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| The next day… |
…
"Damn, you're annoying!" Sen shouted, throwing a jab at where a certain redhead had been—only for that certain redhead to be already gone.
"You only noticed now?" Suzaku quipped, tapping him on the shoulder as he slipped past, sprinting away while two more people dashed after him. From the backline, long-range attacks rained down to stop him.
Suddenly, Tetsutetsu cut in from the side, blocking Suzaku's escape route.
"Enough of running Suzaku—huh?!"
But then, the redhead jumped, and—against all reason—kicked the air as if it were solid, somehow vaulting even higher.
Tetsutetsu flinched, wide-eyed, mouth gaping as he followed after. "How the hell—ack!"
Only to crash head-first into the invisible air barrier and tumble back.
Sen, still on the chase, shot a glare at Kosei. "Oi! We told you to warn us before you did anything with your Quirk!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Kosei waved both hands frantically. "I thought I had him for sure this time! Didn't want to alert him!"
Sen clicked his tongue, exhaling sharply. "Yeah, well, don't count on him not knowing. This guy moves like he can see the damn future."
Kosei grimaced, eyes snapping back to the battle.
Meanwhile, Suzaku was descending from his mid-air stunt when a pair of horns came rocketing toward him.
With a twist of his body, he bent unnaturally mid-fall, inertia and shapeshifting ability combining just enough to get him clear. But as the horns whizzed past, his hand shot out and caught one tight.
Good thing too—because right beneath him, a spray of glue splattered into a sticky pool, waiting to trap him if he'd fallen. The horns' propulsion dragged him clear of it.
In the back, Pony's eyes widened. "Oh no, you don't!" she shouted in broken English. The horns lost momentum and fell, her control cut—but they had already done their job.
Suzaku landed lightly on solid ground, just outside the glue trap, sly smirk on his face.
Sadly, in a six vs one, there wasn't a single moment of respite.
"Get him!" Sen roared, lunging again.
"Oryaaaa!" Tetsutetsu barreled forward in a full-body tackle.
Itsuka appeared at Suzaku's flank, two giant fingers stabbing toward him.
But despite finding himself cornered, not a hint of worry passed by the redhead's face.
The instant their attacks closed in, he bent his body to impossible angles. Sen's spinning punch sliced the air beside his cheek, grazing but not breaking skin. Itsuka's gigantified strike hit nothing but empty air centimeters from his waist. And lastly, Tetsutetsu tackle shot past under him, too heavy to stop himself on time.
By the time their momentum carried through, Suzaku had already hit the ground and leapt back out of range.
The trio immediately regrouped, giving chase again—Pony's horns flinging themselves after him once more.
And just as the gap closed—
"All of you. Time for a break." Mandalay's voice echoed inside every head.
-Thud-
"Dammit!" Tetsutetsu collapsed to the dirt, punching the ground in frustration.
Sen dropped to his knees, clutching his head as he wailed to the sky. "Not again!"
The long-range attackers at the back also fell flat, either from exhaustion or sheer despair.
Suzaku gave a wry smile at the sorry sight, then blinked when he noticed Itsuka wasn't joining in their theatrics.
"What's up?" He approached with his hands in his pockets. "Finally understood there's no shame in losing to the best?"
She scoffed. "We're still only halfway through the day. Mandalay will probably tell us to resume the sparring in a few minutes, so no point in sulking."
"That's true!" Tetsutetsu exclaimed from the side, springing up from his defeated pose at the realization.
"Hahaha, you're right, Kendo, there's still time!" Sen followed, suddenly looking refreshed.
The others quickly stood as well once they realized the same thing.
Kosei let out a sigh of relief as he approached the group. "I thought we were about to spend another whole day without hitting you once."
Suzaku sneered, his face plastered with a cocky smile. "I mean, you technically have spent the whole day without hitting me."
"But there's still time! Don't think you're getting out unscathed today!" Kosei pointed straight at him, daringly.
Sadly, Suzaku simply responded with a pat to the shoulder. "Whatever you say, buddy."
"What did you say?!"
