Shigaraki watched the scene through the gaps of his pale fingers, one eye fixed on the man before him.
"Brought us a valuable catch this time, Twice?"
Overhaul's cold eyes never blinked behind his plague mask. "A valuable catch? That is genuinely funny, coming from the League of Villains."
Magne blinked and tightened her grip on her magnetic weapon. "What? Is this some famous villain?"
"The boss showed me his picture before." Shigaraki muttered, scratching his neck, his dry voice echoing through the silent warehouse. "Young leader of the Yakuza. Head of the Shie Hassaikai."
Magne smiled with mockery. "So he represents the second generation of organized crime? I have never seen anything like this. Danger just pours off him."
Toga lifted her head and looked toward Compress, who sat calmly on a cracked wall. "Organized crime? How is that any different from us?"
Compress adjusted his hat and spoke in a calm, theatrical tone. "Let me explain. In the past, there were terrifying groups running the entire underworld. But as hero activity flourished, they were exposed and dismantled one after another. Once All Might rose to prominence, that whole era ended completely. Those who escaped capture formed small, scattered gangs."
"Nothing left of them but leftovers time has passed by." Overhaul cut in coldly. Then he launched into a short speech about their lack of organization and purpose, demanding they fall in line under him.
A suffocating silence followed his words. Then Magne snapped entirely. She lunged at him with her magnetic weapon, screaming her refusal to bow to anyone. Overhaul did not retreat a single step. He peeled off his glove slowly, and the moment she came within reach, he touched her with one finger.
A horrifying crimson blast painted the surrounding walls. The upper half of her body vanished in less than a second, and what remained of her collapsed to the floor.
"Magne!" Compress screamed and lunged at Overhaul, activating his Quirk. But the Yakuza leader's hand moved faster, brushing his arm. Flesh and bone shattered like glass, and the arm scattered completely into the air.
"Stop!" Shigaraki's hoarse voice tore through the stillness of the room. He surged toward Overhaul with pure killing intent, reaching out a hand to touch him.
In that decisive instant, one of Overhaul's men leapt from the shadows to take the hit meant for his boss. Shigaraki's five fingers settled on the man's body. He screamed in agony as his flesh began to crack and crumble into ash, scattering into the air until nothing remained.
Overhaul stepped back, his eyes following the falling ash. He understood now that a single touch from Shigaraki meant death just the same. The rest of his men emerged from the darkness to stand behind him like a human wall, but he raised a hand to hold them back.
He pulled a white card from his pocket and tossed it to land at Shigaraki's feet.
"I killed one of yours, and you killed one of mine." He said with a mocking tone as he turned to leave. "We are even in souls, then. But you still owe me an arm. Call me when you have calmed down."
He shut the iron door behind him, leaving the League standing in a pool of blood and ash.
The next morning, inside the Class 1-A classroom, the mood was relatively calm. Aizawa stood before the podium with his usual tired eyes. He lifted them slightly toward the students, then spoke in a flat tone that left no room for discussion.
"Sit down."
The murmuring died instantly. Everyone moved to their seats, and within a single moment the classroom fell so quiet a person could hear their own breathing.
Aizawa stayed silent for one more second.
"All of you have received your provisional licenses."
Every head shot up at once. Some students looked as if they were still catching up with the sentence, as though it had arrived a beat too late, while a certain light lit up in the eyes of others, the kind that only shows when someone feels they have stepped one pace closer to the real world.
Aizawa continued without changing his tone. "That means you are no longer confined to school training alone. From now on, you can approach pro hero agencies for Work Studies."
The students exchanged glances, and the whispers returned, this time with clear excitement.
"So we'll actually work with real heroes?"
"Do we get to pick our own agency?"
"Finally!"
Aizawa raised a finger slightly, just enough to stop this wave of excitement before it grew any bigger.
"Do not misunderstand." He said quietly. "This is not an open road without rules."
Everyone fell silent again.
"Agencies will not open their doors to you simply because you hold a license. It is up to you to figure out where you want to go, and to search for the place that fits you. Only if an agency agrees to take you in will you go there."
That was an important point. The students understood that this was no longer a matter of waiting for an offer to land in their laps, the way it had after the Sports Festival. This time, they had to think for themselves. Where do they go? Who do they choose? Which hero do they want to learn from?
Yaoyorozu shifted slightly in her seat. "So we need to decide where we want to gain experience, and then pursue it on our own."
"Exactly." Aizawa answered curtly.
Iida nodded quickly, as if he had finally found an organized shape for a thought that had been circling his head. "That means we are required to think about the kind of hero we want to train under, not just walk into the first place available."
"Yes." Aizawa replied.
In the back, Bakugo watched the scene in silence, arms crossed, his narrow eyes fixed on his teacher. The moment Aizawa said the words "agencies will not open their doors to you simply because you hold a license," Bakugo's lips parted slightly into that sharp smile of his, one that had less to do with joy than with a kind of combative satisfaction.
"Heh."
He tilted his head a little and glanced toward the other side of the classroom, as if things were finally heading in a direction he liked. It was clear he loved the idea that the road was not easy, that the challenge was still very much alive, and that everyone had to earn their place instead of having it handed to them.
But Aizawa was not finished.
"That said," he continued, "this license opens a real opportunity for you. Choose your place well, and it will give you a significant push forward."
