A.N.
So, I know a lot of people have been wondering about if I'm doing the swimming episode or the movies. So far I've done this react fic focusing only on the anime adaptation, since that was the version most easily accessible to me, and I plan to keep on doing that. However, I'm going to be skipping over the first episode of the third season, because it is mainly a flashback episode and would mostly just cover stuff the characters have already seen and discussed. So this chapter will cover the 40th episode of the the anime, not the 39th. I am gonna put in the bit at the very end of the 39th episode though, to better set up for where the 40th starts off.
I must also confess that I've yet to get around to watching the movies for this series. No particular reason, it's just one of those things I never quite made time for. So I'm going to be skipping over those too. Partly because movies like that don't tend to get mentioned in the main manga/anime series, and partly because more delays would occur if I had to spend time kicking my butt into making time for the movies. So we're gonna stick with the anime episodes.
The episode started with Vlad and Aizawa discussing the upcoming summer training camp. They talked about how they were trying to keep the location as secret as possible, and that only upper management would be informed, not even students would know the details until they got there.
Most of the students felt reassured by this. With so few people knowing, surely they would have a peaceful trip. Those unconcerned started guessing at where they might be going and what they would do while they were there. A few students were more wary though.
'Would Truth bother showing us much of the training camp if nothing significant happened? I mean, significant doesn't necessarily mean villains, but even during the sports festival we got shown that the League was watching closely, and Ingenium got attacked.' Izuku thought to himself.
The teachers glanced at each other. There hadn't been any clear signs of a traitor since the USJ incident happened. Anyone could watch the Sports Festival after all, and everything with Stain had been a coincidence. The 'future' versions of them could suspect that Shigaraki turned up at the mall due to being given a tip off, which would further explain their increased caution. Still, even if they didn't suspect that, they'd probably want to tell as few people as possible about the trip. This would be the first big group event for the hero course since the USJ. Well, the first that didn't have a million cameras watching it anyway. Best to play it safe.
The scene switched to the League's bar, with Shigaraki talking to Kurogiri. He said it was very much like Master to have figured out where the training camp would be held, when Shigaraki hadn't been able to figure it out at all.
"What?!"
"No!"
"They can't know already! We don't even know!"
The excitement that many students had been feeling was quickly dashed.
"Why is it always us! He keeps saying he's after All Might, but is All Might even gonna be at the training camp?" Mineta whined.
"That's a good point, actually." Momo said slowly. "It's doubtful All Might would travel with the class for something like this, since that would make it harder to keep his secret, not to mention he can't patrol the city at all if he's away. But if he won't be there, then why bother with the training camp?"
"Could be a call out. Shigaraki said he was gonna use our deaths at the USJ to make All Might come out, and when he started losing he tried to kill us to hurt All Might's pride." Todoroki said.
"That was when he was sure All Might was already supposed to be there though. I'm not sure if it would make sense to try that at a place All Might wasn't planning on going. Plus, it wouldn't make sense for him to try the same tactic after it already failed before." Midoriya pointed out.
The aura around the teachers had turned grim. This information being leaked made it much less likely that a student was betraying them, which was something of a relief, but that meant someone high up at UA was betraying them.
The teachers looked at each other. They all felt they could trust each other. No one could doubt All Might, of course, and Recovery Girl and Nedzu put so much work into keeping the school running and everyone safe that it seemed ridiculous for it to be either of them. Aizawa nearly died for his class, and didn't have reason to betray them. Present Mic was also very dedicated, and Aizawa trusted him greatly, which said a lot given how few friendships Aizawa maintained. But then who could it be? Or were they barking up the wrong tree all along? Did someone with as many quirks as All for One have a way of getting the information without collaborating with someone else?
While Kurogiri and Shigaraki were talking, Giran entered the bar. He said he contacted 'the union' and managed to get the things Shigaraki requested. Kurogiri apologized for demanding so much so quickly. Giran told Shigaraki that the reason the union went along with the request was because they had high expectations of him, and that if the League started moving then 'others smoldering in the dark would start to move'.
"Hmm, I see, the League could very well make use of the springboard Stain unintentionally gave them and become an inspiration for other villains. Now that Shigaraki seems to have gained newfound motivation, I can see it happening." Nedzu mused.
Aizawa and Izuku both made notes to look into what 'the union' might be.
