"Bye, Melissa!" Hayato and Izuku yelled as they walked further into the airport with All Might. Following their week long vacation on the island, today was the day they had to return to Japan and the rest of their friends had already left. Melissa waved to the three happily as she watched them walk away before looking at the turned off Full Gauntlet in her hands.
'I'll make it better for a hero as amazing as him. And when I send it back to Deku, I'll have a surprise ready for Hayato too.' Melissa thought to herself as she left the airport and held the support item close to her heart.
"Mom, we're back!" Izuku yelled as he and Hayato entered the Midoriya household after their long flight. They walked over to their bedroom and placed their duffel bags on their beds, before hearing footsteps rushing to their room.
"You're back!" Inko popped her head through the doorway and the two boys nodded at her. She walked into the room and pulled out a giant box wrapped in blue and gold wrapping paper. "I wish I could've given to you when it was actually your birthday."
"Better late than never, mom." Izuku said taking the box from his mother's hands and placing it on his bed. He removed the wrapping paper and opened the box, finding a tag that said "From Mom and Dad. We love you, Izuku!" on it. He dug inside the box and pulled out a brand new laptop and a new jacket resembling All Might's current costume. "I love it!"
"We figured you would, your dad wanted to say sorry he couldn't come back to Japan this week though." Inko said as she kissed the top of her son's head. She turned to see Hayato laying on his bed, throwing a small ball into the air to catch it. "Don't think you're safe either, young man."
"From?"
"Your birthday, silly! It's coming up in less than two weeks!"
"July 31st, that's right!" Izuku yelled as he tried on the new jacket.
"Oh, that's right. Completely forgot." Hayato said plainly before dropping the ball onto his forehead. "Ow."
"But it's too early for that kind of talk, you boys should wash everything in those bags right now and start packing for your camp tomorrow. And call your dad to thank him for the new computer, Izuku." Inko said as she began to walk out of the room.
"But the clothes we're taking are different." Izuku said making Inko turn around and give them a smile that sent chills down both of their spines.
"And those dirty clothes are supposed to spend a week here, stinking up this room?"
"N-No."
"Good, now wash so I can start preparing lunch." Inko said closing the door behind her. When she did, Izuku jumped onto his bed and looked at Hayato with an excited smile.
"This is gonna be so awesome! We're gonna spend a whole week training our Quirks! Isn't that exciting?!"
"I mean, I guess." Hayato said before turning to face Izuku. "Hey...remember how we agreed to always be honest with each other? Never keep secrets and never judge each other for the things we do?"
"Of course, what is it?" Izuku said before an idea crossed his mind. "Wait, is Yaoyorozu...?!"
"What?! No!" Hayato snapped up with a blush across his cheeks before clearing his throat. "Before we left to I-Island...do you remember the day at the mall? When Blitz pulled me away to offer to teach me?"
"Yeah, and you said you told him no, right?"
"Well...I didn't exactly tell him no." Izuku tensed up slightly as Hayato began to look down at his bed sheets.
"Then what did you tell him...?"
"I told him to give me time to think about it." Hayato replied making Izuku sigh. "I didn't know what he would do if I turned him down in that moment, with you, Momo, and the others so close that he could've used your lives as bargaining chips...I didn't know what he would accept other than yes."
"But Hayato, he's a villain. Not only is he dangerous, but he tried to kill both of us."
"You think I don't know that?" Hayato whispered as he balled his hands into fists. "I don't want to learn jack shit from him, buddy. If it wasn't for the law, I would've liked putting him behind bars myself. I don't want to learn from him, I only want to learn from our teachers and Sir...but part of me wanted to take him up on his offer and I don't know why."
"Look, I understand. But you should've come clean from the beginning, I would've understood if you told me that day. But you can't keep this weight on your shoulders, the next time we run into Blitz...hopefully just him and not Stain too...just tell him no and if he tries to do anything: you can stop him. You're already faster than him."
"How do you know?" Izuku smiled at this question and remembered their fight with Wolfram, the way he had seen him catch up with him and All Might seemed impossible for such little time but he did it.
"I'm your best friend, of course I know this."
"Is it just me or are you just faster now?" Izuku asked as he and Hayato raced across their old training spot, Dagoba Beach, with the latter keeping his distance ahead of his best friend.
"Izuku, all I do is run! Of course I'm gonna be faster than you!" Hayato laughed before Izuku suddenly caught up to him using One for All.
"You were saying?" Izuku smirked before Hayato suddenly disappeared and reappeared even farther ahead.
"I was saying: you're too slow!" Hayato yelled turning around. He smiled as Izuku reappeared next to him and the two began to run around with Hayato creating large distances between them and Izuku catching up to him in the blink of an eye. They stopped and looked around seeing how slow everything was moving around them. From the cars driving in the distance, to the people walking nearby, to even the sand the two of them were sending into the air by moving so quickly, it was all moving slowly to the two making them laugh. "Would you have ever believed we would be this fast?"
