Chapter Text
SOCIAL CLIMB
feels like we're having a good time
Aizawa pulled open the door, walking into the remedial classroom with Ashido, Kaminari, and Sato. As soon as they were in view of the door, a voice suddenly called out.
"Oh?! That's weird! Even though Class A is supposed to be better than Class B, there were three people who failed?! Even though there was only one person from Class B?!" It was Monoma, obviously. He had a crazed blank sort of look in his eyes, despite his wide smile.
The three Class A students simply stood there for a second, not prepared for the sudden voice. Vlad King simply stood in front of Monoma, arms crossed and eyes closed like he was trying to ignore the situation.
Eventually, they went to sit behind him, and he still didn't stop laughing.
"That's strange," Sato commented, slightly concerned.
"I'd like to know what his mental state is," Ashido said, also worried. Kaminari simply watched him, slightly annoyed from the statement earlier.
At the front of the class, Vlad King and Aizawa were talking, trading different ways to make them suffer help them improve.
Suddenly, a voice rang in all of their ears.
"Everyone!" It said, soundly oddly like...
"It's Mandalay's Telepath," Sato noticed, looking up like he was trying to spot it.
"I think it's cool," Ashido said, arms crossed. "Makes me jump!"
"It only works in one direction though, so it's kind of annoying..." Kaminari trailed off, fidgeting with his hands in front of him.
"Quiet," Aizawa snapped, trying to see if there was another message.
"We're being attacked by two villains! It's possible that there are more! Everyone who is able to move, get back to the camp immediately! Even if you come across the enemy, retreat and do not engage!" Mandalay's Quirk said into their heads, her urgency bleeding into her words.
"Vlad, I'm leaving this place to you," Aizawa said as soon as the announcement was over, heading towards the door. The students whispered behind him, not quite grasping the seriousness of the situation, and Vlad King nodded in response to Aizawa's statement.
Then he was gone, the door slowly shutting behind him.
Aizawa was met outside the building with bright blue flames and a muttered threat not to get involved.
After all, it wasn't the pros they were after.
'Kota,' Bakugou realized, hearing Mandalay's Telepath. No one knew where he was.
Except for Bakugou.
Bakugou turned to Todoroki, face stony.
"Kota split off, I'm going after him. You head towards the Class B kids, we passed by a few a couple minutes ago. Then take them and go to RagDoll. Don't breathe in the smoke directly," Bakugou instructed, tearing up his shirt and tying half of it to his face. He gave Todoroki the other half, motioned for him to do the same, and head off towards the cliff.
"If I let out three blasts towards the sky, makes sure to come with reinforcements!" Bakugou called back as he ran off, avoiding a small patch of gas floating in the air. He faintly heard Todoroki call back an okay, but didn't focus on it too much.
He occasionally gave himself a little boost using his explosions, but didn't do it much, preferring to not draw too much attention to himself with flashing lights and loud sounds.
He sees a large figure, and can make out the small shape of Kota in front of it, and his mind went into overdrive.
Blast. Push. Dive. Roll. Blast again. Roll again. Crouch. Face your opponent.
"Hm? You were on the list," The man said, grinning. Bakugou scowled.
Bakugou eyed his cell phone, a couple feet away, slightly cracked. It would work, but there was no way he could grab for it without drawing too much attention to what he was doing. He would need to keep a slightly over even split between himself and Kota, so he could plan but Kota still wouldn't be the main focus.
He glanced at Kota, and softened slightly when he realized that he was crying. God, he needed to get them out of there.
But first, the villain.
The fight is long and it ends with Bakugou being beaten half to death, but the villain is out of commission (dead his chest isn't moving he doesn't seem to be breathing) and Kota doesn't have a scratch on him.
Overall success.
Kota however, with his eyes flitting between watching Bakugou and watching the growing blue flames rising from the forest with tears silently streaming down his cheeks, does not seem to agree.
Welp. It's only getting worse from there.
"He's mostly done for right now," Bakugou tells Kota, expertly ignoring the blood currently running down from his forehead to his left eye. It's kinda hard to keep it open, so he doesn't. He also can't rub the blood away because more blood will just replace it (head wounds bleed a lot) and, also, he has no feeling in his right shoulder.
