Atem had never been so sore in his life, and he had fought against a gigantic demon! Stumbling alongside everyone else from the forest, he wasn't sure what was even keeping him upright, bow gripped loosely in his hand and blood sluggishly dripping from his injured arm, his tricoloured hair hung in a ratted mess about him, his braid sacrificed a while back in the chaos.

Stumbling to a stop, he watched some plant it right on their asses and sheer stubborn pride kept him upright.

"You said it would only be, like, three hours!" Sero whined in exhaustion.

"I guess we timed it based on how long it'd take us. Sorry!" Mandalay apologised.

"Now you're braggin' about how much better you are?" Sato groaned; head tossed back. "That's so mean!"

"I'm starving!" Kirishima yelled. "This is hell!"

Pixie-Bob laughed behind her paw like gloves, absolutely pumped up and delighted. "I thought it would take you kids even longer. But you did much better against my dirt monsters than I thought you would. You guys were seriously great." Bouncing, she pointed toward a haggard Shoto, Bakugo, Tenya and Izuku. "Especially the four of you! It seems like you've had quite a bit of experience. I call dibs on these kittens. I'll groom them myself!"

When she jumped toward the four teens, nuzzling and petting them much to their annoyance, Aizawa sighed and glanced back at Mandalay. "Has she always been like this?"

"It's gotten worse lately." Mandalay admitted. "She's at the age to take a mate."

"Uh. Speaking of people's ages—" Izuku began, only to be cut off once again by Pixie-Bob's paw wrapping about his face, claws teasing against his scalp.

"Choose your words carefully, boy!"

"I've just been wondering since we got here earlier. Who is that kid?" Izuku queried, voice muffled. "What's he doing here?"

"Oh, this little guy?" Mandalay smiled. "He's my cousin's son. He lives with us now. Don't be shy, Kota. Say hi to everyone. You're gonna be around them for the next week."

"Hey there. My name's Midoriya. I'm from the U.A. High School hero course. It's nice to meet you—" The vicious punch to his genitals was unexpected and Izuku hadn't the breath to scream as he toppled into Tenya, the class Rep rushing to his aid, completely scandalised.

"What a low blow! You fiend of a child! A punch to the scrotum is unforgiveable!"

Kota set furious eyes on Tenya. "The last thing I want is to hang with some wannabe heroes."

"…"Wannabe"…?! How old are you, kid?!"

Atem chuckled to himself. The child had a hell of a temper and reminded him a little bit of Rebecca Hawkins. She wasn't one to suffer anything she thought foolish either. Gripping his bleeding arm, he swayed a little and cursed his stupidity. He had used far more of his own blood than he should have, and he was damn well feeling it.

"Enough playing around." Aizawa ordered. "Get your stuff off the bus. Once your bags are in your rooms, we'll have dinner in the cafeteria. After that, you can bathe and sleep. Tomorrow your training starts in earnest. You'd better get a move on."

For one night only the pussycats cooked the students dinner. Putting on a feast that would put most to shame. Atem sat next to Izuku, happily eating rice and chicken, his energy levels quickly picking back up. His body tended to absorb food fast, his Quirk requiring nutrients to burn so he could create his arrows.

"Damn, Atem," Kirishima chuckled, watching Atem reach for another helping. "For someone as tiny as you, you sure can eat."

"My Quirk burns a lot of calories," Atem responded with a shrug. "A downside to it is a sort of hypoglycaemic response. A fact I found out quite painfully when I was younger."

"That sucks, man," Kirishima grimaced. "All Quirks can have their drawbacks. Just ask Midoriya."

Izuku flushed. "I'm getting better at it!"

"Yeah, you've managed quite a while without breaking your bones!" Sero called out.

"Breaking your bones?" Atem asked, eyes wide.

"Eh, yeah," Izuku responded sheepishly. "My Quirk requires a serious amount of control, and I had some bad backlash where it injured me severely. I'm getting better at it. Expanding my limits bit by bit."

Atem set his gaze on his food and tried to think of the best way of phrasing his reply. "I…I knew someone in Egypt. Mahad. He was older than me, but we were good friends. His…Quirk…Was extremely powerful, so he rarely accessed all of it and one day, while fighting a…a..Villain, he used all of his power at the expense of his own life. He saved so many…But I have to wonder, if he had better control, could his life have been spared." It was something Atem had wondered over the years. If Mahad had accepted the full extent of his shadow magic, could he have survived without combining his soul with the Dark Magician.

"I'm so sorry, Atem," Izuku said gently.

"Thank you."

