A/N: Thank you all for your reassurance. Writing gets really tough and I feel quite petty when I fall in confidence, but I love this story more than anything, and now it's coming to being a year old already!- I feel like I'm doing a really good job in making people happy with what I've created. Thank you for being here with me X.
Now on with the chapter!
"Keep your eyes open. We can't afford to make any stupid mistakes so soon." Dabi grumbled, his eyes focused more on Toga than anyone else.
"Don't be so dramatic." She retorted, irritably. "Why were you put in charge of us anyway?" She asked in a snarky tone.
"Because I actually paid attention to Shigaraki Tomura." Dabi replied, looking down at her with cold and judging eyes. Toga scoffed and screwed up her face childishly, rolling her eyes at the dark-haired 'nobody'.
"You two are such amateurs." Muscular laughed, frowning between the two with displeased eyes.
"If you guys carry on like that, we're screwed- I'm sure it'll be alright...- Oh you're so full of shit!" Twice muttered, before inducing an argument with himself, which Spinner seemed to find quite amusing.
Originally Toga was looking forward to this task, and she was still quite excited, working with other villains to ambush U.A. Who wouldn't be excited about something like that? However, she at least expected to get some teammates who were a little more fun and would get on a bit better.
"Aaahhh! How much further is there? We've been walking for eveeeer." She complained in an annoying sing-song voice, slapping her hands to her face before throwing them into the air.
"Oh, will you shut up?" Dabi barked through gritted teeth. "We'll be caught before we can even see the camp at this rate. - And you, remember what we're here to do. I've read about you, and I don't like your deal." He ordered, before turning his attention to the tall, hooded Muscular, walking at the back of the group.
"Right." Muscular said absently. Toga remembered Giran telling her and Dabi, before taking them to see Shigaraki, "The leader of the League of Villains is gathering ten elites for a special mission..." Right now? None of these guys felt very elite, or even close to being qualified. At least she had kills on her belt. The only other one here who'd ever killed anyone was their 'mystery team member'. Other than that, these guys were nothing.
Even being a 'crazy, deranged' teenage girl, Toga knew that class 1-A were not to be underestimated. She'd seen the sports festival on T.V, and she'd heard about how rampaging villain Melodyne was brought down by a single boy of that class. Some of them had even managed to survive a run-in with the Stain. They were all underestimating this class no matter how she looked at it.
Taking her mind from her thoughts, Toga looked around at her team, all of them smiling and joking like nothing really mattered. At least the villains not involved with her or Dabi seemed to get on a little, and normally she would've tried to get involved in the giggles, but something about this felt too serious to laugh at, even for her.
She finally turned to look at Dabi, leading their action squad to battle. If he was so great, there was no way he didn't think everyone was acting carelessly. Shigaraki had warned them of three students to look out for, but since then, Dabi hadn't thought to warn them again about them. Katsuki Bakugo, their target. The half-half son of Endeavour, Shoto Todoroki, and finally, Izuku Midoriya.
From what the Decay quirk user had told them, these three, in particular, gathered a lot of interest in because of their combat. However, Izuku had gotten the most for his reckless fighting style and sheer power his quirk granted him. None of those smaller details mattered to her that much, what she saw as most important, was that they had incredibly powerful fighting styled quirks. Of course, a lot of these students had offensive quirks, but those three were the ones they'd been warned about.
If these students were all in one big group, it'd be impossible to single Bakugo about, especially since he was one they had to look out for. So, they would have to attack at different times and try to split the class up, it was their only chance. Then again, Mr Know-it-all had probably already figured that out, and devised his own plan around it.
"I'm startin' to get antsy. Where's this damn camp we were told about?" Magne spoke up, swapping his concrete weapon over to his left shoulder with an impatient sigh.
"Patients." Mr Compress responded, calmly. Mustard nodded in agreement, cracking his neck and brandishing a gas grenade in his right hand. Moonfish stayed, silent, wandering along behind them.
