Notes: Bleh! had alot of things going on, hence why didn't even begin writing this chapter until 4 days ago. after a mix of personal life drama getting cleaned up, dealt with being extremely sick for several days as well so that was fun. but now... Enjoy!

"DAMN IT!"

BOOOM!

Bakugo yelled out in pain and frustration as he shoved his hands into a barrel of scolding water, feeling his hands burning as he yanked them out and pointed his palms to the sky and unleashed a massive explosion once again. Gritting his teeth, he shoved them back into the near boiling water as his hands burned. "AAAAHHHHH!"

"Hahaha! You are a really loud one, aren't you?!"

Bakugo's brow twitched to the high pitched voice behind him, looking back to see a green haired woman with the same matching outfit as Mandalay and Pixie Bob but in yellow. "Shut up, cat girl! Let me do my thing!" he yelled at the third pussycat member.

"Hahaha! I have to check on all you little guys to make sure you follow your training!" The woman named Ragdoll giggled at his frustrated face. "You need to expand the sweat glands in your hands to lower the strain on your arms!"

"I know already! You told me three times. Damn it!" Bakugo growled and ripped his hands out of the water and released another large blast into the sky. "I know what the hell I'm doing!"

Laughing at his frustration, Ragdoll turned around and watched as the other students of class 1A were straining all across the mountain side. Her quirk Search observed every student as they strained with the training they were given specifically made for each of them, focused directly on what was their weaknesses to push past. Some like Sero and Mina had to continuously release tape and acid to maximize the amount they could produce, to force themselves to keep going even when they felt strain on their bodies. She had Kirishima taking strikes from Ojiro to simultaneously build up his hardening durability and his tail strength. She watched as Tenya burst around the mountain, pushing his legs to the utmost limit with no break to build his engine endurance.

All around, the students grunted, yelled and cried as they strained themselves to push their quirks to the limit. And it was only seven in the morning, having only been doing this for a little more than an hour. She grinned to herself as she looked past Momo, the girl stuffing her face with food as she continued to create items non stop to boost her bodies production of lipids to see the class B students straining as well. In their section, Mandalay walked through the groups as they pushed themselves. The vine girl Shiozaki continuously released her vines outward, sweating as she had never done so many at one time while Juzo softened the mountainside in front of him, his hands shaking as he expanded the range of his softening as far as he possibly could before re hardened it.

"All of you can feel the strain in your body. That is your quirks feeling their limits tested." Mandalay's voice rang out to every student in the area, only it was inside their head. Her telepathy quirk allowed her to speak inside of all of their minds, giving perfect access to all of them instantly. "Your quirks are like muscles. The more they are strained, the more they will grow. We are here to make sure you are pushed past your limits so you can get stronger."

Panting, Kendo wiped her forehead as she readied herself again. She stood facing Tetsutetsu in his hardened state, his own face scrunched from strain before he chuckled. "Come on, we got this!" he yelled and hit his fists together.

Grinning, Kendo's hands expanded out to their giant form. "Alright, here I go!" she ran forward and slammed her right fist into Tetsutetsu's chest, both he and her wincing. Her from the pain of hitting raw steel, and he from actually feeling his body vibrate from the hard strike. They both refused to stop though, the steel teen acting as a punch dummy for her to build the strength of his friends fists up while also enhancing his quirks durability. On and on this went on, the grunts and groans of every student ringing out through the mountainside.

"Come on! I don't hear those muscles tearing!" the final Pussycat member yelled out at his group of students. Unlike the three woman in the group, this was a huge man in brown, his bulging muscles seemingly going to rip through the pussycat outfit he wore. "Push those bodies!"

"Yes, Mr. Tiger!" the group of students yelled out as they continued their body work out. Izuku was among this group of mostly class B students, all focused purely on muscle strength building. What looked like normal body workouts was… well, normal workouts. The difference was the pacing they were put at was already making them sore, and Tiger was not about to let them slow down one bit.

"People usually overlook physical workouts if they have quirks that do all the fighting for them. But never forget the body is base of everything, especially hand to hand fighters like yourselves! Rip those muscles and make them stronger!" Tiger screamed right into Izuku's ear, making the green haired teen yelp.

"YES SIR!" he screamed out, afraid he would be hit into another tree if he didn't keep the pace up, punching his hand in the air just like everyone there.

Walking on the outside of the students, the class B teacher Vlad King stood alongside Aizawa as they overlooked the teenagers across the mountain. The man in red crossed his arms and gave a grunt of satisfaction to the sight. "It seems to me this was a good choice to have this camp." Vlad said.

"Don't get too happy yet. It's only the first day. We won't see real results yet." Aizawa grunted, earning a raised eyebrow from his fellow teacher.

"You don't look too excited about this, let alone anything at all."

"I'm a realist, that is the difference. The fact is with what has happened recently, these kids need to push it to the next level, and this is exactly what will get them there."

"Speaking of things happening recently…" Vlad looked around the students, noticing the two of the stars from the sports festival weren't among them. "You have two students not here."

Sighing, Aizawa rubbed his head and looked towards the mountain behind the students, hearing a low rumble in the distance. "Those two needed a little extra room for their training."

