"Training camp…"

Leizcio was in his seat as the thought of going to training camp didn't leave his mind. He didn't get to think of it much yesterday. He had his pulse ability to blame as he never used it to such a strong extent and made him practically clock in for the rest of the day when he got home.

But that gets all cleared out of his head as Aizawa entered the room.

"Once the bell rings, get in your seats."

As expected to Aizawa's liking, the room was silent and everyone was seated.

"Morning. Unfortunately, there are those who did not pass the final exams. Accordingly for the training camp in the woods…"

The face of accepting defeat was written all over Kirishima and Sato, knowing that they were not going to get to go.

"...Everyone's going!"

Who knew just two words could bring back the life in someone?

"We can go too?!"

"Yeah. Some failed, but no one failed the written exam. In the practical, Kirishima, Sato, and Sero failed."

'Poor Sero…'

"For this time's exam, we on the villain side made sure to leave a way for students to win while watching to see how you all would take on the task at hand. If we hadn't, most of you would've gotten stuck before you even started."

"So when you said you were out to crush us…"

"That was to make you feel cornered. In the first place, the training camp in the woods is one to increase strength. So those who failed need it the most. They have to get stronger. It was a rational falsehood." Aizawa said with a… smile?

'How many more 'rational falsehoods' are there going to be?'

Iida didn't take this blunder quite well, standing up to voice his thoughts, "However, since you lied to us twice, our faith in you will waver!"

"Wow, you're being a wet blanket Iida." Ochaco commented.

"That's true. I'll consider that. But I wasn't lying about everything. Failure is failure. We've prepared a separate time for extra lessons for you all. Frankly, it'll be tougher than the extra lessons you'd get if you stayed at school."

'Poor them…' Leizcio thought to himself as he quickly saw the disappointment in Kirishima, Sato, and Sero's faces.

As there wasn't much else to explain, Aizawa passed out training camp guides and left class as it was over.

"Well, in any case, I'm glad we can all go together." Ojiro said, holding one of the guides.

"A week of training camp huh?" Iida noticed as he looked through it.

"We'll have to bring a lot with us." Midoriya said, looking at Iida's guide.

"I don't have a bathing suit or anything, I'll have to buy a bunch of stuff." Kaminari added.

"Night vision goggles…"Mineta said out of nowhere.

'I feel like I should be concerned about that…'

"Oh, then since we're off tomorrow and we just finished our exams, why doesn't Class A all go shopping together?!" Hagurake suggested excitedly.

"Oh, good idea! Wouldn't that be the first time we all hung out together?" Kaminari brought up, with Ochaco and Leizcio nodding in response.

By then it was decided that tomorrow all of 1-A aside from Bakugo and Todoroki, were going to the mall tomorrow.

"Really can't wait for training camp!" Leizcio said as he walked with Ochaco.

"You've been awfully upbeat recently, Leizcio!" Ochaco brought up, noticing his more joyous mood as of late.

"I've just been feeling better lately, especially with exams done! I gotta admit though, having this much free time feels weird especially after… well that but it feels kind of nice. I even started a new support gear project!"

"Really? What is it this time?"

"Well, technically two projects. One is for a kind of material that can conduct the energy I radiate so I can wear it and then a sort of capture device that can zap people when it's charged with my energy! The design for that one is still iffy though…"

Ochaco had a light smile and looked up at him,"... It's nice seeing you like this again Leizcio. I missed it."

"Thanks, I think I missed being like this too."

The two had made it in time and met up with everyone else at the mall.

"Well, here we are! With the most stores in the prefecture, the newest and coolest, most advanced… Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall!" Ashido beamed.

'This place is huge…' Leizcio thought as he looked around the mall. Sure he's gone to malls to go and get things for the cafe but he's never seen one that was so huge, he felt that he could get lost easily.

"Hey aren't those U.A. students?!" A random guy in the crowd spoke out, directing the attention toward the class.

"First years?!"

"I saw them on TV!

"Sports festival, yay!

Ochaco grinned nervously, "Oh, there's still people that remember that…"

"Figured people would've forgotten by now…" Leizcio commented, also slightly nervous from the attention.

Everyone was discussing what they needed to get and it seemed that there was a huge variety of what people needed to get.

Kirishima decided to bring up an idea to make things easier, "Everyone has different things they want to do, so why don't we decide on a time to meet back up?"

"I agree!"

"Then let's meet back here at 3 o'clock!"

"Okay!"

In a few moments, everyone was gone with the wind along with Leizcio, leaving Midoriya and Uraraka by themselves.

"Oh man, I could really use a new soldering station…"

Leizcio went by himself as he noticed a store selling some engineering tools. But when he took a second glance at it, he was immediately uninterested.

'Who the hell would charge that much for just a soldering station?!'

Saddened but also slightly annoyed, he decided to explore the mall and actually focus on what he needed to get for the trip.

"Hey Esperanza, wanna join us?"

Jirou and Yaoyorozu just came out of another store when they spotted him.

"Sure, what're you guys getting?"

"Oh, we didn't need much so we're already finished with our list. We just wanted to look around for a bit before we met up with everyone else." Jirou explained as she held up some of the bags she was holding.

"Yeah sounds fun!"

The three went and walked around for a bit, they ended up going into a shoe store since Leizcio needed to go and get some.

