14CHAPTER II
THE HARDER, THE BETTER FOR A MAN
One the next day, back at the Kamogawa Boxing Gym
"Ok kid, here's how we will do..." Kamogawa stood before Izuku Midoriya, the soon to be the new member in the gym. Poor boy was standing in front of her with a tall black haired woman behind him. she was at best a five feet nine, muscular arms, bug shoulders, a very well build core, and long strong legs. She had a stern look on her face while standing behind him, a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it slightly. Kamogawa opened her eyes and looked into Izuku's green emerald ones. "You'll be following for the day Takashira routine, and try to absorb anything you can." She folded her arms looking at the young boy.
"Yes!" He said, clenching his fist, and turned his head back to the woman behind him. Takashira looked down at him with a sly grin. He could already tell that it wasn't gonna be easy. His heart pounded faster when he saw her tying her shoes and going for the gym's front door.
"Alright newbie. If you wanna see for what you're digging your grave, follow me!" and ran out. The boy looked at the old coach woman, that just shouted "What are you waiting for?!" and that did made his get startled, and just
"I'll head off!" and ran after the huge woman. Kamogawa stood behind, watching as he ran off.
"That kid is gonna make me regret so much..." and shook her head, turning around and walking back to her office.
"Kamogawa-san, good to see you in a somewhat good mood I guess." said a woman in her earlier twenties.
She had a round-y nose, wore glasses on her face, and had an extremely friendly demeanor and attitude. "Yagi... Hm, you're right. I am indeed happy to have someone new that's willing to be a fighter, but it's becoming harder to see some potential since it's a... Him. Ever since the last one it has been... hard to get high hopes." The old woman said, walking to her office, opening the door, and talking the stairs up, with Yagi following right behind her.
"I know it's been hard coach, but I say, let's give him a chance. I can see that he has an good potential. Don't you think that if neither he believed he had, he never would've had looked for our gym, right?" Yagi stated the good side. Kamogawa just nodded, she still wasn't really convinced.
Dagobah beach.
Izuku's legs were a bit sore from running after Takashira. She had stopped for a moment under a tree and was doing a Shadow boxing in the air. Izuku watched that mesmerized, wondering how could she make that look so easy.
That was until she stopped and turned back, remembering he was there. For a moment she stopped to think of something, them she got an idea.
"Hey, Midoriya, watch this." she got closer to the tree, and kicked it. The tree shook a bit, many leaves started to fall and fly away with the wind too. Midoriya watched that, and was wondering what she had in mind. Was this a test of some sort, or a training she does? That was when he saw he getting into a fighting stance. Fists in the heigh of the chin, elbows on her side, and legs separated into a firm and unwavering base.
That was when she started to throw hand against the air. Izuku blinked just once, and when he noticed it was already done. Her fists were closed, and a few leaves were on the ground while others still flew away.
She turned back to him and said "Come here and see this." and she showed him a total of ten leaves or more in each of her hand. Midoriya's wonder about her only grew more and more by the seconds. "Try and see if you can." He looked up at her and the leaves, before a shocked look took place in his face.
"What? Me?!" he pointed at himself, looking back and forth from the leaves at her face.
"Yes. If you learn to do that, I'll teach you how to box." She took one of his hand, palm facing up, and dropped the leaves down on his. He looked at them, and couldn't help but ask again. "You want me to do it?" with a extremely worried face.
"Bu-but..." he muttered.
"Don't you want to be a new somebody?" this perked his attention "This is the least you need to do. Let's see how this will turn out. I want you to catch ten leaves, minimum." She blinked an eye at him, a small smirk on the corner of her mouth.
"Ten?" he asked back.
"That's right. If not, it's better for you to just give up from your idea." and with that, Takashira ran off to her jog, leaving the green haired boy there with the tree.
He darted his eyes down at the leaves on his hand, before a defying look of determination showed up on him, and he clenched his fist "I'll do it!"
Takashira stopped and looked back when heard him speak, and only a small "hm?" scaped her lips.
"I will catch the ten leaves like you asked!" "Ok... YOU HAVE ONE DAY!"
