….
After dinner, Class 1-A split for the hot springs, a thick wooden wall separating the boys and girls as heavy steam rose into the cool evening air.
When the first group of boys slid open the door, they froze solid.
"Uh... guys?" Shinso muttered, stopping dead in his tracks and blinking through the thick mist. "We might have the wrong room."
"What are you stalling for, Shinso? Move your–" Kirishima cut himself off as he piled in behind him, his jaw dropping. "Dabi-sensei?!"
Lounging in the far corner with his arms draped over the smooth stone lip was their assistant homeroom teacher.
No face mask, eyes completely closed, and a look of pure, unbothered satisfaction on his scarred face.
"The water's perfect, kids." Dabi drawled, not even bothering to open an eye. "Close the door. You're letting the draft in."
"S-Sensei!" Iida stammered, instantly chopping his arm through the steam. "We were under the impression you were arriving tomorrow with the primary logistics and support team!"
"Plans change, Tenya. Deal with it." Dabi replied lazily.
Near the entrance, little Kota was sitting aggressively on a small plastic stool.
The girls had formally designated him as the official lookout to ensure the boys didn't try anything funny near the dividing wall, a job he had been taking with grim, deadly seriousness. Until he wiped the steam from his eyes.
"The Blue Sun..." Kota whispered, his jaw dropping as he practically magnetized to the edge of the tub, his eyes shining. "He's really here!"
But unlike his admiration he didn't try to approach him just stayed behind.
Dabi sensed this gaze but for now he ignored it.
Sensing an opportunity, Kaminari leaned over Sero, whispering out of the corner of his mouth. "Hey... look how high that wall goes. If we just create a human pyramid, I bet we could–"
"I can hear you, Kaminari." Dabi interrupted smoothly, resting his head back. "And if I see so much as a stray elbow leaving this water, I will personally use your lightning-rod ass to boil the entire tank. Understand?"
"Crystal clear, sir!" Kaminari squeaked, sinking instantly up to his chin.
No one could quite pinpoint the exact moment the shift happened, but somehow, the casual gathering organically morphed into a deep, philosophical discussion about their love lives.
Before long, the students had gathered around Dabi in a tight semicircle, listening with a level of rapt attention they hadn't once shown during a single textbook lecture.
"Look, the basics aren't that hard." Dabi was saying, splashing a bit of water onto his shoulders while the boys listened like disciples. "You read the room, you don't act like a desperate creep, and you pay attention."
"But what about the pressure, Sensei?!" Kaminari asked proactively, practically raising his hand in the water. "What if you choke?!"
"Then you fail. Next question." Dabi deadpanned.
He glanced over at the class rep, who was currently sitting rigidly at a distance, looking deeply uncomfortable. "What's the matter, Tenya? You're awfully quiet over there. Are you defying your teacher's curriculum now?"
"This is highly unorthodox behavior for a school-sanctioned training camp facility!" Iida protested righteously, his ears turning red. "A Hero's mind should be focused entirely on physical cultivation and–"
"Sit down and take notes, Tenya." Dabi cut him off with a lazy glare.
Iida shut up instantly, sinking up to his nose in the hot water with a defeated bubble.
"Listen up." Dabi continued, looking over the crowd. "With the right approach, most of you are going to be fine. But there are exactly three idiots in this bath right now who won't land a girl in their entire lives. Except for them, you're all in decent hands, so don't worry."
"Wait, really?" Sero chuckled, leaning forward. "Who are the tragedies?"
Dabi lazily lifted a hand, pointing his finger sequentially through the steam. "It's these three. Mr. Clueless, Mr. Explosive, and Mr. Super Clueless."
He was pointing directly at Shoto, Bakugo, and Midoriya.
It was a hilarious irony.
These were the exact three students Dabi had singled out on the very first day of school as the absolute strongest in the class; a claim that had been proven right time and time again in battle.
But this time around, he was putting them on blast for a completely different kind of battlefield.
"Wait, really?" Ojiro chuckled. "The top three?"
"You want me to prove it?" Dabi smirked, leaning his head back against the stone. He flicked his eyes over to his right. "Shoto. Have you ever hit on a girl from your class?"
Shoto blinked, completely earnest as he looked back at him. "Why would I hit a girl? Violence against classmates is against campus regulations."
A collective, simultaneous smack echoed through the hot spring as every single boy in the water facepalmed.
Dabi closed his eyes and dragged a hand down his own face, letting out a heavy, exhausted sigh.
"See? You see that?" Dabi gestured wildly toward Shoto. "Exhibit A. Absolute hopeless case."
Then, Dabi turned his predatory, mocking gaze toward the blond sitting by the far edge.
"Which brings us to Bakugo."
Every head instantly turned toward him, which he didn't like one bit.
The veins on Bakugo's forehead popped, and the water around his clenched fists began to dangerously sizzle and bubble.
"What the hell are you all looking at me for?!"
"Exhibit B." Dabi sighed, not even flinching at the threat of localized explosions. "Bakugo, let's play out a scenario. A girl comes up to you, completely sincere, and confesses she has liked you for a long time. What's your move?"
The entire bath held its breath.
Bakugo scoffed loudly, crossing his arms with enough force to send a wave across the pool. "I would tell her to get the hell out of my face! If she's got time to waste on that romantic garbage, she should be spending it on extra reps! Love doesn't win battles, and I don't need some weak-ass anchor slowing me down!"
Another collective, synchronized facepalm echoed through the steam. Kirishima just shook his head, looking deeply mournful.
"Manly conviction... but totally unmanly execution, Bakugo."
