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The night was as clear as water. Far from the city, with none of its dazzling distractions, the starry sky above looked so real it felt like you could reach out and touch it. Half of her body was submerged in the water, only her head breaking the surface as Konata Izumi tilted her face up, staring quietly at the stars. After a full day of exhaustion—battles, travel, and finally arriving at their shared lodging—everyone was more than ready for the rare gift of rest.
Maybe to make up for the fact that they'd skipped lunch, dinner had been ridiculously lavish. Everyone, worn out and starving, dropped all pretense of elegance—no one cared about "ladylike" or "gentlemanly" manners as they devoured everything like starving wolves. Konata didn't eat much, though. Between the motion sickness from the trip and the relentless fighting all day, she hadn't been injured, but the bone-deep exhaustion—both physical and mental—wasn't something she could just shrug off with a joke.
What she wanted most wasn't food. It was a hot bath and then a bed, so she could sleep until morning. What she didn't expect was to find an open-air hot spring at the lodge. So, after dinner, everyone ended up heading straight for the outdoor bath, enclosed by tall wooden walls for privacy.
"This training camp really doesn't feel like a vacation. We were supposed to come here to relax, but somehow, I get the feeling the training here is gonna be even more brutal than what Endeavor put us through," Konata muttered to herself, sinking half her face under the water and blowing lazy bubbles as her gaze drifted toward Asui and the others.
"You guys even hold a group meeting while in the hot spring? Can't you just… I dunno, soak quietly for once? …Why do I suddenly feel like joining them?"
With a quiet sigh, she pulled her gaze back and shut her eyes, reciting the Heart Calming Meditation she found online in her head. Midnight had dragged her through enough "experience sessions" before, but what she saw around her now was… well, far more intense. She needed to calm down, so she'd retreated to a quiet corner with the flimsy excuse of wanting to "meditate."
After a long, exhausting day, sinking into a hot spring like this was nothing short of bliss.
The boys' side, though? The atmosphere there was… different.
Especially thanks to one particular grape-headed menace. Mineta, hands cuffed securely by a custom-made restraint courtesy of Yaoyorozu, had his head tilted back in absolute despair. He stared up at the towering wooden wall, listening longingly to the laughter and chatter from the girls' side, every inch of him screaming tragedy.
For him, this should've been the perfect opportunity. No wall could stop the stickiness of his Pop-Off quirk—he could've scaled that thing and peeped to his heart's content. But with his wrists locked together, unless he somehow evolved the ability to use his feet to pluck and launch his own sticky balls, he was completely grounded.
Before entering the bath, Konata had casually suggested precautions against "potential perverts," and Yaoyorozu, efficient as always, had whipped up a pair of unbreakable cuffs just for Mineta.
"Midoriya, can you not stare at me like that? It's… depressing," Mineta groaned, raising his bound hands.
"With both hands locked up, it's not like I could do anything even if I wanted to," he added bitterly.
Midoriya blinked, nodded, and, with genuine sympathy, just kept… staring.
Once the hot spring session was over, everyone settled in for the night. Aside from a few with too much leftover energy, most retreated to their rooms to rest—including Konata.
Unlike the boys' side, where they bunked together in one large room, the girls each had their own individual rooms. Konata wasn't exactly sure how she'd gotten back to hers. She'd been so relaxed—and maybe a little dizzy—from the bath that her memory of leaving was a blur.
The students could rest. The teachers and pro-heroes supervising them, however, didn't have that luxury.
Today had just been the appetizer. Tomorrow, the real training camp would begin. And unlike the simple "camping trip" Konata had imagined, the forest training camp's true goal was to strengthen everyone's quirks.
Everyone's quirks were different, so personalized training was inevitable. But with only three supervising pros, one of whom was that overly youthful-looking Wild, Wild Pussycats member who was clearly old enough to be married, Konata wasn't entirely sure what kind of "personalized" they were talking about.
Still… she hoped it wouldn't be another hellish experience like her internship with Endeavor.
Then again, speculation was pointless. Whatever they had in store, she'd find out tomorrow.
Still, as memories of that hellish internship replayed in her mind, Konata found herself… really not looking forward to tomorrow.
Across the lodge, in the staff area, Aizawa frowned slightly at the glow of his phone.
"Principal Nezu," the caller ID read.
Normally, at this hour, Nezu would already be asleep. For him to call this late… it had to be something serious.
After a brief pause of hesitation, Aizawa answered, lifting the phone to his ear.
