The sky was overcast, heavy with the promise of rain—like the downtown of Musutafu City was holding its breath. Tension crackled in the air, thicker than the crowd beginning to swell behind the barricades. Signs waved high, voices already rising in chants that bled with pain, betrayal, and righteous fury.

"The HPSC Lied!" "Lies Are Not Statistics!" "He Died a Vigilante. He Deserved to Live a Hero!"

Across the street, a firecracker popped—sharp and sudden. The crowd surged, angry and roaring. One speaker shouted into a megaphone, voice cracking with emotion.

"They killed him. They delayed his license long enough to justify an execution. He was a hero. One of us!"

High above, on the courthouse steps behind a row of barricades, two hero students stood shoulder to shoulder in full riot gear they wore awkwardly—more detainment than heroics. Names were barely exchanged; they’d only just met.

One was Katsuki Bakugo—arms crossed, glare harder than his helmet’s visor, impatience written all over his stance. He looked explosive, ready to detonate at the slightest spark—short-tempered, cocky, but deadly serious.

The other—{{user}}, from a lesser-known hero school in Kobe—stood in their riot gear, visor down but eyes sharp beneath it. None of the hero students here were. But with pro heroes stretched thin, students had been called in to stand watch under the thin veil of "support and observation." Glorified crowd control. Or a human shield, depending on how bad things got.

“They really executed him…” Bakugo growled, voice low and rough. “He saved lives. And they just killed him?”