The bus back to U.A. is louder than the one that left.
Exhaustion and adrenaline in the same body don't cancel each other out. They just produce noise, the kind that bounces off bus walls and arrives at everyone simultaneously.
"Okay, but those glaciers," Ashido says, turning sideways in her seat to face the row behind her. "Did anyone else see how many times he just kept throwing them out? One after another. The ground was basically a glacier by the end."
"It wasn't just the volume," someone from the boys' side of the aisle calls across. "Did you see the size of the ones at the end? Each one was bigger than the last."
"Yeah, that wasn't even strategy at that point," Uraraka says. "That was just overwhelming force."
Tsuyu presses a finger to her lips, head tilting slightly. "Todoroki has a very flashy quirk. That kind of visual impact will be very useful for popularity. Ribbit."
"And he's good looking," Kaminari adds. "Which, honestly, isn't fair. Flashy quirk and good looking? He's going to have so many fangirls it's not even funny."
Ashido brightens. "Okay, yeah! We actually have quite a few people with flashy quirks in this class." She raises a finger and starts counting. "Todoroki, Midoriya, Bakugo, Izumi…"
"Midoriya is definitely going to have a big following," Tsuyu says. "He has that hero energy about him. Easy to approach. People gravitate toward that."
Uraraka nods. She'd already thought the same thing.
"Yeah! He feels really reassuring, you know?"
"Bakugo, though," Tsuyu continues, tilting her head thoughtfully. "I don't think he's going to be very popular. He has a crap mouth, and he's always shouting and —"
The girls glance toward the front of the bus.
Bakugo sits with his arms folded, jaw set, staring out the window. He doesn't turn around. He doesn't shout. He grunts once and continues looking at the passing trees.
They turn back to each other.
"Ah," Ashido says. "Nothing."
Tsuyu nods. "Nothing."
They regroup.
Then, collectively and without coordinating it, several of them turn to look toward the back of the bus.
Izumi sits with his head resting back against the seat, eyes closed, completely still despite the noise around him.
"Yeah… Izumi is definitely going to be popular," Ashido says flatly.
The others nod. No discussion required.
Just then, his eyes open, already pointed in exactly the direction of the group looking at him.
Nobody says anything about that.
Then Ayaka blinks into existence in the aisle between the two sides of the bus.
She floats there, cross-legged in the air, completely unconcerned with balance or gravity and unbothered by the fact that she is hovering in a moving vehicle, as if she has decided the seat was an unnecessary formality.
"What are you all talking about?"
Before anyone could answer—
"THIS IS HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE!"
Iida's voice cuts cleanly through the bus.
He's already standing, one hand gripping the back of a seat for balance, the other chopping sharply through the air in rigid, practiced motions.
"Students should remain seated while the vehicle is in motion! Moving about like this is dangerous and unbecoming of U.A. students!"
Ayaka slowly rotates mid-air to look at him upside down.
"…you're no fun."
"I am being serious!" Iida snaps, adjusting his glasses with a sharp motion. "Please return to your seat immediately!"
She floats there for another second.
Then— "…nah."
She drifts off again.
Iida freezes. A visible pause. Then he turns his head, scanning the rest of the bus. "…Everyone, please—!"
No one listens.
His arm lowers slowly.
"…this is extremely irresponsible…"
Ayaka stops drifting. She tilts her head back toward him.
"Iida," she says.
He looks at her.
"Aren't you the one standing in the aisle? There is no mention of floating in the rule book."
Iida opens his mouth. Closes it. His hand is still gripping the back of the seat. His other arm is still raised mid-chop. He looks down at his own feet, planted firmly in the aisle of a moving bus, and then back up at Ayaka floating serenely in the same aisle.
A long pause passes through him.
He lowers his arm
He straightens.
He walks, with great dignity and no further comment, back to his seat at the front of the bus and sits down.
Ayaka drifts back to the group.
They stare at her for a moment and continue unbothered.
"Flashy quirks," Ashido says. "Who has them, who's going to be popular, you know."
Ayaka's face lights up. "Oh, that sounds interesting."
Tsuyu tilts her head as she studies Ayaka, at the floating and the easy smile, the hero suit. The complete absence of any apparent concern about gravity.
