izuku woke up from a nightmare, he wasn't sure what the nightmare was about but he couldn't stop holding his arms. he was crying and hyperventilating but he muffled it by shoving his face into his pillow. his panic eventually subsided and he slowly drifted back off to sleep.
he didn't wake up again until aizawa woke him up, a bowl of cereal in his outstretched hand. izuku hadn't eaten in the morning for years and the concept felt weird to him now. he felt a little sick while eating but aizawa made sure he ate the entire bowl. then they both went to get dressed and they headed to UA for another day of training.
today was knife training and they didn't practice on each other at first. izuku had to use a wooden knife with a blunt edge and train with the dummy. then aizawa done a few simple attacks and Midoriya had to dodge, then aizawa started to use multiple attacks consecutively. Midoriya didn't get it straight away and aizawa had to instruct him what to do when he attacked. that really helped and when aizawa stopped saying what he was going to do Midoriya started anticipating his moves. then Midoriya went and attacked aizawa which caught him off guard but he was still able to dodge.
that was the level izuku aspired to get to. seeing the way he dodged he took note and decided to attack him again. this went on for a lot of time and Midoriya was getting hit a lot but he was able to get key information. he didn't care if he got hit, he just wanted to learn all the different ways he dodged as well as learning the way he attacked. he obviously wouldn't get hit during a fight with real knives but he took advantage of the fact it was just training. he spent the entire morning doing this. Nezu even watched for a bit, present mic and midnight came in to check on how he was doing too when they had a little free time. izuku didn't want them to see him losing like this but he needed the information nonetheless, if he changed his technique now his entire plan would be ruined. aizawa was disappointed in him and he could tell, Midoriya decided to act like he just couldn't get it.
"maybe we should change the training, knives clearly aren't your thing."
"no, I want to do it until I get it. you learn from your failures right? well if that's true than I've learnt a lot"
"you haven't, you keep making the same mistakes. change your rhythm, its predictable. your just going through the motions and not bothering to think."
"oh..." he was in fact thinking the entire time. he used that as a way to get experience in losing, he would rather lose in practice than when it really counts. "okay, ill try to think of something over lunch!"
"you will be going to recovery girl at lunch, ill bring you some food up."
"why do I have to go see recovery girl?"
"you literally broke a finger!!! what do you mean why?!"
this surprised Midoriya, then the pain set in. he didn't even notice, he was too busy thinking and running on adrenalin. he released the knife and knelt on the ground, holding his broke finger. this was a pain he wasn't new to but it still hurt all the same.
"you've really earned the nickname problem child Midoriya... how did you not notice you broke your finger?"
"I was so set on trying to win that I ignored everything else"
"Nezu and mic aren't impressed with your progress at all..."
"or midnight" izuku retorted mindlessly
aizawa game him a weird look, then he realised what he was doing. he was kind of impressed, he didn't even change his plan to impress the others when they were watching and that took some serious dedication. aizawa wouldn't admit it but he was proud of deku.
during lunch aizawa told nezu, midnight and mic to come and check on his progress once he was done with recovery girl.
walking into recovery girls office he was hit on the back of his head with her cane
"izuku is already a regular and school hasn't even started yet! I can't believe you broke his finger! when that boy gets strong enough he's going to get some sweet revenge on you."
"he's already strong enough. he purposely got hit, granted he didn't mean to break his finger and he only found out after I told him but he was just getting information."
"information shouldn't cost him a trip to see me!"
"that's not my fault, I only realised what he done when we finished fighting! where is he anyway?"
"he went back to the gym, he said he wanted to train."
aizawa walked towards the gym, meeting Nezu and the rest on the way there. when they opened the gym doors Midoriya was completely out of sight. then his voice came out of nowhere.
"up here you guys! im on the support beam!"
"dearie me, how did you get up there?" nezu asked, when he fully well knew the answer.
he didn't respond, he just used his support item and climbed down.
"sorry if im not meant to do that nezu, I wanted to see if I could reach up that high. most of the buildings I practice on are either quite far below or way above that height."
"its fine Midoriya, im just worried that if you fell no one would be here to help you."
"no problem, I have a fail safe on it! if I lean too far one way and it senses I start to fall, it will quickly go compact then extend again but using its centre of gravity this time, then if I pressed a button on the side it would lower me at a safe but quick speed."
"a marvellous idea! how did you come up with that?"
"when shinso first used it he went flying in the wrong direction and I had to quickly catch him. if that happened in the field it would distract a different hero from their work. I didn't want shinso to be a liability and I wanted to make sure he got into UA."
