I made it to class a bit late on out first day back, and the everyone was already busy listing off their adventures over their Internships. Each group seemingly had completely different experiences.
After settling into my seat, I tuned in to some of the chatter.
“I, on the other hand, was pretty spoiled. It was tons of fun”. Kaminari bragged.
“Now if you wanna talk about the most transformative, most traumatic experience…” He turned to face Ida, Todoroki, and Midoriya, “That’d be the one you three had!”
“Yeah, Yeah, the Hero Killer!!” Sero added.
I saw it on the news last week, apparently the three had gotten caught up with the infamous Hero Killer only holding off long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The fact it took a whole team of Heroes to capture the guy just goes to show how dangerous he was.
“I was so worried.” Momo confessed
“I’m just glad you’re all still alive.”
Sero continued, “But Endeavor came and saved you right? That’s our number two for you!”
“Right… we were saved.”
“Uh-huh…” both Midoriya and Todoroki confirmed.
Ojiro jumped in. “So I saw on the news that… they think the Hero Killer’s connected to the League of Villains? I hate to think how things could’ve turned out if a scary guy like him had showed up at USJ that time.”
“Hold on.” Kaminari countered, “Sure he’s scary… but did you watch that video, Ojiro? You can really see his tenacity. His one-track mind. Kinda cool, don’t you think?”
“Kaminari!” Midoriya gasped.
And I could see where he was coming from.
Ida took this moment to speak up, “No… it’s fine.”
“He’s certainly a man of conviction. So if some people think he’s cool… I get that. But his convictions have led him to conclude that society requires a purge. And no matter what one’s motives are, that’s just wrong. So that no others like myself emerge and suffer my fate… I will correct my course and walk the path of a True Hero!!”
“Class is about to start. Get to your seats!!”
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We all gathered in front of one of UA’s many simulation complexes, this one was of a very densely packed industrial area.
My new costume was sill in design stages, and would take a week after that to be made, so I’m stuck with the old one for the next while.
“I am here!” All Might announced with his classic phrase.
“And the reason for that is… your Basic Hero Training! It’s been a while, boys and girls! How is everyone?!”
“Not much of an entrance.”
“I’d expect more after a break.”
“Maybe he ran out of shticks?”
The class pointed out the more lacklustre introduction than usual.
“As an Immediate follow-up to your internships, today’s activity is a playful one. A Rescue Training Race!!”
“Shouldn’t Rescue Training be conducted at USJ?!” Ida pointed out.
“That place is for disaster rescues in particular. But what did I say? that’s right… A Race.”
“This is field Gamma! It’s a dense spread of factories that wind together to create an intricate network of maze like alleys! You’ll split into three teams of five and one team of six. With each team going one at a time! I’ll send up a distress signal from somewhere inside, and you will all stat at the border! It’s a race to see who can reach and Rescue me first!!”
“Naturally keep the destruction of property to a minimum!”
“Stop pointing at me.” Bakugo complained at All Might singling him out at super speed.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Okay group one, to your marks.”
Group one consisted of Midoriya, Ojiro, Ida, Mina, Sero, and I. All the others being considered Mobility Experts except Midoriya and I, but they probably know somewhat about our growth and skills so it works out, though I’m curious to what Midoriya would be able to do given his Quirk.
We start at the boarder, so once All Might gives the signal, it’s a straight path assuming you can get across the roof tops and dense piping.
START
We all burst forwards, Sero taking a quick lead swinging from his Quirks elbow tape guns and gloating about how the race was perfect for him. I put that sentiment to rest as I leapt from wall to wall, across rooftops and pipes with my Quirk to overtake him with relative ease.
I was soo proud of myself for wiping that smug look off of his face... until I saw Midoriya doing the exact same thing!!
The speedy bounces was supposed to be my thing! Yet Midoriya was managing to pull ahead of the pack, taking a distant lead with a very similar jumping style. Try as I might, I wasn’t able to catch up at all.
Suddenly, Midoriya tripped and slipped off of one of the pipes he tried to land on allowing the rest of us to surpass him. Sero and I fought for first, only limited by my need for footholds while he could take a direct path to the end.
Sero landed first while I was a close second, Midoriya no where to be seen.
And with Ojiro, Ida, and Mina arriving in that order, All Might brought him back from where he had slipped up only a couple meters from the end.
“Sero may have taken first place, but… you’ve all figured out new and better ways to use your Quirks since starting school!! Keep up the good work as you prepare for your final exams!!”
Right… finals were in like a month.
Everyone walked back to the class watching on a large screen. I stood next to Midoriya.
“Why’d you have to steal my style like that?” I asked
“Eh!? Sorry?” He replied, slightly surprised.
We watched as Bakugo won his race, then Tokoyami, and finally Mineta, using his Quirks hair balls as bounce pads to rocket forwards.
All in all, a good show of growth.
