Gathering- Part 2

Inside a rented dojo room, two students were locked in a melee, strikes being thrown between the two as the fight wound on. Both of the students were exhausted from hours of sparring, but neither wanted to be the first one to admit defeat, and so they continued.

The first student was calm and still, his stance speaking to a wealth of experience in martial arts and other combat techniques. He didn't make much effort to attack his opponent, instead focusing on blocking and redirecting his opponent's blows, and only occasionally throwing a punch to keep his opponent alert. The second student was a polar opposite, attacking with relentless energy, each attack leading into another with scarcely a pause for breath between each punch.

"Your punches are still sloppy, and you're body language gives your plan away." The first student muttered, side stepping another punch while delivering his criticism "Your Quirk gives you good capture power, but that doesn't mean anything if you can't hit your opponent."

"Really?" The second student shot back, exhausted panting doing little to remove his upbeat tone "How about this one!"

The second student shot out with a wild, swinging punch that his opponent smoothly moved to intercept in a practiced motion. At the last second, the punch was pulled back and the student moved to a swinging kick, the speed of this sudden change almost catching his opponent off guard.

Almost.

The first student ducked under the kick in a hurry, grasping the leg as it sailed over him and twisting on his heel, gripping his opponent's leg tightly over his shoulder. In a single motion, he dropped to one knee and threw his opponent over his shoulder, causing the student in question to crash to the padded mats on the ground.

"Better, but you've tried that trick today already." Sen Kaibara looked down on his defeated sparring partner, his calm disposition never once slipping "Your speed is getting much better though, it was a struggle to dodge that one."

"Wow, a compliment, that almost makes up for being body slammed." Yosetsu Awase shot back, a wild grin forced to his face by adrenaline "I keep forgetting how good you are at this."

"It's my area." Kaibara shrugged, hands in pockets "I've been practising this stuff most of my life, it's impressive you have me on the ropes as often as you do."

"I'll catch you out one day." Awase panted, exhaustion setting in as the heat of the fight faded "And on that day, I'm going to be the most irritating person you've ever met."

"You already are." Kaibara deadpanned back, a small grin cracking his stoicism as he offered a hand up to Awase "But if that happens, you would have earned it."

Awase grinned again and took the offered hand, being pulled to his feet by his ever-stoic training partner.

"Five minute break." Kaibara said, turning and walking to a small rest area that they had set up earlier.

Both of the boys took long sips of sports drinks before sitting and catching their breath, a few minutes passed without a word as they both recovered as quickly as they could manage. They had been repeating this cycle for a few weeks now, ever since Awase had approached Kaibara and asked for help in improving his close combat technique, a request that Kaibara had accepted with his usual calm determination.

"Your improvement has been good." Kaibara suddenly spoke up, drawing Awase's attention "At this rate, we'll be ready for the exam in no time."

"Here's hoping." Awase muttered, adjusting his headband that had been set askew by the spar "Thanks for all this, it's been helpful."

"Don't mention it." Kaibara shrugged again "It's good practise for me as well, training like this benefits us both. Quirkless sparring like that is good practise as well."

The pair had been sparring without Quirks all day, as they both tried to stop themselves from becoming over reliant on their powers. Both of the boy's fighting styles relied heavily on their Quirks, and the purpose of this spar was to try and break these habits.

Awase's Quirk was Weld, it let him bind any two things together at a molecular level, creating an unbreakable bond that only he could remove. It was a powerful and versatile Quirk, though the fact it was activated by touch made it difficult to deploy against a skilled opponent. Kaibara's Quirk was Gyrate, and it allowed him to rotate any of his body parts at incredible speeds, creating a drill-like effect on his limbs. Kaibara's Quirk, backed up by years of martial arts training, made him a devastatingly effective close combat fighter.

"I can't remember the last time we trained this hard." Awase spoke up again, drawing Kaibara's attention.

"Trust me, if even half of what I've read about UA is true, this will seem like a holiday compared to what they'll have us doing." Kaibara replied, vaguely recalling long nights spent awake searching for a single scrap of information on UA's Entrance Exam. "But you're right, we've never trained like this before."

