The 1-A and 1-B students gathered in the clearing where they'd spent their days training. All the equipment had been moved, and the terrain had been reshaped by Pixie-Bob, so it didn't resemble the same location at all. They'd been packing up early after dinner when Ragdoll and Tiger had brought up a special surprise waiting for them in the clearing. The students had hesitantly made their way to the location that Ragdoll had pointed them toward and found nobody present. They waited and waited, until it started feeling like a trick. Ochako looked around, trying her best to spot anyone hiding in the bushes or the trees that surrounded the clearing on all sides, sliced open by the path that led to the cabins. Was this another one of Aizawa's logical deceptions? If it was, she was not going to be happy. She crossed her arms and huffed out a breath as the two classes began to speak amongst each other in the silence. Izuku took her hand gently and that distracted her from her agitation, but nothing could've distracted Ochako from the cold, scratchy material of his gloves. She didn't want him to push himself too hard, but she hoped he figured out how to control his power soon. Ochako didn't know how much longer she could go without feeling the warmth of his hand in hers, the texture of his skin. The gloves allowed them to hold hands, but it wasn't the same as without. She smiled sadly.
A bubble of earth rose from the ground and popped, revealing all four Pussycats, and the UA teachers — Aizawa, Vlad King, Midnight, and Present Mic — behind them. The Pussycats all posed, and Aizawa simply stepped to the side. Pixie-Bob's Quirk must've been used to pull that entrance off. The students went silent, and clapped as the Pussycats made their big entrance.
"Hope you really pushed yourselves today, kids, because we're gonna be putting the saying into practice here; you've been working so hard that we figured you guys should get a chance to play hard as well!" Mandalay said.
Some of the students gave each other excited, yet unsure glances, as if they weren't sure whether Mandalay was telling them the truth. Ragdoll stepped out in front of the group and said, "That's right! We've come up with a little game for you all to play tonight, so listen up!"
"The game is simple," Pixie-Bob said. "There's a hiking trail that heads into the woods and loops back around to this clearing. One class will go out and hide along the trail, and the other class will be sent out in pairs. The job of the class that's hiding is to use their Quirks as creatively as they can to scare the pairs that come along! Then, when all the pairs have made the trip, the classes switch roles!"
"Control your fear, it'll keep you alive in these woods," Tiger said, his tone and body language completely rigid and sharp.
Ochako frowned as someone nearby — probably Kaminari, though it might've been Tsubaraba from 1-B, she couldn't tell — made a half-hearted joke about Tiger's totally different vibe compared to the rest of the Pussycats, but as soon as the man's eyes turned on whoever had attempted the joke, the crowd of students fell silent.
"Welp, you heard him!" Ragdoll said, lightly punching Tiger's arm. "Let's see you control that fear!"
"1-B will be scaring 1-A first," Mandalay said. "Ragdoll will escort you to the halfway point, where she'll remain as a kind of checkpoint."
"Let's do this!" Ragdoll said, enthusiastically pumping her fists in the air as she began to walk off into the woods following a smaller trail that cut through the trees at the opposite end of the clearing as the one that led back to the cabins.
"First," Aizawa said, stopping everyone, including Ragdoll and 1-B, in their tracks. "Don't think I haven't forgotten about those of you who failed their final exams. There are still consequences for that." Kaminari, Sero, Kirishima, and Sato deflated in the blink of an eye. It looked like Monoma and Tetsutetsu from 1-B were also not taking that announcement well. "You six will have remedial lessons with me tonight."
"But … the game!" Kaminari cried.
"But your grades." Aizawa grinned terribly, and beckoned the six students he'd called out to follow him, and Vlad King followed as well, pushing his students along when they resisted.
"Now that that's taken care of, we can get this thing started!" Pixie-Bob cheered.
Ragdoll led the eighteen students left in 1-B off into the woods along the trail so that they could set up their scares. That left 1-A to be split up into pairs. Ochako wasn't the best at math, but that left their class with only fifteen people, since they started with nineteen and lost four. That meant that someone was going to have to go through the forest alone. The remaining members of 1-A began to eye each other warily, as if it was going to be the fault of one of them that they'd go it alone. Mandalay spoke up once again, and explained.