It was only now Toga had really looked around, that she noticed there were only nine of them, and Giran had said they were a team of ten. Shigaraki had said someone was meant to be meeting them a little later, but she assumed he would've been here by now. Unless he had already been caught, then their cover would already be blown, and they might as well go back home. She had a few animes she wanted to catch up on anyway.
This whole thing felt way too thrown together. Their tenth member wasn't here, they had no clear plan in mind from the dark-haired nobody, none of this was organised. Of course, Toga wasn't exactly the 'go in with a plan in mind' kind of villain, but for something of this scale, she expected more. She was still more than excited, no doubt about it, but she'd be lying if she said this haphazard feeling wasn't unnerving.
"There." Dabi stated suddenly. His voice was quiet and calm, but it seemed to carry. The group stopped almost as soon as he'd spoken, and all looked in the direction he was pointing. The faint light of the camp, a few miles down the hill in the woods. Toga jumped forwards, holding her right hand above her eyes.
"Wow, we're so close!" She exclaimed, excitedly. Dabi looked at her with lazy eyes, before turning and facing the rest of the 'Vanguard Action Squad'.
"Listen close because I'm only telling you once. I'll hold up here and heat things up a little. Moonfish, Magne and Spinner, go right. Mr Compress, Mustard and Twice, push from the left. Then Muscular and Toga will move in from here. Let our 'mystery member' handle the full-frontal assault. Keep our main goal in mind, and leave any personal, unsettled scores till later." He ordered, pointing in the direction of each group he was addressing.
"Gotcha." Spinner nodded, before taking off at a run, Magne following close behind with Moonfish using his mouthful of lanky blades to keep up.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Dabi." Twice muttered as he walked past Dabi, following Mr Compress and Mustard closely.
"Of course he knows what he's doing!" His slightly better mannered alter argued back. Dabi sighed heavily, rolling his eyes and looking over his shoulder and Toga and Muscular, still standing there, looking down at the camp.
"You two heard me, didn't you?" He asked rhetorically, frowning severely at them.
"Oh yeah, yeah, sure." Muscular responded carelessly, wafting his hand and Dabi and starting in the direction he was instructed. Toga followed after, skipping and giggling away. Now things were really getting exciting.
The day just passed was a long one. Izuku being Izuku had decided to take the first chance he got with both hands, and got back into the mix of training, especially since today was their second quirk strengthening session. Although he felt much better than before, he was just as drained and tired as he'd felt in the days before. At least he wasn't in pain though.
It felt really good, finally being able to use One For All and train with his friends again, even though it had only been a few days since he last trained. Now though, he was enjoying the peace and quiet, relaxing on his own.
He wasn't sure where Mina was, since she'd disappeared into the showers and hadn't come out when he expected. He even waited for her a little, but going by the giggling from inside the girl's bathrooms, they were occupied with other things, so he simply left.
Whilst training, Izuku was surprised at just how often his mind wondered to Kota. he young boy who'd had his parents murdered only a few months ago. He wasn't exactly sure why that dark-haired boy troubled him so much. Maybe it was knowing that deep down, he was still suffering from the pain of his loss.
Izuku knew that pain too, of losing a parent, and he was around Kota's age when that happened. Even, now, his father's death caused him a lot of pain. However, the difference between Izuku and Kota, was that Izuku had lost only one parent, of which hated him, and he wasn't close to, but Kota had lost both, and he was a happy family. He didn't have any of what Izuku still had, and for that reason, the greenette would never really understand his pain.
"Midoriya, do you have a moment?" Aizawa spoke up from down in the empty common area.
"Mr Aizawa... S-Sure..." Izuku blurted, startled by suddenly being addressed by Aizawa. It wasn't often his homeroom teacher asked to speak to him directly, so it was either something really important, or he had done something wrong.
"How come you're out here? Weren't you supposed to shower after training?" The long-haired teacher asked, a sternness in his voice that only increased Izuku's nerves as he made his way down the stairs and into the common area, stopping a few feet from Aizawa.
