Once all of Class 1-A had left the sanctuary of I-Island behind, it'd been mutually decided that they'd all meet up for some fun and training at the school pool. Smiling widely as he lapped the pool for the third time, Izuku turned as he caught sight of Kacchan, blasting his way across the pool to land neatly on the other side. Since the last he'd heard, Kacchan, Iida-san, Todoroki-san, and most of the other boys in their class had been in a swimming competition, seeing Kacchan launch himself across the pool was more than a little funny.
"What happened to swimming, Kacchan?" he asked, making his way over to where his old friend was standing, beginning to smile at the grin on his old friend's face.
"It's called Freestyle swimming, nerd," Kacchan said, grinning as he came over to firmly ruffle Izuku's hair.
"Yeah, but isn't the general point of swimming to actually be in the water?" he retorted, grinning right back at Kacchan as the rest of their classmates all made it to the end of the pool.
Sero-san, in particular, didn't seem happy at all.
"Well, if you're so particular about water, nerd," Kacchan said, grinning in that way he always did when he was planning to do something that he knew would annoy Izuku.
When Kacchan tried to toss him into the pool, Izuku quickly called up Hayato's Quirk, flapping his copied wings so he could stay out of the pool. Pulling up the Hydrokinisis Quirk that Dad had showed him, and even Kacchan, more than a few times when they were just little kids, Izuku separated four long tendrils from the main mass of the pool water and aimed a slap from each and every one at Kacchan's head. Laughing, Kacchan dodged and wove around the water whips Izuku was wielding.
Finding himself laughing as well, Izuku started gathering up the water in the pool with his Hydrokinisis Quirk, rolling it into a long tube that he began to raise out of the pool in an effort to slam it down on Kacchan.
~MHA~
Laughing as the nerd tried to smack him with the whole goddamn pool, Katsuki also kept an eye on Zuzu as well as he did. Given the way Zuzu's Quirk worked, and how excitable the nerd could get when he did use it, there was a better than average chance that he'd end up overusing the Quirk he was currently using and knock himself out. And, sure enough, Zuzu's eyes began fluttering, and he yawned even as his large, leathery green wings began struggling to keep him in the air.
Leaping across the pool, Katsuki quickly caught his nerdy friend before he could fall into the fucking water and drown himself like the over-excited idiot he acted like when he got too into using more than one of the Quirks that Uncle Sashi had given him. Or even the ones he'd collected for himself, the little nerd.
Holding said nerd in his arms for a long moment, Katsuki made his way over to where most of the girls were standing, talking to each other about something or other that he didn't pay much attention to.
"Hey, Ponytail, you mind making something for Zuzu, here?" he asked, once there was a lull in the conversation from all of them looking at him.
"Not at all, Bakugo-san," Ponytail said, smiling cheerfully at him, before turning to step back into the school for a bit, coming back out with a folded deck chair. "Here, let me help you."
"Yeah," he said, smiling as he made his way over to the far wall, stepping back slightly as Ponytail opened the chair up, and then settling the sleepy little nerd down on the chair so he could get the rest he needed since he'd overused his Quirks like the over-excited little kid he always turned into when he was playing with his collection of Quirks.
The sight of more of that weird shimmer that always happened when Ponytail would use her Quirk to make stuff drew Katsuki's attention, and he chuckled as he saw her pulling out a sleep mask and settling it firmly over Zuzu's eyes. The thing even done up in U.A.'s colors, and had "Plus Ultra" seemingly embroidered on it. The nerd was bound to love it, when he managed to get a look at it, at least.
Making his way back to where all of the other extras were standing around, he found himself grinning at the expression on Hedgehog's face as he came to rejoin the rest of them.
"Really manly save back there, Bakugo."
"Thanks," he said, grinning even as he kind of wondered just what in the hell was behind Hedgehog's whole obsession with manliness.
