Drageria

Ch. 23: Training part. 1

Three years…three years of training crammed into just ten months. Trial By Fire as they call it since many go in and many more end up getting turned to ash. 1,000 new recruits came in on the first day. All of them neatly lined up and dressed in the newly made recruit uniforms. A pair of light grey uniform shirts and pants with brown belts, black boots, a name tag, and American Navy-style semen recruit hats made up their look.

The General looked down the lines at each and every one of them and felt a pang of disappointment in his chest, sighing to himself as he knew that they wouldn't last. Of the 1,000 recruits, only half would make it the three weeks, and by the end….only a few dozen would remain. A truly harsh regimen, but a needed one.

The first three weeks were solely dedicated to physical training and self-improvement. Having them gain better strength and stamina for form and function. This is where many of them fell. The training was intense and harsh! From first thing in the morning to the fall of night. Through the wind, rain, mud, and even snow if it was the time of year.

They trained and exercised and worked on their bodies until they broke! Not only did this sharpen their bodies, but their minds as well! If they could come out of this on the other side, then they would be able to handle everything and anything.

Despite this, the General knew that many wouldn't make the cut, quirk or no quirk. He always had a mix like that, and he usually saw the quirkless fall out far slower than the ones with quirks. Even here in Drageria, quirk narcissism still held high. But there was one person he was slowly losing hope in…..Izuku.

The boy was personally recommended by Tachibana. The one was taken in by him and treated like his own. The one he truly hoped would go above and beyond, but slowly started to doubt that.

The boy was not previously trained or prepared in any way. Although many came in fresh and under-prepared, Izuku was different. He was small, scrawny, and weak. Weaker than some other quirkless children.

After a bit, he realizes that Izuku wasn't weak in body, but in mind. The boy has been damaged all his life and it had taken its toll on him, reflected in his progress in training. Nearly always messing up or falling far behind the rest. It was truly a sad sight to see him try so hard and fail due to the roadblock in his mind.

The General could see I'm his desire to do better than he and the rest but just couldn't get over that one hurdle that constantly kept knocking him over. He was dejected at seeing this, but he knew in fear that the boy would give up in a short time, and he couldn't be blamed for it.

Izuku was smart, but the General knew that helping someone doesn't mean you have to put yourself out there. Sometimes it means being on the sidelines and planning the strategy that wins in the end. Truly that was the boy's best strength to use it at its fullest. If this didn't work, then he always had that to fall back on. After all, without him, Drageria probably couldn't have been built back as quickly as it did. The General could vouch for that.

But then everything changed on one faithful day. It was the middle of the second week, and the recruits were running laps through the rain….the usual. As usual, the General was barking orders, and the kids kept running. All except for Izuku who was, as usual, still lagging far behind the others and trying his best to keep up.

The General directed his commands at Izuku, as he usually does with slackers to encourage them to push on, and Izuku did just that. Trying his hardest to do better, but only gets so far as to over-exaggerate his already out-of-cadence movements. To this end, he inevitably ended up falling face-first into the mud. And once they're in the sickening cold muck, he lay there almost unmoving.

The General wanted to help him back up, but he remembered what Tachibana had told him. Treat Izuku no differently than any other recruit. So the only thing he could do was bark his orders for Izuku to stand up and return to the training. But he didn't, he just lay there in the mud, and for the moment MacAuthor truly thought this would be the moment when he quit.

He hated that thought and feeling….so much! But it was inevitable, the evidence was all there. He would raise his head, mud on his face and tears streaming down before telling the General that he couldn't take anymore. In his mind, he begged Izuku to get up and push on, but his fears drown out those hopes, and he accepted the bleak reality of the situation.

Then Izuku did something that surprised him then and there. As he thought, Izuku did raise up his head, face full of mud and tears in his eyes. However, the thing he didn't expect was the expression on his face. The look of pure determination! A look he has seen enough times I'm his life to point it out! An expression to show someone's true metal, and Izuku had it. A half beat from exhaustion, muddy, wet, and cold, and yet he still looked ready to push on ahead!

He got up, cleaned his face as best he could, grit his teeth, and began to run laps once again. Douglas couldn't believe it….he just really couldn't believe it. You still wanted to keep on going despite the fact he was at such a disadvantage….but why? He thought on it for longer than he probably needed to, And when he did realize what the answer was he felt stupid for not knowing it right away. It was something that he was taught as a very young boy, the concept of never giving up. The thought process of no matter how many times you fall you get back up until you can finally do what you set out to do. And young Izuku was right in that mindset, No matter how far he fell behind or how many times he slipped into the mud, he wouldn't give up no matter what was thrown at him to knock him down.

Douglas was…proud of this revelation to say the least. And in his soul hope fluttered as he knew that Izuku wouldn't just make it but be the best of them all. And so he reported this to Tachibana, only telling him one thing.

"He's going to do it, all the way through and beyond."