"Sit still!" Hatsume complained as she moved some wires around to get to the loose competent. Katsuki groaned, flexing his fingers as Mei glared at him again. The ash blonde glared right back before looking aside at Izuku, who was busy recalibrating Hitoshi's support item.

"Tell me why the hell I'm here again?"

"You promised to help me out with my midterm project, Kacchan," Izuku pouted. He was screwing something shut on the mask he was working on before holding it out to Shinsou. "Try it on now? Does it still slip off?"

"Yeah, help you," Katsuki hissed, shaking Hatsume off his arm as she burned him with her welding equipment. Wait, why was she welding? Kacchan's bracers were supposed to be flexible and sporadic so his sweat could pass through, and Izuku was pretty sure no welding material would do the job... Then again, Meid liked to experiment. "The hell are you trying to do?! Kill me?!"

"Excuse me, this is supposed to be for you," Hatsume huffed, crossing her arms. "Tailor made means tailor made!"

"It doesn't mean you can't use a fake arm for the construction phase, right?"

"That's-" Mei started, only for her face to go slack and her expression completely blank. Izuku's eyes widened as he stared at Shinsou, who'd just talked in Kacchan's voice. He's successfully brainwashed her and nobody even saw it coming.

"That's creepy as fuck," Katsuki whispered, not liking the fact his own voice came from someone else's mouth. "Never do that shit again."

"Can't make any promises," Shinsou grinned as he took off his support mask, not releasing Hatsume from her trance quite yet.

"It works!" Izuku beamed as he took it off his hands. "We'll need to run a few more tests- Recalibrate and recheck the calculations so- Yes, but it should be almost complete now! I'll be able to finish it in time for the midterm exams! This is great news!"

"Oi! I thought my piece was gonna be your midterm project?" Katsuki snapped, ripping off the half-build equipment from his arm. Oh, if Hatsume could move, she would've killed him for that. "I could be training for my own test right now, you know?"

"Cause you promised me we'd study together after this, remember?" Izuku asked. "And I also promised Hatsume we'd work on our projects together, so it's a win-win!"

"For you, maybe," Katsuki grumbled, glancing aside at the pink haired girl. "You gonna release her or what?"

"If you insist," Hitoshi smirked, lifting his brainwashing, only for Hatsume to go feral and attack Katsuki for destroying all her hard work. Izuku snorted, yelping as he held up the voice changer when they started running around, trying to keep it out of the destruction range. Shinsou helped him put it away while dodging wrenches and explosions, making sure it didn't get damaged in their quarrel. They decided to call it a day after that, or, well, Izuku and Kacchan split from the others to go study on their own for a bit.

"Next time, you're making my support items," Katsuki grumbled, taking Izuku's hand as they walked. "Scratch that, you're the only one that'll be making my support items. Don't want that goggle shit messing me up in the name of her so-called science."

"Of course! Hero partners, remember?" Izuku smiled.

"Yeah, partners," Katsuki hummed with a small smile. They ended up going to Katsuki's house to study, where the ash blonde continued to complain about his friends as they quizzed each other on some of their mutual subjects. Geography, at the moment. Hatsume was too rash, too reckless. Guess that's why you two are friends Kacchan had joked. And Shinsou... Well, Izuku didn't know why Kacchan was so distant towards him. They were really similar in a lot of things, so if anything, Izuku had expected Kacchan to get on with him even without his memories.

"Then there's glasses," Katsuki huffed, frowning a little. "Don't know where the hell you're supposed to know him from though... But you gotta know him, right? You knew he had a hero brother and then the whole Hero Killer thing- Which reminds me. You called him Stain."

Izuku stared down at his notebook, desperately trying not to react to his obvious accusations. Kacchan had saved Tenya, sure. He'd held off the Hero Killer for a bit to do so, being paralyzed in the process. But Stain got away. He escaped. He wasn't captured like he should've been. So his name wasn't known, either. There was still a video going around, albeit a lot more obscure but holding the same message as before. Izuku wondered who'd made it...

"Where did you get that name from?" Katsuki asked.

"Uhm... Capital of China?" Izuku countered, acting as if they were still interrogating each other on geography.

