A thick fog wrapped around the Pussycats' mountains, and the quiet of nature didn't last long. In the wide courtyard in front of the facility, the students of Class 1-A stood swaying with exhaustion. Kirishima was rubbing his eyes with effort, Kaminari looked like he was walking in his sleep, and Mina was working hard to keep her eyelids from closing.
Aizawa stood before them, his expression exactly as it always was. "Good morning." He scanned their faces with eyes that showed no particular sympathy for their condition. "Today we begin serious training. Your goal is the provisional licenses. That means breaking your current limits, not just exploring them."
While Aizawa was running through the details, a massive explosion thundered from deep in the adjacent forest, followed by the sound of the air tearing apart as if something enormous had cut through it.
Jirou pressed her earphone jacks to the ground. "There are strong vibrations coming from the north."
Midoriya looked around uneasily. "Sensei... Zoro-kun isn't here. Nobody's seen him since he left for individual training last night."
Aizawa moved toward the source of the sound and the students followed. In the individual training area, trees had been cut at clean, sharp angles and earth beasts lay completely destroyed. Zoro stood in the middle, shirtless, soaked in sweat, his eyes carrying enormous exhaustion mixed with something still burning. He was holding Sandai Kitetsu, its blade catching the early light with its usual cold gleam.
Zoro wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "I trained like you said." His voice was rough from a sleepless night. "That doesn't mean I'm stopping work on my own techniques."
Aizawa looked at the three dummies he had told Zoro to protect the previous night. All three were completely undamaged, sitting safely in the middle of all that destruction. He said nothing. He gestured for Zoro to join the others and led everyone back to the courtyard.
Aizawa picked up the test ball and told Bakugo to throw it. He read the number without any particular inflection: "709.6 meters. The same result as the day you entered the academy." He looked up at all of them. "Your Quirks haven't developed. You've only gotten familiar with how to use them." A pause. "Now the real training begins."
The courtyard transformed into something resembling a labor camp. Bakugo submerging his hands in boiling water and exploding continuously. Todoroki sitting in a large barrel using both fire and ice to regulate his body temperature. Midoriya grinding through brutal physical drills while trying to balance One For All's power.
In the middle of all of it, Class 1-B arrived led by Vlad King. The scenes shocked them, but they were quickly absorbed into the same suffering. Zoro worked alone in a corner, lifting enormous rocks with one hand, his eyes never entirely leaving the forest.
After a long day of training that drained every last reserve, the Pussycats announced that the students would be preparing curry themselves. The courtyard turned into a comedic disaster; Iida chopping vegetables in rapid mechanical movements, Bakugo shouting at everyone around him, "Cut them properly, you idiots!" while displaying unexpected skill with a kitchen knife. Zoro sat in front of a large bowl demolishing meat and rice with a ferocity that silenced the people around him, eyes completely closed, fully absorbed in recovering from the previous night's work. Kaminari and Sero stood watching him with pure bewilderment, while Uraraka laughed trying to stop Bakugo from launching a spoon at Zoro's face over the noise of his eating.
After dinner, the arrangements for the courage test game began among the students. Zoro slipped away from the noise and headed toward the rocky ledge. He found Kota there, sitting alone as usual, staring at the dark horizon. Zoro sat on a nearby rock, leaned back, and started maintaining his swords without a word.
"Why are you always here?" Zoro asked suddenly, without lifting his eyes from the blade.
Kota looked at him sharply, then dropped his head. He bit the inside of his cheek before speaking. "Because I hate all of them. Heroes, villains, everyone who shows off their strength." He stopped. "My parents were heroes. A villain killed them while they were doing their duty." His voice didn't rise or break, it was just tired. "They left me alone for something called responsibility."
Zoro stopped wiping the blade. He didn't explode at Kota or defend heroes. He just stopped. He understood that this kid didn't hate heroes for what they were. He hated the emptiness they left behind.
While they sat in their silence, Zoro stood abruptly, eyes sharpening. His Observation Haki caught multiple dark presences approaching the camp, killing intent clean and concentrated, nothing that could be mistaken for a drill. Blue flames ignited across the forest horizon below, and a sharp pink gas drifted on the air.
"This isn't a test." Zoro's hand closed around the hilt of Wado Ichimonji.
His combat instinct started pushing him toward the flames. He took a fast step toward the edge of the ledge, ready to jump, but Aizawa's voice rang through his head like a bell: "You left a child alone to rush toward a fight you knew nothing about."
Zoro stopped. He looked back at Kota, who was trembling at the sight of the blue flames, something old and awful moving behind his eyes. Zoro pressed his teeth together. Then he walked back, steady steps, and stood directly in front of Kota, his back to the forest, facing the only path that led up to the summit.
"Stay behind me." He looked at Kota with an expression that left no room for discussion. "Don't move. Whatever happens."
Seconds later, the ground shook under their feet. Heavy footsteps approaching, and then a massive shape pulled itself out of the dark and filled the space entirely. A man built beyond anything natural, muscles pressing outward through his skin in ways that looked wrong, one artificial eye gleaming with sadistic calm. Muscular.
Kota's eyes went wide and his breath stopped in his chest. He whispered barely enough to hear: "You..."
Muscular's one eye moved to him with a look that wasn't quite recognition and wasn't quite nothing. "Those eyes." A rough laugh that shook through his chest. "You're the kid of that duo I took care of." He said it the way someone mentions something that didn't matter much at the time and matters less now. His gaze moved to Zoro without any change in expression. "I was looking for something to keep me busy before the main attack." A small pause. "Looks like tonight is generous."
Zoro brought all three swords into position, their cold metal catching the distant blue firelight. He took in his situation clearly: he couldn't fall back because Kota was behind him, and he couldn't attack recklessly because the blast radius could reach the child. He would have to face this thing standing completely still, rooted like a post in the ground, a way of fighting he had never trained for.
"If you want to reach him." A dangerous smile settled across Zoro's face, and something cold and clear lit in his eyes. "You go through me first."
Muscular charged like a storm with a voice in it, and Zoro moved to meet him in a fight that was real and desperate and had only one question underneath it: could a sword built for cutting learn to become a shield?
.
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The Aftermath
The summer camp attack has ended.
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