Nezu didn't reply to Izuku directly. Instead he replied to Hitoshi, telling him to tell the others that he was running down the lead and that it looked promising, and also that he was sending someone else to check in on Rei and investigate possible medical abuse. Izuku was grateful for Nezu's caution. He wasn't sure if Sir Nighteye was still monitoring his email, and the only thing worse than Nezu talking openly about a plan to take down the Number Two Hero on a bugged channel was Nezu sending vague missives alluding to nonspecific information Izuku had given him off the books where Nighteye might see. As always Nezu seemed to sense the danger without being told, and simply reassured the group as a whole that he was looking into it.
Days seemed to pass slowly, but Izuku knew that no one would be making any new moves until after the summer training camp was over. That would occupy a full week of his time, and when he got back there would be new information and new decisions to be made. Nezu might even do something without him, if he uncovered enough information, and they'd come back to a problem already resolved. Until then there was nothing for him to do, so he waited.
The day they were meant to leave for camp dawned bright and warm, the air full of the screaming of cicadas as Izuku and Hitoshi trudged up the forested hill toward the main campus. Everyone was gathered outside the school building, dressed in school uniforms but with gym clothes packed in their duffle bags, waiting for the buses to arrive. They met up with Shouto, who had been the first there since he'd only come from the dorms, but didn't have much time to talk. Almost as soon as they arrived the rest of the class all had to have Izuku's reassurances that he was alright and didn't blame any of them for what had happened at the mall.
"Really, it's fine!" Izuku insisted, waving his hands back and forth as Ashido leaned into his personal space to examine him like he might still be injured. "It was nothing!"
"It wasn't nothing!" Hagakure bounced up and down in agitation. "It was my idea we go shopping, I can't believe you ended up fighting for your life!"
"He barely touched me!" Izuku assured her. "And then he ran off like he saw a ghost! I'm sure he was way more scared of me than I was of him!"
"Of course he was!" Kirishima said, making a fist and flexing demonstratively. "Villains know Class 1A means business by now! I'm sure he recognized you from the USJ and ran with his tail between his legs!"
Several others chimed in to agree with Kirishima's assessment of manliness, and Izuku found himself thankful that at least someone believed in him. The general amount of coddling he'd received since the incident was starting to grate one his nerves. He had gotten Shigaraki to run, hadn't he? Not just anyone could repel a villain by logically deducing their backstory at them!
He reminded himself that Shigaraki was really Tenko Shimura, and felt less accomplished for
having frightened him.
"Midoriya!" said a female voice he only vaguely recognized, and Izuku turned to see Kendo and a few other students from Class B, including Monoma and Tetsutetsu.
"Oh, hey!" he said, waving slightly. "Nice to see we're all going to camp together!"
"Yeah, everyone in our class passed the exam," Kendo said, looking over her class with a fond older sister's eye. Then she turned back to Izuku. "Yaoyorozu said the buttons were your plan, right? Thank you."
The handful of class B students bowed their heads respectfully, including Monoma, even if he did so somewhat reluctantly. Izuku felt his face heating up as they all echoed Kendo's thanks, Tetsutetsu with an enthusiasm to rival Kirishima's. It did feel good though, he decided as he waved off more praise. It felt like he'd really accomplished something, making sure both classes had made it through their final exams intact.
Eventually the buses arrived, and Kendo called her class away to board the bus they would be riding. Iida began pestering Yaoyorozu to do the same for class A, until eventually she made him a whistle and put him in charge of directing the boarding. Hitoshi and Shouto had a quick, silent discussion of lingering stares before Hitoshi went to go stand with Tokoyami and Shouto glued himself to Izuku's side, but before they could join the line Izuku felt a hand on his arm. He turned to see Mic standing behind him, although when that had happened Izuku didn't know, smiling wide enough that his white teeth sparkled in the sun.
"Hey there 'lil listeners!" said Mic boisterously when Izuku and Shouto turned to him. "You excited for camp?"
"Yeah!" Izuku agreed eagerly as Shouto nodded silently beside him. "Are you coming too?"
"Nah, it'll just be Eraserhead and Vlad King on the way there," Mic informed him, "and there'll be a few other Pros waiting to join the party when you arrive. I just came to give you this."
Mic pulled Izuku's force lance out of his pocket and held it out to him.
"Oh!" Izuku said, blinking as he took the weapon from Mic. "That's right, I'll probably need this. Is anyone else taking their support items?"
"Just you and Aoyama," Mic nodded to the line, and Izuku looked around just in time to see that Aoyama did in fact have his belt as he boarded the bus beside Sero. "You'll need this to max out your training though, so better to have it with you."