"I thought you would be, but it's pretty shocking how I'm catching up to you." Izuku said as they began to walk around in their sped up state. "When we were kids, I would have never imagined I'd be in this world with you."
"A world of speed?" Hayato asked moving in circles around Izuku. "You could've become a race car driver."
"The world of being a hero. Having a Quirk. Looking at my best friend as an equal and not as someone I can only hope to be like." Izuku explained making Hayato stop and cross his arms. "What is it?"
"Do you remember when I first manifested my Quirk? What we were doing that day?" Hayato asked turning around to walk away.
"How could I forget? That day was the day I started to really look up to you."
"Izu! Come on!" A four year old Hayato yelled as he and Izuku ran in the same park where they met with Kazuma watching them from a distance.
"Wait! You're too fast!" Izuku yelled reaching out for his best friend that kept a considerable distance between them.
"I'm really fast! I'm really really fast! I'm-" Hayato started laughing and turned his head around to see what his friend was doing to give him a fighting chance. But he watched as his friend tripped on his shoelace and began to fall. Without thinking, he turned the rest of his body around and moved at an unbelievable speed, catching the boy before he could hurt himself. "-are you okay, Izu?"
"You...you just moved really fast!" Izuku yelled with stars in his eyes as Hayato felt himself shake slightly. He turned to look at his grandfather who just sat on the bench looking at them in pure shock. "You caught me in a flash! You have a super speed Quirk! You're a speedy guy!"
"I'm...I'm super fast! I'm super duper fast!" Hayato yelled happily raising an arm while Izuku did the same to cheer for his friend.
"Even back then you had a hard time catching me. But you know, I felt kinda bad that day." Hayato said as he grabbed a pebble and threw it towards the ocean in front of them.
"Why? Ohhhh, you weren't used to the way it works." Izuku said as he grabbed a pebble to do the same, putting the force of One for All behind it and accidentally sending the small rock flying into the air. "Oops."
"What? Izuku, I don't mean physically. I mean that I was hoping I was Quirkless too." Hayato sighed as he stuffed his hands into his shorts' pockets. Izuku's eyes widened at this and he stopped walking.
"Why would you hope for that?"
"I just...I didn't want you to feel alone in a world like this. I wanted to be the same way as you and never make you feel like everyone else can do these amazing things while you were just boring old Izuku Midoriya." Hayato explained turning around to face him. "I used to wish sometimes that I could give you my Quirk or even share it with you, and then you wouldn't feel like someone like Bakugo could walk all over you for being different."
"But you-"
"But now I realize that you being different is what let you inherit such an amazing power like One for All." Hayato said smiling and sitting down to look at the sunset. Izuku followed and sat down next to him with a confused look. "You triumphed over adversity, you used your brain and kept the fire of a hero burning in that heart of yours when you started to write those journals as a kid. When everyone laughed and you hid your face, your still kept your head up and kept on dreaming to become a hero one day. I wish I could say that for myself."
"But you were why I could do that for so long." Izuku said surprising Hayato. "You kept shooting for the stars but never left me behind, you always had my back growing up and even tried to stand up to All Might the day we met him...you were the image of a hero to me as a kid as much as All Might was. I used to always hope that I could maybe be your sidekick or even-"
"-my guy in the chair?"
"Your guy in the chair, yeah." Izuku said as the two of them burst into laughter. "It's crazy to think we're in U.A. and we're on the path to becoming heroes now...it seems like yesterday I was that kid who used to cry every other hour and you were the guy trying to get me to calm down."
"And look, you actually have a girlfriend now. And such a cute one at that, you go Izuku. Or should I call you DEKU?" Hayato said playfully nudging him with his elbow.
"Oh please, BREAKNECK. Don't act like you're jealous, you scored the class's vice rep and you're thinking of how cute MINE is? Come on, you're luckier than I am." Izuku said doing the same. "I still don't like that name more than SPEEDY."
"Hey! It was a cute nickname but that's all it was! Meanwhile Breakneck sounds so much cooler since it's the name of my Quirk too!"
"Would I rather be saved by the guy with the basic speedster name or the guy with the extremely violent name that sounds like a murder?" Izuku asked making Hayato growl.
"Why you..." Hayato then jumped onto Izuku and the two began to wrestle on the ground, smiles growing on their faces as they felt as if they were kids in the sandbox again.
"This is gonna be a long bus ride." Hayato noted as they sat on the bus to their training camp the next day. He looked around at the commotion around them before taking out his phone to listen to music. Once he put on his headphones and closed his eyes to relax, he felt himself quickly doze off to sleep.
