playing now: 1.6 - you can trust me
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Bakugou glanced at Kazumi from his spot on the training grounds. He'd been given a short break from exerting his quirk and was on the ground drinking from his water bottle.
He wasn't sure whether it was because he'd gotten mad at her last night, but she'd been oddly on edge the entire day. Weirdly enough, she wasn't even training her quirk today – it was if she was meditating rather than actually pushing her quirk to the limit... as if she was preserving her quirk.
Actually, their teachers hadn't been pushing them as hard as the previous two days. They seemed to be on edge too, besides the Wild, Wild Pussycats who were just as energetic as usual.
Mr Aizawa was acting especially strange; hovering around Kazumi all day and keeping his phone near him. Every time it rang, he disappeared to answer it. It was getting on his nerves.
What was even weirder was that when dinner time came, the group of students had been ordered to stay in their dorms for the night instead of playing the test of courage with the Pussycats. There was no explanation for the sudden change, but it caused a bit of an uproar between the students.
"Hey, you promised us we would get to do actual camp activities!" Mina argued as she washed the dishes with Asui and Uraraka.
Aizawa turned around, "you and the remedial students wouldn't even be participating even if we did continue on with our plans. You have extra classes to do."
Mina melted against the sink, Uraraka and Asui sighing. The training camp so far had just been pure torture rather than fun.
Aizawa discreetly peered over at Kazumi who was quietly collecting rubbish from around the site. He approached her, casually sitting down at one of the tables.
"Kaz, how's the progress? Have you heard from the League or any heroes yet?" Aizawa whispered.
Kazumi shook her head.
All day, she'd been using her quirk to listen out for the villain's movements but had been struggling all day to discern the sound of footprints of any new League members who may have appeared during the day.
As Kazumi didn't have all the sounds of students' and teachers' footprints memorised, she couldn't quite discern the difference between their movements and the villains' movements.
However, she'd sometimes hear snippets of conversations between the villains, but they were pretty silent about their plan.
It was strange. It was almost as if they knew someone was listening to them.
So Aizawa had asked for some heroes to come as backup, they didn't seem to be anywhere nearby yet.
"Nothing..." Kazumi murmured, lowering her head.
Aizawa clicked his tongue, looking out into the distance. Kazumi had said that the Villains were lurking in different hiding spots not too far from their camp.
She'd managed to create a general perimeter in her mind of the location of some of the villains she'd recognised the footsteps of. They seemed to have stayed generally still throughout the day – they were definitely watching them.
"Kazumi, always stay with me or Vlad while we do the remedial classes." Aizawa ordered, "it's important that you're here to tell us if anything strange happens."
Kazumi nodded, "Okay, I'll finish up and I'll meet you in one of the classes then."
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Kazumi, Monoma and Vlad sat together in an empty classroom waiting for the remedial students to enter. Vlad had been lecturing Monoma about being the only student in Class B to fail, obviously annoyed with the boy since he always boasted about being better than Class A.
Kazumi glared at the window suddenly, causing Vlad to turn his attention to her.
"Is everything okay, Kazumi?" Vlad asked, Monoma turning curiously to her.
"Our classes... they've snuck out to do the test of courage with the Pussycats." Kazumi stated, narrowing her eyes.
Monoma laughed, leaning back in his chair.
"How sneaky! I wish I could sneak out to be honest." Monoma retorted, folding his arms against his chest.
Vlad clicked his tongue, running a hand through his hair.
"Geez... I need to send them back inside–" Vlad paused as he realised he had to keep Kazumi with him. "I'll get Aizawa to tell them off when it comes back."
Monoma raised a brow, glancing between Vlad and Kazumi who sent each other knowing looks.
Bakugou wasn't the only person who noticed Kazumi's strange behaviour. She'd been around the teachers all day and had been on guard even during their breaks and dinner. Even though news had spread between students that Kazumi was Aizawa's adopted daughter, Aizawa wasn't the type to show favouritism to her.
Not to mention that she didn't seem upset about her fight with Bakugou, she seemed more on edge than upset.
Kazumi had also just used her quirk to eavesdrop on her own classmates before snitching on them to Vlad. That didn't sound like something Kazumi would usually do.
Before Monoma could further question Kazumi's abnormal behaviour, he heard the classroom door open. His face contorted into a shit-eating grin as he saw five UA students at the doorway.
