Everyone ended up being able to go to the training camp, even the people who failed.
"How are you going to beat me if all you're going to do is sleep?" I whispered in Sero's ear, rousing him from his nap for the umpteenth time.
"Oh, cut me some slack! Kirishima, tell Mizugumo to shut up." He groaned.
"I tried and failed, but you slept and failed, Sero. We are not the same." Kirishima turned around in his seat.
"Up high!" I cackled, giving Kirishima a high-five, tears forming from how hard I was laughing.
"Shut up, you goddamn extras!" From in front of me and next to Kirishima, Bakugo yelled at us to keep it down even though it was just as noisy anywhere else on the bus.
"Hey, Se-"
Shoving his elbow in my face, Sero taped my mouth shut.
"Mmph-!" I yelled against the adhesive tape, eyes widening in shock.
"Wax that mustache while you're at it." A shit-eating grin split Sero's face.
Jiro, Kaminari, and Kirishima howled in laughter.
Shoving my hand in his face, I weaved a whole web over him.
The two of us screamed muffled curses at each other, flailing in the back of the bus as we slapped each other's hands away while trying to land a hit.
"Mizugumo. Sero. Cut it out. We're here." Erasing our quirks, Mr. Aizawa walked up to us, using each hand to tear the tape and web off of our faces.
"Ah! Ow!" Pressing the back of my hand to my mouth, I glared at my friend. "I was going to ask if you had gum!"
"Well, that's what you get for annoying me the whole bus ride! Midnight is hella scary to go up against, you know?" Swiping at the excess webs, Sero retorted.
We got up and walked off the bus, bickering back and forth.
"Fine. I'll be the bigger person here. Truce?" I held out a hand to Sero.
He narrowed his eyes at my hand skeptically. "How do I know you're not going to shoot silk up my arms?"
"Come on, am I really that horrible to you?"
"Eh." He made a contemplative sound.
"You're making me feel bad."
"Good." Finally grasping my hand, we shook once. "Truce. Though I get to annoy you as payback."
Rolling my eyes, I looked around where we stopped for the first time. "This doesn't look like the camp. It's not a rest station, either."
"Wait . . . yeah." Shinso walked up next to me. "Where's Class B?"
"There's no point in stopping for no reason," Mr. Aizawa said.
Huh?
"Hey, Eraser!"
"Long time no see." Our teacher bowed his head at the speaker.
Turning around, I spotted a car parked to the side that opened to reveal two women and a little boy.
"These are the pro-heroes who'll be working with us during the training camp, the Pussycats," Mr. Aizawa explained.
"We own this whole stretch of land here," They explained, gesturing to the expansive woods and rolling hills under the sandy ground we were standing on. "You will be staying at the foot of that mountain."
What mountain? I can't even see anything. It looks like she's pointing pretty far away.
"Huh? Then why did we stop here?" Uraraka asked.
"Could this mean . . ."
"No way . . ."
"Let's get back on the bus, why don't we?" From next to me, Sero backed away towards the bus.
"Yeah . . . let's do that. Fast." Ashido backpedaled.
"It's 9:30 a.m. right now. If you're fast . . . maybe around noon?" The pro-hero clad in red flexed her claws, smiling mischievously
"Guys! Hurry and get back to the bus!" Kirishima yelled.
Everyone picked their feet up off the ground and scrambled back to the safety of mass-transportation.
"Kitties who don't make it by 12:30 won't get lunch!"
As we rushed towards the bus, the pro-hero clad in blue jumped in front of us, intercepting us.
"Sorry, ladies and gentlemen. Training camp has already started." Mr. Aizawa announced.
Placing her paws on the ground, the ground started trembling and undulating underneath Blue Paws' hands. In a flash, like an avalanche, the ground turned to putty and rose up, flushing all 20 students down and into the woods beneath us.
Screams erupted from all around me as we free-fell into thick branches. Crashing onto the ground, I groaned, scuffling up to see thick foliage blocking out the sunlight.
