Night had fallen over U.A. High School.
Most of the campus was quiet.
Dorm lights were dim.
Students were asleep.
But inside the principal's office, Nezu sat in the glow of a computer screen.
He hadn't stopped thinking about the Calden Project all day.
The destroyed laboratory.
The frozen scientists.
The missing child.
And the file he still hadn't opened.
The final image.
Nezu adjusted his glasses and moved the mouse slowly.
"…Let's finish this."
He clicked.
The picture loaded.
For a moment, nothing appeared.
Just static.
Then the image sharpened.
The Photograph
It looked like a hospital corridor.
Emergency lights were flashing red.
Medical carts were overturned.
Papers scattered everywhere.
The hallway walls were blackened with burn marks.
Something had clearly gone very wrong.
But that wasn't what made Nezu's eyes narrow.
It was the center of the photo.
A child stood in the middle of the hallway.
Barefoot.
Hospital clothing.
Small.
Maybe a year old.
Around the child, the air looked distorted.
Flames flickered along the floor.
But the fire wasn't spreading.
It almost looked like it was circling him.
Behind the child, several medical staff members stood frozen.
Not unconscious.
Not injured.
Just standing still.
Their bodies locked in place.
Like statues.
And the strangest detail of all…
The child wasn't crying.
He wasn't screaming.
He wasn't afraid.
He was simply standing there.
Looking directly at the camera.
At the bottom of the photo, a caption had been typed.
CALDEN PROJECT — INCIDENT 07
Below it were several notes.
Nezu read them quietly.
"Subject displayed simultaneous quirk activation."
"Combustion output unstable."
"Hemoglobin reaction successful."
Then the final line.
The one that made even Nezu pause.
"Neural influence confirmed."
Nezu leaned back in his chair.
"…So it's true."
Three quirks.
Fire.
Blood control.
And mind influence.
All inside one child.
He looked closer at the image.
The camera timestamp blinked faintly in the corner.
And next to it was something else.
A small handwritten label attached to the medical chart lying on the floor.
Nezu zoomed in.
The letters slowly became readable.
SUBJECT NAME
The name underneath it was only partially visible.
But it was enough.
REN —
The rest of the page was burned away.
Nezu closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he opened them again and looked out the window toward the dorm buildings.
Somewhere out there, Ren was probably sleeping.
Laughing with his friends earlier.
Cooking food.
Living like a normal student.
But seventeen years ago…
Someone had created something that wasn't supposed to exist.
And now that "something" was attending U.A.
Nezu quietly shut the laptop.
"…We'll have to be careful with you, Ren."
Outside, the campus remained peaceful.
Inside the dorms, Ren slept without a clue about the past waiting for him.
Or the truth buried deep inside his own mind.