"Above all, I need you to not die," Bakugou continues, like he can still feel his hands. "It would also be great if I didn't die either, so I also need you to not be an idiot and listen to what I say.
Kota nods, silently, and Bakugou lets a feral grin overtake his face, just because he can. After all, he had just defeated a criminal that the cops had been after for years.
Hey, maybe that was the reasons they were constantly annoyed with him.
(It was certainly one of them.)
Kota seems to relax slightly at the sight of the grin, and Bakugou hates to make his day even worse, but alas.
He is a well known bitch for a reason.
Bakugou points (read: flaps) his arm in the direction of the flames rising from the forest. The smoke is heavy above it, blocking out the moon and leaving it to the blue inferno to be the largest source of light.
"The forest is, as you can see, in a bit of a hot spot," Bakugou says, smirking a bit at his own joke. "It's a huge hazard, and if the criminals don't kill us, the smoke inflation might as well. We're gonna need that Quirk of yours."
Bakugou looks down at Kota, who's eyes are still shining.
"Think you can get over your hatred of heroes and do us a favor? Just this once?" Bakugou asks.
Kota pursed his lips and nods.
Kota gets on his back, and still seems surprised when Bakugou's hands start sparking.
Bakugou does his very best to ignore the obvious interest that Muscular had in him.
Tanjiro and Genya had not gotten scared by any of Class B. While Tanjiro did feel bad since they look so dejected every time they popped out with a, "Boo!" Tanjiro could smell them from a cho away, and was not surprised. He had tried to act surprised when TetsuTetsu and Ibara had scared them, but TetsuTetsu could tell, and had whined about how he didn't want to be babied. Tanjiro sheepishly said sorry, and they moved on.
Then Tanjiro smelt it.
Fear.
He immediately stopped in his tracks, and Genya stopped behind him.
"Tanjiro?" He asked softly.
"Kendo," Tanjiro recognized. "And Yui, too. Juzo's there, but fainter. He's probably passed out," Tanjiro relaid, and Genya nodded.
"Can you find out where they are?" Tanjiro nodded, running towards the direction. Then he came to a stop again, and Genya asked who it was.
"Todoroki and another Class B student. Tsuburaba, if I had to guess. They're scent is more split up, you head for Yui and I'll head for Todoroki." Tanjiro told Genya the directions and took off, leaving Tanjiro to head for the others.
Bakugou ran into Aizawa on his way to get Kota somewhere safe, and immediately argued that the villain had attacked first, and everything he did was self defense. Aizawa grinned, took Kota, and gave him a message to pass along to Mandalay.
"The brat's fine!" Is what Bakugou yells later, blasting the belted swords together into small pieces. The lizard villain is consistent, and does not stop attacking Mandalay. Also, Bakugou still can't feel his hands, which is not fun, but y'know. Whatever.
"Let everyone know! With the permission of Pro-Hero Eraserhead, Class 1-A and B of UA have permission to engage in combat!"
Deku, who had previously been fighting one of the villains, yelps in embarrassment. He had done it again.
"Kacchan!" Deku called out running towards him. A knife nearly pierced him, blocked by a spare blade from the lizard villain. Him and the other villain get into an argument, and quickly get punched.
"They're after you!" Deku warns, and Bakugou faintly notices his entire arm is purple. Idiot.
"I know, nerd! They're after other students too, so keep an eye out!" Bakugou warns.
He glances over Deku's shoulder, and finds that the two of the four Pussycats currently present and dealing well with the villains.
"Mandalay!" Deku calls out, turning over his shoulder. "Tell them that the villains are after Kacchan and some other students!"
Bakugou wants to punch Deku in frustration, but Mandalay simply takes on a confusion expression at the name 'Kacchan' and repeats the words.
Bakugou sighs, and drags Deku with his non-injured arm to go after where he had seen an ice shard shoot into the sky.
Eventually, after several battles against various villains, most of the students end up in three clumps. The first is near the main building, back on the edge of the preserve, the second near the meeting point of the path, helping the remaining Pussycats, and the third was right in the middle of the forest.
