Doko stopped beneath a tree, putting his hand against it and doubling over, out of breath. "This…" he wheezed. "Is every s-summer camp like this?"
"No," Ojiro coughed, leaning against a tree opposite him. "Not at all."
Rewinding back a few minutes…
Class A had been enjoying a rambunctious bus ride up a winding road through the mountains, with forest stretching off to their left. Mina had wanted to sit with Toru and chat for a while, so Doko had ended up next to Sero instead. They'd chatted as a group for several hours, when the bus came to a stop.
Aizawa had called it a rest stop. But then two ladies in cat outfits had emerged from a vehicle, one of them had used her Quirk to send the class tumbling off the cliff, and now they were fighting their way through a forest filled with rock monsters.
"What a weird day," Doko mumbled, half-delirious.
"UA needs to stop playing with my emotions like this!" Kaminari wailed, zooming past and electrifying another monster. He, like the rest of them, was battered and bruised and dirty, with a frayed uniform. "Seriously, how much further?"
"The sun is high in the sky." Tokoyami coolly released Dark Shadow, who took out two more monsters. "They said we might get there around noon, but obviously we are running late. Surely we are more than halfway there."
"AAAAAAAHHHH…" Toru ran past, being chased by several monsters at once. "If we don't get there soon, I'm gonna pee my pants!"
"If you don't stop complaining, I'll pee YOUR pants!" Mina shouted at her, doing some fancy footwork under the monsters and placing acid on their foundations.
"That doesn't make any sense! Also, gross!"
"AOYAMA, NOW!"
"Ah yes, the finishing blow." The laser boy did a twirl on the top of a tree branch, nearly losing his footing in his own bravado and waving his arms frantically to re-stabilize. How did he even get up there?
Aoyama fired his laser, the force of it accidentally propelling him backwards off the tree, as the light burned through one of the monsters, eliminating it. Doko warped below him in a rush and caught him, nearly buckling his legs under the boy's weight.
Instead of leaving his arms quickly, Aoyama just looked up at him with twinkling eyes and a pointed smile. "Our eyes are a similar color, monsieur," he commented.
Doko dropped him, annoyed. "Don't get up in trees next time."
"This means we are friends now, oui?"
"It doesn't!"
"Does too!"
Ojiro flipped and twirled through three small monsters, undulating his tail around his body and smacking them hard with it. "Koda!"
Koji Koda, who seemed to be enjoying himself far too much in this wooded environment, raised his hands. "Birds of the forest!" he declared.
Feathery wings swarmed the monsters, attacking and pecking at them. "Koda's voice is so adorable!" Toru squealed, serving as Mina's bait for two more monsters.
"Don't patronize him like that," said Shoji, peering around a tree with several eye-limbs. "There are more coming from the right."
Doko turned, warping sideways out of the way of one of their blows. He shot his Quirk through his arm and warped one of their bouldery arms off, and then sent the boulder pieces back up into the air, crushing them from above. As one raced at him with a roar, it passed under a tree, and he warped a heavy-looking tree branch downward on top of it.
Mina had destabilized a massive one with her acid, and it was currently falling over the group like a shadow. "Get out of there!" Doko cried, warping to Toru, who was right under its landing spot. He grabbed the invisible girl to shield her, and then lifted his arm. "WARP FIELD!"
A blast of purple energy erupted from his body in all directions, and the rock monster blasted to pieces.
Mina and Shoji both looked on, dumbfounded.
Doko released Toru from his protective grip. She was bouncing from one foot to the other excitedly. "Being in the middle of that felt so weird! I thought I would teleport too, though?"
"I guess you were in the center of the radius or something; I don't know it works." Doko coughed and doubled over again, exhausted from using his super move. "I don't think I'll be able to use that again today."
Toru gasped. "You spent your one use of it to save me? Hehehehehe…"
"I'm regretting it now."
The invisible girl made a pouting sound.
"Doko!" Mina shouted, spraying an acid shield between two trees that dissolved a rock monster as it tried to emerge into the clearing. "You should go on ahead! If you warp there, you can make it to the place pretty soon!"
"What, and leave you guys behind?" He smiled wearily. "Nah. Besides, Shoji makes a much better scout than I do."
"Speaking of which…" Shoji turned, as the sounds of battle emerged from behind them. "Here comes the vanguard."
"SMASH!" Midoriya shouted, emerging into the clearing with a rock monster that he'd just punched into oblivion, green lightning sparking out in all directions.
"This is starting to get repetitive," Todoroki said in a calm voice, spreading his ice over three more, locking them in place. Following up behind him came Bakugo, leaping up and destroying the trapped monsters with three explosions. "DIE!" he roared.
