Chapter 31

Izuku doesn't dream, and that is a rare luxury for him. He falls asleep almost the moment he sits down next to Todoroki, out like a light before he can even register the gentle rocking of the bus.

He's vaguely aware of something warm pressed against his face, familiar soft laughter around him, and voices talking amongst themselves in the far, far distance, but for the most part he drifts in darkness. Someone pokes him at some point, but it's not enough to bring him back up.

A hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly but firmly, is nearly enough but not quite.

"—doriya? Wake up!"

"Todoroki, what did you even do to him?"

"I didn't—"

"It's probably because he's on your warm side—kero. I bet he's super comfortable right now."

"Awww, so cute!"

A light swat against his head jerks him awake, and Izuku is suddenly and bewilderingly aware of things once more. The bus has stopped moving, and he sits up to find most of the seats empty. Todoroki's still next to him, watching him with a perplexed expression. Ashido, Tsuyu, Sero, and Kaminari are standing around them, all three of them grinning.

Ashido stifles a laugh. "Sleep okay?"

"Sheesh, Midoriya, we thought you were dead." Sero shakes his head at him. "Did you take Nyquil or something before you got on the bus?"

"Who hit me?" Izuku mumbles, rubbing the crust out of his eyes.

"Um… nobody?" Ashido answers. "We were all just standing here trying to get you up. You did kinda jerk awake, though, so maybe you dreamed it."

"We're at the first rest stop," Tsuyu tells him. "If you have to go to the bathroom, now's the time."

Izuku doesn't, thankfully, but he probably should anyway. "Okay, I'm up, I'm up. Sorry, Todoroki."

"It's fine," Todoroki assures him. "Let's go before Aizawa gets annoyed."

When Izuku hears the words "rest stop" he imagines a few sparse buildings for shade, some public restrooms and vending machines, maybe a gas station. He sees none of these as he takes a few wobbly steps off the bus. Instead, they seem to have pulled over at a small viewpoint overlooking the forested mountains. Aside from the road, the only structure around here is the fence at the edge of the overlook. He sees Rei there, arms out as she crosses the fence like a balance beam. Iida Tensei is here too, and seems to be spotting her. Izuku's eyes run over a few other scattered ghosts, Aizawa's two hangers-on among them, before he becomes sure. This is not a rest stop.

The phrase "logical ruse" creeps into his mind, and he is suddenly very glad that he doesn't actually have to use the restroom.

There is no rest stop here. There is, however, a welcoming party, and Izuku finds his previous sleepiness falling away in an instant when none other than the Wild Wild Pussycats burst in on the scene to announce themselves.

Or… well. Half of the Wild Wild Pussycats, anyway. Half of them plus a… small child?

Izuku can only gape at first, because maybe he hasn't actually woken up. Maybe he's still on the bus, two seconds from drooling on Todoroki's shoulder, and this is a vivid hallucination.

Whatever. The Pussycats are really cool.

"That's Pixiebob and Mandalay!" he blurts out, maybe to Uraraka, or maybe to no one in particular. "The Pussycats are one of the four hero teams that founded the Union Affairs Office, years ago. They specialize in mountain res… cue…"

Izuku blinks, voice trailing off, as he notices that more ghosts are here now. They do that sometimes, pop in out of nowhere like they've been there the entire time. As Aizawa continues introducing the Pussycats as… assistant instructors or something—Izuku finds himself sidetracked, looking over at the boy who arrived with them.

He's small, silent. Most of his face is hidden under the brim of his cap, so that all Izuku can see from here is the unhappy downward turn of his mouth. Izuku's eyes flicker upward again, to the two figures standing behind him. At first he can only squint and wrack his brain, because there's something familiar about those two—of course there is, when those vests are obviously hero gear, and no one knows heroes like Midoriya Izuku.

And then recognition strikes, and Izuku can only hope it doesn't show on his face. It's not recent news by any means; the story is nearly two years old by now. But the deaths of pro heroes stay fresh for so long, and Izuku can remember hearing about how the Water Horse duo fell.

They don't notice him staring—too focused on talking to each other, on watching over the boy.

They must have had a kid, he thinks, numbly. Did he know that? Did that come up in the news reports, or did it get buried in all the memorials and sensationalizing?

He tears his eyes away from them just in time to miss catching the boy's sharp glare, just in time to hear Mandalay say, "The kittens who don't make it before twelve-thirty don't get to eat."

