Salt the Earth

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Was she distracted enough to not notice the boy’s approach? Yes. Was she too distracted to miss that the earth before her had sprouted blue plumes? Definitely not. Two years in a school of mutants, conjurers, giants and whatever Perry was considered had taught her a few things about surprises, and how to hide when they got her. The talent was best used for the heat of combat and rescue, of course, but it also went a long way towards helping her keep an air of experience. The azure plant was enough to give her pause; she quirked an eyebrow, but stood her ground. Whatever it was, it was heading right into her territory, and besides, they were on campus.[break][break]

Nothing truly dangerous never arrived on campus, right?[break][break]

As bold a face as she’d managed to put on, it couldn’t mask the jolt that came with five feet of student springing out of the earth. Which was to say that she jumped back two feet, and with a wave of her arm, had a pair of stalagmites pointing their tips at him. A hero’s restraint stopped them well before they could cause any harm, but the threat remained for as long as it took her wide eyes to realise all was well.[break][break]

“…Alright, first rule. Don’t to that again unless you want to get salt in your eyes. It happens, and I’ll take no responsibility for it.” Hopefully, he’d take her frown as disapproval, and not frustration as being caught out so easily. Not that it would last – the girl was a trained presenter, and it showed in how quickly she defaulted to an opening speech. [break][break]

“That-a-side, welcome to your training, Sonic. We’ve got a wide open space to ourselves to figure out how to make the most of your one-of-a-kind talent. Later. Before I can help you figure that out, I’ll need to know exactly what we’re working with.” Her gaze flicked to the ground, surprisingly undisturbed as it was. “I’m going to guess at least part of it is, like… digging through solid ground like it’s nothing. Seems like it could be pretty useful… Depending on who’s using it.” She was definitely judging him with her gaze. “Now’s your chance to fill me in on how that works.” Vague words left it up to him to decide. Show, tell, fight, run – all valid options to different people, and seeing which one he chose first would tell her just as much about his personality as it would his power.

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Confidence was an admirable trait. Overconfidence was a dangerous one. Emi could give speeches on both, but the trouble with self-assurance was that it tended to make sure words didn’t work. His smug smile marked him as one of those students that would have a little modesty beaten into him during his time at UA. Not by her, of course. By his fellow students, or perhaps an obstacle course, or a visiting pro…[break][break]

She was there to teach, but that wasn’t the lesson she was going for. No, she had more important things to focus on. Quirks. Helping. Being a model student. [break][break]

Not quite digging, he said. Fair enough – few quirks were simple enough to be guessed from a glimpse, and she wasn’t quite arrogant enough to expect full marks. Still, with one folded arm, and a finger from her other tapping her bottom lip, it was clear that her mind was already at work. Manipulation without movement offered so much potential to people like them, so long as they knew it’s limits…[break][break]

A dirt clod rose into the air; the girl didn’t move, but she reminded herself that she was surrounded by her element. There was no way some junior was going to get the jump on her twice, and by dirtying her clothes to boot. The earth went up, and a curl of her fingers broke one of her pillars back into the grains from which it had been made. They flew through the air as if whipped by the wind itself, whisked above her head and solidifying again as… a pyramid? A squashed pyramid at that, as jagged as crystals found in the wild. Still, it served its purpose as her umbrella well, with speed that implied it had kept her spotless many times before.[break][break]

So much so, in fact, that she didn’t even need to look. The attempt to soil her had left her less than impressed, but that only showed because she couldn’t see the real attack until it was too late. It was her turn to make a sudden shift, drawing out the same wide eyes as before, but with something new mixed in as she saw his hand.[break][break]

His first trick had prompted what some in the industry called a warning shot. Maybe it was the fact that he already had one strike, or that she was being tugged into the ground, or that her pride was being hurt more than she was, or that a student she’d offered to help was trying to make a fool out of her, or that she could have been playing League instead of dealing with his shit…[break][break]

Yeah, there were a lot of reasons for her to look pissed, and yet the ire in her eyes was a bit extreme, for the second it lasted.[break][break]

Since she was already being pulled down, her first instinct was to bring the pyramid down with her. A force stronger than gravity sent the construct hurtling down, wisely arcing in the air to miss her head… And hammer down on her attacker’s instead. She was forced onto one knee, with the other barely poking out of the earth… But if the boy wasn’t quick, he would be nursing a new bump for days to come.[break][break]

So much for not having to teach him that lesson.[break][break]

“If you’re looking for a fight, you can get it.” He had something to say, but she didn’t care, cutting across his explanation to lay down the law. The anger in her gaze had died down as quickly as it had come, fired up more by urgency than any true hatred for him, but her tone made it clear that he was dancing a thin line.[break][break]

