ATOMIC STRUGGLE

2「midoriya's training」4

The next day, Izak was off to school before the sun rose, making sure to have breakfast and the usual hot chocolate out for Mihoko for when she woke up for school. Now, why was Izak leaving so early to go to school, you ask? That is because he preferred doing lessons in the morning rather than the afternoons so he could get back to Mihoko as soon as school was out.

So there he was, in the field, boredly checking his phone for the time as the sun finally peaked over the horizon and lit up the forest pleasantly. The arranged meeting time that he, Aizawa, All Might and Midoriya had agreed upon was 6:45am, meaning they would be done around 7:45am which would give Midoriya about an hour to clean himself up.

They all expected this training session, and all the others to come, to be hard work for the greenette.

It was about seven minutes before the start time when Aizawa arrived, carrying his sleeping bag under one arm and covering his yawn with the other. "Morning," He greeted once he was closer, causing his charge to nod in return. Settling down in his sleeping bag, the teacher snoozed for maybe five minutes, and then the other two arrived.

"Good morning Izak, Mister Aizawa," Midoriya waved as he jogged over with All Might trailing behind him.

"Morning," Izak replied, his arms crossed as he regarded his new student. "Ready to get started?"

"Yes!" The greenette confirmed once he had put down his things and discarded his jacket. Nodding, Izak began the training session.

"First, have you been able to maintain and move at the percentage we tried last time?" He asked as he walked around Midoriya, who suddenly felt very scrutinized.

"Y-yes, All Might and I worked a bit on Saturday and I was able to run while maintaining the one percent you showed me," the boy explained, causing the other teen to hum thoughtfully, then stopped in front of him.

"Then how do you feel about upping the percentage? We can wait if you want to get more comfortable at one percent," Izak said, but Midoriya shook his head.

"I'm okay, let's go up one percent," He requested, so Izak snapped his fingers. Instantly, the boy in front of him had maroon lines appearing on his body, then green sparks were emitted from him as the power-up stabilized into 2%.

For Midoriya, the energy was still warm and didn't hurt, though a bit more comfortable than he recalled one percent being. Maybe because he was already getting used to the power flowing through him? Either way, he was able to move as much as he wanted, which was proved when Izak instructed him to run back and forth in the field twice.

When he returned, he was breathing harder, but otherwise unbothered. "Good, then let's work on your combat skills."

"Uh, okay," The greenette blinked, the power disappearing at the feeling of being a bit unsure, especially since he was probably going to be fighting the person training him, aka the most powerful person on the planet besides All For One. He'd had the talk with All Might on Saturday before they had trained, which had ultimately pushed them into the training. Now that he knew, Midoriya felt he needed to get stronger as fast as possible, and he knew that Izak would be the only one that would be able to help him achieve that.

"Aizawa, use your quirk on me when I give the signal," Izak stated as he began to walk away, a cloth appearing in his hand. Tying it around his eyes as a blindfold, he stood in the middle of the field and drew a large circle around him. "Midoriya, you can attack me with anything you've got as long as you stay at 2% of your power. To make it fair, I won't be able to see and Aizawa will take away my quirk. You will have two minutes to force me out of the circle. You lose if you go past the time limit, and you lose if you leave the circle. Got it?"

"B-But isn't that going to be hard on you?" The greenette questioned, thinking that without his sight and his quirk, Izak wouldn't be able to do much. However, the maroonette snorted.

"Worry about yourself, kid. Now let's get started," He grunted. Finally, Midoriya joined him in the circle, causing the teen to gesture at Aizawa, who activated his quirk. Instantly, the hero in training was on the offensive, going to punch Izak, but the male easily dodged. "Predictable."

"Nn--" Midoriya lept back, knowing exactly what that word meant even if it was said in English, then he took a second to recollect himself. Beginning to run around his opponent, Midoriya's aim was clear: to try and disorient him. Since the maroonette couldn't really see, he was relying on sound, so this much russling should confuse him enough.

Then he paused for a single second to try and sweep Izak's legs out from under him, which--much to everyone's surprise--actually worked, but instead of falling, Izak did a one-handed handstand, then propelled himself back to his feet, still in the circle. "Not bad." He commented in English, still unable to use his translator since his quirk was being blocked.

Before Midoriya could respond to what seemed like praise, Izak moved and kicked him square in the face, sending him flying and therefore out of the circle. Instantly, Aizawa blinked, feeling his eyes burning with how long they had been kept open. "Uuuugh," The boy groaned, on his back with a nice, bright red footprint on his face.

"Your attacks are too simple," Izak surmised, taking off the blindfold and walking over to his student, offering him a hand up. "If you hadn't given me time to right myself again, this might have ended differently. You need to have each attack connect to the next. I get that All Might is your idol and all, but his fight style is geared for him, with his huge fake body and muscles--"

"Wha---"

"--But you don't have that strength or power yet, so we're going to keep working on making your fighting style less predictable and more suitable to you as you are," He explained once Midoriya was on his feet once again. "As you get better and grow, we can always change things up. Alright?"

Izak looked Midoriya in the eye, and for once in his life, the greenette felt like he could rely on someone. Not as a mentor, not as a peer, but as someone who knew what he was talking about and was confident enough to help him. Sure, All Might was a wonderful person, but he hadn't been able to help Midoriya as much as Izak had.

Midoriya's fear of Izak melted that day, replaced with awe and respect almost on par with his feelings for All Might.