My Hero Academia: Ruby and Emerald

Chapter 12: Younger Midoriya Izuku POV

Izuku was pretty sure that he was starting to grow muscles. About two weeks of beach training, on top of the diet plan and the little exercises that he could fit in at school, and he was finally starting to see a noticeable difference.

He was proud of it, but he knew he still had a long way to go. Like Mikumo said, he would need lots of muscles to be a hero! It took brains and brawn.

He was trying to shift an old, rusted out oven under Yagi-sensei’s careful gaze. His work gloves were starting to turn red from rust stains.

Katsuma and Katsuki were at a nearby trash pile, working on something Katsuma had referred to as “minimum applied force”. From what Izuku could gather, it was a lesson about how to be more efficient by making his explosions smaller. That was fascinating! If you prioritized precision over force it would make it a lot easier to work in areas with a high density of civilians, because once precision is natural, you wouldn’t have to worry as much about accidentally hurting civilians! This wouldn’t just apply to Kacchan’s rescue maneuvers, but also if he used his explosions to fly over a crowd, apprehending villains nonlethally, all sorts of things!

Mikumo was standing on the stairs about twenty meters away, alternating between reading something on his phone (case files, maybe?) and watching Kacchan and Izuku train.

That was when it happened. An explosion, too big for what they were attempting, sent metal debris flying through the air, straight at Izuku and Yagi-sensei. Izuku couldn’t move! There wasn’t time to get out of the way, him and Yagi-sensei would be hit—

In a blink, he was next to Yagi-sensei, hovering in the air above Kacchan and Katsuma. An arm was wrapped around his waist, covered in dark green cloth. So dark it was almost black.

The dark green on Mikumo’s hero costume.

They were slowly lowered to the ground. How?

Mikumo was… Mikumo was…

“Damnit, Katsuki! If you can’t watch your force, at least watch your angle!” Katsuma was yelling. “You almost hit Izuku and Yagi with that scrap! That could’ve really fucking hurt them, y’know!”

Kacchan wasn’t listening. He was staring at Mikumo, who was standing behind Izuku. Izuku turned around to stare at them too.

“That was… impressive, Midoriya-kun,” Yagi-sensei said.

“Are you both okay?” Mikumo asked, worriedly.

“We’re fine, Midoriya-kun. You got us out of the way in time.”

“You flew.” Izuku didn’t even realize he had said that out loud until Mikumo’s worried gaze was turned on him. He gathered his courage despite the tears he could feel forming in his eyes. “How did you do that?”

“He did fly,” Kacchan growled. He stomped forward and grabbed a hold of Izuku’s t-shirt. “Have you been hiding a quirk from me, Deku? You trying to prove a point, or something? You think you’re better, not even needing to use your quirk to become a hero like the rest of us? How dare—” Kacchan was cut off by Katsuma placing his hand over his mouth.

“He’s not looking down at you, dumbass. He really doesn’t have a quirk,” Katsuma said, releasing Kacchan. Kacchan released Izuku’s shirt to stab a finger towards Mikumo.

“Then how the hell do you explain that?” he shouted.

Mikumo sighed. “Yagi-san, you didn’t tell them?”

“Well…” Yagi-sensei trailed off, hunching his shoulders.

“Do they even know what they’re training to be?” Katsuma demanded.