"Your quirk isn't flashy," she says slowly, "but it's very unique." She pauses. "Actually, though," her head tilts slightly further, "you're flashy. Even without the quirk. You'll definitely be popular. Ribbit."
The others look at Ayaka. Then at each other. Then back at Ayaka, still hovering cross-legged in the aisle with her chin resting in her hand.
"She's right," Uraraka says.
"Obviously, she really stands out." Ashido agrees.
"The floating isn't hurting her case right now," Sero adds from across the aisle.
Ayaka blinks, then smiles faintly, clearly amused more than anything else.
"Honestly," Kaminari says, sitting forward, "the siblings would be popular even if they weren't heroes."
Uraraka blinks. "Because of how they look?"
"That too." Kaminari reaches into his pocket. "But have you guys seen their family?"
A collective pause settles over the group.
Kaminari looks at them.
He sighs. "That too. But have none of you looked them up at all?"
That gets everyone's attention.
A few confused looks pass around.
Kaminari sighs like he's been waiting for this moment. He slips a hand into his pocket and pulls out his phone.
Uraraka watches him, a little envious. "Having pockets must be nice."
In the row just ahead, Tokoyami sits upright, Dark Shadow stretching outwards from his shoulder and hovering above the group at a polite listening height, doing nothing to disguise that he has been following this conversation with interest.
Kaminari unlocks his phone, types something quickly, waits a few seconds, and turns the screen to face the group.
Ayaka drifts forward, curious, and Dark Shadow leans in beside her, the two of them hovering at the same height above the aisle, wearing the same expression.
The rest of the group leans in.
On the phone, a picture fills the screen.
Four figures.
A family.
A man seated at the centre of the frame, broad-shouldered and sharp-eyed, with white hair cut close and a short beard, dressed in all black, posture relaxed but commanding without trying.
Beside him, a woman with long dark wavy hair and pale green eyes, one hand resting on his arm, dressed in black with a quiet elegance that doesn't ask for attention and gets it anyway.
Behind them stand two younger figures.
Izumi is standing with his hands loose at his sides, white hair falling past his shoulders, a faint smile on his face.
And beside him, Ayaka, with the same white hair pulled back loosely, dressed in white, looking at the camera calmly. Completely unbothered.
The city skyline fills the window behind them, tall and indifferent, and somehow makes the four people in front of it look more significant rather than smaller.
Everything about the image feels… expensive.
Silence settles over the group.
Ayaka sees the picture and knocks her fist against her open palm. "Uh huh. That explains it."
"Wait," Ashido is the first to recover, leaning in closer. "Are your parents actual supermodels or something?"
"They're not supermodels," Ayaka says.
"That's exactly what someone whose parents are supermodels would say."
"Your mom is so pretty, all four of you look amazing," Uraraka says, with the directness of someone who means it entirely.
Sero whistles low. "That's not just good genes, man. That's… premium edition."
Jiro points at the screen. "And your parents—why do they look like they run countries on weekends?"
"How old is this picture?" Tsuyu asks, tilting her head at the screen. "Izumi looks," she pauses, thinking. "How do I put it… rougher. Ribbit."
Ayaka glances at her. "About a year ago. He'd just come off a training match with Mom right before this was taken. She doesn't hold back."
"He looks thin," Sero says, from where he's craning his neck to see.
"It's the angle."
Kaminari taps the screen, and the photo shrinks, pulling back into the article it was embedded in. The headline sits at the top of the page in clean bold text.
[A Rare Glimpse Into Power: A Family That Shapes Nations.]
The group goes quiet.
Then, slowly, almost in sync, every head turns toward the back of the bus.
Izumi sits looking out the window, sunlight catching faintly along his profile. A calm smile on his face, watching the road.
He feels them looking. He turns his head.
Every single one of them stares back at him without expression.
A beat passes.
As one, they all tilt their heads up toward the floating Ayaka.
Ayaka blinks at them, tilting her head slightly. "What?"
Kaminari puts the phone face down on his knee. "What do you mean, 'what'?" He gestures at nothing in particular. "We knew you were rich, but this is — that's a completely different thing. That's not rich, that's —" he picks up the phone again, looks at the headline, puts it back down — "that."
Ashido nods rapidly. "Yeah, this is like a secret society, world influence, kind of rich!"
