MHA Chaos' Whims Chapter 52: The Calm (Patreon)

“That’s an insane way to use your fire.”

“I have your blood, so its fine.”

“Still insane. I don’t even want to imagine how much that’s got to hurt.”

I lowered my fist, feeling that short yet especially painful burst of Enflame die out. Himiko was over on the couch, Knight Killer on the table in front of her in its sheath and a half eaten apple in her mouth. Soul Solid, reformed and back in pristine condition, was back in my inventory space, not that I would have much of a use of it despite what was going on today.

When Midnight had been trying to use her quirk on me, no amount of gas having any effect, I’d been straining my owns senses. I hadn’t intended on it but the room that Principal Nezu had been watching from had been close enough for me to pick up plenty.

Today, mister Aizawa would be taking us out for rescue training.

That meant the attack on the USJ should be today.

Dozens upon dozens, maybe well over a hundred villains. Shigaraki and Kurogiri. The Nomu. Quirks cutting the place off from the rest of the school and delaying the arrival of the pros.

There’d been a lot to consider, but with both King Crimson and Scarlet in position since the earliest hours of the day, the most important factors were planned around. All Might’s late arrival would be handled by the former. All on its own, that should snowball to change plenty about the situation. Powerful as he was, I wasn’t about to assume him arriving earlier would change every single detail for the better though.

Scarlet’s job would help contain things even faster.

Grabbing our keys off the kitchen counter, I joined Himiko on the couch, she moving to lay her head in my lap with a yawn.

Before the surgery, on the off chance something went wrong with me, I’d told her about the USJ and the attack on it by villains without getting into the specifics. She avoiding it entirely while everyone I summoned handled their own jobs had been the emergency plan in that situation.

How I knew what I knew. I’d been expecting that question for a while now.

Using the remote, Himiko flipped away from the news I’d put on, turning up the TV’s volume as she looked for something she was interested in watching before we headed out.

But she wasn’t bothering to ask it. I knew she wanted to, or at least she had before the surgery, but despite having the opportunity, she wasn’t going for it.

And I wasn’t going to question it right now, instead focusing on my own preparations.

Some further test use aside, my energy was at its max. The school would provide plenty of it, but I had Himiko’s and a bit of Tsu’s blood on me. To top it all off, Ratio and Enflame were my currently equipped abilities, Shadow Hands kept in reserve and at the ready depending on how things played out.

Sure, technically speaking, all the high stakes situations they’d been involved led class 1-A to being as good as they were, but as far as I was concerned, the best outcome involved them doing little to no fighting against people that could and would kill them until the school decided they were ready for that sort of thing.

The day was deceptively normal.

“So, I look ugly?”

“Like I said, I’m seeing shapes and outlines here.”

“There are ugly shapes and lines.”

Normal with a side of Hagakure asking more questions about herself and what I was seeing. Whether it be the short few minutes we had between classes, or the cafeteria we’d just come from, she took every opportunity to test just how much of her I was seeing. Again, I couldn’t bring myself to be annoyed by her; it must be something to go from having to be extremely, almost exclusively, vocal when it came to conversation, then be in the same class as someone who could actually see what she was doing.

 “She does have a point.” Himiko, behind my seat with her elbows on my shoulders, agreed. “Is she an ugly shape?”

I could hear the stupid smile on her face. What might’ve been an innocent question coming from Hagakure was a thinly veiled way to tease me about my reluctance to give a straight answer for Himiko. She was 100% going twist any answer I gave into some type of euphuism about Hagakure’s body.

Not like there was much else I could judge from what I could see of her.

Thankfully, the door to the classroom slid open. Rather than our usual teacher, mister Aizawa stepped in, but that was enough to quiet down conversations across the class, everyone heading to their seats.

“Today, all of you will be participating in rescue training.” Aizawa’s announcement, delivered in his usual dead tone, got everyone excited, the class’s heartrate as a whole jumping up.

Two in particular didn’t jump up much, higher than usual most of the day.

Jirou, a few seats ahead in Yaoyorozu’s row, head propped up by an elbow to her chin, might’ve been looking forward but one of her dangling jacks were subtly aimed in my direction. I’d noticed it the other day, but my presence bothered her for good reason.

My body, hearts especially, made different sounds compared to the others. It wasn’t a simple matter of being louder, which it was, but there was something about the noise coming from me that overwhelmed others. Maybe it was the rhythm? Total Concentration breathing, something I was holding off from for now, made all that noise harder to ignore.

Not much I could do about that. She was just going to have to adjust.

As mister Aizawa explained things in more detail, Aoyama’s heart rate climbed and climbed. Easy to chalk it up to well hidden anxiety about unexpected training but knowing what I did dispelled that assumption. Given his situation I doubt he knew anything other than something would be happening soon; those memories weren’t too clear if it was referenced but when Kurogiri scattered everybody, Aoyama had probably been tossed away from any fighting.

If everything went to plan, he wouldn’t have anything to worry about. At least not today.

Carefully maintained trees and grass passed us by.

