After the last period had been finished,

Katsuki Bakugo marched out of his classroom, filled with fury and frustration over his loss to Deku. He couldn’t believe it—he had always thought Deku didn’t have a quirk, but now he had one, and it was powerful. Thanks to Shin’s advice, Deku had even gained better control over it. But that wasn’t what shocked him the most. During their fight, it felt like Deku was predicting every move he made, using his own habits against him.

Afterward, Bakugo watched Shihai together with Ochaco, easily demolish their own fight, and it hit him hard—the gap between him and his classmates was bigger than he had realized. Later, watching Shin’s fight against All Might, where Shin went toe to toe with him, was both mind-blowing and eye-opening.

Bakugo finally accepted the truth: he wasn’t the strongest in his class. There were many who could beat him, even Deku. Frustration built up inside him, and tears started to fall as he gritted his teeth, reflecting on where he had gone wrong. All Might approached him with some advice, which Bakugo listened to carefully. Even Deku came to him, apologizing and showing pity, but Bakugo held back his anger, understanding that it was what had led him to this point.

At the gate, he saw Shin standing, as if waiting for him. When Bakugo reached him, Shin put his hand on Bakugo’s shoulder and said with a serious tone, “It doesn’t matter that you won or lost today; what matters is what you can learn from it. You win sometimes, you lose sometimes; that is life. It is unfair, I know. But it is now up to you to take that anger and frustration you feel currently and use it to improve yourself. And from now on, never underestimate anyone, even those who you feel disdain for.”

Bakugo contemplated these words as Shin turned around and started walking away. He shouted towards Shin with gritted teeth, eyes filled with determination as he clenched his hands, “This is my starting point. I’ll become a hero and definitely surpass you. Just you wait!”

Shin turned and smirked. “Yeah, I will wait for you at the top. Come at me with your everything.”

…

The following day, when Shin arrived at the academy, he noticed a large group of reporters gathered around the entrance, showering numerous students with questions about All Might. Shin wasn’t surprised by the scene; he had anticipated that something like this would happen sooner or later, especially since All Might had started teaching at UA. Naturally, the greatest hero taking up a role as a teacher was bound to make headlines. Moreover, it carried great implications regarding his retirement, which made the topic a matter of national interest.

Shin, who didn’t like the paparazzi, skilfully avoided them. On the way, he saw some of his classmates talking to the reporters. This included Izuku, Ida, Setsuna, and Momo, and some others. Nonetheless, he had to say that both Momo and Setsuna were doing exceptionally well, talking very professionally to the reporters. The rest were just being themselves and even though it is a good thing, but when it comes to media, it was not going to look good for both them and UA; when the photos and videos do get published somewhere.

After taking a moment to observe the commotion, Shin headed straight to his classroom. As he walked, he heard the sound of the UA wall activating in the background. Shin muttered, "Looks like one of those reporters tried to sneak through the school gate." The UA wall was an advanced security system designed to automatically activate whenever someone without proper identification attempted to enter. Upon activation, it deployed towering walls near the gate to block unauthorized access.

Once inside the classroom, Shin quietly took his seat and began refining his techniques with his complete focus. His classmates, who got used to this daily routine, left him undisturbed, knowing it was a normal part of his day.

When Aizawa arrived, the class was already full, and he therefore began offering his opinion and suggestion that he thought was appropriate after watching the previous day's battle videos. He looked toward Bakugo and said, “Stop acting immature. You have talent, a great one too; Make sure you don’t waste it because of your ego.” Bakugo, for once, just nodded his head without getting angry. He praised Shihai for his strategies and adaptive thinking; Setsuna for her creative mind together with a great sense of leadership during the battle; Izuku for his analytics and sense of justice.

Aizawa called out to Momo and stated, “You have the promising talent to become a battlefield supporter. You should consider learning from Support Class students and teachers.”

“What is a battlefield supporter?” Momo questioned, her expression brimming with curiosity.

“A battlefield supporter creates support items including weapons and armour and makes them available on the battlefield itself. With your creation quirk, you will definitely excel in it. You just would have to get the weapon creation license from the government along with your hero license.”

Momo considered the suggestion for a moment and came to an instant decision. She answered with determination, eyes blazing with a fire of passion, “Thank you for telling me about this avenue. I will strive to achieve this, especially as it greatly aligns with what I wished to do from the beginning.”

Aizawa then turned to Toru and spoke with a hint of concern, “I was really surprised to hear about your quirk and how Shin can see through it. That must have been quite a mental shock for you. But now that you’re aware, you can start learning how to control it properly.” Toru nodded in agreement, her face flushing slightly as she turned to Shin and asked, “Have you thought about how I can learn to control my quirk?”

Becoming the focus of attention, Shin cleared his throat and explained, “From what I’ve observed, you can instinctively control the light to avoid bending around your eyes, which lets you see. Now, what you need to do is consciously command your quirk to stop. You have to will it to stop. It might take some time, but I’m confident you’ll manage it.”

