@KoL
Though it may have been a bit cruel to consider them as such, Minami definitely made better time as she travelled through the difficult terrain of the central zone by herself, feline agility carrying her easily over piles of rubble. After the gruelling task of carry so many dummies over this damaged landscape, she practically flew over the somewhat familiar routes now, unburdened by everything else in her search for more rescue targets. And so too could she begin with focus on targets that were accessible with her own Quirk’s specialties.

Though Minami had no easy answer to situations where crying dummies were pinned underneath rubble, the cat-like girl could see plenty of ways to climb up the sides of buildings in order to rescue dummies up top and, with some improvisation, her more light-sensitive vision would work in her favor for plunging into that large hole in the ground as well. And even if it was stunted by the sheer volume and variety of sounds around her, Minami’s ears could, with some effort and tine, track down those smaller voices that sounded within labyrinthine apartment complexes.

She had a glut of options. It was simple a matter of which one was the easiest to pursue.

---

Umi felt guilty for inadvertently leaving Taro behind, but the light-headed boy was right; they had to press on if they were to procure a chance of passing the exam, and for the moment, that meant finding more dummies. Thankfully, there were plenty to be found. One was down in the sewers, another was up above, seemingly tangled within a series of power lines, and even more could be heard within the maze of barricaded houses. Umi considered her options as the boy let her know where they were. The boy himself seemed confident that the power lines would no longer be live, but Umi refused to take that same risk, if only on the off-chance that either one would get zapped. On top of that, she was afraid of getting lost through trying to save the dummies in the houses. That left the one that was underground.

She couldn't see a thing through all that darkness, but Umi could hear water flowing through the sewers, possibly enough for her body to grow into its Full Capacity Form. She measured the width of the manhole that lead into the sewers with her hands and put that same measurement against her hips, only to gulp nervously at her findings. There was no way her Full Capacity Form could fit back through that manhole! In fact, she'd get stuck in that form before she could even get her head through the other side. So unless enough concrete was bashed out to make the hole at least thrice its current size, using this place as a replenish-able source of water was going to be an impossibility. Umi started removing parts of her costume and placing them aside to reduce the chances that she'd get herself stuck in the manhole... and that was when the light-headed boy popped the all-important question.

“I don't suppose your quirk's useful in any of these situations?”

"A-actually, it, uh... I-I think it c-can be!" Umi was finally able to say something in confidence in all this time, although her stuttering still plagued what she was trying to say, "My b-body absorbs all k-k-kinds of w-water, and I c-can use that w-water to, uh... p-propel myself in a-any direction. Even sk-sk-skyward! There's j-just one problem..."

As she finished unscrewing the tubes and other apparatuses and laying them down, Umi sat over the edge of the manhole and seemingly looked down into it again, her face visibly blushing. Well, she got this far; Umi figured she might as well finish her explanation of her Quirk.

"A-as I absorb w-water through my Q-Quirk, my... my e-entire b-body kind of b-bloats up. E-especially th-these of all th-things," she cupped her breasts as she said this, as flat as her chest was at this stage, and then put one arm back to her side and pointed down inside the manhole with the other hand, "So i-in this case, I... I could get st-stuck if it a-absorbs too much. I-I think I know h-how much I n-need to, uh... make it th-through to the other s-s-side of the m-manhole, but I, uh... I-I need to g-go down th-there and find out."

With that, she lifted her butt off the edge of the manhole and proceeded to lower herself down as much as she could. She'd need her teammate to lower her further, ideally to the point where she could then drop to the sewer floor in relative safety. Umi had a plan to get that dummy above ground where it was eligible to be rescued. She could only hope that not all of that water down there was sewage water and, more to the point, she'd be able to stomach whatever percentage of the water she needed to absorb actually was the sewage water.

---

---

"This is taking way too long..." a handsome young heterochromatic man said after a brief sigh. He put in all that work, lining up the dummies that were to found in the zone he was to be encountered in, affixing smiles on their faces, changing some recordings around to suit his desires better, pulling a shutter or two down, even heaving a dilapidated truck into position and making resemble more of an ice-cream truck. All this just to set up one elaborate trap, and yet none of it was seeing immediate fruition.

He wondered. Could this be the disadvantage of being stationed at one of the two corner zones that was way at the back, where students would often choose to leave until the final few minutes of the exam? Did all the other villains get to them before they could make it to where he was? There was only one way to be sure. The Shadow would have to start mobilizing himself, and see what was going on.

And so The Shadow moved all the way over to Zone 4, grabbing one adult dummy at one side and stuffing two child dummies into a picnic basket that he picked up along the way. He rested them down, and spread a picnic blanket over a space on the overgrown grass, before seating them down on the blanket and placing the basket in the center. He removed the recordings that each dummy had, destroying the two for the child dummies, and replaced the adult dummy's recording with a new one that he'd completely overwritten the original with. Of course, this was only one Zone, and The Shadow would have to do something like this a few more times to try and guide everyone towards his big trap like mindless lemmings. But at least with this Zone, he could see where all the other villains were at, provided he climbed up the right tree.

To The Shadow's left, The Dragon was handily kicking the ass of one of the poor students that happened to encounter her. Much like the proctor of the exam, The Shadow had concerns that the concept of "going easy" on the students had gone through one of The Dragon's ears and out the other, but at least she seemed to be enjoying herself. At his twelve o'clock, The Shadow could just imagine The Ruler spouting out her lines as drearily as ever, and to the right... no sign of The Mastermind; at least not in person. It was possible that the image of the bus driving around the respective Zone was his doing, but The Shadow shrugged his shoulders nonetheless. Even further to the right, The Beast was... sleeping? The Shadow would have to climb down and venture closer to Zone 1's border in order to get a better look, but from what he could tell, there were three students who were just standing there when they could easily get the drop on...

