I woke up from something touching my face, and that "something" was a leaflet that got to the infirmary room through the open window. How do I know I'm in infirmary? Aside from the so familiar white ceiling, I could smell the medicine of different sorts.
No sounds aside from clocks ticking meant that I'm alone, and with a sigh, a just casually stood up, ignoring the soreness in my whole body. Judging by the time, I slept for about a day, and it was just about time for another school day to start.
My clothes were laid on the bedside, so I took it, changed my infirmary clothes to my casual uniform, and without a doubt, walked out of infirmary, closing it with my own key. If Recovery Girl wasn't here, then it meant her shift didn't started yet, and unannounced visitors isn't something she likes.
With the knowledge that today should be a class hour regarding the Summer Camp and those who failed/passed, I went there, walking past dozens of other students that was eagerly walking to their respective classrooms.
I had a light smile on my face, and only sore limbs and slight eye pain from just waking up was making it worse than a perfect morning. I could easily tell that all my wounds are gone without any visible or invisible scars, and the fact I wasn't feeling absolutely drained of my life force meant that there was no need to use Recovery Girl's quirk to patch me up.
"I need to train more in my healing capabilities. Duality healing should be the most effective, but I need to use it more in order to waste less stamina. Duality is a heavy strain on my whole being." — with a light sigh, I entered the classroom, meeting a few greeting gazes, and nodding in return, I took my own seat, waiting for the class to start, ignoring the usual chatter of my classmates about their performance on the exam.
Even without seeing the actual results, I knew who failed and who passed, but the end result is, of course...
— Everyone is going to the Summer Camp. — was my father's words. There was no doubt Nezu would let us go no matter what. Even if they failed both theoretical and practical exam, they will still go. It would just mean they would be working harder than in hell to catch up with top of the class.
— Yehaw! — those who failed practical part were overjoyed, of course. Those who failed expected to be left behind, but they will go with us.
— But, failure is still a failure. Expect to work three times as hard as others, — this quickly put down their cheering, as always happens. — We gave you loopholes to exploit on the practical exam to make it more fair...
— TELL THAT TO GASTER! — all of them shouted in unison, remembering the fight they all watched from the viewing area. Bullet wounds, limp arm, damaged leg and other sort of minor damage, and all of that with exhaustion from fighting many people at once.
— As I was saying... — his eyes shone red, and his scarf flew in the air, signaling his displease about students interrupting him, and this show of displeasure quickly shut them up. — To give you the chance, we gave you loopholes, first one being weights. Gaster didn't need such things, and it was us who needed a chance. I don't think you need explanation as to why he didn't got anything to make his part easier?
Collective shaking of the student's head gave him the answer that was good enough for his standards. Aizawa sighed, dismissing the class so they can get home and prepare everything needed for the trip.
***
As of now, all of us were seated in the school bus that was going to get us to the summer camp. It has been a few days since it was officially announced, and we collected everything we needed for the trip, starting from spare clothes, ending with the bath equipment.
None of us knew where exactly was the summer camp located. but what I knew for sure, is that Class B's bus went other way about 10 minutes ago, and I'm the only one who noticed that.
Given who planned this trip, I had no doubts we will be starting the "survival" test or something similar to it the moment we exit the bus.
Right until then, I was looking outside of the window to pass the time. My classmates were chatting with each other, some(Totally not pointing at Bakugo), were screaming their lungs out, having lunch, or simply watching something on their phones. I was the rare case of someone just watching out of the window, admiring the scenery.
From what I saw, we were going to the mountains, specifically mountains near a huge forest. I noticed a lot of birds flying from place to place, a lot of different plants growing in between the trees, and, of course, a camp I saw from afar.
Normally, it can't be noticed between all the greenery and the road were going through, but my eagle like vision and my soul vision ability allowed me to see several people deep in the forest, as well as a summer camp we're going to.
When the bus finally stopped, I stretched my limbs, standing up from the seat closest to the exit, walking out with the excited crowd.
