“That Bakugo guy,” Shinso said to me later once we had entered the Battle Ground Gamma facility together. He was clutching the metal club I’d made him, tape wrapped around one end of it. “He’s kind of…”
“Abrasive?” Deku asked. “I know he comes across that way at first, but he really is a good guy and I know no one else that wants to be a hero as much as he does.”
“Deku, you break your arms with your powers and you still want to be a hero,” I said dryly.
“I don’t break them as much now!”
Shinso blinked. “That’s not really a good thing…”
“Progress is progress,” I said wisely, heading into one of the buildings. Deku and Shinso followed. Inside, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were waiting, the two bash boys clutching manly fists together when we joined them. “Hey boys. How’s kicks?”
“Fantastic!” Kirishima extended a hardened fist out, which made a loud clinking sound when my scaled knuckles met it. “Can’t wait to get this started!”
“Hell yeah!” Tetsutetsu smashed his fist together with a clang. “Let’s do this!”
“Should I be worried?” Shinso asked, looking warily at the two hot-blooded young men.
“Only as much as normal,” I said with a shrug. “Okay boys,” I clapped my hands. “The plan is simple! Shinso, you fight Tetsutetsu. Tetsutetsu, you need to work on deflecting blows more, so try to parry as much as you possibly can. Also he’s going to have the problem of staying quiet while fighting you, since apparently, he talks too much in a fight when he should be focusing.”
“WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!?” he roared loudly.
“Shinso, you’re gonna swing that club into the immune wall that is Tetsutetsu, while talking a lot of shit to try and goad him into talking back to you. This way, he learns how to deflect blows and keep his head focused on what the bad guy is doing over what they are saying. And you in turn level up your heckling ability so that no matter what villain you face in the future you know how to push the right buttons to get them to go off on you, and thus under your control.”
Then I took his metal club and handed him a rubber covered one. “Also, not a good idea to hit metal on metal over and over, you can save it for Kirishima later. Enjoy your workout. Deku, Kirishima?”
“Wait, is that-OH SHIT!”
“YAAAH!”
As the three of us left the sounds of beatings behind, I sighed. “I gotta be honest guys, I thought we might end up doing some more philosophical stuff. You know, go over things like moral particularism. Instead we’re probably going to be doing a lot of fighting. Toru better be playing those games I recommended later…”
“Games?” Kirishima asked, confused. “Would that help?”
“Kirishima, being a hero is as much about your mindset with your powers as your actual strength with them,” I lectured just a bit. “It took me a sec, but I thought of the perfect places she could take inspiration from. Namely, ‘secret agents’.”
“Like James Bond?” Izuku asked as we entered the next room.
“More like Agent 47, Solid Snake, and Sam Fisher,” I told him. “I know it makes me seem like an old man, but I really think you can get a lot of inspiration for powers from the past, whether from reality or fiction.”
“But um,” Kirishima pointed upwards thoughtfully. “Isn’t Toru kind of girly? I don’t think she’d like those games.”
“It’s cool, I threw in Secret Agent Barbie to help her out. Anyways. Deku, you need to learn to channel your power better so you don’t break yourself by accident as much. Kirishima, you need to learn how to take bigger blows as well as how to parry them when they’re too huge to take directly. So, it’s basically the same stuff Tetsutetsu and Shinso are doing, with one big addendum. You’re both going to learn how to DODGE!”
Both of them jumped when I yelled the last word. I coughed, embarrassed. “Sorry, force of habit. But yeah, Deku, you dodge Kirishima in between hits. Make him follow you, move around. It’s fine to be a slow-moving wall, but you gotta learn to anticipate things and both of you need to build stamina.”
“Ahhhhh,” Kirishima clenched a fist. “Got it! I’ll do my best!”
“M-Me too!” Deku shouted, pumping a fist.
“Dope. Then play that song I told you to download and I’ll see you guys later.”
“Song?” Kirishima asked as I walked away.
“This one?” Deku pulled out his phone. Soon, the sounds of Heet Mob's 'The Wall' began to play in the distance. Hey, can’t say I don’t know how to motivate folks.
----------------------------------------
In another part of the Battle Ground, I met with someone I hadn’t had much chance to interact with before. Chikuchi Togeike, a UA General Studies student. Also one of the girls I’d caught Mineta perving on when I first met him. She hadn’t exactly warmed up to him since.
She’d asked me to meet her friends, so there I was.
She was with Ida and two new students when I met up with her.
