Excited, overlapping voices echoed through Class 1-A as students clustered in small groups, proudly—and sometimes bitterly—swapping stories about their grueling week of internships.
"All I did was clean the beach and help direct traffic!" Mina Ashido complained, dramatically throwing her hands in the air.
Leaning back against his desk with his hands stuffed in his pockets, Kaminari shot her a wide grin. "Hey, at least you didn't get taken hostage! I faced actual villains!"
"You were cleaning boots, idiot. I saw you on the news," Jiro interrupted dryly, twirling an earphone jack around her finger.
Amidst the cheerful chaos, a highly unusual sight drew the entire class's attention. Katsuki Bakugo sat rigid at his desk, a thick vein pulsing furiously on his forehead. His usually explosive, ash-blonde hair had been painfully slicked down and parted to the side in Best Jeanist's impeccably neat, preppy style.
Unable to contain themselves, Kirishima and Sero clutched their stomachs, howling with laughter until tears streamed down their faces. "We can't help it, man! It looks like your head was dipped in superglue!" Sero gasped, wiping his eyes.
"STOP LAUGHING, YOU DAMN EXTRAS! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!" Bakugo roared. Driven by the sheer force of his explosive rage, the strong-hold hairspray finally snapped. His hair violently poofed back into its signature, aggressive spikes, causing the entire room to erupt into hysterical laughter.
Meanwhile, in the quiet back corner of the room, Zoro leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed behind his head, fast asleep. He completely ignored the noise, keeping his body relaxed to avoid putting any unnecessary pressure on the fresh stitches lining his chest.
Slowly, the laughter died down as a few students turned their attention toward a much quieter group.
"What about you guys?" Kaminari asked, wandering over to Midoriya's desk, where Iida and Todoroki were standing. "You were right in the middle of Hosu City when the villains attacked, right? The news said Endeavor saved you from the Hero Killer!"
A sudden, icy chill washed over Midoriya. He looked down at his deeply scarred right hand, while Iida instinctively gripped his faintly trembling left arm. A heavy, silent gaze passed between the three of them—a look burdened by the very real brush with death they had shared in that dark alleyway. The gap between them and their cheerful classmates suddenly felt like a massive canyon. They understood now, unequivocally, that true heroism wasn't about flashy spotlights; it was a toll paid in blood.
Swallowing the dry lump in his throat, Midoriya expertly faked a bright smile to hide the dark truth. "Yeah... we were really lucky Endeavor showed up when he did."
To pull the students back into the rhythm of school, All Might wasted no time.
Towering over the teenagers in his muscle form, the Number One Hero stood at the entrance of Training Field Gamma—a dense, industrial labyrinth of overlapping factories, steel pipes, and narrow concrete alleyways.
"I AM HERE! To see how much you've grown!" All Might boomed, pointing a massive finger toward the center of the maze. "This is a Rescue Training Race! You will start at the edges of the ward, and when you hear the distress signal, you must navigate the terrain and reach me in the center!"
Group One stepped up: Midoriya, Iida, Ojiro, Ashido, Sero, and Zoro.
Standing on top of a water tower at the edge of the labyrinth, Midoriya closed his eyes. Don't just press a switch, he reminded himself, Gran Torino's harsh lessons echoing in his mind. Let the power flow everywhere. Breathe it.
"START!" All Might's voice blared through the speakers.
With a brilliant flash of green lightning, Midoriya blasted off. The sheer force of the jump was incredible, but Full Cowling was far from perfect. As he ricocheted off a concrete wall, the unfamiliar 5% power limit strained his calves. He misjudged his trajectory slightly, scraping his shoulder hard against a rusty pipe. Gritting his teeth through the stinging pain, he immediately adjusted his posture, forcing his body to adapt on the fly. He was no longer a boy breaking his bones; he was a current of energy fighting to control its own current.
Down in the maze, Zoro didn't bother with frantic parkour. Closing his eyes for a fraction of a second, he expanded his Observation Haki, listening to the Breath of All Things. He instantly mapped a path. Propelled by monstrous leg strength, Zoro vaulted over a fifty-foot gap. However, the sudden movement violently pulled at his stitched chest. A sharp hiss escaped his lips as he landed heavily on a metal walkway, his breath hitching. Forced to slow down slightly to accommodate his injury, he relied entirely on raw instinct and Haki to navigate the blind corners, remaining neck-and-neck with Midoriya's green lightning.
They were just seconds away from the finish line. The massive "GOAL" sign painted on the central tower was fully visible.
And then, with absolute, unwavering confidence, Zoro took a sharp left turn, diving straight into a dead-end alleyway in the completely wrong direction.
