I scarfed as much food as I could, feeling replenished as I listened to Izuku voice his worries for the young boy. Denki and Bakugo were near me, too busy swallowing their meals to pay any mind to our conversation.
When we wrapped up dinner, I headed with Jirou to undress and bathe in the hot springs. We were both covered in towels, but I was blushing slightly because I was always particular about revealing any aspect of my body. We sunk into the water, I lifted my towel the more the water obscured my body until it reached past my chest.
Letting the warm temperature of the liquid soothe my muscles and bones, I sighed happily, inciting a conversation with my favorite girl who swam near me.
I could hear the voices of the boys on the opposite end of the wall, laughter from both genders resounding through the air to create a calm aura of tranquility and enjoyment.
I heard our class rep screaming at Mineta, what was that pervert up to? I noticed Kota's small frame leaning towards the boy's side, a small slap sounded and we all heard Mineta's scream.
"Mineta really is the worst!" "Thanks, Kota!" "Yeah, thanks, you cute but angry brat, we totally appreciate it!" I cried, waving to Kota in gratitude.
He looked down on us, oh, crap we're all naked, he yelped burning with a bright red, he leaned back too far as he fell. "Kota!" I screamed, standing and reaching for my towel. "FLORENCE, OH MY GOD." Jirou's words made me realize that my entire body was revealed to my female classmates. I screamed, throwing the towel around me as I ran out, too embarrassed to respond to Jirou while Mina yelled loudly, "Wow, Florence, your body is so hot!" This has got to be the most humiliating thing, universe feel free to swallow me up anytime now, I don't think I can face them after that.
I made my way to the large sleeping room, texting Izuku to ask if Kota was okay. He responded, saying he'd call me right now. I threw on a shirt with loose pajama pants, brushing out the tangles of my hair as I prepared for sleep. My phone rang, swiping, I answered. "Izuku." "Come meet me by the woods, near the dining hall." He hung up, leaving me to frown at my screen before standing and abiding his instructions.
When we met, his eyes flew to my hair, scrutinizing it. "I like your hair down." He commented, casually, but the already flustered feeling I experienced from Jirou's stare at my body came rushing forward again. "No compliments, I've been through enough to leave me like a tomato today." I say, scratching my cheeks awkwardly as I smiled shyly. "Pretty. Beautiful. Intelligent. Strong. Brave. Responsible. Kind." His words were playful, eyes scanning me to see if I'd react how he wanted. Stupidly nice words and stupidly nice boy betraying me. My face was burning and I only pouted, "What'd you wanna meet me here for?"
He began explaining Kota's past. His parents were pro-heroes who sacrificed their lives to a villain to protect civilians. They were known as the Water Hose, and their names brought about their story as I sighed, recalling the events when it circulated through the media, "So that's why he's got issues with heroes? He thinks his parents chose that over him, poor kid." My words ignited an agreement from Izuku but also a determination that poured with his countenance. "We're gonna help him change his mind about heroes, Florence."
I nodded, "Yeah, I figured that much anyways. Let's go to sleep and we'll try tomorrow." We walked back towards the cabins that were beginning to radiate noise. "Goodnight, Deku." I waved, revealing a soft grin as I squeezed his arm before heading through the doors to my room with Jirou. "Goodnight, Flo."
-
We spent the next two days training from five thirty in the morning until sunset. Mr. Aizawa explained that we experienced enough to make us grow in terms of fighting with our quirks and how encountering villains heightened our emotional intelligence, but he also reprimanded us by saying we never had our focus on strengthening the physical aspects of our quirks. We would use this trip to ensure that we returned to U.A with double the power and endurance than from what we had when entering. Consequently, our training camp begun with a grueling work ethic.
Bakugo had to dip his hands into boiling water and release explosions that were even larger than the ones at the Sports Festival, Shoto stood in bath water, releasing attacks of ice and cold, rotating between the two powers. Sero was forced to stand at the edge of the cliff, producing an onslaught of tape from his elbows without catching a break, Ojiro and Kirishima sparred until they were both fainting, Kaminari was training his body to withstand his volts of electricity by repeatedly electrocuting a battery, Koda was screaming the whole day to strengthen his vocal cords for how he approached animals, and Aoyama shot his naval lasers, forcing himself to push past the nausea and pain he'd experience in his stomach. I felt sympathetic for Tokoyami, he was forced to be in the dark and keep a grip on Dark Shadow, who was much too powerful at night. Uraraka would make herself float for hours, holding back on her own nausea and touching things occasionally to see the most she could make float, Iida ran nonstop, Tsu scaled the mountains to climb and enhance the frog aspects of her quirk, Sato stuffed himself with baked goods while exercising, Momo joined him, trying to pressure the items she could create to produce rapidly and in large quantities, Kyoka was strengthening her earphone jacks and jamming it into the ground to listen to external noise, and Mina was amping up her endurance with how much acid she excreted. Mineta was popping balls out from his head left and right as blood poured down his forehead, while Shoji produced more limbs to fight and target Hagakure, who was working on her stealth as she pranced around without clothing.