Also, goddamn, Ida really was jacked. Granted, most of the hero students were, but Ida’s workout suit showed it off. Good on him.
A large guy with the most Chad chin I’d ever seen, all massive and blocky, and an Elvis-style pompadour looked at me warily as I joined. The other person was much smaller, the pink-haired catgirl that had been waiting outside the classroom and asked me about the classes.
“Yo, Chukuchi,” I greeted as I joined her. “Ida, these the newbies?”
“Yep,” Chukuchi said just as casually. “This is my friend Tsutsutaka Agoyamato,” she pointed to the massive chinned kid.
“Good afternoon,” the big dude said with little to no enthusiasm, though he stepped back nervously as I approached.
“And this is Usagi Takeuchi,” she said, looking over at the catgirl hiding behind Tsutsutaka the human chin.
“H-H-H-H-” she stuttered for a long while as we all stared at her. Finally she gave up and just hid entirely.
“...Huh,” I mumbled.
“Well, it is nice to meet you both,” Ida said calmly. “Kendo-san is currently helping some of the others, but I’m sure she would be very happy to meet you.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Tsutsutaka said with a grunt. “Chukuchi-”
“They’re cool, Tsutsu,” the brunette sighed.
“You said one of them tried to peep on you,” the chin boy said, the catgirl behind him squeaking in surprise.
“He’s getting better, and if it helps he got the shit beaten out of him afterwards,” by Shoji for unrelated reasons, but might as well mention it. “Besides, we are cool.”
“Extremely cool!” Ida agreed, doing his robotic hand thing.
“That’s not how cool people act, Ida,” I mumbled to him, getting a startled shout from him.
“We’ll see,” Tsutsutaka grumbled. “I heard you guys helped Chukuchi?”
“Ah, not us, but she was working with others, right Chukuchi-san?” Ida asked her politely.
“I was. We made some progress,” the brunette said with a shrug, though she still looked pleased.
“We can work together then,” I said. “I’m still waiting on something I ordered for my training. Ida, you mind if I help?”
“Actually, I need you to take over,” Ida sighed sadly, adjusting his glasses. “I’m going over old festival footage. Hopefully, with enough research, I can aid all of the students I can in doing well!”
He pumped his fist. “Do not worry! With my help, we will all rise to greatness! OHHHHH!”
With a twist and an explosion from his leg boosters, he rocketed off. We all watched him rush into the maze of buildings and pipes.
“Is he always like that?” Chukuchi asked wryly.
“Yes, but he’s actually training,” I pointed at him as he ran. He hopped, slid, and bounced from a wall, heading in a mostly straight line, but also parkouring his heart out. “See. Raising his agility while keeping up his acceleration.”
“You take this pretty seriously,” Chukuchi scoffed.
I sat down heavily, looking them over. “Yes. Now, tell me what we’re working with. Chukuchi? I think I heard you had paper manipulation, right? That’s pretty damn useful.”
“Not really,” she sighed, moving to sit in front of me, Tsutsutaka and Usagi joining after a long moment. “I can’t control a lot of it yet. Whenever I try to do too many pieces I start to get a headache.”
She picked out a small paper crane from her pocket. As we watched, the crane began to move, flying about. Usagi let out a pleased sound, clapping her hands at the sight.
“Just one piece is fine. But two is hard. And then the more I try… It’s like… trying to dance, play a video game, and do math, all at the same time. I have to focus on every piece.”
I nodded slowly. “And I’m guessing robots don’t mind getting hit with singular pieces of paper? I can see why you had trouble with the entrance exam.”
“Well don’t rub it in!” Tsutsutaka began to complain. “That test was unfair to a lot of us! Just because you passed it doesn’t make you any bette-”
“Okay, let me explain something,” I raised a hand, stopping him. “When we’re training, or talking about each other's powers, we will be discussing each other's limitations, like my lack of speed and agility. That’s not me trying to make fun of or insult people. We are getting better. That’s the point, kid.”
“We’re the same age…”
I ignored that. “A few times today, I’m going to say certain things like, ‘that’s not a good idea’, or, ‘that’s weaker than it could be’. That is part of training. You understand your limits. Then you find a way to overcome or work around them. Got it, Tsutsutaka? Chukuchi has a VERY cool power, with a lot of potential. Me noting current limitations isn’t the same as insulting her.”
My hand lowered. “And for the record, the test was unfair. We spoke to the administration about it. It’s under review and the teachers are working on it.”
