….
[Three Weeks Later - 03:00 AM]
BEEP–!
BEEP–!
Dabi woke to the sound of an alert alarm and small screamings.
It was Eri!!
His heightened senses instantly detected the shift in the air's molecular vibration that can only be caused by wild quirk activation.
He was out of bed and beside him, Rumi was already a blur of motion, her ears pinned back as she sensed the high-frequency of a quirk reaching critical mass.
The duo's Pro instincts were at peak as they moved without talking. And before Dabi even cleared the bedroom door, his thumb slammed into a specialized HPSC-encrypted emergency transponder mounted on the wall.
The signal was instantaneous.
Two floors up, in an apartment strategically placed by the Commission to keep their 'assets' clustered, Aizawa Shouta's own alarm triggered a high-intensity strobe light.
….
When Dabi and Rumi reached Eri's door, the sight was a nightmare of bio-physics.
Eri was at the center of a Temporal Feedback Loop. The air around her pulsed with a golden, iridescent hue.
An apple sitting on her desk began to 'un-ripen.' Right in front of them, it turned from deep red to a hard, bitter green, then shriveled and shrunk until it was nothing more than a cluster of white blossoms that fell, fresh and dew-covered, onto the desk.
"Rumi, Vanguard Pattern B!" Dabi barked.
Rumi didn't rush in. She knew the stakes - Eri's quirk targeted living matter, and Rumi was a powerhouse of biological energy. One touch of that golden light and she wouldn't just be injured; she would be erased.
Using her explosive leg strength, Rumi delivered a precision kick to the heavy metal desk, sliding it across the doorway. Since the desk was inorganic steel, it remained unaffected by the golden pulse, creating a 'dead zone' barricade
She stood on the threshold, a coiled spring of muscle, her eyes scanning for structural collapse.
Dabi stayed back, his hands raised.
He had to be.... even more careful.
Otherwise, his [Super Soldier] biology will be put at greatest risk - if he were rewound, the serum's delicate integration would go haytier, potentially causing a cellular explosion.
"Eri! Look at me!" Dabi shouted, his voice steady, using a low-frequency [Sun Breathing] hum to cut through her panic. "Focus on the sound! Match my rhythm!"
Dabi addressed, trying to make her remember how he taught her to control her emotions from the past few weeks.
Alas, the girl was too trapped in a nightmare of past experiences.
BANG–!
Right then–
Aizawa Shouta, having used his capture scarf to swing down from his balcony, crashed through the window.
He entered Eri's room with his goggles already down and his hair defying gravity.
[ERASURE ACTIVE]
The red glow of Aizawa's quirk flooded the room.
Immediately, the golden distortion vanished. The raw cotton on the floor remained cotton, and the sap on the floorboards dried.
Eri collapsed into a heap of exhaustion, her breathing ragged but the danger neutralized.
"Status?" Aizawa rasped, his eyes bloodshot and unblinking.
"Stabilized." Dabi replied, his pulse gradually easing from its combat-ready one-sixty. "There was no physical contact, or casualties, and the transponder functioned as intended."
….
By 06:00, a secure line was established with the Hero Public Safety Commission (HPSC).
If possible Dabi and Rumi didn't want to report the incident, but they can't be risking the safety of Eri or any civilians that might get caught.
And HPSC, as they expected, weren't happy about the incident. They concluded that–
Eri was a 'Class-S Bio-Risk' that could no longer be managed in a residential setting, even with Pro-Hero neighbors.
Presently, the HPSC saw an opportunity to solve two problems with one directive:
They had grown increasingly wary of Dabi's 'unauthorized autonomy' - his underground operations and team formations were becoming too unpredictable and even feared he was building a private powerful team.
They needed him on a leash, and they needed Eri in a vault.
Finally, the conditions or ruling as the HPDC called to like are:
| Eri would be moved to a specialized, quirk-shielded dormitory within the U.A. High School campus, under the constant proximity of Aizawa Shouta.
| Dabi would be officially 'conscripted' as an Assistant Professor for Class 1-A.
On paper, it was to teach Physiological Optimization and Combat Breath Control.
By placing Dabi at U.A., the HPSC could monitor his every move through the school's state-of-the-art security systems and the oversight of Principal Nezu.
….
One week after the midnight crisis at the apartment, Dabi stood before the towering glass monolith of U.A. High School.
The sun glinted off the 'H' shaped structure, a fortress that felt more like a cage to most.
But Dabi knew better. The HPSC thought they had pinned him to a map, turning an unpredictable underground variable into a documented employee.
They didn't realize that by placing him here, they had handed him the keys to the future.
"Dumbass..." he muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching upward.
Still, he knew this arrangement wouldn't last forever.
