Mewtwo gathered the students before the internship period officially began.
In fact, he still had one full week before his own internship started, which technically meant he would be training Izuku for two weeks before leaving, while the rest would have one additional week of preparation before heading to their respective agencies.
And because of that, Mewtwo had decided to bring everyone together.
The moment the group assembled, the first one to speak was, unsurprisingly, Bakugo.
"What is this loser doing here?" Bakugo yelled, immediately pointing at Izuku.
The green-haired boy froze.
He already felt completely out of place among them.
After all, these were the students personally trained by Raiden. Some of the strongest students in U.A.
Meanwhile, he had only arrived because Raiden had brought him along.
As soon as Bakugo spoke, everyone's attention shifted toward him.
Midoriya looked like he wanted the ground to open beneath his feet and swallow him whole.
"Simple," Raiden replied calmly.
"He needs direct guidance regarding his power and how to use it properly."
The answer was straightforward.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for Bakugo.
"AH?!" Bakugo shouted.
"And why is he in this group?"
He pointed at Midoriya again as if merely standing there was some kind of crime.
Midoriya visibly shrank under the attention.
Raiden, however, didn't even bother turning around.
"Because I said so."
The answer was immediate.
Final.
Absolute.
Bakugo opened his mouth again.
Then closed it.
He hated that response.
Mostly because there was absolutely nothing he could argue against.
Seeing Bakugo grumble under his breath, Raiden simply ignored him and shifted the conversation toward the actual reason they were there.
"Now then."
His expression became more serious.
"We need to work on your personal combat styles."
Immediately the students focused on him.
"Each one of you moves differently."
Raiden began walking across the training field while speaking.
"Your Quirks are different."
"Your strengths are different."
"Your weaknesses are different."
"And because of that, your movement patterns should also be different."
He looked at each of them individually.
"Kirishima."
The red-haired boy straightened his posture.
"You rely on direct advances."
"Kendo."
She nodded.
"You use positioning and control."
"Tetsutetsu."
The steel boy grinned.
"You solve most problems by running through them."
That earned a few chuckles.
Even Tetsutetsu laughed.
Raiden continued.
"Midoriya."
The green-haired boy immediately became attentive.
"You still move like someone borrowing power instead of owning it."
Midoriya flinched slightly.
It wasn't an insult.
But it still hit hard.
Raiden simply continued.
"Today, we're going to work on that."
The students immediately became interested.
"What are we doing?" Kendo asked.
Raiden smiled slightly.
"A simple exercise."
The moment he said that, several students became suspicious.
Whenever Raiden called something simple, it usually wasn't.
"You will all try to reach me."
The suspicion increased.
"If you get within two meters of me, you pass."
The students exchanged glances.
That didn't sound particularly difficult.
Then Raiden added the important part.
"I won't stay still."
And suddenly it sounded much worse.
"This exercise will simulate situations where the terrain itself becomes hostile."
He raised one finger.
"Situations where attacks come from multiple directions."
A second finger followed.
"Situations where you cannot simply focus on a single opponent."
And a third.
"And situations where movement becomes more important than power."
Now everyone was paying attention.
Even Bakugo.
Without another word, Raiden activated his transformation.
Psychic energy covered his body.
His horns emerged.
His tail appeared behind him.
And within seconds, Mewtwo floated above the ground.
The students had already grown accustomed to the transformation, yet it still carried an undeniable presence.
Mewtwo slowly began floating away from them.
Then he stopped several dozen meters in the distance.
The next moment, his eyes glowed.
The ground trembled.
Cracks spread across the training field.
Then rocks began to rise.
First pebbles.
Then fist-sized stones.
Then chunks of concrete.
Then boulders.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Soon the entire area around Mewtwo was filled with floating debris.
The students watched in silence.
The rocks didn't simply hover.
They moved.
Constantly.
Some spun in circles.
Others accelerated suddenly.
Some drifted slowly before changing direction without warning.
A few collided with one another before separating again.
The entire formation looked chaotic.
Random.
