Chapter 4: Training Montage

Midoriya had changed in the wake of what was now referred to at our school as the 'Sludge Villain incident', Bakugo had as well. He would typically avoid both myself and Midoriya at school and was no longer taking part in bullying Midoriya, although their relationship didn't so much improve as it was more a case of Bakugo actively ignoring Midoriya existed and by extension doing his best to ignore I existed.

I very much doubted that Midoriya's sudden change however was due to Bakugo no longer tormenting him, he was still the victim of harassment although without Bakugo to support them, they would typically flee at the first look from me. Midoriya's change was unusual to me. He would still walk home with me but as I would leave to training at the Kendo dojo he would leave for Dagobah beach, he said something about his own training when questioned about it, I didn't see fit to pry further. He seemed far more determined and I recognised that he was pursuing his new training scheme with the same fervent conviction than I had pursued in my time at school clubs, he was convinced that his training was the best way to reach whatever goal he had set himself and who was I to deny him?

I did quickly notice the strain it was placing on his body. It would seem that his stamina was as pitiful as I suspected it would be, I was practically carrying him to school and would have to regularly wake up him in class and yet I did nothing to stop him.

Truthfully I was curious as to what goal he had that was worth putting up with such strenuous exercise I suspected that his goal was related to him telling me he was going to become a hero. The sheer finality with which he had told me was going to fulfil he dream which intrigued me, I knew when he spoke those words he wasn't aiming to be some local hero who caught some purse snatcher or found some lost kid in a market.

Midoriya was aiming to be a top hero in the same vein as All Might, he was quirkless. I knew such a thing was impossible and I suspect he did too and yet unperturbed by this he marched on with the sole desire to realise his wish.

I saw the similarities, the two of us with impossible wishes throwing ourselves into whatever could help us realise them.

I was brought out of my musing by a sharp kick to my liver which caused my body to jolt before a second kick straight to my stomach sent me to the ground.

"You're distracted Kouhaimine, that's not a very smart thing to be in these kinds of situations" Kendo chastised me with a slight grin on her face, although the bruise forming on her cheek led to to suspect that she had put a little more power into that last kick to get me back for my earlier attack.

"Apologies Kendo-senpai" I shook my head as pick picked myself of the ground "I was thinking about my brother."

"Eh!? You have a brother!?" Kendo exclaimed and I realised that judging by her surprise I had clearly never spoken about my family to them during lessons "Why didn't you say so! What's he like and why were you thinking about him?"

"Adoptive brother." I correct her "and he is...probably the opposite of my personality."

"So he's an outgoing ladies man?"

I raise my eyebrow at her "No. He's a stuttering introverted mess."

Kendo raises her eye brows and lets out a whistle "Damn Kotomine. You don't pull any punches do you?"

"You would know more about that than I would." I comment absently she responds by choking on air and staring at me wide eyed.

"D-did you just make a joke?" she doesn't sound confident in her question as if she was hearing things.

I shrug at her "Merely an observation."

She lets out a disbelieving hum before looking at me again be a look of barely contained curiosity "So why are you worried about your big-"

"I'm older than him."

"baby brother then?" she crosses her arms and leans towards me with a small smile on her lips. I suspect she views me as the secretly doting older brother, she would be disappointed with the truth.

"It's just recently his attitude had shifted. Where before he was almost drifting through life he has found himself a new sense of determination. He is devoting almost everything to it."

She closes her eyes and nods to me before opening them up again and staring at me with a more serious expression.

"Sounds to me like he's found a goal he wants to achieve. Although you're not dumb so I suspect you know this already."

I nod to her.

"Well, what's troubling you then? Thinking about helping him achieve his goal?"

"No."

"No?" Kendo's expression shifts rapidly into one of concern as steps closer to me "What do you mean no?"

"I mean no. This is his goal, his wish. If I were to aid him in obtaining it then it wouldn't be his achievement. I would not ask him nor want him to aid my dreams for the same reason. Any goal I achieve must be with my own two hands otherwise it would be worthless. I would not seek to do that to him."

