….
It was 5:20 PM–
–as the Class 1-A finally stumbled into the clearing where the lodge stood.
They were filthy, covered head-to-toe in mud, sweat, and sap.
Their casual sumr clothes were torn, they were bleeding from dozens of minor scrapes, and they looked like they had just survived a small war.
Pixie-Bob stood on the porch of the lodge, checking her watch with a wide smile. "5:20! Honestly, I thought it would take you kittens a lot longer! The Earth Beasts usually slow first-years down until midnight!"
"LONGER?!" Ashido collapsed face-first onto the grass, not even trying to catch herself. "We've been fighting for eight hours! My legs feel like jelly!"
"But you figured out their structural weaknesses quickly, and your teamwork was phenonal!" Pixie-Bob bead, giving them a thumbs-up. "Very impressive! You guys hit way harder than a normal freshman class!"
From behind Mandalay, the small, scowling boy stepped out. He wore a red hat with small horns and an expression that suggested he found the sight of twenty exhausted teenagers deeply offensive.
"This is my nephew, Kota." Mandalay said gently, placing a hand on his small shoulder. "Kota, say hello to the U.A. students."
Midoriya, incapable of turning off his earnest, heroic nature even when he was dead on his feet, imdiately perked up.
He wiped so dirt off his cheek and stepped forward with a warm, friendly smile.
"Hi there! I am Izuku Midoriya! It's really nice to et–"
Kota didn't say a word.
He simply stepped forward, wound up his small fist, and drove it directly into Midoriya's groin with shocking, rciless accuracy.
Fush–!
Tud–!
The blow never landed; instead, a sharp probing pain stabbed through Midoriya's head.
Ever since the ambush at the shopping complex, his danger senses had been on high alert.
Combined with the adrenaline of fighting his way through the forest, his combat instincts flared on pure, volatile reflex. His hand snapped down, catching the boy's fist inches from impact.
For a fraction of a second, Midoriya's expression darkened.
A lethal, dead-eyed serious glare locked onto Kota, evaluating him purely as a hostile threat.
The temperature in the clearing seed to drop. Kota flinched violently, the breath catching in his throat.
Even Mandalay and Pixie-Bob snapped their heads toward Midoriya, a sudden chill running down their spines at the raw intensity radiating from a re student.
"MIDORIYA!" several classmates shouted in horror, assuming the blow had connected.
But just as quickly as it appeared, the terrifying aura vanished, replaced by Midoriya's usual gentle smile.
He let go of the boy's fist and rubbed the small of his back, laughing nervously.
"Are you okay?" Uraraka asked, hovering over him.
"I am fine... I managed to block it." Midoriya breathed, swallowing hard. A cold sweat broke out on his neck as a phantom ache flared in his mind, a sharp reminder of the brutal surprise attacks Dabi had subjected him to during their training phase.
"That could have been painful if you hadn't blocked it, Deku."
Iida rushed forward, chopping his arms righteously. "You brute! That was completely uncalled for! You cannot simply assault guests who are offering a friendly greeting! It violates all societal norms of–"
Taken aback by his failure and still unnerved by Midoriya's glance, Kota scrambled back, his defensive scowl returning to mask his fear.
"I-I don't want to hang around people like you!" he spat, his voice trembling slightly. "Thinking you can just beco heroes because you want it. You're all just wannabes playing dress-up. It's pathetic."
He spun around and began stomping away toward the lodge, clearly intending to completely ignore their existence for the rest of the week.
Hoping to diffuse the tension and change the subject, Midoriya looked around. "H-Hey... wait. Did anyone see Dabi-sensei? He didn't ride the bus down with Aizawa-sensei. Where is he?"
Kota froze mid-step.
His small boots skidded in the dirt. He spun back around so fast his horned hat nearly flew off his head.
The angry, cynical scowl had vanished entirely, replaced by wide-eyed, breathless shock.
"Did you... did you just say Dabi?" Kota asked, his voice pitching up. "The Blue Sun?"
"Uh... yes?" Midoriya blinked, thoroughly confused by the sudden 180-degree personality shift. "He's our assistant horoom teacher. Why?"
