The training camp begins! The students find out what they will be training. Izuku has a fist to fist with Kendo Itsuka of Class 1-B. And they polycule spends a minute relaxing together.
Izuku's punishment had been lighter than he expected…mostly because it was never meant to be a 'real' punishment. He'd accidently broken a bunch of Quirk use laws in his flight from UA, which had gotten the HPSC up in arms (Aizawa's words, not his), which they already had their eyes on him due to the Hosu incident. Nezu had to fight them on letting UA 'punish' Izuku instead of charging him. The punishment was…his personal training regimen!
Yes, it appeared that Nezu had simply told them Izuku would be doing a series of workouts, exercises, and laps that the HPSC took as a cruel and unusual punishment from the school, even though he did this willingly at least once a week. He probably should think about cutting back if the HPSC thought it was good enough for a punishment for breaking the law. Luckily for him, he got that out of the way before they all had piled into the buses for their training camp.
He took a moment to glance about the bus. Ochako was talking excitedly with Tsuyu and Mezo. Mina was exclaiming something at Eijiro, the red-haired teen pumping his fist in agreement. Himiko was passed out next to Tenya, the glasses-wearing teen reading quietly and occasionally shifting Himiko so she didn't bash her head off the window. Fumikage was arguing something with Yuga and Rikido (Izuku heard something about poetry and decided he was not falling down that rabbit hole with those three). Hitoshi and Katsuki were having what amounted to…a roast battle? With Denki and Kyoka laughing at them both, Denki nearly falling out of his seat as he giggled. Koji was smiling gently as he spoke to Hanta and Toru about his bunny, showing all his pictures to the two students who were awwing over the cute photos. And finally, Momo was next to Izuku at the front of the bus, currently taking notes, her brow furrowed in intense concentration.
Izuku rolled his shoulders, excited for this trip. Not only were they training as a class, Class B was coming too, which meant maybe he'd get a chance to train with their sister class too! Not that anyone knew where they were going…Sensei was being cagey about it. Probably to avoid anything like the USJ again they all assumed, but that was fine in his mind. It was odd though, they'd gone so far outside the city limits all he could see was forest anymore, and no other cars on the road.
He was jolted out of his thoughts as the bus pulled over, Aizawa standing up and grabbing everyone's attention. "Alright, let's take a quick break and stretch our legs. Everyone off."
Izuku narrowed his eyes at his teacher as they stood up. The emotions coming off him were weird. Almost…smug? That was unusual for their teacher; well, unless he was going to fuck with them. Aizawa met his eyes, his expression blank as he arched his eyebrow at the green-haired teen. Izuku gave up on figuring him out…knowing the emotion didn't tell him what he was planning, but he had a feeling he wasn't gonna like it.
The class got off the bus together, stretching, Himiko yawning sleepily as she arched her back, nearly bending over backwards to the consternation of those who hadn't realized how flexible the blonde was. They milled about, conversing with each other as they took a few moments to work out the kinks, when a car came to a stop right behind their bus and out of it popped two slender women dressed in…cat themed hero outfits, along with a young boy in a red hat. Izuku's eyes widened.
"The Wild Wild Pussycats?" He exclaimed, excitement visible on his face as he practically vibrated in childish glee. He was so excited he completely missed their classic greeting, already hurriedly reaching for his notebook. Ochako rolled her eyes at him with an indulgent smile, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention to the fact he'd started spouting off a dozen facts about the two heroes before him, Mandalay and Pixie-Bob, only to be interrupted by the blonde heroine suddenly in his face, her expression threatening.
"I'm eighteen at heart, got it?!" she hissed, Izuku gulping and taking a step back, a nervous grin on his face.
"Absolutely!"
She let out a huff, stepping away as Aizawa cleared his throat. "These are the pros you'll be working with for your training camp."
"Our base is way over there, through the forest! That's where you'll be training!" Mandalay pointed, a wide smile on her face.
Izuku felt the smugness radiating off Aizawa growing and let out an annoyed sigh, his shoulders slumping as his classmates looked at him in concern. "...I have a feeling I know where this is going."
"Um…maybe we should get back on the bus?" Mina said, taking a step back and away from the cat themed heroines in front of them.
Pixie-Bob giggled, her eyes narrowing as her hands, covered in big cat paw themed gloves, touched the ground. "Better get to camp soon or else you won't get lunch!" she sang out.