Alone on their side of the mountain, Katara and Shoto stood across from each other in the clearing. Both of them panted, sweat dripping down their foreheads as they readied themselves. Swallowing, Katara raised her hands and nodded. "Let's do it again." she huffed out.

Shoto wiped his brow and nodded back. "Alright. Be ready."

Leaning down, Shoto's right hand touched the ground and unleashed a massive stream of ice outward right towards the waterbender. Gritting her teeth, Katara braced her body and slammed her hands to stop the attack, her feet scraping across the dirt as the ice kept coming. Shoto's right side gathered up frost once again as he continued releasing ice, shaking as he pushed through the cold and kept going. Katara growled out and tightened her arms, pressing back as she felt the ice grinding to a halt. Panting, she immediately bended it into water and pulled the large river of water back around her before launching it forward.

Watching the water come, Shoto glared and activated his left side and unleashed a scorching wall of fire out and collided with her water. A loud hiss rang through the air as their attacks collided, steam rising up in the air as they pushed on and on. After a few moments, Shoto's left side warmed his chilled body, only for the continuing flames to start making his body sweat from the heat. After another eight seconds, they both stopped their attacks as Katara ran out of water, giving both of them a moment to breathe. Now that he was warm, Shoto's right foot stepped forward once more to release another massive stream of ice, and once more Katara did everything she could to stop this once again.

Over and over the pair of them continued this routine, unleashing wave after wave of large scale attacks at each other. For Shoto, this was to maximize the amount of ice and fire he was able to use, with the opposite side either warming or cooling his body to counter the effects. For Katara, it was to force herself to bend more than she had ever done. Each stream of ice Shoto released was not as large as his mountain sized glacier he used at the festival, but it was certainly bigger than the other attacks he used against her then. Already Katara was feeling her arms straining every time she went to stop his attack, never having to stop so many large scale attacks. Even her training back in the north pole never reached near this caliber of power.

And they had only just started this morning.

Preparing to halt another attack, Katara waved her hands and encased her feet in ice. With the added support, she kept herself from being pushed back despite the immense strain she felt. Yelling out, she quickly spun around and bended the ice into water before unleashing the immense wave back at Shoto. After several more engages, she dropped her hands onto her knees, panting hard as she looked up to him.

"So… did you… expect this at camp?" Katara got out between breaths.

Shoto gave a small shake of his head. "Honestly, I had no… Idea what to expect."

Chuckling, Katara dropped back onto her butt and groaned out. "I need… give me a minute."

Not one to argue, Shoto lowered his hands to his knees as he panted, looking down to the sweat falling off his hot arm. "This is… much more fire than I can remember using before."

"That is how we get better though…" Katara leaned back on her hands and looked out to the valley. She noticed Shoto walked over and took a seat next to her, admiring the view as well. "If this is what they are making us do everyday, I don't think I can keep up."she chuckled.

Shoto sat silent for a moment as he looked back down to his left hand, feeling his body beginning to cool down finally. While he had grown used to feeling the side effects of his cold side, he still wasn't very used to the negative effects of fire. Clenching his fist, he took another deep breath and closed his eyes. "It's still feels strange to use his power." he quietly said.

Katara looked over at him, frowning when she saw the disappointed look on his face. She could tell he was still struggling with the turmoil of his grudge with his father, reaching over and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't forget what I told you before. You get to choose who you want to be. No matter what he wants, you are the one to make your own destiny."

Soaking her words in, Shoto felt his stomach churning as he thought back to his old life. Things that had happened that he still hasn't told Katara or anyone else for that manner. He gritted his teeth at the idea of revealing those memories, worried how someone like would think afterward. As he sat there though, he felt her hand rubbing over his shoulder, seemingly warming his worried mind. Without thinking, he reached up and gripped her hand with his own and gave it a light squeeze.

"Thank you, Katara…"

While she felt good for comforting him, Katara couldn't keep from blushing from his warm hand embracing her own, taking a breath to keep herself calm before standing up. Smiling she squeezed his own hand and pulled up. "Don't thank me yet. We aren't done training here."

Giving a small chuckle, Shoto pulled up against her hand and stood up after her. "You're right. Let's do it."

Nodding, Katara walked back across the clearing and stretched her arms. She took another deep breath and faced her good friend, raising her hands in front of her in preparation for another round. "Alright then. Let's keep them just as big as you did before. Let's not let our training we did go to waste."

By the time dinner had arrived, nearly every student at the camp was aching in pain and agony. It only made it seem that much more as they had to make their own dinner as well, the teachers and pussycats only leaving raw ingredients on the tables outside for them. While some simply cried out begging others to cook for them, a good number took the initiative and jumped into it. Katara thankfully had quite a bit of experience when it came to cooking herself, meaning she had no trouble getting her stuff going. As she did, she couldn't help but giggle as she watched Shoto trying to cut carrots, the pieces going from thin slices to half pieces on the tray.

"Wow, looks like some one needs practice cooking." She teased, causing Shoto to frown. "Have you never cooked before?"

"No, I haven't…" Shoto grumbled. "My sister usually did the cooking at home."

Laughing, Katara put her own vegetables down and took the knife from him. "Here, I can finish that and you can get the fire going."