— Such a nice view, — ignoring everyone else, including the annoying voice of Mineta running around, I walked closer to the railing near the edge of the cliff, and put my elbows on it, breathing in a portion of fresh mountain air. It was relaxing, to say the least, and compared to the city, this was a safe haven. Although seeing rock monsters hiding in the forest almost ruined it. — A shame we won't be here for long. — it was not hard to guess what will be happening soon, given heroes I saw approaching at rapid speed.
And while I stood there, unbothered by anything happening around, a duo of heroes have entered the scene. Two heroines in blue and red costume, with Cat attributes as their main character point. Wild, Wild Pussycats. That's their group's name. They are naturally a group of 4 people dedicated to rescuing people in mountains, but given that there was only 2 of them, other 2 was in the camp.
While my classmates, specifically Midoriya, was dealing with Pussycats and their "Eternally 18 years old" syndrome, I sighed, and stood on the metal railing with my legs, gathering attention of the class, and 3 heroes present, my father included.
— Gaster, what are you doing? — father asked me, grabbing his scarf in case I do something stupid. His tone was monotone, but I could feel his worry. No parent would stand still when their child, be in adopted or blood related, stands at the edge of the tall cliff so casually.
— Speeding up the process. I don't see a point of waiting any further, given I already know what is needed of me to do, — with yet another sigh, I prepared myself for the strain, and summoned all of my hand, and then, with yet another mental push, I combined all of them, summoning two giant hands to assist me in my upcoming run. — It was nice meeting you, Pussycats. Let's see each other in the camp in... — thinking about it, I calculated the time I will need to get to the camp without hurrying. If I truly wanted to get to the camp, I would've already been there with my teleport. — 7 minutes.
No further words were said, and hearing the screams of my classmates, and excited yell of the duo of heroes, I jumped off the cliff, landing on one of the hands, using the second one to rain a bullet hell at those earth monsters that stood on my way.
Echo of explosions caused by my attacks scared all the birds in the area, and I could see small craters forming around the areas my bullets hit, while earth monsters disintegrated into ash the moment they were unable to get any more damage.
I didn't wanted to damage this precious forest any more than necessary, so using Justice was the safest bet. Integrity and Bravery would deal the most damage to surrounding, Determination will just evaporate half of the forest, Kindness will waste too much energy and time squashing earth monsters one by one, and Patience will take too long with the limits it has. There's no need to even remember about Perseverance, seeing as it's best usage is to counter something.
Flying above the forest, the only thing i had to deal with, was monsters that could actually fly(dont ask me how earth abomination can even get off the ground, let alone fly), so most of the time, I just struck anything that was beneath me.
— This forest is indeed beautiful. A shame it has to be used for such training that will destroy a portion of it. — on my way to the camp, I didn't bothered with killing as many monsters as possible. My objective was to get there and start my training while I have the chance. Private grounds allow us to use our quirk as we see fit, and I had a lot on my shoulders to bother with something as trivial as a "test" to get to the camp before time runs out.
For my classmates, this was the biggest challenge they faced so far(excluding league of villains and attempts to beat me at the Sport Festival), for me, it was just Thursday.
***
Pixie-Bob, aka Ryuko Tsuchikawa, was not having a good time.
She was told beforehand what she will have to do, and it was fueling her excitement over being able to see class 1-A train under her and her colleagues.
She ignored all the warnings about how strong and unusual Gaster was, and she didn't remembered it until it was too late.
It didn't strike her when the only kid who stood aside, watching at the forest as if it was the most beautiful thing he ever seen, ignored the presence of two famous heroes, but when he started acting, she understood how unprepared she was for such trainee.
None of her creations stood a chance, hell, they didn't even deserve a side-glance of this kid that could demolish the whole forest in a second if he truly desired it! While other participants of the challenge actually fought for their lives, attempting to get to the camp as soon as possible, this kid was treating it like it was a walk in the park, so casual was his whole being. He never looked at her creations for longer than a milliseconds, because in the next, they were already destroyed by a yellow bullet full of explosive force behind it.