I feel a slight smirk form on my face as I look down at Kendo "In truth I already know his goal yet feel a sense of anticipation as to whether or not he will succeed."

Kendo's expression shifts from concern to understanding as she nods at me "So its a bit of tough love eh? Sink or swim." She reaches out and grows her hand to roughly pat my head "I knew deep down you were a big softy Kotomine."

"Please don't do that" I swat her hand away from my head and she just chuckles at me before taking a look at the clock.

"Huh, guess we're out of time remember tomorrow we're going to be having you practice reading feints with Ojiro"

"I remember" I collect my coat and leave.

My walk home briefly takes me near Dagobah beach and I find myself somewhat curious as to what method of training Midoriya is doing there, electing to take scenic route home in order to sate my curiosity I travel to the Dagobah beach. The place is a dump, it would be easily mistaken for being a landfill than it would being anything else. I quickly spy Midoriya attempting to pull a fridge while what appears to emaciated corpse shouts encouragement at him.

I find my curiosity growing as I approach, Midoriya quickly spies me and waves at me while shouting "Ah! Hello Kotomine-kun!" the skeleton man quickly looks over to where Midoriya is shouting to and spots me approaching.

"Good afternoon Midoriya" I greet him as soon as I close the distance between us before I turn my attention over to the corpse man and extend my hand to him "I don't believe we have met yet. Kotomine Kirei" the thin man accepts my handshake before responding to me.

"No we haven't. I'm Yagi Toshinori, young Midoriya's trai-ACK!" he cuts himself off by coughing up a rather sizeable amount of blood. The handshake stops and I raise an eyebrow while shifting my attention onto the small puddle of blood at my feet then shift by gaze back to Yagi-san and then over to Midoriya who seems to wilt under my stare.

"A personal trainer Midoriya?"

"Ah y-yeah" he shifts nervously under my gaze "Al-um I mean Yagi-san offered to help me train. I'm aiming to clear the beach by the start of the U.A. entrance exam."

I shift my gaze over the rather sizeable amount of garbage which currently litters the section of beat Midoriya gestured to, I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow at him "It is certainly a...difficult task however if this is how you want to train I will make no moves to stop you. I was simply curious as to what you were doing here."

I turn my back to the pair and start to make my way home while calling back to them "I wish you the best of luck with your endeavour Midoirya. I hope you realise your dream but a piece of advice from me."

I turn around and Midoriya looks at me with a confused expression "Make sure you don't overexert yourself. You can't realise your dream if you destroy your body first." my advice delivered I continue on my way home.

The next few months pass by without incident, I continued to train at the Kendo Dojo with Ojiro and Kendo. I believe they started to view me as a friend, I could only lament that I felt nothing for them, and Midoriya continued his training with Yagi-san at Dagobah beach and while I made no effort aid Midoriya in his training I did aid him in the school work which he ran the risk of falling behind on.

Not so much out of kindness but more out of my preference that he devote more of his time to his training, I was genuinely curious to see if Midoriya's training would allow him to enter U.A. and I wasn't prepared to allow the subject of my intrigue be denied his dream due to an academic failure brought about by an unbalanced lifestyle.

I was already aware that Midoriya had the intelligence to pass what I was unaware of was if he could build up the physical standards to be able to make up for his lack of a quirk, this was what I wanted to see. If Midoriya could overcome an almost impossible hurdle to fulfil his wish then I could as well.

"Kotomine-san?"

I block a jab from Ojiro while raising an eyebrow at his sudden question and giving him a nod to continue.

"What school were you going to apply for?"

He blocks a kick aimed at the side of his leg and responds with another jab which I parry.

"Both myself and Midoriya were aiming for the U.A. hero course."

Another my punches is blocked and Ojiro smiles warmly at my answer.

"Same here, I think Kendo was aiming for U.A as well."

A left jab is aimed for my chest, no its a feint. His real target is my overextended leg. The Left jab fails to materialise and a sharp kick is sent towards my right leg, I push myself back before his kick lands. His eyes widen as he realises what I've just done, I crouch down and strike his stomach with my palm, he gets winded and I continue with the momentum and sweep his legs out from underneath him.

