Chapter Eighty-Four
Walking out of the woods, while part of me was still ready, the majority had started to relax, as, well, if something was going to happen, it should have done so by now. In contrast, the rest of 1-A's nerves were frazzled, having been scared by the various attempts of 1-B to, as Tiger suggested, 'make us piss our pants'. While the onomatopoeia guy's creation, in conjunction with the telekinetic girl's, was kind of cheating as it was a mind-affecting power, the others had been. . . surprising, tame, yet had apparently still worked on my classmates.
Then again, they were teens.
. . . No, even when I was this young, I wasn't like this. Though, the longer I spent here, the less I felt like I used to, always looking for the next shoe to drop as the millipede of life screwed me over in a staccato rhythm. Looking around at them, . . . the rest of 1-A had a carefree attitude it was hard for me to match.
Though, finding myself smiling at the reactions of the others, perhaps it wasn't quite so difficult as I thought.
"See?" Mina whispered, hanging off my arm. "Everything's okay, Sparky."
Sighing, even as she tempted Murphy, I nodded, replying just as quietly. "That doesn't mean nothing will, but. . . perhaps I was wrong," I admitted, my pink-haired girlfriend grinning as she dragged me over to Momo, who was recounting how much of a scare Ibara had given her, Toru nodding in agreement from how her empty-seeming shirt moved.
"How 'bout you?" Jiro asked as we approached, and Mina laughed.
"That girl's a sweetie," she waved. "Though Sparky and I turned the tables on Tokage!"
Explaining what we'd done, Momo looked scandalized, though she blushed a little, while Hagakure cackled with laughter, enjoying the reversal immensely.
"But, that brings up an interesting strategy," I stated, when Mina was done.
Biting her lip for a moment, Yaoyorozu pronounced, "Denki, I do not believe you will be able to scare them by threatening to kiss them. Mineta possibly, but that seems extreme."
"What? No, I meant using props. If Quirk use is allowed, then we could outfit our class with quite the assortment of terror enhancers," I pointed out with a smirk.
"God, Sparky, you make it sound so Villainous," my girlfriend teased, lightly smacking my chest, before turning back to the Creator. "But yeah, YaoMomo, hook a girl up! Can you make a plastic skeleton I won't burn through with my weaker acid? Oh, and a ghost puppet for Toru! And some glowing paints for Asui!"
"Possibly a speaker for Jiro," I added. "There some subsonics that she might be able to create which would unsettle people without their realizing it. Actually, HEY!" I called, getting everyone's attention. "We've got some time before it's our turn! Let's pool resources to scare the pants off 'em!"
The rest of my class slowly gathered, and ideas were shared back and forth, Momo making items while I sketched out a few mechanisms that'd make what they wanted a reality, basic pulley and lever systems mostly, Tenya dashing off to grab some leftovers for fuel as the Pussycats looked on, amused.
Soon enough, it was our turn, and, while I'd made sure not to use anything that involved fire or gas, so I could smell it if the Villains were just running late, we had more than enough to 'win' this little contest.
MHA
"We. . . . might've overdone it a little," I commented as we all gathered, seeing the completely frazzled, twitching state of 1-B. The restrictions of not physically touching them had been limiting, but, while Tokoyami was an edgelord of the highest order, Aoyama had a surprisingly dark imagination. The sparkling boy, after his initial ideas of 'no cheese left in the world' and 'unfashionable uniforms' progressed to 'half-eaten corpses, with chewed viscera spilling out' and 'blood trails leading up a nearby tree, something subtly shaking the branch as you draw near'.
To be honest, it'd unnerved Shoji and Koda, but when proposed as a materials question Yaoyorozu had taken it as a challenge, pure biologicals difficult for the girl but convincing synthetics something she was able to make, if barely. Also, the 'no touch' rule meant that near misses were perfectly okay, and while I wouldn't risk it with my attack, Shoji was a really good shot when it came to throwing things, able to part someone's hair with a soft ball containing a whistle that'd shriek like a banshee, and Uraraka was an excellent judge of vectors when it came to dropping things by releasing her power, which meant she could fell a tree right behind you, which made an almighty crash, and got you running.
On one hand, if we'd done this sort of thing to me, well, I probably- no, I would've seriously hurt someone, but everyone kept insisting that I was in the wrong and it was perfectly safe, so. . . fine, I'd thought, let's play it that way.