"We'll pick your pairs at random, so don't you worry about having to exile one of your poor classmates to their fate!" Mandalay said with a laugh.
"We'll exile that sucker for ya," Tiger said flatly.
The pairs were sorted out in no time at all. Todoroki and Toru were put together as the first duo, which seemed to be a satisfying development for Toru, while Todoroki didn't seem to notice that she was trying to hit on him. Kyoka and Shoji were a pair, and quietly stood off to the side without making conversation, as they both tended to do. Iida insisted on shaking Ojiro's hand when they were put together, even though Ojiro kept insisting that he wasn't that big on formalities like that. Tsu and Mineta were another pair, and they, surprisingly, were able to engage in a friendly conversation. That would never stop feeling wrong. Unfortunately, Izuku was paired up with Koda, who he happily greeted even if Ochako could tell that he had been hoping to go with her. Seeing Tokoyami standing next to Mina was certainly a mixing of aesthetics and colours that Ochako had never thought she would see in person. Ochako herself got paired up with Momo, whose side she gladly stood at with a smile. It was then that the answer was given, the lone traveller was decided. Aoyama looked around, trembling but trying to appear as though he wasn't, and frowned.
"Ah, of course! I must always be apart from those who would seek to dim my light!" Aoyama said with a shaky flourish. "Although, if it must be my light that alone illuminates the darkness ahead of me, I ask that I participate in this game last. I must call my uncle."
"That's fine," Mandalay said, and then turned back to the group. "We'll give them some time to set up before we send you on your way."
The students began to mingle with the classmates they'd been paired up with, and Ochako did the same, though it was an effort to keep her mind focused on the present. For some reason, ever since the game had been announced, she'd had this feeling in the back of her mind, or maybe radiating out from her chest, that something was wrong. This whole thing just didn't feel right. No, it was more than that. It wasn't about the game, it was about the fun she thought she might have. It was almost as if she felt guilty for having had a good time at camp so far. She'd faced so many bad things since she'd enrolled at UA, fought villains and friends, faced her own weaknesses and the traumas of others. It didn't feel right that things were calm, happy, safe. Ever since she'd run into that girl at the mall, Himiko, Ochako had felt off, like she was certain that something bad was going to happen. Except, it never came. That feeling just kept building inside her, and over the last few days, she'd been able to ignore that and focus on her training, but the second she'd gotten the chance to slow down and think, it had all come crashing back in on her like an oppressive tidal wave of dread.
"Are you okay?" Momo asked with a gentle smile on her face. "You seem nervous."
"No, I'm fine!" Ochako said, then blinked. Her first instinct had been to lie. That wasn't a sign of anything good. "I mean, I'm a little nervous about some personal stuff, but I'm still fine."
"If you say so," Momo said, with a troubled look on her face.
"Oh, where does he go?" Mandalay said with a hint of sadness in her voice. A few students turned to look, mostly those with enhanced hearing that allowed them to unintentionally eavesdrop, like Kyoka and Shoji. Strangely enough, Todoroki was paying attention as well. It seemed that Mandalay and Pixie-Bob were having a private conversation off to the side of their group, but Todoroki didn't ignore it like the others did.
"I'm sure he'll come back soon," Pixie-Bob said, putting a paw-gloved hand on Mandalay's shoulder.
"Sure," Mandalay said. "It's just hard."
"I know," Pixie-Bob sighed.
