This Thing A Quiet Madness Made

Chapter 14

The class was woken up early the next day; the sun had just barely risen past the horizon when they forcibly dragged themselves outside and into the warm autumn air.

Aizawa had told them beforehand they would be training their quirks today, working on the skills they would need to obtain their provisional licenses. The licensing exam wasn't far off, merely a few months away, and they would be competing against older, more experienced students from schools all across the nation. They needed to become stronger if they wanted a fighting chance, so there was no room for fooling around today.

Naoko stood atop a large rock jutting far above the ground, giving her a birds-eye view of most of her classmates training below. Having been individually admonished by Aizawa for being "battle-avoidant", as he put it, she was simply instructed to use her air quirk over as large an area as she could: an exercise in stamina and control while also conveniently doubling as a breeze for her classmates, she thought.

She sat down on the sun-warmed rock and glanced off into the distance. The air shifted, arcing slightly towards her as it gradually began to pick up speed. Stretching from the far treeline where her eyes were locked all the way to where she sat, the mass of air began to swirl in a large spiral, quicker and quicker the closer it was to her. Soon, a visible disk of wind formed, centered around her, strong gusts sweeping in wide, continuous circles reaching nearly a hundred feet in radius.

From the ground below, some of the other students looked up in surprise when they felt a sudden breeze from overhead. Yaoyorozu and Sato spotted her atop the rock and waved gratefully as the cool air from Todoroki's ice swept past them. She waved back, smiling apologetically as the ice was quickly replaced by fire, and they instantly received a blast of hot air to the face.

Sero panicked when he noticed the long tangle of ejected tape begin blowing onto the field and towards the others, threatening to cause a messy entanglement. Just as he was about to leap down to gather it in hopes of avoiding an accident, a small stream of air gently lifted the ends of the tape and began swirling around it. After a moment, it set down the new, neatly formed rolls that continued to spin steadily to keep up with the tape still shooting from his arms. Sero glanced up, flashing Naoko a grateful thumbs up just as Iida zipped by and jumped smoothly over the growing rolls.

Naoko smiled from her perch atop the rock. Her eyes gradually drifted out of focus as the sun rose higher in the cloudless blue sky, the soft rays warm against her skin while the pleasant wind brushed past her, carding through her hair in gentle, comforting strokes.

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The next day brought more long hours of the same training. To prevent herself from zoning out entirely, Naoko took advantage of the wind's direction to listen in on Aizawa's instructions for her classmates.

For most of the day, he kept a close eye on the five remedials that had failed their exams, scolding and correcting them as they struggled diligently to improve their quirks. Kirishima fought mercilessly against dozens of trees as they creaked and swayed with each hardened punch; Kaminari, having quickly exhausted his quirk, swayed dopily behind Ashido as she sprayed acid at an enormous boulder, half of it already melted into sludge; Sero strained in discomfort as he forced himself to produce more and more tape, the long strips piling up around him and nearly reaching his chest; and Sato, having just dumped a five-pound bag of sugar into his mouth, was sweating profusely as he pounded away at the side of a cliff, chunks of stone and dirt flying around him haphazardly. Aizawa glanced at the five with well-concealed approval before moving to scold the others for slacking off. He had just finished reminding Aoyama, rather harshly, of his near-failure on the practical exam when he spotted Naoko perched atop the tall rock, swinging her legs.