Crap, I wasn't paying attention.

A handful of his classmates are running back toward the bus, and Izuku almost follows them before he realized that many others aren't, including Todoroki and Yaoyorozu and Iida. Izuku decides it's probably safer to take cues from them.

"What'd she just say? I spaced." He mutters it out of the corner of his mouth to Todoroki, and tries to look innocent when Aizawa glances at him like he heard.

"Base of the mountain," Todoroki replies, quietly without drawing attention, which is why Izuku asked him and not Iida. His friend is already shifting his feet, settling into a better stance. "Something tells me we're not getting there by—"

Pixiebob plants her gloved hands on the ground. Pillars of earth shoot out from beneath them like pistons, launching all twenty of them off the overlook and out toward the surrounding woodlands.

Yep, same shit as always.

Over the wind in his ears, he hears Mandalay shouting after them—something about a forest of magic beasts, and he is still very, very glad he didn't have to go to the bathroom yet. He rolls as he hits the ground, coming up with a few bumps and scratches but otherwise unharmed.

"What was that about a forest of magic beasts?" Kaminari asks. "Sounds like something out of an RPG."

"Ugh, I landed weird," Ashido mutters. "What was that?"

"Pixiebob's quirk." Izuku gingerly stretches a kink out of his back from the rough landing. "It's called 'Earth Flow', it allows her to manipulate natural earth. She'll probably turn the environment against us." His notes on the Pussycats are in Hero Analysis for the Future, Volume 8. It's been a while, though; if he'd known they would be involved, he would have dug the thing out of his closet and brought it along.

"Do any of the Pussycats control animals?" Tsuyu asks him. "She did say magic beasts, so…"

"I think it's just Pixiebob we're up against," Izuku replies, and the words are barely out of his mouth when the first magic beast emerges from the thick trees.

It's hard to miss, being the size of a small elephant. It has tusks and everything.

"Or… not," Izuku mutters. "Shut my mouth, I guess."

Except Kouda's animal-commanding quirk does nothing, and Izuku sees dirt clods falling from its thickly-built body. It's not just dirty, but made of the dirt itself.

He sees it. Todoroki sees it. Iida sees it. Bakugou sees it.

His ears roar with blood, with the sound of Iida's engines, the groan of Todoroki's ice, Bakugou's explosions, and the rush of wind as he activates Full Cowl without even a thought. The four of them tear through the earth-beast in a heartbeat, and the game is on.

The flash of dark hair and a white nightshirt alert him to Rei's presence at his side. As he vaults through the thick woodlands, Izuku finds himself looking to Iida, who paces himself to keep from leaving the others behind or running headlong into another trap. Tensei is with him, marking his progress, shooting a grin across to Izuku when he sees him looking. Izuku grins back, then looks to Todoroki and—

Surprise makes him trip and stumble, and only a quick grab from Rei prevents him from falling on his face. He recovers his footing, then stares at Todoroki, stares past him at—no. Not yet. He'll address that later.

Pixiebob throws obstacle after obstacle at them. It's ridiculous; she isn't even here, and yet she's fighting them nearly to a standstill. The path is much longer from where it had looked from the viewpoint. If they had been traveling unhindered, they still would have had to rush to make it by noon.

It is, to put it mildly, utter chaos.

They set a precedent with that first blow, and Pixiebob responds accordingly. For every earth-beast they take down, several more rise up in its place. With multiple attackers to face at once, the whole class is forced to break off into smaller groups to deal with each beast individually. The path ahead is unclear; beneath the treetops it's so much harder to see where they have to go.

The moment Izuku finds breathing space, he looks around to take stock of things. Bakugou is running on ahead, as per usual; Izuku can't see him, but he can hear the direction of the explosions. Weaknesses are beginning to show; Aoyama already looks queasy from firing off too many beams, Satou only has so many sugary snacks on him, and with the constantly shifting landscape, Sero's having trouble maneuvering like he usually does.

He could probably make it if he ran ahead like Bakugou; he's fast and strong and agile enough to make it through. But that's not how he does things, is it?

Izuku hurtles feet-first at the beast that Aoyama is currently up against, smashing through its neck and taking its head clean off. As it staggers from the blow, his classmate runs clear, and nearly collides with Tsuyu.

They're not good at collaborating all that the same time, he realizes. So much of their training has relied on competition.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, something moves oddly. Rei grips his arm in a silent warning, and Izuku turns his head to look.

