Chapter 70: Courage and Conflict

Hours later, long after the students had turned in for the night, training started as early as it did today, and thus, they wished to get their rest. Their teachers, also needing to wake up early, couldn't stay up much longer, as while Eraser and Vlad looked over some files on changes they could make to individual students' training to improve it, the Pussycats were already asleep as well.

This approach to security, relying on the secretive nature of the training camp, would leave them open. Perhaps if one of them was doing patrols, they would have spotted them, but they weren't, as on a cliff watching the valley, four people stood. One of them, a seemingly schoolgirl, fiddled with the support gear she had been given.

I do not like this; it's so un-cute!” The girl seemed to be the youngest one there. Her small size, cute face, and clear schoolgirl uniform made her seem like she would be rushing off to class or that she was going to hang out with friends after school.

But her support items couldn't belong to any regular civilian, as she wore a piped black mask paired with boxes of knives strapped to her thighs, with a green utility belt around her waist and more green boxes attached. She wore a loose black scarf around her neck, decorated with pieces of pale grey metal in the shape of a carnivorous grin. 3 large silver canisters were attached to either side of the mask with pipes connecting to each canister's rear.

Similar to her, another of the gathered also seemed to be a student, wearing a boy's muddle school uniform, but his features couldn't be seen with how he chose to wear a helmet and gas mask. “They were engineered for the black market from what I hear,” his mask's red-eyed look away from her, the boy gazing out towards the dark forest, where, at its core, U.A.'s students slept. "You should be focused on whether it works or not."

"It is too much to ask if it was a little more stylish?" She complained, as her gear was all just dull greens and blacks. Did the support engineer have no soul? No passion? Did they hate the idea of colour?

Off to the side, seated on a rock, a man snorted. “That’s what you get for not commissioning your own gear.” He looked nothing like the first two, and his clothing was not a school uniform for one. He stuck out in other ways, having sleek, small insectoid spiracles along his neck, going under his clothing.

He also bore some heteromorph features aligning with those of a bird. Instead of hair, he had pale gold, silver, and lavender feathers. The gold feathers were most of the feathers atop his head, with the rest working their way down his body. His hands also resembled the claws of an eagle, with enlarged, crystal-like claws serving as his finger and thumb points.

Clothing-wise, it seemed to be a mismatch of flame-retardant and winter frost clothing. Lastly, on both arms, he wore gauntlets, each of which had speakers mounted like cannons.

“Like you have room to talk.” The girl snorted at her teammate.

“I don’t?” The man raised an eyebrow, his face passive, suiting his faded yellow eyes, which seemed to watch everything like an eagle on the hunt.

“Uh-huh! You still got some super boring stuff.” She countered.

“Just because it’s not ‘cute’ as you call it, doesn’t mean it’s not fitting.” The 20-something sighed, though chuckling as he recalled something amusing. “Besides, I much prefer the unpolished. After all, even something as crude as a rock can hide gold…or bash someone’s head in.” His chuckle grew a little more invested, livelier.

“So brutal.” The boy in the gas mask stated.

"Such as life, some parts can be as brutal as death metal, others as sweet as a mother's lullaby." The man replied, closing his eyes once more.

“Hey there, darlings, sorry to keep you waiting. It took a while to wrangle this one.” 3 more people approached, and leading them was an average-looking man, dressed more like a trucker than anything else. With them was a lizard heteromorph who seemed to dress similar to Stain, and lastly, a man wearing a black, full-body restraining outfit, one which even covered their eyes, leading some to wonder how the rambling man could even see.

Turning to look them over, the leader of the bunch, a badly burnt, dark-haired woman, nodded. "That makes eight of us."

“I don’t care, just let me loose. I’m too pumped up to stand by.” One of their people spoke up, the largest of them, though his features couldn’t be seen as he wore a clock and mask.

The woman sent a lazy glare towards the apparent impatient one. "Cool your jets, you crazy bastard. We're expecting 3 more people. Once they get here, then we can move." She ordered, her gaze leaving little to be refuted. Despite her appearance, she was far from weak and would not hesitate to remind them of why she was in charge.

