'What the hell ... Are things really this bad?'
Burnin thought at the sight of what was before them.
Ever since that night, villain attacks all over the country had shot up nearly tenfold. The number of heroes that previously overwhelmed villains suddenly didn't seem to have much of an advantage anymore.
Halfway into her thoughts, the enemy in front of them moved again. "GAAH .. !" Dozens of blade like weapons shot towards them. A hero's sleeve was sliced clean off as he barely twisted away, blood spraying from a shallow but dangerously close cut along his side. 'Shit ...' Burnins hands reached for her hair, hands drawing fireballs before hurling them at her opponent.
Her attacks were met by more blades shooting in her direction. She dodged just in time to avoid getting shredded. "Dammit!" Moonfish landed in a crouch a few meters away, head tilting from left to right. Blades made from his teeth slid back into his mouth, releasing a grinding sound… only to extend again in the next second.
"Flesh…" he rasped. "Beautiful… raw… open it up for me ... I want a taste …"
His words made Burnin sickened. "Ugh just great .. another weirdo."
Spears made of flames were drawn from her hair as she stared down her opponent. "Honestly, what did I expect."
Twenty minutes had passed. Forget stopping the villain, they couldn't even get close without risking the death or injury of one of their own. It didn't help that she was the only one with long ranged attacks.
The others were being forced into support whether they liked it or not. The problem with this opponent wasn't his power but the nature of it.
His blades extended far enough that you couldn't close on him without entering their range first, which meant the engagement kept resetting at the same distance and nothing got resolved. "Someone give me an angle here." she said. "I need a ..."
Her words were halfway through when a violent gust of wind blew past her.
Before she could react, a figure emerged on the other side. The barely visible silhouette bypassed all the attacking blades and appeared before Moonfish who was hovering with his teeth. The sound of metal shattering followed. Following which ... Moonfish was slammed directly into the next building. A cloud of dust erupted.
The shockwave rippled through the street a second later.
"…What the—"
Burnin's eyes snapped wide, flames flickering erratically along her hair as she whipped her head toward the building.
"…Did anyone see that?" one of the side heroes asked, voice tight.
"No," another answered immediately.
The dust cleared to reveal a hole in the building. A figure emerged from that hole. He wore a dark green tactical jacket, a mask that obscured his features, and carried a head of spiky silver white hair.
He held Moonfish by the neck, the villain's body dangling limply, blades twitching like the legs of an overturned beetle.
"…No way…" someone whispered behind her.
"Who is that?" one of the younger heroes gasped, clutching his bleeding side.
Burnin's eyes widened. As Endeavors sidekick, how could she forget the person her boss had fumed about the following week after Hosu?
The man in question didn't look at them. Rather his eyes were on the conscious Moonfish still in his grasp. Well, MHA citizens really were physically stronger than most.
He was still conscious after getting slammed through a wall.
"Meat…" Moonfish wheezed, his jaw making clicking noise as he tried to retract his blades to strike at his captor's arm. "So much… beautiful meat…"
Seeing this, he didn't respond. Instead he raised his free hand, two fingers placed on the base of moonfish's neck, and injected chakra into it.
In an instant, an internal understanding of his opponents internal system appeared in his mind.
'Thankfully I can do this without the Sharingan.'
He thought as he proceeded to strike Moonfish at the base of the neck.
CRACK.
The sound of the cervical vertebrae snapping was audible even over the distant sirens. Moonfish's body went completely slack in an instant. The metallic teeth-blades clattered to the pavement, shrinking back into his mouth one final time as his consciousness extinguished.
With a flick of his wrist, the White Fang tossed the body toward the heroes.
"Huh?" Burnin was stunned. Then proceeded to propel herself forward with a burst of flame, catching the limp mass-murderer before he could splatter against the asphalt. She skidded to a halt, checking for a pulse. He was alive. The next moment, it finally set in that she had gone all out to save a massive murdering criminal. Irritation flared across her face as she looked back up towards the building. Her hair flaring into an angry emerald color. "Hey! Don't just drop people from buildings, idiot—"
Her voice halted, realising that the hole in the building was empty. Like he had never been there at all.