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"I knew this was gonna happen… ahhhhh, just let me sleep for five more minutes!"
At 5:20 a.m., a cry of pure despair echoed from Konata Izumi's room. Buried face-first into her pillow, the blue-haired gremlin voiced her misery toward Momo Yaoyorozu, who had come specifically to wake her up.
"We came here to have fun, not to start some hell-tier boot camp…"
She abruptly lifted her head from the pillow, holding up five fingers with a pleading look as she stared at Yaoyorozu, who stood beside her bed with an expression of polite exasperation. "Five more minutes."
"If I let you sleep five more minutes, you'd wake up three hours from now," Yaoyorozu replied dryly, gripping the hand Konata held out. With a practiced ease, she hauled the smaller girl upright. "Come on, cheer up a little. Just think—everyone else is up suffering the same way you are. Doesn't that make you feel a little better?"
Tilting her head, Konata thought about it for a moment, then let herself be dragged out of bed.
"…Okay, yeah, that does make me feel a bit better," she admitted with a serious nod. "At least I'm not suffering alone. But honestly, what I really want is to sit off to the side with a soda and watermelon while watching you guys train."
Yaoyorozu stared at her in silence.
Right. This gremlin was going to need constant supervision.
Meanwhile, outside the room, Aizawa leaned against the wall, arms crossed, quietly listening to the voices coming from inside.
When he sensed Yaoyorozu about to step out, he straightened and turned away, walking off.
…Yeah, this was a waste of time. All Might must've gotten the wrong idea. My students don't have any problems.
Well, except for that.
By 5:30 a.m., the summer sun was already high, brightening the forest campsite where Class 1-A was assembled in their standard gym uniforms. Everyone looked half-dead—rubbing their eyes, yawning, and dragging their feet toward the clearing.
Konata wasn't an exception. She firmly believed that if Aizawa-sensei hadn't shown up, she would've mastered the art of sleeping while standing upright.
"Morning, everyone. Today we officially start the training camp," Aizawa said, his voice as flat and calm as ever. "Since everyone's here, let me explain the purpose of this training first.
"The goal of this camp is to strengthen your Quirks and prepare you for the provisional license exams. And more importantly, to be ready for the growing hostility that's becoming more apparent with each passing day."
As he spoke, he casually tossed a softball—the same type used during their first physical test—straight at Konata, who was barely managing to keep her eyes open.
"Alright, Konata."
"Eh—?" Konata blinked in confusion just in time to see the ball rapidly growing larger in her field of vision.
Too late to react, she braced herself for impact—but her passive electromagnetic field flared on instinct, bouncing the ball away.
It arced perfectly… right into Bakugo Katsuki's head.
Bakugo's sharp, murderous glare immediately snapped toward her. Konata froze, then trembled slightly, quickly pointing at Aizawa—only to pause halfway, survival instincts kicking in.
"Nope, nope, nope. I swear, it was the ball. The ball attacked first!" she declared, pointing at the softball rolling innocently across the ground.
Aizawa sighed, feeling a headache coming on. Before the situation could spiral further into absurdity, he crouched, picked up the ball, and shoved it into her hands. His tone sharpened.
"You remember your physical test results from the entrance exam, right? 1,102.3 meters. Now go throw it again—into the forest this time."
"Y-yes, sir."
With her sword, Nietono no Shana, materializing in her other hand, Konata mimicked her entrance exam technique. She tossed the ball upward, gripped the hilt with both hands, and swung hard as it descended.
Three seconds later…
"Uh…" Scratching her cheek, she turned around to face her silently brooding teacher. "So, uh, Sensei… the ball might've… evaporated. You got a spare one, right?"
Aizawa quietly decided that from now on, Bakugo would handle the demonstrations. Letting the gremlin participate only made things… chaotic.
Fetching another ball, he handed it straight to Bakugo this time. The resulting throw only showed a slight improvement from three months ago, shocking most of the class.
Satisfied with their reactions, Aizawa continued, "That's the point. You've all grown a lot over the past three months, but your Quirk strength has barely improved. This camp's primary focus is pushing those limits."
"Oh, and Izumi—" he added, turning back to her. "Go retrieve the ball Bakugo just threw. It has a tracker."
"Wait, why me? Shouldn't Bakugo do it himself?" Konata protested, clutching the locator device indignantly and pointing toward him.
"He didn't break school property."
"Y-yeah, but—"
"You damaged school equipment."
"I know that, but—"
"That ball was expensive."
"…Leaving now!"
