Seeing the monsters approaching him, the esper decided to try out his new whips and wrapped both of the whips around their chests. His inexperience with the whips was showing itself, as he'd failed to restrain any of their limbs. Because of that, the monsters were able to easily extend their arms and swiped Mob with their claws, sending him back several meters and causing him to lose focus.
The teacher rolled his eyes: such an amateur. "The main purpose of those whips is to restrain your enemy's movements and prevent them from attacking," he said, "So when you're using the whips, you always want to make sure you have them wrapped around your opponent's arms. If possible, you also want to try and restrain their legs. During the Sports Festival, Sero used his tape to both restrain Todoroki's arms while also shooting a volley of tape to wrap his legs, a useful tactic that nearly succeeded were it not for Todoroki's sheer power and skill. For now, though, just try using the whips again."
Shigeo recreated the whips, and followed his teacher's advice, making sure that the whips tightened around the monster's arms. The dirt creatures flailed and attempted to break free, but the psychic energy imbued in those whips was far beyond what they could break through. "Now what?"
"Usually, it's best to either pull on the whip, bringing them in close so you can deliver a powerful punch or other close-range attack, or do the opposite and propel yourself forward. In some cases, you can even slam your opponents into each other if you're facing multiple enemies." Mob decided to go with his teacher's first suggestion, tugging on the whips and reeling them toward him before flying into the air and using both of his legs to kick them, destroying their heads and causing the rest of their bodies to crumble in the process.
Pixie Bob summoned up some more of the dirt monsters, but Mob was ready for them this time. As the monsters approached, Mob decided to increase the number of his whips to four, a relatively easy feat for a prodigious talent like him, and restrained both sets of limbs for the two creatures. Bringing his hands together, the esper slammed the two creatures together with incredible force, destroying their bodies. The hero continued this process of creating her duo of monsters, using the monsters to try and keep on practicing. After about a total of ten monsters had been destroyed, Mr. Aizawa decided to have Mob transition to the next level while upping his training with the whips.
"You seem to be getting a general hang of it. Still, these dirt monsters are pretty slow, and your enemy's aren't gonna just march towards you. If you wanna be effective with those, you've gotta make sure your accuracy is on-point. If you're trying to catch a moving target, try and read their movements so you aim your whips at where they're going to be instead of where they are. But anyway, now's your next step: create a barrier while attacking with your whips. Try it out."
Mob formed the barrier around his body, then attempted to form the whips with his hands. But as soon as put his attention on forming the whips, the barrier around him instantly fell. The esper tried repeating the process again, but again, he achieved the same result.
"Whenever I try to picture the whips forming, I lose focus of the picture of my barrier," he said.
"Then you have to try and focus on keeping both images in your mind simultaneously," Aizawa explained, "Sharpen your mind and your focus so you can compartmentalize your thoughts and simultaneously run these images in your mind. That's going to be one of your main goals for this training camp. And to make things more challenging for you," Eraserhead gave his student one of the devious smiles that everyone in their class had grown to fear, "You'll have to do it while fending off the dirt monsters."
On cue, four more of the creatures rose up from the earth, growling and setting their sights on the bowl-haired teenager. "I'll leave you to it."
The unkempt hero decided that he'd gotten to see enough from Kageyama for now, and with the basics he'd already explained, it'd be enough to leave the esper on his own. For now, he'd check up on all of the other students and wait for the arrival of Class 1-B, who was scheduled to arrive later that day. He'd see how tough this training camp would really be for these heroes-in-training.
It was about 7:00 in the evening. Class 1-B had arrived at the training camp about four hours earlier alongside their teacher, Vlad King, and they'd gotten a good taste of the hell they'd have to be dealing with. Each of the exercises planned for all of the students looked like it was truly excruciating: even the top-dogs of Class 1-A such as Todoroki and Bakugo were feeling the exhaustion setting in. For the students with strength-enhancing quirks, all of them had the pleasure of being lectured under the watchful and intimidating eye of Tiger, who was more than ready to beat them all into shape. Just like Mr. Aizawa said, it felt like they were on the verge of death.
The students felt an overwhelming relief when their homeroom teachers announced that their training was over for the day. The grueling training on their muscles and their quirks was more than any of them had prepared for, and if they hadn't stopped when they did, many of them felt like they'd collapse from exhaustion.
As Mr. Aizawa was giving the announcement to his students, he decided to go up to Kageyama's secluded training area to give him the news. He hadn't checked up on him after giving him his assignment, so he had no idea how well things had progressed for the esper.
"Kageyama! Training's over! Time for dinner!" The teacher perched himself up onto the hill to see how the esper was faring in his training, if his body was on the brink of exhaustion and collapse the way he'd intended it to be. But having seen everything the esper was capable of, he should've known better.
It had been a bit of a struggle at first, Mob would admit: trying to consistently maintain the barrier, switching between offense and defense but failing, it just left himself open to be attacked by the monsters, and since he was too focused on trying to maintain both powers, it left his defenses open and allowed them to deal some nasty attacks. However, after being pushed into a corner and spending several hours beaten by the dirt monsters, Mob had finally started to bounce back, and his unrivaled potential was showing itself. He'd finally been able to sharpen his focus enough to create both images in his mind, command his psychic powers to keep themselves active simultaneously.
Mob was blitzing around the training ground, circling the dirt monsters while keeping his barrier activated. Two of the monsters lunged toward him, but this time, the esper was ready: his whips flew forward, phasing through his shield and grabbing one of the monsters by their limbs. Mob pushed the creature back, sending it crashing against the wall: at the same time, the other dirt monster tried to slice Mob, but failed to get through the barrier.
The dirt monster against the wall shook its head and attempted to get back up, for Mob's attack hadn't been delivered with enough force. Seeing this, Mob dissipated the whips and finished the job by firing a sphere of psychic energy at the creature, destroying it's body and some of the rock behind him. The other monster repeated it's slashing motion, but this time, it managed to break through the barrier. Though he'd gotten a good start, Mob still hadn't mastered this dual power-wielding: in order to deal with the strain, he had to lower the amount of energy he was emitting to keep a better focus on both images in his mind. Even then, he was unable to properly maintain the distributed power or keep it focused for very long, allowing a simple attack like this to break through. Mob held up his elbows and blocked the monster's attack. In response, the esper held up his hand and prepared another energy attack, but before he could fire, the monster suddenly broke down into a large pile of mud.
