Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine
Staring at the Gate, still dialed into Avatar, I… didn't want to do this.
~Time is stopped,~
some poisonous, weak, yet very tempting part of me observed, ~you can just do it tomorrow.~
Which… yes, but, but I'd said I was going to, and, even then I could see myself backing up from it, the uniform I wore fine to wear again tomorrow, able to take another swing at it then, but…
But Mina stood there, expectantly, giving me the time I needed, and I was sure she'd understand if I begged off, but…
But I didn't want to disappoint her.
So, opening the app, and, gritting my teeth, I plugged in the new coordinates, the Gate's many arrays and circles rotating, symbol after symbol were locked in, until, with a whoooosh, the prismatic energy surged out, falling back and settling into stability.
And now we were on the clock.
Moving to it, Mina stepped up next to me, taking my hand and interlacing her fingers in mine, commenting, "We could skip lunch. We did have a pretty late breakfast."
"Only because you took forever getting rea….dy," I replied, the pink skinned girl smiling impishly up at me. "You little stinker," I couldn't help but laugh.
"Guilty as charged!" she sing-songed, "But I wanted you to know you would've been good going anyways!"
"Which you couldn't if you'd suggested it earlier," I realized, getting a grin from her. It was… manipulative, but, while my first instinct would've been to assume such a thing would've come from a place of selfishness, if not malice, from my own experiences, there were a number of times that Denki's parents had done similar things to help him as well, many times making things more complicated for themselves in order to do so, instead of throwing a few minutes worth of words at me instead of having to actually get up.
"Yeppers!" my lover grinned. "Also," holding up her backpack, "I made us a snack, so let's just head back to the classroom, 'kay?"
Sighing, and squeezing her hand, I nodded. "That sounds… lovely."
Together, we stepped through the Gate, and, yes, there was the flareof my defenses, but, as I stood there for a moment and tried to deal with it, the sensation quickly faded, making me realize that I'd been hyper-aware of my Defenses, and after a few moments there was just the slightest pressure on them, like a sound at the edge of hearing, and which I was sure could ignore, filter out, but one I'd never truly ignore.
Was, was it like this before? I wondered, having gotten my last set protections on the night of the USJ attack and then going to sleep, had I gone blind to it that fast? Or, after what happened with All-for-One, was this my awareness of his Friends?
Regardless, while enough to put me on edge, it wasn't something I could do anything about while I was here, so… sure.
Heading back to our classroom, we took our seats in the emptied space, and, regretfully, I let go of Mina's hand, as we put our bags down, and she took out the bento boxes that she definitely hadn't packed when we'd arrived this morning, the small containers giving us cover for when the others came back.
Spearing a bit of hot-dog she'd cut to turn into an octopus shape, sporting little black sesame seed eyes, with an electric finger, I had to smile at it before popping it in my mouth. Swallowing, I asked quietly, "Can you feel it too? The Quirks?"
The confused look my lover sent me was answer enough, though she looked off to the side, frowning, finally asking, "Is that what that is? I thought it was, like, the AC or something." Glancing around, she added, "But, like, there's no-one here."
"Ragdoll's Quirk didn't need to maintain line-of-sight to stay active, and Mandalay's was just 'To whom it may concern'," I pointed out, wanting to ask if the initial wave had felt as overwhelming, but… no, this was on me, and I could handle it. "Hell, they might not be targeting us specifically, we're just 'in range', but anything that affects our minds, bodies, or souls, our protections are very politely telling whatever is pinging us to get fucked."
Grabbing another hot-dog squid, I added, "But for better and worse, we know when that happens. Though, shutting it out completely as we are, that's all we get."
"Like when you couldn't tell what Mandalay was sayin', only that something was goin' on," Mina nodded understandingly. "No wonder ya were so jumpy, Sparky."
"I'd gotten used to random blips, but nothing this… constant," I noted, before shrugging. "But, I'll deal. I have to. That or leave forever," I tossed out, joking, but, from the way my partner patted my hand, yeah, she could tell there was some truth buried there.