Appetite forgotten about, Atem pushed away his plate and figured he'd get some air before they headed to the baths. Outside, the night was warm, stars twinkling above and hearing some irritable muttering, the teenager turned to see the child Kota stomping about, body tense.

"Are you okay?" Atem asked. Probably not the best thing to do considering how he responded to Izuku, but the boy was clearly upset.

Spinning around, Kota set angry eyes on Atem. "What do you want?!"

"Right now? Fresh air," Atem responded casually, arms crossed and mindful to keep his distance from the spitfire child. "You seem upset."

"As if that's any of your business!" Kota spat, turning to stalk off.

"Your parents were the Water Hose heroes."

Kota stopped, insides freezing, eyes snapping back toward the teenager. "H-How do you know that? Who told you?!"

"No one," Atem said honestly, "But I recognised your face. I remember hearing about their deaths and seeing the funeral footage. You were there. The whole world were left in shock. It's not something you forget, especially when I aspired to be a Hero too."

"Another idiot!" Kota exploded. "Playing dress up and for what?! To die and leave everyone behind!"

Atem winced at the barb. Essentially, hadn't he done exactly that when he was Pharaoh? Gave up his very existence at sixteen and bound his soul in hell just to protect those who could not protect themselves. Yet, he didn't regret it. He hated leaving his loved ones behind to pick up the pieces, but he could never change the outcome. It had saved so many lives for centuries to come.

But still…

"I get it," Atem sighed, pulling idly on a strand of matted hair. "You feel abandoned. Like, they'd still be here if they hadn't been out being Heroes. If they had minded their business. I could tell you what their sacrifice was worth. That what they did was noble, but I won't…You're entitled to your pain, Kota. Just know, being angry won't fix it…it'll only hurt you in the long run."

Leaving the child to simmer, Atem headed toward the baths. He needed to get clean.

The baths consisted of a hot spring, and they were honestly divine. Atem was already busily attempting to untangle his hair when the rest of 1-A piled in, splashing through the water, and sinking down with audible sighs. Grunting, Atem winced, battling with a particularly nasty knot.

"Oh hell! Move your hands!"

Startling, Atem looked up, just as Bakugo plopped on a rock behind him. "What are you doing?"

"Helping you, before you end up bald you idiot! Damn it! Why the hell do you have so much hair?!"

"It grew that way," Atem responded drily.

"That's too adorable," Kaminari commented, sniggering behind his hand.

"Shut it Pikachu!"

Concentrating on the mess of Atem's hair, Bakugo carefully extracted twigs and mud that had left it in clumps. This close, he could see the black had a red hue through it, that spread to bright red ends, stopping at Atem's waist. His skin was pure gold, accept for a pale white mark running from the Egyptian's left hip, and climbed halfway up his back.

"Weird birth mark," Bakugo commented.

Turning his head, Atem glanced down and shrugged. "I suppose." Truthfully, it may have been a birth mark…a patch of his skin that was a different colour, but Atem knew it was identical to a wound he suffered the day he died. He figured it was a constant reminder of where he came from.

"Looks like someone tried to slice your ass in half."

Because they did. Demon claws and soft human flesh didn't mix. "Your extremely conversational tonight."

Bakugo snorted. "I'm just shocked you can't manage this mess, Rapunzel."

"I wasn't expecting to be tossed into several bushes," Atem pointed out. "And for the love of Allah, don't call me that!"

Grinning, Bakugo reached for another piece of hair to untangle. "Oh? Rapunzel? I think it suits you."

Izuku watched the pair interact and as someone who had known Bakugo since they were babies, he knew when the brash teen was crushing big time. Not that the idiot would notice himself.

Like Kaminari had said, it was honestly adorable.

He had heard Atem talking to Kota after being curious enough about his wellbeing to follow the Egyptian and overheard what poor Kota had been through. Izuku remembered watching the broadcast about the Water Hose heroes. It had been talked about for weeks and considered one of the more brutal deaths any hero could have suffered. As someone who aspired to be a hero all his life, Kota's hatred had surprised him…but now, he understood.

After their baths, they made their way to the cabin they were all to share. Futons ended up piled together and utterly exhausted, no one complained about being too close. Exhaustion made them all agreeable, and if Bakugo ended up curled up closely to Atem, no one commented on it.

X.x.X

"Good morning, class," Aizawa greeted the next morning, looking at all the sleepy faces. "Today, we begin a training camp that will increase your strength. Our goal is to increase your skills exponentially, so that each of you earns a provisional license. This will allow you to face the dangers that continue to fester in the darkness. Proceed carefully…Look alive, Bakugo. Try throwing that for me."

