MHA : Evolving : Chapter 5
' Izuku '
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Picking up his packet, Izuku began flipping through the syllabus, skimming it for the rules he'd need to know, what was planned for the class, and what sort of facilities he had access to.
"Gym A." Izuku finally finds what training facilities he has access to, "And quirk training field B."
"You got gym A too dude?!" an excitable voice asked loudly from behind as he turned to see his classmate with spiky red hair standing next to the entirely pink girl, both of them flipping through their own packets.
"Same! We should totally go lift together! I could use a gym buddy!"
"Booo, I have Gym C." the pink girl pouted, puffing her cheeks out grumpily.
"Sorry Mina." The redhead chuckled sheepishly, "Well maybe you can find a new friend in Gym C? You said I'm your horn buddy, but don't you want a pink buddy? Or an eye buddy?"
"What?" Izuku blinked in confusion at the strange conversation they were having, the two of them finally remembering his presence and turning back towards him.
"Oh, sorry. When I spiked my hair up like this Mina said how it looked like horns and therefore, I was her horn buddy. I'm Eijiro Kirishima by the way." The now named redhead jabbed a thumb into his own chest.
"And I'm Mina Ashido!" the bubbly pinkette cheered before leaning in to inspect him, the unexpected closeness making Izuku gulp and back up a step, his nerves starting to bubble back up.
"Hmmm, I declare you potential fluffy buddy!" Mina pointed a finger skyward before looking at Kirishima "Kiri, you are to inspect him for potential as a buddy!"
"…Fluffy…buddy?" Izuku's voice was strained, this whole conversation weird to him.
"Fluff." Mina tapped her hair before pointing at his own hair "Fluff. Therefore, potential Fluffy buddy. Well, I'm gonna go check out Gym C. You boys don't miss me too much!" Mina waves before heading out.
"Sorry about that." Kirishima chuckled awkwardly "Mina is…well Mina. Anyway, I was serious about hitting the Gym together. I need a good gym partner and you look like you know what you're doing when it comes to weights."
"I…uh…not really." Izuku admitted, his nerves fully showing themselves as he'd finally calmed down from the state he'd entered after dealing with Mineta's comments, both in the locker room and in the tests, not to mention seeing that Iida guy again and remembering how he'd treated Izuku during the entrance exam.
"What?!" Kirishima gaped even as Izuku started heading to Gym A, remembering passing it this morning when trying to find his classroom, Kirishima following after "But you're ripped dude!"
"I just moved a bunch of garbage for community service, I've never actually used a gym." Izuku looked away awkwardly.
"Then I'll just have to show you what to do."
Kirishima nodded before urging Izuku to go faster, getting them to Gym A where he saw two other people wearing first year gym uniforms that he guessed were the students from Class 1B that got the same Gym assignment.
The first was a guy with pointed teeth, not unlike Kirishima, and steely gray hair. The other was a cute girl with pale grey hair and a soft expression.
That was all Izuku was able to observe before Kirishima spotted a bench press and drug him over to it, "Alright Midori-Bro, do you know how much weight you can lift in either form?"
"Um…not really?" Izuku never exactly had the chance to see how much weight he was lifting.
"Then let's start with your base form and go from there." Kirishima nodded and then, when Izuku didn't lay down, started tapping his foot with arms crossed "Any time now Midoriya."
Wincing, Midoriya lay down, noting that the bench was wide enough to possibly even let him fit when transformed.
"Good, now I want you to move the bar, like this." Kirishima demonstrated the proper form "And I'll add weight after each motion till we find where it starts to strain you, alright?"
"O…okay?" Izuku didn't have it in him to say no to Kirishima's exuberance as the redhead grinned and hardened his arms from the elbow down "And moving the weights will at least get me warmed up."
"What the heck?!" hearing the voice from the other guy in the room, Izuku and Kirishima looked over to see the 1B gym goers staring at them. Or more specifically the girl was staring at Izuku, causing no end of blushing, while the guy was gaping at Kirishima.
"What's the problem?" Kirishima asked confused as the other pointy toothed teenager stormed over.
"Hardening is my thing!" the 1B member's skin suddenly turned into shining metal as he glared at the rock like Kirishima.
"No, it's my thing!" Kirishima butted heads with his counterpart as the two began to argue and bicker, Izuku's training forgotten. As they argued, the cute girl with the gray hair floated over, head tilted as she studied their arguing classmates.
