Season Three, Episode XXVII

Diverging Paths

. . .

Kaiji Adachi

. . .

They took my bandages and braces off the following morning, once the doctors were sure I'd fully recovered. It wasn't until then that I realized how much damage my body had actually taken. My arms and upper body were riddled with scars, permanent scuffs and marks from where Ryoko had broken through my scales. The wounds had entirely healed, but I was marked heavily with the reminder of my decision to face her head on. In time they would probably fade, but for now I was stuck with these scars.

When I heard that the students from UA were arriving, I was quick to cover up. Not wanting to scare anyone, and maybe I was already a little self conscious of the marks...

When the door opened, I was surprised to see Aizawa was the only one who came through. "Good morning Adachi." He greeted casually, "Glad to see you're doing better."

I nodded my head, "Yeah, thanks..." I wasn't exactly sure how he felt about us rushing to camp to help his other students. "So, where are the others? I thought-"

"They're waiting outside," He explained with a shrug, "I wanted to come in first and... Well, make sure you're doing okay but the louder ones had a chance to bother you."

I smiled lightly, holding up both my arms and flexing a bit. "A little sore, but all my injuries have healed, I'm good to go."

"That isn't what I meant."

"... Right..." Yeah, I guess I figured as much. And there were things from that night I wish I didn't know now but... "Why didn't you tell us about Ryoko?"

Aizawa hesitated for a moment, before rubbing the back of his neck. "Because, we weren't entirely sure what had happened... We thought she might have been taken by force, and didn't want to worry the rest of you or cause a panic."

"And you didn't want us to feel responsible." Ryoko had said that herself, and it made sense.

He drew in a long breath and sighed, "What she did wasn't your fault, I'm to blame... For not guiding her well enough, for misjudging not only her... But all of Class 1-Z." This wasn't just him telling me what I wanted to hear, I could feel the sincerity of his words. "You, Sen, and Suru, have grown into fine young heroes... Don't dwell on the mistakes you've made, learn and continue to grow..." Going silent for a moment, before adding. "And next time... Bring her back."

Right, if I ever saw her again.

"Yeah... Next time..." I wasn't so sure of myself. "So, what about the others? I can't return to classes but, what about Sen and Suru?"

"Well, with the students changing to the Dorm system we've had them effectively moved onto campus." He explained, "Suru has joined up with Class 1-A, and Sen is joining Class 1-B, but regular classes won't be resuming for another week or so."

I nodded, "Well, I'm glad they finally made it into the Hero Course," It is what we all wanted right? "I'll have some catching up to do."

Aizawa smirked faintly at that, "I'm sure you'll find a way to keep up... I'd send you a training regiment but they don't plan on letting us know where you go."

"Why not?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"The less people that know that info the better." He shrugged casually, "Anyways, you seem... Mostly okay, you ready for visitors?"

Right, no point putting it off for much longer. They came all the way out here after all, "Alright fine, send them in..."

Aizawa nodded, turning back to the door and pulling it open. "Alright, he's ready for you."

"Finally!" My head whipped to the left as Suru appeared beside the bed with her teleportation. "About time you woke up." Her face nothing but a big grinning mouth. And as per usual, it didn't move when she talked.

Through the door stepped Sen, Kirishima, that pink girl, the guy with the weird elbows, and Sato. All people who had been in the classroom when we arrived to stop Ryoko. Wait, no there was an extra. Somebody that hadn't been there, "Hey, everyone." I greeted with a faint smile, feeling nervous already with so many people here. She was from class 1-A, green hair and a little froggy.

"Hey man!" Kirishima stepped forward, holding up a fist. "Great to see you're finally awake!"

"Yeah," Mina nodded, "We wanted to thank all of you for coming to save us, but you were sleeping so..."

"I mean, I was basically in a coma," I shrugged, spirits lifting a bit from their praise. "But yeah, don't worry about it... I'm just glad everything turned out alright."

"You should have helped me! I needed you!"

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE A HERO!"

Yep, everything turned out just fine...

"Well, not everything." Sen spoke up finally, looking down at me sadly, "Mr. Aizawa explained the situation, and... That you're going to have to go away for awhile."

"Total bummer," Suru shook her head, appearing on the bed across from my own and taking a seat. "But no biggy, no matter where you are in the world I can find you remember?" She added, tapping her head with one finger.