"Kageyama." Turning his head around, the teacher stared at him with his eyes glowing red. "You're done for the day. Let's go."
"Ok." The teacher and the student made their way back to the main training area, where they walked together at a leisurely pace. Only a few other students either too tired or not too excited to get dinner were still walking through the main training area, where they spotted their teacher and unmatched classmate going together. One of those students happened to be none other than Midoriya, whose curious nature made him unable to resist casually eavesdropping on their conversation.
"I see you've already made significant progress. Only after a day of training, and you've already managed to get the hang of both attacking and defending with your psychic powers."
Midoriya forced himself to hide his shock as not to arouse any attention from either of them. "Well, there's still some more training I've got left to do, and I had to lower the amount of energy I emitted to better keep my focus. I only started to use energy blasts like you suggested near the last hour of training, so I didn't have much time to work on shaping my energy like you said."
"That's a task you can work on for tomorrow." Staring outward into the forest, the teacher couldn't hide his amazement at everything he'd seen from the esper. "Even for my high standards, Kageyama, you've far exceeded anything I could've ever expected. You've demonstrated a number of times the unbelievable strength, speed, stamina and range of your powers. You're able to utilize those powers for both offense and defense, and the number of abilities at your disposal makes finding an opening or weak spot seemingly impossible. Not only that, but you possess an unbelievable learning capacity with your psychic abilities, able to pick up new techniques on the fly, and through only a single day of intense training, you've already made so much progress. You are truly a prodigy in every sense of the word."
Unlike words of praise for his character or physical improvement, the esper remained indifferent to praise for his psychic abilities, but gave his teacher a respectful reply. "Thank you, Mr. Aizawa," he said with his typical deadpan expression and bored voice.
From behind the two of them, Midoriya felt the sweat dripping down his face more intensely than ever, a light tremble shaking his entire body. He couldn't believe what he was hearing: Kageyama had already made so much progress with his powers in the first day of training? How much farther ahead was he going to get? How could Midoriya possibly keep up with that? How could he improve his abilities at the uncanny speed that his friend could? At this rate, Kageyama would keep leaving him in the dust, and All Might would keep putting all of his attention into training Kageyama instead, probably seeing Midoriya as a waste of time and investment. This... this just wasn't fair!
When the students made it back to the main building, many of them were hoping they'd be getting another big meal provided for them just like they did for lunch. But what they found instead was several large piles of vegetables and other ingredients laid out in large plates for them, and standing behind this large table, Ragdoll and Pixie Bob having set out the supplies.
"We won't be serving your food anymore!" Pixie Bob said.
"If you wanna eat, then you'll have to make your own meals, starting with curry!"
All of the students groaned: this wasn't how they wanted to spend their evening. Ragdoll burst out in laughter at how amusing their combined reactions were. "Man, you guys look exhausted, but that doesn't mean you get to make sloppy cat food!"
The first one to snap out of their brief depression was Iida, instead viewing this in another light. "I see. An important part of saving someone recovering from a disaster is helping them with their physical needs, as well as spiritual. This is actually a great opportunity! Let's make the most delicious curry in the world!"
"Yea, ok." The rest of the students grudgingly conceded, and each of them began making their dinner. Many of them scrambled at first, unsure of how to start the food and which ingredients to add. After some discussion and sorting, the teenagers began to get themselves into different groups based on their skills, or at the very least skills they thought they'd be best at. Kageyama decided to be stationed next to Bakugo, who was cutting the vegetables. He marveled at the speed and accuracy with which Bakugo was cutting the vegetables.
"Wow, you're really good with that knife," he said, "Now that I think about it, you're actually a lot more skilled in different areas than I am." As he made this compliment, Mob thought to how highly Bakugo had placed in the written exam, his remarkable physical strength in spite of not being in the Body Improvement Club. Unsure of how to take his rival's words and general kindness to him, the teenager could only think to roll his eyes.
"Damn right I am, bowl-cut." he muttered. The rest of the students continued making the curry while Mob mostly stood by, finding value in the skills of his classmates outside of their power. With the dinner finished, many of the students forked down the food: it was far from expert cuisine, but with how much pain they'd put themselves through and their heightened metabolism from the day's activities, they would take any food they could get. Because of how hungry they were, dinner went by rather quickly for the students, and once that was done, all of them felt like they needed to decompress and take a nice, relaxing soak in the hot springs.
The steam was thick in the hot springs, hazing around the two springs separated by gender. Though some of the male students were initially uncomfortable with sharing the same hot spring space with the other males from the opposite class, this tension quickly faded, as did the tension in their muscles as the warm, soothing water.
"Man, this is living," said Kaminari.
"It's like the hot water's melting away all the aches in my muscles, even in my tail," Ojiro added, sinking deeper into the water.
Sitting at the edge of the water, close to the large wall separating the males and females, Minoru Mineta's eyes were closed, his arms crossed while he heard the voices of the girls giggling and laughing amongst themselves.
"Yo, you ok there, Mineta?" Kaminari asked, but received no response, only a momentary stare from his friend. The electricity-wielding teenager deviously grinned, deciding to have some fun with his classmate. "You know that the girls are on the other side of that wall, don't you?" The grin on his face widened. "There's actually a way you could get a first-eye view of your paradise. All you'd have to do is use your quirk to climb up the wall and get to the other side."
The class president of Class 1-A was vehemently disgusted by the suggestion his classmate was making and shot up from the water. "Kaminari, how dare making such a suggestion! Mineta, do not even think of indulging in such behavior!"
"Don't worry, I won't." Every single student of Class 1-A and all the girls of Class 1-A who could hear this conversation unfold gasped. "Truth is, I'd already thought of that plan before Kaminari suggested it." Upon devising the plan, the ball-haired teenager had initially struggled with it: he was still run by hormones, and he still would really like to see the bodies of beautiful girls. But things were different. The words that Kageyama had said to him and the time he'd spent with the Body Improvement Club, fighting to get stronger alongside his friends, they had all made their mark on the teenager.
