I'm thinking I'll make one more full chapter about preparing for the tournament, the next will be more so about the teachers and what she learns. I'll finish with the setup in the beginning of chapter 17, which I'll make a bit longer than most recent chapters.
"As we've told you before, the hero lessons until the sports festivals will be focused mostly on honing your skills with your quirks. However, sometimes we will have a short presentation or exercise in the beginning of a lesson." The rather boring tone of Aizawa reflected itself on the class. They didn't look that excited.
"But this is not one of those days! This will be fifty minutes of an intense workout for you, students! Make use of it well and feel free to ask for my advice! The same goes for the session after lunch break." The exciting, energetic and heroic voice of All Might tacked on. Instantly, everyone looked motivated. Even Maribel looked somewhat excited, although it felt like the day was glaring at her. She stood out from the rest of her class as she wore the standard gym uniform of U.A. Aizawa had given it to her, explaining it was what they were going to wear during the sports festival. It was also a temporary replacement for her hero costume.
Aizawa spoke, motioning towards Maribel, who stood in the front of the crowd next to Iida. "Keep in mind that I'm not here to give you advice. My assignment is to help Merry-san get caught up after the villain's invasion." Making everyone turn their eyes to her, red, green, grey and turquoise, and many more. It felt like many people were about to speak up because of this, but they seemed to fear Aizawa's temper more than they thought it was unfair. Against her, with the context and his assignment taken into account, this was exceedingly pressuring. She understood clearly the class would be competing against her, too. Making enemies was bad, that's why she had only revealed the details to those she thought she could trust not to feel competitive. For a moment, Aizawa and All Might's eyes met after they parted from the class. "That's all. Now are th-"
"ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS BEFORE WE BEGIN!?" All Might shouted with encouragement radiating from his very soul as he flexed his muscles, taking everyone's attention again. Being in his presence felt less subduing now, that's what Maribel felt. She was at ease, even under the sun.
"Yes!-" Izuku Midoriya asked, raising his hand. Everyone's eyes drifted to him, but he took the pressure. "What happened to Aizawa's arms? Was it Re-"
Recovery Girl? Maribel thought. She hadn't noticed his arms fixed themselves after she went to meet the principal.
"Recovery Girl, yes." The hero, Eraserhead answered plainly and before he could finish. Eyeing the class again. "Anymore questions?"
"No, sir!" Everyone among the students replied.
All Might was the one to finally start the class. "BEGIN!"
"To start with, eliminating the possibility of an enemy hindering your attack in any capacity is paramount. I've seen you fight, so I can make some observations. Your strongest attack bypasses any conventional defense, whilst your movement allows you to bypass any wall or any distance within two kilometers. That you managed to get yourself into U.A is not some surprise, people with warp gate-styled quirks trade their frequency for value." Aizawa explained, putting his hands in his pockets and looking down at Maribel with intrigue in his expression. His eyebrows raised and his expression neutral. "However, an attack that bypasses any defenses is too good. It can kill, that's what 13 told you back then. So firstly, finding a way of safely harming an opponent and subduing them are our priority."
Maribel did some standard stretches to work her limbs. She reached up and clasped her hands together, stretching her shoulder. Secondly, she did a hamstring stretch. While she normally wasn't interested in this kind of stuff, the occupation demanded she knew it. "I used the same technique I use for Double Boundary to capture Yaoyorozu-san during the battle trial All Might gave us."
Shota Aizawa eyes drifted away from her for a second. "Logically, that would be trapping someone between two points of your gate then. You could start practicing it on that stop sign over there." He said, pointing at a stop sign at the end of the street they were in. All around Ground Beta, each student practiced with their quirks to the best of their ability. It either was fine tuning their skills in a particular area, like mobility, control or simply learning how to fight better with their bodies in conjunction to their quirks. Maribel would be no different.
She stood up and turned her head to look at the stop sign. "Well, here we go." Maribel said and focused, her eyes shimmered purple, followed by the creation of two gaps inside the stop sign. They quickly expanded, becoming black lines along its metallic cylinder until it enveloped the cylinder. After that, they melded together and made the piece between them disappear in a blink. Aizawa watched on with almost scientific curiosity. Gaps contracting, the space inside did too. There was a metallic crinkling sound along with a high pitched howling as air forced itself out.