"What you heard, pipsqueak."
"I'm average height!"
"Sure."
"Ohoho… That's it, you're getting it now!"
While Suzaku and Kosei bickered, Itsuka let out a helpless sigh at the sight, her eyes flickering toward Suzaku for a moment.
Pony suddenly walked up to her. "Is something wrong, Kendo-san? You seem a little distracted today."
"It's nothing, Pony. Just some random thoughts." She forced a wry smile, her brow twitching slightly as she recalled certain events from yesterday. Something that has been annoying her since last night.
'Why did everyone suddenly turn so weird?'
Her mind wandered back to yesterday. After finishing their visit to the hot springs, Itsuka passed by the boys' room to tell them they were free to use the springs. But as she opened the door, she ended up overhearing them having one of "those" chats about Suzaku and her.
She didn't get to hear much, however, as the chatter died near instantly when they noticed she was there.
Fortunately, Suzaku wasn't there at that moment. That would have been awkward.
So, after deciding to ignore what she heard and telling them about the springs, she left them to their antics, closed the door, and returned with her friends to their room.
While she wanted to say she didn't think about it afterwards, she'd be lying. The nonsensical conversation kept replaying in her mind for a while.
Eventually, though, she managed to push it aside.
It was just nonsense from boys who probably had nothing better to do than run their mouths, after all.
—Sadly, the matter was quickly brought up again when a few 1-A girls intercepted her and invited her to join them for some activities in their room. Something she, along with Reiko and Yui, innocently ended up tagging along.
To her dismay, the so-called 'activities' ended up turning into a talk about boys, which only reminded her of what she had overheard earlier.
It got worse when embarrassing questions started flying her way—questions her own friends annoyingly joined in on. Probably also having overheard the boys' talk earlier.
She managed to shake them off with a bit of effort, but the two incidents together left the matter lingering in her mind.
Hence, her current absentminded state.
Her gaze drifted to Suzaku, still bickering with Kosei, with Sen now having joined in against him. Tetsutetsu laughed loudly in the background.
She huffed, shaking her head in disapproval as a mocking smile appeared on her face.
Suzaku was an okay guy, but definitely not boyfriend material.
Sure, he was tall, athletic, and not bad-looking, but he was cocky as hell.
Granted, his skill and technique were sharp enough that he'd sort of earned the right to act like that. She even had to admit she respected that side of him, considering she had trained in martial arts too.
Ahem—still, he loved to annoy people. It was like a sick hobby of his, judging by how often he did it and the smug little smirk that always came with it.
…Granted, it was kind of funny when she wasn't the one being dissed.
But he was irresponsible. He always showed up late, almost like he did it on purpose, and he hadn't written down a single note the entire semester. What was he even thinking?! What kind of hero was he hoping to be with that kind of attitude?!
Still… she sometimes wished she could be as laid-back as he. Being the class representative was good—an honor, even, and something that would look great on her future résumé—but it came with a ton of pressure. She always had to be competent and avoid letting the class down.
She didn't know about class representatives from normal courses, but the one from the hero course had a lot of administrative work, thanks to there being actual Quirk usage involved, along with several field trips and combat assessments that required her to constantly manage all the stuff that came with it.
Hence, it was a tad hard for her to turn off work mode.
But Suzaku, when he wasn't being a pain, actually helped her relax. His antics acted like the devil on her shoulder, letting her drop the weight she carried, even if just for a bit.
…
Alright, this wasn't going the way she wanted.
Itsuka, frustrated, scratched her head furiously, trying to push away her thoughts and the heat rising in her cheeks.
'I'd better not think about it at all.' She tapped herself on the forehead with the heel of her palm, a wry smile tugging at her lips.
Pony, still sitting beside her, tilted her head curiously at the sight.
"Argh, that's it, you're going down after this break!" Sen yelled, frustration clear on his face.
"Sure, sure." Suzaku waved him off, not even looking his way.
"Meeting! Team meeting!" Sen barked. "Everyone, get together!"
The group complied quickly enough, seven of them forming a circle with their arms slung over one another's shoulders.
