"I'm sure you're all wondering what the next step is going to be, now that classes are starting again."
Vlad King spoke to the gathered class, arranged in a semicircle in Training Ground Gamma, a huge but featureless hall with a concrete floor.
"Over the course of the summer, you have strengthened your Quirks and pushed yourselves to new levels. Now comes the time to put that to practice, because the next stage of your training will be to acquire your Provisional Hero Licenses."
I felt my heart skip a beat, my tail curling around my feet. Provisional Hero Licenses… these would officially empower us to act as Heroes, without the supervision of a Pro-Hero. All around me I saw my classmates having similar reactions, standing taller with gleams in their eyes, excited whispering breaking out amongst the crowd.
"I see you still remember what those are. Excellent." Vlad King crossed his arms. "Remember, however, that they are only provisional licenses, contingent upon either an emergency, or working under a properly licensed Hero. Not a sanction to go looking for trouble on your own."
I did not need to follow his eyes to know who he was looking at.
"Now!" He clapped his hands together. "The test is as difficult as it is important, and we have more preparations to do. Today, you will be coming up with your super moves."
The door behind him opened, admitting Cementoss and Ectoplasm.
"You will be tested on many criteria." The latter continued where Vlad King had left off. "Leadership, charisma, mobility, decision-making, intelligence gathering and communication. But in these times, the most important of them all will be combat prowess. Your ability to subdue villains."
"If you can act with decisive, stable moves to take down your opponents, you're already halfway there." Cementoss added, raising a finger. "That's where super moves come in: these are your go-to's. A varied arsenal is good, but especially when you don't have a lot of experience it's important to have a few moves you've honed to a perfection. One who has practiced a single kick ten thousand times is far more fearsome than he who has practiced ten thousand kicks only once."
He put his hands on the floor of the warehouse, the concrete flowing like liquid as it rose to form hills, cliffs and pillars of a variety of sizes and shapes. Some formed clusters of tiny targets, others' peaks rose nearly to the ceiling.
"In other words, you'll be training to enhance your use of your Quirks and forming your own super moves through some Plus Ultra training!" Ectoplasm added as he opened his mouth, glowing silvery smoke pouring out to form countless copies across Cementoss' concrete landscape, taking up positions. "I will be your opponent!"
"Remember, a Super Move can be anything: attack, defence, mobility, stealth, capture, battlefield control or manipulation." Vlad King explained. "Combine your Quirk with your equipment, skills and experiences to put together a cohesive and effective whole. I know many of you have been thinking about or working on your Super Moves already, so show us what you have!"
"Yes! Please allow me to demonstrate my Super Moves!" Yoarashi announced with unbridled enthusiasm. "I have prepared several, in the name of Plus Ultra!"
"As expected…" Tsubaraba blanched.
"Indeed! My favourite and ultimate move is of course Heaven-Splitting Thunderstrike, but alas, it requires certain weather conditions that cannot be guaranteed, so I cannot show it off here!" He paused for a moment, before adding: "Also, it cannot be performed indoors. As such, I can only demonstrate my lesser moves, such as Spiralling Typhoon Slash!"
He brought his hands together over his head and made a downward chopping motion, a blade of condensed wind forming along the movement and slashing outward. It flew forward to cleave one of the concrete targets in two, the upper half collapsing to the floor.
"I devised it before the Sports Festival to counteract hardened enemies, such as our very own Tatsuma!"
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Indeed you should, for that is what it is!" He exclaimed triumphantly. "In fact, even with these preparations, you proved the superiority of your fiery spirit on the battlefield!"
"Didn't you have another move to show us…?" Yanagi questioned with a tilt of her head.
"Corrrect!" He announced, rolling r's "Behold my Pressure Bomb Cyclone!"
Yoarashi threw his arms up towards the ceiling and gathered wind into two spiralling cyclones over each hand. He began condensing them, shrinking the columns of churning air as he forced them together. When the air had been compressed into a sphere the size of a football between his hands, he sent it out, impacting against a concrete target. It detonated with a boom that made me wince and my ears feel weird, shattering the target into rubble.
"By modulating the strength, I can also use it to stun my opponents!"
"Doubling down on range and area control, huh?" Ectoplasm commented. "That's good, just don't let yourself get caught in hand to hand."
"Believe me sir, I have many plans to address that!" Yoarashi replied, throwing his head back for a laugh. "Alas, my hot-blooded spirit could not allow me to train more than three Super Moves already!
"Even though two of them are the same thing, just shaped differently- hey!" Setsuna drawled sarcastically, but I gently tapped her over the head with the tip of my tail.
"Don't rain on his parade." I told her.
"Practice those moves with Cementoss and Ectoplasm. Even when it feels like you've got it down keep working on them, because there's always something to improve." Vlad King spoke to Yoarashi, but it was clear his words were meant for the whole class. "Accuracy, speed, efficiency, different targets, different environments, variations, all of it and more. You have to be able to perform the Super Move like it's second nature, in any situation you come across. Just because it feels easy on the training grounds is no excuse to slack off, because it's a different matter entirely when you're dead on your feet from exhaustion and being pummelled by an opponent." He finished, turning to regard the rest of us. "Now, I'll be going through the class one by one, and looking at where you're at. Would anybody like to volunteer to go next?"
To my surprise, I saw Yanagi raise her hand. She was usually very quiet and reserved, even if she was very wordy when she did speak up.
"How should we proceed, should we find ourselves in the position of not having any ideas for these special maneuvers?" She asked, fiddling with the hem of her kimono. "As my Quirk necessitates nearby objects to work with, I can't plan around what I'll have access to in the field of battle."
"It's perfectly fine to still be a little lost." Vlad King said. "Or if you just have a general idea, or if you've already got it down and just need to hone it to perfection. That's what this class is for, to bring you all up to speed."
