The third day of training was much like the second, built on extending Quirks as much as physically possible, and going beyond that. It was far more exhausting than the previous day, since they were building up from the previous day, and muscles just hadn't fully recovered yet. Of course, that was the point. Once broken, muscles would grow back stronger than previously, and repeating that process would increase the strength of said muscles over and over again. The same was true with Quirks. It had been said before, but it bore repeating. Again and again.
Somehow, they still ached the next day, and getting back to using them was still straining and painful. Many would argue that the internships had been far easier than this – And some of them had actually done serious Hero work during those! The path to Heroism, it turned out, was filled with pain, hardship, and a lot of blood and torn muscles and Quirks. Then again, they already knew this perfectly well, and it wasn't like it was going to stop anyone now. This was a necessary evil when it came to training up their powers, and in the long run, it was going to be of massive benefit to them.
Didn't mean it didn't hurt like holy hell though.
Mina in particular was suffering from this exercise, her absolute fatigue still lingering in her eyes, mixed in with her pains from overuse of her Quirk. The scars on her hands and forearm were still tender, and made actually using her powers in any capacity a bit like washing paper cuts with lemon juice. The combination of the two made her feel like she was just a few seconds away from passing out entirely. She made mental notes to herself, over and over, that if she was going to avoid this horrible situation in the future, she was going to have to really buckle down and study.
She needed no more motivation than this utter torture.
While exhausted as she was, she was still putting in absolutely everything that she could into every move that she made. She had spent a lot of the day practicing on her special move, piling layers and layers of acid onto one another, until she had made a sphere within her palms. For the purposes of training, it was actually a very handy trick to have. It aided in the rapid generation of the corrosive liquid, and it helped to train her skin to build up even more immunity to it. Still, the sheer intensity of it caused her a huge deal of pain, rendering her unable to keep it up for more than about twenty seconds at a time.
It was after the third attempt at this, while her hands felt like bleeding, yet no red liquid came out, that she just took a moment to step back, and allow herself to recover. Just for a few seconds. Maybe a minute.
Or two.
"Ashido!"
Aizawa-sensei's voice alone was now enough to make the pink skinned girl shudder. She practically associated it with nothing but pain and educational torture and torment. Half terrified, she reflexively stood to attention, awaiting whatever her homeroom tutor had to say to her.
"You're slowing down." The Erasure Hero bluntly observed. "You were maintaining a consistent level of improvement yesterday. You're letting yourself down now."
"Sorry, sensei..." Mina apologised, though she felt that her lower performance was very easily his fault, after all the crap he'd put her through the previous night. She felt like a corpse on legs, barely any feeling left in her arms. Heavy eyelids meant that focus was a near impossibility, and physical pain just left her feeling like her whole body was made of cinderblocks. "Just... Sleepy is all."
"You were warned that things were going to be tough."
"Doesn't make things any easier though." She muttered, before attempting to secrete some more of her Acid from her palms, to begin doing what she could in terms of training again. Only she was well beyond her limit now. Whereas she could normally generate as much as she desired, now she was left with just a few drops of corrosive liquid, that pathetically dripped off her hands and onto the ground by her feet. Straining herself, she pushed, harder and harder, to generate more from her Quirk, but to no avail. A huge gasp for air escaped her as she gave in. "I-I... I'm... I'm at my limits... I... I can't..."
Truth be told, it was horrifying for Mina, leaving her with shaking hands, but not from numbness or pain. She'd never reached a point in her life when she'd pushed her Quirk to the breaking point. Previously, she'd always suspected that she could generate as much as she absolutely desired, without restriction or hindrance. Sure, when she pushed herself, she began to lose her immunity to it and it began to hurt, but she was still free to make as much as she wanted. Never had she reached a point where she just couldn't make any more.
Did her body have a limit as to how much she could generate, full stop? Or was she just exhausted beyond all measure? Or even, was it something her body did when she was simply going to do nothing but cause serious, permanent damage, as a defence mechanism?
She looked behind her, to see that Aizawa-sensei's Quirk was not actually in play here. Part of her had hoped that he was erasing her Quirk to try and make some kind of point, but instead, found that he was just observing her, waiting to see if she was going to say anything about her limit, or if she was just going to keep going.
Violent throbbing in her hands turned her attention back to herself. She kept trying of course, to generate acid from her hands, but there was no avail. Well and truly, she'd pushed herself to the absolute edge of what she was capable of. Pushing herself so far had not only left her skin no longer resistant to her Acid, she now just couldn't generate it from her palms or arms, at least not until she'd had a break from using them.
