For a while, the silence began to settle in. And a person usually say, silence is the moment when people reflect on things. And he was right. Having nothing to talk about, he began biting himself again. People had been gentle to him about it, but he was still trying to digest the morality of his actions earlier on. People said he was smart, but still, survivor's guilt. In the end, he did assist in the rescue and relief of those Shadow Clan guys, but there may be still be people who judge him on one particular action rather than the outcome in general. He himself included.

He was crossing his arms in thoughts when his buddy called for him. He was...right. Acion had forgotten. He wasn't the only one reflecting upon himself and his strong morals. All of his friends were also having to deal with victimization, having to deal with something even greater than he did. And yet he was only caring about himself. He was a little too shallow here. In the end, it was them that he should continue to care about.

"While there is a reason why I can be happy for you, I'm not letting that happen."

With that said, he left the room before Roy. The moment his giant silhouette walked through the door, the three heroes, who were sitting and chatting among each other turned their attention. His older sister took to the steps, standing up and walking towards him.

"So how are your friends?" She asked.

"They're good. I guess they are still trying to get over what they had been through, but they look ok." He replied. "At least they aren't blaming me."

"Good for you. I hope you aren't going over it too much. Like how you did last time."

"I won't." He did his best giving a reassuring smile. Then, after noticing Roy walking back to his room, he suddenly remembered Takeshi, who probably was still under treatment. "I should check up on him too."

"Him? Oh, that guy?" Aurelia said. "Allow me to accompany. I owe him a favor."

"Owe?"

"He did theoretically save my life one moment." She replied, as the three others were a little surprised. "So I should make sure he is alright."

"Sure. It shouldn't be a problem." Acion answered as they both continued. But Acion was then called for again, as he halted in his tracks.

"Hey man." It was Albert. "It's getting a little late now. We'll be needed back in the city. So we'll be going." He stated before scrambling his hand in his pocket. "But I guess you should get this." He took out a small badge made of plastic, shaped like a spread pair of wings, and placed it on the young trainee's palm. "You can use it as reference to today's volunteering. It's mine, but I can always get another one."

"Good work today everyone. I'll see you later." The dragon-girl, Forte, gave a wave before leaving along with Albert.

Left alone, with his sister next to him, he looked at the badge he was given. A recognition. It was something to be said. Something that he was still trying to comprehend, but to some certain someone out there, he was recognized and commended. Perhaps with this, he should be patting himself on the shoulder instead.

"Let's go then." Acion said as the siblings entered Takeshi and Roy's hospital room, treading quietly as they approached.

@pkken@Aerandir

"Either you're so dumb that you've become numb to pain or your quirk isn't simply High-speed regeneration...but. Whatever your quirk may be, I want to see whether or not you can really comeback from my 'black hole'."

Toru had shrunk under Amane's threat. He had no longer been wearing the almost-tired expression he'd probably become known for later on. In its place was clear discomfort and perhaps a little disgust. He might have even been sweating a little bit. Toru had not been able to say anything back to the man as he left, and had stood there, rather silent, until the guy departed. And once he had? Toru had calmed down, and even sighed in relief.

...now that I think about it, he was probably referring to his Quirk. Black hole? Yeah, that makes much more sense than...

It seemed some sort of misunderstanding was the source of Toru's reaction, not intimidation. At least, not the kind Amane was probably intending. Either way, Toru'd perhaps be just a bit cautious around that individual on the offchance that his proposition was not a test of Quirks.

Toru left the Nurse's Office.

...

...

...

Given the strange cast of people he'd met in only a very short time of escaping confinement, Toru decided he would attempt to retire for the night. He met with some member of the staff, and after only a couple of minutes, he was allowed to leave and told where he was going to be staying. If he had to guess, the school was informed about his habits and they were either okay with it or they were going to surprise him tomorrow with some sort of punishment. He didn't care either way as he was mentally exhausted. He was really good at giving people shit, but wasn't exactly the best at taking it, so today was fairly stressful. And the only time his attempts at a prank really worked, it had been in a way that sorta backfired on him.

Yeah, screw today.

Toru found his way to the dorm lobby, where he discovered two people chatting up a storm. One of them did not seem to be in the best of shape. Is this why nobody cared about my arm? Damn this school already! Gonna have to get pretty creative at this rate. His bitter thoughts remained in his head though. He gave each of the students a quick glance before passing by them, headed towards the room he'd be staying at. He was rather fortunate to have bothered to check in with the school, otherwise, he'd be headed towards the wrong room. Apparently, they'd changed where he'd be spending his nights due to some complication or another. He just hoped he could sleep in peace.

Toru entered his room and looked around. It wasn't anything special, but given that he'd been stuck in a locker for a week, he was certainly anything but ungrateful.

As her two unexpected companions had begun conversing amongst themselves, Asuka had obligingly remained silent. Having to be so passive all the time was, to be sure, mildly infuriating. She thrived on conversation, on being the center of everyone's attention and directing the flow of the talk how she wanted. And yet, time and time again, all she could do was stand around staring at her phone and pretending to be engrossed by nothing in particular, zoning out from conversations in which she was not welcome.

It was, of course, to be expected. After all, these kids were all heroes in training. It made sense that their concerns and interests - and thus, their topics of conversation - would be completely different from those in which she could readily participate. Still, hearing nothing but talk of training and martial arts couldn't but grate on her nerves after a while. It was just like listening to her own big sister and Harukaze. It was always the same stupid stuff, rehashed over and over again, how such and such hero was cool, or how they'd done such and such training in such and such way at such and such time. While she knew Kasuke wasn't as socially stunted as her sister, she wasn't so sure about the rest of the kids at this school. Couldn't they talk about normal stuff at all? Like what new TV show had just come out, or where they wanted to go shopping and what they wanted to buy, or what music they had been listening to, or the stupid thing their brother's friend's cousin had shown them, or... or something, anything - literally anything other than just fighting, nonstop, 24/7!

Thankfully, she was distracted from one frustration by another. Her sister walked into the room and, as expected, ignored her presence completely in order to strike up a conversation with her cute friend. Of course, the thing she immediately latched onto was his injuries, just as she had expected. With those unfair eyes of hers, of course that'd be the first thing she noticed. And, playing her part with gusto, of course she'd immediately act all worried over him, and then would probably pretend to be impressed when he passed off his injuries like they were nothing, and say something like "You're so cool!" in that dumb, airy way she always did. Her sister had become such a master of sliding her way into people's good opinions by feeding their egos that Asuka was almost inclined to be jealous. No, she would most certainly have been jealous, if the prideless, airheaded way in which she acted to do it wasn't so insulting to her. And of course, everyone just bent over backwards to accommodate her, giving her exactly the attention she wanted, the attention that she hadn't been able to get anywhere else.

