CallMeCayde: *Btzz!* Wrong answer! We'll see what's happening with some of those guys next chapter.

Gamelover41592: That's what this whole arc is for. *Drama.*

LEGOBRICK13: *Smacks with a newspaper* No! Bad! No kidnapping active Christian characters! Do you know how expensive it is to power my Memory-Eraser-Inator? I'll let you off the hook this time since your alternate personalities took care of it, but so help me... Anyway, here. You'll get half your answers.

maxperseus130: I did consider Assassin Muscular for a time, but his mindset is just too different. He's out there, somewhere, and I have plans for (probably) him. Veeerrryyy important ones. Just not soon.

Monkey D. Conan: I am happy to subvert your expectations, but explanations will have to wait. Don't get me wrong, however, Izuku is still only a 15-year-old Apprentice. These other factions ARE at least two levels above him with lifetimes of training for harsh conditions and high expectations. Izuku needs to reach that level and reach it FAST, which is why... well, you'll see.

Shadowwolf1997: I'd never considered how similar Bakugo and Edward were. Actually, the comic I mentioned last chapter places Edward Kenway in Southeastern Asia with descendants, so it's not out of the question for him to be one of Bakugo's ancestors way, way down the line. But, at this point in the timeline, there are so many people with Assassins in their lineage that Templars can usually be a bit more choosy. I mean, every generation literally doubles the amount of ancestors one has... baring gross circumstances.

ZonZus: It's not weird, just unrealistic in the immediate future. We'd do plenty of stupid things if we thought we could protect our families by doing so, too. She's looking at a picture of the Templars where all their bad stuff is colored red, and she's wearing rose-tinted glasses. She hasn't been told it's even there.

Chapter 43:

Test of Courage

The clearing looked like the aftermath of a battlefield, bodies strewn hither and yon over the wrecked earth in various positions. Ice, fire, burn marks, acid spots, ripped up land, cuts and gashes, and all manner of other damage interspersed the unresponsive as the sun started to sink below the trees in the distance.

"Am I dead?" Mina panted, the pink-skinned girl collapsed on the ground. The grass around her was dead, the overuse of her Quirk having melted the nearby plants and pockets of the ground down to —and in some places, through— the bedrock. "I think I'm dead and I'm in hell for all my teasing… Gamma, I'm coming to join you in the land of the succubi."

"That would explain so much about you," Jiro muttered, barely holding her tears in as she cradled her jacks in her hands.

"My everything hurts," Shinso complained, a pair of tonfa sitting beside him. Not an inch of his visible skin was unbruised and his voice was raspy from overuse. He wheezed like a broken squeaky toy, practically deflating.

"Bro," Kirishima muttered, grabbing Testutetsu's hand from where the pair had been beating the crap out of each other for the last 13 hours, give or take. He coughed. "I need you… to remember me… bro…"

"D-Don't say that, bro," Tetsutetsu whispered. "I need you… to go on… to remember me… bro."

"Bro…"

"Bro…"

"B—"

"Would you to give the damn bromance a rest‽" Setsuna Tokage demanded, her body curled in on itself in a lump as she tried to remember what went where after having been continuously disassembled into smaller and smaller pieces for the last many hours. "Shit! Just, like, kiss or something!"

Kirishima and Testutetsu turned to each other, their eyes narrowing.

"Bro?" they asked at the same time. Kirishima reached up, placing a hand of Tetsutetsu's cheek. Tetsutetsu mirrored is action.

"Dammit, I was joking!" the verdette yelled. The pair cracked smiles, laughing for only a couple moments before their injuries reminded them of their presence.

"Heh… heh…" Mina chuckled. "They sure… got you good… Setsu… That's… my Kiri… Ow…"

"O Blessed Father, relieve me of my burdens," Ibara prayed, her voice muffled by a bag of potting soil in which her face was buried. The rest of her body was limp. "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Into your hands do I commit my soul."

