[UA TRAINING CAMP — FOREST PATH, CLASS 1-B ROUTE — 05:47 AM]
The morning was cold enough that breath came out visible.
Class 1-B moved through the forest path in a loose column, gym uniforms still stiff on their bodies.
Most of them were at varying stages of awake. Tetsutetsu was fully functional, an admirable quality depending on your perspective. The rest were considerably worse off. Monoma, Kendo, Shiozaki ...
Vlad King walked at the front. He had been quiet since they left the bunkhouse.
"One hundred yen he says something along the way."
"Duh. That's a losing bet." King Vlad let their chatter pass. He let the path curve once, then twice, then spoke without turning around.
"You all watched the news this past week."
"Yes, sir," several voices said.
"Then I believe you are well informed of what happened at Tokyo Ground Zero. As well as the eleven prefectures ever since that night two days ago." He kept walking. "You understand the situation."
"Yes, sir."
"Good." He paused at a clearing where the path widened slightly and turned to face them. "Then I don't need to explain to you why this training camp isn't optional."
"Sensei?"
"This was supposed to be your summer camp training spot. However, with everything that's happened, U.A decided it would be best to move your practical teachings further up."
The class straightened without being told to.
"The country lost most of its upper tier combat power in one night," Vlad said.
"Hero agencies are running on reduced capacity. And the assessment being made at every level of this institution and every level of the hero licensing system right now is simple: who is ready to be deployed when the provisional exam comes, and who isn't." The sleepiness was gone from the majority of their faces. "U.A's hero course has a greater chance." He said while turning around, expression serious. "But from how I currently see it, that chance belongs to class 1A. Not you."
Yeah, whatever sleep they initially desired was dead and gone.
Kendo frowned. "Sensei? What do you mean by this?"
King Vlad kept on walking. "Class 1-A has been in the news since USJ," he continued. "Sports festival. Hosu. Yamanote Line. Tokyo." He said each one without additional commentary, just the list of them placed end to end. "The first three are the only ones that truly matter to more than one person. However, they've had experience under pressure that your class hasn't had. That's not a criticism of you. It's a fact of circumstance."
Tetsutetsu's jaw set. "Sensei—"
"I'm not finished." Vlad's cut in. "The circumstances that gave them that experience were bad ones. People were hurt. Property was destroyed. Several of those situations could have gone worse than they did." He looked at the class. "You could say they were unlucky. You could also say that the same situations made them better faster than a controlled curriculum would have."
He crossed his arms. "In just one villain encounter at USJ, the difference between classes was magnified. The U.A staffing has looked into this and ultimately come to the conclusion that the gap exists. What I'm telling you this morning is that closing it is your responsibility, and this week is where that starts."
Kendo nodded, brow furrowed. "Understood, sensei."
"I'm not asking for understanding. I'm asking for effort." He turned back toward the path. "Move."
They moved.
For a while the only sounds were footsteps on the path.
Then Tetsutetsu made a sound. It started small. A sort of constrained noise in the throat. Then it grew. "SENSEI. WE'RE SORRY." Tetsutetsu uttered, practically roared, tears streaming down his face.
Vlad King did not stop walking. "Tetsutetsu."
"WE'VE BEEN A DISAPPOINTMENT TO YOU ..."
"You haven't ..."
" ... AND TO THIS CLASS AND TO THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF CLASS 1-B ..."
"That's not what I said—"
"SHIOZAKI MADE THE FINAL ROUNDS AND WE SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER AND I'M SORRY AND WE'LL DO BETTER I PROMISE ON MY STEEL SOUL—"
"Tetsutetsu." Vlad King stopped walking. Turned and looked at him. "Stand up straight."
Tetsutetsu, who had somehow gotten halfway through a bow during the apology, straightened. His eyes were genuinely wet.
Vlad King resisted the urge to sigh at such sincere dramatics. "No one has failed anyone. I said you need to close a gap. Closing a gap requires acknowledging it first." He paused. "You acknowledged it. Now close it. That's the end of the conversation."
"Yes, sir."
"Good."
Kendo patted Tetsutetsu on the arm as they resumed walking. "Very manly,"
"I know," he said, wiping his eye. Expression turning serious. "And I intend to keep this path I have swore.
'How dramatic." Monoma, two people back in the column, had been maintaining his expression of elevated indifference throughout this exchange. "Personally," he said, "I find the comparison to Class 1-A somewhat reductive. The circumstances may have shaped them but circumstances don't determine—"
"Monoma," said three people simultaneously.
He closed his mouth.
"Thank you," said Kendo who was halfway towards giving him a karate chop to the neck.
"But he isn't entirely wrong," Shiozaki intervened, her voice like a calm spring in the morning. "Though Class 1-A has endured much, we must not let envy or shadow-boxing against their reputation cloud our own path to growth. We are here to hone our own gifts."
"Tell that to the public," Tsuburaba muttered, hands in his pockets. "Did you see the view counts on the Tokyo Ground Zero footage? Most of it was focused on Akutami. People aren't even looking for 'Hero Students' anymore."
"Tell me about it."
"Oh what do you expect?" Monoma smiled. "The public is of course ultimately swayed by how popular something is. For a general studies origin, his ability to attract attention is astounding. Must be a bad luck aura of some kind to always be found in such tragedies."
"That perspective is flawed." Vlad King uttered. "Heroes are always at the heart of tragedy. Are always in areas where people need their help most. To be capable of doing so is a criteria for being a good hero."
