Chapter 47: First Day at Camp
It was exactly 11:55AM when most of class 1-A rolled into the camp grounds on their fleet of emerald assault vehicles, mariachi music blaring from the one that Ashido and Kirishima were operating together.
Why the pink girl had brought a music player and portable speakers, not to mention why she had thatpiece of music in her playlist, Momo couldn't even guess. However, the noise didn't come close to dimming her satisfaction at having achieved their goal within the target time.
"Well, well, I'm impressed," Mandalay said as the students got off their emerald vehicles, which finally vanished, and Ashido thankfully turned off her music. "We told you to try to get here by noon, but we never expected you all to actually manage it. That's the amount of time we could do it in."
The raven-haired heiress resisted the urge to sigh. They really didn't need more instructors who were casually dishonest with them, in her opinion.
"Where are Todoroki and Bakugo?" Aizawa asked.
"They refused to accompany us and struck out on their own," Momo said.
The perpetually tired man's eyes narrowed, as though he was trying to judge whether she was telling the truth...or trying to find a way to blame the students who were present for the absence of the two boys.
The class rep met his gaze evenly, unwilling to be held responsible for the actions of two people she had no true authority over or means of disciplining.
"They're still out in the forest, dealing with my earth beasts," Pixie Bob put in. "At the rate they're going, they'll make it in time for supper. Probably."
Aizawa scowled. "You shouldn't have all relied on Midoriya's Quirk to get you to camp," he scolded.
"Mr. Aizawa, the others did a lot of work fending off the earth beasts," Izuku piped up. "They didn't just use the guns. Asui jumped off sometimes to bounce around the trees and engage the beasts."
"Call me Tsu," the frog girl put in.
"Ashido used acid to melt them and make them slip," Izuku continued. "Tokoyami fought them with Dark Shadow, Sero tangled them up with tape, Kaminari shocked a few, Koda summoned real animals to fight them, and even Mineta used his orbs to get them stuck."
"And even if the others hadn't contributed so much, when a team of heroes needs to accomplish an objective, isn't utilizing the Quirk among the group most suited for the task just the logical course of action?" Momo added.
Mandalay chuckled. "She has a point there, Eraser," she remarked. "The two students who decided to leave the pack and strike out on their own were the ones who made the mistake here."
"The green kitten made all the difference," Pixie Bob agreed. "It was very impressive performance, and from such a strapping young man, too." She added, licking her lips.
Izuku, face incandescent, immediately retreated behind Momo, who recreated the spray bottle and held it up like a weapon. Pixie Bob recoiled a step, making Mandalay look at her, arching an eyebrow.
Pixie Bob hissed, and the heiress responded by firing a warning spritz into the air, making the blonde pro finally withdraw.
A beat passed in silence as everyone processed the exchange.
Then Izuku cleared his throat. "Hey, um, I was wondering, who's that boy over there?" he asked, gesturing at a surly looking child in a baseball cap with a pair of horns on the front.
"Oh, that's my nephew," Mandalay said. "Kota, come over here and say hello. We're going to be spending a week with these people, after all."
"Hi," Izuku said. "I'm from UA High's hero course. Nice to meet you."
The little boy responded by firing a punch directly at the teenager's crotch with all his strength.
"Izuku!" Momo exclaimed, rushing over to her boyfriend as he slowly collapsed to the ground and went into a fetal position.
"Kota! Why did you do that?!" Mandalay demanded.
"Yeah! Yaomomo's gonna need that part of Midori intact and working!" Ashido agreed.
"Ashido!" Momo snapped hotly, even as she created an ice pack for Izuku.
The horned girl just grinned impishly in response.
Kota just scoffed and turned away. "I can't stand stupid jerks who want to be heroes," he proclaimed before stomping away.
Somehow, Izuku managed to give the boy's back a sad, curious look.
Mandalay cleared her throat. "Well, we may not have expected you to make it here so early, but a promise is a promise," she said. "So, time for lunch!"
After an excellent meal, Aizawa led the 18 students who were present to the edge of the campgrounds. The teacher was silent for an uncomfortably long moment, giving first Izuku then Momo a calculating, vaguely annoyed look before finally turning his gaze elsewhere.
"Sato," he said.
The big student stiffened, surprised at suddenly being single out. "Yes, Mr. Aizawa?"
The underground pro tossed Sato one of the grip strength testers and a packet of sugar. "You got one of the highest scores on this test last time, beaten only by Shoji," he said. "Try it again now."
With a shrug, Sato tore open the sugar packet and downed its contents. The young man's muscles immediately bulged to greater than normal size, and he grabbed the grip tester, squeezing it for all he was worth.
Aizawa checked a readout on his phone. "One kilo more than your first day at UA," he proclaimed.
Sato was so surprised he nearly dropped the tester. "What?"
"It's as I thought," Mr. Aizawa said. "You've all been through a lot since you began the hero course, and you've grown. But it's mainly your techniques that have grown. Your Quirks, not so much. Fixing that is going to be the main goal of this camp. You're going to be working so hard, you'll wish you were dead!" he added, his signature disturbing smile on his face.
Several of the students swallowed or cringed in fear, though others had to resist the urge to roll their eyes at their homeroom teacher's sadistic theatrics.
Are times like these the only ones when he smiles?Izuku wondered, realizing with an unpleasant shock that he couldn't think of any instances that disproved the notion.
Then the teacher's mood visibly dropped. "That said, because we didn't expect you lot to make it here until evening, the equipment and supplies that several of you will need isn't set up yet. So, you get a reprieve until tomorrow morning."
There were several sighs of relief.
"But that doesn't mean you get to sit around and do nothing this afternoon!" the teacher added. "You're going for a run around the camp grounds! Get moving!"
"Yes, Mr. Aizawa!"
"God damned...dirt monsters," Bakugo growled softly as he staggered toward the camp grounds. The lights on in the place were easily visible in the growing dusk.
His hands were throbbing painfully from having used his Quirk almost continuously since the damned hobo and the cat-themed pop idols passing themselves off as pro heroes had dumped them into the wilderness. He felt weak and slightly dizzy, which he knew was caused by dehydration from burning too much of his sweat. And his ears were ringing, despite a secondary effect of his Quirk giving him resistance to that.
Worst of all, he hadn't managed to ditch the equally exhausted Half-and-Half. Even though the two were both absolutely not working together, they were still going to the same place, from the same starting point. Bakugo had hoped to leave Candy Cane Hair in his dust, but it hadn't quite worked out like that.