Grunting, Shoto gave a sigh in defeat and used his quirk to ignite the small stove fire they were sharing with Tenya, Uraraka and Tsu. The five of them worked together until they made their large pot of curry, grabbing a bowl of it and some rice made by Momo and her group. The moment they sat down, the powerful aroma of the food was already making their mouths water. The moment they tasted it, however, all of them nearly passed out from the wondrous relief they felt.

"Wow, this is really hitting the spot!" Uraraka said as she swallowed another bite. "This is the best curry ever!"

"This is really good. Katara you really know how to cook." Tsu nodded in approval as she relished in the taste.

"Indeed! Katara, your culinary skills are quite exquisite!" Tenya added as he wolfed down his plate of food. Katara laughed at his seemingly starving state, not feeling far behind him either. As she enjoyed the food as well, she looked over to Shoto who was also scarfing food down.

"You seem to be liking it too." She teased, making him cough for a moment.

"It is good. Thank you." He quietly said before smiling. "You did well making this."

While it was a simple praise, Katara couldn't help but feel especially happy to his words. Immediately her mind went back to what she and the other girls talked about in the hot tub last night, causing her cheeks to warm slightly. Sensing a gaze on her, Katara looked over to see both Tsu and Uraraka looking at her with raised brows, obviously seeing her pink cheeks. She quickly looked over to Shoto and was thankful he was focused back on eating, looking back to see Uraraka with a big grin on her face. Frowning, Katara could tell she was thinking "go on, do it!".

Looking to the table next to them, Katara saw Izuku sitting there with Momo staring at her as-

"Woah…" she mumbled, watching as Momo devoured her plate like there was no tomorrow. Izuku's face was also etched in shock, sitting there wide eyed while she shoved in bite after bite into her mouth. After a moment, the creationist must have noticed the look he had on, blushing immensely and looking down and away from him. Sighing, Katara could tell Momo definitely wasn't telling Izuku her feelings right then, meaning she didn't have to either… yet.

After finishing her plate, Katara went to grab some more food. Before she reached the pot however, she was stopped by Aizawa approaching as well. "Katara, after you're done, come and see me in the main building."

"What?" Katara tilted her head in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"Just be there in twenty minutes." Aizawa bluntly stated before turning and walking back towards the open door. The waterbender sat confused for what he wanted, wondering if she had done something wrong. With that on her mind, her appetite had dissipated to concern, setting her plate down and heading after him. She walked by the other tables and made her way around the class B tables as well, glancing over to see another smug look on Monoma's face. Glaring back, she continued past, but couldn't help from noticing him whisper something to his classmates ears.

Immediately her mind went back to the comments he had made before, about people thinking she had something to do with the attacks. While the green haired girl next to him rolled her eyes and went back to eating, the black haired girl stared blankly up to Katara. While that girl did have a dull, expressionless stare, Katara couldn't help but think she was watching her in caution. She could only hope to believe what Kendo told her, that the others didn't believe that lie being spread.

As she walked inside, Katara's eyes widened in surprise when she saw not only Aizawa standing there, but Kendo, Tetsutestsu and Mina on the couch as well. "What's going on?" Katara asked in confusion.

"You came early," Aizawa grunted. "I told you could relax a little more before you joined us."

"You didn't tell me anything what was going on." Katara frowned and looked down to the others. "What's going on?"

"You aren't here for me. You are here for them."

"Hey Katara…" Kendo gave a small wave. "What's up?"

"What up." Tetsutetsu chuckled and waved as well.

"This is interesting. You've never done it on me yet!" Mina giggled in excitement.

"It's pretty cool actually." Tetsutetsu grinned.

"I hope so. I can barely feel my knuckles at this point." Kendo groaned out rubbing her hands.

"Wait…" Katara looked at the three sitting there, noticing the injuries each of them had. Mina's hands were close to raw, her pink hands a light red tone from her acid. Kendo's hands weren't any better, her knuckles and fingers deeply bruised and covered in lacerations. Finally, Tetsutetsu's open shirt revealed his chest and abdomen layered in purple and blue from his own bruises. Now she realized why she was here.

"You're offensive training is done for the night, but don't forget you have your support abilities to work on as well." Aizawa told her. "We can start with these three tonight."

Sighing internally, Katara now saw he simply had her come here to heal them. There was even several bowls of water set on the table behind, frowning she had herself worried before she came here. Chuckling to herself, she walked forward and waved her hands, pulling the water out of one of the bowls and bending it over to herself. "So, you and Kendo got carried away again?" She joked at Tetsutetsu.

The steel teen laughed out while Kendo rolled her eyes but chuckled. "That was an accident that time, alright?" she laughed out, wincing as she tried stretching her heavily damaged hands.

Laughing, Katara covered her hands and prepared to walk forward, only for Aizawa to chime in. "You will need more than that to do them." he said.

Katara raised her eyebrow at his statement. "I know. I will use it on whoever is next."

"There is no next… you are going to heal them all at the same time."

Katara's mouth fell open in shock at his request. "What? But… I've never tried healing more than one person at a time."