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“Uh… Summer Vacation’s close at hand. Of course it would be completely irrational for all of you to take a whole month off.” Aizawa announced.
“Don’t tell me…”
“You’ll be doing a summer training camp in the woods.”
“I freaking knew it, nice!!” Kaminari shouted.
“Since we’ll be out in nature, our training activities’ll probably be different, too.”
“However… anyone who doesn’t pass the upcoming final exams… is in for a summer of hell, right here.”
“Do your best guys!!” Kirishima and Kaminari shout.
With that, there aren’t any big events until the finals of this semester. It gives me some time to practice properly, along with meeting up with Gunhead and Mirko every week for more training.
Gunhead ended up restarting our training now that Ururaka and I decided to join his dojo full time, so that was rather boring, and a lot easier now that we weren’t in five hours a day.
Mirko on the other hand completely switched things up by teaching me a ton of exercises to improve my strength. Starting with the next session, we were in a proper gym at a private area for Pro Heroes to avoid being swarmed by fans. Unsurprisingly, a lot of emphasis was placed on strengthening my legs, with Mirko forcing me to use very heavy weights because, in her own words, ‘Villains weren’t going to wait for me to get stronger over time’.
It meant a lot of sore muscle and tripping over myself while they recovered, the only good thing being these sessions happening after Fridays Hero Training at UA.
The first two weeks of Hero Training were similar to the Rescue Race in style, objective based tests of skill, no doubt so they could build an appropriate idea of where we stand in terms of training progress. With tests like, ‘How fast can you move the targets out of a unsafe area’ and ‘Find the fastest way from this side of the wall to the other’.
The answer was usually extreme speed, strength, or a mix of both.
We were still just over a month into our first year, and with all of the craziness that had happened between the Villain attack and the Sports Festival, most friend groups were still forming up.
I was studying through some notes from the class before while Mineta engaged in his usual style of conversation with Kaminari and Sero, not something I would usually pay attention to.
“...no, no, Mirko’s got too much muscles! They’d feel like rocks.” Mineta ranted.
“They’re surprisingly soft actually.” slipped from my mouth before I could real it back, immediately halting their ‘discussion’ and putting me right in the headlights.
That’s how I ended up unwillingly joining their group as they tried their best to drag as much information out of my as possible, mostly only getting that I had been beaten up by her once or twice. Was more than enough for them to extrapolate though.
After three weeks of getting my ass handed to me by Mirko and Ururaka during outside training, I was quite relieved when I’d finally managed to completely beat Ururaka in a fight, now matching her in skill. She didn’t like that, and utterly destroyed me the next round. And Mirko had move on to violently teaching me how to bounce around at maximum speed and efficiency.
The bruises were still there by Monday, which got some friendly taunting from the group, currently sitting with a few others like Kirishima and Midoriya.
“Rough day with Mirko, huh?” Kaminari taunted, getting a look from some of the others who didn’t know.
“Uraraka actually.” I countered, causing Midoriya to perk up at her name while Kaminari just laughed.
“Yeah, right! I’d like to see that!” he replied, making his way over to Tsuyu, Jiro, and Ururaka.
“No, wait-!” I tried to warn before he put his hand on Uraraka’s shoulder.
The same moment it touched, Uraraka spun around and smashed Kaminari’s face against the floor, almost knocking him out before Uraraka relented and apologised as Kaminari made his way back to the group in shock.
“scary” is all he replied much to no ones surprise.
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There was less then week of school left before the Finals.
My new costume had come in, but I had yet to even try it on as it sat folded in the carry case we were provided. It had come in late as the company had worked to get a sponsorship for the boots in exchange for a higher quality costume as I asked outside usual production times.
When I got to class that morning, one group had come across intel on the practical portion from second years.
“Robots? Seriously? No sweat!!” Kaminari and Mina replied.
“You two really need to dial back your Quirks against human opponents, but this way…” Soji commented.
“Yeah! Against robots, we just let loose for an easy win!!”
“And we’re getting tutored for everything else.” Sero added.
Bakugo took this opportunity to speak up.
“Humans or robots… I’d just blast ‘em all. What’s the big deal morons?”
“Who’re you calling a moron, moron?” Kaminari countered
“Shaddup. You’re the moron who can’t even figure out how to dial back his own Quirk!”
“Hey!!”
“Deku!”
“Seems like you’re starting to manage that Quirk of yours. Either way… stop pissing me off with all these stunts.”
This must be about Midoriya using moves he’d copied from Bakugo when jumping around.
“I’m not looking for some hollow victory! When it comes to our term grades… like it or not, I’m going to crush you into dust!”
“I’ll open the gulf between us so wide, it’ll kill you dead!”
“You too, Todoroki!” he yells back as the door slams behind him, leaving the class… well it was more or less expected from him by now.
“Haven’t seen Bakugo so serious in a while…” Kirishima says.
“Is it uneasiness? Or sheer hatred?” Tokoyami commented.
Things be heating up between these two.
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