Chapter 73: Beaten by children?

Summer break!

First day of training camp!!

Everyone has gathered for their long awaited (hellish) training camp and was very excited about it.

"What? Some class A kids are getting extra lessons? That means some of you failed?! Huhh? How weird is that?! Everyone knows class A is totally superior to class B, but now this?! Wow!"

Early in the morning, where everyone has gathered, Neito Monoma from class 1-B had realised that some students from class 1-A failed, and was currently pouring salts into their wounds.

WHAK!

Itsuka Kendo smacked Neito's head before apologising to class 1-A for his rudeness.

While the rest of the girls from class 1-B started talking to 1-A, Mineta started drooling disgustingly,"A bountiful babe buffet...!!"

Eri, who was standing beside Shido, saw Mineta's reaction and hid behind Shido while muttering,"Gross...gross...pervert..."

Shido noticed Eri's actions and a smile adorned on his face. He cracked his knuckles as he made his way to Mineta before bashing his head,"Stop making that disgusting face. You're frightening Eri."

"Ack! Hai! I'm sorry!"

Mineta apologised to Shido and took one more look at the girls before making his way to the bus while Tenya was ushering them inside.

"Come on, Eri. It's time for you to experience something normal. As your guardian, I'm responsible for making memorable childhood memories." Shido nodded his head sagely, acting as if he was her parent.

"Hehe...alright then...I'll make sure that it's memorable for us then..."

Eri giggled at Shido's actions before dragging Shido on the bus.

As the bus started making its way to the training camp, Eri sat at the back with the rest of the girls as they started talking about girl stuff. He had no idea how a twelve year old girl could fit in so well with the other fifteen year old girls, but he was nonetheless glad that Eri now had some friends she could hang out with.

"Ahhh...this bus is so noisy..."

Shido sat next to Shota and complained. Shota wasn't doing so well either and had black lines all over his face from the excessive noise the class was making.

"Oh well...it is their only chance to have some last-minute fun. So let them be..." Shota stated while grinning evilly.

Shido heard his words and didn't reply to him. He saw the training plan, and while it might not be hard for Shido or Izuku since Izuku has experienced ten months of training worse than this, it would pose a challenge to the rest.

'I might need to adjust Midoriya's training plan...'

And so, the journey went on for another hour before the bus eventually came to a stop.

"All right, it's time to get off the bus." Shota announced.

When everybody went off the bus, the first thing they saw was a scenery of endless green forest and mountains.

"Hold on...what kind of rest stop is this?"

"Right? And where's class B?"

While students were discussing their weird rest stop, Mineta was complaining about him needing to use the bathroom at the side.

"Of course we stopped here for a reason." Shota said with his hands in his pocket. He was about to continue speaking when a female voice interrupted.

"Heya, Eraser!"

Shota had his head down and was not looking at them, but the voice didn't mind it and apologised,"Sorry. Haven't seen you in a while."

"No problem." Shota gave a curt reply before turning away, not wanting to see what happens next.

"Rock on with these sparkling gazes!"

"Stingingly cute and catlike!"

""We're the wild, wild...pussycats!!"" With a strange pose, two females with cat-like features appeared. Standing beside them was a young boy with a cap with two horns poking out.

"These are the pro heroes who'll be helping us out this time - the pussycats." Shota introduced them in his usual monotonous voice while Izuku started rambling about the history and origins of the wild wild pussycats.

"This whole area here is our territory." The one who introduced the area was a woman with brown eyes and red hair styled into three bangs going across her face. She wore a red version of the Pussycat's hero costumes and as part of her costume, there were red markings beneath her eyes, which resemble cat whiskers.

"Your lodging is at the foot of that mountain over there." She pointed at a nearby mountain and said.

"Huh...?Then why did we stop halfway...?" Ochaco muttered with confusion present in her eyes.

"Let's...get back...to the bus? Hurry..." Hanta suggested nervously.

