….
[UA High School - Indoor Training Ground Gamma]
Indoor Training Ground Gamma - an artificially constructed ruin of a city that U.A. used for urban combat exercises.
Class 1-A stood in a loose cluster near the entrance, gym uniforms on and none of them were talking, which was unusual for this group.
Any other day, Kaminari would've been cracking jokes, Mina bouncing off someone's shoulder, Kirishima loud about something.
But not today.
Aizawa also wasn't here - Paperwork, mountains of it, left behind by the villain attack at USJ had buried him in administrative hell, and for once, the man who could erase Quirks with a glance had been erased by bureaucracy.
That left Dabi, who stepped in front of them and rolled his neck, the sound dry and sharp, like a twig snapping underfoot.
"Sports Festival's coming up." he said, skipping past any kind of greeting or warmup. "Every major Hero agency in the country is going to be watching. Pros from all over Japan will have eyes on this event. This is your shot to make a first impression that actually counts for something."
A few students nodded along, believing it to be standard pre-festival talk.
"Uhm..." He paused. "That's not why we're here today, though."
His eyes moved across the group, slowly student by student.
Taking his time, like he was reading something written on each of their faces that they themselves couldn't see.
"After USJ, I had some time to think about how that whole thing went down. What I saw from you." A beat. "What I didn't see." Another beat, longer this time. "And I came to a conclusion about every single one of you."
The air tightened. "The lack of real combat experience is obvious. Anyone can see it."
He let that sit for a moment. Then –
"But more importantly… You are all weak."
The word landed like a slap across the face of every student standing there.
But the most visible reaction came from Bakugo, whose entire body went rigid, his pride was a living thing, and it had just been stabbed in public.
"Your Quirks are fine." Dabi continued, unbothered. "Some of you have real talent, and genuine potential. But talent sitting on top of a weak body is just..." He seemed to search for the right comparison. "A house of cards. Doesn't matter how sharp your blade is if the arm holding it can barely swing."
The colour drained from Midoriya's face, he recognized those words.
The same phrasing Dabi had hammered into him across eight months of private training to prepare his body for One For All. Back then, those words had been the opening line of the worst physical experience of his life. Hearing them again now, aimed at an entire classroom, sent a cold wire of dread straight through his stomach.
That was when the whole of Class 1-A dropped their eyes to the rows of dark metal objects arranged at their feet.
Custom-fabricated training weights.
Ankle cuffs, wrist bands, bicep wraps that are strapped above the elbow near the shoulder and broad waist belts with compression locks.
Every single piece is engraved with a student's name.
"Starting today." Dabi said. "We begin dedicated physical conditioning. I will be overseeing it personally." The faintest flicker of amusement. "I hope none of you are planning to drop out."
Kirishima lunged forward before anyone else could react.
"Hell yeah! This is what I am talking about!" He dropped into a crouch and grabbed one of the ankle cuffs, lifting it one-handed like he was testing a dumbbell at a sports store.
His grin started wide and confident, the trademark Kirishima grin, all teeth and enthusiasm.
Then his arm dipped and the grin wobbled. "Wait. This is... hold on, this is actually heavy."
"Ours look smaller than some of the others." Hagakure's voice came from somewhere near the back of the group. "But... I mean, can I really call these small?"
Honestly she couldn't.
Each student's kit had five pieces - two ankle weights, two arm pieces (one at the wrist, one strapped above the elbow near the shoulder), and one waist belt.
The sizes varied from student to student, calibrated to individual physical baselines that Dabi had apparently been tracking without any of them noticing.
But even the lightest set in the row was enough to make the person wearing it reconsider their life choices.
….
INDIVIDUAL WEIGHT ASSIGNMENTS (Total Load Per Student):
Midoriya Izuku - 90 kg total
(Ankles: 20 kg each | Wrists: 10 kg each | Shoulders: 5 kg each | Waist: 20 kg)
Bakugo Katsuki - 90 kg total
(Ankles: 20 kg each | Wrists: 12 kg each | Shoulders: 4 kg each | Waist: 18 kg)
Todoroki Shoto - 80 kg total
(Ankles: 18 kg each | Wrists: 8 kg each | Shoulders: 5 kg each | Waist: 18 kg)
Kirishima Eijiro - 85 kg total
(Ankles: 18 kg each | Wrists: 10 kg each | Shoulders: 5 kg each | Waist: 19 kg)
Iida Tenya - 85 kg total
(Ankles: 22 kg each | Wrists: 7 kg each | Shoulders: 4 kg each | Waist: 19 kg)
Uraraka Ochaco - 55 kg total
(Ankles: 12 kg each | Wrists: 5 kg each | Shoulders: 3 kg each | Waist: 15 kg)
Yaoyorozu Momo - 60 kg total
(Ankles: 13 kg each | Wrists: 6 kg each | Shoulders: 4 kg each | Waist: 14 kg)
….
….
….
….
Sero Hanta – 65 kg total
(Ankles: 14 kg each | Wrists: 7 kg each | Shoulders: 4 kg each | Waist: 15 kg)
….
