Chapter 33

 The evening of Day 2 brings a new challenge: after a long day of training, the students are expected to cook for themselves tonight.

As challenges go, it could be a lot worse. It turns out that food is an excellent motivator, especially for nineteen kids run ragged for a full day, and collaboration kicks off after only a few speed bumps at the beginning. It's easy to get past those once everyone figures out it's best to give Bakugou his space when he's holding a kitchen knife.

Izuku is used to helping around the house, and he's no stranger to making himself useful in the kitchen. Of course, he's a lot more comfortable with a kitchen stove than an open flame, but he can fetch and carry, organize ingredients, and help keep the prep areas clean. He puts out a food dish for Mika, a safe distance from the chaos, and finds ways to keep busy.

The class breaks off into groups, cooking several pots of curry to feed nineteen people. Yaoyorozu produces lighters, matches, and steel strikers to light cooking fires, but others take more direct approaches. Sero and Kirishima coax Bakugou into lighting a few with explosions, and Ashido drags Todoroki into helping with the rest. It's Izuku's own bad luck that he passes by Uraraka with clean cooking utensils as this is happening, because she nearly knocks them out of his hands with her enthusiastic cheering.

"Sorry, Deku!" she says, stopping to catch a spoon before it hits the ground.

"It's fine," he says, bewildered, as she places the utensil carefully back in his already full hands.

"Still not used to seeing Todoroki use his fire, I guess," she says with a shrug. "Guess Ashido isn't, either."

Izuku looks over to where Ashido is gleefully letting her inner pyromaniac show. Uraraka moves away from him to watch Todoroki work. When he finishes distributing utensils, he turns back to see Todoroki rekindling one of the fires while Uraraka leans her arm on his cooler right shoulder. He can't hear what Uraraka is saying from this distance, but there's a little grin on Todoroki's face.

The food is nothing special, and it's a little burnt on the bottom, but somehow it still manages to be delicious. It helps that he has Uraraka on one side and Iida and Todoroki on the other, squashed in shoulder-to-shoulder with his best friends. Mika hangs close to the table, charming some of his weaker-minded classmates into offering table scraps. Kaminari yells a bad joke loud enough for even Class 1-B to hear, and Izuku joins in the laughter.

He's come a long way from lonely lunches tucked away where bullying classmates and upperclassmen can't find him.

It's mostly by luck that he glances up at one point and spots Kouta sneaking off into the surrounding woods, head down with the brim of his cap pulled over his eyes. Izuku looks around, concerned. Do the Pussycats know he's wandering off? Has he even eaten anything?

He finishes quickly, scrubs off his plate and spoon, and fills another from one of the pots. The food has cooled significantly by now, so he nudges Todoroki. "Hey, could you warm this for me?"

"Sure, watch out." Todoroki passes his left hand over it a few times, then presses his palm to the underside of the plate until it's fully heated.

"Thanks." Izuku covers it with another dish, grabs a clean spoon, and sets off toward the forest trail at a quick pace.

"Where're you going?" Todoroki asks.

"Checking on Kouta," Izuku answers, and trots down the path with the covered plate in his hands. Rei joins him then, much to his relief, and he drops his voice to speak to her. "Keep an eye out for Tsubasa, okay? Last thing I need is him knocking this plate out of my hands. Are Kouta's parents around?"

As if on cue, Mrs. Izumi appears on the path, quite literally materializing out of the darkness. Izuku makes a beeline right for her.

"Did Kouta eat?" he asks, before she has the chance to get a word out.

Mrs. Izumi looks startled for a split second, and then her face softens with a smile. "He picked at his plate and excused himself early," she replies. "Come on, he'll be at his secret spot about now."

She leads him further down the path, then off to a branching trail that leads to a sharp rise. The path slowly widens as it leads up the side of a miniature cliff. Izuku's eyes adjust quickly to the dark, and he can see the end of the trail already. It's a shelf overlooking the surrounding trees, with the mouth of a cave set against the cliff. Kouta sits in front of it, staring out at the forest. His father sits beside him.

Izuku makes sure that his footfalls make plenty of noise, shuffling through sparse clumps of grass and stepping on a twig to make it crack. The last thing he wants to do is sneak up on Kouta by accident. He waits until the boy's eyes are on him before he speaks.

"Hey," he says, stepping onto the wide ledge. "Brought you some of our extra curry, if you want it. I guess since we have nineteen people instead of twenty, the portions were a little off—"

"How the hell did you find me?" Kouta demands. He's on his feet, facing Izuku with clenched fists.

"Followed your footprints," Izuku answers. "Do you want food?"

"I don't want your damn food!" Kouta says hotly. "And I said I don't want to talk to you! What part of 'mind your own goddamned business' don't you understand?"

