Monday hit like cold water.
No more forts.No more late-night movies.No more open-window conversations.
Training day.
UA's main gym echoed with impact thuds and metal clangs. The air smelled faintly like rubber mats and ozone.
Aizawa stood at the front, scarf loose around his shoulders.
"Urban simulation after warm-ups," he said flatly. "Today's focus: control. Not destruction. Not ego."
Bakugou huffed.
Ren flexed his fingers slowly.
The Pulse was steady.
His fire flickered faintly across his knuckles — low heat, controlled.
Kaito leaned closer. "You've been quiet."
"Thinking," Ren replied.
"That's never comforting."
Indoor Warm-Ups
They started with mobility drills.
Ren moved cleanly through them — vaults, slides, wall rebounds.
Then came quirk activation exercises.
"Short bursts only," Aizawa instructed.
Ren stepped forward.
Heat built in his palms — not explosive like Bakugou's, not wild. His flames were sharper. More focused. A deep ember-red at the core.
He thrust his palm outward.
A controlled arc of fire shot forward, striking a reinforced target dummy and wrapping around it without spreading.
The class murmured.
Denki whistled. "That's hot."
Bakugou scowled. "It's contained."
"Exactly," Aizawa muttered. "Better."
Ren extinguished it with a slow exhale.
No flare-up.
No loss of control.
But that wasn't the quirk bothering him.
It was the other one.
Outdoor Urban Simulation
UA's mock city rose in concrete blocks and fake intersections.
Teams were assigned.
Ren, Kaito, and Midoriya took the east sector.
Objective: incapacitate opposing team members within five minutes.
Five minutes.
Ren swallowed slightly.
That number again.
They moved through an alleyway, footsteps light.
Kaito glanced at him. "You hesitated earlier."
"With what?"
"Using everything."
Midoriya looked between them. "There's more?"
Ren slowed slightly.
The Pulse thrummed — not alarmed.
Decision.
"I haven't told you both something," he said quietly.
They stopped behind a faux brick barrier.
Kaito crossed his arms. "Okay. That tone means this is serious."
Ren stared at his own palm.
"You know my fire quirk."
Midoriya nodded. "High-precision combustion with strong containment."
Ren flexed his fingers.
"There's another part."
Silence settled.
"If my blood touches someone else's," Ren continued evenly, "I can make them freeze."
Kaito blinked. "Freeze?"
"Total body paralysis," Ren clarified. "They're conscious. They can think. They just… can't move."
Midoriya inhaled sharply.
"For how long?"
"Under five minutes," Ren said. "Never longer."
Five minutes.
Exactly the training round limit.
Kaito processed it. "You'd have to be bleeding."
"Yes."
"Or?"
Ren hesitated.
"If my blood gets injected into them."
That hung heavy.
Midoriya's voice dropped. "Does it activate automatically?"
"No. It's intentional."
Kaito looked unsettled. "Have you used it?"
Ren nodded once.
"Accidentally the first time."
He didn't elaborate.
Didn't need to.
Midoriya was already analyzing.
"That's not just blood control," he murmured. "That's motor function override."
Ren exhaled slowly.
"I call it Bloodlock."
Midoriya tilted his head. "That feels… incomplete."
Before Ren could respond—
Footsteps thundered around the corner.
Kirishima.
"Found you!"
Round started.
Ren moved first.
He launched a quick arc of flame toward the ground in front of Kirishima — not to burn him, but to redirect. Heat forced him to veer sideways.
Kaito moved in from the flank.
Midoriya covered elevation.
Kirishima charged straight through anyway — hardened skin cracking slightly under heat stress.
"Manly!"
Ren didn't waste time.
He pulled a small training blade from his belt.
Made a shallow cut across his palm.
Kaito's eyes widened slightly — but he didn't interrupt.
Timing mattered.
Kirishima lunged.
Ren stepped inside the arc of his swing.
Grabbed his forearm.
Blood met skin.
Intent.
Focus.
The Pulse surged once — deep and controlled.
Kirishima froze mid-motion.
Completely rigid.
Eyes wide.
Conscious.
Unable to move.
Kaito stared. "That's insane."
Midoriya whispered, "Neuromuscular halt… without structural damage…"
Ren stepped back, breathing steady.
"It'll wear off," he said. "Under five."
Kirishima's eyes shifted slightly in acknowledgment. He could hear. He just couldn't respond.
Ren flexed his injured palm and ignited a small flame across it, cauterizing the cut instantly.
Controlled.
Contained.
Two quirks.
One seamless motion.
The siren signaled round completion.
Kirishima dropped back into motion with a stumble.
"WHOA," he shouted. "That was wild!"
Bakugou landed on a nearby rooftop, arms smoking slightly.
"You've been hiding that."
Ren met his glare evenly. "It's not flashy."
"It's dangerous," Bakugou corrected.
The Pulse hummed quietly in his chest.
Not wrong.
Not dark.
Just powerful.
Midoriya stepped closer. "Ren… that quirk isn't just Bloodlock."
Ren frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You're not stopping blood," Midoriya said carefully. "You're stopping movement. Like you're pulling invisible strings attached to their muscles."
The Pulse flared faintly at that.
Strings.
Ren's jaw tightened slightly.
"That's dramatic."
Kaito gave him a look. "Is it?"
Ren didn't answer.
Across the mock city—
On a rooftop far enough to avoid detection—
Himiko Toga crouched.
Golden eyes bright.
Fire and blood.
Control and paralysis.
Her smile widened slowly.
"Oh," she murmured to herself.
"How interesting."