"Oh! That's weird!" Kazumi groaned as she hid her face behind her hand. "Even though Class A is supposed to be better, there are five people who failed? Even though there were only two people from Class B?! That's so weird!"
"Yeah! And you're one of them?!" Kirishima retorted, pointing at the boy who was boasting a bit too hard for someone who'd failed his exams.
Kazumi hid into the hoodie over her head as she broke out into laughter, Vlad sending her a sharp look.
"Kazumi? I didn't know you failed your exams." Kaminari asked, sitting beside Mina.
I didn't... Kazumi thought but she just smiled, scratching the back of her head.
Before Kazumi could open her mouth to respond, she furrowed her eyebrows. She could hear a distinct sizzling noise before the sounds of bodies dropping on the floor.
"Sho! Vlad!" Kazumi called, standing up. "They're here!"
"What? Who's here?" Mina questioned, tilting her head.
Before any questions could be asked, everyone in the room suddenly heard Mandalay's voice in their heads alarming them that villains were attacking them.
She'd only identified two villains, making Vlad and Aizawa instantly nervous given that Kazumi's intel had outlined ten villains.
"Vlad, I'm leaving this place to you – I'll go protect the other students." Aizawa said before whipping his head to Kazumi. "Kaz, come with me."
Kazumi nodded, standing up from her desk quickly.
The Bakusquad students present knew Aizawa was panicked from how he didn't even try to hide that he and Kazumi were close; he'd immediately called her by her nickname despite other students and Vlad being present.
"Wait– Why are you taking her?!" Monoma shouted, "why are there villains? Wasn't this place supposed to be well hidden?"
"She identified that something was wrong before Mandalay did, I need her help." Aizawa announced, opening the door for Kazumi.
Monoma's face fell as he watched their retreating figures leave the room.
She'd been tracking down the villains all this time, hadn't she?
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"Alright, give me the rundown!" Aizawa demanded as they rushed down the hall.
Kazumi closed her eyes briefly, her brain processing the sounds around her and connecting it to all the data she'd been studying of her classmates, the Pussycats and the villains.
"Five students – all 1A students – are in the main area with three Pussycats, one is down. I believe there are two villains with them." Kazumi said, her eyes shut.
Aizawa grabbed her arm, helping her navigate the halls. "Those must be the villains Mandalay has identified."
"In the forest, Tetsutetsu, Yaoyorozu, Awase, Kodai and Kendo are on the move – there seems to be something causing them to cough and block their noses because their breathing is being suppressed. Shizaki and... ugh... another student is with them, but they seem to be both unconscious." Kazumi continued, before her eyes widened. "K...Kota! He's alone with a villain. He's up on a mountain!"
Aizawa clicked his tongue, "okay, we'll go there first. What about the rest of the students?"
Kazumi stopped Aizawa, "Izuku is protecting Kota now... but he's still one-on-one with a villain. Shoji and Fumikage are alive. Uraraka, Asui seem to be with a villain, so are Aoyama, Hagakure and Jiro. Todoroki and Katsuki are wandering the forest too, Tsuburaba is unconscious and they've run into a villain... who is... Shota, you need to let them fight, the villains are looking for Katsuki!"
Aizawa breathed heavily, suddenly running off to find the Pussycats to let them know about their findings. However, as he pushed through the exit doors, Kazumi grabbed his wrists and pulls him back, narrowingly dodging a huge blast of blue flames that engulfed the spot Aizawa had just been pulled away from.
The two stared at a young male with red patches all over his body, spiky black hair sticking from his head as he casually stared at the duo.
"Now, now, who's this?" The male asked, taking one step towards them.
Aizawa immediately wrapped him in the binding cloth, a protective hand in front of Kazumi as his eyes glowed red. He wasn't going to risk the male even activating his quirk around Kazumi.
Aizawa pulled him towards them, running up and using his knee to hit the villain in the face, shoving his face into the ground as he demanded the villain to give him information.
She flinched as Aizawa simply broke one of the man's arms, threatening to break his bones.
"Mr Aizawa!" Iida suddenly called from the forest.
Aizawa's eyes widened as he spotted him, Mineta, Koda and Oijiro all hiding in the bushes alone. Kazumi yelled out as the villain took that small moment of distraction to escape Aizawa's grasp, reaching out with her hands to manipulate sound waves into a whip similar to Aizawa's and wrapping it around the male.
Her blood ran cold as he turned around, his bored eyes burning into hers.