Then, she did the best she could do to stop him from reaching the camp so soon. It wasn't yet prepared for entrance, her colleagues has to be still preparing to cook all the food. No one expected that someone will be able to get to the camp in less than an hour, let alone three hours, forest was this big, and amount of Earth beasts was just this absurd. It would be embarrassing to admit she wasn't able to stop a single kid from reaching them before everything was ready to welcome them.
She collected the biggest creatures she had at her disposal, and made a single golem that was much higher than she could normally produce. This time, Gaster actually stopped flying, looking at the mass of earth that rose higher than the highest tree in the forest, blocking the way of a student that was still flying on one of his hands.
Until then, Gaster had a soft smile on his face, as if he was looking at the kid doing his first steps, and while he was enjoying the scenery of the beautiful forest with no end to be seen, it remained this way, but when Pixie-Bob made her new creation that blocked his way, his smile disappeared instantly, being replaced by a thin line instead of a smile. Even those blue-red eyes of his was devoid of any sort of life, and only deep darkness was seen in them. She swore she saw a tint of purple appearing in his eye sockets for a single moment, only to disappear instantly, being replaced by the same void like eyes that was gazing at her golem without any signs of mercy.
He was looking pissed, and even at such distance, looking through her golem's eyes, she felt her soul leaving her body for a single second. Anxiety filled her heart, because she felt unimaginable fear toward this kid who was looking at her golem as if he was gazing at an ant.
The next second she expected her golem to be obliterated turned out to be true, because then, when she saw Gaster sigh from frustration, she felt danger.
A huge, skeletal-dragon like skull appeared behind Gaster, charging a red beam of energy that could obliterate a mountain in a single blast, and it was at this moment Pixie-Bob truly understood why Nezu and Eraserhead asked them to be careful around this kid.
Because right now, when this beam was approaching her golem, she heard a single sentence uttered by him.
"What arose from the earth, should stay in the earth."
The amount of disgust he had in his voice was unimaginable. It felt as if he had deep grudge against earth creatures, be it golems or beasts. It didn't mattered to Pixie-Bob, because right now, when she lost control of her golem, she was gasping for breath.
— Pixie-Bob! — Eraserhead jumped in to help her, seeing as she suddenly started to hyperventilate from the fear she was feeling right now. He put his hand on her back, helping her to calm down. — What happened? This isn't like you.
— I just...saw something terrifying. Don't worry, it will be okay, I just need to breath for a bit. — she put on her brave smile, trying to keep the mood up, and not to make her colleagues worry. As Eraserhead said, it's not like her. Even if she's scared, she won't fall out of the game so easily. It will take more than that.
***
— 6 minutes and 30 second. I expected it to be 6 minutes and a spare minute to walk to the camp, — with a sigh, I landed near the building in the middle of the forest, looking at 2 heroes that were preparing to cook the food. — Hello, mind if I join you? — detransformind two giant hands into 7 smaller hands, in preparation to cook food for my classmates, I approached them. I will have enough time to train after I finish with the job here, and as always, food comes first. It's no use training if you're hungry, after all.
— We weren't expecting anyone to show up so fast. Eager to start, are you, kitten? — a man in the same style of uniform as other members of Pussycats asked, holding a box of supplies. His smile was a bit unnatural, but I found it very kind for a man with a face like that. For someone, I'm more than sure he will look intimidating, but I saw hell, compared to it, it's nothing.
— I find such tests boring. Let people who need more training deal with it, I will help with something I actually appreciate, — shrugging my shoulders, I walked closer, picking up other boxes that were on the ground without any issue, and walked in the same direction hero called "Tiger" and heroine "Ragdoll" went to. From what I saw, they went to the kitchen inside the house. — After all, food is something everyone appreciates. — a wave of nostalgia hit him like a truck, refresh unpleasant memories of his childhood. He shook his head, leaving his memories for another time. Now is not the time to get the feelings take over him.
— Well, any help is appreciated. I heard there's a lot of you coming, so let's get to work. — he quickly accepted my help, and so, when we entered the kitchen, the cooking show has started. Several boxes of supplies to use, multiple hands with patience strings using knifes and other kitchen tools, and my own help.