Kendo tilted her head. "I guess that's true. Heroes can't exactly only show up after the problem is gone or handled now can they?"
"That also depends on the situation. Despite the situation of the country, your popularity as a hero, while never the primary objective in hero work, is also important. Assuming you survived the same situations they were placed in you would also receive the same attention they currently have." Vlad King paused. "Emphasis on survival."
Vlad King let the silence sit for a few more steps before speaking again.
"There's another reason U.A accelerated this camp."
The forest path narrowed as they continued uphill. Morning wind moving through the trees.
"You've all been taught that becoming a hero means helping people." Vlad's voice remained even. "That part is obvious. The less glamorous part is learning when you can't help people."
Several students blinked at that.
"A dead hero saves no one," he continued. "A crippled hero saves fewer people tomorrow because they tried to save too many today. Your strength does not simply lie in power output, but judgement and situational awareness. Understanding your limits accurately enough to survive."
His gaze swept across them briefly. "Akutami Yuta was shown across the country alongside All Might in Tokyo, and is currently being analyzed in hero courses, agencies, police departments, and government committees alike in a battle against an enemy the country had never seen before. Substitute yourselves in the same scenario. Would you have survived and thrived, or become a burden in a similar situation."
The path crunched beneath their shoes. No one uttered a word. "When a disaster exceeds the level you can handle, courage alone stops mattering. Hero society romanticizes self-sacrifice but reality is harsher. If your abilities aren't sufficient for the situation in front of you, then your first responsibility is recognizing that before you get yourself or someone else killed."
Kendo's expression tightened slightly.
"So the answer," Vlad continued, "is to become stronger. Faster. Smarter. More refined with your Quirks. To raise the number of situations you can handle."
He pointed ahead toward the deeper stretch of forest.
"That is what this camp is for."
Tetsutetsu clenched his fists. "To close the gap…"
"Yes." Vlad nodded once. "Between your current selves and the heroes you'll need to become."
Shiozaki lowered her gaze thoughtfully. "Power without wisdom courts ruin… but wisdom without strength cannot shield others either."
"Well said," Vlad replied.
Monoma crossed his arms. "So in summary, we are being subjected to concentrated suffering in order to maximize accelerated growth."
"Yes."
"…That does sound very U.A."
A few tired laughs escaped the group. "But Sensei, we all have different quirks. How are you planning to help us all improve?"
"Quirks are like a muscle. The more you use them, the stronger they get. The less you use them, the more they wither away and become useless." Vlad King replied. "You'll be trained beyond what your bodies consider comfortable. You'll hit mental walls before physical ones. Some of you will fail repeatedly before improving at all." His eyes sharpened. "That's normal."
"Heh ... So it's simply barbaric train until you break your limits." Monoma said looking up to the sky. "The very definition of plus ultra ..."
BOOM!
Monoma stopped mid sentence as a distant boom rolled through the mountains.
The ground trembled faintly beneath their feet a second later.
Everyone turned. Another explosion echoed from somewhere deeper within the forest. Birds scattered upward from the trees in a panicked wave.
"…What was that?" Awase muttered.
Vlad King looked off toward the eastern ridge without much surprise. "That would be the training area." He had barely finished his words when another explosion resounded.
Tetsutetsu blinked. "Uh… are they okay over there?"
"It's training. They've already begun before you have." Vlad King said, somewhat displeased. "This just goes to show what I mean. Strive to better yourselves as the new generation of heroes."
"Sensei…" Shiozaki raised a hand politely. "What exactly are they doing for training?"
Before Vlad could answer— BOOM. A shockwave burst through the trees. This one was significantly closer. Branches rustled violently overhead as something shot through the forest canopy at absurd speed. "INCOMING!" Kendo shouted immediately.
Everyone scattered on instinct. A black blur tore through the air above the path.
For one surreal second, Class 1-B collectively registered spiky ash-blond hair, smoke trails, and a human body rotating end over end like an artillery shell.
"…Is that a person?" The answer arrived half a second later.
CRAAAASH!!
The figure slammed through three trees, then skidded across the dirt path in an explosion of soil and broken bark before finally stopping upside down in a smoking crater.
Silence. Leaves drifted gently downward.
Class 1-B stared.
"…Bakugo?" Tetsutetsu was stunned before measure.
The boy lay motionless for several seconds. Until finally, his body twitched. A tiny explosion emerged from his right hand before going limp.
"…He's alive," Awase observed.
"Unfortunately,"
"Monoma!!"
Kendo observed the boy, struggling to comprehend what was happening.
"What .. Sensei, what just happened here?"
Tetsutetsu pointed in disbelief. "YEAH! HOW HARD DO YOU HAVE TO HIT SOMEONE TO SEND THEM ACROSS A FOREST?!"
Vlad King pinched the bridge of his nose looking upward. He was waiting for some kind of emergency signal, flares, Ragdolls quirk, or the security system U.A had installed in this forest in the past two days after Tokyo to go off. This would assume a villain attack and he would know what to do next. It was in this thought process that a shadow appeared over them.
Several students looked up just in time to see another figure descending from the sky.
The next moment, Yuta dropped beside the crater. He glanced at the destroyed trees. Then at the unconscious Bakugo. Finally resting on the entirety of Class 1-B staring at him in stunned silence.
"…Oh. Wrong forest path." Nobody said anything.
Yuta looked at Vlad King first. "Hey teacher."
Then toward the class.
"Hey guys. Good morning." He smiled cheerfully. "How is your training going?"
"..."
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