NADIR

The air crackled, thick with heat and rising smoke. Flames danced along the cracked walls of the training zone, licking at the edges of fallen steel, collapsed vents, and broken piping. Somewhere to her left, another villain groaned beneath the weight of a singed pipe she'd dropped on him.

Yuki stood calmly amidst the ruin, untouched. Her eyes followed the movement of embers as they twisted and rose like dying stars. Two more villains charged her-loud, sloppy, careless.

She raised a hand.

Snap.

A whip of water surged from the scorched ground behind her, weaving unnaturally through flame and ash. It struck both men squarely in the chest, knocking them back into the rubble they'd crawled from.

They didn't get up again.

Yuki exhaled through her nose, the only sound she'd made in minutes. Her gaze drifted upward, toward the ceiling that caved in jagged lines high above. She could feel it: the heat, the panic, the distant thrum of conflict far outside this isolated zone.

"Should I stay or should I leave?" she thought plainly, her expression not changing even as she lightly stepped over a smoldering villain's foot.

Logically, she was fine. The fire wasn't spreading too fast, and so far the enemies sent her way were hardly a challenge. If she waited it out, the teachers would handle everything else. Simple.

But her fingers twitched faintly.

She had sent a thread-thin sliver of black flame outward, hidden in the shimmer of heat, no more than a flicker, pushing it through the cracks of the fire zone. Just enough to taste the wind, to test what was waiting beyond and act when it needed to and do far she hadn't sense anything too concerning till-

Her body froze mid-step.

Something was wrong.

That wasn't just panic. It wasn't a skirmish or ambush. She couldn't explain it perfectly-but she could feel it.

A tremor deep in her chest.

A weight in the air that bent the heat around it.

That thing.

No other word came to her mind-just that thing. She didn't know what it was, but it wasn't normal. And it was close to the center. Dangerously close to where Aizawa had been.

Without hesitation, she turned.

The water at her feet surged upward, coiling into a tight ribbon around her wrist.

And with a single breath, Yuki moved.

Through fire and crumbling structure, vaulting over wreckage and fallen scaffolds, leaping between broken supports and sheets of molten metal. She moved like a shadow-fast, direct, without waste.

The world blurred.

And when she stepped out of the manmade hell, the shipwreck zone lay stretched before her.

Just in time to see Shigaraki reach for a student.

Snap.

The water whip struck.

The dust cleared.

And as the others stared in shock-

Yuki stood tall. Unburned. Unshaken.

"Sorry for not getting here earlier," she said simply. "I was held back a bit."

Immediately, Yuki's instincts took over-her body moved before her mind caught up.