In the morning, U.A.'s routine was the same as any other normal school that would normally pop to mind when talking about schools as a whole, everyday boring classes followed by lunchtime in the cafeteria.
According to a lot of the students the food was top-notch, though for a certain someone that wasn't checkable. Would be a shame if someone suddenly started to vomit because of what would be a 4 to 5 star cuisine in a normal restaurant.
So are the troubles of a modern-day Demon you could say.
And then the afternoon classes came, Basic Hero Training.
"I have…!" a commercially over-familiar voice began to shout from the outside of the class, grabbing everyone's attention immediately towards said doorway to see if the person in question would actually be teaching, for someone who before had not too interested in the Hero World this didn't matter at all to Tanjiro, he'd prefer to just get to the lesson.
"...COME THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE NORMAL!" All Might finished as he did as stated, immediately getting some murmurs from the class, things like "He's really gonna teach us!" or "He's drawn so differently than the rest of us."
After reaching the desk and giving the class a quick glance, All Might prepared another pose as he began to speak again, explaining today's class. "Hero Basic Training! The Class that'll put you through all sorts of special training to mold you into heroes!" he said as he finally struck the pose, holding out a sort of plate reading "BATTLE"
"No time to dally. Today's activity is this! BATTLE TRAINING! And for that, you need these!" He continued before taking out a small remote and pointing it at the wall, pressing a button that gave an audible 'click' response, opening up to reveal several containers in neat shelves, "In accordance with the 'Quirk Registry' and the special request forms you filled out before being admitted…"
"Finally, I get to see how it turned out." Tanjiro thought amidst the yelling of the class.
"After you change, come out in ranking order to ground beta. Looking good is very important, ladies and gentlemen! Look alive now, because from today on… You're all heroes!" All Might finished up as people collected their costumes, there was a clear sense of determination flowing through the class and that meant something good.
Tanjiro eyed his costume, the design and colors gave him clear nostalgia. The torso piece and leggings clearly designed after the Uniform he wore back in his golden days. Looking at the button designs Tanjiro let out a quick awe at seeing just how detailed they turned out, he could tell each one was hand-crafted, the engravings were all in a slightly different position from the last.
Then there was the arm fabric that resembled his Haori, the same one he wore during his entire journey, the one thing from home that remained with him the entire time, and the Fox Mask designed after Urokodaki's craft added to top it off.
Of course, bringing an actual sword to battle in a society based around capturing your opponent is a bad idea so the weapon merely resembled one, in fact it was just a long sturdy pole on top of a Katana's handle, but it weighed about the same as a real thing so that wouldn't bring much change.
Let's just say getting dressed felt like talking about old memories.
Standing among his dressed classmates there was a sense of epicness.
"Well. Shall we begin, my wards!? It's time for battle training!"
"Sensei!" Ida suddenly began after some small-talk among some of the students, clearly trying to get a question along, "This appears to be the same field used in the entrance exam. Will we once again be performing cityscape maneuvers?" He continued, the response effectively came immediately, "Nope, you'll be moving onto step two!" All Might began to explain, "Indoor anti-personnel battle training!"
Considering the need to, he began to explain the meaning of what this meant and specifically why they'd be having this kind of training, "Villain battles are most commonly seen outdoors, but… Statistically, the most heinous Villains are more likely to appear indoors."
From there, most explaining came about the training which boiled down to two teams of two fighting each other, one team would play the Heroes and where to 'collect' a 'weapon', while the other team would play the villains and would defend that 'weapon'.
Teams would be made through drawing lots, which in the end caused Tanjiro to end up in team I, his teammate being the boy in class with a tail.
The first matchup came, Team A VS Team D.
The outcome, Team A wins as the Hero Team. Though it was an immense fight that left a lot of comments behind itself, Tanjiro had watched and was glad he wasn't up against Katsuki. And after some pep-talk after the battle going over the ups and downs, it was time for the next battle to ensue.
Team B would be posing as Heroes, and Team I posing as Villains.
Playing Villain would be interesting, Tanjiro can't say he even did something like role-play before.
The task at hand was simple, protect the 'weapon'.
"I'll scout ahead, wait here and give me a signal if any of our opponents show up." Tanjiro told Mashirao while already halfway through the door opening, getting a simple "Sure…" back in response.
Only a few moments later the entire building was covered in a thin sheet of ice, it was cold to the touch and Tanjiro's right foot was frozen to the ground, all while he could hear footsteps approaching.
"Freezing an entire building in such a short time?!" Tanjiro mentally cursed while placing the remaining foot down, giving the now stuck foot a few tugs, "I'm glad I never had to fight a Blood Demon Art like that."
It didn't take long before the culprit arrived, made extremely obvious by the fact their 'costume' was just half their body covered in a suit made entirely of ice. A sane person would never consider wearing something like that, but becoming a hero takes a little more than just sanity.
"Oh, you were playing an offensive game." Shoto said, seeing Tanjiro halfway down the stairs, clearly having made an attempt to go down and confront the enemy, "Bring it on, but fighting without the soles of your feet will be painful."
The way he spoke and the way he approached spoke miles of his intent and how he planned this to go, the calm walk up the stairs with no trace of edge could clearly tell anyone that he expected no resistance, allowing him to just walk up to the Weapon and win.
But, if this was anything like Aizawa's test then everyone was expected to go all out, as far as they could push themselves.
A bit of pain on his feet wouldn't stop Tanjiro, the blisters on his palms didn't stop him back then either.
