There are only a few days left until UA starts, and I'm doing what every good Shonen anime protagonist does.
Training.
I perfected 5% of One For All, and now I'm going for 8%.
Working with 6% is simple; there's almost no pain, and the fatigue is barely felt.
7%, on the other hand, brings on tiredness much more quickly.
And 8% hurts like hell; it tenses my muscles with the slightest movement and fatigues me like nothing else.
8% isn't a sure bet for at least the next two weeks, and a month at most.
Working with small percentages is simple; it's like an XP-based video game.
At the beginning, you can level up and farm easily. Take Minecraft as an example.
At first, getting experience is easy; you kill animals, mobs, or mine coal and so on, and boom, you can easily have 10 or 15 XP levels.
Now, reaching XP level 30 is more time-consuming, and you have to mine quartz to get there or build mob farms and whatnot.
One For All is the same. Reaching 10% or 15% isn't very time-consuming; it's just a matter of repetition and adaptation.
Now, moving on to 30% and beyond is much more difficult because you can't just skip numbers; you have to go from 20 to 30, one by one.
Why am I explaining all this? Because this way, I can make a rough estimate of how long it will take me to reach a certain level.
But I'm not training alone, oh no, I'm training with All Might.
Why, if this didn't happen in the canon timeline? Well, it turns out that seeing me use 5% of One For All inspired my mentor, and he wanted to train with me before UA started.
So here we are.
"Come on, Young Midoriya, use the Delaware Smash!" Toshinori is asking me to use a pressurized air attack with my fingers, but I'll barely achieve anything with 5%.
"I can't, All Might. With 5%, the attack becomes useless." I don't understand why I have to explain this to him. I mean, he's the damn mentor I have; he should know all this.
"Then use 100%!" Idiot. The guy is amazing, but he's an idiot when it comes to being a teacher.
"And break my finger?" Come on, All Might, be smart, please.
"They say there's no improvement without broken bones." Ha, look who's talking, the bastard who had full control of this power from the very first moment.
"No, Mr. Toshinori, if I do that, I'll break my finger, and that's not the problem. The problem lies in my ligaments." This is basic logic. Why the hell am I explaining it?
"Young Midoriya, I understand your concern, but you will never master One For All if you don't use it at its maximum power at least once." Is this a joke? Am I condemned to break my bones even though I'm better at this than canon Izuku? Oh god, it's like the Parker luck but applied differently.
But I can't say no and cower; after all, I am success personified.
"If you say so." My voice sounds confident, although inside I'm cursing All Might in 15 different languages. "Delaware Smash!" Okay, that was fucking epic. Charging One For All to 100% felt brutal.
Like I'd been given the craziest sugar rush in the world.
Although it's not so epic anymore... in fact, this hurts.
"All Might?"
"...Yes, young man?"
"If I'm not being healed by Recovery Girl in exactly 37 seconds from now, I'm going to stick one of my hairs up your ass so you can take One For All back." My voice is calm, but the pain I'm feeling is immense, like someone just gave me the biggest kick in the balls possible.
I envy you, canon Izuku. Your determination to break your bones and keep going is legendary.
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I'm lying on a hospital gurney to recover stamina from Recovery Girl's healing.
All Might is being punished by said woman for his recklessness.
And I'm doing a mental calculation about my power in relation to this universe's canon timeline and how long it will take me to improve.
And if we draw a timeline with the "canon" events of the anime, I estimate that by the time of the USJ attack, I'll have between 10% and 13% of One For All under my control, but not perfected.
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I'm drinking a soda can while heading home by train, and as I travel, I'm doing mental calculations about One For All again.
I know, I'm totally dedicated to this; you don't have to mention it.
Perfecting One For All to 5% took its time, and seeing this, I reckon I'll have the same problem with the remaining percentages.
Which doesn't bother me too much.
Let's be logical; I have a huge advantage regarding future events.
Everything that has happened and will happen for now isn't something that scares me.
The only thing that really has me fearful is the battle arc in Deika City.
Not only because I barely remember what happened in between that arc.
Yes, there are the Endeavor internships, and then you have an arc titled "My Villain Academia," but after that, you jump straight into the great battle in Deika City.
And that shit is definitely going to go down.
