Chapter 30: Training From Hell!

Wolfheart

Mirko had texted Marie that morning, telling her to be ready in her Hero Costume outside of U.A. by nine o'clock in the morning, along with a lunch and change of clothes. Midnight had been the one to tell Mirko her number, as well as smoothed things over with the other teachers to allow this work study. It was five minutes until nine, Marie and her Mother were waiting outside for Mirko. Marie had butterflies in her stomach she was so nervous, Mirko's Quirk gave her Rabbit abilities, and yet that woman was a powerhouse the likes of which she couldn't imagine! What kind of hellish training she had to put herself through in order to become so strong was not something she wanted to think about. And Mirko was promising more of the same for her.

Her Mother put her hand on Marie's shoulder, "Relax. This isn't the time to show weakness. Mirko will train you hard, probably harder than anyone else, but she will be fair. She never takes students for work studies; the fact she chose you is proof that she sees something special in you." Marie nodded, "Any idea what I should expect?" Midnight thought about it, "Most likely she'll focus on three areas, the legs, the core, and cardio. But she'll probably do full body exercises as well." Midnight let out a small chuckle, "Trust me, it'll be hard. I worked out with her for a while, but it works. I do a lot of the same exercises, just at a more relaxed pace. If nothing else, it'll sculpt your booty for your boyfriend." Marie laughed at that, and then sniffed the air, "You might as well come out, Denki. I can smell you."

Denki walked up, sounding chastened, "Man, I thought I was quiet enough to sneak up on you. I forgot all about your nose." Marie told him, "It mostly worked, but then when Mom mentioned my booty, your hormones shot up, you are just too easy." Marie punctuated her statement by shaking her butt in Denki's direction, smelling his hormones go into overdrive again. "Anyway, why are you here, Denki?"

Denki took a deep breath and said, "I want to train with you." It was then that Marie smelled Mirko coming, dropping from the air like a bomb. "Hit the dirt!" Marie yelled as she tackled Denki down and covered him, while Midnight stayed in place. To Marie's surprise, she only heard the soft landing of two feet. Marie and Denki looked, and heard Mirko say, "My, my, kids these days. Is this what you've been teaching your daughter, Kayama?" Midnight answered as Marie and Denki got on their feet, "That's the passion of youth, as long as it's not a young child, who am I to judge my daughter's love life?" Marie felt herself blush as she yelled, "That's not what happened at all, and you know it, Mom! I thought she was going to cause an explosion like when we were doing the lesson!"

Mirko smirked, you could hear it, "I only cause necessary property damage. I have enough control to stick my landings. Anyway, let's go, Juliet. Your training starts now." "Hold on!" Denki yelled, "I want to train with you too, Mirko-sama!" Marie heard his knees hit the floor and his head bow to the ground as he said that. "No," Mirko said. "Why!?" Denki asked. "Because our Quirks are too different. You need to train with Heroes who have similar Quirks or experiences so they can help you better master your own. I've only signed the paperwork for one rookie, and I'm not going through that again for another one. End of discussion," Mirko said, firmly. "Let's go, Wolfheart. Put these on so we can start your real training."

Marie heard four heavy something hit the floor, and then one thing that sounded even heavier. Marie felt the ground and found one and lifted it up, "Ankle weights? Damn, this is like what, ten kilograms?" Mirko was smiling as she said, "Exactly. This was how I started to really strengthen my Quirk. You'll be wearing these weights when we're together, and only take them off when I tell you. There are four ten kilo weights for your arms and legs, and a thirty-kilo vest for your body." Marie nodded and started to put the weights on her wrists and ankles. "Marie, are you sure about this?" Denki asked her. "I am," Marie said as she lifted up the heavy vest and put it on. She strapped the weighted vest on and kissed Denki on his cheek, "See you later."

"Be careful," Midnight said as she handed Marie her bag and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "Love you, Mom," Marie responded and gave her a goodbye hug. "Let's go," Mirko said, and started running. Marie followed her as fast as she could, slowed down by all the weights she was wearing.

It only took fifteen minutes for Marie to start breathing heavily as she ran behind Mirko. Thankfully, the Rabbit Hero wasn't so sadistic as to leave Marie behind, she was always close enough for Marie to hear her speak. "Alright, Rookie, you seem to be keeping up just fine. Keep it up for fifteen more minutes, and your morning jog will be done. There's a reason for this run, we're heading to our patrol area, and I figured I might as well help you get some training in as we headed there," Mirko yelled back at Marie. "Got it!" Marie gasped out, already sweating heavily. "Pick up the pace now, or we'll miss our train!" Mirko yelled and ran faster, Marie had to dig deep and focus on Mirko's scent, ignoring her already sore muscles and pounding heart.

