I sat down at my desk. I had been allowed to leave the hospital the last day that I was supposed to be an intern. Nobody had told me why. The Doctor had finally told me his name. Gavin. Yup. Dr Gavin. He had given me his number in case anything else had happened. Gang Orca had given me his as well, and surprisingly, so had Rock Lock. They had wanted to keep tabs on me. I didn't complain or say anything snarky to Rock Lock. Honestly, it made me feel good that people cared about me that much. Neither Kurogiri or Tomura had bothered to text or call me to see if I was alright even though they knew where I was when the city was attacked.
"Seriously?! Seriously Bakugo?!"
I looked up lazily to see what Kirishima and Sero were laughing about.
"Stop laughing! My hairs gotten used to it, so it won't go back even after I wash it! Stop laughing! I'll kill you!"
Bakugo's hair was flattened and neatly brushed down. Probably the doing of the hero he interned with, the Jeanist. I sighed and got up. For some reason, this didn't amuse me as much as it should have. I walked over.
"I'd like to see you try, Side-part boy!" I walked up to Sero and back-handed him in the stomach. He doubled over as I turned to glare at Kirishima, my aura blue and black.
"Keep going. I dare you." Kirishima whimpered as I turned to Bakugo. I sighed and reached up, shaking his hair out.
"There. Don't say I don't do anything for you." I turned and went back to my desk. I folded my arms and rested my forehead on my arms, looking down at the desk.
I heard a few people muttering, assuming about me, but I ignored them. I was thinking about the Nomu.
I remembered bits and pieces. I remembered standing there, telling Rock Lock to stay put. Not that he had a choice with my shield covering him and Gang Orca, who had been laying on the torn up street, bleeding heavily from a deep wound in his shoulder.
I remembered standing there, staring at the Nomu as it ran at me. I remembered throwing my arms out at it. I remembered seeing this black wall hit it. I remember that the Nomu was thrown backwards and torn apart slowly.
"Kitia?"
I blinked and slowly raised my head. I saw Ashido and the rest of the girls. "Yea? What's up?"
Momo stepped froward, pointing at me. "We should be asking you that. You're never this down."
"And you never pass up an opportunity to tease Bakugo, ribbit."
"Tsu is right. What's wrong?" Tooru shook her arms.
I looked down again. "Nothing. I'm fine."
"That's not nothing. You can't lie to us, even if you tried." Jiro. The way she said it.
I frowned. You don't even know me. None of you do. None of you have even tried. I looked back at them. "I said I'm fine." I widened my eyes as the chair closest to me flew across the room and shattered when it hit the wall. The girls all shrieked and looked at me with a strange expression. I shook my head and lay my head down again.
Soon, everyone seemed to forget about me, and started talking about their own internships.
"...Women are all demons. They're just hiding their true personalities."
"What did you see at Mt. Lady's place?! I was kind of fawned over and had a good time. But the ones who changed the most, or at least went through the most were you three, right?"
"Oh yea, the Hero Killer!"
"I'm glad you guys made it out alive! Seriously."
"I was worried."
"I heard Endeavor saved you right?"
"That's amazing! As expected from the number two hero!"
"Yea. He saved us."
"I saw on the news that the hero killer was connected to the League of Villains. Imagining someone that scary coming to USJ freaks me out."
"He's not."
"Huh?"
I lifted my head slightly, so I could be heard. "Stain is not affiliated with the League of Villains."
"How do you know that, Kitia?"
I put my head back down and said nothing.
"Well, he's really single-minded and tenacious. Doesn't it almost make you think he's cool?"
Cool? No. Definitely not. Determined? Focused? Yes. He definitely was those things.
You don't lack desire and conviction. You are like me. Go. Do what you need to do and I will do the same.
I frowned. Are we the same? I don't know.
"...It's true that he was tenacious. I understand how people think he's cool. But he chose purging as a result of his beliefs. No matter what he thinks, that part is definitely wrong."
I shifted slightly, keeping my head down. Is it though...?