If you had to guess who was in the second group, you would probably guess correctly. Bakugou, Deku, Todoroki, Genya, and Tanjiro were among the students in the forest.
Where the villains were still roaming, and actively trying to fight them.
Nice to see they have such great preservation skills!
There had been a minor problem inside their group, with Dark Shadow getting a bit out of control due to the darkness. Bakugou, however, had been able to diffuse the situation with a few mild sparks.
After that had been settled, their group had been cut down to Bakugou, Deku, Todoroki, Genya, Tanjiro, Tokoyami, Ojiro, and a passed out Tsuburaba. They had decided to cut through the forest to head back to camp, deciding to move more slowly rather than face paced like they had on their first day.
It went wrong quickly.
What else was to be expected, really?
Toga was practically having a field day. These two cute girls, with cute hair and cute nicknames and pretty blood and the same feelings as her!
Well, Ochako had the same feelings, at least.
Toga could just tell.
After all, it was natural to want to be like the person you liked. Toga felt like that all the time! It was part of why her Quirk was so handy. Enough blood and she could be exactly like them!
She had started out simple enough. Picking up on some mannerisms, some movements, some slang. Adapting to their style, buying clothing from the same brand.
Toga hadn't used her Quirk until she was twelve years old, because she'd been told it was evil. It had something to with blood. That's what her mother had told her.
Then she had killed her mother with a kitchen knife and figured out just what it did.
Then she killed her mother's boyfriend too, just to test it out.
They had both tasted horrible.
Then she'd had a taste of this cute guy from her school. She didn't even kill him or anything! Just a little nick, passed off as some fumbling with a knife during Home Ec.
As if she'd ever fumble with a knife.
They bought it though, and she'd finally tasted his blood. And damn, was it delicious.
She hadn't killed another person until she was fourteen years old, and she walked by someone was was just too, too cute to pass up! Toga had taken to passing city by city, town by town, ever since the police had found her mom's rotting body.
It seemed the smell had just gotten too bad.
The police had never found her mom's boyfriend, but she had left just in case.
Wandering around, taking little ounces just wasn't enough.
Oh, but this girl on the street was just too adorable to pass up! She had a busted lip, blood dripping in small drops from her mouth and hitting the floor with a satisfying splat!
The temptation was just too much.
Toga had taken her time with the girl, and eventually found out her name had been Himari. She'd taken her blood, as well as her ID, and left her body in that little alleyway.
Toga still didn't know if she had survived or not.
It didn't matter though.
Because Toga had walked back to her house, disguised as her, and stolen all of her clothes.
Toga was just like Himari, now!
She just knew Ochako felt the same way. Tsu (what a cute nickname!) didn't have the same wonderful way to her thinking, but it was okay.
She was cute enough.
God, Toga could blush just thinking about it!
Digging the needle in Ochako's thigh, Toga grinned lazily at the girl above her. It felt like a dream.
And the horrified look on the other girl's face was just a cherry on top.
However, her fun was interrupted when she heard the bushes rustling, and she knew she needed to leave. Ochako and Tsu had been strong enough, (and hadn't that made her turn as red as a deeply oxygenated blood!) so there was no way she'd been able to handle more people.
Especially if they were as adorable as these two lovely ladies. Cute people always made her so distracted!
While she was dashing out the forest, she spotted two people emerging from the bushes.
One tall; one short. Long silky black hair with yellow ends; short, fiery red hair. Deep, dark purple eyes; bright, eager maroon eyes.
They were just so lovely. Toga was sure she was going to melt.
And she had a feeling that the tall one was just like her.
She grinned wider, skipping into the forest's shadows.
Tanjiro felt on edge.
Genya shared a glance with him, showing he felt it too.
Tanjiro's hand tightened into a fist, and he did his best to ignore the scent of blood.
(He shouldn't have.)
Not everyone, unfortunately, was present during this ordeal. Two noticeable (though not until it was later pointed out to the others there) absences were Tokoyami and Bakugou.
A man in a bright yellow trench coat grinned above the trees.
Dabi didn't actually mind dealing with Twice. Was he weird? Obviously. Was he kind of annoying sometimes? Duh. But was he batshit insane? Only a little bit.
