Chapter 23

₊˚⊹✷ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍
⤷ try not to piss yourself

THEY ALL KNOCKED OUT that night, some faster than others, bodies hitting futons with barely enough awareness left to register the softness beneath them. For the students who had failed the practical exams, exhaustion came with a bitter edge. They had been pulled away for extra lessons that dragged on until nearly two in the morning, only to be shaken awake again at seven sharp. No one complained out loud. Everyone was too tired for that.

Morning came anyway.

The second day of camp looked a lot like the first. The air was humid with sweat, heat, and the low hum of quirks being pushed past comfort. 

Todoroki stood in a steel barrel floating in a knee deep lake as he cycled between extremes. Ice crawled up its sides in jagged sheets before flames roared from his left, melting it down in violent bursts of steam. Over and over again, freezing and unfreezing, his breath fogging and then hitching as he forced his body to endure the shock.

Across the clearing, students paired off for combat drills, fists thudding into forearms, capture weapons snapping taut and recoiling, bodies hitting dirt and rolling back to their feet. Others worked alone, repeating motions until muscle memory set in, quirks flaring and dying in uneven rhythms. 

Bakugo was impossible to miss.

He was shouting, of course, voice carrying over the noise as he plunged his hands into a steaming basin of boiling water. The skin on his palms reddened instantly, veins standing out as he grit his teeth and held them there longer than anyone reasonable would. When he yanked them out, water sloshing everywhere, he threw his arms up and detonated an explosion with a feral yell, the blast ripping through the clearing and scattering birds from the trees.

“Again!” Pixie-Bob called approvingly from somewhere nearby.

Bakugo snarled something unintelligible and dunked his hands back in.

Oda watched from a distance, arms crossed, jaw tight. Even just observing made his insides ache. His own training that day had been… more intense than it should have been. Aizawa hadn’t said anything outright, but the expectations had been there. By the time the sun dipped lower in the sky, Oda felt hollowed out, like something vital had been scraped clean from the inside of his ribs.

By the end of the day, he was done.

When the announcement came for the evening activity, Oda didn’t even groan. He just stared at the ground, breathing shallowly, calculating how much it would hurt to keep going.

“I don’t wanna,” he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

Kaminari, sweat-soaked and grinning despite it all, slung an arm over his shoulder without asking. “C’mon, man. It’s basically a game. You gotta do it for me since I can’t particpate.”

Oda glanced at him, eyes flat. “I will actually die.”

“Dramatic,” Kaminari scoffed. “You won the Sports Festival. You can survive spooky woods.”

Oda hesitated. Guilt pricked at him, sharp and unwelcome. Kaminari had already been pulled into extra classes. He’d been running on fumes since dawn. The least Oda could do was participate in class activities in his absence. 

“…Fine,” Oda sighed. “But if I throw up, that’s on you.”

“Deal!”

By the time everyone gathered, twilight had fully settled, the forest darkening. Lanterns cast uneven light across the clearing as Pixie-Bob clapped her hands together, clearly thrilled. Oda’s eyes had burned so bad during the day that he’d decided to take his black contacts out, figuring that it was dark enough out that no one would notice. 

“Okay! So! Class B is going to start out as our scarers!” she announced loudly, tail swishing behind her. “Once they’re in place, Class A will leave in groups every three minutes! There are tags with your names on them at the far end of the route, your goal is to collect those!”

A low murmur rippled through the students.

“Rivalry in the dark,” Tokoyami mumbled.

Pixie-Bob grinned wider. “Now. Those who are scarers aren’t allowed to make contact, use your quirks to terrify the others, got it!? THE WINNERS ARE THE CREATIVE STUDENTS WHO MAKE THE MOST POEPLE PISS THEIR PANTS.”

“Did we need that visual?” Jiro deadpanned.

“I see!” Iida straightened instantly, hand slicing the air. “You’re encouraging us to stoke our imaginations as we compete with each other all while showing us more uses for our quirks in the process AS EXPECTED OF UA.”

Oda sighed behind him, shoulders slumping. “I think they’re just looking for entertainment.”

“Alright! Everyone draw their names and find out who your partner or partners are!” Pixie-Bob declared.

Slips of paper were passed around. Names were drawn. Groans and cheers broke out in equal measure.

Oda unfolded his slip and glanced down.

Midoriya.

