The Aizawa Style and Insights

Pushing my arms against the floor, I kept my body still as I completed another handstand push-up for the umpteenth time today.

I kept my body so straight it was probably like watching a statue move up and down. Though, there was a reason for my stillness.

Settle upon the soles of my feet was a thick and heavy looking bar, with massive weights on either side of said bar.

If anyone saw me, a child, doing such feats of inhuman strength and dexterity, they'd probably be stunned stupid. After all, it wasn't every day that you see a child with the weight of a car pressing down on him without him even looking winded.

Well, it wasn't a common sight in the outside world, but in the Aizawa Dojo, it was a sight you'd always see as I was coming to the end of my warm-up for the day's training.

Slowly, I set down the bar and despite the delicacy in my movements, a massive thud rang throughout the room. When I fully stood up, I did a few stretches, making sure all the muscle groups in my body were limbered up and full of blood.

Half-way through a stretch, I smirked before tilting my head to the side, leaving empty space for a bo staff to thrust into. Despite my preemptive dodge, the bo staff still grazed my neck, giving it a friction burn and even causing a little bleeding.

Though within seconds that bleeding stopped and the friction burned skin quickly fell away revealing a layer of new skin.

'Haah~ I love how quick I can regenerate...' still smirking, I jumped up and over the person charging at me, my keen senses knowing they were charging at me as soon as their first attack failed. While they were under me, I used my momentum to curl myself into a ball and do a back flip.

I torqued my body around and extended my leg outward like a blade. As I was still in the air, my sudden swinging off my leg stopped my momentum and I started falling down onto whoever was below me.

With my leg extended, I twisted my hips in such a way that my leg acted like a whip and shot toward the head of my sneaky assailant.

The wooden bo staff seemed to come alive like a cunning serpent and placed itself in front of my kick, dispersing most of the force. Though that didn't stop the wood from bending dangerously close to snapping before the recoil, along with the leftover force from my kick, sent the bo staff wielder flying backward a few meters.

Grinning, I landed lightly on the ground before flexing my legs and shooting off from my spot and toward my 'enemy' with furious speed. My feet made indentations on the ground below me, along with solid thuds like a great beast charging echoing throughout the room.

Within no time I appeared in front of the man holding the bo staff and without stopping I sent a solid punch to his stomach, to which he quickly deflected and counterattacked with a kick.

I dodged under the kick and sent a high kick of my own at the bottom of his chin between his mouth and his Adam's apple.

And that's how it went - dodging counterattacks and sending one back. He had the advantage in reach even without his bo staff (he was about 15 centimeters taller than me), so I kept as close as I could to him to make sure he could put his back into any of his attacks and fully extend.

It's pretty much like this: The closer you are to someone, the less distance their fist has to build up momentum and power. Even doing a one-inch punch requires the right stance and proper time to prepare.

Fighting is all about momentum and with my shorter arms, I had more room to build up momentum in much tighter conditions.

They continuously tried to back off so they could get room to use their bo staff but I was like a bug they couldn't shake, constantly on them and constantly annoying and wearing away at them.

I'd feel some semblance of pride if I didn't know that he was holding back and he wasn't even using his preferred weapon.

As you might have guessed, this man in front of me is my master/teacher and also Shota Aizawa's father.

It'd been another year since my father's death and my training had taken an even further rise in intensity. At least when I was training with Master Aizawa. He said something along the lines of 'You'll need to be prepared because we're gonna start the passing down of the Aizawa Style soon'.

So, it was safe to say that I accepted the extra intense training along with the extra-ruthlessness from both Master Aizawa and Shota-niisan. Oh yeah, I started calling him Shota-niisan sometime in the last year and he didn't stop me, so I kept it up.

Anyway, their training was exactly what I wanted; something brutal. Mainly because it helped push my bodily systems to grow stronger even quicker but also because it never hurt to be distracted from my problems by a fight.

'...I'm quite sure I've been turned into a battle maniac by these two Aizawas...' letting out a sigh, I went to charge at my master but I was surprised to see that he'd left his stance and put his bo staff down on the ground. Looking up at his face, I could see that he was smiling down at me and it made my face heat up in embarrassment for some reason.

He looked proud and my assumption was proved seconds later when he started speaking.

"Tatsuya, you've done me proud, and I know that even if he doesn't say it, Shota's also proud," he took a few more seconds to build up the suspense before continuing, "You're ready. Follow me."

