Interactions with: @tobiax

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The assembly was... interesting, to say the least. He got to see more of the teachers who were working here, and got an idea of how he and the others were going to be learning here, which was... maybe slightly concerning. Four Pillars? Games? Rotating class?? You mean I only have a year to prove myself here?? He frowned, letting only a small amount of the turmoil he was feeling show on his expression. It was... exciting, he supposed, that they would be taking their Provisional License exam in the first year, but from the sound of things, that was the only year they had. Which meant... what? If he failed the License exam, he was done? Game over, no continues, do not insert new coins?

...That would be a downer. I suppose I could always just go vigilante, in that case, but I would really prefer not to have to break the law. He grit his teeth as they all got up to leave for the gymnasium for... oh. Fuck. Quirk Demonstrations. He sighed. This had to happen sometime, but it didn't make it any easier to swallow. His Quirk still wasn't where he wanted it to be, but... hm. This was a school, after all. He was here to learn. And he'd already come plenty far from where he was before. It wouldn't be that bad, surely. He really shouldn't compare himself to other Heroes at this juncture, anyway. None of them, least of all him, were going to be No. 1 tomorrow. Or even in a year. Or ten. This was where their story began, not where it ended. He felt better after considering this, and followed his classmates to the gymnasium with a bit more spring in his step.

The gym, like the rest of the school, was in pretty decent shape. It looked... sturdy, which was good- a bunch of superpowered teenagers clustered into this school was asking for trouble, otherwise. Suzaku looked around at his assembled classmates, pondering to himself who, if anyone, he should stand next to. Edgy Asshole was out of the question. It was too early in the morning for negativity. No one else really stuck out to him, except…

...Well, that was a familiar hoodie. Or, back of a hoodie, to be accurate. Wasn’t that the girl he’d followed into the school?

...Might be worth talking to?

He walked over- slowly, that hunched over posture did not speak of extroversion- as the girl seemed to turn towards him without moving, as a large ear rotated in his direction. A very… very large ear. A bat ear.

”...That’s… fucking awesome,” he said quietly to himself. He walked up a little less slowly, she knew he was coming, and waited just inside her peripheral vision, getting her attention with a small, friendly wave.

“Oh, hello… um...” came a confused reply; He smiled, hopefully in a disarming fashion.

”Just thought I should get to know my classmates a little,” he said, extending his hand out for a shake. ”Takeda Suzaku. Nice to meet you.”

The bat eared girl was removing her hoodie as the girl with the bristly hair showered a dummy in… actual bullets- the sound of which caused the girl’s large ears to flick back defensively. Suzaku glanced over at the demonstration, frowning slightly.

”That… doesn’t strike me as particularly heroic,” he said, half-jokingly.

“Oh. Yakkaimori. Koumori Yakkaimori. Keekee...” came the soft, high pitched reply- her thin hand shot out a moment later, taking that of Suzaku.

”Yakkaimori-san. A pleasure.” He turned back to the display, withdrawing his hand from the quick handshake, her own hand returning to the baggy sleeve whence it came, as they both watched the next student step up to the plate.

“Likewise, Takeda-kun.” Suzaku smiled, watching as a girl already in school-uniform stepped up to exhibit her Quirk.

”Thought about what you’re gonna do for your demonstration?” he asked, tapping a finger on his sleeve.

“U-um, not exactly, kee-kee,” the timid girl replied with a nervous laugh, causing her rather pronounced nose to crinkle slightly.

Koumori had only been paying a passing attention to the Quirk demonstration, until the girl made her bold proclamation.

"My name is Azukina Yomodachi, and I aim to be the future Symbol of Peace! My quirk, Flash Freeze, was inherited from my father, Frostbite! While I don't believe I have what it takes to be a great hero yet, I will show you all just what I can do today!"

This immediately caught Koumori’s attention. The girl’s manner was striking. Suzaku raised an eyebrow, but didn’t seem overly perturbed. ‘Brutal Number Ten Hero Frostbite?’

”Certainly not lacking in confidence, is she?” He smirked, though in a friendly, playful sort of way. After all, he wasn’t one to judge. He had the same ambitions, if not out loud.

Koumori, on the other hand, was stunned. A girl aspiring to be the Symbol of Peace? Going to the same school as she? A mix of emotions flooded to the bat-like girl. At once, she felt both a swelling pride, as if her efforts were not as misplaced as one might think, and, at the same time, a deep sinking feeling. With a Quirk like that, this Azukina Yomodachi girl could have easily gotten into a school like U.A. The feeling of being overshadowed, of her Quirk being as sub-par as she thought it was, weighed heavily on her. What should she do? Approach this girl, or keep her distance. She felt her stomach turn, even as she was metaphorically blown away by the windy demonstration.

As the chill swept the room, the slight girl seemed to stumble back, catching herself on the back foot, looking as if she were fighting a yawn. Suzaku’s eyebrows had climbed almost to his hairline, utterly stunned at the display. Someone like that is going here?? With that Quirk, she could have clean-sweeped the Entrance Exam that kicked my ass! He was suddenly feeling very insecure about… jumping really high. He leaned in toward Yakkaimori as the black-and-white student walked off, admitting the next person to try their luck.

”I… might be in trouble,” he muttered, almost too quiet for even himself to hear. Koumori’s attention slowly returned as her sleepy spell dissipated, turning to look towards Suzaku.

“Hm? D-did you say something? Keekee?” queried the Mutant; Suzaku raised an eyebrow, then shook his head.

”N-no… it’s nothing.” He straightened up, watching a boy spin things- and himself- very rapidly, before continuing. ”Just... feeling a bit inadequate.”

“Y-you t-too?” she squeaked out as she heard a strange popping from the spinning boy, almost as if he had a stiff shoulder or something. He nodded, before shrugging.

”Y-yeah, just… something I have to work on. Just have to keep reminding myself that… we all made it here, didn’t we? That means we have potential, yeah? They see something in us that they can make into a Hero.”

Another tap on his sleeved bicep. ”I mean… no one’s expecting us to be Pros the minute we walk in the door… right?”

“I su-suppose, keekeekee,” Koumori answered, unable to hide her uncertainty. But what if she couldn’t make it to being a Pro Hero?

The brown haired girl then tilted her head slightly, noticing the lavender eyed boy’s tic. And also that he was rather handsome in the conventional way, with an even skin tone and dark hair. Her gaze seemed to stay at the location of the tap, her attention only shifting when an overpowering, yet pleasant scent filled the room.

Noting his companion’s unease, Suzaku shrugged again. ”I wouldn’t sweat it too much. Despite what some people might say,” he said, injecting some venom into the words, ”this isn’t a school for losers or rejects. It’s the first year this school has been open. And they want to open for much longer than that. Just looking at this place, I can already tell they’re taking us seriously as Heroes.”

The short girl seemed to have her breath catch in her throat, her eyes darting about, “Wh-who said that? Keekee...” she asked, observing the coordinated rescue efforts of a plant girl and a dragon like boy, “Th-their Quirks are like mine, too...” she mused quietly.

He jerked his head in the direction of the idiot who’d drawn his malice earlier. ”Jerkface over there. Thinks it’s cooler to be an asshole and bring everyone down than to actually make the best of their situation. He’ll wash out quick, mark my words. Places like this… you have to want it. Above anything else, skill, powers, whatever… you have to have heart. Everything else comes after that.”

“I th-think-keekee I’ll avoid him...”Koumori’s eyes then dilated as the tall, lean looking girl began introducing herself, as if she realized something terrifying, “But that Yomodachi girl did all that with one hand,” she pointed out ominously; Suzaku’s response was another tap, and another shrug.

”So? When I first got my Quirk, it was… nothing. Purely cosmetic. I couldn’t do anything with it. So… I made something of it myself. Because this… this is where I want to be. So I’m gonna make it happen, however I have to do it. Simple as that.”

The bat-girl nodded, “That’s admirable, Takeda-kun. Oh- Y-you said something was a-awesome earlier? W-was it that our principal is Oracle Thought!?” she returned, now with mounting enthusiasm, half attentive to Kudo Akeno’s heated pummeling of a dummy “She is pretty fantastic, isn’t she? Keekee!”.

He jumped suddenly. She had heard that? And she still wanted to talk to him, even with the expletive?! That’s… that’s…

”I-I… was actually referring to your ears. I, uh… I like bats. But they’re even cooler, now, ‘cause you heard me, from at least 5-10 feet away, in a crowded gymnasium. That’s really powerful! They must be a big help for situational awareness- do you have an estimated range of what and where you can hear?”

“Um, I...” the poor girl was sweating from nerves, “I n-never checked f-for distance, b-but I can hear u-up to ab-bout fifty kiloHertz, and a-about negative one decibel,” she admitted, albeit sheepishly.

Suzaku’s eyes went wide at that revelation. He pulled his phone from his pocket with an almost feverish light in his eyes, typing a quick note to himself, grinning widely. ”Fifty kHz… that’s incredible. And -1 decibel? Oh, you’re going to be an amazing hero with that…” He trailed off, before snapping to sudden attention. ”What else can you do? Do you have wings? Sonic discharge of any kind?”

“I’m sure you’ll be a fantastic hero too, Takeda-kun. The majority of the Top Heroes have Emission Type Quirks,” she parroted, though truly meant it to be encouraging- however, at the mention of wings, she seemed to become a bit sullen, “Well,” she began, raising her arm, which, with her sweatshirt removed, displayed a small, brown membrane of skin stretched between her elbow and the base of her underarm, “I do… b-but they don’t really d-do anything, keekee. And I-I have echolocation... kekekii.” she admitted softly; Suzaku nodded to himself, finishing his notes.

”Excellent… there’s a lot you can do with just your echolocation alone. Great for rescue, support, or even certain combat applications. I think you’re gonna do great here, Yakkaimori-san.”

“C-combat?” she stammered, looking at her rather thin arm, and beginning to feel somewhat flustered, “Wh-why don’t you e-exhibit next, Takeda-kun? Keekee.”

”Not necessarily direct combat, you understand, but things like battlefield awareness and-- Hm? Oh. Oh! Oh, sure, I can do that,” said Suzaku, noticing the stage was now empty of any participants. ”Wait here, then. I’ll go… show you what I can do.” With that, he squared up, took a deep breath, and walked forward.

Koumori nodded and allowed Suzaku passage, sinking into the crowd a bit, squinting to see what he would do.

”Just… one dummy, I guess. Oh! And some assorted… rubble, I guess? Something like a collapsed building, or a street lamp that’s kind of off-kilter?” He nodded as his requests were fulfilled, filling the room with rubble, regaining a little of his previous luster. He turned toward the congregated students, and bowed. ”Takeda Suzaku, at your service. My Quirk is simple enough. I call it Black Wings. Observe.” Koumori clapped softly at Takeda-kun’s introduction; with a minor look of strain passing across his face, ragged black shadows suddenly burst from his shoulder blades, taking the vague shape and appearance of blue-black, jagged, feathery wings. He sighed a bit in relief, and straightened up.

”They may look cool, but they’re kind of weak- not good for physicality. What they are good for, is mobility.” With that, he turned toward the simulated ruins- in particular, the bent street lamp, and kicked off the ground, his wings giving him a mighty flap and propelling him almost 20 feet into the air, allowing him to gracefully alight onto the street lamp. Koumori gasped in awe, mixed with a slight pang of jealousy, her ears standing straight up, though not likely clearing the shoulders of the dwindling crowd.

”I can’t quite fly yet, but--” he leaped off again, landing on a particularly tall piece of rubble, ”--I can jump, and I can glide, which gives me--” he leaped off yet again, this time at the dummy, knocking it down with a flying kick to its head, ”--superior mobility, agility, and advanced vectors in combat settings. I am also trained in Karate, and my wings can be used as minor cover; they can’t take a hit worth a dam-- er, darn, but they can obfuscate my position if need be.” He stood up from his dive-kick position and bowed again… before crumpling just a little bit. ”Er… anything else? Questions…? Comments…? ...Cool, alright, thank you.”

He finished in a rush, walking quickly back to Yakkaimori as he let the next student step up. He turned to her and grinned sheepishly.

”So… there you have it. My half-baked Quirk.” He crossed his arms again, tapping on his upper left arm. Again.

“A-are you kidding? That was amazing! Keekee.” she affirmed, for once her vocal tic seeming to be level toned, “You jumped so high! A-and you know ka-ra-te?”

Suzaku chuckled ruefully, tapping lightly on his arm again. ”I-I mean… I guess. But they’re still so weak, and all it takes is a few good hits to disperse them. Like I said. When that happens, it takes a while to recharge, and until that happens, I’m basically Quirkless. I’ve still got a long way to go.But… yeah. I’m a karate-ka. Not a master or anything, but… enough.”

Her ear flicked in recognition of the tap, but, as her face lit up, as she got an idea. Koumori nodded, and moved as if to pat his shoulder in support, but stopped short. She seemed in a rush, suddenly. She also couldn’t help but notice the low murmurs of others quickly preparing to demonstrate their Quirks. While she didn’t want to be overshadowed by someone with a flashy Quirk like Azukina or Suzaku, she certainly didn’t want to be an unmemorable finisher to the exhibitions. So, mustering all the courage she could in her tiny heart, she strode, somewhat stiffly, to the area before Gudo-sensei. Suzaku smiled as she strode up to demonstrate.

”Knock ‘em dead, Yakkaimori-san!” he called out to her.

The sudden support caused the girl to blush, and her final step as she turned around was a bit more unstable than she would have liked. Her hands fidgeted, as if seeking the baggy sleeves of a sweatshirt that was no longer there, black fingernails clicking against each other. Slowly, she plunged her left hand into her pocket, then spoke up.

“Greetings fellow c-classmates... of Jigokuraku Class 1-A. M-my name is Yakkaimori Koumori. My Q-Quirk is called … called Bat, and I w-would like to d-demonstrate it for you.” Despite her rigid enunciations, it was clear she was nervous.

“G-Goudo-sensei, please allow m-me an-an obstacle course with a maze, if you wouldn’t mind Sensei, keekee. The kinds of s-surfaces d-don’t matter much Sensei, keekee. I h-hope I c-can assist the class with my a-abilities, a-and help u-us...” She took in a deep breath, leaving her back to the gymnasium floor, raising her balled-up fist, from which a sort of headband with a distinct, familiar yellow, red, and blue color scheme dangled, “Go Beyond!”

With what was probably the loudest statement she had made today easily, and likely all week, the floor began to shift. At almost random intervals, walls of various heights and orientations began to rise. Several of the openings produced nothing, and were left as gaps, either on their own, or against the walls they had extruded. Instead of watching the madness ensue, Koumori instead made what would appear to be a bold move to anyone excluding the staff and possibly Suzaku, as she tied the cloth- now clearly revealed to be a piece of All Might memorabilia- over her eyes, just over her ears, to allow them full mobility and function. Only then did she turn towards the now cluttered gymnasium floor of unknown challenges.

Likely unnoticed by any but the most astute, Koumori began to emit a series of sounds, both from her mouth, and, oddly enough, her nose. A series of very soft squeaks and clicks sounded from the girl, and a half a second later, her ears began twitching, as if to catch the returning sounds, inaudible to everyone else.

The first obstacle was simple- a row of horizontal bars all in line, just high enough that the bat girl would have to step higher over them, or trip and fall flat on her face. The next obstacle was a large wall with various hand-and-footholds, meant to be climbed up and over. And finally, at the very end was a maze, just barely wide enough for the diminutive girl to squeeze in and out of it.

With steps akin to a ballerina, Koumori raised her knees and set her feet gently between the bars, each step carefully placed, one foot per space, never even a toe in the shadow of the bars. Her head was barely even facing what looked to most like the wide, grounded ladder, but the observant individual would see her ears tilted ever-so-slightly forward and down. The bat-girl’s thin arms remained at her sides, as if they were completely unnecessary in navigating the footwork course. Suzaku was grinning ear to ear at this point. Go on, bat girl, he thought to himself, almost bouncing in enthusiasm.

Next came the nearly thirty foot tall wall. As she stood meer feet away from it, she beamed. This would be too easy. The girl’s usually crumbling self-esteem bolstered at the thought of this task. Slowly reaching forward, Koumori placed her hand on the wooden surface of the wall. Not a handhold, mind- the wall itself. Her black little fingernails tapped against the smooth surface, and her hand flexed in an almost claw-like manner. Her other hand, similarly, swung up and pressed against a higher point in the wall. The timid girl felt she had waited long enough, and bolted upward. In a flurry of limbs and clicks, she scrambled up the wall in mere seconds. Suzaku almost laughed aloud. Of course! She may not have the proper traits to fly… but she can sure as hell climb! He pulled out his phone again, frantically adding to his notes. Anyone else who was paying as much attention to Koumori as Suzaku was would likely notice that she didn’t even touch a hand hold, and half the time, her feet weren’t on them either. Upon mounting the timber at the top of the wall Koumori crouched there for a moment, before tipping up her head, and, silent as the grave, dropping over the other side of the wall.

Her toes touched the ground first, followed by her heels, then her knees as she rolled. The impact was extended several times over as Koumori rolled forward, her back pressing against the floor before she came tumbling back to her feet. The momentum carried her for a few more steps before her balance was perfectly centered, at which point, her ears flicked outward and back ever so slightly, and her squeaking and clicking resumed. Her head tilted as the large wall drew closer, allowing her subtle sounds various angles at which to bounce. As before, her ears flicked and twitched, catching every minute sound, giving her a clear picture of the path ahead.

What followed was a cakewalk as the blindfolded Koumori not only avoided the simplest brush with one of the frosted plexiglass walls, (which at once allowed the students and Gudo-sensei to track the girl’s progress, and caused quite a bit of visual confusion) but seemed not to make even a single wrong turn. Suzaku began clapping as the girl wisped gracefully through the exit of the maze, smiling widely as his new friend completed her task with nary a hiccup.

Exiting the maze at its back, Koumori made her way around the outskirts of the gymnasium, past the seated students, and back where she began, all without looking, only mild clicks emanating from her face. Upon turning back to the group, she removed her blindfold, giving a deep bow to Goudo-Sensei, then each section of the class- those who had already exhibited their Quirks, and those who had yet to demonstrate.

“Th-thank you all so much for your time,” she chirped softly as she raised from her bow, “I do hope you are now aware of my capabilities, and that I did not bore you with my… simple Quirk.”

And with another nod of her head, she moved to be seated. Taking a space behind the black-and-white haired girl, she waved her arm as if to catch Suzaku’s attention. Suddenly realizing he wasn’t quite where he should be, Suzaku blushed and quickly skittered across the gymnasium to the seat next to Koumori.

”See, Yakkaimori-san? That wasn’t bad at all! In fact, it was very impressive! I hadn’t realized you had such good climbing capabilities, as well!”

“I-it was nothing special, really. N-not as impressive as anyone else’s Quirk really,” she pointed out, before lowering her voice very quietly, “By the way… y-you keep tapping your arm… are you alright Takeda-kun?”

Suzaku glanced down, then back up. ”Oh… oh! Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just a nervous tic. I do it when I’m thinking hard or things like that. Nothing to worry about.”

Koumori simply nodded in response, letting out an affirmative “Keekee,” exhibiting her own psychological tic, though hers was obviously vocal.

The bat-like girl then whispered again, but not as low this time, “Do… do you think that I… I could make more friends Takeda-kun? L-like… f-friends like Yomodachi-kun? Keekee...”

”Oh, absolutely!” Suzaku answered without hesitation, causing Koumori to smile, ”Don’t worry, Yakkaimori-san- you’re gonna do great here. I can feel it.”

---

After Elina seemingly took the comment about being lucky to survive fighting Croc seriously, he found it appropriate to clear the air about his relationship with the teacher.

"Well, of course he wouldn't actually kill me. He's my uncle after all." he grinned.

That makes sense. Must be on his fathers side.

Kaito sat quietly next to the social butterfly now known as Kenji, whch was amusing since the larger boy was a beetle. Maybe in this context it would be better to call him a social bug? A non shutter-bug? Insect jokes aside it seemed he had made quite an impact in the early stages of the opening exams. As far as the music quirk boy was concerned that was fantastic news, not just in the sense of a strong friend but it also meant that others would flock to this guys side. Sort of like how Kaito had.
With his own quirk only capable of being used on others it made sense for Kaito to make friends with a physical prowess quirked student. It helped that Kenji was very friendly. Keeping track of those entering was a challenge but Kaito was quick to make note of all of them; The dragon was a good choice for Power Chord if they were a physical type of quirk. The usb tail guy had shown up too but seemed unlikely to be compatible with a physical paramater boosting quirk like his own, at least not yet. The fire-haired girl started him a bit but with them ignoring him it seemed prudent to do the same, seeing as their quirks weren't able to synergize well. Others entered the Auditorium one after another and each one was systematically evaluated as Kaito, unaware he was staring, twirled his flute in his hand like a baton while assessing each newcomers likely quirk and likely potential as a recipient to his own quirk.

So far the list held 5 contenders; Mari was an obvious first choice, Kenji was almost first but speed could mean the difference where it counted, the kid with turbines on his arms would easily benefit from a strong stimulant in a likely unexpected way, the dragon was fourth for all around capabilities, and the fifth if he had to choose would go to the thug looking boy (Seijin) who looked like they knew their way around a brawl.
Without any way of knowing their quirks it would take time to refine the list of prioritization. Deep down he felt bad labelling some students as unlikely candidates for the amplification effects he had, but with Kaitos inability to manifest the quirk more than once every few minutes it was better meant as a stimulant for those falling behind or willing to charge ahead. There simply wasn't any room for those who were average.

A spotlight turned on and the first speaker took to the stage, Kenji stared attentively at the stage for most of the assembly, a big lasting smile stuck on his face as each teacher made their flashy entrances. That is except for when he went on stage. Kenji knew Itagaki Naomoro on a more personal level than perhaps anybody in that assembly hall, after all to him Crooked Croc was actually Uncle Croc. While initially excited to see him come onto stage and make a big show of himself, Kenji immediately grimaced at the sight of his choice of attire. Uncle Croc was a cool hero and that wasn't up for debate, but could he seriously be trying to act so tough while wearing a Mickey Mouse tie?! His grimace quickly faded away though, as he could no longer keep his laughter hidden away. The attire, the tough guy attitude, the horrible pun and directly calling out Sakimoto on stage was all too funny to him.

When Tanifuji-sensei came on stage, Kenji felt a sudden shift in the environment. At first he couldn't tell why but then he heard the labored breathing of a smaller kid sitting behind him. He briefly turned his head to see what was going on and had an expression of genuine concern. It was the same kid from before, the one that had run away from Tanifuji-sensei earlier. He really was afraid of her, wasn't he? Kenji gave him a gentle smile as if to silently say As soon as the teacher had left though, the student gave him and others seated around a gesture to let them know he was okay. Kenji nodded and turned his attention back to the stage. The rest of the assembly went on without incident until the princible decided to make her late appearance. Kenji at first didn't recognize her but when he finally caught on to who she was he could have ripped his own seat apart in excitement. ORACLE THOUGHT, he shouted internally, fanboying over a famous veteran hero. He couldn't believe that SHE of all people would be his principal. His excitement over the coming year had reached it's peak and Kenji believed that anymore could make him pass out...

Or maybe that was just the moment when the boost Kaito had accidentally given him started wearing off and he felt lethargic again. It was a blessing in it's own way. He didn't want to make a scene during the rest of the opening ceremony.

The Assembly was brief and to the point as each teacher went on stage, introduced themselves and showed off a bit of their personality, and when it came time for the 'ruler' to take the stage Kaito felt his heart stop in his chest as his grip on the flute he had been so casually been spinning about his fingertips suddenly became a death grip. Even without their quirk activated, the feeling of dread was lodged deep. Fujino Sensei was easily the most intimidating figure on the roster. When they sat down and Kudo began leading the students out, Kaito let out a relieved sigh.

The first order of the day was a training exercise! A small blessing put support heroes with a partner to show off their quirks usage and Kaitos grin took in his ears.

"I should have brought my stuff! Kenji, what do you think about getting another dose of Power Chord and showing what you can REALLY do?!"

"Eh?" Kenji replied, a little shocked at the suggestion. "Oh right. I guess you will need someone to demonstrate with, huh?" the beetle boy was a little hesitant in accepting the offer. After all, he wasn't really keen on being so flashy and showing off in front of everybody. But Kaito so far had been the only one to strike up a real talk with him since he had arrived and he didn't want to lose the chance to make a friend.

"Yeah, let's do it then." Kenji decided with a sudden conviction in his voice. "I'll make a good show for you!"

"Together. I've got some ideas about how we can make a hit but we will need to go late. You and me need a moment before we get started." Clearing his throat, Kaito tried desperately to think of a way to put his thoughts out in a way that wasn't going to offend. "My quirk and myself are limited. I cant play on the fly, and power chord takes time to build up."

With a sweeping motion of his hand, Kaito gestured to every other student marching forward. "Everyones quirk helps them, but mine can't help me forward. We have one shot with it at a time and that means there needs to be a correct timing. Too soon, it wears off, too late and you've lost your opening."

Kaitos eyes spoke volumes where words were failing to. The music boy wanted to help where he could but knew that his powers were ill suited at this time for anything but giving someone else a chance to move forward.