He blinked once, then shrugged. No complaints there. Midoriya was earnest, predictable, and—importantly—not loud. Nearby, Bakugo exploded into immediate outrage.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” Bakugo snarled, waving his slip. “WHY THE HELL AM I WITH ICY-HOT?!”

People tried to swap partners. Pixie-Bob shot that down instantly. Complaints died out as the forest swallowed the last of the light.

Oda tucked his hands into his pockets and looked over at Midoriya, who offered him a small, nervous smile.

“Uh,” Midoriya said. “Guess it’s just us.”

“Yeah,” Oda replied quietly. “Try not to piss yourself.”

Midoriya laughed weakly.

Groups started going into the woods in staggered intervals, lantern light bobbing and disappearing between the trees as each cluster vanished into the dark. At first, everything felt exactly like what Pixie-Bob had promised. 

Screams echoed through the forest, sharp and sudden, but they were followed by laughter, by panicked shouting that dissolved into embarrassed groans when someone realized they’d just been scared by a classmate hanging upside down from a branch. 

Oda stood beside Midoriya at the edge of the clearing, hands buried deep in his pockets, shoulders slightly hunched as he listened to the noise. His body still felt raw from the day’s training, an uncomfortable pressure sitting just under his ribs like a warning he was trying very hard to ignore. Still, he stayed upright, weight evenly distributed, eyes tracking movement automatically. Old habits never really went away.

Midoriya, for his part, was talking quietly, voice pitched low so it wouldn’t carry. He was animated despite the exhaustion, hands moving as he spoke, muttering about how clever some of Class B’s quirk applications had been during earlier exercises. Oda responded occasionally, mostly with short acknowledgments, half-listening while scanning the treeline.

About twelve or thirteen minutes in, the atmosphere changed.

It wasn’t sudden screaming or a loud crash that did it. It was the smell first, acrid and wrong, cutting through the damp forest air in a way that made the back of Oda’s throat sting. A second later, something caught his eye.

Black smoke rose over the trees in the distance, thick and oily, curling upward in slow coils.

“What’s this foul smell in the air?” Pixie-Bob asked, her playful tone faltering as she sniffed and turned her head toward the source.

Midoriya squinted into the darkness. “You see that?” He lifted an arm as he pointed toward the rising plume.

“Black smoke.” Oda’s eyes narrowed, his posture shifting subtly as every muscle in his body tightened. Training or not, that wasn’t right.

“Has something been set ablaze?” Iida asked sharply, already stepping forward, his glasses reflecting the faint glow of the lanterns.

“Maybe a fire on the mountain?” Ojiro guessed, though there was no confidence in his voice, only unease.

Before anyone could say anything else, Pixie-Bob’s body jerked violently. A harsh red glow enveloped her form as she was yanked backward by an invisible force, boots tearing furrows into the dirt as she was dragged across the clearing. The impact was sickening when she hit the ground, a sharp crack echoing as her head struck hard enough to draw blood.

For a split second, Oda’s breath caught. Instinct flared hot and dangerous in his chest, and he almost second-guessed himself, almost wondered if he had done something unconsciously. But there was no familiar pressure in his body, no red glow bleeding across his skin. This wasn’t him.

A figure stepped forward from the shadows, voice calm and cruel, wielding what looked like a large straight magnet that pinned Pixie-Bob helplessly to the ground by her head. “First, let’s get rid of these feral cats.”

“What? No way.” Mineta stumbled backward, eyes blown wide with terror, hands shaking as he pointed uselessly. “I thought they made sure no one could find us. So why the heck are there villains attacking this place?”

“Pixie-Bob!” Midoriya shouted, already breaking into a run toward her, panic overtaking caution, but he barely made it a few steps before Mandalay and Tiger moved in front of him, arms outstretched, blocking his path with grim expressions.

“This is bad,” Mandalay stated sternly, her voice stripped of all warmth as she scanned the perimeter. The shift in the adults was immediate and unmistakable. This wasn’t a drill. 

“Oh no,” Midoriya spun on his heel suddenly, “Where’s Kota?”

The clearing felt impossibly small now, the darkness pressing in from all sides. The crackle of disturbed earth, the sharp tang of blood, and the lingering smell of smoke sat heavy in the air. 

“How are you this evening, UA High School?” one of the villains drawled, his voice mocking as he stepped further into the light. He looked almost reptilian, scales catching what little illumination there was as his grin widened. “We are part of the Vanguard Action Squad of the League of Villains!”