"Thanks," Izuku said, reducing it to its shortest length and putting it in his pocket. "I promise I'll train hard with it."
"Rockin'!" Mic declared, then reached into his own pocket and pulled out something else. "I also thought this might come in handy."
Mic held out his hand and uncurled his fingers to reveal a large and beautiful pocket knife. The casing was dark wood, carved to look like a bamboo stalk, and it looked to have several attachments. Izuku took it gingerly from Mic's hand, to find that it had a comfortable weight to it, like he could really put some power behind a swing.
"It's beautiful," Izuku said, using a tiny groove to pull out one of the blades, a long and sharp- looking knife. "You'd really let me borrow this?"
"You can keep it," Mic said, then laughed when Izuku looked up at him with wide eyes. "Shinsou told Aizawa you were going to look for one before you got sidetracked at the mall, so I went and picked one up for you."
Izuku stared at him, shocked, then hurriedly put the blade away and tried to hand it back.
"This had to have been expensive!" he protested, but Mic merely pressed it into his hands.
"Not as much as you'd think," he said reassuringly. "Just hold onto it, OK? For me?"
Izuku swallowed the lump in his throat, not sure when that had happened, and nodded. "Thank you."
Mic ruffled his hair, then pointed at the bus. "Better get going, or you'll end up right behind Aizawa!"
Izuku nodded hurriedly, blinking back the wetness in his eyes, and let Shouto tow him away toward the bus.
Shouto knew that Hitoshi had let him sit with Izuku because of the mall incident, and he wasn't sure how to feel about that. He knew Hitoshi was punishing himself, feeling like he didn't deserve to be around the two of them, but he also knew that Hitoshi's only hope to feel better was to make up for it by sticking close to Izuku. Hitoshi, however, could also tell how much Shouto was affected by what had happened. He had been restless since the other two had gotten into trouble without him, eager to be near them both in case of more unexpected danger, and the disastrous trip to visit his mother hadn't soothed that. Hitoshi was feeling useless, but he wanted Shouto to feel useless even less, and that knowledge did funny things to Shouto's heart.
They had not been on the bus very long before Aizawa's instruction to 'stay focused' was lost beneath Kaminari's suggestion to start blasting music, and even Iida's insistence that they all stay seated -- while himself standing up -- went ignored. The bus was filled with uptempo pop music and the chattering of students until Aizawa gave up and went to sleep. Across the aisle Hitoshi struck up a conversation with Tokoyami that even Dark Shadow emerged to join in.
Shouto leaned against Izuku, resting his head on his friend's shoulder as they both read the news on his phone, but Izuku kept darting looks out the window. Izuku had insisted on the window seat so that he could see the bus's rearview mirror, and after about forty-five minutes saw something that made him look deeply apprehensive. He dislodged Shouto's head from his shoulder to look over at Hitoshi, who looked back at him curiously before following Izuku's eyes toward the back of the bus. Finding nothing there he twisted, leaning past Tokoyami to look in the rearview mirror on his side, then paled and sat back in his seat. He had seen it too.
"What is it?" Shouto asked as Izuku sat back in his seat.
"I don't want to alarm everyone," Izuku said, keeping his voice down, "but the 1B bus took a different route to us."
"Is there trouble?" Shouto frowned, turning in his seat to look at Hitoshi again.
"I don't think so," Izuku said, and Shouto felt him shift as he slipped a hand into his pocket, "but I think there was a reason I was allowed to bring my force lance on the bus."
Hitoshi was once again talking to Tokoyami as though nothing was wrong, and Izuku didn't seem
ready to act yet, so Shouto decided he'd better wait as well.
"We'll see," he said resignedly, then turned back and leaned his head against Izuku's shoulder again.
After about an hour the bus pulled into a small rest area, little more than a patch of bare ground on the side of the road. They had been driving alongside mountains for some time now, and just like the road the rest area had a fence separating them from long drop down to the forest below. There was also a fancy black car there, but plenty of room was left for the bus and the unseen driver didn't pay the other occupants any mind. Aizawa told them all to get off the bus and they went gratefully, stretching their stiff limbs as they filed out.
"Finally!" Kaminari exclaimed as Shouto found himself momentarily captivated by the sight of Izuku's lithe arms stretching. "I needed off that bus!"
"This isn't much of a rest area," Kirishima remarked, which Shouto was inclined to agree with. The black car also seemed ominous, and Izuku was eyeing it with equal trepidation.
"No," Jirou agreed. "And where's class B?"
