AN: Sorry for the absence.

Cover Art made by vivsss_g

Also, Pony's height has been changed to be taller in this story, Aizawa teaches 1B and Inasa is in U.A. and in Class 1B.

Be sure to leave feedback if you please

Special Thanks to Arioses for beta reading.

Chapter 21

It was already past school hours and Matvey was standing by the entrance of Ground Omega. Having talked with his homeroom teacher about the villain attack at USJ during the lunch break, Matvey agreed to train with him after school as over.

He was reluctant at first, but it was essential to find out more about his quirk. So he needs to get past his bitter feelings towards his teacher and just accept the help.

While he was somewhat willing to work with Aizawa, he could not say that about Neito Monoma, who always took the opportunity to try and bring him down. Unfortunately for Matvey, it looked like he was going to have to deal with him.

Monoma was in his gym uniform, standing next to his homeroom teacher, wearing a long sleeve black t shirt and black sweatpants, which looked very similar to his usual attire. The long messy black hair that usually draped over his shoulders was wrapped in an equally messy ponytail.

"Sorry I'm late. Your classmate here wanted to tag along on our session and I needed to wait for him to change," Aizawa explained as he pointed a thumb at the blond student.

"I should apologize to you as well Matvey, hopefully you didn't wait too long for me," Monoma apologized in a well disguised disingenuous tone.

Matvey put on a fake smile of his own to match Monoma honest apology, "Oh it's no problem at all Monoma, but I'm just curious on as to why you're here? It was supposed to be a session between just me and Mr. Aizawa," Matvey questioned.

"He came to me wanting to train before the sports festival. I was about to deny him at first, but then I remembered his quirk and thought that he would be helpful in learning more about your quirk," Aizawa explained as he made his way into the forest where he would train the two.

Monoma started doing some quick stretches to prep himself for the training session, "That's right! Figure that I help myself and also help my classmate in learning more about their own quirk," Monoma added, making sure to emphasize the last bit of his response.

The copy quirk user then began to walk into the forest as the Russian Angel soon followed after him, seething from the inside as the session he was supposed to have with his least favorite teacher now included Monoma, a classmate he just couldn't stand.

…

The three of them made their way into the vast forest. It wasn't a long walk per say, but it seemed like they were already pretty far away from the school grounds, while surrounded by tons of trees.

The sun had been blocked by the trees and its massive branches in the well shaded forest.

The two students didn't want to show it at first, but after a while they started to grow doubtful of their teacher's sense of orientation, the deeper they ventured into the forest, with no clear end in sight.

"Uh… do you know where you're going? If you want, I could just fly us to where you want to take us," Matvey proposed.

"I know this forest like the back of my hand, just keep following me," Aizawa bluntly responded.

They kept on walking. As they made their way through the forest, Matvey looked up and began to think.

'Maybe this is karma… for starting the whole argument with him. But either way, it's just one training session, just get through it and you might learn more about what your quirk is capable of.'

…

After some more walking through the forest, they finally reached their destination. They were taken to a seemingly random place in the forest where a big open space surrounded by the usual trees, emerged out of nowhere. The April sun was shining down into the open area, bringing to light the serene looking spot.

"And we're here," Aizawa announced as he went and checked the time on his watch.

As a teacher, it was Aizawa's job to ensure that his students were properly educated for their future success and he had no problem in taking time out of his day to help his students, but he also wanted them to learn on their own. Training with their fellow classmates and only turn to him for help if they were really stuck. He wanted to make this session quick one, while also making sure that the two students could train by themselves.

"So, it's about 4:15 now. We're going to spend at the most an hour and fifteen minutes here before I send you two on your way. Got it?" Aizawa briefed.

Matvey rose his hand up, "Um, so will this still be some kind of private session? Because I know you said that you invited Monoma to help me with my quirk, but I have to imagine that he'll be doing some work with you to develop his own quirk right?"

"Correct," Aizawa answered with a nod, "We're going to start with Monoma copying your quirk and seeing if either of you two can replicate what you did back at USJ. Then after, I'll be working with Monoma to see if he can expand the time he has when he copies a quirk."

"Sounds good!" Monoma replied, eager to get started.

Matvey still didn't like the fact that Monoma was here, but there was no use in complaining now. He was going to be the bigger person and not let Monoma get to him.

"… No problems here," Matvey added.

"Good. Now Monoma, copy Matvey's quirk and we can get started," Aizawa ordered as he took a seat on a large rock in the middle of the open field.

