Chapter 56: A New Friend, Old Training

With the Hosu incident well and truly in the past, their internships continued on, though for Midoriya and Todoroki, who had made front page news for their exploits, and even Iida to a lesser extent, as they had been told, they had been confined to indoor training at the Endeavour agency with Burnin, which wasn't so much a punishment as a change of pace. Midoriya had exploited the fact that his fully transformed form could act as a direct counter to Stain's blood-themed quirk, but he couldn't keep using it, especially when he was left exhausted after what was only a 9-minute fight.

He could work on improving his stamina, but more importantly, he decided to focus on his new ability, which he coined ‘Volcanic Overdrive', improving how comfortable he was with it and how he used it in fights. Burnin was a good teacher, as while he could study Endeavour for his full transformation, she was the best person to study under with this partial one as she used flames. Still, she couldn't boast herself or launch attacks like her boss.

Todoroki was…odd, not the bad kind, just…odd. He wasn't nearly as closed off as he used to be. He seemed willing to work with him in training. Still, he gave off the vibe of someone who was only being nice because it was important. Still, other times, it felt like he was trying to be more than that, but he had terrible social skills. For someone so smart, he could make some weird statements, which Izuku wasn't sure he should laugh or grimace at.

Eventually, their week came to an end, and after one last morning training session, they were told to show up and change back into their school uniforms. Meeting Burnin at the entrance to the agency, she also had her boss with her. The flame hero had kept busy and rarely spoken with them since Hosu.

"You two have a long road ahead of you. Don't think that because you trained under my agency for a short time, you're ready for the big leagues," Endeavour didn't sugarcoat, though at this time, it was expected of him, and Midoriya chose to see it as a positive.

"Yes, sir! Thank you for taking care of us!" Midoriya bowed to him. Todoroki remained still, but at least he wasn't glaring at his father—baby steps.

Endeavour grunted, but he wasn't done. "That said, I was impressed with your work ethic; keep it up, take every chance you have to learn and improve, and you'll make sensible heroes worth the license."

As Midoriya stood up, a bright smile at the compliment from the typically hard-to-impress number 2 hero, Endeavour turned his attention to his son. "Shoto, your control with your ice is well above what would be expected of you, but you need to focus on improving your fire. You're improving, but not fast enough to slack off."

Todoroki frowned, but once he didn't bite back at his old man, only looking at his left hand, clenching it a couple of times as he recalled his battle with Stain and the training he's done with Midoriya and Burnin since, both fire types. “Sure.”

Taking that as the best he'd get from his stubborn offspring, Endeavour turned towards his intern, who had proven himself to be easier to handle. "Midoriya, it's good that you're improving this Volcanic Overdrive of yours. However, learn to be flexible in combat. It would be prudent if you could perform partial transformations of perhaps just your arms instead of your whole body."

Midoriya saluted him the same way that Burnin did, which irritated him and made his sidekick laugh. “I understand! Next time we face a threat like the hero killer-!” Burnin chopped his head, cutting him as he rubbed at his head, confused more than hurt by what she did.

"Next time, you could face a threat that can do damage. Remember, brat, you only lasted because you can regenerate, but suppose he had a quirk that did more damage or was ice-related." She challenged him, but he didn't have a counter.

"It wouldn't have ended well, would it? " he asked, trying not to sound too foolish as he explained how his quirk worked and how rapidly cooling him was an effective means of weakening him.

Burnin gave him a stern look. "To put it bluntly, don't be so reckless, kid. Regeneration quirks might be rare, but you'll learn that many of the few heroes who had such tended to be a little too carefree about damage, and it cost them." She reminded him.

“Yes, mam.” Midoriya nodded, Koharu coming up and hissing that she'd keep an eye on her human to make sure he didn't disregard her advice, which was a little offensive; he rarely broke instructions.

Endeavour nodded. "Then that's the end of your internship. Have a safe trip." With that, the man walked out the entrance of his agency, and with a bust of flames and a flash of light, he was off, flying out into the city to start his patrol. Burnin only shook her head and, making sure they knew the way to the train station, took off as well.

With no reason to stay, the two students left the agency and started walking towards the station. As it was morning, they could return to school. Still, U.A. had already contacted their agencies the previous evening and informed them that the students could return home, which meant that Izuku would be returning to an empty apartment as his mother wouldn't be getting off work for another few hours; maybe he could do a little cleaning and make dinner…he'll have to see what they had in the fridge. Still, he had some allowance to always stop by the corner store.

Putting those thoughts aside, he turned to Todoroki to try to start a conversation. "He never stops moving, does he? But that just makes him a great hero."

