Kenji
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Kenji's hand shot out from under the covers, fingers already hovering over the snooze button.
He stopped himself.
'I set this alarm for a reason.'
Groaning from the depths of his soul, he slowly forced himself up. It was still dark out, the window showing nothing but a dark sky with a few stars.
Still not ready to walk yet, he just lay on the bed for a few more seconds, holding the blanket over his body as he reconsidered getting out of bed.
"Ok," He sighed out loud, "Let's get the day started."
He shuffled to the kitchenette, filled a glass from the tap, and took a big gulp. The cold water helped drag him the rest of the way into consciousness.
With his sight finally not blurry, he took a look outside his window. Nagazora was still dead quiet. It honestly looked kind of scary.
Kenji smacked himself on the cheeks a few times to hype himself up. He grabbed an old tracksuit from his wardrobe, laced up his sneakers, and stepped out into the cold morning air.
"F-Fuck that's cold!" He could even see his breath coming out in a small white cloud.
He walked to the park with his hands pushed deep in his pockets. The streets were so quiet that his own footsteps sounded too loud.
Aside from a single employee in a convenience store he passed by, he came across no one else on his walk to the park.
The park was as quiet as everywhere else, though slightly more lit with the amount of streetlights. He walked over to the spot he scouted yesterday that had a lot of trees and far from the walk paths, so nobody would bother him.
After stretching for a bit, he dropped into a push-up position.
By the count of eight, his arms were already tired.
By fifteen, they were shaking.
He made it to twenty before his elbows buckled and he dropped to the damp grass.
'This makes zero fucking sense,' he thought, genuinely baffled. 'I punched through a concrete pillar, and I can't do twenty push-ups?'
'How the hell are my arms still attached?!' He shouted in his mind.
But knowing he wouldn't get an answer anytime soon, he stopped wasting time and got back into position.
As he suspected, OFA didn't make his muscles stronger on its own. It amplified what was already there, which was admittedly not much.
Maybe the universe had finally decided to give him a break and let him use OFA without repercussions? Maybe. But he was not going to tempt fate by testing it out.
He pushed through another set. Then crunches. Then squats, which somehow hurt even more.
He didn't know how long his workout lasted, but light had started to appear in the sky by the time he finished.
Kenji panted hard, leaning his arms back as sweat poured from his entire body.
This was his first step in achieving his goal… So why didn't it feel as satisfying as he had hoped?
He leaned forward, looking at his hands.
'Deku trained for ten months before he could even receive OFA. I've been at this for two days.'
This small act wasn't worth praising or rewarding himself for. It was just the first step of many.
Sitting up, he walked towards a tree not too far away. It was surrounded by a thick canopy, so it was unlikely that anyone would notice if it was gone.
Kenji placed his arm against the bark and closed his eyes. Reaching out to that warm ember that he was trying to familiarize himself with.
A faint heat simmered in his forearm as glowing red veins appeared beneath his skin.
He opened his eyes, drew his fist back, and tapped the tree.
CRACK.
The bark cracked faintly. A small dent, barely bigger than his knuckle. The tree was otherwise completely intact.
'Not bad.' He allowed himself a small smile. The first step was actually getting a good feel and control over OFA while getting himself stronger.
Because of his ability to somehow use the power without breaking his limbs, he didn't need to fully strengthen his body before training control. But pushing strengthening back was also a bad idea, so he needed to work on both at the same time.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps.
Kenji turned his head to see the first jogger of the morning running on the main path in the distance.
'Looks like I'm done here.'
He turned and headed home, sore in muscles he didn't know he had, and slightly satisfied.
/ — /
By the time Kenji reached Blue Dragon Couriers, the soreness in his arms had calmed down to a persistent throbbing.
The familiar smell of coffee and cardboard hit him as he pushed through the door. Most of his coworkers were still in that half-awake state where no one really paid attention to whatever anyone else said.
He clocked in and grabbed the day's delivery list.
'Oh come on,' he groaned. The addresses he got today were all over the city, and it was going to be a pain carrying the items around.
But there was no going back. He made a commitment.
…And it wasn't like he could back out of his literal job.
'I could just think of this as another kind of training,' Kenji told himself, trying to keep a positive mindset.
