This chapter took a little bit longer to come out that I expected it to. Sorry about that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

I sat down next to the student with the strap-like Quirk, the one who had helped me out in the entrance exam, and faced him. He looked back at me, not saying a word. In his finger was what appeared to be a long, leather strip wrapped up into a ball. The ball spun around atop the student's finger, then inexplicably unraveled, forming a makeshift glove. The leather then shaped back into a ball.

The boy seemed to be a shy type of person, so I decided to start up the conversation. "Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for saving me from those robots earlier," I said. I pointed to the leather sphere, which was now rolling up and down its owner's right arm. "That's a pretty cool Quirk you have right there."

The leather ball stopped moving. "I guess it is," he said, finally saying something back to me. "I didn't get to see your Quirk," he continued, "you seemed to disappear right whenever I was about to see what it was."

"That's actually what my Quirk does, believe it or not," I answered, "I can teleport, but it's not flashy or anything, so that's probably why you didn't notice me using it."

"Well, that explains how you got fourth place. Teleportation seems like it would be pretty useful in an exam like the one we just did." The boy gave me a quick smile and looked up at the leaderboards, which remained hanging above the arena with the rankings displayed in a hazy blue. "You must be… Utsuri Tenmetsu, then?

"That would be correct." I looked up at the leaderboards, looking for what my savior's name could be. In twelfth place, I saw a name next to the Quirk called "Leather". "And you are Takumi Reza, right?" I asked him back.

"Yep," Takumi replied. "It's nice to meet you, Utsuri."

"Are you from Japan?" I asked, based on the boy's name.

"Yes," Takumi mumbled.

A sharp whistle came from the journalist. "Okay, Chiara! It's your turn!" The girl who had complained about not getting a picture with her horse walked over to the journalist for an interview. Coming back was an apathetic-looking, dark-haired boy.

When he was in earshot I said, "Good job on making it into NYI!" I was trying to motivate him, as being in twentieth place may have been pretty jarring for him.

Instead of answering, the student, who must've been named Daku Seizonsha, based on his score, just sighed and sat down next to Takumi. "Something wrong?" I asked, a little taken aback at the boy's attitude. He just got accepted into one of, if not the, most prestigious schools in the world, and he seemed… almost disappointed.

Daku sighed once more, as if he would rather go through the rest of his day without any more human interaction. "I got twentieth place," he mumbled quietly.

"What?" I asked incredulously. "That's amazing, isn't it?"

"I should've been able to get first," he said, "but I got too cocky." Personally, I thought that he was being cocky enough by announcing that he could've won first place, but Daku didn't sound like he was trying to brag. I started to wonder what kind of Quirk he had. It must've been powerful enough to warrant his obvious confidence in his own abilities.

"You got too cocky?" Takumi asked. "Did you make a big mistake, or something?"

"I did…" he answered, then hesitated"...but I don't want to talk about it right now." Instead of continuing the conversation, Daku turned around, ignoring us. Takumi looked at me quizzically, so I shrugged my shoulders in return. I had no idea why Daku had so abruptly ended the conversation. Maybe he just wasn't a people person.

Takumi leaned close to me. "I'm getting kind of thirsty," he whispered, as if he wanted to respect Daku's solidarity. "Do you know where any water fountains are?"

"Umm…" I craned to look over his shoulders. Being in an arena, the walls were a solid grey, and no discernible features, such as doors or other exits, could be made out. The only thing I saw were some workers already starting to clean up the pieces of destroyed robot. However, I did notice a group of teachers and others, the ones who had made sure that we would not cheat, standing in a circle, seemingly deep in a discussion. "You could ask one of them," I offered.

"You sure?" he asked, still whispering. "They look like they're busy."

"They probably won't mind," I assured him. He looked around nervously, but eventually stood up, and walked over to the group of teachers. I watched as, after a brief interaction with the teachers, Takumi headed for the gate.

With nobody to talk to, seeming that Daku wasn't interested in conversation. I quickly grew bored of sitting down, playing with the sand. I stood up, and went to go find some other students to talk to. A green-haired girl and an angry-looking kid

"Hey, would you mind if I sat down here?" I asked politely.

"No," the girl said, "Come, right here.