"Hearing them talk about getting mysterious stuff for some kind of plan is making me feel worse and worse about this summer training camp." Mineta said miserably.
"Yeah, it's definitely putting me on edge too." Kaminari agreed.
"Kurogiri is always so polite to everyone. If we hadn't seen all this and met him at the USJ, I'd find it kinda hard to believe he's a villain." Ojiro admitted.
"The snappy suit certainly helps as well. Not as sparkling as myself, but it makes him seem positively gentlemanly." Aoyama said.
"Maybe he uses that to balance out Shigaraki, since he can't be bothered with manners most of the time."
"Oh certainly! Plus that suit, next to Shigaraki drab clothes, the contrast is quite clear."
Tokoyami found himself admiring Giran's phrasing, even if he disapproved of the veritable cloud of smoke that heralded his arrival. Aesthetic as it may be, second hand smoke was dangerous. Though, he supposed that was fitting for a villain.
Giran said that if more villains became active because of the League, then he'd get more business, which he'd like. Shigaraki told him he'd soon be so busy he wouldn't be able to stop moving. Giran said he looked forward to it, and left.
The students fidgeted and frowned as their nerves started to act up again. Shigaraki seemed confident that whatever he was planning to do was going to have a big impact. That couldn't mean anything good for their class. Even when he hadn't succeeded in killing All Might at the USJ, he'd still cut down on how long All Might could use his quirk, and injured the teachers badly. They didn't even want to think about the damage done to Hosu.
If that was the kind of destruction Shigaraki was capable of causing without a plan and few resources, then what would he be able to do now?
Shigaraki declared that both his pieces and his prey were in position. It was time to start the game.
The students shivered upon hearing this, and not even the teachers were entirely immune to the foreboding feeling that Shigaraki's crazed smile brought.
"Stupid gamer nerd and his shitty references." Bakugo grumbled, trying to hide how uneasy he was feeling.
The scene changed to show Class 1A gathered by a bus. Aizawa told them that they wouldn't be resting for summer vacation, and that this training camp would be all about going Plus Ultra.
Recovery Girl sighed. "I'd warn you about making sure they don't go so 'plus ultra' that they hurt themselves again, but it sounds like there's a good chance that the League will end up forcing them to do that anyway."
Aizawa gave a resigned nod as he glared at the screen. He'd always do his best to protect his kids, and Kan would be there too, along with whatever pros were helping run the camp. But that might not mean much if Shigaraki sicced Nomus on them.
Uraraka excitedly ran up to Deku and gushed about how excited she was for the trip. Midoriya turned beat red and stammered, and he thought 'too close!'. Uraraka seemed confused by his reaction, then suddenly remembered her moment with Aoyama during the final exam. She turned red herself, very hastily backed up, and started doing a dance about how excited she was for the trip. Ashido and Kaminari were quick to join her.
The room was filled with snickers and giggles at how ridiculous the pair was acting, and that graduated into full laughter at the sight of Kaminari and Ashido joining in the dance. It wasn't long before the two of them started doing the dance in real life, soon to be joined by Aoyama, then Hagakure.
Uraraka and Izuku were both blushing, though they weren't quite as beat red as their on-screen selves.
"We're quite the pair aren't we?" Uraraka said with a chuckle.
"Heh, yeah, I wonder if either one of us has any idea what was going through the others head."
"You wanna take bets on how long it will take for one of us to figure it out?"
"Given how Ashido and Aoyama have been watching us lately, I think it might be too late to start a betting pool."
Uraraka was surprised at the statement for a moment. She'd noticed some looks too, but hadn't thought they were that invested. Then her smile turned mischievous. "Doesn't mean it's too late to get in on it."
"Uraraka!"
"Gambling is not an approved school time activity!" Iida's scolding drowned out Izuku's scandalized exclamation. That was enough to get Uraraka to join in on the laughter.
Yagi watched the students with a soft smile. He knew this lightheartedness wasn't likely to last long, but he was glad they could still enjoy little moments like this despite having that knowledge.
Monoma suddenly appeared, getting very intense while he went on about how weird it was that 1A had some people who failed the final. Once again, he only stopped when Kendo gave him a chop and dragged him away.
"Monoma's gotta learn to chill when it comes to this weird competitiveness of his, or else Kendo's chops might cause lasting damage by the time we graduate." Jirou said.
