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Chapter 3 - Redirect
The lunch room was filled with students in both class uniform and out of them. Those whose classes got out early could change out into something more comfortable for the dorm style living conditions, and so Ruli still wore the black shirt and red shorts as he got a plate of meats, fruits and rice with a teriyaki glaze. That was amazing. There was no menu, just simply say what you wanted and somehow, they likely had the ingredients to make it work. The hero Lunchrush was awesome.
However, he was on edge just the same. There…was…so MUCH noise…
He hadn’t been around this much noise since his Quirk developed. Before, he only had the natural sensitivity of a canine. Now, it felt like it was cranked up threefold. Every tray clanking, conversations layered onto each other across the room, the words jumbled up into such that he still couldn’t attempt to piece together what was being said unless he got closer. If not for how the previous sensitivity had already required training on ignoring most of the overstimulation, BeastMode would’ve already been going bonkers. For now it stayed close to him, but its mood had become reluctant again, somewhat pulling on the leash as he led it forward. He could only imagine how sensitive -it- was to all this…
That was only just the sounds. The smells were just as distracting, just in a ‘deliciousness is everywhere!’ kind of way. The scent of food overpowered almost any layer of personal scent in the area. This was a place of communal meals. The sense of comfortable atmosphere was mixed with the nerves of a still unfamiliar space.
Ruli looked around from just outside the eating areas after he got the plate and scanned, quickly noticing where it seemed most of 1-A was sitting, but his eyes also quickly caught the large form of Hound Dog beyond a few of the bushes that dotted the indoor eating area. His bulky frame hovered on an upper island around with a few other tables filled with students, and some even were sitting next to him quite calmly. The teacher had plates of chicken legs and thighs in front of him, one plate already half filled with the bones.
Kaminari waved from the table that most of class 1-A was sitting and that got Ruli to begin walking towards it, but as he approached he stopped and asked the brightly haired student, “Does Hound Dog usually eat in the cafeteria?”
“Yeah, every few days. Sometimes he’s the only thing stopping someone from throwing punches after a match.” He smirked “Tensions get high and combative sometimes. Ya gonna talk to him? He could probably help you control your animal instincts huh?”
“I think so, sorry but I can’t let the chance slip when I need to get as much advice as I can.”
“Dude we got ya go at it. He might be hard to understand but he’s a good counsellor for sure.”
He got a few approving looks from the others near Kaminari and Ruli dipped his head as he started to pad away and approach the other canine morph. He approached as Hound Dog tore into a piece of chicken, but Ruli could sense it. His eyes had been on him the entire time since the other canine had noticed him there. Instincts had set alight different sensations. A hound that knew the place better was aware of him, but came in peaceful intentions. Ruli had no doubt that the beastly teacher was aware of how it tugged him. There was no point in fighting that.
Ruli slowly sat down on the opposite side of Hound Dog. “Um hello sir, I’m sure Principal Nezu has probably given you the same rundown of me as he has Mr Aizawa, and so I wanted to ask you if there was perhaps advice you might have–how do you control your own sharpened instincts? Do you remember what it was like before you developed your Quirk and the difference in how your senses are? I’ve rarely been around this much noise before…”
Hound Dog listened carefully and he pointed the half eaten chicken leg he had at Ruli as he responded, “Grrrrrrrooo yeah, heard about you. New blood, beast strain, hard override issues. You’ve got two good questions there…first one.” He took a bite out of the leg as he kept going, “Instincts, always had em as a canine morph, like you. The teeth, the hearing, the scent, your Quirk just makes them louder. Can’t say I can understand how sensitive it is for you, having it develop far later in life and needing to…grrr…reorientate yourself around it. But I remember the difference.”
He growled lightly as he sat down the leg to focus on Ruli, “Before my Quirk, the instincts barked in the distance. After? They were like wolves at my throat.”
Ruli sensed a slight chill down his spine, as Hound Dog continued, “But Instincts aren’t the enemy, they’re a part of you, and they want to serve you. They just need a damn job to do.” He growled slowly as he held up four fingers, “So I made mine my Hounds–Focus, Defense, Awareness, Protection. My instincts are my pack, but I’m the pack leader.”
‘Pack…’ Ruli thought in interest.
Hound Dog went on, “You fight your instincts, you lose, you command them, you win. So find out what job you want your instincts to do, then give them that. Tell me, what does it do when you’re in calm situations?”
Well he already had that…but that had given him a realization. He had to get someway for BeastMode to see everyone there as a non threat. “It sleeps, mainly…” Ruli answered lightly, “Sometimes the leash is like it’s tugging my thoughts towards things, doing what those senses usually do but more clearly, helping me notice something I’d not bother to before.” He held up his hands while gripping gently on the leash. It sat beside him, obedient and attentive to Hound Dog. The sense of mentorship carried onto it.
“It’s quick to answer when it needs to, but once it’s there it barely listens. I can direct it between actions as long as things in between remain calm, but if something catches its attention, not just explosions but just something shiny and interesting, it’s like it forgets I’m even there, then I’m just dragged by the leash while it’s in panic mode or overexcited.”
“Yer problem isn’t the leash, it’s that it only exists when you’re holding it. The second your focus breaks, you lose it and you’re chasing the dog down the street as it tears through the neighbors trash.” He growled slowly, but it was a rumble of a clear joke.
Ruli snickered a little at the analogy. “I suppose that’s true sir…how would you stop it from jumping at every single loud noise or violent strike?”
“Instincts aren’t pets–they’re muscle memory. That means you can train it like a muscle too.” Hound Dog growled, “I already know what your class lecture was about today. Take that lesson, apply it. Your instincts don’t know the context, they only know the feeling.”