Sitting down next to the two, I heard the green-skinned girl say, "I don't think I'm going to have this interview in a while." She looked at the journalist, trying to see if she could determine how long the current talk was going to take.

"I can't believe that we have to wait for this stupid journalist to quit yapping before we are allowed to go home..." a skinny student with wavy, black hair muttered, blunt anger in his words, "...bitch," he added for good measure. I quickly noticed that he had five eyes on his face. I brushed it off as being part of his quirk.

"Hey," you don't have to be so rude to her," the green girl said. Along with her green skin and green hair, she had two antenna protruding out of her head, giving her an extremely insect-like appearance. "She's just doing her job, and it makes sense that she would want to know more about us." A small, almost devious, smile appeared on her face. "We're pretty much going to be famous, after all."

Another girl, one with light brown hair who was sitting about three meters away, turned her head jerkily towards us, as if suddenly wanting to participate in the conversation. "Famous?" she cried out incredulously, as if she hadn't even considered the possibility that placing high in the entrance exam could lead to fame, even though I thought that most people would have found that obvious. "Oh my God!" she shouted, causing most of the students to turn towards her in either confusion or annoyance, "We're gonna be famous!" Suddenly, she stood up, hopped over to the group she had been listening in on, and plopped herself onto the sand, next to me.

"Umm… I guess it is pretty cool that people are going to start hearing about us soon," I said calmly, trying to not get angry with the girl's chittering, despite it causing my migraine to reignite. "I am kind of nervous though."

"Hmph, I don't give a shit if I'm famous or not," the skinny student said. In his eyes, I could almost see his angry eyes be rekindled in an instant, like a smoldering coal suddenly bursting into flames. "I just want this fucking interview to be over with already!" The large eye on the center of his forehead started to glow brightly. Sitting next to him, I could feel intense heat from his direction. Frightened, I scooted a few inches towards the jittery girl, considering the fact that being fried alive was slightly worse than dying from a headache.

"Alright, calm down, Rafael," the antennaed girl said, apparently already knowing the student's name. Her sweet disposition seemed to begin to break against Rafael's general asshole-ishness.

"What's going on here," a new, deep voice asked. It was Mastermind. He stood over us, dwarfing us at at least two meters tall. Barring his height, a normal black suit and purple tie made him look like any average businessman, and not the terrifyingly powerful hero that he was.

Even Rafael seemed to be taken aback by the world-famous hero. The glow from his forehead instantly disappeared. "Umm… I'm not doing anything," Rafael lied. "They just wanted to see what my quirk was." He turned to glare at us, his eyes conveying a clear threat.

"Uh, yeah! Our Quirks!" I piped up. " We were just showing them to each other. That's all." Masterminded smiled, his perfect teeth glinting in the sunlight.

"Good," he said, happily. "You guys need to learn about each other very well. You guys are going to be working together as a team, you know?"

Rafael's face scrunched up, now not only with his normal anger, but also with a new confusion. " A team?" he blurted out. "What do you mean by that? I'm just here to get a hero's license, then it's straight back home for me."

Mastermind looked a little surprised, but it was a type of respectful surprise. It was almost as if he was impressed that somebody would raise their voice at him, much less one of his own students. "I just meant that you would all be on the same side of this war of heroes versus villains." The hero regained his bright grin. "It's always good to know your allies."

"Even if your allies are on the other side of the world?" I questioned, before immediately wishing that I had shut up, instead of talking back to the principal of all people. However, I couldn't ignore the fact that Mastermind's comment about needing to become a team didn't hold up to scrutiny. I mean, in an international school, it's kind of expected that all of the students will return to their home nations once they obtain the rank of hero.

"I-I didn't mean anything by it," Mastermind claimed. His smile faltered, hinting that he was hiding some sort of information. Some knowledge that would clarify his statement. Knowledge that, for whatever reason, he could not tell us. Either that, or he was too kind to not encourage us to socialize and build rapport with each other.

The antennaed girl, whose name (judging by the rankings) was Dorothy Jeanette,

look at the principal. "I think Mastermind has a point," she said. "We're going to be living in the same dormitory, and some of us are going to be living in the same room." Her voice was filled with so much respect for the principal, that it almost had to be fake sucking-up. "A team is the one thing we need to be." While she had a point, I suspected that she was only saying what she did to gain brownie points with the principal.

