Author's Note: Hey! So, quick update: I've all but finished writing this fic, and my upload schedule from now on will reflect that. I'll be putting a new chapter up every two or three days, and then we'll be done. It feels strange to say it, but we're coming up on the end after almost exactly a year. That being said, enjoy the chapter for today!
Stepping out into the blazing heat of the sun was such an abrupt change of lighting that it forced Izuku to cover his eyes as he stretched his legs on the gravel area the bus had pulled into. They'd been on the bus for about three hours, and had about an hour left until they were due to arrive at the location of the camp. Aizawa had called a break when they'd approached this area, and 1A had begun to shuffle off the bus in order for them to take a break and use the bathroom. When Izuku opened his eyes, he saw that everyone, more or less, had spread out and the smaller groups were talking amongst themselves.
When Izuku began to wander around, looking at the sights. He came to a railing made of logs that was probably meant to keep people from falling over the edge where the area, which jutted out from the face of a cliff, came to a stop. He looked out over the forest that the cliff faced, and wondered if he could get a chance to hang out in there during this week. It seemed peaceful, and Izuku knew that he needed some quiet so that he could think about what he wanted to do next semester. He was still unsure of exactly what improvements he could make to himself aside from increasing his basic One for All percentage. He'd gotten every little thing out of Blackwhip that he could think of, he'd honed Danger Sense into a perfect version of the messy and unpredictable power he'd first received, and Float had no malleability in terms of how it could be used. It was purely a support power with a very straightforward and immutable use.
The second and third users were unlikely to allow their Quirks to manifest, too. Izuku didn't know what it was, but they just wouldn't talk to him, even before the vestiges had closed themselves off. The third's Quirk was Fa Jin, and that had the potential to be a game-changer if Izuku had access to it. Being able to increase strength without increasing One for All percentages would do wonders for his physical abilities. It was a shame, but Izuku still didn't know what the second's Quirk was, or what it did. It had been the only Quirk All Might couldn't find information on for some reason, and when Izuku had gone looking, he hadn't gotten anything either; it felt like a complete mystery. The second, every time Izuku had seen him, had been wearing a sort of gauntlet, or mechanism that looked like it shot something, so maybe it enhanced projectiles. It could've been an energy based Emitter, but it very well could've been something else. That was the predicament about the second user; Izuku just didn't know anything about them. So, basic One for All was Izuku's only real way to improve now, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. On one hand, he loved the Quirk and all he could do with it. On the other, it felt reductive and unsatisfactory to have no other paths to walk down, now. He'd sold himself on his versatility, but now he had nothing left to branch into. It felt weird, to say the least.
It felt funny, sort of, that he was at a point in his life where he could be contemplating this, but looking back on it, he'd always thought it. At every step, whether that be finding out that he was Quirkless, saving Bakugo or receiving Blackwhip instead of One for All's super-strength, Izuku had always asked what came next for him. He'd always looked inward, and whether or not he figured it out right away, he'd always made it work for him. That was the eternal predicament of Izuku Midoriya, he supposed. How does someone who's been launched on a dozen different roads, choose which one to stay on? That was the question, and Izuku couldn't figure it out. He figured he would eventually, but until then, Izuku reserved the right to feel frustrated that he just couldn't get it. Hopefully this camp would give him something of an answer, and if not, a shove in the right direction.
The camp was another thing that was stuck in his mind and wouldn't leave. He'd felt it at the Sports Festival, somewhat, but he hadn't been able to put a name to that feeling until the class's final exam with Mineta participating, but now that he knew what it was he had a lot of things to say about it.
It was a fact that the Quirkless population was a dying breed. Izuku had done the math, and figured that less than one percent of people nowadays were being born Quirkless. It was the sad reality they lived in that the bullying of kids without Quirks and the 'preference' of Quirked partners led to people reproducing with less and less Quirkless people, resulting in a genetic bottleneck that was threatening to erase people like Izuku from the face of the planet.
That meant, however, that almost every single person had a Quirk in the modern era. That also meant that there were more and more rules about where one could use a Quirk and in what way. It felt so weird that there were rules surrounding who could use a fundamental aspect of the body in the first place, but to have it restricted even more felt insane. In the end, world governments told people not to use Quirks in a situation where another option could work. In a fight, that meant running away. Heroes were the only ones allowed to train their Quirks in any sort of official capacity. That was made worse by the fact that entrance exams like UA's were so heavily biased toward Quirks that could deal overwhelming physical damage. That meant that the government allowed some people to use their Quirks, but it was almost always allowed for people whose sole aim is to beat up bad guys to use Quirks to do just that. It felt like a vicious cycle, one that felt too big to properly address, but Izuku couldn't stop thinking about it. He wouldn't. It was too unfair to let it continue, even if he couldn't do much as he was.
