Hello, yes, I am alive. Kinda crazy, no?

I have discovered that, hey, even though I haven't touched my doc for Motivation in a while, I do actually have a couple chapters written that I never published.

Whoops-

So like... Uh. Enjoy? I'm not even gonna read through the chapters, I'm just gonna publish them 💀

But first: character review since I made a shit ton of OCs that you might have trouble keeping track of. This is purely based on my memory of the characters, so like... Be prepared for me not remembering all their names 😭

First up, Kazue himself:

My boy's not overly talkative and has long internal monologues. He likes to analyze shit and doesn't like people. Because when people talk to him, he either defaults to speaking extremely formal in a monotone or gets really awkward (when taken by surprise). 

He doesn't want to be a hero, he wants to train them since they tend to be morons.

(I'm looking at you, Midoriya, the master of bone juice.)

His Quirk is complicated as hell and I could make a chapter specifically for that and make a huge big infodump on it. But I'll spare you. Maybe if I get back into the fandom I'll make a fic specifically for Quirk breakdowns.

It's essentially like this: Picture Todoroki's balance between fire and ice and apply that to boosting and diminishing the powers of others. At the beginning of the fic, Kazue could only boost other people's Quirks; however, he works toward unlocking and better utilizing the other half. 

His other skills/abilities include: 

1) Being able to know the names of people's Quirks just by looking at them, as well as the basic uses. He can also "look" deeper into the Quirk to figure out the intricacies, but this gives him a headache and is more easily done by touching the person.

2) Forced activation of Quirks/controlling their output. So like... he could theoretically slap a hand on Todoroki's shoulder and make an ice sculpture of of All Might

3) Eidetic memory. It goes hand-in-hand with Kazue's Quirk, since he'll always remember how someone else's Quirk works, all that jazz. Dude has a better memory than me by a long shot.

4) Martial arts and whatnot. His style's very precise and measured, with halts in movement being rare. I think I remember describing his fight with Shigaraki in the USJ as a dance?

Jeez, that was long. Next character:

Kimura Katashi/Dreynen

Kazue's dad. He's a strict parent but not at the same time? His relationship with Kazue is fairly complex since they're shit at communicating and expressing their emotions.

His Quirk is the diminishing half of Kazue's.

He's also the #7 hero, which is pretty wack.

Hamasaki Etsuko

She's kind of the first friend Kazue makes at Yuuei. They ate lunch together on the roof of the school before Chisaka Hitomi and Furuya Benjiro showed up. Yes, I somehow remembered their names.

She's in the support course and it an expert at coding. She's also pretty good with making tech, too, but she specializes in smaller devices rather than large ones.

Her quirk is like... if you've seen Hunter x Hunter, imagine Pitou's legs. It's called Jump, but... her legs are strong as hell compared to the rest of her body. She casually jumped off the edge of the roof and landed no problem.

Also, she's a huge Shounen nerd and got Kazue away from Josei for once.

Furuya Benjiro

Chaotic as shit dude. He's pretty scrawny and has a mouth on him, which is bad since he's Quirkless and already picked on enough as it is. Not that he particularly cares. 

He latches onto Kazue after he stops a third year hero course moron from kicking him. I think. 

He's also in the business course.

Chisaka Hitomi

Furuya's bestie and short as fuck. Uh. Don't remember much about her personality, but I do remember that she doesn't take any of Furuya's shit.

Her Quirk lets her turn herself/things she touches into smoke, but her control is absolutely terrible. One gust of wind (or a fan) and it's over.

General course.

Fueki Shun

So like... she's a rather complicated character. She used to run an underground fighting ring before it was discovered. But like... Fueki also had connections throughout the hero industry. Most notably with Katashi, whom she helped out a lot of times solely to eliminate competition and rival organizations.

Although I never really got into that in the fic so far.

Anywho, Katashi kept her out of jail and provided her with a lotta shit under the condition that she repays him for all of it. I honestly never came up with a number for how many favors she owes them, but it's a lot.

Fueki's a rather terrifying individual for those who don't know her, carrying knives and guns on her person (despite not having a license for the latter). For the most part so far, she's just been the Kimuras' driver.

