I don't own a thing

  ps: English is my third language, if you see any mistakes please inform me

  "speech"

  'thought'

  'Tenno thinking'

  emphasis/sounds/other such things

  It has been a few weeks since Tenno started training him and Izuku could already see the fruit of his labor. Which isn't that surprising, considering that Tenno had turned every moment in his life into a workout.

  Tenno had him switch to his non-dominant hand for most daily task and alongside it every morning is what he calls a 'warmup', with hundred pushups, sit-ups, squats and a 10 kilometer run. Every moment spent in school is a learning experience, either mastering stealth and subterfuge during the break or learning high school and upper levels of material during lessons.

  He had put on significant muscle mass, but not enough to appear bulky, Tenno made sure that Izuku remained flexible, agile and dexterous.

  By now he had long mastered the basic fighting techniques such as punches and kicks, and today would mark the day that he would begin training in more special techniques, but…

  'Why are we out here in this dump, sensei?' Izuku asked, looking around himself at the piles and piles of garbage that made up the infamous Takoba Dump.

  'Why? Don't you want to be a hero?' Tenno's response momentarily stunned the young Hero hopeful.

  'Of course, but what does this place have to do with heroics?' Izuku questioned, pointing out the dump as being a dump.

  'Tch! To be a hero means to be of service to the people, and what better service is there than cleaning up a public space, this beach used to be beautiful, but now it's a dump' countless things have been lost in the centuries since the birth of Quirks, and sadly it appears the real meaning of a Hero was amongst them.

  Izuku couldn't dispute the logic, 'I see, of course, I'll get right to clearing it up.' He said, pulling up his sleeves and getting ready to dive into work.

  'let me finish. You are not just going to be cleaning this place up, you are also going to be manually shredding the trash by hand.-"

  'Whuh?' now that was quite the surprise. He surely couldn't mean to say that Izuku was going to be using his hands to break apart bigger pieces of trash, he probably meant to use hand tools, he surely wasn't asking Izuku to risk his health by accidently jabbing himself on a rusty piece of metal covered in filth, right? Right?...

  'Indeed, you will be working with only your bare hands, no gloves, no tools. If something needs dismantling then you will be using your own two hands to rip it apart." Tenno's next words put the nail in Izuku's coffin, "Now before we get started we need two things, first you need to learn how to be more aware of your surroundings because you will not always have me to warn you.'

  Now this, this was a topic that has been bothering Izuku for a while, but he hadn't had a chance to inquire about it. Now that the opportunity had presented itself, Izuku couldn't help himself, he descended into unintelligible rambling.

  'Right I only got this far because of your warnings, I was always curious about that, was that your quirk? Some type of precognition or danger sense? But how would that even work when you aren't the one in danger thus it would be more appropriate to call it precog-'

  'Enough kid, it was neither precognition, danger sense nor any type of quirk. I was only able to warn you because of you.' That hadn't answered any questions, instead created countless more.

  'What does that mean exactly?'

  'Izuku, I do not have a body, eyes, ears nor anything to interact with the world, I can only see what you see, hear what you hear and so on. The only reason I was able to warn you of dangers is because you had already seen the signs, you just weren't aware of them. Today you will learn to master that awareness' Tenno's words instilled hope in Izuku, could it be that he will be unlocking more of his potential today?

  'you need to master each and every one of your senses and then go even further beyond, first we will start with your hearing, then taste, smell, touch and last sight' this certainly lit a fire under Izuku.

  'Yes sir! How should I go about doing so?'

  'First we need to make something to limit your other senses, as well as assist you enter your meditative state to help speed up your recovery process.'

  'Oh um, you want me to make gear out of the trash, don't you? Couldn't we have bought like a sleeping mask and noise canceling headphones from a shop?'

  'yes we could've, but consider this; for one, you will be creating your own training equipment by hand, all of which will be perfectly fit to you and your desired specifications, and two, by making it all by yourself, you will be intimately familiar with it and when necessary you will be able to make changes and modifications without difficulty'

  'I see, thank you Sensei!'

  'Good, now get to it!'

  'Sir, Yes Sir!' And like that Izuku got to scavenging through the trash mounds, looking for anything that might be useful for the task, and in the meanwhile he was disassembling everything that needed to go to the dump, by hand.