"That's what I meant, o-obviously," Mastermind stuttered, his facade of confidence apparently being crushed by the simple questions of two teenagers of his own student body. For someone named, "Mastermind," the number one hero of the NYI didn't seem to be all that intelligent. "I'm going to chat with the other students," he said hurriedly, before briskly walking to another group of students sitting on the sandy floor.

"What the hell was that about?" I asked, honestly curious about what the principal might be hiding.

The hyper, brown-haired girl, named Minty, said, "That was a little mean."

"I think you were being too hard on him." Dorothy said in a kind voice.

"Can't be too hard on the stupid," Rafael said, laying down on the sand uncaringly. "That's my family motto."

"Wait, you're telling me that your family motto is, 'Can't be too hard on the stupid?'" I asked, directly quoting him word by word.

"It is now," Rafael asserted.

"Amir Tembo!" the journalist called, her shrill voice ringing through the air like a fire alarm. "It's you turn for an interview!" A tall student, one who curiously had the head of an elephant, lumbered to his impending interview.

"Maybe we should show each other our Quirks, like Mr. Mastermind said," Minty suggested, only to be met with an apathetic glare from Rafael and no answer from either Dorothy or me. "It'll be cool," she insisted.

"You wanna see my Quirk again?" Rafael asked, his voice growing louder again. His large, deadly eye gleamed with light. He leaned towards Minty, trying to scare her. However, she seemed mostly unfazed by his cheap, but effective, care tactics.

I wanted to stop this before Rafael burnt something or somebody, which, judging by the temperature of his laser eye, would not be a very difficult thing to do. "Here, I'll show you my Quirk," I offered. The three kids' heads turned toward me. Focusing on a point right behind a Minty, but not close enough to Rafael, I envisioned where I would teleport. Without standing up, or moving at all, I blinked to the spot I was looking at, and was transported there instantly via my Quirk.

After a single second of confusion from the three, they all looked behind at me, their faces lighting up in amazement. Even Rafael looked impressed.

"You must be Utsuri then," Rafael said. "Good job on the exam." He put his hand out, offering me to shake it. I noticed an eye in the center of his hand, looking at me curiously. Despite being slightly disgusted, I decided to shake his hand. With, respectful gratitude, I grasped it firmly, before feeling an intense burning in my palm.

I teleported about half a meter backwards to escape the pain. I grabbed my hand in a pain. Looking at it, I could see a large blister forming in the middle of it. "What the hell was that for?" I yelled at him, not caring about the stares I received from my other classmates.

"Enjoy your spot in fourth place," Rafael said smugly. "I'm going to be passing you up soon, with a shitty quirk like that." He calmly stood up and walked away, probably to go be a dick to somebody else. The antennaed girl followed him, for some reason wanting to still be around the volatile douchebag. I looked closer at my newly acquired blister, which already stung like a giant, infected bug bite.

"Wow," said Minty, "what an asshole."

I smiled to myself, knowing that at least one person was on my side of this, even if that person was a chipper airhead. "Thanks, I replied.

"No problem," she said, scooting closer to where I was sitting. "He's probably just jealous that you got ranked higher than him in the exam." The light-haired girl leaned closer to me, resting her head on my shoulder, with a total disregard of my personal space.

I glanced around the body of students, wondering if anybody else was noticing this strange physical contact take place. Fortunately, nobody was paying us any attention,so nobody could get any ideas about our opinions about one another. "Umm… thanks again," I said awkwardly, my face growing redder as she nuzzled her head against my shoulder.

"Has anybody ever told you how strong you look?" she asked, prodding the muscles on my arm.

"Okay, that's enough," I said. I quickly stood up, causing Minty to help as she fell face-first into the sand. I couldn't take anymore of her flirting nonsense. "I-I got to go," I excused myself, speed walking away from Minty, my head probably the shade of a ripe tomato. I couldn't believe that I had already been hit on, literally in the first hour of being accepted into NYI.

"Kaleb Rexavi!" the journalist shouted, signaling that it was another student's turn to have an interview. A six-armed boy, who must have been Kaleb, walked up to the interviewer with a smile on his face.