With so much hands to work with, the process was sped up tenfold, which in turn made me able to get a few "thank you" from duo of heroes that were present. We mainly were focused on cooking the food, so the fact they distracted themselves to thank me was very well appreciated.
In the end, when all the food was ready and set on tables, I went ahead to train, seeing as my classmates started to get out of the forest one by one. I simply nodded my head to them, to which they responded in kind, and I left to the training ground I saw before.
It was a huge place with a lot of open space to use. Small cliffs, caves, flat surface that stretches far enough and some basic tools left on the ground. Whoever left them here was either too lazy to get them back to the storage rooms, or they were prepared for us beforehand. From what I understood, today is the day we arrive, pass the "test", eat and relax before training starts tomorrow.
— Well, I'm a special case, anyway, — with a slight smile, I stretched my hands, warming up before the actual training. There's no point in making your quirk stronger if your body can't handle it anyways. — Let's get to the point. — without an issue, I called forth duality hands, thinking of what should I do with them not to make too much noise. Safest best is to use Patience and Kindness, but in which way exactly?
Then, an idea struck my head. I fell to the ground, doing push-ups as fast as I could, while both of the hands started healing me at rapid pace, reducing the time my muscles need to regenerate to get stronger to zero. Muscle get stronger when they tear and regenerate to get a better structure, and healing myself in such way makes me use all of my stamina to do pushups and heal myself, while also making me physically stronger with the amount of time I spent on it.
Of course, doing pushups only was pointless, and I went to do other type of physical activities, continuing my endurance training by pushing myself to the limit where I will be barely able to walk. I will be going to sleep after that, anyways, so I didn't care enough to walk back after I'm done.
Only when I felt I can't go further anymore, I stopped, feeling the strain of the usage of duality with the healing. When the numbness from healing stopped, I felt the unbearable pain of my muscles aching even when they were already healed. Pain didn't fade away as easily as it can be imagined, and phantom pain or pain that was numbed by healing will return with time, which happened to me as well.
I calmed myself down with heavy breaths, holding my hands behind my head and standing straight in order to breathe easier, getting used to the pain that was felt over my whole body.
Judging by my inner clock, it was about 4 hours since I started, and no one has came to check on me, even if it wasn't needed. I could see a faint light of the summer camp building, and given it was already evening with the sun already set, it was understandable. I could only sigh, dismissing duality in order to save energy I need to eat to restore some endurance and get myself a post-sleep shower. I can't possibly go to eat or sleep. It's not like a bone-like skin can produce sweat, but I prefer not to smell like a dirt, rocks and mud that was in the training field.
***
I completely forgot this place has hot springs. When I ate what was left of the food we cooked, I went straight for them, only to find out I was the first one to do so. Even though people were training right before they ate, no one was about to relax in a hot springs before I decided to do so.
Of course, sections was separated, so boys and girls had their privacy kept. I walked to the pond with a steaming water, and sat myself in a way I was underwater up until my chin. I felt myself in heaven immediately, as my muscles felt the relaxation they so desperately needed. I could hear girls walking into the hot springs as well, chattering with each other, while boys were walking in one by one with loud cheering and splashes of water, before they calmed down and decided to relax.
— Hey, G, where the hell have you been off to when we came to the camp? — Bakugo sat near me(he came to me even if I was in the corner to get some alone time), and placed his hands behind himself, looking at the stars.
— I decided that was a waste of time to go through all those golems, so I just went to the camp, helped with cooking the food, and went to train. Right now, I feel like a used sponge. — I replied, showing how sluggy was my movements with my tired hands, as they were shaking from my exhaustion. Bakugo just sighed, sinking deeper into the hot spring water.
— So most of the food was cooked by you, huh? — it wasn't really a question, even if he asked it in such a tone. He knew how I operate, and knowing how actually smart Bakugo is, it's not hard for him to imagine me using my quirk to help with cooking. — It was good, but I can do better.
— Who?
