It's been a long while since I last updated, and I apologize for that, I'm been swamped with school work since they changed the schedule for the year, which meant more work in a shorter amount of time. However, despite there being blackouts in the area(blame my government), my neighbors who have a generator have been kind enough to allow me over to use both their power and Wi-Fi, honestly, they remind me of the Flanders from the Simpsons. Also, I think you should all be aware that after this chapter, it may take time to get the next one following this out since I've also been busy with three other MHA stories that I would like to see uploaded before mid-July. The first one is a Nurse Izuku storyline which I've been working on for a while, almost 8 months now, I noticed a lack in that type of story and wanted to see what I could do with the idea. The second is my villain storyline which already has some chapters available to read, though I will be reviewing them for grammar and spelling errors later. The last one is a request from a reader which I've barely worked on but I've almost done with chapter 1, I won't say who to keep it a surprise though.
Chapter 46: Those Left Behind
"I'm so sorry about Kota, if we weren't so careless, this wouldn't have happened." Tetsutetsu apologized to Mandalay, wearing nothing but a towel to cover himself up. He had rushed over to the Pussycat's office with the unconscious boy while Shoda and Midoriya had separated from him to go and search for either Eraser or Vlad to report just how this all happened. In response to his words, Mandalay only shook her head as she adjusted the warm face cloth on Kota's forehead, his hat placed on the side.
"Don't worry about it, like your classmate said, the rather…feminine sight most likely caused him to faint." Mandalay said to try and ease the tension before she signed to herself. "Though who would have thought he would get a peek before he even hit 10."
"Aizawa warned us that one of you boys had a little trouble keeping those teenage hormones in check, so I asked Kota if he couldn't keep an eye out." She explained what their plan was, but she did have to admit that she wasn't expected something like this to occur but thankfully, nothing bad happened and no one was hurt.
"To be honest, I'm just glad he's alright and I managed to catch him, a fall from that high up wouldn't have been pleasant." Tetsutetsu responded as he looked over the young boy and noted that when he was asleep like this, he looked much more his age.
"Speaking from experience?" Mandalay joked to him to which he chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. "You must have been really fast to catch him, but from what Ragdoll tells us, you were the armored spear of your class." She continued on as while Pixie-Bob had handled dealing with 1-A, Ragdoll and Tiger dealt with 1-B. From what the two of them told them, the white-haired boy standing in front of her had taken the brunt of the attacks.
"I'm not the sharpest knife in the kitchen but," Tetsutetsu started, seeing how things were going to remain awkward and also noting that his current state of dress wasn't helping, decided to just pull the band-aid so to speak. "I get the feeling he doesn't like heroes….at all." He finished as he looked down at Kota. His choice of discussion catching Mandalay off-guard as he continued.
"It's really odd since as far back as I remember, just about every kid I knew wanted to be a hero one day, or at the very least, really liked those who did." He said as he couldn't recall ever meeting someone that didn't like pros. They were, are modern-day superstars, with All Might being seen as almost divine in his strength and conviction. Sure he knew there was more to them, having seen that even the number one could and was critically wounded on the jo but the general public didn't. "Makes me wonder who Kota is the exception to that." Mandalay looked him over for a moment as if she was deliberating on something before she seemingly came to a conclusion as she signed to herself and she leaned back into her office chair.
"How observant, though to be accurate, Kota is but one of many in our society who don't approve of pros for one reason or another, perhaps if he had a normal childhood…a normal family, he wouldn't be part of that group." She told him, thinking back to what have been painful memories going by how her expression dropped.
"A normal family? You said he's your nephew, so where are his parents? Do they work a lot and not have enough time to spend with him?" That was something they picked up earlier, and now that he wasn't so exhausted, he had the brainpower and energy to realize that it was rather odd that the Cats would accept to host them and a little kid. Why would they do that when just one of those is enough work for pros who are most likely still on the clock?
"If only it was that. No, they always made time for him, even with how busy the life of a pro was, rarely a night passed where at least one of them didn't spend dinner with him and put him to bed." Mandalay laughed to herself at his question, thinking to when she first met Kota and how her cousin held the little baby in her arms, telling her she would never let anything hurt him.
"Past tense." Tetsutetsu said, picking up on her odd and very foreboding choice of words. She couldn't mean…that, could she?
"As I said, they were heroes, but they…" Mandalay started but took a moment to pause and collect herself, no sense crying in front of a teenage boy she had only met. "They were killed in the line of duty, no…they were murdered by a monster." She corrected herself, her hand closing into a fist as she felt a pulse of anger shoot through her at the memory of when she got the call. Almost as soon as it arrived, however, that anger left her, and in its place, sorrow and grief as she looked over her nephew and patted his head gently.
"How do you explain to a three-year-old that his parents had died what is considered noble deaths? That they didn't want to leave him?" She suddenly asked, wanting to know what he would have done and yes, she knew it was unfair, that her friends had been right in their assessment, she still couldn't escape the feeling that maybe, just maybe she could have worded it better and helped Kota deal with the grief he still felt every day.
"I…don't know…" But much like she expected, Tetsutetsu didn't have an answer and he looked quite ashamed of it. Not that she blamed him though, they don't teach this kind of stuff to teens, heck, it was something she didn't even learn while in internships.
"And neither do we, as far as Kota is concerned, his parents left him, alone in this world with only his aunt and her crazy friends to take care of him." She replied, leaving them in silence for a bit which was what Pixie-Bon entered to find, it seemed like she had heard what they were talking about as she was much less chipper than she was at dinner.
"It didn't help things that ever since, people have been doing nothing by praising my cousin and her husband for their sacrifices was the heroic thing to do, that their deaths were honorable." Mandalay said as she recalled the funeral. It was a sunny day, perfect weather but at the time, she wished that it was just rain or something. People there are been respectful but it didn't help things when they kept just trying to justify their passing as 'honorable' as if a grieving child cared for such.
"Children a notorious for their self-centered emotional rationale, all that did was make it sound like them leaving him was the right thing to do as if being a hero was more important than being his parents." Pixie picked up from there as she recalled how Kota just burst in a rage when they got him, breaking whatever he could get his hands onto and yelling and anything and everything before he passed out into a frightful sleep where he kept begging his parents to stay, that he would be good, that he would always listen and it only broke their hearts even more. He had been going to a child therapist for around a year now but he hadn't made much progress either.
"His parents were his entire world, and now they were gone...just like that," Mandalay stated, having composed herself somewhat. "Kota resents the entire idea of pro heroes, to him it's selfish people choosing their own desires over their families and friends."
"I can't say he's wrong about that even if he's missing most of the big picture, after all, most people join this career for some personal goal or reason and many of them say that they'll give it their all if it means saving another." She added in as when he asked her why she even wanted to be a pro, she was ashamed(at the time) to admit that it was because she wanted to be a modern-day idol, and the fastest way to do that was through hero work. Sure she still cared to help people and save lives, but that wasn't what got her into the business.
"Honestly, he can barely tolerate us. He mainly listens to me since we're rescue-centric, we don't battle powerful villains or have to worry about them seeing how when we usually work, there are plenty of more suited pros on sight." Mandalay told him before he could ask as even he could see that it must have been complicated for Kota to live with people whose jobs are something he hates.
"Though there is a part of me that feels like he's only still here and willing to listen because he feels like he doesn't have anywhere else to go. Most kids his age live in a protective bubble, where things are simple and life is filled with fun and love, but Kota's buddle has been gone for a long time, and he doesn't know how to process this cruel world we live in." She finished as she couldn't begin to imagine what he must be going through as yes, she also lost her cousin but for her, she was in her late 20s and had long since accepted that their choice of career could end like that. Kota was just a child who almost thought they would be there, ready to play with him and love him.
"Kota's…Kota's parents, were they combat pros?" Tetsutetsu asked, wanting to get more info on this even if he wanted to just stop. It wouldn't be fair if he chose his own comfort.
"No, they were in the lot that didn't really have a specialty, they rather helped whenever they could. The Water Hose duo may have been small-time, but they were well-liked and respected." Pixie replied, making it even worse as it meant that weren't even looking for trouble when this happened. Most pros he knew like that mainly handled small-time crime that police would normally do. Heck, there was a pro back home that mainly just did volunteer work in his area and was famous for always helping kids make it back home from school if they missed the train or something.
"I see…trouble seeks us all out then." He muttered to himself. "Which villain did them in? I'm asking since I'm drawing a blank on this."
"Shouldn't be surprising, it didn't make national news for very long. Only about a single day on air before it was surpassed by some big capture Endeavour pulled off, and after that, it was the same year Hawks reached the number 3 stop." Mandalay told him, sounding somewhat bitter that the deaths of her family barely made the news, but she knew why they felt the need to cover up their deaths to help keep people calm and feeling secure. Plus, it also meant that Kota didn't have to deal with the vultures with were the press.
"It was a villain by the name of Muscular, A-ranked. His quirk gave him the power to grow additional muscle fibers from any part of his body, supercharging his speed, strength, durability, and reflexes." She continued as she had asked the police what they knew about the incident at the time and the name of that notorious was what came up. She was just happy she didn't have to watch the incident which had been recorded by a nearby security camera. "From what I know about the incident, he was attacking civilians like a madman, and they stepped in to buy them time to escape," She went on as she recalled what the police had told her about the crime.