One more slid in, but Iida raced past and knocked it over with sheer momentum, his engines sputtering. "We are nearly there, Class A!" he declared. "Keep moving!"
Doko and Mina sighed and exchanged a glance. It was difficult keeping up with the energy of those four.
…
As the sky turned orange with the promise of evening, Mandalay and Pixie-Bob waited by their facility. Aizawa stood further off to the side, while Kota hung back near the wall, pouting.
The blonde Pussycat looked through her headgear. "They'll be here momentarily."
Aizawa sighed. "I hope they're not too beat up. You said Koda seemed to be enjoying himself?"
"For a while there, yes. I'm happy." Pixie-Bob smiled. "During his internship with us, he was actually instrumental in saving a little girl from a cave."
"That's good," Eraser Head responded. "I'm worried about my quieter students. They often seem comfortable falling into the background compared to the more problematic ones…but they need to progress just as much."
"Well, that's what we're here for!" Mandalay reassured.
"This is pointless," Kota murmured from the wall, low enough to where the three adults couldn't hear. "Fighting rock monsters? Saying they want to be heroes? Are they stupid or something?"
A rustling came from the treeline. Pixie-Bob and Mandalay both looked up.
A purple flash of light went off, and then a grey-haired boy came limping into the clearing, alone.
"Katayama," Aizawa called. "Where are the others?"
"Like, four minutes behind," he called out weakly. "I didn't want to, but they made me scout ahead. Feel bad." He bent over and coughed, as if he was light on breath.
"You have the teleportation Quirk, don't you?" Pixie-Bob called to him. The boy nodded, too weak to even reply verbally.
The blonde Pussycat licked her lips excitedly. Mandalay took notice. "Don't you dare," she muttered to her companion. Pixie pouted. "Can't a girl have a little fun?"
"You're not a girl. You're a woman."
"Shaddup."
To their surprise, Katayama stood up straight and turned back around to the treeline, purple light growing around his mouth. "GUYS!" he shouted, and the voice seemed to be right in their ears. "I MADE IT TO THE CLEARING! JUST A LITTLE FURTHER!"
When his message had ended, Pixie-Bob gasped. "Mandalay, that was a lot like your Quir…"
The auburn-haired Pussycat was already stepping toward him. "Katayama-san?" she asked, and he turned back.
"Yes?"
"Did you just teleport your voice?"
He nodded. "I'm not great at controlling it just yet, but yeah."
Aizawa raised an eyebrow. "I was unaware that you had started doing it manually. I thought it had only happened as a side-effect during moments of high emotion. In any case, this is good. You'll be able to work on that this week."
Mandalay put a paw on the boy's shoulder, which felt strange as he was a little bit taller than her. "My Quirk is Telepath. I can send messages directly into people's minds." Like this, she sent to him, winking.
Katayama gasped, blushing slightly as he realized what she'd just done. "That's…"
...Useful, right? Do you want to become a rescue hero, Katayama?
"Sort of. I guess so."
"This is perfect." She stepped back and clapped her paws together. "I can help you hone that ability. Figure out how to summon it, target it at specific people and areas, that sort of thing. It's a little different than mine, since you have to physically speak aloud, but it could be used for the same things. Getting messages to people that you can't physically get to."
"But if he's a warper…" Pixie-Bob commented slyly from behind. "...Can't he physically get anywhere he wants?"
Mandalay flushed red and whirled around on her. "You stay out of this! I'm trying to mentor him here!"
"Whatever you sayyy, Mand-a-layyyy."
"Grrrrr, who was the one drooling over him earlier?"
"That's beside the point."
"Not at all!"
"I…"
The treeline rustled again, and the rest of Class A straggled into the clearing.
Mandalay and Pixie-Bob took several steps back from Katayama, rejoining Aizawa. "Welcome!" the auburn Pussycat announced.
Iida dragged his leg along behind him in a limp. Kaminari blinked, his face blank as a result of his overfried brain. Sato's eyes rolled as he swayed, clearly about to crash. Asui's tongue lolled out of her mouth. Bakugo clutched his wrists, grimacing. Todoroki scraped some ice off of his face.
"What do you mean, three hours!" Kirishima complained.
"That's the time it would have taken us, sorry."
"I'm hungry and I'm going to die," the hardening user shot back plainly.
"Still, it took less time for you all than I thought it would. You're all amazing. Especially…" Pixie-Bob pointed one claw at Todoroki, Bakugo, Midoriya, Iida, and Katayama, who were all standing somewhat close together. "You five!"