The displeased Russian was listening to Aizawa give out instructions and the next thing he knew, a hand had roughly latched onto his shoulder.

"Got it," Monoma said as he acquired Matvey's Angel Wings quirk.

"Good, now bring them out," Aizawa instructed.

"Alright," Monoma said as he took off his jacket and white undershirt and stretched his arms out, as he tried to bring out Matvey's Angel Wings.

Both Matvey and Aizawa watched on as Monoma concentrated on copying the quirk. They didn't have to watch for long as Monoma was able to form them without much trouble. There was a pink and glowing outline of Matvey's tall wings on his back and then the glowing went away as on Monoma's back his pink Angel Wings appeared.

"There!" Monoma grinned.

The wings on Monoma's back were exactly the same color as Matvey's hair, snuffing out the Angel's expectation of seeing his Angel Wings be the same color of blond as Monoma's hair.

"So I guess when you copy quirks, they don't truly become your own then," Matvey pondered.

"Well yeah, I just copy them. With every quirk I copy, I have to follow their set of rules, limitations and barriers. All quirks are different and unique to one another so I have to be careful with what I copy," Monoma answered.

"That's just to be expected," Aizawa inserted, "Your body isn't capable of utilizing every quirk that you copy. That's the reason why you didn't use Kojiro's Cemedine quirk during the Battle Trials. Kojiro's body is different from yours and you didn't know how your body would react to it."

Matvey snickered at the realization of what his teacher had said to Monoma, "So that's why you just forfeited the match. You were afraid to poop glue?"

Monoma took offense to Matvey's uncouth comments and gave the Russian a snide grin in retort, "Aren't you afraid that I'll get a better grasp on your own quirk."

Matvey scoffed in response and gave Monoma a unworried smirk, "That won't be happening. You barely had my quirk for a minute, and you think you can use it better than me?"

Aizawa watched on as the two kept bickering, effectively holding up the training session time.

While still sitting on the rock, the teacher rolled his eyes and spoke to move the lesson along.

"Well let's find out. Matvey bring your wings out and we'll start with the training session."

Matvey made sure to take off his U.A. gym jacket and t-shirt before forming his wings.

"I'm sure you already know this, but you can fill out an alterations sheet and make it, so your gym and school uniform accommodate your quirk, right?" Aizawa informed Matvey.

There was a flexible dress code when it came to the gym uniforms, mainly put in place due to the quirks some of the students have.

The Russian student just shrugged his shoulders, "Meh, it would look weird to have two giant holes on the back of my uniforms, and besides, it's March and the weather is only going to get warmer, so going shirtless here isn't that much of a problem… right?"

"It's not against school conduct, but when the wintertime comes, I better not hear you whining about you being cold," Aizawa warned.

"Understood," Matvey replied as he took a seat on the ground.

"So, I'm guessing all the clothes you have aren't made for your quirk then?" Monoma asked as he then took a seat on the ground.

"Nope, and with me training to be a hero, I know I should get some eventually, but truthfully, the clothes they make specifically for people with wings are… not very good to say the least. They weren't good in Russia and it's the same way here in Japan."

"And you haven't thought of cutting holes in the back of your clothes?" Monoma asked further.

Matvey shook his head adamantly, "No way. The clothes I have are to high quality to take a pair of scissors to cut holes in them. The thought of cutting a designer shirt or jacket of mine gives me the chills. Besides, I can make my wings go away… it's not like my wings are always out."

"I don't mind you two conversating with one another, but just so you know, it is cutting into your time Matvey," Aizawa informed.

"Okay. Sorry," Matvey apologized.

"Alright, have either of you two meditated or done yoga before?" The homeroom teacher asked.

"No," Monoma replied.

"I did, but it's been like… years since I last did either," Matvey answered, his experience coming from his training in foreign lands.

"Well seeing on how you have experience Matvey, you can get started on your own at the other end of the field while I get started with Monoma here."

"Okay."

Matvey got up from the ground and went to where Aizawa directed him.

He took a seat and got into a Quarter Lotus position. With his eyes closed and back turned from the others, Matvey took deep and focused breaths to ensure that he can truly get himself relaxed.

'It's been a while since I last did this. Hopefully this helps in bringing out my halo.'

Matvey decided to zone his mind in on the sound of the rustling trees around him.

'Wait… I can't think about the halo. Just think about this moment at this time.'

With help from the trees, he allowed his mind to drift away.

…

He wasn't sure of the time that had passed. He did his best to just focus on the meditating he was doing.