"When I use my quirk on you, make no mistake; You are a conduit for my hopes and dreams for the future. All I can do after that is hope to be a distraction to get you an opening to cut loose and show them what you can do. Which means I am a weight to carry, Kenji." The look of determination in his eyes was unmistakable. "Can you do the work of two?"

A weight to carry, huh?

Those words echoed through Kenji's mind when it finally dawned on him that since Kaito's success as a hero depended entirely upon those he blessed with power chord. He could hear the frustration in his voice, and as he over at the masked boy as they both marched towards Goudo-sensei he could read it all in his eyes. Kaito probably saw himself as more of a burden than a partner, but with a quirk like that he was naturally suited to be a limit-breaking leader. Kenji wished he could find the words to express that sentiment but instead he gave a solemn nod of understanding when they both got to the line with their class.

Then uncle Croc approached and towered over his chubby nephew, instantly laying on a bug joke and expressing his pride that he had gotten accepted into his school. Kenji smirked at the statement about no special treatment and looked up at Croc with a growing smile, a counter-pun boiling under the surface.

"After the entrance exam, I should think not! You really Croc'd my world!" he just couldn't hold that one in.

The snort of his laugh was impossible to suppress. As a big fan of puns, the back and forth had come out of thin air and Kaito had been wholly unprepared for it. To croc, there was a grin hidden below the mask. "I guess you have a few.. tails to tell, concerning Kenji?" Biting his lip he tried not to laugh at his own wit, forgetting everyone else was still around.

With that, Goudo sensei lead their class to the gym. A massive room that looked more like a basketball court than a room for training heroes in. It was a little disheartening to see until Goudo-sensei made the grand reveal of it's danger-room like qualities. Any type of scenario could be made here, and as awe-inspiring as it was Kenji was feeling overwhelmed. He twiddled his thumbs as he looked over at Kaito.

"It-- uh, looks like we have a lot of options here. What should we do?"

"We wait. Let a few others go, warm up the crowd while we watch. But it shouldn't be them we watch." What Kaito referred to was the danger room itself and the myriad of circumstances it could create and how quickly certain parts operated.

Kaito watched it all while he crouched quietly at the end of the room, eyes focused as his mind took in information required to put on a show. Every so often he would pat the front of his coat where the flute was hidden and mumble something.
It was the paintball turrets that had his attention the most. A few quick glances at Kenjis thick form made him arch an eyebrow in thought before finally standing up again.

"With me."

Ushering the boy off further from the group, Kaito seemed almost giddy. "How quick are your reflexes."

"Well uh, I play a lot of fighting games. I'd say my reflexes are okay from counting frames." Kenji guessed, a little curious. The demonstrations from the other students were frankly awe-inspiring, Kenji suddenly started feeling the pressure to not be let himself and Kaito get left behind.

"I have a plan, but.. I need to know you can follow my instructions and react on a moments notice."

"Yeah. I can do this no problem. What are we doing?" Kenji replied, eyes now locked on Kaito.

"First thing first.. I need my equipment. Lets go." With that, Kaito ran off with Kenji out of the gym and down through the allways to a nearly unused section of the school that had recently been recently filled. The music room.
Inside was instruments of every kind, brass horns, tubas, acoustic guitars, a massive taico drum, a piano nestled in the back. Ignoring them all he grabbed the electric guitar and swung it over his shoulders to rest across his back, as well as grab the drumsticks resting nearby. Chord in hand, he motioned to the heavy amp with the speaker connected on top of it.

"Grab that for me please. I've gotta get juiced up before we rock this show. I'll explain on the way back"

Following his orders, Kenji picked up the amp with ease and followed close behind Kaito. He was a little concerned about getting in trouble for going off alone during the quirk demonstrations but went along with it anyway. He didn't want to make them both look weak as a result of diligent rule following.

Along the way, Kaito detailed the plan. Kenjis quirk made him ideal for a big show and with a power up it would make the beetle boy a paragon of force, further still if he was able to keep himself focused. The plan relied on precision and the big frame.
When the two entered the gym again, Kaito set up with practiced ease. Guitar stand, amp, speaker, chord plugged in and volume was set high. Another recording device was attached to the speaker and Kaito shuffled through for the right name.
It wasn't his original song but it had the tempo he wanted to set.

"You got the plan down? 2 for right, 1 for left.?"

"Yeah. I think so. I hope I do well for you." Kenji said, excitement gradually rising until his antennae were sticking straight up in the air. Counting the antennae actually made him a lot taller than most people in the class.

"It's not me anymore. It's us. I got a dream, Kenji. A big one. A band of heroes known across the globe and it all starts here. This is our shot at greatness and the beginning of a legacy. You in?"

Kenji briefly thought about how silly it was to think of the first time demonstrating their quirks as their big shot, but Kaito's enthusiasm rubbed off on him rather quickly. So what if it was just school? It was time to show the class that they won't be the background fodder of their stories.

"Yes! Let's do this thing together."

The grin on Kaitos face, hidden by the mouth covering mask, was gigantic as he sprinted off to Goudo to set up the formation they wanted to demonstrate with. It was a fairly standard course with two ground level turrets, two hostages, and a tight V formation of 'villains' numbering 7 in total.
A large one in the back and the rest aligned in two rows of 3 close together like a wall. The hostage dummies sat in the back.

It was going to be a tight run but they could do it. They had to do it. For their hopes and dreams they would do something absolutely crazy.

Something that started with a song.

Kaito thumbed the play button and it fed an audio track through the speaker, absent the lead guitar. With his guitar in hand he struck the chords and let his fingers dance across the instrument with their usual grace as he built on the tempo, starting from a simple strum to a more aggressive rythme.
Every strike of the chords vibrated with his entire being as the rush of gathering energies roared to life in his chest.

It was different than when he played normally. The situation was different. A glance at Kenji was all he needed to understand why; there was finally someone he could share this feeling with. Who could make use of it to bring themself beyond their abilities and become something more.
With the final strum of the strings, Kaito all but flung the guitar off his shoulders and onto the guitar stand with the same practiced precision and went into a crouch.

"Lights are on, crowd is waiting, and we're hungry. Are you ready to ROCK?!" All but shouting as he braced. On Kenjis start they would rush off to meet their destiny.

Feeling pumped, Kenji realized they hadn't introduced themselves to the class as per Goudo-sensei's instructions. He decided to take on that duty shortly before they started.

"This is Kaito, his Power Chord ampilifies physical strength and stamina! I'm Ito Kenji, and I'm--" Kenji stopped himself from leading into a long explanation of his quirk. "I'm a beetle, and all that it implies!"

Straight into the enemy. Kaitos hand slapped onto the beetle boys back and felt the rush flood away like a tidal wave.
A 3x amplification.

Blowing two quick whistles, both of them taking off in unison along the right side of the gym, Kaito was quick on his feet but with the amp up the beetle boy would easily outpace him. A snap of his fingers brought attention to the paintball turret. With them on the right side it had begun targeting, in moments it would begin firing.
Kaito blew a single whistle.

Hearing the signal, the boosted Kenji turned on a heel and began barreling towards the mock villains. Along with his physical strengths the boost seemed to be affecting him emotionally as well, he felt all his happiness and all his frustrations fight each other in his core and his muscles spasmed with excess power. For a brief moment Kenji felt he could finally ignore his hesitations and show what his quirk was capable of. With the turret hot on his heels lighting up the floor just a step behind it, the Beetle quirk teen barreled forwards, drawing the attention away as Kaito ran as quickly as he could at the turret with a drum stick in hand. When Kenji veered the tracking began to swivel back towards the musician but the timing had been right. Sliding on his knees forward he thrust out and lodged the metal drum stick through the barrel where it wedged cleanly.

I don’t like using my power for violence but…

Upon reaching the side of the V formation he grabbed the dummy by it’s head and effortlessly swung it like a bat at another, the mock villain broke in half in his hands and sent the second dummy flying away from the zone and smashing to bits against the glass dividing the danger zone and the console room. Kenji’s gaze snapped towards next target and he dropped the remains of the first dummy.

This is the only way to prove ourselves here!

Kenji formed a fist with his right arm and put all of his power and weight into an downwards punch on the next closest dummy’s head. It crumpled underneath him into the gym floor, leaving a crater.

“Your quirk is incredible…” Kenji mumbled, briefly glancing at his handy work. “I wont waste it.”

With four dummies to go he planted his feet firmly on the ground and launched himself forward horizontally towards the other line of dummies to topple the center one and land on it’s chest feet first. He grabs the other two dummies in each arm and slams them together in front of him, knocking their heads before stomping the one beneath him. While the dummies were dealt with, Kaito began his run at the opposite turret without Kenji at his heels.

The turret was aiming at the way they had come in so it would take a few short instants to recognize the new target and swivel but still the musician ran on, gradually slowing from a full on sprint to an almost lazy strut. With a click the turret had registered Kaito as a target.

three quick and loud whistles escaped from his lips as Kaito stood with arms crossed over his chest, chin raised in defiance. Had this been a proper weapon this would be a display of extreme arrogance or just plain moronic. This was neither. In his chest his heart was beating like a jackhammer in those brief moments as the world seemed to slow to a crawl, but the plan was set and Kaito had to play his part without question as Kenji had.
So he held his ground and waited for it to happen.

Kenji heard the sound cue and knew that Kaito needed assistance just as soon as he had reached the last and biggest dummy. He was fast with the boost, but if he simply ran over Kaito would have taken fire, so he did the next best thing he could think of.

"Incoming! Kaito! Special Move: VILLAIN YEET CANNON" He shouted, grabbing the base of the dummy and spinning it around before launching it like a missile at the final turret. The impact sent sparks and debris flying skyward like a grand finale pyrotechnics show. Kenji appeared from behind the sparks carrying the hostage rescue dummys on his back and intensely illuminated by the fireworks. "Hostages are safe, villains are eliminated." Kenji said before punting the disabled turret to the side and placing a foot on the mangled dummy's back. "And the ringleader is in our custody."

"All according to plan." There was a sharp intake of air as Kaito took a deep breathe, suddenly aware he had stopped in sheer anticipation.

Kenji's expression was a strange sight to behold. While he was smiling triumphantly, he was also crying. Tears of joy? Maybe.

"We did it!" Kenji proclaimed, offering a high five to Kaito.

Inspiration hit him right then. The name of the band and agency he would make. "World Tour makes its debut!" With equal cheer, Kaitos hand struck Kenjis with a satisfying SMACK.

---

Mari watched with rapt interest as her classmates demonstrated their quirks. Though she was put off by Tachibana Souta and Hayakawa Yasu's irreverent attitude to the exercise, she was impressed by Yutsuko Soga, Fujimori Haruka, Kaito Haruto, and Ito Kenji's demonstrations. They showed initiative and cooperation by forming teams. She was also inspired by their imagination in setting up elaborate situations. As for herself, Mari probably would have just asked for one dummy placed a the end so she could zoom over, pick it up, and carry it to safety, but now she was getting other ideas that could demonstrate her quirk to a fuller extent.

Yomodachi Azukina's admission to being the daughter of a pro-hero confirmed Mari's suspicions, and Mari wasn't sure how to feel about that.
On the one hand, Mari wanted to dismiss it altogether since she felt she could prove that with enough hard work, privilege didn't matter. On the other hand, even though Mari had apologized to Sakimoto Hiroki, and intended to apologize to Azukina eventually, she still somewhat resented the fact that both of them knew more about professional heroics simply because of their background, and sort of came off as know it all's, as if they had somehow earned their privilege, that their advantages came from effort and hard work rather than dumb luck.

Mari shook these thoughts from her head. Wordlessly, she walked over to Goudo-sensei during the lull following World Tour's 'performance' and asked to use the control console. Given the dimensions of the gym at 200ft by 100ft, she had eight 'enemy' dummies appear in two columns of four on the right edge of the testing area, and one 'rescue' dummy at the far left corner. With this done, she turned and faced the rest of the class, standing straight and formal, almost military. "My name is Haruishi Mari. Because my demonstration will be very fast, my explanation will be a little long because you might not catch what is happening. My quirk is called 'Born to Run'. I can run, more-or-less effortlessly at 30mph. But I can also exert myself and enter a state I refer to as 'Thunder Road' to reach my maximum speed of 60mph. In this state, I release lightning from my back. Due to the danger this poses to civilians, I will run past the enemies on the right with Thunder Road, turn, slow down to 30mph, pick up the rescue dummy, and return here."

She headed over to the near-right corner and crouched down into a starting position. The enemy dummies were directly in front of her. Suddenly, Mari takes off, taking a second to ramp up to 30mph and covering 22 feet. Thunder blasts as she continues to accelerate and lightning begins to arc from her back, electrocuting every dummy she passes. In another 66 feet, she reaches top speed and begins to decelerate as she rounds the corner. In another second, she covers the 50 feet to the rescue dummy. By now, she's slow enough that there is no more lightning. She bends slightly to scoop the dummy into her arms, though it's less of a scoop and more of an ungraceful collision. Still, she manages to pick up the dummy, and maintaining her speed at 30mph, she makes it back to the rest of the class in 5 seconds. overall, her demonstration took about 8 seconds. Placing the dummy down, she bows to Goudo-sensei and returns to her place among the crowd, somewhat worried that she didn't do as good a job as she had planned.

Hiroki watch his peers little by little show off their skills. The loud mouth blonde, Kiko, a gun quirk. That could be a problem, and she pelted the dummy with her bullets. He figured she was going to be a problem... until he realized only less than a handful actually stopped infront of the dummy and not the hundreds behind it. He was awe struck. "So the safest place is not even moving?" What the crap was that? No control on that girl. Then Azukina showed her stuff and he nodded, smirking. She was the real deal, remembering their fight. He knew that she was going to be the one that could get close to being number one. Close, but not close enough. Still he'd have to work his ass off to make sure she doesnt get a lucky quirk off.

He thought about stepping up, wondering if he should save the best for last... Though he made sure to be front and center, he wanted to watch, study everyone.

Umi had no idea what to make of the announcement that Jigokuraku was to partake in the Four Pillars Program. She didn't like the idea of competition in the slightest, and she never had the confidence to trust that she wouldn't completely humiliate herself... and not just in front of Jigokuraku itself, but all the other schools as well. U.A. Shiketsu. Ketsubutsu. And even Seiai. Between the five schools, there were more than enough competitors to trigger her stage fright. And if she were to fail to represent Jigokuraku Academy, and take all the blame as a result...

Suddenly, the sound of shots being fired inside the gym woke Umi with a start, and broke her from her trance. She was quick to duck down and cover her ears, and also murmured a prayer that none of the bullets would hit her. When the shooting stopped, she slowly peered up from the seat that she'd used as cover, noting that the girl responsible, Mazzini-Ishikawa Kiko, had walked over towards the rest of the students in a casual manner, and then another student, Yomodachi Azukina, stepped towards the front to showcase what she could do.

'Oh, that's right; Goudo-sensei did say something about a quirk demonstration...' Umi recalled, 'I guess this must be it.'

She moved to check on the condition of each of the tubes and apparatuses that she'd normally equip on herself as part of her costume, only to realize that she'd never got the chance to equip any of them. The color drained from her skin the second that the epiphany of her blunder came into fruition. Overwhelmed by disarray, Umi bolted out of the gym, and didn't stop running until she found a map of the school that would've been right at the front of the entrance. Unfortunately, not even that would solve the dilemma that she was having.

"Hmm?" His hyper focus on the ring in front of him, he heard something strike the door behind the class.

'THIS DOESN'T TELL ME ANYTHING!!' with that, Umi desprately scanned the school for any visible source of water that she could see. A tap, a fountain, any item of plumbing would suffice, as far as she was concerned. She'd just have to find something...

"Hey!" Hiroki didn't know who left, thinking it was a teacher, or another student getting some kind of secret weapon from their bags outside. He didn't want to miss a single thing. And look what his diligence got him. He looked down at the small girl with the big eyes and blue hair. "Suguro Umi right? What are you doing out here?" Hiroki looked at her suspiciously. He didn't know what this girls act, or her quirk, he barely saw her at all even though they were in the same entrance exam. She probably pretended to be nothing, to be weak, but she was here at the academy. He approached, ready for anything Umi could dish out. He wanted to find out her secret. She probably had some S tier quirk.

Umi's frantic search was cut short when she heard a familiar voice from directly behind her. She turned to face Hiroki, but plastered her back to the map the second he'd made his advance, terrified of what he might do. Umi had been bullied by less intimidating people than Hiroki, so it was understandable that she'd have half a mind to turn and run. But with nowhere else to run, she could only bite her lip and gulp as she prepared to face the music.

"I-I was only t-trying to find, uh... s-s-something!" the panic was evident in Umi's voice, "A f-fountain. A tap. Uh... c-could you l-let me g-go? P-Please?! My q-quirk is u-u-u-usel-less without a r-readily av-v-vailab-ble source of w-water..."

Umi had a lot of regrets coming into Jigokuraku Academy. But right now, her biggest one was failing to prepare herself for what was to come.

Well maybe shes not so cool. Hiroki's eyebrows raised as he saw the skiddish girl nearly fall apart in an instant like he was some kind of villain. She seemed terrified and he could only guess why. He felt like the victim, being profiled as a bully scaring a kid. While he looked annoyed, intense, and vindictive; he tilted his head at her when she finished her spasm. "Water?" Okay so a water quirk.

"There's a bathroom right there." he used his thumb and pointed behind him down the hall she ran from. Sadly it happened to be a men's room. Putting his hands in his pockets and throwing his head up a bit to look down on her as he spoke. "You saw that they could set up a water course right? Just ask smiley Sensei to provide you with some." he stopped looking at her, seeing as he wasnt making her feel better. Sounding irritated "You dont need to freak out about it."

It'd take a while for Umi to calm down from her little panic attack, but now she was starting to feel bad for causing a scene out of nothing. She hung her head in shame, and held her hand over her forehead, as though it would ease the agony that she'd put her own brain under.

"Y-you're right. Y-you're absol-lutely right..."

No doubt that more students were demonstrating their own quirks back in the gym. If they didn't get back soon, both Umi and Hiroki would miss their chance... not to mention they'd both get into trouble on top of that. Feeling guilty for this predicament, Umi got up off the sign and stood straight

"I-I'm sorry, I uh..." she trailed off for a second, but felt as though they'd wasted enough time as it was, "L-let's just go b-back."

"What's your plan?" he asked suddenly as he stepped to the side giving her axis back to the gym. He had a feeling the girl wasnt all there. Performance anxiety he suspected.

To be honest, Umi didn't originally have much of a plan. The only semblence she had to one was to ensure she had her supply or water for the demonstration of her quirk and wing it from there. But now that she thought about it, perhaps there was a way that Umi and Hiroki could work together. Itagaki could use some form of proof that Hiroki could in fact co-operate with another student, and there was nothing saying that two students couldn't work together as far as Umi was aware. It was worth pitching the idea.

"M-maybe there's a w-way we can work, uh... t-t-together, p-possibly?" she peered inside the gym from the doorway, thankful that they got back there just in time to see Soga and the green-skinned girl from earlier collaberating with their demonstration, "Th-those two s-seem to be d-doing OK."

"Huh?" The suggestion threw him off guard. Umi actually managed to make his angry look go away for a second. He wasn't expecting that she would suggest it. He wasn't even completely sure why he cared about whether she had a plan or not. Was this her plan? If that was the case she kind of hooked him in pretty well. It was almost impressive. She seemed to straddle the line of bubble head and more of a threat then she looked.

He was more of a strategizing mood. With the competitions coming ahead, it would be more difficult for him to try to go at it alone and try to get comrades later. He needed to get his team going now. Umi seemed weak but she was here when other stronger seeming folks were, and he still wasn't a hundred percent sure what she was capable of. She addressed that the dragon and that cute plant girl had already had the same idea. Bastards... trying to show him up.

Should he? Should he count on someone else to make him look better than he knew he was capable of doing himself.

He looked back to her and he approached, head up he approached like he was walking into a fight. He stood in front and held out a hand to her, full of vigor and determination. "You got a deal. Sakimoto Hiroki. I got your back."

Taking his hand or not, he put a hand on his hip. "Lets blow those dweebs out of the water." He smirked, head a rush with the competition, percieved or otherwise. "Whats your quirk?"

"Weeeellll..." Umi hesitated for a second, but it was only fair that she go through with the explanation of her quirk; especially after seeing Hiroki's in action, "I-I can abs-sorb water d-directly i-into my b-body and t-then, uh... l-later propel it o-out of m-myself through m-my arms, legs and m-mouth. T-the transit-tion is k-kind of awkw-ward though, e-especially when it's p-p-pushed to its l-limits..."

Her head remained as low as it always seemed to, but this time it was because she was deep in thought. She wasn't expecting to have piqued Hiroki's interest from the get go, but now Umi had to devise a way for him to stay roped in.

"Y-you think Goudo-s-sensei could s-set a fire for u-us so we can t-try to p-put it out? I-It might be a l-l-little obv-vious, but, uh..." Umi also had concerns that the whole gym might catch ablaze if she acted incompetently, but with some thorough planning, no-one else would feel the need to step in, and they might just make it through. Her main concern was whether Hiroki would be on-board with her plan.

"So you're a sponge." He put it bluntly. But he was thinking that was the case somewhat, she could essentially be a fire hose. He listened to the rest of her explanation, not minding her nervous stuttering. It was a tick so he wasn't too bothered. Maybe she'd settle down if she got a win. He considered a few ideas in his head, and while it would require a bit of trust from each of them.

"We can go a little bigger." Dragon boy and Plant girl gave him an idea. He raised his hand, the engine inside kicking to life causing the fan insides to whirl "How do you feel about flying?"

"F-Flying?" Umi asked for confirmation, "Well, I c-can't say that I-I have a m-major fear of h-heights, but uh..."

"Just hold onto my jacket and dispense your water when I tell you. Once we're on the ground, focus on the fires. You'll do fine." Putting alot of faith into her abilties though they first met, but he had a vision

Needless to say, Umi had reservations about the idea of "going a little bigger". Was that really necessary? Could they have not settled with a simple demonstration of their quirks? Still, Hiroki had to have a great level of determination in not wanting to be undone, so Umi ultimately decided against saying anything more on that front. As long it was successful, that was all that mattered in the end.

She did want to make one thing clear, however.

"I, er... I-I'm not all that g-g-good with sp-speeches," Umi stated, "I-I could, uh... m-maybe introduce m-m-myself and tell e-everyone what I t-told you ab-bout my quirk, but um... I-I'll need you to t-t-take over f-from there. I-If you don't m-mind!"

He smirked while he turned, he made a fist slowly, cracking his knuckles. "Leave it to me, getting peoples attention is my specialty." He stopped however when they got to the men's bathroom. He wanted to have a little insurance just incase.

Sure enough, Umi mustered the necessary bravery to enter the gym again, and headed up to the front of the class with Hiroki. It would be their turn to perform now, and she couldn't forgive herself if she screwed everything up after having come so far. Her stage fright was written all over her face, and there was no doubt that any rumors that might spread about the two working together wouldn't help, but she had to fight through all of it.

"Um... h-hi," Umi waved as she said this, albeit timidly, "M-my name is S-Suguro U-Umi, and m-my quirk, er... oh jeez..."

Suddenly she froze up. Words were her kryptonite. Always had been, always would. It was the whole reason she requested for Hiroki to do the vast majority of the speaking. Still, she had one line, and she had to see it through to the end.

Hiroki interrupted her pause by stepping in with what looked like a yellow janitor's bucket. Dropping it to the floor, he let the clang of it distract the crowd until she continued.

Umi jumped when she heard the clang of the bucket being dropped by Hiroki. Something about the sound of that reminded her that she needed to keep going...

"Oh... r-right. Uh..." and so she continued, "M-my quirk lets m-me absorb w-water straight into m-m-my body. And th-then once I've s-stored some, I uh... I-I can sh-sh-shoot the water b-b-back out through m-my arms, legs and m-m-mouth. M-my body g-grows in an awkw-w-ward man-ner as it t-takes in w-water, so uh..."

With her original plan to showcase this part of the quirk foiled, Umi turned to Goudo and whispered to him, asking for the simulation of a waterfall to appear somewhere behind the crowd so she could prepare for the big debut.

While Umi made her request. Hiroki stepped up to the plate. WIth a rev of his engines sounding like two car humming to life. He looked out towards the crowd. A scowl on his face before he threw his head up in an imperious gesture, smiling wildly. "Listen up! I'm Sakimoto Hiroki of the Sakimoto Sonics of Saitama Prefecture."" The Sonics were a hero company out of Saitama, they were the stars of the city and surrounding areas, having been called to multiple disasters around Japan due to their speed and their aerial superiority quirks. "If you wanna be number one at this school I'm the one to beat! So I better see you give me everything you got, or you'll be left in the Dust!" he held up his arm, a bulbous cylinder of what looked like metal. "Only fair I give you everything I got, starting with her!" There was a roaring sound and suddenly a rush of wind that blew his hair and clothes as well as those further away from him. It was like there was a cyclone inside the room. "My Quirk is Turbine! Each one of my arms is like a F-16 Fighter Jet! I'll show you what that means..." He pointed at Guodo Sensei. "Hit us with a fire storm scenario. Nine victims!" He proudly called. "We're bringing the rain. Stand back, the first three rows are going to be the splash zone."