Izuku felt a tap on his shoulder, and looked over to see Ochako standing next to him. Her hair was tied into a ponytail. It looked nice. He almost startled when he saw her, but he just smiled. He looked back out at the trees and sighed, feeling like it would be a while until he figured out this particular problem. It wasn't even a problem, it was just Izuku's ever-improving nature. He needed something to work on, to consider 'in progress', and it hurt his brain when he had to stop thinking for any amount of time. He supposed that was something he needed to learn to do; turn off for a while.
"What are you thinking?" Ochako asked.
"According to Aizawa, nothing at all," Izuku said, getting a laugh out of Ochako. "For real, though? I've got this weird feeling that I just can't shake. Maybe this camp will help me get back on track," Izuku elaborated.
"I hope so. I've seen the way you'll just stop and get stuck in your own head. It's not great seeing you so clearly struggling with something, but saying that you're fine anyway," Ochako said.
"Am I really that obvious?" Izuku asked, chuckling.
"Yeah, but I'm also just good at this stuff. It's like Tsu said; we balance each other out. It's just like you said, too. Even though we can't be together like I wanted, we'll still be here for each other. If you let me know what you're dealing with, I can be here to keep you grounded when you start getting caught up in that endless pit," Ochako said, knocking on Izuku's head lightly.
"You're right. I just … it's not exactly a bad thing that I'm thinking about this stuff, but I know that it's unhealthy to keep it all in," Izuku said.
"Good. I don't want you to be unhappy. I don't like it when anyone's unhappy, but that goes doubly so for you. To be honest, when the school year started, that whole 'bubbly happy go lucky' thing was a little forced. There were some days when I couldn't bring myself to smile, but I forced it anyway. Mom and Dad were poor, and always getting poorer, and it was looking bad for us. Me becoming a Hero was their ticket to a good life, and I was determined to make that happen, no matter what I had to sacrifice," Ochako said, looking out at the forest with a determined expression on her face.
"I—" Izuku went to comfort her, but was interrupted.
"I just want to talk for a second, please," she said. Izuku kept quiet.
"Now, though, I'm happy. I love being a Hero, and I can't wait to help people. I still want to give most of my salary to my parents, but over the semester, you've shown me how great it feels to help someone. Tsu showed me how to be confident, and that it's always good to speak your mind. Hitoshi showed me that there's always something, anything that can be done as opposed to giving up," Ochako said, never taking her eyes off the forest in front of them.
She was getting a little teary eyed, and Izuku put a hand on her own that was holding the log they were leaning on. She smiled at that, and Izuku did as well.
"All that was a little rambly, but my point is that we've all learned from each other this year, so if you have any concerns, you know that you can come to us," Ochako summarized, laughing at herself.
"I will. I promise," Izuku said.
A loud, screeching sound brought Izuku and Ochako out of the moment. They looked around, seeing that the rest of the class was doing the same. The sound suddenly stopped, and Izuku looked over to where a black car with tinted windows had pulled up next to the bus. The car stopped, a small bit of dust having been kicked up around it, and the doors opened. Izuku felt the faintest whisper of Danger Sense, and readied himself for whatever would come out of that car.
Izuku's expectations were shattered when a small child wearing a red hat with horns on it stepped out of the car and immediately put his hands in his pockets. Was he what had pinged Danger Sense? No, he couldn't have been. There had to be something else. The other two occupants of the car climbed out, and Izuku was blown away when two of the Wild, Wild Pussycats unveiled themselves, Mandalay and Pixie-Bob specifically. Izuku smiled, recognizing the two of them from his childhood habit of scrolling through Hero blogs. Some of the posts about the Pussycats hadn't been right for Izuku to read at that age, but he'd pushed that to the deepest recesses of his mind, where memories of embarrassing things he did as a kid, and probably his father lied.
"Hey, kids. How was the trip over here?" Mandalay's voice echoed in Izuku's, and probably everyone's heads.
"Oh, so many cute potential Heroes! Can't wait to whip you into shape!" Pixie-Bob exclaimed, leaning against the car and examining the class.
