The sight of a frankly huge man making his way out onto the rocky plateau was slightly confusing, and more than a little unnerving, considering that she could plainly see that this guy – whoever he was – wasn't Tiger.
/Nice night for a walk,/ she said, not wanting to start off on the wrong foot if this guy was just some lost hiker or something, but still feeling more than a little weird about the whole situation.
There were better places for a lost hiker to go, if they needed help getting down from the mountain…
"Big sis, we have to go!" Kota exclaimed, grabbing her left hand and pulling as hard as he could. "We have to get out of here! That's the Villain who almost killed my Mom and Dad!"
/What, really?/
Before Kota could say anything in response, the large man who'd come out to the plateau activated what seemed to be his Quirk, covering himself in a thick, meaty second skin of what actually seemed to be his own exposed musculature, grinning widely – in a distinctly crazed sort of way – at the pair of them.
"I was wondering if you'd recognize me, kid! Thanks for finding that cute little kitty for me!" the blond man – the Villain currently attacking them - shouted, grinning all the wider.
/Hold on, Kota!/ she called, knowing both that she, personally, wouldn't be able to do much against this guy, and that there was indeed someone here who'd be better suited for the kind of fight. /We're getting out of here!/
Really, Papa wasn't the type to send people he cared about out into the world without making sure that they had at least some kind of protection.
The excited laughter of whoever it was that was chasing them, as well as whatever it was that the man was actually saying, was quickly drowned out by the wind in her ears as Bombalurina dropped to all-fours, dodged past the oversized Villain as he made a grab for her, and pelted full-out back down the mountain. She had a brief moment of unease about leaving her telescope out on the plateau, but she was also fully aware that Papa would not only buy her a new one, but that he'd also be more than a little unhappy with her if she'd stayed back there with a Villain just to make sure that her stuff was okay.
"Where are we going, sis?" she could just hear Kota asking, over the roar of the night wind in her ears.
/Back to the compound,/ she said, finding herself purring in slight amusement; if that Villain thought he was the scariest thing she'd ever seen, he definitely had another thing coming.
"Do you really think Auntie and the other Pussycats will be able to beat him?" Kota asked, and Bombalurina could feel him shaking as he clung to her back.
/Maybe not, but they're not the ones I'm looking for,/ she said, dashing into the deeper shadows under the trees surrounding the compound.
"Then who are you looking for, sis?"
/Papa sent him to help train Izu-chan with his Quirks,/ she said, turning her ears back as she began to hear the sounds of that Villain who'd attacked them smashing his way through the trees she'd been deliberately putting between the pair of them during the course of her escape. /According to what Papa said, the man he sent works for him as a bodyguard./
That still kind of confused her, sometimes, since with all the Quirks that Papa had told her he'd been collecting during all the time he'd been alive, she wouldn't have thought he'd need anything like a bodyguard. Still, when Papa sent him out to help Izu with training all of his collected Quirks, it was with the understanding that she could call on him if she ended up in too much trouble for her to deal with on her own.
The sound of that Villain shouting, laughing and threatening to tear the fur from her twitching corpse – his words, the weirdo creep – drew Bombalurina's attention back to the man currently smashing his way through the trees on the most direct path toward her.
/Why don't you talk louder?/ she retorted, beginning to feel a familiar rumble through the ground, catching a well-remembered scent on the wind even as she did so. /I don't think everyone in camp quite heard you!/
~MHA~
/Gigan! Gigantomachia!/
"Young Lady?" he muttered, standing up and beginning to make his way over to the forest.
He had seen the Young Lady making her way into the forest, alongside the child that seemed to live in this isolated place. He was pleased that his Lord, his Little Lord, and his Lord's Wife had found someone else to take into their hearts alongside the Young Lord who stood beside them, and so he had naturally extended his protection to her, and would have done so even without the orders of his Lord. Catching sight of the Young Lady, sprinting through the darkness under the trees, Gigantomachia narrowed his eyes as he heard the large man chasing them shouting that he would kill the Young Lady and then wear her flesh and fur as some kind of costume. Firmly smashing the charging man into the ground, he reached down to scoop the Young Lady up and set her and the boy gently upon his left shoulder.