By this point, Umi had taken up a considerable amount of water into her body, causing it to grow to the point where she'd match Hiroki in height. Her arms and legs didn't look to increase in width according to the naked eye, but there was now a visible curvature to her chest, and her hips were more prominent than before. While she might not have been confident in that fact, the truth was that Umi had more than enough water inside her body now to handle the typical firestorm, just like the scenario that Hiroki had asked for.

Hiroki had warned everyone in the first three rows that they'd get wet, but Umi wasn't sure how she felt about that...

'Is he serious?' she asked herself mentally, before shaking her head off the thought, 'Never mind that; I should focus on what I'm doing...'

And sure enough Guodo was true to his word. The floor seemed to rise into little rings of fire on burners, as well as three pillars of concrete with fires on them at certain points. The scene was meant to be as if there were burning buildings admidst some kind of fire that got out of control. They were no bigger than a campfire each but there were alot of them. It was arranged and programmed in such a away that there'd be minimal risk of spreading, even on the polished treated floor of the gym. At random points among the flames, dummies attached to posts. They were on top of the pillars, on the ground, and two actually on the side of the pillar, representing someone trying to get air out of a window. And just like Umi asked, the wall where they started had water pouring from the ceiling into a drain.

It was pretty cool to see what the room was capable of.

Hiroki made sure to repeat the plan to Umi when she got ready. he kicked the bucket so it was near the waterfall, an easy grab if he needed to."Hold onto me, and then start with the water works, then we land. Easy. I start the rescue. You focus on those fires. You run out of water, just shout. Got that?"

"S-Sure," said a nervous Umi.

"Relax. You're going to get your second win today."

He looked at the flames and set his hands, palms open downward, the wind already kicking of behind him, enough to blow their hair in gusts. She could grab the collar of his jacket just like he said, but she'd have to hold on tight.

Umi reached around Hiroki's neck with her left arm, making sure to grab the collar of his jacket in order to keep it in place, and wrapped her legs around the pelvis area for added security. She kept her right arm free so that she can use it when he gave the signal, and made adjustments to her exact positioning to ensure it didn't look too awkward. Umi nodded the second she was finished, signifying she was as ready as she was ever going to be.

When Umi gave the signal, it was immediate, zero to the air. The blast of wind caused the doors of the gym to fly open and he and her were above it all, the center of the gym. Even with the additional weight, blue boy and water girl were in the air, clearing thirty feet in less than two seconds. He managed to keep his back straight to keep Umi from getting jostled around too much. "DO IT NOW!" He shouted mid flight

"Here g-goes..." with that, Umi shot out her free arm and blasted the water out towards the closest fire with all her might. There would be a certain amount of recoil that Hiroki would have to account for, but it wasn't anything major. Umi let go of his collar and shot more water out in order to help stablize the two as they made their descent.

The dispensing water would only get Hiroki partially wet. Anything she missed would get would get sucked up in his engines or dispursed by the flows of wind. The result, their flight would have a cascade of water droplets like they were a a rescue plan or chopper dumping water over a forest fire. It was certainly enough to cleanse the small fires before them, but that still left the pillars.

Hiroki landed in his flight with a couple of steps of momentum, part of the plan, dropping her off here, he could start his routine. Taking into the air, he showed his speed and maneuverability, swinging around one of the pillars and snagging a dummy over his shoulder. A few seconds later, he had the Dummy where they just were, and Hiroki laid it on the ground before another roar and another blast of air. This would go on and on, back and forth, one dummy after another, whether the flames were extinguished or not. Whether on the ground or on a pillar didnt seem to matter, his feet always landed on either side before bonding back. On occasion the blast of take off on the fire end may have helped with a fire here and there.

Umi did not stop blasting water out; not even after the descent was completed. She started spinning around and around the instant she hit the ground, so that none of the fires would be left unscathed while Hiroki rescued the dummies. It would take every drop that Umi had left in her, and she was heavily panting by the end of it, her body having shrunken all the way back down to its natural form. She may have outright flooded the area by the time she was done, but at least the pillars of flame were no more.

"D-Did that do it?" Umi asked Hiroki once she was able to find her breath.

Hiroki finished at the same time she took care of the fires, looking back at her and then the dummies then the crowd. He raised his hands with a winded laugh. "WOOOOH!" He cheered. He was actually smiling, smiling happily. He approached Umi. "That was awesome! I knew it, freakin hydro cannons."

Judging by Hiroki's reaction, Umi had to take that as a yes; they did indeed just do that. She was quick to breath a sigh of relief.

It was almost like he forgot that there was a small crowd watching them for a minute. He offered her a fist bump before finally looking over at the group. "Hope you enjoyed the show."

Umi had also raised her fist towards Hiroki, but then just left it there hovering in mid-air. Realizing how awkward that might've looked, she rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment, a chill running down her spine all of a sudden.

"I, er... n-never got h-how that was s-supposed to w-work," she explained, "S-Sorry!"

Hiroki paused, a little taken by the lack of school yard ettiquette. He reached over, took Umi's hand, then made it bump Hiroki's other hand, and then he let go.

Whatever happened, she moved on and bowed to the crowd that had gathered.

He stood up straight, hands at his side and bowed at the same time or just a little before her, "Thank you for your time." He then went to the bleachers leaving a spot open for Umi to sit by.

He looked at the onlookers, expecting some comments, good or bad before sitting with his arms crossed. "That worked better than I thought." He looked kind of angry scary as per usual but he was talking to Umi like a friend would.

"Oh, y-yeah, I... I-I can't believe it e-either! I...!" Umi paused, and looked up towards the roof of the gym as she took her seat in the bleachers, "I-I'll be honest, H-H-Hiroki. I-I wasn't e-expecting for, er... f-for you to h-have faith in m-me. But s-since you were th-there to help me, I... I-I-I wanna say th-that I'm grateful. So, um... th-thank you; f-from the b-bottom of my h-heart."

Hiroki smirked. "Turns out you didn't need me at all. I just gave you a little boost." He wanted to say he gave her wings but that would be stupid corny She thanked him and he looked over-

It was at this moment that she turned to face Hiroki, a smile on her face and somewhat of a glistening in her eyes, almost as though tears of joy were about to form.

Hiroki smile faded and his eyes opened a little bit wide. The red stripes on his cheeks got a little bit more red when he looked into her eyes. He was the one that ended up looking away now, flustered. Stuttering "It-its- no problem Umi. R-Remember I g-got your back." Facing back towards the gym hands folded. "If anything it was pretty fun." he smiled serenely to himself.

No one had ever shown him a face like that before.

When Elina had mentioned that Kenji was very lucky to make it out of a fight with croc he had something to clear up. The legendary crocodile teacher was his uncle. Somewhat baffled she stared at him trying to see how they related. Kenji and the crocodile looked rather different from each other so far she had seen. Well it was his uncle after all, Kenji could look after his mothers side so she didn't question it any longer.

Not only Kenji was to comment on Elina being sorry for her quirk, the tanned girl with long straight black/purple hair gave her a reassuring remark as well. Nobody could control their quirk perfectly, so Elina shouldn't get herself to feel so sorry. Elina directed a smile Mari her way, smiling softly at her. She appeared beautiful in Elina her eyes, nice skin, nice hair, long legs. It was what most girls dreamed of. From inspecting her she notice the hearing aid in her ear as well. Must hear quite badly, Elina thought to herself.



The openings ceremony started. One of their teachers Fujino Ukimi was starting of, giving the introduction of the opening ceremony. It was nothing special, just a bit about welcoming them to the academy, telling the students that they were sorry for the extreme walk up the mountain and an introduction to the rest of their teachers. It was rather pleasant to hear about their apology for the walk, she didn't expect that to be an actual fault in their program.

The rest of their teachers were: the crocodile she had met during the entrance exam, the smiling teacher that was at the school gate just before the ceremony, the small girl that looked more like a child then a teacher and as last the cheerful demon that Elina had yet to make a collaboration with so they did fight in the entrance exam as well.

First to enter of the four was Itagaki-sensei, the crocodile quirk teacher. He made quite an entrance, heavy footsteps, big presence and strict as well. Elina wouldn't want to be on his bad side. He was going to be their math teacher and quirk development teacher which was, weird... Well she wouldn't question it, she would most likely be to scared to even attend his class. The crocodile made a slight remark at the blue boy she ridiculed earlier and made a pun about math. It was to die for, honestly... Elina awkwardly smiled while the crocodile made his was out of the spotlight.

Second on the line was Haruhi-sensei, the hero program director. Elina didn't truly know what that all meant but she assumed it had something to do with their trainee-ship and all the stuff that had to do with their legal hero licensing. The teacher was to cute, if she would ever come across her out side of school she would definitly not believe that it was a teacher and most likely would play with her outside.

Third, Guodo-sensei. Probably the one Elina least liked out of all of them. He brought something sinister up whenever he smiled, Elina thought. If he would just stop smiling so much she would perhaps trust him at least a little more. Elina gulped as she heard he was gonna be their homeroom teacher, she was gonna have to act nice to him now as well. He was gonna be their history teacher as well but she cared less about that. Guodo told them about today's program as well, they were gonna be doing a quirk demonstration of everyone relatively soon and they were gonna hear their assignment to the dorm rooms. That was pretty exciting at least! Elina was happy he was done with showing himself, the next teacher came up.

The demon, Tanifuji-sensei. It began with a very loud introduction, she clearly was not used to talking into a microphone. Shortly introducing herself and her name which Elina knew all too well. They were suppose to call her senpai? Well that was a bit informal, wasn't it. Elina wouldn't be able to do that for the first couple of times. Furthermore she was gonna be their gym teacher, but of course. The power house teacher was gonna be their gym teacher and combat teacher, this was gonna be hell. Elina nervously laughed as Tanifuji cheerfully made her way off of the stage softly waving back.

Fujino-sensei came back on stage to finish off the opening ceremony. She told them a little bit about what for teacher she was gonna be for them. The boring and important one that would teach them all the fine tuning of being a hero. Elina just knew she was gonna like this teacher, she was the normal one of the bunch. With a twinkle in her eye Elina stared at her quite a bit, her last hope. They were suppose to go to the quirk demonstration now in the gym buuuttt...

A wild principal appeared. Oh no, not another total nutcase... With everyone already half standing she energetically spoke to the students, at least it was quite normal despite her messy attire. Tokisaki-sensei, the oracle hero. The one that was above everyone else in this room, she certainly was something.

The principal told them their class was registered for the four pillars project? That did sound quite important and big if she saw her reaction. Not only that there were a bunch of other events as well aside from that. It sure was a busy schedule. Well, what else could Elina expect from this hero school. She had to train hard to make it here. The speech ended upon the principals leaving as they went on to the next segment, the quirk demonstration.

Guodo-sensei led them to the gymnasium and gave them a short explanation of what they were suppose to be doing here and how.



They had it together their act. Using their movement and actions to the fullest. She praised people that could work together. The personality combination was a bit odd however seeing how the blue boy was energetic and the water girl so patient and reserve. With the floor littered with water Elina felt pretty safe to use her quirk now. Not much except for the ceiling could be destroyed right now.

With most of the other students finished with their demonstration Elina strode forwards facing the teacher. Taking eyes from the public with her summer getup and fierce hair. She turned to the audience with a kind smile, placing both her hands on her lap as she formaliy bowed as to introduce herself.



Elina softly turned her head towards the teacher sweetly requesting what she needed. It wasn't much and even then she didn't now what more he could do for her.



Elina gave a clam breath as she stepped closer to one of the dummies. The fire on her head began to dance more as she put both hands out in front of her in action stance. The fire from her hair suddenly dashed out towards the dummy timidly baking it. The fire began softly, it grew in size in matter of time as she directed more fire towards the dummy. She momentarily smirked not wanting to make it all to boring. While she was deep roasting this dummy, small fire balls shot out from her hair quickly dashing towards two other nearby dummies setting them both aflame as well. Simply roasting one dummy was too boring right?

The flame in front of her began to grow just like her hair did. It grew out off control. The flaming hair was at her waist now as it began to get a hint of white color mixed in as well. She continued roasting the dummy thinking of her next act. A long whip of fire formed from her hair. The whip grew long enough to hit two more dummies with her flames setting them on fire as well. Just a slight time consuming act as well as she waited for the heat to rise.

The hair grew even more till it was touching the floor. The flame she was casting in front of her had become ridiculous. The dummy was engulfed in flames not being able to be seen any longer. The flames had become a pure white by now as the temprature in the room had significantly increased. The water around her had completely evaporated as her clothes started burning away as well. Elina did not even flinch at the thought or sight of it.

Luckily she was well prepared wearing a fire resistant sport wear underneat. It was quite revealing but not unordinary. With a sudden retreact of the hand she stopped after having seen how far she had come. In a short half minute there was not much dummy left, only a small pile of black ash around a molten frame/stand. In front if her was a scorch mark of about 5 by 5 meters wide. With a move of the hand the other dummies stopped catching flames as well. She turned herself to the public once more giving a soft smile as she was panting timidly. Her body was enveloped in sweat from the heat while her hair grew back to her usual bobcut.



Elina gave a wide smile towards the audience as she panted lightly. It wasn't her max but it was far enough for now. She bowed towards her teacher before moving back to the seats again. It didn't seem to bother her much that others got to see her safety outfit, it wouldn't get to be their last time that they get to see her nice body. Half sweatingly she sat down wiping her forehead down as she tried relaxing. Her fire might still be a bit on edge as she was calming down giving the occasional embers into the others their direction. She wondered if the smoke detecors would still go off after burning through all that material?

Elina relaxed into her chair and glanced about the crowd to see if they had any reactions on her but most of them seemed foccused onto the next people already. Elina smiled and turned her gaze back as well.

---

---

@baraquiel @pkken

To tell the truth, Hiroaki himself didn't know why he chose to sit beside the black-haired guy from earlier. Sure, he was pretty mean back there at the entrance, but Hiroaki decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. All of them were entering a new chapter in their lives, and everyone has their own unique way of coping in things unfamiliar to them. Though, Hiroaki wished that the black-haired guy beside him would truly show his kind self sooner than later, one way or another.

Hiroaki was happily doodling on his sketchpad, then he looked around and noticed that the rest of the students were filling up and sitting on the remaining seats. He placed his sketchpad and pencil back in his bag and patiently waited for everybody to get settled in for the assembly to truly start. He kept glancing down on the sleeping blonde with a worried look. Should Hiroaki wake him up? The blond did seem scary for the pink-haired teen. He thought the blond would just be like the black-haired guy beside him, though the assembly was an important event no new student should ever miss.

He was thinking so deeply he was surprised to hear a click followed by light beaming on the stage. The light seemed to come from... nowhere? It was kind of weird for Hiroaki but he didn't think of it that much when the first teacher walked in and stood under the spotlight. He lightly tapped the sleeping blond's shoulder. "Um hey, please wake up", Hiroaki softly pleaded to the boy.

Oh dear. The teacher was talking about a lot of important things but Hiroaki could hardly focus on what she was saying because he was preoccupied in waking up the sleeping blond. "Hey, someone could see you sleeping here. Please wake up", he softly pleaded again. His actions gradually grew from light tapping to gentle nudging on his shoulder. He was scared of doing something abrupt to make him really wake up, probably because Hiroaki feared to make a commotion during the assembly and also because of the blond possibly punching Hiroaki due to disrupting his sleep.

Now, Seijin isn’t what people would call ‘the sharpest tool in the shed’ but even he was quick to take to the possibility that maybe Jigokuraku wasn’t like any school he ever been to. His naps were interrupted... or rather the sudden bellow let out in the assembly jolted him awake. Whatever the case getting waken up by someone else at school? Today was a day full of firsts for the blonde. He turns around to stare back at the pink-haired teen who’d been trying and failing, to wake him up until now. “Yah need something? Well, I’m–” He abruptly pauses as he couldn’t help but let out a yawn, eyes still blinking after his short nap, “–available now… sorry.”

He let out a tired sigh as he watched the antics of the teachers unfold from his seat, “After askin’ the lot of you to ease up a bit on the first day, the teachers prove ‘emselves just as loud and rough… how troublesome.” The rest of the assembly passed on and he really would’ve tried to pay more attention if he could but the fact of the matter was that simply wasn’t how his brain was wired. And just as he started to drift back into sleep again, Principal Whatsherface’s announcement about the Four Pillars Game caught Seijin in a rare moment of self-engagement. “Four Pillars? That’d mean U.A. and well, that would then mean... ” The urge to groan into his hands was stronger than ever, which he obliged with his sudden awareness of future prospects he’d rather avoid.

The assembly was rather interesting, to say the least, every single one of the teachers had a screw loose somewhere somehow. Especially the hero course director who somehow managed to look like an 8-month old infant and a 73-year-old woman at the same time. Ryota held the bridge of his nose as he could feel the pending headache that he was going to receive from his ‘Sensei’s’. Tanifuji and Itagaki sensei were a couple of loud mouth’s, Guodo was a distraction, Fujino sensei was just your basic teacher, and the principal had to be the most unsettling at all. Sure she was a former top 5 hero but her appearance and demeanor were a bit unsettling.

Despite the faculty of clowns that Jigokoraku had, there were some interesting things said at the assembly. Talk about choosing a class representative caught his attention, not that he wanted to become one, he could care less about attaining said occupation. It was more so about making sure to choose someone that would give him a fucking headache. The next thing that caught his attention was that they’d be attending the four pillars games and compete against U.A. and Shiketsu, Ryota wouldn’t even have to try to show them the difference in skill and talent. They’d see for themselves how inferior they are against the aspiring heroes that attended these schools and the reason why they didn’t get into either ranked school would be clear as day. Ryota could feel the stress emanating off of the blonde that sat next to him.

After the assembly, the students were to meet Guodo in the gym for a quirk assessment test, upon entering he noticed that majority of students that were in the hero course with him were the same people that heavily disagreed with his views and comments before school started. Oh brother was this going to be a stressful time. Ryota took a seat in the second row of the bleachers, for this event he wanted a front row seat.

Usually, he wouldn’t give a damn but this wasn’t your average school, the rules do the jungle were different since the use of quirks were permitted, unlike a regular school. Some of his classmates probably won’t notice but an unintentional pecking order was about to be created divided the weak from the strong. To some, they would think this would be something simple that would break the ice but to Ryota, this would help reveal everything that he needs to know about his peers.


Meanwhile, the unattentive blonde failed to take much note of anything, perhaps save for the sudden blizzard that manifested itself out of nowhere and the monochromic girl standing in the midst of it. Glancing around the room, he was starting to get pent up with some frustration over things that were neither here nor there and did himself another first in his life by actually volunteering himself for an activity. He shuffled over to the open court after that two winged duo finished, but not before he shoulder-checked some curly, black haired teen, without bothering to step around him but rather through him.

Ryota had got up to prepare to go next but while doing so some dumbass had bumped into him. Though usually, he knew that accidents can happen, the vibe he got from the guy was one that he knew all the well. This was on purpose, a display of masculinity is what it was, Ryota turned to the guy and faced him giving off a venomous glare. As the looked the blonde in the eye he noticed it was the same guy that he had sat next to during the assembly, and here Ryota thought this guy wasn’t going to cause him any trouble. “You got a problem jackass?”

Hiroaki watched the other students showcasing their quirks in wonder and awe. He envied them as if they all already mastered their quirks even before going to the academy. Their quirks were even better than his. One can control an element and another has the physiology of an ancient beast, while all Hiroaki can do was just… He sighed, feeling defeated even though the battle has even started yet. Out of all his stronger students with far more superior quirks, what chance did he have?

Then he remembered something. One of their teachers, who introduced himself as Guodo, said that students who have support type quirks have to pair up with someone to showcase their quirks. Hiroaki thought of using it on a dummy, but decided to use it on an actual human would be better. He looked at the two people near him, the sleeping blonde and the grumpy black-haired guy. Hiroaki gulped. He’s too shy to even approach the others so he walked closer to them both.

”Um, hi”, he greeted them both while smiling shyly. ”I guess I’ve never really introduced myself properly. My name is Hiroaki Akiyama. I have a support type quirk so… I’m asking if one of you can be my partner in showcasing my quirk? I can treat you in the cafeteria or somewhere you like as my way of thanks... He beamed at both of them, but his smile gradually disappeared when he noticed them bickering at each other.

Seijin gave a half-lidded glance back at the teen who’d just called him out, “Eh? Watcha mean by that? You ain’t tryin’ stir something with me, are yah?” The return of the pink-haired guy from before who tried to wake him up during the attention, drew his attention as well, What’s with you two approaching me outta nowhere like this? I’m neither here nor there with the effort to put both of y’all in your place right now.”

Either this guy was as clueless as they come or he was just trying to get into Ryota's head. Not only was this guy annoying him but the pinkette came out of nowhere asking to partner up with one of them. Akiyama Hiroaki was his name and he had a support quirk meaning he needed a volunteer to help demonstrate. As Ryota turned to the pinkette he noticed quite a bit of soot coated his jacket, something that definitely wasn’t there a few moments ago. The boy wasn’t worried. Ryota turned to face Seijin but not without noticing they he also had the same stain situated on the shoulder of his jacket. The boy squinted at the blonde’s remark, “Instead of dreaming about putting me in my place, how about washing your filthy fucking clothes you bum.”

Hiroaki’s eyes widened in alarm. If any of the teachers could hear them right now, they will surely be in trouble. ”Um, guys…?” He squeaked as he too was afraid of getting in between these two spiteful boys. He sighed. This time, this time I’m confident I’ll die, he thought to himself as he went in between the two and put his hands on their chest. ”Guys please, save the fighting for later. Nothing good ever comes out of this. Stop this, please”, Hiroaki pleaded to the both of them.

“Ma, ma. Listen already today I had a lot of people test me and yah really wouldn’t want to be the one who gives me that last push, yeah?” Seijin doesn’t pay the pinkette’s words any attention and stares down at the other teen, his expression reflecting just how annoyed at what this bottom feeder was mouthing on about. With one hand, the other hand dug into his back pocket, he roughly shoves him on the chest and drawls on again, this time some temper seeping into his tone, “ Or then maybe I won’t just put yah in your place… maybe I’ll put yah through the ground with my two bare hands.”

Ryota was prepared to retaliate after the guy shoved him, the black haired boy stumbled back a bit before taking a few steps forward clenching his hands as he prepared to deliver a right hook to the bimbo's diaphragm but a thought pierced his brain causing him to stop. “Tch, this is none of your concern,” he said to the small pinkette who was trying to get in the way. Fighting another student the first day at a hero school would have definitely been a one-way ticket out of there immediately… but there may be a way around it. Ryota turned to the danger room with a smirk as he got an idea and faced the bimbo once more.

“Why not duke it out with me in the ring?” he said pointing his thumbs towards the gym floor with a stern face. The boy lowered his voice to the point where it was audible only for the bimbo. “We’d be able to establish who the alpha is with no interruptions out there,” Ryota said hoping the guy would understand exactly what he meant.

Seijin lets out a deep sigh and rubs the back of his neck, “Hah... alright, alright. You brought this on yourself when yah couldn’t tell your place from mine…” The blonde turns on his heel and shuffle towards the court and then paused to crane his head to the pinkette who tried and failed to make them see peace, “Oi Pinky, yah say you’re some kind of support-type quirk user?”

Hiroaki looked at them exasperatedly. Really, the only thing his parents told him to do was to keep out of trouble, but he literally did the one thing he’s not supposed to do. Not to mention, all these happened on the first day. He looked at the two guys taunting each other and Hiroaki flinched by the amount of pride and testosterone these two hotheads were exuding. Hiroaki didn’t even know their names yet…

Then the blonde, as he was on his way to the ring with the black-haired boy, turned his head to look back at Hiroaki and asked him about his support-type quirk. Hiroaki gulped. Y-Yeah! Basically, I can heal people. Why?”, he said to the blonde though Hiroaki already knew what he’s going to say next.

A brow was raised at that and if these two had known Seijin longer, they would’ve been able to tell he was pleasantly surprised to hear that this... Hiroaki? Had an actual, useful quirk that could heal others. “Good. Can heal his ass after I put him through the ground,” pointing his thumb over at Souta as he practically ordered this guy he had just met today.

Ryota discards his coat then steps onto the gymnasium floor, revealing a black thermal that presented his lean build finely. He paid no mind to the boys last comment as he stretched his muscles out a bit. “Sensei, we thought it was best if we competed against each other a bit in order to demonstrate our quirks.” The black haired boy took his place on the left side of the gymnasium and turned to the crowd with his hands in his pockets.

“My name is Kiyoshi Ryota,” the boy smirked while tapping the midsole of his shoe on the ground as he tested the traction of the gym floors. While he did so, Ryota activated his quirk and smoke began to seep through his through the left side of his thermal and go up the length of his arm. “And my quirk is called ‘Trickster Haze’, I am capable of transforming my bone and flesh into smoke.” The boy turned to the bimbo as he waited for him to introduce himself and reveal his quirk.

