Chapter 51: A Chat With Midoriya

"Hitomi...? Hitomi!?"

"Huh!?" Hitomi looks around in surprise! Finally acknowledging her green haired classmate standing by her "Oh, hey Izuku, what's up?"

Izuku scratches the back of his head "I kinda noticed you spacing out... I'm not getting far with my control training so I was kinda watching everyone else for a moment... Are you ok?"

Hitomi looks around catching glances of her fellow students as they either train their bodies or their quirks, they're currently stood in a destroyed training city like the one All Might had them fight each other in "Yeah... My mind's just wandering to personal matters..." She sits on a collapsed pillar "Sorry if I'm a distraction..."

It's been a couple of days since her and Toru's run in with Miyagi at the station and it's just under two weeks until the UA Sports Festival will take place. Everyone is currently intensely training in preparation either in the less destroyed fake environments, the school gym or the track

"Uhh... I know you said it's personal but do you wanna talk about it?" Izuku sits next to her

"Well... Sure I guess, can't hurtI guess" she sighs... "I suppose... A Villain from my recent past has come back into my life in a way?" She drums her fingers on her seat "And I've got legal issues ahead of me... Might even get arrested is it goes the wrong way..." She chuckles bitterly

"A-arrested!?" He stands in shock and stares at her "Why!?"

She sighs... "Tell me... Why did you enrolle at UA...?"

"U-uh..." He frowns "What's that got to do with-"

She chuckles in a lighter way than before and holds up a hand to silence him "Humor me?"

He slowly sits back down "Well... Ever since I was young... Like REALLY young... I've wanted to be a Hero like All Might... Saving all the people that are in need with a smile..." He supports himself with his hands and leans back, looking up at the sky "All my life I studied to top Heroes, so that one day when I got my Quirk I would be the best and most helpful... And then I actually got a Quirk and I could finally make my dream come true..."

"It's a noble dream Izuku... I'm glad you got the power you needed to get you here..." She smiles at him "Nice backstory too... Or should I say Origin story?"

He chuckles and scratches the back of his head "Sorry sorry... Guess I didn't need to say that much huh...?"

"Nah it's fine... Shows you're passionate about being a Hero..." She casually crosses her legs "As for me... I enrolled for a better reputation"

"Reputation...?" He frowns and tilts his head

"Yeah... I've been bullied all throughout school... Mostly for my different looks and having my eyes covered all the time..." She chuckles "Hey maybe if society treated those that have difficult looks or Quirks better there'd be less angry Villians"

"Uhh..." Izuku feels awkward now...

"Anyway... I got... Let's just say, attacked on the roof of my old school... I turned the guy to stone but he fell off the roof and kinda... Broke on impact..." she sighs and massages the bandage over her eyes "Thing is he used his mind control Quirk to become popular and well loved during his career... Those that he made love him are trying to make me the murderous Villian of this story... And with no hard evidence of either side of the story it's all She said, he woulda said if he wasn't a pile of pebbles..."

"But there are Quirks that can tell if you're lying...? I met a detective with All- Uhh... I met a detective that could do it after the USJ Incident..." He rubs his chin "His name was... Detective Tsu-"

"Detective Tsukauchi" she smiles bitterly "Yeah he was in change and confirmed my story... He's a good guy... But then it turned out that my Mom, she's a surgeon by the way, saved his Sister's life on the operating table a few years ago..." She sighs "So rumors say he's covering for me out of gratitude to my Mom..."

"Oh no... That's terrible... I-I mean it's great his sister was saved!" He flails his hands in a fluster before calming down "But... Y'know..."

"Yeah I know... And I agree, of course it's good his sister made it... It's just a rotten coincidence..." She shrugs helplessly "What ya gonna do 'bout it?"

"Well... What ARE they doing about it...?" He shuffles his feet

"There's been an investigation, I think they brought in a truth guy for the truth guy" she chuckles at the irony "Pretty sure it's cleared up that he's not lying but rumors don't die that easily"

"You... Said he came back...? The guy that attacked you...?" He leans forward and rests his arms across his knees

"Yep... They glued Humpty Dumpty back together again and woke him..." She copies Izuku's posture "I... Honestly don't know how to feel about that particular detail... I'm ecstatic that there's a solution to breaking any Villians I capture... But at the same time I never wanted to hear of him again..."

"I don't blame you... I wouldn't wanna think about it either..." He looks at her "But I'm sure it'll all work out in the end..."

She stretches and gets to her feet "Yeah... You're probably right... Now! No more depressing future topics" she faces him "You said you were having trouble with Quirk control, want a second option?"

