There is so much beauty in letting go of pain, watching scars turn into butterflies before they fly away.
~ Christy Ann Martine

Track 23: Little Bird by Imogen Heap

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Your brain was too fuzzy the next morning to fully comprehend the words seemingly falling out of Aizawa's mouth. He was explaining something about reinforcement training and that this camp was essential for them to obtain their temporary licenses. In your regards it was for your provisional license since you just needed a refresher before you could get fully back into the game. After having that for a few months and going through some hardcore missions you'd be able to be a fully certified hero.

You were rubbing one of your eyes and thinking about the Maine Coon waiting at home for your pets when Aizawa had Bakugo throw another softball to reference his throw from their apprehension test. His peers were shocked at the lack of improval but dropped the interest when their teacher explained the growth had been minimal and only emotional and technical in that case. Training camp was a time to focus on physical growth which is what he wanted them—and you—to prioritize today. After he sent each of his students off to their own things or teaming them up together to improve themselves he approached you.

"Go off on your own and focus on your larger moves. Make sure you're a good distance away from the camp before beginning in order to prevent any misfires from harming my class. Call me if you need any assistance. Mandalay will be keeping an eye on you." You nodded at his directions and opened your wings, letting yourself rise above the trees when the faint figures of Class 1-B entered the courtyard of the cabin.

You spent quite a bit of time perusing above the expanse of forest, stopping short at the other side of the valley before letting yourself reach the floor. You had to let yourself warm up in order to start stockpiling your abilities. You wouldn't be able to do your ultimate moves without giving yourself some downtime in between each one. You knew that you'd be out here in the training camp for a few days so perhaps it would be a decent idea to spend a day on each one. You could wait a bit for disengage and mass disengage since those didn't take as much of your stockpile ability up so you would more than likely be able to do those two in the same day.

Your mind wandered back to your years at U.A. when you were first learning your ultimate moves. You remembered it taking quite a bit longer for you to handle them properly compared to your classmates. You prayed to whatever god existed that it wouldn't take you that long this time around. You had been able to perform New Moon based off of a repressed memory, so it shouldn't be too hard, right?

It took about an hour for you to stockpile enough mana to produce Full Moon which was the basic one you wanted to get ahold of. You could focus on New Moon after you'd conquered the first one since that made it easier as it was. Letting yourself glide up into the sky above the trees once again, you focused your breathing as you looked down towards the forest floor. As you decided where to land, you searched for a place where there was wildlife so you could make sure it truly stopped time like it was supposed to. Making sure that you were still the same distance away from the cabin where the students were, you exhaled deeply before inhaling once and collapsing your wings.

You let yourself plummet to the ground, making sure to lift your arms above your head to increase your speed. Just a few more seconds before you'd make contact. You let your eyes flutter shut and your upper torso relaxed to absorb the rest of the impact that the steel soles of your boots couldn't tolerate.

"Full Moon!"

The second your heels hit the ground you could hear the air around you warble as the molecules came to a standstill. A good three hundred meter circle around you was frozen in time, defined by a shallow ring of blue fire that left the forestry around it unscarred. You rose from your crouched position and took in the scene around you. There was a stag and a few does across the creek to your left. Their heads were halfway upright since they heard your descent towards them though they didn't have a chance to flee before they were forced to become as still as stone.

You walked about the circle of stopped time that you had created, mesmerized by the immobile leaves inside and the ones dancing about the branches outside. The scenery inside your zone seemed to have a subtle blue hue as the faint blue flames licked at the trunks of large, ancient trees. The bark felt oddly cold to the touch when you brushed your fingertips against it, peaking your curiosity. Perhaps you didn't remember it being like this because it had been so long or because you had repressed those memories after the death of your mother.

You didn't quite get the chance to think on it further when the wind buffeted your back, signaling that your two minutes of stopped time had reached its end. You gave a soft sigh and looked back up to the sky, admiring as a small cluster of birds flew below the quaint, white clouds lingering in the early morning atmosphere. You rolled your shoulders as the small herd of deer bounded into the forest and away from you, opening your wings to rise into the air once again to repeat the move until you were exhausted.