Seijin sighs deeply as he sauntered into the middle of the gym, next to Ryota’s side and turns around to face the rest of his classmates, “Ohayo. Takahashi Seijin, my quirk’s ‘Speed Theft’ and I can steal whoever’s speed for myself, so thanks in advance for any speed-type quirk users out of y’all.” He then walks across to the other side, getting some distance between him and his opponent, ditching his burnt up jacket which left him in his grey tank top and loose-fitting camo pants. “Oh, and almost forgot. I’m a kinda guy who’s all for the least amount of work possible and I know there’s a lot of y’all who are… outspoken about yourselves and goals ‘n dreams. So consider not objecting to my first ever declaration here: number one spot’s mine. Anyone who’d disagree otherwise will get put in their place and through the ground.”

Done saying his piece Seijin slips into a stance, standing opposite to Ryota, with his arms locked, fists clenched and shoulders relaxed. "Like this one’s about to…” He mutters under his breath only to then speak up louder, "First move’s yours.”

The black haired boy could feel the adrenaline begin to pump a bit as the boy introduced himself. Takahashi Seijin, and his quirk Speed Theft, the name was self-explanatory and it sounded to be something equally as pesky as his own Smoke, what were the conditions of his quirk was the first thing Ryota wondered as the boy rolled up his sleeves. Smoke was still frothing from his body and falling to the floor as he began to setup his demonstration. When Seijin made his comment about being number one Ryota scoffed.

“I’m curious to see the limits of your speed theft so how about we simulate a hostage situation where one of us plays the hero and the other the villain? We’ll flip a coin, winner gets first pick.” Ryota pulled out a coin from his pocket, “Heads or tails?” The boy asked as he played with the coin, tossing it up into the air and catching it.

“Eh, heads.” Seijin replies back dully, as he shoves his hands into his pockets and waits. If it were up to him, he would’ve just called for a spar between the both of them but it was too troublesome to say something now.

”So their names are Takahashi Seijin and Kiyoshi Ryota. It would’ve been nice if they introduced themselves to me like normal people instead of founding out their names before they’re gonna fight in a battle of fragile manhood”, Hiroaki exasperatedly thought to himself as he watched the blonde and the black-haired boy preparing for their sparring match.

He looked around, nervous that he’s going to be acquainted with these two hotheads. Then he shook his head. It’s wrong for Hiroaki to think of them that way. It’s just first day jitters. They’re all going to unfamiliar territory, away from their homes to stay with peers of their age for months. If this was the way for them to ease their agitated selves, so be it. But still, Hiroaki hoped they would have settled this better than… that.

”Just… take it easy guys! It’s just a friendly sparring match to showcase your quirks! No need to be violent…”, Hiroaki called out to the both of them, his voice getting lower than lower as he realized too late that no words can stop these two hard-headed boys from fighting each other. Once again, Hiroaki sighed exasperatedly.

Ryota paid no mind to the pinkette who was still putting his two cents in on the side lines. It was obvious that he didn’t know the thrill of battle and was clearly lacking in the testosterone department. Ryota threw the coin up in the air and watch it fall to the ground landing on heads. “You get to pick, hero or villain.”

I’ll be hero… and oi Hiroaki, front ‘n center. You’ll be our hostage for the demo. Seijin had ‘volunteered’ the pinkette into the role, not leaving room for discussion on the decision.

Hiroaki looked at him in horror. If there’s anything the pink-haired boy hates, it’s definitely acting. Still, he supposed he doesn’t have a choice in the matter, especially now. ”O-Okay, coming”, he nervously said as he walked towards Ryota and Seijin while fumbling nervously with his hands. ”What will I do exactly?”

Ryota rolled his eyes at the boy’s comment, “It’s exactly like he said, you’re the hostage.” He then turned towards Goudo sensei, “Sensei, can you create a base of operations with turrets surrounding it along with a bit of rope?”

The teacher nodded in agreement to their request and after a push of the button the class would see the ground open up and the bunker that was asked for. The base that was created was nothing fancy, it was a simple 8x12 room with concrete walls accompanied by empty window frames. A bundle of rope would also be tossed to them by Guodo sensei which Ryota would use to tie up the pinkett.

A smirk came to the boys face, Hero school isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Ryota grabbed the bundle of rope and beckoned for Hiroaki to get into the bunker that was created for them. “Allow me a few minutes to set up.”

For like the millionth time that day, Hiroaki sighed exasperatedly as he resigned to his fate and went into the bunker. He’s been more nervous now than he was before on his way here at the academy. He can even feel the wasps from earlier return to his tummy as he was waiting for Ryota to tie him up. For Hiroaki, this day has been a wild ride from the very start, and they haven’t even reached the end yet.

Ryota followed inside and immediately got to work tying up the boys wrists and legs together. The rope was a bit on the tight side and would eventually begin to chafe the pinkett skin a bit after a while. Outside the base, three turrets with laser pointers extended from the ground and surrounded the bunker in the form of a triangle. Once it seemed like everything was check, Ryota flooded the bunker with smoke using his left hand. Within about 15 second the base of operations was shrouded in a thick fog inside and it, the smoke was so heavy that it even gave Hiroaki a bit of a problem seeing where Ryota was located.

“If you try giving off your location by making noises, I’ll be forced to quiet you down, I would like to avoid that.”

These were the last words Ryota said before walking outside the base. His left arm was pretty much gone after hot boxing the entire area. Ryota cuffed his right hand around his mouth in order to project his voice, “Listen up, you have three minutes to prove to me why exactly you’re deserving of the number one spot, come at me whenever.”

Seijin couldn't be bothered at all to respond, instead he just silently took in what was said and tensed up readying himself for this run. This Ashtray-breath wouldn't stand between him and making due on his declaration from minutes ago, at least not before he was knocked down and put in his place. The blonde starts off and dashes away at the concrete bunker, he was already fast but nothing really impressive... for now.

It's not long before he enters in range of the turrets which immediately lock onto their target and fire away and luckily these bullets weren't anything like the real deal so Seijin easily steals their speed for himself; leaving whole clips of rubber bullets suspended in the air. Charged with the kinetic energy, the blonde redirects some of that into his legs and speeds off even faster before springing into the air like an Olympic high jumper and safely over more of the turret-fire, his back arched around the barrage mid-air.

Showing his athleticism, he lands on the wall with a thud and his right hand finds purchase on the building's roof, before swiftly scaling up to the top of the building. The dense fog is all he sees as he stares down the empty skylight frame on the concrete ceiling, without wasting a moment Seijin into the barrier of smoke.

---

Shun flashed a toothy grin and a thumbs-up at the suddenly-amiable Hiroki's suggestion to team up for the Pillars events. He wasn't sure if they needed to plan that far in advance, but a head start on teambuilding was always a good thing in his book. Although, Hiroki's face toward Shiki suggested an ulterior motive beyond innocent competitiveness. One might even call it sinister. Unfortunately, Shun didn't have much time to analyze it in favor of more pressing matters. Shiki was approaching him, which meant the... incident earlier either wasn't his fault, or the other boy had gotten over whatever he was mad about. Or Shiki wanted to talk to Hiroki and Shun was just being egocentric.

Pixels stood uncharacteristically still, eyes pointed at Shiki but not really focused on the tailed boy; his brow furrowed as he worked his jaw subtly in thought. His brain was working analytically now, but with an obliviousness to most social gaucherie and a limited knowledge to go on about Shiki himself, he was basically speculating blindly. It took him a bit too long for it to be considered normal before he finally acknowledged the newcomer, his face slipping back into a friendly demeanor as if on cue. He wasn't proud to admit it took him that long to realize he could answer these questions just by asking.

"Hey! Is everything okay?" He chirped in greeting, "Y'know, from earlier?" Shun tilted his head sideways almost owlishly in curiosity, his eyes scouring Pink Top's face for any sign of offense or discomfort in a weirdly intense - and, ironically, uncomfortable - departure from his usual excitability.

Shiki's head perked up upon hearing Pixel's voice, revealing a short-lived smile and confident expression on his face. Being acknowledge by someone strong like Hiroki and the concern expressed by Shun, had certainly put him in a positive mood. It was a nice shift from being entirely stressed out for about half the week. Hopefully it remains that way, for the rest of the week at least. He stopped in front of Shun, returning a slight nod.

“Yes, I'm fine...Thank you for asking, Datari-Kun.” He paused for a moment, realizing his actions earlier could've been misinterpreted by Shun. It was best to use this opportunity to explain himself, lest he causes anymore confusion to the small-minded boy. “Tanifuji-Sensei terrifies me is all, she is the reason why I was out of commission during the entrance exam.” He muttered out, his body visibly trembling after speaking that vile woman's name.

After taking a few deep breaths, his trembling ceased. Shiki then returned a closed-eye smile to Shun, which had more positivity energy put into it compared to the last one. “Sorry, for running off like that. I won't let it happen during quirk demonstration...Say, how about we pair up for the next one, Datari-Kun? We already know each other's quirks, I'm sure we will make a great team!”

Shun had to resist the urge to snicker, although he subconsciously kicked himself for it. Tanifuji-sensei wasn't scary - the furthest thing from it, honestly. Although her quirk had to certainly be something to elicit such a reaction, even from someone he assumed wasn't as accustomed to getting beat up as he was from his own martial arts background.

"Don't worry about it, yeah? Work hard and beat her up next time, there's no reason to be scared." Pixels laughed out lightheartedly, moving to follow the class as they in turn followed after Colgate-sensei. He liked that Shiki had opened up a bit; quiet people confused him. They always seemed like they were hiding something, intentionally or not. He was a bit perplexed as to why everyone around him was so keen to team up all of a sudden though. Was he a bigger asset than he thought or something? He was definitely a staunch advocate for teamwork, and he liked to think he had some kind of inspirational effect on people, but this was a bit much.

"As for teaming up," Shun hummed in thought for a second, then snapped his fingers as if coming to some conclusion, "That's right, you can't really show off your quirk without another person. Sure, we can team up. My ideas were all boring anyway; you'll probably make me look better." He flashed a cheeky grin back at Shiki, eyes narrowed teasingly.

Shiki returned a sturdier and optimistic nod to Shun. For a second, he actually believed he could defeat Tanifuji-Sensei with enough hard work and dedication, when in reality it was nothing more than a mere fantasy. Whatever, it didn't matter at the moment, Shiki was just happy to be around Pixel-Kun. His heartfelt smile being evident of that.

“T-That's kind of you to say that.” He paused, sounding a bit flustered by Shun's tease. After adjusting his glasses, the embarrassing red hue on his cheeks disappeared. “As a matter of fact, I do have a plan in mind...Want me to fill you in?” He asked, swaying his tail behind his back in a suggestive motion, wishing to upload his thoughts directly into Shun's brain. It would be much quicker for them to formulate a plan, if they decide to communicate through this fashion.

He walked alongside with Shun, until they arrived to the pristine looking gym. Upon entering, Shiki was in absolute awe by the sheer massive size of the room. More so, when Guodo-Sensei demonstrated the 'danger room'. One of his index fingers and thumb were resting on the rim frame of his glasses, while turning his head in a frenzied manner. “Oh, wow. Are all the gyms like this at the other schools?” He asked Shun, without looking at him. His eyes continued to wander, visually processing all of this information at once. It was just a matter of time before he decides to poke his tail into something.

Shun arched an eyebrow at the other boy's reddening face, but didn't comment, continuing on toward the gym. "Poke me when we get there, I wanna see what we're dealing with first." His quirk was easy to demonstrate, it was simplistic and didn't need a target in order to show off its effects. But, he didn't want to look completely underwhelming if everyone else in the class put on a dazzling display either. And he didn't even know where to begin to show off Shiki's quirk.

As he entered the gym, he rooted himself in place next to Shiki, gawking at the scenery alongside the similarly-captivated boy as he bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly. "I've never actually seen another hero school. But, I'd assume the bigger schools are even cooler." Shun whispered out in an almost reverent response to Shiki. He regained his senses once the demonstrations started, nudging Shiki gently with his elbow and gesturing to his forehead to signal for the other boy to start using his quirk. If he started poking around in Shun's head for ideas for the demonstration, he'd find little more than a simple pixelation past a few obstacles, with little to no combat exhibition. Apparently Tetris wanted to keep his trump card under wraps, or just didn't see the need to show it off.

In the meantime, Shun kept close attention to the quirks being demonstrated, one of his hands gripping his chin in an exaggerated thinking pose. He thought they were all impressive in their own way, no matter how they were presented. Even the underwhelming performances held thinly-veiled implications of how the quirk could be used to great effect by a clever user. He paid particularly close attention to Akeno's demonstration, particularly after she started throwing kicks. He even went so far as to politely clap after she finished.

Shiki's attention was abruptly interrupted by Shun's nudging. Which, caused his body to twitch and react in a startled manner upon contact, despite how gentle the feeling was. He darted a glare towards Shun, his malicious expression hidden behind the reflected light bouncing off his lenses. It was like Shiki was about to give Shun a stern lecture about keeping his hands and elbows to himself. However, his expression softened after noticing Pixel-boy's gesture to penetrate his forehead with the tail. Right, Shiki was caught up with analyzing the gym, that he momentarily forgot about that.

”Okay, here you go Datari-Kun.” And just like that, he inserted the connector into the middle of Shun's forehead. Shiki started to rummage around Shun's 'files', searching for anything related to his quirk and other unique skills that was dormant inside that brain of his. At the same time, Shiki uploaded his ideas for their demonstration. Taking the information he already had on Shun into consideration, he suggested a short-timed demonstration to ease on his reconstruction drawbacks. He also suggested an infiltration type of simulation, to swiftly neutralize any hostile dummies together with the use of his surveillance advantage. Shiki thought they had the potential of performing a perfect hit and run combination. The two had the ability to immobilize or disable their opponents from a long range, allowing the other to deal the finishing blow. Whatever ideas Shun had in mind, Shiki would know instantly.

While the duo were developing a strategy for their turn, Shiki observed his fellow classmates and took mental notes of his own. He thought all of them so far were interesting and most certainly had their uses. The demonstrations he paid close attention to, were Yomodachi's, Yakkaimori's, and none other than World Tour. In Yomodachi's case, the demonstration left him completely stunned. Seriously, why is she even attending this school instead of UA, he thought. Oh well, it was better than having her represent one of the other schools during the Four Pillars event. For Yakkaimori, he found her surveillance quirk to rival his own. She was impressive, and her ears were cute too, he thought. Lastly, World Tour made him a firm believer there was some good in this cruddy city. At first, he only paid attention for Ito, in respect for his reassuring words back at the assembly. However, he became heavily inspired by their contagious positivity energy and teamwork, he wanted to express that same type of vibe with Shun.

”Wow, everybody here is amazing...wouldn't you say Datari-Kun?” He beamed while turning turning his head to Shun, showing that heartfelt smile of his. ”You ready?” He asked, believing they were finally set on a plan.

"Their quirks are so cool... any one of them would be a pain to fight." Shun mumbled back, looking both confused and awestruck by World Tour's debut. He blinked a few times, realizing that Shiki was suggesting they go next. "Mmm, we can go. I was thinking we could, err..." Pixels abruptly stopped talking as his eyes crossed to look upward at the USB still in his head. He then squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think his ideas at Shiki really hard in lieu of explaining it verbally.

He then abruptly scampered up to Guodo-sensei's control console without waiting for confirmation and began whispering his ideas to the teacher conspiratorially. After that, he walked over to the center of the gym, flagging Shiki over as a solid wall with a closed door began to rise behind him. He flashed a wide grin at the class before he began in an upbeat tone.

"Hi! I'm Datari Shun, and my quirk's called Pixelation!" Shun bounced on his feet when he talked, animatedly waving to accent his point, "It basically lets me, well, you'll see. I'm really happy to be here! You guys look so strong!"

Shiki reluctantly followed after Shun, managing to disconnect the cable from his forehead before they moved out. Public speaking always made him uncomfortable, especially when it was in front of a large group. He took a deep breath, trying to remain positive for Shun's sake. The moment he lifted his head up to face the class, he immediately did a 180° turn out of anxiety and revealed his tail instead, which was nervously swaying side to side. His phone could be visibly seen, connected at the end of his tail.

“I-I'm Tetsumi, Shiki...my quirk is called USB...” His voice didn't sound like it was being spoken through the mouth, like a normal person would. Instead, he was directing his thoughts into his phone, using it to communicate with the others through the speaker. Shiki preferred this method of communication. “It's really nothing special...” He muttered through the phone at a low volume.

A screen raised up from the floor, displaying a security feed of the situation behind the wall. It was positioned in front of the presenting duo, such that the audience could see what was occurring beyond the door, but Shun and Shiki wouldn't be able to see it from their angle. On the screen, a 'villain' dummy had a gun pointed at a 'hostage' dummy a few feet away, along with a few low walls interspaced throughout the "room", presumably used to simulate furniture.

"Okay, so, picture this," Shun started eagerly, clapping once as he prepared to set the scene, "A villain has a civilian held hostage inside a... let's say a bank. Heroes have no idea where the villain is, and the moment they storm the building; a hostage will get hurt before they have a chance to assess the situation and dispatch the gunman. The bank has security cameras, which you're seeing, but the heroes can't access them conventionally from outside the building."

Shiki figured that was his cue to speak, “However, using my quirk, not only can I map out the entire building down to the last detail, but I can also hack the security feeds connected to the network...All without alerting the villain inside. Then, I can upload that information into someone else's brain...You should know where I'm going with this...” He adjusted his glasses menacingly, then disconnected the phone from himself. After which, Shiki increased the length of his tail to its maximum reach of five meters, inserting the connector against one of the building walls.

Downloading a precise map of the simulated building, including the security feeds, didn't take more than a minute. He turned his head towards Shun, signaling a nod, while his tail was pulled back to their side. It was all up to him now, the connector penetrated Shun's forehead and uploaded a stream of information into his mind. Providing him an optimal route to follow and the exact location of the gunman, hostage, and obstacles present in the room.

Shun stood patiently as Shiki was interfacing with the simulated room, unraveling his lurid eyesore of a pink scarf from around his neck and dropping it at his feet in preparation to act. He tensed uncharacteristically as his forehead was poked, more out of concern that he might somehow damage the tail were he to move about normally than any pain or discomfort. As soon as Shiki disconnected from him, he made for the door, steeling himself momentarily before cracking it open the slightest bit.

Shun's body immediately started flickering like an image on a broken TV set, dissociating at the edges into small cubes that drifted away. As the process continued, the cubes grew smaller and smaller, until Shun appeared to be nothing more than specks of dust being blown away without a trace by the wind. Simultaneously, his body was reconstructing itself next to the 'villain' dummy on screen, placing himself between the hostage and the villain. The distorted mass of pixels leapt forward to tackle the dummy as it began to resemble Shun more and more, one hand reaching out to push the dummy's gun aside while the rest of his weight was thrown at the vllain's midriff to send the dummy to the ground. By the time Shun had fully returned to normal shape, the villain was pinned with its gun safely diverted away from the hostage. Overall, the entire process of Shun's pixelation took less than a second and the subsequent apprehension of the villain little time after that. Hopefully the audience didn't blink.

The green-haired boy swiveled his head around, as if looking for the camera, but then settled for just talking to the wall. "And that's my quirk. I can basically teleport, I guess." He stood up and walked back out the door he entered from, flourishing a dramatic bow as he bent down to collect his discarded scarf. He lowered his voice to a reasonable stage-whisper as he directed a thumbs-up toward Shiki, "That map thing was so cool! Your quirk is awesome!"

There was nothing left for Shiki to do, other than wait for Shun's return. His back was still facing towards the class, awkwardly standing there with his tail steadily swaying behind him. He drifted into thought, feeling like he didn't make that huge of an impact than he hoped. Yet, it didn't stop Shun from acknowledging the usefulness of his quirk, which caused Shiki to turn his head away from him in embarrassment. “Th-Thank you, Datari-Kun...Your quirk is amazing as well...” He responded back, his cheeks having a light blush, and showed a feint smile. His tail was swiftly wagging back and forth in response like an excited dog, expressing his happiness.

---

As the presentations continued, Soga placed his book down for a moment and stared at the people that would come after him with interest. After all, if these were to eventually help him take down his father, then he would need to know how their quirks would serve him in a fight against his father.

The one straight after him was a muscular girl, more so than him. Her quirk was quite simple, she could heat up her body to much higher temperatures than normal humans could and, from the look of things afterwards, she was a fairly skilled fighter as well. However, against his father, neither her quirk or her combat skills would be of much use as not only was he was highly resistant to both of these, he was also much, much stronger than the girl.

The following students were a boy and a tiny girl with fairly large ears. Soga showed some interest in these two students, he did not remember seeing either of them during the entrance exams and yet they had somehow passed and were now presenting their quirks. He was curious as to what either of them were capable. The first of them to go was the boy, who introduced himself as Takeda Suzaku, his quirk being called Black Wings. Shortly afterwards, a large pair of smoky black wings erupted from his back. Soga could not help but smile, a flyer, even one without any other powers would be of great use to him.

However his smile diminished as he continued informing everyone of his quirk. The wings were not that useful at the moment, though it did help him with mobility a great deal, they were unable to help him fly at all. Soga surmised that as he was now, Suzaku would only serve well as a scout of sorts, capable of getting in and out of a situation fairly quickly, but otherwise than that, not a lot he could actually achieve against his father as he was now.

The girl however, would prove even more interesting than the previous demonstration as he started hearing the large-eared girl introduce herself and her quirk. It was quite simply called Bat and it was what Soga would expect of a quirk with that name, the girl had basically all of the physical traits of a bat, echolocation and all. After her introduction, Koumori tied a All Might blindfold over her eyes, a fact which got a light chuckle out the draconic student.

The demonstration, as Soga would see, would be a flawless one, the tiny bat girl would navigate a maze of obstacles without any trouble at all. Even Soga had to admit that not even he might have been able to navigate the maze in such a completely flawless way. She would be an incredibly useful scout and incredibly useful at locating any foes trying to sneak up on them, yes, she would be part of his group, not now, but soon enough, if he could help it at all.

As they both passed he and Azukina by, he nodded towards the girl. "Good job, Yakkaimori-san, that was very impressive!" He congratulated the girl. "You will truly become a great hero, I can guarantee it!" He said with a smile that would seem genuine to almost anyone, save the most insightful of people.

After the brief conversation, he turned back forwards to attend to the following pair of students, however, in his mind ran the demonstration of the girl right him and her bold proclamation of how she would be the next Symbol of Peace. Which in itself meant that she had distinct knowledge of the previous holder of that title and his personal mantra. He smiled, the girl Yomodachi was incredibly powerful and probable the only person currently to have a decent chance at defeating his father. He picked up his book back up and began reading once more, though perhaps making it a bit more obvious to Yomodachi and see what reaction she would have to him reading this particular book. It would certainly serve as a good conversation starter, a much better conversation starter than whatever he could think of anyway.

If there was no reaction, if Azukina would not start a conversation, then he would continue reading the book either way as it did offer quite a lot of insight into the philosphies of various heroes, what it meant to be a hero and about the philosophy of what made the greatest hero, All Might into who he was and how his qualities had made him into the Symbol of Peace.

Azukina, on the other hand, had only a brief amount of time to herself before the quirk demonstrations started again, proceeding her being a boy who paid her an admittedly rather nice compliment. His quirk, rotation, was perhaps one of the most interesting quirks she had ever seen. To be able to rotate just about anything through touch, in a variety of different ways, sounded like a complete nightmare to deal with. While he had obvious application in a variety of ways, the real charm of such a quirk came by thinking things through intelligently. Keeping things unexpected with a quirk like that would surely be its greatest asset - the versatility of it was honestly impressive.
Speaking of versatility, Yasu and her quirk demonstration came shortly thereafter, simple but easy to understand. While not a huge fan of her attitude, Azuki could appreciate the girl's understanding of her own quirk and the usefulness recognized within. In fact it was a quallity she felt herself lacking in, so to see someone with a great handle on their quirk step up and show their stuff helped fill the ice-user with confidence. If nothing else, Yasu seemed fairly dependable... when needed.

The rescue operation between Haruka and Soga was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one in its complexity. The pair demonstrated not only a skill in quick-thinking, coming up with their scenario, but also aptitude in their quirk demonstration. Soga was a gifted flier, probably a result of practice his entire life, who, despite the wingspan, was quite agile in the air. On the other hand, Haruka's vines made her possibly one of the greatest counters to her own quirk, if they were forced to face off. Being able to pin a person, or even manipulate and misdirect their attacks, gave her ways to keep away from her wind. That said, if Azukina managed to get her wind on either of them for an extended period of time, both students appeared pretty susceptible, based on the information she kenw.

"Congratulations on the demonstration." It was the first time she had congratulated anyone who had come sit on the bleachers, even though it wasn't necessarily their quirks she was congratulating. "I didn't expect a rescue scenario so early. You must be quick-thinking."
Admittedly, body and mind were out of sync more than Azuki would have liked. She hadn't much time to strengthen her mind as she did her body, so when it came to things the girl didn't understand, she could be... dumb. But! Perhaps she had found a way of learning - her silver lining?