"Alright, we can't keep this up. We gotta figure out a plan to deal with that basta—oi, what are you doing here?!"
"I wanted to see what you were planning." Suzaku, now casually standing among them, replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"GET OUT! GET OOOOUT!"
"Alright, alright, no need to shout." The redhead clicked his tongue, scratching his ear with his pinky before stepping out of the circle.
With their nemesis gone, the group turned back to business.
"Okay," Sen said grimly, staring at the dirt beneath them. "How do we deal with this guy? He clearly has some kind of freakish awareness of everything around him. Taking him by surprise is damn near impossible, and even when we do, he just slips away with those ridiculous new powers of his."
Kosei clenched his fist, face set in determination. "Then we just gotta anticipate his anticipation! If we know he's about to dodge, we can predict how he'll twist himself and hit him anyway!"
Itsuka nodded. "And we should always have someone ready to block his escape route. He keeps pulling back to get distance, and that gives him time to recover and think ahead. If we keep him locked down, he won't have that luxury."
"I can do that." Pony raised her hand. "I'll be the one waiting to cut him off if he tries to run."
Sen's lips curved into a grin. "Perfect. And you, Kojiro, work with Pony. Suzaku's bound to dodge her horns, so anticipate where he'll go and throw glue to catch him. Maybe you two can even work together to lead him in a specific direction."
"I'll try." Kojiro nodded firmly.
Pony nodded, an excited expression on her face.
-Clang!-
Suddenly, their attention was caught as Tetsutetsu slammed a fist into his chest.
"You guys should get bolder! The only one he can actually hurt is me, so don't hold back. I'll take every hit for the team!"
Itsuka's expression grew thoughtful. "Maybe that's it—we've been fighting too traditionally. If he can't really counterattack like Vlad-sensei said, then why does it matter if we leave ourselves exposed?"
Sen's eyes widened in realization. "You're right…"
But before they could continue, Mandalay's voice rang clear in their heads:
"Break time is over. Time to resume your training, kids."
Everyone froze.
Then, almost in unison, their heads turned. Suzaku was standing there with his arms crossed, wearing the cockiest smile in existence. Slowly, he spread his arms wide as if daring them to come.
The six of them clenched their teeth.
Sen spun back to the team. "Alright, you know the drill. Itsuka, take the right. I'll cover the left. The rest of you, stay sharp and track his movements. And Tetsutetsu…"
"Oh!" The steel-skinned teen pumped his fist, eyes shining.
"…Just be Tetsutetsu."
"Yeah!"
"Let's do this, team!" Sen roared.
…
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| Hours later… |
…
"FUUUUCK!"
As the sun began to set, the pitiful figure of Sen knelt on the ground, punching the earth with tears flowing down his face.
His team stood beside him, looking grimly at the ground. It was as if someone had died.
Or rather, something.
—their hopes and dreams
Suddenly, Suzaku walked up to them and knelt next to Sen, giving him a gentle pat on the back.
"Git gud bro."
""...""
That only made Sen sob harder, which in turn made everyone bite their lips in bitterness.
Once again, they had failed.
Once again… Suzaku had come out unscathed.
Minutes later, after the tears dried and the sting of defeat dulled, both classes changed clothes and regrouped to prepare dinner.
Tonight's meal: beef and potato stew. Simple, hearty, it was exactly what a bunch of battered students needed.
Unlike yesterday, Suzaku actually seemed satisfied with the food, and for once didn't sneak in his "secret ingredients." He did eye the pot suspiciously long, though. Vlad King kept a close watch just in case, which probably saved the stew.
Afterward, the students lined up for dish duty—everyone washing their own plates while a few volunteered to handle the bigger cookware.
As Suzaku waited for his turn, one hand in his pocket, the other holding his plate and silverware, Midoriya approached with a nervous stride.
Suzaku spotted him and gave a curt nod paired with his characteristic smirk.
"Yo, what's up, Broccoli-man?"
The green-haired boy chuckled wryly. That nickname wasn't going away anytime soon, huh?