"My cousin didn't have a particularly strong quirk, but she didn't let their lack of power her, stop them. They died against a villain they could never beat to protect others. It was as heroic as you can get, to the point their rank was posthumously increased around 5 spots for it, and the Hero Commission increased their monthly life insurance for it but…" She paused again as her sister quirk allowed her to create water by pulling moisture from the surrounding air, while her husband and partner could control water but not make it. It was why they worked close to the coast. She also knew that she was pretty lackluster in a fight, so to hear that she did what she against a threat that should have been left to folks in the top 20 just to save people made her both want to head to heaven to hug her as thanks for her sacrifice and punch her square in the jaw for that stupid move.
"If I could have then here, with us, I'll happily give that all up." She rather than speak that particular thought chose to finish with that instead as Tetsutetsu moved to leave but stopped at the door.
"I see," He said as he reached for the handle before he paused. "Did they ever catch the bastard?"
"No, he was gone by the time back-up got there. They did find his eyeball, so we at least know they got one good shot in before going down." Pixie told him as the cats would have joined in the search, but as rescue specialists, they wouldn't have been much help and even then, they had their own concerns. "Still, we haven't followed up with the police's tracking efforts, we have our own things to deal with, and picking fights isn't one of them." With that, the boy left them, his mind filled with thoughts and ideas he didn't think he'll ever have to think about. On the one hand, he knew that pros died and more often than the news would like people to know, but on the other hand, he never thought it could happen to him or someone he knew.
Sure, Monoma liked to talk shit about 1-A whenever they are even mentioned in passing, and Kodai wasn't the most sociable person, often only answering with single words or sounds, but they were still his classmates and his friends. They are good people, he couldn't even imagine how he would react if he ever got the call that any of them got done in while on the job, what would he tell their friends, families, himself?
For him, he had, even more, to deal with since as All Might's chosen successor, not only does he inherit One for All but all the problems that came with it. The Symbol of Peace dedicated his entire life to hero work, which combined with the major secret he was charged with, made it that long-term relationships were hard to maintain, romantic ones even more so. Would he have to give up on that? Miss out on meeting with old friends, marrying that perfect girl, and having kids of his own? Or would he die on the job against some threat only he could handle? All for One was still out there after all, and not even All Might could bring the tyrant down.
'I need to become stronger…not just to become the next symbol of peace, but also so that I'll never put my loved ones through this.' He banished those thoughts away. They wouldn't do him any good right now. All he could do was do his best to grow stronger, smarter, faster. To be better than he was yesterday. "I need the power to always return home." He muttered to himself as just he turned the corner and met back up with Shoda and Midoriya, who also had Yaoyorozu and Kendo with them and none looking pleased by their little chat with the teachers.
(Training camp: Day 2 – 5:30am)
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you slept well since you're going to regret it if you didn't." Aizawa told his class, looking the same as usual despite the fact he had them all wake up at the crack of dawn, get dressed, eat and be ready in only 10 minutes under the risk of some form of punishment.
"I didn't." Mineta, who had a black eye muttered over to feel the glare of everyone else present on his back, sending a spike of ice down his back.
"Who cares, grape-boy." Midoriya said for the group as they turned their attention to Aizawa. He already had to deal with explaining the incident to Vlad, he was in no mood to test his homeroom teacher.
"Mineta, remember. You're on thin ice as is. One more stunt like last night and its suspension and you can say goodbye to the camp." Oh, it looked like he didn't have to as Aizawa didn't seem happy already. That along with the red eyes and the floating eye proved enough to scare Mineta wide awake.
"Yes sir."
"Moving on, today the training camp starts in full. Consider yesterday as just the warm-up as from now on, we will work on increasing your strength in earnest." Aizawa turned to address the rest of them as he started leading them away from their base camp building.
"The goal of this entire trip is to increase your strengths to the point where you call may gain your provisional licenses. More than that is it to prepare you all for the hostilities that are unfortunately more of a norm by the minute." He continued on, finally giving them the reason as to why they would be told this trip would be harder than any other first-year camp UA has done. It didn't take them long to reach a clearing some ways away from the main building where he pulled out a familiar ball.
"Midoriya," He called the class rep as he tossed him the ball, his warning being enough for the boy to catch the ball in one hand. "You managed to kick this same type of ball around 464.8m(508 yds) on the first day, correct?" He asked him.
"Sounds around about right?" Midoriya responded, though he never bothered to recall the exact distance he was confident his teacher recorded it somewhere. He nodded his head as he stepped aside and gestured him forwards.
"The same thing as before, let's see how much you've improved." Aizawa told him as he did what he was told and stepped into what he imagined was a circle identical to the one back at school. With his classmates, they finally fully woke up at the prospect of doing something like they did on the first day.
"Oh, so we're checking our progress?" Sero asked.
"Since a ton of stuff has happened these past few months, we must have really gained a power boost. Maybe he'll manage to kick it half a kilometer(546 yds) this time around!" Uraraka cheered as she and their friend group had regularly trained together and she had seen just how powerful his legs were. Nowhere near someone like Iida but he could break through wooden blocks all day like those kung-fu master she saw in her parent's old movies.
"Kick it out of here, Midoriya!" Sato cheered for his classmate who only could a smile as he tossed the ball up and geared up the kick.
"You don't need to tell me that!" He yelled as he licked the ball as hard as he could, watching it fly off so he waited for his score to called.
"468.9m(512 yds)" Aizawa told them, his bluntness drowning his excitement as he felt himself fall flat on his face in shock, the rest of them not far behind.
"What!" To prove he wasn't shitting with them, Aizawa even showed them his phone where they could see the score clear as day.
"That's…less than I was expecting." Iida said as he tried to gather himself as Midoriya walked back to the group, a cloud of depression over him as Asui patted his back to comfort him while Bakugo just smirked at the meager improvement from his rival/frenemy.
"That's like a 9m improvement, pretty underwhelming if you ask me." Shinso spoke up, though he wasn't too sure he could even match that distance himself.
"Bakugo, you're up." Aizawa called up their resident loudmouth. He grabbed the ball and took position right where Deku stood so that he couldn't claim he had some sort of advantage. "Your score was 711.2m(777 yds)." He told him and the class so that they knew what his score was and allow them to see for themselves any kind of improvement.
"Go to hell!" Hearing that, Bakugo immediately decided that he would settle for no less than 800m(874 yds) and with as much power as he could summon, blasted the ball off with a yell. His throw sent his throw much faster and further than Midoriya's but that wasn't the benchmark he was using.
"718.2m(785 yds)" Aizawa told the group, once more shocking them at how low the improvement as compared to their first day, none more say than Bakugo who looked like his mind was rebooting from something so crazy being uttered but like with Midoriya, their teacher showed them the distance.
"What the fuck?!" Bakugo roared as he stomped back to the group, thoroughly pissed off.
"That's even less, like only 7m extra distance." Sero said, being smart enough to not mention that it was a smaller improvement than Midoriya's since that would only enrage his classmate further.
"How is that possible, he should have sent that thing like an entire kilometer away with that explosion." Ashido asked as she was honestly expecting the thing to fly so far that they'll need a new one.
"I think that is enough of a practical example," Aizawa spoke up before they could fall into a group discussion. "It's been around three months since you started your training here at UA and though you all have improved your technique and even found new ways to utilize your abilities as well as increased your stamina," He started as he looked towards two people in particular.
"Your physical strength, both in body and in quirk," His eyes landed on his two test subjects. "Hasn't really gone up that much, only increasing a fraction of the rate of your mental and technical skills."
"This here ball toss was my way of demonstrating that to all of you." He finished, letting them all have a moment for the news to sink in as no doubt none of them noticed that their overall power hasn't increased all that much.
"Now you all realize why said what I said earlier, this entire camp focus is for one thing. To improve your strengths to match your newfound level of technical skill." He told them as his child-scaring smile made another appearance as a shiver was sent down their backs, they knew this wouldn't be easy. "We'll work you so hard, you'll think death a mercy, hell you might actually kick the bucket."
"But try not to, alright." He finished as for a moment, everyone there thought about trying to opt-out due to fear.
(With Class 1-B)
"We're focusing on our quirks?" Sometime later, outside their main building, the students of 1-B had been gathered and noticed that their 1-A counterparts had been absent. Vlad only told them he'll explain once they finished breakfast and got ready.
"Class A's already training, you all got an extra 30 minutes sleep as a reward for making it to basecamp first, but I only see that as a handicap, you all need to catch up." Vlad didn't even greet them before he started leading them off, as they moved through the woods towards what sounding like Bakugo's explosions, he gave them more of the picture.
"Traditionally, those in 1-A have gotten more time in the limelight than those in 1-B. All Might, Endeavour, Jeanist. But make no mistake, that is more coincidence than willful intent. It's only because more public pros like All Might and Endeavour were in 1-A that people wrongfully assume that they are the stars of the hero course, 1-B has also produced some respectable heroes such as our very own Thirteen and Snipe." Vlad started, explaining to them why 1-A tended to get more attention seeing how many big-name heroes had gone through it.
"The first semester saw people focused on 1-A because of those damned villains attacking them during training, but this coming semester we'll show the world that 1-B has never played second fiddle to them and won't start now." But he didn't believe that past glories made their present just as good. No, he believed in his students and he had never been disappointed in them, after all, the Big three as they were called around campus had all started under him.