And with that, he turned around and walked out of the courtyard. When we were on our way out, I heard a cheery voice but we didn't stop and just carried on further into the Dojo until we ended up in Master Aizawa's study.

He told me to stay put by the door and walked over to a painting before removing it from the wall which revealed a safe, embedded in the wall. It also got a scoff from me, 'Like seriously, how cliche is that...pftt hahahaha!'

Despite dying of laughter on the inside, I didn't dare to laugh right now - who knows what freakish punishment would be thrown my way for laughing during such a seemingly serious moment.

Once he opened the safe, he took out a few books and scrolls before setting them on the table and bringing out a rather expensive looking black box.

Suddenly he turned to me and out of reflex, I straightened my back and looked nervously at my now stoic-faced Master.

He picked up the books, scrolls and the box before walking over to me and speaking, "These scrolls and books detail the Aizawa Style and inside this box is a high-grade Capture Weapon made of the finest materials. Read up on the Style for the rest of the day and familiarize yourself with the weapon - because tomorrow, I'll show you the real training we do around here!" and with that he slapped me on the shoulder and walked off, leaving me stunned.

'...That...that...wasn't...the real...training...?' suddenly the past few years of training seemed slightly hollow and it only made me fear even more what my training in the future would be.

Looking down at the stuff in my arms, I decided to head back to the courtyard as I still had about 20 minutes before either Aunt Rei or Uncle Enji came and picked me up, and it'd be better spent looking through the books rather than lamenting how I'm probably gonna be beat to near-death tomorrow.

Sighing at this revelation, I entered the courtyard and sat off to the side before laying out the books, scrolls, and box in front of me.

Doing a quick run-through of one of the starter books on the style, I discovered it didn't have any kind of stances in it.

Only a code.

Precise, ruthless, and efficient.

It turns out that the style revolved around these 3 words and the practitioner was tasked with producing their own style.

It got me wondering why Master Aizawa and Shota-niisan couldn't just choose anyone for this - it was clearly based off of what one could produce from their own insights and whatever they came up with would suit them. Meaning they didn't need a well-rounded person like they'd said they did.

Anyway, putting my thoughts on hold, I looked through the other books and discovered that they were all detailing the experiences and insights of the previous followers of the Aizawa Style.

And I was in awe, frankly.

Despite none of them even being remotely similar, they all stuck to the code and shared the similarity of representing the 3 words in their own unique ways.

I wasn't about to let my predecessors down, so I looked through the books in more detail before putting the book down and looking at my own insights on the 3 words.

Precise. Precision. Accuracy. Pinpoint. It was the action of completing something to the exact degree it needed to be. Nothing more and nothing less.

How could that be translated to fighting? Attacking with the exact amount of force, with pinpoint accuracy on a specific part of the opponent's body to deliver the most debilitating injury.

It wasn't much but it was a start. My insights on the words could always be refined through time and effort, and especially by sparring with Master Aizawa and Shota-niisan.

Ruthless. Merciless. Unrelenting. Pitiless. It was the ability to complete an action without a second of hesitation and most likely to cause a disadvantage of another.

It wasn't a very hero-like word but in a fight, such things didn't matter. Martial Arts didn't revolve around Heroes and Villains. No, they revolved around who won. Who the last man standing was. That's what mattered.

Being able to strike down any of my opponents, no matter who they were. Feeling no hesitation when the Villains or opponents pleaded for me to stop beating them. Completing whatever job I set my mind to.

Hearing my own thoughts, I couldn't help but let out a strained sigh. No matter what I tried to tell myself, I knew that I'd become slightly more callous because of what had happened to me and it was showing right now when I looked at my insights on these words.

'Oh well, there's not much I can do, is there? I know not to cross certain lines and I'd never sully my father's name by becoming a villain...so I should be fine...right?' pushing such thoughts to the back of my mind, I calmed myself.

Efficient. There weren't many synonyms for this word but I didn't need them. To be efficient was similar to being precise but it was definitely different. With precision, I looked for exactly how to do the job, while with efficiency, I looked for how quickly I could do the job and how little energy I could spend while also completing the job.

In a fight, efficiency would be using a single punch to do as much damage as a dozen. Instead of wailing away randomly at my opponent's body, I would prioritize weak points to end the fight quickly and having not wasted unnecessary energy.