Izuku felt himself get giddy, and began to clench his fists in order to contain himself. He heard Ochako laugh beside him, but he didn't care. These two were half of the top ranked rescue team in the country! They specialized in mountain rescues, but they saved thousands of people each year. Izuku got a little starry eyed thinking about how many people they were able to help. It was truly amazing. He knew that Ochako was a 13 megafan, but he made himself a note to tell her about how they were probably the most famous rescue team to ever exist.
"Kids, meet the Wild, Wild Pussycats. Some of them, at least. We've hired them to host us and help with your training this week. They're good at what they do, so respect them," Aizawa said.
"That's right! Everything you see right now is our private property, meaning that you can use your Quirks how you like," Mandalay said.
"You're gonna need them," Pixie-Bob giggled.
"Some of you had it figured out, but for those of you who've remained blissfully unaware; this isn't your usual summer camp. We're here to tear you apart and build you up stronger. So, let's hope you survive," Aizawa said, smirking.
Izuku felt the low hum of Danger Sense, something that had been barely there, yet persistent, suddenly become a roar in his brain. He reeled Danger Sense in, blocking out the danger present to other people and focusing in on himself, since that was probably what was causing the intensity of the warning. Izuku found that doing this did help, lowering the warning bell in his head to a level where he could think with it still going, but left his own head in time to see that he was too late to do anything.
Pixie-Bob was moving her hands as if she was molding clay that wasn't there. Izuku gasped, realizing that it was her Quirk. She had the power to control rock and mud any way she wished, called Earth Flow. Pixie-Bob began laughing as she plunged her hands into the ground, her fingers sinking into the solid rock due to her Quirk. The ground underneath the class began to shake, and Izuku grabbed Ochako's hand. She looked at him in confusion, but he looked at her with confidence, which got her to go along with whatever she thought he was planning.
Izuku let One for All streak through him, Full Cowling style, and leapt into the air. He looked around at his classmates, picking which ones would be easiest to carry, but the lightning flickering around him suddenly stopped. Izuku felt Danger Sense stop talking to him, and began to fall. He was about to hit the ground when Pixie-Bob's Quirk caught him with a glob of half-solid rock. He let Ochako down and then looked over at Aizawa, who was grinning like a madman.
It was then that a tidal wave of rock and mud swept forward, enveloping the class in darkness. Izuku was tossed around inside the pocket of dirt and mud, but was eventually spat out, along with the rest of the class, at the bottom of the cliff. Izuku landed on his feet thanks to his superior agility, but people like Koda fell at odd angles and groaned as they got up. The others that had landed well were Tsu, Bakugo, Ochako and Sero. Izuku looked around and saw that everyone had made it down, but frowned when he thought about why they'd been swept up in the first place.
"Aizawa! What are you playing at?" Izuku screamed up at the face of Aizawa, who slowly looked down at them over the cliff.
"Did you all see the lodge at the base of the mountain? There's a path to it through the forest. Better find which one's the right path before the Golems come out to play," Mandalay's voice echoed through all of their heads.
Izuku began thinking when he realized that there weren't going to be more messages. He couldn't even ask anything else, since he didn't know if his voice carried enough to get to the top of the cliff, and Mandalay's Quirk, Telepath, only worked one way. It was like a radio that could only transmit, not receive, so there was no way that they could reply. Damn it. Izuku looked around and saw that the trees blocked most natural light from getting through to the forest floor. He still felt One for All being Erased by Aizawa, so it was likely that he didn't want Float to mess things up. He looked back up at Aizawa and nodded, hoping that the man's eyesight was keen enough to catch it. Izuku would play this game Aizawa's way, but if there was actual danger, he wouldn't be holding back.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Bakugo screamed up at Aizawa.
"We're supposed to go through the forest?" Ochako muttered, looking out at the dark area under the trees.
"Looks like it. Can't be too hard, right? We've beaten Villains, so a little trek through the wilderness is a piece of cake!" Sero said, beginning to walk into the forest.
"Sero, wait!" Izuku called out, holding his hand out to grab Sero's arm.
"What, man?" Sero asked, laughing slightly.
"Don't go in there just yet," Izuku said, releasing Sero's arm. He turned to the others, who were now being surrounded by the classmates who hadn't landed right. "Mandalay said something about Golems. Pixie-Bob can make Earth Beasts with her Quirk, so I think we're gonna be facing some opposition in the forest," he elaborated.
"Ugh, fuck that. This is supposed to be the only rest we get before training starts! I'm not dealing with that," Bakugo said, but Izuku stared him down so that he wouldn't do anything rash, which luckily worked. "What's your deal?" he asked.