"In order to keep anyone else from turning out like me, I will once again walk on the path to becoming a hero! Now, it's time to commence class! Everyone, take your seats!"
"He's so loud."
"It's because you talked about weird stuff, Kaminari!"
"Sorry about that."
I slid my chair back and got up.
"Kitia? Class is about to start..."
I flipped my hood of my black jacket over my head and walked towards the door.
"Come get me when we get to go to the training facility."
I walked out the door, without looking back.
I walked towards the class in the training facility. I had my costume on, just like everyone else did. The hood of my cowl was up, so they could barely see my face.
"Whoa, Kitia! That's your costume!"
"It looks great!"
"I didn't expect that kind of costume from you!"
My eyes shone in the blackness of my hood as I glared at Mineta. He whimpered and hid behind Shouji.
All Might stood in front of us. "Ok, I am here. Anyway, we'll start now. Right. It's hero basic training! Long time, no see boys and girls! How've you been?" If he looked at me specifically, I didn't notice. "For this time's hero training, since you've all just got back from your internships, we'll have fun with a rescue training race!"
"If we're doing rescue training, shouldn't we do it at USJ?"
"Shut up, Iida." He glanced over his shoulder at me, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, yes well. That place is for training disasters. Do you remember what I said?"
I clenched my fists. Let's just do this. I just want to do something...
"That's right! I said 'race'! This is Field Gamma! A dense area filled with factories laid out like an intricate labyrinth. You'll break up into groups and go through the training one group at a time. When I send out a distress signal from somewhere inside, you'll all start at once from the outskirts of the city!"
I already did something similar when I ran from Gang Orca's place to the city. I even managed to not get lost. It seemed almost unfair for whoever I was in a group with. Luckily, I didn't care much for 'fair' today.
"It's a race to see who can rescue me first! Of course, you'll have to keep damage to buildings to a minimum."
All Might pointed specifically at Bakugo. "Don't point at me!"
He should have been pointing at me.
"Alright! First group, get in place!"
First group was: Ojiro, Midoriya, Sero, Ashido and Iida. I looked around. I didn't care who I was in a group with.
I looked up at the screen as everyone chattered.
"Who do you think'll win? I think Sero'll be first!"
"But Ojiro's there too."
"I think it'll be Ashido. She's really athletic!"
I glared at Mineta, but he didn't notice.
"Deku will be last!"
I glanced at Bakugo. He was more hoping than anything. I felt a nudge and turned to see Kouda looking at me with worried eyes. I still had my hood up, so he couldn't see my face too well.
"I'm fine." I moved away from everyone else, leaning against the railing.
"Ok, here we go! Start!"
I slipped down to a sitting position. I didn't care about the race. All I cared about was actually being in the race. I closed my eyes.
"Finish!"
I smirked under my hood. Already?
"Hey. Want to be in a group with us?"
I looked up to see Shouji, Mineta, Aoyama and Kouda. I frowned, but nodded. Sure. Then I grinned, under my hood. This is going to be easy.
Everyone else had their turn, and then finally it was our turn.
I ended up in an old abandoned part of a building, in a space that's floor had collapsed. It had one window, and I was three floors up. I grinned again. Easy.
"Start!"
I leapt through the floor and ran in the direction I heard the siren. Ever since I had killed that Nomu, my power had steadily increased. Now, I don't know if I had different quirks, or just power in general.
I cocked my head to the side and stopped. Ah. Aoyama. He's right...There. He appeared above me, shooting his navel laser to get to the next rooftop. I flung my arm out, using tendrils to grab his ankle and pull myself up. I used him as a ladder and leapt from his shoulder to the rooftop ledge and kept running. Did he fall? Probably.
I kept running and spotted Mineta and Kouda. I smirked. I ran harder and caught up to them. Mineta shrieked and tried to throw his sticky balls at me. I created a shield, to which they stuck too, plus Mineta and Kouda couldn't get through it either. I dived off the edge of the building. I swear I heard everyone gasp. I kept my ears and eyes open. One left. He was going to be difficult.