Before any further conversation could be done, Checkers' attention returned to the demonstations, keeping in line with her attentiveness. Following the pairing was Kudo Akeno, who clearly conveyed strength much greater than her own. Admittedly, while her legs were strong, Azukina's arms were lacking in a few too many ways. This, combined with her quirk, quickly placed Akeno at No.1 of Yomodachi's Mental Personal Threat List, a massive hard-counter that was almost unbeatable.
Following that was Suzaku and Koumori. Admittedly, their less-flashy demonstrations didn't quite capture her attention so much, because she liked things looking cool. However, Koumori's echolocation gained her full attention, Azukina watching in disbelief. Suzaku's quirk looked cooler, but Koumori's was certainly the more powerful as it stood, showcasing perhaps the best use of quirk mastery of her peers. Growing up with your quirk was a largely understated pro of being a mutant, made all the more prominent in today's society.

As Soga spoke it got the teen's attention. She would congratulate them herself, however she had already done so with another pair, and it felt unnecessary with the dragon's welcoming smile. About to return to the demonstrations, her eyes made out the cover of the book he was reading, and her eyes instantly lit up. Unfortunately she didn't have it on her person as she had left the book in her bag, but to see someone else reading the exact same book she was definitely made her more than curious. She had to strike up a conversation.
"That book..." She began, unable to quite think of a suitable conversation starter. After a pause only barely uncomfortable in length, she added: "I am surprised. I'm reading that exact same book in my free time."
There was another pause, much more brief this time around, before she extended her non-frozen hand in the dragon's direction. "Azukina Yomodachi. Yutsuko, right? Congratulations on making it."

"Haha, well, to be fair, I do prefer mental activities more than physical ones, but still, thank you very much for your compliment." He said smiling to the Black and White girl, not that sure himself as to what he would say next now. While he was used to talking to people when he needed to, compliments were something uncommon to him, especially coming from someone as talented as Yomodachi had proven to be. He wanted to continue the conversation, however, for once in his life he did not know what to say to someone and all he could do for a bit was simply stay in a slightly awkward silence until he would think of something to say.

Thankfully, it wasn't he who had to start the conversation once more, Azukina had thankfully seen the book and she had shown the interest he thought she should, the fact that she was not that good a conversationalist herself made him feel slightly better about the lack of an interesting speaking topic earlier.
"Yes, my name is Yutsuko Soga, glad to meet you, ummm." He was not sure what name she would prefer to be called, while it would be normal to call her by her family name, Soga had recently learned not to treat that as absolute. "Do you prefer Azukina, or Yomodachi?" He asked, needing to make sure not to accidentally insult her.

"As for the book, yes, well, I thought it would be only natural for somone who wants to be a hero to read a book that would teach one how to actually be the best hero they could be." He said smiling, not only because his suspicion had proven to be correct once more, but also because the girl actually seemed interested in the topic at hand. "How far have you gotten into the book right, I do not wish to spoil it for you, or you for me if you are ahead."

"Azukina - I much prefer to Yomodachi. Please, don't feel awkward in saying so, Azukina-san is formal for me. It is good to make your acquiantance, Yutsuko."
With the two of them both slightly awkward book nerds, it made talking about books feel a little... odd. At least for Azukina, she hadn't met anyone with the same taste of reading material as she did. Her philosophy could get quite heavy and for most boring, so it didn't bring in a lot of casual hero fans. Though it targeted a niche audience, it was still known well enough to get some traction in universities across the world, sharing a steady growth rate. "Unfortunately there are many who don't share your point of view on philosophy. I understand it isn't something for everyone, however. It makes me happy enough knowing someone here also enjoys it."

She took a glance at the page number he was on, then gave a confident "Mmmh," as though coming to some kind of realization. "You're behind me a fair ways. Do not worry, I will not spoil anything you do not want to be spoiled, but I will say it starts to pick up from here."

Soga's eyes widened, how would it pick up, it had already stated many of it's most major points asked the most important questions and in part answered them with the writer's own opinions, what else could it have in store. He smiled, and for once it was genuine, he had finally met someone with whom he could discuss such topics with someone who was actually interested in them.

"Well, if it would be ok with you, then maybe we would be able to discuss some of the topics that have been discussed until now?" He asked, placing a bookmark where he had reached with the book and turned towards her. "If you wish, we could make it a sort of mini-quiz, to test one another's knowledge of the book at hand, or offer our own opinions, if you feel more comfortable with that." He said with a grin on his face. "Also, how about we make this more interesting, though this part is more optional, I wish to collect info on all of my fellow students, how to help them improve both themselves and their quirks. So, we begin asking and answering questions, whenever somebody answers wrongly, or simply admits that they do not know the answer, then, they must answer a question truthfully, how does it sound?"

She had to admit, a quiz sounded like a pretty fun idea. Azuki was confident she wouldn't spoil anything for him, seeing as he wouldn't know unless she specifically told him. However, the usual pains of trying to talk to boys beyond formality reared its stupid head, causing Azukina to become momentarily flustered. What were his intentions? Was he trying to ask her out? Would he end up being a nasty piece of work behind that smile?

Soga almost instantly noticed her change of expression and raised his hands up in defense, to show that he had nothing to hide. "Of course if you do not want to make it more interesting, we could simply ask questions just for the sake of asking them, either way, it will be all the same for me." He said, not wholly sure why he had said these words in the first place, finding out info was his prime objective now, he could not afford to get emotional again and delay the search for information like he had done in the past, he had come to regret it then and he would regret it now.

Checkers shook her head. Nevermind, he was just a dolt. "It is not that, you see, I was just... no, it isn't important." She shuffled in her seat awkwardly. Damn, this was harder than it looked. Just trying to maintain some form of eye contact was hard enough, asking questions was another matter, and despite dismissing it, she still felt as though she was being hit on. Nevertheless, Azukina tried to think of a question as the next student took up the challenge of demonstrations; or rather, students? Another pairing, this time being between a stocky guy and...
Oh. Him.
Instead of focusing on the demonstrations, the monochrome girl decided it was best to give Soga some of her attention. It was difficult, but every so-often she would find something to look at - the book, her nails, the gym, her skirt. It kept the nerves away, at least a bit.
"Alright then, I agree to your terms on the condition personal questions for both parties have the option to 'pass', provided they are too, err, personal."

Her first question was a simple one. It wasn't as though he wouldn't know it - it was highlighted towards the beginning of the book. "My first question for you, Yutsuko, is to define the three primary qualities of a Symbol of Peace." She would be shocked if he couldn't get that one, but he gave off the impression of a scholar despite being a large, obsidian dragon, so it would be no surprise to her if he could recall it off the top of his head.

Soga simply smiled upon the question being asked. "That was the same question, I wished to ask, but nevermind." He said shaking his head for a moment. This was really one of the easiest questions in the book, or one of the easiest questions for any aspiring Symbol of Peace, really, he would have been ashamed had he not known the answer.

"Firstly, a Symbol of Peace must be popular, not necesarily the Number One, but still. Second, they need to demonstrate a strong moral compass, to embody the very essence of what it means to be a hero. Third, and though I have my issues with this one, they need to be able to be anywhere at a moment's notice, to show that they are always watching, that they are able to stop crime wherever it might pop up." He answered, smiling pridefully, having proven his knowledge.

"Anyways, my turn now." Soga said, having already lost track of the remaining students, though he did offer very brief glances to see what was happening. "Though the book does not focus on the topic very much, I wish to ask you a similar question, can an antithesis to the Symbol of Peace exist and if so has there ever been one?" Soga grinned as he asked the question. This part was barely even touched in the book, at least to the point he had reached, so unless it returned to the topic once more later on, this question would truly test the knowledge of the girl before him, though as he asked that question, he could not help himself but be distracted by a girl with fiery hair showing her quirk and its... aftereffects, so to say.

He wasn't alone in his fascination of the girl with the flaming hair quirk. Another person with a quirk which could overwhelm her, given the properties it exhibited. Her skill at using such intense fire really intimidated the teenager - it brought back some memories she would rather leave alone. However, thoughts of how the girl's quirk could counter her own prevailed over silly memories best left alone, for a fire such as that could be dangerous. That said, it could also be an asset, capable of removing the frost on her arm at a moment's notice. If they worked together, provided her flames couldn't go out, the two of them would be a menacing threat.
She almost forgot Soga's question, given how intersting flames-for-hair's demo was. She pondered the question a little, however as far as she knew, the book hadn't covered such a concept outside of speculation.

"The antithesis to the Symbol of Peace, a Symbol of Terror, can exist in theory, however we've yet to see what one would look like. The closest thing could be the person who fought All-Might, however nobody really knew anything about him, so we can assume he was more of a lone-wolf. Minor spoilers, but the book talks about it in later chapters, arguing such a person could exist, but would require anarchy in the place of peace."

Now it was her turn. The next group of students took to the demonstrations, three this time, simulating a hero vs villains scenario with a hostage in the mix. Checkers couldn't help but envy their creativity. "It is said that heroes are the modern embodiment of kings, exercising the full spectrum of the human condition and taking it to a new degree, exemplifying the personification of humanity's biggest emotions, ideals, and experiments. My question to you, err, Y-Yutsuko, is if heroes truly embody this philosophy of extremity, what does their counterpart, the villains, embody?"
Now this was a tough question. She couldn't help but stutter a little from excitement, but remained mostly composed, just a little fidgety. If he had read this far in, or considered this line of thinking himself at some point, then she felt the two may have come to the same conclusion. "Put simply, if heroes are kings, then what are villains by comparison?"

A very difficult question indeed. Soga's eyes narrowed at the question, as he swore he could briefly hear his father's voice when he was a child. "From their point of view, they are freedom fighters, fighting for the freedom to do as they will, whilst taking the freedom of others, but in our eyes, in the eyes of the ones who are their targets, they are but usurpers to the rightful throne of heroes." He answered, a little more poetically than he had wished it and with perhaps a bit more venom than he had wished, considering that he unfortunately had some personal experience with this, but still, he hoped that he had gotten the answer across properly.

By this point, Soga had become completely engrossed in the subject at hand, completely ignoring everything else that was happening around them. "For my second question..." He looked around in his mind for a question that would fit her now, but could not think of one.

"Let us go to the beginning, then, shall we?" Soga asked, a question finally having come to him. "Was the first quirk we know of, truly the first, or have quirks existed alongside us from the moment of our inception as a race? Were the mythical people of the past just that, or were they proof that quirks have existed since ancient times?"

She thought about his query for a moment. Considering he asked, she assumed he was further ahead than she thought, meaning he probably had some idea of the answer. Given this, Azuki did her best to explain without going overboard on the details, as it was a big topic later on in the text.
"Well... I don't want to mention anything you don't already know, but quirks have been a part of humanity long before our time. Its been said that the dawn of ancient civilization marked the beginnings of quirks, although they may have been in use before that time. The first recognised quirk, Luminescence, marked the beginning of mass quirk expression, so in a way it's the first quirk we definitely know of, but remains of potential quirk-users have proven the existence of quirks before then. The question then becomes one of how deep something like this goes? Are the likes of bigfoot and apparent psychics included? Religious figureheads and founders? Magic used to sound like a far-fetched concept, yet knowing quirks may have existed before us, it isn't uncommon to assume mages were merely precursors to our modern-day heroes. But if that's the case, does that mean acts of divi-"

She cut herself off with a gasp and shook her head. No spoilers!
"S-sorry, almost went overboard there." Her face lit up a tinge of pink as she thought about her question. The three boys were still doing their demonstration - it was a long one. "This will be more of a personal question of mine, but it's based on the text, mostly. While simple, I'd like for you to define the differences between a Symbol of Peace and a Number 1. Hero."
The amount of people that got this question wrong was astounding. This question would truly test if Soga was as astute as he seemed or not.

Soga grinned from ear to ear as Azukina answered his question, not only because it was right, but because of the fact that he had finally found someone to discuss such topics freely at last. However, when she placed her own question, he once more furrowed his brows as he thought of the answer. But, was there a difference? For a very long time, both those titles had been held by one person, All Might and as such, for most people, there was no distinction between one or the other and shamefully enough, this was the case for Soga as well.

He shook his head, there was no reason to prolong this situation by pretending to think about the answer to the question when he did not know it. So, with a defeated smile, Soga acknowledged his defeat. "I do not know." He shook his head. "Congratulations, Azukina-san, you are the victor here, you may either ask me one question of your choice and I shall answer it truthfully." He said with a bow of his head, acknowledging the checkered girl as the victory.

The mini fist pump of victory was her form of acknowledgement in victory. Soga had played well, but he probably preferred other aspects of study, as opposed to boring hero stuff, Completely forgetting to tell him the answer to her own question, Azukina pondered the ideal question. She couldn't ask anything too personal of him, else she would end up risking upsetting him. Everyone had their secrets, and it wasn't her place to pry,
So she decided to test her luck, having thought about it long enough without giving any true idea much thought. Besides, it would help determine what kind of person he was.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend, Yutsuko?"

Honestly she felt bad asking a question without giving him the opportunity to ask his own, especially with a question like that. Even if he didn't seem the type it could still stir up memories, so she awkwardly added: "J-just so you know y-you can pass, or, uh, yeah... B-but if you do ask, please ask me a question, mine was too improper! I-I... deeply apologise."
Oops.

Soga, without even realizing so, began to growl slightly upon the question being asked, it picked at a wound that had yet to even close. His tail started to slowly move around as he remembered the betrayal, his claws diging deep into his scales for a few moments as he thought of what punishment would be fitting for those who had him backstabbed so. However, he calmed himself down as he reminded himself that he had been the one to come up with the terms, it would be unbecoming of him if he refused to answer the question.

"No, it is quite ok, I agreed to answer any question, no matter how personal it may have proven to be." He said, raising his hand to stop her apology. "As for the answer itself, well, almost, I suppose, I did sort of have a girlfriend, I mean up until our separation, we had been a couple in name only when she... how do I put this." He said, as he calmed the rage that was welling up inside of him. "Well, I dislike being so blunt, but caught her making out with one of my other friends, so that should tell you quite well why are not together, and to make it worse..." His expression turned into a slightly pained one as he continued. "It happened to days ago."

With that, he took a deep breath to completely calm himself down. He thought for his question for only a second, as she had already asked it for him. "As for my own question, well, you could perhaps answer your own question?" He asked her, though he fully knew that the topic might be a bit hard for her as well. "Though of course, if you feel like the matter is too uncomfortable for you, you need not go into detail, you can answer with a yes or a no if you wish."

...
Well now she felt horrible for asking, her insecurities proving true as Yutsuko revealed a raw wound to his heart inflicted a mere two days ago. It had the girl recoiling; this was a dumb idea. A terrible idea. Why ask such a stupid question? Even if it was for fun, her mind could have thought of literally anything else, but instead it went to the one thing she knew she shouldn't have asked about. Visibly upset about the whole event, Checkers turned her gaze towards the quirk demonstrations, now in the middle of a hostage rescue mission similar to the last. Interesting, to say the least, but it was hard to focus on it right now.

But his asking about her own relationship status helped brighten the mood a little, turning the darker mood to a dim glow. Unfortunately her answer was pretty straightforward in comparison. "I have been asked out, however I refuse to go out with people. I did so once and it was a horrible experience resulting in me almost freezing a pervert's, umm, p-par- pants off. Pants." She nodded as though to reassure herself, but now she just felt more awkward. Perhaps it would be best to give it a rest for now.
"Th-thank you for your time, Yutsuko, but I believe demonstrations are almost over... In which case I suppose we should p-pick this up another time?"

His rage quelled as she talked about her own, much more amusing story about a past date. He even got a chuckle out of his when he heard that she had frozen somebody's pants off for being a pervert. "Of course, of course, we should pick it up at a later date, I have so many things I wish to talk to you about." He said smiling towards her. Overall, while a certain part of this conversation did leave a sore spot for Soga, it did allow him to probably find one of the few people that shared his interests in heroes and their philosophies. Who knew, maybe the two would actually become friends in the future, though if only for Soga's necessity for a strong ally to fight his father, or a true friend was yet to be seen.

In a dark room, elsewhere in the academy...

Eyes of stern blue are glued to a series of monitors, many focused on the gymnasium, showing off the quirk demonstrations of Jigokuraku's heroics class 1-A. Cross-referencing what was being shown with student reports from their previous schools, as well as footage of the entrance exam, Sakkaku Haruhi was in the midst of compiling a ranking based on the relative development of each student. Beside each student's name was an attachment regarding quirk-specific details, followed by potential training options, statistics based on previous scores during school athletics and academics, the whole nine yards. With untapped focus she committed to her voracious study, her temper and focus built on years and years of experience, contrary to outside appearances.

Being ageless had some benefit, after all.
Her fingers tapped away like one slamming their fingers against a piano, an un-orchestrated symphony of clicks and taps. She almost didn't hear the signal: a swift double tap against the carpeted floor, signalling a person's approach. With a soft hiss, the office chair she was using to work with lowered as much as it could go, and even then the Proctor almost didn't get her feet on the floor, slipping off of it with a hop. Inside the dimmed room was none other than Oracle Thought, the school's principal, who came in carrying a simple beige folder, thickened by sheets and sheets of paper. "Sakkaku-san, I come bearing gifts! Investors report, says they'll be here tomorrow to have a house tour! This is all the info you requested."

With an affirmative "Hmph.", Sakkaku quickly took the folder into her small hands, finding the contents to be heavier than expected. Being ageless also had some downsides, but thankfully her desk was nearby, making the trek a short one. She set the heavy folder on her desk chair, popping open the front seal with a click, and taking a peak inside.



Good. Nothing unexpected.
Clicking the folder shut again, her attention turned back to the Principal, who interrupted her just before she could ask what was on her mind. "I'm wondering if you've made any progress identifying potential students?"
...
"I-I'm... worried. Naturally. Do any of them look like they will... you know..."

Sakkaku gave the taller woman a look, furrowed brows on a gleaming forehead really highlighting her age for once, sprouting wrinkles. They faded as she softened up and sighed, trying to let the tense situation the two now found themselves in go, but it was hard to ignore. They both knew what was at stake.
Sitting herself down on the chair, using the folder as an uncomfortable cushion, Sakkaku climbed with the hiss of white collar engineering. Her fingers tapped mercilessly against the keyboard, showing the full cast of students, followed by percentage values, all of which were incredibly low. The highest was Mari's, being 5%.

The principal, who had leaned in to take a closer look, was disheartened.
"This... this isn't good at all. I can't let this happen. Those numbers are too low."
A few clicks and taps began combining numbers, grouping students together and giving them a greater total. Some now had 0%, but the top student, Mari, had her number increased by 22%!
"This looks better... What are the odds of Haruishi going even higher?"
The numbers then combined to give all other students a grand total of 0%. Haruishi Mari, on the other hand, stood at a solid 63%. Still nowhere near good enough, but it did mean in the worst case scenario, there was still a chance.

"I feel a little sick when I look at numbers like this. I'd hate to have your job, predicting when they'll all die."

A bead of sweat trailed from temple to chin, Miraime Tokisaki doing her best to stay composed after a statement like that. How could one even begin to know what to do in this situation? Visions of a world turned red, fires raging all over, children screaming, a city left in ruin. And all without a date to give them time to prepare, any sort of guidance to know when disaster would strike. There was a lot of reasons to keep the school open in spite of knowing what she knew, and some of those reasons would mean no matter what, the students would be fine. But if they happened to be caught off-guard, to get caught in such a terrible nightmare... Miraime shuddered at the thought.

"So...? What gives her the edge?"

"Her speed. The support users help her the most. If she can live with sacrificing her friends to save herself, or they're selfless enough to do so for her, then she shouldn't die. The percentage accounts for if she wants to stay behind, but really it depends on what they would say to her." Sakkaku's tone is monotonous as she replays the video of Mari's demonstration alongside the video of her matching the bus' speed in the exams. "Most of the others couldn't turn tail and run if needed, their pride or friendship could get in the way. But with the right push, it's highly likely Haruishi Mari would live. Of course, it leaves her with survivor's guilt, but this is strictly looking at things analytically."

There was a silence as Miraime let the Director's words sink in. There was no one better in Japan than Sakkaku Haruhi when it came to gauging potential, so she trusted her judgement, but seeing the low chances among the class was depressing. Of course accepting students based on something like potential survival and growth was wrong. So many students scored greater than those doing their demonstrations right now, it was a waste of good looks, good grades. But, if it meant that class would make it out alive, then maybe it would be worth it. Maybe they had what was needed to become greater than ever, even if they didn't look particularly great just yet.

---

The demonstrations had been a smooth, exciting process overall, and Goudo was happy with what he saw. Many of the students kept things simple, such as Kiko, Azukina and Yasu, focusing on demonstrating their quirks as quickly or as simply as they could. Of course, their quirks were pretty self-explanatory anyway, and their flashy displays more than made up for their length. Those who utilised their quirks with ingenuity, such as Souta, Akeno and Mari, proved that some quirks (and in Akeno's case, people) had levels of complexity to them that had to be accounted for, and all showed a rather refined understanding of what their quirk did, much to Goudo's pleasure. However, it was those that tried to team up who really caught his eye, from Haruka and Soga's aerial rescue to Shun and Shiki's hostage takedown, the level of cooperation among the students actually had him impressed. He didn't expect so many to work so well with one-another so soon, and the fact they seemed mostly pretty friendly (save one particular exception) put a shiny white smile on his face.

"OK, everyone, that's enough for now!" He let his voice project out across the gym, creating a slight echo. With the last of the demonstrations done, he tapped a bit at the console to close everything back to normal, returning the danger room back into a simple gym. With the class mostly together with him on the bleachers, he didn't have to go far to get their attention. "Excellent demonstrations, guys! You all did fantastic! Huge shoutout to everyone who decided to pair up for their demonstrations, we really want to see more of that. Even Seijin and Ryota, though please try and keep things a little less hostile next time?"

He gave the two boys a healthy smirk before having his attention stolen by a phone call. Seeing who it was, he answered and quickly listened on what was about to happen, hanging up with an "All right, awesome! See you outside."
His phone back in its rightful pocket, Goudo looked at the group with a face that let everyone know he was hiding something. "Well guys, it looks like we're headed outside for a bit. Best to do so now before you get lost trying to escape the dorms!"

Taking the lead like any good teacher would (though with a watchful eye over his shoulder so nobody would sneak off), Goudo lead the students out of the gym, following a pathway that lead up and out of the school - seamlessly blending nature into the artificial road.



"So you see, the school is really close to nature. Like, really close. All it takes is a quick wander off the beaten path and suddenly you're in the middle of the forest, so don't go off the paths, OK?" He wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, none of the students seemed especially troublesome in that regard. Maybe Kenji if he got distracted or something, but even then it wouldn't be hard to track him down with a gifted Koumori able to hear him a mile away. A gentle stream of water follows either side of the path, artificially formed by digging into the ground to form trenches, to prevent flooding during the wet season. Up the hill some more, and they could see the tops of Jigokuraku's main building, gym, and dorms, though smaller buildings that went unnamed had their place. The sleet and dew on the trees thankfully kept out of the way for much of the path, which seemed to curve around to the back of the school.

Though the climb was arduous, proving just how dumb an idea it was to build a school on a steep hill, the students eventually made their way to a large, open clearing surrounded on all sides by trees. Everything beyond the field just looked like more trees and hills, as evidenced by the fences surrounding the open space, though a few pathways delved deeper into the woods, marked by signs illegible from where they were. Goudo spun around with a cheery smile, that same weird look on his face that made one just know he knew something they didn't.



"Well guys, welcome to The Field! A big open space to do, err, stuff? It's the gateway to a bunch of the old shrines 'round back, so don't go taking any of the paths just yet. Or climb the fences. Feel free to wander a bit, just don't head off anywhere yet or stand too close to that circle over there! Things will be getting... windy, real soon."

---

Shun followed along behind Colgate-sensei as he led them out into the wilderness surrounding the academy. He wasn't expecting practical training so soon, but it was a welcome surprise. Classrooms always made him antsy. Sitting anywhere for extended periods of time did, really.

And the campus was so pretty, not like the clinical controlledness of UA or other hero schools, it was wilderness - untamed, chaotic, real. Some might think that just speaks to the inadequacy of Jigokuraku, that they don't have the funding to wrangle the surrounding countryside into shape, but to Shun it brought a touch of realism to the simulated rigor of hero training. It was small, almost negligible, but it was the difference between handling robots in an orderly cityscape and racing through the ruins of an old city looking for dummies. Hero work is chaos, and chaos cannot ever fully be mimicked in a controlled environment.

When they arrived in The Field™, Shun craned his head around for a better view. There were still trails, which meant there was even more to explore beyond this. Guodo's mention of old shrines caught his attention; that sounded cool, he'd definitely have to check those out whenever he got the chance. But right now, that circle that the teacher mentioned demanded his attention.

He narrowed his eyes at the location in question, forcing his brain to think analytically rather than get sidetracked by the new sights. The exam taught him that Jigokuraku seemed to have a flair for the dramatic, and he didn't need to be caught off guard. Windy was the only clue they'd been given. Helicopter landing? But what would be the point of that? Was someone with a quirk like Hiroki's going to touch down and attack? Or was some kind of horrifying tornado machine buried there?

Shun approached cautiously, but gave the circle a wide berth as instructed. He wanted to be close enough that he could pixelate into the fray if needed, but he also didn't want to be so close that he'd end up in trouble. Maybe he should've stayed back by that big guy that Shiki was hiding behind earlier - Kenji was his name, right? - he looked pretty sturdy and would make good cover for whatever was coming. No, his maneuverability was his strong suit, he needed to be in front to capitalize on that. All this guesswork was making his head hurt though.