Todoroki, to his credit, didn’t snap. “Yeah…Endeavour the hero isn’t half bad.” Still, how he worded his response clarified his feelings on the issue, which Midoriya was only growing more concerned with.

“Listen, Todoroki…” When Todoroki looked his way, he paused and gathered his courage. I don't know what's up with you and your dad, but it seems pretty bad." That was putting it mildly, as it wasn't his business, but he had searched for their behavior on the internet, and it pointed towards an abusive one.

Of course, he knew not to believe everything he read online. People could take mild flu symptoms as to mean they had a deadly incurable virus, but it didn't take much to see that whatever was happening between father and son wasn't healthy.

"I won't say that I understand, but he doesn't seem like the warmest person out there, so I'm sure you have your reasons for not getting along. But if you ever want to talk, you can always talk with me. We're friends, aren't you?" He gave a shaky thumbs-up, which seemed to confuse Todoroki.

“Friends?”

Midoriya deflated a little, his thumbs up dropping. “Are…are we not.”

Thankfully, Todoroki shook his head. “No, I would like that. Should we exchange contact details?”

Todoroki was unprepared for how high-pitched Midoriya's happy squeal at the suggestion was. Once they exchanged numbers, Midoriya spent the entire walk to the station holding his phone to his chest, nearly bouncing in joy. When they departed, he scooped up the taller boy in a massive hug before waving as he skipped away.

Line Break

Spending his relaxing weekend with his mother was a nice change of pace, as he largely stayed home, only going out to the park to be around nature. However, when it came time to return to school, he couldn't avoid it any longer.

"Put me down." Midoriya wiggled about, but Shishida refused him. When Midoriya had entered, he hadn't even had time to greet his class and friends when Kendo ordered that he be detained, which left him being carried like a wet cat.

"Sorry, vice rep, but the class rep ordered it," Shishida replied, though when Midoriya wiggled more to see his face, he only narrowed his eyes.

"You don't look sorry about it," Midoriya muttered as Tokage's dismembered hand came over and poked him in the cheek, forcing his head to the side.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't go picking fights with serial killers," Tokage told him as the rest agreed with her. She had been worried sick the entire fight, and when he dropped into human form, she knew he was exhausted, almost as much as he had been at the USJ.

"I didn't pick the fight; he attacked me!" Midoriya said for what felt like the 20th time, his mother had already made sure he knew she was worried and would have wrapped him up in a blanket in his room for the entire weekend if he hadn't talked her down.

"And your plan to fight back was to keep letting him cut off pieces of you?" Monoma didn't make it easier, and Izuku grew a little embarrassed, as hindsight was neither kind nor gentle.

“It wasn’t the best idea…”

“It was a terrible idea, we were worried sick, you know.” Tsunotori pocked his other cheek, messing with his face.

“It was harrowing to watch; only by the Lord's intervention did Iida arrive when he did." Shiozaki frowned as she had worried that she would lose another close friend that night.

“Dude, we get it, you wouldn’t have felt right to just turn your back and run but you were getting cooked, isn’t your stone form meant to be super strong?” Tetsutetsu asked.

"It's my strongest defensive form, but it's not like I'm as durable as you, Tetsutetsu. But I couldn't flee; he would have gotten away or gone after Iida and Native." Midoriya explained, as it hadn’t gotten as much press but Native had been attacked before Midoriya arrived on the scene, nearly killed if not for their efforts to save.

“Still, there had to be better ways to handle the situation.” Honenuki frowned.

Midoriya relented. "Maybe, but at the time, I wasn't thinking to think about it."

"That much we can agree on now, no more wild stunts got it." Tokage kept on pocking him.

"I'm not a cat, you know?" Midoriya whined as he pulled his leg back, Koharu being no help as she happily napped away on his table, leaving him to his fate when he was grabbed.

“Midoriya.” Kendo narrowed her eyes.

"Hmp! Fine, I won't pick fights. Are you happy?" Midoriya went slack, moping at his position.

"Very, you can put him down," Kendo told Shishida, who finally released him. Midoriya fixed his uniform before looking at his taller classmate.

"When I get bigger, you won't be able to do that to me anymore," Midoriya muttered as he walked towards his desk, thinking of ways he could probably use fire to gain another few inches, only for a face to pop out from the floor.

“Hey, Midoriya!”

“Wha!” Midoriya screamed as he fell on his butt, others being just as surprised by the fact there was a face just…on the floor. “Togata-sempai?!”

