Chapter 21: Summer Camp
Midoriya Izuku had never actually gone to Summer Camp as a kid. He had been too afraid to be away from his home and mother as a Quirkless boy, for fear that the teasing and bullying he had gotten from Bakugou could be worse from strangers in the woods.
So as he sat on the bus in his, "t-shirt," shirt with his classmates, he felt nearly as giddy as Ashido and Hagakure.
Aoyama, who was sitting next to him, didn't seem nearly as thrilled. "Bleh... I don't know what the big deal is about the outdoors."
Midoriya gave him a sympathetic grin. "Come on, Aoyama. We'll be training our Quirks and learning other applications for them. It'll be fun."
"Yeah!" Uraraka piped in from behind them, making the two jump, "roughing it is great! Sleeping under the stars and all that? I love it! We used to do it all the time when I was a kid."
"So we can get eaten alive by bugs, no?" Aoyama grunted.
"I'm excited too," Todoroki said, from the seat in front where he and Iida had been listening. "Back in the day, the only time father ever took me out to the woods was to practice setting trees on fire and then putting them out with my ice."
"That... sounds pretty dangerous, kero." Asui replied, concerned.
"Only if I was bad at it," Todoroki shrugged, flatly.
The conversation died down after that, as his friends became a bit uncomfortable with that. But Midoriya still looked out the window and marvelled at the lush forest, the greenery a welcome and new sight for him. The towering trees and mountains under an expansive blue horizon was a foreign sight for the young Hero, who had long since been a city-dweller since his youth. It was almost as awe-inspiring as his first trip to Asgard, and he couldn't help but feel humbled that such a change in scenery was so close to home all along.
"HOW MANY BORING ASS TREES DO WE HAVE TO DRIVE BY BEFORE WE GET THERE?!" Bakugou screamed from the back of the bus.
Midoriya reasoned Kacchan wasn't as big of a fan of nature as he was.
It wasn't much longer after that the bus pulled into an overhang of sorts along the side of a mountain. Beyond the trees, a clearing could be seen in the distance, but it wasn't exactly close. Still, Aizawa stood up, and advised the class to get off the bus, and the students of class 1-A obliged nonetheless.
To their surprise, class 1-B had already arrived, and Vlad King wasted no time gloating to Aizawa. "Looks like class 1-A took their sweet time."
"There was traffic," Aizawa sighed, tiredly.
"Yes, well, celebrity status doesn't mean you get to show up fashionably late," Vlad King jabbed, though his tone was at least more akin to something a coworker would give to another passive aggressively. Behind him, Monoma crossed his arms and sneered, while the rest of class 1-B just rolled their eyes and shook their heads.
"Are..." Aizawa glanced around, "they even here yet?"
"Well, no."
"Then what does it matter?" Aizawa yawned. "We're all on time if our hosts aren't here."
Kendo perked up from the group of class 1-B students, pushing her way forward. The bags under her eyes and the slouch of her shoulders made it clear she was particularly exhausted from keeping Monoma in line during the bus ride over. "Hosts? Who will be hosting us?"
"You'll see," Vlad King grunted back with a smirk. "You kids are in for quite a week."
It wasn't much longer before a vehicle pulled up alongside the buses, and the students had a collective freakout at the figures who stepped out: Mandalay, Pixie-bob, Ragdoll, and Tiger, the Wild Wild Pussycats. Midoriya immediately pulled out his notebook and flipped to the last page he had written about them. He had to steady his writing hand as he was already trembling with excitement.
Both classes erupted into ecstatic questions and comments about how long they had been fans of the four - much to the irritation of Pixie-bob, who insisted she was still young while making a few leering looks at the class 1-A boys - but their teachers were quick to quell the cacophony.
"I'm sure you're all very excited," Mandalay assured them when the noise had stopped, "and we are too!"
"Training the next generation of heroes!" Ragdoll added excitedly.
"But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy!" Tiger boomed. "Just getting lunch is going to be a challenge here."
"Thaaaaaaat's right," Pixie-bob purred mischievously, giggling into her over-sized paw glove. "That clearing waaaaaay over there is the camp. And if you want to get some grub, you have to meowsy - er, mosey your way through the Forest."
"Forest of Death?!" Sero exclaimed, excitedly, before pulling Midoriya's sleeve. "FOREST OF DEATH?! FOREST OF DEATH!"
"Well... Forest of Beasts.There's a lot of danger in these woods." Tiger confirmed with a smirk. "Better get through there before it gets dark."
The students all paused, looking at the foot path that lead down to the woods. Were they just supposed to -
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" Ragdoll screamed with girlish delight. "GO!"
The students all began to scramble. Bakugou and Todoroki forewent the path, opting instead to use explosions and ice slides to make it down the side of the mountain, respectively.