...Her thoughts had just turned in a very unpleasant direction again. Asuka sighed. Staying to watch this would only make her question herself and her plans. When Kasuke declared her own intentions to leave, the green-eyed blonde was all too willing to join her.

"Hmm... I suppose I should go, too. I need to tell Harukaze, now that I've found my sister." She returned the rather pointed look Kasuke had sent her way, and gave a slight grin. "It should be alright. I don't think she'll be going anywhere for a while, so I can probably afford to leave these two alone." Giving a slight chuckle, she motioned her friend towards the door, but was unable to resist glancing back over her shoulder and giving one final parting remark.

"Do take care of my sister for me, Yoshida-san," She suggested, so innocently that she could only be teasing. "She can be a bit oblivious sometimes, so be sure she doesn't wander off with anyone else.~" She gave a slight giggle. "Before I come back, that is," She added, so naturally that of course, that was the only thing she could have been talking about.

She turned and headed out the door, holding it open for Kasuke to follow after her, all the while shooting her new friend - and, if her own efforts to depart quickly were any indicator, probable accomplice - another sly grin.

@Silver Carrot

---

Fumika's frown of worry softened slightly at his words, but never quite went away, even as he continued with his explanation. He couldn't tell her? Why? That didn't make sense. People only kept secrets when the truth would cause them difficulties. Then did that mean that if the story of how he'd been hurt got out, Yoshida would be in trouble? But why? It still didn't make sense. He was a nice person. He wouldn't do anything bad that would get him into a situation like that. There must have been some kind of mistake. But then why else wouldn't he tell her? Maybe because if she knew, it would put her in danger? That seemed more like him... so much more like him, in fact, that it seemed almost certain to be the case. But then in that case, didn't this all seem really dangerous? What kind of trouble had he gotten himself into? He'd been fighting someone... someone who even he couldn't beat. What was he trying to protect her from? Just like that, her worries only increased, but, as he'd already firmly stated that he couldn't tell her, she couldn't even find anything to say to give voice to them.

Even so, he seemed happy. But the longer he spoke, the more Fumika realized that his words were all wrong. What did he mean, saying that he wasn't great? This was the same Yoshida who had so eagerly encouraged her on the first day of classes, who had worked so hard to become a Hero, who was so much faster and stronger than her! Of course that wasn't true... But like always, he moved so fast. Before she could even say anything or try to encourage him, he had already moved to asking how she had been.

She opened her mouth to answer, but slowly came to the realization that there really wasn't much to say. She had kept training, had done her homework, and had done her best in the battle exercises for Hero class. She'd even managed to make some decent progress on her Quirk Applications report. But that wouldn't really matter to Yoshida, would it? In that case, herself... But what had she done aside from that? She'd spent some time with Haruka whenever she visited... and she'd been trying really hard to get along with her new roommate... But all of that wasn't really important either. After all, nobody ever really cared about what she did or thought. It wasn't at all interesting or special. Talking about herself would only bore him, so why had he asked? And yet, he had asked, which meant she'd have to answer.

"I've been fine," She responded curtly. She wasn't lying. Well, maybe... Technically speaking, she had gotten hurt a bit in the last exercise. But that was to be expected, and her wounds had all healed very quickly. So then why did she feel like she wasn't telling the truth? Why was it that her chest felt so tight? She had wanted to see him, but now that he was here, just talking was difficult. It didn't make any sense at all.

She wanted to say something, anything, so forced herself to continue a little further. She tried to think of it as talking to herself rather than to someone else, hoping it would help her focus and find the right words, but even then, she didn't really know what to say, and so jumped haphazardly from one thought to the next. "I worked hard in training, but I still lost. My teammates were very nice, though, and didn't get angry with me even when I slowed them down. Well, one of them wasn't actually nice. He was your replacement. He saved me from falling, but then he dropped me on the ground, and during the fight he apparently hurt a bunch of people. I haven't seen him since then, but I think I dislike him. He's very strong, but he's not nearly as cool as Yoshida. ...Oh. That is, he's not as cool as you are."

She trailed off completely, pursing her lips and exhaling quietly as her bangs, which had been curling rather wildly out to either side, let out a quiet crackle of static and slowly descended, like curtains being lowered ignominiously on a failed performance to cover the actors and conceal their shame from their silent audience. Her antenna flopped over completely, dangling across the bridge of her nose and twitching slightly with pent-up impotent frustration. Her expression didn't change, save for a slight frown as she reached up to adjust the glasses that her writhing hair had slightly displaced, but something in her eyes as they peeked between curtains of smooth, shiny hair seemed dark and gloomy by comparison.

"Sorry," Fumika said quietly at last, her voice slightly tense as she lowered her head ever-so-slightly in what might have been a bow. "I'm very bad at talking, so I'm probably being very boring." The silence that followed was practically tangible, and she couldn't help but shrink slightly. Whatever the right words might have been in this situation, even someone as dense as her couldn't help but feel that her own words must have been sorely lacking by comparison.

Yoshida must have been so disappointed. He had finally come back like he'd promised to, and she couldn't even hold a decent conversation. She fretted, fussed, twisted and tugged slightly at the ends of her braids, hoping the warmth of her own hair rubbing against her cheeks would give her whatever strength or assurance she needed to dispel such thoughts. To her consternation, however, the soft strands actually felt cold to the touch. No, that wasn't it, but rather, her face was already strangely warm...? Now that she noticed it, in fact, everything about the way she felt was strange. Fumika didn't feel well at all, all of a sudden. But why? Was this that strange kind of "wanting" she'd experienced before? But why would she be lonely? She didn't understand it one bit, and that frustrated her to no end.

She'd gotten what she wanted. He was right there, so why did she still feel lonely?

