“No injuries, I hope.” the Ectoplasm clone asked as he helped me off the ground.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
I was actually successful today, Getting a consistent enough output of power before it suddenly cut out and caused me to lose balance. Should be easy to fix, just keep track of the remaining stored power until it becomes second nature. Don’t want to mess it up mid jump or fight.
Now that I had gotten this trick down I wanted to move on to the next, but everyone was refining their costume to fit their new moves or style, or simply fixing anything that got in the way. Choosing to do the same as though my costume was great for what I wanted, I have found it lacking in destructive capabilities. Sure, I could do powerful attacks, but they relied on powerful leaps towards the enemy which were limited in two ways.
First was the obvious relying on speed that would be difficult after the first hit. Second was in a real close quarters fight, where getting the room for such a move wasn’t guaranteed.
I brought along the gauntlet as the pull-rod design was probably a good idea here too. Something similar to my first pair of boots, only hitting out for extra damage instead.
I could here some conversation from the main support class workroom as I got there.
“Full-cowl lets me output a steady burst of strength anywhere in my body, and in this case, the legs!” I heard Midoriya mention.
“I can use that power to add some extra boom to your kicks!” one of the support students, Hatsume, explained to Midoriya as I walked in on him, Ida, and Uraraka waiting for improvements.
“Oh? And what’re you looking for?!” she asked.
“...That, actually.” I replied, referring to what she’d planned for Midoriya. “But a bit more advanced.”
It’d be rude to accuse Midoriya of copying me again, even in jest, but having such similar styles is a real problem when we start getting recognition through the public as Heroes. In the case of two Heroes emerging with the same style at the same time, one will always fall behind massively based on public reception as they’ve ‘seen it before’.
My boots were going to be different, taking advantage of my Quirk to output the extra oomph even at a standstill, but I really need the other trick I want to practice to have some merit if I want to differentiate myself form Midoriya.
That means I’ve got to work a lot harder from now on.
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This next trick was based on the new move, specifically the part where I ripped up sections of the ground separate of everything else.
Now, up until this point I had only managed to use my Quirk on individual objects, or mostly individual, but never on just a section of something more. I already had a couple of insane ideas if I get consistent with it.
I got the clone to stand still as I tried to work through the steps.
Everything was made of concrete, something I was sure I could not tear apart with ease. So the first step would be to loosen a section of the ground to use, which meant making some strides in visualising what I pulled.
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If I want a block of concrete free, then I’d need to put all my strength into pulling a thin area around the block to shatter it and free it from the floor. Quirks can work different based on someone’s understanding of it, and in this case, while I could see the floor like my Quirk requires at any distance, I need to get it to work on a section I couldn’t see of what I could.
I started practising on a nearby section of floor as the 2, now 3 meter sphere that didn’t rely on visuals, y’know the thing that allows all my movement to be possible, before moving back and trying to recreate the experience outside that.
There was still 7 days left of training so I had all the time needed for perfecting this.
And 2 hours later, I got it working!
Before I would try to do it all in a short time-frame, to replicate a real world situation, I first wanted to make sure it was viable. After positioning the Ectoplasm clone a bit in front of the person sized slab of concrete I had loosened from the rest, small seams in the ground being the only marker, I prepared for an attack.
“So, I want you to try back up from my attack like an average... villain I guess.” I told the clone.
“Of course.”
I dashed forwards, not all that fast as I needed to save my Quirk, punching heavily at Ectoplasms chest, and as he tried to jump back I pulled at the slab of concrete.
It was relatively thin, and as I pulled on it, it pivoted up to hit the clones back and crush him between it, and my fist. Even as a clone, it was still the clone of a Pro Hero, so he had little issue blocking my attack.
“Impressive, but...”
“It’s not all that practical, is it?” I asked. “I could still tear out a chunk to attack from behind, but the initial idea was to make a solid surface to both block someone off and punch them against. And that’s all assuming I can get the preparation time down to near nothing.”
“And you don’t want to float because...”
“It’s lame, yeah.” I replied.
It was something we had discussed while I practised, small talk and such. Sure, with my Quirk it wouldn’t be a stretch to just pull on my legs to fight gravity, but... it was boring, very boring. it was actually why most Heroes with flight capabilities never focus on them, choosing to accentuate their Quirks other aspects.
People just struggled to relate to flight, or comprehend attacks in the air between flying rivals. You need that grounded effect for people to find it impressive.
For me, it would be the lack of feedback. The feeling of leaping through obstacles was exhilarating, and that was all lost with most all forms of flight.
“How’s everything going?” All Might called as he ran up to us, I had seen him slowly working through the students to help with their ideas and Quirk progression, and I guess it was my turn.
“I’m struggling to come up with anything that isn’t wildly impractical. Even then they’re nothing impressive.”
He seemed to think on that a moment as he surveyed my recent handiwork.
“Well... I think you should look at how your Quirk works for inspiration.”
“...I’m not sure I follow?”
“Think of it like this.” All Might stated. “If my Quirk work on cars, and only cars, what would be tying it down would be my understanding or recognition of cars, or by how the Quirk aspect decides to categories it.”
“It’s not well understood, but while I could use a car, I couldn’t use any of the parts that make it up. In your case, its common for a Quirk to only work on objects, but from what I can see, you don’t have that limitation.”
“If only within certain conditions, you worked on the matter itself, so it stands to reason that you could manipulate almost anything within whatever restrictions your Quirk demands.”
His explanation hit like a truck, a realisation that I hadn’t ever look into the why of my Quirk.
I’d be the first to admit that I’m not all that smart. Above average as is basically required to get past UA’s exams, but a little less than bright.
When push came to shove, it was enough. So I tuned out the outside world, focusing entirely on my thoughts, analysing everything I could about my Quirk.
It was simple.
Oh so simple now that I bothered to ask.
We had done it in class already, part of one of the lessons we had been receiving for weeks now and yet I had all but slept on the knowledge they were hand feeding me. Of course UA’s classes would help, that’s the whole point.
“Every object has gravity, all things attract”
My sphere of influence isn’t some arbitrary size, it’s a curve, a falloff curve of my sensitivity to something’s gravity. Of course someone with a gravity related Quirk would be sensitive to gravity, my eyes only acted as a focus where my sensitivity dropped off.
My range hadn’t randomly increased, I’d gotten more sensitive.
The curve had flattened out slightly.
Nothing here was a new move, All Might had been hinting at something else that could potentially solve everything. And I’ve just figured it out.
All students were on separate platforms of differing height to avoid accidents involving stray shots.
Across form me at a similar level was Sero resting after his practice. The distance between was huge, at about 50 meters.
Sprinting to the edge, I leapt off as far as I could, pulling on the air below with immense force to compress it for an instance. Slamming my foot down and drawing everything I had left from my core, I leapt again, closing the gap and landing down safely.
“HEY ALL MIGHT!!” I yelled from the other side.
“I’ve got my move!!”
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