— What? — he tilted his head in confusing to my question, turning his head to look at my neutral face expression.
— As in, who asked? — I replied, which stunned Bakugo better than any stun grenade. He just sat there, looking me dead in the eyes, with a frozen face expression.
— I'll fucking kill you! — his pre-programmed response came slower than normal. Some progress were made.
— Hahaha. I'm sorry, but could you please shut your trap for a moment? — I laughed with annoyed face expression with the same smile, looking at the stars.
— ... — I could swear I saw a steam coming out of his head, but it might be my tired imagination, and it was actually just a steam from the hot springs. — Where have you gotten that attitude? I barely saw you being like that before you returned from agency.
— I have a hand mirror. Want to use? — I responded, remembering all the hate texts Bakugo sent me during his internship. Not that he was the only one who taught me, Mirko is also foul mouthed, and she doesn't even need to hide it. It's her natural charm.
— Seriously?! You just keep getting better at harassing me, huh?! — he naturally yelled, stopping all the conversations in the hot spring, before everyone realized who is talking, getting back to their own business.
— I'm learning from the best, y'know? — I sunk my head deeper under the water, releasing air bubbles from my mouth.
— ... — he just sighed, following my example in getting under the water to relax, and we sat in peace, enjoying each other's company.
Even though we might be annoyed with each other at some point, throw insults in each other's face or straight up fight, we're still best friends, and times like this, when we can sit in silence, is precious.
I turned my head in Mineta's direction, ignoring his yelling and pervent speech, and before he could even place a single ball off of his head on the surface, his hands was pierced by a pair of bones from the wall, which made him erupt a screech even more annoying than you can imagine, before he tried to tear his hands off the trap I set up for him. The corners of the bones sharpened, turning into hooks to trap him without a path to escape, and when he stopped struggling, with tears and snot over his whole face, I lifted my head above the water.
— If anyone else is brave enough to try and get past the defense, go on. Just remember, it won't heal without my help. Those who do it and come to me for help, prepare to beg me to do it. — no response came, and everyone looked at me with horrified face expressions, before my eyes flashed with red and blue. — Am. I. Understood?
— YES! — when they all understood the danger of staying silent, they answered as loud as possible, and only Mineta was sobbing from pain.
When silence returned, and I put my head back underwater, I heard girls giggling at the situation.
— Thank you, Gaster! — I heard Mina yelling me from their side, and I left her thanks unanswered, preferring to finally rest. Setting up the trap was not hard, but with my leftover energy, it was tiring.
***
My room was just like the one I had in father's apartment. Your typical boy's room, just with a bit of more decorations than normal. A shelf with clothes, shelf with books, table with piles of paper stacked upon it, a pc on it, a few drawers full of different supplies, and of course, a bed. Other than that, I had a little bit of training equipment just to fill the empty space, and Mirko's poster I bought back in Hosu. Her smile made me feel at ease, even if she was looking at me from the poster.
Normally, I would just call her to chat, but most of the communications were cut off in order for us to not be so easily found in the summer camp. It doesn't mean we can't use our phones, but we can't use basic apps to communicate or to call our friends and family. Most of what we do is following: Search up the information on the website used by UA, play some of the online games, or play local net games with each other if we feel like it. Minecraft, of course, was the most popular choice. Those who wanted to stay awake for a little while kept playing, but I went to sleep earlier than others. — "Did I even heal Mineta...?" — a thought ran through my head, but I dismissed it soon. Even If I didn't, a night full of pain will teach him a lesson.
I woke up at 5 AM from my alarm ringing, and turned it off, standing up from my bed to get myself ready for training. Quick shower, teeth brushed, and I went downstairs to get myself some coffee, meeting up with my father who came to do the same. We shared a nod, and just stood in silence, waiting for the coffee to be ready. We are the morning birds, so no one else was awake.
— How was your training session yesterday? — he asked, pouring the steaming liquid in his cup, and giving it a try.
