"Good. Now do it again, without Venom helping you out."
Izuku swallowed.
He knew what was about to come next.
...
He tried to make the black goo form into what he wanted just from his own thoughts. Then he punched.
The entire thing hit the car, but nowhere near where he had aimed, and rather than hit like a solid projectile, it instead just harmlessly exploded into a million black pieces, like it was a water balloon filled with ink.
For a moment, he just stood there, feeling rather embarrassed, Mina and black at looking rather unimpressed by the display.
"... You really need to work on that Midori."
"Yes. We'll begin with that."
She turned to look at him.
"Or rather, the first thing I teach you, you will use to master that."
She walked out in front of him and took the same stance as the one she had used against him earlier during the sparring match.
"Can you copy this stance Izuku?"
He did so, feeling pretty awkward as he stood in a slightly sideways manner, with his left arm sorta just… Hanging down.
"No, don't just let the arm swing like that, you have to actually be the one moving it, not just let gravity control It."
He quickly tried to do as she said, trying to get the pendulum movement she had in her arm without just swinging it harshly from side to side.
He felt absolutely idiotic as he did so.
"Good, that's better. Could be less forced and stressful, but we'll work on it. For now, just keep doing that. Next, we have your feet, you're standing a bit wrong, keep them more like this."
He tried to copy the way she stood, but it took him several tries before Black Cat was finally happy with it, then there was the bobbing motion, constantly shifting on his feet.
Finally, Black Cat was happy with his stance.
"Good… Now I want you to try and jab the air."
He did so. Jabs weren't exactly hard to do.
Immediately he felt an awkwardness trying to jab with his left arm being as it was.
"Not so easy is it? Hitman style was invented long ago in America, before the rise of quirks. It's a style that was made for the boxing ring, not real life. In a real fight, using a simple straight jab instead of something more complex like a flicker jab while in this stance is far, far more useful. And less likely to end with you getting stabbed."
She did a quick jab in the air, just to showcase, then immediately switched and did a flicker version of the same attack.
Seeing it from the side, Izuku saw the difference clearly. The flicker jab was a strange punch where you essentially threw a whiplike jab from your elbow instead of using the entire arm.
"After the rise of superhumans, however, It became way more useful, for the simple reason of the increase in speed and power. When a normal person uses a flicker jab, it's just a quick, not too damaging move. In the ring, it's there to keep distance between you and your opponent, while also being great for a follow-up blow, but it's not a knockout blow by itself."
She jabbed the air again to demonstrate her point.
"When we superhumans use it…"
The next jab was so quick and snappy that it produced a small sonic boom, like a bullcrack whip.
"Well, you can guess. The point is that it's a very viable move to use for us. Also…"
She did the jab at full power again, but rather than stopping, she instead turned the jab at it's peak into a massive power hook.
"Even if they dodge, you can often just nail them with a hook instead. It's a very useful technique. But the important thing for you is that it's an incredibly fast punch, and with the hitman style, it's very, very easy to repeat it time and time again."
She nodded towards the bus.
"It is perfect as a training technique for you to learn to throw punches rapidly and quickly, while also trying to master throwing the black cannonballs with every punch you make."
Izuku stiffened.
"So, you want me to learn the flicker jab… Just to train throwing cannonballs?"
"Yes. Now, let me see how well you can copy the move. We're gonna be working on this ALL day long."
...
"Your problem…" The man whose yellow-gloved hand was closed around her face. "Is that you've grown used to your own power and control."
Uraraka was lying flat on her back on the floor of a small apartment in a very run-down building, housing a very old veteran of the hero business.
The man standing above her was one Gran Torino, a hero who had been a contemporary and best friend of Nana Shimura, All Might's predecessor to the power of All For One.
"How… How is that a problem?" Uraraka asked, as the small, old man stepped off of her and let go of her face.
"It's a problem because you have reached a point where you're complacent with your powers. You have a pretty decent level of control, and your body is starting to adapt to one for all's real power. Those two things are good. What is not good, is the way you use it. You're still using the power as you did at the start. Short, strong, powerful bursts, when you could use it much, much more efficiently."
She swallowed, as she got to her feet, trying to make full sense of what he was saying.
"You're saying that having control, and just adapting to the power over time isn't enough. That I need something more."
"Let me guess? Your plan was to simply train and let the power acclimate to your body so that by the time you graduate, you'd be at the same level with it as All Might?"
"... Something like that."
"A cunning stratagem…" He said in the most sarcastic manner imaginable. "It might actually have worked too if you'd had the time. Unfortunately for you, you don't. Time is not on your side. Nor on your enemies. But your enemies will not simply sit back, and wait for you to get stronger."
"Right… They'll try and cut me down before I can reach my full potential. That's the smart thing to do."
A feeling of fear begin to creep into her, but she crushed it under a wall of determination.
She'd accepted this burden willingly.
"That was what the whole invasion was about. Killing me now, when I'm not a threat to anyone."
"Most likely. Either way, you cannot simply try to follow All Might's path, where everything about your powers comes naturally to you. You don't have the time for that."
"So… What do I do?"
"That's something you'll have to figure out yourself. I'm. Heading out to go buy some grub. You clean this up while I'm gone, kay?"
And with that, the little man who had just laid her low without taking a scratch just left out the door while nonchalantly whistling a tune.
She stared after him for a moment, then began to clean up the mess their little bout had left on his apartment.
And all the while, her head was racing with what exactly he had meant.
She had a suspicion. The simple fact was, she had understood what he meant. He critiqued her for only using her powers in bursts. He wanted her to use them like she had one for all active at all times. The question of course was how she was supposed to achieve that.
---
Iida Tenya was walking down the street behind the hero he had chosen to intern under.
The Normal Hero: Manual.
He was a good hero, but in all frankness, there was nothing that stood out about him. At a hero rank in the mid 200's, he wasn't exactly a hero who stood out, which was only amplified by the fact that his chosen hero name and moniker were an example of self-deprecation.
His quirk was not particularly outstanding either, being a very standard hydro kinetic quirk, that didn't even let him conjure or produce water himself, but merely control it from an outside source.
Masaki Mizushima was, in every way, an average hero. Nothing wrong with him, but nothing outstanding.
Many heroes in training would have looked down on him for that, or at the very least, not respected him.
Iida Tenya was not one of those.
He fully respected Manual. He respected that he was a fine, upstanding hero. However, the teenager had not chosen the man because of respect, or any wish of future employment, either as an intern, nor a sidekick.
He had chosen him for the simple and only reason that he operated in Hosu city.
For here, there was a dark, cruel monster still roaming the streets.
The Hero Killer Stain.
He was very glad that his friends had not heard of what had befallen his family in recent times. Hardy-Ashido and Midoriya in particular.
If they had, they might have guessed his purpose for coming to this city. Worse, they might have decided to try and help him in what he had to do.
But, this was his fight, not theirs.
...
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