"It would seem that along with your quirk similarities, a coincidence most shocking, that there is another matter one should give adequate due attention towards.
One that would hopefully bring positive bonding joy rather than the vulgar arguments that are currently occupying yourselves in both action and thought.
To characters most beloved to whom you both seem to resemble in capability if not demeanor or visual accuracy."
The girl spoke, her tone soft and almost flat as she stared at the now confused hardening duo.
"um…" Kirishima began.
"…What?" his counterpart finished the confused question.
"She said that you two having quirks that similar is surprising, but she thinks you should be focusing on the fact that you have a connection to some characters that are popular and can be a positive bonding experience."
Izuku summed up easily as the 1B duo looked at him in surprise, the cute girl giving him a small ghost of a smile as he flushed.
"Wait, what characters?" Kirishima tilted his head in confusion even as the other boy started muttering about 'how did he understand her so easily?'.
"To be blunt…" the girl pointed at Kirishima "Metapod…" she turned to her classmate "Kakuna."
Izuku tried, he really truly did, but at that description, and the two guys open gaping expressions, he couldn't hold back his amused snort, turning into a full-blown laughter at their indignant expressions.
"Sorry, sorry." Izuku rubbed the back of his head even as his eyes flit over their own transformed states, "Besides, your quirks are plenty different anyway."
"Wait what?" Kirishima looked at his hardened arms "In what way? And how can you even tell?"
Izuku sat up straighter, excitement at getting the chance to talk about quirks bubbling up within him "Well during our quirk assessment test I noticed how you only ever hardened what parts you needed to and always seemed more tired afterwards than just what the exercise should have caused.
Since you demonstrated when you tripped and wanted to avoid getting hurt that you CAN harden your entire body, I was able to figure out that your transformations take stamina.
Plus, since I saw you harden different parts to different levels both then and now, I can tell you can adjust the level of hardness your quirk provides. You on the other hand," Izuku looked at the 1B guy who's name he still didn't know.
"Transformed your entire body at once and don't seem bothered by doing so. I figure that means you've either trained it to the point that a stamina drain doesn't matter, which I doubt you'd have had time to if you're just now entering first year, or yours has a different energy cost."
"Um…yeah." the confused 1B boy dropped his quirk "The Iron in my diet supplies the energy for my quirk which boosts my bodies natural strength and durability."
"Then all you'd have to do is adjust your diet for more iron and carry iron supplement pills, maybe having the school medical staff or the support course make special ones that rapidly take effect, and you'd be able to keep that up for ages." Izuku whipped his notebook out of his bag and started jotting down notes and theories.
"Plus if it boosts your strength then exercising like this would greatly increase the benefits. Not to mention training with that form to increase speed while weighed down by a heavier body would also help."
"Holy fuck." The metal quirk user gaped at his own hands before Izuku turned back to Kirishima.
"For yours it would make more sense to focus on your stamina and how hard you can make your quirk. Constantly taking the barrier your hit and just…well push past it, force it to go harder and then when you hit a new threshold get used to using it."
"Midori-Bro…you are one scary smart dude." Kirishima and his kinda twin both gaped at him as Izuku flushed and looked away, quickly stuffing his notebook back in his bag.
"Sorry, I know my muttering and quirk nerding tends to freak people out." He winced, hoping he didn't fuck up his one chance to enter a new school and new school year without the stigma that Bakugo and his old classmates had given him.
"What are you talking about dude, that was awesome!" Kirishima protested, bringing the notebook back out to put in Izuku's hands "You broke it down just like that!" the redhead snapped his fingers with a wide grin, "I never really took the time to think about it that hard myself."
"And I never thought about the iron pills." The other hardening quirk user nodded, "Names Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu by the way."
"And my name, if introductions are to be commenced between our classes, is Reiko Yanagi.
It is a true pleasure to meet you. I too find your ability to break down and dismantle our quirks on an intellectual level to be most fascinating indeed and would greatly appreciate you doing so for my own power.
I am most curious about not only what conclusions you would reach but in what way you would be able to aide me in improving my own ability and value as a hero.
I do find myself wondering most earnestly if this is your quirk, an ability to understand the gifts of others at a glance? If so, it would make you a detective quirk of some renown if that level of in depth understanding paired over with the rest of your deductive reasoning."