Regardless, we spent lunch just hanging out, nothing happening, Mina having fiddled with her phone a bit while I called a bit of flame to myself and worked on it, to better practice my Firebending. The bell rang, and the rest of the class filing back in, many of them giving me concerned looks, only when everyone had come back, sans Aizawa, did Bakugo say something, with his… usual tact, demanding, "Hey, Pikachu? What was that cut and run shit at lunch?"
And all conversation instantly died.
"I can feel when Quirks are used on me," I stated, voice carrying across the room. "And walking into lunch… it felt like Camp. The end of Camp."
The explosive teen considered that, nodded, and questioned, "You gonna puss out like that every time?"
"Oi, Bakugo!" Kirishima, sitting in front of his friend, rebuked, "Too much, dude."
But the other boy just stared at me.
"Given my first instinct was to end the threat, yes," I agreed, several of the students around me pulling back slightly. "But I'm working on it."
"We're working on it!" Mina corrected, reaching forward to rustle my hair, which, rolling my eyes, I let her do.
That got a serious nod out of the explosive teen, any further questioning prevented as Eraserhead entered, taking his spot behind his podium.
"Kaminari, you good?" he questioned, and I wondered just how many people had seen me bolt.
"It's under control, sir," I informed him. "Though I'll be eating here for a bit."
"I'll inform Lunch Rush," he nodded, turning to the others. "Alright Class, you spent this morning working on an 'Ultimate Move', but this evening we'll be going in a different direction."
"What kind of direction would that be?" Midoriya questioned.
With an evil smile, the instructor stated.
"The one where we run you into the ground."
MHA
It was interesting to see how everyone took that afternoon's training.
We were all pushed to our absolute limits, Recovery Girl not just on standby, but actively monitoring us, and while no one vomited up their lunch, it was a close thing for some of the members of the new Class 1-A.
Unsurprisingly, Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Tetsutetsu all threw themselves into it with long-practiced ease, having physically found their limits before, and not just what they felt like their limits were.
More unexpectedly, Ida, Honenuki, Kendo, and Bradley were also in that category, able to push themselves that far without hesitation, having done this kind of extreme training, possibly having pushed themselves over the edge without the kind of spotter that we now had, and having learned how to do this the hard way.
As opposed to Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, who I knew had.
The rest of the class… had difficulties.
They all did it, with varying levels of bitching, though by the time the last bell rang, they were barely able to move, Recovery Girl slowly making her way around the room, offering her healing smooches to the foreheads of those who couldn't stand on their own. Her smooches would be enervating, tiring them out even further, but that was a different kind of tired than the 'so full of fatigue toxins and broken down you literally can't stand' variety they were suffering now.
And, as it was true healing, and not a reversal, they'd still see gains from it!
Mina and I, meanwhile, had done quite well, right along with those who'd known what they were doing, the horned girl tired, and soaked with sweat, but I'd, at her request, put her through her paces myself, which meant her maximum was high enough that she still had some gas in the tank, and my High-Speed Regeneration quirk that, even having donned the weights that I'd helped Mei design for our final exams and pushing myself to destruction, only to, five minutes later, be good to kip up and do it all over again.
I was slowly getting tired, but able to subsume my focus into pure exercise, I was honestly less weary than normal, working my limbs as the burning ache slowly abated, my healing at work, micro-tears far easier to recover from than, say, losing a limb Or getting impaled by a stone spike, that'd been… fun.
Though, as my High-Speed Regenerationchugged away, healing microtears and fractures that the exercise created, not for the first time, the question of my Psychic Talent's mechanics rose to the back of my mind.
Like so many things, I felt like I knew what was going on, but it was just out of reach, not quite on the tip of my tongue, but like a subject that one crammed to pass a test, then, afterwards, forgot, but the mention of a key term brought up, not true understanding, but that faint glimmer of almost-knowledge, long since lost.