"Then is seems that we shall have the opportunity to continue our spars in the future." I say, the feeling of a slight smirk already worming its way onto my face as I stare down at Ojiro gasping for breath.

"Y-yeah right" Ojiro wheezes out while I help him to his feet "Admit it, ever since you got better and seeing feints you just like beating me up" he fixed me with a light hearted glare while let out a small chuckle.

"You are welcome to your beliefs as to what I truly want out of our training Ojiro." I suspect he preferred his own assessment given how he rolled his eyes when I told him this.

"Still Kotomine-san, I pity the villain who is on the receiving end of one of your punches" he punctuated this statement by gripping the spot where I struck him and making a grimace "even without your reinforcement you still hit really hard."

"You could simply avoid being hit by me." he deadpans at my statement before turning away and grumbling under his breath.

"Kotomine~" The tone of voice Kendo uses lets me know she's about to assume her 'Big sister role' as she so lovingly refers to it. Instantly I feel the familiar weight of Kendo's enlarged hand pressing down on my head. "Stop bullying Ojiro. That's not a thing an up and coming hero should do is it."

"No. Kendo-senpai." I struggle to get out from underneath her as she furiously rubs my hair.

"Good." Seemingly pleased that she has made her point she releases my head and both myself and Ojiro turn to face her, its a this point I notice she is sporting a larger than usual smile "Now what's this I'm only just now hearing about you trying to join U.A.? You weren't about to forget about your two best friends here were you?" she closes her eyes and her smiles becomes far more sinister.

I briefly toy with the idea of telling her I have completely forgotten what her name is but decide against it. The temporary joy I would probably get from seeing her frustrated would be too easy. "I wouldn't dream of it Kendo-senpai, I could also say the same of you two not mentioning your future plan to me either.

That causes her to sputter before levelling an indignant glare at me "Are you making fun of your Senpai Kouhaimine-kun?"

"I wouldn't dream of it Kendo-senpai" this time I don't even make the effort to hide the smirk forming on my face which gets her to challenge me to a spar. Despite my training I have yet to surpass Kendo in terms of skill although the matches between us have been getting decidedly closer in these last few months of training. Although Kendo only challenges me when she is feeling confident in victory, I believe she dislikes losing too me or dislikes the fact I don't to exhibit any pride in my victories.

"Oh yeah Kotomine. Me and Ojiro were gonna check out some new Chinese restaurant that opened up. You wanna come?" She poses me the question as she assumes a stance in front of me. There are few things that bring me joy in life that don't disgust me. Mapo Tofu is one of them.

I nod to her as I assume a stance opposite her "I suppose I would be amenable to joining you after this."

She barks out a laugh before turning to Ojiro "You hear that Kotomine's in!" She fixes smug smile on her face as she turns back to be "Good thing to, you'll need some conciliatory food for when I beat you."

I smirk at her and lower myself, preparing to charge.

"We'll see."

"That was a cheap shot and you know it Kotomine! I won that spar!" I resisted the urge the laugh at the somewhat embarrassing display of Kendo pouting about her loss against me during the spar, truthfully she came close to defeating me were it not for a somewhat clumsy feint on my part taking her by surprise. She did not approve of the results. Ojiro however had no such compunctions as I and laughed at Kendo's expense which resulted in her scowling at the both of us.

Before Kendo can further argue against her loss Ojiro points out our destination "The new Chinese place was called Koushuuensaikan Taizan wasn't it?"

Kendo stops her rant about how she was denied a victory against me to answer Ojiro "Yeah, I think so."

"In that case there it is." He points out a rather intimidating looking building on the street with no windows whose only form of identification is a name on the banner at the top of the building.

The interior is a somewhat simple place, with sparse decoration to it and a view into the kitchen, in truth it reminds me more of a small classroom than it does a restaurant although I can't find it in myself to dislike the scenery, I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other.

We enter and as soon as who I can only assume is the manager, a Chinese man who introduces himself as Batsu-san, spots us he instantly brings us to a table and hands us a menu.