"Huh?" Midoriya deadpanned.
Pixie-Bob suddenly leapt toward them, arms outstretched. "I'm looking forward to seeing where you'll all be in three years! I call dibs!"
Midoriya and Iida started panicking as the older pro heroine circled them excitedly, while Todoroki just blinked in confusion, and Bakugo snorted dismissively.
"Was she like this before?" Aizawa muttered.
"She's at that age…" Mandalay sighed.
"Oi," said Ashido, strutting over and pulling on Katayama's arm, getting him out of Pixie-Bob's radius. "This one's taken."
The blonde cat blinked at them. "Oh?"
Katayama smiled apologetically. "She has a point. Good luck, you four." He let the acid user drag him away, whistling, while the others endured Pixie-Bob's resumed barrage.
"You're letting them date?" Mandalay asked Aizawa, watching Ashido and Katayama.
Eraserhead shrugged. "Those two passed the final exam together, and he unlocked a new move in the process. If it looked like their relationship was holding back their progress, I wouldn't allow it. But it seems to be doing the opposite."
Mandalay nodded. "That's good. It's important to remember what we protect, as heroes. Love is one of those things."
"Errmmm, can I ask a question!?" Midoriya stammered in a panicked voice.
Pixie-Bob grabbed his face with her paw, deadly energy streaming off of her. "What is it?" she asked sweetly.
"Whose child is that?" his voice came out muffled, but he pointed at Kota against the wall.
Mandalay relaxed. "Oh, not one of ours! He's my cousin's kid. Come on, Kota, greet everyone."
The boy kept his angry face on, much to her dismay. When Midoriya tried to walk over and introduce himself, Kota punched the hero student in the balls.
"YOOOOOO!" Kaminari and Sero shouted at the same time.
"KOTA!" Mandalay shrieked. "Apologize at once!"
"What kind of demon child is that, to attack a man's crotch in such a manner?!" Iida shouted, putting his arms around the whimpering Midoriya. "Midoriya, it's going to be okay. Breathe in, breathe out."
Kota turned back, snarling. "I don't intend to hang out with people who want to be heroes."
Bakugo looked on, smiling in approval. "What a precocious little brat."
"He gives off the same energy as you," Todoroki commented in a level voice from behind.
"What the FUCK did you just say?!"
"Stop messing around," Aizawa announced to all of them. "The bus is parked around back. Go get your stuff off of it and then head inside. You'll eat, bathe, and get to sleep. The real training begins tomorrow. Now get a move on."
…
"Thank you for the food!" they all shouted, and began to dig in.
"Oh my goooooddd," Kaminari cooed, shoveling rice into his mouth. "It's just rice, but I'm so hungry that it tastes amazing!"
"It's a match for Lunch Rush's cooking!" Kirishima added, practically inhaling his bowl.
"So the girl's room is normal size, then?" Doko asked Mina.
"Yep!" she nodded. "What, are you boys in a big room or something?"
"Yeah. Looks like we're all in sleeping bags on the floor."
She grinned. "That's camping for ya. I hope you enjoy it."
"I'd enjoy it more if I was sleeping with you. Oh my God, did I just say that out loud?" He snapped his hand over his mouth.
Mina laughed, blushing. "Doko, you should try and flirt more often!"
"Uggghhh…" he wilted, hanging his head in shame. "My Quirk got overused today, and I'm reverting back to saying stuff erratically…"
"Your Quirk seems to speak from the heart. Maybe you should listen to it. Now, open wide." Mina held up her chopsticks, a piece of meat cradled between them. "Come on, Doko. Say aahhh."
He looked up at her, nonplussed. "What's this? What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to feed you, you dolt!"
"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to make you mad for a second." He leaned in and plucked the meat off her chopsticks with his mouth.
Mina's blush deepened and she giggled. He chewed the meat and swallowed, smiling back at her.
"Can you guys take this somewhere else?" Jiro asked dryly from the other side of the table.
They both stiffened to attention, suddenly aware of the people immediately around them watching.
"So unfaiiirrr…" Kaminari whined. "I want a girlfriend who'll feed me too!"
"Katayama, Ashido, I understand that the camp environment is an outlet for you to express your growing affection for one another, but I must disapprove of this dinner display!" Iida admonished, pointing his chopsticks at them.
"Nice alliteration," Doko told him.
"Thank you! Now please calm it down!"
"Shoji-kun…" Toru sang, a floating chopstick making its way towards the arm-mouth he was currently using. "Can I feed your limbs?"
"Even as the owner of the Quirk that makes such a thing possible, that's weird," he told her.