I suddenly realized that I had no clue about what I was going to talk about during my interview. I didn't even know what sort of questions I was going to be asked. I sat on the ground, thinking to myself. I thought of different questions I could be asked, and what my answers to those questions would be. Where do I live? What do I what to accomplish? How good do I think I'm going to do at NYI? After a few minutes of concentrating on my upcoming interview, I had all of those questions answered, and more.

"Hey, Utsuri," I heard a deep voice whisper behind me. I turned around, losing my train of thought about the interview. It was Mastermind. He peered at the other students discreetly. "I think I owe you an explanation about why I was so flustered earlier."

I looked at the principal, unsure of how to reply. "Umm… What is it?" I asked.

"It's not something you can tell the other students," he stated confidentially. "I just want one of you to be prepared in case of anything does happen." His vague terminology slightly annoyed me, but it did successfully pique my interest. "I have reason to believe that a certain… villainous organization might be planning an attack on NYI."

While it wasn't surprising to hear about villains attacking hero schools, it came to me as a shock that anybody would be foolhardy or brace enough to attack NYI, which is, for all intensive purposes, a fortress, well-guarded by a myriad of pro-heroes and dangerously powerful students. "Why would they do that?" I asked, still knowing next to nothing about the situation.

"I'm not sure," Mastermind admitted. They probably want to either coax you into their villainous ways, or prevent you to grow up into a pro hero." I gulped nervously, realizing that, since I was accepted into NYI, I was now on almost every villain's most wanted list. Or… whatever a criminal's version of a most wanted list would be.

"When will they attack? Or do you not even know?" I was growing increasingly worried about my own situation. Maybe ending up at NYI wasn't a blessing, but a curse.

"It could happen anytime. In the next few weeks, a month, or even tomorrow," Mastermind replied.

"Why don't we just shut down the school, and not have any students come?" I questioned. It didn't seem to make much sense to have students go to school if there was an active threat.

"If we were to shut down this school anytime we received threats, we would never have any time to be open to do anything," he explained. "Hell, you kids are probably safer here than at home. With all these heroes, this may be one of the safest places ever." While I knew that the principal was trying to comfort me, the fact that anybody would be brave enough to try to besiege such an impenetrable fortress only made me more uneasy.

"You just need to make sure you are careful," he continued. "And don't tell anybody else. Not your friends, not your parents, and not even your don't need the world going into a panic."

I nodded as if I were in a daze. "Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.

"Because, I need one of you kids to be aware of the situation at hand." He paused for a second, looking me in the eye, looking afraid. If something could scare Mastermind, it was not something that I wanted to meet. "I need a leader," he said. "And you seem like a leader."

I was one part terrified and another part complimented. I couldn't believe that anybody would trust me for something as important as this. It felt like some kind of spy thriller. But even so, I didn't think that I could handle that kind of responsibility. "I really don't think I up for this," I admitted.

"These villains will attack, whether you are ready for this or not," Mastermind said. He looked around discreetly, as if to make sure no other students were watching. "Tomorrow, I will be taking you on a tour throughout the school. Make sure you pay attention to what I say then. It will help you know what to do in case of an emergency." The principal grimaced as he peered at the students. My eyes followed where he was looking, and I saw Rafael looking at both of us with an angry curiosity.

He patted me on the back as he straightened himself back up. "I need to leave before this gets too suspicious," he said, faking a grin, as if telling me something encouraging and nice. He smiled at me one last time, then walked away.

"Hey wait!" I objected. "I still don't know what's going on. I nee-" Mastermind was already too far away to whisper too. Calmly, he made his way to go converse with the other teachers.

I sat on the sandy floor of the coliseum for a moment, processing the information that I had just heard. My first instinct was to warn all of my classmates, but I had to restrain myself not to, in order to follow what Mastermind had told me.

A curious-looking boy wearing a startlingly red jacket was suddenly approaching me. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost." He was accompanied by a girl with a runner's build and the six-armed kid who I saw taking an interview earlier.

"Yeah, no kidding," the girl said, her voice heavy with a thick German accent. "Pale as one too.

