NO. 57 - Morning Walk To Work

"Eat up, you three. You earned it."

Nodding tiredly, Izuku, Keiko, and Hitoshi all gave thanks and began eating the large bowls of beef gyudon before them. Smiling, I picked up my own bowl and ate as well. Our isolated training ground, composed of a grass field with surrounding trees, offered us a nice pocket of peace.

Izuku and Keiko were both covered in bruises and dirt from their usual training regime. Hitoshi himself was in a worse-off state because he had just recently started my training from hell. Due to there only being one short year left for them to prepare for the UA entrance exam, they had asked me to up their training as high as I deemed safe.

Sadly, they quickly regretted that decision of theirs due to the dozens of new aching pains throughout their bodies. Despite the pain, they were making significant progress on their bodies and abilities, respectively.

Izuku's body was now a wall of tight, well-pact muscles that could make any personal trainer proud. His reflexes and combat abilities were second to none. While he may not yet be a master at any of the martial arts I taught him, he was quickly getting there. Give him another five years, and he'd be able to give me a somewhat decent fight.

I had no doubts in my mind that when he got One For All, he'd be able to use at least 15-25% of its power right off the bat.

Keiko's progress was remarkable as well. Due to all her hard work and Izuku's advice, she's been able to make fantastic progress with her Quirk. As we suspected, she was now able to use her once-defensive barriers in several offensive and creative ways. She could even manipulate a barrier beneath her to allow her to essentially fly around like a hoverboard.

To add to her Quirk training, I also had her up her speed and strength training as well. I even had her learn Wing Chun as well. I didn't want her to find herself in a situation where she would be defenseless if her Quirk was somehow unusable or locked away. Her progress in learning the martial art was slow, but she was getting there.

Finally, my newest mound of clay, Hitoshi, was a rather interesting person to train. He was definitely no prodigy in hand-to-hand combat or a physical beast. No, he was actually rather slow at learning the things I taught him. However, this didn't mean he was falling behind.

No, the purple-haired kid was a hard worker.

Much like Bruce Lee's saying goes, Hitoshi didn't practice 10,000 kicks once; he practiced one kick 10,000 times. I sometimes stuck around after I dismissed everyone and watched as he continued his own training into the wee hours of the night.

The kid definitely had a heroic spirit. It was just hidden away by his demeanor and mannerisms. That spirit of his would help push him much father than most. Not to mention his relatively strong Quirk.

Brainwashing.

In order for his Quirk to work, Hitoshi only needed to have his opponent answer his question once to ensure his victory. So, after much brainstorming between Izuku, Keiko, and I, we all came up with several ways to help Hitoshi improve his meta ability.

One way was for him to learn how to throw his voice around in order to better trap his opponents to answer him. Another was to have him wear a mask with a voice modulator that would change his voice. This would allow him to confuse and trick his targets into answering him even if they knew how his Quirk worked, which I already had Mei working on a prototype.

We even tested to see if using a voice recorder with his voice would still activate his Quirk.

Much like how Inumaki did during the fight against Sukuna in order to freeze the King of Curses just enough to be caught in a Domain.

And if the mind-controlled Izuku was anything to go off by, it was a resounding success.

"Everything hurts…" Keiko muttered as she placed some of the lunch I bought everyone into her mouth. "But this food sorta makes up for it."

"My legs are still shaking," Hitoshi said as he massaged his aching shins. "I'm gonna feel this in the morning."

Izuku nodded and swallowed. "Try an ice bath. That helped me during the first few months."

"Hold on, months?" Hitoshi swallowed as he stared at Izuku and Keiko in horror, who nodded with dead expressions. "What did I get myself into…"

Grinning, I reached out and patted his shoulder. "You'll be fine. No pain, no gain, right?"

"I guess…"

"Pain was all I knew."

