Chapter Seventy-Eight

I'm. . . not exactly comfortable with this, I thought, trying to relax with the rest of the guys in the hot spring, with only a single towel wrapped around my waist for modesty. Through cached Denki's memories, I could draw upon his acculturation, to try and understand the society I found myself a part of and better blend in, but the same factors that made sure his memories were separate from mine, to prevent personality bleed, also seemed to mean that I had to actively look for that acculturation, and thus my reactions were solely those of, well, myself.

From Denki's perspective, this was absolutely fine, just a thing people did to relax, and, while intellectually I understood it, just as I understood the desire to bathe in complete privacy was a, historically speaking, recent development, my 21st century American upbringing made this awkward as fuck.

But to defer would be seen as a rejection of the others, and an insult, so I grit my metaphorical teeth and took a seat wearing what amounted to a loincloth, and an unsecured one at that. Hiding it with a cupped hand, I did Create a small metal clip, and used it to subtly secure the fabric to itself, but even that was pushing what I could get away with a little.

Now I tried to relax, hearing the girls playing around in the hot spring next to ours, only a wooden wall between us, though a sizeable one, almost comically so, easily over thirty-feet high. I wasn't the only one that could hear them, as Mineta stood at the edge of our pool, regarding the barrier, remarking, "The food was good, but a true man has several types of hunger. Just one little Wall. A few pieces of wood. That's all that separates us from some truly heavenly babes."

"More like a few hundred pieces," I pointed out, looking over the incredibly solid looking construction. "But, yeah, I guess. In the same way that everyone's naked under their clothes if you think about it."

The small man turned and shot me a 'really' look, but I just grinned unrepentantly. "Really, dude?" he asked, when I didn't relent.

I just shrugged, knowing how this turned out in canon, while also wondering if it still would. "Just sayin'. So, you gonna keep waxing poetic on how hot our classmates are, gonna relax, or what?"

The diminutive pervert scowled. "That's easy for you to say! You're dating Mina! I'm sure you've already gazed upon her bountiful valleys!"

". . . And?" I questioned, not sure where this was going.

"You admit it!" he declared, pointing an accusing finger in my direction. "You who are in the land of plenty cannot understand my tribulations!"

". . . We're dating. That just makes sense. I honestly don't get where you're going with this," I replied, looking to the others for help.

Midoriya looked anywhere but at me, while Bakugo, looking annoyed, rolled his eyes barked out, "He's sayin' 'cause you're getting' some, ya can't judge him. Ball-boy's thinkin' with 'em, what else is new?"

Turning my attention back to the purple-haired teen, he nodded, and I sighed. "Mineta, are you really jealous of me?"

"Dude," Kirishima objected, "you sayin' Mina's not that great?"

I shot the hardener a look, but he didn't seem envious, more. . . defending a colleague, which I could respect, so I shrugged again. "Nah, Mina's awesome, but I'm pretty sure it isn't Mina he's focusing on, is it?" I questioned, turning back to the malignant midget. "You'd say the same if I was dating Momo, right?"

"Momo!?" the kid loudly demanded, incensed, and I realized that, by their societal standards, I was being 'familiar' with the heiress. "How are you friends with so many hot girls?"

"First answer my question," I shot back. "You'd be the same if I was dating any of our classmates, right?"

"What difference does it make?" Mineta replied, and I remained silent, waiting. "Yeah, I would, 'cause you're in the promised land, and barring the gates of heaven for the rest of us!"

I caught Sero nodding in agreement, and, while Ida was frowning, he remained silent. Looking around, everyone's attention was on the two of us, even Bakugo, who was doing his best to look uninterested. "I'm not 'barring' anything," I noted, "but more than that, to think they're interchangeable. . . that's like half the reason you don't have a girlfriend, Mineta. Maybe a third. Tell me, are you the same as Shoji?" I questioned, motioning to the boy who was still wearing his trademark mask.

"I, uh, no?" the small teen replied, unsure.