"Hayato? Hayato. Ha-ya-to. Kiryuu!" Momo yelled trying to shake her boyfriend awake. Izuku chuckled and leaned forward to talk to her while Ochaco was busy talking to Tsuyu.
"He didn't sleep that much last night. I'd say just let him sleep for a while, we've got at least an hour's drive until we get to the rest area." Izuku said patting Hayato's head while the boy stayed asleep.
"But I want to talk to him." Momo whined as he rested his head on the window. "Since you sleep in the same room, WHY was he having such a rough time sleeping?" Momo asked turning around to face the boy behind them. Izuku began to laugh sheepishly as he remembered the conversation they had last night.
"Hey, you up?" Hayato asked looking at their alarm clock to see it was 2 A.M.
"Yeah...can't sleep either?" Izuku asked turning around in his bed to face Hayato's.
"Nope, I've got a lot on my mind."
"What's that saying my dad said once? A penny for your thoughts?"
"I'm just thinking about everything that's happened recently...USJ, the Sports Festival, the Internships, hell even the shit that went down with Wolfram...I can't stop thinking about them." Hayato explained looking at the ceiling.
"Why?"
"It's the fact that 3/4 times, a villain attack got in the way of them. The League attacked you guys at USJ, our fight against Stain and Blitz halfway through our internships, and Wolfram trying to blackmail Sam and the Professor." Hayato explained as he relived the moments he was talking about, starting from the news report that made him leave Kazuma behind, to when he and Centipeder was attacked by Stain and Blitz, then to seeing Wolfram shoot both Sam and David the week before. "Something in my gut tells me that we need to be prepared if something bad happens during our time in camp."
"Hayato, no one knows where we're going. If the info got leaked that we were even going to a camp this week to the League of Villains, do you know the rare chance that they'd go to the one we're going to when even WE don't know? If WE have no clue where we're going, how would THEY know?" Izuku asked as he tried to calm his best friend down. But deep down, he knew Hayato was right. He was worried about the exact same thing, and if All Might wasn't going to be there to save them this time: he could only pray that Tomura and the League were clueless about their plans. "But you've got something else on your mind, don't you?" Izuku asked trying to move away from the subject.
"Like what?"
"I dunno, Yaoyorozu maybe?"
"Momo? What makes you think I'm thinking about Momo at this time of night?" Hayato asked with hidden relief that the darkness was hiding his blush.
"No clue, that's what I wanna try to figure out." Izuku quietly snickered as he saw the shadow of a middle finger being directed towards him.
"Good night, Izuku."
"Don't you wanna talk about it, lover boy?"
"I said GOOD NIGHT." Hayato growled throwing his pillow over his head.
"Midoriya?"
"He kept saying he wasn't feeling right and kept going to the bathroom." Izuku responded finally finding a good enough lie to tell the girl in front of him. "I think the turbulence on the flight back might've shook him up too much."
"Aw, my poor baby." Momo whispered placing a hand on one of Hayato's. Izuku smiled at this and found an opportunity to tease her how he would if the couple's roles were reversed.
"You really love Hayato, don't you?" Izuku asked making Momo blush and begin to shake her head.
"W-What?! Midoriya, don't even say things like that!" Momo whispered while Izuku began to feel even more entertained by the sight in front of him.
"I mean, you act completely different around him. It's like the formal and proper girl we met a few months ago disappears whenever you two are together, and considering how often it is: that's saying a lot."
"I can be a little bit more affectionate, yes, but I'm still how I always am! And that doesn't warrant using that word either!" Momo whispered leaning over so only Izuku could hear her. But lucky for Izuku, his girlfriend had heard and now Ochaco was listening in.
"But, you two are gaga for each other. I mean, even lover boy right there tends to be different when he's with you." Ochaco added making Momo blush further and turn around before sinking back into her seat. Hayato chuckled in his sleep and turned so that his head would rest on her side, only centimeters away from her bust. Ochaco watched this and giggled at the sight before grabbing onto Izuku's hand and squeezing it.
"I'm so excited to spend another week together. We're still going to see my parents when we get back, right?" Ochaco asked making Izuku blush and nod.
"Of course! I don't see why we wouldn't!" Izuku replied before smiling warmly at his girlfriend. "You mean a lot to me, and if this makes you happy then I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Awww, Deku you're such a sweetheart." Ochaco cooed as she placed her head on his shoulder. He rested his head on top of hers and both of them closed their eyes, letting their moment drown out the noise and commotion from their other classmates to enjoy each other's company. But Momo suddenly yelping and Hayato waking up was enough to snap them out of their trance.
'What the? Did I hit the chair in front of me?' Hayato rubbed his eyes before he felt the side of his head begin to sting. He rubbed it and looked at the plastic that was lining the chair behind him before shaking his head. 'No that wasn't it...then what the fuck just hit my head? And was I drooling in my sleep?' Hayato tried to figure out what woke him up further before feeling the side of his mouth was wet. "Babe, what just happen-" He turned to see if maybe Momo had seen what happened, only to see her with her face bright red and covering her chest with her arms. "You okay?"