@Zeroth

What did he think he was doing! Ruby didn't agree to this conversation only to get her fightingstyle mocked and criticized! The fact that she contradicted herself did not matter. Totally didn't matter. Nope.
Just when she was about to answer to all the, at least to her, accusations Amane suddenly did something very unexpected. He came closer to her and pinched her cheeks! Instantly the Neko's eyes widened quite largely, it basically stopped her mid-sentence. This was such an unexpected action, Ruby did not know how to react at all! Noone had ever done a similar thing to her... it was a very weird feeling. It kind of got the hair on the back of her neck standing.

Even after she let go the shocked expression of Ruby stayed the same. Her body was not moving at all and only her mouth slowly closed itself as her eyes stared intensely at Amane. The usually very reserved girl that never lost her composure was obviously just overwhelmed with the situation. Most of what Amane said went right through Ruby, she didn't bother to listen much as the pinch was still sinking in.
Ruby's usually very lively tail was just hanging down and staying still.

Finally, Amane would leave and propose to train with Ruby to which she, again, did not react to. Amane had to leave without hearing any word back from Ruby. It were only her eyes that followed him in his tracks.
Once he was fully gone, the neko finally unfroze. It was weird how these unknown social situations could freeze herself almost as well as her quirk could. Oh well.
She moved one hand up to her cheek, where she had been pinched, and traced the tip of her fingers softly over it. "What... was that?"

It would only be after a few more minutes of contemplating that the catgirl finally turned around to enter the dorm and proceed to her room. What a strange day it had been.

@pkken

---

Takeshi had been out most of his treatment. Which was surgeons just making sure his arteries were properly routed, and checking for any other injuries. But Manda’s quirk did a magnificent job already, so there wasn’t much for the surgeons to do except give him pain medication and properly dress his other wounds that were not healed.

After a bit, he slowly woke up in an empty room, When his thoughts turned to what happened before hand, and forgetting where he was, he jerked upward in his bed, Grimacing in pain as he reached up with his right hand to touch his chest, the blade from his brother was only an inch above his heart, barely missing his aorta .

A passing nurse came into the room to check on him, first thing he asked was about his sister, making sure she was at least taken care of. After hearing that all of his friends were ok, and in another room he finally allowed himself to lay back, finally looking to his left arm...or what was left of it.

All there was now was a nub of his forearm, three inches from his elbow. He stared at it for a long time, when he lost his arm in the battle...he knew he did, he used his shadow constructs to seal the wound and make the temporary arm. The rest of the fight was a blur really… like he was possessed. It didn’t settle in that he...just lost his arm till now.

He wondered how he was ever going to be strong enough now to protect his sister. He could still fight, but his skill with the blade was almost literally halved now.

He closed his eyes as he laid back in a relaxed sitting position, He decided to meditate and calm his mind...there wasn’t much more he could do at the moment. The time passed by quickly as he realized he was actually dozing with the medication, it causing his mind to cloud too much. he heard the door open and someone wheeling in a wheelchair, He didn't think much of it till he noticed how soft the sound was, as if someone was trying to sneak up to him.

A surge of adrenaline pumped through him, and on instinct focused on creating a knife that was hidden under his hand and wrist, going up along his forearm. Honesty it took alot more energy than it should have, which it normally did, but it nearly exhausted him this time. He assumed it was the medication that was affecting him. He heard more people trying to enter his room quietly and used this moment to strike.

Forcing through his pain he kicked his legs over the side of the bed, causing the blanket to fling into Roys face. Gripping the knife he created in a reverse grip he went to slash Roy’s face, honestly thinking the would be assassin was pushing the wheelchair. So he was trying to stab the imaginary assailant in the gut. His knife stopped however a few inches from roys head when he realized what was happening.

He stood there, breathing heavily and in shock now. Looking up from Roy to the others and noticed it was Acion and that woman from before. A cold sweat ran down his temple as he realized he almost killed his classmate.

The construct melted away, going back to his own shadow as he felt the room darken, “Kusayanagi… I-Im sorry.” The loss of blood catching up to him , He gripped the iv stand but it wasn’t enough to keep him from falling over as he blacked out slightly.

The quiet girl simply nodded as Mako spoke, more focused on keeping herself together than the words her teacher spoke. Reina afforded herself a small smile as the woman left the room, feeling some pride that she'd been able to keep her condition hidden well enough that Mako hadn't seemed to notice.

She threw an eye to Donny, glad that the boy was resting now--he had seemed even more out of it than she felt right now.

She had seen everyone now, right? They were all okay. They'd made it through an attack from genuine villains. Just Takeshi now. He was the only one she hadn't seen with her own eyes. He was... probably the one she had wanted to see the most, if she had to admit, but he was the last. Had she maybe subconsciously put him off?...

Reina felt a faint flutter in her stomach. Her eyes glanced to the side. With a subtle pout on her lips--directed mostly at herself--she turned slowly to leave the room, swaying as she fought to keep her balance steady and her quirk zeroed.

Out in the hallway, the girl looked side to side, spotting the backs of Roy and Acion, heading towards where she had initially assumed Roy had come from--which would likely be his and Takeshi's room. Not wanting to call out to them in a hospital, Reina kept quiet and simply followed in their steps, making an effort to catch up, though her current state was making that difficult. They eventually turned into a room.

Half a minute later, she was standing at the open door to that room, left hand raised to knock before she paused--both because she remembered her left arm was fractured (as made clear by the pain that flared in it at the movement), and because she witnessed Takeshi nearly stab Roy.

He was on the jumpy side of things, though it was hard to really fault him for that after what had happened. What worried and--strangely--angered her more was seeing him fight for and fail to keep his balance a moment later.

Exhausted eyes widened as the girl found herself moving forward, once again hardly away of her body's state as a desire to protect overruled any and all pain she might have been feeling.

Reina stepped around Roy's wheelchair to put herself in the way of Takeshi's fall, breaking it with her left shoulder pressing into his chest, and her left hand against his abdomen, gritting her teeth at the pressure put on the fracture in the arm. Using her quirk as little as possible and relying mostly on her own quickly failing strength, she pushed the boy back a step so he was partially seated on the hospital bed, some of his weight being relieved off of her. She fought to keep her heavy, raspy breathing as under her control as she could manage, the sharp pain slowly subsiding from her body as she zeroed her quick again. Seeming to be able to balance with just the help of the bed, Reina slowly took her hand and shoulder off Takeshi's torso, feeling a light warmth in her cheeks. She looked away slightly, attempting to obscure whatever expression she was wearing at the moment, but stayed close to the boy in case he decided to try and fall on his face again.

