Chapter 67: Welcome to Camp

Things didn't calm down as the sun rose over I-island—quite the opposite. Even with the fighting seemingly ending hours prior, the island's management didn't take chances, placing the island on lockdown. The authorities kept quiet about the details, but with how the final confrontation turned out, keeping it secret that something had happened was impossible.

So, they decided to just reveal parts of the incident. One part was that a traitor amongst the staff had helped a gang of villains onto the island, taking control of the island's security, which explained the false bomb announcement and the security deploying on mass.

They also announced how a hero-led team had managed to avoid notice, ascend the tower, and retake the system, which was also true. However, 'hero-led' really did heavy lighting. Still, Midoriya and the rest could understand I-island not wanting to immediately announce how many high school first years had been the key players. The same happened with the final battle. However, they covered up David's device. They claimed that the villain had been boosted by a new trigger strand, which Iida felt was dishonest. Still, Monoma thought it was for the best.

After all, this was all because of that darned quirk-boosting device, and despite it being destroyed in the fight, the fact that such a thing could exist and, for a time, allow a villain to stand toe to toe with the Symbol of Peace…well, that would almost as risky as if Wolfram had managed to get off the island with it. So the authorities, along with All Might, did their best to focus the attention of the public and the growing international audience on the fact that the villains had been captured, the traitors identified and captured, and no one had been seriously hurt or killed.

All Might having been healed meant that he was able to be front and centre for hours on end, keeping focus on him and how he and his 'hero-led team' had managed to once again keep the people safe.

The good thing was for the rest. They could barely keep away as it had been well over 24 hours by that point. Despite all of them just wanting to head back to their hotel rooms and crash out, or, in Midoriya and Koharu's case, eat their weight in food before finding the best spot under the son to nap, they were all instructed to remain in the tower to be questioned.

Tried, dirty, hungry, and feeling like dirt, they were all given sandwiches, donuts, and coffee as they each gave their accounts of events. They were interviewed separately, and once they said their peace, they were escorted out a different door.

Each was escorted into…well, it wasn't an interrogation room, at least not what he would have expected. Still, Koharu reminded his sleepy self that they weren't suspects in anything and needed info. So, he happily thanked them for the offered plate of bacon and eggs, split it with Koharu, and answered their questions. The first few were basic things: His name, personal details, reasons for being on the island, that sort of thing. More than dotting their I's and crossing their Ts.

If he hadn't been as drowsy, he would have been nervous about admitting that Vlad-sensei was there mainly as his parole officer. Still, his lethargic brain just decided he had nothing to hide.

Then, as they did with those who had come before and those who would come after, they asked for a detailed account of the night, the whats, whos, hows, and whys from his point of view. He didn't know why; he was too sleepy to ask or think about it, so he just gave them what they wanted, pausing now and then to try and recall the accuracy and more important details of their actions and what led them to take said actions.

Koharu reminded him, and thus, he remarked that their teacher had granted permission to act due to the situation. They followed his orders and led throughout the ordeal, as the last thing they wanted was for things to be made complicated by the fact that students had done so much. But neither officer seemed to make any fuss about it, so he kept going.

The only part that tripped him up was the vault conversation, as…he didn't know how to phrase it. He didn't know the professor, but he knew Melissa, even if only for the night, and he didn't want to paint her father as heartless or greedy, so he played ignorant. He explained what he hated but lied about knowing about All Might being 'weakened' or needing such a device. He only said he knew he had gotten hurt during the final fight, at which point, he rapidly healed him with his flames, only to pass out from exhaustion soon after.

He didn't have such reservations for Sam. He spoke clearly about how the man had gone behind the professor's back to recruit real villains and seemed to have plotted to turn against him to escape with them.

‘Maybe healing him wasn’t the best idea.’ He thought as the two seemed to think the professor was full of it to claim All Might needed it when he was walking about like normal.

With that done, he was thanked for his testimony, was apologized to for his trip ending up so ruined, and escorted out to a diner where I-island offered to cover his real breakfast, a sentiment he was happy to accept as he ordered enough food for a dozen people and proceeded to demolish all of it like a hungry sheep, Koharu at his side working her through 4 servings of raw beef, eggs, and frog legs.

