My Hero Academia - Under Pressure - Season 2 - Episode 18 - Adventures In Interning

The week of interning for the UA students of class 1-B continued on, and each of them were on their own adventures big or small. Each of them made sure to learn all they could from their Pro-Hero mentors, as well as try and expand upon what they felt was what they wanted to be as heroes based on what they saw out in the field.

A great example of this came from Kuroda and her time with Royal Knight. She had spent time with the "Chivalrous Hero" for some time now, and yet was still learning what made him tick. Every morning, his agency's recruits, that he called his own "band of knights" would confer on the events of the previous day, and each talk about what they could improve, and only after getting approval from Royal Knight were they dispersed.

Midway through the week, after their morning meeting, Kuroda found herself pondering about certain things, and Royal Knight noted this and said, "Is something wrong, Kuroda?"

"No sir," she replied honestly. "Just curious about something."

"Curiosity can bring forth enlightenment. Please, ask away."

"Sir, you're Japanese, and yet you fashioned your agency off the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Why do that?"

Royal Knight gave out a very boisterous laugh at the question, "You're not the first, nor will you be the last, to ask that question. Tell me, did you read stories of a fantastical nature when you grew up?"

"Of course," replied Kuroda with a small laugh, "my parents read them to me. Then I would read them to my younger family members when I had to watch over them."

"Indeed. The reason I bring this up is that when I was young I read all sorts of stories, but few stuck with me in a meaningful way. That is until I read about King Arthur, his knights, his adventures. It just...resonated with me. To the extent that when my Quirk revealed itself I felt that I was a reincarnation of those legendary knights. Obviously...I've stopped saying that in public."

"Good thinking, sir."

"Thank you. But with that story, I had a method of going about not just my training, but how I would be perceived as a hero. As well as the kind of people I wanted to work with in my agency. It was not easy, but now I stand before you as the No.15 hero in Japan, and my Knights are known throughout the land. Inspiration can be given in many forms Kuroda, I hope you realize that, and its power, before the week is over."

Kuroda thought over his words a bit before nodding once more, "I will endeavor to that, sir."

He seemed content with his answer and quickly checked his hero garb, as well as hers, "Very good. I see we're both ready to go, shall we patrol?"

"Yes sir!"

"Then let us be off!"

As they set off on patrol, Kuroda made sure to keep her eyes peeled for anything that might be a threat or danger to the nearby people. She and Royal Guard had already stopped multiple villains during their time together so far, as well as did supplementary work that civilians needed help with. Each time, Royal Guard made sure that she was as aware of her surroundings as possible.

This meant not just looking on the street for trouble, but in alleys, and glimpsing up at the rooftops she could see.

It was a good things she did, because at one point during their early patrol, she stopped and looked upon one such rooftop. She saw a silhouette on it, and as she tried to focus on it more, it ran off in another direction.

"Royal Knight," she called out while she kept her eyes on the rooftop where she had seen the image. "I might have spotted trouble, there was someone lurking on that rooftop and then they darted away."

Royal Knight gazed at the rooftop in question, "If I recall correctly, there's no access to that rooftop, let alone a way to get off it easily. Let's go investigate, just in case."

The two rushed off to the building, and once outside of it, Royal Sword pulled out his twin blades and plunged them into the ground, "Hop on."

She got up on his back and carefully wrapped an arm around his neck. Once secured, the swords suddenly elongated to incredible heights, carrying the two as they did until they were high enough to reach the roof.

"Royal Knight. Pro-Hero. Quirk: Sword Manipulation. Those two swords he has are almost like an extension of his body. He can make them bigger, smaller, lighter, heavier, tougher, and can even summon them to his hands should they be apart for some reason. You could say he's a Knight that's totally in tune with his weapon."

Once in range, the top hopped onto the roof and separated. Royal Sword retracted his swords and sheathed them on his garb.

As he looked around the roof, his suspicion grew, "As I thought, there's no way onto the roof..."

"I know what I saw, sir," affirmed Kuroda as she looked around.

"I believe you, Change It, I merely meant that since someone was up here...they got up here through means of a Quirk more than likely. And since you saw them run away, it might have been because they saw you looking at them."