"Since it's private land, you can use your quirks however you want! You have three hours, come to the facility on your own two feet!" The red pro-hero cat announced, pausing dramatically before continuing. "After you get through . . . The Beast's Forest!"
"The whadda whadda whadda?" I muttered, turning to face forward into the thick forest.
Vibrations shook the ground as something huge rumbled towards us.
"Uh . . . guys?" Looking around, I suddenly realized I couldn't see anyone near me at all. I was all alone. "Hello? Did we get separated?"
The vibrations drew closer until it was so loud it reverberated straight through my chest. Chuffing noises reached my ears before the object reached my eyes.
A humongous beast seemingly made of mud and clay clods had an elongated face with tusks shooting from its jaw.
And its void black eyes were fixed on me.
Letting out a hideous roar, it swung its arm back, preparing to crush me into a pulp.
"Oh shit, I guess we're really doing this." Aiming silk at the beast's arm, I used it as an anchor to pull myself up before swinging like a pendulum past it. Slicing myself free, I fell into a tumble roll and popped right back up, running at full speed in what I assumed was the direction to the training camp.
From behind me, various familiar voices screamed as the beast let out another enraged roar.
I guess I was thrown a bit further away from the rest of the class.
Suddenly, the ground beneath me opened up, and my ankles twisted, dropping into the crevice.
"Crap!" Shooting dragline silk on two neighboring branches, I grabbed onto them to prevent myself from sinking deeper.
Quicksand? Do they even have quicksand in forests?
My biceps shook from fatigue as I struggled to hold myself up.
No, this isn't quicksand. Something's deliberately holding me down.
From behind, explosions and engines sounded.
"Ugh! Can you not?" Taking a risk, I cut off my silk and aimed immediately for higher branches, crying out when it felt like my shoulders were going to pop out from their sockets.
"AUGHH!" Letting out an ear-splitting yell, I pulled with all my might, tightening my core and yanking my feet out, straining my ankles at a weird angle in the process.
Collapsing onto the dirty ground, I dragged myself away from the hole in the middle of the path and onto the mossy patches between the trees.
"Ah, ow."
I can't walk, let alone run now. At this rate, with the plus of the beasts, I would be lucky to make it to the camp by late afternoon.
Pushing myself up and leaning against the trunk of a tree, I winced as I felt my biceps and triceps cramp.
Shit. What I wouldn't give for Uraraka's quirk right now.
I'm totally going to feel this tomorrow.
Shooting dragline silk at the highest branch I could reach, I pulled myself off of the forest floor and up into the canopy of the trees. Looking around, I spotted more clay beasts to the northeast.
Making a mental note to avoid that direction, I dropped back into the high branches and started swinging forwards, using my dragline silk like Tarzan used vines.
Muscles screaming in protest, I noticed the sounds of combat behind me fading as I pulled ahead of my other classmates.
***
Reaching the clearing where the camping ground was, I severed the last of my silk and fell onto the ground.
Fuck. I'm famished and my arms won't move.
I stayed lying face-first on the ground before I heard footsteps approaching.
"Oh? You're already here."
"Mr. Aizawa." I pushed myself up, despite my convulsing muscles.
"No, lie down. How are your ankles?"
"Oh, they're-" I twisted my head around. "How did you know?"
Grinning, Mr. Aizawa crouched down to eye-level. "I had Pixie-Bob trap your feet so you would use your spider-legs. But you still didn't."
"Pixie-Bob?"
"The blue one."
"So you confess to sabotage." I frowned.
"Technically, no. It wasn't sabotage because I knew four legs could bring you here faster than two legs and some silk ever will. I tried to help you, Mizugumo."
"I didn't ask for nor want your help," I snapped.
Ignoring my rude remark, Mr. Aizawa stood back up and looked down at me from his standing position. "Though I have to say, I didn't expect you to have that much silk storage. I made sure to trap you early on so your fingers would cramp before you even reached halfway."
"Then you underestimated me."
An amused look flashed over his face. "Ah. I won't make that mistake again, then."
I glared at Mr. Aizawa's back as he walked away with his hands in his pockets.