For my part, I'd gotten a neon yellow wolf-mask from Momo, something that'd gotten me odd looks from Ida and Todoroki, though they hadn't said why, and then I'd turned my hands and feet into over-sized claws, shaping a line down my back into bright electric spikes, and gone 'hunting'. I might've cut myself a little and smeared the blood on the mask, for realism, my injury healing in minutes, something that Mina had sighed over, but I'd thought it added a little extra to my performance.
The fact that it'd given me an excuse to freely roam the territory was completely incidental.
But, as my girlfriend had promised, even though she couldn't make that claim, nothing had happened, no League of Villains attack, or whatever they called themselves. Nothing.
And now? Now. . . I found myself a little at a loss for what to do next, as my express purpose in coming here was to keep Mina and Momo safe. And the others too.
"Wh-Who would've thought that class 1-A could be so scary!" the speech-bubble-headed teen accused, the word 'Villains?' written across his flat white face.
"Please, like there aren't Heroes who use psychological warfare to their advantage," I scoffed, wanting to look to Deku, who could've likely furnished us with a comprehensive list, but he was still with Aizawa working on his supplementary lessons. "Hell, I'm pretty sure Eraserhead does just that. And that's pretty rich, coming from the kid who made fear-inducing symbols and stuck them in the eyes of a skeleton construct."
"Don't mind Manga," one of the others reassured us, the one who could soften things, the boy having no lips, but still somehow able to talk normally, "that was pretty impressive."
"Spooky," their telekinetic agreed dully, eyes wide as she nodded slightly, but with the hint of a smile on her face.
"Wait, your name's Manga?" I asked the person whose power was literally making comic-style onomatopoeias, and, while others looked confused at my question, they nodded. "Geez, did everyone's parents give their kids joke names based on what they thought our Quirks would be?"
Surprisingly, it was Mandalay who answered, "Oh, you didn't know? It's a trend from forty, fifty years ago. That's why my name, Ragdall's, and Pixie-Bob's are a bit like our Quirks, while Tiger's is like his parents, but his Quirk is different from theirs."
"That's. . ." I wanted to say kinda dumb, but my original last name had been a defunct currency because somewhere in the past we'd been bankers, or maybe it was something else entirely? Either way, it was French, and had nothing to do with anything I or my family were like now, so who was I to say it was wrong? "Gotta make tracing ancestry a bitch and a half," I settled on.
"Most people can't track theirs past the Chaotic Century, ribbit," Asui remarked, Momo looking a little uncomfortable, likely because she could. "No one's ever told you that?" the frog girl questioned.
"Half my classmates had more normal names, or at least ones that weren't that on point," I shrugged, though I could connect the dots as to why. "But particularly strong Quirks were probably the type to run in families," I mused, nodding. Glancing over at Manga I apologized, "Sorry, it's just a was a little too on the nose."
"It's okay," he offered, "My parents are kinda like that. My sister's head looks a bit like film, so they called her Anime."
"Eh, my name's literally my Quirk," I replied, holding up a hand and causing it to spark, "so I got no room to talk. Alright then, Tiger," I said, turning to address the man. "Who won this little cont-"
"You!" Class 1-B chorused, cutting me off, the one who could breathe out solid constructs asking, "How'd you come up with half of that?"
It was Tokoyami who answered, intoning, "By looking into the Abyss, the Abyss looks into you, and you are forever changed."
"Uh, yeah, that," Ochaco nodded, "But some of your guys' stuff was really good too!"
Mandalay clapped, getting our attention, "Great job everyone! Let's head back to the dining hall for some dessert, and then it's time to head to bed! We've got ice-cream!"
And, just like that, most of the twitchy, slightly tense atmosphere vanished in the face of sweetened dairy products, the teens cheering as we all walked together for a late-night treat. Mina stayed at my side, and when she gave me an 'I told you so' look, I had to sigh and nod in agreement, which just caused her to grin and hug my arm.
After we were done, and heading back to bed, Deku and the others absent, still at their remedial lessons, I found my necklace was on my bedroll, the message clear. For a moment I considered leaving it there, some of my classmates giving it a wary look, now that they realized what it was for, but practicality and pragmatism won out and I quickly slipped it on, sleep coming surprisingly easy.
MHA
Morning came, bright and early, and I got up, feeling. . . oddly refreshed, with a spring in my step and, if not a song in my heart, then definitely a chant in my chest.
