I didn't want to think about it. I wanted to take it off my mind. So when I saw Midoriya from the corner of my eye, I just touched down on the ground in front of him.
"Let's spar, Midoriya." It was the first thing that came to mind so it just came out. "Feel free to use more strength, you know you needed more practice with your output and not everyone can handle it." The last part was added hastily so my suggestion didn't seem like it came out of nowhere.
"Oh, uh..." He glanced to the side, towards the others who was practicing, probably checking to see the distance was enough to not disturb them. "Sure! Sounds good!"
Nice. I knew he'd accept so long as it was a logical excuse.
"Alright. On the count of three, then." I braced myself, and so did Midoriya. "Three!"
~~~
"Gnrk!" I barely dodged a beam using [Full Cowling] by jumping to the side. A mistake in hindsight, as Shuzenji-san used the few seconds it bought him to erupt.
I couldn't help but swallow a gulp in slight fear.
The past few times we've sparred were a painful lesson. Shuzenji-san is the type of person who let's his actions speak for himself, drilling into me different manoeuvres by purposely hitting me with a beam whenever I make a mistake mid-combat.
And that was when he only used a few of his heads.
Now, watching as at least a dozen of his heads appear from the plume of smoke, I bit back a curse as I should've parsed his words more carefully. 'Feel free to use more strength' is what he said but 'and I'll do the same' is what he meant between the lines. The keyword being that he invited me to a 'spar' and not 'training'.
Though, looking at it now, his heads are quiet. A far cry from the teasing or rambunctiousness of the previous times he showed me.
Does it have anything to do with his mood? Are the heads a mirror of the main head's personality or are they are fraction of it? Maybe- it hurts!
"Focus, Midoriya."
"Right!"
~~~
"They're really going at it, huh?" Commented Kaibara as he stopped fighting and began observing the other spar. "Shuzenji really was holding back big time during class..." He muttered then winced as he watch Midoriya get kicked in the jaw. "That's gotta hurt..."
Kamakiri walked up to his side, also watching the exchange. "Dibs on the next the match."
Kaibara glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Sure, all yours, man." He shrugged. "If you have a death wish, I'm not stopping you."
"Coward." Kamakiri merely scoffed at his words.
"We're literally looking at the same thing here." Kaibara complained as Midoriya was harshly faceplanted on the concrete. "Tell whether or not that's something you wanna experience?"
"How are you supposed to get stronger if you don't take up a challenge?" Kamakiri, for all the fierceness in his tone, was being cordial. "You fight, you lose, you learn, you grow. That's how it works."
Still watching the beatdown happening in front of him, Kaibara had a passing thought. "...You know, I kinda expected you to not accept the prez's invite." He gestured to everyone doing their own thing. "You seemed like the lone-wolf type."
Kamakiri grumbled but his eyes never took off from spar. "'If you fight the same opponent everyone time, you perfect a method to defeat that one opponent, engraving it to your instincts. Fighting different opponents adds variety to your style, making it less likely to dull your blade.' is what my great-grandfather taught me, and I intend on keeping to those words."
"You do you, man." Kaibara had a small smile as he recognised one of the few rare moments when someone opens up like this. "You do you."
~~~
"Are you guys sure that one's a keeper?" Kaminari gulped in fear as he saw Midoriya get punted into a building. "She seems like she'd do worse than Jiro."
"Probably a closet sadist, then. All those hormones gotta go somewhere." I turned to Mineta. "What do you think, Mineta?"
"She's flat as a board. I don't care how cute she is, the pain is not worth it!" He crossed his arms and expressed his opinion. "Although, that glare might awaken something in me..."
"Fair." I hooked my arms around their shoulders. "Alright, breaks over. Let do what we came here to do."
"Inviting the girls for a mixer?"
"Scouting out hot bods?"
"Training!" I drag the other two away even as they groaned or protested. "Say what you will, but we all know that this is for your own good!"
I might be willing to indulge these two idiots but as the sensible person in this trio of friends, I have to draw the line somewhere.
~~~
"Perverts. The lot of them." Jiro clicked her tongue as she gave a stinkeye to the retreating figures of her least favourable classmates. "And stupid too, by the sounds of it."
"Oh? And what makes you say that?" Yaoyorozu asked as she tore her gaze away from the spar.
"You mean besides their rude comments, the way they ogle at girls, the fact that two of them scored below average in anything non-physical or the way on how they're desperate enough that it wouldn't suprise me if they actually visit the red light district?"
"Fair point." Yaoyorozu conceded. "Although their many attributes leave much to be desired,-" "That's an understatement." "-the fact remains that they got in the hero course is a testament to their efforts. It is unbecoming of us to simply brush them off simply because of a terrible first impression."
"They literally asked you for your three sizes the second they stepped in class, Yaomomo." Jiro corrected the girl with a deadpan gaze.
"I'm sure there was something we don't understand from a lack of context." She tried to downplay the event as she couldn't comprehend how someone would be so tactless. "Surely no one is that shameless!"
"The midget was drooling over you during the quirk apprehension test." She 'kindly' pointed out. This statement gave Yaoyorozu a case of goosebumps.
"Let's move on from this topic, shall we?" She grasped the first thing that came to mind. "Like how you don't seem particularly concerned while Midoriya is being beaten?" She gestured over to the beatdown.
"Don't make it sound like I don't care." Sbe rolled her eyes. "Broccoli boy is tougher than he looks, and even if he did get hurt, redhead over there is the nurse's assistant or something."