Todoroki looked at nothing, his gaze shifting to a random tree. His face went through several microexpressions that caused his eyes to shift slightly. He seemed to cycle through three or four different expressions in about half a second, from confusion, to realisation, then to sadness, and finally some kind of resignation. Ochako had been wondering what Todoroki's interest in the child was about, and his interest in Mandalay and Pixie-Bob's conversation was clearly connected to that. Was he just curious, or was there something else going on that she didn't know about? The boy, Kota, clearly didn't like being around the students, and from what Ochako had seen, he didn't like being around the Pussycats any better, though he seemed to be able to tolerate that, at least. The kid was a mystery, and Todoroki seemed set on solving it, but why? Ochako didn't have time to ask him about it, as he and Toru set off into the woods along the hiking trail at Mandalay's instruction. As she wondered about why Todoroki might have been so invested in the mystery, she watched as the different pairs were sent off onto the trail, one after the other, in two minute intervals. It was supposedly timed that way so that the first pair arrived back at camp at the same time that the last would leave. The students wouldn't be out of the heroes' sight for longer than they had to be. Ochako knew that that was for the best.
Iida and Ojiro were both too polite to go in front of anyone, so they opted to go second to last, before Aoyama, who was still talking on the phone with his uncle, which Ochako thought was weird. Taking a personal phone call at a time like this? Weird did seem to be Aoyama's middle name, though. That meant that Shoji and Kyoka went next, silently setting off into the deep, dark forest. Then, it was Tsu and Mineta who went out into the night side by side, as Tsu jokingly offered to hold Mineta's hand if he was scared. He didn't do a lot of cowering after that. Next, Izuku and Koda set out, the two of them all smiles and waves as they plunged into the woods. Tokoyami and Mina followed them not long after, the darker, avian fellow instantly disappearing into the shadowy forest as Mina stuck out like a sore thumb with her shades of pink. Her yellow eyes did seem to glow against the darkness of her sclerae, though. Sclera and its plural form was a word that Ochako had learned specifically because of Mina's eyes, which sometimes were unsettling in low-light conditions such as the trail. Soon enough, it was Ochako and Momo's turn. Ochako put a smile on her face and linked her arm with Momo's, and the two of them trod into the forest like nothing bad could ever happen there.
If only Ochako believed that was true.
The walk through the woods would have been nice if Shoto had been alone. The smells of the greenery and the coolness of the breeze that brought a comforting chill to the warm summer night were excellent tools for de-stressing after a long day, a long few days really, of training. Shoto took deep, even breaths as he walked along the trail, hearing the crunch of dirt and twigs under his sneakers and the rustling of leaves and branches above as the wind blew past. Hagakure was also present. She all but skipped along the trail beside him, kicking up piles of leaves and stomping on some of the larger branches that had fallen from the trees above. She seemed to have a lot of energy that she needed to work out, and it seemed to be nervous in nature. Shoto couldn't read her facial expressions, since she was invisible, but her body language was not as enthusiastic as her actions would suggest. She was stiff, rigid, and her movements were all hesitant. Hagakure must have been scared. They'd been gotten by 1-B a few times by that point. The boy with the prominent teeth had used his softening power to surprise them from below with the seemingly dead body of the girl who could manipulate an object's size. The telekinetic girl had made a branch fall in front of them while they'd been passing by, and the stout boy had legitimately destroyed a tree with his power so that it would topple over and almost obstruct their path. They were getting quite creative and very destructive with their attempts to scare Shoto and Hagakure.
It was working, too, at least on Hagakure. Every time she got scared, she went to him for support. First she had leapt almost out of her skin and hidden behind him when it had seemed that the one girl's seemingly dead body had appeared out of nowhere. Then, when the twigs and branches had started swirling in a wind neither of them could feel, Hagakure had taken his hand. After that, the short boy's attempt to spook them with the collapsing tree had driven Hagakure to clutch his arm, and she was yet to let go even as they'd moved past that particular attempt to scare them. Shoto hadn't been scared by any of it after the first time with the girl. Hagakure's warmth spread through her touch, and Shoto would've thought she was unnaturally warm if not for the fact that it was his left arm that she was clutching. Of course she felt warmer to the ice side of his body. Brushing that off, Shoto contemplated asking her to let go of him. He decided that he didn't really care. It wasn't like it inconvenienced him in any way, and it clearly brought her some amount of satisfaction, whether it was comfort or some other kind of achievement. Ashido often behaved as though Shoto didn't understand that people considered him attractive, but that wasn't true in the slightest. He knew what Hagakure was doing — Shoto simply didn't care.