/Thanks, Gigan,/ the Young Lady said, settling down with the child she had been carrying on her back.
"Young Lady," he said, reaching over to gently stroke her soft hair.
He knew that he would need to speak to Lord about what had happened this night, and also to make certain that there was nothing present that would threaten the Little Lord while Lord and the Young Lord were away.
~MHA~
The sound of rock outright shattering drew his attention, and Izuku found his eyes almost inevitably drawn back toward the Pussycats' compound. The sight of Gigantomachia's tall form and wild hair – the only part of him that was even mostly visible over the tops and in between the gaps of the trees – brought the question of just what in the world was going on back to the forefront of his mind. Reaching inside himself, even as he turned to make his way back to the Pussycats' compound, Izuku pulled up his copy of Mental Voice from within the depths of his variant of All For One.
/Mandalay,/ he called, knowing that she would be the best person to answer his concerns, considering that out of all the people present, she was the only one who could answer his questions without the need for him to slow down so that he could pull out his phone. /Did you send Machia out for anything? I saw him just a bit ago; it looked like he was just leaving the Beast's Forest./
[Gigantomachia?] Mandalay's telepathy – something that had "sounded" different than his and Bambaa-chan's Mental Voice ever since he'd first experienced it, which was a strange thing to think about but no less true for all that – filled his mind as Izuku continued on his way back to the Pussycats' compound. [No, I didn't send him out for anything.]
/That's strange,/ he said, looking back up at the looming form of Dad's loyal bodyguard.
Gigantomachia was lumbering his way through the forest, though where he'd once seemed to be heading back to the Pussycats' compound he now seemed to be searching for someone in the forest itself.
/Machia, what're you looking for?/ he asked, calling out with Mental Voice to spare himself the strain of trying to shout over the distance that still separated the pair of them. /I thought Dad sent you to help train us while we were here. Did something happen?/
"Little Lord," the deep rumble of Gigantomachia's voice carried over, even as Izuku began to feel the subdued thunder of the huge man's footfalls making their way over to him. "The Young Lady was just attacked, so I'm taking her back to her room. Have you seen anyone who doesn't belong here, Little Lord?"
/No, I haven't,/ he said, pulling up both an enhancer Quirk and a night-vision Quirk from his own stockpile, so that he wouldn't end up being vulnerable to anyone sneaking around in the dark forest.
For a long moment, Izuku wondered if he should contact Dad, and tell him what had nearly happened to Bambaa-chan. Still, Dad was working with Uncle Toshi, Uncle Mirai, and a bunch of other Pro Heroes to defeat that Villain group that he'd only told him and Mom about just before they'd all left for the training camp. Dad had tried to be as reassuring as he could, of course, but Izuku still found himself more than a bit unsettled by the whole situation. If only because of all the tension he'd been feeling ever since he'd noticed that Uncle Toshi had been working on something.
Something that had turned out to be a raid on a Villain group, of all things.
Still, Gigantomachia was bound to report what had happened to Dad, at least as soon as the pair of them were able to meet up with each other again, so he didn't have to worry so much about that kind of thing. But really, knowing that someone had attacked Bambaa-chan in a place where all of them were supposed to be safe… He couldn't help being unsettled by the whole thing.
~MHA~
Looking down, as the pair of them came within sight of another one of their classmates, Itsuka pressed the knuckles of her right hand against her mouth as Tetsutetsu started snickering again. The sight of Monoma with a monocle and a curly mustache scribbled on his face was kind of funny, but the fact that there was someone with what seemed to be some kind of sleeping gas Quirk running around in the forest pranking everyone – or at least everyone in this area – was kind of weird. She didn't know just who it was, or why they were even here; none of her fellow classmates in 1-B had a Quirk like that, and she hadn't heard either Monoma or Midoriya talking about anyone in class 1-A who had that kind of a Quirk.
"Come on, let's find out who's doing this," she said, getting Tetsutetsu moving so that the pair of them wouldn't end up getting caught up by the sleeping gas. "The only people who seem to be having trouble are the ones in this area. And besides, I'm sure Mandalay would have warned us if there was some kind of Villain attacking us."
"Yeah," Tetsutetsu said, chuckling. "This must be part of the test, too. Still, I wanna shake his hand for taking Monoma down a peg."