"Then how'd you take it if, say, Toru said she wanted to date you, or Shoji, or maybe Kirishima, and she really didn't care who she was dating as long as she was dating someone?" I pressed, lifting an eyebrow.

The redhead I'd included frowned, an unhappy, 'Dude," the entirety of his response, but all that was really needed.

I nodded, "Exactly. So I'm not dating 'a hot babe', I'm dating Mina, who, yes, could actually be described that way, but, honestly, that's like number seven in the reasons that I'm dating her. First and foremost being that I like who she is as a person."

"Like you wouldn't be dating her if she wasn't hot," Mineta spat, which, while obviously hurtful, I knew just enough to backtrack his likely thought processes, and understand them.

"She wouldn't be dating me if I wasn't," I offered without heat, not bothered by his statement. "Mineta, personality, to a certain point, dictates appearance. The base is genetics, yeah, but that's like half of things that make up how you look, though, only in one direction," I warned. "A lack of fitness can be indicative of mental issues, and unless you're actually ugly, which most people aren't, such things come from a lack of personal care or motivation, both of which are red flags."

Given my weight issues before I'd come here, it was something I understood all too well, turning to escapism in the form of literature/games to avoid the reality of my shitty life, and the lack of physical activity, combined with a fairly standard metabolism, led to me packing on the pounds. With my Talents, that wasn't an issue, combined with how active my lifestyle now was, one that I actually enjoyed, so I doubted I'd backslide.

"But I'm a hundred and eight centimeters," the midget complained.

"Yeah? And? Some people will be into that, just as, while some people would like Shoji because of his height, a lot of girls would dismiss him as a romantic prospect because he's too tall. Sorry," I offered to the 6'2" man. Tall for an American, but gigantic for the Japanese.

He waved it away, growing a mouth from his arm that replied, "My father has warned me of such."

Nodding to him, I turned back to Mineta, though the others were practically hanging on my words. "That said, it doesn't work the other way. Some people are naturally good looking, but are terrible, so thus you get the Halo Effect which means people naturally assume good looking people are good people. That, of course, means that just 'cause a chick's hot doesn't mean she's someone you'd actually want to date. On the other hand, all of the girls in our class are high quality, physically and otherwise, in every regard. But they're all very different people, and should be treated as such. Not doing so means you're just telling them, 'You're not ugly, and that's good enough for me', which no one wants to hear."

Grudgingly, Mineta nodded at that, looking chastised. "I, fine, but they're still hot, just in their own ways! Like Tsu with her luscious legs, and the Yaoyo-boobies! And they're all right there! Hot and glistening, a feast for the eyes!"

Well. . . it's progress, I guess.

"You said that was a third of why he's single," Todoroki noted. "That means there's two other reasons. What are the others?"

"Well, the second is, well, it's two things, but they're kind of the same category," I explained, finding it far more comfortable to switch over to 'teaching' mode than to focus on my near-nakedness. "It'd kind of go under 'Charisma', but that's treated as if it's an immutable, in-born trait, when it really isn't. First component is how you hold yourself, how you present yourself and. . . Mineta, you're at a ten on the horniness scale, out of ten, and you need to be somewhere in the two-to-seven range. You can be appreciative, but not like you're out of control. It's like what we talked about on I-Island, and you're not there yet, but you've got time. When you get it though, that's half of it, and the other half is your Rep which, with the girls of our class is. . . lacking."

"But I've been better!" the pervert whined piteously.

"Yes. Also, it's not a one-to-one, where you input good behavior and get girls instantly, but also, it works in the other direction, which some less than stellar girls like to pretend it doesn't. Saying they'll be in a relationship with you isn't enough for the girl either, it's a give and take where both people have to be nice, or at least nice-ish," I replied. "And people are quick to make snap-judgements, but slow to revise them. Honestly, you'd have a better shot with the girls in Class 1-B, or maybe even someone in a different Hero school altogether, or maybe not a heroine at all. I'm not saying it's impossible with those girls," I gestured towards the divider, "Just that its an uphill battle while, for someone like Koda," I nodded towards the rock-headed boy, who froze under the attention, "he's so quiet he's still kind of a blank slate to the others, though seems nice enough, though also his confidence issues make him seem. . . younger than he actually is, and thus less attractive, but not un-attractive, and there is a difference."