"Wha?! One day only?!" he was taken back by that. The back of his mind was already whispering that it was too hard and that he couldn't make it.
Takashira looked back and smirked at him "I didn't even needed to practice." and resumed to run her jog.
Izuku stood there dumbfounded, until he noticed in the corner of his eyes, a single leaf falling down slowly. The same way that leaf was falling like that, taking all the time she needed, he knew he couldn't be like her. He needed to act fast. With a quick move, he swung his left arm and caught the leaf with his hands. He opened his palm, and a smile spread across his face
"That's all? It is easier than it looks." he turned back to the tree "At this rate, I can even succeed with Miss Takashira's challenge." He pushed the tree trunk with his hands, and the leaves promptly began to fall.
He assumed the same fight stance Takashira did, and waited the right momentum. He fist darted forward be he got one. The moment he was gonna catch the second, the leave he had caught before slipped away, and now he had none in his hand. He stared down at his shaking hand; it wasn't gonna be as easy as he thought.
He went over this many times, repeating "one, two" only to stop at the two when he couldn't get past the second leave. He slumped back to the tree trunk with a sweating forehead, and looked down at the leaves. He held his hair, and whined
"Gah, I can't get the second leaf... Huh? AAAH!" That when he noticed the time. "I'LL BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" and he quickly ran back home. He darted up the stairs, bursted the door open, only grabbed two apples and ran off again after wearing the school uniform.
It didn't matter to him that he would later eat the school's lunch, because even if he had to die to fulfill Takashira's challenge, he would do it!
Aldera Highschool.
Izuku wasn't really paying attention to class. No. His mind was too occupied thinking about how could he even supposedly get those leaves without letting them slip away like soap. There must be a trick for that; he thought. Not something hard, but neither easy. He stared at his pencils, green as the tree leaves. He then started to mutter, like always.
"Given to how Takashira's has already and higher experienced career of what she does, of course she would challenge me with such complex challenge. Is it the muscles? Joints? Her quirk that makes reflexes faster? There's real high possibilities for all of these options but none of them seem to fit. I can hardly believe that she was doing that with such an ease, and it seemed like she had done that so many times..." Little did he knew that everyone girl in the classroom was starting at him as he went over his usual habit of muttering like a freak.
Katsumi wasn't surprised. She had seen him do that many times and couldn't help but click her tongue to this somewhat annoying —cute— habit of his.
He only stopped when the teacher that was randomly babbling about an book in the the front of the class called him out, claiming that he was bothering the others that were paying attention to the class. He bowed many time apologizing, and the small sadistic grin on Katsumi's face grew bigger.
He would never change, would he?
She watched as he suddenly snapped his eyes wide. What was going inside of his head; she asked herself.
Izuku's world had changed to an extremely better angle when he noticed something from the way Takashira would grab those leaves.
The image replayed over his mind again, as he could recall the small detail that at first she had her fists clenched, but when she was about to extend her arm to grab the falling leaf, she would relax her grip. He slowly darted his eyes down to the pencils he had.
Two, was all he needed to test this out. In the palm of his left hand, he held the pencil, and with a deep breath he threw the other one high in the air. He brought his fists closer to his face, and then, when the pencil was almost finally down, he relaxed slightly the hand, and extended the arm rapidly forward.
Katsumi's world had literally shaken when she saw his quick moved and caught the other pencil with an occupied hand. Her eyes going wide and her pupils shrinking down a little as an silence gasp scaped her mouth.
She watched from across the room at he childhood friend with disbelief.
His move was so fast that even her had a hard time seeing it coming. All that was left was the sound of something fast cutting through the air, which everyone in the room heard, but could not put a finger in who did it and the most obvious person was just cut out of it in the first seconds they spent thinking, since it was unreal and or impossible.
Bakugou still didn't process what she saw. The hand movement was so accurate, that she could swear that if that hit someone square in the face, it would knock someone out.
The next hours she spent her moments in class, she was not able to stop repeating what she saw from.
The bell rang, and she didn't even saw Midoriya running out of the class with a rushed run as he seemed excited for something. She was thinking that maybe she would just beat him up and make him trow up what he was planning, but instead she just decided to not dwell a lot on what she saw.