Her Quirk is lowkey funny: she can pour liquid from one container into another without spilling a drop, no matter the orientation and distance of the two containers.

(Spoiler alert: blood is a liquid and humans count as containers, provided there's an opening. Teehee.)

Adachi Takibi

He was sort of a last minute addition to the fic but I swear there was a reason for introducing him.

Basically: this kid (he's the same age as the third years I'm pretty sure) used to fight in Fueki's arena and she pseudo-adopted him. But before she got busted, he left with zero explanation (with will be explored later if I actually continue this).

Adachi then shows up later at one of the old arena locations, finds Kazue there, and attacks him because he's a dumbass that runs a lil too hot-blooded.

He's like the Bakugo to Kazue's Midoriya. Or something. Idk, I kinda just wanted to give him a raging Pomeranian of his own that actually has significance to the plot later on.

His Quirk, I stole from Shinra from Fire Force. He can shoot out fire from his feet.

Tecton (Iwata Don't-Remember-His-First-Name-But-It-Might-Be-Haruma)

One of Katashi's sidekicks. He's like Kazue's older brother in a sense?

Also, I distinctly remember the art I chose for him being hot.

He's a pretty chill guy but also stressed as fuck since he's in college. For what, I've forgotten, but Kazue helps him with his homework.

His Quirk is vaguely like Earthbending but to the left. More to do with seismic waves than manipulating the earth itself, but rock is what he has the easiest time manipulating. Think of Best Jeanist and being able to control denim the best, but being able to also control other fibers.

Aerogale

The other one of Katashi's sidekicks. He's an absolute moron.

He's arrogant as shit and always gets a couple interns after the Sports Festival, which Kazue ends up training half the time since he's also mostly incompetent as a teacher.

Aerogale is actually a good hero, though, and is surprisingly high in the rankings. He has a one-sided rivalry with Kamui Woods, whom he went to school with. And may or may not have an angry crush on.

His Quirk lets him control the winds, very similarly to Inasa, but like... more powerful and with better control/precision.

That one asshole third year I don't care about

The absolute dickbag who was Aerogale's intern during his second year who got schooled by Kazue (and beaten in a fight by). Then later, he decided to pick on Furuya before Kazue intervened and challenged a dude with a broken arm to a fight.

So like... that happens after the Sports Festival.

His Quirk lets him create dust and control its movement through the air. 

ANYWAY. UM. MAYBE ALSO READ THE LAST CHAPTER SO YOU KNOW WHERE WE'RE AT.

I WILL NOT BE DOING THAT 😀

HAS YOUR MEMORY BEEN REFRESHED? GREAT. HERE'S CHAPTER 30.

"Hey," Kazue greeted blandly, trudging over to where his teammates were already coming together. Everyone was gathering in front of the relatively narrow entrance. Well, minus most of the business course. They couldn't care less about the 'sports' part of the festival, rather that there were thousands of potential customers gathered in one area.

Furuya slung his arms over all of their shoulders, fitting the two girls under one and pulling Kazue's head down under the other. "You guys ready to rock some shit or what?"

The tallest of the four shrugged off the arm. "Do you remember the plan?" Kazue replied rhetorically, wishing for the thousandth time for the ability to raise both eyebrows again. He'd figured it out soon after getting healed, and it'd been a complete pain in the ass when Aerogale laughed at him because of it.

"Duh," the other boy stated sardonically as Hamasaki removed herself from under his arm, leaning further on Chisaka. "We know the plan, right, Tomi-chan?"

She pushed his face away with a hand. "Yes, 'we' know the plan," Chisaka replied, exasperated. It was as if Furuya hadn't even come up with the basis of the plan to begin with.

All the team members looked up, unconcerned as the first of three green lights turned off. The second and third followed in quick succession, Midnight shouting out a 'start!'.

Kazue snorted in amusement as everyone rushed forward, pushing and shoving past each other in a desperate attempt to come out of the tunnel first. No matter. They were all stuck at the moment, meaning...

