Class started like normal.
Or at least, as normal as U.A. ever got.
The Slime-Biot on Aoyama's shoulder kept shifting slightly, its tiny eyes occasionally flicking toward different students like it was trying to decide whether they were food, friend, or future problem.
Key word: trying.
Aoyama kept it tucked close to his collar so it wouldn't draw attention.
"...Is that thing moving?" someone whispered from behind.
The teacher walked in before anyone could probe further.
The air in the room changed instantly.
Not because of the lesson.
Because of him.
Aizawa Shouta.
He stepped inside like he hadn't slept properly in years—and didn't plan to start now.
His capture weapon hung loosely around his neck as his eyes swept across the room, settling on the students like they were already disappointing him.
"Stand up."
Everyone moved at once.
"Rational Heroics. Ground Beta."
A few students perked up immediately.
Katsumi looked like she'd just been gifted Christmas.
Ochaco glanced briefly at Aoyama before turning back to the front.
The Slime-Biot twitched again.
It was reacting to something.
Not danger.
Not excitement.
Something else.
Aizawa continued in his usual flat tone.
"You'll be tested on combat ability, coordination, and Quirk usage in a simulated urban environment."
He paused.
"If you hold back, you fail."
A beat passed.
"Now get moving."
Without another word, he walked toward his desk, not bothering with a dramatic introduction.
Aoyama glanced toward the door.
Strange.
Just as he stood, Aizawa looked up.
"Oh. One more thing."
The teacher reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote.
Click.
The corner classroom wall split apart, revealing rows of compartments.
"The school has prepared the gear you submitted for your Quirks."
The class immediately erupted.
"Our costumes?!"
"Awesome!"
"Hell yeah!"
Izumi looked up from her bag, eyes widening.
Aizawa yawned.
"You can change in the student locker rooms. Boys on the second floor. Girls on the third."
He sank into his chair.
"Now get out of my classroom so I can rest."
—
Ground Beta
The city replica loomed over them like a staged disaster zone.
Steel.
Concrete.
Fake smoke vents.
Broken windows.
Everything was designed to look like a place where something had already gone wrong.
The Slime-Biot finally stopped fidgeting. It sat quietly on Aoyama's shoulder, almost as if it were observing.
"You're quiet."
Aoyama glanced over.
Izumi was walking beside him, her eyes fixed on his costume.
It was the first time she'd seen it.
The suit covered him from head to toe, complete with a mask and permanent web-glider membranes running along his arms.
"Just thinking."
"About the test?"
"...Something like that."
Before she could ask more, the ground trembled.
A pressure swept across the training field.
Students instinctively looked up.
A cloud of dust rose from a nearby rooftop as though something had landed there with tremendous force.
Then they saw him.
All Might.
For a moment, the entire class froze.
Bright hair like a banner of sunlight.
A smile too large to feel real.
A presence so overwhelming that even the fake city seemed built to look up at him.
"HEEEERE I AM!"
The voice crashed over the field like a wave.
Even Katsumi paused.
That alone said everything.
"WAIT! ALL MIGHT'S TEACHING US?!"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"
"HE'S WEARING HIS SILVER AGE COSTUME!"
"I'M GETTING GOOSEBUMPS!"
The students erupted.
All Might spread his arms wide.
"Welcome, young heroes!"
The grin never left his face.
"It's wonderful to see you all in such high spirits!"
He pointed at himself dramatically.
"From today onward, I'll be teaching Foundational Hero Studies!"
The cheering somehow got louder.
Aoyama glanced toward Izumi.
Her eyes were practically sparkling beneath her mask.
She was wearing the same handmade costume she'd worn in the original timeline.
"Today's exercise is simple!"
All Might's grin widened.
"Battle training!"
A fresh wave of excitement swept through the class.
Aoyama barely noticed.
The Slime-Biot was trembling against his shoulder.
Not fear.
Not excitement.
Recognition.
It pressed itself tighter against him, almost alert.
Aoyama smiled and rubbed it gently with one finger.
"You're itching to be useful in a fight, aren't you?"
"Mrrr."
"Wait a bit, girl."
The Slime-Biot happily rubbed its head against his finger.
A hand shot into the air.
"Sensei!"
Iida stood proudly in a gleaming speedster suit.
"This appears to be the same city used during the entrance exam. Will we be conducting another cityscape exercise?"
"Nope!"
All Might pointed dramatically.
"Today you'll be moving on to indoor battle training!"
The students immediately straightened.
"Terrorists."
"Kidnappers."
"Black market dealers."
All Might's tone sharpened.
"In a hero society, the most dangerous villains often operate indoors."
He gestured toward the building behind him.
"That's why you'll be divided into hero and villain teams and face off in pairs."
A monitor flickered to life beside him.
"Villains have hidden a weapon inside this building."
A red marker appeared on the screen.
"The villains know where it is."
"The heroes do not."
A few students leaned forward.
"Heroes win by securing the weapon or capturing the villains."
"The villains win by protecting it until time runs out."
"Now then!"
All Might produced a box.
"We'll decide teams by lottery!"
The class groaned.
"Seriously?"
"Random?"
"Of course random!"
All Might laughed.
"Heroes don't get to choose their partners during emergencies!"
Students lined up.
One after another, they reached into the box.
Aoyama stepped forward first.
Lucky me.
He pulled out a card.
The moment he flipped it over, a holographic letter appeared above it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TEAM I
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Huh."
Not the best.
Not the worst.
A few minutes later, the selected teams appeared on the monitor.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TEAM A
Izumi Midoriya
Ochaco Uraraka
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TEAM D
Katsumi Bakugo
Tenya Iida
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A grin spread across Katsumi's face.
The same grin she'd worn during the Quirk Assessment.
Her crimson eyes locked onto Izumi.
"Oh?"
She cracked her knuckles.
"Looks like I got lucky."
Izumi stiffened.
"O-Oh."
"Don't tell me you're nervous."
"N-No!"
"Good."
A spark snapped from Katsumi's palm.
"Because I'm not planning on going easy on you."
Ochaco immediately stepped between them.
"Hey! This is training!"
"Exactly."
Katsumi's grin widened.
"Training."
Aoyama glanced toward Izumi.
Determined.
Nervous.
Excited.
Terrified.
All at the same time.
Honestly, that was probably the correct response.
Because if anyone in Class 1-A was going to treat a training exercise like a real villain attack—
It was Katsumi Bakugo.
"Excellent!"
All Might boomed.
"The first match will be Team A versus Team D!"
The class erupted.
Izumi and Ochaco froze.
Katsumi looked thrilled.
And somewhere on Aoyama's shoulder, the Slime-Biot began to wiggle excitedly, as if it could already smell the coming chaos.