Tuesdays at 3:00 used to be Chumani's favorite time of the week at UA–"Practical Application" class, or as it was referred to by students as "Quirk Practice", allowed her to show how much her work with her abilities paid off. All the hours spent reading biology and ecology textbooks to add a new ability to her arsenal, all the time visualizing and mirroring an animal or plant's movements, ALL of it felt worth it when she could do it on the practice field.
Until last week. It started out like any other session with her class: Aizawa had Chumani and her classmates lined up to hear their exercise for the period. "Today, you'll be using your Quirks to subdue and capture villains, after you catch falling hostages."
The upperclassmen murmured nervously. We're catching real-life hostages? What if we fail to save them? Their worries were immediately displaced when they saw a member of the Support Class rolling a cart filled with dummies. They looked like typical mannequins, but looking at the Support student's cheshire grin made the class take a second look at them.
"The Support Class has constructed a series of dummies to act as your hostages," Aizawa explained. "Each dummy has a camera installed to record your rescues; after the session you'll be able to review what you did well, and what you need to improve on." The Support student pressed a button, and the eyes of each dummy flashed on. "I've also been told that the mannequins have been constructed to appear more…lifelike, to properly imitate what it's like rescuing a human hostage. After rescuing your hostage, you'll capture your Villain."
"You'll be divided into two sides: Villains and Heroes. Villains will throw their hostage dummy, and their opposing Hero will save them." Immediately, students divided themselves into two lines. Chumani eagerly shuffled to the Hero line, and found herself across from Nejire Hado.
Chumani was ecstatic. Immediately, she began planning what animal attributes to take on in order to rescue her hostage. A chameleon, to catch them with my tongue? No, I don't want to cause whiplash to the hostage. Or worse…accidentally break their back. She shuddered at the thought. Use the wings and claws of a hawk to fly and catch them? She looked at the dummies tentatively. Given the Support students designed them to be lifelike, they appeared to be covered in a soft squishy material to imitate skin. No, I could scratch and injure them. But…She glanced at the makeshift buildings towering above her. Sometimes firefighters use nets to catch people. Maybe I could make a net. Or a web!
The students assigned to be villains made their way to their various buildings, hostage in hand. Nejire looked down at Chumani, and gave a friendly wave. Chumani snapped out of her thoughts and waved back.
"Ready…Set…" Immediately, Chumani closed her eyes and visualized a spider's web sac. In her mind's eye, she moved the web sac to where her palms were–after a few seconds of concentration, she gave a few test shots of webbing. It was strong and flexible, perfect to make a net. I've got this.
"Go!"
Nejire picked up the mannequin she had placed at her feet and blew a gust of wind to propel it off the building. As it fell, the mannequin let out a very mechanical scream through a speaker near its mouth. "Save meeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Chumani held her hands up and began spinning a web between the two buildings where Nejire had thrown it. The mannequin landed on the net with a small bounce. Chumani then shot a string of webbing towards the net and swung to grab the hostage. Once it was safely tucked under her arm, she dropped back down. The mannequin let out a small metallic-sounding squeal. "Thank you for saving me in: 4.82 seconds!"
I appreciate the dedication to realism, but talking dummies in any context are just creepy, Chumani thought. She propelled herself towards the top of the building using a few more web strings. Her feet landed on the roof, and she saw Nejire with her arms outstretched. "Don't think you can get me that easily, Chu-chan," she teased. A shockwave burst from her arms, knocking Chumani back a few feet. Nejire was launched into the air, and prepared another wave to get more distance between her partner. A split second before the wave burst out, Chumani used a web string to wrap around the end of Nejire's foot–and a split second later, Chumani was flung into the air, attached to Nejire by a few yards of webbed string.
The sudden weight imbalance caused Nejire to fall off balance, and the two began to plummet towards the ground. Chumani's mind raced. Not enough time for me to use another attribute before hitting the ground. She pulled the string attaching herself to Nejire to get her close, and immediately began spinning a web around the two of them. But I can make sure we get a soft landing! Within a few seconds, a cocoon formed around them. Nejire saw what her opponent was doing and planned a quick escape. Nejire held her hands above her head, where the cocoon just barely reached them. She faced her palms downward and caused another shockwave, propelling the two forward. Using the sudden change in force, she grabbed the strings attaching her to Chumani and threw them upward, leaving Chumani partially trapped in her own malformed cocoon on the roof of the building as both students landed with a thud.
Nejire got another shockwave ready to propel herself to the neighboring building while Chumani's legs were stuck in the webbing. Chumani saw the "Villain" about to escape. Crap, I can't get her on foot! She switched tactics, making a small net between her palms. But I can get her with this. Chumani flung the webbing at Nejire's hands, binding them together just as Nejire was about to leap away. She grabbed the bound villain, pulled her close, and wrapped layer after layer of webbing until Nejire was covered up to her neck.
Nejire gave a small disgusted groan. "Ugh, did you have use so much of this stuff? It feels so gross…" Chumani smiled sheepishly and picked up her captured classmate.
"I may have overcompensated in the heat of the moment," she admitted, attaching the cocoon to her back. "But I captured you, so… the ends justify the last train (shuden)."
Nejire gave her a questioning look. "Um….if you say so?" she replied confusedly.
Chumani began climbing down the building, imitating the movements of an arachnid. "Oh! Sorry, I meant 'the ends justify the means' (shudan)." She blushed. "I've learned a decent amount of Japanese since I came to UA, but occasionally I'll make a mistake."