"I think we could all use some divine help right about now," Yosetsu Awase muttered. The land around the two of them was ripped to shreds from the applications of their Quirks.

"Man!" Pixie-Bob laughed, her presence causing a number of students to scream. "You all look like used kitty litter!"

"E-Evil!" Ojiro cried, his shaking limbs trying to drag him away to little avail. Ibara was having more luck, her vines pulling her away face-down as she did an impressive impersonation of a fleeing crinoid.

"Oh, you still have some energy," Aizawa commented. More students started trying to flee. Pony, the poor girl stabbed horns-down in the earth and surrounded by the broken remains of hundreds of similar horns, went so far as to hiss. She wobbled, her attempt to use her Horn Cannon only making her horns snap off, the American falling forward onto her face. "Congratulations. You all have survived your fourth day of training."

"Whey~!" Kaminari grinned, a shaky thumbs-up rising from behind a massive generator.

"For digging deep down and going Plus Ultra for four days in a row, you all have a guest. One whom I imagine all of you will consider your savior."

"At this point, I don't even know why I'm surprised by your methods, Eraser," a woman said, those who could turn their heads doing so to see the short woman at the man's side. Tears rolled down faces. "Were you trying to kill them?"

"Recovery Girl!" Sero cried from a veritable mountain of tape. "I've never been so happy to see you!"

"If it had been up to me," Aizawa began, "then we would get right back to training after Recovery Girl has finished with you. But, I was outvoted."

'Thank you!' every conscious student silently yelled to the universe.

"You kittens have worked way too hard these past few days to not get something," Mandalay told them, joining the UA staff and her fellow Pussycats. Kouta stood with them, removing bandages from his hands, arms, and legs after experiencing Recovery Girl's Quirk for himself. His clothing was soaked. "In recognition of your hard work, after Recovery Girl's patched you all up, you'll have the rest of the night to yourself and we won't be doing any training until after lunch tomorrow so you actually have time for your bodies to finish, you know, recovering."

Hobbling over with her syringe-shaped cane, Recovery Girl's lips stretched as she kissed Itsuka Kendo on the forehead. A greed glow surrounded the Class Rep of 1-B, the martial arts expert feeling some of her strength return even if a wave of dizziness threatened to put her to sleep.

"Kendo, could you go get the others, please?" Vlad King asked as Recovery Girl moved on to Ojiro, the next closest student. "I trust you know their training areas?"

"Of course, Kan-sensei," the redhead replied, pulling herself to her feet. She headed for the forest where Midoriya, Fumikage, Kuroiro, Monoma, Juzo Honenuki, Komori, and Yanagi had been training amongst the caves and trees.

"Now then!" Ragdoll called, clapping her hands. "You all have worked really hard! Because of that, we want to give you some fun memories of this place! You know, something than 'I'm bleeding again!' You can opt out and get some more sleep if you want, but the other Pussycats and I have put together some late-night games for you! The one I pushed for is a Test of Courage since that's one of my favorite memories as a student!"

"Because you were clinging to Tiger like a backpack," Pixie-Bob giggled.

"Shut up!"

"A Test of Courage sounds like a great time!" Mina yelled, jumping up as soon as Recovery Girl kissed her arm. She'd moved too quickly, however, her legs losing their strength. The acid user fell over, but she still raised an arm, speaking into the dirt. "I'm in!"

"We'll also have a bonfire and s'mores," Tiger grinned. "Alongside some boardgames and puzzles, too."

"What a wonderful idea!" Momo grinned, having never experienced such a thing outside of her admittedly-limited time on the internet. She'd never understood why until joining the Japanese Rite, her father finally telling her bonfire parties required darkness, the best friend of the Assassins, and that he was not willing to risk his family for a single night's pleasure, much less do so multiple times. However, this was a school trip and she felt very safe. "If anyone knows how to play instruments and wishes to form a band of some sort, I will happily supply such after dinner. Our guardians permitting, of course."

