Chapter Twenty-Four
~James POV~
James had honestly never felt so tired or drained of his Quirk before. All the training he'd been put through so far in UA and at home did not compare to the sheer insanity of fighting nonstop for the last six hours. He was holding Kana on his back as they finally limped the last few feet through the forest to the Pussycats compound. Everyone was tired, overworked, and battered. Kana had overused her Quirk to the point where her hands were blue and her breathing was shallow, she hadn't brought her inhaler as it had remained on the bus. James ears and tail refused to stand up, they drooped low. Yuto himself was mindlessly shuffling forward, merely following the herd.
"They're finally here!" The blond kitty cat stated in a loud voice. James tried to work up the energy to glare but it was just too much for him, so he settled on growling low. "Needless to say, they didn't make it in time for lunch."
"'It'll only take three hours', yeah right." Sero grumbled.
"So hungry. Gonna die…" Kirishima whined. James could literally hear everyone's stomach gurgling at the mention of food. They hadn't found anything edible in the forest despite Midoriya suggesting the option. Needless to say the suggestion wasn't well received.
"Sorry that's how quick we would have made it." The brown cat stated with a smile. James groaned as he gently shuffled Kana to the ground where she shivered lightly. Yuto plopped next to her to lend body heat while James stretched his arm, working out the stiff muscles.
"Flaunting the power gap in our faces." Sato whimpered. "So not fair."
"Mew mew mew, we actually thought you'd take longer." The blond kitty cat said. "You dealt with my Earth Beast pretty easily too. Not bad, especially you boys." James hissed at her when her eyes landed on him. Her face twitched like she'd just discovered a particularly tasty fish as she pounced on him. "Ooh, gonna have fun with you boys in three years. I'm marking you as mine." James shoved Bakugou towards the crazy cat as she kept meowing and trying to grab at him, Bakugou, Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida.
"Hey Mandalay, I didn't think she was like that." Aizawa spoke up. James looked towards his traitorous teacher as he kept the blonde back with Midoriya's body.
"She's worried about being a spinster forever."
"A spinster?" Midoriya asked. "How old are you?"
"Who's old? Not me." The blond cried.
"If you're above the age of 21, yes you're old." James remarked.
"Sassy kitty you!" James yelped as she grabbed his ears and vigorously rubbed them making him yowl.
"Hey! I've been wondering, who is that kid?" Midoriya asked breaking James away from the crazy blonde. James hissed as he hid behind Bakugou and Todoroki, using his hand to rub his ears.
"Oh, that's my nephew Kota." Mandalay stated. "Kota! Come over and say hello, you'll be spending the summer with them anyway." James watched as Midoriya walked over and knelt over with his hand outstretched for a handshake.
"Hi, I'm Midoriya from UA's Hero Course. Nice to meet you." James saw the kid move forward for what he had assumed was going to be a handshake, but he was terribly mistaken as Kota efficiently punched Midoriya in the groin. James winced as the other guys watching hissed in sympathy pain.
"Ugh!" Midoriya moaned from where he'd dropped like a sack of potatoes. Iida ran over to check on him.
"Midoriya!"
"Hey Kota! Why'd you punch Midoriya in the junk?" Mandalay asked in outrage.
"I can't abide jerks who wanna be heroes." Kota answered. James snorted.
"Cute kid." Bakugou chuckled. James had to do a double take as he saw the smile on Bakugou's face. James frowned but it hit him a second later why he was smiling. This was Midoriya who had been dropped. Of course, he'd be happy about it.
"You two are a lot alike." Shoto said. James chuckled.
"Let's be fair, if it was Bakugou who had hit Midoriya, he would have hit him harder Shoto."
"Buzz off you two! I don't wanna hear anything out of Mr. You-threw-the-match or Furface." James reasoned he could let this one instance of name calling slide. Mainly because he was too tired to physically fight with Bakugou. Though he would get him later after some food and rest.
"Mah, be nice Bakagou." James replied tiredly.
"Sorry." Shoto said.
"Enough of this side show. Go get your luggage from the bus." Aizawa ordered. "Drop your things off in your rooms and then come to dinner in the mess hall. After that you'll bathe and then it's bedtime. Tomorrow your real training begins. Now hurry up."
"Come on Kana, let's going." James helped her get up after he swatted Yuto's face gently to wake him up. "Come on, let's get our bags and then we can eat some food."