The beast-speaker's shoulders dropped, and I added, "Though showing how he's grown and gotten more confident will be easier than you showing you've learned to stop thinking with your dick, Mineta. Rep and how you carry yourself takes care of the second aspect. In general, one also has to take in appearance, but, while we're all different," I announced, looking around the hot spring, "we're all attractive in our own ways. Not gay myself, but I am, as you said, 'friends with girls'."

"And the third?" Tokoyami questioned.

I opened my mouth to respond, but Midoriya beat me to it. "It's asking her out, isn't it?" Pausing, I lifted a hand to go on, and Izuku's brows furrowed in thought. "Mineta's mad he doesn't have a girlfriend, but, he hasn't asked anyone out, has he?"

"B-But they'd say no!" the boy in question objected.

"You don't know that," Deku disagreed kindly. "They might, or they might not. You don't know until you try."

"Those girls likely would right now," I added, once more motioning towards the wooden divider. "Because of how you've acted so far, Mineta, but in a year or two, you might be surprised. And for people you haven't already perved out over, there's a decent chance they might say yes. That's true not just for you," I said, glancing at the others. "Just remember that, if they say no, chances are that it has nothing to do with anything you've done. Maybe you're just not their type, or they don't want to be in a relationship just then, or they have someone that they like. Isn't that right, Jiro?"

The yelp and splash from the other side of the wall, while muffled, could still be heard, the boys all glancing towards the divider as one, then back to me, awe in most of their expressions. "Girl's got a serious eavesdropping problem, which is better than your voyeurism, Mineta, but not by a lot. Because girls have their flaws too, one of which is that you cannot trust what they say after they turn you down. They almost universally think that by lying, or making an excuse, they're being nice, to 'spare your feelings', because that's what they do to each other, instead of the fact that, by giving us bad intel, they're making improvement almost impossible. Or maybe they're lying to make themselves feel better, giving the reason they wished was true, instead of the real one. Or maybe they're actually being honest, but there's no way to tell easily, but, no matter what, they're usually not meaning anything bad by it. At least, the ones you should be asking out wont' be mean about it."

Shaking my head, I told them, "So, take your shot, and if they say no, accept it well and walk away. Asking again probably won't work, and if it does then you've got a girl who likes to play psychological games, and, as Professional Heroes, none of us have time for that."

"Damn straight," Bakugo growled. "You extras need to get the lead out and focus on getting your shit in order, not gettin' your dicks wet if you wanna get close of catching up to us."

"And that's another perspective," I offered, waving to the boy, "and a valid one. Thinking about it a little's fine, but obsessing about it isn't healthy. And unhealthy people aren't attractive. Focus on being a hero, on being that kind of person, and you'll be over halfway there already."

Leaning back against the stone edge of the hot spring, I spread my arms to rest along heated rocks, trying to exude a confidence that I still didn't quite feel, given the circumstances, but one that'd help the others accept what I said. "So, yeah, they're on the other side, but so what? We're not here to see naked girls, we're here to get better at being Heroes, so let's relax, head to bed, and focus on our power training. Because, knowing Aizawa, not only are we going to be getting up bright and squirrely, but it's gonna suck."

Bakugo gave a snort and nod of agreement, which left several others looking nervous, but there wasn't really anything for it, and Mineta, thoughtfully, jumped into the water, perching on a half-buried stone to keep his head above the surface, remaining silent.

MHA

Sure enough, Aizawa dropped by at five in the fucking morning, telling us to be dressed and ready in half an hour, where we'd be meeting him out on the field. There was some grumbling from the guys, but we'd all clocked out as soon as we'd gotten back to our bunks. As such, we'd gotten a solid seven hours of sleep, and were pretty much ready to go, though I wouldn't say no to some coffee.

The girls, however, were fried.

"Moooooorning, Sparky," my girlfriend yawned, shamelessly leaning on me as she blearily blinked her golden eyes. "Why we gotta do this so eaaaaaarly?"