"Whey~!" Kaminari grinned, gesturing at Jiro.

"Shut up, you empty-headed battery!" said petite student yelled, beating his arm but without any real force.

"I would participate in this instrumental ensemble," Ibara commented, turning to her classmates. "I learned the flute for my church's children's choir."

"I can play classic guitar!" Pony offered.

DRUMS, Fukidashi wrote. OR BEATBOXING.

"You losers can enjoy your little party," Bakugo grunted, earning him a glare from most of the students and Kouta. "I'll be training more."

"What's wrong, Bakugo?" Kirishima grinned. "Too scared of the Test of Courage?"

"What was that, Shitty Hair? I'm not scared of anything!"

"All of that can wait," Recovery Girl insisted, beating Bakugo over the head with her cane. "First, you all need to eat to replenish your strength and nutrients. You can be frivolous afterward."

Fire burned in the center of the clearing, popping and crackling as an undercurrent to the happy talk and impromptu music of the students. Ibara, Fukidashi, and Pony had been joined by Shihai Kuroiro (who played the violin, viola, fiddle, and cello apparently), the quartet finding a shaky but steady rhythm as they meshed to Fukidashi's beat. Camp guitar, concert flute, classical violin/jazz fiddle, and drumset weren't exactly the first combination of instruments one would think of for a bonfire, but UA Hero Course students had never really played by the normal rules of society and they made it work. Tiger sat at a table near the light of the fire, he and several students working on a 2000-piece cat puzzle. Momo was part of this group, a smile on her face growing wider with each connection she found. Mandalay managed the bonfire with Kouta's help, the woman showing her pseudo-nephew how to make the perfect golden-brown marshmallow.

Once the students had had their initial fun and sung a round of campfire songs (including Old Nana's Quirk, Tedela Dala Eigh, and Sara's Laser Cannon), Pixie-Bob and Ragdoll had pulled aside those who expressed interest in the Test of Courage, said group consisting of a majority of both classes. They'd pulled a flipboard from somewhere, a trail and dots diagrammed within a rough sketch of the nearby forest.

"Alright everyone, here's the deal," Pixie-Bob grinned, extending a collapsible pointing rod and smacking the flipboard with its end. A second look actually revealed said rod to be a cat toy, one of those with a dangly feather for the animal to paw at. "We're going to divide you all into two teams, called Team Y and Team Z. These teams will take turns hiding in the forest near the path trying to scare the other team's members however they see fit. You are not, however, allowed to touch the other team in any way. The scaring team gets a point for every scream we hear here at the start. Screamer or not, scaredy-cat or not, you must follow the full five-kilometer (roughly 3.1 miles) length of the path to get a point for your team. If you ditch, no dice. Once all of one team has walked the path or shown themselves pusillanimous, the teams will switch. Question, Copycat?" She pointed to Monoma, the blond with his hand up.

The blond frowned at the nickname. "Will the teams be divided by class?"

"Of course not!"

"Why not? We of 1-B must—"

"Because that's stupid and boring!" the older blonde laughed. She looked out over the mixed group, estimating their numbers to be even. "Ragdoll, halfsies."

"Halfsies!" the green-haired pro jumped in front of her teammate, chopping a paw directly down the middle of the group, dividing them in half. Pixie-Bob dropped to a knee, activating her Earth Flow to raise a small wall down the middle. Izuku found himself on Team Y with Tsuyu, Bakugo, Tsuburaba, Ojiro, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Tokage, Shoda, Toguru Kamakiri, Koda, Komori, Shoji, and Neito Monoma. Team Z consisted of members including Shoto Todoroki, Aoyama, Ochako, Jiro, Kaminari, Toru, Shinso, Awase, Rin, Kodai, Fumikage, Yanagi, Honenuki, and Mina.