"Yeah, sure." Bakugo agreed, catching the ball tossed toward him. "Like in the fitness test."

"That's right. When you first started school, your record was 705.2 metres. Let's see if you've improved."

"Oh, I get it!" Mina grinned, pumping her fist. "We're checking our progress."

Sero nodded. "A lot's happened to us the last three months. Maybe he can throw it a whole mile now!"

"C'mon, get it, Bakugo!" Kirishima cheered.

"I've got this." Bakugo told them confidently, setting his stance and getting ready to throw. "No one blink. Go to hell!"

The explosion sent the ball hurtling skyward, a burst of air pushing them all back. Bakugo grinned, only to grunt in shock when Aizawa read out the numbers,

"That was 709.6 metres."

"That's it?" Sero asked surprised. "Kinda disappointing."

"You've had a single semester at UA," Aizawa pointed out, "and due to your various experiences, all of you have definitely improved. But those improvements have mostly been limited to mental prowess and technical skill. With a slight increase in stamina thrown in along the way. Your Quirks really haven't grown that much stronger. Not on a fundamental level. That's why we're now going to focus on improving your powers. This'll be so hard; you'll feel like you're dying…Let's hope you all survive."

Dying was putting it mildly. Each student was set up with a different task to force their Quirks into overdrive. Strengthening muscles required you to tear fibres and have them grow back stronger. The same logic applied to Quirks. All around, 1-A focused on pushing their Quirks.

Bakugo bellowed as he plunged his hands into a basin of boiling water, creating chain explosions above his head to increase the scale of his attacks. Shoto sat in water, using his Quirk to regulate its temperature, whilst gaining better control. The hope was he'd some day be able to use his fire and ice together. Sero howled while producing his tape non-stop, intent on increasing the strength of it and how fast he could summon it. Kirishima and Ojiro combined their Quirks to improve Kirishima's hardening and the strength of Ojiro's tail. Kaminari sat running his currents through a high capacity battery, allowing him to increase how much he could handle, and Koda used vocal exercises to increase his reach.

Aoyama repeatedly blasted his navel laser to increase his range and to decrease the times he'd suffer stomach issues. Tokoyami trained in complete darkness to learn how to keep Dark Shadow under complete control, even when run wild. Ochaco was attempting to get her inner ear canals used to zero gravity and increase how much weight she could lift, while Tenya was doing some hardcore running in order to improve his legs and strengthen his stamina.

Asui was busy working out every muscle in her body, including her tongue and Sato and Yaoyorozu were eating as they, while working to amp up their Quirks. Jiro worked to amplify the quality of her audio by honing her headphone jacks and Mina constantly created acid, so she could increase her skin's durability. Hagakure and Shoji worked together, improving their Quirks by having Shoji quickly create multiple Dupli-Arms and hunt down Hagakure, while she worked on her stealth and sat with blood donated by the Pro Hero Vlad, Atem continuously created arrows, with the intent he would strengthen his Quirk, reduce the time it took to create the arrows and lengthened the time it took before he burned too many calories and went into hypoglycaemic shock.

1-B stood on the edge of this chaos, watching horrified as Aizawa put his students through absolute hell. They knew training would be more than they were used to, but this was insane.

"Oh, man. This is pretty intense."

"Operative types will be raising your limits, maxing out your power." Vlad explained calmly. "And the rest—you'll mostly focus on strengthening body parts related to your Quirks. Now normally, these changes happen gradually as you grow…."

"But we don't have time for that." Aizawa said, walking toward the group. "Your class has a lot of work to do."

"Once we team up with Class A, there'll be forty students here." Kendo said, doing the count in her head. "That's a whole lot of Quirks for our homeroom teachers to manage on their own."

"Which is why we called them."

"That's correct! Four kittens in one litter!"

"Your feline fantasies are here. Say "meow."…"

"Allow us to lend a helping paw!"

"We're champions serving up justice…with our tails."

"Purrfectly cute and catlike heroes!"

"We're the Wild, Wild Pussycats! Full version!"

"I'm Ragdoll, and my Quirk is Search." Ragdoll introduced cheerfully. "I can look at up to a hundred people and know everything about them. Like their location and weakness!"

"With my Earthflow, I can create the ideal training ground for every student." Pixie-Bob bubbled happily.

"And my Quirk is called Telepath." Mandalay said with a grin. "I can give advice to multiple people at once."

"The name's Tiger." Said the only male hero in the group. "And I'm here to beat you guys to a pulp."

1-B had paled extensively. This was what the training entailed? They'd be dead within a day! Pairing off, they got ready to suffer. Because clearly to build themselves up, their teachers intended to break them first.