And so now the situation inside the gym was essentially a reaction to a one sided beat down as kirishima was completely overwhelmed by Julius's grappling techniques.
Which completely shuts down his fighting style and his quirks was essentially rendered uselessit was a true counter to his style of combat.
And now there he stood with a ragged breath and bruises all over his body and with his quirk being barely activated due to exhaustion.
"Do you still want to continue kirishima boi" asked Julius as he still stood completely unscathed throughout the whole fight.
"..." He stayed silent as even though kirishima wanted to continue as he wanted to prove his strength, his capabilities and his manliness but...
"Hah ...." Julius just sighed as he looked at the boy filled with determination all he felt was pity as that image of someone who is unwilling to bend the knee was something he didn't want to see as all that leads to is....
And so he started walking slowly towards the boy but there was something different about the way he walked and everyone noticed it.
As kirishima looked in front of him he couldn't help but start feeling a chill climbing up his spine as he heard the steps approaching him.
The first step kirishima felt the air around him grow heavier making it hard to breathe, the second step his body started shaking as he looked at his fist which was now shivering, the third step and his vision started blurring, the fourth step he fell to his knees as he sweated profoundly...
And finally the fifth step he was now feeling a sense of ...a sense that....he felt small and insignificant before him.
"Do you still want to continue?" He asked standing with absolute clarity and yet for kirishima it felt like as if he was grovelling at the feet of a titan .
The reason for this reaction was simply the phenomenon known as intent projection a phenomenon in which someone projects what they feel or what their intentions are onto another person irrespective of whether they are going to carry out that intention or not.
A perfect example of this was All might who's mere presence eased the entire populace that they were safe as that is the intent being projected from him the intention that he will safe them.
And thus for young kirishima what he was experiencing was the overwhelming intent of Julius a man with an extreme amount of killing intent of a man who has seen death way too many times but as well as the pressure of a man who has experienced those events and come out stronger.
And so for the boy it was too much too bare and thus eventually he gave up " I lost" he said as he looked down shocked as the pressure immediately disappeared.
"Kirishima how do you feel"
"..."
"Be honest"
"I feel so weak...."
" Good "
" Huh!?"
" That's a normal reaction to what you just experienced "
" ....."
" You see boy what you are experiencing now is the effect of intent projection and what you felt just now was essentially a mock killing intent do you know why I did that?"
" No"
" It's so that you may know when to back down this sparring match wasn't to show you how to win ...."
" Then why??"
" It's to teach you how to not lose or in case of pro heroes how to not die.
You see boi what you did wasn't a bad thing the way how you didn't intend to lose or intent to back down was a good thing for heroes who wants to save others but.....
When in cases like this match where there are no consequences you don't have to go through until the end.
What i want to teach you specifically kirishima is that even a shield has to fall back or they will break and can never be used again "
Kirishima who heard that once again looked down as he tried to think about what he said the fact that even a shield could break he couldn't help but ask...
" What if I ever encounter a situation where i can't back down"
" Then you will need a spear and that's what I'm going to teach you how not to die" said Julius as he takes his arm and lifts him up without any issues.
" Kirishima you have a good quirk but you only think of defence whenever you fight that's not going to work you need to learn how to throw a proper punch" he says as he leads him to a bench.
" Kirishima when you fight and identify that your opponent is far stronger than you then it is ok to fall back it's ok to run "
" But sensei that's not manly....."
" And it's even less manlier to die without achieving anything"
" ..."
"Is something wrong?"
" Sensei what if I couldn't run what if I had to fight"
" You mean when you have to protect others behind you or when you are fighting for personal reasons...."
" The former..... I guess "
" ...hhhmmmmmnnn"
" Sensei ??"
" That my boi is something that will decide what type of hero you want to be it's not a question of should I keep fighting to protect but why I should keep fighting to protect "
" I don't get it ?"
" Why do you want to be a hero that's what will decide your answer"
And so Julius stands up and goes back to the ring and calls Bakugo next and told him to use his quirk while on the bench kirishima just sits there thinking about his talk with Julius.
As he sits and thinks about that question of why he wanted to be a hero he remembered his past where he was a meek and timid kid who couldn't even act to help others when he clearly could .
And then he watched the old tapes of his idol crimson riot as he watched his old tapes where he talks about how he too was afraid but still choose to fight with determination.
As he was thinking about it his friend Ashido came up next to him and help him cheer him up and he remembered that crimson riot once said that he was afraid of dying but that he was more afraid of seeing other people die.
Remembering this he quickly stands up as he now knew the answer to the question that Julius had asked him.
" Julius sensei I know wha-"but he was interrupted as Julius simply closed his mouth by pinching his lips and smiled.
" Then let's talk with our fist Tommorow isn't that more manlier" he state while flexing his muscles.
" And besides I can already guess what your answer is if you truly know what it means to be manly" he states as he patted kirishima's back.
" Yahhhh !!!!!!" Kirishima shouts excited for Tommorow as Julius turns around to face Bakugo but not before saying something.
" You know boi I was a fan of crimson riot too you know" he smirked as he saw the boy's expression of surprise as he points towards the hair to which kirishima just touched his own hair and looks even more surprised.
" What can I say I like em old school boi hahaha" he laughs not knowing that he had sowed the seeds of admiration in the hearts of another boy who would see him as his idol in the years to come.