He had barely finished the sentence when Bakugo's expression flipped instantly.
"Tch! Of course! Obviously!"
He snapped that out before Aizawa could even complete his thought, as if the words "push forward" alone were enough to set him off. He leaned forward slightly, eyes burning with open irritation.
"A push forward?! And you think everyone gets the same shot at it?"
No one answered him. Aizawa just looked at him with one eye half open, as if he was already used to this kind of outburst.
Bakugo kept going, his voice rising further. "If there's something that helps them get ahead, that makes it worse! They'll get a chance to improve fast! Which means I have to get ahead of them starting now, not wait around for them!"
What set him off was obvious. Any word suggesting others might benefit from this stage more than he would, any idea that gave his classmates a chance to close the gap, was enough to light that familiar fire in him.
By contrast, he preferred hearing about obstacles, added pressure, anything that made the road harder. Whenever he sensed the path getting crueler, he seemed to welcome the challenge with a strange sort of ease. But the moment an opportunity became open and beneficial to everyone equally, he boiled inside as though it were a personal insult.
Kirishima smiled lightly and muttered almost to himself, "Bakugo is still exactly the same."
Mina looked at him with slightly widened eyes, then whispered to Uraraka, "He really does get angry even at good things."
At the front, Aizawa moved on to what mattered more. "But understand something else. The provisional license is not the end of the exam. It is only what allows you to move to the next stage."
Some students raised their eyes toward him with sharper focus.
"The next stage means responsibility, commitment, and real learning straight from the pro heroes themselves. You will not be mere spectators. You will learn how a hero actually behaves in the field, not in a classroom."
The words seemed to weigh the whole room down more than before, but at the same time made it feel more charged with anticipation.
Midoriya was the most attentive of all. His eyes widened slightly, then dropped to his desk as if he were arranging thoughts quickly inside his head. It was clear he was already thinking about the next step. Who would he learn from? Where? How should he choose the best path?
Zoro sat in his usual silence, half leaning against his chair, eyes fixed on Aizawa without any visible reaction on his face. But the moment he heard the talk of field work and provisional licenses, something shifted in his expression, and a faint smile, barely noticeable, formed on his lips.
"Finally. The real work begins."
The words came out slow and low, closer to a murmur to himself than something meant for anyone else. Then he leaned back further into his chair and returned to his brief silence, but something in his eyes changed the instant he suddenly remembered Shimotsuki.
"Damn it."
He clenched his teeth slightly, his gaze staying locked on the empty space in front of him.
"That old man. I don't know where he is, and he won't answer my calls."
Zoro frowned harder, then exhaled lightly through his nose, as if the matter irritated him more than he wanted to show.
"I need to find a solution for this."
At that moment, Midoriya caught that small shift in his expression from a distance. He had been watching Zoro with automatic focus, and when he saw the frown and that tense look pass through his eyes, he lowered his inner voice as he studied him carefully.
What's wrong with Zoro? He seems bothered by something.
The moment class ended, chairs began scraping across the floor, and the students' attention scattered as they got ready to leave the room. The mood had eased somewhat after Aizawa's words, but some tension still hung in the air, as if it had not quite left with his final sentence.
In the back, Zoro rose with his usual calm, gathering his sword and belongings in silence, then headed for the door with steady steps without paying much attention to anything around him. But Midoriya, who had not stopped noticing Zoro's expression since the start of class, followed him quickly before he could vanish into the hallways.
"Zoro!"
He called out as he closed the distance. Zoro turned slightly, his calm eyes landing on him over his shoulder.
"What is it?"
Midoriya hesitated for a moment, then spoke with clear honesty. "I wanted to ask you, is the field work the only reason you're bothered?"
Zoro raised an eyebrow slightly, then let out a light breath through his nose. "Not exactly."
Midoriya stepped closer, his voice quieter now. "Right, I remember now. You told me you'd talk to Shimotsuki, didn't you? Have you actually reached him?"
Zoro frowned a little, then answered as he started walking again. "No. He won't answer my calls. I couldn't reach him at all, and even my teacher Kenji isn't answering either. It doesn't seem like he knows what's going on with him."
Midoriya raised a hand to his chin, thinking. "Sounds like he's busy with something, or maybe he has some kind of problem."
"Maybe." Zoro's answer came short, but it did not rule out the idea.
Zoro went quiet for a moment, then seemed to remember something else. "What about you? Did you get in touch with that old man?"
Midoriya glanced at him sideways, as if he understood immediately who he meant. "Yes. That old man gave me the name of someone else, and told me to talk to All Might about it."
Zoro shook his head lightly, muttering. "What is wrong with these old men? One won't answer, and the other just hands you off."
Midoriya couldn't hold back a short laugh. "Seems like they both prefer making things more complicated for us than they need to be."
Then he cleared his throat and returned to his usual enthusiasm. "Anyway, I was actually heading to All Might right now, since I wanted him to talk to his old assistant about this. If you're done, let's go together."
Zoro gave him a calm glance, then answered simply, "Nothing else on my plate. Let's go."
Midoriya nodded quickly, his smile not quite fading as he walked alongside him down the hallway.
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Zoro has just stepped into the Shie Hassaikai raid...
The Black Blade (Shusui) is no longer just a rumor. It's inside the facility and something is waiting for Zoro.
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