Was using One For All, a power that could destroy cities, to carry boxes, a wise idea? Probably not, but that was what made it a challenge.
He got the first load of three boxes stacked on top of each other. They weren't really big, it was on the heavier side after he tried to lift it without OFA.
It wasn't impossible to lift without it. But it would be a pain in the ass.
Kenji picked them up slowly, not turning on OFA just yet. He needed to think about how much power he was going to use.
Because if he used too much, then he would crush the boxes.
Slowly, he let OFA course through his body again. His efforts proved worth it as he was able to control the output to make lifting easier, while not damaging the products.
'Nice.'
Without another thought, he brought the boxes outside and put them on his company-issued bicycle.
His first stop was Mrs. Nishida's apartment around three blocks down.
It didn't take too long for Kenji to arrive, and she answered the door, then broke into a smile when she saw him.
"Ah, Kenji! You have my order?"
"Right here." He carefully brought one of the boxes into her home, placing it on a short table so the old lady wouldn't have any trouble unboxing it.
She thanked him warmly, and he stepped out to continue his work.
'Alright, one down.' He headed back to his bike and headed to the next location.
The next delivery was a bulkier box, heavier than the others. He hoisted it out of the holder and held it for a moment.
He wanted to try something slightly harder this time. So he channeled OFA to just one hand to see if he could control the output on just one hand.
"Easy," he muttered to himself.
His fingers tightened around the cardboard. The warmth built steadily in his right hand, just enough to stabilize the weight—
RIIIP.
The side of the box gave way.
"Shit!"
A set of neatly wrapped books tumbled out and scattered across the sidewalk.
He dropped to his knees immediately to grab the books. He quickly scooped them back up one by one before any of them could get too dirty, and then— he felt a faint prickle at the back of his neck.
He yanked his hand back.
A passing car hit a puddle two inches from where his fingers had just been, sending a sheet of dirty water across the sidewalk.
He sat in disbelief, looking at his dry hand.
'Did danger sense just... fire because of a puddle?'
Kenji's face went slightly red in embarrassment, 'My superpower turned on because of a puddle…'
Refusing to linger any longer, he gathered the remaining books and patched the box back together with some tape he had on hand. He put the box slightly tilted so the torn side wasn't at risk of breaking open.
On his way back to the bike, he unwrapped a protein bar and took a bite, chewing slowly.
'Alright, lessons learned. Don't do anything fucking stupid. And thank God for tape.'
He sighed and got back on his bike, 'You are not a shonen protagonist. Be patient.'
/ — /
Kenji's shift ended just after noon, and he was just about ready to take a long nap—
GRRRRR.
"Oh yeah, I still haven't eaten anything except a protein bar." He sighed.
He locked up his bike outside the grocery store near his apartment and headed inside with one of the baskets. The automatic doors let out a blast of cold air that he was too tired to appreciate.
This was one of the more annoying and expensive parts of achieving his goals. He needed actual food that gave him nutrients.
That meant no ramen, bagels, or any of his favorites.
Kenji dramatically turned his head away from the instant ramen aisle. 'I'm sorry, my children.'
Instead, he walked over to the produce aisle and looked at the options.
Bananas were an easy pick. You could practically make anything healthy out of them.
Then, he stopped in front of the greens.
Spinach. Kale. Broccoli. A whole wall of things that were objectively good for him and that he had been successfully ignoring his entire life.
Taking a second to come to peace with his reality, he picked up some spinach and broccoli and reluctantly placed them in his basket.
He moved on to the protein section and picked the good old and reliable chicken breast. It wasn't the cheapest, but it stretched across meals if he was smart about what he made.
He picked up the larger pack. "Let's see how much this one—Nope." He put it back and picked up a smaller one.
Even if he was committed, he was still a courier. He did not have that much money lying around.
Everything else was pretty quick. Brown rice. Oatmeal. A bag of mixed nuts that he'd read something about somewhere.
The total in his head was already climbing, and he hadn't even hit the checkout yet.
He turned down the instant noodle aisle out of pure muscle memory, but instantly turned away.
After a couple of protein bars from a shelf near the checkout, he was done.
He dropped everything onto the conveyor belt and watched the total climb slowly as his soul shrank further.
'This will all be worth it,' Kenji told himself as he shakily handed over the cash and carried the bag home.
