Part 19

Watching as Kamui Woods approaches, my brain wanders off a bit. I mean, he's always in his hero costume, I pretty sure no one knows who he is out of it. Snapping from my thoughts, I look up in his direction.

"So, Mango. Tell me, what would you consider your strengths?" He asks, stopping a bit from me. Thinking over it a bit, I give a bit of a shrug. "I haven't actually gotten to fight an actual fight with my quirk unlike most of the rest of the class, and the most I've really done is one fight and a lot of helping others," I say, thinking over my time here.

I could bring up other experience, but that's outside of this dimension and I don't want to slip up and mention anything about the siege or the war. That'd be very hard for me to explain.

"Could you go a bit more in detail?" He asks again. I can't really go into detail about the first battle, since not many know that was me and that was highly illegal. Deciding to play it off as if it was a fight during the USJ attack, I start to string together my lie.

"It was a villain during the USJ attack. I had been separated and left with Todoroki. He had already dealt with most of the villains but I was a bit away and got attacked by a, um, liquid-like monster. I did some damage and was able to keep myself from getting hurt, but Todoroki showed up and took the villain down." I lie, hoping he won't try to fact-check that information with Todoroki.

I don't know much about that kid, but he doesn't seem like the type to back me up on my lie, especially since he doesn't know me well.

He nods and I begin my next sentence. "I also helped Eraserhead during the USJ attack, after he'd been knocked down. I had messed with his code a little bit, helped make sure nothing was too bad, y'know." I say, tripping over this truth more than my earlier lie. I had helped, but it seemed like a stretch to just say that was also part of my quirk, since it wasn't cause I don't have a quirk in the first place.

He nods and seems to think for a second. "So you've fought and kept yourself grounded and have helped a little bit. So, I'm going to make sure you know enough about fighting to keep you safe, and the moment we get past that we'll go into rescue training since there's almost no experience there." He explains, writing something down. I hadn't noticed the clipboard, and I feel like I've been noticing less stuff lately.

"I've also been told you have severe limitations on your quirk." He suddenly speaks up. I had been looking away but immediately glanced back at him when he said that. Severe limitations? Oh, right, Artemis's little appearance during the festival. I guess they would write that down if it seemed so important.

"Right, it's nothing big and you don't have to worry about it too much, sometimes I just have off days. The festival, unfortunately, was a very off day." I say, waving my hands around and trying to display the perfect picture of not worried. I can see his eyes scanning the clipboard and I tense up a bit.

"Says here that overuse of quirk leads to black substance coming from your eyes and mouth. Speculated to be some sort of blood-like liquid full of dying quirk cells. Also a sidenote of behavioral flares and emotional downs during and after the overuse." He reads directly off of the paper in front of him.

That, must've been put there by recovery girl. Or maybe someone else I interacted with. I had been a little on edge during the whole thing since I had been pretty sure Artemis hadn't had followed me into this place. Reaching up to rub the back of my neck I give a nervous smile.

"It's not that bad. It's uh.. dying quirk cell liquid, yeah! It happens sometimes, my quirk um.. multiples my quirk cells when they're in distress in hopes of balancing out and tend to overcompensate and kill them off quickly!" I say, spitting random information out through my lying teeth.

I don't have quirk cells, just an overactive parasite bitch who doesn't seem to understand what it means to inform the host when they're hanging on for a vacation as well. I had spooked myself and he had tried to use that against me, and the anger from recent events had fueled up into that mess. Nothing more.

He nods, though I feel as if he doesn't fully believe my statement. I watch as his pen moves on the clipboard anyways. Seems like I'm going to have to remember my little information burst if I don't want to seem suspicious when other's ask. "So, if that was a bad day, what is today?" He asks simply.

I go quiet, letting my mind quiet down and unravel itself. What is today? It doesn't feel like a bad day, but my aggression from the past few weeks isn't gone. It's just buried, waiting till I can beat the shit out of someone. I hope whatever I let my anger out on isn't sentient, or at least is a whole ass bitch. Wouldn't want to accidentally kill a random mugger on the street.

"It's an okay day. Things are going well, but it could all change easily. Never count your eggs before they hatch." I say, muttering the last part to myself. I should've reminded myself with the same saying before coming to this dimension in the first place. I should've been more worried than I was when my second ticket to get here got used up. But I wasn't, I pushed it off like it was nothing and continued on my way.