"Pretty much all of it," Izuku answers. "I'm terrible at it. Ask anyone." Mr. Izumi lets out a sad little heh.

"You're all stupid," Kouta goes on. "Getting all hyped up about your stupid quirks and your stupid j-jackass training. It makes me sick!" He looks close to tears, but he's not quite there yet.

"Sorry," Mrs. Izumi murmurs. "I'm sorry—thank you, for thinking of him. But maybe you should go…"

Izuku puts the plate down and steps away.

"What's the matter?" Kouta doesn't move toward the food. "Got nothing to say?"

"Would you listen?" Izuku asks. "You've already made up your mind about me, and heroes. Haven't you?"

"You're all crazy." Kouta's voice shakes. "Crazy or just stupid. C-calling yourselves heroes and villains, but all you ever do is kill each other and die." Izuku sees his parents flinch. "Do you even care?" The pitch and volume of Kouta's voice rise. "Or are you just too busy bragging about your quirks and fighting each other to care that that's why you all end up dead?"

Izuku sees the ghosts' faces when Kouta says this, and it's too close. It's too close to Ms. Nana, guilt-ridden and crying in his room when she was the one hurt, she was the one who died alone and in pain. It's too close to how she hid and lied because she was too ashamed to admit she abandoned someone when she didn't abandon anyone, she died, and people need to stop forgetting that—

"There's a difference." Izuku's voice is tight. "That's not fair."

"What's not fair?" Kouta spits back. "You think you're too good? Are you that full of yourself that you think you can't—"

"I didn't say it wasn't fair to me," Izuku says coldly.

"What are you talking about—"

"There's a difference between dying and abandoning someone," Izuku says, and he shouldn't. He should turn around and walk away, he should leave this angry child to grieve, but he can't, not when there are people who need his help, who no one knows to help but him. "If you hate heroes that much, does that mean you hate them too?"

Mrs. Izumi gasps sharply. Kouta draws back like he's been slapped, and then he goes still, and Izuku can tell by the look on his face that it was the wrong thing to say.

"What about your aunt?" he asks. "Do you hate her? Do you hate the people taking care of you?"

"Shut up," Kouta's voice shakes.

"You seem to hate quirks, not just heroes," Izuku goes on. "Do you have one?" The Water Horses both had similar quirks, he knows. "Do you have a power like theirs?"

"Shut up!" Kouta yells.

"Midoriya—" Mrs. Izumi murmurs.

Mr. Izumi tries to put a hand on his son's shoulder. "He does, but—"

"They're your family, like it or not," Izuku tells him, and he can't win, he knows he's already made a mess of it, but he has to try. "Even if you're angry, you can't just—you can't hate heroes without hating them too, and you can't quirks without hating a piece of yourself—"

"Fuck off!" Kouta's voice cracks. "Go away! Just go away and leave me the fuck alone! I don't want you here and I don't care!"

Izuku is already backing away. "Fine," he mutters, then turns and walks away as quickly as he can.

Stupid, he thinks. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You're supposed to be good at this. Should've just kept your stupid mouth shut and dropped a cat in his lap.

If anyone notices that his mood has dropped when he returns, no one comments on it.

Izuku stirs and awakens an hour after he falls asleep. He peels open heavy eyelids to see lights moving amid whispered voices, and raises himself to his elbows. Thankfully, he's too groggy to be alarmed before he remembers that the remedial class has to stay up an hour later than the rest of them. Kaminari is closest; Izuku can see him on the other side of Todoroki's sleeping form, rummaging through his bag with a toothbrush in his hand and a flashlight held in his teeth. Farther away, Kirishima, Satou, and Sero are getting ready for bed as quietly as they can. Ashido must be doing the same in the girls' area.

He probably makes a noise, because Kaminari glances over, and the flashlight in his mouth shines into Izuku's eyes for a moment.

Kaminari squawks, the flashlight falls from his mouth, and he overbalances and falls in a heap on top of his bedding.

"Kaminari, what gives?" Sero whisper-shouts.

"Guys, you're gonna wake everyone up." Satou's voice is much quieter, and easily drowned by Kaminari's muffled spluttering.

"Midoriya you scared the crap out of me."

Kirishima turns his flashlight toward him, and Izuku squints back and wishes he hadn't woken up, especially when he sees his classmate start. "Oh wow, yeah, that's a little creepy."

"Says the guy with shark teeth," Sero mutters.

"True," Kirishima says. "Don't worry about it, Midoriya, go back to sleep. That's pretty cool, though, I didn't know your eyes did that."

Izuku stares at him groggily, weighs his options, and decides that whatever this is, it's a problem better left for later. He lies back down, his classmates settle, and he shuts his eyes to go back to sleep.

He doesn't.