Hitoshi came to stand over by Shouto and Izuku, the three of them watching the black car. The windows were tinted, so they couldn't see inside, but Shouto was willing to bet that it wasn't a coincidence someone else was there.
"You don't really think we stopped here just so you could stretch your legs do you?" Aizawa asked, sounding vaguely disappointed in them.
The rest of the class went quiet, clearly having been caught off guard by Aizawa's discontent. Shouto glanced at his teacher to find him looking more bored than angry. Not a threatening sort of displeasure then. Before he could look back at the car he heard the doors open and a female voice speak.
"Heya Eraser!" came a cheerful purr from behind him, and Shouto turned to see two women -- no, heroes -- standing beside the open doors of the car.
"Long time no see," Aizawa said, but Shouto kept his focus on the two newcomers.
"Your feline fantasies are here!" called the hero in the pink dress, making a circle with two fingers in her paw-like gloves to peer at the students through. "Say meow!"
"Perfectly cute and catlike girls!" continued her companion, a blonde in a matching blue dress, as her banded tail made shapes in the air.
"You can call us the Wild Wild Pussycats!" they chorused, ending up posed together in what was clearly an incomplete formation.
Shouto's father had made him aware of many of Japan's Pro Heroes. Some of them were industry connections he would need later, but many of them were, in Endeavor's opinion, merely emblematic of what was wrong with modern hero society. Hero teams were a sign of weakness, an inability to handle problems on one's own. Flashy gimmicks and superfluous costume elements were a distraction, meant to boost a hero's reputation rather than their performance. Rescue heroes were cowards, unwilling or unable to face the evils of society in combat.
The Wild Wild Pussycats were guilty of all of these sins, so they had frequently been held up as an example of what to avoid.
"These are the Pro Heroes you'll be working with at the summer training camp," said Aizawa dully, making Shouto smile. He couldn't wait to learn from them.
"They're a four-person hero team who specialize in mountain rescues!" Izuku shouted suddenly, clearly gearing up for a long ramble about their new teachers.
Shouto smiled slightly to himself, charmed as ever by Izuku's passion for heroes. It was always amusing to hear him get lost in a tangent, but it was especially nice to see him so excited his usual mumbling gave way to open gushing. His enthusiasm was, apparently, infections, as Hitoshi piped up next.
"They've been deployed all over Japan for over two hundred rescue missions in various mountainous provinces," Hitoshi recited with a grin, and grinned wider to see Izuku looking at him in delight. "They have a rescue rate of 97% and there's been zero deaths in the area where they're based since they took up residence here."
"Always nice to meet fans!" Pixie-Bob giggled, looking between Hitoshi and Izuku with a hand held demurely to her face.
"This wouldn't be the kitten you've been telling us about, would it Eraser?" Mandalay said, looking at Hitoshi pointedly.
Hitoshi blushed cutely, looking at Aizawa in alarm.
"Everyone, say hello," Aizawa instructed instead of answering her. "Hello, nice to meet you!" chorused the class.
Mandalay went to the fence. "We own this whole stretch of land out here, everything you can see," she said, indicating the forested hills beyond the cliff. "The summer camp you're staying at is there, at the base of the mountain."
"That's far!" everyone exclaimed.
Suddenly Shouto thought he could guess where this was going.
"Then why did we stop all the way out here?" Uraraka asked innocently.
"I'm afraid we both know the answer to that," said Tsu in apprehension.
"That can't be right," said Satou, shaking his head with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
As realization spread through the rest of the student and a stampede started for the bus, Shouto turned his attention to the cliff. They would clearly be made to get to camp through the woods, which would mean starting from the base of the cliff. That drop was at least a few hundred feet. How were they going to get down?
"You should have guessed, students," said Aizawa loudly, and suddenly Shouto felt the ground beneath his feet begin to shift. "The training camp has already begun."
The dirt of the rest area began to pitch and roll, creating a giant wave of earth that quickly swept the students over the fence and down toward the ground below. Shouto found his descent was slowed by the dirt surrounding him, and he ended up landing on his feet, completely unharmed. The soft ground he had touched down on firmed up almost immediately beneath his feet, and he looked around to see Hitoshi and Izuku pushing themselves up from the inelegant heaps they had
fallen into along with the rest of the class.
"Good news!" called Mandalay's voice, and Shouto looked up to see her leaning over the fence to shout down to the students. "Since this is private land you can use your quirks as much as you want to! You've got three full hours. You should be able to make it to the facility in that time. That is if you can get through the Beast's Forest!"
Shouto and the other students turned back to the wall of trees. The space between them was dark as night, even though the sun was shining above them. It would be an unpleasant trudge to get to the base of the mountain from here before lunch, but it would be doable.
