Several months passed and Takezushi was now fifteen-years-old. Whilst living with All Might, Takezushi trained harder than ever before as he wanted nothing more than to rescue his mother as soon as possible. Of course, since by now all of his training brought about calamity levels of destruction, Takezushi did the majority of his training in his Kamui Dimension.
Recently, he was coming extremely close to mastering his Yang Release Shape and Nature Transformations which would unlock something he had been seeking since his mother had been kidnapped; Sage Arts. Sage Arts were abilities that if translated into gamer lingo could be considered end-game Tier. Now, while there were tons of different Sage Arts for Takezushi to master what he wanted to learn most of all was a cloaking method known as Sage Mode.
When mastered, a ninja that entered Sage Mode would see all aspects of their combat prowess more than double. Their speed and strength would turn monstrous and their senses would be heightened to supernatural levels. Yet Takezushi didn't want to master the technique to gain those buffs, rather, he wanted to learn Sage Mode because while assuming that form, he would be able to connect with nature chakra — or the chakra outside of his body which came from nature itself.
For all the abilities his Ninjutsu and Dojutsu granted him, none rivalled Sage Mode when it came to tracking and for now, he wasn't able to begin practicing as he wasn't in the Ninja World. If he had been in the Ninja World then he could have learned Sage Arts from Beast Clans in one of the three Sacred Sage Regions. There we wouldn't run the risk of petrification while learning to control nature chakra, but the same couldn't be said for his current circumstances. Thus, he was restricted from learning Sage Arts until his Yang Release reached complete mastery as that would be sufficient for him to forcefully stop a petrification process if it began.
Recently, Takezushi had placed all his chips in being able to find his mother by learning Sage Mode, since after he had learned of her fate, he had been sending troops of shadow clones searching every corner of Japan. Alas, it was impossible to search for All for One or his mother by just mindlessly scouring the landscape with his Byakugan. Since he was the only one with a chakra signature in the world, he had to use his x-ray vision to manually confirm everything he saw. Even if the matter of breaching millions of people's privacy didn't weigh down on him, then Takezushi had to stop soon after he started as even his improved mental faculties couldn't take the strain searching in this inefficient way caused him.
Aside from his training in Yang Release, Takezushi also saw his Yin Release reach the standard of his Yang Release back when he first arrived in Japan, while all his Kekkei Genkai abilities also saw some degree of improvement. His Dojutsus in particular needed for both his Yin and Yang Release to be mastered before his eyes would see their final evolution. And along with the mastery of tons of different and diverse Ninjutsu, the last notable gain Takezushi accomplished was beginning to work on mastering the fabled Eight Gate Technique.
He had learned earlier on after he started living with All Might that his physical strength while battling the hulking man didn't come close to the man's peak performance before he was dealt that horrible wound by All for One. Even during their battle, he only won out in the end because he had been draining All Might's stamina as he would have surely lost if All Might had used all his strength from the beginning. Of course, he would have only lost when it came to physical strength and probably could have resorted to using Ninjutsu or Mangekyo abilities to inevitably win. But that wasn't good enough for him as he knew that training in the forbidden class Eight Gates Technique would let his already peaking physical strength become comparable to All Might in his heyday.
At the moment, Takezushi could open up to the third Gate, the Gate of Life, for extended periods of time, while his absolute limit was the fifth Gate, the Gate of Limit, and using it at that level for longer than a couple minutes would lead to some serious injuries forming on his body; which remained the case even if he used Yang Release to actively regenerate.
…
Today was the day Takezushi would take the entrance exam to enter U.A. High; the high school his foster father, All Might, would be teaching at in the next academic year. Walking along the entrance to the High School, Takezushi could be described as looking a bit more mature for his age than a normal person. He was slightly taller than the average fifteen-year-old boy at 1.75 meters tall, but aside from the two horn-like protrusions sticking out the sides of his temples in a symmetrical fashion, he looked relatively human. It was actually because of a growth spurt that had taken place a couple months prior which led to the rapid development of the horns in his head and his height increasing that no one recognized him, as the fight from eleven months prior with All Might was famous even on the international scale.
Focused only on training and preparing himself to pass the greatest Hero High School's Entrance Exam, Takezushi didn't really dwell too much on his looks. His hair was never actively groomed aside from the occasion times every three or four months where he had no choice but to cut it as it got in his way. Yet despite the fact, he was still a very clean boy and while he might not have the most handsome face around, his body was probably as close to the ideal physique as humanly possible; looking as if the gods themselves sculpted it…
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Alas, Takezushi wasn't the type to show off and as he tended to favor covering himself with long sleeve shirts, sweaters, hoodies, and pants, his marvelous figure was more often than not hidden from public view. In fact, no one really knew what kind of body Takezushi had hiding underneath his clothes as even All Might, someone who lived under the same roof as Takezushi, not once saw him even remotely unclothed.