The really disturbing things began to occur when Hagakure noticed that the attempts to scare them had seemingly stopped. Nothing had happened for about five minutes. There was a hazy mist that was pooling around the edges of the trail, but nothing had tried to scare them. Shoto couldn't think of a single member of 1-B whose Quirk produced that mist. It looked similar to Midnight's gas, but she shouldn't have been participating in the game, so that couldn't be it. As well, there was smoke above, but that smoke was black as opposed to the low, crawling fog's purplish colouration, which more often than not meant that the smoke wasn't produced by a Quirk. Something was burning. Or someone.
"I think something has gone wrong," Shoto said.
"Do you think so?" Hagakure asked, unentangling herself from Shoto's arm. "How can you tell?"
"There are two different kinds of smoke coming from the forest. Up in the air, do you see it? Black. But there was a different smoke on the edge of the trail a few minutes ago, low-hanging like fog, that was purple. Two different effects caused those two things to happen," Shoto explained.
"Has something actually bad happened?" Hagakure asked. Judging by her body language and posture, her arms might've shifted so that she could hug herself.
"I don't know. We should get back to the Pussycats as fast as we can, even if this is just a trick from 1-B," Shoto said.
"Got it!" Hagakure said.
Shoto picked up the pace and started power-walking back to the clearing he'd left only ten or so minutes earlier. He and Hagakure didn't encounter any more traps from 1-B, which only set Shoto on higher alert. Hagakure had gone completely once something actually serious was even suggested. Perhaps he'd wrongly assumed some things about her if this is how she behaved when real danger was a possibility. She'd been jumpy and helpless before, and Shoto had assumed that some of that fear was exaggerated for an excuse to touch him, but maybe all of it had been a falsity. If that was true, how much of the persona that she showed to their classmates was similarly false? Shoto suddenly had no way to tell. He reminded himself that he wasn't going to underestimate his classmates anymore, and kept on moving. They were almost to the clearing, the sounds of shouting becoming clearer as they neared the end of the trail. Shoto and Hagakure sprinted out into the open and came to a skidding stop as they processed the events unfolding before them.
The Pussycats were in the midst of combat. Mandalay was trying to herd Iida and Ojiro away from the fight, but Iida was frozen and stiff, more so than usual. Tiger threw quick, decisive punch after punch, failing again and again to hit a target that always managed to duck under his attacks at the last second. Pixie-Bob threw up a clod of earth and blocked a knife thrown at Mandalay, who reacted with subdued alarm. Shoto's thoughts all honed in on that knife. It was familiar, and he realised who the Pussycats were fighting less than a second before he saw the man himself sprinting right at Tiger through the remaining cloud of dirt and mud that Pixie-Bob's attack had left in its wake. Stain, the Hero Killer, in all his blood red scarves and dark protective gear, ducked under another of Tiger's strikes, but didn't manage to make contact with the knife that he'd lashed out at the hero with. Tiger's body was just too flexible and quick to snake out of the way of his blade. The two of them were locked in a stalemate, but the efforts of the other two present Pussycats made it seem like the tide would turn. It would turn further once Shoto sent some ice Stain's way. He slid his right foot along the ground and the air crystallised in a misshapen ring of ice around it, locking it in place. Shoto was about to unleash his attack on the Hero Killer without a word, but a voice entered his mind and warned against it.
Don't!
Looking around, Shoto noticed that Mandalay was looking right at him and Hagakure as she tried to drag Iida and Ojiro away from the fighting. Iida had the most disturbed look on his face, as if he was simultaneously filled with dread and anticipation. Shoto knew that look. When rewatching the sports festival, it was a look that he'd recognised on his own face. He knew that he wasn't the best at reading peoples' feelings, but it seemed like Iida wanted to fight. Why wasn't Mandalay letting him, or Shoto himself for that matter? It had to be because they were unlicensed, which was the letter of the law, but Shoto didn't think that mattered all too much in the current situation. The Hero Killer was there, and the Pussycats were a low-power hero team on their best day, and they were down a member while Ragdoll was keeping watch at the checkpoint in the woods. They were going to need help to defeat Stain, and Shoto and Iida could provide that help. So why …?
