When Eraserhead told him they had a lead on the whereabouts of the Nomu that could lead to the doctor, Hisashi was relieved and excited. The pros would take care of the mutants and his family would be safe once more! Besides, he had to focus on preparing Izuku for the summer training camp. The boy had been freaking out ever since he found out All Might was tagging along! Shinsou, on the other hand, was experiencing a whole other kind of stress. The boy was allowed to accompany the first year hero courses to camp in order to assess his worth. If things went well, his transfer to the hero course would be approved!
But then Eraser told him the mission went south. The pros were overwhelmed when all the Nomu in the warehouse suddenly woke up and started attacking them. Most of them were eliminated, but some of the Nomu were able to escape the facility. The heroes were doing everything they could to find and arrest them, but it was likely the doctor called them to another hidden facility so it wouldn't be that easy. And now the doctor knew they were after him...
"Izuku, can we talk for a moment?" Hisashi asked, interrupting his sparring session with Katsuki. Hitoshi was also there, sitting on the sideline as some sort of referee or simply waiting until it was his turn, the man wasn't sure.
"Yeah sure thing dad!" Izuku smiled, rubbing some sweat off his forehead with a towel Shinsou handed him.
"Why don't you guys spar for a bit until I get back? It'll be good training for you, Shinsou-kun!"
"Tch, I'm not going easy on you bastard" Katsuki growled, falling into a battle stance once more.
"Come at me, explodo" Hitoshi grinned, hoping he could brainwash him before he got burned by Bakugou's explosions. Izuku simply chuckled at their antics, quickly leaving the battlefield and following his dad upstairs.
"So what did you want to talk about dad? Is it summer training camp?" Izuku asked when they arrived in his office.
"Because I know how I acted but I swear I'm fine now! All Might won't be a problem at all, I promise! I'll have my friends there to keep me sane! Kacchan, Todoroki-kun, even Shinsou-kun too now! A-and I'm sure Aizawa sensei will do everything he can so that-"
"This isn't about All Might, son" Hisashi sighed, cutting off Izuku instantly. The green haired boy blinked in confusion. If it wasn't about All Might or summer camp then what was it about? Why would his dad interrupt his training otherwise? This must be important in some way or another, right?
"Please take a seat" he continued, motioning for Izuku to sit down. Izuku frowned, slowly sitting down. He didn't like where this was going...
"Am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong?"
"You didn't do anything wrong Izuku, I promise, it's just..." Hisashi sighed, not knowing how to start this conversation.
"There is a man I used to work with, a doctor who specializes in quirks and human mutation. The same man who created those monsters that attacked Hosu a few weeks ago"
Izuku's eyes widened. Okay, that was something he didn't expect...
His dad rarely talked about his past with him, about the villain he used to be and the awful things he used to do. Izuku had always been grateful for that, not wanting the image he had of his father to be ruined by a man who didn't exist anymore. To think he worked together with the man that created those mutants... Well, the news did report that they found multiple quirk factors in the medical examination but Izuku didn't want to directly link that to his own quirk.
"He reached out to me again after that attack, stating it was a demonstration of his work up until now" Hisashi said.
"He knows I quit the experiment long ago, but he insists he needs a sample from my quirk in order to perfect them. I refused, of course, but I don't know to what lengths he'll go to get that sample... I want you to be careful out there, Izuku. If he discovers you have All For One, he will target you"
"...Okay, I understand, stay away from big mutant monsters" Izuku nodded.
"There are pro heroes after him as we speak so he'll probably be caught soon, but we can't be too careful" Hisashi added.
"Who knows what he might pull when driven into a corner..."
"It's alright, I'll be more careful, I swear" Izuku said, forcing a smile.
"Just, uhm, tell me when he's been arrested, okay?"
"Of course" Hisashi smiled, glad his son was taking it so well. Maybe because it wasn't the first time people were after him or his quirk... With All Might teaching at UA, danger lurked around every corner, after all. He truly wished his son didn't have to live in fear, that he could protect his family from those who wanted to hurt them. But he couldn't change the past that was now trying to catch up to him. He couldn't take back AFO and leave, breaking their ties completely. No, it was too late for that now...
...
It was super early in the morning when the first year hero classes gathered on school grounds in order to leave for training camp. Katsuki yawned, pissed off that he had to get up this early, while Izuku was standing wide awake next to him. Shoto looked as bored as always, his hair perfectly styled, as passive as ever.
"If I knew I needed to get up this early, I would've reconsidered" Hitoshi grumbled.
"As if you didn't train your fucking ass off" Katsuki scoffed, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Ugh, it's fucking cold, can't we hurry this shit up?!"
"Calm down man, it's way too early for your shouting" Kaminari mumbled, rubbing one of his eyes.
"Yeah, I wanna get on the bus so I can sleep" Uraraka whined, leaning onto Izuku and Iida as she complained about the short night.
"You should've gone to bed early like I did! Then you wouldn't have had this problem now!" Iida lectured her, only earning more whines from his classmates. It took a while for Aizawa sensei to show up, announcing that Shinsou was joining them on their training camp because they were considering transferring him to the hero course.
He also used that opportunity to scare them and threaten to expel the student who made the least progress at the end of camp in order to make room for Shinsou. A logical ruse, one could say, although no other teacher had denied it so some people were stressing out. Others realised there was still an empty spot available, so they saw right through the lie. Izuku was more stressed out when All Might showed up though. A long bus ride together with the number one hero... Oh boy.
It didn't help that All Might seemed to be keeping an eye on him. Well, maybe that was just in his own head... But he swore he caught the man looking at him when he finally started to relax a little...
"Will you just fucking go to sleep already?" Kacchan groaned, annoyed by Deku constantly bouncing his leg up and down, shaking their seats.
