BNHA L.N. Vol. 3 Translations

(Part One recap: Some of the 1-A students decide to barge into Tokoyami’s room to tell ghost stories. They make Tokoyami join in, and he tells a really scary story about a blond-haired ghost woman. Everyone is super creeped out and they decide to stop.)

That night, Mineta tosses and turns in bed. Every time he’s about to drift off, he remembers Tokoyami’s story and becomes wide awake again. Not only had Mineta been unable to get his desired contact with girls earlier… now he can’t even sleep! He really shouldn’t have gone at all.

 As Mineta is wallowing in regret, he hears a small beeping noise.

 Mineta freezes. He nervously tells himself it must be the building structure creaking from changes in air temperature, but that sound is clearly different. And the sound isn’t coming from Midoriya’s room next door, but from the hallway.

 “An illusion, just an illusion!” Though Mineta repeats this to himself, he can still clearly hear the noise. It seems to be getting louder.

 “Damnit.” Mineta approaches his door, equally terrified and reluctant. It’s probably just someone from the 2nd floor playing mobile games in the hallway. He opens the door.

 No one is in the hallway. Mineta stares for a moment, then quickly slams the door shut and dives under his blankets. Though he chants to himself that it’s just an illusion, the sound doesn’t go away. It just gets louder and louder.

 “Oh god, it’s getting closer! It… it’s probably the dorm ventilation ducts? Right?!” But the air ducts never made a sound like that before.

 What can he do? He covers his head. The source of the sound has almost reached his door. Just about… now –––

 Something raps against his door. And then, “… … Mineta… is…” A female voice calls from outside the door.

The next day in class, the group discusses the strange beeping sound they heard last night. It wasn’t just Mineta – Tsuyu, Sero, Ashido, Kaminari, Tokoyami, and Shoji all heard the same sound.

 “Hold on, why did the voice only call my name? Tell me it’s a lie?!” Mineta panics when he learns that he’s the only one who heard his own name. “Midoriya, you really didn’t hear anything…?”

 “Sorry, the training was so tiring yesterday that I slept soundly through the night!”

 “Only we heard the voices… then isn’t it the curse of Tokoyami’s story?” Sero tries to joke, but his smile is forced.

 “Eh? What kind of story?” Kirishima wedges himself into the conversation. As Kaminari opens his mouth to speak, the seated Bakugou and Todoroki suddenly move.

 Bakugou stands up with a clatter. “So fucking loud! Stop staying strange things around other people!” He kicks the door open and storms out.

 Izuku re-analyzes Bakugou’s actions in his head and wonders, “Could it be… he’s afraid?”

 Jirou, who’d been silent the entire time, admits a little timidly, “Um, actually I heard it too. A weird beeping sound that went on until dawn.” Even Class 1-A’s top  expert on sounds could testify! The other students fall into a panic.

 Iida forcefully cuts into the chatter; this matter should be set aside for now. Since there are several witnesses, there must be some sort of problem. As class president he’ll take responsibility for figuring out the true face of the mystery voice.

(Later at night, in the hallway outside Iida’s room)

Iida sits in the hallway, wrapped up in a fluffy towel and fighting off sleep**. The girls had given him some coffee earlier. But Iida keeps a very strict daily routine and is usually in deep slumber at this time of night. Even coffee can’t ward off his drowsiness.

 **与睡魔作斗争, literally to fight off the Sandman

 Just as Iida is nodding off, a small beeping noise startles him awake. He immediately looks around but nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. A few moments later, the other boys on the 3rd floor (Kaminari, Ojiro, Kouda) come out of their rooms.

 “You guys are still awake?”

 “After hearing the story in class earlier there’s no way I can sleep!”

 “What on earth is that noise?”

 Kaminari and Kouda peer around nervously, but they don’t see anything strange. The four boys look at each other uneasily.

 Just then, they hear a small, shrill voice. “Aa-aa-ah!” That’s definitely Mineta. Iida and the others rush down to the 2nd floor, where they find Mineta shaking like a leaf and clinging onto Izuku. Aoyama and Tokoyami come out into the hallway as well, looking pale.

 “What happened?!” Iida asks them.

 “T-the voice is calling my name again!”

 “I heard it too,” Izuku confirms. “Someone knocked on Mineta’s door.” Aoyama and Tokoyami nod their assent.

 At everyone’s grave expressions, Iida mutters, “Just what is actually happening here…”

 That night, all the 1-A members hear the mysterious beeping noise.

In the morning the sky is dull and overcast.

 Aizawa-sensei stares at his class, a little surprised. The atmosphere inside the classroom seems to be just as gloomy as it is outside.

 Apparently there will be a thunderstorm tonight. As the day goes on, the wind gets stronger and stronger. Outside, tree branches sway and shake.

 The sleep-deprived students can’t concentrate on Aizawa-sensei’s lecture. And it’s not just one or two students – strangely enough, the entire class is in low spirits.

 “What happened?” Upon hearing the story, Aizawa-sensei hums a little. “Hmm, a noise… But do you guys really believe in something as unrealistic as that supposed curse?” Of course no one in the class wanted to believe it at first, but how else could they explain last night’s events?

 Class president Iida hopes they can get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. Then everyone can properly focus on their studies again.

 “N-no! Every night the voice calls my name and I can’t sleep! If I hide under the covers I can’t sense anything… but what if she comes into my room. I’ll be cursed and killed! Wait, what if she’s not wearing anything? … Ah, but…!!” Mumbling to himself, Mineta holds his head in his hands.

 “A curse, huh…” Aizawa-sensei deliberates for a moment. “Now that I think about it, UA has one too. One of the Seven Mysteries of UA went something like this…”

 ** Seven Mysteries is a common trope for Japanese school settings

 “There’s a bitter soul of a UA graduate that couldn’t become a pro-hero. It often wanders around the forest surrounding the school. And if you see it, you’ll be cursed… Ah. Now that I think of it, that forest is near the new dorms.”

 For a moment the entire class is silent. Then it erupts into chaos.

 “If the ghost came into the dorms…!”

 “Oh god, no!!”

 Fuck, Aizawa thinks.

 This sort of story should obviously be taken as a joke, but the 1-A students are already on edge. Aizawa hadn’t meant to scare them, but ended up inadvertently adding fuel to the fire.

 All the students are panicking. Usually they quiet down with a single word, but it’s ineffective now.

 “… You guys. Behave yourselves.” Aizawa’s low, dangerous voice finally reaches his students’ ears, penetrating to their very bones. The students immediately suppress the fear in their hearts, shivering in front of an even greater terror. The room falls silent.

 Seeing his students like this, Aizawa lets out a sigh. “If you guys care so much about this noise, I’ll stop by for inspection tonight. There’ll be a storm anyways, so might as well. I’ll be taking roll call so you better all be in your rooms.”

 “Sen-sensei…!” At their teacher’s evident concern, the students tear up a little.

The afternoon rain turns into an evening storm. The wind blows endlessly, and the dorm windows rattle and shake.

 Aizawa-sensei arrives at the Class 1-A dorms for inspections. Outside the 1st floor windows, the trees bow and sway. Every crack of thunder is accompanied by a blinding streak of lightning.

 There might be a power outage in this sort of weather. Aizawa-sensei considers the best course of action in that scenario. There’s an emergency power generator, but he should confirm the location of the power switch and acquire a flashlight.

 “But what I’m most concerned about is the kids, after all.” Aizawa-sensei furrows his eyebrows. Earlier in class, the students had honestly acted like they’d regressed into preschoolers. If there’s a blackout… it’s a headache to even think about.

 But Aizawa is also concerned about the mysterious sounds. The entire class heard something, so it clearly wasn’t just a figment of someone’s imagination. “Just what could the sound be?” he wonders.

 Aizawa looks around, alert – he suddenly has a feeling that something is off. Amidst the sounds of the storm, there seems to be some kind of mechanical noise. Aizawa holds his breath and scans his surroundings. The sound isn’t coming from a fixed point. Whatever it is keeps moving.

 “Something living…? It shouldn’t be…” Tracking down the sound, Aizawa arrives at the dining hall.

 “Seriously…?” Seeing the source of the sound, Aizawa’s eyes widen.

As the storm rages on outside, Iida shows up to Mineta’s room. He’s accompanied by Todoroki and Satou. The scheduled time for roll call had passed, but Aizawa-sensei hadn’t appeared. They’re checking to see if anyone had seen him.

 “He hasn’t been here. Maybe he started from the top floor?” Mineta fidgets nervously. Is the mysterious voice going to call his name again today?

 But Satou lives on the 5th floor and hadn’t seen Aizawa-sensei either.

 “That’s really strange,” Izuku mumbles. “For someone like Aizawa-sensei to not show up at the appointed time… did something happen to him?”

 “Don’t say scary things, Midoriya!” Mineta responds nervously. “Maybe some other pressing matter came up, so he couldn’t come here?”

 “Let’s look around for him,” Iida decides.

 When Iida and the rest of the group check the ground floor, they find Aizawa-sensei collapsed next to the dining table. He’s unconscious and won’t wake up.

 Kaminari examines Aizawa’s prone form. “Hey, isn’t that a strand of hair around Aizawa-sensei’s neck? … Blond hair…?! Ah, it’s my own…”

 “Now’s really not the time to say that sort of shit, dumbass!” Bakugou snaps like usual, but even his voice sounds strained.

 The class speculates on how Aizawa-sensei got knocked out. Either it was the ghost-story curse, or it was a villain attack. Both options are terrifying. Ever calm, Tsuyu suggests that they find another teacher for help. Iida immediately backs her up–

 A huge bolt of lightning strikes. The entire building is suddenly shrouded in darkness.

“What?!”

 “For a blackout to happen now, what timing…”

 “Calm down, Dark Shadow!”

 Sero yelps. “Wait, Tokoyami! Don’t let Dark Shadow out!”

 “Uwaa– Who’s going to protect me from getting cursed now?!” As always, Mineta simpers and worries only about himself.

