Summer training was worse than Kuri remembered. Every step she took sent shocks running up through her muscle fibers, begging her for rest the UA staff wouldn't allow. Various activities filled Kuri's week: dodging projectiles in midair, sparring with only kicks, and jumping laps around campus until she collapsed from exhaustion.
Not that they planned to make her faint; it just happened. Kuri was dehydrated and tired, but she pressed on despite her legs threatening to give out at any moment. And then they did!
When Kuri tripped and hit the pavement, she didn't have the strength to push herself up. Instead, she lay there and rested until someone came looking for her. Kuri was on some random side road in the back of campus, but faculty were making rounds to confirm no one was slacking, so they found and took her to the infirmary. Luckily, that incident saved her from an afternoon of exercise, but she discovered that some others in class also passed out. The training regimen was just unreasonable.
Despite the rigorous training and her minor injuries, Kuri was feeling better than ever. That is, her mental state had greatly improved. After talking to Katsuki about everything on her mind, she felt a new lightness in her shoulders. Hanging out with everyone in the evenings and commiserating about the training also served to lift her mood. With each passing day, Kuri eased back to normal interactions with her friends. Admittedly, her storm of thoughts hadn't fully cleared—how could it in only a week?—but at least Kuri spotted the sun peeking through the clouds.
On Sunday, after one week of on-campus training, Class 3-A embarked on their trip to the mystery destination for the rest of their training. As they neared the location, it turned out to be Hakone. Specifically, they were staying in a hotel northeast of Lake Ashi.
Based on her friends' stories of their first-year training, Kuri expected a much more isolated, boring place. But to everyone's surprise, the bus pulled up to a decent-looking hotel in a touristy region famous for its hot springs. Mr. Aizawa made no comment when the students questioned him about how and why UA procured this place for them, and he instead walked off to check them all in.
Kuri and her classmates unloaded their stuff and transported everything from the bus to the hotel lobby. As she glanced around to admire the decor, the others conversed.
"How'd we get such a nice place?"
"I heard one of the faculty knows the owner."
"Well, however we got here, we deserve it.
"But who knows if this trip will even be relaxing..."
Kuri walked over to the cluster of her classmates and joined in their speculation of what their second week of training would entail. Perhaps trekking through the mountains? Traversing the lake? Beating up random ass villains? No one understood why any of those activities had to take place in such a scenic area, but Kuri wasn't complaining about the free vacation!
Within a couple minutes, Mr. Aizawa returned from the front desk with sets of keys and told the class to gather around.
"So, you kids have three big rooms to share. Two for the guys, one for the girls," Aizawa said as he handed the keys off to Tenya and Momo, the class reps for the third year in a row. "Feel free to split yourselves up, but you better behave, or we're headed straight back to the school," he added with a glare.
"What'll we do if we go back?" Denki asked.
"Take a guess," Aizawa muttered. "Anyway, focus on what we're doing here. Every day, you'll do quirk training in the mountains until two. In the afternoon, you'll do odd jobs around town. Help out the locals and whatnot."
"What sort of tasks will you assign us?" Tenya asked with a raised hand.
"You'll have to someone else," Aizawa groaned, rubbing his forehead. "I didn't plan any of this. Nezu's on some kick about having you hero course kids get a taste of other jobs to make you well-rounded. People will be waiting to recruit you for stuff, so you'll find out tomorrow. Today's your only break. Enjoy it."
With that, Mr. Aizawa left them to their own devices and departed to his own room in the hotel. Momo and Tenya immediately began passing out room keys, then Kuri and the other girls set up their stuff in their room. That evening, she and her friends spent their time sightseeing and eating good food, doing just as Aizawa told them to.
Kuri walked into training the next day with a smile on her face. Of course, she didn't maintain that expression throughout their grueling mountainside activities (jumping on slopes is hard!), but her enthusiasm returned in the afternoon.
Since Aizawa provided no information, Kuri didn't know what to expect for her task in town. After all, it was a tourist hot spot, so there were already employees abound. What could Kuri and her classmates even help with?
At two in the afternoon, Class 3-A waited in the hotel lobby for the townspeople, who would pick and choose each student for certain jobs. Different employers arrived, one by one, and snatched up Kuri's friends, usually after just a few questions. In some cases, the adults there to recruit them just spared a look before beckoning someone out of the lobby.
Kuri was one of the last people to be whisked away. Perhaps she looked too unassuming, sitting on a couch in a corner to rest her exhausted legs while she nervously scanned the room. Katsuki and her other friends had been in her company at first, but they were quickly taken away, presumably for manual labor.