"Why does he think it's such a 'gotcha!' to point out we didn't do the best at something? We never said we were the best at everything. Well, Bakugo might have, but it's not like he's the class rep or anything. There's plenty of things he's not the best at either." Ashido groused.
"Right, like being humble, or being quiet." Tsuyu joked.
The rest of class 1B was there as well, and gave friendly and polite greetings before Kendo directed them onto their own bus. Mineta had a moment of salivating over all the girls that would be around for him to admire before Kirishima told him that was enough.
"If the other you keeps going like that then he might get permanent damage by graduation too, only it will be from Tsuyu rather than Kendo." Jirou gave Mineta a pointed look.
"Message received and understood." He said, giving her a thumbs up. He could remember well the pain of getting tongue lashed by Tsuyu, and added it to his list of reasons to get his act together. It would be hard for him to smile for friends and fans if his face went numb from being slapped too much.
"Thanks for saying something about it, Kirishima." Ashido said.
"No problem." He gave her a thumbs up. He honestly felt he should have been paying more attention and saying more about it, that would be the manly thing to do.
"Glad to see that the rest of 1B isn't as obsessed as Monoma." Shoji said.
Koda nodded vigorously. He wasn't sure he could handle a training camp like this if there would be an entire class of Monomas there!
Aizawa found himself wondering how 1B would hold up if the camp really was attacked by the League. He knew his own students would rise to the challenge after the USJ, but he'd only seen 1B at the Sports Festival. He hoped Kan had trained them well enough for them to keep their wits when the time came.
Iida directed everyone onto the bus, and the scene skipped ahead to them on the road. Aizawa tried to give some information about when the bus would be stopping, but everyone was too busy chatting with each other to pay attention. Aizawa looked put out, but then decided to let it be since this would be the last time they'd get to really have fun.
Hearing Aizawa think that brought the mood of the room back down again. It reminded them of the exact reason why things wouldn't be fun at the training camp, and that it wasn't for the same reason the on-screen Aizawa was thinking.
The bus was shown pulled over at an overlook. The kids got out and stretched their legs, and Mineta asked desperately for a bathroom. Instead of telling him where one was though, Aizawa directed the class's attention to a nearby car. Suddenly, two pro heroes jumped out and did their signature poses as two members of the Wild Wild Pussycats. A young boy was shown to be standing by them when they finished.
Izuku immediately started going into fanboy mode over the Wild Wild Pussycats and their various team members, eliciting smirks or fond looks from those that surrounded him.
"What's up with the kid?" Sero wondered aloud. "No way he's a part of the group."
"Heroes do have families, it's not so weird that some end up having to take the kids to work now and then." Ojiro said.
On-screen Izuku started fanboying as well. When he said that the group had been operating for 12 years, the blonde woman suddenly covered his face with her paw glove. She said, very insistently, that she was 18 at heart. Izuku dutifully repeated it back to her.
Recovery Girl laughed. "Oh, I see. If she started at 18, and its been 12 years, then she turned 30 not too long ago." she shook her head. "How silly people can get about their ages. Growing old may be hard work, but its really not as bad as most people make it out. Though I suppose the experience is different for everyone."
Yagi nodded. He certainly wasn't having a grand time getting old, but most people hadn't gone through as many surgeries and such as he had. Still, he could understand this woman's worry, getting older made a lot of things more difficult for an active pro hero.
The boy was shown to look away while everyone greeted the WWP duo. One of WWP explained that their group owned the land that they were seeing from the overlook, and that the kids would be staying at a facility at the base of the mountain. The kids wondered why they had stopped all the way up there then. The WWP started hinting and the kids soon picked up on the fact that they would be expected to walk the rest of the way through the forest. They desperately tried to get back to the bus, but the WWP made the ground surge up and toss them over the side of the overlook.
Noises of surprise and pain went up around the room as pretty much every student in the room ended up scraped and bruised from the fall.
"Was that really necessary?" Recovery Girl gave Aizawa a look.
"It's not like I threw them over the edge, the Pussycats made that decision."
"They're really gonna make us walk all that way?" Hagakure complained.
The WWP told them the land was private, so they could use their quirks to get there. Anyone who took longer than 3 hrs would miss out on lunch though.
"Oh, that won't be so bad then." Tsuyu said.