Because, all of my other powers followed the listed parameters, that being Strength and Skill of the users, except one. My Regen.
All Might had both, obviously, and seeing him let loose let me kick it off, though, considering he and Midoriya had the same power, I wasn't sure if it was additive or if I'd eventually gain a second copy.
As for the others, two of the Pussycat's powers were decently strong, but they were very skilled, while Tiger's skill was clearly more martial than powers-based, and Ragdoll, either wasn't that skilled with her ability, or, more likely, despite my distaste for the woman, my blocking of her Quirk stymied my ability to 'observe' it.
As for my classmates, Hagakure wasn't skilled at all, and neither was she powerful, but merely being around her seemed to count as 'encountering' her power, Mina was more skilled, and I picked it up with less time, Momo even further up that scale, then Todoroki, and, arguably Dad capped it out, letting me pick up his quirk after only a few weeks of training.
But then there was Nomu's.
Unless I was missing something, it was passive, requiring no skill, and while it was powerful, able to let it regrow half its body in seconds, its brain in less than a minute, which despite being a lesser amount of mass just seemed obvious to me in a way I couldn't put my finger on. Greater complexity? Was, as a psychic power, the brain the seat of a Quirk's power? Regardless, the fact that I had picked it up from a single confrontation seemed… odd.
Because, ignoring Heteromorphs, whose powers seemed… different, why had I not copied, for instance, Eraserhead's power? The man used it whenever he wanted us to calm down, the entire 'red glowing eyes, floating hair' thing was kind of a giveaway, even if I didn't feel it slam into my Defenseslike a tidal wave breaking on a sea wall. So… why couldn't I do the same?
Having asked the man about his power between sets, seemingly innocuously, his flat look told him exactly what I was doing, but he still answered. When he was younger, he could use it much the same as he could now, it just put a lot of strain on his eyes, excessive use leading to splitting headaches, light sensitivity, and the like. He'd trained it, of course, though only in approved settings, at least publicly, and, in doing so got enough of a handle on it, that the strain was negligible, and nowadays his main problem was his eyes drying out because he didn't blink, able to otherwise keep his quirk going for hours at a time without issue.
Which led me to my conclusion about another factor in the copying process: sub-divisibility. Or, to put it differently, the Least Viable Expression from a given power.
All of the ones I'd copied had a, relatively, low threshold of expression, Mina's especially so, as it'd started with making a pea-sized bit of vinegar-strength goo.
But Eraserhead's was binary, in that he either completely shut someone down, or he didn't. That meant, eye-strain aside, once I got it, I'd get it, which, even if it was only Quirk-specific, and even if AfO had some bullshit that protected him from it, I very much doubted the rest of his cronies would be the same.
That said, I only saw his power in tiny bursts, and, floating the idea of having more people able to use his Quirk, like Monoma, Aizawa shrugged, and stated, "If it happens, it happens."
Which was a pretty clear message on its own.
Looking at the others, I wasn't sure if I'd get a power from our teachers, who didn't use their Quirks that much, or from my classmates. I wasn't sure who I'd get my next one from, though, going with the three factors of Strength, Skill, and LVE, multiplied by time of exposure…
Bakugo.
Though I'd be getting firecrackers.
… wonder if I could apply Firebending to them?
Regardless, that was tomorrow Denki's concern. Taking off the weights, and dropping them in their case, I sighed, jogging over to the exhausted students and, offering them a hand, helped haul them to their feet, Pony not bothering, just floating on her own horns.
"Alright everyone!That was aSuper-Workout!" All Might grinned."I'm proud of you all, now go, rest up, and we'lldo it all tomorrow!"
A chorus of groans answered him, Momo lifting a hand, asking, "Um, Professor? In my studies, it was suggested that a person has at least a full day to recover after strenuous exercise."
