….
Outside the gates, dozens of protesters had gathered with signs raised high, shouting demands as worried parents questioned the safety of their children, anxious citizens openly doubted whether hero schools could protect anyone anymore, and media crews captured every heated exchange for the evening news.
"HOW CAN YOU KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE?"
"TWO STUDENTS KIDNAPPED! RESIGN!"
"SHUT DOWN U.A.!"
Inside the school, an emergency meeting had been ongoing since dawn.
Principal Nezu sat at the head of the conference table, his usual cheerful demeanor replaced with grim calculation.
Around him: Aizawa, Vlad King, Present Mic, Snipe, and other faculty members who looked like they hadn't slept.
"Peace made us soft." Nezu said quietly. "The League of Villains isn't just attacking students, Shota. They're attacking the very foundation of hero society, and demonstrating to the entire world that we can't protect the next generation."
Aizawa almost slammed his hands. "They didn't just stumble their way through our defenses this time. But we aren't empty-handed."
Nezu turned, his sharp, dark eyes glinting with a dangerous brilliance. "Ah, the trackers Miss Yaoyorozu placed on the vanguard. A brilliant silver lining in an otherwise catastrophic evening."
"Midoriya and the others confirmed it before we pulled them out of the vanguard zone." Aizawa said, his gravelly voice dropping into a lethal register. "The specialized villain was in such a hurry to recover their fallen assets that they swept up our beacons right along with them. The encryption is military-grade. As we speak, blood-hound units are mapping the exact coordinates of their hideout."
Present Mic leaned forward, his usual energetic persona completely gone, replaced by a raw, uncharacteristic edge. "That brings us to the elephant in the room. There's one more issue we need to address: how they obtained that inside information in the first place... and the role Yuga Aoyama played as their informant."
The implication hung incredibly heavy in the air.
The realization that a traitor had walked among their own ranks, handing the vanguard a direct roadmap to their students, made the teachers' blood run cold.
"The boy's family was being threatened by All For One himself." Aizawa muttered, his grip tightening on his capture scarf. "But that doesn't change the damage that's been done."
"Indeed." Nezu murmured, a dangerous, uncharacteristic sharpness cutting into his tone.
Present Mic's expression grew exceptionally grim as he brought up a secondary file on the monitor. "And Aoyama wasn't the only anomaly out there tonight."
He tapped a key, and a grainy, terrifying image captured from the forest perimeter flashed onto the primary screen.
It showed a towering, writhing pillar of dark purple spheres, bubbling with a highly corrosive acid.
"During the extraction chaos, a hidden asset emerged from the shadows to cover the League's retreat." Present Mic explained, his voice stripped entirely of its usual bravado.
"The vanguard's reporting calls him 'Purple'... but Aizawa identified his real name immediately. It's Minoru Mineta. The kid from Class 1-A has completely aligned himself with the villains."
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the conference table.
Aizawa closed his lone visible eye for a fraction of a second, the phantom smell of melting earth and burning acid filling his senses.
He vividly remembered the Quirk apprehension test on the very first day of school.
He had expelled Mineta without a second thought because the boy lacked even the baseline character to be a hero.
Now, that same coward had returned as a biological puppet.
Driven by jealousy and resentment over his lack of a 'flashy' quirk, Mineta had willingly swallowed a quirk-enhancing serum that violently destabilized his cellular structure, turning his sticky spheres into a cascading wave of acid that had nearly crushed and melted Aizawa alive before Midoriya's Blackwhip intervened.
"They took an expelled student's resentment and weaponized it." Vlad King growled, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles popped. "They turned a teenager into a suicidal bio-weapon. How long has this League Of Villains been grooming in the dark?"
"Long enough." Aizawa replied coldly.
"The public trust is fracturing, and our enemies believe they have backed us into a corner." Nezu murmured, a dangerous, uncharacteristic sharpness cutting into his tone. "But they have underestimated our resolve."