It was kind of weird, though; he'd never heard of that kind of attitude from any of the Pros he knew about. Zuzu would probably know, but Katsuki would be the first to admit that he didn't care that much. It wasn't something All Might was known for, at least.
~MHA~
When he woke up again, Izuku found himself relaxing in the back of their family car with his head in Dad's lap.
"Good to see you awake again, Izuku," Dad said, smiling gently at him as Izuku tried to stifle a yawn while he was sitting up.
"It's nice to see you again, too, Dad," he said, leaning in to give Dad a hug as Uncle Toshi drove them back home.
After they'd all made it back to the house again, Izuku smiled as Dad leaned down to kiss Mom hello again, and leaned into the hug that Uncle Toshi offered him. After dinner, when he went to bed, Izuku found himself pulled deep into the Quirk-space that he'd found himself granted access to when he'd eaten Uncle Toshi's hair…
"Uncle Shiro!" he exclaimed, making his way over to where Dad's brother was waiting for him.
"I guess I am never going to get away from that nickname," Uncle Shiro said, though the smile on his face suggested that he was more amused than annoyed by the prospect.
"Did you want to talk to me about something, Uncle Shiro?" he asked, since there was a look on his uncle's shadowed face that kind of suggested that there was more to this meeting than just the kind of after-effect that'd come from him trying to use his version of All For One – that he still needed a proper name for – to copy One For All.
"Really, I just wanted to spend some time with you, Izuku," Uncle Shiro said, sounding happier than Izuku had heard him sound that first time the both of them had met. "I never really expected to have a nephew. Hisashi… well, he'd never really seemed like the type to settle down that way, back when I knew him."
"What was Dad like back then, Uncle Shiro?" Izuku found himself asking, finding his old curiosity all the stronger for the fact that he had pretty much uncontested access to someone who'd known Dad so well during the early days.
Someone with a different perspective on the kind of person Dad had been, back then…
The sound of Uncle Shiro laughing softly brought Izuku's attention firmly back to the conversation that he'd been hoping to have with his paternal uncle; or at least the echo of him that'd stayed inside One For All. Izuku still found himself wondering how that kind of thing had even been possible, whenever he found himself with the kind of free time he needed when he was thinking deeply about one Quirk or another…
~MHA~
When they'd all met up outside the main U.A. building, gathered before a large pair of busses that reminded him more than a little of the one that had taken him and the rest of class 1-A to the U.S.J. for their Rescue Training, Izuku found that the mental image of the fiery figure he'd glimpsed deep in the recesses of One For All was still stuck in the back of his mind. Uncle Shiro had told him that that was the imprint that Uncle Toshi had left when he'd taken up the Quirk, and that the imprint wouldn't take on Uncle Toshi's full characteristics until…
Well, until Uncle Toshi died, but Izuku didn't really like thinking about that kind of thing.
Turning his attention back to what they were all actually here for, Izuku found himself both missing Tenko-nii's presence, and wondering how his brother was doing, considering the investigation he was taking part in. Well, he actually, honestly missed Tenko-nii up until Ochako-san ran over to him, all excited about the training camp they were all going to be heading off to. Tenko-nii would have teased him mercilessly if he'd been there to see how close Ochako-san was standing to him, at least before she herself blushed and jumped practically to the other side of the lineup of their classmates.
She probably remembered Tenko-nii's teasing just as well as he did, really.
They'd been gathered together in the main parking lot of U.A., both since the side lot wouldn't be big enough for all of the people who were going to be gathering for this particular trip, and since they were going to be leaving the campus entirely to get to it.
"All right, everyone!" he called, clapping to make absolutely sure he'd gotten the attention of every last one of his classmates. "Line up in seating order, so we can all start getting on the bus!"
