HandCrafted

The Admission

Patience was a virtue Itsuka had taught herself years ago. When she first began learning martial arts, she had found herself growing impatient at how slowly mastery and skill in the art came. It frustrated her to no end, and beyond all reason. It always had looked so easy to do, and the fact that she wasn't mastering it immediately had her younger self deeply, deeply annoyed.

Martial arts weren't something that could be learned in a few weeks though, and it was far, far more complex than just throwing a punch and a kick, and becoming the next Karate master. It was something that had to be practised, and trained, and above all, it took time.

It took a lot of time to learn. To figure out. To be confident, and to be able to do it.

She learned that when she failed her first grading.

That had been a watershed moment for her when she looked back on it. Maybe without even realizing it, it had imprinted itself onto her core beliefs as she grew up. That she needed to be patient when she needed to learn something, that she needed to put the time and the effort in. Learning that, she passed her second grade with flying colours, and didn't fail a single one afterwards until she entered Yuuei, when she had to prioritize Heroism over continuing lessons. She kept her skills alive and active though, practicing what she learned, keeping them toned, and applying it with her Quirk. She even still kept in touch with the people she had taken lessons with.

Her sports uniform had soaked up a fair bit of her sweat from her training, that she only noticed when she slowed down for a second to take a breather. She wiped her forehead with her wrist and took a long inhale. Punching bags, target pads and other equipment was surrounding her. Durable equipment that could take a punch from someone putting their all into each and every strike, even if they had a Strength Enhancement Quirk - Having easy access to all of the best training equipment was definitely a benefit of studying at Yuuei, and living on campus there.

Ideally, she would have had someone around with her, to take the strikes and to return them in kind, but she had found herself on her own, her friends and dorm-mates all busy with other projects and routines. That was fine though. This was more an indulgence than anything. Just a small exercise to keep her old skills sharp, as well as something that she enjoyed.

If there was any extra-curricular activity that she was happy that she had taken, it had been her martial arts. She wasn't sure if she'd even be here if it wasn't for that, and how she had learned to incorporate it with her Quirk. It had made her a hell of a lot stronger, and more confident, and sure of herself when she finally took the entrance exam. Not that she neglected the intellectual side of things either. While she was glad that she wasn't known as a total muscle head like Tetsutetsu was, she couldn't deny that she felt her strength had been a big factor on her admission into the school. And if she were blunt and honest about it, she was proud of her strength. She felt she had earned it.

Those lessons had taught her a lot too. Not just about martial arts, but when she stopped to think about things, they could relate to other areas of her life as well.

Like patience. And being confident in oneself. But also when she shouldn't push a matter, and when it was best to give a little breathing room.

Such as with the situation between her and Momo.

Itsuka felt herself exhale. These days, everything seemed to loop back to Momo, didn't it? Somehow, in some way, it always happened. She couldn't even train and mindlessly punch a few stationary targets without her thoughts drifting towards her 1A crush.

That just seemed to be how her brain was working these days. She'd been in this particular loophole before, liking someone, and finding that just about every single thing that she thought or did somehow made her think of the one on her mind. It was a never-ending cycle that would just keep on going and going until things came to a head and either she spoke to Momo, or Momo spoke to her.