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CHAPTER START---
"Alright, let's get started," Horizon says. Currently, both classes were standing spread out in front of him in a shady area, their teachers at the side quietly observing, Nezu on Vlad King's shoulder.
"This is gonna be a lot for some of you to remember, but it should all be published on UA's website after class, so you can find it there. But here goes.
Quirk Mastery isn't that uncommon to hear about, at least in the most basic sense. But Quirk Mastery and Quirk Training aren't the same thing in my mind.
Quirk Training is to increase the power or precision of your Quirk.
Quirk Mastery is to reach the upper limit of your Quirks capabilities in terms of practicality and uses.
One is making your punches stronger, the other is learning how to punch."
Iida raises his hand to ask a question."Put your damn hand down, no questions, just listen," Horizon says, causing most students to stiffen up.
"Anyway, experience and pressure are how you improve Quirk Mastery, but that takes a lifetime if you aren't focused on it, which I always am. You need to train power and mastery so they augment each other.
I judge people in fields like Heroics based on Quirk Mastery, any moron can use super strength to punch and lift weights to boost it, tactful and precise Quirk use is what more people need to develop.
I'll give my breakdown of how I've made the levels for you to study and grade yourselves, and where I think each of you is currently. But remember Mastery isn't Power. Some Quirks are powerful even without knowing how to use them, like Deku's Super-Power. Others take a lot of mastery but can only achieve a fraction of the raw power, like Creation for example.
In theory, she can make something to match the strength of his punch, but while she has to decide what to make, then understand the material composition, then put it all together in her mind. All he has to do is throw a punch, get it?"
Everyone nods along.
"Because Quirks have been around for so long people just accept them as the norm and are complacent, it's extremely rare for someone to reach their full potential because of this, especially since most people either don't have a license or reason to use and train their Quirk.
Most people just depend on others to deal with big problems, but if you're gonna be a hero you can't do that, you're supposed to be the problem solver after all...
Alright, time for the breakdown of Mastery Levels. Each level is pretty self-explanatory in what you have to do to get to the next one, it took me all of two seconds to figure out what each of you has to do to get to level 80 so if you put your mind to it you can probably do it.
First, we have the Negative Levels, this is where using your Quirk causes serious self-harm and can kill you...Deku."
Deku just stares down at his feet as everyone looks over at him.
"I literally had to add this level because of you, because you're just that damn special," Horizon shakes his head.
"Anyway, people at this level are completely useless and shouldn't be put in any position where other people are depending on them, like being a Hero for example."
Deku gets a slew of sympathetic looks, and the Class 1B students begin to realize exactly what Momo and Jiro were worried about.
"Next is level 0. These are the people who have a quirk but don't know what it does or never bother to use it. The only person here is Toru."
Everyone looks confused at that and Toru raises her hand, Horizon sees her entirely naked form jiggling as she moves and pays it no mind. "What?"
"But my Quirk makes my skin and body invisible, it's a Mutation Type so I can't train it," Toru says.
"Everything you just said wasn't just wrong, but also completely stupid," Horizon says harshly. "If your Quirk was physical invisibility you wouldn't be able to see, since light has to actually hit your eyes for that to happen, you'd be a pair of floating pupils.
Secondly, I know your Quirk isn't a Mutation, it's an Emitter, you're just too dumb to know how to turn it off. " He raises a hand to silence her response, certainly an angry one judging by the pissed-off look on her face. "The reason I know it's an Emitter than bends light around you, is because my Quirk allows me to ignore light-based illusions, meaning I can see you plain as day, green-pink hair and all."
Everyone completely freezes, including Toru, her mind racing to try and figure out if this was a sick joke. But he said green-pink hair, she doesn't even know her own hair color, but that's what her mom has.
"AHHHHH!" Toru holds her chest and immediately runs away, crying and screaming all the way out of the training ground.
"Tch, it's not like I haven't seen people naked before," Horizon shrugs. "I am a doctor after all, I can be professional about it..."
Midnight glares at him, "good luck explaining that to a teenage girl," she begins her brisk walk to catch up to Toru and calm her down.
"Whatever," Horizon looks back to the others, seeing most of the students blushing at the scene that just unfolded, he rolls his eyes and continues. "Anyway, at level 20 you've got an understanding of how your Quirk works and what it does. By now most of you are here at the very least.
At level 40 you're comfortable with your Quirk, which means you skip the mental processes of activating it, you treat it as just another part of you, obviously, Mutation Type Quirks have this since their Quirk is always on.
At level 60 you can instinctively use your Quirk appropriately in most situations. Think of the way Bakugo fights, completely instinctual and intuitive. He doesn't need to think to alter his approach angles with explosions, it's all automatic in his mind and translates perfectly to his Quirk."
Bakugo keeps his expression neutral at the compliment, swallowing his pride and completely focused on learning anything he can from Horizon.
"After that, the next breakpoint is level 80. In terms of Heroes, this is when you've figured out every possible Super Move and way to use your Quirk, and you've hit the ceiling of power. This is the cap for most Quirks and people, no matter how hard they try they'll never get past this, even after a lifetime of dedicated training in many cases.
This is the part you just have to be born with the capacity to go beyond. Quirk Awakening..."
Horizon sees everyone but Nezu -who he'd explained all of this to before coming here-, look completely confused by this. Even Nezu didn't understand until he eventually broke it down.
"Quirk Manifestation is when you develop a Quirk, but Quirk awakening is when you remove the limit of it. You need to fully master your Quirk, then you get to level 81+
Here you either have a fundamental rule or mechanic of your Quirk altered and shifted. Or a previous limit of your Quirk is removed.
A good example would be if you could shoot water from your fingertips.
First, you'd be able to shoot regular water.
Then you'd hit level 20 and be able to shoot it from all fingertips.
Then you hit level 40 and you don't have to even think about it because it feels so natural.
Then you hit level 60 and the entire mental process of using it is done automatically. After this, you begin developing Super Moves, at this point most people can get to here within a year of training, so all of you should be here before the end of this year in 7 months.
Level 80 is when you've discovered and mastered all the possible uses of your Quirk to an absolute degree. It's easy to think of this like mastering all the abilities of your Quirk. Obviously for some Quirks, it's less about the Super Move and more about the fundamental nature of your Quirk.
In the case of Momo, we can't expect her to know how to make everything in the world, so she'd instead have to study the fundamental nature of her Creation Quirk. She's a convenient example since her Quirk is so unique and layered. If your Quirk has potentially endless applications like ours you need to study the foundation of it all...
Beyond level 80 is when you're awakened. Back to the example of shooting water from your fingertips, in this case, you may be able to generate water from any part of your body or control masses of water. It literally could just be that simple, 'awakening' sounds grand, but sometimes it's a quiet change."
Iida raises his hand again, and this time Horizon gives him a nod.
"How would one train for an awakening after reaching level 80?" Iida asks.
"Self-study, intensity, and time. Those are the three things you need. Intense emotional situations where your back is against the wall, a true understanding of the self, and a lot of time using your Quirk.
I've been studying Quirks for years and I've only found two people who I know are awakened. My dad is the first.
He was the doctor delivering me, there were complications and to figure out what went wrong he had to awaken his Quirk then and there, to save everything he cared about. That intensity, understanding, and absolute sense of self for what he wanted led to him awakening his Quirk.
The other is Endeavor, his work ethic is superhuman but eventually, he stopped growing in power and began making more and more Super Moves, he must have realized he was at his limit. Then against one villain he went beyond his limits and used blue flames for the first time, burning his own arm. I'm willing to bet that's his awakening.
Either changing the fundamentals, breaking the rules, or amplifying what you can already do. That's what it means to be awakened. But it won't happen if you don't want it enough.
You must have a true sense of self, you cannot awaken if you don't understand who you truly are. Quirks aren't just muscles, they permeate the body and mind, when you train it you can't ignore that."
Horizon sees everyone nodding along deep in thought.
TAKT!
He brings Nezu's tablet over to his hands and taps the screen a few times, causing a hologram to appear above it. A 2-meter square with a long list on it.
1A Quirk Mastery:
Deku=negative
Toru= 0
Aoyama =10
Tokoyami= 15
Shoto= 20
Uraraka = 20
Kaminari= 20
Kirishima= 20
Koda=25
Shoji= 25
Sato=30
Sero=30
Mina= 35
Jiro= 35
Momo= 40
Iida= 55
Bakugo= 65
Tsu= 70
Ojiro= 80
"Obviously this is my own opinion from the outside looking in, you know more about yourselves than I do...hopefully. Also, I don't know 1B enough to make a proper judgment so you'll all have to self-reflect a bit more.
Notice how Todoroki is down toward the bottom while Ojiro is at the top.
Tail doesn't need much Mastery to get to level 80 because of how basic it is, but with a fraction of the Mastery, Todoroki is a lot stronger just because of the power his Quirk has. If he was at level 80 with Ojiro he would be a lot stronger. Still would have lost the sports festival, but still a lot stronger.
For example. In the fight against Deku, after seeing the first attack all Todoroki had to do was make a pincer attack with his ice since Deku can only defend one angle at a time. But since he uses his Quirk like some idiot meathead...all he did was throw ice around like a moron. Trying to use power to compensate for mastery nearly cost him the match."
"What about you?" Jiro asks, not staring at the list and simply speaking aloud. "You aren't on the list."
"Probably at level 100," Sero says.
"Actually I'm at level 60," Horizon's words surprise everyone. Seeing them all gawking at him he sighs. "Clearly you all missed half my lecture, Power doesn't equal Mastery. My Quirk is powerful but I'm nowhere near mastering it, or even figuring out all my basic abilities. I've got a lot of room to grow.
But with that being said, I do know what my Awakening is, kind of, I just need to wait for my body to be able to hold enough energy so I can actually use it. Along with just using my Quirk a lot to get more comfortable with it.
A lot of you are probably gonna get to level 80 before me, but it won't matter, even at that point I won't need any awakening to stay in the top spot..."
His words leave a sour taste in their mouth, but they certainly weren't going to argue against it.
"Alright, that's the Quirk Mastery thesis breakdown complete..."
'Well that wasn't so bad,' Kendo and Jiro think.
"Now, Deku, get up here..."
'Oh crap,' most of 1A gives Deku a sympathetic look...
END CHAPTER---