The room was taken by silence until Ryo slowly began to wake up.
The first thing he felt was the headache.
It was not an absurd pain. It was not like the pains he felt after using his Quirk to the limit. It was more like the feeling of having slept too little, hit his head somewhere, and woken up at the wrong moment.
He opened his eyes with difficulty.
The ceiling above him was not the one from the room he shared with the other boys in the lodge.
Ryo blinked a few times.
The light was dim. The air smelled of alcohol, wood, and clean sheets. There were white curtains around some beds, simple cabinets with medical supplies, and an open window showing the night sky and letting the cool mountain wind in.
Ryo brought a hand to his head and let out a low groan.
"Where..."
"You are in the lodge infirmary."
The voice came from the side.
Ryo turned his face and almost startled.
Tiger was sitting in a chair beside the bed, cutting an apple with a small knife. His posture was far too relaxed for someone with so many muscles and such an intimidating appearance, and the apple in his hands was already beginning to take on a strangely delicate shape.
Ryo stared.
"Tiger-san?"
"Well, you're awake." Tiger kept cutting the apple. "That's good."
Ryo kept looking at him for a few more seconds.
Before he could ask anything, Tiger raised the knife slightly.
"And before you ask, yes. I have field medical certification and a license for emergency care. Mountain rescue requires more than carrying people on your back."
Ryo arched an eyebrow.
Tiger noticed.
"Are you doubting me just because I have all these muscles?"
"Maybe...?" Ryo replied.
Tiger let out a short laugh.
"At least you were honest."
Ryo ran a hand through his hair again, feeling the pain pulse faintly. Then his eyes widened.
"Bakugo and Dash."
Tiger lifted his gaze to him.
"Are they okay?"
"They are."
Ryo tried to get up immediately, but Tiger simply pointed the knife at him.
"Stay lying down."
Ryo stopped.
Tiger went back to cutting the apple.
"Bakugo and Dash woke up a while ago. The scare you three gave everyone was huge, but neither of them seemed truly injured. Just extremely tired."
Ryo slowly let out the air.
Tiger looked toward the infirmary door.
"I can't say the same about your clothes."
Ryo lowered his gaze.
Only then did he realize he was wearing a simple lodge T-shirt. His own clothes were not there.
He stayed silent for a moment.
"Good..."
The tension in his shoulders decreased.
But soon his gaze fell to his own hands.
Fragments returned.
The fake moon.
The All Mights.
His own body burning from the inside out while he used his power far beyond what he should have.
Ryo frowned.
He remembered the pain.
It was as if every part of him had become a lightbulb about to explode. Jack-Jack's dimension kept him together, but that did not lessen the feeling that he was being cooked from the inside. His body should not have been able to endure that.
Normally, maybe it would not have.
He remembered splitting the moon in half.
Then he remembered falling because he could no longer bear the pain.
Falling into the darkness of the abyss.
And seeing a hand.
From his own shadow?
Ryo tightened his fingers.
After that, everything became broken.
There was a green light.
A strange silence.
The feeling of not breathing, but not needing to breathe.
And then, suddenly, he was outside the portal, carrying Bakugo and Dash.
Then he passed out again.
"Hey."
Something appeared beside his face.
Ryo turned quickly.
The tip of Tiger's knife was there, with a thin slice of apple pierced on it.
"Eat."
Ryo stared at the apple.
Tiger kept his hand steady.
"Don't force your head trying to remember everything now. Whatever happened in there, you came out walking and carrying two classmates. That is already enough information for now."
Ryo hesitated.
Then he took the apple slice.
Tiger pulled the knife back and continued his work.
"Besides, sugar helps."
Ryo put the apple in his mouth.
It was fresh.
For some reason, that made him relax a little.
Tiger kept cutting, shaping the fruit with surprising care. In just a few movements, the slices began to form something like a small swan.
Meanwhile, in a private room of the lodge, the mood was far less calm.
Aizawa was sitting on a simple chair, his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers pressing against his eyelids. Mandalay was beside the window, serious. Violet remained standing near the table, her arms crossed, while Tony was a little behind her, clearly trying not to look too guilty.
It was not working.
"So let me confirm," Aizawa said, his voice low and tired. "The boy opens dimensional portals, creates some kind of mental world of his own, alters the flow of time inside that space, and still has other powers."
Violet grimaced.
"Yes."
Aizawa opened his eyes.
"How many other powers?"
Violet hesitated, especially because that was confidential information, but she had no choice given what had happened.
