I had three tickets.
A familiar ticket from Toga apparently developing a crush on me.
A skill ticket from scoring the highest score on a test.
A trait ticket from changing how the school’s faculty viewed me.
All bronze except for the familiar ticket.
Bronze tickets had mostly gotten me junk or basic things that couldn’t qualify as game changers, but HK was walking proof that they could give far more.
I just needed to put my fate in the heart of the cards and let lady luck give me exactly what I wanted and or needed.
Now let’s start with the familiar ticket!
[Rolling Silver Familiar Gacha Ticket…]
[Golem Worker
|Uncommon Familiar|
This is a crew of iron golem workers with skill in Intermediate Mechanics, and a knack for labor.
The workers are tireless and can work on projects without break, but cannot engage in combat.
The number of workers you can summon is dependent on your maximum energy, but the minimum is 10.]
Not useless but unless I was looking to run off into the woods or trying to support some kind of construction operation, I didn’t see an immediate use other than moving shields if that combat restriction didn’t somehow stop them from taking blows for me and the golems were durable.
On to the skill ticket!
[Rolling Bronze Skill Gacha Ticket…]
[Novice Stealth
|Common Skill|
You are a novice in the way of stealth.
You know how to mask your footsteps, how to sneak up on people, how to check for traps, and how to gather information more effectively, but anyone actually involved in the field is better than you.]
This was my first skill and the difference between drawing it compared to others hit me in the form of what felt like the start of a migraine.
How to better distribute my weight to move around more quietly, how to blend in while tailing someone, details involving things like peripheral vision.
All sorts of information that I might have only known pieces of as trivia just popped into my head as if I’d already studied the subject.
The headache was so worth practical skills like that.
Best not to wait and let the good luck run dry!
[Rolling Bronze Trait Gacha Ticket…]
[Scenic Wind
|Trash Trait|
The scenic wind favors you, making your clothes and hair flutter majestically, even in impossible weather conditions and indoors whenever it is opportune.]
God damm-
You know what, no.
Novice stealth alone made this whole session with the gacha a good one.
It was the kind of thing that could help me sidestep a dicey situation or two and even help me escape danger if I used all the new knowledge floating around my head right.
Scenic wind was good for…aura farming?
If I really did end up becoming a hero, public image kind of went hand in hand with that.
I’d probably have to wear a costume with stuff that dragged behind me, a cape the most obvious choice, to really make the most out of it.
Either way, not useful in terms of survival, but not entirely useless.
Maybe I’d channel my inner Piccolo some other time.
The golems weren’t useless but irrelevant to what I was trying to do over the next few months.
I might test them out but getting stronger was the primary concern.
Yeah, this was a good way to end the day.
Finishing drying my hair, I stepped out of the bathroom.
Helping Toga, hopefully, feel a little less insecure about her teeth, a good day of training split between a local gym and the park with HK, a great pull from the gacha, and a hot shower.
Considering the whole chaotic nature of this stuff I could’ve ended up in a far worse situation.
“Katsu.” Before I made it to my room, Aunt Nozomi, her door now cracked open rather than closed, called for me.
I poked my head into her room.
“U.A.?”
Guess that wasn’t going to be put off until breakfast.
“Yeah.” I said, stepped.
“I’m not really sure if I want to go or become a hero but I wanted to see if I’d be able to.
And I kind of want to know how much my quirk can do.” Laying the truth all on the table when it came to her was the best way to go about things.
And I didn’t want to lie to her for no reason.
“And impress this Toga girl too?
I though you said she was just a friend?” She questioned, a brow raised and amused smile in place.
Of course the teacher hadn’t left that out.
“Who doesn’t want their friends to think they’re cool?”
She hummed, looking me over.
“Well, you should’ve told me all this earlier.
I’d rather not have to find out from others that you’re trying to do something dangerous.
I know you’re getting older, but I am the one looking after you.”
“Sorry.”
“As long as you understand.” She said nodding.
“But this Saturday we’ll be canceling your gym membership.” Bummer but- “I’ve started looking for ones meant for those with strength related quirks.
