Chapter 50: Training Camp Split Up!

Summary: Time for the Training Camp! Well, this story's equivalent, anyway ;-).

Chapter 50: Training Camp Split Up!

The day after the meetup at the UA dorms, everyone had trickled into the vast underground motor pool that the University maintained. Most of them had been there at least twice before, for the Entrance Exams and USJ trips, but both visits had been limited to the intra-school section of the complex. Even the bus they'd taken to the USJ had been a middling range, electric and unarmored model. Those they were surrounded by now, however, showed subtle signs of having been dusted off from an earlier era. Recently redone paintjobs couldn't quite hide the fact that these buses had been part of a mothballed fleet in service prior to All Might's reign. While they weren't armed, they were most certainly armored, if not overly obviously so. From quick scans Izumi and 2B had done of them, they also had a far more military-spec drive train, run-flat tires, and several other features that would have been more at home on a light APC than a normal University Bus.

Clearly, Nedzu wasn't fucking around with getting UA back to a war-footing mindset.

Of course, that revelation wasn't really the important aspect of the morning. Far more critical had been getting everyone sorted out into the correct areas for their chosen camps. There were six specialized Terrain Training camps available to all years, and both Group A and Group B were scattered among them. The single largest group was heading to the most popular option of Urban Terrain. UA might have impressive fake cities, but no matter how much effort they put into those constructs, there was a vast difference between working in them and a living, breathing city. Real cities were far more chaotic…and also happened to have a lot more things that could go badly wrong if you weren't trained to function in them. Since the vast majority of heroes spent their careers mostly in city centers, it made sense that the group gathered around that bus was by far the largest group. From Group A's first years alone Kaminari, Aoyama, Iida, Sato, Sero, Shoji and Bakugo had all chosen that option.

Even so, there was some representation of their Group in each of the loading areas for all the other terrain groups. Aside from Urban, those groups were Arctic, Forest, Mountain, Rural, and Water. Arctic was by far the smallest group, since Japan only had limited population in its far northern regions that saw regular Arctic conditions. That particular group, of which only Tokoyami and Shiozaki were present from the First Years, would actually be moving to the airport and taking an international flight to find suitable training conditions. All of the other groups would be sticking within Japan, though spread all over the islands.

Momo and Izumi had surprised several people by their own selection, finding themselves joined by only Jirou from First Year Group A when they selected the Water Terrain training camp. Though they'd quickly discovered that Tsunotori and Tokage had joined them from Group B. A mix of four second years had joined as well, along with the slightly surprising addition of a member of the Big 3 in the form of Amajiki Tamaki. Everyone had their own reasoning, of course, and the first years had all taken to sharing their own among themselves as they waited for the staff, who were busy double checking everything was set.

For Momo and Izumi the explanation was actually fairly simple. Their disaster relief training prior to UA had given them an extremely solid grounding in Urban Terrain, along with passingly decent familiarity with Rural environments as well. Of the remaining types, the two had chosen not to go with their strengths, but with their weaknesses. Neither of them had any training beyond UA's basics in water rescue or combat…and Izumi in particular couldn't actually swim in her transformed state. Frankly, it was a struggle to do so even in her untransformed state, and the same problem applied to Momo. For very similar reasons, even. Essentially, and despite what anyone might think simply looking at them, neither of them were actually naturally buoyant. Their respective Quirks had caused both of them to develop far denser body mass, without increasing the surface area of their bodies much, to the point that it took serious effort to swim.

In fact, when transformed, Izumi couldn't actually swim at all. Of course, she also didn't need to breathe while fully transformed, so she was in the interesting position of being both extremely poorly suited and extremely well suited for underwater work. Momo could swim…but not in her full armor. They were hoping the Water Terrain Training Camp would serve as a good testbed to figure out how best to handle that issue. They weren't sure if it would be better to adjust the armor to have underwater thrust ability…or if using a variant of her bracer-stored partial armor would be a better bet. They'd prototyped the latter for testing and were hoping for some potential expert feedback on modifications for underwater work.

Tokage and Tsunotori, on the other hand, had explained that they both expected to be fairly good at handling Water Terrian. Setsuna could, apparently, leave her nose above water and still somehow breathe through it, despite the rest of her being below the surface. Add in her telekinetic control of her body to aid swimming, as well as being able to latch onto multiple victims with different detached limbs, and there was some obvious potential applications for her in operating in Water Environments. Tsunotori, meanwhile, admitted that she was already dive certified and could use her horns as underwater propulsion even more easily than she could use them to fly. For her, the camp was about adjusting things she'd learned for recreational use to use in heroics instead. Not a bad plan, to be honest. Particularly for a first year trying to make herself more attractive to various hero agencies.