“The League of Villains?” Ojiro repeated, disbelief clear in his voice as his tail lashed anxiously behind him. “What are those guys doing here?”

Oda felt his jaw tighten. Of all places, of all times, it had to be now.

A second villain shifted their weight, boots crunching against the dirt as they casually adjusted their grip on Pixie-Bob’s pinned form. Sunglasses gleamed uselessly on their face despite the night. “I could crush this kitty’s head so easily,” they said lightly, as if commenting on the weather. “How about it dears, should I?”

The threat was so casual it was nauseating.

“You get away from her!” Tiger roared, muscles bunching as he took a half-step forward, barely restrained by Mandalay’s outstretched arm.

“Now, now.” The lizard villain raised his hands placatingly, though his smile never faded. “Hold on, Big Sis Mag. You too, Tiger, calm down. When deciding if someone should live or die we must be careful that we’re abiding by Stain’s principles.”

“Stain?” Midoriya repeated, his voice barely more than a breath.

“So you’re the ones he ended up inspiring.” Iida’s posture stiffened, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles went white. 

“At your service. That’s us.” The lizard grinned wider, clearly savoring the reaction. He reached over his shoulder, fingers curling around a handle before yanking free a massive weapon. Metal screamed softly as it unfolded into something grotesque, a sword made of swords. “And you, four-eyes. I believe I recognize you. You’re one of the self righteous brats who attacked Stain in Hosu City. Lemme introduce myself.” He lifted the weapon with pride. “Call me, Spinner! I’m here to make Stain’s dreams a reality!”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Oda scowled, the words slipping out before he could stop them. His hands stayed buried in his pockets, but his body had gone taut, every sense sharpened. Villains who worshiped an ideology were always the most dangerous.

“I don’t care who you are.” Tiger snapped, voice shaking with barely contained rage. “You’re criminals! The woman lying there is named Pixie-Bob. She’s a pro hero who’s saved countless lives! She’s giving her all for these young heroes, pushing them to reach their full potential. She’s looking for a mate but otherwise she’s content. What gives you the right to cut such a happy life short?”

For a heartbeat, Spinner’s grin faltered, twisting into something uglier.

Then he lunged, sword screaming through the air as he brought it down in a vicious arc. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not a hero’s job to be happy?!”

The clash of movement and intent was immediate, Tiger bracing himself as Mandalay’s voice cut sharply through the chaos.

“Tiger! I’ve talked to everyone.” Mandalay said, already moving, eyes sharp and focused. “Trust the safety of the other students to Ragdoll. You and I will stay here, we’ll hold them back!”

She turned quickly, gaze locking onto the small group of students who hadn’t scattered yet. Oda, Midoriya, Iida, Koda, Ojiro, and Mineta stood frozen for a split second, adrenaline flooding their systems. “You get back to camp. Class Rep, you’re in charge on the way there! Don’t engage anyone!”

“Leave it to me! Let’s go!” Iida commanded immediately, voice snapping back into its familiar authoritative cadence. He pivoted, motioning sharply for the others to move.

They started forward, feet crunching against dirt and leaves, breath coming fast and uneven.

But Midoriya didn’t move.

“Midoriya!” Iida shouted, spinning back around as panic flared anew.

“Go on without me.” Midoriya called, already turning away, his voice tight but resolute. “-Mandalay! Kota. I know where he is.”

Midoriya had barely finished shouting before he broke away from the group, green hair vanishing between the trees in a flash of reckless determination while the rest of them were herded back toward camp.

“I don’t like this.” Iida said, his voice tight and strained, his arms chopping through the air as he ran.

“It’ll be okay.” Ojiro replied, steady as always, but the tension in his shoulders betrayed him. His eyes never stopped moving, scanning left and right as branches whipped past them.

“This sucks! This really, really sucks!” Mineta wailed, nearly tripping over a root and only staying upright because Ojiro grabbed the back of his shirt.

They pushed through the trees, shadows stretched too long between the trunks, and every snapped twig sounded like it might be footsteps just out of sight. Oda ran with them, his breathing controlled but shallow, every impact of his boots against the dirt sending a dull echo of pain through his abdomen. The training from earlier that day had left his insides raw and tender, like bruised fruit pressed too hard,

His eyes kept sweeping the woods, not frantically, but deliberately. He wasn’t looking for monsters or explosions or obvious threats. 

“What if those weren’t the only villains?” Ojiro asked, his voice low but audible even over the sound of their movement.

That was when Oda saw it.