It was simple stuff, but as I said, I could expand and refine my insights over time and with enough fights.

"Tatsuya-niichan!" a joyful voice behind me brought me out of my concentrated stupor and I felt a small figure wrap themselves around my back.

If it weren't for the fiery orange hair I could see falling over my shoulder, I'd have thought it was my sister.

But no, it was my fellow disciple under Master Aizawa. While I had the physical prowess, she had the martial prowess, and even with my enhanced brain she still had me beat in terms of technique.

Though that's not to say I can't beat her in a fight.

Waiting for the orange-haired brat to finally stop hugging me, I turned around to see her brightly smiling up at me, her bright teal eyes, innocently staring at me with a multitude of emotions.

Respect and admiration being the biggest ones.

"Itsuka, what did you get here?" I questioned as I tilted my head to the side, genuinely confused.

She smiled cutely in response to my question before smiling in a mock reprimanding way, "Ehhh~? You didn't hear me calling after you as you and Master Aizawa were walking toward his study? Idiot~" with this she stuck out her tongue.

Before I could reply Itsuka seemed distracted by the books and scrolls behind me and kept trying to peek behind me.

While I held her back with a palm on her forehead, she suddenly outstretched her arm and it turned into a massive version of her normally small hands. With her improved reach, she tried to get to the box that was nearest to her but I had other ideas.

Wrestling her to the ground, I got her in an armbar and waiting for her to tire herself out as even with the enlarged hand, she had no chance against my raw physical power.

Looking down at he feisty child, I remembered how she'd joined the Dojo all those years ago and even seemed a bit arrogant because of her rather powerful quirk. There seemed to be a change from the original series because she could do more than just enlarge her hand: she could pretty much change the properties in her arms to become anything she wanted.

She could change her hands into pure metal if she wanted. It was a very strong quirk. Sadly it was a bad match up against me as it's main power was enhancing raw strength - and I wouldn't be beaten by anyone my own age in terms of raw strength.

Anyway, the girl's name is Itsuka Kendo, in the show she played a smaller part as a member of class 1-B, a class which usually played a smaller part behind the class 1-A which was full of the main characters for the My Hero Academy series.

Though with her new and improved quirk, I'm quite sure she's going to be joining me in class 1-A in the future.

'...I wonder what else has changed?' as that thought came to my head, I heard a tired voice come from behind us. It was Shota-niisan in all his eternally tired glory.

"Stop messing around. Itsuka, get up and start your warm-up training," he stopped and looked over at me, "and Tatsuya, keep reading those books. Don't forget to read the scrolls on Capture Weapon techniques."

And with that, he walked off, presumably to sleep. Realizing he was right, I let go off Itsuka's arm who just pouted at me. Confused at her pouting, I questioned her on it.

Her reply was kinda surprising.

"Its just...you're so strong, Tatsuya-niichan!" her eyes shined with innocence and it was blinding but it soon changed into a troubled look, "and that's the problem...I'm pretty weak, right?" her troubled look soon devolved into a teary-eyed little girl who was upset.

Unsure of what to do, I simply tugged her toward me and gave her a tight hug. She froze up for a second before returning the hug and nuzzling herself against me.

'...No doubt wiping her snot on me...' keeping down the indignation, I just stood there hugging the girl who was practically like a second sister to me by now.

It would've carried on for a while if I didn't hear the laughter of a mature woman behind me along with the 'Hmph' of a child.

Turning around I saw my Aunt Rei and my cute little sister, Ayako, looking over at me from the door to the courtyard. Rei was laughing with a hand over her mouth, muttering something about youth, while Ayako refused to meet my eyes, her head turned to the side at me.

It was as heart-rending as you'd expect.

It got even worse when Itsuka realized they were there as she quickly separated from me before going red and acting bashful like a potential daughter-in-law meeting the mother of her boyfriend for the first time.

'Don't act bashful! It was a hug! A simple, platonic hug! And Ayako-chan, stop glaring at me!' internally shouting this, I resigned myself to the torment, hoping I could get home quicker to play games with Shoto and Natsuo on the console in the living room.

And with that, another happy day had come to an end. Though these happy days wouldn't last long because of two reasons:

Soon I'd be thoroughly into the throes of puberty and that's a shitshow I've already experienced once. But even worse is...I'd be in Middle School next year.

Oh boy, how fun.