Emiko groaned as she came to, her body once again sore all over, but a little more appeased thanks to the evening in the hot springs. She quickly scooped up her gym uniform and changed into it, once again ensuring that none of the other waking girls had any vantage point on her scar.
They all trooped out as lifeless as zombies to grab breakfast, the early morning light illuminating the camp in a bronze glow, the sun seemingly offering its riches to the sky and the land.
Aizawa joined them and announced that the class B students would be arriving today, which reinvigorated Emiko and her classmates, an emotional jolt running through their systems more intense than any caffeine could muster.
It didn't last long.
Whatever uplift they'd felt from the prospect of their friends and rivals arriving was decisively quashed as the Pussycats and Aizawa put them through their paces once they'd determined the class had eaten a sufficient breakfast (a sentiment a few in the class actually internally disagreed with their instructors).
Emiko knew by now to follow Mandalay, who'd set Emiko up with some exercises to push the boundaries of her quirk. She had Emiko set up in the lotus pose in the exact center of all the various stations her classmates were at. She wanted Emiko to be in the center of the chaos and to let go of the dam she had built up to keep her quirk at a manageable level and instead reach out and seek the emotions of the creatures and try to expand her circle more and more, further and further.
Emiko closed her eyes and pictured a dam in her mind, thick logs pushed up against it to support the wall. She pictured one by one removing the logs and suddenly the dam burst, the torrent that had been held at bay so long buffeting her as she acutely felt the emotions of all her classmates at once.
Bakugo's rage as he kept dunking his hands in boiling water and jettisoning an explosion skyward. Shoto… No, can't focus on him right now, she chided herself as she stretched her quirk out again. Sero's dismay as he was endlessly shooting tape out of his elbows. The grim determination from Ojio and Kirishima as they sparred to enhance their quirks. Kaminari was jammed like she had never sensed before when he'd overused his quirk. Koda's bashfulness at his exercise of… screaming? She felt Aoyama fighting off his queasiness as he kept firing his navel laser into the sky. Tokoyami's turmoil as he wrestled for control with Dark Shadow. Ochaco's panic as she was rolling around in a zero gravity hamster ball. Iida was in the zone as he pushed himself with each rhythmic stride on his run. Tsu was focused on her climb, ignoring the aching of her tongue and other muscles. Sato's sugar rush had him in a frenzy as he lifted a dumbbell in one hand and shoved cake into his face with the other.
Mmm, cake, she thought, her mouth watering at the prospect.
Focus, Emiko! Mandalay's voice rang out in her head, cutting through the delightful fog that had settled in her mind at the thought of the fluffiness and sweetness of a good piece of cake.
As she reset herself, she picked up with Momo, who felt uneasy at following a similar training regimen to Sato, but she nevertheless shoveled chocolate into her mouth as she created an endless supply of dolls. She felt Kyouka and Ashido pushing through their pain barriers as they both attached a rock wall with their quirks. She came across Mineta and immediately shifted to her next classmates. She already spent enough time dealing with the perverted grape's feelings.
Shoji was on the lookout for Hagakure, both feeling the rush and tension of a cat-and-mouse game.
She felt a large group just beyond theirs, filled mostly with apprehension and a bit of shock as they approached. 1B had arrived, it seemed.
Good, Mandalay's voice commented as she must have sensed Emiko's realization their peers were there. Got there with some simple deductive reasoning, but I'm sure when you hone this and get used to recognizing emotional signatures, you could tell that without knowing they were on their way.
Emiko nodded her understanding, even with her eyes closed.
She focused back and felt Midoriya's exhaustion as he was doing some manner of exercise Tiger had assigned him, then his dismay as an attempted attack on Tiger resulted in him being soundly trounced in one blow. Deku seemed to be scolding himself before he leapt up and was determined once again.
Emiko felt the telltale trail of blood seeping out of her nose that signaled she was nearing her limits. She reached up and wiped it away.
This was going to be another long day.
Emiko felt like exhaustion was becoming an old friend of hers by now, as the group trudged to the cooking area of the camp. They'd found out the previous day that from that point on, they would make their own meals, which had further sapped the morale of the group as the one consolation to their grueling regimen was the delectable food that awaited them.
As talented as her classmates were, it was never in the cards for them to open a restaurant any time soon, based on the quality of their curries. Emiko found herself at the chopping station with Bakugo today, meticulously chopping vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
"Whoa, Bakugo! You're really good with that knife!" Ochaco exclaimed. "It's weird."
"WHADDYA MEAN IT'S WEIRD?! HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE BE SO DAMN BAD AT EVERYTHING?!" Bakugo exclaimed.
