Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
"Izumi!" I heard Kazuto's voice call out to me as he entered my room. I looked at him curiously as I beckoned him to come in with me. Kazuto walked in with an awkward smile.
"So, what happened?" I asked curiously as I looked for a change of clothes, about to go shower with everyone else.
"Yeah… I, there was something I wanted to ask you." Kazuto said timidly. I snorted.
"I don't swing like that, sorry, Kazuto, I must reject your feelings." I said mockingly as I continued to rummage through my belongings.
"Haha, how funny." Kazuto said so dryly, and I smiled at him sarcastically.
"So? Speak clearly and be direct. I really want to go take a bath with the girls." I said simply. Kazuto snorted.
"Are you still taking a bath with the whole class together? The teachers didn't say anything? " Kazuto asked incredulously. I laughed lightly.
"Of course, I'm still going into the hot springs with them. I'm taking advantage of the opportunity. Besides, I'm sure they hardly care. As long as we don't start having sex in the hot springs, I'm sure they won't interfere." I told him honestly.
"Just you, Izumi." Kazuto said as he shook his head.
"Hey, I managed to corrupt Izuku; he's doing it too." I said with a proud smile. Kazuto snorted as he smiled slightly. "Now, talk."
"Well, yeah, I... I'm teaching Total Concentration Breathing to some people." Kazuto said quickly, almost as if he was expecting me to say something. I just turned around, looked at him, and raised an eyebrow.
"And what's the problem? I'm pretty sure I gave you permission to teach whoever you wanted like… a year ago, maybe." Humming thoughtfully, Kazuto nodded shyly.
"Well… yes, but, even so, it's still your creation." Kazuto said shyly, I sighed while rolling my eyes.
"Well, who are you teaching?" I asked curiously.
"Eugeo, Alice, and Asuna." Kazuto said honestly, my eyebrows raised.
"Two from your class, and Asuna Yuuki from my class?" I asked, even more curious, Kazuto smiled shyly as he nodded.
"Yeah… we all did the internship together with Hunter Heathcliff and-"
"Oh, right, Darkness told me that everyone did the internship with the Blood Knights guild." I interrupted as I remembered that fact, and Kazuto nodded.
"Yeah, we all did that internship, and well, we... kind of clicked? We've been talking, meeting, and training together ever since, and it just... clicked? We're just testing the waters, but there's something there. And I... started teaching them the Total Concentration Breathing." Kazuto said, Honestly, and I nodded.
"It's okay, I'm happy for you," I said honestly while smiling at him. Kazuto smiled brightly.
"Thank you," Kazuto said cheerfully. "Well, they've already mastered and memorized how to breathe, but they still haven't managed to get into the correct state, so I wanted your help to speed that up," Kazuto explained quickly, and I nodded.
"You want me to beat them up. Of course I will." I said with a huge, bright smile, Kazuto shuddered slightly.
"You could try not to sound so enthusiastic," Kazuto said with a grimace.
"I'll try." I said, the smile still on my face. Kazuto just sighed.
"Well, just... it would be better if they could enter that state as soon as possible so that they can get the enhancement now and adapt better." Kazuto said, and I nodded.
"Fine, I'll take care of it. In fact, I was thinking of asking Aizawa for some time to help the girls I was teaching, so I can add them easily." I said honestly, Kazuto sighed in relief.
"Well, thank you, I really appreciate it." Kazuto said with a soft smile, and I shrugged.
"Don't worry about it, it's a pleasure to hit someone." I said cheerfully. Kazuto sighed.
"I'm already regretting it," Kazuto said tiredly. I laughed, grabbed my clothes, and started to leave the room.
"Too late!" I said cheerfully as I walked out the door. Kazuto followed me resignedly before I stopped, and he crashed into me.
"Izumi?" Kazuto asked, confused. I looked at him over my shoulder.
"Wait, you said you were feeling things out and all, did you mean just Asuna? Or did you include Alice, too? And… Eugeo?" I asked morbidly curious, Kazuto blushed deeply.
"The three of them." Kazuto said shyly, but honestly. "Officially, Eugeo is dating Alice, but… we're all dating together… or something." Kazuto said, embarrassed. I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it.
