Chapter Seventy-Four
Getting onto the bus, the complete silence from the others was practically deafening, and I really didn't know what to say in the face of it, nor the stares of my classmates. I hesitated, feeling awkward, before Bakugo scoffed, "Grab a seat, Pikachu. You've held us up long enough already."
"Dude!" Kirashima exclaimed from his seat next to the first boy, offended, "What's your problem?"
The bomber just glared back, "We're here ta train, not to deal with other people's shit. Ya know, like I did while the rest of ya were playing grabass on the island of lost nerds!"
The others started chiming in, talking about how they'd had fun, and that Bakugo had missed out, while he started arguing with, it seemed, the entire bus, and it was only by his glance my way that I realized that he'd done so on purpose.
Nodding to him, to which he just rolled his eyes, I quickly took my seat next to Mina, with Yaoyorozu across the isle, and Toru on her other side. Both my friends were still looking my way, though in concern, and... maybe Hagakure was too? I couldn't see her face, and she had turned her body around to face Bakugo, but, if the girl had trained at all with how to use her Quirk, that didn't mean shit.
"You okay, Sparky?" my lover quietly asked as I sat down. "You were looking kinda intense when you were taking with Aizawa."
"I'm... I'll be fine," I told her, trying not to lie to my partner, dropping my voice to a whisper that only she could hear over the general hubbub of the heated debate going on around us. "Just, just worried. He's worried I might hurt someone by accident. Reacting to training like it's..."
"Like it's the USJ?" she asked, eyes sad, and I nodded. "Oh, Sparky," she sighed, obviously wanting to give me a hug, but having to settle for holding my left hand instead, giving it a squeeze. "Are they doin' something?"
I nodded as the bus pulled out, Aizawa sitting up front, right behind the driver, "Hidden guards, on top of secrecy. It's..." I tried to figure out how to phrase it, "It's more than they would've originally had." The and I'm not sure that'll be enough, was left unsaid, but, from how she squeezed my hand again, it was not left unheard.
Leaning close, she whispered, "Well, even if it's not, we've gotten a lot better than we would've been otherwise."
Sighing, I nodded, leaning my head over so I was leaning into her, not able to do more in 'public', and settled myself in. I'd held nothing back when it came to her, detailing what I could remember, the camp, the fact that we'd have at least two days of training, and how it'd all gone wrong during the 'spooky' forest walk, with a dozen villains running free, leading to Bakugo taken, though he'd later been saved by All Might.
However, as she'd pointed out, things were different than they would've been, from the Sports Festival, to Stain not being taken into custody, and my 'disarming' of Shigaraki. Since the Bombing King hadn't gone borderline feral on international television, the possibility of his being targeted for 'recruitment' was low, and I'd thought to have neutralized the disintegrator, but him still launching an attack on Hosu meant that I hadn't disrupted things as much as I'd thought.
Which left me wondering if anything would happen at all, or if I'd already set off enough butterflies that what little future-knowledge I still had was rendered useless. And I honestly wasn't sure if I wanted it to be or not. If it was, I was now flying as blind as everyone else, and if it wasn't, then I was still the only person who was in a position to stop things from going worse.
Well, if Villains attack, I'll finally get those last few points, I thought darkly, my escape from this world a mere two points away. As if she could read my thoughts, Mina squeezed my hand again, and I returned the gesture, finding that, well, I didn't want to leave. It surprised me, as, starting this journey, knowing my terrible luck, I'd only thought of this world as merely my first steppingstone, a safe place to gather power and get my feet under me, but, but I had people who cared about me.
Mina, yes, but also my parents, something a large part of me didn't want to examine too closely, and, glancing over and seeing Momo's concerned look, I had friends here as well. And, yes, while Mina very much wanted to add the heiress to my 'harem', or possibly Pinky's own such group, she hadn't done more than tease me about my working partnership with Mei, and... I was finding it oddly enjoyable to have friends. Friends that actually wanted to spend time with me, that sought me out, when for all my life, I'd had to practically insert myself in the lives of others to have anything even approximating a social life, trying to cater to what they wanted, while they would put up with spending time with me, if they didn't have anything better to do, of course.
I'd talked with Yaoyorozu, and, while Mina and I had been having our... difficulties, Momo hadn't approached me because she was unsure how. Had our problems lasted another couple weeks, the creator would've sought me out, at least according to her, and... I believed her. The difference between what people said they'd do and what they actually would do was often great, but... there was nothing for Momo to gain by saying so, as she'd been the one that'd brought it up in the first place, not given it as a weak defense to my own inquiry.