Considering the fact that both class 1-A and 1-B were going to be traveling to this training camp together, Izuku was more than a little relieved not to have Monoma pouncing on him the way he always tended to do when both of their respective classes were gathered together. When he looked over at the bus that class 1-B was boarding, however, he caught sight of Monoma, struggling against the firm grip that Kendo-san had on his collar and his belt. Biting down on the laughter that would have otherwise have escaped from him, the kind of laughter that always seemed to want to escape in inappropriate situations.
Still, it was at least nice not to have to deal with Monoma pouncing on him again.
~MHA~
Narrowing his eyes as he and Niseko-chan crossed paths with Eri in the corridors of their current base, Chisaki reached down to take Niseko-chan's left wrist in a firm grip. The sound of Niseko-chan's soft voice brought a brief smile to Chisaki's face, but what the child was saying, combined with who he was saying it to…
When Niseko-chan reached out for Eri, removing the glove on his right hand when he did so, Overhaul sharply yanked the child's left arm, dragging the soft, pure, naïve child away from the situation that his foolish kindness had nearly gotten him into. He would need to see to it that the boy learned not to act so impulsively in the future. Removing the child to his office, Overhaul called Irinaka over to him. Watching calmly as Irinaka firmly contained the child within the wall the three of them were standing in front of, Overhaul turned to his subordinate.
"He won't be able to damage himself in that position, will he?"
"Nah, I made sure he couldn't move in there," Irinaka said calmly, gesturing to the wall where only the child's hands could be seen, clasped firmly within the cement of the wall; only the glove on his left hand remained in place.
Narrowing his eyes, Overhaul stepped forward to replace the boy's right glove, taking care to note the panicked breathing that remained audible through the air hole that Irinaka had provided for him, though the size was at least restricted enough for the boy to learn the lesson that Overhaul intended to teach. Once the boy's hands had stopped thrashing and spasming, opening and closing convulsively in the throes of his panic, Chisaki gently took Niseko-chan's right hand.
Signaling for Irinaka to let Niseko-chan out of the wall where he'd been contained, Chisaki helped the boy back down to the floor of his office.
"You need to learn to stop disobeying me, Niseko," he said, gently wiping away the tears that had gathered in Niseko-chan's eyes while he was being scolded.
Hopefully, neither of them would need to repeat this lesson a second time.
~MHA~
Looking out the window by his seat, Izuku found himself wondering again how Dad and the others were doing. Tracking down that Villain group was clearly going to take some time, but-
"Midoriya-kun!"
"Huh? Wha? Iida-kun?"
"Midoriya-kun, I know you're concerned about something, but you can't allow whatever it is to distract you," Iida-kun said, a disapproving look on his face. "There are people on this bus that are acting out, and as Class Rep it's your duty to restore order."
Once he'd gotten rest of their class to at least keep their antics to a dull roar, Izuku found himself more than a little surprised, when the bus class 1-A were all riding in came to a neat stop at a bend in the road. He wouldn't have been so surprised if there was anything at all on the curve of the road where they were parked, but there was only the bare dirt of the roadside, a low guardrail that looked more than a little like some kind of rustic fence, and a large, hilly forest at the bottom of what was clearly a steep slope.
All in all, it didn't look like any kind of rest stop he'd seen before.
However, the sight of another car, parked just close enough to the bus they'd been brought to this place in, brought up some other thoughts of what might be going on. As Aizawa-sensei rode herd on the class as a whole, Izuku found his attention drawn to the three people climbing out of the car; more specifically, to the pair of women – clearly Pro Heroes, considering their costumes and the Support gear they were both wearing – who'd climbed out of the car. The blonde, dressed as she was a blue-shaded outfit that had more than a passing resemblance to Bambaa-chan, was familiar to him from both his own Hero studies as well as a few of the stories that he'd heard from Dad.
Pixie-bob of the Wild, Wild Pussycats was apparently one of the most determined flirts that Dad had ever met, in or out of his Hero identity.