"In your case, Yanagi, I would recommend speaking to the Support Department to try to find equipment you could carry with you to use your Quirk on." Cementoss spoke up, reaching for a container on his belt. He clipped it open, revealing small concrete tablets. "Even if it's not much, I've found that it helps to have something for emergencies. Perhaps a pouch of ball bearings would be useful to you?"
"For similar reasons, I also can't really learn Super Moves." Monoma admitted, shaking his head. "No point in training for specific moves when I can't count on having access to those Quirks."
"Correct. But that's why we have something else in mind for you today." One of the Ectoplasm clones said, stepping closer. "You've had plenty of training adapting to new Quirks and how to fight with them. But at some point in your career, you will run into a situation where you won't have any Quirks stockpiled, and no friendlies to draw them from. What will you do then?"
"Copy them from the villains." Monoma smiled.
"Indeed. But how will you take on an opponent with a Quirk, without one of your own?"
"Spoiler warning: you don't." Setsuna stage-whispered.
Before I could get to her Ectoplasm's head whipped around, his white eyes peering at her.
"Do not be so quick to resort to mockery. It is not an enviable position to be in, to have to stand in the face of a far superior opponent with little hope of victory, yet knowing that you must do so." Then, he returned his attention to Monoma. "Ideally, your opponent wouldn't know you can copy a Quirk at a touch, and thus wouldn't know to keep their distance, but as a Hero you are always working at an informational disadvantage. As such, we'll be working with the assumption…"
As they went off I turned to Setsuna, a remark at the tip of my tongue, but it fell away as I saw that Ectoplasm had more than made his point. Her normally patchy skin had faded into nearly-uniform pale, her eyes wide and glassy.
"Setsuna?"
"So, are you gonna lecture me again?"
"I think Ectoplasm made his point." Probably better than he'd even realized.
"Yeah yeah." She started, before catching herself. "Fuck. Yeah. I'll apologize to Blondie later."
I let it go, tuning back in to watch Itsuka clap her hands together, a visible shockwave rippling outward through the air that sent the clones flying.
"An area effect like that is an invaluable addition to your hand-to-hand arsenal." Vlad King spoke with an approving tone. "Precision will be key. Yoarashi! You're our expert on aerodynamics, work with her to improve her control. This will be important training for you as well, as teaching someone else is also a step on your own path towards mastery."
I watched them from the corner of my eye, even as the class proceeded. Kuroiro had developed the ability to control whatever he was possessing to a limited degree, and by adding a black cloak to his uniform he could use his Quirk on it and move stealthily. Tsuburaba was working on creating different shapes out of solidified air, while Awase had added thick metal plates to his costume which he could repurpose to bind an opponent.
Komori… I wasn't really sure what she was doing.
"This is my Splitgill Lung Strike!" She announced cheerfully, spreading her arms wide.
Lung…? What does that mean?
"Uh, is something supposed to happen?" Tetsutetsu asked, scratching his head.
"Just wait a moment, please!"
Suddenly, the Ectoplasm clone began coughing, at first merely clearing his throat, but soon he was reduced to agonized spasms, gasping for air.
"What was that?"
"I directed some of my schizophyllum commune spores to grow in his throat."
"...Komori, what the fuck." Kaibara questioned, mirroring the reactions evident on the faces of much of the rest of the class. "That's way too cruel."
"It's effective." Komori snapped indignantly.
"She has a point, you know." Monoma spoke up, twirling his stopwatch with his index finger. "It's not the sort of move that you should use casually, but if someone's life was on the line… I'd rather the villain suffer some discomfort than let innocents die."
"We're talking about growing mushrooms inside someone's throat and choking them out!" Tetsutetsu growled. "That's something a villain would do."
"They tried to kill us! In our sleep!" Komori exploded with fury that I hadn't thought the tiny girl was capable of. "It's easy for you to talk a big game when your skin can turn into steel, but not all of us are so lucky!" She jabbed Tetsutetsu on the chest. I didn't think I'd ever seen Komori even get angry before. "How do you expect me to subdue someone five times my bodyweight and probably with super strength to boot, then?! Shall I just lightly spray some spores in their direction and wait for them to oblige?!"
"Enough." Vlad King boomed as he stepped between the two, physically pushing them apart. "Tetsutetsu, Kaibara, I don't want to hear you using that kind of language about your classmates ever again. If you truly believe there's a problem, you come to me or another teacher. Is this understood?"
The two of them looked sulky, but didn't argue.
Vlad King knelt to address Komori, whose burst of anger seemed to have gone as quickly as it had come, sniffing as she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her costume.
"I understand that what happened that night has affected all of us." He said, his remaining eye shining with sympathy. "I'm not forbidding you from using that move. But you have to be careful. You go just a little too far, and someone could end up dead. In addition to your regular therapy, I'm assigning you additional lessons with Recovery Girl."
"Vlad King-Sensei!" I spoke up before I'd even properly processed the thought. "As Vice Class President, I must object!"
"You do not believe additional training is necessary?" He asked neutrally, looking up at me.
"That is not what I meant. I object to singling out Komori. Even if her Quirk appears disturbing, any of us are capable of seriously injuring or killing someone with our Quirks. I-" I choked slightly, bile rising in my throat as I remembered the taste of human flesh. It was like pork. "I could do that simply by stepping on someone. Therefore, I believe that I should also receive this additional training. And suggest that we should all partake, as a class."
"Yeah!" Itsuka joined in. "As the Class President, I second that motion. I could easily injure someone with my strength, and I believe all of us could benefit from it."
"I'm inclined to agree." Monoma added, his eyes twinkling. "Who knows what kind of damage I could do with a strange and unfamiliar Quirk I picked up on the battlefield?"
