Chapter 43: Camp! Camp! Camp!

"I wish you were dead."

"That makes two of us!"

Smack.

Both boys winced as Eraser hit the back of their heads. "Toshi don't encourage him, he might actually try to do it again and I can't handle that this week."

Izuku sent a glare at the hero as his friend tried to hold back a laugh and cover it with a cough, but he assumed that he hadn't tried hard enough as he got his own glare soon after. "He's not wrong, and you already promised no dying this week."

"Shut up."

"You know you love us!" Hitoshi somehow found enough energy to put his friend in a headlock and mess up his hair as he tried half-heartedly to get away with a mock pout.

"Well kittens, you took longer than we had expected, but I guess we based it off of how long it would take us, oops." Pixie Bob was as spritely as ever, even after using her quirk to terrorize the students until the sun began to set. The class groaned at the clear insult, but the pro just brushed it off and continued on, "No matter. Now it's time to eat. This will be the last meal that we will prepare for you all, so enjoy it!"

Without any other prompting the students quickly went to get food and devour it as if they had never eaten a day in their lives. Izuku chuckled at how dramatic this class seemed to be and how much he knew it probably annoyed Eraser.

Even Hitoshi quite literally dug in, taking small breaks to make sure that Izuku was eating beside him and then once he did, returning back to his own meal.

The two of them sat with some other students but as everyone was very busy with scarfing down their food, there wasn't much conversation happening. So, Izuku took to simply observing. He looked around and tried to analyze each of the members of 1-A. He knew a bit about them from Eraser's stories, but the pro mostly kept things to himself, only talking about the more outlandish things his students would do or to brag about the ones he was particularly proud of.

Of course, if anyone ever asked, Izuku hadn't heard anything. He didn't even want to imagine what Eraser would do to him if he ruined his tough teacher cred.

Once everyone was finished, the heroes announced that they would take care of the cleanup tonight while the students enjoyed their time at the hot springs and got as much rest as they could before the real training began tomorrow.

Izuku was perfectly fine staying and helping clean up, but Eraser stopped him and practically ordered him to go and bond with the boys of 1-A. For someone who accused him of getting too close with his students, he sure did want him around them a lot.

He knew that it would be a losing battle, so Izuku simply complied with the hero's request and walked with Hitoshi to grab their things to take to the room and then head to the springs.

"Minori!" Kaminari ran up beside Izuku with his signature contagious smile.

"Hey Kami, what's up?"

"Nothing much dude, just pumped that we're all here! I'm even more pumped that you got dragged along, even if it was more or less against your will, I'm still glad that you came."

Sometimes Izuku forgot that he had people who genuinely liked him now. He was so used to being practically invisible or hated that the easy friendship he had with some of the 1-A students still came as a surprise to him.

"Thanks Denks, and you know you can call me Izuku, right?"

The boy's eyes widened and somehow, so did his already too big smile. "No way, really?"

Izuku shrugged, "Sure, we're friends, aren't we?"

"Heck yeah, dude!"

The three boys finished taking their things to where they would be sleeping and then they left to join the others.

They were the last three there and so the changing room was relatively empty. Izuku began to change without a second thought. He had been slowly getting more comfortable with his body and he knew that Hitoshi was unbothered by his scars, so he didn't really think anything of it until Kami gasped from where he was changing.

"Wha-" He glanced down and remembered that the boy had really only seen his new neck scar and a few other ones that were visible on his arms and such. "Oh. Uh, sorry, I can-" He immediately got insecure about his scars and started feeling extremely uncomfortable with being so exposed. His scars weren't pretty, he knew that and it's why he didn't like showing them off much. He knew that most would see them and think they were horrible and disgusting, and he just couldn't go through that again.

"No dude, it's okay! I just didn't know you…you look like such a bada* man." He seemed mesmerized by the scars on Izuku's chest, and the boy found himself blushing furiously from the attention.

I mean, it made sense. The T-shaped autopsy scar and his lightning scar from Conductor weren't ones you saw every day, so of course he would stare. Izuku just hated that he didn't know what the blonde was thinking.

Hitoshi looked at him wearily, silently asking if he needed help, but Izuku shook his head and turned back to Kaminari who was still basking at Izuku's chest. "Uh, Denks? You good?"

The boy's head snapped up as his eyes met Izuku's, "Dude you're totally ripped! It's usually hard to tell cause you're just so tiny, but holy crap!"

"I know," Hitoshi agreed with a sigh as he finished changing, "Annoying, isn't it?"