He fixed a stern look on Ruli, “The instincts are scared of the bangs and booms cause you are, don’t deny that and you can start teaching it that not every single of them is actually a danger. You know that, but if you had the big boom happen right beside you you’d -still- jump out of the way right? It never knows that. Your Quirk’s like a six-month old puppy and you’re its owner, get it?”
Ruli blinked a few times and he nodded, “I think so…a different entity but myself, that’s just only half a year old on an awareness level, yet because it’s driven by instinct, its actions are natural responses towards aggression.”
Hound Dog pointed at Ruli as he growled on, “rrrrr…Your Quirk’s been learning from ya without you even realizing it, and so far it’s had nothing but stupid common people trying to figure out something that isn’t common. It’s been handed nothin’ but warzones and trigger-happy chaos and restricting, too controlled tests. Around here you’re around people that can support you, and there’s plenty of others that have similar, hard to control Quirks. So tell me, what ideas have you got so far after Aizawa’s lecture?”
Ruli barely stopped his eyes from narrowing. If he told Hound Dog his idea, would the counselor alert Aizawa? As long as he didn’t allude to not doing it with Aizawa present, Hound Dog had no reason to see it differently…and he clearly had some interest in helping him because of their similarities.
“Sound and visual therapy.” Ruli stated, voice lightly starting, “Expose it to the sound and images of explosions and violence along with clips of laughter mixed in to redirect the response to the stressors.”
“Grrrr good, you’re thinking in understanding it’s view. You gave it a calm den already. Help it figure out the difference between a fight and a festival, let it smell the difference between aggression and applause? It’ll learn.”
Hound Dog waved at Ruli’s food, the sauce had sunken into the rice and clumped it up. “You should eat up, training a beast takes fuel.”
Ruli nodded as he thought for a moment on the advice Hound Dog gave him. He realized the teachers were using the UA facility’s new systems in their switch to dorm life and turning UA more private in the wake of Kamino was probably at play here. All the teachers were on the same page with him. He had outright said so in saying he’d known what lecture Aizawa had given today.
However, that didn’t make the advice any less helpful or valid. This was why he was here, where there were heroes who could tell him how to control this thing. The common people had been overwhelmed and Ruli was no longer suited for any simple life work.
He ate in respectable silence with Hound Dog, who began ripping back into the chicken he had once more until Ruli finished shoveling in the last of the rice to his muzzle. He then stood up slowly and then bowed at the large morphic, “Thank you sir. I wish I’d been brought here five months ago…”
“Well you’re here now, better late than never pup.” Hound Dog leaned back in the seat of the kitchen table as Ruli stood back up from his bow, arms crossing a moment. “Hard path’s still the right one. Don’t forget that. If ya don’t know exactly what you’re doing, talk to it first. I know I said before it isn’t a pet, but talk to it anyway. Outloud. Don’t care if it don’t answer, you gotta trust that it’s listenin’ to you. And if you treat it like it can learn, then it will.” His eyes narrowed with his final advice, “Don’t be afraid to treat the instincts as part of the family kid, it’s been them that have helped you keep it calm in the past, and so it looks to you like that as well. You gotta learn the special way you gotta treat it.”
Ruli nodded and he glanced back over his shoulder towards the table at which most of the rest of Class 1-A was still now sitting at, more of them had arrived over the minutes for lunch. Bakugo was sitting next to Kirishima and across from Midoriya. Ruli narrowed his eyes. He needed to train BeastMode desperately, he couldn’t afford to try and be social yet…
So it was that with a final nod at Hound Dog Ruli took his tray to the drop off counter and then left the cafeteria without alerting anyone else there, and went back to the Class 1-A dorm.
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On his way through the dorms, Ruli took a specific moment focusing on the varied scents that lingered through the air of the dorm. Although the other students had just started living there their scents were already marked all over the common room area. It showed some dynamics-Kaminari and Jiro’s were often together. Asido, Ururaka, Asui, and Yaoyorozu often seemed to gather around the table where a scent of tea also lightly touched the air, and Sato and Sero’s scents lingered next to the stove and kitchen.
Ruli had gained several different insights as he reviewed the information he’d learned. The lesson Aizawa had given him before he’d even met the class seeing that red leash on BeastMode to the lecture and his conversation with Hound Dog. He had to think of how he could communicate with BeastMode as it was in control. The only sensible way he felt that was possible was the playlist he had set up on the computer, since he couldn’t actually directly talk to it. Even trying to talk to it in his head while he was in his mind, the Quirk didn’t understand him. If that was the case, by now it’d be trained into thinking the word stop meant danger. It didn’t understand language, it understood instinct and emotion, yet on the outside, it spoke to others in reasonable enough conversation. However, how could he get BeastMode to also see everyone there as friendly individuals?
He’d have to worry about that down the line, first thing first-getting it to freak out less when it was attacked.
In his dorm room, Ruli set up the testing space. The room itself was the key, the space was the safe space he’d purposely set up for BeastMode to find comfort in as best he believed he could. He dimmed the light down and then pulled up the video playlist he had created before lunch, and put his headset up over his head with the cups over his pointed ears, forcing them only somewhat annoyingly to bend.
“All right, relax here…” Ruli started, “listen, see, no threats…” He focused himself on that feeling as he settled into his chair, and then pressed play on the first video of fireworks before he then channeled BeastMode, holding up the imagery of the video playlist up to it.
In his mindspace, there was immediate reaction. The sudden bang that sounded in his ears and the flash of colored explosions sent BeastMode jumping, but it only got a few jumps in before Ruli snapped the leash and pulled it back with a stern, “No, It’s okay, it’s just fireworks, look at them, they’re pretty. They’re not a threat, too far away. You’re safe.”