Back at his apartment, he unloaded everything onto the counter and started stacking items in the fridge and pantry.
It wasn't a bad combination of food. The thing that made it bad was that he was horrible at cooking.
"Welp, you gotta start from somewhere I guess."
He grabbed a banana, peeled it, and took a bite.
'...I miss ramen.'
/ — /
To put an end to the day, Kenji was back at the abandoned warehouse from a few days ago.
His body was sore and tired from the day's activities, and he really wanted to just sleep. But he had one last training to do.
He stretched his body out as he looked around the concrete space. There weren't many items he could use apart from a pile of bricks and random items like an old broomstick.
For a long while, he'd been thinking about what he wanted to train here. Given his instinctual control over OFA, he wanted to attempt a skill that Midoriya took a few episodes to master.
Full Cowl. Or at least his botched version of it.
"How did Midoriya do it again?" he muttered, already preparing to fire up OFA. "He spread it evenly through his entire body so the strain was distributed easier, right?"
Kenji cursed his lack of memory, but quickly let it go. It wasn't like there was any way for him to predict he'd get OFA anyway, so it was useless to dwell on it.
Once again, he reached inwards to find that small ember. But instead of pulling it just to his arm, he tried pulling it through his entire body.
It was hard to describe how the feeling was, kind of like when he drank warm soup and felt the warmth spread through his body. Only this one was much more intense.
"Haaah… Haaah." He let out a ragged breath after spreading the power evenly. It took a lot out of him.
'This is gonna take a while to get used to.'
Looking down, his entire body was now covered in faint red streaks that flickered throughout. It was even visible through his clothing.
"That actually worked—Ugh!"
His knees buckled, and the glow flickered out instantly. Kenji put his hands on the ground to balance himself, it felt like every muscle in his body had been exercised to failure.
"Fuuuuuckkk," He groaned.
It was at least a few minutes of lying on the ground before he got back up again.
'Looks like Full Body isn't going to be easy… Should have expected that.'
Once he could feel things in his limbs again, he decided to look around for something else to do, and his eyes landed on a pile of bricks.
He narrowed his eyes at the brick at the very top and reeled back his fist.
CRACK.
The brick shattered instantly, while the ones below it stayed perfectly in place.
"Ok, looks like my control is better than I expected—"
The whole pile collapsed sideways.
…
…
"Yeah… That's fair." He sighed.
This wasn't working. He needed something to train his control, this wasn't going to cut it at all.
His eyes moved to the earlier broomstick he saw.
"Maybe this could work…"
He grabbed it and tied one end to a pole in a higher position. It was like those videos where people blindfold themselves and throw a water jug tied to a string and try to dodge it.
Except it's with a broom.
Kenji grabbed the stick and closed his eyes, then pushed it away.
'Ok, this should activate Danger Sense. I think.'
If anyone suddenly saw him, they would think he was on drugs with the way he moved his head side to side.
But Kenji thought it was working, as he hadn't got hit yet.
BONK.
"Ow!"
The broomstick hit his nose.
He opened his eyes and grabbed the thing to reset it.
'This isn't working.' He didn't feel anything like the prickly feeling he felt before. But he wasn't willing to give up on the training yet.
So he tried again.
And again.
And again.
Until in his fifth attempt, he felt a faint whisper at the back of his neck.
His body instinctively moved to the left, and he opened his eyes just as the broomstick passed his head with an inch to spare.
'It worked!'
It wasn't impressive at all, and he dodged it by just an inch. But it was progress.
"That's enough for today."
He sat down on an old crate, rubbing the places where he was hit. The warehouse was almost completely dark now, with the only light coming from the city's glow.
But looking at what small things he'd achieved. He felt a little proud.
Small progress was still progress.
Kenji stood up and headed home.
/ — /
(The Next Morning)
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Kenji's hand shot out from under the covers on instinct, fingers brushing the edge of the alarm.
Every single muscle in his body protested the movement.
He lay there for a second, seriously considering the merits of quitting.
'Nope. Not an option.'
He groaned, rolled himself upright with the grace of a man twice his age, and rubbed a hand down his face.
"Alright, Kenji," he muttered, voice still tired. "Time to get moving."
He swung his legs off the bed.
Same as yesterday.