After supper, Class 1-A headed for the hot springs. Who would have thought - other than Potter, who spent half a day there after his first training - that there were hot springs here?
Potter let his body sink into the water, leaving only his head above the hot paradise. Right now, he wasn't cold and was completely relaxed. Well, aside from the shadow eye he used to watch Mineta he was. The pervert will definitely not pass up such an opportunity when the female half of the hot springs is right outside the wall and Harry was not going to let his guard down today.
This time Mineta did not act as openly as in the past, the stealth techniques he learned in the Dojo will help him here and now. He moved like a spot in the corner of your eye that you can never see properly. He was on a mission and failure was unacceptable.
Harry looked in amazement at the quite good movements of his trouble classmate. He knew Mineta could create a miracle whenever he wanted, but that? He could be respected at least for his dedication to the cause.
Giggling oddly and drooling in anticipation, he climbed the wall using sis balls on his head. But as soon as he was mere inches from his target - and just as Harry wanted to send him on an expedition to his Gluttony dimension - Kota appeared on the wall, forcing Mineta to stop. A child and a teenager of the same height stared at each other for several seconds.
"Please don't do this. He'll kill me."
Mineta didn't ignore Potter's threats. They was the exact reason why he trained untill bloody sweat to achieve the highest possible level of stealth in the shortest amount of time. He really didn't want to get caught by this demon...
"A Hero, really? Try learning how to be a good person first."
Kota didn't even raise an eyebrow and pushed the pervert off the wall.
"You little braaat!!"
The pervert fell to the floor with a thud and wanted to get down the stairs, but he was stopped by voices from the female half of the bath.
"Was that Mineta's scream?"
"He's really the worst, huh?"
He automatically turned around only to see five completely naked girls and the silhouette of one invisible girl in the water.
"Thanks, Kota!"
Mina said raising her hand with a thumb up, giving Kota a perfect view. It turned out to be too much for the boy's heart, he staggered and fell back first onto the male half. The shadow hands of Pride caught the child before he could reach the ground, and Harry himself rose from the water.
"You finishing already? After such a long day, I thought you'd stay a little longer."
Kaminari asked as he plopped on the rocks to feel more warmth. Harry just shrugged, took the towel he'd left on the ground and wrapped it around his waist.
"Every time I'm in a large body of water for a long time, something strange happens. So it's better to leave early."
Perfects bathroom, the Black Lake, and the last visit to these hot springs... No thanks.
"Huh? But now everything is calm, no?"
Midoriya asked in confusion, but immediately fell silent as a shadow hand dragged Mineta's unconscious body across the ground past the class.
"Quite. Now I'll probably go before piranhas or something worse start to appear out of the water."
After these words, the shadow hands brought Kota's body through the air with red cheeks and a small amount of blood under his nose. Harry took the boy in his arms and used Pride to create himself some pants. He walked quickly to the Pussycats' room and knocked on the door.
Mandalay opened it - for which Harry was very grateful - and her gaze fell on her nephew in the arms of a teenager.
"Come inside and put him on the sofa."
She stepped away from the door and let Potter inside. Harry followed her directions and Mandalay immediately began examining Kota.
"Your nephew will soon follow in the footsteps of Ragdoll or even worse, Midnight. He looked at the female side and passed out from the fall."
The heroine sighed heavily and took off the cap from the child to pat him on the head. They were just silent for a while, until Harry spoke up.
"...He still hasn't come to terms with their death?"
Mandalay nodded silently, remembering her sister and her husband. Kota's parents were a duo of Heroes called Water House and were killed by Muscle two months after Harry's end of survival in Beast's Forest. The crime scene looked like a bloodbath.
For a three-year-old child, the death of his parents was unbearable, and when everyone around them continued to praise their honorable death... Well, the Heroes became strange bastards for him that he could not understand.
"I don't think he likes us very much..."
This worried Mandalay. Will she be able to give him as much love as her sister gave him? Harry put a hand on her shoulder in support.
"Don't worry, sooner or later he'll figure it out. Perhaps even sooner than you think."
He muttered to himself while looking at Kota. The Heroine sighed again heavily and also looked at her nephew.
"I hope so..."
---
At night, when all the students were already asleep, one green-eyed teenager just stared at the ceiling. He sighed heavily and rose from his futon. Harry took a warm jacket from his bag along with white gloves for Fire Alchemy. His paranoia didn't go away even now. Potter saw a pack of cigarettes at the bottom of the bag and just stared at them for a couple of seconds.
"What the hell? I could as well try."
He took the pack and jumped out of the window without making a sound. His feet led him to one of the places he found two years ago. Finally, after walking for five minutes, he reached a small clearing in the forest.