Toru wilted, defeated. Doko looked over and saw Ojiro watching them with a strangely blank expression on his face. What's that about?
…
Later, the boys all settled in the outdoor spring bath, relaxing.
"Ahhh, this is nice…" Kirishima breathed, laying his head back against the edge of the pool. His spiky hair had fallen down over his face.
"I could let off steam like this for hours…" Sato commented.
"Don't crash in here," Ojiro told him darkly. "Besides, don't you guys have remedial lessons tomorrow?"
Both of them stiffened, making sounds of shock. They'd been trying not to think about it.
Tokoyami sat with his bird head half-submerged, his red eyes the only thing visible above the opaque water.
"You hanging in there okay?" Doko asked him, somewhat nervously.
"Just letting my feathers soak." When he spoke, his mouth was only partially out of the water, and bubbles appeared around him.
"Kaminari?" Midoriya asked. "What are you doing muttering to yourself over there?"
"You know…" the electricity user said, staring up at the wooden wall beyond the spring. "Just on the other side of that, the girls are bathing right now."
"Having those thoughts is demeaning to both the girls and yourself, Kaminari!" Iida admonished. "Consider your morals!"
Doko's face twitched. In his mind's eye, he saw Mina, her tousled hair half-tamed by the water, drops trickling their way down the nape of her neck, her shapely thighs, her perky brea…
"I wish this water was colder," he muttered. Tokoyami gurgled a noise of agreement from underwater.
"OI!" said a young voice from the top of the wall.
They all looked up. Peering down at them was the little boy Kota, with his red cap and permanent scowl.
"I can hear what you're saying, blondie. Before trying to be a stupid hero, maybe work on being human too?"
"Grrrgh!" Kaminari's face blanked, and he fell back into the water. "Roasted by a kid…"
"I'm liking the little shit more and more," Bakugo commented.
"Thanks, Kota-kun!" Mina's voice called from the other side of the wall. Doko perked up.
Kota had the natural reaction of turning to see who'd addressed him…and must have seen all the girls, because he promptly panicked, and fell off the wall.
Both Doko and Midoriya had gut reactions, but Doko reached the boy first, warping up to midair and catching him in his arms.
The green-haired boy splashed back into the water, the lightning dying down. "Good work, Katayama," he commented. The other boys stirred and murmured to themselves.
Doko turned Kota over, seeing his blank face and his mouth slightly open. "He fainted. Huh."
"Take him to Mandalay," Midoriya suggested. "Since she's his aunt."
"Cousin," Doko corrected, "but yeah. That's a good idea."
…
Kota was now lying peacefully on the couch inside.
"He just fainted from fear of the fall," Mandalay reassured Doko. "I figured I'd put him up there to guard just in case one of the boys tried anything funny. Girls develop quickly these days, huh?"
"Uh…" Doko thought of Mina again, and scratched his ear. "I'm not at the liberty to say."
Mandalay giggled. "But anyway, thank you for saving him. You must've reacted really quickly."
"There's no need to thank me. Midoriya was about to do the same thing; I was just faster."
"Well, you need to hear it from me since…" Mandalay looked back at her little cousin, a somber look on her face. "...He probably won't want to say it."
Doko thought back to how he'd punched Midoriya, and had proclaimed his intent to not hang out with heroes.
"Because he doesn't like heroes, right? It's…I mean, I didn't decide I wanted to be a hero until recently, but it's unusual for a boy his age to hold that position."
She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes. "You're right. Maybe if he'd been raised normally…"
"Kota's parents were heroes," said Pixie-Bob, entering the room from the opposite side. Doko tensed up upon seeing her, but the blonde Pussycat seemed a lot more subdued now.
"They were killed in the line of duty."
Doko didn't know how to react to that. Killed? He'd never met anyone in a situation like that. The closest thing was when Iida's brother had been attacked by Stain, but he'd survived.
"It was two years ago," Mandalay elaborated solemnly. "They were protecting civilians from a rampaging villain. An honorable death for heroes. But…he was too young to understand."
Doko swallowed, angling his head down. He felt…dark, on the inside. "I see."
"Society kept saying that what they did was a wonderful thing, but all Kota could think was that his parents had left him. Heroes are something incomprehensible to him. He thinks…" Mandalay's breath caught in her throat. "...that anyone willing to leave others behind and think it's a good thing like that…is an unpleasant person."
"He doesn't really like us, either," said Pixie-Bob, leaning against the wall, "but he's got nowhere else to go."