Kaibara and Awase had known each other for almost their whole lives, having been friends even before their Quirks had developed. Though they seemed like polar opposites in personality, there was something in the way they interacted that spurred each other forwards, mutual ambition spurring each other forwards. UA had been a dream for both of them since their Quirks had developed, and they constantly pushed each other to train and prepare for that crucial exam.

"Time's up." Kaibara said, cutting off any reminiscing "Let's go."

Awase made a show out of his exhaustion, though Kaibara knew that it was just his way of joking and lightening the mood. Both knew that another hard day of training awaited them, as well as many more in the future, but neither of them really minded.

After all, getting into UA was worth any hardship.

Amidst the noise and overlapping music of a particularly serious gym, one figure stood out amongst the others, though this was largely due to a combination of his age and rather serious expression. Unlike the majority of gyms that existed, this one wasn't a Quirk-training gym, but rather an old fashioned business that focused on improving physical fitness. Quirks were still permitted, provided they weren't overly destructive or disruptive to the other clients.

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu was the young man in question, and he had frequently been seen at this gym in the past few weeks, and he had always caused a stir due to the incredible intensity of his training. Weightlifting was a personal favourite for Tetsutetsu, he saw it as the manliest way to improve his strength, and it was also a great way to improve his physical strength. But Tetsutetsu aspired to be a good hero in all aspects, so he trained his entire body relentlessly, readying himself for the coming UA Entrance Exam.

Tetsutetsu's Quirk, Steel, gave him the ability to harden his bodies exterior into a tough metal, which still gave him a full range of movement and didn't hinder his dexterity. Steel's main benefit was the fact that it gave Tetsutetsu incredible resilience to any kind of physical strike, punches, kicks and more would barely even scratch his steel skin, and this resilience made him an ideal close combat fighter. Steel gave Tetsutetsu other benefits as well, including a good level of temperature resistance, and the increased weight of his body putting more strength behind his attacks.

Tetsutetsu had often lamented the fairly ordinary nature of his Quirk, and he worried that he might not be able to stand out enough to succeed in his dream of being a Pro Hero. Like it or not, succeeding in heroics was based in a mixture of good PR and good results, and many heroes that got the job done but weren't popular often didn't make enough money to keep their agencies open. In addition, Tetsutetsu knew that hundreds of students would be applying to UA, and if he didn't manage to stand out enough to catch the attention of the school he might not be able to even enter UA at all.

Tetsutetsu shook the unmanly thoughts from his head, it didn't do anything good to get caught up worrying about possible futures, especially when some of these things were out of his control. All that he could do was train more and more and do everything he could to win, no matter how difficult that might be. Tetsutetsu was willing to put everything on the line to pass the exam, and continuing his training at an even higher intensity than before.

Grinning in a newfound motivation, Tetsutetsu grabbed another few weights to add to his bar and walked back to the bench he had been using all day, newfound energy coursing through his veins.

Tokyo Narita Airport was busy almost constantly, with hundreds of flights coming and going from the concrete maze every day, sending travellers all around the world. The advent of Quirks had changed air travel somewhat, with some airliners building plans specifically designed to seat travellers with unwieldly mutant-type Quirks. Some travel companies employed people with powerful teleportation-type Quirks to provide instantaneous travel to anywhere in the world, but these Quirks were rare, and they charged a small fortune for each trip, so most people stuck to conventional air travel.

Pony Tsunotori was one of these travellers, returning from a visit to her extended family back in America, having had the luxury of making the trip during a school holiday. Her parents had moved to Japan just over six months ago, new career opportunities making the decision much easier, the money and opportunity was too good to turn down. Tsunotori's father was Japanese by birth, and the move was a good opportunity for him to see his own family more often.

Tsunotori hadn't minded the move altogether, though she missed her friends back in America and had done quite well in the school she was in before moving. But she would have been moving into High School soon enough anyway, so she was prepared for an upheaval anyway. Besides, moving into the heart of Tokyo gave her the opportunity to try and enter one of the most prestigious Hero schools in the world, UA High.

