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…
After the incident with Shigaraki, Midoriya and Suzaku found a bench to sit on for a bit and talk. Mostly because the greenhead was scared shitless and worried about Suzaku at the same time.
Turns out, much like Class 1-B, Class 1-A too had come to the mall as a group to shop for the upcoming training camp. They just hadn't run into each other—at least not until Midoriya spotted Suzaku casually chatting with Shigaraki.
The rest of 1-A were still doing their thing, so it was unclear if they'd crossed paths with the other class yet. The mall was quite big, after all.
Anyway, once Midoriya made sure Suzaku was pretty much unaffected by the unnerving encounter, he suggested reporting the encounter to the authorities—just in case.
Suzaku refused at first, not seeing the point in ruining his class' outing. But after enough desperate pleading from Midoriya, he finally gave in and called the police.
Long story short, the mall ended up being shut down by the authorities, and the classes' shopping spree was forced to an end while Suzaku and Midoriya were brought in to give testimony and go through the usual procedures.
Some pretty big names in the police showed up during questioning. Among them were Chief Kenji Tsuragamae, the dog-headed boss himself; a trusted detective named Naomasa Tsukauchi, who'd been working on villain-related cases; and several other top brass from the force.
The questioning went on for more than five hours. By the time the two were finally allowed to leave, Midoriya went home with his mom, while Suzaku found his classmates waiting for him outside the police station.
They didn't get to finish shopping, but they all decided to wrap up the day by grabbing food at a nearby area with food trucks.
So, while chaotic, the day ended pretty peacefully for Suzaku.
For others, though, that wasn't quite the case.
Back inside the station, Chief Kenji stood behind Tsukauchi, watching over his shoulder as the detective accessed the mall's security footage. He was trying to find the exact moment when Suzaku and Shigaraki met.
It didn't take long. Tsukauchi pulled up the timestamp and located the right sector's recordings. But even after finding the footage, the detective's brow furrowed deeply as he dragged the video into a save drive. Kenji picked up on it right away.
"Is something the matter, Tsukauchi-kun?"
The man gave a small nod. "There's something wrong with the video... Let me check the others first."
He quickly moved on to footage from other areas of the mall, and the more videos he opened, the more his expression darkened.
"Well?" Kenji asked, sensing something was off.
"The videos… they're incomplete," Tsukauchi muttered, opening the one that showed Suzaku and Shigaraki. "Every other sector of the mall has over eight hours of footage before this. But in all the cameras near the incident, the recordings cut off early... It's like the cameras stopped working all at once."
He pressed play. The screen showed the moment Shigaraki grabbed Suzaku by the neck and sat beside him. Then, the two started talking—casually glancing around as if nothing was wrong.
Nothing seemed strange—Suzaku had already explained how things had unfolded.
But just as Shigaraki was starting to stand up and leave, the video ended.
Abruptly. Without warning. As if someone had unplugged all cameras nearby at once.
Kenji leaned forward beside Tsukauchi, peering at the screen. Stroking the lower part of his snout. "The mall didn't mention any planned power outages for that hour during our questioning—not in the incident area, not anywhere else… This was clearly caused by someone."
"Who?" Tsukauchi gave Kenji a baffled look.
Kenji stepped away from the monitor, closing his eyes. "Lately, we've been getting too many outages right when we need footage... and all of them..."
He turned back to the frozen screen, where Suzaku and Shigaraki were still visible.
His eyes narrowed at the redhead.
"All of them?" Tsukauchi asked.
"All of them, we suspect, are because of a vigilante—someone who's been tied to multiple disruptions involving the League of Villains and whoever's backing them."
"Him..." Tsukauchi nodded, recalling the unknown figure that was responsible for killing several villains and affiliates, both in the past, and in recent incidents.
His body count reached the hundreds by this moment.
So if he hadn't heard of him before, despite being a detective, and working on cases close to this, that would be strange.
They still had no idea what he looked like, what he wanted, or where he was.
Nothing. He just killed—and vanished—leaving no evidence besides the corpses.
Still, the mention of this individual didn't quite sit right with Tsukauchi, who glanced at the video and at the chief with a confused expression.