As Takezushi was walking through the entrance area of U.A. he stopped after a certain green-haired boy came into his line of sight. "Midoriya..." Takezushi called out to the body after getting his attention. The green-haired boy was evidently nervous after being called out as he slightly jumped, but after registering who it was that called out to him, the nervousness in his face vanished, in its stead a bright smile appeared.
"Takezushi, how many times do I have to say that you can just call me Izuku..." Izuku said as if he had repeated the statement far too many times to count. "Right… Anyway, are you going to be fine? Your Quirk isn't exactly stable and for the practice section of the exam it won't be guaranteed that I'll be around to help mediate any damage you take."
"It's fine. After all, I have to at least try, right? I can't let down All Mig… my teacher after having come this far along." Izuku caught his words before he blurted out that All Might had been training him. He had been harboring a secret shared between himself and All Might that even Takezushi didn't know.
It was through All Might that Takezushi met Izuku. Takezushi could remember it like it was yesterday, it was around a month after he began living with All Might that his foster father invited him out to oversee his friend Izuku's training. By that point, All Might had learned about Takezushi's ability to create shadow clones and it was through one of his shadow clones that he began to interact with Izuku and make his very first friend.
By standing on the sidelines ready to heal Izuku as he set out on the monumental task of cleaning up a beach that had been turned into a landfill with illegal dumping over the past couple years, Takezushi got to experience one of the things he couldn't as a slave boy in North Korea; friendship. Because of his Yang Release Healing Techniques, Izuku managed to completely clean the beach of all its trash within eight months. But that was only through willpower that even Takezushi had to admire as he pushed himself as hard as possible, all because he knew that no matter the pain he suffered, Takezushi would be there to heal his injuries and recover his stamina.
After the eight months, with the beach clean, Izuku's training didn't stop as he finally showed Takezushi his quirk. As a result, Takezushi had to work overtime as he learned that Izuku's quirk while being extremely powerful was a double-edged sword. While it would grant him physical strength capable of rivaling All Might, he would always end up with broken bones and mangled flesh whenever he activated it. Two months had come and gone and while Izuku could now somewhat control the extent of the damage done by concentrating his quirk to specific parts of his body, he would still end up in shambles if Takezushi or another healer weren't around to treat him; hence Takezushi's worry for him taking the practical exam, which would definitely require quirk usage to complete.
Now walking together to enter the massive main campus building of U.A. High, Izuku suddenly froze as he heard a voice address him from behind. "Get the fuck out of my way, Deku!" A blond boy then forcefully bumped shoulders with him before muttering, "Che! Worthless nerd..."
Irritated, Takezushi stopped and turned to his friend asking, "What's his deal?"
"O-oh, him? He's my friend, Kacchan..." Izuku muttered under his breath with palpable nervousness.
"Friend? With friends like that, who needs enemies..." Takezushi shook his head, but he let the matter pass. After all, while it was true that a jerk bumped into his friend, Izuku had taken the insults and bump like a submissive herbivore. For someone being trained by All Might to be this much of a pushover… He decided it would be best that Izuku resolve the treatment he received from his "friend" by himself, else he'll just grow to depend on him and never learn to stand up for himself.
Continuing with their walk, Takezushi took a couple more steps before he noticed that Izuku was no longer accompanying him. Turning around, he saw his friend leaning at a dangerously acute angle which would normally result in a person falling on their face, but for some reason, Izuku didn't fall; as if he no longer had to abide by the rules of gravity.
"Are you alright?" A girl standing next to Izuku asked. She corrected his position such that he now standing upright before touching the tips of her fingers and saying, "Sorry for using my quirk on you without permission. It's just, it would be a bad omen if you fell before the test, right?"
At this very moment, Izuku was behaving erratically, he couldn't even formulate a word despite his attempts to thank the girl from stopping his fall. Thus as he made unsure noises, the girl continued speaking, "Man, I sure am nervous for this exam. Anyway, good luck. Bye~" She promptly left Izuku there daydreaming about the fact that he had just talked to a girl; even though he really didn't say anything back.
Thankfully Takezushi was there to bring him back to reality as he gently shook his shoulders and asked, "Are you hallucinating? Do you need me to heal you?" Now coming back from cloud nine, Izuku violently shook his head before restarting his walk into the High School, bringing with him an amused Takezushi.