I suppose she wasn't wrong, "Ha, yeah I'll keep that in mind."

"And next time," She quickly added, "I won't need you to save me, I'm sure of it."

That was cryptic, she was definitely up to something. "Yeah I sure hope so," I waved her off as I joked. "I can't go taking beatings like that every day."

Before Sato added in, "Yeah well we won't need to be saved next time either!" He declared eagerly, "And we won't lose to you next time Adachi!"

"Yeah," Kirishima nodded, "Seeing you and the rest of Class 1-Z fight so hard really lit a fire under me!" His arms visibly hardening as he slammed both fists together. "We won't be helpless next time! We're gonna train even harder!"

To which Aizawa sighed, "You just had to go inspiring my students on the way out huh? They were already too loud..."

Mina giggled lightly at that, "You know you love our enthusiasm!"

A bunch of characters, this group. I was glad they were excited, and happy. But I had to force my smiles and enthusiasm, "Well, he isn't wrong... I'll join you guys later, and we can all work towards becoming Heroes together." Yeah, that was the response they wanted to hear. I had no reason to bring them down with my uncertainty.

It was at this point, that the frog girl finally spoke up. "If everyone's finished, I wanted to ask you something, ribbit."

I quirked an eyebrow, looking back at her. "Yeah? What's up?"

"I remember when we bumped into each other a long time ago, right after the USJ attack." Wait, we've met before?

"Something wrong Tsu? You know this guy?"

"Uh... I don't think so?"

"No, you're right, you just seemed kinda familiar."

"Oh yeah we did," I blinked in surprise, "Uh, your friend called you Tsu right?" But what did she want now?

"I'm Tsuyu Asui," She greeted, retaining that somewhat blank expression as she spoke. "My friends call me Tsu, but anyways... I didn't put much thought into it at the time, but after the Festival, and the training camp incident, I think I do know you." She explained, "Did you attend Mafuba Middle School?"

Whoa, that takes me back. "I did, only for one year though." I explained, shifted a little in my bed. "Because of our financial situation, we couldn't afford to stay in such a nice neighborhood, so my mom and I moved to Kamino Ward."

Asui nodded, "I knew it, I remember who looked like you." A somewhat sad smile spread across her face. "I know you got picked on a lot for your appearance, I hope that got better after you left..."

It didn't, not until UA anyways. "Not really, but I made it to UA." I shrugged it off, "So I think it all turned out alright... But why did you want to bring this up now?"

"Well, I wanted to bring it up at the camp but, you know how that turned out, ribbit." She shook her head, "Then I tried to come see you here at the hospital after I was treated, and saw your condition... Talked to your friends and, well..." She hesitated for a moment, before smiling a little brighter. "I just wanted to say, knowing how far you've come... It was really inspiring to me, I'm glad you made it all the way here and found friends."

"Awww Tsu~!" Mina giggled lightly, leaning against her. "That's so sweet!"

She released a bashful ribbit, "And, thank you... For protecting my friends, I hope you can join us at UA soon."

Alright, that one actually felt pretty good. "Yeah, I do too..."

. . .

Sonzai Suru

. . .

Hey there, we don't talk a lot do we? Seems like I hardly ever get the perspective in this story.

That's probably a good thing. My perception of things is... Different, from everyone else's.

You already know, I don't look human. I don't really... Have a face, not one you can see anyways. You just get this black silhouette, and different symbols or smiles appear on that blank surface to show how I'm feeling. But I've got no real mouth, I just mimic what eating and drinking look likes while my body absorbs it. And there are no eyes beneath my blank canvas of a face. And its about time I explain how all of that works.

Which is gonna be interesting, because even I am not entirely sure.

The thing is, I've never had trouble seeing. Everything around me, its all images in my mind. I didn't even know, until somebody told me, that I didn't have eyes. And for a long time, it was difficult. I had to teach myself to just focus on what was in front of me. The images of my surroundings hit me all at once, it probably has something to do with my body emitting power cells. I suffered headaches, because I was taking in too much stimulus all at once. Eventually, I trained myself to only see what was in front of me.

I didn't realize until learning how to reach my power cells at a distance, how that stunted my growth.

No, not my literal growth, I think I'll always be short... I mean my Quirk's growth.