He isn't sure how much time passes before he comes to the conclusion that he simply can't. And that grates at him—there are few things more frustrating than being exhausted but unable to fall asleep.

Frustrated, he rolls on his back, opens his eyes again, and sits up. His eyes adjust to the dark, and he takes in the subtle shades of black to gray, the shapes of his sleeping classmates, the pale form of Iida Tensei at the doorway, peering in to check on them. Rei is at his side, holding on to the hem of his shirt. Their eyes meet for a moment before the ghosts move on again.

Izuku's hands itch to reach for his phone, more out of habit than any real desire, but if he starts watching internet videos, he's liable to wake someone up by accident.

Another urgent necessity makes itself known then—he has to go to the bathroom.

With a short sigh, Izuku gets up, slips his shoes on, and carefully picks his way through his classmates until he reaches the edge without disturbing anyone. With that, he ducks out of the room and heads down the hall. He passes by Tensei and Rei again, smiling when he sees the former fumbling through sign language to converse with her. The pad of paws behind him alerts him to Mika's presence, and he pauses to let her catch up before he goes out.

The Pussycats have no interest in babying them; the toilets are separate, smaller structures that require going outside to reach. Luckily, the summer nights are warm.

"The hell are you doing up?" Hino's hanging around outside, drifting aimlessly under the stars.

"Call of nature. What are you doing out here?"

"Nothing much. Nice sky. Had a tiff with Iida Tensei."

"That so," Izuku says dryly. "Anything I should know about?"

"Nah. He said I'm childish, I said he's got a rod crammed up his—well. I won't bore you with details. Grown-up stuff."

"You know something, Hino?" Izuku says before he reaches the nearest outhouse. "You strike me as the kind of guy who used to dye his hair just to piss off his parents."

Hino blinks at him, in a moment of wide-eyed bewilderment, before he grins and laughs out loud. "Hell, kid, what makes you think I stopped?"

When Izuku steps back outside with clean hands, Hino is gone, and he thinks for a moment that Mika is, too. But then he sees her farther off, standing in a pool of moonlight that turns her fur silvery. Her legs are ramrod-straight, her spine curved, and she watches the edge of the woods. Before Izuku can call to her, she races into the dark.

Izuku runs after her without thinking. This forest is the Pussycats' territory, and that means it's safe, but he has no idea what kind of wildlife there is around here, and Mika's been an inside cat her whole life, as far as he knows.

"Mika!" he hisses, and follows her down the path into the trees before he can remember that this is probably a bad idea. Best case scenario he gets caught and yelled at. Worst case scenario, he falls down a ravine and injures himself. Every now and then he hears her meow, and it keeps him on the right track, lets him know that she isn't far ahead. His night vision is good, has always been good—he knows this from so many late, sleepless nights—but it's hard to keep track of a cat running through the woods in the dead of night.

And then, without warning, he nearly trips over her. Izuku skids and stumbles to a halt, then turns to find her standing in the midst of a small break in the trees, back arched, fur standing on end. As Izuku watches her, he feels the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, as well.

It's happened enough times in his recent memory that he almost expects it a split second before it happens. It's just barely enough of a warning to turn and face it. His first instinct is to cry out, and his second instinct is to bite down on the cry before it escapes him, and he only manages a strangled noise before Tsubasa's cold weight hits him and knocks him flat.

"Tsubasa," he chokes out, and shuts his eyes as leathery wings buffet him. He waits for the claws to rake his skin, hopes they won't leave marks that he can't explain away. But instead of scratching him, Tsubasa's icy fingers wrap around his wrists and yank his arms away from his face.

"Deku." Ink-dark eyes stare at him in the dark. Tsubasa opens his mouth, and black liquid trickles from his lips like blood.

"What?" His throat is constricting so tight he can barely breathe. "What do you want, Tsubasa? Please—I can help you, just—what do you want?"

Tsubasa doesn't answer, only chokes until more dark liquid flecks his mouth.

Somewhere behind Izuku's head, Mika howls. Tsubasa flinches and draws back, and Izuku takes the opportunity to struggle up into a sitting position. Instead of trying to pull free, he surges forward instead.

The ghost hisses, flapping back, but his ruined wings can't seem to lift him anymore. Izuku forces himself onward until his feet and knees are under him, and he can reach forward and grab hold of Tsubasa's shoulders.

"Damn it, Tsubasa, what do you want from me?" Izuku shakes him, gritting out through clenched teeth. "You know me. You know my name. What do you want from me?" His eyes sting. "Why do you keep following me? How did you even find me?" Tsubasa goes still, wings fluttering uselessly. "How did you die? When did you die—"

Tsubasa's form convulses, turning to mist in Izuku's grip. He flickers—vanishes—reappears—changes.

Izuku is flat on his back again. He doesn't remember being struck, nor deciding to lie down. He's simply there, because it's the only thing he can be when there's a Noumu on top of him.