Izuku felt the ground rumble beneath him and let out another annoyed sigh. "Ah shi-" he started to say, before the ground erupted beneath the group and started sending everyone over the edge.
Blackwhip snaked out as he triggered Float, grasping onto a half dozen classmates within range. One of them being Mezo, who extended his own arms to grab another few and pull them in closer. Katsuki rocketed into the air, Kyoka hanging off his back, as Ochako tapped as many in range as she could, wincing as she felt the strain on her Quirk. With the quick actions of the class, everyone managed to stabilize in midair, to the annoyed looks of Pixie-Bob and Mandalay, Aizawa arching an eyebrow at the group.
"Yeah yeah, I get it, we're going, we're going," Izuku muttered, lowering to the ground along with the others. They all knew Aizawa would not hesitate to Erase their Quirks and send them to the ground anyways…Izuku just wanted a softer landing than Pixie-Bob was going to give them.
"You got three hours to make it through the forest to our camp! We own this whole mountain and forest, so you can use your Quirks freely too!" Mandalay called out over the edge. "Good luck!"
Izuku dusted himself off, the entire class muttering about another one of Aizawa's tricks. A ping in his mind had Izuku glancing up, eyes narrowing at the dark forest in front of them. Kyoka and Mezo both perked up as well, the sign of the three of them reacting simultaneously having the rest of the class shift into defensive postures.
Just in time, it seemed, as a massive beast came barreling out of the forest, its mouth open in a roar as it brought a huge claw down at Izuku, the closest to the forest's edge. He leapt backwards, a line of ice screaming from Shoto and freezing its legs to the ground as Koji tried to run closer, waving his hands and asking the thing to halt. It ignored the teenager, ripping its legs from the earth and leaping at him.
Tenya zipped by, grabbing Koji and pulling him out of danger as Katsuki rocketed forward, crashing clean through the creature with little effort, the beast falling to the ground and…vanishing into the dirt.
"Um…the hell?" Denki asked, blinking in confusion.
"Pixie-Bob's quirk. She can control the earth. They aren't real animals, so we can go all out on them," Izuku explained, having already figured it out.
"Oh," Koji said quietly, feeling a little bit better about his Quirk not helping there. He'd been concerned he screwed something up, but knowing it wasn't actually an animal was helpful.
"She's not gonna stop at one," Katsuki remarked, keeping his eyes on the treeline.
Izuku nodded. "And we're on a time limit, it seems."
"So what's the plan, Class Rep?" Hitoshi asked, arching an eyebrow at Izuku.
Izuku pondered for a moment, glancing at his classmates. "Some of your quirk's won't be as helpful against these things, but if we all fight all out from the start, we'll just exhaust ourselves…"
"Should we just fly over? Between you, me, and Katsuki we could probably make it," Ochako asked.
He shook his head. "Kacchan can only carry one or two, and that'll hamper his maneuverability. You and me are limited too, you'll get nauseous too quickly and I'll burn through my pool too fast. Using One For All still impacts my energy reserves even if they are separate. Nah, we're going to have to fight our way through. We'll split into three groups. One actively fighting, one in reserve, and one resting. We'll rotate periodically, to avoid burning ourselves out."
He turned to point at Kyoka and Mezo. "You guys keep us apprised of what's approaching and from where. Himi, how are your blood reserves?"
Himiko paused, contemplating. "I got you, 'Chako, Tsu, and Shoto at the moment."
"Okay. You'll be in whatever group Shoto and I aren't in. Koji, try to get some birds or small mammals on our side to keep some extra scouting going. Hitoshi, your quirk likely won't work much on them, so keep an eye on the sensory teams backs and let us know if anything somehow sneaks up. Denki, them being made of earth likely means they are grounded and you won't be doing much either without going way over your limit, but we'll do a charge up now for everyone."
Denki nodded, coming by to place his hand on Izuku's shoulder, the now familiar burn of electricity flooding into Izuku's veins. He winced slightly at the pain, but focused, allowing the flood of newly arriving energy to flow through the connections forged, charging his classmates up. Izuku rolled his shoulder to clear the residual pain, glancing about at his now excited classmates.
"Alright. Let's split up and get ready. Oh, and Toru, Yuga, if we get surrounded, do the thing," Izuku said, nodding at the two.