Momo, on her other side, was obviously tired as well, though she was trying to hide it. "I believe it would be to maximize our possible training time, Mina."

Looking at the heiress, she seemed about as well-rested as the boys, and I couldn't help but point out, "You don't look nearly as tired as the others."

Mina laughed into my shoulder. "That's 'cause we realized we didn't pack some things, so YaoMomo made 'em, but it made her sleepy, so, boop!" she remarked, "Out like a light. A really pretty light."

The Creationist blushed, and I laughed. "Yeah, I can see that. Well, glad she did, because I've got a feeling today's gonna be a long day."

Everyone assembled, a good bit away from the main complex, where Eraserhead was waiting for us, eyes closed, like he was sleeping standing straight up, looking just as tired as the girls, but for him, that was normal.

The man's phone beeped at 5:30, or I guessed it was as I couldn't check myself, and his eyes flew open, the man looking us over, smirking a little. "Good morning, class. 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," he announced, tossing the boy a familiar looking ball. "Try throwing that for me."

"Yeah, sure. Like in the fitness test," the explosive teen replied, seeing where this was going.

"That's right," Aizawa agreed. "When you first started school, your record was seven-o-five point two meters. Let's see if you've improved."

Mina perked up, her expression lighting up with understanding. "Oh, cool! We're checking our progress!"

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

"Eh," I warned, "temper your expectations." I got a look from our teacher, which I met, levelly.

Bakugo shot a disdainful glance backwards. "You might've been fuckin' around, Pikachu, but I've got this." Winding up, and with a yell of, "Go To HELL!" he set it off with an explosion that buffeted our hair back.

"You did improve," Aizawa commented dryly. "You managed seven hundred and twelve point three meters this time."

"But, why?" Kirashima asked, looking my way. "We've gotten loads better."

I just shook my head, having the benefit of seeing this part before, though what future knowledge I had was rapidly running out. "Skill isn't raw power," I stated simply. "You train them differently."

Mina stiffened a little, standing up straight, and cast me a measuring look, as she'd commented, repeatedly, that how the two of us trained was often far different than how we trained in our formal classes. At the questioning look, I nodded minutely, and she grinned.

"Indeed," Eraserhead noted, the little back-and-forth between my girlfriend and I obviously spotted. "You've had a single semester at U.A., and, due to your various experiences, all of you have definitely improved. But for most of you, 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."

The man's smirk became a full-blown sadistic grin. "This'll be so hard you'll feel like you're dying. Let's hope you all survive."

I couldn't help but facepalm at the comment, the man so over the top it was ridiculous, something easy to forget given his normally lethargic mannerism, though the rest of the class was too busy low-key freaking out to notice.

We were led onward, where a number of 'stations' were already set up, the Pussycats having set this up either last night, or stupidly early this morning, and, spotting the large high-capacity battery, I could tell they'd have me doing the same thing they'd prescribed originally for me, though the random iron pole stuck into the ground next to it was new.

"Heya everyone!" Mandalay announced, waving us over, Tiger, the musclebound one, setting up a few more stations in the distance with the green-haired Ragdoll, the last pussycat, and one we hadn't met yet.

Stupidly early it is, I thought, impressed at their dedication, as they would've had to have get up at three to suit up and get this all prepared.

"We've set up training for all of you! If the first half of you, alphabetically, can come with me, the other half of you kittens are with Pixie-bob!" the brunette instructed, the blonde waving her own oversized glove off to the side. Splitting up, we were assigned our various tasks, just like I remembered them. "And for this one you'll be-"

"Running current through the battery, using my own electricity generation ability to increase the amount present in the system, forcing my limits higher," I interrupted. "I do the same thing at home, but what's the pole?"

The Pro looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Are one of your parents a Pro?"

"No, municipal employee, but we have the required permits," I replied, understanding what she was asking. "Pole?"

"It's for you to try and merge with," Mandalay informed me. "You can turn into electricity, and use that to move along things, so while you're running current through your hands, you're going to turn your legs to electricity and try to put as much as you can into the iron, holding onto it for as long as you can!"

