Chapter 50: A Healer's Words, A Rival's Revelation
The roar of the stadium was a distant, muted ocean of sound, a world away from the sunlit tranquility of the Class 1-A waiting room. The break was a precious, fleeting thing, and the students were using it to rest, to strategize, to simply breathe. Rock Lee, feeling the last of the exhaustion being knitted away by Recovery Girl's Quirk, had decided not to return to the stands immediately. He needed a moment to center himself, and he knew a fellow classmate might need one as well.
He found Momo Yaoyorozu sitting alone on a bench in a quiet, unused corridor, her back to the entrance. She was staring at her own hands, her posture a portrait of dejection. Lee approached quietly, his footsteps soft on the polished floor.
"Yaoyorozu-san," he said gently.
She started, turning around, her eyes slightly red. She quickly composed herself, a polite but fragile smile appearing on her face. "Ah, Lee-san. Congratulations on your victory. It was… truly magnificent."
"You fought with great intellect and courage as well," he replied with earnest sincerity. "Your ability to create such complex items in the heat of battle is a testament to your brilliant mind."
Her smile wavered, and a look of deep frustration crossed her features. "But it wasn't enough," she said, her voice barely a whisper. She looked down at her hands again. "Tokoyami-san… he was so fast, so relentless. I knew what I needed to create—a flash grenade, a shield, something to counter his Dark Shadow—but my mind couldn't keep up with the speed of his assault. He… he was even being careful not to harm me. To lose like that, to be so completely outmaneuvered… it feels worse than a straightforward defeat."
Lee listened patiently, his dark eyes full of a quiet, empathetic understanding. He sat on the bench, leaving a respectful distance between them.
"I do not believe failure is an endpoint, Yaoyorozu-san," he said, his voice calm and steady. "It is merely data. It is a signpost that shows us where we are weakest. And where we are weakest is precisely where our greatest potential for growth lies." He looked at her, his expression serious. "Your mind and your Quirk are a brilliant, dazzling tool. Now, you have acquired new data. You know you must use your hard work to sharpen the speed of your decision-making to match the speed of your intellect. I have no doubt that you will succeed."
His words were simple, yet they were delivered with such absolute, unwavering faith that Yaoyorozu found herself looking up, a flicker of her own determination returning to her eyes. Before she could thank him, a new voice interrupted them.
"Lee-san? Yaoyorozu-san?"
Izuku Midoriya stood in the entrance to the corridor, his ever-present notebook clutched tightly in his hand. He looked nervous, but his eyes held a burning, analytical intensity.
"Midoriya-kun," Lee said, surprised. "Should you not be watching the other matches? The battle between Ashido-san and Sero-san just concluded."
"I saw it! Ashido-san's victory was amazing!" Midoriya said quickly, taking a hesitant step forward. "But… Lee-san, if you have a moment, I came to speak with you. I have a very important question."
Yaoyorozu and Lee exchanged a curious glance. "A question? About what?" she asked.
"About the Gates," Midoriya said, his voice dropping to an intense whisper. The name hung in the air, a word of power and mystery. He opened his notebook, his nervousness vanishing as his analytical mind took over completely. He flipped through several pages filled with intricate sketches and detailed notes.
"I've been observing," he began, his muttering habit taking hold as he pointed to different diagrams. "The First Gate, the Kaimon, appears to be a baseline release, removing the body's natural limiters to achieve superhuman speed and agility. The Second, the Kyūmon, seems to be a restorative function, a burst of stamina, as seen after your aerial maneuver in the Cavalry Battle. The Third, the Seimon, is the first major output stage—the red skin, the steam—it's a massive increase in power at a visible stamina cost. The Fourth, the Shōmon, is where the aura becomes visible, a blue energy field signifying a colossal leap in power, but it comes with intense pain and a severe physical backlash. And the Fifth, the Tomon…" He paused, his eyes wide. "The turquoise aura. The power is on another level entirely, purely destructive, but the cost appears to be catastrophic. It's a system, a sequence of releasing your body's latent energy, isn't it?"
Lee and Yaoyorozu stared at him, their mouths slightly agape.
A slow, joyous grin spread across Lee's face. "Incredible!" he exclaimed, his voice booming with delight. "That is the most precise and insightful analysis I have ever heard! It is the first time anyone has understood the nature of my techniques to such a degree! Midoriya-kun, are you a genius?!"
Midoriya's face exploded in a red blush, and he began to stammer, waving his hands frantically. "N-no! Not at all! It's just a hobby! I just like to observe and take notes, that's all!"
"I am surprised as well," Yaoyorozu said, her voice filled with genuine admiration. She looked at Midoriya with newfound respect. "I did not realize you were so skilled at Quirk—I mean, at power analysis, Midoriya-san. That was a truly brilliant deduction."
Midoriya's flustered state only worsened, but he quickly forced himself to focus. "T-thank you! But that leads to my question. My very important question." He looked at Lee, his eyes burning with a desperate need for knowledge. "The First Gate. The Kaimon. How do you open it? What is the mechanism?"
Lee's smile faded, replaced by a serious expression. "That is not something you can learn to do overnight, Midoriya-kun. It requires years of specific, grueling physical conditioning…"
"You misunderstood me," Midoriya interrupted, his voice firm. "I am not trying to copy your skill. I would never be able to. I need to understand the principle. The theory. What do you do inside your body to begin the process?"
Lee was silent for a long moment, considering the question. He looked at his own hands, then back at Midoriya. "It is… a matter of feeling," he said slowly, choosing his words with care. "It is about making and feeling your own life force… your energy… flow through your entire body as one unified river. You do not command the power to go to your fist, or to your legs. You must first become the vessel. You must feel the river fill you completely, from the very tips of your toes to each individual strand of your hair. The Gate only opens when the entire river is flowing as one. The power is not focused on one point; it emanates from the whole."
Midoriya's eyes widened. The notebook slipped from his trembling fingers, falling to the floor with a soft thud.
The world seemed to fall away. Lee's words echoed in his mind, a key turning a lock he never knew existed. The entire body… not just one point…
He saw it all in a flash of painful memory. His finger, broken and purple after the ball throw. His arm, shattered and useless against the Zero-Pointer in the entrance exam. His other arm, ruined and mangled after his Smash against the Nomu. Every single time, he had treated One For All like a cannonball, trying to force its oceanic power through the tiny, fragile vessel of a single limb. And every single time, the vessel had shattered.
I've been doing it wrong, he thought, a wave of stunning, earth-shattering clarity washing over him. Completely wrong. I've been trying to pour an ocean into a teacup… when Lee-kun is telling me I need to become the ocean itself.
A strange, quiet, and slightly unsettling smile began to spread across his face. It was not a smile of happiness, but of revelation. The smile of a prisoner who had just been handed the key to his own chains.
"Midoriya-kun?" Lee asked, a concerned look on his face. "Are you alright?"
"Yaoyorozu, who had been listening with rapt attention, also looked at him with worry.
Midoriya blinked, snapping back to reality. The quiet smile remained. He bowed deeply, his head almost touching the floor. "Thank you," he said, his voice thick with an emotion so profound it was startling. "Thank you so much, Lee-san. You have… given me more than you can possibly imagine."
Without another word, he turned and practically ran out of the corridor, leaving Lee and Yaoyorozu staring after him in a state of utter confusion.
Just then, the roar of the crowd outside intensified, and Present Mic's voice boomed from the speakers. "HERE WE Go To THE FINAL FIRST-ROUND MATCH, KATSUKI BAKUGO Vs Denki Kaminari!"