“Haha! That’s me, don’t wear it out!” Togata introduced himself, sticking his head out and flipping around to better look at Midoriya, though it still looked weird.

“Is…is he coming out of the floor?” Monoma asked.

“How?” Yanagi whispered as this was insane.

Rubbing his butt, Midoriya asked of Togata. “What are you doing here? Classes will start soon.”

Togata seemed in his typical joyful mood. "True, very true. Well, I wanted to check up on you myself. I heard you're a tough one, but seeing is believing, they say. The other reason is to warm you."

“Warn me?” Was there a danger? On campus?

“Yup, Tamaki saw you enter early, but he didn't approach, but he did tell us-" He hadn’t finished when the door was pulled open so hard it creaked as it nearly left its guard rails.

“Izuku!” Standing there was an angry yet contradictory cute Hado. The woman was propelled by her waves as she slowly entered, the rest giving her space as she locked eyes on her target and the source of her worry.

“Good luck!” Togata bailed, leaving Midoriya to handle the storm that was an angry and concerned Hado.

Line break

Hado had made good on her promise, refusing to let him go as she scolded and soothed him in front of the class. She might not have cared much, but he did when he noticed a few snickering about how cute they looked.

Now, they'll never stop calling him that. She only released him when Vlad arrived and reminded her she had homeroom as well. If she didn't want detention, she should get going, which she did, but not without a reminder that come lunch, she'd return.

It was…weird, being so cared for as he understood why people did the things they did, it just didn't click completely with him. He lost his limbs…several times, but he managed to regrow all of them without issue because of the flames, so what was the issue?

Still, while he was confused by it, he didn't dislike it either. His mom, Ryukyu, via calls, his friend's interrogation, and even Hado's sudden and frightful appearance all stemmed from the fact that they cared for him. It was nice.

When lunch came, Hado found him and saw his group sitting with hers. Hado looked happy and content as she held onto him, while Yuyu just sighed and offered him no help, telling him it was his fault for making Hado worry so much.

He ignored the part where, as mere first years, they were invited to see all three members of the Big 3. This led to many rumors, especially when people saw how close he and Hado seemed to be. He just hoped that nothing perverse was started because of it; Hado didn't need such awful things said about her.

"I am here to start your hero training class!" All Might let out his ironic laugh as he arrived, seemingly having jumped from the main buildings to their training site for the day.

“It’s All Might!” Tetsutetsu yelled upon seeing him.

“We’re getting All Might this time around, no way!” Tsunotori added, to which All Might laughed once more, posing for the gathered students dressed in their hero gear.

"Indeed! Though I apologize for not handling your classes sooner, circumstances sometimes don't line up as we want, but we roll with the punches. I've been told by Vlad and Midnight that you've performed well thus far." All Might apologized, which was nice to hear from the horse's mouth, but after all they'd seen, it didn't upset them as much as it had before.

"Well, let's not waste daylight then. We have some basic hero training to get to! I want to see what you've all learned from your internships, and what better way to do that than by training for the core of her work: Rescue!" All Might declared, which perked up some heads

“Rescue training?” Kendo asked.

"Shouldn't we head to the USJ, or is it off-limits?" Shoda raised his hand.

"That's for disaster training, and if you wish to use it after hours, you can ask Thirteen. But what we're doing is a little different." All Might clarified. "Heroes always rescue people, but they need to be fast about it. Every second counts, which could be the difference between success and failure." Hearing that, Midoriya recalled what Endeavour had told him the first day he spent patrolling with the man.

“Endeavour said something similar.” He said as much, to which All Might nodded.

"As expected from the flame hero, so you, young Midoriya, might have an idea of what this will be." He challenged, to which it took Midoriya only a few moments and a look at what looked to be the sight of its walls for him to figure it out.

“Is it?” Midoriya asked, to which All Might’s smile stretched wider while others were left in the dark.

"Of course, this will be a race, and our track will be ground gamma!" All Might announced as he tapped the gate behind him. "You'll all have to navigate through this area filled with factories, pipes, warehouses, and other industrial obstacles! Why? Well, most times, it won't be a straight shoot from where we are to where the incident occurs. In fact, when I first came to town, I had to chase down a villain through the city's sewers."

Some grew green at such a prospect, though it was another thing Midoriya knew as he had been there that day. He had even used the sewers as a means to escape from All Might and the heroes.

“That sounds so nasty.” Komori shivered at the idea of getting into the sewers, even if it was to chase down a dangerous villain.

