Bakugo took his seat again with all the annoyance and angst that he carried with him. "Watch it Raccoon Eyes." He warned her. He wasn't in the mood for her peppy nonsense.
"Sorry for the interruption." Sato muttered as he edged into his seat. "Just wanted to chat with Bakugo about hero training."
"On the note of hero training," Tanya folded her hands and leaned onto them, her devil aura flared up. Fueled by her situation over everyone at the table, she began her sales pitch.
'Another deal.' Sato smiled a little. 'Let's do this.'
'Was this girl raised by villains?' Mina laughed at the thought. Outwardly she examined Tanya and waited for her to continue.
"I was wondering if you'd like to train together? To round out our abilities, or even to specialize more comfortably as a group. Everyone here wants to win and we all have good skills. A well rounded company." Tanya looked around the table at all of her new recruits.
"You really do have a flair for the dramatic." Mina laughed as she placed her hands atop her head behind her horns. She had already planned on joining in on this, so it couldn't hurt to have more friends. "I'm in!"
Sato hummed in agreement. He had already made a deal with Tanya, and was along for the ride from the start. His heart was in it with this group. 'My strength cannot be wasted. I need to put my gifts to good use. I want others to rely on me.'
"You all are a bunch of fucking extras you know that!" Bakugo barked, his tone more light hearted than a minute ago. He jabbed a finger at the group as he continued, "I want to win, indisputably, at everything."
Mina chuckled, "I'm pretty sure we all knew that already, Pomeranian." She stuck her tongue out.
"Fuck you." He barked, "This is the best way for me to stay on top till I outgrow you all!" He began to stare down everyone at the table, as if daring them to challenge him. He wanted to make it painfully clear that he wasn't joining because of any friendship bullshit, but because at the moment he didn't have a fully rounded skill set.
"Till then, you can cover for the shit I don't want to do and I'll cover for the shit you can't!" He flipped up his menu and fumed in silence.
"Division of labor and specialization." Tanya sighed in satisfaction. "Truly a wonderful thing."
"No nerd talk!" Bakugo barked. "I thought you needed to study!"
Mina flopped her arms onto the table, "NOoooo! We were so close!"
"This is what we agreed to." Sato sadly gave in as he opened up one of their textbooks.
Tanya opened a copy of the textbook. "We'll begin with mathematics." She instructed.
Through hard work, and Mina's suffering, the group made good progress. The learning students learned a little of their class material, more than they would have on their own. They had also learned that Tanya was an interesting teacher. She was cold, straight forward, and effective at getting results yet her temperament was forceful and impatient, a train with an unyielding schedule.
During the study session, Bakugo would bark out instructions when someone was too stuck for Tanya's tutoring. When he wasn't snapping at someone, he was idly brooding over his food.
'He actually seems to enjoy our company in his own weird way.' Mina grinned to herself after Bakugo had loudly and aggressively instructed Sato. 'His very weird way…'
By the end of it, Mina had a headache but felt she could pass and Sato felt like he had used his Quirk with how much his head spun.
"Same time Tuesday?" Tanya stated while she stood up to leave. She was satisfied with their progress that day. "Don't worry, we won't be studying. We'll be training on the testing fields."
Bakugo grinned. "Combat?"
"Combat." Tanya nodded. She stretched her wings out, cramped from the long time spent sitting.
"Finally." Bakugo huffed. His posture fixed itself as pride swelled forth. His neck rolled and cracked.
Mina popped out of her chair and fist bumped the sky with a big, open smile. "Let's go!"
Sato laughed quietly as his friends got all hyped up for something that was a few days away.
The spirit of ambition and growth hung over the friends as they split up until the training day restarted. Everyone knew the sports festival was coming up, and there was work to do if they wanted to stay ahead of the competition.
The Tuesday training with Tanya was brutal and exhausting, but felt so very rewarding.
Tanya worked on her air blasts. She practiced bouncing around in the air by diving into her own gusts. This resulted in her being able to dash around at jagged angles through the air, just like in her old life as Degurechaff.
She laughed aloud while dashing about like a rubber ball bouncing off invisible walls. It rang out with a regained joy, like meeting an old friend once thought dead. Her wings and shoulders hurt from the exhaustion, but it didn't stop her from having the time of her life.
'It's magic flight!' She cheered to herself. 'No mathematical formulas or complex mental structures, it's all built in! Like how a frog jumping doesn't need to calculate for gravity, it just does!' Her mind ran with her newfound freedom. 'All the freedom of aerial superiority with none of the mental taxing!'