Most of the class glanced at the two of them and back to Izuku, confused. Mina blinked. "Do what thing?"
Toru giggled as Yugo took a dramatic pose. "You'll find out if we gotta use it!"
Mina pouted. "C'mon, don't I get girlfriend privileges?!"
"Not for this, mademoiselle! We wish to be certain to dazzle all when we unveil it!" Yuga replied, Toru nodding rapidly behind him as she hopped in place. Though she was now visible most of the time, it was hard to unlearn habits she'd taught herself her entire life, and so she kept over exaggerating her motions and expressions when she tried to communicate with body language. Not that anyone else minded…it was too adorable to dislike.
Izuku shook his head as Mina continued to argue with Toru and Yuga, everyone else just rolling their eyes at the playful bickering. He cleared his throat. "Alright, alright, c'mon guys. Let's do this."
"Aye aye captain!" Denki said with a silly salute, Eijiro and Hanta mirroring it before bursting into chuckles.
"Fucking idiots," Katsuki remarked with a smirk, turning back to look at Izuku. He arched his eyebrow at his brother. "Well? Lead the way, captain."
Izuku snorted, turning back to the treeline. Time to get their summer camp started, it seemed.
"Well, they sure are doing well. Nearly here!" Pixie-Bob said as she, Mandalay, and Aizawa stood at the entrance to their base, waiting. The sun was high overhead, nearly noon, as the class began to trickle out of the forest. They were scuffed and dirty, but seemed to be managing well enough, although Shoto was shivering slightly, a blanket Momo had created draped over his shoulders.
"Wow! You guys did great! My beasts stood no chance!" Pixie-Bob said with a grin, her hands on her hips. "Why were only a few of you fighting at a time though?"
"We split into groups so we didn't burn everyone out at once," Izuku explained.
Aizawa nodded. "Good. I expected as much from you all. You've done well."
Izuku cleared his throat, glancing over at the young boy in the red hat currently glaring at them all and making Danger Sense ping with a very low warning. "So uh…whose he?"
"Oh, that's Kota, he's my cousin's son, he's staying with us for now! Go ahead, say hi Kota!" Mandalay replied with a plastic smile on her face.
Izuku approached the boy with a soft smile on his face, watching the glare morph into something darker. "Hi, I'm Izuku Midoriya, it's nice to meet you-" he began, only to be forced to block a punch towards his groin, Danger Sense having flared just at the right time. "That was uncalled for," he murmured to the kid, still trying to keep a cheery attitude.
"Tch. Why would I wanna talk to any wannabe heroes?!" Kota hissed, glaring as he spun about on his heel and marched off, Mandalay letting out a deep sigh and giving Izuku an apologetic shrug.
Aizawa interrupted before he could question further, jerking his thumb to the right. "Go on and get your bags off the bus and toss them in your rooms. We'll be eating lunch and since you arrived in a timely fashion, we'll get started going over what you'll be doing for training, although it'll be tomorrow you really start up. The goal is to train your Quirks most of all."
"Sensei, why are we doing this anyways? I don't remember this being planned at the start of the year? We're not against it, but this feels out of place," Izuku asked the question that had been percolating in his mind ever since they brought up the summer camp originally.
Aizawa nodded at Izuku. "Simple, Midoriya. You'll be taking the provisional licensing exams. The fact is you've been endangered by villains multiple times, and the League are willing to set off bioweapons into major cities. We can't trust them not to do it again. We intend on pushing you forward to your exams so you can get your license and be allowed to defend yourselves."
"...oh," Izuku said, his shocked tone echoed by most of the class.
"Huh. That's good enough for me then, legally being allowed to fuck those bastards up? Hell yeah," Katsuki said, a feral grin crossing his face as his hands popped menacingly.
"Yeah, yeah. Go on, get your bags and get settled. We'll begin after lunch."
The students were gathered about Aizawa as they stood outside. "Normally, we'd focus this camp on expanding your Quirk usage, since you've spent most of this semester working on control rather than power. We're still going to do that, but due to your efforts so far, you're further ahead on that curve than expected. So we'll also be mixing in practical combat training, as well as team-building exercises. Expanding horizons. Especially with those you may not get along with or know well…which is why Class 1-B will be here shortly. We'll be doing mixed groups exercises, sparring, and Quirk training for the next week. It will be tough, it will be painful, and it will be grueling…but by the end of it, you'll be better prepared for the exam. Understood?"