"...You're going to hit your head." she said, glancing up at him out of the corner of her eye, the same faint pout on her lips that had been there when she had thought about him in Donny's room. "Stay in bed..."

_{@pkken@Conscripts@Aerandir}

---

"Do take care of my sister for me, Yoshida-san," Asuka called over one shoulder as she and Kasuke started to head outside. "She can be a bit oblivious sometimes, so be sure she doesn't wander off with anyone else.~" She gave a slight giggle. "Before I come back, that is," She added. Kenichi turned his head slightly--not entirely looking away from Fumika, because she had just opened her mouth but then stopped--as the smaller, not-quite-so-fluffy girl left. Then the taller, quite-fluffy-indeed girl had his full attention once more.

"I've been fine," She responded curtly. There was a pause--what was going on inside that head of hers? Kenichi felt like that kind of response was the kind you gave when things weren't really fine, but you didn't want to go into all the nitty gritty details right now. "I worked hard in training, but I still lost. My teammates were very nice, though, and didn't get angry with me even when I slowed them down. Well, one of them wasn't actually nice. He was your replacement. He saved me from falling, but then he dropped me on the ground, and during the fight he apparently hurt a bunch of people. I haven't seen him since then, but I think I dislike him. He's very strong, but he's not nearly as cool as Yoshida. ...Oh. That is, he's not as cool as you are."

She trailed off completely, pursing her lips and exhaling quietly as her bangs, which had been curling rather wildly out to either side, let out a quiet crackle of static and slowly descended, like curtains being lowered ignominiously on a failed performance to cover the actors and conceal their shame from their silent audience. Her antenna flopped over completely, dangling across the bridge of her nose and twitching slightly with pent-up impotent frustration. Her expression didn't change, save for a slight frown as she reached up to adjust the glasses that her writhing hair had slightly displaced, but something in her eyes as they peeked between curtains of smooth, shiny hair seemed dark and gloomy by comparison.

"Sorry," Fumika said quietly at last, her voice slightly tense as she lowered her head ever-so-slightly in what might have been a bow. "I'm very bad at talking, so I'm probably being very boring."

"No, you're not. I wouldn't have asked how you've been if I thought you were a boring person." Kenichi said resolutely. He wished he was taller than she was, so that he could reach out and lift up her chin to make her look him in the eyes--Oh dammit that'd probably be way too much why're you suddenly thinking about this you've known the girl literally less than a week--but with things being as they were, he settled for putting his hands on his hips in a confident stance. So maybe she'd take what he was saying seriously.

"But all you've told me so far is that there's some asshole substitute student in our class that I might need to have a chat with." He put his hands back together and cracked his knuckles with a smirk. "Which is good to know. But he's not you, is he?" He crossed one arm over his chest and held the other one up with a wagging finger as he explained in a teacher-like fashion--while his brain screamed IRONY at him silently.

"What about you? Motome-chan? Like...your life, here at Komei? Did they pair ya up with a roommate? Did you make any more friends in class? Have you and your little sis--who gives me an impression like she puts on a show a lot, by the way, you ever notice that?--have you and your little sis, and your friend Harukaze, been hanging out after school? I mean...how've you been?"

And why am I asking so much oh man she's gonna think I'm a creepy stalker obsessed with her or something like I've been watching her in the showers or some creepy shit like that...but...

He managed to calm his heart beat down as he looked at her, watching her go through her odd little mannerisms that gave away her emotions even though Asuka seemed to think she didn't have any.

But I think she's an interesting person. And she doesn't see herself like that, but the only reason she thinks she isn't good at talking to people...is because I bet she doesn't. I've never done Karate before, so I had to ask Kasuke-san about it. I'm realizing that I probably suck at a lot of stuff--schoolwork, being a Hero and a Main Character, talking to girls...But I decided, didn't I? To keep pushing forward, and break those limits. And...I want her to keep walking forward too...

I don't want her to think she was wrong for trying.

The Nakamiji siblings were caught off-guard when Takeshi lunged at Roy with the shadow knife he constructed. Not even they could expect an attack at a hospital, not to mention by their friends who had just been incapacitated a few hours ago. Their instinct kicked in almost instantly. Aurelia immediately unsheathed her sword while her younger brother was in defensive position, his hand almost reaching out for his feather knife. But then the one-armed man stopped, much to their reliefs. His survival instincts must have been rushing at that moment.

They both breathed sighs of reliefs when he was beginning to black out. Before either of them could react to Takeshi, a small silhouette moved around them and caught him before the fall. She managed to push him back into his bed, but was struggling to maintain herself. Almost without a reminder, the two siblings stepped forward. Aurelia sheathed her blade before placing one of her hands on the small girl's shoulder, trying to direct her to an empty bed nearby, while Acion took over her place, took a step forward and tried to help him lie down.

"Jesus. You're all hurt you know. You make people like me feel awkward." The Sky Knight leader said before turning over to Takeshi. She noticed the missing left arm he had. The urge to ask him whether he was ok disappeared. He just lost an arm there. Asking it so wouldn't bring her any informative answer, but even marking herself as a rude and insensitive person.

Still, she approached his bed, motioning her brother to took a step aside, sitting down on a chair nearby.

"You calm down now? No one's gonna attack you here." She reassured him. She then looked away slightly, her irises eyeing elsewhere for a moment, trying to collect whatever she was trying to say. With a slightest hint of movements, she gazed back at him again. Straight.

"Thank you for before. I owe you this one." She said, giving him a light smile of appreciation.

@Aerandir@pkken@Riegal

Kaida glared at Roy with a red tint on her cheeks. Annoyed with the fact he was teasing her. But She didn’t give him the gratification of trying to say anything. She watched him and Acion leave, leaving her, her uncle, and Retha standing by the door. Her uncle was still warming up the packs as hot as he could with his quirk… She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She was told that he was dead five years before. All of them.

He saw her staring and gave her a smile. “You’ve grown up since I last saw you. You were barely to my waist then.” He placed the last pack on her while she nodded… As much as she wanted to jump right into the pleasantries, she still had a lot of questions on her mind on where, how, why. As if he was reading her mind he simply said, “All will be answered at another time, like I said you need your rest... She grabbed his hand with both of hers, holding him with vice like grip. She looked down, she didn’t want him to leave...afraid that this was just a dream.

