The room on the fifth floor of Building C is quiet.
Dust drifts lazily through thin beams of light filtering through cracked windows. The mock nuclear device stands at the centre of the room, mounted on its pedestal like the centrepiece of the entire exercise.
Two students stand beside it.
Momo Yaoyorozu studies the room carefully, one hand resting beneath her chin, the other supporting her elbow. Beside her, Ayaka Adachi waits in silence, hands resting loosely on her hips.
She doesn't say anything.
She simply watches Momo think.
Her gaze drifts around the room — the windows, the doorway, the corners of the ceiling — as if quietly mapping the space in her mind.
Several long seconds pass.
Momo's eyes narrow slightly. She looks toward the doorway. Then the windows. Then back to the weapon.
Finally, she exhales softly and lowers her hand.
"We have quite a number of options available to us," she says.
Ayaka tilts her head slightly and gestures forward with one hand.
"Go on."
Momo walks a slow circle around the pedestal as she speaks.
"The simplest solution would be overwhelming force."
Ayaka nods.
"That tracks."
"With your strength," Momo continues, "you could likely incapacitate both of them in under a minute."
Ayaka shrugs lightly.
"Probably less."
Momo glances back at her.
"I thought so."
She pauses.
Then her expression softens just slightly.
"But we shouldn't do that."
Ayaka raises an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Ayaka leans back lightly against the weapon, listening.
Momo folds her hands behind her back.
"It's only the second day of school," she says. "Many of our classmates are still adjusting to the expectations placed upon them here."
She glances toward the doorway again.
"If we overwhelm them completely, it could affect their confidence for the rest of the semester. Or longer."
A brief pause settles over her, like she's remembering something.
"Confidence is difficult to rebuild once shaken."
Ayaka watches her quietly for a moment.
Then a slow grin spreads across her face.
"That," she says, "is why you're my best friend."
Momo blinks slightly at the sudden declaration.
Ayaka taps her own temple.
"You care about people."
Then she points lazily at Momo.
"But you also always know exactly what I'm thinking."
Momo's lips curl into a warm smile.
Ayaka pushes herself off the weapon and stretches her arms over her head, joints popping lightly.
"So," she says casually, "strategic route?"
"Yes." Momo gestures toward the doorway. "Something controlled." Her eyes flick to the windows. "Subtle." Then back to Ayaka. "Effective — but not excessive."
Ayaka raises both hands in slow mock surrender.
"I am entirely at your mercy, my lady." She dips into a slow, exaggerated curtsy. "Please use me however you wish."
Momo lets out a quiet laugh, long since accustomed to the theatrics.
"Very well."
Red motes stir beneath the fabric of her costume, travelling along her skin before slipping out through the openings at her collar and sleeves — drifting upward like embers shaken loose from a fire. They drift along her arms, gathering at her palms until the light there is steady and warm, matter already beginning to form from the energy within her body.
Grey cylindrical canisters take shape first, appearing from the glow around her hands — and the moment they do, the space beneath them folds quietly, the distance between her palms and the floor collapsing without announcement. They settle into a neat pile at her feet as if they had simply decided to rest there.
Without pausing, the structure of her creations shifts. The next set emerges a shade darker — matte grey, with a thin red band running along the circumference. They appear from the glow the same way as the first batch, joining the growing pile beside the others.
Within seconds, two neat stacks sit at her feet.
Ayaka glances down at them. One of the red-banded canisters drifts upward on its own, floating to eye level as she turns it slowly, examining it.
"…Smoke," she says. "And something else. Layered payload?"
"You'll see," Momo replies, already turning back to her work.
The canisters stop. The glow across her hands doesn't fade — it deepens, the red motes shimmering brighter as the light shifts in character, hotter and more focused than before. Slender metal rods begin forming next, appearing one after another from the intensified light around her palms.
Each one disappears the instant it takes shape.
Above them, a sharp sound — one after another — as the rods drive themselves into the ceiling with clean, measured force, spaced across the entire span of the room with quiet precision.
Ayaka looks up, watching them strike home one by one.
"Dampening rods." She tilts her head. "This many? Isn't this excessive? We are not ambushing Brother."
Momo doesn't answer immediately. She continues working, rod after rod, until nearly half the ceiling is lined with them. Then she stops and turns to face Ayaka.
"I know," she says calmly. "But I'd rather not leave room for surprises. When people are cornered, they find ways to exceed expectations."
Ayaka nods, conceding the point.
Momo folds her arms lightly.
"The energy cost is negligible at this point, anyway. After years of training against your brother, I had to keep refining the design — optimising the output until the process became efficient enough to sustain. Creating electromagnetic dampeners costs me almost nothing now."
Ayaka grins. "That is true." She glances up at the ceiling again. "Kaminari really does have terrible luck — being matched against the two people on the planet with the most experience handling an electricity-based quirk user."
Momo shakes her head slowly, though the smile doesn't leave her face. "Bad luck indeed."
She motions with her chin toward the two piles of canisters on the floor.
"Place these along the edges of the room evenly — covering the full perimeter." She reaches out and plucks the red-banded canister still floating near Ayaka, holding it up briefly. "These ones every third position between the grey."
The moment she finishes speaking, the canister disappears from her hand.
She doesn't flinch. She simply looks down at the piles.