As he crushed into his bed, Izuku was just happy that the rest of the summer wouldn't be nearly as taxing; after all, they had summer camp to look forward to.

Line Break

Days later, with I-Expo, interrupted as it was, covering all its guests had packed up, bid farewell to the floating island, and returned home. Now, bright and early, with the morning sun still rising and yet already hot, the students of class 1-B stood outside of class in their uniforms, though all had gone without their jackets, considering the heat and how it was expected to get hotter as the day went on.

Vlad stood in front of them, gruff and direct as always as he addressed them. "I know for some of you, your summer hasn't been as relaxing as you would have wanted, but there is no rest for the weary, not if you want to push yourselves to and over your limits to prepare for your provisional license exam." Upon hearing that, most focused on Monoma and Midoriya, the former smiling under their looks. At the same time, the latter tried to ignore them.

Vlad didn't know what they had told the rest. Still, he knew that they had to have heard about the official story as it was all over the news, with Japanese sources highlighting how the villains had been foiled by Vlad and his students as a sign of pride. "The whole debacle at I-island should have been a clear sign of how villainy and other threats to people's lives can come out of nowhere and how you need to be ready and able to act to confront them."

He continued, as he didn't like it, both as a teacher who wished to give his students time to goof off and as a hero who knew his schedule was fluid and demanding most days. But that was just the life of a hero, and he would be doing them a disservice if he didn't properly prepare them for it.

“Yes, sir!” His students all replied, ready for the coming challenge, and he grunted.

"Good, not you. You can relax for a few minutes while the bus arrives." With that, he stepped aside to give them space to socialize before the busses arrived, which should be any minute now.

"I am so ready for this! You guys as pumped as I am?" Tetsutetsu pumped his fist, looking at the rest to see if they mirrored his excitement for this.

Kaibara scratched the back of his head. “I am excited, don’t get me wrong, but I’m more focused on the possible training they’ll have for us before we get to any fun stuff.”

"Well, knowing our teachers, it'll probably be something intense, crazy, and bond to leave us questioning why we ever signed up for U.A.," Tokage joked.

"That sounds about right, but they can't work us to the bone. How are we supposed to have fun after all the training if we're too sore?" Honenuki added with a chuckle, only to feel Tsunotori latch onto his shoulder. Turning his attention, he saw her looking as serious as the grave.

“Don't jinx it; they could be plotting.” She warned him, as U.A. made a habit of keeping them on their toes and training them as hard as possible, only to find new ways to handle said training to get even more done.

“Our teachers are eccentric, not cruel, Tsunotori.” Kaibara reminded her. As he got it, things got really tough for them, but it wasn't like U.A. was some cruel taskmaster who tried to make them handle five tasks when they had the time for just three.

"Yeah, besides, they already saw that Hebimi here is a real bad-ass when he wants to be." Tokage jabbed Midoriya’s side.

"It was a team effort; it's not like I could have done it all alone," Midoriya muttered. He might have seen it as Tokage just being her typical teasing self, but he could see the worry in her eyes. Even days after the incident and the times they had spoken about it, she wasn't sure he and Monoma had put themselves in harm's way or the number of times he had just taken damage.

“Says the guy that held back the villain long enough for All Might to arrive.” Tsuburaba reminded him, as that had been a real highlight for them, with footage of his final attack trending over the weekend. People across the planet had been amazed by the literal firepower one student seemed to have. However, Midoriya disliked how it downplayed that he was working with others and needed a sizable fiery charger from Monoma and Todoroki.

"Speaking about that, you think he's gonna be coming today? I don't know, but it feels like he's been really out there these past few days, you know?" Awase asked, to which Midoriya went silent and let the rest do the talking.

Honenuki thought about it, but Kendo replied first. "No kidding, for a while, he was pulling back from hero work, and I assumed it was age and that he was focusing more on teaching." Maybe they were summer break, and he could take the time to just travel around like he used to, solving incidents with the same casual energy as her making breakfast.