At least I'll beat Deku there, he consoled himself.
He had to have made better time than the cheating idiot. There was just no way that Deku could've possibly gotten to the camp before him, not when he'd decided to take all the extras along with him. Even his bullshit super support gear couldn't possiblyhave handled all that dead weight that easily.
He heaved himself forward one final step, at last breaking into the clearing where the camp grounds stood.
Bakugo was too fatigued to bark out a laugh of satisfaction at beating Half-and-Half by a step or two, but his face stretched into a savage grin.
"Oh, hey, Baku-bro! Hey, Todoroki! Glad to see you two finally made it!" Kirishima called out, his sharp teeth displayed in a cheerful grin.
"Shitty Hair?! You're already here?!" the explosive teen shouted, his shock and anger temporarily reinvigorating him.
"Yup!" Kirishima said, seemingly oblivious to the other boy's fury. "We got here hours and hours ago. Those ATV things that Midoriya made were super manly!"
"Fucking Deku..." Bakugo growled to himself.
"Anyway, glad you made it here. Mr. Aizawa was talking about extra remedial lessons for you two if somebody needed to go and get you," Kirishima continued. "I knew you two were too manly for that, though!"
"Is there anything to eat?" Half-and-Half spoke up before Bakugo could erupt in frustration.
"Oh yeah! The Pussycats said we'd be cooking for ourselves starting tomorrow, but the food they whipped up today was great!" Kirishima said. "We made sure to save you guys some, though it might've gotten kinda cold by now..."
Bakugo was going to expose Deku for the lying, cheating fraud he was if it was the last thing he ever did.
Meanwhile, Izuku Midoriya was blissfully unaware of any oaths being made about him. The green haired young man had quietly crept away from the others and made his way a little outside of the camp grounds, a short distance into the forest that surrounded it.
"Ring, is there anyone in earshot or visual range of me?" he spoke quietly.
"There is currently one individual in your immediate vicinity," the ring answered.
He blinked, surprised. "Who?"
"That would be me," his girlfriend answered, stepping forward.
"Momo? What are you doing out here?" he asked, surprised.
She smiled at him in amusement. "I followed you, of course," she answered. "I noticed you slipping away earlier, and I figured that you were looking to get away for a moment so you could recharge your ring. I felt safe in assuming that you must've used a lot of power, getting everyone to the camp."
"That's right, but that doesn't explain why you followed me out here," Izuku said.
"Well, if Mr. Aizawa or one of the Pussycats found you out here alone and asked what you were doing, do you have a plausible excuse ready?" Momo asked.
"No..." Izuku admitted.
She nodded. "However, if the two of us are caught out here, they'll just assume we sneaked away so we could be alone for a little while."
"Oh, that's really smart," Izuku said. "But you'll get in trouble if they catch us out here."
"I think I'll be able to endure that," Momo replied.
Izuku smiled. "You're a really amazing girlfriend, Momo."
The heiress blushed. "Thank you, though I must admit I'm also curious to see you recharge your power ring," she said. "I realized I have no idea how you actually do that."
In response, Izuku reached into the subspace pocket. Momo let out a small squeak of surprise as a glowing green hole opened in reality. Izuku reached into it, withdrawing what looked like an old style train lantern made entirely of virdian metal.
The emerald ring on his finger shimmered into visibility as he held it up to the battery. "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's light!" he said.
"Power levels 100 percent," the ring announced as there was a brief flare of jade light.
"Amazing," Momo said. "And you can just summon that anywhere?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Izuku said as he put the battery back into the subspace pocket.
"Amazing," she repeated. "I'm glad I could see that."
He scratched the back of his neck, feeling bashful. "Of course. Showing you that is the least I could do after you came out to make sure I'd be okay even if a teacher caught me. I would've shown you a long time ago if I'd known you were curious."
She nodded. "We should probably head back now."
"Uh, or we could stay out here a little bit longer," Izuku said, flushing a bit at his own boldness. "I mean, we are alone out here, and we probably won't get much time to ourselves on this trip..."
She hesitated briefly, the moved towards him. Izuku's hands automatically went to her waist as she got close.
"Just five minutes," she said softly. "We don't want to get caught, and everyone's supposed to use the hot springs in a little bit. They'll notice if we don't show up."
"Okay," he agreed.
They kissed with the passion of teenagers in love who knew they might not have a chance to do it again in the near future.
"Okay, ten minutes," she said when they finally separated for a breath.
Not far off, on a cliff overlooking the campgrounds, a very different hole in reality than the one that Izuku had used to summon his power battery opened up, and Shigaraki stepped out of the inky void.
"There it is, Tomura Shigaraki," Kurogiri said. "As I assured you, the camp where the UA students are staying is right there."
"Good," the young man with the dead hand on his face said, reaching up to scratch at his neck.
"I still don't understand why you were so insistent on coming out here now," the misty villain said. "Our forces aren't assembled and ready yet, and for that matter, not all the students have arrived, either."
Indeed, while Kurogiri knew better than to say so, he was secretly afraid that the younger man had something rash and foolish in mind with this premature visit to the scene of their planned attack. Unfortunately, he'd had no good justification for denying him, and ultimately, he was at Shigaraki's service so long as he didn't do something suicidal or disastrous to All for One's plans.
"Just wanted to see the place, clear out the fog of war for a minute," Shigaraki said. Then a smile spread across his face, wide enough to be visible behind the hand that normally obscured his features. "I can't wait."
Hearing the young man talk about the upcoming attack with all the open excitement of a child on Christmas Eve chilled even the other villain's heart.
"Tomura Shigaraki?"
"Those hero brats down there have no idea of what's coming," Shigaraki replied, in what wasn't quite a singsong voice. "They're all complacent, despite our last attack. They can't imagine that any danger could reach them here, and all the stupid little NPCs in the world think the same. They believe that the heroes will protect them and the next heroes. We'll strike another blow against that complacency soon."
"So we shall," Kurogiri agreed, speaking perhaps just a bit too quickly.
He had known the younger man since he was a boy, and not long ago, he would've claimed that he could never have been afraid of Shigaraki, despite the man's devastating Quirk and sociopathic tendencies. Yet ever since Shigaraki had ambushed that UA student at the mall to have a conversation with him, Kurogiri couldn't deny that he was finding himself increasingly...unnerved by his charge.
"Yeah, we will," Shigaraki grinned. "Those scrubs won't know what hit them. Let's go back to the bar."
"Right away," Kurogiri said as he opened a new portal.