"I feel like this is gonna be like the entrance exam. Stay alert, guys." Shun called out, despite assuming that everyone else would've come to the same conclusion. Couldn't hurt to let everyone know what page he was on, at least.

---

---

---

@baraquiel @pkken

Ryota closed his eyes as they weren’t of much use right now, unless you has something that assisted with vision you were as good as blind. So instead he opted to focus on his hearing as well as the sensation he felt in his left arm. As Seijin made his move he could faintly hear his footsteps hitting the ground, they were light and on top of that he had a long stride. The blonde had set off one of the turrets within moments but it left an unsettling feeling as he listened to the distinct sound the turret made, it was unlike anything he’s ever heard.

Soon the turret had fell back to dead silence, you would think it was over but the tingly feeling was still in the boys arm until he heard a light thud come from the building. Looks like his speed is the real deal, but here is where things get interesting. The tingling feeling in his arm was gone which meant that he either stopped moving or was outside of the fog, a smile was on his face as Ryota walked back inside the building. “You’re quick on your feet and have a pretty nice stride, but it takes more than strength to be number one.” From what it seemed, Seijin had about five entrances to pick from, the front door and a window on each of the four surrounding walls. “What will you do next, number one?”

Meanwhile, Hiroaki was unhappily and uncomfortably resting as he awaited rescue. The rough ropes begin to hurt against his skin and he couldn’t even move an inch. Seriously, Ryota didn’t have to tie it up this tightly. Being unable to move for this long a time made him feel anxious for some reason, along with the thick fog that was created from Ryota’s quirk. He also remembered Ryota told him to not say anything to give away his location. Hiroaki couldn’t move a muscle, see anything, and say anything. He has never felt so stressed out in his life since that incident when he was a kid- Oh no, he’s remembering it again. He began to breathe heavily and look around for someone to help him out. He closed his eyes and calmed himself…

This was all ramping up to be even more troublesome and just when he thought things would get easier. Seijin dropped down onto the concrete floor inside the bunker but as the fog of smoke persisted he hardly could make out what laid only a few feet in front of him. Tch. All this smoke’s such a bother… He pressed on slowly through the room as he sought after either Ashtray-breath or Pinkie, and while his posture breathed complete nonchalance, with hands dug into pockets, the blonde was ready to slip into combat at the first sight of trouble. Just wait ‘til I find you, both of yah...

…Hiroaki can’t do this anymore. The more he stayed like this, the more hungrier he got and the urge to use the bathroom grew more. Just how long was this going to last? He tried his best to peer into the fog. Hiroaki doesn’t know if it’s the light making tricks on him because he can see a silhouette or two. Everything’s just so blurry for him that he had to stop because the effort is giving him a headache.

Should he make a noise? Normally the hostages would make them whenever someone was nearby so they can be saved. Hiroaki would surely call out for Seijin to rescue him if it weren’t for what Ryota asked him to do. He decided the best course of action is, ironically, not to do something and wait for things to unravel on their own. And really, if Hiroaki’s mouth wasn’t going to make any noises, his grumbling stomach will do it for him.

The tingle in the boys arm resurfaced as his opponent entered the bunker, he was a blind mice as he tried to navigate his way through the smoke. There was a tinge of a smile on the boys face as things began to ramp up, it was time to give these students a show. From Seijin’s right he would notice the sound of a few footsteps that alarm him, shortly after a right fist would come into vision that was aimed at his left abdomen.

Honed reflexes and innate athleticism had spared Seijin enough to properly react to the incoming strike in no time, with his quirk he’s mistaken for a speedster many times before and it’s easy to understand why seeing his body was already moving for something he hadn’t even properly registered yet. The blonde pivoted on one foot, facing adjacent to the fist’s path before locking onto the offending arm with one hand and gripping Ashtray-breath by where the scruff of his neck should be. That’s awfully nice of him to save me trouble by coming straight to me.

He was never formally trained in any sort of martial arts whatsoever but it’d be harder to not pick things up given his track records of getting into fights and winning most of them with the unfair advantage in close-quarters combat his quirk gives. ”Could yah give up here ‘n show me where Pinkie is?” To ‘coax’ into an easy surrender, Seijin roughly pulls his opponent down to the ground face first and puts him into an armlock, the sort where there’s struggle a dislocated shoulder follows.

The black haired boy took notice of how quickly Seijin reacted to his attack, Ah a seasoned fighter it seems the boy smirked as Seijin pushed him to the ground and put him into a armlock. Perhaps he actually did have some semblance of an idea of what he was doing, the lock that Seijin had put him in was indeed a rather interesting one. Instead of struggling Ryota held his breath and relaxed his body until he slipped out of his grip and dispersed into the smoke which soon filled the bunker. Seijin would soon find the only thing he was gripping onto was the boys clothes. Ryota would reconstitute his form at the west window, he was meticulous about keeping the goods censored with a thick cloud of smoke around his waist as he continued onto his next move.

Ryota took a long right stride closing the gap between the two before planting his left foot firm on the ground and pivoting it before sweeping the area with his right leg, dispersing a bit of smoke as he performed his strike at Seijin, even after the attack was done he didn’t let up as he kept light on his toes as he leaned his body forward with a grin on his face, not shying away from the close quarters combat that was to come.

Taking one look at the clean leg sweep heading his way, Seijin slows it and steals the speed behind the strike for himself to use, the surge of kinetic energy is redirected through the body and enhances his striking power for what is to come next. The blonde crouches down low before he shoots up to his opponent throwing an uppercut right at his exposed chin from below, the added momentum from jumping up combined with the enhanced speed made for a devastating blow if it connects. In any sort of fight, the name of the game was speed and speed was his to take as he pleases.

Hiroaki could hear the sounds of fighting. He didn’t know exactly where but he’s pretty sure it’s somewhere on his front. He cringed at the sound of what seemed like punches and kicks connecting to a body. If this weren’t a quirk demonstration, Seijin and Ryota will definitely beat each other to death.

Ryota noticed his sweep lose speed as well as power as he tried to take Seijin off his feet, So he cumulatively steal speed from the target, not all together. It was then that Seijin tried to put him out for the count with a strike straight for his chin, Ryota held his breath once more seconds before the strike landed, when the blow landed Ryotas head along with the rest of his body would explode into a cloud of smoke as he faded back to relocate himself once more near the front door. Head to head combat was pretty much pointless at this point, Seijin’s reaction time and speed in close combat exceeded his own yet he is unable to lay a hit on Ryota because of his intangibility. “You might as well give up you can’t land a hit on me and you only have about under a minute left to find Pinky”

Seijin doesn’t hesitate to act quickly on that and lets himself fall back to the ground as his uppercut found no purchase, his fist hitting nothing but some smoke and left him still without a solid hit on Ashtray-breath. Tch. If that’s so then how’d yah like this? He covers the distance to the front door in a single bound, landing in front of Ryota before letting loose a continuous series of strikes and kicks, knowing full well he was pressed for the same outcome: his opponent slipping into his intangible smoke form, negating physical attacks. But what the blonde was counting on was that there was some limit to how long he could maintain that form, one good hit landing was all he needed so he redoubles his efforts and doesn’t let up on going on the offensive.

Ryota let out a sigh as the boy rushed him, it was more so he was disappointed at the fact that Seijin decided to engage him instead of looking for Hiroaki. There was a smirk on the boys face as he decided to play his game. Ryota squatted a bit and got into fighting stance, as soon as he took notice of the speed of the first couple punches the boy immediately turned onto the defensive. Some of the punches and kicks were so fast that he had to settle for deflecting them to the side. As Seijin picked up the pace Ryota began smiling as he was having a bit of fun fighting against him.

Hiroaki bit his bottom lip. He’s been trapped there for so long he can barely tell the time he’s spent waiting for Seijin. He’s slowly getting annoyed with each passing second. He doesn’t want to do and say anything because Ryota told him not to, but Aki remembered he’s not the boss of him. Besides, any person with or without a Quirk will definitely do something to help themselves. The question is, what will he do?

Then he thought of something. If Seijin’s vision was limited because of the fog then Hiroaki will help the blonde see him. He activated his Quirk, growing multiple crystals on his body that glowed milky white. They’re not too big to take a toll on his stamina, and not too small to make their light be seen even through the thick fog. ”Seijin, I’m here!”, he shouted.

Seijin lets loose a last flurry of kicks that would hopefully disperse Ryota’s smokey form, long enough to grab the pinkette hostage and make their exit. The last vestiges of kinetic energy coursing through his body provides him ample speed to tear through the fog of smoke, towards the dull glow able to be spotted even with his obscured vision. ”Let’s finish this thing,” he says before grabbing Hiroaki and lifting him up over his shoulder then dashing straight for the window closest to escape the bunker.

Hiroaki’s eyes widened when he saw Seijin barreling straight towards him and lifting the pink boy up over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. Just how strong is this blonde boy?

“Oh?” Was what the boy said, shocked when Hiroaki decided to speak up and even shine off a bit light. It would definitely make things harder but not impossible, that was when Seijin kicked it up a gear and delivered a flurry of attacks which created an opening for him to grab Hiroaki. As Ryota was putting himself back together he clenched his right fist tightly as he prepared for another attack before a thought shot through his head. I can't reveal all my tricks just yet. The boys arm went limp as he decided to let the two escape. As he began putting on his clothes, the smoke began to dissipate marking the end of this bout.

---

The demo was exhausting, and that was amplified by some amount by the subsequent post-boost crash that came with Kaito's boost. Somewhere along the line he must have separated with Kaito on the path to the grounds Goudo-sensei lead them to. The large boy came out of his daze by himself, well behind the rest of the class but still within view of everyone. For a moment he didn't remember how he got there and considered the possibility that he might have just sleep-walked all the way outside somehow. The campus was pretty and so close to nature that he almost felt like this whole year was going to be a long camping trip. He was excited to be here but the Power Chord crash and the general exhaustion from his long trek here was starting to really get to him. His face gradually sunk until he almost looked like he was asleep again.

By the time they reached the open field and Goudo-sensei gave them the okay to wander around and socialize, Kenji was far to tired to continue and simply layed down in the grass. The blue of the morning sky enveloped his vision as his eyes struggled to stay open. Falling asleep on the first day? Never. He just needed to lie down a bit...

Unfortunately Kenji would not find rest because someone approached him the first opportunity they had. Having become interested from the moment she saw his demonstration, Kiko had been waiting for the moment she could say something about it. The moment they were left to their own devices she came up and started speaking loudly. "Hey, dude, your Quirk demonstration was awesome! I was watching the whole time, and you were like, "Hiyah, Watah, KERSMASH!"..." Her onomatopoeia were either exaggerations or outright fabrications. "...it was soooo cool! Oh man, I really wish I could just smash things like that...." She only paused a moment before carrying on without a care. "Hey, whaddidya think of my Quirk? Was it awesome? Tell me it was awesome!"

The sudden barrage of information brought about by the student standing over him snapped him back into reality as he tried to register everything she said. His eyes were squinted at the bright sky behind her, but vision focused and the blurry image cleared to show Kiko Mazzini. Kenji was familiar with her but he didn’t think they had ever been officially acquainted.

Well, he had seen what she could do at least. Bullet Hell, her quirk, he had been on the wrong end of it before. He could never deny how impressive she was, and yet here she was standing over him and calling him cool.

“Zzzz-- Oh! Kiko-san, right?” Kenji buzzed into life, his antennae more upright than he could manage himself. He propped himself up on his elbows but was still lying down. “You’re quirk demo was awesome! Way more amazing than what I can do alone.”

"Oh yeah, my Quirk is pretty damn amazing. It's all like "Bang, Whiz, Dakkadakkadakka!"" She would have continued, but she remembered why she approached Kenji. "But come on, Amico, you've got plenty of pizazz on your own! Like I said, I would kill to be able to smash things into other things like that. I mean, I would want to smash things into other things AND shoot them full of holes, but they're both cool things in their own right!"

It was here that Kiko remembered her earlier encounter with Kenji. "Oh, right, I shot at you during the exam, right? Sorry about that. I get really excited when I'm in the zone, and I don't pay too much attention to what I fire at. I thought I was shooting at that Croco-dude. Can you forgive me?" Kiko wouldn't normally make such a big deal of something she considered so small, but she did want to get on Kenji's good side right now.

Though some of the italian lingo was lost on Kenji he understood the kind words she was trying to get across. He smiled at her before she brought up their first meeting.

Kenji thought back to the entrance exam. He and another student fought desperately to keep Croc busy, spending the majority of the exam taking a beating from his family friend. Somewhere along the line, he felt and unexpected pain from his back. It wasn’t too terrible compared to what he was already facing, but it did give him a bit of a start. In that brief moment he turned around he caught a glimpse of Kiko before she turned and ran off as soon as she had arrived.

He was never upset about it. He had a much bigger problem on his hands after all.

“It’s okay. To be fair you would have hit him a few times if I wasn’t in the way.” he said, not wanting to discourage her. Enthusiasm like hers was something to be cherished, a true trait of a hero in the making.

"Yeah, I probably could have put that guy on ice. All I would have needed was a good clean barrage on him and he would be so down." Her eyes shifted left to right quickly at that moment. She was reminded that said guy was a teacher here, and she could never be sure he wouldn't be within earshot to hear her bragging. Deep down, even Kiko knew she couldn't take Croc in a fight, at least not a fist fight.

"Hey, where do you see yourself after all this?" Her question was inspired by yet another random thought that popped into her head. "I mean, I see myself being on screen from here to Italy while turning crooks into swiss cheese. I bet I'll be number one in more than one damn country, that's for sure. But how bout you?" In Kiko's head, she was already conjuring up scenarios of Kenji running around crushing people's skulls with his bare hands. It was a good thing he couldn't read minds, or he might be shocked by images of him committing extreme violence.

Kenji held back his laughter at the thought of Kiko trying to take on his uncle one on one. Itagaki-sensei would wipe the floor with any of the students based on the demonstrations, and he was sure Kiko understood that as well. The question that came next was an easy one to answer for Kenji, even with the somewhat manic expression she was looking at him with. The reason he wanted to be a hero wasn’t very deep at all, and the type of hero he wanted to be was one everyone looked up to.

“I’m not really after being the top hero or anything like that. I just want to be a hero so people will treat me with more dignity than just a gross bug. I want to be a hero like All Might was one day!” he answered, tiredly holding a fist into the air. “Go beyond!”

Kiko did a double take at Kenji's words. "Wait a minute, woah woah woah. You're telling me people treat YOU like a gross bug? Come on, you can just go "Wacha!" and smoosh them like a REAL gross bug!" It was inconceivable to Kiko that somebody could let others bully them meekly. "Seriously, dude, why would you even let people do that to you?"

Kenji averted his eyes at that suggestion, upset at even the thought of hurting someone like that. All he could do is shrug and try to deflect the topic.

"Anyway... why do you think we're out here? I imagined the first thing after the assembly would be a tour of campus."

Kiko was a little put out by having her question deflected, but wasn't nearly nosy enough to push the issue. Luckily for Kenji, he chose the perfect way to distract Kiko; giving her something to rant about. "Oooh, ooh, Guodo Sensei said it was going to get windy, right? Maybe it's like endurance testing or something like that. They're gonna turn on a huge wind machine and see if we get blown away. I dunno about you, but I reckon I could take it. I can and will withstand anything on my path to number one." As always, Kiko was oblivious to the notion that someone as small and petite as her could easily be knocked down.

"Actually, no, I can probably say with some confidence a sturdy built dude like you could stand up to a little wind. You reckon?"

Kenji almost immediately went back to smiling when Kiko took the bait and he had successfully gotten her on another topic. The idea of a sudden surprise windstorm test was intriguing but he hoped that it wasn't the case after the demo had tired him out so much. And he had even left his things behind when he entered the main building, so there was nothing to weigh him down.

"Well, I'm probably one of the heaviest people here. Maybe. Though the surface area of my body might also work against me, more to push on when you're this wide you know?" Kenji joked, placing a single hand on his hard but bulbous belly.

"Hehe, yeah." Kiko laughed along with him. She wasn't the type to make fun of fat people, but Kenji seemed to be making fun of himself, so it was only fair to laugh with him. "But hey, if your legs are half as strong as your arms, you could totally just dig yourself in. Aint nothing gonna move legs that can smash rocks, amirite?"

True to her nature, Kiko quickly seized on a new topic of discussion. "Hey, what if it involves windbag over there? You know, the one you called Magical Miracle back in the courtyard?" She was cleary gesturing at and referring to Hiroki. "His Quirk makes wind, we all saw it in the demo. Maybe it's us against him?" It did not occur to Kiko how unlikely it would be to recruit a student for a test on their first day, but that was par for the course so far.

Kenji remarked in his thoughts how digging himself underground to protect himself from high wind speeds was a tactic to keep in mind, though it highly depended on how soft the ground was beneath him. Did this girl have a tactition underneath the spray 'n pray attitude?

The possibility that some other students might have mistook his earlier unfortunate confrontation with Hiroki as more than an accident hadn't registered before then. He had to clear that up before someone got the wrong idea about the kind of person he was.

"Ah. That wasn't what it seemed like you know." Kenji remarked quickly, "I honestly thought he meant the real #1 was here. But I don't think he's they meant. I could be wrong though, I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"Yeah, I guess we'll have to wait." Kiko remarked along with Kenji. Taking a moment from chattering endlessly, Kiko had an unprecedented moment of insight and noticed that Kenji seemed kindof tired. It suddenly occurred to her that she might actually be bothering him. "Hey man, you look pretty beat. I'mma leave you alone so you get some rest. Can't go beyond if you're out of it, eh? Peace!" At that, Kiko got up and walked away with a wave. She had no idea how much time was left before it got windy like Guodo said, but if there was any, she would probably spend it gushing over someone else's Quirk. There were a few big contenders...

---

Shiki reluctantly followed his classmates as they were being escorted by Guodo-Sensei. Ugh, they were going outside, to wait again? Whatever, he didn't complain. At least it allowed him a chance to map out the area with his quirk. The USB tailed boy stayed in the back of the group and established a connection with his phone, beginning to organize his recent notes, which only took a couple seconds.

Upon arriving to The Field, an exhausted Shiki shuffled towards one of the trees surrounding the open area. He was already sleep deprived, the tiresome climb just sucked the last bit of energy he had left in him. Overhearing Datari's warning did keep him on high alert. God forbid he suffers another Tanifuji surprise encounter. Yet, he really wanted to rest his eyes for a bit. Surely, the wind couldn't be that strong, or so he thought.

He sat down underneath the tree and leaned back against the base. At this point, he disconnected the tail from his phone and plugged it into the ground next to him. Whatever surprises the circle, or The Field had to offer, Shiki would most likely be the first to know. He closed his eyes to rest at last, but would remain vigilant of his surroundings in this state. The only student who could really surprise him, he assumed at least, was none other than Shun.

Shiki paid close attention to the grass patches, footprints, and any other abnormalities around his location. His rest will be disturbed by anything that decides to approach him.

---

An Exercise in Exasperation

---

Since the demonstrations finished, Yasu had chosen to seek solace for however long she could. Although she had paid attention during the show, she had little to ruminate on about the quirks of the others. She had not come here to compare metaphorical dicks with everyone else. Her goal was put in the effort that was required of her and come out the other side a decent hero. Whether she would be a great hero or not would remain to be seen.

But for now, she was more interested in taking a break from all the excitement. She was worried at first that Kiko might want to talk to her, but it seemed that she had settled in to bother the bug guy. Thankful for the chance for a break, Yasu decided to just relax before the next trial began.

Just as Kenji learned, unfortunately, there was no rest for the weary. Fresh off the heels of her conversation with him, Kiko spied Yasu in the midst of her relaxation and decided to be an ass as usual. Bounding up to her, Kiko have her self-declared friend a hearty slap on the back. "Heyo, friend! You chilling out over here or what?"

Yasu's demeanor went from placid to irate in the matter of a second as that slap connected. Her fears had been realised. She was now being bothered by the Italian half-pint. "Since when did we become friends? We spoke for all of two seconds earlier." It truly was annoying that she felt some great attachment to her in spite of their relative unfamiliarity. From the moment she saw her demonstration, Yasu knew she was going to be annoying to deal with, and here she was, acting like they had been chums for their lifelong.

Kiko just brushed off Yasu's irritability. "Come on, Amica, we don't have to act like strangers just because we haven't gotten to know each other well yet. Sometimes hello is all you need. Just like Kenji-san. I'm his friend now, and I'm your friend too." She continued to ramble, oblivious to any hostility directed her way. "It's a Japanese thing I guess, feeling like you're not really close until later on. Maybe it's cause I'm part Italian-American, but I feel like we can all be friends just by saying it's so. So I'm saying it's so." Though Kiko was heavily influenced by her dad, it was more likely just her odd personality that made her ignore cultural norms.

"Anyway, I saw your Quirk demo. It's not bad, I guess. It doesn't have the same pizazz as mine or Kenji's. Doesn't really hold up to many of the other Quirks really, but you can work on that. One day, I'm sure you'll be zapping people as nastily as I'll shoot em' up." In Kiko's mind she was being a kind and thoughtful friend. She might soon discover how far from the truth that was.

Yasu could scarcely believe her misfortune. Not only was Kiko doggedly determined to hang around her, but she had the gall to talk down about her quirk while her own was hardly better. Yasu would have to turn up the heat to win herself freedom from this turbulent girl. "Uh, yeah, my quirk might not be the most impressive thing in the whole damn world, but I would sure as hell keep my quirk over yours any day of the week." She was practically scowling harder than she ever had in her life, hoping that the mere look on her face might be enough to deter Kiko from hanging around.

Kiko was starting to be bothered, but she sure as shit wasn't put off hanging around. Now she was starting to think Yasu was looking to pick a fight. "Excuse me? Were you even payin attention during my demo? Did you NOT see how awesome I was? I was all like "Bang, pow, dakkadakkadakka!"" She took a moment to pretend to examine Yasu closely, as if looking for something on her face. "Oh I get it. You're deaf or somethin, right? You couldn't hear the brilliance of my barrage. That explains everything."

Rolling her eyes at the ignorance of her comment, Yasu decided now was the time to be more direct. "You only hit the dummy a few times, Mazzini. We all saw it. I could tell even if I really were deaf. What the hell's the point of a quirk that you can avoid by standing still?" She was now staring Kiko right in the eyes. Hopefully she would take the hint even if she wouldn't admit the truth about her 'brilliant barrage'.

Yasu's words burned. Kiko was well aware of the shortcomings of her Quirk deep down, but she could never admit it openly. Just as always, she chose to puff out her chest and deny the truth, pretending everything was fine. "You just don't get it. Not everything is about hitting people. Think about the fear factor; anyone standing still in the middle of my barrage is going to piss their pants with fear!" Her face wouldn't give it away, but Kiko's ego was wounded on the inside. She had been down this road a few times, and it always pricked a small hole in her plucky spirit.

"Yeah they'll be pissing their pants...with laughter." Yasu tells her with a smirk. "Look, I could care less about whether your quirk is good or not, but I'm really not interested in hearing you brag about yours and rag on mine. If you don't like that, find someone else to entertain you."

Kiko wanted nothing more than to continue talking. She wanted to say that Yasu was wrong. She wanted to assert herself. But she couldn't form the words to fight back with. Returning Yasu's scowl, Kiko turned to leave, but not before saying, "This ain't over. You'll see! You'll acknowledge my damn Quirk and I'll make you eat those words!" Her words were aggressive and combative, but on the inside, she was just cursing her own bruised ego. She always ended up looking like a fool. Always always always.

Yasu was almost happy to see her go. A voice in the back of her mind was worried that this would have consequences. She really didn't want to have a pack of 'enemies' at this school. Hopefully Kiko would prove as much a paper tiger as her quirk. With luck, she might be able to just chill out on the sidelines and avoid any further drama.

^{Mentions: @Naw, @Etranger (Indirectly)}

---

Souta had followed unquestioningly as everyone else was ferried out to the grass and sent off to socialize or whatever it was that these people were doing. Souta wasn't exactly excited to sit around and listen to jabbering about nothing, but he really didn't have much of a choice. He found a nice shaded patch of grass, and sat down with crossed legs.

He watched as fraternization began, and wondered to himself if he should get up and go find someone to talk to. Nah, he would just get frustrated as he did with everything that he didn't have full control over.

He noticed a certain girl wandering around and being especially loud. This was the girl with the guns for arms right? What was her name again? Well whatever, it wasn't important what her name was, she seemed to be getting along with the hefty boy with the armored skin, whose demonstration had been... well, it had blown Souta's out of the water. He was in a hero school, so one-upmanship was to be expected. He just hoped that the instructors were impressed enough to not force him to go through any extra work to catch up, he might quit on the spot should that happen. Raised voices snapped him out of his sleepy daydreaming, as he noticed that the gun-armed girl had moved on to talking to another girl. This one... Souta didn't even remember her quirk demo anymore. It wasn't like it had been that long, he was just tired and didn't have the motivation to remember the abilities of someone who he didn't much give a damn about.