"Will you two knock it out?" Izuku glared at both boys who burst out laughing at the weightless threat in Izuku's gaze. "I'm serious! Do you think it's okay for me to go out there? What if everyone thinks my scars are gross or-"

Toshi clasped his hand on Izuku's bare shoulder, causing the boy to flinch slightly at how cold his hands were. "You're overthinking again."

"…Sorry."

"You're good." His friend gave him a wide smile, or at least as wide a smile he could handle without hurting himself. "And if they say something, I'll knock them out."

"Thanks, Toshi." Izuku returned his violent friend's smile and the three of them left for the springs.

They walked out, Toshi and Denki talking about something as Izuku just smiled contently. He had friends…it was still hard to accept sometimes. And they actually liked him…just because. Not because he did something for them, or pity, or anything like that, they just want to be around him to be around him.

How did he ever become so blessed?

The classes were separated into different buildings so the 1-B students were probably at their own building, while the boys of 1-A were all chilling around the hot springs.

Most were already in the water, while some hung around the outsides just dipping their feet in, and others stood around just talking and relaxing. It seemed so comfortable, something Izuku had never really been a part of.

Shoto sat on the edge of the spring with one of his feet in the water talking to Iida quietly. His head looked up when Izuku approached and the boy gave what he assumed was supposed to be a smile, but it was too small to tell.

Izuku took his spot next to the boy and tested the water out. They didn't call it a hot spring for nothing, the temperature was steaming for sure. He hesitated in getting in, wondering if the hot water would be good or bad for his scars when Shoto lightly nudged his arm.

"Are you okay Izuku?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah I'm fine, just contemplating my scars."

Shoto understood, after all, he did have his own scar and so he got it.

Hitoshi surpassed Izuku and got right into the water and let out a sigh as he sunk down to his neck. Izuku smiled softly and nudged the boy with his foot receiving a glare in response. "You having fun there?"

"Shut up."

Denki sat right next to Izuku and made sure to keep his body out of the water. As much as the boy probably wanted to join in and relax, it was too dangerous with his quirk and so he opted to just hang out from a safe distance. As long as he was with his friends, he was happy.

"You gonna get in?" Hitoshi asked as he eyed Izuku still contemplating the water.

He tested out the water once more and let out a hum. "I dunno, I might-WAH!" Before he could second guess himself anymore, a hand shoved his back and the boy fell into the water with a splash. He broke the surface looking like a wet cat as his friends laughed around him.

"Alright, who pushed me?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah, I thought you just wanted to take a dip." The boys snickered as Izuku sighed and turned to Hitoshi who was also laughing at him. He waded over to his friend and shook out his hair like a dog, making the boy whine as the water got all over him.

"Ah come on, dude! It's not like I did anything!"

Izuku joined in with the laughter this time, and he sunk lower into the warmth of the water surrounding him. It was like heaven on his body, the heat comforting every sensitive scar and aching muscle. He let out a sigh and just stayed neck deep for a second before a voice cleared their throats.

"Um, can I ask?" Iida looked at Izuku with caution. "I understand if you'd rather not talk about them, but I've never seen your scars before."

Oh yeah, I guess that made sense, of course people would be curious and want to know about how he got them. He could be truthful with Iida, he knew of his quirk, but did he want to? Did he really want to talk about all of the times he had died, both intentionally and unintentionally? That might be too much for the boy.

Of course, it wasn't like Izuku took that into consideration often, he sort of lost any sort of empathy with the subject, but he still understood that it was an uncomfortable topic and he didn't want to give his new friends any reason to leave him.

Izuku's eyes flickered to Hitoshi who was watching him for his response, and then he looked back at Iida. "Sorry Iida, but maybe another time? I'd really rather not talk about all of that tonight."

"Understood. I apologize for asking."

"No, no, it's okay. Just…not tonight, alright?"

The other boys seemed to take the hint and their conversation moved on to more light-hearted topics such as school, crushes, and what they thought tomorrow's training was going to be like.

They looked at Izuku as if he had any idea what tomorrow would bring. Unfortunately for them, he was just as, if not more, in the dark as they were.

Katsuki kept his distance as he said he would.

He wouldn't go to Izuku unless the boy came to him first. He had said what he needed to and now it was up to him whether or not he was going to accept that apology and move forward. It was out of Katsuki's hands now, but that was okay.

Even though he kept his distance, he still watched and glanced over at his old friend.

When he had first come out, Katsuki had to keep his jaw from dropping. All of those scars…where did they come from? Being a vigilante shouldn't give you that many scars, so then how did he get them?

It was clear that the boy was nervous about showing them off like that, but he seemed to relax as he was around his group more. Good. He deserved some good people in his life.