"And that is the point of this camp. If you don't push yourself and strain your abilities, they will not build and get stronger. So you can practice here with healing all of them together."

"Uh, is that a good idea?" Mina questioned. "What if it's not safe for her?"

"Yeah… it seems kinda crazy to just test it. I mean what about us?" Tetsutetsu shrugged in worry.

While two of them were unsure, Kendo however took a breath and gave a smile. "I trust her."

"I…" while she was hesitant, Katara knew he was right and had to push herself. She wanted to help people, and what if there was time when she had to heal multiple people in a very short time? This was the way to figure it out if she could do it. Giving a nod, she waved her hands again and summoned the rest of the water over to her. Forming it into a single large ball, she took a deep breath and focused her energy into the sphere. The water glowed a vibrant blue as she opened her eyes, spreading her hands out and separating it into three smaller balls. She guided them each to the others, placing two of them over the girls hands and the other spreading across Tetsutetsu's chest. Exhaling one last time, Katara activated her healing on all of them.

Immediately, her mind was overwhelmed from three different sources of pain coming in at once. She could sense the burns across Mina's hands, the large bruises littering Tetsutetsu's body, or the harsh injuries covering Kendo's hands flowing into the water. She naturally had the instinct to only focus on one, to make sure it was healed before she went onto someone else. Instead of that, she let her energy flow freely, letting it do it's work and heal all them simultaneously.

Although that was easier said than done.

Sweat formed on her brow as she kept her hands up, splitting her energy into three different people taking much more than she realized. Kendo's hands especially were difficult while doing this, her hands not broken but the bones still had many small fractures throughout. Her training with Recovery Girl certainly was helping, allowing her to increase her strength much further than it was before. But even with that, splitting it like this was proving difficult once again. She continued like this for a few minutes before she felt herself straining, struggling to keep her focus going before she felt her head ache and let her hands fall.

Panting, Katara frowned to herself and looked up to the others. "Sorry, but doing multiple people at once is tricky."

"Wow, that is pretty sweet!" Mina whistled out as she clapped her hands in satisfaction, her palms only a little sensitive now and mostly healed over. Tetsutetsu laughed out and pounded his chest, only some light redness remaining over his body now. And finally, Kendo shifted her fingers back and forth, smiling seeing her once damaged hands could move now.

"Now that is pretty cool, I gotta say." Kendo said in approval, leaving Katara stunned in surprise.

"You… all feel better?" She asked them.

"Pretty good…" Tetsutetsu grunted as he stretched his arms back and forth. "A little tight on the chest but nothing I can't handle!"

"Yeah, I'm good!" Mina chuckled and rubbed her fingers together.

Kendo squeezed her hand several times feeling the joints a little stiff, but fully operational. "A little sore still, but they actually aren't that bad."

"Don't be thinking you are getting more treatment tonight," Aizawa told them all, "You only received this healing since you three were the most physically damaged today. In fact, I was hoping you all didn't fully heal in the first place, since it is beneficial for your body to also heal and grow it's own strength through natural recovery while training. And to you Katara, there will be other students most likely requiring aid everyday, so you will be our fill in Recovery Girl while we are here. That is also part of your training here, so keep your focus."

"Y-yes, sir." Katara stuttered out. She was completely surprised by this plan her teacher had set up. Not only her physical training was prepared for her, but her medical training was being pushed as well.

Nodding, Aizawa took a seat on the couch. "Good. Now all of you finish eating and cleaning up with the others. And Ashido, don't be late for your extra lessons tonight."

Mina's eyes burst open in horror as she gripped her face. "Oh crap, I totally forgot!"

The other three in the room felt a sense of pity, seeing those who failed the final exams had to suffer more classes while being so exhausted from training. While Mina began trembling in horror of what was coming later, Katara and the class B students walked our of the building and back outside. Sitting silently, Aizawa watched curiously as the waterbender had reached her limit, intrigued seeing her "Quirk" struggling to do things.

'It may not be a quirk, but her bending functions much like ours abilities do,' he said internally. 'There are limits to what she can do, and it seems like training will increase her strength. She already has gotten stronger since the beginning of the year…' a small smirk spread across the teachers face. 'Just how far can she grow with this bending of hers?'

After the students woke up from their first night at camp, they once again were made to get up early and head straight to training. While Katara was still not a morning person, surprisingly the week at Endeavor's agency had somewhat stuck with her. Although today… she felt like she could have used a little more sleep, stretching her arms as she faced off with Shoto once again today.

Once more, the pair of them went at it launching powerful attacks at one another, Katara stifling his massive ice attacks before bending it into water and launching back at him. Shoto's fire lit up the area in a bright flash and a wave of heat, causing any nearby students to sweat even more than they already were. Hours went by as the students all pushed themselves harder and harder, all of them feeling their bodies aching as they used their quirks (Or bending) far longer and much more strenuous than they ever had before. After another hour, they heard a loud ring, signaling their lunch break much to their satisfaction.

Panting, Katara wiped her forehead dry as she dropped to her knees, her arms feeling extremely heavy from her exercises she had been practicing. She reached over and rubbed her sore shoulder, shifting it in place before she felt a pop. "Ow…" She mumbled out and looked over to her training partner. Shoto had removed his shirt to keep it from burning up once again, his heavily defined body breathing hard. She felt her breath catch in her chest when she watched his tense muscles flex, looking away as he walked over.