It probably had something to do with how old she was-
"Hey! That has nothing to do with how I feel about Sensei! Besides, what do you even know about him? Sensei is the best man I've ever met! We'd be just perfect for each other!" Pixie-bob exclaimed, slamming into him with enough force to nearly knock him over; he reflected that Kacchan was probably right when he said that Izuku tended to get too lost in his own head when he was thinking about one thing or another.
"I'm sorry," he said, though his voice was muffled by the glove that Pixie-bob was wearing. "I didn't mean to upset you," he continued. Looking around for something that might be able to distract her from how annoyed she currently was with him, Izuku's eyes caught on another, smaller form standing next to Mandalay. "Hey, who's that kid?"
"That's my nephew," Mandalay said, smiling as she made her way over; Izuku breathed a sigh of relief as Pixie-bob finally let go of his face. "Come here and say hi, Kota!"
Kota? Izuku mused, a bit surprised to hear a name so similar to Uncle Kotaru's when he was so far from home. The little boy, who was wearing a bright red hat that had a pair of tiny yellow horns, also had one of the toys that had been modeled on the staff that Dad used in his guise as Sensei. Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to think about that kind of thing.
None of them really did, since about half a minute later they were all being unceremoniously swept over the edge of the slope and down into the woods; apparently, someone with a sense of humor had named the woods they were all about to fall into The Beasts Forest; though he didn't quite know if it was possessive or plural, or- Forcing those irrelevant thoughts out of his mind, even as he yanked off his shirt, calling up both Hayato's Quirk and Gravity Nullification, Izuku felt his wings taking shape faster than they'd ever done before.
Swooping around, ducking under the falling dirt and rocks that had pushed him, Kacchan, and the rest of class 1-A over the edge and off the slope, Izuku circled over his classmates as they all fell toward the ground. Sure, all of them would probably be able to land on their feet even if he didn't help them with that, but all of them were training to be Heroes. And helping people in danger was something a Hero should do without thinking.
Helping had to be instinctive, before anyone could really call themselves a Hero.
Forming half of a shield-bubble in the air, with the aid of a Barrier Quirk that Dad had given him after he and Kacchan had made a habit of racing each other through the woods near their summer home, Izuku protected all of them from from the falling debris that Pixie-bob had used to sweep their entire class off of the slope; out of the corner of his right eye, Izuku could see Ashido-san looking at him, and for a moment he wondered why that was.
~MHA~
Maneuvering himself in the air, so that he'd land on his feet when Izuku let them all down, Katsuki chuckled softly. That was one thing the nerd had in common with All Might: the both of them would always dive in to save people as soon as they saw anyone in danger. Once they were all back on solid ground, Katsuki rolled his eyes as he watched the pervert grape go running into the forest, yelling about how he had to piss.
The ground rumbled, drawing their attention to something under the shade of the trees; something big, ugly, and seemingly made out of some weird, rough, rocky stuff. Before he had much time to wonder just what in the hell was even going on, the nerd landed next to him and the pair of them turned their attention toward each other.
"There seems to be a lot of movement in the forest," Izuku said, narrowing his eyes – and probably activating one of the Quirks that Uncle Sashi had given him – and looking out into the woods where they were all standing.
"Are they alive?" he asked, wanting to know just how much force he would be able to use on these creatures.
"I'm not seeing any heat," Izuku said, eyes narrowing slightly, and flickering red as he used an infrared-vision Quirk. "I don't know if they're not alive, or if they're lizards or something."
"That helps," he muttered, rolling his eyes.
Before he could say anything else, though, Katsuki noticed that Raccoon Eyes was coming over to the pair of them, with the sort of look on her face that suggested she'd just realized something; something she'd clearly been thinking about for some time.
"I thought I recognized those wings! You were the little boy who got lost looking for your dad with that huge guy!" Raccoon Eyes exclaimed, jumping up and down in that way she did when she was really excited.
"Oh yeah," the nerd said, grinning widely as he turned his attention her, in turn. "I did kind of wonder if there was someone else with those horns! Though, you are a lot more pink than I remember you being."
