Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter thirty-two

A/N: So the mall incident didn't happen because I didn't want Deku interacting with Shigaraki or the league anymore until the kidnapping arc.

The bus ride to the training camp was the first time that I've ever had a friend to sit next to on a school trip. Someone that would care if I started getting car sick and someone that I could chide the other students for when he was trying to sleep. Neither of those happened, but the thought was nice anyways.

Hito had his earbuds plugged into his phone and silently held one out to me, each of us making as little noise as possible. As if we wanted the rest of the students to forget that we were there entirely. Had this been any other trip that sentiment would have been fact instead of habit as it is now. You were never as much of a target when they forgot that you were there.

I only held up a finger silently before moving to dig around in my pocket, pulling out a small adapter that was a little bigger than the length of my pinky finger. It was the type that plugged into the headphone of phones and had its own two headphone plug-ins so two pairs of earbuds could be used at once.

Hito didn't smile as he took it. I didn't smile as I gave it.

Maybe some people will always be broken that way.

Identical music streaming through our ears, Hito and I rearranged ourselves in the seats for the rest of the ride. My legs were drawn up protectively against my body, even as they leaned against Hito's side and my head laid on his shoulder, his head on top of mine. Injuries to the stomach always hurt the most since the muscles there you use with almost every movement that you make. It was a habit by now to protect my core, but it was also nice to shield someone else for a change as well.

By the time that the bus stopped, I was reluctant to get off it instead of all but running to the front as I might have for any other field trip. But everyone else was moving and Hito poking his finger into my side repeatedly wasn't helping me pretend to be asleep either.

Shooting a dark look at the taller teen, I pulled myself away from him and walked to the front of the bus, letting the purple haired teen catch up. Though when he did it didn't take long for him to seem to regret having us leave the bus.

Pro Heroes showed up only a moment or two later, members of the Wild Wild Pussy Cats, there was a wild look in the pair's eyes as they stood before us and started talking. A look that easily explained when the ground beneath all of us gave way to a landslide that dropped us at the foot of a thick forest, monsters made of mud springing up before the lot of us.

Without thinking, I crouched down and undid the latch on the bottom of my shoe, pulling out the collapsed bow staff from there with a quick movement. The staff was tall as it opened, about the side of myself, but the metal was strong, strong enough to decapitate the mud monster that was running right at Hito and I.

The pair of us ran through the woods with our classmates nearby as we took turns fighting and distracting the monsters as they appeared before and around us. My favorite of them was when I scaled the monster and Hito threw the staff up at me so I could screwer it like some kind of street food.

By the time that we reached the camp clearing we could still hear those distinctive explosions in the distance, but they didn't really matter because they were close enough that I knew the owner would be here soon.

A part of me hoped that the woods would keep him.

—-

The training camp went by with a familiar bout of pain as Eraserhead taught Hito how to use his scarf and sent me off to try and sneak up on the other students from both classes to practice stealth and combat. Hero students like being suddenly attacked just about as much as common street thugs did.

It was a nice change when one of the heroes announced that we would be having a 'test of courage'. Even more fun when they said that we would be the ones scaring each other.

Not that I ever got the chance to.

Hito and I walked through the forest trail at an almost leisurely pace, not even flinching as class B used their quirks to try and make us scream. The only outward sign of any discomfort in either of us was the way that our sides were firmly pressed against one another. A contact that neither of us could have ever thought that we would have this time last year.

But then there was an unnatural heat coming from up the trail, something that had us both turning to one another and running towards it because we knew that no one in the other class would damage the woods like this on purpose.

The flames were blue and hot enough that neither of us could get close to them, but we didn't need to speak to know what they meant.

Villains.

"There's a kid," I whispered, drawing Hito away from the flames and pointing to the spot on the mountain where I'd seen the heroes' kid go a few times before, "they might not know what's going on."

The other teen looked at me like I was crazy, but nodded just as I knew that he would. We were a team after all.

We started running, Hito keeping up with me much better than he had only a few months before, trekking through the woods and up the mountain path, only stopping when we heard a gruff voice that wouldn't belong to a child.

"That hats pretty cool kid," the voice said, something that caused the two of us to look at one another once more before slowing down to quieter steps. "Why don't you trade me for this lame mask. I'm a newbie to the operation so they made me wear this dumb mask."

Little stomping noises could be heard as it sounded like the kid was trying to run away. Hito made a move like he wanted to run right into it, but I held onto his wrist to stop him. We would only get all three of us killed if we didn't know what we were running into.

There was a loud crashing noise that almost sounded like a small avalanche, but I knew that it had to have come from someone hitting the side of the mountain.

"Strength enhancing quirk," I whispered quickly.

I watched as Hito's purple eyes went wide before he forced the danger off of his face. "You know what we have to do?" He asked quietly.

It was my turn to nodd.

When Hito smiled there was nothing sweet about it. It was something that was all sharp teeth and shadows.

I liked it.

We moved then, leaving self preservation behind. Not that I've ever really had any but the sentiment still stood.

The quirk user attacking the child was easily twice our height and three times either of our weights, with something horrid that he was trying to use to pass for an eye. And right between him and us was the small child with the red hat.

"Hey asshole!" Hito screamed, his voice wavering with fear in a way that I'm sure only I heard. The pair turned towards us at the noise and I made a quick motion to the kid while the villain focused on Hito. "Where the hell did your eye go?"

"Why you-!"

The villain stilled but we didn't stop to celebrate as the kid barreled into me and I took him into my arms.

"Go into the cave and sit there until you're told otherwise," Hito said, his voice firm as the villian moved slowly to complete the command.

We ran then, the three of us together as Hito and I took turns holding the kid. It wasn't until later that we learned that the whole attack had been more just than that.

It wasn't until a feeling of coldness and claustrophobia swept over me that I knew that I was a piece of the something more.

Shit.