Deep Red

43

"Alright, Ashido, Asui, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, Jirou... The 1-A girls are all there." I mumbled and looked over to Shouta. He looked more tired than ever and I could imagine why. He had been working on training plans and lesson plans all night and realized at 4 in the morning that he still had to pack.

Which meant I wasn't getting a lot of sleep myself, since he was rummaging around in the living room where I was trying to sleep. I had of course packed most of my stuff earlier in the evening, but when he started packing and waking me up in the process I remembered a million things I had forgotten to pack.

So thanks to Shouta being a workaholic I was just as tired as he was. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to work through any class plans, but I had a big binder in my bag that basically summarized everyone's Quirks, both from class A and class B.

"Shouta? You can go do your thing now. Everyone's here, I think." I told him. He gave me a tired look and just nodded.

"Everyone, listen up!" he said, waiting for the students to turn their attention towards him. They had learnt that he didn't like waiting too much, so they quieted down pretty quickly after that.

"Now that you finished up your first semester at U.A. High it's time for summer vacation to officially begin. However, don't think these will be months of rest for you heroes in the making. At this camp we'll push you to go beyond your limits. You're aiming to become plus ultra." he told them and gestured for them to load their bags into the bus, so they could get going.

The kids looked like they were absolutely psyched. I grinned to myself thinking about what was in store for them. They would not be this excited for much longer. At first, I wasn't really sure whether Shouta's rigid training plan was really a good idea. After all, it was pretty intense.

But with the end goal in mind of getting them their licenses and getting them set up to do work studies and be able to use their Quirks more freely (especially with all the villain attacks U.A. had faced lately), it did make a lot of sense to actually work them to the bone. And that was the plan, after all.

One by one the students started getting onto the bus. I got out my phone from my pocket and went to text Hizashi. I was a little nervous about leaving the cats with him, especially since cats weren't too fond of loud noises and Hizashi Yamada was the personification of a loud noise.

>> Hey Zashi, please tell me you fed the cats and that they're okay.<<

I packed the phone away and looked around. Kirishima and Kaminari were still standing around, chatting to each other. It looked like they hadn't even noticed we were only waiting for them.

"Hey, Kaminari and Kirishima, are you planning to walk to camp?" I asked them. They looked at me, a little scared, when they saw that no one else was around anymore.

"Uh... no, Ma'am." Kirishima said.

"Then get your asses on the bus right now or we're leaving without you." I said. They quickly nodded and got on the bus, sitting in the front. After they finally got on, I went in and sat down in the very first row at the window, Shouta following close behind me. He didn't sit down yet.

"Here's the deal. We'll be on this bus for about an hour before our first stop. Make sure you stay focussed." he told the students.

"I don't think they got the message." I said to him quietly when he sat down. He gave me a tortured look and looked back at the students who were seemingly having the times of their lives.

"Why aren't we blasting some music?" Kaminari asked loudly and started looking through his phone, while Kirishima was apparently giving him some sort of input. The kids just started getting louder and louder.

And the louder they got, the more Shouta's expression dropped. He looked like he was completely dead inside at this point. The annoyance was basically radiating off him and I could really empathize.

"Why do I bother?" he mumbled, rolling his eyes and looking up at the ceiling of the bus. I giggled.

"Because you care about them." I replied. He looked at me as if I had just spilled his biggest secret to the media.

"They're still little brats on the best of days. Well, I guess this is the only time they'll have to fool around." he said.

"Did you not do stupid shit during summer camp? I mean, during third year we had a whole bottle of orange juice mixed with vodka on the back row. Of course we told everyone it was orange juice, but damn, that was a fun ride." I remembered with a big grin on my smile. For me it was probably more of an unhealthy coping mechanism, but of course I wasn't aware of any of that at the time.

"I have never done anything like that." Shouta insisted with a stern expression. I leaned over to him and closely examined his face. I was absolutely sure he was lying and I tried to find hints of that.

"You're lying." I said, even though I couldn't see anything on his face that would give that away.

"Maybe." he replied, his lips curling upwards a little. That was it! I knew Shouta wasn't a perfect student back in the day. There was a reason why him and his friends were called the Three Dumbigos, after all.

"I knew it! I'm going to hear all the good stories during dinner tonight. And you better make them fun." I said with a big grin.

"As if I'd give you that kind of blackmail material. Think again."

"I can always go and ask Midnight. I'm sure she'd be happy to spill the beans on you. I can text her right now."

"Fine. One story this evening. That's all you're getting." he said. I smiled to myself. That was more than I had expected, so I wasn't going to complain.

"Alright, deal." I told him and checked my phone. Hizashi had texted me back while we had been getting on the bus.

>>I'm here, the cats are fine and so is Shou's plant. Say hi to him and have fun at camp, you two. Use protection!<<

I rolled my eyes and packed the phone away again. He has been talking about Shouta and me hooking up for weeks now. Not that I'd mind hooking up with him, quite the opposite, but Hizashi was just being annoying about it.

I kicked off my shoes and made myself comfortable in the bus seat. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night and I wanted to use this one hour before we had to get out again, at least. At this rate I could probably sleep anywhere anyway.

"Hey, Shouta, if I fall asleep on you, don't you dare wake me up."