"I have nightmares of you, Sou-chan…"

I chuckled at their pained expressions as I brought out three more packed bowls of food. "You say that now, but look at you three. You two are a lot stronger than you were at the beginning. I'm sure you two will be little monsters once you enter UA." I said to Izuku and Keiko, who blushed at my praise. I then turned to Hitoshi. "And you, Hitoshi. You may have just started, but I'm certain you'll catch up with them soon. Just keep working hard."

[+25 SP]

[+10 SP]

[+25 SP]

"Ah, right," Hitoshi muttered and scooped the remaining food in his bowl into his mouth to hide his red face.

"Thank you, Souta-san. It's all thanks to your help." Izuku said with a smile while Keiko nodded in agreement.

"That's right, Sou-Chan. We couldn't have gotten this far without you." Keiko said with a warm smile. "So please continue to look after us."

"Yeah. You got it."

[+30 SP]

[+15 SP]

[+35 SP]

Leaning back, I watched them eat with a small, proud smile on my face. Despite the rather greedy origins of how our relationships started, I was glad I decided to help these three out.

Not only due to the points but also because of the hardships that would come their way in one year.

They needed to be ready for what was coming.

x x x

"Dig deeper," I said to another me who wasn't one of my clones or a twice clone. "The energy is there. You just have to grasp it."

"I'm trying. It's almost as if it doesn't want to do what I say." Himiko said in my voice as she tried to bring out the minimal amount of cursed energy within her. Sighing in defeat, she leaned back and stared at the darkening sky. "I'm sorry, Sukuna-kun. I don't think I can do it. I can use Jin-kun and Kaina-Oneechan's Quirks just fine, but when it comes to your curse energy. It just doesn't want to listen to me."

Ignoring how weird it was to hear my voice talk in such a feminine cadence, I nodded and wondered why she couldn't use CE. She had it within her; at least, her transformed body did, so why couldn't she use it?

"Could it have to do with your soul?" I muttered as I remembered how much the soul came into effect within the world of JJK. Could being born with CE be a factor? Did CE have to be an integral part of a person's being to be used? "How confusing."

I would know this for sure once I pulled Mahito's inane technique, Idle Transfiguration, which would allow me to be able to see and manipulate a soul. But I hadn't had much luck at pulling that technique thus far. I could get lucky and pull a skill that would allow me to see a soul, like how Yuji or Sukuna could.

"I suppose there's not much we can do," I said as I walked over to Himiko, who was now dissolving away my appearance. I held a hand out to her and lifted her to her feet. Even after she was standing, she held onto my hand with a slight frown.

"Sorry, I couldn't use it," Himiko said with disappointment.

Pulling away, I patted her shoulder with a smile. "It's fine. I guess I really am the only one who can use CE... At least for now."

"I guess so."

Himiko muttered as we made our way toward the main house from our courtyard. Sliding open the shoji door, we came upon a rather amusing sight.

Jin was currently in a heated debate with Kaina over where a large segment of legos would go while Eri happily built a spaceship of legos. Behind them stood a large box with a picture of a castle.

"I'm telling you this part goes here!" Jin said as he tried to place the piece in his hand down onto a half-built foundation. Kaina placed her hand over his face and pushed him back.

"No, you clown. The instructions says it goes on the other side!"

"Screw those instructions! Legos are meant for creative freedom!" Jin said as Eri began adding wheels to her spaceship. "See! Look at Eri-chan! She gets it!"

"Are you blind? It's supposed to be a castle! Not whatever it is you're trying to build." Kaina pointed over at the box where the image of a colorful castle sat.

"What did we walk into?" Himiko asked with a giggle as Kaina threw the instructions into Jin's face. Causing the man to fall back dramatically.

"I don't know," I said as Eri continued to play peacefully while both adults began throwing legos at one another. "But it's gonna make a great Christmas card."

I then pulled out my phone and took several photos.

x x x

[General POV]

Blinking tiredly, Aizawa Shota walked through the early morning streets of Musutafu on his way to work.

'Hmm, since I have no students to teach. Maybe I'll take a nap all the way until lunch? Yeah. That sounds good.' Shota thought as he passed by several people heading to work, school, or early morning runs/walks.