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You were startled out of your trance when your phone went off. You pulled it out of your pocket and wiped the sweat from your brow when you read the message you had been sent. There was a couple from a few hours ago that hadn't caught your attention when your phone pinged from Hawks that said that he loved you and that he missed you. There was even a picture of Yoshio sprawled out on his back in the windowsill, sunbathing. You smiled at that image and sent him a quick text in response before looking at the one most recently sent to you from Aizawa.

It was a message stating to head back to the cabin, that the students were preparing dinner on orders of Pixie-Bob. You smiled at that and replied with an "okay" before making your way back to the cabin. The late afternoon glide was peaceful as the warm summer days began to cool off as the sun began its slow descent. When your feet touched the dirt of the courtyard you were greeted by the sight of the students shambling around what seemed to be an outdoor kitchen. Some were busy hovering over frying pans while others chopped up ingredients.

You sat down at a table with Vlad King and Aizawa, catching up with the 1-B teacher and reminiscing on old times with them. The students went about serving themselves and you waited patiently for them to finish gathering what they wanted before you and the rest of the adults went about feeding yourselves. It was nice to see the class working so well together in order to feed themselves as a pack instead of as individuals.

Your second day ended similarly to the first, having the entire bath to yourself while the students of 1-A cleaned up their dinner and ventured back to your room. Before you had the chance to dial Hawks number, he was already calling you. You answered with a smile and flopped down onto your bed.

"Did you know I was about to call you?"

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The third day was about the same as the first; a bright and early morning that you could barely process. You were ordered to go off on your own to privately master another ultimate move since they could be considered consequences if they backfired. Today you decided you'd spend the time you had focusing on New Moon. You felt confident in your abilities with Full Moon and since that one came easier than it did before the more difficult one should be a piece of cake.

Having the practice of stockpiling from yesterday, you were able to reach the mana capacity you needed in order to go through with it. You let yourself rise into the air again and located that same spot from yesterday near the creek. Ironically enough that same minuscule herd of deer from the day before was venturing into that small meadow as you hovered above it. Since this ultimate move reversed time for up to 120 seconds you gave them a few minutes to drink from the creek and begin their trek out of the meadow before you allowed yourself to fall.

For New Moon you had to have a little more speed and inertia on your side for it to function properly so you let yourself nosedive this time instead of going feet first like you did yesterday. Within a few hundred meters of the ground you barely noticed the herd of deer begin to bolt when you flipped over to create your glyph.

"New Moon!"

The impact made you fall on your ass, your entire spine vibrating from the sensation when you winced. Your entire body felt like concrete and you didn't have the energy to move from your position on your ass for about a minute. When you managed to catch your breath you rose to your feet, noticing the stag and his two does leaping backwards towards the creek you were standing next to. You stepped to the side, briefly allowing your hand to stretch out and brush against one of their coats as they passed by.

The sensation made you smile softly. Once again you took notice of the short blue flames flickering around your landing zone. Just as the deers hooves reached the far end of the creek the reversal wore off and they continued their forward path like they had been before you landed. You opened your wings with a soft chuckle and let yourself catch the updraft from the trees. You were excited to tell Hawks all about your time at the training camp; you were sure that he would be proud of you.

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Your legs felt like they were made of gelatin by the time that Aizawa requested your return to the cabin. You barely made it to one of the picnic tables before your legs crumpled. With a heavy sigh you used your arms to haul yourself into the seat and you let your head settle not so gently onto the surface. You could feel yourself drifting in and out of being present in the moment as the students of 1-A bumbled about preparing dinner like they did the night before. You barely noticed some of the students exchanging glances with one another and whispering about the fact that you looked like a walking corpse. You felt like you could sleep for a whole month seeing how rapidly you were refilling and draining all the energy you'd been stockpiling over the past few days.

"(L/N)?"

You lifted your head at the sound of a soft spoken voice saying your name. Across from the table stood Uraraka and Asui, looking down at you with a worried look.

"Hey girls, what's up?" You cleared your throat and sat upright to make yourself look a bit more like an authoritative figure.

"Sorry for bothering you. You look pretty worn out, so we wanted to make sure you got some food before it was all eaten." Uraraka offered you a platter of delicious looking food.