The class all nodded, a few even saluting, which got them a Quirk-enforced glare from the red-eyed teacher. After they quieted down once more, he continued. "Today we'll do some light sparring with your sister class. Nothing major since it's already afternoon, and you'll need to make yourselves dinner and bathe. But we'll get started."
The sound of approaching footsteps had them all glancing back, seeing the dusty and slightly worse off looking Class 1-B following behind Vlad King. The white-haired teacher nodded to Aizawa, turning back to his class. "Alright, I explained what's going on on the way over. Now, the Wild Wild Pussycats will also be watching over all of you starting tomorrow, but for tonight's sparring, let's have a couple volunteers for some cross class spars."
There was a brief silence, as people began to scan the other class for their opponent, but it lasted little time before the orange-haired Class Rep of class B held up her hand with a grin. Vlad nodded at her. "You got a challenge in mind, Kendo?"
"I do sir! Midoriya, class rep on class rep?" she said, a smile on her face as her eyes met the green-haired teens. Izuku blinked in confusion for a moment, before smiling back at her and nodding.
"Sure, I'd be up for it!"
Aizawa gestured for everyone to clear the area as the two Class Representatives stepped forward. Izuku tilted his head at Kendo. "Wanna do this Quirked, or Quirkless?"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "What, don't think I can handle your bullshit Quirk?"
Izuku let out a shocked gasp, but he had no time to disagree as his entire class snickered at the fact she'd called out something that was pretty blatantly true. He gave a mock glare back at them, before turning about to face Kendo. "I'm sure you could, I just wanted to do something different. Sensei did say this was about learning to expand our horizons after all, and I figured sometimes we won't have our quirk's available."
She pondered for a moment, tilting her head to the side before giving him a sharp nod. "Sure, I'm up for that. But I want a full power one sometime before camp is over."
"Absolutely," Izuku replied, his grin growing wider as he lowered himself closer to the ground.
Kendo smirked at him, tossing her hair back over her shoulder as she took a defensive stance. "On your go, Midoriya."
Izuku stood across from her, the murmurs of the various classes going quiet as they waited for the first move. His eyes narrowed, trying to take in her stance and see if he could guess her fighting style. His training was not very structured…practice with Katsuki growing up, and then what he worked on with Sir, but he knew from prior conversations with Kendo that she had been trained in at least one, if not more, martial arts and likely was more experienced than he was. He had to try and guess what her style was if he was going to have a chance of getting at her…her Quirk was in her hands, so something that focused heavily on upper body strikes?
He dismissed the thought as soon as he had it. He'd never figure it out from just standing here. Time to test the waters…and what better way than to go full steam ahead and see how she reacted. Without a single noise for warning, he bolted forward, his shoes digging into the dirt as he rocketed towards her. He opened with a quick high kick, aimed at her left side to see if she would go for the block, parry, or dodge.
She dodged backward one step, trying to slide towards his back and get behind him, but he let the momentum of his kick spin him about to send another one, this one lower at her legs. She leapt over them, returning fire with a quick jab towards his abdomen, forcing him to deflect with his arm. She spun her hand around his wrist to go for the grapple, only being forced back by his other arm coming in with a high swing towards her temple she ducked beneath.
She brought herself back up within his guard, forcing him to close ranks to defend against the sudden flurry of jabs, high, high, low, high, low, low, lightning fast, giving him no time to go on the offensive. He decided on the risky play, opening his guard enough for her to get one punch in. It hit him in the upper chest, almost knocking the breath out of him but he stoically took the hit, immediately trying to trap her arm within his. He leapt up and wrapped his legs around her arm to go for the armbar, but she quickly blocked it with her other hand, gripping his ankle and shoving him away from her.
They both lost their balance for a moment, skidding across the dirt away from the other. Izuku let out a grin as he stared at his opponent, the other teen smirking right back. "Nice moves," he remarked, feeling a little out of breath.
"You too. You took a big risk, taking a hit just to try and get me," she pointed out, circling to his left slowly as he mirrored her.
"You were going for quick jabs, I knew I could take one of those. If it was one of your haymakers, I mighta been in trouble."
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Huh…so you do fight like I thought. Hmm. You should work on that."
He tilted his head to the side, confused. "Work on what?"
