—Unforseen Simulation Joint—
The bus rumbled along for a while, filled with bursts of chatter, laughter, and the occasional bark from Bakugo. But soon enough, Class 1-A had arrived at their location.
When the bus finally pulled into a stop, Aizawa stood, tugging his scarf into place. "We're here. Everyone off the bus."
One by one, the class filed out onto the pavement, the chatter cutting short as they looked up.
A sprawling dome stretched out before them, gleaming faintly under the afternoon sun. The facility stood like its own mini world, segmented into distinct zones.
Stepping into the building, Aizawa spoke to the entire class.
"This is the Unforeseen Simulation Joint," Aizawa finished, his voice cutting through the group as he stepped forward. "USJ for short."
"Hello, everyone!" A cheery voice rang out.
The class turned to notice a large suit in white and grey, bulky with a reflective visor covering the faceplate. A single hand waved at them with near childlike enthusiasm.
"It's the Space Hero, Thirteen!" Midoriya yelled out in surprise, a fanatic gleam shining in his eyes.
Thirteen gave a polite bow before straightening. "It's an honor to meet the next generation of heroes. Here at the USJ, you'll be experiencing simulated natural disasters, accidents, and other emergencies. This facility exists for one purpose, rescue training!"
"Whoa…" Mina whispered, eyes sparkling as she looked out over the sprawling zones. "This place is amazing."
"Floods, landslides, building collapses, even a fire zone," Iida listed out in awe, his glasses flashing as he adjusted them. "Every detail is accounted for!"
"Hell yeah," Kirishima pumped his fist. "This is manly training!"
"Let's see…" Thirteen began, addressing the class. "Before we begin, let me say one thing… er… or two… or three…"
"or four… or five… or six… or seven…" she mumbled, counting on her fingers before snapping herself out of it with a little shake of her head.
Renji raised a brow at the sight, though Midoriya was practically vibrating with excitement beside him.
"Anyway!" Thirteen clapped her gloved hands together. "As you know, my Quirk, Black Hole, can suck up anything and turn it to dust. It may sound terrifying—and it is. If I were to use it carelessly, I could take lives just as easily as I could save them."
The class quieted, the weight of her words settling in.
"That is why I want you all to remember: your Quirks are capable of just as much harm as they are good. It is our responsibility as heroes to use them to save lives. Please, never forget that."
Even Bakugo held back from scoffing. Uraraka nodded firmly, her eyes full of resolve while Iida's back was perfectly straight, absorbing every word.
Hmm, luckily I don't need to deal with that. At the very least, I don't have to worry about hurting someone with my Quirk. Can't say the same about some of these guys.
Thirteen extended her arms dramatically toward the massive training zones. "Now then! Let's move forward with today's rescue training!"
And just as the excitement began to bubble up again—
The lights above flickered.
At the base of the central fountain, space itself seemed to bend and twist. A thick, dark mist coiled outward, swallowing the air in a chilling wave.
Renji froze, his stomach lurching. What the…
TZHHHHHH!
—
The world fell silent in an instant.
The flickering lights froze mid-buzz. The swirl of mist suspending in the air.
"Portals?" Renji murmured as he scanned the dark mist coming from seemingly out of nowhere.
"We're seriously getting attacked when we just got here?"
—
Letting his Quirk fade, Renji allowed things to play out just a little longer to get a better idea of what he was working with.
The silence shattered.
The mist surged outward with a heavy hiss, curling around the fountain like a living storm. Dozens of twisted figures began stepping free of it. Crooked smiles, jagged weapons, monstrous silhouettes all emerging in rapid succession.
Gasps rippled through the class.
"Villains?!" Kirishima shouted, his fists already clenched. "Is this like the entrance exam?"
"Th-this is bad!" Midoriya stammered, eyes wide as he tracked the ever-growing number of enemies.
"Don't move!" Aizawa yelled, grasping his goggles and placing them firmly over his eyes. "This isn't part of the program. Those are real villains!"
A manic grin stretched across Renji's face, almost as if he was high of his rockers.
While his classmates tensed, panic rising in their throats, Renji's pulse quickened for an entirely different reason.
"…How exciting!" he muttered, eyes glinting with thrill as the villains poured out of the mist. "Finally. Something worth my time."
Several heads snapped his way.
"W-what the hell is wrong with you?!" Kaminari hissed, his voice cracking.
Midoriya turned sharply to him, shock and confusion flashing across his face. "Renji we need to focus! These are real villains we're facing!"
Even Bakugo shot him a sideways glance, lips curling. "…Freak."
But Renji didn't care. If anything, their fear only sharpened his grin.