"But why were they on this roof? What could they...wait..."

Kuroda paused and looked at the other nearby rooftops. While some weren't on the same height as the one they were on, others were. And on one of them was that same silhouette from before. This time though, she could tell that they were wearing a full-on body suit to try and blend in, and that they were looking at her.

"Royal Sword, on that roof, there they are!" she exclaimed with a point to their position.

Royal Sword rushed to her and was able to catch a glimpse just before the silhouette ran off, "Well done, let's hurry and try to catch them. Get ready to fly, so to speak."

He pulled out one of his swords and plunged it into the roof at a specific angle, and altered it in a special way. Kuroda once more latched onto him from behind. But this time, he pulled his sword back as if like rubber, and once they had the right tension, he released, and the two were flung into the air towards the roof the suspect was on.

As they were racing towards it, Kuroda turned her head and saw them jumping across the adjacent roofs.

"There he is!"

"Good spotting, we'll chase them on foot from here. Let's go!"

Separating once on solid ground, the two started their own escapade of jumps and leaps to try and catch up to the runner. Royal Sword even launched his other sword so that it would land ahead of the person and cause them to stop.

While it did trip them up slightly, the suspect altered direction and ran towards another set of equally adjacent roofs.

With a motion, Kuroda let her mentor know she would follow along one path while Royal Sword did the other. Though the chase was long they were able to pin him into a predicament where Kuroda used her batons to seriously trip up the suspect, and Royal Sword, with both swords now back to him, was able to pin the runner to the ground.

The person in the suit struggled, but it was no use.

Royal Sword leaned down and gave a small grunt, "Do you know who we have here, Change It?"

"No sir."

"This is Stick. He's an infamous recon man for thieving groups. His body allows him to grasp onto things like walls, and when you mix that with his free-running skills, he can get pretty much anywhere he wants to in order to scope out potential places to rob. Many have been after him since his last escape. It's good to know he'll be behind bars soon."

"Just glad I spotted him, sir," admitted Kuroda with a small sigh of relief that she hadn't imagined it.

"Your instincts were right and true. Now let's take him down to ground level and deal with him there."

The two restrained the villain and were able to get him into police custody without much more effort. But instead of going back on patrol, Royal Sword looked at Kuroda intensely.

This put her a bit off, "Sir? Something wrong?"

"In its own way," he said simply. "Your batons. Why are they part of your gear?"

"I didn't have anything at first with my hero outfit. I felt my Quirk was enough. But in our first team battle, I didn't have time to do big sweeping changes, I needed to do little ones. I found some nearby items and transformed them and used them for close combat. Thought they would come in handy after that, so I added them to my gear."

"Adaptability, that is good. But you can go further. It's true that your full powers will be limited in chases like these, but that doesn't mean you should be limited. Your batons should be able to adapt like you do in order to help you in whatever scenario you might find yourself in."

"No offense sir, but, where would I find an item like that?"

Royal Sword pondered the question and then smiled, "I might have a friend who can help. We'll call him once we return to the agency. For now though, let's return to work."

With a nod to show she was ready, they continued on their adventure.

A few cities away, The Twins were in a warehouse once more with their Pro-Hero. They were having the time of their lives going and tinkering with all of the mechanical items that their mentor had, as well as building new ones with their three types of mechanical expertise at their disposal.

Their Pro-Hero was working on a particular device with a welder, and after finishing up, he took off his welding helmet and presented it to them, "I think it's done, what do you think, kids?"

"Cybernetic. Pro-Hero. Quirk: Mechanical Fusion. Believe it or not, his body can fuse with any mechanical part that he wants, making him a cyborg out in the field, and one that can adapt to all sorts of situations big and small."

"Wow," The Twins said in their unified voice.

"Glad you two, approve."

"It is a blaster, right?" wondered Ryu as he gazed on the device.

"Or a sound canon?" put out Ryo as she too looked at the device.

Cybernetic laughed at their suggestions, "Both good guesses, and both close in their own way. This is a Pulse Gun. I can use it to send out a burst of energy in various amounts to deal damage or concuss someone enough that they don't fight back.