"There is no fixed count. But more than twenty-seven different manifestations have already been recorded. Fire, metal, rubber, multiplication, teleportation, eye lasers, size shifting, density shifting, phasing, demonic form, levitation..."
Mandalay brought a hand to her forehead.
"That in a five-year-old child?"
Aizawa looked at Violet in silence.
Violet held his gaze, but it was obvious she was uncomfortable.
"He is not malicious," she said. "Jack-Jack doesn't really understand the weight of what he does. To him, a lot of things are still just a game."
"Three of my students were temporarily kidnapped by that game."
Violet closed her mouth.
Tony cleared his throat.
"It wasn't intentional."
Aizawa turned his gaze to him.
Tony seemed to shrink in his own chair.
Mandalay crossed her arms.
"Why was he here? From what I understood, only you two were supposed to have come to help with the training."
Violet slowly turned to Tony.
Tony froze.
"Well..."
The memory returned clearly.
Tony was crouched beside the suitcase while unpacking things in the lodge room, pulling out a pile of shirts, when he noticed something small curled up inside.
At first, he thought it was a doll.
Then the doll breathed.
Tony blinked.
"What the fuck..."
The small figure opened its eyes.
Two little eyes looked at him.
Tony stayed still.
"Violet..."
Jack-Jack yawned, stretched his little arms, and then grew back to normal size inside the suitcase, pushing clothes everywhere.
Violet appeared at the bedroom door.
"What is it?"
Tony pointed at the suitcase.
Jack-Jack waved at his older sister.
"Mom said I couldn't go with you, so I hid in the suitcase! Now I can see All Might for the second time!"
Violet went pale.
"Oh, shit..."
Back in the private room, Tony shrugged with an awkward smile.
"So... yeah. He somehow came hidden in the luggage."
Aizawa stayed silent for a few seconds.
Then he took a deep breath through his nose.
"I see."
His tone made it clear that he did not see, did not accept it, and was probably calculating how many reports he would have to fill out if anything else went wrong.
"Can you at least control him?"
Violet sighed.
"Control is not the right word."
Aizawa waited.
"Jack-Jack doesn't work like someone you simply tell to stop and he stops. He is too little and has too many powers. When he is calm, it is relatively easy to redirect his attention. Toys, food, my mother... that helps. But when he gets angry, things get worse."
Aizawa leaned back in the chair.
"And now? How is he?"
Violet took a deep breath.
"Right now, he is quiet. Very quiet. After they came back, Jack-Jack stayed in the room hidden under the covers... I think something scared him."
Mandalay looked at Aizawa.
"Maybe he realized he went too far."
"Or maybe he is just tired," Aizawa replied.
Tony raised his hand slightly.
"Could be both."
Aizawa looked at him.
Tony lowered his hand again.
Aizawa closed his eyes for a moment.
"While he is here, he does not leave your side. No exceptions. Do not let him near the students without supervision."
Violet blushed with irritation and embarrassment at the same time.
"Understood."
Tony muttered:
"We'll pay more attention this time..."
"We? This time? Wasn't you the one I told to not give him cookies?!"
Violet looked at him.
"We'll have a little chat later, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am..."
Mandalay raised an eyebrow, but decided not to ask.
Aizawa stood up.
"I will talk to Ryo when he is better."
Violet looked at the door.
"Is he awake?"
"Probably."
Aizawa walked toward the exit, but stopped before opening the door.
"One more thing."
Violet and Tony looked at him.
"If that boy opens another portal and takes anyone else..."
Aizawa did not finish the sentence.
He did not need to.
Tony swallowed hard.
"Message received."
Violet nodded.
Aizawa opened the door and left.
In the room, the silence became heavy for a few seconds.
Mandalay sighed.
"This camp is becoming stranger and stranger than I expected..."
----------------------------------------
It was 10:30 in the morning at the N.C.R.C.D.Q. Complex.
Yuuko Tanaka's room was silent, except for the low sound of the television mounted to the wall at the back of the room, directly in front of the bed.
Yuuko was sitting against the pillows, with a thin blanket over her legs and an almost untouched meal tray on the side table. Even though the exams from the day before had shown the same results, far too good to be normal, the doctors still insisted that she remain at rest.
She did not complain.
At least not out loud.
Her eyes were fixed on the television.
On the screen, a serious-looking journalist spoke in front of the image of a busy street in Musutafu. Behind her, photos of missing people were arranged in a row in the upper corner of the broadcast.
"...the authorities confirmed this morning that seven people have disappeared over a period of seven days. The police are working with the possibility of kidnapping, although sources close to the investigation point to an almost random pattern among the victims."