"But if he's really the one at fault for this, why cut the feed if he wasn't going to do anything?" Tsukauchi stared at the screen. "This time, no one was killed."
"You're right, it doesn't correspond with his behavior so far, but..." Kenji narrowed his eyes. "Maybe… this time he couldn't."
"What?" Tsukauchi gave the chief a confused look.
Kenji waved him off. "Ah, don't mind me. Just speculating… Either way, I'll be in my office. With this, I've got a mountain of paperwork waiting-woof."
"Yes, sir." Tsukauchi saluted before turning back to the monitor.
But just as he started scribbling in his notebook, Kenji called out again.
"Oh, and Tsukauchi-kun—can you bring me the folder with the details we uncovered from the Jaku Hospital incident? I'd like to review it."
"Uh, sure, sir. I'll bring it over once I'm done organizing the data here."
"Thanks."
With that, Tsukauchi went back to writing in his notebook.
Meanwhile, Kenji gave the redhead frozen on screen one last, meaningful look—then walked away.
…
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|Days later…|
…
"I should've called in sick."
Suzaku groaned as he walked onto the school grounds, both hands stuffed in his pockets and a travel backpack slung over one shoulder.
His surroundings were completely empty despite it being the middle of the week—which made sense, considering everyone else was on summer vacation... Everyone, of course, except the hero department… which he sadly belonged to.
As he strode into the empty building, he let out a long yawn—repeatedly—over the span of a minute, his face growing more grim with each one that escaped him.
Being reminded of his own sleepiness only made him grumpier.
"They better not wake me up at 6 AM or something at that camp… Otherwise, I don't know what I might do, but it certainly won't be pretty."
Letting dark thoughts swirl in his head, Suzaku finally arrived at the designated gathering area: the parking lot outside the school, where the bus would eventually pick them up and drop them off wherever the camp was supposed to be.
There, the rest of Class 1-B was already assembled, along with Vlad King, who looked increasingly impatient as he kept glancing toward the entrance—most likely waiting for the bus.
Soon, Suzaku's friends spotted him and waved, which the redhead returned with his usual lethargy.
"Sup," he said as he joined them, finally dropping his bag with a sigh of relief.
Monoma raised an eyebrow. "For once you didn't arrive late, huh?"
Suzaku nodded with a grim expression, scratching his head in frustration. "Yeah, for some reason, I woke up on time today. Maybe Lady Luck is finally out to get me."
"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Sen looked at him with a helpless smile. "You know, lucky to wake up on time and not miss the bus?"
"Tsk."
Suzaku clicked his tongue, letting out a noticeably weary and frustrated sigh as he tilted his head back toward the blue sky, his face full of regret.
The group gave him a collective deadpan.
Tetsutetsu, ever the optimist, quickly changed the topic.
"So we're actually doing this, huh?" He grinned, eyeing everyone and the backpacks they were carrying. "I wonder what we'll be doing there?"
Suzaku snapped out of his sulky state and slung an arm over his friend's shoulder, smirking. "Yeah, I wonder what we'll be doing at the Training Camp."
Tetsutetsu deadpanned. "You know what I meant."
"You make it too easy, man. Can't blame me," Suzaku replied with a shrug.
Sen nodded, eyes closed. "Yeah. You reap what you sow, Tetsutetsu."
Manga laughed, a bold HA appearing on his face. "Next time, be more specific."
"Tsk. You guys suck."
Ignoring Tetsutetsu's grumbling, Suzaku glanced at Vlad King—now talking with Aizawa—and let out a dramatic sigh.
"Well, whatever hell they've cooked up for us at the camp, it's not going to be good. Just look at those two. Plotting a new way to make us go Plus Ultra and all that crap."
The group turned to glance at the two teachers.
Kamakiri snorted. "No activity at this school ever turns out normal. So yeah, they're probably gonna turn the summer camp into some kind of hellish military-style boot camp."
"By the way," Sen tilted his head, gesturing for them to look to the side, "looks like Class 1-A is coming too."
"It said so in the pamphlet. Didn't you read it?" Kamakiri raised an eyebrow.