"And yet, I saw the news claim he stopped 2 crimes in the time it took for me to eat breakfast, get out of the house, and make it to school." Shishida nodded, as he perhaps believed that the man was trying to remind the world that I-island was a fluke, nothing more.

‘I have an idea why, but probably best it goes unsaid.’ Of course, Midoriya suspected that All Might was acting as he had wanted to and had only slowed because of his 3-hour-a-day time limit. Before them, All Might was even more active than much younger pros like Mirko; All Might once worked for 3 solid days. Even if his age was a factor, when your best was 3 full days, then trying for the 1 should be easy, though Midoriya has no clue how anyone could stay in hero mode after 12 hours.

"It'll be fun to get out into nature again. I heard we're going out into the Boonies." He couldn't and wouldn't comment on that, so Izuku focused on what he could, which was the coming camp.

"Yeah, but they haven't told us to wear; it could be Hokkaido, it could be Kyushu for all we know," Tsuburaba noted.

“They could try moving us around, get the full experience from the beach to the cold mountains.” Honenuki mused as it would be difficult and easily written off as too expensive, but considering what he heard of U.A.s regular exam, what was the flight and/or bus fare for 40-plus people compared to a legion of robots? One as taller as most buildings?

“Pretty sure they would have informed us of that, as I packed mainly summer stuff. Not ideal if they plan to make us train in the middle of the frigid mountains.” Kendo replied, only to pause when she realized Monoma was oddly silent.

That silence didn't last as they heard him picking a fight with class A…again.

“Really, now?” Yanagi asked as Midoriya and Kendo were already heading to solve the situation. Solving it by having Midoriya latch onto Monoma and physically drag him away while Kendo apologizes for his actions.

"You'll think he wouldn't bring that up considering he's part of the failed group, " Shishida said as their class rep and vice rep got Monoma onto the bus, which had just arrived. The blonde tried to insist that he was only reminding class A that they weren't equal, considering how much class B got done.

“It’s the rest of class B.” Uraraka waved to them.

"Nice to see you; Monoma might be weird, but we're not gonna hold back with this training." Tokage gave a challenging smirk towards them, to which some of class A met full on, offering confirmations that they’ll leave them in the dust come this training.

“Everyone, time to get on the bus!” Kendo called out to them, Monoma having sat with Midoriya at his side to ensure he didn't try to start something.

“Okay!”

Koharu, who had been lazily napping, raised her head when she looked out the bus towards where class A was gathered. “Midoriya, something wrong?” Kendo asked, noticing how Midoriya also looked out towards their sister class.

Koharu seemed to look toward Mineta and Kirishima, but she didn't tell Midoriya what she was looking at them for. “I don’t think so, just felt…well, Koharu felt something off just now, coming from class A.” He answered, to which Kendo looked at class A again. Aside from the looks Monoma's actions typically got and Iida trying to get them to board their own bus, there really wasn't anything that stood out about them.

"They look fine to me; maybe she just imagined it." She suggested.

“I did not, human!”

Midoriya translated what Koharu said. “She says she’s sure.”

Line Break

The buses remained closed for the first 20 minutes or so of the journey, but as they left the town behind, Tokage noticed that class A's pulled to the side and drove down a different route. This seemed like an odd choice as they were going to the same place, but with how noisy everyone was, she didn't have much chance to talk about it and chalked it up as something not important.

It was nice to get to the countryside from her window. While she'd seen it via trains, there was something different about it being on the road. They snaked along a pretty hilly road. To the side lay what looked like an untouched forest and hills. The route also changed as they went. They lost their view of the greenery as the road seemed to cut through a mountain, leaving nothing but rock and steep cliffs on either side.

The bus pulled into a small stop section in that area. Getting out, the students found that the place wasn't much of a sightseeing spot. It had a good view of the cliffs and rifts in the land, but that was just about it.

"Why'd we stop here? We need to change tires or something?" Awase asked as they walked around the place, one which didn't have a bench or restroom.

