The Match Before the Final Exams

"You think I'd believe that nonsense? If you hadn't been doing something shady, why would you be so flustered?" Torhu Hagakure said as if she had seen right through Su Lin.

The next second, she suddenly leaned over the bed, bent down, and carefully sniffed around.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking for any suspicious fluids."

"..."

After a bizarre silence, Su Lin complained speechlessly, "What is wrong with you? I value myself, you know."

"Really? I don't believe you."

From a certain perspective, he and Torhu Hagakure could be considered close friends who could talk about anything. After all, she had been the first person to actively speak to him after he came to this world.

"Oh, right, Su Lin. Seeing you like this, there's something I want to ask."

Torhu sat on the bed and looked at him with a mischievous grin.

"What is it?"

Just imagining her expression made him feel like it would be something difficult to answer.

"After becoming a girl, have you been affected physically? I imagine your original body would react to women, so what about your avatar?"

Su Lin shut his mouth.

That really was hard to talk about.

Why did she always like digging into this kind of thing?

After a moment, he reluctantly told her the truth. "Would you believe me if I said my avatar developed desire for my original body?"

It disgusted him mentally, yet his body inexplicably craved it. Perhaps material influence outweighed the mind, which was why the differences between genders in this world could be so strictly defined.

"Looks like Su Lin-chan was telling the truth. But... if you ever do that sort of thing, make sure you take proper precautions, okay? You should ask a couple of friends what to watch out for. If something happened to you, I'd be a little sad."

Torhu Hagakure heavily patted his shoulder, her voice carrying an inexplicable trace of heartache.

"Can we not talk about this?" Su Lin covered his head, wishing he could run over and smash it into tofu... frozen tofu, preferably.

"Tch, I'm worried about you."

Pretending not to hear her, Su Lin got up from the bed, walked to the table ahead, and brewed a steaming cup of tea.

"Here. I don't think you came here just to see me, did you?"

Torhu nodded. "Today, I found out what happened to everyone during the Work-Study Program. You ran into the Hero Killer Stain, right?"

"How did you know? Did someone tell you?"

"Of course I asked around." Torhu Hagakure said unhappily, "This was clearly your achievement, but because you broke the rule against using Quirks to harm people, Endeavor got to take all the credit. That's so awful."

Su Lin's hand suddenly clenched the bedsheet, and his two avatars made some unnatural movements as well.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Doing his best not to show an angry expression, Su Lin took several deep breaths. "Thanks for coming to see me."

"Ahahaha, I was just worried about Su Lin-chan."

The next morning, at the hospital.

Three people sat beside their respective hospital beds.

"Midoriya, Iida just had an examination. His arm..." Todoroki looked gravely at Tenya Iida, who sat silently by the bed.

Izuku Midoriya followed his gaze. After several seconds of silence, Iida slowly said, "The doctor said my arm has lasting damage."

"Lasting damage?"

"Both my hands were badly injured at the time, and my left arm seems to be especially severe. Still, it only makes moving my fingers somewhat difficult and inconvenient. As long as I undergo surgery and receive a nerve transplant, there's still a chance it can fully recover." To keep Midoriya from worrying, Iida wore a relaxed expression.

"However, the moment I encountered the Hero Killer, my mind went blank... I should have reported to Mr. Guideline first. Instead, I lost my reason to hatred and dragged all of you into it."

"How is Su Lin...?" Midoriya remembered Su Lin, who had used his avatars to fight both the Hero Killer and the Nomu at once. Stain's situation was clear enough. Even though the enemy had held back somewhat, they had still successfully captured him through skill. But the Nomu... Su Lin had faced that entirely on his own.

Not to mention that judging from the other two Nomu that had attacked the city, this opponent might not have been as powerful as the one at USJ, but it certainly would not have been weak.

"Even someone like the Hero Killer... said he was the true hero."

Tenya Iida stared at his hands, as though recalling scene after scene from that day.

When Yukino had rushed in to save them, she had spread her arms to shield him directly... Facing such a powerful enemy, she must have already disregarded her own safety, thinking only of her companions.

And he himself...

"Before I become a true hero, I won't seek treatment for this arm." Iida touched the bandages around his hand as he spoke.

Just then, the ward door was knocked on several times.

"Come in."

Midoriya called out, and then Su Lin entered, dressed in an ordinary short-sleeved shirt.

"How are you three feeling?"

"Nothing serious. Overall, we're doing well," Todoroki replied.

"That's good. I'm relieved."

Su Lin sat to one side, silently took out his phone, and scrolled through it alone.

The three looked at one another, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Among them, Midoriya was probably the most embarrassed to speak to Su Lin, especially now that he was seeing Su Lin's male original body sitting right in front of him. The question he had asked several days ago kept echoing in his heart, filling him with deep guilt.

Let's just pretend nothing happened and remain friends forever.

Whenever he thought of Yukino training, he felt an indescribable ache in his heart, but... this was the right choice, wasn't it?

"Um... Su Lin." At that moment, Todoroki, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke.

