Ashes, Ashes

[3]

When the students of class 1-A are suddenly awoken in the early hours of dawn, they immediately know this is not a drill, and that something is terribly wrong, if the stiffness in Aizawa Shota's shoulders is anything to go by.

Todoroki Shōto is snapped out of his slumber by a harsh banging on his door and a call to get assembled in the lounge on the first floor. The boy feels the urgency curling through the air, so he merely combs his fingers through his tangled, multicolored locks before leaving his room quickly, neglecting to even change out of his sleep ware. He throws open his door and stumbles into the hallway clad in grey sweatpants and a thin black top, figuring the situation doesn't really call for dressing in his uniform.  If it's an attack, it's not like it will matter anyway. In his haste to follow what sounded like Aizawa's command, Todoroki runs into Denki Kaminari. The boy casts Kaminari an expressionless look, meeting the blond's confused gaze, before the two turn and hurry to the designated meeting area. When they arrive, it takes no time at all to note that something is wrong.

   Aizawa stands in what is clearly rumpled clothing, his signature scarf wrapped loosely around his neck and shoulders.  His gaze scans the students that show up in the common room, and Todoroki gets the feeling that the older man is barely suppressing his Quirk in his intensity.  His eyes glow all on their own, his hair brushed back away from his face for once.  Todoroki tilts his head when he sees the skeletal form of a man he's seen around campus next to his home room teacher. Toshinori, he keeps telling us to call him, Todoroki thinks, but the substitute teacher's presence is weird in this situation. It's less foreign to see the older blond man wandering the campus halls occasionally, but Todoroki hasn't had many personal experiences with him.

"Aizawa," Toshinori says, his eerily familiar voice echoing in the silent room, "is this all of them?" Todoroki feels confusion and something else– some other ugly, terrible, unrecognizable emotion– clench his stomach, his mind rolling over the man's words. He furrows his brows, the only sign of uneasiness he gives on his otherwise neutral face.

"The other rooms are empty." The silence in the room as the two mentors converse becomes even more weighted– with puzzlement, with fear, with that other ugly, nasty thing Todoroki still feels strengthening its grip on his intestines.

Oh, Todoroki thinks, his mind spinning in an incredibly, harshly sharp overdrive mode considering the circumstances, this emotion is dread.

"M-Mister Aizawa?" Hagakure's meek voice breaks through the room like lightening. Todoroki sees Kaminari flinch out of the corner of his eye. The boy also notices a familiar head of spiky blond hair over the back of the couch across the room, barely visible. The quiet suddenly seems much more oppressive when Todoroki realizes Bakugo isn't saying anything. The former turns sharply to face Aizawa and Toshinori, taking in the teacher's frown, his crossed arms, his widened stance.  The boy feels his pulse rocketing beneath his skin, the beat of his heart against his skull, and decides to do what he does best– be direct, blunt, and get to the source of the problem immediately.

"What's going on? Was there an attack?" Todoroki asks, his voice coming out stronger than he intends it to. Even when his mind supplies him with no, stupid, someone would have made a commotion, there's no way someone could have infiltrated U.A. (even though, recently, the boy hasn't taken much comfort in that thought). Surprisingly, it's Toshinori that turns to face him, his shoulders rolling before falling forward slightly in a defeated, narrowed hunch. It makes the man seem smaller than his already-bony frame casts him. Todoroki's throat closes.

"As of this moment, due to unforeseen circumstances," Aizawa speaks up, apparently deciding Toshinori was taking too long to soften his words, "you are all that is left of Class 1-A."