"Maybe not for you, but my quirk won't help me at all!" Hagakure continued to whine.
"Plenty of people don't have quirks that help with mobility, like me! That's why you gotta keep up with your stamina training." Mic said. Aizawa nodded.
"There won't always be transport available to you, or roads capable of taking you where you need to go. So you need to be able to make your way on your own."
"Just follow me Hagakure, I'll smash my way through the underbrush, and that will leave a path for you!" Kirishima assured her.
Jirou complained that UA did stuff like this way too much, while Kirishima said complaining wouldn't get them anywhere. Mineta ran into the trees so he could finally relieve himself, but came face to face with a giant creature instead. A name the WWP had said earlier, the Beasts Forest, suddenly made sense.
"What the heck is that?" Mineta wailed, very put out by the fact that no one would let him pee already.
"It almost looks like a Nomu, only if it were bigger and made of rocks." Iida said, sounding wary.
"That's just a coincidence. The Beasts are supposed to be there, the League isn't attacking." Aizawa assured him. 'Not yet at least.'
The beast moved to attack Mineta. Koda tried to talk to the beast and get it to calm down, but it didn't work. Midoriya dove in and grabbed Mineta before he could be hit.
"Thanks Midoriya." Mineta said. He really hoped the expression on his on-screen self didn't mean he just wet himself, because if he did then it was gonna get all over Midoriya, and right after he rescued him too!
Koda looked highly distraught over being unable to stop the beast from attacking. This was his specialty! Why hadn't it worked?
Midoriya also wondered why Koda's quirk didn't work. Then he noticed what the beast was made of, and thought of Pixie-Bob's quirk.
"What is it?" Koda asked.
"I don't think it a real animal, it's just a construction Pixie-Bob made with her quirk. That's why it wouldn't listen to you." Midoriya explained.
Koda sighed in relief. Good, he wasn't losing his touch. Maybe some animals that were good at digging would be able to help then.
Back by the bus, one WWP was listening to something with her headphones while another talked to Aizawa. She told him the schedule was pretty crazy, and Aizawa admitted they were trying to introduce stuff now that they wouldn't usually learn until second year, so that was unavoidable. He wanted the kids to be able to get their provisional licenses soon so they could defend themselves more easily.
This made the class feel both pressured and proud. Learning so much so fast was a lot of responsibility, but the fact that Aizawa thought they were capable of that was a pretty good confidence boost.
"Well, at least you made sure they weren't unsupervised." Recovery Girl said, assuming that's what Pixie-Bob was doing with her headset.
Back in the forest, the students continued to fight. A series of quick powerful attacks by Todoroki, Iida, Bakugo, and Midoriya quickly decimated the beast construct.
Excited cheers went up around the room at the show of power and quick take down. Iida, Midoriya and Todoroki all grinned or nodded at each other, and Kirishima gave Bakugo a manly punch to the arm while the boy smirked.
While the students chattered, Aizawa's eyed the screen thoughtfully. "It's interesting those four students were shown being the ones to deal with it."
"What do you mean? They're some of the class powerhouses, so it just makes sense doesn't it?" Mic asked.
"That's part of it, no doubt, but it goes back to experience too. During the sports festival, I said that 1A had an advantage because fighting real villains would make them hesitate less during the competition. Now we've got four students shown hesitating even less than their classmates. Three of them were the ones to face Stain, which no doubt makes this beast less intimidating by comparison. The fourth is Bakugo. He's always been quick to jump in, but he also participated in the most violent final exam."
"So what doesn't kill you really does make you stronger, or at least less hesitant." Mic mused. "Doesn't mean I want them to have to go through that for real, but it makes me more hopeful of their chances in this timeline."
The students on screen started to congratulate the four who did the take down, but didn't have time to do much before more beasts started forming. The students were nervous but Momo and Iida quickly took charge of the group, gathering them together and urging them forward.
"Excellent work! It warms this old man's heart to see you all come together so quickly in the face of a threat." Yagi praised. Aizawa nodded in agreement.
The students all preened under his praise, especially Iida and Momo. Iida was glad to see people listening to him so readily, and Momo was overjoyed to see her other self still holding onto the self confidence she got during the final exam.
Mineta was just happy that Midoriya was acting normal, which hopefully meant the only one that got wet was himself.