"That it was, but as you imagine, even if they were freshly built and free of dirt, it's not easy navigating through it. The same principle is here. You need to be able to take it all in, figure out paths, and take the best one like that!" All Might snapped his fingers. "Maybe you'll have overhead help on some missions. Maybe the area is familiar to you, but you can't rely on that; a hero needs to overcome, and at U.A., we go?" Leaning forward, he cupped his ear and waited for their response.

“Plus Ultra!” The class called back, to which he slapped his knee in laughter.

“That’s what I love to hear!” All Might declared. "You'll be broken up into teams of five, and each will have a go at it. You'll start at different points that are equal distance from me, the person you'll rush to rescue! Your start will be when I send out the distress signal."

“Of course, as heroes, while we’ll always put life above all else, we should be mindful of the area so you’re to keep damage to a minimum.” He told them, which seemed like a reasoning reminder. However, many recalled a similar lesson from their first hero class where they were advised, both hero and villain teams, to keep damage to the base down.

In another callback to that first class, All Might didn't select who would go first, nor did he allow the students to group into teams. Instead, he pulled out a box with slips, each marked with a number from I to IV. They took turns approaching and drawing a slot out, with Midoriya finding himself in the group who drew the Is.

That done, All Might transported them via his famous insane jumps to their starting points, both because it was faster and because it meant they didn't have the chance to study the area until they got to their pre-chosen starting point.

When it came to rest, they were taken to an area inside the zone, a clearing with a stage and a large screen set up. Cameras set up around the area gave them a view of the field and their classmates who were waiting for the go-ahead.

"It's not a bad group if you're looking at just speed," Kaibara noted as those who found their way onto the field were Midoriya, Tokage, Tsunotori, Kuroiro, and Kamakiri.

"In one way or another, they excel at getting around," Monoma called out. As for Tokage, she perhaps had the easiest time coming as she could just avoid the obstacles and search for All Might at the same time.

"Kurorio's gonna stick to the shadows; that way, he can zip around, but there are so many places for it that it shouldn't have an issue," Komori stated as even when existing in a shadow, Kuroiro can use it to launch himself out, so he could in theory, shadow jump, if there's another shadow close enough.

"Tsunotori's been practicing riding her horns to pull what Tokage can without the search part." Tsuburaba mused.

"So that leaves Midoriya and Kamakiri, though I would say that Kamakiri's better suited for this sort of environment, " Yanagi said as everyone on screen seemed to be doing something to prepare for the coming race.

"No kidding, that guy can bounce around like he's made from rubber," Bondo replied, as he had trained with him in the past. He knew just how agile Kamakiri could be, mainly to strike at any angle he wished, but he could also use that to cover the distance.

“And that leaves Midoriya.” Shiozaki watched this passively.

"He's the strongest in power, but how fast is that other form of his?" Shishida asked, looking towards Kendo and Tetsutetsu, who would know them best.

Tetsutetsu thought about it, but Kendo answered first. “Not too fast, especially as he can’t burn stuff as he goes along.”

"So we agree that Tokage is the favorite to win then, followed by Tsunotori?" Kaibara asked, to which the remaining students agreed.

"Start!" All Might set off the signal. Immediately, Tokage took off, splitting into 6 pieces; they all shot into the air and started moving towards the center area while her eyes and ears tried to pinpoint his position. Tsunotori followed a similar idea: she shot out two horns. She jumped onto them, keeping her balance as she willed them to rise above the obstacles and aim for the center. Down below, Kuroiro was swimming through the shadows cast by the pipes, builds, and railings, coming out long enough to keep track of where he was before diving back in.

In the middle of all of them, rapidly ascending and descending, was Kamakiri, who used his blades as hooks to climb, grip, and otherwise swing around, increasing his speed through the labyrinth.

"Just like I thought, Tokage's in the lead, and it's not even close," Monoma smirked, pleased to be right.

In the field, Tokage smiled as she could hear Tsunotori yelling for her to return as if she would. "Sorry, girl, but this is my race to win!"

Kamakiri wasn’t far behind her, and according to the map, he had passed Kuroiro, putting him in a comfortable 3rd place.

“Coming through!” Or he was until a bright white and blue blur shot past him. Midoriya called out, barely missing Kamakiri, who nearly tripped as he continued moving. Only now did his gaze go from Tokage to another green-haired classmate.

With Midoriya, he could feel the rush, the heat and flames flowing through him, his spine might have been covered, but as his hair fluttered about, one could see it along his neck, glowing brighter than the rest of his body as he jumped from stake to silo, to roof like it was a game of hopscotch, whatever damage his body was taking from overtaxing muscle and bones healing just as fast.