"Sacrifice plays. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but you always seem to do it. Every one of your fights at the sports fest, you went for those. Right here, you went for one. You always risk yourself for a chance to get a hit in, cause you think you can take it. That's not a healthy mindset for a fight," she said calmly, her gaze affixed on his.
He blinked at her in confusion once more. The sudden snort from his class had him glancing over, seeing a very unamused Ochako and Katsuki both nodding along with Kendo in agreement. He worked his jaw for a moment, trying to figure out some way to argue against it, to try and argue that it had been his best move at the time and yet…
He wasn't given time to think, Kendo deciding to strike at that very moment. Her turn to dash across the small space between them, a powerful punch coming his way that he blocked with his forearm, wincing at the impact. She didn't let up, another powerful swing coming at him as he dodged to the side, just into her snap kick into his side.
Growling, he dove forward into her face, quickly sending a jab into her abdomen while she was off balance. She barely winced, but he saw the twitch of her face as she took one step back, spinning about lightning quick with a roundhouse to his skull. He had no time to dodge, so he brought his arms up to block and rolled with the impact, diving to the side and rolling up into a leap into the air to land, just as she came at him with a leg sweep.
He managed to dodge just enough, but she gripped onto his leg and almost flipped him. However, his lessons with Himiko had been enough for him to plant his hands on the ground and complete a full handspring, his heel coming up to smack away Kendo's hand and making her step back, gripping her now hurt hand as he landed on his feet, breathing heavily, one hand held to his side where she'd landed the kick.
"That's enough for now," Vlad's voice sounded, making the fighting duo turn to look at him and Aizawa.
"Light sparring, as we said. No Recovery Girl out here after all. You both did well. Maybe a bit too well," Aizawa muttered the last part as he turned away from them to begin picking the next pair.
Kendo shook her head out, sweeping some errant hairs out of her face as she stepped over to Izuku and held her hand out for a shake. "Good game, Midoriya," she said with a smile.
He took her hand and shook it, still a little rattled by her comments. "Yeah. Um…you too. Um…did…did you mean-"
"What I said about your fighting? Yeah. Seriously dude, you keep doing it. You keep taking hits you don't need to. You really need to break that habit."
"...yeah. I got you," he murmured, considering what she said as the two of them split off to their respective classes, a number of students starting to challenge each other as Aizawa and Vlad began to work out the order. He wasn't overly focused on that now, his mind going over what Kendo had said. Maybe…maybe he should think about that. Was he really so willing to sacrifice himself to get a victory?
He thought back to all of his major fights…the USJ, where he lost his cool and nearly got killed. The sports festival, where he repeatedly took hits he didn't need to during the one on ones to get a free hit on the others. Hosu…where he took on the nightmares to himself. His eyes widened as he started to see patterns, that his go to solution when his first one didn't work was to just…take a hit, to get a hit and count on him being able to take it. He'd always had a high pain tolerance, a stubborn nature that kept him moving no matter how badly he was hurt. But, it worked…didn't it?
'Would you say that if it were Ochako doing it? Himiko? Katsuki? Shoto? Any of your partners, or friends?' En's voice mused in his mind, cluing him into the vestiges presence. Instinctively he recoiled from the idea of them doing that…and could feel the sudden smugness within the vestige world, none of them bothering to point out the hypocrisy since they knew he saw it.
His shoulders slumped, letting out a sigh as he chuckled self-deprecatingly. He rubbed at his temples. Okay…maybe this camp was a good chance to think about how he fought, and look into a better way to fight that relied less on letting himself get hurt just for a chance at a victory. But years of habits were hard to break, after all. He'd try. That's the best he could do.
Izuku wasn't entirely sure how Mina talked him, Shoto, and everyone else into this. The pussycats had made it clear: they were all adults and anything that happened was their responsibility. Since all the 1-A girls were dating each other…they just shrugged and Mina convinced everyone to have their two boyfriends join them in the hot spring after the two classes had made and eaten their dinner. Wearing towels, since while Izuku had seen Ochako and Himiko in very little clothing by this point, he hadn't the rest, and Shoto…well, Shoto needed time to acclimate.
When Tenya tried to point out it was improper, Mina pointed out that for one, she was dating the girls she was about to be in a bath with, and that there were some couples among the boys who were going to be bathing together, which Tenya couldn't really argue the logic…but he was not exactly pleased. Since Class B had their own springs to utilize, there was no one else to really convince, and so, she got her wish.
