Training for the Tournament

Kaylee crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and sighed. This was not going as easily as she thought it would. In front of her, lying flat on their backs completely out of breath, was Christopher and Noah. Both boys had asked her to help them train, something she was all too happy to do, but she hadn’t expected them to be this this poor at simple weightlifting! Noah could at least get stronger when he was souped up on sunlight, the same as Bobby, but what use was that to building muscle? Strength requires struggle, all that charging up would do would increase a number that he could brag about, and Noah is no bragger. To be fair to Christopher, he at least had taken to eating enough for growth and getting gains from his effort, but Noah was almost adamant about not eating more. She thought back to one of the (many) times they had had the conversation:

“Gluttony is a cardinal sin.”
“It’s not gluttony Noah. If you want to get stronger, your body will require more fuel than you are used to.”
“Noah understands that, but still, it doesn’t seem right.”
“Look Noah, no matter how much you eat, you’re never going to eat as much as me. So just, just eat more meat, OK?”

But no matter how many times she had told him, he was always abstinent, unwilling to get his macros in (not that Kaylee knew what macros were, she just ate a whole lot and seemed to turn it all into power.) She opened her eyes, looked at the clock, down at her two classmates, and raised her voice.

“OKAY YOU TWO, IT’S BEEN TWO MINUTES! TIME FOR THE ONE-REP-MAX SET!”

The pair groaned; they had been at it for what felt like forever now, lifting more than either had ever done so before. They were sore, tired, and had aches in places they didn’t know they had. But they had asked for this, and even Noah had enough male pride to stick with it. They wearily got to their feet, took loooong gulps from their water bottles, and got ready for their next set.

Kaylee meanwhile had picked up a cartoonishly large dumbbell. It looked more like a giant cylinder than any normal dumbbell, and a she was curling it like it was a balloon! Guess she got bored just watching us, Christopher thought to himself. In her other hand, she held a pool noodle she had “borrowed” from one of the pools. Neither of the boys were looking forward to her using that.

They were doing deadlifts: vital for the burgeoning hero. How many times did heroes have to lift something heavy off of poor civilians? They were some of the most famous shots. They were especially important for Noah; turns out those wings need strong back muscles, so he needed to work them out.

“OK Noah, same as last time?”

“Noah accepts. Ready?”

“Ready.”

In unison, they began the chant:

“Saisho wa guuuuuu!”

“JAN!”

“KEN!”

“PON!”

Christopher threw rock, Noah threw paper. With a smile that infuriated Christopher, because you KNEW it was genuine, Noah wrapped his hand around Christopher’s.

“Paper beats Rock. Noah is sorry, Christopher, but you are first.”

“Uggggh, fine.”

Christopher stepped up to the bar, thoroughly intimidated by the mass. Kaylee, in her infinite muscle-brain wisdom, had increased the weight as they were resting, putting a whole (normal) plate on each side! That was 60 kilos! That was (until he had been all but force-fed more by his father) his body weight!

“Uhh, Kaylee, are you sure about this? Last set was 83% of this weight!”

“No, but how else are you supposed to know if you’re stronger, than to lift more than you’re sure about? Besides, it’s not like we can’t go to the doctor’s office if you mess it up.”
Christopher sighed. He didn’t have a choice.

“You can do it, Christopher!”

He smiled over at his lifting buddy. Noah had his hands in front of him in almost prayer. He took a deep breath, reached down, grabbed the bar, and pulled.

THWACK!

Before he could actually lift the bar, he felt the slap of the pool noodle on his back. Normally a pool noodle wouldn’t be able to cause any pain, but its wielder wasn’t normal. With a cry, Christopher let go of the bar and straightened up.

“OW! What was that for?”

“Your form. You were asking for your spine to break. You were more bent than this noodle.” To emphasise her point, she wiggled the noodle around as it flopped about.
Christopher looked over to Noah for support. Noah did not return his gaze.

“Noah disapproves of corporal punishment, but Noah also cannot tell a lie…”

Fine, thought Christopher, twiddle your thumbs. He was getting annoyed now, at both his fellow students. He knew on an intellectual level that it was part of Kaylee’s teaching technique, pissing them off so that their anger fuelled them, but he was still only human. He still got cross.
Straight back, Christopher thought, focusing on keeping as straight as possible as he again took hold of the bar. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pulled with all his might.

Holy hell, it was heavy! Christopher wanted to drop it, but that wasn’t an option. The bar was moving though! Christopher had managed to straighten his legs, and from the lack of a thwack, he knew his back was still straight. He heaved the bar back, feeling his back being pushed to the limit! Suddenly, he heard a cheer from Noah.

“Well done Christopher!”