"OOOOHH, I see what this is," The Shadow could only chuckle to himself as the epiphany hit him, "To think he'd be bested before I even got to see an iota of activity. Classic..."

The Shadow slipped away before he could be spotted by the trio. He figured that the three had only just recently beaten The Beast, which meant the most courteous thing he could do for them was give them the chance to recover from the battle. The next Zone he primarily wanted to get to was Zone 6; it was just a matter of either going the long way(s) round or trying to blitz straight through the crossfire.

---

---

Shiki came to a skidding stop, shocked to see The Dragon's sudden entrance blocking his escape route. Not only was she faster than he anticipated, but her towering height and yandere tone made her all the more intimidating to him. There was absolutely no way he could fight her by himself, he was aware of this. The only real combat experience he ever had, were from video games. At this moment, he wishes that he could just undo the triggered boss fight by reloading the save.

”Ah!! Go away! I don't want to die!”

He was clearly frightened, but determined to stay alive. The only ray of hope he had left was his phone. If he could just call for some backup, perhaps there may still be a chance to turn this around. Had he not panicked during their initial confrontation, he could've alerted everyone of his situation while he was running away. Oh well, he now required a safe distance to contact the numbers he collected earlier. His eyes shifted upwards as the radio tower came to mind.

With one nervous gulp, he took a single step away from the villain before full on sprinting once more towards one of the radio tower legs. All he needed was to outpace the villain for a few seconds in order for his tail to be within range of the nearest brace. As he moved, his tail grew to its maximum length (5 meters) and attempted to coil itself onto one of the support braces above. His tail would act as a winch, since he was capable of reeling himself up by decreasing the length of his tail back to its base. That is, if he manages to escape the The Dragon's claws in time.

---

In response to the plea that Shiki had made, The Dragon laughed as maniacally as ever. Perhaps that was simply the typical reaction one would get from someone as deranged as The Dragon had proved to be so far. But then again, perhaps her real self had found it hysterical that the proctor or any of the teachers, herself included, would allow the death of a future student to occur on their watch. Whatever the case, The Dragon slowly but surely advanced.

"I'm sorry, did you mean to tell me that your life had any amount of value to it? Any at all?" she asked mockingly, "Well, maybe you should've thought about that before you stumbled upon my lair!"

With that, she karate chopped the street lamp that was closest to her, instantly cleaving it away from its foundation in its entirety. At this point, an aura flared up all around The Dragon. She'd been able to make this aura through saving her strength up until this far, but now she was ready to do some damage. If Shiki was waiting for any sort of cue before he started running, the sight of that aura would be it.

"I mean c'mon; you must've thought you hit the motherload," The Dragon went on to say, "And what? Now that the big bad Dragon's shown up to protect her treasure trove, you think you can just run away and not expect her to hunt you down? That just doesn't happen."

That begged the question; why was Shiki so desperate to turn and run all of a sudden? He had to know that every step he took that went against The Dragon's advance would be futile. Perhaps he wasn't exactly trying to run away, so much as trying to tun towards something specific. A trap? An ambush? Some allies in general, perhaps? The Dragon took her time to analyze what she would do in Shiki's position, figuring she easily could react in time to stop any goals he might've had at that time from seeing fruition. That's when it hit her. If Shiki could reach the top of the radio tower, he could spot any of the other students and scout out the best direction to take. Knowing that, The Dragon realized her best course of action.

...

Shiki had already made his move towards the tower, but he wasn't fast enough to pull himself up to safety. Using her severe height advantage to... well, her advantage, The Dragon grabbed him around his shoulder and anchored herself near the base of the leg that he was trying to scale, stopping his momentum instantly. She was curious about that tail of his. Its exact shape. The fact that he could extend and retract it at will. And more importantly, whether he'd feel anything if it were to be forcibly removed. For now, however, The Dragon rolled her hand down Shiki's arm, while maintaining more than a strong enough grip to prevent his escape. She grabbed the other arm and clasped Shiki's hands together by the fingers and reeled him in a little closer to her, before using the free one of her own to frisk him for any additional tools that he might have on him.

"Nice try," The Dragon said as she continued with her frisking.

---

Treasure trove? Shiki didn't understand what The Dragon was going on about, other than having his self-esteem lowered by her taunts. It was never his intention to steal her 'treasures' in the first place. All he wanted to do was find someone reliable without crossing paths with a villain. His plan had obviously backfired on him. On the other hand, he is now curious to what this yandere has been hoarding inside her lair. He suspected it had to be the prized dummies, unless there was something better waiting to be discovered. Perhaps going through all of this trouble will be worth it in the end...right?

Nope! Watching the villain effortlessly cut away the nearby streetlight caused his heart to skip a beat. There was absolutely no way he could physically overpower her after that demonstration, he thought. Shiki ran the exact moment he witnessed the menacing aura swirling around her body. Whatever her quirk was, he didn't want to stick around to find out. What a terrifying villain this woman is.

SHIT!! SHIT!! SHIT!! I'M SO SCREWED!!

When Shiki felt the abrupt pressure applied on his shoulder, he knew it was over. If only he was in more physical shape to pull himself up quicker. His face instantly turned pale white as he was petrified with fear. He barely put up a resistance while The Dragon restrained his hands together and frisked him. The only things he was carrying at the moment were his house/work keys, his wallet, some loose change, earbuds, and his precious smartphone. All of which were in his pant pockets.

The strength in his tail's grip loosened up a bit, not that it was any strong to begin with. It was only a mere half an inch thick, with the wires and insulators acting as a replacement for the bones and muscles that one would normally see in a tail. The lack of bone structure allowed his tail to be highly flexible, but it was also extremely easy to cut. Speaking of such, if The Dragon wishes to test that out for fun, then Shiki would most definitely feel the pain in return. Most of the pain receptors were concentrated around the base of his tail, due to it being designed to separate from his body. Whenever any part of Shiki's tail is severed, he will immediately regenerate a new one to replace what was lost. Allowing him to make use of the severed tail by using it as an extension cable with his new reconstructed tail. However, regrowing a new tail will not only drain his stamina, but it will also be quite painful for him. In his current worn out condition, he is only capable of regenerating a full sized tail just once before collapsing from fatigue.