Tsubasa flies on broken wings, his bare feet and hands gnarled into talons. He's following Izuku, vanishing and reappearing in his peripherals.

"Midoriya!" someone shouts.

Distracted, Izuku almost slams into another earth beast, but drops and tumbles out of the way at the last moment. When he glances back again, Tsubasa is gone.

Not entirely gone, though. Izuku keeps seeing him as they make their way through the forest.

Gradually, he starts to sense the difficulty curve. Ever since they effortlessly smashed past the first beast, Pixiebob has increased the pressure on them. It's not just more monsters; she's using tactics as well: herding them off course, changing the environment to get them lost, dividing their forces and scattering them in the woods.

They've been out here for hours. Izuku doesn't know exactly how long, because his phone is dead. He doesn't know where about half his class is. It's the start of summer, and none of them knew to bring water with them when they left the bus.

"Deku, are you okay?" Uraraka touches his arm.

They have a breather, just for the moment, and Izuku is using that time to… well, breathe. Long, steady, controlled breaths, just to get his pulse steady. He tries to reply, but only a dry croak makes it out.

With her hand still on his arm to steady him, Uraraka looks over her shoulder and calls for Todoroki. Izuku follows her gaze, and finds his friend standing by Tsuyu. At Uraraka's call, he looks up and jogs over.

"Cup your hands together and hold them out," Todoroki tells him. Izuku does so, and Todoroki drops a grapefruit-sized chunk of ice into his hands, then melts it to cold liquid with a touch.

Izuku drinks as quickly as he dares, and manages four decent mouthfuls before the rest of the water dribbles out between his fingers. "Thanks," he says.

"Figured out that trick when I was six," Todoroki answers, and doesn't elaborate. Izuku's mind takes him to the obvious reason why a six-year-old Todoroki would need to know how to make his own water, and simply nods.

He glances over Todoroki's shoulder and meets the eyes of the ghost that wandered over to follow him. Their owner looks back, silently challenging him to say something, but this isn't the time nor place for that, because the breathing room Pixiebob allows them never lasts very long.

At that moment, the ground explodes as if by mortar fire. An earth beast twice the size of a rhino tears itself out of the ground, and they're off and running again before more come. And more do come. Eventually, Izuku looks up to a darkening sky and realizes that they're not making it for lunch by a long shot.

It's getting on to evening, and their goal at the base of the mountain is in sight, when it happens.

Pixiebob's attacks are beginning to let up, but with how hungry and exhausted they all are, it hardly matters. It's dark, and Izuku's vision is swimming when he blinks and realizes he's lost the others.

"Rei," he rasps. "Rei, which way—"

Tsubasa pounces.

Izuku is aware of very little, with his exhausted brain fighting just to take in individual pieces of information. Things like dirt and stones and roots pressed up against his front, the taste and smell of soil, the cold weight of a dead boy on his back, the sound of broken wings beating—

He struggles, spitting out soil and leaves, and gives a choked cry of pain as claws rake his back. Sharp, stinging pain lights up between his shoulders, on the back of his neck. The back of his shirt is shredded for sure, and this is familiar—why is this familiar—?

Rei screams, and the weight is torn from his back. Izuku crawls away as quickly as he can, flipping over just in time to see Rei struggling with Tsubasa. Both of them are contorted, twisted, and warped, both pale and black-eyed and screaming and it's so hard to tell which is which like this.

Another scream, and Tsubasa vanishes. Izuku grunts when Rei cannons into his chest, wrapping her arms around him, pulling him up to his feet and away from this place. Izuku reaches over his shoulder and feels the back of his shirt torn in several places.

He's bleeding, but only a little. They're only scratches. They'll probably close up by the time he gets to the camp.

The others might see.

Rei pulls on him again, rattling at him in distress, and Izuku forces his leaden feet to move. She leads him back to the class, and he hangs at the edges, hoping the others will be too preoccupied to notice the state of his back.

It's well into evening by the time they reach their goal. Izuku stumbles to a halt near the front of the pack, self-conscious but not overly worried. He's not the only one that got through that with damaged clothes, and there's enough of his shirt left to hide most of the welts and scratches that Tsubasa left on his back. Aizawa-sensei is there waiting for them with the two members of the Pussycats, plus the little boy from before.

Luckily, the whole "anyone who doesn't get here by noon doesn't get to eat" thing was a lie, and there's an audible sigh of relief from Kaminari, Ashido, and a few scattered others.