"Wow," admired the twins. "Can we see it work?"

"Of course, let me just swap this out..."

He put down the device and with his human hand went to his mechanical arm and made it glow. The mechanical parts shifted and eventually he pulled them out, revealing another human arm. He then grabbed the Pulse Gun and made it glow, and then put it on his free arm. The device seemed to melt into it and then shifted around until eventually it was as if it had been there the whole time.

"That should do it," Cybernetic said, gazing at his new arm. "Now, let's head to the testing area."

They moved to another part of the warehouse, one that had a range of sorts with various targets that they could go and fire things at. He aimed the Pulse Gun at one of the targets and fired. The energy burst from the gun hit the target dead center in the head, leaving a singed hole in it as a result.

"Hmm...might have to tweak the settings a bit...that shouldn't have burned it that much..."

Ryo looked at the arm, and then at Cybernetic, "It says it doesn't have a limiter for the power out, so it releases whatever it has at the time."

"Oh, of course. Thank you Ryo. You are very helpful when it comes to my builds."

"The Tinker thinks so too."

"Yaka? Oh, he's great. Need to hang out with him more. Too bad UA is a few hours away from me."

"Why not build a teleporter?" suggested Ryu.

"Hmm...not a bad suggestion. Thanks for the idea."

"Have to help in my own way, right?"

"Oh trust me, you do. Your Quirk transformation is not too dissimilar from my own, it's incredible. In fact, we might want to try and see if we can put items on your mech form, Ryu, and then see if it melds back into your body when you transform again."

"Can I have the Pulse Gun?"

Cybernetic laughed again, "Nice try. We'll start small. Not unlike your sister and her drones. But given enough time, you two could be some of the most tech-heavy heroes out there and be just like me in being able to do just about any situation possible."

"Is that why you build all this stuff?" asked The Twins.

"Yeah, pretty much. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy going out into the field just as much as anyone. Saving people, helping repair damage done by villains during our fights with them, all of it is rewarding to me. But the more I watched some of the Pro-Heroes go, the more I realized that there has to be better ways to deal with some villains at points."

"How so?"

"Well think about it. Imagine...you're trying to stop a fire with your abilities that you have right now. Would you be able to do it?"

The Twins looked at one another, then shook their heads sadly.

"Don't feel bad! I'm just using an example. But now imagine, if you two, like me, had the ability to adapt your gear to the situation at hand? Ryu, you could have a water cannon attached to a mech arm, or a grenade that could cut out the fire by filling a room with heavy gas. Ryo, you could have a hacking device that could extend your reach, and thus allow you to turn the sprinklers on should they be defective. Or even have your own personal drone army that can help bring water to put it all out!"

"That does sound cool," Ryu admitted.

"I'm always up for doing more," added Ryo.

"And that's good. I had a feeling you two were like me, and if you both are good with Yaka, then you're definitely my kind of people. You're going to hear a LOT of heroes talking about adapting to things because even we must admit at times that we can't do everything. The catch though is that some heroes just...can't adapt, or won't. So thus it's up to us to think outside the box for them. Be not just heroes, but builders. Multi-task using our special gifts and help people out in our own ways as well as the typical ways. Understand?"

"Yep!" the Twins said happily.

Cybernetic shook his head and laughed at their 'twin magic', "Glad to hear it. Ok, help me fix this Pulse Gun and then we'll do a survey of our area and make sure we haven't missed anything important. Ryo, hand me that screwdriver, let's dive back in here and see how we can fix that power issue..."

The three worked together on the Pulse Gun once more, eager to see it in its true form, and then test it out in the world itself.

Sanda in his mentor's territory was pursuing a car at high speeds. He was riding around on a wave of cement through the streets of the city. The vehicle was weaving in a way to try and prevent Sanda from attacking it without possible doing more damage or hurting others. Thus he was just in pursuit of it.

From within the car, a duo of robbers loaded up their guns and rolled down their windows so they could lean out and try to shoot him.