Aizawa wouldn't have had the patience for them as when they started, they all were terrible, at the bottom of the class, and barely passing combat trials on a good day. They had only come into their own in their second year but someone like Aizawa wouldn't have given them a day and kicked them out long before then since he expected his students to have trained before even applying. Yes, it was logical as it saved time, but the law didn't make it easy.
'So manly! How could we ever let him down after that?' Testsutesu clearly felt their teacher's faith in them as he started to tear up at the manliness of their teacher in not bowing down to the norm.
"Vlad-sensei, I get the why we need to improve your quirks, but we have 20 unique powers to work with. How do you plan to address that?" Tokage asked him as she was drawing a blank of what he could use for all of them.
"She's right, could you be more specific?" Shoda asked as well.
"Quirks are like muscle fibers, when they are overused, they break and grow back both thicker and tougher. It's the same thing with quirks. So we only have one way to improve all your quirks." Vlad started as he walked closer to the opening in the path.
"You're going to break yourselves." He finished as he and the rest of them cleared the trees to see what he was referring to. Wouldn't be wrong to say that their reactions to the sight that met them were extreme.
"The hell!"
The 1-B students didn't really want to expect when they were woken up so early in the day, but whatever this was, wasn't it. In front of them, spread across both the clearing and nearby hills and forests, they could see their 1-A counterparts in the middle of some crazy exercises. From watching Bakugo repeatedly dunk his arms elbow deep into boiling water before setting off chain explosions, Koda screaming in the distance, Uraraka bouncing around in what must be the world's largest hamster ball to Sato and Yaoyorozu stuffing themselves on confectionary treats as the one continuously created Russian dolls while the other was pumping iron with his free hand. It was all really…really crazy to be frank, something they will come to expect from their teachers in their time at UA.
Notable exceptions to their usual line-up were Shinso who was at the wayside, being taught by Aizawa how to make use of a bow and arrow of all things by having him draw an arrow, notch it and take aim at any one of around 2 dozen targets set down ranged from them in less than 6 seconds. Each of the targets had the traditional bullseyes on them but had lights on top which would light up at random, indicating the target he had to aim for and they only stayed on for around 8 second which was odd seeing how they would expect that such a man would be training him in how to use his signature capture scarf. Either way, they knew he would be there for a while as there was an entire crate of arrows next to the two and whenever his quiver seemed low, Aizawa just added more into it for him.
Midoriya was training on some raised dirt pillars with weights tied to his person. Just moving on those small stilts would be hard enough for most but he had the extra challenge of having to fight the largest member of the cats they had to deal with the day prior, Tiger. Though it seemed less like a fight and more like fend off the pros' attacks while keeping his balance. Fortunately, for Monoma anyway, they had arrived just in time to see Midoriya eat a knuckle sandwich and nearly be sent off the stilts to the dirt below if not for the boy grabbing into the stilt before as if his life depended on it. They watched as he slowly climbed back up as Tiger yelled at him to stop being a baby and get back to training.
"Man, this is intense." Rin muttered as they took in the sight of crazy that laid before them, and they were expected to join in on it.
"You're telling me." Kaibara replied with a nervous chuckle.
"Those with emitter-type quirks will be rising your quirks limits, maxing out your power. Those with mutant or transformation class powers will be mainly focused on strengthening the body parts related to your quirks." Vlad explained, either not noticing their hesitation or not caring. "Normally, this would happen gradually as you grow but-"
"We don't have that time for that, your class has a lot of work to do." Aizawa said as he walked to them, one glance showed that he had left Shinso with a quiver full of arrows so he could spare some time.
"Once we team up with 1-A, there'll be 40 quirks here. That's a lot of quirks for our two teachers to manage." Kendo muttered to herself as she could see that the land set aside for their training was huge and diverse which will help all of them but that also meant that they'll be spread pretty thin.
"That's why we have help from the pussycats to keep track of all of you." Aizawa said as he gestured to the cats who did their own pose much like the two that greeted them did the previous day, only now as the full group.
"We met yesterday but I didn't get to introduce myself My name is Ragdoll and my quirk is called Search! I know all the info like locations and weaknesses on about up to 100 hundred people just by looking at them! So I'll be keeping an eye on all you kittens!" Ragdoll seemed the most hyper of the group, though they all knew how scary she could be as she seemingly always knew where they were and when to send Tiger in to strike them.
"With my quirk of Earthflow, I'll be making sure every one of you has a perfect spot to train those quirks of yours!" Pixie bob was next as from what they had heard from 1-A, she could create dirt monsters by the dozens without any notable strain.
"I'll be giving advice and instructions to the entire group with my quirk of Telepath, so you don't have to worry about being far from us!" Mandalay was new as she hadn't done anything against neither class but her quirk made sense for her role.
"I'll be handling the assault, through bone-breaking punches and kicks, I'll mold and stretch you all into better shape than you ever thought possible." Tiger was last and he was the most intimidating of the group as for one, for a guy his size, they knew just as nimble and fast he was as not a single one of them could tag him the previous day. Like the animal he named himself after, he was the predator and they the prey.
"That didn't sound all that reassuring." Yanagi uttered, happy that she was most likely not going to have to contend with the large pro as he returned to 'fighting' Midoriya.
"Come one, hit me with your best shot!" He encouraged the boy to which he went for a quick jab but Tiger proved too quick for such an obvious blow to land.
"Too slow!" Tiger said as he bent his body in a way that shouldn't have been possible as he punched Midoriya right in the face. "Cat Punch!" Sending him flying, nearly off their unique arena if not for him grabbing into a stilt for dear life.
"You're still pretty lively, that's great! It means we haven't ripped apart those muscle fibers yet! Get back up here so we can continue!" Tiger told him as the boy huffed and puffed as he pulled himself back up. "The rest of you with power-up type quirks, you're with me so get over here!" And now they might have to join in. Joy.
"Yes sir, but sir," Midoriya said as he got to his feet, keeping a close eye on his feet as he worked just to keep his balance. "Why do I have to wear all these weights, it's hard enough to move around up here without them, they seem like overkill." He gestured to his person, which had weights attached to it at specific points in the form of a vest, leg warmers or armbands.
"There is no such thing as overkill in Tiger's Bootcamp! 75kg(165ls) to your torso, 18kg(39lbs) on your legs, and 9kg(19lbs) on your arms. The extra weight strapped to your body stimulates 2.4 times your normal body weight which will increase both your stamina and strength." Tiger explained to him, which basically meant they were going to train him ala Dragonball style by trying to replicate increased gravity. He wasn't sure this would work if not cripple him but they lived in a world where people would shoot lasers out their belly buttons, had engines growing out of them, or had explosive sweat so who was he to judge?
He just hoped he wouldn't die like Aizawa-sensei said could happen.
"The stilts are there to help teach you how to be aware of your surroundings and how to get back up after a hit even if the terrain isn't favorable. Lastly, we're working on getting that little boy body of yours as flexible as possible so that in combat, you don't get it as let's face it, fighting somebody with a quirk make mean a one-hit take-down for you, no matter how much you train yourself." Tiger finished the explanation that would have been nice when they started since he fell so many times, and had to listen to Bakugo laughing his ass off just as many times before he and the rest was taken to do their own thing.
"You heard them, get to work! I don't want to see a single one of you doing nothing, you got that!" Vlad told his students who though hesitant, didn't wish to disappoint nor back down.
"Yes sir!"
And with that, the students of 1-B were spread out amongst the teachers and areas so that they could work on their individual quirks and ways to improve them. Tsunotori and Tsuburaba were paired up with the foreign girl having the task of trying to target and tag her classmate while on the move to help her get over the fact she tends to stay still to make full use of her quirk, something that won't be possible out in the field. Tsuburaba has the job of trying to create as many air barriers as he could while also trying to make them as strong as he could to withstand the blows from the horns being fired at him from multiple directions.
Shiozaki was by herself close to where Tokoyami and much like Kaminari whose working on his limits, she has to constantly extend her vines as far as she could get them before cutting those off and making new ones with the goal to try and reach a greater distance then the last group. Fukidashi and Tokage were paired together with the one being tasked to create as many and as varied obstacles as he can for Tokage to avoid by splitting herself into as many pieces as she could manage and then time how long it takes for her to get past said obstacles. One thing that helped with that was all the vines that Shiozaki's vines.
Komori was in clearing out in the sun and was given the task of creating as many and varied types of mushrooms as fast as she could. Shoda and Kendo were also paired up as Kendo was trying to increase the strength of her defense and reaction time while Shoda was trying to increase the power of his quirk by throwing rocks at her and using his quirk to increase the damage done with each hit as well as increase his own speed and jumping ability to avoid her attacks.
Monoma was paired up with Yanagi in that he copies her quirk and then goes toe to toe with her in a telekinetic battle, trying to both attack the other with nearby objects while avoiding being hit by the other and increase the time limit Monoma has with any copied quirk passed 5 minutes. Yanagi was mainly working on trying to increase her weight limit and how many things she could control at once. Kaibara was made to try and increase his attack power by trying to go through wooden blocks that steadily got thicker and thicker as he went along.