"Hey, Suzuki-kun," he greeted, before hesitating like he was working up the courage to say something.
"Just spit it out," Suzaku said, a touch impatient.
"R-right. Well… to be honest, I came to ask for some advice."
Suzaku raised an eyebrow.
"Is it love advice?" he asked with a smirk, slinging an arm around Midoriya's shoulders. With a dramatic sigh, he continued, "I get it. You've seen my overwhelming popularity with the ladies and thought, surely this man holds the secrets to enticing a fair maiden, probably that brunette in your class, right? Unfortunately, despite my flawless physique and magnetic personality, I am tragically single. So, sorry, Broccoli-man—on this battlefield, you stand alone."
Midoriya nearly dropped his plate, frantically waving his hands. "N-no! You've got it all wrong! It's about Kota."
"…Who?"
Midoriya blinked. "Y-you know, the kid who's always around… sometimes helping with chores? Mandalay's cousin? The Pussycats look after him."
"Never heard of him."
Midoriya almost tripped over himself, visibly thrown off.
"Wait, have you really not—ugh, never mind. Doesn't matter. He's just… a kid that's around."
Suzaku shrugged. He must've tuned the boy out without realizing.
"The thing is… Kota's parents died fighting a villain." Midoriya's gaze fell to the ground, a grim expression surfacing. "Ever since, he hates heroes—maybe even Quirks in general. I tried reaching out to him, but… I think I may have just come off as nosy and annoying."
"That's 'cause doing that is kinda nosy," Suzaku deadpanned, earning a nervous sweatdrop from Midoriya.
"I… just wanted to ask your advice since you're the person closest to becoming an actual hero right now, aside from the teachers. You've fought villains, you saved Iida, you even joined plenty of rescue missions during your internships… so, if it isn't a bother… can I ask what you would have said to help him?"
Suzaku's gaze lingered on the greenhead for a moment, as if weighing the question.
In the end, he shrugged.
"To be honest, I'm more about annoying people than giving therapy," he admitted with a snort. "But if you really want an answer… well, I do agree that a lot of heroes are more into theatrics and fame than actual good intentions—maybe that's what roped his parents into it, so he has a reason to dislike them. But the fact that there are still tons of people who want nothing more than to do good isn't something he should tune out."
He glanced toward his classmates, a faint smile tugging at his lips. Then he looked back at Midoriya.
"A world without those kinds of people would be pretty depressing to live in, don't you think? He's justified in hating Quirks, maybe even the whole hero system, since that's what led his parents to die in the first place. But if people just stopped helping others, then that would only leave people like the villain that caused everything in the first place."
Midoriya listened silently, expression thoughtful.
In the end, Suzaku waved him off. "That's what I think you should say... Though, if it were up to me, I'd just kick him into a ditch and make him ask for help. Maybe that'd remind him what actual heroes are for."
Midoriya nearly tripped at the sudden shift in tone. Still, he kept thinking about Suzaku's words—at least until Suzaku patted him on the shoulder.
"Anyway, try not to be so nosy. If I were that kid, I'd have kicked you in the nuts by now."
The greenhead sweatdropped, a wry smile on his face. "He already did."
"He seems promising, then," Suzaku laughed.
For the first time, Midoriya felt a vein on his forehead twitch. He had to admit, this was the first time he was starting to get annoyed by someone.
Ultimately, however, his goody two-shoes attitude wasn't about to give in just yet.
He shrugged the matter off with a quick sigh, and, after pondering the answer for just a bit more… he sent Suzaku a small smile.
"Thank you, Suzuki-kun." Midoriya nodded faintly.
Suzaku flashed him a thumbs-up.
With that, the conversation ended as the redhead's turn at the sink arrived, and Midoriya walked away to join his line.
Iida seemed to have saved him the spot.
As Suzaku scrubbed a plate clean, Itsuka—washing dishes at the next counter—shot him a faint smirk.
"Popular with the ladies, huh?"
Suzaku laughed. "This place is full of nosy people, huh?"