"We stopped here for a reason. Isn't that right, you two?" Vlad asked, directing attention to the white car parked to the side.

“Yup!” Its door opened up, and a cheery voice came flowing out.

“And that’s where we come in!” The teacher followed up with a deeper, slightly intimidating statement as the second door was also opened. From the car, the class watched as two people jumped out.

“Meow us to land a helping paw!” The first one seemed to overflow with energy as she spun in place, her big round yellow eyes wide open and looking at what felt like everything, her long emerald hair flowing around her with her spin. But she couldn't be a civilian, not when she was dressed in a hero costume, which, among other things, came with a belled collar, a large ruffled skirt, cat paw-themed gloves tail, and cat ear-like headgear. She also had painted on pink marks on her cheeks, which resembled whispers, and a pink circle painted around her right eye.

"We're champions serving up justice with our tails!" The second almost had a visible menacing aura around them, flexing their large, toned muscles to the students, who had some gulp, hoping that they hadn't offended them, despite being nearly as tall and muscular as Vlad, the hero dressed in the same style as his smaller, hyperactive teammate with the only difference being his hero costume was brown in color.

“The Wild Wild Pussycats!” With that said, the performed a pose for the students, who didn’t know how to handle it…well, most of them didn’t.

"Oh my gosh, it's them; they're a four-person rescue squad that specializes in mountain operations!" Midoriya was absolutely giddy about them and not for nothing. At the same time he lived in the shrine, he had read a lot about how heroes like the WWP, who focused on rescue in areas outside urban centers, did a lot of good, even when they didn't get the same fanfare as they would have if they had been more urban heroes. He even brought 3 of their books on survival tips and emergency treatments for several situations.

"They were founded when we were kids, and this will be their 12th year in operation, but they’re still one of the most highly respected hero teams in the business!” He didn't know it, but his temperature rose as his eyes started to glow.

"Oh, stop it, you. You're making me blush, little green kitty." The green-haired Ragdoll waved her paw-themed glove his way, only to quickly blink as she spotted not just him but Tokage and Kamakiri as well and rushed over. "Oh my, we have two more green kitties today!" She cheered as she gave Midoriya a big ole hug and roped in Tokage along with him, leaving Midoriya blushing at the hug from the pretty heroine he admired.

Tokage took it in stride, laughing as she returned the friendly gesture, trapping her little Hebimi between the two, which she knew he was well aware of. "He's a kitty, all right. He even got a snakey friend right here."

"I heard about her; she's so adorable." Ragdoll cooed towards Koharu, who soaked in the praise she was given, enjoying how Ragdoll reached for her head and started to gently pat her head. "Oh, would you please come here? I need a group picture to show off. Green is the best color, after all." Kamakiri yelled as he found himself being dragged into the group hug against his will.

“Wait, when did I-!” He started to ask, only to notice Tokage smirking at him, her detached arm around his waist and pulling him closer.

"Just go with it, Kamakiri. Come on, say pussycat!" Tokage called out as Tiger pulled out a camera from one of his pouches. Ragdoll seemed real happy with Tokage's choice and words, and as a group, they all said it as Tiger took a picture, then another, and then some more with different poses.

"What is going on with them?" Yanagi asked as they watched Ragdoll and Tokage seem to be having a ball while Midoriya was closer to a shy kitten. Koharu just went with the flow, and Kamakiri was trying to leave like an annoyed cat but continually pulled back in.

"I think that Kamakiri is getting some of what Midoriya gets on the daily," Honenuki noted as they somehow got Kamakiri to blush at some of the poses he was made to do, this one having him carrying Tokage in his arms while Midoriya, living up to his nickname, did the same with Ragdoll who seemingly couldn't stay till. Did the woman drink 3 expressos or something?

"Please tell me she's not just older Tokage." Kaibara bemoaned.

Sadly for him, Ragdoll heard that and turned towards him, a wide smile on her face as she happily chirped. "I don't know, but I'll take that as a compliment and say you bet your yawn balls I am!"