Raccoon Eyes actually laughed, when Izuku said that, and even though he knew that they probably shouldn't be getting into this kind of a discussion when there was something hunting them from the woods, he found it more than a little interesting, himself. Of course, if anything big started happening, he'd be ready.
"Yeah," Raccoon Eyes said, grinning widely, even as she regained at least some of her composure. "My acid got stronger and stronger as I grew up, and my skin just kept turning pinker and pinker!"
Narrowing his eyes as he caught sight of something moving around in the woods, Katsuki made his way up to where the nerd was standing.
"All right, nerd," he said, grabbing Izuku by the collar and belt and hurling him into the air. "More of those bastards are coming; we need eyes in the sky!"
~MHA~
Flexing his hands in lieu of scratching his neck, knowing both that revealing his skin condition would make it obvious that he was the one watching over the Yakuza hideout that Nighteye had discovered, and also that Auntie would scold him for hurting himself the way he would always end up doing when he would start scratching, Tenko tried to sit still. He'd never quite seemed to be able to stop himself, once he'd started scratching, leaving himself bleeding and in need of Sensei to make sure he didn't actually begin scarring. Focusing his attention back on the Yakuza stronghold again, Tenko narrowed his eyes as he leaned on the table.
Standing up from the table he'd been seated at up to that point, Tenko sighed in relief as he checked the time on his phone one more time and found that his shift was finally over.
Making his way back to Sir Nighteye's agency, Tenko allowed himself to relax as he stepped through the doors and found Uncle Toshi looking over a table of papers. His and Izuku's uncle wasn't actually in his Hero form, instead sitting at the table in the suit that he wore when he was doing his social work.
"Hey, Uncle Toshi," he said, making his way over to the table where the blond was sitting. "What's with all those files you have out?"
"These are some of the people that Sir has spotted working for the Yakuza," Uncle Toshi said, sighing as he gathered up one of the files on the table. "I wish I could've done more for these people, too."
"Yeah," Tenko muttered, settling down at the table next to his uncle.
It was one of the things he didn't quite approve of about Uncle Toshi: the way his and Izuku's uncle seemed to think it was his job to save everyone in the world – or at least in Japan – and he and Sensei were trying to, if not curtail the urge entirely, then at least tone it down enough that Uncle Toshi wouldn't get himself killed doing something dumb and altruistic. It wasn't like that kind of thing was unknown, of course, since Sensei had told him that there were a couple holders of One For All who'd ended up getting into that kind of trouble, themselves.
In that light, he and Sensei were both working to save Uncle Toshi from himself.
~MHA~
Breaths heaving as he staggered through the woods, hands numb and arms aching from how fucking many times he'd had to explode his way through those fucking animated dirt clods that that annoying hairball of a Pro had sicced on their class, Katsuki looked back as he heard – and felt – the subdued thunder of Uncle Sashi's personal bodyguard pacing them as they all made their way out from under the canopy of the woods they'd been making their way through.
"All right, you can hand him over to me now, Gigan" he said, making his way over to the huge man – he and Izuku had sometimes speculated about whether or not Gigantomachia had more than one Quirk, considering the nature of Uncle Sashi's Quirk and what he could do with it – who'd been carrying Izuku ever since the little nerd had shuffled his Quirk load-out too many times and ended up knocking himself out for the umpteenth time.
Gigantomachia came lumbering over to where he was standing, crouching down so he could hand Izuku's still sleeping form over to him, with a look on his face that let Katsuki know that he was probably going to end up being annoyed by whatever it was that Uncle Sashi's bodyguard was going to say to him.
"I'm glad to see that the Little Lord has such a dedicated retainer."