He glanced around for a moment. Seeing that he wasn’t getting any more support, he huffed out of his nose.
Looking back at Chukuchi, I continued. “So what did the group you talked with recommend?”
“That I stress my power,” Chukuchi scowled. “I need to try controlling as many pieces as I can, then keep it up for as long as I can. But that’s so painful!”
“I can imagine,” I frowned. “How big a piece of paper can you control?”
“Um… maybe, two feet across?” she waved her hands to show it off.
“Well, may I make a suggestion?” Chukuchi nodded. “Try controlling the largest paper you can while folding it and running around this place.”
Her face paled. “What?”
“Yeah, I know it sounds hard,” I said with a small chuckle. “But quirks get stronger the more you use and stress them, like any muscle. And forcing yourself to run will increase your stamina and strength, as well as forcing you to split your attention. It’s a simple combination of exercises that will have an effect over time. Besides, every single one of the sports festivals have had contests that deal with mobility in some way, so all of us will be jogging every day.”
Chukuchi sighed. “Fine. Then I’ll get started, I guess?”
“Ask Momo to make you a sheet of paper. But do it nicely, please. That girl works too damn hard…”
She gave me an odd look at that, but still nodded and rose to her feet, rushing off.
As she went, I looked over at the others. “So. What are your quirks?”
The big chinned guy sighed, before finally nodding with an odd expression on his face. “My quirk is kinetic redirection and nullification.”
“...Really? How the hell did you not end up kicking butt during the entrance exam?”
“Because I can’t move while it’s active,” he scowled. “And I can only take the hits on my… Well, on my chin.”
I glanced at the aforementioned body part. “Wait, your power is kinetic redirection and nullification… and it has to hit your chin. So your quirk is-”
“I can only take it on the chin, yes,” he sighed, shaking his head. “But I need to have myself set in pose.”
He stood and demonstrated. Back straight, chest out, arms at his sides. The classic ‘bring it on’ pose college frat boys did. Or those guys who did face slapping contests in Russia. Or I guess in this case the stereotypical Japanese street tough.
“Hit me,” he said with a bit of trepidation.
…Huh. “Well, I never need an excuse to hit someone.”
“Um, maybe we shouldn’t,” the cat girl said as I got up and raised my fists. “That might-”
My fist flew forward. I aimed for his arm, going for just a bit of a hi-
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
His chin took the hit. I blinked, then did the same thing, going harder. Again, despite aiming for his arm, I hit his chin, and he didn’t even move. He grit his teeth. Over and over. His chin started to turn just a bit red, but like he was blushing rather than getting hurt.
Deciding to go for broke, I unleashed the strongest punch I could towards his stomach. I could crack concrete, bend steel, turn the whole-
My fist crashed into his chin with a sound like a bell getting rung. He scowled, staggering back, then falling to his knees. “Ahhh!”
“You okay?” I moved to help him, only for him to grunt, raising a hand to stop me as the other rubbed his now red chin.
“Yes… I can’t take too many hits before I need to rest, or I’ll just freeze up entirely..”
“So you can’t move while using your quirk, and if you take too much damage too quickly you snap out of it… I can see the problem then,” I mumbled.
“I couldn’t break any of the robots,” he sounded angry about it. “My power doesn’t let me move so I can’t fight with it. So I just stood there and took hits without being able to dish any out because… I became the decoy while everyone else took them out! There are guys in the Hero course who got their points cause of me!”
“...Who?”
He blinked, calming from his enraged stance and switching to confusion. “What?”
“Who? Which of the guys or girls in the course was farming you for points?”
“Well… that Bakugo guy broke a couple.”
“Bakugo breaks buildings for a living.” Tsutsutaka didn’t look appeased, so I continued, trying to think. “Look, I can understand your frustration. The fight was a free-for-all and every student was looking to get as many points as possible in the shortest amount of time, sometimes even kill stealing, but you can’t blame them for taking advantage when you yourself said you couldn’t capitalize on it at the time.”
“It wasn’t fair goddamn it.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t, but it happened. Question is now is if you’ve got the drive to get better and earn your way into the Hero Course the long way. It’s just a matter of time, training, and creative thinking to get the most use out of it.”
“Why, so you assholes can just steal my points again?” he grumbled. The catgirl, Usagi, squeaked in surprise.
“You want to talk about the point system? Fine. Let’s discuss that. Did you know there was a secret way to get points in the entrance exam?”
He froze, staring at me. “What?”
