Chapter 65: Finally Arriving at the USJ
The next day started quietly in the spacious home Aoi shared with his loved ones. Aoi stirred awake, feeling the familiar warmth of Nemuri sleeping peacefully beside him, her breathing soft and steady. He turned to look at her for a moment, appreciating the calm before the storm he sensed coming. Leaning in, he placed a gentle kiss on her lips, careful not to wake her, then slipped out of bed without a sound.
He headed to the kitchen for breakfast, preparing a quick but nutritious meal—some eggs, toast, fruit, and coffee—to fuel what he knew would be a demanding day. Sitting at the table alone, he ate slowly, his face serious as his mind raced: "Today is the day of the attack. I just hope my presence doesn't make the attack that's going to happen worse. If things shift too much, it could create bigger problems than in the original timeline."
Lost in these heavy thoughts, he didn't notice the approach until Rumi suddenly jumped onto his back from behind, wrapping her arms around his neck in a playful ambush. Aoi reacted instantly, catching her legs to support her weight and keep his coffee from spilling.
"Did you sleep well, my little bunny?" he asked with a light chuckle, turning his head to see her grinning face.
Rumi nose his cheek from him.
"Sleep well? Then where is everyone else?"
Aoi explained patiently, holding her steady.
"Well, Ryuko arrived all bruised and tired from work last night. So after I finished healing you all, you fell asleep pretty quickly. Then I carried you to your room so you could rest comfortably."
Rumi leaned forward, planting a soft kiss on his lips.
"Thanks then, dear."
Aoi returned the kiss warmly, enjoying the brief moment of affection.
"I don't mind taking care of you all—it's the least I can do."
They shared a few more kisses and light embraces before Aoi finished his breakfast. He then got ready for school, changing into his uniform and packing his bag.
Before heading out the door, he paused to look at Rumi, who was now getting dressed herself.
"Rumi, I left breakfast ready for Nemuri, Ryuko, and my mom. When they wake up, let them know, okay?"
Rumi smiled brightly, her ears perking up.
"All right, I'll let them know—no problem."
He blew her a kiss, said goodbye, and headed out on his motorcycle. The engine roared as he drove toward school, the morning air rushing past him.
Arriving at U.A., he parked and walked into the classroom, taking his usual seat amid the growing buzz of students.
Momo, already there with her books organized, noticed his demeanor immediately and smiled gently.
"What's wrong? You're looking serious today."
Aoi leaned back slightly.
"It's nothing major. I just have a feeling that today won't be a very good day."
Momo tilted her head curiously.
"You probably just didn't sleep well last night."
Mina leaned over from her nearby seat.
"Momo's right. You probably didn't rest properly—maybe stayed up too late or something."
Aoi glanced at them both and shrugged.
"Well, maybe that's it."
At that moment, the door opened, and Aizawa entered, his perpetually tired eyes scanning the room as his capture weapon scarf hung loosely.
"Quiet," he said in his monotone voice. "I have something to say."
The class immediately hushed, all attention turning to the professor.
Aizawa looked around and continued:
"Today's class will be joint training with me and All Might."
Bakugou perked up instantly, a competitive gleam in his eye.
"Cool! It's going to be another battle class."
He shot a venomous glare at Izuku.
Aoi sighed inwardly, thinking: "I hope it's not another battle class. It's really hard to control my strength in those without risking too much."
Aizawa noticed the rising excitement, sighed wearily, and clarified:
"It's not a battle. So calm down, Bakugou."
Aizawa then fixed a serious gaze on his students.
"To be heroes isn't just about fighting villains. So that's why today we're preparing for real disaster situations: fires, floods, and earthquakes. This will be rescue training."
Iida sat up straighter, enthusiastic as always.
"I understand. It's true that rescue operations are an essential part of hero work—we must be prepared for all scenarios."
Kirishima grinned widely.
"Cool! This rescue training is going to be awesome—I can already imagine testing my hardening in different zones."
Aoi commented nonchalantly.
"Rescue... Well, for me, as long as the person is still breathing, I can save them without much issue."
Momo added thoughtfully.
"Not all heroes have a healing quirk that can save everyone instantly like yours does. So learning proper rescue techniques is very important for everyone else."
Aizawa nodded slightly.