"Don't know why anyone's surprised anymore," Izuku murmurs to the people nearest to him, who happen to be Todoroki and Uraraka.

"Yeah," Uraraka agrees. "I'm pretty sure starving us would be both counterproductive and illegal."

Todoroki blinks at them, then looks away without replying as Aizawa-sensei comes forward to address them.

"Midoriya." Aizawa-sensei's voice is not quite sharp, but it's about as hard and unforgiving as a stone wall, and he always manages to say people's names in such a way that makes it sound like they're instantly in trouble for something. Izuku snaps to attention, equal parts confused and worried as he mentally runs over his entire day to see if he can pinpoint what his teacher might be upset about—

His mouth drops open.

"No," he says out loud. Somewhere behind him, he hears Ashido giggle quietly.

"We had your things brought up while you all were making your own way here," Aizawa says with a steely sort of calm. "And I'm fairly sure we were clear on what was and wasn't appropriate to pack."

"Sensei, I swear."

"So imagine our surprise," Aizawa continues dryly. "When your duffel bag started moving."

From her perch on his homeroom teacher's shoulder, nestled comfortably in the folds of his capture weapon, Mika curls the tip of her tail and blinks her single eye slowly. Izuku has honestly never seen her look this pleased with herself before.

"I didn't bring her on purpose," he blurts out. "I'm so sorry, I don't know how she—she must have sneaked into my bag before I closed it, but I didn't even—I didn't—oh my god, I didn't even bring anything to feed her with, I—"

He's in the process of working himself into a proper panic. He can see Mandalay hiding the lower half of her face behind one of her paw-shaped gloves.

"We have supplies for it, in the dining hall kitchen." she says, and her voice shakes oddly. "We may as well make an exception for circumstances, but it will be your responsibility to take care of her while you're here, on top of your training—Midoriya, was it?"

"Yes," Izuku says weakly, face burning, He wonders if he can ask Pixiebob to let the earth open up and swallow him.

"Um, excuse me!" Like a godsend, Uraraka pipes up and brings everyone's attention away from him. "Ms. Mandalay, is that boy with you?"

It's a relief when the focus is off of him, but Izuku's heart sinks as he looks to the child again. This time the boy notices and glares back at him, unaware of the ghostly hands resting on his shoulders.

"My nephew," Mandalay replies. "Kouta, come say hi. You'll be seeing a lot of each other while you're here."

This time, when Izuku looks to the pair of ghosts following the boy, they see him staring. The woman blinks, looks to her husband, and then back to Izuku.

"You see us?" she asks. Izuku gives the tiniest nod he can. Then he startles, because over the course of that brief exchange, the little boy has approached him.

For a moment, Izuku can only stare dumbly at him, at a loss for what to say. Ghosts and poltergeists and even grieving friends he can handle, but he has never had to talk to a living orphan before.

"Um." He tries to keep his voice gentle. "Hi—"

Kouta punches him in the crotch.

By some miracle, Izuku manages to not curse in front of a child, but he still ends up on his hands and knees, wheezing with pain.

"Kouta—!" the ghost woman cries out.

"Sorry, sorry!" There are cold hands on him, steadying him before he can faceplant in the dirt. The dead man speaks closer to his ear. "I'm so sorry. Are you all right—?"

Above him, Kouta's voice sounds tight with rage. "What the hell are you looking at me like that for!" he hisses. "Why don't you mind your own goddamn business!"

Izuku barely hears Mandalay scold Kouta as he's gently helped to his feet. The Water Horses help to steady him until Iida and Uraraka move in to check on him.

Aizawa glances at him with a raised eyebrow. Izuku quietly wishes for death, but all he gets is a quick once-over before his teacher apparently decides he's fine, deposits his cat into his arms, and dismisses the class.

Izuku manages not to limp as he catches up to the Pussycats and their small charge. "U-um, excuse me?" Mandalay gives Kouta an exasperated look and motions toward Izuku, clearly prompting an apology, but Izuku shakes his head. "No, I just wanted to say—"

"I don't care," Kouta snaps, and ignored Mandalay's furious attempts to quiet him. "You're just some loser trying to be a jackass hero, and I don't want your stupid pity." He turns and storms off before Mandalay can take in a breath to scold him.