 Sightless, no one can tell who or what is around them. Humans have been afraid of the dark since ancient times. Because of the power outage, this primal fear bursts out and overwhelms the already nervous students. Iida attempts to calm everyone down while Yaoyorozu tries to make a flashlight with her quirk. But when she’s nearly done…

 “Kya-a-a!?”

 “That scream, is it Yaoyorozu? W-what’s wrong?” Jirou tracks down her location by sound. Something soft had brushed past below her, Yaoyorozu explains with a shudder.

 A moment later, Ochaco shrieks. She’d just felt something brush past her foot as well.

 “So what the hell is it?!” Kaminari is half-sobbing at this point.

 “Someone make some light already!” Iida commands. At this, Kaminari finally recovers enough to start up his quirk. Bakugou sets off explosions in his palms as well. There’s finally a bit of visibility.

 For a moment, the light illuminates a small, ghostly white figure. It quickly retreats, disappearing back into the cover of darkness. Silence.

 “——！？”

 “Th-th-th-there’s something there…!”

 “A ghost, it’s a ghost! Isn’t that what a ghost looks like…? I don’t actually have a clue, this is the first time I’m seeing one!”

 Hagakure and Kaminari have entered a full-fledged state of panic. Near them, Todoroki is beginning to lose his composure as well. He turns to where Midoriya seems to be standing next to him. “Mi-Midoriya… ice or fire, which one is more effective against ghosts?”

 “Eh? No, I don’t know. I’d never thought about it before. But the ghost seemed to give off a cold, icy aura. So fire would probably be more effective to counter it? … Ah, but wouldn’t a physical attack be useless? Ghosts don’t have corporeal bodies, right?” Midoriya’s voice shakes, but he remains cool-headed and logical in the face of terror.

 Todoroki despairs at his own apparent uselessness. “Shit! Is there anything we can do against it?”

 “It’s too late!” Mineta wails. “Everyone will be cursed and killed. Damn it! There’s no way out; at least I’ll be killed by a beautiful lady–”

The front entrance creaks open. Everyone freezes.

 Illuminated for just a moment by lightning… is long, golden-blond hair. Water droplets trickle down its length and drip onto the ground. The figure approaches them, stepping closer and closer.

 “Hey… you guys––” As if just noticing the students, the figure slowly raises its ghostly visage.

 “It’s the blond-haired ghost!!!!”

 The entire class shrieks as they launch a full-scale attack. If the enemy had been a villain they would’ve had some combat knowledge to bring to the table, but they have neither knowledge nor experience in fighting ghosts. Battle-crazed, the students simply give their all.

 The blond figure is knocked down, its body hitting the ground with a solid thump. At the sound, everyone seems to come back to themselves.

 A moment later, the lights finally flicker back on. The students sigh in relief but they’re still on guard.

 The combination of Bakugou’s explosions, Todoroki’s fire and ice, and Ashido’s acid had produced a lot of smoke. When it eventually dissipates, everyone takes a closer look at the fallen blond wraith.

 “Cl-clearly it’s a ghost, so why didn’t it disappear?” Mineta asks.

 His sticky quirk balls had rendered the ghost motionless, stuck the way it’d fallen. The students carefully edge closer to it, trembling. On the blond figure’s visage there appears to be… a small blond mustache? Its body is slim but well-built.

 “Eh? Not a woman…” Ashido trails off. “He seems strangely familiar, actually.”

 Behind her, Jirou stares intently at the figure. Her face pales. “This blond hair… it’s Mic-sensei!”

 “Eh?…… Ahh!!!” Everyone is shocked. Since they’d always seen Mic-sensei with his hair swept up towards the heavens, they hadn’t recognized him with his hair down. He looks like a completely different person!

 Jirou uses her earphone jack to check Mic-sensei’s pulse. Fortunately he’s only passed out.

 “Did Mic-sensei come here to check on us because of the power outage? Ah, but we did such an unforgivable thing to him…” As the class president, Iida feels responsible for this.

From behind the students, a familiar voice says, “Oi, you guys…”

 Everyone turns towards the sound to where Aizawa-sensei stands behind them. He’d woken up earlier when the students loudly attacked Mic-sensei.

 “Sensei~!” Fear forgotten, the students cluster around Aizawa-sensei.

 “We thought the blond ghost had come to attack us!”

 “Sensei, what did you find earlier? Was it a villain, or a real ghost…?”

 “A white ghost came into the dorms!!”

 The excited students clamor around Aizawa. “Calm down,” he commands. They immediately quiet down – a conditioned reflex.

 Aizawa-sensei first moves Mic’s prone form away from the entrance and out of the rain. Then he begins to slowly walk while peering up at the ceiling, clearly looking for something. Confused, the students follow after him. Jirou alerts the group that she can hear the beeping noise from the nights before. Aizawa nods. He points up at a tiny black speck on the ceiling, enlisting Asui’s help to bring it down.

 “This is why I got knocked out earlier, and is also the source of the strange sounds you guys were hearing.”

 “Eh?”

 “I saw it in the dining hall earlier and tried to stand on the table to reach it, but I stepped on a hidden wash-rag and slipped.”

 “Ah, that’s mine!” Hagakure immediately confesses. “I had to hurry back to my room to make it for roll call and accidentally left it behind!”

 Aizawa raises a questioning eyebrow. “… Well, I’ll let you off this time.” He holds the tiny black object out so that the students can get a good look. Yaoyorozu produces a magnifying glass, and only then can they tell it’s a miniature mechanical device.

 “Speaking of machines I hadn’t seen before… it probably belongs with this.” Aizawa heads towards the dorm baths. At the entrance to the girls’ baths, he places the tiny black gadget next to the anti-peeping device there. The black gadget immediately burrows into the larger device like a worm returning to its nest. “Charging… charging…” it says.

 They should confirm with the creator just to make sure. Aizawa calls up Power Loader, who forwards the call to Hatsume.

 “Ah yes! That’s a super cute device that continuously monitors and inspects the area at night! Since the 1-A dorms seem to have a particularly perverted classmate… who was it again? Eh… well, I forgot his name, but the device only targets him to verify he’s in his own room. Cool, right?”

 “Don’t do unnecessary things!” Mineta is furious. But at least he wasn’t cursed; he’s secretly relieved.

 Kaminari is still uneasy. “But what was the white thing? Everyone saw that, right?”

 “Sorry, it looks like I forgot to close my door.” Kouda bows his head apologetically, his white pet rabbit cradled in his arms. The rabbit seems excited by all the commotion and wiggles around.

 “Hah, what the hell? I really thought it was a ghost.” Kaminari lets out a relieved laugh.

 ** Earlier Yaoyorozu and Ochaco felt something warm and soft running past their feet, and all the students saw a white figure running off.

 Everyone else relaxes. All the mysterious happenings had been explained. They chatter and laugh amongst themselves. Thank god, everything’s fine now!

 “Everything’s fine now…?” Aizawa-sensei’s voice is a low growl, nearly outside the range of human hearing.

 At this, the students finally stop to notice their surroundings. The front entrance looks like it’s been bombed. Doors and windows have been blown away, and the outside storm sends rain and leaves all over the dorm’s ground floor.

 “You guys just moved in a few days ago and it’s already like this? Is it because of the kaidan? You were this terrified by some ghost stories?”

 Dark hair whipped about by the wind, red eyes piercing and cold… at this moment, Aizawa is scarier than any demon.

 “Every one of you will turn in a reflection by tomorrow. From now on, curfew is at 8 o’clock until I decide otherwise. Telling ghost stories is hereby banned in the dorms! Am I clear?”

 “Yessir…”

 Curses are terrifying. Ghosts are terrifying, too. But the students are currently witnessing the most terrifying of them all –– genuinely angry Aizawa-sensei.

.

–– End of Chapter 4, Part Two (Final) ––

(Read Chapter 5)

Additional Notes

Aizawa-sensei is such a protective dad; it’s too precious for words. (Poor Mic though).

In a dark, dark room, dimly flickering candlelight reveals the pale white skulls of deer and men. A few figures can be seen in the circle of candles, as if performing some mystic ritual.

 “… At last, the boy begins to fear for his life. But it’s impossible to turn back now. With trembling feet, he takes step after step in the pitch-black tunnel… now he’s reached the center.

 “A slight, warm breeze tickles the boy’s hair. But how strange! There should be no wind from that direction…”

 At Sero’s forboding tone, Kaminari swallows hard. “W… Why is that?”

 “… Because that end of the tunnel had been closed off the year before, by a landslide. There should be no airflow…”

 Next to Sero, Ashido shifts nervously. “It’s a lie, right…?”

 To the terrified group around him, Sero continues quietly, “The boy stops in his tracks. Something cold and wet drips down onto him. Drip… drip… with no sign of stopping. He fumbles for his flashlight, which he’d turned off earlier to conserve the remaining power. And above him…”

 “… is a mangled, bloodied corpse!”

 “Uwaaaaa!” Mineta shrieks and latches onto Shoji’s arm. He looks a bit like a koala clinging onto a tree. Ashido and Asui hush him impatiently. He’s ruining the atmosphere of the story.

 Still holding onto Shoji for dear life, Mineta protests, “Hey, aren’t you scared? You guys are girls, after all!”

 Sero snorts. “Screaming and hugging people, aren’t you the girl here?”

 “It’s your creepy stories,” Mineta whines. “They’re way too scary! I don’t know why I joined at all!”

 “Probably so you can sneakily hug people,” Asui scolds. “Really, Mineta-chan.” Fortunately though, Mineta is seated between Kaminari and Shoji, not next to any of the girls.

 “Che, it’s all because that busty girl from the Department of Support went and did unnecessary things…!”

 Certain that Mineta would eventually try to sneak into the girl’s baths to peep on them, the Class 1-A girls had taken precautionary measures. They’d asked 1-H’s Hatsume Mei to design something, so Hatsume had created a system to keep Mineta out of the area altogether.