Honenuki was in the woods along with Shishida, the goal of their combo was that Honenuki would try and catch his classmate by using his quirk to try and soften where he thinks his classmate will be, while the hairy boy with a gentlemen's demeanor was to do his absolute best to avoid this while answering increasingly complex questions.
Kodai was placed close to Yaoyorozu and Sato and was using her quirk on the dolls Yaoyorozu was popping off, making them either as large as she could or as small as she could to try and increase the range and the number of things she could use her quirk on at once. Tetsutetsu had a more straightforward task, literally. He was given the job of using a canal 2m deep and 1.5m wide with nothing but his own body, no tools.
Rin and Kuroiro were almost as far out as Koda as the two of them were placed deep in the woods where Kuroiro would use his quirk to jump from shadow to shadow to avoid Rin who was only allowed to attack shooting his scales while also using them for defense. Awase was given a bunch is old materials from broken furniture and pipes and told to weld them together into larger and larger objects as fast as he could while Kamakiri had to use his quirk to shred through said work as fast as he could. Bondo was placed close to Sero and given a similar task, make as much glue as he could with his quirk.
(Some time later)
"Midoriya!" Tiger called out towards him, having left him with instructions to continue trying to move about the stilts as fast as he could while he tended to the others.
"Yes…sir…" Midoriya, covered in bruises and cuts, replied as he nearly fell to his knees but locked the joints to avoid falling for what felt like the thousandth time.
"You requested time to work on your support gear, is that right?" Tiger asked him as he looked at his watch. Midoriya blinked before he looked around and noticed that the sun was in a different position. He didn't even realize just how much time had passed since they started.
"Yes sir…I did." Midoriya nodded his head. He had wanted ample time to work on hi gear this summer, after all, no sense letting it fall to the wayside while he worked on his body.
"It was approved, you know the way back to camp, right?" Tiger asked him but before he could answer, Pixie bob walked up to them.
"Don't worry, Tiger. I can make sure this little kitty gets to where he needs to go." She told him as she turned to wave at him as if she wasn't part of this torture.
"Alright, now off with you. I need to focus on the rest of them." Tiger dismissed him as he gratefully climbed down as fast as he could, massaging his aching muscles.
"Why does that not sound good?" One of the other students present muttered but Midoriya didn't care to see who as he walked towards Pixie-bob.
"Come along, kitty. I'll show you to your workstation." Pixie-bob said as she started leading him back up, unknown to them all aside from the cats themselves, however, was the fact that Kota had been watching all of them from the shadows of the trees. She lead him to the side of the building which housed an old garage, parked right in it was his mobile workstation (the ugly van).
"Here is it. He's nothing much, just an old garage space we weren't using but they said it would be fine." Pixie bob showed him as the garage wasn't the largest, but it was clearly built for at least two cars packed side to side so there was plenty of space for him to move around, though he would need to take some time to set up.
"It will, thank you." He told her and with that, she started to walk off to get back to her own duties but not before giving him a message.
"Just make sure to remember that dinner is in around 3 hours." The blonde pro told him as she walked off, leaving him to open up his van(he would need to thank them for leaving it unlocked) and started setting things up, including a table where he could make draw up his stuff since he didn't have most of the equipment from home.
(Later – 5:40pm)
Later, close to sunset, the two classes had been gathered outside the main building, in a different spot than the one they had arrived at the previous day but just as tired as then. Laid in front of them was a series of fireplaces, tables and on two of those tables, food supplies including culinary such as plates, pots, pans, bowls etc. "Here's the ingredients, remember what I said, we're not serving your food anymore!" Pixie-bob told them all as if they hadn't spent the day working them to the bone. To be frank, they had all forgot that part during the day.
"So for the rest of the trip, if you all want to eat, you're gonna have to make your own meals!" Ragdoll laughed as she basically told them that they'll be taking care of themselves. "Starting with this curry!"
"Yes mam" The students answered, sounding as tired as they felt but that didn't stop Ragdoll from seemingly feeding off their misery as she laughed up some more.
"Oh man, you guys look like you ran a marathon with a tiger on your back while carrying a bag of rocks! But don't think for a second that means you can make sloppy cat food! You better treat this like a four-course meal fit for the queen kitty!" She told them, which even to the most exhausted among them could tell that she meant that as a threat. Make a dish you would serve to your romantic partner's judgmental parents or suffer the consequences. Though it seemed like Iida got something completely different from that.
"Oh I see, an important part of caring for someone recovering from a disaster is providing for their physical needs, and there is nothing like a nice, warm meal, is there?" Iida thought aloud as he out of nowhere got into his usual stance as if he hadn't been running at top speed for hours. "This is a great opportunity, let's make the best curry in the world, everyone!"
"Sure." The rest of them didn't question it as they started moving towards the table where they started to split into groups each with its own tasks.
'Iida's sure in the spirit, but at least now I don't have to explain it to them.' Aizawa, who was standing to the wayside, noted to himself as he was impressed that he was the only one to guess that. Sure enough, the two classes got together before splitting jobs between them such as getting the fires started, washing the food, chopping and cutting etc. they made sure that everyone would have something to as they found that they would even need to fetch their own firewood on top of things which meant some of them had to venture into the woods for twigs, dried leaves and wood to burn.
"Hey, Todoroki! Can we get some fire over here too?" Ashido asked as she called over Todoroki to light their stand like he had just done his own.
"Sure."
"Bakugo, think you can use an explosion to light us up?" Seeing this, Sero asked Bakugo if he couldn't do the same as they were having problems with it themselves.
"This is so fucking beneath me!" Bakugo yelled as he reared his hand back, but before Tokoyami could warm him on not using too much force, he let loose an explosion which not only didn't let the fire but destroyed their stand.
"That should have been a given, you sure your brain is working right?" Midoriya, wanting back-up for his laughter at his failures earlier, told them as he was working on starting his fire.
"Screw you, I don't see you doing any better!" Bakugo yelled back as Midoriya only gave him a smug look as he tossed the last of the dried leaves he had gathered into his fireplace.
"Observe," He told him as he used two stones to light a spark which he directed towards the leaves. Not even 30 seconds later, he had lit enough to start a small fire which he in turn nurtured with soft breathes and more leaves and twigs before he was able to place larger sticks on top, getting a fire started in around 2 minutes. "Care to repeat that statement?" He asked his classmate with a smug cat-like face as Bakugo only angrily stomped off cursing his name and his future kids and grandkids.
"How'd you do that?" Kodai asked as she passed on by, heading back to her station where she was chopping the food along with Sato, Awase, and Monoma.
"I would say scouts, but honestly I learned it while watching random YouTube videos over the years." He answered as he had spent most of his little free time just searching the net and had found some really weird but somehow useful videos online. Off at another stand, Fukidashi was also using his quirk to start a fire by repeatedly muttering 'crackle', 'pop', 'sizzle' and 'pop' into it which created the comic book sound effects for fire and consequently, lit the fire there.
"There, that should so it." He said as he tossed in some wood for extra measure.
"Thanks, Fukidashi." Yanagi thanked him as she and Shoji were the ones placed in charge of this one.
"If you rely on others, you never learn to do things yourself, like light a fire. We should be focusing on trying to acquire new skills." Yaoyorozu scolded them for having others light their fires as she used her quirk to just create a lighter which she used to start her fire no problem while Jiro only looked at her in amazement that she didn't see the hypocrisy of scolding them for not being independent when she's super dependent on her quirk.
"Hold on, I'm going to see if I can't do this with my quirk." Kaminari said as he did basically everything Midoriya did except he didn't have any rocks to make sparks with.
"And how would that work?" Aoyama asked his classmate who just giggled with excitement after he prepared everything.
"Same way Midoriya did, dried leaves, twigs but rather than rocks, little electricity should be enough to heat this," Kaminari uttered as he focused just a little bit of energy into the leaves and with a little luck, he was able to start a fire. "I did it! Take that 7th-grade science!"
(Later)
"We did it!" The students cheered as they all sat down to eat the food they had prepared for themselves. They didn't let anything else stop them since as soon as the last person had their plate, they all dug in as a group.
"Man if this was served to me at a restaurant, you'll send this crap back, but after today I don't care about the taste, I just need some food in me!" Kirishima said with his mouth full of food as everyone else also wolfed down their food. Even the more polite ones such as Yaoyorozu and Shishida eat with a gusto they would unusual for them.
"I never thought what they about hunger making anything taste divine to be true but dammit, they were right!" Sero was in agreement with it as even in some corner of his mind, he knew that the food was crap, that didn't stop him from consuming as much of it as humanly possible.
"Wow, Yao-momo, you sure can pack it away." Ashido noted as she hadn't ever seen the taller girl eat so much.
"Yes, well, my quirk works by using the lipids in my body as fuel for my creations, so I have to eat larger than normal amounts." Yaoyorozu replied as she normally just ate large breakfasts and dinners to avoid the rather embarrassing situation of people seeing her eat the equivalent load for three people.
"You mean like poop?" Sero noted to himself aloud, but that just made Momo depressed as that wasn't the first time someone made that connection and odds are, won't be the last. Seeing her friend in distress, Jiro stepped in and punched Sero in the arm.
"Apologize!"
"I'm sorry!"
"By the way, do you have a specific diet in mind or you can just eat whatever?" Tokage asked her, Yaoyorozu took a moment to collect herself before she answered.