“But how do I do that?” Toru asked, her blush fading slightly as she focused on Shin’s explanation.

Shin shrugged and replied, “You just need to consciously picture yourself not being invisible and keep doing it consistently. You can try it now, and I’ll correct you if you make any mistakes.”

“Okay,” Toru said, closing her eyes as she began to concentrate. She imagined herself becoming visible. While Shin didn’t notice any change, the shouts from those around him made it clear that something had worked. Curious, he turned to Todoroki, who was sitting nearby, and asked, “What’s happening?”

“There’s a continuous flickering where Hagakure’s body should be. Can’t you see it?” Todoroki replied, his tone laced with confusion.

“Uh, no, I can’t,” Shin admitted honestly. Then, after a moment’s thought, he explained, “But I think her quirk is partially stopping, not entirely. She’s in a sort of in-between state—partially invisible and partially visible.”

Todoroki’s eyes widened in realization. “Oh, now I get it. You can see through her invisibility quirk, so you’re not able to perceive what she’s actually doing.”

“Yeah… That’s a flaw of mine that needs addressing,” Shin noted thoughtfully.

Todoroki considered the situation for a moment before pointing out, “I don’t know if you can even call that a weakness. Isn’t it more of a strength? I mean, no one would be able to use illusions against you.”

“Well, not all illusions are harmful,” Shin countered. “Some are meant for education or other purposes, and not being able to see them is definitely a drawback.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“That’s true too,” Todoroki acknowledged with a nod of understanding.

Back at the center of attention, Toru stopped focusing on her imagination and opened her eyes to find everyone staring at her. “Am I visible?” she asked eagerly.

Iida stepped forward to explain what had happened, and upon hearing the result, Toru jumped with joy. She turned to Shin, thanking him repeatedly until Aizawa cleared his throat, pulling everyone’s attention back to him.

“Now that this is settled, we have another important matter to address,” he announced.

The class immediately stiffened, bracing themselves with a mix of anticipation and dread. ‘Is it another test?’ they wondered.

“It’s time to select a class president and a vice president!” Aizawa declared before promptly zipping himself into his sleeping bag. “Wake me up once you’ve decided and let me know the results,” he added lazily.

Chaos erupted as everyone began arguing over who should take the role. In a hero school, unlike a regular one, being class president was more than a title—it was valuable training for leadership and a crucial step toward starting their own hero agencies. The competition was fierce, with everyone clamouring for the position—everyone, that is, except Shin. He remained uninterested, feeling that the role wouldn’t provide much benefit to him personally.

As they were quarrelling, Ida suggested that they should vote, and this suggestion was agreed upon by everyone in the class. They started making chits for the votes, but Shin suggested an additional rule: “A person cannot vote for themselves”.

At first, this proposition was met with great annoyance. Shin explained that the voting would not work properly if everyone just voted for themselves, and this caused everyone to come to an understanding. Thus, they agreed to Shin suggestion. Later, he also denied any interest in any of the positions, confusing them all. However, none of them asked for the exact reason for the lack of interest, and instead were relieved that one of the main competitors had withdrawn before the competition even began.

Thenceforth, the votes were quickly collected, and results were announced. With 5 points, Setsuna won and took the seat of the president. For the second position however, there was a tie between Ida and Momo, with each having 4 points. Noticing this situation, Shin prompted Setsuna to decide who should become the vice president between the two.

Setsuna thought carefully for a long while before announcing the verdict. She chose Momo, making her vice president. She also explained some reasons for which she chose Momo over Ida, making the class agree as a whole agree with her decision. This decision made Ida a slightly depressed, but he slowly got over it, with some encouragement from his friends. Then Setsuna woke Aizawa and mentioned their decision to him.

…

During the lunch break inside the hall, Shin was quietly eating his food while having a joyful conversation with Jiro, Mina, Momo, Kirishima, Todoroki, Koroiro, and Setsuna. They were sitting at a table, that had two seats on each side, with Shin sitting beside Momo. At that moment, the security alarm rang with an announcement of Code 3 alert. This was the signal that someone had broken into the school.

Everyone in the hall panicked and started to rush towards the emergency exits. This caused a stampede of students trying to get out. Shin made an attempt to evaluate the situation and walked towards the nearby windows and perceived news reporters at the front doors. Shin initially assumed that these reporters were the ones to cause this alarm. But he had prior experience dealing with the paparazzi before, and therefore knew they wouldn’t get this violent. So, he suspected that a villain had destroyed the gate and was using these reporters as a cover to covertly enter the academy.

Normally, Shin would've just ignored this, since it wasn’t his problem. But he was getting fed up by the journalists constantly getting in the way of his life. Neither did he want any future annoyances if he left the situation as is. Thus, he descended the stairs and swiftly reached the place where the reporters were gathered, surrounding Aizawa and Present Mic, and demanding answers for their questions.

When the journalists saw Shin arrive, they just thought him as a new target and immediately surrounded him. Shin ignoring this calmly spoke to them, “You are currently trespassing on the property of UA High, which is a grave offense. Not only did you destroy the front gates, which from my perspective would land you in jail for illegal quirk use, but also because of the crime of endangering the lives of future heroes.”

