"Finally, I can use my Quirk without pain."
I thought as I looked at my hand covered in Dark Matter. The transparent, dark substance with flickers of purple flowed freely from my hand or any other part of my body. It took a considerable amount of energy, though less than before. But that wasn't the main thing. The main thing was the ease of performing this action.
Before, I had to constantly concentrate on the action, holding the mental image of the command in my head. Now, the command was executed and maintained almost effortlessly. The closest comparison would be the difference between trying to reach your toes with your fingers and simply clenching your fist.
I used "Hardening." My hand was instantly covered in a film that was already black, not gray, with a metallic sheen. I punched the concrete floor of the warehouse. Stone fragments flew in all directions, and several small black lightning bolts raced across my fist. The force of the impact had increased, and something strange happened when my fist made contact with the floor.
After several punches, I realized that, in addition to increasing pure physical strength and defense, "Hardening" somehow affected the object being struck. But when I touched an object with my hand covered in the black film, nothing happened. I would figure that out later.
I stood in the center of the warehouse. My feet were shoulder width apart. I used "Choice" to make myself permeable to the Earth, thereby becoming weightless. I used "Rejection" from my feet into the floor, keeping the recoil. I flew through the roof of the warehouse, barely having time to make myself permeable to it. That would have been an epic fail if I had crashed into the roof, knowing how to make myself permeable to such things.
With a weaker pulse of "Rejection," I tried to stop my too rapid flight toward space. Finding the right level of "Rejection" power took three minutes and was accompanied by chaotic flailing of my body in the sky not far from Musutafu. Thank goodness it was night. The idea of doing all this while also being permeable to light, meaning invisible, I quickly dismissed as unnecessary masochism.
Spreading my arms wide, I looked down with interest. Below me, slightly off to the side, the night city spread out, shimmering with various lights. I had wanted to fly like this for a long time. But the amount of energy and concentration I had was only enough for a short flight, which was why I never risked flying high or for long. Now, the joy of flying overwhelmed me.
I didn't want to think about how the ability to fly made me more maneuverable and would allow me to reach other cities faster. There was a lightness in my soul, and I just enjoyed the feeling.
Half an hour later, cold, tired, but satisfied, I walked home. After that fight with the creature, something inside me had changed. Fear and hatred still remained, but where uncertainty with a kind of light fatalism or even despair had been, now there was determination. Determination to be strong. Not for my own sake, but for the sake of my family and friends.
But it would be foolish to abandon the path of a villain. The path and aspirations of true heroes were not for me. I didn't want to save everyone and risk my life for strangers. I didn't want to leave rapists and maniacs alive by sending them to prison. And the method of increasing my power would clearly not be popular with the public. Not to mention, I could no longer hide my combat skills well enough in the hero course to avoid being suspected of being Ticci Micc.
That night, I didn't have any nightmares.
Walking to the beach where Izuku and I often trained, I thought about the news that had been on TV recently. Another villain had been caught by heroes. But this event stood out for me because of three people: All Might, who happened to be in the city, and two of my acquaintances, Bakugo and Midoriya.
As it turned out, Bakugo had been taken hostage by a sludge villain, and Midoriya had rushed to save him, even managing to pull him out of the villain's body a little. That was until the villain decided to crush him for real. And, as always, All Might saved the day at the end of this mess.
And the journalists, as always, twisted everything to make Izuku look like almost a mentally retarded child without a single instinct for self-preservation. This looked especially good against the backdrop of the group of heroes who, judging by everything, had preserved their "instinct for self-preservation" and stood off to the side, watching the villain merge with the schoolboy. The excuses of these "heroes" only made me laugh.
So I decided to cheer up Midoriya. I couldn't reach him by phone because his signal was out, so I went to his house. Inko, who was at home, directed me to the beach, where Izuku was probably working off his bad emotions through training. That was good.
As I approached the stairs leading down to the beach, I heard a strange crack. I looked at Izuku, who was breathing heavily. Several fingers on his hand were turning blue.
"Izuku, where did you get those bruises on your fingers?"
He practically jumped in fright and finally noticed me.
"Hi, Ken-san. Have you been here long? My fingers… this is my Quirk. It awakened recently."
He started fidgeting nervously. I sighed. I did that too often when talking to Midoriya.
"I've told you many times about the honorifics. No, I just got here. And your Quirk is causing bruises on your fingers, judging by what I'm seeing?"
"No, of course not. It's physical enhancement. I'm just getting used to it. The first time I activated my Quirk, I broke my arm."
While he was talking, I examined him with my "Gaze." Something about him reminded me of that thin man. It seemed like they were related, since a person's Quirk is partially projected in their light silhouette. If it weren't for the paleness of most of Izuku's radiance and the fact that there were now nine colors instead of eight, I would have said he had the same Quirk as that blond man.
I couldn't bring myself to be disrespectful to that man with the piercing blue eyes. There was a steely will in the depths of his eyes that subconsciously commanded respect.
We then discussed Midoriya's awakened Quirk. He couldn't produce an enhancement that his body could handle. The whole enhancement process was accompanied by red lines covering the part of the body he wanted to strengthen.
After messing around for a couple of hours and realizing that he could strengthen any part of his body, a question finally formed in my mind that had been lingering in the back of my thoughts.
"Izuku, can you strengthen your entire body at once?"
There was a pause of a few seconds between us. His entire body was covered in red lines with green lightning. He moved a little, and they disappeared. I wanted to bang my head against the concrete wall for not thinking of this solution sooner. I thought Midoriya would want to do that even more, considering he had already broken his arm and bruised his fingers.
For the rest of the time, I watched him try to take even a single step under full enhancement. He couldn't. The only thing I could advise him was to keep training.
Hmm. Too many of my solutions to problems come down to training and killing. I hope I don't go crazy. Although I've already gone crazy. So I can stop worrying. Maybe next time I should ask Midoriya if that thin blond man is a relative of his? The projections of their Quirk radiances are very similar.