Jean-luc smiled softly, taking this moment to sit on the edge of her bed. Kaida looked up at him at this moment. Satisfied now that he wasn’t leaving any moment soon. Is... She hesitated and looked down again, as if feeling too ashamed to ask a question, as if the very mention of it could worsen the mood. But if he was alive..then...

He seemed to understand even with the single word, her body language was more than telling. He nodded and said softly, ”Kira is ok, she’s safe.” At which Kaida let out a breath she was involuntary holding, tears of relief in her eyes. ”No more questions. Lay down little one…” He said in a more fatherly no nonsense tone. Which he placed a hand on her shoulder and gently laid her back, pulling up the blanket and cloak that was there to her chest with his free hand. Kaida did not let go of his other hands but complied. She glanced at Retha for a moment but didn’t say anything. She wondered why she was just standing there. But her thoughts quickly ended as she quite suddenly drifted back asleep, the adrenaline and everything wearing off.

How quickly it happened even surprised Jean-luc. But it made him chuckle as he gently moved her hands under the blankets and brushed her forehead gently before standing up. He cleared his throat gently before looking around for his jacket, which managed to get wrapped up in Kaidas arms somehow. Knowing that getting his jacket back would cause too much hassle.

He decided to make his way to the waiting room. Straightening his tie, he glanced at Retha who was glaring at him still. He ignored her for the moment as he unbuttoned his sleeves and folded the cuffs back again and again till the extremely neat folding was tight to his forearm and just under his elbow. He then pulled his phone out after he felt it vibrate, replying to a text that came in before walking to the door. Clearing his throat and saying “Pardon me.” As he slipped his phone into his back pocket and started walking down the hall towards the stairs.

Nia was holding out the strawberry between her fingers towards the girl, she was giving a sweet pleased smile towards the young tribal girl. At first glance the girl didn't seem out of the ordinary but as soon as Nia had showed the girl her quirk there was an immediate turn in mood between the two. Vae gave Nia a look of disgust as she held out the berry. Did she not like strawberries? No it was something else. Nia gazed at the girl as she softly lowered her hand with the strawberry in it. Her mouth fell agape as she realized what Vae was so disgusted about. It wasn't the berries, it was Nia her quirk. Vae wiped a hand over her face as to remove tears but Nia could not see any on her face.



Nia dropped the berry as she reached out to Vae. Vae spoke about refusing Nia her offers and how she did not trust her enough yet. The all so sudden turn around of event definitly showed the fruity girl that she had done something wrong when she showed off her quirk. She thought it would make her happy to eat tasty fruits. A shiver went over Nia her back as goosebumps felt over arms like her heart got broken. She did not want to eat the lunch she proclaimed herself?

Nia felt tears well up as she grabbed hold of her skirt to squeeze into something. The strawberry plant at the side of the road shivered into a small black dead plant as the strawberries fell off and grew smaller in size unlike before. They were sour small strawberries, the ones you would get after a bad harvest. Vae was already trying to block her way from binding any bond closer to her.



Nia did not know how to fix this problem. Nia gazed at her own hand for a moment to see the strawberry having escaped. She glanced at the ground around her and to the side of the pavement to see her plant having died and her strawberries being ruined. Nia gasped from fear seeing what her quirk had done. Nia momentarily looked back up at Vae gazing in worriness.



Nia dropped down to her knees as she sat closer to the strawberry plant. She was about to touch it before realizing it would just freak out Vae again. Nia gulped as she shortly shivered. Nia got herself back to her feet as she turned her away from her dead plant. She didn't want to leave it but felt like she didn't want to upset her friend over her own plants. Nia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was silent for a minute before sweetly smiling back at the girl again, seemingly it did seem somewhat force as the corner of her mouth twitched a little.



Nia tilted her head as she kindly smiled at her with eyes closed. Whenever Vae accepted or not she would walk. It hurted so much to leave her plant behind like this but she had to bare it in order not to scare this girl. That would have been her very last intention to do.

It was unbeknownst to Roy that Takeshi had nearly killed him. Thanks to the blankets that had been flung into his face, the view of the blade was obstructed. ”Why though” the boy grumbld as he tried to find the end of the sheets with his hands. First Kaida threw that jacket at him and now Takeshi is throwing blankets? What’s with these people? As he was about to take off the sheets he heard Takeshi apologize to him before hearing the sudden movement of a metal rod which was Takeshi latching onto the IV pole.

Freed from the grasp of the blankets Roy was ready to lay it on him but upon seeing the critical state his friend was in the blonde decided to bite his tongue. The whole event of Takeshi being dog piled literally replaying in his mind, the dude was one armed now. It was pretty depressing to see him like that.

”You—...”

Roy bit his tongue again, he didn’t want the mood to get even more gloomy by asking if he was okay. Of course he wasn’t! He gave the words he were about to say a second thought, honestly he’d hate it if someone were to have pitied him so he wasn’t about to do the same.

”I’m starting to think we all survived just because of how stubborn we all are.” the boy said shaking his head, to be honest all of them should be sleeping right now, hell it was magical that Reina was even still awake.

Roy watched as Reina moved towards Takeshi, catching him and placing him back into the bed. She even reprimanded the guy a bit which surprised the boy, a smile was plastered on his face.

”It’s best you listen to her, especially after what she did today.” he said teasing the two.

@Conscripts@Riegal@Aerandir

Yukari's breath became slow but steady as the others were tending to her, her senses dulled and fragmented. She barely registered that Andriane was here and thought it was just the police coming to get a statement from her. "The city... In the city... A friend was... Was in a fight..." Yukari tried to remember who her friend was, but right now all she could think about was the pain. "Then someone else... Someone stronger came. An old man who drinks a lot. He beat up the two thieves, I was chasing... He was going to hurt others... So I had to stop him... But..." Yukari's body tensed as the nurses had to help her leg back into the sling and put a new IV into her arm, holding her down so she didn't try to break out again. "I... I lost..." She began to cry. "I couldn't beat him... I tried so hard... I even had help... But I couldn't beat him..."

Yukari gripped Andriane's hands tightly as she tensed up and cried harder. No words, just tears. She felt so angry, so sad, and so scared all at the same time. While she may have never really won a fight before, she thought she had gotten stronger. But this was just a harsh reminder that for all her so called effort, she was still easily outclassed and out matched. "I don't know what to do! He's still out there, hurting people, and... And all I could do was lose!" She tried to get up but the nurses held her down. "He's still out there! Rampaging! Killing! I have to stop him!"' As Yukari was getting more hysterical the nurses had to sedate her and she started to get drowsy quickly while clutching her adopted matron. "He's... Still out there... Have... Stop..."