After all, is not like he's training for to be a hero, right? Right?
Back to Dagobah Beach.
It was now in the middle of the day. Then was right above in the sky, as the clocks would mark 12:00. Midoriya was again at that three, and he needs to test out what he found out and see if it would work. Doing it with pencils was one thing, but now the leaves was a different story.
He looked up and down at the tree trunk and shook it again, and with that action, the leaves fell again. He assumed the same position again and got ready; fists on the jaw height, elbow close to his sides, one leg in the front and one behind for a good base.
He watched carefully which of them fell, and waited for the right moment. And then...
Right before he would throw the hand forward to catch a leaf, he relaxed his grip which formed his fist, and grabbed the first one, and in the moment he was going for the next leaf, he repeated the same process, and to his surprise, he got it! He maneged to get the seconds leaf!
"I got it! Ahahahah, I got it!" he cheered, opening his palm and seeing the two green leaves he picked up. Now, he only had eight more to go."Ok... Now I know I can do this! Just wait and you will see, Takashira!" He swore, and for the rest of the afternoon, he spent all of the daylight there, trying and trying to catch the ten leaves.
17:37 PM; Noon, Dagobah Beach.
Takashira was coming back again from her run, and was thinking is that was too much of a challenge for Midoriya. In a way or another, she was on fifty fifty on the two only options the boy had, either give up, or try and still fail.
"He needs to learn that this path he's looking for isn't as easy he think it is... The best he can do is just give up." she frowned a bit and started to speed up the pace of her run.
Eventually, she came across again to that same tree she had set him a challenge before, and to her surprise he was still there. "He couldn't have skipped a school day just because of what I said, would he?" she muttered with disbelief. She got closer to Izuku, that sat on the sand, his head between his legs as his back move up and down.
She stopped a few feet's away from him and asked "What are you doing there?"
Izuku that was panting hard, said "I was waiting for you, miss Takashira..." he said through deep breathing.
She looked confused at him "Waiting for me? Need my help with something?"
Izuku chuckled tiredly. He rose his head and looked at her with a tired smile "Wow... The day is almost over, so doesn't that mean the challenge time's is almost over?" His face was covered in sweat like it never was before.
Takashira was taken back to see him like that "Woah, what training did you do to make you sweat like this?"
"We made a promise, didn't we?" he stood up, a bit shaky "Come and see it..." Takashira only watched as he had gone and ended up needing to take support on the tree from before.
"Ok... I'm extremely tired... Haaa haaa... I think I can only do this one last time..." Takashira approached and watched.
Did he really made it? Was he gonna be able to catch all the ten leaves? Izuku walked, turning his back to the tree, and then, threw his body against it. The leaves started to fall, and he took the position. Takashira paid very much attention. She saw his clenched hands relaxed before he started to jab forward to each leave. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! When all the leaves stopped falling, all that was left in the air was his ragged fast breathing.
The black haired professional woman watched in slight awe. He did it all with only one hand, his left.
Izuku slowly opened his palm, and smiled when he saw the total, and cheered for when he saw the whole total of all tem leaves Takashira told his to pick. He jumped up and down a few times, still cheering in front of Takashira. She watched as he came closer to her, and showed her all the leaves, telling her to see it with her own eyes. He counted them all, and even stuffed the leaves on his pockets just to throw his hands up and cheer more and more, on and on.
"You... It can't be... I never trained before. How did you do it?" She asked, incredulous about the whole thing.
Izuku turned, his green hair sticking down and laying on his wet sweat forehead. "Ah! So this means I can try and be a boxer? Cool!" He started to explain on how he discovered the secret, telling how he would relax the hands before catching, and how the clenches fists would slow down the velocity of his arm "That's the secret, Isn't it?" He asked excitedly.
"Well, yeah..." Takashira trailed off.
The green bean started to cheer again "Yeah! That's it!". The older woman sighed slightly, and clicked her tongue "Well, I think I don't have a choice. Ok, I'll train you to be a boxer." She said crossing her arms and closing her eyes, but then opened them again and pointed out "Your left jabs are pretty good and quick."
