The next few days, we were trapped in a seemingly never-ending agony.

At 7am every morning, we were herded to the training grounds, given our instructions, and forced to undergo boot camp - rigorous quirk training designed to shred our muscle fibers, tear our quirks apart, and turn us into champions.

I had to sit in boiling water, constantly raising my temperatures and lowering them, in n effort to make sure I could some day use both sides of my quirk at once. For eight hours a day this was my assignment from the teachers. Everyone, in fact,had to participate in some kind of hellish boot camp quirk training.

The four Pussycats, Sensei and Class B's teacher Vlad King were supervising our progress all the time. Aside from the first two Pussycats we'd met, there was also a big burly man called Tiger and a kind one called Ragdoll. Pixie Bob, the blond worried about getting married, had earth moving powers. Mandalay the brunette could project thoughts into people's minds. Rag doll could look at people and see their weaknesses and locations. And Tiger could flex his body around, with a quirk called pliabody.

At 4pm, the Pussycats led us t the mess hall. No wonderful food was prepared for us this time.

"Now, I told you yesterday, 'Today's the last day we help you out!' said Pixie Bob on the first day.

Rag doll added "If you want to eat, get off your asses and make it yourself! Starting with Curry!"

"Yes ma'am" we all barely stumbled out.

"Hahaha! Everybody's looking pretty raw!" gloated Ragdoll. "That doesn't give you an excuse to do a sloppy job though!"

"You're right!" cried Iida "In the case of an emergency, feeding the hungry and providing to mind and body is an essential part of providing Aid! These pros are correct! Let's make the world's best curry!"

With those encouraging words, we all set to work.

"Todoroki!" Ashido called me "We need some fire over here!"

"Everyone!" snapped Yaoyorozu. "If you keep relying on others' help, you won't learn anything about making your own." She produced a lighter as she spoke. No fair Momoyao! Not all of us can make anything!

"Nah, it's cool," I assured her, as I found myself lighting a fire, using that hated power of mine, to put a smile on my classmates' faces. For once.

On day three, we were so run down we could barely keep our heads up. Sensei's temper was short.

"Oi, remedials!" snapped Sensei. "I don't see your muscles moving."

"I'm sorry," Ashido gasped out. "It's just….sleep…deprivation."

"Yesterday's 'remedial lessons,'" groaned Kaminari, "were…" There was really no word.

"Told ya, didn't I? This was gonna be rough," Sensei reminded us. "Sato and Kaminari, your capacities, the amount of quirk-related power you have stored up, are directly linked to whether or not your survive any particular fight. Raising those capaciteis requires endless repetitive use of your quirks. Sero, in addition to increasing your capacity, yo also have to work on increasing the strength of your tape as well as the speed at which you can fire it. Ashido," turning on me, "extended use of your acid eventually causes your skin to reach a limit. You need to lengthen the amount of time it takes to reach your limit. And Kirishima, if you work both on your muscular strength and increasing your quirk's rigidity, you'll achieve synergistic benefits. Above all else," he glowered. "Every last one of you here were exposed during final exams. While you train I want you guys to think long and hard about why it is exactly that you're so much more tired than everyone else."

He turned once again to snap at Uraraka and Aoyama this time. "You guys are in the same boat! You didn't fail per se, but you were pretty damn close. 30 points was the cutoff and you two only squeezed by with a 35. Don't lose focus. Everyone keep at it! No matter what you do, never forget your fundamental drive. That's how you improve and progress. Why am I working this hard? Why am I putting up with being chewed out like this? To what end? Always keep the answer to that question in mind."

Where I'm from. Where I came from. How I got here. How I got here was mostly from my parents…

My starting line. Saving mom. Becoming the kind of her I want to be with my power..

Your power is your own!

That made me look over at Midoriya. He had stopped working and was talking to Sensei.

"Sensei - Is all might - ah, no, are the other teachers not coming?"

"As I told you before we left," Sensei told him. "In order to prevent the enemy from anticipating our movements, we left with only the bare minimum amount of personnel absolutely needed for our mission here. We had All Might stay because we believe he is one of the enemy's targets. That's why he wasn't allowed to come. For better or for worse, he gets in these situations because he stands out."