Even as he was thinking of this, his mind kept wandering back to Izuku's scars. It wasn't like he was bothered by them or anything, but something about them…the placements of some seemed a little bit too perfect.

Had he gotten those from dying? He knew that the boy couldn't technically die, but he didn't know the exact logistics of all that. What if his scars had come from…what if he had-

No. That wasn't his business. He lost the right to worry about him when he first started bullying him. Didn't make the pit in his stomach go away though…

"Alright class," Eraser's tired voice rang out over the half-dead students who seemed a moment away from falling asleep.

The morning's wake-up call had been rough. Everyone had issues getting out of bed, but Hitoshi and Shoto had to literally drag Izuku out of his bed in order to wake him up. The boy was like a corpse with how heavy he had been sleeping and they even had to call in Kaminari to give him a little wake-up jolt.

Izuku stood by Eraser as he spoke. The boy looked horrible, the bags under his eyes could be considered designer at this point, he hadn't brushed his hair out and so it was still a mess from sleeping, and he looked like a walking zombie. He scowled as he stood there, probably not even meaning to, but that was just his default when he was tired.

"You're all going to be working individually this morning to strengthen your quirks and then after lunch we're going to move onto combat training and conditioning. Your bodies matter just as much as your quirks do and it is very important to hone your skills in the event that you are unable to use your quirk."

Izuku began to look better as the day progressed. He watched over the students as they trained. He would walk around and analyze what their quirk was and how they could improve it, he would even jump in and help sometimes.

It was exactly as Shouta had wanted.

He knew that Izuku was an amazing analyst even if he didn't show it often and he also knew that the boy was incredibly smart. It came as no surprise that he was able to jump right in and start directing his students on what they could do to reach their full potential and it even brought a small smile to the hero's face.

Izuku finished his rounds and came back to stand beside an observing Eraser.

"Having fun?" The pro asked, his eyes still on his students.

Izuku hummed followed by a yawn.

"It looks like even just a small bit of your advice had helped the students tremendously."

"I think you're milking it a bit. All I did was share some suggestions I thought of."

Eraser shrugged with a hum, "Agree to disagree."

Izuku scoffed and was about to retort back with something, but his train of thought was cut off as his head whipped around to stare at something behind him.

"What's wrong?" Eraser immediately went on the alert as he watched the boy search behind him intently.

"I thought-" He tried as he furrowed his eyebrows. Izuku knew that he had felt something just then. A shiver rolled up his back and he felt like he was being watched, but that didn't make sense. They were in the Pussycat's property, and no one should have the authorization to be there except for them.

What was going on?

"Sorry, I just-I thought I felt someone watching me. Guess it was nothing." But that feeling didn't go away as it wrapped its cold tendrils of anxiety around Izuku's chest.

Eraser searched where Izuku was looking but saw nothing. Nobody should be here, but that didn't mean anything. "I trust your instincts. I'll let the Pussycats know and try to see if we can put some measures into place just in case."

"Okay," Izuku breathed out, his chest still tight as his tried to wrap his mind around what could be going on.

"it's almost lunch anyway, I'll talk to them then."

Hitoshi dropped into the seat next to Izuku with a groan and immediately laid his head on the table.

He had been working on his quirk and testing the limits of what he could do which was great, but the migraine he could feel coming on wasn't so great.

Izuku rubbed the boy's back with sympathy and went to fix his friend a plate of food. He had sat down as soon as they were done making lunch and so he hadn't even thought about eating yet. He came back and lifted Hitoshi's head so he could slide the plate in front of him.

The boy sat up and pouted at the plate of food and then at his friend. "Thank you."

Izuku hummed in response as he took a bite and Hitoshi began to pick at his own serving.

The students were talking about their training earlier and asking Izuku questions of how he thought they could improve, and the boy shyly complied. He wasn't used to being asked to help people and especially not with quirks. When he was younger, everyone would call him weird and creepy for all of his notebooks, but now people seemed to value his skill, if you could even call it that.

Izuku answered their questions and took to observing as he usually did. He looked over to where the Eraser was eating with the Pussycats. The other two members had popped by to say hello, Ragdoll and Tora, but left soon after to get back to the 1-B students, and he saw Kota brooding at the end of the table.

The boy didn't have any food and looked like he was pissed about something, but Izuku guessed that there was rarely a time when he didn't.

He nudged Toshi telling him that he'd be right back and then made his way over to fix the kid a plate and bring it to him. He came up behind the boy and plopped the plate in front of him. The kid jumped at the sudden appearance of Izuku, and he couldn't help but smirk when he realized that he hadn't even been meaning to mask his presence, it was just something that happened after his time with Stain.