"H-Hayato...do you tend to eat in your sleep...?" Momo barely managed to let out from her mouth in a whisper to keep the others from listening.
"Well...if I don't eat at much or even at all, I kinda get hungry in my sleep." Hayato replied rubbing the back of his head. "Why?" He looked at her confused before seeing a small wet mark on her sleeve. "Did I drool on you? Oh my god, I'm so sorry..." He grabbed and held her hand apologetically while she tried containing her embarrassment even further.
"I would've been fine with drool..." Momo whispered confusing her boyfriend even further as to what he did. "You bit me...and it wasn't my arm..." As soon as she said that, the color of his face changed to match hers as he finally realized what he did, all while their friends behind them tried their hardest not to laugh.
"This doesn't seem like a rest area." Denki noted as their bus came to a stop in a clearing above a forest.
"Class B's bus isn't here either." Kyoka added as they all emptied the bus and looked around.
"There's no point stopping without a reason." Aizawa said getting his class's attention. "I let you all goof around on the bus, but it's time to get serious now." His class gulped as a black car parked behind their bus and the doors opened to reveal a brown-haired woman and a blond woman inside of it, both wearing cat-like outfits.
"Hey, Eraser!"
"Long time no see." Aizawa said bowing to the women in front of him as the brown-haired one grabbed a boy wearing a red hat with what looked to be horns on them from their car.
"The Wild Wild Pussycats?!" Izuku yelled in awe while Ochaco and Hayato simply looked and nodded at each other. "They're a four-person hero team who set up a joint agency! They're a veteran team that specializes in mountain rescues! This is going to be their twelfth-" He turned around to continue his excited explanation to his class only for Hayato to cover his mouth and shake his head.
"Two words. Shut. Up."
"How many years did he say?" Hayato tensed up seeing the blond woman look at the two of them menacingly.
"I-I don't know...I tune him out when he gets like this, Ms. Pixie Bob..." Hayato waved his free hand defensively before using it to punch his best friend in the stomach. "You don't remind women how old they're turning, idiot."
"Stop playing around! Everybody greet them!" Aizawa yelled making his class nod and bow to the heroes.
"Nice to meet you!"
"The Pussycats are going to be helping you all train for the next week, treat them with respect or there will be consequences." Aizawa explained before taking before motioning to the brown haired hero. "Mandalay, you can take it from here."
"With pleasure. We own this whole stretch of land here, and all of you will be staying at the foot of that mountain." Mandalay said going to the railing of the cliff they were all parked on and pointing at the forest in front of her.
"Then why did we stop here?" Ochaco asked turning to Tsuyu.
"Could this mean...?"
"Why don't we just get back on the bus, before we find out..." Hanta said nervously turning around.
"Yeah. Let's do that." Denki said getting an approving nod from his classmates as they all started to turn around.
"It's 9:30 a.m. right now. If you're fast, maybe by noon?" Mandalay said with a devilish smile worrying the class even further.
"No way..." Eijiro gulped as he began to walk backwards, bumping into Mina making them both blush.
"Let's get back!"
"Back to the bus!" All of Class 1-A except for Izuku, Hayato, Katsuki, and Shoto made a break for the bus while Mandalay and Pixie Bob nodded at each other.
"Kitties who don't make it by 12:30 won't get any lunch!" Mandalay called out as Pixie Bob jumped forward to stop the class.
"Sorry to tell you, but training camp has already begun." Aizawa said giving the signal to Pixie Bob. She licked her lips and placed her paw-like gloves on the ground, making the dirt rise and become a flood that pulled every student down from the cliff to the ground below.
"Hey! Since it's private land, you can use your Quirks as you wish!" Mandalay called out as the students landed and looked up to see her. "You have three hours! But first you have to get through: The Beast's Forest!"
"The Beast's Forest?" Izuku asked as he and Hayato walked forward.
"Well, if it sounds like a game location then we just gotta plow through to get some exp, now don't we?" Hayato asked cracking his knuckles. The ground began to shake and the class looked ahead to see a demon-like creature walking towards them.
"It's...a beast!" Was the general response from the class as the creature raised one of its arms to attack Izuku and Hayato. As it did, the two looked up at its head to see a piece crumble off to reveal it was made of dirt. The two nodded at each other and activated their Quirks, jumping up and destroying the beast with ease as Hayato kicked its chest and Izuku punched its head. Their classmates looked in awe as they turned around with smirks.
"This is Pixie Bob's Quirk! Don't worry!" Izuku yelled as they heard more growling up ahead.
"Get off your asses and let's get to work!" Hayato yelled making their classmates stand up and nod, their fighting spirit now rejuvenated.