“A secret way. See, you were focused on villain points. In fact, I bet you yelled at a few kids for stealing your points.”
“Can you blame me?”
A smirk flashed on my face. “No, but that likely kept you from getting a different set of points. The hero points,” Tsutsutaka sat down, staring at me. I continued. “Well, really they were called rescue points, but I think hero points is a better name. Because the point of those is to help others. Not just rescue, but help selflessly.
The point you need to consider is, who is the greatest hero in the world.”
“All Might,” Tsutsutaka and Usagi said together.
“Easy answer. Now, is that because he defeats villains or helps civilians?”
It was like I’d dropped a bomb on the kid’s head. I smiled sadly. “A hero can do well by just defeating bad guys, but this school has to test ALL aspects of heroism. When you were in the test, Tsutsutaka,” god, this kid needed a nickname stat. “And you took on those robots, only to see them be beaten by others, was your thought that it was good you’d helped out, or that you were mad they kill-stole?”
He stumbled, eyes widening. “I mean… they told us that villain points were-”
“Helping people because you know it’ll give you points isn’t really helping,” I pointed out. As he continued to gape, I sighed. “Look, you likely got some points anyways. But the fact you weren’t really helping out of the goodness of your heart, combined with a lack of villain points…”
“...” the big chinned young man clenched his eyes. “I was selfish.”
“It’s a very human thing to be,” I patted him on the shoulder. “But that’s fine. It’s why we’re here. To work together to get better. Besides, I think that’s only part of where you went wrong. The real bad one is that you were so focused on going solo that you neglected what your power is really good for.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a tank, brother,” I smacked my own shell. “Kind of like me, but next level. I can tank hits, but I can’t one hundred percent choose where they hit and just stop them in an instant. You think you don’t have a quirk that can fight back, but you need to rethink your quirk. I’m gonna apologize for this, but let me lecture for a bit. A tank’s job is to keep everyone else safe. They distract, draw in, and protect everyone else.”
“Tank’s have cannons though,” Tsutsutaka pointed out.
“...Do you think I’m talking about actual tanks?”
“Are you not?”
We stared at each other for a moment. I finally spoke. “Have you… never played a-” I cut myself and shook my head clear. “Okay, well, simple enough concept. The terms came from video games, but they’re pretty constant now. DPS, damage per second, take out as many bad guys as they can as fast as they can. So dudes with laser blasts or explosions. Support helps everyone with everything from healing them, like Recovery Girl, to constructing items to help, like Momo. Then there’s you and me. Tanks. Now, you can’t throw a car. That’s fine. You can still keep it from hitting others. And you have another advantage, your redirection. Do you know how many martial artists wish they had the power to know where an attack was coming? How much that can set you up to counterattack?”
“I can’t hit while I’m using my quirk though.”
“What about before and after?”
He seemed thoughtful at that. “Um… maybe?”
“That’ll be your training then. Learn to activate and deactivate your quirk in seconds. You don’t need to take every blow, just know where they’re coming from and how to counter them. We can look into some support items too, but for now, this will work. Sound good?”
,
Tsutsutaka scoffed but nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, all right. Just don’t screw me over, okay?”
Fair enough.
I turned to the last person. “Now. Usagi. Your turn.”
She hesitated, pink ears fluttering. When she looked over at Tsutsutaka, he waved hesitantly for her to continue. She began to speak, her voice soft. “Well… my quirk is that I can project cat paws.”
Usagi clenched her fist. After a moment, eight pink large paws, about the size of a tiger’s, appeared in the air around her. She waved her hands and two of the hands moved forward.
“Eight of them?” I asked, poking at the ethereal-looking paws floating around us. They were kinda cute. Not dangerous looking, despite the size and claws. Felt solid too.
“Hmmu, hmmu,” she mumbled, nodding. “And they can lift as much as me.”
I was beginning to see a trend. Then again, nearly everyone I knew had useful quirks, even non-heroes like Ranma. The things keeping them from being powerful tended not to be their actual quirk, but their own mindsets and willingness to use them. Everyone had muscles after all, but not everyone used them to the fullest.
“So, the entrance exam-”
“Oh, I didn’t take the practical section of it,” she said nervously. “I-I-I don’t like fighting.”
Uh oh.
“Most parts of the Sports Festival call for some kind of combat ability. I mean, mobility is important, but-”
“I know,” she sighed, looking saddened. “I came to try and learn, but I’m not good with fighting! I just get so scared! I want to be a hero, even if it’s not what I’m good at.”
