34 Chapter 33

Kirishima and I eventually got directions from an older student. The weight room was perfect. It was designed specifically for super strength and speed. I went around figuring out my one rep max so I can work out a proper routine and what weight I need to be using. I found the sweet spot around 4x bodyweight so around 1000 lbs for big muscle groups and compound exercises and less for single muscle groups. I then went onto a supped up treadmill where once I got into it I could run at 70mph and sprint at 130. I found that my acceleration is bad. I'm good at maintaining a speed once I get there, but to actually get to my top speed I need a fair bit of straight runway. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything to replace my pitching machine training with. After a bit of working out, I went to work.

The next morning I went to UA early to workout. Then after working out made my way to class. Classes throughout the day were incredibly boring. As someone fluent in English I've got a better grasp on the language than the teacher, I know math well past calculus, and science well into the university level from my time in the vault. Leaving only Japanese which feels more like busywork, History which is just memorization, and hero studies. I'm left with one class I look forward to. One class, I pay attention to just to let my perfect memory work its magic. And one class I have to put the bare minimum of actual effort in. This is going to be a long three years.

My boredom finally ended when it was time for hero studies and All Might came into the class by busting through the door. We're doing mock battles today 2v2 we'll be attacking or defending a location inside of a building with a randomly assigned partner against another randomly assigned team. Sounds fun, but it gets better. Today we get our costumes. There is something special about wearing your own superhero costume. I feel hyped just wearing my ranger combat armor. Even though I know what my classmates' costumes will be they still look great in person. But there is kind of an elephant in the changing room.

"Alright if no else is going to ask I guess I will. Mineta what is with the costume? Explain yourself."

"What do you mean. My hair balls are purple so the majority of my costume is purple also. Then I use yellow for highlights because it's opposite to purple. Then I've got my belt/codpiece shaped like a bowl. Like a bowl of grapes."

Collectively the locker lets out an

"That's what it was!"

"Wait what did you think it was?" But no one answered

"Guys we don't want to be late"

"Good call"

"Let's go"

"Wait tell me what you thought it was."

We avoid answering all the way down to the class. All Might then explains the scenario of 2v2 attackers vs defenders with groups assigned at random. Both sides have capture tape to eliminate their opponents. The attackers win if they reach the defended bomb. The defenders win on reaching the time limit or having captured the attackers. For my team, I'm assigned Ashido but we won't be going until the third round against Tokoyami and Asui. The first round is kind of a mess. Bakugou and Midoriya just end up trading haymaker super moves nearly blowing up the building. Ilda does alright but get distracted and loses to Uraraka jumping onto the bomb. After the fight, Midoriya is sent to the nurse's office again and All Might has us discuss who did what well. I say discussion but Yaoyorozu basically just answered it like an open and shut case. Saying Ilda performed the best because he took the scenario the most seriously, Midoriya and Bakugou were both reckless, destructive, and not focusing on the match. Uraka lost her focus and also performed a needlessly reckless attack. Which is the explanation All Might was looking for because this is all he added to her explanation.

"Well young Ilda may have been a bit too stiff but correct answer"

I don't necessarily agree though so I raise my hand

"All Might can I offer a counterpoint."

"Go ahead, Hano"

"Well, I disagree with Yaoyorozu about Ilda and Uraraka. Ilda knew that Bakugou was going to act aggressively. But he neither tried to dissuade him nor took advantage of his actions. I'm not saying he could have change Bakugous's mind, but he didn't try and then decided to act on his own. He did use the soundest defensive strategy, but only if he was on his own. Bakugou was causing chaos on the lower floors and made for a good diversion/distraction, but Ilda didn't take advantage of that. The match was like 2v1v1 instead of 2v2. As for Uraraka, her losing concentration is a minor issue. While not ideal leaving direct combat makes naturally more relaxed. As for her finishing super move it was relatively tame. Bakugou and Midoriya both used super moves capable of destroying the building. Uraraka's was much more sensible it was hardly worse than throwing a lot of rocks."