"Well, there's one more thing: you can wear your costumes or not, since some of them aren't particularly useful for this type of training. But I strongly advise you to wear them. After all, when you start working as pro heroes, even if the uniform gets in the way or is damaged, you won't be able to just take it off mid-mission. So it's better to get used to operating in them from now."
Aoi glanced at Izuku and said:
"It seems your hero costume was completely destroyed in the last fight. They haven't fixed it yet?"
Izuku shook his head, a bit embarrassed.
"No, not yet—it's still in repairs."
Iida approached as well.
"So it seems you'll have to wear normal clothes today."
Izuku replied.
"Yes, but it's no problem. It's just temporary while my costume is being fixed."
Aizawa interrupted.
"Well, stop talking and go change into your costumes now. We don't have all day."
After everyone got ready—most in their full hero costumes, Izuku in standard gym clothes—they grouped up and headed toward the waiting bus outside the main building.
Iida, who had arrived earlier and was already perfectly organized, stood at the front and instructed:
"Form a line according to your student ID number and occupy the seats in an orderly manner to avoid any delays."
Everyone boarded the bus in line, shuffling to find their assigned spots amid light conversation and excitement.
Aoi ended up sitting next to Momo near the middle of the bus. As it pulled away from the school and started the journey, he looked around at everyone settling in and commented with a touch of sarcasm:
"But man, is this really what you expected from the country's top hero school? Even to train on campus, you need to take a bus to get to the actual training ground. The place is ridiculously huge."
Kirishima, a few seats ahead, turned back with wide eyes.
"This is insane, right, everyone? The school is gigantic—it's like its own separate world!"
Kaminari, sitting next to Jiro, added with a laugh.
"Well, now I totally get why so many people fight tooth and nail to study here. The facilities are on another level entirely."
Bakugou grumbled from his seat, arms crossed tightly.
"You're all too noisy. Stop talking so loud—it's grating on my nerves."
Aoi, overhearing the complaint, couldn't resist responding.
"You, the nitroglycerin-powered loudspeaker, are the last one who can complain about noise levels."
Bakugou snapped his head around, palms sparking faintly.
"What was that, you perverted aquarium head? Want to get exploded right here on this bus?"
Aoi replied calmly, unfazed.
"By whom? You? Sorry to inform you, but your explosion powers are pretty useless against me—they wouldn't even scratch."
Bakugou got even more irritated, his voice rising.
"What are you saying, you idiot? I'll explode that arrogant face of yours into oblivion!"
Aoi teased with a smirk.
"Well, I was a bit harsh there. Your quirk is useful, after all. You could even try a part-time job as the fireworks display for the summer festival—big booms and flashy lights included."
Aizawa, monitoring from the front, turned slightly and said in his deadpan tone:
"Can you all be quiet for a moment? Why do you have to be so noisy the entire ride?"
Izuku watched the exchange between Aoi and Bakugou with wide eyes, thinking in shock: "They're really going at it with Kacchan again... This is intense."
Tsuyu looked at Izuku calmly from her seat and said:
"Well, I usually say whatever comes to mind—no filter."
Izuku turned to her.
"What is it, Asui?"
Tsuyu corrected gently.
"Call me Tsuyu."
She then looked at him directly and said:
"Your quirk is the same as All Might's, right?"
Izuku got nervous, stuttering as he tried to deflect.
"Seriously? I hadn't noticed that at all—no similarity whatsoever."
Kirishima chimed in enthusiastically.
"Tsuyu, All Might doesn't get hurt when using his quirk. If you're talking about a quirk similar to All Might's in terms of raw overwhelming power, it's definitely Aoi's."
Everyone then turned their attention to Aoi, curiosity filling the bus.
Tsuyu continued without hesitation.
"Aoi, you haven't explained how your quirk works in detail yet. After all, you can heal people instantly and also have such insanely strong physical strength—it's intriguing."
Aoi looked around at the expectant faces and said casually:
"Well, I haven't gone into the full details of my quirk before, right?"
Kirishima nodded eagerly.
"Yes, you haven't—come on, tell us!"
Aoi said simply:
"It's simple, really."
He held out his hand palm-up, summoning his signature blue flames that danced harmlessly, casting a cool azure glow across the nearby seats.
"My quirk is simple. This flame gives me the ability of super regeneration—healing myself from almost any injury near-instantly. The ability to heal other people is just a side effect of it."
Kaminari leaned forward, puzzled.
"But does your flame only heal you? And other people too? How did you get so physically strong like that, then?"