…
°
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°
| Half an hour later… |
…
The nightshade had finally settled over the sky, leaving only the moon and stars to shine above.
Both classes now stood side by side, listening to their teachers at the front. Some wore excited expressions, others looked indifferent, and a few had straight-up annoyed faces, wishing for sleep instead of whatever this was supposed to be.
And the reason?
"It's time for the test of courage!" Ragdoll shouted, pumping her fist into the air.
"Finally, a normal camp activity!" From Class A, Mina, Kaminari, Sero, Kirishima, and Sato practically jumped with joy.
Too bad their fun was cut short. Vlad King immediately dragged them away, along with the three-man team that had failed the exam—Kojiro, Rin, and Jurota—for remedial classes.
Their disappointment was immeasurable, and their night was completely ruined.
'Why even let us come here in the first place? Just to rub the activity in our faces before kicking us out?' they all thought in unison.
With the failures gone, only the participants remained.
The rules were simple: one class would take the role of scarers, hiding along a forest path, while the other class walked through in pairs. The scarers could use their Quirks however they liked as long as it was creative and terrifying.
The first class to be designated as the scarers was class 1-B, so not long after, they disappeared into the forest, splitting up to take the positions they had planned on the way.
Suzaku grouped up with Itsuka, Yui, and Juzo.
The plan was straightforward: Suzaku would use his voice change to unsettle the victims along the way—whether with an eerie unknown voice, a strange inhuman cry, or the voice of someone they knew—before Yui emerged from the ground, thanks to Juzo liquidifying it beneath her feet, and gave them a good scare.
It was a rather simple plan, but perfectly set up.
And sure enough, as soon as the pairs began venturing into the forest—
"Aaaaargh!!!"
Screams echoed across the trees, deafening and constant. They didn't just come from one group, but from all around. It seemed the whole class was doing a decent job at being terrifying.
Even when the toughest opponents yet appeared.
"Tsk, why do I have to do this crap?" Bakugo muttered, glaring around the forest in irritation.
"..." Todoroki didn't bother replying. He just stared straight ahead, completely unreadable.
It seemed they couldn't care less about being here, just doing it because the teachers had forced them to.
They didn't even seem to expect much from this. How scary could this be?
"Behind you."
Neither of them were able to keep their composure when a sharp, creepy voice suddenly whispered almost directly on their shoulders.
"...?!"
They spun around, startled and with a bead of cold sweat rolling down their forehead, but as they looked around, all they saw was the empty path behind them. No signs of anyone.
For a while, they glanced around suspiciously, unwilling to let it slide. But when nothing else appeared, they had no choice but to move on—though clearly not as unbothered as before.
Rustling leaves followed them with every step, making them tense up. Sometimes they felt something brush against their arms, only to find it was just stray leaves falling from above.
Then, when they were nearly halfway through—
"Above you."
The same voice came again, this time from overhead.
Their heads shot upward instantly. A shadow slipped into the tree canopy, its twisted shape vanishing into the foliage. Bent arms, twisted body. Red eyes staring down at them.
Neither of them moved, a bit too startled to recover so quickly. But when their eyes finally returned to the path after a whole minute—
A head burst out of the ground.
"...?!" Todoroki flinched hard, almost tripping.
"Aaaargh!!!" Bakugo outright screamed, a messy mix of surprise and rage.
Before he could set off an explosion, though, the head disappeared back into the dirt.
"..."
"..."
When the two finally realized what had happened, both of them just stood in embarrassed silence before eventually continuing on, shoulders tight with shame.
They had been got.
As the pair disappeared further into the path, the hidden team finally sprouted out from the bushes around and regrouped.
"Kakaka! Did you see their faces? They almost peed themselves!" Juzo laughed uncontrollably, clearly enjoying this the most.
Suzaku followed right after, grinning. "So much for trying to keep those straight faces. I'm one hundred percent gonna use this to mock them once we get out of here."
Itsuka let out a wry chuckle. "I admit, you were kinda scary back there."
She had been the one pulling Suzaku up into the tree during that last stunt, and she'd gotten a front-row seat to his shadowy figure vanishing into the foliage. In the dark, it really was nightmare fuel.