"Bastard," I cursed under my breath. Anyone who forced me to use my legs was a bastard.
"Mizugumo."
Turning around at the sound of my name, I saw Todoroki walking towards me.
"Oh, Pretty Boy? You're first?"
"Pretty-" Shaking his head in confusion, he pointed at me. "No, you're first."
"Oh, they're coming!" Pixie-Bob exclaimed excitedly as she emerged from the camp building.
I wasn't mad at her for trapping me. I knew it was all Mr. Aizawa's scheming.
From behind Todoroki, I could recognize Bakugo's angry footsteps from a mile away. He was holding his left arm gingerly before he spotted me and Todoroki.
"Tch."
Before long, more dragging shuffles sounded as the rest of the class reached the clearing, all of them tired and hungry to the point of collapsing.
"Mizugumo! Of course you'd already be here."
"Jiro. Ashido." I greeted my friends as they collapsed next to me on the ground, leaning on either side of my shoulders.
"Ashido? That sounds weird. Call me Mina."
I nodded and turned to see one last pair of footsteps nearing the edge of the forest. Shinso emerged with a grimace on his face, dragging his feet and stumbling into the clearing. He looked extremely beat up.
"Hey, Shinso!" Waving, I tried calling him over, but he only shook his head and sat against a tree.
"That took way longer than three hours!" From in front of us, Sato complained.
"Sorry, that was the time it would've taken us. But you guys still got here faster than I expected, especially you five." Pixie-Bob pointed at me and four other boys; Todoroki, Midoriya, Iida, and Bakugo.
"Hey . . . it's been bothering me for a while, but whose kid is that over there?" I followed Midoriya's finger to a small boy standing off to the side.
"Oh, Kota? He's my cousin's son." The red pro-hero explained. "Come on, Kota, greet everyone. You'll be with them for the next week."
Walking forward, Midoriya took the initiative to greet the kid first. "Hi, I'm Midoriya from U.A.'s hero course. Nice to meet you!"
To everyone's surprise, the kid punched him in the crotch.
Oh wow.
"You brute of a nephew! Why would you do that to Midoriya's scrotum?" Rushing forward, Iida supported his friend's crumpled form.
"I don't intend to hang out with guys who want to be heroes!"
Oh? So he'll hang out with me, then? I cracked a joke with myself.
"Hmph. Precocious brat."
Cocking my head back, I saw Bakugo smiling.
That was rare.
"Isn't he kind of like you?" Todoroki pointed out.
I snickered. "Careful, Todoroki. Or he's going to beat you-"
"What did you two say? Not at all, okay? Anyway, shut up, Half-and-Half bastard and a goddamn spider!" Turning towards us, Bakugo glared daggers.
"Alright. Stop with the charade. Get your stuff off the bus and put them in your rooms. Once you're done, we'll have an early dinner in the cafeteria and then you can bathe and go to sleep. We start for real tomorrow. Start moving." Mr. Aizawa ordered.
As everyone shuffled to the parked bus, Mr. Aizawa lifted me up with his scarf, letting me dangle in the air. "You're getting your ankles looked at by Recovery Girl. I'll have Jiro get your stuff."
***
The next morning, 5 a.m.
Next to me, Shinso yawned, making me yawn with him.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we will begin training camp to increase your strength in earnest. The goal of this training is so that you can obtain your provisional licenses faster during these times." Mr. Aizawa explained, calling Bakugo up and throwing a softball at him.
"Huh? This is the same as the quirk assessment."
"Quirk assessment? I guess we weren't here for that," Shinso grumbled. "Not that I'm sad."
I recalled last night when he sat at the end of the dinner table, shrouded in doom. I had guessed that he felt crummy after arriving last and not being able to apply his quirk at all, so I left him alone.
"It's been three months since school started. Let's see how much you improved from 705.2 meters."
705.2 meters?!
"Oh, a progress check!" Mina exclaimed.
"Maybe you can throw a kilometer now or something, Bakugo!" Sero called out.
