Events had occurred outside Saiki's awareness. Without warning or explanation the mall had been evacuated. Only later had he found out why that was. Tomura Shigaraki, the man who had been behind the attack on the USJ, the leader of the League of Villains, had appeared. Accosted Izuku and quietly held her hostage for a good few minutes. At least until a random passerby had seen a dingy looking man with masses of scars and a demented grin holding a scared teenage girl by the neck and quietly called the cops.

For whatever reason, Shigaraki left willingly, retreated as the cops arrived on the scene. A confusing turn for the madman based on everything the UA students had seen from him at the USJ, not that anyone would have been glad at him going on a murderous rampage starting with Izuku. But it was certainly out of character. The other students had tried to ask her why interspersed with attempts to make sure she was okay, but she had no concrete answers. And then she was taken in by the police to give her statement.

Saiki had been... Unsure how to feel about all of that at the time. He was relieved Izuku was okay of course. One of the most notorious villains of the modern age had taken a personal interest in her for some reason. That was more than cause for concern. Worse, for all Saiki had been worrying about the gap in power between him and her, that didn't stop Shigaraki from appearing and putting her instantly at his mercy. One of the most promising future heroes rendered helpless in less than a single moment. What did that say about what they would be up against in the future? There were so many news reports about heroes standing victorious over villains. But villains didn't proudly stand victorious. They stayed in the shadows continuing business as usual. He had to wonder, just how safe was their society from the criminals who never got brought to light? The League of Villains... They were significant because they did proudly announce their actions. And for how successful they were despite that, it had a chilling effect on everyone.

These thoughts and wonderings continued to rattle around in Saiki's head even as the students rode a bus through mountain trails, travelling toward the summer training camp. Kyoka and Momo tried to get his attention, bring him out of his brooding but with only limited success. The students all chattered around him but all he did was sit pensively, chin propped on his hand.

The bus stopped at a parking lot on the edge of a steep cliff. Despite the buses for classes A and B leaving together, the second bus was nowhere to be seen when the students disembarked. Confusion gave way to dawning understanding as Aizawa outlayed their new situation. As well as introduced two of their instructors for the training camp. Two members of the Wild Wild Pussycats, a famed hero team that specialised in mountain rescue. By Saiki's opinion the two women in their thirties were a little old to be going out in cat cosplay but heroes were heroes. You lived the gimmick. At least he wasn't so unaware as Izuku who mistakenly commented on their long careers, thus indirectly on their age, the blonde of the pair taking offense.

Her partner, a brunette, explained what the situation would be. "The location of the camp is over there," she pointed over the edge of the cliff, "At the base of the mountain. It's 9:45 now. You need to get there by– Hey, hold on a second!"

Saiki didn't care to listen. He knew well enough where this was going. Get to the camp on foot. Fine. He could do that. Even as the Pussycat told him to wait he was already vaulting over the guard rail and sliding down the mountainside on his heels. For such a minor warm up of a training exercise, Saiki's only complaint consisted of having to do it in their school uniforms. He'd have words for Aizawa later about that. The school better reimburse him for these clothes since it's their fault they'll get ruined.

He acknowledged the other students coming down after him, many of them not entirely willing judging by the landslide. His own feet touched down on solid ground first and he was already running. He heard what has to be Katsumi blasting her way off of the slope before he saw her. Saw her grinning at him. That vicious grin she used to show excitement. Approval. But as she looked at him, the grin dropped. For whatever reason her joy turned to a frustrated scowl before she turned to look ahead again.

Maybe she had somehow seen through him. That would explain why she had been so excited at first. He was doing exactly what she wanted him to. Taking action. Not caring about how impossible his dreams were, just reaching for them anyway. And it would explain why her mood turned so quickly. If she could see through him. See just how little his soul was in it. He was acting like his old self, the young man who would do whatever it took. But it was just that. Acting. Going through the motions of how he was supposed to be. Even if his heart wasn't in it.