No—

Not just a Noumu—

Izuku's next breath shudders and catches on the way in. "No."

The ruined wings stretch wide enough to block the moon, torn and broken beyond repair. His body is bigger now, overgrown with distorted strength and mottled with burns that deaden tissue and expose the bone beneath. Black, leaking eyes remain the same beneath the exposed brain, dark red and wet with blood from Stain's knives.

The apparition stays that way for a moment more before it shrivels and breaks down to Tsubasa-kun again, but Izuku is already sobbing. He cries as Tsubasa grasps him, as he drags Izuku up again, choking and rattling all the while.

"Deku." Izuku opens his eyes, and finds Tsubasa's ruined face watching him. "Deku, help." It doesn't sound like proper words or a proper voice—more like retching than speaking. Tsubasa shakes him furiously, and when Izuku can't form a proper answer, he vanishes again.

All he hears are crickets, and all he feels is the cool night wind and Mika's warm vibrations as she climbs into his lap.

Izuku gathers her into his arms, stumbles to his feet, and runs back the way he came. Mika didn't take him too far from the path, and from there it's a straight shot back to the dorms. Rei is there waiting for him, looking worried, but he simply hurries past her to his bed, buries himself deep beneath the covers, and lets exhaustion come crashing over him in a wave.

"Does Deku seem weird to you?" Uraraka asks during lunch.

"Since the day I met him," Shouto says. Across the table, Asui slaps her hand over her mouth to keep from spraying crumbs.

Uraraka rolls her eyes at him. "I mean more than usual. Just—look at him." She leans forward to catch a better view of Midoriya, who's sitting toward the end near Kirishima. He's been picking at his food for almost an hour, and there's a glazed, absent look in his eyes. "Yesterday he was doing so great, and now…"

"It's the second day, and they haven't let up on us," Shouto points out. "He's probably just not used to such a vigorous level of training."

"Does vigorous training make you jumpy?" Uraraka asks. "Because I tapped him on the shoulder earlier and he jumped into a tree."

Shouto blinks at her.

"I'm not kidding, he activated his quirk and just—up he went. Tiger had to pause the class because he was laughing too hard to give me advice on my form."

"Could just mean the training's working—kero," Asui suggests. "We're stretching our quirks, aren't we? I added ten centimeters to my jumps after yesterday. Maybe Midoriya-chan's stretching his limits so far he has to re-acclimate."

"Oh, yeah, I'm not worried about him hopping up into a tree," Uraraka says. "It's just, the fact that he seems pretty on edge today."

"It doesn't bode well for tonight's test of courage, that's for sure," Asui muses. "Have you asked him?"

"Of course I did! But he keeps dodging whenever I try to ask him what's wrong. You guys haven't noticed?"

"He hasn't been talking to me much," Shouto admits. "I just figured he was embarrassed."

"About what?" Uraraka asks.

"He rolled halfway onto my mattress at some point," Shouto says with a shrug. "I ended up on the edge. It's no big deal—he kicked me a couple times the first night, so I figure he just moves a lot."

Asui laughs softly. "I know the feeling. My sister's a mattress pirate too."

"Mattress pirate?" Uraraka echoes.

"Yep—kero." Asui smiles fondly. "We had a campout in the living room once, just for fun. We made a blanket tent and brought out pillows and sleeping bags and stuff. When I woke up in the morning, Satsuki had crowded me right off the pillows I was sleeping on, and she was asleep in my spot. It was pretty funny at the time."

"Your parents let you do that?" Shouto asks.

"Well, they work a lot, so a lot of times it was just the three of us," Asui tells him. "As long as we cleaned up after ourselves, they didn't really mind."

Uraraka seems mollified, or at least distracted for now. "Aww, I always wanted younger siblings," she says. "What other kinds of stuff did you get up to, Tsuyu?"

Shouto continues to not talk to Midoriya for the rest of the day, though it's more the result of how training is structured than Midoriya actively avoiding him. Their quirks just aren't that similar, so their training is structured differently. And even when they are within the vicinity of each other, there's little time to stop and talk. Still, when they do cross paths, Shouto can see what Uraraka means. He's always gotten the sense that Midoriya has more going on than he lets on, but his friend seems even more closed off than usual.

It's not until dinnertime that concern overcomes Shouto's well-established desire to stay in his own lane. He's carrying a crate of vegetables to the food prep area when he sees Mandalay's young nephew dodging through again. He happens to pass by Midoriya at the fire pits, and turns to spit something at him. Midoriya turns his head away instead of answering, and Shouto sighs and changes course.

The boy runs off at Shouto's approach, but that's fine—it's Midoriya he wants to talk to. "Is something wrong?" he asks.