"Yeah, no, I'll not think about it, it's your life." I said dryly as I walked out and ignored Kazuto.
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August 9, 2xxx - Izumi Pov .
"Okay, Aizawa-sensei has given me a few hours so I can train you guys to see if you can finally enter the state of total concentration breathing." I said as I looked at Darkness, Jinx, Tanya, Visha, and Louise. "So we'll do it the hard way."
"Wait, I think I've done it, do I have to do this exercise too?" Jinx asked as she raised her hand. I blinked in surprise.
"You made it? When? " I asked curiously, Jinx shrugged.
"On I-island? In the dungeon. I didn't really pay attention to it at the time, but I'm sure I'll make it." Jinx said without hesitation. I frowned slightly.
During the dungeon, I had kept an eye on everyone else, but only to see if they were in danger; my concentration wasn't entirely on them to notice if Jinx had managed to enter the Total Concentration Breath.
"Can you do it again?" I asked curiously. Jinx just breathed, and I immediately focused on her body. When I didn't see any change in her blood flow, I looked at her, confused. Jinx blushed slightly.
"I'm sure I can do it," Jinx snapped, embarrassed, as she became defensive. I laughed lightly.
"I believe you, it's possible that you've entered a similar pseudo-state due to the danger and stress of the dungeon. That means this will be easier." I said honestly. Jinx sighed, but nodded.
"So, what's this?" Tanya asked, gripping her weapon firmly. I grinned wildly, my Piercing Ox leaped out of the shadows, and I immediately decapitated him. My body began to change as Totality filled my body.
My body grew almost a meter, making me practically three meters tall. I could feel the horns growing from the sides of my head, my feet changed to ox hooves, and my muscles grew enormously and almost felt like steel.
Everything about me grew: a thicker, bigger torso, huge arms, and gigantic legs. I was basically a fucking minotaur at this point.
I was grateful that the only change to my head was the horns and not the fact that they had slapped on an ox face with a snout and everything, so that was good.
"Hell, can I ride you later?" Jinx asked while biting her lip. She was looking directly at my crotch.
"Don't be rude," Louise reprimanded sharply, even though she was blushing and trying to look away herself.
Yes, my clothes didn't grow with me, so even with the loose-fitting clothes I had chosen, they still clung completely to my bulky body, especially my bottom half.
In fact, that was the exact same reaction I got from the other girls when I showed them my Totality with Ox Piercing. Hmm, maybe I could commission some sexy cow cosplay. I'm sure Darkness would be more than happy to use it, and I might be able to convince the others, too.
"If you survive, I'll think about it," I said hoarsely as the enormous sword of the I-Island dungeon boss emerged from my shadows. My new size made it perfect for wielding one-handed.
I took a deep breath and let my killing intent spill out. I could see the five people in front of me freeze, and I stomped hard, leaving a crack in the ground. I appeared next to the girls with the enormous piece of metal that called itself a sword.
Thanks to Piercing Ox's quirk, I received a bonus for attacking in a straight line, which was easy to utilize with weapons. So my sword descended like a furious god upon them all. To my surprise, Darkness moved almost immediately and stood in front of me. She raised her shield and tried to block my attack.
I could hear Darkness's muffled sound as my sword struck her shield. Despite Darkness's superior defenses and shield, my physical strength ultimately sent her flying until she collided with a nearby group of trees. I didn't worry about her and continued attacking the others.
To my delight, the others had started moving moments after Darkness, so the four of them were already attacking me. And the fire engulfed us, the fire that came from where Darkness was and was absorbed by the girls.
I smiled slightly when I didn't receive any bonuses. It was good that she could control the effects of her shield's buffs so well.
Despite having gained hundreds of pounds of muscle, I was still stupidly agile and fast, so my body moved and reacted quickly, intercepting all four incoming attacks at the same time.
Truly, I had faith that they could enter the Total Concentration Breathing state; we've been training with it for about two months now. Yes, their sword styles still needed refinement and a lot of practice, but the breathing itself? It was getting there; they just needed a little push.
They all already had really fit, fully trained bodies. So it was easy to slightly change and adapt their workouts and get them to memorize the breathing pattern. The only one who might have a little trouble was Louise.
