Inko stared at Ikumi in shock. "You did what?!"

Ikumi chuckled nervously. "I, uh… fought off a Villain that was trying to attack me and Kacchan on our way home? And sort of used my Quirk to do that?"

"Oh my god." Inko rushed over to her daughter, looking over frantically for injuries. "Were either of you hurt? Do-do you need to go to the hospital, or the police, or-"

"Mum, it's okay! All Might saved us and-"

That surprised Inko. "All Might? In Musutafu? But why-"

Ikumi rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "I didn't have a chance to ask him that, and, uh… I thought it would be a good idea to be quiet about it?"

Inko frowned, "I'm glad to hear that neither of you were hurt, but… you used your Quirk in public?" When Ikumi looked away awkwardly, Inko went closer to her daughter. "Please, don't use your Quirk like that until you're a Hero! Even if it was self defence, you could still be in trouble for using it."

"W-well, he was trying to kill Kacchan and I-I couldn't just do nothing! I just tried to hold the Villain off, that's all. Besides, All Might already warned me not to do something like that again."

That took a weight off Inko's mind, but she still gave her daughter a stern look. "Well, alright… But we are going to have a serious talk about this with your father."

Ikumi awkwardly nodded, downcast, and Inko managed a smile. "And Ikumi?"

"Yes?"

Inko pulled her daughter into a hug. "Just know that we've always got your back, okay?" Sighing, she continued. "I'm just happy that neither of you was hurt."

Ikumi blinked, then her eyes teared up. Red eyed, she returned the hug.

Hisashi had much the same opinion when he came in. "Neither of you got hurt?"

Ikumi shook her head. "N-no - Kacchan was able to recover after the Villain tried to-" She fell silent, awkwardly twisting her hands.

Hisashi exchanged a look with Inko, then patted his daughter on the arm. "What matters is that you're both safe." He paused. "Also, I want a full play-by-play."

Inko lightly smacked him on the arm. Hisashi ignored it. Ikumi looked between her and Hisashi, before taking a breath. "O-okay. So, we were walking back…"

As she listened, Inko fretted slightly. She knew it was going to get worse when Ikumi actually became a hero - and she felt bad when a small part of her wanted Ikumi to do something else that didn't put her life in danger.

But seeing Ikumi so confident after surviving a villain attack was something she couldn't help but light up for.

—

Katsuki had known for a while that Midori was physically stronger than he was. It was practically a fact of life at their point. Midori's height meant that she was strong and fast without really having to work for it. It was a slight point of contention, though he had been pleased to see her taking Hero training seriously with those runs of hers.

Seeing Midori pick up a fifty kilo barbell without much effort really hammered it in.

After the Sludge Villain, Katsuki had known that he had to get stronger himself. So he had signed up for a local gym and managed to get Midori to sign up with him.

The wolf headed trainer coughed into his furry fist, looking at Midori. Her head was quite close to the ceiling, towering over him. "That is an impressive baseline. I must apologise, but… I do not believe that we can help you achieve your goals here."

Blushing, Midori put it down. "Sorry!"

"Nothing to be sorry about!" he managed to laugh. "Well, I can give you some help on finding a good strength and endurance plan, but you might do better at this venue." He scribbled an address down, passing it over to her. "It is a fault of our gym that we cannot support your… physique."

"Why the hell don't you have good enough equipment for her?" Katsuki politely asked.

The trainer shook his head. "Not enough demand. Even now, it takes a while to make weights for people over a certain size. Our gym simply doesn't have the space for it."

Katsuki wanted to yell at him but he managed to hold it back. The guy wasn't being a dickhead about it, and he was actually a professional.

Midori gave him a polite bow. "Thank you for the recommendation. And… you mentioned something about a training plan?"

Katsuki glared up at her. "Don't let them give you shit at the place, Midori."

"I won't."

And Katsuki believed her. Ever since the Sludge Villain, Midori had been different. She carried herself with a bit more confidence, and didn't shrink away from what the extras in their class thought.