"Ah, this feels amazing after running through the forest all day," Sero remarked as he sank into the gently steaming water.
"Seriously," Kaminari agreed. "A great dinner and a dip in the hot springs. Just wish the whole trip could be like this."
"Food is nice and all, but what I'm really after is on the other side of this wall," Mineta said, putting his hands against the wooden barrier that separated the two sides of the hot springs.
"What are you doing?" Iida demanded, eyes narrowing.
"The most amazing sight in the world is on the other side of that wall! I'm not about to let it stop me!" the diminutive boy proclaimed, pulling off a couple of purple spheres from his head. "After all, being a UA student is all about overcoming barriers! Plus ultra!" he added before he started scaling the wall.
"How dare you employ our school's motto while pursuing such a base objective!" Iida exclaimed.
He made a grab for Mineta, but the smaller boy was already halfway up the wall, a manic gleam in his eyes as he approached the top.
Only for a glowing green hand to easily pluck him off the wall and suspend him helplessly in midair.
"You're not doing that," Izuku said flatly. "Did you really think we'd all just let you?"
"Lemme go!" Mineta exclaimed, struggling uselessly against the construct hand's grip. "You just don't want me getting an eyeful of your girlfriend over there!"
"I mean, I don't, but all the girls deserve respect and to not be spied on in the hot springs," Izuku said, plopping Mineta down into the water.
The purple haired boy just crossed his arms and scowled darkly.
"Dude, how did you expect that to go?" Kaminari asked with an exasperated look. "I mean, seriously?"
"Hey, you can't know until you try, right?" Mineta countered.
"I feel like it was pretty obvious what would happen without you trying it," Kaminari replied with a roll of his eyes.
"Well, well, I guess Midori's still as chivalrous as ever," Ashido observed from the other side of the hot springs.
"And Mineta's as big of a perv as ever," Asui added. "It's a good thing that Midoriya and Iida aren't just willing to sit there and let him do whatever he wants."
"Must be nice," Ashido said, sidling over toward Momo, "having a boyfriend like that."
The raven haired girl smiled warmly at the thought of Izuku. "It's very nice," she confirmed.
"I bet it's really easy to get...cozy with a boyfriend you really like," the pink girl said suggestively.
Momo's slightly dreamy look gave way to a small frown. "What?"
"C'mon, girl, you're the first one in the class to get romantically attached!" Ashido said. "You can't hold out on us! How far have things...progressed with you and the other half of class A's power couple?" she asked, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.
The raven haired girl pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh, honestly, I thought you'd be done with this once we got together," she said, exasperated. "When are you going to quit prying? When we get married?"
"Oh! When you get married?" Ashido grinned from ear to ear. "My, I didn't know things were moving that fast!"
Momo felt her face go crimson. "I...I didn't mean...you...!" she stammered, sinking down into the water until she was submerged up to her neck.
The horned girl suddenly yelped as she received a sharp poke to the side, courtesy of one of Jirou's jacks. "Would you knock it off?" she asked. "Can't you tell you're making her really uncomfortable? She doesn't owe you regular updates about her love life."
"I didn't mean anything by it," Ashido whined, rubbing the spot when the jack had dug into her side. "I'm happy for her. I don't want to hurt anybody or anything. I guess I just...want to enjoy her being happy."
Momo found she actually believed the other girl. Ashido's insistent curiosity was annoying, but it was clear there was no malice to it.
She sighed. "We agreed to try to take things slowly," she said. "We want to give it the best possible chance of working out."
The pink girl smiled. "Aw, that's sweet," she said.
Momo nodded. "I confess, though, sometimes it's hard to keep to that..."
Ashido grinned. "Oh, I'll bet it is!"
The heiress chuckled, somewhat awkwardly. She knew exactly what the pink girl was thinking, and while it was certainly true that there were definitely times, especially when they were kissing, that she was strongly tempted to let things get very physical, it wasn't just that. More than once, she'd caught herself thinking of how good of a husband and father Izuku would be, despite knowing just how crazy it was for her to be even considering things like that so soon.
"It's rather frightening at times, to be honest," Momo said softly. "I've rarely felt such powerful emotions before, and sometimes it almost seems like I'm in danger of being...swept away by them."
The horned girl smiled gently and moved next to the heiress. "Look, Yaomomo, I'm gonna do some real talk here for a sec," she announced. "I'm not the total love and relationship guru that I like to act like I am. I haven't even been in a real romantic relationship myself yet. But if your biggest problem in a relationship is that it's going so well it's literally scary, well, I feel pretty confident saying that things look pretty good for that relationship."
Momo smiled. "Thanks, Ashido."
"Anytime, Yaomomo," the pink girl replied. "Just don't let the fear ruin a good thing for you...and remember to share all the juicy updates with your friend Mina!"
Jirou sighed and shook her head. "You just can't resist, can you?" she asked, before turning her attention to Momo. "Despite her constant need for gossip, she's got a point. Besides, Midori's a good guy. I don't think he's the type to take advantage of your feelings or try to make you do anything you don't want. He probably feels just as strongly as you do."
"Yeah, you got a really good one, Yaomomo," Uraraka piped up. "I mean, he's pretty much a hero already. And look how he protected all of us from Mineta."
"Oh for crying out loud!" a voice from above them startled all the girls. "Stopping that creepy guy isn't some amazing, heroic act! It's something any decent person would do! You dumb hero types like to tell yourselves you're so great all time when you're not even being better than anyone else!" Kota ranted from his place at the top of the dividing wall.
"Hey! That's not fair! Lots of people wouldn't do that!" Ashido protested.
"You just want to think you're all so..." Kota's righteous anger petered out as he looked down and realized he was gazing at a bunch of naked girls, concealed only by the water of the hot spring. The young boy released a strangled gurgle, then literally tried to retreat from what he'd seen.
Which unfortunately caused him to go tumbling from the high dividing wall.
Several of the girls yelped in alarm as they watched a child fall from such a tall perch.
"Kota, are you all right?" Momo called out.
She wasn't about to pretend that she was exactly fond of the prickly child who'd assaulted her boyfriend for no good reason, but she certainly didn't wish a concussion or broken bone upon the boy.
"I caught him before he hit the ground, but it looks like he passed out anyway," Izuku replied from the other side of the wall. "I assume it's from shock, but I'm going to take him to the Pussycats so they can make sure he's okay."
Momo heard him speaking to someone on the boys' side of the wall, but she couldn't make it out.
"He's warning Mineta not to try anything while he's gone," Jirou answered her unasked question.
