, and he gave her a soft smile. He had zoned out again. "How long this time?"
"Just a couple minutes. Ectoplasm was just giving me ideas on what I can do with my Quirk. You didn't miss anything."
"That's a nice change."
Mina let out a small laugh, and looked at the work of their classmates as well. There wasn't any shortage of ideas throughout their class, that was to be certain. She could see all sorts of techniques being developed – Todoroki's Ice-Palace-With-Flames thing, Momo's focus on generating more and more efficient items for combat, Tsuyu's… Whatever it was that she was supposed to be doing, it was had to tell from where she was standing. Closer, she could hear Kaminari and Mineta actually talk about the many ideas that they had between one another. The many things they had thought up as children were now to be tested in the field, and they'd be able to separate the facts of what they could do, and turn the fiction into reality.
The revelation about One For All, frankly, could not have gone better, no matter how many different ways Izuku tried to think up the reveal going over and over again in his head. It had gone so perfectly, so flawlessly, and his classmates filled with such compassion and understanding, that it really defied belief. In his anxiety filled head, he'd come to believe in the warnings that All Might had showed him in, constantly reminding him about how much trouble that he could end up in if One For All was discovered by others.
But that worry had been misplaced. At least within Class 1A, something that he couldn't be more eternally grateful for.
All his life, the insecurity and taunting, and the bullying and the, well, everything he was forced to grow up with had made him fearful of telling anyone about his Quirkless origins. Shame seemed to rule over that aspect of his life, his birth defect almost seeming like it was controlling over his ability to connect with others, and make lasting friendships.
The first few months at Yuuei hadn't helped either. It was the first time that he'd ever been treated fairly by anyone ever since his old friends learned about his powerless state. To him, it reinforced the idea almost – To the people who knew he was powerless, he was a joke, a target, a punching bag. He was lesser than them, and treated as such, viciously, throughout nearly all of his adolescence. But at Yuuei, where people knew him as the guy with the powerful, if weird, Quirk, he was suddenly being treated like he was on equal footing with them. And that stood out to him. Painfully so.
Now he was surrounded by people who knew about that. About everything.
Including the parts that he would have just allowed to quietly slide by.
"You sure you're alright?" Mina waved a hand in front of Izuku's face. "You're zoning out more than usual."
"S-Sorry." He blinked and took a step back, her proximity to him catching him off guard. "I… I just have a lot on my mind, is all."
Mina nodded, and then shrugged slightly. "You need to talk about it?"
"N… No, it's nothing that we haven't talked about before." Izuku said, shaking his head. "I was just… Thinking about everything that's happened."
"Ah." Whilst they agreed to be more honest and open with one another, Mina knew that she shouldn't push Izuku. His situation was unique, and he needed space to figure out what he was doing, and how he wanted to go about figuring it all out. When he needed her, he'd tell her. She trusted him to. "If you're sure. Anyway, how about your Super Moves, huh? I'll bet you've got a ton of them lined up!"
"Uh, yeah… Uh… No." Izuku sighed once more, feeling that his exhales were starting to become more and more routine by the minute. "To be honest, Mina, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. One For All isn't stable, and if I shatter my arms again…" He didn't need to say it out loud. Frankly, the idea of saying it out loud sent shivers down his spine.
Just like it did for Mina.
Even using his power now was risky, and something that he had to be careful with doing. If he overestimated how much power his body was capable of outputting, or he let himself get carried away and lose focus, he could end up with two useless limbs, and his dreams of Heroism were dead right then and there. "Right… Sorry."
"I-It's okay." Izuku gave her a gentle smile. He could tell that she was worried about him. "…If it helps, I also don't have a clue what to do for a Special move either."
"Can't just come up with another State-sponsored Smash?"
"They're just punches when you think about it… And I'm not sure that's smart right now. Not until I've figured something out…"
"Can't just call All Might?"
"He's not here today, and I left my phone in my room. I'm kind of on my own here."
