Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Vlad King's Green Bean
Chapter fourteen: The summer training camp, part two
Early the following morning, Izuku and the rest of his classmates got up and followed Sekijiro out of their lodgings at the summer training camp at a bit past five in the morning. "Today we're going to be working on improving your quirks," Sekijiro said, "You see, when working out, you push your muscles to their limits, to the point they feel like they're on fire. That's a sign that they're torn, but they'll recover after rest. After that recovery, the muscles are stronger."
"...So quirks are kind of the same," Izuku spoke up.
Sekijiro allowed himself a mildly amused smirk as he gave a single nod while still leading his students in 1-B. "Exactly, Midoriya," the Blood Hero went on, "You can improve your quirks by working them to the absolute limit. That is what we'll be working on here at the training camp."
"And we got up early," Jurota remarked, "So as to have more time in the day with which to train our quirks."
"But don't you think it might be a tad too early?" Yui spoke up, "I mean, surely Class 1-A isn't up this early, working as hard as all get out to improve their quirks."
...
To the surprise of the 1-B students especially the initially skeptical Yui, Class 1-A not only already was up and at 'em with working on their quirks, but from what Izuku and his classmates were seeing, it looked more or less like the 1-A students were being tortured in the pits of hell. "...Even I think that some of this is a tad intense," Sekijiro remarked to himself under his breath. Gently shaking his head, Sekijiro turned to look at his students. "Class, we'll find some space in which to work out and train your quirks to their absolute limits."
"Question, Kan-sensei," Shihai spoke up while raising a hand, "How can you supervise all of us? I mean, there's one of you and twenty of us. Hell, I'm not even sure how Aizawa-sensei is managing monitoring all of Class 1-A by his lonesome."
"That's because he's not," the voice of Mandalay spoke up, making Shihai and the rest of Class 1-B turn to face where Mandalay's call came from. As such, they saw not just Mandalay, but all of the Wild, Wild Pussycats. Gesturing to herself, Mandalay said, "Yet another reason why you kids were all brought here for the summer training camp is due to how the rest of the Pussycats and I all have quirks that let us cover supervising multiple people at once with notable ease."
Pointing at Pixie-Bob, Izuku said, "Like how Pixie-Bob here can conjure animated beasts made out of earthen material, like the ones I saw when we were all making our way through The Beast's Forest as you called it."
Returing the pointing gesture to Izuku, Pixie-Bob said, "Ding ding ding, we have a winner here! Yeah, those earthen beasts were my handiwork, and part of the reason why The Beast's Forest got its name."
"Those things were your doing?!" Setsuna exclaimed at Pixie-Bob, "One of those things on their own battered the pink girl, the gravity girl, and the invisible girl in 1-A to the point I was worried they might have gotten killed!"
Shrugging, Pixie-Bob said, "They're under my complete control and would only knock them out before bringing them straight here." Waiving a hand dismissively, Pixie-Bob went on, "No need to worry."
"To... Tokage has a point," Sekijiro said, a bit taken aback by how devil-may-care Pixie-Bob was being about roughing up some of the students, "You may want to have those earthen beasts show a little more restraint, at least against first years."
"Just because you're willing to be lenient in your students' training doesn't mean the same ought to be shown to my students," Aizawa's voice droned out, making Sekijiro turn to see Aizawa walk up to talking distance. "So long as they're in good enough condition to get right to training the day after reaching the training camp," the underground hero spoke up, "Then I have no objections to what Pixie-Bob did to make my students work to their limits." Aizawa narrowed his gaze as he regarded the Blood Hero. "You worry about your students, I'll worry about mine."
"...Fair enough," Sekijiro said wryly, not wanting to start anything with Aizawa this early in the morning, especially since Sekijiro still had to get cracking on getting his students to train their quirks.
And so, the training of the Class 1-B students began at the summer training camp. While Sekijiro's students toiled away, unbeknownst to them, little Kota was watching them and the 1-A students from the shadows behind a tree. The young boy had no idea why the UA students were all working so hard to become Pro Heroes, especially since Pro Heroes have a tendency to get killed like his parents did. The young boy was also able to get it down that the students here had seen six of their own getting killed before they were able to come here for the training camp.
Why? Why were the UA students not only wanted to be heroes in the first place despite the risks, but all of them are continuing to work towards that goal even though six of their own had met violent ends before the training camp? Do they not care what they could potentially put their families through, what the six who were killed had put their families through? Kota's parents obviously didn't care what they could have put Kota himself through, given that they both got killed thus leaving him alone in the world, with only more pro heroes as his legal guardians.