Vlad coughed into his hand to get them back on track and hide his amusement at the sight. "Ragdoll, you can have fun with them later, but we should get moving if we want to keep the schedule." He reminded them, which saw Ragdoll giving all three of his green-haired students another hug and kiss on the cheek before she bounced back to Tiger, her last act having the predictable response as Kamakiri turned bright red. At the same time, Midoriya seemed to melt, having to be led back by Tokage, who couldn't remove the smile from her face if she tried.

With that sorted out, Vlad properly introduced the heroes to the students. "Everyone, this is Ragdoll and Tiger of the Wild Wild Pussycats. They'll be helping us with your summer training and have graciously allowed us to use their facilities."

"Good morning, Ragdoll and Tiger," Kendo spoke for the group, bowing to the heroes, an act matched by the rest, even the still scattered-brained Midoriya. “Thank you for helping us!”

“Pardon me, but may I ask,” Shishida raised his hand, and when Tiger nodded, he continued. “What facilities are we using?”

"That would be this entire stretch of land. The camp where you'll be staying is that way!" Ragdoll pointed… through the mountain; wait, what?

“You mean around this hill?” Komori asked though she wondered why she would do that. If the road led there, they could have just said so, and it wasn't like the mountain was fit for vehicles, as it looked treacherous even for a group to walk up and over.

As hyper as ever, Ragdoll nodded her head so fast that they feared that she'd snap her neck. "It's at the base of the mountain, past some hills and super dense forest, which is known for having some muddy spots up to your waists this time of year if you're not careful!"

“Then why’d we stop here?” Kuroiro asked.

“I think…we already know.” Yanagi gulped as she looked at the heroes and could almost feel how smug they were.

“Nah, that can’t be it, it’s…it’s all for training after we arrive, right?” Bondo tried to steer them away from such a dark thought. The heroes wouldn't do that to them; that was insane…they would get on the bus and ride all the camp.

“Oh, you silly little kitties,” Having come out of his red-faced stupor, Midoriya saw how Ragdoll's cheeriness twisted, as her face hardly changed, but her tone shifted just enough that they all might as well be mice she was playing with. "Who said you haven't already arrived at your training camp."

Tiger’s chuckle only sent a cold chill down their spines. "It's 9:30 AM; if you start now and bust your butts, you might make it there by noon."

“Quirk, to the bus!” Kendo called out, only for the bus to burst into flames, leaving them slack-jawed as they watched the thing go up in flames. Was…was that why they hadn't loaded their luggage into it?!

“What the hell? You guys packed explosives?!” Kaibara yelled as now they were stuck here!

"We can take another route using the cat. You, on the other hand, should get moving. If you are not at camp by 12PM, there will be no lunch for you!" Tiger yelled at them as he, Ragdoll, the bus driver who had gotten off before he torched the thing, and unhelpful Vlad got into the other car and pulled out.

As they drove off, Ragdoll pocked out the sunroof, waving at them as she gave one last piece of ‘advice’. "Don't worry too much, you sweet little kittens! We own the land, so you can use your quirks however you like. Have fun with Mt. Calamity!"

“Mt. Calamity?” Komori whimpered as she looked up at the mountainside and they'd need to ascend. Only now did they realize that the road they had traveled down had dipped quite a bit, putting them at an even worse starting point.

“It’s both goofy and terrifying to think about.” Tsuburaba gulped.

"I just knew they'd pull something like this," Tsunotori yelled as she stomped her foot. They couldn't even see the other side, and now they had to climb to the top with no gear or clear route?!

Kendo sighed, wondering if U.A. just enjoyed screwing with them, but ultimately, it didn't matter. The bus was gone, and they couldn't wait for help because if they had planned for that, they surely chose a path with little, if any, traffic. "No use complaining now. We should just focus on getting over the mountain. Once we reach the top, we'll be able to better plan the rest of the route."

“Okay, but how? We’re not mountain goats, you know.” Rin remarked.

"No shadows for me to race up," Kuroiro noted, as they could wait for later when the sun was in a different spot. Still, they had no clue how thick and difficult the forest part of this little 'test' would be, so wasting time waiting was just asking for no lunch.