"The old me probably would've tried something like that, but not anymore." The gaze in Mineta's eyes became softer, his voice more gentle. "Like I said when I first joined the Body Improvement Club, I don't wanna just become stronger: I wanna be better, better than the person I used to be, who only thought about himself and what he wanted instead of what others wanted." For a brief moment, the student lowered his head in shame. "That dude... didn't deserve any ladies."
But as quickly as he lowered his head, he raised it back up in determination. "So that's why I wanna win the love of the ladies the right way, and the first step's gonna be respecting them."
The students of Class 1-A were floored: though one could think this was some sort of elaborate scam or some sappy speech to lower the guards of the girls or try and act like some chivalrous knight, they knew him well enough to know when he was sincere, and right now, he spoke with the utmost sincerity. Once the initial shock of Mineta's proclamation faded, Iida was the first to react, a wide smile split across his face.
"I am very pleased that you are finally conducting yourself as a proper student of U.A. High, Mineta. Well done," he said.
"I'd never thought I'd see the day where Mineta would actually show some decency," Jirou said, loud enough for the boys on the other side to hear.
"Guess you're not as bad as we thought," added Ashido.
The short teenager smirked, his more confident side beginning to flare up now. "That's right, ladies! There's a new man in town, so if any of you are interested, know that I'm in the market."
Silence rang for a few moments on the girl's side. "Yea, I think I speak for all the girls of Class 1-A and B when I say that we're still good," Tsu said with a biting tongue.
A chorus of laughter spread among the girl's side and quickly spread to the boy's side. Even the boys of Class 1-B were finding it amusing the way he was rejected, with Monoma, an avid hater of Class 1-A, laughing the hardest, for he was more than eager to take jabs at any student of Class 1-A.
"Man, sucks to suck, doesn't it, ball hair?" Monoma shouted, his voice rife with mockery.
Mineta groaned out in annoyance and frustration, sinking himself down until only everything below remained submerged. The teenager looked at the classmates laughing at his rejection, but upon looking, he found one of the few students who wasn't laughing. Unlike the others, Shigeo was not focused on the humor of the situation, only looking at the teenager with gleaming eyes of pride. From underneath the water, the esper pulled up his hand and gave his friend a thumbs-up, to let him know that he'd made the right choice. Mineta's eyes began to gleam, touched in knowing that his friend and the one who'd inspired him to be better was showing pride and respect in his decision, and that gesture alone was enough to almost completely forget about the biting rejection from all the girls of Class 1-A and 1-B.
"Hey Kota!" Ashido called out to Kota, but many of the students of Class 1-A didn't know where she was calling to. He wasn't anywhere in sight. "Guess you don't need to stand guard up there after all! But thanks for the gesture anyway!" The male teenagers looked up, and saw the young boy standing guard on top of the wall: so even if Mineta had tried to climb up the wall with his sticky balls, there were already measures in-place to stop him.
The young boy stared down to acknowledge the voice that'd called out to him, but upon seeing all of the exposed bodies of the females, his young, innocent mind was immediately shaken, and he staggered backward. Kota yelled as he was falling to the ground, and the first one quick enough to react to a call for help was Midoriya. With the energy of One For All crackling around him, he rescued Kota and grabbed him by the head before he could fall. By that point, Kota had already been knocked unconscious, some blood dripping down his nose while the perpetual blush still lingered on his face.
Upon landing down onto the ground, Izuku decided to take immediate action. "I'll go take him to be treated by Mandalay," he said.
"Do you want me to come with you," asked Kageyama.
"No, I can do it myself," he replied, his tone in an unusually neutral voice, not even bothering to look back at the esper as he replied and carried Kota to the heroine. Some of the other students stared at each other, for none of them had ever heard Izuku speak in such an indifferent tone towards one of his closest friends. Even Katsuki's eyebrow furrowed in confusion. What was that about?
With their bodies loosened from the steaming baths, the girls from the two classes each made their way to their respective rooms. The room they'd been assigned to was a simple washitsu room with only six tatami mats for the girls to sleep in, much smaller than the boy's room due to the lower number of girls in Class 1-A. The cramped living space had been quite a shock for the girl who'd lived her life in luxury, but once the girls had explained the training camp was about living a rough life, Yaoyorozu had decided to tough it up like the rest of her classmates. After all, this was likely the living style for so many people in the world.
The girls were beginning to relax, where Tsuyu was pressing on Ochaco's back to help her stretch. But just as they were settling in to their room, they heard a knock on their door and a voice.
"It's Kendo, and I've got some of the girls from Class 1-B with me. Is it alright if we come in?"
The girls of Class A glanced at each other, unsure of how to react to these unexpected visitors. After receiving small nods from the others, Yaoyorozu said, "By all means" and opened the door. Standing behind the class president of 1-B were Yui Kodai, Ibara Shiozaki, and Reiko Yanagi. The girls noticed Kendo carrying a bag with her.
"What's in the bag?" asked Ashido. The ginger-haired girl showed the contents of the bag, and Ashido yelped.
"Sweets!"
Shiozaki pushed forward with her hands clasped, as if she were in prayer. "Consider it as a gesture of good will and kinship between our classes, on behalf of the girls of Class 1-B, as well as the other girls, Tokage, Komori, and Tsunotori," she said, "They would've come here too, but they were summoned by Vlad Sensei to review today's training session."
Ashido more than gladly jumped in and grabbed the bag with a "Thanks a lot!" As the girls from the different classes were there together, one of the girls from Class 1-A decided to chime in with an excellent idea.
"How about we all eat this stuff together?" Everyone turned to Hagakure's invisible face, presumably just above the collar of her floating pajama top, and imagined a wide smile split across it. "A slumber party, since we're all here anyway!"
The idea of a slumber party hung in the air for a moment before smiles broke out all through the room.
"Great idea!" said Ochaco, "We've spent plenty of time with Kendo as part of the Body Improvement Club ,but none of us really know any of the other girls from Class B!"
"Sure... Slumber party..."
"Can we really?"
"Why shouldn't we? No reason we can't have fun before going to bed!"
"I'd be down for it."