Kota bitterly thought about how he had no idea how long Mandalay and the rest of the Wild, Wild Pussycats will last.
Later that day at around four in the afternoon, the Wild, Wild Pussycats had the UA students break to prepare their own dinner. Handing them a bunch of ingredients, Mandalay and Pixie-Bob told the 1-A and 1-B students that, although ingredients, tools, and set up will be provided, they had to make their food themselves from here on out while at the training camp. Given what all ingredients that both of the classes had been provided with, 1-A and 1-B each decided that their meal of choice that night will end up being curry.
Mina, as she was trying to get a cooking pit for Class 1-A going, turned to look at Bakugo. "Hey Bakugo, you think that you can help get a fire going in the pit by using your quirk to ignite some of the kindling inside?" Mina asked.
"Ashido, you shouldn't rely on others to use their quirks to help out with everything," Yaoyorozu said as she got a cooking pit going on her own by using her quirk to conjure a lighter, "We need to be able to figure out how to do things for ourselves."
Bakugo scoffed, saying to Yaoyorozu, "So the girl who can do things herself is telling off someone who can't do things herself. Typical." Bakugo then proceeded to help Mina light the cooking pit she was having trouble with anyway.
Yaoyorozu gave a wry look to Bakugo. "What's that supposed to me-"
"And while you're up there on your high horse Ponytail, think about this," Bakugo interrupted, after getting up having successfully helped Mina with her task. Jerking a thumb over where Todoroki was manning a cooking pit with Shinra, the explosive teen said, "IcyHot over there can produce both ice and fire with his quirk. I know because he and I both interned under IcyHot's daddy Endeavor and the big man himself said that his son's quirk can produce both ice and fire. That being said, how come IcyHot's not using his fire to help get some of the cooking pits going? For that matter, why hasn't he used his fire at all, and instead we've only seen him use his ice exclusively?"
Yaoyorozu and Mina, as well as some of the other Class 1-A students nearby such as Sero, Shinso, and Aoyama, were surprised to hear that their classmate Todoroki's quirk can also produce fire, rather than just ice as they had initially believed. "...Ice and fire?" Sero spoke up, "Wow, that's a powerful combination. He could easily be one of the strongest that our class has to offer. Weird that he's holding back."
Shinso, who stood next to Sero while carrying a bag of rice that would be used by Class 1-A to make their curry, spoke up, "...Todoroki's been holding back this whole time? Huh, Aizawa-sensei may not be happy to hear that."
...
Over where class 1-B was working their cooking pits, Izuku was manning a cooking pit while Juzo stood by watching. "Hey Izuku," Juzo began, "You ever had real truffle mushrooms?"
"Aren't those super expensive gourmet mushrooms used in dishes at the finest high end restaurants?" asked the green haired boy.
"Yeah, but our classmate Komori has volunteered to supply us with some for the curry that our class is making," Juzo began to explain, "Her quirk is called Mushroom, and it lets her spawn real mushrooms wherever her quirk's influence can reach. She's been able to learn how to spawn specific kinds of mushrooms, hence how we now have a source of quality real truffle mushrooms."
As Izuku, due to his habit of analyzing quirks, began to go over how Komori's quirk can be used, Yosetsu and Nirengeki came over. "Yo guys, how's the curry looking?" Yosetsu asked.
"Oh, it's going fine," Izuku answered, "But I'm a bit distracted since Juzo told me about Komori's quirk."
"Ah yes, and how with it Komori's been able to supply us with quality real truffle mushrooms," Nirengeki said, "I actually saw her spawn some for Class 1-A as well, as she wanted to help along Kendo's wish for our two classes to get along. Now both our class and 1-A will have fancy mushrooms to use in the curry."
Yosetsu nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I saw that as well. Komori gave the truffle mushrooms she spawned for 1-A to that Kirishima guy who Tetsutetsu sees as something of a rival and an equal. That cute girl in 1-A, Momo, looked surprised by Komori offering the truffle mushrooms."
Izuku gave a small but warm and sincere smile at what his friends were talking about. Although there still should be some healthy competition between 1-A and 1-B to help both classes grow, there was no need to let it delve down into bitter rivalry. Maintaining a strong sense of friendly camaraderie between the two classes will be a benifit to all of them in the long run, especially since the students of the two classes may end up working together at some point in the future.
