"Damn," Hiro muttered, his hands buried deep into the pockets of his jacket.
His leather boots clicked sharply against the polished floorboards of the main U.A. corridor as he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with his sister. They were wearing standard U.A. uniform pants, but they had ditched the stiff school jackets for their own comfortable streetwear. Both of them were moving at a completely normal, human pace. Resting directly against the base of their skulls, hidden perfectly beneath their thick, dark hair, were the paper containment seals. They were still tightly active, locking away their massive silver and purple power until the effects of that purple mist fully wore off.
They had spent the weekend at home trying to recover from the skyscraper disaster. The time wasn't a total waste; they managed to use a branch of Kiri-Tech their mom 'generously' gave them to mass-produce and sell their new quirk-sealing handcuffs to the cops. What was a total waste was their study on the quirk of the silver-haired guy they had fought on the rooftop. They still hadn't progressed from where they were last time. The data was a complete dead-end, leaving them grounded as they walked back to class.
And now, they were back at U.A.
The second Hiro slid open the heavy door to Class 1-A, the usual morning buzz of the classroom hit them full force. Groups of students were crowded around the desks, aggressively gesturing and exchanging wild stories about their internships.
However, most of the class was tightly packed in a dense circle surrounding the desks of Izuku Midoriya, Shoto Todoroki, and Tenya Iida. Questions were being hurled at them from every angle after the weekend's massive news reports.
The three boys, still under a strict gag order from the police, only told them that the heroes took care of the situation and they were simply injured as a result of being caught up in the surprise attack. It was a simple, rehearsed story to keep the truth hidden.
Hiro and Nozomi quietly glided along the outer edge of the room, keeping their heads down. They aimed for their own seats on the opposite side of the classroom, fully intending to slide into the background entirely unnoticed.
But some universal being, probably their new boss watching them from the void, chose this exact moment for Eijiro Kirishima to look up. His eyes locked directly onto the twins, and his face lit up.
"Hiro! Nozomi!" Kirishima yelled at the top of his lungs. His booming voice wrestled the other voices in the classroom and won.
In a fraction of a second, the whole class went quiet. The frantic chatter about Hosu City dissolved instantly, and every single one turned to look directly at the twins.
Both Hiro and Nozomi instantly froze mid-step. They both had a look of slight embarrassment, that exact awkward feeling you get when someone shouts your name from the front of the class and the whole room hears it.
Hiro let out a slow breath, running a hand through his hair to cover up his embarrassment as he walked to his desk. "Geez, Kirishima, did you do your hero internship with Present Mic? Because my ears are literally ringing right now."
The silence didn't last. Within seconds, the questions came tumbling out in a massive rush as the class swarmed their row.
"Are you guys really quirkless right now?!" Mina Ashido gasped, her hands waving frantically. "The news said a massive purple cloud locked down that building!"
"Who is that bastard that took away your power?!" Kaminari shouted, his fists clenched. "Are you guys okay? Does the seal hurt?!" Uraraka asked, her eyes full of genuine worry.
The questions kept coming, finishing with Katsuki Bakugo's sharp, raspy voice cutting through the noise from his seat in the back row. He was slouched heavily in his chair, his boots aggressively kicked up onto the wood.
"If you're quirkless now, what the hell are you still doing in U.A.?" Bakugo scoffed, a mocking smirk on his face. "This is a school for heroes, not a place for broken civilians." [1]
Instead of getting mad, Nozomi slowly turned around in her seat. Her dark fox ears twitched as she fixed her pitch-black eyes on his face. A sly smirk printed itself across her face.
"Tell me, Bakugo," Nozomi purred, her voice dripping with pure sarcasm as she pulled her long hair over her shoulder and smoothed it down. "How would you rate Best Jeanist's hair styling skills? Should I go get my hair done by him in the future, or does he only know how to tame explosive grease?"
Bakugo's face instantly twisted into a terrifying mask of pure fury. The stinging memory of Best Jeanist forcing his hair into a pristine, side-parted look all week was a raw nerve. He snapped his boots off the desk, slamming his feet onto the floor.
"Wanna fight, you piece of trash?!" Bakugo growled, his teeth grinding.
Nozomi didn't back down. Her smirk only widened, her black eyes gleaming with pure amusement. "Are you sure losing to a quirkless girl wouldn't permanently damage your CV, number one?" She added the 'number one' with crystal-clear sarcasm.
"I'll murder you!" Bakugo roared.
CRACK-SPARK!
Small, dangerous orange explosions started escaping his palms, the smell of burnt smoke filling the air as he prepared to lunge across the aisle.
Before his boots could even clear the desk space, the front door slid open with a sharp scrape.
The entire classroom instantly dropped into a freezing silence as Shota Aizawa entered in his usual demeanor. His tired, bloodshot eyes swept over the rows of teenagers, locking onto Bakugo's raised palms.
"Get in your seats," Aizawa mumbled, his voice instantly calming the whole class down. Bakugo let out a furious scoff, slamming his hands into his pockets as he dropped back into his chair, while Nozomi simply turned back around with a quiet smirk.
The rest of the school day was normal, moving through a slow-paced routine of lectures and standard note-taking. It was a peaceful, sluggish rhythm that they hadn't experienced in weeks.
But almost at the very end of the final afternoon period, during homeroom, the class was once again asking what had actually happened with the silver-haired villain on Friday night.
"Seriously, Hiro, how did the fight even end if your quirks got knocked out?" Kirishima asked, leaning against a nearby desk.