Some sort of creature appeared out of the forest. He didn't break his stride. Act. Don't react. He leapt upward, snap kicked the thing in the face as he flew over. As gravity reasserted itself he dropped both feet into the thing's 'neck', bounced off and kept running. If the rest of the class couldn't deal with it when it was that off-balance then they were beyond help. He kept running. More monsters appeared. He considered taking a detour to deal with a flying creature only to hear a nasal cry of "I got it!" Taking the word of whoever said that, Saiki continued, seeing the aerial monster lassoed by tape and brought down as he ran past unperturbed.

So this was their first obstacle.

It wasn't even enough to make him break a sweat.

And yet he's still wasn't enough. He wasn't enough and he never would be!

He screamed. A yell of frustration and rage as his feet drove right through another dirt monster. Some of his classmates took it as a battlecry. A rallying call to action to inspire them. They couldn't be more wrong. It was the self-loathing of someone on the verge of giving up everything they ever dreamed of.

-(-)-

Several hours later, the students of Class 1-A arrived at the campgrounds. All of them a haggard mess of dirt, mild injuries and exhaustion.

Well, all except for one. Saiki appeared out of the trees, Kyoka leaning on him for support as they approached their teacher and the Pussycats. The blue-haired boy was at worst mildly winded. A fact that got disbelieving looks sent his way from the more physically fit members of the class. It should have lifted his spirits, handling the challenge better than anyone else had. But the challenge wasn't in the difficulty of the task but in their stamina. That and durability were things that Saiki had never questioned about himself. He could survive longer than anyone. An incredible feat.

Meaningless. Against someone who could kill him with a touch to the neck. Against someone who could punch hard enough to rend solid steel. Against someone who could warp him to an environment even he couldn't handle.

His self-recriminations were stalled as he realised the blonde Pussycat he had yet to learn the name of was hovering around him. Or rather him, Todoroki and Iida. "What's she doing?" he asked the other woman.

"Oh, she's just a little enthusiastic about finding a mate," the brunette answered as though that was a reasonable explanation.

"Cougar. Got it."

It wasn't a polite thing to say. Or a smart thing. She was a pro hero after all. But even receiving a look that promised a painful vengeance for calling her that, he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Well, all of you head into the cafeteria. You can eat, then wash up in the hot springs before bed."

The class drifted inside the building, Izuku lagging behind to introduce herself to the little kid that was also at the camp for some reason. Her attempt at a handshake slapped away.

The kid wasn't his problem. Izuku wasn't his problem.

Saiki ate mechanically. The food was good. Not on par with Lunch Rush but that could only be called an unfair standard, and not even his standard. Saiki's idea of acceptable cuisine was far worse than this, and yet he couldn't bring himself to enjoy it. He ate. Got his fill, then left before anyone else for the hot springs. Momo tried to talk to him but he barely even heard her.

He sat on the edge of the hot spring wearing only a towel around his waist. When he had left the cafeteria he had thought he needed space. Needed to be alone. Needed to get away from the voices of everyone else just for a moment. He had been wrong. He had been away from everyone before. Home alone after work. Even then the doubts had sounded all the louder. Things that could distract him, keep his mind off of all of it, they had kept his mind busy. Hadn't let him dwell on his feelings of inadequacy. At some point between then and now, that had stopped mattering. Whether it was with others or all alone, his worries about his own inferiority clawed at him.

He picked up a loose stone. Skipped it across the water.

...

He didn't know what he was doing anymore. Shaking his head, he rose, stepped out of the water and turned around.

To see a woman right behind him, blinking furiously. "Uhh..."

"Hello!" the woman not quite shouted. "I'm Ragdoll!"

"That's... Nice?" As he got a better look at her he saw she was wearing the same outfit as the Pussycats, yellow to the others' red and blue, meaning she must have been one of them. Her seafoam green hair hung down to her backside, her yellow eyes continued to blink furiously as she grinned at him. "This is the men's side of the hot springs...?"

"Yep. You're in the right place!" she agreed.

"I am, yeah. And I'm only in a towel here..."