UA's reputation was well known even outside of Japan, as several of America's top heroes had attended the famous school, and the skills it had imparted on them had earned them a great deal of fame and success back in the states. For this reason, Tsunotori was incredibly excited to have the chance to take the UA Entrance Exam, but that didn't mean that she wasn't nervous for the upcoming exam.

Tsunotori's Quirk was Horn Cannon, and it gave her a pair of large horns on the top of her head that could be launched at high speeds and remotely controlled, and these horns could be used to either attack foes or for various other purposes. Tsunotori's Quirk also gave her various equine characteristics, including horse-like hooves that gave her a powerful kick and impressive running speed.

As Tsunotori walked through the airport, she squinted at the various signs that plastered the walls of the building, wracking her brain to remember every Japanese lesson she had been given. Thankfully, her father's lessons had been ingrained enough that she was able to navigate her way through the airport with only a few brief detours, and the few signs that were written in English were enough to guide her to the exit.

The exit was just ahead, and Tsunotori's mind couldn't help but see it as a threshold into her new life. She had flown back to Japan a week ahead of her parents so she could get a jump start on her training, as well as getting the lay of the land in Tokyo.

Taking in one more deep breath, Tsunotori walked forwards, ready to begin her path to UA High.

Green fields disappeared under the relentless pace of another student, the speed of his run causing him to cross the training fields rapidly. The students speed was comparable to a professional athlete, and yet he had been running for over an hour, with little sign of slowing or running out of stamina.

Jurota Shishida had kept this relentless pace for the entire day, his Beast form keeping him going where normal human stamina would have long since ran out. Running was a great way for Shishida to train his body and Quirk at the same time, and increasing his endurance and stamina would be beneficial when readying himself for the UA Entrance Exams. Shishida was lucky enough to live in the countryside, and so there was an abundance of training grounds he could use for his Quirk.

Shishida's Beast Quirk had two affects, firstly it changed his appearance from birth into a human – beast hybrid, with fangs, fur and several other animal-like characteristics. But this was only the initial affect of the Quirk, as Beast also allowed Shishida to switch into a more bestial form, increasing strength and stamina while also causing an impressive increase in muscle mass. Shishida always had to be careful when overusing this form though, as it was increasingly intoxicating the longer he remained in the form, and this could lead to a loss of mental faculties.

The purpose of Shishida's training was to lessen the impact that this intoxication had on his mind, as he was someone who valued intelligence and strategy in the way he approached problems. This meant he valued his mind as much as his body, seeing them as two necessary halves of one whole, and so losing his senses in the middle of a fight was antithetical to his way of thinking.

That said, he couldn't help but enjoy running free with his Quirk, every sound and scent was exaggerated to an incredible degree, and Shishida couldn't help but be distracted by the sensory barrage that his Quirk let him perceive. Shishida knew that these enhanced senses had their uses on the battlefield as well, as tracking down enemies and villains would surely give him an edge against villains that relied on stealth or ambushes to avoid an honourable fight.

All of these thoughts buzzed around Shishida's mind as he considered his training, inwardly hoping that he was doing enough to pass the notoriously difficult entrance exam. Shishida had split his time between academic study and physical training, as UA was notorious for its demandingly high standards in both of these aspects, and it wouldn't do to succeed at one aspect and fail at another.

Shishida turned on his heel and started sprinting back towards his starting point, knowing that he would be able to cross the distance in less than an hour. He had been pushing himself for weeks on end now, and he could only hope that it would be enough.

Another student faced down the training dummy that stood opposite him, the faux opponent held upwards by a single wooden post. The dummy was of a fairly sturdy construction, made of strong wood with an underlying metal skeleton that gave the dummy extra strength. This was meant to make the dummy less likely to break under extreme stress and damage, though for the student that faced down this opponent, this was simply another obstacle for him to overcome.

Togaru Kamakiri grinned in anticipation as he readied himself to destroy the dummy, hoping to beat his previous time that he had achieved earlier in the day. He flexed his fingers to get himself amped up, and long blades slid from his arms, ready to do their deadly work. The adrenaline of a battle always got Kamakiri psyched up, and he narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists in readiness.