"Well, foods that are high in fat are best, but I like to stick to healthier sources such as fish, soybeans or milk, tofu, and sunflower seeds." Yaoyorozu replied as while any fat was good, she didn't need the unhealthy side effects on the side to worry about.
"So you're saying you could walk into any random McDonalds and order like 10 of their largest meals and finish that in a single sitting?" Tokage her, getting the attention of some of the others as well as Yaoyorozu blushed as she tried to think of a way to explain herself.
"Well, I, how do I put this?" She said as she tried to come up with an appropriate answer.
"Just yes or no, sweetie. We already know you can afford it." Midoriya joked from his place as he stuffed his spoon right back into his mouth to continue eating.
"It's…possible, but I've never eaten so much at once, not even close so it's more of a theory." Yaoyorozu admitted but keeping it to herself just how much she typically ate in the comfort of her own home before she moved to change the focus on the discussion. "What about you, any requests when eating at school?" She asked Tokage to swallowed her food and took a moment to think about it.
"Not really, so long as the food is rich in vitamins and minerals I'm good. Tetsutetsu needs food high in iron so he regularly eats meats like beef." She replied as she, like Momo, could create stuff but where she needed fats, Setsuna needed much more since she could regrow entire body parts but only if she had the required reserves, so she tended to eat a lot, like…a lot.
"Kota! It's time for dinner!" Tetsutesu looked up from his meal to see Kota wonder off despite the repeated calls for him to get back inside. He watched where he vanished for a moment before he felt Midoriya nudge his side.
"Go, looks like he needs someone to talk to, and he's least likely to want to punch you in the balls." He joked half-heartedly, even if he was serious in his worry for the boy that had much too much resentment in him for someone his age.
(With Kota)
"You know, Mandalay has been calling you to dinner for a while now, and going from the sound of it, you must really be hungry right about now." Kota jumped to his feet as he heard someone speaking. He quickly turned to see who that was to see one of the hero wannabes approaching him with a plate of food in hand.
"No way! How'd you even find this place?!" Kota demanded from the much taller boy, who in response only kept on approaching him at a brisk pace.
"Followed your footsteps, little man. They were tiny, but still visible if you know what to look for." Tetsutetsu replied as for a small kid, it was pretty fast so he wasn't able to keep up with him seeing how he had to stop to grab said food.
"Either way, you can't deny that you're hungry, so I brought you a plate of curry, sorry about the taste though, it was my first attempt at cooking." Testuetsu told him as he held up the plate of the curry they had made.
"Whatever, I'm just fine." Kota didn't seem to care as he turned to write him off, but the rather loud growl from his stomach put a stop to those plans.
"Sure, looks like your stomach doesn't agree with that, buddy." Tetsutetsu replied as he gave him a smile that said he wasn't surprised nor making fun of him as he got closer and placed the plate on a rock which had a rather flat surface the kid could use as a table.
"I'm not your buddy!" Kota yelled at him, catching him a little off guard by how offended and angry the kind sounded at his attempts to be friendly, but it was better than a physical attack so…progress? "Didn't I already tell you that I don't want to be anywhere near you? So get out of my secret hideout and leave me alone!" Of course, he didn't choose to listen as he just looked around the place and noted that they were on a dead-end mountain path that had a great view of the area. It wasn't a bad spot for one to go to clear his head, and out here away from the city, he could even make out most of the stars above.
"Secret hideout? Man, when was the last time I was in mine? Maybe, 6…8 years." Tetsutetsu thought aloud as he recalled his own childhood and the so-called 'secret fortress of solitude' he and his old friends would go to and hang out. Whatever happened to the old place he wondered.
"It's so stupid. Spending your entire life trying to improve your quirks. Do you all want to show off your powers that badly?" Kota saw that he wasn't going to leave as he just turned away from the annoyance as he looked towards the forest instead.
"I heard about what happened with your parents…the water hose duo." Tetsutestu brought up outta nowhere, someone he saw as a mistake as Kota whizzed back to face him so fast that he might have hurt his neck.
"Did Mandalay tell you?!" Kota demanded from him, his face being all that was needed for him to know his response needed to be a good one else the boy would only shut him out more.
"No, she only told me you lost your folks some time back, I was able to put the pieces together from there, with some help." Tetsutetsu decided it would be better if he didn't tell him the full truth, only enough to not arouse suspicion before he took a moment to breathe as he knew the next part wasn't going to be any better.
"I won't lie and say that I know about them or that I even remember the incident but," He started as he looked out towards the heavens, wondering if the past users could give him some wisdom as he was making this stuff up as he made along using whatever experience he got from watching the cryptic wise guys on TV. "But I can't imagine what it must be like, to lose both parents so I wanted to ask you what you think of it, how it makes you feel." Kota didn't seem to appreciate that last line but he didn't fly into a rage, so he counted it as a win.
"Shut up, don't act like you know me, you all are just like them. Crazy." Kota said, though as he spoke his voice lost its volume but retained its intensity. "Giving each other stupid names like 'hero' and 'villain' and then killing each other, all just to show off your power, to prove some stupid thing like who was better…Acting like quirks are so great and nothing else matters…"
"They spent all that time showing off….and now that's why they aren't here." He finished as he hid his face so that the wannabe hero wouldn't see the tears building up in his eyes, though Tetsutetsu saw them but as tactful enough not to mention them as he took in what the boy said, how he saw things.
'It's not just pros, but this superhuman society that he hates.' He thought to himself as he took a moment to see things from Kota's point of view, and how things would seem so as he never questioned the why as a kid. All that mattered was that heroes were the manliness people out there since they beat the villains no matter what. Looking back, he felt pretty stupid for thinking that as it made the world sound like some Saturday morning cartoon when things were far more complicated. He knew that many people become criminals…villains to survive, to feed, and care for themselves and those they cared for. He also knew that not all pros were the best people and mainly in it for the money and prestige, so it wasn't like there was a clear-cut line in the sand, only in the rule of law.
"Well, is that you have to say? Then get lost!" Kota took his silence as him agreeing with him but he was wrong on that account.
"I have a friend, he was born without a quirk." Tetsutetsu told him, once more changing things as Kota looked at him like he just said the moon was made from Al Gore. He couldn't blame him, before meeting Midoriya, he hadn't even met a quirkless person.
"Huh?"
"Doctors said he was just unlucky, that both his folks had a recessive gene for quirklessness and he inherited both. And for a while, it really got to him, he wondered about his place in this world, what he could do to make a difference, to leave his mark." He told him what he knew, but kept names out of it for the sake of keeping things unclear.
"Sorry, started rambling like an old man there for a second," He apologized as he was getting off-topic. "My point is that the world can be a cruel place, Kota. Sometimes it just takes and takes from us, with no rhyme or reason. But it's also a beautiful place, filled with caring people like the pussycats. I won't tell you to not be angry, that would be cruel and unmanly and you have every right to be angry with the world, but I think…that holding onto anger is even worse." He told him as he started to walk away, he knew he wasn't welcome to begin with, so he best get on moving before the boy really lost it.
"Anger to me is like fire. It's good to have it, but if you hold on to it, you'll only burn yourself." Tetsutetsu said as he approached the treeline. His words having an effect on the boy who took a step back, but just as quickly grew angry once more as he yelled at him.
"Shut up! I don't need some hero wannabe telling me what to do!" He yelled at the taller boy as he walked off, not knowing how his words had such an effect but he brushed them off. Someone like him, who wanted to throw their lives away would never understand.
(Meanwhile)
"HMMMM!" As Tetsutetsu left Kota at his secret spot to think about what he had said, others gathered on the edges of the property and they were not the friendly type as Toga, geared up in some kind of equipment over her regular school uniform, made her displeasure known to those with her. "This is so uncute, I hate this!" She complained about the rather ugly(at least in her opinion) gear that Giran had gotten her.
"They were engineered on the black market, same as mine. They tend to focus on function over style." Another person, but this one wearing the male version of a middle school uniform spoke up. Like her, he also wore some black market great but he was fitted with a full head mask and rebreather while he counted his bullets for his rather small, but still very dangerous revolver.
"Oh come on, would a little color be so hard? Some pink and red would be perfect." Toga replied as she would have loved if she had the time to decorate her new stuff, but that wasn't in the cards.
"Sorry for the wait, we needed to keep this one in line." Another person spoke up as she and Spinner escorted another member of their group to the meeting spot. Unlike the two teens already present, she didn't have anything like that aside from the strange rectangular object she carried wrapped in cloth. The person she was referring to unknown to them seeing how he was fitted in a black, full-body restraining jacket which even wrapped around their head, leaving only their mouth bare.
"Get to work, get to work."
'I can't believe I have to work with a psychotic madman like him but,' Spinner thought to himself in disgust as he fixed his mask to rest better on his face. He was pretty angered when he was given the job to make sure this restrained convict didn't act out and while he was perfectly able to put him down like a mad animal, he wished he wasn't the one given the job. Still, it could be worse as he eyed the large, cloaked figure off by the wayside. 'He's not the most dangerous of the sinners here.'
"That makes seven of us." The last person present, Dabi spoke up as he glanced at them from his spot overlooking the valley. Unlike when he met with Tomura some time ago, he had been given some new clothes which looked a lot like his old ones but worked better with his quirk.