"I see," said Midoriya, looking saddened.

"Meow meow meow, allow me to change the topic! Let's talk about tonight's plans!" cried Pixie Bob. "We're doing an inter-class test of courage! After training hard, you get to play hard! See! Carrot and stick!"

That night, while we made stew, I felt like I had to speak to Midoriya. I'td been on my mind the whole day.

"Did you want to talk to All Might or something?" I asked him, as he gathered wood. "You asked Sensei about him, right?"

"Oh, um, yeah. I had a question about Kota," he told me.

"Kota? Who's that?"

"Huh? That boy, you know the one…" He turned around, but couldn't see him. "Huh? He's gone again." He looked down, rather sadly, at the wood. "That boy…he doesn't like hero-no, he doesn't like the idea of a superhero society with 'quirks'. I don't know what to tell him to help him out. But All Might, he'd probably be able to find the words, you know…What would you say, Todoroki?"

I was a little surprised he was asking my advice. After a moment, I replied, "It depends."

"Of course!" gasped out Midoriya.

"For complete strangers like us to just dump our reasoning on his head. He'd just find it pretentious. And if by chance he were the type to be moved by words alone, then his hatred only runs skin deep. I think the most important thing is to tell him 'what we have done and what we are doing now. I believe that with words, come actions."

You showed me with your actions, not just your words.

"Yeah, that's true," he sighed. "There's little a stranger can say that'll convince him."

"I don't know what you want with that kid," I told him. "But sticking your nose into a delicate matter is, well, you know, And no one would expect it, but you're the type to just break down barriers without thinking twice."

"Uh, I'm sorry!" he cried.

Iida yelled "I don't see your hands moving! We have to make the world's finest stew!", and we hurried to finish.

At last we were out in the woods.

Pixie bob smiled. "Our stomachs are full and the dishes are clean! Next up!"

"The Test of courage!" cheered Ashido .

"Before that," said Sensei, and we froze. "Though it pains me to say it, the remedial bunch are going to have a review lesson with me starting right now."

"NO WAY!" screamed Ashido.

But there was nothing they could do. sensei bound the five of them and dragged them off to the stupid building.

Pixie Bob explained the rules of the Test of Courage. "So there we have it. Class B will start out as our scarers. Class A will leave in pairs of two every three minutes. In the middle of the route, there'll be a card with your name written on it. Take it back with you as proof. The scarers are not allowed to directly touch anyone. But scaring tactics using any and all available quirks are permitted. The winner will be the class that makes the most creative use of their powers and makes the most people piss their pants!"

"I see!" cried Iida. "By pitting us against each other, we can polish our skills! And as a result, reach new horizons with our quirks! As expected of UA!"

We drew lots for our teams of two, and I was paired with Bakugou. He was furious about it and snarled at Ojiro.

"Hey, tail! Trade with me!"

There was nothing to be done about it, though. Midoriya was left alone, and when our names were called, we ventured off into the woods. Where a Class B kid popped their head out of the ground.

"Oh? Oh?!"

We hurried on. not scared, not really…

I coughed. Then looked around. It was kind of smoky out here. Something in the forest was burning.

"Something's been set on fire," I said. Did the fires from the stew earlier spark something?

"Well, duh, moron!" snapped Bakugou.

We'd reached the table at the end of the test of courage, with name tags. Made it past the test of courage -

Rag doll popped up.

"Listen kids! There's trouble! Villains are attacking, you gotta head back."

WHAT?

"Villains? I thought they were trying to avoid that!" I cried out, impulsively.

"Goddamn bastards!" Bakugou shouted. I nodded at Ragdoll and turned to run.

Then -

EVERYONE!

Mandalay's voice echoed in our heads. We'd heard her telepath before, but this - this was different.

Two villains have invaded the area! It's possible there are still more lurking in the shadows! Those who are capable, head immediately to the facility. If you should come face to face with the enemy, do not engage them in combat! Continue your retreat!