Hiro leaned back in his chair, interlocking his fingers behind his head with a relaxed, casual smile. "Oh, it wasn't anything too crazy, honestly. We knocked him out up close, but his body wouldn't stop emitting that purple gas. Fumikage and Hawks basically just held us down while the seal was being made. And then bam, our quirks are sealed."
Fumikage Tokoyami, who had been sitting quietly two rows away, slowly raised his head. His crimson eyes locked onto Hiro with a look of pure disapproval.
"That is a thoroughly inaccurate summary of what happened, Kage," Tokoyami interrupted calmly, his deep voice cutting through the room.
The class went silent, turning to the crow-headed student.
Tokoyami closed his eyes, his feathers ruffling slightly. "The truth is far more dangerous. The moment Hiro inhaled that vapor, his power went completely out of control. He destroyed a reinforced skyscraper by just taking a single step, falling through the tower. Hawks and I almost died trying to get close to them just to put the seals on. It was a complete disaster."
The entire class was instantly shocked into silence. Midoriya's jaw dropped open, and Kaminari's pencil clattered out of his hand onto the floor.
Hiro's relaxed smile instantly vanished. He whipped his head around, glaring at Tokoyami with an intense look of betrayal. "Hey! Tsukuyomi! Shut up! I had purposefully left that out so we wouldn't look like monsters!"
"Bullshit!" Bakugo's roaring shout shattered the silence from the back row. He slammed his fists onto his desk, his face contorted in disbelief. "There is no way a single step can collapse a building! You're lying to cover up how weak you extras actually are without your quirks!"
Nozomi turned around slowly, her pitch-black eyes locking onto Bakugo's furious face as her sharp smirk returned. "Is that so? Why don't you come over here and prove it, number one? I'm completely quirkless right now. It should be a walk in the park for you."
"I'll break you!" Bakugo screamed, his patience completely snapping. He launched himself out of his chair, his boots tearing across the classroom floor as he lunged straight at Nozomi, his right hand cocking back to deliver a brutal, physical punch.
He moved fast, but Nozomi was incredibly quick. Quirk or no quirk, her raw physical martial arts training was absolute.
The millisecond Bakugo entered her personal space, Nozomi smoothly stepped off her stool, her movements flowing with complete grace. She easily dodged his linear punch, her palm slamming his wrist to redirect his momentum sideways. Before Bakugo could even register that he had missed, Nozomi stepped deep inside his guard, hooked her foot cleanly behind his ankle, and used a textbook judo throw to violently slam his entire body weight directly into the floor.
SLAM!
A loud, hollow thud resonated through the classroom as Bakugo's back violently crashed flat against the hard floorboards. The absolute force of the impact knocked the wind clean out of his lungs, leaving him lying flat on his back, gasping for air as his eyes stared blankly at the ceiling in complete, stunned silence.
Nozomi smoothly stood over him, casually brushing a single piece of imaginary dust off her sleeve as she looked down at his winded face with a playful, teasing smile.
"You see, Katsuki," Nozomi explained smoothly, her voice filling the completely stunned, dead-silent room. "I am still exceptionally strong without my quirk. Our baseline strength doesn't rely entirely on flash and bangs like yours does."
The surrounding students stared at her with their mouths wide open, completely stunned to silence for the second time. She had just systematically taken down the most aggressive powerhouse in the class in under two seconds without using an ounce of energy.
The afternoon warning bell finally rang, cutting through the heavy shock of the room. The casual banter kept going in short, punchy fragments as the students slowly packed their bags, the school day finally ending as the sun began to cast long shadows across the campus.
Ten minutes later, Hiro and Nozomi were heading out of the main entrance, their backpacks loosely slung over their shoulders as they walked down the concrete path toward the U.A. gates.
"Man, you really didn't have to slam Bakugo into the floorboards like that," Hiro chuckled, adjusting his jacket.
"He asked for data, I provided it," Nozomi smirked back.
As they neared the main courtyard, their enhanced fox ears suddenly picked up the clear, distinct sounds of a conversation happening near the stone fountain. The ambient noise of the courtyard faded into the background as their ears twitched, locking onto a familiar, energetic voice talking to two other older students.
"Sorry, Neji, I wish I could come, but you know how busy I am with my hero associate," the tall, blond boy said, rubbing the back of his head with a broad, apologetic smile. [1]
"Fat Gum said we'll be busy all week... I can't come either," the second boy said more timidly, his shoulders hunched as he kept his face buried against the low stone wall.
The girl with long, vibrant periwinkle hair let out a heavy, dramatic sigh, slumping her shoulders slightly as she looked at them. "Aww, fine. It's totally fine, guys. I guess I can just go alone."
The two boys offered their quick goodbyes, turning down the western path to head toward their respective agencies. The second they left, Nejire Hando turned around, her bright, curious eyes scanning the concrete plaza.
She caught Hiro and Nozomi looking directly at her.
Her face instantly lit up with pure, unadulterated excitement. Before the twins could even process her movement, she dashed across the courtyard like a blue streak, destroying all notions of personal space as she skidded to a halt mere inches from their faces. She began hovering her hands around their heads, her eyes wide with a manic, childlike curiosity.
"Wow! Wow! Are those real ears?!" Nejire barraged them instantly, her voice high and energetic as she tilted her head to inspect Hiro's hair. "Do they twitch when you hear a loud noise?! Can you move them independently, or do they only react when you're surprised?! And your tails! How many do you have?! Do they get tangled when you sleep, or do you have to brush them like a pet?! Hey, hey, tell me! What's your name?! I'm Nejire Hando!"
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