Secrets [Todoroki]

*Chapter Twenty-Seven*

The morning laps were nightmares for the six troops. Had it been just the lap, it would've been fine. But with the weights?

Miri was lost in her thoughts while running. She knew she needed to get stronger quickly if she wanted to go back home. She didn't doubt for a minute that her grandfather would keep her here until she could lift the vehicle.

The weights were working, but they were a slow process. Her arms and legs were only slightly sore, so they weren't helping her as much as she'd like.

Reaching the end of her lap, she saw her grandfather waiting there with his watch, timing them.

At this rate, she won't be going back to Japan for a month instead of the week they originally had planned.

She growled and stopped in place. The other troops passed her, but looked over their shoulders.

"Miri, what are you-" They started to ask, but they cut themselves off seeing her tearing her weights off. "Stop! Are you crazy? He'll put eighty on you!"

Miri threw the weights aside and kept running. She was faster now, dust kicking up from her feet and wind throwing her braids back.

Her grandfather noticed her coming in hot, but also noticed the lack of weights. He smiled to himself, knowing very well what she was trying to do. He forced the smile off his face as he moved to stand in her path.

"Mirianne!" He barked. "Where are your weights?"

"I took them off." She panted.

"Guess we must put new ones on you then." He turned to a crate and pulled out thick bands. He clasped them around her wrists and ankles. "Keep taking them off and it'll be a hundred."

Miri's arms hung at her sides. These weights were half her body weight, and she felt the effects of them, but she wasn't stopping there.

She forced her hand up to her wrist.

Her grandfather grew worried there. "Miri, hold on-"

"I've got to get stronger." She panted as she forced the first weight off. It fell to the ground with a thud. "I don't want to lose again. I want to go home and show my friends I'm more than what happened at the festival." The second one was off her wrist and she bent over to her ankles. "I'm still working on the issues I've found with myself since my defeat. That I understand is a slow process. But this?" She got the third weight off. "This is the one thing I won't take slow. I don't want the sideways glances, I want people to face me head on, just like I will the rest of the obstacles I face in my life." She got the last weight off and held her wrists out to her grandfather for the next set. "I'm not the same girl you saw on the screen in your office. I've fallen back from that, but I'm building myself up again, stronger than I was before. If you're going to hold me back from that, then you don't deserve to be my instructor."

Her grandfather stared down at her. "How old are you again?" He asked, turning around and grabbing even bigger weights.

"I'll be sixteen in December." She smirked.

He put the weights on her, and Miri immediately felt the difference. Just standing alone proved to be problematic.

Miri took a deep breath. "I won't get stronger any other way."

"All the training your mom put you through, was any of it focused on this quirk?" Her grandfather asked her.

"No." Miri looked down at the dirt.

"That explains a lot." He rubbed his face in thought. "Follow me." He waved.

Miri took a deep breath and took a heavy step forward. Her movements were stiff and jagged, almost like a robot.