Students push past each other in waves, backpacks swinging, conversations overlapping into one giant wall of noise. Someone nearly trips over a loose shoelace. A girl from Class 1-B laughs too loudly at something on her phone. It's the same scene that plays out every single afternoon, familiar enough to be boring.

But today, something's different.

Your conversation with Monoma had started innocently enough. A comment about the joint training exercise. A dramatic sigh about Class A's "overreliance on brute force." The usual Neito Monoma special. It's almost routine at this point, the way he talks with his hands, the way his eyes light up whenever he finds someone willing to listen.

That's probably why you don't notice it at first. The shift in the air. The way certain conversations stutter to a halt.

From the corner of your eye, Denki's head snaps up. Mina slaps a hand over her mouth so fast it makes a sound. Sero mutters something under his breath that sounds an awful lot like oh shit.

Monoma keeps talking, blissfully unaware. "—and honestly, the fact that Vlad King even allows such sloppy technique in his—"

He stops.

Because Eijiro Kirishima has just walked past him like he wasn't even there.

There's no warning. No dramatic build-up. No "hey, can I talk to you for a second." Just a hand wrapping around your waist, a sudden loss of balance, and the world flipping upside down as you're hoisted over a very solid, very broad shoulder.