"Showtime," Furuya grinned, sprinting forwards like a madman. The rest of the squad, having expected this, simply sighed and followed the amber-eyed boy. He scrambled on top of some random student's shoulders, then awkwardly ran across people's heads, leaving cries of indignation and outrage in his path.

Hamasaki just angled her body, waved goodbye for the time being, and jumped over the crowd in a single leap. Her Quirk really was convenient.

"Ready?" Kazue asked, placing a hand on Chisaka's shoulder and closing his eyes in preparation. He could vaguely hear Present Mic excitedly announcing that teenagers were shoving each other in a dark hallway, with Aizawa mumbling a reply on what to watch.

"As I'll ever be," the short girl replied dryly, the fog within her swirling to life. "Let's try not to die."

He snorted, and she activated her Quirk.

In an instant, Kazue was floating in the air, his form nothing but wisps of smoke held together through his threads of control. His smoke hand was still on Chisaka's shoulder through means he didn't quite feel like mentally explaining. He'd been affected by enough Quirks similar in his lifetime that the feeling of weightlessness and lack of proper control in the beginning no longer fazed his concentration.

The brunet sent out a steady stream of his energy and the imaginary threads turned into durable ropes. "Let's go. I have a feeling we may have to free the others."

Chisaka wasted no time in zipping their practically phantom bodies higher into the air and over the heads of the still-shoving first years. Her smoke eyebrows raised as they shot out into the light of the other side, promptly coming across exactly what Kazue had predicted. Most of the students' feet were stuck in ice and yelling angrily after a running dual-haired teen.

A few, however, managed to avoid the ice coating the ground. Namely, the entirety of Class 1-A, a majority of Class 1-B, and several other students from the other two departments.

"Fuck you, Candycane!"

"There's Benji," Chisaka commented, coming to a stop next to the boy. Kazue released his control of the Quirk at the same time she released it, kneeling down to prepare to free Furuya.

A foot promptly smashed into the ice, shattering the frozen water into shards. Kazue looked up, having vaguely sensed her coming since he'd been looking for her. Hamasaki smiled awkwardly, glancing between them and the rapidly disappearing heroics students.

Furuya flipped off the general location of Todoroki, snatched Chisaka's hand, and sprinted off at full speed across the ice with her in tow. If he wasn't Quirkless, anyone would assume that his impeccable balance was a power of its own.

"He doesn't remember the plan at all, does he?" Kazue asked rhetorically, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose instead of lace his fingers together and brace his feet against the ice. It was as if they hadn't spent three lunch sessions planning everything out in both the obstacle course and the cavalry battle.

"Nope," Hamasaki laughed nervously, placing one of her feet on his hands. Her own hand rested on his shoulder for support, and she met his gaze with worry in her lavender eyes. "You sure this isn't going to hurt?"

"Go," Kazue ignored the question, noting how far away most of the other students had gotten. Furuya was nearing the edge of the ice field, catching up to the heroics students, and the rest weren't all that far behind.

Her knee bent, and she jumped.

Kazue gritted his teeth at the recoil, staggering back a few steps from the sheer force behind a single leg. Hamasaki wouldn't have gotten far on the ice, seeing as her balance wasn't exactly the greatest. She was the exact opposite of Furuya, really, and would have fallen on her face if she'd tried to jump.

The brunet shook out his aching hands, lingered just long enough for the stragglers who'd only now gotten out of the ice to pass. He surface-scanned their Quirks, selected one with a suitable power, and slapped a hand on the girl's shoulder the second she came close.

"Hey!"

Rather than the indignant yell having come from right beside him, Kazue could barely hear it over the span of ice he'd just teleported across with the girl's Quirk. It took a bit more energy than something of that classification normally would, but she was clearly inexperienced with it. From what he could tell, she was only able to teleport objects less than ten kilograms.

"That was fast," Hamasaki's eyes widened, and she involuntarily took a step back at his sudden appearance. She smiled painfully, pointing with a shaking hand at the obstacles blocking the path. "Also, uh... those robots are huge."

Before them stood numerous smaller robots, painted military green and armed with blunt claws. Todoroki had managed to get past, only to be faced with several more absolutely massive robots.

