A/N: Training chapter! Training chapter! TRAINING CHAPTER! AND 60,000 TOTAL VIEWS! I'M NOT WORTHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
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*Ahem!* Sorry about that. I have a bit of an obsession with Shonen training arcs. When they're done right, they can be one of the most enjoyable things about a show/manga. Speaking of which, why was the bulk of the training left out of Volume 5? WHY?! IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO DO! Well, maybe to animate, but not to write!
That said, I hope you enjoy the chapter! Feel free to give criticism in the reviews! I'm certainly not perfect, and if you think I could improve in a particular aspect, please call it out. I honestly don't have enough words in my vocabulary to thank you guys enough for the support you've shown this story. I'll do what I can to live up to your expectations!
Review Responses:
Guest: Err... well... that's kinda spoiler territory. Sorry, but you'll just have to wait and see. But I promise that if it does happen (and that is a very big IF at the moment) it won't be played up for shock value. Those two *SPOILERS* affected everyone involved, so I don't want to play it up for shock value.
Guest 3 (you'll see why): Yes. While I'm still trying to catch up on the manga, from what little I've seen of those two they need to be in this story at some point.
Red John: It's pronounced Mountain (I know, the team name spelling gets confusing for me too) but Mint is actually a really good idea for a team name. Maybe I should've used that instead?
Actually, this one's up to you guys. Should the Big Three (not to be confused with this story's 'Big Four,' I mean the ones from the HeroAca canon) be renamed to Mint (MNT)? Or should they keep the name Mountain (MTN)? Let me know! I'll rename it to whichever one gets the most votes in the reviews. Speaking of-
The rest of the review responses are going to be at the bottom of the chapter since they're so long and I didn't want to miss any details. Seeya down there!
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.
I do not own the cover image
Chapter 29: Lessons and Leaps
The roars and cheers of the crowd drowned out almost all other sounds within the coliseum as the first of the doubles matchup was announced through the bellowing, deep voice of Peter Port. Izuku and Tenya sat next to RWBY as the former silently prepped his notebooks, specifically hoping to get a look at Mercury's fighting style to possibly take a few moves and improve his own. If nothing else, this tournament was proving to be quite the place for fight analysis. JNPR was currently elsewhere, likely giving just as much support to their two friends as they were.
"Emerald and Mercury of Haven! Versus! Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon!" They heard the aforementioned potbellied teacher announce as two aforementioned pairs stood opposite from each other, the arena beginning to randomize the terrain while the pairs minorly conversed. What they were conversing about, Izuku did not know, he was simply waiting for the fight to start and scribble down notes.
The roulettes eventually came to a stop on various terrains, stopping on a savanna plain filled with tall grass, a small patch of forest and greenery, a patch of rough, rocky terrain with various superheated water geysers scattered throughout, and what looked to be a set of ruined buildings. Emerald and Mercury then slowly backed into the tall grass of the savanna, their forms disappearing from sight almost immediately.
Coco, however, had the perfect solution to this, shifting Cream and Sugar into its minigun form and, in a bit of an unorthodox way, mowed down the grass to the point that no one would be able to hide in it. When she'd finished the job, a few stray bullets hit the forcefield. As they echoed on the invisible barrier, she yelled, "Sorry about that!" as her weapon cooled down from the spray.
"You really should be more careful when you shoot that many rounds, Coco," Yatsu said as he prepared his greatsword for the confrontation that was soon to happen.
"I know, I know, it's a problem. Grimm don't exactly take much aiming to hit with this thing, ya know," Coco replied as she too readied her weapon. The opposing pair didn't reveal themselves for a rather disorienting amount of time, causing the two that were visible to glance around for a few seconds, trying to find their intended marks before suddenly, Mercury came back into view as he dropped in from above.
Yatsu then pushed his leader out of the way as he raised his greatsword and blocked the incoming blow from Mercury head on, a loud echo of what could almost be mistaken for thunder echoing throughout the arena from the impact point. The gunmetal haired boy then leapt off of Yatsu's greatsword and, with a rather fancy display of acrobatics, landed about forty feet away from them with his combat stance at the ready.
"That was one strong attack. Hmm... maybe I should be taking notes as well?" Tenya said under his breath.