Moonlight hit the tree trunks, revealing old markers and even a rough map of the forest that had almost disappeared on the bark of one of the trees. The grass swayed in the wind as if welcoming an old friend. There was a small pit near the fallen tree, where burned out coals were still visible. They were about a year old, judging by their condition.
'So they are still running extreme survival courses.'
This was one of the safe zones where the teenager could rest and recuperate. Earth Beasts usually did not come close to the camp and therefore a small area around was safe for the night.
Harry sat down on a fallen tree and entered his mind. He suspended communication with the Gluttony and Sloth Stone, after which the teenager again left his consciousness. Potter felt that there were only two Philosopher's Stones left in his access and nodded to himself.
"It should work."
He created a transmutation circle on the back of his hand and, with a snap of his fingers, lit a cigarette. Harry took a drag and felt the familiar effects of nicotine on his body for the first time in a long time. But he didn't even react to it and breathed out smoke through his nose.
Harry put the hand in which he held the cigarette on his knee and raised his free hand in front of his face. Shadows took off his glove and put it in the teenager's jacket pocket.
"Atoms have no shadow... Then what kind of shadow am I using?"
The skin on his palm slowly parted to the sides and a completely black shadow appeared from the wound. Harry examined it closely and wrapped it around his hand like a glove. A thin black layer now covered him up to the elbow.
"The shadows from within my own body... Is it even possible? Or is it again my 'special body' Jasmine was talking about?"
"Who's Jasmine?"
A familiar voice sounded from behind and Harry mentally slapped himself in the back of the head for letting his guard down. Next to him, Ragdoll fell into a tree, swinging her legs and staring at the teenager with wide eyes.
"Just a good friend."
Harry answered by throwing the ash off his cigarette and breathing in the smoke again.
'If Death can be considered a friend...'
The emerald-haired woman just hummed thoughtfully and looked at the cigarette in his hands.
"You know you could be expelled for this?"
Potter snorted and looked dubiously at Ragdoll.
"Nezu will not let go of the owner of the three most dangerous creatures on the planet and the user of four Quirks at the same time. That bear-dog-rat likes to control the situation too much to expell me. Severe punishment? Deprivation of privileges? Correctional lectures? All this he can use, but not expulsion."
Harry raised the cigarette in front of his face and looked closely at its burning tip. He got into school with a control-freak as the Headmaster again. And this time, he is arguably the smartest creature on the planet.
"Quite an interesting opinion... Why are you awake?"
Ragdoll continued to swing her legs during all this time. She was one of the few people that Harry liked. Yes, she sometimes could be too much, but the woman somehow hooked the teenager... It was as if there was a friendly aura around her.
"...I told you about my time with the Dursleys, right? When they were once again celebrating something, and I was lying in the closet under the stairs, hungry and beaten. When they constantly told me that I would never be needed by anyone, that they took me from the purest intentions and that I should be grateful. And you know what?"
He took another drag and chuckled, making the everlasting smile on Ragdolls face disappear.
"I believed it. That my parents left me because they didn't need me. Because I was Quirkless. That I would never get the same love that normal people like them do." Harry chuckled, "Normal people. Bastards forced a four-year-old to cook under the threat of being beaten with a frying pan... And then they had to take me on vacation to Japan. As it turned out, Japanese policemen notice child abuse much better than English ones. I think Vernon still in jail... "
Although he was originally imprisoned for ten years, due to frequent conflicts and fights with other inmates, his term was constantly extended. Petunia left early due to her good behavior and Dudley is most likely still in a school for problem children.
"I refused to return to England, that country six years ago was for me a symbol of my past, from which I wanted to get rid of. Hell, even now I do not want to go back there... And then I learned the truth. James and Lily Potter, 45 and 46 on the English Hero Popularity List, died protecting me from an insane bastard who wanted to slaughter our entire family."
This wasn't the first time Ragdoll had listened to this story, but hadn't interrupted the teenager. It was his way of preparing himself to talk about problems that bother his mind. Harry removed the shadows from his hand and looked closely at the wound, from where a green shadow eye stared back at him.
"If they were alive, would they approve of my choices? I never even visited their graves. Didn't even say the final goodbye... Tomoko, am I a bad son...?"
'Ah... that's what worries him.'
Ragdoll hugged the green-eyed teenager by the shoulders and for the first time in a long time he didn't feel himself stiffen from such contact.
"Harry, they would be proud of you. Their son is now attending the best Hero school in Japan and holds the place of one of the best students. Even if you sometimes avoid getting close to your classmates."
She finished with a smile and poked him in the nose with her paw. Harry smiled back and stubbed out his cigarette on the tree trunk they were sitting on.
"Heh... Is that what Aizawa writes about me in his notes? Is there a point or two about being violent?"