The screen changed.
Photos of the missing people appeared.
A middle-aged man.
A young woman.
A student.
Then, a formal image of a man in a suit.
"Among the missing is Kusabane Itsuo, director of the energy infrastructure sector, who disappeared three days ago. The most recent case involves a student by the name of Minoru Mine—"
"Looks like things are getting worse every day."
Yuuko flinched slightly at the voice and turned her face toward the door.
A man in a suit entered the room, holding a folder under his arm. He had the tired expression of someone who slept too little and thought too much. His attentive eyes, however, remained steady.
Tsukauchi Naomasa.
He stopped just after entering, as if realizing he had interrupted the moment.
"Sorry. Excuse me, Tanaka-san."
Yuuko blinked a few times.
"Naomasa-kun?"
Tsukauchi relaxed a little when he heard her tone.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"It really has." Yuuko observed him for a few seconds, her smile becoming more nostalgic. "You still have that tired face."
Tsukauchi let out a short, quiet laugh.
"Thank you. I'll take that as a sign that I haven't changed that much."
"You have changed." Yuuko tilted her head. "You just still carry the same tired face from before."
"I've been doing a lot of overtime lately."
"I can imagine."
The two remained silent for a brief moment.
Yuuko had met Tsukauchi when she was still active as a heroine. He had been a rookie police officer at the time, positive, polite, and with dark circles under his eyes that already seemed like a permanent part of his face.
Yuuko looked at him with curiosity.
"So... why the visit?"
Tsukauchi adjusted the folder under his arm.
"There are some people who very much wanted to speak with you."
Yuuko blinked.
"With me?"
"Yes."
Tsukauchi turned toward the door.
"You may come in."
The door opened a little wider.
The first figure to appear was small.
Very small.
A being who looked like a mixture of a dog, a rat, and something Yuuko could not immediately define entered the room with elegant steps, wearing a suit, a tie, and a smile far too cheerful for the hospital environment.
He raised a little paw and waved.
"Good morning, Mrs. Tanaka!"
Yuuko stared, surprised.
Right behind him entered an extremely thin, tall man, with messy blond hair and sunken eyes. He wore simple clothes and moved with a polite, almost humble posture. There was something vaguely familiar about him, but Yuuko could not identify from where.
The man lowered his head.
"Good morning. Sorry for the intrusion."
Tsukauchi closed the door behind them.
Nezu walked closer to the bed, maintaining a respectful distance.
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you."
Yuuko looked from Nezu to Tsukauchi, then to the blond man.
"I... thank you."
The confusion was evident on her face.
Nezu smiled gently.
"Please, don't be nervous. We are not here to pressure you."
The blond man grabbed a wheeled stool near the wall and dragged it closer to the bed. Nezu climbed onto it naturally and sat down, staying at a more comfortable height for conversation.
Yuuko followed the movement, still lost.
Nezu adjusted his small suit.
"Allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Nezu. I am the principal of the renowned U.A. High School."
Yuuko froze.
"U.A.?"
Nezu nodded.
"Yes."
He then gestured lightly with his hand toward the blond man beside him.
"And this is Yagi Toshinori. My secretary."
Toshinori lowered his head again.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Tanaka-san."
Yuuko responded out of politeness, but her gaze immediately returned to Nezu.
"The principal of U.A.... here? To speak with me?"
"Yes. I wanted to have a small conversation with you, if it is not an inconvenience."
Yuuko remained silent for a few seconds, trying to organize the situation.
Tsukauchi remained near the door, discreet, but attentive. He did not seem to be there merely as an escort. He seemed like someone making sure the conversation remained clear, safe, and recorded in the correct way.
Nezu crossed his hands over his lap.
"Tanaka-san, before anything else, I am glad to see you awake. I have been following your case for many years, and your recovery was certainly... unexpected."
Yuuko lowered her gaze for an instant.
"Right..."
Nezu observed her carefully.
"I imagine that, at this moment, many things are still confusing."
Yuuko held the blanket over her legs.
"A little..."
"Then I will be direct, but I will try to be as careful as possible."
Toshinori became more serious beside him.
Yuuko bit her lip while thinking twice about the question she was going to ask.
"Is this about Ryo?"
Nezu was not surprised.
"Yes, it is about your son and my student."
Yuuko's face went pale.
"...What?"
----------------------------------------
The morning at the training camp was already in full chaos when Ryo left the infirmary.
In one of the open areas between the trees, Midoriya and Kirishima were going through a hellish hand-to-hand combat training session.