"A true hero never gives up a chance to better themselves!" Yoarashi said.
The others joined in one by one, eventually even Kaibara, until only Tetsutetsu was left, crossing his arms defiantly. Even he couldn't last long under Itsuka's disapproving gaze.
"Fine, I guess punching someone with a steel fist could hurt 'em pretty bad…"
"Very well. I will make the arrangements." Vlad King said slowly, but there was an odd ghost of a smile on his mouth as he looked at me, before it was gone like it had never existed.
The class went on. Shiozaki showed off her Crucifixion technique, trapping her opponent in a ball of vines suspended in the air. Honenuki could tunnel through the ground by swimming, softening it in front of him and solidifying it behind him. He'd added an air tank and a GPS to his costume to help with navigating.
But that smile continued to bother me. What did it mean? Did Vlad King approve? Did he want me to speak up? Why couldn't he just say it himself?
Except… thinking about it, what would have happened if he had? I could picture it in my head. Groaning and complaining about boring safety lessons after hours. Worse, Komori would be an easy conduit for that frustration. 'She's the one who skirted the line, so why do we all need to be punished?'
If he knew us well enough to know at least one of us would speak up… that son of- He got us to volunteer for extra lessons of our own initiative, and because it was presented as solidarity for our classmate instead of collective punishment, he managed to strengthen the class spirit while he was at it, instead of dividing it.
And if he was wrong, he could still change his mind and 'come up' with it himself. It was manipulative, but I couldn't help but respect his dedication.
Returning my attention to the rest of the class, I saw Setsuna separate her hands at the wrist, new ones growing in their place before separating again. Before long, some twenty-odd disembodied fists floated in the air, each of them grabbing a small device from her belt.
"Gecko Rush!"
The fists flew forward in a barrage, the devices crackling with electricity as the Ectoplasm clone fell to the ground, convulsing. Tokage turned us, proudly thrusting her chest forward with her hands on her hips.
"I don't know what they taught you in Middle School Biology, but geckos don't have tasers." Yui noted.
"They could if you're not a coward."
"Why don't we have tasers?" Tsubaraba complained.
"You could, if you took the certification course like she did." Vlad King explained. "And passed the written and practical exam."
"Eeeehhh…"
"The tasers might be effective, but only hold so much charge and you won't be able to bring them everywhere." Vlad King said, turning to Setsuna. "I want you to also train for a version without them."
"Fiiiineee…"
Bondo concentrated his glue into a spitball that he could shoot at greater distances than merely spraying. Fukidashi's Quirk was basically nothing but Super Moves, so he had plenty to work with.
When it was Yui's turn, she stepped forward, announcing her attack with a blank face.
"Telescopic Impact."
She pulled out a collapsible baton from her belt, swinging it over her head in the direction of one of Ectoplasm's clones. As it descended her Quirk activated, the baton rapidly expanding in size until it reached the concrete pillar. She was forced to let go of it, allowing the eighteen wheeler-size rod to fall with earthshaking force, squashing the clone.
Yui tapped the baton once, shrinking it down to its original size, and then collapsed it back into a pocket on her belt. Then, she pulled down her right sleeve, showing off a wrist-mounted support item. She reached into one of the pouches on her costume, pulling out what seemed to be a smooth pebble, and loaded it into the item.
"Siege Catapult."
I could make out the click of a spring mechanism being released as the pebble was flung towards the concrete pillars. It began growing mid-air- Yui must have shrunken down boulders to use as ammunition -and hit home with incredible force, retaining its velocity despite the drastic increase in mass.
"You'll want to focus on accuracy and situational awareness." Ectoplasm, or at least one of his clones, said. "The baton is a good idea, but I noticed that once you've expanded it you can't control its trajectory anymore, so you have to be certain of your targeting. Same with the boulders, and not just for accuracy. Those things can cause serious damage if you miss."
"Understood." Yui nodded. "I have several different sizes of boulders, and I can adjust the spring force of the catapult." She paused for a moment, before continuing. "I will also speak with the Support Department about alternative projectile materials."
"Good." Vlad King nodded. "Get spares of the baton and the catapult as well, and shrink them down so you can keep them on you. With a Quirk that needs objects to use it on, you don't want to be caught without them or disarmed."
Yui stepped back as Rin came forward to demonstrate how he could extend his scales like hedgehog spines, shielding himself from attack. Kaibara was practicing rotating his legs to bounce around.
Tetsutetsu… was Tetsutetsu.
"Steel Justice Charge! I run at my opponent and pound them to submission with my fists!"
"That just sounds like what he does every time…" Yui commented quietly as Tetsutetsu ran off.
"It might seem simple, but it's actually quite clever." Itsuna explained, raising a finger. "He's yelling and charging towards the enemy, drawing attention to himself and away from his teammates or civilians. Most villains wouldn't expect a Hero to simply charge at them, putting them on the back foot, and he's forcing them to react to him instead."
I glanced at Tetsutetsu, who was yelling at the top of his lungs while slowly punching the concrete pillar to pieces.
"I… really don't think he thought about it that far…"
"Well, maybe it is simple, but is that so bad?" Itsuka replied, a strange defensive edge to her voice. "He's doing what works, with what he has. That's admirable."
Setsuna and Uui gave Itsuka odd looks, but said nothing.
"Yeah, I didn't mean to sound so negative." I mumbled. "Sorry."
"My turn now!" Pony announced cheerfully. "Dash Hammer: Horn Express!"