Would I be willing to die? Doko thought all of a sudden. Mina's face swam through his mind, and he grew more uncomfortable. No, I'd find some way to survive. If I die, my Quirk dies with me, and it won't be able to help anyone in the future who might need it.
Mandalay suddenly smiled wearily. "Sorry to bother you with all that. I know you don't want to be thinking about such things during a training camp."
"We don't mean to frighten or depress you," Pixie-Bob added.
"No, that's okay. I'm not…" Doko sighed. "I'll be alright. Should I stay and watch over him until he wakes? If you guys have other things you need to do..."
"No, we're not busy at the moment, we can handle it," Mandalay answered. "Besides…" she suddenly averted her eyes, a faint shade of red rising in her cheeks. "...you're not wearing any clothes."
Doko looked down. Sure enough, he was just in a towel.
When he looked back up, Pixie-Bob's eyes were dancing over his bare chest.
"I'll be going now," he said frankly, straightening his towel and backing out the open door.
As he turned away from that room, his thoughts dwelled on Kota. His parents were heroes, but they died.
It was silly to jump so far ahead and imagine such things, but he couldn't help but dream up a child of Mina and himself. What would happen if the two of them, somehow...left that child alone in the world?
…
It was sunrise, and Class A were gathered in the camp clearing, all dead on their feet. Tsuyu appeared to be sleeping while standing up. Aoyama's bangs fell over his face.
"Your hair looks even messier than usual," Doko whispered to Mina.
His girlfriend blinked at him groggily. "I'm glad you're able to be annoying so early in the morning," she groaned at him.
Aizawa said a bunch of things. Doko was barely listening. He hadn't managed to get much sleep, although he was better at hiding it than the others (his parents didn't like it when he appeared tired at home).
"Bakugo, you threw the softball 700 meters at the start of the year," Aizawa said, throwing the ashen blonde the ball. "Let's see how far you can throw it now."
"Oh, so we're checking progress?" Mina asked, suddenly perking up.
"Neato!" Sero exclaimed. "Maybe he can throw it a full kilometer now!"
"Do it, Bakugo!" Kirishima cheered.
Bakugo smirked, did a windup, and then threw the softball with an explosion. "GO TO HELL!" he roared as it soared through the air.
"705.9 meters," Aizawa read off the scanner.
"Huh?"
"That's it?"
Bakugo stood dumbfounded, as if he couldn't believe that he'd barely improved at all.
"Now Katayama. You come do it."
Doko started, surprised to be called out.
"You threw the ball normally in the fitness test, remember?" Aizawa narrowed his eyes. "Got any new tricks?"
No, I mea…wait, yes I do.
With a "tsk," Bakugo passed Doko as Aizawa threw the warping boy another softball. Doko took a deep breath, and then simply held the ball up high, coursing his Quirk through his whole body at once. "WARP FIELD!" he shouted, and sent out another energy burst.
The purple blast left a percussive, shimmering aftershock as the ball was warped out and away from him. The class gasped, impressed.
"127 meters," Aizawa said. "Over a 100 percent increase from your original throw. Well done."
He turned back to the class. "You've all improved quite a bit since the beginning of the year, but that has mostly been in the technical and mental areas. Other than a few exceptions like Katayama here, and Midoriya, none of you have actually improved your Quirks that much."
Bakugo seethed, while the rest of the class murmured in shock.
"The goal of this training camp is to do just that. It'll be hard enough to kill you, but do try not to actually die. Now…let's begin!"
…
"What…what is this hell?" asked Hiryu Rin of Class B, as they gathered at the edge of the clearing, watching Class A train.
Bakugo was plunging his hands into boiling water and creating explosions. Sato and Yaoyorozu were stuffing their faces with cake. Ojiro and Kirishima were sparring. Sero, Jiro, Mina, Aoyama, and Kaminari were all emitting their substances/energy continuously, and crying while they did it. Uraraka was tumbling down the hillside in a blow-up ball, trying not to throw up. And Katayama and Koda were both shouting their lungs out at the edge of the trees.
Class B's teacher, Vlad King, folded his arms. "When you overuse muscle fibers, they break and then form again stronger. Think of Quirks the same way. They get better the more you use them. So all you emitters will be doing a lot of emitting. You mutants will be training the parts of your body that your Quirk applies to."
"But there's forty of us now," said Itsuka Kendo in a worried tone. "Will you just you and Aizawa-sensei be enough to handle all that traini…"
"That's where we come in!" boomed a deep male voice.
The full Pussycats team introduced themselves, now with Ragdoll and Tiger.
"Power-up types, come with me!" Tiger roared. "You can train with Midoriya!"
Class B looked over at the green-haired boy, who was punching the air repeatedly with a constipated expression.
