Izuku carefully unwrapped the bandages around his neck, revealing, thankfully, no remaining bruises or scaring. He sighed as he chucked it into his room's bin, he'd have to take it out later.
But for now, he changed into casual clothes and promised to meet Nejire outside one of the forests before he left to camp. He was all packed and prepared to go. He left his bags in his room for now and went outside to meet Nejire.
"Nejire!" Izuku called out, getting her attention. She noticed him, jumping up from where she was sitting and crashing into him with a hug. Izuku had picked up on this pretty quickly, bracing himself and hugging her back, making sure the two didn't fall onto the ground.
"Please be careful..." She almost whispered, much to Izuku's concern. He had an odd feeling about this trip, and it seemed like she had it too.
"I will be, don't worry!" Izuku told her, smiling to hide his own worry. Nejire's unusually piercing gaze told him everything he needed to know, and he hugged her a little tighter. "I'll do my best, alright?"
Nejire just nodded a little, releasing Izuku as he, mustering his courage, kissed her cheek before going again. "I'll see you in a week's time!"
What he didn't hear was Nejire's last whisper.
Izuku had emptied his room's bin, cleaned everything and dragged his luggage downstairs and out the front, waiting with the rest of the class. He pulled out a book, his phone and headphones ready for the several hour bus ride. He engaged in conversation with several classmates, mostly Todoroki and Iida.
Eventually, Aizawa-sensei showed up and Iida and Yaoyorozu directed the class onto the bus after loading all the luggage into the storage for such underneath. Iida sat up the back to "keep all those hooligans in check!", whilst Todoroki and Izuku sat together in the middle, away from the gossip at the front and the... rowdiness at the back. The other students in the quieter section included Tokoyami, Koda, Shoji, and surprisingly Aoyama (no-one gave him the attention he wanted, so somewhere he shines the brightest kind of made sense to Izuku).
Regardless, the students in the section did their best to ignore the rest of the bus, when Kaminari tried to start everyone singing "Wheels on the bus" (which was followed quickly by everyone trying to keep Kaminari alive after he tried to force Bakugo to sing) to Mina chanting at Yaoyorozu to get her crush out of her (who promptly knocked Mina out with a rubber bat, at some point she got confident).
Izuku kept to himself, taken up in a notebook as he continued prep for his super move ideas. He was buried in the notebook when Todoroki informed him that the bus had stopped. "Wait, really?" Izuku asked, putting it away.
"Mmhm. We've been driving for about an hour, and we've stopped for a brief rest," Todoroki explained, getting up with the rest of the bus.
Izuku just nodded, following Todoroki as they got off.
There the class stood, Kaminari shorted out being pulled by an exhausted Sero, an unconscious Mina being dragged by Hagakure, Yaoyorozu's blush being handled by Jiro, Kirishima struggling to hold back Bakugo, and a Mineta busting for the toilet.
Iida took charge and gathered the class, where Aizawa-sensei got their attention, as another car pulled up. Out stepped two pro heroines in cat costumes and a small boy. "Ah, good, you've arrived," Aizawa-sensei spoke, greeting the newcomers, "Helping us with the camp will be the Wild Wild Pussycats, here are two of the members."
"Rock on with these sparkling gazes! We've come to lend a paw and help! Coming out of nowhere... Stingingly cute and catlike! Wild, Wild Pussycats!" Mandalay and Pixiebob proclaimed, striking a pose whilst the little boy hung out in the background, glaring at everything and everyone.
"No way!" Izuku suddenly spoke up, his hair spiking up as he began to speak faster subconsciously, "The Wild Wild Pussycats are an incredible four person rescue team that were established when we were only around 5, and recently passed a decade of work since the establishment a few years after they all finished high scho-"
Suddenly, a large paw covered his face, causing him to begin muffling towards the end before it tightened a little bit. "I'm eighteen at heart!" The owner of the paw said, to which Izuku quickly mumbled an agreement whilst trying to catch his breath again.
Thankfully, they released him and Kirishima spoke up. "Wait, where's class B?"
"And this is a peculiar place for a rest stop..." Sero added, a speck of fear in his voice.
"Guys, we should get back on the bus!" Kaminari called out, rushing with Mineta when Pixiebob activated her quirk to send the entire class tumbling down the hill.
"Mother Fu-!" Bakugo got cut off, the dirt tsunami reaching him and the remaining members off the class.
"The camp is through these woods! Feel free to use your quirks since this is private property! Also, it should take about 3 hours, kitties who don't arrive before then won't get lunch!" Mandalay called down to them, as the class brushed themselves off. Everyone just sighed, friends helping each other up whilst Mineta rushed over to... relieve himself.
Until he encountered a massive beast made of Earth. Koda was the first to react, trying to calm down the earth beast with his quirk. Unfortunately, because Pixiebob created them, it had no effect.
Izuku was next to react, grabbing the two boys and pulling them away, who were caught by Iida. Yaoyorozu began producing weapons and shields for other students that didn't have particularly combative quirks.