"Well that's what you get for not duct-tapping it to the side of your head, like I do." She nudged him with her elbow as she joked, smirking with pride as she saw his smile grow wider in amusement.
It wasn't much, but it took his mind off things for a brief moment, which was all that they could also for, really.
The Acid Quirk user folded her arms, and felt herself pout as she tried to think of some way around Izuku's problem. It was a dilemma, to be sure, and she put her mind to using every single creative cell in her brain towards coming up with a solution, or at least a shove in the right direction.
Without All Might here to help, or any real understanding of how One For All worked for the user – Without a feel for it – She didn't know how much help she could be. That was the problem with One For All. Anyone who wound up with the power essentially was going into it blind, without their mentors to assist them. She had to wonder, did All Might have to struggle like this? She didn't remember if she'd ever been told about how he overcame the adversities of a superpower like this.
The amount of times that she found herself trying to help Izuku, only to realize that she just couldn't do much of anything because of how vastly different their scenarios were made her feel kind of useless. Just her luck to end up falling in love with the one guy on the planet who inherited his power as opposed to being born with it – It couldn't just be a simple case, could it?
"Couldn't you… I don't know, come up with a different fighting style?" She suggested, not really sure what developing a new fighting style would even entail.
"Like what?"
"I… I don't know." With her forearms and hands, she made a guard, as if to demonstrate. "Using your arms in a different way, I guess? I just… I don't want you to end up… Hurt again."
The boy smiled again, before looking at his own arms. Was there some way that he could throw punches without giving himself a massive injury? Or some way he could protect his arms from the ruthless backlash that came with using the sheer power that was One For All? Ideally, it would just be to not use 100% again, but there was no telling what kind of effect that it could have with Full Cowl. Could it accumulate, and he just hadn't noticed? And what if he wound up in a situation where he needed to exceed his limits? What if he needed to go beyond 5%? Or even 10%?
What then?
His gloves caught his eyes next. They were fitting as far as his costume's aesthetic went, and it didn't deviate too much from his mother's design. The fact of the matter though, was that they didn't do much in the way of protection. The others in his class were allowed to think of things like the appearance, and the apparel of them as Heroes, but he couldn't afford to. Certainly not to the same liberties at the very least. He needed every advantage that he could get.
"…Maybe I should see about upgrading my costume." He said. His hand wrapped itself around his wrist as he spoke. "Someone might be able to make some kind of brace or something for my arms. Reduce the feedback or… Something." Like Mina, he wasn't certain what exactly he could expect, but he shrugged. "It can't be any worse than just leaving things how they are now."
"It's a place to start, I guess." Agreed Mina.
"I guess I'll head over there after our session here." He said, stretching his arms out, and feeling some of his bones click as he prepared himself.
They had a few hours of training in this session first-hand. And he intended to use what time they did have to try to extend his Quirk – And get used to using it again.
There wasn't any denying the fact Izuku was rusty when it came to using his Quirk.
If an Olympic level sprinter spent a few weeks doing nothing but remaining curled up in a blanket on a bed while watching bad anime and Saturday morning cartoons, when they went back to giving it their all on the track, they were going to need to take a few laps before they started getting back into the swing of things. The same was true of Quirks.
And even then, that only really applied to people who were born with their powers. With a handed down ability, Izuku felt like he was more sluggish than the rest of the others, even though he was still working his hardest to make One For All into his Quirk. Maybe this was what All Might had meant when he said that it was important to make the power his own. To help avoid things like this happening.
His movement was a bit stiff, and how he adjusted his body when he ran, jumped, and maneuvered around wasn't as crisp as it had been back at the sports lodge, at least not right away. While Mina had spent the session learning to aim her new Acid Shot move with better and better precision, Izuku had been jumping from place to place, and getting back into the mindset he needed to have.
By the time the session had ended, bar a few bits of rust, he felt a whole lot better about his power and readjusting to it. The liberation that came from being able to jump from place to place, feeling the static electricity crackling through the air as the power surged all throughout his veins, and his muscles feel tougher and stronger than ever before – He'd almost forgotten how good it felt to have One For All, and how amazing he felt being able to do everything that he was able to do with it.