As the bullets fired, Sanda reacted quickly and brought up chunks of the road in order to take the hit so that he wouldn't be hurt. He did this until they were out of bullets and then rushed in.

"You really need to stop!" he shouted at them. "Or you won't like what happens next!"

"Try it, hero!" shouted one of the robbers as he reloaded. "You try and hit us you'll hit someone else, and that's not something you can afford to do!"

"That's why I'm the distraction!"

"What?"

Sanda smiled and pointed ahead of the car. All the robbers in the car went wide-eyed as they saw a person riding a cloud racing towards them. It was a man dressed in blue and white attire and was indeed riding a small cloud that was heading right towards the car.

All of a sudden though, the man reared the cloud up, and out of it came a lightning bolt that struck the car, and because of the open windows, the robbers got struck too. With them incapacitated, Sanda warped the earth to catch the car before anything else happened.

Crisis averted, Sanda went over to the cloud man, who was very pleased, "Nice job, rookie! Glad to see you can follow my plans."

"Just glad no one was hurt," said Sanda as he looked at all the things that could've been destroyed or damaged by the event.

"You need to relax, rookie, with me on the job, things always turn out fine."

"Cloud Nine. Pro-Hero. Quirk: Cloud Summon. He can summon clouds out of thin air and get them to do whatever he wants, including rain on someone, or strike them with lightning. And yes, he can ride on them. I swear I've seen that before on TV..."

Cloud Nine does a quick survey of the area and sees nothing else is amiss, "Alright, we seem to be good now. We'll wait for the press to come around and bask in the glory before moving on."

Sanda seemed nervous about this, "Do we have to? Not to question you or anything but that kind of seems odd and frankly I'm really good in front of cameras as my-"

"YO! Rookie, stop it. I know that's like a...nervous reaction for you...but seriously, stop it, it weirds me out."

"Sorry."

"It's fine, we all have our personality issues we need to deal with. But as for the press, you need to embrace it! You WANT people to know your names all over Japan, if not the world. The more attention you get, the more revenue, and that allows you to do all sorts of cool things. Not the least of which is build a big agency like mine. Where you have all sorts of Pro-Heroes working as one unit to keep people safe. Does that really sound so bad?"

"Well, no, but..."

"There you go. And besides, the perks far outweigh any negative actions. For example, I saved this reporter one time and we got together later and..."

Before he could finish, the police showed up, and right behind them were the press. There were cameras and reporters immediately asking questions of Cloud Nine and Sanda.

"Alright rookie, like we practiced, do the pose, it'll be great for the news reels tonight."

"Uh...I..."

"Rookie. Do The Thing."

Sanda muttered under his breath angrily and then summoned some of the overturned rocks that were nearby and had them rotate around his body before he went into a pose alongside his Pro-Hero. Cloud Nine did a 'mighty' pose on his cloud and the cameras ate it up.

Once the photo shoot was done, Cloud Nine went back onto solid ground and approached the reporters, "Yes, yes, everyone, come on in, there's a great story to tell here. Including the incredible effort done by both me and my new intern, Richter, from UA HIgh. You see, we were on patrol when..."

Cloud Nine went on a monologue, while Sanda talked to the officers so that they knew what had really happened. Once done, he looked at his Pro-Hero and shook his head, "I hope the others have better heroes than I do..."

One of the few pairs of students working together at one agency, not including the Twins as everyone saw them as just one person, was Fenella and Ebirima. They didn't tell each other until the morning of departure where they were going. It slipped their minds in the anticipation of it all. But once they realized they were together they couldn't help but be happy as they knew they could rely on one another in case things got hairy out in the world...or with their Pro-Hero.

Thankfully for them both their Pro-Hero was kind, and attentive, and didn't push too hard, while also being sure not to coddle them.

Each day they did many rounds of patrols, and even helped out another hero agency one time when a somewhat big villain event happened nearby. They were sure to take breaks and eat well, and by day five of their adventures together, they were honestly having the best of times.

"I'll tell you lass, I could use to just doing this and not going back to school," noted Fenella during one of their breaks as she relaxed on a park bench.

