Training Camp

The following day, the class were forced to wake up at an obscene time for training. The students stood half-awake in the fields whilst Aizawa and the Wild Wild Pussycats began their introductions. Estelle scowled as the bitter air nipped at her ears.

"Good morning, class. Today we will begin 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. Look alive, Bakugo," Aizawa began before he threw the ball to him. "Try throwing that."

Bakugo grinned as he stepped forward and hurled the ball with one of his classic yells, "Go to hell!"

Estelle snorted at his choice of words.

She observed when his number popped up onto the screen, showing that his quirk strength had pretty much stayed the same so far. Aizawa spoke up to explain.

"You've all had a whole semester at UA. That was focused on mental prowess and technical skill, with a slight increase in stamina thrown your way. Your quirks haven't grown that much stronger, not on a fundamental level. That's why we are now going to focus on improving your powers."

Aizawa gave a creepy smile.

"This will be so hard; you'll feel like you're dying. Let's hope you all survive."

Estelle groaned. She would like her bed, please.

Estelle was currently floating in the sky above a body of water. Her whole person was on fire to help her fly. While she remained in the air, Estelle attempted to use as many abilities as she could in one go. To do this, she controlled the water below to float around her in gigantic tendrils and large pieces of land floating in the air, aided by her air bending. She morphed the earth into different shapes whilst she forced herself to keep airborne. Estelle was enjoying this time; it gave her some space from the others.

Everyone eyed her in the sky, genuinely stunned at how much she was controlling at one time. They gasped in admiration when she changed her elemental abilities to do something different.

The stems of water that looked like gigantic tentacles had morphed into a dragon. She moved to stand on the fake beast' head and began making large motions with her hands. Manipulating the other elements, Estelle was again surrounded in one massive sphere that she was in the middle of.

Aizawa swayed his head from the sight; he could see that this wasn't progressing. She was using her abilities with immense skill. Walking up to the show she had created, Aizawa shouted her down.

"You have great control over your powers, Estelle. It seems that my training for you isn't enough. Come with me; we'll find something for you to improve."

Estelle nodded and followed Aizawa into the woods. The students eyed the pair whilst they walked away, all wondering where they were headed. Aizawa turned around towards the young teen and spoke up once again when they reached a separate clearing.

"You know your quirk more than I do. What do you think could be improved?"

Estelle glanced at her hands in consideration for a few moments, examining her weaknesses. Estelle wasn't sure if she should talk about her metal bending as she hadn't been able to work on sub-elements further since she came here. The situation in I-Island confirmed that there was still plenty of work to do. Estelle hadn't spoken to All Might about it either, but he seemed happy to ignore the hidden ability.

"I can work on technique rather than quirk capacity. You can never have too many moves. I also want to ask you a question, Aizawa."

"Shoot", Her teacher returned, pointedly ignoring the fact she just called him by his last name without his title. He then realised that she had never referred to him as Mr Aizawa at all.

"Where does metal come from?"

Aizawa elevated his eyebrows and looked at her strangely. A few moments later, a light bulb slowly lit up over his head when he answered, "The earth. You think there may be a possibility of controlling metal?"

"Of course, I have tried it before, but I never got far. I placed it on the back burner and focused on the basic elements. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try again."

"Very smart. You seem to know what you need to do. I will give you metal to work with later; work on your techniques for now. I will leave you to it. Come to me if you need any support."

"Okay, thank you."

Aizawa trudged off whilst Estelle gazed off to the distance and through the trees. She froze when she saw an engraving carved into the wood. Allowing herself to satisfy her curiosity, she approached the bark, and her fingers twitched.

It's the same usual marking Estelle had repeatedly seen throughout her time here. She noted that the sand at the bottom was now much bigger than the top; time was running out. She could only question herself what the blast would be when it finished and how far the radius was. She hoped that it wasn't big enough to affect the others, but she had a feeling in her gut that whatever it was

It wasn't going to be good.

Removing the carving so that others would not find it, Estelle decided it was time to focus on her training. Rather than blasting out her powers at full force, she wanted to try to make her abilities seem invisible.

Estelle chose fire first. She had the idea of making her fire minuscule in hopes that it would be hard to see by aiding the fire when thrown with condensed air. She was hoping to create an invisible fire bullet.

She worked on the idea for a few hours. Estelle had sweat dripping down her face as she attempted to control the fire to the extreme in the possibility of making the flame tiny. She grinned in a reprieve when it was successful. Aiming for the trees, Estelle threw the little fire and surrounded it with condensed air to shield the visibility. She scowled when she realised the air grew the fire to standard size.

She forgot about the fact air makes fire flare up from the increase of oxygen. Estelle had then returned to the drawing board to find another way. When she finally came up with a solution, Kota interrupted her, who had brought her a drink. Giving him a small smile which he reciprocated, Estelle took the glass and plopped down onto the grass to provide herself with a break. Kota took the opportunity to rest with her.