Izuku looks up at her "You sure you wanna stop talking about your problem...? I don't mind"

"Well that's pretty much the whole story... Besides, helping you out will make me feel better and help keep my mind focused" she steeples her fingers together and grins down at him

"Ok if you're sure..." He brushes away her evil villain pose "So, how are you gonna help me?"

"I'll do it how my Master taught me about myself" she rests her hands on her hips "By talking to you"

"Uhhhh..." He frowns and scratches the back of his head "I was sort of expecting exercises or something"

"Hmm... Think of it as a verbal exorcise?" She sits back down next to him "But I can't exactly help you if I don't know how your Quirk works, I can only get so much from watching you"

"Ah... I didn't think of that..." He nods enthusiastically "Yeah! You're right"

"Ok so, seeing as you're not a bloody bag of powdered bones I can assume it's not active all the time right?" She smirks as a shiver runs through the boy at the mental image

"R-right... Not all the time" he looks at his hand and clenches it a few times "I suppose... It's like I summon the strength from within myself, it's just I can't control the amount... And my body gets overwhelmed..."

"I see..." She rubs her chin "Have you ever controlled the output before?"

He perks right up! "Yeah! During the USJ incident I held back when I tried to smash that hand guy! Though I ended up hitting Nomu instead... Then he grabbed me..."

'Grabbed him after getting hit... If I remember right Nomu had him grabbed when I got there and given what I saw in Aizawa's Quirk test the shockwave that took out the Firetruck was Izuku's doing for sure, so that must have been when the punch landed... However...' she leans back against a piece of rubble 'When All Might was fighting Nomu shockwaves were also blasting through him just much weaker than Izuku's... Wait. If I got taken out by a one hundred percent Izuku shockwave then either All Might is weaker than Izuku or he was holding back... Putting us all at risk...' she rapidly shakes her head!

"Uhhh... Are you ok?" Izuku frowns in confusion

"Yeah, yeah... Just had a concerning thought that's all..." She folds her arms

"A-about my Quirk!?" He starts getting nervous

"No no about All Might" she waves a dismissive hand

That just gets him more worried though! "H-huh!? W-what's my Quirk got to do with All Might...!?" He starts to sweat!

'He's getting way too worked up all of a sudden... Especially after I mentioned All Might... Are they actually friends or something?' she raises an eyebrow "Anyway, I don't think you controlled your Quirk back then"

Izuku freezes in his panic and slowly turns to her "W-what...?"

"Nomu's Quirk was shock absorbing" she points at his arm "What breaks those bones of yours is the recoil from the force of impact or the force of you stopping to punch the air, Aka the shock of the impact/stop" she mimes a punch "Nomu absorbed the shock, no shock means no recoil, no recoil means no broken bones"

"So I... I never controlled it huh..." He stares at his hand... Starting to feel very gloomy...

"You've had much less time to learn how to control your Quirk Izuku..." She pats his shoulder "Now... How would you describe how your Quirk works?"

"Umm... I suppose... I summon the strength to where I want to use it?" He frowns "Like I can call the power to me at any moment in any part of my body?"

"And you can't control the output at all?" She folds her arms

He looks at his hands "Well... No? That's why I keep breaking my body..."

"And what about when you channel the power and then try to decrease it instead of trying to control the amount you initially summon?"

"Uhhh..." He stares at her blankly

She waits while looking back... And waits more... "You... Have tried that? Right?"

"No... No I haven't..." He looks down at his feet in shame...

"Hey hey it's ok! Sometimes you need a different perspective" she grabs his shoulders and makes him face her "You're smart but even smart people can benefit from an outside perspective"

"Right... Yeah you're right" he nods to himself "It's good to ask for help"

She lets go of his shoulders "What kind of training do you do?"

"Just uh... The normal kind of working out? Weight lifting, press ups, jogging"

"Ok... Keep that up, that'll always help" she claps her hands together "But also experiment with your Quirk, do as I suggested, try and hold the energy for as long as possible, try and figure out other ways to use it... Just play with it"

Izuku looks surprised at that "Play with it?"

"I'm serious, just play with summoning the power in different ways and try not to do anything that'll... Set it off... Get to know how the power inside you works, don't just summon it when you need it" she mimes a finger gun "Police Officers need to learn how to handle their weapons, they're not just given them and put on the street"

"Huh... Y'know you're right Hitomi... Talking about this helped me out a lot" he clenches his fists "I'm geeting a lot of ideas!"

She chuckles and pats his back "Then go play with those ideas"

He jumps to his feet "I will! Thanks for the talk!" He jogs away with a smile and a wave sent her way

"And thank you for the talk... It made me feel better" she smiles and gets to her feet "No time to waste Hitomi!" She smacks her own cheeks "I've got training to do! And Pro Heroes to impress! Sports Festival here I come! Iiiiin two weeks" she runs off into the rubble to train parkour