The giant of a man, eager for a fight, decided he could wait. The woman didn't believe he would wait for the mission, but perhaps for the chance to challenge her during the day, she'll burn that bridge when she comes to it. Right now, she is more focused on their mission and targets. "The League made a mistake the last time, going after these baby heroes with a bunch of rejects and idiots. No…we won't be repeating that. This time, it'll be a small, hand-picked team of elites. When tomorrow comes, it’ll be their sense of safety that we go after.”

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The next day, the students were up bright and early to train; only some seemed more invested than others. From class B, it seemed like all those who had failed the practicals were struggling to stay on their feet, wobbling and near passing out. Suffering with them were five members of class A: Kirishima, Sato, Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero.

The fact that one more in class A failed than his class would have brought Monoma joy if he weren't struggling to stay awake. A whack of a stick to the ground knocked some alertness into them as Vlad walked around them, a wooden sword in his hand. "Don't go slacking on me now, remedial group! You need this training the most!"

"I'm gonna kneel over," Bondo complained.

“Hmm.” Kodai looked exhausted.

“Why did we have extra lessons till 2am? I thought we all did fine in the written portion of the exam…” Tetsutetsu asked, his eyes blinking out of sync as he swore that the rocks looked real soft right now.

Vlad whacked Tetsutetsu upside the head, the pain waking him up a little. "U.A. does not believe in just 'fine'. You could score the best in theory, but if you can't apply it as you four demonstrated," He looked them over, the group having the alertness to look away, embarrassed at failing. “That it’s as useful as a paper spoon.”

“You hear that, Monoma? You’re as useful as a paper spoon.” Ashido wasn't ashamed, as he wasn't being talked to.

Lucky for them, Eraser was there to remind them of that. “Why are you talking, Ashido? I don’t recall your performance in either practical or theory being something to write home about.”

“They're not the only ones, Kamakiri, Shiozaki, Komori, and Fukidashi!" Vlad yelled, the man’s impressive lungs allowing him to be heard by the named students who turned from their training towards him. "You might have passed your practicals, but you got dangerously close to failing, which is unacceptable."

As the four returned to their training, feeling worse after being reminded how hard they struggled to secure their victories, Eraser only needed to look at Uraraka and Aoyama's way to get the same message. Uraraka recalls that it was more luck than anything else that they won their match, as if not for Aoyama asking her a totally unreasonable, out-of-nowhere question that had an obvious answer and was none of his business, they would have lost to Thirteen.

Still, he didn't want his students to just focus on the negative, but to turn that defeat into a means to learn, and improve as Eraser walked through the area, speaking loudly so that they could all hear. “Don’t lose focus, each of you can move faster and no matter what you’re doing, remember how far you’ve come since before U.A. and how far you still need to go.”

Midoriya paused his continuous onslaught of flames towards the sky. “Where I started…” Before U.A., he was…all he had was the shrine. He didn't hate it, but…what could he have done past it? If not for Ryukyu, could he have even applied to U.A? To any hero school? Getting here was incredible; it was more than he could ever dream, but it was another step towards his goal.

Tiger’s terrifying presence made itself known as he loomed behind Midoriya. "Midoriya, don't you go slacking on me now! I need to see that fire, set the sky ablaze." He ordered. All the while, Koharu had never ceased, only adding to the summer heat of the area.

“Yes, Tiger-sensei!” Shifting his footing, he aimed his twin arm barrels towards the sky, called on his flames and with a roar, he shot out a beam of green flames at maximum output, the boy nearly sent tumbling back but he kept his stance, learning forward to try and contradict the force trying to send him back first into the ground.

As they worked, Pixe-bob sat on a crate of supplies, the woman letting out a snicker. “Don't grow into a bunch of grumpy ole cats, we have something fun planned for tonight! You've all been training hard, so we'll have you go up against each other in a real test of courage!"

“How’s that for a reward? Aren’t we the best pussycats you’ve ever met?” she asked, basking in what she figured would be their adoration. However, for many, despite it not even being lunchtime yet, they were too tired for such a reward.

