Chapter 221
[December 13th, 2149]
For the second round of the training, Izuku had all the boys from Classes 1-A and 1-B, seventeen of their girlfriends, seven members of his fan club, the 'Big 3' of Nejire, Mirio, and Tamaki, their respective kitsune, Toshinori, Gran Torino, Melissa, Nemuri, and an additional twenty-three personnel to assist with expanding and maintaining the dreamscape's facilities. He also convinced the Third through Seventh wielders of One-for-All to lend their insight and experience, much to Toshinori's and Gran Torino's surprise, as neither expected to be reunited with their former mentor and friend.
Fortunately, though it was a tremendous shock to them, neither Toshinori nor Gran Torino resented Izuku for entering into a relationship with Nana. It helped that she assured them she was the one to make the first move by trying to 'compromise' with and 'motivate' him, leaving them little room to complain, much less oppose the relationship. Rather, as she seemed to be genuinely happy with her life in the dreamscape, a tremendous burden had been lifted from their hearts...
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With the first day being dedicated to setting things up and assigning people rooms, it wasn't until the subsequent morning that the training officially began, starting with physical exercise and followed by a crash course in the basics of Magic and spellcasting.
"At this point, you should all be aware of the existence of Mana," said Nemuri, taking charge of the lesson as she now had well over a year of experience on the subject. She even dressed up as a Mage, sporting an uncharacteristically modest set of robes and glasses as she stood at the front of a forum-like lecture hall with a wide blackboard at her back, filled with magical diagrams and formulae.
"What you may not know is that each person has between 0 and 7 innate affinities, fixed from birth," Nemuri explained. "These affinities, broken down into Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Darkness, Light, and Null, determine the elemental composition of your Mana, making it easier to control spells that correspond to your element and harder to control others."
Holding up a tiny crystal fragment, resembling a piece of quartz, Nemuri added, "Each of you has been given fourteen crystal fragments with no elemental charge. I want each of you to grab one of these crystals, focus on it with all your might, and quietly mutter the word 'ignite.' Emphasis on quietly, as the more passion and vigor you speak chants and key phrases, the greater their potency. Let's not burn down the lecture hall on the first day, okay?"
Doing as Nemuri instructed, a little less than half the class managed to invoke flames on their first attempt. Bakugo and Todoroki unsurprisingly produced flames of considerably greater intensity, but they weren't the only outliers in the group. Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and Tsuburaba also had good results, causing their previously cloudy crystals to turn a fiery shade of red.
Waiting a minute or two for everyone to make at least a few attempts at producing fire, Nemuri explained, "Now, whether you were successful or not, you should notice that your crystal has changed color. If you weren't able to produce a flame, it will likely be a faint shade of pink or possess a rusty brown hue. Inversely, if you possess a natural affinity with fire, your crystal should now resemble a ruby. If you hold it up to the light and spot flecks of orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, or black, that indicates whether you possess and will be able to infuse additional elements into your flames."
Noticing that his crystal was pure red, Bakugo clicked his tongue before glancing at Todoroki, unsurprised but slightly annoyed to find his crystal had flecks of ice blue, leaf green, and rich violet.
"Don't worry if your crystal lacks any flecks," said Nemuri. "While it's true that possessing an innate affinity makes learning Magic easier, diligence is far more important. So long as you work hard and apply yourself, you'll be able to learn and master every element. With that in mind, allow me to teach you the elementary chants for each. Afterward, we'll discuss Null Magic, which pertains to the origin, strengthening, and evolution of Quirks as a whole."
Raising his right hand, Ida asked, "Pardon my interruption, Midnight-sensei, but do you mean to suggest our Quirks are magical in nature...?"
Though she was tempted to tell Ida to withhold his questions until she got the explanation of Null Magic, Nemuri crossed her arms and replied, "That's correct. You're all aware that many emission-based Quirks all but spit in the face of natural and physical laws. The Null element is Mana in its most basic form, existing cross-dimensionally and separate from what we perceive as the physical plane. That surge of energy you feel through your body when you activate your Quirks is effectively your Spirit, which exists over your physical body, tapping into an alternate dimension. The actual methodology is much more convoluted, but only those of you who intend to focus on Magecraft, Symbology, and Numerology need concern yourselves with the specifics. This is just the 101 course."
"I beg your pardon," said Ida, lowering his hand and falling silent. As a result, Nemuri was able to continue her lesson, helping everyone confirm their respective affinities before explaining Null Magic and how to bolster their Mana reserves. The most basic method was what most of them had already been doing, using their Quirks to exhaustion, but if you wanted to hone and refine your power expediently, the first step was meditation and actively reinforcing the 'channels' through which Mana flowed through the body. Fortunately, the latter could be achieved through the Ultimate Move training everyone had already undergone. Skills also granted them a basic understanding of how Mana flowed through their bodies, so they just had to get used to the feeling and learn how to shape it willfully, acquiring the [Mana Detection] and [Mana Control] Perks for their efforts...
