[USJ — Rescue Training.]
Below it, the event details appear.
[Class 1-A.]
[Instructors: All Might. Thirteen. Eraser Head.]
[Departure: 08:30]
[Expected return: 15:45]
Beneath the schedule sits a small, embedded location reference, a thumbnail of a map with a pin marking a point in the eastern part of the visible map. He clicks it.
The map expands. Not detailed, but just enough.
The outline of surrounding streets fading into grey at the edges.
Roads. Woodland. Water.
The facility itself rendered at the centre with its footprint visible, a name and set of coordinates sitting beside the pin in a small text box.
[U.S.J – Unforeseen Simulation Join]
[XX°XX'XX"N / XX°XX'XX"E]
Aoyama's breathing slows.
'There it is.'
His hand on the mouse trembles faintly.
For just an instant…
He hesitates.
A memory surfaces.
An imposing figure in a suit. The kind of presence that doesn't need to raise its voice. The kind that simply waits, patient and vast, until you do what you were always going to do.
Aoyama closes his eyes.
One slow and deep breath.
When he opens them again, his hand is stead.
'Everything he needs.'
Without further hesitation he reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone.
One photograph. The map.
Another. The event details.
'Done.'
His finger moves quickly.
Map closed. Event closed. Calendar minimised.
Report restored to the window.
Mouse returned to approximately the position he had found it.
'Close enough.'
He pockets the phone.
He gathers the scattered papers from the floor, deliberately leaving them clustered and unorganised beneath his arm, the kind of disorder that reads clearly on a camera as a student who was delayed by dropped paperwork, not someone who stopped for any other reason.
He moves to the door and runs.
Eleven seconds. That was all it took.
Eleven seconds to steal something that will soon plunge one class, and eventually all of Japan and the rest of the world, into chaos.
The corridor outside is empty, the faculty wing cleared by the evacuation.
He follows the route he had memorised before the school year began, turning where it told him to turn, moving at the pace of someone following an instruction, and within a minute he finds a group of students hurrying in the same direction.
Without hesitation he falls in behind them without comment and lets the crowd carry him forward.
***
Chaos spreads through the cafeteria in waves.
The alarm is still echoing through the building, red emergency lights pulsing faintly along the ceiling as students scramble from their seats.
Chairs scrape violently across the floor. Lunch trays are abandoned mid-meal. Voices overlap into a rising current of noise.
At the table against the far wall, three students remain seated.
Ayaka, Momo, and Izumi sit with their lunches in front of them, heads turned slightly toward Izumi.
He calmly takes another bite of his food.
"There are intruders," he says. "But it's the press. Not villains."
Momo nods once and continues eating without hesitation.
Ayaka hums softly in agreement, barely glancing up before returning to her lunch.
Nearby, Tsuyu and Ashido, waiting at the edge of the table, stare at the three of them.
Both had stood when the alarm sounded. Both now look increasingly concerned by the fact that nobody at this table seems interested in evacuating.
"...Guys?" Ashido calls. "We're supposed to evacuate!"
"Ribbit." Tsuyu blinks slowly. "Shouldn't we be moving?"
Mina gestures wildly toward the crowd clustered against the emergency exit.
"Yeah! Like right now! There's literally an alarm going off!"
Ayaka tilts her head and looks them over.
"It's not villains."
She points toward the mass of students packed shoulder to shoulder around the exits.
"It's reporters. Come back and sit down."
She pauses.
"The crowd's too heavy anyway. You won't make it through."
Mina follows her gaze.
The evacuation route is completely clogged. Students push against students. Nobody is actually moving. The crowd has become its own obstacle.
Mina looks back at Ayaka.
Then at Momo, eating her lunch with complete composure.
Then at Izumi, doing the same while quietly observing the crowd gathered around the exits.
All three appear entirely unconcerned.
For several seconds she looks like she's trying to determine whether this is some kind of elaborate prank.
She turns toward Tsuyu.
Tsuyu considers the situation, exhales softly, and walks back to the table.
"...If Izumi says its reporters, it's probably reporters," she murmurs, returning to her seat.
Mina stares at all four of them for another second.
Then she groans dramatically, her shoulders dropping.
"Ughhhhh. Fine."
She slips into her chair.
"But if we die, I'm haunting all of you."
"I'll accept responsibility," Ayaka says.
"That somehow makes me feel worse."
She drops her head onto the table.
"I hate this class."
Across form her, Izumi continues eating.
He has found Shigaraki.
He keeps the area around the main gate in the background of his perception, scanning the dense cluster of reporter signatures as he waits. When the barrier disintegrates, it produces exactly what he expects. A signature unlike anything else in that crowd, destructive, precise, and entirely distinct from the restless electrical patterns of the reporters.
He commits it to memory the moment it appears.
'There you are... Tomura Shigaraki.'
He tracks the signature as it moves away from the gate, distinct now, readable, heading away from the school perimeter at a measured pace.
A few seconds later, a second signature appears beside it.
The two overlap. Distorting the field.
