Despair (Part 2)

Mina and Jason were sprinting through the trees, being chased by giant rock monsters. Mina screamed. "What are these things?!" "Why are you asking me?!" Shoto slammed her right foot down, causing the monsters to be consumed by her ice. Then she started running with them. "These must be obstacles to keep us from reaching the camp." Jason looked over his shoulder at her. "Great thinking, Shoto! Where are the others?!" "Kirishima is a few meters to our left, and Chris is carrying Momo above us." Jason looked up to see Chris jumping around the trees with Momo clinging to his back. Jason shouted up at them. "Why does she get preferential treatment?!" They laughed as Chris hopped down, setting Momo down. They started running when the rest of the group caught up. Kirishima appeared alongside the rest of his friends, covered in dust. "These things make zero sense!" Chris yelled back. "They're rock creatures! Where are their organs?!" The crew stopped when another giant creature blocked their path. Chris jumped up, shattering the beast with a single punch. The group had to fight their way across 10 miles of forest.

They burst into the clearing, desperately trying to catch their breath. Kirishima collapsed onto the grass. "...oh my god…" Chris looked up to see the Pussycats just staring at them with surprise. Ragdoll broke the silence. "You guys are… early…" Mandalay nodded in agreement. "We weren't expecting anyone for another hour or two." Mina pointed back into the forest, screaming. "What were those things?!" Mandalay wasn't surprised by the young woman's reaction. " Oh. Those are Earth Beasts." She pointed to a nearby bench. Pixie Bob was focusing on her goggles. "Pixie Bob's quirk allows her to create golems out of almost any object, and then she can control them. The goggles help her control them from a distance. Just a little obstacle for you students. Still, the fact that you managed to get here in such time is… well… you six are amazing." Kirishima weakly raised his arm in victory. "...yippee…" His arm fell back down. Chris and Jason picked him up and carried him over to the benches. The girls all followed, sweating profusely. They then heard more screaming from the forest behind them. The six students turn. Mandalay waved it off. "They'll be fine. Come rest. You deserve it."

The rest of the hero course students made it to the clearing in the following hour. They were all exhausted. Then they saw the six students who had made it there before them. Iida was shocked. "How did you six get here so fast?!" Kirishima shrugged. "Wasn't that hard." Mina slapped him across the back of the head. "You passed out!" Mandalay returned and welcomed the rest of the students. "I'm glad you all made it. The sun is just about to set as well." Some of the students collapsed onto the grass. Those with strength remaining either carried or dragged them to the benches. Food was brought out by the pro heroes. Tiger spoke down to them. "Eat. Then you all can go wash up." Everyone sat and ate, trying to fit 40 students on a handful of benches. Jason and Chris ended up standing up so others could sit. They also ended up eating away from the main group. Jason sat under a tree with his food, his best friend sitting next to him. Chris sighed. "I don't think the food outweighs the journey to get here." Jason nodded. "Still good though." A small kid was near the entrance to the cabin. Chris nudged Jason. "Who's that?" "Oh. That's Kota." "Koda from our class?" "Not Koda, dumbass. Kota, with a 'T'. I saw him earlier and asked Ragdoll about him. Apparently his parents were pro heroes." "Wow. Wait, what do you mean 'were'?" Jason sighed. "They were a team. Team Water Hose. They were killed by a villain two to three years ago." "...oh my god…" "Yea. He's keeping his distance because he hates heroes." "Wait, how does one lead to the other? Wouldn't he hate villains?" "Think about it man." Jason set his fork down. "After his parents died, heroes kept coming up to him, telling him that he should be proud that his parents fell in the line of duty. Yea, as an adult, we know that. That being said…" Chris slowly nodded. "...How do you tell a child that it's good his parents are dead…" Jason nodded. "...Yea…" They finished their dinner and started heading towards the buses to get their bags.

Kirishima let out a sigh of content as his body slowly relaxed in the hot spring. "Oh my god, this is so relaxing…" The other guys from 1A all got in with him. All except Denki. "I really don't know how I feel about getting into a bath with you all." The few guys who heard him all looked at him weirdly. Jason broke the silence. "This isn't a bath. It's a hot spring." Chris nodded in agreement. "Yea. Plus, we're all wearing trunks." Iida stood up and pointed accusingly at Denki. "Do not tell me that you planned on bathing in the hot spring! As your class representative, I order you to go shower!" Denki, with a face redder than Shoto's fire, ran back inside. The crew laughed before settling down into the spring water. Jason was sitting on the far end of the spring with Kirishima. Chris was talking with Ojiro, since they don't interact very often. It was a relaxing time to socialize.