"Sleep?" Yuto murmured.
"After you take a bath." James said. Yuto sighed but fell in line with everyone else to grab their bags and take them inside. They were directed to go but James had to let Kana go as the boys and girls were separated in different wings. Mina took over, promising to get Kana to her room. James merely dropped his bag with the other boys before they went to the mess hall to drool over the food. When the last of their class had finally sat down they all dug in.
James piled up on the fish and dug in. He barely tuned into the chatter that was happening around him now that everyone's initial hunger had been sated.
"Oh you girls got a normal sized room?"
"Hey can we get a look at the boy's room after dinner? I want to see it."
"Sure come on over!"
"Fresh fish, meat, veggies…"
"Slow down there James, you'll choke." Momo spoke in concerned disgust. James forced himself to pull back as he mentally told himself that he was fine and no longer starving.
"Sorry, fish usually gets me feral." James spoke once he'd swallowed his food.
"At least you aren't inhaling your food like Kaminari and Kirishima." Momo sighed. James turned to look at both boys who were indeed inhaling their food. James didn't think he saw them swallow.
"Delicious as the rice and meat is, I'd rather continue to eat my fish." James stated as he ate most of the tables sushi and fish entrees. He kept a normal pace to make Momo feel better about his eating habits.
"I can't wait to take a bath and go to bed." Momo spoke a few minutes later.
"Today was hard. If the following weeks are anything to go by, then this training is going to be tough." James stated. Momo nodded in agreement.
"I hope it's not to forward of me to ask but," Momo's voice dropped to a lower tone that indicated she didn't want anyone to overhear. "Kana told me she was going to try and work on getting you and Mina set up as a couple before we go home." James felt his face blank.
"She said what?" Momo studied his face before she clarified.
"Kana said you had feelings for Mina. From your facial and body language, I'm unsure if you do have feelings for her." James blinked at Momo wondering just what the heck Kana had been thinking about spreading these… well they weren't exactly lies but still. This wasn't something she should have gone around stating. What if Mina heard? What if she didn't like him that way? What if she did? This entire thing was a disaster in the making. Momo must have seen the look on his face as she quickly waved her hands in surrender. "You don't have to tell me James. I'm sorry for bringing it up but I thought you should know what Kana had told me earlier. I'm not sure if she realized what she was saying as she seemed like she was merely talking to herself."
"Uh, right." James swallowed his sushi. "I'll talk to her about that." Momo watched him for a few seconds making James uncomfortable. "Anything else you want to get off your mind?"
"Do you have feelings for Mina?" She whispered. James glanced around at their obvious audience. Thankfully no one was really paying them any attention, but he didn't want to talk about this now. This was supposed to be a training trip, not a "get James a girlfriend that he would no doubt break later on when she found out he was working with villains'" trip. James gulped before he answered.
"Momo do you mind if we talk about this later? I kind of just want to take a bath after this day." Momo nodded, looking a bit sad.
"Yes we can talk about it later. It's not to important to our studies or training anyway." James left the table to grab his clothes from his room and went to shower.
~Yuto's POV~
Yuto honestly didn't care if he was clean, but he figured if everyone else was doing it then he may as well. As much as he wanted to just pass out for the next few hours, he would feel better if he fell asleep clean. Less to do in the morning. So he sucked it up and grabbed his clothes and took a shower before he joined the other boys in the bath. He honestly found it a bit odd how Japanese bathed but when in Rome.
"Is James okay?" Tokoyami asked. Yuto hummed as he tuned back into his surroundings. James looked like he was in deep thought across from Yuto and James. Yuto didn't know if he was okay as he hadn't talked with him at dinner. He was quieter than usual though.
"I'm not sure." Yuto admitted. "I suppose I should see if he will let me know what's wrong." Tokoyami nodded allowing him to go. Yuto got up and walked over to his cousin brother.
"J?" No response. "James." Still no response. Yuto decided to try flicking water in James face. James flinched and hissed as he reared backwards in shock. "There you are."
"You know I don't like water in my face." James grumbled. Yuto blinked. That was interesting, normally James would put up more of a fuss regarding water.
"Yes but I did try and call your name multiple times before I resorted to flicking you with water." Yuto stated. James glared at him but Yuto could tell it was weak. "What's up with you? You've been quiet since you left dinner."