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To be honest, searching for a tiny softball in the forest was anything but easy. But with the tracker in hand, everything became much simpler.
After all, it was only about seven hundred meters away. With the tracker guiding her, finding the ball was relatively easy.
It didn't take much time before Konata Izumi easily found the ball lying in the bushes at the base of a large tree. With the target secured, she retraced her steps. But when she returned, what greeted her eyes was nothing short of a hellish scene.
For example, Bakugo Katsuki, looking like a lunatic, dunking his hands into a basin of hot water and then raising them above his head while yelling "DIE" as explosions flared violently around him. Or Todoroki Shoto, sitting in a tub, alternating between ice and fire to keep his bathwater at a perfectly balanced temperature. And then there was Midoriya Izuku, standing awkwardly on the spot like a stunned idiot.
"You're back. Perfect timing."
Taking the ball from Konata's hand, Aizawa Shota pointed toward Midoriya Izuku.
"Your Quirk's strength depends on your physical ability. In that sense, you're very similar to Midoriya. So for this training camp, you'll be paired with him."
Konata glanced over to see Midoriya, waving at her with an almost childlike grin. After a slight hesitation, she lowered her voice and turned to Aizawa.
"Aizawa-sensei… I know I don't really have a good reason for this request, but… can you assign me to a different group?"
Catching her gaze, Aizawa simply responded in a flat tone. "Enough. Your instructor will be here soon. Go."
"…Fine." Her time was running out. After this training camp, she would only have a handful of days left to live. And since she was destined to disappear, she didn't want to stir up unnecessary trouble before then.
Her original plan was simple: after the seven-day training camp ended, she would anonymously package and send every piece of information she had exchanged with All For One. That included the mysterious 100,000 yen deposit, recordings of their phone calls, and even the surveillance footage from that day at the mall when she'd walked alongside Shigaraki Tomura. Using Railgun's ability, she had secretly copied those recordings, ensuring she had undeniable evidence of her connection to him.
She had always believed that forgetting someone you love takes time, but forgetting someone you despise… that happens much faster.
When all of that evidence surfaced, she would be branded as a traitor by her classmates, her friends, and her teachers. But she was prepared for that.
Because by then, she'd be gone, disappearing from this world with All For One. Nobody would ever know the truth. And she didn't need them to know. As long as they could hate her—as long as they could despise her—then when she was gone, they'd move on faster.
That had been her plan ever since she'd learned she had, at most, a month left to live. It was her perfect ending.
Even if it meant Midnight, who had always cared for her, would be hurt. Even if it meant All Might would look at her with disappointment. Even if it meant Ashido Mina, Yaoyorozu Momo, Tokoyami Fumikage, Iida Tenya, Bakugo Katsuki, Todoroki Shoto, and Midoriya Izuku would see her as nothing but a traitor.
She simply couldn't think of a better way.
Konata was never good at goodbyes. And if she stayed close to them until the very end, only to vanish without warning, that would be far crueler. Better to make it quick. Better to make it hurt now, so the scars could fade sooner.
But even with her plan set, her heart clung to certain emotions she couldn't just cut away. She wasn't some saint devoid of feelings. So, she decided to attend this training camp anyway—to at least leave herself with one last good memory.
Even so, she kept her distance. From the quiet bus ride at the start, to the silent forest trial, to sitting wordlessly at mealtimes, to her lack of interest in the hot springs—it was all her attempt to keep herself on the sidelines.
And yet, no matter how hard she tried to avoid it, things never went the way she wanted.
If she had to name one person she wanted to avoid the most, it would, without question, be Midoriya Izuku.
The more time she spent around him, the deeper the wound would be when the time came for her to leave. She didn't want to hurt him—she really didn't—but judging by the way things were going, it seemed inevitable.
When Konata finally walked up to Midoriya's side, he smiled brightly and extended his hand toward her.
"Konata, let's work well together from here on out."
"Technically speaking, I think I outrank you. It wouldn't be wrong to call me your master, would it?"
Konata tilted her head slightly, not making a move to take his hand just yet.
"Before the Sports Festival, remember? That weekend, I was your martial arts instructor for at least half a day. You're not going to deny that, are you?"
Midoriya chuckled softly, the corners of his lips curving upward even more. He didn't pull his hand back; instead, he extended it just a little closer.
"Then… Konata-sensei, please take care of me."
"Fine. Fine. Take care of me too, Deku."
Rolling her eyes with a sigh, Konata finally reached out and clasped his hand.
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