After everyone had rested and gotten food in themselves, they went to the hot springs. Kyoka had convinced Jesse to attend with the other girls by mentioning Mineta and what he'd be planning. Being his therapist, she knew the likelihood was high, and with the go-ahead from the other staff, she relented. They undressed and entered the blissfully hot water.
"Woah," Mina exclaimed softly at the adult's scars. They were faded, but the claw marks started from her lower left rib down to her pelvis while missing the navel. When the she-wolf tilted her head at the pink skinned girl, the teen turned her head in embarrassment.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to stare." she apologized.
"It's fine, they're old anyway, so they don't bother me anymore." her voice was indifferent. There was a small silence before Tsuyu spoke up.
"It looks like you were attacked by a monster." she didn't know how accurate she was; the difference was that "monster" was her ancestor.
"Tsuyu-chan~ that's insensitive!" Toru whined at her friend, but Jesse just waived the concern off.
"You'll get your own scars, as all heroes will."
"What do you mean?" Ochaco asked.
"Anima, who's been a hero longer than we've been married, has a host of injuries that even his regeneration couldn't heal fully. It's a dangerous life choice, being a hero. You run into the most dangerous situations and protect others from the worse injuries, even at your own cost." she didn't have to say what that cost could be.
"This is too serious of a talk!" Toru decided before forcefully pushing the topic elsewhere. "Did you see the latest episode of 'Edge of Passion'?"
"Yes I have, and it was amazing!" Momo gushed.
"You two watch that?" Kyoka asked with bewilderment. The girls talked about other inane topics while Jesse just smiled at them.
"This is awesome…" Eijiro murmured as the hot water eased his muscles into relaxation after the marathon he and the others ran. No one was disagreeing with the redhead. Mashirao and Izuku were soaking as well; only Tenya with his quirk wasn't ridiculously sore.
"What we seek is beyond this wall." Mineta said with almost reverence. When he started explaining his idea, Denki told him that it wasn't just the girls in there.
"Jesse-san is in there too," the fantasy in Mineta's head shattered almost audibly. He dragged his feet to the water before setting himself calf-deep in the water.
"What, you've never been deterred before, why just now? Are you actually frightened of Cacciatore-san?" Fumikage asked out of morbid curiosity.
"She's taken. I'd feel wrong peeking at someone who's already in a relationship." the shortest teen admitted.
"I'm glad you can show restraint in this instance." Tenya congratulated. After everyone had their fill of warmth, they all went to their room to sleep; all except for Izuku. The green-haired teen decided to ask Mandalay about Kouta. When he managed to find her, she told him; the child's parents were heroes who died on the job. His views on heroes were jaded because heroism had taken his parents away from him, and everyone praised their deaths. To a kid, the pain of loss was the worse kind.
Next morning at the break of dawn, everyone in both class 1-A and 1-B was up and ready to train their quirks. Each of the student's training was based on their quirks, from Eijiro taking repeated blows to Mina making large and potent amounts of acid. Every one of the Pussycats was contributing in their own way from giving advice to making the field that'd help them train the most to actually sparring with them. When Tiger started against Izuku, the teen threw the first punch before instantly recognizing the base fighting style from Tiger's counter.
"Boxing. The modern form started in 1904, but didn't gain legitimacy until the early twentieth century. Looks like a mix of out-fighting and counter punching…" his thoughts leaked out as he tried to analyze the changes in the style that the large man made for his body.
"Good eye, but less talking, more tearing!" The Pussycat member roared before throwing a punch himself. Izuku let the appendage rocket past before attempting a throw. Tiger went the other way the teen was pulling before anchoring and aiming another blow at the teen. The hero-in-training disengaged before putting together the hero's quirk. His limb bent at odd angles, so it had to revolve around flexibility. That limited him to strikes and a choice few throws. He knew that he could produce a lot of force in his body, about 14% of One for All's power could course through him without bracing with chi, double than what he started with at the entrance exam. He started the next contact with a way to open his opponent's guard. Tiger's arms were mostly redirected with a little force, which allowed Izuku to step on the hero's thigh, then abdomen, and finishing with a kick down at his shoulder.
Tiger reacted like he was in a real fight in the next moment, and threw an elbow at the teen. Izuku felt the force connect with his forearm, leaving him little to do but rotating with the force to mitigate damage while reinforcing himself with chi. The green-haired martial artist rolled across the dirt that Pixie-bob softened when she saw what happened. When he finally stopped, Izuku checked himself for damage by reinforcing his sense of touch; a crude way of checking, but for the purposes he needed, it'd work. Realizing the worst injuries were scrapes and a small cut, he stopped reinforcing and turned to face the arena.
"Tiger!" Mandalay exclaimed. "What the hell happened?" it wasn't like the large man to go all out in a spar, as the other Pussycats could attest to, so she was worried. Tiger himself looked shocked, and quickly bowed to the student.
"My apologies, I wasn't expecting your skill, and reacted on instinct!" the large hero hated when he lost control, and here he did just that against a kid.
"It's fine." Izuku said calmly. "It's difficult to hold back, especially when you don't know the opposition's skill. I'm just glad it happened against someone who knew how to react." his smile calmed everyone down as Tiger walked up. Holding out his hand, the hero congratulated the teen.
"Your skills are impressive. It must have been hell to get where you are." Izuku's smile widened at the praise and took the man's hand in a firm grip before walking back to the sparing ground.
