Puppet Master

Taking Hold Of One's Own Strings

Izuku took a shaky breath and closed his eyes.

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'- activate the life force in you. You need to feel it active in you. Feel the shape of your strings and how they connect to you as a whole.'

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Feel it in yourself.

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'Izuku, what do you feel when he takes it?'

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Dull. The small throb in the chest, arm... the neck on the occasions that was... used. Feel? Lifeforce.

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Mary Lou took the string. Izuku could feel himself getting light-headed as if something was draining from him.

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That feeling.

That warmth. Becoming cold.

He could feel it running through his body. Vibrating and shaking his bones. Izuku could see them. The strings intertwining with his veins. Each connected to a joint, weaving in his system connecting each one to another. He could see the screws they attached to each joint.

He could see them. All of them. Feel them.

_______________________________

HIzashi did not really know how he felt about this.

When he first heard of what they were trying to accomplish, Hizashi's stomach churned. Izuku has spent his whole life running away from his quirk. They were asking him to face it head-on. Mentally, though, he knew this would be good. Izuku was a much more active learner. Just words would not have him believing that he could take hold of his own life.

Taking hold of the literal strings of his life, that would give him confidence. Not only with himself but around other people. It was necessary but also a terrifying thought because what if it didn't work?

If Izuku really couldn't take his strings, Izuku's progress in trust could be thrown back so far he might not even trust Hizashi himself.

Even if it isn't true, Izuku would take it as he truly couldn't take hold of his own life and that he truly was just a puppet on a string to be used.

This was a fifty-fifty, no, based on the previous usage of said quirk, a sixty-forty chance of major psychological trauma infliction.

Not in their favor.

So he would be here. He personally volunteered to be here. He had to. Because if this went wrong, and there were so many ways this could go wrong, Izuku would need the first thing that he saw when he opened his eyes was to be something that he considered 'Safe.'

Five minutes passed. Ten. Fifteen... Hizashi got a bad feeling in his gut.

Stop! It's not working! No... Please... Don't hurt yourself, Izuku...

Then something happened.

Both Hizashi's and Recovery Girl's eyes widened.

Izuku began to glow. Hizashi could physically see the strings and he wasn't even reaching out. They were outlined on Izuku's skin, traveling throughout his body.

On Izuku's joints, Hizashi witnessed as lines marked out where a doll would have two parts put together, elbow to connect arms, screw forming in the middle. Neck connected to the torse, and under the boy's pants, probably legs to the torso. He could see the individual joints on each finger with screws in between each. The strings, more like veins, massed at each joint before moving on further into the body to the next joints.