"Time for a break…" he huffed out and offered his hand.

"Y-yeah…" She stuttered in a mix of exhaustion and embarrassment, smiling and taking his hand to stand back up. They walked back towards one of the tables set through the middle of the training area, Shoto slipping his shirt back on and immediately grabbing a water bottle. Soon several others joined their table, attacking whatever food was available to them. Katara grabbed herself one of the sandwiches set up and immediately went at it, feeling satisfied as she felt it go down. "That's better…" she mumbled out.

While everyone was going at the food, Izuku noticed Momo standing back, the creationist looking somewhat green as she clutched her stomach. "H-hey, you look like you aren't doing good. Are you okay?" he asked her.

Momo gave a small shake of her head. "This training is killing my stomach. I don't think I'll eat until tonight…"

"Are you sure?" Izuku asked in concern. He grabbed one of the sandwiches and held it to her. "I think it would be better if-

"Huuurgg!" Momo covered her mouth at the sight of the food, turning and running towards one of the outhouses set up nearby. Izuku and the others all watched in shock as she slammed the door closed behind her, luckily far enough away so the group didn't hear her empty her stomach.

"-You ate something…" Izuku finally got out as he kept his eyes on the bathroom door. He blushed in embarrassment looking back at the others nearby, slowly bringing his hand up and biting the sandwich himself.

"It's okay, Deku…" Uraraka said as she smiled while clutching her own stomach. "You can talk with her later. I think there is something you should discuss."

"Huh?" He looked at her in confusion while blushing. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Oh you know what I- Huuurg!"

"Uraraka?!" Izuku gasped as his other friend gagged and covered her mouth, running to the other outhouse next to Momo's. "Uhhh…"

"I think we should leave them alone for a bit…" Katara suggested, finishing off her water and taking a seat on the ground.

"Y-yeah…" Izuku responded, still blushing to what Uraraka said.

"This is crazy, I didn't think the training camp was going to be this tiring…" Kirishima groaned out and stretched his arms.

"Yeah, tell me about it…" Mina yawned out, feeling drained after having to do those extra classes after everyone went to sleep. She looked over and saw both Sero and Kaminari already passing out during their lunch break, and she wasn't far behind.

"Oh quit complaining, raccoon eyes. You sound like a broken record." Bakugo grumbled and grabbed a sandwich off the table. He hissed when he felt his arms cramp, shaking his shoulders to loosen up.

"You look quite exhausted yourself…" Shoto pointed out, earning a sharp glare from Bakugo.

"Shut it, Icy Hot! I don't need lip from you!"

""Oh shut up for once…" Katara rolled her eyes and took another bite of food. "You are always insulting others to make yourself feel better."

Bakugo bared his teeth and threw his sandwich on the ground. "You wanna say that again, hair loops?!"

"I'll say it whenever I need to," She shot back at him. "Maybe if you learned to quit being a jerk so much, you might actually have fun sometime."

"Fun? I only care about being the greatest hero, hair loops. You could learn a thing or two about that with all the shit happening with you."

"What?" Katara furrowed her brow at his comment. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean if you kept yourself straight, all these people at school wouldn't be calling you a villain and shit."

The group sitting there around the table all stopped eating and turned to the sudden outburst from Bakugo. Katara's mouth fell open in shock from his comment, her hand crushing the bottle in her hand as her blood began to boil. "Now do you want to say that again? You actually think I had something to-

"Oh please, don't give yourself that much credit…" Bakugo scoffed. "After seeing where you are in finals, it's easy to see you're too stupid to have come up with a whole "hidden villain" thing."

"Kachaan!" Izuku gasped out at the insult.

Katara's teeth clenched together in anger at his comment, ready to stand up and get in his face. Before she could however, Shoto was standing in front of her facing Bakugo. His right hand gave off a cold frost as he cast a harsh glare at the explosion teen.

"I think you should get back right now, Bakugo…" Shoto growled out. "Don't even try and say Katara had anything to do with the villain attacks."

"Shoto…" Katara quietly said in surprise, which only earning an eye roll from Bakugo.

"Seems like you weren't listening. I just said she was obviously too stupid for that." Bakugo watched as Shoto's face scrunched up in fury to his comment, a smirk forming on his face as the frost grew larger off Shoto's hand. "What's this? You wanna go again, Icy Hot? I've been waiting for our rematch since the festival."

The two students continued their stare down as the others watched, waiting for one of them to make the first strike. Izuku stood on the side, his body ready to leap in and stop them if he needed to, but a sudden hand on Bakugo's shoulder made him turn to see one of his few friends glaring at him. "Huh? What are you doing" Bakugo questioned.

"That's enough man, alright?" Kirishima grunted. "You don't have to be saying things about her like that."

"What's the matter, Kirishima? I'm just saying the truth."

Kirishima frowned and squeezed his grip tighter. "How about you just let it go, okay? We know Katara didn't do anything, so drop it."

