Chapter 23 Forests

"So why did you call us here?" Detective Tsukauchi asked. Sitting in the support group room was All Might, Shimura Nana, Detective Tsukauchi, Nezu, and Kuro.

"Nana?" Kuro asked. "Will you do the honors?"

"Shigaraki Tomura attacked Midoriya Izuku earlier today," Nana replied. "I managed to stop him before anything could happen, but the fact still stands."

"That is a problem," Tsukauchi said. "The League of Villains have been making more and more actions, and if they attacked Midoriya, they will attack other students."

"We'll switch the location of the training camp," Nezu said. "I already have an idea of where to go."

"The squad will be coming with me," Kuro said. "The students will be safe."

"What squad?" Tsukauchi asked. Everybody in the room except Tsukauchi knew about or have personally met the squad.

"Oh, you're with the police. I forgot," Kuro said. "Forget I said anything."

"Is it illegal?" Tsukauchi asked.

"Who knows?" Kuro shrugged. "I'm a hero. I'm not supposed to do anything illegal."

Tsukauchi sighed. He wasn't lying, but he knew that what Kuro said was not the full truth.

"Now for the matter of All for One," Kuro said. "I'd advise you to create a special force of heroes to face the League of Villains. Despite the small amount of known members, they are strong. It'd be best to take precautions."

"Noted," Tsukauchi said. "Nezu-san, I'll leave it to you."

"Alright," Kuro said, clapping his hands. "With that, his meeting is adjourned."

"Due to recent villain activity, the location of the training camp will be changed," Shouta said. "The location will be revealed at the day of the camp but rest assured, it will still be in the forest."

The class chattered loudly, half worried, half excited. "With that, the first semester has come to a close. Enjoy your summer when you can."

"It's an honor to finally meet you, Black Lightning-san," Tokage Setsuna said, catching Kuro's attention. It was the day of the training camp, and the students were waiting for the buses to arrive. "I would like to thank you for taking care of my classmates."

"Ah, Tokage-san," Kuro said, causing the girl to flinch. He forgot he wasn't supposed to know her name. "I remember you from the festival. I really wanted you as an intern, but I already had a lot, and I can only take so many."

"Don't worry about it," Setsuna smiled. "I had a great time with my pro hero."

"That's good to hear," Kuro said, smiling back. "I look forward to working with you at the camp."

"Likewise," Setsuna said. As they talked, they heard a loud crash.

"Neito I swear to god," Kendo was wielding one of the giant mallets that Kuro had given her, slamming it right next to the boy. "Can you shut up? You're annoying."

"Kendo-san!" Ibara cried in horror. "Do not use the lord's name in vain!"

"Anyways," Kuro said. "I'll be on the bus with the 1-A kids. If you need anything from me, Keno has my number."

"We will be stopping in one hour intervals," Shouta said, but the warning fell on deaf ears. Shoto was asleep, Mina, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Sero were loudly chattering, Kacchan and Sato were arguing about video games, Hagakure and Momo were looking at their phones, exchanging fashion tips, Jiro was showing Ojiro the wonders of power metal, and Ochaco and Toga were arguing over who should get the right to sit next to Izuku during the camp.

"Let them be," Kuro said, patting Eri's head as he noticed Shouta's annoyance. Since no one would be at home, Kuro had no choice but to take the child with him. "They're gonna go through hell soon. Let them have their fun."

"Fine," Shouta grumbled as he zipped up his sleeping bag.

An hour later .the bus stopped on a random highway. "Why did we stop?" Mina asked.

"If you listened you would know," Kuro said teasingly. "Now come on kiddies, we're going to do a fun activity to stretch our legs."

"That's an interesting way to put it," Shouta muttered as the students filed out of the bus.

"Hey, they will be stretching their legs," Kuro shot back.

As everyone got out, they noticed the other two buses weren't there. "Where is everyone else?" Kirishima asked. Suddenly, two cat girls popped up with a young boy.

"Izumi-kun!" Eri hopped out of Kuro's hands and ran over to her friend. "I didn't know you'd be here!"

"K-kuro-chan?!" The boy exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Papa works at UA!" Eri chirped, causing the boy's expression to darken. "Isn't that cool?"

Before Kota could said anything, the two cat girls piped up. "My, I didn't expect another kid to be here," the red one said. "Anyways, you will be studying at a mountain range in our territory. If you don't reach it in three hours, you can say goodbye to your lunch."

Kuro chuckled as he saw the students' shocked faces. Kacchan opened his mouth to shout, but Kuro cut him off. "You might want to start travelling instead of shouting," he quipped. Without another word, all the students jumped down and began their trip.

"It's an honor to finally meet you, Black Lightning!" Pixie-Bob chirped when they left. "I would love to get to know you intimately~"

"Yeah, yeah," Kuro jutted his finger to the chattering children. "Not in front of the kids. You two can call me Kuro, by the way. It's just easier."

"Well, Kuro-san," Mandalay said, catching his attention. "How long do you think it'll take?"

Kuro smirked. "Five hours."

