MHA: Ground Zero

Katsuki was already warmed up when Izu and Kyo made their way outside in their own UA approved blue and red tracksuits.

He took a deep breath of the crisp morning air, with the sky just beginning to lighten into dawn, and let out a puff of fog.

It was cool enough to see his own breath thid morning, the best way to cool down right after just throwing himself into the freezing cold ocean first thing in the morning.

5:27.

Seems this class was a no show, and he'd even gone through all the trouble of tricking midnight into sitting down and placing Eri on her lap where she promptly fell asleep.

Midnight has not moved a muscle since then, all he could hear from her was a high pitch whine and it was hilarious. Something he was quick to point out and receive the most embarrassingly happy glare he'd ever seen.

The woman was in her mid twenties st least, she should be better than that. Which he was quick to point out before promptly exiting the room.

And he was looking forward to seeing how far they've pushed their bodies and quirks. The only reason he even bothered was because Kyo and Izu had both asked him to try to get along with more people.

And Invis was talking all that for nothing.

Oh well.

He stetched lightly, loosening his calves and shoulder for the morning, crouching down into a four point stance ready for the traditional countdown by Izu to get started.

Until he heard the gravel crunch a few feet behind him.

He turned around, and met the slightly smaller girl with white and red hair from yesterday, and she looked ready to go.

She had some fire, that was good.

Right behind her was a floating tank top and shirt shorts.

And behind her were every other classmate that he'd seen last night.

A small smirk escaped his control as he stared the first girl in the eyes. The girl… no Shoko, was ready for just about anything.

The others were not.

Let's see how far they could go.

XXXXXX

They ran for the next hour, though most of them didn't last longer than ten minutes at a sprint.

He'd had to make them stop and stretch after some of them started having cramps. And then one of them, some midget fuck had the fucking audacity to scream about hiw unfair the whole thing was.

Which, what the fuck?

No one was making him do anything.

So he'd told the little shit to leave, and went back to running.

He kept running until even robo calves (Tenya? He'd go with that.) started to lag behind and he decided to cut it early for their first day.

When he turned back around, he was met with the fallen soulless forms of nineteen other teenagers, with Izu and Kyo being just ahead of Tenya, who was a good bit ahead of Shoko. And bringing up the rest of the herd was Invis.

He really needed to remember her name…

Hagakuna? Tonu? Screw it, he'd ask her later when the warm up was over.

Endurance training is a must then.

"Allright, you bunch of lazy brats! Get up and stretch, otherwise you'll definitely regret not being dead here pretty soon!"

"Are you trying to kill us?!?!?!?" The grape headed fuck was at it again, shouting and whining like a baby.

"I don't give a shit if you live or die. You came here to be the best, didn't you? So why are you complaining about putting a bit of effort in?" His stretching was over quickly, Izu and Kyo already finished. One of the benefits of being a girl; they're usually much more elastic.

He'd literally seen Kyo fold herself in half, forwards and backwards.

Her poor bones.

His spine shuddered just remembering it.

"Anyways! Do some stretching! Limber up or whatever! I don't care. If you want to do anything past the warm up run, or if your nuts finally drop, come find us in the training room." He pointed at the large building just across from their dorms, outfitted with every conceivable piece of security measures and weapons.

And that was just the outside.

He couldn't wait to the rat's real quirk in action:

UNLIMITED FUNDING.

Katsuki wasn't sure how the mammal got the money for just the dorms and scchool, let alone the dozens of training facilities just like theirs all across the campus.

Scratch that, he didn't want to know.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"This was not within my expectations."

It was Momo who said that. The nice if slightly socially awkward girl she'd met on the way into the dorms yesterday.

Toru thought they'd hit it off, but you never knew with those rich people.

Oof. Her lungs.

Okay, think badly of potential friends later, breathe now.

So she followed the strange blonde's advice and stretched every muscle she could reach.Her limbs, her back, her core, and her shoulders until her lungs stopped feeling like she'd dragged them on the gravel with her poor abused soles. The weirdly intense girl, Shoko, had already left for the training building while they were distracted.