"Oh? You're the girl who gave us away, aren't ya?" His smooth voice sent shivers down her spine. "Ah... what was it? Yes, Kazumi Amano – also known as Kazumi Chisaki."
Aizawa raised a brow in confusion, Kazumi's heart dropping at the name she thought she'd let die long ago.
Before anyone could speak up, they watched as the villain melted in the confines, his face taunting them as he slowly dissolved. Kazumi retracted her sound waves, stepping back shakily as Aizawa stepped forward.
"Your students are important to you, aren't they?" He asked Aizawa. "I hope you can protect them all until the end. See you later."
Kazumi felt her eyes water in fear.
"Kazumi... are you okay?" Aizawa asked, turning to the shaken girl.
She nodded anxiously, her guardian kneeling to her height and rubbing her arms to reassure her. She eyed her classmates who came running towards them, pointing them out to Aizawa.
"Alright, you boys! Head back to the classroom." Aizawa grabbed her shoulder, nudging her towards Iida. "Iida, take Kazumi with you and protect her at all costs."
She clutched tightly onto Aizawa's arm, pulling him back before he could run off.
"I...I'm fine! We need to find everyone and you can't do it fast enough without me." She reassured and Aizawa sighed.
"Alright, follow me."
Kazumi nodded, running after Aizawa as her mind was haunted by the dark haired male who simply vanished into the ground.
After a few moments, she shut her eyes to focus on any approaching footsteps.
"Keep running forward! Izuku and Kota are coming our way!" Kazumi called as Aizawa slowed down a bit, letting her run ahead of him before speeding up again.
After a bit of time, Kazumi spotted green lightning as Midoriya ran swiftly towards them with Kota on her back.
"Midori–"
Aizawa's face dropped in annoyance as he saw Midoriya was half naked and heavily injured. Kota got off of Midoriya's back, Kazumi opening her arms to hug him and check if he was okay while Midoriya caught Aizawa up on everything he knew.
Kazumi sighed in relief as Aizawa gave permission to Midoriya to let the others know they were allowed to fight. Before Midoriya would run off, he glanced at Kazumi.
"Kazumi?! What are you doing here?" He exclaimed, running up to her.
"I...I'm–"
"She's helping me track – because of her, I know where everyone is." Aizawa said, Midoriya's eyes widening in shock. "So, don't rush out haphazardly. Kazumi, find Mandalay."
She nodded, not even closing her eyes to search before turning to Midoriya.
"She's at the campsite, hurry, they're still fighting a villain." Kazumi urged.
Midoriya nodded, his eyes focused on her momentarily. She looked just as anxious as she was when she was younger, her face pale as she was overwhelmed by the situation. He forgot that this was her first proper run in with villains.
Before leaving, Midoriya quickly pulled Kazumi into a tight hug, patting her back softly before sending her a smile.
"I'll stay safe, okay?" Midoriya promised, "you look after yourself too. I don't know what I'll do without you."
Her eyes watered as Midoriya quickly kissed her forehead, running off after Mandalay.
Aizawa watched from the side, clicking his tongue as he turned away to run off.
Kazumi smiled to herself, scooping Kota onto her back before following after Aizawa.
"Kaz, how confident are you with being alone right now?" Aizawa asked, glancing back at her and Kota.
The two of them were making their way back to the classroom where Vlad and most of the students were to drop off Kota.
"What do you need?"
Aizawa sighed. He couldn't lead Kazumi into danger. She already seemed nervous enough and he was already regretting bringing her with him. He didn't need to be looking out for someone he cared dearly for when he had the rest of his students to look out for too.
"I need you to take Kota to safety. I have to find Bakugou."
Kazumi eyed Aizawa, "I can find Katsuki easier than you can. We don't have a lot of time."
Aizawa sent her a worried look, "Kazumi, you saw how dangerous this all is. Just go to Vlad and report back."
Kazumi halted, shaking her head as she placed Kota onto the ground.
"Shota, please, let me find him. I'll protect him with everything I've got." Kazumi reassured, her fists tightening to her side. "I'll send you a signal if I need you to come to me, you can trust me."
Aizawa looked her in the eye for a moment. He remembered her words from their last big argument, how he failed to trust that she was putting all her effort into her studies. That he didn't trust her way of thinking despite her being so intelligent.
He pursed his lips before taking Kota into his arms.
"Okay, but you have to immediately take Bakugou to me or Vlad, is that clear?"
Kazumi nodded, giving him a determined smile before she ran off deep into the woods.
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