One by one, they blink out of existence — and within seconds, both stacks are gone entirely, as if they had never been there. Momo turns slowly, scanning the edges of the room.
Canisters line every wall. Uniform. Orderly. Arranged in a perfectly spaced outline along the walls.
She gives a single nod — the small, satisfied kind, the twist of someone quietly acknowledging that yes, this will do.
"Going for the dramatic?" Ayaka asks, eyes bright with something that could only be described as dangerous curiosity — the look of someone who has just spotted something fascinating and is already thinking about how to use it.
Momo feels something uncertain stir in her chest as she looks at those eyes.
"It's simply the most efficient plan I could devise," she says carefully, "without risking any damage to their morale."
Ayaka nods thoughtfully, turning to look at the canisters along the nearest wall.
Momo lets out a quiet breath of relief.
A beat of comfortable silence settles between them.
Then —
"You know," Ayaka says idly.
Something in her tone makes Momo go still. Not the words themselves — just the particular quality of them. Casual in the specific way that Ayaka only ever was when she had already decided something and was simply giving the world a moment to catch up.
Momo feels a spike of unease move through her chest.
Ayaka is still looking sideways — but watching Momo from the corner of her eye.
"I was thinking."
Every alarm bell in Momo's mind rings at once.
"This feels like too good of an opportunity to miss."
"Ayaka — wait —"
Momo takes a step forward, hand outstretched —
And Ayaka is gone.
She turns at the soft sound of a door. The corridor beyond the doorway stretches empty in both directions — no movement, no figure, no sign that anyone had passed through at all.
"A little psychological damage never hurt anyone's development," Ayaka's voice echoes faintly from somewhere down the hall.
Momo's shoulders slump.
She stands there for a moment in the quiet room, surrounded by canisters and dampening rods and the ghost of a plan that has just been cheerfully modified by one half of the team.
She presses her fingers lightly to her temple.
"These siblings," she mutters, with the particular exhaustion of someone who has had this exact feeling many times before and has accepted that she will have it many times again, "are going to push me into an early grave."
The quiet holds for a moment longer.
Then she straightens, exhales, and speaks toward the empty room.
"I still need your help with a few other things."
A voice arrives — soft, close, as if spoken directly beside her ear.
"Just call me on the intercom whenever you're ready."
Momo closes her eyes briefly.
Then she turns back to her work.
***
Back in the monitoring room.
Izumi watches the exchange on-screen with a small frown, looking oddly offended.
"What did I do?"
A few of the students nearby glance at him from the corners of their eyes, then quietly look away.
"And a little psychological pressure," he continues, still watching the screen, "applied consistently and at the right moments, has been shown to significantly improve long-term resilience. If anything, it's a valuable training resource."
Silence.
Several more of his classmates stare at him.
Even All Might, arms folded at the back of the room, turns slowly to look at him with an expression that sits somewhere between concern and reluctant understanding.
'No wonder they're siblings', the room collectively, wordlessly agrees.
***
Outside Building C.
Two students stand on the pavement, overlooking the structure.
Denki Kaminari leans back against the railing, staring up at the building with the particular look of someone who has just done the maths and doesn't love the answer. Beside him, Kyoka Jiro rests one elbow on the rail, earphone jacks hanging loose, expression calm but focused.
Kaminari exhales slowly.
"Well. We've definitely got our work cut out for us."
Jiro glances at him. "No kidding."
"Two recommendation students," he mutters, scratching the back of his head. "Top scorers in the fitness assessment. Both of them." He lets out a low whistle. "That's… pretty terrifying."
"They're strong," Jiro says evenly.
She tilts her head slightly.
"But this is what we've got. Complaining about the matchup won't change it." She glances up at the building. "We go in, we do what we can, and we make them work for it. That's all."
Kaminari is quiet for a moment. Then something straightens in his posture — not confidence exactly, but the kind of resolve that shows up when there's no better option.
"Yeah." He unclenches his hand and exhales. "Yeah, you're right."
He looks up at the building.
"Alright. Let's think this through."
Jiro nods slowly, already thinking.
"I'll scout first."
She lifts her jacks deliberately, letting them rise beside her head.
"I should be able to pick up their movements through the walls. If they're setting traps, repositioning, anything — I'll hear it."
Kaminari's expression sharpens. "Good. Once we know where they are, here's what I'm thinking." He turns toward the building. "We locate them, move in together, and hit fast. You disorient them first — use your quirk to throw off their focus — and then I close the distance and use my electricity to incapacitate them before they can recover." He pauses. "It'd be ideal if they're separated. Easier to deal with one at a time."
"We'll know once I find them," Jiro says.
She thinks for a moment, then adds, "But even if they've held up together in one room, the same approach works. Disorient, then strike. The key advantage we have is information — I can track their movements, hear everything going on inside that building." Her gaze stays on the entrance. "They don't have that."
Kaminari lets that settle. Then a grin works its way onto his face. "Alright. I like those odds." He cracks his knuckles. "Let's make it count."
At that moment, the loudspeakers crackle to life across the training grounds.
[All participants, prepare.]
A brief pause.
[Villain Team C versus Hero Team G.]
[This will be the final match of the day.]
A small charge runs through the air.
[Give it everything you have!]
[Go beyond!]
[Plus Ultra!]
[Begin!]