The Forest's Child

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Mandalay chuckled. "My bad, I meant by our standards," she said and Sato complained, "So it was just to boast, huh..."

"Hehehe... honestly I thought you'd take longer," Pixie Bob said. "You guys are good, especially you four." She pointed at Todoroki, Bakugou, Iida, and Hitoshi. (Hitoshi used his capture weapon.)

"Hey, Mandalay?" Uraraka's voice tiredly said.

"Hmm? Oh, yes Uraraka-san?"

"There was another kid. I think he had green hair? Anyway... he appeared several times during the trip."

"Oh yeah," Sero nodded, "there was a kid like that. He was pretty good at what he did."

"Ah, you're talking about our forest's greatest enigma," Pixie Bob said, hugging the life out of the four guys.

The child behind the two women started to smile at the mention of him.

"Enigma?" Iida's voice rang out from underneath her arms.

"Yes!" She let go of them and they all let out a sigh of relief. "That guy goes back since we first arrived here! About eight years ago, I might add!"

"EHHH?!?!"

"We've seen him a bunch of times," Pixie Bob said, waving her hand like it was nothing, "but we rarely see him each week. I'm pretty sure he found out our cameras because a few weeks ago, we lost sighting of him. But now you guys found him! Along with Kouta here!" She skipped towards Kouta and gave the kid a big hug.

"How did Kouta find him?" Mina wondered aloud.

"Ah, according to Kouta, he - "

"Convinced me that not all heroes are bad and that society's just trying to do the best it can do survive and that we have to make sure to live our lives like we want to, not like what the so-called other heroes say."

It was silent for a moment as Kouta huffed and looked away from the wannabe heroes.

"...So, yeah..." Pixie Bob continued as the heroes tried to absorb the new information they acquired. "HUH?!?" most of the class yelled while one said, "What a mad banquet of darkness" and another one screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" only for Hitoshi to bonk him on the head for swearing. [We all know who that is.]

Kouta snorted as he took Pixie Bob's arms off himself and stormed away. Pixie Bob and Mandalay just chuckled when Asui asked whether he was always like that.

"No, actually," Mandalay said, "he was worse and would refuse to speak. He only became like this last week. Now, everything he wants has to do with the color green. He's also requested some clothes around your guys' sizes and left them outside at his spot. [BTW Kouta's spot and Izuku's cave are different but they are connected but Kouta doesn't know that.] Kouta checked again a few days later and reported that they were gone. So, yeah. We also discovered his quirk too."

The now-quiet class stood there in shock. "We call him the Forest's Child, or Guardian nowadays. Kouta's a really big fan of his."

"So, we were protected by this, 'Guardian' as you say?" Iida asked and Mandalay nodded. "He's probably the reason you guys got here quicker than usual."

Kirishima's stomach growled with impatience and everyone else smiled, smirked, or laughed out loud. "Come on," Mandalay said, "we'll provide you food for today but you guys have to make them tomorrow."

----------------------------------

"Wow!"

"Thish ish sho good!" Kirishima cried, cheeks filled with rice as Mandalay and Pixie Bob sweatdropped.

"So, Mandalay?" Todoroki's voice said.

Class 1a fell silent. Todoroki rarely talked in class, besides to Iida or occasionally Uraraka.

"Yes, Todoroki-kun?"

"What did Guardian say to Kouta to change his mind?"

Pixie-Bob jumped into the conversation. "We don't know, actually. Kouta refuses to talk about it and when we try to bring him up, he just walks away from us."

Todoroki nodded at this and continued eating his rice.

"Revelry in the darkness," Tokoyami murmured and everyone else burst with laughter.

----------------------------------

"Say, what do you guys think of him?" Kaminari wondered.

Shoji looked over and Ojirou asked, "Who are you talking about?" Everyone looked over when Kaminari answered with 'Guardian'.

"I think he's pretty manly," Kirishima said, clenching his fist.

Iida responded with his ferocious chops, "He is putting himself in danger! Why is he even here and why is Mandalay allowing it?"

Todoroki was about to ask his own question when he heard Bakugou say, "Whaat? He doesn't have anywhere else to go to. Hugger cat and Mom cat said that he was probably homeless."

"Really?" Sero asked.

"Yeah, Soy sauce, so can it!"

"Why are we even talking about this?" Hitoshi added. "It's his business. So we might as well leave it at that. Not our job to poke into his life."

Everyone else hesitantly agreed. They mostly forgot about it when Kaminari almost sneezed in the water and they promptly threw him out of the water before they all died.

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

Meanwhile...

"ACHOO!"

Izuku sniffled and Asuka and Mamoru looked at him with worry.

"Do you guys think I'm getting sick?"

They didn't respond but Mamoru licked his cheek. Izuku wiped it away and sneezed again.

"I'm definitely treating myself to a rest day."