"There," Pixie-Bob nodded. "You've got your teams now. Team Z's on scare duty first. Make sure you stay in groups of at least two, but you little tomcats better not think about getting up to anything, ahem, catty." The blonde's grin sent a shiver down the Hero students' spine, reminding them too much of Midnight. "Unless, of course, you're pronouncing your undying love for me."

Kaminari blinked. "Aren't you, like, twice our—?"

"I'm 18 in my heart!" she yelled, launching forward to punch the electricity user in the jaw. He flew backward, smacking into a tree with a force inexpected from the blonde's lithe frame. The Heroine coughed, bringing her emotions back under control. "Anyway, Team Z, go get set up. You've got five minutes before the first pair goes in. Team Y, pair up and psych up."

The students broke into a flurry of motion, Team Z running into the forest.

"I'm going in first!" Bakugo declared, almost as if challenging the others. "Shitty Hair, you're coming with me!"

"What?" Kirishima blinked, having long since learned that 'Shitty Hair' was Bakugo's name for him despite wholly disagreeing with the idea. His hair was well-styled, thank you very much. "Why me?"

"You questioned if I was scared, moron. I'll show you I'm not scared of anything, much less a bunch of extras waiting to jump out from behind trees!"

Izuku defaulted to pairing up with Tsuyu, neither all that inclined to break up any other pairs. Five minutes later, Bakugo marched into the forest, dragging Kirishima along.

"This will be nothing, ribbit," Tsuyu commented, a hand on her chin as she studied the trees. Izuku nodded, remembering all the crap he'd seen on missions and mentally comparing that to his classmates. After the fight in the underwater temple, getting shot, and then healing, this would be a cakewalk. Still, it was probably a good thing he didn't have any of his weapons on his person; it would not do to jump at something and accidentally skewer someone with his rope-dart.

When no screams came for a about ten minutes, the Pussycats running things sent in the next pair of Tetsutetsu and Tokage. Koda and Komori were next before Izuku and Tsuyu stepped up, leaving Ojiro, Tsuburaba, Shoda, Kamakiri, Shoji, and Monoma behind them. At ten minutes between each pair, seven pairs per team, this would be a long Test of Courage.

As one would expect, the forest was dark, the trees casting shadows to cut through every beam of moonlight that provided oh-so-little visibility. Owls hooted in the distance, an unconscious shiver climbing up Izuku's spine.

"Okay," Tsuyu muttered. "Maybe this will a little scarier than I thought, ribbit."

"It's just our classmates," Izuku whispered. "Oh, I know." He blinked, activating his Eagle Vision. The lighting of the forest didn't change too much from his perception, but he would have advanced warning about any of Team Z nearby.

"Good call, ribbit," Tsuyu nodded. "You want point, Izuku?"

"Sure." Tsuyu dropped back, watching his back as the boy pushed ahead. They didn't take three steps before someone screamed ahead of them. "That sounded like Komori."

"I don't think I've ever heard her talk, ribbit."

"She's about as Quiet as Koda. The two tend to let their eyes do most of the talking for them."

"You know something, ribbit. Something you're not telling me."

"It's nothing important," Izuku admitted. "Kendo told me earlier this week that Komori's been crushing on Koda since they teamed up in the Sports Festival Second Round. She wouldn't stop talking about it, so I just had to pull Koda aside and mention it to him."

"Why?"

"Heroes live fast and die young too often," Izuku shrugged, leaving unmentioned how aware he knew Tsuyu was of the fact. "I figured I'd give them a little nudge. If nothing else, so I can get Kendo to stop gushing about how much she wants to see it." He paused. "Tsu, do you feel that?"

"There's a chill in the air, ribbit," the frog-girl confirmed. "Todoroki's up to something."

"Huuuuuuhhhhh!" a pair of voices moaned, foliage rustling as figures shambled out of the forest. Izuku narrowed his eyes as Tsuyu dropped into a combat stance by instinct.