The last one of those they really knew was Jirou. She had readily admitted that her internship with Gang Orca had revealed that she was fully capable of mimicking sonar. In addition, some testing of her other equipment had proven that some of it could help her move easily underwater. The combination had been eye-opening for her, and she'd decided to branch out and see if she could expand her skills in that direction with the help of the Water Terrian experts. It did explain why she'd requested better waterproofing for her latest prototypes, though Momo and Izumi got lost for a few minutes in trying to come up with more tweaks now that they knew the reason…

The chatting and comparing notes was brought to a natural end half an hour after the last person arrived, as the UA staff and a guest hero assigned to each bus made their way to the groups. In the case of the Water Terrian Group, the UA Hero in question was Vlad King, while The Normal Hero: Manual had joined him from the group of volunteers still beefing up UA security. Most of the more powerful heroes, such as Miruko, had needed to disperse back to their normal duties by this point. But Nedzu had managed to keep a double handful of the lower ranked heroes like Manual around, intent on using them to beef up the safety for any groups of students moving around outside UA's protection. Given his water-based Quirk, Manual was an admittedly logical choice to join in with their particular group. Even so, it was clearly Vlad King that was in charge. He chivvied them all onto the bus, with Manual quickly taking over as the driver, getting them in line to leave the underground garage from one of the exit ramps even as the Blood Hero stood facing the students.

"Alright, you ten! Now that we're underway, I can let you all know where we're going. For security reasons, you are not to share that information. Though I admit it's a bit less critical in our case. Still, don't do it. Got it?"

He waited with a serious expression until he had verbal answers from all of them, then continued.

"Right. This year we've got a special treat for the Water Terrian Camp. Selkie and the crew of the Oki Mariner have seen fit to offer up both their ship and their expertise. With them, you'll all be learning how to handle coastal water combat and rescue operations!"

There was a surprised murmur of excitement at that. Selkie was one of the more well-known water-based heroes and it showed in the sudden surge of comments and whispers from the students. Kan let it continue for a few moments before clearing his throat to get their attention.

"Our trip won't be too long. But it will take us to Nagoya, as the Coast Guard Port they currently operate out of is there. There hasn't been any specific signs of League activity in the area since the incident near Ryukyu's agency, but keep your eyes open! On that note," the hero paused and retrieved an official looking document from a pocket of his costume, "I have an official government declaration here. Due to the numerous attacks on Hero Academies, all of you are hereby given dispensation to use your Quirks in self-defense and defense of others for the duration of this trip."

The grim way Vlad King stated that fact robbed it of any good vibes. He let the stillness in the bus linger even as it jerked into motion, leaving the parking area after another bus cleared the way.

"The second and third years among you already have provisional licenses anyway. But for the First Years…don't screw around. There was a lot of back and forth by Nedzu to get that very temporary measure put in place. Do not make him regret going to the effort by causing issues. Got it?"

His own students from Group B replied instantly, with Momo, Izumi and Jirou only a heartbeat behind. He gave a jerky nod and backed up to take a seat near the front. He gave one last instruction as he did so.

"Good. We have just over two and a half hours to Nagoya's Port. Keep your eyes open. Consider keeping a watch for anything wrong as practice for patrols. As the more experienced among you know, keeping sharp for long periods of boredom can be among the hardest parts of our job…"

... ...

Thankfully, their vigilance on the way to the Coast Guard port in Nagoya City was uneventful. Since they were expected, they'd needed only a very minimal security check to confirm identities before being allowed through to the docks, where they were met by Selkie and one of his sidekicks. The large seal-man wasted little time in introducing them both and laying out the plan for the camp.

"Welcome, UA Students! As I'm sure you know by now, I'm Selkie. Next to me is my sidekick and second in command, Sirius. On my left is the Oki Mariner, our usual patrol vessel." He pointed, making it clear which ship he was referring to. "But, while she's a fine ship, she would be a bit small to handle so many additional people. As such, with great thanks to the Coast Guard, we also have the temporary loan of one of their training vessels. The Nagura."

He pointed to his right this time, to a ship that was easily half-again the size of his own Oki Mariner. There were crew in Coast Guard uniform on deck, who waved down at them as the students took in the ship.

"They've also loaned enough crew to keep the ship up, though I will be in charge of it for the duration, while Sirius takes over the Mariner. As the Nagura will only have a skeleton crew, there will be plenty of space aboard her for you students. Be respectful to her crew! And listen to any orders from them. They know their jobs here, and you don't. Got it?"

The seal-man waited for acknowledgments, then spoke again.

"Good. Now, while we will be sticking to coastal waters, we still have to get all of you checked out on basic safety gear, systems, and procedures before we can leave dock! So grab your gear and let's get to it! The faster we get you checked out, the more time we'll have to discuss what each of you brings to the table and how you'll fit into the training!"

With that…their Terrain Training Camp had started. Even if only sort of and just barely.