Hmph. She was pouting and she knew it, she just didn't care.

Someone, cough blondie cough, doesn't know how to treat a lady.

"Where are you going?" The blonde, not the red eyed one that was way too intense for her or anyone else's good, but the one with the electric quirk. He was looking at her silhouette, nothing else to really look at, at least for now, as she made her way step by step towards the training center.

"Getting my body back." Her dreams were simple, if not a bit silly. She wanted to be seen.

She wanted to be free with the people she loved. She wanted to control her quirk and become a great hero.

She could feel it in her bones, the first step to making those fantasies a reality was in that building, and she'd do her darndest to make them so. Sk she mustered her courage, all of her remaining willpower to walk into the scarily secure fascility.

Nothing prepared her for the sheer chaos that laid beyond that door.

XXXXXXXXX

Shoko had to be strong.

It was the last thing her mother had asked of her before she passed away. Holding her hand tight enough for her own to shake as she passed away in front of her daughter and husband.

She had to be stronger than anyone.

She remembered the early years of watching her father grind himself to the bone, endlessly working to attain a seemingly impossible goal.

She remembered one of his rare smiles as he past her in a hallway, heading towards her mother's shrine after coming home late from work as he usually did.

She remembers him asking for her studies and training with her quirk as they tidied the incense and candles around her pictures.

He had told stories of the countless times her mother had rejected his attempts to socialize, and how simply leaving a letter and a single Amaryllis at her window everyday had eventually won her over.

He warned her of the ambitions that he'd placed in her birth, and how they had eventually burned everything he had ever cared for.

She was an only child now, her parents having many complications due to their opposing quirks. She had a sibling once, long before she had been conceived. They had been born premature, and hadn't lasted a week.

She always wanted to know who Touya Todoroki could have been.

Her father had gotten quiet after a time, eventually asking if she remembered her promise to her mother.

How could she have forgotten?

And so a deal was made between the two; the father would teach and the daughter would learn. The man who was only an empty husk in regards to everything but herself and her mother would show her every mistake he had made so she didn't have to.

It was a long list.

However, nothing was free. Her father taught her well, but there was a single condition to his tutelage; he would train her as long as she used her strength to pave the way to her happiness, rather than for her strength to be her happiness as the weathered number two hero had foolishly tried.

She agreed, hoping to spend some more time with the only person in her life that wasn't paid to be there for her.

It was hell.

The intense cardio exercises. The endless repetitions. Constantly testing of her quirk, condescending her fire and ice into something… terrifying.

At the end of it all, here she stood. On the campus of UA. Where her father learned. Where he gained his independence and experience as a hero.

Here would be her ultimate proving ground.

And it was everything she could ask for.

XXXXXXX

Shoko was thrown into and through a thin wall of the sparring arena, only just managing to put up a sheet of ice strong enough to disperse the follow up explosion before being vaporized.

A green blur met her stomach and threw her back down as one of her newly dubbed teammates met a similar fate to her.

A hyper focused stream of sound bought them enough time to stumble onto their feet, and take in the devastation their match had wrought.

The arena was similar to a maze, with four foot thick walls erupting from the floor at strange angles. In the center was the only flat space; a sixty by sixty square that was meant to be the only clearing had stretched to the arena walls in the full hundred by hundred square.

The landscape was filled with craters, large packets of broken glaciers, and large spots of melted concrete from her own flames and Bakugo Katsuki's explosions. No space was spared, no inch was without some sort of wreckage.

They were outmatched in every way. Their opponent was someone without any type of discernable form, simply content to move his body in a myriad of ways to strike them. His quirk, if he didn't temper it, was more than enough to reduce their bodies to ash. His explosions were hot enough to vaporize any amount of ice she threw at him, and her own flames were dispersed by the shockwaves he hurled her way.

She had tried to buy time and get in close, hoping that his close combat skills were lacking…

They were not.