Six of her horns slotted into the stirrups in her costume, locking in place and rocketing her forward at lightning speed. She zipped across the warehouse, zig-zagging between the concrete cliffs and pillars. Her top speed wasn't anything special compared to speedsters like Iida or even Midoriya, but her maneuverability was insane. With telekinetic control over her movements she could stop, turn or change direction at the speed of thought, even mid-air. She finished off with a flying roundhouse kick, her hoof obliterating the Ectoplasm clone's head and sending it spinning through the air, before it dissolved into silvery smoke.
It was easy to forget that despite her tiny size, Pony had inherited parts of her parents' Mutant Quirks, and her kicks hit hard even without the velocity imparted by her horns behind them.
"Good use of your mobility, you can avoid enemy attacks and confuse them about where you're coming from." Ectoplasm told her. "Locking all of your horns in place leaves you open to counterattack if the enemy sees through it, however. Consider detaching one or two horns to shield yourself a moment before the impact, even if it costs you some of your velocity."
"Also, talk to the Support Department about adding some impact-resistant padding to your costume." Vlad King added. "We don't want you to get injured flying around."
"Got it!" She replied.
After Pony, there were only two left.
"After my loss to Miss Tatsuma in the Sports Festival, I spent some time thinking about how to best proceed." Shishida explained. "For the first time, I had met someone who was bigger, stronger, faster, tougher and more skilled than I was. Furthermore I realized I would continue to meet such opponents, and brute force would prove insufficient. Alas, I realized I had already found the answer during our battle on impulse."
"You could transform." I stated plainly. "While I could not."
"Quite. Not just that, I found that I could transform quickly and frequently, and honed that advantage with training. The result of this training is the maneuver I am calling 'Re-Beast'." He said, turning towards me as he transformed into his beast form. "Miss Tatsuma, if you would please attempt to strike me?"
"Well, if you're sure." I took a slight run up and charged at him, swinging a fist towards his head. Just before the impact he de-transformed, allowing my fist to sail over him, before re-transforming, grabbing a hold of my forelimb and doing the best impression of a judo throw possible when the target is a giant dragon instead of a human. I landed on my back with a thud, smoothly rolling onto my feet.
"It's a good trick to keep the enemy off balance, but don't rely on it too much." Vlad King told him. "If an enemy knows where to strike, you've just made yourself a softer target."
"Of course. I have not neglected my regular training regimen either, it is merely that it is not quite conspicuous enough to warrant Super Move status."
There was something that was bothering me, however.
"Just one question." I spoke up, eyeing him. "It's been almost five months since the Sports Festival. You made this style to counter opponents like me. But in all this time, you didn't ask me to spar with you to test it?"
"It did not feel proper to flaunt the fact that I could transform, when your situation clearly caused you distress."
I felt a wave of annoyance pass through me. It was thoughtful of him, sure, but it felt... patronizing, to have him decide I was too fragile to know what he was up to.
Still, I didn't voice the thought so as to not appear ungrateful, and soon I was spared from the awkward silence.
"Tatsuma!" Vlad King turned to look up at me. "You're up. Show us what you've got."
"Right." I shook my head, gathering my thoughts. "Endeavour taught me a lot about controlling my flames, but… I'm a dragon first and fire-user second. I can't just copy his moves and expect them to work for me. So instead… I've been coming up with my own style, combining the two instead of trying to separate them.
I picked out my target, a huge concrete pillar nearly my size Cementoss had left jutting out of the floor for just such a purpose. I breathed in, my entire body coiling like a taut spring, muscles bunching up beneath white scales. Then, with one explosive movement I accelerated into a charge, my claws gouging grooves into the floor.
Right before impact I exhaled, flames billowing out of my mouth, but instead of spreading out they wrapped around my right forelimb, covering it in a layer of swirling orange fire. I swiped horizontally, flame-sheathed claws slicing through the concrete like butter. The pillar fell backwards, separated into multiple pieces, the edges glowing red-hot.
"Layering your flame breath on top of your physical strikes, taking advantage of increased control at close ranges. Impressive." Vlad King nodded as I walked back. "Why the claws? Would not a headbutt be more devastating?"
"It obstructs my view, and my control is not good enough to leave openings for my eyes yet." I replied. "Ultimately I want to form it into a reactive cloak around me, covering my body and protecting me against attacks but able to be shifted around for offense, or even ejected in a jet for mobility. But that's still far in the future."
"No hesitation." Vlad King nodded again approvingly. "Very good. Do you have a name for this technique?"
"I don't-"
"Furnace Fist Style!" Pony cut me off, pumping a fist into the air with enthusiasm.
"That's not what it's called!"
"Well, what is it called, then?"
"Nothing! It doesn't have a name!" I almost went to fold my arms until I remembered that I was a quadruped at the moment and couldn't do that without falling over. "It's silly."
"Ah." Vlad King replied, as only a teacher who's probably heard the same argument year after year can.
"Hey!" Setsuna called out.
"I don't judge you, so don't judge me."
"You don't have to name your Super Moves, but it's a useful shorthand." Vlad King explained. "When I call out that I'm using Blood Binding Art, my fellow Heroes know that I'm about to snare the feet of the opponents, and that they should take advantage of that. When you hear Endeavour say 'Prominence Burn', you know that you need to vacate the area because he's using his strongest attack."
"It still feels pretentious to call my attacks." I muttered.
"All-Might calls his attacks."
"And I'm not All-Might." I said, tossing my neck in frustration.
"Then don't call them out in battle." Vlad King said. "Having a name for a move is useful in general, and If you don't come up with one, the public will. They love that sort of stuff."
"Ooh! That's right!" Pony cheered. "Furnace Fist Style is going to look so cool on your Hero Wiki article!"
"It's not called that stop calling it that."
-----
"What on earth are you wearing?"
"It's a school uniform, Setsuna." I mumbled self-consciously, fiddling with my tie as I sat behind my desk. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're wearing one too."
"No, but, I mean that's a boys uniform."
