Sorry it's been a while. Been a busy school year, so that's pretty well dominated my time. This is a much lighter chapter than the last one, so hopefully you'll enjoy it! I'll be going back into deeper and darker parts of the world next chapter, so enjoy! Please read and review!

Midoriya sat in homeroom, thinking about what happened in the USJ as he stared at his recently healed finger.

'Even though I managed to contain some of the damage to my fingers in the Flood Zone, I was basically useless when I tried to help All Might afterwards,' Midoriya said. 'I have to get stronger. Even if it means that I have to go back to him for training.' Midoriya gave a full-body shudder. The door slid open suddenly, startling Midoriya out of his thoughts. A bandaged Aizawa stood in the doorway.

"Good morning."

The class freaked out, shouting that the teacher was being too hardcore. Just before Aizawa stepped into the room, a hand dropped down on his shoulder.

"Aizawa-san, you were supposed to go to Recovery Girl's office, not the classroom," Gohan said from behind the older man. Aizawa scoffed.

"I can teach homeroom fine. The old lady is just worrying over nothing."

"Yeah, no," Gohan said. He gently poked Aizawa in the ribs. Aizawa dropped to the ground in pain, groaning. "That's what I thought. Class President, look after the class for a couple minutes while I take Aizawa-san back to Recovery Girl. I'll be back in a little bit."

"Of course!" Iida said as he leaped to his feet. "Class, remain seated and quiet until Son-sensei returns!"

"Iida-san, you're the only one standing or making noise," Yayorozu pointed out. Iida hung his head at the admonishment and quickly sat down. Gohan chuckled as he helped Aizawa up and steered him out of the room.

A few moments later, Gohan opened the door of Class 1A again to see them chatting quietly with each other. "Good morning, everyone. Aizawa-sensei is fine, but he wanted me to give you a reminder that your battles are far from over."

Everyone in the class froze. Some subtly began to shift into a ready position, preparing for whatever might come next.

"Something called the UA Sports Festival is coming up?" Gohan said with a questioning tone. "I've read about it, but I don't really know why it's important. Can someone explain?"

Midoriya perked up at the question. "The UA Sports Festival is the premiere sports competition in Japan! All of the UA students compete in a series of events on national TV to showcase their skills!"

"For Hero students, it is exceptionally important," Iida said. "Many of the nation's top heroes will be there as scouts, looking for new talent to nurture and help!"

"A ton of Hero agencies look for UA students to hire as sidekicks once we graduate," Kaminari said with excited waves of his arms, "so the Festival gives you the chance to impress them! You can get a lot of opportunities through it!"

"And a lot of sidekicks never make it solo, so they're stuck there," Jiro said, jabbing Kaminari with her earjacks as his excited flailing came a little too close to hitting her.

Gohan grinned at them. "Sounds like some of the martial arts tournaments that my father and my mentor competed in when I was a kid. Alright, then, I can be found on the grounds every morning for unarmed training in addition to your normal training if you would like. If you would like any advice, please ask one of the teachers here and they will be happy to help." The tall Saiyan looked over at the closed door. "It seems like Present Mic is here for your English lesson."

Midoriya trembled for a moment until he remembered his resolve from before. He straightened in his seat and raised his hand. Gohan stepped over to him as Present Mic opened the door.

"Gohan-sensei, can I get some extra training with my Quirk? I need to master One… uh, Superpower so it doesn't hurt me! You said you can help with Emitter quirks, right!"

Gohan looked at the desperation in Midoriya's eyes and nodded. He turned to Present Mic. "Can I take Midoriya for some training? As well as Yayorozu, Kaminari, and Hagakure?"

"Sure, Listener! Little Listeners, Gohan-kun will take care of you! He's also going to make sure that you catch up on anything that you miss while you're gone!" Present Mic gave Gohan a mock-serious look. "Poor Shouta keeps grumbling that you don't have enough to do yet, so I'm doing my part!"

Gohan laughed as he ushered the four students out of the room. "As long as he stays in Recovery Girl's office, he can grumble all he wants. If I don't have them back by the end of the period, let Cementoss know where we are."

Gohan led the four students to a nearby gym after they all changed into their gym uniforms. Hagakure was the first to break.

"Ne, ne, Gohan-sensei? Why did you pick the four of us? Midoriya was the only one who asked and none of our Quirks are even sort of related!"

Gohan smiled at the invisible girl. "True, your Quirks aren't necessarily related, but all of you have a certain characteristic that I'd like to address early. Before I say anything, though, we're waiting on a few others from 1B." As Gohan finished speaking, four students in the blue UA uniforms walked onto the field. "Ah, there they are."

"Gohan-sensei, for what reason have we four been summoned?" Yanagi Reiko asked as she approached the waiting 1A students. Kuroiro Shihai, Kinoko Komori, and Yui Kodai walked beside her. "We are happy to comply, however the nature of this summons is unexpected and unusual."