Izuku hoped that the students of 1-A will do fine while at the summer training camp.
...
Class 1-A was starting to see just how much of an absolute hardass their homeroom teacher could be when given the motivation.
First off, despite the Wild, Wild Pussycats saying the students can eat as much as they can make, Aizawa decided to put limits on how much dinner each individual student in his class could have. Only Bakugo, Shinso, Shinra, and Shizuo were permitted to have regular sized servings, given that they're the only ones who passed the practical. Most of the 1-A students who failed the practical were only allowed to have half as much of a regular serving, and Mina, Hagakure, and Uraraka were only permitted one-fourth of a regular serving each because they were the last of the hero course students to make it to the lodge. Aizawa decided to leave out how he's also punishing Mina, Hagakure, and Uraraka for how they had also arrived to the lodge after all of 1-B had arrived there.
What especially drew some outrage from 1-A was Aizawa barring Todoroki from eating anything at all. "You all don't like it?" Aizawa scowled, "Then be better than you are now. The more and worse that you fail, the harder I'll work you and the stricter I'll be." Looking directly at Todoroki, Aizawa went on, "I'm especially disappointed in you, Todoroki. Holding back the fact that you can also use fire with your quirk. First thing when we get to quirk training in the morning, I'll be making sure to get some of that fire out of you. Do I make myself clear?"
Todoroki said nothing, instead he simply glared at his homeroom teacher. "...We're also going to have to work on giving a verbal answer when expected, I see," the underground hero snarled, then said to all of his students, "Enjoy what dinner you all have." Aizawa then turned around and walked off to go talk to Sekijiro and the Wild, Wild Pussycats, leaving his students be.
After Aizawa was gone, the students turned their attention to one another. "Man, why is Aizawa-sensei being such a hardass?" Mina complained, "I mean, how is it any fault of mine, Hagakure's, and Uraraka's that we were the last to make it to the lodge? We were attacked by one of those earthen monsters and could have been killed!"
"It was just like seeing that big brute monster with the exposed brain at the USJ all over again," Hagakure remarked, "It was that scary!" A vast majority of the 1-A students all nodded in agreement with their invisible classmate.
"And he's restricting how much we can eat," Uraraka pointed out, "That's going to limit us during both training and the remedial classes we have to take."
"Mark my words, guys," Kaminari said from where he sat with Bakugo, Kirishima, Sero, Mina, and Kyoka, "If Aizawa-sensei keeps up with going on like he's been doing, then it will blow up in his face." After eating a forkful of what little curry he was permitted, Kaminari added, "And I'll be sure to be among the first to tell him 'I told you so' to his face, consequences be damned."
As the 1-A students ate, Tokoyami, who had Dark Shadow out in a chibi form and resting on his right shoulder, couldn't help but think that the words of his electrical classmate had some validity to them. The underground hero, unaware due to being caught up in his own issues, was setting himself up for disaster. Tokoyami could only hope that, when said disaster struck (not if, when), it wouldn't be as bad as the loss that Class 1-A suffered back when villains had attacked the USJ.
...But given that Asui was lost that day, Tokoyami felt that nothing could surpass it in terms of how disastrous it was.
Unbeknownst to the heroes and hero students at the lodge, Dabi was standing on an overlook, looking at the lodge through a pair of binoculars. With Dabi were Spinner, Toga with new equipment, and Mustard. "Aww man," Toga said, "Why couldn't my new gear look cuter?"
"It was designed that way to help your quirk work to maximum effect," Mustard remarked, "Personally, I think it's ideal for you."
Dabi gave a hum of amused laughter. "Mustard has a point, Toga. We need to be at our best when we attack the training camp."
"So when do we get started?" Spinner asked.
"This time tomorrow," Dabi replied, "Gives the rest of us time to get ready."
Mustard nodded in agreement. "Yeah, better to go in once we're all fully prepped, rather than pull a Leeroy Jenkins." The masked youth turned his attention to Dabi, who was going to be leading the attack on the training camp. "So who are our targets for capture again?"
Dabi pulled out a paper list, looked at it. "...The big boss man wants us to capture two of the Wild, Wild Pussycats, those being Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob. He's personally interested in Ragdoll, and says that Pixie-Bob will be providing the twelfth and final piece that Felgrand needs to be ready."
"Felgrand?" Toga said, repeating what she heard in a curious and mildly confused tone.