"They don't have any color," Izuku commented, walking up to the simulacrums. And blinking away his Eagle Vision. "Oh, clever! Todoroki's made dolls of ice that they've covered with dirt and leaves to look like zombies. I bet Yanagi's moving them and it's Fumikage and Dark Shadow helping to make the sounds."

Instantly, the moaning cut off. Izuku and Tsuyu looked up to see Fumikage on a branch above them, Yanagi and Dark Shadow in another tree.

"Your analytical acumen never ceases to amaze, Midoriya," the bird-headed boy commented. "And to think we made Komori faint with our stunt before."

"No, she was faking that," Yanagi murmured. "Midoriya, Asui, you have bested our trap. Please move on before the next pair arrives. Thank you."

"That wasn't so hard," Izuku chuckled as the others slunk back into the trees, Yanagi's Poltergeist pulling the faux zombies back into the shadows. He reactivated his Eagle Vision. "Let's get going."

"Yes, ribbit. Let's."

The high they got from seeing through the first deception did not last as long as they'd hoped it would, the dark ambiance of the forest quickly putting them ill-at-ease again, Izuku studying not only the path but the treetops above as well. They walked for almost ten minutes with no sign of anyone other than the group behind them screaming as they fell for the zombie ploy.

Izuku stopped, a flash of blue in his vision. He turned to look, but his wariness quickly turned to confusion as he studied the outline. They stood on a limb, but the outline was incomplete, what seemed like a hooded cloak of some kind obscuring the figure's edges.

His eyes narrowed. He knew that shape, but there was no reason for one of them to be here.

The figure tilted their head as the pair on the path stopped, seemingly questioning if they had been seen.

"Tsu?" Izuku muttered. "There's an Assassin in the forest."

"What?" his fellow Apprentice questioned. "Here, ribbit? You're sure?"

"Blue coloring, hood, and all."

"But who? Why now?"

"I don't know, but I think we need to find out." Izuku took one step and the figure bolted, leaping through the trees. "He's running! After him!"

As one, the pair leapt into the trees and started giving chase, the Test of Courage forgotten.

Shitty Hair needed to get a goddamn clue, Bakugo decided, before Pink Bitch got tired of his hardheadedness and fucking jumped him in the middle of training. It was obvious to anyone with eyes. Hell, even Word Face and Glue Head had noticed at some point in the week. They didn't have eyes and they weren't even part of 1-A! If the moron didn't get the message by the time their next finals came around, Bakugo was going to shove Shitty Hair in a closet with Pink Bitch and lock them in, just so they can leave the bullshit bishojo romcom in the past.

"Mina nearly got me with that last one," said Shitty Hair laughed as they exited the forest. "I mean, pretending her shirt was melting? That's more shocking than scary, you know?"

"Yeah, shocking," Bakugo muttered with a roll of his eyes. Honestly, the other team's attempts to get a rise out of each of them were pathetic. Others might fall for their shitty ploys, as evidenced by the screams of the other extras, but nothing had gotten Bakugo to so much as flinch.

He was the goddamn best, after all.

"I really thought those ghosts Uraraka, Awase, and Kodai made were gonna make you pass out!" Kirishima laughed, Bakugo feeling one of his eyes twitch at the reminder. "I mean, you almost peed yourself!"

Bakugo hated the mere idea of ghosts. How was he supposed to fight something that he couldn't just blow up? And what was he supposed to say to one? Die? They were already dead. He hated even thinking about it because ghosts weren't real. Ghost-like Quirks, sure, but not ghosts.

"I did not, Shitty Hair! You better get your memory right before I reach in there myself and fuckin' remind you!"

"Oh yeah?" Shitty Hair grinned, completely unfazed by the way Bakugo grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Which should I remember more, that little 'eep' sound you made or the look on your face when you blew up that giant pinecone?"

