The Difference Between Strength & Power ( MHA x Maki Zenin Reader)

This is the craziest summer camp ever!

The day of the summer Training Camp had finally arrived and all the first years were gathered at their buses ready to go. A few days earlier Class A had gathered at the pool for endurance training, since it was training Maki had tagged along. They'd stayed their until 5pm until Aizawa chased them out. Now he was telling them that this camp would not be a time for relaxing at all and that he expected them to go Plus Ultra. Maki knew that the location of the camp was a secret in order to keep the students safe, given the recent increase in villainous activity. She also found out that they were going to be training in order to gain provisional hero licenses. She couldn't help but surprised when she found this out, there were very few first years in the country who even tried to earn those. This meant that the teachers were confident they could get a licence and that they wanted them to be able to defend themselves against the rising number of dangerous villains.

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After an hour long bus journey where Maki basically just listened to her favourite playlist, they were instructed by Aizawa to disembark. Strangely, the place they'd stopped was in the middle of a cliff side road with a large forest below. Additionally, Class B was nowhere to be seen. There was also a black car nearby. The other students were just as confused as she was. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long before their questions were answered. Out of the car stepped two female, cat themed heroes who were part of a team called the Wild, Wild Pussycats. Aizawa told them that they were going to be helping out with the training camp.
"The summer training camp you're staying at is there at the base of the mountain." Mandalay, the team's leader said, pointing towards a small patch quite some distance away.
"THAT'S FAR?" The class except Maki said in unison. Uraraka then timidly asked why they'd stopped so far away only for Asui to just say they already knew the answer to that. This caused many of Maki's classmates to start nervously backing away towards the bus.
"The current time is 9:30 in the morning." Mandalay said menacingly, baring her cat claws "if you're fast about it, you might make it there by noon." This caused the class to go into a full blown panic and run towards the bus as Mandalay issued the ultimatum that if they didn't make it there by 12:30 they wouldn't get any lunch. Aizawa announced that the training camp had already begun as Pixie-bob blocked their path to the bus and used her quirk to launch them over the side of the cliff and into the forest bellow. Maki got the initiative before her classmates did and just jumped over the side before she met the same fate as her peers.

They were then informed that they could use their quirks as much as they wanted since the Wild, Wild Pussycats owned the land. But of course, it wasn't going to be simple for them. They were soon met with fearsome looking beasts that Maki could see were made out of earth.
'They must be controlled by Pixie-bob.' she thought as she launched herself at the one closest to her and landed and strong kick, smashing it in a cloud of dust.
'This forest is gonna be full of them, they're trying to slow us down! If I just keep fighting them I'll be too worn out to make it there in time.' She thought as the rest of her peers began using their quirks to destroy the earth beasts. 'They're probably not going to take a different approach even if I tried to talk to them, so they can do whatever they want. If I had my quirk tools on me that would be a different story. The best way to get to camp fastest is to avoid the beasts by heading through the trees!' At that conclusion, Maki made her way up the closest tree and began to parkour from branch to branch.

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Aizawa, Mandalay & Pixie-bob were met with a fairly big surprise. They had taken the bus the rest of the way down to the training camp building and had expected the students to arrive in the next four or five hours at the very least.  They were met with Maki crashing out of the trees on time. She was panting slightly, her uniform and skin were covered in dust and sweat and there were twigs in her dark green hair. Once she'd caught her breath, she looked equally surprised when she realised that she was the first one there.
"Maki, how did you get here so fast?" Aizawa asked after a moment of awkward silence.
"I just avoided the earth beasts all together and went for through the trees because if I engaged them like the others did, I wouldn't make it in time." She explained before adding "I definitely wouldn't have done that if I had my quirk tools on me."
"Err, okay... how long do think it will take for the others to get here?" Her teacher asked awkwardly.
"Probably two more hours at the very least at rate they're going." Maki bluntly replied.

"Eraser," Mandalay, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, began asking "Is this the kid who you said doesn't have a quirk but has above average abilities?"
"Yes, her name's Maki Zenin and don't call her by her last name." Aizawa replied
"You're great kid!" Pixie-bob butted in "I've never seen a quirkless person make it into a hero school and you're already stronger than most of your classmates!"
"Yeah, I know that." Maki deadpanned
"By the way, how did you pass the entrance exam without a quirk?" Mandalay asked, weaving her way back into the conversation.
"I've been training in combat for most of my life and I use quirk tools, weapons that are already imbued with a quirk." She explained earning looks of surprise & excitement from the two cat heroes.
"Wow, where can I get one?" Pixie-bob asked excitedly
"I don't think you can..." Maki said, immediately souring the cat hero's previously bouncy mood "...Firstly, most of the quirk tools that already exist are owned by the three big influential families, including the Zenin clan, and they're extremely stingy about who they give them to; I had to steal most of the ones I have. Secondly, the family of quirk users that are able to make them are now very few in number and the process of making quirk tools takes a very long time. Finally, they can be very expensive. I've heard one of them cost *five hundred million yen."

*[equivalent of £2,759,338.25]

At the revelation of this big price, Pixie-bob completely deflated. Mandalay started to try and cheer her up to little effect.
"How are quirk tools made?" Aizawa suddenly asked; until Maki had become a student at UA high, he'd never heard about anything about quirk tools so this new piece of information she had just mentioned made him curious.
"Huh? Oh, well there are two methods that can be used to make quirk tools, both take a long time though." She answered "The first method is a member of the earlier mentioned family continuously using their quirk to imbue another person's quirk into the weapon until it said weapon emits the quirk on it's own. Most of the time, it isn't as powerful as the original quirk itself but those that are are extremely valuable."
"Okay, what's the other method?" Aizawa asked after taking a moment to process the information.
"The second method is using a process called 'The Bath Ritual'. It was originally used in the days when quirks first manifested in humans because most quirks back then were considerably weaker than they are today. The process involves a solution of quirk factors being created by grinding and straining organisms chosen in a *Kodoku ritual. The weapon then is then subsequently marinated in this solution for ten months & ten days." Maki explained thoroughly with a look of faint disgust on her face, taking some of the twigs out of her hair as she was talking.

*[A Kodoku ritual is where sorcerers would mix several insects in a jar and let them kill one another until only one survived. The fluids of the insect that survived would be used to poison an individual with a curse that would control them, cause them misfortune or kill them.]

Aizawa blinked before saying,
"So basically, quirk tools are very hard to get hold of." It was more of a statement than a question.
"Yes" Maki replied. Aizawa let out a long sigh, he needed to give his brain a rest after that.
"Alright, get your stuff off the bus, have lunch and rest until the others get here." He instructed.
"Yes, sir" Maki said and she made her way to get her bag and quirk tools, as she made her way towards the building she noticed a young boy was there as well. She decided not to pay him any mind as she was quite hungry.