Midoriya starts, and Shouto remembers what Uraraka said about him being jumpy. "What do you mean?" he asks, without looking up from the firewood logs he's arranging.

"You've been acting odd," Shouto replies, and adjusts the crate in his arms so that he supports most of the weight against his hip. "At first I thought you were just embarrassed about being a mattress pirate, but—"

"Being a what?"

"But Uraraka says the same," Shouto continues, determined not to get sidetracked. "Did something happen? You've been quiet since this morning."

Midoriya looks him in the eye for a few moments, then turns back to the fire pit. "It's a couple of things," he says. "I had a bad dream, and it's been sticking with me."

"Oh," Shouto says. "What was it about?"

"The Noumu," Midoriya replies. "You know the one. With—with the wings."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Midoriya says. "Oh."

Shouto hesitates. He's not good at this. He knows he's not good at this. But what's the harm in trying? "If—do you want to talk about it, or…?"

"I really—" Midoriya puts down the log and pauses. "—really. Don't want to talk about it. Trust me on that."

"Okay," Shouto says. His arm is starting to ache, and so is the pit of his stomach. It's certainly not the first time he's regretted not being faster, that night in Hosu. It's just been a while since then, that's all.

"I mean, I guess it's Kouta, too," Midoriya continues, and goes back to stacking logs.

"Who?"

"That boy. Mandalay's nephew." Midoriya pauses to look around, but the boy is long gone. "I've talked to him a couple times."

"That's impressive."

"Yeah." Midoriya huffs out a short laugh. "He hates heroes. He hates everything about—just society, how it's based around heroes and quirks, and frankly I can't blame him, knowing his reasons."

"That's really impressive."

Another huff of almost-laughter. "He's angry. And he's upset. And he has every right to be. I just wish I knew what to say to that. I feel like All-Might would know—Aizawa-sensei would probably know too. But I just come up blank. I just wish there was something I could do besides dropping my cat in his lap and hoping for the best." He turns to look at Shouto again. "What do you think?"

Shouto adjusts his grip on the box again and thinks for a moment. "I don't know."

"Yeah, that's okay—"

"I mean I don't know what his situation is," Shouto continues. "And I don't think there's anything you can really say to fix everything. If that was all it took, then it wouldn't be that big of a problem." He thinks of the muffled revulsion that still coils deep in his belly sometimes when he uses his fire, of the hatred that burns cold whenever someone compares him to Endeavor, of the deep sadness that still won't leave his mother's eyes, even when she smiles. "It takes more than that."

"I know," Midoriya sighs. "I just wish I could help him."

"Like you did with me?" Shouto asks, because he did help, even if he couldn't fix everything.

"I guess so."

"Well… you don't really know his situation either, do you?" Shouto says.

"I mean I do, sort of—"

"Is he the one that told you?"

Midoriya goes quiet, and Shouto waits until he hears a soft "No." He's not surprised; Midoriya must have talked to the Pussycats first.

"You only know his situation through the eyes of others," Shouto says. "You know about mine because I told you about it—because I chose to involve you. He didn't have that choice, so anything you try to tell him will only feel like an intrusion. As far as he knows, you're just some stranger trying to tell him how he should feel." He sees Midoriya's shoulders tighten at that.

"That makes a lot of sense," Midoriya murmurs.

"I guess if he hates heroes, then maybe all you can do is try to give him a reason not to," Shouto says. "And if you can't tell him, then show him." He shrugs again, and continues walking. "That's just what I think, anyway. If anyone can find the right way to butt in, it's probably you. That's kind of your thing."

Midoriya stops avoiding him after that.

The stupid green-haired jerk shows up at Kouta's secret base again.

Kouta hates him. He hates everything about him, from his stupid green hair to the dumb scars on his face and on his hands. He hates his voice and his fake smile, he hates that stupid vacant look in his eyes, and he hates that he knows from Mandalay that the jerk's name is Midoriya. He doesn't want to know the jerk's name, because he's just a stupid jerk who runs his mouth and is probably going to die anyway, especially if he's stupid enough to get himself scarred up when he's still just a kid.

"I told you to go away," Kouta says. The jerk shrugs, barely looks at him, and leaves another covered plate of food on the ground. Kouta tenses up, ready for another stupid comment or fake smile or—or—

If Midoriya talks about Mom and Dad again, Kouta's going to hit him. Harder this time.

But all Midoriya says is "Have a good evening. Don't stay out too—ah, forget it." And then he turns around and starts to leave.

For a second, Kouta stares after him. "W-what?" he says when he finds his voice again. "Is that all you have to say?"

The jerk stops, and his arms cross and twist a little, and he turns around again. "I guess… I'm sorry."

Kouta scowls at him, because this sounds like pity, and the last thing he wants is pity.