Izuku looked at his hand and repeated again "Jab?..." He then started to throw his left hand forward in consecutive jabs as now he learned what it really was. Takashira watched as he was doing it over and over again
'This kid is special... All I wanted was him to catch the leaves with his both hands' she kept watching him 'But he did only with his left... He is a bit of a goofy kid, but I believe he cam turn out to be a great boxer.'
She then patted his shoulder to make him giver her attention "Ok, head back home and rest. You earned it!" She smiled.
Izuku nodded while happy tears flowed down his face. "Thank you so much Takashira-san!" He turned around and walked away to his apartment waving as he departed towards the sunset horizons.
Back at his apartment; 19:36
Izuku was laying on the floor, doing abdomens workout, with a small paper on the table. Written by Takashira herself. The moment he started to walk away, she stopped him and gave it to him. He remembers her words.
"You have one month again. Until there, Strengthen your abs and back. And do jogging too"
He looked at the clock, it's been already an hour he was doing these workouts, be just hasn't jogged yet. Today he was gonna skip it. His body screamed for rest and he wasn't thinking so soon of overworking himself.
He was used to the place being so quiet, expect for the few noises on the neighbors apartment. Ever since his mom passed away, the closest person he had as a parent–that he've met–was Mitsuki Bakugou, or Kaachan's mother, or his Aunty Mutsuki. Her and his mom were friends since from God-knows how long.
His mom used to say that she was there for his birth instead of his father,and he same way that Inko was there too for Katsumi's birth. She was almost his aunt. And because of that, she now was his legal guardian to take care of him. But Izuku knew better when I came about taking care of himself. But, due to the law and such, she had to at least check on him.
The last time she had came to check up on his was one month ago, on Friday, and the next time she was gonna check on him was...
"TODAY?!" His eyes widened with pure shock as his eyes slipped to the calendar on the back of the door of his room A knock on the front door emphasized what was already scheduled to happen, and the way he stumbled around his room, only made it worse.
And the sound of the front door opening and closing afterwards made him panic even more.
At the Living room...
The door swung open, followed by two people walking in that looked extremely similar to each other in so many way, that it was very hard to tell them apart. Like they say, Like daughter, Like mother. (Or is it the other way around?) Both Women sat down on the couch, taking off their shoes and placed them besides the door. Respect at least. She had a ash blonde hair, wearing a slight oversized purple sweater. He daughter was still wearing the Aldera Highschool uniform and wasn't so pleased the be there at all. Said girl was thinking that she would be having better thing to do now if she just stayed behind or home.
"Stupid... God damnit..." she mumbled a few things and some more "I can't believe you have dragged me here, all to see the stupid boy!" Katsumi growled at her mother. "What's so important of checking up on him. "Oi, Old hag, are you hearing me?!" She spoke to her mother, or her Old Hag as she calls her mother now. Honestly disappointing.
"We had to you brat. It's been too long since we came to check up on Izuku-kun- And stop calling me Old Hag, you little brat!" Her mother shot back with a growl, that looked like a Pomeranian, honestly. She turned her head sharply at her daughter the moment she said those things, not being able to make her even flinch, but she turned away her look.
Good, she still knew her place whenever she was close to her or with her. Though, it was really hard to tell who was who. Even if one was in control and the other was younger, they were really hard to no look alike. The hair and their wild style, the red eyes, the attitude and obviously, the temper.
The mother knew how to control the last one, but about the daughter... "By the way, where is Deku?"
"I'm here!" He said, and when but the women turned to the corridor, they saw him leaning against the doorframe, with a nervous smile on his face. The grenette was sweating with a sore abdomen, but he was acting just as normal as the sunlight, except for smile of course. But there was something else that was standing out more than before, of course, drawing both the woman and the teenager girl attention What he was wearing made Katsumi blush like a crazy, while Mitsuki reaction was much of a surprise.
Izuku wore a white shirt, but apparently the word "back" was in the wrong place as the word "front" was in the back. His shorts and what stood out the most, was the face that the white shirt hugging his torso, and outlining every muscles he had. He fidgeted his fingers
Kaachan had to hide her nosebleed. His muscles were making her be stuck in a trance, with her being able to our the simplest thoughts together or even making a small statement or phrase, like how much it was that she wanted to feel it, under her fingers and her tongue.