"I-I did shower. I just have a bit on my mind, so washed quickly." Izuku explained, lowering his voice a little.
"Hmm..." Aizawa hummed in response, not really seeming to care that much. "I spoke to All Might about your quirk breakdown..." He started, his tone was a little softer than usual. Izuku's attention was instantly peaked at the mention of All Might and of the incident with his quirk a few days ago.
"He said it wasn't anything to worry about..." Aizawa continued, sounding a little uneasy. "But as usual, I don't really agree with that. However, he did tell me that very early on, he had lost control of the quirk too, just not as bad as you did." He explained. Izuku took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. Knowing All Might, the infamous user of One For All, had struggled in a similar way as Izuku was now was more reassuring than he expected.
"How are you feeling, after that?" Aizawa asked, his voice sounding genuinely concerned and his eyes full of a little more empathy than usual.
"I'm alright, I just feel a little bit shaky." Izuku said quietly, holding out his hand, which was shaking quite a bit, especially after the training today.
"I see. Well, if anything about your quirk feels off, or the power fluctuates in any way, you're to tell me straight away. All Might and I managed to find a few exercises that should be able to tone it back." He explained.
"Oh, and one other thing. Be careful with how much power you use. The last thing you, I or All Might wants is for you to wind up doing yourself damage that lands you back a few steps. Got it?" He asked with a very, very faint smile. Izuku nodded, and Aizawa returned the gesture, before turning and walking away, scratching the scar on his cheek.
Izuku stood and watched him walk off, smiling. It was really nice knowing that even though Aizawa was stern at times, and acted like he didn't care, he in fact did care about them. Now though, he was alone again, so he could go back to what it was he originally was intending to do; go to his room and spend the rest of the evening relaxing and watching YouTube videos. It was rarely that it watched many videos in his past time, especially with studying on the to-do list. But, today would be the day he broke his cycle.
Thinking back on it, the differences in how his quirk seemed to act and feel was more obvious now than before. When he tried out the strength test punching bag the other day, his reading was much higher than he expected, and according to Aizawa, that was a consequence of quirk meditation, which Izuku believed to have failed.
Using it for training today, he really was the differences. He felt like a moved a bit faster, hit a bit harder, noticed things a bit quicker. The difference wasn't massive, but it was noticeable to him, and it felt really good.
Then, a sudden impact knocked him backwards and to the floor. He'd been looked at the ground as he walked, and by the weight of what he'd hit, it felt like he'd walked into a wall.
"Owww..." A soft voice complained, and he looked up to see Pony, sat down opposite him, rubbing her forehead.
"P-Pony, are you alright!" He asked, quickly getting up and rushing over to her, offering his hand to help her up. How could he have been such a klutz as to walk into someone!
"Y-Yes! Yes, I'm fine, sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." She replied urgently, taking his hand and pushing herself up, blushing with embarrassment.
"I-It's fine! Don't worry, neither was I..." Izuku admitted, his face turning just as red as her's. "So, what are you doing here?" He asked, letting go of her hand quickly and backing away from her a little.
"Oh, well I was coming to check on you, actually. I haven't seen you since the incident with your quirk." She explained, timidly.
"Oh, I see... Come to think of it, last time I saw you was when I blacked out. Sorry if I worried you." Izuku chuckled awkwardly, bowing as he apologised.
"No, no! Don't apologise!" Pony exclaimed. "I'm just happy to see you're okay." She added with a smile. Now came the awkward silence, which Izuku really didn't like. After not talking to her since his quirk breakdown, surely he'd have something interesting to talk to her about, but no, instead he was standing there, like an idiot.
"S-So, umm... What about you? Your training I mean..." He started, falling on his words and correcting himself as he, for whatever reason, panicked at trying to start some form of conversation.
"C-Come on, we can talk as we walk. I need to head to my room now anyway." Izuku added with a smile, taking a deep breath. Pony slowly nodded, shaking herself and following him.
