Hiya!

Into the Woods

The sky was dark as Izuku headed down the mountain. It was full of beautiful stars that he couldn't see in the city, beautiful stars he would've marveled at if he weren't so busy staring helplessly at the cracked earth. He just didn't get it.

Kota was a...troubled kid. At only four, he was stuck living with his aunt Mandalay and the Wild Wild Pussycats out in the woods. All because his hero parents had died a truly honorable death.

"Calling yourselves 'heroes' and 'villains'...killing each other like idiots. You brag about your 'quirks' and that's why you end up like that, fucking idiots."

The boy was filled with so much anger.

Izuku just wished he could get through to him. Tell him that the superhero society they lived in was more than just hurting one another and that he'd hurt himself acting like it was. Hell, Izuku had even tried to tell him all this, to no avail.

Izuku just didn't get it.

He really wished he did.

So the second day of training camp was looking to end poorly. Izuku reached the bottom of the mountain and began his short trek through the monster-free forest. Already resigned to a restless sleep, he cast aside his turbulent thoughts for the time being and focused on the quickest path from himself to his futon. He would've made it in no time too if he hadn't picked up on a voice.

'What?'

There were multiple voices actually. Coming from somewhere deeper in the forest. Izuku, like the protagonist of a horror movie, turned on his heel and moved toward them.

He moved forward at a snail's pace, acutely aware of the twigs surrounding him. As he got closer, he expected to understand more of what was being said. However, as he neared the voices, the only thing that became clear was the fact that he could hardly understand a thing. They were speaking English.

From the sound of it, the voices were arguing. They cut each other off, spoke over one another, and hissed. They weren't very quiet about it either, which Izuku guessed was due to them believing no one sane would be wandering in the forest at night. He used that to his advantage and tried to pick up what he could.

"You want to...!"

"...bad!"

"We...calm..."

"Calm? You think I...calm? I saw...!"

"I...we...them no—"

A bird cried out from above.

The voices stopped immediately.

Izuku saw a bird—a red-tailed hawk like Kouda had mentioned—dive from the sky and down into some trees a few meters ahead of him. He picked up his own pace.

Soon enough, he emerged from a tall bush and found a group of kids all huddled together. The same group of kids he'd seen during the previous day.

'So I wasn't going crazy.'

He was far enough from them so that he could see them while they couldn't see him, which allowed him to get a read on who exactly he was dealing with. There were indeed four of them, all in varying heights.

There was a black girl with short black hair, the first of the kids—teens, he realized—that he'd seen. Her clothes were different, however. Instead of the spandex from the other day, she wore loose denim overalls over a faded shirt, paired with sturdy-looking boots.

A white girl with blonde hair stood beside her. She was tall. Really tall. Her low-rise jeans and spaghetti strap shirt were dated, but fashionable, and she topped her look off with a red-tailed hawk perched right on her shoulder like it weighed nothing. A hawk that was currently glaring daggers in his direction.

Izuku adverted his eyes.

Staring intently at said hawk was a brown boy. He was the shortest of the bunch; wearing a short-sleeved button up over a short-sleeved shirt and long baggy pants with tennis shoes. The boy was promptly smacked upside the head and turned away from the hawk to glare at the white boy next to him.

The white boy was a brunet. He wore shorts that made sense on the warm night, but the short sleeved shirt he wore under a long sleeved shirt confused Izuku. It wasn't too odd, but it was...old school. Older than old school if he were to be honest.

The strange bunch of teens stared at each other. Izuku had been in enough fights to know what certain silent looks meant. It seemed that they still weren't over their argument from earlier but that they'd decided to set it aside for the time being. Why though, he had no answer.

Just then, the brunet boy sighed. Tired. "You...out."

Izuku blinked. Who was he talking to?

The stranger looked around him and furrowed his brows. He spoke again, "You...out, you know."

After the boy received no response, the short haired girl said, "They don't...you. We are in Japan..."

Then it clicked in Izuku's brain. They were talking to him. Well, to say they were talking to him would be a stretch, but they did know that someone was watching them.

Now he had a dilemma. Should he walk up to a group of teens in the forest with four unknown quirks between them, or should he go and alert an adult about their presence? The former would be reckless but if he did the latter, they'd probably be gone by the time he got back. However, he could always use their description to help Ragdoll use her quirk to find them.

Honestly, this was a decision that required planned out thought. He should take his time to think and not rush into thing—

And he was already walking toward the group of teens.

"Uh, hello?" Izuku waved at he approached the teens. They were younger than they looked from afar.