"I wouldn't worry about that, Spectacles. Greenie's got it covered," Yang said as she gestured to Izuku, who sat between the two as he continued his note-taking frenzy as the fight continued, his eyes clearly following Mercury as he continued to lay waste to the duo in close quarters. To be clear, Izuku did want Coco and Yatsu to win, but whenever he saw an opportunity to collect useful information, he took it.
Blake then began to comment, "They are pretty detailed-" before their attention was then brought back to the fight when Mercury managed to get both of them into a grapple, causing Coco's minigun to be pointed directly into Yatsu's stomach. This only caused Coco to get pissed, turning Cream & Sugar back into a handbag and then attempted to backhand Mercury with it, causing him to flip backward in order to avoid the blow, then launching two rockets from his boots that the pair in front of him managed to deflect without too much effort.
However, this only gave the gunmetal themed boy time to charge up one of his more forceful attacks. It was seemingly meant to be used as an all or nothing move, but as he launched the volley towards his opponents, it was clear that it was meant more as a smokescreen of sorts, and as they recovered from the volley, Mercury had plenty of time to zoom behind them with hardly a sound beneath his feet, grabbing the pairs arms and splitting them for what would be a rather relentless and brutal beatdown.
"Damn, that's gotta hurt," Yang said as she and the others, with the exception of Izuku (in the midst of his note-taking frenzy), winced audibly as the gunmetal themed boy kicked the absolute crap out of Coco, finishing his attack with a well-placed kick to the back of her head, forcing Coco to land rather painfully onto her back.
"She'll be okay. Coco took way worse when we were training at Torino's," Ruby said before the aforementioned beret sporting girl then had a lengthy chain wrapped around her lower torso and was pulled into the heavily obscured forest, which allowed almost no view of the two combatants within, causing her to gain a worrisome expression once more.
"Yatsu, look out!" Tenya tried to warn the swordsman too late as the kick that Mercury aimed at his head struck true, though this gave him no impediment as he grabbed his attacker out of the air and swung him towards the geyser filled terrain before jumping up into the air and slamming his greatsword into his opponent with a great, echoing clash as the edge of his blade met the soles of Mercury's boots, causing a shockwave to flash out from them and split various cracks into the ground as the pressure caused the steam beneath them to partially erupt from a few of the cracks and several of the proper geysers.
"Come on Yatsu! You can do it!" Velvet yelled with rather intense enthusiasm, her teammate focusing intently on the forest as he tried his best to observe his partner's fight with Emerald. Meanwhile, Yatsu and Mercury exchanged various attacks, the swordsman trying the best he could to block and counter the martial artist's kicks with timed slashes and strafes, which worked until the steel botted boy managed to get past Yatsu's sword and backflip-kick him straight in the chin, causing him to fall back onto the rocky terrain. This also placed his head almost perfectly over one of the vents, where he was promptly blasted with steam, blinding the swordsman as he rose from the ground. He managed to shake off the blindness only for Mercury to run up to him, flip, and ax kick the swordsman straight in the face, simultaneously breaking his Aura.
"Okay, forget what I said earlier; he's probably gonna be feeling that for a week, at least," Yang said as she visibly flinched at the impact, taking note of the attack as something to look out for in the future. If it could break someone's Aura like that, she'd hate to see what would happen if it was taken straight on.
Izuku sighed heavily as he closed his notebook, his notetaking frenzy now floating to the back of his thoughts to go over at a later time. As he refocused, he was suddenly filled with frustration that Yatsu hadn't won. Yes, he was a data analyst at heart, but they were his friends, and it upset him to see them lose. Hopefully Coco cold pull through.
Oh crap, Coco! Izuku thought as he scanned the treeline for the coffee themed girl, his worry only growing when he found no trace of either combatant within the forest. C'mon, where is she-
It was almost at this exact same, ironic moment, that Izuku received a splitting headache, causing him to screw his eyes shut and put his hands to his forehead in an attempt to quell the pain. When he managed to open his eyes again, the environment seemed to be almost bleached into a dull, undetailed gray, to the point that he almost thought that night had come far too early. Then he noticed that throughout the crowd, there were burning flames of white, specifically towards the middle of their torsos. A brief shift of his gave showed him a few of his friends; but theirs weren't unidentifiable flames, not even close. Theirs encased their entire bodies, a bright display and diversity of color now present before him.