"My training is fun, I suppose." She said, although she didn't sound like she meant it.
"What do you have to do for your quirk strength training?" He asked, relaxing a little as the conversation began rolling more casually.
"Well, it's not really strengthening I have to focus on. My quirk is actually one of the strongest in my class. It's just really slow. You see, my quirk allows me to shoot the horns on my head, hence the name, Horn Cannon. However, it takes a minute or so for them to grow back. My training is to allow me to fire them within only around a second or less of each other." She explained, indicating the strong horns protruding from her hair.
"Oh, that's how your quirk works..." Izuku muttered. He regretted speaking in a tone that didn't sound interested, but the truth was that he actually found it really interesting, hearing about how her quirk worked.
"Did I not tell you before?" She asked, frowning curiously. Izuku shook his head. "Oh... Whoops..." She giggled, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly as they arrived at Izuku's room.
"This is my room." He stated, stopping by his door and opening it. Pony kept walking a few steps before processing what he'd said and stopping. "Did you want to come it and sit down? I was only going to watch YouTube or something." He replied kindly, smiling at her and holding the door open.
"Oh, no, that's alright. Thank you for offering though. Will I see you tomorrow? I think it's a combined class activity then." She asked.
"Umm, yes, more than likely." Izuku responded, chuckling at her question. If it was a combined class activity, then why wouldn't he be there? Unless something happened before then.
"R-Right... Good point. Well, I'll see you tomorrow Midoriya, have a good evening." She beamed, waving at him before turning back the way they'd came, and almost skipping away.
She reminded him a little of Mina, in the fact that he didn't always understand her decisions, and she seemed quite energetic in a similar way to his pink-skinned girlfriend. Letting out a sigh, he turned back to his room, and walked inside, closing the door behind him. All he wanted to do, was rest up, and prepare for tomorrows day of training.
He'd hidden it as best he could, but through the day, he'd not been able to give one hundred percent to his training. Why was this? The answer was simple. He was weak.
He'd always known it, even after the boom of progress for using his quirk, but looking at the bigger picture, and at how he trained using ten percent of One For All, he was reaching a hard point. After the fights, training and pushing himself he'd done since his battle with Melodyne, he still wasn't able to handle that amount of power. His body still ached, his head still throbbed, and he continued to bruise himself up even after all of that.
He flopped back on his bed and bit down thoughtfully on his knuckle. There was no doubting he'd progressed a lot recently, and in terms of using ten percent of his power, he was definitely stronger, but why was it still such a struggle. Just how far out of his reach was that stage? Was he falling behind?
He couldn't think it through alone; he needed help. Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he quickly unlocked it and hit the contact that said, 'All Might'. If anyone would know how to help, it was him.
"So... I can't handle ten percent?" Mina heard Izuku speaking, and quickly stopped herself from knocking.
He was talking about his quirk, about One For All. She knew straight away that was what he was talking about, and no doubt he was talking to All Might too. Taking a deep breath, she gently leaned against his door, pressing her ear to the wood, and closing her eyes. She didn't hear anything for a moment, only muffled grumbling that must've been All Might replying.
"What do I do? I... I thought I could do it..." Izuku said, his voice quiet and croaky, almost as if he were about to cry. Again, there was silence.
"five percent? Maybe seven or eight max, at least before it starts getting a little uncomfortable." The greenette muttered. He was getting harder to hear. Just what was he talking to All Might about?
"But... I'm sorry, All Might..." He sighed. "I will, don't worry..." He added after a few moments. "Thank you. I'll see you soon." He said finally, before the sound of his phone hitting the desk, startled Mina from her focused state. Whatever it was, she wasn't about to let him deal with it on his own, not a chance in hell.
She grasped the door handle and yanked the door open. Izuku sat bolt upright in his bed as she did, and stared across the room at her. His eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were wet. He'd been crying.
