In the shadow beneath the tree, a boy and a girl sat together.
A damp sea breeze blew by, lifting strands of the girl's hair. Sunlight filtered lazily through the leaves, casting dappled light and shadow of all sizes and shapes beneath the tree.
It would've been a scene straight out of a high school romance drama—if not for the petite, childlike girl sitting cross-legged like a scruffy old man. Especially when she picked up a bottle of cold cola and chugged it with her head tilted back.
Hmm… Likes cold cola. Hates the heat…
Midoriya silently took note of these completely useless facts in his mind, then picked up the bottle of mineral water he bought earlier and took a sip.
"Ahhh~ Cola really is the perfect drink for a hot day."
Konata let out a satisfied sigh after draining the bottle in one go.
"Uh… do you want me to go buy you another one?"
Midoriya glanced at the now-empty bottle, setting down his own, still mostly full.
"No need. I'd feel bad mooching off your drinks too much… Anyway, you ready? Then let's get to the main event!!"
She casually tossed the empty bottle toward a nearby trash can without even looking. Then she turned to Midoriya with a serious expression.
With a soft whoosh, the bottle arced through the air in a perfect parabola and landed directly in the bin.
"You said earlier that the most you can manage right now is controlling your Quirk at about five percent of its full power, right?"
"Y-Yeah, that's the limit of what I can handle right now. And it's still really hard to control—it can go haywire at any moment. I've been trying to imagine stuff like microwaving eggs without them exploding to help with control. It kind of works… but the output strength gets really nerfed…"
Midoriya's gaze drifted to the perfectly sunk bottle in the trash, and he quickly responded.
"Five percent power, huh… and still unreliable."
Konata tilted her head thoughtfully, then pointed up at the tree above them.
"If you used that five percent power, could you knock this tree down?"
"P-Probably? I've never actually tried…"
"Good. Then try it now."
After hearing his answer, Konata stood and backed up to a distance of about fifteen meters.
"Alright, go ahead."
Midoriya: "...…"
He found himself once again struggling to follow her train of thought.
"We're not allowed to use our Quirks off-campus without a hero license,"
he said after a pause, deciding it was time for a reality check.
"If I use my Quirk to knock down this tree here, the police will probably show up pretty quickly. It'd be breaking the law."
"So in other words, you can knock it down, right?"
Konata returned to the tree, expression unchanged.
"…Yes."
Midoriya nodded in the end.
"Then that's good enough. For now, five percent should be sufficient. Or rather, it's all your current body can handle anyway… Let's start small. First, we'll work on control."
She bent down and picked up Midoriya's mostly full bottle of water, then handed it to him and pointed toward a trash bin about ten meters away.
"Stand here and throw that bottle into that trash can."
"Uh… I haven't finished drinking this…"
"Just pull it out of the trash later. Besides, I don't think you're gonna land it anyway."
Konata leaned against the tree with a lazy yawn.
"Let me be clear: you need to land it in the trash can twenty times in a row. Only once you've done that will we move on to the next stage of training."
"Twenty in a row…"
Midoriya looked down at the bottle in his hand, hesitated slightly, then began his first attempt.
Smack!
The bottle hit the ground hard, landing half a meter short of the trash can.
"You need to learn how to control your strength. This is the simplest way to do it. If you throw too hard, it'll overshoot. Too soft, and it won't reach. You've got to find the sweet spot yourself."
Adjusting her sitting posture to get more comfortable, Konata continued.
"Think of this as the upper limit of your five percent. Too much or too little and it won't work. You're not gonna bulk up in one sitting. First step is building stability—keep your output steady."
Thud!
This time, the bottle slammed into the side of the trash can.
"Besides strength, you need to control your angles too. So to reach my goal, you have to master two variables: power and angle. That's actually harder than just mastering five percent power, since it adds another factor. But the good news is, you won't get hurt if you mess this up, so practice as much as you want."
Clang!
The bottle flew way off and bounced off a railing.
"Focus. Don't get distracted. If just a few strange looks from people watching you can throw off your aim and strength, then forget about being a hero. Do you think a hero who gets distracted by outside interference and ends up injuring himself could ever really exist?"
…
And so, under the increasingly curious gazes of a growing crowd, a boy stood in the sun repeating the same actions—throw the bottle, go pick it up, throw again—over and over. Meanwhile, under the shade of a nearby tree, the girl relaxed in the sea breeze, casually browsing the internet on her phone. The contrast was striking.
Suddenly, the girl looked up from her phone.
"…Wait, did I forget something?"