Izuku woke up from the best sleep he'd had in years. He hadn't been plagued by nightmares of Bakugo or his gang, instead he'd had a pleasant dream about a goddess granting him magical powers.

  "That's strange.. I don't remember coming home yesterday.. how did I get from school to here? Wait. Did I do my homework???" He mutter-yelled.

  Izuku reached into his schoolbag, checking the double-everything he was assigned.

  "It's all done..?"

  Izuku looked around for anything unusual or out of place, but everything was fine. The only weird thing was the dream he was starting to think was real.

  He thought it may have happened because of the mark on his hand.

  There was an oblong on his palm, and long lines on the inside of each finger and thumb, from the tip of each finger to the palm of his hand. It was like he had a skeletal hand tattooed on the inside of his own one. At the end of each 'finger' was a slightly wider circle, connected to the end.

  It was not difficult to spot, because it was light blue in colour.

  Izuku frowned, pulling back his sleeve.

  A thick line went down the inside of his arm, connected to the skeletal hand, reaching up his forearm and ending in a circle on the inside of his elbow. A single blue line was marked around his wrist, a perfect band, crossing over the line on the inside.

  Izuku gulped, wondering how he was going to explain it to his mother.

  *Oh don't worry, only you, I and our enemies can see the veins.* A voice said in his head.

  "N-Nyx..?" Izuku asked quietly.

  He could feel the response.

  *Did you.. nod? And I felt it?* He thought.

  Nyx smiled.

  *I have gifted you the ability to control mana. How you use it on or around yourself is up to you, but I recommend starting with your eyes. That way you can actually see what you're controlling. I'm afraid I must go, projecting my consciousness outside the crucible is quite tiring, even for me. Good luck Izuku-!*

  Nyx's presence in his mind disappeared, and Izuku was left staring at his hand. And he began to think.

  *She said vein.. a vein for what though? Mana? How do I get it? Is it already there? How do I control it then? Perhaps with the marked hand?*

  Izuku raised his hand, trying to manifest anything at all.

  "She said to start with my eyes.. do I just think about pouring mana into my eye?"

  Izuku's right eye suddenly glowed light blue, and he was able to see the same blue glow all around him, in the air, on his skin, under his skin, around the bulb on the ceiling.

  His eye soon fizzled out, returning to normal.

  "The mana is most present within me.. so do I just naturally produce mana, or do I absorb it?" Izuku began to mutter.

  By the time Inko called him for breakfast, Izuku had managed to get both eyes working with mana for a couple of seconds.

  Izuku wandered downstairs, activating his eyes and observing the blue flash he saw from his mother.

  *So living things either store mana from their surroundings, or just naturally produce it?*

  Izuku focused his eyes on his plate.

  The food had a light blue glow to it, showing it was full of mana.

  Izuku turned off his mana eyes and ate his breakfast, feeling the mana quickly replenish itself.

  Izuku thought to himself about possible applications as he got ready to go out.

  *Alright, so eating restores mana quickly, although that might just be because I only used a tiny amount for my eyes. I should practice with that before I move on, but if I were to pour mana into my body...*

  Izuku said goodbye to Inko and left the apartment building.

  "Everyone's door has a blue glow behind it.. the trees outside have a significant amount of mana in them too.. there's mana on the wind, and sticking to walls. There seems to be a vast amount of mana concentrated in places with living things.. so do we produce mana too?" Izuku muttered as he walked along.

  When he reached the place he decided to train, Izuku almost vomited, from both the stench and the mana concentration.

  It was Dagobah beach. It had been used as a dumping ground for the last few years, and had accumulated all sorts of junk and rubbish.

  Izuku activated his eyes, and couldn't see at all from the blue light invading his retinas.

  "Ack-! What the hell??"

  Izuku decided to not train his mana eyes here, instead he would try to find or figure out other applications.

 
  The next 22 months were spent in hell.

