Affinity

Chapter 22 - Revelry in the Dark

Emiko groaned as she came to, her body once again sore all over, but a little more appeased thanks to the evening in the hot springs. She quickly scooped up her gym uniform and changed into it, once again ensuring that none of the other waking girls had any vantage point on her scar.

They all trooped out as lifeless as zombies to grab breakfast, the early morning light illuminating the camp in a bronze glow, the sun seemingly offering its riches to the sky and the land.

Aizawa joined them and announced that the class B students would be arriving today, which reinvigorated Emiko and her classmates, an emotional jolt running through their systems more intense than any caffeine could muster.

It didn't last long.

Whatever uplift they'd felt from the prospect of their friends and rivals arriving was decisively quashed as the Pussycats and Aizawa put them through their paces once they'd determined the class had eaten a sufficient breakfast (a sentiment a few in the class actually internally disagreed with their instructors).

Emiko knew by now to follow Mandalay, who'd set Emiko up with some exercises to push the boundaries of her quirk. She had Emiko set up in the lotus pose in the exact center of all the various stations her classmates were at. She wanted Emiko to be in the center of the chaos and to let go of the dam she had built up to keep her quirk at a manageable level and instead reach out and seek the emotions of the creatures and try to expand her circle more and more, further and further.

Emiko closed her eyes and pictured a dam in her mind, thick logs pushed up against it to support the wall. She pictured one by one removing the logs and suddenly the dam burst, the torrent that had been held at bay so long buffeting her as she acutely felt the emotions of all her classmates at once.

Bakugo's rage as he kept dunking his hands in boiling water and jettisoning an explosion skyward. Shoto... No, can't focus on him right now, she chided herself as she stretched her quirk out again. Sero's dismay as he was endlessly shooting tape out of his elbows. The grim determination from Ojio and Kirishima as they sparred to enhance their quirks. Kaminari was jammed like she had never sensed before when he'd overused his quirk. Koda's bashfulness at his exercise of... screaming? She felt Aoyama fighting off his queasiness as he kept firing his navel laser into the sky. Tokoyami's turmoil as he wrestled for control with Dark Shadow. Ochaco's panic as she was rolling around in a zero gravity hamster ball. Iida was in the zone as he pushed himself with each rhythmic stride on his run. Tsu was focused on her climb, ignoring the aching of her tongue and other muscles. Sato's sugar rush had him in a frenzy as he lifted a dumbbell in one hand and shoved cake into his face with the other.

Mmm, cake, she thought, her mouth watering at the prospect.

Focus, Emiko! Mandalay's voice rang out in her head, cutting through the delightful fog that had settled in her mind at the thought of the fluffiness and sweetness of a good piece of cake.

As she reset herself, she picked up with Momo, who felt uneasy at following a similar training regimen to Sato, but she nevertheless shoveled chocolate into her mouth as she created an endless supply of dolls. She felt Kyouka and Ashido pushing through their pain barriers as they both attached a rock wall with their quirks. She came across Mineta and immediately shifted to her next classmates. She already spent enough time dealing with the perverted grape's feelings.

Shoji was on the lookout for Hagakure, both feeling the rush and tension of a cat-and-mouse game.

She felt a large group just beyond theirs, filled mostly with apprehension and a bit of shock as they approached. 1B had arrived, it seemed.

Good, Mandalay's voice commented as she must have sensed Emiko's realization their peers were there. Got there with some simple deductive reasoning, but I'm sure when you hone this and get used to recognizing emotional signatures, you could tell that without knowing they were on their way.