The tree trunk accepted the impact with the specific generosity of old-growth wood, which was that it absorbed the force through deep roots and didn't fall.
Four-point-five percent, the relevant part of his brain confirmed. That held.
The second impact — same OFA output, applied differently, the instinct channel Gran Torino had started in that apartment three weeks ago manifesting now as a quality in the movement that wasn't present before, a responsiveness rather than a command — hit at a slightly different angle and the tree registered it differently. The same force but less waste in the delivery.
Better.
Tiger was running three other students thirty meters away at a volume that suggested his pedagogical approach was calibrated toward people who responded well to volume, which was approximately half of Class 1-A. The training regimen for Yami's declared quirk was impact resistance and endurance — logical assignments for a resurrection quirk with a minor physical enhancement component — and Tiger executed them with the professional investment of someone who treated every student as an optimization problem.
He ran four more tree strikes at 4.5% and felt the wrist at the third one register. Not sharp — the preliminary language of a structure that was approaching a limit rather than exceeding it. He dialed back to four and finished the set.
Four-point-five for twelve seconds, then wrist opinion. Progress since January: from 3% safe ceiling to 4.5% with instinct-based channeling. The gradient was real. Gran Torino's three days had advanced the application more than three months of controlled solo training.
"Strong for a resurrection quirk," Tiger said, appearing at his right shoulder without the buildup of footsteps that normal-sized people produced. The Pussycats were pro heroes and pro heroes moved differently than civilians. "Your conditioning's better than most first-years."
"I train a lot."
"Mm." Tiger looked at the tree, which had a fresh indentation in the bark. "What are you using?"
"Full-body enhancement. Low percentage."
"Enhancement quirk paired with resurrection." Tiger filed this with the professional expression of someone who didn't need to understand the exact mechanism to categorize the output. "Don't blow out the wrist. We need all students functional for the week."
He left. Yami flexed his right hand. Functional.
The perimeter trail ran six kilometers around the camp's outer edge and was used primarily for morning runs, which was when the light was right and the heat hadn't arrived yet. He'd been running it at seven AM for the second morning in a row, and the pattern had been established naturally enough that another student running alongside him for the first two kilometers had not registered it as unusual.
Kirishima had turned back at the two-kilometer marker. He kept going.
At four kilometers, the trail bent toward the northern edge of the camp's territory — the farthest point from the lodge, the point where the ridge was approximately two miles ahead and the forest's density was at its maximum. He'd been running this segment specifically since yesterday.
He activated the Threat Assessment overlay consciously — not its automatic ambient mode, but the focused version that he'd been experimenting with, the one that narrowed the detection field in exchange for more information from the narrowed area. Nothing registered. The forest was forest — birds in the canopy, the specific biological signatures of a healthy old-growth ecosystem that contained no human presence.
Then the northern ridge.
A flicker. Low-moderate, and gone.
He stopped running.
The position was identical to yesterday's flicker — same ridge bearing, roughly the same distance. Two days in a row was not an animal. Animals moved. This source had appeared in the same location on consecutive mornings.
Stationary observation post, the tactical brain said. Someone who is watching the camp from a fixed position and is sufficiently concealed that the assessment can only occasionally detect them.
Toga's binoculars. The outline's closing hook, which he'd read and filed and which was now producing its confirmation from the real world's data.
He resumed running. His pace was the same. His expression was the same.
He did not report it.
The reporting conversation had no version that ended well: I detected a possible observer at the northern ridge required how did you detect it which required an answer he didn't have that was also true.
He marked the position in his mental map and ran the remaining two kilometers back to camp at the pace that was normal for a morning run.
The hot spring was a natural feature of the camp site, fed from the mountain's thermal infrastructure, and whoever had designed the camp had correctly identified it as a significant quality-of-life asset. He'd been in it for twenty minutes when the stars became fully visible — the camp's position in the forest canopy gap creating a view that the Musutafu apartment window didn't approximate.
Stars without light pollution had a quality that was different from the sky he'd been living under for eight months. Not better or worse. Different — the density of visible objects changing the sky from background to foreground, from canvas to subject.
He floated on his back and looked at them.
The Nomu had killed him under a sky that he hadn't looked at because the Nomu's fist had been the relevant direction. Stain had killed him in an alley with no sky visible. The USJ had no sky — it was a dome. The zero-pointer had been in a stadium.
He'd died four times and not once had the sky been available as the last thing.
The sky is different when you're not dead under it, he thought, and the thought had the quality of something that was true in a way that wasn't fully comfortable.
In his sleeping bag later, the villain profiles ran on the background screen of preparation:
Muscular — A-tier. Muscle Augmentation, near-unlimited. Has killed Mandalay's sister and her partner. In canon, nearly kills Deku at 100%. Against me at 4-5% OFA: unsurvivable in direct combat. Would have to be creative or lucky.
Dabi — B-tier. Blueflame. Range advantage, sustained output. First unique kill from Dabi would produce significant rewards.
Moonfish — C-tier. Blade-Tooth. Powerful in the forest where his range works against multiple opponents. Manageable at a cost.
Compress — C-tier. Marble creation. The Bakugo abductor. The one who needs to be in the right place at the right time or the kidnapping completes.
He stared at the tent ceiling.
Tomorrow was the frame that had been around everything for four days. Tomorrow meant the decision couldn't wait any longer.
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