"Technically, yes." I said, trying not to show my nervousness as I pulled out the UA Student's Handbook from my back pocket. "But if you'd like to check for yourself, there's no rule saying that girls can't wear the boys' uniform, and vice versa. Only that you should wear one or the other."
"And they just allowed that? I refuse to believe Nedzu didn't realize the loophole when writing it."
"Actually, he said that it's intentional."
"Wait, so I could have been wearing pants instead of a skirt this whole time?" Setsuna exclaimed, slamming her palms on her desk.
"Would you have?"
"No, but I'm outraged I didn't know I had a choice." She huffed, before turning back to glance up at me. "So, uh, I thought you got permission to attend class as a dragon?"
"I did, yeah, but… you know, I'm just testing the waters. S-seeing how it feels." I mumbled. "In small doses. Like-like Itsuka said."
She was quiet for a long moment. "That's really brave of you."
"Well, um, I might still… decide to g-go back if it becomes too much."
Goddammit. Here I was again, reduced to a stuttering mess.
I sat down behind my desk, booting up my tablet. Because yeah, even with fingers I still couldn't write. Three years without fine motor skills will do that to you. Even if I worked my ass off to one day regain that ability… I'd probably never have neat or tidy handwriting again.
The rest of 1-B filtered into the classroom one by one, variations of my conversation with Setsuna playing out several times. Why I was in human form, why I was wearing pants, offering support… I loved them for it, but it was also tiring, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Ectoplasm arrived to start Mathematics.
Schoolwork had become easier once I'd gotten used to the fact that I just couldn't remember it from before, but it was still rough. All of my memories from… back then were growing hazy with every passing year, and only the ones colored with strong emotions seemed to retain any sort of clarity.
Algebra was not one of those memories.
Which left me in a pickle. Hero Students were not allowed to neglect academic subjects, and what would have been excellence in another school was merely passable at UA, Plus Ultra and all that. To excel, you would need to be a certified genius.
And I wasn't a genius.
I was good, certainly, and had some frankly unfair advantages like already being a proficient English speaker, but academically I was merely middle of the road. It was… frustrating. I felt like I wasn't living up to Ryuko's recommendation.
I tried to focus on the lesson instead, tapping away at my tablet as I made notes. That, at least, was a point in the favor of humanity: fingers were a lot more useful than claws.
That was about where it ended, however.
Even merely following Ectoplasm's lecture was significantly harder- I had 20/20 vision and no hearing problems, yes, but I was used to being able to hear a pin drop in a busy cafeteria and having eyesight better than an eagle. It felt like I was wearing earplugs and eyeglasses of the wrong prescription.
And that wasn't even talking about all the aches and itches that were part and parcel of the human experience. Seriously, I wanted to have words with whoever designed my nervous system to give me an uncontrollable urge to scratch various parts of my body every so often. My clothes chafed and my tie felt like it was choking me.
All in all, I wasn't a fan.
After the outburst at the mall, it felt easier to examine my own feelings, especially as I switched between forms regularly.
I felt out of my element in human form. Exactly as I had in the water. Like I was… floating, helpless.
My fists clenched, forearm muscles pulling taut against the sleeves.
It was fine. I looked around myself. I was in class, surrounded by my friends.
I took a deep, calming breath, and allowed myself to relax. I unclenched my fingers one by one, counting to twenty, and then tuned back in on the lesson on trigonometry.
Eventually, the bell rang and it was over. I'd lasted a full lesson. I sighed, slumping out of my seat to pack up my tablet.
"Eeeeeee-"
Pony hurled herself at me, her head colliding with my abdomen. She staggered backward slightly from the impact, dazed, before throwing her hands around me. I returned the hug as best I could despite the fact that I was taller than her by more than two heads.
"What's the occasion?"
"Don't need one!"
Well, I couldn't argue with that. Alright, so maybe there was another upside to humanity in addition to fingers: hugs.
Hugs were great.
"So how does it feel, not being the tallest person in our class anymore?"
I gave Setsuna a bland look as Pony pulled away to go pack up her own stuff.
"Lies and slander. None of you are taller than me."
"Bondo is."
I looked at the quiet, yellow-skinned boy, and scowled. He'd always been tall and broad, and it seemed that he'd put on even more height over the summer.
"He's not taller than me. Look." I stepped next to him and moved my hand over our heads to illustrate. "See?"
"Ryuuzaki, horns don't count for measuring height."
"Of course they count!" I huffed, crossing my arms. "Pony, horns count right?"
"Definitely." Pony, who hadn't listened to a word either of us had said before then, replied without hesitation.
"See?"
"She's biased." Setsuna retorted immediately.
"No, she's a subject matter expert with personal experience."
"Which makes her biased."
"Then everyone on the planet is biased- either they have horns or don't have horns. No matter which it is, they have a stake in the matter."
"You're impossible." Setsuna rolled her eyes. "Also, if horns count, then so does Bondo's… squiggly thing."
"It's floppy, it's more like his hair. Not comparable to horns at all."
"Do I get a say in this?" Bondo asked, scratching the side of his head.
"No." We both said at the same time.
"Hmm. Well, I'll leave you to it then."
I breathed in slowly, looking around. Most of the class had already left or were in the process of doing so. Itsuka and Yui were off to study English, leaving just me, Setsuna and Pony. I paused, trying to figure out how to say what I wanted to.
"You know you can just spit it out instead of looking at us all shifty." Setsuna said.
"I don't have anything to spit out." I mumbled.
"Ryuuzaki, you are the worst liar in the history of liars."
