All Or Nothing

Chapter 2: It's Not Just About Smashing

A/N: Hey! Riverside here! This will be the first chapter I publish since Fireside went on leave. I hope you enjoy!

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The rush back home was eventful to say the least, Izuku's heart never pounded so hard in his life as he reflected on what happened. He has a quirk, he talked to a girl, he saved her, she saved him... HE FREAKIN EXPLODED LIKE BAKUGO. Izuku screamed incoherently into the wind while running, much to the confusion of passersby's. He ran, and ran, and ran. Passing his apartment and ending up at the now pristine beach, Izuku stares at the shimmering water before staring back at his fist. It was pretty late in the day so few people were out, and the ones who were had already become well acquainted with the sight of Izuku training on the beach. Time seemed to stand still as his thoughts caught up with him. 'I- I really did that? Can I do it again?' Looking over his shoulders to check if anyone is there, he finds no one and reels his arm back to try a punch toward the sea. 'Tighten my butt cheeks and...' "SMASH!!!"

. . .

"This is Miho from MBN. Breaking news! Seismologists report readings of a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on the coast of Musutafu city. Local coastal and oceanic buoy sensors have not detected an impending tsunami but residents along Takoba beach and Tokyo Bay are encouraged to be vigilant. Police and Heroes have been dispatched to the affected area to search for any citizens who might've been injured..."

. . .

Izuku felt the huge gust of wind and heard the roar of the sea as he clenched his eyes shut to keep the sand out. When he opened them, it seemed the sea had parted for him. 'Just like that Moses guy!' Izuku thought. Looking down, the sand infront had been blown away, even some of the bedrock. What remained was a deep crater. Soon the ground started shifting as the sand Izuku was standing on was most definitely unsupported now, and before he could run back to the road, he fell in.

The massive roar of falling rock and sand assaulted Izuku's eyes and ears as tons of earth surrounded him as he struggled to keep his head above the chaos. Filling him with even more dread was the sound of water. The ocean was pushed back only temporarily and had come back to regain its territory. Millions of gallons come crashing back down, churning with the earth into mud, and trapping Izuku in its grasp. His head now underwater and also under mud, only his left arm fully out of the sand and mud but still underwater.

Izuku flails for a bit, panicking as he tries to think of a way to get himself out of here. For a second he considers punching again, however, he's now surrounded by water, sand, and mud. Very dense mediums, the shockwaves in air he felt were already painful, how much more devastating could they be here? Could he kill himself?! He'd rather not find out the hard way.

Instead he shimmed back and forth like a worm, freeing his left shoulder, head, torso, and eventually legs. Though he was still a decent distance underwater. Thankfully, Izuku is a rather good swimmer, one of the few things he was better at than Bakugo (who mainly flew across the pool, not swam) and often held his breath for long periods of time in school to avoid drawing attention. With about a minute of air left, he kicked his way back up to the surface. Where a few onlookers had spotted Izuku getting sucked into the hole (though thankfully not the punch) and ran up to toss a life ring on a line. Izuku graciously grabbed ahold of it and although he COULD swim back on his own, he had dealt with enough crap today to bother.

He felt the water push back against him as the line went taught, a small wake forming behind him. Eventually his feet found purchase on the sand as he was dragged onto the shore. Rolling onto his back, he looked up to see his saviors. One was the life guard who had been hired a month or so ago when the city realized the beach was mostly habitable again, another was the owner of a restaurant near the beach where he and All Might often stoppped by after training. The last one he hadn't seen before, a girl with orange hair and rather large fists.

Unceremoniously coughing water from his lungs, Izuku got himself up on his feet and brushed some dirt off himself in a small attempt to save face. "Thank you for the help!" He bowed slightly. "No problem kiddo, consider it a thanks for giving me a job." The life guard said. "And thanks for bringing my customers back!" The restaurant owner exclaimed. Izuku nodded in appreciation before turning to the third party. "Thank you! I'm Midoriya Izuku." Izuku said, bowing again. "I-it was no problem! I'm Kendo Itsuka!"

— Several minutes earlier —

Kendo was on her way to the beach, something that she recently found she enjoyed doing, especially now that it was close to being completely cleared of trash. Though surprisingly she never saw any equipment to clean up. However, she often saw a guy about her age with green hair and a rather plain looking face picking up trash. Course she didn't just sit there and watch him all day. What was she? Her old classmate Ayano? That girl moved away ages ago, she guessed to follow the boy the odd girl had been stalking for some time. Anyway, she'd only see that guy in passing, occasionally seeing a thin blonde man accompanying the broccoli.

Over the course of the last two months, she saw how quickly the beach had cleaned up. Even yesterday there was still a whole ass truck in the trash pile. WHO THROWS AWAY A TRUCK LIKE THAT? Yet now, the beach was spotless. Which was why she was here now. Mentally and physically exhausted from the UA entrance exam a few hours prior, she decided to unwind. Especially with the sun setting, the beach was especially beautiful. A no brainer in her opinion.

Though she wouldn't say it out loud, the beach cleaning was a bit infuriating as she was scavenging parts and materials for a motorcycle she inherited. It was an old pre-quirk American motorcycle and while it had the critical components were still there, much of it had to be rebuilt from scrap. Now that the beach was clean, she'd have to find another place to source material from. She didn't mind too much though and right now the beautiful sunset at the beach was more than enough to make up for her disappointment right now. If anything she's tired as fuck and too tired to give a shit, scrap sourcing be damned. That was a problem for future Itzuka, not the present one.

*BOOM*

The sudden sound startled her out of her thoughts as she whirled around to the left so fast it could've given her whiplash. The ground beneath her seemed to rise and fall for a brief moment and the sea parted. Her eyes scanning back and forth, she saw the green haired kid fall and disappear down what she thought was a sinkhole. Could one appear on a beach? Hell if she knows, her geology is limited to "Geology rocks!" and right now she has more pressing concerns. Running over along with several other bystanders to a spot on the sea wall closest to the hole, she started clambering down the steps to the beach before she noticed the mass of water coming back at them.

She, along with the others backed away from the wall quickly as the wave smashed against the sea wall, throwing water spray up some 20 meters. As it settled down, the life guard appeared next to her as the two of them chased after the retreating wave, stopping at the original shoreline. She spotted a little bit of green floundering in the water and pointed for the lifeguard to see. "Over there!" She yelled, as the lifeguard nodded. The riptide was stronger than ever but he knew from watching the kid that he could swim, his floundering suggested he was out of breath and while going in was an option, that was risking his own life as well. It would do him no good to die before saving the kid since those currents were certainly stronger than he could handle by himself, let alone dragging the kid.

Quickly thinking he grabbed the life ring and the line attached to it and begun spinning it faster and faster. Up to a point where he began to apply his quirk: Rotate which amplifies an existing spinning object little by little. The ring became a blur before he let go, the ring sailing in the air before landing just a arms reach away from the kid. Itsuka heard a grunt from the life guard after he threw the ring an astonishing distance. Spinning to face him, she saw him clutching the hand he spun the ring on to his chest, all covered in rope burns some bits even bleeding. His other hand adamantly held onto the rope and even began reeling it in. Without thinking Itsuka made her way to the rope infront of the lifeguard, and helped with pulling thanks to her quirk.

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End of chapter 2
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(1593 words)