A/N: Sorry this took so long. I just wasn't in a writing mood for a while.
OrigDayday: I'll probably have some times where he looks back and realizes what he's done, but in the end, I'm not sure if I'm actually going to have him become a vigilante. Then again, I really don't know hat I'm doing, so who really knows at this point.
"Midoriya! Get down!" Iida shouted as he raced towards the creature. He prepared his legs to send a powerful kick at the thing, and cut through it like a knife through semi-soft butter.
Izuku hopped off moments before Iida's kick connected and landed on the ground with a graceful flip.
"They're made of dirt and soil. Probably Pixie-Bob's work; I know she has a similar quirk to Cementoss."
"Well, that just means we can deal with them faster," Todoroki declared as he and Bakugo double-teamed one of the other creatures.
"It also means Pixie-Bob can bring them back faster than we can take them down." As if to prove his point, three new creatures appeared, each bearing frightening claws and unique features ranging from tusks to wings to pointed scales.
"C'mon guys, we gotta keep pressing forward!"
The earthen creatures fell in large numbers, and rose again in equally large numbers. Many of the students were already starting to wear down, but others kept pushing like they had just started.
"Kaminari, save your lightning! Todoroki, see if you can't form a hall to keep them out!"
After giving the orders, Izuku rushed forward and sliced through the forearm of a new earth creature with his sword. A few swings of his chain lopped off large chunks from the sides and back until it crumbled into a harmless pile of soil.
"Don't think you're better at this than me, Deku!"
"Mina! I need some acid!" Yaoyorozu requested once a full-sized cannon was produced from her stomach. The pink-skinned girl threw a few globs into the cannon and watched as the acid-coated grapeshot tore through two monsters with grim efficiency.
"Iida! Remember that move in Hosu?" The teen grinned and stood still long enough for Midoriya to connect a chain to his right leg, then took off and spun like a cyclone. One creature that was too close was practically shredded by the spinning chain.
"Good one." Izuku recovered his weapon and the students continued pushing through the forest.
By the time they finally saw where they were staying through the trees it was way past lunchtime.
"It took you all long enough," Mandalay greeted as the teenagers emerged from the forest. To say they were in rough shape was an understatement. They looked like they had fought through hell and back.
"That was invigorating," Izuku muttered as he stretched his arms and shoulders.
"Man, I'm so hungry I could go back and eat one of those beasts," Kirishima complained.
"You know, when I said 'three hours', I was talking about how long it would have taken us," Mandalay said.
"However, you kids were much faster than I expected. You made quick work of my beasts," Pixie-Bob added with a stare at four of the students in particular.
"Especially the four of you," she said with a point at Iida, Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo. "I take it you've learned from your own experiences in combat?"
"I suppose so. We have been through a few 'experiences', as you put them," Iida offered.
"It's just what I do," Izuku said with a shrug. "And he's just cranky in general," he added with a shrug aimed at Bakugo.
"Well, I'm sure you'll be great heroes when you're old enough. I can't wait to possibly team up with some of you! I bet we'll go on so many missions when you're older!" the light-blue clad hero sang as she began eagerly prancing in front of the four.
"I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but Pixie's been a bit...desperate recently. She's been looking for a 'partner' for a while now," Mandalay whispered to Aizawa.
Izuku's hand shot out and grabbed Pixie's wrist, who froze and stared him in the eyes.
"Sorry, but you were getting a bit hyper. Anyway, whose kid is that?" he asked with a point at the angry looking boy.
"Oh, this is Kota. He's my cousin's kid."
Midoriya stepped up to the kid and crouched down.
Something about Kota looked...off. Normally, people were excited and thrilled to be near heroes like the Pussycats, Eraser Head, and the UA students. But he was different. There was something in his eyes.
Something that vaguely reminded him of Stain.
"Hey Kota. I'm Midoriya. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand to offer a handshake, which ended up catching a fist aimed at his unmentionables.
"You need to work on your wind up. You made what you were planning too obvious."
"Let go of me," the child demanded. "I'm not here to hang out with hero wannabees."
Izuku let go of the kid's wrist, and Kota walked away as if nothing happened.
'Something against heroes, huh?'
"Now that the formal introductions are over, you can get your stuff off the bus. Once you've gotten settled in the rooms, dinner will be held in the cafeteria. Then you all will go to bed. Tomorrow's the real deal."
