Chapter 50

Third person pov

Kirishima broke their fall, hardening a majority of his back and wrapping Harper up in his arms. Her quirk was one of the only ones in class that wasn't physical and wouldn't help her in her landing in some way. Hagakure was in the same boat as her as well, but she managed to grab onto Ochako before she plummeted to an early grave. Harper grimaced the entire way down as her classmates screamed. Harper could feel her headache beginning to form. Honestly, it wasn't a good thing. The direction this day was going was less than ideal.

In hindsight, Harper should've expected this and planned for it accordingly. Where else would they go to have their summer camp? She should've seen it. The property her aunts and uncles owned was secluded and out of the way. It was hard to find even if you knew where it was, and nearly impossible if you didn't. Between the secrecy and the location of the camp, it had all been obvious. Harper just hadn't wanted to accept it. Look where that got her. Blown off a cliff by her own aunt who wasn't really her aunt, but was basically her aunt. She didn't fucking know.

The rubble settled haphazardly. Or that's what it seemed like at first. Harper could tell Pixie-bob had gone the extra mile to ensure none of them were crushed to death. Quite nice, if you asked Harper. Her classmates were a little much to deal with even when they weren't injured. She didn't want to think about the many, many complaints they'd surely have if they sprained an ankle or broke a bone. Barring Izuku, of course. He could probably get shot and wouldn't tell anyone because he didn't want to be an inconvenience. 

Emotions were running high. There was a good moment as all the dirt drifted down that no one moved or spoke. Most had hit pretty hard. Not hard enough to break anything, but definitely well enough to bruise. Harper remained laying on top of Kirishima, facefirst in his chest and not moving. He still had his arms around her too, and his heart was beating so fast Harper was pretty sure he was on the verge of devolving into cardiac arrest. Whatever. She was tired and just... didn't want to do this. Truly, she didn't. 

"They threw us off a cliff!" Jiro sputtered as she pushed herself into a sitting position, winded from the landing. She'd managed to fall alongside Momo, who'd broken their impact with some sort of giant pillow thing. Harper didn't know or particularly care what it was right now. "Holy shit. I knew this summer camp was going to be intense, but this is next level!" 

"She could kill someone with that." Koda noted to himself thoughtfully. Harper wasn't in the mood for his murderous thoughts. Then again, when was she ever in the mood for much of anything?

"I must admit; I was... not expecting that." Iida cleared his throat as he stood up and tried to brush the dust and dirt from his clothing. He only succeeded in smearing it. Harper allowed herself to finally roll off of Kirishima. She didn't feel like moving. "I see... villain attacks will come out of nowhere and give us unexpected obstacles to face! This is just another hardship we must learn to overcome." 

"Harper, your family is crazy." Kaminari said in the flattest tone Harper had ever heard him use. The girl wasn't about to deny that. She probably should've warned her classmates that this would happen. They did the same thing to every other class before Harper's, so it would be idiotic to assume they wouldn't pull the same shit. Oh well. Too late now. "Man, who knew she was related to pro heroes. That's crazy!" 

The air was thick out, and it was fairly hot. Even with the shade the trees would provide, the trek was sure to be miserable. Harper could already smell the sweat they'd all be covered in by the time they made it to where they needed to go. Not to mention the earth monsters Pixie-bob was capable of creating. They were literally the last thing Harper wanted to deal with right now, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Her quirk was less than equipped to deal with them. You couldn't read something's mind if it didn't have one. 

The tired teen tried to mentally map out a path they could take. There had to be one she knew about that her aunts and uncle wouldn't expect them to take. That being said, with Ragdoll's quirk, she'd be able to keep track of them. Not a good thing. Was there was a way to block that with her quirk? She'd tried practicing doing so last summer when she was still in middle school, but she couldn't recall whether or not she'd been successful or not. Even if she was, she wasn't sure there was a way for her to do it from such a distance. 

Harper sighed, more to herself than to anyone else as she pushed herself to her feet. She held out a hand to Kirishima, who took it with flushed cheeks and a grin. He allowed himself to be pulled up. At least someone was optimistic. Harper wasn't feeling the sunshine-and-rainbows sorta love right now. She also felt guilty about not telling the redhead she had a hero aunt and, by extension, two other hero aunts and an eccentric uncle. It just hadn't ever crossed her mind. They'd been in her life since she was a baby, so them existing had never been shocking or cool to her. Just... normal. 

"You're telling me." Harper responded to the electric blonde with a grumble. Kirishima snorted.

"Well, we can't do anything about it now. We may as well try to get to the camp." The redhead announced cheerfully. Harper really wanted to know how he managed. "Harper might know the way... man, this is going to get hard. I can't believe Harper let me hold her! I mean, we were falling and could've died, but still! This day is going great."

"Yeah, just what the hell are we standing around here for?! Didn't those bastards say we had to be there at noon?" Bakugo snarled out, his palms already beginning to spark. Harper shot him a look. He sneered back. "Whatever. At least Deku is okay. If one hair on his pretty, dumbass head gets hurt, I'll-"

"Let's just go. Come on; I know a shortcut." Harper shook her head. They didn't have time to be dawdling. Of course, there was a pretty good chance they wouldn't be able to make it to the camp by noon. Maybe if it were the Wild Wild Pussycats themselves doing the exercise. That was their time. Harper knew because she had been the one to time it. However, they were a bunch of idiotic, inexperienced teenagers. She had little faith in them.

"Y-Yeah! And it's probably best we stick together, too! Who knows what's in there..." Izuku trailed off. "It's called the Beasts Forest, right? It had to have been named that for a reason. Maybe I should ask Harper. If anyone would know, it would be her. She clearly knows a lay of the land."