Shaking her head as the pair of them continued on through the forest, the sleeping gas starting to become visibly thicker as they continued on their way through the darkness under the trees, Itsuka finally began to catch sight of what seemed to be the one responsible for the sleeping gas in the forest around them. It seemed to be someone about their age, or at least someone about the same height as her and Tetsutetsu, and the fact that he was standing at the center of a swirling tornado of what seemed to be that same kind of sleeping gas as they'd been dealing with ever since they first caught sight of one of their classmates asleep on the forest floor.
The sight of a male student's uniform let Itsuka know that it was a boy standing in the center of the tornado, and the fact that the gas seemed to be swirling around him in particular told her plainly that he was the one with the sleeping gas Quirk.
While they'd been making their way through the forest, passing the slumbering forms of both their classmates in 1-B and some of the kids in class 1-A, all of them with at least some kind of scribble or doodle on their faces, Momo Yaoyorozu from 1-A had apparently been giving out gas masks so that no one else would be knocked out by the gas that this new kid in front of them was somehow either controlling or emitting with his Quirk.
~MHA~
The sense of more people – a pair of them, this time, who seemed to be the same age as he was, or at least the same size – making their way through his gas brought a small smile to Sandman's face. Thoughts of his name, of course, brought back thoughts of who had helped him to come up with it. For a certain value of "helping", at least; Midnight-sensei's definition of quite a few things was a lot more… terrifying than anyone else's, to say the least.
Honestly, anyone who said that they weren't terrified of Midnight-sensei was probably insane, or at least lying.
"Hey!" one of the two students called; he had a gruff voice and metal skin, but given what he could see of the metal kid's face – over and around the gas mask he was wearing – it seemed like he was grinning, or at least smiling pretty widely. "Nice work, deflating Monoma's oversized head," the metal kid flashed him a thumbs up. "Still, it looks like you're part of the test, and I don't want to fail, so it looks like we're going to have to capture you."
Chuckling, as the metal kid cracked his knuckles, he grinned back. "Well, good luck with that," he said, flexing his own hands in return. "But I was specially trained for this," he continued, brushing his right hand over the pocket where he kept the marker he'd been using.
~MHA~
The rumble of Gigantomachia's footsteps, as the huge man made his way over to their compound, brought more than a bit of consternation to Mandalay's mind. She'd heard Pixie-bob describing him as the world's scariest puppy more than a few times, but having Councilman Midoriya's personal bodyguard working so closely with the students had always made her uneasy; yes, she'd been told by the Councilman himself that Gigantomachia – whatever name he'd originally gone by, neither of them seemed willing to reveal it, which was just one more reason to question the man's presence – would listen to his son when Midoriya gave him an order or tell him not to do, but Mandalay still wasn't quite sure what to make of the man. Yes, she knew that Gigantification Quirks were something that existed in their world, but Pixie-bob's description of the huge man as an oversized puppy was more accurate than her fellow Pussycat had probably first thought.
And puppies, even without meaning to, could do a lot of damage when they got too excited.
[Gigantomachia,] she called, drawing the huge man's attention. [Training is over for the day. What are you doing all the way out there?]
As the giant of a man with wild hair and oddly rocky skin turned to make his way over to where she was standing, Mandalay noticed that there was someone clenched in his right fist, and that there seemed to be someone else riding on his left shoulder. More than anything, Mandalay wanted to know just what was going on. Of course, given how quickly Gigantomachia was approaching her and the compound, she knew that she'd have the chance to find out very soon.
"This man attacked the Young Lady," Gigantomachia said, holding out the struggling form of a large – well, at least compared to Mandalay herself; she'd yet to meet anyone who actually seemed large when standing beside Gigantomachia, not even Councilman Midoriya himself, tall as he was – man to her.
The indicated man was struggling, growling and grumbling and threatening anyone around him, before Gigantomachia slammed him into the ground hard enough to leave yet another crater that Pixie-bob was going to have to fill in. That, of course, was when she managed to recognize the man that Gigantomachia had taken captive as the Villain who had almost killed her cousin and her husband, and who had apparently just tried to kill their son.