"I don't care, just let me loose so I can have some fun." The guy in the cloak nearly growled like a caged beast as he laughed to himself, but Dabi didn't seem to care about what he wanted as e just shot him a lazy glare.
"Shut up, you crazy bastard. We hold till the rest of us get here." The dark-haired man reminded him as he looked over the rest of them as he said the next part. "You know the plan. We wait till all eleven of us are here." He finished as he turned his attention back to the valley, or more accurately, he was observing the Pussy Cat's main building in the distance, sure that they hadn't been noticed yet as he smiled.
"After all, attacking them with a small group of elites rather than just a bunch of gutter punks will increase our chances here. Only then," That smile grew wider as he could only imagine the looks on his target's faces as they had no idea that they were in for a fun summer. At that same time, we turn back to the heroes and students and see that while Vlad and Aizawa were still awake teaching those who failed, the rest of the students were fast asleep, even if there were the odd ones out both Jiro and Midoriya seem to having nightmares as they moved about in their slumber. "Will we make them realize that their lives and peace, rest in our hands."
(Next day)
The following morning, it was more of the same as the two classes pushed themselves to try and strengthen their quirks through rigorous training. The only differences today were the fact that Midoriya wasn't training in combat with Tiger and was instead moving around on a much larger field of earth stilts like a ninja, Monoma had swapped out partners and was now working with Rin's quirk and Shinso was with Ragdoll rather than Aizawa who was busy working with the group of 1-A students that failed their finals.
"Remedial group, no slacking." Aizawa reminded them as the four students looked exhausted on their feet and close to just kneeling over, something he wasn't about to let happen as he used his capture tape to make sure that Sato kept on his feet.
"Man, I'm so tired." Kirishima said to himself as he barely had the energy to open his eyes fully.
"Sorry, Aizawa-sensei, but I need more beauty sleep." Aoyama complained with a sleepy smile.
"Who knew yesterday's classes would go on till 2am?" Sato said as he recalled that when the rest of them had been sent off to bed, they had been forced into a classroom where Aizawa did nothing but run them through theoretical combat and rescue situations that he would randomly question them on till the early hours of the morning.
"And then to be forced out of bed at 7am sharp, why is life so cruel?" Kaminari was in agreement as he wanted to just cry.
"I told you, didn't I? You're not just here to improve your quirks. You here to address the problems observed that saw you fail your exams unlike the rest of your classmates." Aizawa wasn't in a giving mood as he bluntly reminded them of their failures as Ragdoll watched from a distance, her happy deposition on full display which made her look like she enjoyed their pain.
"Use this time to think as to why you're so exhausted compared to your classmates rather than complain!" He finished as he released his student from his capture tool.
"Y-yes sir." The four said as one, though they really lacked the energy to complain more. Iida also happened to be running by at the time which Aizawa turned to address.
"Iida! That applies to you too, you may have not taken the exam like the rest of them but you still missed out a much of the material, don't let not seeing a big F think you scored anything good!" Aizawa told his other student who came to an abrupt halt at being called out like that, almost falling over from his teacher's harsh but honest words.
"Yes sir! I apologize for my lapse in judgment and shall use this time to better myself!" Iida replied to him, rushing off even faster than before to prove that he was 100% committed to improving himself, even though his legs felt like they wanted to fall off from running for over four hours now. Seeing this, Aizawa nodded his head in approval of his rather stiff student as he turned his attention to the rest of them, or at least the students he could see in the clearing they had chosen for today's training.
"Some goes to all of you! We're here to train, nothing less! No matter what that training is, or how hard it must feel right now, always remember where you came from. It's important to have a goal to reach towards but equally important to know your starting point, what you were before UA, understand!" He reminded them as some of the students paused as they took his words into consideration.
"Where I came from…" Shinso thought to himself as he strained his arm as he pulled back on the bowstring, thinking of his childhood and how he wanted to do good for his family. He let loose his shot but like most of his other ones, it missed his target by a few inches and a few off into a part of the woods the teachers had made sure to tell the rest of them to stay clear of. "Dammit, I missed again." Ragdoll was quick to offer some words of encouragement in her rather enthusiastic and over-the-top way.
"Don't despair, grumpy kitty! You're are learning a new skill after all, it's gonna take some time and a lot of dedication before you can even think about using that in the field! Come one, keep going, I know you can do it!" He wasn't even going to ask how in the hell he got stuck with the label of 'grumpy kitty' as he let his bow-holding arm relax as he felt the burn in his other arm's muscles.
"You're not the one that has to keep pulling back this damn string, why do I have to use a damn bow with such a high draw weight?" He asked her as he was surely given a bow meant for someone with a strength augmenting quirk as just pulling back on the string and holding it felt like he was trying to pick up one of his fellow students one-handed.
"To help develop your arm so you can fire off arrows at lightning speed, so having a 160lbs practice bow will give you the power you need to really make the bow your own!" Ragdoll told him with a cheerful laugh as he just muttered to himself on how annoying cats were as he just sucked it up, pulled out another arrow, and got ready for his target to pop. He wanted to be a pro, so he wouldn't let his arm falling off from overuse stop him.
"Aizawa-sensei, I wanted to ask but, will All Might and the rest of the teachers get here soon?" Closer to the center, Tetsutetsu, covered in dust dirt from the trench he had been digging, asked the tired-looking underground hero as he came up to him.
"They will not. To keep this camp secret from the media and villains, hardly anyone knows about it, much less where it's being held." Aizawa told him as it was going to be just them.
"That's why you're training with us pussy cats rather than your usual teachers!" Ragdoll added in from a distance, how she knew what he said as something neither student or teacher knew.
"Besides, All Might may be the number one, but he couldn't blend in to save his life. If he were here, we might as well put up signs challenging villains to try and attack." Aizawa added in, though that first part sounded more like it was a personal affront to the man than anything else. "Why are you asking anyway?"
"Well, you see, my quirk went through a pretty drastic change recently," Tetsutetsu started as he reactivated his quirk and One for All, giving his steel a shiny look to it as he felt the power coursing through his veins, prepared to give the cover story that Nezu had prepared for him to use whenever the issue of his quick came up.
"That I'm aware of, something about your steel giving you increased physical power." Aizawa nodded his head at that as he recalled Vlad bringing it up during a meeting.
"Yeah, that's normal but think of it dialed to eleven. Anyway, I asked All Might if he could show me a thing or two since power is kind of his thing, so I was hoping he would show up and help me with that." He explained his story perfectly and while he wasn't the best lair, his story was good enough that while Aizawa could tell there was something more, he didn't push it as he just assumed the guy wanted to train under the number one, even if that blonde blundering idiot wasn't a good teacher.
"We'll just have to make do with the people we have right now, but Vlad can contact the school and ask for his opinion every now and then if the need arises. Now get back to training." He told him as Tetsutetsu rushed back to where he left off.
"Yes sir!" Tetsutetsu roared as he started bashing his way through the earth away from Aizawa, determined to go further than he had gone the previous day.
"Don't worry too much about it. Power Loader sent some robots that Midoriya can set up for you to use later, I heard they're tougher than the 2 and 3 pointers used in the entrance exam so you should get your workout." Vlad spoke up as he caught the tail end of the conversation as he walked back into the clearing from checking up on the students practicing in the woods.
"Thank you, Vlad-sensei!" Tetsutetsu replied as he smiled, thinking that those bots might be a good challenge for him to test his limits. How else would he know where they are so he could blast past them?
"Oh, don't you worry too much about training, this is still a summer camp, after all, so we some fun things planned for you!" Pixie-bob yelled from her place on top of the boxes they had brought on their little truck.
"By the end of the week, we'll be having a little nighttime fun which includes a test of courage where the two hero classes will try their best to scare the living daylights outta the other, so I hope none of you are afraid of the dark!" She revealed to them as she laughed as if it was her grand idea. The students pausing as they all turned to face her. "The carrot and the stick, you hear me, kitties?!"
"That just sounds like more training, only with a colorful shell." Kendo said to herself as Shoda nodded his head in agreement.
"I hate scary things." Jiro thought aloud as she always hated haunted houses, the good ones where someone with increase hearing would be even more scared at the noises you could hear.
"Revelry in the dark." Tokoyami, in his cave, breathed out as he brought Dark Shadow into himself, feeling the exhaustion from keeping his quick under control in such a dark environment.
"At least I have a week's head's up, I was too tired to try anything last night, but I've got some sweet presents planned for tonight." Tokage said as she came back together again, seeing she needed to regenerate some pieces of herself having lost track of them during her run. Fukidashi also pausing as he tried to catch his breath as he looked at his dance partner.
"You're not serious." He told her as he had hoped that their training would leave her too tired to bother with her pranks but maybe only a day without them was all they were going to get.
"Maybe I can drag Midoriya off later and pick his brain for some ideas." She seemed to not hear him as she started to think to herself all the ways she could mess with their classmates with the limited time they had after dinner before lights out.
'And she's gone.' He could only hope she was merciful.
"They're at least letting up do some normal camp stuff, that's a plus, right?" Rin asked Monoma, wondering if they were finally getting that break as his blonde classmate scratched at his sore, scale-covered arms.