Nodding firmly, the currently enormous man replied, "And you'd be right, normally! However, with the assistance of Recovery Girl, that is not the case! That said, I expect you all will want to get at least ten hours of sleep tonight, and that is your homework! Now, Heroes, to the showers!"
Doing so, I couldn't help but notice the scars on the other guys, trying to wash the sweat that had soaked them all completely, from Ida's burns, to Shoda's bullet-marks, while some of them had avoided injury, a lot of them hadn't.
Well, they're still here,
I thought, a number of my classmates having not come back, which showed a certain willingness to go the distance in those that did, something they'd proven today, not-half-assing their training in the slightest.
"Hey, Sparkplug!" Bakugo called, catching my attention as I slipped on my uniform, the Campus Bots having cleaned them all while we'd been working out.
"Yes, Bakugo?" I replied, putting my gauntlets back on, the Support Items in their retracted configuration, some of the others glancing my way.
"What's next?" he demanded, causing me to turn, and lift an eyebrow. "We're training, but that ain't gonna be enough."
"Enough for what?" Shoda questioned, the other ex-1-B boys looking confused.
Glancing dismissively their way, the explosive student told them, "Anti-All-Might is down, but his cronies ain't. And he's got a lot of 'em."
"Ah, we do what we're doing," I told him, them all, really. I hadn't really thought of them in those terms, but, well, I was sticking around now, which meant I needed to start planning my moves beyond 'Travel Multiverse, Get Powers, Come Back, Kill the Fuck out of All-For-One'. "Moving into the Dorms gives us a safe location to rest, while removing our families from the line of fire, and getting our provisional licenses means when, not if, we need to defend ourselves with our Quirks we don't get corrupt cops, or Friends, going after you all, if they decide I'm not target enough."
Looking between us, I couldn't really tell Honenuki's expression, given the boy lacked lips, despite being able to pronounce things just fine, as he asked, "Wait, what?"
"Quirk Satan hates Heroes in general, but Midoriya and I in particular," I told him, the green-haired boy grimacing, and nodding. "Him because he's the next coming of All Might, AfO's enemy, and me because I'm a permanent power copier, like he is, even if we have entirely different mechanisms, as he steals while I… imprint," I explained quickly. "Shit's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better," because this is a Shonen Universe, "and the End of Camp was just a taste of what's to come, so we need to get better. Fast."
"And the teachers believe the same thing," Todoroki added, the taciturn boy explaining, "This kind of training, it's, it's the sort of thing my father had me do as a child, only not heartless."
With a noise somewhere between a scoff and a laugh, but somehow carrying a bit of commiserating understanding, Bakugo replied, "No wonder you're such a beast, Icyhot! Wish I got me some of that."
Shoto's expression was cold, as he replied, "No. You don't."
"I mean the Quirk trainin', not the other shit," the explosive teen clarified.
After a long, tense pause, the abused child, sighed. "You would, wouldn't you."
"Oi! What's that supposed to mean!" Bakugo glared. "I'm tryin' ta be nice, and-
Kirishimi stepped in, waving his hands in a distracting gesture, "He just means that ya like to go hard when ya train! Like me and Tetsutetsu!"
"You know it!" the metallic teen grinned.
From Todoroki's expression, no, that hadn't been what he'd meant, but he didn't say anything, and so Monoma questioned, "Wait, if he is after you for copying powers, then what about me?"
Before I could answer, Midoriya did, "You copy powers temporarily. You won't gain power like, like we will."
Bradley, leaning against the lockers, smiled congenially, but in a way that just seemed… off. "I wouldn't worry, I'm sure that if you work hard, Neito, you too will get strong enough to have to deal with that psychopath's cult yourself!"
There was a moment of silence.
"Um… thank you?" Monoma replied, looking back to Midoriya, "But, do we have to?"
"Of course you don't have to," Bakugo scoffed, tying his tie. "If you're enough of a pansy-ass bitch, they probably won't bother with you, like Arms and Glueface. Go join them at whatever school for extras they fucked off to if ya don't want to be a fukkin' main character!"