However, he had no time to see which color belonged to whom, as his attention was again brought down to the arena where Coco was still fighting. Once he managed to identify her; a rather loud and outspoken shade of bronze being her color; the green haired boy saw what looked to be some kind of apparition behind her; of what or who he didn't know. All he did know was that it was distracting her and her actual opponent was elsewhere in the forest, off to her right to be specific, and beginning to angle themselves behind her.
He tried to call out to her, warn her of the impending danger that she couldn't see. But as he attempted to open his mouth, the pain came back, causing him to screw his eyes shut once more. When he managed to open the again, Coco had already been flung out of the forest and into the open ring where Yatsu also laid, both with broken Auras and currently unconscious.
"-eenie? Hey, Greenie!" Yang tried to get the boy's attention, succeeding this time as Izuku snapped his attention towards the blonde with a bit of a fearful and confused look in his gaze, which then turned to concern as he asked, "What's wrong?"
The blonde brawler sighed as she said, "That's what I just asked you. You were staring off into space, and you weren't responding to anyone. You okay?"
"… yeah. I'm alright," Izuku said, feeling incredibly guilty as he nearly lied through his teeth to one of the only people he cared about like family (and the only one he maybe cared for much more than that). It wasn't that he didn't want to tell anyone what just happened, but rather that if he did, they probably wouldn't believe him. I mean, a headache and suddenly you're seeing people's souls and Aura? Yeah, right. Who the hell would believe that?
… well, more than a few people, actually. If, say, someone like Franken Stein of the Big Four were here and Izuku told him this, he'd likely be tempted to... 'examine' him.
.
..
…
Moving on!
"We should go and check on them," Fox said with a comforting hand placed on his teammate's shoulder, continuing, "They're probably gonna be a bit depressed after a defeat like that."
"… okay," Velvet answered, sounding a bit depressed herself as they stood and walked to the infirmary, where their teammates were currently being taken.
"Should we...?" Ruby asked, not entirely sure what to do in this type of situation.
"No. It's not our place to interfere. This is a team matter, we should let them handle it," Tenya answered, though internally he too wished to help them through the defeat they'd just suffered through.
"Actually, do you know where Shoto is? He got a call earlier and got this... almost furious look in his eye, and I'm kinda worried about him," Izuku asked after his partner.
"I can't rightly say. I did see him earlier, but I assumed he'd be here for the fight, at least. Well, that leaves two of our teammates unaccounted for, now," Tenya answered.
"Wait, Mr. McSplodySplode isn't here?" Yang asked in surprise, then looking at his usual spots (he hated sitting next to any of them) only to find all of them empty. She knew that the ashen blonde wasn't the easiest person to get along with, but she did know that he'd never miss a fight like this, especially for people he kind of, sort of, maybe respected.
"That's surprising. He's a brute, but he's certainly not stupid. He would've at least used this fight to gain some form of analysis on Mercury and Emerald. Maybe not the way Izuku can, but he'd gather data nonetheless," Weiss said, both complementing and insulting Bakugo at the same time.
"Well, whatever he's doing, I hope it's not getting him into trouble," Blake said as she sweatdropped, sensing that he was somewhere doing just that.
(somewhere in Vale, around the same time, Bakugo's POV)
"So what if I'm a faunus? I've had a really bad day, and I just want some fucking ice cream. What's so hard to understand about that?" Bakugo asked the vendor with a rather impatient look on his face.
"Look, I don't know how many times I have to say this to be perfectly clear: I don't serve your kind here. Now leave," the man said again with a serious tone in his voice. Man, was everyone from Mistral this racist?
… well, the teams he'd met from there certainly weren't, but that wasn't helping the situation!
"Urgh! Fine! Racist asshole..." Bakugo muttered the last part under his breath as he walked away from the vendor with an angry stomp in his step, almost hearing the chuckle that may or may not have been under the man's breath.
After a few more seconds of angry steps, the ashen blonde then felt a tug on his shoulder. He turned with an annoyed huff, suddenly finding that the one trying to get his attention was about a whole foot shorter than him (with heels, no less!), and currently shoving an ice cream cone in front of his face.