Izuku had taken to going against Tiger, the only male in the Wild, Wild Pussycats while Class 1-B arrived and partook to their own styles of training with their teacher, Vlad King.
Aizawa told me that since my quirk would be amplified here, I had to push myself until my body went beyond being numb, I had to use every aspect of this land to my advantage as he switched between training with those who failed the final exam and with me.
I ran through the forest, working on different parts of my body as I fought off Pixie-Bob's dirt monsters. I created landslides, lifted a mile's worth of dirt into the air, and I was forced to revive and kill an acre of trees and then produce vines and stone rapidly to defend myself from Aizawa, Mandalay, and Pixie-Bob, simultaneously. This went on for too many hours, every inch of my body begged for me to stop but I refused. I moved, even when I no longer felt the motions of my body, and I would create pillars of vines and stones that reached the top of the mountain and hurl them towards those who trained me for the trip. Kirishima and Ojiro would come spar with me but quickly left, complaining that fighting against me was unfair. It wasn't, I only pushed myself to keep standing and Aizawa's scarf would wrap around me constantly, slamming me into the ground as debris flew, leaving me with bruises and scrapes. I worked on my agility with the vines as I performed moves similar to gymnastics, weaving myself through the forest as I searched for whoever Aizawa said. I was supposed to summon healing quantities of plants to heal my classmates, even if I had no energy left to spare. I would've passed out if it weren't for the sun's heat drilling into my skin, providing me with enough energy to continue with each round.
After the Pussycats called it quits the first day, the class was forced to throw together our own dinner and we all set to work, I helped with cooking the food as Bakugo and I made curry, Jirou stuck by me as we served everyone and I slid an extra plate to Izuku, motioning for him to come with me and take it to Kota.
We found the boy hidden at a cliff, watching the rustling of the trees as insects made their usual noises to commence the beginning of the evening. Izuku told Kota how he knew of his past, the boy only grew hostile, demanding that we leave. My friend explained to Kota the tale of a boy who was quirkless and had to accept his fate, stating that Kota would eventually have to accept the reality of losing his parents because brewing in anger wouldn't help himself heal. I knew that Midoriya was telling his own childhood story, but Kota shook with rage as he yelled at Izuku to leave, and I gestured for him to go on without me.
"Hey, Kota. I lost my grandpa two months ago, today." The truth bomb left him astonished, as he lifted his eyes to stare at me without anger, only sadness.
I continued, "You see, I really disliked men because of one experience, I even despised a lot of boys my age, too. I was scared of a lot of people, and my grandpa was the only man in the world that I felt like I could trust. So when I lost him, I took it hard. I was angry, I thought the universe was out for me because I already suffered a lot and then I had to wake up everyday knowing that someone who was so loving, so deserving of everything good, had to be taken away. It became hard to move on, and I nearly pushed away Midoriya and my friends for it. I almost went back to being the spiteful girl I used to be, but Midoriya, the blonde boy named Bakugo and my two other friends stopped me from doing that. They saved me, and I ended up saving myself. It's okay to be angry, because to me, that just shows how much you really love your parents, right? But don't spend the rest of your life resenting heroes, nothing deserves to have that kind of hold over you, and heroes like Midoriya," I paused to whisper the rest of the words, I knew Izuku was waiting for me towards the path heading back to the lodge so I couldn't let him listen, "They're the ones that are worth loving."
Kota wasn't angry anymore, he looked muddled in his own thoughts as his gaze settled back to the forest below us. I wrapped my arms around his small frame, "You'll be happy one day, it's okay to let go and move on." With that, I left with Midoriya back to the cabins.
The third day of the trip had people working with excitement, Pixie-Bob offered the proposal of playing the Test of Courage after dinner, one class would be placed throughout the woods as groups of the other class would walk in, preparing to be scared, and vice versa.
We were wrapping up dinner, as I sat in between Mina and Bakugo. Jirou and Ochaco sat in front of me, Kaminari was placed near us as he chatted with Sero and Izuku was next to Ochaco, discussing All Might with Shoto. I had been slurping my noodles dutifully when Mina interrupted the silence of our meal that we were too busy devouring.
"Florence, I had a dream you left me to date one of your four little best friends!" Her playful voice immediately notified me of the joke as I choked on my pork, leading Bakugo to thump my back as I regained my breathing. "Mina, it's just a dream, I don't know why you're wor-" Her lips pressed against my cheek.
This was my first kiss. Like kiss from someone who's not a family member greeting you or showing endearment, even if it was platonic, wait is this platonic? Did she mean this romantically? Why the hell did she kiss me? Do girl friends kiss each other?
"M-Mina. I, uh..." I said nothing else, staring blankly at my food as my brain must've turned to the equivalent of Denki's when he short-circuits.
"Mina, you broke her!" Ochaco cried out, waving her hands in front of me as I tried to recollect myself, feeling the flush creep from the back of my neck, moving towards my ears and enveloping all of my face. I coughed, roughly getting up from the table.
"Pinky, that's not cool!" I finally whined, swatting her head. She pouted, "Why, Flo? I was joking!"