At a silent signal, Kamakiri leapt forwards and set upon the training dummy, a flurry of blows raining upon the faux enemy within a few seconds. Kamakiri moved with blinding speed, his arms blurring as he increased the speed of his strikes, not seeming to tire or slow in the slightest, despite the speed of the onslaught he had unleashed.

Kamakiri's blades never snapped or dulled, no matter how much he used them, and they would always cut through everything he tested them against. Razor Sharp was the perfect name for this Quirk, as it gave Kamakiri the ability to manifest blades from any part of his body, and these weapons could also take whatever shape that Kamakiri willed. His preferred weapon was a pair of long blades that sprung forwards from his forearms, acting like an extendable claw for each arm.

Leaping to the side, Kamakiri changed his angle of attack and began to assault the dummy from a new angle, cleaving the dummy into pieces with his blades. After each series of strikes, Kamakiri would leap around the dummy and attack from a different angle, so his training could also assist in improving his speed.

With another leap, Kamakiri moved around the dummy and pulled back his arms for a final strike, pausing for only a split second to align his attack. With a final burst of speed, Kamakiri slashed forwards with both his blades in an X pattern, delivering a devastating strike that sent the remains of the dummy flying into the air.

Finally finished, Kamakiri paused for breath, his gasps shaking his form as the adrenaline of his attack wore off, and exhaustion took hold of him. After several seconds of recovery, Kamakiri looked over to his handiwork, retracted the long blades back into his arms, knowing that they would vanish as soon as they were retracted.

The training dummy had been reduced to little more than a pile of wooden splinters and scrap metal, the ferocity of Kamakiri's attack having torn it apart with very little effort on his part. Kamakiri paused for a second to observe his work, before turning on his heel and leaving the room, intent on finding another dummy to practise on.

A young student stood between several large bamboo posts, each one spaced out equally and constructed identically to each other. A pile of destroyed posts in the corner of the small room showed what was to happen to these posts, and the damage visible around the room spoke to the days of training that the young student had been putting himself through.

Hiryu Rin readied himself for another round of destruction, summoning the familiar power of his Quirk as he felt his arm begin to change. Pale green scales coated both of Rin's arms, giving them a reptilian appearance as they transformed up to his elbows.

In a burst of motion, Rin aimed his arm towards the first of the posts, clenching his fist and closing one eye to better help his aim. With a slight flex of his muscles, Rin shot a burst of scales towards the first post, the projectiles silently slicing through the air. A few scales were sufficient to destroy the post, the blade-like scales cutting through the post and reducing the post into destroyed fragmented.

Rin repeated this process again on several more of the pillars, his Quirk producing the scales as quickly as he could shoot them, and he swiftly reduced several of the bamboo posts into severed fragments. He couldn't produce scales endlessly, and he knew that he would reach his limit after some time of using his projectile scales, but he had been training to up that limit every day.

As well as giving him the ability to shoot scales like projectiles, Rin's Quirk also gave him enhanced toughness, as the scales were able to absorb a great deal of damage without Rin himself becoming injured. This was technically the main attribute of Rin's Quirk, though he had already spent a lot of time training his toughness, and he had sought to improve every attribute of his Quirk during his training.

Soon enough, all of the pillars were destroyed, fragments of shattered bamboo scattered all around the room, and Rin was left standing in the centre of this field of destruction. He watched with interest as the missing scales on his arms began to regrow, the pale green shards replacing the ones that had just been launched earlier. Rin's speed at growing new scales had improved lately with his training as well, though they still took some effort to recreate, and he would gradually tire out over time.

Eventually his arms were fully covered in scales again, and Rin was ready to begin another round of training. A large bundle of bamboo posts sat in the corner of the room, and Rin went to grab them, intent on improving his time again before he was willing to finish for the day.

A lone girl moved through the crowds of people that walked through the inner city where she lived, each of them presumably on their way to some kind of late-night bar or other exciting event. The nightlife of Nagoya was something that the city took considerable pride in, as it brought people out every night to enjoy the cities many amenities. Even though it was close to midnight, the crowds were still massive, and hundreds of people moved around each other on the way to wherever they were headed.

Reiko Yanagi wasn't headed anywhere in particular, she simply enjoyed being out late at night, breathing in the cool air and enjoying the way that the moonlight reflected in the puddles of rain that lightly coated the streets. Yanagi had always been more predisposed towards calm, dark and cool places, and she found them to be the best way to relax after a long day.