Whilst that was happening, Todoroki froze the beast and Bakugo exploded both of it's arms. Finally, Izuku came in and jumped at the creature, lightning arcing off of his arm as he touched it, sending a brief flash of green lightning through it and the beast shattered into dirt.
"Alright 1-A!" Iida called out, "Split into groups! Those with more defensive quirks stay at the sides and back! Combative ones to the front! Long ranged or support in the middle! Let's get to the camp!"
"Plus..." Kaminari started the cheer.
"ULTRA!" The class finished, pumping their fists in the air and falling into the assigned positions.
The combat group was the first to arrive in camp. Each member was covered in various scrapes and bruises, all of them (bar Bakugo who had exploded it all during the journey) glistening with sweat.
The next group was the support and long range fighters, each completely exhausted, some suffering from quirk overuse and glistening with sweat as well, but with limited injuries.
The last group to show up was the defensive group. They were exhausted, not as much as the combat group, but had nearly as many scrapes and bruises.
"Good job kitties!" Mandalay said, looking over at the sun low in the sky, "But we probably should've mentioned it would've taken us three hours to do it. My bad!"
Sero just gave her a disappointed look as Mineta began whining.
"You four did really well though!" Pixiebob said, pointing to the combat group (consisting of Iida, Todoroki, Bakugo and Izuku). She begins doing something trying to claim the four of them (resulting in Aizawa-sensei and Izuku's displeasure, Todoroki's discomfort, Bakugo's anger, Iida's triggerment, and Jiro preventing Yaoyorozu from creating a weapon) whilst Mandalay tries to assure Aizawa that it won't happen again.
"While we're talking about age-" Izuku started, to have his face covered by Pixiebob's paw, seething at him, "I jutht wanted to athk who that ith." Izuku finished, pointing to a little boy.
"Oh, that's Kota, my nephew," Mandalay said whilst dragging Pixiebob away, "Come say hi Kota!"
Kota didn't go over to them, just glared at them. Izuku decided to try and approach him, only to get punched in... well. Bakugo started cackling, knowing his brother would be fine. Todoroki was going to make a witty comment to silence Bakugo, but Yaoyorozu beat him to the punch. Literally.
Yaoyorozu slapped Bakugo on the back of the head. "Ah fuck! Fine, sorry Izuku, are you alright ya nerd?" Bakugo said, rubbing his head.
"Uh, yeah..." Izuku said, recovering as Iida helped him. The rest of the class were watching the peculiar interaction when Mandalay spoke up. "Sorry about Kota... he's not taken to kindly to heroes or quirks..."
Izuku blinks in understanding and nods to show that it's okay. The class go to dinner together, Kirishima, Sero and Kaminari eating like animals.
During the feast, Izuku noticed Kota had wandered off at some point. He shook it off as the kid going through his troubles as he ate his own dinner, trying not to nod off. Todoroki occasionally poked him awake whilst Iida's scoldings of Kaminari and Mineta's antics also helped.
Eventually everyone finished eating and were told that they could use the warm springs to bathe in.
Izuku leant on Bakugo's shoulder as the boys walked together to the springs.
The green-haired boy was half asleep when he heard some vague nonsense being spouted by Mineta. He watched as Iida stood under the purple haired and Bakugo was gearing up to go when Kota appeared at the top of the wall, throwing a bucket down at Mineta (who Iida had the unfortunate pleasure of catching).
Kota suddenly fainted, and Izuku sprung into action. Managing to gather the perfect amount of lightning to jump in time, Izuku caught the boy and managed to land whilst also twisting his ankle. 'Drat,' He thought, gently putting the boy down and throwing on a shirt and pants as he carried Kota in his arms to Mandalay. The other male students understood, bidding him farewell as Izuku went to drop Kota off in the infimary.
"Oh, thanks for catching him!" Mandalay said, "He must've fainted from the height."
"No worries," Izuku said, taking a breath before continuing, "Uhm, I was wondering why he hated heroes so much?"
Mandalay sighed, before speaking. "His parents were pro-heroes. The Water Hose duo."
Izuku nodded, remembering them. "Died in action, didn't they?"
"Yeah," Mandalay said, "And Kota was so young at the time. His parents were his world, and suddenly they're gone and everyone is saying that 'they did an amazing thing' but he couldn't understand that. To him, it seemed like the world hated him and were celebrating his parents death. So he grew a deep-seated hatred for heroes."
"That developed into a hatred for quirks at it's root cause." Izuku finished. Mandalay nodded and sighed.
"I... I may be able to help." Izuku said.
"Really?" Mandalay said looking up.
"Y-yeah. My parents were killed in an incident..." Izuku said, reminiscing. Mandalay hugged him in sympathy.
"I'm sorry for what happened. I would be so grateful if you could get through to him." Mandalay said. Releasing him. Izuku just gave a sorrowful smile as he bid her farewell, returning to the designated male's room.
He was the first there, so he got changed, pulled on the blindfold, picked an isolated corner and went to sleep, which hopefully would be enough to prepare him for tomorrow's training.