"See?" Dabi pointed a lazy thumb at him. "The guy views a romantic confession as a tactical ambush. If a girl ever manages to marry him, it will be because she challenged him to a deathmatch and won."
"YOU WANT TO GO, SENSEI?! I WILL BOIL YOU ALIVE IN THIS TANK!" Bakugo roared, half-rising out of the water before Kirishima and Kaminari frantically dragged him back down by his shoulders.
"And finally." Dabi said, his eyes sliding over to the last target, his smirk widening. "We have the final boss of romantic hopeless cases. Mr. Super Clueless."
Midoriya, who had been trying to physically merge with the stone wall to escape notice, flinched violently as nineteen pairs of eyes, plus little Kota's wide, intense stare, locked onto him.
"M-Me?!" Midoriya squeaked, his voice cracking a full octave. "Dabi-sensei, I don't think that's fair! I talk to girls! I talk to Uraraka-san and Hatsume-san all the time!"
"Yeah, you talk to them about torque ratios, support gear specifications, and muscle-mass distribution." Dabi deadpanned, blowing a bit of steam out of his face. "Kid, you have a girl who practically glows like a neon sign every time you step into a room, and your baseline response is to analyze her center of gravity. You can dodge a villain's attack pattern on pure, terrifying instinct, but the second a girl gives you a compliment, your brain short-circuits and you look like you're about to swallow your own tongue."
Every boy in the water slowly turned to look at Midoriya, nodding in solemn, tragic agreement.
"It's true, Midoriya." Kaminari lamented. "Sometimes it's painful to watch."
Midoriya's face turned a shade of red that completely rivaled the hot spring's temperature.
He sank down until the water reached his lower lip to hide his burning cheeks, his heart hammering against his ribs.
For a terrifying, breathless second, his mind raced back to his internal monologue on the porch.
Dodge on instinct?! Danger radar?! Did Dabi-Sensei know about Danger Sense?
Midoriya looked closely at his teacher through the mist.
Dabi's eyes were closed again, his face relaxed in a lazy, mocking smirk.
It was just a figure of speech… At least he thought it was.
He was just making fun of his usual over-analytical battle habits.
Midoriya let out a long, silent puff of air beneath the water, the sheer relief cooling his chest. Thank goodness... he doesn't know.
"Alright, class dismissed." Dabi announced, stretching his scarred arms over his head before gracefully sliding out of the pool. "Go get some sleep, Heroes. Tomorrow, the real hell begins, and you all already know I won't be this gentle when I am throwing you into the dirt."
After Dabi left the boys stayed for a little more while-
Midoriya sat at the shallow edge of the boys' side, his legs dangling in the water, completely lost in thought.
The recent incident at the shopping complex kept replaying in his mind, how close he had come to losing control, how helpless he had felt, and how effortlessly Dabi-sensei had moved toward a threat that had frozen Midoriya entirely.
"You're thinking too loud." Todoroki observed quietly, sliding into the water nearby.
Midoriya blinked, snapping out of his daze. "Just processing."
"The attack at the mall?"
"Was it that obvious?"
Later, after the baths had cleared out, Midoriya found himself sitting on the lodge's back porch, staring out into the pitch-black horizon of the forest.
The night air was crisp, a sharp contrast to the suffocating heat of the day.
That's where Mandalay found him.
"Can't sleep?" she asked, stepping onto the wooden deck and settling down beside him.
"Too much on my mind, I guess." Midoriya admitted, offering a faint, tired smile.
Mandalay looked at him out of the corner of her eye, studying his profile. "You know, for a kid your age, it looks like you've already gone through some incredibly tough times."
It wasn't a superficial observation.
She had been thinking about it ever since the afternoon; specifically, the terrifying, split-second shift in his eyes when Kota had tried to ambush him.
Those weren't the reflexes of a sheltered student.
Midoriya chuckled softly, shaking his head. "No, it's not like that. Honestly, I have had it a lot easier than many of the people I know. In fact, I think I am incredibly lucky. I have so many amazing people to rely on, and despite everything... I am finally walking the exact path I always wanted to."
Mandalay didn't know enough of his background to push the issue, so she simply let his humble denial slide.
Midoriya turned to her, his expression turning serious as a question that had been bothering him all evening finally surfaced. "Mandalay... I just don't understand one thing about Kota."
"What's that?"
"If Dabi-sensei saved his parents, and Dabi is a Hero... why does Kota hate Heroes so much now?"
Mandalay's expression sobered, her gaze drifting out toward the darkened trees. "It's not exactly that he hates heroes across the board. It's more that... he despises incompetence. Or rather, he learned a very harsh truth the day his parents were attacked."
She paused, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Kota was actually there when it happened. He saw with his own eyes how his parents, two licensed Pros, were completely overwhelmed. And then he watched a teenager, someone who hadn't even graduated high school yet, step in and do what the adults couldn't."
Mandalay looked directly at Midoriya, her eyes reflecting the starlight. "He experienced what absolute, uncompromised Heroism looked like firsthand. He completely idolized Dabi for it. But the downside to witnessing something that is perfect so early in life is that... nothing else ever measures up. To Kota, standard Heroes look like people playing a safe, commercialized game."
Midoriya absorbed her words, the puzzle pieces finally clicking into place. "So when he called us wannabes..."
"He is measuring you against the only standard he knows." Mandalay said softly, pushing herself up to a stand and dusting off her clothes. "He's testing to see if you're actually serious about putting your lives on the line, or if you're just kids playing dress-up."
.
….
[To be continued…]
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