"Why do we keep falling for Aizawa's little tricks?" Jirou demanded as she picked herself up.
"I guess there's no use complaining," Kirishima sighed, brushing dust off his clothes. "Might as well get going."
Hitoshi turned to Izuku. "Got any ideas how we could-"
He was interrupted by a loud, low growling that elicited several gasps and noises of alarm from the class. All eyes immediately turned to the woods, but it was impossible to see into the gloom. Then, from one of the larger gaps in the trees, a head emerged. It was massive, as big an an elephant and approximately that high off the ground, with four big tusks and teeth bared in a snarl.
"We're all gonna die!" Sero and Kaminari screamed.
"Please calm yourself my giant friend!" called Kouda, running forward to meet the creature with arms outstretched. "You don't wanna hurt them!"
The beast roared and took a menacing step forward, its foot coming down so hard that Kouda was knocked off his feet. Apparently it wasn't going to listen.
"Hold on a minute!" shouted Izuku, and Shouto barely had time to look to the side before Izuku was running forward ahead of the group.
For a moment it looked hopeless. Izuku was a fraction of his opponent's size, charging at the behemoth like a mouse facing down a lion. Shouto felt his quirk rebel against his control, his power itching like ice crystals beneath his skin to throw up a frozen barrier in front of Izuku, when suddenly the force lance extended from his hand to reach up to the creature's face. It sparked, the taser sending electricity outward from the point of contact, and with a spreading blackness and a smell of scorched earth the creature stopped moving.
Shouto sighed in relief, then smiled. He should know better than to doubt Izuku by now.
"Not bad Midoriya!" called Kirishima appreciatively. "You showed that thing who's boss!"
"Is it dead?" Sero asked, stepping cautiously forward.
"It was never alive," Izuku said. He poked the beast's nose with his extended force lance, and a large chunk of it fell off. A dirt clod. "It's Pixie-Bob's quirk."
"It probably won't be the only one," Hitoshi said, shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand to try and see farther into the woods.
Sure enough there was a rumbling from the forest, and as Shouto watched a few yards into the trees part of the ground began to take shape. Another creature was coming to life.
"Shouto, stop it before it gets out!" Izuku shouted.
Ice spread from Shouto's right foot toward the creature almost without conscious thought, creeping along its half-formed body before it could disconnect from the ground. It screeched like the flying Nomu had, appropriate for a beast with what looked like wings, but it couldn't fully separate.
"Yaoyorozu!" Izuku turned to the Class President, who turned sharply to face him. "We need metal stakes connected to each other by metal wires, something we can drive into the ground in a wide area!"
"Sure," Yaoyorozu said, hurriedly unbuttoning her shirt and beginning to pull long copper spikes out of her stomach.
"Everybody spread them out in a circle!" Izuku went on, with an impressive sort of command to his voice. "Once they're in place stand on the tree roots, away from the ground! Kaminari, you stand
in the middle and send electricity through the wires into the spikes! Only use about a third of your strength, don't overload yourself!"
The others hastened to obey. Within seconds the spikes were driven into the ground in a circle around Kaminari, who held onto the place where the wires connected. Everyone stood on the bases of the trees, making sure not to touch bare ground. Kaminari's hair stood on end as he sent lightning through the wires, and the scorched earth smell was back as a blackened area emerged around him.
While this had been going on the dirt monster had been struggling, screeching to the sky as it tried to extricate itself from the earth. As soon as the crackle of electricity died down it went quiet, and Shouto looked over to see that it had gone still.
"The electricity interrupts Pixie-Bob's quirk through the ground," Yaoyorozu realized, eyes wide and impressed.
"How smart!" Iida cried, adjusting his glasses.
"No time!" Izuku replied, jumping down off his tree root and taking off into the forest at a run. "We've got to get as far as we can before it wears off! Pull up those stakes, we're probably gonna need 'em again!"
Immediately the entire class mobilized, running to pick up the stakes and then booking it off into the woods after Izuku. Shouji created a handful of dupli-arms with eyeballs on the ends to keep a lookout for more monsters, but most of them just sprinted as fast as they could in the direction they'd been given. It was about twenty minutes of nonstop running, tripping over tree roots and hauling each other up to keep going, before Shouji called that another monster was taking shape. Shouto froze it in place and they repeated their lightning show, stopping their pursuer in the ground and taking off again.
