When Bakugo pushed open the heavy wooden classroom door, he hadn't expected silence, but he also hadn't expected this much of the usual noise slamming into his exhausted senses.
The students had just come back from the opening ceremony for the second term, held in the main courtyard, and everyone was talking loudly and excitedly about Principal Nezu's speech and Hound Dog's warning bark.
The moment Bakugo and Midoriya's feet crossed the threshold, every eye turned toward them. And naturally, the class representative, Iida Tenya, didn't waste a second before moving. He rushed over with his sharp, mechanical gestures, his arms swinging up and down like fan blades.
"Bakugo! Midoriya! Where were you?! Missing the official opening ceremony and Principal Nezu's speech on the first day of the second term is entirely irresponsible! As holders of provisional licenses, you're supposed to be role models for the..."
But, unusually, Bakugo didn't yell in his face. He didn't threaten to blow his head off.
Bakugo walked past Iida as though he were nothing but air, throwing a blank look forward. His calm was terrifying enough that Iida froze in place, his arm still stuck mid air. Even Kirishima and Kaminari exchanged worried looks. A silent Bakugo was far more dangerous than an angry one.
"Ah... Iida kun, I'm really sorry!" Midoriya jumped in fast, sweating and rubbing the back of his head nervously. "Mr. Aizawa stopped us at the entrance for some administrative stuff. We promise it won't happen again!"
From his seat in the corner of the classroom, Zoro had his feet up on the desk, hands behind his head, eyes closed. He wasn't actually asleep, he just preferred avoiding teenage noise. When Bakugo walked past him, Zoro opened one eye. Their gazes met for a fraction of a second. Bakugo's eyes carried a quiet, heavy acknowledgment of everything said the night before, while Zoro's carried the steadiness of a warrior who didn't dwell on the past.
Bakugo slid into his seat without a word, and Midoriya followed, letting out a breath of relief as he sat down, watching Zoro with a look full of curiosity and awe after everything All Might had told him.
Haki. Does Zoro really carry a legacy older than Quirks themselves?
The sound of the door opening again cut through Midoriya's thoughts. Mr. Aizawa walked in, his yellow sleeping bag still tucked under his arm, his red eyes looking more exhausted than usual.
The noise in the classroom died instantly, and everyone headed to their seats. Aizawa stood behind his desk and looked over his students' faces.
"Sit." He said it in his usual dry voice. "You've all definitely heard Principal Nezu's words at the ceremony. But let's talk seriously about what's actually waiting for you. With All Might gone, and security shaken outside these walls, those provisional licenses you got aren't just decorative cards anymore."
The atmosphere in the room shifted, growing heavier with seriousness.
"Today, we're starting on Hero Work Studies." Aizawa continued, pressing a button that brought up a display screen behind him. "This is completely different from the short training you went through before, based on hero recommendations. In Work Studies, you'll work as real members inside professional hero agencies, and take part in genuine field operations against villains. Legal responsibility here is full, and the danger is real."
Some students shivered with a mix of excitement and fear, while Midoriya scribbled notes at a frantic pace in his notebook.
"But as first year students, joining a professional agency isn't easy, and the police and the academy both set strict conditions." Aizawa sighed heavily, then looked toward the classroom door. "And since a theoretical explanation isn't enough for your small brains to understand the gap between a student and a professional, I brought someone to show you."
Aizawa knocked twice on the door. "Come in."
The door opened, and three students walked in wearing UA's school uniform. The moment they entered, an imposing silence settled over the room.
"These are the three strongest students in the entire academy. They're known as the Big 3, from the third year class." Aizawa said it with a rare note of pride in his voice.
The three stood in a straight line at the front of the class. In the middle, a blond young man with a massive build and a wide, confident smile (Mirio Togata). On his right, a dark haired student who looked incredibly anxious, staring at the ground (Tamaki Amajiki). And on his left, a girl with long blue hair and wide eyes shining with curiosity (Nejire Hado).
"Alright... start by introducing yourselves." Aizawa said.
Tamaki Amajiki stepped forward. He tried to speak, but his knees started shaking. And when his eyes swept the classroom, they landed straight on Bakugo's sharp glare and Zoro's cold eyes fixed on him. He felt a horrible pressure crash into him, and spun around suddenly to press his forehead against the wall, his face flushed red with embarrassment.