Sen scratched the back of his head. "Must've missed it."
"So long as they don't squish us all into one room. That'd be awkward," Manga said as he scratched his bubbly head.
Awase popped up from the group, raising a finger. "I think it's a good chance to get to know them better. We haven't had much interaction with their class so far, have we?"
"Psshh… Imagine interacting with others. Couldn't be me." Suzaku waved him off with disdain.
Next to him, Tetsutetsu crossed his arms. "Come on, man, don't say that. Kirishima says they've got some pretty cool dudes over there."
Suzaku raised a dubious brow. "Eh. They've got Kaboom. Not sure I'd trust Kirishima's judgment that easily."
Tetsutetsu patted Monoma on the shoulder. "Well, we've got Monoma. So maybe Bakugo's just the bad apple of the tree. Like Monoma is in our class."
Suzaku finger-gunned him. "Touché."
"What do you mean me?! If anyone should be the bad apple, it should be Suzaku!" Monoma snapped, pointing at the redhead, visibly offended.
"Stop lying to yourself, Coocoma. I'm the best apple there is."
"Like hell you are! You're an impunctual, stuck-up, lazy, and annoying bastard! How am I the bad apple considering that?!"
"Well, because I'm the best. Thus, I can get away with all that. You, on the other hand, are a weakling, so you can't excuse your sinister personality."
"Ugh…"
–Beep, beep–
As Monoma was suppressing his urge to throw a punch, everyone's attention suddenly turned toward the distance, where a bus rolled into view, slowly driving toward them.
After a minute, it stopped in front of their class, opening its doors with a hiss. The driver stepped out and gave them a friendly wave.
The class waved back, and not long after, Itsuka raised her voice, waving to catch their attention.
"Come on, all of you, make a line and leave your things before orderly entering the bus!"
Following instructions, the entire class quickly dropped their stuff in the luggage compartment before boarding one after the other.
Only once everyone was on board and the teachers had finished talking did the bus finally depart, leaving behind Class 1-A, whose bus had just arrived. Class 1-B was now on its way, heading to the so-called Summer Camp.
And so, the long trip began.
A lengthy hour of nothing but sightseeing as the bus maneuvered along a bumpy road through the wilderness.
Of course, not everyone was focused on sightseeing.
"What do you think we'll be doing there?"
"That depends. Where was it located again?"
"It says here it'll be on the mountainside."
"Huh. That seems ominous."
"Yeah, you don't think they'll make us punch mountains for training, do you?"
"Who knows. Maybe they'll make Tetsutetsu do it."
"Oi, you two, what's that supposed to—hold on, that does sound like an interesting way of training…"
"See?"
"Oh, and Suzaku too. The two of them are into punching."
"I'm not into punching."
"Well, it didn't look like that at the sports festival."
"That was mentoring. I was simply mentoring my opponents."
"To receive punches to the face?"
"To try and dodge them. Clearly, most of them failed."
"Jeez."
Chatting helped pass the time, especially with the scenery outside being the same every five minutes—mountains, forests, and more mountains.
"Do you guys think we'll get to have fun activities? You know, like what usually happens at summer camps?" Juzo asked from his seat.
Sen sweatdropped, shooting him a grim look. "I think it was already established that the last thing we can expect from this camp is fun."
Juzo laughed wryly. "Come on, don't say that. The teachers might be strict, but I'm sure they'll give us some free time to enjoy ourselves."
"You put too much faith in them." Sen shook his head, staring helplessly at the ceiling as if already mourning their freedom.
"Well, at least you guys won't have to deal with extra classes at the camp," Rin muttered dejectedly from his seat, slouched forward.
Jurota and Kojiro, who were nearby, flinched at the reminder and dropped their heads in shared misery.
The rest of the class could only look at them with pity.
"Well, talking about extra classes…" Kosei suddenly spoke up, eyes turning to Suzaku, who raised an eyebrow as he noticed the gaze. "What happened at the mall that day? With that villain, I mean."
Sen smacked his arm and squinted at him.
"Come on, man, you can't just ask that like it's nothing."