A flicker of white and brown between the trees, just off the path. Not running. Not attacking. Moving away with the calm certainty of someone who already knew they’d been noticed.

Oda slowed, then stopped entirely, easing his feet into the dirt with practiced care. The others kept going, voices fading as they rushed toward camp, fear and urgency pulling them forward. Oda waited until the sound of them was distant enough that none of them would turn back on instinct, then shifted his weight and slipped into the underbrush.

The figure moved deeper into the woods, deliberately veering away from the path, leading him rather than fleeing. Branches parted and snapped softly as Oda followed. The forest grew denser, the light thinner, until the sounds of the camp and the others were completely gone.

“Been a long time.” they said, stopping without turning around.

“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed.” Oda shot back without missing a beat, irritation cutting clean through the exhaustion as he came to a halt a few steps away. “What are you doing here? Is your grand plan of revolt to kill a bunch of high school students with a group of crazies?”

The figure turned slowly, unbothered, posture relaxed in a way that set Oda’s teeth on edge. They were dressed neatly despite the forest, a pink long-sleeve button-up beneath a brown vest and matching suit pants. Their sleeves were rolled halfway up, bandages wrapped carefully around their arms. To anyone else, it might have looked like an injury.

Oda knew better. There were razors hidden in those wrappings. Always had been.

“I’m not here on revolt, I’m here on assignment.” the villain replied calmly, folding their hands behind their back. 

“Ango ordered you to join the League of Villains?” Oda demanded, anger flaring hot and fast now. “Did he give up the training camp location?”

“No.”

“Que.”

“No.” Que repeated evenly, finally turning fully to face him. At twenty-five, they looked older than Oda remembered and younger at the same time, completely unfazed by the hostility aimed at them. “There’s a leak at UA. Part of why I’m here is to figure out who that is.”

“You’re playing double agent.” Oda scoffed.

“You’ve done the same.” Que replied, unblinking.

“Yeah, but you’re on a team hell bent on targeting teenagers apparently.” Oda snapped back, jaw tight.

“You know I was hoping our reunion would be less hostile.” Que sighed, the sound carrying an odd weariness with it. “You can relax, I’m not going to kill your new friends.”

“I’m not allowed to have friends.” Oda shot back immediately, the words leaving his mouth sharper than he intended.

“Peers, then.” Que corrected easily, unfazed. “Come on. You think I’d take the job if he was making me kill people? I’m just here to collect information. The Safety Commission think All For One is leading the League of Villains. They want evidence. That’s what I’m for.”

Oda shook his head, a humorless huff leaving him, but the tension in his shoulders loosened despite himself. This was too familiar. Que standing there like this, calm and irritatingly reasonable, felt like stepping backward into a life he’d never really escaped. “I love Ango’s use of us. Truly. This is so fun.”

“I got your attention for a reason.” Que said, sliding a hand into their pocket, posture still relaxed but their eyes sharp now. “I figured I should warn you or kids might actually start dying.”

That cut through Oda’s sarcasm instantly. “What are you talking about?” 

“There’s a reason behind this attack. It’s not blind.” Que stated flatly. “We’re ordered to kill Shoto Todoroki and Izuku Midoriya. Another in the troop is ordered to collect blood. And, we’re to capture you and a kid named Katsuki Bakugo.”

“Why Bakugo?” Oda asked, latching onto that detail.

“Shouldn’t you be asking why you?”

“Why Bakugo?” Oda repeated, more forcefully, his jaw tightening as his fingers curled in his pockets.

Que sighed, the sound quieter this time, and looked down at the dirt beneath their shoes. “They think he’d make a good villain. They think the same of you, as ironic as that is.”

“Fantastic.” Oda mumbled, the word tasting bitter in his mouth as a dozen implications stacked themselves in his mind.

“I know I don’t need to tell you why you getting captured would be very bad for you.” Que said, and this time their tone shifted, losing its teasing edge and becoming something closer to urgency. “If All For One is behind this, and he finds out you are… you… then—”

“I know.” Oda grumbled, cutting them off, kicking at the ground with the toe of his shoe hard enough to scatter dirt and leaves. The thought alone made his skin crawl.

Que hesitated, visibly weighing something, before continuing anyway. “Izuku Midoriya is on the kill list. And he just ran off on his own.”

Oda turned so sharply it made his side twinge, pain flaring under his ribs but he ignored it. “You know where he is?”

