The next few days were a whirlwind of mundane classes that felt utterly surreal.
Math, Modern Literature, and English in the hallowed halls of U.A. felt like wearing formal wear to a grocery store.
The real education, everyone knew, was in Hero Foundations.
The tension in Class 1-A was palpable. They'd survived Aizawa's brutal test, but the man was a ghost, often napping in his sleeping bag at the back of the room during other lessons. The anticipation for their first official heroics class was a physical force.
When the morning finally arrived, and the door slid open to reveal not their hobo-like homeroom teacher, but the towering, vibrant figure of All Might himself, the class erupted.
"I AM… COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" he boomed, striking a iconic pose in his silver-age costume.
The room exploded with excitement. Kaito, however, felt a different thrill. This was it. The Symbol of Peace.
Up close, the man was a mountain of muscle and presence. And his Quirk… Kaito's analytical mind immediately tried to dissect it.
'Overwhelming strength? Some form of energy stockpiling? The source of his power is a complete mystery.'
He instinctively knew it was a Quirk far beyond his ability to handle. The strain would vaporize him.
All Might explained the exercise: Indoor Combat Training. Teams of two, Heroes vs. Villains. A faux nuclear weapon to be protected or touched.
"Now then," All Might announced, holding a lottery box. "Let's draw lots to decide the teams!"
Kaito let out a quiet breath of relief. A random draw was good. It was fair. He reached in and pulled out a ball labeled 'D'. He looked around to see who his partner was.
A girl with creation abilities, Yaoyorozu Momo, held up a matching 'D' ball.
She gave him a polite, confident nod. Kaito returned it, his mind already whirring.
'An incredibly versatile Quirk. Potentially limitless. But complex. Requires immense knowledge. What aspect could I even manifest?'
Then came the matchups. They were up first.
"And facing Team D as the Villains…" All Might boomed, "Will be Team A: Midoriya Izuku and Uraraka Ochaco!"
Kaito's eyes flicked to his opponents. Uraraka, who he'd saved. And Midoriya, the boy with the self-destructive, overwhelming power. This was a terrible matchup.
Midoriya could likely punch through any defense Yaoyorozu could create, and Uraraka could make any object, or the bomb itself, weightless.
They had ten minutes to prepare in the villain's room. The bomb was a large, cartoonish weapon in the center of a multi-story atrium.
"Yaoyorozu," Kaito said, his voice low and focused as the door hissed shut. "We need a strategy. Midoriya is the primary threat. His power is immense, but it injures him. He'll likely only use it once, for a decisive blow."
Yaoyorozu listened intently, already creating a small pair of binoculars from her arm to scan the room's layout.
"I concur. Uraraka-san's Quirk is support-based but can be used offensively if she touches us."
"My Quirk is called Adaptive Archive," Kaito explained quickly. "I need to touch someone to copy an aspect of their power. I currently have two slots. One is empty. The other has Ashido's Acid."
Yaoyorozu's eyes widened slightly in understanding.
"I see. So you are a strategist who must prepare his tools in advance."
"Exactly. I need to copy your Quirk. Now. Before they get here."
She didn't hesitate. She offered her hand.
"What do you need to know?"
"How does it work? Precisely."
"I create any non-living material from the lipids in my body by understanding its molecular structure," she stated, all business.
Kaito took her hand, the electric tingle of his Quirk activating.
A new, incredibly complex data stream flooded his mind. It was dizzying, like trying to drink from a firehose of information.
He focused, pulling on the sensation of creation. He felt a peculiar hollowing sensation in his stomach.
He let go, breathing heavily.
"Got it. But it's… complicated. I can feel it. I can only manage one, maybe two simple creations before my own lipids are dangerously depleted. I don't have your knowledge base."
"That is a significant limitation," Yaoyorozu said, nodding. "A plan?"
"You create. I'll adapt. We need to funnel them, control their approach. Can you make capture nets? Tripwires? Non-lethal traps. We can't beat them head-on."
"A sound strategy." Yaoyorozu immediately set to work, creating carbon fiber nets and pressure-plate triggered traps, placing them at key choke points and doorways.
Kaito, meanwhile, focused on the Quirk he'd just archived. He needed something simple. Something he understood the structure of.
He held out his hand, concentrating. He pictured it perfectly: its shape, its composition, its molecular makeup.
With a faint glow and a disconcerting pull on his energy, a single object dropped into his palm.
A ball bearing.
He sighed, sweat beading on his temple.
"This is going to be a problem." It was a crude, inefficient use of her magnificent Quirk, but it was all he could manage.
The alarm blared. The heroes had entered the building.