He had changed as well, he knew that. Katsuki was well aware that he wasn't close to being the Number One now, after seeing him handle that Sludge Villain so effortlessly. Nearly dying really gave you a change of perspective. He wasn't the Number One right now, but that was gonna change.

As the trainer gave him a set of reps and Midori went to this other gym, Katsuki grit his teeth. The gap between him and All Might seemed huge but he was going to pass it. And Midori was gonna be right behind him.

—

Kacchan stared at the place she'd found. "So this is your new training area?" He asked.

Ikumi nodded, determinedly.

Ikumi had wanted to build muscle mass for a while, but was held back due to her sheer size. Her body's bones and muscles were structured slightly differently from a normal person's to hold her increased weight, and the sheer length of her limbs meant that her muscles could take a lot more stress before tearing.

The gym she had gone to had been in a warehouse. Other oversized heteromorphs had been there, some shorter than her, some taller. It had helped, but Ikumi wanted more than working out her body, she wanted to seriously try flexing her Quirk.

So she'd tried to work out and gone for long runs to try and build some muscle. Since they had been attacked by a Villain, Ikumi knew that she had to get better if she wanted to be a Hero like All Might and Gang Orca.

It had been sheer coincidence that she'd found an ideal place to train. She had gone further with her jog, feet pounding as she tore down the streets, pushing herself further. On her route she'd passed the ocean, and then she'd paused.

Dagobah Beach was a beach in the technical sense that there was sand skirting the ocean. Now it was more accurately described as a dump. Fridges, washing machines, general rubble - there were even a couple of cars just left to rust away in the sea breeze. Despite the 'No Littering sign,' Ikumi watched as a couple of people chucked a used TV there and walked away whistling.

Nobody came here, really. It used to be a nice spot, but then the currents had started sweeping sea borne garbage in and people started to dump their waste here. Ikumi had stared, then an idea came to her.

"Aunt Mitsuki lets us practise our Quirks in the garden but I can't get heavy enough weights there. So I thought that this would be the best place to try and train Dragonframe, and another way to try and train."

Kacchan cracked his neck. "And nobody comes here?"

For answer, Ikumi gestured to the mountains of trash. Kacchan glanced at it, then nodded. "Let's get to it."

Ikumi nodded, reaching for a fridge. Closing her eyes, she willed Dragonframe to swell around her. Her fur briefly ruffled, then it settled. She flexed Dragonframe, feeling it cover her body in a comforting warmth.

It was almost like a dial in her mind, a second skin that slipped over her. After she had found the second aspect of her Quirk, she had hit the switch then tried again and again to use it consciously. Then she'd had no idea how to turn it back on - like a centipede having to think about its dozens of little legs, or being told to not imagine a pink elephant.

She had never really looked at her Quirk that much before - it just felt a bit awkward looking at your own Quirk like that. Kacchan had suggested looking at her Quirk like she did with Hero Quirks - 'put your damn nerd brain to use!' had been his exact phrasing.

It had helped, and she'd felt silly for not thinking of that as a possibility. With the newest revelation of her Quirk spreading to hold a Villain in place, she had poured more time into finding out how her Quirk worked.

Dragonframe had two parts - fire breath and a slight telekinetic field that covered her body. It couldn't travel far from her body normally, unless it was something that was in contact with her body already like her clothes or when she breathed fire.

Ikumi tried to concentrate on that feeling she'd had - letting her field out into the washing machine, she tried to 'coat' it, thinking of it as an extension of her field, her body. Her previous practice had been with much smaller things than the Sludge Villain - marbles, pens, drink bottles.

She tried to get her field around it, Dragonframe slipping and sliding but not catching. Ikumi grunted in frustration. She could have just picked the fridge up without any issues, but Dragonframe wasn't cooperating!

Kacchan started limbering up. "You managed it yet, Midori?"

"It's… harder than I thought," Ikumi managed, her 'grip' slipping once again.