"What's wrong, Ko?" Estelle challenged, noting the glower on his face.

"A nickname?"

"Of course. Tell me, what's making you frown like that?"

"I just. I feel frustrated with the hero classes. They don't seem to understand why they shouldn't be heroes. It makes me sick seeing them train to get stronger."

"I know it's frustrating. Having your own views that clash with everyone around you is bound to be hard. To them, a hero is everything they want to be."

"You get it."

"I do."

Kota leaned his head against Estelle's shoulder while he observed the trees. They sat in comfortable silence until the rhythmic movement of the female's breathing quickly lulled him to sleep. Estelle gazed down at the child softly; her heart ached at the view. She always had a soft spot for kids; it was evident through her track record. Their innocence and naivety always struck her profoundly and brought more chaos into her life, but Estelle never turned them away. She wondered if that was why she found it difficult with the class sometimes. They were childlike and naive in their own way.

As the time ticked away, Estelle raised her hand and stroked the little boy's hair. Estelle felt a brief glimpse of peace at that moment. They remained like that for a while.

When the sky began to darken, Estelle decided it was time to go for dinner. She was dismayed slightly that the moment had to be broken. She shook the boy lightly to wake him up, but her attempt failed. Kota's only response was to moan and snuggle into the warmth by his side. Estelle shook her head with a sigh, her heart-warming for the child nestling up against her.

"It's time to get up for dinner, Ko. Wake up."

The child groaned and looked up with half-lidded eyes. His tiny arms moved upwards to ask to be picked up silently. Estelle didn't find it in her heart to say no. Standing up, Estelle lifted Kota up to her front. He clung to her like a koala. His head was against her chest, his arms around her neck and his legs wrapped around her torso.

Estelle made her way to the hall, humming quietly in the dark whilst she patted Kota's back to the rhythm. She could feel his soft snores on her neck, and she smiled to herself. He fell asleep again.

Walking into the hall, Estelle faced the two classes crowded together, waiting to be spoken to by the heroes. Their eyes all swivelled to Estelle in wonderment as she ignored them and continued her calming ministrations. They stayed quiet since they could see the boy was asleep and watched Estelle walk past them towards teachers.

Class 1A couldn't believe their eyes. The child who Estelle had only met yesterday was being treated better than they did. They wondered if she just had a soft spot for children since she held him like a protective mother. The class frowned to themselves. She had known them for an entire semester, and they all hadn't gotten very far with Estelle. They were starting to feel defeated.

'Maybe it is best if we just let her be?'

The two females Mandalay and Pixie-bob, dropped their jaws at the sight of the duo walking towards them. "He never lets me pick him up", Pixie-bob whispered with a slump.

Estelle shook her head. "He was just exhausted. He wouldn't have asked if he wasn't."

Pixie-bob relaxed slightly at that and nodded in agreement. The teachers and the class watched as Estelle shook Kota briefly to wake him up. "Come on, Ko. We're here. You need to eat before bedtime."

Kota groaned and attempted to snuggle into Estelle's neck further, which wasn't physically possible. Estelle chuckled softly, petted his head and muttered soft words that the others could not hear.

"I'll give you my dessert if you get up."

Kota perked up at that, rubbing his sleepy eyes and shuffling off the girl with speed. He grabbed Estelle's hand as he tried to come back to the land of the living.

Pixie-bob and Ragdoll then moved to stand in front of the two classes and shouted, "Now. Remember what I said? We're not serving your food anymore!"

"If you guys wanna eat, you'll have to make your own meals! Starting with curry!" Ragdoll carried on.

"Yes, ma'am." The students groaned.

"Haha! You guys sure do look exhausted! But that doesn't mean you can coast by making sloppy cat food."

Estelle sighed to herself when Iida shouted, "Let's make the most delicious curry in the world, everyone!"

Estelle observed Shoto and Bakugo light the cookers. She tried to hold in her amusement when Bakugo blew his up. Turning to her sharply, he scoffed, "Shut it, Lioness!"

"Don't need to blow up about it, Ruby", Estelle rebutted, causing those around to giggle at the pun.

"I didn't know you had jokes, Estelle!" Ochako commented, amazed.

"Estelle's humour consists of telling puns. At least - that's what I gathered so far," Shoto piped up whilst he lit up another cooker.

Bakugo sneered at the two-toned male. "How would you know, IcyHot?!"

"Because I spent my time at the internship with her", Shoto retorted calmly.

"Tch. Whatever."

Estelle ignored the two in favour of looking for Kota in the sea of people. She shrugged it off when she wasn't successful and grabbed a bowl to eat. Sitting down with her class, she half-heartedly listened to her classmates talking while eyeing the space for a red hat.