Is this how it would end in the real world? So quickly?...

The reality was crystal clear to Shiki, if this wasn't an exam he would probably be dead by now. But, he was still clinging onto the last remaining hope he had left. While The Dragon was busy frisking him, he waited for the exact moment that she would discover it. When that happened, Shiki decided to unfurl his tail off the support bracing and tried to tightly wrap it around the villain's neck in attempt to suffocate her. In addition to the choking, he aimlessly kicked his feet back at her in desperation. If he was going to go down, then he wanted to at least inform the others of The Dragon's mother-load as one last giant middle finger to her. It was the same kind of tactic he would apply in any multiplayer objective games.

---

While Shiki was able to wrap his tail around her neck, The Dragon had stopped frisking him just in time to rip it off before he could apply the necessary pressure. At that same time, she held Shiki back so that none of the kicks that he'd launched her way could actually reach her. Suddenly, her expression changed; from presenting a crazy smile all on her face, to almost showing pity for the boy. She wanted to have a solid one on one confrontation but, while one couldn't fault Shiki for trying his best, he just simply couldn't provide for her. Perhaps it would be for the best if The Dragon were to just let Shiki go... or better yet, use him as bait to draw in some bigger game! Now wouldn't that be nice?

"Meh, you're no fun," with that, The Dragon threw Shiki off balance, before kicking him so hard that he'd find himself soaring over into the far yonder. She made sure to kick him in the lower side in order to avoid damaging any vital signs, and delivered more of a straightened kick so that he wouldn't gain too much height, but the resulting landing would still be pretty damn hard.

Curious to see where he'd land, The Dragon set off in hot pursuit.

@AdmrlStalfos19

---

Goro watched with curiosity as Umi busied herself examining the manhole, unfastening various parts of her costume to lay them aside. He couldn't imagine what she was doing until, in a rather more broken manner than usual, she stammered out an explanation of her power. Her first bit of news -what she could do- struck him as pretty darn cool. The ability to make blasts of water, not just for offense but for mobility, sounded like a quintessential superhero power. With such a good ability, he considered, she might very well be the star of the show. Of course, Goro would be happy to support her, but a little voice in the back of his head made him unhappy that it looked like he'd be upstaged so early.

However, her briefing was not over. As she continued, Goro immediately found himself raising his eyebrows. Bloat...up? When Umi indicated her chest, he ended up staring for a moment before his imagination kicked in, and he jerked his head away sharply in embarrassment. His light, focused on the manhole, turned ever-so-slightly red. If asked, he couldn't have possibly repeated what she said next, so scattered were his thoughts. In a desperate attempt to cover for it, he started babbling what he hoped might be helpful advice. “W-well! If, uh, you can, uh, expel that water, you just uh, you know, grab the dummy and shoot it the water straight down until you...um, pop out. And I could, uh...help pull?”

In front of him. Umi stopped lowering herself, clearly waiting for Goro to help. When he noticed he lurched forward, getting down on his belly with the upper third of his body dangling over the opening. Taking hold of the girl's hand, he slowly lowered her down further, his warm light showering down from above. With any luck its glow would help her find their target. Goro thought it odd that there weren't any metal rungs in the hole, since sanitation workers would need to climb down every so often. That said, he could scarcely think about anything but Umi at the moment, even now that his light returned to its normal shade. He did his best to hold his head steady and hands firm, ready to shine a light or pull up at a moment's notice.

Kaito, at the epicenter of this quickly deteriorating situation, had fallen numb. Afraid to rise or sink to his knees, voice failing him and the music all but gone. The flute in his hands shook ever so slightly as his mind raced for an idea. Anything at all. Options seemed to be fight and lose or flee and abandon dignity. A hero would never flee in disgrace or fear so neitherbwpuld Kaito, as much as he surely wanted to!

Putting on his best act as a tough and brave hero, his confidence was shattered before a word could escape his lips as a blade of hard light shattered on the victorian era woman, bringing with it the oppressive aura that stole the courage from his limbs. Redoubling the shaking of his hands as he weakly gasped for air, the terror overwhelming the uncorageous lad.
Even his grandpas voice had fled.

All Kaito could do was shift ever so slowly backwards. Away from this terrifying old womans oppressive willpower driving him into the ground.

@Delta44@ShwiggityShwah@Scribe of Thoth@Stern Algorithm

Two loud gunshots sounded through the fog as Kuuki, Hiroki, and Azukina deliberated on their actions, the violent burst of noise ringing over the general din of chaotic screams. Though the Beast that laid before them did not stir at all, their attention were simultaneously drawn down the road, where the fog lights of the bus still shone, much closer than it was before.

Between fully securing their current villain and investigating this new development, what would the trio choose?

@AdmrlStalfos19@Lugubrious
To say that it was a gross place was an understatement. Though there was no longer any human refuse flowing through, that terribly disgusting stench still lingered as Umi dropped into the sewers, her only proper source of light coming up from Goro’s warm gaze. The water that flowed through was murky and untreated, but as long as there weren’t any dangerous liquid components inside, she could certainly absorb it, at least temporarily. The dummies within were a boon as well, their voices echoing through the tunnels but all of them being relatively nearby. Three total, two children and an extra-large adult.

The greatest boon, however, was that parts of the metal rungs that must have been broken off by whatever disaster struck this part of Kirisama still remained, jutting out in a haphazard collection of somewhat-plausible foot and handholds. Though it would be completely unfeasible to reach the surface with this, perhaps she get high enough up that she could lift the dummies to a position where Goro could pull them up the rest of the way?