"Aizawa used his Quirk on mine, but only when I tried to Float. For those of us who can fly, I don't think this will be easy," Izuku said, looking at all of the people he'd addressed with that and nodding.
The class all shared looks between them, everyone figuring out what was going on. The training camp didn't start tomorrow, it started right then and there. This was the start of their week of hell. It must have been Aizawa's plan to lull them into a false sense of security with the nice air-conditioned bus and then dump them in the summer heat and make them fight through the forest. Izuku turned to his classmates, who were already organizing themselves into groups. He smiled, seeing how far the class's teamwork had come since the start of the year. Izuku let One for All flow through him, Full Cowling style, and got ready to fight.
"Alright, everyone. We have to be careful. We don't want to underestimate these things. Let's go!" Izuku said.
As he heard cheers behind him, Izuku shot off into the forest. He dashed through the air, quickly getting a few dozen meters ahead of the rest of the class. Izuku heard explosions getting closer, and the thunking of Tsu's hops approaching, so he used Blackwhip to fling himself forward even further. Aizawa would likely value speed in getting through this test, so Izuku would bring the speed. He continued going like this for at least a minute, but he stopped when he couldn't hear his classmates anymore.
Izuku slowed down and let himself touch down on the ground. He looked back where he came from and saw that nobody was following him. Maybe they'd been caught up with the Golems. Izuku couldn't just leave them behind, so he fired up One for All again to head back. He was stopped, however, when Danger Sense told him to move. Izuku dodged to the right and saw a large rocky hand come down where he'd just been, his eyes widening when he realized that he'd been caught alone by one of the Golems. He looked up at the beast and saw its large form towering over him, staring him down.
"Uh, hi!" Izuku stammered, still working off his shock at the beast's appearance.
The Golem ripped its claws from the dirt and swung its arm at Izuku. Danger Sense was screaming at him, but he didn't need it to know to dodge. Izuku leapt toward the hand, meeting it in the middle of its swing and using it as a springboard to jump up to the Golem's head, coming at it with a haymaker that turned its head to mud and made it drop to the ground. Izuku landed on the dead Golem's chest, savoring his victory. If this was what ten percent was capable of, then what could Izuku do at one hundred once it was safe? That was a good motivator for improving, he'd say.
A ping from Danger Sense forced Izuku to look up, seeing another Golem coming right for him. Izuku leaned down, ready to blast right through it, but was beaten to it by a large blast of fire that ripped the Golem, this one long and fast instead of the big and strong one that Izuku had previously faced, in two. The Golem and its pieces fell to the ground, and Bakugo landed with his foot grinding the face into the dirt. He looked back at Izuku with a scowl and irritated expression, and scoffed.
"Don't just stand there, idiot. Fight!" Bakugo yelled, before blasting off to fight more Golems.
Izuku laughed, and shot off as well. He looked around as he made his way through the forest, seeing Tsu and Ochako use their Quirks to help each other along. Tsu would hop out in front, then hurl Ochako forward as she negated her own gravity. She'd land, and then increase her own gravity to become an anchor for Tsu to launch forward from, and then they'd repeat that. It was pretty impressive to watch, but Izuku was distracted from it by another ping from Danger Sense. He looked out ahead, but felt claws dig into his back instead.
As he was forced to the ground, a lankier Golem stood over him, this one modeled after what looked like a pterodactyl. With this realization, Izuku recalled that the buff Golem he'd fought before had been somewhat ape-like, so guessed that Pixie-Bob needed some frame of reference to determine what the Golems looked like. Izuku smiled as he figured this out, and tried to draw on what he knew about pterodactyls, but he didn't really study biologically as extensively as he did physics and chemistry, to an extent.
Izuku threw a punch back at the Golem, but it dodged out of the way of his sloppily aimed hit. He couldn't really see the thing, so Izuku couldn't aim while being pinned. Izuku pushed off the ground, sending both himself and the Golem into the air. In the air, Izuku spun around and saw the Golem was flailing to regain balance. Seeing his chance to get the final hit in, Izuku let himself fall to the ground, toward the Golem, and kicked it in the face on the way down, blasting it into a pile of dirt.