Rather confused at that point, he took the cone from the person's outstretched hand and got a better look at this person who'd made a rather unexpected show of kindness towards him, of all people, though he was skeptical. She was fairly young, maybe a year or two younger than him by her facial features, with black hair held in bushy twin tails by white bows with a few lighter streaks on her right side and piercing green eyes just a shade darker than Izuku's that didn't quite seem to suit her. Her clothes consisted of a sleeveless black blouse with white frills on her chest and collar area with a black ribbon bow hanging from the front of the collar, giving her a somewhat 'cutesy' appearance; or at least, that's what she was going for. The blouse exposed her midriff, up to about her mid-stomach, and she wore medium-length black armbands on both of her wrists, which ended at around her mid-forearm. She also wore a knee-length, black and gray sailor skirt fastened with a white belt, along with black shoes with triple tomoe emblems on the soles, with white legwarmers the ran up to her mid-thigh. In short (pun not quite intended): she was a young woman who was trying to look innocent yet sexy, and likely succeeding in that regard.
Not that the way she was dressed or looked really had any effect on Bakugo. He'd met several girls at Beacon who likely could've had long and successful careers in modeling, some of whom might've been able to beat him into the ground (ex: Yang, Pyrrha, probably Nora, etc.) but he'd felt no attraction to any of them (with the potential exception of Velvet), and this girl, though different, didn't faze him at all.
"Thanks," He said to the girl as he licked his ice cream, then looking behind the girl in front of him and realizing that she'd probably bought this from the same vendor who'd just turned him down in a blatant, almost proud manner, evidenced by the fact that he was now rushing towards them with bloody murder on his mind.
"You may wanna run," Bakugo said as he turned and began to sprint away from the area, the pint-sized person who'd done him a favor doing the same with just as much haste. Apparently, the vendor was so adamant in his beliefs that he'd chase them through the city in order to enforce them. Fucking racists...
About ten minutes later, they'd managed to finally lose the guy (he'd probably been detained by the cops by now) and were allowed a few moments to catch their breath. Well, Bakugo was, the girl who'd helped him still looked pretty fresh and ready to run again.
"What the hell'd ya do that for? I would've been fine if I'd just looked for another vendor," the ashen blonde direwolf asked in confusion.
He was then minorly surprised when the girl pulled out a Scroll, began typing, and before Bakugo could really have a chance to be annoyed, she shoved the device in his face, allowing him to read: "Don't think I helped you just to be nice. That guy was a bigot, a racist and a general asshole; he had it coming. That and one of my best friends is half-faunus, and that radical fuck turned down service to her before she even got the chance to speak. To be entirely honest, I could hardly tolerate racist assholes even before I met her, but that guy went and made it personal. But, that's just me. And before you ask, yes, I'm mute. Why else would I be typing into a Scroll to talk to you? Got a problem with that?"
Bakugo read through the entire message before gently pushing the screen away from his face and saying, "Not particularly, no. Still, you didn't have to do it like that. You probably could've done something that didn't involve me and the effect probably would've been the same."
"But then he wouldn't be sitting pretty in a jail cell right about now," the girl replied with an impish smile on her face.
"Fair point," Bakugo admitted, though begrudgingly so. "Well, see ya around, I guess," the ashen blonde said as he turned heel and began walking out of the alleyway they'd ducked into.
That was when he felt the same girl tug on his shoulder again, causing him to turn and say, "What now?"
The girl then responded by shoving her hand in his face and making a 'gimme' gesture with it. Bakugo replied, "You want me to pay you back for the ice cream?"
The girl nodded. Bakugo sighed and pulled out his wallet. "How much did it cost?"
"Twenty Lien!"
"Okay, none of that!" Bakugo yelled as he pointed an accusatory finger at the pint-sized girl, continuing, "A cone that size would've only cost seven Lien at most!"
"Plus interest!" Was the girl's quick and rather snappy reply.
"Nope!" He pulled out a five and two ones, shoving them into her hand as he continued, "I give you what you paid and no more than that, dammit!" Before turning once more and storming off.
However, this proved to be a futile effort, as the girl soon caught up with him and shoved her Scroll in his face once more, this time written in all caps, "PLUS INTEREST! YOU OWE ME THIRTEEN LIEN!"
Bakugo began fuming over and thinking of the best way to get out of this current situation, then realizing a particular detail and said, "You know that I could get you arrested for extortion, right?"
"Oh really? And who're the cops gonna believe? A cute little mute girl in danger or an angry looking brute with murder on the mind?"
"… fuck, you're good at this," Bakugo said in a rare show of respect. "Not that I really mind, but that last comment was kinda racist."