Looking around, Bakugo gave a grimace to all the faces staring at him. He glared past Shoto to see Katara glaring at him as well, grunting before shaking off Kirishima's hand and walking away. "Whatever. Just don't get in my way of my training, got it?"

Watching him stomp away, Shoto let the ice on his hand melt away. His anger didn't dissipate however, feeling his fist still clenched hearing Katara insulted like that. A soft touch to his own shoulder broke his glare, looking see Katara's hand gripping him.

"Thanks for that…" She said to him, "I was a few seconds from shooting him with an ice spike."

"Yeah…" Shoto took a breath to calm himself, knowing she certainly could have handled herself. He just wasn't going to stand by with her insulted like that.

Katara gave him another small rub before she removed her hand from his shoulder, giving a small smile over to Kirishima. "Thank you, too."

Yeah…" Kirishima gave a nod back towards her. "...Sorry about that. Sometimes Bakugo just has to open his mouth."

Katara sighed out. "I noticed. I think it's crazy you deal with that attitude all the time."

"I mean, he's not that bad. He just… sometimes doesn't know when to not throw insults."

"That's pretty serious if you ask me." Katara retorted before grabbing another bottle off the table. "I know he's your friend, but maybe you can knock some sense into him sometime."

Turning to watch Bakugo stomp away himself, Kirishima sighed and rubbed his head. "Maybe I should sometime."

The rest of the day continued on for both classes, the rigorous exercises draining all of the students at camp. By the time dinner had ended, many were surprised their bodies were not as sore as the first day. While it wasn't much, but simply a few days of maxing out their quirks had made their bodies slightly more tolerant of the pain. Or… they were simply numb and couldn't feel, but they would take it either way.

In the class A girls room, the seven teens all slept heavily in their makeshift beds. Mina snored out as she rolled over, her hand flailing out and slapping Katara in the face. The waterbender groaned out in surprise from suddenly being awoken, frowning and throwing the pink hand off of her. She tried to go back to sleep before suddenly felt Tsu's powerful leg kick her right in the back.

"Ow!" She yelled out, glaring and looking over to the frog girl twitching in her sleep. Groaning, Katara rubbed the sore spot on her back as she sat up from her bed. Tsu had a large grin on her face, kicking out at whatever she was dreaming of. Grunting, Katara yawned and stood up from her bed and walked out of the room, feeling the need for some water before trying to sleep again. As she walked, she rolled her shoulders feeling her muscles slowly loosen up, sighing out feeling a pop in her joints.

"This training is crazy…" She said to herself.

Katara herself also got in more healing that evening, this time having two groups to work on. The first was Mineta and two students from class B, Pony Tsunotori and Hiryu Rin. All of them had quirks that shot parts off their bodies, and all of them had certainly overused them as they were all bleeding from their quirks came out of. After doing them, she then went to work on Shiozaki, Sero and Kendo once again. This multiple people being healed at once was certainly strenuous, causing her head to hurt every time she worked on healing them. If this could help her grow stronger however, she was willing to try it.

Letting out another yawn, she made her way into the indoor dining room, finding the cases of water lying in the corner calling her name. Licking her lips, she pulled one out and brought it up to her mouth and-

"Kota, where have you been?! I was worried about you!"

"Huh?" Katara was startled by the sudden voice in the hallway nearby, lowering the bottle as she heard footsteps walking by. She quietly made her way over to doorway to not be seen, but not before catching a glance at Mandalay and that young boy that had punched Midoriya.

"I was out, okay? I'm fine, Auntie." Kota grumbled out.

"Out? It's past Midnight! You can't just be walking off alone in the wilderness without telling me or anyone where you are going." Mandalay scolded him. "I would prefer if you stayed at the compound instead."

"Why? So I have to sit around those losers more?" Kota growled "I didn't even want to come here in the first place."

"Kota, you know I couldn't leave you at home alone. I feel much better having you nearby than with a baby sitter."

"Yeah? Well I'd rather be home alone than be with all these stupid wannabe heroes!" Kota snapped at his aunt, causing Katara's mouth to drop in surprise. She heard from Midoriya that he had a hatred for heroes, but he didn't tell her or the others exactly why. She watched as Mandalay sighed and lowered herself to his level.

"Kota, I know this is hard for you, but you can't be angry at them. All they want to do is help others."

Kota glared and looked away from his aunt. "Just so they can end up like them? Why would I want to hang out with idiots who want that?"

Mandalay took a deep breath and reached over rubbing his shoulder. "You're parents wouldn't want you to think that way, Kota. If they were still around, they would want you to-

"Well they aren't, okay?!" Kota snapped out, pushing her hand away. "They just had to be stupid heroes who went and…"

As his fists shook in frustration, Katara struggled to keep herself from dropping her water on the ground. She stood their in disbelief hearing his rant, now understanding why he always had a cold glare when he looked at any of them. He didn't hate them because he thought they weren't heroes, but the fact they even wanted to be some in the first place. Being a hero reminded him of something terrible that happened to him, something she knew far too well of herself. But unlike her, it seemed it wasn't just a single parent he was missing now, now understanding why he was staying with his aunt.

After a few moments of silence, Mandalay decided she didn't want to argue anymore, sighing in defeat and standing back up. "I'm going to grab some food. If… if you want I can bring some to your room, okay?"