What did interest him, was the fact that she was giving the gun-girl a rough time of it. He lacked the context, but the blond foreigner had seemed cordial, so the girl whose everything Souta had forgotten was just a bitch. Souta knew that he really shouldn't engage, that he should just ignore it and maybe get a quick nap in, but he just couldn't help himself. He stood, dusted himself off, and meandered over to where the girl was relaxing, performing some tricks with a blade of grass between his fingers as he did.

"I didn't realize I was in the presence of a queen, want me to bow and kiss your pinky ring?" he said venomously. Why was he doing this? He really didn't need to get involved. Souta's complete failure to convince himself to not escalate the situation continued, as he again opened his mouth to fuck with the girl. "It's okay, if my quirk was as forgettable as yours, I'd have to be an uppity prick about it too." Souta turned up his chin. "Or were you like that before your quirk developed?"

It was as if the very thought had cursed her. Not moments after Kiko had departed in anger, she had summoned some indignant worm to her defense. A veritable white knight had crawled out of the bushes to do passive aggressive battle in his lady's defense. She really did have to wonder how long he was listening, or what he had even heard. It seemed he had jumped to a thousand and one conclusions already. That she, ironically, was somehow obsessed with her quirk and had cruelly taken it out on the poor maiden who had not a thought in the world to brag about it. No doubt he would reach for any straw that justified his righteous fury as he struck out with ever so hurtful words to slay the evil, ugly queen.

It was a situation Yasu had found herself in before, in fact. This was a common occurrence at Nosaka High. She would say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time, and suddenly a crowd of people rushed to their defense, caring little for what had happened for her to say it. Before long, she had developed a reputation, and whenever a vaguely rude thing was said, it was already her fault, no matter what had transpired beforehand. The people that hated her the most understood this, and they used it like a shield. They reveled in the fact that she could only do wrong in the eyes of others. It was all she could do to stop rising to their challenges, although even that only worked so long.

But she wasn't at Nosaka High, and she wasn't a naive child any longer. The white knight's ploy was a pitifully obvious one. He wanted a rise. She had no interest in giving him one. Instead, Yasu casually produced her phone and began work on a message to send to Aiko. She was bound to be having a better time than her at UA. As she typed, the white knight would be left in silence. If he wanted a rise out of his queen, he would have to try much harder than that. Better yet, perhaps he would take the hint and realise the queen didn't care to suffer him in her presence. That was almost certainly too much to hope for, Yasu reckoned. Peasants were often foolhardy creatures.

@Bluetommy

Interacting with: Hiroki @ShwiggityShwah Kaito @Zelosse Umi @AdmrlStalfos19 & Mari @Stern Algorithm

---

Hiroki watched all of the demonstrations, and as they got more and more intense. He leaned in, watched unblinking, crossed his arms, fidgetted, and then pulled out a notebook from his back pocket along with a pen. It was too much to remember and he had so much to figure out from everyone. He managed to write fast as well. One student, four pages open for information and plenty of notes on everyone already. It turns out when it came to Hero work, when it came to Heroes in general, he knew what to look for, what to gauge and what to record. His pen moved unbelievably fast to try to catch up, to compensate for the amount of time he spent just observing.

By the end of the competition, he had a cramp in his hand and was half way through his notebook, another bead of sweat from his brow as he exhaled, getting the gist of his competition. When it was over, when everyone showed their stuff-

Hiroki stood up suddenly. Looked straight ahead. And then began to clap his hands together. A single person alone with applause. He didn't smile,nothing like that. This was out of respect for their skills. There was too many to praise, too many students and would be heroes that could be a suitable challenge. They were way more capable then his previous class and he was going to be hard pressed to prove that he was number one.

And speaking of, he could see the crowd already forming around the big one... the fat one. The Powerhouse. Thats the way heroes would call his quirk, the super strong types and the type of target that Hiroki's quirk might be worthless against. Too tough, too heavy... just like Croc. And the fact that he knew Croc just made it so much worse. Those two were making fun of him. He growled when he figured it out.

"Suguru Chan." he said as he got up "Mind walking with me? I think there's someone we should be friends with."

Kaitos march had been tiring, to say the least, despite his rather energetic performances there was a lack of enthusiasm, or confidence, to him without an instrument in hand. The march had not helped since going outside cut him off from any other instrument but the wood wind variety. Thankfully the music room was on hand and stocked so with acoustic guitar on deck it was still capable to use his quirk. Hopefully not by surprise. Without playing the instrument again there was no juice left to give to another student in Power Chords reserves. Noticing Kenji had gotten quiet and fallen behind, Kaito was about to rush over.

Umi had thought that she and Hiroki would've been the last to perform, but it turned there were others that had yet to show their quirks. She watched them all, and applauded at the end of the demonstrations like everyone else. She didn't want to be disrespectful.

Sure enough, Goudo had led the students to an open field, only to dismiss them again, albeit not without a fair warning not to go too far from said field. The trek was as hard on Umi as one would expect, but at least now that the frost had gone, at least she could actually make the journey this time around. She needed a moment to rest her legs, however; she clearly did not have the stamina for these sorts of things.

While Kenji got all the attention, Hiroki approached his partner. The weirdo band geek that looked like he was going to a rave. Friggin personalities in this class that's for sure. But atleast he actually looked like he put some damn work into his demo, unlike some of the guys and one of the girls. Just kind of at this school because they thought it'd be easy.

"Hey, Haruto Kaito right?" The blue boy approached with his hands in his pockets and a permanent scowl on his face. "How you were able to make that happen? Pretty cool stuff." He had promising words but his face was more or less affixed with a scowl. Seriously Kaito didn't look like someone Hiroki would hang with, but he had a country competition to win, and he needed the perfect team.

Make friends with the support.

Unexpectedly, one of the named ones was here! Umi and Hiroki if his memory served. Kaito cursed under his breath realizing he hadn't seen their demonstration to the fullest. The only thing he could recall about either of them was Hirokis attitude on the bus ride and during the downtime, Umis sluggishness, and the frantic meticulous scratch of pencil on paper. Apparently there were others taking notes and Kaito reminded himself to make sure Hirokis notes were shared with him.

Make friends with the big hitters.

That was the plan. Sadly it was crumbling. His tongue felt like it was made of lead, body stiff with a mixture of fear and anxiety. Outside the field it was a whole other person to contend with. Sitting with Kenji had been a solid move, tactically sound, and the big lug had proven quickly they would follow instructions to the letter. It was an ideal partnership of sudden mutual understanding and more than a little trust. The paintball turret being a prime example. Without that familiarity there was not but dust between this new group and Kaito felt the pressure.

"Y-yes! Thank you. Kaito. I'm Haruto Kaito." The bow was stiff, hands firmly at his side, his eyes were wide. "T-t-the, uh, our.. my.. intro wasn't inf-formative. I'm sorry. Power Chord! It amplifies you, your- your natural, um, your strengths. Tougher skin, denser muscles, even heightening your mental reaction time. B-but it isn't a useful quirk without natural talent on the end of the recipient. It also doesn't work on myself."

Hiroki raised his head a little bit. Tilting it up and then bringing it back down. He seemed impatient which didn't make any sense. "And you need music for that? Or just buh- umm I mean physical contact. Pretty sick man. "

When Hiroki mentioned that there might be someone worth their acquaintance, Umi was to quick to make her reluctance known. She was never one for meeting any new people; quite the opposite, actually. But she seemed to recognize the boy that Hiroki was talking about now that he'd approached him. His name was Haruto Kaito, and if Umi recalled correctly, he was the one that had made some sort of power slide right at the beginning of the exam, only to wind up having one hand make contact with Azukina's buttocks. Umi had wanted to ascertain whether said contact was accidental, but she didn't want to embarrass Kaito, which she could potentially do by bringing that incident up.

Instead, Umi decided she'd best watch the interaction between Kaito and Hiroki play out... and hope that the two could get along...

Umi was still being kind of shy and despite lagging behind in the hike, he made sure to open up the circle so she didn't feel left out in body language alone.

Noticing the look from Umi staying quiet at the side, another silent curse escaped his lips from behind the black mouth concealing mask. Both had likely seen his performance against 'The Ruler' or heard of his failure so no doubt they had come to judge. Or maybe it was the display with Kenji that had redeemed his own usefulness instead of highlighting Kenjis potential? Did one of them think it could work for them too? Too many questions.

Better to just be upfront here.

Steeling his nerve, the Rockstar-to-be went right to the thick of it. "I need to stick with Kenji. Is there something you wanted?"

"Do you?" He repeated, looking over. Kenji had attracted some attention with arguably the most destructive quirk. It made Hiroki wish he showed off his combat potential. "Hes got his little fan club. I'm just hoping to meet up with everyone. Make a few more friends." Thats when he smiled. "Espectially those worth knowing."

He raised his hand to kind of calm him down. He even looked at Umi for a second. "Aint we all going to be on the same team come the competitions this year. I say we get to know everyone. More the merrier right?" He said casually, almost manipulatively. It was not intentional. He wasn't the best at making new friends.

That gave him a pause. The long hike, the intro, the location. Given that they had just started a hero course it was all too obvious that this was an event about to start and that meant teamwork. The little switch from nervous wreck to team leader kicked in at the realization (even if it might not be true). "You're looking to cash in on the demo from earlier. When the event happens out here." In essence it sounded like what he had done with Kenji, indeed what most were doing now that the big guy had shown his strength. "If you wanted a teammate just say so."

He raised a hand while putting the other on his hip. "You make it sound so tactical, but thats it exactly. But don't think its a one way street. I got your back if you need it."

He looked out to the rest of the group and crossed his arms. "And speaking of, now we just need to get the rest of the class on board. I know the big guy will fall in line." He didnt have to put it that way... "You see anyone else that might be worth a proper intro?" he asked.

He also looked over. "Same to you Suguru-San. Anyone here that peaks your interest? Personally, I can see a little something special with all of them." Again he didn't have to look and sound so evil when he said that. Almost conniving really.

Sure enough, Kaito and Hiroki were talking teammates, with Hiroki suggesting the rest of the class get in on this as well. Hiroki asked Umi if she knew anyone who would be of any help. It reminded her of the two allies that had got her to where she was now, but neither were anywhere in sight. Did they really sacrifice their positions just to make Umi look good? If so, they may have placed their faith in entirely the wrong person, which scared her.

"S-sorry," Umi shook her head as she said this, "Th-the only one I-I-I can th-think of is M-Mari, but..."

That only reminded her of the altercation; the way Mari looked down on her. And then all her other failings came back to haunt her. She shook her head violently, desperately trying to shake the surmounting pressure off of her mind.

"Th-this whole thing's m-making me n-n-nervous," she stammered.

Hiroki gave Umi a look. "Yeah, the loudmouth would be pretty coo-" He then tilted his head to one side. "What is? Getting to know our class?"

"Well... th-that too, I g-guess, but..." before Umi could get to what was really bothering her, Hiroki turned away, most likely to address Kaito.

"Sorry. If we're done here Im gonna sit down beneath the trees. Call me if you need something.." Like Hiroki, the band kid wasn't exactly the greatest at making conversation.

"Wha?" Hiroki lost all of his self smugness. He threw up his hands. "Come on! I'm trying to make a power team here." He growled a little as he saw Kaito walk off. "Didn't even give me a chance to bring up what music he listens too... Jeez why is everyone so off puttish?"

He looked back to Umi with a sigh and crossed arms. "Look. Everyone is nervous. Some more then others. So that's why someone's got to do the hard part. Take the chance and actually try to break the ice." He thought about Azukina, but she had her discussion going on. "How are we supposed to attract sponsorships and Hero Company scouts if we don't get out there?" He looked determined, again going all guns blazing at the cost of restraint.

"Y-You think so?" Umi wondered, her head sinking low, 'Then why am I the only one who shows it? Why am I the nervous wreck while everyone else seems to hold it all together? I still feel like the weak link...'

Hiroki talked about attracting sponsorships and the like, once again proving to think a little too far ahead of himself. It was one thing to put a name out there, but one would still have to prove themselves worthy of the spotlight... and that was the one thing Umi wasn't so sure about. She thought about the upcoming Four Pillars Project with the other four schools. Did she really have the talent to stand anywhere near them? Never mind alongside? Umi still had her doubts; after all, there was still a good chance she could fail to represent Jigokuraku despite giving it her all...

He then found her in the crowd and raised a hand. "Haruishi Mari!" He said not smiling but trying to get her attention. "Nice quirk! Good to see you're a speedster too."

Mari was lost in thought as she followed the crowd of students out to the field. The quirk demonstrations had been impressive, but a few of them had left her in a particularly sour mood, specifically, the 'match' between Ryota and Seijin. As someone with a speed quirk, Mari felt particularly targeted by Seijin's declaration of 'thanks' to speedsters for letting him steal their speed. But why would an aspiring hero threaten fellow aspiring heroes? Why did heroes feel they needed to prove themselves by overpowering their peers? And how could he declare that he could be number one with minimum effort? Why were these kids' first instinct mindless dick-waving? It was one thing to keep to yourself, it was something else entirely when your idea of a hero was behaving like a 'hero-killer'. Is this what society has come to? Was 'heroism' just another outlet for humanity's inherent violent impulses and arrogant bickering? The instinct to just run and never look back gripped Mari's heart. Maybe the world she had run away from was truly inescapable. Pride that becomes arrogance, pain that becomes violence, love that becomes a desire to control. A familiar voice called Mari out of her introspection.

"Ah, Sakimoto-san," Mari replied stoically. This was another who seemed to like to antagonize others, but Mari kept this thought to herself, after all, he had teamed up with Umi for his demonstration, which defied Mari's expectations. When Hiroki complimented her quirk, Mari's eyes narrowed, responding vaguely, "We make do with the quirks we're born with." refusing to take pride in her quirk. "I've shown my quirk, nothing more. I haven't yet proven myself as a hero. After all, being a hero is about heart, determination, and hard work. Anyone who thinks that they are already at that level is delusional."

Hiroki kind of picked up on a few things and considering how much he pissed people off before, he was going to bring it back. The core requirement of the team events made it more or less mandatory that he become more diplomatic. He had pride for her. He thought atleast her spirit was pretty damn inspiring. She was intense. A bunch of intense folks. "Amen to that." He said in agreement. "Eyes on the prize. And I think things are just going to get harder from here on out."

Mari had let slip some of the venom she was currently feeling and caught herself. Deciding to change the subject to take her mind off of her own thoughts, she continued, "I'm impressed you teamed up for your demonstration. It hadn't occurred to me that such a thing would be permitted. You're audacious, I'll give you that." Mari was, after all, too straight-laced to think outside the box. And Hiroki had impressed her in a different way, by showing cooperativeness.

"Wasn't the only one." He shrugged smiling. "Im actually kind of encouraged. If its anything like the agencies group tactics is how we get started."

Seeing Umi standing nearby, Mari offered the shy girl a nod, "Suguro-san. Your demonstration was outstanding." Mari was silent for a few moments. She hadn't seen Umi in action during the entrance exam, and Umi's cowering nature had initially rubbed Mari the wrong way. But it was clear that Umi had more ability than she herself realized. "Some unsolicited advice. Most confidence is baseless. Look around you. How many of our classmates express confidence with nothing to back it up? We're still kids. None of us really knows how the world works, nor our place in it. If you're afraid, hide your fear. If you're weak, hide your weakness. Expose yourself and you invite the vultures. You don't have to be brave, you just have to act it."

"O-outstanding?! M-M-ME??!!" in her shock, Umi waved her hands in front of her, unable to bring herself to accept Mari's compliment, "N-noooooooo, no no no no, I-I-I wouldn't c-call it that! Er... i-it was actual-l-lly all thanks t-to Hiroki f-for making i-it any good, I just... d-d-did what I w-was told wh-when I was t-told..."

She tried to be modest, but she was so used to the expectation of taking humility for herself that she not only denied herself the worth of any credit for her part in the demonstration, but she also seemingly refused to take Mari's praise for what it was; honest, genuine praise. Then again, it could've just as easily been Umi not knowing how to take it. She always thought of herself as unimpressive.

Hiroki felt a little proud that she name dropped him, putting his hands in his pockets. "I just gave you a boost. You're a fire hydrant. Thats heaped in potential. You prob just never got a chance to show off."

"Actually, I uh... I-I did try t-to showcase it o-once," Umi was quick to correct Hiroki, "I-It didn't g-go to well..."

In any case, Umi listened to Mari's advice, acknowledging it with a nod.

'Most confidence is baseless, huh? It explains why I have none, at least...'

Her thoughts drifted back to the Four Pillars Project. Could she really do this? Only time would tell.

Mari's rather bleak and blunt world view had some shred of encouragement and he frankly liked the cut of her jib. "I think we could be a solid group if we gave it a shot. We all have different quirks, can cover different areas, and have different views of things. Suguru-san is new to the game with alot of potential so we get better by training her to be better. Haruishi-san, you got that kind of no nonsense tenacity that could easily be Class Rep material. And-" He pointed to Kaito behind him who was gonna chill in the trees. Hiroki recruited him without prior consent. "That guy can cover us if there's anything we're missing out on. I just think it'd be kind of rad to support eachother. All friends like. Set the example a little bit." He said smirking, thumbs up. "Bring the whole class to be something awesome eventually."

Yeah he wanted to win, but his win would be everyone else's too.

'...Suguru-san is new to the game...' Mari reflected internally on Hiroki's assumption. Hiroki had already confirmed Mari's suspicions by revealing that he was from a hero family, but by singling out Umi as 'new', Hiroki was implying that Mari was not. While it was true that she said a lot about what a hero was 'supposed' to be, these opinions did not come from experience but from a naive ideology borne of jaded criticism. Still, she didn't think this was the time nor place to correct his assumption and just went a long with it. Mari isntead nodded in approval when he pointed out Kaito, who she already had a positive impression of. In response to his vote of confidence of her as class representative, she replied, "I'm glad you think so. It's a thankless job, but someone's got to do it, preferably someone who takes the position seriously. I also agree in cooperation. After all, on the road to self-improvement, your greatest adversary is yourself." She remembered when the one who told her those words believed in them himself.

Umi never put any serious thought into aligning herself into a team. She was afraid that she'd only slow her teammates down in the long run, but then again, the fear of bringing them into a losing position was surprisingly effective as her driving force. How long that would last, she had no idea; it might be worth Hiroki having a contingency plan in case this house of cards came crashing down.

While she had her reservations, Umi decided she'd put faith in Hiroki. It was the least she could do as thanks for building up her confidence a little.

Hiroki took her look as acknowledgement. He crossed his arms, looking across the field just as a dramatic wind blew through his hair. "Then it's decided. Well be known as..."

"TEAM THUNDERSTORM"

"All we need is checkers and we'll have ice covered too." He thought a weather based team would be cool.

As the class followed Goudo-sensei out of the gym and along the path to the clearing Kudo Akeno hung near the back of the group, walking with a slow and deliberate pace as she gave thought to everything she had seen so far today; from the other demonstrations following hers to the assembly and the teachers. She had put her jacket back on, the cool wintery air and the time she had spent cooling off removing any lingering aftereffects of her Quirk, and had her hands in her pocket as she paced after the others, easily managing the climb even in her distracted state.

The remaining students’ demonstrations had been no less impressive than the ones that proceeded it, some of them were even more impressive in fact, which helped reinforce in her mind that her decision to go up on stage when she did was the right one; her little karate showcase would have made a poor finale after everything else. It seemed that in spite of Jigokuraku’s fledgling reputation or the cynical words of some of the students, the school had managed to attract a number of high-quality applicants both in terms of their Quirks and in terms of talent. Her own space heater trick was probably the least useful Quirk of all the ones she had seen and most of them had pretty good control over their abilities; some of them looked like the were decent fights as well.

She’d have to work hard just to keep up.

Aside from introducing them to their teachers for the year the assembly held little information of note, but what information it did have was vitally important. This school was going to part of the Four Pillars program and compete in the Four Pillar Games; Akeno had never even considered that she would get to compete in something like that, why bother when she never even considered going to one of those prestigious schools. Not only that but they were going to be applying for their provisional license this year, as first years, and potentially have the ability to intern at hero agencies before the year was even out. In a way it was too much, too fast; there was no way she could improve enough in the next couple of months to be able to compete and against the best students in the country or pass the license exam. She couldn’t even match-up against most of her classmates.

As they reached the top of the hill and made it to the clearing Akeno returned her thoughts to the present and her current situation. They had been brought to a wide-open field surrounded by trees and hills behind a line of fences; aside from a few openings leading to paths heading into the trees there was nothing of note about the place that would indicate why they had been brought here. She had the feeling something very unpleasant was about to happen. Maybe it had something to do with the awkward smile on their teachers face, or the strangely familiar quality to his voice that made her want to hit him for some reason, but clearly, they had something planned.

"I feel like this is gonna be like the entrance exam. Stay alert, guys."

Akeno stopped by a shorter student with green hair and red eyes; she recognised him from his demonstration but couldn’t recall his name. The reminder of the entrance exam triggered flashbacks of an abandoned office building, a series of simulated death-traps and the voice of a villain who was having far too much fun. “For all of our sakes I really hope it’s nothing like that.”

The Mutant Girl, upon taking her seat, was surprised to be addressed by he dragon-like boy, Yutsuko Soga.

"Good job, Yakkaimori-san, that was very impressive! You will truly become a great hero, I can guarantee it!"

Something about the boy’s choice of words seemed to set something off in her mind. Something about it seemed disingenuine- and the fact that she wasn’t prone to taking or receiving compliments didn’t help his case. As a result, she gave the boy a somewhat sceptical glance.

”She was good, wasn’t she?” Suzaku grinned widely, pleased that someone else had agreed with his assessment of Koumori’s abilities. He turned to address the bat girl. ”The echolocation alone would be impressive enough- combined with your natural agility and mobility, there’s much you’ll be capable of, Yakkaimori-san,”
This remark caused the bat-girl to blush, her shoulders sloping in even more than they had already been, “I-it wasn’t that impressive, Takeda-kun, keekee,” the girl replied with a dismissive wave of her hand, “P-plus… th-the way h-he said it… i-it sounded like he d-didn;e mean it,” Koumori added even more quietly than her usually low tone, directed so Suzaku could hear it exclusively.

Koumori watched intently, leaning close, elbows on her knees with hands supporting her chin. As small as she was, she didn’t realize exactly how close her head was to the shoulders of the black-and-white girl, nor how easily she could be heard. The next demonstration after her own blew her out of the water, or so she thought. Kenji Ito, with his Beetle Quirk, and Mari Haruishi, with her Born to Run Quirk, struck a particular chord with the girl, and the boy Kaito Haruto seemed a natural leader. He would probably make a good candidate for Class Representative, as would Akeno Kudo, with her competence, and Haruka Fujimori, with her cooperation and elegance.The Bat-like girl would be sure to pay attention to their names, if they were to nominate themselves.
“Hm, those Quirks… were they not so specific… Acceleration and Durability… they’re like All Might’s Quirk...” the bat-girl mused, “Actually...”

”I’m more intrigued by the Emitter Quirk- the music-based one. Depending on its limitations, he could easily be a top contender amongst support heroes. Any kind of empowerment Quirk is usually highly prized in the community.” Suzaku’s eyes locked on the musician, mind whirling with the possibilities.If it amplifies stamina, would it help Emitters use their powers for longer? Also, is it strictly physical parameters, or has he not used his Quirk enough to tell? Could he amplify Black Wings so I could achieve flight? Learning one’s limitations is the key to expanding one’s horizons, after all. He supposed he’d just have to go and ask him. After the demonstration, of course.

Though her eyes were facing forward, the single ear that was swiveled in Suzaku’s direction, along with her thoughtful nods, signaled that she was listening to him. Koumori had never seen any Quirks like her own before in the little village of Jionoshisu where she grew up, and now, in one day, that number had more than quadrupled. It made her feel a bit on edge, actually- the fact that she was so out of her depth in Quirk knowledge, it seemed. But, as fate would have it, she happened to be sitting next to an expert.

Though still mid-conversation with her biggest source of anxiety, Yomodachi had an ear for things at the weirdest of times, Koumori’s mental note finding its way to her, the bat girl just a tad louder than she may have anticipated. Eyes of amber turned from the dragon on her left to the bat behind her and to the her right, then in front of her towards the current demonstration. Though she didn’t say anything just yet, it was something she could bring up later, if she needed a conversation starter.

Lightly biting her inner lip in frustration, Koumori mentally berated herself for being so foolish, all while an old familiar worry ate at her gut. On top of that, she couldn’t help but find herself feeling a bit jealous of the competence of some of the other students, especially a particular Mutant whose Quirk seemed to be a pure upgrade of hers. All at once she felt rather redundant- like her inclusion in the school was soon to come to a close, once the staff realized that everything her simple Quirk could do, other students seemed to be able to do better with theirs.

As it would so happen, the demonstrations weren’t to test whether one would be kicked out of Jigokuraku or not, seeing as the group of students assembled had already “Plus Ultra!”’d their way through the entrance exams, some more competently than others. But to show off each person’s individual Quirk did little to show off their skill, as would be found out during the next test. Koumori knew this, but still, her doubts gnawed at her mind.