"No, it's just what you look like. Race had nothing to do with it," the girl answered with a deadpan stare.
"It was still kinda racist."
"… well, shit, you got me there. Sorry. I didn't mean to come off like that," an apologetic look accompanied this message, and it seemed to be sincere from what the direwolf faunus could tell.
Bakugo then sighed and continued, "Well, it looks like you're not gonna go away until I pay you, which probably won't happen for a long while. Might as well get introductions out of the way. Name's Katsuki Bakugo. Remember it."
The girl hesitated for a few moments before typing out her name, "Mint Chip. A pleasure to extort you."
"Well, at least you're admitting to it now. Also, really? Mint Chip?"
"Shut up! If you make an ice cream joke, I swear to Oum I'll stab your eye out with a spoon!" Her message read as she pointed a threatening finger at him.
"Good luck with that," Bakugo said with sarcasm dripping from his voice, walking out of the alleyway with Mint on his tail.
(Meanwhile, somewhere at Beacon, Shoto's POV)
"Remember Shoto, you're my masterpiece. You will win this tournament. And you will use that left side of yours to do it. You can't possibly suppress it forever," Endeavor said with unfiltered pride that disgusted Shoto to his very core. Why? Why did he abandon the tournament fight with people he actually cared about only to be lectured by the one man he hated most on the face of Remnant? Just... why?
Better leave soon. This has already put me in an even worse mood than before, Shoto silently thought as he stood and walked from the room, only briefly stopping and saying to his father, "How many times must I tell you? I won't use it. I will not become like you. I will never be like you."
Then he walked out of the room with a sour look on his face, wandering aimlessly down the hallways, wishing to be anywhere but near his father. The entire encounter with him had stressed him out a great deal, and though he put on a brave face earlier, he had already been stressed from the fact that his father was even in Vale, and now he likely wouldn't have to restraint to keep up that façade for much longer, if he could even keep it up at all now.
"Hey, Shoto!" Shoto was then brought out of his brooding, looking up to find that Izuku was now in front of him with an excited look in his eye.
"Hi, Izuku," Shoto managed, though not with his normal, hardly seen smirk. Instead, his lips were almost frozen into a single, neutral line, unmoving and potentially unchanging. His mood was so sour that it was all he could do to keep himself contained and not vent at Izuku, but he knew his partner didn't deserve anything close to that.
"Listen, I've got some stuff to go over from Coco and Yatsu's fight. You wanna help me go through it?" Izuku asked with that same excited tone, unaware of the emotional strife that he was currently going through.
Which is a good thing. I'm not ready to tell any of them about... that. Not yet, anyway.
"Sorry, Izuku. I... I've kinda been having a bad day. Maybe some other time?" He asked, hopeful that it would be enough to get himself isolated for a few minutes. It wasn't that he didn't want to help Izuku; he did, and what he was offering sounded like a lot of fun. But he just... he needed to think. Alone.
"… well, okay," Izuku said with reluctance in his tone. As he walked past his partner towards the training hall, he stopped midway and said, "You know you can talk to us, right? We're you're teammates and your friends. We'll be here for you. Just like you've been here for us."
This question, while fairly straightforward and earnest at its core, was one that Shoto struggled to find an answer to. Yes, he wanted to open up to them, to get all this stress and secret keeping off of his chest, but he couldn't. This wasn't their burden to bear. It was his and his alone. No friendship, no matter how much it may have meant to him, could change that fact. And so, he answered, nearly lying through his teeth to do so, "Yeah. I know," without facing his partner as he continued down the hallway with a large scowl on his face, disgusted at himself for lying to his best friend and further enraged with his father.
One of these days, old man. I'm going to make you pay for what you did to me and to mom. Especially for what you did to mom, you sick fuck. I'll make you regret the day I was born to you. I will be your downfall, your damnation, your Ragnarok.
You will never have power over me, or anyone, ever again.
(about two hours later, a café in Vale, Neo's POV)
Seriously, this guy is way too verbal about killing stuff. I mean, I kinda have sadistic tendencies, sure, but at least I can keep them in check most of the time. This guy needs serious anger management, like, now! Neo silently thought to herself, currently disguised as Mint Chip, who'd become quite the useful alias whenever she felt the need to go into Vale without constantly using the rooftops, not that the parkour it involved wasn't fun.