"I upset you yesterday. And I didn't mean to. I want to help, but I also don't really know what you're going through, so it was pretty stupid of me to try to tell you how you were feeling, or how you should feel." He shrugs. "That's all. Hope you like the food, it's beef stew." And then he's gone.

Kouta stands glaring after him until he can't see him anymore. He stomps his foot, kicking dust after him, and shouts swear words until he feels better.

The stew is still warm.

Ashido's piercing wail is heartrending as Aizawa-sensei drags the five unfortunate remedial students off for a surprise lesson. She, Kirishima, Sero, Satou, and Kaminari look devastated, and Izuku's heart goes out to them all. For the rest of them, the day's training is finished, dinner is eaten, and the dishes are clean, which means it's time for the test of courage.

"Maybe he'll let them join in on a different activity later?" he murmurs to Rei, who shrugs and continues to hug his arm. Since his run-in with Tsubasa last night, she hasn't left Izuku's side.

She isn't the only one, either. All ghosts are more or less accounted for, besides Tsubasa. Tensei has been cheering his brother on all day, Narita's hanging around to watch the test of courage (Mrs. Kitayama's off watching over her son, and didn't come on this trip in the first place), and the Izumis were with Kouta when Izuku left him, which isn't likely to have changed. Even Hino has been hanging around all day, though for what, Izuku isn't quite sure.

"It's kind of impressive," Izuku remarks under his breath, just loud enough for the ghost to hear him. "I would've thought you'd get bored by now."

"Meh." Hino snorts. "Beats hanging around listening to Suzuki fret herself to a second death. Or watch Okumura drift around and mope."

"Oh. How is he, by the way?"

"I mean, he's less… murdery than before." Hino gives an indifferent shrug. "Probably helps that he actually leaves every now and then, instead of hanging around getting pissy over everything the dickhead does."

"Pot, kettle," Izuku says absently, and turns his attention to the Pussycats before Hino gets indignant.

"All right!" Pixiebob's voice carries easily to each of them. "You'll be drawing lots to partner up, and then we'll get started!" She gestures behind her, to where the path forks into the dark forest. "The trail loops around, so you'll end up back here when you're done! Take the left path! When you reach the halfway point, you'll find Ragdoll waiting for you with tags, which you'll take to prove you didn't chicken out!"

"Your fellow hero students will be waiting for you along the way," Mandalay adds, grinning. "They'll be pulling out all the stops to scare you, and once you're finished, it'll be your turn to do the same to them. It'll be a contest of creativity—"

"To see if you can scare the crap out of each other!" Pixiebob finishes. "Now gather 'round, find your partners—"

Not Bakugou, Izuku thinks, when he picks out a small slip of paper with the number six on it. With his luck, it'll be too much to ask to partner with Uraraka or Iida or Todoroki, but just as long as he doesn't have to do this with Bakugou—

"I have the number six! Who else does?"

Izuku almost sags with relief, and raises the arm that Rei isn't holding. "Over here, Yaoyorozu!" Seeing him, she smiles and comes to join him.

"This is so exciting!" she says. "I haven't done a test of courage since elementary school! What about you, Midoriya-kun?"

"Um… same I guess—" Izuku jumps when Bakugou's voice rings out furiously.

"Somebody fucking switch with me!"

Izuku looks over to find Bakugou scowling near an apathetic Todoroki. He shares a commiserating look with his friend over Bakugou's shoulder, and raises a halfhearted thumbs-up. Todoroki quirks an eyebrow at him. Mandalay emphasizes that there is to be NO switching, and everyone lines up. Shouji and Tokoyami are in front, followed by Bakugou and Todoroki, then Aoyama and Jirou. Izuku steps in behind them, and turns around to grin at Uraraka and Tsuyu. Behind them are Ojiro and Hagakure, and Iida and Kouda take up the rear.

"Hopefully they won't burn the forest down," Yaoyorozu murmurs as Bakugou's rage dies down to quiet growling. "What were you saying, Midoriya?"

"Oh, uh, it's been a while since I did something like this," Izuku admits. "Grade school, like you said. I think I was nine or ten? Everybody said I was no fun because I wouldn't react to stuff."

"That's roundabout way to boast, don't you think?" Yaoyorozu remarks.

"What? N-no, I didn't mean it like that—" Izuku splutters, then sees the little smile on Yaoyorozu's face and realizes she's joking with him. "Well. We'll see. If worst comes to worst, I can scream pretty convincingly. Or jump into your arms, that'll really sell it."

"That would be the polite thing," Yaoyorozu says, straight-faced.

Almost ten minutes later, Rei is bouncing with excitement, and Pixiebob finally signals them to start. With a deep breath, Izuku walks down the left path with Yaoyorozu. Rei lets go of him and makes to run ahead and check for scares, but Izuku catches her before she can. She looks back with a frown, and he fingerspells a quick request.

