Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
August 7, 2xxx - Izumi Pov .
"All right, time for some new training," Aizawa said, beginning his speech as he looked at all of us. "Using your quirks over and over again under constant abuse to push and forcing them beyond their limits so they become stronger is useful, but it's useless if you can't control it. That means using it in a fight."
"And in combat, brute force doesn't always matter. No matter how hard you hit, if your attacks don't hit, they'll be completely useless. So we'll also focus on refining your technique under extreme conditions." Aizawa said seriously.
"Does that… have something to do with us being tied up, sensei?" Itsuka Kendo asked awkwardly. I laughed lightly as I watched the scene before us.
Thanks to Pixie-Bob and her quirk, the terrain had changed once again. This time, earth pillars appeared, each with several thick, sturdy earth crossbars. Enough for a person to be tied to.
Which was happening. Most of the students were tied vertically or horizontally, suspended in the air, unable to move in any way. They were all tied close enough to each other so that there were only slight gaps between each person.
The training area was divided into two parts, one for each class. In one, 17 people were tied up in the sand for Class 1-A, while in the other, 18 were tied up. The only ones not tied up were I and four other students.
"Yes. It has a lot to do with it," Aizawa said without looking at her. "It's going to be normal, and you may have to fight or use your quirks around civilians or your own comrades. Villains don't care who gets in their way. Your job is to stop the villains, not make the situation worse."
"This exercise requires precision. Your job is to fight your opponent at full power without hitting your classmates. Every percentage of aura your classmates lose due to your attacks will be deducted from your grade and performance in this exercise."
"You'll go two by two, each match will last 20 minutes, Class 1-A will face Miyamura, and Class 1-B will face Tiger. Miyamura and Tiger won't hold back much, so do a good job if you don't want to get beaten up." Aizawa explained easily.
I laughed lightly as my eyes sparkled, Hashira training, Obanai Iguro 's version of training. It was an idea I told Aizawa, and he was more than happy to do it.
Look to the side to see Tiger, Yawara Chatora, a member of the Wild Wild Pussycats, and he is the only male member. He had the same appearance as in canon, just like the other Pussycats. Now, I really had some doubts about whether Tiger was in some kind of relationship with the other Pussycats, or if they were just good friends.
Tiger should have some children, if I remember correctly. Their ages should be above thirty, so if he followed the laws, he should have at least a 10-year-old child hanging around, and others younger.
But only Kota was here at camp, and he must have been 6 years old. I was really curious, but not enough to ask about the private lives of the professional heroes who were training us.
If the topic ever comes up, I'd be more than willing to listen, but for now, I'll let it be.
"Wait! Why doesn't Izumi have to be tied up? " Jinx asked, complaining from her pillar. Aizawa nodded.
"First, his swordsmanship is more precise than any combat style, even among the UA professors, and by extension, yours. So this exercise is pointless for him. Second, now that he's unlocked his other summons, he has a skill to get used to, and for that, he needs longer fights."
"And third, he was the one who proposed this exercise," Aizawa said simply. Everyone froze as I began to smirk at them. I could hear the insults coming thick and fast.
Even Class B seemed to join in. I just laughed in amusement.
"Enough." Aizawa interrupted, glaring at them, both classes wisely remaining silent. "Miyamura, use your Totality." Aizawa said directly. I nodded. From my shadow came Orochi, but as soon as its head emerged, I moved the sword in my hand, and the snake was decapitated.
I could feel Orochi's power returning within my quirk. I immediately grabbed it and placed it in my body. I could feel the change immediately. And I-
I don't have legs…
My legs, in fact, everything below my waist, was replaced by the lower body of a snake. Am I a freaking snake boy?! I stared in disbelief at my bottom.
"Oh no, he's sexy as a snake too!" I heard Ruby exclaim in surprise, and I glared at her.
"Wow, wow, wow! Can you turn into a snake boy?! " Ashido squealed in surprise.
"Really, you have to tell us what your quirk does right now, Kero." Tsuyu said as she looked at me curiously. I sighed before ignoring the other girls' murmurs.
"Interesting." Aizawa said as he looked at me. "Do you still want to do the training?" Aizawa asked. I sighed and began walking, no, sliding across the terrain. To my surprise, it was stupidly easy, almost natural to move around.
"Yeah, no problem, like you said, I need to get used to this quickly." I said immediately. Aizawa nodded. I didn't know what I was hoping to achieve by performing a Totality by sacrificing Orochi, but getting the lower half of a snake wasn't even close to what I thought.