"Also true! I'm glad you're respecting the rules of the hot spring!" Without a single shred of shame, the pro hero squatted and flipped over to get a good look under his towel. Saiki certainly wasn't ashamed or bashful so didn't try to hide anything but it was still more than a little strange. "Impressive!" Showing that same agility again she came right back up to her previous posture without a hair out of place. "Pixie-Bob will be jealous when I tell her later. Why are you here alone?" the cat-themed hero asked, changing the subject without a hint of warning. "Wear a towel, segregate genders, enjoy time with friends! That's how hot springs work! You got everything else right! Are you stupid about people?"

It was a novel experience for Saiki, being so taken aback by someone's actions and attitude that he sputtered in incomprehension. "Are you?!" he had to ask. She popped up out of nowhere on the men's side of the bath, helped herself to an eyeful of his junk, asked him something that was none of her business and then called him stupid! Where did she get off calling him stupid when she was airheaded beyond belief!

"You're the one all alone in a social space looking all angry at the world like that's gonna change anything. Hmm!" The strange hero drummed her fingers on her lips, still blinking rapidly even as she appeared to be deep in thought. "I know!" Could she miss a beat if she was never on it in the first place? Either way she wasted no time with whatever conclusion she had come to. Her cat-ears-like headset was snatched off her head by her plush paws, the paws themselves following immediately after to be tossed onto the rocks. Then her strapped top and skirt.

Saiki stared, utterly perplexed. He wasn't unused to this kind of thing at all. He wasn't about to blush bashfully as she revealed her surprisingly perky bust given her age, or her tidy green bush. But he usually had to put in more effort for this kind of thing. Effort he hadn't been interested in putting in at this moment. "Look, I'm flattered, and you're hot," despite the weird manic energy. "But I'm not interested–"

"Interested in what?" Ragdoll asked, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around her body before taking a seat at the edge of the hot spring, dangling her feet in the water. Even for an activity meant for relaxing the hyperactive hero couldn't help kicking her feet, splashing in the water. "Sit down! Relax! This is how you hot springs! Spending time with friends!"

Saiki didn't know when he decided to return to the water but found himself lowering down into the hot water again anyway. When did he get sucked into her pace? "We're not friends. You don't even know my name."

She waved off the comment. "I know every student! And I know where they all are right now. Still got a little while before they all come this way, but hey! If I get you to stick around until your friends get here, mission accomplished!"

"Right. My friends." It was a weakness he refused to afford himself, admitting he didn't actually have friends in his class. Or out of it for that matter. It had never been a high priority, especially for someone who always had difficulties with that kind of thing when he was younger. He'd always been on his own, so he found it easier to be on his own. At least that was what he continued to tell himself despite his current evidence to the contrary.

"Mmmmm..."

He blinked as he realised the cat-themed hero had been staring at him unblinkingly. "What?"

"I'm gonna call you SaiSai!"

"... I'd prefer you didn't."

"You can't stop me!" she shouted with a demented grin. "Why're you angry?"

"I'm not a fan of nicknames."

"Oh, not that! I don't care if you're angry about that! Why're you glaring at the whole world and making everyone miserable?"

This woman had zero tact. "How is that your business?"

"For this training camp, the first year students of UA are under our care and tutelage!" she answered, sounding like she might have been quoting someone else. "It's our job to make sure you get the most out of it! If you're a grumpypants the whole time you're gonna waste it! That's no good!"

"Grumpy?" Is that what she thought? That everything he'd been feeling was just him being 'grumpy'? "Yeah, I think I'm done here," he announced, putting one foot up on the rocks and heaving himself upward and out of the water, turning his back on the infuriating woman.

"Running away?"

He stopped halfway to taking his first step away from her, his foot coming down only to pivot on it and face her again. "Excuse me?"

She wasn't the slightest bit intimidated that his scowl was directed solely at her. She still wore the same manic grin as she removed her towel and sank into the shallow water, swimming lazily. "It's okay! You go ahead and hide on your own! It's way easier than admitting to your problems out loud! You go on and be angry and alone! That's the path to success!"