The dark coat wearing villain turned to look at his comrade. "Felgrand is the 'puzzle' that the big boss man has been working on for me," Dabi explained, "He's going to be my personal bodyguard. The big boss man said something about his own personal bodyguard, someone named Gigantomachia who from what I'm feeling is some big lug, and how Gigantomachia with all due respect will simply be put to shame when compared to Felgrand."
Spinner folded his arms over his chest. "...So the big boss man's 'puzzle' he's putting together for you is a personal bodyguard that puts the big boss man's own personal bodyguard to shame. You're getting a better one than what he has." Spinner arched a wry eyebrow at Dabi. "...You really are being set up to take over for the big boss man one day, Dabi."
"What about the third target for capture?" Mustard asked, "You said that you were interested in capturing one of the hero students as well."
Dabi nodded in the affirmative. "...Yes. I need to wait for our spy to text me more info before we can plan out how to capture that specific stu-" Dabi was cut off when he felt something in his pocket vibrate. Fishing out a cellphone, Dabi checked the text that he got. "...The target will be stuck in a remedial classroom at the lodge at the time of our attack," Dabi said, "And both Eraserhead and Vlad King will be in the lodge at the time."
"Two of UA's finest hero teachers," Spinner remarked, "It's a good thing we're mobilizing the lot of us here plus Kurogiri, Rappa, Gentle, La Brava, Nagant, Twice, Compress, Magne, Muscular, and Moonfish."
"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to stress to them that we want to AVOID killing anyone here," Dabi said, "The three targets for capture especially so. The big boss man wants both Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob brought in alive, and the student I want to capture will be far more valuable alive." Spinner, Mustard, and Toga all nodded in agreement; Moonfish and especially Muscular seem like the types that need to be told before heading in for a mission to not kill anyone.
"We're going to need more details on when to go in," Mustard said.
Nodding in agreement, Dabi replied, "Hence why we're waiting for more details from our spy. Also, we're waiting for the rest of our group to get ready." The others all nodded along, content to wait for the right time to strike.
At most, they only have to wait for a day. Then the fun will begin.
The next afternoon, while all of the hero course first years from UA were continuing their training, Izuku who was sparring with Sekijiro asked for a pause in their sparring because something was bothering him. "Kan-sensei, will any more teachers from UA be coming to the training camp to help out?" Izuku asked.
Sekijiro gave the notion a fair bit of thought before saying, "That's... actually a valid question for you to ask, Midoriya. But to answer your question, no. The camp is being run with the bare minimum of personnel needed, meaning just me, Aizawa, and the Pussycats."
"We even asked All Might to not come given that he's a target," Ragdoll spoke up, getting Sekijiro and Izuku to turn to face Ragdoll as she and Pixie-Bob came walking over to them.
Clapping her hands together, Pixie-Bob said, "But that's besides the point of why Ragdoll and I came over. We need to tell Midoriya about the Test of Courage."
The green haired boy looked curious about that. "Test of Courage?"
"It's a little game that's played here at the lodge when classes from UA come by to train," Pixie-Bob began to explain, "Basically, one class heads into the forest to set up to scare off teams from the other class. Direct contact on the teams being sent in to be scared isn't permitted, but you can use your quirks in any way you can think of to try scaring off the team sent in to be scared."
"The teams sent in to be scared have to find cards with their names on them set up in the woods," Ragdoll further clarified, "And bring them back to prove that they had passed." Ragdoll then scratched the back of her head while wearing a 'what can you do' expression. "...Buuuut," Ragdoll went on, "Since Aizawa is barring all but four of his students from taking part, instead of 1-A and 1-B taking turns trying to scare each other, it'll be 1-B trying to scare the Bakugo, Shinso, Mahou, and Shizuo boys."
Sekijiro sighed as he folded his arms over his chest. "...Figures that Aizawa would bar his students who failed the practical. He's being harsher than he normally is on his students this year. I can't help but wonder what's gotten into him."
Shrugging, Pixie-Bob said, "Well what can you do? Anyway, the reason we came over was to tell Midoriya about the Test of Courage so that he can join his classmates in separating into five groups of four to see how much each group will be effective at trying to scare what's been labeled as Team Bakugo by that explosive boy with the ashy blonde hair."
Izuku sighed in a knowing tone, muttering, "Just like Kacchan," under his breath. Looking up to Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob, Izuku asked, "So do I go to my classmates now?"