He paused, staring at her. "How the hell is that harder to grab than the Sludge bastard? It's not even moving!"

"Well, I just did it without thinking, Kacchan! It must be a similar sensation to my fire breath but-"

"Get better! I can't be Number One if you aren't giving it your all!" He stomped off, palms popping with explosions.

Ikumi shook her head. Same old Kacchan. Turning back to the fridge, she tried one more time to layer her Quirk over it before turning Dragonframe off.

Grunting slightly, she picked it up, hauling it up the slope. She knew what to do for training, in a way - she had asked Hiroko for a workout plan. The rabbit girl, having shot up to nearly two and a half metres tall herself, had given her some advice on proper training for her size.

They spent a couple of hours here, Ikumi using her Quirk as much as she could to try and coat larger objects while hauling them away and Kacchan letting off explosions. Their return home was exhausted, yet triumphant. Ikumi felt like she had made progress in using her Quirk, at least.

—

Hiroko looked at the cleared area of Dagobah beach and whistled. "Not bad, girl!"

Ikumi sucked in a breath. The taller girl had managed to clear a fairly large area of sand in a couple of months. "T-thank you!" She leaned over to a washing machine. Closing her eyes, she slapped a hand on it. "Okay, it worked better this time," she muttered.

Hiroko blinked. "What worked better-"

She gasped when Ikumi slowly swung her flat palm around, the washing machine moving with it. Ikumi sucked a breath, then breathed a small gout of fire as she started moving. However, this time the washing machine didn't budge.

Ikumi sighed. "I thought I had it this time."

"What are you trying to do?"

She sat down on the washing machine. "Well, I'm trying to use both parts of my Quirk at the same time - fire breathing and the telekinetic shell. It should be possible but when I breathe fire it all just goes out my mouth. So I'm trying to put Dragonframe in two places."

Hiroko shook her head. "Well, I have to admit that was pretty freaking impressive!" She paused. "Sort of on that note, are you following the workout plan?"

Ikumi nodded. "Yeah. It's pretty good."

"Just remember that overtraining can be as bad or worse than undergoing it," Hiroko cautioned. Ikumi had looked at her with wide eyes when she'd broken out the pictures. Freaking out her friends was always good for a laugh.

"I know." Ikumi pushed herself up. "Are you sure you don't want to be a Hero?"

Hiroko blinked, then grinned, shaking her head. "Nah! Sure, putting on the spandex and all that seems fun, but it's not for me. I wanna be Japan's next Volleyball Queen!"

Sure, the U.A Sports Festival grabbed the nation's attention every time, but there was still a demand for professional athletes. Hiroko's personal dream was to make a performance that would outshine the Sports Festival. Ikumi had been supportive even if the nerd couldn't imagine being anything other than a Hero in her career path.

Kind of like Hiroko's older sister Rumi, really - even if that was because her sister enjoyed fighting even more than Bakugou. It was slightly ironic that her sister hadn't gotten their mother's height.

Ikumi smiled. "Well, when you crush the Volleyball nationals, I'll be cheering for you!"

—

The months flew by. Ikumi split her time between the gym and Dagobah, moving the garbage to the truck Dad and the Gym owner had hired to haul the trash away. It seemed that with each piece of junk it got easier and easier to coat large objects with her field. She was nowhere near Captain Celebrity being able to support an ocean liner or the Sky Egg, but she had a lot of time to train to get that good.

Soon, Ikumi stared at a clean beach, panting. About a month before the Entrance exams, the last piece of trash had been cleared away, leaving a pristine beach. Behind her, Kacchan and Tomoko patted her on the back. "Nice, Midori!"

Tomoko smiled. "It actually looks like a nice place to go in the summer. And you were the one who did it?" When Ikumi nodded, Tomoko smiled. "Yeah, you guys are kinda crazy."

Ikumi grinned. "We-we did it! This is-"

Her stomach chose that moment to let out a gurgle like a sea monster rising from the deep. Kacchan and Tomoko jumped back slightly, slightly alarmed.