"Truly? So Shuzenji-san is making uses of his medical license at school?"
She raised a brow. "Yeah? He spends a few hours over there after classes let up. How do you not know about that if you know about his name? And even his medical license because I didn't know about that one. I just assumed he was a nurse-in-training or whatever."
Yaoyorozu blushed a bit at that. "I wouldn't say that I know of him personally... I have simply heard of his exploits during my tenure at my previous academy. I have also gained the honour of becoming acquainted with him during the recommendation exams. I even managed to acquire his signature! It was promptly displayed at a section of the wall along side other signatures of notable figures back at my home manor. I've been meaning to come into contact with him once again to inquire about-"
"Soooo he famous and you're a stalker? Got it." She teased.
That brought a stop to the rich girl's monologue. "What? No! It's a misunderstanding! I was simply trying to pay my respects to someone of his accomplishments! The photographs and material collection was simply a preservation of items that-"
"I never said anything about photos?" Yaoyorozu froze and paled considerably. "And what was that about a collection?" The ravenette began sweating bullets. "Yaomomo, are you seriously being a groupie for this guy?"
"I- that- It-"
"Look, there's nothing wrong with being a groupie." Jiro began carefully. "I have a collection too, nothing weird about that. Just make sure not to overwhelm the guy or do legitimate crime, alright?"
"I would never-!"
"And that's all you need." Jiro gestured towards Kendo's group. "Change of topics, let's go over there and get some hand-to-hand, yeah?"
~~~
Midoriya is getting better at handling the power coursing through his veins. I'm sure deep down that Shinomori-san is also feeling a bit proud of seeing a shadow is his technique in the greenette's fighting style.
Honestly, the guy always had this spark in his eyes filled with so much determination I idly had to remind myself that this wasn't someone else, this is Midoriya.
Then the guy pulls a one-eighty and go on to full nerd babble as soon as the spar ended. If it were anyone else, I was afraid he'd talk their ear off while I was healing him.
Though it was honestly surprising that Kamakiri politely --in his own way-- asked me for a spar as well. The blade user wasn't as much as a challenge as the Greenette but I was still happy enough to oblige his request. He came out of it plenty scruffed and bruised, possibly a broken bone or two but none of that was anything I wasn't able to fix and he immediately jumped in for another match.
Kamakiri stopped challenging me after the third retry, saying that he'll now be meditating and reviewing the battle in his mind. I like to think that we somewhat bonded over the course of the spar, his words and tone might not have changed much, but his emotions clearly did in my eyes.
No one else seemed really keen to challenge me after that final bout and Kuroko was required concentration to push her limits meaning that I have to give her some spacer to do her own thing too.
With nothing much else to do, I simply began drifting off to the sky and watching them below.
I could train, but I literally just did that. I wasn't in the mood to train some more after a spar --even if it felt more like a warmup-- just ended.
I didn't keep track of time while I was in the sky but I don't think I was drifting off for too long as a pebble shot through the air and went by my side. Looking down at the direction where it came from, I noticed Yanagi signaling for me to come down.
Apparently, seeing that I was free, she wanted my help in training her.
While her quirk currently has a weight limit, she has more control and a higher capability for simple multitasking with Poltergeist. Ideally, a proper training routine for her would be to expand on that potential by broadening her multitasking ability by practicing with procedurally more complex application such as writing or drawing. However, right now, she is prioritising her combat capabilities by expanding the amount of items she can affect at the same time.
This is where I come in.
Yanagi asked on whether or not it was acceptable for her to use my heads as mobile targets.
I am a bit peeved about it as I mulled it over for a moment. Yanagi simply levelled with her usual impassive stare as she patiently waited for my response. What neither of us expected was for Tokage to suddenly barge in on the paused conversation, and more questionably, in my defense for some reason?
I vaguely listened to her argument about the notion being objectifying and that my pseudo-sapient heads shouldn't be treated as such because that was dehumanising. Something I found funny because I wasn't human to begin with.
My laughter brought her to a pause she stared at me gobsmacked.
Ah, she's probably feeling some sort of camaraderie because our abilities are similar in a way.
"It's fine, Tokage." I said as I recollected myself. "And Yanagi, I wouldn't mind lending my aid."
"What?" Tokage blinked. "But- you- Head..."
I ignored her in lieu of addressing the pale girl. "So let's start somewhere else? We need plenty of space for the kind of workout you want." She nodded at me and we walked a bit further out of the way of the others.
Yanagi did well in my opinion, managing to last almost an hour before she had to take a rest because of the migraine. It was something I unfortunately couldn't help with, as it was part of the strengthening process so I instead offered a few of my other heads chaperone back to the dorms before Kodai also offered to help take her back as she was done with her training. Although, Tokage kept her tabs on me for the first quarter hour before she stopped glancing back.
Pony tapped in with the same kind of training as Yanagi after she saw that I was free. When she got tired of that sort of training she requested my aid in looking out for her as she practiced her skill in flying. Something I was more than eager to help her with.
Even if I didn't show it most of the time, flying is special to me and it has a special place in my heart.
The girl was controlling her horns just fine but it was balance that kept making her fall. Trying to stand of her own horns with hooves for feet was something she had to get used to.
This lasted until the time when the sun begins to set, which, at that point the joint training program was concluding. Not everyone was still here as some had already left early, but it was definitely a success.