Before anything could be decided upon, however, something fell on Umi’s head.

Something black. Something wriggling. Something hard. With a scritchscratch, it moving its little legs around frenetically, chittering all along as its wings flicked, flicked flicked.

A cockroach.

A cockroach had fell on her, and soon, the sewer water and the whimpered cries for help from the dummies became wholly insufficient to mask the sound of other denizens of the sewers. Gods above, this place was infested.

@TheWindel@Sho Minazuki@zelosse
Before the Ruler could launch off into another speech to try to coax SOME sort of reaction out of the poor, terrified kid before her, another attack came from the fog, this time twin beams slicing through the fog and striking her right in the side. It seared through her thick fabrics and elicited a cry of pain (faked or not, you decide!) from her lips before she wheeled away from the path of the beams, her expression turning into overexaggerated wrath.

“So that’s how it is? Is this how you heroes deign to fight, as cowards hiding in the mist, launching off attacks at a distance? This disgrace shall not stand! Very well, if you lack the fortitude to stand in my presence, then I shall be the one to hunt you down! As the Apostle of the Apocalypse, Queen of the Lands of Shadow and Sin, may this awe-inspiring countenance be the last you see before being sent to the tainted waters of the Styx!”

With that, she left Kaito where he laid, her thick skirts and high heels and open parasol doing nothing to impede her mobility as the brunette sailed through the fog like a scepter, approaching Houki’s hiding spot quickly. The laser-shooting student would have only a few seconds to steel her resolve before the villainess was upon her.

Hopefully, that amount of time was enough.

---

Shun kept up his undaunted glare on the man as he stood, repositioning himself in a loose southpaw stance for the very likely event that the villain didn't simply surrender. The boy tensed as the Mastermind reached backward. He must have something hidden. A weapon? Shun's eyes trailed after the hand. His eyes widened. His stomach dropped. His breath caught in his throat. The villain had a gun. The villain had a gun.

He was aiming at Mari. It was fake, right? Right? No time. He needed to get closer. He needed to do something.

Shun twisted, bracing his shoulder as if he was going for a body check. He shifted his weight forward and pushed off with his front leg, dissolving into pixels again as his feet left the ground. Rather than try to shove the much larger man as his stance had suggested, he reformed completely off the ground in front of him, his shoulder poised about an inch away from the man's forearm to slam into it, letting momentum and gravity do the work for him in an attempt to skew the Mastermind's aim off to the side and away from Mari.

---

@Stern Algorithm@ERode

---

There wasn't much Shiki could do against a fierce opponent like The Dragon, although he tried his best much like any aspiring hero would. The powerful kick she delivered to the lower side of his body instantly took his breath away. He had never felt so much pain before in his entire life, despite her intentionally holding back. His body was nothing more than a ragdoll soaring through the air, unable to scream for help. It took Shiki a moment to recollect his thoughts from the throbbing pain, only to realize that he was traveling airborne in what appeared to be <Zone 5>.



The only part of his body he could move was his tail, well what was left of it. Portion of his tail managed to regenerate while he was still airborne. Having enough length and energy to move his tail into his pocket, he attempted to establish a connection with his phone, assuming it was still there. His plan was to contact with everyone simultaneously in hope that one of them will respond to rescue him. However, he underestimated the amount of time he had to do that and eventually collided back first with one of those large post office mailboxes. Shiki's eyes rolled to the back of his head, as he rebounded to the ground in a heap after immediately losing consciousness. At least the unlucky gamer boy wouldn't have to bear with the pain of his injuries. Surprisingly enough, his glasses remained on his head, only suffering a crack on one of the lenses.

---

@ERode@AdmrlStalfos19@Zelosse@TheWindel@KoL@Sho Minazuki

@ERode @Scribe of Thoth

Mari's eyes widened as the teacher unexpectedly pulled out a gun and fired in the middle of his faked surrender. Yet Shun was able to intercept a bullet, while the other grazed her shoulder. Mari's mind raced as she considered her options. Given the massive physique of this teacher, Mari doubted that she could overpower him in a prolonged struggle, especially in such a confined space. But if she ran out of the bus, there she would be handing the villain the advantage of using the civilians as hostages again, which was her first mistake. And even if she was outside, he had a gun, and she would just be giving him range over her. Although the bullets were just paintball rounds, she expected that the rules of the test would dictate that had the shots hit her in the vitals, she would be automatically disqualified. She didn't know how painful a bullet grazing her shoulder was or if the pain would incapacitate her or not, so she was unsure if continued action would be against the rules of the test or not. But Shun had bought her one precious opportunity. It was now or never, it was do or die. She had never done this before, never accelerated to 30 mph within so short a distance, so she didn't know if it was possible. But she would attempt it, swinging the rebar in her right hand over to her left shoulder, bursting into the teacher, hoping that the lightning would be generated and catch onto the rebar. Then from behind Shun's collapsing body, she would swing the rebar across in an attempt to hit the teacher in the head with the metal rod, hoping that the rod would be electrified, and that the teacher would attempt to block the strike with his gun hand, hopefully allowing Mari to disarm him and knock him unconscious. Even if the rod wasn't electrified, being hit in the head with a metal rod at 30 mph was no laughing matter. That was, of course, assuming she could even get that much speed in so short a distance.

In the back of her mind, Mari worried that this was a terrible idea, mostly in that she didn't really want to hit a teacher in the head with an electrified metal stick. No matter how much muscle you had, a hit to the head was equally devastating for most people, quirk or no. She worried though, that if she didn't commit to the strike, he would take advantage of her mercy again, like he did when she 'negotiated' with him and he hijacked the bus. Of course, this was all under the assumption that the hit would even succeed. However, in the end, Mari decided that if it became clear she would successfully strike the teacher on the head, she would do her utmost to not follow through with the strike.