"Hi," the brunet said back.

"Oh, you understand Japanese?" Izuku said. "That's such a relief. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to ask you guys what you're—"

"What is he saying?" the short boy hissed, looking from Izuku to the brunet.

The brunet just shrugged.

Izuku shut his mouth at that. They probably know as much Japanese as he did English. Probably even less considering their American accents. Was Japanese even taught over there?

So, he was stuck just staring at the teens and they back at him.

"...would sure be...now," the tall girl mumbled.

The bush behind the teens shook just then. They turned to face it as Izuku peaked over their shoulders.

Emerging from the shrubbery was another boy.

He was brown with long curly hair and wide brown eyes. Something in Izuku's brain rattled at his appearance. For a second, the newcomer had the tall girl's face, then the short boy's, then it seemed as though he had the short haired girl's mouth and the blond boy's nose.

Izuku hit his head while the teens were still looking away. 'Get it together.'

The newcomer barely looked at him and instead turned directly to the blond boy. The two had a breif exchange in English before the curly haired boy nodded. He stepped through the group of teens until he stood at the front, facing Izuku.

"Hello," he said in perfectly unaccented Japanese. "I am Max and these are my friends James, Bruno, Marie, Samantha, and Tim."

Izuku could cry. Finally, someone who he could talk to for answers.

"Hi, I'm Midoriya Izuk—wait. There's six of you?"

Max blinked doe-ishly at him before letting out a small "oh." He pointed to the bird, "He is Tim."

Strange name for a bird. But then again, what do you even name a pet hawk?

"Sorry for the confusion Midoriya Izuk. Confuuusion."

Izuku just laughed nervously. What was up with this guy? "It's actually, Midoriya Izuku. And you don't have to say my full name."

"Alright then," Max said, stretching out his hand. "It's nice to meet you Midoriya."

Giving him a handshake was weird, but Izuku went with it. Cultural differences and all. "It's nice meeting you to—"

The blond girl, Samantha, groaned.

"Can we...stop...talking and...please?"

"Oh, right," Max said in English before pulling back his arm and saying in Japanese. "What are you doing here?"

Izuku frowned. "I think I should be the one asking you guys that. This is private property and you're clearly not with UA."

The group of teens tensed up. It was a minute action, but one Izuku picked up on. Did they know what he was saying? And if so, how?

He scanned the group with what he hoped came across as innocent curiosity rather than harsh suspicion. He looked to James and saw that the boy too was scanning him; looking over his frame and no doubt assessing his strength. When James' eyes connected with his, Izuku saw into a mind brimming with calculations.

Izuku looked to the rest of the group. He could see the same thing in all of them too.

Suddenly, he was regretting not going to an adult.

Max opened his mouth and closed it. The hawk perched on Samantha's shoulder, turned it's head directly to the silent boy, narrowed it's eyes, and Max opened his mouth again.

"We're cleaning up the forest," he said. "The wayward—wa-waaaayward—rubble from Pixiebob's monsters can disrupt the wildlife so we always help clear it up."

You see, if he hadn't taken so long to respond, Izuku might've believed that. But no one innocent froze up like that before responding. Much less their entire group of friends who supposedly didn't understand him.

"Oh, that makes sense then," Izuku replied with a smile. "Sorry for distracting you. I'll leave you guys to it."

He waved at them and they stared back, undoubtedly confused about the somewhat abrupt end of their interaction. Good, he thought as he turned away from them. Better they be confused than suspicious.

The League of Villains was out for UA's neck. Quite literally. If they weren't past killing kids, then they definitely weren't past recruiting them. And if those six—Max, James, Bruno, Marie, Samantha, and Tim (assuming that those were even their real names)—were even possibly a part of the League, Izuku couldn't trust a single word out of their mouths.

He had to tell an adult.

You. Yes, you the reader. WHY ARE YOU READING THIS?

Like, I was expecting about one other person to read this and yet at least twenty people have clicked on this. Why? Who even wants to read crossover fanfiction about a 2010s anime and a children's book series from 1996?

I do. I want to read it. Obviously. And apparently you do too.

I'm being dramatic but I'm honestly stoked about having readers on this. When I get one comment on my other fic, I'm disappointed, but when I saw that four (now 20+) people have read my fic, I literally freaked. Jubilant.

Thanks.

Still keeping the chapters short. This one was actually supposed to be longer but I was like ehh, and cut it. The peace of mind writing this fic gives me, man. Feel free to share your thoughts, follow, leave kudos, or none of the above. I hope to update again soon. See'ya.