The session ended with Izuku having an enormous grin on his face, proud of himself, and feeling better than he had in over a fortnight.
As both he and Mina left Gym Gamma, their sights squarely focused on the Department of Support, recommended to them by Ectoplasm once again, claiming that costume support was outside his area of expertise, several of their classmates went out of their way to compliment Izuku on his performance, assuring him that he'd been working impressively throughout the day. They were well intended, but it was clear that they were issuing these compliments because they now knew about his Quirkless origins, and felt somewhat obligated to show their support.
Not that Izuku didn't appreciate it, but he didn't feel like he needed that kind of encouragement. He blushed and attempted to accept the compliments with as much grace as he could muster, but it didn't feel to him like he necessarily deserved them. It still caught him out sometimes, but he reminded himself over and over that One For All was, at the end of the day, not all that different to a Quirk like Electrification, or Hardening, or Sugar Rush or anything else like that. His simply had a different function to the others.
He was grateful for the vow of silence that everyone had agreed to take.
Earlier that day, once he'd managed to stop bawling his eyes out, and was able to speak to people again, he had asked that they all remain as tight lipped as possible about the power. He explained that while he did have the ability to pass it on, it wasn't a power that could be stolen, but explained that he and 'the person who granted him the power' were afraid that if the wrong people got wind, they would make an effort to steal the ability.
Given the fact that they were all newly introduced to his power, the fact that they all accepted this without hesitation filled Izuku up with both gratitude, and happiness – Even in the face of a lack of total understanding, they all were willing to acquiesce to the request, no matter how much they may want to tell someone. So he didn't need to worry about 1B, or the rest of the school learning about his powers either.
Even the teachers were left in the dark, which was an enormous relief. Izuku didn't want special treatment just because his circumstances were unique. He wanted to become a Hero the same way everyone did – Through hard work.
It would pass, he felt. Once his classmates got used to the idea of him having a Quirk that was passed onto him, those sorts of compliments would cease fairly quickly. Until then, he had a duty to refine his power to the absolute best of his ability, and not to let anything get in the way of that.
And right now, that involved getting an upgraded costume.
Whilst they left the gym and made their way towards the support room on the first floor, briefly, they crossed paths with Bakugou.
And they both stared at one another.
No words were spoken between either of them – What was there even to say?
Everything that needed to be said between the two of them had been – It had all come out, one way or the other. Bakugou's suspicions were confirmed, and he'd found them out in quite possibly the worst way imaginable. How he had treated Izuku previously was now out in the open for everyone to judge him on.
What more did the two of them have to talk about?
Without a word, Bakugou looked away first. The entire confrontation lasted perhaps all of about five seconds, and once those five seconds were up, the Explosion Quirk user was off once again, headed towards who knew where, for who knew what reason.
"…I really don't know if I'll ever understand why you vouched for him." Mina said, narrowing her eyes as she watched Bakugou walk away.
That had been another matter that had been resolved not long after Izuku made his announcement. In light of Bakugou's previous history, his position at Yuuei had come into question.
In centuries past, a school like Yuuei wouldn't have dealt with such accusations as seriously as a school in nations like the United Kingdom or America would have done – That was before the advent of Heroism though. And while many middle schools weren't as adamant about following such reformations, high schools, especially those with renowned Hero programs like Yuuei, did. It spoke volumes about a person, and what sort of a Hero they would end up becoming.
Someone might be extraordinarily powerful, but if they had a record of bad behaviour, the what would that translate to when they were given the freedoms that came with being a Hero? It was questions like that that led to global reforms around many areas of society, like the military and the police, long before Quirks came into the picture.
In the face of all of this new evidence – Evidence of which Bakugou didn't deny any of – The question of removing him from the premises had come into question, some teachers arguing that removing him made sense, citing these reasons, while others defended him claiming that he'd shown none of thee symptoms while in standard classes.
The final say had gone to Izuku.