I haven't seen those three before. The thought struck a little fear in his heart, but the wave of excitement in his chest still resounded like a drum, drowning out all other feelings.
—
Exiting from the center of the massive portal was a giant, a hulking grotesque figure that moved with terrifying power.
Beside it stood a man whose presence seemed to command the others. Thin, wiry, and disturbingly calm, with pale, almost corpse-like skin stretched over his gaunt frame. Fingers splayed and twitching, he exuded an aura of decay that made the hairs on the back of the students' necks stand on end.
A dark, swirling form emerged behind them, its body coiling like a living shadow.
"Eraser Head… Thirteen…?" Shigaraki craned his neck to look at the class. "The schedule said All Might would be here."
"Oh, well." He continued, snapping his head forward with a mad glint in his eye. "I bet he'll show up if we kill a few of his precious stu—."
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three supercharged shots drilled their way towards the villains in rapid succession.
But before they could reach the villains, the large monstrosity sensed the danger and jumped in front of Shigaraki, blocking the bullets laden with nanobots, crushing them under its feet.
"Tch…" Renji noted the monster's immense strength and agility. He was hoping to incapacitate the leader of the group, but looks like it wouldn't be so easy.
Shigaraki flinched as the Nomu's massive body intercepted the projectiles, fragments of crushed nanobots scattering across the floor like glittering dust. The sound of metal crunching under that monstrous weight reverberated through the USJ.
For a moment, Shigaraki just stared. His head tilted, lips twitching beneath the hand that obscured his face. Then he began to scratch at his neck, nails dragging harshly against pale skin, leaving faint red lines.
"You… tried to shoot me." His voice cracked, childlike in its disbelief, but warped with something unstable lurking just beneath. "You think you can just… point your toys at me? At me?"
His scratching grew more violent, shoulders hunching as his voice rose into a sharp rasp.
"Don't you get it? You're not supposed to fight back! You're supposed to be scared! To scream and run until All Might comes crawling here like a pathetic bug!"
The purple mist beside him rippled, Kurugiri's calm voice cutting in. "Tomura—"
"Shut up!" Shigaraki snapped, spinning on him before jerking his head back toward Renji, eyes blazing with unrestrained fury. "He thinks this is a game! I'll tear him apart, piece by piece—watch me strip the flesh right off his bones!"
He stomped forward, every twitch of his fingers promising decay. The Nomu loomed close behind him, obedient and waiting for the command.
Renji's manic grin didn't falter. If anything, it sharpened.
Now that got his attention.
"What are you doing, Renji?!" Aizawa yelled, glaring at his actions. "Evacuate with the others, it's not worth it."
"Oh, come on," Renji replied indignantly, flashing his pearly whites. "You know no one here can keep up with me, let me have some fun for once."
"I said no."
Aizawa's voice was firm, his scarf already unraveling as he pushed past Renji without another word. With one sharp leap, he dove straight into the mob of villains, scarf lashing out like a viper.
Renji tilted his head, watching with wide eyes as Eraser Head's movements blurred into a deadly dance of capture and takedown.
"…Wow," he muttered under his breath. "He's stealing the show."
His legs bent, ready to spring after his teacher.
But then—
Whum—whum—whum.
A low, unnatural hum rippled behind him, followed by the faint churning sound of something tearing through space itself.
Renji instantly spun around and pulled the trigger on his coilgun again, firing two precise shots in a matter of milliseconds. However, they were sucked into a whirlpool of purple mist before they could be of any use.
"How rude." Kurogiri said as he folded his arms behind his back. "We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but today… we have come to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."
Before the villain could say more, Renji launched forward with a speed that rivaled many pro heroes. He cocked his arm back, nanobots roiling in his muscles.
But then, a portal blossomed right in front of his fist, a yawning black maw where his punch should land. For a heartbeat, the trap was about to erase his strike.
But Renji's body wasn't bound by normal parameters anymore.
Instead he let the nanobots do what they do best. The nanobots fired microscopic pulses into his joints, forcibly contracting and relaxing fibers in a sequence no human nervous system could pull off.
His spine twisted like a whip, tendons stretching to their absolute limits, yet held firm by the machine precision of his internal swarm.
In a blur, his fist's momentum redirected into a snapping roundhouse. His heel arced wide, curving around the gate's edge—
—and slammed into Kurogiri's metallic brace.
Thwack!
The shock sends the warp-user skidding backward across the polished floor, his misty body stuttering as if torn apart by wind.
Renji lunged after him, teeth bared, but Kurogiri had already slipped too far back. The warp swallowed him up in a shimmer of mist, vanishing before Renji could close the gap.
"Tch—coward!" Renji spat, voice echoing across the dome. "Why are you running?"