“I’ll call a teacher, we’ll suit up, and you will lose. If you want help with your quirk, like I am very graciously taking time out of my afternoon to give you, then you’re going to cut that shit out, or I’m going to spend the rest of my day explaining to the principal why there’s a foot-long crystal up a first year’s ass. Are we clear?”[break][break]

There had probably been some important points in what he’d been about to say, so it was a shame that her emotions – or his insolence – had stopped them from being heard. Still, years of combat training had taught her a few things about learning mid-fight. The hand suggested a lack of range to his ability, as least to do anything serious to his enemy, judging by the clump he’d managed to throw up. His third attempt to startle her in the span of a minute demonstrated a preference for misdirection, stealth and surprises – not a bad fighting style, if she didn’t murder him before he got the chance to develop it. Most importantly, she could force him to make his own grave when she did it.[break][break]

‘No, Emi. You’re being helpful. Even if he is a little shit.’[break][break]

She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath in – more than enough time for the boy to make a move, if he truly wished to push his luck. Assuming that he liked his body relatively free of minerals, Emi tried to free her foot from the ground. A good way to check his quirk’s passive strength, and a great way to stop her feeling so gross.[break][break]

The disdain held in her voice, but she was at least willing to try and continue. The questions came, fast and furious, at least partly because she was feeling much less chipper about their meeting. “What does your quirk consider ‘ground’? Soil, sure, but what about when you’re in a city? Can you do pavement? In-between floors of a building? What happens if the ground is wet? How effective are you on a beach? A stone beach? A clay beach? What about the ocean floor?” She kicked her ankle against the ground as she spoke, then plucked off her shoe, trying to shake loose dirt free of her clothes.

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The boy had a sense of humour. She could almost always appreciate that; it being used to make a fool out of her was one of the few exceptions to the rule. Thankfully for both of them, years of losing boss battles dozens of times in a row had taught her how to brush off her frustrations for the sake of keeping a show going. She wasn’t quite smiling, the way she would have if she were on camera, but she hadn’t stormed off either… Which, in her mind, she had every right to do.[break][break]

The boy crawled out of the earth, and seemed content to control himself. Good. Maybe she needed to threaten students more often. [break][break]

His explanation confirmed most of what she’d already guessed, plus a few fun facts. At the mention of testing his quirk’s control over her element, she gestured to the area around them. The remnants of his little exhibition were free from him to toy with, as was the pyramid she’d dropped on his head. It would take seconds for him to confirm his hypothesis – his quirk simply refused to give him control over that which she had shaped. Likewise, she realised that what little salt was in the earth he controlled refused to bend to her will. A shame – if not for that, they could have had some interesting synergy.[break][break]

Her frustration eased a little, giving way to a quirked eyebrow. Her folded arms made it clear that he wasn’t quite off the hook yet. “You didn’t know you had a quirk for that long? Wasn’t the eye-vibration stuff a bit of a giveaway?” She realised a bit late that she’d come off snarkier than intended (the dirt probably had something to do with it), and so she continued: “Most people with quirks usually find out pretty young, myself included, so…” She didn’t mean to look at him like he was damaged. It just sort of happened for a few seconds. [break][break]

“No. Wait. Rewind. What the hell was that?” She pointed to his feet, or rather, just in front of them. His hand had been there half a minute earlier, but between paying attention and resisting the urge to bean him for the fun of it, she hadn’t caught his, well, quirk – in both senses of the word. She opened her mouth, decided against what was definitely going to sound like an insult, then closed it again. It reopened. No, still insulting. She quickly shook her head, and settled for a command: “Take off your shoes.”[break][break]

Emi was content to let him stew in confusion, partly because it amused her and partly so sh- Well, it was entirely because it amused her, and he deserved to feel like an idiot. It would make up for making her feel like one… A little. Not enough, but still. Once he’d freed his feet, she’d offer an explanation: “You just said to me that using your quirk is easier if you’re in contact with the ground… So why do you wear shoes when you’re planning to use it?” Was he worried about impaling his foot on a stray rock? Was there some extra caveat to his power that had been lost on her? Or had the thought genuinely not crossed his mind?[break][break]

She hoped it was the latter, because that insight would make her look like a genius.