"We're sorry," one of the Water Horse ghosts says, while his wife hurries after Kouta. "We're so sorry, he doesn't mean that—"

"I-it's fine, I didn't mean… um." Izuku suddenly feels foolish, standing in front of famous pro-heroes, scruffy and dirty with a cat in his arms. "Y-you said the cat food was in the kitchen, right? I-I was just…"

"We already fed her while you were on your way," Mandalay assures him. "But I can show you, for future reference. And—"

"Thank you," Izuku says, and he knows it's rude to cut her off like that, when she probably wants to apologize for Kouta's behavior, but Izuku's dignity has taken enough of a beating already. She seems to understand, and beckons him toward the dining hall.

It's only as the class settles in that first evening, girding themselves for tomorrow's training, that Izuku can really take stock of things. His back still smarts and stings from where Tsubasa clawed him. He's not looking forward to the baths tonight, when people might see and ask questions, and quickly changes his shirt so that no one will notice the angry red welts through the rips in his old one. It means one more dirty shirt, but it's a sacrifice he's willing to make.

What's more, hanging back in the boy's dorm to change and get Mika situated allows him a chance to address his earlier… observation. It had been a bit of a shock, seeing this particular ghost here of all places, and now that things have calmed down and Izuku is alone, he can finally question it.

Izuku can't imagine why Hino of all people would come, but here he is, as pale and sullen-looking as ever.

"Okay, I gotta ask," Izuku says, on his way to the dining hall. Hino apparently sees this coming, and reluctantly hangs back for him. "Literally what are you doing here?"

"What's it to you?" Hino scoffs at him. "Just because you can see me doesn't mean you have any say in what I do."

"Just curious, I guess," Izuku says with a shrug. "You seemed pretty dedicated to making Endeavor's life miserable, and I didn't think you'd need a break." He pauses. "Not that there's anything wrong with needing a break. I guess even ghosts can get tired."

"I'm not tired," Hino grouses. "Now that the number-one son's out of the house for the summer, the dickhead's gonna spend all his time working. And unfortunately, his job usually involves preventing people from dying, and I'm not that much of an asshole. So, I've got nothing better to do. I'm bored."

Rei blows a loud, wet raspberry.

"You must be great at parties," Izuku says, and early nwalks straight into one of the Water Horses when he rounds the corner.

Izumi—that's their name. It's Mrs. Izumi who meets him now, and her face lights up the moment she sees him.

"Oh, there you are!" She appears by his side in an instant, and Hino promptly vanishes before he can be dragged into another conversation. "I just wanted to apologize, for what Kouta did earlier. You're all right, aren't you?"

"I've had worse," Izuku says honestly. "It's probably just cosmic punishment anyway."

She looks confused. "What?"

"Nothing. Can I help you with something?" He lowers his voice as he enters the dining hall. "If there's a message you want to pass along to Kouta, I'll do my best."

"I-I…" Mrs. Izumi looks hesitant. "N-no, not exactly. I just wanted to meet you properly, and apologize for my son. This must be your quirk, right?" Izuku nods as he slides into an empty seat between Uraraka and Iida, and the ghostly heroine steps back. "Could we talk, later? After you're done?"

Izuku glances at her quickly and murmurs, "Sure, I can talk before I go to bed."

"Did you say something, Deku?" Uraraka asks.

"I said can you pass the rice?" Now that he can smell food, his hunger comes roaring in. Izuku tucks in to his heart's content. It's all very simple food, a lot plainer than what he gets at home or in the school cafeteria, but it makes no difference to his empty stomach. Glancing around the dining hall, he happens to spot Kouta once, walking by with a box of vegetables. His parents follow him all the while, one on either side, and he catches their eye as they pass. Mr. Izumi's hand is on his son's shoulder.

Izuku finishes eating quickly, and excuses himself to the baths.

In the shower, he clenches his teeth as he scrubs down, and the soap and hot water sting against the scratches on his back. He hasn't seen Tsubasa since they got to the training grounds, and he's glad of that. He gets to the boy's bath before any of the others, and his eyes water as he turns his back to the edge of the bath and lowers himself neck-deep into the hot water. The scratches aren't anywhere close to serious; the blood had clotted by the time he was finished running through the woods. But still, it's better to be safe than sorry, and clean, hot water will kill any chance of infection.

Gradually the pain fades to nothing, and the tension leaves him as his classmates gradually filter in. There aren't any ghosts around now; Iida comes in by himself, Hino is nowhere to be seen, and even Rei has gone off to explore the camp. Conversation washes over him like comforting white noise. Bakugou's voice is among them, but it's only one among many, and he's much farther away than Iida and Todoroki and Ojiro and Kaminari. His stomach is full, the hot soak is working the aches out of his muscles, and he's surrounded by people he likes.