"S-sorry Kacchan" Izuku mumbled, forcing himself to sit still. He was being a real bother right now, wasn't he..? Ugh, he hated being this paranoid!
"I'd give you some of my sleeping meds but they need to be prescribed" Hitoshi shrugged from one seat over.
"Besides, I think we'll be arriving in, like, an hour or so? Can't be much longer"
"50 minutes, actually" Shoto corrected him, not even opening his eyes as he spoke.
"The travel time was on the information sheet"
"Iida definitely has an influence on you" Izuku noted.
"You think so?" Shoto asked, frowning a little.
"No need to take it so seriously, idiot" Katsuki grunted, rolling his eyes.
"I can't wait to get off this bus and away from you losers"
"Aw, you love us~" Hitoshi teased with a grin, almost getting blasted in the face before Aizawa yelled at them to tone it down. When they finally got off the bus, they were instantly thrown off a cliff and tasked to make their way to camp by navigating an unknown monster infested forest. It was something only UA could pull off without parents or the commission complaining about it, Izuku was sure of that. But it did give him some time away from All Might and his prying eyes, giving him a sense of privacy even mid battle.
In the end, it took several hours to reach camp. Not that Izuku was complaining. On the contrary, fighting their way through the forest had been a nice mental break for him. But now they were back with their teachers and the Wild Wild Pussycats, who would be assisting them during their training camp, and All Might's eyes were on him once again. His friends tried their best to shield him, but the man's presence couldn't be suppressed by a mere visual obstruction.
In an effort to get away from the constant pressure, Izuku sneaked out of camp at the end of dinner, wandering off into the forest to try and clear his head. This was just the first day and he already felt frustrated by the constant presence of One For All! If things continued like this, he might've to make up an excuse to leave camp sooner than planned... He was sure Aizawa sensei would help him out with that, but he needed to try and endure this torture first, if only for the sake of keeping up appearances.
Izuku sighed, kicking a pebble away as he walked. He wanted to enjoy this camp, take the opportunity to bond with his classmates, but with All Might here... Well, the man couldn't help it, really. Izuku didn't blame him for anything either. It's not like he knew what kind of aura he was emitting or what kind of effect it had on Izuku. The only way he could know how it felt was if Izuku stopped suppressing his own aura. With this distance, All Might would be able to detect it immediately.
Although he didn't want to know how he'd react to something like that...
A noise caught his attention, pulling him out of thought and leading him up the side of a hill. There he found a small boy chucking small stones off the cliff, an angry pout on his face. Izuku recognized him from before, when they arrived at camp. He didn't get a chance to introduce himself back then, too busy trying to avoid All Might, so this might be his best chance.
"You could hit someone like that, you know?" Izuku said as the kid threw a bigger rock down into the forest. Kota was startled by the sudden intrusion, instantly angry and on high alert. His reaction reminded Izuku of Kacchan in a way... It was cute.
"What are you doing here?! This is my secret base! Get out!" he yelled as Izuku came closer. A secret base huh? Izuku remembered having something like that when he was younger, although he's pretty sure everyone knew where it was.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude!" Izuku smiled, holding up his hands.
"It's just... I didn't see you at dinner just now. Have you eaten yet? Your aunt will get worried if you don't"
"Don't try to lecture me like you are some kind of big shot!" Kota yelled.
"Heroes always act like they know everything! It's really annoying! You're just idiots who throw their lives away for people they don't know! Like idiots!"
Now it was Izuku's turn to frown. What did he mean by that..? He had noticed how Kota refrained from interacting with them, but he thought that was simply shyness or maybe his aunt had told him not to distract them or something. But now, with the use of his Emotional Vision quirk, he could see that was not the case.
"...Do you hate heroes, Kota-kun?" Izuku asked softly, not wanting to push him away any further.
"Why is that? I thought every child wants to become a hero-"
"You don't know what it's like, okay?!" Kota hissed, tears welling up in his eyes.
"You just throw yourself out there not caring about anyone else! Selfish and stupid! Making people cry about you! You jerks!"
Oh.
Izuku could see what was happening here... It all made sense now. Why he was here with his aunt instead of at home or with friends...
"Your parents were heroes, weren't they..?" he whispered, now understanding where Kota was coming from.
"...You might not believe me, but I kinda know how you feel" Izuku continued when Kota didn't react.
"My dad used to be...a pro hero"
That was a blatant lie, but it was for the best right now. He couldn't possibly explain what he wanted to if he were to confess his dad was a villain.
"He trained his quirk really hard to get strong, but in the end there was a villain stronger than him, someone he couldn't defeat... I know a lot of others whose parents are heroes, parents who don't have time for their children because they're saving strangers so they're left to their own devices. It's unfair"
"So why do you want to be a hero?" Kota asked, confused.
"Because I want to help people" Izuku smiled.
"Just like my dad, like so many other heroes- I want to make the world a better place, even for those I don't know. And I know it's unfair, I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but the world needs heroes to help those who are in trouble... The world isn't perfect, but wouldn't you want someone to help you when you need it? Even if it's a stranger?"
Izuku used that moment to reach out to Kota, who was frowning at him. It was probably a lot for a kid to get, he noted, but it was something that needed to be said. Izuku had witnessed what hero society did to families of heroes first hand. He knew Tenko's grandmother abandoned her family, leading to the abuse Tenko's biological father put him through. He knew Dabi's father abused and neglected him in order to create a worthy hero. He knew so many stories, all telling the same tale.
So he understood why it was confusing to others that he still wanted to be a hero, with his background and upbringing. It was simply really. To help people. To create a better world. Kota could see he was sincere, hesitantly taking his hand. Yeah... Okay, maybe not all heroes were bad...