The audacity of this woman! Was she actively trying to piss him off even more?! It didn't matter that he could see what she was doing when she was so successful at it. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I asked you first."

He gaped at her not even looking at him, his fists clenched in impotent anger. "Fine. You know what?! Fine! Fine! You wanna know why I'm so pissed off?! Everything I've been working for has been a waste! Ever since I figured out what my quirk does I've bled myself dry to make myself stronger! Nearly killed myself over and over again for that little bit of extra progress! For years,for years! I put myself through hell knowing one day it'll all be worth it! One day, I'll be the best! I get a shitty job to make ends meet so I can pay for school! I sleep two hours a night so I can juggle school, work, training and recovery! I tear myself apart just for that one goal, that one dream, knowing if I work hard enough I can make it possible!

And then I got to UA, the best hero course in the country. My hard work was finally paying off. And I meet a girl who with a little more than a year of training blows me out of the fucking water! Everything I put myself through, all that suffering, all that pain, all of it pointless because someone happened to luck out with a better quirk than mine! So sorry for being 'grumpy' about my dream being fucking dead!"

"Wow." Ragdoll continued to swim, her eyes locked onto him whenever she moved in his direction. "That must be terrible."

The anger was still there, but for Saiki it became mixed with an overwhelming amount of embarrassment for exploding like that. "Yeah... Well..." He didn't even know what to say anymore.

"And with that precog quirk it must be so much worse."

"That... What?"

The hero rolled over in the water, switching to doing the backstroke in the small, shallow pool. "Your precognitive quirk that lets you see the future, obviously!"

"That's... Not..." Saiki murmured, confused. "I thought you knew who we all were. I don't have a quirk that lets me see the future."

"Really? Huh! I didn't see that quirk on the list but you were so confident about what was absolutely going to happen I figured that had to be your quirk! How else could you know what will and won't happen years in the future?"

"... You're mocking me."

She didn't answer the question with words. Just a grin that became somehow a little wider than before as she rolled back onto her front and got her feet under her, wading to the edge of the water. "You're a teenager. You've been at UA for four months. You have no idea what's gonna happen in the future. You think the world's ending because you've got a little competition?" Her wide eyes rolled as she grinned up at him. "Teenagers are so energetic about everything!"

She... Of all people, she did not get to say that. "A little competition? You think a girl my age who can match All Might's strength is just 'a little competition?" he asked venomously.

"Ugh, yes!" the feline hero answered with a roll of her eyes. "Were you planning on being the best or not? Every kid who wants to be the best wants to be better than All Might. Some of 'em will be. You want to be the best? Then All Might isn't your goal. It's everyone else who has the same dream you do. And whaddya know, some of 'em are at a training camp with professional heroes right now, working to become stronger while you're looking to waste the same opportunity feeling sorry for yourself." With a handspring on the rocks, she launched herself out of the hot spring, giving Saiki a fantastic view as her legs split in the air before she came down. She snatched up her towel and wrapped it around herself again. "You can't predict everything! You're still super young! There'll be plenty more opportunities down the road you can't even imagine yet! Make the most of things! You'll end up where you're supposed to be!" Her ears twitched as she squeezed out her hair then gathered her costume. "And by things, I mean everything life has to offer! Whether that's excitement, romance, or spending time with friends at the hot spring!" She grinned at him again, winking before running around the edge of the hot spring to take her leave.

Footsteps caught Saiki's attention from the opposite side. "Oh," the bespectacled Iida murmured as he appeared, leading the other boys into the hot spring. "Saisei, you're already here. We had Sato looking for you but couldn't find you anywhere."

"Yeah," Saiki acknowledged awkwardly, "I guess... I just needed to clear my head for a bit."

"You doin' okay, man?" Kirishima asked. "You've been kinda intense since we got here."

"Yeah. Sorry."

The red haired boy blinked, as did Kaminari. Both boys recognising this as the first time they heard him apologise for anything. Though Kirishima laughed it off. "It's no big deal. You might wanna say that to Yaoyorozu too, though. Anyway, I'm beat! Let's take it easy, yeah?"