"He's right. Splitting up would be foolish." Shoto agreed as everyone gathered their bearings and prepared to set off. Bakugo was impatient, but not about to leave Izuku. Izuku wouldn't leave the group either. Everyone else was too afraid to go off on their own, so it seemed they were set. Stragglers would only slow them down, and there's no telling if they'd be allowed to eat if their entire group didn't make it. "Harper looks grim. Is there something else she's not telling us?"

"Ah, right." Harper sighed. "This shithole is the Beasts Forests. We'll encounter giant monsters made of rock and dirt that are made by Pixie-bob's quirk along the way. So we'll have to fight and walk."

"I'm sorry, what?" Sato sputtered. "She could've have mentioned this before?!"

Before anyone could say anything else, they were interrupted by the rustling of leaves and the giant crack of a tree being tipped over. Ochako and Mina let out shrill screeches that made Harper sigh. Everyone began to huddle together, and she, of course, got pulled into it. The panicked thoughts of her classmates bombarded her mercilessly. Yeah, this shit was going to get real old, real fast. It's not like they'd die or anything. They wouldn't let that happen.

Sure enough, a gigantic beast stepped forward and out of the brush. It towered over them, casting an ominous shadow that made Harper roll her eyes. Ridiculous. This was actually the most dramatic and unnecessary thing she'd ever seen. Or maybe it wasn't. She didn't fucking know. She hadn't really expected to find herself at a hero school. This was probably a required training exercise that would end up somehow saving their life in the future in some roundabout way.

"What the fuck?!" Bakugo barked at the thing, stepping forward. "Fucking DIE!" 

Harper sighed. Kirishima just patted her back sympathetically. Honestly, she really did appreciate it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where is she?! You have to tell me where she is. What if she's hurt? Or hungry? Or-" Kurogiri stopped, his glowing eyes growing wide. Tsukauchi watched tiredly as the warp-gate users gaseous shroud flared. "Oh my god, she's dead!" 

"Kurogiri, she's not fucking dead. You wouldn't feel emotion if she was." Dabi drawled, flipping a page in the travel magazine he was reading. They were all in the lobby of a therapist's office waiting for Sansa to get out. They'd finally convinced him to go and try getting help. Whether or not he'd go back for a second meeting remained to be seen. The cat-man needed it though. Like, genuinely. Tsukauchi wasn't the only one concerned for his mental state. Dabi was too, and Dabi didn't even like Sansa that much. 

"Oh, right." Kurogiri blinked. Tsukauchi sighed. Harper really had to deal with and control this guy every day, at almost all hours. He'd obviously seen it firsthand and such, but it was a lot different dealing with it at such an extreme. Because really, this was as extreme as it fucking got. Harper hadn't even been gone a day and Kurogiri was on his... what? His sixth mental breakdown now? His seventh? He wasn't even sure he wanted to know. The gaseous man bounced back from the realization that Harper wasn't dead just fine with a brand new worst-case scenario. "She could be injured!"

"Probably not." Tsukauchi allowed. Dabi nodded in agreement.

"Besides, dumbass. They didn't tell us where the camp is. They didn't tell anyone." Dabi flipped another page. Why was Iceland green, and Greenland covered in ice? Sounded like a scam to him. "That's the entire point. Nobody knows where she is."

This didn't seem to help, as Kurogiri started to cry harder.

Before Tsukauchi could tell him it was fine and to please calm down, the door to the therapist's office slammed open. Concerning considering the session wasn't supposed to be done for another half hour or so, give or take a couple of minutes. Tsukauchi grimaced, closing the folder he'd been going over. Dabi tossed his magazine aside and leaned forward, propping his elbows up on his knees in preparation for the entertainment to come. They were lucky they were the only ones here. Tsukauchi had a sneaking suspicion they were about to witness a scene

"If arson is illegal," Sansa started heatedly. The therapist-- a middle-aged man with big glasses and a balding head-- followed after him in a slight panic. Sansa thrust a finger at Dabi. "Then why the fuck is he here?!"

"Who the hell says I committed arson?" Dabi snorted, glancing at Tsukauchi. The man looked helpless. Children. Kurogiri and Sansa were both children, and Tsukauchi was the father. Dabi was just here for the show, the money, and to tackle Kurogiri when he tried to warp away. Which he'd had to do several times today. It was kind of amusing to watch them both go down, but Tsukauchi would keep that bit of information to himself for fear of Dabi stopping and just letting him wander off. Thought Kurogiri was fairly harmless in his current state, he was still considered to be a criminal under their watch. Letting him out of their sight could be fairly bad.

"I never said you committed arson." Sansa said in a matter-of-fact tone. Like he'd just cracked the entire Da Vinci Code all by his lonesome. "I said you are arson."

There was dead silence. You could hear a pin drop with how quiet it was. Tsukuachi was incredulous. Where did Sansa even come up with stuff? Had he hit his head on something at some point? He'd always been a bit out there, but it seemed to be getting more and more extreme as he aged. Concerning considering that Sansa wasn't actually that old! Fuck, Tsukauchi wished Harper was here. He didn't know what to do or how to deal with this stuff. At least Harper knew how Sansa's mind worked and what he was thinking. Tsukauchi was just... blind. Completely blind.

"Oh my god," Kurogiri whispered. He looked at Dabi like he'd never seen him before, the purple cloud around him dissipating to reveal his shocked face. "You're a crime?"

Tsukauchi could see why Harper got so many headaches. 

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