The cute girl, Reiko, spoke up, head tilted even as Kirishima and Tetsutetsu looked puzzled by her words although he didn't get why, they seemed easy to understand for him.
"That's not my quirk." He winced, remembering how a lot of his classmates had seemed scared when they saw his furious expression paired with his transformed state, not wanting to scare away these two already as well, "But what is your quirk?" talking about other people's quirks, that was safe territory.
"My quirk is known as 'Poltergeist'," Reiko informed him as she began to float once again "it grants me telekinetic powers. I am granted full telekinetic control over whatever I choose to with the current weight limit being that of the average human."
"A telekinetic quirk?" Izuku perked up, "My mom has one too. And full control? There's so much you can do with that! The areas you'd need to focus on training would be your weight limit, the speed you can move what you control, and the precision. Weight and speed are easy enough, you just work it out like a muscle.
Pick up heavier weights, move them faster, and try to beat your best times. For control," he paused to consider it.
"I suppose getting like a tub of sand and trying to make small sand sculptures? The sand particles should weigh so little that it wouldn't bother your weight limit and it would let you get used to trying to control several things at once.
Another option is trying to use your quirk to write notes or draw, that way you're only controlling one item at a time but doing it with a lot of precision."
"I thank you for your analysis and suggestions."
Reiko smiled at him "I had already considered working with heavier objects to further improve the limit that which restricts my ability to use my quirk but the exercises to further improve my control and speed were concepts not yet considered to me.
I must ask though, we have yet to hear your name or quirk."
Shit, well there's nothing else for it now "My name is Izuku Midoriya and my quirk?" he rubbed the back of his head as he transformed, his body growing and skin darkening, the nubs that he was sure were developing into spikes pushing out his clothes somewhat.
He saw Kirishima smirking at a gaping Tetsutetsu while Reiko just seemed fascinated by his more monstrous form.
"Dude, that's manly as hell!" Tetsutetsu started poking one of the growing spikes on Izuku's elbow, "So what does it do?" as he explained, he noticed Kirishima studying him.
"Dude, you seemed a lot different this morning when you entered class, when you were doing Aizawa's tests, and now. What gives?" Kirishima, apparently incredibly blunt at times, asked him as Tetsutetsu and Reiko looked confused but curious.
"I…don't do well with people." Izuku admitted, "Mineta and Iida pissed me off enough that I didn't feel as nervous as I usually would."
"I know his comment during the ball through was a bit of a dick move but to piss you off that much?" Kirishima tilted his head confused "And what did Iida do?"
"Back in the locker rooms, Mineta and I were the last ones to leave. I caught him trying to find a peep hole into the girl's locker rooms and muttering about how to make one if there wasn't already one there.
I confronted him about it and when Iida came back in to see what was taking so long, he instantly decided I must have been bullying Mineta and started harping on me while Mineta took the chance to bolt." His fellow hero students all looked irritated at the story.
"Totally unmanly." Kirishima scowled.
"Both of them." Tetsutetsu agreed.
"Such uncouth fools, to so easily fall prey and let vulgar lust consume them as well as pride to not see the truth or even consider there is more than what their own eyes witness." Reiko had the smallest of frowns on her face as she gave an admittedly verbose opinion on the matter.
"…Thanks guys." Izuku couldn't tell them how much that simple support meant to him, but they seemed to get it, even if they didn't know the reason why.
"…Aaaargh, enough of this heavy shit." Tetsutetsu shook himself "We're in a gym so let's act like it and do our training! Midoriya, I have to know your routine if you're that ripped!"
"I just moved garbage for a bunch of months." Izuku rapidly shook his head, "I don't know proper exercise forms."
"You just moved garbage?" Tetsutetsu looked utterly baffled at that.
"Yeah, a few months ago I was attacked by a sludge villain, it's when I learned my quirk was what it was. I…hadn't transformed since the first time I'd gotten it by that point." He looked away embarrassed.
"Anyway, the Water Hose duo saved my life from that villain and got me to a quirk doctor who figured out what my quirk could do. They're the ones who suggested the exercise to build up my body thanks to my healing factor and even pointed me at Takoba Municipal Beach."
"You're the one that cleaned that place up!?" Tetsutetsu grinned, "So manly!"
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