"It'll be the perfect chance to show up 1-A, am I right?" Monama asked him, though his usual vigor when it came to all things anti-1-A was subdued as he could feel the time limit of his quick approaching even as he tried his best to force it to last longer, half a minute would be great progress for a day.
"So don't you even think about slacking off, only those who work hard get to play hard!" Pixie added in to get them all back to training.
"Yes, mam!"
(Later – dinner time)
"Wow, Bakugo, I never knew you were good with a knife. It's kinda weird." Uraraka praised him as she walked on by, seeing that Bakugo had been taken off fire duty and was placed with those who cut up the ingredients.
"How is it odd? A man like him would of course be well versed in any common art that leads to violence." Tokoyami stated from his place tending to a fire, making it strong enough to start cooking their much-deserved meals.
"Screw you, reject KFC! It's not my fault all you people suck at this shit!" Bakugo yelled at both of them even though his hands didn't stop. If anything, he seems to have sped up.
"I'm just happy nothing is blowing up." Sero joked as he walked up by, getting a glare from the explosive blonde that was almost as dangerous as the knife he was using.
"I'm too tired for this crap. Can't you all stop trying to pick fights." Kirishima asked them as while Bakugo was his closest friend, he was much too tired and sore to stop him if he blew a gasket. As this was going on and the group of students carried out their tasks over a light-hearted conversation, Honenuki approached where Tetsutetsu was cleaning some vegetables.
"Hey, why were you asking about All Might earlier?" The lipless student asked him.
"Oh, Honenuki. No, I just thought he would know how to use this power best." Tetsutetsu replied, using the cover story even if he felt bad about keeping secrets from his classmates. In response, Honenuki shrugged his shoulders as he joined up to get their tasks done.
"Can't argue with that. I mean, it was really crazy that your quirk mutated like that. From being the perfect spear and shield to being crazy fast and able to hit like a tank isn't something you see every day." He joked as he was impressed with his class from the first day as while some of them didn't have traditional quirks for hero work, they had all made good and sly use of them. Tetsutetsu getting this permanent power boast only made him stand out more as Kinoko put it, made him the 'shining example' of their class.
"I already went to Recovery Girl, she didn't find anything odd with me." Tetsutetsu replied though he came off rather defensively which slightly confused his classmate.
"Hey man, I wasn't questioning you or anything. People like to say quirks have backing in science but really, I just think they're as crazy as they'd ever been." He replied as quirks were some crazy-ass stuff. He tried looking up papers that explained how they worked and why they were so unique and diverse back in middle school but gave in after spending 4 hours and hundreds of trips to a medical/scientific dictionary just to get to page 7 out of a 300-page paper on mutant quirks alone.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Been kind of on edge lately. Speaking of, can I ask you a question?" Tetsutetsu apologized as he saw that he really needed to work on his game.
"Sure man, but I can't say I'll have your answers." Honenuki replied to him.
"So that the situation in a nutshell." Tetsutetsu started to explain what he knew about Kota to him, keeping in mind that they weren't alone as he spoke clearly yet softly. After he told him everything, he let it sink in for a second as his classmate pondered what he was just told.
"Damn man, that some heavy stuff. I mean, I already knew that there were cons to the pros in this world and with heroes, but to handle the grief of a child. Not gonna lie, I'm at a loss here. The best thing I can tell you is to back it up with action." He told him as he took some time to collect his thoughts before he replied.
"Back it up?" Honenuki nodded his head as he placed the last washed carrot aside before turning to his classmate and friend.
"Yeah, your words. Anyone can say something profound, but not many will believe it since it could all be hot air. Prove that you believe what you told him with your actions and maybe he'll come to your way of thinking, or at least be willing to hear you out." He told him as he explained why actions spoke louder than words as he could only assume that Tetsutetsu's rather wise words weren't the first time someone had said something similar to the kid. So he needed to go a step further.
"Thanks, Honenuki, I knew you would be the best person to ask." Tetsutetsu told him with a grateful smile as he also finished cleaning the last of his veggies which the two gathered up to take to Bakugo's group to be cut up and prepped.
"Don't give me too much credit, for all you know this could blow up in your face." Honenuki reminded him as he was smart, but he wasn't a genius or expect with kids.
"Everyone, keep those hands moving! How else are we to make the best curry we can if we don't put our 100% into it!" The two turned to see Iida…instructing some of the cutters on how to go through their work as fast as some old-timey cartoon characters.
"He's sure is fire up." Honenuki noted as it seemed that the speedster was fast in just about everything he did. "By the way, where is Tokage? Wasn't she here a moment ago?"
"Don't know, probably took a bathroom break." Tetsutetsu replied as he looked around and like his classmate, saw that the eccentric girl was absent but he recalled seeing there not too long ago, so he rushed it aside.
"Tetsutetsu." Another person spoke up to his side. He placed the veggies down to see that Jiro had been the person to call him as she walked up to him.
"Oh, hmmm, Jira, right?" He said, hoping he got the name right.
"It's close, it's Jiro." Jiro replied though she didn't seem to mind his mistake as she corrected him.
"Sorry." She waved it off, but something still seemed to be bothering her as she kept looking at him then away.
"Don't sweat it. Meet me outside before curfew later, there is something I want to talk about." Jiro told him, not giving him time to ask why or refuse as she made her way back to whatever she had been doing before, leaving him standing there confused.
'What's that about?'
(After dinner)
"Tetsutetsu?" The white-haired boy looked up to see Midoriya standing by the entrance to the building. The sun had long set and they had finished their dinner, leaving them with only around 90 minutes to just hang about and relax before they had to hit the hay. Leading him was Jiro who didn't react to Midoriya being there by his lonesome.
"Midoriya? What are you doing here?" Tetsutetsu asked him as he and Jiro walked up to him.
"Jiro asked I wait here for her, did she ask you to?" Midoriya replied as he looked just as confused as Tetsutetsu as while he was close with most of his class, he was mainly characterized that relationship as positive but nothing more, Jiro being closer to Yaoyorozu and Uraraka than him.
"I did. Came one, we should put some distance between us and the rest of them." Jiro told the two of them as she kept on walking, leaving the two to follow after her.
"…Sure." The two gave the other the look and just decided to go along with it as they followed the girl into the trees, away from the main building and their classmates.
"This is…odd." Midoriya whispered to him as they walked.
"You're telling me." Tetsutetsu replied to him after which they had fallen silent as the three walked a little longer before Jiro stopped and used her earphones to hear if anyone was nearby, satisfied that they were alone, she turned to them.
"Alright, this should be good enough." Jiro spoke up as she looked at them, looking and acting strange to the two.
"For what? What's on your mind." Midoriya asked as he couldn't imagine why she would want to speak with them alone out of everyone.
"I want answers. And you two are the only ones I can get them from." Jiro told them, gathering herself and looking the two of them straight in the eye.
"Answers? Like to a test?" Tetsutetsu asked back, completely clueless but it seems like she wasn't looking for that as she crossed her hands in looked like she was nearly out of patience.
"Don't be an idiot!" Jiro yelled at the two, getting them to nearly jump back in fright before she calmed herself down but didn't stop glaring at them. "Don't try and pretend like I-island didn't happen." She said, grabbing their full attention as Midoriya reached for where he had been shot that night. Was she having trouble like he was? Maybe she thought that one of them had a way to help with that.
"Oh." Tetsutetsu sounded as he could see that this was going to be a serious talk.
"I remember what the crazy villain and Sam said and how you two reacted to it. They talked about some guy called All for One, some big thing from 5 years back, and how it should be weakening All Might." Oh shit, it was going to about that. To be frank, Tetsutetsu had completely forgotten about that part in all the excitement and a look to his side made it clear that the other boy was in a similar boat as they could guess where this conversation was going.
'Oh shit.' Midoriya thought to himself as he felt like he should have socked himself right in the face. Oh, of course, she would have found the night suspect! That ass, Wolfram, and fat fuck, Sam might as well have spelled it out for her. Seeing that they reacted in the way she was expecting them to, Jiro felt as if she was getting closer to the truth that had eluded her for some time now as she kept going.
"I had no fucking clue what he was talking about, I would have just called it BS and left it at that, but you two," She said as she pointed to the two of them as she could recall how their heartbeats spiked that day, and how they both looked when he spoke those words. There was something there and she had spent a lot of late nights going through the internet for anything that could explain it. "You two didn't. you reacted like he was reading your internet history to the entire world, no, if he was telling you two you had cancer or something. So I looked into it," She took a pause as she brushed a hand through her hair, feeling as exhausted as she did the day before the trip where she had taken the day off from her one-gal investigation so that she would be properly rested.
"At first I couldn't find a single piece of evidence about this so-called All for One, or about anything big about All Might from five years ago, but I did find some old article about how All Might missed some Gala dinner he was supposed to be at, and I also noticed that he hasn't been seen out and about as much. It was way too weird to just be a coincidence." Jiro admitted to that, but she did find inconsistencies in past events and at times, nothing which was odd as in their day and age, info wouldn't just disappear unless it was never uploaded or it was removed.