"Thank you, Gigantomachia," she said, once he'd finished explaining what had happened between Bombalurina-chan, Kota, and the Villain named Muscular. "I'll show you where you can take him."
"Thank you very much," the deep, thundering rumble of Gigantomachia's voice, and then his footfalls, had never quite sounded so comforting; Mandalay smiled.
~MHA~
As she and Tsu-chan followed in the wake of whoever it was that the Pussycats had brought in to test them while they were making their way through the woods around the Pussycats' compound, they'd ended up meeting Tenya-kun and Koda-kun, and then Tokoyami-kun and Shoji-kun. She was glad to have the four of them present, since it meant that they would have a better chance of holding onto whoever it was that had run away with the nametags that they were supposed to collect.
"Come on, slowpokes," the nametag thief taunted, clearly grinning under the mask he had pulled up to just under his eyes, and once again Ochako found herself vaguely recognizing the voice of the young man leaping through the trees ahead of them. "Don't any of you actually want your nametags? Or should I just take these back to Mandalay, and tell her you gave up?"
"So, there really was more to this test than we were all expecting!" Iida-san exclaimed, actually sounding happy about everything that was going on right now. "As expected of U.A.!"
Laughing softly, as the six of them all continued following in the wake of whoever their trainer – Ochako suspected that one of the Pussycats had invited him there, setting him loose on them to make the training all the harder for them – actually was, she still found herself thinking about his voice. There was somewhere that she remembered it from, but with everything that was currently going on, she didn't have time to think about just where it was that she'd last heard it. If she'd actually heard it at all, anyway.
~MHA~
"All right," he said, grinning under his mask as he held up the kid who'd been pranking them out in the woods while they'd been trying to take this whole test of courage thing. "I've got you now, so when I drag you back to the Pussycats, that means Kendo and I will get credit for capturing you, right?"
"Well, I guess that would be true, if you managed to takeme all the way back to the compound, and then you could get credit for capturing me."
"Tetsutetsu, look out!"
"Wha?" he gasped, just before he felt the gas mask he'd been wearing come loose from his face, shutting his mouth as quickly as he could so he wouldn't end up inhaling any of the gas that this guy – he hadn't said either his name or what he was calling himself, so Tetsutetsu didn't know what to call him – was still putting out.
"It looks like he was distracting you so he could pull off your mask," Kendo said, beginning to make her way over to where he and the guy he'd just captured were standing, just as Tetsutetsu found himself beginning to struggle to hold the other kid up without being able to take a breath because of all the gas the guy he'd caught was still putting off.
Rocking back as whoever it was suddenly twisted out of his grip, Tetsutetsu made a grab for him, but quickly found himself shoved backward as the other boy landed back on the ground, probably grinning if the way his eyes were crinkled was any indication.
~MHA~
"I wonder what I should put on your face?" their attacker taunted, the tone of his voice clearly showing the grin he was wearing on his hidden mouth. "How about a cute, sleepy kitten?"
With a supreme effort of will, Itsuka swallowed her laughter at the thought of Tetsutetsu with a sleepy kitten scrawled on his face, since funny as this guy was he was still playing a Villain. Lunging forward, since she was the only one in their group who'd managed to keep the gas mask that class 1-A's Momo Yaoyorozu had given so many of their fellow classmates to use, Itsuka made a grab for their attacker. He was pretty good at dodging, but in the end she managed to snag him around the waist with Big Fist, lifting him into the air as he started laughing.
Itsuka found herself chuckling a bit, in return, as Tetsutetsu gave her a thumbs-up and then came over to fetch his mask again.
"I can't even move my arms," their attacker commented, and while there did seem to be a tinge of annoyance in his tone, overall he sounded approving.
"I've heard all about the way Sir Nighteye talked about tickling your way out of a grapple," Itsuka said, grinning under the mask she was still wearing, watching out of the corner of her right eye as Tetsutetsu reclaimed his own mask and started putting it back on. "I'm not going to let you get out that way."
Their attacker laughed. "Looking to get full credit for this, are you?"
"Right," she said, grinning all the wider as she started carrying him away; she'd ask his name once they all made it back to the Pussycats' compound, but for the moment she had to concentrate on making it through the Beast's Forest.
There was always the chance that the Pussycats had brought in other people to play Villains during this exercise.