Tony stood before the two, hands raised in a guard and a relaxed smile on his face. Too relaxed for someone who had just taken down two U.A. students more than ten times in a row.
Midoriya breathed heavily, keeping Full Cowling active around his body.
Kirishima was beside him, his arms hardened and his gaze focused.
"Again," Tony said.
Midoriya advanced first.
He tried to feint to the right, switch to the left, and go in with a low kick. Tony followed the movement easily, leaned his body out of range, and responded with a short strike to the shoulder.
Midoriya corrected his posture the same instant he was pushed.
Did he just use his body to shove me aside?
Tony took a step back, seeming like he was going to retreat until he suddenly dropped low and charged straight at Midoriya.
Midoriya's eyes widened.
"He's too unpredictable—"
The elbow struck his stomach before he could finish the sentence.
"GH—!"
The air left his lungs.
Tony grabbed Midoriya's arm, spun his hips, and threw the boy to the ground with a clean judo throw.
Midoriya landed on his back in the dirt.
"Ugh..."
Kirishima seized the opening and advanced from behind.
"You won't escape now!"
He tried to hit Tony with a hardened punch, but Tony simply slid to the side, dropped his body low, and kicked the back of his knee, right at the spot that wasn't hardened.
Kirishima lost his balance immediately.
"Ah—!"
He fell to one knee.
Tony was already behind him.
"You're attacking too wide open. And never announce when you're about to attack, that just alerts your enemies."
Kirishima tried to turn, but Tony grabbed his arm, pulled it behind his back, and put him face-down on the ground with a controlled lock.
"And another thing. Don't rely only on your hardening."
Kirishima gritted his teeth.
"But my quirk is exactly for—"
"An advantage," Tony finished. "I know. But it's not an answer for everything."
He pressed the boy's arm lightly against his back.
"The more blindly you use an advantage, the more time the enemy has to study its weaknesses."
Midoriya appeared behind him in a burst, already recovered, preparing a side kick.
Tony smiled.
"That's why you need to learn not to depend on them so much."
Midoriya launched the kick.
"And only use them at the perfect or necessary moments."
Tony turned his face.
Swag Face
Midoriya looked directly at him.
That was enough.
The boy's eyes went wide. In the same instant, his expression changed on its own, turning into a confident and absurdly cool grimace that didn't fit the moment at all.
His body locked up in midair.
"Mhm?!"
Tony simply leaned his body and let the kick pass by.
Midoriya fell hard to the ground, still trapped in that ridiculous expression, unable to move freely.
Ten seconds later, the ability wore off.
Midoriya let out a groan and tried to get up.
"That Quirk is so unfair..."
"Everyone says that," Tony replied.
Before Midoriya could get to his feet, Tony appeared behind him, wrapped his arms around his waist, and lifted him.
"Wait—"
Midoriya's world spun before he hit the ground again from a well-applied suplex.
Kirishima got up slowly and saw his classmate down.
Then he looked at Tony.
"For real... how many fighting styles do you know?"
Tony paused, then brought a hand to his chin, thoughtful.
"Let's see... boxing, karate, muay thai, kickboxing, capoeira, taekwondo, judo..."
Kirishima blinked.
"That's way too long a list."
"And I'm not even finished."
While Tony kept talking, Midoriya stayed on the ground, breathing heavily.
His whole body ached.
"This is hell..."
He closed his eyes for a second.
"But compared to Gran Torino... it's actually kind of light."
While Gran Torino had taught him how to use One For All properly, Tony was teaching him how to fight with it and also not to become too blind to it.
Every strike came with a lesson. Every fall came with a reason. He wasn't just beating them up to "give them more experience." He was showing them holes in their stance, bad habits, poor techniques, and over-reliance on their Quirks.
Midoriya managed to sit up, still gasping.
"Fighting styles..."
He had never thought much about it.
Maybe his head had always assumed that if he had enough strength, martial technique wasn't a priority. But Tony was there, handling him using Full Cowling at 10% with just the same thing he had ignored.
"Maybe I should try to learn some too."
Midoriya's gaze swept across the field.
And then he saw in the distance, Aizawa walking beside Ryo.
Midoriya's eyes widened.
"Takeda...?"
Kirishima, who was still listening to Tony list off styles, turned immediately.
"Really?! Where?"
He looked across the field, spotted Aizawa and Ryo walking between the training areas, and a huge smile broke across his face.
"That's really him!"
Kirishima filled his lungs.
"EVERYONE! TAKEDA IS BACK!"
Uraraka stopped training with the targets when she heard that.