Kids, you have to run! Get back to the cabins and tell Eraserhead what's going on. We pros can handle him until that backup arrives. Mic and Midnight are already searching the woods for the other students. Now go!
Cold air swirled around Shoto's foot, ready to solidify into ice if he willed it. He had warmth radiate from his left foot, though, and melted the ice that had already formed into a puddle at his feet. Shoto was ready to take Stain on again, but he wasn't an idiot. He knew that a pro hero had just given him a direct order, and that disobeying it would not earn him the same grace that he and the others had received the last time they'd engaged with villains unlawfully. That had been self-defence, and getting involved this time would not reward them with such understanding from the authorities. He nodded to Mandalay, and got a nod in return, before turning and preparing to run toward the cabins. A thought occurred to him, however, just as he was about to set off. Shoto spun back around and locked eyes with Mandalay yet again, who looked at him with shock as she tried and failed to physically move Iida, who was four inches taller than her and built much wider than any of the Pussycats except Tiger.
"I know where Kota is," Shoto called. "I'll keep him safe."
Mandalay nodded to him, still trying alongside Ojiro to pull Iida away from the fight. Shoto turned and sprinted off toward the cabins, which was only step one in the plan now that he remembered that Kota had hidden himself away again. If he was at the same cliffside plateau that he'd called his secret hideout last night, then it would be easy to find the boy. The only question was whether or not he wanted to delay finding Kota in order to warn Aizawa first, or if he wanted to delay warning Aizawa in order to ensure Kota's safety first. Taking the time to stop and explain the situation to Aizawa first would save more lives in the long run, since Shoto did not think that the Pussycats at three-quarters strength could take on the Hero Killer, and Iida and Ojiro didn't add to those chances as much as they likely thought they did, but Kota was a child. A memory, one Shoto had thought he'd forgotten long ago, came to him at that thought. Shoto had often spent his nights crying himself to sleep, cold and alone. No child should have to suffer through such hellish pain. Kota must have been scared, alone, and unsure of what to do if he could see the pink gas and black smoke drifting through the woods from his hideout. It was barely a choice to divert his path away from the cabins and through the woods toward the mountain. Hagakure pivoted when he changed paths, too, and gave him what Shoto assumed was supposed to be a thumb's up by the way her shoulders shifted.
"You should head to the cabins and warn the teachers," Shoto said evenly as he sprinted as fast as he could. Surprisingly, Hagakure kept pace with him.
"Not a chance!" she said, though it sounded like it took a significant effort on her part to speak clearly while sprinting. "I wanna see that kid safe, too."
"Very well, then," Shoto exhaled forcefully.
He couldn't make her do anything, and was actually pleasantly surprised by her willingness to tag along to help a kid she barely knew. Perhaps she was a better hero-hopeful than he'd assumed. Shoto and his unlikely companion sprinted off into the woods together, heading toward Kota's hideout at top speed to ensure his safety. Shoto was not going to fail that boy any longer.
The sounds of distant screams and laughing echoed between the trees. A wind blew through the forest, and the chill bypassed all of Izuku's clothes and sunk deep into his bones. That pervasive breeze was refreshing on such a warm summer night as the one he and Koda found themselves in the midst of on their walk through the woods during the test of courage. They hadn't been on the path for long, about ten minutes in total, but it had felt like an eternity had passed between their departure from their classmates and the present. Mere minutes passed between the attempts to scare the two of them into screaming like little girls, but it felt like hours. Izuku was on edge after Honenuki from 1-B had decided to give it his best shot and grab at his ankles from underground, which had made Izuku shriek and stumble over himself so badly that he found himself on the ground moments later. He'd joined in on Honenuki and Kodai's laughing, even if it was at his expense. He could've sworn it was the first time he'd heard a sound from Kodai, though. Izuku and Koda had kept going after that, even if Koda had uttered the loudest noise that Izuku had ever heard from him when 1-B's Yanagi had dropped bugs on them from above with her Poltergeist Quirk. As it turned out, Koda suffered from entomophobia.