Azukina, up until the final demonstration or two, had been speaking with Soga about hero philosophy - a topic the two of them found great interest in. However, they ended things on a somewhat sour note, with the checkered girl completely silent for the remainder of the demonstrations. She gave some of the students around another look; they all seemed far more competent with their Quirks than she. It made her feel a little inadequate, however she reminded herself: ’This is hero school. I am here to learn.’ Her somewhat depressing self-assertion came just as their homeroom teacher, Ohto Goudo, informed them the class would be going for a walk. Without much else to say, Azuki joined the loose line of students and kept pace, not wanting to be tardy.

As she oft’ did in, well, most of her academic life, Koumori simply followed the group quietly, not paying much attention to exactly how the students flowed. She was more intent on not being in the way, her arms held before her and clasped in front of her thighs. Even as she made sure to retrieve her bag and jacket, the Mutant girl didn’t notice how close she had stayed to those by which she had been sitting- namely Azukina and Suzaku.

The former of the two seemed more into the sights than the students, it would seem, looking up at the trees, getting caught under the drip of residual winter more than a few times. She was half-tempted to blast the things frozen again, but felt using her Quirk to hurt harmless trees might be a bit… excessive. It was only when Azukina was finished with the sightseeing that she noticed she had an extra shadow, a mutant with cute ears taking the form of a... bat? Her quiet and, dare she say, shy demeanour caught the bipolar girl’s attention. It was hard to ignore someone so capable, even when keeping as quiet as possible. Not that Koumori was trying or anything.

Given she had nobody else to speak with right now, and that the only person she actually sort of knew had made a ruckus at the beginning of the day, Azukina felt confident enough to at least try speaking with her. The demonstrations were a good conversation starter, but trying to word it - now that was the tricky part.

“Hey, uhh… Y-Yakkaimori, was it?”

Pace slowing to fall in line with the batgirl, Checkers did her best to be somewhat friendly without being overly obtrusive. “I noticed your demonstration. You looked like you have such an impressive understanding of your Quirk! Hehe…”
“Oh?” the small girl’s somewhat blind following and doubtful train of thought were broken by being so suddenly addressed, “Ye- um ye- um- yes… I-I’m Y-Yakkaimori Koumori, keekee,” the myotisoid girl chittered.
An audible gulp sounded from Koumori as the next remark was spoken. Suddenly her face flushed, eyes darting down to the ground.
“It uh… w-wasn’t anything s-special really… keekee. I th-thought your Quirk was s-spectacular! Keekee!” she remarked, her excitement getting ahead of her, “D-do you m-mean it?”

For a moment, Koumori’s heart seemed to skip a beat. What was this about, she wondered for half an instant, barely able to process the feeling before the conversation continued.

Azukina nodded, her eyes full of excitement now, as though properly able to voice her thoughts. “O-oh, definitely! I wish I had half the skill you have with my Quirk! H-honestly, all I did was freeze a bunch of dummies.” She scratched the back of her head nervously. ’Right, real impressive, you and her are the same. You’re both loser students for a loser school so-’

The negative thoughts were hard to drive away, unfortunately. They hadn’t managed to show themselves all morning, but even if that was the case, she could only hope it wouldn’t impact their conversation. “You had… such intricate abilities, they really looked useful! I truly mean it.”
‘Skill? Intricate? All I did was walk and hear. I’ve been doing that since I was two. Big deal.’ Though there was no way of knowing, Koumori’s thoughts seemed to mirror the tone of those of the black-and-white haired girl as well. Still, there was a strange- almost uncomfortable, prickly warmth in her chest when Azukina spoke to her that way.

“Th-thank you so much, Yomodachi-kun keekee.” she replied with a slight bow, “I really thought your Quirk was… amazing! P-powerful! Dramatic! Keekee. Th-the class has some really powerful and heroic Quirks in it,” marked the smaller girl.

”Well, I thought you were both spectacular.” Suzaku turned toward the monochrome girl. ”Yomodachi-san, was it? I’m Takeda Suzaku. Forgive me for interrupting. But your Quirk would have cleaned house at the Exam I attempted at UA. And Yakkaimori here has one of the most versatile Quirks I’ve ever seen- you’re both going to be spectacular once we graduate. Moreso than me, at this rate; flapping really hard is all well and good, but some people can actually fly. Not that I’m not working on that, mind you…”

’Powerful and dramatic, huh…? Mmmh, yeah, I bet. Plenty powerful, just stupid and uncoordinated.’
‘What are you doing, chattering like an idiot? Why can’t I just stop that...’ Again she mentally berated herself, but soon softly cleared her throat, as if in an attempt to silence her inner voice and continue the conversation.
Azukina nodded in response. “O-oh yeah, definitely, some of the people in this class look really incredible. It makes me wonder how they all wound up here…” Her body leaned forwards, head tilted to the side, examining Koumori with furrowed brows. “Mmmh… So you’re a bat, correct? Does that mean you see with your ears…?”

Her former train of thought mixed with the current topic of conversation caused Koumori to cast her gaze even farther down.She almost didn’t want to answer, It made her feel almost… dirty.
“I, um… y-yes. Um, well, B-bat, yes… I um, I mean… I h-have echolocation… keeke-” Koumori answered, cutting herself off.
She was nervous but warm, comfortable but shivering all at once. This didn’t make a lick of sense. Her ears dropped back, almost hidden behind her fluffy hair now.
“So I um… I can still see, b-but… I have r-really good hearing,” she mumbled in addition.
Koumori was now feeling self conscious not only about her physically weak build, unimpressive Quirk, and her nervous tic of making bat like sounds, but now her eyesight as well, which wasn’t the best, especially in bright lights.
Seeing her respond so poorly, Azukina decided it best to back off. She knew a look of self-doubt when she saw one, and honestly wasn’t trying to force her into talking about herself. A minor setback, she hoped.
“Well, now I can’t help but feel jealous. My sight’s going, so knowing you will have two senses greater than mine, I’ll have to rely on your superior natural ability.” She gave her next question a bit of thought, looking up at the sky as they were approaching the steps, instead of looking where she was going.
“R-really?” Koumori replied, a deep sympathy in her tone, like someone looking at another on the same wearying, rugged road, “M-my eyes aren’t th-that good either… I-I w-wouldn’t call m-my abilities superior, keekee, b-but I do have a s-sensitive nose...”
“And a sensitive nose. You are more impressive than you let on, Yakkaimori. Apologies, I’ve been very rude today, it seems. I haven’t even talked about my own Quirk!”
Azukina’s remark made her blush, “N-no! You weren’t rude at all, Yomodachi-kun!” the girl rapidly interjected, “I got a pretty good idea about it from the demonstration, b-but I wouldn’t mind hearing about it,” despite her sensitive hearing, it was like only Azukina’s voice could be heard, and at a comfortable level- for the most part. This was weird. Koumori had no idea what to think of this. Was she zoning out this bad at school? That was so unlike her.
Her arm stretched out in front of her, palm looking back at the two of them. Azuki points to the center of her palm with her free hand, “Right in the middle there, I can create a glow, a light. As it would happen, I can emit a cold wind from it. Unfortunately I’m prone to hurting myself when I use my Quirk, so I have that to deal with. That, and it actually hinders my ability to move.”

“I see,” she remarked, her voice low, almost reverent, “Th-that is a lot like how I read Frostbite’s Quirk worked, keekee… I’ve um… read a little bit about him.” her gaze shifted about for a moment, “And… s-speaking of Pro-Quirks,” her hands raised to her temples, with her two index fingers pointed up, curling slightly, “Did any of the demonstrations today re-remind you of anyone? Keekee.”

Hearing her father’s name, it made Azukina avert her gaze. Right, of course someone would know her family name, it wasn’t like she just announced it in front of everyone like some kind of moron. “As far as I know, it’s exactly like how it worked. Except in his case, his body could handle the cold, and he was a lot cooler, able to use both his hands.”
She did her best to lighten up, even though talking about her dad made her noticeably nervous. “R-right, well, I can’t say I’ve heard of too many names, but Sakimoto rings a bell… Admittedly, I’m a pretty recent fan of heroism, so I might be a bit slow.”

“I-I’m sorry! I… I didn’t mean to upset you, I just… keekeekee” she apologized manically.“B-but y-you did a-an-an-announce it d-during your d-demonstration...” she added sheepishly, “I’m s-sorry keekee...”
Azukina’s phrasing, mixed with her own previous gesture and question, gave Koumori pause, and she pursed her lips a bit, tilting her head.
“You… don’t know All Might? B-but… you s-said you wanted t-to be the Symbol of Peace?” she punctuated her query by once again making the hand-gesture that mimicked All Might’s hair.

“Oh, no, I know All Might! I'm certain everyone knows of him!” Her response was quick, as though to correct her mistake as soon as possible and prevent further misunderstanding. “I just thought you were referring to our classmates and whether they had hero backgrounds or not. In that sense, I wouldn't be the person to ask, however in the case of comparing our classmates to heroes I know of… Mmh…”

The Mutant girl’s heart fluttered for half a moment, then sank like a stone. Her expression was suddenly quite sheepish. She looked about at her fellow students pensively, taking in all their expressions. The girl’s gaze hesitated on Suzaku for a bit longer than a moment, before shooting down. A blush took her face as she didn, before her eyes flickered to Azukina.

She thinks for a moment, “I believe his name was Ito… he seemed really strong. A bit like All Might.”
Koumori nods, “I was thinking the same thing!” she blurted “A-although I h-have my own p-personal th-theory about what All M-Might’s Quirk was… keekee,” she added, sheepish once more.

Hearing this elicited a curious look from Azukina.She thought his Quirk was relatively simple and well-known.
“Was his Quirk not to have superhuman strength?” she quizzed, raising a brow.
Seeing the smaller girl smile made her feel relaxed, though. Something about her felt familiar, filling her with a warm sensation she couldn't quite place.
“That's… what I always thought it to be, at least.”

“W-well… he n-never talked a-about it.. A-and… All Might w-was always able to get p-places s-so fast, s-so I was thinking… wh-what if he had an Acceleration Quirk? Keekee? I-it would h-have all the s-same results, b-but b-but, it w-would e-explain everything in a m-much neater way, keekee,” the girl explained.
To her, it was quite simple, really. Force was simply mass times acceleration. All Might had a strong frame, to be sure, but in order to perform the feats for which he was known- well, he clearly wasn’t altering his mass, as the ground never shattered under him or anything, so the only logical solution was he was somehow able to manipulate his own acceleration with his Quirk.

Unfortunately, Azukina wasn't quite smart enough to get it, but nodded all the same. “But… what about his slower punches?” She tilted her head.

”It could have been kinetic boosting,” said Suzaku, shrugging. ”It would account for both strength amplification and acceleration. Maybe some kinetic absorption, for good measure- he was a lot more durable than just a simple amplification Quirk would have allowed for.”
Koumori simply nodded. That made sense too.She looked to Azukina, to see if she had any input- she couldn’t help but overhear her talking about the Symbol of Peace earlier. It was sort of disappointing that that dragon boy didn’t know the difference between a simple number one Hero, and a bonafide Symbol of Peace. Oh well, maybe he wasn’t as smart as he claimed to be. He did give off a duplicitous air- almost villainous, in some ways.

If this became a physics lesson the two tone’s mind would explode. This was clear from her expression. As a result, Koumori became visibly frustrated. The bridge of her nose wrinkled, and her hands clenched, but didn’t form fists. She found herself shaking a bit as she forced the frustration down, and eventually the warmth in her chest eased it away. Her expression then changed. She looked sad, unsure. The girl then looked down, her visage extremely apologetic, but she had no idea what to say or do. There was a time when she would have. There was a time when she probably wouldn’t have gotten so mad. But things had changed. She wanted to resolve to help Azukina learn, but something nagged in the back of her mind. ‘Would there even be a point? No- don’t think that way! But… would I even be able to help?’

’Just give it up, baaaaaaaka. Look, she doesn’t even look interested - she hates you! You’re just some directionless loser who can’t read people right. What are you, some kind of idiot? Unable to do this one, simple thing without screwing up? Unable to be a good person, huh? Unable to understand? Huh? Moron? Idiot.’

Azukina suffered in silence with her thoughts, unable to continue speaking. If she did, it would only give away her insecurity, her fear. Control had to be exercised, she had to get her emotion under control. They were the worst things. Emotions. She wished they would just go away.
“I’m… sorry.” She whispers, her voice barely audible to anyone else, though Koumori’s ears were strong enough to hear the muttering under her breath. ”Idiot… what was I thinking…? Great, now she hates me, too…” Azukina had forgotten all about Koumori’s sensitive hearing, despite just being told about it, apparently.

The Mutant girl swallowed, then looked up into the two-toned girl’s eyes.
“D-don’t be sorry! I-I don’t hate you! Keekee- I… I was… d-disappointed in m-myself for… being f-frustrated… I-it’s all my fault, r-really, keekee.” Before she could continue, Suzaku walked in, quickly interjecting before things got worse.

”Hey now, no need for anyone to get so down. We’re here to learn, are we not? They don’t expect us to have all the answers right off the bat. No one’s mad or upset at each other, right? Just asking questions. Learning. Let’s all step back and take a breath, okay?”

Suzaku didn’t know why the girls were getting so flustered with one another. What was so stressful about asking these kinds of questions? It was perfectly normal and natural, given the circumstances. Girls confuse me, he thought, scratching the back of his head.

As they walked through the woods, the terrain started to become more and more uneven. ‘Great. Now she’s mad at me. She’ll probably never want to talk to me again. Why would she ever want to be friends with a frail girl like me?’ It was then that Koumori heard something. A snap- a crumbling sound. Azukina’s foot being put down, only to slip on a protruding root before some crude stone steps. The reaction was almost instant, Koumori shot her arm out, stopping Azukina from continuing, as she attempted to catch the much taller girl from a potential fall.

Azukina wasn’t exactly a light girl, coming in at 128lbs, but the inhuman reaction time of her Mutant-type classmate gave her the precious time needed to prevent her from colliding face-first into the steps. It would’ve been a dumb way to go - she was stressing herself out way too much…
Thankful that nobody else really caught on to her blunder, the two-toned girl brings herself back to her feet, looking a little out of it. Her breathing is unsteady, but doesn’t appear overly erratic, slowly calming herself down. Koumori receives an unfocused stare, blinking twice, before seemingly coming back to herself.
“I, uh… Is that what they call it when a person has their life flash before them…?”

Due to their difference in size, Koumori’s hand was placed about midway across the other girl’s body, very near the base of her sternum. She didn’t exactly notice where she had her hand as she looked up at the taller girl.
“A-are you okay Y-Yomodachi-kun?” Koumori blurted in concern, “D-did you get scared? I-I’m s-so glad you d-d-didn’t f-fall, keekee,” the short girl added.

It was a good thing her voice was so naturally quiet, otherwise someone else might have heard her, and brought attention to Azukina’s near blunder. Not to mention Koumori’s hand…
“You’re, umm… y-you’re grabbing my…”
Now steady on her feet, Azukina pulled away from the smaller girl’s grasp, which had touched someplace she never thought another person would touch so soon. Either she was cursed, the school was cursed, or every single one of her classmates were perverts in some respect…

Koumori instantly removes her hand at that remark; she didn’t even notice, “I-I’m s-sorry Y-Yomodachi-kun!”

With a sigh, her expression softens, but still shows a level of annoyance. “You will pay for that, along with Haruto. Your debt to me is less, but only because you saved me from a fall.” She then chooses to finally acknowledge Suzaku, glaring at him as though about to bring down the axe. “You did not see anything, do I make myself clear?” She folds her arms across her chest. “A-and… th-thank you, Yakkaimori. For s-saving me from my fall…” She turns, headed up the stairs, feeling like she did during the entrance exam…

”I, uh… what.” Suzaku blinked, shaking his head, utterly confused at the emotional whiplash he’d just experienced. They’d gone from a civil conversation, to Yomodachi tripping and falling… and suddenly Yakkaimori owed some sort of debt? For saving her, or—

...Oh. A faint trace of color dusted Suzaku’s cheeks. That’s unfortunate. He shook his head again. Still, one would think she’d be more grateful. Would she rather break her neck on the stairs? I don’t get it.

”...There’s probably a story behind that ‘along with Haruto’ comment, but right now I’m being distracted by all of the ‘what the fuck’ I’m feeling,” he commented quietly.

Koumori blushed- her forehead starting to leak a cold sweat. Debt? Koumori definitely didn’t have any kind of money to pay off a debt, but for some reason, that’s not what she thought Azukina meant. However, as she was thanked, her face went warm, as did the strange flutter in her chest.

Still, demanding recompense for accidents was hardly fair. Maybe she didn’t want to hang out with her after all. The more she thought about it, the more confused her feelings were, until her eyes broke from their lock on the ground and sheepishly glanced at Azukina. She had no idea what to say, but somehow felt less conflicted about staying around the monochrome haired girl. Strange.

Suzaku shuffled as he glanced between Yomodachi and Yakkaimori, feeling a bit uncomfortable. ”To be fair, I don’t think she’s serious about you owing her anything. That kind of… doesn’t make sense. At all.”

The only response Koumori gave was to collapse her shoulders even more, and clasp her hands, nervously brushing her thumbs against each other.
She was awhirl with feelings, “I-it’s fine Takeda-kun… I sh-should have paid m-more attention to my height, and where I put my m-my hand, keekee,” she admitted, before muttering to herself, “Even i-if it doesn’t seem v-very heroic… What kind of Symbol of Peace counts debts?” she mused aloud, lost in thoughts a bit more bitter than she might have liked, “Simplicity: keep your accounts on your thumb nail. ”

Suzaku shrugged. ”She did say ‘future’ Symbol of Peace. We’re still learning. Including her. She’ll grow out of it. Eventually. Hopefully.”

“That’s not the point,” the girl replied through gritted teeth, giving Suzaku a rather sharp glare, her voice so low that it was practically a hiss- there was a possibility that even Suzaku wouldn’t hear it clearly, but it was assured that no one outside of the three would be able to make it out.

“I can hear you.” Azukina commented off-handedly, looking somewhat… smug? It was a little hard to read her, but she didn’t seem particularly annoyed; perhaps she wasn’t as upset as she had first let on? “Apologies, but my… outburst just now wasn’t directed at you, but at someone else. Kind of. It is… hard to explain.”
It would seem she hadn’t quite heard much else other than the fact she was being talked about.

Koumori’s eyes widened a bit. She was sort of just thinking out loud and didn’t realize who was where for the moment.
“Oh- s-sorry… Wh-who w-were you ou- um.. directing it towards? Keekee.”

The Monochrome Emitter gave a soft, nervous chuckle, the kind you’d hear from someone who was guilty but didn’t know how to respond. They were almost at The Field by this point, the path opening to a wider expanse, a great open area flanked by stands of trees and some fencing.
“Well… it’s a long story. If we have time to do so in the future, I may tell you about it.”
Given how she spoke it seemed like Azukina wasn’t interested in talking about it. But she offered a friendly smile as an apology - a small kindness for all her rudeness. The Mutant girl was extremely confused by this. She just gave a bewildered expression. Did Azukina want to be friends with Koumori? Or was she simply being coy and cryptic?

Koumori’s reaction made Checkers uncomfortable somewhat, though not because of the batgirl’s bewilderment, but because she just felt so bad at all this. Even though the girl before her felt so familiar, there was undoubtedly something that made the conversation… difficult. Unlike the mutant bat, Azukina had her own feeling deep within her chest, a tightness that squeezed at her heart like it wanted to choke her. Cruel and ghostly, it was in direct opposition to Koumori’s butterflies, which only made her feel increasingly awkward the more that time had passed.
With thoughts bubbling in her mind, and emotions in her chest, Koumori decided to speak her mind a bit.
“If you want to be the Symbol of Peace,” her voice was low,but clearly directed at Azukina, despite not looking directly at her, and the nervous stammer was all but gone somehow, “You have to start now. Look at the person you are and if that’s not who a Symbol of Peace would be, work harder on yourself,” there was a reverence to her as she spoke, as if both the topic and method of which she spoke were deeply important to her.

The amber eyes which once looked to her with kindness now looked away, although the emotion they expressed couldn’t be seen. At least, not until her thoughts had recollected, her confidence reaffirmed, her mind decided and set.

“In that case, I’ll work twice as hard, if not that then thrice as tough! I can not promise I could ever be as great as All Might, however I promise,” hands entwined with Koumori’s own, “that I won’t ever stop trying to achieve great things and giving people who need it a reason to smile…!”

Her face brimmed with kindness and confidence, her smile wide and beaming, yet behind the facade her mind teased and taunted, her thoughts scattered and disjointed. A Symbol of Peace? How would someone go about achieving that? She wasn’t even sure of her own dream - it wasn’t even her dream. How could she be so serious about something so far-fetched? ’You don’t even know what you’re doing.’ Her mind said. ’Just a stupid little girl with a stupid little dream, huh…?’ Her confidence was a lie. That smile was a lie. Her dream was a lie. This friendship would be a lie. Nothing could ever be truthful, nothing could ever be honest, nor real.
Just a lost little girl who didn’t know what she was doing. Koumori, however, seeing this display, clutched the hand offered her tightly. She felt herself being consumed by a feeling she never thought she’d feel again. And yet, there it was. She couldn’t help but smile in return. Not the wry, shy, or nervous smile that she may have given before, nor the guarded smile she used to tell people she was okay- No, this was a real smile. The girl’s brown eyes squinted, lips peeling back to reveal… white, pointed teeth, most of them coming to an almost needle like point. Being that she was looking directly at it, the reason Koumori kept her teeth hidden was probably pretty obvious to Azukina. The Bat Mutant’s smile was very jagged in the front, with sharply pointed cusps on her incisors and canine teeth, with prominent points on her molars as well. The contrast between the front and back teeth in shape and interaction, coupled with a relatively narrow jaw, gave the smile a rather inhuman quality. But right now, Koumori didn’t care. Unable to know how uncomfortable the other girl was, she was happy.

The return smile she got from Koumori was… different. It made her feel different. Unbeknownst to her, the black and white girl had added a shade of pink to her features, making her feel a bit of that warm fuzziness completely out of the blue. Thankfully for Azukina, Goudo-sensei began instructing the students to stay put, something the lost one felt she needed, given how her mind was in turmoil; “I guess we wait now?” She didn’t exactly wait for Koumori’s response, taking an open spot by a fence.
As their hands slipped from each other, Azukina took steps towards the fence, while Koumori simply stood there, feeling lost for a moment. However, she soon takes a place besides Azukina, having been unsure about where to go. Better to stick so someone familiar than try and talk to someone new. The short girl shuddered at the thought. Checkers raised an eyebrow at her approach, but said nothing.
“W-we both have a lot to learn if we want to be Pro Heroes,” Koumori interjected before the proceedings began, looking down for a moment in disappointment at her scrawny arm, back pressed against the fence, speaking in a low tone, “M-maybe me more than you… But.... but I can’t make it without you… s-so you have my support, keekee.”

Though still unsure in how she felt about the batgirl, the duo had gotten closer than most in Yomodachi’s life, and that warranted at least some kind of attention. Plus, her echolocation would come in handy to navigate the woods, or at the bare minimum her ears would pick up audio well before anyone else. If the dummies made sounds as they had during the entrance exam, then Koumori would be beyond valuable.
“Gladly,” she replied with a nod, “and I hope I can support you as you will I.”
So long as she didn’t screw this up somehow, they would be fine. Azuki could only hope that wouldn’t come to pass.

Being time to line up and wait, Suzaku took the opportunity to find someone else- another student whose Quirk had caught his interest. The masked boy from earlier, the one with the empowerment Quirk. He was impressive. He walked over, with a wave and a smile to get his attention.

”Hello!” he called cheerfully. ”Haruko-san, yes? I’m Takeda Suzaku. I just wanted to say, your Quirk is quite impressive. Do you maybe have time or the inclination to talk about it for a while? While we’re waiting for this to start.”

The quirk demonstration came to an end shortly after Elina and a few more had their go. The smoke detectors didn't go off, so Elina had yet another day of luck.

They would be moving onto the next thing right now which supposedly would be a break Elina had just hoped. She was completely wrong however as they would be going onto the next part of the intro day without a pause. Elina frowned as she heard they would be going outside, struck a bit odd to her.

Just before they would be going though Elina gave a thought about her attire. It might have been a bit to revealing to be walking around like this all day. With her mind focused on the break at first she wouldn't have thought they would be going on immediately. It was her plan to change during the break but hearing how that wouldn't work out now brought her to other ideas.

Elina quickly asked Guodo-sensei before they would be going if she could get some spare clothes. Lucky for her the gym did store some clothes. She got a spare tracksuit supposedly from Guodo-sensei himself and dressed up before catching up to the group. The tracksuit was a bit on the oversized side. Seeing you sloppy it hung on her body. It was something at least.

They were left to their own devices as they had to wait for a moment on something? Elina frowned again but shortly shrugged afterwards. They would be seeing very soon what the school had more in store for them.

Elina silently wandered away from the ground further into the field somewhat clueless on what to do. At first she gazed around with her hand finger in front of her mouth in thinking manner. There was honestly nothing to do out here, it was just a plain boring old field so Elina sat down close to Shiki his tree as she pulled her knees up to her face. She hugged her lower legs as she pressed her mouth against her upper legs. Boringly she waited for time to pass with no one to talk too.