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Izuku reached forward, straining to wrap blackwip around the next treetop. It would have been easier to just jump up from the ground and look high over everything until he spotted something unusual. But Aizawa Sensei had instructed them to avoid detection for as long as possible. That meant Izuku was staying low to the top of the treeline. His costume was the same color—it would be harder to spot him here than against the sky.
"I still think this is a trick," Kaminari said over the coms. Momo had made them this morning, at the beginning of this mission, and Iida had given up yelling at people to stop making small talk over them after the first hour or so.
As he flew rapidly toward the spindly end of a tree trunk, Izuku reached out with his other arm, pulling himself forward in a different direction. He had fine-tuned this method over the last several hours of the wilderness search and had been moving constantly ever since. He had not quite figured out how he was going to stop without crashing.
"No, but think about it!" Kaminari continued, "We've found nothing. It's been ages. This is the middle of nowhere—we're just out hiking around these woods. And Aizawa Sensei was super vague about all of the details he gave us. I bet there aren't even any villains."
"Yeah," Jirou responded, "Because they would have heard you talking by now."
The ground sloped up ahead of Izuku. It made it a little harder to continue, since he had to change the angle of his momentum to match the rising. As he tried to maneuver he brushed up against the side of an evergreen tree. Luckily his costume protected him from scratching himself on the branches.
"I don't think Aizawa Sensei knows what a vacation is," Kaminari said, "I bet he wanted to give us a break and just had no clue how to set that up in a context outside of training."
"Some break," Mina responded, "My legs feel like they're gonna fall off! We've been walking way too long."
Izuku came up over the crest of the hill, and for a moment he could see over a huge stretch of the forest. Not too far ahead of him was a gap in the treeline. A clearing.
"I think I found something," Izuku said, and he pulled himself forward.
"What's your position?" Momo asked.
"Hang on," Izuku said. He was trying to calculate if he could pull himself forward slowly enough to fall down through the canopy without hurting himself or making too much noise. Before he could think of a way to pull that off, he got close enough to the clearing to see down into it. There was nothing there.
With that much open space, it was easy for Izuku to land on the ground. He pulled out his phone, opened his GPS, and took a screenshot of his location. Then he sent it to Momo.
"I sent it," he said, remembering too late. "Wait, you don't need that though. There isn't anything in this clearing."
"Are you sure?" It was Iida.
Izuku looked around. There was a boulder, and some moss and grass. Nothing that seemed at all unnatural. "I don't think that—" he started, and then winced. Hie head hurt, just at that meandering level of pain that made it impossible to determine if it was something new, or something he had been ignoring.
"Oh, I got your text," Momo said, "Sorry I didn't realize at first. I was expecting you to just describe what you could see."
"It would help to have a system with which to specify our locations," Iida said, "I'll have to make a mental note of that. We don't want to be dealing with technicalities like that when we encounter an actual villain."
Izuku looked up at the treetops, searching for a place to grab and pull himself up again. He could imagine the movement in his mind’s eye, but could not quite bring himself to believe that he would be able to do it. His limbs felt sluggish now that he had stopped moving, heavy like he had only just climbed out of bed.
“I don’t feel right,” Izuku blurted before he could frighten himself into staying silent. “I wonder—I don’t see anything. But maybe this is someone’s quirk.”
Suddenly conscious that he had no cover, Izuku walked quickly to the edge of the clearing and crouched at the base of a tree. His phone vibrated. Momo had texted his screenshot to the class chat. That was probably smart.
“How do you feel?” It was Uraraka.
“I just feel—wrong.” Izuku answered. “Sorry, I know that’s not helpful. My head hurts, and I’m kind of tired. Um, but I didn’t feel that way a minute ago.” He looked back up at the clearing he had left. It was idyllic—full of tiny wildflowers, moving slowly in the breeze. He could still see the bent stalks where he had walked through them.
If someone else had been here, wouldn’t they have left the same kind of mark?
“Maybe it’s nothing,” Izuku said, “I really don’t see anything.”
“Can’t hurt for us to come check, kiro,” Asui said. “We’ve got nothing better to do.”
Izuku stood up slowly, careful not to rustle the underbrush, and his stomach rolled. He had just enough time to rip his com out of his ear before he threw up.
Yeah, okay. That wasn’t normal.
He could feel the speaker on his earbud buzzing into his palm, but the sound of it was too quiet for him to make out any words. Opening the pouch on his belt, he slipped it inside. Then he scanned the ground for something he could wipe his face with. There wasn’t really anything, unless he wanted to take a fistfull of grass. He wasn’t quite sure if he could maneuver that correctly.
He heard the thump—two feet hitting the ground together, like stepping down from a low wall. Imagining some villain slipping down from on top of the boulder, he turned to face the noise. It was Kacchan, landed in the middle of the field. They locked eyes.
Izuku threw up again.
The grass sort of crunched as Kacchan walked over to him. It was frustrating. Izuku needed to know what kind of face Kacchan was making, but he was stuck bent over, waiting for everything to finish falling out of his mouth. He was mostly finished, but the last bit of spittle was sort of sticking, so he wiped his hand over his mouth. Then he remembered that he was still wearing his gloves. That was unfortunate.
Kacchan was standing next to him now, arms folded. “You done?”
