✦━━━━━✦

The U.A. training grounds stretched wide under a sky the color of bruised steel. The morning air bit cold, but no one complained.

Class 3-A stood in formation, breath fogging in front of their faces. Midterms were closing in. And Aizawa wasn't holding back.

No one dared to respond.

What you had left. That was the problem.

You flexed your hand in silence. The ache in your side pulsed deeper, sharp and insistent. It had been three days now. Three days of pretending it was just soreness. Three days of pushing through it because stopping meant letting everyone down.

And Aizawa—he wasn't exactly the type to let anyone take the easy way out.

This was fine.

It was going to be fine.

Reader, I'm not gonna lie to you. That phrase alone? That was the moment everything started to fall apart.