"Beijing," Katsuki deadpanned. "Your turn, Deku. Where did you get that name from?"

"Do we have to do this?" Izuku asked with a sigh.

"Gotta tell me where you got your intel from at some point, so might as well get it over with" Katsuki told him. "Or did you forget I beat your ass in the sportsfestival?"

"You dropped that bet!" Izuku exclaimed, not understanding why Kacchan was bringing this up again. "You were the one who said that if I didn't feel comfortable sharing, I didn't have to!"

"That was before you threw fucking coordinates from a villain attack at me! A villain no one knows anything about and no one can seem to track down. Yet somehow-"

"Okay! I get it!" Izuku hissed. He got it, okay? He should've been more careful, shouldn't have started to warn Katsuki about events to come, shouldn't have let on he knew about anything at all! But it was too late now. And deep down he knew Kacchan would want to get to the bottom of this one way or another. Him dropping their wager was just procrastinating the inevitable. "I... I get it. And I understand where you're coming from, I really do-"

"But you're still not gonna tell me shit, are you?" Katsuki scoffed, crossing his arms. "What's it gonna take for you to fucking trust me, Deku?!"

"I trust you!" Izuku yelled, tears welling up in his eyes. Why did Kacchan always have to make everything so difficult?! "I trust you with my life, Kacchan! But I can't- I can't do this."

With that, Izuku got up, hastily grabbing his stuff and shoving it in his bag.

"Izuku, wait-" Katsuki said, grabbing his arm, only for Izuku to swing him off. He must've used more force than he thought, because Katsuki basically flew back, crashing into his desk as he fell to the ground. For a second he swore he saw a flash of green.

//\\
\\//

CatLover🐱: And you're not telling him yourself because???

GreenPsycho📗: You know why

CatLover🐱: So you're admitting the two of you are fighting then?

Izuku frowned at the screen. He hadn't talked to Kacchan for a while now. At first it had been out of spite, because he was angry, because he didn't want to face the ash blonde knowing they'd be having the same argument, knowing he'd cave if Kacchan kept putting pressure on him. But then they both got busy with exams and they just...never made up? If that made sense? And now it was just too awkward to start talking to each other like nothing happened! But Izuku didn't want to send Kacchan off to training camp without at least warning him something was going down.

GreenPsycho📗: We're just not on speaking terms

CatLover🐱: So you're fighting

Why was Shinsou being so stubborn about this?!

GreenPsycho📗: Does it even matter at this point??

CatLover🐱: It does to me
CatLover🐱: I mean, if you're planning to use me as your messenger, you might as well tell me why

GreenPsycho📗: The message is also for you so it's not that much extra work

That's right, Hitoshi's acceptance test wouldn't be held during a joint training exercise this time around. Well, it might still be, but Izuku wouldn't know since UA was planning on taking him with them on the first year hero course summer training camp. Shinsou would be a variable Izuku couldn't predict, a factor that could change everything. The attack would still happen, but its scale, its effects... It could all differ.

Kacchan didn't have to get kidnapped again, a tiny voice in the back of his mind whispered.

CatLover🐱: Alright I conceit
CatLover🐱: Tell me what's it about

GreenPsycho📗: Tell Kacchan to be careful at training camp

CatLover🐱: What?? That it??
CatLover🐱: Tell him your sappy worried goodbye yourself psycho

GreenPsycho📗: I'm serious!!!
GreenPsycho📗: And you should be careful too! They might come for you as well

CatLover🐱: Who??

GreenPsycho📗: Can't say
GreenPsycho📗: Kacchan will understand tho
GreenPsycho📗: Just tell him I told you

CatLover🐱: Vague af but ok

GreenPsycho📗: Are you going to tell him or not??

CatLover🐱: Yeah yeah don't worry bout it

Izuku smiled, knowing he could rely on Shinsou to warn Kacchan. He should probably ask him to watch his back, too, since Izuku knew for a fact they'd be coming for Katsuki. He wasn't lying when he told the insomniac that they might come for him too, though. Brainwashing was quite the villainous quirk... Izuku doubted they'd still go for Tokoyami, since he didn't make it to the last round so he was barely able to show off his quirk. But Shinsou? Shinsou got to the final. He ended up in second place with a scary quirk and an obvious grudge against the hero course, or maybe UA in general. Their entrance exam was super biased, after all.