Whoa, I spoke too soon.
That might be even better.
“Thank you, Aunt Nozomi.”
“Don’t thank me yet.
Memberships at places like that aren’t cheap, especially not if we get you a personal trainer.” She said, standing up from her desk and coming over.
“Whether or not you decide you really want to become a hero or attend U.A.
I expect you to give this decision of yours an honest try which means I expect you to keep with it for at least a month, so if you’re having any doubts now is the time to back out.”
Like I had any doubts about getting stronger.
“I’ll try my best.” I said, smiling.
“Good.” She returned it and patted my shoulder.
“So, this Toga girl-”
“Goodnight.” I said, turning and heading to my room, Aunt Nozomi laughing to herself.
Toga being brought up was going to be annoying.
A gym where I’d be allowed to properly test the limits of my quirk would be pretty interesting though.
XOXO
Tall and short.
Muscular and skinny.
Like any gym, the one we walked into, not far from the one I’d spent the past week going to, was full of all sorts of people.
Unlike that gym, quirk use was immediately obvious, some benching weight their frames had no business supporting, others literally glowing, and a few bulking up on the spot before they got to whatever workout they had planned.
That wasn’t the only difference, all the equipment in the giant space much different from the ones I’d been getting used.
On the surface they looked the same, all the typical machines around but they were just built sturdier, many straight up bolted to the ground and designed to accommodate all sorts.
I’d still focus on training without Bloodboost like I planned but this was the place to be to figure out my strength limits with it rather than making do with whatever I could find in a park.
HK had told me the projected weight his scans said I could handle but knowing and experiencing were two different things.
Now where exactly do I start?
“Hey.” A dull voice called out, a girl with both her hands raised in front of her stepping up to me.
“You’re new?”
“Going to be.” I said, Aunt Nozomi still in the middle of finishing up my application here in the reception area.
“And you’re signing up alone?” She asked, a finger pressed to the corner of her mouth as she tilted her head, long tied up hair shifting to the side.
I nodded.
“If I show you around, can you pair up with me?
My last partner bailed.
Ribbit.”
I definitely knew this girl
The long dark green hair.
The bigger than normal hands, mouth, and eyes.
That casual, completely unbothered and straight forward voice.
Even in a simple dark green tracksuit it wasn’t hard to recognize her.
Asui.
I think her first name started with a T or something but given that this should be the last year of junior high for her, it made sense that she’d be preparing for entering U.A.
I can’t say I expected to run into her in a gym of all places.
This was the kind of place I expected to run into a guy like Kirishima if I, by some stroke of luck, ran into someone from the main cast.
“Sure.” I agree.
Nodding, she led the way around the place, pointing out specific machines that were different than ones found in the typical gym, the bathrooms, dressing rooms, and water fountain.
By the time she led me fully around the building she’d brought us to one of the vacant workout benches.
“My quirk is called Frog.” She started explaining out of nowhere as she loaded weights onto the metal barbell.
“I can pretty much do everything a frog can do including secreting a poisonous mucus, it’s why I’m wearing these gloves.” She said momentary pausing to show off the black gloves around her hand.
“Is that why your partner bailed on you?” I questioned.
“Yep.” She said without missing a beat, just as blunt as I expected.
A small frog like ribbit left her before she continued.
“Its not dangerous.
It’ll make you itch and people have said it smells bad.
I don’t usually have a problem controlling it, but it does sometime leak out when I’m pushing myself.
Be careful not to touch any of it if it ends up on the bar, ribbit.”
Made sense to me.
I was more concerned about the weight.
“Uh, how much weight do you need to push yourself exactly?” I asked, feeling a little out of my depth.
She’d been stocking the bar the entire time we were talking and had already gone beyond what I was comfortable even trying to deal with.
Her eyes, again bigger than most and blinks noticeably rare, looked down before relocking with mine as she stopped.
“Is this too much?”
“It’s getting pretty close.” I admitted.
“I only started working out recently so I’m not really sure what I can manage without my quirk.”