This response surprised all of them, and one person was foolish enough to say, “But we did not destroy the gates.”

“It doesn’t matter at all if you did or did not destroy the gates. Your current behaviour only means that you are supporting the person who destroyed the gate, making you all criminals by association.” This information scared some of them, yet most of them were still unfazed. One of these nonchalant reporters finally recognized him as her expression instantly warped. She exclaimed horrified, “He is Shin Akatsuki.”

This single exclamation caused every reporter to give him a look over. And they all came into an instant realisation making them terrified for their very life.

“What? He is that Devil?”

“No one told me that this guy was here.”

“Nooo! I don’t want to lose my job.”

“Job? Does that even matter at all in this situation? Run! If you don’t want to rot in jail for the rest of your life.”

The reporters immediately started to dash away as quickly as they could, being wise enough to comprehend that if they didn’t get away, then that devil will make them regret being alive. Aizawa and Present Mic, who saw this, were completely flabbergasted. “What just happened?” asked Aizawa.

Shin replied with a calm smile, “From now on, you shouldn’t worry about any paparazzi. I am pretty sure that word would be quickly spread among them that I am studying in UA. For that very reason, they will try to stay clear.”

“…Why…?” Aizawa stuttered out a question.

“Well, I have a pretty bad reputation, at least with them. They know better than to get too close or write anything negative about me,” Shin chuckled as he replied to them, before casually continuing on his way. Aizawa and Present Mic stood there, watching him walk off, unsure of how to react to the situation.

…

Over the next week, Shin participated in classes where he had to face off against his classmates in mock battles, similar to the first one. Some of the battles were more interesting than others, and in a few, he held back to focus on improving his close combat skills. Whenever he sparred with All Might, he got some helpful advice that pushed him to get better. As a result, his relationships with his classmates grew a lot stronger. Whenever he had a chance, he would offer suggestions to help them improve, which made him quite popular and earned him a lot of respect.

Then, one day, Aizawa announced that they would be leaving the academy for ‘Rescue training.’ They were told they would be going to USJ, and Shin figured out that it probably stood for ‘The Ultimate Simulation Joint.’

On the bus ride there, the class discussed the upcoming training and the mysterious teacher who would be leading it. They were also told that All Might would be there as well in the latter half of the training session.

“Hey, where do you think we are going exactly?” Mina asked. She was a pink-skinned girl with black sclera. She had the quirk called Acid, which she can use to throw different kinds of acids.

“Aizawa sensei mentioned something about USJ,” Setsuna answered.

“But what is this USJ?” asked Sato, a muscular student, who had a quirk called Sugar Rush, which improves his physical strength by eating sugar.

“It is a place where we would be experiencing a simulation of different disasters,” said Shin, who had been participating actively in the conversation.

“Oh, then we are going there to probably learn how to do rescue operations,” said Koda, who had a good quirk called Anivoice which allowed him to converse with animals.

“Shin, do you know the place?” asked Ibara with Vines as a quirk, turning her hair into Vines that could grow as long as she had the stamina for it.

“Yeah, have you visited this USJ?” Kaminari enthusiastically questioned. He had a quirk called Electrification which allowed him to generate lightning.

“No, that place is specifically designed and reserved for Hero schools,” Shin explained patiently. “I’ve only heard about it, but the name USJ stands for Ultimate Simulation Joint.”

“So, who do you think our mysterious teacher is?” Mina asked, curious.

Shin rolled his eyes and responded, “How am I supposed to know that? I’m not all-knowing.”

“But you sure act like it,” Toru remarked, with Mina and the others nodding in agreement.

“No, I don’t. You guys are just getting the wrong idea,” Shin said, his eyebrows twitching. The others just burst into laughter at his response.

They continued discussing various other topics while they rode the bus. After about an hour, they reached the fabled USJ. They got out of the bus and quickly entered it. And they were all mesmerised by how big the place was. It was divided into different parts, and from their current standing point, they could see the different disasters which were being simulated at different places. There was a place filled with fire, another submerged underwater, then another with lots of buildings which had fallen. There were shipwrecks, earthquake zones, storm-hit areas, mudslides, etc.

Aizawa led them to a spot where someone was waiting for them. Shin immediately recognized her as Space Hero, Thirteen. She was dressed in her hero suit, which was a loose-fitted outfit with a helmet that covered most of her face, leaving just her eyes visible. She introduced herself, “Good morning everyone, I am Thirteen, who will be teaching you all about rescue operations.”

Everyone became surprised at this, especially Uraraka, who exclaimed, “I love Thirteen.” Clearly, she was fangirling over her favourite hero.

“Before we start, I would like to say some things to you,” Thirteen began. “As you guys may know, my quirk is called Blackhole. It gives me the ability to suck in anything and consequently turn it into dust.”

“With that quirk, you can help people from all sorts of disasters,” said Izuku excitedly, imagining the prospects.