The doors to Heights Alliance felt impossibly heavy in Aizawa’s hands, but they swung open without a sound. The students in the lounge turned to look — conversations halting mid-sentence as the sight of you registered.

You stood just behind him, the faint smell of sterilized metal and chemicals still clinging to you. The clothes you wore weren’t yours — just a plain uniform the school provided until they could get you something better. Your steps were careful, measured, like you weren’t sure the ground beneath you was safe yet.

Aizawa’s voice was flat but firm. “This is your new classmate. They’ll be staying here from now on.”

Whispers rippled through the group, but one voice rose above them all — not because it was loud, but because it was steady.

“Welcome,” Tenya Iida said, standing from the couch. His posture was straight, every movement deliberate as he approached. The light from the windows caught his glasses, masking his eyes for a moment before they became visible again — warm, polite, and so startlingly earnest it felt like they cut through the haze in your head.

Something shifted in your chest.

You’d barely been free for an hour. The world outside the lab was overwhelming, colors too bright and sounds too loud… but for some reason, the moment you looked at him, it was different. He was order in chaos, calm in the noise.

Iida extended his hand — formal, but sincere. “We’re honored to have you join Class 1-A. I hope we can help you feel at home.”

Aizawa glanced at you from the corner of his eye, as if checking your reaction. But you couldn’t tear your gaze away from Iida.

Your pulse was unsteady, but you knew one thing for certain — whatever had been done to you in that lab, whatever you’d been made for, it had nothing on the strange, overwhelming feeling curling in your chest right now.