"Momo told me Kana was going to try some insane plan of trying to get me and Mina together this summer." James stated. Yuto raised an eyebrow at this information. He knew Kana had been getting sick of James mooning over Mina but he hadn't thought that she would do anything to speed it along. Of course, if he was honest it wasn't something he hadn't been expecting. Kana was impatient.
"You do like Mina though. I mean Kana and I called that weeks ago." Yuto said. It had been and still was a bit cringy to see how down for Mina James was. It was like any movement she made he was immediately aware of it and if she needed something, he was there. Of course, Mina wasn't subtle either if the way she kept sneaking looks at James was any indication. This entire thing was unlike the brother Yuto had grown up with. James didn't react to Yuto's comment for a while until suddenly he spoke in a soft voice.
"I'm going to hurt her." James had switched to their native language, one that ensured no one would be able to understand them as it wasn't well known outside their tribe. "We're not heroes Yuto, we're thieves. We're on loan to the League yes but this job isn't going to have a happy ending for anyone."
"I know that." Yuto sighed. "Like we understood in the beginning, this isn't our normal heist. We don't get anything out of it ourselves. At this point it's just plain cruel considering we're working for free. I'd hesitate to call this a job but it's something we have to do. We may as well make the most out of it and have fun."
"Am I thinking too much about this or are you not thinking about the feelings that we'll eventually catch?" James asked. Yuto sighed as he put his hands behind his back, relaxing into the warm rocks and water.
"Scary as it is everyone must experience pain and the other dark and conflicting emotions that make life worth living. Or so they say." Yuto sighed. "I don't know what or how this will end. What I can say is that if you don't go for it Kana and I will beat your butt because your sighing will get on our nerves." James swatted the water getting water in Yuto's face.
"Ah shut up shadow boy." James growled. Yuto cackled at his brother and doused him with another wave of water before he quickly got out of the water. He was too tired to continue hassling his brother for tonight.
The next morning Yuto was woken up at 5am by Aizawa flicking on the lights. He mentally groaned and rolled over on his bed mat. He just wanted to sleep a few more hours.
"Let's go everyone, get dressed and meet outside." Yuto groaned but eventually got up. He grabbed his bag and pulled out his UA gym clothes. He followed the boys as they all started to strip and change. Yuto yawns widely as he stumbled through the main house and to the outside.
"Good morning kids!" Aizawa greeted. "Today the real training begins. "Ideally you will all emerge stronger. Strong enough to obtain your Provisional Licenses. More specifically there is a growing hostile force out there. Through this you'll be prepared to face it. So stay sharp and work hard. To start, here Bakugou…" Aizawa threw a baseball at Bakugou that he caught easily. "Try throwing this."
"This is from the strength trials." Bakugou murmured.
"Last time, right after school started, your record was 705.2 meters. How much have you grown since then?"
"Ooh, testing to see if we've improved?" Mina called excitedly as everyone seemed to perk up at the prospect of measuring how they had improved. Yuto himself felt himself perk up as he thought about it as well. With all the training they'd done to prepare for the Spring Festival, they must have improved beyond their usual limits Yuto thought.
"We've been through a lot these last three months. I bet he can make it a whole kilometer."
"Throw that ball Bakugou!"
'You're all simps.' Yuto thought to himself as everyone watched Bakugou take his stance to throw the ball.
"Here we freaking go!" Bakugou grunted as he threw the ball with a loud boom. "GO TO HELL!" Yuto snorted at the typical response from Bakugou. The ball seemed to soar for a while as everyone waited for Aizawa to give the final results.
"709.6 meters." Aizawa spoke.
"Well that's surprising." Yuto commented.
"Not much father than before." Sero commented.
"Yes you have all been through a lot in these past three months." Aizawa spoke. "Undoubtedly you've all grown. But it's only your techniques and minds that have matured. Well, and your bodies too. But as you've all just seen, your Quirks haven't kept up with the pace. Starting today you'll all improve on your quirks." Yuto started to feel uncomfortable at the sick and twisted smile on Aizawa's face as he spoke their death sentence. "This'll be so harsh that you'll wish you were dead. So do your best to stay alive."
~Kana's POV~
Kana struggled to keep her breathing steady as she kept her portal open. Ocean air sprayed into her face as she focused on moving the portal from one side of the area to the other. Her fingers were starting to turn blue, but she kept pushing herself as her breathing hitched before she smoothed it out. She finally closed the portal and braced herself on her knees as she felt a shudder go through her as she resisted the urge to cough.
