The Emperor's Dragon II

Those Who Play Games

There were a lot of things Hitoshi liked about being a hero apprentice. Unfortunately, they usually went hand in hand with things he didn't like. Right now, the one to one training time was high on the list of dislikes. But Hitoshi knew one to one training was a privilege the other hero students would ... well, not kill for, but do quite a bit to get. They weren't stinted by their teachers, but they were students, which meant they were in classes of about 20, and that meant their teachers had to split their attention.

He, on the other hand, got the full attention of his teacher.

Which was both good and bad. Good because the teaching he got was personalised, and focused on his quirk and his abilities, and bad, because he absolutely could not shirk, at any point.

Hitoshi knew that Eraser Head hadn't wanted to take him on as an apprentice. The man had never said anything but it was obvious. Even so, Aizawa was a professional, and hadn't let his preference get in the way of training. He took his responsibilities seriously. The underground hero had made up a realistic training schedule for Shinsou and had made sure he followed it and before that, Aizawa had insisted they have a candid talk about Hitoshi's quirk and its abilities.

Once Hitoshi had been deemed 'adequately' fit, he was given a more intensive exercise schedule and expected to follow it, but Aizawa had then begun one to one training time with him. The underground hero had made it completely clear that he was not going to take Hitoshi out with him on patrols. Aizawa had let Hitoshi work out the reasons for that himself but had quizzed him to ensure he had arrived at the right answers. There were several reasons. One, apprenticeships were not work experience, so while field experience was expected, it was not an immediate requirement as the apprenticeship would last longer. Two, while Hitoshi was an apprentice, he wasn't actually enrolled in a hero course, so the rules were slightly different. Three, Aizawa had absolutely no intention of slowing down or coddling him in the field so the Hero had to be absolutely certain that Hitoshi could handle himself. And four, Hitoshi had no license. Not even a provisional one, which added legal complications, even for simple things such as patrolling on a rooftop. People could, and did complain that it was trespass. Heroes got away with it. Civilians, even civilians under supervision and training to be heroes, didn't get away with it.

So that meant that Aizawa gave him one to one training a few times a week, as well as making sure that some of his free periods were spent with the hero classes during their practical lessons. Mostly Aizawa made him run through an obstacle course. It was to simulate the difficulties with patrolling.

Other times it was actual combat lessons.

Today was combat lesson and when Aizawa sent his capture scarf straight at him, Hitoshi knew what today's lesson was about. The underground hero had done this a few times before, usually when he was running short on sleep and needed a nap. Eraser Head would throw his capture scarf at Hitoshi and let him struggle with it.

That's how he'd known he couldn't burn it, and couldn't cut it and...

Well, not today!

And if he was appropriately sneaky he might be able to score a win. Hitoshi bucked as the capture scarf wound around him and then he braced as it constricted movement and he inevitably fell to the ground.

He wriggled in it, trying to get free, which is what he had done previous times.

Aizawa sighed. "You know that's not going to work," he muttered.

"Maybe," Hitoshi told him. Aizawa hated when people tried the same thing over and over and expected better results. To show that this wasn't quite the same as the previous times, he waved the hand he'd managed to get free from the bandage like support item.