"Mhm."
"So we're all in agreement?"
"Yeah, let's get started!"
The girls all sprang into action, spreading the bag of sweets out into the middle of the room, purchasing some soft drinks from the nearby vending machine, and rolling up their futons to use in place of floor cushions. The girls from Class 1-A decided to add their own snacks to the pile, and all the girls raised their cups for a toast. The sweets and good company put all their minds at ease - this simple chance to chat and interact with each other was a welcome relief from the hectic day of training.
Her cheeks slightly flushed, Momo was unable to hold back her own delight. "To be frank, this is my very first slumber party... Could someone explain how this is meant to go?"
"Well, you get a bunch of girls together, stuff your faces, and sit around chatting about whatever we want!" replied Ashido. But Hagakure wagged her invisible finger in objection.
"Nah, every good slumber party... demands talk about amore!" The energy level of the room shot up slightly.
"Oh my god, yes! That's the perfect slumber party topic!" Ashido said.
"Yikes, ha ha," Uraraka said, blushing.
"A conversation about love, then?"
"So that's where we're taking this, huh?" Kendo said, forcing a smile against a topic she wasn't too keen on delving into.
"L-love? Before marriage?" gasped a flustered Yaoyorozu. Shiozaki, the ever-religious girl, shared Yaoyorozu's sentiment.
"I must agree. Marriage is a promise made before god." Each of the girls were showing their own level of excitement or lack thereof, but the topic nevertheless shifted to romance. Hagakure quickly took command and got the ball rolling.
"So, who's got a boyfriend?" All of the girls glanced around on obvious pins and needles, but nobody made a sound. The silence lingered in the air for a few moments before being broken by the aghast Hagakure.
"Really? Nobody?"
"Well, it's not like we really had time for that near the end of middle school, and we haven't had that opportunity since starting at U.A. High either," said Kendo with a grimace, prompting nods from the rest of the group.
But this topic wouldn't be disregarded so quickly. "Argh, but romance! Come on, I wanna hear something to tug at the heartstrings! How about crushes? Are any of you crushing on someone?" said Ashido, leaning forward hungrily. It wasn't as though she herself had any interest in getting a boyfriend, but it was just in her nature to leap into the love lives of others, see where the seeds of romance were sprouting.
"Crushes, huh..." Ochaco suddenly recalled Aoyama's words to her during the practical portion of the exam, where he'd made the suggestion that she liked Deku. His freckled face quickly floated up in her mind.
"Hey, what's wrong, Ochaco?" asked Tsu.
"I know that look!" said Hagakure, pointing to her beet-red face.
"Just trying to stop my heart from pounding," was all she could reply with.
"How awful, that the body could react to such a way on the topic of love... Could the lord have truly been this cruel when creating us?" said Shiozaki, stroking Ochaco's head with as much kindness as possible, but her reaction only incited greater passion within Ashido.
"See, that's why we gotta open up about this every once in a while! So come on: any actual crushes here?" Alas, none of the girls opened up, for the topic was still so foreign to them. The topic seemed to be coming to a standstill once again, so Hagakure decided to keep the conversation going by focusing on another facet of this romance topic.
"How about instead we talk about hypotheticals? You know, imagine being boys from Class A or B! Fantasize!"
"That could work," said Ashido, fully on-board.
"Slumber parties are all about easy, breezy chatting. Just another way for us to talk about anything we want," offered Kendo as if she was an old hand at this, smiling and keeping her legs crossed with any uneasiness starting to dissipate. From the opposite end of the circle, Yaoyorozu was instantly impressed by her open-minded attitude.
"I suppose so... Every experience can be a valuable lesson if we open our minds," Yaoyorozu said.
"C'mon then, who'd you guys wanna date?"
The girls began to go into deep thought, so deep that none of them began to notice Ochaco blushing and shaking her head as she did before. "None of them really spring to mind as boyfriend material," Ashido said, pouting, as if she'd gone on a shopping spree only to find nothing worth buying. Seeing that none of the girls could come up with anything, she decided to start categorizing based on a character trait.
"How 'bout some of the hot guys in our classes, starting with the most handsome boy in our class, Todoroki?" Ashido suggested. All of them pictured Shoto and couldn't help but be in agreement. The handsome loner who lived independently of school life, and someone who the girl's couldn't think of any downsides, up until Kendo brought something up.
"You mean Endeavor's kid?"
The mere mention of Endeavor and his fiery, intimidating demeanor stopped them in their tracks. The idea of that man breathing down that man was an instant turn-off.
"Yea, I'm thinking not."
"The guy's probably be a jerk to any girl who'd date his son..." muttered Jirou. The girls of Class A shrank at the thought of the imposing Endeavor, while Shiozaki alone was moved by compassion.
"Those with the fiercest temperaments often have the deepest wounds. If only someone could pick the thorn from that man's soul..."
"You wanna get with Endeavor, Ibara?" gasped Kendo. The father of a schoolmate, and the number two hero? Her of all people? But Shiozaki maintained her composure and shook her head.
"All creatures great and small are deserving of love. No, I speak of only healing, not lust. Besides, that man is hardly my type..."
"Don't scare us like that," said Yanagi.
"Mhm," said Kodai with a nod, almost the only thing the taciturn female ever said at all.
"How about Midoriya?" said Ashido. Hearing that name, Uraraka's heart was beginning to pound again, getting another intense workout after the multiple times it'd been triggered into a fierce beat.
"I swear, I don't get that kid," Kendo said.
"Midoriya? How so?" questioned Yaoyorozu.
"Take the Sports Festival, for instance. He dug up all those land mines during the race, right? Totally insane strategy, and bold as hell. Then in the tournament, he's an all-out, bare-knuckle brawler who's willing to break himself to win. And during the Body Improvement Club, he's definitely the most energetic, the one pushing us the hardest and yelling loudest. But when I spot him in the hallway or cafeteria, he gives off a totally different vibe."
Uraraka opened her mouth to respond, but the swirling vortex of emotions stirring up inside her heart prevented her from forming words, so Tsu spoke up instead.