He didn't know how the ambush on the training camp would go in this timeline, or whether or not Himiko would regain her memories. Izuku wouldn't be with them this time, either. Just like with the Stain incident, all he could do was hope everyone would be okay. He should probably fill up his schedule ahead of time so he'd have something to keep himself distracted. Something productive, something to keep his mind off the inevitable doom that would fall over the hero course classes. He just hoped Kacchan would take his warning seriously...

//\\
\\//

"Alright, what the hell do you want?" Katsuki spat out as he walked up to Shinsou. "There better be a damn good reason for calling me out here, asshat."

It was their summer break and Katsuki was busy training, mind you! He didn't have time for whatever nonsense this guy would yap to him about. Probably some bullshit Deku told him. Probably some half-assed excuse or a plea to reach out. Well, too fucking bad! If the nerd really wanted Katsuki back in his life, he was gonna need to fess up about where he got his information from, starting with an apology.

"Nice to see you again, too," Shinsou reacted, sounding as amused as he did sarcastic. "I'm sure you already know this involves Midoriya, since the two of you are too immature to make up after your fight."

"We didn't fucking fight!" Katsuki snapped. It wasn't a fight. Deku fucking ran like a coward before it could turn into one.

"Funny, Midoriya said the same thing," Shinsou snorted. "So I take it you're not interested in the message he asked me to give you then?"

"I didn't come out here for nothing," Katsuki huffed. Hitoshi gave him a lazy smile, grating Katsuki's gears even more.

"Aw, you really do care~"

"Fuck off! Just tell me what this is about already!"

"Alright, alright, no need to blow my head off," Shinsou sighed, holding up his hands in surrender. "He told me to warn you for the training camp."

"...What?" Katsuki asked, squinting his eyes. Deku warning him about something was never a good sign.

"He was pretty vague about it," Hitoshi shrugged. "But he said we should be careful- Right, uhm, I'll be coming to camp too. As a test to see if I really fit in the hero course."

"Don't care about that shit. Why do we need to be careful?" Katsuki asked. He already knew the teachers were planning on doing something with Shinsou after he got second place in the sportsfest, they weren't exactly subtle about it either.

"He said someone might come after me- or, well, definitely after you, if I had to guess," Shinsou said. "Like I said, his texts were vague as fu-"

"Show me," Katsuki demanded, holding out his hand.

"What?"

"Show me the texts, dumbass!"

Shinsou frowned, but relented when he saw how serious the ash blonde was about this. Well, Midoriya had said Bakugou would understand... And seeing how the crease between his eyebrows got worse as he read the conversation, Hitoshi could only guess it was bad news.

"This is bad."

Ah, who could have foreseen that?

"Last time Deku warned me like this, villains attacked us at the USJ," Katsuki added, making Shinsou's eyes widen a bit

"He knew about that attack?"

"Deku knows about a lot of shit," Katsuki grumbled, seemingly pissed off about it. "His intel is always accurate, though."

"So what? You think our training camp is going to be attacked by villains, too?" Shinsou asked, frowning. Katsuki simply shrugged. It was a possibility. "We should tell the teachers about that."

"And say what?" Katsuki asked. "We don't have any proof anyone is out there to get us, now do we? And Deku isn't gonna reveal his sources. Believe me, I've fucking tried."

"...This is what you've been fighting over, isn't it?" Shinsou asked, Katsuki's reaction giving away his assumption was absolutely right.

"Doesn't fucking matter," Katsuki scowled. "If Deku says we're gonna be targeted, we are gonna be targeted."

"Better stick together then," Shinsou hummed.

"What? So they can snatch us up in one go? No fucking way," Katsuki stated. "Just... Fuck. Stay alert. Warn one another when something doesn't feel right or something. But we can't stick together all the time unless we want to make ourselves an easy fucking target. It'd be weird if we suddenly got close, too."

"I suppose you're right," Hitoshi sighed. He didn't like this, but Bakugou had a point. All they could do was wait and see. Walk into the trap that was laid out for them and make the best of a bad situation. Guess that's what being a hero is all about, right?