Due to his status as an underground hero, no one recognized him as a pro hero. Something that he found to be completely okay. Shota didn't care much about all the unnecessary attention. This also meant that the majority of the UA student body who weren't already familiar with him would not be aware he was a teacher.

"Who's this bum?"

"Should we call someone? I mean, he shouldn't be here, right?"

"Sir, do you want me to show you the way out?"

This ended up being the case with the now expelled class 1-A. Shota didn't find some of those comments confusing him with a homeless man to be very amusing. So he ended up taking a small amount of joy after he expelled all 20 of his students after finding zero potential in them.

At some of their crying faces, he did end up feeling slightly bad before getting over it.

If those kids couldn't handle something as simple as a Quirk apprehension test, then they would have no chance of surviving the grueling world of pro heroes.

Even so, all 20 of the students he expelled should be finding out that their expulsion was a ruse sometime today. Hopefully, his "wake-up call" would get them to start taking UA more seriously.

He was glad he was able to talk to Principal Nezu into granting him the ability to expel and re-enroll all of his students. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't be able to scare his students straight. It also had the side effect of granting him the largest expulsion rate in UA history.

At least on paper.

"Maybe I'll get a coffee," Shota muttered as he came to a stop to watch an alleyway cat jump out of a trash bin with a small piece of meat in its mouth.

"S-Stop! Help! He stole my purse!"

Sighing in irritation, Shota looked across the street and watched a tall, hooded man sprinting down the street with a white purse in his arms. Down the sidewalk was a short, older woman with an antenna on her head was desperately looking around for help.

Several bystanders stood frozen and simply watched as the man ran off. Not a single one of them moved to help or provide any aid for the frantic older woman.

"Just my luck. Crime before my morning coffee." Shota said as he prepared his capture tape. Just as he was about to sprint after the criminal, he noticed two students dressed in UA's blazers in the criminal's path.

The taller of the two stepped in front of the criminal with his hands in his pockets and performed a sweeping low kick that sent the hooded man flying through the air. In a snap, the boy snatched the purse right out of the man's grasp. The student's unruly black hair swayed as he stood up and walked over to the downed man, the white purse now in his grasp. The blond girl beside him just watched without worry before walking off down the sidewalk toward the older woman.

'Should I step in?' Shota thought as he grew just close enough to be able to act should things get dangerous, but a small part of him that witnessed the black-haired boy's moves stopped him. The way the student moved was quick, flawless, and with high precision. 'No, as long as he doesn't use his Quirk. It should be fine. Let's see what this kid can do.'

The hooded man quickly stood up with an angry look on his bird-like face as he noticed the purse he stole was no longer in his possession. Finding it in the young boy's hand, the criminal moved toward him to take it back with a desperate look.

What Shota witnessed next was impressive. The boy effortlessly dodged the man's swiping taloned hands. He then pulled the birdman's hood over his head, causing him to lean forward. Grabbing the man's left bicep, the student pulled him in and kicked out his leading leg, effectively tripping him.

After the man fell onto the ground, the student pulled the thief's right arm behind his back and pressed his left knee over their wrist. Locking them into place. The man tried to wrestle his way out of the student's grip, but it seemed that despite his age and size, the student was much stronger than him.

"All of that without using his Quirk... At least seemingly." Shota muttered as he watched two police officers jog over to the scene with the blonde girl and older woman trailing behind.

The officers instructed the student to step away from the thief as they quickly bent down and fastened handcuffs around the man's wrists. Shota observed as the blonde student helped the elderly woman walk over to where the black-haired student was.

Seeing her, he then returned her purse with an easy-going grin. The woman expressed her gratitude to both of them before the officers approached to ask questions about what had occurred.

'Interesting.' Shota thought as he turned around and continued on his way to UA. 'I'll keep an eye out for those two. Especially the one with black hair. Going off their uniforms, it seems like they're first-year General Education students. Hmm, I wonder what Quirk he has...'