Mina turned her head mid-climb.
Sero almost lost his tape stuck in a tree.
Kaminari interrupted his electrical discharge and got a shock backlash.
Momo stopped creating objects.
Even Pony, who was in another area, looked toward Ryo with evident relief.
Within seconds, several students started heading toward him.
Aizawa stopped in his tracks.
The teacher frowned.
"Hey. Stop where you are."
The class stopped as if they'd hit an invisible wall.
Aizawa looked at everyone with the same tired expression as always.
"I know you want to know how your classmate is doing. But you're in the middle of training, and I didn't say you could stop."
The excitement died down a bit.
"Go back to your exercises. Talk to Takeda later."
The class made a sad and tired face almost in unison.
"But sensei..." Mina murmured.
Aizawa looked at her.
Mina stepped back immediately.
Even so, some still threw out comments as they returned.
"Takeda-kun, I'm so glad you're okay!" Uraraka said.
"We'll talk more later!" Kaminari shouted.
"Don't push yourself too hard, okay?" Jiro said, trying to sound casual.
"Good to see you on your feet, man!" Kirishima raised his fist.
Pony brought her hands close to her chest, relieved.
"Take care of yourself, Takeda-kun."
Ryo felt a bit awkward with all the attention.
"Yeah... thanks."
Aizawa looked at him sideways.
"You too."
Ryo turned his head.
"Me?"
"Yes. Get back to training."
"But I just left the infirmary."
"Yes, but you were discharged by Tiger." Aizawa didn't seem moved. "You're perfectly fine now. So get back to your studies and show me some results from your research by the end of the afternoon. And try not to do anything dangerous, okay?"
Ryo was silent for a second.
Then he nodded.
"Okay."
He turned to head toward the area where his study desk was.
But he didn't get far.
The ground behind him rose up.
A mound of earth surged like a small wave, slid across the field, and dragged him aside before he could fully react.
"Ah—"
"Honey!"
Pixie-Bob's worried voice came along with the dirt.
The next moment, the mound opened up and Ryo was pulled directly into a tight hug.
Pixie-Bob held him against her chest with both enormous paws, swinging him back and forth as if he were a cat rescued from a tree.
"Are you okay? I was so worried! I missed you so much, honey!"
Ryo went completely rigid as he found his face between two soft mounds.
"Pixie-Bob-san..."
"It's all right now." She squeezed tighter. "I'll take care of you now~"
Ryo's face turned red as he felt his face sink deeper into that soft, cavernous valley.
"Oh? What's this hard thing I'm feeling down here~?"
"Th-That's my hand! Please don't make things weird..."
"Ehe~❤︎"
Aizawa watched that for a few seconds.
Then he sighed.
"We should probably be more worried about her than that five-year-old child."
That was when a flash of light came from another area of the camp.
Aizawa turned his head.
A massive explosion rose into the sky.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The fiery column pierced through the treetops and spread out above the field, creating a dense, dark smoke cloud laden with orange sparks.
Everyone stopped.
Shoji, who was high up in a tree carrying weight on his extra arms, looked toward the smoke.
"What was that?"
At the ravine, Sero stopped launching tape and stared at the sky.
"That came from the area where Bakugo is training."
Inside the force bubble, Dash slowed down immediately, his feet still running against the curved surface.
"Was that Bakugo?"
He looked at Violet, who was sitting in a folding chair, sunglasses on her face, apparently sunbathing while controlling the bubble with one hand.
"Should we go check it out—"
"No."
Violet didn't even open her eyes.
Dash looked sulky, still running.
"That could have been my chance to go see Takeda..."
Midoriya was lying on the ground after Tony had thrown him again.
He turned his head toward the direction of the smoke, his eyes widening as he got a better look.
"Ka... Kacchan...?"
The smoke began to clear.
In the center of the destroyed area, Bakugo was kneeling.
The earth around him had been torn up in an uneven circle, as if an explosion had been launched directly upward. The ground was black, cracked, and smoking. Stone fragments still fell around him.
Bakugo bit his lip hard.
His whole body trembled.
His left hand gripped his right arm.
And his right arm was in a terrible state.
The sleeve had been completely destroyed. The skin was burned in dark, reddish patches, covered in soot and superficial to deep cuts opened by the force of the explosion. His forearm trembled irregularly, his fingers barely responded, and his shoulder seemed dislocated, knocked out of place by the recoil of the explosion itself.
Bakugo breathed heavily.
Sweat ran down his face.
His teeth were clenched so tightly they looked like they might crack.
"F-Fuck..."