"…He's gone?" one of the heroes asked, disbelief creeping into his voice.
Burnin clicked her tongue, adjusting her grip on Moonfish. Her eyes lingered on the hole for a moment longer. "…Yeah, same as last time."
'Tch .. showoff.'
One of the heroes approached cautiously, eyes flicking between the unconscious villain and the rooftop. "You said… 'same as last time'?"
Burnin exhaled through her nose. "Yeah. Hosu incident. Same guy." Her gaze lingered upward for a second longer before she turned away. "Pops in, wrecks whoever's causing trouble, disappears before anyone can blink."
Too many things had happened since Hosu. Hence, it was no surprise that few people remembered.
"Vigilante?" another asked.
"Yeah. A dangerous one too, if you ask me." Burnin clicked her tongue again, turning fully away from the building. "Whatever. We'll let the higher-ups deal with him."
She started walking.
"…Still," she muttered under her breath, a faint grin tugging at her lips despite herself. "For a vigilante, he ain't half bad. I like this one."
_
Meanwhile ... Elsewhere — U.A Training Camp, Base of the Mountain
The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the clearing.
The forest rustled. Then, branches snapped.
"…Oh, they're finally here," Pixie-Bob said, peering toward the tree line with a grin.
"Mm. Took them long enough," Mandalay added.
The bushes shook violently. Following which, Class 1A stumbled out one after another.
Dirty, scratched and sweating all over. The sight wasn't pleasant. Their uniforms were torn in places, some covered in dirt, others with leaves and blood stuck in their hair.
Upon arriving at the center of the open field, Kaminari was the first to collapse.
"I'm—done…" he wheezed, face planting into the ground.
"I can't feel my legs…" Sero groaned, dropping beside him.
"Ribbit…"
Uraraka didn't even make it fully out of the tree line before she dropped. "…I'm never… climbing anything again…"
A chorus of groans followed. Finally, once they gained enough energy, the first question was thrown.
"What the hell was up with those three hours?!"
"Yeah! That was way longer. How could you expect us to get down here so fast?"
Pixie-Bob placed her hands on her hips, completely unapologetic.
"Hm? Oh, that?" she said brightly. "That's the time we would've taken to clear it."
Silence.
"THAT DOESN'T HELP!!" The clearing erupted into a storm of exhausted complaints.
"That was torture!"
"Those things didn't stop coming!"
"Damn! I'm so hungry."
"I think I almost died. Guys ... Did anyone else see their lives flash before their eyes? "
Mandalay sighed softly, but there was a hint of amusement in her eyes.
"Honestly, we thought it would take you all a lot longer."
"Huh?"
"Yep. You all did well against Pixie Bob's earth beasts. Much better than we anticipated."
"Oh. You're back." The voice cut in on Mandalay's speech.
Heads turned. Standing just outside the building was Mr. Aizawa coming out with his hands in his pockets. And beside him ... "Hi guys." Yuta waved with a smile.
The world stopped. Then rebooted.
Processing.
Reprocessing.
Error.
Class 1A's eyes shouted from Yuta's face down to his clothes. Not a single scratch or sign of exhaustion.
Then...
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Kaminari shot up faster than Yuta expected. For a moment, he suspected his previous exhaustion was faked ... Though that was cleared when he plopped back down the next second with a louder groan.
Sero pointed at Yuta like he had just witnessed a ghost. "YOU—YOU—"
"YOU'RE CLEAN?!" Mina shrieked.
"WHERE WERE YOU?!"
"DON'T TELL ME—" Kaminari's eye twitched. "DON'T TELL ME YOU JUST ..."
Bakugo's voice cut through everything like an explosion.