Ebirima laughed at her friends' statement, "Oh stop it, Fenella. You know we have to go back to school, if for no other reason than we need to push ourselves further in class before we can go and do more here."

"Oh I know, but a gal can dream. Besides, our pro is awesome, which might just be why we both picked her."

"Yeah, I still can't believe we picked the same hero unintentionally, nor told each other about it...sorry again about that."

Fenella waved it off with a sound of mock disgust, "Would you stop it already? I didn't tell you either. In fact, I don't think many of our class told the others who they were going with. Probably to build up suspense...or to ensure no one swapped in case they wanted some 1-on-1 time with their Pro-Heroes. But me? I'm glad to have my best lassie with me."

She winked at Ebirima, who again laughed at her friend, "Glad you're here too. We've proven to work well together before, why not again? Speaking of heroes, where did...?"

Ebririma looked around and eventually saw what she was looking for, as their Pro-Hero mentor approached, and in her hands were three cones of ice cream. She wore a very unique kind of attire. Kind of like a suit but tailored to be much more casual and easy to move in. She had an old-school mask over her face as well, though clearly it was just for effect.

"You ladies up for some ice cream? Had a feeling you'd like it," she asked with a smile.

"ESP. Pro-Hero. Quick: Sixth Sense. She can't technically predict the future, but her mind and body are so in tuned with everything going on around her that she can instinctively react to what's about to happen, and even can get senses of danger to come...or what someone wants to eat...apparently."

"Yes please!" the girls said in unison as they went to grab their ice cream.

ESP giggled slightly before diving into her own ice cream cone, "Glad to hear it. You two have been doing great with me, I appreciate the extra help to be honest. I always seem to run into danger when I'm on patrol."

"Yeah, we can tell," Fenella teased after eating some ice cream, "We've taken down robbers, villains, and seem to always be there when someone needs help."

"My work is never done!"

"How do you keep up the energy though?" asked Ebirima curious. "With your power, you could potentially save hundreds, if not thousands in a month if you go out as much as you do with us. How do you keep going?"

ESP paused and thought about it, "Well, I do have a knack for finding trouble as I've said, but that doesn't always mean I engage in it. Sometimes I call in other Pro-Heroes to go and do the deeds while I help out with more basic stuff. And as you pointed out, Rune, I have a habit of finding people in need on a more simplistic level. That's technically not saving people, but doing what I can for them in the moment. I guess the real answer is that I do try and pace myself...even if I don't know fully what my body is getting me to do, or not do. And ice cream always helps."

Fenella and Ebirima laughed at the joke put out by their mentor. They went and continued eating their ice cream, even though ESP kept spinning around as if waiting for something to happen. When she was almost done with her ice cream, ESP locked eyes on something. The two noticed this and tried to see what was going on, but they couldn't see anything.

"What's wrong?" wondered Fenella.

"Do you sense something?" followed-up Ebirima.

"I think so," answered ESP, eyes still locked on a spot. "I have the urge to..."

Without finishing, she tossed her ice cream cone at the ground about twenty feet away. The ice cream landed with a plop on the ground and started to spill out. Seconds later, a person ran down a part of the street that was blocked from their view, and right onto the ice cream. He slipped, and as he fell backward, a purse launched itself into the air.

"Rune, if you don't mind."

"Oh, right," reacted Fenella, who sent out a run to catch it and ensure the guy couldn't get it as he tried to get back up.

"Bubble Gum Gal, please secure that man."

"On it!" replied Ebirima, who shot a wad of her gum at the guy's feet, and he struggled to get out of it.

The three moved towards where he was, and just as they did, an older woman came down the street and stopped right before them exhausted, "He...stole my purse..."

ESP went over to Rune's sigil and grabbed the purse off of it and handed it to the woman, "Is this your purse, ma'am?"

"Oh yes, thank you dear. You're a blessing."

"Just trying to help. We'll take care of him, you have a good rest of your day."

The elderly woman thanked Fenella and Ebirima before heading off. ESP waved down a nearby officer and had him take the purse snatcher away.

"Well, shall we keep going, ladies? I think we...hmm..."

