[U.A. CAMPUS – BEHIND THE TREES – 4:01 PM]**
Yuta reappeared twenty meters away—behind a different tree, behind a shed, behind a dumpster, he didn't even know.
He slammed into the ground, rolled twice, and ended up sprawled on his back staring at the sky.
For a solid three seconds, he lay frozen.
Then:
"…I am so unbelievably dead. Also ... ow."
Every nerve in his body buzzed like he'd just plugged himself into a power outlet. His entire body felt hollow, like someone had scooped out his insides with a ladle.
'That's .. Body Flicker? It sucks. Never doing that again anytime soon. Not unless I want to die on purpose.'
The body flicker Jutsu, if he remembered right, was a D rank technique.
It worked by vitalising every part of the users body with chakra to enable high speed movement.
To an observer, it would seem like outright teleportation. 'To think I would master it like this ...'
However, there were costs after all as the chakra expenditure required wasn't small. That wasn't even mentioning his current aching pain.
He groaned, rolled to his side, and sat up.
Yep.
His chakra was gone.
'Well, I should have guessed as much.'
Zero.
Nada.
Empty.
He was a regular human now. A very tired, very stressed, very socially endangered human.
A wry smile appeared on his face.
'Looks like increasing my chakra capacity is priority number one.'
He had wiped out all his chakra despite having near perfect, if not perfect control. The expenditure would definitely have been enough to kill him if it hadn't been the case. He would have literally died from social embarrassment.
He rubbed his face.
"…I dropped a book on a girl's head."
Then buried it in both hands.
"WHY is today violent?! What curse is this?!"
After a long moment, he forced himself to stand. grabbed the straps of his backpack and trudged out of the trees, heading toward the main gate. Along the way, some Support Course kids wheeled a cart of half-finished gadgets and a few parents were waiting by the campus gates to pick up their kids.
Nobody paid him any attention.
Small blessings.
His bag bounced lightly on his shoulder.
Ah, right.
The missing textbook.
'Great. Another problem. Another yen expense.'
He groaned.
He would have to buy a replacement or borrow one before class.
"Maybe the girls didn't notice the name…"
A beat of silence.
"…yeah, no, who am I kidding?"
They definitely noticed.
He could practically imagine their conversation.
He sighed heavily, dragging himself out onto the sidewalk outside U.A.
Chakra exhaustion SUCKED.
---
BACK TO THE GIRLS
Mina still held the textbook like it was evidence in a murder case.
"I'm telling you, the UNIVERSE is pranking me. First a tray, now a book. A BOOK!"
Mina patted her sympathetically. "It's okay, Toru. Think of it this way—at least it wasn't hot soup this time?"
"It HURT!"
"It could have been worse."
Momo examined the cover again. "This belongs to a first-year in General Studies… Akutami Yuta."
"Know who that is?"
"No. But I NOW KNOW THE GENERAL STUDIES COURSE IS AFTER ME. THE GUY WITH THE TRAY WAS FROM GENERAL STUDIES TOO"
"Could they ... Be the same person?"
A beat of silence. Then, Hagakure shrieked. "SO HE'S TARGETING US?!"
"Maybe it was just coincidence," Momo offered gently.
"COINCIDENCE DOESN'T HIT ME TWICE!"
"Two accidents," Momo said calmly. "Both unlikely. But… not impossible."
"Tsk. Mom was right. Boys are bad." Hagakure sighed in defeat.
Mina rubbed her chin. "Should we… return the book?"
Hagakure gasped. "NO. WHAT IF HE'S LURKING. WAITING. WATCHING."
Momo blinked. "Toru, dear… he's a General Studies boy, not a supervillain."
Hagakure puffed her sleeves. "I'm not going! What if something ELSE falls out of the sky?! A DESK? A LOCKER? A MICROWAVE?!"
Momo stifled a laugh. "It won't happen again. It was probably just an accident."
"'Probably'," Hagakure repeated ominously.
Still, Mina tucked the book under her arm. "I'll return it after training today. Or tomorrow if we don't see him. Whoever owns this book will probably be embarrassed. Let's not make it worse."
Hagakure grumbled. "Fine. But I'm wearing a helmet tomorrow."
___
[STREET – 4:16 PM]
Walking to the train station was normally peaceful.
Today?
Every ten steps, a new disaster tried to end him.
A pigeon dove at him like he owed it money. A jogger nearly collided with him when he wobbled sideways.