After a minute of climbing, Chumani made it back to the ground, with Nejire attached to her like a strange backpack. She ran to the other students who had finished rescuing/capturing, and started to free Nejire from her cocoon. As she helped Nejire up, Chumani felt a sudden sharp pain throughout her body. Her entire back felt like it was collapsing, or disintegrating. She fell to the ground in agony, with her mouth agape and unable to make a sound.
What's happening? Chumani tried to think through the pain. I was only using my Quirk for…how long did I use it? She tried to remember how long she had taken the "form" of a spider for. Two minutes? Three? Nejire kneeled to her side, trying to make sure Chumani stayed conscious.
"Chu-chan? Chumani?" She turned her head to the students gathering behind her. "Someone get Aizawa-sensei!"
Chumani started to feel a prickling, sprouting sensation at the roof of her mouth. I'm growing mandibles. She started to hyperventilate as the pain grew worse. And my body…my bones are slowly shifting. Her skin began to feel hard as her insides started to become soft. Spiders have exoskeletons. My bones must be shifting to come outside my body. No. No. Nonono–
Aizawa sprinted and turned her head to face him. He locked eyes with her and used his Quirk to halt the transformation. Chumani felt tears of relief and pain well up in her eyes as she felt her partially formed exoskeleton begin to go back into her body and become her skeleton again. Her mandibles slowly shrank up into the roof of her mouth and disappeared.
Her classmates gathered around her, wanting to give her space but also wanting to know if she was alright. The shock of the transformation left Chumani shivering and barely able to move. Aizawa looked down at her. "Is every part of you back where it should be?" Chumani weakly nodded. Her classmates sighed with relief.
Aizawa pulled her into a sitting position, and Chumani felt a few more hands gently get her to her feet. Mirio put a hand on her shoulder. "Do you want me to take you to Recovery Girl? You should probably rest for a while." Chumani shook her head, and tried to support herself.
"N-no." She started to take a few wobbly steps by herself. "I'm just a bit...nauseous." I feel like my stomach wants to jump out of my mouth. "And a little tired." It's taking everything I have to not pass out. "And shaken up." I need to cry in my room, but saying that out loud is just going to make me cry a lot more. In public. And that will also make me cry more. She took another step, tripped, and Mirio caught her.
"At least let me take you back to the dorm," Mirio insisted. "You can barely stand." Chumani hesitated for a second, but eventually nodded. Aizawa quickly wrote up a pass for the two of them, and called the other students back to review their work. Chumani could feel the dozens of eyes on her back as she stumbled out into the hallway, leaning against Mirio.
During the whole walk back to her room, Chumani was silent. Mirio tried to lighten the mood as best he could. "I actually haven't seen your dorm room, Chumani-chan. We all moved in the week they announced we were getting them, and in the rush of packing and everything I never got the opportunity to visit!" He used the arm not supporting her to open the door to the common room, and they continued walking. Mirio set her on the couch. "I'm gonna get some water for you, and then we can go upstairs." He paused. "Are you gonna be okay being alone for a few seconds?"
Chumani nodded, and Mirio walked to the kitchen to grab a water bottle. She noticed him looking back at her every few seconds, making sure she was still upright. He handed her the bottle, and she took a few sips. The part of her mouth where the mandibles had started growing were sore, and Chumani could taste small amounts of blood each time she drank a bit of water. "Thanks," she mumbled.
Mirio smiled. "No problem!" he replied. "I'll help you up when you're ready to go upstairs." He sat down next to her while she drank, and turned to face her. "I don't want to make you upset," he said with a trace of concern, "but…what exactly happened back there? It's okay if you don't want to talk about it."
Chumani set the bottle down on the nearby coffee table. "No, it's okay." She took a deep breath to compose herself–it felt like she had been holding her breath the entire walk back. "My Quirk is called Organic Attribute, so I can take the qualities of any plant or animal and use it myself." She grabbed the water bottle and took another drink. "But if I use my Quirk for too long, I'll start to…turn into that animal." She pointed at her mouth, where her temporary mandibles used to be. "My limit is around five minutes. And normally I keep track of how long I use it, but today I just got lost in the moment trying to capture Nejire."
She leaned back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. "The transformation is slow and can be reversed, whether with Aizawa-sensei or a lot of concentrating on my part. I felt my bones start to shift into an exoskeleton and…I panicked." She kept her eyes on the ceiling, not wanting to look Mirio in the eye. "That was only a few minutes past my limit, today." Her voice broke. "A few minutes longer, and I would've started to change even faster, and lose the ability to think like a human being. I'd become an actual animal."
Mirio stood up to face her. "But you're still human, Chumani," he said, trying to comfort her. "Aizawa-sensei reversed the change. Next time, just let someone know once you start to feel like something's wrong." He smiled. "We're your classmates and your friends; any time you need help, we'll help!"
Chumani sniffled and wrapped her arms around Mirio. "Thank you," she said hoarsely. Mirio returned the hug, and let her softly cry on his shoulder. Once she finished, she let him pull her up to walk up to her room.
She curled up on her bed, and Mirio put her half-empty water bottle on her bedside desk. "Do you want me to stay here with you, or do you want to be alone?" Chumani shook her head.
"I'm fine by myself," she replied. Mirio quietly shut her door and left the dorm. Chumani stared at a poster on the wall across from her. It was a gift from her mother: a simple handstitched sign that plainly stated 'tuweni koki pe', or 'never be afraid'' in Lakota. Easier said than done.