"You're going to hurt their feelings if you don't at least try the food they made."

Izuku crouched beside the kid and began to fiddle with some grass on the ground.

Kota scoffed, "Why would I want to eat something made by any of you losers?"

"Um, because it's good?" Izuku pushed the food closer to the boy and gave him a pointed look, "Eat."

"You're not my father…" The kid mumbled out as he began to push the food around the plate.

"I'm aware, but you still need to eat."

"What about you?"

"I'm older, I don't need-" Izuku was cut off as a familiar plate of half-eaten food plopped on the table in front of him. He looked up at Eraser who was glaring down at him.

"Eat."

Izuku let out a sigh and grumbled, "Yeah, yeah…" as the hero went back to sit down. He hadn't even noticed that he'd left.

"You sure he's not your dad?" Kota asked as Izuku looked up and was met with his raised eyebrow as he looked back and forth between the two of them.

"I'm sure," Izuku stuffed some food in his mouth and began chewing, "Eraser and I have a weird relationship. It's kind of hard to explain, but let's just say that he's more of a bother-figure than anything."

Kota mummed in response as he began to shovel food into his mouth as well. Must've realized he was being stupid and put away his pride.

"So, what did you do this morning?"

"None of your freaking business."

Izuku nodded as he took another bite and decided to leave the conversation there, but apparently, Kota had other ideas.

"What, you're not going to push me to answer?"

"Why would I? You clearly don't want to talk."

"I-" The kid started but stopped as he gaped at Izuku who raised an eyebrow at him. "Why don't you treat me like everyone else? They all tiptoe around me and talk to me like I'm three, why don't you?"

Izuku hummed as he finished chewing and took a sip of his water that Eraser had also brought him. "I dunno, you just don't really act like a kid, so I don't feel the need to treat you like one. Would you like me to start-"?

"No!" He yelled out as he waved his arms in front of himself, "No, it's fine it's just-no one's ever spoken to me like that before."

"Why do people walk on eggshells around you?"

Izuku didn't know that the topic he was treading was the one thing that hurt the boy more than anything else ever could. He had no idea how it felt to have someone ask while casually eating food and splitting your attention.

A small sniffle caused Izuku's head to turn and when he did, he saw Kota with his head down and his fork shaking slightly. "Hey, are you-"

"Shut up! Just shut up already! You're such a freak and loser for wanting to be a hero, even if you're not training with the rest of them! Just get out of here already! Leave me alone!"

The boy's loud voice caused Izuku to lean back as he tried to keep his cool in the face of this child. His screaming was loud enough that almost every head had turned in their direction and Izuku didn't want to be the center of attention, let alone get yelled at again.

So, he took one last big bite of food and stood up to leave as the kid breathed heavily from his outburst.

Yeah, something had definitely happened to Kota…but what, Izuku wondered.

Ever heard of the phrase "curiosity killed the cat…"?

Dabi was beginning to feel uneasy with everything that was happening.

He had joined the league to get back at his bastard of a father, not to attack children and abuse and treat another like some sort of object. Dabi was bitter and angry, but he wasn't heartless.

Despite his better judgement, he had kept tabs on his family throughout the years. He even watched little Shoto at the sports festival on tv. Serpentine, or Izuku Minori apparently, he had done something. He wasn't sure what or how, but he knew that in some way, that kid had helped his brother.

Everyone knew about the vigilante's involvement with the Stain incident, but almost no one knew that Shoto and another of those 1-A brats was there as well. Dabi had only met the kid once, but he already liked him, especially because he had seen how he treated Shoto.

Some might think that he would feel bitter and hatred towards Endeavor's golden child, but all he felt was pity. Don't get him wrong, he used to feel all of that, he used to hate his brother's guts, but then he took a closer look and saw just how horribly he was treated by their father, and he just couldn't bring himself to hate him when he knew exactly what it was like.

Regardless, Dabi still wanted to kill the number two hero and he needed connections to do that. Hence, joining the League of Villains, but he did not sign up for whatever that Overhaul guy was doing to that little girl.

He had only caught glances of the actual child, but Shigaraki had talked to him about what he knew was going on and Dabi was absolutely disgusted. How could someone treat a child like that? It brought too many memories he had worked hard to bury a long time ago.

There wasn't much he could do, however. Everything was preparing to go down and their leader was on even higher alert than usual. The scratching and constant whining were already bad, but now that was all amplified. Add the extra incongruency that were his mood swings, and the guy was practically a nightmare to be around.

Things were about to get bad. And Dabi wasn't sure what to do.