"Try moving them like they were a single object, a rod of sorts." Her teacher suggested.
The boundary girl was about to. Her vision gave her the impression that what she had made was simply made of three mobile pieces. Changing her perspective, thinking of it as a solid object, she could do something else. Her mind manipulated the two gaps and the border space inside them as one, slowly bending it 90 degrees from the middle of the space.
CRRRRRRRNK- Clank. The stop sign's upper half was torn off as the stress on the lower portion exceeded its structural integrity. Her gap now contained a stop sign. "Uh- Aizawa, what do I do with the sign? Once I get rid of the space between the gaps, the sign will get thrown out."
"Well? Just don't point it at us."
Maribel pointed the sign away from them by shifting the position of the gap trap. Pointing the broken end down, Maribel expanded both gaps and let the sign fall through the border. Just as the wide end passed, the gap on the top was extinguished by Maribel herself. As fast as she could have, in fact. Almost instantaneously, the sign shot out from the gap and dug into the asphalt. Thirty centimeters into the pavement. When one end of a gap was removed, the border space that existed would inevitably be removed. Exactly why the things inside of it wasn't immediately destroyed was beyond her. Perhaps it just wasn't possible to trap something in a place without space. I know! I'll go tell Renko about it. I know she loves that kind of evidence. Matter can't be destroyed!
"With something like that in your arsenal, just be careful you don't break too many bones. The government tends to frown on mortal wounds inflicted during hero work, unless they're particularly favoring you for one reason or another. That rule also goes for the tournament. You're not fighting villains." The teacher commented. "And by the way, using your gate-"
"Aizawa-sensei, I call them gaps. I manipulate boundaries. Those are gaps in borders." Hearn turned to him, crossing her arms and making sure not to look him in the eye with her quirk focused.
"...I suppose that's logical." Aizawa took his hands out of his pocket. "Anyway. What I meant to say was you can use your gaps to attack with projectiles. Making use of the environment as a weapon is perfectly possible for you, it doesn't have to be your body that initiates an attack. Before I move onto something else, try putting a gat-... Gap over the top of the stop sign and pointing the other one at a target. Move the first gap down as quickly as you can."
Nodding, Hearn tried the exact thing he told her to do. A gap over the severed head of the stop sign that was lodged into the street and another pointing horizontally out next to it.
1... Breath.
2... Breath.
3... Down.
The gap over the stop sign fell down as fast as she could react. Wind sounded as the stop sign flew out of the other end, sticking to the ground and not dropping. Although it started wiggling a little when gravity took hold. Maribel raised the first gap, returning the stop sign to its normal position. "Amazing!" Was all Maribel could say, it would be a lie to say that her capabilities didn't excite her.
"That's good. Keep working on that, but first..." Aizawa looked at her, turning her to look at him. Of course, their eyes did not meet. "I had planned to let you go look for someone to spar with, but first I want to give you advice on strategy and acting unpredictably."
"Mhm." Maribel nodded. She honestly wasn't keen on fighting someone, but if it was just a spar, it might be alright. Her quirk made her somewhat more receptive to violence, so that'd be a good counterweight to her current state of mind once she actually gets started.
Aizawa raised his head a little and explained, removing a hand from one of his pockets and holding a palm out to her. "If you encounter someone who can comfortably adapt to your strategies, it's paramount to keep them guessing. If we assume that your opponent is a villain with no prior information about you. Being conservative about revealing your capabilities is a good move. However, if your opponent is experienced in a martial art that may be used in a street fight or the like, you'll have to rely on 'known unknowns'. Whatever strong moves you rely on, don't. Be diverse and keep them guessing. Knowing the enemy and knowing yourself always presents you the possibility of victory."
The girl nodded again. "Logical." That's Sun Tzu!