"M-Mina!" He exclaimed, wide-eyed. Why had she burst in like that? She was mean to stop herself from looking suspicious.
"I-I... I was just coming to check on you." She lied, quickly letting go of the door handle and patting her thighs with her hands, drumming out an off-beat tune as she looked at the floor. Izuku stayed silent, staring at her from his bed.
"Aaaare you okay? Were you crying?" Mina asked. She was a terrible actor, and there was no way Izuku wouldn't figure her out straight away, but she at least had to try and make it a little harder for him to figure out she was listening in.
"I'm fine, don't worry." Izuku responded with an obviously fake smile, before laying back in his bed and letting out a heavy sigh. Mina stared at him, moving into the room and slowly closing the door behind her.
"What happened? You were so happy and energetic earlier." She said, cocking her head with a gentle and worried expression. Izuku only saw the ceiling, not even trying to look at her.
"I just spoke to All Might." He started.
Yes, I knew it! Mina yelled at herself, before remembering the kind of situation she was in.
"I... All Might? Why?" She asked, before stopping herself and firing him another question. Izuku tipped his head slightly to look at her as she walked over to his bedside but closed his eyes quickly and sighed again.
"I can't use ten percent, like I thought I could..." He muttered. Mina looked down at him with a curious frown.
"What do you mean? I thought you said you were able to?" She asked, gently sitting beside him and taking his hand in hers. He didn't hold it back.
"I-I can't. When I was training today, my body felt sore and achy. I thought that, maybe because I'd only been using ten percent in short bursts, it never really affected me as badly as it should have." He explained. Mina only half understood what he was talking about.
"What that means is..." Izuku started, almost as if he knew she was going to ask him to elaborate. "That I'm still only at the stage I was a few weeks ago. ten percent of power doesn't affect me as badly, but I can't use my quirk at that level consistently. Both times I trained using that power, it was agony by the end of the day. My joints felt seized and painful, and I always felt like I was going to be sick." He continued, keeping his eyes closed, and the grip on her hand loose.
"All Might asked me the level I felt comfortable at, which is at most around five to a max of eight in long term battles. He told me that, if that is what is comfortable, then I shouldn't push myself any further until I've trained myself to feel more comfortable with that power level." He muttered.
Mina wasn't following. What exactly was it that he was upset about? To Mina, it only sounded like a minor setback, but she'd seen how hard he'd worked since starting at the school to push himself to where he was now. If she'd done that, and then been asked to take a step back again, she'd be upset too.
"So, what does that mean? I'm still a little confused as to what you're trying to tell me." She replied.
"It means that my real limit for combat is only around five percent or a little higher. All I've been doing is pushing my body beyond what it's capable of. That's the reason I broke down the other day. I-I'm weak." He sighed, his tone starting to sound aggravated.
Mina was taken aback by the abruptness that he spoke to her with, but she knew it wasn't directed at her. Izuku took a deep breath, before letting it out with a shaky, 'close to tears' sigh.
"I lost control because I'm forcing more than I can handle into my body. All this use of ten percent for training, and small battles, it's done nothing but stop me from developing. Looking at the bigger picture, and what All Might as explained to me, I've trained hard, but forcing my body to deal with more than it could handle, just held me at a standstill. I've made no progress what-so-ever." He explained, finally giving up and pulling his hand from hers, grabbing a pillow and hiding his face under it.
He'd been breaking his body at the same rate he was training it, and all it had done was hold him in the same position. It all made sense now. She knew something had been feeling off. Ever since Izuku had first used ten percent of his power 'comfortably', all his hard work and training seemed to be affecting him less and less. That was why. It was like putting a car nose-first against a wall, then spinning the wheels. There was more power, and effort being exerted, but the car wasn't going to go anywhere.
"That what it is..." Mina muttered with realisation. All the effort and tears and blood he'd shed from training, and fighting, and breaking down, and it'd landed him right back where he'd started. It even frustrated her, so she couldn't imagine what her boyfriend must've been feeling at that moment.