BeastMode snarled back at him, but then its purple eyes focused back onto the image Ruli was holding out to it. It tried to listen, even though it wasn’t understanding. The senses it’d received over the last day had been strange and new, entirely different than before. It was trying to understand.
The next video moved on into the action sequence of a villain and hero fight captured on camera through the years, shouts and screams in the background added to the loud snapping sounds of Quirks being used as one of the fighters appeared to have some kind of Quirk that turned their fingers into whips…that video quickly shifted into a brief laugh track from a TV show that he’d edited in to cut into the other videos in midaction.
“Fights and battles are challenges. It’s a pattern. Something attacks you because it’s a challenge first, not always a threat.” Ruli gripped the leash lightly in his hand as he stood next to the large wolf, his other hand reaching up to scratch behind one of its ears. It rumbled lightly.
Carefully, Ruli sensed a shift, as around him the space of his dorm room came into view around himself and BeastMode. The instincts accepted the space as a safe zone. Even the sound of the rock fountain had started in his ears. He jumped and looked around himself in surprise as the space appeared in the Mindscape. That was new…but a welcome sight he decided not to question. If that was possible, it should be possible for other places, like Mr Aizawa had told him before. He could pull the image of the world into this one.
On the outside, BeastMode had taken control and had sat up in his desk chair. He sat crouched in the seat, footpaws under his thighs and flexed tight as he balanced on them in the chair, arms over his knees and hanging loosely even though the muscles along them still had coiled into tightness themselves still. That wide eyed stare fixated on the videos in front of it while it twitched every so often with the explosions and noises ringing through its ears, though a slow word rolled out of his muzzle. “...Pattern…” He growled. His entire body was tense, muscles coiled even though he perched extremely still in the seat.
Ruli felt a sensation between him and BeastMode. In the past, such sensations had felt rough and quick. This felt smooth and slow. Calmness. It was something he’d only felt a few rare times with it in his time since it developed, and so it was only in knowing this extreme case that he could place it. What he felt it felt. That much he’d always known, but getting the underlying layer of emotion to match up had often been difficult. Where Ruli knew things were okay, it was skittish.
Ruli had always known the tests and such were to help him try and understand his Quirk, but the Quirk itself had no way of knowing that. He understood what Hound Dog told him, BeastMode was a puppy, but his own experiences allowed a semblance of control on the outside as long as he could keep it calm here in his mind. It was when the connection of the leash and proximity was lost that it went feral and lost control.
Pfffft was it really this easy…? One day at UA and they gave him the way forward that quick? Ruli chortled in the quiet calmness of his mind as he watched BeastMode remain fixated on the videos, its eyes blinking every few moments as it watched the explosions and scenes. Even in the Mindscape he was imagining himself trying to ride the thing as it flailed through the air in wild evasions…the way it jumped about could get intense, holding onto the leash was rough enough, but he figured, if the leash and proximity was what helped control, then trying to ride it would help keep mindful control consistent.
He supposed that was probably something to train on later, or bring up to Mr Aizawa and Hound Dog again for further thoughts. Or…could it really just be as easy as just doing it? Wait…could he do that? Ideas began coming to him that seemed wild.
However, as he continued this redirection therapy and thought a little further on things during the near two hours he spent in his head, the minutes stretched on into nearly forty minutes and Ruli had to shut BeastMode down. In coming back to his own awareness, Ruli found himself clenched up and tight in the spot atop his chair, growling out as he became locked up into the sensation of the pin needles but then frowning as he realized his awkward position. His balance began to slip and he slumped back in the chair, gasping as a wave of tingles surged through his body, further forcing him out from the position. He’d been expecting the effect, but not his body's position.
“Whhhhhy are you sitting in the chair like a fucking gargoyle!?” He groaned out in frustrated barks as he came to a limp rest in the seat to avoid as much movement as he could. This aftereffect sucked. Why did his Quirk have to be so weird!? His entire body buzzed with the sensation…
Carefully, Ruli pointed his chair towards his bed and then reached down with one leg to drag himself towards it, before he then also managed to then flop himself down onto it with another wracking wave of needles flowing through his body. At least for a Quirk aftereffect, it was somewhat less strained on. But now he was stuck laying there for about an hour waiting for his body to uncoil itself and regain enough energy to last another half hour…
That meant he was only going to get to repeat this exercise only a handful of times throughout the day. He had to make them count, yet had no way to tell if it was working…if anything BeastMode was at least sitting in the chair and not moving…
Well…it was still new territory. That was all he could tell himself. He was where he’d wanted to be after the first month of dealing with his Quirk, he’d convinced her UA was the only option, but then those Quirk Researchers…kept thinking it could be “trained”, and wouldn’t give them any recommendation.
Not until after Kamino.
In a way, he realized then…they were right. That was what he was doing, just in a far more radical way…
Hero Training.
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Between sessions of channeling BeastMode to the videos he had selected, the time he spent in his own head in doing so and the time he spent resting up in his bed and contemplating through the aftershock, Ruli began to understand a little more on how BeastMode worked. Aizawa had shown him he had to view things from the Quirk’s own instinctual perspective. Hound Dog’s words stuck with him. Before it had been only about restraint, not much control.
Ruli had begun having the sense that the doctors had begun looking at his Quirk like it had been meant to be a work horse for building structures. It could handle a single task or a string of them, but not much else when Ruli was trying to direct it. That was how he’d taught it X Marks the Spot. Visualize the X on the stone, slip into BeastMode-if it sees the swords it grabs them-and then it attacks the rock. Ruli had then taken that control a step further in visualising a triangle within one part the X, which had caused it to then carve out the triangle he’d shown to the class. Aizawa was right, he did “feed” BeastMode his visuals, but he could only present it with what he knew was there and then his own words.