"All that training…is paying off!" Midoriya laughed, as Burnin had been a thorough and demanding taskmaster. Still, if this resulted from just a few days of it, he wanted to sign up for another 2 months! His drastic change in performance didn't go unnoticed as All Might saw it, Tokage and Tsunotori saw it, and everyone watching saw it.

“Since when could he do that?!” Fukidashi yelled, his face’s speech replaced with a giant question mark.

"You're asking me? I'm just as clueless as you!" Tetsutetsu yelled back, as he had sure as hell never heard about this. Sure, the guy had that steam form, but this was something else. It was like he was burning close to the surface but never quite breaching it.

“Wait, those aren’t his usual moves, are they?” Yanagi asked as the way he was moving didn't match the typical serpentine style. Even if he wasn't using his tail…could he use his tail in this form?

“He’s never moved this fast, but they don’t seem familiar.” Kendo tapped her chin, wondering where she had seen such movement before. It wasn't Endeavour, who she knew Midoriya interned under; his style was much more explosive in terms of speed and propulsion; this was…controlled and seemed like the best worst for it.

‘Wait a second…’ All Might thought to himself. While he had been directed towards young Togata as his successor by Nezu and his old sidekick, he had looked into the other Big 3 members as well, and how Midoriya was moving, it was similar to how young Hado did so, only he lacked her wave motion to propel himself but seemingly mimicked how she would position herself with each step and jump.

Watching him clear and railing and perform a double front flip, landing with a roll and blasting off without pause, drew the hero's smile. 'Well, I should have expected that from him, given how much he hangs around young Hado.'

“Midoriya’s taken 2nd?” Kuroiro asked, popping out of a shadow.

“How is he moving that fast?” Tsunotori yelled.

“Like hell I’m losing to you again!” Kamakiri would get answers later, but right now, he had a race to win!

Seeing all of that and how fast Hebimi was approaching, Tokage put her foot on the pedal. " I can't afford to mess around; I need to finish this fast."

“If two horns can’t do it,” Tsunotori fired off two more horns, which circled around her, fitting in under her armpits and pushing her even faster. “Then you double it!”

Line Break

“Finish!” All Might announced as he held out a sash that read, 'Thanks for saving me.' Congrats and thanks!'He handed it to Tokage, who happily put it on.

“You’re welcome!” She saluted the man as the rest stood behind her, having lost the chance to win.

“I can’t believe it; I got 4th place?” Kamakiri groaned.

“It’s better than last.” Kuroiro seemed to be the most upset with his performance, but the opposite of that was Midoriya was bouncing side to side while humming an upbeat number.

“Midoriya, why are you dancing? You came after me?” Tsunotori, unable to hold her curiosity back, asked him about it.

“Are you happy you lost?" Tokage asked, to which Midoriya shook his head, Koharu bobbing along with him.

“Of course, I’m as mad as a box of wet cats,” Midoriya replied, though he didn't break his little jig, which got even All Might's attention.

“Then why?” Tsunotori asked.

"Cause I'm happy that Tokage won. She's my friend, you all my friends, so I win either way." Midoriya smiled, much like with Shiozaki and beams of light; it was like his face become a sun, an inferno of wholesomeness that had most seemingly blinded.

Tokage got an idea that had her smiling like a cat who had just spotted the ignorant canary as she came up to Midoriya's side. "Oh, how sweet of you to say, Hebimi, come here and give me a kiss. Winners always get a kiss from a pretty little thing." She tapped her cheek, leaning it closer to him to get just that, which had the desired effect.

“A k-ki-ki-kiss!?” Midoriya blew a casket, steam shooting out his ears as his face went as red as a tomato before he caught the rest of that request. “I am not a pretty little thing!”

“Denial.” Tokage sang as she skipped away, Midoriya reaching for her but remaining in place as his hands clenched.

Putting a stop to this, All Might coughed into his hand, "Well, as far as your performance, I would say that you all approached this much differently than you would have before your internships. It's great to see you practice the lessons you learned. We'll have a more in-depth breakdown later, but for now, we need to clear so I can set up for the next team.”

Line Break

Having a slight issue with my patron account, as one of the chapters for that crack/smut story got flagged. I won't bore you with details, but I'm done the changes to make it clear it wasn't in violation and am now waiting on them to get it back up, they don't seem to agree and are refusing to let it back up, so I just sent an email asking where the issue is, as I can't find it and when I got a couple friends to read over it, neither did they.

When it came to this, I admit, I started a little late with it, mainly because I was busy writing a frankly, stupidly long chapter for A World of Quirks, but I'm happy with the final product as I did skip over some things, it was to get to the important stuff.