"It's now 9.30 am. I'm thinking...around noon, at the earliest." The brown haired woman said as her tail swung behind her happily.

"Aw, crud...no way...."

"Run!"

"Back to the bus, quick!!"

"Kitties who don't make it there by 12.30 won't get any lunch~" She didn't care for any of the students who tried to run and continued her orders while the other woman with long blond hair squatted down and slammed both her palms to the floor.

Suddenly, the ground became unstable and like a tsunami, the earth below the students rose and tossed all of the students, with the addition of Eri, over the cliff.

"Sorry, kids. The training's...already begun."

"SHIDO! YOU MEANIE!!" Eri screamed as she was also tossed off the cliff.

[A/N: Idk any swear words a twelve year old can say apart from 'meanie'.]

"Sorry, Eri! But you need to have some real life experience. It's for your own good..." Shido smiled cheekily as he watched them all fall off the cliff.

Eri only fought in spars where there were rules and order. However, outside spars, there weren't any rules or laws. It was where the strong rule.

Shido cannot always follow Eri around and protect her. She also needed some real life fighting experience.

"Remember to always stay calm and think rationally. I believe you'll be fine."

"This is our private territory, so feel free to use your quirks! You've got three hours to reach the facility on foot! Make it through...the beast's forest!!" The brown haired woman shouted.

Seeing that all the students have fallen down, the brown haired woman turned towards Shota and said,"Pretty crazy pace you've got in mind for these kids, Eraser. Even including a what, eleven? Twelve? Year old girl to participate."

"Well, normally these are skills they wouldn't learn until the start of their second year. But we're here now because they need to learn them sooner than that. Hence the sped-up pace. They need provisional permits for quirk use in emergencies. Those limited licenses allow them to act as heroes.

The villains are really starting to move now, so even our first-years need self-defence skills." Shota said and paused before continuing,"As for the twelve year old girl, you can ask Shido about that."

Shido heard his words and said before the brown haired woman could ask anything,"You don't have to worry. Although not as strong as me, her skills are definitely much better than even some of the students in this class. Anyways, you take over from here, Pixie-bob."

"You're right about that girl being stronger than some of them..." Pixie-bob was slightly surprised when she realised that her earth creations were getting destroyed by the little girl when not a single of one of the students had even reacted, save for the green haired boy and three other boys.

"Leave it up to me, Shido! My fur's standing on end! "

Smiling, Shido and the rest of the instructors got on the bus (that Shido transformed back to normal since it got destroyed during the earth-tsunami) and took a leisurely ride towards their destination.

*****************

2.30 pm

"SHIDO!!! COME OUT, YOU MEANIE!!"

Shido shuddered and immediately stopped drinking his juice before teleporting outside the cabin. He saw a dirtied twelve year old girl with a single horn on her left temple dragging her feet .

"Gulp...H-Hello, Eri...good to see that you've passed faster than the others..."

"Y-You...." Eri said angrily,"Why did you toss me as well? I knew that you would have some ulterior motive in asking me to go to the training camp."

"You needed some real life experience. You are strong, but you've not experienced any 'real' action. If you ever hesitate in the future during a villain confrontation, that hesitation would be the end of you, and I don't ever want that." Shido patiently explained how a parent would coax their child.

"Humph!" Eri remained silent and didn't look at him.

Seeing Eri not replying, he sighed before apologising,"I'm sorry that I didn't inform you beforehand, but I don't regret any of it."

Hearing Shido apologise, Eri's expression turned a little softer before facing him,"Punishment."

Just as Shido wondered what she was talking about, she quickly dashed towards him and hugged him, rubbing all the dirt she had on her body onto Shido's body.

"Hey!"

"Haha! It's your punishment." Eri giggled before releasing Shido from her hug.

"Sigh...whatever, let's go take a bath then." Shido gave up on reasoning with her and just decided to go take a bath.

"All right!" Eri agreed before dragging him to the girls' bathing area.

"Oi! Wrong gender!!" Shido instantly stopped before the door and exclaimed.