And Creati was... forthright, in a way that others weren't, even Mina, but in a way with which I was very familiar. She was more cultured, and more likely to not say anything instead of stumble her way through things like I was, but the girl rarely lied, and I... I appreciated that.
Sending the girl in question a reassuring smile, and a wink, she blushed slightly, looking away, as my lover made a soft sound of appreciation. "Oh yeah. She's just friendly," the pink skinned girl murmured, watching Momo's looking anywhere but at the two of us.
"Down, girl," I chided, looking back over the bus to see Jiro, two rows up, looking at me with a blush of her own, one of her jacks plugged into the bus itself. Lifting an eyebrow, the eavesdropped looked away, and I settled in as the bus exited UA's campus, Aizawa warning us that we'd be at our 'first stop' in an hour. Which was going to be our only stop, but only Mina and I knew that.
MHA
I dozed, trying to relax like a cat, at peace but ready in case I was really wrong and shit was going to go bad before we ever got to camp, and I succeeded. Kind of. I might have napped a little, but nothing happened, so I reacted with an adequate level of attention, and I was going to count that as a win.
As the bus slowed, after having kept at a constant pace for the last half-hour or so, taking backroads and rural highways, I came alert, sparking slightly as I looked around, squeezing Mina's hand, her fingers interweaved with my own.
The girl, who'd been talking with Ochaco in the seat behind us, cut herself off and shot a look my way as the bus slowed even more, pulling out onto a dirt patch overlooking a forest, a black town-car already parked on it. "We're here," I murmured, noting how our transport parked itself just off the road, instead of pulling completely off of it like what would've been safer.
Safer, if it wasn't making sure to stay out of the 'blast zone', as it were.
"Alright, this is the first stop," Aizawa stated, standing. "Everyone out."
Everyone else stood up, chatting amicably, while I just looked at the man. The way he'd phrased it, he wasn't technically lying, as it was the first stop the bus was making, and the first one he was making, but the rest of us were going to have to hoof it. If pressed, the man would probably bust out his catchphrase and smirk, calling it a 'rational deception', which was just another way of saying 'I lied for your own good'.
Filing off the bus, we spread out, Mina and I walking over to the railing and looking over it, down the ninety-foot, nearly sheer drop. "Really?" she whispered, looking at me.
"Really," I replied just a quietly, deadpan. "Everyone should be fine, but grab Momo?"
Smiling, she smacked my shoulder. "Like you need to tell me to get handsy with YaoMomo!"
"Huh," remarked Kirishima loudly, "This isn't much of a rest area."
"No. And where's Class B? Did they already leave?" Jiro questioned.
Aizawa stood by the front of the bus, looking us all over. "You don't really think we stopped here just so you could stretch your legs, do you?" the man questioned, as I looked to my lover, and she nodded back, Pinky slinking over to stand by Creati while I drifted to the back of the group.
Suddenly, the parked car, with its tinted windows, opened up, a woman's voice calling out, "Heya, Eraser!"
The man, bowing slightly in greeting, replied, "Long time, no see."
Two woman practically pranced out of the car, a brunette in red, and a blonde in blue, both of them wearing complex headgear that left their faces exposed, and had fortified antenna that gave the appearance of 'ears' on the top of their heads. When combined with the almost comically oversized cat-paw gloves they wore, with fingers that were long enough to be manipulated but not so much they broke the effect, it added to their cat-esque appearance.
"Your feline fantasies are here!" the brunette, who had two red stripes under each eye, announced. "Say, 'Meow'," she instructed, bringing up one paw, and making a hole between thumb and pointer that she looked at us through, in a smoothly choreographed motion.
The blonde, with purple circles under her eyes, slightly off-center as if they were twin 'beauty marks', formed a heart with her hands, proclaiming, "Purrfectly cute and catlike girls!" It was then that I noted that both of them had cat-like tails coming out of the back of their costumes, the movements of them matching their shifts in posture, but with enough stiffness that I recognized them as prosthesis instead of matching heteromorphic traits, likely controlled by a sensor attached to the women's lower-backs.
In unison they declared, "You can call us, the Wild Wild Pussycats!" Both took a pose, which kind of worked, but, given there were more of them in the group, it probably looked better with the others. Meanwhile, an eight-year-old boy stood awkwardly beside them, waiting for them to finish.
That's what they're called, I thought, having forgotten their name.
"These are the Pro Heroes you'll be working with at the summer training camp," Aizawa announced, while everyone else just stared blankly at the display.