"Midoriya... I'd say he's about the hardest worker you'll ever meet. It's like everything he does is aimed toward the goal of getting one step closer to being a hero, and that's the passion he brings to the Body Improvement Club too." Tsu looked around, seeing if the other girls were in agreement, or at the least those who were in the Body Improvement Club. Uraraka came to agree with her statement, giving a hefty nod and finally managing to find the words she'd been looking for.
"Seeing Deku trying his best makes me wanna fight as hard as I can to do the best too!" Witnessing Uraraka attempting her best to express that exact feeling, Kendo grinned at her.
"Yeah, I get it. It's great when someone can inspire others like that." Uraraka smiled back, very happy to know that Kendo had some understanding of what make Midoriya so special.
"You know, that's actually something he shares in common with Kageyama." All their heads turned to Yaoyorozu, who was looking down at the pile of sweets. The mention of Kageyama brought about a varying degree of responses from the girls, especially the girls of Class B who barely knew Kageyama at all.
"Kageyama, huh..." The invisible girl tapped her chin with her finger, "You know, I'd never really thought about him as an option, and he's definitely not a looker like Todoroki."
"Hey, come on, Hagakure, you shouldn't single him out just cuz of that," Tsu objected.
"No, no, you're totally right. Truth is, Kageyama's actually a pretty good guy,"
"You've got that right," Jirou replied.
"He's also another guy I find hard to get, or at least he acts like I wouldn't expect him to," the ginger-haired girl replied, "He's insanely strong, probably the strongest in our entire grade, but he gives off a really shy and quiet vibe. He doesn't really care about proving his strength or breaking himself to win like Midoriya, and for some weird reason, he gave up during the final match of the Sports Festival. The only thing he seems to really care about is just improving and being nice to the rest of the classes, which is what he tried to do during his speech at the Sports Festival." Kendo's grin widened.
"To be honest, I can't help but admire him for that, and it's one of the reasons why I joined the Body Improvement Club."
"I get what you mean." Thankful to have the topic moved away from Midoriya, Ochaco was in agreement with Kendo's assessment. The esper had also been someone she'd really liked and admired because of his generosity and kind demeanor. "He's such a sweet guy who really cares about being kind to others, even if they might be jerks. Like you said, Kendo, seeing him want to be a better person also makes me wanna try harder too, same as Deku."
"But I think there's a bit of a difference between the two." The frog-like girl lowered her body, scrunching down as she went deeper into thought about everything she'd seen from both of her classmates. "Midoriya's someone who inspires us with the passion and dedication he brings to everything he does, the way he keeps fighting against the odds. Even during the Body Improvement Club practices, Midoriya's usually the one with the greatest passion, the one who yells the mantra loudest and pushes the hardest. Kageyama's still the captain, and we all listen to him, but he just doesn't bring the same passion that Midoriya does, no matter how hard he tries. Still, he inspires in a different way...
"It's about the way he talks, the messages he gives. You girls from Class B haven't been there to listen to him, but Kageyama usually gives speeches to our class: he always puts an emphasis on viewing each other equally, not valuing others based on their quirks or that they're in the hero course. He believes in finding other potential to nurture within us, and that's the main reason that he started the Body Improvement Club. The fact that the message is coming from someone as strong as him, it makes it even more profound. Bottom-line, I think the main difference between Midoriya and Kageyama is that Midoriya inspires us to become stronger, but Kageyama inspires us to be better."
The girls analyzed Tsu's assessment, especially the girls of Class B who'd never heard this side of the esper before. Yaoyorozu in particular was shining in agreement, happy to see the way that Tsu was able to understand how Kageyama was able to inspire others. "Indeed, I think he's left an impact on all of us. In fact, I'm sure he's responsible for Mineta."
Hearing that name sent a momentary shudder through the group of girls, but some of them raised their eyebrows in curiosity. "What do you mean by that?" asked Yanagi.
"Yea, I think you're right," said Uraraka, "The day that Mineta joined the Body Improvement Club, I actually remember him saying how Kageyama's words had given his brain "a kick in the ass", they'd made him realize how much of a pervert he'd been."
"Now that you mention it, I do remember him saying that," Kendo remarked.
"So you're saying Kageyama's responsible for turning Mineta into a decent human being?" a shocked Ashido asked.
"That's right," replied Tsu, "Like I said, he somehow found a way to talk to Mineta, make him find a way to be better that no amount of punishment or yelling from any of us probably could've done."
"Is that so?" Shiozaki was visibly startled, her hand clasped above her mouth as her eyes opened in amazement. To be able to wash away the sins of others, inspire them to resist sinful temptations and endeavor to become better people was a mission that Shiozaki was on for her path of being a hero, and it was something she deeply admired when others did. "To be able to pluck the thorn from his soul, get him to resist his lustful desires and strive for purity of heart, I never imagined that Kageyama could be someone who could achieve such a task." A warm smile spread across her face. "If I had to choose a "type", I would say that someone with such generosity, driven to heal others would be my preferred choice."
Ashido felt a jolt of excitement, and she kicked her feet eagerly. "Is that a confession, Shiozaki?"
The vine-haired girl felt her body briefly shake, and this time, a light blush appeared on her cheeks. "Heavens, no! I still know far too little about Kageyama to gain such feelings so quickly. I'm merely expressing my admiration for someone of such character as you describe him."
"Well, I think there's somebody who's already got eyes on Kageyama!" Still feeling the excitement coursing through her, Ashido directed her attention towards Yaoyorozu, remembering again the moment she'd shared with the esper before. "Come on, Yaoyorozu, don't deny it! I know something happened between you and Kageyama that night at your house, when the two of you were alone!"
This was news to the rest of the girls, and many of them grinned at the furiously blushing Yaoyorozu. Jirou jokingly nudged her arm with her elbow. "Sounds pretty interesting to me, so come on, out with it!"
"Wait, those two were really alone?" said Hagakure.
"That's right: Yaoyorozu said they sat together in her garden!"
The invisible girl eagerly helped, kicking her feet against the ground. "Oh my god! This is perfect! What happened? What did you two talk about? Did you kiss?"
"No!" The girl's entire face grew ripe as a tomato at all the attention and theories being hounded onto her: why did they have to keep coming back to that night?