Kota remained silent and glared at the ground as his aunt walked away, gritting his teeth and walking over to the side wall. He sank to his butt and laid against the hallway, pouting in anger as he wanted to be out of this place. Everywhere he looked there were wannabe heroes crawling. Even that green haired kid he punched followed him earlier this evening after dinner to his special spot and tried talking to him. He didn't want to listen, though. He didn't want to hear what any of them said, since they all wanted to do something so stupid.

"All these dumb people, wanting to be heroes…" He growled to himself. "Don't they know it's all stupid what they are doing?"

"It's not bad what we want to do."

"Gah!" Kota gasped out to the sudden voice next to him, falling over as he saw Katara standing there in the hallway. "Wh-what, what are you doing here?!" he yelled at her.

Katara tried giving a small smile as she approached, trying her best to stay composed after hearing what happened to him. "Hey. I was grabbing a drink and was hoping you could keep me company."

Glaring as she sat down near him, Kota stood back up and snarled at her. "Forget it! Why would I hang out with some loser like you who wants to be a hero?!"

While normally Katara would have glared back at him for saying something like that, she kept her face calm as she looked down to the ground. She took a breath before she chose to try and talk. "I… heard what you said. About… what happened to your parents."

Kota's eyes widened in shock to her words, clenching his teeth in anger and stomping up to her. "What would know about my parents?! They aren't here so shut up! I don't need you to tell me how to feel! You're just a stupid school girl, what would you know?!"

Katara frowned to herself hearing his anger, her own feelings beginning to crawl back up as the reminisced. "I know a lot more about it than anyone should."

"No you don't! If you did, then you would never wanna go to a stupid school where they teach you to be stupid heroes!" Kota screamed out, "My Mommy and Daddy said they were going to be there for me! That they would take me to school and keep me safe! But… but they had to go and be heroes to try and save people. They left me to go do that and… and they died! They died because they wanted to be heroes! I don't wanna hear you say you know, because you don't know what it's like!"

Katara winced internally from the venom in his words, his childhood built upon anger to having his parents taken from him. She could feel the frustration coming off of him, her own heart aching seeing someone so hurt. She subconsciously reached her hand up to the necklace she wore, rubbing her finger over the gem before looking over to him. "I know exactly how it feels, Kota. When I was a little girl, my mother was taken from me as well."

Kota's eyes widened once more in shock, his mouth hung open in surprise as she continued.

"When I was little, some very bad people attacked my village. They were after me because… b-because of my quirk. One of the bad men was in my home, ordering my mom to give me up. She didn't, though. She… She sacrificed herself to keep me safe. I ran to get my dad, but when we got back, it was too late. Soon after, even my dad left to go help others in need, leaving me and my brother alone with my gran-gran. We were alone while we had to take care of ourselves."

Katara took a breath to keep herself composed, remembering all those built up emotions she once carried. "Instead of being happy my dad was helping others, I was so angry at him. I thought he abandoned us to go help others when we needed him. For so long, I stayed so mad I could barely look at him when he finally met again. But once I saw how foolish I was, I finally realized I was being mad for bad reasons."

"But…" Kota's fists shook in frustration to her story, a young child still struggling with the logic of adults. "But they left me! Why did they need to go and fight villains when they left me?! If they loved me, they never would have been heroes and died! They didn't need to go and try and fight crime!"

"No, they didn't…" Katara quietly said to him. "But they did it because it was what they thought was right. I was younger than you when my mom died, and for so long I couldn't understand why she did what she did. She told those people that attacked us that she was the one they were after, just to keep me safe." A small smile formed on her lips as she thought about it more. "She was… my hero when I was a kid."

She looked over to Kota once more, seeing the young boy fighting back tears of anger and frustration, still holding onto his loneliness. "My dad was doing what he could to help others. To… keep others safe from bad men. That is what your parents were doing. They were protecting others, and you, from being hurt by very bad people. And they would want you to move on and be strong. You have others that love you and will keep you safe, so make sure you love them back."

Kota was unable to keep several tears from dripping out of his eyes, his fists shaking in a mix of anger… and sadness to this girls words. She barely even knew him, and yet she knew his pain so well. He jumped slightly when her hand touched his shoulder, looking up to see her smiling at him.

"You can move on and be strong. But… never forget them. Don't ever forget them and what they did and that they love you very much." Katara said before she stood up and walked past they crying boy, leaving him alone and heading back towards her room. Left standing there was Kota, several drops falling onto the ground from his face as he sniffled, still not fully sure what he should be feeling at that moment.

He turned around and looked up to see Mandalay standing there, the brunette's eyes moist after listening to the two talk alone. Kota stared at her for several seconds, his brain still processing everything that happened just now. As he saw his aunt there, however, there was one thing triggering inside of him that he hadn't felt in a long time. Something he thought had been gone since he was little. His heart ached the more he thought about it, urging him to just go and take one from her.

He wouldn't need to take one, though, as his aunt leaned down and offered her open arm embrace for him to join in.