It's… nice, feeling like this. He knows for a fact that training is going to be just as hellish as today was, if not more so. But for now, in this moment, things are nice.

He doesn't realize that he's dozed off until his head drops forward, dunking his face right into the water. He comes snorting and spluttering, to the sound of good-natured laughter all around him.

"Dude, did you just fall asleep?" Kirishima asks.

Izuku blinks water out of his eyes. "Nope."

"Really? 'Cause you kinda just dunked yourself."

"Wanted to," Izuku says, a little defiantly.

"I'm pretty sure you almost drowned just now," Sero tells him.

"Yeah, I'll have to try harder next time," he says dryly, and realizes his mistake when everyone within immediate hearing range gives him a bunch of worried looks. Embarrassment curdles the warm contentment within him, and he slips lower into the water. "…Too dark?"

"Little bit," Kirishima lifts his hand out of the water and holds his thumb and forefinger a hairsbreadth apart. "It's cool, though, I mean you do you."

Kaminari sinks down until the water laps at his chin. "Guess it makes sense that you'd have that kinda sense of humor, Midoriya."

The others laugh it off, but Izuku decides that's enough of that, and he isn't risking a repeat performance. He grabs the towel he left at the edge of the bath and drapes it around his shoulders as he rises out of the water, covering the scratches on his back, and wraps the smaller towel around his waist. After a bit of maneuvering, he ends up sitting near Todoroki at the bath's edge, letting the water lap up to his knees. It's still warm, but not so hypnotic that he risks drifting off again.

Of course, Mineta waxing poetic by the barrier also helps wake him up.

"You know, when you get down to it, it's not about the food, or the pleasure, or the company," his classmate is saying, hands on his hips as he regards the high wall. "No, there's something greater to be gained, just beyond this wall."

Izuku squints at him. "Mineta, literally what are you talking about."

Mineta leans against the wall, presses his ear to it and listens, and Izuku remembers with a jolt that the girls' bathing area is right on the other side. "We're in luck—our bathing schedule overlaps with the girls. I don't know if it's just an accident, or destiny—"

"Are you serious right now," Izuku says flatly.

"Nothing in this world is more serious than this!" Mineta doesn't even bother looking over his shoulder, or lowering his voice. The girls can probably hear what he's saying.

Iida steps in to scold him, but Mineta blows him off, calls him a prude, plucks two sticky purple balls from his head and starts scaling the wall with frankly astonishing speed.

Izuku is already out of the water, ready to shout a warning to the girls—maybe Yaoyorozu can make a pole or something to knock him off—when a small figure appears at the very top of the wall, right as Mineta reaches it.

The look on Kouta's face is a sullen scowl. "If you want to be a hero," he says flatly. "Then why don't you try being a decent human being first?" And with one shove, he knocks Mineta off the wall just short of the top.

Izuku sees it from the water's edge. Kouta's hand is still outstretched as Mineta shrieks and grabs at empty air, and in one of Mineta's flailing hands is one last adhesive ball. It's pure bad luck that puts the two together, and Mineta's panic keeps him from letting go. Kouta manages one shriek before he's yanked off the wall.

"Kouta!"

No one but Izuku hears the Water Horses cry out, and he's already moving. Mineta lets go of the ball stuck to Kouta's hand and flails again as he lands on Iida. Izuku catches Kouta before he can land headfirst on the hard ground.

"Are you okay?" he asks, but Kouta is too busy cursing like a sailor to hear him. "Kouta—Kouta, what hurts?"

"It's my leg!" Kouta snaps, looking far more furious than frightened. "I hit it when that stupid jackass pulled me off the wall!"

Speaking of whom, Iida's yelling at Mineta, and Izuku realizes belatedly that he lost the towel around his shoulders in his haste to reach Kouta. So much for avoiding awkward questions.

"Midoriya?" Iida pauses in his tirade to look at him. "We should probably take him back to the Pussycats…" He looks at Kouta uncertainly. The boy ignores him and nurses his sore leg.

"It's fine, I got him," Izuku says. He retrieves his towel from where it landed on the ground, and ties it around his waist over the smaller one. "You… keep doing your class president thing, I can take him."

"I can walk," Kouta says petulantly, but Izuku sees him wince when he tries to stand up.

