Dynamite And A Laserbeam - Redux

Vol 3 - 5: Sports Festival Prep - Part 3

[Sports Festival Prep – Part 3]

The school bell rang, signalling to the students of U.A. that classes had ended, and that it was time to go home. If Izuku was going to be honest with himself—which he normally was—the last class he had, that being the training session he had at Gym Gamma, was one of his least favourite things that he had done that day.

It wasn't because he didn't want to train his Quirk, One For All, far from it; he wanted to get better with the Quirk seeing as he broke his body whenever he used it, and with the Sports Festival coming up, he couldn't go into it with that kind of control. Sure, he could be creative with the uses of his Quirk, but with just how stacked the odds were between him and his classmates, he needed to think of something.

Aizawa-Sensei had said it the best. He needed to control his Quirk. He needed to stop breaking his bones—or at least, he needed to stop breaking his bones to a frightening degree that he had been. He couldn't risk breaking whole limbs anymore—he shouldn't have settled for that in the first place.

His mother had made it a point to tell him that it was unacceptable. That he needed to start thinking of ways to control his new Quirk. His mom was right, and he knew she was right, but the problem was that he didn't know how to control his Quirk. That was what was bugging him—his inability to control One For All.

It was why recently, he was starting to get concerned. The Sports Festival was just two weeks away and with all the declarations made by his classmates about winning, he felt horribly inadequate. All of his classmates had years to train with their Quirks. Izuku on the other hand only had his Quirk for a week. Compared to everyone else, he had a massive handicap.

Not only that, but he also felt useless because of what happened at the USJ. He couldn't do anything of use after helping Tsuyu and Aoyama away from the boat. After that, he did nothing but risk his life, three times, and came out of it with nothing but his body broken, again.

When that hand villain reached out to touch Tsuyu's face.... He wouldn't have been able to act in time. Her face would've been turned to dust... she would've died. If Aizawa-Sensei hadn't used his Quirk right then and there, Tsuyu...

That image played on a loop in his head. He had been having sleepless nights because of it. It bothered him to an unhealthy extent. It went to show just how dangerous that hand villain had been.

And he was still on the loose.

That terrified him. He didn't know why, but he felt genuine fear with that prospect. The fact that a maniac like that was still on the loose... The only thing Izuku knew what to do was to train. To ensure that the next time they met, it wouldn't end in him freezing up.

But, even with that in mind... Why couldn't he get that manic look that villain had in his eyes out of his head? Why did it plague his nightmares? More importantly...

Why couldn't he keep the vision of Tsuyu dying in front of him out of his mind?

Tsuyu didn't die. She was alive. He saw her at Gym Gamma, so she was obviously still alive. But why did his imagination go to such a dark place? Why did he keep seeing the worst-case scenario repeat like a bad joke over and over again?

Sure, they all had mandatory sessions with HoundDog, and while they helped a little, it still didn't get that image out of his head. It still didn't change the fact that at that moment he wouldn't have been able to react in time. It still didn't change the fact that Tsuyu would've died right before his eyes.

Twice now, this had happened. No, actually. Three times, this had happened. Three times he had to bear witness to and or hear of someone nearly losing their life. Twice for his sake with Yoshihara, and once with Tsuyu nearly getting killed in collateral because some villain was having a temper tantrum.