As he instructed, the students quickly yet tiredly gathered their belongings from the bus and took them to where they were staying. The boys were clumped into one large room.
In the cafeteria, more than enough food had been set out for the guests, ranging from fruits, meats, and vegetables. Pure madness ensued as the teens greedily chowed down on anything they could reach.
"Man, I don't remember getting this hungry in a while," Izuku muttered after downing his second plateful and fourth glass of water.
"Just a warning, we're only doing this for you all today. Starting tomorrow, you'll all prepare your own food," Pixie-Bob advised.
More than once, Izuku noticed Kota glaring at the heroes in training.
"Wow, I never knew hot springs felt so good," Kaminari murmured as he sunk into the hot water.
"Just don't electrocute us all," Ojiro whispered.
All except Mineta were enjoying the baths. The purple-haired teen, however, had pressed his ear against the tall, wooden wall that separated the boys and girls' sections.
"Mineta, you really should stop that. It's degrading to both them and us!" Iida recommended, only to be ignored.
He seemed not quite contemplative, but more like he had already made a decision and was preparing to go through with it.
"They say walls are made to be climbed over. And I couldn't agree more!" he excitedly shouted before using his orbs to scale the wall faster than he had ever moved before. Even Izuku was amazed at how fast his teammate climbed up the surface.
"This is why I can't stand you hero wannabees," a voice seethed from atop the wall. Kota peered over the barrier and stopped Mineta in his tracks, hand still gripping the next orb to be used.
"You really think you're hero material? You're hardly even a decent human."
When Kota pushed Mineta back, he found himself getting grabbed by the shirt and dragged off the wall as well.
The kid screamed as he plummeted down to the ground, only seeing a flash of green before blacking out.
When Mineta had started climbing the wall, Iida had rushed over to try to stop him, only to watch as Mineta got farther and farther out of reach. He had managed to catch Mineta when he fell, and watched as Izuku ran three steps up the wall and caught Kota before the two landed.
"I'll take him to Mandalay. You guys keep Mineta in line."
Even before he told the others his plan, Iida and a few others were already scolding their classmate, which was accompanied by shouts from the girl's side.
"Hey, Mandalay! We have a little issue!" the teen stated before barging into her office with the boy in his hands.
"What happened?" she requested while taking him off Izuku's hands. After a quick recounting, Mandalay sighed and placed a wet towel on Kota's forehead.
"I was told there was an overly lustful member in the boy's group, but I hoped he wouldn't go this far."
"Yeah, Mineta really is problematic."
The two were silent, watching the child as if he was about to wake up.
"Mandalay, I have a question about him that might be a bit personal. Do you mind if I ask?"
"I suppose you can ask, given you saved him from getting hurt."
"Okay. He doesn't like heroes, does he? Why is that?"
"How did you...?"
"I've heard some of the things he says. That, and he always looks mad at us, even before we met him. But mostly, it's his eyes. He reminds me of someone."
"It's not exactly heroes. Yes, he has strong feelings against heroes, but it's mainly the quirk-based society itself." Pixie-Bob had entered the room, starting the explanation herself.
"His parents were the Water Hoses. They were killed protecting innocent civilians. He was little at the time, probably too young to fully understand the concept of death. Everyone said they did the right thing; they sacrificed themselves for others, as a hero should. But no one took his feelings into consideration. To him, everyone was saying his parents were supposed to die for being heroes."
"He doesn't really like us either, given we're still heroes. Sometimes I think he comes along with us just because he has no one else to stay with. That's why he always seems hateful of you. It's not exactly personal, but he can't stand anyone who thinks that being a hero is a great thing."
"I'm sorry for his loss. I know from experience that living in a quirk-praising society can be rough under the wrong circumstances. And I know there are people out there that have similar views. I should head back. I'll see you two tomorrow," he offered, then returned to the hot baths for a short while, contemplating the discovery even after he got back.
The next morning, 1-A was rudely awoken by an earthquake of sorts under the rooms; Pixie-Bob's doing again. The sun was barely visible over the mountaintops. Most of the students were half-asleep still, with a few acting like waking up early was nothing new to them.
"Good morning students. As I said yesterday, today is the start of the real deal. The main point of this camp is to strengthen you all to the point where you can easily obtain your provisional licenses. For example, would you step forward, Bakugo?"