Facing away from the building, a proud grin split the blonde's face. "Then . . . Here I go . . . GO TO HELL!" With an ear-splitting war cry, Bakugo blasted the poor softball into the air and past the forest.
"709.6 meters."
"Huh? That's less than I thought," Sero whispered.
"It's been three months since you started school. Through various experiences, you all have definitely improved, but that improvement has been strictly tied to stamina and basic technical skills. As you can see, your quirks themselves haven't improved much."
"That's why we'll be working on your quirks today. It'll be so hard you'll feel like dying." Mr. Aizawa paused and grinned like a Cheshire cat. "But try not to actually die."
"People are coming." Turning around to the edge of the training ground, I felt vibrations of footsteps nearing us.
"Oh? Tetsutetsu!" Kirishima waved at his friend.
"Class B is here," Mina said.
"We have 40 people with different quirks all in one clearing. Is that manageable?" A girl with blazing orange hair at the front of Class B asked.
"That's why we have these four with us."
From out of seemingly nowhere, the Wild Wild Pussycats jumped down, except this time, there were four instead of two. I recognized Pixie-Bob and the red one, but there were an additional green one and a . . . tiger?
The red one introduced herself as Mandalay, her quirk being Telepath; she's able to send out messages to a mass at once. The green one was called Ragdoll, she could search up useful information about whoever she sees like location and weaknesses. Pixie-Bob's quirk was Earthflow, which I inferred from how she manipulated the ground and trapped me. As for the Tiger, his quirk was Pliabody, being able to manipulate his body like a soft squishy however he wishes.
"All you power types, come with me!" Tiger called. "The rest, report to your homeroom teachers to see where you will be going."
"Todoroki, Sero, Mizugumo. Come with me." Mr. Aizawa beckoned for the three of us to follow him to a hill. "Sero and Mizugumo, climb up there and practice shooting capacity. Mizugumo, try concentrating on each individual finger and shoot from them like they're individual weapons."
Shoot individually? I never thought about it that way.
Turning around, Mr. Aizawa addressed Todoroki and pointed to a tub of water. "Try to regulate the temperature of the bathwater by alternating between fire and ice. You might even get to use them both at the same time one day. In half an hour, I'll have Mizugumo coat herself in dragline silk and Todoroki, you'll try to regulate the temperature of your fire to burn through her shield."
He'll wha-?
Without so much as blinking at what he just said, Mr. Aizawa walked over to the rest of the class. Turning to look at Todoroki, he only nodded at me before taking off his uniform and stepping into the tub of bathwater.
"Mizugumo, come on," Sero called, already climbing up the hill with his tape.
"Did you hear what Mr. Aizawa said? About having Todoroki try to burn me?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"It's to increase the strength of your dragline silk, the most used type, right? Though I have to admit, it's a bit . . . torturous."
"You don't say," I snarked sarcastically.
Reaching the top, I jumped as a thunderous blast blew my hair about, followed by a hoarse voice yelling "DAMN IT!"
Bakugo was plunging his hands in boiling water to expand his sweat glands and increase the range of his attacks.
Yeah. Torturous.
After thirty minutes straight of shooting silk and practicing shooting from each individual finger, it felt like someone had taken a hammer and crushed all of my fingers. That was how much pain they were in. Next to me, Sero was keeled over on the ground, elbows limp and twitching.
"Alright. Sero, Mizugumo, you guys can come down now. Todoroki, get ready."
Hissing in pain, I slowly lifted my fingers to nudge Sero. "Come on, we have to go down now."
"I can't shoot anymore tape." Groaning, Sero flipped over onto his back, chest rising and falling in pants.
"Then how are we-"
The ground below us started to rumble and the hill slowly lowered into flat land.
"Oh, thank god for Pixie-Bob." Sitting up, Sero winced as he massaged his arms.
"Take a breather and coat yourself in dragline silk, Todoroki's ready anytime you are." Mr. Aizawa nodded at me before walking over to check on Shinso.
Raising a limp hand at Todoroki, I smiled weakly. "Go easy on me, will you, Pretty Boy?"