In terms of what she was good at, Mina specialised in combat. She wasn't necessarily a strategist or someone who knew how to play someone into doing the things that she wanted them to do. With her mind, and her Quirk, she tended to just focus on taking down what was in front of her, and getting stronger and stronger from it. And to no end she'd pushed herself to close the gap between her and Izuku.
Subconsciously, she looked over towards him.
Along with the other Strength enhancement types, he was still taking on Tiger, trying to match him punch for punch, or at the very least, keep up with him to avoid getting hit in the face three hundred times today. He was wrapped up in the electricity that the sheer power of One For All gave him, trailing behind him as he attacked, again and again. If there was one thing – And only one thing – That she had to compliment him on, it was the fact that every time he got knocked down, he got back up, and launched himself right back into the fray without hesitation. Even among the Pros, it was a trait that Izuku seemed to embody to absolute perfection. He just didn't back down when it came to improving himself.
It was something that, without even thinking about it, had begun to make its way into Mina.
There wasn't any doubt, in Aizawa-sensei's eyes, or the eyes of anyone that knew her, that her relationship with Izuku was what had brought this about. He was a very positive influence on her, pushing her to keep going on to do more and more, without even having to tell her to, or even encourage her to. All he did was provide an example that anyone who wanted to become a Hero should follow, and she followed him, without even thinking about it. Of course, sometimes, it was hard to feel like most of the class wasn't going by that same example.
For someone like Mina though, who struggled academically, and who lagged behind the rest of the class, having that push, that bit of motivation more that would keep her going, was the difference between falling behind beyond rescue, and forcing herself to aim for the top. Closing the imaginary gap between her and Izuku, and to protect him from the wrath of Bakugou, everything added up to made her want to be stronger. To drive her to become stronger.
As another throb shot throughout her forearms, she considered for a moment, before wincing in pain. Placing the heel of her boot against the opposing shoe, she tugged her foot out of the latter shoe, before performing the same for her other foot, so she was barefoot on the ground.
If her arms and hands weren't going to work anymore, then she'd work on her lower body's ability to secrete Acid. She could have done it with her specially designed boots, but instead, she thought that it would help to increase her ability if she had as little foot protection as possible.
"A rational choice." Complimented Aizawa, nodding in his approval of the horned girls intentions, before wandering off to inspect the other students and their progress. He had confidence in Mina's abilities, and was convinced now beyond any reasonable doubt that, left to her own devices, she would still produce great results.
Still, extra motivation wouldn't hurt her, he thought to himself.
"When it comes to the remedial students, you've probably grown the most." He stated, without turning back around to face her, though she stopped to watch him, to see where he was going with this. "I'd rather focus on training people who obviously need it. So, if you and the rest keep this rate of improvement up, I'll exempt you all from the extra sessions this evening."
"Are you serious?!" Mina practically jumped high in the air at the mere suggestion, her blackened eyes sparkling in excitement at getting out of the dreaded revision sessions. Not to mention, Pixie-Bob had reminded everyone of the prize at the end of this particular tunnel – The Test of Courage that was happening tonight, in a class against class special event A Fist threw itself high into the air, followed by her declaration. "I'll go well beyond Plus Ultra, sensei!"
"Get to it then." Aizawa instructed, making his way over towards Kirishima and Ojiro's training area, watching the Hardening Quirk user go down after a particularly solid strike from the latter's Tail Quirk that had caught him off guard. "You're already wasting time."
"Yes sir!" Acid already secreting from her feet, Mina nodded vigorously, before she began to plan out a route around her that she could use her Quirk to slide around. She'd been able to use this technique since she was a kid, just learning how her Quirk worked, and what she could do with it.
Now, she was going to push it to the limit, to see if she could increase the amount of deadly liquids her feet and legs could produce. With a spring in her movement, she began to do what she called 'Skating' with her Quirk, darting around the rocks in her own training area. Since her Quirk and training was inherently dangerous, and because she didn't want to end up hurting anyone, or lashing out towards Bakugou if he was stupid enough to carry on fighting with her, she was somewhat isolated from the others, still within viewing and walking distance, but far enough away that there wasn't any risk of her accidentally burning someone with her powers.
That meant that she was free to slide and glide along the ground and the area around her as much as she desired. And she did just that, increasing the amount of acid that she made, and the levels of corrosiveness that said acid was, all to make sure that her Quirk was becoming as strong as possible. To extend her Quirk in more ways than she had thought possible.