 …

 “Seriously though... can’t you guys do this in someone else’s room?” Sitting apart from the group is Tokoyami. He shifts restlessly on his dark throne.

 “Well, it’s the only room that’s always completely dark in the middle of the day. Also the skulls really add to the spooky atmosphere.” Ashido grins impishly. The skulls are fake, of course, but in the candlelight they look eerily real.

 “I didn’t decorate my room so you guys could enjoy your story times,” Tokoyami mutters darkly.

 “And there are even candles!”

 “For fuck’s sake.”

 “Okay then!” Completely ignoring Tokoyami’s protests, Ashido flashes a winning smile. “I’ll just tell you guys something that will terrify even Tokoyami!”

Meanwhile in Jirou’s room on the 3rd floor, Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, and Hagakure are practicing some music. Because the other three are beginners, they want Jirou to demonstrate first.

 “Eh? Just a little, then,” Jirou concedes. She hesitantly starts to strum her guitar. The other three girls enthusiastically cheer her on. “Eh? Wait, don’t be like this!” Jirou blushes furiously at their applauding and calls for encore. The atmosphere in her room is reminiscent of a live concert!

 On the dorm’s front lawn, Izuku is getting tips and advice from Iida about using his lower body in combat.

 “If you only use your feet, there won’t be enough power and speed to back up the hit. You have to put your whole body behind the kick. Let me show you again.”

 “Yes! Sorry!” Izuku watches Iida’s demonstration with wide eyes, notebook in hand.

 Todoroki catches sight of them as he’s leaving from the dorm’s main entrance. “Hey, you’re practicing?”

 “Ah, Todoroki-kun. Going out?”

 Todoroki visits his mother every weekend, schedule permitting.

 “Have a good trip. Stay safe!” Izuku waves.

 “Tell your mother I said hello,” Iida adds.

 “Sure. I’m off then.” Izuku and Iida watch as Todoroki heads off in the direction of his mother’s hospital room.

 After a moment, the two boys turn their focus back to their special training.

On the 4th floor, Ojiro is training in Kirishima’s room by hitting the punching bag with his tail. Kirishima suggests that he try using his legs as well, but Ojiro ends up knocking down the entire sandbag.

 A few moments later, Kirishima’s door slams open with a bang. “You guys are so loud! Quiet the fuck down!” Bakugou fumes. He lives next door and doesn’t deal with noise well. There’s bound to be some noise since it’s the weekend, though…

Back in Tokoyami’s room on the 2nd floor, Ashido finishes up her ghost story.

 “… The psychic looks around the room. He suddenly jumps back with a shriek. The drawer is full of ghosts! ... Terrifying, isn’t it?”

 Mineta again clutches onto Shoji, but everyone else just blinks. The story would have been pretty scary, but Ashido had told it in a bland manner.

 “To make a scary story even scarier, you need to have your listeners on edge. Use an appropriate tone of voice and make meaningful pauses to build suspense – like I did earlier. The delivery is just as important as the actual story, you know,” Sero advises Ashido (casually sprinkling in some personal endorsement).

 Kaminari agrees. He’d really been terrified earlier by Sero’s story.

 Ashido pouts at the criticism, but suddenly perks up. “Oh right, let’s have Tokoyami tell one too! He definitely has the kind of voice for ghost stories!”

 “True, true,” Kaminari muses. “His usual tone of voice is already spooky and dark.”

 “Just what do you mean by that?” Tokoyami mutters back, disgruntled.

 “I want to hear it too – a story by Tokoyami!”

 “Go, Kaidan Prince!”

 ** 怪谭/怪谈 literally means “strange talk” but refers to ghost stories / supernatural stories in Japanese (“Kaidan”) and Chinese (“Guai Tan”).

 “Tokoyami, you don’t have to tell something super scary. Just a little scary is fine too…”

 Everyone turns to Tokoyami, eyes gleaming with anticipation. Tokoyami shifts uncomfortably but eventually clears his throat and begins to speak.

 “I don’t know if this will be terrifying enough for you guys, but here’s a story my grandfather told me when I was a child…”

“A long, long time ago, the young people of a village began a game of hyakumonogatari.”

 **百物語 (“Hyakumonogatari”), a game from the Edo period in Japan

 (This is a game to play while telling kaidan, or ghost stories. Participants light a hundred candles and settle in for a night of storytelling. After every story, one candle is snuffed out. As legend goes, when the last candle is extinguished, real spirits will be summoned. The game is a great way to amp up the suspenseful atmosphere as everyone tells ghost stories.)

 “In this village, hyakumonogatari was one of few amusements for its younger residents. To make sure they didn’t actually invoke any spirits, they always stopped the game at the 99th story.”

 “One day, a visitor arrived from the city, a woman with long, flowing blond hair. She was travelling the world, and the village was one of her stops along the way.”

 “When she heard of the game, she was eager to try it too. Everyone welcomed her warmly to the group. She listened to the blood-curdling stories without a word. But at some point,”

 “… she began smiling.”

 “The villagers became gradually more and more nervous about the woman. Finally, they finished the 99th story and prepared to stop the game as usual.”

 “Breaking her silence, the blond woman suddenly began the 100th story. The teenagers frantically tried to stop her, to no avail. As the woman finished the story, the final candle went out – untouched. The room was plunged into darkness.”

 “Well, it was just the light going out. Everything was fine. One of the young men quickly lit a new candle…”

 “The woman had vanished.”

 “She wasn’t anywhere nearby. In the morning, the police and villagers searched the area. There wasn’t a single trace of her. The villagers decided she’d probably just gone back home, or perhaps had been taken by a wild beast.”

 “Time passed. The rumors about the woman faded away. Yet one day, a young villager claimed that he’d seen the golden-haired woman.”

 “The villagers wrote him off. He’d clearly been mistaken, even if he’d been there the night of the game. But the next day the man was found dead. Eyes wide, face frozen in an expression of terror, a long blond hair tied around his neck…”

 “On the third day, another person who’d attended the game was found dead. And the next… Finally, all the villagers who’d been at that fateful game of hyakumonogatari had died. A rumor began among the remaining villagers – the blond-haired woman must have been a demon that fed on human souls.”

 ** They think she is an鬼怪 (“onikai”), a demon/ghost/spirit

“Eh? Why is it suddenly a demon?” Sero cuts in.

“You see, there was this legend in the village. Many years ago, there was a happy couple in the village. The wife was pregnant, and everyone was thrilled. But the newborn infant was golden-haired! Suspecting his wife of infidelity, the husband dragged the woman and child out into the mountains to die.”

 “The abandoned wife vowed to get revenge, and left her newborn child in the care of the demons of the  mountain.”

“T-then the blond-haired woman became a demon and returned to the village…?” With growing fear, Ashido clutches Tsuyu’s arm.

 “That’s indeed what the villagers thought,” Tokoyami nods. “But the story isn’t finished.”

“You see, my grandfather heard about this story from his friend, whose family moved away from that very village. When this friend grew up, he went back to visit his hometown. But it’d become a ghost town. According to the neighboring villages, an epidemic had spread throughout the village, killing all the inhabitants.”

 “Whether or not it was really a disease is unclear. But apparently, all the bodies had one thing in common – they were always found with a single strand of long blond hair.”

Tokoyami fixes his terrified audience with a piercing stare, expression unreadable. With a slight incline of his head, he continues.

“I heard later that after coming back from the abandoned village, my grandfather’s friend became more and more strange. Why was he like this? Apparently, a blond-haired woman had appeared while he was visiting, and smiled at him.”

 “Because he’d shared the story with my grandfather, he must have been cursed as well. My grandfather told him it’d probably been a trick of the light, but the friend seemed unconvinced.”

 “A few days later that friend suddenly died. He had a long blond hair around his neck…”

Everyone is petrified with fear. Sero finally manages a shaky smile. He crosses his arms, shivering a little. “Oh boy, if you suddenly remember this in the middle of the night…”

 “… You made up that story, right? Tell me it didn’t really happen!” Kaminari pleads.

 Tokoyami seems unexpectedly distressed. “I really didn’t think you guys would be so freaked out. My apologies. I truly heard this story from my grandfather, but I have no idea if he fabricated the entire thing.”

 After Tokoyami’s story, Mineta is far too terrified to go to the bathroom alone and makes Shoji accompany him.

 That last story had probably been too much. The remaining members decide to end the storytelling and go back to their rooms.

.

–– End of Chapter 4, Part One  ––

(Chapter 4, Part Two)

Additional Notes:

Message me for a link to the Chinese translation (remember, "asks” eat up links). The translator didn’t want her name to be posted publicly but I’ve passed on some thank you messages to her!

The ghost story was difficult to translate, but I did as much research as I could. Let me know if you notice any mistakes.

Tokoyami’s story is over, but that night the real fun begins...?

Next up is Tetsutetsu. When he sticks his sword into the slot, a rod flies out and jabs him. Fortunately, his Steel quirk keeps him safe.

 Kaminari immediately cries, “What, that’s so cunning!”

 Monoma smirks. “What was it you said just a while ago? Ah, right… he can’t do anything about having his quirk?”

 Ojiro, Kendo, Hagakure, Tsunotori, and Ashido take turns as well, facing various penalties.

 A full round has gone down now without any repeated penalties, and none of the filled slots released the pirate head. Everyone stares at the toy, uneasy.

 “Monoma,” Kaminari finally says. “It’s not too late to forfeit.”

 “Hah! Don’t joke. If you guys want to forfeit, just come clean.”

No one wants to back out. But as they continue the game, the penalties become progressively more severe…

 Finally, there are only two slots left. One of these is the winning slot. Everyone holds their breath as Ashido summons up the courage to thrust her sword in.

 A robotic arm reaches out to grab the girl, shaking her around like a ragdoll.

 “You okay?” Yaoyorozu and the others clamor around the now-liberated Ashido.

 Ashido shrugs. It was actually pretty fun, she assures them. A little bit like breakdancing.