I felt something grab me around the waist and I stopped falling. "What are you doing?! You could seriously hurt yourself jumping off buildings like that..."
I looked at Shouji, but with my hood, he couldn't see my grin. He was holding onto a ladder on the side of the building. There you are. I lifted my arms up and slipped out of his arms, but he grabbed my wrist. I heard something and looked around to see All Might in the building next to us. He was standing at the window watching, eyes wide. I grinned. "Sorry about this, Morph-Man."
"Huh?"
I tugged my wrist out of his hand and kicked off the brick wall at the same time. I spun my body and the momentum carried me through the window to where All Might was standing. I landed amongst the broken glass in a crouch. I stood up straight and brushed myself off. I waved my hand and the shield trapping Mineta and Kouda disappeared. I closed my eyes and searched, in my mind, through the streets until I saw Aoyama. He was running towards the building where we were standing. He had a few cuts and scratches, but he was fine. I opened my eyes again, removing my hood. All Might continued to stare at me, like he had seen a ghost.
I grinned. "Does this mean I win?"
Barely anyone spoke to me until all us girls got to the locker room. Then they all turned on me, while I was slipping my shirt on.
"Kitia."
I looked up at everyone. "Uh, yes...?"
"What was that?!"
"How could you do that?!"
"What were you thinking?!"
I blinked and put my hands up. "Guys, I literally have no idea what you're talking about..."
"What is with you today? You're not yourself?"
I looked down, fiddling with my buttons. Ashido put her hands over mine. "Something's wrong. I can tell. What is it?"
Ochako and Tsu sat either side of me while Momo, Jiro and Tooru stood around me. I looked around at everyone. I shook my head.
"It doesn't matter."
"Yes it does!"
"You can tell us."
"We're your friends!"
I blinked. "Friends?"
Ashido hugged me. "Of course we are! Even though you're moody sometimes, and kinda scary, you're our friend!"
"She's right, ribbit. There's something off about you since you've been back."
Ochako put her hand on my shoulder. "What happened at your internship?"
Should I just tell them? They're guaranteed to hate me if I told them the whole truth. I had ended up telling Midoriya about being raised a villain, on the condition he swore not to tell anyone. But telling them everything...
I looked around at everyone. They all wore expressions of concern. I bit my lip, feeling tears.
"I just..." I cocked my head and frowned.
"What is it, Kitia?"
"Shh. I think I hear..." My face went blank. I stood up and walked over to the far wall. I could hear Mineta faintly talking about the girls. I motioned for the girls to come over. I pressed a hand to the wall and the other I held up. This was a new trick I learnt, but hadn't quite perfected. Mineta's voice came quietly from my hand.
"...Yaoyorozu's ample yaoyoro-boobs! Ashido's slender waist! Hagakure's floating underwear! Uraraka's fine uraraka-body!"
We all had tick marks on our heads at this point. I turned to Jiro. "Would you do the honor's?"
"Huh?"
I moved my hands and pointed to the hole in the wall. She smirked and maneuvered her earlobe jacks into the hole. We heard a scream and we laughed.
"Got him in the eye!"
I grinned. "Brilliant. Fucking brilliant!"
"Ok, that's it for class. There's only one week left until the final exams. You all are studying properly, right? I'm sure you already know, but it won't just be a written exam. There's also a practical component. Make sure you train your minds and bodies at the same time. That's all."
As soon as Mr Aizawa left, chaos erupted.
"I haven't studied at all! With the sports festival and internship, I didn't study at all!"
"It's true that we had one event after another."
"For the midterms, we'd just started school, so they didn't cover much, so I didn't really have a hard time with them, but with the back to back events and stuff, the finals will be different."
"It'll be tough since there's a practical exam, too."
"You were ninth in the midterms?!"
I shook my head. These guys worry way too much.
"And here I thought you were one of us!"
"Guys like you are only likable if they're dumb..."
I laughed. "Wow, Kaminari. Tell us what you really think..."