"I don't understand why you keep calling me that. What's the temperature capacity for your silk?" He asked, ignoring my plea.
"220 degrees Celcius. But-"
"Then I just have to regulate my temperature below that. Thank you." Nodding curtly, he turned around and flexed his left hand.
It's like talking to a rock.
Groaning like an old man, I stood up, cracking my knuckles and coating myself from head to toe in dragline silk, leaving small slits for me to breathe out of. "Let's get this over with. Try and burn me."
My eyes were closed, so I didn't see when Todoroki nodded and raised his hand. All I felt was a sudden hot blast washing over me, encasing me in a blinding light. It felt like I'd been thrown into a fireplace; I was breathing in searing air.
At first, the heat was bearable, with my coat of silk acting as insulation. However, I was still a water spider. I wasn't made to be in hot, dry environments.
As time went on, it became more and more uncomfortable. Todoroki would occasionally take small breaks to shake out his hand before blasting me again, but the small window of time was nowhere near enough for me to cool down.
Sweating profusely, I added coat after coat of silk to better protect myself until my fingers officially retired.
Ow ow ow ow ow! Shit! It's burning past the silk now!
"Todoroki! Too high!"
"Sorry." Frowning, he altered the temperature lower.
Standing under the burning onslaught, I thought about the heat endurance of my silk. I couldn't make the maximum heat endurance go higher, it just wasn't biologically possible. Besides, that would mean asking Todoroki to burn through the silk and risk scorching me in the process. Nobody was about to suggest that.
All I could do was rely on my weaving skills to make sure the silk was airtight around my body.
"Todoroki!"
"Sorry." Once again, he lowered the temperature.
"Stop!" Todoroki's flame disappeared in an instant, and I sliced open slits so that I could see through my silk shield. Mr. Aizawa was rushing towards us, eyes glowing red as he erased Todoroki's quirk.
"Cut yourself free, Mizugumo."
Slicing through the shield, I peeled the sticky webs off of me, only now noticing that there was a big hole in the chest part of my shield. Looking down, burnt clumps of silk piled on the ground.
"Oh."
I didn't even smell that.
But apparently, other people did, as they were watching on with scrunched noses and sleeves over their mouths.
"Mizugumo! I apologize-"
Waving a hand at Todoroki, I brushed his apology away. "It's fine. Now I can call you Pretty Boy all I want."
Looking up, I saw that his eyebrows were still furrowed in concern.
"You didn't burn me, Todoroki. I'm completely fine. See?" Doing a full 360, I grinned at the boy, reassuring him.
"Yeah," He replied softly.
"Here." Mr. Aizawa handed me a protein bar. "Take a rest before continuing."
Tearing the wrapper open, I gratefully bit into the bar. Training went smoothly after that, though I did feel some extra eyes from Class B on me from time to time.
As I was doing weighted pull-ups on my silk, I felt someone walk up to me and brush past my shins.
"Ha! This is amazing!"
Dropping down, I turned to see a guy from Class B shooting silk from his fingers.
"What the hell?!" Yelling in his face, I pulled his blazer tight, hiding the spider-legs slowly growing out. "Turn it off!"
Monoma. I saw him at the sports festival, during the cavalry battle. He's the blonde with the bangs. His quirk is copying quirks.
"Wha- Okay! Okay! I will! Jeez!"
Patting him down, I made sure the legs fully disappeared before pushing him away. "Don't ever touch me again."
"Monoma!" The girl with the orange hair walked over, knocking Monoma out with her fist. "Sorry about that."
Smiling slightly, I assured her it was not her fault. Dragging Monoma away, the girl waved at me. Waving back, my eyes met Suiiki's glaring blue ones behind her.
She's so obsessed with me.
Rolling my eyes, I continued doing my pull-ups.
***
"Todoroki! Can we get some fire over here, too?" Mina asked.
"Bakugo, use your explosion to light this," Sero suggested as Todoroki was busy lighting up all the other fireplaces.
"Like I would, scum!" But just as he cussed Sero out, he threw a hand into the fireplace, blowing it into smithereens.