"Then tell us!" demanded Ashido, "Come on, we gotta know!"
Yaoyorozu took a few moments to collect herself, taking deep breathes to calm her racing heart while the blood in her face began to slowly drain away. The memories of that night flashed before her eyes, and she reluctantly agreed to share those memories with the others. "...To show him some courtesy, I gave him a tour of my house, telling him some details of my past when he inquired about them. Then the two of us ventured into the garden, and we decided to sit in order to enjoy the scenery." The other girls felt the excitement in the atmosphere begin to grow.
"The two of us engaged in regular conversation, where he asked if I could tutor him again in the future, which I gladly accepted." The girl placed her hand over her heart, staring down at the ground. "Back then, I'd been dealt a serious blow to my confidence due to the crushing defeat against Tokoyami at the Sports Festival: I'd believed I didn't have any skills needed to be a hero. Kageyama, he sensed this doubt and insecurity within me, and he urged me to tell him my doubts and concerns." Yaoyorozu felt a smile spread across her face. "He listened to all of my fears and insecurities, and he comforted me. He valued my strengths and believed in my abilities as a hero, but perhaps more important than anything, he considered my feelings."
The young teenager gazed back up to her friends, who were all staring at her, awestruck at what the girl was describing. "That day, Kageyama did a great service for me. He showed me that he was someone reliable I could talk to, someone with the patience and the benevolence to listen to the problems of others." Hearing the gentle manner in which Kageyama treated girls was managing to melt the hearts of all the girls present. One of the girls who was listening, Jirou, felt her friend's words strike at home, causing her to bring back a memory of the esper she'd been deeply shocked by but chose to ignore.
"That compassion... you weren't the only one he showed it to." Yaoyorozu glanced over at her friend, whose expression had become more serious. "You remember that time at the mall, right?"
"What time at the mall?" asked Kendo, the curiosity in the room quickly intensifying yet again.
Now it was Jirou's turn to tell a story. "Just after the final exams had ended, when Class A went to the mall and Tomura Shigaraki took Kageyama hostage, the two of us stumbled across them. As soon as we came, Shigaraki let Kageyama go and decided to leave, but just before he left, Kageyama told Shigaraki to wait... and he said to him, "If you ever want to talk to me again, just find me, and I promise I'll be there to listen."" A wave of gasps spread throughout the circle.
"The way he said it, the tone in his voice, he wasn't lying about it, either," Jirou added, "He genuinely wanted to talk to Shigaraki, the leader of the League of Villains. It was truly a crazy thing to hear."
"...Are you really being serious right now?" asked Ochaco, "Like, for real?"
"It's the truth: we were both there to hear it for ourselves," added Yaoyorozu, "After Jirou went to go contact the authorities, I asked Kageyama myself why he'd say such a thing, why he'd even attempt to help such a despicable man. He replied by telling me about the pain Shigaraki had gone through, the loneliness of his youth and the events that had forced him to become a villain. In fact, he didn't even view him as a villain: he viewed as a person, someone who was in pain and who needed help. Inside his heart, there rests an unbelievable kindness, a kindness that makes him believe in the idea that you carry, Shiozaki, that all creatures in this world deserve of love, even villains..."
Everyone in the room felt the weight and shock of this proclamation sink in on all of them. It'd be hard for them to just go back to having regular girl talk and chatting casually after hearing the absolutely crazy things that Kageyama had done. To think that the esper would go to such lengths, display such depth of heart and understanding toward even the worst criminals of Japan. It was as if Kageyama was a ray of light trying to shine upon even the darkest shadows of the world and show them the path of peace and understanding.
The night had passed very quickly for the students of Class 1-A: befitting such an intense training camp, the teachers revealed that they would have to wake up for training as early as 5:30 in the morning, a dismal and haunting fact for those who valued their sleep.
But there were some students for whom sleep did not come easily. The bowl-haired teenager's eyes slowly creaked open, but he was met with the darkness within the room and the sleeping bodies of his classmates beside him. He looked at the time on his phone, and was mildly shocked when he saw that it was only 5:00 in the morning, so it'd be another thirty minutes before they'd start training. Mob took a look around to see how the rest of his classmates were sleeping, but quickly discovered that one of the futons was missing.
"Midoriya..." The psychic was puzzled at his friend's absence: what was he doing out so early in the morning? Overtaken by curiosity, Mob decided to get out of bed and go out to search for his friend, see where he'd gone off to. The esper wandered through the dark and empty halls, but found no sign of his friend anywhere. As he continued his search, he noticed a figure standing alone outside of the door. He squinted, and sure enough, his friend was there, having already gotten into his gym uniform and sitting alone on the perch, gazing out into the distance.
The esper opened the door to greet his friend, who turned to see who'd come outside. "Oh, hey Kageyama," he said.
"Midoriya? What're you doing out here so early in the morning?"
"Just thought I'd wake up a little early to get a head start, and I didn't want to bother anyone, so I thought I'd just wait out here." Truth be told, he'd only had thoughts of Kageyama and his phenomenal abilities all night long, and he'd barely been able to sleep. Right now, he was just sitting outside, wanting to ctry to clear his thoughts and focus on the upcoming task.
"Ok." Silence fell between the two of them, for the esper was unsure of what words to exchange with his friend. Eventually, he just decided to start out with a casual ice-breaker. "Are you feeling ready for the intense training today?"
"Yep: Tiger's really making me and the other kids from Class B work ourselves to the bone," he replied, "But things seem to be going well with you: I heard Mr. Aizawa talking to you about your progress: seems like you've made some real improvement."
"I guess."
The vein in Izuku's neck began to throb, and his teeth clenched together. "Well not "I guess": the fact that you've already gained some ability to attack and defend after a day of training is pretty impressive, not something that should be ignored."
"There're still other ways to be a good hero besides power: you saw that when we were making curry yesterday, I couldn't help much in the process. Iida also made a good point, that part of being a hero is attending to the physical needs of-"
"Oh my god, ENOUGH!" After months of boiling and churning, all the negative emotions, the feelings of jealousy, inferiority and frustration he'd slowly developed towards Kageyama and his unchallenged abilities exploded like a raging volcano. No longer could he keep any of these emotions buried away inside, and they were ready to show themselves in all their unsightly glory. Driven by these emotions, Izuku shot up from his spot, causing Mob to jump back in terror.
