The next day brought about new challenges for Izuku. One of them being getting fit. All For One wasn't holding back on him and it honestly felt like Izuku was training to be in the military. All For One had him train in a field that led into some woods behind it, far from the public's eye. He was annoyed, to say the least since it was literally his first full day being at the new place and All For One treated him as if he had done these exercises on the daily. Which, he hadn't, obviously, by the state of his body.
But it wasn't the extensive training that annoyed him the most. No, he could get used to this. What he couldn't get used to was the smirk that was plastered on Shigaraki's face as he sat back and watched Izuku break his body. That little shit.
Izuku was this close to punching Shigaraki in the face, but then, he really didn't want to die again from him. So, like the good teenager that he was, he dealt with the annoyance and went on to train to please his new guardian. It was stressful, tiresome, and tedious, but he knew that once he got fit to the point that All For One approved of, he could learn about his quirk. Baby steps.
He was told he would be training for three hours a day with ten minutes between each exercise for a break. That terrified Izuku, seeing as how he had never worked that hard in his life to make his body suitable for... for... he didn't even know why he had to have so much muscle on him. All For One just told him he needed Izuku's body to be strong. But then again, if he wanted to rule the world, he guessed he would have to be strong.
"You're doing great," Shigaraki shouted in a bored tone from the sidelines. Izuku huffed and rolled his eyes.
"Your sarcasm gets very annoying very quickly," Izuku shouted back. He saw Shigaraki shrug and pick up a book next to him to read. Bitch.
"All sarcasm aside, you are doing far better than I expected for your first day," All For One said from a few feet away from Shigaraki. Izuku smiled at this.
He was running (more like jogging) right now, 10 laps was what All For One wanted him to do. He was only on his sixth. Each step was excruciating. He hadn't had a break since before the laps and he honestly felt as if he was about to throw up.
'I can do this,' Izuku thought as he finished his sixth lap. 'Just three more to go.'
Before the running, he had done two sets of 100 sit-ups, three sets of 50 push-ups, two sets of 100 crunches, four sets of 1-minute planks, and spent thirty minutes working with some weights and weight balls. Atop of all of this, All For One even put Izuku on a diet.
He may have hated his situation right now, but Izuku knew soon that he would be grateful. At the moment, however, he was not grateful. He was also not grateful for the way that he lost his footing and fell to the ground. On his face. He huffed as he tried to stand but he was just so tired and weak. Then, he heard a raspy laugh coming from the sidelines and just fucking knew it was that Shigabitch's.
So, with all the strength he had left in him, he pulled himself off the ground and onto his feet to show the blue-haired asshat that he was perfectly fine. He was not useless. He was strong. He will finish the laps, no matter what. Even if the whole point was to rub it in Shigaraki's face, he would do it. That was what fueled him.
He pushed himself and made sure that he was running, not just jogging like he was doing before, but running. He looked behind him and saw that Shigaraki was no longer smirking and laughing but not even looking at him. He was reading his damned book again. All For One, however, had his eyeless face transfixed on Izuku, making sure to, what Izuku guessed, 'see' if he was doing it right. He hoped he was.
'Two more,' Izuku thought.
Through the blazing heat, he ran and ran and ran, not once thinking about giving up. He was going to make All For One proud and make Shigaraki, actually, no, fuck that creepy hand demon, his name is Shigabitch, eat his words. In Izuku's mind, if it made Shigabitch annoyed, then it was obviously a good idea.
After an excruciating three minutes, he finally finished his laps. He brought his hands up behind his head and stood tall, trying to catch his breath as best he could. Then, he heard clapping from behind him and turned to see All For One making his way over across the field. Izuku glanced over to Shigabitch to see that he simply put down his book and leaned back in his chair, soaking up some sun.
"Congrats," All For One said. "Just a few more exercises and we're ready to go back to the building."
"M-more exercises?" Izuku said in a defeated tone of voice.
"Yes. It's only been... two hours and 35 minutes. Come on, I'm thinking maybe a little bit of tree climbing."
Izuku gave a soft groan and fell to the floor. With the ten minute break, he still had to do 15 minutes of climbing damned trees and who knows what else All For One wanted him to do. He saw All For One walking back to his seat.
He laid on his back, still breathing terribly heavily, and looked up at the sky before closing his eyes because of the blinding rays of the sun. He was sweating a lot, too much for his liking. Though, he never liked sweat due to how wet and gross it was.
Then, like a gift from the gods, he felt a towel and, which was a not so gift of the gods, a water bottle being thrown on him. He coughed when the water bottle was thrown on his stomach and the towel over his face. He grabbed the towel and water bottle and sat up. His eyes adjusted to the bright day only to see Shigabitch right in front of him.
"Th-th-thank you," Izuku stuttered out.
"Look, if we're going to be working together in the future as my master wants, then we don't have to like each other but we can at least be tolerable of each other," Shigabitch said. Izuku blinked slowly at him.
"You literally killed me last night," Izuku said. Shigabitch's hand combed through his hair and he sighed.
"Fine. Don't accept my offer," Shigabitch said. He began to walk away but Izuku stopped him.
"If we can have a tolerable relationship, then you have to promise not to kill me anymore," Izuku said. Shigabitch half-way turned around and nodded.