"Ehh… the thing is.." I fiddled with my fingers. "You remember that weight machine Cementoss made for me to train in my dragon form with? With the pulley system and slabs of concrete?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I… might not have realized how much stronger I'd been getting over the summer, and snapped the nanofiber cable he gave me." I felt my face heating up. "And it's going to be a few days before the Support Department can get a new and thicker one. Sssooo since Hound Dog cleared me to start going to the normal gym, I was going to give that a shot. AndIwaswonderingifeitherofyouwouldliketocomewithmebecause-"
"Sorry, I'm having a video call with my parents." Pony said apologetically.
"Oh!" Setsuna exclaimed, her face lighting up with excitement. "I'll come with you, there's something cool I've been meaning to show you! I just need to grab my gym clothing from the changing room!"
"Great!" I said, rubbing the back of my head. "I need to do the same, anyway. I haven't unwrapped my gym uniform from the packaging yet."
-----
I tugged on the short-sleeved shirt, completing the uniform. It fit nicely, even around the shoulders and biceps- I'd just forwarded the measurements from Konichi to the Support Department. It was comfortable, made of high-quality fabric, and there was something exhilarating about finally seeing the familiar, stylized U and A symbol on my chest. It conveyed a sense of belonging.
And… it just looked nice. You know, I hadn't gotten around to thinking about my hero costume yet…
"Alright!"
At the other side of the changing room, I saw that Setsuna had finished changing, pulling a bundle of something out of her locker and tucking it under her arm.
"I'm ready to go." She called out.
"...Why do you have an extra set of clothing with you?"
"You'll see." Setsuna replied mysteriously, gesturing for me to follow her. "Come on."
UA's gym took up its own wing of the building, with different rooms for different kinds of exercise. I glanced through a few of the doors we walked past, seeing endless rows of treadmills, leg presses, rowing machines and other exercise equipment I didn't even know the names of. Not just vast in numbers but in variation, different kinds and sizes of machines.
Setsuna clearly had a destination in mind, walking with purpose as she took us to a specific door. Inside was an expansive room with a soft lat covering the floor, the walls lined with racks upon racks of dumbbells. There were benches and seats scattered around the room, many of them occupied with students doing exercises and lifting weights. Setsuna didn't seem interested in any of them, leading me to a far corner of the room.
I saw… two disembodied hands floating mid-air, rhythmically lifting a pair of dumbbells over and over again.
"Ta-dah!"
"...Are those… your arms?"
"Yep!" Setsuna thrust her chest forward proudly. "After Kamino, I figured out a way to sneak in some extra physical training."
"And that… works?!"
"Sure does. My range is big enough to keep doing it from the dorms, so I can be here in the gym sixteen hours a day." Her arms popped off her shoulders, the other two taking their place. "Just have to make sure to pop in every so often to replace them."
"Huh. Wait. So if you can now grow extra arms, what about other body parts? How far does it go?"
"I'm glad you asked that." She grinned, dropping the bundle of clothes onto the floor.
Then her head split open. The two halves peeled aside as her exposed brain floated free from her skull, stem and all. Bundles of nerves were already starting to extend outwards as it floated over to the discarded gym clothing, while Setsuna's head closed back up. She reached down to hold up the shirt's collar, letting the brain float inside before stepping back to watch as the bundle wiggled and slowly rose. Exposed bone, muscle and eventually skin pushed out from the openings, forming human limbs.
After maybe twenty seconds or so, Setsuna reached down to pull the other Setsuna to stand, the two of them turning to me with identical expressions of smugness, hands on their hips.
"There you go!" They spoke in unison, creating a weird chorus effect. "What do ya think?"
"...You could have warned me." I said when I finally found my words, crossing my arms.
"Aww, you don't think it's cool?"
"I mean it is, but it's also kind of horrifying. I got to see your innards." 'Kind of' being the polite understatement of the century. "So you can clone yourself?"
"Horrifying, says the giant dragon who could just walk through a building without even slowing." The two Setsunas mumbled. "But no, not exactly cloning. More like meat puppets." The newer Setsuna reached over to rap her knuckles on the other's forehead. "The lights are on but nobody's home. See?"
"You can't grow another brain?"
"No, that's the main limitation of my Quirk, it doesn't work on my brain. I can't split it, which means I can't grow more of them, and my regeneration always starts from whichever piece has my brain, I can't grow a new leg from a toe. I assume I'll die if my brain is destroyed, but obviously I can't exactly test that."
"Huh. Well, that's still pretty damn cool. You could make an army of doppelgangers, do all sorts of things."
"Yeah, aaall kinds of things~" She winked up at me.
"...Huh?"
"Nevermind." She sighed. "Anyway, I still only have one brain so I only have so much processing power to go around. Trying to pilot multiple different bodies doing different things quickly starts to feel like trying to write an essay with your left arm and play table tennis with your right, while tapping your foot to the tune of the Imperial March. It's much easier to have them copy your movements-" she said as she raised two right arms and wiggled her fingers in sync- "or do something really simple and repetitive, that doesn't require much concentration."
"Like lifting dumbbells or doing sit-ups. That's pretty clever. You can work out for excessive amounts without having to commit the time to it."
"That's right." Setsuna fingergunned up at me. "And if I leave a head here, I get to watch cute guys and gals working out all day." She seemed to be waiting for a reaction, but when she didn't get whatever she was looking for, her shoulders slumped slightly. "Anyway, that's enough about me. So, where were you planning to start?"
"Well… I don't really know." I wrung my hands. "I haven't… really been to gyms a lot. Or nearly at all."
"Wait, really? You haven't been to the gym before?" Setsuna raised an eyebrow, her gaze falling on my arms. "Obviously there was the whole dragon thing, but not even before all that?"
"Well… Mom was pretty strict about how much I was allowed to train. You know, not neglecting school work and stuff. I ended up focusing on training with my Quirk first, since that'd be more important to getting into a Hero School." I shrugged helplessly. "Didn't think I'd get stuck as a dragon."