With the rustling trees acting as music for the pink haired teen, he visualized a piece of styrofoam floating down a river. A weird visualization, but one his father helped paint for him when he was training him some time back. At least it worked.

The styrofoam river visualization was abruptly stopped when Matvey felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

"Forgot to turn you off," Matvey said to his phone, as if it were alive.

He reached into his pocket and saw that he had received a few texts from his father. The messages were all in Japanese, reminding him to train his best before the sports festival.

Matvey chuckled a little. It was somewhat ironic that Matvey was currently doing something that he thought wouldn't really benefit him during the sports festival.

"Your dad sends you messages of support, and you laugh?" A voice said from behind Matvey.

Matvey cranks his neck to look over his shoulder and sees his teacher hunched over him.

"Hey! What are you doing eavesdropping on me!?" Matvey asked, understandably upset by the breach of privacy.

"What are you doing on your phone when you should be meditating?' Aizawa countered.

Matvey let out a frustrated sigh and put his phone back into his pocket, "I forgot to turn it off before we started. I'm about to get back to it now."

"No need, I want you to train with Monoma for a little bit."

Matvey flashed his eyebrows in confusion, "Train with Monoma? For what? Aren't we still meditating?"

Aizawa could tell just from the questions that Matvey had no desire to help his classmate.

"I made a mistake on my part, I meant to bring a pitching machine for our session, and I forgot it at the school, So, I have to go back for it."

"Pitching machine?" Matvey echoed.

"It's to train you on your flying ability. We'll get back to the meditation, but your training today won't just be on bringing out your halo." Aizawa imparted before he started walking away from Matvey.

Matvey was slow to get up off the ground, not at all interested in helping his smug classmate.

He walked over to his classmate, who had his usual cocky grin on his face, enjoying Matvey's irritation to its fullest.

"So, what exactly are we going to be doing?" Matvey asked his teacher, not taking his eyes off Monoma even for a moment.

Aizawa was nearly out of the open area, when he turned around to answer Matvey.

"Without the use of any quirks, you two will be sparing."

Matvey's expression changed at hearing what his teacher wanted them to do.

With a thrilled face, he took his eyes off Monoma and looked back at his teacher with excitement, "For real?"

"Not really," Aizawa responded crushingly, "Monoma will be on the offensive, throwing punches while you Matvey, will be dodging and blocking his attacks. You're a much more experienced fighter than he is, so just help him recognize his flaws and how he can improve. I should be back in 15 minutes."

Matvey was actually expecting to be the one attacking Monoma, so it was rather deflating to learn that he would only be allowed to dodge and block Monoma's attacks.

The black-haired teacher then started to disappear into the forest, leaving the students to themselves.

Matvey turned his gaze from his teacher back to Monoma bringing out his biggest, smuggest grin yet.

"Are you ready… teacher?" Monoma asked not even hiding his mocking tone.

Matvey just sighed and got into a defensive stance, "… Do your worst.

…

From the start of their sparring, Monoma did all he could to land a direct hit onto Matvey and the pink haired Russian was left a little surprised from his classmates' performance. It wasn't a secret that Matvey was better than Monoma in terms of hand-to-hand combat and Monoma was making some rookie mistakes in how he went about attacking, but he at least showed that he had some fighting knowledge.

He had thrown many strikes at Matvey and none of them landed. Monoma expected that he would at least land something on the taller student, but that wasn't the case.

While dodging, blocking, and checking the attacks, Matvey snickered at the blond, "I'm actually surprised. I didn't know someone like you had any experience with actual fighting. Guess that's why you ranked seventh in the recommendations huh?"

The usually smug Monoma was showing his focused and intense side, just doing anything he can to land something on the Russian Angel, while getting frustrated the longer he failed.

Monoma's cardio wasn't as good as Matvey's either as he beginning to show signs of fatigue while Matvey still had plenty to spare.

"You must not know that I was childhood friends with Kendo. When I was younger, I would train at her dad's dojo," Monoma disclosed tiredly.

"Yeah, I can tell you've been taken some Karate lessons at a dojo, but I'm going to guess that it's been a while since you last went there."

The blond quirked a curious eyebrow while still throwing strikes, "What makes you say that? -"

As soon as Monoma asked his question, in what was like a flash, Matvey stepped forward at him at a rightish angle, and the next thing Monoma knew, an elbow was coming straight towards his face with frightening speed. There wasn't much time for Monoma to block the attack, as all he could do was brace himself.

Monoma flinched and closed his eyes as he was expected to get hit hard.