"I can agree to those terms. But don't think this is a friendship. This doesn't mean we're gonna be braiding each other's hair and gossiping about people we don't like. Got it?" Shigabitch said.
"Shigabitch," Izuku muttered his nickname for him, thinking that he hadn't heard it.
"Midorihoe," Shigabitch countered back and walked away. A small smile crept onto Izuku's face and he laid back down on the grass. He could get used to this.
As all good things start, however, they must come to an end. Izuku's ten minutes of freedom was stopped almost as soon as it started- at least that's what it felt like. In reality, he knew it was ten minutes to the dot.
Huffing, he got up from the grass and walked over to a calm All For One. All For One hardly acknowledged him, just led him in the direction of the woods. Izuku followed him, with his new acquaintance walking close to All For One. Each step was hell, but Izuku managed to drag his feet to the new place.
"Climb," All For One said.
Izuku looked around. "Which tree?"
"Pick one. But a difficult one. We'll start you off at the very most and work your way down to smaller trees," All For One said. "I need to see how much effort you're willing to put in."
So, without further ado, he picked the most difficult looking tree within a 30-foot radius. The branches were spread far and the bark was smoother than the rest of the trees in the forest. It was tricky, but he could manage.
He ran up to the tree and jumped as high as he could and latched onto the branch closest to the ground. He used his upper body strength and used his feet to help him up, even if his shoes were slipping quite a bit on the bark. Eventually, he made it onto the first branch and took a few deep breaths.
"Great! Now get to the second branch," All For one said.
That would've been easy for Izuku, seeing as how easy it was for him to get onto the first, with only minor struggling, except the problem was that the second branch was on the other side of the tree and a few feet up farther than the first. But, without any verbal complaints, he worked on getting his way to the second branch. He hugged the tree and scooted himself up, only to fall off the tree and onto his back in what seemed to be like slow motion. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone other than the two other people that were with him, he screamed. It wasn't his fault that his life flashed before his eyes which scared him and made him scream.
When he landed, he got the wind knocked out of him, which made him panic. Tears started to fall and he was gasping for air. His body was violently shaking as he cried harder and harder.
"What a cry baby," Shigabitch rasped out.
Izuku didn't care, however, he just cried. He wasn't crying from the pain, but from how horrifying it was. The panic still hadn't settled and Izuku didn't think it would for a few minutes.
After a moment, he felt himself being lifted from the ground and held. He clung onto his savior and sobbed. It was only then that he realised it was All For One who was holding him. But All For One wasn't actually holding him, it was the other way around and Izuku only thought All For One was holding him. In reality, All For One only helped him up and suddenly, Izuku was being pushed away from All For One and he landed up against a tree.
"I'm not going to cradle you like a baby, so don't expect that. I'm just helping you up. Now, take a breather and try climbing again," All For One said.
'Wow, harsh,' Izuku thought.
He got back up, despite the pain that resided in his whole body and climbed the tree again.
---
When they got back to the building, Izuku immediately went to his room and collapsed on his bed. Everything inside of him hurt like hell and he was not happy about it. He groaned into his pillow.
The day had been hell and he was not excited to do it all over again tomorrow. But hopefully, he'll get used to the pain. Today was just not the day he'd get used to it and right now, all he wanted to do was simply stop existing. Sleep, however, was a good substitute.
Except, his door was suddenly being opened. He lifted his head from his pillow and turned toward his door, his eyes filled with no emotion as he looked at the person.
"Dinner's being made and you're expected to eat it," Hand Demon said. Izuku closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh.
"I'll be down in a few minutes," Izuku said and reopened his eyes. Shigabitch nodded and walked out. So much for sleep.
He got into a sitting position and sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair as he waited for some of the pain in his body to settle. It was no use, however, as the pain stayed.
Slowly, he got up from his bed and made his way out the door. Each second that passed, the more he thought about turning around and just going to bed. Instead, he chose to trudge down the stairs and to the kitchen. When he got there, he saw All For One and Shigabitch already seated with a third... person? sitting with them with plates of food in front of them. Izuku looked around the table and saw an empty chair with a plate of food in front of it.
"Midoriya," All For One started as Izuku sat down in a chair next to Shigabitch. "I'd like for you to meet Kurogiri."
"It's nice to meet you," Izuku said with a bow of his head.
Kurogiri was an unusual sight. He seemed to be made of a purple mist with bright, yellow eyes. He wore a pristine suit and sat up tall- perfect posture. He wasn't... scary, but definitely on the creepy scale.
"Likewise," Kurogiri said.
"He is here to protect young Shigaraki," All For One said. Izuku's eyebrows furrowed in confusion before he realised that he had gotten so used to calling him Shigabitch, that he forgot Shigaraki was his actual name.
"Right. Well, I hope you succeed," Izuku said.
"Was that a threat?" Kurogiri hissed.
"What? Oh, no! No, I promise. I- I was being serious! I r-really hope you succeed," Izuku said and Kurogiri's demeanor calmed down.
Izuku awkwardly looked down at his plate and waited until All For One said it was okay to start eating. As they ate, there was hardly any talking, not that Izuku expected much. This group of people didn't seem like the type to have a conversation during a meal.
---
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