I blinked. "That's. . . basic."

The woman nodded. "We've found that, especially for students like you, with multi-part Quirks, basic exercises are often the best. If we try making things too complicated, then we can miss uses that could be incidentally trained as well!"

"Fair enough," I agreed, awkwardly turning my feet into lightning, and trying to 'anchor' them to the metal pole as she led the last few students away. I normally just slid along things, so trying to actually merge with the conductive material, like my father could, hadn't been something I'd tried before. I knew I could, as my 'Electrobody' Quirk was literally the exact same one as my father possessed, but I'd never worked on that aspect before, not really seeing the point until I could transform my entire body without having a seizure the second I reformed.

But, if that's what they wanted, that's what they'd get.

It was an. . . odd feeling, to say the least, as my body's shape when transformed seemed to be entirely a mental construct instead of a requirement, but, well, I was used to being like this, so it was hard to be anything else. However, the pole was only an inch and a half in diameter, and I'd already shoved a full foot of, well, foot into it without anything coming out the other end.

And, the second I thought about it, the electricity started to emerge from the other side, trying to make me take the shape I expected it to be, but didn't need. "This. . . this is gonna take some getting used to," I murmured, trying to focus without focusing on the details, as my brain was telling me I needed to stick that mass somewhere, except, when I ran on lightning legs I didn't have lightning feet, my electric limbs terminating in a single, spike-like point that I was able to balance on because, not being real, I could shift my weight around on it however I wished.

Getting up to mid-calf, as far as I could hold for an extended period of time, I tried to lean over and pick up the leads for the battery, my abs and back muscles working to let me twist in this odd position. A touch of OfA made it simple, practically effortless, but, with a sigh, I let All Might's power fade, as, from the first episode, I knew I needed to train my body without that Quirk to strengthen myself with it, the training needed to strengthen OfA far more strenuous than just holding myself up against gravity and my own weight.

Taking the two leads, positive and negative, in my hands, I started circulating the current, just as I had over a hundred times before, feeling the electric pinpricks and minor shocks as I butted against the ceiling of my ability to handle a charge, a familiar feeling, ramping it up until it was painful, but not overwhelmingly so.

After having gotten my High-Speed Regeneration from Nomu, I found myself able to push harder with less of a chance of injury. Well, not 'less chance' but 'less effects' from being injured, only a few minutes of discomfort if I overdid things instead of a few hours, letting me push up against my limits with less care than I'd needed when I'd started, months ago.

Firming that oh-so-fun feedback loop up to run continuously, I shifted focus, trying to slowly turn more of my legs to lightning as I sank myself deeper into the post, instantly starting to feel the strain. Spikes or pushes? I wondered, making a note to ask our trainers, not sure if repeated sudden overreaches of my own limits would give me better results, or a slow, constant expansion against them. The second seemed safer, so I went with that, spending minute after minute slowly sinking deeper, centimeter by centimeter, into the conductive material.

I got up past my knees before, with an involuntary cry of pain, I was forcibly ejected as my limbs snapped back into normality, both calves seizing up in charley horses as they cramped, muscles twitching and spasming as if, ironically, they were being electrocuted.

I laid on the ground, biting back grunts of pain, until they abated, and, groaning, stood up, ready to do it all over again, if that's what it took to improve.

However, before I could, Ragdall, the crazy-looking green-haired Pussycat was suddenly in my face, causing me to take an instinctive step back, while she took another forward, still far too close for comfort.

"Oh, hi?" I asked, unsure. "Actually, I've got a quick question. Should-"

"Me first!" the Pro interrupted, then fell silent.

"O-Oh, um, what is it?" I prompted, which was what she was waiting for, as she hesitantly poked my chest with a claw-less cat-gloved finger.

She grinned, looking a little, okay, a lot insane, and her question didn't help much either.

"Why don't you exist?"

Music: Today – U.A. Session, MHA S1 Soundtrack.

AN: Next Four Chapters are up on , as usual!