"Your quirk is able to fit this role quite well, but do think of this if you can't rely on your quirk. Using your boundaries to cut something shouldn't be the first resort. And lastly, some opponents may have a counter for every conventional thing you would do. That's when you will need to create breathing room and keep them at bay, not immediately defeat them. If you're too aggressive, and you will only defeat yourself."
She smiled and bowed thankfully once, before straightening out. "I got that, Aizawa-sensei. Should I go to anyone in particular for a spar?"
"Hmm..." He said, his tired eyes drifting away from her. "It depends on if they agree. What level of difficulty do you want?"
Crystallized water materialized into the air, flowing along as if it were still liquid. Hard enough to stand on, Todoroki surfed it and practiced his mobility. Making a big leap to the side and rolling onto the asphalt using the momentum it gave him. Mobility like this was important.
Half-Cold Half-Hot was a monstrously powerful quirk, both his mother and his father had aspects of it, but both of them were weaker. Even with only one part of it being used, it could defeat most of the class in versatility, agility, mobility and power. The user wasn't recommended only because of the quirk. He was recommended because of his sense, application, planning and so on. He was more than qualified for U.A High.
Yet, there were people in his own class that may prove troublesome. Some of them stood out as challenges in his way and he had to get through them to show his father that he's quite capable without his other side. It would be the ultimate revenge after all the things he put him through.
U.A High is in no doubt an exceptional place, bound to be filled with exceptional students. But some people go above that. It felt like the teachers would cater to them in one way or another, either by praise or being especially friendly.
Izuku Midoriya, whose quirk was powerful enough to easily shatter buildings but only hurt himself. All Might seems to have taken a favor to him, that's what he's seen since he joined the class and it's exactly what other classmates have told him as well. By no means perfect, but he was clever and seemed to come up with something in a tight spot.
Katsuki Bakugo, a trouble maker who doesn't get along with almost anybody, but knows his stuff. Adept at both fighting and the theoretical. Coincidentally, I've heard he was Midoriya's childhood friend.
Maribel Hearn, an odd one out among the rest of the class. The first thing you'd notice from her was that she was foreign. Sometimes upbeat, sometimes depressed, not loud. But you have a hint of her true capabilities until she's forced into a corner. The battle trial had her adapting both strategy and skill quickly to deal with Yaoyorozu. And even though I never saw it, she put up a strong resistance against the villains at USJ, especially after the Eraserhead was too injured to help.
I remember a loud boom back at USJ, almost like a supersonic projectile. But I wouldn't be sure if that was her, I only saw some of the fight between All Might and Noumu, as they named him. In fact, that's probably one of them. I'm jumping to conclusions.
That said, Todoroki thought back to her. The injury she received in her fighting was supposed to be crippling according to the police and the medics, but she came back within days. Even before she came back, that she survived had been a topic between the teachers whenever he saw them talk casually. And since she came back, she even got a personal trainer for the hero lessons.
Todoroki stretched a bit and straightened his body out, looking down the road. Every other second, you could hear a boom in the distance. Like a beating heart. Most likely Bakugo. He thought, turning his eyes around the crossroads where he stood. He didn't spot anyone for the first few seconds, but his sudden burst of curiosity paid off as someone walked out of an alleyway there. Flowing blonde hair reaching down a good part of her neck. Unlike the rest of them, she wore the gym uniform instead of the hero costume. Shouto had the urge of walking over to her and just talking about her. It wasn't her appearance that drew him, but the mystery of her. The only one else that had made him wonder like this was Izuku Midoriya.
Luckily, it seems he wouldn't have to go to her. The girl spun on her heals and began walking over to him slowly. Her face was neutral, but the eyes weren't golden like usual. Since she wasn't with Eraserhead, he must've dismissed her for now. Looking back to the battle trial, which he saw through recording, her eyes became that color when she began to fight. Todoroki sighed, there wasn't any point in standing around and started to walk to meet her.
When they were a few meters from each other, she closed her eyes for a good five seconds and the color of her iris became subdued when she opened them. First it sat a strange mixture of golden and purple, and then settled back into her normal eye color. A sigh escaped her. "...Huh?"