"There's a lot of choices here" Kendo absently comments while shifting through the menu "What are you thinking of Ojiro?, I was gonna go with the sweet and sour pork dish."

Ojiro cups his chin with his index finger and thumb while scanning the menu before a slight smile on his face indicates to me that he had made his choice "I'll go with the Kung Pao chicken dish."

I tune out the other two while my sole focus is one the menu, I scan through every dish in alphabetical order in the desperate hope that I can find it.

"Kotomine?"

I spot it, right there beginning with 'S'

"Kotomine?"

My taste buds are already beginning to heat up at just the thought of trying the dish

"Kotomine!" I'm jostled out of my anticipation by a raised voice calling my name, I turn to see Kendo roll her eyes at me.

"Finally. As I was gonna say what were you thinking of having?"

I feel my lips slightly curl upwards before I give my answer.

"Spicy Mapo Tofu" the immediate effect is that both Kendo and Ojiro raise their eyebrows at me in a questioning manner.

"Damn Kotomine. You really go all out when it comes to spicy foods don't you?" She gives a slight smirk at me and I simply shrug in response.

"I just like spicy foods"

Our minds made up we signal the waiter to prepare out orders while Kendo and Ojiro make small talk, I have no real interest in their topics but I interject with the occasional conversation when someone asks me a question.

After around 30 minutes our food arrives.

"Hey Kotomine…" Kendo asks me in a somewhat hesitant tone while Ojiro looks between myself and my food with an expression of concern on his face.

"Yes Kendo-senpai?" I merely raise an eyebrow at her.

"I thought you said it was Mapo Tofu!" she points an accusing finger at my plate "That looks more like lava!"

I stare down at my plate of Mapo Tofu and then back at Kendo in a questioning manner "It is of no concern" I grab my spoon and immediately dig in before either of them can voice their objections.

My mouth immediately explodes with heat, I can feel my body temperature sky rocket and I already have sweat forming on my brow. It means nothing though, this dish is one of the few things that brings me joy so I continue to quickly consume my meal completely ignoring my body screaming in protest and the feeling of my taste buds being incinerated by the barrage of spice.

Before I can help myself I can already feel the smile forming on my face and then notice the looks of horror on both Kendo and Ojiro's faces morph into a look of intrigue. I quickly swallow my latest mouthful of culinary fire before turning to them.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to eat?"

That jolts them out of their trance. They quickly share a look before Kendo turns back to me "It's nothing. It's just… I think that's the first time either of us have seen you genuinely smile."

The both of them continue looking at me for a few moments longer before I simply shrug at them and turn my attention back to my food. The rest of the meal passes in relative silence expect for my somewhat heavy breathing in response to my food but it means nothing to me. Occasionally I catch either Kendo or Ojiro sending sideways glances at my plate, probably out of concern for my health more than actually wanting some if their reaction to my meals arrival were any indication. Having finished our meals the three of us pay and then leave.

"Seriously Kotomine are you okay?" Kendo still has the expression of worry directed at me that she had all the way through the meal.

"I'm fine Kendo-senpai more importantly I should probably start making my way home now anyway."

Ojiro takes out his phone and looks at the time before widening his eyes "Oh damn! He's right it's nearly eight thirty! I'll see you guy's later then" he waves at us before sprinting off.

Kendo simply shrugs before turning to me "In that case I'll head home as well but you better watch your back Kotomine! I'll beat you next time!"

I simply shrug as her as she walks off.

Time passed so quickly after that, until the moment of truth finally arrived. The day in which I would finally see the results of Midoriya's determination.

The day of the U.A. entrance exam.

AN: Well now we're really picking up speed. This chapter was one of my ones to write so far for one simple reason. Mapo Tofu.

For those of you worrying, so I am not shipping Kotomine with Kendo, I don't plan on shipping Kotomine with anyone. The guy hasn't gotten desperate enough to find happiness yet to even consider trying to love a woman.

But more importantly next chapter will be an action focused one as we move onto the entrance exam.