"That does seem to be the question of the morning, doesn't it?" Gohan said with a slight smile. "Well, I asked the eight of you out here because you have a new challenge on the horizon and I'd like to make sure you're all ready. Can anyone guess why I've asked you eight specifically to come out for extra training?"

The students looked around, confused. After a few moments, a light bulb seemed to go off over Yayorozu's head. "None of us have prior martial combat training! Hagakure-san focuses on her stealth while myself and Kaminari-san completely focus on our Quirks in combat. Midoriya-san's Quirk has an intense backlash that keeps him from using his power effectively. I would assume that our comrades from 1B are similar in that they focus on their Quirks instead of their bodies." The young woman looked back at Gohan in expectation. "Am I correct?"

Gohan nodded. "In essence, yes. Most of your peers have some kind of martial training or a Quirk that directly impacts their personal combat potential. Most of you have long-range Quirks that are effectively useless if your opponent is closer than three meters away or use your Quirks in a way that keeps your opponents at a distance. That's a valid strategy, but you need to have something in case your opponent can close the distance. Therefore, we're going to be doing some physical training until this Sports Festival thing that I keep hearing about!"

Midoriya paled even as a hopeful look came to his face. "Are we going to learn your personal martial arts style?!"

"Unfortunately, my personal style isn't quite ready to be taught," Gohan said. "Also, you'll be getting general combat training in my regular class. What you're going to be doing here is physical conditioning and special training." Gohan reached into his pocket, pulling out a capsule. He clicked the cap and tossed it on the ground, the contents appearing in a puff of white smoke. A small pile of cloth bands and eight large turtle shells appeared on the ground before the Saiyan. "Each of you, take one of these shells and put it on your backs. Take two wristbands and two ankle bands as well."

The students looked between each other, confused. Midoriya was the only one who stepped forward to take his equipment. Slowly, the others stepped forward to take their own equipment. They strapped on the bands and hitched the turtle shells on their backs with grunts. After everyone finished putting on the equipment, they stood in a line in front of Gohan.

"Gohan-sensei," Yayorozu said. "What are these supposed to be?"

"Those are the training equipment that you eight will be using the most. Hold on a second." Gohan pulled a slim tablet out of his pocket, fiddling with it for a second. A single beep echoed across the field before all of the students but Midoriya were driven to the ground by the bands. "Crapbaskets! Sorry, sorry, I have the setting too high. Give me a second to adjust the algorithm." The Saiyan continued to fiddle with the controller for a moment. After a couple moments, the students could get off the ground again, though they still felt like they were swimming through concrete.

"Gohan-sensei," Yanagi gasped out. "What foul spell have you cast to cause this?"

"What she said," Hagakure said, her breath coming out in short pants. "What the hell, sensei?"

"Sorry, that wasn't supposed to happen," Gohan said as he rubbed the back of his head. "These are gravity manipulation bands that I designed for training. They slightly increase gravity in localized areas to add resistance, like training with weights but a little less damaging to bones. The shells are just regular weights with a gravity manipulation . I had the bands calibrated to Midoriya when I tested the gear about two months."

A breeze swept across the field, its' gentle whisper making the only noise on the training field. Each of the students turned to look at Midoriya with a flat expression.

"Midoriya-san, no offense, but what the hell are you," Kaminari asked before he flopped to the ground. "I couldn't move an inch with whatever the hell that was pressing down on me!"

"Indeed, that is impressive," Yayorozu said, an appraising look on her face as she stared at Midoriya while Yui and Reiko nodded behind her. "You have done this sort of training before?"

"Yeah," Midoriya said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Gohan-sensei worked with my trainer before UA and helped with my physical conditioning. He taught me how to do the basics like punching and stuff, too."

"Gohan-sensei, how much weight are we currently carrying?" Yayorozu asked. She didn't seem to struggle to stay standing like Hagakure and Reiko but sweat was starting to bead on her forehead.

"The bands are the equivalent of between five and ten pounds, depending on your body type and weight. The shell is around twelve percent of your body weight. Your first task is to run five laps around the training grounds."

All eight students groaned as they began sluggishly jogging around the edge of the field. Gohan grinned as he put them to work. 'This must be how Mr. Piccolo felt when he was training me. I like it.'

Iida, Asui, and Uraraka sat in the lunchroom, keeping one eye on the door as they waited for Midoriya to come back into the building. He and the other students that left with Gohan-sensei were still missing. All three students dropped their jaws as Midoriya, Kaminari, Yayorozu, and Hagakure stumbled in, closely followed by four Class B students.

"Ribbit, Midoriya-chan, what happened," Asui asked as the group dragged themselves into the lunchroom. "You look like you got into a fight with the ground and lost."