---

"Way too long...", he thought to himself, as he listened to her trail off with her name and title and... Whatever. Way too long. Miraculously also managing to not even introduce herself, as if she just ran out of space and decided to keep the title rather than have her name in there somewhere.

As soon as he saw the lady begin to glide like an ominous Mary Poppins, over the fog, with some scary mobility no less, he figured it'd be a good time to move. Though she could move well in such conditions and with such equipment, it seems she could not see them at the very least. It would be best to take advantage of this and move frequently. Trying to keep a distance, he had to make a choice... Help out Kaito, or keep her busy? If he did the latter, he could keep himself hidden, but if he went to help Kaito he may have a better chance of rejoining, but it would also expose himself... What to do...

He would have to decide quickly... Maybe if he just grabbed that kid and brought him into the fog for safety, he could do something with that. Alright. We'll go with that.

Hikari quickly sprinted out from cover, light footsteps, or as light as he could, as to not attract her attention, before grabbing the kid and dragging him towards the nearest cover. Hopefully without exposure to the... Dramatic lady, he could regain his senses. Hikari's heart was beating fast, constantly glancing towards her as he carried this out, very ready to form something to throw at her should she look in their direction. Hopefully whoever she was going after wasn't going to be in too much danger...

@TheWindel@zelosse

@Scribe of Thoth@Stern Algorithm
Jumping at light speed, the weight of Shun’s body was enough to force the gun away from Mari, two shots going awry as the Mastermind grunted in surprise. In that opening, the dark-skinned girl charged in as well, bursting forward as quickly as she could. Her acceleration wasn’t sufficient to reach the even half her speed, but with only a couple feet separating her and the muscle bound villain, it wasn’t necessary either.

Such distance though, was advantageous to him as well.

With his arm pushed slightly to the side by Shun, the Mastermind simply swung his gun arm back, sending the pixelating boy towards Mari. No one had any space at all to maneuver in the entrance of the bus, after all, and the two of them struck each other, before they both fell down the stairs and onto the cold, unforgiving concrete. The man readjusted his aim once more, pointing the gun in their direction.

“What to do, what to do…” he murmured. “Think you can do that move again, kid?”

@Animal@KoL
As Minami scanned the area around her and decided on which dummies to rescue, a loud crash, followed by a meaty thump, sounded in her vicinity. It came from another student, one of the ones that chose to exchange numbers before the exam began. Apparently, all his efforts for communications were for naught, considering the extent of the injuries upon his body. Worse was the fact that he was flat out unconscious after whatever force sent him flying there.

And worst was the possibility that he might still be pursued by a villain after all of this.

What to do, what to do…the options just kept piling up.

---

Shock would be the would-be hero's first reaction, followed by a feeling of what she could only describe as...guilt? Though they'd "won" as the teacher put it, was that only based on how stubborn they were in their attempts, despite the fight being an obvious curb stomp? If their adversary hadn't conceded the fight, or held back, there's no doubt they would've been finished a long time ago. Is it alright to call this "victory"? That's the question each of them faced now. No time could be afforded to reaching a satisfactory answer. Their plight, however superficial, would mean nothing if they weren't able to claim the points.

Kuuki had to agree with her potential classmates. Even if he wasn't actually sleeping, he'd still be a massive pain for them to try to move all the way back to the bus. Using Hiroki's turbines and Azukina's ice formation would make transporting the man-lizard all the easier. If putting him into the state he now found himself was her chance to shine, this was theirs. The gas girl had to shake her head at the girl's last suggestion. "Unless we had a million balloons, I wouldn't be able to make the load any lighter for you guys. I'm certain this plan will work, even with just the two of you enacting it."

---

The Hag’s speech about nobility was lost on Houki; honestly, who cared? It was evident this school clearly didn’t play by the rules so it would be hard-pressed for them to expect Houki to start caring now. Case in point, the girl smirked internally as she heard the teacher cry in pain from her attack. Hopefully that would be enough of a distraction for Kaito and Hikari to cycle for a counter-attack. Unaware if that was the case or not, Houki only had a few seconds to react before the Hag was upon her.

And honestly, the option was clear in her mind. If it wasn’t broken, then why bother fixing it? That was the logic running through Houki’s head as she furrowed her brows and blasted another red hot barrage of beams in the Hag’s direction. It wasn’t like the teacher was doing much efforts to conceal herself, not when she broke down to gloat and monologue for every five minutes.

She didn’t know it, but Houki felt herself agreeing with Hiraki’s own sentiments. This teacher talked too much and too long; but that wasn’t the skin of Houki’s problems. Instead, she focused on aiming her beams point-blank at the Hag. If the teacher simply tanked the attack, then there would be a problem. But Houki was banking on the luck this Hag wouldn’t take so kindly to laser beams shot at a point-blank range.

---

---

Listening to both of his peer's suggestion Hiroki looked at the body again. Addressing Azukina first he didn't like the look she had about her arm. He was too tired to really argue about it, and he was still a little bit pissed off, and decided to use this problem solving puzzle as something else to focus on. Her fingers half frozen, arms blue. He shook his head. "Ironically, don't be a hero. Looks like your not immune to your powers." He didn't blame her, quirks were sometimes funny like that. "You get some frost bite in your hands and you're out of this exam. It'll take time, but we should do this the slow way.
Give us time to recharge our batteries, before we head out again." He used his thumb to point, I can lead us safely through the forest that way, maybe reach whats beyond it."

Then he addressed Kuuki who conceded that she wouldn't be much help and he disagreed with her either. "You got legs and arms dont you?" he said, coming off a bit more annoyed than he actually was. He went to the lizard man. "Its a typical drag by leg. Roads flat enough we shouldn't have too much of a problem. Throw on leg over your shoulder and we should be able to drag him. I'll have to get his tail..." He said this with dismay knowing that he'd have much less leverage and have to hold it with his arms.