 The pirate head is still on the barrel, so the last slot has to be the losing one. And the next turn is Monoma’s…

 “Class A won!” Kaminari gloats.

 “Che.” Monoma eyes the last slot with much apprehension. Everyone jeers at him. “Just hurry up and stick the last sword in!” “Yeah, what are you waiting around for!”

 Monoma retaliates to their prodding. “Is this how real heroes would behave? We’ve clearly lost, so just drop it already. Why are you bullying the defenseless? Are you guys secretly aiming to be villains? Ah, how terrible. To think that the Villain Association’s Army Reserve was right here!”

 “Hah, suddenly changing gears because you don’t want to face the last penalty.” Kaminari won’t have any of it.

 Ojiro shakes his head. “We’ve come this far and you won’t even let us have a clear-cut outcome? Unbelievable.”

 Despite Monoma’s monologuing, everyone knows that he’s just trying to escape… because the final turn will clearly have the worst penalty of them all.

 “Wow. Even after all I said, you guys still want me to do it? Won’t an apology be fine? I – AM – SOR – RY. Alright, shouldn’t that be enough already? Seriously, in this kind of situation Class 1-A really shows their true colors. Have a little heart, would you?”

 “That’s enough from you.” Kendo finally intervenes with a whack, sending Monoma crumpling to the ground.

 Tetsutetsu angrily wrenches the boy back up by his shirt. “Not even a hint of manliness, huh? Really, Monoma.”

 Monoma explodes. “God, you’re all so annoying! I don’t give a fuck what anyone says. I’m not finishing it, and that’s final!”

 Well, those words are sort of manly… in a sense. But with that ultimatum, they’re stuck.

 Finally, Tetsutetsu decides to take the last turn in Monoma’s place.

 They’re playing a game, but the assembled members conduct themselves as seriously as they would in class or during a real crisis. They settle into battle stances, preparing to confront the unknown enemy. Everyone stares at the barrel. They’re ready.

 Steeling his resolve, Tetsutetsu plunges the sword into the final slot. It clicks into place, echoing in the silent room. Everyone holds their breath.

 “...”

 With a crisp crack, the pirate head pops out amidst a colorful stream of confetti. From the barrel, a cheerful recording of Hatsume’s voice shouts “Congratulations!~”

 “… Eh?”

 As everyone stares dumbly at the confetti slowly wafting to the ground, Izuku quickly realizes – Hatsume designed her version of the game so that the person who triggered the pirate head was actually the winner.

 Kaminari and Monoma look moments away from starting up an argument over who won, but Kendo immediately shuts them down. “That’s it for today, then. We’ll head back.”

 After finally seeing off their whirlwind1 neighbors, Class 1-A breathes a collective sigh of relief.

 “Man, it’s not easy to deal with the people around here.”

 “I think it’s just Monoma that’s hard to deal with…”

 No matter what, Class 1-A now has to live with having 1-B as their neighbors. Everyone smiles bitterly. Knowing Monoma, they’ll be back eventually for more.

.

–– End of Chapter 3 ––

(Chapter 4, Part One)

Additional Notes

1 i.e. Monoma and the squad came in and left in a whirlwind

Soon after, Yaoyorozu and Satou return with translucent black tea and delicate cakes for Kendo and the others.

 Tetsutetsu and Tsunotori are amazed that Satou could produce such carefully hand-crafted cakes. Kendo dips her head. “Sorry to trouble you further. Monoma’s remark was out of line.”

 But Yaoyorozu is eager to serve the first guests to ever show up to the Class 1-A dorms and urges them to try everything.

 “Delicious!” “I usually don’t eat sweets, but this is excellent!” “The tea is superb as well!” Kendo, Tetsutetsu, and Tsunotori freely sing their praises.

 Meanwhile, Monoma looks a bit like he’s just swallowed a bug. “Ugh, don’t actually treat us hospitably.” Unable to come up with a single complaint, he glares at the offerings. But his hand reaches out for another cake.

 Still bitter from the 1-B boy’s scathing review earlier, Kaminari leaps at the chance to strike back. “Hah, so even the great Monoma is defeated by Satou’s sweets!”

 “As if I’m going to listen to someone with a room like that!” Monoma retorts.

 Kaminari fumes. “Sounds like your own room must be great, given your impeccable taste. If it’s painfully rustic and boring, I’ll fucking laugh in your face.”

 “Yeah?” Monoma challenges. “And if it’s not?”

 The bet is on. “I’ll boil water with my own electricity and serve you tea with it. No, I’ll heat up all of Class 1-B’s baths!”

 It’s on. Monoma whips out his phone, then shows Kaminari. “This is my room.”

 Kaminari stares at the photo, speechless.

 Ojiro and the others peer over to look as well. The room is silent.

 Hagakure finally manages to find her tongue. “Holy crap! What a European style!” She resumes staring.

 It’s barely recognizable as a dorm room. The walls have been repainted in soothing pastels. The standard dorm furnishings have been replaced with antique white furniture. The soft colors and elegant arrangement of furniture come together in perfect harmony. What a lovely French-style room! Looking at it, the viewers are filled with a sense of detachment and longing. It’s as if they could walk up to the window and be greeted with a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower.

 “So cute,” Hagakure adds after a moment. Beside her, Yaoyorozu concurs. “That’s really a lovely room.”

 The girls clearly love it, and even Kaminari can’t find a single bad thing to say.  

 “So when are you going to come heat up that bath water?” Monoma fixes Kaminari with a beautific smile. “But oh dear, should I worry that you’re going to use your remaining reserves to electrocute us? Ooooh, how scary, how scary –”

 “Enough.” Kendo whacks Monoma extra hard. It seemed the stupid blonde would never change.

“Hey, what is Kendo’s room like?” Hakagure queries.

 Before Kendo can respond, Tsunotori pipes up. “Kendo’s room is super cool! Weathered wooden table, black metal furniture, pictures of motorcycles.”

 Tetsutetsu nods sagely. “Kendo’s room is manlier than all of ours.”

 Embarrassed, Kendo mutters, “Sorry, I can’t really relax if everything is super cute.”

 Hakagure barrels on. “And what about Tsunotori’s room?”

 “My room… Um, it’s like this.” Tsunotori shyly pulls out her phone. The room is filled with anime posters and figurines. “I love Japanese anime, it’s the coolest!”

 “Ah!” Hakagure sounds delighted. “I love that anime too!”

 Tsunotori and Hakagure start chattering animatedly, occasionally shouting out lines from the show.

 On the side, Iida and Todoroki notice Izuku staring intently at the photo of Tsunotori’s room. Iida furrows his brow. “What’s wrong, Midoriya? Your face is so close to the screen!”

 “Your eyes will go bad,” Todoroki chides.

 Ignoring them, Izuku looks up at Tsunotori with starstruck eyes. “This… this is the XXXX All Might figurine, not produced in Japan!”

 “Oh, indeed it is,” Tsunotori verifies. “Of course I also like All Might!”

  “Uwaa, amazing! Even though it’s available, it’d be terribly difficult to get it imported. Um… that is… next time, could you take some close-ups of it…!”

 “Of course!”

 “A-a-a-ah!” Izuku thanks Tsunotori profusely.

Seeing the Class 1-A and 1-B members happily intermingling, Monoma scowls. “We should probably head back. There’s no point staying any longer.”

 (During all this, Monoma has polished off all the tea snacks.)

 But Kaminari and Ojiro block his way to the door. “Hold it right there! You barge into our dorm, insult our rooms, eat all the cake, and now want to leave? You think you can just do whatever you want? Don’t even think about waltzing away like this!”

 “Oh no, I wasn’t degrading anyone!” Monoma replies coolly. “I was just being honest. ‘Tell it like it is’, you know?”

 “You were just being honest?! That’s even more insulting!” Ojiro looks ready to throttle Monoma.

 “Calm down, I never said normalcy was bad. ‘Normal’ is quite important. It’s the standard against which you compare everything else, you know…”

 (The tension mounts. Boys with bruised self-esteem? As dangerous as wounded beasts. Except the wounded beasts are actually kittens.)

 It’s evident that no one is going to drop the matter, and both sides are ready for a confrontation.

 “Hey, hey. What do you guys want to do then? I said I would leave, but you won’t allow that. So now what? You want a decisive winner? A clear decision on which side is the strongest?”

 The 1-A boys, usually strung along by Monoma, finally get the chance to be the ones to ensnare him.

 (The saying is usually ‘a little cute, a hundred times more annoying’ but somehow it seems more like ‘a little annoying, a hundred times more cute’…)

 Watching the events unfold, Kendo makes to separate them. But Monoma and the 1-A boys aren’t listening anymore.

 “Let’s have a showdown! Don’t run away!”

 “We’re the ones who are gonna win, so why would we run?”

 Iida steps forward to stop them, but Monoma won’t let him spoil an opportunity to win again Class 1-A. He quickly cries out the UA motto: “Plus Ultra!”

 Ah, so the competition is to practice and improve themselves. Even outside of class, they’re so devoted! Mollified, Iida stands down.

 Iida taken care of, Monoma continues. “So how will we do this? Whatever method is fine!”

 “Er…” Kaminari looks to Ojiro for help.

 Ojiro blinks, and eventually settles on a hesistant, “Arm wrestling?”

 “Arm wrestling again? Is this revenge for last time? So unimaginative,” Monoma sneers.

 ** This refers to BNHA Light Novel Vol. 2 Chapter 5, where Class 1-A and 1-B have an arm wrestling competition and Monoma sabotages it when it looks like 1-B is going to lose.

 “What about sumo?”

 Monoma sniffs. “Isn’t that along the same line as arm wrestling? Besides, why does it have to be a show of strength? That’s so brutish.”

 “You just said anything goes! But fine, you choose something then!”

 “Don’t just suddenly dump the decision on me! You’re the ones who wouldn’t let me leave and started the fight.”

 “I bet! You’re clearly the one who was trying to antagonize us first. You can’t think of anything either!”