He had no intention of playing along with their little games for long.
….
It was the first day for Dabi at U.A., and luckily it was also the opening day for the students too.
Dabi stood outside Class 1-A, dressed in dark, high-durability tactical gear - sleek, professional, and devoid of the flashy theatricality most Heroes favored.
Eri was with Recovery Girl in the infirmary - the safest place for her during school hours, with multiple Heroes nearby if her quirk activated.
Beside him, Aizawa looked even more tired than usual.
His capture weapon was wrapped loosely around his neck, and he was holding what had to be his fourth coffee of the morning.
"Why you…" Aizawa rasped, his eyes bloodshot.
"Don't be so dramatic, Shouta." Dabi smirked, his turquoise eyes sharp. "Besides, would you rather have Yamada screaming 'Good Morning' in your ear right now?"
Aizawa actually winced, the mere thought of Present Mic's 08:00 volume level clearly causing him physical pain.
"Fine. But let's get one thing straight: I lead, you supplement. This is my class. If you try to turn them into like you on day one, I will erase you next week."
"Yeah, yeah. Our class. I hear you."
….
Aizawa slid the door open with a sharp, heavy click.
The chatter inside - the sound of twenty teenagers meeting their fate - died instantly.
While Aizawa slouched in, looking like a disheveled ghost, Dabi's entrance was a different frequency entirely.
He didn't slouch and moved with the predatory, silent grace of a Pro Hero.
The students felt the shift in atmospheric pressure before they even saw him. He was a presence that demanded a high level of attention.
Dabi scanned the room, cataloging faces.
Midoriya near the window, and there is surprise recognition in his face as he saw Dabi.
Bakugo sitting right in front of him with a foul expression.
Iida. Uraraka. Asui. Yaoyorozu. All the faces he recognized from the anime.
…including a red and white haired kid sitting at the end of the second row, without any expression.
Shoto Todoroki.
His younger brother, and family.
The memories of his childhood instantly surfaced.
Particularly, the scar on Shoto's face, and the time he attacked him.
Nah, I am a new man now. Dabi shook his head subconsciously while maintaining the same look.
On the other hand, Aizawa stepped to the podium, still looking like he would rather be asleep.
"I am Shota Aizawa. Your homeroom teacher. It's a pleasure, I am sure."
He gestured lazily to Dabi and paused. "This is–"
"Name is Dabi."
Dabi stepped forward, his voice a steady, resonant baritone that echoed off the reinforced walls.
He scanned their confused, eager faces one last time.
Aizawa took charge. "Change into your gym uniforms and report to the P.E. grounds. We're starting with a Quirk Assessment Test."
A faint hiss of heat slipped from his palms, distorting the air.
"And if anyone thinks today is for orientation speeches…" His gaze sharpened. "You're already behind."
A heavy silence dropped.
Then—
"A Quirk test??!" Kaminari blurted.
"On the first day?" Uraraka whispered.
Midoriya straightened immediately, nerves spiking. "Assessment… already…"
Bakugo's lips curled. "Tch. Finally."
Iida shot to his feet. "Understood! We shall proceed at once!"
….
Training Ground Beta.
The eight physical tests proceeded exactly as Dabi remembered from the original timeline.
…with one significant difference.
Midoriya performed… better.
A little better, if he may add.
His 50-meter dash was competitive, not the fastest, but nowhere near the slowest.
His grip strength was above average for a quirkless baseline, and his standing long jump utilized breathing technique to enhance muscle output.
He wasn't exactly dominating, but not failing behind either.
Throughout the tests, Dabi watched carefully.
Midoriya was using [Total Concentration Breathing] constantly, maintaining the rhythm even during intense physical activity.
It was almost perfect.
Dabi had to admit it, the kid was a genius. Midoriya adapted quickly and often figured things out on his own.
As for Full Cowling, that still wasn't there yet, which made sense. Midoriya understood the concept, controlling his output instead of releasing everything at once, but he hadn't really had the chance to test that theory in practice. It wasn't something he could safely experiment with at home, where a mistake could easily end with him injuring himself again. Even All Might had advised him not to try anything reckless until school resumed.
Still, even without that breakthrough, the breathing training alone had improved his performance in every test.
Better oxygen delivery meant greater endurance.
Better body control meant more efficient movement.
And increased pain tolerance meant he could push through fatigue longer than before.
By the final test - the ball throw, Midoriya was tied for second-to-last place with Minoru Mineta.
According to Dabi's calculations, whoever performed worse on this last test would be expelled.
Midoriya stepped up to throw.
Dabi could see the conflict in his expression - use One For All and risk breaking himself, or throw without it and definitely fail.