Kamakiri shook his head, a disappointed look surfacing on his face. "It's not even related to the extra classes."
Kosei scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression. "I just didn't know how else to bring it up."
The class shook their heads, reproaching their classmate's lack of tact.
Still, the question had already been cast. So, after enough scolding toward the scapegoat who dared to ask, all eyes turned to Suzaku, expecting an answer.
The redhead gave their stares a bored look.
"What a bunch of nosy guys you are," Suzaku rolled his eyes, making a few avert their gazes embarrassingly—at least until he spoke again. "Well, nothing much happened. The guy took me by surprise, acted like a fan, and when he got a hand on my neck, he threatened to kill me if I made a commotion. So I just went along with it. His threat was kind of pitiful."
The bus fell silent.
Tetsutetsu gave him a deadpan look. "Come on, man, how is that 'nothing much'?"
"We didn't do much after that. We just talked about this and that, and eventually he left. So yeah, nothing much."
Monoma looked at him, genuinely baffled. "What did that lunatic even want to talk about?"
Suzaku shrugged. "You know, typical villain stuff. Something about me catching the attention of some big-name villain above him thanks to how much I have been standing out. Then some philosophical talk about what people saw in Stain and his ideology. And finally, a bit of an argument about which of us would kill the other first."
'How is that not much?!' Everyone on the bus had the same thought.
Oblivious—or perhaps uncaring about their disbelief, Suzaku continued the story. "After that, he just got up and left. Coincidentally, Midoriya from next class was nearby and saw everything, so we ended up at the police station, and, well, you know the rest."
"Did you tell the police you caught the attention of that villain's boss?" Jurota asked, staring like Suzaku was some kind of freak for being so casual.
Suzaku nodded. "I told them everything. It's in their hands now."
Itsuka chimed in from nearby. "You argued with a villain about who would kill who first?!"
"That's what I said."
"Are you nuts? What if he actually tried to hurt you?!"
"Like I said, that was the topic of our discussion. So either I would've died, or I would've been faster."
"What's even the guy's Quirk?" Tetsutetsu asked.
"Apparently, if he touches something with all five fingers, it crumbles to dust," Suzaku answered nonchalantly.
"And you said he had his hand on your neck?!" Itsuka asked, bewildered.
Suzaku lifted his hand and showed four fingers, excluding his thumb. "He kept the fifth one away from my neck."
"Then you were clearly the one in mortal danger there!" Itsuka glared at him, exasperated.
"Yeah." The entire class nodded in agreement.
Suzaku waved them off.
"Whatever."
Tetsutetsu leaned forward, looking at him with a confused expression. "By the way, why did you two even talk about Stain?"
Suzaku scoffed. "The guy has some problem with him, despite being in the same tea—"
"That's enough, Suzuki."
Vlad King's voice cut him off, making Suzaku stop and let out a wry smile.
As he shut his blabbering mouth, Vlad King's gaze turned to everyone else, who couldn't help but avert their eyes. "The same goes for all of you."
""Yes, sensei,"" everyone answered in unison.
"Good." Vlad King nodded in satisfaction, then gave a glance to the driver before turning back to the class. "We'll be making a stop in a bit, so prepare yourselves."
"A rest from the trip? Finally, my back was starting to hurt!" Tetsutetsu smiled brightly as he glanced out the window. His opinion was shared by many, who did the same.
And just like he said, after a few minutes the bus came to a stop, parking at what looked like a viewpoint in the middle of a mountainous terrain. An endless landscape of forested mountains stretched out before them.
The students stepped out one after another, stretching and letting out satisfied groans as the sunlight and fresh mountain air hit them. Some admired the view, while others moved around to unstiffen themselves from the long ride.
"It's really a good resting place. The nature is already making me feel fired up!" Tetsutetsu pumped his fist, his grin widening.
But then, he felt a pat on his shoulder.
Turning around, he saw Vlad King grinning eerily.
"Who said this was a rest?"
"Eh?"
Tetsutetsu let out a confused sound, echoed by the puzzled looks of everyone else.
Then, the door of a nearby parked car opened, and two figures stepped out.
"Yo, Vlad."