"That means, the more I eat, the more I make", Yaoyorozu finished explaining.

"Like poop", Sero remarked, only to be punched across the face by Jiro.

Shaking her head at the duo, her attention was caught by the boy she was previously looking for. Grabbing her dessert, a tub of chocolate mousse. Estelle walked into the trees behind him.

She reached Kota by a cliff and made her way to join him. He jumped back to face the intruder but relaxed at the sight of Estelle.

"You shouldn't be here. It's my secret hideout."

"Oh, sorry, Ko. I just wanted to give you the desert I owe you. I can go?"

"No! Stay, it's okay."

"I'm glad. This is a sweet secret hideout, you know. It's better than mine."

"You have one?"

"Of course, but it's a secret."

"I showed you mine, though!"

Estelle laughed and nodded. "You sure did. How about...The next time you're in the city. I'll show you?"

"Okay!"

Kota's stomach growled, interrupting the moment. Estelle raised a brow and suspected, "You didn't eat?"

Before Kota could reply, Midoriya spoke up from the trees. He strolled onward with a bowl of curry in his hands.

"I heard that. You must be hungry. Here, have some curry."

Kota turned abruptly and stood up while he shrieked out, "No way! How'd you find this place?"

"Oh! Sorry, I followed your footsteps. I thought you might want some dinner before it gets cold."

"Whatever, I'm just fine. Get lost! I don't want to hang out with you. So, forget about my secret hideout."

"Huh? This is a secret hideout?" Midoriya examined in revelation.

"Hmpt, spending your entire life trying to improve your quirk. It's dumb! All you want to do is show off. Get lost!"

Estelle remained soundless and stayed by the edge of the cliff. She figured it wasn't her place to interfere. She grimaced in displeasure from Midoriya's following words.

"Hey, about your parents. I was wondering. Were they the water hose heroes? With the water quirks?"

'Oh, Midoriya, you and your mouth.'

Kota gasped with wide eyes before lashing out, "Did Mandalay tell you!?"

"No! It's uh. Sorry. I heard a little about what happened to them, and based on that information. I figured...I remember reading about that horrible incident a few years ago."

Kota understandably turned his head away, his hat covering his face and his building resentment. "Go away. Everyone here is so crazy. Calling people stupid names like hero or villain and then killing each other because of it, always focusing on their quirks. If they hadn't been showing off, then they'd still be here. Idiots."

Estelle observed Midoriya look down in sadness from Kota's words.

"We're done here! Go back to camp with those other losers," Kota finished. Midoriya didn't seem to get the memo since he spoke up again.

'Gosh, he's determined.'

"Um, hey. My friend. This guy I know really well. He didn't inherit any abilities from his parents; It was uncommon. He admired heroes so much and wanted to be one, but you can't be a hero unless you have a quirk. But still, my friend refused to accept that and hoped for a miracle. He tried to use telekinesis and to breathe fire, but it was no good. If you reject quirks completely, it will just make life harder. In so many ways."

"Will you just leave me alone already!? Go away." Kota bellowed out, hiding the growing tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I guess I have a habit of rambling. Here, I'll leave the curry."

Midoriya left quickly after that. Estelle gazed out to the stars with a frown, aware that he was talking about himself. They were similar but also very different. Estelle desperately craved she never had her abilities since they were the cause of so much misery.

"Shut up. All of you. Just stop it," Kota muttered to himself in the darkness. Estelle turned back to face the boy, her heart heavy from the memories she had just witnessed.

"Kota..."

"Hmpt. What?"

"I'll be there for you whenever you need me. However long I'm here."

Kota's breath stopped.

Looking at the girl with wide eyes, he rushed forward and placed his small arms on her shoulders. "What do you mean 'However long I'm here?" He asked in a panic.

Taken aback from his reaction, Estelle inwardly scolded herself. She meant however long she was in this world, but she had inadvertently referenced death. Shaking her head and explaining further, she said, "I'm not dying, kiddo. I'll be here for a long time. Don't worry."

With that, Kota enveloped Estelle into a tight hug before dropping onto his knees. He sniffled into her thighs silently, and Estelle felt the wetness of his tears through her jeans. She stroked his hair calmly, allowing him the space to let it all out. She assumed the conversation with Midoriya brought all the feelings he was buried within himself.

Estelle felt deja vu when the time had passed. Kota's tears had dried up because he had exhausted himself. Picking him up once again, Estelle carried him through the training grounds and into the building. A few students noticed the repeated event of Estelle humming and stroking the boy's hair as she trekked to his room.

'She really is like a mama bear.'

Estelle placed him into the bed, tucked him in and stepped out the door. Gazing at the bracelet on her wrist, Estelle felt the pain all over again.

He reminded her of Kiko.