"Ashido, Kaminari! Let's do our best! We all want to go to the training camp together, right?"
I leapt up. "Wait what?! What training camp?!" I sweat-dropped as everyone ignored me. Thanks guys. Appreciate it.
"Do you need to study, Kitia?"
I looked up at Shouji and Tokoyami. Everyone had relaxed around me a little after the rescue training race. "Always, but I'm not overly worried."
"Why is that?"
I scratched my neck and glanced over at Momo. "Oh, uh. I just...I don't think I'll fail that's all."
"What makes you say that?"
Sweat appeared on my cheek as I kept scratching my neck. Should I tell them that I'm actually smart, or just leave it for them to figure out...
"All right!"
"It'll be easy if it's robots!"
I frowned at Ashido and Kaminari. "Robots?"
"You guys look like you'd have a hard time controlling your quirks against people."
"Yea! But I can let loose with robots, so it'll be a cinch!"
"And it'll be a cinch for me to melt them!"
"Now you just need Momo to help you study, then you'll be set for the finals!"
"We'll definitely be able to go to the training camp now!"
I wandered over to Sero. "Hey, uh, about hitting you...I'm sorry. I wasn't in the best mood..."
He grinned and leaned on my shoulder. "It's about time you apologized! I was getting tired of waiting for it!"
I grinned back and shoved him lightly. "Shuddup. You did kinda deserve it."
"Hey! You would've thought it was funny too, if you had have been in a better mood!"
I opened my mouth but I didn't say anything. He did have a point.
"It doesn't matter if they're people or robots. They're the same if you beat them up, right? What are you idiots talking about it being a cinch for?"
"Who're you calling an idiot?"
"Shut up! If you need to control your quirk, control it! Idiot!"
I hid my grin behind my hand. Bakugo had a point, sorry guys.
"Hey, Deku-"
Oh hell.
"-I don't know if you've figured out how to use your quirk a little or what, but you seriously keep pissing me off. I don't need another half-assed result like at the sports festival. At the upcoming finals we'll get individual scores so we'll see who's better whether you like it or not. I'll beat you with an indisputable difference! I'll kill you! Todoroki! You, too!"
"Ok!" I said loudly. "Moving on. Bakugo..." I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him out into the hallway. "You're in a worse mood than me..."
"Shut up! I'm going to take you down too!"
He shoved me hard against the wall and walked away. I stood up straight, rubbing my arm. "Ouch, you prick!"
He didn't turn around. What's his problem?
Whenever I had free-time, I would study. I didn't think I needed too, but I did anyway. Kurogiri had tried to call me, but I had simply told him I was studying and to fuck off. I was still mad that neither of them had bothered to call me after the Hosu City attack.
I had gotten a text from Dr Gavin to see how I was doing. I got one from Gang Orca and Rock Lock too.
At school, the exams were difficult, but it seemed that most other people were struggling harder than me.
"Pencils down, everyone. The last person in each row, collect the answer sheets and bring them here."
I handed mine up. I wasn't getting up. I was tired again. I put my head down.
"How do you think you went?"
I looked up, placing my chin on my arm, looking at Tokoyami. I shrugged. "I suppose we'll find out, hey?"
He shook his head. "That's not the best way to look at it..."
I grinned. "Are you kidding? That's the best way to look at it. Nothing is ever boring that way."
Finally, the day of the practical exam. I had been getting anxious about it. The others had told me about the robots from the sports festival had been similar to the ones they faced in their entrance exam. Damn, and I didn't even know how to fight these things. Just how to dodge them.
"Now, we will begin the practical exam."
I blinked. All the teachers were here. What the hell? I nudged Kouda, but he just shrugged, shaking his head. Dammit! We've been had!
"Of course, it is possible to fail this exam. If you want to go to the training camp, then don't make any stupid mistakes. I expect that you all have gathered information ahead of time and have some idea of what you'll be doing."
Clearly not now. I wonder if anyone else has figured it out yet...