"You shouldn't try," Izuku tells him. "It might be broken."

"It's not broken and I'm fine," Kouta insists, but he doesn't squirm again when Izuku lifts him up and heads toward the entrance to the bath. He's almost clear when—

"Hey, Midoriya, is your back okay?" Ojiro asks. "Those scratches look pretty nasty."

"I'm fine, I just got caught alone by one of Pixiebob's earth beasts," Izuku answers, and leaves before anyone can question him further.

Kouta falls into sullen silence, clearly unhappy with the current situation. Maybe it would have been better to let one of the others take him, but… well, too late for that now.

"Sorry about Mineta," he says.

"I don't want to talk to you, so shut up and get this over with."

Izuku swallows his frustration. Vehement rejection really shouldn't sting this much; after all, he's used to people being determined to dislike him. Has he really been in UA long enough to be spoiled for positive attention?

It's not just that, though. Kouta doesn't like him, doesn't want to like him, but he seems to have a problem with heroes in general, going by what he said earlier. Growing up, Izuku never heard anyone say "dumbass heroes", because everyone knew that heroes were cool. It was a fact of life. A hero was someone to admire. And yet this boy, born to two heroes himself, seems to hate the very idea of them.

"Thank you," Mrs. Izumi says, and Izuku nods. "This wasn't exactly how we wanted a conversation to go, but..."

"I understand," Izuku says out loud. Kouta scoffs.

"He's a good kid," Mr. Izumi adds. "He really is, it's just…"

"It's our fault," Mrs. Izumi whispers. "We should have tried harder. But… we died."

Her husband shakes his head. "I don't regret that," he says. "I can't regret it. We stopped him. It cost us our lives, but we stopped him. If we hadn't done what we did, then a lot of people would have been killed in our place."

"People called it brave," Mrs. Izumi says, and her voice is so bitter that Izuku can't stop "It was," from slipping out.

Kouta looks up at him warily. "What'd you just say?"

"Thought you didn't want to talk to me," Izuku says, and regrets it a little when Kouta shuts his mouth and looks away again.

"It doesn't matter if it was brave," Mr. Izumi tells him. "Not to our son, anyway."

"The only thing that mattered was that we weren't coming home," Mrs. Izumi says. "So, while everyone said that we were brave, and that there was no nobler way for a hero to die…"

Kouta's father reaches out and tries to touch his son's head, but his fingers pass through without stirring a single hair. "People forgot that it was supposed to be sad, too."

Izuku doesn't expect a thank-you from Kouta when he drops him off, and doesn't get one. He does get a cup of tea from Pixiebob, though, and as they hover out of earshot while Mandalay tends to Kouta, he makes a few prompting questions that draws the same story out of her.

"A kid's parents are his world," Pixiebob tells him quietly. "But the rest of the world was praising their actions, celebrating them…"

Izuku's gut twists. He remembers that. He remembers joining in on that. He remembers thinking, I wonder if they'll stay long enough for me to be able to meet them.

"He's probably not too fond of us, either," Pixiebob adds. "But Mandalay's his only relative, so he has nowhere else to go." She pauses. "We've, uh. Adjusted our workload since then. We used to branch out into combat missions on occasion, but not anymore. We can't risk it, now that we have a kid to think about."

"But he's only related to Mandalay?" Izuku says.

Pixiebob smiles wryly at him. "Mandalay's as good as family to the rest of us," she says. "That's how it is, with good hero teams. That's how it should be. Kouta's her kid now, and that makes him our kid, all four of us. And that means making the adjustments we need to make sure he doesn't end up with no one, no matter what the public says."

"That's messed up," slips out before Izuku can stop it.

"Hm?"

"Not you," he says quickly. "I mean, the public. It's like…" Izuku puts his empty cup back on the tray. "It's like the whole world was trying to convince him that it was a good thing that his parents died."

Pixiebob's mouth twists. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret my choices, and I'll always admire the sacrifices that heroes make. But to that kid, the idea of heroes is senseless to the point of being unbearable, and I can't really blame him for thinking that."

"Well, nothing's broken," Mandalay says, loud enough for them to hear. "You just banged it pretty bad. It'll leave a nasty bruise, but you'll be okay."

Kouta doesn't answer.

"It would've been worse, if you hadn't caught him," Mrs. Izumi says. "Thank you."

Izuku excuses himself shortly after that.