Again, without finishing her thought, ESP looked away, but this time she started walking towards something the other two couldn't get a guess on. She quickly crossed the street, almost disrupting traffic in the process, and kept on going. Fenella summoned another sigil and hopped on it with Ebirima and followed their mentor.

They tried to ask her what was going on, but couldn't get her to answer. That is, until they entered a nearby alleyway. The three went deep into it, still no clue as to why for the young heroes, until eventually they entered a more open part of the alley where a group of men were beating up on someone on the ground.

"I do hope that person deserved the beating you're giving him," ESP remarked, not amused at what she was seeing.

One of the thugs stopped and turned to see the three of them ready for action, "Look what we have here, boys, a couple of girls trying to play hero."

"Take a step closer, scum, and we'll see who's playin," challenged Fenella, arm runes glowing.

"Careful you little rat, or else I'll grab you and-"

Angered, Ebirima shot out a blast of her gum at the guy's mouth, forcing it to be silent, "That's enough out of you. Now leave that guy alone!"

"Yes, trust me when I say that this won't end well for you if you make us any angrier," noted ESP, a somewhat wicked smile appearing on her face.

The men looked at one another for a second, but their now gummed up leader motioned to get the three, so they pulled out weapons and did just that.

"That's our cue ladies, go get'em!"

Answering the call first was Fenella, who summoned her runes and went to work on a trio of men that rushed right at her. She grew and shrank her sigils so that she could do multiple kinds of attacks. Which came in handy as they tried to surround her and do damage that way. So she blocked some of the attacks and slammed the runes into them to stop the others.

Eventually, she brought out a bunch of her sigils and thrust them at the goons to pin them to the wall and put them out of the fight.

Ebirima meanwhile did her best to contain them all as quickly as possible. In this case, she merely waited for them to get close to her, and then she dove out of the way of their attack and then used her bubble gum web to pin them to the wall.

ESP took on the still silent leader, who had brought out a big knife to try and deal with her. But instead of attacking him, she let him attack her. But despite all sorts of swipes and strikes, he couldn't hit her. She dodged or parried or blocked all of the attempts, all while having a smile on her face.

Eventually, she seemed to get bored, so she put up her arm in a certain spot, his arm hit it on accident and dropped the knife. ESP caught it, swept out his legs and then pinned him to the ground with her foot while she put the knife to his neck.

"Told you this wouldn't work out well for you," she said menacingly to the now quivering man. But on a dime she went back to her happy personality and looked at her interns. "Well done, ladies. Rune, I do believe a police car will be passing by in a bit, please wave it down and bring them here. Bubble Gum Gal, pin this man down like the others so that he doesn't escape. Once they're away, we'll move on."

The two nervously looked at one another, but then nodded and did as they were told, eventually watching the thugs be put away and tending to the beaten up man before they moved on to their next task whatever it may be.

Unlike many of her classmates, Kanagita was not out on patrol, rather, she was sitting in a room in the agency of her Pro-Hero. The room was decorated in various religious artifacts, including several Tao Circles, one of which Kanagita was sitting on with her eyes closed and in a very focused position.

The room had a very curious scent going through it, a type of incense that helped Kanagita be calm. The very visible fragrance passed by her at one point and revealed someone. Her mentor, also sitting on a Tao circle.

"I'm sorry to have left you, Kanagita," the man said in a low but soothing voice.

"It's ok," she answered.

The man was not dressed like a Pro-Hero, but more like a man of the cloth. He wore a headdress that covered part of his face, and robes that bore marks of various faiths.

"Tranquility. Support Hero. Quirk: Calming Influence. His body exudes a kind of fragrance that can make a person calm and relaxed no matter their emotional state. Perfect for getting people out of a frenzied state...or helping a young girl not be afraid of certain things..."

Tranquility held out a hand and released his Quirk upon Kanagita, who happily inhaled it and gave a rare and very calm smile, "Very good. When you asked me to mentor you Kanagita, I will admit, I was curious. Your Quirk is very powerful, and yet when I met you and asked you to transform, you were afraid. I've spent days trying to help you let down your walls so you can speak the truth to me. Will today be that day?"

