Training Shinso

Chapter 14: Hold On As Tightly As You Held Onto Me

It took about fifteen minutes for his headache to decrease to a tolerable level. Rising to his feet again, Shinso tried something new, "Tell me your name." Midoriya's mouth twitched, but he didn't seem to be able to speak. Hitoshi repeated this a few more times, but to no avail. Trying a new tactic, he attempted to visualise a control panel of some sorts. This was what he used to toggle whether his target would be able to remember being under his Quirk's influence or not. He imagined switching a metaphorical mute button off, before asking again, "Tell me your name."

"Izuku Midoriya," the boy responded, his voice impassive.

Shinso smiled triumphantly, "It worked!" He asked in his mind, 'Tell me how you're feeling.'

"Excited."

'Tell me why you feel excited.'

"I have a new theory."

Raising a brow, Shinso remarked, "You're coming up with theories while I'm using my Quirk on you? Alright. Tell me your theory."

Izuku expounded vacantly, "I noticed how you need to rest for a few minutes when you use your Quirk, but only when you give multiple orders. Your Quirk was still active while you were resting, yet you still recovered enough to carry on. My theory is that the more orders you give using your Quirk, the harder it becomes. However if you give a single command, no matter how long the duration, it will be significantly easier. For example, it would be harder for you to give me ten different commands over a one hour time period than it would be to give me one command over a two hour time period."

Hitoshi gave him a surprised look, "That's true. So to use my Quirk efficiently, I need to give my target a single instruction, or at least minimise the amount of commands I give them." He scratched the back of his neck as he thought aloud, "I would need to ensure my command is clear and to the point from the get go. I struggled to control ten of my classmates at the same time, but now I can see it must have been because I gave them multiple instructions, but if I gave them all just one, perhaps I could have handled it for a longer period of time. I wonder if I could compile commands in one go or would—" Shinso paused, looking at Izuku with an amused expression, "Shit, I'm becoming you." An idea came to mind and he said, "Not sure if this will work, but—Speak your mind."

Midoriya's blank expression matched his tone as be began blurting out, "I have another theory that you are able to use your Quirk for as long as you can stay awake, as long as you don't tire yourself out with too many instructions. Also, I think that compiling loads of questions at the same time would actually make it a lot harder because it doesn't give you any time to regain your stamina from the previous command, but I would like us to try it out. Also, I thought it was cute how you were mumbling like I do and I've been thinking a lot about our conversation before the lockdown training the other day, and our ki—" "Oh shi—Stop, stop," Shinso quickly intercepted, cutting Izuku's rant off. "Sorry, Midoriya, I probably didn't word my instruction too well. Eh—How about...Speak whenever you want to." Hitoshi regarded the boy before walking up to him, smiling, "Might as well admit that I've been thinking about it, too."

Izuku let out a small, "Oh?"

Hitoshi chuckled a little, "We never did finish our conversation, did we. How about you, me, Saturday, Yokohama City?"

"I would like that."

"Great," Shinso smiled. "It's a date."