The bunny ears I got from Rabbit Escape didn't even compare to them. I was expecting snake eyes or a tongue, maybe a wider mouth, or even a tail, but not my entire lower body. I even had scales on the rest of my upper body, or at least on my arms; I could see scales here and there.
It was disconcerting, but still good to know at this point.
Now… the question was, what kind of quirk had I acquired from Orochi? I gripped my sword, twisting in waves resembling a snaking snake. Yes, since I was planning to utilize Obanai's training, there was nothing wrong with using Serpent Breathing as well.
"All right! Begin! " Aizawa said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked at my opponents, Tsuyu and Sona. They both moved instantly. Asui's tongue shot out, but it crashed into Ashido. Sona also used her water quirk. I wasn't sure if she was mocking me, but she created a water snake and began moving around obstacles.
I began to move. My arm blurred as my sword intercepted Sona's snake and destroyed it. I blinked and looked at my arm. It was more elastic, more flexible, almost as if it had no bones.
I quickly looked inside my arm with the transparent world and noticed that the bones in my arm seemed to be divided into vertebrae, or small bones connected together that gave me greater flexibility. It was so strange. But I still smiled slightly.
I started fighting, there was a learning curve that I quickly overcame, it was easy to adjust everything to my new form, moving around obstacles was no problem, or well, I only had to adapt my lower body, my arms snaked and attacked with the same ease through all the obstacles that were my classmates.
My blows rained down on Sona and Tsuyu mercilessly as I rapidly depleted their aura. They slowly grew accustomed to trying to punch through obstacles. It wasn't that they didn't try, but it was difficult to strike accurately while having to defend and attack with the speed that pressured them.
Once the first 20 minutes were up, two more people were released from their confinement before Sona and Tsuyu were placed back where they were. Aizawa gave the signal once more, and I began to fight them.
In fact, the attack power of my Serpent Breathing increased several levels the more I adjusted it, which should be the other way around. Having small bones and joints made it less structurally stable, making it incompatible with the large amounts of stress that a structure with normal, solid bones would have.
I was noticing I was having difficulty lifting weights with my arms, and even exerting the same amount of force, much of the strength was lost in previous movements. I could fix everything by using Haki and strengthening my arms, but that wasn't fun.
I started modifying Serpent Breathing to support my new joint, and everything flowed much more easily than before.Being able to mimic the movements of a snake in a much deeper way increased the power of each attack.
The way the snakes coiled, snaking, changing trajectory mid-attack, moving at impossible angles, and each time at faster speeds, was simply incredible.
Even once I get used to my new snake-like lower body, I'll be able to move and generate the necessary kinetic force with it, such as twisting or even propelling myself like a spring at high speed.
I also started using my tail to attack unexpectedly. To my surprise, I was sure my snake-like lower body was about 4 meters long. But I had discovered the ability I had inherited from Orochi, in addition to a snake-like body.
My lower body could extend without limit; it could measure 4 meters in an instant before doubling that length to attack or surround my opponents.
Unfortunately, the entire exercise was designed to last around 3 hours, so my Totality ended halfway through and I went back to being a sad, normal human. So I sacrificed Nue for another Totality.
If before I was a Lamia or a Naga, or whatever her male version is called, now I was a damn tengu. And it was awesome.
I had grown a pair of reddish wings on my back that I could use to fly almost instinctively. The power of the lightning also arrived just as quickly, so I changed my fighting style to Thunder Breathing.
I started using all the forms except the first one as I tried to get used to using lightning in my movements. It wasn't easy, and I hit more than a few with an unpredictable lightning bolt that shot out of my sword, but it didn't even bother me.
It was a shame I couldn't use my wings to fly since the obstacles were below, although I was able to figure out how to push off and gain momentum with them, or move quickly from one side to the other.
I was really starting to see the upside to this whole animal thing, though I was pretty sure I didn't want to see some of them, like Max Elephant. I hoped I wouldn't grow taller than a building, or even sprout a trunk on my face.
There was also the question of what would happen if I used a Totality by sacrificing several of my shikigami. Would I get some dominant trait, or would it be an ungodly combination of everything so far? Snake-like bottom, bird wings, and bunny ears seem like a random and pointless combination.
When the last exercise match ended, which was against Midoriya alone, since I wasn't involved in the fight, there were odd numbers to fight, so I finally stopped.