Impossible to predict.
Yet Mewtwo controlled every single movement.
Slowly the floating debris formed a gigantic moving barrier around him.
A living maze of stone.
Openings appeared.
Then vanished.
Safe paths emerged.
Then closed moments later.
Every route toward Mewtwo constantly changed.
The students stared.
Bakugo grinned.
Kirishima cracked his knuckles.
Kendo immediately started analyzing movement patterns.
Midoriya's eyes were already moving from rock to rock, trying to calculate trajectories.
Mewtwo observed them all.
Then he crossed his arms.
"One more thing."
Everyone looked up.
"If a rock hits you..."
A small smile appeared on his face.
"It counts."
The students immediately frowned.
"What does that mean?" Kirishima asked.
Mewtwo's smile widened slightly.
"It means if a rock hits you, I start paying attention."
The group didn't like the sound of that.
At all.
"How much attention?" Tetsutetsu asked nervously.
Mewtwo tilted his head.
"The unpleasant kind."
Several students immediately took a step back.
Even Bakugo looked slightly suspicious.
Then Mewtwo pointed toward the obstacle course.
"Now."
His psychic aura intensified.
The entire field came alive.
The floating rocks accelerated.
The openings shifted.
The safe paths disappeared.
The moving maze became significantly more dangerous.
"Reach me."
The students immediately tensed.
And before anyone could complain—
"Begin."
The training session started.
The only one who didn't move immediately was Izuku.
For a moment, he remained standing where he was, expecting additional instructions.
After all, most training sessions he had attended usually came with explanations, rules, limitations, objectives, and a dozen other details.
This one apparently did not.
The moment Mewtwo said "begin," everyone else launched themselves forward without hesitation.
And there, Midoriya noticed something.
Bakugo and the others were fast.
Very fast.
Far faster than he remembered.
Bakugo shot through the obstacle field using controlled explosions, weaving between the floating rocks with a level of precision Midoriya had never seen before. During the Sports Festival he had already been impressive, but this version of Bakugo was clearly better.
Much better.
His movements were smoother.
More efficient.
More refined.
And he wasn't the only one.
The rest of the group displayed abilities and movement techniques that they had never shown during the tournament.
Midoriya couldn't help but stare.
The more he watched them, the less he understood.
Most of the people here should have been much bigger threats during the Sports Festival.
Some of them should have easily reached the higher rounds.
Yet many of them hadn't.
Had they been hiding their progress?
Were they holding back?
Or had they simply improved that much since then?
Questions piled up inside his head.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think about them.
A rock nearly hit him in the face.
"Ah!"
Midoriya jumped aside and immediately activated One For All.
Green lightning crackled around his body as he rushed forward.
He leaped onto one floating rock, then another.
Using the moving obstacles as stepping stones, he performed a series of parkour movements while trying to close the distance toward Mewtwo.
The psychic hero floated calmly in the distance, watching all of them with crossed arms.
At first things seemed manageable.
Then suddenly Midoriya felt danger approaching from both sides.
His instincts screamed.
Two massive rocks, each nearly the size of a door, were rushing directly toward him.
Fast.
Very fast.
And his position was terrible.
There was barely enough space to dodge.
One of the rocks was approaching from the front.
The other from his blind side.
Midoriya reacted instinctively.
He crossed his arms and prepared to block the one coming toward his face.
It wasn't ideal.
Actually, it was terrible.
Even if he blocked the first impact, the second would still hit him.
For a brief second he prepared himself for the collision.
Then something unexpected happened.
One of the rocks suddenly glowed.
Midoriya blinked.
The trajectory changed.
The glowing rock abruptly shifted direction and slammed into the second one.
BOOM.
Both obstacles collided and shattered apart.
Fragments scattered everywhere.
Midoriya landed awkwardly on a nearby platform and looked toward the source of the interference.
A girl was floating nearby.
Her brown hair moved gently with the wind.
The floating girl looked at him for a moment before speaking.
"Be careful."
It was Ochaco Uraraka.