She limped forward, being held up by Midoriya's arm around her waist. The green haired teenager's enhanced physicality had been enough to withstand some of his greater attacks, and her short bursts of blinding speed had made a few openings for Shoko and Kyoka to exploit and actually connect with the blonde. They were the only hits they'd managed to land in the last fifteen minutes.

His shirt was bloody, from an ice spike she'd managed to erupt under his feet and skewer his side. His shoes were gone, melted away in their combined heat along with her own sleeves.

Kyoka was once more in a crater, her jacks limp beside her as she took in deep breaths. Her hair was in disarray, and her shirt was peppered in burnt holes, just like Midoriya's exposing the black sports bra she'd worn.

They were all worn out. The fight with Bakugo had pushed her in a way her father never could bear to in training, and had shown her just how little control over her quirk she truly had.

Her ice was vaporized the moment it expanded. Her flames were dispersed by a great shockwave erupting from every pore on his body when she poured the heat on. And all of the different schools of combat she'd learned had been useless when he bothered to let her close.

She felt the large manic grin spread across her face, and knew it matched the one on Midoriya's and Kyoka's in contrast to Bakugo's naturally apathetic scowl.

For a moment all she heard was their labored breathing. All she felt was her body numbed by her constant quirk use and the solid warm hand holding her up.

She took a deep breath and smelled the smoke that was seeping into her clothing. She heard the ventilation kick in, and then saw the blonde relax his hands away from his side and settle in to feel the new breeze ruffle his ruined clothes.

Her wide grin settled with him, turning into a small smile that plucked at the edge of her lips.

She was happy.

So she said the first thing that came to mind.

"Want to be friends?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Okay.

So her classmates were WMDs…

Well, crap.

Todoroki had literally covered every inch of the battle arena in white ice and then flames as her opening move.

Kyoka had thrown around sonic sound waves from her ear jacks like it was candy on Halloween while Midoriya had thrown punches and kicks that had literally altered the air pressure enough to use as attacks from a distance… you know…

Like All Might?!?!?

Not to mention Bakugou. Bakugo Flipping Katsuki. The kinda hot, if entirely too intense blonde who acted like walking was a chore so he straight up flew around like a jet?! The guy who's entire body was a god damn grenade?!? Oh, and that was when he wasn't flinging around beams, yes beams, of pure explosive energy that erased whatever came into contact with it?!!?!?

…

…

What the hell had she signed up for?

The training arena was below the ground floor, in a literal pit so they had a birds eye view of the newly flattened former maze. She was sure it was meant to test melee fighters in a more closed area than the formerly only open space in the center, but none of the walls had lasted long under her classmates' assault. Fire covered pulverized concrete in craters if it wasn't inside a rapidly cooling pool of magma.

Kyoka rested in a crater with Midoriya holding Todoroki upright next to her. And Bakugo just stood in front of them, with a fucking hole, a literal hole, going through his side just underneath what she assumed were his ribs.

How the hell was he still standing?!?!?

"Want to be friends?"

Oh…

That was Todoroki…

Who seemed to think ganging up with two other girls and trying to fight the personification of explosive intensity was a good way to make friends…

Wonderful…

"Get your asses down here."

Wait, what?

"You followed us in here, it means you want to keep going right?"

Oh, hell…

"Let's get started. Show me your quirks." He was serious.

Well…

No time like the present.

So she jumped down and got ready for an ass kicking.

Spoiler, she wasn't.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Most of you are shit."

That stung, especially considering the amount of effort he'd placed in learning everything his father had to teach him. However none of what his family had to offer him had saved him from being beaten into the ground alongside the rest of his new class, most of whom were simply leaning against some broken rubble and struggling to make sense of what had happened.

"You either think you know how to fight, and don't. Or you learned the wrong shit."

"I beg your pardon?!" Tenya Iida attempted to stand and deny such claims, however his dore body refused to cooperate, leaving him embedded inside a half melted glacier the blonde had thrown him into to end their bout.

How could he have learned the wrong fighting style? He was from a long line of heroes, nearly every member of his family had been a hero at one point or another, and accumulated a vast repository of combat mastery centered around their engine quirks. A great deal of his ancestors had dedicated their entire lives to fighting the forces of evil with their quirks, and passed what they'd learned to their children, who passed it down yet again.