Then everyone heard Iida shout. "I said don't!" The guys all fell silent, looking at their class representative. He had been shouting at Mineta: the 108cm tall pervert. He was staring up at the wall separating the men's hot spring from the women's hot spring. He was also shaking his head. "...No way, class rep… Not even you can stop me from doing this…" "Mineta!" "Just over this wall… the hottest girls around… all in swimwear… I have to do this… It's my destiny…" Sero, the guy's best friend and a fellow pervert, stood up. "Dude, I know it's tempting, but you can't do that. You'll get suspended at the very least." Mineta began climbing up the wall at high speed. "Worth it!" He used his quirk, the sticky balls that come out of his head, to accomplish this. The guys were yelling at him to get down. As he approached the top, Kota stood up out of his seat and glared down at him. Mineta stopped in his tracks, having just been terrified of the kid who came out of nowhere. Kota leaned over the wall and pushed Mineta down. However, Kota put too much weight into his shove and fell over the wall. Jason stood up out of the water. "Chris!" Upon hearing his name, Chris leaped from the water and caught Kota in the air. He jumped off the wall and landed on the ground. "You alright?" Kota was shocked. Mineta hit the ground with a sickening thud. "Ow!" He held his head. The rest of the class just looked at him. Then they went back to talking amongst themselves. Chris put the stunned Kota down. Tiger ran in to check on what just happened. "Kota?! How did you get down here?!" Chris stood up. "He fell, sir. I caught him. What was he doing up on the divider anyways?" Tiger knelt down to check Kota for any bruising. "We heard your class had a pervert, so we put him up there to keep everyone in check." Chris nodded before heading back into the Spring. He sat next to Jason. "Thanks for the call out." Jason smirked. "I figured you deserved to be a hero." Kirishima snickered. Jason noticed Chris straining his ears, as if listening for something. Jason nudged his best friend. "You alright?" Chris stopped. "Oh. Sorry. Thought I heard something." He wasn't tricking either of his friends. Jason just shook his head. "You definitely heard something. Spill the beans, dude." Chris looked around, checking for eavesdroppers, before whispering to his friends. "I'm pretty sure I've been developing super hearing." Jason and Kirishima glanced at each other before going back to listening to Chris. "I mean, I've been getting better at controlling it, and I was just testing it out." Jason nodded. "That's useful." Kirishima nodded. Chris looked around. "Please don't tell anyone." His friends nodded, agreeing to keeping the secret.

The following day, Aizawa faced his class, who were all in gym clothes. "Alright everyone. I will be the first to admit that you all have gotten a lot stronger since you first started your training at UA. However, it's mostly been your mentality and strategizing that have been seeing improvements. That's why this trip will be centered around you all strengthening your physical quirks." The class all jumped in excitement, not knowing what kind of hell they were about to enter.

Kirishima was training with Ojiro. By Ojiro attacking Kirishima with his tail non stop, Ojiro was strengthening his tail while Kirishima improved his hardening capabilities. Momo was constantly eating and generating objects. Doing this would improve her creation quirk by letting her generate more objects for less excess lipids. Mina was constantly shooting acid out of her hands. Doing this would increase the amount of acid she can generate and would possibly increase the rate it melts through objects. Shoto was sitting inside a tub full of water, constantly changing the water from hot to cold with her quirk. This improved the time it took to switch between her fire and ice, and one day, she might be able to control both fire and ice simultaneously. Jason, being quirkless, was doing standard strength training: push ups, sit ups, running, and combat training with the Pussycats. Chris was focusing his quirk more and more, building up his tolerance for One for All while strengthening his muscles and bones, which would help with his long term training. He was now able to use One for All at 5% comfortably, but could use 9% if he was pushing himself to his limits. Class 1B was also training hard just a little further away. In the end, that one day of training drastically improved their quirks. That was good. They would need to be as strong as possible for what was coming.

After a long day of training, the classes could now have some fun. Chris was with his friends. While they were talking, he was listening to Aizawa and Vlad King, the 1B instructor. What Chris was hearing worried him. Vlad King was shocked. "Are you sure?" Aizawa nodded. "The police found him on the street earlier today. He no longer has his quirk. Says that the only thing he remembers is walking home and everything going black." Vlad King looked down at the ground, shaking his head. "I can't believe Mirio lost his quirk… He was the top student in the school…" Aizawa whispered even more quietly, but Chris was still able to hear. "We need to keep an eye out. If something happens out here, we have no back up except you, me, and the four Pussycats." Vlad King nodded. That's when Mandalay, leader of the Pussycats, got all of the students' attention. "Alright, everyone! Now that today's training is over, it's time for some fun!" Mina shot her arms into the air. "Hell yea!" Aizawa spoke up. "Mina, Kirishima, Sato, Denki, and Sero, follow Vlad and I to the cabin." Mina turned to him. "What?!" "You five still failed your combat exam. Time for your remedial classes." The five sulked their way to the cabin. The one failure from 1B, the blonde guy who had harassed 1A yesterday, also followed. Mandalay did a quick count of everyone before smiling again. "Perfect! Completely even number of students!" Iida shouted. "Class 1A currently has 15 students, and Class 1B currently has 19 students! There are a total of 34 students present, ma'am!" "...Thank you, Iida. Alright, we have randomly assigned you to a partner!" Shoto got paired with Fumikage. Momo was paired with Mineta. However, after a quick talk with Mandalay, Momo was switched around to be paired up with Hagakure, the invisible girl. Jason was paired with Yuga, who's quirk allowed him to shoot lasers out of his stomach. Chris was paired up with Iida. Mandalay explained the game. "Class 1B and Mineta will go into the forest. Stay close to the path. Class 1A will walk down the path in their pairs. Your objective is to scare them. Questions?" No answer. Class 1B and Mineta travelled into the forest with a 10 minute head start. Class 1A just waited.