I, however, was the only one like that.
"Oh man," Mineta moaned, "I'm so tired!"
Sero scoffed, "You think you have it bad? We didn't get to bed until one a.m.! Again!"
"It's -yawn- needed lessons, though," Midoriya tried to defend, as we shuffled out, joining the equally exhausted girls, Uraraka and Asui leaning on each other for support, even Mina blearily looking around. Seeing me, she stumbled over, and reached out, making grabby motions that took me a moment to understand, before, smiling, I kneeled down, and she clambered on like the most adorable koala in existence.
"Thanks, hun," she muttered, before immediately falling back asleep, and I stood, carrying her even without OfA. Ochaco and Tsuyu stared at me for a moment, and I could practically see the idea percolating between the two of them, followed by a silent conversation.
Coming to a conclusion, they tottered over to Deku, who looked at them confused, unprepared for them to split apart from each other and each claim one of the boy's sides, leaning up against him in a way that made him stumble for a moment before, with a few emerald sparks, he activated his Quirk and held up both girls easily.
Looking at the others, I could see Jiro glance at Bakugo, who was glaring at the ground like it owed him money, before she shook her head, and we made our way to the mess-hall, meeting up with 1-B, who looked equally as tired, Setsuna using her pull-apart Quirk to bob in the air next to Pony, who was laying on two floating horns.
Thankfully, while the Pussycats made us cook dinner, breakfast was already prepared, and we grabbed seats, coffee and tea available for everyone. I tried to get Mina to let go, but she just tightened her grip, shaking her head and murmuring, "five more minutes," into my neck.
"Then I guess I'll have to have all this chocolate myself," I mused, the spread surprisingly international, Bacon and eggs next to rice and natto, next to toast, jams, and chocolate filled croissants.
". . . chocolate?" the girl questioned, blearily opening an eye, and, seeing what was on the table, she slowly disentangled herself, sitting beside me, still leaning against my arm as she started to fill her plate. "Oooh, and they got natto!" she smiled tiredly.
"No idea how you can eat that stuff," I grimaced, watching as she piled on beans that had fermented past the point they'd started to dissolve, long gooey white spiderwebs trailing from the serving spoon. "Its just so slimy and stringy."
Mina just smirked, "I know, isn't it great?"
Repressing a shudder myself, I grabbed bacon and eggs, along with same pain au chocolat, because chocolate, and chowed down with the rest of my class, energy slowly returning to them as we loaded up on carbs and caffeine, not that the latter did anything for me, the 'drug' nature of it bouncing off Body Defense, but, honestly, I didn't need it.
Looking around though, everyone else clearly did, and I was confused, until I realized that we'd been doing ridiculously punishing training for the last two days, and while I had my High-Speed Regeneration copied Quirk, even if at a single percent of Nomu's strength, possibly less, that still meant I was healing at a rate several times that of my fellow students. That meant that, with seven-ish hours of sleep, I was taking effectively two or three days off between training sessions, only without the backsliding that actually doing so would entail.
Everyone else, though?
They'd been run ragged.
Was this the plan? I wondered, Push us 'till we break, then push more? There were cases of Quirks going through an 'Awakening', effectively a Second Trigger that reformatted a person's ability to add additional mechanisms or capabilities to pre-existing powers, breaking previously known limits, like a Quirk that could only work on inanimate objects suddenly affecting living things as well, but they were really, really rare and, from what Denki had learned from his own studies, paltry as they were, not something that could be done on command.
Or can they, and this is one of the reasons that U.A. is the number one Hero school, and why we're training in the middle of nowhere? I thought. It hadn't happened in Canon, the Villain attack interrupting things, but, with how strong 1-A already was, did they really need it? It would help, but the stresses needed to induce such an event were extreme, and I wondered if our teachers would really do that to these kids. I wanted to say no, but-
A poke to my side got my attention, and I glanced over to see Mina giving me a slightly disapproving look. "You're brooding. Stop it," she commanded.
"I'm not brooding," I defended, pausing to try and figure out how to put my thoughts into words. Words that didn't involve brooding.
"Nuh-huh, you were totally brooding, Mr. Broodypants," she disagreed, though she smiled a bit, showing me she was teasing. "And how are you so awake!? I'm wiped."