Finally, after twenty minutes, an old man came to her and asked if she would like to work up by the elementary school.
Kuri immediately agreed, eager to do something besides feeling sad and alone in the hotel lobby. He drove her to the corner of a small elementary school, then went to grab something from the trunk while Kuri looked around. There weren't any kids—it was summer break, after all—just trees and houses and the empty school.
Just as Kuri was getting suspicious, the white-haired man walked back around the car with a neon yellow vest and a matching yellow banner indicating that pedestrians were crossing. He handed the items to her with a smile and said he'd teach her how to do her job before he left. Kuri was surprised to receive a task that involved so little of her trained skills. All she needed to do was signal for cars to stop, wait for the people to get across, and return to her post on the street corner until more pedestrians came along.
Once the man finished his demonstration, Kuri asked who he was and introduced herself, hoping to glean some information about why the school even wanted a crossing guard. Wouldn't they already have one? And it was the middle of summer; they didn't need one right now!
The man informed her that he was the usual crossing guard, but since UA was doing their short-term program to work with locals, he offered to teach a student his job.
"Do people usually cross here when it's summer?" Kuri asked.
"I wouldn't know. I only work when school's in session," the man said with a shrug. "You'll have to tell me if anyone comes by."
He grinned at Kuri in the way old people do when they're teasing you, and Kuri chuckled.
"Alright, well, thank you for the job," Kuri said. "I'll do my best."
"You don't have to—there's no one around!" the man said before laughing and getting back in the car.
Kuri waved goodbye to him as he drove away and left her to complete her five-hour shift.
The intersection was quiet at first. Kuri leaned against the fence, sign in hand, while she admired the scenery and waited for someone to come by on foot instead of in a car. After two hours, Kuri had only helped two adult women cross the street, and they had spared some greetings, but Kuri still felt pretty lonely. And bored! School was out for the summer, so there were no energetic students on their way home to guide; however, some kids eventually appeared.
They were headed down the hill from where Kuri guessed most of the houses were, and she stepped into the road and held out her banner as they crossed. The four kids—each somewhere between the ages of seven and ten—stared at her with confused looks, wary of this stranger in their small town.
"Thanks," a small boy with a bowl cut mumbled.
"No problem," Kuri smiled back.
The four kids hurried along, and Kuri returned to her post at the street corner. Her aching legs and feet bothered her, so she dusted away the debris next to the fence and sat down. She spent a while mesmerized by the movement of the trees in the wind until those four kids returned.
This time, they were headed up the hill with vending machine drinks in hand. Kuri eyed them as they walked past, wishing she had thought to bring her water with her before she left the hotel.
"Is the vending machine close by?" Kuri asked. The words left her mouth before she thought to stop herself out of embarrassment.
The kids looked at her in surprise, bewildered that she would talk to them out of the blue.
"Yes," a girl with a long braid answered.
"Ah, I'll have to sneak down there and get a drink soon," Kuri said. Her throat was getting pretty dry, and she felt the heat getting to her. Hopefully, no one would mind if she dipped for a minute to get a refreshment.
At the curb, one of the kids turned around and held out his pudgy hand to offer Kuri an apple juice.
"Do you want a drink?" the boy asked. "Chihiro was too lazy to walk, so you can have hers."
"Hey, don't give away Chihiro's juice!" the girl with the braid protested. She snatched it out of the other boy's hand and hugged it close to her chest, along with her own drink.
"I can go get one myself," Kuri said, waving her hands to calm them. "Chihiro can keep hers."
"But you're working. You can't get drinks right now," the last kid—a tall, gangly boy around ten years old—said.
"Hm, will you tattle if I sneak off to get one?" Kuri asked, tapping her chin with her finger.
Two of the boys gave opposite responses simultaneously, and Kuri laughed.
"Alright, then, can one of you grab me something? I'll pay."
Kuri reached into her pocket for her wallet and pulled out a few coins. She presented them on her palm and let the bowl-cut boy pick them up, one by one.
"What do you want?" he asked as Kuri led the four back across the street toward the vending machine.
"Anything's fine as long as it's cold," Kuri said with a grin. "And feel free to keep the change."
After a few minutes, during which Kuri guided a couple other pedestrians across the intersection, the kids returned with a water bottle and a lemon tea.
"There was only ten yen left after buying these, so you can have it back," the tall boy said, planting the coin back in her hand after giving her the drinks. He leaned in to whisper to Kuri. "Ena and Haruto were fighting about who would get the money, so either keep it or give us more."
Kuri laughed and pulled out her wallet again to distribute ten-yen coins to each of them.