"You're too rigid."

Eh?

"You stick with the basic grapples when your opponent is in front of you, and just turn your quirk on when you go for a sidekick, or a spartan kick. There's more than four ways to kick, you know? It's like you don't know anything about momentum. News flash, the reason I'm so fast is because I'm always building my momentum up and letting it carry me when I strike. I never stay in one spot, people like you and me have to constantly be in motion when we fight. We just don't always need to go full throttle."

Ah…

"You didn't try to outmaneuver me on the ground, and when I was in the air, you stayed in one place like a sitting duck. Next time try to keep your quirk active when you're fighting, add some spins before you kick, build that momentum up, and go for your max output just before contact."

Yes…

"Let up on the engines right after that, but don't turn them off. And once again, never ever, EVER, stay in one spot. For someone who relies entirely on their speed like you, that's a death sentence."

…

"And try to relax a little. Your kicks were picture perfect, but that's the problem; fighting styles are meant to be used as a guide, not a step by step instruction. Especially since most of what you use is meant to be used against people with the same style."

He had no formal instruction. It was clear in every way he moved, using small explosions to shift his posture and position at the drop of the hat. There was no grace in his movements, no long hours of practice that showed in his gait.

Every move Tenya had seen had been born from deeply honed instincts and extraordinary quirk usage.

He'd come to UA hoping to learn from the best to become a hero, he just hadn't thought his first lesson would be from a fellow student.

Tenya wondered if this was what his brother had meant, when he saw him off at UA's gate.

'You gotta learn to let go little brother.' Let go, of what? The history of his family? The long line of heroes he'd always looked up to? The people he aspired to be just like?

'Nothing in this world goes the way you expect it, so you have to learn to adapt.' Of course he would adapt, what kind of real hero couldn't adapt to any situation they found themselves in?

'To change.' What could he have done differently? He'd always pushed himself to succeed and make his family proud, to do his name justice.

'Next time I see you, I hope you've learned to stop putting yourself down so much.'

He was not putting himself down, he just held himself to a high standard, that's all. It just hurt when he didn't meet those expectations.

'I wonder… who the hero Tenya Ida will be one day…'

He didn't know, but he would keep striving to be the best hero he could be.

'I can't wait to see who you'll become when you stop holding yourself back.' Is that what Iida had been doing all this time?

Forcing himself into a role for people he'd never met?

Had Tenya Iida been the man who had held Ida back for so long?

…

…

Iida forced his hands to clench, tearing himself free from the blissful embrace of melting ice to sway back and forth on his feet and stumble forward until he was before the unruffle blonde yet again.

Bakugo still had that look on his face, the same one he'd had since they'd first gotten into the arena with him. After his first match with the refracted woman, Toru Hagakure.

The only person in the arena to have come back for more than a single round.

The same girl who had never controlled her quirk in any way, whose unconscious body was now completely visible without the blonde's assistance. Her quirk having been pushed beyond the edge for the first time in her life.

The only time his face changed was during his time training the invisible girl. It was almost like he was waiting for something…

…

It didn't matter.

His engines sputtered, and his calves' exhaust pipes burst with small flames. He bent down, into a three point stance with one hand outstretched for balance.

He threw away every moment of forms he'd spent years honing. Every move he'd thought he'd mastered. And every second of endlessly practicing the same sequence of kicks that Ida thought would pave the way to becoming a hero.

He didn't need them anymore.

'Thank you, Big Brother. I'm not sure what kind of hero I'll become…'

Bakugo's expression had changed, a small smirk was there instead of impatience.

Ah, he'd been waiting for someone to let go of everything that held them back and face him head on.

Iida would oblige.

'But I know it'll be someone I can be proud of, first and foremost.'

His engines whined as the small flames tripled in size. His feet were only held to the ground through his rigid legs, Bakugo's eyes were still on Ida's, letting the speedster get ready.

'And that's good enough for me.'

After all, he didn't have to be perfect right?

"Round two."