She flushed at that. Ikumi had been so eager to get it finished that she'd skipped breakfast. Now her body was crying for vengeance.

Kacchan grinned. "Right, we're gonna celebrate cleaning this place. And I know where we're going."

His grin widened. "We're going to Tonkatsu Domo."

Ikumi's eyes widened. "That's a bit unfair on them," she managed, before another rumble came.

—

Tonkatsu Domo was a fairly quiet little restaurant in Musutafu. A traditionally styled place, in deference to newer building regulations it had a higher ceiling than a traditional restaurant.

Arata blinked as a spiky haired kid slapped some money down on the bench, a black haired girl looking at him with confusion. "The Sauce Katsudon Challenge. And make it snappy."

Then another girl stepped through and he couldn't help but stare. She was gigantic, her head close to the ceiling of the restaurant. Her stomach roared, loud enough that Arata half thought that the cutlery rattled. The spiky haired guy jerked a thumb over to her. "She'll take it."

"Uh…" Remembering his training, Arata scrambled to the register. "So, you're taking the Challenge?"

The Sauce Katsudon Challenge that Tonkatsu Domo offered was pretty substantial. About two kilos of cooker rice, topped with the same amount of deep fried pork cutlet and paired with a heap of bean sprouts and drizzled with Worcestershire sauce.

And it was free if you finished in twenty minutes.

Arata could see why they had come here. Accepting the money, they sat down while he rang them up. Her friends ordered a normal amount of food, thankfully.

From the kitchen, the chef took one look at the customers and brightened up. "Oh, it's Midoriya. Seems like it's been a while since she was here."

Arata blinked. "Is… this alright?"

The chef shrugged, moving to prepare the massive quantity of food. "She really likes katsudon. Plus, she's good publicity - if it takes that much food to satisfy somebody of her height, people take the challenge more seriously. We usually get some idiots who think they can take it on."

Arata shrugged. "I hadn't thought of it like that…"

Soon enough, the huge bowl of rice and meat was set in front of her. A steaming mountain of rice and fried pork cutlets sat in front of her, the spiky haired kid and her friend watching.

After picking up a pair of chopsticks, she began. Arata stared as she shovelled it down, chopsticks practically a blur. It was fresh from the kitchen and piping hot yet she gulped it down like it was lukewarm. Her spiky haired friend gave him a cocky grin as she devoured her lunch, the other girl staring in amazement. In about ten minutes, four kilos of food had disappeared.

Arata shook his head in amazement. He quietly returned the deposit to her friend, then set to clearing away the remains of their meal. Midoriya bowed politely. "Tell the chef that it was delicious," she managed, a content smile on her face.

"I-I will!"

—

A month went by quickly, and soon Ikumi and Kacchan were at the gates of U.A. Ikumi stared up at their dream school, a nervous expression on her face. Her winter fur had fluffed up, and she glanced over to her oldest and best friend. "Well, Kacchan, this is it."

Beside her, Kacchan nodded. "Yep. We're gonna kill em."

They'd been through a lot of training to get to this point. Ikumi took a deep breath. Ten months of improvised Quirk training and physical training had toned her muscles and made her faster. Kacchan had been fit before but had pushed himself further, making bigger explosions and the muscles in his arms were more defined.

Ikumi let her breath out. This is for my future.

She stepped forwards, and her foot immediately caught a loose tile.

AN: Took a bit yet here we are. So!

After a bit of a training montage, Ikumi is ready for U.A! What will change? What won't? This went through some changes. Got rid of some bits, added others… There is a bit that I will add later. And we showed a bit more of Usagiyama. Tomoko will get some more focus coming.

I thought that I should show who All Might trained, but… that can wait for a bit. I think I can say that nobody expected it!

As always, thank Banchoking, my editor on Spacebattles for helping me edit this! Please comment, for it fuels my endeavours!

Next time… Ikumi will take the Entrance Exam!