Katsuki let out a sigh as he walked through the gates of UA on the first day back after internships. It was good to be back.
Moving through the hallways after changing his shoes, Katsuki opened the door to the classroom.
Inside he found Iida almost vibrating at his desk.
"Good morning Katsuki! Has your internship enflamed your desire for heroism as mine has with Ingenium?"
Not wanting to engage, Katsuki gave a token answer as he moved to his seat.
"Eh, it was okay."
At that point Iida was distracted by the presence of Yaomomo entering the classroom, interrogating her about her internship.
Over the next 10 minutes the rest of the class filed in and they got ready to start their first day back.
Aizawa stepped into the room just as the bell rang, looking over the class.
"Welcome back you lot. Now, I know some of you felt like the internships were a chance to take a break from schoolwork without any responsibilities. Allow me to correct that.
All of you will be required to write a report on what you learned during your internship. It will be due this Friday, and will be graded."
Everyone in the classroom let out a groan as Aizawa maintained his stoic expression.
"Alright, now that that's out of the way, we have classes to get to."
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The morning passed quickly, and before Katsuki knew it lunch had arrived.
Sitting at his table with Ochaco and the rest of his friends-
Katsuki paused for a second, processing that statement. Then he let out a small laugh and went back to eating as everyone else at the table turned to look at him.
'It's good to have friends'
Katsuki was broken from his contemplative mood by a tap from Kirishima.
"So how was your internship dude? Didn't you end up going with Yoroi Musha? That must have been amazing!"
Katsuki shrugged.
"Not my style. I don't think I'm going back."
There was collective confusion from the rest of the table, all of them wondering why.
Deciding to head off any questions, Katsuki decided to just get it out of the way.
"It's not that Musha is a bad hero, or a bad teacher, but the way his agency works doesn't sit right with me, and it ain't my style of heroism."
Looking for a bright side, Kirishima spoke up.
"Well at least you know, right?"
Katsuki nodded to the redhead.
"At least I know. And it isn't like I didn't get some good lessons and training out of it."
Tsuyu spoke up from where she was sitting at the table.
"I interned with Selkie. Had an encounter with a villain."
Everyone's gaze snapped to Tsuyu at that.
"Were you okay?"
"Did anyone get hurt."
Tsuyu just continued to eat impassively.
"None of us got hurt. He got arrested. By Selkie."
Everyone let out a sigh of relief at that.
Kirishima was the next one to talk about his internship.
"I got an internship offer from the Chivalrous Hero, Fourth Kind! He taught me and that metal dude from 1-B lots about what being a hero means…And had us do some community service while we were there."
Kirishima rubbed the back of his head.
"I hadn't really considered that side of hero work much before. It was all about 'shielding the innocent', and 'defeating the villains', you know?"
Everyone else at the table nodded in agreement.
Then Ochaco spoke up to talk about her week.
"Interning with Ryukyu was AMAZING! I learned so much about using my quirk to fly, and a bunch of other stuff. She and Nejire even helped me come up with something to request from the support department."
As everyone clamored to know what it was, Ochaco just kept her mouth shut with a smirk.
"I want it to be surprise for hero class."
Disappointed but understanding, the subject of conversation moved to the reports they would all need to write on their internships.
"I learned a lot about community service, but how the heck do I turn that into a report?!"
Kirishima panicked as he tried to work out how to put his report together.
Patting him on the shoulder, Ochaco spoke up.
"It's not that different from a regular report right?"
Kirishima turned to her.
"But I suck at those!"
Katsuki looked over at the redhead.
"Why not just meet up as a group and work on it together."
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Kirishima spun to face Katsuki.
"That sounds awesome bro! Where are we gonna meet?"
Katsuki spoke up.
"The old lady has wanted to meet you guys since before the festival, so my house is probably fine."
Everyone perked up at that.
"Awesome! We'll meet up and head to your place on Wednesday after class."
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Finally, it was time for Hero Studies.
Following All Might out to training ground Gamma, Katsuki and the rest of the class were greeted with a maze of pipes and tight corners made the area seem like a labyrinth to navigate.
Finally, reaching the roof of a nearby building, All Might began his introduction.
"Hello students! Today is all about speed. Now, you will all be broken up into groups of 5. Then, on my mark, all of you will race to reach the location of my 'distress call' the fastest. Fairly simple, though all of you should be sure to avoid excessive damage to buildings! Any questions?"
After a couple minor details were explained, it was time to race.
"Alright, lets start breaking up the groupings!"
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Katsuki got into position at his starting area. All the different race participants started at a different location within the training grounds.
Katsuki was going to be racing with Izuku, Tsuyu, Ojiro, and Tokoyami.
Spinning up his boots, Katsuki got ready to begin.
Suddenly his communicator chirped the start signal.
Not pausing for a second, Katsuki leaped towards roof of a nearby building, landing at a slight crouch.
Rising into a sprint, Katsuki moved directly across the building, spotting a pipe heading in the correct direction nearby.
Spinning up his boots, Katsuki launched himself once more off the edge of the roof and into open air, the ground at least 30' below.
