“Yo, bro.” Slipping the rest of my stuff into my bag, I looked up. Casual wave thrown out, Kirishima walked up to my desk, thumbing over his shoulder. Kaminari, who I think was trying to flirt with Mina but was failing miserably on account of the bubbly girl not taking anything he said seriously, focused more on her conversation with Jirou, and a patient Ojirou were waiting near his desk. “We’re planning on hanging out. You want to come with?”

I hadn’t really talked much with Kirishima after our first meeting. I had even less, maybe no conversations with whoever over there ended up being part of the hangout. I wouldn’t have been against the idea. Saturday was the one day I didn’t intend on staying late at school and they all seemed cool enough.

But-

“Sorry but we’ve got plans.” Himiko slipped in beside me as I stood up, wrapping her arms around one of mine. “And its going take all weekend.” She really liked her questionable implications; that tone and ambiguous phrasing liable to be misinterpreted.

Not that it would be exactly wrong. Himiko letting me do nothing but train in that dojo when we tested it out? Bakugo was more likely to say good morning to Midoriya. And, honestly, with us making more of an effort to be quiet these past few days, having a wide open space completely to ourselves where we didn’t have to worry about anything like that was something to look forward to.

Her influence was starting to run deep.

“Maybe next time?” I said. That aside, a bunch of possible bronze tickets that had just as much chance as being useless as absurdly powerful, or actually getting unimpeded experience with the crazy stuff I already had. I’d rather place my bets on my effort and that crazy stuff. For that I’d need all the time I could get.

“Yeah, I got you.” Kirishima said, giving me a nod before heading back to his group.

After saying goodbye to Yaoyorozu and Midoriya, Himiko, Tsu, and I left the school behind, making our way to the usual station we waited for. This time, instead of seeing Tsu off, we got on with her, and I found myself quickly reminded of why I’d had wanted to take literally any other way out of the city.

The whole thing was already damn near full and on its way to only being further packed, the three given no real choice to huddle close together as we entered.

Against all odds, we actually managed to get a spot next to one of the doors just big enough for two. Naturally that meant Himiko and Tsu sitting down while I stood in front of them, one hand being used to stay steady, the other adjusting my heftier than usual bag.

The Dojo Key said it’d come with plenty of amenities, so I was expecting a kitchen somewhere in that pocket dimension. What I was more concerned about was actual food and water. I assumed there’d be some that automatically replaced itself according to the description’s cooldown, but I couldn’t be sure hence all the extra water, dried food, and snacks spread out between mine and Himiko’s bag.

Exact peculiarities of the mysterious place aside, I had a day and a half to really put pedal to the metal without concern about anyone hearing.

Enflame and Ratio. Enflame and Shadow Hands. Shadow Hands and Ratio. The Precise trait had made it significantly easier but making sure I could use two abilities at once in ways that complimented each other was among my top priorities; it’d open up many doors going forward.

Thunder Breathing. I still hadn’t actually been able to put the techniques in my head to a true test, but I’d dabbled in some of the training routines that came with it. Even if I hadn’t been specifically training for using a sword, my body already went well and beyond even those of the resilient quirk using humans of this world. Handling the strain of even the most advanced forms was a given. Testing the extent of my tolerance and finally seeing both the speed and thunder was what I was really looking forward to.

And, last but not least, the Gene Seed Ticket.

“Come on, it’s a good plan, isn’t it, Katsu?”

“What?” I said, looking down at the two.

“One of these weeks I can go to Aichi too, meet Tsu’s family. From there we can get easy permission for her to study at my apartment over the weekend, then we can hang out again.” Himiko said, nodding to herself. “It’s a full proof plan.”

“Maybe. Just make sure to actually study.”

“Don’t be lame. We’re trying to have fun here not waste that effort staring at books.” Himiko raised her brow. “You don’t mind if she comes by your place too, right?”

“That’s-“ Tsu was quietly staring up at me, somehow unbothered by the suggestion. I couldn’t help but break eye contact, looking up beyond the train’s windows. “-fine, I guess.”

“You don’t sound like you’re looking forward to it.” Himiko pointed out. She had to be messing with me.

“Just thinking about something.”

“If you’re worried about being in the wild, maybe you shouldn’t go. Ribbit.” Tsu suggested. “It’s a weird way to practice when Mister Aizawa lets you use U.A.’s training rooms.” And trust this one to be blunt about what was on her mind.

“We’ll be fine.” I assured her, rolling the shoulder my bag was strapped across, a vial of her blood among my stuff. “With your blood, nothing out there is going to be a problem.” Another thing Precise helped with was adjusting to the effects of blood types I didn’t have experience with but a little extra practice in that area wouldn’t hurt either. Still, with or without Tsu’s blood we we’re overpowering anything we came across.

Tsu nodded, the two getting back to a conversation I fell out, my eyes wandering again. A side eye from me was enough to deter the few looks we were getting from those close enough to hear our conversation, the whole talk of blood far from normal even in our uniforms.

Maybe instead of being considerate, I was just being too childish. If Himiko could talk with Tsu without being bothered, there was no reason I couldn’t do the same.

Right?

XOXO

Green stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Himiko on my back, I walked us down a road, taking it all in. Behind, where we’d gotten off the train, was a small rural town full of spaced out houses, farm area, and the same station we’d left behind it. A good place to come back to if we needed something but it paled in comparison to what was around it.

Tall trees so tightly packed together they looked like the fur of the massive collection of hills and mountains they grew alongside. Some patches of forest looked like they were a deeper shade of green than others, but all were dense enough to block anyone or anything traveling through those mountains from view.