Marie was sure they had been running for twenty minutes total when she heard a scream, "Mirko-san! Did you hear that?" Mirko stopped running and changed directions, "Come on, Rookie! We got work to do already!" Marie stopped, and was shocked at how hard it was with all her weight but didn't take too long to follow Mirko's path. Mirko stopped in front of what smelled like an alleyway, and Marie heard her yell, "Stop right there, punk!" Marie heard the sound of something powering up and quickly hugged the wall, just in time to avoid a dozen laser blasts. "You're no good against me, Mirko!" a voice that sounded like a large man's yelled. "I got all the advantages here!"

Mirko jumped next to Marie to dodge more lasers and said, "Rookie, you're up. Use your Quirk, but don't take off your weights, this drug dealing punk's small fry, same with his customer. Take them both out, this is part of your training." Marie nodded, "Got it!" and transformed. She was relieved as her transformation strengthened her, making the 70 kilos she was wearing feel so much lighter! Marie jumped up and landed on top of a closed dumpster, "Give up, or go down." The drug dealer Villain's answer was with lasers, and Marie quickly dodged them, jumping on the wall on the other side of the alley. She jumped again to dodge more laser fire, moving forward in a zig-zag the entire time.

Marie was sure that she was close enough to take the dealer out, and when he fired, she dropped off the wall and pounced onto him, driving her knee into his stomach. The Villain made a deep croak sound as the air was pounded out of him, and Marie quickly got up and flipped him onto his stomach and got him in an arm lock. Mirko heard the terrified customer try to flee, and she yelled, "You're going nowhere! Just stay there!" The would-be customer stopped with a frightened whimper and stood stock still. Mirko went to Marie and handed her some Quirk negating cuffs to secure her prisoner.

"Not bad, Rookie. I could have ended it about two minutes faster, but you played it smart, negated your opponent's range advantage, and captured him and his buyer," Mirko told her. The buyer whimpered again as Mirko looked at him, and the police arrived. Once the police arrested the men, Mirko and Marie ran out of the alleyway. "Hurry up, Rookie!" Mirko yelled, Marie was still transformed, so the heavy weights weren't much of a burden as the two of them, Rabbit Hero and Werewolf Hero, ran side by side into the train station and managed to get in. Once they were inside the women's only compartment, Mirko said, "Change back to your normal form, Rookie."

Marie did as she was ordered, and she and Mirko moved further to the back of the compartment. Once it was full, Mirko announced, "Alright, ladies, if you could, please give me and this Rookie Hero some room! I gotta whip her into shape, and I need a few centimeters of space to do it!" Marie smelled as the other women moved away from them, at least a little. "Alright then, Rookie, you lost a good workout by using your Quirk to run here, although I admit we might not have made it otherwise. So, I'm giving you a challenge. Our stop is about fifteen minutes away, if you can do two-hundred squats in that time, between the time the train starts moving and the time we reach our destination, then I'll let you take off the weights for the rest of the day. Sound good to you?" Mirko told Marie.

Marie swallowed, without her Quirk activated, the weights felt extremely heavy, squats just sucked, doing two hundred squats sucked more, and doing two-hundred squats in fifteen minutes while wearing seventy kilo weights was sheer Hell. She didn't know if she could do it, but she still nodded her head and the train started to move. "Start your squats."

Marie put her hands behind her head and started doing the squats as fast as she could. After only twenty she was starting to slow down, having to grit her teeth and grunt the whole time as she moved. She could feel that the other women were recording her on their phones, but she ignored it as sweat started to cover her completely. Marie just focused on squatting down and standing up. Squatting down and standing up. That was the only thought in her head as she moved, trying to ignore the muscle pains and exhaustion. She wanted to cry when Mirko said, "One-hundred, you're halfway through, Rookie! Keep going. I'm doing them with you, so don't you dare stop!" Marie could smell Mirko was sweating as well, not as badly as she was, but it was proof that the Rabbit Hero was indeed doing the exercise with her.

Marie lost track of time, she was only focused on doing those squats, and when the train finally stopped, Marie let out a short gasp in surprise and fell on her butt. "How…many…" she gasped out. Mirko shook her head, "Sorry, Rookie. You were close, but you only did one-hundred-eighty-nine squats." Marie didn't talk, only breathed as Mirko helped her up and helped her get out of the train. She dropped her on a bench and Marie kept her focus on breathing. Oh my God, Swing Low Sweet Chariot! My legs feel like stones! She thought to herself before Mirko came over and handed Marie two bottles of water. Marie quietly took them and drank them down slowly, taking time to catch her breath.

"You did better than I thought you would," Mirko told her, "I might not have to train you as hard as I thought I did, exercise wise." Marie nodded, "Thanks. Does that mean I can take these weights off?" Mirko shook her head, "Nope. It just means that we can focus on your technique more than your workout. Let's go, it's time to go on patrol." Marie groaned, but managed to get up and followed Mirko out on patrol. This woman's gonna kill me…