If it focused upon what he showed it, he knew it was listening and his body was doing what it needed to be doing. BeastMode was skittish though, pure instincts tended to be it seemed. At least here he now knew what it felt like when it was actually calm and focused. Aizawa had seen to that, the sudden shock of removal had seemed to seriously shock the wolf; something Ruli could only relate to the realization he’d had in the classroom shortly after.
In thinking of how to get BeastMode to understand how the others of the school were there to help it, Ruli had fixated one word from his talk with Hound Dog that he believed would directly call to its roots. Pack. Packmates. He had to get BeastMode to see the people here as packmates; to play from the perspective of a wild wolf. There was no way for him to actually know if the video and sound therapy he was doing was going to work…not until it was put into practice, but so far, it had remained calm, even though its first reaction had been frightened. It still kept insisting on sitting in the chair like a statue though…
However, he knew that BeastMode was capable of remembering people. He’d seen the videos recorded in calm conversations with it active. The switch in personality was startling even to him, but he understood it. He could explain most of its statements. The Quirk researchers hadn’t liked his answer to explaining the quacks. He’d been starting to get annoyed of them…
BeastMode was capable of remembering people and recalling them. He’d known it gave a few nicknames before too, Aizawa’s wasn’t the first. If it could remain calm towards those here, it could interact with them too. Besides that, Aizawa was right in his lecture, he’d have to be able to use his Quirk around civilians in order to also use it to save them; and that meant teaching BeastMode how to save them, let alone also get it to recognize someone that needed it.
But one thing at a time…he’d need to have BeastMode talk to someone here. The lesson had to be given, since he had no way of telling it directly…but, he believed he already knew a path he could redirect it on. The point of the hero course was to help build each other. So he built a plan. After recovering from the last spat of pin needles, he wrote something down on a piece of paper and folded it up, before he went to find the person he believed would be best to help.
Kirishima opened his door shortly after he’d heard the knock.
“Ah hey man what’s up?” He smiled lightly but then went on into saying, “I hope you’re not here to ask me to help train or something. Bakugo gets rough in training so I’m kind of done with the gym today hehe.” Kirishima scratched at his neck a little.
He did have a slight fruit smell to him, Ruli noted, must have gotten out of the showers not too long ago. He shook his head though with a swish of his tail. “Naw, no gym stuff, but it does involve training somewhat. I need someone to talk to BeastMode.”
“Talk to it?” Kirishima repeated, head tilting but with a hint of interest, but then confused. “Is it about the training you said you were going to do earlier?”
“Kind of.” Ruli said, smiling. He held out the piece of paper he had. “There’s something written on here I want you to read, but while you listen.”
“Okay…” The red haired boy answered, taking the paper first. He began to unfold and read it while Ruli talked.
“I want you to talk to BeastMode, ask it questions. Things like favorite foods and stuff. What you’ll hear are actually my interests, but I’m not the one actually responding. Afterwards, I wanna find out what it said, so that I can judge if the sound therapy is working or not.”
As he spoke Kirishima read the note Ruli had given him: ‘At some point during the conversation with BeastMode, I want you to throw a punch at it. No warning, no sign of the intention, just suddenly do it in the middle of the conversation. What happens, well, I’ll be expecting it and attempting to control it. It won’t expect the punch; I’ve found that writing doesn’t involve instinctual thinking. I’m trying to redirect the feeling of danger and view of everyone to something else that will help BeastMode understand things here.’
“If you’re okay with that.” Ruli followed up his talking, just as Kirishima was finishing. “Can we do it in my room? If something does happen, it should remain calm there.”
Kirishima looked up at Ruli, a neutral look on his face at first. The thought passed even the hard headed hero that this was probably something that should be done with Mr Aizawa around.
“I don’t know man, that’s the kind of thing Mr Aizawa should probably help with ya know? Bending rules about Quirk use in your room is one thing but–”
“Yeah but if they plan to stress test me tomorrow I need to make all the progress I can. Please, it's just questions and answers.” Ruli whined, “If anything does happen, that’s why I came to you because I know you’d be able to take the hits.”
That stoked Kirishima's pride a little and he had to double take. That last sentence worked on what Ruli said as well as what he wrote, and he knew that. He grit his teeth. “Man if something happens we’ll end up doing trash duty for like, a week…at least it wouldn’t be as bad as Midoriya and Bakugo fighting though I guess…” or, he thought further, as risky as the rescue mission he'd taken part of in the moments leading up to Kamino.
Ruli smirked. “Is it worth it?”
The challenge was there, and the headstrong redhead couldn’t help but bite it, a grin of his own forming. “All right, I’m in.”
Back in Ruli’s room, Kirishima sat down on his bed while Ruli got into his computer chair.
“Okay so let’s just go right into it. I just talk to it normally, yeah?” Kirishima asked him, grinning at the wolf boy.
Ruli nodded, giving a swish of his tail, “Yeah, just questions like favorite foods, activities, interests, even what it thinks about something. Its knowledge is my knowledge, I’m just not the one responding, and so I don’t know what it says unless someone tells me after channeling. Maybe in the future I’ll be able to remember or know it but right now that’s what I’m working with.” He shrugged, just being conversational even though the plan had already been set in motion.
He took a breath and took hold of the visual of Kirishima in front of him while putting the kind of emotion and wording he wanted to show BeastMode. “If you’re ready then.”
“Yeah sure, bring out the plus one furball.” Kirishima teased him. Ruli sensed the confirmation in his grin and playful comment and he nodded, then turned towards BeastMode with that final feeling and visual, and held it up to the wolf. The sense of trust he held towards Kirishima doing his plan worked well in getting BeastMode to feel at ease at the image of the other student.