"Mewtwo doesn't follow patterns."
She pointed toward the obstacle field around them.
"He guides the objects in ways that force you into bad positions."
Another floating rock passed near her.
"If you get hurt, he'll heal you."
She shrugged.
"But it's still going to hurt."
Then she smiled slightly.
"So try not to get hit."
Before Midoriya could even thank her, Uraraka accelerated away, following her own route toward Mewtwo.
The encounter left Midoriya stunned.
For a second, he simply stared.
Her Quirk...
It looked surprisingly similar to Mewtwo's in some aspects.
She floated naturally through the obstacle course, changing directions in midair with ease.
The resemblance wasn't exact, but the influence was obvious.
Then Midoriya noticed something else.
Another figure suddenly passed nearby.
Uraraka.
Again.
Or rather, he finally managed to properly observe her movements.
She wasn't merely floating.
She was using momentum.
Manipulating trajectories.
Jumping between rocks as though gravity barely existed.
Her control was absurd.
Suddenly a boulder larger than herself shot directly toward her.
Midoriya's eyes widened.
But Uraraka didn't panic.
She simply reached out and touched it.
The enormous rock immediately lost its weight.
Then, with a smooth motion, she grabbed it as though it weighed nothing.
And threw it forward.
The giant stone became a projectile that smashed through several incoming obstacles.
Midoriya froze.
If he thought about it...
That made perfect sense.
Her Quirk should allow her to do things like that.
Yet he had never seen her use it in such a way.
Not during classes.
Not during training.
Not even during the Sports Festival.
She was far more skilled than he had initially believed.
And she wasn't the only one.
Nearby, Kirishima was advancing through the obstacle course like a monster.
Instead of dodging, he simply smashed his way forward.
Massive stones exploded apart every time he punched them.
Chunks of rock flew in every direction.
Yet what stood out wasn't his strength.
It was his appearance.
The transformation he had displayed during the Sports Festival had evolved.
Back then, the changes had mostly been concentrated in his upper body.
Now they extended throughout his legs as well.
His lower limbs had become bulkier.
Sharper.
More beast-like.
Large claws protruded from his feet, allowing him to grip surfaces and launch himself forward with explosive force.
Every leap covered enormous distances.
Every landing shattered stone.
He looked stronger.
Much stronger.
And more complete.
As if the transformation was no longer partial.
It was becoming something natural.
Midoriya watched him break through another boulder and couldn't help feeling impressed.
Then he looked around for another familiar figure.
Hagakure.
He searched the obstacle field.
Nothing, well not that her expected different... she was invisible after all.
There was one thing Midoriya was absolutely certain about.
They were far stronger than they had been during the Sports Festival.
Much stronger.
As he continued advancing through the obstacle field, dodging rocks and trying to keep track of Mewtwo's position, he couldn't stop comparing what he was seeing now with what he had witnessed during the tournament.
The difference was simply too large.
Bakugo alone was enough proof of that.
Midoriya doubted he could have defeated the current Bakugo if they fought under the same conditions as the Sports Festival.
At least not this version of him.
And Bakugo wasn't the only example.
Uraraka's control had improved dramatically.
Kirishima looked like an entirely different fighter.
So why?
Why were they so different?
It didn't make sense.
The Sports Festival had been the biggest stage available to first-year students.
The entire country had been watching.
Professional heroes had been scouting potential interns.
Future opportunities, internships, recommendations, and recognition were all on the line.
There was no logical reason for them to hold back there.
And yet...
The evidence was right in front of him.
These people should have displayed far greater feats during the festival.
Some of them should have advanced much farther.
Some should have dominated their matches.
Some should have been among the finalists.
Yet they weren't.
Midoriya dodged another incoming stone and landed on a floating platform.
His analytical mind immediately started piecing together possibilities.
Did they improve after the festival?
No.
Not to this extent.
The festival had ended only recently.
Such growth would require far more time.
Then perhaps they had hidden their abilities?
That didn't make sense either.
So why would they conceal it?