"Oops." I stared at the gaping hole.
"Shut it, Scarface," Bakugo growled.
"If you only rely on others, then you won't learn how to light a fire." Yaoyorozu created a lighter and pointed it at the firewood.
Looking over, I met eyes with Jiro and we both raised our brows in question.
Todoroki walked over and lit a small flame under our cooking station.
"Thanks, Pretty Boy."
"About what happened this afternoon-"
"I don't want to hear it. If I hear you bring it up one more time, I might actually get angry." I looked at Todoroki pointedly. "I'm not dead, Todoroki. Stop trying to apologize."
"Oh . . . Yeah. Okay." Todoroki smiled slightly.
"Oi! Scarface! Peel the potatoes!"
"Did you scrub them first?" Walking over, I grabbed a peeler and stood next to the sink.
"I already did! Now hurry up!" Bakugo growled as he chopped the carrots up into small pieces.
I didn't know he was that good at using a knife.
"Jeez. Gordan Ramsay incarnate."
"Down low," Kirishima whispered, and I slapped his hand discreetly under the countertop, the both of us holding in our laughter.
Our group worked together seamlessly, with me prepping the ingredients, Bakugo chopping them up, Mina cooking them, and Sero making the sauce and rice.
Sitting down at a table, we said our thanks and dug in.
"Yaoyorozu, you eat so much," Mina said from next to me.
Looking across the table, I saw her with three bowls of curry. "Yep. My quirk uses the lipids in my body to create stuff, so the more I eat, the more things I can make."
"It's like poop . . ."
"Apologize!" Jumping up from next to me, Jiro threw a fist in Sero's face, causing the whole table to erupt in laughter.
"Kota! It's time for dinner!" Mandalay called out for her nephew.
Looking up, I saw the little kid scowl at us before stalking away into the woods.
Hm.
"Guys, I'll be right back." Filling a bowl with curry, I followed Kota into the woods.
"Is this a secret hideout of some sorts?" Climbing onto a rock ledge, I looked around and spotted a little cave.
"What are you doing here?" He yelled, jumping up and pointing an accusatory finger at me.
"Here." I slid the bowl of curry over to him. "Figured you might be hungry."
"Like I said, I don't intend to hang out with people who want to become heroes!"
Sitting down next to him, I dangled my feet over the ledge. "I don't want to be a hero."
"Huh? Then why are you in the hero course?"
I shrugged. "It's the best place to learn about my quirk, I guess."
"Getting all into trying to improve your quirk. It's gross." Kota scoffed.
"I don't know why you feel the way you do, but don't be so quick to hate heroes. Everybody has their own dreams."
"Dreams? Of what? Death?"
"Oh, so is this what it's about?"
"I never said-"
"Was it your parents?"
"Shut up!"
"Hm." Tucking my feet under my legs in a criss-cross position, I turned to Kota. "I get why you hate the hero society so much, I do. It glorifies heroes and asks them to put their lives on the line for people they don't even know. But your parents-"
"Mizugumo?"
"Oh? Midoriya? Did you want to get Kota food, too?" I looked at the bowl of curry in his hand.
"Oh, yeah . . . but I see you're already-"
"Why are you guys even here? Leave me alone! Everyone's crazy, talking about quirks and all that stuff. It's because they were showing off that it ended up like that!" Kota yelled, kicking a pebble down into the woods. "If there's nothing else, then just go away!"
"Well . . . Um . . . I have a friend . . ."
I lifted my head to look at Midoriya.
"He uh . . . he couldn't inherit quirks from his parents. It's rare, but it happened to him. He really admired heroes, though, so he practiced every day. Trying to draw objects to him, trying to breathe fire, but none worked."
Averting my gaze, I thought back to the time I overheard him talk about his quirk with All Might.
Could it be . . .
"There are a lot of different ways to think about quirks, so I don't know if this will apply to everyone, but I do know that they're a part of you. And if you try to reject it, it'll just be that much more painful for you."
Ah. What he said ended up applying to me, too, didn't it?