Puppet Master

First Training Session

Shouta swallowed a sigh. He glanced up in the rearview mirror of his car as he drove to UA. Hitoshi, bless his heart, was doing his best to try and calm Izuku's nerves as they were about to start their first training lesson together. Izuku looked like a ghost and Shouta knew that he was probably midway between a panic attack and convincing himself not to have said panic attack. Shouta could be a good adult and stop the car to calm and reassure the kid but he knew that this was just going to have to be something that Izuku was going to have to get through himself if he truly wanted to do this. He pulled up to the employee parking and scanned his ID before driving in.

As they walked to the PE Grounds that Shouta had reserved for today, he was almost certain that Izuku was, in fact, not breathing, but the tell-tale signs of a rising chest convinced him otherwise.

Shouta stopped and turned to them on the empty dirt field. They were all in UA's gym uniform, courtesy of the school.

"Alright," Izuku jumped, "we are going to start as usual how I and Hitoshi do it on a regular basis, just dome hand-to-hand combat, okay?"

Just to loosen him up a bit. "Izuku, you and Hitoshi spar for a bit. I want to see where you are at."

If by any means Shouta had thought that Golden Whip was in the past, he was dead wrong. Hitoshi and Izuku went a bit further apart before turning to each other. Shouta noticed the visible change in the greenettes stance. He loosened up, legs shoulder-length apart, eyes dead set on Hitoshi. He could see Hitoshi pale slightly but he knew his son would not back down. Shouta raised his arm and brought it down with a "START!"

Immediately, Hitoshi ran forward. In their sparring sessions, Shouta made sure that the purple-haired boy did not use his quirk. With a small pull-back, Hitoshi punched his fist forward.

It all happened in a few seconds.

Izuku stepped to the side, planted his right foot forward, and grabbed Hitoshi's outstretched arm. The smaller boy pivoted, making a 180, Bent over, and hauled Hitoshi over his shoulder, judo flipping him onto his back. Hitoshi met the ground with a *THUD*, letting out a strangled gasp upon impact as the air was knocked out of him. Hitoshi grunted as he tried to roll over to get back on his feet but it was apparently the wrong move, or he just wasn't fast enough.

As soon as Hitoshi was pushing himself up, Izuku practically jumped on the boy, forcing him down on the ground again, Izuku straddling him. He grabbed Hitoshi's arms, forcing them behind the taller boys back and holding them in place with one hand, using his left to force Hitoshi's head on the ground.

Shouta raised his hand. "That's enough." Nothing happened. Shouta furrowed his eyebrows.

Suck! Shouta ran forward as Izuku lifted his son's head. "Izuku don't!" The boy froze. Shouta froze. Hitoshi had his eyes squeezed tightly shut. Shouta took a deep breath.

"Not a villain, kid." Izuku glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. Shouta nodded, hands in front of himself. "Not a criminal. Just Hitoshi." He let out a breath that he did not know he was holding when Izuku gently lowered Hitoshi's head to the ground and stood up. Hitoshi was positively shaken up. Izuku looked down.

"S- s- sorry... I f- forgot."

Shouta walked up behind his son and gave Hitoshi a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "It's fine just try to remember next time that this is training. We aren't putting our opponents out of commission." Izuku nodded. He looked at Hitoshi.

"Sorry, Sh- Shinsou."

Hitoshi gave the best smile that he could. "It's fine."

There were a couple more occurrences of that happening but soon Izuku's mind seemed to clear up enough to not try and put Shouta's son unconscious.