"I-I'm fine," I lied. "I'm just kind of nervous about this interview, that's all." The trio of kids seemed to buy that.

"It's not that bad, really." The six-armed student said. "I just got done with mine, and they didn't ask any hard questions." He smiled reassuringly. "Honestly, I think that they are trying to get this over as soon as possible, so everybody can go and leave."

I scanned the names on the leaderboard. "There's about eleven or twelve people who have to take an interview before I do," I concluded. "I have time to practice."

"I can help you practice," the six-armed boy offered. "I really don't have anything else to do."

"Thanks for the offer," I said, "but I think that I'm already as prepared as I will be." I tried to dismiss the student without being too rude. The boy was genuinely nice for trying to help me, but I needed some time alone to get grips on what I had been told by the principal.

"Oh, that's a shame," he said, frowning as if he was actually disappointed in not being able to help me. It made me feel a little guilty on the inside.

"Next up is… Spencer, Jessie Spencer!" the interviewer's cameraman called out. Apparently, a few students had been interviewed in the time that I had been talking with Mastermind.

I tried to concentrate on what he had said. Something about paying attention to the tour of the school tomorrow. Honestly, I couldn't even think of what would make a tour so critical for what I needed to know about to be prepared for a villain attack. Unless there were secret rooms or something. I didn't know how he could show me where any secret rooms would be if there were other students going on the tour. I mean, why would he only take me on a tour by myself, unless to just show me something in private. That would be a little too suspicious, though. For the time being, I just assumed that I would be accompanied with other students.

Focusing on the topic seemed to be getting me nowhere, besides another headache. In the corner of my eye, I saw the German girl and the kid wearing red laying down on the ground next to each other. Both were launching small projectiles into the air with what were presumably their Quirks.

"Takumi Reza!" the interviewers shouted. I saw Takumi eagerly hurry to the journalist, nervously gripping onto a ball of leather in his hand.

At this point, I was just confused, stressed, and all-around tired. These interviews were taking way to long, and I was anxious about figuring out how I needed to prepare for the threat Mastermind had told me about.

"Hey, you! Uhh… Utsuri!" the German girl shouted, asking for my attention. I looked over at her, trying not to look too annoyed. "Here, watch this." From the sandy floor, she picked up a large pebble. Without warning, she popped it into her mouth. Then, she reeled her head back, and, with the appearance of a gun firing, recoiled backwards as she spat the pebble out at an insanely fast speed. Craning my head upwards, I could see the projectile go over the coliseum walls, and then out of sight.

I smiled. "Okay, that's pretty cool," I admitted. If there was one thing about my new classmates that I liked, it was that they all had very interesting Quirks.

"Now look at my Quirk in action," the boy said. Grabbing a similarly sized rock off of the ground, he aimed at an upwards angle, marking his trajectory with an outstretched arm. In one fast, skillful motion, the boy flung the pebble and sent it soaring through the sky. It went even higher and faster than the girl's pebble.

"You guys have some pretty powerful Quirks," I said, trying to start a conversation with a compliment. "What're your names?"

"I'm Vanessa," the German girl introduced herself, "soon to be known as Spitfire." She paused for a bit. "My Quirk is pretty self explanatory at that point."

The boy opened his mouth to speak, "My na-"

"This is Davis," Vanessa interrupted. "He's all the way from Vietnam." I looked at him closer. He seemed, for lack of a better word, happy. No, that was the perfect word to describe him. Carelessly happy. His ashy gray hair hung over his head like it was just that way when he got out of bed, and a lazy smile rested in the corner of his mouth. "He's a pretty cool guy," she finished.

"I guess I am," Davis said unabashedly, scratching the back of his head in a carefree manner.

"My name is Utsuri," I said, intruding myself. I started to bow, as it felt natural for me to do when meeting someone new. I stopped myself in the middle of my bow, only to do an awkward kind of head tilt that got me strange looks from the two. Maybe it was my formal upbringing that caused me to try to be respectful with rigorous Japanese traditions.

The akward atmosphere was destroyed by Vanessa abruptly smirked. "Ooh, ooh! Tell her the joke you made about Rafael," she snorted, trying to suppress a laugh.

