ATOMIC STRUGGLE

2「the talk」0

"But that's not what I wanted to talk about," Izak shifted the conversation as his eyes fell on his classmate, who had the sudden urge to gulp. "You're not using your power right and it's been bugging me."

"O-oh, I'm.. sorry?" Midoriya blinked, unsure of how to respond to that. The maroonette heaved a sigh before going on.

"Just apologizing isn't gonna help anything, you need to stop using all of your power in one area and focus on a manageable amount and spread it throughout your body, otherwise you're gonna get nowhere."

"W-wait, young Morgan--" All Might tried to intercede as Midoriya blinked at the maroonette, but the pro flinched as an unintentional glare flashed across Izak's face when he glanced at him.

"What?" His expression returned to his usual neutral look, though All Might still felt the pressure of the earlier glare as he swallowed and reopened his mouth.

"...I can't just dismiss the new possibility that you were created by All For One--"

"I think you have the wrong idea," Izak cut him off, making the pro hero sort of gape at him at his audacity to show such blatant disrespect to his elder. "All of the stories the doctors told me featured All For One as the villain who was too strong and One For All as the hero who was barely holding the world together. They made it very clear that," He looked All Might right in the eye, unperturbed. "I am the person to replace One For All and defeat All For One, since it's taken you guys too long. Don't worry though," The teen leaned back. "You can take the credit for his defeat once I find and kick his ass. I don't care about that kind of thing."

"...N-Neither do I," All Might eventually said, too stunned to have spoken right away. "As long as All For One can be imprisoned or killed, I would do anything."

"Cool. Now then," Izak returned his gaze to Midoriya, who was muttering to himself as he looked between his hands. "Midoriya."

"Y-YES?!" He whipped to face him, eyes wide like a startled cat. Izak blinked at him.

"Chill dude, why are you so high strung?"

"Uh, well," He fiddled with his fingers awkwardly. "I just get caught up in my thoughts sometimes, and with what you said, I was trying to see how best to try it out, and--"

"Permission to use my quirk, All Might?" The maroonette asked, and instantly the two were on guard, Midoriya springing up while the pro just tensed. All Might was still a bit bewildered and processing the fact that Izak and All For One were connected in a way he had never expected, but in the end, he nodded his consent to his student's request.

Thus, Izak lifted his left hand and snapped, causing a very small percentage of Midoriya's quirk to run throughout the boy's body, causing him to gasp. To the greenette, the power coursing through him no longer hurt, but was warm and familiar as new green sparks flowed around him. "That's about one percent."

"One percent?!" The boy's jaw dropped. So low?!

"Mhm," Izak hummed with a slight nod, then tilted his head. "Think you can keep it running like that without my help? You'll need to be able to move with it like that, too, unless you want to be the most useless piece of crap ever, that is. "

"I-I'll my best!" He balled his hands into fists in front of him in determination, so the maroonette withdrew his quirk to allow Midoriya to control himself. The green sparks faded for a moment before they returned, Midoriya focusing on maintaining the power he had felt thanks to Izak's assistance. Keep the egg from exploding, he repeated to himself.

"Good," Izak nodded, then flinched as the end-of-lunch bell rang. "Crap."

"A-Ahem," All Might cleared his throat as he stood up. "We should end here, young Morgan, young Midoriya. Thank you for including me in this discussion, though I will have to report to the school about this," He gave the two a look, but Izak just shrugged as Midoriya allowed the power in his body to fade back to its dormant state.

"We'll be on our way then," The maroonette said as he slid the door open, stroding out into the hall as Midoriya quickly bowed to his mentor and scrambled after Izak. As All Might watched them go, he felt a sort of relief wash over him. Maybe he wouldn't have to face All For One again. Maybe Midoriya wouldn't have to either.

Maybe Izak Morgan would be the one to overcome that obstacle.

~*~

After their afternoon classes were over, everyone was packing up to leave when noise was heard outside the door. Ururaka opened it, and everyone's eyes widened. "Why the heck are you all here?!" Ururaka demanded in confusion.

"Do you students have some sort of business with our class?" Iida did his hand motion thing again.

"Why are you blocking our doorway?" Mineta demanded, "I WON'T LET YOU HOLD US HOSTAGE!"

"They're scouting out the competition, idiots." Bakugo explained as he approached the door. "We're the class that survived a real villain attack, they wanna see us with their own eyes."

"Let's just hope he doesn't explode anybody..." Midoriya mumbled as Bakugo passed him. Izak figured that was a reasonable wish considering the dude's track record, not that he himself was any better.

"At least now you know what a future pro looks like." The explosive blonde said to the crowd of students blocking the doorway. "Now move it, extras." He barked. Several people sweatdropped as Iida started doing his hand thing, telling Bakugo that it was inappropriate to call someone an extra just because he didn't know them.

Honestly, Izak would have reacted similarly to the explosive blonde had he cared enough to give a reaction, but after a long day at school, he didn't feel the need to exert that much energy on what was now a trivial matter to him. Instead, he just stayed in his seat, waiting for the spectacle to end.