After all, she had plenty of motivation to push herself to the absolute maximum now.
"Oww…."
Not only did it now hurt to do anything with her hands for the time being, it also now hurt to even just stand up for the overzealous Acid Quirk user. She had put in everything that she had, far more than she had ever done before, straining herself to defeat all of her previous limitations. To be fair to her, she had succeeded. The training, technically, was a success in that regard, since she had stretched her Quirk as far as it was going to go today.
The only downside was that it had just left her totally wiped out, beyond the point of even being able to stand on her own two feet. Instead, she just was slouched down, with her back against the side of the stone wall that surrounded the fireplace that Izuku was using to cook the stew that they had been left to their own devices to make. He had offered to try and make the food for the both of them this time, knowing how to make a stew far better than he knew how to make a curry. While there was a part of him that was proud of her for going to the lengths that she had gone to in order to improve herself, he did have to say…
"You really shouldn't push yourself to the point that it becomes that self-destructive, you know. It's really reckless."
"Hah! You're one to talk!" The shattered girl laughed at the irony of her boyfriend, specifically him, being the one to lecture her about going overboard to the point of self-destructive tendencies. She shot him a big Ashido grin and spoke again. "For the first few months I knew you, literally all you did was break your bones to even use your Quirk!"
"I-I couldn't even use mine without breaking my bones! I've been training to help avoid that!"
"Seriously, you can't talk about someone else being reckless, Mr. I – took – on – the – Hero – Killer – and – League – Of – Villains – and – literally – broke – myself – helping – Todoroki – while – I – was – supposed – to – be - fighting - him." She had to chuckle again when she thought about the irony that was on display. "Mr. Reckless Hero."
Izuku himself managed to smile at Mina's jovial nature, in spite of her utter exhaustion, though it was laced with a lot of serious, genuine worry about her. Yes, it was true that he had used One For All recklessly when he first received the power, his overall inexperience with powers driving that particular attitude, so perhaps his lecturing of her was a bit hypocritical, but he felt like that made him uniquely positioned to talk about how dangerous that sort of Quirk usage really was. All that had happened to him from being so guns-blazing with his power was his now slightly deformed right hand, and the many scars that covered both his palms and forearms. Scars disturbingly similar to the ones Mina now sported. There were many things that Izuku wished for his girlfriend. Following him down the path of self-destructivity when she could avoid it was not one of those things.
There were ways to train without literally breaking oneself. His training with Gran Torino had taught him that. In fact, he'd go as far as to say not only was it possible, it was absolutely fundamental if someone wanted to gain perfect control over their powers. People who trained their muscles for combat knew when to take a break, to let themselves recover, before getting right back into it. If they didn't, then they would tear their muscles beyond all repair. Of course, in terms of Quirks, Mina and Izuku couldn't be more different at the most fundamental level of just having one naturally, but that didn't prevent him from worrying about her well-being.
He loaded some more wood onto the fireplace, stacking it so that while it burnt, it would at least remain somewhat stable, and would reduce the risk of there being some sort of accident that resulted in the entire forest getting burned down. He kept an eye on Mina though, with worries that she was going to take following his example to its conclusion of self-harm in order to progress. He didn't doubt that Mina was smart enough to know that just going out and training to the same ludicrous degrees that he did wasn't going to help her much. She wasn't an idiot. When it came to using her own powers though, he did have to allow himself to worry about her. She could be unpredictable sometimes.
It was an odd feeling, being in the position that he felt that he could both trust her, but had to still look out for her. He didn't have any doubt that this was a feeling that uniquely existed to people who were in love though. This was something that he felt specifically because it was Mina that he was thinking about. One of the less fun things of being in a relationship was the worries and anxieties that were directly because of her. Because he wanted her to live as painless a life as possible, even where it wasn't avoidable, but didn't want to restrict her, but also didn't want her to screw up on things he knew she would do if she went down the same route he did to gain strength.
Relationships were complicated, and he didn't even have the first clue on how to articulate it.
Poking his head around the corner of the fireplace, he looked at his girlfriend, whom had her eyes closed while gently massaging the fleshy area of her palm, where her thumb met with the rest of her hand. While the girl certainly knew how to push herself when she wanted to, Izuku was starting to worry that she was forgetting how to hold back. She had mentioned how she had reached the point of inability to activate her Quirk in her arms to him, but he knew it wasn't anything to worry about. He had met people who had Quirks that, if they used them to an excessive degree, would stop working, in order to protect the body. It was rare that some0one ever reached that point, but it did happen. The long and short of it was that it wasn't anything to worry about. In fact, after a few moments of just letting her arms recover, Mina had discovered that she was able to secrete Acid from her hands again, although it still stung like crazy.