While the streets of Nagoya were cool and dark, they certainly weren't calm, so Yanagi headed somewhere that she knew would be far quieter. The place she walked towards was a small café that sat in an alleyway, away from the main streets and the tourists that descended on the city every night. The café preferred to serve local patrons in relative quiet and comfort, and so it didn't advertise its presence beyond a small faded sign over the doorway.

Yanagi was a regular to the café and a known face to the staff, and she was quickly waved in where she ordered her usual coffee before heading to the rooftop area, the open plan garden that sat on the roof of the building was just insulated enough from the crowds to be quiet and peaceful. This was Yanagi's favourite place to relax after a day of training her Quirk, or just after any stressful scenario in general.

Her Quirk, Poltergeist, let her remotely control any objects nearby with her mind, the Quirk being some form of telekinesis. The only reason her Quirk was named Poltergeist instead of Telekinesis was the fact that the Quirk doctor she had visited when her power first manifested had noted that it behaved differently to most telekinetic powers he had seen, and so he had insisted on giving it a different name.

Yanagi had hoped that this difference would manifest itself more distinctly as she continued to train her power, but all she had succeeded in doing so far was increasing the limit of the weight she could manipulate to about one person in weight. Though nothing of her Quirk had clearly changed yet, Yanagi continued to push herself and train harder, and she hoped that UA might give her the means to advance her power and control further.

UA High had always seemed like a distant dream, the kind of thing that students idly thought about when considering their future, but rarely did anyone commit to truly trying to enter. And the knowledge that she would soon be truly trying to enter UA was a thought that Yanagi couldn't shake from her mind, despite her best efforts to relax.

An exhausted student was sat at his desk, sketching out a panel from a manga comic he had been reading recently, the details quickly being placed on the paper by the skilled hands of the young student. Drawing and reading manga was one of Fukidashi's most intense passions, and he found himself grabbing his pens whenever he found himself feeling stressed or nervous.

And the past few weeks had certainly been a source of stress for Manga Fukidashi, the UA Entrance Exams were getting closer and closer by the day, and the pressure was building with every hour that passed. Fukidashi had been training intensely for hours every day, using every application of his Quirk that he could imagine to prepare for every eventuality possible. Overuse of his Quirk caused a sore throat, and so Fukidashi was left feeling tired and irritable at the end of every day, and so he drew to unwind.

Fukidashi's Quirk was Comic, and it allowed him to manifest the physical effects of any onomatopoeia that he spoke allowed. Saying 'Boom' would result in a powerful explosion, whereas saying 'Zap' would release a burst of electricity from wherever Fukidashi aimed his words. It was an incredibly powerful and versatile Quirk, and the main focus of Fukidashi's training had been learning which sounds worked with his Quirk and how best to utilise them. Just this morning, he had tried out 'Shing' which mimicked the sound of drawing a weapon from its sheath, and sure enough the result of the words was a wave of cutting force being projected forwards.

Fukidashi's Quirk also had given him a speech bubble in place of a head, and while it was observed to be a rather unusual mutation by several people, he had managed to live long enough without the change really changing anything about his life. Most of what Fukidashi said aloud would also appear written down on his head, which made it fairly easy to get his point across whenever he was talking to someone, as the words would quite literally stare them in the face.

Fukidashi continued his drawing, doing his best to taking his thoughts away from the Entrance Exam and towards something a bit more relaxing, though he didn't manage to completely banish the dreaded test from his mind. His hobby of drawing had started from a young age, and all of his walls were covered in sketches and other artwork, each of which was destined to be replaced when he inevitably rain out of space to put something knew.

Finally, Fukidashi knew that he wouldn't be able to keep himself from thinking of the exam any longer, so he laid down his pens and moved away from his desk, grabbing a large dictionary on his way towards his bed. At the very least, he may as well learn something new about his Quirk if he had to keep thinking of the exam.

Setsuna Tokage sat in her bedroom, sorting through the mounds of paperwork that came with trying to enter UA High through official recommendation. Though she was extremely grateful for the opportunity that her parents had opened for her, it didn't mean that she was thrilled with all of the signing and reading that came with it.