So this was what the regular entrance exam was like.

"Just like we practiced," Kazue lowered his voice, already striding forward. He couldn't directly see Furuya and Chisaka, but he assumed that the girl had since taken the time to remind him of the plan. Which meant... they were either in between the lines of robots with Todoroki, or already past and hurrying to the giant pit.

"R-right!" Hamasaki squeaked, cringing at her own voice crack. Even so, she detached a metal sphere from her belt and split it in half with a quarter-twist. She launched herself over the crowd at the same time Todoroki took down the colossal robots in one fell swoop with a powerful wave of ice. "I'm sorry, what the fuck-"

Kazue snickered at her muffled reaction, barely audible over the sound of shattering ice, and broke into a sprint while weaving through the crowd. He watched her in his peripheral vision to ensure everything was going according to plan, but directed the rest of his focus towards the robot straight ahead.

It wouldn't take long for everyone else to follow, which he'd also been counting on. So many targets confused the machine's sensors, whether they were detecting heat signatures or movement. Dodging the first blow was child's play, the movement mildly jerky and slower than optimal engineering.

Kazue leapt on top of the robot's main body after using one of its moving appendages as a step, located the proper wire barely reachable between the neck plates, and yanked it out. The red lights of its eyes died almost instantly, the power having been cut to the 'brain'.

He unceremoniously jumped off its back as it collapsed, landing lightly on his feet. While Kazue might've criticized the obvious design flaw if he'd been in the audience, he didn't have the time for that now. Todoroki was getting further and further ahead, and he still could confirm the locations of two of his teammates.

That being said... the brunet didn't even bother taking down any more robots, deigning to dodge any blows that came his way and leave the combat to those behind him. Hamasaki had made three spheres specifically for the giant robots, which meant that six of the seven could be taken care of as long as the devices were placed in the right location.

However, that part of the plan had always been a bit iffy, considering the fact that both Todoroki and Yaoyorozu had the ability to take down the robots with relative ease. The spheres were a back-up plan, but it wasn't as if they couldn't be used elsewhere.

Kazue skirted around the fallen giants the moment he saw Hamasaki take a flying leap over them, taking the easier yet longer route. Once again, those with the physical Quirks held the advantage.

He saw Furuya and Chisaka almost instantly, the former sprinting with the latter hitched up on his back. Kazue winced at the sight, noticing the other boy slowing down and losing ground in his battle to catch up with Todoroki. Physical strength still wasn't his strong suit, even if he'd gained a little muscle during their training sessions. It was barely noticeable to even the trained eye, but it was there.

He increased his pace until he was rapidly gaining on Furuya, noting that Hamasaki was following his advice of taking lengthy hops rather than running. It took less of her endurance, seeing as her legs were already strong enough to keep jumping for a while. She never had to take so much as a step,

"I can take her from here," Kazue slowed down to match the shorter boy's stride. Furuya was practically wheezing under Chisaka's weight, even if she was the lightest among them. He nodded, head hanging low, and jogged to a stop within sight of the next obstacle.

Furuya rested his hands on his knees the second she hopped down with unsteady feet, panting for breath. "Jeez, I've never carried someone for that long before," he managed, blinking rapidly. "Have fun, I'll catch up."

With that, Kazue placed his hand on Chisaka's waiting shoulder and she turned both of them into smoke. The invisible ropes binding their forms held fast, and it wasn't long before they arrived at the edge of the pit and immediately began to cross.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU BASTARDS!"

"Oh, wonderful, Bakugō-san is here," Kazue deadpanned, immediately sending a portion of his energy into propelling them faster through the air. Chisaka had been doing perfectly fine on her own—he'd made sure she was able to move them easily both during training—but his abrasive classmate was gaining on them more rapidly than he would've liked.

Chisaka swung her fist in front of her chest in fake enthusiasm. "Yay," she drawled in the same tone. Then, in a louder voice, she half-turned and cupped her hands around her mouth. "FUCK OFF, YA ANGRY POMERANIAN!"