Rolling his eyes, knowing that it wouldn't do any good for him to tell the giant man again that he wasn't the little nerd's retainer – really, the man seemed to think he was living in some kind of old Samurai drama, and that Uncle Sashi was his Lord or something – Katsuki made his way over to where the two old ladies who'd invited their class to this weird mountain hideout in the first place. The blonde wearing the blue costume with the name he hadn't paid much attention to, who Uncle Sashi seemed to be more than a little annoyed by when he talked about her, scampered over to where he and some of his other classmates – Legs, Icyhot, and Hedgehog – were all standing together.
He only hoped that she wasn't going to do anything stupid while he was still holding Izuku, since it wasn't like he'd be able to do much with the nerd in his arms.
"Looks like one of our kittens didn't make it out of his fight all right," she said, a goopy smile on her face as she looked down at Izuku.
"Come on," the other cat woman said, making her way over to where he was standing. "Let's get him inside, so he can wake up on his own."
"Right," he said, nodding as he followed the woman into the place they were operating out of.
The cat theme they had going reminded him more than a little of sis; he hoped she was doing all right.
~MHA~
"All right," the woman who'd offered to help her get at least some grounding in being a pilot – at least with regards to flying a rescue helicopter, anyway – said, turning to smile over at her. "I'm going to be setting us down, so make sure you pay good attention to everything I'm doing, kitten."
/I will,/ she said, purring as the Pro Hero she was sitting next to turned back to the helicopter's controls. /Thanks, miss Lynx./
The fifth member of the Wild, Wild Pussycats grinned, bumping against her left shoulder before she started to bring the helicopter they were both in down to a neat landing at the back of what seemed to be a large compound in the mountains. As she made her way out of the helicopter, Bombalurina found herself more than a bit amused at the whole cat theme they had going on. Someone was bound to make some joke or other about her fitting in right there, but what she was most interested in was the fact that this place – tucked neatly away in the mountains as it was – was basically the perfect dark site.
Well, it would be once the sun actually set, at least.
The sound of running feet, as well as the sight of something fast approaching from the compound she was standing in front of, prompted Bombalurina to nearly whip her head down from where she'd been looking at the sky.
"Wow! He really wasn't kidding!" the blonde woman in the blue outfit, the one with the funny looking blue spots on her cheeks, said with a happy sort of smile on her face. "You really are the cutest little kitten!"
/You're crushing my whiskers,/ she said, ears folding back against her head in annoyance.
It wasn't like she hadn't been prepared for this kind of thing, since there'd been more than a few people who'd reacted in the same way this woman was doing – both before and after she'd been taken in by Mama, Papa and the rest of their family – but it'd never quite stopped being annoying.
"Now, now, Pixie-bob," Lynx said, making her way over to where the both of them were standing. "I don't think you would enjoy someone doing that kind of thing to you, so you really shouldn't be doing it to other people," Lynx continued, folding her large, strong-looking arms as she all but loomed over the shorter woman she was talking to. "You should also apologize to Midoriya-chan, since that isn't the kind of thing we do to guests."
Well, at least one of them has some manners, Bombalurina reflected, though she knew enough not to actually say those kinds of things.
Once she'd gotten herself settled in, finding out over lunch that Izuku and the rest of his class – along with Monoma and his class, though she didn't really know anyone other than Monoma himself, and that was only because he seemed bound and determined to insert himself into Izuku's life – were on their way to the compound, and would be there sometime. No one had quite seemed to know when all of them would actually get there, since they were apparently running some sort of obstacle course in the surrounding forest.
Or, at least Izuku's class was; she didn't quite know what was going on with Monoma and his class, other than the fact that they were all going to be meeting up at this compound some indeterminate time in the future. Still, for the moment Bombalurina was more interested to know if anyone here was interested in astronomy, and if so where they kept the telescope or telescopes – or perhaps binoculars, though she didn't know how well those actually worked for stargazing – anyone actually serious about the pursuit would need. Or, if they weren't, she would have to wait for Izuku to arrive with the rest of his and Katsuki's class.
Izuku would at least be able to use Warp Gate to let her get her telescope from home.