Kendo looked at the challenge and then towards the people she had with her, a plan forming in her head. "Tokage, can you float up to the top and try to find spots we can walk through?"

“And you guys?” Tokage, who knew she could handle this without issue, asked. After all, it probably wouldn't reflect well on her or the class if she was the only one who made it to camp on time.

“Looks pretty steep; I'm not sure how that'll work," Tetsutetsu approached the side of the mountain and could pick up how loose and course the rocks were, looking like oversized gains of sain. Sticking his hand into it, he could get pretty deep before he hit anything solid. “And the rock seems hella loose.”

Midoriya thought the same, but he could see where Kendo was going with this. "Shiozaki can make us some vine ropes, and Tetsutetsu, Shishida, and I can scale the side of the cliff, planting Tsunotori's horns as anchor points, then we can slowly climb the side of it till we get to better ground." It was like rock climbing, or as he had seen in one of the WWP's books, impromptu mountain rescue, as there were times when it was faster to scale up or down a cliff to get to someone.

"We can use my glue to help hold them in place; I can make it harden quickly." Bondo volunteered.

“I can help with the pin part.” Monoma followed suit, as he couldn't make a clue, but if he copied Tetsutetsu's quirk, he could help them set up this rope system.

"Okay, that sounds like a plan. Let's get moving, people!" Kendo clapped her hands. Tokage split her head from her body and set it up while Tsunotori immediately shot off horns, laying them in a pile that she could readily call on. Shiozaki allowed her hair to grow out, creating a long, smooth chain of vines for their climbers.

Quirk copied; the four boys transformed, or in Midoriya's case, only partially, as he shifted his hands and feet into the rock so he could punch through the loose rock and find purchase. Starting small and with a rope tied around their waists, they set to work planting Tsunotori's horns. Bondo, being carried by one of her horns, would go from hook to hook and spray it with his glue, which in seconds would harden, creating as stable a brace as they could expect before they worked their way up.

Tetsutetsu was around 10m off the ground when he nearly lost his grip when the rock gave way. Hanging on, Midoriya and Shishida, who were closest, asked if he was all right, to which he confirmed as much. "Damn, this place is loose; I need to dig deep to find anything solid." He called out, as he would need to be even more careful.

"We'll compensate by using excessive hooks; it'll spread the load across them," Shishida called out as he just finished setting another horn, his fourth so far. However, seeing Tetsutetsu's accident, perhaps he would try and double what he had used.

"Guys, I'm seeing a footpath up here. It's narrow, but it looks like it leads higher!" Tokage called out, the four looking up to where she was, which was well over 30 meters above them. Tokage, looking over the path, saw that it was marked as 'highly dangerous', which tracked as while it was…largely clear of loose rock, it was, as she mentioned, narrow, with no guard rails, a steep, near absolutely fatal drop to the small mountain road below, and had signs of sudden and dangerous rockfalls from the rest of the loose rocks up ahead.

Having finished wrapping Shiozaki’s vine around his latest hook, Midoriya turned to Koharu. “Koharu, could you go up and help clear the route?” The snake nodded, and after getting Tokage’s attention, his reptilian friend was carried off by one of Tokage’s hands.

“Is she gonna burn through the rock?” Kaibara called out from the bottom.

“Kinda!” Midoriya called back, and true to his response, they could all see the blast of green flames up where Tokage had said there was a path, though it disturbed the already loose rocks and caused a minor rockslide. The climbers hunkered down and just took it. Midoriya needed to fully transform to avoid splitting his head open and possibly falling.

Down below, Kendo and Tsuburaba fought against the rocks, creating barriers of solid hair or batting them aside with their enlarged hands, respectively.

"Well, let's hope it cools before we need to cross it," Honenuki called out.

“Oh, I can help with that!” Fukidashi's face shifted into a smiley icon before he went to Tokage's still present yet armless, headless body and shook it. Her floating head looked back to them at the contact. "Tokage, do you think you can get me up as well?"