Landing exactly where he'd meant to, Katsuki sprinted along the elevated pipe. As the pipe finally ended, Katsuki began using his boots lo launch himself between footholds, using only one boot for each jump when possible so he could spin up his other for an immediate dismount.
As he rushed the center of the training ground, Katsuki noted something glowing at the edge of his vision. Taking a brief second to glance over, he noted Izuku gliding between buildings using some sort of harness of fire to maintain speed.
In the other direction Katsuki noted a black shadow at the edge of his vision.
Not willing to lose, Katsuki upped his pace even further, going for longer jumps as they all closed in on the middle of the arena where All Might waited on an open platform.
Finally Katsuki got close enough to see the final obstacle between him and the finish line.
A sudden empty space within the training ground with no footholds for Katsuki to use.
Knowing he didn't have enough time to go around, Katsuki sprinted across the final building before the opening.
Spinning up both boots, Katsuki hopped off of one foot into proper posture, then launched with both feet from the very edge of the building, hurling himself into the void.
For what felt like a minute, Katsuki felt almost weightless, suspended in the air as he flew towards the goal.
Then he noticed that he was just a couple feet short of making it completely.
Bracing himself, Katsuki let out a pained grunt as his abdomen impacted the corner of the building with a loud slam.
Knowing he didn't have time to waste, Katsuki rolled his body over the side of the building and slapped his hand down on the platform just moments before Izuku and Tokoyami arrived.
Katsuki just lay there for a minute, feeling a line of pain all across his abdomen.
A moment later Katsuki could see All Might's head enter his field of vision, looking concerned.
"Are you alright young Bakugo? Do you need me to call for nursebots? That was quite the impact."
Katsuki waved off the idea.
"Nah, I'm fine. Just give me a second."
Wincing at the motion, Katsuki pushed himself to his feet, the rest of the racers looking at him with some degree of concern.
Standing up straight, Katsuki gave All Might a thumbs up.
After a moments pause, All Might spoke up.
"Alright then, please move to the observation room while the next group moves into position."
Together the group of racers all walked back to the room.
Once they arrived, Katsuki waved off the concern of his fellow classmates and sat down to watch the remaining races.
'Pain is weakness leaving the body. Pain is weakness leaving-'
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The biggest thing to note over the rest of the class was Ochaco showing off what she'd gotten from her internship.
With a few small jets getting added to her costume, Ochaco jetted through the air to the finish line, easily winning her round of the exercise.
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The rest of the day was all fairly standard, though Katsuki tried to avoid flexing his abdomen too much.
Finally classes were over and Katsuki headed to the gym with Ochaco, who was still giving him some worried looks.
Upon arriving, Nejire quickly honed in on Katsuki injury.
"Why are you standing weird? Did you hurt yourself in training? I bet you hurt yourself in training. How bad is it? I bet it's pretty bad."
Before Katsuki could respond, Nejire had already grabbed the bottom of his gym shirt and yanked it up to get a better look at his abdomen.
Grumbling, Katsuki held the shirt in place as Nejire inspected his injury. The line or soreness he'd been feeling all afternoon had shifted into an ugly purple since class had ended.
Glancing to the side, Katsuki noticed Ochaco wincing and struggling to decide whether or not to look away from the injury.
Did the bruise really look that bad?
After around 10 seconds spend inspecting the injury, Nejire nodded to herself.
"I'm taking you to recovery girl."
"Wha- I'm fine. It would just be a WAS-"
Katsuki's refusal was cut off by a grunt of pain as Nejire poked the bruise with one of her fingers.
"You can't do a proper workout with a bruise like this."
Knowing she was never gonna budge on this, Katsuki let out a sigh.
"Fine."
"Great! You get started on your exercises Kohai! I'm just taking 1st kohai to Recovery Girl quick then we'll be right back!"
Grabbing one of his hands, Nejire dragged Katsuki out of the room without leaving any room for further argument.
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Reaching the nurse's office, Nejire pulled Katsuki through the door.
"Recovery Girl! Kohai has a massive bruise on his abdomen that needs to get healing."
The elderly heroine turned to face the energetic blunette with a smile on her face.
"Alright, alright Nejire. Sit him down on the chair."
Then she pointed her cane at Katsuki.
"Shirt off, you problem child. The stunts you've been doing in just the sports festival alone have taken years off my life. I am incredibly surprised that you haven't been in here more."
Not wanting to bother arguing, Katsuki did as she asked. The heroine inspected the injury.
"And when did you get this exactly?"
"In my afternoon heroics class-ACK!"
Recovery girl whacked his bruise with her cane at that.
"You darn fool! Why didn't you come see me immediately? What was your big plan?"
Wary of another smack, Katsuki responded.
"I was just gonna sleep it off. I'm usually fine after a good night's rest."
Recovery Girl gave him a suspicious look.
Still looking at him doubtfully, Recovery Girls lips extended to make contact with Katsuki's cheek.
Once more Katsuki's body felt warm as it lit up in varying intensities of green, the most intense being his abdomen.
After a moment the light and the pain subsided, leaving Katsuki feeling a bit tired.