"It just sounds like more training," Kendo stated.

“And in the dark, too…” Jiro whined, her jacks sore from smashing them against rock for hours.

"As long as I won't need to eat more chocolate…” Yaoyorozu moaned, as one would think eating chocolate cubes with walnuts at their cores would be great as a means to train, but not only had she grown up the wealthiest person there, wanting for nothing, but only a child would believe eating chocolate, and nothing but chocolate, would be fun. All it did was make her vow to not touch a single piece of chocolate for the next year once the camp ended.

“How much can we do in one day?” Rin breathed out, his arms sore from having to keep regrowing scales to fire off, or to reinforce his first as he punched away at rocks like a particularly dim cave-man.

"Come on. Man…we got this. We gotta show class A we got the bravest students in U.A…" Monoma tried to rally them, only to lean onto Bondo, the blonde, half asleep.

"Say that again and you're not about to pass out," Sero told him, though he wasn't against getting just a couple of hours of shut-eye.

Sadly for them, they would receive no such thing. Their pleas wouldn't sway their teachers, as for the Pussycats, Pixiebob summed up their views. "But don't start slacking off now. I know that it's a really nice day and all, but there'll be no rewards for any kittens that decide to sunbathe and nap! Push yourselves, come on, let me hear your roar like the lions you're trying to be!"

"Yes, ma'am…"

“I can’t hear you~!” she sang, eliciting some groans from the students. But she didn't give up, giving a couple the hurt kitten look until they relented.

"Yes, ma'am!" As they agreed to this hell, Tokage figured she wasn’t alone in wondering if Ragdoll wasn’t the only insane Pussycat present.

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Again, as the afternoon sun came in, their training ended. Again, they were told that they'd make their own food. This time, they tried grilling some fish, making soup, and potatoes. All the ingredients were handily supplied, which meant they had to now wash, cut, and cook everything.

“You’re really good with food prep, Midoriya.” Fukidashi noticed that Midoriya, having helped to light the fires, was now prepping a fish that hadn't been beheaded, descaled, or gutted.

Those who knew how to cook didn’t quite know how to handle this part, as most times, when you bought fish at the store, unless you made the choice for it, you got it the same way people got their meat, ready to be cooked. Of course, it seemed like Midoriya and Tsunotori had no such issues, easily handling the fish preparation for the 2 classes.

Chopping off another fish head, he tossed it into the garbage. Midoriya reminded them, "Well, I lived alone for a while. Needed to pick up such skills, but if you want to see a real chef…” He pointed to Bakugo, who had been placed with those who chopped up everything after he blew up one of the grills the previous evening. He was going through it with the carrots, the results being finely cut, tiny pieces of carrot, ready to be thrown into the pots.

“Who would have thought? Blasty isn’t just a stabber.” Tokage chuckled, which of course drew Bakugo's attention.

“The hell is that supposed to mean? You all just suck!” Jiro wasn't sure which was more impressive: Bakugo's having enough in him to still get disproportionally angry and loud at minor slights or his being able to turn his attention away from his cutting and both keep up the same speed and quality.

Delivering him another 6 fish, Asui asked a question. “Did you need to call your mother earlier, Midoriya?"

"Hmm? No, no…I called Ryukyu; I needed some advice." Midoriya paused for a moment. Before they started making dinner, he asked Ragdoll if he could make a phone call that ended up lasting only a few minutes.

“On what?” Asui asked, to which Midoriya explained the situation with Kota as he got back to gutting the fish and washing out its insides before moving on to the next, chopping its head off and setting about descaling it. "That does sound like an issue. A kid who hates heroes? Didn't think they existed." Asui tapped her chin, as that just seemed odd to her, to all of them, really.

"I've met kids who didn't like heroes all that much, I should know, I was one of them for a while, but it seems like Kota despises the very idea of them," Monoma noted as he washed some vegetables, including some freshly peeled onions.

"You think he was bullied? Some kids can take games of heroes and villains way too far?" Kendo asked, but Tetsutetsu didn’t think it was that.