Ah, we were approaching the meat of the matter.
“Okay then. Talk to me, Usagi. What are you hoping for?”
She nodded, speaking in that near whisper voice of hers. “Yes. I-I don’t want to hurt anyone, it’s always so scary. I get so nervous when people are loud and angry,” she pressed her fingers together nervously. “I just want to help though. And my dad told me I could become a sidekick in a Hero agency and do what I love! And even help people!”
I leaned forward. “What would that be?”
It was quiet for a second. I noticed Tsutsutaka nervously stepping back.
“Paperwork,” the words were said with a damn near psychotic level of reverence. Her head snapped up and I almost recoiled. What the hell? One of her eyes was twitching, while the other had widened to an uncomfortable degree, and the smile on her face was manic. She looked like someone had activated the yandere psycho chick switch on her! She looked like Tanya the Evil mid-murder, psycho Harley Quinn, pick a loony blonde.
“I’m sorry?” was all I could say, leaning back as she leaned in.
“Paperwork! It’s so exciting!” she blushed just a bit, which was easy to lose in the crazy eyes. “Putting together reports, quarterly assessments, seeing how all the pieces come together, even forensic accounting! I want to do that for the rest of my life! File the right paperwork and you can force the world to your whims! Governments will fall at your knees to do your bidding! The smell of fresh ink, new binders, how can you not find it all invigorating!?”
…Wow. What a crazy nerd. “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you love laminating things.”
“DO I!?” I think that was when she realized how close she’d gotten. Her face lost the crazy, and she quickly backed away, coughing a single time. “S-Sorry. I just really like doing paperwork. It makes me feel like… I have the power to do something without having to hurt anyone.”
“I can tell,” I cocked my head to the side. “So why a hero then?”
“...the first hero I ever saw was Sir Nighteye,” she said. I wasn’t familiar with that one, but let her continue. “He was taking care of a scene. Collecting evidence. Talking to people. I watched him writing things down, making sure he had everything he needed. And a week later, on the news, they showed that he’d shut down a smuggling ring. He didn’t fight anyone. He just collected evidence. Brought it together. Spoke to the right people. Everyone else thought it was boring. But I thought that was so cool.”
“Sir Nighteye… I’ll have to look him up,” I said with as gentle a smile as I could make. I think it worked, because the pink catgirl smiled back. “So. You want to be a hero like him. But you need to get better at handling fighting and violence?”
“Yes,” she said sadly. “Even Sir Nighteye needed to learn how to fight. So I have to too.”
“Fair enough,” I got up. “Then your lesson plan is easy enough.”
I looked between the two with a flash of my fangs. “Very easy.”
----------------------------------------
An hour later, I slammed down next to her. Usagi screamed, backing away. I clawed at her, missing on purpose and slashing through the concrete behind her instead. A few cat’s paw’s smashed into me with little result, while the rest appeared under her feet, lifting her away. “AHHHHH!”
“Stay focused!” Pony shouted nearby, watching the catgirl run. As the person with powers most similar to Usagi, she was perfect to bring in on training. “You don’t need to beat him, just keep running and keep him back! You got it!”
I panted as I chased after her, hopping over pipes. My knees complained at the movement, unused to stretching that much, but I soldiered on. “Come Usagi, you can do it!”
“Stop screaming at me!” she shouted, running past the loud sound of Shoto releasing a burst of ice that Tokoyami countered with Dark Shadow smashing through it.
“Gah!” Tsutsutaka shouted in surprise when his guard was broken again. He fell to a knee.
“You okay?” Shoji, the multi-armed quirk user asked, approaching and helping him up.
“Y-Yeah,” he replied, taking Shoji’s hand. “Damn, you hit hard!”
“Thank you,” Shoji said politely. “Shall we continue?”
Tsutsutaka nodded with a sigh, moving back into his pose.
Shoji threw a punch. Tsutsutaka’s chin pulled it in. At the last second, Tsutsutaka left his pose and tried to dodge, barely getting scrapped. When he tried to strike back, one of Shoji’s other hands pushed him back. But he was slowly getting the timing down.
I focused on my own training, forcing myself to run forward.
We all had a shit-ton of work to do. Tsuyu was leaping overhead. The sounds of Deku and Kirishima shouting came from the distance. Sero and Ochaco sparred in a lot with tape and rocks floating everywhere as Usagi continued to run from me.
We didn’t have much time, so might as well push as hard as we could. If I had it my way, we’d DESTROY that school festival.