She had been working to keep her breathing normal as she moved her portals around her area. She also wanted to experiment with what she'd done yesterday in regards to making the black hole. Unfortunately, she wasn't sure how she had even done that, so she didn't know where to start. Making portals and moving them was her main focus right now. Kana's breathing evened out allowing her to stand up straight to take a look at how everyone else was doing.
It was like looking at a battlefield as there were shouts, grunts and yelling from everyone in Class 1A. Kana heard the distinct sound of bombs that were probably due to James making his Chaos Sphere's. He was attempting to see if he could manipulate what he destroyed instead of simply causing mass destruction. Yuto was in a cave with Tokoyami as they were both shadow Quirk users. Yuto was also attempting to have his shadows form in direct light but it was slow going as he was only able to do this with his weapons.
In all honesty, Kana was a little bored with this kind of training. It wasn't anything she hadn't done before. She was just working on her own breathing techniques. Kana would prefer to have been planning to infiltrate the training camp with the rest of the League but apparently that wasn't something she was good for. Kana tossed out all other thoughts as she focused on her Quirk.
Later that evening after training had ended for the day Kana sighed as she stretched her muscles. Her hands were still cold and probably wouldn't turn back to a normal shade of brown until later. She really wished she had a healing aspect to her Quirk.
"Like we said, the pampering stopped yesterday." Pixie Bob called as she and her teammate Rag Doll danced over the ingredients for Class 1A and 1B's dinner.
"You wanna eat? Then you can cook for yourselves! Today is curry!" Rag Doll called.
"Yes ma'am." Everyone called. Kana sighed as she thought about cooking. She wasn't very good at it. Prepping was okay but cooking? She killed the microwave with popcorn. The last time she'd tried to make a cake it had come out oozing purple gas and seemed to be alive.
"Bwa ha ha ha you all look worse for wear." Ragdoll laughed at their misery. Kana had half a mind to make them a dish to show them the world was not better for her poisoned food. "That's why this is no mere kitty chow you'll be making."
"But of course, in times of disaster and evacuation, someone needs to feed the souls and bellies of fatigued civilians." Kana was pretty sure the only reason they were cooking their own food was added torture by Aizawa. "Naturally UA never misses a teaching opportunity! Everyone lets make the best curry ever!"
"Can we get some fire over here Todoroki?" Mina called.
"We should also assign roles!" Iida called. "We need people to prep the fire, prep the food and cook it!" Kana sighed as she volunteered herself for prepping the food but was grabbed by Kirishima.
"Hey Kana! Can you cook the curry? I'll bet you're the best cook!" Kana blinked at that but didn't get to say otherwise as her brothers shouted out.
"NO!" James and Yuto shouted making everyone stop and look at them. Kana felt her face heat up in embarrassment and shame as she coughed. "We say this for everyone's benefit, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL MIGHT NO ONE LET KANA COOK ANYTHING!"
"Oh come on guys don't be so mean." Mina ordered. She smiled at Kana who hid her face with her hands. "I bet Kana can make lots of yummy things."
"We will die and come back as zombies." James stated.
"James, that's a bit mean." Tsu croaked.
"No that's actually accurate AF Tsu." Yuto defended. Kana herself couldn't handle how hot her face felt as she took a deep breath and lowered her hands.
"They're right. I can't cook." She mumbled.
"What do you mean you can't cook?" Bakugou asked, "Thought you were good at everything." Kana glared at him, ignoring the heat on her face as her inner voice demanded he eat his words.
"I never claimed to be good at everything! And I doubt you're so great at cooking." His face immediately twitched, turning into an angry expression.
"I can cook. Probably better than you!"
"Yeah that's not much of an accomplishment dude." James spoke.
"Kana can bring cake batter to life." Yuto added. "When she baked it, it started to emit a noxious gas and even started talking to me!"
"How is that possible?" Midoriya asked.
"I don't know Midoriya." Kana whined as she resolved to be done with this conversation. "I can't cook but I can do prep work." All prep work meant was showing off how good you were with a knife. That Kana could do.
"If you can't cook, then can Yuto or James cook?" Todoroki asked.
"I can but they never let me in the kitchen after I accidentally took out our chef's eye." James stated matter-of-factly.
"Unlike my brother and sister, I can indeed cook." Yuto said. "I'm better than they are. You guys bring me the ingredients and I'll cook it up."