"Yup, you got yourself a catch there, Yaomomo," Ashido smiled.
"I don't see any signs of an injury," Mandalay said as she gently lay Kota on the couch in the management office of the complex a little later. "He must've just passed out from fright when he fell off the wall."
Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. When he didn't wake up, I was afraid he might be seriously hurt," he said. "Why was he up there, anyway?"
"We put him on guard duty up there because Eraser warned us one of you boys was 'the embodiment of lust," Mandalay answered.
The hero student really doubted the homeroom teacher had used such flowery language, not that he really cared how the man had phrased it. He was more wondering why the teacher hadn't bothered to warn Mineta against acting up himself, rather than mentioning it to the Pussycats.
"Girls today sure do develop quickly, don't they?" the pro hero remarked.
Izuku's mind immediately went to his girlfriend's impressive figure, and his face colored. He decided the safest response to that one was to change the topic.
"Kota seems pretty negative about heroes," he said.
"Hmm?"
Izuku looked down at the unconscious boy. "Every kid his age I've ever known has wanted to be a pro hero," he said. "But Kota's not just uninterested, he's hostile toward heroes in general. That's pretty unusual, isn't it?"
"Very much so," Mandalay agreed as she placed a cool, damp cloth on Kota's forehead. "I'm sure Kota would love heroes, too, if not for what happened to his parents."
"What happened to his parents?" Izuku echoed.
"You ever heard of the Water Hoses?" Mandalay asked.
Izuku inhaled sharply.
The pro hero nodded grimly. "They were relatives of mine. That's why Kota ended up with me after they were killed by a villain."
"Oh," he said softly.
"Getting killed in the line of duty, protecting innocents...it's an honorable death for a hero, arguably the best way for one to go out," Mandalay said. "But from Kota's perspective, his parents had sacrificed themselves to protect strangers, abandoning him in the process, but society praised them as model heroes."
"So that's why he doesn't like heroes," Izuku whispered.
Mandalay nodded. "I don't think he likes me and my team very much, either," she said softly. "But he has no one else, so he accepts that he lives with us. Still, it doesn't change the fact that he views heroes as nasty people who get praised for doing stupid, selfish things."
Izuku looked down at the unconscious child, a sad expression on his face. As understandable as it was, it felt so wrong for someone feel that way about heroes. It felt even more wrong for someone so young to be so angry.
He wished he could make Kota understand why people praised his parents and that heroes weren't selfish.
"In any case, thank you for catching him and bringing him here," Mandalay said. "You should turn in for the night, though. I'm sure Eraser will have you all up at the crack of dawn to start training."
"Right, thank you," he said, taking his leave.
He couldn't stop thinking about Kota as he stepped into the warm night air, though. It felt unheroic to just say he couldn't convince the boy, but he didn't know how he could even start to persuade him of any of that after the trauma he'd endured from losing his parents. And if there was one thing that he'd learned as a Green Lantern was that the power ring didn't give him either the power or the right to make people believe as he believed.
If there was something he could to change Kota's mind, he'd seize on it, but he supposed the reality was probably that he wouldn't get any kind of opportunity to do that.
Chapter 48: Fight in the Forest, Part 1
The first full day of the summer training camp was going well, which was to say that the students and their Quirks were being pushed to their absolute limits.
As much as he disliked the disruption to his pro hero activities that came with having to come out here for a week to oversee this, Shota would be the first one to admit the value of these things. The actual exercises for strengthening the students' Quirks was significant, but the really important part was giving the brats a taste of how grueling and painful the life of a pro hero could really be, something he couldn't truly do at UA, even with the amount of liberty Nezu provided the teachers.
Seeing how many of the brats looked bleary-eyed and rumpled when he and the other pros present woke them up at dawn always brought a smile to his face.
Now it was just a matter of making sure the kids didn't kill themselves while they went plus ultra, a task he thankfully had help with. Speaking of which...
"How's it going?" he asked, approaching Pixie Bob and Ragdoll.
"Real good!" Pixie Bob said cheerfully, even as she continued to manipulate areas of terrain and summon forth more earthen creatures with her Quirk. "Vlad King called, by the way. Said he and his class will be along shortly after lunchtime. I'm eager to see if those kittens are as energetic as these!"
Shota grunted, then turned his gaze to Ragdoll, who was gazing at the students with a pensive expression. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"Not wrong," the green haired pro heroine said, "but that green kitten..." she gestured at one student in particular.
Midoriya, of course.
"What's the issue with the problem child?" he sighed.
"Problem child?" Pixie Bob arched an eyebrow.
"He's got potential, but he can be overconfident and he's heavy-handed with his Quirk, which he relies on too much," Shota replied. "My attempts to correct that have...met resistance."
"Huh, he doesn't seem that way to me," Pixie Bob said, "but if you say so. You may want to avoid disparaging him too much in front of Mandalay, though. I think she's a bit fond of the kitten since he saved Kota from a bad tumble."
"Speaking of Midoriya, why did you flinch so much when his girlfriend made that spray bottle the other day?" Ragdoll asked.
The blond Pussycat briefly froze and then released a loud, obviously fake laugh. "Oh, that was nothing! Nothing!" she insisted.
There was a brief pause as the teacher and the other Pussycat gazed at her suspiciously.
Shota quickly decided he didn't care enough about whatever had set her off to pursue the matter.
"Anyway, Rags, is Search finding something odd about Midoriya?" Pixie Bob pressed on before her teammate could say anything.
"Sort of," Ragdoll said, looking pensive again."Parts of him are just sort of...fuzzy to my Quirk."
"Fuzzy?" Shota echoed.
"He almost looks like the Quirkless people I've scanned with Search," Ragdoll said.
"How so?" Shota pressed.
"I can detect his exact location with my Quirk, and it gives me the same general information I get from anybody I use Search on," Ragdoll tried to explain. "But when I try to examine his Quirk, what I get is...fuzzy."
"You're talking in circles," Shota pointed out, suppressing his growing annoyance.
Ragdoll shrugged. "It's difficult to explain it to someone who doesn't have any experience using Search, like it would be hard to explain the concept of color to someone who was born blind," she said, pausing before she continued. "If I use Search on her," she pointed at where Uraraka was using Zero Gravity to levitate an increasing number of boulders, "I know immediately that overusing her Quirk makes her nauseous. And if I use Search on him," she gestured towards where Kaminari was pouring electricity into a high voltage capacitor, "I can see that if he discharges too much power at once, it basically fries his brain and renders him helpless for a while. But when I try to examine Midoriya's Quirk with Search..."