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The girl was quick to raise a finger, shaking her head at the boy’s assumption. “Tested? No. Maybe if you were lucky. If you’re me, you get upset at a lady trying to take your lollipop away and spray salt in her face.” No embarrassment, but no smile either. It was hard for her to feel strongly about having a tantrum well over a decade ago.
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“We didn’t learn to love them – we learned to get good at using them so we didn’t get beat up in the streets. Then we learned to love them. That is, the guys in this school. I’m sure there’s lots of people out there that still don’t feel great about what they are.” She flicked an annoyed glance at the space beside her; was it was the remnants of her soured mood at play, or the end result of words she chose to leave unspoken?
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“Point is, most people don’t find their quirks. Their quirks find them while they’re still young, and usually in a way that’s hard to ignore.” There was something to be said about the school’s application process, if they were admitting students that had barely grasped what their quirk was… That too, would be kept to herself. It didn’t take a genius to see that he’d rather not dwell on the topic, and for once she didn’t feel like pressing it. She had a purpose, and the sooner she completed it, the sooner she could go back to playing Drop Boys.
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And so she gestured for him to go barefoot, and allowed herself a few seconds to let the compliment wash over her. The smirk firmly planted on her face made it clear that her ego didn’t need any further boosts, and yet there it was, swelling by the second. “Something, something, shaking the foundations of your style.”
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The pillars of salt remained standing around them; she wrapped her hand around the nearest one. A slight tilt of her wrist caused it to snap at its base. It was easy to assume that she lacked the strength to break a mineral naturally, but then, quirkers were always full of surprises. She demonstrated another similarity in their quirks – contact with her element allowed her finer control over it. The crystals reshaped themselves into from a lookalike icicle to an oversized rectangle, best likened to a bo staff. She offered it to the boy to experiment as he wished, giving her a few moments to voice her conclusions:
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“You’ll have to train yourself into the habit of using your feet, then… But it’s not a bad way to go about it, if you ask me.” A circular motion with her hand plucked the rest of the stalactites out of the ground. They flew towards her, reforming into one clump of crystal, and then rapidly growing into… a chair. A boss’ chair (or as close as she could make out of rectangles and cubes), that she was quick to settle into while she watched him.
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“Try and imagine it: you, the barefoot close-range fighter. You can literally dive behind enemy lines, spring out of the ground, and surprise a villain, since you love that so much. While your hands block their attacks, your feet keep your quirk running, shifting the ground underneath their feet to throw off their balance, or throwing a dirt clod onto their back to keep them confused. When things are looking rough for you, drop back into the ground. Spring up behind them and continue the fight, or get the hell out of dodge now that you’ve distracted them long enough.” She paused, if only for a second. “That is, assuming that you know how to fight up close. I don’t, but you probably should, if your quirk won’t help you much at a distance. Either that or you find some other way to make sure getting hit hurts less.”

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From the comfort of her throne, the queen watched her protégé get to work. That may have been the first surprise. As easy as it might have been for her to pull out her phone, strike up a conversation, or do anything else besides watch a boy practice oversized baton-twirling… She’d made a commitment. If a student was going to get training from her, then she would give him his full attention. That meant watching him try, try, and try again - at least until he succeeded. It meant putting up with a cocky attitude, and coming halfway to realise that she made everybody else put up with that. Perhaps it would mean being the reason he spent the night in the nurse’s office, when he inevitably wore down her last nerve. Because she just cared that much.[break][break]

Opening the boy’s mind to new possibilities, and seeing him manifest her ideas was nice, she had to admit to herself. Perhaps she admitted it to him too, if he bothered to look and catch the small smile on her face. Sure, it may have stretched into a smirk every time he spent more than half a second looking her way, but the looks alone implied some level of care, right? If nothing else, it meant that what little progress he made wasn’t lost on her. Little clumps earned an aside glance; self-inflicted injuries prompted a snort. At the end of it all, both could behold the earth ripped from its kind. It was enough to make the girl sit up from her slouch.[break][break]

“Well.” Her smile grew, evening out on both sides. A genuine look of celebration, though her narrowed gaze always left a shadow of doubt. “Not bad. Not bad at all-“ His success, still in the edge of her vision, flung itself towards her. In a flash, the smile was gone. Fingers pressed against the armrest they already laid on. Crystalline spikes jutted out two, three feet across the chair’s length, denying the dirt the destination it sought. Instead, it hit her barrier, and gravity handled the rest shortly after.[break][break]

For a few seconds, she held her silence. Her face said what her face wouldn’t – he could draw his own conclusions from her eyes rapidly switching from tapering to squinting. A heavy sigh marked her decision to spare the boy a few bruises. “Keep practicing. For your sake. A little bit for mine, because getting detention for hassling an underclassman sounds annoying.”[break][break]

Both palms, planted against the chair, pushed her out of her seat. It didn’t take long after for the construct to begin dissolving, leaving a mountain of white grains where it had once been. “Work on what we’ve talked about and then get back to me. There’s only so much more I can do before you’ve figured out if it suits you or not.” As if the wind was carrying it, the salt was whipped up and forced to fly around her. Nothing was stopping her from leaving her rubbish in Ground Alpha, but she doubted that the earth would appreciate it. “Still, keep me posted. Ask questions. Try new things. Eventually I’ll see you again, and I expect you to do better.” She kept walking without turning back, meaning he had to gauge her emotions on her voice alone. There was a mild amusement in her tone, but beyond that…[break][break]

“Stay super and all that! And remember, if you use your quirk on me again, I’ll use my quirk on your food!”

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