Side: Midoriya Izuku
"Hah... huff... hah...! Ugh, uu... nngh...!"
"...Somehow, Midoriya lying down beneath me making those moaning sounds is kinda hot."
"That's... the one thing I really wish you wouldn't say, Fumiko-san...!"
If anything, Fumiko-san is the one pinning me down, making it look more like I'm being attacked... but that's not important right now. I need to focus on my training.
With Fumiko-san's help, I'm working on training to control 'One For All'... but honestly, there's been no progress at all so far.
Just like before, I can't properly use 'One For All' with the 'image of an egg not exploding'.
When I try to use it without it going out of control, nothing comes out at all.
But when I desperately try to use it, it goes out of control and destroys my arm.
I still can only use the power at either 0% or 100%.
(Quirks are part of the body... saying my Quirk is recent or that I received it from All Might is just an excuse. If it's part of my body, I should be able to use it freely if I want to, and if I can't, it just means I haven't worked hard enough... I know that, but...)
At the very least, I need a starting point. Something that could be the first step in controlling this power.
All Might said it's about feeling. That it's important to have some image, anything, of using the power without it running wild.
But Fumiko-san said, 'Imagery is important, but you can't do it with that alone.'
She said that not just for power control, but for turning any 'can't do' into 'can do', you always need 'accumulation'. That repeating failures and gradually getting closer to success is the most reliable method.
But with my 'One For All', failure equals serious injury. So I can't even do that... My current training is about carefully searching for the path to the correct answer while avoiding failure.
But even with this approach, I feel no progress at all... There's no feedback, so I don't know how to improve or where to go from here...
After all, in this position, using just my 'base strength', I can't lift Fumiko-san's body at all, not even one millimeter... Even when I try to extend my arms with all my might, I can't push from where they're locked at all.
And this has been going on continuously. There's not a single moment when her strength wavers, so I can't even find an opening to push through all at once... Well, even if I could push through an opening, that would defeat the purpose of the training.
...Thinking about it, Fumiko-san is amazing...
She's maintaining this state the whole time, putting in just enough strength to barely prevent me from pushing back.
She said she's using her center of gravity and joints, but more than that, I think she's controlling her energy Quirk with super-precise precision. Using just the necessary amount of energy, continuously exerting the required strength in her arms.
...No, probably not just her arms, but her abs, back muscles, legs too.
Earlier, I tried not just using my arms, but occasionally putting strength into my abs or legs, trying to move them to somehow help move my arms...
The result was, as expected, impossible. My torso and legs, the unrestrained parts aside, couldn't be moved either. It's as if she's using her entire body as a cast to immobilize me.
...I think there was an old TV anime about a baseball boy who trained with incredibly powerful spring-loaded casts to strengthen his body... my current situation reminds me of that.
Even considering that, the fact that not just my arms but my abs and legs can't move at all suggests she's likely reinforcing those areas with her Quirk too.
What a convenient Quirk, I think. Not just arms and legs, but if she wants, she can strengthen her entire body. Right now, she's probably doing that with her whole body, which is why I have no chance to resist with my strength... Thinking about it makes me anxious, can I really do this with just arm strength...
(...Huh?)
What? Something strange just... I think there was something off in what I just thought?
I feel like I casually thought about something I shouldn't overlook and just let it pass...
What was I just thinking? Remember.
(From the fact that I can't properly move my legs or torso either, Fumiko-san is probably strengthening not just her arms but her entire body with her Quirk. And I was wondering if I could push back against that using just my 'arms alone'...*i !!)
That's it! 'Entire body'! Not just arms, using other parts... this is it!
Arms are connected to shoulders. Shoulders are connected to the back, the back to the waist and abs, and then to the lower body.
When using great strength with your arms, if you properly use these connected parts, or muscles, you can generate greater power even with the same arm strength. Especially if you can reinforce them with a Quirk.
So I thought, against Fumiko-san who's strengthening her entire body with her Quirk, can I really push back using just my arm strength?
Incidentally, I also thought it was unfair that Fumiko-san is strengthening her whole body while I'm only using my arms.
Then, it suddenly occurred to me.
(Then... I should use it too! My entire body!)
Come to think of it... Fumiko-san told me, 'If you can output just about 1-2% of your power, you should be able to push back with just your arm strength.'
But... she didn't say 'only use your arm strength.'
Furthermore, I had unconsciously assumed that I could only use this power with my arms... but thinking about it, that's just my own arbitrary assumption, a preconception.
During the entrance exam, I was able to use power in my legs to jump.
During the fitness test, I concentrated power into a single point on my fingertip.