Requiem of the Broken

Izuku V

"A jab from the left, followed by a leg sweep into a tackle. Dodge the jab, step into his space, and counter with a grapple." his instincts guided his movements. 

As he foresaw, a jab came to his left, which he easily dodged, then instead of creating distance, he stepped into point-blank range and countered his opponents dip into a leg sweep with a grapple. He latched onto the exposed arm and then heaved his opponent over his shoulders. His opponent slammed into the mat back first, driving the air from his lungs and Izuku tackled him. He pinned him to the mat, and with one arm on his opponent's neck, he forced his opponent to concede.

He released his hold and helped his opponent to his feet. Then after taking a few steps back, they bowed to each other. Both of them ached all over, and Izuku knew he was going to have a bruise on his arm later from when his opponent struck him with a roundhouse kick.

Izuku made his way to a nearby bench and chugged the water he had put there earlier.

"Do you ever stop training?" came a voice from beside him.

Izuku looked over and saw that Ahmya had just come into the dojo, dressed and ready to train herself. Izuku just shrugged and rubbed his sore arm.

"You've beaten almost every instructor here in hand-to-hand combat, and certainly no trainee is able to keep up with you anymore." She said frowning. 

"You need to relax some, you're just going to run yourself into the ground at this rate. I'm surprised it hasn't happened already, you spend almost every waking moment here training, at the field with your squad training, or in your room reading and taking notes. Do you have anything you do for fun? Any sort of hobby?" She asked, genuinely concerned that Izuku was either going to have a heart attack or a stroke from the strain he was putting his body under.

Izuku couldn't meet her gaze so he went back to drinking before answering. "I study heroes, quirks, and support technology as my hobby I guess," he mumbled out.

Ahmya just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in agitation before glaring at him. "You need to stop this, your superiors have already spoken with me and we all agree that this isn't healthy. So, I came here to train, and to give you this," she said handing him a sheet of paper.

Izuku took it, and read it over, his face going rigid at the contents.

"I've been barred from the dojo and the field? Along with orders to go lights out by ten?" he said, surprised.

"Everyone is concerned, me, my squad, your squad, and your superiors. While you are a model soldier, and your work ethic is commendable, you're also tearing yourself apart little by little. So you are being officially ordered R&R." she said, smiling to help lessen the sting of her words.

Anger flared inside him, and he fought to control himself. It was difficult, but eventually, he got himself under control and his rational mind kicked into gear. Now that she had said it, and he had been ordered to stop training, he partially realized what he must look like to everyone else. He took stock of his current situation quickly, and he had to grudgingly agree with Ahmya's and his superior's assessment of the situation. He knew, rather than felt, that the exhaustion he had been ignoring had settled deep into his bones. The more he thought of it, the more he imagined the bone-deep tiredness seeping into his body.

He left the dojo and made his way to his room. By the time he got to his room and had removed his shoes, he could feel himself shaking. He practically crawled into his bed, and he passed out shortly thereafter.

______________________________________

Barely a week after he had been ordered to relax, the world had to go and flip on itself. In only three days, Japan seemed poised on the edge of a civil disaster. If the skyrocketing villain rates weren't bad enough, then vigilante gangs had started cropping up all over. Gang wars had gripped several cities and the dangerous ideas and teaching of Destro had started taking hold all over the country at an alarming rate.