Those inconsistencies were mainly about All Might how little about his time before becoming the number one she could dig up aside from the basics but she couldn't find anything about how he was during his time at UA, she couldn't even find a name which was strange as she had evidence that he participated in all three sports festivals during his time at their school which should have meant his name was called at least a few times and other commentary but nothing. She couldn't even find a video of his performances. Now could she find anything about the pro hero he did his internship with other than the fact she was some lady known as 'Glide'. When she looked her up, she found a similar problem and only learned that she went to Shiketsu, graduated at the top of her class, and died on the job but no information was given on how she died.
When she compared the dates on the news article to everything else she had added to her theory wall(since she was really invested by that point), she saw that this happened around just before All Might left Japan for the states which would have been before he even did his final exam as a 3rd-year student. Sure UA and the Hero association still let him pass, she found it strange that he did that. She could only assume that the only reason he would just up and leave like that was…because he was running from something, or more accurately, someone. With that theory adding to the already crazy web she had drawn up, it becomes clear that the same villain that did in his pro mentor, that she could find no info on, must have been the reason.
She then ran the alias, All for One and got nothing concrete. But she did end up finding info about some big event going back decades, how the criminal underworld had been booming and for years, just kept on growing even as more pros entered service. This was all from chat rooms that had long since gone silent so it wasn't like it was the smoking gun, but she found it strange that so many of them spoke about this time where crime and villain were at their peak. Why the government wouldn't want people to know about it was anybody's guess, but it did line up during All Might's youth, his master's death, and his apparent self-exile from Japan for his own safety.
It didn't take a detective to realize that whoever this All for One was, must have been the driving force behind it all, which somehow made less sense as they must have been a mob-boss style villain as that period lasted at least 50 years, much too long for anybody to be a threatening opponent in a fight. By the time All Might started climbing the ranks as the up and coming number one, that criminal empire had been around for around 60 years at least. She couldn't figure out what she was missing, or why All Might seemed so damn important to all this as he couldn't have been that big of a treat in his youth, could he? Most of the time, she felt like she was reading through intelligence agencies paperwork, the kind where they take a black marker to 90% of it, leaving barely anything in the record.
"It was honestly driving me mad, keeping me up at night since I couldn't find anything else, but then just before we left for camp. I remembered that he said something else, he said ''Let's just hope we snuff him out before he can pass it on' and when he did, both of your heartrates spiked like someone just shot you up with adrenaline." She spoke up again, watching the two like a hawk as she needed to find out the answers she sought, and these two were the only two that could give her that aside from All Might himself, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't tell her a thing. No way he didn't know about the missing info about himself so it was doubtful that he would just tell her what was missing.
"Jiro-" Tetsutetsu tried to stop her, but she rose one hand to silence him. She had come too far, seen too much to just back down now.
"Stop." She said, getting him to reluctantly comply as he stepped back. "I'm tired of the theories, of the unknowns. So…so just tell me straight," She looked at the two with tired, but determined eyes.
.
.
.
"Just what the hell is happening with All Might, and how do you two tie into it?"
And with that cliffhanger, the chapter comes to an end. This took a while to write but I did and I'm quite happy with myself. So as you all read, there were some changes to canon events in this chapter. The first of which was that I gave Shinso and bow and arrow and not capture tape like the always tired looking teacher of 1-A. The reason for that was simple, I want him to be like Hawkeye in the future, now keep in mind I said LIKE not HE WILL BE HAWKEYE so like with how Midoriya takes elements from Vulture, Falcon, and Iron man, I'll only be using Hawkeye as inspiration. Some of those elements in with the bow he's using as in the comics, Hawkeyes uses a bow with a 250lbs draw weight(the average bow you can find only has a raw weight of 90lbs, at least as far was Death Battle could find when they did their Green Arrow vs Hawkeye episode) Why I chose Hawkeye in the first place was because when I first started working on this story, I saw some really good fan art where the MHA characters were placed in the MCU and for the most part, the people they would play fit them perfectly. In those fan arts, Shinso was regularly portrayed as Clint which to me fit him.
The next change was that I told you all what 1-B students were doing as the anime only tells us what kinds of training 1-A was doing, I know it's so that we'll be surprised during the joint training arc which the anime recently finished but I've already made it that the two classes have done exercises together in their first hero class exercise. Also, if you felt like I could have given them better things to do for training, you can leave your ideas in your review, I only ask you don't point how weird Midoriya's training as I even made the guy in-universe question if was even beneficial so I already know it's not the best choice, but I really wanted to sneak in that DBZ reference.
The last major change is that the villains will not attack till the end of the week, that might not have been clear but I want to give them some time to actually train and relax as they have been through some shit lately from the whole mess with Stain to the attack on I-island so yeah, the villain's plan is to first lay in wait and study them all before moving in which will take some time to do without alerting Ragdoll to their presence.
I couldn't find Nana Shimura's hero name so I made one up, if they do end up revealing what her chosen hero name was in the manga at a later date, don't get your hopes up as I'll only change it when it happens in the anime as I don't read the manga so don't try and attack me later for this.
With Jiro though, I wanted her to reveal that she's been looking into what she had heard on I-island to be just as surprising to you guys as it was to Midoriya and Tetsutetsu as I'm sure many of you forgot that she was there when those cryptic details were spoken. As to why she couldn't find anything of substance about All Might's life, I'm going on the assumption that the government and UA have covered up a lot of details surrounding him as we saw in the first episode of season 4 that the media doesn't know a lot about him as if they did, that reporter might have brought up his time at UA and maybe who he trained under. It makes sense though as with most other pros, it wouldn't be hard to google them and find out a lot about them from their families to even how their quirks work, so for them to mask as much of his past as possible only serves the interest of pros as it makes it hard for anyone really to theorize just what All Might's deal is as even a total here nerd like Midoriya didn't even know about his injury, how his quirk worked or even bits about his personal life.
One last thing though is that I want to make it clear that All Might is older than Endeavour, I say this since we know that both went to UA but we have no evidence that they ever met while there, all we know is that once Endeavour reached the number 2 spot at the ridiculously young age of 20, he stayed there till All Might was forced into retirement. I would like to imagine that Endeavour at least spent some years trying to surpass his rival the normal way before he settled on his plan to make a kid that would do it for him. We know the ages of his kids so we can tell that he was 22 when his first child was born, which means he had been the number for around 3 years(which makes his saltiness over it sound even worse as I thought it was at least 5 years before he threw in the towel) Long story short, in this story, I'm making All Might 7 years older than Endeavour as it would allow for the two to have never met while in UA, and give All Might the time to rise to the top rankings before Endeavour eve finished high school. So at this point, All Might is 52, which is quite old for someone in that kind of work.
Now, reviews:
D3lph0xL0v3r: You know she would never tell, and I'll keep what happening with Sam secret…for now.
NinjaFang1331: Thanks.
Blaze1992: Considering that many of them don't have physically augmenting quirks, I doubt they would have changed things up for the one quirkless kid as nobody got hurt in cannon, and someone like Aizawa would have not done so for the bonus point that he expects his students to always be ready to act(he does drill it into them often that life isn't fair and pros need to be able to address that), so it would have been on Midoriya if he wasn't prepared for such.
RatherFu: I know that it was a reference to Brawl Stars.
Jhspzhihzahyk: Is it my first language, which I know, makes the mistakes even worse but at the time, I had heard that Thirteen didn't have a confirmed gender, which is why I kept writing it like that. Yes, I know I was wrong and yes I will not make the same mistakes. The bath scene with Mineta was kept mainly since Mineta is still working on his self-control, and because it reminded me of a scene with another prev from Naruto, Jiraiya.
Guest: If this isn't what you like to read, you can always leave.
mckertis: The pot calling the kettle black.
TeraelinII: Hmmm, close it's like a mix of Falcon Civil War and Vulture from Homecoming. His work does improve as he progresses his training and gains more experience though.
Francisco Cosper: Thanks.
Guest: Yeah, the first few chapters are a mess which I will own as I didn't have a beta reader or make use of Grammarly for them.
1 love m4gic: They don't know all that much really as whenever he spoke, it was through a voice changer and his costume is very different to what it used to be, mainly due to its much more compact size. Plus, they have no info on what this mysterious vigilante's quirk is and he's registered as quirkless. Of course, someone like Nezu might have some ideas but that would require that he was brought onto the investigation which would have been rather unlikely.
Zukafew119: Well, he relies on support gear rather than a quirk so it wouldn't make sense for him to not work on that while at camp. With the pranks, they will be on full display in the next chapter. With 1-B, it wouldn't make sense if they weren't given a similar test to make it to camp. The battle part needed to be changed to fit the different situations but I think I did okay. Shoto isn't even trying to be funny or mean when he says most of that stuff, which makes it better as he is just curious and honest. As I said before, I kept the bath thing with Mineta since he's more along the lines of Jiraiya prev than cool and popular Kakashi prev at this point. And because it allows me to have included that mess to happen.
TheRealShenron: Funny enough, I want to read a story where Midoriya and Tomura have a conversation and discover that they knew each other from before the USJ by their online usernames. Could you imagine who pissed he would get if Izuku was that one guy that could always beat you in a match, like from afar, one shot with a sniper?
KingKaper:…
greenarrow679: Please keep in mind that this is them back in season 2, and while they have a rough idea on how the other quirk works, Tokage is extremely smart and like Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, is a recommendations student. Could Sero have won that match? Yes, but she wouldn't give him the chance to in a 1v1.
helrio uzugaku: Again, I know, the first 12 chapters have that issue I think.