  Izuku decided that in order to train his body, he would carry and clean all the junk off the beach. He began to see steady improvement around month 3, when he got into his stride, and only got fitter from there.

  To train his mana, Izuku spent most of every day training his eyes until he could hold mana inside for as long as he wanted. He found that he could do different things just by willing it. He could use heat vision, mana vision and x-ray vision, although he didn't use the last one often, as he just saw skeletons everywhere.

  Izuku enjoyed finding new ways to use mana, and soon was using it in all five senses. He strengthened his sight, hearing, sense of smell, taste and touch. The sight and hearing were most useful, but he liked tasting his katsudon better.

  He found he could 'recharge' just by absorbing mana from around him, or eating, or just sleeping and letting his body produce it.

  At the end of the first year, Izuku had become competent with all five senses, and he had greatly improved his previously scrawny body.

  Just by improving his body's muscles, he was able to increase his mana capacity.

  He sometimes heard words of encouragement from Nyx, or advice, depending on how well he was doing.

  Izuku had about a month holiday until school started again, and he was excited to move on to his next phase of training.

  He was back on the clean beach, circulating mana through his system, cleaning out all the fatigue and impurities from his body.

  The beach was still blindingly blue, but at least all the junk was gone.

  He did a few stretches, then took a runner's stance at one end of the beach, a stopwatch in hand.

  Izuku pushed forwards, sprinting to the other side of the beach.

  "600 meters in 71 seconds.." Izuku huffed, using mana to blow his fatigue away and taking the stance again.

  *This time, circulate the mana through your legs...*

  Izuku felt the energy course through his muscles, strengthening his legs and joints. He pushed forwards, sprinting to the other side yet again.

  He looked down at the stopwatch and laughed.

  "600 meters in 48 seconds..." He chuckled.

  "I wonder just how fast I can go if I improve..." He muttered.

  Izuku turned to the weights on the ground. He chose the lightest, 3 kilograms.

  He lifted it without issue, even without mana.

  He picked up a 10 kilogram weight. It was still heavy, but he could lift it okay.

  Izuku circulated mana into his arms, pulling his muscles taught, easing his joints.
 
  Izuku could balance the dumbbell on his pointer finger.

  He laughed in disbelief, cutting off the mana circulating down his arm and dropping the dumbbell.

  "Okay, I'll need to find out my weight limit.. all that training with my senses probably helped with this.."

  *Well done Izuku! You have progressed so quickly, I am amazed!* Nyx praised him.

  Izuku nodded, a smile on his face.

  *You have all but mastered the basics of mana control. Now, both a challenge and a test of sorts. Do you think you are ready?* She asked.

  Izuku nodded again, determined.

  "I'll do my best Nyx."

  He could feel her smile within his mind.

  *Very well. It will be difficult, but I am sure you can do it. Choose an element, and control it at will. I will not help you with this one, but try your hardest. It can be done.*

  Izuku raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  *Elements? I never thought about it.. but there's so much I can do with mana!*

  Izuku immediately got to work, sitting cross legged on the sand and concentrating on the sea.

  *Push it upwards... Condense the mana outside of my body.. and push the water up!*

  Izuku opened his eyes.

  The seawater just passed through the mana. Or, vice- versa.

  Izuku hummed.

  "Can I attach it..? Pull it up by attaching the mana to the water molecules? But that would take so much concentration! I'd need to practice with something else.. let's try fire. I know how to make fire, so if I use the mana, condense it..." Izuku muttered, holding his hand out.

  A thin lick of flame shot out of Izuku's palm, extending a fair distance before sputtering out. Izuku instantly recharged because of the mana hotspot on the beach. There was another hotspot near Izuku's house that recharged him even faster than the beach. It was inside a supermarket, surrounded by people and plants.

  "So I can produce it, but not control it.. I need to think about this first.. I'll go home for today, and practice my mana control."

  Izuku collected up his equipment and walked home, strengthening his senses, pushing past his limits and creating new ones.

  *I'll get there soon. I just need practice.*