Well, everyone except Midoriya, who was just stoked to meet them, announcing, "They're a four-person Hero team who specializes in mountain rescues!" As he gushed, Ochaco smiled fondly at the boy's back, and he continued, "The Pussycats were founded when we were kids, like forever ago!"
The two Heroines winced at that
Deku, meanwhile, continued unabated, "This marks their 12th year working as a-"
The blonde one lunged, and, even knowing she was going to, I still reflexively pulled on OfA, hand shifting to lightning. The Heroine, who'd managed to completely cover the boy's face with her mitt, a mitt that had extendable claws, angrily told him, "I'm pretty sure your math must be off!"
I caught Eraserhead's warning glance my way, as well as Mina's concerned one, and let my hand snap back, drawing down OfA to the point it didn't make sparks, but I didn't let it go.
The blonde Heroine, trying to go for cute and missing completely, added, "I'm eighteen at heart."
It was a comedic moment, but the way that woman had moved was enough for my guard to rise, her actions far faster and smoother than a normal person should ever be able to achieve, which meant that, whatever her Quirk might be, the Heroine had trained the shit out of her body. Given that we were here to train, it actually said good things, since, glancing around, I doubted people with non-physically focused Quirks, like Koda, Jiro, Tokoyami, or Aoyama, had put in the effort Mina, Momo, and I had to improve ourselves.
However, if we fought Villains that'd put in this much effort, that meant things could be a lot worse than they looked on the surface. After all, Stain's Quirk had nothing to do with enhancing his own physical capabilities.
"Everyone," Aizawa commanded, "Say hello."
"Hello!" we greeted in unison, and I could practically feel the power of Denki's social training guiding the words which sprang to my lips, going along with it just because standing out right now wasn't worth the hassle. "Nice to meet you!"
Pretending her partner hadn't just assaulted a student, the red-clad not-quite-a-catgirl waved out across the forest. "We own this whole stretch of land out here," she explained. "Everything you can see. The summer camp you're staying at is there, at the base of the mountain."
Which was, if I had to guess, a good fifteen kilometers away, given our elevation, or about ten miles, if you measured things in American. This time I didn't chime in with the class's collective, 'That's far!"
"Uh," Uraraka started to ask, sounding equal parts confused and worried, "Then why did we stop all the way up here instead?"
Asui resignedly answered, "I'm afraid we both know the answer to that."
"That can't be right," Sato muttered, the other students starting to hedge for the bus, while I took a few steps back, not towards the railing that led directly towards camp, but to the railing perpendicular to it.
The others murmured to each other, like they could just get back onto the bus, and if they pretending nothing was wrong, then nothing would be which was just so... Japanese, I had to repress a laugh. The red-clad Heroine, meanwhile, folded her hands together, grinning like her Cheshire cousin, tail excitedly flicking back and forth behind her.
"The current time is nine-thirty in the morning," she announced, her own pink metal claws extended. "If you're fast about it, you might make it there by noon."
"Save yourselves!" Kirishima cried out, panicked, and the class tried to scatter, well, Momo didn't, standing tall, and ready, while Mina stood with her, and I just shot Eraserhead another look, seeing the man had moved to stand to the side, next to the car, the teacher barely hiding his grin behind his scarf, his tired eyes not giving away the fact that he enjoyed watching the chaos.
For a moment, I thought his Quirk was active, but his hair was calm, and the only light in his eyes was well-hidden amusement. The reason I thought this was that no one was using their Quirk. No, they were all just running like civilians, even as something about this entire situation rubbed me the wrong way.
"Kitties who don't make it there by twelve-thirty won't get any lunch!" The red Pussycat taunted, as half the class made a mad dash for the bus, though, compared to the blonde heroine, they might as well have been ambling, and I realized what had been bugging me.
It was... a lack of respect.
Watching it as a show, it was easy to overlook, combined with how lucky everyone had been in Canon, not a single person truly injured, that had made the combat, both training and real, feel light, almost without risk. Well, if it wasn't happening in a grungy alleyway, by a maimed man who sought literal bloodshed as a key component of his fighting style.
But we'd been shot at, we'd had people try to kill us, and, if I hadn't missed, I would've turned the amoral mercenary who tried to murder Momo into chunky salsa, as my hypersonic round ripped through his body with enough over-pressure to burst him like a ripe melon. Had killed a man, though I hadn't known it at the time.
And this kind of macho bullshit wasn't some Anime thing, it was the kind of bullshit I'd seen personally from people in my previous life, when they thought they were so much better than their opponent that they could fuck around with an amateur. If the blonde had lunged at me, there was a good chance I would've let loose with a shock that would've put her down, and maybe anyone else that was standing right next to me at the time, if I didn't just respond with a super-powered cross-counter from sheer reflex, which she probably wouldn't expect from a 'freshmen hero student'.