Teams of students were shown taking on the beasts together, each group working together and finding ways of using their quirks together to demolish the beasts. Even Todoroki and Bakugo were shown working together, sort of.
"Hey, we make a pretty good team." Ashido said, nudging Hagakure with her elbow.
"Heck yeah we do! Wish I could be more than just bait though."
"We all have parts to play to take down the beasts. I'm sure your propensity for stealth will be of great help in other conflicts." Momo reassured.
"Points for sticking something that big in place for a take down, but maybe shouldn't yell about peeing yourself in a televised fight." Kaminari joked.
"Oh shut up." Mineta mumbled, looking away in embarrassment.
"No, no, that could work actually. If the villain is grossed out by what Mineta is yelling that just makes the villain more distracted and easier to take down!" Sero insisted.
"I said shut up about it!"
"I'm glad to see both of you are able to work together." Aizawa said. It wasn't especially smooth, but Bakugo just arguing a bit about not getting in his way was an improvement over his previous teamwork attempts, and Todoroki was doing a good job of ignoring the words in favor of getting the job done. It was good progress, considering the on-screen Bakugo had threatened Todoroki almost as much as Midoriya recently.
The two boys glanced at each other, then looked away without saying anything.
Back on the overlook, the boy that had come with the WWP was looking down at the signs of the students battling. The boy, Kota, was called away, but he didn't leave until he muttered to himself that all this was pointless and the students were stupid for saying they could be heroes.
"Sounds like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning." Shoji said. "I wonder what's up with him."
"Maybe he's going through a rebellious phase." Sato said with a shrug, not too off put by the words. It was just a little kid getting mouthy after all.
Midoriya looked at Kota with concern. Was this kid like him? Did he want to be a hero too, but was told he couldn't? Midoriya did his best not to give up on his dream, but he could see why someone else would get bitter about it instead.
The time skipped ahead to 5:20 pm at the main building, where the students were just arriving. Each of them looked exhausted, and were banged up to different degrees.
Muttered complaints and curses filled the room as the students suddenly felt just how tired and beaten up their other selves were.
The students complained about the three hour time limit they were given. The WWP explained that they'd given the time it would have taken for themselves to get that far, but that they had actually expected the students to take even longer to come back than they did. Pixie-Bob said that Iida, Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo were especially impressive, and asked if their experience let them act without hesitation.
"I'm getting real tired of teachers either lying to me or being misleading about their expectations." Ojiro grumbled. Granted the Wild Wild Pussycats weren't their actual teachers, but the point still stood. A murmur of pained sounds showed he wasn't the only one to share that sentiment.
"So, does that mean something good came from fighting Stain after all? Aside from saving people, I mean." Midoriya wondered. Todoroki shook his head.
"It can't be that, Bakugo didn't fight Stain."
"Well, no, but Kaachan has always been like that I think."
"Like what?" Bakugo asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Always quick to jump in, like you did against Kurogiri as the USJ."
Pixie-Bob said she couldn't wait to see them in three years, and started making a 'kissy' face at them while she danced around them and the boys tried to shield themselves. Aizawa asked if she was always like that, and was told by Mandalay that it started as she got older. Midoriya tried to bring up ages himself, but it only made Pixie-Bob angry so he switched it to asking whose child Kota was.
Aizawa sighed. "If I wanted a fellow teacher to act inappropriate around the students I would have brought Midnight along."
Mic laughed. "Just don't let Midnight hear you say that. She's getting just as sensitive about her age these days I think. And honestly, Midnight's not that bad. She won't hesitate to talk dirty, but she's never gotten close to anything physical. Pixie-Bob looks like she's mostly teasing too, since she's not getting that close to them."
"I just hope she's prepared for the possibility that it will damage these boys ability to approach her normally if they need something." Recover Girl said.
"Maybe we should throw Mineta at her. He keeps wanting to kiss girls, she wants a young guy, it's a match made in heaven!" Kaminari teased.
"No way! I'm not getting together with a teacher!"
"You didn't seem to feel that way when you saw Midnight on that TV show of yours~"
"There's a difference between fantasy and reality!"
Mandalay introduced Kota as her cousin's kid. Midoriya walked up to him to introduce himself, and Kota punched him in the groin.
Midoriya let out high pitched noise and curled in on himself.