"Neither, because it didn't happen!" Bakugo shoved him and stomped away toward the fire, yelling over his shoulder. "Call me back when it's our turn to scare the piss out of the extras!"

Needing something to do to pass the time, Bakugo grabbed a couple of the marshmallows from the table and a metal stick, the blond shoving two of them onto the end of the pole and dunking both directly into the fire. Several students shuffled away from him, the impromptu band shifting to another tune they apparently all knew.

"You're going to burn them that way."

Bakugo directed a glare to the side, the brat from before staring at him. Koby or Kolton or something. He didn't care enough to remember and had mentally dubbed the kid Coward, even if he had earned a modicum of respect from his stunt with the plate.

"The fuck do you want, brat?"

"You're going to burn your marshmallows," the kid repeated.

"Burnt is the only way to eat them," Bakugo replied. "All that shit about golden-brown or whatever is a waste of time. Why stand around watching a lump of sugar change color when you can be bettering yourself? It's healthier for you this way anyway."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for those fuckin' extras to finish so I can scare the piss out of them." Bakugo pulled his marshmallows out, both of them on fire and quickly blackening. A satisfied smirk tugged at the blond's lips before he blew, putting out the fire.

"That's gross," Coward commented.

"You don't know a damn thing, brat." He pulled one of the burnt marshmallows from the rod and threw it at the kid, being sure to give him a chance to actually catch it. He didn't need Red Cat yelling at him again. His hag of a mother did that plenty without a similar —if aesthetically totally different— woman doing the same while he wasn't home.

Coward did manage to catch it, the kid studying the charred food with confusion. Bakugo ignored him, popping the second in his mouth before replacing them with two more.

"You don't put them on s'mores?"

Bakugo closed his eyes, telling himself he didn't need to get yelled at for throwing the punk.

"Chocolate is shit," he muttered. "I hate sweet things."

"That explains a lot." The kid took a bite of the burnt sweet. His eyes widened, the boy spitting it out and throwing the rest of it into the fire.

"You got a problem, brat? Well, something other than what I've already pointed out?"

"Fight me."

"What?"

"Fight me!" the kid repeated. "I've been training with Aunt Shino just so I can kick your ass. You said you didn't care what I said until I could beat you."

Bakugo stared at the kid for several seconds, the brat's eyes serious despite the spot of melted marshmallow stuck to the side of his mouth. Bakugo cracked.

"Hahahahaha!" he laughed, throwing his head backwards and forgetting what he was doing. Coward's eyes widened. "Hahahahaha! Holy shit, brat. That's the funniest thing I've heard all week."

"I'm serious!"

"I know. That's what makes it so fuckin' funny! Ah shit, I needed that."

"I can beat you!" Coward insisted. "I can! I'll have you know I've got a water Quirk strong enough to cut down a tree after the training I did this week!"

'A sapling, maybe,' Bakugo thought. Aloud he said, "So? You're a brat and I'm a Hero student. You're 50 years too early to even think about beating me, kid."

"Why the hell do you even want to be a Hero?" Coward asked. "You don't seem like the kind of moron that would throw your life away for people you don't know."

"Because I'm gonna be the goddamn best," Bakugo grinned. "I'm not gonna throw my life away because I'm strong enough to not need to. I'm gonna get strong enough that no one —not Villains, not other Heroes, not the haters, not the media, not even All Might himself— is gonna be able to say anything except Katsuki Bakugo is the goddamn strongest. Nothing can stop him."

"But why?" Coward repeated. "Why do you want to be the strongest and why are you such a jerk about it?"

All at once, Bakugo wasn't in the mountains anymore. He wasn't a Hero student sitting at a bonfire. He was a little kid again, his hands and feet tied behind his back in a van as his grandfather fought off the neighbor who'd been so nice the last couple of months. The knife flashed, his grandfather curling in and grabbing the asshole's wrist as he activated his Quirk: Sparking Blood, and the two went down. Bakugo shook the memory away, getting rid of the sensation of phantom rain and the engraved rock in his mind's eye.

