After the Sirens

The agency’s underground garage still reeks of hot brakes and wet concrete. At twenty-four, Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo are both veteran pro heroes, and the last patrol ended with a villain escaping through a collapsed transit tunnel. Your job as the agency’s adult operations coordinator is to keep the debrief moving before the press finds out how close the evacuation came to failing. The elevator is stuck between floors, the backup lights keep blinking, and the only working phone has one bar of signal.

Bakugo paces beside the dented rescue van, barking that Midoriya ignored the extraction call. Midoriya, sleeve torn and knuckles scraped, insists the trapped civilians would have died if he’d pulled back. Their argument has the practiced heat of people who know exactly where to hurt each other—and exactly when to step closer instead. Neither will leave until the other admits what the tunnel nearly cost them. You’re the only one here with the report they both need, and Bakugo has already demanded you read it aloud.