Recovery girl observed him with furrowed brows as Katsuki finished healing. She pulled out a notepad and wrote down some things Katsuki couldn't read at the angle she was writing.
"Katsuki, just how intense do these training workouts you do get?"
Katsuki shrugged at the question.
"I dunno, I go until my muscles start burning, then keep going for a bit to make sure I make some good progress, then call it for the day with a light cooldown exercise before I go to bed. Nothing too intense since I have heroics every day."
Recovery Girl paused her note-taking.
Now Nejire was looking at him weird too.
Nejire spoke up next.
"Kohai, have you been working out more after you leave the gym every day?"
Katsuki looked over.
"I mean, yeah? Why wouldn't I? Sure it can hurt a bit in the moment, but I'm usually fully good by the time class starts the day after."
Recovery Girl was writing notes again, faster this time then before.
"And how long have you been working out like this?"
"Since I was around 5 and a half. It was super hard at first, but eventually I got into the swing of it and just got to work. I had to slow down for a bit in the past year or two before I came to UA since I struggled to get a workout with standard gym equipment."
Recovery Girl and Nejire exchanged looks.
Turning back to Katsuki, Recovery Girl spoke up.
"When was the last time you had a doctor's exam Katsuki?"
Katsuki leaned back in his chair.
"Probably around 1st year of middle school."
"Alright then. At some point in the future, with your and your parents permission, I would like to run you through a full physical. You've been training unsupervised at this point, but I would appreciate it if we could keep records of them at the very least from now on."
Katsuki frowned at that.
"Alright, but I'm not gonna slow down."
"We don't want you to slow down, we want to make sure you're healthy. Now, just give me one second."
Recovery Girl started going through her drawers. Finally she pulled out some kind of wristband. She held it out to Katsuki, who took it.
"This is a health monitor. I would like you to wear it at all times from now on, even during classes. It's designed to be incredibly sturdy, but if it does break we'll get you a replacement."
Katsuki put the wristband on and stood up, rubbing his abdomen to ensure there was no lingering pain after the healing.
"Now that that's settled, lets get back to exercise Senpai. I'm gonna win today!"
Nejire tilted her head.
"You sure kohai? Recovery Girls healing typically tires people out quite a bit."
Katsuki waved off the concern.
"Nah, I feel even better then before we came. Time to do a workout."
"Alright then kohai! Let's get to it!"
With that, the duo left for the gym, Recovery Girl staring after them and then pulling up a monitoring program on her computer.
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Striding back into the gym, Ochaco looked up from where she was working out.
"Did everything go okay with recovery girl?"
"Yeah, nothing too big. Need to wear a wristband now, but feeling way better. Let's get back to working out. Only a couple months til exams after all."
"Right!"
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The next month was fairly standard, with Katsuki putting in all his efforts during classes, and working on his fitness after classes. There were a couple standout occurrences however.
Midway through the third week after internships, they had a guest show up to their workout session.
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An orange haired girl who introduced herself as Yuyu had come along with Nejire when she came to the gym on Thursday.
"So these are the Kohai's you've told me so much about?"
"Yeah! They're both super awesome!"
The ginger visibly looked the pair of Katsuki and Ochaco over, paying Katsuki more attention then Ochaco.
Finally she turned to Nejire.
"Nice. So what kind of workouts do you guys do?"
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The rest of that afternoon had been fairly standard workouts with follow-up sparring.
Katsuki had just been sent spiralling after getting clipped by one of Nejire's energy blast.
The upper year student was finally flying more consistently during sparring with Katsuki, forcing him to dodge blasts from the air.
Rolling to dodge another blast before jumping to his feet, Katsuki grinned at his flying opponent as she smiled back.
"That the best you got Senpai?!"
"Oh? Guess I need to up the strength again."
Katsuki cursed as the next blast shook the gym flooring after it hit.
The rest of that session was spent just trying to avoid getting hit by her blasts.
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Toweling off at the end of the final match of the day, Yuyu walked up to Nejire who was lowering herself to the ground, breathing slightly faster.
Putting a hand on Nejire's shoulder, Yuyu spoke up again.
"I approve."
Nejire tilted her head in confusion as Yuyu turned away, following her into the girl's change room.
"Huuh? Yuyu? What do you mean by that? Yuyu! Explain what you meant!"
Ochaco shook her head and followed the two upperclassmen into the change room as Katsuki finished toweling off and headed to the men's room to get changed.
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The other big development over the time between exams was Katsuki got his costume alterations approved.
Pulling on his newly stylized uniform, Katsuki checked it out in the mirror.
He'd decided to replace the white in his costume with stripes of bright metallic orange. It was eye-catching, but not as over the top as gold would have been.
Not to mention Booster couldn't claim he was a direct inspiration now.
The rest of the boys in the change room also thought the changes looked better.
"Man that bronze is looking spiffy Katsuki!"
"Indeed, tres chic!"
Katsuki nodded.
"Yeah, it came out pretty well. I'm happy with the result, and it's more eye catching then the white."
Katsuki walked out of the change room for their next Hero lesson with a smile.