It led to this, Izuku seated in a hot spring, towel wrapped about his waist, blinking in confusion at a lot of visible skin amongst his partners. Yes, he'd seen them in swimsuits before, and this wasn't much different, plus he was at least used to Ochako and Himiko (though they had not been truly …they did sleep in the same bed. Things happen). But still, he was a bit thrown off by the experience, especially as the hot steam did make the scene feel more intimate than the beach had.
Luckily he could focus most of his effort on making sure Shoto was comfortable, the other teen not used to any form of intimacy and this being a bit difficult for him. They had all been understanding and reminded him he didn't need to join them if he wasn't, and Izuku had offered to stay with him on the boys side if he preferred that, but Shoto had been adamant he wanted to experience this. Which led to him sandwiched between Izuku and Ochako, with Momo on Ochako's other side, the small group just talking calmly while Mina, Toru, and Himiko were playfully splashing each other on the other side of the spring. Tsuyu had her eyes closed, relaxing as she listened to Kyoka, the purple-haired teen softly humming a tune to herself as she brushed her hair.
Surprisingly, it wasn't really that sexually charged. None of them were at that sort of stage in their relationships, not even the original trio. It was just a bit awkward, since they were still feeling things out. And Izuku would never use that phrasing around Mina, Toru, or Himiko because they'd have a field day with the innuendo. On one level, he was truly happy Mina and Toru were part of this. On the other hand, it meant Himiko now had allies in her insanity. Granted, Izuku had Momo on his side, but she was still easily flustered by the trio. Ochako and Kyoka just washed their hands of it, Shoto had no clue how to handle it, and…Izuku was slowly coming to learn that beneath Tsuyu's placid exterior was the worst troll he'd ever met. Frogs truly were ambush predators, he was often reminded when she made another cutting remark that got a choked laugh out of him.
Still, there was something to be said for a nice relaxing time with people he had such affection for. Able to lean back against the spring wall and look up into the sky, the stars barely visible in through the steam and soft lights surrounding them. He closed his eyes and fell into himself, looking up into the night sky of his mind to see those of his partners…Ochako's singularity, Himiko's bubbling star, Shoto's red and white binary star system, Toru's accretion disk that swirled and shifted through every color of the rainbow, Mina's nebula that seemed to dance across the night sky, Tsu's green-blue gas giant, Kyoka's purple variable pulsar, and Momo's dense supernova remnant slowly swirling together into a protostar, all of them slowly making their way across his mindscapes sky, giving him pause as his lips twitched into a smile. The feelings coming from there were calming, comforting, feelings of joy, of relaxation, a little bit of awkwardness from a few of them, but mostly happiness and contentment, and Izuku couldn't help but be glad.
A touch on his shoulder made him open his eyes, seeing Mina's smiling face next to him, Ochako having moved off to talk to Tsuyu. "Hey, Midori?" Mina asked quietly, her smile soft and with no trace of her normal sense of mischievousness.
"Hmm?" he replied in a relaxed hum.
She squirmed for a moment in place, before sliding next to him and gently leaning into his side. "Um, is this okay? We didn't uh…didn't really talk about us, before."
He didn't bother with much of a reply, reaching one hand around her and gently wrapping it about her shoulders. After a second where she stiffened, she relaxed almost immediately, her eyes half-closed as she leaned into him. "It's like what 'Chako said before, Mina. Still figuring things out, and we're all gonna go at our own pace…but everyone here should know they have permission to cuddle me any time," he grinned as he said that line slightly louder, watching a few of the gathered partners snicker while the others paid very close attention to his comment.
"Me too!" Himiko shouted, waving one hand in the air as she snuggled into Toru's side.
Ochako rolled her eyes indulgently. "Let's just all do our own thing and figure things out, right?...but yes, you can cuddle me too anytime."
"Hmm. Cuddling is quite nice. I do enjoy it," Shoto mused, taking a glance at Izuku and Mina. After a moment, he hesitantly shifted closer to Izuku, his eyes asking the question that Izuku already knew the answer to, and without skipping a beat, Izuku lifted his other arm to go around Shoto's shoulder and tugged him in to mirror Mina's position on the other side. Mina giggled quietly as Shoto relaxed into Izuku's arm, reaching her free arm out to grab Shoto's and give his hand a squeeze, the split-haired teen squeezing back with a soft smile on his face.