"A joke?" I asked. "About Rafael? He's the kid with a lot of eyes, isn't he?" I wondered what kind of joke someone could make about the seven-eyed boy. Not a nice one, for sure.

"That's him, Davis said, then paused, frowning. "Are you sure? That joke wasn't even that funny, It was kind of mean," he said, acting worried for his fellow classmate. However, his eyes gleamed with a knowing glint of humor, as if he really was excited to tell me a joke, but was waiting for me to ask for it.

"All right, what's the joke?," I asked.

"Well, after a not-so-nice conversation that we had with Rafael, Vanessa over here asked me, 'Why does he have so many eyes.' And I replied, 'He probably needs them all to see his whole ego.'"

Without control, I let out a snicker. It wasn't the best joke I've ever heard, but it was nice to see that someone shared my opinion on Rafael's attitude.

"Not my best joke," Davis admitted, shrugging his shoulders, "but definitely not my worst," he added. Vanessa, who was still giggling, started,

"Come on. I thought it was pretty fu-"

"Vanessa," the journalist called out, "Vanessa Fischer!"

Vanessa looked over at the interviewer, then back at us. "Well, I guess I better be going," she said, before walking over to the people who had asked for her.

Davis sighed, tilting his head upwards to look at the leaderboards. "I'm going to be having to have my interview next," he observed. He threw his hands up, as if accepting a loss. "I guess I don't have anything else to talk to you about."

"Oh come on," I complained. I found Davis to be a fairly interesting acquaintance. "We still got time before your interview. That last joke was pretty funny. Do you have any more?"

"Not any good ones," he replied.

"How about where you're from?" I asked. "Anything cool about your home?"

"Not… really," Davis said, hesitantly. "I'm from a small town in Vietnam. Pretty much the most normal town ever," he continued. "Not really interesting at all."

"Hmm…" I was really hoping that something about him would be out of the ordinary. For now, he seemed to just be an exceptionally average kid from an exceptionally average town. "Family?" I asked. "Who's all in your family?"

Davis's mouth hung open, with a mildly forlorn face. It looked as if he had just ran into a brick wall. He shook his head and said, "No, family's normal too. He tried to fake a devilish grin, but all he accomplished was a unnatural curve of the lips. Eyes full of despondence betrayed his true emotions.

"Oh… I'm sorry if I'm prying," I apologized. "You don't have to worry about it. I have family issues too." I tried to reassure him. It was my fault that this took such a wrong turn. I shouldn't have tried to learn so much about somebody I had just met. I guess my curiosity just got the better of me. "My parents and I don't get along at all. Sometimes I don't even kno-"

"It's not like that at all," Davis said, holding his hands out. "My family and I get along very well." He smiled. A smile that felt genuine. He seemed to be telling the truth about his family, but for some reason he was shaking from emotion. "It's just that my bro-"

"Davis Nguyen!" the interviewer cried out, sounding mildly annoyed. "It's your turn!"

Davis looked at the journalist and the cameraman, then turned his head back to me. "It was... nice talking to you. Hopefully we can have a good time at school together." And with that he went over for his interview. Before he got to them, however, Vanessa stopped him, told him something that must've been funny, judging by Davis's laugh, and then let him continue on his way. She walked over to me, a mischievous smile painted on her face.

"You would not believe what I just did in front of those cameras," she said.

I paused, still concerned about Davis. Realizing that their was nothing that I could tell him until he was done with his interview, I asked, "What did you do?"

"I pretended that I didn't know that I was in NYI, or that I even knew that the academy existed," Vanessa said.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Yeah, they asked me how it felt to be accepted in NYI, and I just stood there with a confused look on my face, like I had no idea what they were talking about." Vanessa said all of this very quickly, and it was pretty obvious that it was difficult for her to not start laughing.

I simply just sighed, "You do realize that interview could go on international television," I said. "Do you really want to be known for that." I could feel a dull throbbing behind my eyes as my migraine resurfaced.

Vanessa waved it off. "Whatever," she said. "They probably will just cut most of my interview out, anyway. I still can't believe tha-" She stopped talking and looked at me. "Are you okay?" she asked. No joking around, just genuine concern for my well being. I was clutching my head firmly. The pain wasn't so dull anymore, but sharp, like a long, wicked, knife cutting into my skull.