"It looks fuzzy?" Pixie Bob supplied.
Ragdoll nodded. "I can see his power, but I get very little clear information on it," she said. "In fact, when I look for weaknesses, all I get is something about...the color yellow?" the expression on her face made it clear she was just as confused and taken aback by that as they were.
"I'm positive Midoriya has used his Quirk on yellow objects before," Shota said.
Ragdoll shrugged. "Maybe it was harder for him?" she suggested. "The lack of a clear reading from my Quirk about his Quirk is the whole thing that's throwing me for a loop, so I can't give you a solid answer."
Shota grunted. "Figures even the kid's Quirk would be troublesome," he muttered. "Well, never mind. There's 19 other students here, and soon we'll have 20 more on top of that. It would be irrational to focus on just one."
The "fuzziness" of Green Light to Ragdoll's Quirk could be a mystery for another day, he supposed, though if he was being honest with himself, Shota doubted he'd ever muster the energy to truly investigate it. Most likely it was just one of those weird Quirk things, and the problem child managing to be bothersome in every possible way.
"True enough," Pixie Bob agreed, stretching. "We still have enough time to give the kittens another challenge before it's time for lunch..." she added, activating her Quirk and calling forth more earth beasts.
"Man, you'd think that if they weren't going to cook for us, they could at least give us more than 20 minutes for lunch," Mineta grumbled as he approached the table where the Pussycats had laid out loaves of bread and other stuff to make sandwiches with.
"Pro heroes often don't have the luxury of time, let alone people to cook meals for them," Iida pointed out, though he was clearly too tired to speak with his usual level of zeal.
For a couple of minutes, the already weary students assembled their sandwiches and ate in near silence.
Or at least, most of them ate. Momo and Sato, whose training had involved constantly consuming food to power their respective Quirks, were using the break as a chance to not eat for a little while and let their stomachs settle a bit instead.
The class rep, who was looking especially green at the gills, accepted a couple of anti-nausea pills that Izuku handed her with a small but grateful smile, then swallowed them immediately as he began to gently rub her back and shoulders.
Despite her own weariness, Ashido released a soft, dreamy sigh at the simple display of affection and care.
Fortunately for his sake, Izuku didn't hear her.
"Is it just me, or is this, like, stupid training compared to what we did at Yaoyorozu's place before the exams?" Sero eventually spoke up.
"What?" Momo frowned, confused.
"Yeah, what the heck are you talking about?" Jirou asked. "That didn't even make sense."
"No, I get it," Kaminari came to the other boy's defense. "When we were at Yaoyorozu's place, she and Midoriya were all about helping us to find the cleverest ways to fight and use our Quirks, but here it's like we're just told to use our Quirks as hard as possible for hours."
Tokoyami grunted in agreement. "One philosophy of improvement built around finesse versus one of brute force," he remarked.
"At Yaomomo's place, we trained smarter, and here we're training harder," Asui summed it up more succinctly.
"There's room for both," Momo put in.
Izuku nodded. "Before the exams, we needed to get the most benefit possible out of what little time we had," he said. "And the way to do that was finding new and smarter ways to use the abilities we already have, but increasing those abilities is important, too."
Kaminari chuckled. "Man, you two really are too good, aren't you?"
"Eh?" Izuku blinked, taken aback.
"Feels like anybody else in your shoes would've been just, like, 'Yup, we are in fact better at training you to be heroes than the actual teachers, thank you,' " the electric boy said. "But instead you have to be all reasonable and mature about it."
"Maybe you should try that, one of these days," Jirou snarked, the barb getting a snicker of laughter from its intended target.
"We're just telling the truth," Momo said.
"Which is more than Mr. Aizawa always does, with his 'logical ruses'," Asui pointed out, blunt as ever.
"We should be eating rather than wasting time complaining about our teacher," Iida chided.
"He's got a point," Izuku agreed. "We only have twenty minutes for lunch."
With some groans of acknowledgment, the class went back to their food.
Class 1-B arrived shortly after lunch, the other hero class joining in the intense training that their peers were already embroiled in. Eventually, the teachers proclaimed training done for the day, and the Pussycats cheerfully gave the students ingredients to make themselves curry.
It was an...interesting experience cooking a meal with all of them, but eventually the class managed to produce a decent meal for themselves.
After cleanup was completed, they were left to their own devices, save for the students who had to do remedial classes after failing the practical exam. Most of the students were content to go take a shower or to practically collapse on any patch of soft grass, but Izuku took a plate of curry and followed Kota up to his "secret hideout" by the side of the mountain.
The young boy was neither open to accepting the food or the least bit happy to see one of the hero students had found him. Izuku ended up leaving the plate and walking off, trying not to feel too dejected.
He almost wasn't surprised when he encountered Momo on his way back to the camp.
"What brought you out here? Came to check on me?" he asked, the appearance of his girlfriend lifting his spirits.
"I thought it'd be a good idea to accompany you again while you recharge," she replied.
He smiled. "You're the best, Momo," he said, getting a blush from her.
After a short detour off the beaten path so Izuku could recharge his ring (and the two could indulge in a few minutes of kissing), the young couple began to make their way back to the campsite.
"Izuku, can I ask you a question?" Momo spoke up as they walked.
"Of course!" he nodded.
"Does being together ever feel...scary to you?" she asked, her voice coming out smaller than she'd expected.
"Scary?" he blinked.
"Don't get the wrong idea! I'm very happy we're a couple now!" she rushed to add. "I just..."
"Um, can I ask what brought this on?" Izuku asked, looking nervous.
"I was talking with the other girls yesterday," she tried to explain. She hadn't truly admitted to herself that the intensity of her own emotions for Izuku frightened her sometimes until she'd told them as much in the hot spring. "It came up, and I guess I just wondered if you felt the same."
She felt exceedingly foolish. The heiress didn't think she'd explained herself very well, and even if she had, her boyfriend had been chosen by hyper-advanced extraterrestrials specifically for his courage. Why would she think he was also afraid of a good thing?
"Yeah, I suppose it can be kind of scary sometimes," he answered.
"You do?" she blurted out.
Izuku nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Pretty much my whole life, the only thing that was really a priority for me was becoming a pro hero. I mean, of course I cared about my mom and then Eri too, but becoming a pro hero was the only thing I wanted for my own future, you know? But now that I'm with you, there's another priority for me. Having it not being all about becoming a hero anymore sometimes makes me feel like my world kind of tilted on its axis. It's sort of disorienting and scary sometimes. More than worth it, way more, but scary."