"Izuku! Darling, it's been a while!" The mother shouted with delight, snapping the daughter out if her trace, which resulted her on a growl of annoyance.
"Hey, auntie Mitsuki! Y-yeah, it's been a long time" He responded back, while she hugged him; her E cup breast resting of top of his head.
"So, how's it been for this past month?" The older woman asked, as the three of them sat down at the couch. Eventually she let go of him to see he was almost very tall, but not as much as her. The special boy only chuckled with a embarrassed look and the hand resting on the back of his head. "Ah, not much, aside from my recent training routine" He rubbed the back of his head.
Katsumi had a few wonders about what's he really doing. Her narrowed eyes emphasizes her curiosity. She still remember what he did in class today, and since then, she wasn't able to come with a response that could match with any reason of why he did that.
It was an amateur move but it looked so skilled, like he was made for that, and if it had something to do with how he looked now, God, send a lighting to her because she's too suspicious about it. The way his shirt Hugs him like that, his chest, his abdomens... Focus girl!
"I can see! You really got in shape!" The mother said, as she touched his muscles. Suddenly, her eyes became relaxed, too much relaxed, and when she looked at him, the teasing look made him sweat nervously "You know, this way you'll get the girls attention~"
"If t-that was my r-real goal..." He said sarcastically "I would probably be in a b-b-better position o-or place right now..." He shook his head slightly with a run to the back of the neck "But, that's not what I w-want."
"You know, if I was younger and I've met you for the first time, I'd probably would ask you out for sure" Mitsuki Bakugou said, rather too much bluntly, making the boy blush like crazy, and her daughter gag
"Oi! You old hag, he's way much younger for you! You can't ask a kid like him out!" Katsumi shouted at her, with rage flaming in her eyes.
Her mother just responded, with a face that co contertoed"DON'T CALL ME HAG YOU BRATTY BITCH!"
And her daughter kindly responded "WHO YOU'RE CALLING A BITCH, YOU GOD DAMN WHORE!?"
For the next five minutes, The bickering between the two continued in an athletic manner, as even if it was a competition. And this happened every time.
For the next five hours, until dinner time was over, the two maiden spent time with the greenette; he had a good time, that he can assure.
"I think is time for us to go Izuku-Darling" Mitsuki said, while behind her, Katsumi Bakugou sticked her tongue out, while putting a finger inside her mouth, and impersonating a gag.
"Thanks for coming by auntie, Kaachan" the kind boy thanked them.
"It was nothing"
"Yeah, whatever" The younger girl growled while turning around. Her mother reaction was to slap the back of her head from down up, making the said girl gasp in surprise.
"We'll be going now Izuku" She headed to the door, and opened it "Bye Izu!"
"Bye..." He waved as the door closed. The boy's reaction was just to go back to his room, slump down on the mattress of his bed, and quickly drift away to sleep with one last sigh of the the day.
.
On her way back home, she hid her face while she kept giggling like a girl with a – obsessive – crush. Mutsuki only looked at her "The fact that you change personality around him is amazing" She rolled her eyes but quickly put them back on the road "You need to make your move.
Katsumi stopped giggling.
"The way he working himself will get many other girl's attention. You saw how that shirt hugged his body. He literally was almost build like a Greek God. If you don't do something soon, someone else will"
Katsumi just returned giggled once again.
Her mother felt like talking was not enough, so the just rolled her eyes again and kept driving.
"He is already mine... I don't need to do much..." Katsumi muttered, scaring a bit her mother "All I need to do is just keep winning. I have the best quirk... I'm the strongest... All I need to do is keep it up..."
Her crazy giggling was scaring her mother, a bit too much.
"And in the end... He's gonna come crawling at me. Like when we were kids... Just like back then."
I know. This is remake. But I decided just to change the start of the story, and the sparring Izuku is gonna have with Myata, is going to be for the next chapter.
I hope you like this Mid-effort remake chapter and I hope to see you all in the next one.