Just then two shots rang out in the direction they were going. "That was towards the bus." He called. "Friggin what now? Stay with him!" Hiroki called the shots before he ran, not flying towards the bus. His arms were already tired, he needed those precious moments to catch his second wind.

---

@Scribe of Thoth@Stern Algorithm

What the hell?

What- was this a hostage situation. A man he'd never seen before was on the bus, fighting with- it was that loud girl, and the nerd. Hiroki could see him pointing the gun from the driver side window. He got low, and approached. The villain was focused on him and it seemed they were moving again to try to take the guy on. The girls quirk, it was loud. When she moved it was like a roar, a roar even louded then his engines. He thought about using that, running towards the bus and diving to get in front of the engine out of sight. He couldn't fly in, the guy was covered by all the windows and watched the-

The windows? Were any of them open? Fat chance considering the chill of the morning but maybe, he went behind the bus, staying out of sight before finding one. He needed to get one open- just a crack if he could do that, the bus could become a wind tunnel, or better yet open up the back, if he could. He could get push the guy right out the front door, then they could gank him while he's down. He heard their attack fail, one flying into the other and the sound of one body striking. They couldnt take this guy head on either.

He tried to move to the back of the bus. A school bus would have a lever, but if it was locked, he'd have to go with the window method. He could probably jump up, get his finger nails to crack it open, then use his body weight to open it enough.

[Hiroki Action: Move - Sneak Behind Bus, Action - Attempt to open back of bus]

---

The Dragon continued to pursue Shiki as he was soaring helplessly in the air, only to grind to a halt as he slammed into a mailbox, the impact of which was enough to render him unconsciousness. Realizing that he was made of even less stern stuff than she thought, The Dragon could only bite her lip in concern, knowing damn well that it could easily result in the proctor giving her an earful. Even worse, it turned out that Shiki landed a little too close to where the fight against The Ruler was taking place. Still, as much as her character would dictate that she jump right into the fray, the best thing for The Dragon to do for the moment, was to stay with Shiki until he recovered or another staff member could pull him out to safety. With that, she whipped out her phone and gave the proctor a ring.

"Hey, um... could you send a medical team over here, real quick?" she asked, "I've got someone unconscious and we're just a little too close to a fight scene."

As she held her phone in her ear awaiting an answer, The Dragon watched the fight against The Ruler intently. If any of the fighters came too close to Shiki, then The Dragon would probably have to go in and kick some more butts, but for now, she had to stay vigilant. God forbid anyone that would try and sneak in attack from behind at a dire time like this...

---

---

Braving the overwhelming stench during the descent, Umi looked around and scouted the sewers out. She was surprised that the metal rungs were there for use after all, but remained confident that she wouldn't need them. Some more exploration would reveal that there wasn't just one, but three dummies to be found. She wasn't too happy to see that one of them was adult-sized, knowing she'd struggle with it, but still...

'Oh, wow. This kind of find would propel either one of us into the lead,' she discovered.

Umi looked up towards the light-headed student to tell him of her find, only for a cockroach to land smack dab on the center of her forehead. No doubt she'd shriek in recoil the second it made contact, at which point it fell off onto the ground and scurried away again.

"S-s-sorry," she murmured weakly, before seeing that there were even more of the accursed bugs roaming around.

There was only one thing for it. She had to get out. As fast as she could.

...

Umi rushed to grab both of the child-sized dummies, and threw them towards the light projected by the manhole with all her might, before dragging the adult-sized dummy by the arm. As she made splashes along the sewer floor, her body began to absorb the water and start its growth. She propelled the adult-sized dummy up to the surface first, firing a blast of water straight underneath it with her hands. Umi had to backtrack slightly to reach the other two dummies since it turned out she didn't quite manage to throw them far enough, but she got them and propelled them up as well. Now all she had to do was get herself up there and hope she could fit through the manhole.

At this point, Umi was starting to feel sick, but only just caught herself from vomiting and swallowed it back down again. This time, she fired the streams of water from her legs, and held her arms straight in the air. This way, even if her breasts or her hips would get stuck in the manhole, her arms wouldn't be trapped along with them. Umi had almost made through the manhole in one piece, but her hips had gotten jammed right at the widest part, stopping her from being able to move anywhere.

"D-d-damn it! I-I knew I m-miscalculated..." Umi turned to her partner, but before she could ask for help, but instead found herself clasping her mouth, her cheeks blowing up in the process. She could feel it coming back... and it was not pleasant.

Kaitos hands were numb as the flute, back in its place within his coat, was all but forgetten as great lung fulls of air were sucked in desperately as he struggled to overcome the lingering terror. What a fool to have offered aid to someone that could have crushed him like an insignificant bug. It was too mucb and Kaito knew it, fumbling with the guitar he had put down to help Mari. That action coupled with his naivty coulf have been the final nail in his coffin but the support of Hikaro and Houki had saved him.
Their bravery and sacrifice were the coin paying for his chance to...

chance to what.. run? They'll feel it too. That horrible weight. That terror..

Knuckles clenched tight at his side, Kaito scolded himself for the weakness and disappointment no doubt his grandfather would feel. Everyone deserved better and Kaito had failed to deliver, but it wasn't over yet.
Scooping up the guitar and amp, now facing towards where the woman had sped off to, the music came alive. Whether it was from fear or courage he could not tell.



"the spirit never dies, let the music take you higher
I know what it means to burn
That's how I began to learn
So never give up, never give in
Rise from the fire if you're gonna win
Sing with your soul, soon you'll be old
Fight the demons inside you
There is no limit to what can be done
Climb every mountain with power so strong
Dusty roads on the way, leaving the past behind you!"