"WHERE IN THE WORLD IS HE GOING?!" Uraraka screamed at the viewing monitors, aggressively slapping her forehead.
Distracted by Zoro's sudden, baffling disappearance, Midoriya's foot slipped on a wet steel pipe. He stumbled at the last possible second, his momentum carrying him wildly off course. Taking full advantage of the chaos, Sero swung in smoothly on his tape, landing cleanly at All Might's feet to claim first place.
Despite the clumsy finish, the message was loud and clear: Midoriya had tamed his beast. Watching from the sidelines, Bakugo ground his teeth together, the flames of intense rivalry burning in his eyes.
Thirty minutes later, the humid air of the boys' locker room smelled of ozone, sweat, and cheap deodorant.
"Man, my legs are killing me," Kaminari groaned, slumping onto a wooden bench as he stripped off his hero costume. "I thought internships were supposed to make us better, not turn us into jelly."
"Speak for yourself! Did you see Midoriya out there?!" Kirishima exclaimed, vigorously drying his hair with a towel. He pointed excitedly at the green-haired boy. "Bro, you were bouncing around like Bakugo! When did you learn to move like that?"
Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck, his face flushing with embarrassment. "Ah, well... my mentor helped me figure out a new way to channel my Quirk. I still have a lot to work on, though. I almost crashed into a wall halfway through."
"Yeah, well, at least you were going the right way," Sero laughed out loud, slamming his locker shut. He turned to Zoro, who was quietly pulling a clean U.A. shirt over his bandaged torso. "Seriously, Zoro. The giant, bright red 'GOAL' sign was literally fifty feet in front of you. How in the world did you end up in Sector 4?!"
A few of the boys chuckled. Zoro's eyebrow twitched in sheer annoyance. He aggressively shoved his training jacket into his bag.
"Shut up," Zoro grumbled, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. "The pipes all look exactly the same. The architect who built that maze is an idiot. The path I took made perfect sense."
"You ran into a brick wall!" Kaminari wheezed, holding his stomach.
"I said shut up!" Zoro barked, a vein popping on his forehead.
Across the room, Bakugo slammed his metal locker shut with a deafening CLANG, instantly silencing the laughter. He glared at Midoriya, his red eyes burning with a complex mix of anger and frustration, before grabbing his bag and storming out of the room without a single word.
Just as the awkward silence settled in, the locker room door opened. All Might, completely deflated into his skeletal form, stood in the hallway.
"Midoriya. Roronoa," the emaciated hero croaked, his sunken blue eyes looking unusually grave. "Please come with me. We have matters to discuss."
The lighthearted atmosphere of the locker room evaporated the moment they stepped into the secluded staff lounge.
The afternoon sun filtered through the blinds, casting long, orange shadows across the dusty floorboards. The only sound in the room was the rhythmic, haunting tick-tock of a wall clock. Sitting on a plush sofa, Midoriya felt a heavy knot of anxiety tighten in his chest. To his right sat Zoro, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Across from them sat All Might, looking frail and burdened by ancient sorrow.
"I called you both here for a reason," All Might began, his voice dropping to a gravelly whisper. He looked at Midoriya. "It's time I told you the truth about One For All... and the monster who created it."
For the next ten minutes, the room was dead silent as All Might unraveled history. He spoke of the dawn of Quirks, an era of societal collapse, and a terrifying dictator whose power was to steal and distribute abilities at will: All For One. He explained how this villain forced a stockpiling Quirk onto his seemingly Quirkless younger brother, inadvertently merging it with a hidden transfer Quirk to birth "One For All."
"I thought I killed him five years ago," All Might whispered, gripping his bony knees. "But he survived. He is the mastermind behind the League of Villains. He is the one pulling Tomura Shigaraki's strings."
Midoriya's breath hitched. His heart hammered wildly against his ribs. The creator of my Quirk... is the boss of the villains we fought at the USJ? The immense, crushing weight of destiny fell squarely onto his shoulders. The power he wielded wasn't just a tool for saving people; it was a weapon forged for an eternal war. Yet, despite his trembling hands, Midoriya looked up, his green eyes burning with unwavering resolve. "I won't run. As long as you're with me, All Might, I can do it."
A tragic, fleeting shadow crossed All Might's face. I won't be able to stay with you much longer, my boy, he thought silently, the ache in his side acting as a cruel timer.
"That's a nice bedtime story," Zoro suddenly interrupted, shattering the heavy tension. He leaned forward, fixing a sharp, uncompromising gaze on the emaciated hero. "But why am I here? I don't have this 'One For All' power."