  No screw drivers, no hammers, no tools. Nothing but his hands, as Tenno told him 'No pain, No gain!'

  He got quite the surprise when he was able to rip open a microwave with some effort and motivation.

  When he asked what parts he needed for his training gear, Tenno merely sent him images of basic noise canceling headphones, a sleeping mask a gas mask and a harmonica? Basically telling him to come up with the list on his own.

  When Izuku questioned what purpose the harmonica would serve, Tenno told him that it would be integrated into the breathing part of the mask, while the filter would solve the smell and taste issue, the principles behind how the harmonica functions can be used to craft an apparatus that would block the airway if he breathed improperly. That was quite frightening to Izuku, so he set out to pay as much attention to what he was making as not to accidently choke himself.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Making exact copies of the items Tenno had shown him, or even possibly finding semi functional ones in the dump was possible but when he asked that, Tenno told him that those were merely references of what Izuku needed to base his builds on. That he himself needed to design them for his needs and scavenge the materials accordingly.

  Which shouldn't be that hard right?

  ':D'

  ….

  Right?

  Three days later, Izuku had finally gotten himself enough materials for all the gear he would need to train his Awareness, now all he needed to do was make them…

  At least this time Tenno granted him some mercy and showed him basic blueprints of how, the items his gear was supposed to take inspiration from, were built

  With the materials at hand and the principles behind how each part worked, memorized, Izuku got to putting it all together.

  Multiple small sheets of metal hammered and bent by hand into shape. Bandages and towels that he got from the store instead of the dump, layered and stuffed into all the correct places. Soon the mask begun to take shape.

  It all was quite clunky and rough looking with many dents and bumps but finally, Izuku had made himself a semi modular mask, with removable goggles, that blocked sight, and earmuffs that blocked sound, with the lower portion of the mask holding enough fabric to filter out the larger particulates in the air, dampening his sense of smell and taste as well as the absolutely tiny and ridiculously difficult slips of metal that would bend by merely breathing on them, which was used to block the air ways in the mask if a bit too strong or irregular breath was taken..

  Each part was removable, so he could swap which sense he was training at any time, or remove the whole mask all at once when needed.

  'It looks good kid, you did a good job'

  Izuku knew it really didn't look that good, but he couldn't help but feel proud of his hard work.

  Putting it on, Izuku immediately felt like he had submerged his head in concrete, especially considering the fact that most of the mask was made out of sheet metal. 'Just another workout for your neck muscles, the grind never stops kid.' Of course, what else should've Izuku expected.

  While wearing the mask, the serene sound of the ocean waves and the wind crashing against mounds of trash disappeared. The pungent and rancid smell of rotten garbage gone alongside the light of the midday sun. He was incased in near total sensory deprivation, only his sense of touch was left alone, feeling the sand under his feet, the cool breeze on his skin, the heavy metal mask weighing down on his neck, 'I get it, stop complaining, if you want something lighter, figure out how to make it without the use of tools, try hammering plastic into shape with your bare hands, lets see how that works out for you!'

  'Now enough dilly dallying, remove the earmuffs and let the training montage begin!'

  'What?-' training montage? What?

  'Get to it already!'

  Hurrying, Izuku unlatched the earmuffs, wincing as sound rushed into his unprotected ears, needing a moment to steady himself, and soon enough he was ready to begin his training, whatever it may be… Tenno hadn't said anything other than isolating his senses

  'Hehehe hahahah! First order of business, find the nearest mound of trash and remove the largest object within!'

  Seriously? That couldn't be it could it? It was so simple, so easy. There must be something Izuku was missing.

  'Without having the mound fall and crush you!'

  'Oh… well fuck." The word was near fully muffled under the mask, but Tenno didn't need to hear the kid, he was already cackling in Izuku's mind like a mad man.

  Slumping, Izuku gave in to fate and started to feel around himself, trying to find a large mound of trash.

  Upon finding one, he begun to feel around for something larger than his head, which took quite a bit, but soon he was grabbing onto what he assumed to be a rice cooker.