"Huh. In that case…" A grin slowly emerged on Setsuna's features. "Then we're going to hit the weights. This I gotta see."
"...Are we not in the weight room right now?"
"No, not these." Setsuna smiled. "I'm talking about real weights."
-----
We'd left Setsuna's doppelganger behind to continue her workout as we moved on. The room that she led me to was much like the one before, just with the dumbbell racks switched out for barbells and separate weights. There were lifting cages and benches scattered here and there, and on the far end of the room was a row of machines that I didn't recognize the function of.
"Yo! Tokage! Tatsuma! Over here!"
Turning my head, I saw Yoarashi sitting by one of the racks, a water bottle in his hand. With him were Tetsutetsu, Kirishima and that one big, muscular guy from 1-A. Sato I think his name was?
"Even better." Setsuna grinned. "Let's go talk to the guys."
The four of them had obviously been in the middle of a workout, and from the amount of sweat I saw on their foreheads, they'd been going at it.
"Should've known you meatheads would head for the gym straight from class." Setsuna called out to them with a sly grin as we approached.
"What, like you didn't?" Tetsutetsu fired back with a smile. "It's only been twenty minutes."
Setsuna merely laughed, elbowing me in the side.
"I'm just showing her the ropes around here."
Sato was looking me up and down, before breaking out into a friendly smile.
"You're Tatsuma, right?"
He was tall, not quite as much as Yoarashi but far broader, with a barrel chest and obvious muscle mass.
"Yeah, that's me."
"Damn, didn't realize you were so buff. Then again, your dragon form's pretty ripped too, saw you pushing up that boulder at the camp. Pretty impressive!"
"Thank you." I said, a little unsure on how to respond to the compliment.
"So!" Setsuna clapped her hands, drawing my attention again as she stepped forward to stand slightly between me and the boys. "What have you guys been up to here?" She asked with a slight grin. "Measuring your manliness?"
"We've been holding a heroic contest of might!" Yoarashi announced. "An ultimate test of each other's willpower, hot blood and dedication!"
"Exactly what I said." Setsuna replied with a straight face.
"We're having a weightlifting competition." Sato explained. "We each take turns with the others spotting, and once everyone's had a turn we increase the weight. Last one to drop out wins."
Curious, I walked closer to the rack behind Yoarashi. Mounted on it was a large barbell, a long metal rod with multiple circular weight plates added on to each end. Deciding to test my luck, I grabbed the bar by the middle and lifted. It made a metallic groan as it rose off the rack, the bar bending slightly under the weight of the plates. I felt the weight in my hand, but it wasn't too hard to lift.
"This is the one you've been competing over, right?" I asked as I turned back toward the group.
The others looked at me with stunned expressions.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Not… necessarily." Kirishima began slowly, as if nervous. "It's just… I mean…
"What Rockyboy here is trying to say is that that weight is normally meant to be lifted with two hands." Setsuna cackled.
-----
Apparently, I'd managed to kill the mood with that stunt, and none of them felt like continuing the competition because 'we already know who won'. I'd felt bad, but the boys seemed to shrug it off, instead deciding to stick around to help me figure out weightlifting.
"Uh, are you sure this is a good amount of weight?" I asked, testing the bar. "It's… not that heavy."
"Wait, that's still not enough for you?" Tetsutetsu boggled, looking at the thick metal plates mounted on the reinforced bar, substantially bigger than the one before. "Just how strong are you?"
"Well, um, that's… what we're here to find out." I mumbled, avoiding his gaze. "It's like… I'd probably struggle to lift this with one arm, but with two it's not really a challenge."
"That's good!" Sato replied with a thumbs-up. "You don't want to start learning weightlifting with something you can barely lift. You need to get comfortable with the movements and reps before that."
"Your hot-blooded spirit must be tempered before it can be fully unleashed!"
"I guess that makes sense." I conceded, trying not to roll my eyes at Yoarashi.
"And besides, repetition is king in lifting." Sato went on." It's fun to test your limits, but for actual exercise you gotta be able to do the reps over and over, and you can't do that if you're exhausted after just a couple of lifts."
"Huh. You guys seem to know a lot about this stuff."
"Well yeah, we didn't put on all this beef sitting at home!" Sato replied enthusiastically., flexing his own sizeable bicep. "Though I understand you've had your own path."
"Why don't we finally get a move on?" Setsuna crossed her arms, looking strangely annoyed.
"Let's get going then!" Kirishima said enthusiastically, stepping up next to me. "So, the first thing you gotta know is how to grip the bar. Seems simple, right? But there's some nuance to it. Palms-down is the easiest, and so that's what we'll be starting with, but ya just can't lift as much with it. Palms-up offers a better grip, but the range of motion is limited so it's not much use for most exercises.
"You can also mix, one palm up and the other down. It's more versatile, but ya gotta switch it up or else you're gonna pull a muscle." Tetsutetsu added. "Unless of course, ya use that to strengthen your muscles so they won't pull so easily!"
"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works." Setsuna replied dryly.
"Armwrestle me for it then, lizard girl."
"Sure, but there's no rule specifying how many right arms I can use."
"Why don't we start with something simple, like front squats?" Sato suggested, ignoring the other two and stepping up to the rack next to me. "First, you'll want to stand underneath the bar like this, so that it's resting on your collarbone, against your neck. Now put your hands on the bar, palms away from you. Get a good grip, and then lift the bar off the rack."
I mirrored his movements, lifting the barbell into the air. It was a little heavy, but nothing I couldn't easily manage.
"Now, set your feet apart a little, and bend your knees to lower yourself down like this. Keep your chest upright, don't bend over. Stop when your hips are level with your knees or if you feel like you're losing your balance, and push yourself up to stand. That's one rep."