"Okay, but we are not the only ones here," Ayaka says, waving a hand. "Iida is literally right there. Ingenium's family. And Momo is also —"
Momo, sitting directly below the floating Ayaka, shows no reaction.
Ashido opens her mouth. "Okay, but Iida is —"
"Please take your seats." The driver's voice comes through the front of the bus, flat and patient. "We will be arriving momentarily."
The conversation stops mid-breath.
A collective sigh moves through the group.
One by one, they peel off and drop back into their seats. Dark Shadow retreats to Tokoyami. Ayaka floats down and settles into her seat beside Momo.
Ashido drops into her seat but immediately snaps her head sideways toward Ayaka. "We are not done with this."
Then she twists around to the back of the bus. "You too, Izumi!"
Izumi stares at her.
Then, at the general group, now looking at him with varying degrees of accusation.
He waits for someone to explain what he's done.
Nobody does.
He turns back to the window.
The blue sky stretches wide and clear, completely uninvolved in whatever just happened.
'… It's pretty'.
***
The bus rolls to a stop inside the U.A. main campus gates.
The doors slide open with a soft hiss.
Before anyone can move—
"Please exit in an orderly fashion!"
Iida is already standing at the front, posture straight, arm extended toward the door like he's directing traffic.
"There is no need to rush! Maintain proper conduct—"
He is immediately ignored as students file past him anyway, conversations continuing, energy loose and unfocused after the long day.
Within seconds, the bus is nearly empty.
Iida remains where he stands.
Still. Arm half-raised.
Then slowly, it drops.
"…This is not how U.A. students should conduct themselves…"
His shoulders slump slightly. "…Why is no one listening…"
A brief silence later, a hand lands on his shoulder.
Iida turns to find Izumi.
"Don't take it personally," Izumi says calmly. "They're just tired."
Iida blinks. "…Even so, standards must be upheld—"
"They will be," Izumi replies. "Just not right after they've been blown through buildings."
A pause. Iida exhales and straightens again.
"…I suppose that is… a reasonable consideration."
Izumi gives a small nod and walks past him.
Iida watches him go for a moment longer before stepping off the bus himself.
Ashido lands beside Uraraka mid-sentence. "— but Tokoyami just kept them both occupied the whole time, he was switching between Kirishima and Sero so fast neither of them could —"
"Kirishima especially," Uraraka says. "He kept trying to push forward, and every time he got close, Tokoyami just shifted the angle, and Dark Shadow was already there."
"That's the thing, though," Ashido says. "Kirishima is hard to stop when he gets going. The fact that Tokoyami held him that long, that was the whole match. That's what gave Tsuyu the room she needed."
Tsuyu steps off behind them, unhurried. She presses a finger to her lips.
"It was very close," she says. "If Kirishima had broken through even once, the plan would have fallen apart. Ribbit."
The girls form their loose, easy cluster without deciding to. It simply happens.
Kirishima emerges behind Sero, still in the middle of something. "— Okay, but Bakugo's corridor thing, did anyone clock how fast he closed that gap —"
"I clocked it," Sero says. "I didn't enjoy it, but I clocked it."
Kaminari joins them with his hands already moving, apparently reconstructing from memory the exact trajectory of something that landed badly, though which part exactly is unclear.
Bakugo walks alongside the group, a step or so to the side, not quite with them and not quite apart from them, the scowl on his face exactly where it always was.
Izumi trails behind him, glances at his back for half a second, and says nothing.
Ayaka appears at Momo's elbow and immediately inserts herself into the girls' conversation mid-stride.
"—So the key was controlling their movement," she says casually. "Once you remove the ability to dictate range, you remove most of what makes a close-combat quirk danger—"
"Ayaka," Momo interrupts.
"Yes?"
"You're explaining our strategy to the people we used it on."
Ayaka glances at Jiro and Kaminari.
Jiro looks back at her.
"She's right," Jiro says. "You are."
Ayaka considers this for a moment. "Academically speaking, I think it's valuable for everyone."
Jiro stares at her, dumbfounded. "…I don't like you."
A ripple of laughter moves through the group as they cross the campus toward the main building, twenty students in a loose procession, some still carrying helmet pieces, some mid-conversation, all moving with the unhurried energy of people who have had a long day.
Inside, the corridor splits.
The boys peel off left toward their locker room, and the girls continue ahead, conversations fraying at the edges and then reforming as they separate.