"We're all going to die," Awase muttered.
…
Doko breathed in. "AAAAAAAAAH!" he shouted, coursing his Quirk up through his mouth. He quickly stopped, clutching his head in pain. "It comes naturally when I'm angry and stuff, but if I try to force it, it gives me a migraine…" he commented.
"What exactly are you doing to force it?" a high voice asked next to him.
Doko looked over at Koji Koda, who was kind of training with him at the edge of the forest. Several birds had landed around the boy, seemingly bent to his will. Mandalay had been coaching them both earlier but she had left them alone to go introduce herself to Class B.
"Well…" Doko looked down at his arms. "To warp an object, I usually send my Quirk's energy through my arms. To warp myself, it's my legs. So I've figured to warp my voice, I should send the energy into my head…and it's working, but I can only do it for a second before getting crazy pain."
"Oh, that's easy," said Koda. "It's hurting like that because you're sending the energy to the wrong place. Your voice doesn't come from your head; it comes from your voice box. Your larynx."
Doko took pause, and then slapped himself in the face. "No fucking shit. Thanks, Koda."
Koda jumped in surprise, and then waved his hands frantically. "It's n-no problem! I mean, I'm sure you would have thought of it eventually…"
Doko took another breath…and this time, tried sending the energy through his throat, into his vocal chords.
"Hello," he said, and the birds surrounding Koda took off.
The clearing began buzzing with voices.
"The hell was that?"
"I just heard a voice in my head! Isn't that Mandalay's Quirk?"
"No, that's Katayama."
"Jesus, dude! Don't do that again!"
"Sorry."
"GAAAAH!"
Doko couldn't help himself; he was laughing. It was coming so easily now! Koda chuckled too, although nervously. "Hehe, good job."
Doko looked over at the other boy. "You've been talking more recently, huh? This kind of woodsy camp agrees with you."
"Errm…yes." Koda blushed and nodded. "I interned with the Pussycats, so I kind of knew…that we were going to do all this."
"Oh. I see." Doko suddenly thought of something. "That means you met Kota before, right? The little boy."
The rock-headed boy's face went dark. "Yeah. When he found out I was going to be a hero, he spat in the dirt at my feet."
"Do you…" Doko swallowed. "Know why he's like that?"
Koda shook his head.
"Oh. I see." Whoops, I already said that. God, I'm such a dolt. "Last night, when I took him in after he fell off the wall…Mandalay told me something. I don't know if I'm allowed to just tell others the details, but…the kid has a reason to dislike heroes."
Koda looked over Doko's shoulder. "Mandalay is coming now."
"Good work boys!" The auburn Pussycat waved at them, smiling brightly. "Koda-kun, where'd all your birds go?"
"They fled when Katayama teleported his voice," Koda explained.
"I heard." Mandalay scratched at her ear with her paw. "What was the solution, Katayama? I know you said your head was hurting…"
"I just had to send my Quirk to my vocal chords instead," Doko told her. "Koda was the one who thought of it, actually."
Mandalay's smile widened. "Of course I didn't think about that. Since I don't have to speak aloud with my Quirk, I don't use my larynx. Well done, Koda-kun."
The boy blushed.
"But anyway…" Mandalay stepped aside to reveal Aizawa, and a girl in a UA gym uniform that Doko didn't recognize.
"This is Setsuna Tokage, from Class B," Aizawa said, gesturing to her.
"Yo," Tokage said with a playful wave. She had long green hair that spun at the ends, and a lanky body. When she grinned, Doko saw that her teeth were sharp.
"Koda, you'll continue working with Mandalay for now. Katayama, you and Tokage will be working together."
"Doing what?" Doko asked.
"My Quirk lets me split my body parts up," Tokage said. "So you can try and warp me as much as you want without worrying about it!"
"Your ability to warp other people is not something you should ignore, Katayama," Aizawa put in. "So I'm having you practice with Tokage. She's taking time out of her own training to help you out, so don't waste this."
Doko's eyes widened. "Oh…okay."
Aizawa followed Mandalay and Koda away, leaving the two of them alone.
"So," Tokage asked, cracking her knuckles and stretching her arms behind her head, "what's the deal with you and Ashido?"
"We're dating. How did you hear about it?"
The green-haired girl smirked. "Through the grapevine."
"Grapevines…Shiozaki, huh? How deep does this go?"
Tokage laughed. "That was pretty funny. Yeah, I guess you'd know Shiozaki since you guys fought at the sports festival. Everyone in our class was interested in you after that. Boys in a challenge-y jealous-y kinda way, girls in a different kinda way."