Once again I repeated Sato's movements, powering the bar up and down. Despite the relative lightness of the weight, my stance felt annoyingly shaky, unstable.
"That's why you start with a lower weight." Kirishima said. "You gotta turn your feet outward more. Gives you a better footing."
"Alright." I corrected my stance and repeated the motion, immediately noticing the improvement. It felt… not good, but satisfying. Like I was regaining control over my body.
I did the rep until it felt adequately familiar, and then it swiftly became boring in its lack of challenge. But that was, in a way, good. Better boring and mundane than strange, weird or uncomfortable.
"Well damn, that sure was something to watch." Sato said as I re-racked the weight. "I probably couldn't even get that weight off the rack."
Setsuna scowled at him, but didn't say anything.
"So, uh, you don't use your Quirk while lifting weights?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Nah. Well, of course you gotta train your Quirk and how to handle it, but for just working out it's more fun to go without. See that area over there?" He gestured towards the row of machines I hadn't recognized when we came in. "That's for the ultra-dense weights. They've got these robot arms to act as spotters, that hold on to the bar and keep it from falling if you drop it. 'Cuz if you drop a twenty-ton weight on somebody's foot, not even Recovery Girl's bringing it back."
" 's so boring." Tetsutetsu complained. "No sense of adventure."
"We may still have need to head over there!" Yoarashi announced with unwavering enthusiasm, gesturing toward the bar I'd just used. "Tatsuma has already triumphed over some of the heaviest weights available."
"You guys really don't need to." I mumbled, rubbing the back of my head. "It's fine."
"Nonsense. We come by every day, but it's only gonna be your first time at the gym once. We're happy to help." Sato said, leaning against one of the weight racks.
"I bet you are." Setsuna scoffed.
Seriously, what the hell was up with her? First she wanted us to go over and talk to the boys, but now she was acting like their very presence offended her, especially Sato.
"We can still practice the moves here with the smaller weights though, right?" I said, trying to defuse the tension. "So what's next?"
"We could do rows next?" Kirishima suggested. "Bakugo taught me those."
Bakugo. I still needed to thank him for the save against the League.
"By the way, where's the 'splodey boy himself?" Setsuna asked Kirishima. "He usually hangs around you, doesn't he?"
"Oh, he's in house arrest." Sato replied. "Got caught fighting with Midoriya in one of the training grounds at night."
"Wait, Midoriya?" She asked incredulously.
"Well the thing is, Bakugo got caught by the villains." Kirishima said, seemingly torn between not wanting to gossip and defending his friend. "And then Tatsuma got caught trying to save Midoriya who was trying to save him. Leading to the whole Kamino thing. He, uh, I think he took the whole thing pretty hard, y-know?"
I could see that. Which, if I'd seen anything of him in the last half a year, probably meant that he'd see my gratitude as a way to humiliate him by forcing him to acknowledge that I had gotten caught because of him.
I sighed internally. Bakugo was a deeply unpleasant individual to deal with, and I had no desire to spend time with him. To be frank, he was a terrible Hero.
But he was, nevertheless, a Hero. He had saved my life. Twice over, first with the tracker and when Shigaraki had been about to kill me. From what the others had told me he had thrown himself into danger mere moments after having been rescued.
And for that he deserved my thanks, no matter how little I looked forward to it. Even if he didn't want them.
----
"Come on, you can do it!"
"Unleash your heroic spirit! Plus Ultra!"
My arms and shoulders burned with strain as I struggled to lift the bar upward. I was laying horizontally on a bench with the others gathered around me as I tried to press the barbell back up again.
The others cheered as I finally hoisted the bar up, biceps pushing against the sleeves of my gym uniform. It made a metallic clang as I returned it to the rack, letting out a breath of relief as I pulled myself to sit. Behind me, the machine beeped and several more robotic arms unfolded to remove the high-density weight plates from the bar and return them to storage.
"Well, I think that's going to be it from me. I'm wiped out." I said, taking a drink out of the water bottle Setsuna offered me. We'd been at it for a while, and once we'd moved to the heavier weights I'd found myself tiring.
"I would hope so, considering you just bench pressed over a metric ton."
"A-anyway, thanks guys." I said, rubbing the back of my head. "You've been a real help, but I'll let you get back to your own training now."
We said our goodbyes to the boys, leaving in high spirits.
A good workout… felt good. I felt like I was finally making progress in mastering my own body. It felt satisfying to know that all those hours spent pushing a giant boulder up a hill had counted for something. For once, I didn't feel weak or clumsy or stupid.
I was still riding that high while Setsuna and I left the gym.
"Well, that was pretty fun!" I said as we walked back into the 1-B girls' changing room. "Thanks for coming with me."
"Somebody had to." Setsuna smiled. "Who knows what bad habits you would have picked up otherwise. Next thing you know, Tetsutetsu has you try to balance a barbell between your horns."
"You say that, but if you really think about it…" I trailed off as Setsuna descended into a fit of giggles.
I was looking forward to a nice, warm shower: as I'd discovered, there was another downside to humanity that I'd just discovered.
"Look at this. Ugh." I ran a hand over my forehead, and then flicked droplets of sweat towards Setsuna. "Disgusting. I miss not having sweat glands. Man, when you think about it-"
"Don't say it…"
"-Reptiles really are superior beings."
"It's not reptiles, you're just a cheating cheater!" Setsuna pointed an indignant finger at me. "Real animals are supposed to drop dead if they just build up heat with no way to disperse it! Sweat is actually an ingenious way of thermal regulation, but you just- just ignore basic biology!"
"Alright, let me amend my statement. Dragons really are superior beings. Does that make it better?"
"No!"
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