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Overlooking a vast wasteland with her cape billowing behind her, Mitsuki, wearing her incredibly scant raiment, chanted, "Descend, Great Spirits of Destruction! Let the might of Heaven's Fury crash upon my foes, rending the very land itself asunder! Explosion...!"
Following Mitsuki's chant, a series of crimson magic circles, twenty-three in total, formed between the ground and the overcast sky approximately half a kilometer from their elevated location atop a cliff. Then, a beam of light descended from the clouds, denoting the center of the magic circles before exploding violently a few seconds later. It wasn't quite on par with a nuclear explosion, but a tiny mushroom cloud was formed, resulting in a crater more than 150m across and a little less than twenty deep.
Dropping onto her hands and knees with glycerin-infused sweat pouring from every pore in her body, the only thing stopping Mitsuku from passing out was exhilaration and a compounding sense of anticipation that was rewarded when Izuku moved aside her cape and the piece of black fabric covering her pussy, plunging his massive cock into her as he expressed, "You did well, Mitsuki. It might take some time for your status to reflect it, but you're on the precipice of becoming a Fourth-Circle Fire Mage."
"It...it's all thanks to you...!" exclaimed Mitsuki, her heart pounding in her chest as Izuku pounded her from behind. His condition for fucking her was that she trained just as hard as everyone else, if not harder, so she had been busting her ass to study and master Fire Magic. The feeling of growing more powerful was intoxicating, but since she also had Izuku to reward her, Mitsuki's life became an endless cycle of training, destroying things, and being fucked silly. Fortunately, the Proximity Function didn't function within the dreamscape as there was, as of yet, no true distance, just the illusion of space. As such, Izuku and Mitsuku didn't have to worry about Bakugo seeing them together for hours at a time...
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"Are you fucking my mom...?" asked Bakugo, his expression a neutral mask and his body beat up as he and Izuku had just concluded a relatively one-sided spar.
Standing beside the seated Bakugo, both staring in the same direction as a gentle breeze blew in from the artificial sea, Izuku deliberated for a few seconds before responding, "It's complicated, but yes, I am..."
Closing his eyes and exhaling through his nose, Bakugo remained silent for several minutes before surprising Izuku by warning, "If you ever fool around or make a joke about how I should address you, I don't care what it takes...I'll find a way to at least seriously injure you..."
"I won't..." assured Izuku, keeping his response curt and devoid of even a hint of humor. He wouldn't have blamed Bakugo for losing his temper and attacking him on the spot, but with how perceptive the spiky-haired youth was, Izuku suspected he already knew about the 'oddities' of his parents' relationship, their imminent divorce, and the fact they were cousins...
"Good. Now, grit your teeth..." said Bakugo, forcing himself to his feet and rearing back to slug Izuku in the face with a highly telegraphed haymaker. The latter offered no resistance, resulting in him being sent corkscrewing through the air, eventually crashing into the ground, but he accepted it as the natural consequence of his actions.
Feeling better after sending Izuku flying, Bakugo snorted before slipping his hands into his pockets and turning to depart. In his wake, Izuku stared up at the sky he himself had created for several minutes, arms spread out to his sides as the swelling in his cheek gradually faded. Then, as he had promised to meet with Nejire once he and Bakugo finished their near-daily brawl, he floated from the ground and flew over to her without expending too much time pondering whether he had erred or strayed onto the wrong path...
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"If only the world outside were as peaceful as this..." muttered Toshinori, seated next to Izuku on a cliff overlooking the crescent-shaped bay next to the boys' military-style campgrounds.
"Unfortunately, there are too many people and conflicting ideologies..." said Nana, seated on the other side of Izuku, absentmindedly kicking her legs as she added, "You weren't mistaken in your aspirations of becoming a Symbol of Peace, but that only treated the symptoms of a much greater issue. So long as there are corporations and governments ruled by people who prioritize their interests over the well-being of the masses, there will always be more suffering and hardships than happiness..."
Though he would have readily argued against such a claim ten or twenty years prior, Toshinori remained silent in response to his former Master's words, staring down at his hands in thought. He was determined to keep fighting for his ideals, but with the death toll of the MWTP surpassing six hundred million across the globe, largely due to incompetence and greed, he couldn't help feeling that the only thing he accomplished over the past forty years was creating a world and society that was easier to exploit by those pulling the strings behind the scenes...
"We just need time..." said Izuku, his gaze fixed on the horizon but staring at something far beyond as he added, "We don't need to fix everything in a single generation. Our priorities right now are undermining All-for-One's ambitions and opposing those who seek to claim, conquer, or destroy our world. Everything else comes after that..."
"Can't argue with that..." replied Toshinori, adopting a smile as he rose to his feet and abruptly excused himself without further comment. Izuku and Nana watched him go, but neither called out to him. Instead, after a few seconds had passed, they redirected their gazes to the front, gazing into the artificial sunset. Then, as her ass was starting to get cold from sitting, Nana off-handedly remarked, "I feel like taking a hot bath..."
Adopting a smile, Izuku placed his hand around Nana's waist, meeting her gaze as he expressed, "What a coincidence...so do I..." before scoring the final few moments of sunlight with a kiss...
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(A/N: I wish I had a dreamscape...)