Aoi asked back, engaging the group.
"Do you all know the hard limits of the ordinary human body—the ones science says are impossible to surpass no matter how hard you train?"
Momo answered confidently, her analytical mind shining.
"Yes. The limits that an ordinary human, no matter how much they try or how dedicated they are, can't surpass. That strict biological limit in raw strength, reflexes, speed, and overall endurance."
Aoi smiled at Momo approvingly.
"Yes, exactly. So the answer is simple. You know that physical training essentially boils down to two core things: breaking your body down through extreme stress so it heals and adapts to get stronger over time. So what do you think I did to push past those unbreakable limits?"
Izuku's eyes widened in shock as the full realization hit him.
"You... you intentionally broke your body, pushing it to the absolute limit every single time, and then recovered instantly with your quirk. Then you simply repeated that same brutal process several times—each cycle pushing harder and increasing the intensity more and more—thus building your strength exponentially and completely surpassing the normal limits of the human body, right?"
Aoi said, smiling widely with genuine respect.
"As expected from Izuku. You got it right on the first try—perfect deduction."
Kirishima's face was pure shock, his hardened skin almost seeming to pale.
"But to do that... don't you need an almost totally suicidal training regimen? Like, constantly dancing on the edge of death?"
Aizawa, who had been quietly listening from the front the entire conversation, finally spoke up, his voice carrying clearly over the bus.
"Yes. You need to be a complete lunatic with no love for life to follow that kind of limit-breaking training. After all, as he said himself, he has to intentionally break his body to force it to get stronger. But there's a major problem most people overlook: if you, for example, use 100kg of weight or force to break your body, after it recovers and adapts, that same 100kg can't break it anymore—it's too weak now to cause the necessary damage. In other words, you have to keep continuously seeking increasingly dangerous—and potentially fatal—ways to break your body further just to trigger adaptation again."
The entire bus fell into stunned silence upon hearing this detailed, brutal explanation. When they had heard Aoi mention training since childhood to surpass All Might, they assumed he was just putting in a little extra effort compared to normal people. But hearing their professor lay it out so bluntly now, they realized they hadn't trained even one percent of the insane difficulty, risk, and sheer willpower Aoi had endured for years on end.
Bakugou clenched his fists tightly, small sparks popping from his palms as he thought furiously: "Damn. So that bastard trained like that—pushing himself to the brink over and over without holding back? No wonder he's so ridiculously strong. But if he thinks I'm going to give up or back down because of it, he's dead wrong. Only I'll be the number 1 hero—no one else gets that spot."
Aizawa scanned his thoughtful, somewhat intimidated students and continued firmly.
"I know you all felt pressured hearing the details of this. But don't even think about trying to copy his training method blindly. He can train that crazy way because he has a quirk that guarantees he never suffers permanent injury or long-term aftereffects from that level of self-destruction. If any of you trained like that, the only thing that would happen is you'd end your hero careers before they even began—crippled for life or worse. This training Aoi created is tailored specifically for himself, based on his unique situation and quirk combination. So instead of trying to blindly copy his training method, why don't you create your own personalized training methods that fit your own quirks perfectly? After all, I bet most of you only paid attention to the physical strength results of Aoi's training, but forgot an important point: a quirk is also like a muscle in many ways. The more you train and push it consistently, the stronger it gets. Aoi's training also heavily demands from his quirk itself to heal the damage repeatedly. Result: it evolves and gets stronger right alongside his body's improvements."
Izuku summarized thoughtfully, piecing it all together.
"So what the professor is saying is that we can be inspired by Aoi's training method to create our own personalized methods that suit our individual quirks perfectly. But we shouldn't directly copy his method because it was designed specifically for him, and even if we did the same things, we wouldn't get the same results—or we'd just destroy ourselves trying."
Aizawa confirmed with a nod.
"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. Think smart—adapt, don't imitate blindly."
Everyone then fell into thoughtful silence for the remainder of the ride, each student mentally brainstorming and planning their own unique training approaches based on their individual quirks.
At that moment, the bus finally pulled to a smooth stop and arrived at the destination. The doors hissed open, and everyone started getting off the bus one by one, stretching their legs and gazing in awe at the massive domed facility ahead—the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ.
Aoi stepped off last, taking in the impressive structure with its various simulated disaster zones visible through the grand entrance, and thought quietly to himself: "So this is where it all begins—the real test. Well, let's go then."