Chapter 6: Enter Green
Toshinori still wasn't 100% sure this was the best idea. He had modified the American dream plan to add close combat, something he had previously overlooked, when UA told him they were hiring an instructor. He was going to teach it himself, but now that instructor was going to work with him until the school year started, and she was theoretically more qualified to teach the basics than him. He was an incredible combatant but Izuku was just so so different from him.
Toshinori had called Hoshiko the night before, asking her to meet him at Dagoba beach. Now, as he looked at Izuku run, it occurred to him that the green haired fanboy was going to flip his shit. It would be interesting, to say the least.
When Izuku started to slow down, Toshinori shouted, "30 more meters and you're on break. Come on, young man!"
He thought he watched the boy tear up, a part of Izuku he would never understand. The boy kept going, finishing out the jog by falling at Toshinori's feet. Toshinori handed the boy a shake of his own creation, letting him recover for a moment.
"My boy, I'm going to introduce you to someone today that's going to be handling a separate aspect of your training…at least I think so."
Technically, he hadn't talked to the young woman yet. If she ended up saying no he'd be…embarrassed, but all would be well.
Green eyes turned towards him, wide with shock, "Wha-What?! Why didn't you tell me that when I got here?! *mumble mumble mumble*"
"Cut it out kid. If she agrees, she will handle your close combat training in preparation for this year. What use is all that power with no finesse, right?" Toshinori smiled at the end, but he was currently skeletal, so it didn't have the full effect.
Behind him, Toshinori heard a car roll down the street, coming to a stop next to the entrance. A door opened and closed, 30 seconds later a young woman gingerly stepped onto the sand and walked towards them.
"Miss Okane! Welcome."
"So uh…why did I have to drive 4 hours through Tokyo traffic for this?" The bleary eyed girl asked
"Uh- Right, I forgot about…can't you fly?" Toshinori questioned.
"Yeah, not out of costume though. Also, your kid stopped breathing."
Toshinori turned and sure as shit, Izuku was staring at Hoshiko and not breathing.
"Midoriya!" Toshinori shouted at him, apparently too late as he fell backwards onto the sand. Toshinori just kinda stared at him.
"I'm guessing the kid is why I'm here?" Hoshiko said blithely.
"Yup. Damnit." He sighed, laying his head into his palm.
"This your successor? Kid must have a lot hidden under the surface." Her hands were on her hips as she observed his protégé with a touch of disbelief.
"He's got…spirit. And an amazing brain. Otherwise…yeah, not much going for him at the moment. He's getting there, though. And I want you to help him get there."
"Oh? How so?" She turned to him.
"Train him. I'm getting him better on the muscle side of things but there is truly not enough time in the day and there's…another thing that I…he needs to be at a certain level of strength before the UA entrance exam and he needs some basic close combat training. I'm not the best person to teach those skills to him, we're just far too different in that regard."
Hoshiko stared at Izuku for a long time, pondering what he said and other things he couldn't imagine. She let the silence reign for 5 minutes before she was eventually ready to speak.
"Why'd you choose him?" She stared in his eyes when she spoke, her own eyes glowing with what he assumed was her quirk.
"Because he has the mindset a hero should have."
"When he wakes up…I'll run him through a spar, and if he shows me any promise I'll teach him. I'm new to this though, and he has to be willing to learn. I can't compensate for him if he doesn't have that drive."
"That's all I ask, then."
——-
[Izuku]
Izuku groaned as he pushed himself up. He regretted opening his eyes when he saw the two pros looking down at him.
He scrambled to his feet, apologizing profusely for wasting their time, but was stopped by fucking Entropy, "Kid, get a little space, get your guard up. I'm going to punch you, you're going to block."
'What?' Izuku tried to process what was happening, but he did as he was told.
"Wha-", Izuku was cut off as a fist sailed towards his chest. He moved his hand to block it, but he was to slow and the fist slammed into his chest, sending him sprawling across the sand.
"Holy shit!" All Might shouted.
"Can't-*wheeze*- Breathe-*wheeze*", Izuku heaved out from the ground.
"The fuck Hoshiko!?" All Might shouted, more angry and less shocked.
"Calm down. Catch your breath and stand up." She ordered, waiting for his breathing to start again. Izuku willed himself to move, bruised ribs complaining as he dragged himself up off the sand. It took him longer than he would have liked, but with time, he made it back onto his feet, staring at the woman responsible for his aching chest.