The blonde caught a ball tossed his way, which everyone recognized as the ball from the quirk assessment.
"Throw that as far as you can. Last time you got 705.2 meters."
Bakugo wound up, shouted, "Go to hell!", and used an explosion to propel the ball forward with remarkable speed and power. Aizawa checked the device, which he pointed at the students.
"Only 709.6 meters?" he steamed.
"Most of your experiences have been on the mental and technical levels. Before now, you've never worked out your quirks to their breaking points."
Aizawa smiled, which was usually a bad sign for his students.
"That's what you'll be doing at this camp; training your quirks to reach new heights. It'll be so hard, you'll feel like you're dying. But try not to actually die."
"Been there, almost done that," Izuku muttered loud enough to be heard by the teacher.
"Well then, I guess I'll just have to work you even harder than the others."
'I really shouldn't have said that,' Izuku scolded internally as the teacher led the students to a large open space and gave them specialized instructions for their training.
Not too far from 1-A, 1-B was also getting ready for the early morning training.
"Move along, everyone. You need to start developing your quirks as soon as possible. You have a lot of ground to make up if you want to come close to matching Class A."
Vlad took his class down a path that led to the area 1-A was already at.
"But sir, if I may ask, how do you plan on developing our quirks? With twenty of us, there's no way we can all be lumped into the same routine, is there?" Tokage asked.
"In a way, there is. See, quirks are like the muscles found throughout your body. When you overwork one, it'll grow back stronger than before. By that principal, you will be working your quirks to the absolute limit you can achieve."
"Yes, sir!" the class replied.
Little did they realize what they were getting into until they actually got a look at 1-A's training. Everyone was already drenched in sweat and partaking in bizarre, sometimes painful looking exercises to strengthen their quirks.
"Is this even legal?" Kendo asked after watching Bakugo dunk his hands into boiling water.
"Very much so. Now get in here and split up into groups based on quirk types. Power-up and strength based will work with Tiger over there," Aizawa stated with a point over his shoulder.
The Pussycat known as Tiger was currently working with Ojiro to increase his overall strength and endurance by making him go through several rounds of spars.
"By the way, could you separate to make an opening?" the teacher added with a gesture that matched his request. The group split apart just in time for Izuku to run through the gap before leaping off the short cliff and landing in front of Aizawa.
He had a specially designed harness which was holding about thirty pounds in weights. His homeroom teacher pulled out his phone and pressed a button.
"Seven and a half minutes. Not terrible, but I thought you could do better."
"Yes sir!" Izuku shouted between heavy pants.
"Give me three more laps, then find me," Aizawa instructed, then left to assist other groupings. Midoriya straightened up and ran around the camp and into the forest.
Over half an hour later he finally finished the third lap and found his homeroom teacher.
"Not bad timing, all in all. Due to your obvious lack of a quirk, you will have a different kind of exercise. Follow me."
The two walked over to Tiger, who was having the students go through various exercise routines like pushups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks.
"Ah, so this is the 'special case' you told me about. Don't worry, I'll take good care of him," the large man assured, to which Aizawa nodded and left.
"Okay runt. Your teacher told me to work you hard, so that's exactly what I intend to do. Show me what you got!"
Izuku rushed at the Pussycat and sent a few strikes, which his target avoided with unnatural flexibility.
"You're fast, I can give you that. But not fast enough."
Another series of attempted strikes were thrown at Tiger, who dodged them all like Izuku was just a beginner. But slowly Izuku picked up the pace until a few attacks connected, then more than just a few.
After a few minutes, Izuku was landing almost every hit. Soon, Tiger stopped the session and let Izuku take a break.
"Interesting. You went easy on me at first to watch the basics of my style, then noted the finer details when you started upping the pace, am I correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Interesting. Shall we go again?"
Between the training rounds with Tiger and the exercises Aizawa would stop by and make him do, Izuku was much more tired than he had foreseen himself getting. Thankfully, dinnertime was nigh.
"Alright everyone! Here're the ingredients. You better get cooking if you want something to eat before bed!" Ragdoll advised.
A loud sigh rumbled through the forest as 1-A and 1-B worked together to make a decent supper of curry. After almost an hour, dished portions were divided, and everyone dug in like it was their last meal on earth.
