Awkward Energy - MinaDeku

The Third Day

The third day of training was much like the second, built on extending Quirks as much as physically possible, and going beyond that. It was far more exhausting than the previous day, since they were building up from the previous day, and muscles just hadn't fully recovered yet. Of course, that was the point. Once broken, muscles would grow back stronger than previously, and repeating that process would increase the strength of said muscles over and over again. The same was true with Quirks. It had been said before, but it bore repeating. Again and again.

Somehow, they still ached the next day, and getting back to using them was still straining and painful. Many would argue that the internships had been far easier than this – And some of them had actually done serious Hero work during those! The path to Heroism, it turned out, was filled with pain, hardship, and a lot of blood and torn muscles and Quirks. Then again, they already knew this perfectly well, and it wasn't like it was going to stop anyone now. This was a necessary evil when it came to training up their powers, and in the long run, it was going to be of massive benefit to them.

Didn't mean it didn't hurt like holy hell though.

Mina in particular was suffering from this exercise, her absolute fatigue still lingering in her eyes, mixed in with her pains from overuse of her Quirk. The scars on her hands and forearm were still tender, and made actually using her powers in any capacity a bit like washing paper cuts with lemon juice. The combination of the two made her feel like she was just a few seconds away from passing out entirely. She made mental notes to herself, over and over, that if she was going to avoid this horrible situation in the future, she was going to have to really buckle down and study.

She needed no more motivation than this utter torture.

While exhausted as she was, she was still putting in absolutely everything that she could into every move that she made. She had spent a lot of the day practicing on her special move, piling layers and layers of acid onto one another, until she had made a sphere within her palms. For the purposes of training, it was actually a very handy trick to have. It aided in the rapid generation of the corrosive liquid, and it helped to train her skin to build up even more immunity to it. Still, the sheer intensity of it caused her a huge deal of pain, rendering her unable to keep it up for more than about twenty seconds at a time.

It was after the third attempt at this, while her hands felt like bleeding, yet no red liquid came out, that she just took a moment to step back, and allow herself to recover. Just for a few seconds. Maybe a minute.

Or two.

"Ashido!"

Aizawa-sensei's voice alone was now enough to make the pink skinned girl shudder. She practically associated it with nothing but pain and educational torture and torment. Half terrified, she reflexively stood to attention, awaiting whatever her homeroom tutor had to say to her.

"You're slowing down." The Erasure Hero bluntly observed. "You were maintaining a consistent level of improvement yesterday. You're letting yourself down now."

"Sorry, sensei..." Mina apologised, though she felt that her lower performance was very easily his fault, after all the crap he'd put her through the previous night. She felt like a corpse on legs, barely any feeling left in her arms. Heavy eyelids meant that focus was a near impossibility, and physical pain just left her feeling like her whole body was made of cinderblocks. "Just... Sleepy is all."

"You were warned that things were going to be tough."

"Doesn't make things any easier though." She muttered, before attempting to secrete some more of her Acid from her palms, to begin doing what she could in terms of training again. Only she was well beyond her limit now. Whereas she could normally generate as much as she desired, now she was left with just a few drops of corrosive liquid, that pathetically dripped off her hands and onto the ground by her feet. Straining herself, she pushed, harder and harder, to generate more from her Quirk, but to no avail. A huge gasp for air escaped her as she gave in. "I-I... I'm... I'm at my limits... I... I can't..."