Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 276 KINETICS

“Midoriya, I heard you had some fun during your internship,” I said when the conversation lulled. It was Monday and we were back in class. Most everyone had been talking about what they did over the first weekend under the heroes. 

“Uh yeah,” he said, less than enthusiastic. “We raided a Yakuza’s headquarters.”

“What?!” People asked excitedly. “You can’t leave it there.”

“I’m sure you all saw the videos in the news,” Midoriya said nervously. All eyes on him he wasn’t the best under pressure. “That giant turtle that appeared on the other side of town.” 

“Wasn’t that CGI?” Uraraka asked. There had been a video of me summoning the sea turtle. The video had been so grainy that the Villain Slayer on top of the turtle’s head was less than visible. I would have to watch it in the future, especially when to summon Nibi. Luckily she wasn’t visible at all in the video. 

“No, the Villain Slayer supposedly did it,” Midoriya said. “Killed a lot of Yakuza with it. Then he went down into their lair and pretty much killed everyone in his way.” 

“Damn, true to his name, I guess,” I said. 

“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty,” Midoriya said. “They were doing some kind of experiments down there. Nighteye is still trying to sort through everything.”

“Jeez, I thought I had it interesting,” the red headed Eijiro said. “I fought a guy that took this drug that made his quirk go up a few levels.” 

“That might be related to-” Midoriya said but cut off as Aizawa stepped in. 

“Welcome back to class,” Aizawa said as he stood behind the podium. “How was everyone’s first week of internships?”

“Great” “Boring” “I’m learning a lot” People offered as he looked in their direction. 

“Weston, you still don’t have a hero to intern under,” Aizawa said, sounding none too pleased. 

“Uh, no sir,” I said. Guessing that Midnight still hadn’t told him. She was way better at keeping secrets than I was. 

“You should amend that. All of your peers will surpass you if you are content to train yourself,” Aizawa said. His glare said he wanted an answer. 

“I’ll uh think about it more, sir,” I said. 

“Fine,” Aizawa said with a disappointed sigh. “We will continue to work on our quirks. Cementoss and Poltergeist have offered some additional training…” Class went on. We got to a few other normal classes, but the afternoon was locked to quirk training. 

“Eijiro, Rikido, Mashirao,” I said when we got to the training center. “I need your help.” 

“How’s that?” Eijiro asked. He was known as Red Riot. Able to harden his body into a rock-like substance. Sharpen his fingers into jagged edges and was quite strong.

“I need you all to hit me as hard as you can,” I admitted. 

“Really?” Rikido asked. He was Sugar Man. Able to strengthen himself with the ingestion of sugar, it was a dumb quirk in my book, but he could become quite strong. 

“Yep. As hard as possible and as much as possible,” I said. 

“Fine with me,” Mashirao said. He was Tail/guy/man. With a long tail as his only quirk he was still strong and at a very advanced level of martial arts. 

“Yep, Cementoss, I would like your help too.” 

“What would you like?” The man that looked like a mix between a whale and brick said. 

“I want a bowl. Concrete walls all around. Trapping us in,” I said. 

“I can do that,” Cementoss said as his hands touched the ground. The cement of the gym floor began to warp, making a large jagged bowl all around us. “Need any supervision?” 

“I think we will be okay,” I said. The big man nodded and walked out by manipulating the concrete in front of him then closing it as he stepped out. 

“Little freaky,” Eijiro said. The bowl was a good 15 feet tall. Thin concrete spikes made up the perimeter, pointing up to the ceiling like teeth. 

“Yep, so explanation time,” I said. “I believe my quirk has gone through an evolution. I’ve ignored it long enough. It’s time I start focusing on it.” I had wanted to train it for a while, but most of the worlds I went to weren’t as strong, and these guys were perfect to throw punches at me until I figured it out. 

“An evolution, eh?” Mashiroa asked. 

“Yes,” I said. “When I first got it I could pull in or push out energy. I had stuck to temperature. Making things hot or cold.” I pulled in the heat around me. Unaffected by the energy I built it up then blasted it out of my hand into the concrete wall. Not enough to cut it, the rock was still singed. 

“Nice,” Eijiro said, getting excited. 

“Yep, but now I believe I can do the same with kinetic energy. Either making myself immune to it’s intrusion, or storing it. I need you 3 to hit me with all you got. Over and over again,” I said. 

“You know, I didn’t think dreams came true,” Eijiro said. “But I was wrong. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you have the attention of more than a few girls in class.” 

“Psh, you wouldn’t have had a chance with them anyway,” I said with a wide smile. Eijiro didn’t hesitate to harden his skin and swipe at me. On instinct I ducked down. 

“Fuck, hit me,” I said, forcing myself to stay still, and the fight began. 

It had been so long since I had tried this. More than a few blows drew blood from me. I took it all. My hands at my sides at the start as I closed my eyes. Turning off my Haki at first I began to get pushed back from the unexpected blows. When they asked if I was alright I jumped at them, throwing blows their way. 

The fight began anew, and as I started moving I began to kind of get it. First I focused on reflection. Muscular was able to use his increased muscles like armor. That’s how I thought of my skin as I took blows. Rejecting all energy that was forced into me. I had been using this unconsciously for months. Not feeling hot or cold I had been reflecting the energy away from my body. I had to learn to turn it off and on. I couldn’t risk sleeping through a fire because I just didn’t feel the heat. 