"This doesn't compare to restaurant food, but it's still great!"
"I can't get enough. My stomach needs more!"
"Pass the pot!"
Only one student managed to focus on something rather than the food, specifically the boy wandering into the forest without grabbing a bowl of food.
"I'll be back. Let Aizawa know I might be a bit late to bed," Midoriya told Uraraka, who nodded and practically buried her face in her bowl.
Izuku went to the front and scooped a fair share of curry and walked into the trees. A small pathway had been trampled before him, which he followed all the way to the top of a short mountain. Kota sat there at the edge of the mountain, looking over the trees and past the horizon.
"It's not good to skip meals," the green teen said as he approached the boy.
"How'd you find this place!" Kota demanded.
"You left a little bit of a path. Here, eat up," Izuku replied as he held the bowl out. Instead of taking the offered food, Kota took two steps backwards.
"I don't need the charity of some hero wannabee. Now get out of my secret hideout!"
"For a 'secret' hideout, it's not very secret. Maybe you should work on building something inside the mountain," Izuku suggested before sitting down on the ledge.
"You and your friends disgust me. Trying to improve your quirks and show off your powers."
"Is that really what you think about your parents?"
Kota froze in position, barely moving his head upwards as he eyed Izuku. "Did Mandalay tell you about them?" he shouted, angry and hurt. "It's so stupid how everyone flashes about their quirks and kills each other for being a 'hero' or a 'villain'. And... it's because of showing off that it happened. If quirks never existed, maybe more people would be happy."
For half a minute, both were silent; Izuku tried to word an answer and Kota just waited.
"Maybe that's true. So many people have been hurt by carelessness and needless violence. But so many have also been saved by quirks. All Might, Endeavor, Aizawa, so many heroes nowadays can help people in situations quirkless people couldn't have. And I know you don't like quirks, but at least appreciate the one you have. I wasn't so lucky. If you try too hard to reject it, it'll just be harder to accept it."
Izuku gently placed the curry on the ground and left without another word. Kota was left alone in his hideout, only the still steaming curry around to give him company.
The next day was even more of the same thing the previous day involved. Tiger let Izuku train on his own, which he used as an excuse to warm up his sword skills and chain strikes.
"Keep it up, Midoriya. If you slouch off, I'll send you back to Tiger's boot camp," Aizawa threatened as he strolled up to the student. The green-haired boy grunted in affirmative and upped the efforts of his training.
"By the way, how have the others been treating you recently?"
"Better. But then again, we've all been a bit busy lately. So who knows how it'll go when we're back in school."
"Oh, by the way, everyone!" Pixie-Bob called out, causing both of them and the others to focus on her. "We have a special game planned tonight. You'll be testing your courage against the other class, so train hard so you can play hard!"
"Test of courage huh? Sounds mildly interesting at best," Izuku muttered before returning to swinging his sword.
"Of course, you wouldn't be bothered by a 'test of courage'." Aizawa left Izuku to his training, occasionally stopping by after making sure everyone else was working hard.
Just like the previous night, the two classes were forced to work together to make their dinner. Izuku was making rounds collecting wood for the firepits when Todoroki stopped him.
"You ran off last night. May I ask where you went and if you plan to again tonight?"
"Oh, hey Todoroki. I went to talk to Kota."
"Kota...Kota...that's the kid with the pointy hat, right?"
"Yeah. Speaking of the devil, it looks like he's run off again."
Izuku neatly stacked the wood in one of the unused firepits and left to get another batch. Todoroki set up the necessary cooking ware on the metal grill and awaited Izuku's return.
"What did you need to talk to him about?"
"Well, he has a strong dislike for the whole quirk-based society we live in, especially heroes. I guess I just wanted to see if I couldn't change his mind or something."
"That's like you. Despite your recently developed reputation, you've always had a powerful urge to help others. But you can't always depend on words. Sometimes you need to back up what you say with actions. Otherwise, you're just a stranger poking his nose where it doesn't belong," Todoroki offered before lighting the set-up wood and walking away, leaving Izuku to ponder his advice.
Dinner was, for the most part, delicious. Of course, something made by tired, sore high schoolers wasn't going to be perfect, but it more than met their own expectations.
Now, it was time for the thig they'd all been waiting for; the test of courage.