They approached the doors of the 1-A building. The lights inside appeared dim, as if only the emergency hall monitors were active. ’Is this .. a surprise party or something?’ Yuta thought, feeling curious.

There was nothing else he could imagine they would be doing here. Hmm ... If it were a surprise, he planned to cover Eri’s eyes so she wouldn’t get startled ... Though the loud noise would probably still give the little girl a fright.

Come to think of it, did Eri like surprises? He didn’t know. "Eri, be a dear and cover your ears." Yuta whispered.

"Okay," she leaned forward, chin resting on the top of his head, whispered back and did as she was told without asking any further questions.

’Honestly, where have you been in my two lives?’

"After you man." Kirishima said, stepping aside. The lobby was pitch black. "Is the power out?" Yuta asked with a raised eyebrow. Now he was pretty sure this was a surprise party.

Well, it’s not like his senses couldn’t pick up the shallow breathing of at least fifteen people behind the couches and the kitchen island. Everyone was definitely doing a good job pretending that they had all gone to sleep.

’Idiots,’ he thought, a small, genuine tug of amusement pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"SURPRISE!"

The lights flared to life, accompanied by a deafening chorus of voices and a literal explosion of glitter and streamers. Yuta winced, his hand instinctively rising to shield Eri’s eyes from the sudden glare.

When he opened them again, fifteen plus faces filled his vision wearing expressions ranging from smiles to embarrassment.

There was a massive banner draped across the balcony that read: WELCOME BACK TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING (STAY THERE THIS TIME). As well as a cake with his name on it.

Yuta stood in the doorway with Eri on his shoulders and looked at all of it for a moment.

"Aizawa-sensei’s orders, huh?" Yuta muttered, looking back at Kirishima. Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly. "Well... he didn’t technically say no when we asked if we could do this. He just sighed and walked away. We took that as a green light."

Yuta looked at the banner. WELCOME HOME, the H noticeably larger than everything else.

"Who did the letters."

"Me!" Hagakure’s sleeve shot up.

"The H is bigger than the rest."

"I know. I ran out of space and had to commit."

"Uh huh .." He uttered and looked up at Eri who had lowered her hands from her ears and looked around the room with bright eyes.

Then those same eyes found something else.

"...Cake..." she whispered, like she had just discovered something sacred.

A few members of the class visibly melted on the spot.

"Yeah!" Mina beamed, immediately darting forward. "We made it just for this! Well—Sato made it, we supervised."

"To be clear, I did not receive useful supervision,"

Sato from the side with a huff. ’To think these girls ate the first cake entirely.’ The girls all had their faces flush red in embarrassment. "Well, that’s not important right now!" Kaminari cut in, already reaching for a plate. "The important thing is—celebration!" Yuta exhaled softly through his nose, the faintest hint of a smile lingering as he stepped fully into the room.

"You guys are... something else," he said.

"Hey, we had to do something!" Uraraka said, clasping her hands behind her back as she smiled up at him. "You just casually came back from the dead and all. That’s kind of a big deal."

"Yeah." Yuta sighed. "It was honestly hell. I never want to go through that again."

"Hehe .. yeah, probably not." Everyone laughed.

Then Mina clapped her hands loudly, snapping the moment in half. "Alright! Enough standing around! Sit him down! Feed him! Someone get Eri a plate before Kaminari eats everything!"

"Hey!"

Too late. Eri had already been gently lifted off Yuta’s shoulders, Uraraka taking over with careful hands ... and escorted toward the table like the most important guest in the room.

"Small slice," Sato warned.

"Smaller," Jiro added.

"Tiny," Yaoyorozu adjusted. Eri looked at the progressively shrinking slice, then back up at them. Her cheeks puffed up, filled with a pout.

"... I ... I want it bigger?" she tried. There was a moment of silence. Then .. "SO CUTEEE!" Sato sighed and cut a slightly larger one.

"Thank you," she said, completely serious. Yuta watched the exchange from where he stood, hands loosely in his pockets.

Kirishima nudged him lightly. "You gonna just stand there, man? Guest of honor’s supposed to sit."

Yuta rolled his eyes and dropped into a seat, stretching his legs slightly as he glanced over the table.

Plates. Cups. Snacks. Questionable decoration decisions. ...and noticeably missing people.

His gaze flicked across the room again, slower this time.

Count. Recount. Yeah, no. "...Huh."

"What?" Kaminari asked, mouth already half full.

"Um ... I’m just wondering, where’s Bakugo and Todoroki?" He paused .. letting the words he just uttered sink in, then shook his head and tried again.

"Sorry, that’s a dumb question. Where’s Todoroki?" It was obvious Bakugo wouldn’t come to such an event.

If Yuta had to bet anything, the feral blonde would rather jump into a wood chipper than participate in a "sentimental" welcoming party.

"If I had to guess, Bakugo’s probably upstairs sleeping or ..."

"—be outside blowing something up?" Kaminari supplied helpfully.

"Exactly."

Kirishima scratched his cheek. "Uh... you’re not wrong, actually. He went to ask for permission to use the training grounds earlier."

"And?" Yuta asked.

"...And he hasn’t come back."

Yuta blinked.

"...So he is outside blowing something up."

"Probably," Jiro said.

There was a brief pause before Kaminari added, "I mean... you showing up probably didn’t help."

Yuta glanced at him. "Help what?" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Kaminari hesitated, then shrugged. "You know... Bakugo stuff."

"...That narrows it down to literally nothing."

Everyone laughed, while Yuta looked around, with an innocent face. What exactly was the joke, ... And how did he not get in on it?

"Yeah, it’s funny really. He was the most adamant about you not being dead, and now that you actually show up. ." I blinked again, stunned.

"Hold on .. what?"