After all, he had been the one who was affected the most by Bakugou's acts of violence, and since nearly every single member of class 1A had heard the confession from Bakugou-Toga, and Bakugou hadn't denied any of the accusations, Izuku couldn't deny them either. Something that he wished he could do – He just wanted things ot go back to how they were before all of this information got itself out there.
With his say so, Bakugou could have been thrown out of Yuuei. And he would be lying if he said that it hadn't, for just even a light moment, tempted him to do so. The prospect of getting some kind of latent revenge against his childhood bully seemed to stimulate the primal urge that all people felt when given the chance. He'd be lying if he said that the idea didn't hold some appeal to him.
By that wasn't who he was, and it was someone he didn't want to be. So he vouched for Bakugou, permitting him to remain at Yuuei.
"…He earned his place here, no matter how you look at it." Izuku explained briefly, watching with Mina as he disappeared behind a corner. "And… I-I know what its like to have a dream shattered. Even if I wanted to… I couldn't do that to him."
Mina just sighed. Only Izuku would manage to have empathy like this for someone who had tormented him so much. But this wasn't something that she was going to argue with him about. "If you say so, Izu… I'll trust you."
A lack of trust was what caused all their issues in the first place, after all, and she had resolved to have more faith in him. She disagreed with his call, but she was going to trust that he knew what he was doing.
Since it would normally be break-time for every other course except the Hero course students, the hallways felt even more empty and quiet. Their footsteps echoed in the long corridors, seemingly emphasizing just how empty the building was. Izuku never thought that he'd see Yuuei in such a quiet state like this, barely anyone in the building whatsoever. He'd always imagined it as a busy, bustling place, where every single day was always full of people rushing about and doing about a thousand different things at once. The place being calm and quiet was something he'd just never expected to encounter.
Although, he had never expected Yuuei to wind up as a bordering school, and yet here they were.
"So… Do you have any upgrades to your costume you're thinking about?" He asked Mina, hoping to spark some kind of small talk to fill the silence.
"Nothing comes to mind." The Acid Quirk user said, taking a glance at her hands. "I dunno what sort of equipment would even help with a Quirk like mine."
"You're focusing on aiming your Quirk more, aren't you? Isn't there something you could order that could help you figure that out?"
Another glance at her wrists this time made Mina give the idea some proper consideration. Was there anything that she could use to improve her aim? Would a designer even be able to create anything that could assist her in her aiming? Her Quirk wasn't the easiest thing in the world to work for.
Although it was a support-persons job to adapt to make whatever improvements were needed, and she wasn't going to get answers by making assumptions. "…I guess I could ask."
"Isn't that why you're coming with me?"
"I mean, I was mostly coming along cause I wanted to see what you had in mind."
"I… I'm not entirely sure what I want either."
"Well, fantastic! We can both go and admit that we haven't got the first clue what we want together!"
"…That… Sounds like when we first started dating, doesn't it?"
"Hah!" Mina laughed, smirking at the wisecrack. "Doesn't it?"
Izuku let himself laugh as well. Honestly, he'd found himself even more relaxed than normal. The last few weeks had put a lot of things into perspective for him, and now that the matter of his Quirk had been cleared up, he found himself just not worrying about tiny things like jokes and teasing. There were worse things than creating an awkward silence.
Of course, it would take a lot longer before he could just crack out jokes in the same way his other classmates did. But it was a bit of a start, he supposed.
The Development Studios was… To put it as mildly as possible, it was an experience. One certainly couldn't deny that. When someone thought about Yuuei, they always instantly assumed in their heads that the Hero course was where all the excitement was.
That was the department that allowed the students to use their Quirks freely, and were taught how to better utilize their powers. How to fight, and how to save people. Given that Yuuei was famous for its Hero course, it wasn't a baseless assumption. There was a logic to it.
Even so, it was the wrong assumption.