The amp volume was turned to its maximum, the sound of his voice couldn't carry without a microphone but he threw his voice far as possible, dreading the fact that he had to sing but ignoring the voice of doubt in his mind, focused on nothing but the noise. The harmonyof music flooding the air.
Hopefully it was enough to take the edge from that scary womans oppressive aura.
POWER CHORD buzzed in his chest as the performance began and with luck, Kaito could pass it on to one of the students fighting ans throw in to the support efforts of the dummies.
One step at a time.

@TheWindel@ERode@Sho Minazuki

---

Shun pushed himself off of Mari, muttering out a "Sorry, that was my fault," as he shifted to the side and rose to his feet slowly, both to buy time and to not provoke the villain into shooting again. His stance was unsteady, his breath uneven. Why was he shaking so badly? Adrenaline? He wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid. This was fake. But it could be real. His mind was racing like it was real. The gun looked like it was real. His ears were still ringing like it was real. He needed to get rid of that gun.

He leveled his gaze back on the Mastermind, his rational thought still not working at full capacity. It was a significant risk, the rational part of his brain noted; but he could beat this guy, the primal, fight-or-flight part countered. If he missed, he'd be done for. But he could win. It wasn't really worth it; he and Mari could come up with a better plan. But he could win. Mari couldn't take this guy on her own, could she? But he could win. It wouldn't feel good. But he could win.

"We can't beat a gun," He dejectedly stage-whispered to Mari, although he didn't really care if the villain heard him or not. He sucked in a deep breath, and started raising his hands in mock surrender. His hands didn't even make it halfway up before Shun dissociated again, reforming in front of the large man. He only needed a finger. One of his hands swiped down on the gun just as the pixelated mass started resembling a person, and by the time Shun was outwardly recognizable, he was already disappating again. But, the pixelating effect didn't stop at his fingers like it usually would; the gun began breaking apart in the man's hand, particles writhing against the Mastermind's palm like it had just been transformed into a colony of swarming bees before disappearing altogether.

Shun reformed outside the bus on the driver's side, form flickering as he staggered toward the side of the vehicle. He slumped against it, sliding down a bit so that the villain hopefully wouldn't notice where he'd moved to from the windows. He let out an unsteady exhale, white-knuckling the stolen firearm as he resisted the urge to audibly groan. His skin felt like it was practically crawling and his stomach was twisted up in more knots than before. He was really hoping he wouldn't need to do a double jump, especially in the middle of a fight. Didn't the proctor say not to overdo it at the beginning? No, it was an acceptable loss. He had what he needed. The villain was disarmed. Shun would be fine in a few minutes, Mari just needed to hold out that long.

---

@Stern Algorithm@ERode@ShwiggityShwah

@AdmrlStalfos19

---

After focusing on the task at hand, the pair proceeded with the plan. Goro lowered Umi down the manhole to the best of his ability, going slow to avoid losing either his hands' grip on her or his body's purchase on the ground. His laserlike concentration, however, meant he did not notice the marauding insect until too late. A split-second panic seized him; while it only made him tense up, he worried that it might scare his new comrade and lead to disaster. However, the slender girl proved she was made of sterner stuff, and shrugged off the cockroach as casually as she might toss her hair. Goro realized immediately that his doubts were ill-founded, and took Umi's fortitude into account.

A moment later she took off into the darkness, spurred to action -Goro assumed- by the discovery of at least one dummy. In fact, Umi turned up three in short order, two smaller ones and then a single, adult-sized specimen. One by one she returned and hurled the child dummies up toward Goro, but though he lurched to grab them, they did not quite sail high enough. “Sorry, I couldn't grab it!” he called down. “Try a little higher?” When Umi next appeared, the large dummy slung across her back, Goro couldn't help but notice that she seemed somewhat bigger. However, he observed the next moment that she looked ill, and Umi's unwellness wiped all other thoughts from his mind. “The scummy water must be poisoning her,” he muttered. They needed to act fast.

Using jets of water, Umi propelled the adult dummy Goro's way the next moment. This time he snagged it by the arm, and he set to hauling the prize onto terra firma. The others followed suit, Goro taking them one by one as they flew up toward him. After that, only Umi remained. When Goro turned his light down, she seemed ready to launch upward, but his light revealed a sickly countenance indeed. The sight made his heart hurt, and he stretched down extra far to prepare himself to help her. Umi started to rise, ascending until she jerked to a stop, her hips stuck fast. Even worse, she looked ready to vomit.

Well aware of her suffering, Goro reached down to grab her remaining hand and started to pull. He averted his brilliant gaze, saying in the most comforting voice he could, “Do whatever you need to. There's pure water in your devices for cleaning if you need. If you can, keep shooting water from your feet to go up and get smaller.”

@AdmrlStalfos19
“Yeah,” the proctor replied, her tone clearly not pleased as she monitored the scenario from her laptop. “I can see that. It’s unreasonable to expect him to be able to continue after this, so check up on him on-site and if you can, move him out to the starting area.”

She paused, the sounds of a few button presses ringing clearly through the call, before letting out a sigh. “Medical’s gonna get there in three minutes. We’ll have a chat about this later, Tanifuji.”

And with that, the Chinese bun girl ended the call and turned her attention back to the scene playing out right before her.

---

@Scribe of Thoth[@Stern Alogrithm]@ShwiggityShwah
Circling around the back, Hiroki had a great view of the ruptured engine, metal folded into cement and rebar, the stench of warm oil seeping out onto the floor. They definitely wouldn’t be able to use the bus now, for transportation or anything else. But it was the least of his concerns as the turbine-armed boy approached the windows. They were all closed quite tightly, and against the locks, his nails had a higher chance of breaking off than forcing it open. It made a sad amount of sense too: the bus itself had been air conditioned throughout the trip due to the cold weather. And through the glass, he could see the child-proctor quite clearly, looking back at him with a slightly tilted head.