He looked down and was shocked. He’d done it! He had lifted the bar! He wasn’t finished though; he had learned his lesson from previous sets, and knew if he just dropped the bar, he’d have to do it again. He set to lower the bar, but the moment he unlocked his posture, he simply dropped to the floor with a crash.

“Christopher! Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine Noah.” Christopher replied, kneeling in front of the bar panting for breath.

“You kept hold of the bar, good.”

Christopher looked up at Kaylee, before looking down at the bar. His hands were indeed wrapped around the bar. He tried to release his grip, and found his fingers unwilling to co-operate.

“Just calm down, deep breath.”

Christopher did so, and finally was able to move his fingers. Without something to grip, his hands started shaking.
“Go take a drink. In the meantime, Noah, your turn.”

“…Yes, Kaylee.”

Noah was nervous. He had seen how much effort it had taken Christopher, and while he had managed more reps in the last set, this was a heavier weight.

“Oop! Hold on Noah!”

Kaylee walked over, putting down her dumbbell, before picking up the barbell with an almost comical lack of effort. She re-racked it, and added more weight? She slotted another 5 kilos onto both ends of the bar, before putting the clips back on.

Noah’s eyes widened. That…was significantly more than he was expecting.
“Um, Kaylee? Noah is not sure that he can…”

THWACK

“What did I say about self-doubt, Noah?”

“No, no doing it?”

“And what did you just do?”

Noah’s head-wings drooped. He was about to apologise, but before the words could leave his mouth, he felt the pool noodle descend.

thwack

That one was lighter. Noah looked up at Kaylee, neck craning in order for the diminutive boy to look the giant girl in the face. Her expression was worse than anger, it was disappointment.

“There’s no point in hitting you if it just causes you to spiral. So, either stop being self-pitying and lift the bar, or we’ll have to find out how long it takes a pool noodle to break.”
Noah smiled, fairly certain that was a joke in order to encourage him, not that she wouldn’t follow through on it if needed.

“Look Noah, deadlifts are back exercises. Since you have arms, I’m assuming you use your back muscles for those wings and not your chest. Try flapping your wings without moving them.”

“…What?”

“It should be the same muscles, so try to use the same muscles! Use your wing muscles without moving your wings! And hurry up, or you get the noodle.”

Right, thought Noah. Now or never. He took hold of the bar, flapped his wings a couple of times, before focusing on keeping them still while using those same muscles, murmured a quick prayer, and pulled.
He was amazed: despite the weight, he had done it! It wasn’t even all that hard! He looked up elated, seeing Christopher - still gaining his breath – giving him a thumbs up, while Kaylee simply gave him a curt nod. Seeing that as completing the lift, Noah let gravity take back over, lowering the bar with as much control as he could as to prevent having to do it all again. As soon as the bar touched the ground, he just flopped forward, wings splayed out behind him. Guess it took more than he thought.

“I was about to say, if you found it so easy, then you didn’t lift enough. But good job Noah.”

“Th-thank you, Kaylee, but Noah has reached his limit now.” He was completely out of breath; the adrenaline having been metabolised by now.

“Hmph, fine. How about you, Christopher?” Kaylee looked over to the other boy. He had flopped back down onto the floor, only raising his hand, and doing a gesture that said, “I’m done.”

Kaylee rolled her eyes. They had barely been going an hour! She knew neither boy was physically adept (by her standards at least) but come on! Weren’t boys supposed to be stronger than girls? Maybe that was only as far as humans go, she remembered from somewhere that some species had stronger females, like killer whales. She smirked to herself; maybe she was from a different species? Doesn’t matter. As of this morning, she had a bigger goal to aim for. There was to be a tournament, and she was going to be fighting for top spot among her classmates. She knew these two weren’t much of a threat without their quirks, though both could be far more interesting than those impressions. It was unlikely she was going to be fighting either of them though; she may meet Christopher in the Semi Finals, but the only way she was fighting Noah was in the finals. That was unlikely, but possible. He charged in the sun, but so did Bobby, but Bobby knows how to fight. Noah can fly though…
She snapped out of her thoughts, looking over at Christopher and Noah. They seemed to have gotten some breath back and were just chatting.

“Well done on your lift, Christopher.”

“You too, Noah. Though if you had some light, you’d be able to lift way more.”

“If Noah did that, it would be defeating the purpose. Noah expelled all light before the start.”

“No wonder you look drained.”

“That may also be because Noah is exhausted.”

“That too.”

Kaylee went over to the pair, putting her previous thoughts away. Save the tournament thinking for later.

“How are you two feeling?”

“Tired.” They responded in unison.

“You both broke your records; you should be pleased with yourselves.”

“Noah senses there is something more you wish to say. It is OK, Noah understands that you found this dull.”
Kaylee was taken back by this; had she been that obvious?

“No, no, it’s not like that!”

“It’s OK, Kaylee.”

Christopher too?!”