They did this two more times, stopping to rest only when they had to stand on tree roots, before disaster struck. As a few students began to gather up the stakes Kaminari made no move to help them, and instead wandered vaguely to one side, bumping into Satou. Satou had been carrying the stakes for the most part, as he was the biggest with the largest amount of room in his arms, and he dropped his armload when Kaminari walked into him.
"Kaminari?" Sero said, but there was a note of dread in his voice that said he knew what had happened.
Kaminari giggled in response, giving a double thumbs up to no one in particular. He had short circuited himself.
"What do we do now?" Jirou whined. "He won't run like this, and we can't stop Pixie-Bob's quirk without him!"
"Hitoshi!" Izuku shouted, turning to him without a wasted second. "Brainwash Kaminari and see if you can snap him out of it, like you did with Stain's quirk!"
It wasn't an idea Izuku had voiced before, but it wouldn't often be relevant these days what with Kaminari's new focus on precision works. Still, they were in a position to try almost anything.
"Kaminari!" Hitoshi said sharply.
Kaminari giggled again, but it was enough. His eyes went blank white, and he stilled.
"Stop being dumb!" Hitoshi instructed, obviously not sure what to say. "Go back to normal!"
Kaminari gasped as he was let go, then blinked at Hitoshi with clear, present eyes. It seemed Hitoshi's quirk was powerful enough to circumvent even the physical drawbacks of other quirks, just like he'd helped Shouto break through his mental block. Shouto had nearly worked past his self-imposed limits thanks to Hitoshi's help, so it was unsurprising he would be able to do as much for others.
"Hey!" Kaminari said excitedly. "I'm back!"
"Keep going!" Yaoyorozu called as she resumed pulling up stakes and handing them to Satou. "Shinsou, Kaminari, you two stay together!"
Kaminari seized Hitoshi's hand and began to drag him along, heedless of the way Hitoshi stumbled in his wake. Shouto felt himself bristling at the sight. He didn't see how that was quite what Yaoyorozu had meant.
They ran for what felt like hours. There didn't seem to be any end to the forest, no breaks or changes in scenery they could appreciate, and no summer camp in sight. They had no way of knowing how close they were getting to the base of the mountain, so they could do nothing but keep running. The stops they had to make to keep the dirt monsters at bay seemed to grow less frequent as they went, until Shouto could swear they'd been running for nearly an hour without a break. He was used to testing his endurance, but he was pushing his limits, and so were the rest of the class if their labored breathing and stumbling steps were any indication. He didn't even know how close it was getting to noon, because the tops of the trees completely obscured the sky.
After the longest stretch of time yet without an attack, once they were all gasping for breath and in danger of passing out, a light came through the trees up ahead. It looked like an open place, maybe a clearing or a break in the woods, and they pushed eagerly forward for a look at the sky. They had to have some reference point, some indication of how close they were getting. Shouto stumbled forward, putting one foot in front of the other by pure momentum, until it felt more like he was falling than running, and stepped out into the clearing.
Directly in front of him, across a wide open space of packed earth connected to a dirt road, was a building marked with a clear branding symbol containing a pawprint. Standing in front of it were Mandalay and Aizawa, with Pixie-Bob a little closer to the woods. They had reached the summer training camp.
Hitoshi collapsed to his knees and then to all fours as his classmates emerged from the forest around him. A few of them cheered halfheartedly, but most of them simply fell exhausted to the ground. Some of the girls stayed upright by leaning on each other. Uraraka, who had apparently been periodically using her quirk to go faster, saw the camp and then immediately turned and threw up into a bush. Sero went courteously to hold her hair back, but his eyes were dropping dangerously, and it looked like he might faint at any moment.
The sound of heavy breathing came from somewhere above and to the left of him, and Hitoshi recognized it as Izuku's. They had trained together so much that Hitoshi could identify the panting breaths of either of his friends by now. He looked up to see Izuku leaning on his force lance like a walking stick, shaky and weak but determinedly upright.
"What was our time?" Izuku asked breathlessly.
"Two hours and forty-five minutes," Mandalay said, not looking particularly happy about it. She seemed almost worried. "It's just now 12:15, so you're right on time."
Hitoshi and a few of the others sighed. At least this meant they would get lunch. Groaning, he pushed himself to his feet beside Izuku, and Shouto wandered up on his other side, patchy frost gathering across the right half of his body. They were all beat.
Closer to the class than Aizawa and Mandalay, Pixie-Bob began to meow enthusiastically. "I didn't think you guys would make it!" she chirped, unbridled glee sparkling in her eyes. "You did much better against my dirt monsters than I thought you would! Especially . . ."
She reached out a hand, her claws extended as though to encompass an area from her own perspective, which seemed to include Hitoshi for some reason.