"No way, the Pussycats or his parents would have stepped in and handled it." No way you could be related to pros and not have them in your corner against stuff like that.

“Speaking of which…where are his parents?” Tokage asked, drawing their attention as she looked where Kota had been, but the boy had since vanished. “Mandalay’s his aunt, right? Well, I don't mean anything rude, but wouldn't a kid his age spend his summer with them or friends? Why would he be here when the Pussycats are busy helping us train for the entire week?"

Thinking about it, it was strange that he was here. U.A. and the Pussycats had to have organised this trip at least a couple of weeks in advance, plenty of time to shift things around if Kota was spending time here and not with his parents. “That is strange…maybe something came up?” Midoriya asked, to which Monoma shook his head.

“We're getting off topic here. Midoriya, you called Ryukyu for advice on how to talk to Kota, right?" He asked, Midoriya blinking in surprise, before he followed Monoma's lead in this.

"Yeah, I managed to speak with him last night, but…I'm not sure I made much progress." Midoriya couldn't explain what happened, partly because it wouldn't be fair to Kota and partly because he didn't have all the pieces.

Kendo put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Give it time. I doubt it would be a big deal if he were so easily changeable. Keep doing what you're doing, but work at his pace."

"Never thought I'd see a kid who wasn't bursting with energy and impatience." Tokage found that part strange.

"Speak for yourself," Monoma stated, to which she split her head from her body and shoved it into Monoma’s face.

“Hey!”

Line Break

As night fell, the students gathered in a different clearing, the Pussycats waiting. Seeing the last of the approach, freshly showered and changed into fresh clothing, Pixiebob started things. "Perfect, we've filled our bellies and cleaned the dishes…" With a big smile, she continued, hyping them up for the little game. “Now it’s time for-!”

“A totally awesome test of courage!” Ashido cheered, along with those who failed from class A. Things had been hell, from the late nights, early mornings, and hellish training, but this was why they were so hyped for the summer camp!

“We’re gonna ace this!” The rest cheered along with her, only for Monoma to butt in.

“In your dreams, we’ll scare you all so good, you’ll need nightlights till graduation!” Monoma declared, already hosting dozens of means to terrify the inferior class.

“Perhaps,” Eraser spoke up, and while Monoma didn’t feel it, those in class A did. The spike of ice piercing their hearts and freezing them to their cores. “But you won’t be participating in it.”

“What?!” Ashido screamed, no…it couldn’t be…he wouldn’t-!

Eraser would. His capture weapon lashed out, grabbing onto all of them, including those from class B. The man treated them like unruly dogs he needed to walk. "The remedial class will be having lessons with me, same as yesterday, " he informed them.

“You gotta be kidding me!!!” Ashido screamed in horror, but Eraser didn’t care as he started to drag them back to camp.

“No, I need to do it, you can’t do this to me….I need to see class A shit their pants in terror!” Monoma kicked and screamed the entire way, but found no success, as those of class A just slumped and accepted their fate.

“Hmm.” Kodai looked miffed about this lost chance.

"Don't worry, guys. We'll pick up the slack. We have plenty of scary stuff we can do." Honenuki yelled at them as they were taken off.

“Such a tragedy.” Tokoyami shook his head, Kuroiro agreeing.

“Quite, and after all we’ve conquered to get to this point. Life truly has its cruel moments, a fickle mistress.” Kurorio added that this might be their time to shine, leaving Hagakure and Tsunotori a little worried about them and how…dramatic they could be.

"All right, now that we have those who will participate, here are the rules. We've set up a circular route through the forest, which class B, who's going first, will enter and hide. Once the time window ends, class A will go in pairs every 3 minutes." Pixiebob didn't lose a step as she explained things to them.

"There are tags with your names on them at the midway point of the route. You must get there, get the tags, and come out at another end. Now, those who are scarers aren't allowed to make physical contact, but other than that, go nuts!" She seemed more excited about this than they were.

"You can't touch, but you can use your quirks however else you like! The winners will be the creative students who make the most people piss their pants!" Tiger near roared.