And exhaustion settled deeper into his bones as he walked.
'So this is what being Kakashi must feel like.'
He lifted his arm.
It shook.
'So chakra depletion is tied directly to physical stamina…'
Which made sense. Naruto explained it clearly.
Physical energy + spiritual energy
Chakra.
And if one bottomed out, the other suffered.
So his chakra was a DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. He wouldn't die immediately if he worked himself to exhaustion. But he would certainly die if he drained every last ounce of chakra in his body.
"I need to be more careful. I am a minor uneducated in the usage of chakra. If I don't get used to this, I'm gonna kill myself with it." A shiver crawled down his spine.
He needed more chakra.
A LOT more.
Yuta dragged his feet along the sidewalk, breathing like someone who had just finished running a marathon in a sauna.
Mustafu's streets slowly thinned out behind him as he moved toward the station. The buildings transitioned from crowded convenience stores and small cafés to more open spaces—parking lots, bus stops, stretches of quiet road.
It reminded him—he didn't actually live in Mustafu.
He only went to school here.
Home was in Hinohara City. A decently sized town with just enough population for a hospital, a mall, a few parks, and a Hero Agency that only patrolled and hardly solved any crimes.
That was the Hero Agency his mom worked for.
Every morning, he took the train from Hinohara to Mustafu.
Every evening, he took the train back. It was a familiar journey, one he'd made five times before, but today it felt like an eternity
He checked the time.
4:24 PM.
If he hustled, he could catch the 4:30 train. If he missed it, he'd be stuck waiting twenty minutes for the next one. And with how dead he felt, even twenty minutes sounded like the difference between life and death.
He shook his head, immediately regretted it, and staggered forward.
The station finally came into view—three escalators, two vending machines, and a large glowing sign displaying the incoming departures.
He exhaled in relief.
[MUSTAFU STATION – 4:27 PM]
Yuta shuffled through the entrance gates, tapped his IC card, and watched the balance pop up.
¥1,384 remaining.
He joined the crowd heading toward Platform 3. The station speakers announced something about arrival delays and safety reminders, but his brain filtered it out completely.
He had never wanted to sit down more than he did right now.
Reaching the stairs down to the platform, the digital display changed just as he reached the bottom.
4:30 – HINOHARA LINE – ARRIVING NOW
Perfect timing.
The platform was crowded, as usual—office workers, students, parents, the occasional pro-hero in casual clothes.
Yuta saw none of them.
His vision was washing out at the edges like someone smeared Vaseline on his retinas.
'Okay… train home… shower… food… coma… in that order…'
The train slid into the station. Doors opened. A fresh wave of commuters poured out, another pushed in. Yuta followed quietly, slipping into a window seat near the back.
He let out a slow breath.
Finally.
Getting on the train, he found an empty seat and collapsed into it, his backpack slipping off his shoulder.
As the train pulled out of the station, Yuta let his eyes droop. The rhythmic motion of the train was soothing, and he felt his exhaustion catch up with him. He'd been up since dawn, training and researching, and the adrenaline had finally worn off.
The cityscape outside the window blurred as the train picked up speed. Yuta's head lolled to the side, his grip on consciousness slipping. He tried to fight it, but it was no use. His eyes closed, and soon, he was out cold.
The train continued on, carrying Yuta further and further away from MUSTAFU.
He slept through the stops at Mitaka, Musashisakai, and Kokubunji.
The train was approaching Hinohara when the conductor called out, "Next stop, Hinohara .... Hinohara ..."
Outside the window, city scenery flickered by—stores, overhead bridges, road signs.
Stops came and went.
His stop came.
His stop went.
He did not.
___
[SOMEWHERE - 6:11 PM]
"—stop, Tsutsujigaoka. Tsutsujigaoka. Doors opening on the left."
Yuta's eyes cracked open.
The train was moving again.
He blinked, groggy, trying to orient himself.
Wait. Tsutsujigaoka?
His stop was Hinohara.
He sat up, rubbing his face.
How long was I out?
He pulled out his phone.
6:11 PM.
'Shit.'
He'd been asleep for over an hour and a half.
The train announcer's voice crackled again.
"Approaching Machida. Machida Station."
Machida?!
That was three stops past Hinohara.
Yuta shot to his feet, grabbed his bag, and stumbled toward the doors.
The train slowed. Stopped. Doors opened.
He stepped out onto the platform, disoriented, exhausted, and completely lost.
"Where the hell am I?"
___
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