Chapter 51
“Ragdoll!” The Pussycats shouted and ran over to Tanya to relieve her of her burden.
“She's fine. She was knocked out when that explosion and sonic boom happened.” Tanya said and motioned to the both of them covered in splinters and parts of leaves. “It's okay, though. I took care of it.”
“How?” Aizawa asked.
“I used up nearly all of my ammo scaring off the villains that Ragdoll detected. I used one of the last pellets I had for my rifle taking care of the Nomu that showed up.” Tanya said and pointed out the front door. “I saw the kid standing beside the body before I came down here.”
“KOTA!” Mandalay yelled and ran across the room and outside. There was a shrill cry of relief a moment later and a yell of surprise by a young boy.
“I think she found him.” Tanya said with a straight face.
Mina was the first to laugh and the rest of her friends joined in. It was full of relief as they gathered around Tanya and looked a little lost.
“Be careful of the splinters.” Tanya said and opened her arms.
Mina let out a sound that no one had heard from her before, almost a mewl, then she hugged Tanya hard. “Ouch!”
“I said to be careful.” Tanya said as Mina eased her hold on her and Tanya plucked a splinter out of her forearm. A second later, it was licked and a piece of gauze was applied. “I need to wait a bit before healing it. I'm a little drained and exhausted after all that work.”
Mina nodded and let Tanya go just enough to start picking off the things on Tanya's clothing. Soon all of their friends were doing it and Tanya didn't object, because the happy smiles on their faces made the constant touching and the invasion of her personal space bearable.
Aizawa and Vlad exchanged a look and they left the room while everyone was distracted. Only Tanya and the Pussycats noticed Mandalay coming inside with an annoyed Kota in her arms.
They all stayed in the main living room and Tanya told them the complete truth about what she and Ragdoll did for the time they were fighting. It wasn't until the sonic boom that she changed two details and said it was a Nomu and that she killed it. They all believed her, even the Pussycats, Aizawa, and Vlad. They had checked out the area and it matched Tanya's version of events.
“Everyone, head to bed.” Aizawa ordered. “We'll send word to the authorities about this and it will be handled in the morning.”
“Will we get back to training after that?” Aoyoma asked with a sparkle in his eyes.
Aizawa gave him an odd look, then shook his head. “With this latest incident, summer training camp is cancelled.”
Some of the students looked relieved and some angry. Most just accepted it and started walking out of the room. Aizawa gave a pointed look to Tanya as she passed by him. She knew he was going to ask her how she had smuggled her rifle into the lodge and she was fine with that, because she had a few pointed questions to ask him in return.
Tanya wasn't surprised that Mina had followed her to her bunk and hadn't tried to sneak in later. When Mina gave her a questioning look, she shrugged and moved the blanket for her. Mina grinned and slid into the bed and a few of their friends let out soft laughs.
“If the bed was big enough, I think you would have a few more of us joining you for comfort.” Momo admitted as she took out her cell phone and sent a text.
“What a great idea! Let's have a slumber party!” Ochako exclaimed. “Everyone grab the mats from the bunks and we'll pile them in the middle of the room!”
Before Tanya could object, or make a reasonable argument over actually wanting to get some uninterrupted sleep, all of the mattresses had been gathered and piled up for everyone to scramble onto them with their blankets and pillows in their arms.
“You get the place of honor for saving us tonight.” Mina said and plopped down in the very center of the pile with two pillows and a blanket.
Tanya sighed exaggeratedly and sat down next to the excitable girl. She was quickly engulfed by pink arms and several of the girls nearby also joined in on the hug. “We need to get to sleep.”
“No one's stopping you.” Mina said and rested her head on her shoulder, which made all the girls laugh.
Tanya managed to not sigh again and gave up trying to control things. She laid down right there and tucked the pillows under their heads as Mina pulled the blanket over them and cuddled in close. The other girls followed suit and the floor was soon covered in bundles of blankets and sleeping heads.
Pixie-Bob closed the door to the room and was quite happy that the girls weren't freaking out about the events of the night. She wanted to; but, she needed to be strong with Mandalay freaking out instead. Kota being threatened by a Nomu had scared her, scared them all actually, and she was sure that things were going to change.