“Did we need that visual?” Jiro asked, but Iida seemed to be inspired by all this.

"I see! They encourage us to stroke our imaginations and find creative ways to apply our quirks! It's brilliant." Iida stated as if he had figured out a great secret, leaving some wondering if he was just reading into this too much. Besides, if this was meant to benefit them, wouldn't it be best that those who failed also get a chance to participate?

Midoriya scratched the back of his head. "I thought it was just a reward for all our hard work."

Tsunotori shrugged. “Dos cosas pueden ser ciertas.” She was the only one there who could understand what she had just said, but she'd explain it later if someone else didn't.

"All right, class B, head on out. You have 10 minutes to find your spots and get ready to terrify your fellow heroes in training. I expect great and spooky things!" Pixie Bob, declared as class B, made their way into the forest. Tokage and Kuroiro offered class A smiles that were sure to put them on edge.

Line Break

"Sounds like they're getting some serious results," Midoriya noted, hiding behind a bush close to the path. In the distance, they could make out the screams and shrieks of class A, though they had yet to see anyone.

"Great for the rest, but it just makes me feel like we need to really bring something scary for our part," Yanagi noted, as they had positioned themselves at the 3rd of the way through, being the last real scare class A would get before they could walk out without issue.

"Well, with that we have planned, I'm confident that at least someone will need to change their pants." Tsunotori giggled, as this reminded her of Halloween parties; all that was missing was candy, but then again, Sato looked sick of cake after their training, so maybe it was best they didn't have candy.

"I…not so happy about this, but it's a class activity, so I'll do my best." Midoriya sighed, though Koharu seemed excited for it, as they had an-

Midoriya paused, his eyes going wide before narrowing in alert. Koharu followed his example as the two started to sniff around like a pair of bloodhounds.

“Midoriya?” Tsunotori asked, looking towards Yanagi, who was in the dark, as was she.

“You smell that?” Midoriya asked, his frown growing as he detected a familiar scent in the air, one that was never far when he was involved.

“Smell what?” Yanagi asked, taking a whiff of the air but not getting anything, Tsunotori only smelled the forest.

“Smoke, and a lot of it…” Midoriya replied. Immediately, both girls looked around, trying to spot any sign of flames or sparks. Still, even with how dark it was under the canopy, they saw only darkness with patches of starlight getting through.

“Do you think it was Bakugo or perhaps Todoroki?” Yanagi asked, as if they had been the first group. That would explain why Midoriya could smell it; they were close.

Midoriya thought the same, but shook his head. “We’re close enough, at least I think we’re close enough to have heard an explosion, and Koharu hasn’t felt any vibrations that could match one. Todoroki…”

Koharu looked at Midoriya, as she had been listening closely, but all she could detect was the heat and the coming smoke, no vibrations from an explosion, or even the shroom that would follow Todoroki's blasts. Even if he had used something like that, someone would have seen it, and it would have been reported, right?

"No, this isn't him… it smells far too strong to have been something Todoroki started by accident." Midoriya agreed with Koharu before turning to the others, who looked nervous.

“What do we do?” Tsunotori asked, as this was a little more than they had bargained for.

"You guys must find the others and return to camp." Midoriya got up, no longer concerned that someone would see them.

“What about you?” Yanagi asked, following and rising. Still, she couldn't detect any smoke, but considering Midoriya was a walking volcano, she would trust his word on this.

"Fire's my specialty. Koharu and I will find the source and devour it, and that'll be it. Easy. Besides, a little smoke won't do us in, right, Koharu?" Midoriya smiled towards Koharu, who slithered up his leg, taking her place on his shoulders and flicking his cheek with her tongue.

“Okay, by car-!” Tsunotori would agree, only for Midoriya to interrupt her, panic clear in his words.

“Kota!”

“Kota?” Tsunotori asked, wondering what this had to do with him. Sure, the kid was a little on the mean side, but he was a little kid. No way he could be the cause of this fire.