"Different? Different how?"
"Don't tell me you're dating Ashido and don't know what I'm talking about."
"No, I do, I was just feigning ignorance so as to not seem like a smug piece of shit. You know how it is."
"Well, in any case…" She shrugged. "You're taken now. Bit of a shame. My options for boys in my own class are kind of limited. Say, is that Midoriya guy dating that Uraraka chick?"
"Any day now they will be. Maybe. They're kind of dense and hopeless, you see."
"Hmm. And Todoroki? He seeing anyone?"
"I highly, highly doubt it. Bakugo's single too, you know. If you go for that sort of thing."
"I most certainly do not." Tokage smirked. "Well, I thought you might be a little boring, but you've actually got some bite to you. Now, please proceed to cut me to pieces."
"Well…" Doko said through gritted teeth, raising up both his arms and getting ready to pump his Quirk through them, "the goal is kind of…to NOT cut you to pieces…eventually…"
Within his mind, he connected Setsuna to his arms, and a faint purple glow began to shimmer around her. "Whoa," she mumbled. "This feels kinda weird."
"Yeah…sorry…" He strained. Even if she had willingly agreed to this, her subconscious was fighting him. It had been the same with the lizard, although that had been much easier…
He ended up pulling both of Tokage's arms off. They landed next to him, and Doko yelped.
Tokage laughed, and brought her arms back to herself, reattaching them with her Quirk. "It's always fun showing people my powers for the first time."
"Weird…" he shuddered.
"That felt really strange, I'll be honest. But you wanna try again?"
"Yeah."
…
In the end, he'd managed to teleport Tokage "whole" a total of four times, out of about forty tries. Ten percent of the time. Not nearly enough to make the power something to rely on. Sighing in defeat, Doko joined the other students in helping to make dinner.
…
"Thank you for the food!" they all shouted in sync.
Sero and Kirishima began to shovel the curry into their mouths. "If I got this at a restaurant I wouldn't be very happy, but in this situation it's delicious!" the redhead exclaimed in between bites.
"Don't say that, it's rude!" Sero told him.
"You sure eat a lot, don't you Yao-momo?" Mina asked teasingly.
Doko tapped his girlfriend lightly on the arm. "Hey, that's not a very nice thing to sa…"
"No, it's alright," Momo waved her hand. "My Quirk uses the fats in my body to produce various things, so the more I eat, the more I can make."
"It's like poop," Sero commented casually as he chewed his food.
The entire table went dead silent.
Momo suddenly bent over, putting her head in her arms in defeat and embarrassment.
Jiro punched Sero in the shoulder. "Apologize, you halfwit!"
"AAAH! I'M SORRY!"
"Kota, it's time for dinner!" Mandalay's voice said in the distance.
Doko perked up. He saw the capped boy slinking off into the woods, a shadow over his face. And then…there was Midoriya at the door, watching him.
Doko stood, quickly making a fresh plate of curry.
Mina looked up at him strangely. "Hey, where are you going?"
"Taking the kid some food."
"He'll punch you in the balls," she warned.
"What a loss that'll be for you. No, I'll be fine. Be back in a minute."
Mina was left with a blush on her face at the thought. "Damn," Jiro commented with food in her mouth. "He kinda got you with that one."
…
Izuku watched Kota disappear into the woods, feeling strange. Shouldn't I do something?
Katayama suddenly appeared next to him. "Midoriya."
"AH! D-don't! Surprise me like that! Insert yourself into the scene more naturally!" Midoriya demanded frantically.
"Sorry. I was just thinking if you wanted to come with me and take Kota some food?" The grey-haired boy held up a fresh plate.
"Uhh, yeah. Yeah, sure." Izuku pointed into the woods. "We should follow him and see where he's going."
They trailed along far behind the boy as he slinked in between the trees, staying close enough to keep him in sight but far enough to whisper to each other.
"Kota has a negative view of heroes, doesn't he?" Izuku asked.
Katayama nodded. "Yeah. Last night when I took him in after he fell, Mandalay told me…I mean, I probably shouldn't pry."
"His parents were the Water Hose team, weren't they." Izuku's face went dark. He'd had his suspicions.
"Huh?" Katayama raised one eyebrow. "You know about it?"
"I mean, when Mandalay said he was her cousin's kid, I…" Izuku felt himself blush a little. "I knew one of the Pussycats was cousins with the Water Hose team, but I didn't know which one. I just kind of put two and two together."
"Oh. So you remember seeing their deaths on the news. Since I didn't follow heroes until recently, I knew nothing about it."