There wasn't much doubt that Mina had hit that particular point when it came to her 'Special Move'. It was something that her body just couldn't withstand right now, and jumping straight into it was equivalent to someone who had just started at the gym going straight for a 200lb bench-press. In order to do something like that, she would have to develop her skins resistance much, much higher than what it currently was.
If she really worked hard at it, perhaps she could manage to surpass her own limits, and become one of the class's most powerful students. She certainly had the Quirk for it. Now she just needed the training – The correct, well planned out, and developed training.
"Are…. You okay, Mina?" Izuku asked, allowing the care in his vice to show that he was worried for her well-being.
"Yeah, for the fifth time, Izu, I'm okay." The pink girl lightly smiled.
How long had it been between them? Just about two months, Mina recounted. She didn't have the specific date off of the top of her head, so it was really just a guess. In that relatively short span of time, the two had grown closer to one another than they had to anyone else in their lives. They had done so much, and been through it all together, backing one another up and pushing the other to go even further beyond their limits. They had fought Villains together, gone up against people who were far better qualified to be Heroes, and even trained against one another. Intimacy was still a hazardous subject between them, but they had shared plenty of moments, mostly, if not entirely because of Mina's actions.
Still, just that simple gesture of asking if she was okay, just showing that he cared about her enough to ask, made Mina's heart go aflutter.
She smiled to herself, this time a lot brighter.
Part of her was beginning to wonder if her worries that Izuku didn't love her were all in her head. Just fabrications that she had made up in a bout of self-doubt and anxiety.
They probably were, she thought to herself, feeling her lips widen as her smile grew
Time seemed to pass by quickly once Izuku had started making the food for himself and Mina to consume. A stew took a while to actually make, so the two had spent the time talking and discussing Mina's training methods, and how they could be improved. Several suggestions Izuku made was to try creating a weaker acid, but to keep continuously secreting it for much longer than her regular stuff, to her build up that immunity to her powers. Another suggestion was to try and coat her hands in as small amount of acid as possible, and then use that to melt as many rocks that she could, which would force her to generate far more corrosive substances than what she already was working with. Both methods would increase her resistance to her overuse of her powers in different ways, building up her ability to use her Quirk for longer periods of time, before moving onto her 'Special Move'.
Some people around them did make a few jokes at their expense between themselves, at how they seemed able to go from their fight the previous day, which had resulted in them barely talking to one another, right back to their normal selves, like nothing had ever happened. It was amusing to a great many number of the students there, the male students in particular, though they still lacked answers for whatever Mina was doing in their room that morning. She practically wore the jokes like a badge of honour at that point, and teasingly refusing to answer a single question that would explain why she had snuck into Izuku's futon, instead just beaming at how things had settled down.
Jokes and banter aside though, they were all glad, with the exception of Bakugou. Seeing the pair of them interacting as normal had become something that the entire class had gotten used to. While they fought, things seemed to just feel odd. Like the entire class dynamic had just broken down. It was thanks to their choice to put it aside for now that things felt like they had returned to normal for Class 1A. Or as normal as things were going to get for the class of quirky teenagers.
As it turned out, Izuku did actually possess some skill when it came to making something like a stew. It wasn't even vaguely close to something that Mina could do when it came to food, but it was a very tasty meal nonetheless. It filled both the curly haired students up, something that they both were in desperate need of. Once filled up, with food in their bellies, they set about washing up all of the crockery used.
It only took about half an hour to complete, and once that was done, it was time to the main event of the day – The Test of Courage. Basically, a route that the students would follow was set up, in which the members of Class B would be hiding, waiting to try and scare the hell out of everyone who passed them by. Quirk use was permitted, along with whatever else they could think of. Sort of like setting up an improvised haunted house route in a way.
In particular, Mina seemed to be bouncing up and down on the spot, with pumped up fists close to her chest. She had been very vocally been looking forward to this event all day, and it showed clearly.
And was crushed when it was revealed that the remedial students still had extra sessions – something that Aizawa had "Logically rused" to have gotten rid of for today, in exchange for the students putting their all into the training.
Looking back, Izuku saw that entire day as the final one before things came to a head.
Between him and Mina, and the world of Heroes and Villains as a whole.