Landing on the ground, Izuku heard a cry for help. He looked around and spotted Hagakure waving her arms about in an obvious mockery of fear. Izuku didn't know what was going on, so he hesitantly started approaching. He saw a large Golem, larger than the first he'd fought, come out of the darkness and lash out at her. Izuku felt himself start to move, but Sato and Kirishima leapt from the trees in order to beat the Golem into the ground, slamming into its head and killing it. Izuku stopped, sighing at almost having screwed that plan up. That 'Heroic instinct' was almost a little counterintuitive, sometimes.
The class moved through the forest over the course of a few hours. The brawlers took the most hits, people like Kirishima and Bakugo. Physical fighters would always be worse off after a fight, but Izuku was feeling pretty good up until one of the Golems' claws ripped its way through his shirt and slashed his torso up. It wasn't anything life threatening, but it stung like hell every time he moved around, which was constantly. He'd almost been unable to fight off a few Golems after that, needing someone to help him, which was embarrassing. Nonetheless, he was among the first to make it out into the clearing that the forest opened up into.
It was Izuku, Bakugo, Todoroki, Ochako, Hitoshi and Tsu that made it out first. Izuku hadn't seen Hitoshi do much, but he reasoned that with purely evasive maneuvers, he could've gotten out of it without taking too many hits, which was what it looked like from the state of Hitoshi's clothes. The six of them wandered out into the clearing and promptly collapsed. Izuku managed to stay standing, but not for long as the energy drain from using One for All began to settle in. He'd never figured out what it was, but it was still such a heavy tax on using it for long periods of time that it made a hypothetical patrol seem like it would be impossible if it would always be this intense.
Izuku's muscles gave out and forced him to lay on the ground next to Bakugo. He heard him grumbling about some stupid nerd arms or something, but Izuku didn't care anymore. Bakugo was in the exact same boat as him, and that made Izuku chuckle. Finally, they were the same at something. It was always that one of them was better than the other. Bakugo was a naturally talented fighter, but Izuku was better at strategy. Bakugo was better at on the fly physics, owing to his Quirk's recoil and mobility aspects, but Izuku was better at calculating percentages and numbers in a bind. One of them had always been just a bit better than the other in everything, but now they were completely identical, laying on the floor and groaning about the pain. That felt good, for some reason. Izuku wasn't going to question it.
"Well done, you lot. I knew that most of you were going to be the ones taking the lead on this one. You, Uraraka, are a surprise, though. Good job," Aizawa said.
"Yes!" Ochako cheered, her voice breaking.
Over the next half hour, the rest of the class managed to find their way there. Aizawa seemed less and less impressed with the class. His expression went from passive, which was the closest thing that Aizawa had to a genuine smile, to a more and more prominent frown, which made him look older than he really was when it got to its worst. When Izuku and the others that had arrived with him were able to stand up, they were accosted by Pixie-Bob, so that kept them distracted for a while. Izuku wondered if Aizawa was truly unhappy with the class, or if that was just his thinking face. While not the same, Izuku had been told he had a thinking face. Maybe this was that. Maybe. He really didn't want to think that Aizawa was disappointed in the class, but he also didn't want to think that taking four hours to cross what was probably a ten kilometer stretch of forest was any kind of impressive. Izuku and his group had done it in a little over two, but even he knew that they'd have liked it to be faster.
Once everyone was in that clearing, Aizawa spoke up once more.
"You all made it, but some of you were almost defeated by those Golems. They were made to simulate the average strength of a B-Rank Villain," Aizawa said, making the students gasp. "That's right. Those things weren't very powerful in the grand scheme of things, and they almost took out a good number of you. That's what this camp is to correct," he continued.
"We're here because our specific Quirks will push you all to your limits and beyond, just like UA always strives to do," Mandalay said, coming to stand next to Aizawa.
"Get your rest, kids, because the next week of your lives is gonna be hell," Aizawa said, turning to walk away.
"We know that you suffered through the Beasts' Forest, so we decided that we'd cut you some slack today and make you dinner. For the rest of your time here, though, you'll have to cook yourselves," Pixie-Bob said, somehow appearing behind the kids.
Izuku felt a small bit of energy fill him at the mention of food. He'd burned through every bit of stamina he had with the time he'd spent in the forest, so Izuku was starving. It was safe to say that everyone else was, too, by the sound of tired moans and groans coming from his classmates as they tried to move dead limbs toward the lodge. Izuku was able to pull himself off the ground with a grunt of effort, but felt his body weighed down by the extreme fatigue that almost always accompanied an extended use of One for All these days. He was able to pull Ochako along the ground, despite her protests, toward the smell of curry. Izuku needed at least her to enjoy the dinner they got tonight, as the next week would be unforgiving.