“Packmates are friends and companions, they’ll help us grow stronger to fight stronger things. They’ll also challenge us to help us and themselves in doing so, this is how we grow stronger together.” BeastMode growled gently at his words, bright purple eyes fixated on the image Ruli held in his other paw.
Kirishima’s grin curved into a nervous squint as Ruli’s form shifted, fur up on his shoulders and neck and that look upon him. “Okay, just, still slightly unnerving.” But then he tried to switch back to being as friendly as possible. “Hey big guy, your other half just wanted us to have a little bit of friendly conversation okay?”
“Rrrrrrf, friendly talk…packmate.” Ruli nodded his head at him, and Kirishima blinked.
“Uh yeah, packmate. Exactly. You recognize where we are?”
BeastMode looked around, head somewhat tilting. For the moment, Kirishima wondered if he’d asked that question simply so he could get it too. That constant grin looking about like that was just…crazy spooky.
“This is den. Safe here.” He answered, then looked back at him.
‘Ah so that’s why he wanted to do it here too…geez…this risks ruining it viewing the place as a safe zone, but he probably didn’t look at that point…everyone always knows the new students are always too eager…’ Now Kirishima had the actionable guandry. Ruli had told him in the writing he’d be expecting the punch, and expecting its reaction to try and redirect it. For now he’d keep talking, try to judge it’s demonour and understanding. Talking about favorite foods was one thing…but maybe he’d go his own step further for Ruli. He wanted to know how it acted too after all, so let’s ask it about other things.
“What’s your favorite food?” Kirishima started, leaning back on the bed.
“Lots of…meats are tough and chewy but are needed, fruits are refreshing…” It answered, giving a few flicks of its tail across the chair behind it. Then Kirishima noticed; ‘Wait, when had he perched in the chair like that?’ BeastMode once again sat on their haunches in the chair, weight on their toes in near perfect balance.
He’d been so focused on the grin and eyes, he’d not noticed at all that Ruli had moved. Was that a point to the Quirk’s facial expression, an attempt to pull focus? If so, it had worked, if only briefly. Kirishima refocused on the conversation. “Hell ya I feel that, meat for building up muscle and fruits for recovery. Considering how you destroyed that rock today I thought you might’ve gone to the gym but instead you stayed in here doing that sound training.”
“rrrrrr…pops and bangs with colors…” BeastMode rustled their fur a little, “From far away, not scary. Hehe, other things…stupid”
“Other things are stupid?” Kirishima asked, genuinely confused. However, that confirmed the Quirk was indeed aware of what was being done.
“People fighting…seems stupid.” BeastMode continued.
“Someone’s gotta stop the villains.” Kirishima said lightly. And then he did it. It seemed like as good a moment as any for maximum startling. With a sudden tightening of his skin clustering into his Hardened rock form, he lurched forward from his relaxed position and launched a punch at Ruli’s face.
Suddenly BeastMode reared up with a howl and Ruli was nearly pulled up with it, but he’d been expecting it. He pushed down with his arm with a firm tug in the leash to make it fall back onto all fours, then pointedly repeating what he’d said before. “Packmates challenge us to better ourselves through the challenges they give themselves.” He pushed the image of Kirishima back before the wolf’s eyes.
BeastMode snarled and pulled at the leash again a few more times, but Ruli the rope tight by its neck, and its eyes steadied onto the image once more but with a low, quiet rumble, a twitching flick of its tail was its only other reaction.
*SMASH*
A flurry of white stuffing from the headrest of Ruli’s chair went scattering across the floor behind it as Kirishima’s fist smashed through it. The slightly pointed rock skin of his Quirk shredded through it.
Kirishima’s eyes locked onto BeastMode’s in the tense moment right after. It had dodged. Ruli’s body had quickly leaned slightly forward and curved somewhat from the chest and neck to his left, avoiding the punch aimed at his right cheek. His lower body had shifted only slightly in following it. The movement had been quick, if not for how Kirishima’s Quirk reduced his ability to sense touch, he’d have felt the wolfboy’s cheek fluff as his head moved.
‘Damn…that’s some quick instinct…’
A low growl rolled up from the wolf's chest however, and the fur along his neck and shoulders bristled. Those bright green eyes fixed him with a half narrowed gaze as BeastMode growled out “grrrr challenge…?” a tone of light confusion as it was trying to understand.
Kirishima kept hardening active as he gave a lopsided grin in response, “yeah…challenge.” He slowly pulled his hand back as he continued, “not a threat, not an actual attack just…what packmates do yeah?”
They were on unknown territory now based on the plan, but if it was going to attack, Kirishima realized it'd have done so already, and he let his hardening relax as he sat back on the bed again. He thought Ruli would know how and when to end the Quirk and kept talking.
“You're real fast, you dodged that like it was nothing.” he'd barely even seen the movement himself.
Kirishima held a steady gaze with BeastMode as for a handful of silent seconds the wild wolf just watched him, and Kirishima chuckled wearily, “So…? Challenge, but trust. Still packmate.”
Ruli's eyes momentarily watched the other student's hands before they peered back into Kirishima’s, and he rumbled, “hrrrf, challenge other challenges…Together?”
Kirishima smiled, that sounded good. He nodded, “Yeah, you got it buddy,” he leaned forward a little, keeping his posture open and friendly, “we challenge each other uh…” He paused in thought, “so that were ready to take on the even tougher challenges and villains after us.”
Kirishima lightly thumped across his own chest as he smirked at BeastMode, “You're learning quick…I can yell you're not just instinct in there. Ya still hungry for questions?”
A few short seconds followed his question before BeastMode started to rumble again, words slowly rolling from their mouth in what seemed like careful, slow considerations.