Luckily or not, it turned out that he didn’t have to sneak in through the back anyways.

Shun’s gambit had worked. More specifically, it hadn’t been a gambit at all, only a feat paid in dizzying headaches, abnormal pixilation, and heart-throbbing exhaustion. No matter the strength or speed of an individual, it mattered not against light-speed movement and before the Mastermind could even pull the trigger, his gun had disappeared, the trigger finger pulling on thin air. If this was a different situation, the muscle-bound man would have applauded Shun for his quick decision-making. As it stood though…

“Tch.” The first frown formed on the man’s face, before he leaped down the stairs, a double-stomp directed towards Mari. Wherever Shun had gone, it didn’t matter. There was no hero that would abandon their partner when in peril.


@Lugubrious @AdmrlStalfos19
It wasn’t pleasant indeed, having a roll of flesh pushed up against the hard edges of the manhole. Goro’s intentions were well, but they were also painful, a gradual indentation being formed around her hips. It wouldn’t take all that long, honestly, for Sumi to be free, but it was in that time that other insects began to fly, attracted to the warmth of her flailing body, the rush of something that lived. And oh, she could feel them all now, crawling up and around, bouncing off when she kicked, only to land again.

Disgusting disgusting disgusting. It wouldn’t be long before she was freed but it was disgusting.

@TheWindel@Sho Minazuki@zelosse
Houki’s eyes flared red, another set of beams about to burst.

But she had not moved.

And when one gazed unto the abyss, the abyss gazes back.

Moments before twin lasers shot from her eyes, the Ruler appeared from the fog, vespers of condensation trailing off her clothes, her own stormy eyes locking onto the ash-blonde student. And in that instant, the red light winked out. The anger vanished. And all that was left was a knee-trembling fear that grew over time. Houki found herself unable to move. Unable to run. Unable to so much as breathe, her heart rate going out of control. Everything was falling to tiny, broken pieces, and her thoughts were crashing into each other meaninglessly.

For all that was extraneous about this villain, the sheer dominance in her presence was real. And one step by one, the woman in Victorian dress approached Houki, reaching out with a gloved hand.

Then, Kaito’s guitar roared to life, sounding over all the ambient screams, his throaty voice joining soon after. It wasn’t a good performance. His fingers still felt as if they were made of lead. But still he sang, shredding away for a performance that wasn’t for anyone but himself. And within his heart, his Power Chord rang, the rhythm and rhyme, the emotions and skill, all mixing together and building up.

Beyond the strength and speed granted, what was in a song?

In the recesses of her terror-filled mind, it was the voice of a massive pervert and a terrible musician that reached Houki.

---

Alright, this was getting annoying. The same wave of forced fear from before had swept over Houki like a storm breaching through. No doubt it was the Hag’s Quirk, a deduction that would have served Houki well before engaging in her. But no, here she was, forced to feel her mind being overridden yet again by the same aura of hopelessness and despair. Well, as much as forced emotion could give. At the bottom of it all, there was instead the inverse of what the Hag imparted upon her.

Even as her body reacted on its own, Houki observed the scene with more frustration than anything else. She rather disliked having her movements controlled without her regard. She disliked the Hag reaching her even more, eyes twitching behind her glasses even as sweat trickled from both the heat of the environment and her own heart slamming into her chest. The desire to burn a hole through this villain was becoming increasingly more bearable….

Unfortunately, before such dark thoughts could escape to the open, something else forcibly took over her body. “Now what,” she grumbled softly, hearing a terrible, horrible singing voice rumbling in her ears. It sounded distinctly like Kaito but surely no one person could sing that badly, could they? But be it by choice or chance, the screeching was doing wonders for her head. Her focus was, surprisingly, coming back together with her mind purged of the fear-torn thoughts of before.

That meant all that earlier frustration was bubbling up again and she turned a red-eyed glare back at the Hag. “You’re terrible at your job,” was all she said before working to unleash another set of beams. And this time, she didn’t bother to hold back because frankly, this entire test of sorts had very nearly singed the last of her patience. More aggression meant more power after all and Houki fired off without care once again right at the Hag. Whether her comment was directed towards the Hag, Kaito, or anyone else was beyond reasoning to care for.

---

---

Hiroki was beginning to think that this was just either a really bad day, or that someone was intentionally trying to screw with him. He looked back on the last hour or so and figured not a single thing went his way. And now the bus was crapped out too, thanks to this stupid joker. He would have to get on the bus, climb up so he could sneak--

Suddenly someone from before, the nerd, he suddenly.... appeared? Yeah that was a word for it, nearly made Hiroki jump, and he had to stifle his mouth in surprise. Near him though, the gun, the thing he was keeping everyone hostage with. Finally a lucky break, but honestly he wouldn't be surprised if something went wrong again to make him look weak and stupid.

He thought about going over, but- no he looked under, saw the guy land on the dirt, heading towards the loud mouth. He gave Shun a bit of a look, saying he was going on ahead since Shun looked like he needed a breather. He wouldn't go over the bus, but he could go under it without too much noise, he had a lighter shorter frame, going under the axle was easy and he was on the action side of the bus.

This time, the guy wasn't made out of muscles and scales. No it was skin, skin that could bruise and bones that could break, he just got to a knee when he pointed his turbines. A silent click and they turned. He aimed low, a suction billowing over the area that would toss dust in the guys face before he'd feel the hurricane winds pull at his body, sweeping a leg back and trying to knock this guy off his feet and have his head in the dirt. He knocked down bigger guys. Not monsters like that guy before but definitely.

"GET DUSTED!" He shouted, to add to the chaos and closed in. He did more damage with his fists and boots more than his wind, for now, and getting the guy down, he and loud mouth could pin this guy too.

[Hiroki Action- Sweep using Suction]