*
Aizawa used the communicator he was authorized to use in emergencies and called the detective in charge of the Nomu cases. He was supposed to call Nezu first and decided to delay that conversation for as long as possible.
The detective wanted as much detail as possible and wanted to go there right away. Aizawa convinced him that waiting until the morning would be a better idea, since everyone was now asleep and he wouldn't have to explain how he had called for help when there wasn't supposed to be a signal.
The call to Nezu went about as well as it could have. The yells and squeaks were pronounced and Aizawa was sure that his ears would be ringing for quite some time, because the little creature was upset that he hadn't called immediately, even though he couldn't have with all the witnesses. His argument about no one being able to reach them until well after it was already over, was ignored as unimportant.
Aizawa went to bed with Tanya's words in his mind. He had to agree that Nezu was arrogant enough to ignore human ideas if they didn't mesh with his own. He rolled over in bed and found that his head was becoming full with excuses and explanations that he could use to discourage Tanya from asking him too many questions.
He was sure it wasn't going to work, the same as her making an excuse about her rifle. He wouldn't settle for anything less than the truth and he suspected that neither would she. He would have admired the trait if he wasn't going to be subjected to it.
*
The morning came and the forest lodge was besieged by numerous police officers taking statements and examining evidence. The biggest piece being the Nomu that was laying in a large crater in front of the lodge. They weren't even trying to downplay how dangerous the thing was, considering the size of the crater and the devastation it had left behind.
The students fully cooperated and Tanya gave the exact same story she had the night before. Since she didn't lie until the very end when she said she had killed the creature, it all rang true. Then again, she had reasoned within her mind that she had called Izuku and he dealt with it, so technically she was responsible for its death.
When questioned by the detective directly, he couldn't quite tell if she was lying about that part, despite his quirk, Lie Detection. He knew she wasn't telling the whole truth; but, without any counter-evidence, he couldn't push her with so many other witnesses around. They would clam-up and not answer any questions at all if he did that.
Aizawa gave his statement to the detective as well and it corroborated the other versions he had heard. The detective knew Aizawa was a little nervous about something and also couldn't call him out on it with witnesses around. He instead indicated going inside a car to talk. Aizawa shook his head slightly and motioned to the group of students without saying anything.
The morning was interrupted when a large tour bus drove up the access road and came to a stop.
Momo waved to the bus and walked over to the front of the group of students. “Everyone in Class 1-A that decided to go, our ride is here to take us to the Onsen.”
“YES!” Half of the students yelled before most of them ran inside the lodge to finish gathering up their things. Only Momo and Tanya walked at a normal pace.
“You're going to an Onsen?” Setsuna from the Class 1-B girls asked.
“Yes, we arranged it weeks ago for after the training camp. Since the camp is cancelled, we're going early.” Momo said. “At the time we expected to need to recover, now we need to recover and relax.”
“I wish we could go with you.” Itsuka the redhead said, sadly.
Momo stopped walking and touched her hand briefly. “It's been booked up for weeks. If anyone cancels, I can send a text.”
Itsuka sighed. “There's not much chance of that.”
“I know. I'm sorry.” Momo said and went into the lodge behind Tanya.
“It's too bad we couldn't kick the boys out and take all the girls instead.” Tanya said with a smile.
“Izuku as well?” Momo asked, teasingly.
“I said boys, not men.” Tanya countered and her smile grew.
Momo laughed softly. “He's meeting us there, isn't he?”
“Him and his mother.” Tanya said and tapped her earpiece. “Like you, we are not limited by civilian communications.”
Momo nodded and they went to their individual bunks to pack up. No one questioned why Tanya had two extra bags that she didn't have before.
“It's terrible that they confiscated your rifle.” Mina said and picked up her own bag.
“I expected it, since I used it in defense of others and that thing ended up being killed.” Tanya said and hefted her extra bags over her shoulders. “Tsu? Can you handle that dufflebag of food or do you want me to carry it for you?”