". . . the five of you!" she finished excitedly. "It seems like you've had quite a bit of experience!"
Hitoshi glanced to the side, to see that those closest to him and Izuku were Shouto, Kaminari and Yaoyorozu. No one else was near their little cluster, so she had to mean them.
"I call dibs on these kittens!" Pixie-Bob shouted, crouching as though to launch herself at the students. "I'll-"
"I think you'll have to fight Eraser for that purple kitten," Mandalay laughed, "and possibly the green one too."
Pixie-Bob turned to the other two adults with a frown. Hitoshi noticed that, despite Mandalay's smile, Aizawa didn't look amused. He felt his face heating up, and could not for the life of him will the feeling down.
Hitoshi was familiar with the Wild Wild Pussycats. When you were a kid looking for heroes to look up to, those with mental quirks that weren't some kind of telekinesis were thin on the ground. Mandalay's telepathy quirk was useful for giving instructions to lots of people trapped in a disaster, but she also used it to great effect against villains, little as she ran into them. Hitoshi's favorite hero had always been Eraserhead, but Mandalay and her team had also been a great source of inspiration to him. To know that they were also familiar with his reputation was . . . something.
"The green one is Mic's," Aizawa said tonelessly. "But you'll still have to fight for him."
"Hmph!" Pixie-Bob harumphed, crossing her arms over her chest. "A mother should always be ready to fight for her litter!"
"Speaking of kids!" Izuku piped up, presumably to stop the situation from getting any more awkward than it already was. "I've been wondering since we got here, who is that kid?"
He pointed, and Hitoshi followed his finger to a little boy standing by the building, some ways away from Mandalay and Aizawa. Hitoshi hadn't noticed him there, but he did look familiar, and with some surprise Hitoshi realized he'd been at the rest area too. He was wearing a red baseball cap with yellow horns protruding from it, though whether they were his horns or part of the hat Hitoshi couldn't tell. He glowered at the students, his expression sullen and annoyed, like he very much wanted them all to go away.
"This little guy?" Mandalay said cheerfully, clearly pleased for an excuse to introduce him. "He's my cousin's son who lives with us now. Don't be shy Kouta! Say 'hi' to everyone! You're going to be around them for the next week."
Kouta said nothing, his sullen expression completely unchanged.
Izuku seemed to mistake his annoyance for shyness, and walked up to him with a friendly smile, tucking away his force lance as he went. Shouto seemed as wary of this course of action as Hitoshi felt, and trailed after Izuku anxiously.
"Hey there, my name's Midoriya," Izuku said, bending his knees to address the little boy. "I'm from the UA High School hero course. It's nice to meet you!"
He held out his hand, eyes closed in a friendly expression, but that just meant he didn't see Kouta draw back his fist. Shouto saw it though, and he yanked Izuku back in time to avoid the punch the kid aimed at his pelvis.
"Yikes kid!" Hitoshi shouted as Izuku stumbled back, falling spectacularly into Shouto's arms. Shouto stared down at Izuku in wide-eyed concern, which Hitoshi suspected was all that kept him from retaliation.
"The last thing I want is to hang with some wannabe heroes!" Kouta shouted, clearly upset that his blow hadn't hit home.
"How old are you?" Shouto asked, finally looking up from Izuku now that he had regained his footing.
Kouta was spared having to answer, and Shouto was spared the chance to respond, by the sound of a vehicle approaching. Hitoshi looked over to find a bus coming down the dirt road toward the camp. He assumed at first that it was their bus, coming to drop off their stuff, but when it stopped just in front of the building the door opened and out stepped Kendo from class B.
"Why are you all lying in the dirt?" she asked as her classmates began to disembark behind her.
"Why are you all on the bus?!" Jirou retorted. "Did you ride all the way here?"
"Yeah?" Kendo blinked. "How did you get here?"
"We ran!" Ashido snapped, then rounded on Aizawa. "You're telling me we had to go through the forest but they got to be driven around like movie stars?!"
"Teacher's prerogative," Aizawa said simply, then turned to go inside. "Lunch is in the cafeteria. You'd better get a move on."
Izuku had the suspicion that the Pussycats hadn't expected them to make it to lunch.
Food was laid out in the cafeteria like it was meant to be a feast, but there was barely enough for the two classes to eat together. Mandalay and Pixie-Bob were constantly bringing out new dishes, and if his hunch was correct there was someone in the back still cooking like they hadn't expected to have to yet. Added to Mandalay's obvious apprehension when they'd arrived within the time limit given to them, the whole thing smacked of the Pussycats not being ready to entertain the entire group at once.