Momo gazed at him silently. She was relieved to find out that he hadn't viewed her fears as silly, even if his didn't mirror hers exactly. The implication that he wanted a future with her also left her face reddening.
"Also, a lot of the time I'm scared I'll mess up really badly somehow, and you'll decide being with me doesn't make you happy anymore," he added.
Momo's hand went to her chest. What was that phrase she'd heard Ashido use the other day?
Ah, yes, that was it
Right in the feels.
"No chance of that happening any time soon," she assured him, taking his hand in hers and kissing him on the cheek.
He blushed so deeply he resembled a tomato but returned her smile, and the two continued back hand-in-hand to the campsite.
"Is everyone in position?" Tsukauchi spoke into a small walkie-talkie, soon getting multiple confirmations in response.
He nodded to Sansa, and together, the two police officers marched into the lobby of the Shoowaysha Publishing building.
The mousy-looking receptionist at the front desk gazed apprehensively of the two men's badges. "Can I help you gentlemen?" she asked softly.
"We have a warrant for the arrest of Kizuki Chitose on charges of illegal Quirk usage and conspiracy against the government," Tsukauchi said, holding out a copy of the document in question. "We're here to bring her in."
"What?!" the receptionist gasped. "There must be some mistake!"
"If there is, she can sort it out in court," the detective stated, tone brooking no argument. "Where is she?"
"I...she should be in her office on the top floor," the receptionist stammered. "But I can't just let you go up there!"
"You don't need to let us do anything, ma'am," Tsukauchi said. "We're authorized to apprehend Ms. Chitose regardless of how you feel about it."
"Don't attempt to warn your employer we're coming," Sansa said. "If you do, you could be charged with obstruction of justice."
Without waiting for a response, the two officers proceeded to the elevator behind the reception desk.
The receptionist pressed a red button on the underside of her desk.
There was a pause, and the pair of police officers almost made it to the elevator.
Then a series of explosions ripped through the lobby, destroying furniture, blowing out windows, and sending the two policemen falling to the ground.
The receptionist wasn't entirely unscathed by the blasts, but most of the explosions had occurred around the perimeter of the lobby. With her desk roughly at the center of the room, she had escaped with minor scratches and rumpled hair and clothes.
"I said I can't just let you two up there!" she growled, raising a hand that now glowed with a malevolent light.
Large splinters of wood and shards of glass that had been broken in the explosions rose into the air, their wickedly sharp points directed at the policemen.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The reports from Sansa's pistol were deafening, even in the large lobby.
Redness blossomed across the receptionist's blouse and rapidly began to spread as both the woman and the objects she had telekinetically raised into the air now tumbled to the floor.
"Good shot," Tsukauchi grimaced as he sat up.
"You okay?" Sansa asked, noting the blood dripping down the side of the other man's face, no doubt from a wound created by some flying piece of debris.
"I've had worse," the detective replied dismissively.
Before either of them could say anything else, the muffled sounds of more explosions came from above them, accompanied by a distant trembling both could feel.
As quickly as they could after enduring the surprise attack, the two policemen scrambled to their feet and dashed outside.
A gaping, smoking hole in the side of the building's top floor confirmed Tsukauchi's fears. "She had contingency plans in place, in case something like this ever happened," he scowled.
"Indeed she did!" a familiar, booming voice sounded from nearby. "However, clearly she failed to plan for every eventuality!"
The policemen turned to see none other than the number one hero standing nearby, holding a miserable-looking Chitose. A young man with large wings like those of a bat – no doubt Chitose's intended ride from the top floor of the building to safety – was trapped in All Might's other huge mitt.
Tsukauchi managed a wan smile. "Kizuki Chitose, you're under arrest."
The next several minutes were a blur of activity, the kind that was by now familiar to the detective and the pro hero alike. The members of the so-called Meta Liberation Army were cuffed, stuffed into police cruisers, and taken away to the nearest station for booking. An ambulance was called for the two officers who'd been caught in the explosion, and evacuation of the building began, with the police making sure to get contact information for everyone who emerged from it.
Everybody associated with Shoowaysha Publishing was a potential suspect, after all.
"Are you all right, my friend?" All Might approached him just as the chaos began to calm a bit.
"I've had worse," Tsukauchi said again, gingerly touching the strip of gauze that covered the cut he'd gotten on his scalp. "And it's more than worth it to nip this insane revolution in the bud."
The number one hero nodded grimly. "Hard to believe something so big could've been building right under our noses."
"Agreed. They must've been extremely careful to keep everything a secret, for the organization to grow so large without us discovering it for so long," the detective said. "Fortunately, if everything goes well today, all their leadership and most of their resources will be gone." He added, well aware that multiple other raids and arrests to bring in the Meta Liberation Army's other prominent figures were happening right then. "Thank you for agreeing to participate in this. If even one of these people had escaped, it could've been a disaster down the line."
"Of course! How could I refuse, with how much you've assisted me over the years?" All Might laughed. Then the hulking hero turned more serious. "And between you and me, it's a relief to have something like this to do and occupy my mind. I can't help but feel that I should be overseeing the first year students' training camp, despite everything."
Tsukauchi nodded. "I think I know how you feel," he said. "I can't deny that dealing with this Meta Liberation Army is important, but I hated having to stop pursuing the League to do it. Maybe I'm just being arrogant about my own abilities and how useful my Quirk is, but I think we'd know more about them now, at least, if I didn't have to turn my attention to this."
All Might nodded. "Well then, let's work to wrap this up as soon as possible so you can turn back to finding those who'd menace my students, shall we?"
The third day of the training camp continued much the way the previous two had, with the Pussycats and the teachers mercilessly pushing their students to break the limits of their Quirks.
If anything was different, it was that the students of Class 1-A were starting to slow down as a result of sheer exhaustion from the previous days and having to trek through the forest to get to the camp, not to mention the very early mornings.
Mr. Aizawa was quick to rebuke any student he felt wasn't properly going plus ultra, particularly needling Kirishima and Sato, as well as the students he proclaimed had nearly failed. Bakugo and Todoroki were apparently exhibiting enough effort in his view to spare themselves from that, judging by the relative lack of grief the teacher gave them.
Izuku and Momo spent their few spare moments assuring their disheartened fellow students that they were doing fine.
Finally, the Pussycats proclaimed that training was finished for the day and presented the students with dinner ingredients.
"Are you all right, Izuku?" Momo asked as they were working to prepare dinner. "You seem quieter than usual."