All Might shifted his gaze to the swordsman. The air in the room grew noticeably heavier.
"You are right to ask. From the very first moment I saw you during the entrance exams, I knew you were an anomaly," All Might explained seriously. "A Quirkless boy possessing raw physical strength that shatters concrete defied all modern logic. I sensed a profound secret hiding behind your blades. I looked into your file and saw Kenji raised you. He was a great hero, but your aura... it was completely different from his. It was heavier. Older."
"What truly confirmed my suspicions," All Might continued, leaning forward, "was an impossible name appearing on your internship request. A phantom who disappeared from the grid decades ago, suddenly reaching out to train a first-year student."
Zoro's eyes narrowed. "You know Shimotsuki?"
"I know many buried secrets," All Might chuckled darkly. "Shimotsuki Kozaburo wasn't just a master bladesmith. He hailed from the Shimotsuki clan—an ancient, legendary lineage of unparalleled swordsmen and martial artists. He despised All For One, and he hated how Quirks caused traditional martial arts and pure physical discipline to be forgotten."
Midoriya held his breath, his mind racing to process the massive lore drop. A clan of swordsmen? Fighting against All For One? "During the darkest era, the First User of One For All reached out to Shimotsuki. They formed an alliance to stop the empire of evil," All Might revealed. "Because while All For One was stealing Quirks and building an unstoppable army of monsters, there was one singular, absolute force on this earth that he could not steal. A power he could not manipulate, because it was not a genetic mutation. It was Haki."
Zoro's grip tightened instinctively on the hilt of his sword.
"But as Quirks spread like a virus across humanity, Haki began to go extinct," All Might sighed, wiping a hand across his tired face. "It cannot be passed down through DNA. It requires a Quirkless vessel and supreme willpower. With Haki fading, the balance of power violently shifted. Shimotsuki couldn't build an army of warriors in time. From that failure, the modern concept of Pro Heroes and Academies was eventually born."
The skeletal hero stood up, casting a long shadow over the two boys. "All For One does not know that the ancient art of Haki has returned. He doesn't know about you, Zoro. If he finds out, you will instantly become his primary target, right alongside Midoriya. You two are the twin pillars of hope for this world's future. You must push yourselves to grow stronger than ever before, because the threats coming your way will be far more dangerous than anything you faced in Hosu."
A heavy, absolute silence descended on the lounge. The stakes had just skyrocketed beyond mere high school exams. They were actively hunted by the ghost of the underworld.
Slowly, a fierce, feral grin stretched across Zoro's face. The bloodthirsty aura of the Kitetsu seemed to hum against his hip, reacting to his surging adrenaline.
"So there's a two-hundred-year-old immortal who's terrified of swordsmen?" Zoro chuckled, standing up from the sofa and cracking his neck. "Let him come. It'll be good practice for my Armament Haki."
The looming shadow of All For One was terrifying, but the immediate reality of U.A. High School was far more pressing.
The next morning, Class 1-A sat at their desks in absolute silence. Shota Aizawa stood at the podium, his dark, tired eyes sweeping over the room.
"The Final Practical Exams begin next week," Aizawa announced flatly. "And I'm sure some of you assumed you'd be fighting mindless robots again, just like the entrance exam."
Suddenly, the classroom door swung open. Principal Nezu popped his head inside, a cheerful but sinister smile plastered on his furry face. "Too bad! For various reasons, the exam format has completely changed!"
Aizawa smirked, the expression sending violent chills down the students' spines. "You will be pairing up in teams of two. And you will be fighting us. The U.A. Teachers."
Panic instantly erupted in the classroom. Fight the Pro Heroes?!
Ignoring the frantic shouts of his students, Aizawa's gaze drifted to the back of the room, locking directly onto the green-haired swordsman.
"And you, Roronoa," Aizawa said, his voice slicing cleanly through the noise. The room went dead quiet. "Since my Erasure Quirk has absolutely no effect on your 'Haki', pairing you up against me or the others would be a logistical nightmare."
Zoro raised an eyebrow, resting a calloused hand on the hilt of his swords. "So?"
"So," Principal Nezu giggled, his black eyes glinting dangerously. "We called in a favor. You will be fighting solo. We have arranged a special guest examiner just for you. The only pure swordsman in the Top Ten Pro Heroes."
Zoro's eyes snapped wide open, a thrill of pure, unadulterated anticipation rushing through his veins. A Pro Hero swordsman.
The real exams had just begun.
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Hunter and Prey
The atmosphere and events inside the summer camp and the forest are intense.
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