Yeah, this was going to be perfect.

“I guess what they say is true.” Himiko said after a deep breath. “The air’s really different in a place like this.”

“You’ve never been anywhere like this?”

“Nope. No way my parents would ever go to the countryside for anything. You?”

“A few times when I was a kid. I don’t remember much of it honestly.” I admitted, trying and failing to recall much. “I just remember my grandparents preferring places like this to the city when they were around. My mother too, I think.”

“…your mom.” Himiko’s hold on me tightened. “What was she like?”

“Strange. She was a strange person.” I said instantly. If those other set of memories I had literally felt like another person’s life, those early memories felt like a lifetime ago, the fogginess that came with being so young not helping at all. “She was serious about everything. Well, not serious but she went full tilt at everything. I don’t think the word relax or chill was in her dictionary.”  Playing with me, chores around the house, her job, and everything in between. Despite how long ago it felt I could distinctly remember how intensely earnest she was about everything she did.

“You know you’re the last person that should be calling someone strange over something like that.” Himiko said with laugh, one of her hands rising to ruffle up my hair. “I guess that must be where your weird ass gets it.”

“Yeah, Yeah.” I said, smiling a bit. I don’t really remember the last time I talked about my mother at all. Distant or not, it did feel a little nice to be compared to her.

Himiko hummed, letting that line of conversation die there. I guess she thought it might’ve been a sore spot for me but one of the parts of being young was ignorance. For better or for worse things that might cause issues could just as easily bounce off a child as stick depending on how much they understood.

And I’ve been far too young to understand anything other than the fact I wouldn’t be seeing them again.

Once we were far enough away from that small town, I crossed the empty road, grass crunching beneath my feet up.

“We’ve got a long walk ahead of us, don’t we?” Himiko complained

“Like you’re going to be the one doing the walking.” I said while glancing around. “Besides, who said we’d be moving on foot?”

XOXO

“THIS IS CRAZY!” Himiko yelled over the wind rushing past us, Nue speeding just over the trees. A bit too excited if you asked me, Himiko raised her arms, cheering. I don’t know what part of that was being careful, but a smile still found it way across my face as I loosened my hold around her waist just enough for her to peek over the edge.

Her hair was whipping all about, smacking my face and getting in my mouth but that didn’t compare to seeing her so excited.

Out here, so far into the forested mountains that we could run for miles and not hit any sign of civilization, it should be fine. Anyone who did hear was liable to brush it off as people recklessly using a quirk. As long as no one was hurt no one would pay much attention to a report like that coming from such a rural area assuming it was reported at all.

That’d be like reporting someone for using pirated sites for anime or something.

I let her enjoy it for a while longer before looking for and catching sight of a perfect spot.

“Take us down, Nue.” I ordered. Himiko enjoyed the following nosedive even more despite the fact she’d have gone flying if it weren’t me holding us in place. With a hefty flap of his winds, shaking the leaves and brush around us, Nue stopped moments before colliding with the ground, landing in the center of the clearing.

With a thought HK appeared beside us while Himiko busied herself petting at Nue who barely acknowledged any of it.

“Anyone?”

“Confirmation: Nothing aside from primitive wildlife, master.”

Good.

I held out a hand and in a shine of bluish-white light, a key, silver in color with a weight to its bulky design, appeared between my fingers. No one who saw it would mistake it for something ordinary but weren’t likely to think of it as anything more than a relic of the past or some fancy looking prop.

I twisted.

The grass shifted and, from the spot I turned the key, a dark blue form began to grow. At first fighting to keep some semblance of a shape, warping and extending in every which direction, it took the shape of a spiraling circle, dense energy both running along its edge and sparking out from its dark center. With each spin of that energy, it grew larger and larger until I was stepping back, head craned back to look up at a tall oval shaped portal just shy of reaching the canopy of branches and leaves around us.

I pressed a hand to the dark center.

It sunk in, a cold weight falling on it for a moment. That weight remained on my wrist but as I twisted around my hand, I felt nothing but cool air. Himiko followed my example, her hand sinking through too. We exchanged glances, locked our free hands together, then stepped in.

The forest around was gone.

To our left was a rock surrounded pond decorate with lily pads, a pristine statue of the Yin-Yang symbol rising out of it, and pristine garden full of all sorts of flowers, some I’d never seen before, surrounding it and all the stone paved walkways around it. To our right was a traditional styled building, one of its sliding doors already open, hung up swords and other equipment on the wooden walls inside.

And all around that was a forest far denser than the one we’d just been in, the strangest mix of cedar and some other kind of flowery scent hanging in the air.

“You’re right.” Himiko said, still looking around in awe, the portal out still right behind us. “This has to be magic or something.”

I’m surprised she was still seriously giving the quirk route any consideration after everything she’d seen.

There were still a few things I wanted to check and test out before I threw myself into it but seeing things for myself confirmed it.

This was primed to be the first place I could fully cut loose without worry about being seen and questions being asked. And I had plenty I needed to put to the test compared to only a few weeks ago.

XOXO

(A/N: Stain is obviously going to be the most prominent one but Katsu's parents will be addressed through conversations with certain people and perhaps even flashbacks. His mother will be a bit more important than you think. Unless the gacha fucks up my plan again. But even if that does happen, still important for characterization at the very least.

If there's anyone other than Aunt Nozomi who can freely bring up his family, it would be Toga even if she's a bit careful about it.

Anyways training montage incoming. Should answer a few more questions about his quirk while he's testing gacha stuff.)