"That's how I feel right now," Midoriya groaned. "Gohan-sensei is a taskmaster."

The other students groaned with him, their bellies growling with hunger. Lunch Rush came up to the group bearing a loaded tray of food. "Young Gohan-san sent a message earlier that you would need some food when you finally arrived. How was your training, kids?"

The students groaned as they relieved Lunch Rush of his burden. They sat at the nearest available table to devour the food. Their friends crowded around the table, throwing dozens of questions at the exhausted students.

"What did Gohan-sensei do to you?"

"What kind of training did you do?"

"Did Gohan-sensei tell you why he picked your group?"

Finally, the most important question was posed by Kendo, who had rushed over in concern for her classmates. "Why do all of you have a giant turtle shell on your backs?"

Having shoved the last piece of katsudon in his mouth, Midoriya leaned back with a sigh. "Gohan-sensei is helping train us because all of us either have very little combat training or don't have a direct combat application to our Quirks. We did a bunch of things today, mostly body weight exercises and basic kata."

"BUT WE HAD TO DO THEM WITH THESE GRAVITY WEIGHTS ON US!" Hagakure cried, dramatically face planting on the table.

"They really do help, Hagakure," Midoriya said with a commiserating grin. "Gohan-sensei made me use them before and they helped build up my strength a lot faster." The others at the table groaned. Kendo stepped up to Midoriya.

"So you've already done training with Gohan-sensei?" Sparkles appeared in her eyes. "How did you get that chance?! He's one of the best martial artists that I've ever seen! And my dad trains top tournament contenders every year!"

A deep voice came from behind Kendo. "His trainer and I became friends a little while back. He asked me to help get Midoriya up to scruff for his Quirk. Unfortunately, I only had a limited amount of time to work with him." Kendo jumped and whipped around, her hand expanding in a reflexive chop. Gohan chuckled at her as he leaned back to allow her strike to pass. "If you want to practice your own martial art, I am on campus at six every morning for meditation practice."

Kendo blushed at her failed attack. "I would be honored. I have to ask, why haven't you participated in any of the tournaments? You would easily sweep the competition in every tournament I've ever seen."

Gohan's grin turned slightly sad. "Honestly, it wouldn't be a lot of fun for me. Yes, I could sweep the competition, but there would be no challenge to make it interesting for me or fair to the competition. It would be like asking a chess grand master to play in a park tournament."

Kendo nodded slowly, though the curious expression stayed. "But why not compete when you were younger? No one gets that good without a lot of experience."

"Experience comes from more than just tournaments, Kendo-san." Kendo noticed that Gohan's face tightened as he spoke. A flash of something moved faster than the younger martial artist could see, but it was something dark. "Now, these young heroes need to eat their fill. They have another training session in an hour and should probably leave time to digest their food." His students groaned around the food in their mouths.

Over the course of the next two weeks, Gohan continued to train his eight new students in the afternoon, taking over their Heroics Practical time to focus on physical training. A week into this training, Gohan introduced a new skill into the mix.

"Gohan-sensei, why did you increase our resistances today?" Hagakure panted as she jogged past him. "I feel like I'm going to die!" Yanagi and Kuroiro voiced their own complaints as they continued their own laps.

"Because you got used to the last setting," Gohan called to the three. "You were moving like the weights weren't there when we trained yesterday. You're all getting stronger." The Saiyan flickered away from his spot, appearing in front of Kinoko as she ran. He threw a telegraphed punch at her. "DODGE!"

"Wha…?" Kinoko flinched and raised her arms to block the blow. She was knocked on her back by the blow. "Gohan-sensei! What was that?!"

Gohan leaned down, a hand extended to help her up. "That would have been a deathblow from a villain. It's time to learn one of the most valuable skills I can ever teach you: dodging." After he helped Yayorozu up, Gohan flickered away again. He appeared in front of Midoriya this time, swinging a leg at the teenager's face. "DODGE!"

Midoriya yelped as he tucked and rolled under the swung leg, pushing himself to run faster away from Gohan. "HA! Finally got it," Midoriya yelled over his shoulder with a half-proud and half-panicked look on his face. Gohan appeared in his face again.

"Good job. Level 2 starts now."

"…What?" Fear reflected in Midoriya's green eyes as a bead of light gathered in Gohan's hand.

"Now I know why Mr. Piccolo enjoyed training me," Gohan said with a grin as Midoriya tumbled backwards from the ki blast. "Keep running, everyone, and keep an eye on your surroundings. Never know when you need to DODGE!" All of his students instinctively ducked and rolled as he shouted, much to Gohan's joy. "I should have taken up teaching sooner."

All the joy that Gohan felt couldn't quite overtake the darkness he felt coming. Something was going to happen soon. He just couldn't quite figure out what it was. Hopefully, it will reveal itself soon. Until then, Gohan would enjoy the small things in his life.