"It's fine, there's no one else in there. So please?" She asked with eyes upturned and tears watering in her eyes.

"Urgh..." Shido tried to look away, but found himself unable to do so,"Fine."

And so, he was forced (charmed) by Eri to take a bath with her in the women's section.

Nothing of interest happened, no one walked in on him and even if they did, the pussy-cats wouldn't mind since he's technically still a 'child'.

After his bath, Shido and Eri decided to relax a little while waiting for the rest to arrive.

5.20 pm

"They're finally here." Pixie-bob announced as she saw twenty people exit the forest.

"'It'll only take three hours.' Yeah, right..." Hanta complained as he rubbed his bruises on his arms.

"So hungry. Gonna die..." Eijiro groaned and complained as he dragged his feet towards the cabin.

"Sorry, that's how quick we would've done it." The brown haired woman, Mandalay smirked as she looked at how dusted up they were.

The class looked down in sadness as they thought,'Flaunting the power gap in our faces...? How cruel....'

"Mew mew mew...we actually thought it'd take you longer. And you dealt with my earth beast pretty easily too. Not bad. Especially..." Pixie-bob said as she pointed towards Tenya, Izuku, Shoto and Katsuki,"...you four. I'm guessing your past experiences allowed you to act without hesitation?"

They nodded and Izuku asked a question,"Um...excuse me. Have you seen a little girl with a horn?"

The rest of the class was also interested as they saw Eri fall off the cliff with them but immediately disappeared afterwards.

Pixie-bob and Mandalay turned towards each other and smirked before Pixie-bob replied,"However, a little girl managed to come back before you guys did."

"Urgh..." Everyone felt an arrow pierce through their hearts at this moment.

"Two hours before, I might add."

"Urgh..." They felt another arrow pierce through their already wounded heart.

"We're not as good as a twelve year old girl..."

"We're slower than a twelve year old girl..."

"We're weaker than a twelve year old girl..."

"Damn that bitch!!" Katsuki shouted before getting smacked by all the girls present.

"""Don't call her that!!"""

They soon got over the fact that a twelve year old girl was stronger than them. For what reason?

Their teacher was a twelve year old as well and he would be able to beat everyone in class single handedly without a doubt. So anyone who had trained with him for a long time would be strong as well, including Eri who had been trained for five years.

"Anyways, I've been wondering...that boy." Izuku looked towards the little boy with a cap on with horn poking out of it,"Whose child is he?"

Mandalay turned towards who Izuku was looking at and said,"Oh, he's actually my nephew. Kota! Come over and say hello, you'll be spending a week with these guys after all..."

"Izuku bent downwards and offered his hand and greeted cheerfully,"Hi. I'm Midoriya, from UA High School's hero course. Nice to meet you."

Just as finished his greeting, Kota suddenly punched forward. Due to the height difference, where Kota's punch landed was an unfortunate place for Izuku. Despite all his training, he never thought that one day, a child would punch his crotch without any prior warning, not that he would allow them to punch his crotch even with prior warning.

"Ugh!"

Izuku's eyes immediately turned white as he fell face-first towards the ground.

Tenya immediately called out in worry as he looked at how Izuku was faring while Mandalay immediately shouted,"Hey, nephew!! Why'd you punch Midoriya in the junk?!"

Kota didn't back down from his elder's glare and replied with a glare of his own,"I can't abide jerks who wanna be heroes."

""Abide?! How old is this kid?!""

The maturity and the ruthlessness of the children they witnessed today had changed the students' entire view of the world.

Who said children were weak?

Who said children were kind?

"Cute kid." Katsuki smiled when he saw Kota punch Izuku in his crotch. He liked this kid's attitude.

Shota pointed towards the entrance and said,"Alright, that's enough. Drop your things off in your rooms, then come to dinner in the mess hall. After that, you'll bathe. Then it's bedtime. The real training starts tomorrow. Now hurry up."

Like this, he revealed the rest of the schedule before ushering the students in.

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