The next day of training seemed to go by in a small haze for Katara despite how tiring it was, her mind going back to what she said to Kota last night. She felt extremely bad for him after overhearing what happened to his family, but thought afterward perhaps she may have gone to far. While what she said wasn't bad, she also understood he was only a little kid and probably couldn't comprehend everything she was trying to explain to him. She also noticed he was no where to be seen once again today, making her worried he took off to wherever he was hiding last night before coming back.

'Mandalay seemed really worried about him when he didn't come home on time,' Katara said to herself as they all ate dinner. 'I need to say something to her before tonight's over.'

Apparently after dinner, the pussycats had set up an entire event for the classes to compete in as a fun "Test of Courage" as they put it. Everyone meet up just as the sun had fully set, leaving the partial moon to give some light to everyone. Most assumed it was going to be another training exercise seeing how the camp was, only for their thoughts to be completely wrong as Ragdoll spun herself in front of everyone.

"Alright everyone, we got something special for you all! Tonight, you will work with your classmates to try and scare the pants off the other class!" Ragdoll giggled in excitement. "One class will send in students two at a time into the forest, where the other class will be waiting to try and get you in the scariest way possible!"

"A scaring contest?" Jiro raised her eyebrow in surprise. "This is training?"

Pixie Bob giggled and hopped in front of the students. "Indeed. You will have to work with your partner to stay calm, or you will need to work with your classmates to make the ultimate scare prank! Class B will scare first while A will walk."

"The class that makes the most kids piss their pants, you will win!" Tiger roared out to all of them.

"This sounds really crazy!" Mina laughed in glee. "I can't wait to show I can handle any haunted forest!"

"Yeah, let's get it!" Sero chimed in.

"Hold up, those who failed have in class studying to do instead." Aizawa ordered suddenly, the three failures in his class suddenly gasping in shock and terror before being yanked by his binding cloth and dragged towards the buildings in the distance.

Kirishima gave a small sigh of relief seeing he wasn't part of that group, as did all the others still standing there. While everyone was watching their three classmates scream in resistance, Katara saw the chance to quickly approach Mandalay on the side and give a small cough to get her attention. "Hey there, Mandalay. I… I was hoping to talk to you about something. Last night, I-

Katara stopped talked when Mandalay placed one of her paw covered hands onto her shoulder, the hero wearing a genuine smile on her face. "It's okay. I heard." she said, causing Katara's heart to skip a beat.

"You did? I'm sorry, I was getting a drink and I overheard what you were talking about. I shouldn't have gotten into your business."

"No, it's okay. Actually… I think it was good he heard that." Mandalay answered. "It has been hard for him, so hearing another person like him may be the thing to finally get him out of his shell."

"Oh, well…" Katara rubbed her head sheepishly as she gave a small shrug. "I… I hope it helps him."

"I do too. In fact he actually promised to stay in the cabin tonight, so that did work." Mandalay chuckled out before a small frown formed on her face. "But… I am sorry… for what happened to you."

Katara gave a small smile in return. "It's okay. It's in my past and I will always remember it. I won't let something like that happen again."

Amazed at this girls determination, Mandalay gave a nod of approval before patting her shoulder and smirking. "Now get back with the others. It's time to scare your butts!"

Frowning, Katara walked back over to her classmates as Pixie Bob bounded over with a handful of tabs for Class A to draw and see their partners for the walk. Katara reached into the stack and grabbed piece, flipping it over and seeing her number.

"Seven?" She said out loud before looking up, now looking through everyone as they saw who were partnered together.

Tokoyami and Asui.

Todoroki and Bakugo.

Yaoyorozu and Kirishima.

Katara and Jiro.

Uraraka and Hagakure.

Midoriya and Koda.

Aoyama and Iida.

Shoji and Ojiro.

Mineta.

"AHHHHH! Why do I have to be the one alone?!" Mineta cried out in agony.

Tsu gave a small nod to Tokoyami as she approached him. "It looks like we are partners again, Tokoyami."

"Revelry in the dark…"

Tsu stared blankly at Tokoyami's odd statement. "Ribbit. That training in the dark must suck."

Katara frowned seeing that of all the people paired with Shoto, Bakugo would have been the one. Both of them must have been thinking the same thing, since they had not stopped glaring at each other since they saw they were partnered up. Huffing out, Katara made her way over by Jiro as they both shifted their fingers constantly.

"This won't be that bad…" Jiro mumbled out trying to appear calm, while inside she was shivering.

"Yeah… of course." Katara said as well, forcing a fake chuckle out as Mandalay smirked at all the teams. "Now let's see who is the braver class! Let's start a night of fun!"

Deep in the woods, a mix of figures all moved into position, awaiting for the right moment to finally strike and bring utter chaos to the mountain side. coming through the shadows, Dabi's hand illuminated himself with blue flames as he couldn't help but smile to himself, ready to set a blaze to the area.

"As soon as you are all in place, we will strike..." He chuckled into his mic as he watched the blue fire dance around his hand. "The vanguard action squad of the league of villains will tear these heroes off their thrones as we take what's precious to them away."

Notes: It is done people, set up... is done. no more stuff before everything goes to hell!

What's this? changes to canon? Kota not going to his spot tonight? How will that affect the story?!

please share your thoughts as we come onto the battle! Till next time!