Don't give them away .

They may have dressed this up into a quirk-training exercise, but it's also supposed to be fun. And where's the fun in a test of courage if he always knows what's about to happen?

Watch for Tsubasa, nothing else, he tells her.

Thinking about his former classmate still hurts, but he presses the feeling down. There's nothing he can do about it, not now. All he can do is wait and see All-Might about it, maybe share what he knows. Maybe… maybe he'll even have to…

Well. That's for later.

There's enough moonlight to keep track of where the path is, but one of the rules of the game was to leave all flashlights behind. Of course, nothing in that rule covers Yaoyorozu's quirk, so she makes a couple of small LED flashlights and passes one to Izuku.

The first scare comes when a boy materializes out of the darkness—easily, when his skin is jet-black and blends in with the shadows under the trees—and screams at them. The noise makes Izuku jump. Yaoyorozu startles but doesn't drop her flashlight, and lets out a shaky laugh when the boy vanishes back into the dark.

"Good one, Kuroiro," she murmurs.

Their flashlights foil the next attempt at a scare, but Shiozaki trips them up with vines shortly afterward. They move on to the sound of faint laughter from further into the trees.

"We'll get them back," Izuku murmurs with a smile. Yaoyorozu shines her light toward his face, then turns it away again.

"We could probably work something out with your eyes," she muses. "They reflect light pretty noticeably. Have they always done that?"

"Sort of? Maybe?" Izuku shrugs. "I get red eye whenever I have my picture taken, and I can see pretty well in the dark."

"Wow, you're like a cat."

"Haha, yeah—" Movement up ahead makes him freeze, and a figure steps out into the path. "Oh nice try—" He shines his light up ahead, ready to call out Class 1-B for exposing themselves like that, but his voice trails off. The figure looks back at him, eyes white and blank.

It's not Rei. It's not Tensei. It's not Hino, or Narita, or the Izumis, or even Tsubasa. It's not someone Izuku has ever seen before.

"Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu sounds confused.

"Sorry," Izuku says, dropping the beam back to the trail ahead. "Sorry, thought I saw something."

"Chances are you did," Yaoyorozu says. "We don't know all of Class 1-B's quirks."

"Maybe," Izuku murmurs as he watches the figure drift off into the trees. His relief doesn't last long; another figure steps out to take the first one's place.

And then another.

And another.

Izuku's steps falter. There are dead people here, wandering the woods. Why are there dead people here?

"Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu slows to keep from leaving him behind. "What's the matter? If you hear something, then—Midoriya!"

Izuku stumbles, not because of uneven ground or a trick from the other class, but because Rei cannons into him with a rattling cry. When he catches himself, she's in his face, eyes dripping black as she signs at him.

—run run we have to run we have to go, the boy with wings is here and there are more of them.

Izuku looks past her to the path ahead. Spectral figures drift into view and out again. Voices murmur, weep, cry out and wail. Beside him, Yaoyorozu sees and hears none of this.

Rei drags on his arm, fingers ice cold and digging into his skin. They're coming. They're coming. We have to go. They're coming.

"Who?" Izuku whispers.

Murderers.

"Midoriya?" He's stopped walking, and Yaoyorozu has stopped, too. "Midoriya, what is it? You're starting to worry me—"

"Something's wrong," Izuku says. "Something's wrong, I think we should go back."

"Midoriya, come on." Yaoyorozu gives an exasperated sigh. "We're almost to the checkpoint—that's halfway, there's no point in turning back—"

"Shhh," Izuku hisses. "This isn't—it's not the test of courage, something's actually wrong."

The exasperation on Yaoyorozu's face fades. "What do you mean?" she asks. "Do you hear something?"

Oh, if only she knew.

"I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go—"

"They're going to kill them. They'll kill all of them."

"They're kids! Just kids! Isn't there something we can—?"

"They're coming."

"Not long now."

"De-ku."

Izuku freezes. He turns around.

Tsubasa staggers out of the dark, dragging his broken wings. He still looks like himself, like the boy Izuku would have grown up knowing, if things had been different. But Izuku can see flashes now—of burns and gashes, the wounds that killed him in the end.

"Midoriya!" Yaoyorozu's urgent voice brings his attention back to her, and he realizes her hand is on his shoulder, gripping tight. "Talk to me. What's going on?"

"I-I don't know, I heard something—there's—" It's because he's looking at her that he sees it, drifting in from the forest on the left of the path. At first he thinks it's another ghost, but it can't be. It's formless, low to the ground like mist, only…

That's not mist.

"Yaoyorozu," he hisses, and shines his light on the visible gas drifting into the path. Yaoyorozu steps away with a cry of alarm, pulling him back and away from it.