— Fruitful, to say the least. I can feel some results, but I need to keep going if I want to get it to a better level. Duality is harder to train that it looks. I will try others ways today, since it won't disturb anyone. — trying out my coffee as well, I smiled, and sat in the chair to have my drink.
— Good to hear. It's hard to come with any way to help you improve, so try to find out more by yourself until we think of something. — with those words, he left the kitchen, probably to find Pussycats and prepare for training. It starts at 6 AM, so it's only a matter of time before my classmates wake up.
As expected, it was only 20 minutes before the start when they started showing up. First one's were Todoroki, Bakugo and Midoriya, and everyone else came after them. Those 3 were the most motivated to get stronger, so it was no wonder they came earlier than most.
Only when everyone were ready and put on their PA suits, we finally went to the training grounds, standing in front of my father.
— Good morning everyone. Today you will be starting to train for real. The goal is to boost your endurance and getting the temporarily license. It will prepare all of you for possible battle clashes, so do your best, — he took a baseball ball from his pocket, tossing it to Bakugo. — For example, Bakugo. Your result was 702.5 before. Send it flying now.
— That's all? — he asked, but nonetheless, stepped forward to do it. — I didn't sit there for 3 months without improving. Now that I'm stronger, I will send it flying over 1 kilometer, and it doesn't matter how sturdy this ball is, I will destroy it, — he grinned, and pulled his hand back to throw it. — Burn in hell! — explosion was deafening, and when the ball came flying, I can say for sure, he did improve.
— 791.1 is the result, — father said amused, seeing how confused was Bakugo at this result. He looked at his hands as if something is wrong, and then clenched them in anger. — Those 3 month didn't pass without improvement, that's true. You changed, but your quirk didn't became as strong as you expected it to become. You changed mentally and physically, but not quirk-wise. But, there is, of course, one exception. Gaster, your turn. — he tossed me a second ball, and I grinned, calling forth one of the duality hands, charging bravery explosion bomb.
With the loud bang, the entire forest shook from explosion, which sent the ball so far I couldn't even see it anymore. We waited for a couple of second to see the result, and then it came.
— 5 kilometers. The change is immense, and this is because Gaster actually knows a way to train his quirk, and because he got an "upgrade" to his ability he normally use. This is the result that you should strive for. As you can see, improving your quirk is not an easy fit, and this summer camp trip is made specifically to make up for it. From now on, right here and right now, your hellish training to improve your quirk, — he lifted his hair off his face, grinning as a madman. — starts.
***
Since no one is able to give me pointers, I could only think myself on how to improve my quirk. I already found one way, but I can't rely on it all the time, since endurance drain during it is insane. What I did, instead, was the most flashy performance out of all students.
I called forth a huge Gaster Blaster, both duality hands, and started shooting separate souls all at once. Blaster was continously shooting determination blasts, left hand was using Bravery explosions which was shaking the entire training ground, and right hand was shooting Justice bullets like a machinegun. The amount of light produced was immeasurable, but it was worth it. I might not feel the whole "improvement" meter rising, but I could feel myself getting less tired with each use of such an overcharged abilities I don't normally use to such degree. At most, one blast like that is enough to obliterate anything on its path, so having to use it so much does make me feel like I'm getting an upper hand on it.
I tried to also call 7 hands I normally use along with duality, but when I tried to, I just disabled both duality and blaster at the same time. Although, my last attempt was almost a success, since I was able to call them for 1 second, before duality turned itself off. It's probably a lack of stamina that prevents me from calling so much firepower at once, so I could only grit my teeths at it, and try harder.
With how the Internet has improved over the recent years, people would say "cope and seethe", which means "be angry if you want to, it won't change anything", and I did the opposite, I kept going in order to succeed without issues. It was hard, since even if my stamina was high enough to heal myself and train for 4 hours, it didn't mean I could do the same with such destructive abilities I use at this moment. A single blast of Gaster Blaster take so much stamina that I want to vomit when I keep doing barrage of fire, but I keep it inside, pushing myself to the limit.