Emiko looked over and was shocked to see the boy's hands were a blur as sliced carrots in record time, without even looking at them as he was too busy raging at Ochaco.
Denki made a passing remark about Bakugo not blowing stuff up for once and Emiko covered her mouth with her hand as she let out a snort. Apparently not subtly enough, as Bakugo whirled around to face her.
"What're you laughing at, Red?" he growled, his ruby red eyes narrowed in a deadly glare.
"Nothing, Katsuki, nothing" Emiko said, as she got back to her chopping.
She jerked back when her cutting board was yanked away from her by Bakugo, who took over chopping her vegetable, dicing it in record time.
"We'll be here until the morning if you keep cutting like that," Bakugo muttered quietly enough that no one else heard, yet his words held no malice.
"Thanks Katsuki," she whispered, swallowing the ball of residual anger she felt swelling up in her chest. She hadn't wanted to hold onto it for this long, but his words still stung.
"Don't mention it," he shot back. "No, seriously, don't mention it. I don't want these asswipes and jerkoffs thinking I'm going to do all their work for them. I already have enough of that otherwise."
She spotted Shoto and Midoriya talking over by the stoves and wondered what they had to say when Iida's voice broke her focus.
"You guys!" the class rep exclaimed. "Your hands aren't moving! We'll never make the best stew if you stop now!"
Emiko promptly turned back to the cutting station to avoid the wrath of Iida and his robo arms.
"Chop chop, Red," Bakugo droned.
"Pun intended?" Emiko teased.
Bakugo turned and looked at her with abject horror plastered over his features.
"Fuck no."
Once dinner was over and they'd cleaned up, Pixie Bob announced the evening's event: the Test of Courage. It got some loud cheers from the students, especially from Ashido, who was backed up by the other remedial course group members- Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, and Sato. Their moods quickly turned to horror when Aizawa dropped the hammer on them that they would not be participating as they had remedial courses with him that night.
Ashido went pale as a sheet and her eyes bugged out as she screamed her dismay. If Emiko wasn't sympathizing with her classmates' plight, she'd have found the whole ordeal hilarious.
Pixie Bob launched into the explanation that class A would be going through it first while class B did the scaring, going in pairs at 3 minute intervals.
"Revelry in the dark," Tokoyami intoned, seemingly excited at the prospect.
"Revelry in the dark," Emiko intoned beside him, giggling giddily.
The Pussycats also laid down the final ground rules, no touching, use only your quirks.
"THE WINNERS ARE… THE CREATIVE STUDENTS WHO MAKE THE MOST PEOPLE PISS THEIR PANTS!" Tiger exclaimed.
"Did we need that visual?" Kiyouka groaned.
"Dry pants emergency, here we come," Emiko groused.
Pixie Bob soon came around with the ballots for class A and Emiko found herself partnered with Midoriya, who gave her a sheepish smile and wave.
"RED!" Bakugo yelled, stomping over to Emiko, waving his ballot in her face. She was slightly startled to see the smoke curling up from the ballot from his not-remotely-contained rage.
"SWITCH ME BALLOTS, GOD DAMMIT! I'D RATHER GO THROUGH WITH USELESS DEKU THAN THAT HALF AND HALF BASTARD!" he insisted.
Emiko found herself giggling at Bakugo's outburst, whilst also panicking slightly at the prospect of taking him up on his offer and being alone with Shoto.
Why am I suddenly so afraid to be alone with him?!
"Sorry Katsuki, them's the rules!" she said with a wink. "Suck it up! Or don't, because it would be hilarious and I'd pay good money to see you get the shit scared out of you!"
She heard a muffled boom as a miniature explosion sounded out from his clenched fists as he ground his teeth furiously and stomped back over moodily to an unmoved Shoto, muttering darkly every step of the way.
She watched as Shoto said something to Bakugo and the latter nearly bit his head off.
"So, Komatsu, we'll make it through this and do our best, won't we?" Deku chirped from beside her, a smile on his face and a determined frown set in place.
"Hell yeah!" she said, high fiving the green haired boy as they found a spot to wait their turn as the others began filing in.
"Say, Komatsu-" Midoriya began, before Emiko held a hand up to stop him.
"How many times do I have to tell you? It feels weird to call me Komatsu, just call me Emiko," she said with an exasperated chuckle.
"Right, sorry, uh, Emiko," Izuku said, bashfully scratching the back of that wild green mane of his. I wonder if he's actually scratching his scalp or if his hair is just like this big green helmet around his head, she suddenly wondered. "I don't suppose there's any way you could use your quirk to make sure I don't spaz out during this test of courage?"