"Each set matches your physical capacity." Dabi said, hands pocketed. "Starting today… they go wherever you go."
This time, Kaminari stopped forward - mostly trying to impress the girls.
He crouched in front of his waist belt, the largest piece, gripped both ends, and pulled with all his strength, bracing his legs as the veins stood out along his forearms, but it still didn't budge.
"Sir." he wheezed, straightening up with a lopsided grin. "I am gonna need a second 'me' just to lift this thing."
Since showing off hadn't worked, he tried humor instead and a few students even laughed nervously.
But the sound faded the moment they looked at Dabi.
That blank, unreadable mask, somewhere between boredom and a threat.
"Pick up."
Kaminari's grin cracked at the edges. "Ha... haha... you're joking, right, Sensei? Yeah... you've gotta be joking. There's no way this is–"
"Shut up and put it on."
Just four words, and the training ground went dead silent.
"On it, sir." Midoriya moved immediately, to him hesitation wasn't an option.
He dropped to one knee and started with the ankle cuffs.
The straps tightened, twenty kilograms per leg.
Pain shot through his calf the moment the first one locked, but he clenched his teeth and kept going.
Wrist weights, shoulder wraps and finally waist belt - ninety kilograms total.
The weight dragged him toward the floor like gravity had doubled.
He tried to stand. "U–UAAAGH–!"
His legs buckled, knees shaking and the muscles screaming under the load. For a second he almost collapsed, then his body remembered.
The [Breathing] technique.
Midoriya forced himself upright - trembling, soaked in sweat, but standing.
Bakugo watched the whole thing with narrowed eyes.
His lip curled, but not in mockery - If that Deku can stand, then I will stand without making a goddamn sound.
He strapped his weights in silence, and when the full ninety kilos hit his frame his body dropped three inches before raw explosive force caught him at the knees.
Todoroki went next.
Then Kirishima - who let out a guttural "COME ON!" through gritted teeth as the waist belt nearly folded him in half.
Then Mina, who gasped and grabbed Kirishima's arm for balance.
Iida, whose legs, those engine-powered legs that could outrun most vehicles - buckled under forty-four kilos of ankle weight alone before the rest even went on.
Momo, Shoji, Sato, Uraraka who looked like she might cry but didn't…
Then it was Jiro, Toru and Tokoyami.
It took some time most of them couldn't strap on the waist belts alone and needed help - Shoji, the only one still partially functional, assisted three classmates before his own weight load finally brought him to one knee.
Kaminari needed Kirishima and Sero working together to haul him upright.
But in the end, every single student had done it.
"Good!" Dabi said, watching the last of them lock their weights into place.
"'Can I lift it?' 'Can I do it?'" He mimicked the thoughts he knew were running through their heads. "Throw away those pathetic doubts."
"ARGH...!" Half the class could barely straighten their legs.
Dabi didn't wait for them to stabilize.
"Think of it this way - only death waits for those who fail. So if that's what's on the other side of giving up..." His eyes swept across twenty trembling students. "Then tell me, what in this world is impossible?"
The class had nothing to offer except the sound of their own ragged breathing.
"Now a hundred squats. Full depth. Go."
"A HUNDRED?!"
Kaminari's voice hit a pitch dogs would complain about.
Jiro would've roasted him for it if her lungs still worked.
"Did I stutter?"
It was, without question or exaggeration, the longest ten minutes of their lives.
Every squat was a war.
The downward motion wasn't the problem, gravity was happy to help with that part.
It was the standing back up that broke them.
Legs shaking, faces purple, some of them openly groaning or biting back screams with every rep.
Uraraka's eyes watered from rep fifteen onward but she never stopped moving.
Bakugo's count outpaced everyone else's by a margin that would've been impressive if he didn't look like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his forehead.
Midoriya found a rhythm somewhere around rep forty, the dead-eyed focus of a veteran returning to a war zone he had already survived once.
By the time the last student hit a hundred, the class looked like survivors of a natural disaster.
Bodies scattered across the training ground in various states of collapse, gasping and wheezing, some flat on their backs staring at the sky with the hollow eyes of people who had glimpsed the void and lived.
A few seconds of blessed silence.
"Okay…" Kirishima panted, managing half a grin while lying flat on his back. "We… we did it. That was insane, but we manage–"
"Guys." Midoriya cut through the relief. He was still on his feet, and the expression on his face hadn't changed since the weights went on.
If anything, it had gotten worse. "This isn't over yet."
Kirishima pushed himself up on one elbow. "Hey, come on, man, 'we're not done yet,' right? I get it. Keep the momentum going, push through–"
"No." Midoriya shook his head. "I mean literally. This isn't–"
"Yeah, yeah! 'We're not done yet!' Love the motivation, Midori–"
"Warm-up's over." Dabi cut in.
"Main exercise starts now."
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
Author Note:
Visit Patreon to instantly access +1 chapter for free, available for Free Members as well. For additional content please do support me and gain access to +12 more chapters.
-->patreon.com/WrightBrothers