If the Hero course was the most practically applying course in Yuuei, the Support course was without a doubt the most creative one. People who had no interest in Heroism, but were invested instead in creative or artistic fulfillment would end up in Support, eager to allow their creative muscles to show themselves. It was an environment in which forced creativity allowed itself to run rampant, imposing many restrictions and conditions on the students there, forcing them to come up with innovative and unique solutions to difficult puzzles.
And if one wanted an example of one such innovator, one didn't need to look any further than Mei Hatsume.
Izuku recognized her from the Sports Festival, and for her weight-restrictive designs back form the Final exams of the first semester. Quirky, and hyperactive to a point where she nearly surpassed Mina, with a fondness for creating technology that made her seem like a neophiliac, she basically embodied everything that the Support course was supposed to be. The personification of an absolute mad genius.
Her ability to create was honestly something that Izuku admired, as was her passion. He certainly liked Hatsume, and found it easy to get along with her.
What he wasn't a fan of was the explosions that seemed to follow her, no matter where she went or what she did.
"Gaah!" Hatsume ducked down, managing to avoid one of the explosions that one of her devices created once more. She got out of the way before the blast even went off, like she'd developed some sort of sixth sense that predicted such a failure.
"Aah!"
"Woah!"
Both Izuku and Mina also managed to dodge the blast, by taking one giant stride apart, as the explosion rocketed past between the two of them, and whatever the device was supposed to be collided right into the wall behind them, where it embedded itself. Sparks flew off the machinery, and it vibrated consistently, like it was trying to tunnel through said wall, but to no avail at all.
"Welp!" Hatsume declared loudly, shooting right back onto her feet and placing her hands on her hips, triumphant, somehow. "That could've gone better!"
"I think any result would have been a better result." Mina muttered, though she couldn't help but be amused by the excitement of it all, and Hatsume's chilled-out attitude towards her massive failure.
"Uh, shouldn't you go and…. Defuse it or something?" Izuku questioned, keeping his eye firmly on device with a careful eye.
"Nah." Hatsume wafted her hand towards the broken gadget. "There's no components in there that'd make it blow up."
"It just shot halfway across the room!"
"And a magnificent show it was!"
"I'm beginning to wonder why I even let you in here." From a corner, Power Loader was heard. As the teacher on duty, and one of the Support Course tutors, he got to deal with Hatsume on a regular basis. "Something always seems to explode when you're working."
Both members of Awkward Energy couldn't decide getting to be her teacher would be a blessing or a terrifying curse.
Probably both.
Izuku sighed, but quickly came to the conclusion that this wasn't something he could win if he decided to argue. Hatsume understood technology far better than he did, so he was going to put his faith in her that it wasn't going to send him flying out of the room, and just hope that it was well placed. "A-Anyway, about my costume – "
"Costume upgrades?!" With an abundant inability to comprehend the concept of personal space, Matsume suddenly shot right in front of Izuku's face with a gleam in her crosshair-like eyes. "I'm listening!"
Her close proximity just made Izuku blink. "H-Huh?! W-We've been talking about this while you were tinkering with… Wh-Whatever that was!"
"Come again?"
"I don't think she was all that focused on us, Izu." Mina laughed. She'd been so focused on her contraption, that she hadn't even really been paying any attention to the two Hero students she had only half-heartedly greeted when they entered.
Somehow, that didn't even surprise Izuku.
"U-Uh, right. I'm… Looking for some way to decrease the stress on my arm ligaments." He repeated. "D'you think anything like that is possible – "
He was immediately cut off when he felt Hatsume's hands pressing against his torso. His chest, his abdomen – He froze up.
Mina just laughed at his surprised reaction. "Pft!"
"H-Hatsume, what're you doing?" Izuku managed to ask, rather awkwardly.
"Feeling your body." The Support student responded with a smirk, seeming to laugh in that peculiar way she did as she ran her hands over his muscles – What purposed this served, neither Izuku or Mina had any idea.
But it was hilarious to Mina. "Pft – Take your time, Hatsume, please – I can't get him to stiffen up like that anymore!"
Another peculiar laugh from Hatsume, and Izuku found himself burning with fluster.