"Why am I such a jerk?" he echoed as the image faded, not noticing his marshmallows melting into the fire. "Because I hate people that are fake, brat, and I hate people that blame their problems on the world. I hate people that try to say all the right shit and speak in their fuckin' flowery language. It's bullshit, they're bullshit, and I refuse to deal with it. If people wanna talk to me, I wanna deal with the real them. The jaded, raw person below whatever image they're trying to put out there."

"What if someone really is just nice?"

"No one's 'just nice,' brat. Everyone wants something from everyone else, even if it's just a damn complement. Everyone's hiding something. Anger, greed, pain… guilt."

"Then what are you hiding?"

Doubt. Inferiority. Weakness.

The words flashed through Bakugo's mind before he could stop them, his eyes widening at the gall of Coward's question. How dare the brat even think he was hiding something when he'd just said he hated people that are fake.

"I'm not hiding anything, brat," Bakugo lied. He pulled his stick out of the fire only to find that his marshmallows had burned away and fallen off. He cursed to himself and replaced them.

"You said everyone's hiding something—"

"I'm not just everyone, you stupid brat," the student growled, his voice rising to the point where the music stuttered and stopped. Bakugo didn't notice. "The shit people keep secret are their weaknesses. The stuff they're ashamed of. The stuff they don't want others to know. Me? I don't have any of that. I'm the best. The pinnacle. I'm going to stand over all the other bastard extras and show the world that there's no one out there who can take me down because I don't have any fuckin' weaknesses to hide. I'm gonna be like All Might and Endeavor, but better than both of them combined. I don't hide my dislike behind kindness. I don't hide my name behind an alias. I don't hide weakness behind teammates. I am Katsuki Bakugo, and you're gonna be hearing that goddamn name in the same breath as All Might by the time I'm done!"

It was quiet, everyone in the area staring at him. And someone giggled.

Bakugo's red eyes snapped to the sound, the guitar-carrying blonde having fallen to a knee to keep from breaking her instrument.

"Have you got something to say to me, Horse Bitch‽"

"N-No," Pony replied, trying to stifle her laughter. "I actually kind of agree with you, [Bomberanian.] I was laughing at you say you will be better than All Might."

"You got a problem with that?"

"No, not really. It is just funny, is all. It is just… How do you translate? Ah, there is always a bigger fish. No one person can always win. Humans are pack animals because they are always be stronger in numbers, passing dreams they do not complete."

"You think I'm gonna fail‽" Bakugo demanded. Doubt. Inferiority. Weakness. Those damn words pushed their way into Bakugo's head again, but he shoved them out with a snarl. "Just you watch, Horse Bitch. I'm gonna be the top dog of the world and no one's gonna stop me. You just watch."

"Your pride will get you killed," Shiozaki commented, a hiss in her voice. Kouta —that was the kid's name, right?— recoiled as if he'd been slapped. Still, Bakugo could tell her eyes weren't on him or the kid, but something or someone behind them. "There are threats and dangers in the world the likes of which you have no comprehension. Even more, no mortal is greater than the Lord God above. Gain all the strength you want; it is naught but a house built on sand before that which lies beyond the mortal coil.

"You are right, Katsuki Bakugo, that everyone has secrets. Everyone has weaknesses buried deep in our hearts that we refuse to show the world. It is when these secrets start to affect others that we put ourselves and those we care for at risk. If we pray to God—"

"Clearly, you didn't follow my little monologue, Vines," Bakugo interrupted. Doubt. Inferiority. Weakness. "I don't have any secrets. I'm a goddamn open book, and every page says 'strength' in big, red letters. And if I'm not strong enough, then I'll come back stronger than before. I don't care who I'm fighting. The brat, you, Horse Bitch, or even God himself, it doesn't matter because I will win."

'Just like I promised him I always would. I'll never be that weak again.'