She was the least fit, but that doesn't mean she was completely out of shape. She was small and petite, yes, but she was healthy and had a few muscles. It was the simple fact that she hadn't focused on pushing her body, but rather on keeping it above average.
It made sense; after all, she'd been concentrating on trying to master her Quirk without it blowing up in her face. Still, once she saw that she was actually able to control at least part of it, she became obsessed with training and began pushing herself several times harder than she should have.
I had to forbid her more than once to prevent her from pushing herself beyond her limits to the point of death. Even so, I had to increase the amount of work and training at her request, but just enough so she could properly rest her body.
So, Louise gained more muscle mass and got into much better shape than expected in just two months. Even her Quirk had increased by leaps and bounds. What started as a small, weak stream of water from her sword quickly turned into massive amounts of pressurized water.
Louise was really delighted that she was able to improve her quirk management, which made huge improvements to her self-esteem, and she just tried harder.
It would definitely take her a few more months to reach the mastery level for Water Breathing, but before long, she could start another sword style so she could utilize another element within her quirk.
So I had faith that she, too, could achieve the state of Total Concentration Breathing.
I continued attacking without stopping, aiming for obviously lethal locations while my murderous intent continued to bombard them. I could see them sweating from exhaustion, but none of them seemed to even think of giving up.
Jinx was the first to enter after a few minutes. Apparently, her claim of having already entered was true, so the small push was more than enough to get her to enter once more. I didn't say anything, just let her get used to the feeling and continued attacking.
I didn't have a fully dedicated Breathing Style for broadswords, but with such a large and heavy sword, I was able to modify Stone Breathing to make it work.
Tanya was next. The change was immediate, and she noticed it. She stood still for a fraction of a second before smiling almost sadistically. She began to move and attack with even more viciousness than before.
To my surprise, Visha was the third to achieve Total Concentration Breathing. Actually, Visha wasn't that remarkable, but that didn't mean she didn't have a talent comparable to Tanya's; it was just that she disguised it better with her cheerful personality.
Louise lived up to my hopes and finally managed to enter the correct state. The water spewing from her sword even increased in intensity and strength. Louise smiled so widely it almost seemed painful. Still, she didn't stop fighting.
Darkness was last, but certainly not the least or the weakest. She was becoming increasingly annoying in the group; her Quirk was a high-level defensive piece of shit.
Unbreakable Fortitude. Not only did it increase her overall defense, but it also gave Darkness an instinctive intuition for how to best defend herself and an enhanced grounded state, allowing her to firmly plant her feet on the ground and remain there with strength.
The only way to prevent it from taking root was to take her by surprise, or to significantly overwhelm its defenses. Once she got going, she was a damned defensive bastion, and giving her a shield that was tougher than herself only increased that defensive capability.
She was able to hold the shield without taking any significant damage from my attacks, only a light push that wasn't even enough to break her balance. And now that her body had been enhanced once again with Total Concentration Breathing, I couldn't even achieve that.
So with her defending the rest of the group, the fight was getting annoying.
And it was something I liked. I smiled widely as I began to increase the level of the fight. I began using Thunderclap and Flash, Piercing Ox, which increased my attack power the more I charged in a straight line. Thunderclap was the ability that had enormous synergy with that ability.
Once we finished training, I looked at the girls, completely defeated, trying to catch their breath while breathing heavily. Despite being exhausted, they all seemed completely satisfied with the training. I just smiled as I nodded. Happily.
"Very good! That was a good exercise! " I said cheerfully. "And you guys are just in time!" I said, turning around as I saw Asuna, Alice Zuberg, and Eugeo approaching along with Kazuto. The three of them were terribly pale; they had been watching the last half hour of me beating the girls up, so it wasn't surprising.
The three newcomers looked at Kazuto almost in despair, and he just laughed awkwardly, gave an apologetic smile, and ran off in the opposite direction.
"I'm sorry!!!" Kazuto shouted from a distance.
"Damn!" Asuna and Alice growled simultaneously. I grinned, letting my killing intent gush out once more. The three of them froze stiffly.
"You can curse him later; now you have to stay alive." I said cheerfully as I moved and appeared in front of them.
