The sound of the snapping branch sent a silent shockwave through our entire group. Laughter and complaints of exhaustion vanished instantly, replaced by a sharp and tense alertness. Twenty pairs of eyes from Class 1-A and twenty pairs of eyes from Class 1-B were all fixed on the darkness between the trees. Muscles tensed, and several students instinctively took fighting stances. I myself felt the heat in my chest pulse once, hard, a false alarm triggered by the collective tension. My heart pounded, wondering, 'Is this it? So soon?'
The gripping silence was then broken, not by the roar of a monster or the laugh of a villain, but by a flat, bored sigh. From behind a large tree, our homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa, stepped out, yawning widely.
"It took you all three-point-two seconds to react and fall silent," he said in his typical monotone, his tired eyes scanning all of us. "Too slow. In a real fight, you'd all be dead."
All the tension in the air instantly evaporated, replaced by a mass groan of relief and complaint. Several students who had been tense immediately slumped to the ground. "Aizawa-sensei! Don't scare us like that!" Ashido yelled.
"A hero must always be vigilant," he replied without sympathy. "Consider this your first lesson at camp. Now get inside. Dinner is ready."
Despite being annoyed at his ruse, we all felt an immense sense of relief. We followed the Pussycats into the large, cozy wooden lodge. The delicious aroma of curry and freshly cooked rice greeted us, and the overwhelming hunger after hours of fighting made us all forget our fatigue. Dinner was a festive chaos. Iida tried to enforce proper table manners, Bakugo ate with the same speed and brutality as when he fought, and Kaminari and Mineta tried to sit near the girls. It was a normal, lively scene.
I ate in silence, observing the interactions around me. I sat with Momo, Toru, and a few other classmates. Although I smiled and occasionally chimed in on the conversation, a part of me remained on high alert. The warning from Akame and my strange dreams felt like a dark shadow in the midst of the warmth and light of this dining hall. I knew that this peace... was only temporary.
Far from the peaceful training camp, in a rundown, abandoned bar in a corner of Kamino Ward, the atmosphere was completely different. Thin cigarette smoke danced under a flickering neon light, illuminating the faces of the members of the League of Villains' Vanguard Action Squad. They were gathered, not as a solid team, but as a collection of dangerous individuals united by a common goal.
Dabi leaned against a wall, looking bored with everything. He casually lit a cigarette with a small blue flame from his fingertip, his stitched eyes staring blankly into space. Across the room, Himiko Toga was giggling to herself while sharpening one of her knives on a whetstone. "I can't wait~" she whispered cheerfully. "I so want to see Deku-kun again! And that Ochaco girl, she's so cute when she bleeds! I want to be her friend!"
"This is going to be a great mission! A total victory!" Twice exclaimed, jumping to his feet. He then hunched over, his voice changing to a panicked whisper. "No, we're all going to fail! We'll be captured and rot in prison!"
Spinner, wearing a costume heavily inspired by the Hero Killer: Stain, was polishing his large, multi-bladed sword. "This isn't just about chaos," he said earnestly to anyone who would listen. "This is about cleansing society of false heroes. This is the continuation of Stain's will!"
In the midst of it all, Mr. Compress just sat elegantly in a chair, adjusting his mask and top hat, as if he were preparing for a grand theatrical performance.
The static sound from an old television monitor drew their attention. The face of Tomura Shigaraki appeared on the screen, still hidden behind his 'Father.' "Are you all ready, you extras?" he asked in his hoarse, childish voice.
"Of course we're ready, Shigaraki!" Spinner replied with gusto.
"Good," Shigaraki said, and the faint sound of scratching could be heard from his neck even through the speaker. "Remember the objective. The top priority is not to kill the students. That's just a bonus. Your goal is to create chaos, spread fear, and show the world that even U.A.'s strongest fortress can be breached by us." He paused, and the camera seemed to zoom in. "And most importantly... bring back Bakugo Katsuki. Kurogiri will open a gate for you at the designated location when the time comes. Do not fail." The screen went dead, leaving the Vanguard Action Squad in a silence filled with deadly anticipation. The next night, they would bring hell to that peaceful forest.
That night, I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw flashes of my dream: Akame's calm face, the deadly sword Murasame, and a strange feeling of loyalty to comrades I didn't know. The dreams were no longer just echoes; they felt like scars on my soul, memories of another life that were constantly trying to surface. Was this a side effect of Incursio? Or was it truly the echo of the original Tatsumi's soul?
I got up from my futon, careful not to wake my roommates. I slipped out of the lodge. The night air in the mountains was cold and clear. I walked to the edge of the forest, staring into the darkness between the trees. Akame's warning felt so real here. 'Something will happen. Tonight.' I had passed a vague message to Ryukyu, but I knew it wasn't enough. I felt helpless.
As I was standing there, a quiet voice startled me. "You can't sleep either?"
I turned and saw Todoroki standing there, just a few feet away. He couldn't sleep either. We stood in silence for a moment, the two most serious people in the class, each burdened by our own problems.
"You look more tense than usual," he said, not as a question, but as an observation. "Even on the bus. As if you were waiting for something."
I looked at him. I couldn't tell him the truth. "Just... a bad feeling," I replied, a lie that felt thin. "After the USJ, it's hard to completely relax."
He nodded, seeming to accept my answer. "I understand that feeling." He stared into the same forest. "This place... it feels too quiet."
We didn't speak more, but in that silence, there was a kind of understanding. We both felt that something was wrong, even if only I knew what it was.
The next day, our brutal training schedule began. But when night fell, the Pussycats announced a different event. "It's time for the Test of Courage!" Pixie-Bob exclaimed happily.
The plan was simple: Class 1-B would walk through a dark forest path, while Class 1-A would hide and try to scare them. It was supposed to be a fun activity, a break from the hard training. But for me, it felt like a countdown.
As Class 1-B began to walk in pairs, I stood at my post, hidden behind some bushes, my heart pounding. This was the perfect time and place for an ambush.
On the forest path, Itsuka Kendo from Class 1-B walked cautiously. "Don't worry," she said to her partner. "It's just our friends from Class A. They won't..." Her sentence trailed off. She sniffed the air. "Hey, do you guys smell that? It smells like... something's burning?"
A few feet behind her, Tetsutetsu was trying to look brave. "I'm not afraid of anything Class A can throw at me!" he declared.
Suddenly, the air around them grew thicker, filled with a strange, sweet-smelling purple mist. "What is this? Special effects?" someone asked.
Then, they heard it. A scream. A real, terrified scream, coming from the group ahead of them. And at the same time, in the distance, the night sky suddenly lit up with a horrific blue light as a section of the forest exploded in flames.
Kendo reacted instantly, her previously relaxed face now hardening. She saw the thickening mist, heard another scream, and saw the blue fire in the distance. This was no longer a game. This was no longer a test.
She screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice filled with a panic and a warning aimed at anyone who could hear in the dark forest.
"This isn't part of the test! We're under attack!"