“Red fur…rock skin…bright aura…determined and headstrong…”
Kirishima blinked lightly at the observations BeastMode seemed to make, but it continued on as it straightened out its posture in the chair again slowly, growling on, “others here…outside. They are also packmates?” His voice took on a slightly punctuated tone. It was clear it was trying to actually get confirmation of what it was experiencing.
“Uh, yeah.” Kirishima continued carefully, “everyone in class is also packmates too. Sure, everyone is strange in their own ways, but we all help each other. We get stronger together. Doesn't matter if sometimes we butt heads. That's what makes it stronger.”
He sat back on the bed again as he looked up at the ceiling a moment, trying to remain casual, “So yeah, Tokoyami, Mina, Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, Ida, Todoroki, all of em–they're all pack. Even when they're loud or weird. We know they'll come running if something tried to hurt one of us.”
Kirishima pointed at his chest and towards BeastMode as he looked back to that wide grin with one of his own, “You gotta protect pack, but trust that pack too, especially when they're testing you. Make sense?”
A sudden rise of sensation passed from BeastMode to Ruli as he stood beside it. He knew the punch had happened, but he had decided to let the Quirk keep talking for as long as it seemed under control. Every moment was a learning chance.
However, with the strange sensation that Ruli couldn't quite place the large wolf next to him began shivering, its eyes blinked and lost some of the fierce edge to them that usually was in them when it was in control.
And then, it -whined-
The sound was surprising. The more Kirishima’s words were shifted into an emotion it could understand through its passive connection to Ruli’s logical understanding, the more it shook.
Suddenly, BeastMode launched itself off the chair to tackle Kirishima to the bed he sat on. Caught entirely off guard, he sputtered in surprise “h-hey-!” But his beginning exclamation was interrupted by the wolf's thick, long tongue planting a long and slippery lick up along his neck and cheek while his tail wagged rapidly in the air and he heard Ruli let out a most unusually feral sounding whine, as he made quick second, third, forth, and fifth licks. He began to chuckle and laugh.
In his head, the wolf had started jumping up and down in excited yips, and Ruli, surprised and confused, stood and watched next to it with the leash held in his grip. What the heck was going on…?
But then, suddenly, the image he'd been holding in his palm out to BeastMode shattered into dust with a fizzling puff. He panicked, he knew what that meant. It'd just lost focus, it no longer cared about what was in front of it.
“Oh shit-!” But it was already too late, as suddenly BeastMode leapt away from the inward space of the den and crashed out through the opening of it. He was pulled along by the rope, both his hands grabbing on as his feet were dragged across the ground of the inward mindscape.
“No no no wait-stop!”
But it was no use…
BeastMode jumped off Kirishima and while he was stunned from the sudden assault and only just barely keeping himself from laughing from the drastic shift in mood he only just heard the loud *Kra-smash* as the wild Quirk charged wolf simply body tackled the door to the room, breaking through the wood to leave pieces of it scattering across the floor while tumbling across the floor.
“Wait! RULI!” He scrambled up, but also then heard the wolf howl in the hallway.
“PACKMATES!!!”
“Whoa what the hell!?” Kaminari shouted, just down the hall with Sero as they saw Ruli tumble from the crash. Ruli’s eyes locked onto him and then he frantically began running on all fours towards them both, claws ripping into the carpet of the hall.
“PACKMATES!” He repeated as he ran, his strides strong and quick enough that he crossed the forty feet distance in. Sero, eyes wide, lifted one arm up to shoot tape at the ceiling and then pulled himself up just as BeastMode tackled Kaminari, who had started to flail his arms when Sero left him to the fate of Ruli’s excitement.
Others began to open their doors nearby as they heard the commotion. Sato opened his door just as Kirishima would stumble out the now destroyed doorway.
“Dude what the heck did you do?” He looked at the red haired student.
“It was just questions!” He shot back, face still wet with saliva, “Help me stop him! Find Iida to go get Aizawa!”
“Get…off!” Kaminari sputtered out between a series of rapid licks, as the over excited wolf's tail wagged like a fan back and forth. “I don't…wanna have to zap you!”
“Gah-Ruli!?” Midoriya's voice cut into the situation next, and with it BeastMode looked up towards the stairway just a few feet away where he and Iida had just climbed the stairs after hearing the crash from the common room below.
“This behavior is most unusual! Everyone remain ca-AALK!” Iida's statement was cut short as he was forcefully tackled by BeastMode and Midoriya jumped away to the side, wide eyed and worried.
“Packmates!” He shouted again between rapid licks to Iida's face, skewing and knocking off his glasses. After six licks he jumped off and barreled down the stairs in a rush, and Kirishima and Sato chased after him while Midoriya tried to help Iida back up.
Kaminari sat up, face and hair matted, as Sero slowly descended back to the floor, a bemused smile on their face. “I've never been so aggressively licked before…”
“Dude, you got kissed by a boy wolf.” Sero snickered.
Meanwhile, across the connecting hall to the teacher’s lounge.
Present Mic turned in his chair as he and Aizawa, sitting nearby at his own computer and reviewing setups for tomorrow's matchups, both heard the resounding crash of Ruli breaking through his door. It was shortly followed by the loud yowl carrying clearly from the distance.
“PACKMATES!!!”
“Uh, was that…Ruli?”
Several more shouts from the other students began to follow.
Aizawa let out a tired sigh of a man who was regretting their life choices…
“I'll handle it.” He drooled while pushing his chair back and then starting down the hallway at a careful pace. ‘Damn kids.’ but he’d expected this, it was why he’d stayed so late in the teacher’s lounge.
The noise beyond had gotten louder, he was in the lobby now.
“Watch out!” Tsuyu was first to react as she heard and then saw the excited canine rush down the stairs in full jumps, gliding efficiently down the steps. She jumped to the wall and stuck to it and then grabbed onto Hagakure, pulling the invisible girl up in her clothing.
