Part 1
"Hey Fumiko, got a minute?"
After the physical fitness test, we changed and returned to the classroom.
There, a voice suddenly called out to me... When I turned around, there stood a girl with pink skin, black eyes, curly hair... and horns? She was leaning forward, looking absolutely excited.
Behind her were the invisible girl I'd noticed immediately upon entering the classroom, Yaoyorozu who placed first overall in the fitness test... wait, all the girls are here.
"You were amazing in the fitness test! Your grip strength and stuff were way higher than the boys!"
"Yeah, yeah, but your endurance run was even more incredible! You were sprinting the whole time, weren't you?"
"Oh, I thought so too! You were going so fast you almost caught up to Yaomomo's scooter."
Let's see, that was... Ashido, and Hagakure, and Jiro, I think? Behind them, Uraraka and Yaoyorozu are fine, but the frog-like girl was Asui, right?
"Truly remarkable power indeed... not just strength, but stamina as well... I didn't get a chance to ask during the test, but what kind of Quirk do you have? It appears to be enhancement-type or similar... May I ask?"
"Ah, yeah. Sure?"
It's not like I'm hiding it or anything... I just don't answer if nobody asks.
Stopping my preparations to leave, I sat sideways on my chair and answered.
"My Quirk... it's called 'Infinite Energy'."
"'Infinite'!?"
Hearing the Quirk's name, the girls' surprised voices chimed in unison.
Oh, not just the girls... some boys who were secretly listening in or happened to overhear seemed shocked too. Beyond the girls, I could see several wide-eyed, astonished expressions.
"Yeah. It's an enhancement-type Quirk that lets me freely fill my arms, legs, and such with energy to strengthen them. As long as the energy lasts, I can explosively increase my power and speed, and I won't run out of stamina during that time. Even if I run out of energy, I can recharge and power up or recover again."
"So, that's... how you could sprint full speed from start to finish in the endurance run..."
"Freely strengthening arm strength, grip strength, leg power... endless stamina... what an incredible strong Quirk."
"Wait, so that energy is infinite? You can strengthen yourself as much as you want!? Whoa, that's not just super strong, isn't that basically cheating!?"
As if agreeing with Hagakure, piercing gazes came from all directions.
If such a highly versatile energy could be used infinitely to strengthen your body as much as you wanted, then yeah, that would be a cheat-level Quirk. Yep, I think so too.
But... it's a bit different.
"No? It's not infinite?"
"Huh?"
"There's definitely a limit to the energy I can use. If I run out of energy, obviously I can't strengthen myself and my stamina decreases."
At my words, everyone looked puzzled, as if wondering what I was talking about. Their earlier excitement had been so great that they couldn't understand or properly grasp what I was saying now.
"Um... the energy isn't infinite?"
"Yep. There's a limited amount."
"But the name is 'Infinite Energy'?"
"Yep."
"...Isn't that confusing? More like, isn't that false advertising... why?"
"The meaning of 'infinite' is different. This Quirk isn't about being able to exert infinite energy... it's a Quirk that can 'store' energy infinitely."
"...!"
It seemed like only Yaoyorozu understood, at least somewhat, from my current explanation.
My Quirk 'Infinite Energy' can digest and absorb the food I eat, converting it into 'energy' that I accumulate and store.
I can pull that out as needed, filling my arms and legs to enhance power and speed. Also, as long as the energy lasts, you could say my stamina is practically endless. It's not as good as regeneration or healing-type Quirks, but my wounds heal faster too.
So that's how I could do crazy things like strengthening my arm and grip strength to get corresponding results in the grip strength test and softball throw, or sprinting full speed from start to finish in the endurance run.
To use examples from certain manga, it would be like 'Aura' from a certain hunter manga, or 'Calories' from a certain gourmet battle manga. Or rather, since I actually get energy from food, it's pretty much exactly calories.
However, if my stored energy runs dry, naturally I can't enhance myself, and I can't have infinite stamina either. Only my own base physical abilities remain.
Even so, I'm confident I can fight to some extent. During the entrance exam, it was pretty much like I was doing it without my 'Quirk'. I've trained that much.
But still, having my maximum firepower drop drastically is scary.
So well, even if they call it contradictory, confusing, or 'false advertising', I guess it can't be helped... honestly, even I think this 'Quirk' is misnamed.
However, there's no upper limit to the amount of this energy I can store.
The more I eat, the more I can absolutely increase the total amount, 'infinitely'.
Maybe there is a limit somewhere, but I've never hit anything like that before.
But besides that, there's one more... somewhat confusing, or rather, troublesome 'restriction', but let's leave that for another time.
And this energy, as long as I'm living a normal daily life... basically, if I live without using my 'Quirk', it doesn't decrease, and if I become nutritionally deficient, I can use this energy as a substitute to keep living. You could think of it as storing nutrients in my body beyond its limits.
This is also like that thing in a certain gourmet battle manga, where you thank the ingredients to the limit and devote yourself to eating.
"I see... it's different from what I initially assumed upon hearing it, but it's certainly a powerful Quirk."
Said Yaoyorozu.
"From what I hear, that 'energy' itself... has considerable versatility in its uses. Strengthening the body, substituting for stamina, promoting healing, and even usable as nutrients for survival... and you can store it almost infinitely as long as you eat beforehand."
"That's right. Furthermore, I can even cancel out fatigue itself, so if I really wanted to, I could move without sleep or rest as long as I have energy."
Physically anyway, but mentally I'd definitely get tired.
"...The drawback is that to store energy, you must eat more than a normal meal. If you only eat normal amounts, that amount of energy, or rather calories, would be normally consumed by your basal metabolism."
"Oh, so you have to eat more than necessary to store energy."
Exactly.
But so far, I've never had any trouble with that.