~BNHA~ Everything That I Am

Chapter 8

"You need to focus!" Kacchan yelled.

Izuku clenched his eyes tighter as he tried to feel for One for All. It was more complicated than he could imagine. Izuku sat cross-legged on the floor of their training room. It was an open-spaced private area that was once used for physical therapy. It was also the only time the boys had time to themselves since the detective wanted to keep Izuku's quirk a secret. No one else could use this room but them. Even so, with all the volunteer work the boys did, they only had about an hour or two a day to use the space.

Izuku had struggled to activate the quirk since day one. So after a few days with no results, Kacchan had been fed up. He had never been the patient type, as he grabbed Izuku by his shirt collar and thrown him to the matted ground. He had panted and huffed, towering over Izuku as if he was holding himself back from throttling him. Then, he had turned away from Izuku and told him to sit there and look for it, which Izuku took as meditation. Izuku had done this for the last three days, and he was still no closer than before. It was like trying to find the metaphorical needle in the haystack; only it was All Might's quirk somehow hiding out inside him.

Kacchan smacked Izuku's head with the rolled-up magazine he carried.

"You're getting distracted again!" He yelled.

Izuku rubbed the back of his head, glad when he didn't feel a bump. That had been the fifth smack today and the thirtieth smack this week. Izuku appreciated that Kacchan was helping him, but he was a rough teacher.

"I'm sorry Kacchan, but I don't even know what I'm doing!" He said.

Kacchan growled as he threw himself down beside Izuku. It had been three weeks since they had reached the safety area. Izuku's arm was healing at a snail's pace, much to the annoyance of both boys. It made his training slow and his works outs limited. But Kacchan had appointed himself as Izuku's instructor, so he was nothing if not persistent in helping Izuku master his new quirk.

Kacchan stared at him, brows scrunched and low as his finger tapped in irritation over his knee. "Grrr..I don't know how to explain it. My quirk is like a piece of me. Like another limb, when I want to use it I don't think, I do."

"But that's because its your quirk Kacchan, I never had a quirk I don't know what that feels like." Izuku said.

Izuku laid back. He couldn't move his broken arm, courtesy of Kacchan, who strapped it to his side. Kacchan had had a fit after Izuku use it one too many times while helping around the hospital.

"When you used it....against that villain...what were you thinking about?" Kacchan asked.

The space between them grew thick with tension. It was the first time Kacchan had brought up that day, and Izuku avoided thinking about it, not wanting to make either of them uncomfortable.

"I...I don't....I just didn't want you to die." Izuku said.

Izuku still had nightmares of that day. What if he had been too late? What if One for All never worked, and he had been unable to save Kacchan that day. Those questions had plagued him every night. And when it was awful, when he dreamt of All Might's death, somehow, it always morphed into Kacchan's execution. Izuku would wake a silent scream locked in his throat, reaching out to nothing. He never slept after that, too paranoid that he would lose Kacchan too. So Izuku would face Kacchan's sleeping form reassured with every rise of his chest. He was here. Alive. Izuku didn't have to do this without him.

Kacchan sighed as if he wasn't surprised by Izuku's response.

"And what did you feel in that moment, when One for All activated inside you?" He asked.