The Deity Entertainment Network

Chapter 218 – Training Under Fire

"Middle Heal! Cure! Detoxify!" John chanted, pushing his healing magic into All Might. When Middle Heal was repairing the old injury, creating new flesh and attempting to reassemble the bones, it told him there was something else going on inside his body. Something dark.

So he tried Cure, which seemed to do... something, but the spell didn't have enough oomph to fix whatever it was, though it did give him some more insight into what the actual problem was. Whatever attack AFO had hit him with was still poisoning him to this day. Detoxify was said to be able to cure any non-magical poisoning, and most magical ones, so he cast that as well, and it cleaned up whatever the hell was killing him.

For Yagi's part, he grunted through gritted teeth as his body was being repaired. John was just happy that his magic didn't give the same sex an orgasm as well, though as to why, that was a question he didn't really want to have an answer to.

Probably DEN being DEN again... At least I healed him up as best I could. 

"How do you feel now?" John asked, taking his hand away from Yagi's chest. The injury wasn't completely healed, but it definitely looked better than before, with much of the indent filled in and the scarring reduced significantly.

Yagi didn't say anything at first, probing his ribs with a hand, then looked up at John with a smile. "I have no idea what that praying just was, but the pain is gone. Are you secretly some sort of priest or something? Praying to a god to grant you miracles?"

"I've been told I'm a Paladin if that helps... gods have something to do with my powers, though I haven't really contemplated if there was supposed to be actual dogma behind them. Let's table that for now, at least until we can meet with Nezu. I'll explain everything to the pair of you then."

"So you really are not from this world... they suspected as much."

"Hah, yeah," John replied, storing the armour again. He offered Yagi a hand up, then noticed a bunch of black and grey ooze on the man's skin. "You might want to go have a shower and get whatever that crap is cleaned up."

"Well, this is unpleasant. What is it?"

"From what I can tell, my powers push any toxins it can't clean up out of the body. Not sure if that is exactly what is going on, but it's the most plausible explanation I can come up with."

Yagi looked like he wanted to say something more, but held his tongue. Instead, he clasped John's arm and pulled himself up as he transformed into his superhero form. "You have done me a great service today, John. No, you have given me a new lease on life. I'm not sure how long I can hold this form, but I haven't felt this good in years. If you ever need anything, and I mean anything, just ask."

Before John could reply, Midoriya walked into the room. "All Might! Your eyes! They are not shadowed anymore."

"Huh? Really? Excuse me, John, I need to use your shower and then check this out." He said, then went to the bathroom to clean up the mess left by the healing magic.

"Did you heal him? Is he still going to be a pro hero?" 

"I did what I could for him. It wasn't a perfect healing, but he should be good to go for years to come." John said, placing a hand on the kid's shoulder. 

"My eyes! They really are clear again!" Yagi shouted from the other room. John thought he could hear the man start to sob.

"Yeah, let's give him a little privacy while he composes himself. Let's head out to the dojo and set up a few things so you can show your mentor how much you have grown."

"Shouldn't we check on him... he sounds like he is crying."

"Indeed, he is, but it's in joy and maybe relief. Let him have his moment of weakness and recenter himself. No need to embarrass him more by watching him cry."

"Embarrass? Mom always told me it was good to cry and let your emotions out."

"It is, but only in private, never in front of others. That is one of the unwritten rules of being a man, and separates us from women and children."

"Isn't that called toxic masculinity?"

"Toxic what? I have no idea what that is, but there is nothing toxic about being strong in front of others and about hiding your weaknesses. Crying isn’t bad, as long as you do so in private, alone or with someone you trust not to judge you. I'm not saying don't show your feelings, but to control when you do so. Be the master of your own emotions, not their slave."

"Weakness? Crying is a weakness?"

"When you do it in front of others, they can and will view you as someone lesser, mainly if you do it frequently. If someone dies or something tragic happens, that is one thing, but even that should be measured if you can help it. Inversely, if something happy happens, it is okay to shed a few tears of joy as well. In both cases, a man should maintain control of his emotions and be strong for the others around him."

"That sounds difficult."

"Being a man is difficult; anyone who says otherwise well... let's just say they are probably not the sharpest tools in the shed."

"Huh? You mean they are stupid?"

"Not quite. More like they are cherry-picking the good parts of being a man, and saying we have it easy because of that. Anyway, we were talking about emotions and the unwritten social contract for men, not others' opinions on men. I'll explain things as my father did to me, and as I did to my son."

"You have a son?"

"Yes, and two daughters. They are all grown up and have lived very successful lives."

They continued to talk for the next ten minutes, warming up their joints in the dojo while waiting for Yagi to come outside. John wasn't sure how much he was able to pass on to the boy about being a man; articulating what was almost always shown rather than taught was slightly difficult, but he thought he did a reasonable job of it. 

After the now-composed Yagi joined them, they trained for an hour, with the pro hero letting Midoriya actually strike him while using Full Cowl. John was just happy he had opened all the doors and windows of the dojo that morning, as the strikes were causing a localized windstorm in the building. 

If he gets much stronger, we might need to reinforce the roof or train outside.

When Yagi shrank back to his normal size, he praised Midoriya for his progress, then turned to John. "I would like to take Midoriya to meet my old mentor today and train with him for the rest of the week. After seeing what you have accomplished, I think he would benefit from the interesting methods he used to instruct me. That and... well, he sent me a letter requesting to meet with Midoriya... several letters." He said, then quickly added, "This isn't to say what you have taught him was bad, far from it. It's just my mentor trained me after the last wielder of OFA passed, and I owe the old man for my success in becoming a hero. He has never asked anything of me before, so I would like to repay the favour."

"Hah, it's fine. As long as Midoriya wants to go, I have no issues with it. Speaking of OFA, how is your Quirk holding out?"