Ragdoll remembered how right next to his photo, his personal profile said: {Cruel to the Villains, no remorse after permanently crippling several people.}
"Something like that."
---
The sun has just begun to rise over the horizon. But class 1-A students, still dazed and tired, walked out to the clearing in front of the main building. Everyone was wearing the summer version of their gym uniforms. Well, except for Harry. He still wore his winter uniform. The green-eyed teenager looked up at the cloudless sky and nodded.
'At least it's not gonna rain today.'
"Morning, kids." Aizawa was just as tired as his students, but hid it better, "Today, the real Training Camp begins. Ideally you will all emerge stronger. Strong enough to acquire your Provisional Licenses."
The Provisional Licenses made it possible to act as a Hero in emergency situations. Each student could try to take the exam for this license three times in high school, for each year of study.
Also, adults who did not study at the Heroes' school could pass the Provisional License exam, but there were very few such cases. Bang suggested to Harry to go this route, but the teenager decided that getting a license at fifteen would be more rational.
"More specifically, there's a growing hostile force out there. Through this, you'll be prepared to face it, so stay sharp and work hard. To start... Here, Bakugo." Their sensei took a baseball out of his pocket and tossed it to Bakugo, "Try throwing this."
Katsuki caught the ball and took a closer look.
"This is... From the strength trials..."
"Last time, right after school started, your record was 705.2 meters. How much have you grown since then?"
"Ohh! Testing to see if we've improved?" Ashido jumped on her spot excitedly, "We've been through a lot these past three months! I bet he can make it a whole kilometer!"
"Imma take you on that bet. How about... 500 yen?"
Harry said with a smile of a Cheshire cat. Mina, with a confident expression on her face, held out her hand and the two teenagers shook hands. But with their actions, they summoned the Vice President.
"Gambling on the result of your fellow students is unacceptable behavior for a Hero!"
Roared Ida, but he was ignored by everyone. The students had already joined the bet and as a result, only Shoto, Momo and Ida did not participate.
"Bastard, are you betting against me?! Just fucking watch!!"
Harry watched as Katsuki angrily prepared for the throw. He already knew that the final result would upset the blonde. The phrase that Quirks worked like muscles was quite true. So if Bakugo hasn't used his Quirk somewhere in a secret bunker for at least a few hours a day, this throw of his won't be much longer than the past.
"GO TO HELL!"
The familiar explosion sounded and the ball broke through the sound barrier. Aizawa glanced at the measuring device in his hands and turned it towards the students.
"712.9 meters."
"Huh...? Not much farther than before..."
Sero said with a confused look on his face. Harry just smiled even wider and an golden aura seemed to glow around him.
"I'll be waiting for my money in the evening~"
Once again ignoring the strange behavior the class, Aizawa continued to speak.
"Yes, you have been through a lot these past three months. Undoubtedly, you've all grown." He stood in front of Bakugo and looked around at his students, "But it's only your techniques and minds that have matured. Well, your bodies a bit. But as you've all just seen, your Quirks - exept for Potters - haven't kept up with the pace. Starting today, you'll improve on your Quirks. This will be even worse than Bang's training, so do your best and... Stay alive."
Aizawa smiled viciously and a chill went down everyone's spines, but that didn't stop them from looking at Harry with interest after the words about his Quirk.
"Now about Potter. In his case, his Quirk was not as limited as we originally thought. He was not able to break through while you were relaxing in your homes."
Their sensei nodded towards Harry, gesturing for him to continue. He just sighed heavily and turned to his classmates.
"As Aizawa Sensei said..." Potter glared at his teacher, but he ignored his gaze as usual, "...In these three months I've spent a lot of time improving my Quirk."
And he did. Training sessions with Bang, training in the woods, rare night raids on Villain's bases, all that served only to improve his Quirk and techniques.
"Why the hell didn't you tell us this, Eyeballs?!"
Bakugo was furious that such information was being withheld from him. If their teachers bring up future Heroes, then why did no one tell them about this earlier?!
"You didn't ask. Now shut. Quirks are getting a little stronger with every use, the changes are almost invisible, but they are still present. So every few days I used my Quirk until I passed out from the side effects."
It was difficult to explain to Azumi why he fell asleep on the floor again, but Harry coped with it. Worse was the time when Karin thought that he felt bad...
"Wait, so when Sensei talked about it being worse than Bang's training..."
Midoriya looked nervously at the still smiling Aizawa and shuddered.
"He wasn't fucking joking. You weren't with me when Bang was still licensed to train Heroes... He pushes your body to the limit, but makes sure you are ready for tomorrow's workout. But Higher Powers, the result is totally worth it." Harry clapped his hands together, "Now let's get down to training, otherwise I can already feel the Pixy Bob's gaze on my back, which is never good."