"...this is so weird…but I like it," Kyoka muttered, tucking a wet strand of hair back while she scooted closer to Momo, the taller woman shyly accepting the arm around her waist and offering Kyoka the same.
"I think it makes everything fun!" Toru replied with a bright grin, half-draped over Ochako's shoulder as Tsuyu leaned into Ochako's side.
Himiko flopped down next to Kyoka and snuggled into her side, making the purple-haired girl flush at the contact. "I'm just happy, you know? It's nice to have so many people who care."
"...yeah, yeah it is," Shoto agreed quietly. He cleared his throat. "I-I…would it be alright if I informed my family of this development?" He was immediately met with agreements from everyone, making his smile grow wider as he ducked his head a bit. "...then if my mother is up to it, would anyone be willing to go to dinner with them? I-I know mother would want to meet you all."
"I would not be opposed to it. But…can you impress upon them the need to keep it…contained? For now? I will confront my parents about it soon but not yet," Momo asked softly.
Mina raised her hand. "Same uh, for me. Dad's not gonna forbid me from seeing any of you or anything, not that he could, but I know I'll have to explain it to him like, twenty times before he understands."
"My parent's will just be happy I'm dating," Kyoka snorted.
"Same, ribbit," Tsuyu added.
"My mom's gonna be confused but she'll support us, I know it!" Toru replied, nodding eagerly.
"Dad already knows, for me," Himiko added.
"My parents know. They don't get it but they support it. Dad keeps despairing that I have more 'game' than him, apparently," Ochako added, giggles escaping her as she spoke.
"Auntie and Uncle know. They wanna meet all of you later too, at some point. Probably when they meet Eijiro, and Eri. I am not looking forward to all of that," Izuku sighed.
"Why? Do you think they won't approve?" Momo asked.
Izuku lazily waved a hand dismissively. "Oh no, that won't be the problem. I just know they'll make us take pictures, and Auntie is a fiend about pictures and what you wear in them."
"Oh gosh don't remind me," Ochako whined. "That clothing thing sucked."
"What clothing thing?" Mina asked.
"Izu's aunt and uncle run a fashion company, and she forced me and 'Chako to model some of her outfits one day. Apparently she does that to Izu and Kats all the time," Himiko explained.
"A fashion company?" Toru and Mina gasped in unison, excitement sparkling in their eyes.
"...I shoulda expected that reaction," Izuku mused. He shrugged after a moment, feeling the stare from Mina next to him and the way Toru practically teleported in front of him, eyes wide and shining. "Yeah, yeah, you can pick Auntie's brain when we go see them, okay?"
"Yes!" Toru fist pumped, drawing a grin from everyone around her. Toru's way of being just extra enough every time she was excited always made him smile, her happiness infectious in its own way.
"Tch. Stupid heroes," Izuku heard muttered from…above? He glanced up, seeing a small figure on the dividing wall with a red hat, arms crossed over his chest as he resolutely stared up at the sky.
"...did you need something, Kota?" Izuku asked, wondering why he was there.
"...my aunt wanted me to see if any of you needed anything. But I don't care if you do, so don't bother!"
"...alright Kota, but we're fine anyways," Izuku tried to reassure the boy, hoping that whatever made the kid so unhappy would be assuaged if he was understanding. Unfortunately, Kota decided at that moment to glare at Izuku, apparently forgetting the seven half-dressed women in the bath and quickly flushing, losing his balance and beginning to tumble off the edge.
Shouts of the boy's name were heard, but the hero students' reflexes were faster. Himiko and Ochako were already in motion, Shoto's right arm up, when Izuku shot out tendrils of Black Whip and caught the boy midair gently, hopping out of the bath along with the others to check on him (and being sure their towels were in place. Kota was apparently unconscious, passed out from the shock of falling, so Izuku let out a deep sigh before turning to his partners with a rueful look.
"I'll take him to Mandalay. Maybe it's time to get out anyway."
Ochako nodded. "Yeah…let's get ready for bed." Izuku nodded at them all, turning about with Kota in his arms to begin the trek to Mandalay's office. Once he was sure the kid was alright, he'd head back to the room he and his partners had taken over…training began in earnest tomorrow.