"W-Why didn't I see it sooner?" He sniffed, gripping his pillow in his fists and pushing it harder to his face. "Why was I such an idiot-." He sobbed.
"Izuku, stop." Mina snapped. It was the first time she'd really called him his first name in what felt like forever, and even though she didn't say it with any anger or venom, it still felt so abrupt.
"This is no-one's fault, especially not yours." She started, pulling the pillow away from his face and from his hands, smiling at him. His face was smudged with tears, and it hurt her a little inside.
"Shit happens, but don't let it put you down. I know you've worked really hard but look at it like this. You've done it once, so you can do it again! I know you so well, and I know you'll bounce back from this like a rubber band ball." She beamed, before leaning over and putting her arms around him, tucking her face into the nape of his neck.
"This is nothing compared to the walls I've seen you beat down before. I always loved that about you." She whispered. She felt Izuku slowly putting his arms around her, gripping her shirt in his fists.
"Also, I'll bet even five percent is better than what you started with before. Actually, I know it is! Before, all you could do was injure yourself when you battled. Now, you can fight hard and strong without doing barely any damage to yourself, and if you do, it's almost never because of your quirk. If you ask me, you've come a lot further than you give yourself credit for." She beamed, a loving expression on her face.
"I just... I don't want to let him down, Mina. H-He's trusted me with everything he's worked for... I can't let him down..." He sobbed, burying his face in her shoulder. She could feel his warm tears against her, and it made her feel like something was clamping her heart.
"I-I love you Mina." He muttered, holding her even tighter.
"I love you to-." She replied, before a deep boom and the quake of the earth caused her to quickly pull away from him. "What the hell was that!" She squealed, quickly crouching to the floor as the sound of an explosion rumbled into the distance.
Izuku jumped up from the bed and ran over to the window. In the distance, a plume of smoke-stained the evening sky, with blue flames lapping up from the trees. What the hell was out there?
"Midoriya! Mina!" Iida's voice echoed from the halls, before he burst into Izuku's room. "Villains, they've found the camp!" He announced. His expression was petrified, and his face looked pasty white. How had they managed to find them all the way out here.
"N-No way..." He wheezed in response. What were they meant to do now? In their current conditions from training, they wouldn't be able to hold them off, and Iida wouldn't be this panicked if it was only one or two villains. This was an ambush of massive scale.
"You are to come with me immediately, Aizawa is gathering everyone in the common area." Iida ordered, before turning and running back down the hall with heavy footsteps. Mina turned to look at Izuku with terrified eyes.
"W-What do we do?" She croaked, hugging her knees to her chest. Izuku shook himself and grabbed her hand, pulling her up from the floor.
"It'll be fine. We'll all be fine, just stay close to me." He told her sternly, but with a soothing tone in his voice, clutching her hand tightly as he led her out of his room and after Iida.
"Is everyone here, Iida?" Aizawa called as he, Izuku and Mina all came down the stairs.
"Yes Sir, Midoriya and Ashido were the last in our class!" Iida called back over the hubbub of terrified whispers.
"Class-B is all rounded up and ready to move out." Mandalay announced, jogging through the dividing door of the dorm areas, joining Ragdoll, who had been with Aizawa.
Izuku froze in place, letting go of Mina's had as his heart fell. Mandalay was here, but where was Kota? Thinking of it now, he hadn't seen the young boy all day. What if he was still out there? Would she even know? Would anyone know?
"Midori! Where are you going!" Mina hollered as Izuku bolted past her and towards the exit to the building.
"Midoriya, stop!" Aizawa boomed. "What do you think you're doing!" He added.
"I'm going to save Kota!" Izuku yelled back, ignoring his teacher and his girlfriend's requests and barging his way out of the building, powering up Full Cowling to five percent and leaping off into the woods.
"Oh my god..." Mandalay breathed, quickly turning to look at Aizawa. "He's not here..."