Kanagita slowly opened her eyes and nodded, "Yes."

"Good. Please, do so at your own pace."

"Every time I transform into her, into Brick Break, I wonder if I'll be able to change back."

"Why do you think that?"

"I had to go rescue a friend of mine once from some villains. We met one who admitted to beating him up, I was so angry, and transformed easier than I ever had before. But while me and my friend Anno were able to beat him, she...didn't want to STOP beating him. He had to pull her off and get me to focus so I could revert back to my regular self. No one outside of you and him knows about that."

He nodded and made a noise of understanding, "I appreciate your honesty, and willingness to tell me about it. Has this happened since?"

She thought about it for a second but shook her head, "No, but it's been on my mind ever since. I didn't care at first because I thought it was just me getting worked up over my friend being hurt by him. But later on, as I did more training and I felt her personality more and more...I couldn't help but wonder..."

"Wonder...?"

"What if she really is just an extension of me and not a dual personality like I keep telling people she is? Doesn't that make me a monster?"

"No."

"How can you say that so easily?"

Tranquility motioned to the many religious artifacts in the room, "On our first day together, I told you that my journey towards being a Pro-Hero as I am now started as one of true discovery. Not just of my powers, but to expand them in ways beyond just making people calm, but truly helping them see where they went wrong. I studied every major, and a few minor, religions that were out there. Would you like to know what I learned the most?"

"Yes," she replied.

He smiled at her with kindness, "That no one, no single person, is born a monster. If you look in most religious texts you'll see that even the gods that are meant to be 'perfect beings' are subject to fits of righteous anger and even rage. Having anger doesn't make you a monster, just like turning into a less than intelligent being doesn't mean there's a monster inside of you. The difference...is what you do with those feelings, or in this, your other being. Think of it this way, has there ever been a time where she's refused to transform into you outside of that one moment of righteous anger?"

"...no."

"During that incident, did you tell her to stop, or were you in just a state to where you didn't think of asking to stop until your friend Anno got your attention."

"I...I didn't tell her to stop, I was too angry."

"And there is the lesson. Fear is fine, Kanagita. Fear can tell us where we draw the line. Our mission is to govern ourselves so that we tow that line, but never cross it, even under the worst of circumstances. You are not a monster, nor evil, you're just a young girl who hasn't fully grasped what she can do in her other form. If you'll let me, I'll dedicate the rest of our time to trying to help you gain more control so that you never fear transforming again. Would you like that?"

Kanagita's eyes filled with happy tears that she quickly dried off, "Please, I'm tired of being scared of her."

Tranquility put his hand over his heart, "Then allow me to bring you peace. But to do so, I need to see her again. Don't fear, I'll be fine, she won't hurt me, because you don't want to hurt me."

With a nod, Kanagita lowered her head and slowly transformed into Brick Break, her second form looked around, and then gazed at Tranquility and grunted, "You smell funny."

"That is my Quirk, Brick Break. Now, let us talk about Kanagita, you two are having some issues, and I want to help you..."

Chuya readied herself for an attack.

Sure enough, her opponent struck with an open fist, to which Chuya parried easily and launched her own counterattack. Her opponent was able to block this, but she got in another reversal and was able to pin him to the ground.

Before she could celebrate though, another attacker came, this one female. She rushed in and tried to kick Chuya, but again she blocked, and even quicker than before was able to get the person on the ground so that both attackers were unable to move.

"Enough!" came a voice.

The three turned to see a military man on the far side of the room, on each side of him were students like them. After a motion from him, all three got up and stood at attention.

"Ms. Taki, your hand-to-hand skills are as exemplary as ever. You two, you should've worked together instead of taking her on one at a time, you gave her advantage of knowing she only had one target! You won't always be fighting that way in the field, you should know this by now!"

"Sorry sir!" said the two students.

"Sorry doesn't cut it, ten laps around the agency, NOW!"

His voice rang out, and a look came over both of their eyes and they immediately ran out of the nearby agency. Chuya meanwhile kept her eyes focused on the Pro-Hero before her.

