Chapter 29: FIRE ZONE
Sorry for the delay. Life's been really intense recently. I'd like to post a chapter once a week but I don't know how plausible that is right now. So, in short, updates will likely be irregular. I'll aim to keep to 1 chap. a week at the usual time but i won't gurantee it. Thanks for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience
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Maru lay flat on the pavement trying to catch his breath, 1A watching in mild disbelief and a bit of horror at the flaming building in front of them. His pristine white hero costume was covered in smudges of soot like spots on a dalmatian with his mangled board at his side. It probably didn't help that he looked just like he felt making a few of his classmates step backwards when their homeroom teacher called for the next group to attempt the exercise.
None of it registered past the shock like a solid block surrounding his mind. Rescue training was pummeling him. They had been allowed to try out wherever they were most comfortable over the first two lessons. A chance to get familiar with the rescue process in hero training. The entire first first semester focused on exposing them to rescue training and what it entailed. It'd get more complex every year and Abe sensei had called this more of an introductory course to the basics. Maru chose water. He was confident he would succeed in any environment and water had the least number of people so he chose it. It had been fun. So much fun he barely noticed time passing. Rescue training was scheduled every Friday for a reason and he'd taken full advantage of it, trying all sorts of ideas on the water, from creating his own personal ice rink to pulling a titanic on the escaping 'villains' boat. He was free to try water he wanted provided it aligned with their lessons in class and he took full advantage of the short lived freedom. That ended last week, and now, he could picture the D in his recue training results. D for done.
They were covering every zone systematically now, starting with the fire zone. A zone he was confident he would excel. His quirk was stronger against fire types, that was just a fact. He even volunteered to try the course first. This time though, Youta was his teammate. Naturally, the possibility of failing didn't even cross his mind. The task was simple. Save the trapped civilian from the burning building. He wasn't the only one confident. Youta was completely at ease as well. After fighting him, Maru truly believed that if they worked together, they may be able to even take on a hero.
The equipment was different from what he had in the water zone but the task itself was pretty straight forward.
It wasn't.
They had gone in confident. They had heard the 'civilian' even before they entered the apartment. Third floor. And then everything fell apart. There's a difference between seeing a fire and being surrounded by one. Maru knew this. He was certain he knew this fact intimately but reality did a serious series: serious table flip on him. You see the flame. You always see the flame but you never really notice the smoke. They're both corporeal yet no one ever pays much attention until they're forced to. He followed the lessons. Stay low to avoid smoke and make your way to the target of your rescue. The 'civilian's ' screams for help were getting lower. They rushed up the flight of stairs and headed straight for the third floor. Moving steadily towards their target. Then the floor caved. He immediately created a slide from his ice to ease their descent. They wasted no time moving away just incase the floor caved again thanks to the added debris. It was a smart choice considering the floor did cave. But they weren't prepared for the wooden beam that decided to drop on their heads. Youta was strong enough to push it aside before it caused any further injury. Then they got dizzy. That was it. He didn't know how Abe-sensei noticed it but they had been told to leave the building immediately, oxygen tanks being shoved in their faces the moment they left the building.
He just couldn't wrap his head around it. Normally, his ice tramped normal fire, it always had. Yet, he barely had the chance to use it before it was game over. They both barely did anything before it was over. He didn't even have the presence of mind to pay attention to the other groups, two of which succeeded in rescuing the 'civilian', a dummy with pre-recorded artificial vocal cords. The fact that he failed while others passed stung more than he thought it would. Pride wasn't something that went hand in hand with his character but the preconceived idea that he would succeed and didn't left him feeling out of breath which he literally was. For some reason, his mind just refused to start back up and analyze why.
Instead, a memory, barely a day old, kept replaying in his mind like a broken record. Even clearer than when he experienced. He remembered chatting with Touya for what felt like second but turned out to be almost an hour. It would be night soon and they needed to head home. That's when he remembered he hadn't seen someone, so he asked. And they froze. So briefly he would have thought he imagined it if Touya hadn't started scowling angrily at the ground. Looking back on it, he had missed how Aunt Rei flinched at his question. He had also missed the gaze his parents threw their way. His father, being the social genius he was, led the conversation away from the topic and they left shortly after with a promise on both sided to visit. He really hadn't thought much of it at all. But now, with his blank gaze staring at the flaming building in front of him it came back to him. Fire could be pretty scary
Abe-sensei called the class together and he stuffed all those thoughts to the back of his eerily blank mind and force himself to focus back on the man. He had done absolutely nothing productive for the entire lesson and he couldn't let it end that way.
Abe looked through the results of the training one last time. They'd be a few changes to his weekly report to the mouse. Things didn't go exactly as he thought they would but overall, the results were to some extent expected. Looking up, he saw the herd of owls look at him as though he had the answers to all that plagues the universe. He had to fight down the smile trying to worm its way to his face. These kids were way too trusting but he could understand their confusion. Even the ones who passed the tests seemed confused. A glance to the cause had his brow furrow slightly. Both boys looked dazed and a bit out of it but determined to hear what went wrong. They probably hadn't noticed that they weren't using their quirks as freely or broadly as they had before. Unconsciously holding back without realizing it.
"Overall, the performance was worse than I expected," he started, and almost completely stopped at how the kids looked like someone told them All Might just died. He wouldn't be soft on them though.
"To start off, the first pair performed poorly and the others that failed seemed more affected by that and in turn didn't perform at a level they normally would."
"I did not expect every single one of you to succeed or there would be no need for me I the first place. I did, however, expect you all to focus and be present in the exercise rather than go in waiting to fail."
He paused as his eyes swept across the worst culprits.
"For those of you who succeeded despite that, good job. There are areas you could improve on but your focus was exemplary. You deserved the win for it."
The four kids blushed at the praise but they deserved it. They were better equipped to handle situations where morale was low and that was a much-needed skill in hero work.
"As for your weekend assignment, I want you to analyze your performance based on what you've already learnt theoretically on rescue work. Criticize your performance based on the 5E's: equip, environment, exit, encourage and evacuate. First, your preparation and choice of equipment. Second, your analysis of the environment. Third, securing your exit, no point going in and never coming out. Fourth, securing the victims and encouraging them. Last, evacuation."
He held Maru and Youta's gaze, addressing the next question particularly to them.
"What did you do and how could you do it better? That's all. Dismissed."
Maru wanted to slap himself, hard. Of course he failed. It'd be more shocking if he passed. He hadn't done a single one.
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RujiroTaicho
RujiroTaicho Hope you liked it. Thanks for reading!
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