"Yeah, he always said stuff about you not being dead. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you guys were close friends." Sero leaned back with a lopsided grin. "Honestly, man, after the news hit that you were... well, not dead, I think seeing you pull off a ’miracle’ put a massive amount of pressure on him. He’s probably blowing up concrete pillars right now to compensate. As for Todoroki, he had to go see his old man at the hospital so he left hours ago."

Yuta went quiet after that. Internally mulling as his fingers tapped lightly against the table

From the outside, it looked like he was actually thinking about it. Processing it. Maybe even feeling something a little deeper than the usual surface-level reactions. "Um .. is everything ok?"

Momo asked what everyone was thinking. Jiro’s eyes flicked toward him, curious. Even Kaminari slowed down on the snacks.

"...So basically," he said slowly, "he missed me so much he developed anger issues." The table froze.

"What the .."

Everyone’s faces changed drastically. Kaminari choked on his cake. Jiro immediately covered her mouth, shoulders shaking. Sero lost it first, doubling over with a loud, unrestrained laugh. "BRO—"

Laughter erupted from everyone. Save for Eri looking confused. Yuta raised an eyebrow with an internal smile.

"Isn’t that it?" Kirishima slapped a hand over his face. "That’s ... no—that’s not ..."

"I’m serious," Yuta added, his voice maintaining a feigned deadpan gravity that only made the table’s collective hysterics worse. "From what I know, this is textbook ... Wait, What’s the word for it? Oh right, Tsundere behaviour. It’s honestly medical negligence. That much repressed affection is structurally dangerous for a human skull."

"He’s gonna kill you, Akutami! He is actually going to blow you up!" Kaminari managed to gasp out between fits of laughter.

"I agree." Tokoyami added. "If he hears you said that, we’re going to need a second ’Welcome Back’ party because the first one ended in a homicide!"

"I’ll say. This is just plain suicide." Mineta added.

"Yeah, I love you man. But you can’t just diagnose Bakugo like that!"

"Yeah, Yeah, I get it," Yuta said, waving it off. "Relax. If his coping mechanism is property damage, that’s between him and the school budget."

A few people snorted. Beside me, Eri was now on her second bite of cake, completely disconnected from the conversation and, frankly, reality.

Yuta glanced at her, then back at the group and sighed. "...So," he said, tone a bit more casual, "what’d I miss?" A few people blinked.

"In general," he clarified. "Classes, training, whatever. You guys were doing internships, right? How’s everything?"

He tilted his head toward her. "Uraraka, weren’t you supposed to be with Gunhead? Did you actually get to do any CQC?"

Uraraka’s smile faltered, turning into something a bit more bittersweet. She rested her chin in her hand. "I made it there, for a few days. Gunhead-san was amazing... I learned how to throw people much bigger than me. But then the 716 happened so ..."

"Everything went into lockdown. The agencies were flooded with emergency calls. They didn’t have the resources to look after students anymore, ribbit. Most of us were recalled to UA within forty-eight hours of the official announcement." Tsuyu added from across the table, her finger to her chin.

"When that was all over and the dorms were established, we had a few classes but nothing really important. If anything, before last night, we were having a study group for all of us to prepare for the midterms." Tsuyu finished. Yuta went over that and nodded. He had expected as much. "Well, it seems I didn’t miss much thankfully."

"You probably would have been fine anyway." A voice came from behind, causing everyone to turn around and look at the staircase to see Todoroki’ coming upstairs. "Todoroki’."

Todoroki stepped towards them and swept his gaze over the table. "I see you guys really had the party. Bakugo’s not here."

"You surprised?"

"Not really." Todoroki’s eyes shifted to Yuta. "I heard about the press conference on the way back. You’re pretty famous now."

"Just what I need," Yuta muttered, sliding a plate of cake toward the dual-quirk user. "More people looking at me. How’s your old man?"

"He’ll live."

"I figured." Yuta concluded, finally taking a bite of cake. He paused mid-chew, blinked once, then pointed his fork at Sato. "Okay, no, hold on. This is actually good."

Sato puffed up slightly. "Of course it is."

"Alright. I take back half the things I’ve ever thought about this class," Yuta continued.

"Half?"

"The other half belongs to Bakugo and Mineta."

Time passed like that. "So you really didn’t miss much," Kaminari said, leaning forward again. "We had like—three actual classes and then a whole lot of ’don’t die’ lectures."

That was the gist of it. Internships got cut short, classes turned into safety briefings, ’Guess I really didn’t miss anything ’

"Indeed." Todoroki said, placing his empty plate down on the table. "Though, I doubt we’ll have written exams anymore." His words stunned everyone.

"Huh?"

"I mean, think about it. With everything that’s happening in the country, and the loss of the top heroes, we can’t exactly sit on our laurels." He said with slightly furrowed brows. "Given the situation, it’s most likely that our practical training will intensify while the theoretical parts will be left behind."

The class went silent for a moment "I agree." Iida added. "Given recent events, the faculty will not allow us to remain at our current level."

"Internships might resume too," Yaoyorozu said thoughtfully, her voice sounding slightly uncertain if what she said was right. She looked at Yuta, as if checking to see if he’d shoot her idea down. "Under stricter supervision. Everything will likely be dedicated to making us better combatants." Yuta didn’t disagree.

This was honestly the basic change to be expected after everything that had happened. It was just a matter of time.

The when however, was what he wasn’t sure about. It could be anywhere within two weeks to a month depending on how quickly Nezu and the staff decided to act. ’Well, with what they showed in Canon, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it next week.’

Two days later, Yuta stood on the edge of a jagged, wind-whipped precipice, staring down into a forest that looked significantly more "homicidal" than the brochure suggested.

’That was faster than I thought.’