Motivation - SPORADIC UPDATES

Twenty-Three

"Relax. It's all about control," Katashi instructed, the sound of his footsteps circling around where Kazue sat on the training mats. The teen frowned slightly, releasing the miniscule tension in his eyelids as they remained closed. "Reach within yourself like you would with Amplify. However, focus on the emptiness instead. It will look... red, I suppose, as opposed to the green."

Focus on the emptiness, huh? Kazue was fairly certain his father wasn't referring to his lack of a soul. Nevertheless, he breathed out and released his mind to venture to the space inside his own Quirk. Green and red lights flowed in tandem, the former a vibrant shade whereas the latter was barely visible.

He reached for the red, gritting his teeth upon finding that making the connection was much more difficult than he was used to with Amplify. Such a connection had to grow over time and with use. Unfortunately for Kazue, he didn't exactly have much time before the Sports Festival (although Katashi hadn't mentioned the upcoming event, it was quite obvious he was looking forward to it).

A rush of breath forced itself out of his lips as the final distance was broken through, Kazue's mental hand closing down on the red.

The reaction was instantaneous. A searing pain ripped through his skull like his head was being crushed by a giant hand, the red being ripped away from his grasp. Kazue gritted his teeth to avoid verbally reacting to the worst migraine he'd had in his life, finding his left hand pressed to his temple in an attempt to relieve the pressure.

"Here," came the voice of his father who had crouched down next to him. He was holding out a bottle of Tylenol, an apologetic look on his face. Well, at least as apologetic he could manage to look while still being professional.

"You were aware this would happen," Kazue muttered accusingly, wondering if slamming his head into the nearest wall would relieve some of the pain. Nevertheless, he took the pressure in stride, taking the offered bottle and downing one of the pills with a gulp from his nearby water bottle.

"Not entirely," Katashi admitted, straightening back up and smoothing out the fabric of the 'Hot Dad Alert' shirt Fueki had given him for his birthday as a joke. She'd been in for a shock when she found out he actually wore it at home before dissolving into laughs. "The Tylenol was merely a precaution in case you did receive the drawbacks. I wasn't entirely sure with the addition of Amplify, but one can never be too careful."

"Right," the brunet drawled, stretching out the vowel of the word a bit longer than usual. He winced as a particularly sharp stab of pain made itself known right behind his eyes, thankfully used to the feeling due to frequently overusing his 'read' ability on inept hero students. Or All Might.

~-~-~-~

"Kimura, dude, who was the girl? What's her name? Does she like blonds?"

The rapid-fire questions hit Kazue like a truck as soon as he trudged into Class 1-A. He stared at Kaminari with a blank face, completely dead inside from another night spent making YouTube math tutorials. "...huh?"

"You know, the super cute girl who you gave that sketchy file folder to yesterday," Kaminari elaborated, a grin stretching across his face.

Super... cute?

Oh. Wait. He was talking about Hamasaki, considering he hadn't given anyone else a 'sketchy file folder' in the last twenty-four hours. "No idea," Kazue answered in a monotone, walking past the other teen without another word. If she'd jumped off the roof after being in the presence of the extroverted Furuya the other day, he was fairly certain Kaminari wouldn't fare much better.

The rest of the morning passed fairly uneventfully. Classes were easy enough that any work to be done in class could be done absentmindedly. At this point, scoring average was just to keep the attention of his classmates off of him. The teachers knew better, considering he'd aced the written entrance exam, but didn't say or do anything against it.