"I know it's not much, but please understand I'm a broke high school student," Kuri said self-consciously. The kids giggled and went on their way, leaving Kuri to ponder alone, surrounded by calming nature.
Kuri loved her part-time job. There was no close combat or high-speed chases or resurfaced trauma, just the tedious action of helping people cross the road. Getting to help locals and tourists cross the road added some sparkle to her day after long hours of grueling mountain training. Her boss even got her a chair so she had a place to rest her legs!
The rest of the week passed without consequence—the most notable things were the chaos of sharing a tiny bathroom with six other girls and getting lost sightseeing with friends every evening. During those nights spent touring the town, Kuri heard about everyone else's exploits, cleaning streets, repairing homes, cashiering, babysitting, and more.
In comparison, Kuri's job sounded boring, but she enjoyed chatting with the people she saw regularly. Those vending machine kids had come back her way every day, spending an hour with her each time. Even neatly-dressed Chihiro showed up, who was grumpy that she didn't get a coin from Kuri on Monday.
When Aizawa told everyone they would be doing a different activity that involved the whole class for their last day in Hakone, Kuri couldn't hide her disappointment. The kids were the highlight of her afternoons, bringing tales of what they did each day to kill time (mostly catching bugs and playing house) and telling Kuri about their lives. She had just begun to know them well when their time was abruptly cut short.
On the way to their Friday afternoon event, Kuri sat with Katsuki on the bus and complained to him.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye..." Kuri said. She leaned her head on Katsuki's shoulder with a sigh.
"We can go look for them afterward," he suggested.
"Yeah, go door-to-door looking for them," she chuckled, looking out the window at the passing scenery. Kuri watched the blur of green interspersed with houses, no particular thought in mind until she realized she had been on this road before. "Hey, this is the same way to get to my intersection. See, it's coming up in a couple blocks!"
Kuri pointed out the window for Katsuki to see, thinking they would pass the place quickly, but the bus slowed to a stop in front of the elementary school. The excited voices of children reached her ears before she visually registered the students.
"What are all these kids doing here?" Katsuki asked.
Kuri gawked at the scene in the school's yard: tens of kids stood together in groups, waving cheerily at the bus with their little hands. Five in particular stood out to her, their familiar faces beaming as they jumped up and down and called her name. Kuri couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face as she waved to them.
Everyone exited the bus, and Kuri would have gone over to talk to the kids if Aizawa hadn't corralled the class into one corner to debrief them.
"You're here as teachers today," he said simply. "These children all have manifested quirks, and your task is to devise a lesson plan to train them. Nothing too strenuous or violent, got it?"
Everyone nodded, then Aizawa gave them a measly five minutes to come up with a plan before they would be required to introduce themselves to the kids and get to work. While some of her classmates bemoaned the task and agonized over what to do, overwhelmed with the sudden burden of being an educator, Kuri had a sparkle in her eye.
She immediately hopped into the ring, suggesting that they and the students should break up into groups so everyone would have a chance to instruct. Plus, the kids would benefit from a smaller student-to-teacher ratio. That led to other questions about group size and what each group would teach. After some back and forth about reasonable subjects to teach children, they split into four groups based loosely on quirk categories.
Kuri's group consisted of her, Ochako, Tenya, Shoji, and Ojiro, who would teach kids the basics of close-quarters combat. The other three groups had lessons based on long-range combat, practicing quirks, and how to apply your quirk.
Once they had organized teams, it was time to start the lesson. The kids were eager to get started, yapping and hopping about, so Kuri and the others split them into groups of about eight.
Kuri's first group didn't have any of the vending machine kids, but she had fun anyway. Working alongside her friends, developing an impromptu class with their shared knowledge—Kuri couldn't believe how fun the struggle was.
After her lifelong hero training, Kuri didn't consider herself a person who liked challenges. But something about today was different. Teaching impish children how to properly defend themselves, stressing that they not use what they've learned to attack each other, and scrambling to cover everything within the fifteen-minute blocks they had with each group—Kuri enjoyed everything.
Between teaching the second and third groups, they took a break, so Kuri snagged Katsuki and sat with him in a shady spot near the school's entrance. Most of their classmates also sat there to rest, but a few went to fool around on the playground with the little kids.
"So, are you having fun?" Kuri asked after taking a swig of water.
Katsuki twisted his face, conflicted, before answering slowly, "I wish. The kids are avoiding me, though."
"Aw, that's too bad," Kuri said, stifling a giggle. "How about you meet the kids I know? I can tell them to be nice."
Katsuki shrugged and agreed, so Kuri looked over to the five—she had noticed them watching her and Katsuki from a distance—and waved to beckon them. Surprise flashed on their faces after being caught before they hesitantly walked over.