"Why did you hit that hard?" He asked with downcast eyes.
She stared at him for a moment, then raised her fist again and shot forward, this time Izuku caught the fist, pushing the back of his own hand into the quickly developing bruise from the last hit, though he didn't fall over this time.
"Ow! Why are you-" He started, cut off again as she through a third punch. This time, Izuku reacted before he could think, moving to the side and knocking her left fist of course, allowing it to graze his right side.
He thought it was over, but she used her momentum to tackle him. She got off him, staring down.
"Get up." And when she spoke he did. He crawled back onto his hands and knees, and from there, rose to his feet once more.
This time, when she punched, he sent the same fist off to the left instead of the right, and then he dodged right himself, leaping into a poorly executed roll. He got up just in time to see a fist sailing towards his head, so he arched his back and sent a blind kick towards his assailant.
He had leaned too far back, the kick had taken his balance, but he was saved from falling by Entropy grabbing the collar of his shirt and dragging him back up-right.
"He can learn. He's actually pretty quick. I'll teach him, but the kid needs to accept as well. If he needs to be ready for full combat in 10 months he is in for a world of pain." She spoke completely nonchalantly, like she hadn't just caused him minor injury.
"That…can't be a good way to teach, Hoshiko." All Might said, concerned.
"He didn't make the same mistake twice, did he?" She countered.
"No, he didn't, but hurting someone to teach a lesson isn't how you build a foundation." He said in turn, thinking of his own teachers. He shuddered.
"No. Hurting someone isn't how you teach a lesson. Hurting someone is how you condition someone, and that's what the kid needs right now. He needs to be prepared for those hits, and there's certainly a teaching aspect to that, but pain is experience. He won't always be ready for those punches, but by the end he certainly won't be made useless by them."
"So…it's more important for me to take a hit and keep going than it is for me to get good at hitting?" Izuku asked timidly.
"…You're very close but I wouldn't say that's exactly what I'd like to teach you. The correct part is that you need to just keep going, roll with the hits, but knowing how to hit is just as important. Traditional martial arts are just that, an art, which allows skill to create arrogance in their artists. I Can teach you 1000 types of flips and strikes and katas but in the end it's more important that you survive. I wasn't lying either, I was not expecting you to redirect me, I was trying to get you to dodge. You instinctively used my momentum against me, an amazing start, I look forward to teaching you if you'll have me." And she gave him a semi-formal bow.
Izuku smiled and bowed back, "I- I look forward to learning, I- I guess. Wait! I mean thank you sensei- is sensei the right word-"
He was saved from himself by Entropy, "Like mentor like protégé. You can call me Hoshiko, big man is your sensei. Now, get your guard up, it's time for lesson one."
Izuku did as he was told. All Might watched in amused horror as his student was chucked around the sand for nearly two hours, the boy smiling the whole way.
——-
[Aizawa]
Shouta didn't often admit he was wrong. He'd admitted fault about the Naruhanta vigilantes. He'd admitted he was wrong about teaching. He'd admitted it was wrong to break Hoshiko's nose, though that hadn't been on purpose. He had NOT expected to be wrong about Hoshiko Okane in general.
Most people were not rational, in his experience. The world was illogical, people followed loose patterns only the most intelligent could analyze. He'd learned to expect people to be fundamentally illogical, which created an amusing paradox where he expected rationality while also expecting people to fail his expectations.
She had honestly surprised him with her adamant position that her job was to instill survival skills into her charges. Her power had perfectly matched, if not exceeded, the hype from online. She had sat down with him, an underground hero and teacher as opposed to her, a rising star, without a hint of arrogance as she asked questions and did her best to learn about the job she would share with him. She was a calm, rational person, which blindsided Aizawa in a way he would be embarrassed about, if emotions like that weren't so…irrational.
She certainly wasn't perfect, he could see the petty rage in her eyes, her teaching method looked to be brutal beyond even his better judgment, and she was not ready in the slightest for…people. She had been raised in a neat little world where everything followed a pattern and was largely predictable, with predictable people, because that's the only way the HPSC operated.
The HPSC didn't make actors, the organization made effective heroes by any means possible. While they could be underhanded, they wouldn't raise this girl just to be a plant at UA, and they certainly wouldn't raise someone planted to spy on them. He realized, with mounting horror, that he could respect Hoshiko Okane.
'Oh, Nemuri is going to give me so much shit for this.'
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