"sorry to distract you from your lesson Midoriya, you and aizawa may continue now."
aizawa went charging at Midoriya again, Midoriya was clearly tired from being healed by recovery girl but he didn't let that stop him. he dodged quickly and went to attack, aizawa dodged and Midoriya went to attack again where he dodged once more but this time he changed his trajectory at the last minute and caught aizawa in the back. Midoriya silently celebrated for a moment and continued fighting. if Midoriya wanted to improve he was going to have to go all out, his moves will become predictable after a while and that would force him to come up with different ways to attack and dodge. he would have to keep besting his best which is exactly what he wanted to always do. "heros are constantly improving their moves as well as trying to learn new ones" aizawas words stuck with him during this exercise.
in the end he was bested by aizawa again. Midoriya was exhausted an tired, he was able to avoid lunch by escaping to the gym. he still felt full from breakfast. he sat on the bench as mic and midnight looked at him in shock. he wasn't sure why but he didn't have time to pay attention to that, he was busy thinking of ways to improve. once he regained his strength and thought of a plan he challenged aizawa again, this was going to be fun.
they sparred like before for a bit again but neither of them landed a blow on each other, then suddenly deku grabbed the scarf off of aizawas neck and used it to capture him. he didn't know why aizawa didn't use it but he wasn't going to make the same mistake he did. aizawa struggled to try to get out but deku simply walked up to him, smiled, the tied both of the free ends into a bow.
Midoriya walked away then sat on the bench, that plan took all the energy from him but it was a success. he was slouching but then perked up when he heard someone clapping. it was principal Nezu, mic and midnight joined in after. the pro heros started shouting congratulations while Nezu simply continued clapping.
aizawa shot izuku a glare but he couldn't stay mad when he was smiling so much. Midoriya untied him and apologised. he was laughing when he did and he wasnt exactly sure he meant it.
"can i practice using a real knife on a dummy now?"
"sure, whatever." then aizawa just handed him a knife and left him to it.
aizawa walked over to the others and watched izuku train, he was trying his best to not hit spots that would be fatal on a person.
"wow, that kid is something." midnight said
"that kid will be a great hero." aizawa plainly said
even nezu seemed surprised, aizawa almost never said that.
"i see you've taken a warming to midoriya." nezu commented
"sure, he's the one I've been working with for the past two months on the case. we all thought he was some retired hero or had some analysis quirk when actually he was a bullied quirkless 13 year old with a really usefull hobby, a scary high pain tolerence and unbeleivably low grades"
"yes, he is quite a remarkable boy."
"dont corrupt him nezu." aizawa deadpanned
they all just laughed at aizawa.
meanwhile izuku had hit all the non-fatal points on the training dummy and started to get bored. he decided he would get another dummy as he ruined the other one and try using both his knife and combat skills together. he was practicing a way of weaving them together and tried pretending his weapon was knocked from him and what he would do. he also destroyed that dummy, doing the same thing again just seemed really boring so he bothered aizawa to try to teach him knife throwing.
izuku was easily a master at knife throwing, he roughly estimated the amount of force he neede to deal just the right amount of damage. timing was something he struggled with at first as he wasn't used to holding the knife the way he had to to throw them but he quickly adjusted. aizawa could see that he was holding back and only doing what he needed to, that was a good skill to had but it was scary the unknown amount of power izuku had when he threw knives.
aizawa eventually decided to make him go on one side of the gym and told him to throw it as far as he could with a much force as he could. midoriya didnt do that instantly but instead tried to find the best timing to get the most distance, then he slowly added more force to see how that would effect the timing, he was glad he did as it greatly effect the timing. then he calculated the best timing for the throw he was going to put all his force into, he got into position then threw it. the knife laded at the other side of the gym stuck into the wall which meant that he could throw it even further if the wall wasn't there, this kid had an unbelievable amount of strength.
"what workout regime are you on midoriya, damn." present mic shouted
"its all in the timing actually" nezu interupted
"yeah, what nezu said." midoriya said "im going to let him explain it, he knows more than me and he'll probably tell me why it worked and hopefully tell me any way to get it further."
aizawa went to retrieve the knife when he found that the knife had stuck itself really far into the concrete
there's no way the timing effected that.
nezu was explaining it to the rest and aizawa started packing up, he saw some blood on the ground which wasn't there earlier. he looked at midoriya, he could tell the adrenalin was wearing down and he might feel a bit of pain in a bit but something was playing at the back of his mind since the personality 180. he had a feeling that deku wasn't being completely honest and this was a chance to try and prove that. there it was, the pain had set in. izukus face scrunched up a bit before it returned to normal, he didnt seem to tell anyone about it but he seemed like he wanted to get away. he eventually must've made up an excuse as he went to the changing rooms. everyone else wet home and aizawa waited for him at the exit.
"you okay deku?"
izuku mentally winced at that name but there was a reason he chose it, he had to have people remind him of what he really was, aizawa means the word in a different way but all izuku could think about was ka-chan saying it in his hatred filled way.
"yeah, why?"
that proved what aizawa was thinking, he wasn't being entirely honest with them. he just didnt wan them to worry about him which he understood but it still didnt stop him from being a little upset about it.
"just wanted to check."
"okay? oh, by the way do you have any DVDs at your house?"
"DVDs? how outdated are you? if your asking if ive got any films then its a yes."