"Let's get moving people!" Iida called ushering everyone to action. "We can discuss cooking skills after we've made the food."
"Yes sir!" Everyone called as they got moving. It took a great flurry of activity as everyone mobilized to cook. Kana was okay with chopping and slicing as this was calming for her. When she finished the last dish she put the knife in the table and wiped her hands off on the rag near her.
"You're pretty good with a knife." Shoji stated. Kana nodded with a smile.
"I'm always reliable when it comes to prep work at home. I've learned some skills over the years thanks to cooking shows." Kana answered. She was going to need to be a bit more careful to keep her knife skills to the kitchen until she had a good story about using knives in the field.
"Bon appetite!" Kirishima called a while later as everyone sat down to eat. Kana picked at the food, wincing at some of the burnt areas but she didn't voice any comments.
"Probably not quite good enough to serve at a restaurant but given our situation this is beyond delicious." The boys were practically inhaling their food. Kana could understand that it was necessary but she wasn't really very hungry at the moment.
"Speak for yourself." Sero called as he chowed down.
"You sure can pack it in Momo Yao!" Denki appraised. Kana looked over to see Momo indeed eating quickly. Kana gently whacked Denki's head.
"Be nice Denki."
"My Quirk converts my body fat into a variety of atoms so the more I store up the more I produce." Momo explained.
"Like poop!" Sero said. Momo face dropped.
"Think before you speak tape face." James called as Jiro punched Sero. Kana sighed at the boys idiocy as she continued to pick at her food.
~Shina's POV~
Wind blew through the forest as Shina looked down at the building in the middle of the forest where the kids were staying. She'd gotten Kana's message last night and had relayed it to Shigaraki and the others, but Dabi had insisted she come to take a look. Apparently he wanted her opinion on a plan of attack since she was a good strategist when it came to heists. She didn't really care for his reasoning, but she'd come just to shut him up. Another burst of wind came making her hair dance in it, more than likely getting more tangled.
"I'm itching, itching to go." Muscle head spoke from behind her. "Let's hurry up and move."
"It's too soon. Besides as I told you," Mustard chimed. "There's no need to do anything too flashy."
"Yeah, but who died and made you boss?" Dabi asked. "This will just be a signal fire. We'll fill those heroes full of holes and put them in their place. All for a brighter future." Shina sighed silently. No one in the new League could chill. Which made it hard to joke around with them. Sadly, Shigaraki was Shina's only form of entertainment.
"This is no good." Toga spoke. "This isn't cute at all Sunfire!"
"Our shady orchestrators have planned everything, despite appearances there is sure to be sound reasoning behind it." Mustard spoke.
"I don't make the equipment Toga. You got complaints, take it up with Giren." Shina replied drily.
"I'm just saying, this isn't cute." Toga spoke.
"Who the hell cares? Let's get down there, my bloods pumping." Muscle head growled.
"Shut up you wack jobs." Dabi spoke up. "Not yet. We wait until all 10 of us are here."
"Don't you mean 11?" Mustard asked indicating Shina's presence.
"I'm not in this plan." Shina spoke as she straightened up. "Just here to make sure you guys know where you're attacking as well as how you're going to attack. I have another job I need to do."
"Which is what?" Toga asked.
"Interference." Shina stated plainly. "Speaking of which, there are about four moles in this camp. They'll identify themselves if you run across them. If you harm them I will personally flay you alive."
"We understand." Mustard spoke. Shina nodded once before she noticed the three other figures coming from behind. Kurogiri beckoned towards her, indicating it was time for her to leave.
"Sorry we're late." Mange called.
"Job, a job." Hookfang spoke like he was in a trance.
"I'll leave you to it." Shina nodded at Dabi before she started walking to where Kurogiri waited.
"Doesn't matter how many punks with ambition you bring along. That only increases the risks." Dabi's voice carried to Shina on the wind. "It's far better to have a small group of experienced elites. First, we'll make sure they understand that their peace rests in our hands."
'Bold words to say Dabi.' Shina thought as she entered Kurogiri's portal. 'Especially since you consider yourself an elite. I wonder, what training do you have that makes you consider yourself an elite? Or is it merely your firepower?' Shina reappeared on top of a building in downtown Mustafu. Her thoughts on Dabi's shady background could be put on hold for now. She needed to focus on being the prime target for the heroes to keep them from going after the League.
Now how to go about this brand of lunacy?