Before the discussion could continue, a sharp vibration cut through the heavy tension of the boardroom. All Might glanced down at his phone, his gaunt face tightening, and stood abruptly.
"Naomasa." he said by way of explanation, stepping away from the table to take the call.
["We found the hideout."] Naomasa Tsukauchi said without preamble, his voice tight with urgency. ["Between the tracker Yaoyorozu planted on the vanguard and our prior investigation into the Nomu from the USJ attack, the coordinates aligned. It led us to a series of buildings in Kamino Ward. We've identified the owner, and security footage from nearby areas matches the individuals we believe were part of the kidnapping team."]
All Might's spine straightened, his grip on the phone white-knuckled. "When?"
["Today, I will send you the details."] Naomasa answered immediately. "We're assembling a strike team now. Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, the Rabbit Hero, the top pros who can move fast and hit hard. This is a rapid rescue operation followed by immediate, overwhelming villain suppression."
All Might's jaw clenched, his sunken blue eyes burning with a fierce, renewed fire. "I will be there."
"I know. That's why I am telling you now." Naomasa paused, the unspoken weight of the impending war hanging heavy on the line. "Get ready."
The call ended.
All Might lowered his phone, and he didn't need to explain the details to the room.
The sudden shift in his posture and the lethal aura radiating from his skeletal frame told the faculty everything they needed to know, and the counterattack was set.
"Excellent." Nezu murmured, a chilling smile touching his features. "Because when our sleeping dragon in the medical wing truly opens his eyes, he will not accept complacency. We must be ready to strike back with everything U.A. has to offer."
Aizawa closed his eyes.
Instantly, the image of Dabi's smirking face flashed across his mind and those terrifying, draconic cobalt eyes staring through the reinforced glass, casually holding a perfect equilibrium of absolute-zero frost and white-hot plasma.
"He's already awake, Principal." Aizawa muttered, turning his back to the table and heading toward the door. "And the first thing he told me before his system went into a recovery reboot was that we lost his brother and his explosive student. When he fully stands up..."
Aizawa paused in the doorway, his capture scarf drifting around his neck as his expression darkened into a lethal promise.
"...I intend to have a target painted for him."
With that, the underground hero turned and walked out into the sterile, fluorescent-lit corridors of the hospital, preparing to organize the storm that was about to rain down on Kamino Ward.
….
A few floors below, the remaining students of Class 1-A had gathered in the long, quiet hallway outside of Midoriya's hospital room.
They had just come from the specialized recovery ward, having been granted a brief, heavily monitored visit to see Dabi.
The visit had been quiet, profoundly uncomfortable, and suffocatingly heavy.
None of them had known what to say to an unconscious teacher who had literally gone to war against a walking mountain to protect them.
They had stood around his bed, staring at the man who had pushed them to their breaking points all semester.
The doctors had assured them his vitals were impossibly stable.
But seeing him so still, so completely drained of his usual overwhelming presence, had rattled the students to their core.
Now, they stood at the end of the hallway, the reality of the training camp's aftermath settling over them like a lead weight.
Iida took point, standing rigid. His usual formal demeanor was somehow both a comforting anchor and heartbreakingly strained.
"Currently, everyone is getting treated for their injuries." Iida announced to the group, his voice tight. "As small as a bruise as it might be, the medical staff is ensuring we are all completely cleared..."
He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
He couldn't wrap it up with his usual class-representative optimism because the class was no longer whole.
Two desks would be empty when they returned to U.A.
Midoriya stared at the linoleum floor, his bandaged hands trembling at his sides.
The crushing weight of the previous night threatened to pull him under.
He remembered the desperate sprint through the woods, the agonizing ping of his dormant [Danger Sense], and the horrifying realization that they were too late.
"I know I shouldn't be saying this again." Midoriya whispered, his voice cracking, "But... could I have prevented this if I was just a little bit faster?"
"Stop it, Deku."
.
….
[To be continued…]
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