In the light, though, Suzaku honestly looked like he had just been beaten half to death with all his limbs twisted to such a degree. Not scary at all anymore, just pitiful.
Of course, that was because of his shapeshifting ability, not because he was actually beaten up.
In fact, what had carried the horror of the situation the most had been his red eyes, which Itsuka admitted had been kind of ominous in the dark.
"Still, are you sure it was okay to just crush your glasses like that?" Itsuka asked, glancing at his now uncovered eyes.
"It's fine. Costs me about a lunch a day to fix them, which is the same as it costs me not dying of hunger, so basically free." Suzaku shrugged. "Might take a while for them to regenerate, but I don't really need them yet anyway."
Itsuka nodded faintly. It sure came in handy in that sense, huh?
"Where'd you even learn to throw leaves like that? They looked like darts," Juzo, who walked up to him suddenly, asked, eyes wide.
The falling leaves grazing the pair earlier hadn't been the wind—it was Suzaku throwing them at the pair from above.
"You know, throwing techniques, like ninjas." Suzaku picked up a twig and flicked it with a sharp motion. It lodged cleanly against a tree trunk. If it had been sharper, or the bark less sturdy, it would've pierced through. "If the leaves had been even a little drier, I might have actually scratched those two."
"You gotta teach me that." Juzo's eyes practically sparkled.
"We'll see." Suzaku smiled.
"Hey… don't you smell something burning?" Itsuka asked suddenly, drawing puzzled looks.
"Huh?" Juzo sniffed the air. "Now that you mention it, it's smelling… kinda smoky."
As if on cue, a thin fog drifted in around them.
"See? Maybe Todoroki and Bakugo got so scared they burned a tree down," Itsuka joked—until she felt herself yanked back.
She blinked, realizing Suzaku had pulled her, along with Yui and Juzo, away from the approaching fog in one motion.
"Hey, what gives—"
"I think you three should head back," Suzaku said, voice uncharacteristically firm. His arm swept in front of them as he guided them backward, away from the slowly approaching mist.
"Huh? What do you—" Itsuka began, then froze. She noticed it too. The smoke wasn't gray. It was faintly… pink.
"Something's off," Suzaku muttered, eyes narrowing. "And I'm pretty sure no one in the two classes has a Quirk that makes pink smoke."
"Then what—"
"Questions for later," Suzaku cut her off. "Get going already. Tell the teachers so they get their asses on the move."
Juzo glanced at him, confused. "Then what will you be doing?"
Suzaku rolled up his sleeves, glancing at the smoke with a fearless gaze. "I'll try to reach the others and see if they are okay. I'm a man of multiple talents, among which are included holding my breath for quite a while—so don't worry, some gas isn't about to beat the great me."
They hesitated, but the confidence in his tone silenced any protest. After a beat, all three gave him a quick nod and turned, sprinting toward the camp to get the teachers.
As they got further and further away, Itsuka glanced back one last time. Her eyes worried for a second before she clenched her jaw and returned to looking ahead.
Now, Suzaku stood alone, watching the haze creep closer like a living thing.
His expression remained impassive for a few seconds, seemingly analyzing everything, until—
-Sigh…-
His jaw tightened, a vein twitching on his jaw as his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"So much for a normal training camp."
From his wrist, a glistening knife made out of his very bones slid free, and not a second later, Suzaku began getting on the move.
"Let's see if a mountain range and a forest are good for hiding corpses."
...
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: Sorry for the wait, university clapped harder than usual this week. Honestly, ropeless bungee ain't looking half-bad right now.
Anyway, I decided to keep the date when the villains invaded, since there's little growth Suzaku can achieve considering he isn't able to tap 100% on the full potential of his shapeshifting ability when acting like it's simple muscle control in the training. The true training arc will have to come later, I suppose.
Anyway, the shit has hit the fan, and the villains have made their move. Sadly for them, Suzaku is there, and he'll be making sure there are a few corpses on his path by the time the day ends.)
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