“Oh my god is that Ruli?” She gasped, thankful for the thoughtfulness of Tsuyu, as Uraraka had floated herself towards the ceiling and clung onto the boards.
Ruli’s eyes seemed to focus onto what he deemed the easiest target to pounce and lick in the room they could see…and that ended up being Mineta; as Mina had been quick in hiding behind the couch she’d been sitting in before he’d spotted her. Mineta was sitting at the tables, wide eyed as he’d been studying. The moment he saw that gaze he knew, or rather felt, what was coming; he began flinging balls.
BeastMode jumped to the sides in dodging each of them until it got close enough that Mineta instead shouted, “Noooooo leave me alone I’m not an actual grape!”
“Packmate!” And Ruli pounced.
“Nooooooooo!”
—
And then as Ruli flew through the air, BeastMode was suddenly turned off by the gaze of Aizawa as he came around the corner into the common room. Ruli found himself flying through the air much like how he’d actually just been as he’d been pulled around by BeastMode, his vision switching from the Mindscape to reality; but his own reaction speed wasn’t quick enough to him in regaining control of himself mid momentum and he ended up half tackling Mineta, tumbling the both of them across the floor.
Just then, Kirishima came down the last set of stairs to begin shouting, “Ruli’s got the zoomies! Watch out-” He cut himself off as he saw Ruli groaning on the floor, face down as Mr Aizawa walked closer to him. His body was still tense, but he remained still.
“Kinnari.” Aizawa’s voice growled sternly after he managed to stop him. He knew the boy was currently going through the aftershock but he wasn’t going to let him have the moment. “You mind telling me exactly what it is you’re doing before I put you in a time out corner during your needles?”
Ruli groaned out again, but responded with, “Wh-what even happened…? What did it d-do?”
Aizawa was going to growl back that it didn’t answer the question, but Kirishima spoke up, “Dude you shot like a cannonball out of your room and then started tackling and licking everyone! You were really happy about it, that tail was going crazy.”
By this point, the others had also joined them down the stairs. Iida, who was pushing a new pair of glasses up his nose, spoke sharply, “It…appeared that your Quirk was interpreting our presence as “Packmates” and attempted to show…affection in a rather vigorous manner.”
“Dude it was just licking. Those are canine kisses.” Sero giggled, and Kaminari huffed.
“Least it wasn’t the other kind of affection…” Mineta hissed, trying to scamper away behind the others.
Mina chuckled, her voice playful as she strung her words, “Honestly now thinking it was kind of cute, in a terrifying freight train of fur and muscle kind of way.”
Aizawa’s eyes squinted across the room at the gathered students, and those who seemed ready to chime in as well had stopped in their tracks. Aizawa sighed and he reached up his scarf, and sent out two tendrils to pick Ruli up by his arms and place him onto the couch facing him, he continued, his voice still stern but less growly “You’re gonna tell me everything that you’ve been up to that led up to this, now.
“Oh,” Ruli blinked, though contact with the furniture still gave him a wave of tingles he smiled, “Um, I was doing training…”
“In your room?” Aizawa’s glare deepened, and Ruli ears flicked, he whined both out of the situation and because of how it gave him needles on his own ears.
“K-kind of. It was visual and sound therapy to help BeastMode not be afraid of loud explosions anymore. I don’t know what had happened here, but I was doing redirection training and–” He went on to explain how in doing that training he wanted to try and test BeastMode’s responsiveness to violent stimulation, so that in situations he expected it but it didn’t he could better direct it on how to approach the threat.
He tried to buffer his reasoning by saying he had trusted that Kirishima would be able to take several hits of BeastMode if it actually attacked, but it had seemed to be a success. After that he looked over at Kirishima and grinned, “I’m not sure what kinds of things you were saying to it but it got -really- happy. It even whined. It’s never made that noise before. Then it started jumping up and down and that’s where the focus broke. I wasn’t prepared for it, it was entirely new for a reaction to the outside world. I guess it was just an easy emotion for it to accept.”
Aizawa stared at him hard for a long moment. In the heavy silence, Kaminari muttered low-key. “Bro, the tongue…”
The teacher closed his eyes with another sigh, “So let me get this straight, you attempted instinct redirection training, thereby fully activating your Quirk, without supervision, while specifically instructing one of your classmates to attempt triggering an aggressive response…and you’re surprised things escalated.”
Ruli’s eyes flickered, “I mean when you end it like that…”
Bakugo, who’d come down to stand close to the staircase, let out a loud “Tcsh” while glaring at Ruli like he was the biggest dumbass ever.
Kirishima, however, couldn’t stay back, “Hey, uh, to be fair…I agreed to it. I mean, I know I can take a punch and it was going really well at first.” He looked back and forth between Ruli and Aizawa.
The hero slumped a little and he reached up to pinch his nose, “The problem wasn’t the idea, Kinnari. Honestly? That you could control and redirect its aggression that quickly into this kind of result is impressive. But you’re missing the structure. You should never test that kind of stuff alone. You’re not the first student here with a Quirk that can backfire on others or themselves. The good news is that at least no one appeared to have been in actual danger, so for that, and because it’s late and your first offense, I’m not going to do any punishment…this time.”
He narrowed his eyes at Ruli as the wolfboy was sitting frozen. “From here on out, no solo training until I give you permission. If you’re going to work on your Quirk for being a hero, you’re going to do it properly. Report your ideas to me, and then we’ll work out testing environments and pull in support staff as needed. Got it?”
“Y-yes, Mr Aizawa. I’m sorry, I was nervous over the testing tomorrow and just wanted to jump right in. I didn't really think things through, I just went with the moment…” He admitted.