Midoriya had no such beliefs or suspicions. No, he was concerned. "He…he might not be at camp, but there's a fire, " he told them, with the girls looking at each other, now sharing in that worry as even they noticed that the kid liked to wander. Who's to say he wasn't close to whatever blaze Midoriya was picking up?

“This is bad. Does anyone know where he could be?" Yanagi asked, to which Tsunotori shook her head. The white-haired girl frowned, hating that she, like most of them, hadn't brought their phone, having left it back at camp, so she couldn't even call Mandalay or Vlad to inform them of this.

“He has a secret hide-out; I followed him there yesterday. If he’s not at camp, he should be there. It’s not in the direction of the flames, but you should still get there and pull him out, all right?” Midoriya replied.

“Tell us where.” Tsunotori stepped up, looking towards Yanagi, who frowned at her. "Yanagi, you should search for the others and return to camp. I'll handle the kid, " she told her.

“You sure?” Midoriya asked.

"I'm faster, so I can get there, get Kota back to camp, and then jump right back in," Tsunotori replied, her horns shooting off her head. The girl jumped into the two, needed to shift about, and nearly fell, but she remained stable.

Midoriya, trusting her, told her the location before he turned to head towards the blaze.

“Be safe.” He told them.

"You as well," Yanagi added. As with them, both the horse girl and the snake boy were off. Midoriya lit up into his new Yellowstone form and took off, his frame glowing with the intense heat build-up within him. Tsunotori rose above the trees and took off towards Kota, leaving Yanagi to run down the path, hoping she would find others and the pairs from class A before anything happened.

As she ran down the path, she finally started to smell smoke. It started light, something you could not pick up on if you were distracted, but it quickly grew in intensity. As time continued, she started to see traces of it. Looking up, she could see large smoke plumes rising above the forest, and unless the wind was off, it was coming from where Midoriya ran off to.

‘Okay, stay calm, this is just a forest fire. It's summer…wait, it's summer, there shouldn’t be any wildfires. It hasn't rained in a while, but it can't be that dry, right?' Yanagi recalled her geography classes and some tourist ads she had seen around. Both would argue this wasn't natural.

Again, she looked up, seeing how thick the smoke was, before focusing on the path as she called out for the others, hoping to get a response, a sigh that they were all right. She didn't think they would cut through the forest; the path was straight enough that they could stick to it if they noticed the smoke, but she wasn't seeing anyone.

As she regretted her trio leaving early and thus wasn't around to hear where the rest would be hiding, she continued to think things over. ‘Maybe it was a hiker, someone who didn’t properly handle their campfire, nor a smoker…no, this is private land, Ragdoll was clear on that, there shouldn’t be anyone to be careless, even so, it wouldn’t spread this fast, would it?’

Eventually, her calls seemed to get an answer, though not a verbal one. She could hear movement up ahead, but it was too dark to see anything. ‘What the?’ Squinting her eyes, she tried to see what it was. They didn’t respond, but perhaps they didn’t hear her, as unlikely as that was.

One moment, she barely saw anything; the next, she saw something big, dark, and fast coming towards her. Caught flat-footed, she tried to lunge to the side, but in the back of her mind, at that moment, she realized she wasn't fast enough and braced for the impact.

The impact never came as something, or more accurately, someone came rushing out of the side of the path, tackling her out of the way and out of sight. Blinking away her confusion, she saw who her saviour was.

“Shogi?” she asked, hoping she got the name right. Shoji nodded, but then her eye went to his state, seeing he was already roughed up. The worst was one of his arms, as it was little more than a bloody stump now.

Shoji picked up on where she was looking from her gasp, but he kept his attention on the threat to their lives. “I’m fine, just…what are you doing here?” He asked her.

Again, she had to centre herself and focus on the important stuff. “Smoke, Midoriya smelled some and went to handle it. I volunteered to run down the path and inform the rest of them so we could cancel, but…" She looked out from where they hid and saw that what had nearly hit her seemed to be a giant mass of darkness. From what she saw, it had no skin or muscle, but it was on the hunt for them.