 As they squabble and scramble to come up with something, Todoroki, who had been quietly watching from the sidelines, suddenly goes “Ah!”

 “What’s up, Todoroki-kun?”

 “Well, since no one seems to be able to decide, I do have something.” Todoroki goes up to his room, returning with a barrel-like toy.

 There are many slots along the barrel, but only one results in a pirate head popping up from the top. Everyone takes turns picking a slot to poke their toy sword into, and anyone who gets the pirate head loses. The game resets until there’s only one person left, and they’re the winner.

 ** This is Pop-up Pirate. Todoroki got this toy from Hatsume in Chapter 2

 “Wow, I didn’t expect Todoroki to have this,” Yaoyorozu says.

 “Someone gave it to me,” Todoroki explains.

 “But… was the barrel supposed to be this big?” Ojiro seems to recall the toy from his childhood being able to fit in one hand, but the one before him is as big as a basketball.

 “It’s probably just an advanced edition. Please, let’s just use this…”

 Finally they set the rules for their showdown. 1-A and 1-B will take turns picking slots, and the side that triggers the pirate head loses.

 Since 1-B’s side only has 2 girls and 2 boys present, 1-A has to choose 2 girls and 2 boys to represent themselves too:

Kaminari, who’s bitter about his room being insulted earlier,

Ojiro, who thinks it’ll be fun and wants to participate,

Hakagure, who cheerfully raises her hands,

Ashido, who’d just come out of the bath.

 When they do rock, paper, scissors to decide who will go first, Monoma wins against Kaminari. “Ahahaha, it looks like luck is on the side of Class 1-B!”

 The smug and confident Monoma decides to go first. “Then, let’s start. To the victory of Class 1-B, the first sword!”

He thrusts the sword in. A sudden loud crack… “BZZT ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ”

 Electricity floods into Monoma, who’s quite literally stunned into silence. Everyone stares at this unexpected development.

 “Monoma? Are you okay?!” Tetsutetsu asks, alarmed. “Monoma? Get a hold of yourself!”

“I’m not dead yet.” The frazzled Monoma glares up at Kaminari. “You dare do this, huh?! To think you’d launch a sneak attack… you Class 1-A lot really have some nerve.”

 “Wait, it wasn’t me! Everyone saw, right?”

 Ojiro comes to the rescue, declaring that the electricity had come from the barrel itself. A debate starts up. The pirate head hasn’t popped out so Monoma technically hasn’t lost, but there must have been some tampering that triggered the electrical shock.  As everyone argues, Izuku turns to Todoroki next to him. “Won’t the instruction manual tell us something? Todoroki-kun, do you have a manual?”

 “No.” Todoroki’s response is as curt as always, but even he looks a little shaken. “This is from one of the members of 1-H, the Department of Support. I think her name is Hatsu-something? Because it was something she made, she wanted to know our thoughts after we tried playing it…”

 “… Eh??” Izuku and Iida immediately yell, both having been on the receiving end of Hatsume’s inventions before.

 Todoroki hadn’t anticipated anything like this happening. “I feel pretty bad though, sorry,” he says in a small voice.

 Izuku fears that Hatsume has done some nefarious things to the toy and proposes that they stop the game. Iida wholeheartedly agrees. But Monoma won’t have any of it. “Hahahaha! Are you kidding me? Just for such a trivial matter?”

 Kaminari points out, “But didn’t you get hurt pretty seriously?”

 Monoma aggressively tries to fix his hair as he taunts, “Running away?”

 “!”

 “So Class 1-A is going to back out on a silly game like this? Oh, I’m so sorry! I’ll just declare my win over you weak-hearted lot and let you go. You guys accepted earlier but were ready to bolt at any second, huh? Go on back to your rooms to have a good cry in bed.”

 “As if! The game must go on!” Though everyone is very worried, Kaminari blurts out the response without thinking. Now it’s too late to take the words back.

 Monoma’s provocations have hit their mark. He refuses to be the only victim here – it’s not about the physical pain, but rather the blow to his ego.

 Decision made, everyone agrees to see the game through until the end.

 “Then it’s Class 1-A’s turn,” Monoma proclaims. “Who will be the next victim?”

 “I’ll go.” Kaminari steps forward.

 Monoma protests. “Don’t you have resistance to electricity? Isn’t that a little too cunning?”

 “Hey, it’s not like I can do anything about having this quirk.”

 Come at me, I’ll take whatever you can give! With that thought, Kaminari shoves his sword into the barrel.

 But there’s no electricity this time. Perhaps the toy had just malfunctioned earlier? There’s a short moment of confusion. Then the toy partially transforms, suddenly crushing Kaminari’s extended fingers in a vice grip. He shrieks.

 Before everyone’s eyes, the toy silently returns to its original state.

 “I see!” Izuku blurts. “Hatsume designed this to combine the pirate pop-up game with elements of a batsu game.”

 ** i.e. Japanese punishment game.

 Knowing Hatsume, there’s no way electrocution and pinching are the only two punishments available… But they can’t stop now.

 .

–– End of Chapter 3, Part Two  ––

Chapter 3, Part Three

Additional Notes:

** reference for Class 1-A students

It’s an ordinary day in the 1-A dorms. On the first floor, Kaminari, Ojiro, and Satou hang out and chat in the common area.

 Suddenly, an ear-splitting scream echoes throughout the floor. “Kyaa! A peeping Tom!” It’s Hakagure.

 “Eh, isn’t Mineta also in the baths right now?” If there’s a peeping Tom, it has to be the perverted grapey sex offender. The three boys rush out of the lounge to catch the obvious culprit.

But Mineta is clearly still in the boy’s side of the baths, relaxing in the hot water.

 “Not Mineta!” Hagakure says to the trio. “But for a moment, I definitely saw a creepily smirking face peering in through that window.” Her sleeve points towards the entrance hall window. From her furious and terrified tone, it’s obvious she’s not pulling a prank.

 Kaminari and his friends exchange surprised looks. If it’s not Mineta, the offender can’t be anyone in 1-A, as all the remaining students are inside the dorm. Who would attack Class 1-A? It must be the villains. Tension mounts.

 “What’s happening?” They’re joined by several more inquiring classmates: Izuku, Iida, and Todoroki finally emerge from a long bath, and Kirishima is about to enter to take his own. Upon learning about the situation, everyone agrees that it must be a villainous scheme and the mood grows somber. Iida suggests telling a teacher.

There’s a sudden violent knocking at the door.

It’s too late to find a teacher for help. With a silent exchange of glances, the gathered students encircle the main entrance.

 “Excuse me, who’s there?” Iida calls out nervously in front of the door.

 No response.

 Iida considers the closed door for a moment, then looks back at the group. I’m opening it, then? inquire his eyebrows. Everyone nods, settling into battle stances.

 Iida yanks open the door.

 “Hah? You guys finally get a visitor and you greet them like a villain? You’re Class 1-A alright, already pretending to be heroes!” Doubled-over in laughter (and arguably even more formidable than a real villain) is Class 1-B’s Monoma.

 The 1-A teens watch dumbly as the blonde waltzes into their dorm. “Wait, so the person who was peeping through the window earlier was Monoma-san?”

 “Eh?” Hagakure shoots a curious look at Monoma.

 “Don’t say it like that,” Monoma returns. “I just wanted to check if anyone was home.”

 “… So you’re admitting to peeping?” Monoma shrugs, indifferent to Iida’s accusation.

 They can’t continue down this path. Izuku hastily tries to smooth things over. “So… What brings you here? Did something happen?”

 “Are you saying I need a reason to visit?” Monoma arches an eyebrow.

 “Oh no,” Izuku backtracks. “I didn’t mean anything like that!”

 Monoma decides he’s terrorized Class 1-A enough for now. “Actually, I just came by to inspect your dorms. There might be differences between the 1-A and 1-B dorms, right?”

 Kaminari counters, “Why would they be any different? The dorms were built together.” Besides the main entrances, all the new class dorms appear to be identical.

 But Monoma just laughs. “Have you been to any of the other dorms?” A collective shaking of heads. “So how would you know for sure?”

 “True…” admits Iida.

 Monoma jumps at the opportunity. “So you’ll let me check, right? Right?” Permission thus granted, he eagerly explores the common areas on the first floor. “Let me see the rooms as well,” he commands. With that, he heads towards the boy’s dorms, intent on checking every person’s room.

Unable to stop Monoma, the assembled 1-A members can only trail after him.

During all this, Mineta, Tokoyami, Bakugou, Shoji, Sero, and Koda have been taking their sweet time in the baths. Since they locked their doors, Monoma and the other 1-A teens have to skip their rooms.

 They check out the available rooms on the second floor. Monoma is eager to pronounce his judgment.

  “Otaku!”

 “Ah… well…” Izuku had already suffered through teasing over his room the night he moved in, so he just accepts Monoma’s needling.

 “How dazzling!”

 “Thank you ☆!” Aoyama merely takes Monoma’s barb as a compliment.

 “Aw, this isn’t fun at all.” Monoma appears bored, though he’s the one who wanted to see everyone’s rooms in the first place.

 “The rooms aren’t supposed to be interesting or boring in the first place. They’re fine as long as they’re functional,” Iida counters hotly.

 “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Monoma fires back. “That’s obviously wrong. A bedroom is a very private space, which means it reveals much about the owner. You can tell a lot about a person’s true nature if you see their bedroom!”

 Aoyama nods, gratified. Izuku stammers a bit, face morphing into a complicated expression. “So my true nature is an otaku…?” Despite its modern connotation, ‘otaku’ can also refer to a person who takes something to the extreme, and Izuku has no counter to that. But to say his very essence is otaku seems a bit…

 The rest of the group just looks at Izuku, nodding their heads and voicing their agreement. With his life-long devotion and love for all things heroic, Izuku was already a splendid otaku.

The group then files up to the third floor to check out the rooms of Kaminari, Iida, and Ojiro.

 “Is it my turn?” Kaminari cries. “Lemme show you my room!” He opens his door with a flourish.