"For god's sake, stop acting like your powers are no big deal, like they're just something that any average person has. Kageyama, your powers are absolutely INCREDIBLE! You can do so many things with them, use them in so many different ways that basically no other person could ever hope to do with their quirk, and you do it all like it's nothing! Let me ask you something, because I want to know: besides the training you've done at this camp, have you ever had to train a day in your life? I don't mean hand-to-hand combat or physical training, but training to increase the strength and skill of your psychic powers?"
The psychic, shaking like a leaf, could only reply with a small shake of his head, which only added fire to Izuku's already burning temper. "EXACTLY! You didn't have to work to get yourself to this level of power! You just had it! I've been spending almost a YEAR training nonstop, pushing my body and breaking myself to try and control my power to gain full mastery over it, and even after all that, I'm still only able to use FIVE PERCENT of my power! But you? You've already reached my goal without even trying!"
"You don't think I wish I could just use 100% of One For All right off the bat, that I wouldn't have to worry about breaking my body after using my full power only once? You don't think I'm counting the days until I gain full control of my power, when I won't have to be the useless weakling who has to stand by and watch as other people have to come to save him? Every time I've fought against villains, I've had to rely on you or All Might to save me: I've never been the hero who can arrive on the scene and help with a smile on my face! No, I've just been the helpless loser who can't do anything himself! You don't understand what it feels like to be powerless, because you've always had the power to fight villains without anyone's help!
"Can you really not see how lucky you are? Anyone with two eyes can see it, so just, just... GET A CLUE ALREADY!" Izuku angrily waved his hands in the air, and with a defiant huff, he stormed off down the side of the building to be alone. Standing stiff, the esper's heart felt constricted and slowly shattering: those words, those four horrible words, he'd never thought he'd have to hear them again, and from one of his closest friends, no less. With his eyes widened and his mouth parted, he felt long-suppressed feelings of inferiority and idiocy spurring up from inside him.
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From inside the building, standing near the wall of the closest hallway, Katsuki Bakugo was just as shocked as Kageyama. He'd been sleeping soundly like everyone else, but he'd felt some mild interruption from Midoriya waking up, which developed into a full interruption of his sleep when he saw Mob getting up and leaving the room. Like the esper, he'd been curious about where those two had gone, and when he noticed the two of them talking outside by themselves, he decided to listen in. But he wasn't expecting anything like that to go down: never had he ever seen Deku lose control of himself like that. It was his stupid go-happy attitude he carried all the time that pissed him off so much, so to break it against the bowl-cut of all people was certainly a total shock. But there was something else that Deku had mentioned, something that had stood out...
"One For All," Bakugo murmured, "That's what he calls his power. I wonder why..."
With the crack of dawn rising up from the horizon, the rest of the students grudgingly pushed themselves out of bed to make their way to the training ground. A great many of the students were in a state of consciousness and unconsciousness, still struggling to wake themselves up in preparation for the day's events. A few of them, however, felt their brains were already fully woken up, each of them processing different things.
Walking near the back of the pack of students, Shigeo Kageyama's gaze was positioned to the feet of the people in front of him, the expression on his face blank as always. Momo Yaoyorozu, who had caught up to the esper, was walking beside him. Even though his expression was practically the same as usual, she was able to sense that something was amiss with Mob. She placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to yelp at the sudden appearance of Yaoyorozu.
"Kageyama, are you alright? Is there anything you need to talk about?" she asked, "If there is, you can talk to me."
Mob was touched by his friend's sentimentality. "I appreciate that, but I'm fine. I was just in a deep thought about something." The girl's eyes lingered uneasily for a moment, but when he gave her a smile of assurance, it was enough to make her released the hand on his shoulder.
Watching the two from near the middle of the group, Midoriya felt completely horrible. The anger and frustration that'd exploded from inside of him didn't take very long to disappear, and what it left behind was a sense of guilt and shame unlike anything he'd ever felt in his life. All of the times he'd felt he'd failed to save someone, when he'd lost in the Sports Festival, none of those events could compare to the pitch-black hole that had formed in his heart. Back there, he'd just unleashed all of personal doubts and frustrations he'd accumulated and projected them onto Kageyama. The way he talked made it sound as though Kageyama was somehow responsible for this, that he was somehow part of the reason why Midoriya couldn't get to a higher level, when that was the furthest thing from the truth. And that last comment...
Izuku's body shuddered in revulsion: even now, he was having a hard time accepting that he'd actually said those words. What kind of cruelty did he have in his heart to say something so despicable? Izuku wasn't sure how he could ever muster up the courage to speak to Kageyama again, how his friend could ever forgive him for such terrible words. It was eating Izuku from the inside out!
The two homeroom teachers of the hero courses instructed their students to their training areas, where they all resumed their grueling training. As the esper was the last to be guided to his location and he flew up to his isolated training area, he stopped at the face of a cliff and took a good look at his classmates as they trained. From afar, he could see Bakugo yelling in pain as he fired explosions into the sky. Todoroki was using intense ice and flames while submerged in a bucket of water, but he was already looking exhausted. Besides them, he saw Aoyama attempting to fire his laser, but the strain of maintaining it for an extended period of time was forcing him to rush to the outhouse. Near the center of the training course, Izuku was standing alongside two other students from Class B, and they were already engaged in a physical exercise to strengthen their muscles, and each of them looked as though they were hurting like hell. All around him, his classmates were in agony, pushing past their pain and fighting to strengthen their quirks
Mob stared down into his empty hand: while the rest of his friends were struggling, he was just breezing through it. Even if he'd struggled with it initially, it's not as though any of the attacks from the dirt monsters had really managed to hurt him, and he didn't end the training session looking bloody and bruised. He'd known what it was like to push himself to the limit with the Body Improvement Club, during his training with All Might at the beach, and the effort it took to become familiar with course work for school, but when it came to this, it just flowed naturally. He wasn't having to suffer alongside the rest of his classmates...
The esper sighed, and with his head lowered, he decided to resume his training, preparing himself for the dirt monsters that were waiting for him.