She came to a sudden stop then dashed upwards, then sideways, then dived and hit the breaks. Over and over, she practiced dashing around without needing to beat her wings the whole time. To move more like Hawks or the aerial mages.
Back on the ground, Sato felt like hurling up his guts.
"Augh! ACk!" He gagged and gasped for breath. His arms and legs shook, his vision swam around him despite his efforts to focus on a single point.
'OK! Lesson learned!' He chastised himself. 'Coming down from times twenty five sucks! I-' His consciousness swam like a fish in a shaken jar. 'Everything comes crashing down!'
He had begun to explore the new limits presented by his Quirk's awakening. Every ten grams of sugar resulted in three minutes of times five strength and minor muscle expansion. When he went into times twenty five mode, it was like a layer of icing. Another ten grams of sugar for another three minutes, but it had to be contained within the original timeframe and all layers collapsed at the same time.
If he set his first layer, times five, for six minutes then activated times twenty five for three, once three minutes was up he'd collapse. Three minutes of times five would be canceled and lost in the process.
He held his breath as he steadied himself. 'Don't hurl, don't hurl, don't hurl!'
Mina stood in the middle of a road full of potholes, each one hissed softly with a puddle of acid. She rubbed her sore skin and groaned. "Uuuugh."
Her bubblegum pink skin had darkened and her pores felt stretched and dry.
She took a deep breath as she summoned up her determination. 'Control my acid. Move with me!'
Her skin ached as she produced more high quality acid. Purples and blues pushed out of her skin and slithered around her wrists. She relaxed the tendrils and let them droop limply but didn't let them fall apart. Long whips of acid hissed at the ready as they laid on the asphalt.
"Let's go!" She shouted as she brought her tendrils to life. They writhed and swung through the air like tentacles with long curls of movement.
Gray acid surged from her boots. She laughed as she skated around and swept the area with her tendrils.
'Use gray for skating and spraying!' She already began to dream up methods to use her newfound knowledge. 'And use purple and blue for fine control!'
Bakugo growled as he watched his team improve around him. He was annoyed at Sato's optimization of timing and strength boosting. He was angered by Mina's area of denial and light mobility. But most of all, he was furious at Tanya's hyperactive movements.
Watching her dash around the sky was like tracking a laser pointer wielded by a giddy child. His head began to hurt as Tanya banked on a dime yet again.
'She'll be my competition in the sports festival.' He growled to himself. 'Deku won't be a threat. His shitty excuse for a Quirk will take himself out long before he threatens first place. Smash all he wants, he doesn't have enough to take him all the way to the top. No, Chicken Wings here, she's competent, efficient, and lethal.' Something inside him fumed at the idea of anyone posing a threat to his title. 'She and that Half and Half bastard will be the real competition and I will win.' His fighting spirit roared to life.
He started training a moveset just for her. His firepower and mobility was already enough to wipe Half and Half off the roster, it'd just be a bit of effort. An attack that can work at range while also having area affect. Like the flak cannons from the before times. A canon was just a barrel
He aimed his palm to the sky, put the other hand over it in a cupped circle. and fired!
A jet of explosive flame shot from his hands into the air like a massive blowtorch.
He grinned. 'Better, but not good enough! More range!'
He prepped a glob of his sweat into his outer hand, then fired the inner one.
The glob heated up and was shot out of his palm before exploding in the air.
'That's it!' He grinned at the firework of smoke and soot.
He began firing over and over again, faster and faster, bigger and louder, till his arms felt like falling out of their sockets. Sweat ran down his face as he continued detonating the sky. The globs would explode further away, or closer to him depending on what he wanted but he had to decide when he fired.
Everyone trained themselves down to the bone. Till wings hurt, stomachs curled, skin stung, and arms felt full of nails.
An; Sorry this chapter seems empty. It's fairly long and covers some important moments for the characters; Deku's accelerated growth and the formation of team Tanya.
Tanya wants a group to work with, so she builds one. She wants meat shields and troops.
Mina likes having friends and wants to get more powerful so she can use her acid without hurting others.
Sato wants others to validate his strength so he can feel useful. He also likes having friends. Plays a unique role in the group as a coolant for Bakugo to let off steam.
And Bakugo. He's confident in his combat skills. He thinks he's the best, and for the most part he's right. But being a hero is more than just blowing up the bad guy and I feel he's smart enough to acknowledge this but too stubborn to admit to flaws so he accepts delegating that away to his team.
Next chapter will cover the dorms and the start of the sports festival.