“Oh, yeah, I can do that!” Her other arm detached, and along with Tsunotori lending help with her horns, she carried Fukidashi up to where Koharu had just torched. The path was wider already but molten rock now.

Coughing to clear his throat, Fukidashi used his quirk: “Splorsh!” to create the sound effect for a large volume of water, which he dropped onto the hot rock, rapidly cooling it.

It did its job, and though the cock appeared cracked, now the watery sound effect flowed down the cliff, dislodging more rock that happened to fall on Tetsutetsu and Midoriya's section of line. "Mind the water effects; this stuff is already loose!"

Line Break

Unknown to the students, the teachers continued to monitor their performance via a series of tiny robots designed like rats fitted with high-definition cameras. "They're not doing too bad, for first years at least," Tiger noted as he kept an eye on things on his tablet while Vlad and Ragdoll shared a second.

“Hmm, I’m not so sure about this, Vladdie. Isn’t this a bit much?” Ragdoll, not nearly as hyper as she had been before, asked.

“Normally, I would say yes,” Vlad hummed, as if this was even the prior year; these would have been things they would reserve for second years, or at least for things that would have happened during their first year's final semester. "But circumstances don't allow us to operate at our typical pace. These students need to gain a ton of experience and power, all necessary to gain provisional licenses, which will give them broader legal protections and means to fight against villains."

Ragdoll kicked her feet about, their bus now car driver silent as the pros discussed. "Yeah, I get that; all the villains coming out of the woodwork is really concerning, even for rescue cats like us. But is it that much of a concern for you?” Her wide eyes looked deep into Vlad.

“Yes. The USJ, Hosu, Kiyashi, and now I-island. If not targeted, these students have an unfortunate ability to find themselves in situations confronted by villains." Vlad frowned, as he had been surprised and worried about the Kiyashi incident. Shigaraki appearing publicly to threaten a class A student had been a scare.

But watching his students perform, not just at I-island but now as an organized, steady group to which they all contributed, he could feel some of that worry about their safety fade—some, not all.

"I'm more worried about the path chosen for them. I understand that Pixie-Bob and Mandalay are handling class A, but fighting against an earth monster isn't as dangerous as scaling a 130-meter mountain." Vlad asked. As this was only the first part, they'll still need to descend the other side and trek through the thick brush of the forest where no paths lay.

Tiger chuckled at the question. "You'll think, but Pixie is an over-the-top cat lady; she'll work them to the bone. At least with this, class B can take breaks once they find safe spots." It would be worse for class A if someone mentioned Pixie's age, as she had been touchy about that, and she'll work even harder to prove she was still young at heart.

But no one would be dumb enough to say something like that; it was just poor manners.

.

.

.

Line Break

Meanwhile, class A confronted themselves by an army of dirt monsters, and Jiro couldn't stop glaring at Sero.

“You just had to say it, didn’t you?!” She yelled.

"I didn't call her old; I just said she's a veteran pro. It was a compliment!" Sero yelled back as he restrained one of the beasts, only to need to bail when another came swooping through the canopy to grab him.

"Guys, focus on the literal monsters trying to crush us!" Ojiro yelled as he and Sato worked on one another.

Line Break

With the movie behind us, I can finally move on to things I've done more planning for. I also managed to finish that first season of MHA Vigilantes, and with all the art and memes going around about it, we fans have been eating well. The best part was that I could start this chapter Monday evening and get more than half of it done, so come Tuesday, I just finished it and edited it.

With the chapter itself, I ran into an old problem: I had too much planned for it, so I had to cut things short and split the events between this and next week's chapter. This didn't sit well with me, but I can't make the mistake of writing incredibly varied chapters. My limit is 5 to 6K, and I need to at least try and be consistent.

Line Break

Ragdoll: I found a trio of kitties!

Pixie: Lucky, I got an incredibly rube one!

Izuku: I’m not a kitten!

Sero: I’m not rude! It was a compliment!

Tokage: Wrong on both accounts, now let’s get back to mountain climbing.