 The room showcases a carefully arranged assortment of baubles and knick-knacks. Not an inch of space is wasted; even the walls display things like a skateboard and dartboard. The various lighting appliances seem to be a perfect match for his electrical quirk.

 The 1-A girls hadn’t been impressed when they did room tours the first night, but Kaminari is certain that they just didn’t understand the subtleties of his aesthetic. Monoma seemed to have a good eye for things and would surely appreciate it.

 Alas – “Wow, so cluttered! There’s no room to breathe… not a single empty spot. It’s like you just took everything you found remotely interesting and put them all here. How unrefined!”

 “Ha-a?!” Kaminari is betrayed.

 Monoma breezes on to Iida’s room. There’s the ridiculous spare glasses collection, but beyond that? “Too serious. Not even remotely interesting,” Monoma decides.

 Ojiro’s minimalistic room is next. It’s so ordinary that it’s impossible to be simplified any further. Monoma appears intrigued, though. “Wow, it’s normal to the extent that it’s actually kind of refreshing!”

 “Is it really that ordinary?” On the first night, every girl had pinned Ojiro’s room with the exact same descriptor (‘so normal!’). Ojiro is at a loss.

On to the fourth floor.

  “A guy like you would never understand the manliness of my room!” Kirishima still lets them in. There’s a massive punching bag in the center and hot-blooded motivational slogans plastered on the walls.

 Monoma blinks. He silently whips out his phone, taps at it, and shows a photo to Kirishima. It’s a room with a punching bag, various exercise equipment, and equally hot-blooded motivational posters.

  “My room…?”

  “This is Tetsutetsu’s room.”

  “Even our rooms match…!”

 Monoma waggles his fingers. “But look closely, Tetsutetsu’s curtains are made of a heavy steel!”

  “...... So he can exercise even while drawing the curtains…!” Kirishima is awestruck.

 Monoma leers. “Hah, this is just a hint of the true extent of Class 1-B’s secret efforts! You complacent fools, just keep on daydreaming away in your rooms. Coming over to see your dorms really was an excellent idea. You 1-A members lack all foresight. Someday you’ll kneel at the feet of 1-B – ”

 “You’ll be the one kneeling.” Kendo drops Monoma with her signature karate-chop to the back of his neck. “Really,” the Class 1-B class president admonishes as she hoists up the now-paralyzed boy. Behind her are the serious-faced Tetsutetsu and Tsunotori Pony, the foreign student.

**reference for Class 1-B students

“The hell are you doing, Monoma,” Tetsutetsu scowls.

 “Monoma-san,” Tsunotori chides. “You said you wanted to go see Class 1-A and just ran off. You scared me!”

 After hearing about it from Pony earlier, Kendo had set out for the Class 1-A dorms, intent on dragging Monoma back. It wasn’t much of a trek to the 1-A dorms, but Tetsutetsu still hadn’t wanted the girls to walk around alone at night so he’d joined them.

“Sorry about Monoma causing trouble again,” Kendo says when they reach the first floor lobby.

 Monoma ducks his head. “Slow down there. I wasn’t causing trouble! I simply jumped on this rare opportunity to hunt for Class 1-A’s flaws.”

 “Oi, didn’t you say it was to check if our dorms were different?” Kaminari challenges.

 Monoma’s dastardly plans have finally been revealed. Inspecting the dorm building had been a front, and his real intentions had been to infiltrate and scope out the enemy!

 Kendo’s fist smacks down just as Monoma opens his mouth to respond. “Hmph, you guys finally get some visitors from Class 1-B and don’t even offer them some tea? 1-A really is high-and-mighty.”

 “Ah, I suppose that’s true!” Yaoyorozu heads towards the dorm cafeteria, closely followed by Satou.

 Meanwhile, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu chat excitedly.

 “Using steel curtains to train, how amazing!”

 “You’re the amazing one, Kirishima! It looks like you’ve used that punching bag a lot.”

 The two clasp hands with a grin.

.

–– End of Chapter 3, Part 1 ––

Yaoyorozu, who’d grown up utterly pampered in a palace-like home, was now packing for life in the dorms.

 Her mother eyes the ten packing boxes with some trepidation. “Are you sure you’ve packed enough?” she hedges. “Did you bring a proper tea set? Make sure you have enough to serve the entire class – it’d be terribly awkward if you ran out of cups.” Then, “You did bring some formal attire, I suppose?”

 None of this was necessary for learning at school, so Yaoyorozu obviously had not. “Better safe than sorry!” her mother insists. The house servant agrees, suggesting a few more packing boxes to fill with various luxury items.

 Yaoyorozu contemplates it for a while, but eventually refuses, thanking her mother for her consideration.

 “My daughter is growing up,” cries her mother.

 Yaoyorozu is plied with a dozen boxes of fancy books and bookshelves, a gift from her father. Books are her absolute favorite. Yaoyorozu brushes away the tears that well up. It was time to move forwards to dorm life.

 In mid-August, the students of Class 1-A assemble in front of their brand new home.

The atmosphere is heavy as they file into the dormitory, Aizawa-sensei’s lecture weighing on everyone’s minds**.

 ** See chapter 98 or wiki page for context

Once Aizawa-sensei has finished the building tour and everyone’s received their room assignments, it’s time for the students to unpack and decorate their new rooms. But as Yaoyorozu waits at the elevators with everyone, Aizawa-sensei calls out to her. “Oi, these rooms are too small to fit more than five or six boxes of stuff. Pick out what’s most important and send the rest back.”

 “Eh, really?” Yaoyorozu flounders.

 Meanwhile, the elevator dings at the 5th floor. Todoroki emerges and advances to his new room – only to halt. A small “ah” escapes him, then silence. Finally, in barely a whisper, “No… no tatami?”

Todoroki had already seen from the earlier tour that the rooms were Western in style. But having been raised in a traditional Japanese house, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his living quarters should be the same. Since students weren’t required to use the standard dorm furniture, Todoroki had brought his own.

 “…” After rearranging his furniture for a while, Todoroki peers around the room with a grimace. No matter how he looks at it, the Western room and Japanese furnishings clash horribly. And the veranda… Sure, he’d gotten used to the verandas at school, but to have one in his own room seems terribly wrong. The cloth curtains (in lieu of shoji screens) also make him a bit uneasy.

Todoroki quickly finishes unpacking his sparse belongings. With nothing left to do, he flops onto the (strange Western) bed. He just can’t get used to any of this.

 “From now on, I’ll be falling asleep and waking up here,” Todoroki declares to the room.

 He’d been waiting to escape the ‘care’ of his damned father for years, but hadn’t expected the day to come so soon. The thought of his father brings a stormy expression to Todoroki’s face. He sits up on the bed, shaking his head as if he can forcefully eject his negative thoughts.

 To try to alleviate his sore mood with a bit of fresh air, he opens the window and takes a deep breath. A vast forest stretches out beyond his vision, interspersed with the occasional UA building. But even the magnificent view from the top floor can’t dispel Todoroki’s unhappiness. He turns back to his new room and retrieves a dusty photo album. He tugs out a single faded photograph – his mother, beaming at the unmarred baby Shouto cradled in her arms.

 Before, when Todoroki looked at this photo, he’d be hit with a wave of regret and fear that his mother would never smile the same way again. But no more. Now he knows that his mother is still full of laughter**. The picture soothes his troubled heart.

 ** See wiki page on Todoroki’s mother

 Todoroki is beginning to feel much better when a gust of wind snatches the photo from his hands. The photo drifts out into the forest.

 He rushes out of the dorm. How will he find a single photo in such a huge forest? He scours the ground, the trees, the UA buildings. “Where the hell did it go,” he mutters, a frown etching itself back onto his face. In the distance, he suddenly hears a mechanical clanging.

 “?!” Out of nowhere, a small object comes hurtling into Todoroki’s (hastily-raised) wall of ice and falls to the ground with a thunk. It appears to be a large fist-sized gadget of sorts. “The hell is this?”

 “That’s my baby!” a feminine voice retorts back. Ah, it’s the inventor girl from the Department of Support. Her performance in the UA Sports Festival had certainly been something. Not wanting to face the same fate as Iida, he offers the handful of machinery back to her.  

 **bold = originally in English

** See wiki page for Hatsume Mei

 Hatsume thanks him with a brilliant smile. She’s about to go off on one of her advertising spiels when one of her inventions zips by. A few others zigzag about in the distance.

 “My baby! Wait up!” In the blink of an eye, Hatsume vanishes from view to chase down her precious machines.

 “Hold up, there’s one over there too,” Todoroki points out. It’s finally dawned on him that she’s referring to her inventions.

 “Help me catch it!” Hatsume yells over her shoulder.

 “… Hah? Oi!” But his cries are lost to the wind. Todoroki flounders a bit, stunned.

 Your machinery may be very important to you, but I’m also looking for something precious to me, Todoroki gripes. An especially strong gust sends a flurry of leaves up. His anxiety spirals up as well. In the time he’d wasted just now, the photo could have flown off even further.

 He sends a wall of ice in the direction of the machines to freeze them in place. That settles that. He heads off to resume looking for the photo.

 But more clanging and whirring reaches his ears. Are there more gadgets out there? Todoroki is at a loss.

Suddenly, Todoroki recalls Iida’s response to the Bakugou Rescue Squad. Though Iida hadn’t agreed with the group’s reasoning, he’d joined to make sure he could watch over and protect everyone.**

 ** See Hideout Raid arc – Summary – Infiltration Preparation

 Iida is a serious student and responsible class president. Had Iida been placed in this position, he wouldn’t hesitate to lend a helping hand. And as a prospective hero, Todoroki obviously can’t turn down a person in need. He turns back towards the machine whirring. Though the lost photo is dear to him, he take the time to freeze the other gadgets.

 (Oblivious to the events outside, Iida is in his room, organizing his book collection.)

  Finally, Todoroki captures the last gadget. Some belated introductions are exchanged. Hatsume sheepishly admits that she’d tripped and triggered the power switch for the gadgets earlier, when she’d been unpacking her own room.

