hero's shadow // mha

47) special occasions

"Uh, I don't think that's—"

Gran Torino balances on the tip of his cane and suddenly manages to look Izuku straight in the face. "Learn how to read people's tics, and you'll never be left struggling to make a plan or to decide which of your quirks to use."

Izuku frowns. "Didn't you tell me not to analyze so much in the middle of a battle? How can I know how to predict their movements if I can't even spend time watching them?"

"You have to just know," he says gruffly, as if this is common knowledge. "It should be instinctual after a while."

"Wow. Y'know, I see where All Might gets his teaching methods fr—" Izuku lets out an inhuman screech when the knife in his hand is yanked from his grasp and suddenly thrown right back at him from the other side of the room. He only has a millisecond to react, so Izuku doesn't think; he just does.

Boost has always come to him quicker than any of his other quirks, so he doesn't even have to think about it for it to happen. He jumps and spins in midair at the speed of a .220 cartridge, eyes wide and lips parted as he kicks the knife upwards first to redirect its momentum and then again at the hilt of the blade to send it spiraling right back towards the goddamn menace that is Gran Torino.

Torino doesn't move out of the way, though Izuku isn't that conceited to think it's because he couldn't. The old hero simply chose not to.

The knife flashes in the dim light around them and makes its home in the wall right next to Torino's head, and it would've nicked the thin outer shell of his ear had he not tilted his head just the slightest bit away.

And Izuku, who is still stuck on the fact that Torino just threw a whole ass knife at him at Mach 20 speed without warning, just blinks. He's back on the ground, breaths stuttering.

"Are you trying to kill me?" He mutters, mostly to himself. (And if he sounds maybe a little too excited about the idea of that, no one will know.)

"Hah! You've sure got his knife work, huh, brat?"

Izuku frowns and tips his head. "Eh? I've never actually seen All Might use a knife for heroics before, and he refuses to use one with me during training, so I wouldn't know." He perks up. "Is he good with them?"

I'm gonna force him to fight me with one next time we train.

Gran gives him a what the hell are you talking about? look before ultimately deciding to just ignore him. "Now, that's what I'm talking about! That's the fastest I've seen ya react to a move so far, so obviously it's not impossible for you. You need to be able to do that all the time, kid, without hesitation and without any stupid thinking."

Stupid thinking? Izuku crosses his arms, feeling the need to defend himself just a little, and speaks with utmost sarcasm. "I've never had a dumb thought in my life, sir. All my decisions are smart and carefully planned ou—"

"You shooting that boy during the festival was stupid," Gran interrupts, jumping up on the counter to mimic Izuku's earlier pose. "And unnecessarily flashy."

"I told you, I'm not flashy!"

"And Rabbit isn't either?"

Izuku snaps his mouth shut and narrows his eyes. Gran Torino, he finds, has the extraordinary ability to piss him off without doing much of anything. He hasn't said anything but the truth, honestly, and yet here Izuku is, brimming with annoyance.

I wonder if All Might ever had enough of you and tried to just beat your ass one day, he thinks. I know I probably would've tried. Whether or not I'd win is another thing...