Que’s mouth pressed into a thin line, like they wished they didn’t. “He ran off to the hill ridge I left my partner on. Villain named Muscular.”

The color drained from Oda’s face. “Midoriya’s looking for a kid named Kota.”

“Muscular’s gonna kill him.” Que said without hesitation. “He’s a brutalist.”

“And why are you telling me?” Oda asked, though he already knew the answer.

“Because we both know you can stop him.” Que replied simply.

Oda shook his head, already turning away, dread and resolve knotting together in his chest. “I’ve been training all day.”

“Like that matters.” Que scoffed. “Your friend needs help. Hop to it, little hero.”

“I hate you.” Oda huffed, the words automatic, already moving, already breaking into a run despite the protest of his body.

“I love you too.” Que called after him, voice bright again. “And you’re welcome!”

Oda didn’t look back. 

He ran hard through the ridgeline, boots skidding over loose dirt and exposed roots as the forest blurred around him. His lungs burned and his pulse thundered in his ears, every step jarring his already strained body, but he didn’t slow down. 

By the time he broke through the last line of trees, the scene in front of him made his stomach drop.

Muscles bulged grotesquely from the villain’s body, swelling and twisting like living things as Muscular raised a massive arm, ready to bring it down. 

Izuku Midoriya lay crumpled beneath him, barely conscious, his body already broken past what any normal person should have survived. 

A few steps away, Kota stood frozen in place, small hands clenched into fists at his sides, eyes wide and glassy with terror as he stared at the monster looming over the boy who had tried to protect him.

Oda didn’t think, his quirk flared on instinct.

The world seemed to tilt as gravity bent to his will, and Oda launched himself forward through the air like a missile. He came down feet first into Muscular’s torso, the impact echoing through the clearing with a sickening crack as compressed force detonated outward. The villain was ripped off Midoriya and sent flying, smashing hard into the stone wall of a small mountain cave with enough force to scatter dust and debris in a choking cloud.

Oda landed smoothly a moment later, boots hitting the ground in a controlled slide as red light still shimmered faintly around his body. He didn’t spare Muscular a second glance. His head snapped immediately toward Midoriya, heart hammering as he took in the damage.

Both of the green-haired boy’s arms were ruined. One was bruised deep purple, swollen and clearly shattered beyond anything a simple fracture should look like. The other hung at a wrong angle entirely, twisted in a way that was horrific.

“You really need to stop running off on your own.” Oda said, his voice steady despite the glow still bleeding off him, “Isn’t this what happened in Hosu?”

“Edogawa!” Midoriya gawked, eyes widening in disbelief even through the pain. “How’d you know we were here?”

“Ran into another villain on the way here.” Oda replied. He crouched carefully, sliding his hands under Midoriya’s shoulders with practiced precision, making sure not to touch either broken arm as he pulled him upright. Midoriya hissed softly but didn’t fight it, leaning weakly into the support.

“Are you hurt?” Midoriya asked, still managing to sound concerned despite everything.

Oda blinked at him, genuinely surprised by the question. “No.” He answered simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Then his gaze shifted to the small figure still standing rigid nearby. “Kota, right?”

The boy nodded slowly, his bravado from days before completely gone, eyes shining with unshed tears as he stared at Oda like he wasn’t sure whether to be afraid or relieved.

“Then, come on. We gotta go.” Oda said, turning slightly so the child could climb onto his back. Kota hesitated only a second before obeying, arms wrapping around Oda’s shoulders as he clung on, shaking. Oda adjusted his stance to balance the extra weight before looking back at Midoriya. “I knocked him out but he’s not going to stay down long and I—”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Blood suddenly trickled from Oda’s nose, warm and unmistakable, dripping down onto the dirt between them. His breath hitched for half a second as pain lanced through his core, sharp and warning, the familiar signal that he had pushed far too hard.

“—Am at my limit from training.” Oda finished, wiping at his nose with the back of his sleeve like it was an inconvenience rather than a serious problem. “My organs are gonna quit soon.”

“We gotta find Mandalay.” Midoriya insisted, panic flaring again as he struggled to stay upright. “I know one of the reason’s the villains are here. They’re after you and—”

“Bakugo.” Oda finished without hesitation. “I got that too. You want Mandalay to tell everyone.”

“And warn Kacchan.” Midoriya added, teeth clenched.

“Okay. Let’s do it.” Oda nodded, shifting slightly to make sure Kota was secure on his back before turning toward the trees.