"It's good. I can feel it recovering quickly, even after that hour of use. Whatever was eating at the power has been expelled from my body. I would hazard a guess that I have about six to eight hours of using it again, as long as I take a few breaks during the day.  It's been a long, long time since I could use the power that much. You have no idea what this means to me, John."

"Well, don't go overboard with it; you might still be healing inside. And make sure you have a few big meals, it takes a lot of calories to repair that much damage. Come see me in the office next week, and I will toss another heal on you, just to make sure I got it all."

"Will do, though I might need to consider retiring as a teacher now, and return to hero work full time."

"Do you think that is the best use of your time?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're powerful, sure, but you're not a god, and you can't be everywhere. Right now, you have the chance to help mould the next generation of heroes and teach them how to do it properly. We aren't young men, Yagi, it's okay to let others run the show and just step in if they come into a situation they can't handle."

"But what about this new lease on my power? Wouldn't it be better if I used it against these villains? You know this League of Villains are up to something."

"I never said not to use it, but be more surgical in its use. Training the students and your successor should be your priority, and when they do strike, make sure you're ready to respond. I don't claim to know much about hero work, but after watching that villain with the teleportation Quirk gather even more villains, you know they are planning something big. If they have another beast like last time, we will need All Might at his best, not tired from saving kittens out of trees all day."

"Kittens are important too, but I see your point. I'll think on it, but I'll make no promises. If I see people in need, I will help them. That is just what a hero is expected to do."

"On that, we agree," John replied, then returned to watching Midoriya hit the speed bag. John really wondered what that damn thing was made out of, because it was still hanging in there even after the pounding Rumi, Yu, himself, and now Midoriya gave it. 

I'll knock it off its hook someday. That goal is almost as important as beating Rumi in a straight-up fight.

That Evening

Hosu City

"Okay, here is the plan. Creati, make a fire hose with your Quirk and start trying to put out the fires. Uravity, Froppy, start searching the wrecks and rescue any survivors. Pull them back away from the fight a block or two. I'll keep the villains occupied. Do not engage them unless you need to protect yourselves. Even then, pull back, these creatures are beyond you at this point." Rumi said, snapping off orders to Momo, Ochaco, and Tsui, then drawing John's bow from her waist holder.

She would normally fight villains in close quarters, but these two beasts resembled the one described from the U.S.J. attack, and that one took All Might down. The sheer destruction in the city square told her not to underestimate these things. Not to mention, there were several more humanoid villains running around, causing mayhem and destruction. Four other pro heroes had already engaged them, and it was clear they were outclassed. 

She started to let loose with the bow, the lightning cracking through the din of the battle. The first arrow embedded deeply into the knee of the largest beast, causing it to howl in pain. She didn't wait to see the extent of the damage and started raining fire down on the pair of them, moving away from where the students were scrambling to follow her instructions. 

The larger beast dropped to the ground after she had knocked out its knees, seemingly disabled for now, so she turned her focus to the other one, who was flying about and terrorizing the other heroes. That was a mistake. A burning car was launched towards her, and she caught it on her arm when she tried to dodge it. The bow went flying as she lost her grip, her limb going numb for a moment. She rolled to the side, then charged the massive beast that was now standing up, apparently not as injured as she thought. A wide grin formed on her face, her battle junkie side taking over. 

"Luna Rush!"

Jaku City

"What do you mean the train is out?" John asked the attendant, confused. There had never been any delays with the trains since he arrived; Japan's public transportation system had run like clockwork. If a train was even a minute late, people made a big deal of it. A train being out would be major news here.

"Sorry, Sir, but some villains attacked the train, leaving the track blocked. We are still waiting for the heroes to deal with the situation, but apparently, other attacks are happening at the same time. Are you the hero they sent to deal with the train? Because it's over thirty kilometres from here."

"No, I'm not, I'm just a provisional sidekick. Thank you for letting me know." John said, then walked away. 

After Yagi and Midoriya left the dojo, John pulled out his sword and went through the motions, warming up his body. A few minutes later, Hinata had shown up, and they started their first lesson. Which was a lot of breaking of a few bad habits he had developed since the last time he trained with Brod. 

Their training was interrupted after about an hour, when she received a phone call. She needed to take off to deal with a suspected Indian spy who had been detained at a port to the south, and promised she would be back in a couple of days to resume the lesson. John continued to train for some time with his Ki, meditating by the koi pond. After a bite to eat, he decided to meet up with Rumi and the girls. A quick text told him they had just arrived in Hosu, so he got dressed in his armoured leather hero suit and walked to the train station.

"Now what?" He said to himself. He could pull his bike out and drive, but he didn't even know how to get out to the highway. He considered pulling his mech out and following the train tracks to deal with the villain's attack there, but his luck would be a damn Urbie, and it would take an hour to get there... not to mention all the chaos a giant walking robot would cause. Even the smallest mechs were bigger than the ones they used here in this world. 

I should show Mei the Mech sometime. Maybe she could make Myomer muscles... though I don't know if she would want to copy other tech and call it her own. Something to ask her tomorrow. 

Without any other option, he called a cab. Within moments, a familiar-looking cab pulled up in front of him, and the door swung open.

"Hurry, get in. I get you where you need to go!" The man said excitedly before John could even say where he wanted to go.

"Are you going to try and kill me again?" John asked, wondering just who this guy was. Still, he got in and belted up.

"Not me, no. I just drive, get my passengers where they need to be." The cabbie said with a smile, then floored it, the roaring engine drowning out any further conversations. 

"Holy crap!" John shouted, holding on for dear life as the cab seemed to become some high-octane rally car and flew down the street. 

How does this guy even have a license?!? And where in the hell are we going!?!