Across from her was a guy named Katsuki Bakugo, who, after failing to probe her for information, was currently venting to the disguised girl about his teammates. She'd tuned out every now and then, but she got the broad strokes of what he was saying and actually kind of related to his current position with his team. Not entirely, but in a way, she did. She was also the odd one out in most social situations with her 'teammates,' even more so than Dabi, and that was saying something.
She then checked back in with reality as her current companion sighed in frustration and continued "And the really stupid part is? I get why they don't like me. I'm a jackass, there's no changing that. It's just who I am. I'm not expecting them to really like me at all. I just... *sigh* I hate the way they look at me. Fuck them and their pity. I don't need it. I don't want it. I can get to the top on my own."
Neo stayed silent complied this with the other information he'd already given her. He never mentioned any of his teammate's names, nor that of his other acquaintances. That and he apparently found that he could at least tolerate more than a few of them after a few months. That's as far as they've gotten there. And apparently, he used to bully one of his teammates and they hated each other's guts for a pretty long time, but they kinda developed a pseudo-mutual respect for each other. Even though he doesn't show it, he does at least seem to care about what happens to them. Well, starting to, however small those feelings might be.
Bakugo then sighed again as he leaned back in his chair, drapping his left arm over his eyes as he continued, "Ya know, I have no idea why I'm even telling you this. Something must be seriously wrong with me to tell you all of that and not be bothered by it. Guess I really am crazy."
Neo then brought out her Scroll out and began typing, sliding it across the table to the ashen blonde for him to read. A few seconds went by, Bakugo simply sitting in the same position, not even acknowledging the Scroll laid in front of him. Then he glanced at the table and saw the offered device, then sitting up properly and looking at it with genuine curiosity. Shortly afterward, he picked up the Scroll and read what she'd typed.
"Well, I certainly can't deny that you're a jackass. But you do seem to care about your teammates. Go ahead and scream that you don't and that you'd like nothing more than to beat them into the ground. Either way, you'd just be proving my point. Look, I'm not gonna pretend that I understand you completely. I mean, we just met two hours ago, that would be really weird and kinda creepy. But I will say that you should give a shit about your friends, if for no other reason than 'I'm the only one allowed to beat them into the ground.' And if nothing else, think of it like this. It's better to be friends with people you can tolerate most of the time and occasionally fight with, then with people you hate with a burning passion, or to have no friends at all."
Several seconds of long silence passed between the two, the only noises present being the chatter in the background and noises of silver and dishware. Bakugo then suddenly stood as he continued, "They're not my friends! Not even close! And... urgh! Look, Minty, I don't need or want your advice, dammit! You're only sixteen anyway, so what the hell would you know about my situation?!"
Neo just gave him a semi-deadpan stare as she raised her eyebrow in a 'really?' gesture, which managed to both confuse and piss off her direwolf companion even further. In response, however, Bakugo, surprisingly, only huffed in frustration as he passed the Scroll back to her and sat back down. "Your advice has been... duly noted. Nonpriority."
"A thank you would be nice. Also, I'm nineteen, asshole."
"Yeah right, you are. And I'm not thanking you for advice I didn't ask for," Bakugo responded as he pulled out his wallet, bringing out a few Lien cards and throwing them onto the table near Neo. "But I did owe you Lien. Consider my debt paid off. Count it, if you don't believe me."
The ashen blonde then turned and left the café with hardly a sound (surprising, considering who we're talking about), leaving Neo to gather and count the cards he'd left behind.
All thirteen. Huh. That's... actually kinda surprising. I half expected him to leave out at least one or two cards. Well, at least he's honest, even if it's in a rather brutal manner. And keeps his promises. Still kind of an ass, though.
Her Scroll then buzzed suddenly, causing her to flick it open once more. Tomura had texted her, saying, We're gonna be going over the broad strokes of the infiltration plan and getting Torchwick back. Are you coming?
Almost immediately after she finished reading this, she responded, Be right there! As quickly as her fingers could type the response. She then left the café and, once she was sure there was no one watching her, teleported to the base, leaving nary a witness in her wake.
(Bakugo's POV)
Mint Chip, huh? She seems... tolerable. I didn't get the urge to blow her up as soon as I saw her, so that's new. Hmm... Bakugo silently thought to himself as he walked aboard the ship that would take him back to Vale.