"We're fighting robot warriors like at the entrance exam, right?" I face-palmed at Kaminari's outburst. Mate, if that were the case, why is there so many teachers?
"Too bad. For various reasons, the exam will be different starting this time!" Principal Nezu popped out of Aizawa's scarf. I widened my eyes and tried to keep the grin off my face.
"From now on, we want to focus on person-to-person combat and hero work, and stress teaching that is closer to actual fighting. So, we'll have you form teams of two to fight against one teacher!"
Called it. Hell. I frowned. Wait a minute...
"In addition, the pairs and who each pair will be up against have already been decided. These were determined at my discretion based on various factors, including fighting style, grades and interpersonal relationships, so here they are:
Todoroki and Momo, and they're fighting me."
I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. The look on Aizawa's face right there! Hell!
"Midoriya and Bakugo-" Woooow.
"And their opponent..." All Might jumped down from wherever the hell he was hiding. Wow...That one shall be interesting...
"I will do it! Work together and beat me, you two!"
"Good luck." I muttered.
"And now, we'll announce the teams and the teachers they'll be up against all at once!"
1st Match: Satou and Kirishima Vs Cementoss. I glanced at them. Man, good luck.
2nd Match: Tsu and Tokoyami Vs Ectoplasm. Wow.
3rd Match: Iida and Ojiro Vs Power Loader.
4th Match: Momo and Todoroki Vs Eraserhead. Lucky pricks.
5th Match: Ochako and Aoyama Vs Thirteen. That one will be interesting.
6th Match: Ashido and Kaminari Vs Nezu. Oh dear...
7th Match: Kouda and Jiro Vs Present Mic.
8th Match: Tooru and Shouji Vs Snipe. Good luck.
9th Match: Mineta and Sero Vs Midnight. I shook my head at that one.
10th Match: Bakugo and Midoriya Vs All Might.
"The time limit for the exam is thirty minutes! Your objective is to either put these handcuffs on the teacher, or to have one of you escape from the stage."
I frowned. "Wait a minute..." Principal Nezu put up his hand.
"Is it really ok to run away?"
"Yup."
"But it'll be different from combat training! You'll be up against someone waaaaaay better than you!" Present Mic is so melodramatic, I swear.
"Better...than us? I can't really imagine that, though."
"Dummy! Hey girl, watch your mouth! You hear?"
I dead-panned at Present Mic's outburst. Oh yea. Definitely melodramatic.
"This time, your exam will be very similar to a real battle. Please think of us as villains."
I don't think I could ever think of any of them as villains...
"Assuming you come across your enemy, if you think you can win a fight against them, then that's fine."
"However, in cases where there's too big a difference in your abilities, it would be smarter for you to run away and get help. Todoroki, Iida, Midoriya, and yes, you too Kitia-"
I cocked my head, frowning.
"-I'm sure you all understand this well."
"That's right! Your decision making skills are being tested! But with these rules, you're probably thinking the only choice is to run, right? That's why we had the support course make these for us!"
All Might pulled out what looked like a thick bracelet.
"Ultra compressed weights! We'll put on about half our body weight. It's to give you a handicap. It's old fashioned, but it makes it hard to move and eats up stamina. Oh shoot, they're heavier than I thought..."
I laughed as All Might put two on each arm. This is amazing.
"By the way, there was a competition to decide on the design, and we ended up using Young Hatsume's."
I tapped my chin. Hatsume, Hatsume. Why do I know that name...I clicked my fingers. "Mei! Mei Hatsume! Oh, she would have been ecstatic! Good on her!"
"Alright, each team will take the practical exam in order on the prepared stage. Satou, Kirishima, get ready."
"Yes sir!"
"Those waiting for their turn can watch the exams or think of strategies as a team. Do what you want. That's all."
"Wait!" I ran up to Aizawa as he walked away. He stopped and glanced over his shoulder. "Yes?"
"My name didn't come up. I am I doing this too? And who am I meant to be with?"
He gave me an evil grin. "You will see." He turned and continued walking.
I shivered. Why did I have a bad feeling about this?