"I really need to get some customized shoes for my quirk…" Leizcio thought as he was trying on a pair of shoes.

"Aren't those practically the same as the ones you got? Jirou pointed out.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah pretty much, I just like these shoes."

"Why don't you try something else?"

"... sure? What do you have in mind?"

Jirou looked around for a second and grabbed something. Going back to Leizcio, she gave him the box and he tried the shoes on.

"You know… these do look kinda good."

Leizcio decided to buy them, they were black athletic shoes with golden stripes. Getting it in a bag, he walked outside and met with the other two.

"So you ended up buying it?"

"Yeah! Think we can go and find a clothing shop? I kinda need to get some for the trip." Leizcio asked to which the two nodded.

Again, they started walking but Leizcio ended up noticing something that caught his eye. Unsurprisingly, he decided to go and see for himself.

In front of him, there were the sweaters that he wore as Blur being sold. Going to look at the prices, he noticed they were insanely high. The ones he had bought were sold relatively cheap but the ones right here were around 29,000 yen.

'Who is selling this shit so high?'

Taking a quick look at the sweater, he noticed some initials in platinum in the bottom corner of it. Just an M and an S.

'Oh you've got to be kidding me…'

"Esperanza!"

Leizcio's attention was pulled off of the sweater and realized that he had accidentally left Yaoyorozu and Jirou.

"C'mon, I don't want to have to drag you around the place…" Jirou said, jabbing one of her jacks at him.

Not wanting to test his luck, he stuck with the two as they continued to wander for a bit. But there was something else that had gotten his interest.

"Hey let's go there!" Leizcio said as he just started walking towards a store, the others following him.

It was a music store and Leizcio was looking all over the place which both confused and amused Jirou and Yaoyorozu.

"Why did you want to come here, Esperanza?" Yaoyorozu asked as she was looking around as well.

"Oh, well I have a summer job and I needed to get some new tools to keep my guitar tuned."

"Wait summer job? I thought you worked at the cafe though?"

"Uhhh, well… Yeah, but this 'job' is relaxing and fun to do so I don't mind doing it."

"Wait, are you in a band or something Esperanza?" Jirou asked, whose interest was piqued by what he was saying.

"Sorry for the inconvenience but the mall will be temporarily closed."

Leizcio felt his phone vibrate and quickly checked it. It was a message from Ochaco telling him that he needs to head back to the meeting spot because something happened. He explained it to the other two and they went over to the spot.

'What kinda crappy chance is it that Shigaraki was at the mall? Much less when all of us were there?'

Leizcio sat by himself on a bench as he just finished calling Lavania. Even though she was busy organizing things for the cafe, she said she'd go pick him up as soon as she could so for the time being, he just waited.

"You're still here Esperanza?" Yaoyorozu asked as she walked over.

"Hmm? Yeah, just waiting to get picked up. I'm assuming the same thing for you?"

"Yes, mind if I join you?" To which Leizcio just nodded as she sat on the bench as well.

The two just sat there for a bit, feeling the slightly cold breeze in the air as the sun was settling down.

"So… you got any plans for the summer before training camp?"

"Not quite. I was supposed to go to Venice with my parents but since the school requested we refrain from taking long trips we had to cancel… Now I'm not quite sure what to do."

'Venice…'

The boy might have gone to Mexico a few times but those were mostly because of some family matters and not casual usually. Going somewhere as extravagant as Venice and casually was something that shocked Leizcio a bit and reminded him that Yaoyorozu was rich rich.

"Esperanza are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah! Just zoned out for a bit there!" Leizcio reassured.

"What about you then?"

"Oh, well…"

'What was I going to do for the summer?'

For once in his life, Leizcio didn't plan on just staying inside during the summer to work on just support gear and tend to the cafe. Sure Blur would've been an option but it's obviously not one anymore. Regardless, he had more friends now, and even a quirk to boot. Wait a minute…

'After we're done with internships, I want to train you and your abilities.'

Leizcio remembered that Blink had offered to train him. It didn't occur to him for a good bit since Blink helped him with rehabilitation that he forgot they were supposed to help him train his quirk.

"I… I think I'm going to start training again. The pro hero I interned with offered me the chance to train under him again so I want to see if I can take him up on that.

"Really? That's great!"

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it now that I think about it. He gave me a different perspective on hero work too."

"He sounds like a good hero to learn from…" Yaoyorozu said with slight disappointment, remembering small bits from her own internship.

"Actually, why don't you join me Yaoyorozu?"

"What?"

"Yeah! If you don't have any plans, then join me and get a headstart before we go to training camp!"

Saying that only made Leizcio realize he was asking someone to dedicate the free time they have during the summer to do some gruesome training under a pro hero just because they can and have nothing else to do.

"Only if you want to of course! It's fine if you don't!" Leizcio hastily corrected himself, not wanting to come off as demanding in any way.

"Of course, I want to join Esperanza! An opportunity like this doesn't come around often so we should take advantage of it and learn as much as we can!" Yaoyorozu cheerfully responded.

Relieved that he didn't come across in a bad way, Leizcio was actually quite happy at the prospect.

Things have started to change drastically compared to last year. What used to be someone who would close themselves off from others, Leizcio has slowly begun to get out of his shell and be with others.

This was a change that he was more than happy to have.

Chapter 51

End