"What an awful thing for a kid to go through…" Izuku couldn't fathom what that was like. He'd always been surrounded by people who wanted to be heroes.
"I guess since you know, I won't feel bad telling you the rest. Mandalay said that he couldn't reconcile his parents being gone with everyone being proud of them. A heroic sacrifice doesn't make sense in his brain, basically. He thinks heroes are stupid for doing it."
Izuku didn't know what to say. He was painfully aware of his own self-sacrificial streak…having reared its ugly head at the entrance exam for Uraraka's sake, and again at the sports festival for Todoroki.
But take Katayama for example. He never really puts himself out there. I…I have to ask. "Do you…" Izuku coughed. "...agree with him?"
Katayama's face softened. "I don't personally want to sacrifice myself. What if my powers are needed elsewhere at a later date? I know how rare my Quirk is. There's certain situations in which my Quirk might be the only solution. If it's a solution that other heroes could handle…and my choices were to fight and die or run…I'd probably run and get more help. Does that make me a coward?"
Izuku considered a moment. "I don't think so, Katayama."
They found themselves going up the side of a rocky hill, arriving at a cave where Kota Izumi was sitting, watching the stars. His stomach mewled.
"Are you hungry?" Izuku called to the boy.
Kota whirled, snarling in shock. "How'd you get here?"
"Oh, s-sorry! We kind of…followed you…"
"We brought curry," Katayama said plainly.
"Go away! I don't need it!"
"Your stomach was growling," he pointed out.
The kid paused for a second, but then made an angry face again. "I told you before, I don't want to hang out with stupid hero wannabes! Get away from my secret hideout!"
"We weren't going to hang out with you," Katayama muttered. Izuku put a hand on the warper's shoulder, trying to get him to calm down. We've got to be nicer to him, right? "So this is your secret hideout, huh?"
"Trying to improve your Quirk…" Kota continued. "It's so gross. You really wanna show off that badly?"
Izuku coughed, feeling like he was swimming into the unknown. "Your parents…could they be the Water Hose team, with the water Quirks?"
The boy made a face of surprise. "How did you…did Mandalay tell you?"
"N-no, I kinda figured it out on my own!" Izuku said frantically. But she did tell Katayama. "I was just…sorry! I was just saying…it was an unfortunate incident. I remember it."
Kota turned away, letting his cap make a shadow on his face. "Shut up. You're all sick. Sick with power. Calling each other hero and villain and then beating each other up…killing each other…"
Izuku lowered his head, feeling hopeless. He doesn't just hate heroes…he hates Quirks…he hates society. He flashed back to Shigaraki at USJ and at the mall, a cold shiver traveling down his spine. That is what such a child could grow up to be. But how did he put a stop to that now? Was it even possible without making things worse?
"What is it? If there isn't anything else, then you can just GO already!" Kota snapped.
"Midoriya…" Katayama put a hand on his shoulder, setting the curry plate down for the little boy. "Let's get going."
Izuku didn't know what else he could say. He complied.
The two boys walked away, leaving Kota Izumi alone.
…
"Mannnn…" Himiko Toga complained, fiddling with the metal mask thingie around her neck. "I don't like this thing. It's too bulky and I don't feel cute in it."
"We're taking this job in compliance with the designer, right?" The kid next to her (she thought he called himself Mustard?) said. He was wearing a gas mask and a backpack. "As long as it makes sense, who cares?"
"That's not what I'm talking about!" she whined, waving her arms around. What would a middle school kid know about looking cute, anyway?
"Sorry we're late!"
Himiko turned and saw their new arrivals. It was Big Sis Magne, who she'd had contact with before, and a scary guy in a straitjacket who only showed his mouth, and some lizard mutant guy in a Stain outfit.
Another worshipper of Mr. Stainy, huh? Well, too bad! He'll be mine if we ever get him out of prison, MINE! But thinking that far ahead would have to wait. For now, she was about to tangle with kids her age…and the prospect of THAT made her just as excited.
"That makes seven," said Dabi, standing at the edge of the cliff and looking out over the woods. Beyond, the lights of UA's training camp twinkled.
"I don't care," Muscular snarled from beneath his huge cloak. "Just let me at 'em already. I'll do the job as long as I can fight someone good."
"We'll wait to move until all ten of us are here," Dabi told him plainly. "No use in rushing into it. But don't worry. Soon, we'll light the signal fire…and let them know that their peace is resting in our hands."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
God, I love this arc. This is the longest chapter I've done in a while, so I hope you enjoyed it. I have so many things I'm excited to do, so many THINGS…aaaaaahhh.
See you all next time.