Low and behold, five hours later, the beaten and battered kinds of class 1-A staggered their way towards the base. Kuro, Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, Eri, and Kota were waiting for them. Mandalay grumbled something and handed Kuro a 100,000 yen note. She stepped up to address the students. "Good news is that you vastly exceeded our expectations. All of you used your quirks with creativity and tact," She said. "It seems that you have all faced villains before."

"Not villains," Mina said, panting heavily. "Kuro-san."

Mandalay and Pixie-Bob shot Kuro a look of genuine concern before turning back to the students. "Excuse me?" Iida asked, raising his hand. "What's the bad news?"

"You made me lose a bet," Mandalay said, an evil grin on her face.

"Uh, is the kid one of yours?" Izuku asked one of the Pussycats during dinner.

"No, he's a nephew," Mandalay replied. "Kota, can you say hello to the class?"

"Hello," Izuku went to shake the boy's hand. "I'm Midoriya Izu-"

He was cut off as Kota punched him in the balls and walked away. "Izumi-kun! That's not nice!" Eri whined at the boy, who grunted and continued watching. "Wait! Wait for me!"

Izuku fell to his knees in pain as Eri ran off to chase her friend. "How dare you do that to Midoriya-san!" Iida yelled. "Apologize to his manhood!"

"I don't want to talk with people who want to be corny heroes," Kota said, not caring to look back.

"Go get your luggage," Shouta said. "After that, you can take a bath and relax."

Izuku carried an unconscious Kota to the medical bay. "Thank you for looking after him," Mandalay said as Izuku laid on the bed. Izuku turned to see Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, and Kuro walked into the medical bay.

"It's just my job as a hero," Izuku said. "It seems that Kota doesn't really like them."

"In this world, some people don't really like heroes," Mandalay explained. "If Kota was raised normally, he probably would be like a lot of you. A couple years ago, Kota's parents were brutally murdered by a villain while on the field. They sacrificed themselves to save a few civilians. They were hailed as true heroes, but Kota was devastated. As such, he hates heroes because he thought they cared more about his job more than they cared about him."

Izuku looked at the young boy. Such a young boy to go through something so traumatic. "Kind of like Tomura," he muttered to himself.

"Exactly," Kuro said, putting a hand on the shoulder of his past self. "Not every thinks the same about heroes."

"We will be spending most of this camp developing your quirk," Shouta said. "Kuro has started training some of your quirks, but you will all need to get much stronger to gain your provisional hero licenses."

Kuro smirked. "We'll skip the ball test for proof and whatever. Let's get started.

Class 1-B arrived to see Class 1-A training. Kacchan was using explosions in boiling water, Sato was working out while eating, Momo was also eating while creating weird gadgets, Ochaco was holding up weights with her quirk, looking as if she was about to throw up, Kaminari was doing target practice with his railgun, and Shoto was exerting a high amount of each side of his quirk, trying to get each side to cancel out each other. One that particularly caught the kids' attention was Izuku, who was getting slapped around by Kuro, even though every time Izuku dashed, a small crater was left in his weight.

"How are you going to train all of these people?" Tetsutetsu asked.

Kuro backhanded Izuku into the forest and walked over. "Hey, King-san," Kuro said. "I see 1-B finally arrived."

"Yeah," Vlad King said as the Wild Wild Pussycats walked up to join Kuro.

"Meet the Wild Wild Pussycats," Kuro said.

"I'm Mandalay! My quirk is Telepath!"

"I'm Pixie-Bob! My quirk is Earth Flow!"

"I'm Tiger! My quirk is Pilabody!"

Well, that's at least what Kuro got out of their choreographed skit. He didn't care about things like that, but he missed their antics. An image of their sprawled bodies lying before Toga flashed through his head.

"And I have a little trick," Kuro said. "I really didn't want to use this, but my students are more important than my pride."

As Kuro said that, several illusion clones popped up. "Due to some circumstances that are too graphic for kiddies, I have more than one quirk. I didn't want to reveal this, but if it's for the betterment of my students, I'm willing to give out my secrets."

Everyone looked at Kuro, baffled. "Oh yeah," he said. "I also called my friends."

On cue, the Vanguard Action Squad minus Stain and plus Nana dropped down, standing behind Kuro. "Some of you have already met them, but we have a couple new members," Kuro said. "Don't freak out."

The Pussycats looked at Kuro in confusion as the Hero Killer Stain dropped in. "What the fuck?!" Pixie-Bob shouted, creating an earth golem.

"Calm down," Kuro said, destroying the golem with a flick of his finger. "Stain's with the squad. He's here to help you train."

The students paled. Stain was going to be their mentor. Neito finally stopped ranting about 1-A to look at Kuro as if he was crazy, Kendo rolled her eyes and said something along the lines of "of course you did," and Ibara had her eyes closed, whispering a couple prayers.

"Oh, it's not that bad!" Kuro waved his hand dismissively. "Anyways, everyone will be going around and trying to teach you new techniques if we can. If I've already taught you something, I probably won't spend as much time with you. Everyone has to catch up."

At that, Izuku dragged himself out of the forest and froze when he saw the hero killer. "Stain..?"

Stain turned around to see someone he respected as a true hero. Stain's best attempt at a smile grew on his face, though it still looked like a devilish smirk. "Deku," he said, steam escaping his mouth. "It's so nice to see you again."