I knew U.A.’s campus was big, the entrance exams, battle trials, Aizawa’s test and where they all took place testament to that, but the fact that we all had to load up on the bus just for today’s training really sailed things home. Great a place as it was to train future heroes, it also brought attention to the issue that came with all the space.

Few if any security measures could perfectly cover so much space. It was purely the school’s reputation and the insane notion of dealing with so many nearby pros that truly kept the place safe.

“Was it really a quirk awakening? Maybe it had to with the amount of blood? How does your quirk deal with mixing blood types? Do you know what kind of quirks the donors of the blood had? Maybe-“

“I’m sure Recovery Girl will help me figure out all the answers to that.” I said, looking past Yaoyorozu over to Midoriya who was going off on a little tangent. I’d gotten the seat dead center at the back of the bus, Himiko, Tsu, and Hagakure to my left while Yaoyorozu, Midoriya and Uraraka were to the right.

“You don’t look all that different though, dude. Did your quirk really change you that much?” Kirishima asked from straight ahead, up in the middle seats with some of the other students.

“Who knows.” I said shrugging. I hadn't been too forthcoming on all the changes yet on account of Aoyama so plenty in the class were still interested in my visits to Recovery Girl. “I am faster and stronger than I was last week though.”

“Really? We talking strong like Midoriya’s crazy quirk?”

“Not even close.” Punches with enough strength to topple buildings from the shockwave? If the Gacha had something like that it hadn’t given it to me. Now could I take one of those punches 100% punches? I don’t know if I’d ever get the chance to figure that out but, all things considered, that sounded far more manageable. My durability was among the best things I had going for me right now. “Maybe one day but right now he’s still the strongest one in the class.”

“Yeah, too bad his quirk hurts him though.” Kirishima continued, the both of us ignoring how embarrassed he got over being labeled like that. “It’s obvious Todoroki and Bakugo have got pretty good chances of being ranked pros with their flashy quirks. Kind of makes me jealous.”

“Maybe but Bakugos always angry so he’ll never be that popular.” Tsu bluntly pointed out.

One thing led to another and soon enough Bakugo was yelling at anyone who remotely agreed with that. Being stuck dealing with him too long was even less appealing, his volume all the more annoying with enhanced hearing.

“You’re class president. Can’t you tell that guy to shut up or something?” Himiko asked.

“Being loud isn’t against school rules.” I said. “If I got on him about that, there’s plenty I’d need to get on you about.”

“What do you mean? I’m a perfect rule abiding student.” Himiko insisted.

“I don’t know about that.” Uraraka said exactly what I was thinking and blank look on Tsu’s face was expressing.

“Hey, you’re supposed to be on my side here.” Himiko said, leaning forward to shoot her a mock glare before grinning back at me. “Besides I’d need special treatment. That’s the whole point in dating the class rep.”

“Right.” I said, shaking my head, a few more questions about my quirk coming before the conversation derailed back to random stuff. The focus no longer being on quirks reminded Midoriya that he was stuck between two girls, his rambling given up for anxious silence or panicked stutters whenever he ended up being brought into conversation.

This was how U.A. was supposed to go for us. Some intense training with big goals and all the typical school stuff scattered throughout.

Stealing or doing some other petty crime out of desperation was one thing. The kind of people who’d attack a class of students? I couldn’t find a single reason or any kind of wiggle room that’d lead to anyone with semblance or morals going along with something like that willingly.

“It’s the Space Hero Thirteen!” Midoriya gushed, that fanboying he did for every teacher, activating the moment we stepped off the bus. “The chivalrous pro who’s rescued people all across the globe!”

“Woohoo!” Uraraka was right there with him. “Thirteen is one of my favorite heroes!”

On the shorter side and in a white costume that resembled a space suit, a helmet made of some kind of pitch black glass looking material with white marks in the place of her eyes hiding her face, Thirteen stood before us, arms spread out as she gave a welcoming speech and rundown of the massive dome shaped building behind her.

Even as she began to lead us up the long ramp that made up the building’s entrance, my focused remained on her exclusively. Scarlet and King Crimson had been in position and on the move before we stepped foot on that bus, the latter likely already kicking things into gear.

Above all else, the single most important thing was being sure no one ended up injured the way she had.

(A/N: The first trial be upon us.

Anyways, as a heads up I've got some other stuff I need to focus all my attention to really make any progress with so I'll take like a week break once I'm done with the USJ arc. And I mean once I got it up for QQ and WN. You guys here will still see some of the next arc and stuff I got planned before that little break so we still got at least a dozen chapters or so before I reach that. I won't stop writing or anything during that time, I'll just be too busy to keep up any sort of consistency or really edit how I should.

Maybe I'll get one of those dribbles/snippets/ideas threads that I see a lot of people have on QQ going during that short time? I've got plenty of ideas written out that there just isn't enough time in the day to dedicate time to and I like writing chapters for them here or there if I'm struggling to write. Definitely not stuff worth posting on patreon or sending notifications for. Might post that stuff here as a misc collection that doesn't send notifications so that only people interested in it read it whenever they happen to check for it too.

Anyways, that's enough out of me. We're finally about to see some villains get handled.)