"Do you get the feeling they expected us to fail?" Hitoshi asked from his right side as they waited for more rice.
"They certainly don't seem prepared for so many of us," Shouto agreed on his left.
"I think class A was supposed to be here in time for dinner," Izuku speculated, snagging one of the last dumplings on the serving platter. "Class B was supposed to be eating lunch alone, and getting enough food that they wouldn't be hungry for dinner. Then we'd get here at the end of the day and more food would be ready for us."
"You threw a wrench in their plans though," Shouto said, smiling a pleased little smile. Izuku swallowed his bite of food and gave Shouto a look. "All of us did," he corrected.
"One thing's for sure though," said Hitoshi fondly. "They definitely weren't counting on Izuku Midoriya."
Thankfully more rice arrived just then, so Izuku didn't have to think of an answer. "Hey wait, you got meat over there?" demanded Kirishima from another table.
"Yeah!" Pixie-Bob snapped, looking a little haggard, then smiled. "It's like you guys haven't eaten in a week or something. Anyway, today's the only time we'll be doing this for you, so make sure you kids enjoy it!"
"Thank you!" Kirishima and Kaminari said in unison before going back to their food.
"I wonder what we'll be doing for meals after this," Izuku said idly, staring after Pixie-Bob. "Can't be worse than running through the woods all day," Hitoshi grumbled.
The Wild Wild Pussycats' camp also had a hot spring, and after lunch the students were encouraged to use it, as they apparently wouldn't have time any other day they were here. Space was limited though, so only one class would be using them at a time; there were few enough girls that they could all go in together, but the boys would have to stagger their times. Kendo and, strangely, Monoma insisted that the class A boys have their turn first, as they'd been running for the last few hours, and they all washed up before going to soak in the steaming pool.
"You OK Hitoshi?" Izuku asked, about five minutes after they'd all settled in to soak. Hitoshi had gotten very red in that amount of time.
"F-fine," Hitoshi stuttered, looking straight ahead and determinedly not at his two friends.
Izuku sank lower in the water. He didn't think he was so unpleasant to look at that Hitoshi couldn't at least focus on Shouto. Suddenly Izuku felt warm skin on the back of his neck, to find that Shouto had laid his arm across Izuku so he could reach Hitoshi. His fingers brushed the back of Hitoshi's
neck, playing with the small hairs there, and the water rippled as Hitoshi shivered.
"You should get out if you're too hot," Shouto cautioned. "You don't want to overheat and pass out."
"It's nothing!" Hitoshi said hurriedly, even though his face was even redder now, looking down at the water.
"Let me try something," Shouto suggested. "Come here." "What?!" Hitoshi choked, startled.
Shouto shifted in the water so that he was facing the other two. He pulled Hitoshi a little closer to Izuku with the hand on his neck, then reached out over Izuku's front with his right hand to take hold of Hitoshi's chin. Gently he guided Hitoshi's face until it was turned toward him, the three of them crowded in close together. Then Shouto released him and held out his right hand, palm-up. He blew air directly into Hitoshi's face so that it skated over his upturned hand, and Izuku could feel as it passed over him that it was pleasantly cool in contrast to the steam from the hot spring.
Hitoshi, paradoxically, went even more red than before.
"It didn't work," Shouto remarked as he drew back, sounding mildly perturbed. "I think I'll get out!" Hitoshi squeaked, hurriedly climbing out of the pool.
Izuku watched him go in disappointment, not sure what had just happened. It had seemed to him a nice thing for Shouto to try. Certainly a fascinating application of his quirk, especially given the precision of control it would require.
"Did I do something wrong?" Shouto asked, also watching Hitoshi go back inside. "I'm not sure," Izuku admitted. "I don't think so, but-"
"Guys, check this out!" said Kaminari in a stage whisper, and Izuku turned to see him also out of the hot spring, standing over by the wooden wall separating their bath from the girls'.
"What is it?" asked Sero, reclining with his elbows held carefully out of the water.
"There's a hole in the fence!" Kaminari hissed. "I think we can see through to the other side!"
"Kaminari!" Izuku admonished, scrambling up and out of the water to pad quickly over to the fence. "Don't do that!"
"Just a little peek!" Kaminari insisted, grinning as he put his eye to the hole.
Izuku picked up speed despite the slickness of the stones, sure he wasn't going to reach Kaminari before he violated the entire year's worth of girls at once, but just as he was getting close the whole wall shuddered. Kaminari yelped, pulling away hurriedly and clapping a hand to his face.
"What the hell?!" he demanded. "I think I got a splinter!"