"It was, but to be a hero, I can take hell and more." he didn't know, but the adults found his declaration admirable. Kouta, hiding in the treeline, found it detestable.
At four in the afternoon, the brutal training eventually ended for dinner. Izuku saw the raw ingredients and connected the dots before Pixie-bob and Ragdoll said it.
"Now, I told you yesterday 'today's the last day we help you out'. If you want to eat, get up and make yourselves some curry!" while the other students were dragging their feet, Izuku seemed to happily relax as he walked to the pile of ingredients.
"These will do nicely. If it's curry, then we'll need to soak the Potatoes in water before adding it to the pot, unless there's not enough starch in the roux…"
"You seem to have prior experience. Where'd you learn culinary skills?" Fumikage asked, breaking his classmate out of his mumbling.
"I wanted to cook with my mom when I was ten, and it turned into bonding time ever since. Good food makes people happy, after all." Tenya took the last line out of context.
"You're right. In emergency situations, feeding the hungry and providing sustenance to the mind and body is an… essential part… of aid." the engine-quirk user turned to the rest of the freshman year. "The pro's are right! Let's make the best curry we can! Midoriya, since you seem to have the most experience in this field, please provide assistance to those who need it!" the newfound energy Tenya had was infectious as the rest of the students started picking themselves up and helping where they could. Soon, the freshmen were having fun while preparing their food for each other. Rikido, who had baking experience as opposed to casual cooking experience, asked for some flour and salt before making a simple bread dough to accompany the main dish, lifting spirits further.
When the food was done, everyone filled their plates with the aromatic meal. With assistance from those who knew how to cook, the dish was surprisingly tasty, making everyone go for more even after they were satisfied. When Koji, Toru, Itsuka, Nirengeki, and Reiko offered plates to the teachers, the heroes found that it was impressively good, given the lack of appliances the outdoors provided. Izuku, having his plate in hand, saw Kouta run off from his spot. Worried, he grabbed another plate and walked after him. He found the mental image of himself in a butler's suit funny, but kept himself from laughing. When he saw the child sitting at the mouth of a cave in the side of the cliff-face, the hero-in-training called out.
"Hey, I didn't see you eat, so I got you something." Izuku's voice was soft, but apparently, Kouta was still startled.
"How'd you find me!?" the child questioned in shock, to which the older of the two tilted his head at the footprints in the damp ground. Setting the spare plate next to the child, Izuku sat a respectable distance before eating his curry under the stars. After some silence, Kouta spoke his mind.
"Getting hyped about 'stretching your quirks' is pathetic. Do you really want to go that far just to brag about your corny ass powers?"
"Bragging is useless." Izuku stated with no inflection to his voice. "If someone, anyone, needs help, I want to be there to lend them a hand. I can only do so much, but I want to save as many as I can until no one's left to save. getting stronger helps me save them faster." his words cut deep into the child.
"How?" Kouta asked, shaking. "How can you say that with a straight face? Calling yourselves heroes and villains… killing each other like idiots. It's only going to get yourself killed, so how can you say that you want to save everyone!?" his voice was cracking as the bitter tears fell from his face while he looked away from Izuku.
"Then I'll die." his words made Kouta pause. "I want to help as many as I can because it'll make the world a safer place for everyone I care about after I'm gone." Izuku's choice of words brought to the child's mind to his parents; to the words they always said when they went out as heroes.
'Let's go make the world a better place 'hon!' Kouta turned his head to see Izuku with his hand stretched towards him. The younger of the two grabbed his plate and scooted to the hero-in-training's side.
"Being a hero is still insane." Kouta mumbled. The older of the two laughed.
"You're not wrong." he admitted. "But sometimes insanity is saying 'no one's done it yet'." no further words were spoken as the two sat under the stars and ate their dinner.
All of the students had gone to bed after their fulfilling dinner, except for Izuku who was still out with Kouta. Ragdoll was sitting on top of a tree as she observed the teen carrying her friend's nephew back to the lodge with her quirk from somewhere out of her range.
"He really is something." she noted to herself. She didn't expect a response.
"He is." the Pussycat jumped in surprise before she caught herself on the tree trunk to prevent a fall from several stories up.
"Jesse-san!" she gasped as her heart calmed down. She couldn't understand how, but the UA therapist was the only one she couldn't track with her quirk at all times; when the she-wolf didn't want to be found, her quirk was next to useless. "When did you get up here?"
"I saw you here a while ago, so I came up to see what you were doing, and saw Izuku and Kouta-kun over there." she pointed to where they were, making the blunette realize that her companion could actually, physically see the boys in the dark when they were a little under 500 meters away. It was scary how much her heightened senses could not only pick up, but process.
"And you say your husband is the better than you." her tone was light but truthful.
"Physically he is, but his senses aren't as refined as mine. But enough about me, Izuku seems to be getting through to Kouta-kun." her words were filled with warmth as she talked about the duo.
"I'm glad. He never opened up to any of us, so it's good to see he can talk to someone." Ragdoll started to climb down the tree when the boys were back at the building with her impromptu companion. Hopefully, the week would continue like usual, but with her instincts saying otherwise the she-wolf wasn't counting on it.
I don't have much to say about this chapter, but do stay tuned; the strike team's attack is starting the next chapter! If you have any questions, let me know. I repeat this in every author's note, but I love hearing from you guys! Till next time!