“I think,” Izuku said, thrown off by the taste in his mouth, “Maybe there was a villain. I didn’t see him.”
Dropping one of his gauntlets, Kacchan dug his forearm into Izuku’s forehead, pushing him back upright. There was something in his eyes, too quiet to be his regular anger but just as displeased. It was honestly kind of terrifying.
Izuku was just about to protest when Kacchan stepped back and picked up his gauntlet again. Then he grabbed a fistfull of Izuku’s costume and started dragging him deeper into the forest. Izuku was too tired to protest—Kacchan probably did know what was happening. He definitely had a better plan than anything Izuku could think of.
“Get me Todoroki,” Kacchan said. It took Izuku a second to realize that he was talking into his com, another to realize that he hadn’t used a nickname.
There was a creek ahead of them, shallow enough to walk through, deep enough that the water would come over your boots. Izuku was just preparing to turn and walk along it when Kacchan shoved him. He overbalanced and went sprawling into the water.
Izuku sat up, sputtering. The water tasted good, though he did his best not to swallow any. He should have been annoyed—his com would be wet now—but he couldn’t quite muster the energy.
Setting both his gauntlets on the ground, Kacchan stepped down over the bank and pushed Izuku over again. Izuku grabbed his arm to keep his own face from going under. Instead of pushing his hand off, Kacchan just reached out and grabbed his other shoulder, holding him in place.
“Stop it!” Izuku spat, “Your hands—the water will wash your sweat off. And if there’s a villain then—“
“Would you shut up?” Kacchan hissed. “There’s nobody! Nobody can strike you down except for you.”
“But I feel wrong,” Izuku said. He tried to sit up again, but Kacchan wouldn’t let go of his shoulder, and it was hard to get the right leverage in the mud to push against him.
“Did you bring water with you?” Kacchan asked. “Have you stopped to rest since we started? How long were you up in the direct sunlight above the trees?”
“Um,” Izuku said, because he was starting to realize what this conversation was about.
“You know what heat exhaustion is,” Kacchan said, the words dripping with disdain, “Or did you not listen to anything Aizawa said this morning?”
Izuku tried to think of a response that could both defend his actions and be true. Luckily, Todoroki ran up to the edge of the creek, saving him from needing to say anything.
“You need to ice the water,” Kacchan told him.
“I know,” Todoroki said, “You’re still on coms.” Then he froze a line behind them, building the ice up into a wall. Blocked from its regular course, the water began to pool.
“I’m sorry,” Izuku managed, “I didn’t think about it. I didn’t realize that—”
“Midoriya,” Todoroki said, “Save it for when I’m less mad at you.”
Izuku bit his lip. That was fair. He needed to shut up.
Todoroki shook his head. “That came out wrong. Don‘t be sad. But also—stop doing this.”
There was something coming from behind, a rolling crash driving rapidly closer, but Izuku could not sit up and look back at it. He had to wait for it to get closer, to catch the faint whirring undertones of it that he knew.
Iida skidded to a stop on the other bank of the creek, pulled his helmet off and held it under one arm. His feelings were painted on his face.
“I’m sorry!” Izuku sobbed. He didn’t know when he had started crying.
“It’s okay,” Iida said, “I know you didn’t notice. You get very focused when you have a mission.”
Izuku didn’t have anything to say to that. There was a quiet part of him that knew better. His focus was a choice—it was easier not to think about how things made him feel. He didn’t have to lie to his friends so long as he lied to himself.
“Should I take him back?” Iida asked.
“In a minute,” Todoroki said. He had knelt near the bank and was freezing little globs of water. “Let him cool off first.”
“I’m sorry,” Izuku repeated, still crying. He knew that there probably wasn’t a villain, but he still felt terrible about distracting them from their search.
“Are you?” Kacchan said, “Cause I have a feeling you aren’t gonna quit after this.”
“Bakugou,” Iida said, “Don’t antagonize him.”
Kacchan sneared, but he also stopped talking. He did listen to Iida sometimes.
Still, there was a sort of certainty settling in Izuku’s stomach. He wanted to grow and get stronger and become the best hero that he could be—but this wasn’t something he knew how to change about himself. Maybe this was his limit, and there wasn’t any hope for him. Maybe Kacchan had figured that out already.
Water splashed into his face.
Izuku sputtered, blinking. Iida was looking at him.
“Stop that,” Iida said, “I can see sad thoughts on your face. This is supposed to be a vacation.” Then he turned to stare into the middle distance. “Right Kaminari?”
“You change,” Izuku said, “Iida—when you realize that you’re doing something wrong, you change it right away. Iida—you’re amazing like that. I don’t—if I can’t—then I—“
“Bakugou,” Todoroki interrupted, “He’s still a jerk.”
“Hey!” Kacchan said.
“That’s true,” Iida said, “And we’re still friends with him. We’re not going to get mad at you because it takes you a long time to learn something.”
“I’m gonna kill both of you,” Kacchan said, but he didn’t let go of Izuku to attack them.
“Okay,” Izuku said. His voice was all wobbly.
“You’re okay with him killing us,” Todoroki said.
“No!” Izuku said, “No I mean—I heard what you said and um—that sounds good.”
“Excellent,” Iida said, nodding sharply, “So don’t forget it.”