 “Did you really make all of these?” Todoroki is rather awed. “Amazing!”

 Fluffed up with pride, Hatsume restarts her earlier spiel on her inventions.

 Todoroki listens with half an ear. “Is this all of the machines?” he suddenly interrupts.

 It turns out they’re missing one. This particular invention is barely the size of a prune, but weighs a ton. It’s designed to latch onto villains so they can’t escape under the added weight, Hatsume explains.

 “Well, if it’s that heavy it can’t have gone far, right?” Todoroki offers hopefully.

 “I’ll look around, then!” Hatsume agrees. “My quirk is ‘Zoom’, so I can see objects up to 5 kilometers away!”

 “I’ll check any blind spots,” Todoroki decides. He heads off. Then he backtracks. “Hey, if you see a photograph with that ‘Zoom’ of yours, can you let me know?”

 “A photo? Ah,” Hatsume’s eyes light up in understanding. “So you were looking for something! Sure!”

 A voice suddenly cuts into their conversation. “Hey, what are you youngsters doing out here? Shouldn’t you be unpacking right now?” It’s Recovery Girl, who’s out for a stroll.

 Hatsume explains the situation, and Recovery Girl offers to look over Hatsume’s blind spots with Todoroki. But after they peer into the nearby nooks and crannies and decide to move on, Recovery Girl trips over some tree roots. Todoroki rushes to catch her, but she rights herself.

 Noticing Todoroki’s outstretched arms, she smiles warmly at him. “You wanted to help me? Thank you, young man!” She adds, good-naturedly, “I trip rather often anyways though, since I’m getting old.”

 Recovery Girl considers Todoroki for a moment. “Really, Endeavor’s son is already this grown up!”

 “Ah…” Todoroki scowls at the mention of his father’s name. This goes unnoticed by Recovery Girl, who begins rambling about the Endeavor as a student, and his aspirations to be the greatest hero.

 But all Todoroki could hear was that terrible, hated rumbling voice, “In my place, to fulfill my dreams, you will surpass All Might to become the greatest hero.”

 “I don’t want to hear about that guy,” Todoroki cuts in. Recovery Girl is immediately apologetic.

  An alarm goes off, coming from the direction of the road. Recovery Girl heads over to assess the situation, while Todoroki heads deeper into the forest.

 He stumbles over something. It’s a prune-sized machine. Todoroki gives it a tentative tug. It’s quite heavy. Well, this is definitely the right one.

 Todoroki yells out that he’s found the gadget. The sound is buried under a sudden cacophony of mechanical clanging.

 It appears that one of the gadgets has captured Recovery Girl in some steel rope. Hatsume speculates that some of the circuitry must have been damaged when the gadget fell, and it mistakenly set Recovery Girl as a target.

 Recovery Girl had tried to evade the machine earlier, but she’d tripped again, allowing the rope to snag her.

 Todoroki valiantly attempts to free her. Unfortunately, he gets tied up as well. Now dangling together with Recovery Girl, escape attempt thoroughly botched, he apologizes profusely.

  (read Aitai’s Japanese > English translation of the following scene here and here)

 Kirishima Eijiro. Todoroki hadn’t ever really spoken to the boy before they’d teamed up to save Bakugou. But they’d shared the frustration of having the League of Villains snatch away Bakugou in front of their noses. For Kirishima to have his dear friend whisked away, without getting the chance to do anything about it – well, Todoroki could certainly empathize. This frustration was what drove the students to form the Bakugou Rescue Squad, anyways.

 In the current situation? Kirishima would probably act according to instinct, complete with a ‘manly’ desire to help others…

 As it turns out, Kirishima is presently on the 4th floor, helping his next-door-neighbor Bakugou unpack. One of Bakugou’s boxes had gotten mixed in with Kirishima’s luggage earlier. When Kirishima dropped off the box, he’d decided he might as well help out.

 “Hey Bakugou, what’s this stick?” Kirishima inquires. “Some weapon?”

 “That’s for mountain climbing, dumbass.” Bakugou snaps. “Why are you such a pain in the ass? Go the hell back to your own room.”

 At Bakugou’s scrunched-up scowl, Kirishima just laughs, unfazed. “Hey now. Two is better than one, right? When we’re done with your room, let’s head over to sort out my room too!”

  “I bet, you lazy ass! You’re just slowing me down!” Bakugou doesn’t put any real weight behind his harsh words.

 Rescuer and the rescued. The breeze drifting in through their new home scatters the vestiges of unfamiliarity between the two.

   Todoroki attempts to break the ropes. Unfortunately, the more he struggles against the unyielding steel, the higher he and Recovery Girl get hoisted up by the ropes. Hatsume’s remote control isn’t working either.

 “Damn… in a time like this… if only Yaoyorozu was around!”

 Like Iida, Yaoyorozu had also disapproved of the Bakugou Rescue Squad, but had joined them to make sure no one would engage in combat.

 With her ability to stay cool-headed in any situation and her superior knowledge and strategizing – if it was Yaoyorozu, she’d definitely be able to come up with a solution!

  Meanwhile, Yaoyorozu is still on the 1st floor trying to cut down on her luggage.

 “Silverware… it can go.”

“For paintings, just one will suffice.”

“Shoes… three pairs is enough, right? Ah, but I really need a pair of heels. There’s just no room! I’ll just have to go with the bare minimum for everything. Screw it, one pair of shoes it is.”

  Todoroki racks his brain for ideas. He could possibly use either side of his quirk to deal with the rope, but Recovery Girl could get seriously hurt in the crossfire.

 “Well, I guess I’ll just have to dismantle the machine,” Hatsume finally says, defeated. “I’ll go fetch some tools from the workshop!” But as she turns to leave, the two captured begin flailing about violently.

 The offending machine – unwilling passengers and all – begins to roll away, along the road. Hatsume makes to send her other gadgets after it, which is totally ineffective and nearly gets her caught as well.

 “Oi, don’t mess around,” warns Todoroki.

 “Go call a teacher,” Recovery Girl decides. Meanwhile, Todoroki’s getting swung about. He eyes something ahead with trepidation. The gadget is approaching a large, deep pit, one that was used by the second-years for practice. And now they’re on track to go tumbling into a bottomless chasm. If they fall in with the huge machine, it can only end in tragedy.

 Todoroki can no longer conceal his anxiety. The machine is still making for the pit with speed. There’s no time to call for help. Should he take a chance with his quirk? No, but… What to do?

 As he becomes increasingly panicked, the face of his friend comes to mind. Even in a life-or-death situation like this, Midoriya would never give up! Todoroki recalls when they’d tried to save Bakugou while All Might and All for One were fighting.  Though there had seemed to be no way to get to Bakugou, Midoriya had come up with a way to succeed.

 Todoroki regrets that his own deep-seated, long-standing hatred against his father had caused him to lash out at Midoriya, his friend.

  On the 2nd floor, Midoriya is quite upset. Over what? The order of his All Might figurines, of course. Disregarding daily necessities, All Might paraphernalia had taken up a good half of Izuku’s luggage. Position, order, and angle all must be considered…

  Todoroki is still desperately trying to figure out what Midoriya would do in this situation. Finally, he comes up with something. He yells out to Hatsume, “Toss the heavy prune gadget to me!”

 “Hah?” Though confused, Hatsume retrieves the small gadget. “Wait! Do you really want me to throw this over?!”

 “Yes,” Todoroki confirms. “Aim for my mouth!”

 Using ‘Zoom’, Hatsume lines up and (nervously) sends the gadget sailing over.

 Todoroki catches it with his teeth and swings his body to the side. The altered center of gravity makes one end of the machine lift up. The machine attempts to advance with a single set of wheels and eventually topples over, precariously close to the edge of the pit. Todoroki dives under Recovery Girl to cushion her fall onto the road.

 “Whew, that was close!”

 Todoroki just winces at the weight in his mouth, still pinned under Recovery Girl.

 The runaway machine finally shuts down after some loud clattering and Hatsume rushes over to check over the finally freed hostages. Todoroki finally spits out the small gadget and confirms that he’s fine.

 “I’m okay as well,” Recovery Girl concedes.

 “Great!” Hatsume beams. “And using the weight of the heavy prune gadget to unbalance the runaway machine was brilliant! What valuable data!”

 “Can we get these ropes off first?” Todoroki asks dryly.

 So Hatsume runs off to the workshop to fetch some tools, returning with Power Loader. Finally, they sever the steel ropes and free Todoroki and Recovery Girl. Power Loader immediately begins chastising Hatsume.

 ** See wiki page on Power Loader

 “Oh right!” Hatsume, who had been quietly been nodding along to Power Loader’s berating, suddenly reaches into her pocket. “I found this in a tree on my way back. Is this what you were looking for?”

 It’s the photograph of Todoroki and his mother. A brilliant smile stretches across his face, and he thanks Hatsume profusely. She rummages in her pile of machinery until she emerges, triumphant.

 She offers a strangely familiar basketball-sized barrel as a gift to Todoroki. “Let me know what you think after you’ve played with your friends!” Hatsume and Power Loader then start on the task of moving away all the machinery.

 Recovery Girl is about to address Todoroki when she notices a gash on his cheek. When Todoroki had dived under Recovery Girl to cushion her fall, he’d ended up scraping his face on the ground.

 She fixes him up with her quirk and pulls out some candy. “Here’s some soft candy, eat up! Thank you for saving me. Hard-working children get more rewards!”

 “It’s nothing.” Todoroki ducks his head, accepting the considerable pile of candy. “Any of my friends would have done the same.”

 Todoroki startles a bit. Just a while ago, these sorts of thoughts would have never entered his mind. But he acknowledges and accepts the changes to his mindset as personal growth.

 Coming to UA had been really good for him.

 At Todoroki’s gentle expression, Recovery Girl cheerfully responds, “True, true. You and all your classmates are working hard. It’s true now, and it was true in the past. Not a single person is slacking off. But to occasionally recognize and applaud your own efforts? That’s perfectly okay!”