@Noxx@Eggs@Aerandir

Jean-luc made his way down to the waiting room, sending off a text that read Meet me in the waiting room when you get here… Slipping the phone into his pocket he ran his hand through his hair once for that controlled swoop mess to the side. Before entering the room.

He looked around till he saw Ms. Mako sitting in one of the chairs. He met this woman once before… and that was years ago. His life would have been completely different if she had said yes to that dinner so long ago. He found it funny...almost fate that a week after he was finished with his work, she appeared again in his life. It was…It was almost as if it was blessed by her.

He shook his head with a smirk, tossing the idea to the side. What ever comes of this, he wasn’t going to take no for an answer again for dinner...even if that was it after that. He made his way over to her.

Sighing as he made it to her, “Sorry to keep you waiting...Kaida wouldn’t let go of me till she fell asleep.” He said with a small smile. He then sat down next to her and crossed his legs while folding his hands in his lap. He then looked at her with a serious expression..studying her. He then casually pointed to her then upstairs from before when they met, slightly confused. “How is it… that every time we meet, you look even more beautiful?” He asked in a serious tone, but there was a hint of a smirk on his face.

Mamoru listens in on the conversation, but as soon as it was over she would leave without any fanfare. It gave her a bit to think about as she returned to her dorm to change into her pajamas and do her school work. But as she was getting dressed, she couldn’t help but feel… Angry. Like she wasn’t being recognized. ”Well, that’s just what a hero has to deal with sometimes. People don’t appreciate what you do…. Just gotta keep smiling and do it. It’s fine. Being a hero means taking that burden. Yeah. Don’t be envious. That’s not heroic at all.” She says through clenched teeth.

”I was the one who destroyed the black hole. Sure I didn’t do much until then, but I followed orders. And when it was finally time to act, I think I was key to making sure everything worked out flawlessly. I didn’t mess up. So why…” Mamoru looked around her dorm. It was dark. ”So why doesn’t anyone remember what I did?” She wasn’t expecting an answer. She was alone after all. All she could do was think about herself, because no one else was around to think about her. ”It’s fine. It’s fine. Yosh yosh yosh. That’s just part of being a hero. Yup. Sacrifice. I’m sure the others are aware of it they just…. I just need to do better is all. Maybe next time I’ll throw the shield. Or something.” As Mamoru changed out of her pants, she realized she was going to have a real hard time changing her shirt by herself. She sighs and carefully gets her arms out of her sling, using her little stubs of fingers to undress herself.

It took some time. But eventually she managed to change into a baggy shirt and sweatpants. Not the most flattering pajamas but they’ll work. Carefully putting her arms back into their braces, Mamoru laid in bed as it grew darker. ”Tomorrow will be fine. Smile Mamoru. They need to see you smile…”

---

Donny faded in and out of consciousness as he laid in his bed. It wasn’t his containment chamber, but he didn’t need it anymore as he was somewhat able to maintain a solid shape on the bed, at least as long as he was wrapped up in a blanket. But something was happening to him as he rested… Normally as he slept he would simply ooze naturally, like a liquid would. But as he rested shapes were starting to form on his body. Hands and feet. Flesh and bones. His flesh and bones. As he was curled up in his blanket, some semblance of a human was being shaped in the black mass who calls himself Dark Matter.

---

As the judges got to their seats and took theri refreshments, White Hat turned to Tomoe and Seiko. ”You will be allowed to choose any song available on the karaoke machine. We have many to choose from, so I’m positive you’ll find one that will work for you. Koizumi Seiko will be the first to perform on behalf of his team. Kishitmoto-san, you may stay upon the stage or sit with your team, but please do not interfere with the performance. The same courtesy will be given to you of course.” White Hat said. After everything was set up, he raises a flag to signal the beginning of the karaoke challenge. ”You may begin!”

@liferusher@Silver Carrot

@liferusher

Location
Outskirt school

” Everything is wrong with me, yet the doctors keep saying that everything is fine. I can’t seem to learn how to smile without pills since I was forced to see the world through someone else’s eyes.” Vae thought to herself as the girl shifted in place uncomfortably. For once in her life, there was something to explain to a kind person. Someone which was more worried about how other person felt instead of worrying about looks. This other person had a special gift to help make others happy. So how could the native american be able to show why trust was an issue? The bigger question was would Nia understand through music just like Vae.

Pain filled her chest, making it feel tighter than ever before, adding to a brand new feeling. It wasn’t as strong for a normal person but it was a small bit stronger than a broken person should feel. The woman had some sort of clue about what exactly this was. Though expressing it verbally was more of a challenge for the person. Who sung about this? Was it Linkin Park? Her eyes turned towards the plant just as the object was withering away. It made sense, to be honest. The user’s emotions being submitted through the very creation she wanted to help brighten a sad person’s day. So how could this situation be able to be fixed?

"A-ah n-no... P-p-please... I-I d-d-did-dn't m-m-mean t-t-to s-scare y-you... p-p-please..."

” Wait… What!? Where in the hell did you get that from!? I’m not fucking scared! I’m more pissed off now!” The girl wanted to shout out loud. Granted on the outside she allowed Nia to finish every single thought and word. Once this was done she cleared her throat.

” I can’t use words to explain things. I’m unable to despite everyone around me saying it’s all inside my head. I was never good at interacting with others outside my tribe. Even though I’m not good with these things I can explain what I mean through music.” Vae remarked getting out her violin. WHich song would be perfect for this feeling? If you love her just let her go? Sad song? Fight song? The young woman stayed quiet as she played a few warm-up bars, gathering some of the other strangers attention, not that she cared at the moment.

The girl’s fingers changed the pace and tune to Your Betrayal by Bullet for my Valentine.

Fumika raised her head slightly, her brows seeming to jolt upward momentarily with what might have been surprise. Why was it, she wondered, that he could so easily say the opposite of what everyone else had always told her, and yet make her want to believe it anyway? The way he put it was simple, matter of fact. It made perfect sense. He wouldn't be talking to her, asking her these things if he thought she was boring, would he? But then... He'd told her not to approach him before, right? But then again, he'd gotten hurt somehow and couldn't talk about it... Maybe that had been because he was worried about her? Then, right now... he was telling the truth? Right? He wouldn't lie to her about something like this. He wanted to her about her. He actually cared what she was thinking about, what she'd been doing. She felt grateful, and yet...

