Shaking his small head vigorously, Igarashi Masata forced all the messy, wandering thoughts out of his mind.
"The most important thing right now is testing my Quirk!"
As soon as that thought formed, it felt as if flames ignited in his eyes.
"Ooooh… is the exciting part finally here?"
The moment his excitement peaked, Masata could no longer contain himself. He let go of Yaoyorozu Momo and dashed straight toward the open-air section of the training grounds.
Left behind, Momo puffed out her cheeks angrily as she watched him disappear.
"What an idiot!"
As for Masata, the first thing he did after entering the training ground wasn't to activate his Quirk—but to take off his shirt.
After all, while his body could withstand extreme heat thanks to his magma Quirk, his clothes were just ordinary kindergarten uniforms. They had absolutely no resistance to flames. If he wasn't careful, they would go up in smoke in seconds.
"Alright… this should be fine. First, let the magma cover my fists."
Muttering to himself, Masata focused his gaze on his right hand.
He clenched his fist.
Slowly, flames flickered into existence around his knuckles. The fire didn't burn wildly—instead, it softened, melted, and spread. In moments, the entire surface of his fist was wrapped in a thin, glowing layer of lava.
Masata raised his arm, feeling the scorching heat radiating from his fist. His face lit up with joy.
"The first step is complete!"
"Next… let's test the power of my fist!"
Drawing his right arm back, Masata twisted his waist and put his entire body into the motion. His eyes burned with enthusiasm as he tightened the few muscles his small arm possessed and slammed his fist into the steel ground of the training field.
"HYAH! Hound Fang!"
The shout was powerful. The momentum was perfect.
But—
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!"
Masata yelped in agony.
The moment his fist connected with the ground, pain exploded through his arm. He immediately collapsed onto the floor, clutching his right hand and blowing on it desperately.
The lava coating had already faded, revealing his normal hand—now bright red and throbbing.
"This hurts so bad…!"
It was obvious that the injury hadn't been caused by his Quirk. He had simply punched solid steel with the strength of a four-year-old child.
"So even if my body can turn into magma, I can still get hurt," Masata muttered, gritting his teeth. "This is awful. I really thought I could become fully elemental like Akainu…"
He sighed deeply.
"Elementalization really is a broken ability. Looks like I can't do that."
Calming himself, Masata turned his gaze back to the spot he had struck.
On the steel ground, a dark mark was clearly visible. Upon closer inspection, it was unmistakably the shape of a fist. The mark emitted a strong sulfurous scent, and scattered droplets of magma still clung to the surface. The heat rising from it caused the surrounding air to warp and shimmer.
Magma had an extremely high base temperature.
Based on Masata's own knowledge, magma generally ranged between 400°C and 1200°C, with its temperature indicated by color.
A faint red glow represented the lowest range—around 400°C. Dark red corresponded to 550–625°C. Brighter red, orange, golden yellow, and white indicated temperatures of approximately 700°C, 900°C, 1090°C, and over 1150°C, respectively.
Judging by the faint red glow from his fist earlier, Masata estimated that his magma was currently around 400°C.
That might not sound especially impressive at first.
After all, the outer flame of an alcohol lamp could reach 600°C, and an industrial blowtorch could exceed 2500°C. Compared to pure flames, the temperature of Masata's magma wasn't particularly high.
But his Quirk had advantages flames did not.
Magma had physical substance.
Unlike fire, which caused instant but fleeting damage, magma could cling to a target, inflicting continuous harm. On top of that, magma released various toxic gases. While brief exposure might not cause immediate symptoms, prolonged inhalation could lead to oxygen deprivation or severe poisoning.
And yet—none of that was the most important realization.
After a single punch, Masata suddenly understood something critical.
He was using his Quirk in the right direction.
The answer was actually very simple.
Magma.
When people thought of magma, they naturally thought of volcanoes.
And when volcanoes were mentioned, one thing came to mind immediately—
Volcanic eruptions.
The true terror of Masata's Magma Quirk didn't lie in its temperature, nor in slow-moving lava flows that consumed everything in their path.
Its real power lay in explosive force.
Deep beneath the earth's crust, magma was compressed by unimaginable pressure and heat. When that pressure was released, the resulting eruption could annihilate everything in its vicinity.
With a thunderous roar, superheated magma could burst from the ground like a raging fire dragon. In some cases, volcanic eruptions could even raise mountains from flat land in an instant.
Mount Kilimanjaro.Mount Cotopaxi.
Both were born from such cataclysmic forces.
Clutching his aching hand and staring at the shallow depression left in the steel floor, Masata finally understood something with absolute clarity.
This kind of power was not something a four-year-old child should possess.
And yet—
The source of that terrifying potential was none other than his own Quirk.