Beyond the boredom that came with sorting through paperwork, all of the time that it was taking to finish was eating into her training time, which meant that her Quirk wasn't getting trained as often as possible. At the very least, she was able to train her Quirk passively even while sitting down, and the lack of destructive power meant that it was fairly safe to use in her bedroom. And so Tokage had been using her Quirk continually for the last hour or so, and the stress of keeping her power in use for so long was getting to her.

Her Quirk, Lizard Tail Splitter, let Tokage separate her body into fifty separate pieces, and she was able to control each part separately and even float them around in the air. Controlling the Quirk took a great degree of fine control from Tokage, and even after so many years of training she still needed to focus to keep each piece controlled remotely.

Currently, Tokage had one of her arms completely disassembled, each piece of it floating around her in circular motions, the eerie sight totally normal to her. The exercise of making parts of her arm fly around was largely pointless, but it helped Tokage to maintain control over longer periods of time and increasing the fine control she had over the floating limb parts.

Tokage sighed again as she shuffled through all of the paperwork that lay in front of her, realising that she had misplaced one of the sheets that she needed to read through. She noticed the paper laying on the ground across the room from her, though it seemed much further away to her exhausted mind.

A single mental command sent Tokage's floating hand over to the paper, and she grabbed the sheet before floating the hand back towards her. When Tokage manipulated her floating body parts, she could feel them as if they were still attached to her body, and she was able to use her hands as she would normally. The only main restrictions to her Quirk were the amount of parts she could split herself into, and the fact that each body part could only be kept away from her for so long before she had to return it.

The thought of training came to Tokage's mind again, and she knew that she would have to cram some more physical exercise into her schedule before the practical sections of the exam came up. Training seemed more attractive than what she was doing currently, and that thought caused Tokage to throw aside her pen, reattach all of her body parts and head for the door, eager to clear her head.

Author's Note

Sorry for leaving this one a bit late, starting two new stories at the same time required a little more work than I was expecting, but I think I have everything sorted out by now. The current situation has also delayed things by quite a bit, I'm a key worker and still have Uni Deadlines, so time was a bit thin on the ground over the past weeks.

Not too much to add this time, we just met the other half of 1B's students and had their Quirks introduced. I've added another childhood friendship in Kaibara and Awase, I've seen these two getting along in a bunch of other fics and I think they have a good dynamic.

I know these two introduction Chapters might be a little boring for some, as they don't do a lot beyond showing off the various characters in 1B. At the very least it gave me an opportunity to get some early characterisation in, and I hope that the reminders of 1B's names and Quirks would be helpful for those of you that don't read into Class 1B much.

I guess it's a good time to address the elephant in the room, the outbreak that's flaring up around the world is cause for concern for lots of people, and the closure of many universities, schools and workplaces around the world had most likely affected everyone reading this to some extent. I hope that reading these stories has been a reprieve from everything going on around you, and I'll do my best to keep regular updates going in order to keep you all entertained during lockdowns. For this story, the updates will be Tuesday and Friday.

On the subject of staying indoors, I appreciate that this is going to be a difficult time in a lot of your lives, and the reality of being stuck indoors for weeks on end will be stressful for a lot of you. To try and help somewhat, I've created a Discord server where you can come and hangout, and hopefully forget about the stress of the world for a bit. I'll try to be online as often as I can manage, and will be happy to discuss anything related to these stories or any other topic. Come and join if you'd like: /6heZ5HP

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.

And to answer some reviews:

Attackin: Thanks for the review, I'm a big fan of 1B as well so I'm glad to see that other people enjoy these characters. In all honestly I probably prefer them as a whole to 1A, as 1A has several characters I don't really care for, whereas I like pretty much all of 1B.

Raven Mordrake: I've been pondering connecting my three MHA fics for a few weeks, but I'm still unsure of exactly what to do. I'm leaning towards keeping the fics separate for now, as I want them all to be accessible to new readers, and if they all end up being part of a shared universe I think it might make things difficult to read. That said, I'm still open to the idea, and I'll keep it in mind.