Still, though, that's an odd name to have. Either her parents were ironic as hell or she chose that name herself, he thought as he sat on one of the seats as the ship took off.
Also, why the hell does she smell like a two-ton container of Neapolitan ice cream? Seriously, she was practically generating the scent.
(around the same time, Beacon training hall, Izuku's POV)
"Augh!" Izuku yelled out as he once again lost balance with his kicks. He'd been trying to get this technique down for the last hour and kept failing constantly. He'd only managed to keep going since practice made perfect, even though his technique was definitely far from perfect.
"Damn," Izuku said as he rubbed the elbow he'd landed on. Mercury must've been training for years in order to get all those moves down. He made it look so easy, too. Then again, I've only been training for upwards of about seven months, so I really should've expected this to happen.
Hmm... I guess I could try a few more of the simple combinations he demonstrated and call it a day, Izuku stood again as he flipped through his notebook once more, eager to practice as many techniques as he could. Especially now that he'd rid himself of his tunnel vision from earlier. Practice what you can learn and learn it the best you can. Then move onto something new and infinitely more complicated.
The green haired boy then hopped back up and began to walk towards the dummies that he'd set up earlier. Izuku then took his stance: holding his arms near his chin for defense with his legs about shoulder width apart with slightly bent knees, his body angled in such a way to make his body a smaller target.
Izuku ran at his target dummy with a jumping front kick, causing the wooden body to snap quickly backward from the impact and snapping back from the rebound of the force. He then continued with his combo, starting with a low spinning kick and continuing the rotation into a spinning back kick before following through with the momentum he'd generated with a high spinning heel kick, all three of which caused the post to snap and rebound as quickly as it had before.
Then, without even thinking about it, Izuku sprang from the ground and began rotating into yet another kick, one that involved a rather acrobatic side flip. Strange. This wasn't supposed to be in the combo. And yet it felt right.
As he continued with the attack, he glanced downwards towards his striking leg and was shocked to find that something was coalescing around his foot. It was blurry, incredibly hard to make out or describe as anything other than a mist that was dripping with color. Quite literally: there wasn't a singular shade that could be made out of it. It was constantly shifting, constantly changing, and-
BLAM!
Before Izuku could observe this strange phenomenon further, his kick landed, though not quite on his intended target. Due to the observation he'd made mid-air, the kick missed the dummy by an entire foot, and the impact left a rather large crater where his attack had landed, just a foot away from the dummy.
.
..
…
...WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!
Izuku, shocked from both the earlier phenomenon and now the amount of damage that his kick had done to the floor, immediately did what he would do in this situation: begin analyzing it and writing down plenty of notes on the subject until he managed to calm down.
"Okay, that was crazy. I mean, I know One for All is powerful and everything, but that amount of output should've at least hurt me. This just raises a lot more questions that I've gotta ask. And if I do ever managetoaccessthislevelofpowerwithoutbreakingmyselfagainIreallyneedtoknowhowIdiditinthefirstplacesothatmaybeIcanusethatandapplyittoFullCowlifIcanfigureouthowtodothatbutifIcantanditspurelysituationalthenImightbeinforalongstudyperiod..."
The mumbling continued for almost full minute before Izuku heard a gruff, tired voice call from behind him, "Hey, kid! You okay?"
This managed to break Izuku out of his mumbling tirade and momentarily go silent in order to gather himself again. Deciding to push this newly learned information to the back of his mind and closed his notebook, saying as he turned, "Yeah, I'm alright-"
The green haired boy then stopped abruptly mid-sentence, recognizing the feathery hair and crimson eyes from just a few days ago. Standing at the entrance to the training ring with his arms crossed and an observant look donning his face was Qrow Branwen, better known as Black Reaper, and, currently, the third most renowned huntsman in the world, though beyond his name he wasn't very well known. Hell, until yesterday Izuku didn't even know what he really looked like.
However, Izuku, unlike the red-eyed reaper's niece, kept up to date with current Big Four members quite often. Qrow had held his spot for nearly seven years, which, after Endeavor and All Might, made him the longest holder of a position in the Big Four... ever. This information, as you might imagine, made Izuku go absolute fanboy and nearly break down... again.
"Holy... you're-"
"Qrow Branwen, aka Black Reaper, member of the Big Four, yadda yadda yadda. I know. You told my niece about it," Qrow said with a sigh, noting the fact that as soon as he'd entered their room she'd bombarded him with questions.