Why am I bringing this up now? Because the game has changed.

Ever since I pulled off that crazy teleport, crossing over a hundred miles in a split second, I shattered whatever limitation my power had at that time. I realized, that if I put in the time to train and break my limits over and over... Nothing would be able to touch me.

"And next time, I won't need you to save me."

That's what I told him, and I meant it. I'm sick of being weak, I'm sick of being a utility. I can't just use teleportation and some phasing out to fight. Its been hard, but since returning to school and training with the rest of Class 1-A, I've been focusing on interacting with objects my power cells have reached. I think that's the key to reaching the next stage in my power.

My Quirk is called Glitch. It's never been straightforward, none of my powers make sense, and maybe that's the point. I chose the hero name Pariah, because I've never felt like I really belong. I am out of place anywhere I go, there is no one else in the world like me. I will train my body, my Quirk, and find out every last secret to my power. But I can only do that by losing every limit I've got, physical and mental.

Maybe it's a long shot, but I'm going to attain loss.

Anything to make sure my friends don't get hurt protecting me again...

. . .

Sen Shi

. . .

"A wall just like this?" Cementos questioned, standing across the way from beside a wall a few inches thick.

"That's perfect," I nodded my head, "Please stand back, it might not be safe."

Ever since I was released from the hospital, following what I'd learned about my aura projection so far, I had focused solely on training. Upon being admitted to Class 1-B, and moving into the dorms, I was surrounded by distractions. I was fine with making more friends, but they lacked my drive. They lacked the experience I had, despite their impressive skill.

Maybe I'd taken Adachi's departure harder than I'd like to admit. But I wanted to be stronger, I wanted to grow so I'd never have to see a friend injured like that again.

And now, there was this Provisional License Exam coming up, and they wanted us to make Ultimate Moves. And I already had something in mind, to take my Quirk to the next level.

I took in a deep breath, focusing my mind as my aura began to flare up around me. Ki surrounding me, before it began to flow just around my arms. Using what I'd learned fighting alongside Adachi, and making the power around my forearms dense. The red light shimmering and changing to a deeper shade. "This is it..." I could feel it, the power was there I just had to control it!

I moved into my fighting stance, arms raised and fists clenched. "Ranged special move, Flying Ki Fist!" Throwing two quick punches, I watched as ethereal fists flew across the distance between myself and the wall. Strike it and cracking the surface in two different places. "Hmph, a good start... Just need more punching power."

But my findings were a good start, measuring the focus and time required, I already knew the next step.

"Excellent work," Cementos nodded from the sidelines, "Focus on reducing your preparation time, and increasing impact force." He urged, "You'll have an ultimate move in no time!"

Ultimate move? No, this was just a ranged attack. "Yes sir, thank you sir." But what I'd learned from it already, made the idea for my real ultimate move a reality. I just needed time to perfect it.

I learned to access my power, by controlling my emotions and keeping a clear head. But the more I used that power, protecting myself with a barrier, the more I realized it was an inefficient method of fighting. It didn't really hit me just how inefficient it was until I fought with Ryoko at the camp, and when I used it to protect Adachi.

My aura wasn't a perfect shield, it didn't nullify damage just dampened it. I could still feel every blow I took, and every attack I dampened drained my stamina. But when I was projecting my Aura onto Adachi, I was focused almost solely on attacking. With his body already breaking and healing from the Chronoboost, I knew I didn't need to hold back. The result, was an immense increase in impact force.

The human body has instinctive limiters, to prevent you from hurting yourself. These limiters can be bypassed in extreme stress situations, but not always. Meaning that if I kept using my Aura the way I had been up until now, I'd never be hitting at full strength without draining too much power or hurting myself.

The answer to this problem?

"Hmm?" Cementos hummed, as two ethereal arms appeared, hovering in the air over my shoulders. "Interesting..." While I approached the stone wall.

Learn how to attack with my aura, without my body being behind it.

"Ultimate Move Demo One."

The fists cocked back in the air above me, while I crossed both my real arms over my chest.

"Ki Fist Barrage!"

All of us, in our own ways, we were going to become strong.

Because we'd all tasted defeat, we tried to be heroes and I think in all our minds, failed.

None of us, not a single person from Class 1-Z, was going to let that happen again.