Only when class 1-B arrived, I decided to take a rest, falling to the ground, barely moving. I was still unable to call both duality hands and my regular hands, but it was acceptable. I have enough time to train in this environment. Although it was harder to breath in the area around me with how much oxygen I exploded with bravery, Justice and Determination.
— It was scary when we first heard explosion, you know? — Kendo stood near me, looking at my face from above, blocking the sun rays that assaulted my eyes.
— Yeah, I can imagine. Sorry for the noise, but can't do anything about it, — panting for breath, I kept laying on the ground, only using elbows to move myself a bit so I will get to the grass instead of laying on the rocky surface. — I never expected myself to use this much firepower for so long. How long was it, an hour an a half? Can't use my inner clock now, my ears are ringing from all the explosions.
— An hour and ten minutes, to be exact. Those laser beams coming straight to the sky pretty much cleared the situation when we understood it was you. Aoyama guy also uses his laser, but his is so dim compared to yours we barely saw it, — she giggled, putting her hands behind her back. — Any advice for me to improve?
— Try to punch the mountain and break it apart. The more you use your sized hands, the more durable they become. You can also fight against Tetsutetsu, so as to also improve your karate moves as well. It will help both of you get more durable in return, — I answered her after giving it a few seconds, looking her in the eyes. — I don't see any other way besides that as of now. I'm too tired to think right now. I would appreciate if you laid me on the grass so I can sleep for a while.
— He-he, you sound so funny when you're tired, you know that? I can't exactly hear the text hovering near your face, but I can imagine it, for some reason, — without other words, she gigantified her hand, picking me up and laying me on a soft grass near the forest. — Thanks for advice. I will see you later.
— See you later, Kendo. — with a sigh, I closed my eyes to sleep for at least an hour to recover. I needed this rest, and I wasn't going to stay awake for the sake of staying awake if I have no other reason to do so.
***
Contrary to popular belief, not all Japanese teenagers are able to cook.
When the training period ended, we all were tasked in cooking curry. I had absolutely no problems with doing it, and just did in without thinking, but when I looked around, my inner chef took place. So, here I am...
— Why did the chicken cross the road? Because you didn't cook it, you buffoon! — I don't know how some people lived without knowing how to cook up until now. Either they relied on their family all this time, or was ordering take-out food.
— I'm sorry! — was the most often excuse. I don't know how is it possible to leave a piece of fine meat uncooked to this degree, but they impressed me, with stupidity it is.
— No, stop it! There is enough garlic to kill every vampire in Europe! — Mineta, with his lilliputian hands managed to add so much garlic to the pot that I wanted to rip hit head off along with his hair in process.
— This is good, believe me! — he shivered in fear under my gaze when I came closer.
— I've never, ever, ever, ever, met someone I believe in... — his face lit up for a second. — ...as little as you. — only to get darker in a second. He was taken aback by my words, and started fixing his ugly mistake.
— Gaster, is it good? — Mina asked me, showing me a pan of cooked chicken.
— You used so much oil, the U.S. want to invade your frying pan. You want to cook the meat, not deep fry it. Your meat is cooked, but what's the point if it's covered in so much oil? It won't go well with curry, nor will it taste the same. Put it on a napkin and let it absorb all the oil you don't need. Jeez. — I couldn't wrap my head around it. For someone who was forced to learn how to cook, it's unimaginable that people my age are unable to cook, or at least have an understanding on how to properly do it.
With a sigh, I could only help each of those who were unable to cook. Cooking for them is prohibited, but helping is not, so I did my best to navigate them in order for my classmates not to die from hunger.
— This curry is the best! — was their voice by the end of cooking session. If I didn't help, they'd still eat their own food, but it would've been horrible. As someone who appreciates food to a high degree, I couldn't stand watching them eat garbage. I'm okay with fast-food, because it's still a food that is good enough, but a waste like theirs wasn't tolerated.
— This camping experience is not something I expected...
(A.N.)
As you can see, the release date is later than I said. It's due to me looking for work now than I finished my studies. Expect chapters to be released slower, since I have less free time/motivation to write. I will still do it, just not as often as when this story first came out.