"Oh! Erm... sorry," Izuku said with a bit of regret hinting in his tone.
"No, no, it's fine. I was actually looking for you, anyway."
"… wait, what?" Izuku said with a confused tilt of his head.
"Well, your last name's Midoriya right?" Qrow asked, which the freckled boy answered by slowly nodding, still in a bit of shock that one of the Big Four was talking to him. Sure, he'd talked to All Might before, but that had been over the course of almost an entire year, and he had no idea how to address this particular... well, underrated celebrity, really.
"Um... crap, I actually have no idea how to ask this... Oum this is a lot more awkward than I thought it'd be," Qrow said as he scratched the back of his head.
"… ah, to hell with it. Kid, your dad was Hisashi Midoriya, right?"
A/N: Aaaaand that's a cliffhanger! Yeah, it's not the best way to end the chapter, but my internet failed and I couldn't write for a pretty long while. Sorry!
Okay, here's the other review responses:
Awesome: Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that I might stick a bit too close to the source, but I'll try to get out of that habit once Volume 4 rolls around.
I've seen both Bleach and Avatar, and they were both awesome. I might make a story on one of these topics or I might not. It all depends, really.
Last Shadow: I'm afraid that character thing is just something I enjoy a bit too much to let go. Don't get me wrong, that story concept is amazing, and someone should really get on that, but I'm really enjoying writing this story and even though that seems like something that'll be fun to write about, it's gonna have to wait. It's been tabbed though. I'll definitely consider it once this story finishes up (in the next two years or so).
Questions: Well, some quirks are more psychic based, therefore only causing the occasional headache or in the worst-case scenario, brain damage (oh god, what have I done!), and certain semblances, specifically the more powerful ones like Shoto's and One for All, can affect the user's body.
As to the rest of the review... well damn, that's a lot to read through, and I'm not entirely sure that I'll be able to post a response to everything without it being too long. However, I will say this much: it's an awesome story idea that I kinda wish I'd thought of before. However, I do highly recommend that you write this yourself since this is such an awesome idea and I don't want to take credit for something so awesome that I personally did not conceptualize.
And if you're not a good writer: that's fine. I'm certainly not the best, but I only got better because I kept working at it, and I'm still working on it because this is something I enjoy doing. If you need tips on writing at all, I've got three for you. Also, for any would-be writers out there, listen up:
1) Remember the basics. This can, and often will save you from making a lot of pacing and structure slip-ups in the future if you do decide to write this awesome idea.
2) Start out simple. It's not a rule that you always have to follow, but it's one that I think you should at least keep in mind. Sometimes the greatest stuff can come from really simple ideas, blossoming into complex and well-told narratives in the process of being told. Also, keep the characters fun but relatable. Just a side note.
3) It's your story. No one should blatantly tell you what direction the story should take or X should've happened and Y should've been the killer all along. Suggestions for elements and topics are good things, and genuinely pointing out flaws in a story are something that we authors really need more often than not. Saying that the author did one thing wrong and making a big deal out of it is just nitpicking. That doesn't mean you should blow up at them, just... be patient with them. Please.
And I'm not saying that this story is pure gold: believe me, there are plenty of problems with it. Probably more than I can see, since I have a biased viewpoint as the author, but I can see at least some of the flaws nonetheless. Just remember to respect your audience, especially when they criticize you because more often than not they'll want to help make your story into something better.
That being said, if you don't feel like writing it, that's entirely fine. No one's gonna force you to do that. If you still feel like I'd be the better choice to write this, then I'd be incredibly honored that you'd presented this to me at all. However, if this somehow manages to change your mind, then good luck to you.
Here's a Thought, Guest 1 & Guest 2 (because for some reason they all posted the same review three times. Was this a copy/paste error or a notification error?): Thank you! I don't think I'm the best person ever, but thanks nonetheless!
The story ideas are amazing, but unfortunately, I'm not gonna have enough time to write them until I finish this story up. Sorry, that's just how it is. However, once I do, I'll definitely consider it, along with any other ideas that get sent my way.
Ya hear that! I'm now taking suggestions for new stories! This won't go on forever, probably until the end of May, so give you suggestions now!
Next Chapter: May 6th
Seeya in the next one!