Shigaraki will have All For One, and there will be Gigantomachia and the fake heroes and all that crap, Twice dies, and so on. I used "and" a lot, but damn, it's a lot.
The rest makes me shit my pants and strongly consider leaving for a deserted island to live the life of a nomad.
Then there's the 'vigilante Deku' arc with his damaged and epic suit.
Speaking of suits, I've already sent my suit form to UA because, although I appreciate Inko, I wasn't going to wear that cheap costume.
Sorry, Inko, I love you, but I don't love your costume.
Returning to the topic at hand.
I must maintain a margin of advantage to be able to defeat Shigaraki and kill him in the process when the time comes.
That way, I kill Shigaraki and, in the process, make the All For One Quirk disappear.
Will it work? No idea, all I can do is have faith.
And all this makes me realize how weird life is. I went from watching memes on my phone before sleep to planning how to survive a war that may or may not happen.
Anyway, the moral of all this is:
Don't watch memes late at night, or you'll end up like me.
But before all that, there's something else I must consider.
And that is: Eri.
Eri is under Overhaul's control now, and only God knows what kind of harm she's receiving... oh wait, I do know from the anime.
I know I'm not the perfect hero or anything like that; I love heroes and their convictions, and now that I have the chance to be one, I will be.
But I am clearly selfish and even arrogant.
Still, I can't be at peace with myself knowing that a little girl is being hurt.
Can I do anything to save her? Not right now, unless I want to risk everything I've planned.
But All Might can, so I'll take the trouble to create an alibi to alert them about Eri's situation.
That the girl was injured and her father was a Yakuza.
If everything goes as I hope it will, a raid could be organized where the Symbol of Peace himself would be present.
I'd be saving your pathetic life, Sir Nighteye, and you should be thanking me instead of sucking up to All Might and offering him successors like a salesman offers things to people... What an insufferable guy.
And Chisaki? That moron can go cry to his grandfather's comatose body or whatever it was.
That failed bastard thinks he's all that, but he's just a fourth-rate thug.
And while I've been narrating all this to you, I've just completed my daily exercise routine, keeping One For All active in intervals without being noticed. Can you ask for a better protagonist than me? Allow me to be a little arrogant and say I highly doubt it.
Now there's only one more concern in my path.
What will happen when I contact the previous wielders? Will they find out I'm an impostor? Or will they help me just because the situation requires it?
I certainly don't wish to force them to give me their Quirks or anything like that.
I consider myself a bastard in many aspects, but never one who takes from others what doesn't belong to him.
I'm barely managing to reach 8% of One For All, and theoretically, if my meta-knowledge doesn't fail me, I should make contact with them when I access 20%.
I still have time to think about what I'll do and what I'll say, but that doesn't make it any less of a worry.
With them on my side and my meta-knowledge, this will be almost a win for me.
With them against me... well... I hope the person or deity who put me here is kind enough to send me to another anime I've actually seen. I mean, if they send me to Fire Force or Fullmetal Alchemist, I won't complain.
I'm just putting that data out there, Mr. or Mrs. Deity. You know, those are my preferences, just so you can keep them in mind.
I guess, like everything in this life, in the end, all I can do is have faith.
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I'm in my room right now.
Why? Well, that's simple.
I'm putting together a timeline with key events and points from the story in a notebook.
I want to have something to fall back on if my mind tricks me.
And if my mother sees this and asks...
I'll think of something.
By saving Eri early, I will probably alter the canon, but that doesn't matter. In fact, with Sir Nighteye alive, we'll have a great advantage in the future, I think.
But even so, I must not be complacent in the slightest. I need to act correctly so as not to make any kind of foolish mistake and be able to survive all this.
After all, I'm just a few days away from starting a stage that will probably be my greatest success in this life or my greatest failure.
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Author's Note:
Hey.
So this chapter was pure talk, and that's because it's an interlude.
It's important that the protagonist is prepared for what's coming and how he's going to face it.
So I decided to make this chapter about the protagonist's thoughts and nothing more, so that the next one can kick off UA.
And with it, the quirk assessment.
If you didn't enjoy this chapter much, I understand. As I said, it's pure mental dialogue and nothing else, but I like to delve into the protagonist and his way of seeing things. The next one will maintain the standards that the other three chapters have presented.
See you.