“Okay.” Todoroki puts a piece of the candy into his mouth. … Did my father also work hard at UA? He shakes his head to banish the thought.

 Recovery Girl asks how moving into the dorms is going. Todoroki recalls his strange new room. He just can’t seem to get used to it.

 Upon hearing this, Recovery Girl drags him off to the off-campus junkyard. “I think I have just the thing for you!”

 When they get there, Todoroki’s eyes light up. In the corner are some apparently brand-new tatami mats, shoji, and traditional furniture!

 “Even though these were used for a class, no one will mind if you take them. I’ll contact the teacher to let them know,” Recovery Girl reassures.

 “You have my heartfelt thanks.” Todoroki bows and sees Recovery Girl off, then returns to the dorms. What a day. He lets a deep sigh of relief escape him.

 He’s opening the brand new doors to his dorm room – in a brand new chapter of his life. Though there are some things he won’t be used to, Todoroki is certain it’ll be okay if it’s at UA.

 Now, time to start remodeling! He rolls up his sleeves.

.

–– End of Chapter 2 ––

Chapter 3, Part One

Hoping to better his relationship with Aizawa-sensei (despite their strong differences in personality), All Might strikes up a conversation. Unfortunately, Aizawa's responses are curt, and the atmosphere remains awkward. Though All Might can’t partake in alcohol himself, he plies Aizawa with drinks in the hopes that the man will relax and open up to him. Yet Aizawa, despite quietly finishing off several drinks, appears totally unaffected! Perhaps Aizawa has been accidentally drinking All Might’s own non-alcoholic beers? All Might despairs, but suddenly remembers Midoriya and the vow he’d made to himself on his home visit – to protect the boy and his dreams. Now he’s even more determined to better his relationship with Aizawa, who’s also a mentor for Midoriya.

“Aizawa-san,” All Might begins, “I’d like to ask you something. Can you tell me about the mindset of a teacher, or tips for teaching, or something to that effect? I’m still very new to teaching, after all.”

 All Might had hoped to kill two birds with one stone: become closer to Aizawa while also gaining some insight on teaching. But the silence stretches out awkwardly, Aizawa scratching his head.

 Finally, Aizawa replies. “If some secret teaching method existed, I’d ask for it myself. Personality, home environment, personal growth rate are totally different among the students. If there was a universal way to successfully mentor everyone, we’d live in a world with no villains at all.”

 “Well said,” All Might mumbles, abashed. The conversation lulls.

Mulling over Aizawa’s words, All Might muses that youths nowadays were growing at an almost alarming rate. It felt like just yesterday the Young Midoriya had been chasing after All Might’s shadow, but now the boy was hurtling forwards all on his own.

 Aizawa, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly chides All Might for favoring Midoriya too much.

 All Might is eager to restart the conversation, but Aizawa’s phone suddenly rings.

 It’s Present Mic, who’d called to let Aizawa know that he’d be over in 5 minutes once the secret meeting was over, and wanted Aizawa to save a spot for him.

 Mic and Aizawa have a great relationship, despite their stark differences in personality. How did they become friends in their school years, All Might asks? Mic cheerfully exposes Aizawa’s student life.

 “Aizawa in his school years?” Mic snickers. “He’d always doze off as soon as class ended. He’d never do anything beyond the bare requirements. For a while, his nickname was ‘Energy-Saver’.”

 Aizawa shoots him a warning glare. But All Might looks surprisingly interested, so Mic continues. “First he was ‘Sleeping Prince of Relaxation’, which got shortened to ‘Sleep Prince’, and eventually became ‘The Master of Sleep’.”

  “Stop saying unnecessary things.” Aizawa puts Mic in a firm chokehold. “It’s impossible to get this guy to shut up any other way,” he says to All Might’s dubious look.

Thirteen and Midnight suddenly come bustling in. Mic immediately complains to Midnight that he’s being bullied, but Midnight scoffs – Mic had clearly been shooting off his mouth again, and could only blame himself for his suffering. In the end, Thirteen kindly comes to Mic’s defense, imploring Aizawa to let him go.

 Midnight settles in next to Mic, and Thirteen takes a seat by All Might. Since All Might coming out for drinks was a rare occurrence, Thirteen passes up on his usual tea and orders some alcohol as well. Midnight, who can hold her alcohol, picks something extra strong for tonight.

 “Time to get wasted!” Midnight yells at Mic. “I’ll positively drown you in alcohol.”

 “Do it,” Aizawa agrees.

 Mic gasps. “Oi - my friend! How could you betray your own friend like this? Oh my friend! I was the one who gave you your hero name! I made you! You wouldn’t be a cool hero without me!”

 **bold = originally in English

 “If my hero name means I have to be nice to you, I might as well change it,” Aizawa retorts.

 “…”

“… So you’ll switch to Energy-Saver?”

 “Shut it.”

**Add-On 2--> Missing scene **Add-On 3--> Nickname mistake and missing line

Meanwhile, Thirteen and All Might are chatting animatedly about the Yaku cedar, a shared interest. But being too excited makes Thirteen’s body heat up, which makes him thirsty, which means he drinks even more! Thirteen finishes off his drink. All Might warily eyes the now-tipsy Thirteen and advises him to have some water. Thirteen immediately goes off on a spiel about the delights of water.

 On the other side, Midnight has mixed together a terrifying concoction of alcohol and cajoles Mic into tasting it. He grimaces, for once speechless, after she forces him to take a huge gulp of the monstrosity. All Might looks on, a bit horrified. “A drink that tastes so bad that even Mic shuts up? How scary! It’s a good thing I can’t drink.”

All Might sweeps his gaze over the high-spirited bunch – with the exception of Aizawa, who still appears perfectly sober. Feeling rather out of place and not wanting to be a bother, he decides to head back home. As he attempts to quietly sneak away, Aizawa grabs his hand.

 After letting go, Aizawa scratches his head. “Stay a while longer, okay?”

 “Um,” All Might flounders a bit. “But…”

 “There’s something I need to tell you today,” Aizawa presses on.

 “Oh. What is it?” All Might concedes.

 All Might is expecting Aizawa to tell him off again, perhaps tell him he’s not qualified to be a teacher.

 “Because you fought out there, I can continue to protect my students. So… thank you.”

 ** This refers to the Hideout Raid Arc. Summary

All Might feels a rush of warmth in his chest. Finally, he and Aizawa are getting closer. There’s just one thing, though…

“Aizawa… that’s the Buddha…”

The whole time, Aizawa has been talking to the Buddha statue behind All Might.

“What are you going on about? I’m being serious,” Aizawa insists.

“No, we’re all pretty certain that’s a Buddha statue.”

“Aizawa’s quite drunk,” Mic confirms wryly. “He’s the sort of drunk that doesn’t remember a single thing the day after.”

When you don’t recall ever getting drunk, that means you just don’t remember all the times you’ve been drunk, All Might speculates.

 But since Aizawa already roped him into staying longer, All Might can only sit back down. It’s rather difficult for him to fit into the group, since this is the first time he’s been out for drinks. And for some reason Thirteen’s called up some other teachers to join them.

** Add-On 1--> Alternate translation of above scene

** (2/15/2018) “Buddha statue” should’ve been "Daruma figure” 

Once the other teachers are thrown into the mix, it truly becomes a shitshow. People are crying, people are singing, people are arguing (Aizawa and the Class-B homeroom teacher compare their students), people are puking (Thirteen).

 All Might, the only sober one, just wants to go home. To collect his thoughts and give himself a breather, he escapes to the restroom. As he’s pondering whether or not he should just up and leave, Mic comes into the restroom as well.

 “Everyone usually gets this wasted, huh? It’s a little scary…” All Might ventures.

 Mic blinks. “Usually?”

 “Eh?” All Might responds, “Isn’t this the usual behavior?”

 “Oh no,” Mic laughs. “Today is totally out of the ordinary! The people who usually don’t drink are making an exception, and the people who do drink are going especially hard.”

 Seeing All Might’s incredulous look, Mic smiles gently at him. “We get the chance to drink with the hero of heroes, All Might! Even among heroes, we all look up to you. Of course we’re celebrating the occasion.”

 All Might stands in the bathroom for a few long moments, astounded. Finally, he heads back towards the others. Hesitating in the hallway, he peeks at everyone else. They wouldn’t actually notice if he was gone, right?

 “Hold up, where did All Might go?”

 “Isn’t he right here?”

 “Aizawa, that’s the Buddha.”

 “Eh? He didn’t head out, did he?”

 And so All Might returns to the rowdy group. He’s immediately accosted by his colleagues, who quickly encircle him and welcome him back.

 With the exception of Aizawa, who scoffs. “I told you All Might was right here.”

 Someone, in their flailing, knocks over the Buddha statue.

 “Ah!” Aizawa cries. “All Might has fallen over?!”

 “Seriously, that’s the Buddha.”

 The other teachers, completely drunk and all vying for his attention, finally drag All Might back to his seat.

 Seriously... for real… I’m never going out for drinks again! All Might swears fervently.

 -- End of Chapter 1 --

Chapter 2

Later Edits:

Add-On 1--> Alternate translation: Aizawa and All Might have a heart-to-heart

Add-On 2--> Missing line: Aizawa never gets drunk...

Add-On 3--> Energy-saver Shou-chan nickname correction + missing line & Add-On 3 correction

(3/5/2018) Add-On 4--> Missing scenes: (1) Awkward conversation between Aizawa and All Might, (2) Midnight offers Aizawa a drink, (3) Aizawa and Blood King argue over students

2/15/2018--> the Buddha statue is specifically a Daruma doll. You can see this in Japanese fanart for the chapter (e.g. here, here, and here) and explained in Japanese in a tweet by azxxxxxxx. Terribly sorry, this was my mistake!

Extra manga context for the last section

Full Light Novel Vol. 3 Translations Masterlist