All IN One Hero

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

This is a reversal. For once it's Itsu-chan who is afraid to touch Izu-chan. Tsuyu thought as she watched her two friends square off against one another.

Izuku, having copied her Frog-quirk, leapt at Itsuka kicking out with his feet but his opponent quickly sidestepped the attack, using the momentum to try and circle to Izuku's side where she could have potentially pinned him down with her arms on his clothed torso. However, Izuku was quicker and leapt away before Itsuka could bring her attack down and immobilize him. The two backed off one another, Itsuka a bit quicker.

It had been a few weeks since their return from their training trip under Torino-sensei, and with the last semester before the U.A. Entrance Exam starting this was the first time they had been able to meet together.

Her fellow greenette may not have recognized it but Tsuyu could tell that Itsuka was avoiding getting touched, skin-to-skin by Izuku. Itsuka was, for lack of a better word, a powerhouse when it came to sparring. Her quirk, her size, and her strength often meant she adopted a very aggressive strategy when it came to sparring on Dagobah leaving Tsuyu and Izuku on the defensive. Now though their orange haired friend was clearly acting on the defensive, every time Izuku moved toward her she went out of her way to avoid his attacks and several times ignored openings that would have brought Izuku down if he didn't avoid them.

She must still blame herself for what happened. Tsuyu ribbited in frustration. After Izuku's first night in the hospital and he had not woken up from his quirk exhaustion Itsuka had become depressed and had been anything but enthusiastic about Torino-sensei's training. When Tsuyu had bluntly asked her what was wrong she had cracked almost immediately, a far cry from the normally confident and level-headed young woman's behavior, and confessed her fear that she had hurt Izuku when he had copied her quirk. Tsuyu had done her best to comfort her amazon friend but even after Izuku had awakened and they had returned to Tokyo it wasn't hard for her to see that Itsuka had become jumpy (no pun intended) around Izuku. If Izuku could just knock her down maybe he can show her how silly she was being.

After he had leapt away from Itsuka, Tsuyu noticed something strange about Izuku's posture. He had put his hands behind his back and under his shirt, away from where Tsuyu and Itsuka could see them.

"I don't remember teaching you a stance like that." Itsuka frowned, she seemed as equally unsure as Tsuyu as what to make of the young man's reasoning to hide his hands behind his back.

"You didn't. It's something new I came up with." Izuku piped back and flashed one of his almost patented brilliant smiles at Itsuka. It made Tsuyu's stomach churn, but in a good way? Sort of? She sighed under her breath. Izu-chan is always so cute when he smiles.

It was true. She had said so on multiple occasions and it always made her strangely happy to see him blush. She wished he would smile at HER more often.

Itsuka advanced on Izuku again, looking for some way she could grab him quickly and cleanly, but as she advanced the sand under her feet shifted and erupted! Surprised, Itsuka stumbled and gasped out, "GAH!"

"Gotcha!" Izuku said triumphantly before he brought out his arms...which were missing his hands and half of his forearm.

"Kero!" Tsuyu said, shocked and confused. She looked closer at his arm stumps and she could see there was red, healthy muscle and bone where each of his arms ended, but he wasn't bleeding at all.

"What-? What the hell!?" Itsuka screamed and it made Tsuyu turn her eyes back to the other young woman. Clamped around Itsuka's bare ankles were her fellow greenette's missing hands which they seemed to be able to do while floating on their own volition.