"Also excellent points. I don't believe young Ilda is responsible for Bakugou's actions, but your right that he didn't take full advantage of his partner. It was also understandable that Uraraka lost some focus in the middle of the match, but that is something we try to train out of students as they get more experience. I also agree with your reframing of Uraraka's final attack. It was still reckless, but there is some inherent degree of risk in fighting next to the bomb. The best option would have been to not fight in the bomb room by luring Ilda away."

The next battle was between Mezo with Todoroki and Hagakure with Ojiro. This was the first real-time I had seen Todoroki. I mean I had seen him in passing or standing with groups, but having him standing right in front of me acting as the center of attention was much different. I was overwhelmed by a desire to hurt him. Images of me standing over his bloodied broken body flashed in my mind. I was so angry that it wasn't going to be me who was fighting him. I had to restrain myself from acting out. When the four students left the room to prepare for the activity I started taking slow breaths to calm myself. Back under control, I could more objectively think about everything. I kept my long term plans at the center of my mind to keep myself focused. However, this violent change in personality freaked me out. I'm no paragon of virtue, but I still draw a line at wanting to seriously injury a teenager because of something their father did. A father that they themselves hate. Hopefully, I can get used to seeing Todoroki because he really doesn't deserve this violent vendetta that I've connected to him.

For now, though keeping myself from acting on anything is the best I can do. Todorki's battle was only notable, because of how quick it was. Todoroki decided he didn't want to play around and just froze the entire building ending the match in moments. This was great for me as I could quickly go back to ignoring him when he returned to the classroom and isolated himself from the rest of the class.

The next match is my match. Ashido and I are given 5 minutes to prep before Tokoyami and Asui are allowed to attack. "So your quirk is creating acid right?"

"Yep and yours is super-strength, right?

Huh. I guess I haven't explicitly told people I'm quirkless. I'll deal with that later.

" Yea I'm pretty strong do you think your acid can melt through these stone walls"

"I think so why"

"Alright, I've got a plan. What do you think about this? We block off or destroy alternative paths then one of us meets them head-on somewhere on the first or second floor. Then who every is not directly going against them will be above and behind them waiting to break through the sealing as an ambush."

"Sounds good to me let's get started. Who's going to ambush me or you? Can I be the Ambusher?"

"Sure I'll signal you to drop by yelling toad. That's not offensive is it?"

"I think it's fine"

"Alright let's get you into position."

We head up to the third floor.

"Alright pre melt this spot and then when you hear the word toad finish melting it and drop down."

"Hero team start!"

I run down to the second floor in time to catch both of the heroes running through the second-floor hallway. I throw one of my flash pellets at Tokoyami. It impacts near his feet flashing him briefly. Immediately after I threw the pellet I readied and threw a flashbang. Just as it went off Asui is a jump away from getting past me.

"Come on you TOAD!"

I don't have time to see what Ashido is doing as Sui tries to hit me with her tongue and then jump around and over me. It was a mistake I let the tongue hit me. It hits harder then I expected, but not hard enough as I'm still able to grab it. Holding her tongue is pretty gross, but I'm able to use it to pull her back toward me. I pull her back then tackle her. Now on top of her, I grapple her pinning her arms long enough to tie her arms. As I do

"Villain team wins!" I guess Ashido got Tokoyami. I untie Asui and help her up

"Good match"

"Ribbit I don't think so. It wasn't really close"

"I don't know if you hadn't tried to get me with your tongue you might have been able to get past me. Then you would have had the advantage"

"Ribbit maybe. Trying to hit you with my tongue was a mistake. I didn't realize you would be strong enough to pull me. I thought you were faster then you were strong."

"I guess you had the information disadvantage I know both of your quirks relatively well. At least we'll enough to know Tokoyami is weak against light."

I look over to see Ashido and Tokoyami already heading back.

"Come on we should catch up"