"I think… I just overused my Quirk," I said, suddenly growing dizzy. "This happens sometimes. I just need… to go…" I layer my head on the warm sand, which (in my overexerted stupor) felt like a comfortable blanket that came straight out of the dryer.

"Woah, you gotta stay awake," Vanessa exclaimed. "You haven't even done you're interview yet." I heard the interviewers shout another student's name, signaling whoever it was that it was now their time for an interview.

"Just... wake me when it's my turn," I said dreamily, brushing off the problem of needing to stay awake.

Vanessa threw her arms up "Oh, come on!" she complained. "Do I really ha-" her voice faded away as I almost immediately fell asleep on the yellow sand of the arena.

.

.

.

I saw a figure, shrouded in darkness. The silhouette of a tall human stood black against a void of neverending white. "Utsuri," the shadow stated, its voice as deep as the endless field of light behind it. "You show promise. When the time comes, do not listen to your authority." The figure stretched out an arm to me. "They will do nothing except hold you back."

Was this a dream? I couldn't move or say anything. I didn't feel anything, and I couldn't even tell if I even had a body in this world of light. However, my mind felt perfectly clear, and I could see the figure, and hear whatever it was he told me.

"You will know when the time comes," the figure stated. "And never fret, I am but an unlikely ally to you." I wanted to ask the shadow who it was, or what this was all about, but I was unable to. "Whatever you do, don't trust Mastermind." But Mastermind is the Ally to Justice, I thought to myself, Why would I not trust him?

"Wake up," the figure commanded. It's voice was suddenly feminine. The shadow started to fade into the white abyss.

"Wake up," it repeated, stronger this time. Despite having no other senses, I felt a light shoving on my shoulder.

.

.

.

I sat upwards, only to hear Vanessa say, "Wake up!" once again.

"I'm awake. I'm awake," I said shoving her arm away to get her to stop shoving me.

"It's your turn for the interview!" she cried, pointing to the journalist, who was near the entrance to the arena. "Hurry up!" I clumsily got up off the ground. "Go!" she shouted, shoving me forward.

I walked to my interview at a brisk pace. I hadn't realized that I had slept through five or six interviews. My time in the dream, or whatever the hell it was, had only felt like a minute or two.

When I got to the journalist and the cameraman, the journalist looked at me, annoyed. "What took you so long?" She asked.

"Sorry," I apologized. "I fell asleep and didn't have you call my name."

"Well, let's start this interview," she said. the journalist put her hand on a folding chair facing her. "Sit here," she commanded. She turned to the young cameraman, who seemed eager to film. "On three. One. Two… Three." The journalist turned back to me. "What's your name?" She asked, the cameras (or more accurately, camera) rolling.

"Utsuri Tenmetsu," I answered. The journalist paused, as if pondering something.

"Could you possibly be the daughter of the famous Hayato and Aina Tenmetsu?" she asked. "The famous Speed Heroes of Japan?"

I nodded. "Yes, they're my mom and dad." I wondered how my classmates would treat me if they knew that my parents were famous heroes.

"They must be pretty busy then, at least most of the time," she said. "How does it feel to have parents who aren't around much for you?"

I consciously wondered if my parents would ever even see this interview or not. I decided to play it safe, anyhow. "No, I don't mind. I'm just glad I know that they are helping people who need it." I smiled reassuringly through the lie. "They're really cool."

"Well, that's good to hear," the journalist said. "It's nice to know that two strong heroes can inspire their daughter." She stopped, as if she had just remembered to ask something. "What's your Quirk, anyhow?"

"Teleportation," I replied. "I can go from one spot to another instantly." My power didn't need much explaining. It was pretty much self-describing by the name itself.

"No wonder you were able to score fourth," the interviewer said. "With a simple but powerful Quirk like that, I'll bet that you'll be a top hero in no time."

"I hope so," I replied.

"So do I." The journalist made one final smile. "Well, that's all for our interview with you," she said. "Cut." The cameraman put his camera down. That was unexpectedly short. I guess they just wanted to get all of the interviews over with, considering that it was almost supper time. Then I noticed that the cameraman was putting his video camera away.