He couldn't help but smile. Not too long ago, he never would've believed he'd ever have a girlfriend at all, let alone one who knew him well enough to suspect when something was bothering him and express concern for him, on top of being gorgeous and generally amazing.
"I can't seem to stop thinking about Kota," he admitted. "He's so against heroes and our whole superhuman society because of what happened to his parents. I can certainly understand that, but I can't help but feel it's only going to hurt him in the long run."
Momo smiled ruefully at him. "Only you could be so concerned with a boy who punched you in the groin for no reason," she remarked.
"He's endured something nobody should ever have to, let alone a kid so young," Izuku said. "Him hitting me hurt, but it's no big deal. I've had worse from people who didn't have nearly as sympathetic a reason for being so hostile."
Her lips pressed into a thin line. "Knowing how true that is makes me want to do some very unheroic things to a number of people," she remarked, casting a dark looking where Bakugo was barking angrily at one of their classmates while aggressively chopping vegetables. She shook her head. "But I suppose you wouldn't be you if you weren't looking to save everyone." She added fondly.
He felt heat in his face. "But there's no amount of brute force or green light that can fix the scars left behind from him losing his parents."
"Not every problem is one that you can fix, Izuku, as much as you might want to," she said. "You can do your best to show him by example what a great pro hero looks like and why they're anything but selfish or stupid, but it may just be a matter of time and growing up."
"I know, but..."
"You want to save everyone," she said. "It's going to drive you crazy in situations like this where you can't, but don't ever stop. It's the reason you're going to be a great hero, even more than your power."
He blushed ferociously and wondered, for what felt like the millionth time, how he'd had the amazing good fortune to end up with this incredible woman as his girlfriend.
"You're going to be a great hero, too," he managed to say. "You're too strong and smart and caring to not be."
"Thank you," she said, a dusting of red appearing across her own face. "Now, let's get this meal finished and slip away for a bit while everyone's eating so you can recharge your ring again." She added in a whisper, her smile making it clear they would be taking a few extra minutes to make out again.
"Yes, ma'am," he whispered back with a smile.
"All right, bellies are filled and plates are cleaned!" Pixie Bob announced later after the students had finished with their meal and put away all the dishes and utensils. "Next up, it's time for...the test of courage!"
Momo smiled as several of the students present cheered at the news that they'd get a chance to do something entertaining and a bit silly instead of yet more intense training.
She looked forward to seeing her boyfriend do well in the coming challenge; it seemed practically made for him.
"Oh man, I can't wait, this is going to be super manly!" Kirishima cheered.
"Yeah!" Sato agreed, pumping his fists. "Finally, something fun!"
"Sorry, remedial group, but you've got lessons with me now," Aizawa said, using his capture weapon to ensnare the two boys.
"Noooo!" Kirishima moaned piteously.
"Please, we've been working hard!" Sato begged.
The homeroom teacher was merciless as usual. "If you wanted to get to do this, you should've done better on the practical exam," he proclaimed, dragging them away. "Bakugo, Todoroki, you, too. Come on."
The explosive student and the ice-wielder followed, both looking grumpy and sullen but not especially put out about missing the test of courage.
Ashido came up to Momo as Aizawa and the remedial students were moving out of earshot. "Thanks again for helping us prep for the exams, Yaomomo!" she said. "I'd be so sad if I didn't get to join in this! And we totally would failed without you and Midori helping us get ready for the exam!"
"Seriously!" Kaminari agreed.
"Just doing our duty as the class reps," Momo smiled.
"Also, it would've been awful to have gone through that whole ordeal with Nezu during the finals for nothing!" Ashido added with a shudder.
"Well, that didn't happen," Momo said, somewhat awkwardly patting the pink girl on the shoulder while Ashido hugged herself at the memory.
"Okay, kids, this is how it works," Ragdoll clapped her gloved hands together to get their attention. "The path over there loops back to the starting point. You're going to draw lots to separate into teams of two, and then you're going to start walking along that trail at specified intervals. The members of your sister class are on offense first, so they're hiding in the trees by the path, all ready to spook you!"
"The class that makes the others pee their pants more wins!" Tiger proclaimed.
"Ew," Jirou wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"And now it's time to figure out who your partners will be!" Pixie Bob said, holding up a box with the lots.
The students stepped forward, each taking a slip of paper with a number on it.
"Guess it's you and me, man," Sero said to Izuku, holding up a slip of paper with the number 8 on it, the same number as the green haired young man's. "Hope you don't mind getting me instead of your girlfriend."
Izuku shrugged. "The odds of Momo and me being paired up for this were always low," he said.
"Who got the other 4?" Mineta asked, holding up his paper.
"That would be me," Momo said with grimace.
The short boy's expression lit up like Christmas had come early.
Izuku loudly cleared his throat. When Mineta turned his way, he directed a glare at the smaller hero student, using two fingers to point first to his own eyes and then to Mineta.
The boy with the purple hair balls swallowed audibly then gave several quick nods, acknowledging the warning. Momo threw her boyfriend a grateful smile.
"Dude, how are you so nice and harmless most of the time, and then so intense at others?" Sero muttered.
"What?" Izuku asked, blinking.
Sero sighed. "Never mind," he said with a rueful smile.
"All right, you all found your partners?" Mandalay asked. "Then team one, gather your courage and head on in!"
"Man, I bet the others are having a ton of fun right now," Sato sighed while Aizawa led them to the campsite's central building for their remedial lessons.
"A test of courage sounds manly," Kirishima agreed glumly. "What about you, Baku-bro? Sorry that you can't participate in it, too?"
"That test of courage thing is kiddie shit," Bakugo scoffed.
"So are you actually glad we're in these classes instead?" Sato asked.
Bakugo just growled low in his throat in response.
"He's mad at the reminder he failed," Todoroki put in. "Even if he's not interested in the alternative."
"Fuck off, Icy Hot," Bakugo snapped. "We only lost to All Might because of you!"
"That's enough chatter," Aizawa interrupted their bickering. "Today you're getting drilled on the proper protocols for emergency situations." He added as he slid the door to the makeshift classroom open.
"Well now!" Monona greeted them, the student from their sister class already seated. "Isn't it funny how the amazing 1-A managed to produce four failures while 1-B had only one?"
Kirishima sighed. The 1-B student had been on about this the previous nights as well, the fact that he was his class's lone failure not dampening his smug satisfaction at all. "This is going to be a long evening."
"Oh man, did you hear that scream from Tooru?" Honenuki chortled as Kodai sank back into the ground he'd softened with his Quirk. "This scare tactic is gonna freak out all of Class A!"