Tsuyu the frog girl picked it up and hugged it. “This delicious goodness is not leaving my sight!”
Tanya chuckled and the other girls laughed. They left as a group and carried their things out of the lodge and across the courtyard to the bus. Most of them loaded them into the underside of the bus and the rest took them inside and stored them above their heads on the available racks.
Aizawa didn't say a word to them about leaving and didn't try to delay them or anything. He looked a little relieved, actually. Tanya gave him a glare through the bus window and let some of her manic smile out, which made his relief end abruptly.
“What was that look for?” The detective asked.
Aizawa looked at his friend. “She made an inquiry about anyone around owning a gun...”
The detective huffed. “You reacted out of character.”
“I did.” Aizawa said with a sigh. “Even if I don't agree with limiting her to toys that the government has failed to put laws into place to restrict, I don't want anything like a lethal weapon anywhere near my students. The chance of accidents is already tremendously high. Adding unsecured guns to that as well...”
The detective nodded. “I laminated the report about what she did with a normal police service pistol.”
Aizawa huffed this time. “That was without her extensive training that we didn't know about.” He said and explained about what she could do with a rock. “The dent in the gong was a foot wide.”
“Ricochet?” The detective asked.
“No, it was angled or banked.” Aizawa said. “I think she curved it to hit the target, like a homing shot.”
The detective gave him a surprised look. “If that's true...”
“When she gets her hands on a real weapon, she's going to become a very dangerous individual.”
The detective took out the stack of reports he had gathered from the officers. “If she can do this kind of damage with just pewter pellets, the things she could do with bullets is mind-boggling.”
“I know.” Aizawa said in a whisper. “I know.”
*
“This is going to be so much FUN!” Inko said with a giggle as she and Izuku rode the bus to Mt. Fuji.
“I'm sorry about the last minute packing.” Izuku said and put an arm over her shoulders. “Tanya only found out last night that the camp was cancelled.”
“It's fine! I had almost everything ready anyway.” Inko said, happily. “Just like a certain green-haired boy!”
Izuku chuckled. “I was pretty much waiting for it to happen. You know what Nezu is like after the term exam. He likes to change plans constantly and doesn't account for things he deems unimportant.”
Inko nodded. “I'm really glad you had us make all that food for poor Tsu! She could have starved without getting what she needed to eat.”
“I also delivered Tanya's extra equipment.” Izuku said. “How was she supposed to train without it?”
Inko took the hand of the arm draped over her shoulder and held it. “I'm glad you are watching over her, even when you are supposed to be asleep in bed, young man!”
Izuku laughed. “I would be just as worried about you when you're away from me. You know that.”
Inko blushed and leaned into his muscled side. She would never admit that she really liked how comfortable it felt. “You're such a good boy.”
“You taught me well.” Izuku said and his face went red. “Tanya might have had a bit to do with it, too.”
“A bit!” Inko exclaimed and then laughed. “Because of her, you have become who you were supposed to be.”
“M-mom...”
“It's true.” Inko said and hugged his hand. “I wasn't the best mother I could have been when it came to you.” She said and looked up at his sad face. “I freely admit that I didn't handle things well back then, because now I know I was wrong.”
“Mom, you...”
“I've tried my best to fix things, because you deserve to have more than one capable woman in your life.” Inko said and reached up to caress her son's red face. “You are not the only one that has learned things from Tanya.”
Izuku could see the resolve in his mother's eyes and nodded.
“I'm not a dead weight that you have to carry around with you.” Inko said and gently rubbed his cheek. “I'm a strong and independent woman that will be the mother of the next Symbol of Peace.” She smiled and let his cheek go. “You don't think that's a responsibility I'm not prepared for, do you?”
Izuku turned slightly and put both of his arms around her. “I think if anyone can do that job, it's you.”
Inko cuddled in and put her arms around him, too. “That's good, because I might not have been the best mother all the time; but, I fully expect to be the best grandmother in the world as soon as possible.”
“MOM!” Izuku gasped and Inko laughed and laughed.
At that moment several miles away, Tanya felt a shiver go down her spine. She wasn't sure why she thought it was a good one or what it meant.