...She had absolutely no idea where to begin. She'd been thinking about so many different things, but hadn't said any of them to anyone because she didn't want to be a nuisance. Each individual thought, burned into her perfect memory, jumped forth with crystal clarity, all clamoring to be spoken now that she finally had the chance.

"I... Umm..." She hesitated. There were too many words, too many things to say. Nothing would come out.

The view from her window was pretty. The fifth book she'd "read" the day before had an interesting hero who kind of reminded her of him. Haruka had been acting strange since her argument with Jett. She still needed to record a few things for her Quirk Usage project and, even if she could just have her copies do it for her, for some reason she'd considered asking him to help her even though it would have been bothersome and she'd thought he was mad at her. During this conversation alone, she hadn't been able to help using her Quirk to scan him at least three more times when she was sure he wasn't paying attention to her, just to confirm that he wasn't really seriously hurt anymore. For some reason, when he smiled at her, she felt lonely and didn't know why.

...For some reason, it didn't feel like she could say most of those things. The former were too unrelated to anything. There wasn't a reason to talk about them, and he hadn't asked. And as for the latter three... For some reason, she just felt like it would be very bad to talk about them. It made her face feel hot, and she felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

But she needed to say something - needed to answer his question. She rubbed her hair against her cheeks. She was calm. Calm. Now answer.

"Hmmm... I have a roommate now. Her name is Hatori-san." She turned around, motioning to where she thought the girl in question would be standing, only to realize that she wasn't there. Had she left her behind? She was sure Hatori had been following her... Right. She'd broken into a run for some reason, which meant...

...I was too fast and left her behind.

"...Oh." She murmured, her bangs wriggling in disappointment. She glanced back to Yoshida with a slightly sheepish look. "Umm... Anyway, she's very nice. And really strong. Oh, but when she fights, it's actually a bit scary... But she's nice, so it's alright. We're friends now. I think." That was one question, at least. But he'd asked so many. What was next?

"And... I also made friends with a few other people in class, too. Like Reina and Jett. Oh. And I visited Haruka the other day, too. We had pizza and watched a show about superheroes. It was fun."

As she spoke, a faint but nevertheless warm smile had, for the briefest of moments, crossed her face. She'd managed to answer all of his questions. She was finally keeping up with his pace without being left behind! But... how long could she really do this before it would become a problem? Already, it was getting to be a bit difficult to judge how much she should and shouldn't say. She didn't want to be a nuisance, and most of what she had to think about wasn't as interesting as whatever Yoshida might want to talk about anyway... And yet, he'd asked her to say more about herself. How much was more? Unable to answer this for herself, she stopped, frowned, and tilted her head slightly to the side, her upright antenna of hair curling itself slowly into a confused spiral.

"...Is talking like this... better? I'm sorry. I don't usually talk this much, so it's... difficult."

@Zeroth

Seiko was announced as first, and grinned. As he leapt onto the stage with the energy and prescence of an absolute Diva, he took the mic off the stand. "I already know my song. Number 274! Choose it for me!" he declared, as he gestured to one of his teammates and then to the karaoke machine. Before they'd even got up, he had turned away and was facing the audience. "How are we doing? Are we ready for a performance from the Karaoke Diva of Komei Academy?!" His own team were responding with cheers, which created at atmosphere more like a concert than a contest. Even some of Asahi's team found themselves feeling it, though they wouldn't dare cheer.

The song came on (www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuoOEry-Yc4), and Seiko didn't just sing incredibly well, he also danced, and gave off the aura of not a singer, or a dancer, but a performer, and a performer who loved to perform. When he was finished, there were cheers from his side, who'd almost forgotten that this had ever been a contest. Seiko put the mic back on the stand, then turned and winked at Tomoe as he vacated the stage.

@Lucius Cypher@liferusher

---

Mako smiled at Jean-luc as he entered the room. Even looking at him and thinking would could have been, she had no regrets on her choice. But now. Now was different. She'd had her fun, lived her dreams, and now had as steady a career as she was likely going to get. Plus she was thirty-eight and the clock was ticking. If he asked again, this time she wouldn't have to think about it. She studied him as he approached. He'd been very attractive when they were young, but attractive guys weren't a rare breed. To have matured so well, and to be so ruggedly handsome to the point where she swore he has improved with age. That was less common. Even so, looks alone didn't mean anything if they weren't charming and a bit of a bad boy. Put simply, Jean-luc was her type.

"Oh, you haven't kept me waiting at all. It's nice to find time to relax," she answered with a handwave, before grinning at him while he looked at her with a rather more serious expression on his face. She was just thinking about how she prided herself on her composure and self-confidence since they last met, when he hit her with another compliment. This one didn't pierce her defences, but it made some cracks. A hint of color rose to her cheeks and she chuckled, before opening her eyes and looking right at him, smiling. She still had that cheeky, foxish look in her eye but she still appeared to be taking things more seriously now. "It could be that my hair's grown, among other things. You've also grown more handsome, in my opinion. You really pull off that 'rugged boss you wish would make you stay behind' look." Though Mako was clearly flirting, it didn't feel desperate. She was calm as a flat sea. It felt more like she was putting the ball back in his court, and trying to make him blush a little too.

@Heartfillia

---

"I... Umm..." She hesitated. Kenichi tried to urge her to go on with just his eyes.

It's been four days, after all. She probably has a lot of stuff she could tell me about...but I wonder if she's going to literally answer my questions again? Does she know how to just...talk, in general? Without having a specific answer to give to a specific question?

"Hmmm... I have a roommate now. Her name is Hatori-san." She turned around, motioning to empty space. Kenichi looked, but noted from the expression on her face that she must have been expecting her roommate to be there. Why wasn't she? Kenichi thought back, but he was sure that only Fumika had come down the stairs earlier, and he hadn't heard anyone else's footsteps. Hm. Was this Hatori-san kind of rude, or had Fumika just spaced out as she sometimes did?

"...Oh." She murmured, her bangs wriggling in disappointment. She glanced back at him with a slightly sheepish look. "Umm... Anyway, she's very nice. And really strong. Oh, but when she fights, it's actually a bit scary... But she's nice, so it's alright. We're friends now. I think."