"While… harsh, he's not wrong," I agreed slowly. "No matter what you're on the radar of the 'Friends of All-for-One', but merely being a Hero student at UA might've been enough for that. That said, you have to have realized, on some level, that, with what happened ," I paused, having lost track of time, almost saying 'months', "a bit ago, if you stuck around, the chances of that happening again are, well, while it was the worst of them, that makes the fourth time we've had to deal with him and his people."
Mineta frowned, "Wait, fourth?"
I nodded, "The attack on the USJ, the Nomu attack where Midoriya, Todoroki, and Ida had their internships, I-Island-"
"Still can't believe I missed that shit," Bakugo muttered.
"And now the Camp Attack," I counted off, as if I hadn't been interrupted. "If 'Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times is enemy action', then four is war, though a guerilla one, which is good, because we aren't strong enough to handle that shit openly right now. Hence, training, and getting our certs, so when, not if, we get hit by number five, we're ready. That said… I'd treat any future school trips as Active Deployment, as we're four for four in them turning to absolute shitshows for at least some of us."
Shoda looked around at those of us from the original 1-A and asked, "And you all think that?"
The responses from the others ranging from nods, to shrugs, to a silent wince from Ida, but no one disagreed.
The small, yet stout, silver-haired boy blinked, took a bracing breath, and muttered, "If I didn't want to be a hero, I shouldn't have decided to go to school to be a hero."
With a harsh laugh, Bakugo nodded, "Damn straight, short-stuff! Whelp, seeya tomorrow, losers. Hopefully ya won't end up on your ass this time!"
He left, several of us following soon after, and I broke off from the others that headed for the gate, waiting for…
"Sparky!" Mina waved, and I perked up, the plan to walk her home, Gate Home, then, when she was in her room, she'd join me, so she could 'leave' her house the next morning without issue, the both of us heading back to UA in the morning, which could be several days later to us.
However, she was dragging Yaoyorozu along?
"Pinky," I nodded back, "Momo. What's up?"
"YaoMomo was bein' a silly goose," my lover smiled. "Come on, go ahead!"
"I was just… giving him some space, as the literature I studied suggested!" the dark-haired girl stated, a bit defensively. "They suggested too much too fast could be harmful, and, well, you were there for him, Mina."
"And I told ya tha-" she started to argue, then cut herself off. "I mean, you can help too!"
"I'm… fine?" I responded, unsure. "Though, uh, generally speaking, Momo respecting someone's request to have some space is one thing, deciding for them usually just feels like abandonment."
The heiress' eyes went wide, and she darted forward to clasp my hands, a move that, oddly, didn't make me flinch, though the feeling of her metal prosthetic fingers did make me cringe, wishing, however foolishly, that I could've done things different, so she wouldn't've been hurt. "Oh, that's not what I meant in the slightest, Denki! You must believe me!" she pleaded, getting kind of close.
"It's fine, I didn't think you would," I reassured her. And, given how I was planning on running, I've got no room to talk, I added internally, wincing at the thought. "And I've been… a bit out of touch."
"I could still have called! Or sent a missive! Or, oh, I've been a horrible friend!" she frowned, visibly drooping, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, especially as I extracted a hand, though she stiffened as I brought her in for a one-armed hug.
"You've been fine, I could've reached out too," I reassured her, Mina hitting us a moment later in a flying tackle to hug us both.
"See! You're fine, YaoMomo!" the horned girl cheered. "Now let's go do some karaoke!"
Blushing bright red, the dark-haired girl nodded jerkily, "Th-that sounds lovely!"
"Then let's go!" Mina cheered, letting go of us, grabbing our combined hands, and dragging us after her, not allowing us to pull away from each other, which was…
Alright.
AN: And we're back
. As usual, the next four chapters are up on Pat-reon and Subscribe-star, where we've wrapped up this Arc! Happy New Year, Everyone!