However, the attack, thankfully, never came.

Monoma slowly opened his eyes and was greeted with the sight of Matvey's elbow in what might be a mere inch or two away from his nose.

Matvey nearly hit Monoma with a spinning back elbow, but he was able to stop himself from actually connecting it, while he kept the pose with his elbow right before Monoma's face to make a point.

"You've been mostly coming at me in just a straight line and from just watching you, it looks like you wouldn't expect me to come at you from either side," Matvey explained before getting out of the pose.

Monoma did his best to regain his composure as he was still recovering from Matvey last "attack".

"Now, do you want to go for round 2 or would you like to take a breather?" Matvey asked the panting Monoma.

Monoma didn't much appreciate getting shown up like that, especially from someone like Matvey.

The copy quirk user chuckled at his taller pink haired classmate and began to golf clap in a sarcastic fashion, "Real badass display there Matvey. Is your fighting ability going to be your claim to fame? Do you plan on just beating up someone in every situation?"

Matvey furrowed his brows at what Monoma was saying, "What? No. Obviously I have my wings that can save people, and I also can heal people. I just need to learn how to-"

"Yeah, yeah," Monoma said, flapping his hands to dismiss what Matvey was saying, "You're missing the key component that makes a hero."

The copy quirk user began to poke at the side of his head, "and I'm talking about the intellect. Something that you don't possess."

Matvey rolled his eyes, "Right, and your amazing intellect is the reason why you almost got knocked out by me isn't it?"

Monoma gave the Angel his usual smug grin, "You're still missing the point. There's more to being a hero than knocking people out and saving them. Heroes also carry out operations, covert missions, things that require deep planning and effective strategies, which like I said, you for sure aren't capable of."

Matvey pinched the bridge of his nose, getting old from listening to Monoma's petty ramblings. Ramblings that he himself may have played a role in starting.

"So what? Do you want to teach me or something?" Matvey asked.

Monoma scoffed while placing his hand over his collarbone "Well Matvey, I'm flattered that you would even be interested in me teaching you."

"I just asked a question, it wasn't a-"

Monoma put his finger in the air and cut Matvey off, "But I accept! After all, what kind of student would I be if I don't help out a classmate of mine."

'The type of student who'd ruin a private session of mine,' Matvey sneered in his mind.

"Well let's save that helping of yours for another day and get back to me making you look like a fool with every strike you throw," Matvey said, stretching his arms and legs to prepare for their second round.

Monoma just stood there and brought his hand to his chin and looked to be considering something, "Nah I'd rather not,"

Matvey raised a brow, "You'd rather not? Why? Am I hurting your pride when I block everything you dish out?"

Monoma shook his head, "No that's not it. It's just… I know that I'm nowhere near your level when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, so instead of me trying to attack you, why don't you teach me?"

Matvey looked at his classmate confused. Did he hear that correctly?

"I did say that I would teach you on planning and strategies, it's only fair that I get something out of it in return," Monoma reasoned.

Matvey narrowed his eyes at Monoma and sighed in frustration, "Fine, if you're willing to actually learn from me then I can teach you. What do you want to learn exactly?"

"The basics. It's been about 2 years since I last been seriously trained in the art of fighting, so let's start from the beginning."

Monoma did say something that he had trained with Kendo when he was younger, so Matvey hoped that he catches on quick.

"Okay… so from what I saw when you were trying to attack me, it's best if we start with stance and posture."

…

It was an annoying trip back, but with his automated and sentient U.A. owned pitching machine now secured, Aizawa had all the time of the world time to think.

He had hoped that this private session he had would help the Russian student, but it's tough to do so when you don't know where to really start. The only thing they were going on was theories and assumptions.

He even thought that if he can have Monoma copy the Angel's quirk then perhaps he could bring back whatever Matvey did at the USJ attack. From the short time they meditated, nothing happened. This was going to take some time to replicate, and he didn't expect results immediately anyway.

He and the machine were making their way through the trees only to be stopped in his tracks when he saw what looked like Matvey teaching Monoma the basics of combat.

The Russian was speaking to Monoma and was giving him a quick rundown of posture, it seemed.

The two haven't seen him yet, so Aizawa decided to turn off the pitching machine and stand back and let Matvey teach Monoma for a bit. While Matvey wasn't the smartest student in terms of academics, his knowledge of martial arts was vast for someone so young, so Aizawa was interested to see how he bestows knowledge onto his peers.