"Oh wow, you didn't need to do all of that for me." You were in awe of how kind and considerate Aizawa students were. You couldn't remember any of your own classmates being this respectful of you, but that was an entirely different situation if you truly thought about it. "Thank you, I really appreciate it." You gently took the plate and gave them a bright smile. "How's your training been going?"

"Horribly." Uraraka sighed, holding one of her hands to her stomach. "I'm trying to build up my endurance for my quirk. If I use it for too long it makes me really sick."

You gave her a small pout of sympathy before looking at Asui once she began speaking. "Not too bad on my hand. I'm working on my camouflage right now; it's pretty difficult to hide from Shoji."

"Eat and clean up quickly, children! The Test of Courage begins in 45 minutes!" Pixie-Bob cried from the front of the cabin, unintentionally interrupting your conversation with the girls.

The two waved goodbye to you before moving off back to their classmates to sit and eat with their friends. You found the other adults of the group maneuvering over to your table to accompany you while you finished eating.

"How are your moves coming along?" Aizawa asked after sitting down across from you.

"A lot easier than they did when I first learned them." You answered him after swallowing the mouthful of food you had. "But I'm definitely still rusty and my endurance isn't as high as it used to be."

"That's a given seeing how long it's been since you last trained." He replied, drumming his fingers against the table. "It's only been a few days and you're remembering things quicker than I expected you to."

You shrugged your shoulders after finishing your plate. "It probably helps that I have spent the last few weeks with you building up those skills again."

"I have a request for you." He said, suddenly shifting topics.

You tilted your head to the side subconsciously. "What is it?"

"I've got some students of mine that failed their exams and have supplementary lessons tonight in replacement of the test the pussycats came up with." He began, looking over towards the growing group of students intermingling with each other. "While I'm dealing with them would you give Pixie-Bob and Mandalay a hand with the game?"

"If all I've got to do is sit back and keep an eye on them I'd be happy to." You replied without any hesitation.

"Thank you. Tomorrow evening you and I will spend time perfecting those ultimate moves." He rose from the table and headed back towards the cabin. You stood up and followed suit, chuckling when he dragged five of his students with his capture weapon back into the cabin for their classes.

You watched the sunrise settle over the trees on the horizon, leaving the darkening sky to mix with streaks of purple and orange that left vivid hues on the nature around you. Pixie-Bob and Mandalay went about creating sets of students to go through the test of courage while the kids from 1-B went off into the woods to find their hiding places. Due to Shota taking an odd number of students back inside to follow up on their supplementary classes, Izuku Midoriya was left without a partner on the test of courage.

Pixie-Bob was looking forward to sending the young man into the foreboding woods on his own but looked a little disappointed when you offered to go along with him seeing that he was fully prepared to piss himself. You engaged the wannabe hero with idle chit chat about U.A. and heros while you waited to go with him through the forest. After about ten minutes, Mandalay signaled to Asui and Uraraka that it was their turn to go in. They looked nervous thanks to the shrieks of fear from the classmates that had gone ahead of them but put on a brave face when the shadows of the trees swallowed them whole.

The closer it got to yours and Midoriya's turn the more anxious he seemed to get. You opened your mouth to ask him about his family but didn't get the chance when suddenly a plume of smoke began billowing from within the forest. Immediately your eyes turned towards it and your wings opened to lift you into the air for a closer look but you didn't get the chance when out of nowhere two unfamiliar people appeared. It was instinctual to grab Deku's wrist and yank him behind you. Sure he was a hero in training and you didn't have much more skill than he did at this point in time but compared to you, he was still a child.

And... technically... Aizawa had only been able to get you on this trip under the guise of being a "chaperone" since All Might couldn't attend due to him being a target. So that meant that you were responsible for all of your mentors' students like they were your own. You were barely able to see what happened before Pixie-Bob was unconscious on the ground. Something that seemed to be a large magnet had struck her across the head and now she was in the hands of the enemies. Tiger, the male Pussycat stepped forward to rescue his comrade but the other villain, a green lizard dude prevented him from going any further. You weren't fully aware of the fact that Midoriya had left your side until Mandalay ordered you to follow him.

"(L/N), go help him find Kota!"

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