No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to untangle my hair from what Jeanist did to it, so in class on Monday…
"What the heck, Bakugou?" Tape Arms and Kirishima both laughed at me like idiots.
"Stop it," I snapped back at them. "I'll kill you both!"
"I'd like to see you try , pretty boy!" smirked Tape Arms.
As I continued yelling at them,, my anger somehow popped my hair back to normal. Those jerks.
I grabbed the collars of their shirts and shoved them down; and they still. Kept. Laughing.
As everyone was gossiping about internships, it was Spark plug who finally turned the attention to them.
"You know, the ones who've transformed the most would be those three."
"The hero killer!" cried Tape Arms.
"At least you three are ok!" added Kirishima.
"Lucky Endeavor came in and saved you guys! That's the Number 2 hero for you!"
Icy Hot muttered resentfully, . "Yeah. We were rescued."
"I saw it on the news," continued Tail. "Something about the Hero Killer and the League of villains being connected. Imagine if a really scary guy like that had showed up at USJ!"
"He's pretty scary, sure," said Sparkplug. "But did you see that video, Ojiro? I dunno if it was his single-track mind or tenacity, but don't you think he's kinda cool?"
"Kaminari!" cried Deku. Looking at Glasses. Right. Glasses' brother got attacked by that villain creep.
Spark plug, way too late, apologized.
"Oh, iida, I'm so sorry!"
"It's all right," said Glasses. "He was certainly a man of conviction, so I understand if people find him cool. However, he chose to advance his cause by means of a purge, and whatever beliefs you may hold, that alone is in error. And so, in order that people like me may not hereafter multiply, I shall proceed down the path towards being a hero anew!"
And he snapped back to his usual loudmouthed bossiness.
Our exercise in class that day was a training session with All Might, in a brand new stage that looked like a huge mess of pipes, buildings and construction equipment.
"I AM HERE…is the note I usually start on, but right, onto foundational hero study time!" boomed our teacher. "It's been a while, boys and girls. In good spirits, I hope?"
"That was a really lukewarm entry…after so long too. He must have run out of schticks," a few of our classmates muttered.
"Right! on the heels of all your workplace experience, this time we'll do something playful,' said Sensei, muttering back "Run out? Never. My supply of schticks is inexhaustible." Then, back to business: "It's a rescue training race."
"Shouldn't rescue training be conducted at USJ?" asked Glasses.
"No, that place is for disaster rescue. What was I saying? This is a race. This place is training ground gamma, where densely packed lanes make this construction site seem more like a complex labyrinth. Make four groups of five! We'll done the training one group at a time. When I've given the distress signal somewhere n the area, you all simultaneously start form the outside limits. This is a competition to see who can get to me first. Of course, keep damage to the surrounding buildings at a minimum," he finished, pointing at me.
"Cut that out," I muttered. Deku blew up the building worse than I did, why aren't you calling him out?
The first five up were Deku, Tail, Glasses, Raccoon Eyes, and Tape Arms. The extras were soon taking all bets on who'd get in first
"Iida hasn't made a complete recovery yet. He should just sit this one out."
"All the kids with the most maneuverability in the class are in that group."
"Yeah, but I'd say Midorwya's at a slight disadvantage here," I reasoned.
"Yeah, I'm not really sold on his power yet," said Ears. Ponytail Girl agreed. "I mean, whenever he tries anything he gets hurt."
"I'd say Sero takes first," said Kirishima.
"I'm betting on Ojiro!" said Sparkplug.
"I say Ashido! Her reflexes are nuts!" said Bullhead.
I submitted, "Deku's dead last!"
Uraraka predicted "Even if he's injured, I think Iida's got this one.
Things started, and at first it looked like Kirishima would win, since Tape Arms was in first, soaring over the buildings and -
Suddenly surpassed in speed by an odd blur, which flew straight past him, bouncing and jumping off of buildings and moving as well as I could -
"MIDORIYA?!" everyone was shouting.
Deku. Jumping through the air.
"Amazing, those jumps!" gasped Uraraka. "He looks just like…" she looked over at me. I was shivering a little; like Uraraka had somehow read my mind and knew just what I was thinking. Those are my moves. While I was wasting my time getting groomed, he - again! Look at him! Dammit…
I tried to hold it in, but I'd failed again. I'd thought it might be the case since I saw Deku's new look, but now it was true. He was flying around in front of me.
It didn't matter that as I'd guessed he came in last by slipping. I had failed - and Deku was catching up with me. I noticed that after All Might gave everyone his speech, he gave Deku a private thumbs up.
And even though I won my own round, I couldn't stop thinking about him. I couldn't get the image of Deku's new powers out of my head.
In homeroom the next morning, Sensei told us "Summer break is fast approaching. Of course, we can't just let you relax an entire month. We'll be going to a summer break forest lodge."
Everyone started cheering, loud and obnoxiously.
"TRUTH OUR DARE!" squealed Raccoon eyes, fist pumping. Frog face added "Fireworks, and Glasses "Curry."
"However," Sensei silenced them with a glare, "Should any of you fall short of a passing grade for the end of term test, then you're stuck in remedial hell.'
"Let's do our best, everyone!" Kirishima called out.
"So freaking stupid," I muttered.
As if I wasn't gonna spend summer training anyway. But the final exams - another way to compete. I had to do better. No room to feel sulky about Deku getting better. Just take the next opportunity and surpass him.