Then Midoriya's face cleared and a decision was made.
He didn't try to contain it.
The wind-up was clean and at the final instant, power sparked - not through his entire arm, but funneled, compressed, forced into just two fingers: ring and middle.
For a split second, it worked.
The ball tore from his hand like a bullet, slicing upward into the sky.
Then—
A sharp crack.
His fingers bent at a wrong angle as the recoil snapped through them, the controlled output collapsing under its own force.
The ball rocketed into the sky. It wasn't as far as Bakugo's explosive throw or Uraraka's infinity throw, but respectable.
705.3 meters.
The crowd gasped.
Aizawa's expression remained neutral, but Dabi caught the slight widening of his eyes.
Final rankings appeared on Aizawa's tablet.
Minoru Mineta: Last Place.
"Mineta." Aizawa said flatly. "You are expelled."
The purple-haired student's face went white.
"E—EHHHHHH?!" he shrieked, stumbling forward. "W-WAIT! WHAT?! You can't just— I mean— I tried! I really tried!"
The rest of Class 1-A stood frozen, nobody laughed.
They had all heard the rumors about Aizawa's expulsion of an entire class from Momo just now.
Mineta dropped to his knees. "Please, Eraser Head! I will do better! I swear! I will train harder! Stop slacking! I wil—"
Aizawa cut in. "Doesn't matter."
Mineta's shoulders trembled. "But… I wanted to be a hero…" he muttered weakly.
Aizawa's eyes were hard. "You have no potential. Your quirk is mediocre with terrible physical conditioning, and your attitude is worse. UA doesn't accept students who coast on minimum effort."
Security arrived to escort Mineta off the grounds. The other students watched in shocked silence.
So he had been serious from the start. Aizawa actually expelled someone on day one.
Dabi filed that information away, and finally stepped in–
"Midoriya. Bakugo. Todoroki. Front and center." His voice cut through the stunned silence.
As the trio approached, Dabi reached up and unlatched the high-tech, charcoal-grey partial mask.
The students gasped.
Thanks to the [Super Soldier] integration, the once-angry, weeping purple scars had faded into a series of sleek, silver-toned lines that traced his jaw and the underside of his eyes.
They looked less like burns and more like tribal etchings - evidence of a body that had been dismantled and rebuilt with superior materials.
He looked strikingly handsome in a rugged, dangerous way; his pale skin was healthy, and his turquoise eyes burned with an inner light.
"Wait…" Momo Yaoyorozu whispered, her eyes widening. "The silver scars… the tactical blue gear… is that Blue Sun?"
"The underground specialist?" Iida asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "The one who recently dismantled the Shie Hassaikai perimeter in under four minutes?"
"My father mentioned him before." Momo said, her voice slightly unsteady. "He said Blue Sun's raw output and combat efficiency are among the few things in this country that can rival Endeavor's."
The whisper spread through the departing students like wildfire. By the time they reached the locker rooms, everyone would know.
Including Shoto Todoroki.
Dabi ignored the murmurs. He pulled out three protein bars, tossing one to each of the boys.
He didn't look at them with pride, but with the cold appraisal of a master smith looking at raw ore.
"Hmm, based on quirk potential and current physical integration." Dabi said, his voice a smooth, resonant baritone. "....you three should be the strongest of this year. But your current standing is messy."
He pointed at Midoriya. "Though your control over your quirk sucks, the raw power is immense. So, you. First."
Then at Shoto Todoroki. "You only use ice, so you are third. Fix it, or you will be the first one to drop in a real war."
Finally at Bakugo. "You. Second. Great instincts, but you rely too much on them."
"WHAT?!" Bakugo's palms crackled with miniature, furious explosions. "How the hell is Deku first?! I crushed the overall score!"
"Scores are for bureaucrats, kid." Dabi said, turning his back and walking toward the lockers, his hands in his pockets. "I am looking at who survives the longest when the lights go out."
Bakugo lunged, but was caught by Aizawa's capture scarf.
Aizawa sighed, rubbing his temples. "Training starts at 08:00 tomorrow. Don't be late. Dabi's warm-ups are... less forgiving than mine."
And then he walked away too.
Behind them, chaos erupted.
"How can Midoriya be first?!"
"Right… He barely passed."
"But Bakugo came in second overall in the test! And Todoroki was fourth!"
Bakugo was still cursing, while Kirishima was trying to calm him down.
Shoto Todoroki stood perfectly still, staring at Dabi's retreating back with his heterochromatic eyes.
…something about him felt a bit familiar.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
Author Note:
Visit Patreon to instantly access +1 chapter for free, available for Free Members as well. For additional content please do support me and gain access to +12 more chapters.
-->patreon.com/WrightBrothers