The Assassin was fast, Izuku having to use his Eagle Vision constantly to keep up. Tsuyu had an easier time, being able to jump the same gaps as their quarry that Izuku could not, but he had the eyes that could see.

"Who is this guy?" Tsuyu questioned, nearly stumbling as a branch broke under her feet. She recovered quickly, catching another branch lower and using her momentum to swing up to the point where she could use her tongue the catch up in a single move. Izuku grabbed her arm, the frog-girl throwing him over a space he could not cover with just his legs before she jumped it easily.

"I don't know," the boy answered, "but I'm not seeing any malice from him. Whoever this guy is, he's squarely on our side, at least from his point of view."

"But why here, ribbit? Why now?"

"We're about to find out. He's slowing down."

About half a kilometer from the path, the shrouded figure slowed to a stop, coming to rest in the center of a simple clearing. It was nowhere special, just some rocks here and there scattered amongst the patchy grass.

Izuku and Tsuyu stayed in the trees, keeping to the shadows. The girl gestured to the left before nodding her head to the right. Izuku nodded, prompting them to split up. Izuku only moved a little, wanting to stay between the stranger and the rest of camp, afraid they'd have no problem killing off the more-questionably-aligned students of UA's first year Hero Course students.

That was a situation nobody needed.

Tsuyu ringed the clearing until she was opposite Izuku, the interloper between them. They stood in the clearing with seemingly no concern. Without trees to shade them, the moonlight from above caused their cloak to shimmer like chainmail, the hood keeping their face hidden.

"Surprisingly cautious," the Assassin commented, the voice familiar. "Dividing yourselves would make attacking you more difficult and cut off one path of escape for me. It was a bit foolish to give chase without your weapons, but I cannot fault you given the circumstances. It is what I needed, after all. I was hoping you would finally notice, Apprentices."

"Who are you?" Izuku questioned, trying to throw his voice. "What do you want?"

"What I want is of no concern," the figure said, turning to Izuku and spreading his arms to the side. Izuku nearly choked as he comprehended the lower half of a UA gym uniform, the same ones they'd had to wear for all of camp. "Neither is what you want of concern. We need to talk. Hopefully face-to-face."

"You know who we are, apparently," Tsuyu said. "Who are you?"

"My Mentor ordered me to remain hidden, but I fear we do not have that luxury. I do not want your Mentor to know I am here, however."

"What you want is of no concern," Izuku parroted. "I think we'll decide what our Mentor hears."

The figure sighed, chuckling lightly. "I suppose you got me there. Alright, we have met, but I do not think we have met properly."

The figure's cloak exploded into a hundred smaller pieces, each one swirling around him like a swarm of bugs before they all settled on his skin and faded back into the natural color of flesh.

"My name is Hiryu Rin, an Assassin of the Chinese Brotherhood, and we need to talk about the Symphony."

End of Chapter 43

I hope that last reveal is a surprise to some of you, because I know a couple of you figured it out a while back! Hiryu Rin finally steps into the light and is ready to come clean. Despite his orders, everything *is* permitted, after all.

Yeah, the fourth day had finished. In Canon, they were attacked on the third, but the LoV has no direction or true leader anymore, and without its sopposed connection to Stain, they couldn't recruit. No members, no plans, no attacks. Too bad that doesn't mean a peaceful week for our Assassins and Templars.

Why get a glimpse of Bakugo's mindset and why he sees the world that way, but what could be the full context? Kouta's had long enough to cool off and talk to Mandalay about what Bakugo said earlier, but how will his words now affect the boy? With Izuku mixed up in some shady shit without OFA, will Bakugo actually have a chance to achieve his dream? What orders were given to Hiryu Rin and who are the Symphony? Why didn't his Mentor want him getting in contact with the Osaka? What bombshells does he have for our intrepid Apprentices? And will Kirishima ever get a clue? Tell me what you think!

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods