Mushin
(Hifumi and Imai + Hailey and Ashleigh)
-"Yo, Sojuro! Hold up! I have a favour to ask. Could you help me train?"
-"I didn't expect you to ask with how our quirks interact."
-"Hey, I don't run from challenges! And ya know the term 'Mushin', right? It's super important, and you're probably the best person to train that with. Honestly, you must be popular with martial artists around the school."
-"I guess I might be. When do you want to do this?"
-"Right now, if you don't mind."
-"Sure, I don't have any other plans."
-"Hay, come with us, having someone on the side-lines to give third-person perspective is always helpful. Oh, Ashleigh, you wanna come too? The more the merrier."
-"Ugh, fine…"
-"Umm… If I have to…"
-"You don't 'have to', but I think it's gonna be fun. Don't you think so, Sojuro?"
-"Yeah, it would be nice to have you there…"
-"Okay, then…"
-"Great, let's go! The gym should be free right now."
-"How do you want to do this? What rules are we using?"
-"It's more of a technical sparring, so I was thinking light contact, like 10%, quirks on and no extra tools. I've seen you work the heavy bag, so if we went full force, I'd probably be out before I could learn anything, so maybe let's leave that for somewhere down the line, when I get a better hang on that."
-"Sounds fine to me. Are you ready?"
-"Just a moment. Yo, Hay! Could you record this, so I can watch it later?! Oh, and Ashleigh, could you help her point out what to focus on?! You've trained longer, so you might have better insights! So, where were we? Ah, right. Just to get things straight, I look into that third eye, right?"
-"Yeah, basically… Also, please focus on this, the girls will be fine… And I don't think Hailey-san would be happy that you've just shown me what you did…"
-"Ah, sorry about that, I still can't get it out of my mind. I guess it might make this training more difficult… No use worrying about it now. Let's go!"
The girls were sitting on the benches on the side-lines. Hailey had her phone out and directed at the boys in the middle of the sparring area. Ashleigh looked tense, but still tried to give small hints from time to time about which move was important.
The boys took their stances. There was an initial moment of probing. Hifumi purposefully tried to peek at the Imai's third eye from time to time, to make sure that if he has useless thoughts, they are read through. He couldn't have known that this wasn't actually needed. Finally, the bout began.
The first move by Hifumi was more of a check if Imai is ready than a serious attack. He teleported behind him and earned an elbow to a stomach before he could do anything. After the return, he just gasped for breath. Even at a tenth of his typical force, Imai's blows were powerful.
-"Kheh... Good one…"
-"Yes, my Quirk works. You will have to try harder than that… Please don't just show me HOW you're gonna try harder."
-"Ah shit, right. Okay, let's try this then."
Hifumi's started to mix up angles and feints, but his teleport attacks were shut down by Imai one after another.
-"You're still thinking too much. Do, don't think."
-"I'm trying. To be honest, this might the first time someone tells me to think less... Anyway, how about this?!"
This time Hifumi used a different approach. He prepared a couple scenarios beforehand, and then tried to decide between them at the very last moment, hoping that setting up the defence for wildly different moves will take Imai more time than it takes him to execute them with his Blink. Unfortunately, he didn't know that Imai was able to affect his decision-making process by implanting the thoughts that led him to choosing the tactics that he favoured.
-"Playing lottery like that, will get you in trouble one day, Hifumi-san."
-"You can drop the honorifics, bro. Let's try this then."
This time, instead of preparing long-winded attacks, Hifumi walked right into the eye of the storm and tried to just let the flow carry him in this quirked version of in-fighting. He got close a couple of times, but without access to a lot of his repertoire, he simply wasn't able to compete with Imai that was used to this style of fighting. Bruised and tired, he stepped back to rethink what else can he do.
-"This was closer, Hifumi. Not quite there, but I wasn't able to read you like an open book this time."
-"You didn't need to. I've gotta admit, you sure know how to fight."
Imai observed what plan Hifumi will come up with next. He seemed to focus on the part where he said "read like an open book". The image Imai read next created an opening that Hifumi used to jump close, punch him straight in the face, and then jump out. The girls that seemed to relax a bit by now and were talking with each other more freely, went silent at this sight.
-"Ha! I doubt this will work a second time, but I've got at least one punch in today."
-"Hifumi… Don't you think that was a bit low?"
-"All is fair in love and war. But don't worry, bro, you have an ally in me when it comes to that. And on that topic. Yo, Ashleigh, change with me! I need a breather and to review the footage!"
-"Okay! Oh, Imai-kun, your nose is bleeding! Are you alright?"
-"It's nothing…"
-"Babo, wasn't this supposed to be a light sparring? Why did you punch him hard enough to draw blood?"
-"I didn't."