The class couldn't help laughing despite his obvious pain. It had just been so unexpected! Plus groin shots were always kinda funny as long as you weren't the one experiencing them. Even Uraraka was giggling. Bakugo of course was roaring with laughter.
"Why is it always me?" Midoriya muttered miserably.
The only ones not laughing were Iida, who immediately comforted Midoriya with everything he had, and Todoroki, who gave him a conciliatory pat on the knee.
"Thanks guys." Midoriya said in a weary voice.
Iida rushed forward to keep Midoriya from falling to the ground, and called the kid a brute for the unwarranted attack. Kota declared he wouldn't be friends with any kid planning to be a hero. Bakugo had a soft smile on as he called Kota a 'precosious brat'. Todoroki said the kid was like Bakugo, which just got Bakugo yelling again.
"Thanks again Iida." Midoriya mumbled. Through his pain, he wondered about Kota's words. Why would such a young boy be so against hero students? Was Midoriya's earlier theory right? Or was this something else?
"Like is drawn to like it would seem. Birds of a feather flock together." Tokoyami said. Koda nodded along. He could easily picture Bakugo doing something like that as a little kid.
"Shut up!" Bakugo yelled.
"Bro, can you honestly say you wouldn't punch more people in the dick if you could get away with it?" Kirishima asked.
"...shut up."
Aizawa cut them off by telling everyone to get their things and get settled in. They would have dinner and then they could bathe and sleep. They would start for real tomorrow.
"What we just did feels plenty real to me." Sero complained. He got a chorus of muttered agreements.
In the dinning area, tables of food were set out and the students ate with abandon. Pixie-Bob said to enjoy the food now because this would be the only night the WWP would do stuff for them.
"What's that mean?" Jirou asked.
"Presumably we will be responsible for meal preparation in the future." Todoroki replied.
"Gotcha. Hope we don't get so tired we end up burning something. That would suck."
"But what if we don't know how to cook?" Mineta asked.
"Then this will serve as an excellent opportunity to learn valuable life skills!" Iida declared.
Kaminari elbowed Mineta. "I bet women love a man who can cook."
Kirishima nodded "It'd be rude to always expect your partner to do that for you. And you can't keep up a hero physique if you only live on microwave meals and take out!"
Mineta jotted down 'learn to cook' onto his ever growing to do list.
Kota was told to take a box of vegetables somewhere, which he did with a scowl on his face. Midoriya was shown to be watching him.
Bakugo shook his head. "Only Deku would be so into helping a kid right after he punched him in the dick."
"Is that what that look means?" Ojiro wondered.
"Oh yeah, definitely."
Midoriya blushed a little at being read so easily.
"Good luck, he seems like he's gonna be a tough case." Uraraka said.
The scene changed to the hot spring area, on the boy's side.
A few loud words from Iida reminded everyone to cover their eyes as much as they could while still being able to tell what was going on.
The boys were all in towels or in the water. Mineta declared that what he was here for, even more than food, was on the other side of the wall.
"Uh oh." Mineta said to himself. Louder he said "Um, I feel I should apologize in advance."
"If you manage to get over that wall and get no punishment for it I reserve the right to slap you." Jirou said.
Mineta sighed but nodded.
Midoriya asked what Mineta was talking about. Mineta gleefully listened to the voices of the girls that he could barely hear over/through the wall, describing the fantasy of stumbling in on girls while bathing. The boys stared at him with a range of expressions, and faces red enough that it was unclear if the flush was from the heat, embarrassment, or their own fantasies. Iida stood up and started marching over, telling Mineta that he was shaming himself as well as the girls. Mineta ignored him and started using his quirk to climb the wall.
"Thank you Iida. Good to know at least one guy in this class is a gentleman." Jirou said tightly.
"Kero." Tsuyu croaked with a nod.
"We were probably just shocked that he was being so brazen." Sato tried to defend.
"After everything that's happened, you shouldn't have been that surprised." Hagakure pointed out.
"For real." Ashido agreed.
"You guys always seem to handle it before, with slapping him and all." Todoroki said. "Do you want us to handle it instead?"
"It would be nice if it was prevented rather than reacted to. So if Mineta, or anyone else really, seems like they were about to do something like that and you were in a position to stop it, that would be preferred." Momo explained. Todoroki nodded.
"Got it." He gazed steadily at Mineta. Despite the look not being overtly hostile, it still made Mineta shiver. If he ever found himself in need of additional motivation not to act pervy in the future, he could think back on that look.