Within moments, both disappear.
A small smile touches Izumi's lips.
'Kurogiri really is useful.'
He lets the gate fade from his attention and returns his focus to the cafeteria.
His eyes move toward the edge of the crowd pressed against the glass windows.
Near one of the glass walls, Izumi spots Iida. Or rather, senses him.
His side is pinned against one of the large glass panels as students push past him in both directions.
He cranes his neck toward the emergency exit corridor, wearing the expression of someone who has just realised the evacuation isn't for villains at all, but for reporters, and is now desperately trying to do something about it.
He calls out to the students around him.
Unfortunately, the crowd doesn't hear him.
The noise and pressure swallow every attempt.
Izumi turns to Momo.
"Will you create a megaphone for me, please?"
Momo is already studying the crowd, quietly working through the situation in her mind.
At his request, she glances toward him.
Without asking why, her left hand begins to glow.
A second later, a compact megaphone rests in her outstretched palm.
Izumi takes it and holds it toward Tsuyu.
"Tsu."
She looks at him.
Then at the megaphone.
"Can you get this to Tenya?"
She takes it and looks toward the crowd.
She is just about to ask how she is supposed to find him in that sea of students when Iida suddenly rises above the crowd, his engines helping escape the press of bodies.
Tsuyu nods once.
She pushes off from her chair and crosses the distance in a single leap.
A second jump carries her onto the ceiling.
She races across it with the megaphone held securely in her tongue, passing over the chaos until she is directly above Iida.
A light tap lands on Iida's shoulder.
He turns.
A megaphone hangs beside him, suspended by something extending upward toward the ceiling.
He follows it.
His eyes meet Tsuyu's.
He looks at the megaphone.
Then at the crowd below.
For a brief moment, confusion flickers across his face.
Then comes recognition.
He takes it.
Tsuyu releases her grip and retreats the way she came.
Iida switches it on.
The sharp squeal of feedback cuts through the cafeteria, the corridors, and the tightly packed crowd at the emergency exit.
Everything stops.
Only for a moment.
But a moment is enough.
Heads turn toward the source.
"LISTEN UP!"
His voice booms through the megaphone, filling every corner of the cafeteria.
The remaining chatter dies immediately.
"All of you, calm down! There is no cause for panic!"
Students freeze as uncertain looks pass through the crowd.
"This is not a villain attack!"
Confusion replaces panic.
"This emergency was triggered by members of press gathered outside the gates. Nothing more!"
The reaction is immediate. Relief spreads through the room.
Students begin exchanging uncertain glances.
The panic starts draining away.
Iida raises the megaphone slightly higher.
"We are U.A. students!"
Every word carries the weight of someone who believes it completely.
"We need to remain calm. We need to demonstrate that we are exactly who we are here to become."
He raises the megaphone slightly.
"The best of the best."
The last of the tension drains from the students.
Some students nod.
Others exhale.
A few straighten unconsciously, reminded of the standards they are supposed to embody.
Near the windows, one student suddenly points outside.
"Look! The police are here!"
Heads turn.
Outside the gates, police vehicles begin arriving, blue emergency lights flashing across the cafeteria windows.
Officers step out and immediately begin directing the reporters into organised lines, campus security robots moving alongside them with mechanical precision.
The press, against a legal authority, offer little resistance.
Within minutes they are guided back across the road in orderly fashion, cameras still raised but whatever momentum they had carried into the school grounds now completely spent.
The tension that has been building throughout the evacuation corridor releases like a held breath.
"Thank goodness."
"So that's all it was?"
"I thought villains got inside."
"They're handling it."
"Everything's okay."
The crowd begins organising itself.
Iida continues directing students for several more minutes.
Fifteen minutes later, the last of the confusion slowly fades.
Outside the main building, Aizawa and Present Mic stand at the entrance, and watch officers guide the remaining reporters away from the campus perimeter.
The press now remains beyond the road.
Officers establish a controlled perimeter along the pavement, barrier tape stretched between portable posts, two officers stationed at either end to hold the line.
A forensic team has already begun examining the main gate where the barrier was disintegrated.
They move methodically around the damaged section, photographing the site, taking measurements, marking evidence.
Two campus security robots hover overhead, recording everything from above.
Multiple others perform a slow sweep along the outer perimeter, checking the boundary for any additional damage.
Present Mic watches the reporters across the road.
Some continue filming.
Most simply stand there.
"Man..."
He folds his arms.
"They really come in swinging today."
Aizawa watches the forensic team work around the base of the ruined barrier.
Clean. Contained. Deliberate.
He says nothing.
"You think they'll be back tomorrow?" Present Mic asks.
A brief pause.
"Yes," Aizawa says.
He turns toward the building.
"Let's go back inside."
Present Mic follows.
Behind them, the officers continue holding the perimeter and securing the scene.
The forensic team works steadily beneath the late afternoon sun, carefully cataloguing the remains of the destroyed barrier.
And across the campus, students slowly return to what passes for normal.
For now.
***