"Hey! It's good to see you all again," Kuri said as she stood up.
Chihiro was the first to return her greeting, jumping to hug Kuri. When she stepped back, she noticed Katsuki and narrowed her eyes at him. Chihiro gestured for Kuri to bend down, and she whispered in her ear.
"Who's the scary guy?"
"This is my boyfriend, Katsuki," Kuri laughed. At the word "boyfriend," the kids nearly went hysterical, but their frenzy preemptively quelled when Katsuki stood up. Perhaps his presence was intimidating, so she quickly introduced him to the kids to ease the tension. "Don't worry, he's nice."
"That's the guy who cleaned our gutter," Jin, the bowl-cut kid, said.
"Ours, too," Yuzuma, the oldest and tallest one, remarked.
"He was really loud earlier," Ena said. She pulled her braid over her shoulder to play with it.
"Really?" Kuri raised her eyebrows, glancing at Katsuki with a smirk. He already looked exasperated by the kids. "How so?"
"His explosions went like boom! and it hurt my ears," she said, pressing a hand to the side of her head. "And then, he yelled at his friends for not teaching right."
"Sounds like it was pretty noisy," Kuri said, nodding. "I'm sorry that your ears got hurt."
"You shouldn't be sorry," Haruto, Ena's older brother, said as he shook his head. "It's not your fault; it's this guy's."
Haruto pointed an accusing finger at Katsuki, which Ena said was rude.
"Okay, I'm sorry," Katsuki said, throwing his hands up. "I'll be quiet for the rest of the day."
Katsuki mimed zipping his lips, which made the kids and Kuri giggle. Her eyes must've lingered on him for too long because Ena started scolding her.
"Kuri, stop with all the flirting!" she said.
"What?! I'm just acting normal," Kuri said, laughing as her face reddened slightly at the girl's accusations. Katsuki stifled a chuckle beside her.
"We can show you real flirting," Katsuki said slyly.
Kuri whipped her head to the side, mouth agape at his outlandish offer.
"Did you hit your head or something?"
"Let's go play, guys," Jin said, grabbing Ena and Haruto by their arms and dragging them away, much to the siblings' dismay. "These two are getting weird."
Chihiro latched onto Kuri's hand, but Yuzuma didn't dare separate them, so he followed the others. She studied Kuri and Katsuki as if teenage couples were a rare occurrence.
"Why don't you go play with them, Chihiro?" Kuri suggested. "We can talk more after the activity."
Chihiro shook her head and continued eyeing Katsuki. She made Kuri bend down again to listen to her whispers.
"I don't trust him," Chihiro said. "He doesn't yell at you like he yelled at the others, right?"
"No, he doesn't," Kuri smiled. "He's nice to me, but he's still working on being nice to everyone else. I'll talk to him about that, so don't worry. He's in for a scolding for hurting Ena's ears!"
Chihiro giggled and squeezed Kuri's hand.
"Okay, I'm gonna play now," she said, finally letting go.
Kuri muttered a goodbye before the girl ran off to join her friends then plopped down on the floor again. Even standing for only a few minutes strained her exhausted legs.
"Those kids sure love you," Katsuki said, easing himself onto the floor beside her. "It's not hard to imagine why, though."
"You should have used more flirty lines like that while they were around," Kuri said. "I'm sure it would've gotten quite the reaction."
"But I scared them away. I'm sorry," Katsuki said.
"It's okay. It's not important how much time I get with them," Kuri said, leaning back with crossed arms. "I just wanted to say goodbye, at the very least."
Kuri closed her eyes and let the afternoon breeze and chorus of voices wash over her. She hadn't slept well during the first week of training, but this trip rejuvenated her—even though the girls often stayed up late to talk. Working with people in this down-to-earth way produced a profound sense of peace in Kuri's heart.
"You know, this week's activities were pretty nice. I should've done more volunteering in the past," Kuri said. "Sure beats running around," she scoffed.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," Katsuki said. Kuri felt his pinky touch hers, and she opened her eyes before intertwining her hand with his. "This seems more like your speed."
"Yeah," Kuri said, her eyes drifting back toward the playground. She watched the elementary schoolers interact with her friends, playing hero and villain. Kuri gritted her teeth at the sight. "But what if I regret ditching the fast life?"
Kuri used to play those kinds of games when she was young, just like every other kid in the world. When she gained a sense of self and realized she never had the opportunity to consider anything besides heroism because of her parents, that innocent game of pretend left a bad taste in her mouth. But at the same time, Kuri knew herself to be a good hero who held a lot of potential. Would it be a mistake to pursue a new path and throw away her chances of reverting to Kuri, the hero?