Not to mention, he could sense that the two students had some ill-will towards each other since the beginning of the year, so coming back to see his two students suddenly learn together was a welcoming surprise for him and he didn't want to interfere with it so soon.

He looked down at his watch to check the time.

'I'll give them about five more minutes, before I start with the next exercise…'

…

Matvey was skeptical of Monoma actually wanting to learn from him, but his worries were quickly thrown away when he found out how surprisingly open Monoma was to learning.

The copy quirk user absorbed Matvey's advice and instructions like a sponge and adjusted his form accordingly, but as time went on, he wanted to get onto the more interesting parts what Matvey could actually teach him.

"I have to be honest; I think we can go a little higher up in terms of what you can teach me. I can feel the lessons I had back when I was younger starting to come back," Monoma recalled, hands on his hips from the monotonous lessons of posture.

Matvey raised an eyebrow, curious what Monoma wanted to learn next from him. Their teacher hasn't returned yet, which was strange on its own, but Matvey didn't worry too much. Regardless, he was willing to help train Monoma with whatever free time they had now.

"You want to go up? What did you have in mind?"

As soon as Matvey finished his question, he held his left open hand in the air in an instant and was able to easily catch the fist coming for his face.

Monoma tried to land a surprise punch on Matvey, but his pink haired classmate saw it coming and stopped it with ease, stunning the young blond man. He believed that Matvey's guard was down during their conversation and that now was the perfect time to strike.

The blond narrowed his eyes at Matvey and clicked his tongue in disappointment.

Matvey on the other hand had an emotionless look on his face, while he still held onto Monoma's hand.

"… I'm guessing you want to do striking next?"

Monoma sighed and pulled his fist from Matvey's grasp, "… Yes."

Matvey chuckled at Monoma's reaction, failing once again to land a hit on him, "Alright. You said that you trained at Taichi Kendo's dojo right? Now I wasn't trained in karate, but I'll try to make up with what I teach you, by showing you something similar to what you might have used back then."

"Don't speak to me as if I'm some child. Couldn't you tell from my attacks that I'm at least somewhat knowledgeable in hand-to-hand combat?" Monoma protested.

"Yeah, and like I said, you also showed that you were rusty," Matvey explained tartly, getting slightly annoyed with Monoma questioning his decision. "Now, I would usually start off with some practice jabs and crosses, but with Mr. Aizawa probably coming back at any second, we'll also add movement to it as well. Let's work on doing some movement with combination jabs and crosses."

As he gave out the instruction, Matvey extended his arms out and opened his hands to Monoma, "Since, we don't have any pads for you to hit, just hit my hands and sidestep, I will follow along with you."

Monoma stared at hands of his classmate, uncertain of the idea he proposed, "… You believe your hands are a good substitute for pads? Seriously?"

Matvey nodded his head and chuckled, "Yeah, I'm sure I'll be fine мелкая сошка." (melkaya soshka)

The blond raised an eyebrow, "What did you say?"

Matvey waved his still open hands dismissively, "Ah, it is nothing, just something my father used to call me when we first did some pad work."

"… And what does it mean?" Monoma asked again more sternly, curious on as to what Matvey called him.

"… It means small fry," Matvey admitted sheepishly, which in turn made Monoma tick, "but my dad would call me all kinds of shit when we trained, some were funny and some… hurt. It would get to the point that the trainers that he would send me off to and their students would call me what my dad calls me. Looking back, I think he told them all to call me names." Matvey rambled on.

Monoma hadn't the slightest interest in Matvey's memories with his father. He just stared at the pink haired Russian who was now looking up at the sky recounting his past. It got tiring after a while hearing Matvey's rambling, as Monoma just wanted to practice before their teacher returned.

He slipped out a quiet sigh and rolled his eyes in a big fashion before speaking up. Or he would have if his eyes weren't shot wide open at what was happening, when he returned his gaze back at the pink-haired boy.

Whatever it was the Matvey was saying went out of Monoma's ears as all of his focus and attention was given to the glowing pink halo floating right above his classmate's head.

AN: And there's the 21st. So, I actually had much more written out than what it is written out here, but I decided to save the rest and add more for Chapter 22.

Like I added in the beginning authors note, sorry for the wait and you can expect Chapter 22 to come soon. I also plan on making some minor changes to the previous chapters as well.

It's pretty cool mapping out Matvey quirk progression and I hope you all are enjoying it.

Please leave a review if you want to do so.

If you're enjoying the story, fav/follow if you're on FF and leave some kudos/bookmark the story if you're on AO3.

Til next time, take care!