Midoriya spun Mjolnir over his head and took off flying over the trees. He figured this would be no problem for him, and if he could make it to the clearing first he could possibly help set up signals for the rest of the first years to follow.
It was a good plan, but it really didn't account for the random tentacles made of what looked like rock and mud that began shooting up from the forest and trying to grab him. "WHAT?!" He shrieked, zig-zagging through the air to try and avoid them.
--
From the overlook, Pixie-bob poked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth to concentrate. "I always hate getting these flying ones...so hard to nab with my Earth Flow."
"Come on Eraserhead, cut off his flying for just a minute!" Ragdoll added, elbowing Aizawa in the side. "I love watching these kids squirm when we get a chance to train them. Really toughens 'em up."
Aizawa frowned. "That's just it... I'm trying. My Quirk isn't working on him."
The Pussycats, minus Pixie-bob who was still giving her best effort to get Midoriya grounded, looked at him in surprise.
Does my Quirk not work on him...? Aizawa wondered.
--
Stormbreaker himself was having a rough time, pausing in the air to smack a tentacle back into mud and dirt. He darted towards the clearing, but a wall of earth had sprung up in front of him.
In the second he stopped to evaluate where to go, another tentacle grabbed his leg, and he was pulled down towards the earth. Without a second to think the tentacle swung and smashed him into the side of a tree. The tree snapped from the impact and Midorya went tumbling towards the ground, dropping Mjolnir in the process.
As he vaulted towards the ground, Midoriya heard someone yell his name and dive for him. He was tackled out of the air, slowing his fall, and in a thud, he went rolling across the ground with someone else holding on to him. As he finally rolled on to his back, he groaned and opened his eyes in pain, and saw Asui had grabbed him, and was still wrapping both arms. "AH! Asui, are you okay?!"
She groaned, a low, croak-like noise, and sat up on him. "Keroooo... I told you to call me Tsuyu."
"AH! S-s-sorry," he winced. "Y-you've gotten really good at saving m-me."
Tsuyu gave him a small smile. "Well, someone has to look out for y-"
The two paused, their faces going very red. As she sat up on him, a part of Midoriya became rather excited, and it appeared both of them were feeling that through his gym shorts. Asui looked down at him, her expression unreadable, but she gave a small quiver.
Midoriya's throat ran dry, unsure of how to get out of this awkward situation. However, whether lucky or unlucky, a Kraken made of mud and stone erupted from the ground, interrupting the moment of awkward teen lust and hormones. It roared, and Asui sprang to the side of a tree defensively.
Midoriya raised his hand as a tentacle came swinging for him. Mjolnir reached him and he flew off from the ground before he was struck.
Another tentacle came swinging towards Tsuyu and Midoriya threw his hammer, smashing through the construct. With her path clear, Tsuyu sprung off the tree, and rammed into the head of the Kraken with a dropkick. It collapsed, leaving the path to the clearing free of obstructions for the time being.
"Thanks, Midoriya," she ribbitted, hopping over to where he had landed.
"Thank you, too," he smiled, "for saving me earlier."
Their eyes met, and some of the awkward tension from before returned. They quickly averted gazes, and Midoriya added. "L-let's head to the camp together. I don't think they're going to let me fly any further."
Tsuyu agreed, quickly, and the two began down the path as fast as they could.
--
The two reached the camp not long after Bakugou, Todoroki, Iida, Uraraka and Sero had, along with a couple of class 1-B students they didn't recognize. Apparently, Sero had the winning strategy of swinging through the trees with his tape, which was a good way to avoid the various mud beasts they had been faced with.
Waiting at the camp was a feast that had rivaled anything Midoriya had seen in the halls of Asgard; the scent of succulent breads and meats washed over the green-haired heroes, and they rushed to the table to join their friends (and Bakugou) for in a meal.
Their friends began to filter in not long after, with Mineta bringing up the rear, severely beaten and burnt.
"I thought we were supposed to be a team, guys," Mineta grumbled to Kirishima and Bakugou as he sat between them.
"You ran off to chase Yaoyorozu and Jiro," Kirishima rolled his eyes. "Ditching your bros is not very manly, bro. You brought this upon yourself."
"I'VE NEVER AGREED TO BE ON A TEAM IN MY LIFE!" Bakugou added as he took a giant bite out of a turkey leg.
"I'm really glad we shook him off," Momo muttered from the other side of Todoroki.
As the two classes began to finish their meal, their teachers and the Wild Wild Pussycats emerged from the woods.
"I hope you all enjoyed the meal! Because it's the last one that'll be prepared for you!" Mandalay beamed.
The students all looked up in surprise.
"Thaaaat's right!" Squealed Ragdoll. "You'll have to make your own food as a team from now until the end of camp! Hope some of you know how to cook!"