Emiko shook her head apologetically, "Sorry, Izuku, doesn't quite go with the whole principle of the thing." The boy's head dropped in acknowledgement and Emiko felt her heart sink as she felt the boy's do likewise. "What I will do, though, is keep a passive emotional radar out so I can sense the 1B students as we come up to them on the loop, and I'll warn you so you know when to expect a surprise."
The green head shot up so quickly, Emiko was afraid the boy might get whiplash.
"You would?!" he exclaimed, then began profusely bowing in gratitude. "Thank you, thank you, thank you-!" he repeated until Emiko reached out and grabbed the boy by the shoulders, forcibly stopping the display.
"One thanks is enough, Izuku, let's not make a scene of things," she chuckled, her cheeks heating up with the blush that crept across it from the looks some of their classmates were shooting her, feeling the confusion and second-hand embarrassment they were feeling.
She looked over at the boy again and was alarmed to see him bright red, a face of utter shock and terror painting his features as he looked at Emiko. She realized she still had her hands on his shoulders and felt the chaotic maelstrom of emotions rolling off the boy.
"Sorry," she muttered.
The boy stuttered incomprehensibly for several moments before looking the opposite direction and taking a breath to calm himself down.
She was distracted as she felt one of Mineta's telltale lust moods flare up. Her head whipped around in search of the little gremlin.
"One sec, Izuku, I have to go take care of some sour grapes," she muttered with disdain, glancing over at the small group of gathered students.
She approached the quartet of Mineta, Ojiro, Aoyama, and Yaoyorozu, and saw Mineta animatedly in discussion with Aoyama, waving his ballot frantically at the resident francophile, while Ojiro and Momo stood awkwardly off to the side, Momo in particular looking uncomfortable at this situation. The tableau before her only fueled her more as she put more power behind each step, her hair swinging around her like a blazing halo.
"MINETA!" Emiko barked, the diminutive boy whirling around at the sound of his name being called out.
"Oh shit," he muttered, eyes darting around for any manner of escape route. Almost immediately his hands began to tremble, and if not for the overwhelming rage she felt, Emiko may almost feel sorry for the diminutive boy.
Out of the corner of her eye, Emiko saw Pixie Bob and Tiger shift as if to intervene, but Mandalay held up a pawed hand to prevent them.
"You're trying to switch ballots with Aoyama so you can try to pull some sick, perverted stunt on Momo during the test of courage, aren't you?" Emiko growled, wiping the damp palms of her hands on her legs.
The kind of panic that came from being caught flooded through Mineta and Emiko narrowed her eyes before bending down to look him right in the eyes.
"Let's get something straight, you grapeheaded shit stain," she chuckled darkly. "You make every girl here uncomfortable with your unwanted sexual advances. Hell, you got a lesson in basic human decency from a FIVE YEAR OLD. So, you're going to stick to your original partnership with Ojiro, not make a pass at Yaomomo or any of the other girls here for that matter, or I'll personally use you for my own quirk apprehension test subject. Do I make myself clear?"
Mineta nodded frantically, trembling in embarrassment.
"Fantastic," Emiko snarked, whirling around and giving Momo a nod to make sure she was okay, getting an appreciative nod in return from the class rep.
Emiko marched away, hearing Mineta chanting "dry pants" under his breath repeatedly as though it were some prayer.
She fell back into line with Midoriya and didn't exchange words as they slowly shuffled as their classmates entered the forest two-by-two.
"We've got this," Emiko whispered to the boy, whose hands were frantically drumming an allegro beat for want of something to do to occupy them. She saw the microscopic little fidgets and could tell that Deku was fighting the temptation for his hands to fly up to different parts of his outfit to fidget with his collar, smoothing out a fold in his shirt sleeve, shove in his pocket.
Soon enough, almost everyone had made their way into the dark woods ahead of her. If she strained her ears just a little bit, focused her eyes a little more into the darkness, Emiko could hear and see her classmates traipsing through the cool evening air.
Laughter swirled on the breeze, and Emiko swore she saw the faintest hint of a smile cross Izuku's lips.
They were down to the final few pairs- herself and Deku, Ojiro and Mineta, as well as Iida and Koda- along with Mandalay, Pixie Bob, and Tiger when Emiko felt a surge of fear from the forest.
She dismissed it as the class B students pulling some particularly scary stunt, and went back to looking around the clearing.
Pixie Bob began sniffing at the air, a perplexed look on her face and one large pawed hand at her chin.
"What's this foul smell in the air?" she muttered.