"Do you think you actually would?" Katsuki asked.
His question was a difficult one to answer. Kuri couldn't possibly predict how her state of mind would change as she grew up. She wasn't even seventeen yet! How could she guess whether or not she'd have regrets at twenty, thirty, and beyond?
Kuri shrugged in response. She didn't know whether she was actually unsure or if she was afraid of her true answer.
"Even if you do, it's not like you can't hop back on track later," Katsuki said. He drummed his fingers against her hand. "Anyway, just focus on how you're feeling now; don't force yourself to keep running if you're exhausted."
"I'll think about it some more," Kuri said, shooting Katsuki an appreciative glance for his advice.
For the rest of the break, they reverted to their typical conversation topics, but Kuri kept Katsuki's words in the forefront of her mind.
She shouldn't keep running, but everyone around Kuri kept telling her not to stop. It wouldn't be so bad if she were excited to be a hero, but every time she went to work, she came home a sniveling wreck. Her legs were broken, but her parents, teachers, and even friends expected her to keep going. Maybe she had just gotten too good at hiding her pain.
Katsuki was right that Kuri needed therapy, but she didn't have a clue how to gain access without her parents' help. She would have to abide by her promise to Katsuki and talk to them about everything when she saw them again. But that wouldn't be for a week or so, and Kuri urgently needed some guidance before talking to her family.
Kuri stared out the window on the bus ride back to the hotel. The vending machine kids' tearful goodbyes had made her emotional, but on top of that, she was sleepy, so Kuri let her eyes droop to thin slits. The bus deftly navigated along the narrow streets, rocking Kuri to sleep. The warmth of Katsuki's hand holding hers was a comfort as she slipped in and out of unconsciousness. Maybe, tonight, she should seek out the opinions of people around her... Maybe more people need to know about her pain...
-----
Katsuki had no complaints about the two weeks of summer training camp. Hakone had an undeniably relaxing atmosphere, Kuri cheered up, and he made good progress thanks to training. Sure, Katsuki's arms hurt like hell afterward, but there was a bright side: Kuri always doted on him and tried to soothe his arm aches. In return, he ensured she had plenty of time to sit and rest her legs.
Even while sightseeing in town, Katsuki insisted on carrying Kuri everywhere. She initially agreed to humor him but eventually said she would just walk because she got embarrassed. It was pretty cute, the way she blushed when their classmates teased her for going along with Katsuki's antics.
After the activity at the elementary school, the kids went home, and their class returned to the hotel, where they would finally be allowed to relax. Katsuki sat in his room—thankfully, he got grouped with the quieter people in his class and not shitty Deku—resting on his futon when he overheard the conversation of others in the hall.
"Do you think this place looks good?" Tsuyu asked.
"What time should we leave?" Tenya asked. "We need to go early if we do not want to wait long to be seated."
"I don't think most places have tables for twenty," Fumikage said. "We'll be split up at different tables, even if we leave now."
"Damn. At least we'll be eating near each other. That's what counts!" Eijirou declared.
"I'm hungry, let's just go," Denki groaned. "Hey, Bakubro, you coming?"
At the mention of his name—well, it wasn't actually his name—Katsuki perked up. He pushed himself to his feet.
"You're getting dinner?" Katsuki said. "Go get the others before you start leaving."
The small group agreed to gather the rest of their classmates, and Katsuki left his room to find Kuri. When he told her that everyone was going to town to celebrate their last night in Hakone with dinner, she said she had something to take care of first, but everyone could go ahead without her.
"I'll stay here with you, then," Katsuki said. "Finish what you need to do, then we can go to the restaurant together."
"Sure, thanks," Kuri said with a sweet smile. "I just need to talk to Aizawa for a bit. I'll be quick so we can go eat!"
Katsuki watched her back as she hurried to the hotel lobby, where Aizawa sat every evening to ensure they all returned by curfew. Katsuki had an idea of what she wanted to discuss with their teacher, and his heart swelled with pride at Kuri's bravery. This would probably be the first adult she opened up to about her intent for her future. Katsuki couldn't exactly predict Aizawa's response, so he wished his girlfriend all the best.
You can do it, Bunny.
(A/N)
i've started college! i'm quite busy now lol but somehow i just barely managed to get a chapter out during october, so happy halloween to you all!
other fun october holidays are my/kuri's bday (i'm 18 now 😰) and the anniversary of me posting bunny love on here (it's been three years, can you believe it!)
enjoy halloween, hope you all have fun dressing up and eat candy and party and whatnot
- chris 🧛🏻♀️