Holding up a hand, I let it spark, "I'm just naturally energetic," I quipped, getting a groan from the girl, who slapped my shoulder. "Fine, I heal quickly, which means I apparently recover quickly too," I offered.
My girlfriend pouted, "Lucky. I wish I could do that too."
"Hey, you've gotten better," I argued. "Imagine how tired you'd be if you were in the same shape you were at the start of the semester."
On my other side, Momo, daintily sipping her tea, nodded. "I have not trained as extensively as you two have, but I would be in far worse condition." The Creator sighed, "I'm still so tired, though. I have a long way to go, don't I?"
"Don't be so hard on yourself, YaoMomo!" Mina urged, as we had both been talking about the tune-up Body Talent gave her, not just our practice sessions, "Denki's just a cheaty cheater who cheats, while I just crib his notes. And, yeah, being in better shape's nice, Sparky, but it'd be nice-er if I could also heal like you can!"
Chuckling, I just nodded, "I'll see what I can do." Finding someone with a Quirk that could share powers would work, but then there was the One-for-All problem where finding the person, who probably thought themselves Quirkless, would be a serious undertaking. I'd most likely have to get it from another world. RWBY style Aura was the first choice, as that gave defense, healing, and an additional superpower, but that would require me going to Remnant, which was a hard-pass for a number of reasons.
Humans here were still pretty much humans, though, so going to a sci-fi setting with mild gene modding, like Mass Effect, might work, the tune-up the Alliance Military all got hopefully enough to boost Mina, and, with Science Talent, I should be able to test and make sure it was safe before giving it to my heteromorphic girlfriend. And, even if it didn't work, Body Defense should let us go, 'nah, go back to a previous save' and undo what would absolutely count as a 'physical transformation'. There were magical ways of inducing quick-healing, but that'd require Soul Talent, which I didn't yet possess.
"If you do," Aizawa's voice stated, coming from right behind me, "I wouldn't say no to it."
Mina and I both froze, while Yaoyorozu just smiled tiredly, which him, "Good morning, Sensei."
"I'm probably not going to," I slowly said, turning, Eraserhead knowing something was up with my Quirk, from how he could no longer repress it, but there was no way he knew about my ability to copy them, "at least not for a while. Mei's more of a hardware focused person, so any kind of biotech's gonna have to be all me, and probably from scratch."
Momo winced, gently informing me, "Denki? That kind of thing is very illegal."
". . . or not," I replied, shrugging, before frowning, "Wait, but there's a number of Heroes who do bio-manipulation."
"Quirks, not technology," Eraserhead noted.
Yaoyorozu, seeing my confusion at that non-answer, explained, "It's an issue of scale, Denki. Quirks are often temporary, and the ones that are not are closely monitored. Something that could be created would be considered a Support Item, at best, and would require extraordinary permissions to even develop, let alone use. There have been a number of. . . unfortunate incidents, but we're pretty sure the zombie plague has been eliminated!"
. . .what. Okay, so zombies are thing, but not a big deal, I guess? Why am I only finding out about this now? Either way, make sure to give that tune-up to Mina in another dimension, and do the testing there or at Home, when I finally get it, I decided, slowly nodding. However, if that was true, "Then, Aizawa, why did you say you wanted that?"
"If you find a way," the sleepy-looking man shrugged, and I had the feeling that he meant something more, but. . . what? "Eat up, but not too much. Wouldn't want you to get cramps," he commented ominously, walking off, which itself was confusing, but, looking to the two girls beside me, as well as the others at our table, no one understood what he meant.
Finishing up, we assembled, Pixie-Bob and Tiger waiting for us, both 1-A and 1-B clearly not looking forward to today's training, but, to their credit, willing to do it anyways.
At least they didn't look half-dead anymore.
"Okay you little kittens!" Pixie-Bob chirped, smirking, "Everyone ready for a day of grueling training, of pushing your Quirks to their limits, until they break?"
Yep, they're trying to induce Awakenings, I thought, frowning, as our class reluctantly made noises of agreement. But that's danger-
"Well too bad!" the blonde grinned, to our audible surprise, both classes, in unison, replying, "What?"
The terrakinetic waved one paw-clad finger at us, "All work and no play is no good, and can make you a serious sourpuss! No, we're doing something different today!"
With a menacing aura, Tiger raised both of his fists, "Try not to drown, because we're going to the beach!"
AN: Next Four Chapters are up on , as usual!