Morning hit the UA training facilities, which were already boiling with activity even before its warm touch.
Aizawa Shōta, for once, did not have to urge the brats he called students to get to work. When he entered the Class 1-A dorms, he didn't find a single soul in the complex.
Curious and slightly satisfied with himself, he headed to the facilities assigned for their practice, looking for the 17 of the 19 students he had left.
After an extremely prolonged period—too long for his liking—he had been able to bring them back to UA to continue their training. Almost all of them, for now.
During the entire time he remained busy gathering the lost sheep, he had formally delegated his duties to Midnight, who polished the Spartan physical conditioning regimen that the Terumi brat had subjected the others to.
She included measures to help them with their Quirks and gradually integrated each returning student so that no one was left behind. The opportunity to obtain their Licenses was just a step away, and Aizawa wanted to prepare them as well as possible.
He was confident. Among the many aspirants, only Class 1-B could come close to his 1-A kids in terms of... resolve.
His tired eyes moved in a particular direction, toward a course with hanging chains and cement pillars.
Midoriya Izuku was refining his new fighting style, carrying mannequins whose weight equaled that of unconscious people. At the same time, Mineta was pushing himself to the limit to keep up with his pace, weaving a disguised net with erratic throws and pushing his Pop Off to its breaking point.
Elsewhere in the facilities, Yaoyorozu was developing assault and aerial escape tactics, making use of innovative grappling hook guns that he had never seen her create before.
From Midnight's report, Aizawa learned that the girl had been convinced by some "unknown actor" to employ more forceful tools when it came to combat. He didn't need to think too hard to find the culprit.
However, the Hero agreed with the suggestion. Batons and shields wouldn't take her very far in a real confrontation.
Aizawa ignored the constant detonations raising dust clouds in the distance, preceded by defiant roars that likely came from a certain red-headed bonehead.
Instead, he focused his attention on a sight that was more than curious.
Frosty darts as thin as pencils, if not thinner, were being fired at Uraraka in rapid succession, forcing the young girl to evade desperately while trying to use her Quirk on the lethal weapons.
Todoroki stopped seeking more range and raw power, focusing instead on the malleability and practicality of his frozen and fiery constructs.
At the same time, Uraraka was trying to eliminate the threat of projectiles and weapons with just a fleeting contact. If she managed to reach such a level, fighting her in close and medium combat would be impossible.
Fists, batons, bats, staffs, debris, stones, nets, knives, and a variety of other tools would be useless.
In a corner, Aizawa saw Kaminari struggling to maintain electrical arcs around his limbs while striking targets wrapped in insulating material. He didn't know if the boy was looking to sustain his lightning for as long as possible or to cause more damage with every touch.
Jiro and Shōji were engaged in fierce combat against Mei, who forced them to stay close together or caused the boy to step into his teammate's line of attack. Jiro was forced to find the right moment to use her Quirk without hurting Shōji.
Aizawa searched for a while before heading to the observation platform where Midnight was fiddling with her phone.
—Where are the others?— he asked as he approached. She raised a hand in his direction, signaling for him to wait a second.
With a sigh, the woman adjusted her glasses and returned her full attention to Aizawa, looking at him with a flash of annoyance gleaming in her eyes.
—Busy, like all of us,— she said with a slight pout on her lips. —Tokoyami is meditating in a special chamber, and Tetsumaru took the rest to visit Class 1-B for some reason he didn't bother explaining to me.
Aizawa nodded slowly before taking his spot and letting Nemuri go attend to her own business. He had already taken up enough of her time and was truly grateful to the woman.
Later, he would find a way to pay her back properly. For now, he would dedicate all his time to preparing his students for the upcoming challenges in their training.
*************************************
The week passed in the blink of an eye, and now only hours remained until the exam.
The training day was neither more intense nor more relaxed than usual. Aizawa had asked almost everyone to avoid wasting their stamina on their Quirks, dedicating only a couple of hours to refining their movements and leaving the rest for physical conditioning.
Even Tetsumaru took a break from his Elemental practices, allowing himself a breather and spending the day teasing Aizawa and helping him with some observations here and there. Those two seemed to be getting along better now.