Todoroki's words prompted the rest of the boys to promise to try and be more proactive about stopping stuff like this too.
Mineta went on about Plus Ultra as he climbed the wall. He made it up to the top, only to find Kota standing in front of him. He told Mineta he should work on acting more human before trying to act like a hero, before pushing him back, causing Mineta to fall.
"Mineta, that's not what the school motto means and you know it." Aizawa said tiredly. He really needed to up his game if he knew enough about Mineta's tendencies to set a guard but not do anything else. Unless he was still in the dark and the WWP set Kota up there. Either way, it wasn't just the teens who needed to work on being more proactive about these things.
"That feels unfair." Midoriya complained. "All I did was say hello, and he punched me below the belt. Then Mineta tries to peep and all he gets is a push."
"Maybe he figured the fall from the top would make up for it." Uraraka suggested. "Though I wouldn't mind having Kota guard the top with a baseball bat or something. If he is gonna take out his frustration he should do it on people who deserve it."
Mineta's towel came off as he fell, and he fell butt first onto Iida's face.
The girls, and most of the boys, burst out laughing. Mineta curled up into a ball of embarrassment. Iida just pinched his nose and let out a breath. He wished the class listened to him outside of battle scenarios too, then maybe this could have been avoided.
"Eh, not exactly a slap, but I think this level of embarrassment balances things out." Jirou said.
The girls called out insults to Mineta and thanks to Kota from their own side. This prompted Kota to look in their direction.
Those who were no longer covering their eyes due to laughing earlier rushed to cover them again, to avoid facing the girls' wrath.
Kota startled himself so much that he tripped, and fell over onto the boys side of the wall. Midoriya was quick to use OfA to jump and catch him before he hit the ground.
When they saw Kota start to fall, it felt like the air had been sucked from the room, taking the jovial atmosphere with it. Everyone let out sighs of relief when Midoriya caught Kota. Mineta had a bouncy quirk, so him falling didn't seem like such a big deal. But they didn't know what Kota's quirk was, or if he even had one at all.
The scene changed to the management office, where Mandalay was explaining that Kota had fainted from fear. She explained that she'd set him up as a guard due to Aizawa's comments about how lustful one of the boys could be.
'Well, at least that means I'm not completely blind. Still not a good look if that's all I've done about it though.' Aizawa thought. "I should apologize to all of you for not addressing this problem properly. Please rest assured that more thorough action will be taken in the future if any student commits such actions after we return.
Mineta added another bullet to his list of motivations.
As he talked to Mandaly, Midoriya remembered what Kota had said to him when they met. He told Mandalay he found it strange for a boy his age to have such a negative view of heroes, when he grew up surrounded by people who wanted to be one. Mandalay was somber as she spoke. She said that plenty of people disliked heroes, but that Kota probably would have liked them if he'd been raised normally. Pixie-Bob came in at that point, and told him that Kota's parents, Mandalay's cousins, had been heroes. But they had been killed in the line of duty two years ago.
The watchers felt themselves started to match how somber Mandalay had become. Their hearts went out to the boy.
"He must have been so young. He can't be much older than five or six years old now, if he lost his parents two years ago..." Uraraka trailed off, sympathy welling up and wetting her lashes. Around the room, shoulders sagged and people bowed their heads to show respect.
Todoroki was one of the few who wasn't overly affected. Instead he was thoughtful. He wondered, what he would think of heroes if his own father had died when he was three, before his quirk came in and his training started. Would his view of heroes be better, worse, or merely different?
Mandalay explained they had been killed defending civilians from a villain, which was an honorable way to go for a hero. But Kota was too young to understand that. His parents had been his world, and then they were gone, and society kept going on about what a wonderful thing they did.
Yagi let out a sigh. "It's no wonder then. No doubt those they saved, and the heroes they worked with, were trying to honor their sacrifice and memory. But to young Kota, it must have felt like the world was celebrating his parents' deaths."
Mandalay said Kota didn't like the WWP much either since they were also heroes, but he didn't have anywhere else to go.
The students had wondered before what they would do if their parents or other family members suffered due to their choice to be heroes. They'd never thought about future family members, spouses or children they might have in the future. Now some of them wondered whether or not they should seek out such things, considering how they might end up leaving them behind. Was that why all the teachers that had come with them to this room were unmarried? Because they feared this exact scenario?