And she'd normally be right, but I wasn't, and that was the kind of mistake that, if we were truly enemies, she wouldn't realize she'd made until she was already bleeding out on the ground.
... Aizawa might have had a bit of a point, in retrospect.
Regardless, until things did go to hell, there really wasn't anything I could do to make things worse for me, in terms of coming to the attention of people I really should avoid, the damage well and truly done there. And the attack that I knew was incoming, while being showy, was also the kind of thing I might've reacted badly to, and was the kind of showboating that was just dumb against trained unknowns that our class very easily could be, given that, if I remembered right, it created its own smokescreen.
In the face of all of that... fuck it, might as well have some fun with this.
Unable to help himself, Aizawa blandly remarked, "You should have guessed, students. The training camp..." The blonde heroine leapt over the others, coming down in a three-point landing, which was stupid unless there was a reason you needed to touch the ground. "Has already begun," our homeroom teacher announced.
A blue glow came from beneath the Heroine's hand, pressed against the dirt, dirt which started to roil and twist like it was coming alive. With a slight push from her, the ground exploded outwards in flowing waves, but I was already leaping before I lost my footing, going high as lightning limbs uncoiled, enhanced with OfA, which itself had gotten a small, but noticeable, boost after the events on I-Island.
Watching the rest of my class get pushed off what, to them, likely seemed a deadly drop, I noted how the 'flowing' earth carefully grabbed each student, flowing up and around their chests, but no higher.
"What the heck!?" Uraraka demanded, a bit of an accent to her words, as several students were thrown bodily out of the tide of dirt, but it quickly moved underneath them, to catch them, as Deku, ever tactical, replied, "She must be controlling the ground!"
What was your first clue? I thought dodging the tide of brown and banking around behind it with lightning wings. Also, doesn't he already know their Quirks?
I spotted Mina, a veil of acid around her and keeping her safe, as she held a panicked Momo tight to her body, the taller girl looking around with wide eyes, scanning the area as she held her breath. Thankfully, my lover was good about not getting her fluids up your nose by accident, though inducing such accidents despite her control could be rather fun.
Landing quietly on the asphalt, as I was still wearing my sneakers, I turned around the corner of the bus to see Aizawa staring right at me. 'I'm going', I mouthed to the man, who nodded, the blonde Pussycat seeing him do so and turning, pulling back in surprise at seeing me walk past her, reflexively pulling out her claws.
I lifted a hand of my own, turning just my fingertips into electric talons, and waved to her, as the red-clad Pussycat leaned on the wooden rail, calling down to the rest of Class A, "Good News! Since this is private land, you can use your Quirks as much as you want to! You've got three full hours. You should be able to make it to the facility in that time. That is," she smiled as I quietly walked up, not directly behind her, as I wasn't dumb, especially given her partner's reaction, but a few feet away, "if you can get through The Beast's Forest."
The students collectively gasped, as the Heroine cocked her head, looking down at them, muttering to herself, "Wait, wasn't there one mor-"
"Sparky!" Mina waved up at me, ruining my entrance, but I could roll with it, even as the class collectively whipped their heads back up to stare in my direction.
"Maybe don't start off by attacking us," I commented dryly to the woman that would be training my friends. "Kind of gives the wrong impression, given what we've been through." The red-clad Pussycat quickly turned to look at me, her gaze equal parts questioning and assessing, though she did so without falling into a fighting stance like the blonde had. Does that mean she's more trained, or less? I wondered, as I, still running One-for-All through my body, lightly leapt over the fence with my hands in my pockets, and slid down the scree, the loose stones making this smoother than I'd worried my entrance would be.
Landing lightly, I looked at the others, warning them, "I'm pretty sure I'm not what you should be staring at."
As if on cue, a monstrous growl came from the thickly overgrown forest, and a seemingly armor plated, twenty-five-foot tall, dark brown abomination out of a more fantasy-aligned reality stepped out from between the trees. If I didn't know better, I might not've picked up that its 'tusks' were tree roots, and its eye sockets weren't merely shadowed, but completely empty, the entire thing a dirt-puppet created by the blonde Pussycat's Quirk.
The others stood, horrified, while Bakugo just let out a harsh bark of laughter, announcing as he set off an explosion, charging the beast, "Now this is what I'm talking about!"
AN: Next Four Chapters are up on , as usual!
Music
I'll be fine – MHA – Not Even a Man
The Current Time – MHA - "Ara rara!"
As if on cue – MHA -Robo Inferno