"I haven't had my first kiss, or anything like that and you just took it! I wanted it to be from someone that loves me romantically! And also I gotta love the person, too!" I cried out, turning to observe the other groups while hiding my embarrassment. "Oh, Reyna, it was just on the cheek." Ashido stood to hug me as an apology, and I only relented, but I was startled when my best friends stared at me with an odd intensity, none of them saying anything as they only took in my words.
Finally, Denki shook off whatever caused him to be so serious as he laughed, "Angel, if you want someone to meet your standards, just come over here and-" "Shut up, extras! I'm trying to enjoy my damn meal!" Bakugo spared me from letting Denki's statement settle in as I ultimately giggled. The light giggles turned into full-blown laughter as I gripped my stomach. "Mina, you still aren't forgiven," I wheezed out, as the pink-skinned girl hugged my hips playfully, while Shoto sent a smile towards me. I looked around the clusters of groups, trailing over my classmates and settling on my teacher who sent me the softest of grins in my direction. I spun, staring at the mess hall as my chest erupted with an inexplicable content.
This is my life, these people, more in U.A, some in America, and some no longer in this world. Despite the good and the bad, I craved more moments like these.
We were now gathered at the entrance to the forest, I listened to Kaminari, Kirishima, Sero, Mina, and Sato wail because of Aizawa's declaration. They wouldn't participate in our game because they'd be doing an extra lesson of studying due to their failure at the practical. Pixie-Bob and Ragdoll, the fourth and final member of the Pussycats were laying out the rules for us as I listened closely, leaning my head on Jirou in exhaustion. Our class would win if we found cards with our name on it in the woods, and 1-B would win if they scared the majority of our class. We would be divided into teams of two to go into the forest at time intervals.
My stomach strained, leading me to move off of Jirou and turn to Aizawa. My heart thumped and I felt my palms go sweaty, why is my body reacting like this? What's going on to make me so nervous? Everything was fine, the others were just gathered, chatting for the event in joy. The voice that was growing quieter with the passing days slithered to my forefront.
You always lose everything.
"Sh- Mr. Aizawa." He turned to me at my call, eyes expressing concern as he raised a brow. "What is it, Reyna?" I had no clue why, but I wanted to dismiss the formalities and just hug him, tell him to reassure me that I was fine, that nothing could go wrong at this moment. That I was safe.
"Um, nothing! Just don't work my classmates too hard, they've done enough throughout the day." I laughed nervously, turning away and staring at the ground. I felt him move towards me, his words and tone were low.
"If something's the matter, kid, just stay in the building with me." Every nerve in my body wanted to agree with the offer, I couldn't pinpoint why I was so on edge, but my heart stayed tethered to the three classmates who were about to enter the forest.
"No, sir, it's okay, just kinda scared of the dark but I'll get over it. Bye, Shota, thank you." I waved him off, mustering a final weak grin as I moved near Ragdoll. My brain barely caught on to the last sentence, why was I making it seem like I won't see him again?
Aizawa towed his group away, but I caught Denki's stare, he slipped from my teacher's scarf, hauling his body to me. "Wait for me after class ends, okay, angel?" My heart twisted in pain, seriously, get a grip Florence, you're just going to play a game. I agreed, "Yeah, of course. Have fun studying, Chargebolt." I smiled softly, spinning on my heel but I didn't miss the way his gaze lingered on me for too long.
"Hey, Reyna, you're going to tag along with another team since there's an odd one out, is that okay?" Mandalay asked, reaching a paw to smooth my slightly disheveled hair.
"Actually, I'll just go in by myself!" I said, attempting to show my bravery, if class 1-B thought they could instill fear in me, they were wrong. I used that as an excuse to mask the real reason, if I had to be with one of my friends and talk to them, I would lose control over the anxiety that snuck through every crevice of my body, rendering me senseless as I desperately fought off the tears.
Jirou's eyes found mine as she heard my statement, she was entering with Hagakure. "You don't wanna come with us?" She questioned, eyes piercing mine. "No, I'm gonna show 1-B that I'll beat them all because I'm not scared!" I cried out, hearing Bakugo's scoff as Jirou glanced at me once more. "Alright, Reyna." "Kyoka." Her name left my voice quietly, as I dropped the playful expression. She gripped my hand, nearing her face to mine as she frowned. I lifted my head up, "You've got to make more playlists for me when we get home, okay? Promise me. They're the best." I flung my arms around her, squeezing her. She reciprocated the gesture uneasily. "Yeah, Florence, I promise."
I was behind Tsu and Ochaco, tapping my foot impatiently as I waited for my time interval. My mind drifted to the hesitation, the voice that was turning into yells, begging that I stick to Aizawa and force myself to listen to lessons. But my heart never wavered, "Your turn is up, kitty." Mandalay and Ragdoll pushed me encouragingly into the forest. "Wish me luck, Pussycats!" I teased, waving them both off as I marched into the forest. I wish someone would've noticed, the way I forced myself to be overly excited, overly social and hyper, anything to mask the trepidation that seeped through my spirit.
Maybe then, it wouldn't have ended the way it did.