"They're all waiting for you," Ragdoll informed, "It's getting close to ending training for the day anyway, so have at it." Sekijiro agreed and sent Izuku off to go join the rest of 1-B. After the green haired boy was gone, Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob went up to Sekijiro.
"I know we need to be firm with the students, but don't you think that Eraserhead is being too firm with his?" Pixie-Bob asked the Blood Hero.
Sekijiro nodded in agreement with Pixie-Bob. "Yeah, and get this," Sekijiro said, "Midoriya was originally supposed to be put into 1-A under Aizawa but he didn't want the boy as a student due to thinking poorly of his ability to not hurt himself using his quirk during the entrance exams."
The two ladies with Sekijiro both looked surprised. "...Really?" Ragdoll asked, "He looked like one of your very best students from what we've seen of him while he was training here. His quirk control seemed pretty damn good."
"That's due to how I had All Might arrange for some special training for Midoriya under All Might's old mentor," Sekijiro said, "It's really given Midoriya the leg up that he needed to help stand more equally with his peers. Of course, I have no doubt Aizawa wouldn't go to such lengths for Midoriya if he were his student as Nezu intended. He dismissed Midoriya as a lost cause on day one, solely because he wasn't an instant expert with his quirk. How could he be, given quirk regulation laws kept him from being able to safely train without hurting himself?"
Pixie-Bob nodded along in agreement. "Those laws are a double-edged sword. Sure, they help as intended, but at the same time they also hinder."
Unbeknownst to Sekijiro, Pixie-Bob, and Ragdoll as they talked, Aizawa was hiding behind a tree, leaning against it while facing into the woods so that the other heroes didn't see him. But he was still able to distinctly hear them, meaning he had heard what all they were talking about, including how Midoriya got special training, and it had been arranged with the help of All Might.
"...So that's what's going on huh?" the underground hero muttered to himself, "Would go a long way to explain why All Might didn't show up at the USJ until after the attack. He really DOES have some special vested interest in Midoriya." Not ever having been seen or heard by Sekijiro, Ragdoll, or Pixie-Bob, Aizawa walked through the woods to take an unseen path to the lodge.
He had some failures to educate, after all.
In the woods around the training lodge later on, Izuku was hiding with Juzo, Yosetsu, and Nirengeki as they had a trap of sorts set up to scare any from Bakugo, Shinso, Mahou, or Shizuo who wandered by. Shinso most likely, as the card with his name on it was placed near where Izuku and his friends had their 'trap' set up. "Hey man," Juzo said to Yosetsu, "Why were you so keen on wanting our group to focus on trying to scare Shinso?"
"Because Bakugo can create massive explosions," Yosetsu began, "Mahou can conjure mass amounts of black fire, and Shizuo has obscene super strength. Shinso, with his brainwashing, poses the least direct harm to us if we give him a scare, given he can't blast us or send us flying with a powerful strike."
Izuku nodded in agreement; he remembered all throughout his childhood that Bakugo would use his quirk on him for whatever reason he could come up with, and rather often for no reason at all. The last thing that the green haired boy wanted to do was give Bakugo an excuse to blast him with some explosions. Right before Izuku could speak up, he and his friends all caught the smell of something foul.
"...Nirengeki, was that you?" Juzo asked, "I know of your love for burritos, man!"
"Dude, I didn't do that!" Nirengeki hissed back, "Besides, to my farts come out in the form of this purple mist around us?"
Izuku, looking confused, said, "Purple mist? What do... you mean... by... ..." Izuku then lost consciousness and fell over, laying face down in the dirt. He was followed by Juzo, and then Yosetsu after him.
Seeing he was the last one conscious, Nirengeki weakly said before passing out, "Ha... I... win...". The last of the boys hiding in that area then fell over and passed out, meaning Izuku and his group of friends were going to be unaware of the dangers that were about to happen.
END, CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Author's notes;
This chapter sees the training camp continue, with some signs of Aizawa being harsher here than he normally would have been. There's also a scene of Dabi, Spinner, Toga, and Mustard discussing their upcoming attack on the training camp, with Dabi dropping a name that will play a big role in the story to come. Finally, the Test of Courage is kicked off, although Izuku and his friend group in 1-B pass out due to Mustard's gas quirk. This will take them out of the events that are about to unfold, meaning that things in the training camp attack will be happening very differently. How differently, you may ask? Well, let's just say that, among other things, one of Dabi's wishes won't be coming true. You'll see what I mean during parts of the next chapter.