When the exercise was over, everyone's aura was terribly low or even broken; they had bruises and scratches all over them, much of it due to me during the fights, but some of it was also due to the friendly fire blows from their classmates.
Quirks like Azula's, Bakugou's, Ravel's, Todoroki's, and Ashido's were the ones that did the most damage to their teammates. They all had an incredible output range, even when holding back, so there were several hits.
Taylor, Asuna, and Asada were the best performers. Taylor cheated by using her bugs to create a mental map of obstacles, allowing her to easily attack through them.
Asuna's swordsmanship was skillful enough that she didn't miss by mistake and hit others in most cases. And Sinon's aim was simply incredible.
I looked over at the other arena, where Tiger was standing, slightly sweaty, but almost unharmed, while Class B was the same as Class A.
Both classes, that is, almost 40 people, were glaring at me, and I just smirked once more.
Yes, it was a good training.
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August 8, 2xxx - Izumi Pov .
"Hi, I'm Maria Campbell from Class 1-B! Nice to meet you! " Maria said with a huge smile as she introduced herself, and I nodded in her direction.
"Izumi Miyamura, Class 1-A, it's nice to meet you, too." I greeted her with a slight smile. I looked at Maria closely and quickly looked at her again. Average height, with blue eyes and blonde hair, quite cute and sporting a relatively innocent smile.
Both were sitting in a makeshift classroom where Aizawa was teaching students who needed extra classes. We were the only ones inside at the moment. It was early in the morning, so the others were training outside.
On the other hand, our companions were outside doing another combat exercise; this time, Taylor's insect monsters and Pixe-Bob's earth creatures were included in the combat.
They were on one team, and everyone else was on another. Our classmates had to switch up the power of their attacks to destroy Pixie-Bob's creatures and, on the other hand, incapacitate Taylor's team.
"Alright, you two are the only ones with a healing quirk. Campbell, you've been in charge of most of the heavy healing for the past few days. We also tested Miyamura's deer. I want you to help each other out." Aizawa began as he walked in with a firm stride.
"May I know how we'll 'help' each other without having to mutilate each other?" I asked curiously, Aizawa hummed.
"Healing quirks are… rare, I won't even say I'm an expert or know the nuances and details of those types of quirks, but they can be divided into two types," Aizawa said as he held up two fingers. "First, the quirk does most of the work when it comes to healing. It's as simple as having a target and using the quirk, and they're already completely healed."
"Usually, that type is only for really strong healing quirks that are so general that they can skip the whole technical part of healing. And that brings us to the second type: quirks that are very specific, or weak, or so manual that a deep knowledge of medicine is needed to be able to squeeze out the full potential of the healing quirk."
"You fall into the first type of quirk, especially you, Campbell; your aura makes you register as an S-Rank hunter even though your quirk is simply healing. You are able to heal someone on the verge of death in a few moments and even heal in an area and from a distance."
"On the other hand, you, Miyamura, your healing is specifically focused on your deer and is only on contact; even so, it is not weaker in power than Campbell's quirk. Knowledge is power, and for a healing quirk, technique matters, even if your quirk is really strong."
"Campbell has been attending Recovery Girl's classes since entering UA. Let's see if all those classes were of any use. You'll personally tutor Miyamura in everything Recovery Girl has taught you, and he'll be joining Recovery Girl's classes once we return to UA."
"I've already spoken with Recovery Girl; she'll arrange for you to have a test prepared, Miyamura, to see how much you learned from Campbell. Both of you will be graded on the results of that test."
"I don't have time to supervise you, so you'll be alone. I hope you study properly. Don't let me down." Aizawa said, and just as quickly as he arrived, he left, leaving Maria and me completely alone. I smiled at her.
"Sorry about that, he can be intense," I said apologetically, Maria's eyes widening slightly.
"Don't worry!" Maria said quickly, nodding firmly. "We'd better get started," Maria said determinedly. I laughed lightly.
"I'm in your care," I said with a smile. Maria blushed slightly and immediately grabbed one of the books on her desk, stood up, and stood in front of the blackboard.
"Good! Please pay attention! " Maria chirped, and I laughed lightly while mentally sighing. I wasn't sure if unlocking Round Deer was worth it, considering it would require booster classes and additional classes.
I put those thoughts aside and focused on Maria. I really didn't feel like failing whatever exam Recovery Girl had prepared for me. That old woman could be fierce when she wanted to be.