Mandalay said Kota found heroes to be a kind of person who he couldn't understand, and found unpleasant. Midoriya looked down at the boy, and found Shigaraki coming to mind, how he went on about All Might smiling like he'd never failed to save someone. Faced with a point of view so vastly different than his own, Midoriya found himself unable to say anything.
"It doesn't feel normal to have villains remind us of ourselves and people we know this much." Tsuyu said.
"Despite how the news likes to portray most villains as irredeemable monsters or incompetent idiots, it's important to remember that each one of them is a person too. Therefore it's not so strange to find things in common with them. In fact, it can get dangerous to see villains as too different from yourselves. Remembering that they are human will help you predict and react to them more realistically than if you see your opponent as a simple caricature." Nedzu said.
Internally, Nedzu, along with the other teachers, also began thinking of the memory that was shown during Shigaraki's encounter with Midoriya at the mall. Could it be that Shigaraki had a similar experience to Kota? If so, was he now with All for One because he didn't have someone like Mandalay to take him in afterwards?
The next morning, Aizawa gathered the students outside the main building. He told them they were going to focus on increasing their strength, both for their provisional license exams and to deal with the threats that faced them.
"Remember not to get too caught up with just strength, young man." Recover Girl warned Aizawa. "I know it's important, but they'll need more than just strength if they hope to face down everything that's coming for them." These kids never did get their rescue training in at the USJ after all, and she was pretty sure that was a big part of the provisional license exam.
Aizawa tossed Bakugo the same ball he'd used on their first day of school. Aizawa reminded him his previous record was 705.2 meters. Aizawa told him to try again to see how much he's progressed. The students watched closely, eager to see how much farther it would go.
The real life students did that too. With everything that had happened since the start of the year, it was bound to go a lot farther now!
Bakugo grinned, and used his quirk to send the ball flying. It soared over the trees, but only recorded a distance of about 709 meters.
Students stared at the screen in surprise.
"Huh? Only that much? That can't be right!" Bakugo protested.
"It's exactly what I expected actually." Aizawa revealed. "Using your quirks at the USJ and the Sports Festival leaned more towards learning better control and technique, but not increasing overall strength."
"Well, Midoriya won't need to worry as much then. Since he now knows how to prevent breaks, he can use his quirk on all tests rather than just one." Iida pointed out.
"That's true, but I don't think that's gonna stop Aizawa from pushing me to do more." Midoriya said.
"Nice to see you're learning." Aizawa said with his scary smile.
Aizawa started going on about the same thing his real self had said, that they'd improved mentally and technically, but that the quirks themselves hadn't gotten much stronger. That's what they would focus on. It would be hard, so hard it will feel like they're dying. He smiled scarily, and told them to try not to actually die.
Mic snorted. "Great advice Shouta, I'm sure that will help."
"It never hurts to add an idiot clause." he said, with the same scary smile.
"Alas, we are about to feel the fruits of our labor, but receive no actual fruits ourselves." Aoyama said with a sigh. Tokoyami nodded.
"We'll have to go through all this again when we go out if we want our quirks to actually get stronger. Just watching won't increase our power."
The scene changed to what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. Toga ran in, saying that Tomura had sent something to them, and to bring it with them. An unnamed villain wanted to get going right away, but another unnamed villain reminded him that Shigaraki said not to do anything flashy. Dabi spoke up then, saying Shigaraki was really acting in charge now. He said that what they were about to do would be a 'signal fire', one they would use to pull heroes off their pedestals and create a brighter future.
"Brighter for who? Nothing you're doing looks too bright from where I'm standing!" Hagakure said hotly.
"It might be considered brighter to someone like Kota." Koda pointed out softly.
"I would hope he is not so far gone into darkness that he would rejoice at his cousin's demise, but perhaps he would feel that way about heroes he's never met." Tokoyami said.
Both students and teacher could only feel an unpleasant combination of dread and frustration. Again they were reminded that the camp would be attacked, but the scene gave no clue as to how or why, aside from that vague 'signal fire' comment.
Therefore, no one objected to moving onto the next episode. No one wanted to wait for more insight into what was about to happen. Plus, the uncomfortable feelings brought on by Kota's situation were not ones they wanted to linger on right now.