Vlad bowed slightly. "Long time no see, you two."
Everyone's eyes gathered on the strangers. It seemed like that was their intention, because once they felt the attention on them, they began to move.
"Lock on with these sparkling gazes!" said a red-haired woman in a very... peculiar red-colored costume, striking a stylish pose and peeking at the class through a circle made with her fingers.
"Stingingly cute and catlike!" added a blonde woman, also in a similar costume but in blue, and posing in a cat-like manner.
Then, the two aligned beside each other and struck their ultimate pose, speaking in unison.
"Wild Wild… Pussycats!"
And so, their grand presentation ended with a bang—
"This is sad to watch," Suzaku muttered.
Somehow, it was perfectly audible to everyone.
The two almost tripped at the comment, quickly returning to more normal postures and clearing their throats, embarrassed at being called out by a teenager.
Vlad King smiled wryly but continued regardless. He turned to the class and gestured to the duo. "These are the pro heroes who'll be working with us during this camp—the Pussycats."
The class gave them a strange glance, but manners came first.
""Thanks for having us!""
With introductions done, the duo proceeded to explain why they had been chosen to help during the summer camp.
Specializing in mountain rescue operations, they were perfectly suited for the terrain. The camp's goal was to help students shine and train—but they didn't elaborate much on how exactly that would happen.
"We own this whole stretch of land here." Mandalay, the red-haired woman, gestured to everything visible from the viewpoint, then pointed far, far, far into the distance at a building nestled at the base of a mountain. "You'll be staying down there."
"That's about half an hour by bus, isn't it?" Itsuka nodded, smiling faintly as the rest of the class began to relax, realizing there wasn't much travel left.
At least, until Vlad King crushed their expectations again.
"Who said you're going on the bus?"
""Huh?""
Vlad King shot them a victorious grin. "The camp has already started."
Suddenly, Pixie-Bob—the blond woman—dashed behind the entire class and slammed her paw-gloved hand onto the ground.
—BOOOOM!!!—
In an instant, the earth exploded, and the entire class was engulfed in tons of dirt before being shot out of view, down toward the forest.
The dirt acted like a cushion, moving faster than the students fell, and catching them before they hit the ground.
Once everyone realized what had happened, they turned to look up—only to see Mandalay smiling mischievously at them.
"It's 9:20 right now, so you all have until 12:20 to reach the camping area. Those who don't make it in time won't have lunch today, so hurry up, Kitties!"
And with that, she disappeared from view—leaving everyone flabbergasted and looking at each other, unsure of what to do.
At least until Itsuka stepped up.
"Come on, everyone. No point in complaining. You heard her—we have three hours to get there!"
Hearing the class president, everyone nodded and stood up, ready to move.
Suzaku was already on it, though.
"Ain't no way I'm missing lunch," he muttered, starting to jog into the forest—leaving behind his classmates who couldn't believe how fast he was ditching them for food.
But just as Suzaku was about to reach the trees—
-Boom-
The ground trembled. From the bushes ahead, a monstrous being appeared.
Giant teeth, no eyes, stone-like skin, and walking on all fours—its appearance was terrifyi—
"Outta my way, whatever you are."
-Bang!-
Unfortunately, it was blasted apart as soon as it got in Suzaku's way.
He kicked off the ground, increased his movement speed in a second, and without warning, landed a powerful kick that exploded the creature's head into pieces instantly.
The beast dropped to the ground, lifeless—then, to everyone's shock, it dissolved into dirt, fusing with the earth below.
"So it's Pixie-Bob's Quirk," Itsuka muttered.
Seeing Suzaku run deeper into the forest without hesitation, she smiled slightly and waved at the class to move.
"Come on, let's not miss lunch!"
That got everyone fired up in an instant.
""Oh!!""
And so, Class 1-B began moving toward the camping area.
...
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: Forgot to upload it yesterday, and almost forgot to upload it today as well.
Fortunately for you guys, I remembered on time.
On other news, I'm getting out of Among Us images, so I'll probably just put memes or whatever else I come across, unless I find another image of those.
Either way, I hope you liked the chapter.)
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