Izuku saw the esper staring out to his classmates, and the hole in his heart only grew deeper. "Hey, you're slacking there!" Tiger slammed Izuku in the chest, and the teenager laid sprawled upon the floor. "You wanna be Plus Ultra? Well then show me what that means! There's no time for you to be thinking about anything else!"
Midoriya was slow to push himself back up: his mind was a total mess right now. He knew that he needed to keep training, but how could he possibly keep his mind focused on putting his all during this training camp? The guilt in his heart was too great!
Deku shook his head and lightly jogged back forward. Whether he liked it or not, he still had training to do, and he had to try to put these thoughts out of his mind for now, at least until the class had another break!
About seven hours of training had passed until the two classes finally had a lunch break. Eraserhead and Vlad King announced this lunch break to the students, and all of them made their way to the lunch tables outside. As it was yesterday, the ingredients were laid out on the tables for the students to prepare.
The forty students were walking to the lunch tables, getting ready to make whatever dish the Pussycats had decided they'd have for lunch today. While the teenagers were walking down, Izuku caught up to his psychic friend and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Kageyama, can we talk?"
"Definitely," he replied, for there were things they needed to settle right now.
When the two friends made it to the dining tables, they immediately excused themselves. Watching the two of them go off alone, the hot-headed teenager gave a short glance before dismissing it: knowing Deku, this was gonna be some sort of sappy apology, and he didn't need to be there to see any mushy stuff like that.
As Izuku walked in front of Mob, a vortex of emotions were swirling inside of him. He'd only BARELY managed to get through the training with a level head and without being excessively pummeled by Tiger, though there's still been a few times where the hero had caught Izuku off-guard and been met with a heavy punch. At that moment, he could only think of making amends with his friend, if that was even possible at this point.
The two teenagers stood at the back corner of the building alone: both could feel an awkward tension between the two of them, and they wanted to put an end to it. Shigeo opened his mouth to speak first, but Izuku had already gotten started on what he'd wanted to say.
"Kageyama, what happened this morning, I don't even know how to start..." The teenager tightly clenched his fists, and his body shook with self-hatred and frustration at himself. When he looked up to his friend, his verdant eyes were gleaming with emotional upheaval. "I am so, SO sorry for what happened. You didn't deserve any of it. All you've ever done since you came to this reality is help me and fight alongside me, and I just used you as a vent for my personal problems and frustrations." Tears began to form in Izuku's eyes. "I can't believe I could actually say something as horrible as "get a clue", that I could let my jealousy take me over like that. I know you're furious with me, and you have every right to be, but I want you to know-"
"Midoriya, you've got it wrong. I'm not angry with you at all." Izuku gasped: somehow, his friend's face hadn't morphed into anything even closely resembling hatred or animosity, but why? Mob craned his head down to stare at the ground: there were some things he needed to get off his chest, too.
"I've been thinking really hard about everything you said to me this morning, and I realized that you're right. While there're plenty of areas that I don't have any skill in, when it comes to my psychic powers, things have always come easily for me. Like you said, I never had to work to get any of this power: I just had it. I've always been able to use it to take care of the evil spirits I came across while working under my master. Whenever I needed to fix a problem that required my powers, I could always find a way to replicate a new technique, find a way to exorcise any evil spirits or defeat other espers. For me, the main problem I've had to face is whether I have to use my powers, but it's never been about whether I CAN use them, and I guess I've been taking that for granted. In fact, there was only one time where I had to experience being powerless..."
The esper balked at the recollection of his fight with Stain in the alley, his utter domination at the hands of the Hero Killer. "When I ran out of energy against Stain, and I was forced to fight using just my fists. I remember how terrified I was as I watched Stain almost kill Iida, watching as I couldn't do anything to save my friend, knowing if Todoroki hadn't made it, he wouldn't be here at camp today. It was that moment that drove me to ask All Might to teach me about hand-to-hand combat." Now, it was the esper's turn to clench his hands into fists.
"And I know the frustration of working toward a goal but barely seeing any improvement: that's the way I felt about how long it took to strengthen my body. I should've known better: I should've tried to piece your feelings together based on my own experiences. But I just ignored your problems and your frustrations. So I'M sorry that I couldn't figure out your feelings sooner and left you to deal with those feelings on your own.
"I've also realized that I haven't been doing enough to help you with your dream, mastering One For All, and I've just been leaving you to get stronger by yourself. Well, not anymore." The esper glanced back at his friend, a smile plastered on his face. "From now on, I'm gonna try and help you whatever way I can. I don't know how, but I'm gonna find a way to use my powers to help strengthen your body and master One For All as soon as possible. I'll make sure you reach your dream and become the hero both All Might and I know you're going to be. That's my promise."
Tears were falling uncontrollably down Izuku's face. He'd been expecting some sort of shouting, scolding from his friend for his insensitivity and cruelty, even a punch to the face. Instead, Kageyama was giving HIM an apology: he'd actually chosen to listen to his words and take them into consideration, and now, he was committing himself to helping Midoriya become stronger in whatever way, as quickly as possible. These were the gifts that his friend was giving him when he had no right to receive them.
The esper was winded when he felt Izuku's arms wrapping themselves around his body and underneath his arms, holding him in a deep hug while his body lightly shook with emotion.
"You're the best friend I could've ever asked for."
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Mob's mouth gaped open, and he also felt his eyes threatening to form tears. The esper smiled, closing his eyes as he returned his friend's embrace. Through any doubts, fears, resentments or troubles these two might've gone through, they were still bound together by an unbreakable bond of friendship, one that would continue to hold and bring these two to greater and greater heights as they made their journey to becoming the best heroes in the world.
Did you like the tender moment between these two at the end? Though Izuku's moment of rage may seem out of character, I think it's justified. Like I said, Izuku would have a hard time not comparing himself with Kageyama, considering they both know each other's secrets, they're both training under All Might, and they both have powers that work in similar ways by enhancing their physical abilities. So seeing someone so much like him getting so much farther ahead in such a short amount of time while he's barely getting a hold on his powers would be extremely frustrating. Regardless, next chapter you'll see how things pick up in intensity, so stay tuned!