By the time he gets to the dorms, clean and dry and dressed for bed, he finds most of his classmates already there, and nearly all of them are converged around his cat. Even the girls are here—Ashido is cackling as she watches Mika climb on Kouda's head, and several different sets of hands are trying to pet her at once. At first Izuku worries that she might get overwhelmed, but Mika seems to be enjoying all the attention.

"Oh, there you are, Midoriya!" Yaoyorozu waves to him. "Is Kouta all right? Iida told us what happened."

"He's fine, just bruised his leg." Izuku glances around. "Where's Mineta?"

"Iida dragged him off to Aizawa-sensei after you left, and he isn't back yet," Kirishima answers. He shoots Yaoyorozu an uncomfortable look. "We're really sorry about him."

"It's fine," she sighs. "We could hear some of you trying to stop him, and we appreciate that."

"That's why Kouta was up there in the first place," Uraraka says. "Mandalay had him play lookout for us."

"Frankly she shouldn't have had to," Iida remarks. "You know, I've heard rumors that Aizawa-sensei has the highest expulsion rate of any other UA teacher. I have to wonder what he sees in Mineta, because quite frankly his motives for becoming a hero seem… poorly aimed."

"Probably because his potential isn't rock-bottom," Kaminari points out. "I mean, he did pass the practical final pretty much single-handed."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Sero groans.

"The fuck's it matter if his potential isn't rock-bottom?" Bakugou snaps. "How the fuck's he supposed to be a hero if all he does is hump his way out of his problems like a shitty dog?"

"That's mean, Bakugou!" Ashido calls out. "What did dogs ever do to you?"

"By the way, Midoriya, is your back all right?" Iida asks. "It looked sort of like something clawed you."

"Nothing like that," Izuku lies. "I just got caught by one of those earth-beasts earlier. I ended up getting dragged, and it scratched me up a little, but it's nothing serious."

"Oh, good." His friend is visibly relieved. "Be careful from now on, will you? We're outdoors, and even the smallest injuries can still become infected if you don't tend to them properly."

Izuku tugs up the neck of his shirt and nods.

Shouto dawdles going to bed.

Things have settled down. Lights-out approaches, and the girls return to their own sleeping area. Shouto sits up for a little while longer, because Midoriya's cat has claimed a place on his lap (on the left side, naturally) and he doesn't have the heart to move her just yet. He's not the only one; the air is filled with quiet conversations as his classmates put off going to sleep.

Midoriya's sleeping pallet is next to his, and his friend is still up as well, messing around with his phone. Someone throws a pillow at him, catching him in the side of his head, and Midoriya grabs it and puts it down next to his own. "You're not getting that back," he says, without looking up from his phone.

"Go to bed, Midoriya," Kirishima whisper-shouts. "You already fell asleep in the bath today, dude."

Midoriya hurls the pillow back, and puts enough of his quirk behind the throw to nail Kirishima in the face. "I'll be fine," he says, but turns off his phone anyway.

"No you won't," Kaminari snickers. "'Cause we're never gonna let you live that down."

Midoriya rolls his eyes and grumbles a little as he straightens out his bed. In the process, he notices Shouto watching the whole exchange. "Stop grinning like that," Midoriya tells him, and that's how Shouto finds out that he's starting to smile, just a little bit. "It wasn't that funny."

"It was a little funny," Shouto answers, and for once he has to work to keep a straight face. He can't help it; the mental image of Midoriya faceplanting in bathwater is amusing. "I know it was a long day, but you might want to get more sleep if you want to survive the summer."

Midoriya purses his lips, and it's almost a frown but not quite. "...I don't usually sleep that well at night."

"Oh." Reluctantly, Shouto lifts the cat out of his lap and gets into bed. Mika, not to be deterred, makes herself comfortable in the crook of his shoulder. "How come?"

Midoriya flops down on his back. "I dunno. It's dark and creepy and—mostly silent, and there's nothing distracting me from…" He gestures vaguely. "Y'know. Thoughts and stuff. I worry about stuff way too much, even if it isn't worth worrying about, and I end up not… not feeling safe, I guess." He shrugs. "It's pretty much impossible for me to sleep if I'm not somewhere I feel safe."

And Shouto knows that can't be quite true, not when he's seen Midoriya fast asleep just today. "Well it's obviously not completely impossible," he points out. "You didn't seem to have any trouble falling asleep on me."

"How about that," Midoriya says. But he doesn't try to argue, and Shouto hears his breathing even out less than a minute later, so he figures his point is made.