What follows is almost an explosion. It's not like Kacchan's power, a deafening thunderclap of heat and force. No, this builds from a dull roar until Izuku can smell smoke and burning.

Flames shoot skyward from outside of the trail's loop, from a point in the trees beyond where the mist is coming from. A bright, vivid red pillar of fire lights up the night, and the dead cry out.

Yaoyorozu's grip turns painful. He looks back at her, and finds her staring wide-eyed at the flames.

"That's a signal," she says. "Midoriya, come on. We have to find Ragdoll." She tugs on him, drawing him toward the other side of the path. "Come on—whatever that gas is, we shouldn't breathe it in—"

"One of them's coming!" one of the ghost says, and Izuku whips around toward the speaker just as someone comes crashing toward them, from the right side of the trail. He activates Full Cowl, ready for trouble.

"Wait," Yaoyorozu warns him, and a small, swift shape bursts out onto the path and stumbles toward them, feet clacking oddly in the hard-packed dirt.

She's a Class B student, and Izuku vaguely recognizes her from the Sports Festival. She's small but hard to miss, with bright yellow hair and an impressive set of horns.

Yaoyorozu lets go of Izuku to catch her before she can fall. The girl stumbles against her, and Izuku realizes that she has hooves instead of feet. "It's Tsunotori, isn't it? Tsunotori Poni? Are you all right?"

"I'mokay," Tsunotori says, struggling to stand on her own. Her accent is awkward and stilted, like Japanese isn't her first language. "But—the gas. Setsuna—Setsuna breathed. She's—she's, um. The thing. Not dead, or asleep—"

"Unconscious?" Yaoyorozu says.

"Yeah. Don't breathe it." Tsunotori has the neck of her shirt pulled up, covering the lower half of her face.

"Here." Yaoyorozu shifts the hem of her shirt, and pulls a gas mask out of her stomach. "Put this on, it should help—" She pulls out two more and thrusts one at Izuku, who takes it and scrambles to put it on.

His head goes fuzzy, in a familiar way. They've all felt this at least once over the past couple of days—Mandalay's quirk.

Everyone! At least two villains have invaded the area. It's possible—most likely that there are more in the forest! Those who can, return to the facility immediately! If you find one of these intruders, do not engage them—continue your retreat. Do not take any risks! Get to the safe zones immediately!

The path is full of gas now, knee-high and so thick that it's nearly opaque. Izuku stares at it and the ghosts and the fire lighting up the distant trees, weighing the possibilities—is this a quirk or technology? If it's a quirk then how close is the person using it? Mandalay said two villains but maybe that's because there are two she's facing right now, and she's back by the fork in the path and someone had to be there to start that fire and she probably doesn't know about the gas and—

"You heard her." Yaoyorozu's voice cuts through his thoughts, right before Izuku's racing mind can make it to something—something very, desperately important. "And if she's still at the fork, then that means doubling back isn't a safe option. Tsunotori, is there an alternate path?"

"Yes." The horselike girl nods vigorously. "Class B safe zone! I know the way. Cut through the trees, bypass start point. Avoid villains."

"Go, then," Yaoyorozu tells her. She's already pulling out more gas masks. "We'll catch up—something tells me they'll need more of these."

Instead of complying, Tsunotori shakes her head. "I'm all right! I'm strong. I can carry my friends. Setsuna needs help."

"Okay. Stay close, you two!"

And Izuku means to, he really does. But he takes one step after her, watching the ghosts in his peripherals, and stops when one of them comes at him screaming.

His heart plummets to the pit of his stomach as Mrs. Izumi thrusts her desperate, terrified face into his.

"He's here," she says, her voice high and frantic. "He's—Kouta's there, he'll—" Her form flickers. Just for an instant, Izuku sees blood on her face. "Help him," she says, and Izuku doesn't have it in him to tell her no.

He almost takes off then and there, but Rei yanks on his arm and smacks him in the mask. When he looks at her, she points to Yaoyorozu and hits his mask again.

"Oh, you genius," he whispers. "Yaoyorozu, wait!" He dashes to her side, catching her arm before she can run into the woods. "Give me another mask. Make it smaller." Just in case, you never know.

She stares at him like he's gone crazy. "What?"

"I'll catch up with you later, just give me a smaller mask. Child-sized." He meets her eyes, and sees the look of dawning horror in them.

She makes the mask, adds a larger strap so he can hang it over his shoulder and keep his hands free, and thrusts it into his hands. "Be careful," she says.

"I'll meet you back at the building," he replies, then turns on his heel and looks the other way—past the fire, to where he knows the cliffs are. There's little need to remember the way; Mrs. Izumi is leading him, and something tells him he'll find many more ghosts along the way.

Full Cowl lights up green, and the forest around him turns to a darkened blur.