Izuku tried his best to comfort his companion by admitting that he thought he'd turn out to have agoraphobia if he talked about his aversion to crowded places and unplanned skin contact with Hound Dog. That did actually seem to work, as Koda's whole body relaxed and he stopped flinching at every little thing. Izuku knew how people saw him — if he wasn't crazy, he was the bravest member of their class. He thought there were plenty braver than him, though. Kirishima, for putting himself in harm's way again and again, Ochako, for taking a big swing and accepting All Might's power and for engaging in combat with powerhouses like Todoroki and Bakugo without a brute force ability of her own, and Iida, who'd had the guts to face the Hero Killer and not freeze. They were all incredible. Izuku didn't think he was very special compared to all those feats of bravery, but he could see how others would see him as especially courageous after all he'd done. He thought it might've helped Koda overcome his fear when the guy who fought and beat a creature as strong as All Might confessed to being scared of something harmless as well.
They were further able to distract themselves by attempting to have a conversation, though that wasn't going very well. Izuku had known that Koda was a quiet boy long before camp, but as it turned out, Koda was actually mute. That development had led to Izuku finding out that Koda's primary method of communication was sign language, which Izuku didn't know how to use. He'd learned it as a child, since all the doctors and Bakugo's parents had been concerned about hearing loss as a side-effect of his Explosion Quirk, and Izuku had thought that they were still friends at the time, so of course he'd put an effort into learning this skill for his best friend. The knowledge of sign language had long since left his mind, though, eroded by the decade of disuse and disdain that had followed. Between scares, Koda started teaching him some basic signs, which helped the two of them relax even further.
It didn't stop a tense, nauseous feeling from beginning in Izuku's gut and spreading from there, though. It didn't stop Izuku from getting anxious for no good reason and feeling frightened by every shadow they passed by. It didn't stop the itching sensation that had his skin buzzing, the itch that Izuku knew wasn't the crawling of bugs. Izuku knew what anxiety felt like, and greeted the familiar sensation with a sour attitude that he tried not to point at Koda as they worked on figuring out a way to talk as they made their way through the deeply shadowed woods. But why was he anxious? There was nothing actually serious going on. All the little scares were coming from 1-B, his peers at UA, so why did he feel this way? Why was Izuku's gut so sure that something terrible was about to happen? There was a dread that seized him over the course of that walk through the forest, like a gargantuan hand slowly tightening its grip on his chest over the course of minutes. It was impossible to tell how fast that grip was tightening, but Izuku would ignore it for a moment and it would suddenly claw at him even more powerfully than before, and he was forced to pay attention to it, like it wanted his focus. A dark cloud hung over Izuku, and he knew what had brought it to him. As much as he didn't like to admit it, he always knew what brought on his episodes of panic, fear, and dread.
It was the same feeling that Izuku had been trying to ignore since Hosu. Nothing had been finished there. He and his friends hadn't won the day, they'd simply delayed the inevitable. It had started small, this feeling. It had begun as a mere lump of lead that burned in Izuku's chest during the quiet moments, the moments when he couldn't lean on his friends to help him ignore that cold fire in his stomach. Over the months since that night, though, it had grown. Ever since the mall visit, when he'd run into two of his old bullies, it had been worse than ever. That feeling now coiled around his torso like a gigantic snake made of roiling, hot shame and ice cold dread, squeezing down on him seemingly at random. For all he'd wondered, and despite his regret over failing to control his Quirk, Izuku knew in his heart that Bakugo wasn't dead. He knew that there was no way that Katsuki Bakugo would die without having gotten the last laugh. Katsuki Bakugo would never die on anyone else's terms. His ending had to be his. Nothing had ended yet, and for all he wished that he didn't, Izuku knew that it had been far too long between Bakugo's attacks for comfort. Something was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon. It was a matter of time. Just how much time was the question, and Izuku had no clue. That left him with this feeling, this dread that was trying to warn him about a danger he already knew but could do nothing about.