"It's too bad we don't have any makeup," Kendo remarked with a grin. "We could make you look like Sadako."
"Mm," Kodai grunted.
Honenuki sniffed at the air. "Hey, have you girls noticed...it smells like something's burning?"
Kendo frowned. "Now that you mention it, yeah," she said. "And where's that smoke coming from?"
"Do any of the 1-A students we've scared so far have Quirks that could start a fire?" Honenuki asked. "Maybe one of them got so freaked that they...they..."
"Honenuki!" Kendo exclaimed as her classmate collapsed. "Yui, make sure not to breathe that smoke! It's poisonous!"
"Does something feel off to you?" Mineta asked as he and Momo walked down the forest path.
"There's twenty people dedicating themselves to frightening us," the raven haired young woman pointed out. "I'm sure at least a few of them are trying to make the atmosphere as eerie as possible."
"I...yeah, you're right, of course," Mineta nodded.
While the heiress never would've told him so, the boy with the purple orbs for hair was almost as unnerving when he was being scrupulously respectful and polite to her as he was when he was making lewd comments and trying to grope her. She just felt the need to constantly be on guard, forever expecting him to do something unpleasant and repulsive.
It also didn't help that he'd shrieked in terror at every stunt that the 1-B students they'd encountered so far had sprung on them.
They slowed as they spotted a large, dark shape in the trail before them. The pair of students didn't need to get very much closer before the shape resolved itself into that of a man kneeling on the dirt.
"Is that one of the 1-B guys?" Mineta spoke softly. "Maybe Kuroiro?"
"Pretty, so pretty," the man rasped. "So alluring, but no...this is work."
"I don't think so," Momo replied, her hackles rising despite what she'd just told her classmate.
The man turned to face them. The hood he wore looked like some kind of disturbing fetish wear, covering his whole head except for his mouth. Multiple hooks peeled his lips back from his jaw, leaving unnaturally white teeth exposed at all times.
"Gotta do the job," the man proclaimed.
Suddenly, several of his teeth extended, streaking toward the pair of hero students like a group of striking vipers.
Mineta screamed.
Momo activated Creation, blades like Kamikiri's bursting forth from her forearms, and cut the teeth as they surged toward them. The villain was undeterred, however, sending more teeth after them even as the original ones rapidly grew further to make up for the parts the hero student had sliced.
Not wasting any time, Momo used her Quirk to create a quick smokescreen, then grabbed Mineta and dashed into the nearby underbrush.
The tooth villain let out a wordless snarl, and then yet more teeth extended from his mouth, spearing themselves into the ground and lifting him up into the air, the man resembling some sort of nightmarish spider or daddy long-legs.
"Fifteen, sixteen, eighteen..." Momo whispered.
"What are you doing?" Mineta asked.
"The typical adult human has 28 teeth, since Quirked individuals usually don't develop wisdom teeth anymore," Momo answered. "I'm trying to determine how many he still has in reserve."
"Why?" Mineta hissed. "Shouldn't we run away?"
"I doubt we can escape him," Momo replied as she removed her sneakers. "He does enjoy a very high vantage point where he is. Our only option is to take him down, but don't worry, I have a plan." She added, quickly explaining what she had in mind.
"Why am I always a decoy?" he whisper-moaned.
Momo knew that Izuku would've explained to him that his small size, agility, plus his ability to use his Quirk to both lay traps for enemies and give himself something to bounce off of, made him excellent at such a role.
She admired her boyfriend's patience, but right now she wasn't up to emulating it.
"Do you have a better idea?" she asked instead.
"No," he slumped.
"Then get ready to move when I say so," she replied.
"Fine..."
As they were discussing this, the villain was using his freakishly long teeth to poke at the bushes around the trail. Fortunately for the pair of UA students, he wasn't probing anywhere near their position so far.
Momo waited until his back was completely turned. "Now!"
She and Mineta burst from their hiding spot, running in opposite directions. The villain whirled about immediately, body swaying in midair like a ragdoll, his teeth moving like revolting, ivory lightning.
But Momo and Mineta were already in motion, Quirks blazing. Mineta threw his orbs onto the ground, then bounced off of them, keeping ahead of the teeth, which hit the purple spheres and then got stuck themselves. At the same time, Momo liberally sprayed Bondo's glue after herself, achieving much the same effect.
"We've almost got all of them caught!" the raven haired young woman exclaimed.
The villain shouted wordlessly again, and several of the teeth that the two had stuck to the ground broke in two, freeing them to attack the hero students again.
"You had to say it," Mineta grumbled.
Momo ignored him. Clearly, immobilizing every single tooth, even briefly, wasn't going to happen. She just had to hope that keeping most of them stuck to the ground and the element of surprise would allow for her crazy plan to work.
She activated Creation, making a pair of shoes exactly like the ones that went with her hero costume.
Loud pops sounded and bright light crackled from beneath her feet, the force of the explosions she'd made with Bakugo's nitro launching her into the air and toward the villain.
"What?!" the villain released a gurgling cry, voice slurred and distorted by the mad state his teeth were in. He tried to attack her, but he was too late, and she sliced through the few teeth he managed to send her way.
Momo fired a spray of Midnight's Sonambulist gas directly into his open mouth, getting a surprised squawk from the man, followed by a fit of coughing.
Then...silence. The villain's body went limp, dangling from his elaborate construct of teeth.
A moment later, the teeth all broke, causing him to tumble limply to the ground.
"Yaoyorozu, you're kind of scary," Mineta proclaimed. "But, like...in a good way."
"...thank you," she said as she kneeled down by the villain and created a band of solid steel around his head, covering his mouth, then bound his wrists and ankles.
"A sexy way."
"Watch it," she warned.
"Yes, ma'am," he agreed at once, voice an octave higher than normal. Momo briefly wondered if he was primarily afraid of her, her boyfriend, or both. "What do we do now, class rep?"
"Help me move him into the underbrush," Momo said as she began to roll the villain's unconscious body. "We can't take him with us, but at least we can get him out of sight so any other villain who comes along won't free him."
"And then?" Mineta asked.
"We head toward camp," she answered. "And join up with any other UA students we find along the way."
"Let's just hope we don't run into any more trouble along the way," Mineta said.
"Now you were the one who just had to say it," Momo pointed out.
The short boy briefly looked taken aback, then like he wanted to smack himself when he realized she was right. "Crap."
She shook her head. "Never mind," she said. "Let's go."