He was a tall and very composed man. He wore a military uniform with multiple badges and honors on it. On his head was a tactical helmet with multiple stars on it. His expression was one of displeasure. Not of Chuya, or the other students, but just a general displeasure that many in command always have nothing ever goes the way they want.

"Commander. Pro-Hero. Quirk: Orders. His voice can compel people to do certain things so long as it doesn't go against their subconscious selves. Also, he can only do it to one or two people at a time. Hence why he's good at training people...even if they don't want to admit it."

Commander locked eyes with Chuya and then addressed her with his pointer stick that he carried, "Are you up for another round, Ms. Taki? Not tired, are we?"

"Never, sir," answered Chuya with respect, but a certain longing clear in her eyes.

"Good. Now let's do that exercise again. And whoever I pick, remember, work together, her skills are great even without her Quirk, don't let me allow her to use it or she'll probably wipe the floor with you even more!"

The training began again, and round by round Chuya proved that she was good enough for any test that Commander had provided for her. But as each match went on, a particular look grew on her face. One of frustration.

Hours passed, and as it got dark outside Commander blew his whistle, allowing the mostly tired set of trainees to relax and catch their breaths. All save Chuya, who remained standing.

He paced in front of them, "Very good. Many of you performed well, and after now five days of training, I'm finally seeing progress in some of you. But others have still many more miles to go before you can call yourselves even junior heroes! Now go clean yourselves up, and get to the mess hall for dinner."

"Sir yes sir!" said most of the class as they departed.

But it didn't take long for Commander to see that one of them didn't leave, Chuya.

"Something you want to say, Ms. Taki?"

"If you will give me permission to speak freely, sir," she answered in a very military way.

He smirked and nodded, "Granted."

"When are we going out into the field? Our week is almost over."

"Tired of training, Ms. Taki?"

"Training can be vital, but so can experience in the field. You can't train for everything, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

"Your father tell you that line?"

This took Chuya aback, "You know my father?"

"Not personally, no," he replied, "but I looked into you, and found him. It took me all of ten seconds to see that he instilled as much military training in you as possible. You're easily the best among the students here."

"Then put me into the field! Have your lieutenants look after me if you want to train the others. I'm one of the best in my class and was literally raised to do this. But I won't know my full capabilities if I'm not out there in the field and put under actual fire."

She looked at him pleadingly, and was met with a cold stare, "Out of respect for your father and the clear impact he has had on your life I will not see your comment as a questioning of a my authority or a demand of what I should do."

Chuya tensed up but didn't bite back, she knew that would only put her in a further hole.

"Ms. Taki I don't expect you to understand my methods, but they work. Because not everyone is as good as you. I have no doubt you'd be good in the field, but you can do just as much good...here. I only take my recruits out together, and only when all of them I feel are ready for what might happen out there. I was hoping that it would be tomorrow on the 6th day, but it's now looking like it'll only be the 7th. So if you are so desperate to get into the field, make sure they are as ready as you. Because if they're not? No one is going into the field, and you can partially blame yourself for that."

She tensed up again, but didn't rebel, she knew that wouldn't solve anything. Instead, she did her best to calm down, "Permission to go to my room, sir?"

"Granted," he said gruffly.

With a salute, she marched off to her area of the agency, a small barracks area reserved for the women of the unit. Or in this case, the trainees.

She was alone as everyone else was eating and getting cleaned up. As she approached her cot, a picture of her father grabbed her attention and she picked it up so she could see him better.

Chuya could feel herself calming down as she could hear her father's encouragement echo from her memories, but so too could she hear her self doubt and regret over what was happening to her. She put down the picture, and in a burst of anger punched the nearby wall repeatedly.

She buried her head in her now bruised hands. Chuya had thought after the Sports Festival things would be easier as much of her anger was gone. But how could she bring honor to her family if she wasn't able to be the Pro-Hero she felt she needed to be?

Chuya had chosen Commander because of how he was a military-man before becoming a Pro-Hero, and felt that this was the best way to bring her worlds together. But she realized now, far too late, that she needed someone to teach her to be a hero, not a soldier, and that was not the training she was getting.

And it frustrated her to no end.

*credits*