"You see that?" Deku responded, nudging Emiko with his elbow and motioning towards the sky.
Emiko's heart clenched in horror as she saw thick black smoke and blue embers reaching up into the sky.
"Black smoke…"
"Has something been set ablaze?"
"Maybe a fire on the mountain."
They stood in silence until a pink glow enveloped Pixie Bob and she yelped out in surprise as she floated up and was yanked back.
They whirled around at the motion, which was followed by a sickening crack. Every nerve in her body shivered at the attire of one of the two beings standing over the prone body of the blonde heroine. Lizard-like, but the influence in the attire was unmistakable.
Nonononononononononono.
"First, let's get rid of these feral cats," the other figure, who was holding some cloth-wrapped pillar on top of Pixie Bob's head, the lower end of which saw a small trickle of blood emanating from her temple.
"What…? No way… I thought they made sure no one could find us," Mineta uttered in disbelief as he backed away from the pair. "SO WHY THE HECK ARE THERE VILLAINS ATTACKING THIS PLACE?!"
"PIXIE BOB!" Midoriya shouted as he rushed forward, only to find one of Tiger's muscular arms extended out to block his progress.
"This is bad," Mandalay growled, Deku stopped and looked at her, before whirling around in horror.
"Where's Kota?!" he asked.
Emiko's eyes flew wide as she realized that and she reached out with her quirk, pushing the boundary further and further, feeling the emotions washing over her and the bile rose in her throat as she felt all the fear muddled together.
She grit her teeth as she couldn't distinguish any of the signatures from each other, so there was no hope of her pinpointing Kota. It seems she had a ways to go with this facet of her quirk.
Her focus came back as Iida was berating the lizard man, arms flailing about the air wildly.
"So you're one of the ones he ended up inspiring," the bespectacled boy growled.
"At your service, that's us!" the lizard proclaimed, before pointing at Iida. "And you, four eyes! Yes, I believe I recognize you. You're one of the self-righteous brats who attacked Stain in Hosu city. Let me introduce myself!"
At this he hefted the hilt of whatever was wrapped up in those bandages, which slid off to reveal… a bunch of sword blades strapped together to make an entirely too large mega sword.
"Call me… Spinner!" he cackled wickedly, and Emiko had to fight the urge to roll her eyes dramatically.
If this weren't a life or death scenario, Emiko might have had the heart to make some jokes about the ridiculous weapon the villain was wielding. I mean, come on, there's several of them held together by belts.
She looked on still torn between terror and awe as Tiger berated the villains for their attack on Pixie Bob
"Tiger, I've talked to everyone," Mandalay said. "Trust the safety of the other students to Ragdoll. You and I will stay here. We'll hold them back!"
She looked over her shoulder at Emiko and her classmates.
"You return to camp! Class Rep, you're in charge on the way there! Don't engage anyone!"
"Leave it to me, let's go!" Iida said, turning and leading the others back towards the camp.
Deku stood rooted to the spot and was looking expectantly at Mandalay.
"Midoriya, Komatsu!" Iida shouted, seeing the two rooted to the spot and not following him.
"Go on ahead without me," he said.
"Without us," Emiko interjected, earning an incredulous look from her friend. "You're stuck with me, partner."
Izuku nodded, then turned to the pro heroes, even as Iida and the others muttered in surprise, "Mandalay!"
At the call of her name, she spared a glance over her shoulder, still gritting her teeth and tensed up, ready to leap into action the moment either villain made a move for the students or herself.
"Kota, I know where he is," Deku declared.
Mandalay's eyes widened in horror, and then she uttered one word. "Go."
The moment the word left her lips, Deku took off and Emiko was hot on his tail. The two made a beeline for the mountain and Emiko did her best to keep pace with the boy, jumping over the occasional tree root, but he was slowly pulling away, only to slow slightly to allow Emiko to keep up with him, although she could tell having to limit his speed was only contributing to his anxiety.
"Deku, go ahead without me! Kota needs you now! I'll see if I can meet up with anyone along the way and bring them to you!" Emiko panted.
"Koma-" he began, only to correct himself. "Emiko, are you sure?!"
"Get your ass in gear and go be a hero for that kid, you insufferable broccoli-headed piece of shit!" Emiko shouted in exasperation, which only drew a grateful chuckle out of the boy, who tensed up, before darting off at an incredible speed.
Emiko continued for a few more minutes, the rolling tempest of emotions that surrounded her gave her vertigo and she stumbled before her foot caught a stray root and the world spun as her head collided with something solid.
God, that's gonna hurt in the morning, she thought, as darkness took over and she lost consciousness.