"I can't do this..." Tamaki whispered in despair. "Their stares... especially that green haired swordsman, and that blond guy... they're both looking at me like I'm prey. I want to go home."
Nejire Hado laughed lightly, then bounced with energy toward the rows of students without a shred of shyness. She started firing off rapid, confusing questions at everyone.
"Whoa! You have horns? Do they hurt? And you, why do you wear that mask?"
Then suddenly, she stopped in front of Zoro's desk. Nejire leaned in until her face was mere centimeters from his, her eyes gleaming with endless curiosity. She studied the three swords settled at his hip, then reached out to touch Wado Ichimonji's sheath.
"Oh my god! Are these real swords? Is your Quirk summoning swords? Or do you fight without a Quirk and rely on tools? And why does your aura feel so scary and heavy, like a villain's?"
Zoro didn't move. He just gave her a look with his sharp eye, ice cold enough that Nejire's smile slowly froze in place, until she stepped back, laughing nervously and rubbing her arm. "Ah... okay, your stare really is terrifying!"
Mirio Togata stepped in at the right moment, placing a hand on Nejire's shoulder while laughing loudly. But his blue eyes were studying Zoro closely. Mirio, as a student training under Sir Nighteye, had extremely sharp instincts. He'd felt that aura Nejire had mentioned. It wasn't an evil aura. It was a dense, concentrated energy of pure willpower, an energy unlike anything he'd ever encountered, even among professional heroes.
"Hey everyone!" Mirio shouted with excitement, raising a fist. "I know explaining Hero Work Studies with words alone sounds boring and hard to follow. And since you're all exceptional students who've already faced actual villains..."
Mirio's eyes lit up with open challenge as he looked over the entire class.
"How about you all put on your hero costumes and take me on together, all at once, in Gym Gamma? I'll show you the gap between us, in body and in experience!"
At that same moment, in another part of the city where warm sunlight never quite reached.
In a narrow alley, Twice stood at a distance, hiding behind the corner of a cracked wall, watching the scene with wide eyes behind his gray mask. He was breathing hard, rubbing his arms against each other and mumbling contradictory words in his shifting voice, same as always.
"What a disgusting, revolting place! It's actually amazing... warm and comfortable! Damn it, why am I even here? Ah, right... to meet them."
A few meters away inside the dark alley stood a man wearing a wide dark green coat, its collar surrounded by a thick purple fur trim. A black shirt hung beneath it with a light gray tie draped over it, and a distinctive plague doctor style bird mask covered his face. His cold eyes gave him a presence completely devoid of any expression. Beside him stood three of his followers.
Overhaul stood still, without a single unnecessary movement, running the fingers of his white glove slowly over his other glove, as if checking they carried no trace of contamination, while keeping a clear distance from everyone around him. His cold eyes were locked on a printed photo he held under the dim glow of a streetlamp.
It was a photo pulled from Kamino's security cameras. A clear shot of Roronoa Zoro.
"Everyone in this society suffers from a serious disease." Overhaul said in his low voice, staring at Zoro's features in the photo. "They call themselves heroes and villains, waving their filthy Quirks around like fools, blind to the fact that they're nothing but disfigured mutations that need to be eliminated."
He lowered his hand calmly, and closed his white gloved fingers over the photo, the paper crumpling slowly beneath his quiet grip.
"But for someone to appear who carries only swords and holds no Quirk at all, and yet possesses some strange, mysterious energy... that isn't just an anomaly. That's a critical flaw in the system I'm working to purify."
Overhaul turned slowly toward one of the followers standing beside him, and added in a tone carrying a deadly, contemptuous calm.
"That swordsman with the three blades represents a dangerous variable, something outside of nature's order. A variable that will ruin our entire equation if he isn't eliminated first. Make sure every detail about him is gathered."
Behind the cracked wall, Twice froze in place, listening to Overhaul's cold words. He pressed a hand against his mask, and a clear, serious thought echoed inside his troubled mind, a thought completely free of his usual contradictions.
"Looks like we're after the same thing..."
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