"Before you become a hero, you should learn how to be a good human!" came a childlike voice from above, and Izuku looked up to see Kouta standing on top of the wall, glaring down at Kaminari.
"Seriously you little brat!" Kaminari glared with half his face. "You could have put my eye out!"
"And it would have been your own fault," Izuku told him sternly.
"Thanks so much Kouta babe!" came Ashido's voice from the other side of the wall, and Kouta turned toward the sound. "We owe you one!"
Whatever Kouta saw on the other side of the wall made him yell, then jerk backward sharply. As though in slow motion Izuku saw him lurch, wobble and lose his footing, tumbling head first down from his perch. Izuku leaped forward, barely managing to position himself correctly before Kouta fell straight into his arms.
"You OK?" Izuku asked urgently, kneeling down so that he could place the boy on his feet.
Kouta didn't respond, and when Izuku looked his eyes were closed and his face was slack. He was unconscious.
Hizashi made his way to Nezu's office at the end of the day. It had been quiet at UA without the students, almost eerily so, and Hizashi tended to work better with some level of noise. He had almost given up and gone to work at his agency, but a lot of what he needed to get done was school related, not hero work, and he did want to have this chat with Nezu eventually. As soon as he received a text from Shouta that the students were safely settled at the training camp he did a quick check of his software and went straight to the Principal's Office.
"Something on your mind?" Nezu asked as Hizashi entered without knocking, then closed the door behind himself. The principal was seated at his desk with a cup of tea, but there was no accompanying cup on the other side. Nezu hadn't anticipated this visit.
"There is," Hizashi said, coming to stand before the desk.
When Hizashi didn't take a seat Nezu cocked his head to the side curiously. "This must be dire." "I don't know that yet," Hizashi told him, "but I suspect it might be."
"Explain," Nezu instructed.
"I think Sir Nighteye may have gone off the rails," Hizashi said bluntly. "His behavior is erratic and irrational, he's taking a greater than reasonable interest in the affairs of a hero course first year, and he exhibited a reckless disregard that student's safety. I want to open an investigation into his conduct, quietly if possible, and know I have your support if I should find something more nefarious."
There was a pause while Nezu considered this. Then he set down his cup of tea.
"Interesting," he said carefully. "May I conclude that the hero course first year in question is Midoriya?"
"Did you deduce that because it's me?" Hizashi wondered. "Or because you know something?"
"I know lots of things," Nezu said vaguely. "Some of them are things that would explain Nighteye's behavior. Some of them are things you don't know about Nighteye's behavior. Some of them would trouble you more than what you already know."
"What are you getting at?" Hizashi asked.
Nezu picked up his cup and took another sip. "I don't like it when other heroes encourage my students to trust them more than me," he said. "I especially don't like it when those heroes go so far as to monitor my students' email and intercept their correspondences with me."
"He did what?!" Hizashi shouted, then hurriedly lowered his voice. "Nighteye did that? He's been monitoring Izuku's email? What did he intercept?"
"The email the wasn't supposed to reach me was a request to meet," Nezu told him. "It gave no details about the subject of that meeting, but I have my suspicions. I understand his interest in Midoriya, better than you do at least, but he's taking this too far."
"He's impetuous," Hizashi goaded. "He can't act like this."
"He can be impetuous with his own people," Nezu countered. "Not with my students. What did you have in mind?"
"I want to confront him," Hizashi said immediately. "He underestimates me. He'll be more likely to say something incautious when arguing with me. I want to push his buttons and see what bubbles to the top."
"You're not worried about driving him into a corner?" Nezu raised an eyebrow.
"Midoriya's at camp with the other first years," Hizashi told him. "His work study student, Toogata, is at summer training with his own class. They're both out of the way and, theoretically, unreachable. He can't get at them, and even if he could, I have a contingency plan."
"Oh?" Nezu prompted.
"I placed a tracking device on Midoriya," Hizashi informed him. "It's unobtrusive, but he'll keep it with him. If he leaves camp I'll know, and I'll be keeping a closer eye on him from now on."
"Good," said Nezu, nodding approvingly. "I'm keeping an eye on Toogata, so don't worry about him. See what you can get out of Nighteye, and make sure you have a record."
"Yes sir," Hizashi said, bowing his head respectfully, then straightened and turned to go.
"Yamada," Nezu said suddenly, making him pause. "Be careful. Sir Nighteye is clever, and more determined than you know. He has very little to lose these days."
"Don't worry about me," Hizashi said, letting a grin very unlike his trademark Present Mic smile spread across his face. "He doesn't know how determined I am either."