"Hm?" The person playing with his phone raised his head in confusion.

"Do you think the Hero Killer's ideals... were right?"

"How could they be?" Su Lin shook his head. "Are you dissatisfied with society as it is?"

"..."

"Heroes are nothing more than police officers with greater freedom to use their abilities. And this world can never do without police. Crime is everywhere, and without these so-called fake heroes, when you're truly hurt, perhaps no one will pay any attention to you."

"Is that what you think?"

"Alright, I should get going. I only came to check on how you were doing." Su Lin suddenly stood up.

He did not want to waste any more time.

Training as Yukino—every bit of improvement would bring about a qualitative change.

The Match Before the Final Exams

"Hey!"

"Hah..."

"Huff... huff..."

Step after step, Yukino bit down hard on the Chewing Gum in her mouth. Her arms and legs were embedded with red-hot Iron Sand, and her nails dug deeply into her palms from the pain.

To prevent herself from losing consciousness from the intense pain and biting off her tongue, she had practically stuffed her mouth full.

Though honestly, it would not matter even if she bit it off. The only result would be that once it healed, her tongue would become even tougher.

The Grip Strength in her arms had already approached 280 kilograms. Just as sweat drenched her body and she panted heavily, the phone in her pocket suddenly rang with a pleasant tone.

Trembling, she took out the phone and discovered that the caller was her Homeroom Teacher.

"Ughh..."

Supporting herself against a nearby rock with one hand, she removed the gum from her mouth. Tears streamed down her face from the pain as she weakly leaned back and dizzily pressed the answer button.

"Mr... Mr. Aizawa, sob... what is it?"

"Su Lin, this Work-Study Program hasn't truly ended yet. Although Iida has been hospitalized, Mr. Guideline believes you can still continue with him... Hm, what kind of sound was that?"

Hearing the strange gasps and cries of pain, Shota Aizawa suddenly fell into an awkward silence.

"Ugh... sorry, sir. I was training just now, and I'm exhausted... is there a problem?"

"No, it's just that your voice sounded strange."

"..."

"So, will you continue with the remaining activities?"

"No. The Hero... sob... the Hero Killer incident was already, um... the best possible experience. There's no point continuing with Mr. Guideline. I want to train my Quirk on my own."

"Alright."

The call ended. Yukino felt as though all her strength had been drained away, and her palms weakly loosened.

"It hurts so much, System, I can't take it anymore, sob..."

This training was far too intense.

Using Iron Sand that constantly emitted high heat and destructive energy to practice kicking and punching had left Yukino covered in blood, rolling around on the ground and crying like a little girl.

Several days later, in the U.A. Class A classroom.

"Hahahaha... Bakugo, what happened to your hair? This is too funny!"

"Shut up. That bastard styled my hair, and no matter how much I wash it, it won't go back."

Katsuki Bakugo, sporting Best Jeanist's neat side-parted hairstyle, was so enraged by Kirishima and Sero's laughter that his eyes nearly rolled white.

"It's really ugly, that side part!" The two of them recklessly shouted.

"What did you say, bastards?!"

Bang!

To Yukino's surprise, Bakugo's hair instantly returned to normal amid a burst of fury.

"Hey, Hot-Blooded Monkey."

When Yukino saw Bakugo looking at her, she immediately waved at him warmly.

"Shut up! Who the hell is Hot-Blooded Monkey?!" Bakugo's fury surged even higher.

"Well, if you read the words on this paper, I'll admit you're not Hot-Blooded Monkey." Yukino sat at her seat, picked up a pen, casually wrote several words on a sheet of paper, and unfolded it for him to see.

"What?" Bakugo instinctively looked over and read aloud, "I am Hot-Blooded Monkey."

"..."

"You fucking tricked me?!"

And so, as everyone returned to campus, the first semester entered its final stretch.

There was not much time left until the final exams, yet there was not a trace of tension on anyone's face for the moment.

That afternoon, Hero Basic Training proceeded as usual. All Might brought everyone before a massive training ground.

"Since you have just returned from your Work-Study Program, this Hero Basic Training class will be a rescue training competition with game-like elements. This is the training ground: a dense industrial zone with a complex structure, like a maze. This time, you will be divided into four groups of five and train in sequence. The rules are simple. Once I send out a distress signal from the center, you will all start outside the factory area at the same time, and we'll see who can rescue me first."

After speaking, All Might gave everyone a thumbs-up.

"Now then, the members of the first group are Izuku Midoriya, Tenya Iida, Su Lin, Sero, and Mina Ashido."

Once All Might finished making the announcement, everyone began preparing.

"This group really does have almost all the highly mobile people in the class," Kirishima could not help remarking.

"Now that you mention it, Midoriya seems much stronger than before," Momo Yaoyorozu nodded as well.

"Yeah. He used to get seriously injured whenever he did anything active, but I heard that because of Su Lin, he fixed that weakness." Kyoka Jiro's gaze naturally shifted to Yukino standing beside her.