Like an idiot.

He nods and puts the clipboard down after scribbling something else. I wonder what he's been writing exactly, especially that last part since I hadn't had said anything too note-worthy. Making eye contact with me, he points me in the direction of the training area. I look back to watch as a few other people in outfits spar and maneuver their way through courses.

"I want you to try that course, it's got two dummy that you have to bring down but most of it is being able to find your way out of areas." He says, pointing towards one on the left. No one's on it at the moment, how convenient. I look back towards him and give him a nod before moving towards the equipment.

It looks like the weird inflated areas at kid's parties that you crawl and climb through like an obstacle course. Like an animal in a rubber cage. I can feel my eyes shifting as I walk up to it. Getting into the starting area, I look back and make contact with Kamui Woods. He points to something to his left and looking over I see a large box connected to a pole. Pressing something on it, I see a timer pop up.

I nod before turning back and taking in a gulp. I give myself a second to think. I've been focused on using secondary powers, powers that aren't really my powers. I think it's about time I focused on myself. Who knows what's going to happen if I don't.

That means, no changing the environment through code, no glitching, and appearing somewhere else. Only using coding if someone's in fatal conditions, it's time to focus on me. I shift from my current mood to another. From coding to actual normalcy. No more little hacker kid, I'm a shade, a part of a species that gets the job done, and I'm doing things my way, not the ways I was taught by people who didn't want to see me go back to my roots.

I change the way I'm standing. One second I look like I'm ready to run forward, like the kids during the first festival race, the next I melt into something more familiar. I'm closer to the ground, my legs bent in a more natural way for my species, my senses are filling in the area around me. I even let my tail hang looser than I've let it previously.

My arms aren't at my sides anymore, instead in front of me, fingers splayed like I'm ready to jump forward. I am ready to jump forward. I can feel the change in myself and I agree with it, it's about time I acted a bit more colorful.

Hearing the beep off the timer, I bolt forward. Unlike humans, you find it hard to run on anything other than their own two legs, I was made to run wild. I run in an almost animal-like way, hitting a more familiar speed. My arms are used like the front legs of an animal, helping me run and I keep low to keep myself even.

I launch myself forwards, grappling my arms onto the short wall-like part of the obstacle that had gotten in front of me. Scurrying a bit like a cat on a gate, I get my legs up fully before heaving the rest of me up. I've lost a bit of speed but it's no problem. I keep running, ducking lower to get under mid-waist barriers, and jumping over anything too low or too high.

Seeing the first dummy, I slow down considerably. Instead of heading straight towards it, I duck to the right and follow the right side of the course so that I end up on the side of the dummy. I know nothing about the dummies here, they might be normal dummies, or they might be like the robots used by the school.

Darting out of a corner, I jump high and strike low, tackling it to the ground. It makes a ding sound and the pole holding it up doesn't put it back up so I take that as a win. Continuing through the obstacle course, I try to stick a bit higher this time. Getting through quickly, I look at the last dummy. The exit's behind it, but it looks considerably more technology-based than the one from before.

The moment I'm close enough to approach it, it senses me and centers it's body while turning to look in my direction. Steeling myself for something, I jump back quickly when the pang of a small pellet hitting the floor where I had been before. Glancing up, I scurried forward and grabbed the small pellet before darting back into the course.

Cotton, soft to the touch but probably a lot less soft when being shot at you. From the weird way it's sticking to my fingers, it's probably supposed to inform you of where you were hit and if you need to get better at dodging after your past it. Finding that I can't flick it away, I slide my hand against one of the walls and watch it transfer before getting back in range of the dummy.

I don't know where it's shooting the pellets from. They might be from the dummy, or maybe there are pellet shooters in the walls somewhere. I have no idea. Seeing it lock onto me again, I try to dart around only to get hit with a pellet to the arm. Taking note of the sound, the moment it happens again, I dart on the ground in a zig-zag pattern underneath the dummy.

It can't look down because it doesn't have a neck, just a rotation that lets it turn in certain directions. Using this, I straighten up a bit, take a run, and slide underneath it. Turning around, I punch it directly where its head would be and used the stun moment to twist around it and tackle it down like the other.

Unlike Zuks, or most of my other classmates, I'm not made to hit hard enough to knock someone down with a punch. I'm made for fast flickering movements of speed, with kicks and punches to get something down. I'm made to dart around the walls and constantly attack.