Kota didn't just walk back; he sprinted across the clearing, skidding to a halt right in front of Midoriya. The hostility had completely evaporated, and he was practically vibrating with excitent.
"Are you serious?! You're really his students?!" Kota's eyes were shining like stars, his hands clenching into tiny, enthusiastic fists. "Is he really here?! Can I see him?! Do you think he rembers ?! I need to thank him!"
The entire class stared in stunned bewildernt. Even Bakugo clicked his tongue, montarily speechless at the display.
"I... what? Thank him?" Kirishima whispered, squinting. "Did Dabi-sensei make you use your brainwashing on this kid when we weren't looking?"
"I didn't do anything." Shinso replied, his tone entirely flat as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't look at . My Quirk doesn't work retroactively from three years ago."
Mandalay sighed, a fond, sowhat exasperated smile touching her lips as she watched her nephew. "Kota absolutely idolizes Dabi. He has ever since..."
"Since he saved my mom and dad!" Kota interrupted, bouncing on his toes, completely abandoning his tough-guy act. "Three years ago! This huge villain with muscle powers attacked them, and they were going to die, but then Dabi showed up! He used his blue flas and he looked so cool, and he saved them! I've wanted to et him again ever since, but he's an Underground Hero so he's always so busy, and–"
"Yeah, we know, we know." Mandalay chuckled, stepping forward to ruffle his hair.
Midoriya stared at the kid.
He did know about the 'Water Hose' incident, and Dabi saved them from a villain called Muscular.
However, he wasn't aware that a kid was also involved in the incident.
Aizawa stepped out onto the porch, looking exactly as tired as he had when he went to sleep on the bus hours ago.
"I see you all survived." Aizawa droned. "Congratulations on taking eight hours to cross terrain that should have taken four."
"Sensei." Midoriya called out. "Where is Dabi-sensei?"
"Periter check." Aizawa replied flatly. "He's been out in the woods mapping the terrain. He will be back for dinner."
His gaze shifted to the exhausted class. "Now, get your luggage from the bus, put it in your assigned rooms, and et in the dining hall. After dinner, you can bathe in the hot springs and rest. Tomorrow at dawn, the real training begins."
"So soon?" Sero whimpered.
"Your days of fooling around ended the second you stepped off that bus." Aizawa said, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Get used to the pain."
As the students trudged miserably toward the lodge to collect their bags, Kota imdiately attached himself to Midoriya's side, shadowing him like a small, eager duckling.
"Is it true he fought two Nomu monsters at once?" Kota asked, firing off questions without pausing for breath.
"Yes, but–"
"And he saved a girl from the Yakuza? And he fought a teleportation villain at the mall a few weeks ago?! I saw it on the news! Does he really have a sword made of fire?!"
Midoriya looked helplessly at Uraraka, who simply giggled and offered an apologetic shrug.
While Kota continued his rapid-fire interrogation, Midoriya's thoughts briefly wandered back to the boy's aborted attack.
When Kota had lunged, a completely unfamiliar sensation had fired within him; a sudden, sharp spark of awareness right before his body moved on instinct.
He couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but based on the files All Might had given him, it had to be the Quirk of the fourth user: Hikage Shinomori.
[Danger Sense]
Shinomori had held One For All longer than anyone besides All Might, spending his entire life avoiding conflict to cultivate power.
The Quirk was supposed to manifest as a sharp pain in the head, alerting the user to imminent threats and malicious intent. With all the recent stress and sudden ambushes Midoriya had been facing, the dormant power was finally clawing its way to the surface.
But Midoriya made a ntal note right then and there: Dabi could never find out that his second Quirk had triggered for the first ti simply because his lineage was on the line.
The first ti Blackwhip had manifested, it had nearly torn a training ground apart.
Now, his second extra Quirk had sparked into life simply because his groin was in mortal peril.
If Dabi found out that Midoriya possessed a built-in radar for physical danger, he wouldn't be impressed.
He would look at it as a personal challenge.
In the na of 'training' and creating an environnt to force the Quirk to develop, Dabi would subject him to the most absurd, unhinged surprise attacks imaginable.
Midoriya shuddered slightly, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. For the sake of his own survival, [Danger Sense] was going to remain a closely guarded secret.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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