Kazue sweatdropped at her sudden personality swap, but spared a glance backward and was not disappointed. Bakugō screamed in outrage, his explosions mirroring his bursts of volatile emotion by becoming more powerful. "You just had to provoke him, didn't you?" he queried rhetorically, observing the positions of his teammates and competitors from his heightened vantage point.

Todoroki had just stepped off the final rope by the time the majority of everyone else had started, including most of 1-A. Meanwhile, a pink-haired girl decked out in support gear launched herself halfway across the gaping pit in one go.

However, he wasn't particularly interested in her. No, Kazue's gaze was focused solely on four individuals. The first was Bakugō, as he was the closest. The second was Hamasaki, making use of her Quirk by easily bounding from stone pillar to pillar. Even so, the brunet could see that she was beginning to run out of steam.

The third was Furuya, who had since replenished his energy and was quite literally sprinting across the ropes. His arms were extended to either side for balance, but the boy seemed to have no trouble crossing rope after rope.

Kazue's eyes lingered a bit longer on the fourth and final individual, momentarily glancing away as he and Chisaka landed and took off after Todoroki. While it would be easier to remain in smoke form to give chase, such a tactic would drain both of their energy before the second round.

He looked back again at Midoriya, noting with a small smile of approval that his student was in seventh place. His classmate was sticking to three percent exactly, taking his time to methodically leap across gaps in the shortest possible path across. Midoriya was doing well... for now. What happened next remained to be seen, considering he was holding a metal plate from one of the giant robots in his grip.

"Are you ready?" Kazue asked the second they arrived at the minefield, once again placing a hand on Chisaka's shoulder. Their speed had decreased due to her shorter legs and slower running speed, so they didn't have time to stop with Bakugō right on their tails.

She nodded, almost completely winded, and they sublimated. Kazue poured more of his energy into speed, careful with the amount, and it didn't take long before they were rapidly gaining on Todoroki. His classmate had slowed to carefully cross the minefield, but looked up with widened heterochromic eyes when he was passed.

"I like your hair!" Chisaka called out with a smile as the two of them swept past. Even if they were both smoke, she could still feel Kazue's dead stare and the mildly incredulous blink aimed in her direction. "Hey, it's cool, okay? Don't give me that look."

Kazue snorted, hiding a smile at her antics. He never spoke much with Chisaka outside of training or lunch, deigning to just meet the gaze of his roofmates in the halls, or, occasionally, nodding once in their direction. Her personality wasn't one he was used to. She was both shy and extroverted at the same time, preferring to hang out with people not in her class while simultaneously shouting curses at Bakugō and complimenting Todoroki.

"I wonder what Furuya-san would say if he were here right now," he mused with false casualness, increasing their speed to the point where Todoroki couldn't gain ground, even carried by his ice, and Bakugō wasn't nearly fast enough to catch up. Kazue could feel the drain taking a small toll, but he still had enough energy saved up that winning the first round would be easy.

Chisaka sputtered, completely lost for words. If she hadn't been made of grey, swirling smoke, Kazue would've bet almost his entire manga collection—the Shōjo, not Hamasaki's gifted Shōnen—that her face was flaming with embarrassment. "Shut up!"

He just smirked, turning his head to hide the smug expression. Kazue had known nearly from the moment that he'd met the two of them that Chisaka had a crush on Furuya. From hiding reddened cheeks to letting herself get dragged along with his shenanigans, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. "Shutting up."

A massive explosion boomed from the beginning of the minefield not even a moment later, and Kazue could only raise an eyebrow at the sight of Midoriya hurtling through the sky in a cloud of pink.

So that's what the metal plate had been for.

I feel for Chisaka in the last part. Having a crush on your best friend is... Uh. Not fun.

Anywho. Yeah, enjoy chapter 30 and the squad being dumbasses. I have 31 in my docs, and started 32, but like... I'll see if I continue writing it. No promises, because I keep writing MCU fics.

I don't know when I published the first chapter of this, but iirc... it was my sophomore year of high school. I think. Now it's my second semester of my senior year, I've already applied to college... Damn, does time fly by quick.

That also means it's been a hot second since I've been on Wattpad. I'm sorry, but Ao3 stole me. Whoops.