Mei felt happy for her other half. It was difficult to get along with their classmates for various reasons, and in terms of social relationships, neither had been very successful in this life.
Due to their own nature and the fact they lived in each other's heads, the pair never significantly integrated with Japan's Eastern culture or bothered to actively establish those elusive relationships. Their supposed mental age didn't help, either.
Neither Tetsumaru nor Mei would consider themselves full adults, as they lacked that experience. When they died as one, they hadn't even moved out of their parents' house; and in this world, existing as two, their adoptive parents gave them everything—and continued to do so.
Basically, they were losers in their 30s who still depended on Mom and Dad.
But the kunoichi's annoyance didn't stem from the fact that she had no close friends or that she failed as an adult in terms of mentality and maturity.
No, Mei was frustrated because she had tried to replicate the "enlightenment" Tetsumaru experienced when unlocking the Wind Element and the Shunshin no Jutsu. She had truly tried.
The only reason she could access certain fire techniques was due to her high affinity, a product of her Kekkei Genkai. The same didn't happen with the Earth Element, nor with any other damn non-elemental technique.
Her use of the Shunshin was clumsy at best, despite having practiced it throughout this period, knowing the necessary Tenketsu, and having a vague idea of the chakra intensity she needed to run through her body.
Nezu's machine had been incredibly useful, but it wouldn't give them all the answers.
There were things that they—through the stupid power of friendship or whatever other cheesy garbage that drives away readers hungry for Seinen—had to discover for themselves, just as the entity had told them at the start.
Tetsumaru seemed to be on the right track. Mei, not so much.
The girl took a deep breath, her posture firm and her balance perfect despite the night winds whipping against her figure.
The meta-commentary on the genre adds a sharp edge to the narrative. It seems Mei is about to attempt one last breakthrough before the big day.
She opened her eyes, watching the last lights of day vanish over the horizon as the cold began to dampen her feet.
The kunoichi stood atop a slender pillar of ice, a construction Todoroki had made as part of his training. It was polished, nearly flawless, and barely wide enough for a person to stand on the tip.
Elevated over forty meters high, Mei's heart remained unperturbed. There was an element often overlooked among the skills of the shinobi, one that she and Tetsumaru had tried to apply to other situations: The dissipation of mechanical energy.
With the help of a calculated expulsion of chakra, shinobi could land softly from great heights without breaking their legs. This was the method Tetsumaru had used at the camp, straining the Tenketsu in his forearms to avoid being overwhelmed by the green, ugly Nomu.
It was, likely, the same principle through which the Hyūga developed that rotation technique. Such a skill was something Mei hadn't mastered much either.
She was stuck; she was falling behind Tetsumaru in many ways. And aside from Suiton and Taijutsu, it was very difficult to use her abilities without seriously injuring others.
It was then that an idea had been circling her mind these past few days, while she played the role of the cruel, bastard military instructor with her classmates. An idea that Tetsumaru might not like, but one that would give her some breathing room.
Why should she have to hold back like him? Why not leverage her skills to finish off the bad guys more efficiently?
Tetsumaru had been warned never to use his poison on targets that weren't Nomu, not to suffocate villains like he did with Muscular, and not to break limbs like he did to the NPCs during the USJ attack.
Wasn't that just plain stupid? Break a thief's hands and he won't be able to steal; break a criminal's legs and he'll never run away.
Mei seriously considered the path she wanted to follow, regardless of what Tetsumaru thought. She felt that the divine entity wasn't the Christian God she knew from her world. Neither of them thought of it that way.
Therefore... who's to say that what that being considers a "good person" is the same as what's established in that sanctified book?
Mei wasn't an evil person by any means. She was sure of that. So, maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a look at what the HPSC had to offer.
As far as she was concerned, she would find comfort in working without so much restraint, finally reaching that elusive enlightenment just as Tetsumaru had.
Mei would let her other half be the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It suited him, and it filled her heart with warmth to know that he had found satisfaction in this whole ordeal.
But she wouldn't do it. Not like that, not in this way.
—Being a Punisher isn't so bad either— she thought with a contemplative gaze.