The next few weeks passed without a hitch. The hero students wined and complained about being stuck in the USJ under surveillance, but even they couldn't deny they got a lot of good training out of it. The students even did their finals in the USJ. Izuku loved watching the students' strategies on fighting their teachers. He also had fun helping them revise and rework their plans after the final.

It was probably his help in strategizing that finally won Izuku the students' trust.

It was as though they had never thought about fighting the way Izuku had, to analyze a person's weakness or their quirk's limitations as they fought. They even improved in Izuku's humble opinion. But they were still nowhere near ready to take on the league by themselves. Good thing Izuku already had a plan. Hopefully it would work.

Izuku had just gotten done explaining the plan to the students and taking questions and was getting ready to go back to the league when Eraserhead stopped him. "You put a lot of thought into this plan." Izuku raised his eyebrow. Eraserhead didn't just hand out compliments, especially not to villains.

"Ya, your students' lives could depend on it, and personally I hate doing shotty work." The underground hero hummed in acknowledgement, probably remembering the feral child's previous attacks and not replying for several moments.

"I was trying to save you. At the USJ." The underground hero's words shook Izuku. He had no idea what to make of them.

"What?" Izuku cringed at his voice crack and was thankful Eraserhead didn't comment on it.

"Me and Nezu, we heard about Stillwater, but not until after you had already broken out." The green haired boy froze at the mention of his old prison, hoping Eraserhead had a point that wasn't sending him back. "If I had known beforehand, I would have done anything to get you out, legally."

Izuku… froze. He had nothing. No ideas of how to respond to the hero who had just told him he could have been saved from that hell without selling out to the villains. Said hero then turned to look him dead in the face, his eyes betraying his sincerity. "I didn't know about you then, but now I do, and I'll do anything in my power to keep you out." Izuku nodded, still unable to speak. "Just don't ever hurt my students again. Understand?" Izuku nodded again and Eraserhead hummed, apparently content with his answer.

It took several minutes for Izuku to regain his composure, silently cursing himself for the few stray tears that leaked from his eyes in grief over what could have been if Eraserhead had just found him first. But eventually, Izuku wiped his tears. After all, it wasn't helpful to hope for something that has already passed. He just needed to be ready for the summer camp.

He would make sure these students survived. Even if it killed him.

The day to leave for the summer camp came far sooner than anyone wanted, but they had to go if they wanted to catch the league. All the students were still under strict supervision in case the mole tried to tip off the league last second, but so far none of the students had been caught doing anything suspicious and Izuku's list of suspects was still rather long.

"Everyone clear on the plan?" the villain asked after having gone over the plan for the tenth time, compulsively needing to make sure all the students knew it. It almost made him miss working on his plans by himself. Almost.

"Yes, Izuku-kun. We got it. Your plan will work." It was Uraraka that spoke, her tone a friendly mocking that none of the other students had worked up the courage to use.

"Okay, okay. We've got everything we need, all the students have their gear on the bus, the back up heroes are already on sight, the on-call heroes were notified and are ready-" Izuku rambled off the other variables before getting cut off by Eraserhead's capture weapon wrap around his mouth. A month ago, Izuku would have freaked out and attacked the underground hero, but now he just rolled his eyes and looked to Aizawa.

"Problem child, everything is arranged. You have already checked it three times. We need to leave or we will be late and that could tip off the league." Aizawa told him before releasing the hold over Izuku's mouth.

"I know, I know. Just nothing can go wrong or-" Izuku stopped talking when Aizawa raised his capture weapon in a threatening manner. "Okay, I'll stop. Let's get the kids on the bus." The last part was for the hero students who practically cheered

Once all the students were gone, Izuku turned back to Eraserhead. "I'll head out too, the league wants to do a final brief of the mission and finally tell us our targets are before we go." The underground hero nodded his approval, and the feral child took off, not wanting to be late and blow his cover at the last second.

"Ah, Feral child. Nice of you to show up." Tomura snarked as Izuku walked in the door the exact minute the meeting was to start. Everyone else was already there and All-for-one joined via his TV screen. Izuku just smiled at Tomura. They had a consensual cease fire since Izuku took down Stain and the feral child wanted to keep it that way.

"Ok, now that everyone is here," Tomura looks at Izuku pointedly. "We can tell you our targets. Sensei?"

The TV static increased for a moment before the smooth, deep voice rang out from the speakers. "We have three targets for capture; Shinsou Hitoshi, he had purple hair, a capture weapon, and a voice quirk. Don't answer his questions, or he will take control of you. Shoto Todoroki, son of Endevor, had a half hot, half cold quirk. And finally, Bakugou Katsuki, he has an explosion quirk and a fiery temper. Try to capture these students and the others you can kill." Serval of the new villains looked excited at the prospect of killing the students.

Izuku carefully kept his face neutral. He had predicted those students would likely be the targets based on their profiles, but it was still horrifying to hear his suspicions confirmed, especially after having worked and trained with those students for the past few weeks.

"Now then everyone knows the plan?" Tomura looked around the group of villains, seemingly content with the enthusiastic nods he got in return. "Good. It is just about time to launch our attack, we will strike as soon as they arrive to the camp so we can catch them by surprise." That last part was Izuku's contribution to the plan, he just wanted to get the attack over with and give himself less opportunities to reveal himself as a traitor.

"Kurogiri, open our portal." The portal was to open on a cliff overseeing where the villains thought the camp would be, but Izuku knew the heroes and hero students were there lying-in wait for them to show up.

As ordered, Kurogiri opened the league a large portal, and the group began to walk through it. Izuku took a deep breath before he plunged in. soon it would be too late to turn back, but Izuku knew he had made his bed, and he was ready to lie in it.