The Forest Thing

Chapter 16: Nothing will go wrong

Shouta stared at the being in front of him. The being that looked like some dirty homeless kid with big eyes and fluffy hair at first glance, but the longer you look, the more you notice. Shouta couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Stop. Let me get this straight." He began before drinking the rest of the cold coffee in his mug.

"You were the one who convinced Nedzu to look into Endeavor." Izuku nodded. "And after that, you decided it was a good idea to find out where all my students live, so you could sneak into their houses without them knowing, in the middle of the night , to make sure they were okay?"

Once again, Izuku nodded, then he tilted his head in a questioning manner.

It was strange to think this kid isn't actually a kid. He looked like he could be one of Shouta's students, it was sometimes hard to not treat him like one.

"That's exactly what happened. Why do you seem so confused?" Shouta couldn't hold back the groan after hearing Izuku's question. He raised his hands to rub his head, trying to banish the headache he knew was coming, but he knew it would only help for so long.

"For someone who claims to be an extremely old, immortal being, you're quite dense." Izuku furrowed his eyebrows as if he were almost offended by what Shouta had said.

"Well people didn't really like me, and I was alone for a very long time." Izuku glanced away for a second before making eye contact with Shouta again, he swore he could see a flicker of sadness in his emerald green eyes before it was quickly blinked away. "But I think you're missing the point."

"There was a point to this visit?" The teacher asked dryly with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Yes!" The greenette exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air in overexaggerated exasperation. "Gosh, I need to stop going on tangents when there are more important topics."

Shouta stood and walked over to the coffee machine to make the next and not the last cup of coffee that night. In the corner of his vision, he could see Izuku brushing his long fingers through his messy green hair and Shouta had to resist the urge to groan again when he saw the many leaves and small sticks falling onto the floor.

"I finished checking in on all the students just before I came here. All of them were fine until I got to the last house," Izuku spoke shockingly fast, Shouta was almost glad he was so used to talking to Hizashi, or else he probably wouldn't be able to keep up. "I got to Hitoshi's house, he was the last one on the list since it was difficult to get his address because he's in foster care. Did you know he was in foster care? You probably did, you-"

"Kid! What is the point?" Shouta snapped. He probably should have tried to be calmer, but it's almost 3am.

"They put a muzzle on him to stop him from using his quirk or to just stop him from talking in general. It looked painful, too." Shouta almost dropped his fresh mug of coffee as the words processed in his mind. "I thought about just taking him immediately, but that sounded a little too... illegal."

The tired hero drank all of the steaming coffee in his mug in one breath, set the mug down, tied his long, black hair into a loose bun, then sat down across from the cryptid again.

"The training camp starts tomorrow. I'll inform Nedzu of your discovery, assuming he doesn't already know, and he can arrange an investigation while Shinsou is out of the house." Shouta spoke calmly, but from the way Izuku was looking at him, the greenette somehow knew how angry he was. "And you won't do anything impulsive. Got it?"

Izuku let out a huff, rolling his eyes as he rests his chin on his hand. "Fine, fine. I won't do anything 'impulsive'. But you have to promise that he'll be okay, or else I'm getting involved."