So instead of doing what his opponent expected, Tanjiro unsheathed his weapon and struck down at his foot, breaking the ice before giving his foot another powerful tug allowing him to break lose instantly and start a counterattack, Tanjiro effectively launched himself at Shoto who's expression spoke of small worry, but mainly confidence. He simply reeked of confidence.
Without even moving a muscle a massive pillar of ice shot up the stairs, which met the force of Tanjiro's incoming strike which quickly reduced it to shards. Another pillar rose up and met the same fate allowing Tanjiro to close in on his target.
Ice shards soon filled the corridor and stairwell and Shoto realized Tanjiro was a bad match for him, with the other boy showing no signs of slowing down on tearing down whatever ice Shoto was able to generate.
It only took a few seconds after the first interaction before Tanjiro found himself right infront of Shoto, weapon reeled back and ready to strike.
Another eruption of ice, this time at point blank. This one managed to catch the 'Villain' off guard and trap him in itself, Shoto sighed, he had respect for those with real strength, but there was a goal to reach which forced him to trek onwards.
Yet, merely a few steps upwards, and he heard several audible cracks behind him. By the time he swerved his head around the massive ice structure he created to trap his opponent had already been entirely shattered, and Tanjiro was already barreling towards him.
With a single deep breath, the strike landed before the 'Hero' was able to fully react, and the force of the hit managed to bluntly knock Shoto out cold. The impact of the hit was soon followed by a massive bruise.
As Tanjiro landed, he took another breath to get himself out of the zone of combat, looking back at his opponent to see what his attack did, and nearly gasping when he saw the state Shoto was laying in. The boy's 'mask' was half shattered off his face and he clearly was seeing stars.
"Oops, I hope they can treat that at the nurse's office. He's not going into a coma, right?" Tanjiro mentally cursed as he looked around, sniffing the air a bit after to determine whether or not the other 'Hero' was coming, but he caught no trace of them.
He decided that a place like U.A. must have things against extreme injuries on the spot, so he didn't dwell much on the state of the classmate he just knocked unconscious, instead focusing on his teammate who's feet are still stuck in the ice.
With a few good hits to the ice on the floor he freed his teammate, and they effectively silently waited out the rest of the match.
Time eventually ran out, announcing the first Villain victory of the training. Tanjiro honestly felt pretty proud he managed to score a win on his first ever match, but he still felt sorry about the classmate he knocked unconscious.
There was no overview of the battle like last time, but Tanjiro could tell when he re-entered the observation room that many eyes were on him, but he simply continued watching the other matches that came.
And so, the end of class came.
"Well done, everyone." All Might began as he stood before all the students, "No serious injuries, apart from Midoriya's and Shoto's! Great work, but some of you need to learn to keep it down a little, I'm not calling names."
Tanjiro chuckled a bit mentally at that.
"Though, you all did splendidly, considering this was your first training exercise!" All Might continued without a hitch, pausing soon after which gave some room for comments, "Coming after Aizawa-sensei, such a straight-forward class is almost a letdown…" someone from the class said, immediately followed by more talking from All Might, "We teachers are free to hold no-nonsense classes if we choose! Now, I'm off to give Midoriya and Shoto their evaluation, change out of those costumes and head back to the classroom!" He finished, before instantly zooming off to parts unknown.
Just as instructed everyone calmly changed out of their costumes, though there was some clear chit-chat regarding certain battles that stuck out to people, "Especially you, Kamado! That was some really cool stunting you did there!" A red-haired classmate said after approaching Tanjiro who was still in the middle of changing, "Oh, thanks." Tanjiro responded, "You weren't half bad as a Villain either."
And so classes returned to normal for the rest of the day, with your average every-day topics. Somewhere halfway through Shoto returned to class with some bandaids on his forehead, he didn't talk much.
The real interesting parts happened when Izuku returned, everyone effectively swarmed him immediately, Tanjiro grinned at the first sight of it, "Izuku is really becoming popular quickly, huh?" He said, interrupting his chat with Fumikage who nodded in return.
So, school again ended on a positive note, and Tanjiro was accompanied by the same people from the last train ride home, which of course caused some chatter among the group.
Upon returning home, Toshio effectively stood there waiting for Tanjiro again, "Hey kid, good to see you're in high spirits again. Come inside, you can tell me all about today." he said, waving to Tanjiro as he approached the butcher shop in a jog.
Once in the residential area, Toshio made it a big deal getting some coffee first before listening to Tanjiro, and after the basic explanation of what happened today Toshio laughed his usual laugh, "Combat training, huh? On your second day no less, gee, U.A. really likes to put you to work. Just wait until I phone this to the ol' listener over the phone."
"Listener over the phone?" Tanjiro asked, "Oh, that's what I just call that 'old friend' of mine sometimes, eeh, you probably wouldn't care about his name anyways but I'll tell you for the simplistics. Akira Shiro, does that name tell you anything?", Tanjiro thought about it for a second, but then simply shook his head, "Hah, figured it wouldn't. He lives all on his own and just sits there all day painting ladies, real introvert." Toshio said, saying that last part with a chuckle.
"Oh, I should go prepare some dinner by now…" He continued after glancing at the clock, "You're probably hungry after today. I'll make you a big one."
Chapter 3 - Welcome to U.A.
END
Here's a big one. Might slow down on uploads as a whole but we'll see, just keeping y'all updated.
