The mock city reset between rounds.
Concrete panels rotated back into place. Smoke vents hissed. Training bots were wheeled away.
Ren flexed his hand.
The cauterized cut had already sealed over cleanly.
Fire quirk: controlled.
Bloodlock: demonstrated.
Pulse: quiet.
Kaito nudged him lightly. "You good?"
"Yeah."
But someone else had heard.
From the edge of the field, leaning against a half-collapsed prop wall—
Aizawa stood with his capture weapon loose around his shoulders.
Half-lidded eyes.
Fully alert.
He hadn't reacted earlier.
He hadn't interrupted.
But he had absolutely been listening.
"Ren."
Just his name.
Flat.
Ren turned.
"Yes, sir?"
Aizawa didn't move from his position.
"You said five minutes."
It wasn't a question.
Ren felt Kaito subtly stiffen beside him.
"Yes."
"Explain."
The rest of the class was still regrouping, but far enough not to hear clearly.
Ren kept his posture steady.
"It's a secondary function of my quirk," he said evenly.
"Your fire quirk," Aizawa clarified.
Ren hesitated half a second.
"Yes."
Not technically a lie.
Just incomplete.
Aizawa's eyes narrowed slightly.
"How does combustion lead to motor paralysis?"
Midoriya inhaled quietly.
Kaito stayed silent.
Ren answered calmly.
"It doesn't. It's contact-based."
Aizawa's gaze sharpened.
"Contact-based how."
Ren met his stare.
"If my blood mixes with someone else's, I can temporarily override voluntary movement."
Silence.
Wind shifted between the buildings.
Aizawa pushed off the wall and walked closer.
"Voluntary override," he repeated. "You're certain it's not affecting circulation?"
"It doesn't," Ren replied. "They stay conscious. Heart rate normal. No oxygen drop. Just muscle inhibition."
Aizawa studied him for a long moment.
"You've tested this?"
"Yes."
"How many times?"
Ren didn't flinch.
"Enough to confirm the limit."
"Which is."
"Under five minutes."
Aizawa's eyes flicked briefly to Ren's palm.
"Self-inflicted cut."
"Yes."
"And you cauterized it."
"Yes."
"Control is improving."
That wasn't praise.
It was assessment.
Ren nodded once.
Aizawa's gaze didn't soften.
"You should have reported the secondary function earlier."
There it was.
Not anger.
But disappointment.
Ren's jaw tightened slightly. "I wasn't sure it qualified as separate."
Aizawa watched him carefully.
"Your fire output has no correlation with neuromuscular override."
A beat.
"That suggests mutation."
Ren felt the Pulse thrum faintly at that word.
Mutation.
Not dual quirk.
Not inherited layering.
Just mutation.
Aizawa continued calmly.
"It is not uncommon for quirks to develop additional expressions under stress."
He paused.
"But it is uncommon for students to withhold them."
Ren held his stare.
"I wasn't hiding it," he said quietly. "I was understanding it."
That answer made Aizawa pause.
Just slightly.
Around them, Bakugou scoffed from a rooftop.
Todoroki's heterochromatic eyes were fixed on Ren from across the block, unreadable.
Shoto Todoroki didn't speak.
He was just watching.
Carefully.
Aizawa exhaled through his nose.
"For now," he said evenly, "you will log every activation. Duration. Physical symptoms. Recovery rate."
"Yes, sir."
"If the time extends past five minutes, you report immediately."
"It won't."
"That wasn't reassurance," Aizawa replied. "That was instruction."
Ren nodded once.
Aizawa turned slightly to leave.
Then stopped.
Without looking back, he added:
"And stop cutting deeper than necessary."
Ren blinked.
"…Yes, sir."
Aizawa walked away.
Did he suspect multiple quirks?
No.
Did he suspect unusual mutation?
Yes.
Had he connected fire + paralysis + Pulse?
Not yet.
But he was thinking.
Kaito exhaled slowly. "That could've gone worse."
Midoriya adjusted his glasses. "He categorized it as mutation, not dual manifestation."
Ren stared at his palm.
The Pulse hummed.
Not nervous.
Just… waiting.
Across the field, Todoroki finally approached.
He stopped a few feet away.
"You cauterized the wound instantly," he observed calmly.
Ren nodded.
"Efficient," Todoroki added.
A small pause.
Then:
"Your control is precise."
Not warmth.
Not rivalry.
Just recognition.
Ren met his gaze evenly.
"So is yours."
Todoroki studied him for another second—
Then turned and walked back to his position without another word.
Kaito leaned closer. "He respects you."
Ren looked back at the mock skyline.
The buildings.
The training ground.
The watchful teacher.
The curious class.
The villain who liked blood.
And the power he still didn't fully understand.
"I'm still figuring it out," Ren murmured.
The Pulse beat once.
Slow.
Measured.
Unrevealed.