"How did you recover?" Todoroki asked plainly, their comparable height allowing for a proper eye-to-eye. Maribel looked like she was going to side-step him and ignore him, but stopped just as her leg lifted.
She shrugged and raised her eyebrows. It was hard to determine if she was honest, but there wasn't much to say the opposite. "I don't know. I woke up in livable condition."
Shouto didn't know what he expected and spoke casually. "...How could you keep going when Eraserhead couldn't?"
Maribel's expression changed, almost looking cautious. "He took me out of harm for a minute, from where the villains then started escalating the fight. Why are you asking?"
The boy glanced at her somewhat threateningly. It felt like she was deflecting. His voice carried a hint of menace. "Matching up against something a teacher can't. That isn't what the teachers think is normal... While there are more of us who could do the same, even All Might had trouble with the villains."
"Well, if you read the news... You'd hear how I almost died. But I will tell you I was just going with the flow of everything. My quirk is pretty good when coupled with a talent for improvisation. And I didn't fight... Uh, the Noumu, was it? I incapacitated him for a minute." Maribel crossed her arms. "But enough of this, I know why you're asking." Maribel plainly stated and eased her expression. As she spoke, her expression morphed into a playful smile as her eyes narrowed. "You want to understand what I can do so you can defeat me in the festival."
Todoroki looked vaguely agitated by this and furrowed his eyebrows. His words were now interrogating, he really wanted to know. "I already know what your warp gate quirk does. No, I'm only asking you because I'm curious."
Hearn looked ready to burst out in passive aggressive laughing as she started giggling girlishly. This took a lot of the heat out of him, and he calmed down in posture and expression. "You're so serious! Hah. If you thought about this thoroughly, you'd understand exactly why I didn't start this conversation. Firstly, I know you can cool and heat things, that's what the people I know best told me. Secondly, telling you anything would give you better chances in the festival. I might not have been around to watch your fight during the battle trial, but friends were."
He was now far from as serious as he was. He knew she wouldn't purposefully tell him anything about her fight with the villains. It was very suspicious, even among students. "I watched your fight too. So we are in the same position."
The boundary girl swayed her head left to right, not dismissing his idea or accepting it. "I may not know or be friends with everyone in 1-A, but I do know you get some bonuses by being close to someone. You seem quite ignorant about that... So, I suppose you should go ask someone else. ...If you have someone, that is." She finished talking and rotated to the side, walking on over down another road.
I know I wasn't so subtle, but she was quick in recognizing it... And she was quick to blow me off.
Still, she's not wrong... I'll go ask someone else about what she can do. Anyone who was back at the staircase, at USJ.
"So you wanna spar, Maribel-san!?" Iida pridefully, yet playfully let out. His armor's joints bent as he prepared a stance. His opponent was as he said, the blonde in the blue gym uniform. They had isolated themselves from the rest of the class specifically because she wanted some secrecy. After a short conversation, she had convinced him they'd keep secrecy about their skills, as to make them less predictable in the tournament.
"Yes!" Maribel responded in a lively manner.
"Have at you!"
The boundaries laid across her eyes became clearer and her perception heightened. Maribel couldn't help but smile at Iida just before they met up close. His palm collided with her arm and grabbed a hold of her, after of which he jumped and sent himself into a revolution with his quirk. Just halfway of the first, they lit again. Sending them both down, with Maribel down below. But even with such a quick opponent, her reactions weren't so slow. As they collided with the ground, Maribel thought quick. A gap was made just upon the boundary between her and the ground, letting her slip through as space changed. Iida didn't let go, but he couldn't pass through.
The gap was too small for him and his armor. Worse yet, Maribel was hanging from Iida's grapple and putting all of the weight on him. He looked down through the gap for a moment. It was just the asphalt. He might have to reorient himself after this, but the consequences wouldn't be damning.
He let go.
Maribel fell through and her figure became smaller in his eyes, reorienting herself for landing as she did. A five meter drop. Just as she passed the second meter, he saw what was really down there. Himself.
Shit!
A well placed kick could be very painful.
Merry Christmas. I named this chapter not just as a dumb play on the one before it, but also because it's a theme in DOOM.