“I greatly appreciate this progress though, even getting BeastMode to be -friendly- feels like a huge game changer, and it’s only because of your advice and Hound Dog’s that it led to the breakthrough, so I’m very thankful. It just kind of also feels…restricting.”
“I’m not gonna stop you from doing your sound and visual therapy tactics in your room.” Aizawa hummed, “As long as your Quirk use is kept in your room, I cannot say to see it, so we’ll keep that between you and me, and all of us.” Aizawa flicked his eyes across at everyone there, and some shivered. Many of them knew they were guilty of using their Quirk in their rooms, even Yaoyorozo sometimes made a few things she realized she needed.
His gaze looked back to Ruli, “Let me be clear on this, no one expects you to try mastering anything in a day. Some of this is gonna take weeks to drill in. This was honestly an easy path for a first lesson compared to some others you might meet here. You’ve got potential, and you’re willing to do the work. That’s why I’m not punishing you for this; but from now on I expect you to work with the staff. Me, Hound Dog, the Support Course, and even Recovery Girl if necessary. Your main weakness is your stamina limits and so that means I’m going to assign you an actual training regime to follow and build up your muscle.”
Ruli frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that at all. Aizawa could tell and under his scarf he smirked, and shifted his focus onto Kirishima. “And you. Good instincts, bad planning. You of all people should’ve known that now. Tell me first next time.”
Kirishima rubbed the back of his head after a short look of surprise as suddenly being called out further, “Yeah…sorry…won’t happen again Mr Aizawa.”
“Good. Now, it’s almost curfew, so get some rest, all of you. Training tomorrow will be rough enough without going into it half dead.” And with that Aizawa started to turn around and walk away.
“That would be great but just…” Ruli started, trying to get himself up off the couch but then quickly slouching back against it. The physical activity hadn’t been for very long, but it kept his body tense and unable to relax for longer than a normal, resting activity. “This shouldn’t take much longer…” His tone was that of pure surrender. He didn’t want to move right now…wasn’t worth it.
Aizawa kept walking, “You’ll be fine.”
Bakugo huffed again as he turned back to the stairway, “Damn mutt better not wake me up again.”
It didn’t take long for word to spread in the dorm as others started to filter in late from doing training all day long. Once the pin needles had stopped, everyone who hadn’t been aware of the runaway rampage was made aware one shortly after the other.
Jiro grinned at Ruli when she found out from the group that had stayed to wait for him to recover. “You seriously gave Kirishima permission to punch you? You are nuts.”
Ruli snickered while Kirishima laughed nervously, raising both hands up. “Hey, it was part of his training! I’m just glad it didn’t go worse. It was rather surprising. BeastMode actually handles a conversation decently, but next time, different ground rules hehe.”
Tokoyami now stood in the hallway, “The beast within, confronted head on…” his tone approving, “It’s a long road, but it’s a valourous and worthy one.”
“Tsuyu was quick in reacting, her own instincts might be there!”
“Ribbit, I don’t think mine are as direct as Ruli-kun’s Uraraka.” The girl said while she was perched on a stool beside her at the kitchen counter. “But Ruli-kun, you shouldn’t risk yourself like that, let alone a classmate.”
“Hehe…yeah I get that now I think…” Kirishima had already pointed out the blunder he’d almost made. He’d risked the safe spot he’d made for the Quirk. “From now on, my room’s just for relaxing and maybe the videos and studying and such.” He nodded and chuckled.
Kirishima stretched and grinned, “This was an intense first day with you man. I’m looking forward to what happens tomorrow.”
“Still think you’re gonna be going up against Bakugo?”
Ruli shrugged and he shook his head, “I have no idea. I only looked at what the worst case scenario might be based on what I knew of my Quirk. Explosions and such scared it, and that made it hard to control. I figured that was the point of the test so that’s what I worked towards correcting. But uh, I’m gonna get to bed I think.” It was almost 9:30pm, the curfew to be in your room was 10pm.
“Hey Ruli, why do you want to be a hero?” Uraraka asked him as the wolfboy began to stand up.
He paused as he tilted his head, “Um, I mean, I’ve thought of reasons to that question…but I’ve only had BeastMode for six months…” He said lightly, at which she seemed to understand.
“Oh I suppose that’s true, you’ve not grown up with those kinds of dreams even with seeing it huh?”
Ruli nodded, “Yeah, pretty much…I mainly wanted to be here because I knew UA was the best place to help me get control of it…but…the way I’ve grown up has given me my own kind of…out there view of being a hero…”
“Oh? Izuku also had been Quirkless.” Tsuyu said, although he wasn’t there, it was known around them that he’d once been such.
“I thought so…” Ruli nodded, “I watched the festival quite a few times…” He paused for a moment as he thought, “If I had to say a reason right now why I want to be a hero, it’s because it’s what my sister told me I should be. Going through school without a Quirk you kind of either resign yourself to the “easy” life of a citizen, or you dream of things you can’t have, and eventually do both hehe.”
The others took a moment but began to smile lightly. “Hey, that sounds like a good reason to me. Ribbit.” Tsuyu commented.
“Kind of sickening sweet sibling stuff but that’s good, yeah.” Jiro snickered.
Ruli closed his eyes and gave a flash of a grin before he giggled and started to walk towards the stairway, “Night everyone, see you all in the morning.”
“Goodnight.” Tokoyami nodded at him.
“Goodnight. I think I’m going to bed too.” Uraraka said and began to get up from her own seat.
Returning up the stairwell to the fifth floor his room was on, Ruli ended up coming to a stop as he saw the shattered mess of his door. Oh…
“I…did that…didn’t I?” He sighed and slumped. “Damn…how can I get BeastMode to understand doors…this is like, the thirteenth one or something.” It was actually 42.