"Yeah, it seems like we have bigger problems," Shoji grunted, Yanagi wondering where his partner was, as if he were here. Wait, no, that couldn't be. She wouldn't believe it, not until he told her.

“Is that a villain?” She diverted her focus from the possible fate of a fellow student to the thing that could have been involved in that terrible fate.

“No, it’s Tokoyami.” Now she was surprised. She had seen his quirk at the Sports festival; he wasn’t anything like this. "His quirk was that we got attacked by a villain. I managed to save us but lost my hand doing it, which set off Dark Shadow despite how hard Tokoyami was fighting for control."

“How does even work? I thought his quirk was a shadow beast.” Yanagi asked, having the sense to remain quiet like Shogi. If that was a dark shadow, it was probably hunting them via sound, given how poor the visibility was.

Even with the mask he insisted on wearing at all times, Shogi made a face that said enough about his feelings about discussing this. Still, he had no choice when their lives were on the line. "It's complicated. If I'm putting the pieces together right, Dark Shadow is stronger but harder to control in the dark, and with no moon…"

Yanagi put the pieces together and found she didn't like the picture it made. “Then.”

"Yeah, to get past here and tell the others about the villain and the smoke, we need to get past Tokoyami," Shoji confirmed.

“Shouldn’t we patch up your hand?” Yanagi asked, as the Tokoyami rampage was something they'd need time to figure out, if they couldn't. Still, she could do something about Shoji right now.

Shoji shook his head, shifting a little to keep out of sight as Dark Shadow’s massive, glowing red eye looked their way. "It looks bad, but it's not serious. My arms can be damaged, even cut off, just fine. It hurts, but I can just grow another one easily." He explained, Yanagi supposing that that was a handy mutation, but that just meant he could trade limbs for progress. She couldn't even. "He couldn't stand seeing me injured like that and…this."

For one, Yanagi wished that her fellow students were assholes; it would have at least meant that Tokoyami wouldn't have reacted like this to the sight of another in pain.

'Midoriya would have been the better pick for this. But… Yanagi's frown grew, but she didn't have many options to fight or retreat. "We work with what we have. He's your classmate. Do you have any ideas on how we handle him and not get killed?"

“Neither of us can fight him, not like this. We need something bright, a light source.” Shoji's response only made her wish that Midoriya were here more. Still, he was busy handling one thing, and Tsunotori was no doubt long gone to save Kota. So, she’ll make do here.

“Who was behind you?” she asked, as neither she nor Shoji could produce light. She had a feeling that with a rampage this bad, even if she had her phone, its flashlight wouldn't do much more than give away their position.

“Bakugo and Todoroki, both should be able to do just that, but Tokoyami is standing in our way and is attacking everything that moves.” Shoji’s response, while grave, did give them some hope. Both Bakugo and Todoroki would be ideal for this. All they had to do was get past the thing they couldn’t hope to best to get to them…

Well, Yanagi supposed they had hope. Now, they just needed a plan that wouldn't end with them being smashed corpses in a forest.

Line Break

We are back with another chapter. I couldn't start this Monday evening, but with no Thursday upload to write, I had the time to work on this through Tuesday afternoon. I did have to put my ass to the fire to get it done, but it's done.

Now, the chapter itself wasn't too much of a departure, namely just setting up other stuff as I have plans for the rest of the summer camp, which, as I noted previously during the I-island part, is going to get messy—like really messy.

Line Break

Change one, class B is more involved in the summer camp attack. In canon, it was just Awase, Kendo, and Tetsutetsu. At the same time, Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki, Uraraka, Asui, Shoji, and Tokoyami all got some level of screentime and importance. However, in Tokoyami's case, it was more of an obstacle than a hostage. And man, wouldn't it have been so much easier if Midoriya had been the one who went to get the others…shame neither he nor anyone in the story knows canon or can read my notes. Besides, it would have been too easy if he had done it.

Oh no, he's going to have his own problems in the next chapter. All while Tsunotori speeds towards where Kota is, will Muscular be there as well? Will she try to fight him? Stay tuned for the next chapter!