  Knocking on it, it didn't make much noise, so Izuku went to drag it out. Only to instantly stop as he heard the mound of trash groan like a wild beast.

  'Slow and steady kid, remember why you are doing this, feel it out.'

  Following Tenno's advice, Izuku put his ear on the mound and begun prodding the rice cooker from all angles.

  Every touch resulted in noise from different parts of the mound, coming from everywhere, near the surface, or within its depths.

  Without his other senses, Izuku had no idea how long he had spend groping the trash mound, but soon his hunched posture straightened, his prodding became more deliberate, and suddenly he pulled.

  The rice cooker came free with a low pop, yet Izuku didn't let his guard down, stepping back with his prize held above his head, waiting, ever vigilant.

  Yet nothing happened, the trash mound went on happily continuing being a trash mound, without noticing that now a small chunk was missing from it's body, its existence went unbothered.(moisturized, unbothered, in its lane)

  'Great job kid!' Tenno's congratulations caused Izuku to flinch so hard he let go of his prize, soon hearing it splash into the water nearby

  'Heh, anyway, it's best to check the time, lets see how long it took you accomplish that once.' Hiding his inner grumblings, Izuku unlatched the eye coverings, only to flinch back at the brightness of the world. Ignoring Tenno's cackling, he pulled out his phone to check the time.

  He had spent half an hour trying to retrieve one item.

  'Good, good. We still have time for more, c'mon no need to waste time, set a timer for 8 and get back to it'

  "Yes sir!" Izuku responded verbally, forgetting that his mouth was also covered, slumping he just nodded his head. Entirely forgetting that Tenno didn't need his voice to be heard to understand him.

  Like that, Izuku got to removing trash one pile at a time, slowly but steadily getting faster and better each time, until his alarm went off, causing him to startle and dropped the pile of trash on top of him.

  Crawling out and gathering his items, Izuku begun heading home slowly after a tiring day. During the walk, he kept trying to adjust his hearing to work without his other senses being covered, which lead to him bumping into a few light poles.

  His walk was peaceful, until he heard some scuffle within one of the nearby alleys. The kid barely gave it much thought before he changed his course to get near the noise.

  Getting closer he heard hushed voices coming from around the corner

  "I swear, I'm not the rat! It must've been Valkov or Yutani, they always complain about the work boss gives us! I swear I-" Spoke a man with a wheezing voice, begging the other person in the alley until he was cut off.

  "Do you think I'm stupid? Huh?! That wasn't a rhetorical question!" Spoke the second person with an irritated tone. "N-no Rappa-" the first stammered out "then do you think our boss is stupid?!" "NO! I would never!-" the first yelled, this time without a stutter. "Then what the fuck do you think lying to my face will get you? Huh?! Did you honestly think we wouldn't catch you in the act?"

  "I- I don't know what you are talking about man! I don't!-"

  "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" there was a sound of metal hitting flesh and a choked scream "who do you think you are? You lead the fucking pigs straight to our door! You are lucky to have stayed alive this long, you should thank the boss for giving you this mercy. Sadly his patience has run out, so show some respect and at least die like a true-"

  "STOP!" Izuku couldn't handle listening to any more of this, with barely a thought running though his mind, he rushed around the corner and yelled, his voice causing the two people in the alley to pause.

  One was a tall, bright orange haired skinny man with a pronounced chin and a bruise forming over his right eye.

  The second was an even larger man with broad shoulders, toned arms and light brown hair peaking out of the bird like mask covering his face.

  The bird masked man turned around, taking a look at the cause of the interruption. Seeing that it was only a kid, he huffed.

  "Beat it kid, before I beat your ass" The bird masked man, referred to as "Rappa" by the first man, spoke gruffly to Izuku, flashing his gauntleted arm to intimidate him.

  The intimidation would've worked, if not for the first man to look Izuku in the eyes with a pleading face.

  "I will call the police!" Izuku threatened, the idea of someone in front of him needing help, steeling his heart.

  "So you haven't called yet? Good." But it appears he had made a mistake, "I'm going to hit you now" it appears he had made a grave mistake.

  But all was not lost yet, as the voice whose shouts and advice he had been ignoring the past minute finally reached Izuku's consciousness.

  'Fuck it, we ball.'

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