"Tell us where you've been bastard." He stood a little apart from the others, ash and dirt smeared across his arm.
Yuta blinked. "… Um ... Not here?"
"DON'T SMARTASS ME!" Bakugo snapped, a small explosion popping in his palm.
"Wait ... wait, hold on!" Sero jumped in. "Did you even do the test?!"
"We all thought you ran ahead of us or something."
"Yeah," Kaminari added, betrayal written all over his face. "Don't tell me you just flew down!"
Yuta scratched the back of his head.
"…I didn't actually go down with you guys."
Silence.
"THAT'S UNFAIR!" Kaminari yelled.
"I object as well. This is not ideal!"
"Yeah. What do you mean you didn't go?!" Hagakure demanded. All eyes snapped to Aizawa.
The man didn't even blink. "This exercise was designed to push your limits," he said flatly. "Endurance. Adaptability. Team coordination under sustained pressure."
His gaze swept over them. "Akutami doesn't have those limitations. He would've reached the base in under a minute. Which defeats the purpose of the exercise."
Kaminari's face twitched. "…So you just skipped him?!"
"No," Aizawa said. "He had a different assignment."
"What was that?"
"Catching villains with me."
"..."
The entire class fell silent. Yuta scratched his head. "Um, well if it helps, I've only been here for a few hours."
".."
A long silence stretched after that. Until ...
"Yuta, you do know that doesn't make us feel any better right?" Uraraka said with a hunched back.
"Oh, sorry. I thought it would help."
"HOW DOES THAT HELP?!" Kaminari exploded, voice cracking as he pointed at Yuta like he had personally betrayed the entire class.
Sero slapped a hand over his face. "No, no, wait ... hold on ... he thinks that helps."
"It does not help!" Jiro replied. "In fact, I might just feel worse now." The most dramatic of all of them, Mineta, was practically on his knees.
"While we were fighting for our lives…" he trembled, voice quivering with emotion. "you were out there… doing actual hero work… with a teacher…"
He looked up. "…I hate my life."
'You and me both.' Yuta thought and looked at Bakugo who was currently leveling him an intense stare. 'This isn't going to settle anytime soon .. is it?' Feeling the collective stares from everyone, even Mandalay, Pixie Bob and Aizawa, even Yuta felt embarrassed about the joke that might have been a little too far.
"… Sorry, it wasn't exactly—"
"Don't." Jiro cut him off. "Don't even try to explain it."
"Yeah," Kaminari added "You're clean. You're not allowed to talk right now."
"That's fair," Yuta finally admitted without much resistance.
Mandalay clapped her hands once, drawing attention back. "Alright, that's enough complaining," she said, though there was still a hint of amusement in her tone. "You all made it. That's what matters."
Aizawa stepped forward. "Now listen carefully. I hope you've prepared yourselves because today was just the baseline."
A collective groan rose immediately.
"NO ..."
"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS ..."
"I REFUSE ..."
He ignored all of it. "From tomorrow onward, your training will be individualized."
That made a few people pause. "Based on your quirks. Your weaknesses. Your limits." His gaze swept across them. "And those limits will be pushed."
Silence.
"That's all for today. Pack your bags from the bus and once you do that, we'll have dinner at the cafeteria. After that, you'll bathe and go to sleep and we can start for real tomorrow. Any questions?"
Midoriya raised his hand.
"Midoriya?"
"Um, I just wanted to ask." His finger pointed to the side where a little boy was standing alone. "Whose kid is that?"
__
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters by joining my Patreon!
💧 WATER TIER (5$) – Read 3 chapters ahead of public releases
🌍 EARTH TIER ($7) – Read 5 chapters ahead, with bonus lore, author notes, and behind-the-scenes content
🔥 FIRE TIER ($10) – Read 8 chapters ahead, get full access to all extras, and vote in exclusive polls for bonus content
📎 Patreon.com/Future805
Even a small pledge makes a huge difference — thank you for reading