So much for a fun summer camp experience.
Students, please listen to me!
Izuku missed a step at the sudden intrusion into his mind. That was Mandalay's voice, but why would she be using her Quirk, and why did she sound so panicked? Stumbling for a moment, Izuku righted himself and locked eyes with Koda, who looked back at him with the expression that was probably warping his own features — panic and confusion. The two of them stopped walking at the same time and maintained eye contact as Mandalay's voice blared in their minds once again.
Villains have infiltrated the camp. Of course. Izuku sighed heavily, his entire body sagging as he and Koda processed the message. He wasn't even angry, just tired of constantly having to fight for his life. Midnight and Present Mic have been sent to retrieve as many of you kids as they can, but I still urge you to abandon the test of courage and take the trail back to the cabins, and avoid the clearing! Stain the Hero Killer is present in the clearing, and we Pussycats are trying our best to hold him off until backup gets here, but don't make yourselves into targets. Izuku's whole body tensed once again as he realised the magnitude of what was happening. The Hero Killer was in the clearing that he and Koda had left just ten or so minutes earlier. Iida still may have been out there, face to face with Stain. Izuku and Iida had had a few talks about Hosu since that night, but he didn't know if Iida was ready for a rematch with the Hero Killer. And if Stain was present … The night may end in tragedy for more than just Iida. Things just kept getting worse and worse. I've sent messengers to warn Eraserhead and Vlad King about what's going on. We don't know how many villains have infiltrated the camp, so if you encounter someone you think may want to harm you, do not engage. Flee. Now!
"What's up, Deku?" a hoarse, guttural voice uttered from behind Izuku.
He knew who it was before he looked. Izuku would never forget that voice, and only one person had ever used that nickname with such loathing as laced the voice of the new arrival. Spinning around met him with the sight of a grinning Katsuki Bakugo, leaning against a tree a few metres off the trail. Izuku's entire body jerked, like his whole being was flinching at the sight of the boy. He looked just like he had that night in Hosu, except there was something in his eyes that was different that night. They weren't empty, but they were less full than they'd once been. His red eyes didn't glow in the darkened space he took up among the bushes and trunks. Those glaring red eyes were dull, like the heat they had once produced was entirely internal nowadays. That didn't make Izuku feel any better about his chances at winning if and when Bakugo picked a fight. If anything, Bakugo's fighting abilities greatly increased when he ignored his anger and focused purely on winning. Izuku's heart hammered in his chest, and he thought the sound might've been audible. His hands shook as he met Bakugo's crazed, dull eyes.
"I would've waited a little longer to make my entrance, but the heroes ruined the fun, like always," Bakugo said with a little giggle. "My timing was perfect, though. This is just like old times — the two of us, uninterrupted."
Izuku brought his trembling fists up in a sloppy version of one of the stances that he'd learned from All Might in foundational heroics class. Tracking his line of sight, Izuku realised that Bakugo wasn't even looking at Koda, and hadn't addressed him with his little monologue. That meant one of two things; Bakugo's mind had fully shattered and he literally couldn't think about anything other than the fight that was pretty much inevitable, or he didn't even consider Koda a factor in his mind. Both of them meant the same thing — the fight was happening, whether Izuku wanted it or not. There was a positive to that outcome, though. Izuku wasn't sure that Bakugo had paid enough attention during the day and a half that he'd been part of their class to learn Koda's Quirk. That meant that Koda could surprise attack him with birds or some other animals if it came to that. It wasn't a game-changing advantage, but it was a trick up Izuku's sleeve if he needed it. He resolved himself to not rely on Koda if he didn't need to, though, and lowered his centre of gravity in anticipation of Bakugo's trusty opening move — an explosive right hook.
Green met red, and both boys knew that it was finally time. This was it; do or die, win or lose.
Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo agreed on one thing. Their feud ended then and there. One of them was going to die tonight.