He spun on his heel, eyes flashing toward the chaos ahead. Aizawa was already knee-deep in the mob, scarf snapping and binding like a living blade.
"Stop!" Thirteen's gloved hand shot out, a desperate attempt to stop him.
But he only ducked low, grin sharp. "Too slow."
And then he was gone, vaulting straight into the storm.
He hit the ground like a hammer in the middle of a cluster of villains. The nanobots surged, tightening his muscles, flooding his body with immense power.
The first opponent stepped forward—crack! A brutal backfist sent him sprawling, jaw hanging loose.
The second barely had time to register before Renji's pivot drove a boot deep into his ribs, folding him with a sickening wheeze.
The third screamed and swung a rusted pipe. Metal collided with Renji's forearm, but the reinforced mesh beneath his skin stopped it, leaving the weapon bent in a strange pattern.
Renji's grin widened. "Pathetic."
The crowd hesitated for only a heartbeat, then surged like a tidal wave.
The fourth villain lunged with claws outstretched. Renji snapped forward, burying an elbow into his throat before the man even blinked. He crumpled to the floor, gasping for air.
The fifth tried to circle wide, knife flashing an ominous red. Renji spun with him, nanobots firing in sync, and drove a knee straight into his temple. Bone crunched, body hit the ground.
"Whoops." Renji grinned from the adrenaline. "Guess these guys are a little fragile."
Renji's grin widened as the chaos roared around him. He let the world fade. His Quirk activated fully, pulling him into the higher dimension.
The battlefield froze.
Villains hung mid-motion, a river of terror captured in suspended animation. Midoriya's wide eyes, Kirishima's clenched fists, all held perfectly still.
And then he saw a problem.
The Nomu. Hulking, grotesque, and impossibly fast, was beginning its charge straight toward Aizawa.
His stomach tightened in a mix of thrill and concern. "…As if I'd let that happen."
He stepped out of the higher dimension, voice cutting like a blade through the frozen tableau:
"SENSEI, DODGE! NOW!"
Aizawa's eyes snapped open as he twisted just in time, ducking under the massive swipe that would have crushed him.
Renji vaulted into motion. Nanobots surged through his limbs, firing microscopic pulses that moved his muscles faster than any human nervous system could manage.
The Nomu faced toward him, a mountain of raw strength. Renji twisted mid-air, catching just enough momentum to redirect part of the Nomu's trajectory, the monstrous body staggering slightly, slowed by the precision of Renji's intervention.
He grinned, adrenaline roaring through him. "…Now we play."
But then, the world shivered.
Kurogiri was messing around once more.
The warp-user's dark Quirk erupted from behind the Nomu, a black mist expanding like a living predator about to swallow both of them whole.
Renji's body slammed into action. His nanobots fired in perfect sequence, twitch fibers contracting and relaxing in milliseconds, propelling him backwards in a blur.
It was far to easy to see coming with his Quirk.
The black mist swirled around him, coiling like a living predator, but Renji was already out of its immediate grasp, landing on the polished floor with barely a sound. His muscles still pulsed with overload, every tendon and fiber responding faster than the eye could follow.
He looked up at Kurogiri from afar, the warp-user's mist clawing at the air where Renji had just been. The villain's calm composure faltered for the briefest instant.
Renji laughed, sharp and unrestrained, the sound echoing across the dome. "Hah! You think that scares me?"
Kurogiri's swirling mist surged again, trying to anticipate Renji's next movement.
"I can see everything!" Renji shouted, voice laced with manic glee. "Every move, every pull, every little trick you think you can pull! You're transparent!"
"Come on," he called, voice dripping with arrogance. "Is that all you've got?"
The Nomu growled, massive fists swinging, but Renji danced around each blow with easy precision, almost mocking the brute. "Too slow! Too obvious!" he shouted, landing a sharp kick to its side that made the creature stagger.
It spun, aiming a massive fist at him, but Renji leaned back while laughing. "Predictable! Seriously, is this how villains train now?"
The giant growled low, but Renji didn't stop. He leapt onto the Nomu's back, slapping it sharply across the shoulder. "Hah! Is that all the fury you've got? I was expecting more drama!"
The Nomu pivoted, twisting its massive body, but Renji stayed light on his feet, almost dancing around it. "C'mon! Try harder!"
The creature lunged again, claws outstretched, but Renji landed smoothly behind it, arms crossed.
"…Hmm. That's better," he murmured, voice teasing. "Still, I'm bored already. You're going to have to actually impress me if you want a fight."
The Nomu growled, tensing for another strike. Renji mirrored it, crouched, almost daring it to move first.
Time seemed to stretch, the chaos of the battle fading, leaving just the two of them locked in a standoff.