Did they pair ya up with a roommate? Yep, it seemed she was still being very literal with her speech. But, she had added a lot of extra information Kenichi hadn't asked about with computer-pinpoint-accuracy. He smiled at her, and nodded to encourage her again to continue.

"And... I also made friends with a few other people in class, too. Like Reina and Jett. Oh. And I visited Haruka the other day, too. We had pizza and watched a show about superheroes. It was fun."

As she spoke, a faint but nevertheless warm smile had, for the briefest of moments, crossed her face. Kenichi's own grin grew more satisfied. So she was still answering everything like a machine...but hey, there was feeling in it. She could do this!

But then she stopped, frowned, and tilted her head slightly to the side, her upright antenna of hair curling itself slowly into a confused spiral. Kenichi's own expression changed to a puzzled one, his eyebrows lifting slightly.

"...Is talking like this... better? I'm sorry. I don't usually talk this much, so it's... difficult." Ah. So that was it. Just like Kenichi had thought before, he acknowledged to himself that from his point of view, the only reason she felt like she wasn't good at talking was because she wasn't used to doing it. He tried to think of some way to...some way to use his limited smarts to figure out how to help her. He could just keep asking questions, but...

Man, it's tough when the only thing you know anything about is muscles--wait a minute! That was it! To make a muscle you didn't normally use stronger, you had to work it out, true. But if you overworked it, you could damage it. Because it wasn't used to it. So in a situation like this, he shouldn't make Fumika talk too much for her--but at the same time, you had to push a muscle past what it was used to. You might have to do one more rep, every session. Or add a few more pounds of weight, every week. So this...maybe this would be good enough. He just had to push her a little further, and then maybe she could feel a little more confident for next time...

"Hey, no worries!" He reassured her, giving her a bright smile and a thumbs up. "No need to apologize. That comfort zone of yours just got a little bigger, is all!" He crossed his arms and nodded. "I haven't spoken to Reina much, I don't think, but Jett's cool. I hope he and Ezra didn't get in too much trouble for that stuff in the cafeteria on the first day." Now, what's one more thing I could ask, just an easy thing to answer to get her to go just a little beyond...

"What show was it you and Haruka watched?" He asked, tilting his own head in a manner similar to hers. He didn't have an ahoge to make neat little punctuation points like she could...although maybe if he developed the muscles in his forehead he could make that one top spike of his hair flex? Now there was an experiment for later...

---

Takeshi was ready to feel the hit of the hard cold ground of the hospital, but he was surprised when he was slowed and fell upon a warm body. It took him a second to pull his thoughts together, but he looked down and after a moment he realized it was Reina holding him up. Unconsciously his face began to feel warm, though he didn’t understand that feeling at the moment, he too looked away at the same moment Reina did. He didn’t see the redness on her cheeks. But when she spoke he glanced back at her, catching her eye as she told him to stay in bed, else he would hurt himself.

He was about to protest to say he was fine, but that would have been a lie. The protest died quickly in his throat as Roy mentioned how they must have survived, He honestly expected it was because they were told not to kill is why they all survived. But he was probably just refurring to Reina’s willpower, so he didn’t say anything, he continued on and added he should probably listen to Reina, having a smile on his face as he did mentioning her impressive fighting from earlier. He nodded, perhaps Roy was right in this...looking to Reina once again.

He knew it when they first met outside the lunchroom, there was alot more to her than she let on. She clearly had the most powerful quirk in class. Yet her confidence was lacking...except for today when she held off Rakasha...he didn’t get to see much of it..but the fact she gave him trouble still was more than one needed to make a judgement on her abilities. He then said ”I probably should. But not till you are taken care of…” He glanced down and noticed how she was holding them her arms. ”You should have just let me fall down. I don’t want to cause you more pain.”

Before he could get an answer Acion and Aurellia stepped in. Acion trying to help him lie down, but he only allowed it to go as far as getting him to sit down on his bed. He raised his right hand and nodded to Acion, motioning that this was good enough for him. He saw how Riena looked, he wasn’t going to lay down till she was taken care of.

He watched as Aurellia moved Reina to another bed, That girl didn’t even look like anyone was taking care of her wounds, yet she had the strength to keep him from falling over… He felt embarrassed actually at the thought, and Aurellia somewhat echoed his thoughts. Before turning to him.

She explained that he was ok, that no one will come to hurt him...she clearly didn’t know his family. But he nodded in acknowledgement that he was ‘calm’ now. She hesitated before thanking him for before. He was silent as he tried to remember what he did for her… confused. Till he received a flash of him pushing her to the side and getting stabbed instead by Raksha.

He nodded, “You don’t need to owe me anything. ” He said softly. Looking at her directly in the eyes. “I didn’t do it to have you indebted to me. I would do it again if needs be.I’m just sorry I couldn’t protect you all from them. ”

Dulga arrived to Yukari's room after the nurses came in and started to preform their treatment on her. She stayed outside of the doorway and listened to her hysterical retelling of her fight with Kensai. To no surprise, Yukari lost. And she still wants to go after him. Dulga took a deep breath and entered the room but she didn't speak up. But she understood what Yukari wanted. To put an end to a dangerous threat like Kensai. Dulga wanted to do the same. And somehow, Dulga didn't sense the same sort of hesitation in Yukari as she did in the others. Maybe that's just because Yukari knew she was weaker than everyone else in class; that holding back just meant that she'd lose, just like she did now. Or maybe Dulga was just grasping at straws and hoped that Yukari was crazy enough to go along with Dulga's revenge scheme.

Either way, the six-armed girl simply stood off to the side and watched her friend go under. Once Yukari was knocked out Dulga spoke up. "She fought Kensai. He's here now. Since he didn't kill Yozakura when he had the chance he's expecting her to get stronger. He's going to be back. He may even still be here." Dulga looked over to the others and finally stopped to look at Andriane. This wasn't really the time to debate. While her friends recover from their wounds Dulga needed to quickly get ready for the inevitable confrontation. No doubt everyone was on high alert now. Now was the time to fight back. "Hope you find him before I do." Dulga then left the room, and soon she'd leave the hospital. She left behind a note for Yukari wishing her a speedy recovery, and a promise that she will get her revenge. The letter didn't specify that it came from Dulga, but she left behind a bullet with Kensai's name on it. That should be enough for anyone to know who it belongs to.