“We’ll stick with this then.” Nodding to me, she set herself down on the bench and I moved into place behind the bar as she took hold of it.
She was strong.
The moment she lifted the no doubt weighty bar and began her workout, moving far more quickly than I would’ve managed with that weight, that thought popped into my head.
I’d never given it much thought just from watching the show, but I’d just assumed she was more agile than anything else, reminding me of the frog version of Spider-Man. This story is hosted at NovelPing.
But, like Spider-Man, she was far stronger than she looked.
In hindsight it made sense.
Just how much strength did she have to have across the entirety of her body to fling the crap she did around with her tongue all while leaping around and sticking to stuff?
More than me, that was for sure.
It took her many lifts, none of which she needed my help for, before a sweat built up.
As her lifts slowed, I picked up on what she was talking about when it came to muscus.
And I didn’t get it.
There was the faintest burn to my nose as a moist smell hit me?
I wasn’t sure how else to describe it, but it was nothing I’d call outright bad.
Then again, blood tasted and smelled appealing to me; my senses had to be altered compared to most others to allow for that.
When her form grew a bit more unsteady the next few lifts a struggle, rather than taking a chance I curled my bottom lip slightly, cutting the skin of my mouth and drinking a little blood.
I gave it moment, not interfering with her last lift until it began to fall and was struggling to even keep it in place above her before I helped, both of us bringing it up and slipping them on their hooks easily enough.
As she rose to sit, taking heavier breaths she turned to look at me, a finger brought up to the corner of her mouth.
“You got bigger?”
“My quirk.”
“Cool.” She accepted the answer without any further explanation.
“Katsu.” Aunt Nozomi came up to us, handing me a card and booklet.
“This is your membership card.
Don’t lose it.
The booklet are the rules for this place, make sure you read through it completely before working out yourself.” She said before giving Asui a friendly smile but just as quicky refocusing as me.
“Seeing as you’ve already found yourself a partner, you’re planning on starting right now aren’t you?”
“No reason not to.”
“Hmm, keep that attitude up.” She said encouragingly.
“I’ll see you back at home.
Make sure you call me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
One last set of goodbyes and she set off.
“Your mom seems nice.” Asui said.
“My aunt.” I corrected.
“And she is.” Too strict or too careless.
Parents tended to fall somewhere on the spectrum and while some might say she leaned towards the latter, I’d say she fell perfectly in the middle.
She made sure she knew where I was and what I was up but gave me the freedom to try things out.
I really didn’t have anything to complain about when it came to her.
Her rest over, I continued spotting Asui until she was done with her workout, or this part of it, the two of us standing beside the bench.
“Unless you pass a test or have a specific kind of quirk, one of the main rules requires us to have a partner for most things.” Asui pointed out.
“Even if I don’t stay long, I come by often after school, so I can be your partner.”
That saved me the trouble of finding one.
“Sure.”
Her, so far, almost dead expression, changed a bit, a smile crossing her face.
“Asui Tsuyu.
You can call me, Tsu.”
“I’m Akaguro Katsuya.”
Repeating that cute little gesture of hers, finger poking the corner of her mouth, she looked around.
“Do you have some kind of routine you already follow or should we keep following mine, Katsu?”
Guess we we’re in nickname territory.
[Feat Accomplished!
Become friends with Tsuyu Asui
+1 Bronze Familiar Gacha Ticket]
“I’ll follow you’re lead.” I said, ignoring the window.
First Toga and now Tsu.
One more person from the show and I was going to assume these social related feats were only associated with the actual cast of My Hero Academia.
If I went to U.A.
I was probably going to end up drowning in these tickets if I made friends with all the other students.
If that pattern really did end up holding, I was pretty much being encouraged to jump into the main plot.
I bet all the high rewarding feats came from doing crazy, near suicidal shit.
No pain, no gain, I guess.
XOXO
(A/N: Tsu is more of guest star in this pre U.A.
arc.
She won’t be around for much of it defintely not compared to Toga so Tsuyu fans, enjoy her while she’s around.
She’ll help with a few things.
Character Card:
See you in the comments.)