Midoriya looked down at his food and wondered if he could preserve it in some way. He'd never really taken an interest in cooking and didn't exactly feel confident about it.
They were all made to clean up after the meal, which wasn't hard. Midoriya collected plates from his classmate and began to wash them with Sero.
"We probably can't screw this one up, right?" Sero joked, prompting Midoriya to laugh.
"Y-yeah, I'm good at this one. Not sure about the cooking." Midoriya agreed, scrubbing.
As the two boys kept at their work, Sero eventually nudged Midoriya with his elbow (not on accident as he had earlier while they washed - he couldn't help it sometimes), "Hey, don't look now, but that little kid over there is giving you the stink eye."
Izuku, surprised, looked up to see his friend wasn't lying. A small boy in a cap was looking at the two of them, and he didn't look too pleased. But he seemed to especially be glaring at Midoriya.
Before he could even think to do anything or approach the boy, Mandalay walked over to him. "Hey Kota! Why don't you see if any of the girls need help?" She asked. Her voice was much more gentle than it had been when she was talking to the students. Indeed, it was the sort of cautious tone you would expect someone to give when they weren't terribly used to children.
The boy refused, and stomped off, kicking a rock as he did. Mandalay looked uneasy.
That was all it took to set off what Thor called Izuku's Chronic Hero Syndrome. As Kota stomped over, Midoriya stepped away and gave the boy a friendly smile.
"Hey, would you mind giving the two of us a hand?" He asked, keeping a chipper tone. He was impressed - Thor's lessons in self-confidence were doing him good.
He wasn't expecting that the boy's response would be to rear back and punch him right in the babymaker.
Unfortunately, the boy hadn't expected that Midoriya's Asgardian transformation would make this like punching a brick wall. Kota jumped back and cried in pain, clutching his hand.
"Oh my gosh!" Midoriya exclaimed, kneeling down to check his hand. "I'm sorry! My skin is really durable! Is anything broken?"
From a few yards away, Todoroki was collecting leftovers to freeze. He smirked and shook his head. "Midoriya's the only person who would apologize to someone who hit him in the balls."
Bakugou cackled with laughter at the whole thing. Before Midoriya could help, Kota stomped over, embarrassed, and HEADBUTT Bakugou in the balls instead.
Bakugou screamed every swear word, even ones only known to old timey pirates, and crumbled onto the ground in agony, swearing revenge on Kota's family.
Mandalay approached Izuku and placed a hand on his shoulders. Midoriya immediately froze up; he'd grown up having a crush on her, so having her this close made him lock up. "I'm sorry, Midoriya, are you alright?"
"Y-yeah, like I s-s-said, my skin is really durable," he assured her. "That would have b-b-been bad if not."
"Good," Mandalay sighed in relief. "I'm sorry, all the same. That's my nephew, Kota. I've had to take custody of him not too long ago, and it's been an adjustment."
"Oh..." Midoriya said, frowning and looking to where the boy stomped off. "He doesn't seem to happy to be here..."
"He's not a fan of Pro Heroes." Mandalay said, shifted uncomfortably. "It's a long story. I'll try and keep him reigned in."
She took off, and Midoriya returned to the dishes with Sero.
"Holy shit," Sero whispered. "She touched you! You lucky bastard."
Midoriya snorted with laughter.
--
The rest of the day had been filled with specific Quirk training - Iida pushed himself to the limits as he ran laps around the camp. Sero was screaming to the heavens as he shot buttloads of tape out of his arm. Everywhere the teachers looked, students were training there Quirks, usually while Uraraka floated by nauseously.
"COME ON KID, YOU'RE SLOPPY!"
Tiger had taken it upon himself to train with Midoriya on some of his fighting form. Every swing was dodged by Tiger's stretchy body, and at one point when Mjolnir was thrown at him, he spun his body out in spirals as the hammer flew through it like a goal post.
By the end of the evening, the children were so exhausted that cooking their own dinner seemed like another trial in and of itself. Still, Todoroki went around lighting fires for everyone to cook (Bakugou's attempt ended with the fire wood disintegrating), while Bakugou and a few others began chopping fish and vegetables.
"Man, since when were you so good at this?" Kaminari asked his explosive classmate.
"IT'S JUST A GODDAMN KNIFE, WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?!"
"You're a big strong boy, aren't you?" Pixie-bob purred abruptly from behind Midoriya, making him jump. "Why don't you go fetch some buckets of water from the river for drinking?"
"A-alright," Midoriya gulped.
"I'll go with him!" Uraraka volunteered, though she wore a rather uncomfortable expression from the whole exchange. "I can float some of the buckets and make it easier."
"Hurry back!" Mandalay urged. "We've got some fun stuff planned for this evening!"
The five students who had to take remedial training groaned; having to miss the festivities was the worst.
Little did they know, they'd be the safest.