It was time for Round 2. This was so much fun!
…
They finally managed to get the Total Concentration Breathing, and a new fear every time they looked at me; it was a productive day!
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August 11, 2xxx - Izumi Pov .
Today was the last day of our training camp. To our surprise, Aizawa was more than willing to give us half the day off so we could relax. Everyone applauded.
So, both classes together, we spent half the day doing normal camping activities in the woods. This included a lot of games and other recreational activities, finally ending with a rather large, square campfire in the center, about as big as I am tall.
Someone had even put on some music, half the people, including the teachers, were sitting around the campfire while chatting animatedly, and half of us were dancing around the campfire, myself included.
I held Taylor in my arms as we twirled happily around the campfire. Taylor had a huge smile on her face as we danced uncoordinatedly. After a few more spins, Taylor pulled me toward Azula, who was also smiling slightly.
I even ignored that, for some reason, Rias was staring at me; in fact, I hadn't noticed at first because I didn't really care, but she had also started doing it during the first days of the camp.
And every day that passed, her gaze grew more intense. I ignored her and continued to have fun.
I slowly switched partners as I went back to them afterward. We could have hours of fun, no one caring what time it was, or even if we had to get up early the next day to catch the bus back to UA—everyone was having a joyful time.
After one round, I finally made it back into Taylor's arms before freezing stiffly.
"Izumi? Is everything okay? " Taylor asked with a placid smile on her face, all her expressions soft and shining with happiness.
I gritted my teeth before pulling away, looking up at the sky, my eyes straining to see in the darkness. But there it was, a black fog staining the night sky. Seriously!? The League of Villains is attacking now?!
"Attention, everyone!!! The League of Villains is here!! " I shouted loudly so my voice could be heard over the music. I could feel everyone stop stiffly. Class B seemed to take a few seconds to catch on to what I had said, but Class A and the pro-heroes didn't even hesitate as they looked up at the sky.
I could hear someone turn off the music, and everyone focused on the sky.
"Everyone! Prepare to fight! We professional heroes will try to take care of it, but we don't know how many numbers will attack. Don't let your guard down! " You're allowed to use your quirks! " Aizawa shouted firmly. I clicked my tongue.
What a way to end camp. And I thought the whole raid thing was canceled. Maybe it was just delayed? It took them a while to find us in the woods since they didn't have any spies. I had no idea, and I doubt they'll give me an answer unless they want to monologue for themselves.
Finally, someone came out of Kurogiri's fog and… started falling?
"It's Shigaraki!" I exclaimed loudly, recognizing the aura immediately, but... it felt wrong, it felt off... what's going on?
To my surprise, and everyone else's, Kurogiri's mist closed in, Kurogiri's body appeared, and she began to fall as well. I frowned sharply.
"Are they falling? They look unconscious! " someone shouted, and I couldn't help but agree. Finally, Kurogiri seemed to move in the air, somehow clumsily reaching Shigaraki and seeming to hug her. The night made it difficult for me to see their bodies properly.
"Get ready! Don't let your guard down! " Vlad Queen shouted, tensing up, just like everyone else. Kurogiri never made a landing maneuver; she just shielded Shigaraki's body with her own. It looked like she was going to land and hit the ground with her back. I frowned deeply. They weren't moving.
I bit my lip before Escape Rabbit emerged from my shadows and began multiplying. They piled up and formed a cushion where Shigaraki and Kurogiri landed with a thud. The rabbits exploded into shadows and melted into the ground.
In the middle of that, Kurogiri was cradling Shigaraki in her arms. My eyes widened. They were both wounded—not lightly, but mortally wounded. Shigaraki was missing an arm, had at least a dozen cuts and stab wounds all over her body, and was bleeding everywhere.
Kurogiri wasn't feeling any better. Her body was completely battered, her collar was cracked all over, and her fog was almost gone, forming a face on her smoky head.
Shigaraki was completely unconscious, Kurogiri, no, was awake, and she slowly turned in our direction.
"...please- cough! Cough !... Help Shigaraki..." Kurogiri pleaded, her voice breaking before she lost consciousness on the spot, still holding Shigaraki's arm. We were all horribly confused by what we were seeing.
W... what the hell was going on?
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