So I took it all. Blind with my Observation Haki turned off I was forced to start moving my eyes and head again to keep my eye on 3 people. Like Angiea had said, Haki could be a weakness. Relying on it to tell you everything, I was fast and strong enough to always keep moving. 

The first day of training I understood my power a little better, and days passed with the practice. I always stuck to the same 3. They too were gaining a lot from the training. Pushing past their endurance I would throw my own blows as I tried to store up energy I absorbed and push it out. That part of the equation was much harder, but I was slowly getting it. I grew happy having chosen Muscular as the quirk I forged with my own. 

With a thought I could prevent kinetic energy from entering my body. I learned a move I thought of as Armor. An all encompassing shield around me, anyone that hit me would have about half the energy of the blow reflected back at them. I would still take damage, but it was far lessened. I began to train to keep this armor up at all times. With Dual Processing, I was able to force my mind to always keep active my quirk as I walked around. I wanted to train it as well as I had with Haki, but it was taxing. I had trained Observation Haki for years, and this part was getting easier to do at all times, but not perfect. 

The next part of the kinetic energy part of my Armor was what I called Reflection. Armor was great for physical blows, but I learned it was useless if a piercing weapon was used. The point of contact was too fine for my Armor to absorb much of any energy. Reflection was a more focused version of this. If I knew where an attack was coming I could reflect back about 80% of the energy of a punch/kick and about half of the force of a melee weapon. It took a lot of focus, but it was another thing to train as days went on. 

That was the Give part of my quirk. Next was to work on the Take. I found that I could absorb the kinetic energy as well. Hold it in my body like I did the hot/cold energy. Unfortunately kinetic energy was far too unruly, or I was simply bad at holding onto it. Once it entered me it tended to spread into all corners of my body. Like an echo in a cave, the energy bounced around causing damage to my internal organs and muscles. 

It took a huge amount of concentration to handle it. Keep it in one place. I knew this wasn’t a Weakness, since it hadn’t shown up on my Weakness Eliminator. This was simply part of the quirk I had to get a hold of. 

As I trained I understood that this could be an amazing move to master. If I could somehow absorb a bunch of energy while using Armor. Store that energy then push it out, it could be a deal breaker. I called this part of my quirk, Buildup. 

I was able to succeed once with it. Once when all 3 students had hit me at the same time I was able to absorb the energy into a center point then push it out. Causing all 3 to be pushed back by an invisible force. A long road ahead of me I decided to stick in MHA until I had mastered it. 

That was until Aizawa made an announcement. As soon as I heard I was running off to my hero. 

“Please, Midnight, I need you,” I said desperately. We were in the teacher’s lounge and she gave me an awkward look as she blushed. 

“Wh-wh-what are you talking about?” She asked, her cheeks becoming more red as she blushed.  

“I need you, please,” I said, enjoying her reaction too much. We had seen each other a little since our fun in Bangkok, but she hadn’t had to make an appearance as her alter ego so we hadn’t worked together since. “Please tell me there is a mission we can go on.” 

“No,” she said, annoyed. Then it hit her. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with the School Festival coming up, would it?” 

“No,” I said quickly. “I just need to disappear for a while.”

“Too bad, everyone participates,” she said. “Think of it as a way to get to know your fellow students.” 

“Come on, Midnight. You owe me. I don’t get a day without Aizawa guilting me into joining an internship,” I said, trying any card I could. 

“You get used to it,” she assured. “Sorry, that world is rather quiet. I am sure we will have stuff to do on weekends. But mostly just lunch dates. And your School Festival responsibilities will only take place during school hours.”

“No please,” I said. “They’re talking about a dance routine in class. I-I can’t. I’d rather do anything else.”

“Too bad,” she said, in a good mood as she laughed. “Everyone has to be involved.”

“Can’t I go on sabbatical or something?” I asked. 

“You’re a student! You can’t do a sabbatical.” 

“I feel a sudden urge to go training in the wilderness,” I said, standing up. “Meditate on my quirk or some martial arts thing.” 

“Suck it up,” Midnight said standing up as she set her hand on my shoulder. “You’re lucky you weren’t here in my day. Our class president talked the class into a maid cafe.” 

“Really? You in a maid outfit, I’d love to see my wife in that,” I whispered, flashing her my best smile. 

She blushed deeply again. “I’ll kill you,” she promised as she walked away. “Be a man, Weston. Learn to dance.” 

“Freaking useless,” I mumbled as she left. The School Festival was the worst of worst arcs in my eyes. More like a filler episode in the show I couldn’t believe it was actually canon. Each class was expected to put on some show or event for the other student’s and their families. From restaurants to bands playing it sounded like hell to me. 

As I walked through the halls I wondered what the hell I could do to get out of it, when the information poured into me. My Roronoa clone ending himself a little early he let me know some drama was happening with the Villains. Some drama I would give anything to be a part of. 

A plan forming quickly in my mind I was soon running off to Toru to let her know our fun would have to take a break. Since my shadow clones couldn’t have sex she would have to settle with having the real me on weekends. I was going to go on a little vacation as the other student’s prepared for the Sports Festival.