“It was pretty obvious you’ve been on edge the whole time. Normally you’re jumpy in a kind of hyperactive way, but today you’ve been more, I don’t know, mean? Not that you’ve BEEN mean, but- “

“It’s fine Christopher.”

The three students were in silence for a moment.

“Yeah, I’ve been on edge. It’s the tournament, you know? I keep on thinking about it.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“Shut up, you pried. I keep going through the rounds, trying to see who wins what.”

“Wondering who you’re facing in the finals?”

Kaylee smiled at that.

“Well, yeah. My first two rounds are basically free. Ashleigh can’t do anything against me, and I’m not falling for Arena’s tricks again. Jugo’s the strongest of the four opponents I could face next, but I know him. He’s not beating me.”
“How far do you think Noah and Christopher will get?”

Kaylee turned to face the angelic boy, but before she could say anything, Christopher spoke up.

“You’ve got a really hard first round. I did some research on Titan and turns out he’s the son of TWO high-ranked US heroes! He’s able to grow or shrink anything to a ridiculous extent, over 50 times by what I’ve seen. If he makes contact with you, he’ll be able to shrink you, before growing himself, and if he pulls that off, then you’re in trouble. I don’t know how big the arena is, but my advice would be to fly out of his range until he makes himself big before using your beams to blind him. Hopefully you can take advantage of that to get him to stumble out of bounds. If he goes for the other way, by shrinking himself, then -”

Christopher stopped talking, catching that he was rambling, as well as having both of his classmates staring at him.

“Um, sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble.”

“Well you put it better than I could! Yeah, that guy’s going to be difficult, but I can’t really think of any more advice than Christopher had. Work on those laser beams of yours and aim for the eyes.”
Noah put his hands together and bowed his head.

“Noah thanks you for your help.”

“Don’t thank us yet, wait until after the bout! Even if you win, you’ve got a second hard round against Orochi.” – Kaylee

“What if the other girl wins?” – Noah

“I doubt it. That girl’s all about scaring her opponents, Orochi’s scary enough already.” – Christopher
Kaylee smirked at that. “I’ll tell her you said that."

“Please don’t.”

“Heh. I doubt you need any advice though, do you Christopher? Knowing you, you’ve already gone through everything.”
Christopher adjusted his glasses. “Not quite everything. I’m not sure of my strategy yet. I think that the best approach is keeping Hifumi’s quirk for mobility – I’ve been practicing with his recently – combined with an enhancing quirk. I think Jugo’s would be best, as I would be able to charge up without being reliant on sunlight the way I would with Bobby’s. But even with that, I’m not too hopeful on my odds. No-one really knows the full extent of Sandatsu’s quirk, except that it’s some kind of body manipulation one. He can create extra arms and regenerate quickly. That can be used for both offense and defence, but his ranged options are low. With that, I should be able to use Hifumi’s quirk to keep the distance, while hitting him with Jugo’s. I’m not sure how to actually take him out though, maybe if I get good enough with Hifumi’s quirk I might be able to grab him and teleport him out of bounds? I don’t know…”

“Well, don’t worry about it, you’ve got enough time to work on your strategy.”

“What about you, Kaylee?” Noah asked. “You said that your first two rounds were free, but Noah’s understanding of Jugo is that he should be a challenge. He has much of the same Ki-based powers, aren’t you concerned?”

Kaylee just smiled. “Jugo’s good, no doubt about it, his ranged attacks are better than mine for now. But physically, he just can’t stand up. I’ve fought him before; he needs to dodge every attack I launch at him. All I have to do is land a good couple of hits and the match is mine. Even if he does dodge, how long can he last? He can only really fight for 10 minutes or so at max power, so the longer it goes, the more in my favour it becomes.”

Kaylee straightened up to her full height, it was now her turn to ramble on.

“That puts me in the semi-finals. There, the most likely opponents are either Hifumi, Sandatsu, or you.” She looked down at Christopher. He couldn’t help but gulp in fear, what with the look in her eyes.

“If it’s Sandatsu, I can overpower him no problem. If it’s you or Hifumi, it’s the same as Jugo; as soon as I land a hit, I win.”

“Your confidence in yourself is inspiring.”

“You should try to match it, both of you should.”

Kaylee turned from the pair, leaving them to recuperate. She had been preoccupied with teaching the two weaker students, she hadn't had a chance to exercise herself. She had been in the various weight rooms of Shiketsu’s ‘Gym’ (hardly a fitting term for such a sprawling facility) almost every day since getting accepted into the Academy and was swiftly running out of suitable equipment. She squeezed her hand into a fist as she walked to the dedicated barbell and weights. Normal level equipment was not able to give her a challenge, not without a time-wasting number of repetitions. With several 100kg weights, and a bar that could meet the challenge, she got her set up in place, and started her workout.