Pushing on the dummy a bit more to make sure it stays down, I get up and fully straighten into a standing position. Doing a quick jog, I make my way past the exit bar and tap the button on this side. Walking out of the area and around, I find my way back to where I had started.

The timer's stopped. Twenty-eight minutes and forty-one seconds.

"Interesting movement and fighting style. None of the notes made by your teachers or anyone at the festival mention these styles." A voice speaks up from behind me. Glancing back, I turn to see Kamui Woods holding the clipboard once again. He seems to be raising an eyebrow at me, though I can only tell from his tone of voice due to his full-face mask.

"Ever since I joined the school I've been way too focused on helping someone else. I'm still going to focus on them, but since I can't really do that right now, I may as well focus on myself..." I mumble a bit out of breath. I haven't run like that in a while. It felt good by my body isn't as used to it as it used to be.

Seeing something being pushed towards me, I look up to see a water bottle. I take it from him with a grateful hum and open the cap. "Are your legs supposed to do that?" He asks calmly. Before I even drink a sip of my water, I look down to see that my legs have shifted. Right, two kneecaps on each leg can be pretty helpful.

I smile up at him and shift them back, feeling the knee caps buckle and shift so they stop bending inwards. "Yeah, I just haven't run like that in a while." I say, before raising the water to my lips and drinking. He's taking notes again, I can hear the pen moving.

"Interestingly enough, there isn't much information in your files. I would've known about the leg shifting and would've been able to prepare a better obstacle course if there was more information." He says, his voice trailing off a bit.

"Don't worry about it, a lot of people don't know I can do that with my legs. I haven't really done it around the people here, and I kinda only recently moved here." I say, yet again lying easily. I give him a shrug when he glances over his clipboard.

"That's enough for today. Come sit with me by the benches. It'd be very helpful if you helped me fill in some more information." He says, gesturing to the bench nearby. Others are sitting, chatting, and just generally cooling off.

I nod and walk over with him, watching as he sits down and gets greeted by the other on the benches. He takes a bit of time to converse with them, even introducing me and giving me enough time to give a weak little wave. They chat a bit more before he turns back to me, his pen in hand.

"Anything else you have that I might need to take note of for both me and your teachers?" He asks, clicking the end of his pen.

"Not much. My tail is a strong as my arms, and can get stronger like my arms. My body is actually a little cat-like, from the way I jump and lunge to the way I land when falling and the way I run. Oh, and this!" I say, before grabbing one of the fingers on my left hand with my right hand. He watches on as I press down lightly on a specific place on my finger.

With the press, a little claw-shaped nail split through my fingerprint and flings out like a switch knife. "They're not good for much. I can open plastic packaging but that's like it. One of my siblings once said that if I had cat ears I'd just be someone's anime dream." I say, ending with a laugh. I'm happy I don't have cat ears, they'd look kinda weird and my long elven-like ears are already weird enough.

"Speaking of ears, what's going on with those. I noticed them rotating in full circles earlier." He says, pointing towards my ears with the pen. I can feel my ears duck down a bit as if they have a mind of their own. "You may have noticed that my eyebrows don't move. They physically cannot. But, to help show expression, my long ears do instead. They're completely rotatable in all ways. All of this is probably just mutations from my quirk, y'know." I say, playing off of something Zuks explained to me once.

They're not part of my quirk. I'm a shade, a species native to my dimension. I haven't been there in a while, but that doesn't mean I'm suddenly not one of them. We're a very humanoid species, with the occasional tail or horns. I don't have horns, Artemis does.

He nods at the bit of information and I watch him write. "Well, that's enough for today. You can go. Tomorrow we'll work on your rescue training and try to fit in learning a few defensive maneuvers." He says, placing the clipboard down. I nod and get up before walking into the changing rooms.

Changing into my normal outfit and glancing at the mask in my case, I sigh. I have a tone of masks that look cooler than this one, why was this the one I decided to go with. I could just leave it but who knows when I'll need a mask for a random situation, and if I replace it with something I'll have to get the new mask decked out like the old one and that'll be a hassle.

Picking it up, I smooth my fingers over the decals a little bit before snapping it back into the case. I'll get it replaced soon, when I figure out the whole vigilante thing. I mean, I have no reason to use it outside of that, I don't think?