"Don't you have three other students to interview yet?" I asked. While zipping up the bag he put his camera in, the young cameraman replied,

"We were supposed to, but the top two students were injured in the exam. Also, the student in third place told us that she was feeling sick, so she asked to have an interview tomorrow."

"Oh, thanks for letting me know," I replied.

"Yeah, no problem."

"All 1-A students!" A familiar, booming voice sounded out. It was Mastermind. "I have something to tell you."

I hurried over to where all the students were gathered. Mastermind was standing in the middle of all of them. "Tomorrow, there will be a tour of the school grounds," he announced. "I need you to be there by seven o'clock, tomorrow."

Some of the students groaned at that. "You mean eight in the evening, right?" Davis said, jokingly.

"I'm serious," Mastermind stated. "The tour is important for you to learn the layout of the school. Plus, your dorm rooms will be decided along with your roommates tomorrow." he explained. "That's pretty much all I have to say, just make sure you are at the front of the school tomorrow." With that, the group of students dissipated.

For me, it was a short walk to the subway from the school. I got on the train that took me closest back to the hotel I was staying at. I got one onto the train, and found a seat between a man with giant, bug-like eyes, and a woman with a shark for a head

On the train, I pondered about my day. First, I had been accepted into NYI, and I was one step closer to completing my dream of being a pro hero. Next, Mastermind, my new principal, warned me of a coming danger. Then, I was confronted by a cryptic messenger in a dream, who claimed that Mastermind was not to be trusted. However, I wasn't sure if I should believe the man in my dream, or even if he wasn't a figment of an exhaustion-induced lucid dream.

My phone suddenly buzzed, disrupting my chain of thought, and almost scaring me. I checked my phone. My younger brother, Soranosuke, had asked me whether I had passed the test or not.

"I passed!" I texted back to him.

"OMG really?!" he texted back. Our texting conversation went on like that for a time, until my train stopped at the platform near me hotel. I walked out of the stuffy, underground subway, and into the crisp, cool autumn air.

It was about six forty-five as I walked into the lobby of the hotel. The hotel was a five-star aptly named Best Rest. I waved to the receptionists as I stepped into the elevator alone, and selected the third floor. Without anyone else entering the elevator, I got out on my floor and went to my room. Room 383, I remembered.

I slid my room card into the door's sensor, and opened the door. I walked into the room, the gray door closing behind me. I pulled my white hoodie over my head, and hung it on the coat rack. When I walked into the bedroom, I was suddenly tackled into a hug by my brother.

He laughed as a spun him around. "I'm so glad you made it in!" he said, his voice full of joy. I noticed that he was so happy, that he was crying. I wiped away the tears from his eyes.

"I'm happy too," I said, putting Soranosuke down. "But I'm hungry too. When are Mom and Dad going to come here?" I asked.

"They won't be back from their meeting with the American heroes until well after midnight," he replied, "but I made you some instant ramen if you want to eat right now." It was surprising that Sora was able to take care of himself independently. He was really mature for an eleven-year-old. I wondered whether it was his way of compensating for his lack of a Quirk.

"Thanks, Sora," I said, making my way to the bowl of ramen in the small, wooden table in the tiny kitchen in our hotel room. "You wanna get me an ibuprofen?" I requested."

"Yeah, I'll go get you one," he said, making his way to one of the many suitcases on the floor. "You got another migraine?" he asked.

"Yep," I admitted, "but I got into NYI, so it was definitely worth it." With a small, red pill in his hand, Sora started pounding me a glass of water.

After handing the pill and the water to me, Sora turned the television on. He picked up the remote and changed the channel to a trivia game show. I swallowed the tiny painkiller with a large swig of water.

I spent the rest of the evening with my brother as he tried to answer questions on the game show. Eventually, fatigue hit me, and I went to the bed I had designated for myself the day before the exam.

And I fell asleep, with no shadows haunting my dreams.

Now that you are done reading this chapter, I would like to remind people that I am only accepting characters sent to me in PMs. NOT REVIEWS! But, I would love it if you made a review. Thanks for reading!

P.S. I know that this chapter wasn't too interesting, as it was only introductions for certain characters. If your character hasn't been introduced yet, they certainly will in the next chapter.