It was a lot better than he could say about most people in the League. Including himself.
After a while, Dabi had gotten used to the constant contradicting that came with his ability (and some traumatic experience, probably).
Twice called off the Nomu, and Dabi couldn't help but feel they were making a mistake.
It was fine.
(It was fine.)
Tanjiro did his best to focus on the task at hand, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He was lagging behind with the U.A. students, Genya sprinting ahead of him. The scent of blood was constant in his senses, his brain screaming wrong, wrong, WRONG.
But what could it possibly be, if not for the man leaping above their heads, holding two of his friends captive?
What could it possibly be, if not for the girl who seemed to have a longing for blood stronger than Stain's?
What could it possibly be, if not for the Nomu that he didn't want to believe was there?
Genya felt agitated. He had shot the man in the coat multiple times, and only barely managed to braze his cane. He couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. That something was missing.
Was it the girl? She had looked at him in a way- it made him want to shiver.
Like she could see straight through him and right down to the curse he had been given in the place of the ability for Breaths.
He shook his head, and called out to Tanjiro that they would have to come up with a different plan.
It felt like admitting defeat.
Shinsou had felt very out of the loop. Ojiro had ran off once he had spotted a villain, calling out behind him for Shinsou to follow.
Shinsou... did his best.
Obviously, it wasn't enough, given the fact that he was lost.
He had mostly been wandering, in a constant state of anxiety yet unable to act on it.
He could see the blue fire branching off into the sky, the embers floating down. He could heard Mandalay's warnings, and had caught a glimpse of Dark Shadow before he seemed to disappear.
But then he had heard the unmistakable sound of Bakugou screaming, and ran as fast as he could in the direction.
He had found several of his friends, but not Bakugou.
But still, without hesitation, he got tied up by Tsu's tongue with five other teenager boys, two of which were bleeding, and ignored the fact that his shirt was being soaked through. he got floated into the air, and reminded himself, that if Bakugou was in his situation, he'd do the same thing.
Well, he'd probably do it a bit better.
Dabi hadn't had much warning before Compress landed (more like crashed) in front of them, six teenage boys in someplace on his back.
He wasn't sure how Compress could've given one, seeing that he seemed as shocked as the rest of them, bit still.
Would've been nice.
Regardless of this, he warned Compress to get out of the way and open fired.
Ha.
Get it?
It was a shame he only skimmed some of them.
"I'm Toga!" She introduced herself, noting with stars in her eyes that the two boys had dodged her needles.
"What're your names?"
They were rude, however, and didn't answer.
It was fine.
She'd find out soon enough.
Bakugou felt cold.
Cold, cold, cold.
Nothing, nothing, nothing...
Genya could confirm that he was fighting.
He could also confirm that he was not losing.
But then, the world blacked out.
It felt too warm.
Shinsou had mostly stuck with Shoji upon landing in the middle of four villains. They were being targeted by Magician Guy, who Shinsou had been calling "Kakashi no Kabu" in his head.
Shinsou found that he liked the one from Howl's Moving Castle much better.
It didn't matter much though.
Cause soon, Shinsou couldn't really think much of anything.
Deku couldn't keep track of much, due to his injury and the fact that he was actively fighting a villain, but he had the feeling that they currently had much less people on their side than what they had started with.
That much was proved true when Tanjiro suddenly disappeared from the corner of his eye, where Deku had been keeping a constant tab of him.
He felt as if someone had just grabbed his book and tore out the book mark.
And maybe some of the pages, too.
Bakugou didn't move with the hand around his neck. He stood still, eyes wide open, and watched as Deku ran towards him, shouting. Behind Deku, Tokoyami was running forwards, attempting to control Dark Shadow with the large flame still behind him. Shoji was bleeding in several places, and Todoroki seemed close to passing out.
The cool darkness was creeping onto his back, sliding over his hands and shoulders. Eventually, the only thing left out o fit was his eye, and Bakugou did his best to give Deku a command with the one eye bared.
'DON'T. COME. AFTER. US.'
Bakugou had no doubt that Deku would go regardless.