During that time, Jason took Shoto off to the side. "Hey Shoto." "Is everything alright?" "Yea. Yea, everything is great." Chris and Momo looked over and saw that Jason was finally about to do it. Jason took a deep breath. "So… we're friends, right?" "Of course. I truly value our friendship." "Right. And… I…" Shoto looked a little concerned for her friend. "Are you alright, Jason?" Jason nodded. "Just really nervous." "About going through the forest?" "No. That's not an issue." Jason took one more deep breath. "Shoto, I really li-" Mandalay interrupted. "Shoto and Tokoyami, you two are first!" Chris and Momo failed to hide their disappointment. Jason froze up. Shoto sighed. "Sorry. Should we continue this later?" Jason sadly nodded. "...Yea. Yea, that sounds good." Shoto took one last look at her friend. Then she kissed his cheek. "See you later." Jason's face was red for a full minute as he watched Shoto walk into the forest with Tokoyami.

In the forest, Shoto and Tokoyami had gotten past three 'traps' set by 1B. They had tried to use Mineta to scare them, but Tokoyami's Dark Shadow had simply slapped the tiny man away. Now they were five minutes into their walk. Tokoyami looked at Shoto. "How long have you two been together?" Shoto looked over with a confused look. "You and Jason." "Oh. We're not together." "But you kissed him." "I really like him." Dark Shadow came out. "So ask him out!" Shoto shrugged. "I'm waiting for him to ask me out." "And when he does?" "Then I'll say yes." Tokoyami nodded and Dark Shadow receded into him. "You two are good together. Two sides of the same coin." Shoto stopped. Tokoyami looked ahead and stopped as well. There was a man standing on the path facing them, completely silhouetted by the moon. Shoto tilted her head in confusion. "Who's that?"

The rest of 1A was waiting their turn. Momo and Hagakure had gone into the forest after Shoto and Tokoyami. Chris and Iida had gone in next. The three Pussycats who were there, which were Mandalay, Pixie Bob, and Tiger, were talking amongst themselves. That's when they noticed the students were starting to get louder. They were all pointing at something in between the trees. They tried to see what 1A was seeing. Then Shoji finally extended one of his tentacle limbs up into the sky and created an eyeball. "There's no doubt about it. The forest is on fire." The students whispered to themselves with worry. Mandalay looked to her teammates. "I'll send a message out to the students with my quirk. You two start bringing them back to the cabin. Tell Ragdoll to-" She was cut off by Pixie Bob's scream as an invisible force dragged her through the air towards the tree line. With a sickening crack, a grown man had smashed her head into the ground with a giant metal bar big enough to be considered a box. Someone stood next to him, a gecko-looking man dressed up in red rags, carrying a dozen blades all being held together by a belt to form a massive club. Jason couldn't help but notice that the gecko was dressed a lot like Stain. "One fake down. Two more to go." The man with the giant metal tube-object smiled. "Time to tear apart the hero hierarchy, dude!" The two villains charged.

Tiger easily smacked the metal tube away, meaning the man was now unarmed. However, he was still physically strong and exceptionally quick. Tiger couldn't land a solid hit. Mandalay jumped out of the way of the giant stack of blades. The gecko glared up at her. "Hold still, you faker!" Mandalay wasn't too focused on him. "Tiger! Kota is still out there!" Tiger blocked a punch from the magnetism villain. "I won't leave you here to fight two villains!" Jason jumped into action. "I'll find him!" Mandalay shouted at him. "Be careful! He likes to hang out on the mountain pass! Where Iida was training earlier!" Jason nodded and sprinted towards the mountain.

Kota just stared out at the chaos that was ensuing. The redwood forest, a place he had known as home for a few years now, was on fire. However, he had never seen blue fire before. Yet here it was, consuming everything. A little further away, he could see purple gas in a very specific part of the forest. Kota heard some rocks tumble behind him. He turned to see a very tall hooded man sliding down from further up the mountain. He got to Kota's ledge and pulled his hood off. "What're you doing up here?" Kota didn't answer. The man had a giant red scar where his left eye should've been. The guy gave a wicked smile. "Ah, no matter." The skin on his right arm completely burst as his muscles grew, increasing his strength a hundred fold. He raised his arm up. "Well, at least kids don't leave as much of a mess." He brought his arm down. Jason tackled Kota out of the way just in time. The man had created a small crater where Kota had once stood. Jason and Kota rolled. They came to a stop and Jason jumped to his feet, putting himself between Kota and the villain. The guy straightened himself and looked at Jason, never losing his psychotic smile. "Wait a second. I know you." He started to approach Jason. "Shigaraki name dropped you. He said we would be rewarded for killing you. Bonus points for bringing back your head." Jason smirked. "Looks like I've already made a name for myself. Once I send you packing, tell your boss to come get me himself." Jason talked big. That's just who he was.

However, even as he faced off with the giant engine of destruction, he knew that he couldn't win.